160306 Invitation to a Banquet

Luke 14:15-24  When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. ¹⁷ And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ ²⁰ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

The very best fellowship occurs around the table with plenty to eat. At least that seems to be the way it is. There are several levels of understanding in this passage of Scripture and the verses just before. I tend to believe this is based on a real event. One of the confusions about Jesus’ parables is the teaching that the parables are sort of like fables. The truth wrapped in a story. Or, as some would put it, “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning”. For me, at least, when Jesus said, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.” He told the truth. Before he told the story he laid down a principle that needs to be followed in our lives.

Jesus had been invited to a banquet. He used the opportunity to challenge the Pharisees to consider what spiritual life is really all about. First, he healed a man on the Sabbath day. Then, Jesus talked about how we should respond when invited and what to do when we give an invitation to others. He gave guidelines to gain a blessing from God rather than men. Jesus said we were to…

Invite the poor. One of my favorite verses is found in Proverbs 19:17. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

When we give to the poor we lend to the God. During my lifetime I have often been asked to lend someone money. If I operated on the principle that I can only loan to those who will repay me I would be several thousand dollars richer today. You see, I just wouldn’t have lent the money! Because it was obvious that those who asked would not likely be able to repay or did not have a good reputation for repaying. I realized early on that handing money to a person needs to be considered a gift with no expectation of return. By the way, that’s part of the definition of “grace”. I realize that this is not a very businesslike position but I believe it fits with what I have learned about God. When we give to the poor they may not be able to repay however…

God always reimburses. In the words of Jesus found in Luke 6:38. “… give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Notice that Jesus did not say that when we give we will be returned what we gave instead he says, “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,” God is generous to those who are generous. I believe the implication here is: God is not generous to those who are stingy. When we give with a cheerful heart God will take care of us. If we wait until we can afford to give we will not give.

When we follow the principle of giving set forth here by Jesus, God will reimburse us. In fact, a generous heart will, in God’s time and way, be rewarded abundantly above what we expect or think. In the words of the prophet Joel, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…” (Joel 2:25) What the Lord takes away he will restore when our hearts are his. Return to the Lord and he will return to you.

In our text today Jesus is responding to one of the other guest’s statement that those who eat bread in the kingdom of God will be blessed. So Jesus told the story about the fact that…

Many are invited to the kingdom. Jesus spoke the invitation in John 7:37-38. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

As Jesus was coming to the end of his life he wanted to be sure that the invitation had gotten out to everyone. Rather than taking the position of the man in his story who depended on his servants Jesus proclaimed the invitation himself. When we have a spiritual thirst God is ready to put within us a fountain that flows out into the lives of others. This fountain is not only to provide for our thirst it is to include the thirst of all those around us. We live in a spiritually thirsty world as evidenced by all the stuff around us designed to make us feel better about ourselves.

When the master of the banquet found that the banquet hall was not filled he put out a general call. In exactly the same way, God, through us, extends a general call to repentance. That call we are to put out involves certain basic truths. First, everyone has sinned. (Romans 3:23) Second, the penalty for sin is death, spiritual death that includes eternal separation from God in hell! (Romans 6:23) Yet, the love of God is shown in the fact that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus had said, “Come to me… And I will give you rest!” (Matthew 11:28) This is not just an invitation given long ago. This invitation is given every day as long as mankind is on earth.

There must be a personal response by every person on earth. Everyone needs to consider that this genuine personal invitation calls for a genuine personal response from everyone who hears it. However…

Many give excuses for not coming. Looking back at our text in Luke 14:18-20. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ ²⁰ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

Those originally invited to the banquet gave some pretty lame excuses. “I have bought a field,” or, “I have bought… oxen” or, “I am newly married”. None of these excuses are really reasons for not responding positively to the invitation.

In the same way the excuses we hear to the invitation we give are usually pretty frivolous. “There are hypocrites in the church”. “The church is always asking for money”. “I just don’t have time to mess with these spiritual things”.

We need to remember that God is the one who makes the invitation effective. You know the old saying, “You can lead the horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” In response to that my dad always said, “Put salt in his oats and he’ll drink.” We can’t put salt in the unbelievers “oats” but God can. We need to pray for people that God will put in their path obstacles that cause them to look up to him. We need to continue to pray for those we have invited and then we need to consider who hasn’t been invited. Faced with the situation of the world we live in we need to…

Invite the uninvited. There is a a story found in Mark 2:13-17. About the people that Jesus spent time with. He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. ¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus is not saying that those who are righteous in their own eyes are really seen by God as righteous. They see themselves as righteous and therefore do not respond positively to the gospel. This is still true today. Many people consider themselves to be righteous because, by human standards, they are “good” people.

The crowd that followed Jesus included all kinds of people. Tax collectors and sinners was the general description of them. They certainly represented the “uninvited”. I believe we are also guilty of selectively choosing people and “uninviting” them. I really struggle with the problem of who we should include in our invitation and how we should include them.

Everyone should be invited. And everyone who is invited should be confronted with the gospel and a call to repent and follow Jesus. If that makes them uncomfortable here so be it! We should be sure to let everyone know that we care for them and desire that their lives be conformed to God’s purpose and plan. The world around us needs to know that we want what is really best for them according to the Bible.

When the guests who were first invited refused to come the master of the house asked his servants to…

Take the invitation to the highways and hedges.  In the same way Jesus told his disciples (and us) in Acts 1:8 to go. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

For the master of the banquet the encouragement to go out into the highways and hedges involved reaching out beyond the local community. He had sent them to the streets and lanes of the city and had them bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Having done that there were still empty seats at the banquet. Then they were instructed to go out even further to the highways and hedges. These people certainly were not the kind of people originally invited. They would be poor and would have unacceptable manners. They would also be very hesitant to go to the “big house” for a banquet. To overcome their hesitation his servants were told to…

Compel them to come in. During his ministry on earth Jesus often had to persuade people. One of the earlier examples is found in John 1:43-46. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Here we see Philip reaching out to his friend Nathaniel. Jesus would quickly convince him that he really was the Messiah. But the invitation given by Philip was pretty simple, “Come and see”. In order to convince, or persuade, him Jesus called Nathaniel, “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Then Nathaniel asked, “How do you know me?” Jesus’ answer persuaded him. Jesus said, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree I saw you.” After that, Nathaniel was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah.

I believe that is the kind of “compelling” that Jesus was talking about when he had the master of the banquet tell his servants to compel people to come in. We need to be equally persuasive in talking to our friends and loved ones, and even to those we consider to be unfriendly towards us.

The master of the house wanted his banquet hall to be filled. In Jesus’ parable the master of the house is God. In the future, after God wraps up history…

The banquet hall will be filled. This is the real banquet hall and is spoken of in Revelation 7:9-10. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

At the marriage supper of the Lamb those of us who have put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will join with a multitude from all races and all ages. We will share with Jesus in a time of great rejoicing before the Father.

From beginning to end the Bible tells us that God’s intention has been to bring his people into fellowship with himself. One of the great joys we will experience in the fellowship will be the fact that we can eat and drink in the presence of the Lord.

I hope you have prepared yourself for the time when you will join with others in heaven.

When Jesus told this story he was explaining the seriousness of our response to the invitation. It is very important that everyone be invited. We cannot know for sure who will respond or how an individual will respond. We just have the responsibility to go everywhere and call everyone to repentance. It is up to God to bring people in. It is up to us to invite them. I urge you today to give out invitations to the banquet. We can’t make them come but we can urge them to come and pray for them that God will open their hearts.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.