Will You Be A Part of Jesus' Kingdom Banquet?

[0:00] 14. I'll make more of this in just a moment. But we're continuing with the situation that Jesus is at a banquet.

[0:15] ! But he said to him, But they all alike began to make excuses.

[0:50] The first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go 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.

[1:01] 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.

[1:13] And said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city. And bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done.

[1:26] And still there's 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.

[1:37] For I tell you, None of those men who were invited Shall taste my banquet. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for Things that make things clearer.

[1:54] Thank you for your word. And I pray that you would be with us today. And I pray that The message that's here would be clear. As Jesus wraps up this Sort of a sermon.

[2:07] I pray that we would get the Intent of what Jesus is getting at. I pray that you would strengthen your people. That you would draw those who don't know you to yourself.

[2:18] I pray that we would see Christ in this. And he would be lifted up. And Lord, may we be made more like Christ. I pray that you would be with us.

[2:28] In Jesus' name. Amen. As I said, this is a continuation of this sermon that Jesus is in.

[2:39] As we come to our passage today, We find ourselves at the end of this banquet That this ruler of the Pharisees had put on. And he had invited Jesus to be his guest So that he might watch him.

[2:52] And so that he might catch him in something. But I'm wondering if at this point in the banquet The ruler of the Pharisees is regretting his decision.

[3:05] At the beginning of the banquet Jesus had healed a man with dropsy And exposed that the Pharisee was a hypocrite For being willing to treat their animals And serve their sons Rather than this man on the Sabbath day.

[3:22] Goes on. Jesus then rebukes the guests Probably other Pharisees that had come to the banquet He rebukes those guests for choosing the places of honor At the banquet.

[3:33] Remember, they would come in and put themselves Where they thought they should sit. Jesus rebukes them for that. Jesus goes on to rebuke the one who had invited him The very ruler of the Pharisees The very one who had asked him to come He rebuked him for inviting only those who could pay him back.

[3:53] And he mentions that this ruler of the Pharisees Ought to invite the poor And the crippled Lame And blind Ones that couldn't pay him back.

[4:04] I think the situation was probably getting a little awkward At this point. And it's at that point One of the people Probably one of the Pharisees But one of the people at the banquet Cried out and said something.

[4:23] Now he referred it back to The Some of the previous stuff. But he cries out and says Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

[4:36] Jesus has been talking about who you should invite. And so all of a sudden this man Blessed is everyone Who eats bread in the kingdom of God. And he was probably Trying to change the subject. He was getting too tense in there.

[4:48] Trying to break the tension. And so the man makes this statement. And he's referring to the great messianic banquet That's mentioned in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 25 6-9 It was a hope.

[5:02] It was something they set their hearts on. They set their minds on As they look forward to the future. That day when the Messiah would finally come And in his victory He would create this banquet That people would come and sit and enjoy Being under the reign and rule of the Messiah And under the blessings of the Messiah.

[5:20] And so this man refers to Isaiah 25 I'm going to read verses 6-9 That he was thinking As he says this statement Isaiah says On this mountain The Lord of hosts Will make for all peoples A feast of rich food A feast of well-aged wine Of rich food full of marrow Of aged wine Well refined And he will swallow up on this mountain The covering that is cast over all peoples The veil that is spread over all nations He will swallow up death forever And the Lord God Shall wipe away tears From all faces And the reproach Of his people He will take away from all the earth For the Lord has spoken And it will be said On that day Behold This is our God And we have waited for him That he might save us This is the Lord We have waited for him

[6:21] Let us be glad And rejoice In his salvation They hung upon that They were looking for victory They were thinking It was going to be them The man was I think insinuating As he said this statement Blessed is he who sits down In the banquet of the king Of the kingdom And I think he was insinuating And all us good people Will be there Looking around At his friends Fellow Pharisees All us good people Will be there All us sons of Abraham All us keepers of the law All us pious Jews Will be there Right?

[7:09] Trying to make this general statement That everyone can agree with That everyone would rejoice in That everyone would look forward To that picture Actually coming true All pious Jews Will be there Right?

[7:25] Maybe even he was insinuating That Jesus Would not be there Because he's just a rascal He keeps Breaking the law He keeps doing things That nobody likes The religious leaders That is All of us will be there Do you assume that?

