The Greatest Choice

Kingdom Parables of Jesus

Rev 3:20-21 ESV - 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Often, that passage gets used as an evangelistic message to the lost.

But it may surprise you to know that those are the words of Jesus to the church, not to the lost. Specifically spoken to the church of Laodicea, often referred to as the “Luke Warm Church”.

Jesus here is not pleading with an individual to be saved; He’s seeking admittance to a church!…to His Own Church!

Appalling isn’t it? How can this happen? Easier than you might think. In their proud, self-satisfied, and spiritually blind state, the church of Laodicea had become useless in God’s Kingdom.

Some of you might be wondering why Jesus is knocking on the door of His own church. Why doesn’t He just kick the door down and go and make those people repent or get out?

Well, I will let you in on something that Jesus understood and would be good for us to understand as well. You cannot force something down the throat of a human being and expect it to do much good.

That’s why Jesus deals with us differently. That’s why He spoke in parables and designed those parables to circumvent the resistance of our hard hearts, so the truth could go down more easily.

As we have seen over the past couple weeks, Jesus inserted truth into His stories so they would work like a seed in the ground that has a life of it’s own. The truth Jesus shared, like the seed, is able to initiate growth, to organize reality, and give form to the life He calls us to. To live in and experience the Kingdom of God, even now.

And Jesus designed each of these parables or stories to give us a particular truth in a special way. This morning, we are going to look at a parable that Jesus used to show how people pass by their true blessings and miss the greatest thing that could possibly happen to them. We have this tendency to miss what matters most, in exchange for small, trivial things. Not bad things, but good things that really don’t matter much.

This Parable of the Great Supper falls in a sequence of teachings that have to do with feasts, or what we often think of as banquets or large formal dinners. A lot of strange behavior can go on at such gatherings and Jesus points to some of that in the Parable of the Wedding Feast that leads up to the parable we will focus on this morning. The parable of the Great Supper.

It seems that when Jesus was attending a banquet at the home of one of the Chief Pharisees, He observed how the dinner guests were jockeying for the best seats with the most honor. Apparently, the best seats, the ones that indicated the highest social ranking, were those closest to the host. Kinda of like what we would call the Head Table. And people were making arrangements to get as close to the place of dignity and honor as possible.

And in Luke chapter 14 we see Jesus use a bit of humor or tongue-in-cheek, to caution against this behavior.

Luk 14:8-33 ESV - 8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

Instead,Jesus offers the opposite idea — A “better” way to be honored. Verse 10...

10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.

Now what strikes me as a bit off here is why would Jesus give a formula for making sure you are honored at a banquet? I don’t think so. Kinda goes against His common teaching of being humble an unassuming. So it seems Jesus was using a little humor to get around the defenses of His listeners, pretending that He agreed that it was a good idea wanting to be honored. He is sort of being a wise guy in a playful way, by appealing precisely to the kind of “desire to be honored” that He was actually confronting. He wasn’t recommending this approach to look important. Instead he was revealing something quite profound I think.

Jesus seems to be suggesting that a person who went to the lowest place of honor first, was actually NOT being humble, but was using that move as a strategy to be invited to sit in a more honored place. So Jesus concluded with these words...

11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

If you pretend to be humble by sitting in the less favored seat, with the motive to be invited to a better seat, then are you really being humble? Don’d act shocked. We do this sort of thing all the time. Especially in church!

But here is the bottom line. Everything depends on what is in our hearts.

Jesus took advantage of this very human scene to teach something about the Kingdom of God. Reminding us of the great inversion that is in fact the Kingdom of God. The person who is last on the scale of human importance may well be first, and the person who is first on the human scale may well be last. And no amount of pretending will fool our King.

This is a principle we would do well to remember about the the way God works. In the Kingdom, to exalt oneself is actually a way to be demeaned. One of the main ways we exalt ourselves is by blatantly or even subtly letting our good deeds be made known. It can be a very poisonous thing.

You may recall back when we were looking into the practices, one of those was the practice of secrecy. Keeping our good deeds to ourselves. It is a great practice towards living in and experiencing the Kingdom of God.

After His comments about the seating arrangements, Jesus addressed His host, a ruler of the Pharisees:

12 He said also to the man who had invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

No doubt that is exactly what His host had done. One thing we never have to worry about in the Kingdom of God is looking for or orchestrating ways to gain favor. As a born again follower of Jesus Christ, you are a Kingdom Citizen, and as such, God will take care of you. You will not be overlooked. Instead, Jesus says in v 14...

