Luke 14:7-35

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Luke 14:7-35

“And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say unto thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 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 recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. 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. 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 cannot come. 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. 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 which were bidden shall taste of my supper. And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

“‘…we gather in your presence, we thank you for Lord the times we enjoy your presence during the day, in the car in traffic or where we work, Lord, we’re amazed, Lord, that it’s your heart to be with us. Lord, not just when we’re gathered corporately, but Lord wherever we are, Lord whatever valley we may be going through, Lord whatever mountaintop experience we may be having. Lord, whether there’s two or three gathered in your name and you’re in their midst, or whether Lord we sit in some quiet place alone and enjoy your presence, Lord how we wonder that your love, Lord how we wonder what it will be like to see your face for the first time, Lord. That face we so often sense, so close. Lord, to look into the expression of your eyes for the first time. Lord, to behold, with our eyes the Word of God, filled with grace and truth. Lord, we pray that as we continue our study through Luke’s Gospel, that we might behold Jesus, Lord, that you would speak to us, that you’d encourage us, that you’d challenge us, Lord, that you’d reprove us if necessary. We pray for those here this evening that may not know you Lord, that know of you, that don’t know you. Lord, that this evening, they might receive your invitation, Lord. And Father we pray as the study ends, and we have opportunity to fellowship, Lord, you’d Lord, just give us a heart toward one another, bless that time together also. So we put Lord what remains of this evening in your hand, pray for your continued presence, in Jesus name, amen.’

We Want People Thinking About How Great We Are

In Luke chapter 14, Jesus has accepted the dinner invitation of a Pharisee, third time in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus doesn’t necessarily approve of the religious view of the Pharisees, but he figures if they’re footing the bill, and he certainly always seizes the opportunity to instruct those present, including his host. And I am convinced of the love of Jesus Christ for the religious leaders, for the Pharisees, for the those that were doing all that they knew to do, without knowing the truth. As he comes into this dinner, there is a man there with the dropsy. It may have looked like Elephantiasis, it was a type of edema, probably putting pressure on the heart, fluid in the lungs, liver, kidney problems, usually the beginning of it, usually fatal, a man in a hopeless situation. And it seems that he is bait. The religious view of the day was that if you were suffering from this kind of malady, it was because of God’s disfavor. So no one would invite someone like this to a feast, because they were someone you viewed God as treating in a disfavorable way, and you certainly wouldn’t want God’s disfavor on your home for then bringing that person there. So no doubt he’s been invited to see what Jesus would do. And it says “They were watching Jesus”, scrutinizing him, surveillance, to see now what he was going to do. And of course we know what Jesus would do, it says he took the man, and he healed him, and set him free, told him to go, how wonderful. And then of course he reproved them. Because he said ‘You care for your ox or your donkey on the Sabbath day, if he falls into a cistern, into a pit, you fish him out. And yet you have no pity or concern on this human being to be set free from this miserable condition.’ We understand perfectly this kind of society. I read an article the other day, about a man, I forget where the town was, who for years has been chaining his bicycle to a tree out in front of his shop. Until some tree-hugger got bugged with him, and decided that he was damaging the bark of this poor tree, and thereby would inflict some kind of an illness on the tree, and the tree might get sick and fall down on an innocent person or a car. So this man had to hug the tree twenty-one times, and kiss it five times and apologize. That was the sentence that the judge [laughter] required. We’re in a society where we’re concerned about saving the Spotted Owl, but have put 34 million babies to death in the last twenty-some years [the figure is now up to 65 million babies in the past 37 years]. We understand these kinds of people. Jesus loves them. That world that so grates on us, it says God so loved that world that he gave his Son that whoever believed wouldn’t perish, but have everlasting life. Now it says that as they’re coming in to sit down, verse 7, “And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden,”---to this dinner---“when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him.” Which is something common for the parable now, that they would understand, a great feast, a wedding feast. i.e. “sit not down in the highest room” or the seats of honor. “And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (verses 7-11). So, now it says Jesus is watching them. In verse 1 it says they were watching Jesus to see what he would do, and he is watching them at the same time. And by the way, he watches us, and he may say a few things to us about our lives from time to time. And he’s watching the way they come in and sit down at the Pharisees house for dinner. And he puts forth a parable when he notices what they’re doing. And he says ‘If you’re invited to a wedding feast’ which would be a great feast, you know the way wedding receptions are, how large they are, sometimes 100, 200 people. He says ‘Don’t rush in and get to the seats of honor, the best seats in the house, because what might happen is, the host, the man whose paying for the feast, may come in and see you sitting there and say, ‘You know, excuse me, I had intended someone else to sit there,’ and you have to get up in front of everybody else, more embarrassed than you’ve ever been in your life before, and move down to some less important seat.’ He says, ‘but when you come, sit down at the lowest place, you’ve got nothing to lose then, you can’t be embarrassed, because nobody can tell you to move lower, and chances are the host will come and see you there, and say ‘Friend, why don’t you move up higher.’ And the principle that he comes to is that ‘He that humbles himself will be exalted, and he that exalts himself shall be humbled.’ And he’s dealing with this group of people who care really and are driven by what other people think. Now maybe you can’t relate to that, we don’t live in a world where peer pressure has anything to do with us at all [he’s saying that tongue-in-cheek, facetiously]. They’re not concerned about this man that had this dropsy, he had this condition his whole life that needed care, they’re more concerned about themselves and what people think of them, than they are about the benefit of another human being. Now when you went to a feast like this, the seats of honor were the seats that were closest to the host. And by sitting closest to where the host would seat himself, you would be saying to everyone else, ‘You know, him and I, we’re buds, we go back, you know, Roman war, we go back to fishing on the Sea of Galilee together.’ And you’d be saying that by how close you are to the host. So, then if the host says, ‘You know, I really asked someone else to sit this close to me. Would you kind of move down?’ You know, that was really humiliating. And it was something they had seen, and they understood. And you know, I don’t like to be around those kind of people. Do you like to be around those kind of people? They kind of look at each other’s hair, they look at what each other is wearing, ‘Is it a designer, J.C. Penny?’ you know what I mean, ‘thrift shop’ you know what I mean. You know, those kind of people that have those kind of values, they’re a bummer. But there’s a little bit of that in all of us, I think. You’ve been in a conversation where maybe you’re overhearing something, or maybe someone’s talking right while you’re there, and somebody’s leading up, and they’re getting ready to praise somebody, and they’re getting ready to say something good about somebody, and you’re sure it’s you, and you’re listening, and just as they get to the punch-line, and they mention somebody else’s name you weren’t even thinking of. Don’t look like you don’t know what I’m talking about. [laughter] There’s a little bit of that in all of us. Jesus is challenging them, and us. You see, his Spirit is going to find a vehicle in our lives, if Christ is going to live in our hearts. Paul will say, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…though he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a servant and was made conformable to death, even the death of the cross.” That he is the prime example of one who humbled himself and took the lowest seat, a seat so low that we can hardly ever imagine what that is like, for him to leave a place of infinite freedom, and to take on a finite body, which he then rose with and ascended into heaven, which he will abide in forever [now I somewhat disagree with Pastor Joe’s theology here, Jesus is now back in the form he was before his incarnation, he is an immensely brilliant, powerful Spirit-being, glowing brighter than the sun, Revelation 1:13-16 reveals, no longer flesh and blood]. What dimension did he sacrifice on our behalf? What did he [temporarily] give up to come and become a human, and walk amongst us and take the lowest place. It says “Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and hath given him The Name which is above every name.” But he challenges us, this attitude of not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. If we have ourselves in a sober estimation, as it says in Romans chapter 12, it helps bring life into perspective, that we’re not really that hot. You know? The great thing about us is what God has done for us. We’re sons and daughters of the Most High God. I mean, when I’m in traffic I try to remember when somebody’s blowing the horn at me, that if he knew I was the King’s kid, he wouldn’t mess with me. [laughter] But that’s hard to explain in this world. But then, you know, we like to operate on another plane where we want people thinking about how great we are and good we do this, and how good we do that, there is something in us that loves that kind of attention. Jesus portrays it in a scene that they were very familiar with. Now, remember, the disciples will still argue over whose going to be the greatest in the Kingdom, and these are the A-postles, not the B-postles. These are the head guys. They will still argue over whose going to be the greatest in the Kingdom. There’s something like that in us, if there wasn’t he wouldn’t be bothering to challenge, he wouldn’t have been bothered to have recorded it and handed it to us here this evening in Philadelphia on Philmont Avenue.