[7:52] Do you assume That based on your heritage Or your works That you will qualify For heaven? These men Who sat there And say such a statement Of this As this thought Certainly we will be there We're Jews Certainly we will be there We're sons of Abraham We're people who keep the law We're the people Who do it right We're going to be there Do you think your heritage Is what will get you into heaven?

[8:27] Your mom and your dad Have gone to church All their lives They're good people They're sweet people They brought you up Like a good person And they brought you to church All your life And you've been going to church Since you were a little kid And since your mom and dad Have grown up And grown old And died Now you As you've grown up You've lived your life In the church And you've been in the church And you've maybe even Served in the church And you think Yes All us good people Will be in heaven Maybe you feel like You've scored above 51% For some reason in this world That's passing Just above half I'm better than half of the people In this world I've kept the law At least better than 50 I mean at least I haven't killed anybody Right?

[9:17] And these are the people Who think they will get themselves Into heaven Just by who they are But listen to Jesus' Answer It's in the form of a parable In verse 16 Verses 16 through 23 He tells a terrible A parable Not a terrible A parable I'll just read the first verse But he said to them A man once gave a great banquet And invited many Now It'd be good for us To understand banquets In that day It'll help us With this With this parable Banquets at that time A person They would have a wedding Or some reason to feast And they would set a date For that feast And then The master of the The organizer

[10:17] The person in charge Usually it was the head Of the household Once he'd set a date Would send out servants And those servants Would go around And they would invite All kinds of people Who were just A smidgen Less prestigious Than themselves They couldn't presume To ask people Who were more Prestigious than themselves They would ask people Who were just a little Less prestigious Than themselves And they would send These servants out To invite these people And they would let people Know months in advance When this banquet Was going to be And as the servant Went out And I don't know If he actually stood there Until he got an answer But at that time Somehow Whether they gave him A week to reply Or not However it is Those servants Went out With the message That the feast Was going to come And the guests Who were invited Were expected To RSVP

[11:18] And it was a hard RSVP I'm coming Okay We'll mark you down You were expected To come And it was a fine time At that point To say no Oh no My cousin Gene is getting married And we're going To his wedding So sorry It's a conflict That was no problem That was no problem At all If you were invited And couldn't accept The invitation No problem No foul But if you said yes You were down And you had An obligation Now That servant Going out And giving this invitation Was beneficial For several reasons They could have A guest list They knew How many people Would be there And in the days Of no refrigeration That was real important Do you kill A lamb Do you kill A goat Do you kill A sheep Do you kill A cow Do you kill More than one cow You have to figure

[12:19] What's needed Because if you had A bunch of cow Left over After three people Came That cow was wasted So it gave them An opportunity To figure out How many people Would be there And how much Food to prepare It would also Give them time To prepare Things for the banquet They'd begin Gathering wine And the different Things that went Into it Something that they Couldn't do in a day Or two And so they would Prepare for that banquet So everyone Who was invited Who had said Yes Knew the date And they knew That it was coming On the 23rd of October Whatever date That was set But on the 23rd of October Or maybe the day before They would send These servants Back out And say that Everything's ready Be there at Four o'clock tomorrow Or be there today At four o'clock Or we're starting At four o'clock Be there And everyone Is expected Because they had

[13:19] Known about this banquet And they had planned On this banquet And they had said They would be there Everyone who had Been invited And accepted Would hear from This servant And everyone Would be expected To be there But as Jesus Tells this parable The unthinkable Happens The master Plans this banquet And he sets out All these invitations And he hears back From all these people And it says It's a great banquet We only get Three answers And it doesn't mean That just three families Come It's just a representative Jesus is pointing out The attitude That's going on here In verse 18 It says But they all alike Began to make excuses All of them The whole lot of them Every person That was invited Said Yeah And they made An excuse And none of them Went And Jesus talks About the excuses The first one says I bought a field

