We Meet Jesus at the Table Together | Jake Vayda

Raise your hand if you've heard the phrase distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Oh, it's such a sweet phrase.

Let's test it.

Have you ever talked to maybe someone who's a freshman in college?

Let's just say you are, and the person says, my girlfriend or boyfriend and I have decided to be long distance for the next four years.

What's your first thought?

You guys are so cynical.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

The reality is, oftentimes, distance doesn't necessarily make the heart grow fonder.

In a lot of ways, distance makes the heart grow harder.

If you think about it, there's more than just distance that makes the heart grow fonder when it comes to mileage.

There's distance in a political belief.

There's distance in an offense from someone that you love.

And all of a sudden, that distance turns into division and it makes your heart not fonder, but harder.

In fact, this is very much true with an experiment that was done in the 1950s.

This person took 22 boys who had everything in common.

If they should be able to have all the types of unity that you could imagine, and all the experimenter did was give them a different name.

11 of the boys had a certain name, a team.

11 of the boys had a different name and a team.

And all of a sudden, this very unified group had a lot of distance in between them.

You might have seen this at a Padres game.

All of a sudden, we hate the daughter.

I mean, this is what happens when these boys were separated.

In fact, so much so that the boys started setting each other's flags on fire, uh, tripping each other like during uh competitions.

It got so bad that the experimenter got like nervous, like, I don't know what's gonna happen.

These parents are gonna be very mad.

Uh, so we need to get them all together and we need to have like a great banquet, and it turned into a food fight.

The distance made their hearts grow harder and not fonder.

Today, I want to talk about what does it look like to close the distance?

Because here's the reality it's a cool story so many years ago of these boys and the distance that was in between them.

But you might have a son right now or a daughter that you haven't been on the phone with for years because of the distance.

Do you have a coworker because of a certain flag they have that we don't really talk to each other?

Do you have a spouse?

There's a big disagreement and there's distance in your relationship.

Here's what I know nobody deserves to live their entire life feeling distant from the people that you love the most.

So we gotta figure this out.

Today, I want to give you the answer.

And it's Jesus.

You're like, that sounds good on a coffee cup.

How does Jesus actually help?

This dude who lived 2,000 years ago, you're saying he's gonna help with my father-son relationship right now.

You're saying that's actually gonna close the distance, right?

It looks great on a bumper sticker.

The answer is always Jesus in church.

But how does he actually make us one?

In fact, if you're taking notes, that's the question that we need to answer.

How does Jesus actually close the difference, the distance?

How does Jesus make us one as a family, as a church, in a marriage?

We are continuing our series called At the Table, where we're pulling up a chair to the life that Jesus is inviting us into.

Today I want to give you three ways that Jesus, a guy who did live 2,000 years ago, actually can help you close the distance today.

Hey, if you're if you're here for the first time, I'm so excited you're here.

I met several of you before service.

Uh, a couple things.

We'd love to give you a gift.

I think it's homemade banana bread, which I love at Create Corner.

We are a Bible-believing, Bible preaching church, and today we'll be continuing in our passage in the book of Luke.

In fact, here's what the passage says.

After this, he went out and he saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes.

Jesus says, Come along with me.

And he did.

He walked away from everything and went with him.

Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus.

Everybody was there, taxmen and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner.

The Pharisees and the religious scholars came to his disciples greatly offended.

What is he doing?

Eating?

Drinking with misfits and sinners.

Jesus heard about it and spoke up.

Who who needs a doctor?

The healthy or the sick?

I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders, but an invitation to a changed life.

Changed inside and out.

If you're taking notes, what is a way that Jesus actually makes us one?

You can write this down.

At the table, we become one through our shared humanity.

Social media, I don't think it really helps with this whole unity thing.

I know social media didn't come up with dissension and division, but it definitely found a way to monetize it.

In fact, did you know that an angry comment gets way more traction on social media?

In fact, a lot of our social media that are designed to get you a little riled up, a little mad at that certain group, right?

It's it's kind of easy these days to get mad and then to label somebody.

You know what I mean?

Like you see that person again with a certain flag on TikTok, and you're like, oh, label.

Is he someone with a certain political believer?

