I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14. Luke, chapter 14. As we're taking a break from our series in Acts, in light of the professions today in the Lord's Supper, I thought this was appropriate as we anticipate coming tonight. Luke, chapter 14. found on page 1110 in your pew bibles and actually we're going to begin reading at verse 12 and read through verse 24 let us give our attention to the word of the lord he also said to the man who had invited him when you give a dinner or a banquet do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives, or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, or you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I've married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people. to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet and there ends the reading of the word we'll be referring back to the beginning of chapter 14 as that context is so important so please keep if you can your bibles open well I'm pausing uh this morning from our series and ask to have a time of uh reflection this morning in how in the gospel from the gospels and how one enters the kingdom of god this is so important for us especially as i was reflecting and rethinking all this this week that i forget this basic message that is here so easily it is important to constantly be reminded of what i'm sure for many of us has been a familiar passage and a passage that you have heard many times in the course of your life. And if you haven't, well, now you're going to hear it. So this is a great opportunity. Jesus is helping us to understand something that he was dealing with in the course of the Gospels and people he ran into who didn't understand how it was that people entered the kingdom of god they had entrance into the kingdom all wrong that's the real big entrant issue before us right now entrance into the kingdom of god and with two professions of faith this morning from nico and leo how important this is to consider for they understood this and embraced this and confessed this. Jesus ran up against people who didn't understand or appreciate what Jesus himself had come to do. They didn't understand him. They didn't appreciate him. In fact, they were antagonistic to him. They had no appreciation of the privilege that it was to enter the kingdom and belong to the kingdom of God. Their attitude was one, you'll notice in the surrounding context, we'll see of one of arrogance and pride and self-confidence and even not just general apathy, but as I said, antagonism to Jesus. And I realize how important this is this morning, for as we come to the table tonight, we should remember how that's even possible. We should remember how that's even possible. Here's the question. that this particular section of Scripture is pressing us with. A great banquet of His kingdom is being spread before you. How are you receiving it so as to enter in a way that the Scriptures tell us we should enter? How are you entering? How are you entering the kingdom of God? With what kind of answer would you give? What do you think? And how do you think this goes? How does the principle of the kingdom of God work? On what principle does it operate? We'll look at all that here in a minute. In verse 1 of chapter 14, Jesus comes to one of the homes of the ruler of the, you'll notice here, of the Pharisees to eat with. It's fascinating. The house of a ruler of the Pharisees to dine with. Fascinating that he would be invited here. Immediately you should know something's up because what immediately follows here is they were, in verse 1, watching him carefully. This was an attitude of suspicion of Jesus. They have invited him to the supper, but they're watching him. Their eye is on him. They are looking carefully at him. You'll notice in the next phrase, verse 2, and behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. This was somebody who the Pharisees would have never had into their house. This was somebody who they would have never invited into the house. So Jesus is now there. And the clear sense you get is that they are watching him to catch him in a trap. For you notice then in the next phrase that it is the Sabbath. They wanted to see if Jesus would heal this man on the Sabbath. The whole thing is set up. The whole thing is a trap. i want you to notice though there's two observations going on they're observing him him but you'll notice in verse 7 that he's observing them it's so fascinating it says that he noted something about them in verse 7 that how when he noticed how they chose the places of honor you'll see that there they chose the best places he had come to this pharisee's house and he sees there as he looks around all the rich of society all the well-to-do of society all the people who are greatly esteemed in society all those who make the newspaper all the elites of society and then there sits jesus with this planted man with dropsy a sick man he says in verse 8 something fascinating when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast do not sit down in a place of honor lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him and he who invited you both will come and say to you give your place to this person and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. Fascinating, isn't it? For he says in verse 12, when you give us this dinner, what he's essentially saying there is do not invite, you'll notice in verse 12, when you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. We're already getting to the heart of then the context here of what's going on in this particular section. They have, Jesus says, when you give your feast and you invite people, you should invite those who have nothing to give, who have nothing to repay. They have nothing to offer you. They have nothing to give you. Jesus was just exposing their hearts, wasn't he? They were inviting guests to their great banquets for the benefit that would come from it, what they could get out of people. And of course, not only what they could get out of people, but the esteem that they would receive and what they could