MK040 Sermons
Who is Welcome (Audio)
Well this is the season for invitations. Lots of invitations that are going out. Invitations to graduations, invitations to graduation parties. There's a few handsome guys up there. I got some invitations from for graduation parties. Invitations to weddings is another thing that's coming up this time of year and I got invited this. I think they, because I'm doing the wedding, they had to invite me. That's the reason I got invited. I think I might have been invited if they weren't doing the wedding. So we got invitations to wedding. We got, and with the weddings come the bridal showers and the wedding showers and all those invitations and there's something significant about being invited. There's something significant about receiving that envelope in the mail that has your name on and you are the one that is invited to this special event. Earlier this week my wife and I were invited to go to a graduation event and we knew that there weren't a lot of tickets available and so to be given one of those tickets made us feel very, very special to be invited to this event. It's a little bit like Charlie when he opened up that yellow ticket and he had that ticket and he knew he was one of four people that got invited to go visit the Chocolate Factory and so there's something special about that experience. Earlier this year I had an opportunity to be invited to a concert over at the Giant Center and was invited to sit in a box seat in the concert for this concert. You sit in the box seat, you get the special lane that you go in and you go right up and you don't have to wait in the long lines. You get snacks there and you get this awesome view of the concert from where you're sitting up in that location and even better yet you don't have to wait in the crowds afterwards. You get this special lane to get out and go home and so there's something special about those kinds of invitations that come our way and I don't know maybe you've been invited to something that's come up recently. Maybe it's one of the things that I mentioned maybe it's something else. Have you been invited to something recently where you felt surprisingly privileged, surprisingly privileged? Maybe you looked around and you're like wow that's the whole family, their whole family and me. How did I get invited to that event or I didn't know I was in that circle of people but they invited me to go and if you've ever been in one of those situations there's something about being someone's special guest that gives us a sense of feeling valued, of feeling important. But maybe that's not your situation this morning. Maybe it feels like to you that you haven't been invited much recently. Maybe you are at a place where you often feel like you're the odd person out, the person that's left out, the person that doesn't get invited, the lottery never hits your number or the luck of the draw never comes your way. And you're wondering why? Why? Well this morning we're going to get we're going to take a look at a story in which Jesus gives us a glimpse of who gets invited to his table. And if you're a person of faith this morning I think you might be surprised at the people that get invited to Jesus' table. And if you're not a person of faith you're checking out exploring Christianity and wondering what this whole Jesus thing is all about I think you might be surprised at who is at Jesus' table. This morning we're going to start a new series for the summer entitled The Parables of Jesus and our purpose here at CCC is that we would become people who love God fully with everything that we have and that we would love others deeply the way God has loved us. And so part of the way we love God fully is we get to know his son Jesus and as we get to know his son Jesus we learn how Jesus led to we choose to live like Jesus. And one of the ways to do that is by looking at the stories Jesus told. Now Jesus told very different kinds of stories not the average kind of stories not the kind of stories that you might sit around and read your kids when they're going to bed at night so they fall asleep with happy memories or not the kind of stories that are portrayed in the movies where the bad guy always gets caught or killed and the and the guy always gets the girl not those kinds of stories. Jesus' stories were very different. They were very different. Jesus' stories were the kind of stories where you're sitting there listening not really paying attention then you're kind of drawn a little more then you're drawn in a little more and then you're drawn in all of a sudden boom out of nowhere it hits you in the backside and you're like wait a minute he's talking about me. He's talking about me. That's what parables are like. Parables are stories with the point. They're not necessarily allegories where everything in the story has a meaning but they give us a glimpse about how Jesus viewed life because Jesus told stories instead of articulating belief statements in our culture and our western way of thinking you know we want a logical rational I believe this and I believe this and I believe this. Jesus didn't do that. He would tell you a story and that story would unpack and give you insight into the things that mattered most to him and the things that mattered to the heart of God and the really extended metaphors to communicate God's truth. There's stories that are set in the ancient Near East and so we have to understand that culture and that way of life for them to make sense for us and one writer I read this week said the parables are like being invited to a house in a room to sit there and think about the way Jesus views life and so this morning I hope you will come and enter this house and as you enter this house you will sit and think about the way Jesus views life. If you have a bible with