Beware Of False Humility

“But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher;” Now the problem here of course is false humility [the other side of the same coin]. So when we go to the Feast, we think, ‘I know this story, I’m going to go sit in the lowest seat so that I can be asked to move up to the higher.’ You know, the problem with humility is when you realize you have it, you’ve lost it by realizing you’ve got it. [laughter] I mean, it isn’t thinking lowly of yourself, it’s not thinking of yourself at all. And once you think lowly of yourself, ‘Boy, I am humble’, you ain’t. [laughter] So, God hates false humility also. “When you are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room”, now, by the way it’s interesting in John 13 when you look at them in the Last Supper, and you take note of that conversation around the table, Jesus is in the place of the host, which is 2^nd on the triclinium, the table that would go around. (Let me see where you are, I have to do everything backwards.) The table goes around like this, Jesus is seated on one end, John is in front of him, which is a place of honor, next to the host, because John will lean on his breast, and Judas is next to him on the other side, a place of honor, because he will dip the sop and hand it to him. Peter’s talking from across the table. So Peter listened to his story here, took the lowest place. [laughter] And you know when Jesus starts to wash their feet and gets around to Peter, Peter says [to himself] ‘I know this, Lord, not me, you’re not gonna wash my feet, I know the story, I’m in the lowest place, I know how this goes.’ ‘Peter, if I don’t wash your feet, you don’t have any part with me.’ You know, he says, ‘Give me a bath, Lord.’ [laughter] ‘Peter, just your feet, that’s all we need to do here.’ They learned the way we do. “…sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bid thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (verses 10b-11). We know that James tells us that God gives grace unto the humble. “Humble thyself in the sight of God, and he shall lift thee up.” We sing the song, we know that. Now, he’s taking to those that are invited somewhere. So if you’re a guest, you can take this little section and apply it to your life.

