WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 I can still remember the military operation that my wife led 18 months ago for our wedding reception. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:16.000 ! The first stage was getting the invitations printed and sent out to all the guests. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:25.000 And if you've ever been involved with planning a wedding reception, then getting people to reply in time is always a bit of a challenge. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:35.000 But there were very awkward moments when some who you thought were definitely coming to the party would cancel at the last minute. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:44.000 One particular cousin on Emma's side of the family, I regret to say, had to pull out on the day to play a football game. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:50.000 It was a controversial excuse and it sent a bit of a ripple through the family. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.000 It all gets so political, doesn't it? These sort of things. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:07.000 But you know, it made the point that receiving an invitation is a world away from actually accepting it and going to the party to enjoy the feast. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:16.000 You can receive the invitation, but sadly, never accept it and taste the banquet itself. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:24.000 Now that is the nub of Jesus teaching in these verses that Steve read for us in Luke 14. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:30.000 And the climax is verse 24, if you look down there again. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Jesus speaking, I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:43.000 Now as Jesus says that, we presume he is not joking. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.000 And he is not bluffing. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:02:03.000 But it is a warning about the people who receive an invitation from Jesus, but sadly and tragically don't accept it and somehow refuse to feast with him and enjoy his company forever at his great and glorious banquet. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:08.000 Now if you were here last week, don't worry if you weren't. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:19.000 But if you were, you will remember that we have seen Jesus in Luke chapter 14, invited in verse 1 to the party of a well respected religious leader. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 But it has been a highly provocative evening. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.000 He has brought up the one subject that nobody wants to talk about at a party. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:32.000 It is the question of what happens to you when you die. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.000 And he addresses the host in verses 12 to 14. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 Don't invite those who you know can pay you back. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.000 But invite the lame and the poor and the blind. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:52.000 Because the end of verse 14, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 And you know what you do today, now, with me, will have a better day. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 And you see what Jesus is doing in the here and now of this party. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:05.000 He wants to bring their focus on the eternal destiny of each of the guests. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:16.000 Don't forget, he says, my party, my banquet is coming at the end of history, at the resurrection of the just. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:27.000 And you know what you do today, now, with me, will have a bearing on where you are then, on that day. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Now if you can imagine being at this party, it's an incredibly awkward moment, isn't it? 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:40.000 As Jesus confronts the host, as he forces the subject of eternity on the guests. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.000 As you can imagine the uncomfortable silence at this party. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:55.000 So in our section this afternoon, from verse 15, we see that somebody at the party pipes up here and interrupts Jesus. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.000 And he attempts to cool the atmosphere. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.000 So just look at verse 15 again. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:07.000 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.000 Blessed is everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:19.000 So here is this guest, and he gets this statement in, doesn't he, to the conversation. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.000 Imagine the awkwardness of the moment. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:30.000 I hope you can see that what he's trying to do here is to soften Jesus' teaching on eternity. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 He's a savvy party goer, isn't he? 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:34.000 He's a socialite. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:37.000 He wants things to go back to the way they were. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 And you know, he is like many of us. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:46.000 Naturally, we want to diffuse Jesus' warnings about eternity, don't we? 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 Naturally, we don't want to hear about them. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 We just want to get on with the party of life. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:03.000 But firstly, this afternoon, this statement that this party goer makes, it reveals our false sentimentality about heaven. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Our false sentimentality about heaven. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Verse 15, blessed is everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:18.000 It's a positive statement, isn't it? 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:21.000 In an uncomfortable atmosphere. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:26.000 It's an all-inclusive statement about heaven. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:35.000 But on closer inspection, it's a statement based purely on popular sentimentality. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.000 It's the kind of sentimentality that people have at funerals, isn't it? 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.000 The idea that heaven exists somewhere out there. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.000 That it's a good place. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 Blessed is everyone that eats bread there. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:56.000 But the feeling generally is that everyone will make it to heaven. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:01.000 Blessed is everyone who eats there. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:10.000 So, you know, down the road at Mortlake Crematorium, I reckon that at the end of just about every funeral there, 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.000 the kind of comments that are being made about the deceased are things like, 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.000 they've gone to a better place. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.000 And they're with the angels now. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:24.000 Blessed is everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.000 Do you see the gist? 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:29.000 We all agree with you, Jesus, here at this party. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:30.000 Just shut up. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Won't it be great, Jesus? 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.000 We're positive about heaven, Jesus. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:42.000 But you see, Jesus has to strip off our sentimental thinking about our eternal destiny. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:49.000 We have to realise that there's a world of difference between being invited to Jesus' banquet 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:54.000 and actually accepting his invitation to enjoy it. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:59.000 Heaven is a place that happens to most of us somewhere down the line. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.000 We don't need to think about it now. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:08.000 Because actually all you've got to do is die quietly without murdering somebody or something serious. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.000 But no, that is just sentimentalism. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:12.000 That's true. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:21.000 This guy speaks up because it's so difficult for us, isn't it, to really engage with what Jesus says about our eternity. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:28.000 It's so painful for us to really think about our eternity, isn't it? 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:32.000 So actually we'd rather just sentimentalise it. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:42.000 So you see, Jesus in response to this man gives this parable, doesn't he, which fills the bulk of this passage in 16 to 23. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:50.000 It's a parable, it's a story about a host who decides to hold a banquet rather aptly. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.000 So look at verse 17 with me if you will. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:03.000 He sends out his servant to say to those who've been invited, come for everything is now ready. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:07.000 But there's a twist, isn't there, in verse 18. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:11.000 Each of them in turn began to make excuses. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:21.000 So you see, our sentimentality about heaven is coupled with our excuses about heaven. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:26.000 That's our second point this afternoon, our excuses about heaven. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:31.000 So in the parable we see three guests, don't we? 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:36.000 And each of them duck out of the banquet at the last minute. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.000 They've each got different excuses. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.000 So guest one in verse 18 there, 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:46.000 I've bought a field and I must go and see it, please excuse me. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:51.000 Guest two in verse 19, I've bought five yoke of oxen. 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:56.000 I'm told that the modern day equivalent of that is about 300,000 pounds worth of tractor. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:00.000 And I'm going to examine them, please excuse me. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:07.000 And guest three in verse 20, I've married a wife and therefore cannot come. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:12.000 So what can we say about these excuses? 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.000 Well, some people say that they're bad excuses. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000 I don't know if that's the point of the parable. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:23.000 I think what we can say though, is that they all have one thing in common. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:28.000 They're all noticeably very normal things. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.000 Ordinary parts of human life, aren't they? 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:41.000 Buying fields, buying property, investing in oxen, tractors, making money, marrying, having families. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:50.000 It's just the kind of stuff that fills everyday life for everyday people, isn't it? 00:09:50.000 --> 00:10:02.000 But you see, it's the ordinariness of the excuses that is precisely why it's so sad that they make these cancellations. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:15.000 It's when the ordinary stuff of life just fills your time to the point that going to a banquet with Jesus just keeps getting put off again and again and again. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:18.000 It's the age old problem, isn't it? 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:25.000 That the urgent is always the enemy of the most important things in life. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:32.000 Thinking about eternity gets put off with the everyday stuff of life now. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:42.000 Now just on this thought, would you flick over to Luke chapter 17, it's just a couple of pages ahead, to verse 26. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.000 Luke chapter 17, verse 26. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:53.000 Jesus is talking about the day when his banquet will begin at the end of history. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:54.000 Verse 26. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:00.000 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:12.000 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.000 You see, it's not what we expect. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:24.000 When Jesus is ready to serve his banquet, there won't be apocalyptic fireworks, brimstone and ashes. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.000 There won't be dragons being slain all over the place. 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:28.000 No. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:34.000 Life will look extremely normal and ordinary. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:41.000 People will be having parties, marrying and being given in marriage, making investments, 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:46.000 buying oxen, doing the everyday stuff of life. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:51.000 But you see, it's at that moment when Jesus will appear and say, 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.000 Come, my banquet is now ready. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:02.000 The urgent things of life have a tendency, don't they, to keep us from the important things. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:07.000 The important thing of accepting Jesus' invitation. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:17.000 You know, as you think about this parable, it is amazing actually that what it suggests about heaven, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:26.000 what it suggests is that all you have to do to be at Jesus' banquet is to want to be there. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:33.000 Ultimately, we have to want it more than all of life's stuff. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:39.000 All we have to do is to want to be there and not keep putting Jesus off. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:52.000 So our sentimentality about heaven, our excuses about heaven, but thirdly and lastly, his persistent generosity with heaven. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:57.000 You see, Jesus is a generous and persistent host. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:13.000 So if you look at verse 21, from there to the end of verse 24, there are four whole verses dedicated just to the reaction of the host in the parable to these cancellations. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:25.000 And I think what Jesus wants to give us is a picture of his inner mind as he invites people to his banquet. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:32.000 So if you look at verse 21, if you look halfway through that verse, Jesus says, 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.000 The master of the house became angry. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.000 He becomes angry. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Now at this point, it's worth knowing a thing or two about ancient Eastern party etiquette, 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:50.000 because it's slightly different from the way modern Westerners like to do things. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:55.000 So in Jesus' day, there would have been two stages to the invitation process. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.000 Stage one was a bit like our RSVP stage. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:08.000 But after that, when people make their responses, the numbers would be set and the meal would be prepared straight away. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:16.000 And then stage two is just as the food is about to go on the table and it's steaming and piping hot, 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:23.000 the servant would be sent out to say, come, for everything is now ready. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:30.000 But you see, it's at that stage where we see these guests making their excuses. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.000 So rude, isn't it? 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:39.000 What makes the host so angry is not actually the refusal per se, 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:48.000 but it's that there had already been an indication in stage one that the guests were in fact coming. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.000 That's what makes it so infuriating. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:57.000 And you see why this fits with the context, because Jesus speaks here, doesn't he, 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:03.000 at this party of Pharisees to people here who are well-respected religious folk, 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:08.000 who show signs of saying yes to Jesus. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:13.000 But you see, the urgent things of life are taking precedent in their hearts. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:18.000 So, I don't know if the royal baby is going to be christened, probably it will be, 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.000 but imagine the christening party of royal baby George. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.000 Wills and Kate send the invites out, don't they? 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.000 And Posh and Beck say they're coming. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:32.000 But when the day finally comes, Posh phones up to say, 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:37.000 actually we're very sorry, but my stylist is coming around at 2.30, 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:41.000 and Beck's is out playing football with Rooney. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:48.000 You see, it's the thin veneer of religion at this party, isn't it? 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.000 Being peeled off again. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.000 Those who receive an invitation make an indication that they're coming, 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.000 but they stick the invitation on the fridge and don't show up. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:02.000 That's what makes Jesus angry. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:08.000 But you see, as we close, and I really want us to go away with this this afternoon, 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:17.000 just see how persistent Jesus is at keeping on welcoming and inviting. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:21.000 In those verses, twice, the master says, 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:25.000 go out to the streets and lanes. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.000 Bring in the lame, the poor and the crippled. 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:33.000 Go out to the highways and the hedges. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:38.000 And, verse 23, compel people to come in, 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:43.000 that my house may be filled. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Jesus is not happy, he is not satisfied until his banquet is full to the rafters. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:57.000 Until his feast is being enjoyed by as many people as possible, 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:02.000 compelling us to come to his banquet. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:07.000 And who are those people who end up there in the end? 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:09.000 Well, this party in Luke chapter 14, 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.000 it ends in the same way that it begins, doesn't it? 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:15.000 Back in verse 4. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:23.000 Do you remember, Jesus heals a poor, lame outsider with a skin disease. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:37.000 You see, Jesus' great banquet is for the lame, it is for the vulnerable, for the poor, the crippled, for weak sinners, 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:40.000 who get it wrong, who mess up. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.000 His banquet is for you and for me. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:50.000 Sentimentality about eternity, excuses about it, 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.000 but Jesus is a persistent and generous host. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:57.000 And he says, come. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:00.000 He wants it full of people. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:03.000 For the banquet is ready. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:05.000 And it's for you. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:08.000 But only if you want it. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:11.000 Let's pray as we do.