For our fellowship concerning the worship of the Father, which is in the second section of the Lord’s table meeting, let us read Matthew 26:29-30: “I say to you, I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father. And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Verse 29 reveals what the Lord Jesus said after He established His supper. Verse 30 begins, “After singing a hymn...” This simple statement implies a great deal. There are three questions that we need to consider with this statement. First, who sang the hymn? Second, to whom did they sing in praise? And third, why did they sing? According to the context, the Lord Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn, and they sang it in praise to the Father. Immediately after the Lord established His supper, He and His disciples sang hymns of praise to the Father. The significance of this is deep.
When the Lord established His supper in verses 26 to 28, His desire was that His disciples remember Him. This is according to 1 Corinthians 11:24, which says, “This do unto the remembrance of Me.” The Lord told His disciples that the central point of the table meeting is the remembrance of Him. However, whenever the Son did something in the New Testament, He never forgot the Father. If in establishing His supper, the Lord had only said, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” He would not have expressed anything of the Father to the disciples. Therefore, the phrase after singing a hymn implies something of deep significance. It indicates that after the disciples remembered the Lord, He led them to sing and praise the Father. This is the worship to the Father.
Although the phrase after singing a hymn is simple, many times simple phrases in the Bible express important points. When the Lord Jesus established His supper, He was burdened, preparing to deliver Himself into the hands of those who would kill Him. Therefore, He took the opportunity before He was killed to establish His supper for His disciples to remember Him. If He had stopped there and had then gone to the Garden of Gethsemane and delivered Himself to those who would kill Him, the disciples would not have been led to the Father. Hence, the Lord’s leading the disciples to sing praise to God was to leave them with the impression that they must not forget to worship the Father when they remember Him.
Hebrews 2:11-12 says, “Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.’” The thought in these verses follows Matthew 26:29-30. After the Lord established His supper, He sang a hymn with His disciples to praise the Father. This was to impress them with the matter that even after remembering Him, they should worship the Father. Then the Lord died on the cross and resurrected after three days. In His resurrection many brothers were produced. Before the Lord’s resurrection He had only disciples, not brothers. First Peter 1:3 says that we were regenerated through His resurrection. Hence, when the Lord Jesus saw Mary on the morning of His resurrection, He said, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). As the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus was born to be the firstborn Son of God on the day of His resurrection. In His resurrection all those who believe into Him were also begotten as the many sons of God, His many brothers.
Hebrews 2:11 says that the Lord Jesus, the One who sanctifies, is one with His brothers, the sanctified ones, because both He and we are born of the Father. Verse 11 also says, “For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” This verse can be compared to John 20:17, where the Lord said, “Go to My brothers.” At that time the disciples were weak. On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, Peter denied the Lord three times (Matt. 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18, 25-27), and the others were disappointed and fled. This was to their shame. They were not worthy to be called brothers, but the Lord was not ashamed of them. Because of what the Lord accomplished on the morning of His resurrection, He was not ashamed to call them His brothers.
The last portion of Hebrews 2:12 says, “In the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” Here You refers to the Father. Hence this portion can also be rendered, “In the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to the Father.” In which Christian meeting is it most suitable for the Lord Jesus to sing hymns of praise to the Father in the midst of the church? By inference, this meeting must be the Lord’s table meeting. Furthermore, after the Lord Jesus established His supper, when He led the disciples to sing a hymn, He was not inside of them, because He had not yet resurrected and could not enter into them. However, on the morning of the Lord’s resurrection, all the disciples became the Lord’s brothers. On the evening of the same day the Lord entered into the disciples by breathing into them (John 20:22). From that time onward whenever the disciples met together, the Lord was with them. Hence, the Lord singing hymns of praise in the midst of the church means that He sings within His brothers. And without a doubt, such singing of praise is most appropriate in the Lord’s table meeting.