Luke 14:15-23—Invest & Invite
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."
16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.
17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ’Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ’I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 "Another said, ’I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 "Still another said, ’I just got married, so I can’t come.’
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.’
22 " ’Sir,’ the servant said, ’what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 "Then the master told his servant, ’Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.
I. The Heart of God
a. This passage of scripture shows the heart of God for gathering people into His Kingdom and blessings. He cares passionately about people and has given so much.
b. Yet this passage has a pressing tone in verse 23 – “Make them come in.” In the King James it says, “Compel them to come in.”
c. The message from the heart of God is clear.
i. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
ii. Look at what Jesus has done to draw the world to Himself.
iii. He wants us to feel the same urgency and passion to bring people into His Kingdom.
iv. Do whatever is necessary to reach pre-Christians with His grace and goodness.
v. If you must be persistent, then be persistent.
vi. If you must be compassionate, be compassionate
vii. If you must be self-less and serving, then unleash everything you have to make an eternal difference.
d. But what “compelling” means is different depending on the culture.
i. Paul said, “I become all things to all people that I might by all means win some.”
ii. To the Jew, Paul reasoned from the Law and the Prophets.
iii. To the Greek, he preached a message entitled “to the unknown God.”
iv. To governors sitting as a judge, he gave his powerful testimony at His trial.
e. The generation we live in has been described as “post-modern” and “post-Christian”.
i. We do not live in a 1950s “Leave it to Beaver” society, but many churches have been frozen in time and do not realize the world around us has changed.
ii. When you go to the missions field, the first thing you must do to be successful is to learn the language of the people.
iii. If you don’t learn their language, eat their foods, and live among them, you’ll never relate to them with the Gospel.
iv. So we must speak the language of our culture.
v. To reach this generation for Jesus Christ, we must move past being an “Andy Griffith church” and do whatever it takes to reach people for Jesus.
f. I believe the most “compelling” thing we can do is counter-cultural—both to the world’s culture and that of the church.
i. But it is rooted in the example of Jesus. It is so contagious and compelling, yet so unusual.
g. Let me say that I believe that most of us want to live lives of purpose.
i. We want to give our lives to a worthy cause.
ii. But years of bombardment by the messages of a self-serving culture has confused us: indulge yourself, fulfill your desires, satiate your appetites, pursue pleasure, it’s all about you.
iii. True fulfillment will never come through self-gratification.
1. Self-gratification will never lead to the fullness of life you are looking for.
2. It will lead you to emptiness and self-destruction
3. And, along the way, you will destroy other people.
II. The decision of Jesus followers radically changed their lives.
a. They left their families, friends, and jobs to become homeless travelers, banking their futures on the often-disturbing words of a revolutionary teacher.
b. For a while it felt like a grand adventure.
i. Take Peter, for example.
1. Every day for years he had walked down to the seashore, cast off in his boat, dropped the nets, hoisted up a catch of fish, counted them, took them to the market, traded them for a few coins, bought food and went home.
2. Not the most exhilarating life on the planet.
ii. Then Peter met Jesus and became the right-hand man to the most powerful, gifted, charismatic leader of the day.
1. Jesus miraculously fed huge crowds, healed the sick, and raised people from the dead.
2. Who could imagine where it might all lead?
3. Peter had fixed himself to a star and the star was rising.
iii. But then things started getting messy.
1. Jesus’ habit of boldly challenging the self-serving values of religious and political leaders created hostility.
2. His relentless call to a different way threatened to get his followers in big trouble.
3. It had always been hard for the disciples to accept Jesus’ radical call to serve God and others.
4. “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all,” Jesus told them.
5. Then he started using really uncomfortable language: deny yourself, take up your cross, lay down your life, deny yourself.
iv. Jesus called His followers to servanthood, but in the unguarded moments of their private conversations they argued about which of them was most likely to hit the big time.
1. Who was the most gifted?
2. Who would be the best known?
3. Who would enjoy the most success in the future?
4. Who would get the most speaking engagements, sign the most autographs, wield the most power?
c. Do you really want to live?
i. Then drape a serving towel over your arm!
III. The Foot Washer
a. In John 13, Jesus and the disciples had dinner and the foot washer didn’t show up.
i. In that time and place, where people often walked in sandals down dusty roads and then reclined at low tables with their feet not far from the faces of other guests, custom required that a servant at the door should wash dirty feet.
ii. But not so at this dinner. Something went wrong. The foot washer didn’t show up.
b. Imagine you’re standing behind a pane of glass watching this scene.
i. The first disciple enters the upper room and discovers there is no foot washer.
ii. Suddenly for him, it is decision time.
iii. Does he wash his own feet?
iv. Does he take off his garment and become like a rank-and-file slave and wash everyone else’s feet?
v. Look into his eyes. He’s thinking “not me. That’s not my job. I’m not a slave. I’m no foot-washer.”
c. The foot washer was the lowliest position, even for a slave.
i. It was the toilet scrubber.
ii. The urine-wiper.
iii. The pooper scooper.
iv. You get the picture.
v. When I say they grabbed a towel, I want you to picture a servant grabbing a toilet bowl brush, a bucket, some ajax, strapping on your rubber gloves, and heading to work.
d. That is the context of this disciple as he tries to size up where Jesus will sit and chooses an advantageous position at the table.
i. The second disciple enters and realizes there’s no foot washer and sees his friend already seated at the table.
ii. Well, he thinks, if he’s not going to stoop to the level of foot washer, neither am I.
iii. And he heads toward the second-best seat in the house.
iv. All the disciples do the same thing.
