Sunday August 4 2013 Speaker Doug Virgint Three

Sunday, August 4, 2013 Speaker: Doug Virgint Three Banquets: Three lessons about going to heaven Luke 14: 1 -24 Message in our 9 -part series called 6 Table Talk with Jesus. 1

Outline Introduction 1. The Sabbath meal 2. The wedding banquet 3. The great banquet Transition 2

Outline Introduction 1. The Sabbath meal 2. The wedding banquet 3. The great banquet Transition 3

Introduction • Luke 14 follows Luke 13 • The last paragraph of Luke 13 anticipates our Lord’s rejection and crucifixion in Jerusalem • Why did the Jewish people reject Jesus • Because their leaders rejected him • And this chapter helps explain why … 4

Outline Introduction 1. The Sabbath meal 2. The wedding banquet 3. The great banquet Transition 5

The Sabbath meal We have three characters : • The Pharisees • The sick man • Our Lord Jesus Christ 6

The Sabbath meal The Pharisees: • Their origin 160 BC (period of Maccabees) • A lay movement in synagogues • Reaction against Greco-Roman idolatry • Respect of the Scriptures and Law • Popular and respected • About 6000 members • Strongly legalistic 7

The Sabbath meal The sick man: • Dropsy – hydropikos - edema • A somewhat technical medical term • Considered to be ceremonially impure • Why was he at a meal in Pharisees home? 8

The Sabbath meal Our Lord: • Took hold of him (see Acts 16) • Healed him – on the Sabbath • Sent him away • Confronted the Pharisees hypocritical legalism • The Pharisees were more interested in saving an ox drowning in a well than a man drowning in his own fluids 9

The Sabbath meal The lesson: Legalistic people • tend to be so inconsistent • lack compassion to the point of cruelty • do not understand the reason for the law • apply the Scriptures wrongly 10

The Sabbath meal The lesson: You can be devout, dutiful, outwardly good, serious about God, a defender of your religion, a good person … … and still not be invited to heaven! 11

Outline Introduction 1. The Sabbath meal 2. The wedding banquet 3. The great banquet Transition 12

The wedding banquet • The illustration • The scramble • The lesson 13

The wedding banquet The illustration • A parable is not an allegory with details we should attempt to interpret • It is a story that makes one main point • It is a story that illustrates 14

The wedding banquet The scramble: • Keeping up appearances (Hyacinthe Bucket) • A U-shaped table with 3 -person couches • People scrambling to sit next to the host • Think about James’s and John’s mother making her request! 15

The wedding banquet The scramble: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honour at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. ” (Matthew 23: 5 -7) 16

The wedding banquet The scramble: “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ” (Luke 11: 43) 17

The wedding banquet The scramble: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts” (Luke 20: 46) 18

The wedding banquet The lesson: • • The seating arrangements were just external evidence of a heart-problem The narrow way is not for those who are swollen with the dropsy of pride “Blessed are the meek”! Salvation is for the humble in heart “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. ” (James 4: 6) 19

The wedding banquet The lesson: • • • The Pharisees believed in the resurrection This story is all about preparation for the resurrection of the just. Jesus was identifying the outward expression of a humble heart Works, merit, external religion, pride will shut us out of heaven! 20

The wedding banquet The lesson: • • • The Pharisees invited those who had influence – today we call that “networking” They invited those who could invite them in return They had their reward on earth – our Lord invites them to invite those who could not return the favour – and to be rewarded in heaven! 21

Outline Introduction 1. The Sabbath meal 2. The wedding banquet 3. The great banquet Transition 22

The great banquet • The invitation • The excuses • The inclusions • The exclusions 23

The great banquet The invitation: • A great feast was the pinnacle of social life • Being invited was a great privilege • Invitations were in two stages • A preliminary invitation – you are invited – details will come later • A final invitation – details, when, where • Great feasts could last for days 24

The great banquet The invitation: • The Pharisees understood the parable • See verse 15: • “When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, ’Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’” (Luke 24: 15) 25

The great banquet The invitation: • This concept finds its roots in the Old Testament 26

The great banquet “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 will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25: 6 -8) 27

The great banquet The invitation: • Look at how much room there is at the banquet (verses 22, 23) “and still there is room …. ” “that my house may be filled” (Luke 24: 22, 23) 28

The great banquet The excuses: • bad, bad excuses! • two concerned possessions, one concerned relationships 29

The great banquet The excuses: • a field • do you think a Jew would buy a field without first checking it out! • what was the hurry? 30

The great banquet The excuses: • 5 yoke of oxen • Only a very rich man could afford that • Do you think a Jew would buy them without being sure of what he was buying! • Do you think that a rich man would be ploughing or driving his oxen himself? 31

The great banquet The excuses: • A new wife • I couldn’t keep my wife away from a wedding reception! • Would a man in that era admit publically that his agenda was controlled by his wife? 32

The great banquet The excuses: • In those days and in that culture, refusing an invitation to a feast was tantamount to a declaration of war. • Are possessions or relationships stopping you from accepting Christ’s invitation to you? • Are you declaring war on the Sovereign of the universe? The Lord was very angry! 33

The great banquet The inclusions: • The Pharisees would have laughed at the idea that the poor, crippled, blind and lame might be invited to the final great banquet. • But that is the way our God acts – he gives pardon and an invitation to those who can give nothing in return. • And so everyone in this room is included in his invitation. 34

The great banquet The exclusions: • Religious people who looked down on our Lord were excluded. • People who refused the invitation were excluded. 35

The great banquet The lesson: • It is so very perilous to refuse to accept our Lord’s invitation when he calls us to himself. • No one is too poor or too wicked or has made too many mistakes to receive the invitation to heaven. • If people do not make it to heaven, it will because they refused the invitation. 36

Outline Introduction 1. The Sabbath meal 2. The wedding banquet 3. The great banquet Transition 37

The transition Father, we thank You now as we come to this table that You have humbled us, that You have brought us to this place of humility. This is not some human virtue, but You have broken us by Your spirit and Your word. And You have drawn us to an awareness of our own sin and hopelessness and then You have lifted us to look at the cross and see there the sacrifice for our sins. 38

The transition We thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ who responds to our humiliation our shame, our sorrow with grace and salvation. Father, we now thank You for the wondrous time we've had in Your word. It's glories are endless and may we apply its truth. Would You humble us before You, the great and Almighty God? 39

The transition Show us the folly of human pride and religious merit and efforts and ceremony and ritual. May we fall on our faces humbling ourselves pleading for mercy that You will always give the penitent believer in Christ and know that one day having been humbled we will be by You exalted in the glory of Your eternal kingdom. Work Your work in every heart. 40

Three banquets Three lessons about going to heaven Luke 14: 1 -24 41