how to set your thanksgiving table to be christ- …thanksgivin… · 3robert alter, the david...

HOW TO SET YOUR

THANKSGIVING TABLE TO BE

CHRIST-CENTERED

(1 SAMUEL 9)

A Sermon by Dr. Jeremy Roberts

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

ii

HOW TO SET YOUR THANKSGIVING TABLE TO BE CHRIST-CENTERED

PUBLISHED BY DR. JEREMY ROBERTS

Copyright © 2019 Dr. Jeremy Roberts

Preached at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL

24 November 2019

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of

Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved.

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INTRODUCTION

“The first American Thanksgiving didn't occur in 1621 when a group

of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians. The first

recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years

earlier, and it wasn't a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had

reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help,

without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived, in

the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a

prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God.”1

Open your Bible this morning to 2 Samuel 9. 2 Samuel 9 says, And

David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show

him kindness for Jonathan's sake?” 2 Now there was a servant of the house of

Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said

1 Sermon Illustrations, “Today in the Word,” SermonIllustrations.com. http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/t/thanksgiving.htm (Accessed 14 November 2019).

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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to him, “Are you Ziba?” And he said, “I am your servant.” 3 And the king

said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the

kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son

of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.” 4 The king said to him, “Where is he?”

And Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel,

at Lo-debar.” 5 Then King David sent and brought him from the house of

Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. 6 And Mephibosheth the son of

Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage.

And David said, “Mephibosheth!” And he answered, “Behold, I am your

servant.” 7 And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness

for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of

Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” 8 And he paid homage

and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog

such as I?” 9 Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, “All

that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's

grandson. 10 And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for

him and shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have

bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master's grandson shall always eat at my

table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 Then Ziba said to

the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so

will your servant do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the

king's sons. 12 And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica.

And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. 13 So

Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he

was lame in both his feet.

How to Set Your Thanksgiving Table to be Christ-Centered

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I want to read the last verse again as a beginning point and then

I’m going to tell you a story that’s the whole of the chapter.

I want to look at this verse because it does reference the table that

was prepared, but 2 Samuel is neither a prophecy about

Thanksgiving nor anything that would seem to deal with

Thanksgiving, but the real heartbeat of Thanksgiving is there.

2 Samuel 9:13 says, 13 So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at

the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet.

I invite you this morning to just let me share what I really can’t

think so much of as a sermon. I suppose it could be called that

as well. Certainly it has a message in it. But I was thinking of it

more as a meditation. A time for us to thoughtfully come

around the table—this Table—and to think about setting the

table for the holiday season as Thanksgiving is merely four days

away. We’ve all stepped over the threshold of the season. In

fact, it’s pushed upon us from early October in different ways in

the commercial environment around us.

Things are corrupted, but we can sit around and make dour

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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comments about that from now until the second coming of

Jesus. We can make dour comments about things that irritate us

about a culture that loses sight of anything of values, including

Thanksgiving and Christmas values. But we’re called to be salt in

the scene. And that’s one of the things I want to talk about,

setting the table, because any table that’s well set has salt on it as

well as other things.

The story of Mephibosheth is the story of a baby who was born

and named with great hope and anticipation. “Mephibosheth”

means a dispeller of shame.2 The one who would drive back the

wolf from the door. The one who would drive back the adversary

that was oppressing. The one who would produce overcoming

possibilities.

And the baby was born at a time of great shame in the family

from whence it came. The family was the household of Saul.

Saul’s kingdom has now past and David is king. And we read

that he sat at King David’s table.3 So this is a number of years

later after the fall of Saul’s kingdom.

2 A. W. Pink, The Life of David (Bottom of the Hill Publishing, 2011). 3 Robert Alter, The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2009), 317.


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The end of Saul’s life was filled with shame. A man who had

every opportunity at the beginning, established a family,

established under the grace of God a kingdom that he himself

ruined by everything you can describe from the selfish to the

Satanic. Saul’s death is a horrible story. It’s to some degree self-

inflicted. Not as a suicidal act, precisely. He was dying from

battle wounds and he had his servant, who was his armor-

bearer, hold his sword and he fell on his sword, so it was

technically not a suicide.4 He would have died anyway, but he

was a man who said, “I have ruined everything.”