you if you turn to Luke chapter 14 if you have a device with you you can go to CCC guests and I guarantee you it will work this morning and I have three chairs for that so I guarantee it will work a very strong signal. We had to turn it down so we didn't give free internet to all of Reinholds this morning so but Luke chapter 14 and we're going to look at this story and as you're turning I want to read this story to you and then we'll take a look at the story itself. When one of those at the table with him heard this he said to Jesus blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Jesus replied a certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited come for everything is now ready but they all like began to make excuses. The first said I just bought a field and I have to go see it please excuse me. Another one said I just bought five yoke of oxen and my way to try them out please excuse me. Still another said I just got married so I can't come. The servant came back and reported this to master then the owner of the house became angry in order to serve and go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor the crippled the blind the lame. Sir the servant said what you ordered has been done but there's still room. Then the master said to a servant go out into the rows and country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full. I tell you not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. In order to understand a parable one of the most critical things is to look at who Jesus is telling the parable to. Who is the audience? Who are the ones listening? And if you look back in chapter 14 verse 1 you get a glimpse of who the audience is. It says in 14 verse 1 on the Sabbath when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee. And then in verse 3 he talks about the Pharisees and the experts of the law. So Jesus is invited to a dinner with the religious leaders of that community. The religious gurus the one who kind of had it all figured out the one that were the most knowledgeable the most respected the most looked up to religious leaders people of that day. And it tells us as you read through that passage that they were attempting to trap Jesus in his words. They were trying to catch him in his words so that they could say you are disobeying the law and you should not be listened to. They were trying to turn the people away from him. Jesus had already confronted them about the way they chose places of honor and as they're continuing this conversation one of the individuals at the table blurted out this in verse 15 he said blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. He said what's he talking about the feast in the kingdom of God. He's literally referring to something that's written about in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah and those verses are going to come up on the screen Isaiah 25-6 it says on this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all the peoples a banquet of age and wine the best of meats and the finest of wines. In the book of Revelation it's described as the marriage supper of the lamb in this day in which God is going to prepare this elaborate feast and invite all those who chosen him to be at this feast to enjoy a great time of celebration. And so there was a great anticipation of this feast this time when God would invite all people to be at a table with him and his son Jesus. But since Isaiah prophesied this some 700 years before Jesus spoke these words the meaning of this had gotten slightly distorted. Say what do you mean John? Well the Old Testament was translated into Aramaic which was the language that Jesus likely spoke in his day. And in doing so there was a book called the Targum in which they translated the Old Testament and when they talked about this feast in the Targum they said that feast is where there would be plagues there would be spread out among the people. I don't know about you but I would rather decline an invitation where everybody is sick at the table. Wouldn't you? I wouldn't want to go to that. A little bit later a second century BC book called the book of Enoch said that in this feast that non-Jews Gentiles would be destroyed at this feast. Okay if they're going to kill me at this dinner feast I'm probably not going to sign up to go. Okay I'll pass on that one. And then the Essenes who are very pious Jews who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls they wrote about the same banquet and they said anyone who's injured, who was maimed, who was deaf, who was mute, who had any imperfections, hearing impaired or any other blemish would be banned from this event. So do you see what's happened over time? This event that the prophet Isaiah spoke about there supposed to be this grand feast, this grand celebration had slowly had the guest list whittled only down to the select perfect few. And so this Pharisee says this, he says blessed is the one who will get to eat at that feast in the kingdom of God. Blessed is the privileged one, the one who got selected to eat there. Isaiah's vision of this great feast of Jews and Gentiles coming together had been altered and limited to a select few. So Jesus upon hearing this statement tells this story. Look in verse 16. So the certain man was preparing a great banquet and he invited many guests. The time of the banquet he set to serve now to tell those who have been invited to come for everything is now ready. Sounds very familiar to our day doesn't it? You're having some guest over, you're having an event. You say hey are you available on this day to come over and you get a yes or no and apparently he got a bunch of yeses. People said yes I can come yes I'm available yes I'm willing to be there. And so he begins to prepare for this feast. Remember we're living at a day of non