Label.

And labels aren't bad, right?

They tell us about things.

The issue with labels is that oftentimes when it's a label that we don't prefer, we tend to do something in our culture.

It's called cancel.

This is what we do.

If it's a label I don't like, then I'm gonna cancel you.

Now I will say, this is important, Paul.

There are some people that deserve to be canceled.

That person who puts ketchup on a steak, canceled.

Right?

You can bring all these amazing things to the friendship.

You bring ketchup to the no, you're out.

This is this is so there are some people that deserve to be canceled.

And then we label.

But here's the really cool thing.

And it's really convenient for me, is that when I get mad and then I label someone and then I cancel them, then I don't have to think about them.

You know, like I don't have to interact with them.

It's actually really nice.

In fact, uh people call it the an echo chamber.

That all we're hearing is our ideas all the time.

And if it's not our ideas, it's someone mocking the person who has all the bad ideas.

It's a lot easier to label and then to cancel someone and then to stand at a distance from them.

Levi, this guy in this passage, he would have definitely been canceled.

Here's why.

Uh his label is a tax collector, but really his label should say a scammer.

Because this dude took money from his own people, not only took money, but often took a little bit more so he could pocket the rest.

Come on, somebody.

That's a good strategy.

Not a good strategy if you want to be loved by anybody, but a good strategy if you want to make money.

This is what the tax collector, Levi, did, and we would call that a scammer today.

Nobody wants to be close to a scammer.

In fact, they would be the person that we would cancel today, and this is exactly what the Pharisees did.

Right?

The Pharisees who were mad.

What did the Pharisees say?

What are you doing?

Eating and drinking with misfits and sinners.

The Pharisees.

They were the religious leaders of the day.

In fact, they were so religious that they thought it was a great idea to make all these new rules, as if all the other rules weren't enough.

I want to make more rules so I can separate myself from everybody else.

And did you know that 60% of all of these rules that these religious leaders made were around the table?

You gotta pray this certain way, you gotta break bread in this certain way, you gotta drink this, all this neat and perfect laws.

And it was so perfect, it excluded everybody who they didn't really like.

It excluded everybody that labels weren't really what I prefer.

And my table is filled with everyone who looks like me, acts like me.

This is this is the nice table to be.

And then Jesus has the audacity to eat with these people and to break all of these laws that these religious leaders came up with.

They concocted all these beautiful laws, and Jesus sits down with Levi and all these disreputable characters, as the Bible says, and forgets, throws all the laws out of the picture.

And they're like, what is he doing?

Are you kidding me?

You didn't label people?

You didn't cancel people?

You're eating with people who don't look like you, they have different beliefs than you, have a different flag in their front yard.

You're eating with those people.

See, we label people, but Jesus names people.

Jesus calls people.

That's what Jesus does.

Joe read this crazy verse that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

So you're saying Jesus, who's living in perfect heaven, literally comes down.

If there's anyone that should be separate from us, or if there's anyone who can label humanity as sinful and disreputable characters, it's God himself.

And yet he decided to go all the way from heaven to Levi's table.

That's what Jesus does.

He doesn't look at you like a label or a term or someone to be separate from.

That's our God.

And if you're anything like me, whether you're an atheist in the room, you're like, that Jesus guy's at least interesting.

And if you think he's at least interesting, it begs the question, then what should we do about this?

If we label what God names, I think God is inviting us to get to the table with the people that we label.

That's not fun.

God's inviting us to get to the table with the people that we label.

Who do you label?

And when you get around the table, sociologists say that the division it actually dissipates.

Because the farther you are away from the table, the more you have the answer for somebody else's problems.

Have you ever noticed that?

Oh my gosh, they stopped coming to the church.

Well, they just need to read this book.

Oh my gosh.

I'm not gonna talk to them, but they need to.

Oh my gosh, this person who has this different political belief.

Oh, they need to watch this YouTube video.

Right?

We have the answers for the people that we're farther apart, but when we get to the table and we get to know people's names instead of labels, now I have to actually talk about the layers of their story and figure out nuance.

And I guess it's not as black and white as the labels would say.

We become one through our shared humanity at the table, and we follow the person of Jesus.