And in the same battle his son, Jonathan, who was a very

noble son, died as well. Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s son.

Mephibosheth was the grandson of Saul and he was born at a

time that the family’s name was gradually declining in a very

embarrassing way. Jonathan was the one bright spot in the

family and it was hoped that this child would be the fulfilling

of the future of the family.

It was heard when Saul and Jonathan died that David was being

made the head of the troops. He had led them in battle many

4 Meir Shalev, The First and Second Books of Samuel (Edinburgh: Canongate Publishers, 2010).

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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times and he was going to become the next king. And he did

become the next king but not by usurping the throne or

assailing his adversary whom Saul had made himself to be

because of jealousy over David. And those who know the story

understand the nuances of background that I’m not relating.

But the point is that David was coming to power and it was

presumed because in the surrounding nations, if one king of a

different lineage came to power, then all the members of the

family of the preceding king were killed. It was a matter of

practice in that culture. There are places in our world today where

the same thing is still done. And the viciousness of cultures in

which the destruction of anybody who could possibly threaten

the incoming dictator, if you will, or the incoming king as was the

case in those times.

It was exactly the opposite of David’s heart. And David, who was

never disposed that way, who was as beautiful a picture of the

heart of God as you will find in the scriptures, notwithstanding

his own shortcomings humanly which were for just an instant,

virtually, in his life. I’m not excusing David’s sin which is

renowned. It’s a reminder of his humanness. But basically the life

of the man was one whom God Himself defines as a man who


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was “after My own heart.”5 That’s God’s own attestation to

David, and he manifested that. And Jesus, born a thousand years

later, was called the Son of David or the Messiah who would

fulfill the promise of David, that there would be a Ruler who

would rule forever and who would transcend human generations.

Jesus, the son of David, the One whose birth we celebrate now.

The fact of the birth of Mephibosheth, and when the child was

still an infant, David came to power, and the family nurse, who

had the babe in arms, heard the word spreading that David had

just come into power, attempted to flee with the baby. And while

fleeing, fell with the child, and by reason of an injury that took

place at that time, Mephibosheth was crippled for his whole life.6

Unnecessary fear brought it about.

David, as we see in the story, ennobles this one who was the

offspring of David’s best friend, Jonathan, though he was the son

of Saul. And as David seeks to do justice and righteousness and to

be fair with all of Saul’s family, he says, “I’ll do it for Jonathan’s

sake.” And as he does this, he did not know that the child had been

carried away into a distant community and did not even know the

5 cf. 1 Samuel 13:14 6 G. D. Vreeland, The Darker Side of Samuel, Saul, and David (Xulon Press, 2008), 258.

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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child existed in his crippled condition until some years had gone by.

When David finds that out, he says, “I want you to bring him to

the palace,” and he did. And the story of chapter 9 is the bringing

of Mephibosheth who comes with fear, wondering if this will be a

late-dealt blow. He is old enough now to understand; he was only

an infant at that time. And was this just a ruse to get him there so

he could be killed? He should never have feared that, but he does

come with trepidation. He should never have feared it because it

didn’t happen with any of the offspring of Saul and Jonathan.

And as he is brought there, he is amazed to discover that David

says, “Everything of the inheritance that belongs to your family will

be returned to you. I have appointed a caretaker of the properties

since you are limited in your disability and I’m going to see that you

are cared for here in the palace.” And for all of Mephibosheth’s life,

1 Samuel 9:13 says he ate at the king’s table. He was at dinner in the

palace every day. And he was lame in both feet. It’s a tender, tender

story.

As God the Son comes incarnate in our midst, there is a

tenderness of the appearance and humility that is seen in the

setting of the manger. God, leaving the palaces of Glory, comes


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to us. All of these things are stunning in the beauty that they

have, demonstrating the humility of God’s reach to us. He didn’t

need to. David didn’t need to do anything for Mephibosheth.