When Giving, Broaden Your Horizons

Verse 12 begins, if you’re the host, if you’re inviting people, this is then what he asked on that side, because he is also the ultimate host, Jesus. Look who he’s invited [to Salvation, this is in context with who Jesus is inviting into the Kingdom of God at this time, during the Church Age]---no respecter of persons, look around this room. “Then said he also to him that bade him,”---to the one who was the host---“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 recompense be made thee.”---“thy rich neighbours”, ‘that’s a good move, hey, they’ve got a built-in pool, I’m gonna invite them to the barbeque.’ “But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” So, when a host. Now Jesus is not saying this, ‘Don’t ever invite your family over.’ Some of you may already have that policy, I’m not sure. He’s not saying, ‘Don’t invite your friends or your family,’ it’s not a prohibition, but it is an exhortation to broaden ourselves. We’re not just to invite the people that can give back to you, one hand washes the other kind of thing, because that isn’t the heart of God at all. I mean, he chose us from the foundation of the world, he called us and saved us, we have nothing to give to him, but our hearts, and who would want those? We are the lame and the blind and the maimed. [I told you this is given in the light of evangelism, who we are to evangelize to, where our evangelistic focus ought to lie, where it ought to be aimed. In that regards, the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God need to learn this lesson as well. If you are in one of these groups, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/Observe%20His%20Sabbath%20Day.htm] Paul, calls the apostles the off-scouring of this world. And he’s invited us to “the feast,” and he says if you’re going to reflect my life in the world you’re in, hey, take note, Thanksgiving comes. A number of years ago, it was in Israel, the guy that I was rooming with in the church, Chuck, I started talking to him, he had a brother, wasn’t close to his brother, parents were gone, it was the end of February, asked him what he did Christmas, he said, ‘Eh, went to the Laundromat, went to McDonalds, went home.’ So the next Christmas we asked him to come to our house. I mean, look around the Body of Christ, there shouldn’t be anybody here when the Holidays come [or even more important for us Sabbath-keepers, God’s Holy Days come, or Thanksgiving comes], or when there’s a feast, there shouldn’t be anybody here, in a church this big, with this many people looking for ministry, unless you’re all waiting for me to die so you can preach [laughter], if you’re looking for any other ministry, there’s enough of those, if you’re looking for any other ministry, hey, there shouldn’t be anybody here with a broken heart or lonely come the holidays. I mean, Frank John is great, if you know Frank, he’s got everybody over his house all the time. It just sets an example. [Again, for you Sabbath-keepers, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/The%20Sabbath%20and%20Hospitality.htm] Jesus says, when you invite somebody, just keep eternity in mind. You know, you don’t have to get back in this world everything you do. If you’re doing it for me, Jesus, you will get back in the world to come. So just a great practical exhortation. Not a prohibition in regards to your family, but an exhortation to broaden your horizons in giving and loving.

Whom Is Jesus Calling To Salvation In This Present Age, the Church Age?

Verse 15, “And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things,”---about the recompense of the just at the resurrection---“he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” He’s saying, ‘Man, that’s going to be some supper, I get the drift of what you’re saying, Lord. You know, you do those kinds of things in this world, caring for the less fortunate, having the poor over, the blind, the lame, these people, then in the Kingdom, man, what a blessing it’ll be to sit down at your table there.’ He said, ‘I’m getting a drift of this.’ And it seemed like the guy was getting it. Now Jesus says this, “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 cannot come” (verses 16-20). ‘I have married a wife, and I have to go see what she looks like.’ It doesn’t say that, but that’s what the other guys are saying. [laughter] This should be labeled “lame excuses.” ‘Therefore I have married a wife, she won’t let me out to play.’ “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. 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” (verses 21-25). So, as this conversation at the dinner table now has gotten around to the Kingdom, and you know, this is right up Jesus’ alley, I mean, this is what he had come to talk to them about, he lays out this parable about those that are bidden, and he of course is talking about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, he’s talking about what he had talked about in the past, “that many will come from the east and from the west, the north and the south, and sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Now he portrays this man, in Matthew 22 he says “a kind made a great feast for his son.” He’s telling now the story of the Kingdom and those that are invited to a feast unimaginable. But he gives the excuses that people make. He tells it in a context they understand. “A certain man made a great supper and he bid many: and he sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.” (verse 16) Now there’s no fridg in that day. What you did is you killed the kid or the calf that day, meat rots quickly, you started to prepare the meal, and when that meal was just about ready you sent your servant to tell everybody ‘OK, the meal’s ready, get over here, it’s ready to go.’ And this is a great feast at great expense. So he sends out his servants to tell the people that were invited that dinner’s ready, it’s time to come now, you have to eat now.’

