OPEN: A teacher at a privately run church school wanted to point out to her children how they should behave when they were at church. So she started out by asking the children what kind of rules that their parents might give before taking them to a nice restaurant.
One second-grader excitedly said: “Don’t play with your food.”
A young girl raised her hand: “Don’t be loud”.
And so it was that each child gave a their answers to the teacher… except one little boy was quietly sitting in the corner and the teacher wanted to include him in the discussion: "And what rule do your parents give you before you go out to eat?" she asked.
Without batting an eye, the child replied, "Order something cheap."
APPLY: Jesus has gone out to eat. He’s been invited to the home of a very prominent Pharisee and it appears that He’s not the only one to have been invited. In fact I suspect that this meal had been planned for some time – there were many people present.
In those days, it was not uncommon for a man of prominence to have a large gathering in his home. Invitations would be sent out requesting an RSVP (seeking a reply – "are you coming?") Based on the # of replies that were received, the host knew how much food to have prepared, how much refreshment he needed to have on hand, how many tables to set up, and so on.
Luke doesn’t tell us, but it appears that Jesus may have been the guest of honor at this meal. And it also seems that many of the community’s best & brightest had come just to see this new teacher.
One might think that by attending this banquet, Jesus was taking a break from hectic schedule of teaching and preaching. BUT of course, it would be a mistake to think that. Jesus didn’t have the leisure of taking a break. As Jesus told His disciples in John 9:4 “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
Jesus had a limited amount of time to fulfill His mission. He had just three short years from His baptism by John to His crucifixion on the cross. His time was limited and He was not about to be sidetracked by a social gathering. And so even here He is seeking to teach about the coming of his Kingdom - the Church. Even here He is seeking to help people understand what God intended to accomplish at end of the ages.
I. I want you to notice whatJesus does at this banquet. (Look at the text: Luke 14:1-2.) Of course, we know that he heals a man, but there something unusual about this healing. Do you see anywhere that this man with dropsy "asked" Jesus to be healed? No. Well, if he hadn’t come to this banquet to be healed, why did he come? Most likely, like everyone else, he was there to eat. He might have had it in his mind to approach Jesus later, in private, in the hopes that Jesus would take away his illness. But at this point, there is no indication that he was asking for this healing now.
Dropsy (known today as "edema" - symptimatic of congestive heart failure) wasn’t usually a life threatening condition – just an uncomfortable one. There was a swelling in the joints because of the retention of water. Body cavities swell and often there was a red blotchiness across the body. It’s uncomfortable and its unsightly, but it was not necessarily a serious disease. It was, however, an obvious one. Everybody in the room knew this man had “dropsy.”
This man doesn’t appear to have asked to be healed, but Jesus needed an object lesson. So this man was selected to receive the door prize at this meal. He’s going to relieved of this discomfort in his life.
Now, why should Jesus do this? Why heal a man who hasn’t asked for help? Because, beginning with this man, Jesus intends to teach this audience some very important facts about salvation and the coming Kingdom.
II. The first thing Jesus wanted to teach was that people are IMPORTANT to God.
You’d think this would be obvious. But, religious people sometimes forget this simple reality – people are important to God. Religious people sometimes get sidetracked doing “religious things,” mistakingly believing that this is what pleases God.
ILLUS: A tourist was being guided thru one of the great Cathedrals of Europe when he felt the urge to ask the guide how many people had been saved there over the past year.
The guide sniffed and replied "Sir, this is a Cathedral not a Chapel."
Why would that guide think like that? Because, he believed that God was more impressed by buildings and religious activity than He would be by changed lives.
People are important to God. The Pharisees had forgotten this simple fact, because they’d gotten caught up in being “righteous.” To the Pharisee, the most important thing in the world was to keep the rules.
Jesus condemned this type of thinking in Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices— mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law— justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Now, for those of you not familiar with what Jesus was trying to prove here, the issue in our text had to do with a rule the Pharisees’ had about healing Sabbath. REREAD Luke 14:2-6.
You see, this meal was being eaten on the Sabbath. And, according to the Law of God, you weren’t supposed to work on the Sabbath. It was a Day of rest. BUT the Pharisees felt that the Bible was too vague on this subject, and so they decided to help God out by defining what “work” was.
ILLUS: In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had made a list of 1521 ways to break the Sabbath.
1. If a person walked more than 750 yards, he broke the Sabbath.
2. You couldn’t wear a heavy coat because if you took it off & had to carry it, you broke Sabbath.
3. You could not tie a knot or kill fleas or flies.
4. (And my personal favorite) A woman was not allowed to look in the mirror because she might see a gray hair and pull it out – which would have been reaping.
None of that was in Scripture, but the Pharisees taught that this was how you had to behave to impress God.