Now let's continue.

So what's the second thing?

How Jesus makes us one.

You can write this down at the table.

We become one through our shared Savior, through our shared Savior.

Luke 5.

When these Pharisees are so mad about who Jesus is eating with, all the people that they labeled and canceled, Jesus responds, is it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

And I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

During World War II, airmen from all around the world were badly burnt.

Thousands and thousands.

And they heard about this great physician, this great doctor who does reconstructive surgery on their faces, on their bodies, very deformed.

They all had a very similar diagnosis, different issues, but kind of the same root problem.

They would fly all around the world to meet with this great physician in London.

And there they got the help that they needed.

Did you know that Jesus is often called the great physician?

The Pharisees maybe knew Jesus was the great physician.

Most of them didn't.

But they were close enough to like hear about Jesus, but not to actually be healed by Jesus.

Maybe that's you today.

Are you someone who's kind of in the culture?

Right?

You listen to some of the worship songs, maybe even go to church.

You are.

In fact, you're here.

Maybe you even will sign up for a group, you start serving.

You're kind of around Jesus, but you need to actually get to the feet of Jesus, and so you can be healed.

This is the Pharisees.

They were kind of around Jesus, not willing to actually encounter Jesus.

They heard them, decide not to sit at this table.

I think there's two reasons why people decide to not be healed by the great physician.

One of the reasons is like the Pharisees, they think, like, I'm already healed.

Like I'm pretty healthy overall, right?

I mean, look at my bank account.

I'm in a pretty good shape.

Like my marriage, it's going all right.

Like, look at my grades.

Like, I get mostly A's.

I'm pretty healed.

I'll go to church every two months just to maintain my faith, but like I'm I'm in pretty good shape here, right?

This is the Pharisees, right?

I'm pretty healthy overall.

I don't really need that much help.

And then they're around Jesus, but not actually encountering Jesus.

I also think there's some of us in this room who feel like we're hurting too much.

Like if Jesus actually diagnoses us, he'll actually realize the depth and the depravity of my sin and my shame, and he'll turn away from me.

I can't heal them.

This guy, but not you.

I can't.

Whether you're too healthy or too sick, it keeps us away from the great physician.

So out of those, which one which one is your temptation?

Too healed?

Too sick?

This next verse will bring us as one.

It actually says this in the Bible, a powerful verse.

For all of the Republicans have sinned and fallen short of the Oh no, sorry.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All the people we label, all the people that we've canceled, all of us are in the exact same boat.

You could be depressed about this, or you could realize this actually kind of unites us a little bit.

In fact, it united these broken and shattered people, airmen who had deformed faces, so much so that they got to London and they actually called their club the Guinea Pig Club.

Because this doctor was doing all these experiments to try to heal them.

And they got so close, this group of people who were hurting, who are in pain, that until 2007, they got together every single year.

They named the president of the club Archibald, who is the great physician.

When you realize we're all in need of a savior, we're all in need of a great physician, whether you feel you're healed or you feel like you're too hurt, we're all in the same boat, it kind of unites you together, realizing wait, you're kind of like me.

And we're here because the hospital, this is not a place for saints.

I don't know about you.

I'm not showing up because I got it all together.

I'm showing up because I need to get to the person who has it all together.

I'm here to get healed.

And I come every Sunday to be around you because you and Jesus, we just get healed together.

Create church.

This is a spiritual hospital in our city.

And it unites us because we all have the same diagnosis and the same great physician.

Third one, as we end today, how does Jesus make us one?

At the table, we become one through our shared mission, through our shared mission.

Ephesians 4, 3 through 6 says this make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.

There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

A lot of ones in here, one God, a Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Remember that Robber's cave experiment, these 22 boys in the 50s?

They were nervous.

Burning flags, throwing food at each other, like what do we do here?

So the experimenter decided to do something.

He's like, what if we give them a challenge that's too big for them to solve by themselves?

Let's give them a mission.

And that mission, not one team could solve.

They had to have all of their brains together.

And they actually were able to accomplish a mission.

But more than that, the mission was to unite the boys together.