refrigeration so they would go and they would get the food that they would need maybe get some food from neighbors because they had guests coming in. Then they would kill the fatted calf or they would kill the the goat or the sheep that had been they had raised for a number of weeks and days and months and then they would cook that all day long and so the food was now prepared and as the food is now prepared the dinner is about ready to come out of the oven be put on the table. They say go invite everybody and tell them it's time to come. And as the servant goes out and do that look what he runs into in verse 18 but they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said I've just bought a field and I must go and see it please excuse me. At first glance you're like oh it sounds like he's busy but I want you to take a moment and think about it with me. He says I've just bought a field and now I must go and see it. The first one has a financial dilemma but let me ask you this question when do you inspect a house that you're about to buy. Do you inspect a house that you're about to buy before you buy it or after you buy it. Which one? Before you don't go inspect a house after you buy you already bought it you're stuck with it you know. I mean before we bought this property here we went through it over and over and over and over again and inspections on all different kinds of things and so we knew exactly what we were getting into and that's what you do. But this guy says he says I bought a house. I need to go and take a look at it was no different in that day. In middle eastern culture you would often look at a property and evaluate it for six to eight months. You would want to look at the soil content and find out how the soil what condition the soil was. You would want to be at the property when it rains so you could see where the water would run off and so you could see where the where the runoffs were. If there was terraces on the property you would want to inspect them and find out what do we have to repair, inspect, build what do we have to replace. If there were fruit trees on the property you want to see what was the fruit lice you might wait through a whole growing season so you could see the quality of the fruit the yield of the fruit the condition of the trees how many more years will you have with those trees. There was a lot that went into evaluating a property in that culture in that day. It wasn't a case in which you would buy and say now let me go see what I bought you know like opening up a box of cracker jacks you know see what the prize is that's not what you would do and so it leaves you a little bit scratching your head and a legitimate excuse might be if you were it was time for dinner and you said to your dinner host I know you prepared this dinner but I've been evaluating this property for months and the owner hasn't been willing to sell it to me but he just called me and said I need you to come over because I need that cash now so I need you to settle right now if you can't settle right now I'm going to the next buyer and I'm sorry but I can't make it and then we would have said that's a legitimate excuse that one makes sense but this excuse doesn't make any sense not even believable look at the second excuse in verse 18 I just bought some oxen and I'm on my way to try them out please excuse me when do you test drive a car before you buy it or after you buy it before right it's I hope you did before you know what's this rattle what's this noise what's this thing and how does this thing work and is this thing working right you know and again another excuse that doesn't make any sense would you inspect a new machine for your business before you purchase that machine would you test out a new piece of equipment before you sign a contractor or lease on it if you were the host what would you start to be feeling right now after two cancellations in a row with excuses that seem to be highly suspect and hold no weight and be lame at the best at best one more verse 20 still another said I just got married so I can't come getting married is a good thing just had a couple get married here kylin just recently you know this guest doesn't even ask to be excused and in that culture as if he was it's as if he was saying I have a woman in my house and I have to go back and be with her I don't really have time for you so you face multiple rejections right now if you were the host how would you respond some of you would be like oh my goodness all this food what are we going to do with all the extra food some of you would be ranting I can't believe they ditched me at the last minute with those lame humiliating excuses see if they ever get invited to a party at my house again if you're a teenage boy you might think wow there's extra for me you know that's a good thing that they are in here some of you might be beating yourself up and wondering why no one wants to come to your party I'm telling yourself this was a stupid idea whoever thought about throwing a party some of you if you're optimistic might say well we'll just have a party with whoever's here and just have a grand time I don't know how you would be responding at this moment in time I want you to think about the financial sacrifice that this host has put out the preparation couldn't refrigerate it and keep it for leftovers for the week and eat the same thing every night you know didn't work that way there was a great loss that you were experiencing because people were not willing to be honest with you on the front side and they made up some lame stinking excuse well look in the next verse how the master responded says the master became angry he became angry he was filled with it the slaughtered livestock that he spent years raising he spent time preparing it and there was nothing to do with