13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Jesus was pointing out a particular truth here… His observation was those who hosted a feast, tended to invite people who didn’t need to eat. They invited folks who were well off and who would most likely pay them back with an invitation to eat at their house on another occasion. So it became an investment. rather that an act of grace and love.

Jesus is simply pointing out the way we use essential things like eating in order to establish social distinctions that are harmful and often hurtful.

Now before we move on I want you to notice that this illustration in v 12 COULD be used in a legalistic way. He says, do not invite your relatives for dinner. [PAUSE](Some of you have been looking for that verse. You may be thinking, “Oh good! I don’t have to invite my sister over now because Jesus said not to.) …[pause] Shame on you.

Never forget to read Jesus illustrations in light of the prevailing cultural presumption He is actually setting aside. Jesus is telling these people to break free from the practice of Quid pro quo - I do something for you. You will do something for me. You do not need to play that little game in the Kingdom. So don’t.

Jesus also draws attention to the prevailing practice of the Pharisees of neglecting those in real need. People who don’t have the means to reciprocate the favor - the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. He was saying something very simple. “Feed those who need to eat” I think the church of all people needs to hear this message of our responsibility for individuals who are in need. Even if we are giving to charitable organizations, we should never avoid, because there is something to be said for what I would call skin-to-skin contact with people who are in need. I am saying something here that is very simple. When we encounter people in need, we should try to help them. Jesus did it all the time. He would never shrink away from walking in the midst of those who were hungry and hurting. As His apprentices, we should do likewise.

God WANTS us to enjoy our food and the fellowship of friends, and those we love. But ALSO to include those who need it.

Back to our parable. There was a fellow sitting there with Jesus, listening to what he had to say and responded in v 15...

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!"

I think his heart lit up with joy as he listened to what Jesus was saying. It was like he was saying, “What a wonderful thing it would be if the Kingdom of God id like that! If God is like that? Won’t it be awesome when that day comes?! A day when all the rich and the poor, the disabled and frail, sit down with all the so-called high and mighty and everyone lives together in God’s world as God’s children. Wont that be a grand thing?!”

Maybe he was thinking of the Kingdom as something occurring in the future like many of us do. The Parable of the Great Supper is exactly what this man perceived - how blessed a feast in that Kingdom will be.

Much of what Jesus taught was to say, “Look, by doing these things you can get a taste of what that is actually like. If you do the things I am telling you you will in fact experience the Kingdom, Not yet in all is future glory but experience the reality of what the Kingdom is like right here, right now.

Beyond the blessed nature of the Kingdom, Jesus also wanted to teach them something about why people don’t come to the feast.

A lot of people have paid a great price to move from one country to another in search of freedom and abundance, and opportunity. The Kingdom of God is an even greater country. When we read about those in the hall of faith in the book of Hebrews 11, we see in them, people who had a vision of the reality of the “country” that is God’s Kingdom.

Heb 11:13-16 ESV - 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

The people in the parable we are looking at did not have that kind of compelling vision of the Kingdom of God. They did not understand the the city of God is now available. It is going to have more glorious moments later, but it is available now. The message of Jesus is come and live IN the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was aware that many people have something they think is more important than to enter and live in the Kingdom of God. That is the point of the parable. Let’s look at it in detail and think about its application to our lives.

Back to Luke 14 and Verse 16...

16 But he said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' 19 And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' 20 And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' 22 And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' 23 And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'"

One thing to notice about this story is that the people who are saying no, had apparently received the invitation some time before.

17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who HAD been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

Apparently they had not yet provided their RSVP. A formal supper in those days would often last a lot longer that a dinner party today. It was not an eat-and-run affair. It lasted a long period of time, sometimes for a few days.

The people that were invited ahead of time were no doubt the kind of people the host would expect to come. His friends and relatives. Jesus was alluding to how the message of the Kingdom went out first to the Jews as God’s chosen people because the Jews were the “right kind of people” - people who observed the right traditions and exhibited the right habits. And when we read the parables we see Jesus returned over and over to this theme that the Jews, who were primarily the ones who were invited to the great supper, seemed to always find something else to do when the time came to sit down and eat.

And notice also in our parable, the lame excuses the invited guests had for not coming. The first excuse, “I have bought a piece of land and i must go and see it.” Most people would go have a look at what they were buying BEFORE they bought it. Whatever reason he had for going to see the land he bought, I imagine it could have waited for a day or two. Sounds a little dubious to me.

Another potential guest said, “I bought five yoke of Oxen and I need to go try them out.” Same deal here. Why would you wait until AFTER you bought them to test them out? If you wait until after and they are no good, you’re stuck with them. Seems like another lame excuse to me.

