Humility at the Table of God

Introduction

Imagine your at work, and a man shows up and ask for you by name. He’s brought over to you, and he hands you a gold plated invitation to an upcoming State dinner with all the important heads of government and social leaders of your country.

He says the food will be catered by the top chefs in the world, and there will be shows and fireworks for everyone’s entertainment.

I don’t know about you, but I would be rushing to accept.

I would be excited, and honored that the president thought me somehow worthy to come to His banquet.

But imagine if my response was…

“oh cool, but I will only come if I get to sit at the table with the most honored dignitaries.”

What if I even said my attendance is conditional to if I get to make a speech so everyone sees who I am?

Or even worse, what if I declined the invitation, saying I just ordered new fishing poles on taobao and need to wait on them to arrive.

You would rightfully call me crazy right?

You would ask who do I think I am?

How arogant would I need to be to see myself as important enough to behave in such a manner right?

Well that is exactly what Jesus accuses the pharisees of doing spiritually in our text today.

Even before we study this text,

I hope you can see from the past few week’s studies that such an attitude has no place in God’s Church.

We have seen Jesus call 12 ordinary men who were nothing humanly special at all to be his Church’s apostles.

We have seen that This Jesus we worship is the long awaited Messiah, the Divine Son of God, worthy of our worship and Humble devotion.

We have seen in His teachings that even our prayer life should reflect this humble dependence on God in all things.

So I hope it should come to no surprise that Jesus is continuing to teach on the importance of Humility in those who are called by Him.

It is important that we have a proper and Biblical view of both God, and man.

Because A proper view of God and a proper view of ourselves is going to produce a Humility that changes every part of our lives.

We will look this morning at three examples of how Humility before a Holy God changes us

1. Humility Changes our Focus (vv. 7–11)

2. Humility Changes our Motives (vv. 12–14)

3. Humility Changes our Response to Christ (vv. 15–24)

So let’s begin with how Humility changes your Focus.

1. Humility Changes our Focus (vv. 7–11)

We see in verse one that today’s story took place during a sabath meal at a prominent Pharisee’s home.

In that culture, meals like this were more than just about food, they were about status.

Being invited to the home of such an important person would be a huge honor, and help your social standing.

But just being invited was not enough.

Where you sat mattered too.

The closer you were to the host, the greater your honor.

The Pharisees and other guests knew this, and as they came in, there was a rush for the best seats.

This was a society built on honor and shame, where the seating chart was like a scoreboard of who mattered most.

We see something similar in Chinese and other Eastern cultures today do we not?

At banquets and important meals, the host sits at the head, the most honored guests are seated closest to the host.

What Jesus observed was all of these guest, who would have had some level of power or prestige to be invited in the first place, rushing to grab the seats that would bestow them the highest level of honor in front of others at the table.

Jesus speaks up and gives some great wisdom.

Luke 14:8–10 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. 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.

We can take away some practical wisdom for how to behave at social events where such a heiarchy seating system exits,

however, He was speaking on something much deeper than just wisdom on where to sit.

He was reveling a heart problem of the Pharisees.

The scramble for seats was only the surface symptom of a deeper disease:

pride and self-promotion. It appears throughout the New Testament that everything the Pharisees did was to make themselves look great in the eyes of man, and ironically, in the eyes of God.

The Pharisees were so confident in their self-righteousness,

That believed they could make themselves great in God’s sight through their own performance.

In their eyes,

greatness came from keeping the law better than others,

from status,

and from recognition.

But Jesus flips that thinking completely upside down in verse 11.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

When we truly see God for who He is,

holy,

perfect,

and majestic.

When we truly see ourselves as we really are,

sinful,

dependent,

and unworthy,

it humbles us.

You see, A proper view of God and a proper view of man has no choice but to humble and change us.

That humbling will turn our focus away from wanting people to exalt ourselves to a focus on wanting others to be exalting God.

The only exaltation that matters doesn’t come from applause or status on earth.

It comes from the gracious reward of God, who exalts the humble and gives them a seat at His banquet in His kingdom.

When our focus changes,

we stop trying to be exalted before people for what we’ve done and start longing to be exalted before God for what He has done through us.

For some of you, that may look like serving more behind the scenes in areas that are needed, but comes with little to no recognition of your work from others.