Who Is Jesus Calling to Salvation, the Wedding Feast?---the halt, the lame, the blind---You don’t have any reason not to come, all you have are excuses

And now we get the excuses of why people don’t come. And you know when you think about why people don’t come to Jesus, when you think about what’s being offered to them, there are no reasons, I mean, there are only excuses. If you genuinely measure out and you say ‘Well, what the Gospel is, what the Gospel is saying to us is, that there is a God. The Bible says “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” The Bible is clear that there is a God. Romans tells us that every human being in their heart knows it, because the creation itself compels us to believe, through the order that’s visible, of some eternal power and God-hood, that there’s some supreme Power out there somewhere. Creation itself demands that. And the Bible tells us that this God has made provision whereby he can take us, sinners, and the Bible’s clear about what sin is, it isn’t just “sins” plural, the acts, the things that people do, vice, or crime, or stealing, or lying, or robbing, or lust, or anger. It isn’t just the acts, but it’s the intent. The problem of sin, singular, is the intent. If we lust after someone in our hearts, Jesus says you’ve already committed adultery, it’s happened inside, it just hasn’t had time to manifest yet. You’ve already proven you’re an adulterer by the activity of your heart that no one can see. Or if you’ve already gotten angry at someone, and you’re thinking, ‘Man, I would like to cold-cock this guy’, you’re already proving you have the potential to be a murderer, that you’re a murderer, you just have not had the opportunity to demonstrate that yet. And God is not up in heaven with those problems going on in his heart, so there’s a vast difference between the darkness, spiritually, that we live with, as humans, and the pure light of God’s holiness. Now, the Bible tells us the way that God has made provision for that, is he sent his Son, who was spotless and holy, without sin, to die a sinners death. And by dying a sinners death, he procured a value, he bought a ticket that he didn’t need, because he was holy. And now, any sinner who wants, can avail themselves of that value that he purchased with his own life. Like a ticket from a hockshop, to get us out of hock. That is available to us. And what we say to a lost race is, this world is going to end, the Bible is clear, it tells us the days that we’re living in are going to be days that are characterized by war, and by famine, and by pestilence, by earthquakes, that the world that we live in is going to be characterized by men loving themselves more than they love God, men without natural affection, trucebreakers, that the world that we live in is going to wax worse, with the love of people growing cold. That sin will have its full expression in these last days. But that God is offering to us life, he’s offering to us forgiveness for our part of that, he’s offering to us forgiveness for our sin, if we desire it, if we want to avail ourselves of it, and if we avail ourselves of it, then a holy God, the supreme Being, the Creator of the universe can say to us that we are his son or his daughter, because we have received by faith the payment that his Son Jesus Christ made on our behalf. And then instead of facing hell, which the Bible says is ultimate separation from God, and outer darkness, it says where the flame is not quenched and the worm dieth not, that is some place when you’re a little kid, you ever have the experience where all of a sudden you feel like you’re falling, it’s a place where the falling never stops, where the darkness never stops, where the burning never stops, where that which is eating away inside of us never stops, unending. Instead of facing that, which was intended, the Bible says, for Satan and his angels, the Good News is, that God has made a provision through his Son, so that we can be forgiven, and come to heaven forever. [Within the Body of Christ there are a lot of interpretations about heaven and hell. To read a few, see:http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm.] That we don’t have to go to hell. That we can be forgiven and be called the children of the Most High God. Now the only reason that somebody would turn away from that has to be an excuse. Because there’s not reason, reason is using the capacity of the mind, there is no way to reason turning down a Rolls Royce for a skateboard. That’s not reason, that’s not using the capacity that God’s given us, he’s appealing to that. They are excuses. Dwight L. Moody, in 1899, preached his last sermon on this text, ‘Excuses verses Reasons’, in the Civic Auditorium in Kansas City. Fifty people were saved. And he said, ‘In all his life, he saw people make excuses not to come to Christ, but they never had reasons, valid reasons.’ And Jesus now begins to portray that. There’s a great feast that’s been prepared by the King of the Universe, there are invitations sent to everyone, the high and the low in society. And he begins to give us the excuses. [And as we’ll see, the first or original invitation in this parable goes to the wealthy, the well-off, the educated, the strong of this world.]

First Set of Excuses, Position and Prosperity

“Come now, 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.” (verses 17b-18) Now that’s a lame excuse, who would buy a piece of ground without seeing it first? [laughter] ‘I just bought a home, now I want to go see it.’ And let me tell you something else, the reason this is not an excuse is because this is just the kind of person that heaven’s looking for [an idiot, cf. 1^st Corinthians 1:26-29]. Because if you can bet your life on something you haven’t seen yet, you can get saved. [laughter] If you can buy a piece of ground with your money that you never saw, then you can believe in heaven that you never saw [Kingdom of heaven, which will end up on earth (cf. Revelation chapters 19-21)], that somebody else paid for, for you. Come on, which one is a better deal? Lame excuse. And it’s possessions, ‘I, I know Jesus, but life’s working for me, I’ve got a Ferrari, got a nice house, got digs, everything’s working for me, maybe later when I get older, right now man, I’m just…’ Excuses. The next one. “And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them.” Ten oxen. This is a fortune, to do that. ‘Now I have to go prove them.’ That’s like, ‘I bought a Ferrari, now I’m going to go drive it.’ ‘I bought a tractor, now I’m going to go and see if it starts up.’ ‘I bought something that is essential to my business, now I have to go see if it works.’ I mean, it’s an excuse. The first one is position, the second one is business, money, prosperity. And it’s a lame excuse, because God is offering to us the riches of the Kingdom, a place where it says the streets are made of gold [see Revelation 21], clear as crystal. The walls are made of jewels. You want a turn down heaven [he’s talking about the New Jerusalem, which will come to earth and remain there, read all of Revelation 21] so you can make money? In heaven [the New Jerusalem] they pave the streets, the asphalt is gold. An how many people, it says, because of the cares and the riches of this life, the Word is choked out of their hearts? Jesus says that. An excuse, business, keeps me away.

