Table Talk with Jesus

Table Talk with Jesus

Series: The Gospel Truth

Text: Lk 14:1-24

Introduction: (What?)

Recently I saw an advertisement for a deck of Conversation Starter cards. They are designed to get conversation going around the dinner table. I heard someone say once that if you wanted to find out who a person really was, eat with them because it is hard to put on airs while eating.

When we had a large college ministry in West Palm, we would have lunch for the students after church. Many of them did not make it to SS, so I prepared “Table Talk” sheets with scriptures and discussion questions to get them to actually do a Bible study during lunch. Jesus attended several dinner parties in scripture, and He was never at a loss for topics of conversation. Today we listen in to one of those dinner parties.

Examination: (Why?)

1. How to Spend Your Sunday

Lk 14:1-6 “One Sabbath, when he went in to eat at the house of one of the leading Pharisees, they were watching him closely. There in front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid. In response, Jesus asked the law experts and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they kept silent. He took the man, healed him, and sent him away. And to them, he said, “Which of you whose son or ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” They could find no answer to these things.”

Have you ever been invited to dinner by someone only to find out that they had an ulterior motive for the invitation? They have something they want to sell you or something they want you to join in on. On this particular Sabbath, Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee, but it was really a trap. They had also invited a man with obvious physical problems. They knew that Jesus was merciful, and they wanted to trap him into healing on the Sabbath so they could bring charges against Him. But Jesus was a step ahead of them. He posed a question regarding whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. No one answered, so He healed the man and then posed another question that they could not answer.

We can learn from both the Pharisee and from Jesus. From the Pharisee we can learn how to spend our Sunday lunch. We can invite someone to eat with us and have our own ulterior motive. Years ago I heard of a man in San Antonio, TX who had owned a “Gentleman’s Club” which is a fancy name for a strip joint. He came to Christ through the ministry of a local Baptist Church, shut down his strip joint and sold out to Jesus. Every Sunday at church he would look to see if there was someone new in church. At the end of the service he would go to them, introduce himself, and invite them to lunch. His pastor said that there were dozens of people who came to Christ around the lunch table as this man told his story and invited them to Christ. That’s what we can learn from the Pharisee. Use your Sunday lunch for an ulterior motive.

From Jesus we learn that Sunday is a day for meeting needs and doing good. instead of doing what many of us do, vegging in front of the TV or taking a long nap, we can look for opportunities to do good. When we were in WPB, a local Methodist Church had an “apple pie ministry”. Some of the ladies in the church baked fresh apple pies each week. They had someone who registered guests as they came into the service. Immediately after the service, some of their “stewards” (deacons) would go to the church office, get the names and addresses of the guests, and in the middle of the afternoon they would knock on the door of the guests and deliver a freshly baked apple pie, and have a brief front door conversation telling about the church and inviting the guests to return.

Ask God how He would have you spend your Sunday.

2. Position Etiquette

Lk 14:7-14 “He told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves: “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don’t sit in the place of honor, because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host. The one who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in humiliation, you will proceed to take the lowest place. “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ You will then be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

When I graduated from high school someone gave me a copy of Emily Post’s book on Etiquette. I don’t know if that was a subtle hint of what. In the book she covered just about every scenario regarding mannerly behavior.

At this same dinner party at the Pharisee’s house, Jesus taught them some etiquette regarding attending a dinner party. The “place of honor” at a dinner party in those days was at the head table, where the host sat. Sometimes people would arrive early and take the best seats, close to the host. If the host had planned for a particular guest to sit in that place, he would then ask them to move. What an embarrassment! Jesus’s counsel was, when you get to the dinner, take the table farthest away from the head table. Then the host may come and invite you to move to the head table as his honored guest. The point of Jesus’s illustration is that those who arrogant, assuming that they deserve the best seats, will be humiliated when asked to move. Arrogance leads to humiliation while humility leads to honor. Remember in the Beatitudes Jesus taught in Matt 5:5 “Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.” Also He told the parable of the day workers who were hired at different hours, but were given the same pay... Matt 20:16 ““So the last will be first, and the first last.””

There was a man who was called to become pastor of a large prestigious church in a major city. On his first Sunday, he came to church with a scruffy beard, dirty clothes, and wearing flip-flops. He sat on the church steps as people arrived, and most of them gave him a wide berth as they entered. Then, just before the service began, he entered the auditorium and an usher seated him as far away from everyone else as he could. When the song service ended and it was time for the pastor to preach, the chairman of the committee went to the podium to introduce him and everyone looked around to see where he was. Suddenly the “homeless” man walked down the aisle, up the steps to the podium and introduced himself as the new pastor. There was an uncomfortable stirring in the congregation because many of them had avoided the “homeless” man. Once again assumptions were wrong. Churches must avoid becoming country clubs for the elite and rather be hospitals for the hurting.

It is kind of a cultural thing that if someone invites you to dinner, you need to return the favor ASAP. We grew up with that mentality. Jesus challenged this mindset when He said, “Invite those who are poor and needy and who could never repay your generosity. If you show hospitality toward the poor God will reward you in heaven.

3. Don’t Miss the Party

Lk 14:15-24 “When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then he told him, “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ “But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’ “And another said, ‘I just got married, and therefore I’m unable to come.’ “So the servant came back and reported these things to his master. Then in anger, the master of the house told his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’ “ ‘Master,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there’s still room. Then the master told the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, not one of those people who were invited will enjoy my banquet.”

The statement “Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” is a true statement, however the assumption of the one making the statement was that those at the table would be the ones receiving the blessing. Jesus told another story to set the record straight. In His story, Jesus indicated that those “church-members” who only show up at church when it is convenient, and who have all kinds of lame excuses for not coming will be replaced by those Jews who are “poor, maimed, blind, and lame.” Even then there was room in the banquet hall, so the master sent servants to the Gentiles, inviting them to the party.

Those who offered excuses may well expect to be invited to the BIG banquet, but will find themselves “un-invited”. They are the ones Jesus spoke of earlier in Luke to whom the master said, “I don’t know who you are. Depart from Me.” The old adage “membership has its privileges” doesn’t apply to the marriage feast in heaven. Only those who humbly accept Master’s invitation on His terms, are welcome. If you are depending on a dormant membership to a church that does not require surrender to the Master, you will be left outside when the door is locked. John McArthur noted “God is more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved.”

Application: (What is my “take-away” from this message?)

As I ask every week, “Have you surrendered to Christ as Lord of your life?” Are you surrendering daily to His will. Your surrender is what gets you on the guest list.

Have you become lax in your relationship with Jesus. Do you make excuses for not serving the kingdom through the church? Repent today.