it they didn't even tell him when he invited them that he couldn't come they stood him up and he had every right to be furious with them in that culture they would be perfectly acceptable him for them him to verbally berate them or for him to disgrace them publicly like on so trashing them on social media you know be perfectly acceptable to do that he had every right because of the embarrassment and humiliation to do that and when anger rises up out of an injustice that takes place it drives us to act and so the question is what will he do what will he do at this moment in the story well he retaliate or choose something different and what he chooses is shocking shocking he chooses grace say what do you mean he chooses grace he's went and invited some extra people so the food wouldn't go to wait that's all he did i was pretty pragmatic if you ask me but he went to people that he didn't think about the first time to invite he went to people who weren't at the top of the list he went to the people that never entered his radar and said will you come to my table notice who he invites the poor the crippled the blind in the lane he sends them out to get people who don't get an invitation to a party who never get an envelope with an RSVP on it the ones who couldn't throw a party like this the ones who just need someone else to help them make it through the day that's who got invited to the party is it no surprise that they all said nothing going on for me i'll be there i'll be there rumor i said to you that jesus's parables give us a glimpse of the way he views life and he's starting to give us a picture of that a glimpse that life is not always about what you think it is and the people that you invite the people that you think the people that you expect to be there they may not be the ones who are ultimately there and the people that you don't think about right away the people that slip under the radar the people that are on the edges the people that are on the outskirts they're the ones that will gladly say yes he goes back to the master he said master there's still more room we still have more space and notice what the master says he says compel them to come compel them to come you get this sense that the servant goes out and he says the master he wants to invite you and they're like no he really doesn't want to invite me why would i get invited no he really wants you to come there's food it's ready it's there's a place at the table for you he really wants you there he wants me there why does he want me there i don't deserve to be there i i could never invite him to my table why does he want me at this table he closes verse 25 by turned into the crowd and this is where he hits them where they're not expecting because he doesn't tell us how the last group responds but look what he says at the end of the story he says i tell you not one of those who were invited the initial invitees they won't get what what does the text say they won't get what a taste of the banquet they won't even get a taste of the banquet for Jesus the messianic banquet was not in the future it had started now he was here and he was inviting men and women and students to come and to have a relationship with him not just to know about him and and to be aware of him and be able to tell other people intellectually about who he was but to enter a relationship with him and the jewish leaders they knew all about jesus they knew all about the prophecies in isiah 25 but they forgot some of them they forgot what he said in isiah 56 and verse 6 and 7 when he says this in the foreigners who bind themselves the lord to minister to him to love the name of the lord and to his servants these i will bring to my holy mountain give them joy in my house of prayer you see the jewish people the religious leaders they had narrowed the guest list down solo that just a select few were invited and jesus says that's not the way i view this deal that's not who gets invitations to my table the people you expect to be there the people who think they've got it all figured out at the final banquet you might be surprised but they're not there sure they got an invitation just like everybody did what did jesus say whosoever will may come god so love the world and it's available for everyone but only those who choose to receive it so the invitation reflects the offer that jesus has over and over and over again where he says to people of that day and he says to people of this day will you come and follow me will you come and have a seat at my table and he made this offer over and over again and many people listened many people took the brochure took the invitation i'll think about it i'll consider it but very few said yes i will follow you jesus wanted the religious leaders to know just because you just because you have a document that has the law just because you have one of these just because you crack it open occasionally doesn't mean you're sitting at my table if you haven't accepted my invitation to follow me as he jesus says if you're too busy if you're too preoccupied if you're too worried about earthly concerns you're going to miss what i have to offer those who are ready to sit at this table they weren't the people you'd expect they weren't the people who had all the knowledge they weren't the people whose resumes was very good they weren't the people who could offer anything back to jesus at all their past was littered with heartbreak and sorrow and pain and suffering and they could not help themselves and they need others just to give them help to make it through their day jesus said if you are self-sufficient if you are religious if you are preoccupied if you have good intentions but there's no action then there's no moving on you to take this invitation to show up at my table you might lose the opportunity that's