Second Major Excuse, Human Relationships

“Another said, ‘I married a wife, I can’t come.’” Now that’s the oldest excuse in the Book, literally. ‘It’s that woman you gave me Lord.’ Back in Genesis 3, that’s the oldest excuse in the Book, literally. Bring her too, how much can she eat? [laughter] What’s the problem? You just know if you bring her you’re gonna have to buy her shoes to match the dress, because she got the dress and nothing in the closet matches the dress. I’m just making that up, I never heard anything like that before. [laughter] Relationships. What keeps us away from the Kingdom? Possessions, wealth, relationships. How many times do we hear somebody say, ‘I’m afraid of what my parents are going to think.’ [I wasn’t, I just barreled ahead.] ‘I’m afraid, my boyfriend’s going to break up with me.’ ‘Does this mean I have to go back and tell him we can’t sleep together, we can’t have sex anymore? That’s going to be the end of him, he’s going to be gone.’ Well if that’s what he wants he ought to be gone anyway. Relationships. How many times relationships become the thing that keeps us from the ultimate relationship, that is not worth trading anything away for?---earthly relationships. The hard thing is, you know the Bible encourages us not to lay up treasure on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasure in heaven. But the very hard thing for all of us is trading away the here and now, the tangible, trading away what we can see presently, what we can feel, what we can enjoy now, trading that away for something that we can’t yet feel or see or enjoy. And of course that has to be done by faith, that has to be done by faith. And Jesus is challenging them in regards to these things.

Again, Who Is Jesus Calling in this Present Age?

Now they come back, the servant comes back, and he says to the lord, the master. “Then the master of the house” verses 21-22, “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.” Now this is amazing, because if anybody had excuses not to come, it was these people. The poor person could say ‘I don’t have a dress, I don’t have shoes, I can’t come, I won’t fit in there, I can’t even get a haircut.’ Get out the flobee, I’ve done that. Works in a pinch. The maimed, and the halt, they have to be carried to the supper, they can’t even come themselves. They have an excuse. The blind have to be led to the dinner. And the master is going to say ‘There’s still room, go out and compel them to come in.’ I mean, this is the heart of God. If you’re here this evening, and people say, ‘Eh, the church, you know that church is full of weirdo’s.’ Well this explains it! [laughter] You know, we invited everybody with class, but they were too busy, so he got us!---the halt, the lame, and the blind, and he said ‘Come in!’ [applause] And some of us he had to lead, some of us he had to carry, some of us he’s still carrying. Look at us, here we are. We found somewhere where we fit, the Family of God. And these are the people that could have made excuses. You don’t have an excuse. I’ll tell you something, when that servant came to them and said ‘We want you to come to this feast’, and they said ‘Where?’ and he said, ‘In the house of the greatest Master in the land, the wealthiest man in the land.’ And they had to be convinced against their feeling of unworthiness, to come. They had to say, ‘I can’t imagine he’d invite me, he’s got the wrong Joe Focht. But even if I’m the right one, I’m crippled, I can’t walk, I have to be carried.’ Or, ‘I can’t imagine he’d invite me, he must have the wrong Joe Focht, I’m blind, I couldn’t find my way there, even if I wanted to.’ Or ‘I’m the wrong Joe Focht, I’m poor, spiritually poor, I’m bankrupt. My life is filled with bitterness and emptiness and anger and addiction, poverty is what characterizes me.’ [And this was the Joe Focht of the past, by the way, because Jesus has healed, and spiritually enriched the present Joe Focht, so he could help lead others to the Banquet Feast.] And all of them had to be convinced, I’m sure, and coaxed against their feeling of unworthiness, to come. You know one of the things that I love that Mike McIntosh does at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, the Calvary Chapel there. At Christmas time, and at Thanksgiving and Easter, they go out into the streets and into the highways and to the hedges, to the halt, the lame. They go out in the city with their buses and their vans, and they collect all the stew-bums and all the drunks and all the hobos, there’s all different forms of society there, the less fortunate, the poor, and they bring them out to the church. They have an old high school campus that they rent [as their church building]. And they’ve got a huge Free Store, and a lot of the folks in the church consider it their ministry. They take all the clothes from the folks in the church, and they wash them, and if they’re in decent shape they keep them and they press them, they hang them up by sizes, socks, shoes, shirts, ties, coats. And they bring all of these people from off the streets, the bums in the city, the skid-row and so forth, and they bring them in there, and they let them pick a suit, let them pick a coat, pick a shirt, pick a tie, pick a pair of shoes, a pair of socks, let them take two shirts [and they do the same thing with the woman, with new dresses etc.] Then they march them all from there to the showers, and they have quail lotion for lice, and all these things. And they have to convince them to give up their old stuff they have on which nobody even wants to touch, put it in plastic bags, and they’re saying, ‘No, no, you can really keep the stuff we gave you.’ They don’t want to believe that. Take them through the shower, shower ‘em up, shampoo ‘em up, clean them up, bring them out the other side, they get dressed, put on their new suits, their ties, their shirt, their dress, whatever, high heels, stockings. Then they take them to the next area, where all the hair-dressers and beauticians from church come, and they all get haircuts, and they all get perms. And Mike said by that time, you know, you see a guy who came in with long hair and a beard and lice, now he’s got a suit on, and a tie and white shirt, and he’s saying, ‘Take a little more off here, would you please?’ ‘Put a little more wax on my mustache.’ You know, they’re starting to get some dignity. And they march them all from there into the lunch room, and they give them as much turkey dinner as they can eat, and then they give them extras to carry back to their friends. And that’s what Jesus did in my life and your life. He took us and he cleaned us up, and he gave us some dignity, and a reason to live. And he gave us something to take back to our friends. Mike says ‘Now when we go out, they’re just laying out there waiting for us to come get them.’ And Jesus has done that with us. He’s taken us and cleaned us up, changed our garments the Bible says, the righteousness of Christ, given us dignity. Yeah, my IQ may not be the highest, but I am the son of the King, joint heirs with Jesus Christ [cf. Romans 8:16-17]. And I would rather be a fool for Jesus, than the wisest, richest man in this world. I would rather be a door-keeper in his house than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. I would rather be ignorant and unlearned and have men take note that I had been with Jesus. And I would rather have a future that I didn’t deserve, that I could never earn, where I still don’t understand why I am invited, but is given to me freely through his love and his grace, his death on the cross, I would rather have that than anything I could ever work up for myself out of this world. [Just one observation. Why does Jesus call us, the weak of the world? Read 1^st Corinthians 1:26-29.]