The third guy offered this excuse. A little less lame than the other two but…here it is. “I just got married, so I can’t come.” Ummm, bring your new wife with you. Introduce her to your friends and the host. I dunno. Just seems like he could have pulled this off.

It seems like these excuses aren’t legit reasons, unless…And this seem like the obvious reason to me, they are actually dodges because they really don’t like the Host that much and didn’t really want to go in the first place.

And this brings us to the basic question of fundamental importance: Do we love God and the Kingdom of God?

Maybe we haven’t been taught enough about life in the Kingdom of God to answer this question with a yes or no. Fair enough. The present Kingdom of God really doesn’t get talked about much. Mostly we talk about the future Kingdom in all of its glory that is promised one day. But to be honest, that does not motivate most people very much. But what does excite people once they experience it, is the kind of day to day interaction with God that we see in the life of Jesus, in the early church, and those moments that we have experienced the kingdom personally as we move in obedience to His teaching.

But, Do we love something else more? Most Chritians would not like to admit this. But the way we live our lives often indicates it is true. We find too many other things more appealing.

God will not force Kingdom Living down our throats. And if we don’t have a heartfelt love for God and His Kingdom, there are a lot of trivial things that can prevent us from entering into the present reality of the Kingdom of God with a free and enthusiastic heart. (Hold up Phone)

Now, the really hard part is that some trivial things can be rather good things. After all, it is not a bad thing to buy some land and survey it. Or to buy some oxen and try them out. Or to get married and choose to stay home with your new spouse. These are all good things. The excuse givers in the parable weren’t saying, “I can’t come because I have bank to rob.”

So the question that begs an answer is, why is it than when so many people undertake to give their full commitment to becoming apprentices of Jesus, there aren’t more Christlike people, especially in the church?

Well, one 17th century minister answered, “Because they give too big a place in life to indifferent things”

It’s way too easy to give too much time and energy to things that are not central, and to let those things fill up our lives. Is anyone listening?

Now, I am not suggesting that we not have times of recreation and relaxation. I think those things are very important. I think we would all do well to just lighten up and be downright silly once in while. I think Jesus was a man who was enjoyable to be around and I think he had a lot of fun. Otherwise, little kids probably wouldn’t have loved Him so much. Jesus caused many hearts to rejoice because He knew what it was like to live happily in the Kingdom of God. That’s because He had His center there and He attended to that center. He didn’t let the little things - even the good little things - distract Him. One of the main things I see in this parable is that, it’s the small but good things that defeat us.

A few years ago a guy by the name of Gary Keller wrote a book titled, “The One Thing” In that book, Keller talks about the value of cutting out the clutter and focusing on one thing at a time. He offers an old Russian proverb that says, “If you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one.”

In life, extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus. The big lie in today’s culture is that more is better, More has never been better. More turns out to be just a bunch of mediocre efforts amounting to very little.

And make make no mistake. This parable about missing out on the Kingdom is as much for those inside the church, maybe more, than it is for those outside. Remember Jesus statement to the “luke warm” church in Revelation chapter 3. He was inviting people inside the church to let Him in. But those in the church can get so busy doing good things that they miss the ONE THING that is necessary.

We see this in the story of Mary and Martha. These two sisters had an altercation because Martha was busy doing good things while Mary simply sat at Jesus feet. Martha pleaded with jesus, “Why don’t you tell this lazy sister of mine to get up and help me? The biscuits are burning, the dressing isn’t made yet, and we are all going to starve to death before everything’s ready!” Jesus saw that Martha’s heart was troubled by many things and He redirected her. In Luke 10:41–42

41 ... “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Even the Old Testament patriarchs made this mistake in Genesis chapter 25. in verse 29 we read that Esau was out in the field hunting and got real hungry. He came home, flopped down on the couch, and said something like this: “I’m going to die of starvation! I’ve never been this hungry in my whole life!”

Meanwhile, brother Jacob was stirring his delicious red stew. Esau could smell the aroma and begged for some stew.

When Jacob demanded Esau’s birthright as payment for some stew, Esau gave it up easily, saying, “I’m going to die from starvation anyway, what good is my birthright?”

But Esau wasn’t going to die. He was the kind of person who became obsessed with what he wanted in the moment, so he was unable to stand a little hunger.

Our inability to stand before our momentary feelings of hunger, or pain and problems can ultimately cause us even greater suffering. So Esau traded away his precious possession of unlimited value - his birthright as the first born. And he traded it away for... stew.

