Invited to the Party

Opening Illustration

Meet with a group of other church planters for purpose of encouragement, support, resourcing, training

A few weeks ago we were all together in Knoxville and were given a task by the group leaders to draw a picture of the church plant 5 years from now

Well, if you know anything about me, you know that I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, so we don’t need to talk about my drawing

But 2 of the other guys drew something pretty similar - a table

The leaders were kinda fascinated because they said in all the years they have done this exercise they have never had anyone draw a table and here, 2 of the 6 of us did

One of my friends, Paul, described his table

None of the chairs around the table matched

There were crumbs all over, toys on the ground near the table

It wasn’t a formal event where everything was in its place

Rather, he described a place where messy people come to eat and celebrate with one another

Such a cool picture of people from all walks of life come not because they have it together, but because God has drawn then together

Transition

Part of what makes that picture so compelling is how near it is to the pictures painted in the Bible for us

Book of Revelation, in one of the last things ever described in the Bible, is a great party - the wedding supper of the Lamb (Rev 19)

But even before that, we frequently find Jesus gathered around a table with people sharing a meal and, in the story we are going to look at tonight, Jesus tells a story about a party

Take a detour out of Ephesians - we will be back there next time we are together and we have 5 messages left to finish the book of Ephesians

But tonight want to look at this parable Jesus tells to help frame the next steps of who we are and where we are headed as a church plant

So as I read this story - often referred to as a parable which is simply a story with a purpose - I invite you to listen specifically for the four main characters in the story

Scripture Reading: Luke 14:12-24

Luke 14:12–24 ESV

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. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” 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!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 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.’ 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.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 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.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 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. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

Pray

The Setting: Jesus at the Table

The setting of the story for which Jesus tells here is that he is gathered at someone’s house for dinner

There Jesus says to his host something provocative

Luke 14:12 “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.”

Don’t invite the people who you know can and will pay you back

It’s easy to go out to lunch and pick up the check when you know that next time you go to lunch with that person he is going to say, “Hey, you got lunch last time. It’s my turn.”

It may be friendly and kind to pick up the check in that situation, but it is also being repaid

Rather, Jesus challenges his host to invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame

He challenges him to invite the “others” who could never repay

Character 1: The Master (God)

Out of that challenge Jesus offers, another person at the table chimes in, attempting to sound all theological

Luke 14:15 “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!””

As I mentioned before reading the text, there are four main characters in the cast of this story Jesus is telling

Maybe, more precisely, 2 individual characters and 2 groups of characters

The first character is the master

And, clearly here, the master is God

The master is throwing a big party and is working to get all the arrangements just right

He wants it to be an unforgettable event when he opens the doors and welcomes in his guests

Character 2: The Servant

The second character is the servant

He works with and for the master

He knows the party the master is throwing

He probably was helping move tables around earlier, unloaded the truck with the caterer, was telling the bartender where to set up

He was almost as excited about the party as was the master because he saw that the master was going all out

And so it is with excitement that he heads out when the master tells him the party is ready and go let the guests know it is party time!

We’ll come back to the servant in a few minutes, but first we need to meet the two groups in our cast of characters

Character 3: The Invitees (who bailed)

Full of energy, excitement, anticipation, the servant grabs his invite list and heads out to tell people it is time

They didn’t have evite which automatically sends an email reminder the day before the party

Had to go and individually let people know that everything was ready and time to come on over

With that energy, he knocks on the door of the first name on his list

But what happens next was really unexpected - the guy bailed

And, if we are honest, he bails for a really lame reason

“Oh, uhh, yeah, so, I just bought some land and I need to go check it out. Please have me excused”

I hear that and immediately have two thoughts

What was so urgent that he needed to check on the land right at that moment and bail on a previous commitment?

That land would still be there the next morning after the party

Did this guy really buy land sight unseen?

I mean, I have rented an apartment after asking someone else to go check it out for me, but I have never bought land I had never seen

Was the guy up late and saw an informercial about land on a river in Arkansas and bought it and now he needs to check it out?

Point: Not a good excuse

The servant is a little confused but just chalks it up as this guy’s loss

On to the next name on the list

Knocks on the door, guy answers, servant tells him the party is ready

And here comes another lame excuse

“Uhh, I just bought some new oxen for the farm and need to check them out”

Now the servant is definitely confused and probably a little disheartened because he knows how great the party is going to be

He soldiers on to the third name on the list only to get shut down with maybe the worst excuse of the three

“Uhh, I took a wife”

So, you just got married and you didn’t know that when the master originally scheduled the party?

So, you can’t bring your new wife with you to the party?