Everything of Mephibosheth’s family would have argued against

the generosity of spirit that was shown.

Today, I want to invite you to do three things to set the table for

Thanksgiving. They are things that are characterized in David’s

whole way with Mephibosheth and that being the case of the one

who certainly represents the King, the Messiah toward us. And

notwithstanding whatever physiological mobility we have, we are

all crippled in terms of our capacity to rescue or save ourselves.

And all of us have been injured by the impact of sin and it’s

usually more than we know. All of us have been impacted by fear;

the same thing caused Mephibosheth to run from the king.

I wonder how many testimonies are in this room today of

people that ran from God. And in your flight from Him, not

realizing the infinite, benevolent love He has for you, you end

up with all kinds of problems. Or you ran in blindness, not

even knowing anything about Him. And you stumbled and all

kinds of things happened and sooner or later we come to

ourselves and recognize the greatness of the heart of God

toward us.

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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Lamentations 3:22–23 says, 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never

ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

The mercies of God are new every morning and enduring

forever. I love that. New every morning and enduring forever.

The ones that are new every morning are enduring forever,

too, not just new today and disappears by nightfall. New every

morning and enduring forever. Hallelujah!

And those mercies that reach to us have a way of especially

weaving their way into our hearts with a tenderness at the

Thanksgiving and Christmas season. There is something about

this time of year that our hearts do indeed become childlike over

and over again.

I. A Table for Giving Thanks

This Table represents at least three things. It’s the Table of

Thanksgiving. There are churches around the world who will be

observing the Lord’s Table today and they call it the Eucharist.


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Any of the terms you want to use from Mass, to Eucharist, to

Communion, to the Lord’s Table. It’s all the same thing. Different

liturgies use different terms. The idea of the word Eucharist

comes from the Greek verb, eucharesteo which is the word for “to

give thanks.” It’s a table we come to give thanks. And we come to

thank the Lord for the gift of His Son. The next time we take the

Lord’s Supper, remember it is a place to remember Him and give

Him thanks.

II. A Table for Giving Praise

We come to a Table of Praise. We come to praise the Giver—

the heart of God. Coming to open up to the heart of God, which

is to open to the heart of God because He is the Source. Coming

to open to the heart of God is to open to a dimension of love that

gives, notwithstanding whatever else has come from the other

side.

Romans 5:8 says, 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still

sinners, Christ died for us.

God reaches to us. In Luke 23:34a, The Savior on the cross says,

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The generosity of the heart of God is beyond our grasp but He

calls us to not only come to the Table and come with

thanksgiving, but in our praise to open up to what praise is

intended to be.

The concept of praise is related to the idea of a river; that there is

a stream of something of which we drink. And then it’s passed

on. It’s passed on by our gratitude and that gratitude is not just

heavenward, but we are called to a horizontal expression of

that characteristic of praise and when it comes to praising

the Giver, it calls us to be givers. I have found the Lord more

deeply all the time at this season calling me to exceed even what I

felt I could do to give to where there’s not anything I am either

directly related to or will get out of the deal.

I want to invite us not to any dimension of guilt, but to the

possibility of a giving that celebrates the grace we have received in

some way. Today the gifts Charity and I give are considerably larger

than when she and I first married. And it’s immaterial the amount.

But I thank God for the growth in me for which I claim no

nobility.


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Let’s talk about the salt. Colossians 4:6 says, 6 Let your speech always be

gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer

each person.

Ask the Lord to show you ways, in whatever environment you

have, to let your speech be seasoned. This Thursday, you will sit

around the Thanksgiving table with people. This is often a place

where families have a great time together. It is also a time when

families often have huge fights because people don’t season their

words with godly salt. Let your speech be gracious!

As believers, we’re very vulnerable to becoming retaliatory in the

name of supposing it’s a witness and it’s seen as a retaliation. But it

says that we may know how to behave ourselves and let our speech

be with grace, seasoned with salt, and how we ought to speak. God

will give wisdom. Ask Him for that. Ask Him when you come to

celebrations with your family.

