Come; for All Things Are Now Ready
Luke 14:16-24
Intro
In the parable of the great supper, our Lord presents a picture of the blessings of Christianity under the figure of a wonderful banquet in which everything has been provided by God who is the generous Host. The world promises much to those who would dive into its pleasures, but those who do so always find more pebbles than pearls. Only God can provide a feast that can satisfy the hunger and thirst of people’s souls. The banquet prepared by the God of grace and mercy is for all who will accept the invitation to come. There is food enough for all who will come in all ages.
Throughout the Old Testament the blessings of God’s grace are often spoken of as a feast. In this parable our Lord speaks of a great feast, of foolish excuses offered by some, and of the fearful fate of those who reject God’s gracious hospitality.
I. We are invited to a feast prepared by the God of grace
a. The feast to which God invites us is a banquet that provides adequately for the deepest hungers of the human heart.
i. The blessings freely offered are a richer feast to the soul than the richest dainties are to the body.
ii. All the needs of people are supplied at this great supper.
iii. All the blessings of the gospel are on display to be enjoyed in a large measure here and perfectly hereafter.
iv. Concerning this feast, the psalmist declared, “Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anoints my head with oil; my cup runs over” (Psalm 23:5
v. John the Revelator looked into heaven and saw the continuation of this feast.
“The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into living fountains of water” (Rev. 7:17)
b. If your soul is burdened and crushed by a depressed load of grief, be assured that forgiveness is on the menu.
i. God is eager to pardon every sin and forgive every transgression.
ii. He can cleanse from all the defilement of sin and deliver you from the power of sin.
c. The host at this great feast to which you are invited offers the gift of divine Sonship which carries with it his Fatherhood.
i. Until people come to Christ, they are creatures with the capacity for fellowship with God, but they become children of God only through the new birth from above.
d. The fellowship at this feast is indescribably wonderful
i. God is the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, but he also grants to each believer access into his divine presence continuously.
ii. One of the most beautiful pictures of this truth is contained in Rev. 3:20
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me.”
iii. Particularly, note the feast and the fellowship with the living Christ serving as the divine Host.
iv. No other fellowship is comparable to this.
e. To sit at the banquet table and enjoy the hospitality of a gracious host implies friendship.
i. Abraham was called the friend of God.
1. He responded to God’s invitation.
2. He trusted God.
3. He obeyed God
4. He sought to do the things that were pleasing to God.
ii. This friendship with God was both enriching and transforming.
iii. God is gracious in that he will permit us to be his friends.
iv. Jesus told his disciples and us today in John 15:14-15
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
v. Jesus is the friends that every man needs.
vi. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother.
f. Among the blessed benefits of this feast is the promise of fruitfulness.
i. In the same instance in which the Savior spoke of friendship, he also spoke of our bearing much fruit to the glory of God, in John 15:16.
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”
ii. One of our deepest needs is to have the assurance that we are doing something worthwhile.
iii. It is encouraging to know that this is a part of the divine provision for us.
iv. In fact, this is the primary point of the entire parable.
v. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day were not bringing forth the fruits of faith or the fruit of the Spirit of God.
vi. They were so determined that the Messiah was to fit into their nationalistic and materialistic plans that they were incapable of perceiving the truth of Jesus’ claims.
vii. Consequently, they were eliminating themselves from the great redemptive feast prepared by a God who wanted to redeem all people from the tyranny of sin and death.
g. The invitation to this feast carries with it the promise of future blessedness.
i. Jesus brings much joy and happiness into our lives during the present.
1. He defined the purpose for his coming in such terms.
“I have come that they might have life and that they might have it
more abundantly”
2. To his disciples on the night before his crucifixion, he said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full”
ii. Christians have happiness, not only now, but also eternally.
1. Do you ever wonder about the state of the saved who have gone on to be with the Lord?
2. John was permitted to hear a voice from heaven that described their condition very briefly, and he was commanded to write it down in Rev. 14:13.
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
a. The Spirit talking to John was telling them that they were happy.
3. This thrilling truth would help us with our grief problems if we would listen in faith.
a. It would take away much of our fear of death.
b. It would cause us to love our Lord more dearly.
c. It would challenge us to serve him more cheerfully and sacrificially.
II. Foolish excuses were offered (Luke 14:18-20)
a. Excuse making comes naturally to people.
i. At the beginning of time, Adam made an excuse for his sin and actually blamed God for it, for it was god who had provided him with a wife who encouraged him to eat the forbidden fruit.
ii. There is a vast difference between excuse and a reason.
iii. The people in the parable did not offer reasons for declining the invitation.
iv. They offered excuses, and if one is going to excuse himself from some opportunity or responsibility, one excuse is as good as another.
v. As with most excuses these three had an element of dishonesty.
b. One man declined the invitation to the feast because of financial matters (v. 18)
i. He permitted his wealth to keep him away from the feat prepared by the God of grace, and thousands of others have been kept back for the same reason.
ii. It should be granted that business is important and lawful and must have proper attention, but when material things come between man and God, they become sinful.
iii. Money cannot reconcile a man to God.
iv. He who has been living for things should reflect on these truths and respond to the invitation to the feast.
c. A second intended guest offered feelings of uncertainty as his excuse for not coming. (v. 19)
i. He needs to go and prove something.
1. There are many today who decline to come to God for the same reason.
2. They declare that they do not feel certain about the Bible or about this or that doctrine or about which church they should join.
3. They confess their feeling of uncertainty about their ability to live a faithful Christian life.
ii. While some of these may indeed be sincere, the majority is evading the call of God’s Spirit and care only making foolish excuses.
d. The third man who was invited used family affairs as his excuse. (v. 20)
i. He was the greatest fool of the three, and his excuse is the most unnecessary, for he might have attended the feast and taken his wife with him.
1. Marriage is a part of God’s good and perfect will for us.
2. It is his desire that both husband and wife be members of his family.
3. In spite of this, many husbands excuse their lack of faith and faithfulness by blaming their wife in some manner.
4. Some wives evade the call to God by saying that they are waiting on their husbands.
ii. There is not good excuse for a man or woman turning down the invitation of God to come to the gospel feast.
1. You would be wise to cease evading your opportunity by offering foolish excuses.
III. The fearful fate of those who decline the invitation (v. 24)
a. This verdict states that when people decline the loving invitation of a gracious God to come and sit down at the feast of the kingdom, they deny themselves the benefits of the feast.
i. They miss the joy of forgiveness, the privilege of being a child of God, the fellowship and friendship of a living Lord, the fruitfulness of bearing fruit to the glory of God; and ultimately they miss the blessedness of heaven.
b. There is no other Savior than Jesus.
i. There is no other gospel than that which is proclaimed in his name.
ii. There is absolutely no hope for the sinner outside of Christ.
iii. Final rejection of his invitation will be followed by final ruin for your soul.
Closing / Prayer
After hearing the excuses of those who were the intended guests, the host gave another order to his servants: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, the maimed, and lamb, and blind.”
No one is below the notice of the Lord. All people are invited to be saved. It may be that you are poor – indeed, poverty stricken in the realm of the spirit. You are invited. It may be that you have been crippled by sin and limp along the road of life. You are also invited to the feast. It may be that you have been blind to the love of God, the need of your soul for salvation, the simplicity of the gospel way of salvation, and to the awful consequences of rejecting God’s gracious invitation. You are invited to come to him today, for all things are now ready. God is ready. The church is ready. Your loved ones are ready. Come, the invitation has been given by God himself.