there for you so as you listen to this story of jesus who do you connect with this morning maybe you connect with the religious guy who said that's going to be sweet when we get to that table and you're kind of banking on some things you're banking on the fact that you're a pretty good person you're banking on the fact that you took time to show up in church on a given sunday morning with a beautiful day outside you're banking on the fact that try to do the good thing maybe that's what jesus hit you blindside you with this morning maybe you connect with a person who has to go and take care of his feeling you're very preoccupied with many things in your life or maybe the person that has to take care of their oxen and your business pursuits and all those things just fill up your time in your life maybe the person that is tied up to relationships and family and your kids and your kids sports and all those kinds of things just consume everything about your life and yeah i know there's an invitation and i know there's an opportunity but i i just don't really have the time and space for any of those things right now or maybe you connect with a person who didn't get the initial invitation got invited a little later maybe you connect with a person who had to be compelled maybe some of you someone's been inviting you over and over and over and over again because you're just not sure you really believe them you're just wondering what are they trying to sell me what are they trying to connect me with or get me hooked up on who do you connect with in the story this morning are you a student with your whole world ahead of you finally school's out and you got the summer and and beyond the summer and beyond finishing school a career and a family and and all the possibilities that are out there for you and you have to decide what am i going to do with Jesus invitation this morning maybe you're young adult with lots of freedom and lots of opportunities and and no limits in this world and there's this life and you have to decide what am i going to do with Jesus invitation this morning maybe a successful couple and you've got a good home and a good job and and life is going well for you and you you don't know why but you feel very blessed by God and you have to decide what am i going to do with his invitation this morning maybe you've been struggling and life has not been easy life has been difficult and he has an invitation for you this morning maybe someone compelled you to walk through those doors today and it's been a long long time since you walk through the doors of any church this if ever and he has an invitation for you this morning in revelation chapter three verse 20 Jesus says this he says here i am i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come in and eat with that person and they with me and say john what do i do with this invitation i simply say yes to the invitation we're not encouraging you to say yes to a church or yes to an institution or yes to an organization or yes to a set of rules but say yes to Jesus you might not understand all of this and everything that this is all about but one thing you know is that you can't make it through life on your own and you've been trying it hasn't been working out too well and there's nowhere else to turn and the only place for you to turn is that that invitation to Jesus some of you maybe have been invited and you've been holding that invitation but other things have filled up and clouded this world and this life and maybe you've set it down i won't ask how many of you have gotten an invitation to some place and you've stuck it in your calendar or buried it somewhere and you forgot to RSVP until it's a little too late anybody had that happen happened to me recently not to me but someone else in my family so and i wondered what did you do with invitation i don't want you to walk out this morning not knowing that you are invited to his table he says we have come to that table because i'm ready and i'm waiting and i want a relationship with you see what Jesus hung on the cross as we sang those songs earlier and he took on his shoulders the sins of all of mankind and the father turned his back on him because of all of our sin on him it made it possible for him to offer to all of us an invitation to this table and he says to you i'll take your penalty i'll take your pain i'll take your heartache i'll take your struggle i'll take all of this because i want you at my table so what will you do with this invitation today i want to invite you to bow your heads and this time in the service we usually give you just a minute or two for me to stop talking for you just to be quiet to talk to God to listen to God and today to decide what you're going to do with his invitation so so god i thank you for this story that Jesus told because it gives us a glimpse into his heart and the reality that there's a lot of people in life that get invited but not everyone accepts his invitation and there's people that will get invited that are surprised by the invitation and not expecting it and and others that will need to be compelled over and over again before they accept that invitation so Lord i pray that we might understand that he's inviting us into our relationship a relationship with the creator of the universe a relationship with the king of kings a relationship with Jesus probably you know each person's story here today some have received this invitation and just like the people in the story they had gotten busy and preoccupied and other things took up their time and and it kind of drifted away still others order hearing it for the first time and realizing that's an invitation for me that's an invitation that i want to receive today thank you god for your amazing love that offers this to us in your name we pray in that.