Jesus’ Suppertime In My Life - Luke 14:15-24

 

Jesus’ Suppertime In My Life

Text: Luke 14:15-24

Introduction: 

 

When my kids were young, my grandparents owned a small farm, about 40 acres outside of Pecan Gap, Texas. For those of you not familiar with the great metropolitan cities of North East Texas, that’s a small town of maybe a hundred people close to Paris, Texas.  Back on the farm, When it was time to eat, my grandma Buna George, would walk outside to a tree from which hung an old piece of iron, the one I remember was a small plow that had come off a cultivator. She would grab a rod also tied to the tree and she would give that iron several ringing strikes that could be heard all over those forty acres and if it was around noon, she’s call out “Dinner time.” If it was the evening meal then she would call out, “Come to the house, It suppertime.” She never, ever said lunch and she never said dinner instead of supper. It was always suppertime at the end of the day and that was right because, well its in the Bible. Right in the passage we’re going to read today.

Come And Dine – Luke 14:16-20

The Setting of the Parable:

The context of this parable is an actual supper in the house of a very important Pharisee. Look at Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.

They watched Him because the supper was a test because we read in the next verse Luke 14:2-6 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer him again to these things.

The Jesus decides that instead of them testing Him, He is going to teach them. Luke 14:12-14 12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. 13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: 14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

Then one of the Pharisees after hearing this and after being reprimanded by Jesus calls out. Luke 14:15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Talk about missing the point or losing the plot. Jesus had just taught on humility and about being a blessing to others but just as he finishes with this very plain, pointed life lesson, this guy calls out, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” He is saying that’s us, we are the just, we the righteous Pharisees are going to be rewarded after the resurrection when we eat bread with God.”  

We don’t have to imagine what the Lord thought of this outcry for he tells the longest parable of the night next. he did. A parable whose meaning you don’t need a lot of explanation to understand.

The Parable of the Supper

Luke 14:16-20 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:  And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.  And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

Now the purpose of the parable was clear. The parable of the Great Supper was a warning to the nation of Israel and especially the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and the self-righteous elites, that they were in danger of missing the very blessing they mistakenly believed they were entitled to. God was the parallel of the man who was inviting people to His supper but those who had been invited weren’t listening to the One who had been sent to tell them the time is now, its time to come to the supper of the Father.

As with all great occasions, like a wedding, or a family reunion all had been prepared weeks, months, even years earlier and now came the final call, the waited for summons brought by a messenger sent directly from the Lord of the feast. “It is time, the servant says, come to the table of the Master.” To refuse now at the last moment, right when the servant had come, would be the worst insult that anyone could give to the One who had prepared and worked and planned for so long.

In the parable we hear the last-minute excuses.

Notice in vs. 18 “And they all, with one consent began to make excuse.” There actually may have been a conspiracy to shun the Master’s invitation. The excuses were transparently invalid, sending a message that they had other things to do than come to Lord’s supper.

Luke 14:18-20 The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.  And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

In our day and time these almost seem like valid reasons, but not in Jesus time. This is another example of why the context of time and history is so important. In Jesus time no one would buy land without looking at it first. Nor  buy an ox team without trying it out. And finally, the worst excuse of all a marriage would have been planned for years, sometimes before the children were even born and such a wedding in this society would never have been a last-minute event.

In truth the excuses were a purposeful shunning of the invitation and the One who was inviting them to come. Jesus was telling the Pharisees, Sadducees and the entire nation of Israel, “I am the that servant, the messenger, the One sent from God the Father.  Not only I am inviting you to that Great Supper, but only by listening to me and accepting me as Messiah, can you come. But instead of accepting Me, you are making excuses and those excuses are nothing more than insults to One you call your God.”

The Long Invitation of God: The invitation had been giving over and over with every covenant and with every message of the prophets God had sent. Like Isaiah 55:1-3  Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Now, all was ready, Jesus, God’s Messiah and messenger, had come but Israel was making excuses and saying we will not come.

Excuses and Insults

If it seems ungrateful that the nation of Israel, spurned the invitation of Jesus while he was on earth, what can we say about the excuses made today? For over 2000 years we have been hearing the words if invitation from God’s Word. We are still being invited and we also are spurning and insulting the God of Heaven with our excuses?

All has been prepared. Jesus gave his life, suffered, shed His blood and died to make a way for us to be forgiven and allowed in the very presence of God. His death for our sins was our invitation to eternity, and yet excuses are made.

You hear them all the time, invite someone to church to hear the Gospel and they will say “Sunday is my only day off” or There are too many hypocrites in church or “All they ever want is money.” Or someone hurt my feelings. I won’t be there. What they are really saying is “I don’t want to come to a place where I will be told I’m a sinner and that I must repent and believe in Jesus.”