Sometimes there is a finality to the choices we make. We can actually become worshippers of something as minor as stew. We may not even think the stew is very good, but we think about it until minutes have become hours, then days and weeks and months and even years, until we have spent a lifetime serving our appetites.

From time to time, we run across those who may not seem likely to be invited to the feast of the Kingdom, those who don’t know Jesus yet. But they see the value and beauty of life with God, and walk right in saying, “Yep! I will take the invitation.” And they just give themselves to the Kingdom of God. They seek it first, last and always. It is their whole life. And that is the attitude that places a person in the position to become an apprentice, a disciple of Jesus. (PAUSE)

Right after presenting the Parable of the Great Supper, Jesus illustrates the serious commitment required for a life of discipleship. This is a really big contrast to the attitude of those who turned down the invitation to the feast. It’s a passage we have considered before…Luke 14:25...

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

This is so important. When Jesus said, 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple, He was not saying, “I wont LET him be my disciple.” He said that person COULDN’T be His disciple. Jesus wasn’t stopping him, he was actually unable to be Jesus disciple. It’s as If jesus said, “Anyone who cannot run cannot play football.” No one is going to stop the person from trying to play football if he cannot run. He simply can’t play football BECAUSE He can’t run.

Those who put great value on new oxen or a bowl of stew don’t have the necessary inward attitude expressed by “hating…His own life” or “bearing his cross” or “forsaking all that he has”. that attitude of surrender is what enables an individual to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and experience the life of the Kingdom. Without surrender, Jesus says, that person cannot be my disciple. Without it, you just can’t make contact with the kingdom of God.

If you are sitting there right now thinking, “Then it is impossible”, well you still don’t understand the move you have to make to walk and live in the Kingdom.

The command is Seek First the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Not Seek ONLY his Kingdom. Simply make it the One Thing. Make it the first and most important thing and the promise is, he will give you everything else you need. Takes ALL the pressure off you.

So why choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Jesus illustrated this with two other short parables in Matthew chapter 13. And I will be done.

Mat 13:44-46 ESV - 44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Imagine someone finding treasure in a field. Maybe even oil or a large gold deposit. He or she gathers all their resources to buy it, thinking this is the best opportunity I have ever seen in my life. They are ready to do whatever they can to possess this land that contains the treasure because they see the value of the investment.

45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The pearl merchant here may have owned a lot of little pearls, but they kept searching for the best and most beautiful one. Then, they find it, That pearl that is worth more than all the other pearls they have combined. Do you think they would say, “Oh no! I have to give up all my other little pearls, my precious little pearls?”

Of course not. Because they knew this pearl was worth everything they had. They were glad to give up those other things.

Beloved, once you and I understand who Jesus is, and what knowing Him means for our lives, we realize that discipleship to Jesus is the greatest opportunity we will ever have in life. We begin to gain perspective about all the little good things in our lives and we happily give them up in order to gain possession of the priceless treasure of the Kingdom of God. The truth is, it is no sacrifice at all!

In Ephesians 3:8, Paul called them “unsearchable riches”. Other translations say incalculable, inexhaustible, incomprehensible. If you cannot fathom something it means you can never reach the end of it. No matter how far you go, there is still more! THAT is the Kingdom of God!

Our greatest problem is the Christ we are looking at is too small. Are you a disciple of the true Christ? Maybe you have never honestly faced and answered that question. I’m not talking about praying a prayer or walking the aisle. Many who have professed Christ have never intentionally chosen to be a disciple of Jesus. God will not force that decision.

Remember, being a disciple of Christ means learning from Him how to lead my life as He would lead it if he were me. In my vocation, in my relationships, my health and status. It is a continuing relationship through which all dimensions of our personality come to love God. It really is the greatest opportunity life offers. In becoming a disciple of Jesus, we learn to live as Jesus taught us to live. We discover how to handle the ordinary events of daily living and how to act in God’s power.

It’s not supposed to me miserable. Everything He commanded us to do is good for us and always brings a good return. Yes, we’ll have to give up some things. But remember the other side of the pearl of Great price: we benefit immensely from the relationship.

We often talk about the cost of discipleship. I think we should turn our attention to the cost of Non-discipleship. In my mind, it has a higher cost which includes the likelihood of spending the rest of our lives being dominated by hatred, resentment, and all kinds of other afflictions. Discipleship allows us to live lives full of love, joy, hope, peace, and the confidence in God instead. That just sounds a whole lot better to me.

All through our lives we will be presented with opportunities. But we must have enough initiative to choose to take them. If we have said, “Yes, I will be a disciple of Jesus Christ, on His terms” then my friends, the feast awaits.

Let’s pray.