There’s Still Room at the Wedding Feast

And the remarkable thing, as I look at the text, is they bring these people in to the feast, the blind, the halt, the lame, the poor, then the servant says to the lord, ‘Now this is done as you commanded, and look, yet there is room.’ You know why we’re sitting here this evening? Because there’s still room. If there wasn’t any room, we’d all be outa here, the door would be shut. We’re sitting here this evening because there’s still room. And if you haven’t made up your mind yet, whether to come in or not, do it tonight. There’s still room. He says to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and the hedges, go on now, go get the robbers, go on out and get the people from the highways and the hedges, the thieves, and compel them’…there’s an urgency…‘to come in,’ ---notice---‘that my house may be filled.’ That’s the heart of God. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You know, one of the guys leading worship tonight, professional thief, used to rob houses up and down the East Coast. Now he leads worship. He took me right out of drugs, I used to spend all my money on cocaine, he changed my life. Rob up here, used to be a heroine addict, has hepatitis from those days. Tom, pastor of our Sunday school, was an alcoholic, fifteen years. Jesus gave him life. Jerry P. was in a mental institution and a drug rehab center, and Jesus changed him and transformed his life. In fact, that seems to be what we look for when somebody fills out, you know, for a position [laughter]… The form at the top says “Will your life give glory to God?” You know, all they are, those things, are details. I like Romaine, Chuck Smith’s assistant pastor says, “There’s only one testimony, I was jerk, I was going to hell, and God saved me. Everything else is details.” Some people feel, ‘You’re a jerk, Jerry P., I grew up in a church and was just self-righteous, I practically need to go out and get worse so I can really get saved.’ Please don’t do that, please don’t do that. Your righteousness is filthy rags tonight, no matter what you think of yourself. We’ll take you the way you are. ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel, make them come in’ there’s an urgency. Listen, God is compelling the thieves, compelling them to come in. Paul the apostle, angry at the Christian movement, not believing that Jesus was anything but an itinerant preacher. Made it his goal in life to stop the movement called Christianity. He says he hauled men and women off to prison who claimed to be Christians. He broke up families. He put Christians to death for their faith. And at the point of the sword he made believers, men and women, blaspheme the name of Jesus. And on his way to Damascus Jesus appeared to him and said “‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Isn’t it hard to kick against your convictions?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, the One that you’re persecuting.’” He had blood on his hands, he had killed Christians, and God compelled him to come in. There isn’t anything you have tonight but an excuse. You don’t have a single reason why you shouldn’t be saved, and come into God’s Kingdom. All you have are excuses.