[14:20] And I must go See it Please have me Excused Another one said I bought five Yokes Yoke of oxen And I go to examine them And please have me Excused And the third one says I've married a wife And I cannot come Now there's a lot of argument Were these good excuses Or they were bad excuses Doesn't matter Doesn't matter If they were good or bad They had given their word That they would be there They were expected To be there It was a huge offense At this point To refuse to come To something you had RSVP'd to And said I will be there We cannot fathom I mean we may throw a party And no one come And be disappointed But we in America Don't think like this We might be mad at them We might be disappointed But in our minds There is not the degree Of disappointment And offense That this master Of the banquet Would have

[15:20] And to offer an excuse I mean these people Knew months in advance When the date was They had a long time Before him And they could schedule Anything that was coming Around that date Gotta buy some land Can't do it this week I got a banquet to go to Gonna get married Well if he He could take his wife With him But that's He didn't care He just wanted To stay home All these things Were simply excuses They were words To give the servant To tell the master We're not coming Were they good Were they bad Doesn't matter If they were good Or bad excuses It was a way Of saying that The things in my life Are more important Than you Or your banquet And the Bible says

[16:26] When that servant Came back And reported these things To the master The master of the house Became angry Because this just Wasn't done Everything The master had done For this These guests Was despised And disregarded However many sheep Or oxen He killed At a cost To his flock Or to his herd Were wasted They were thumbing Their nose At this man The guests Had despised And disregarded Who was Again One that was Greater than them See that The man The man didn't invite The king And be mad When the king Didn't come

[17:27] He invited people Who weren't as Prominent as he And it was A great Social Disgrace To tell Someone Greater than you Yeah I've got better Things to do Now At the risk Of giving away The story I'm going to Mention that Verse 21 We'll see We'll see When we get there How it's this But I want you To know That Jesus Claims in the end To be the master Of this banquet He's talking About himself The people Invited Now it's a parable But it's really About something real The people Invited Were the people Of Israel Who'd been Invited by God Throughout the Whole Old Testament To come to

[18:27] This banquet We read of In Isaiah 25 6-9 And God Had been Inviting his People Come Come Come And all That time He had put All this work Into preparation For this banquet Into preparation For the Messiah To come He guarded The line Of the seed Remember Way back In Genesis 3-15 The seed That would Come The seed Of the woman The seed That would Have his heel Bruce But would Crush Satan's head He would Be the one This seed Would bring The deliverance And as you Read through The Old Testament You'll find That Satan And God's Enemies Have been Trying to Destroy that Seed For all Of the Old Testament But the

[19:28] Master of The feast Has been Protecting That seed For millennia Nothing was Going to Keep that Seed from Coming And through Those years God called A people In Abraham And guarded And protected Them And provided For them In the Garden Through the Flood In Egypt In the Wilderness Crossing The Jordan Giving them The land Giving them A king Through whom Messiah would Come Protecting That kingly Line Until it Could Legitimately Be Jesus The Messiah Sending Them Prophet After Prophet Saying Remember

[20:29] The day Is coming Repent And return To the Lord And they Had sinned So badly God Had to Send them Into Captivity And then In grace He brought Them back To the Land Because the Messiah Was coming And now The Messiah Is here And Jesus Says To his Servants Go tell Them the Banquet Is ready And Israel Is thumbing Their nose At the Savior Because they Didn't want Him They will Not respond To his Invitation They despise Him Because he's Not what They thought He was They wanted Someone To throw Rome off From Israel They wanted Someone who Would elevate The Jews To the Position of Ruling the Whole world They didn't Think of It as His Banquet They thought Of it As their Banquet And because

[21:29] He didn't Suit their Thinking They thumbed Their nose At him And said We'll have None of This banquet Yes The master Is angry To pour Thousands Of years Of love And care Into a People Who say I don't Want it To show Such grace To this Massive Group of People Who say We don't Want you He's done All this For them And they Refused To come For their Reaction We see That those Invited Will pay Dearly Those who Refused But I Want you To notice That even Though the Master is Angry with The refusal Of those Who are Invited

[22:30] He still Longs to Have People At his Banquet The master Said to A servant Go out Quickly to The streets And the Lanes of The city And bring In the Poor And the Crippled And the Blind And the Lame Why That's the Same kind Of people He told The ruler Of the Of this The ruler Of the Pharisees Who had This banquet It's the Same kind Of people He said That man Should Invite And here He is The master Of the Banquet Because Israel Who had Benefited From thousands Of years Of God's Care and Protection And now Refused God saying I'm Going To the Despised The poor The crippled The blind And the Lame You could Look at Different Definitions And who Is this Group