If you should get to share the Gospel and tell them that Jesus died for them and all they have to do is believe on Him they will tell you. “I’m not ready” or “I’ll take care of that later” or even “Well, I didn’t ask Him to die for me.”

One time when I worked at a warehouse in Dallas, the man (Mr Rummel) I was working for asked me about being born again and when I told him what the Bible said his response was, “Well maybe I don’t need to be born again. Maybe I’m not as bad as those people. They may need to be born again, but I’m not a drunk, or a murderer. I don’t need to be born again.” He actually was an alcoholic by the way. And his anger was like the anger of a murderer.

In verse 21, Jesus gives us an insight through this parable of exactly how  God responds to such rejection, such scorn at His invitation, an invitation given at the cost of His own Son’s life. In vs. 21, Jesus says the Master of the house “being angry.”

When you make excuses to God, we are playing a dangerous game.  When we make our excuses about why we can't, or won't or didn't.  It matters little what we say, because what God sees and hears is the rejection of the gift of his own Son’s life. The rejection of His Son’s last cry, “Father Forgive them.”

There are no valid excuses for not accepting God’s invitation of grace, there is only a direct affront to His love and a rejection of the greatest gift ever given, the life of Christ given in our place. By our excuses we refuse, no we despise, His love and the Bible warns us what we risk.

Romans 2:4-5 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

 Poem "No time for God."

No time for God?

What fools we are to clutter up

Our lives with common things

And leave without Heart's gate

The Lord of life, and life itself

 

No time for God?

As soon to say, no time

To eat or sleep or love or die.

Take time for God

Or you shall dwarf your soul

And when the angel death

Comes knocking at your door,

A poor misshapen thing you'll be

To step into eternity.

How does the Master react to the insults and excuses? Vs. 21

Quickly Go Out - Luke 14: 21-22

So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

The Angry Command of Grace

The Master of the house, the person in the story that stands in the place of God is rightfully angry. The same word is translated as wroth and used in two other parables in Matthew, Matthew 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

Matthew 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

In each of those parables the anger is in response to the rejection of God’s forgiveness and long-suffering mercy. In this parable, the anger of the Master, takes a different form it becomes grace given to others. He tells the servant, " Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.”

Jesus was telling the self-righteous Pharisees, the rich Sadducees, the upper, ruling class of Jews, "Your attitude is an insult to the Father and in His anger He will turn from you and will seek those who will not turn down his invitation"

The servant goes, into the streets, alleys and byways of the city, he scours the lanes and avenues and finds those who will joyfully come to the Great Supper. They had no expectation to ever be invited and they respond with gratefulness and humility. The servant comes back and says, "it is done and yet there is room." 

The Servant Then and the Servants Now

Note the Servant. In the parable the servant would be Jesus Christ, though He was the Son of God, yet he came as a servant to do His Father’s will.

In Luke 9:10  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Christ came took on sinful flesh, and overcame that flesh. He did not commit sin, He lived a sinless life, preaching the good news of the Kingdom and then offered His sinless life on the cross as payment for our sin.

After His resurrection and ascension, the job of the servant inviting those in the highways and byways has fallen to us. We now are the messengers, the servants sent to invite others to the Great Supper of the Lord.

Note the Command. We are to “Go quickly.” There is no time to wait, the preparations are done, , the great supper will start at the Master's appointed hour and we must bring the guests to the table. There is no time to wait for a better day, there is no time to wait for better people, there is no time to wait for a better hearing. There is no time to wait for more money, or a better building or even a better preacher. No, the appointed hour approaches and one day the invitation will end and the doors to the Master’s house will close.

Note the Place. We are to go into the streets and lanes of the city. Literally, this means the main streets and the little roads. The Master of the Feast is now commanding us to look everywhere and anywhere within the city. From the busiest places to the quietest places, seek and invite them at work, at school, at play and especially at home.  Seek them, find them and invite them now.

Note the people. We are told to seek the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind. Why these people?  Could it be that they also have known rejection and in that rejection they would respond to the open and loving invitation of one sincerely calling them to experience God’s grace? We should be seeking the rejected, the hurt, those blinded by sin and made outcasts because of it.  We should look for those who have never seen the love of God, or their need for Jesus Christ. Then when we present them with invitation of Grace, it will shine like a bright light in a dark, windowless room. 

Finally, Note the Result. They came! The poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind, the rejected, the sinners and the outcasts they came! And the servant tells the Master, “It is done and yet there is room.”