There are opportunities in family settings to let the sweetness and

the goodness and the glory of Jesus shine through your life. I have

found that when you’re dealing with people who don’t know the

Lord, if you’re dealing in the Thanksgiving environment with family

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members who don’t, that the best way to communicate is to speak

words of affirmation and approval to them. Your appreciation of

them. What you most value and treasure about them. You say,

“Well, don’t I need to get a dig in for God?” Hey, they know what

you’re about. And so often they are just braced against the first

time you say anything.

“Well, Pastor Jeremy, aren’t we supposed to witness?” Yeah. And

the Bible is very clear. 1 Peter 3:15 says, 15 but in your hearts honor

Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone

who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness

and respect,

Be ready to give an answer. “Well, we’re supposed to proclaim the

gospel.” We’re supposed to proclaim the gospel in environments

for proclaiming the gospel. “Aren’t we supposed to see a door

open and talk to people?” Of course, you can. This isn’t a call away

from being a light for Christ in a dark world. It’s a call to wisdom.

In fact, in setting the table for Thanksgiving, be sure you get the

salt on the table. You get the point?

Then, finally, one more thing. This Table is a table for thanks and

praise, and it’s also a Table for us to come and celebrate Grace.


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III. A Table for Grace

And that brings me back to Mephibosheth. As we come to the

Table, this is a Table of thanksgiving and celebration. The

difference between a celebration and feast is that the feast that was

established is the initial idea. In the Bible it mentions feasts over

and over.7 And feasts were intended to have a message and the

message related to events. So the feast celebrated an event. For

example, Thanksgiving is a celebration of an event that reaches

back to the Pilgrim era, the early nation. The Fourth of July

celebrates our independence as a nation. Feasts are initiated

because of an event.

Celebration, literally the word means to re-observe the significance.8

Not just the memory, but the significance of what that was about.

To let it revisit itself in you. To, if you will, let it become

reincarnated.

7 Debbie Pyle, The Lord’s Feasts: A Study of How the Old Testament Feasts Find their Fulfillment in Jesus Christ (Bloomington, IN: Westbow Press, 2015). If you want to learn more about feasts in the Bible, I encourage you to check out this text. 8 Darrell L. Bock, The Bible Knowledge Word Study: Acts–Ephesians (Eastbourne, England: Victor Press, 2006), 276.

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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John 1:14a says, 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

God became flesh. Jesus, before He went to the cross to die for us,

took bread and said, “This is My Body, broken for you. I want

some of Me to come into every one of you. And if you do these

things, My life will begin to transmit through you.”

Now, that doesn’t happen through a piece of broken bread. It

happens when we partake of that, opening to Jesus. As we come to

this Thanksgiving table, I want to invite all of us to come and say,

“Lord, first I want to thank You. Thank You for giving Jesus who

was broken for me.” Amen? Broken for me! “And Lord, break in

me anything that loses sight of the fact that having received so great

a gift, I would be less than as giving as You would call me to be in

my relationships. Help my heart to be not just covered through

forgiving grace, but uncovered to flow out life and the giving of

gifts and graciousness and love and forgiveness and tenderness.

Lord, tenderize me.”

To do that is to open yourself to things that you don’t know what

could happen.


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Mephibosheth had no way of knowing that he would have

everything he needed for the rest of his life. “Mephibosheth, sit at

this table.” It says he sat at the king’s table. That means his

weakness was covered by the table of the king.

Your weakness, too, can be covered by the table of a king. But not

just any king. It can be covered by the King of Kings and Lord of

Lords. Jesus.

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ABOUT THE PREACHER | DR. JEREMY ROBERTS

Dr. Jeremy Roberts is Senior Pastor at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL. With over 2,000 members, Thomasville

Road is a thriving inter-generational church in the heart of Florida’s capital city. Additionally, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at Liberty

University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Roberts has a D.Min. from Liberty University. He and his wife, Charity, and their two daughters, Autumn and Lily, live in the Tallahassee area.

Connect with Dr. Roberts online:

Instagram: @JeremyPRoberts

Facebook.com/DrJeremyRoberts Thomasville Road Baptist Church: ThomasvilleRoad.org

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