[23:30] It's Probably Jews Still But it's Those that Are close He would Have those Come to The banquet People Who could Not Repay People Who were Considered Unworthy The head Of the Banquet Would Invite People Just a Little Lower Than him Not The people At the Bottom But Jesus Jesus Praise God Is Gracious Praise God He's Willing To Invite The Outcasts The Social Outcasts Those People Would Have Never Been Invited To Any Banquet The Master Says To Bring Them In He Didn't Say Force Them In The word Doesn't Mean Force Them It Means Enable Blind People Can't See Where The Banquet Is Lame People Crippled People Maybe Don't Have The Strength Coordination

[24:30] Or Physical Ability To Make It The Poor! Maybe So Destitute They Don't Have Whatever Wherewithal To Make It To The Banquet And So He Says Go Bring Them In His Compassion Is Great He Still Wants People At His Banquet And He Saying To His Servants Go Out There And Bring Them In He Wants People At His Banquet And This Servant Does That There's Still Room The Servant Says!

[25:07] Tell Them To Come I Think A Great Thing To Remember From This Parable Is This This Strong Desire That The Master Of The Banquet Desires His House To Be Full Do We Think That Way Do We Look At The Kingdom Of God And Say God Desires There To Be Many People Yes Yes My Wife And I Were Talking About This Situation Where So Often Churches They'll Get Together And They'll Talk About Agriculture And Sharpen Their Hose And How Best To Plant Their Crops And Go Home And Never Do Anything About Crops And Too Often That Is Our Reaction Yes Yes We Want People To Come But Jesus Says In This Parable Go And Bring!

[26:04] And Then He Says Out Into The Highways And Hedges And Go And Compel Them To Come He Still Desires His Banquet To Be Full The Highways And Hedges Refer To Places Outside The City I Think Jesus Is Being Very Careful Although He Is Already Given Away The Cat Out Of The Bag And We'll Talk About That In Just A Second Jesus Being Very Careful How He Addresses This I Think These People Caught It He Says Go To The Highways And Hedges People Outside The City Any Kind Of People Could Have Been Found In Highways And Hedges This Would Not Only Jews But Samaritans And Those From The Uttermost Part Of The World We've Already We've Already Heard Him Say That I Want My House Full I Want As Many People As Can To Know

[27:04] About The Master Of The Banquet And What He Offers Now He Says Compel Them And Again This Is Not A Word That Means Force If You Walk Up To Somebody And Said You Need To Go To Heaven And They Had Never Heard About Heaven You Would Not Just Start By Reading John 3 16 You Would Have To Lay A Foundation Of Saying Stating The Truth The Principles The Groundwork And Then You Would Have To Build On That Compelling Arguments From Scripture Now I'm Not Saying That We Don't Trust The Spirit's Work We Do Trust The Spirit's Work But We Do Go And We Do Speak The Truth And We Do Lay Compelling Foundations And Compelling Urges For Them To Come Compelling Reasons For Them To Come We Make Good Arguments And We Urge Them To Come And

[28:05] We Pray For Them To Come That's What Jesus I'm Sorry I'm Getting Ahead Of Myself That's What The Master Of Banquet Wanted He Wanted People To Go Out And Compel People To Come To His Banquet And As We Move Into Verses Into Verse 24 Jesus Says For I Tell You None Of Those Men Who Were Invited Shall Taste My Banquet And It's Interesting The Verb And The Pronouns Change In That Verse And That Change Shows That This Part This Last Verse Is Not Part Of The Parable It Is Jesus Speaking Not As Part Of The Parable But Declaring The Truth Himself He Declares To These People The Point Of The Parable In This Last Sentence He Says I Am The Master Of The Banquet This