offer, it was a big show at these events and Jesus is exposing the whole thing. Jesus is turning that all on its head in this particular passage and he's saying to them you should do the opposite thing you should invite those who can give you nothing that is how the kingdom of god works this is the point you'll see in a minute so so there's the basic principle of this we we tend to have these things only for what is most beneficial to us what we can get what they will give the honor will receive the name recognition all those kind of things jesus turns all that on its head as he's saying this as he's instructing them as he's observing them somebody belts out you got to love these moments in the gospels they're just great moments blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of god i know what that was that's a diversion isn't it he just tried to undermine everything jesus said by turning the discussion he was deliberately diverting jesus's interest in the lowly and turned it back on those who would be the worthy this is what the big issue of the text well it's as if jesus says and that for this particular point who then do you think will eat bread in the kingdom of god that's a big question who do you think will eat bread in the kingdom of God? Not everyone. I know today that's what we like to tell everyone. Everyone's going to be there. Not true. Not true. Who will eat bread in the kingdom of God? And with this, he breaks into a parable. This parable is one of my favorite. It is such a powerful parable and something that is so helpful for understanding the gospel of grace. and then in verse uh you'll notice here then at verse 12 at verse 17 he begins the parable at that time he said um you'll notice here actually verse 16 and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant where am i here i'm all messed up let me back up but he said to them verse 16 a man once gave a great banquet and invited many and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited come for everything is now ready but they all alike began to make excuses the first said to him i've bought a field i must go out and see it please have me excuse and another said i bought five yoke of oxen and i go to examine them please have me excuse and another said i've married a wife and therefore i cannot come so the servant came and reported these things to his master a certain man a good man he sends out a a great invite a great invitation with his seal on it you'll notice that carefully here how he explains it that the invitation would go out the invitation would go out and then when supper time in this culture came they would have a final call saying all is prepared come come now the feast is ready enter it was a double invitation so the you'd send the invitation you would say you are invited and the person would write back and say we're coming we'll be there and then that time when the supper was ready the final call would come all is ready they all initially responded well we'll be at your feast we'll be at your great feast for this great man but then supper time came the time for the great banquet came and the final summons came out and then came the excuses now keep in mind in the previous scene the pharisees had invited society's best and everyone was concerned about seats everyone was concerned about the best places and jesus already instructed them when you give a dinner you shouldn't do that because i know that you're holding this feast for your own benefit which you can get out of people it's a show you have the feast for all the wrong reasons they're all coming for all the wrong reasons the implication here is that jesus is using the example of their feast to test how it has and how it would hold up in the kingdom of God. You see that? How would your feast hold up in the kingdom of God? Let's see what it would look like in the kingdom of God. Let's put it to the test for a minute. If it's followed your way, in the way that you do things. So the implication is that he went out, this servant, like they did, and he went out to all the well to do he went out to all the elites he went out to all the noteworthy people he went out to all the rich people he went out to all the fine upstanding moral people who have done well externally with the law of god the people he'd say good people he did it he handpicked them well they all accepted but then verse 18 but they all alike began to make excuses when the final call came these excuses are something aren't they first said i've uh i bought a piece of ground i bought a piece of land i have an investment property i'm going to go see it would you excuse me huh okay this man had a lot of money this man had a lot of opportunity in life i gotta go do that another said i i have five yoke of oxen and i'm going to go test them you didn't test him at first, right? Gets worse. Another said, I have married a wife. Therefore, I can't come. What an exciting husband. Won't even take his wife to a banquet, you know? What the world is that? It's free! Jesus wants you to see how ridiculous this is. How ridiculous. It is absolutely absurd. It is absolutely ridiculous. Who goes and buys a piece of ground without seeing it first? Would you spend money on oxen without ever having to check, without ever checking if they're healthy animals? What kind of excuses would we get today? Well, I just, I want to be alone. Too much going on in life. It's family vacation week. It's mom and dad's birthday. I'm so tired. All these kids. All these kids. By the way, I've done that. That's why I'm saying that. The parable is exposing the awful attitude of these people deep in the hearts, there is no real interest to be at this man's supper. No real interest to come. Why? It's shocking. Because this is a great man. This is a, by all accounts, this is the best man you could ever, whoever could have given you an invite to his place. We'd at least expect that people would be knocking down the doors to get in. We'd at least expect that people would be anxiously wanting to come. Invitation from him, this good man I have in my hand with his seal on it. Are you kidding me? I'll be there. Nope. I can't believe this great man invited us. Why aren't they coming? That's the million-dollar question in the world today, isn't it? I want you to think of the scene of where Jesus is. he's at a pharisee's house who threw a dinner what kind of dinner a dinner for the elite a dinner for the friends a dinner for the the rich a dinner for the well-to-do i can't imagine i can imagine right now because we know the table structures of these feasts where the best places were up front you'll remember in this regard when jesus at his supper got up and then made himself a servant in front of them all to walk to the end right i could imagine that the scenario was there were all of these people and at the very end of the table was Jesus and the man with dropsy. The strong and the healthy up front. Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, the man belts out. Jesus says, do you think that God's banquet is for those who come with the most to offer? Is that what you think? In the kingdom of God, the one throwing the feast, guess what, accepts no repayment. None. They've got it all wrong. Who will eat bread in the kingdom of God? Who will be there? Who will be in heaven? If it operates on the principle of not merit, but grace. If that's true, there's no name recognition for those who come as if they have something to offer. And you see, this is why they're all making excuses. This gets to the heart of it, doesn't it? There's nothing really attractive about in a merit-based system, in a people who've grown up and worked hard for everything, there's nothing attractive about this. Nothing that drives us to want to be there. So they pay lip service saying we'll come, but when it comes down to it, it's not about us. It doesn't flatter us. This is the challenge with fundraising dinners and writing checks, right? You can get your name put on a lot of monuments that way. There's better enjoyment elsewhere. What a sad scene. A gracious man, a good man, no one deserved to come, had opened up his kingdom, his hall for them, and no one came. It's empty. You've got to be kidding me. You mean feast time came, he opened up the doors, and he's looking around saying, where are the people? And they all said, I've got better stuff to do. So the servant comes in and says, You're not going to believe this. They all, and he just hands them the excuses that they're not here. They're not coming. The master of the house was furious. And he says, that's it. That's it. You go out into the streets and you go into the lanes of the city and you bring me the poor and you bring me the maimed and you bring me the lame and you bring me the blind. I'll fill my house. Where does he go? well, he heads out to the alleys. He heads out to the streets. This would be like walking down to the homeless section on Washington Avenue down here in Escondido. I remember recently walking to Vaughn's and there was a lady out there, a homeless lady. She didn't ask me for money. She didn't ask me for anything. It was here wintertime. She says, all I want is a blanket. Just a blanket. I'm freezing. this is walking down there and there they are with money cans, right? There are the prostitutes. Just the scum down there. This would be like the servant walking down there on Saturday morning, press a little farther, and saying, hey, you're invited tomorrow night to a great feast. He will care for you. He'll clean you up. He'll feed you. He'll love you. He has a home for you. Come. Come. If you've picked up already, these are the ones that Jesus mentions back in verse 13 that he told the Pharisees to invite. But here's where I'm most moved with the parable. This is what strikes the strongest about the parable. The really powerful thing about the parable is the way that the master tells the servant. I want you to think about this. If you went to the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame, listen, there's a major problem here. The poor have no clothes to come to a feast like this. The crippled can't get there. Neither can the blind, because they can't see, nor can the lame. There's no way they can come. That's the point of this. Are you getting the imagery? I think a lot about, I think a lot in this regard of one of our happiest members who would love to be here but can't, Fred Trost. You ever went and visited and just sat talking to Fred Trost? One of the happiest men I've ever met. Love to be here. How am I going to get there? What poor man has the garments? What blind man can see to find the way? What crippled man can walk? What lame man has the ability? And then you have the great problem of convincing these people that the man, the good man, really wants them at his feet, you see. Because people like this in the world, when nobody pays attention to them, when nobody cares about them, who have to fend for themselves, you probably just can't go out there real well and persuade them that there's somebody who's this great that would care. Everything's against the situation. They've been begging their whole lives. No one pays attention to them. Imagine this, the servant pulls up in the limousine down to Washington. Take my limousine and you go fill it and you keep making trips and trips and trips. It's the heart of the parable, verse 21. Go out quickly into the streets in the lanes of the city and bring in did you notice that you bring them carry them you could translate it and he emphasizes something else and the servant said master it's done as you've commanded they're here but but look there's a lot of room this you got a big hall you have got one big hall master says go out again go to the highways and go to the hedges and and compel them to come that my house may be filled i'm not letting my house not be filled my house will be filled with eager hearts i will get them here they'll come so he goes out to the highways and he goes out to the hedge hedge rows and compels the people the word the word means loving persuasion. He is just wooing these people in with all the goodness of the Master. Persuade