1. They file in.
2. They walk past the water basin.
3. They choose the best remaining seat at the table and recline, sticking their dirty feet in each other’s laps.
e. Last, Jesus enters.
i. Watch him.
ii. He looks at the water.
iii. He looks at the filthy feet of the disciples.
iv. You can see it in His eyes.
v. Three years, sermon after sermon, illustration after illustration, confrontation after confrontation.
vi. Can you see it? It looks like a failure.
vii. He walks to the table and reclines.
viii. He just sits there, silently.
ix. Maybe someone will at least have the humility to wash the feet of the master.
x. But no, nobody moves.
f. Now watch Him.
i. He gets up from the table, walks to the water basin and starts to take off his outer garment.
ii. Carefully he picks up the towel and slips it through His belt, exactly the way a servant would.
iii. Then he pours the water into the basin.
g. Now look at the eyes of the disciples.
i. Disbelief.
ii. Embarrassment.
iii. Then as Jesus begins to wash the feet of the first disciple, you see something deep in their eyes—agony, regret, maybe tears.
iv. What is the matter with me? How did I miss this?
v. My whole world revolves around me.
vi. It’s bad enough I wasn’t humble enough to wash the brother’s feet.
vii. But I didn’t even wash my Savior’s feet! How could I have done this?
viii. What’s the matter with me?
ix. Jesus circles the table.
x. Peter resists for a moment, but Jesus knows well how to silence Peter.
IV. Jesus finishes up and folds the towel and says to the disciples:
a. The Master & Foot-washer Speaks:
i. “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Master and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his Master, nor is a messenger greater than the One who sent Him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
b. Paul summed up the example Jesus left with these words to the Philippians:
i. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.
V. The Call of the Servant to Serve
a. Imagine what would happen if people in our world—by the masses—took up serving towels, draped them over their arms and willingly (even joyfully!) served other people in their everyday lives.
b. What would happen if this whole church got involved in serving—an entire community of servants, devoting your God-given talents and passions to sharing the love of Jesus.
c. Think of the lives changed. . .the relationships forged. . .the eternal opportunities created as people far from Jesus see His heart displayed through our actions.
d. Such attitudes and actions would change our world! I believe a servant-hood revolution can happen and that this church should set the example and lead the way.
e. I believe that people are never closer to living out the teaching of Jesus than when they are finding ways to help and serve someone else.
i. And people who are far from God are rarely more impacted than when they see 21st century Christ-followers behaving like Jesus behaved.
f. THE GREAT GAMBLE:
i. I challenge you to put this great command to the test.
1. For six months, take the great gamble.
2. Follow the model of Jesus with reckless abandon.
3. Take advantage of every opportunity to serve—even if it seems like something insignificant.
a. “Be the one who opens the door for others.
b. Choose the back seat of the car.
c. Take out the garbage.
d. Take the arm of the elderly woman climbing the stairs.
e. Open your eyes and keep your servant’s towel handy.
f. Monitor the condition of your heart and see if your growing in the peace and joy that comes from the Lord.”
ii. And if you want to, try it the other way.
1. Every chance you have, put yourself in the center—be demanding, ask the world to revolve around you.
2. Push your way to the front of the line.
3. Disappear when it’s time for dirty work.
4. Bow low every morning in front of a full-length mirror.
5. Then step back and honestly assess.
6. Are you becoming closer to God and people or more isolated and lonely?
7. Is your life fuller or emptier?
8. Do you feel fulfilled or frustrated?
g. Take the great gamble. Grab a towel.
VI. Lesson Learned & Applied
a. Well the disciples got it.
i. That example stuck out in their mind and it transformed the nature of their relationships.
ii. Look at how they behaved just a few weeks after this powerful object lesson.
iii. In Acts 2, they had all things common and went from house to house sharing, breaking bread, encouraging one another.
iv. They experienced true community as they all took up the towel and began living the example of servanthood.
b. Impact of Serving Life
i. It is this life of servanthood that will attract and compel people to come to Jesus.
c. Grab a towel and serve your pre-Christian friends and family.
i. Invest in serving them
ii. Invest in helping them.
iii. Invest in acts of kindness.
iv. Invest in showing them the love of Christ through tangible acts of service
v. Invest in washing their feet
vi. Invest in moving their grass
vii. Invest in watching their kids
viii. Invest in cooking them dinner
ix. Invest in helping them move
x. Invest in serving them
d. Your servant’s heart will compel them to Christ.
i. It will draw them more than your soapbox preaching or pointed condemnation. It will woo them to the Savior
ii. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance!
iii. God’s kindness shown through your kindness will compel them to the Cross
VII. Invest & Invite
a. As we prepare for Easter Sunday, think about this.
i. Think about how you can invest in serving those on your impact list.
ii. Don’t just invite them to church, invest & invite.
iii. Serve them and invite them to hear the gospel.
b. Next week is the most-attended church service of the year.
i. Many people will come who do not come at other times.
ii. We are going to be having a seeker service next week.
iii. We’ll be preaching a salvation message and having great music and activities.
c. Will you invest in someone’s life to get them here?
i. Will you invite them to dinner and to church?
ii. Their soul matters to God, so feel the heart of God and let them matter enough to us to serve, to seek them, to invest in them and invite them.