But Jesus wasn’t impressed. Speaking of the Pharisees, Jesus declared that they…
“… tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” Matthew 23:4
In other words: the Pharisees cared more about rules made by men, than they did about men made by God. They either did not know… or they had forgotten… people are important to God. AND that is the foundation upon which the Kingdom of God would be built. As John 3:16 says: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”
II. Secondly, not only are people important to God… but ALL people are important. This was a lesson those who fought for the best seats needed to hear.
ILLUS: I remember a preacher friend of mine who had had problems in the church he was serving. So, he sent out resumes to various churches that had open pulpits. One church was very interested in him and offered a very handsome salary. It was about twice what I was being paid at the time. I asked him "Who did you have to kill to get that job?" He laughed and said, it didn’t matter, he wasn’t going to take the job. "Really," I said, "what was wrong?" He told me that he decided to turn them down after they interviewed him.
In the interview, they told him they weren’t interested in growing… all they wanted to do was to have a preacher who would take care of “their” needs. Visit with them at home and attend to them in the hospital. BUT they were not interested in any new people in their church.
God will never be pleased by that type of a church. And the reason I know God wouldn’t be pleased by that is because that’s the type of attitude Jesus rebuked at the Banquet.
Do you know why everybody wanted the best seats in at the Table? BECAUSE they felt they were more important that the others there. What made these seats so desirable? The people towards the head of the table was taken care of first. They had 1st choice of the food that was passed. AND perhaps most importantly, they’d be closest to the host - and in this case closest to Jesus - and thus stand to receive His full attention. Which of course they deserved. They wanted the chief seats at the banquet, because that was what met their needs at the moment.
God’s not impressed with that type of a person. In fact, in His kingdom that type of individual will NOT BE THERE.
Look again at Luke 14:15-20. The 1st people invited to the banquet turned the host down… But why? BECAUSE…
a. One man had bought a field
b. Another had purchased 5 yoke of oxen
c. And a 3rd had just gotten married.
In other words, each one of them was more interested in their own needs (repeat this) than they were in the wishes and the desires of the host of the banquet.
Now, notice what Jesus says in Luke 14:21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
THEN IN Luke 14:24 "I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet."
I fear for that church that my friend turned down. They had a wrong attitude. A sinful attitude. They had forgotten why they existed as a church. They believed the reason they had a church was so that their needs would be met - not God’s.
You know, everybody at this banquet knew that there was only one reason they got an invitation. They were there because they were the movers and shakers in the community… they were the desirable people to have at parties. Not so, the poor… nor the crippled… nor the blind… nor the lame.
That was the attitude that Jesus saw on display at the banquet that day.
BUT that wasn’t the attitude that the host of the heavenly banquet was going to have…
Note what Luke 14:23 tells us "Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, (WHY?) so that my house will be full.’"
That’s why we have events like “Bring A Friend Day.” To fill God’s house with as many people as we can bring in. To bring in so many that we have to go to 2 services and eventually need to build a sanctuary large enough to house them all.
Distribute packets (filled with 3*5 cards to use to invite people to church, posters to hang around town, 3*5 cards to put down the names of those who are invited so that the office can send out an additional invitation, and a cover letter explaining all that’s involved.)
CLOSE:
We need to realize that our Jesus took every opportunity to tell people about the Kingdom.
We need to realize that the reason He did this was because all people were important to Him.
And we need to realize that in order to give men salvation He had to pray “Not my will, but thine be done.”
So also, we should seek out all people at every opportunity to bring them to Christ. And we should be willing to sacrifice our wants and our needs to accomplish that. Our attitude should be like that John Wesley on the day he was robbed:
John Wesley was a popular evangelist in early America and often rode from one church to another to preach. On one such journey, stopped by a highwayman who shouted, "Halt, your money or your life."
Wesley got down from his horse, emptied his pockets to reveal only a handful of coins. He even invited the robber to search his saddlebags - which only carried his books. In disgust, the thief was turning away when John Wesley cried "Stop, I have something more to give you."
Puzzled, the robber turned back. Wesley then leaned towards him and said "My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life in which you are engaged. If you ever do, I beseech you to remember this: ’The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.’"
The robber hurried silently away, but Wesley got back on his horse & rode on his way praying in his heart that the word might be fixed in the robber’s conscience.
Years later, at the close of a Sunday evening service, a stranger stepped forward and earnestly begged to speak with John Wesley. Wesley recognized him as the robber who had stolen from him so long before, but now he was a well to do tradesman and better still, a child of God. Raising Wesley’s hand to his lips he affectionately kissed it and sad in deep emotion, "To you, dear sir, I owe it all."
Wesley replied softly, "Nay, nay, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin."