In fact, so much so that all of their food, money that they had for lunch, lunch money, uh, they like ended up giving each other like all their food and the desserts.

At the end of this experiment, this is actually a picture of them united.

It's when you have a mission that's way bigger than you, that's way bigger than me, actually, I need you and you need me, it just unites us together.

I sometimes imagine Jesus and Levi sitting at the same table with all these misfits and labeled and canceled people, degenerate, all these people that everyone else would reject.

And you think of Levi and Jesus, they're very different people.

I mean, Levi is a tax collector and a scammer, and Jesus is perfect, and yet they're shoulder to shoulder bringing other people to the table.

Because when they're around the table, around Jesus and other people, you can't help but be changed.

And our mission is the same to bring the people we love the most to the table of Jesus, to close the distance so they could get healed by the great physician Levi, very different than Jesus, and yet they're together, united as one.

If you're divided, get a mission.

That's what you should do.

And the mission will unite you as one.

And that's why I'm so excited about this mission that we're calling alpha groups that Joe talked about.

Alpha groups is answering some of the basic questions about Christianity that you might have that you don't really want to talk to anyone about, that your friends have, and they're not even ready to come to like a big building and hear all the live worship, and they're like too cynical, they don't believe.

The best place is to invite them to the table.

So our team for the last month have been uniting a group of table leaders, and these groups would be all the days of the week, all throughout the city, these tables where people who have labeled each other, tables where people are way distant from each other, could sit around a meal and eat and ask these basic questions about Jesus to start getting healed together.

So for one time, one time only, this fall we're doing we're doing alpha throughout our entire all of our groups will be this one curriculum.

It's all about bringing people to the table, breaking bread, and being united as one.

So that's why I want to specifically invite you to sign up.

I guarantee your life won't be the same afterwards.

And invite that friend who's not yet ready to come to the church.

The table is the best place to go.

At the table is the shared mission.

I'm gonna invite the band to come up.

Distance oftentimes not always makes the heart grow harder.

Is your heart a little hard today?

Are you a little bit angry at somebody?

Something?

Is it easy to see someone?

Not their name, but a label.

It's only through the person of Jesus where we become one.

Where the labels turn into names.

Our shared savior and our shared vision.

Would you stand with me?

The issue about hardness is that oftentimes nothing can get in, right?

You have a hard heart, and then all of a sudden there's a new friendship, but you're closed off to it.

There's something Jesus wants to say, but you're closed off to it.

And oftentimes what's in that heart is a lot of darkness.

I don't know about you, but I'll scroll through Instagram or TikTok for five minutes, and my heart's just a little bit more hard.

I have a little bit more darkness and me, a little bit more anger.

Today, I just want to give you a moment, whatever the condition of your heart right now, to encounter light.

The Bible talks about Jesus as also being light, to let the light in to the hardness of our hearts.

Maybe you pray, God, would you soften my heart for the people that you love the most?

I don't want to label, I want to get people their names, I want to love people.

Like that's that's my heart.

That's what I want.

So God, would you let the light in?

Because here's the reality: the further we are away from the table, the lonelier it is.

Hey, you got opinions?

I got opinions are like noses, we all have them.

That's awesome.

But when we allow our opinions to separate ourselves from the people God loves, we just get isolated and lonely.

So, God, would you let the light in?

Soften my break my heart for what breaks yours.

So, just in this moment, if if you want to pray, someone for it, would you just put your hands out like this?

This is a posture of openness, a posture of receiving the light that Jesus might want to give you even right now for a people group, for a demographic, for a political party, for the person who gave you a great offense.

Lord, we thank you for your son and how he modeled oneness.

Lord, we know this doesn't mean that we don't have boundaries and we take care of ourselves, but Lord, would you break our heart for what breaks yours?

Lord, I pray for my friends and for me when it's so easy in our culture to label and to cancel.

God, would you allow us to name and to get to the table?

So, Lord, I pray right now in that area of darkness, the hard-heartedness, Lord, your son, Jesus, would you would we allow your light to come in and to heal and to restore and to bring unity to the divisiveness, uh divisive areas of our hearts right now and our relationships?

God, so we bring it to you over the next five minutes.

Would you let the light in?

Amen.