1a. Cultural Background

• Eating together = public display of friendship
• Explorer in West Asian desert captured by desert raiders
• Paul talks about the problem of eating temple food
• 1 Cor 10:21 “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”
• He said: If you don’t know where it’s come from, don’t ask!

1b. Old Testament Background

• Exodus 12:

14. “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

• Exodus 24:

11. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,
10. and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
12. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Matthew 9
Jesus shocks people

9. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth.
   “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.
10. As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples.
11. When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples,
    “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

2. Why do we do it?

1 Corinthians 11:23–26

23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24. and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
25. In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Pliny

• Wrote to the Emperor Trajan less than 100 years after Christ
• Confused about Christians and asks Emperor for advice
• “it was their custom to disperse and to come together again to partake of food, of an ordinary and harmless kind”

2.3 Why do we do it?

1. Look backwards as we remember Jesus’s death
2. Proclaim what he has done as a witness to others
3. Demonstrate our unity in Christ
4.  
5.  
6.  
7.  

2.4 Why do we do it?

1. Look backwards as we remember Jesus’s death
2. Proclaim what he has done as a witness to others
3. Demonstrate our unity in Christ
4. Come to Jesus as a priest who forgives our sins
5.  
6.  
7.  

2.5 Why do we do it?

5. Obtain a blessing as by faith we receive the benefits of Christ’s death
   • Blessings such as increased assurance that we are not under condemnation but free and justified
   • Blessings of joy
   • Obedience leads to blessing

2.6 Why do we do it?

6. Picture of depending on Jesus for sustenance
   • Living water (John 4)
   • Eat my flesh, drink my blood (John 6)
   • Vine and the branches (John 15)

2.7 Why do we do it?

1. Look backwards as we remember Jesus’s death
2. Proclaim what he has done as a witness to others
3. Demonstrate our unity in Christ
4. Come to Jesus as a priest who forgives our sins
5. Obtain a blessing as by faith we receive the benefits of Christ’s death
6. Picture of depending on Jesus for sustenance
7. Look forwards to feasting with Christ in glory

The Messiah will bring a new feast

Isaiah 25:6

6. On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.