Again, here is the point

The invitees - those on the guest list - all bail and with really lame excuses at that

Character 4: The Others

The servant is really discouraged now and goes back to his master to report in and let him know what’s going on

The master gets angry, kinda expected, but what happens next really surprises the servant

Master tells him to go out into town and invite people invite

Really unexpected people - the poor, the blind, the lame, the crippled

These are the people who are on no one’s guest list

They are the outcasts and outsiders

They are the least, the last, the lost and the lonely

They don’t get invited to parties!

If they come, it will get messy, they will dress poorly, it may smell, there will certainly be crumbs on the floor and spills of the wine on the nice, white table cloths

The servant goes and invites them all in and reports to the master

Luke 14:22–23 “And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 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.”

So now the servant goes out and invites in everyone he can find until his master’s house is full

Character 2: The Servant (Reprise)

Now let’s go back and zoom in specifically on the servant

Because, after all, the servant in this story is us!

3 things to see about the servant

His relationship to the master

His task

The call to compel

His relationship to the master

The servant, of all the characters here, knows the master

He not only knows how great the master’s party is going to be

But he knows the master - his heart, his care

We can look at the task given to the servant

But it starts by noting that the servant was already in the master’s house

Even as he is going to go and invite others he, he himself already is in the master’s house!

As we talk about the task of inviting people in, we do so as people constantly amazed that we were invited into God’s house first

We know the master, we know his heart, his care

It is precisely because we are in wonder of God’s grace toward us that we, his servants, go and invite others in

His task

Which is, after all, the task of the servant

The servant is told by the master to go and invite people in to his party

Here’s the thing: in being the one to go, he is the one who is going to experience both the rejection of the invitee list and the amazed responses of the “others”

Now was the rejection that he experienced when he went to the first three homes targeted at him?

No way, it was directed at the master, not him

Those who reject our invitations are not rejecting us, they are rejecting God himself

But he experienced it, he felt it

If you seek to invite people in to God’s great party, you will be experience rejection

And was the delight in accepting the invitation of the others targeted at him?

Also no, it was directed at the master

But he experienced it, he felt it

The servant got to experience the blow of rejection of his master, and the joy of those who eagerly accepted the invitation of God

The servant’s task is to invite

Some will receive the invitation

Some will not

But the servant’s task is to invite

The call to compel

Now for a quick aside

Luke 14:23 “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.”

What do we do with that word “compel”?

Here’s what it doesn’t mean - to grab by the hair and drag them in

We are not called to - and couldn’t even if we wanted - to force someone to convert to Christianity

So what is meant by “compel”?

Because it certainly carries connotations of urgency

It does involve a level of pressing in because we know how great the love of God is and how great it will be for all who enters his home

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped around their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.” - Charles Spurgeon

“Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” - CT Studd

That is the urgency to compel

This is, quite literally, their eternity at stake

But how do we compel?

By overflowing with hospitality

I’ve mention the book Unreasonable Hospitality a couple of times

In the book he tells a story of a group who was dining in his restaurant on their last night in New York City

He overheard them mentioning all the great restaurants they have eaten at in their time

When one guy states, “Yeah, we’ve had all the best food in New York. We’ve had everything except a hot dog from a street vendor.”

Hearing this, he races out of the restaurant, down the street, and buys a couple of hot dogs

He brings them back to the restaurant and asks the chef to plate them - can only imagine the stares of a chef at a Michelin 3 star restaurant plating a hot dog!

But he takes it out and goes to the table and said, “I heard you mention all the great meals you have had but we can’t let you miss out on a New York classic.”

Now, for anyone else at the restaurant, that would have been a really weird and probably unwelcome plate of food at this restaurant

But for that table, it was perfect!

That’s a crazy, unreasonable thing to do - and you know that just as much as I’m telling you that story, the people who were at that table that night are still telling that story as well!

I believe that is the type of “compelling” to which we are called by this story Jesus tells

Application

Which brings us back to, well, us

If we are the servant, we can start by rejoicing that we have received the invitation in the master’s house

We have received his kindness, his mercy

We have received his never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love

And because we have received that covenantal love of God, we can go and invite others in with us

Start small

Maybe throw a cocktail party - there is a great book I read in the fall called The Two Hour Cocktail Party with step by step instructions through the whole process

Invite a couple of neighbors or friends and a couple of people from the church and provide space for relationships

Think of easy ways to do it

Drinks out by the fire

The Super Bowl is next weekend

Tend to overcomplicate

Keep it simple - invite a few friends over and then invite Kim and I or another couple from the church

And then when they are ready, then you can invite them to take the next steps whether it be something like Christianity Explored or inviting them to join us here for worship

Conclusion

The picture that those guys in my cohort drew really do capture what we are doing as a church

We are inviting people to the table, inviting them to the great party that God is throwing

A party not for the insiders who have it all together

But a party for the outcasts and outsiders, the least, the last and the lost

And we, those who have already received the invitation into the master’s house and to his party, have the great privilege of going and compelling others to come in with us!