I’m not sure if “Text to Table” is a thing, or has been a thing. I do know my own use of that language is not borrowed from someone else, though I would be quite surprised if no one thought of it before me. “Text to table” is just how I understand my own calling when preaching. I want the sermons I deliver to always move from the text (wherever we might be in a given book of the Bible) to the Lord’s Supper.
There is a great deal of chest thumping out there about expository preaching. As there should be. Who could oppose preaching that seeks to present, explain and apply a given Bible text? Surely not me. Too often, however, what is called expository preaching is more like sharing one’s sermon prep. Breaking down the text is good. Understanding context is necessary. Applying is always called for. These, however, are necessary building blocks of a sermon, not a sermon in itself.
When I speak of starting with the text, that is where I practice expository preaching. But we don’t stop there. I believe that to rightly preach any text in its context one must move from the text to the table. Because the context of any text will always come back to these three central truths- I am a great sinner. Jesus is my great Redeemer. My heavenly Father loves me. These three principles I covered a few weeks ago in this piece.
These three principles, however, are aways covered at the Lord’s Table. I cannot partake of His body broken and His blood shed without remembering that I am the one who broke His body and shed His blood. Whatever particular sins I may be guilty of, they all pale in comparison to this one- I crucified the Lord of Glory. To preach through this is to follow in Paul’s path, preaching Christ and Him crucified.
In like manner, I cannot “remember Him” at the table apart from remembering His death for all my sins. This great evil I did, crucifying Him, is that by which He did the unimaginably great good, redeeming us. In addition, we remember His resurrection, His, and our vindication. He died because in union with us, He took on our sin. We live because in union with Him, we took on His vindication.
The Lord’s Table, however, is a table. It is a place of feasting, a place of welcome. Just as in the Old Covenant the believer is assured of God’s gracious favor by participating in eating of the sacrifice, so too do we in remembering His once for all sacrifice for us. We sorrow that we crucified Him. But we rejoice that we are welcomed to the table as the forever family of the Master of the Feast.
A sermon is something more than a lesson in the Bible. It is that, but also a celebration of the gospel. We do not merely download information, but are lifted up to the heavenlies, where we meet with the living God, and our brothers and sisters in Christ, the souls of just men made perfect.