[29:05] Whole Story He Has Been Talking About Himself He Has Been Saying It's Me That I Talking About And To The Jews It's You Who Have Given Excuses I Desire My House Full I Want My Banquet Full And I Want People To Come To My Banquet But He Says None Of Those People Who Were Invited And Refused Shall Taste My Banquet Banquet All That They Had Looked Forward To As They Read Isaiah 25 69 Jesus Was Saying You've Refused Me You Won't Get In You Won't Be There Just Recently In Our Study And This Is Chapter 13 Verses 22 To 30 He Said

[30:05] This Same Kind Of Summation He Went On His Way Through Towns And Villages Teaching And Journeying Toward Jerusalem And Someone Said To Him Lord Will Those Who Are Saved Be Few And He Said To Them Strive To Enter Through The Narrow Gate For Many I Tell You Will Seek To Enter And Will Door Saying Lord Open To Us Then He Will Answer You I Do Not Know Where You Come From Then You Will Begin To Say We Ate And Drank In Your Presence And You Taught In Our Streets But He Will Say I Tell You I Do Not Know Where You Come From Depart From Me All You Workers Of In That Place There Will Be Weeping And Gnashing Of Teeth When You See Abraham Isaac And Jacob And All The Prophets In The Kingdom Of God But You Yourselves Cast Out And People Will Come From East And West And From North And South And Recline

[31:06] At Table In The Kingdom Of God And Behold Some Are Last Who Will Be First And Some Who Are First Will Be Last This Whole Section Has Dealing Among Other Things But Has Been Dealing With That Specific Idea Those Who Are In The Kingdom Or Will Be In The Kingdom Or Those Who Will Stand Out And With Weeping And Gnashing Of Teeth Wish They Were In The Kingdom Wish They Were With The Messiah And Jesus Has Just Said To These People Who Refused Him You're Going To Be On The Outside!

[31:50] The Narrow Door It's Kind of Been A Theme Through This Whole Section Entering That Narrow Door What Is That Narrow Door It's Trusting The Work Of Christ It's When All The Invitation Has Been Gone Out And You Hear The Gospel And The Servant Says It's Time To Come You Say Yes I'm Trusting That Savior I'm Trusting Christ As Savior But If You're Trusting Your Heritage Or Your Law Keeping You Will Be Like The Pharisees And The Lawyers!

[32:26] Who Will Be On The Outside! During The Great Banquet Of The Redeemed If You're Saying I Do Better Than Most So God Should Accept Me You'll Be On The Outside It Comes Down To Jesus It Comes Down To Trusting Him And His Work For You His Work Of Paying For Your Sins His Work Of Providing You A Perfect Righteousness That Makes You Acceptable In The Sight Of God You Must Enter That Narrow!

[32:57] If You Have Entered That Door If You Are Trusting Christ For Your Redemption And Righteousness Then You Will Be Among Those From The East And The West The North And The South Sitting Down With Christ The Master Of The Banquet Those Of The Old Testament Looked Forward To It Is It Past No It's Not Past It's Still To Come If You're Alive Today There's Still It Was Granted

[33:57] Her To Clothe Herself With Fine Linen Bright And Pure For The Fine Linen Is The Righteous Deeds Of The Saints And The Angel Said To Me Write This Blessed Are Those Who Are Invited To The Married Supper Of The Lamb And He Said To Me These Are The True Words Of God Have You Entered That Door Will That Scene Be A Scene You Will Be In Or Watching Depends On What You Do With Christ And Finally I Want Us As Christians To Remember That Jesus Wants His House To Be Full He Commands His Servants To Go Out Quickly And Bring And Compel People To Come To His Banquet Are You Going Are You Bringing Are You

[34:58] Compelled Let's Pray Thank You Father For Your Word And Lord I Thank You That This Picture Is Here And The Wonder Of Our Savior Who Loves That His House Would Be Full And I Thank You Father That He Has Sent His Servants Into A Whole World Those Of Us Who Know You Father I Pray That We Would Catch!

[35:18] Sight Of This And It Would Be Transforming! That A Savior And I Pray That You Would Help Us To Be People Who Are Going And Bringing And Compelling And Father For Those Who Have Not Trusted Christ They Have Heard The Gospel And They Have Refused I Pray That You Be Merciful Open Their Eyes Draw Them To Yourself And May They Enter That Narrow Door Before It Too Late