Isn’t that a wonderous truth? There is yet room. Aren't you glad? Shouldn’t we rejoice. Because in God's house at that Great Supper in heaven there is still room. Room for you and me and room for any and everyone you would invite. There is room! It's been over 2000 years since this parable but still Jesus tells us there's room for more.

There is no limited grace, no limited atonement. Jesus didn’t die for only a predestined elect, or this parable could never have spoken by the Lord. This is still room. There is still room and there will always be room, the only way anyone will not be allowed to the Heaven’s Supper is because they refused the invitation of grace.

 Room at the cross for you.

The cross upon which Jesus died

is a shelter in which we can hide;
And its grace so free is sufficient for me,
And deep is its fountain - as wide as the sea.

 

Chorus: - There's room at the cross for you;

There room at the cross for you.
Tho millions have come, there's still room for one-
Yes, there's room at the cross for you.

The hand of my Savior is strong,
and the love of my Savior is long;
Through sunshine or rain, through loss or in gain,
The blood flows from Calv'ry to cleanse every stain.

After thousands of years, there's still room. Wouldn’t it be impossibly sad and make such a shameful joke of grace to believe anything else?

But wait, there’s more! The parable still isn’t done, Jesus is going to make sure they get the point for now the servant is sent out again.  Look at verse 23-24

Compel Them In- Luke 14:23-24

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

The insatiable desire of God to share His love

The Lord sends his servant out again. This time outside the city to the highways and hedges. The city in this parable would represent the nation of Judah. For the Lord come first to the Jews.

So, in the parable the servant first stays within the city walls, within the nation of Israel, and summons those within its boundaries. But there is still room, and the invitation then is sent abroad. Go outside of the city, outside of the nation and people of Israel, outside the covenant of Sinai, outside the law and now Go to the Gentiles, the pagans and the barbarians and "Compel them to come in.  That my house may be full."

This is exactly what the Lord tells his church on the Mount of Olives just before his ascension back into heaven. Luke who also wrote the book of Acts gives us the Mt Olive Great Commission in Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

The parable was prophecy, the fiction was actually fact and Jesus tells his church, his servants, “Throw open the gates and seek the lost to the very ends of the earth.”

Church, Compel Them To Come In!

Just as our church is not full, Heaven is not full. God’s love is not limited. The Power of Jesus’ blood is not depleted. The command to Go is not completed. We are commanded to, "Keep going, keep seeking, keep telling, keep preaching, keep giving, keep working. Go beyond your Jerusalem for there is a world of highways and hedges with people who have not heard the invitation of God and have not experienced the grace of His forgiveness.”

In the parable Jesus says, "compel them." This is word ἀναγκάζω anagkazō; it means to necessitate, compel, drive to, originally it could mean to constrain by even by force, or threats. This was the word Jesus used. In this context of course it means to strongly and urgently plead and persuade them by all and any means we have to respond to the invitation of God’s grace.

Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

To compel the lost means to use every emotion of our heart, every instance of our intelligence, every story of our salvation experience, every cord of our muscles, every breath in our lungs, every penny in our pocket, every prayer we can pray and every word the Lord will give us. Compel them, urge them, bring the lost to Christ.

Compel them to come in. Heaven is not full. Grace is not exhausted. The Father’s invitation has not ceased. – DKM

Come Home Its Suppertime ( a song my grandmother and mom used to sing and play)

When I was but a boy in days of childhood
I used to play till evening shadows come.
Then winding down an old familiar pathway
I heard my mother call at set of sun

Come home, come home
it's supper time
the shadows lengthen fast.
Come home, come home,
it's supper time
we're going home at last.

In visions now I see her standing yonder,
and her familiar voice I hear once more.
The banquet table's ready up in heaven,
It's supper time upon that golden shore.

Come home, come home
it's supper time,
The shadows lengthen fast.
Come home, come home,
it's supper time,
we're going home at last.

We're going home at last.

Conclusion: 

Answering the invitation of God’s grace, starts right now, it starts right here. First, with each of us must accept or reject the invitation of the Lord. Come to the table. There is a place prepared for you in Heaven. Here is your invitation paid for by the life of Jesus Christ. Won’t you accept it? Won’t you accept Him?

It also starts with us who are on our way to that Supper in Heaven. Will I say, “Lord I'm willing, Lord when I sit down at that long, long table in Glory. I want to look down, around and across it and see the faces of my loved ones, my family, my friends, my neighbors. Those I shared your invitation with.  Those that I emptied my heart for, that I broke my health for, that I poured out my finances for. Oh dear Lord, I want to see them there for all eternity.