Have you ever been blessed by being one of the privileged
• Where you have been able to do something most others can’t?
• Backstage
Read Luke 14 The Parable of the Great Feast
• Being Blessed is how this story starts out
• A man makes a comment that what a blessing it’s going to be
• To be able to attend a Banquet in the Kingdom of God (ELAB on that event)
But Jesus informs him that not everyone looks at it this way
• And this is how the story plays out
In Jesus’ day when you invited someone to dinner,
• You told them the day but not the exact hour of the meal.
• A host had to know how many people were coming
• So he could butcher the right amount of animals and prepare enough food.
And when all the cooking and prep work was done
• The host would send his servants out to fetch the guests
• Tell em to get a move on the party’s getting ready to start
But in this story Jesus tells us that even though these people knew that there was a party on this day
• They made other plans
• Instead of being excited about going to the party
• They had made other plans that they felt were more important
In other words, each of the guests in this parable
• Had already agreed to attend the banquet.
• And the host expected them to be there.
• And the excuses they gave were weak and didn’t make any sense
The first man had bought some property and said he needed to go check it out
• In the East when you bought property it was a long complicated process
• This man would have had plenty of opportunities to check the property out before he bought it
• Because anyone who buys something without checking it out is always taking a chance
• Furthermore since most banquets are held at night
• The man would have been dealing with the problem of limited light to check out the property- He wouldn’t have been able to see
The 2nd man said that he had just bought 10 oxen and wanted to try them out
• Again 2 key facts go along with the 1st man’s excuse
• 1st it was late in the day and the sun would have been going down
• Not giving him ample time to really check em out
• And 2nd who would go buy 10 oxen without making sure that they could pull
• Kind of like buying a truck with a blown up engine
• It just doesn’t make any sense.
And this brings us to the 3rd man
• We claims he can’t come because now he has a wife
• Some might ask why wouldn’t he just bring his wife?
• Well in those days if you got invited to a banquet it was for men only,
• You didn’t bring the wife, the girl friend, a date,
• Because only Jewish men were invited to banquets,
• The host didn’t expect the wife to come anyway
But there’s more to this
• The process of getting married in those days was quite an event-ELAB
• So when the man received his invitation and RSVP’d-
• When he said he would be there
• He would have known that he would have had a wife
Bottom line, anyway we want to look at it, these were all just excuses
• And the host had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that everything was taken care of
• And now since all of his friends had blown him off
• He didn’t want all this food to go to waste
So he opens up the guest list
• And it doesn’t matter at this point who comes
• The only thing that is important is that we fill up the house
• Because what good is a party if there isn’t anyone to party with?
So he sends his servants out into the streets in town
• With the instruction to get everyone you can
• He says get the crippled, the blind, the lame
• Think about this guest list (ELAB on each one of these conditions, The servants had to help)
And the servants GO, they do this- They do what the master tells them to do
• And the people come
• But they still have room for more
So now the host says
• You’ve already invited everyone in town
• So now go invite everyone that’s outside town
• Search the country roads
• Look behind the bushes, Look everywhere,
• Invite everyone you find and tell them to come (ELAB on the kind of people that would be sleeping behind bushes)
The homeless, Downtrodden, The poor, The outcasts, the loiterers, , the undesirables,
• These were the kind of people that Jesus came to save
All that matters is that the house is full
• Because the ones who blew me off aren’t coming
• They had better things to do / Had their own agendas
• And the sad thing is that these people actually expected to get another invitation in the future,
• But that invitation never came.
The key Verse, that we find in this message comes in vs 23
• The house is going to be full
Not only did the host get other people to take the places assigned to the invited guests,
• But he shut the doors
• The party was closed
• And the people that had come up with these lame excuses couldn’t get in
• Because the fact of the matter was that the Host was angry.
We don’t like to think of God the Loving Father getting mad
• We don’t like to think about God expressing judicial anger against those who reject His gracious invitations, - But it Happens
Isa 55:6 Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near
• This implies that He isn’t always going to be around-- ELAB
Pr 1:23 Come here and listen to me! I’ll pour out the spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise. Pr 1:24 “I called you so often, but you didn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.
Pr 1:25 You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered.
Pr 1:26 So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you— Pr 1:27 when calamity overcomes you like a storm, when you are engulfed by trouble, and when anguish and distress overwhelm you.
Pr 1:28 “I will not answer when they cry for help. Even though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. Pr 1:29 For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. Pr 1:30 They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them.
Pr 1:31 That is why they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way. They must experience the full terror of the path they have chosen.
Pr 1:32 For they are simpletons who turn away from me—to death. They are fools, and their own complacency will destroy them.
Pr 1:33 But all who listen to me will live in peace and safety, unafraid of harm.”
These verses show that we can’t take His warnings lightly
This parable had a special message for the proud Jewish people
• Because they were so sure that they were going to the party
• But within a few short years, the Gospel would be rejected by the religious leaders,
• And the message would be offered to the Samaritans and then the Gentiles
But the message of this parable applies to the lost sinners of today.
• And that message is that God still says, “All things are now ready. Come!”
• Nothing else needs to be done it’s all been taken care of
• I took care of all the preparation for the party
• When my son died for you on the cross and rose from the dead.
• The feast has been spread, the invitation is free, and you are invited to come.
• All you have to do is RSVP
Today people make the same mistakes that the people in the parable made:
• They put off responding to the invitation
• Because they settle for second best.
• There’s certainly nothing wrong with owning a farm,
• There’s certainly nothing wrong with examining purchases,
• There’s certainly nothing wrong with spending an evening with your wife.
• But if these good things keep you from enjoying the best things,
• Then they become bad things.
The excuse-makers were actually successful people in the eyes of their friends,
• But they were failures in the eyes of Jesus Christ.
The Christian life is a feast, not a funeral, and all are invited to come.
• And it’s the responsibility for each one of us to pass out the invitations
• We are the Servants
• Those invites read “Come, the banquet is ready!”
God wants to see His house filled,
• He wants us to go home (Mark 5:19),
• Go into the streets and lanes (Luke 14:21),
• Go into the highways and hedges (Luke 14:23),
• And go into the entire world (Mark 16:15) with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