Counting the Cost of Discipleship, Being a Christian

Jesus goes on to say this, “And there went great multitudes”---that’s a plural, “multitudes, many multitudes” your translation may say. “And there went great multitudes with him.” (verse 25a) And they’re excited. They think he’s going to set up his Kingdom then, they don’t understand. He turns around and says, now they’re excited, you know they’re thinking ‘This is the Messiah, he’s done miracles, he’s going to overthrow Rome, he’s going to set up his Kingdom.’ People that are following a popular movement don’t survive very long, and they’re following Jesus. Jesus turns around and takes a bucket of ice-cold spiritual water and throws it right in their faces to sober them up. “If any man”---three words there that are important, “if” and “any man”, it’s any woman, any man---“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Now don’t get offended, let me finish and explain, please, don’t run out. “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (verses 26-33). Now, understand, when Jesus is saying ‘If you don’t hate your mother or your father or your sister or brother’, the Bible, New Testament does not teach that we’re supposed to hate our wives and our husbands and our kids and our moms, that’s not what he’s saying. It is set up as a comparative prose, he’s saying, ‘In comparison to Me, if you have anything that you love more than you love Me, this is not going to work.’ He says it this way in Matthew, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” It tells us that Jacob loved Rachel and hated Leah. He didn’t hate her in the sense we think of it today, but he comparatively loved one so much more than the other. Here, Jesus is saying this, ‘If you don’t love me by comparison, more than these others, and you’re not willing to choose this relationship with me over the relationship with those things, this relationship is never going to work, you’re never going to come to this Marriage Feast. You’re going to make excuses, like these other people, why you can’t come.’ The New Testament tells us we’re supposed to love the Lord with all of our hearts, mind and strength, Jesus is saying it’s the greatest commandment, and our neighbors as ourselves, we’re supposed to love other people. 1^st Corinthians 13 says ‘If we speak in tongues of men and angels, and have not love [agape-love], we’re nothing. If we understand all mysteries and so forth, and we can prophesy, we can do miracles and we don’t have love [agape-love], we’re nothing.’ [See http://www.unityinchrist.com/Agape/Agape%20I.htm to access a good study series on 1^st Corinthians 13:4-7, which thoroughly covers this subject.] The Bible teaches husbands to love their wives. [See http://www.HOWMARRIAGEWORKS.COM to access an excellent study series on this subject.] Jesus is laying out conditions for those who want to come and follow him. He says if you don’t hate these human relationships in comparison, and then he boils it down to “even your own life.” And everyone here that’s saved [in the process of “being saved,” salvation is a lifelong process] tonight, whose come to Christ, has come to that point, whether they were self-righteous and religious and never knew they really needed Christ, and you see at some point they come to know. It may be with a heart-monitor on at a hospital, but they come to find out. Or whether they’re honest enough early in life, maybe because of drug addiction or some other thing, they’ll look at their lives and say ‘My life is empty, I hate my life, I hate the emptiness, I hate the searching, I hate the bitterness, I hate the addiction, I hate the abuse I grew up with as a child, I hate what goes on inside my heart, I want more, I want to be free from this, I want hope, I want to know that somebody loves me.’ Those people are the ones who are willing to make the transition, are willing to make the swap. My mom went to the Lutheran church [most of her life] but was not a believer. I got saved in 1972, they [his parents] didn’t know what to do with me, they didn’t know what to do with me years before that. Now it was Jesus. And they looked at me and thought, ‘What’s next? Flying saucers? There aren’t many things left, you know he’s gone from this to that, eastern meditation, vegetarian, and standing on his head in the corner, and now he’s talking about Jesus, he was talking about Buddha last week, where’s this gonna go?’ And she had the faith that she grew up with in regards to a denomination. And it took 19 years before the Lord broke through to her, on a trip to Israel. Here comes my Mom out of the ladies dressing room to get in line to be baptized, and I know she’s not a believer. But she comes out and stands next to me, and I said “Mom, what can I pray for you?” and she just broke down and started to sob, and she told the truth, “I want to be close to Jesus, but I feel so far away.” That nagging, whether it’s from drug addiction, whether it’s from sin, whether it’s from bitterness, whatever it’s from, she didn’t have any of those things, but she had that self-righteousness, she was in that position, she said “I feel so far away.” I said you need to pray this prayer with me, and she prayed the sinner’s prayer with me, standing in the Jordan River, and got saved, and I baptized her. [Within the Body of Christ there are two known ways to receive Salvation and have the Holy Spirit enter into your life. Both work, proving God will not be put into one of our own neat doctrinal boxes. See: http://www.unityinchrist.com/baptism/What%20is%20Baptism.htm] And I had griped to the Lord for 19 years before that. ‘Can’t you save this woman, if I was God I could save this woman. What is it, you can’t get through to her?’ Then I said, ‘Lord, you saved the best for last, you had a plan, I wouldn’t trade this away for nothing.’ There we were standing in the Jordan River hugging each other and blubbering. The whole church was blubbering standing there watching. But she had to finally hate her own life. She had to finally come to that place where she was willing to take up her cross.

