Compel Them To Come In

Compel them to Come In

Luke 14:15-24

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

During our lives we will make many decisions that will not only affect our present but our future realities as well. While some decisions are routine and often trivial such as what to eat, what clothes to wear, or what route to take to work; other decisions have much larger consequences such as who to marry, what house to purchase, what career path to take, and what friendships to establish. But when we take off our temporal glasses and put on our spiritual ones, the decisions we make become infinitely more important because they affect not only the present but also our eternal destinies! When a person experiences the great shadow of the crucifixion tug at their souls, they must decide to either accept Christ’s gracious invitation of salvation or reject Him. This decision will determine if one goes to the fiery lake of hell to be forever tormented in darkness or if one goes to the Great Banquet in heaven where there will be no more tears, sorrow, pain, death, or sin! While those who accepted the Host’s invitation are to rejoice that their souls will one day return to the One who gave them life, do they not also have an obligation to He who purchased their seats at the Banquet to compel the lost to accept the great invitation they so richly enjoy? Why is it that so many Christians feel so little desire to tell the world of the Pearl and Treasure they found in the field? Are they afraid that they won’t have sufficient answers to the worldly excuses that others might give to delay or outright reject the Host’s invitation? Is not the main reason why the fields are so ripe and yet few conversions due to there being only a few workers that truly desire to preach the Good News to both the prominent and chiefs of all sinners of this world? The following sermon is going to review Jesus’ Parable of the Great Banquet in hope to spur your heart on to compel the lost to come in before it is too late!

Feasting in the Kingdom of God

“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” (15)

Chapter fourteen is all about hypocrisy. It was the Sabbath and after attending the synagogue Jesus was invited to eat at the house of one of the chief Pharisees (1). A man with dropsy (2) was also invited to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. Jesus healed the man and asked: if one has a child or ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath wouldn’t most people pull them out and consider this an act of mercy, not work (3-5)? Jesus then instructed them that “instead of trying to promote self by seeking the seats of honor in a feast” only to have a more prominent person attend and in disgrace have the host ask them to move, they ought to seek the least important seat and wait for the host to invite them to a better seat. After having shown them their hypocrisy, one of the “pious participants among the Pharisees’ dinner guests,” likely trying to appear to be super religious, turns to Jesus and says, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (15). This was a “common figure of speech amongst the Jewish rabbis” that pointed to every Jew’s hope of partaking in the Messianic banquet one day in heaven (Isaiah 25:6-9)! How they looked forward to the day of the outpouring of God’s grace in which every tear would be wiped away and the disgrace of God’s chosen people would be removed. “While Isaiah makes it clear that the Messianic banquet was for all people,” due to their mistaken belief that being invited into heaven was contingent on “human worthiness rather than divine grace” and their mistaken belief that their invitation was guaranteed based on their heritage as God’s chosen people; many in Judaism, especially the Pharisees, came to belief that they would be invited to this Messianic feast while the “spiritual outsiders such as the poor, sinners, Samaritans, and Gentiles” would be excluded! In response Jesus proceeds to tell the people the Parable of the Great Banquet so that they might understand that while God’s invitation to the Messianic banquet is for all people it will only be received by a few and often those not of prominent, but low social status who must completely rely on God’s grace!

The Invitation to Feast

“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” (16-17)