Teaching Summary: What Now? (Acts) Come to the Table

Acts 2:42, 46-47

We paused our What Now? series in Acts this week because we’re stepping into a new season of ministry, and there was something on my heart I needed to share with our church family directly.

Somewhere along the way, Christians became convinced that following Jesus mostly comes down to what you believe. So we began to prioritize the hour and a half we spend together on Sunday morning over everything else. But what if our lives are being shaped more by what happens around our tables during the week than by the sermon we hear on Sunday? Something is missing, and I don’t think it’s our desire for Jesus. I look around this room every week and I love what God is doing. But we know the name of Jesus, and most of us couldn’t name the five people seated closest to us. That’s not a problem if following Jesus is simply about what you believe. But the scriptures we read are concerned with so much more. The picture of the church that emerges from the Bible is one of a family on mission, prioritizing not only what we believe but what we practice together.

If the cross is at the center of our identity as Christians, the table is at the center of our lives. I’m not talking about the table as a metaphor. I’m talking about an actual table, and seated at that table are people who’d notice if your chair were empty, on a given night or morning of the week. I’m talking about a commitment to show up with a group of brothers and sisters in Christ during the week alongside your commitment to show up here on Sunday morning.

Some of the most significant moments in God’s story take place around a table. Where were the people of God the night before their deliverance from slavery in Egypt? Gathered around tables sharing a meal, roasted lamb, bags packed, shoes on, because everything was about to change. Where were the disciples of Jesus the night before their deliverance from sin and death? Gathered around a table sharing a meal, bread and wine, shoes off this time because Jesus was washing their feet and telling them to do the same for one another once they’re free. And where are the saints in the end? Not in a courtroom, not on a cloud. Gathered around the table at a great wedding feast, because the groom, Jesus, has come for his bride. The Exodus, the cross, the return of Jesus, three different moments spanning the entire story of Scripture, and each time the moment is marked by a table.

That pattern raises a question. How are we to bear with one another in love if we don’t know each other? How are we to confess our sins to one another, and pray for one another so that we may be healed, if we’re not close enough to know what needs confessing? How are we to carry one another’s burdens if we don’t know what anyone is carrying? How are we to encourage one another daily, while it is still called today, so that none of us is hardened by sin’s deceitfulness, if the only day we see each other is Sunday? How are we to teach and admonish one another with all wisdom if we’ve never had a conversation honest enough to need admonishing? How are we to show hospitality to one another without grumbling if we’ve never had anyone at our table? Paul wrote those instructions to actual churches, full of actual people, expecting them to actually do these things for one another. Every instruction assumes proximity, and requires more than a friendly face or a smile on a Sunday morning.

So why do we prefer Sundays over tables? I named three reasons Sunday morning. We’re tired. This community values hard work as much as anywhere I’ve ever lived, and by the time midweek rolls around, gathering at a table doesn’t feel replenishing, it feels like one more thing on a plate that’s already full. We’re drained, not by work but by people, our social battery is spent by the end of the day, and a room full of people feels like the final nail in the coffin. Jesus understood this too. After a demanding day of ministry, he told his disciples, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. But notice, they rested together with him. We feel drained by people because we’ve had to perform, and the table Jesus invites us to is a place of rest where we can simply be. And we’re skeptical, we’ve all experienced church programs that haven’t delivered on their promise, and we doubt showing up will actually meet us where we’re at.

I feel all three of those things too. There are weeks Sunday morning together is so good I think, let’s just double down on this and not worry about the rest. I served under a pastor years ago who used to repeat the phrase, it’s the service, stupid, his blunt way of saying, this is the main thing, stay focused on it. Other churches, feeling the same weight, have gone the opposite direction, dropping Sunday mornings altogether for a house-church-only model. But Acts shows us a church devoted to both, the apostles’ teaching and the temple courts, breaking bread house to house with glad and sincere hearts. There are days I look out at what God is doing in this room and think maybe that’s the way forward for us, maybe I let go of the rope on everything beyond this. But we can’t give in to less than what the scriptures hold out for us.

So here’s what I’m asking, from now until Christmas: take your seat at a weekly Connect Table, either Midweek or a Table Group. Midweek happens Wednesday nights, reading and discussing Scripture together, no history or preparation required. A Table Group is three or four people meeting weekly around four questions, where have you experienced God’s presence, what’s stirring in you, what haven’t you said out loud, where is the Spirit inviting you toward someone outside the room. If a Table Group feels like too much right now, start with Midweek. If Midweek feels like it’s not enough, a Table Group is what you’re looking for. You might be thinking, I don’t need a program to do this, I could just have people over myself. You’re right, you don’t. But for most of us, life doesn’t organize itself around what matters most, it organizes around whatever feels most urgent, and life together at the table will never feel like the most urgent thing on your calendar. It just might be the thing that takes you deepest into life with God.

The cross is at the center of our identity. The table is at the center of our lives. There’s a table and a chair with your name on it at Summer Street Church. Let’s come away with Jesus together this week and take our seat.