Meaning of ‘Taking Up Your Cross’---why no crosses in Calvary Chapels

Now again, taking up your cross and following Jesus, you know, we sing the song about it, you have to understand, it had a context in that day. You know, when we moved into this church, people said ‘There’s no crosses in the old building, we’ve got to have some crosses up on the wall.’ My aunt always used to say ‘There are no crosses, I walk around the building, there’s no crosses, there’s just that bird up there, what is that, what is that? There’s no crosses.’ Well that’s the Holy Spirit [the bird image they have up on their walls represents the Holy Spirit], the Bread of Life, the Word is up there, the Menorah, Jesus, the Light of the world. But there’s no crosses. And we have to understand, in Jesus’ day, you wouldn’t even talk about crucifixion in proper company. It was detestable. It was exactly the same as the gas chamber or an electric chair today. Imagine walking in the church and instead of the dove we got an electric chair nailed to the wall in front of the church, straps hanging down. Everybody would be outa here, ‘What kind of place is that!? We knew they were a cult!’ You’d be gone. But that gives you the context. When Jesus said to this generation, ‘You need to take up your cross,’ he was talking about self-execution, you have to be done with yourself. Not suicide, but self, the thing that lives inside that wants its way, that says ‘I can’t come, because I bought a piece of property, I can’t come, because I need to prove my oxen, I can’t come,’---self, worried about ‘Do I sit at the best seat when I get there? Hope everybody notices me,’---putting to death that ‘self.’ There’s a cost. He says ‘You wouldn’t build a tower’---a tower was in the vineyard, to watch for foxes, to watch for thieves, to guard over the vineyard, in Israel, from Isaiah 5, they knew they were the vineyard of the Lord, he said no one would start to build that tower, they could sleep there, they could watch the vineyard, to be a watchman,---‘unless they were ready to complete the job.’ ‘No one would go to war’---and we are in a war---‘unless they knew that they had what was sufficient for the battle.’ And I think what he’s saying here, he says, ‘For’, when he begins this whole portion, is that Jesus is the builder. The kind of disciples he’s looking for are the kind that will finish the building and will stay in the war until it’s over. It is a struggle, it is a struggle. Because, if you give your life to Christ tonight, there are going to be those, and he says wife, children, brethren, sisters, even yourself, that’s the relationship we find the easiest of all, that will be saying to you ‘Turn away, you must be crazy, turn away from this. What is he talking about?’ Jesus says ‘No, unless you’re willing to forsake all,’ verse 33, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot come and be my disciple.” Now the question is, what do you have? What do you have that’s so wonderful, that you want to weigh it against Eternity? Let’s take what you have that’s so great, what do you got? What do you have? Health? You know, ‘I’m running a 4-4, I’m in great shape, I’m trimmed down’…You won’t have that [forever], if you keep breathing. You’ll look like the rest of us. [laughter] What do you have, that you won’t let go of? Money? You know, we’re all watching this Y-2K thing [as the year 2000 was approaching, turned out to be a bust], I think we’re in for a big surprise, it’s all over money. What do you have, security? I mean, we say we have security, it’s amazing a terrorist hasn’t done something major here, in a reservoir. Or with a small nuclear device. [Date of sermon, 1996. The terrorist attacks on the Twin Trade Towers was five years away, hadn’t happened yet. But it did happen, as you all know. See: http://www.unityinchrist.com/terror.htm.] What is it that you have, that is so worthwhile that you’re willing to hold onto it, and let go of Eternity? [i.e. the kind of Eternity the apostle Paul talked of in 1^st Corinthians 15:49-54. To learn more about that, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm.] Because right now, the time is short. And the Spirit of God is compelling people to come in, and you only have excuses, you don’t have reasons. And I hope this evening, that you’re like those who need to be carried or led or coaxed. When we make an invitation at the end, we’re going to do that tonight, I want to have the musicians come, we invite those who want to receive Christ as their Saviour to come and to stand here publicly and say ‘I want to be saved.’ Jesus was calling these people to a dinner where they would be seen by others, to a supper. And you’re going to have to walk the rest of your life for Jesus. And you need to hear him say to you tonight, ‘Come, just as you are, hear the Spirit call, come just as you are. Come and live, come and see Christ the King.’ And maybe you’re going to sit there and say ‘I’m blind, I don’t understand all this.’ Maybe you feel like you need to be led, and if you just sit quietly and listen to your heart you’re going to hear God leading you and calling you. Maybe you’re going to say ‘I’m crippled by sin, by cocaine, by some addiction and by some bitterness, by pornography.’ He’ll carry you. You come. Maybe you’re going to say ‘I am poor, spiritually, I’ve hated church my whole life, religion.’ Well, so did I. Jesus was such a contrast to all of that. And he still is. And he is still “compelling” people to come, because no one has ever loved them like he loves them, and it is so hard to believe that someone has paid the greatest price in the universe for you, and you’re not ever aware of it. You are so expensive that God paid for you in the blood of his own Son, and it almost seems impossible to believe that, to reach out. And people are afraid ‘What if I do this and it’s not real, I can’t take one more time in my life hearing that somebody loves me, and then when I reach out and make myself vulnerable I find out they’re not really there.’ That won’t happen, if you make yourself vulnerable, if you come to Jesus, you’re life will be transformed because he is there, and he loves you and he wants you to be his son or daughter, and he has all of eternity laid out for you. So as we sing this song, if there’s a tugging on your heart, we want you to come and to stand here, and be saved. Leave all your excuses, come, come just the way you are. We want to give you a Bible, some literature to read. We don’t want your address and phone number, we’re not going to give any offering envelopes to you, we are not going to hock you for money. The Bible says “Freely you have received, freely give”, he gave salvation to us, free, and we want to see you get the same thing, all we want to do is see you saved. Let’s stand together and pray. And I encourage you, all of you that believe to pray, let the Holy Spirit work, don’t everybody run out, let’s pray together…[connective expository sermon on Luke 14:7-35, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]