For some, maybe it’s working hard at work, even when your boss isn’t going to see it, but knowing from Ephesians 6 that God sees it and is honored by it.

Or maybe it means giving more without any announcement, knowing that our rewards are in heaven and not from earthly praise.

This is where humility begins to transform not just how we see ourselves,

but how we treat the people around us,

which is exactly where Jesus goes next.

That leads us to our second point, Humility changes our Motives.

2. Humility Changes our Motives (vv. 12–14)

After addressing the guests about where to sit, Jesus now turns to the host.

He shifts from where you sit when invited to whom you invite when hosting.

Again, this was not simply wisdom on social etiquette, it was a deeper teaching about the heart.

In that culture, the Pharisees didn’t invite people randomly.

Hospitality was a calculated social investment.

You invited those who could return the favor, friends,

relatives,

and wealthy neighbors,

because they would eventually invite you back.

Your generosity was not really generosity; it was a mutual exchange that kept your standing amongst others secure.

But Jesus looks at this deeply ingrained cultural practice and calls it out for what it is:

self-interest disguised as kindness.

He says in verse 12,

“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.”

He’s not saying it’s wrong to have your friends over for a meal,

let’s not take away the wrong application here.

The issue is motive.

Is your kindness an act of love,

or an act of self-promotion?

Then comes the command in verse 13:

“But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.”

He is saying, “Invite those who cannot repay you.”

In other words, mirror God’s generosity toward you.

Do you see the heart of the gospel here?

you and I were spiritually poor,

crippled,

lame,

and blind,

and God welcomed us to His table.

We could never repay Him, yet He gave us grace freely.

To Jesus’ first-century audience,

this instruction would have sounded laughable, ludicrous even.

Think of the president Xi having a banquet, but instead of the gold plated invitations going to important dignitaries and the wealthy, they went to the crippled beggars on the side of the road. They went to the uneducated farmers in the country side, imagine if he even invited foreigners, say Japanese people into his home for this banquet. how do you think people would respond if that is who He chose to give His hospitality to?

As crazy a this may sound to us today, it would have been even more socially outrageous to the Pharisees listening to Jesus.

In the Pharisees’ world, your table was a statement of your status. G

Fill it with the lowly, and you’d lose face.

But that is exactly what Jesus has done and that is exactly what calls His followers to do.

God didn’t come to save the righteous, but the lowly sinners, broken and spiritual poor.

He has led in this example, and has now called us to do the same.

Why?

Because our reward is not found in social return.

Jesus says in verse 14,

“You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

He shifts the focus from the temporary to the eternal.

True humility is content with God’s future reward, not man’s immediate praise.

Hospitality in the Kingdom is not a transaction; it is an act of worship.

So, Who are you most comfortable showing kindness to?

Who do you avoid because “there’s nothing in it for you”?

If someone could never repay you, would you still serve them with the same joy?

I hope so, but if not, be honest with God here and repent of this sin of pride and pray for Humility.

Humility changes the question from,

“What can they do for me?”

to,

“How can I show God’s love to them?”

So far, Jesus has shown that humility changes the way we see ourselves in relation to others, first in where we seek honor and second in why we show kindness.

But humility doesn’t stop with our relationships; it goes to the very core of how we respond to God Himself.

One of the guests at the table hears Jesus’ teaching and makes this statement:

“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

It probably sounded really good to everyone at the table.

They probably shook their heads in pious agreement.

The problem was,

He was assuming that he and others at the table would be on the guest list of the kingdom of God,

but they were relying on their on self righteousness to get there.

So He tells a parable that exposes their presumption and shows that the way we respond to God’s invitation reveals the true state of our hearts.

That takes us to our third point:

Humility Changes Your Response to Christ.

3. Humility Changes our Response to Christ (vv. 15–24)

Jesus begins His parable with a familiar scene.

In their culture,

a great banquet was not just a meal,

it was the social highlight of the year.

And it followed a very specific custom.

First, an initial invitation would be sent well ahead of time so guests could prepare.

This wasn’t like our modern invites where the date and time are set months in advance.

Back then,

because preparing a feast took enormous work,

you would accept the first invitation knowing that a second one would come to tell you,

“Everything is ready, come now!”

When that second invitation came, you dropped everything and went.

No one would dream of refusing, doing so would be socially unthinkable.

It would be an insult to the host, a public statement that his honor and generosity didn’t matter to you.