them strongly. But I have no checks to write. I have nothing to offer this gracious host. He can't want me. He can't want me. In other words, in great contrast to those who said they would come, right? But saw no real need to come. These would be thrilled to come. if they could be convinced and be carried. But never in a million years would they have dreamed that a man like this would ever want them in his feats. I wrote a parable this week. I tried it. You know that? I tried to write a parable. I've never done it. If it's a flop, just tell me at the door. But I'm going to read it to you right now, okay? We are given a day of rest on Sunday to worship Jesus and receive the food of eternal life. If we eat this food, we will live forever. But everywhere I turn, I see people boasting of how they spend this day at Disneyland, at the lake, or at the ball game. I've realized that Christianity in the U.S. today is like a man offering a dinner at the local food pantry to a rich man who lives in a great park. At some point you realize it won't work to tell him he's hungry and doesn't realize it. Or that your food is better than his. In fact, it's a great insult in his mind to tell him to leave his park and come eat what appears to be pantry food. Somehow, the rich man needs to realize that this good man who invited him to enjoy a very different kind of food is the same man who owns the park and provides the food he already enjoys. If the rich man realized that he has no right to the food he already enjoys and that he could be thrown out of the park at any moment, then maybe he would see he's living a very ungrateful life. Maybe he would sense the urgency to come meet this wonderful man and attempt to understand why he is offering this very different kind of food. That's my parable for today. Point is, this is how everyone, everyone values the Lord. Grace comes to the broken. To the nobody. Who have to be carried into the kingdom. And the king will fill his hall with people who know they can pay nothing back. And these will be overjoyed to be there. the kingdom of God had come upon them in Christ. Jesus was being preached. God had sent everything anticipated and looked for, and what Christ was saying the whole time was, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest for your souls. Come to me. I'm the good man. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I am the good man. But, said Jesus to the Jews, you've not come to me so that you may have life. And the way that they treated the servant of the kingdom, the master's son, demonstrated their whole lives had been a rejection of entering the kingdom. Oh, they had accepted the invitation, you see. But here the Son of God had come to dine and they would not come to Him. And that is the message of the parable here, that no one would come unless Christ would come and gather and bring us into His kingdom. Do you know how much grace has been given to you? Really. those who fill the hall these people the scum it's you it's me he went to get us and he constantly persuades you he's the good man he's true God unless they had been persuaded in his gracious gospel struggling with their sins and failures they would never believed a good man like this would let them in and with loving persuasion of the gospel of his son he wooed them in be not because they had married anything but because he is a good gracious king this is why jesus came you understand that he came to die on the cross to deal with our problem we're all a mess look at the world can't you see it and he gives an announcement today the ends of the earth whosoever believes in me, says Jesus, shall not perish, but have everlasting life, and you're going to enter the kingdom of God that way. But he gives a warning here in verse 24, I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. If anyone doesn't go to heaven, listen to this, this is so important, if anyone doesn't go to heaven, if anyone doesn't enter the kingdom, it's not because they were withheld from something they wanted. Their whole life demonstrated their heart was not in it at all. Merely a game. Merely a whatever. They worshiped God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. But don't miss this. He has spread a table and He has invited sinners who believe, people who believe and confess and turn from their sins and understand how wonderful the master is and how gracious he's been in carrying us here and bringing us here. Blessed is the one we sang from Psalm 114. You choose and bring into your courts. He's brought us here. If you know grace, what a privilege to be a part of this master's kingdom. Nico and Leo, God carried you here the whole way. That's the story. He gave you the faith to stand up and profess today. He's been with you. He's led you. And you know what he did for you tonight? He prepared you a table. We're going to come back and take the Lord's Supper tonight. I pray that you don't refuse him who speaks like the first people here. So I want today to close to give you a great invite. as an ambassador of Jesus to a great supper tonight. Jesus Christ invites you to his table tonight, all who believe. He's a great man. The God man. You're not going to make excuses that you have something better to do, are you? I pray you see who is inviting you. And that tonight you will come and taste and see that this Lord is good. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bless you. Thank you for a wonderful, inspired parable that challenges us to enter the kingdom of God by faith realizing we have nothing to bring. We have been like the elite who have not appreciated and not been thankful for even having a place. But today we've been confronted of who we really are. We are those who are the weak, the broken, the sick, the blind, the lame, the crippled. And we need you every step of the way to carry us. Blessed is the one you choose to bring to your courts. We shall still be praising you. give us hearts of response of faith. Thank you for the gospel and thank you for your love in Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.