But in Jesus’ parable, something shocking happens.

The second invitation goes out, and every single invited guest makes an excuse.

The first says,

“I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it.”

This would be seen as a joke to those present.

This could have waited, the land wasn’t going any where.

It was just a lie to cover disinterest.

It was saying the host was not important enough for me to bother actually coming.

The second says,

“I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.”

Again, testing them could wait until after the banquet.

Work, which is important in the right context, had taken priority over honoring the host.

The third says,

“I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”

The Pharisees listening would have found this excuse the most ridiculous of all.

In their culture, a wife did not dictate whether a man could attend a banquet.

This was simply another way of saying,

“I’m not interested.”

Do you see the pattern?

These are all good things,

property,

work,

family, but they have been elevated above the greatest invitation imaginable.

These excuses would have made no sense to the Pharisees because an invitation to such an Honorable event would have been far more important than rushing to do anything the guest said they needed to do.

But that’s what pride does is it not?

Pride says, “My priorities matter more than the host’s honor.”

Worldly distractions, whether possessions,

ambitions,

or relationships,

have crowded out the call of God.

this is sadly even more prevalent I’m afraid in today’s world where we are all so busy and occupied with a million different things pulling us in every direction.

if you are here and have accepted God’s invitation to salvation, you have been forever justified and nobody can take that away.

But what excuses are you making in areas of your life that God is inviting you to grow in sanctification?

If you here and have not accepted God’s invitation to salvation, I ask what excuses are you making that are keeping you from accepting?

What is keeping you from humbly saying YES GOD, I KNOW I AM UNWORTHY BUT I ACCEPT YOUR FREE GIDT OF SALVATION.

These are important questions,

because we see the response of the host when the invited guest chose their distractions and pride over the invitation. Jesus said,

“the host became angry.”

Their refusal of his invitation meant his refusal of them.

These first invited guests represent the religious leaders and much of Israel,

who had long heard God’s promises given in the Law and Prophets,

but rejected His Son when He came, representing the second invitation.

So the master does something no one expected, he tells his servant in verse 21,

“Go quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.”

And when there is still room, the master in verse 22 sends the servant out further:

“Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in.”

To the Pharisees, this was scandalous.

In their minds, the banquet table was for the elite,

the righteous,

the religiously qualified.

But here, it is filled with the outcasts, those who know they have nothing to offer and no claim to a seat.

This is the picture of the gospel going to the Gentiles, those far off, now brought near.

These are the nations, the people with no covenant promises, being brought in through the grace of God.

Do you see the beauty of the gospel here guys? we who were far off from God,

broke,

crippled, and wretched in our sins have been invited to join the father for eternity.

The word “Compel” used here doesn’t mean force; it means urgent, loving persuasion.

The servant is to go to those who would never dream they belong at the table and plead with them to come.

Christians, that is where we find our call today.

If we have accepted Christ’s invitation, we now stand in the role of the servant.

going out into the streets,

the lanes,

the highways,

and the far places,

urging people to come to the feast.

Evangelism is not an optional guys. it isn’t a ministry reserved for just some;

It is the natural overflow of having been welcomed by grace ourselves.

So are you serving the role of the servant?

Are you with urgency going and telling everyone you can of the love of your master who is inviting them in?

For those who are not Christian’s, the invitation is equally urgent.

the message here is clear: the humble and needy come gladly; the proud and self-sufficient stay away.

God’s invitation is gracious, but it is not endless.

In verse 24 the master says,

“None of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.”

Once the door is closed, it is closed forever.

For those who do not know Him,

the feast is ready now.

The invitation is in your hands.

The only question is,

will you accept it with humility and joy.

Because the truth is, there will come a day when the last seat is filled,

the doors are shut,

and the Host rises to welcome His guests.

And on that day, the only thing that will matter is whether you came when He called.

The table is ready.

The Host is calling.

How will you respond? let’s go to Him in prayer right now in response to His call.

if you have not already accepted His invitation, now is the time. Come get me, Rick, or someone, and ask for help knowing what it means to accept this invitation. don’t wait .

if you have already accepted this invitation,

Pray for God to reveal areas of your life where you are still not growing in. You have been justified but your still being sanctified and so ask God for help here.

we will have a minute of self reflective prayer, and then I will have us get together in groups to pray for each other.