All Are Invited to an Eternal Feast

Isaiah 55:1–5 ESV

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

The Lord calls us to come.

Throughout the narrative of scripture, we are given the call to come. We read in Isiah chapter 54 of how the Lord has come to establish a covenant of peace with His people. Isiah 53 lays out how all of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; therefore, it pleased the Lord to lay on Jesus the iniquities and sins of us all to bring us to peace. 

God has already done the heavy lifting for you and me; He calls us to humbly come to Him. 

He tells us in Matthew 11:28 to “come to Him all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

Are you tired, weary, heavy-laden? Come to Him and find rest for your weary souls. 

Theme: Coming to God as the only source of life

Illustration: Imagine a traveler crossing a vast desert. The sun beats down; his lips are cracked; his canteen is empty. Then, in the distance, he sees an oasis — cool shade and a spring of clear water. But he hesitates. “I’m filthy… I have nothing to offer.” The guide at the well smiles and says, “The water is free — it’s for the thirsty.”

Point: Coming to the Lord begins when we stop pretending we’re fine and admit our thirst. The Lord isn’t asking us to clean up first; He’s asking us to come and drink.

The Wedding Feast

A king came and prepared a wedding feast for His son, and sent his servants out to call and invite all who were invited to come to the wedding feast. They paid no attention to the servants. They made all kinds of excuses for not coming and eventually took the servants out, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 

The king was angry, so He sent the troops out to destroy the murderers and burn their cities. The king then said that the wedding feast was ready, but those invited were not worthy. 

So, He sent them out again into the roads and invited as many to the wedding feast as he could find. So, they gathered all that they found who would come, both bad and good, until the wedding venue was filled with all the guests. 

Point: The issue for many is the blindness that causes us to refuse such an amazing invitation before a Holy God. In Isaiah 55, God extends an urgent invitation to sinners everywhere to come to Christ and His feast. The only question for each of us today is whether we will seize the opportunity while there is still time. 

1. God’s Invitation: Come to the Feast and Live

The chapter begins with a feast offered to thirsty beggars who have no money. The feast is offered to those who do not have resources but foolishly waste them on things that will never satisfy them.

In 1845 Hans Christian Andersen wrote a short story called “The Little Match Girl” in which a poor, young girl ventures out into the city streets on a cold New Year’s Eve to sell matches. She suffers badly from the cold but is terrified to go home without selling any matches because her father will beat her.

As she makes her way through the cold, dark streets, she looks in the windows of wealthy homes and sees feasts of succulent delicacies, but no one notices her and invites her in.

She finds a nook and starts to light her matches one by one to cheer herself up and warm up. In the dancing light of the matches, she imagines herself sitting at a rich banquet, enjoying the food and warmth. The story ends tragically as she dies out in the cold.

The gospel in scripture pictures us as sinners who are out of the kingdom, out in the cold looking in at the wonderful feast that awaits us for all that will come.

Inside the kingdom, there is a lavish feast of blessings; outside the kingdom, there is nothing but darkness, suffering, and misery. 

*God Calls us to Come Freely and Urgently (v.1)

How God Calls Us:

To the Thirsty - God calls those who know their need. The spiritually dry and empty. (coming to God requires our understanding of the need to come.)

Life is one of John’s key concepts. He uses the word at least thirty-six times. Campbell Morgan has pointed out that humans need air, water, and food to sustain life. (We might also add that he needs light.) All of these are provided in Jesus Christ. He provides the “breath” (Spirit) of God (John 3:8; 20:22). He is the Bread of Life (John 6:48) and the Light of Life (John 1:4–5), and He gives us the water of life.

To Come - The invitation is extended 4 times to come. This is an urgent plea for people tom come.

Freely - We must come to Him freely, and we experience the freedom we have in Christ’s free gift on the cross.

The Child and the Gift

So, Christmas is coming up soon. When you hand your children or grandchildren their Christmas presents, do they excitedly run into their bedroom and break out their piggy banks, asking you how much they owe? No, that would be crazy. If you have to buy it, it’s not a gift. 

We often do the same with God. But salvation cannot be bought or bargained for — it must be received. Faith is simply the open hand that accepts what grace freely offers.

To abundance — “water, wine, and milk” symbolize full satisfaction: refreshment, joy, and nourishment for the soul.

WATER is the most basic necessity of life. Christ offers water to those who are dying of thirst, and without it, they will die. 

Jesus promised the thirsty person, “The water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life” (John 4:14).

WINE: Joy and Celebration. Wine was used for celebration and joy at the harvest of what God had provided for the people. Jesus is the true Bridegroom who turns water into wine (John 2:1–11), symbolizing that He brings the new joy of the kingdom. His blood—called “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20)—is the wine of salvation, poured out so that we may rejoice in restored fellowship with God.

MILK: Growth and maturity. We read in the New Testament that milk represents ongoing growth in God’s word, which leads to spiritual maturity. 

*God Calls us to Stop Wasting our Lives on what does not Satisfy (v.2)

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

How God Calls us:

With a question that exposes our hearts. We often pour our lives into things that leave our lives empty and unfulfilling.

God calls us to listen, incline your ear and find true satisfaction in Him alone.

This is both a rebuke and an invitation—to stop running after what fails and to start receiving what truly gives life.

Why do we spend our lives on things that will not satisfy?

This verse is one of the clearest examples in Scripture of God calling us out — not to shame us, but to awaken us. The Bible consistently exposes humanity’s tendency to chase what cannot fill us, and then invites us to find true satisfaction in Him.

1). God exposes the futility of our substitutes.

Isaiah 55:2 The Lord asks a question?

He confronts the tragedy of pouring our resources, time, and hearts into things that leave us hungry and empty.

“Money for what is not bread” — empty substitutes for real nourishment.

“Labor for what does not satisfy” — endless striving apart from God.

Modern parallels: We chase careers, pleasure, reputation, or possessions thinking they’ll fill the ache — but they only deepen the thirst. God’s question pierces through our illusions:

“Why do you keep paying for emptiness when I offer fullness for free?”

2). The Bible shows how idolatry always disappoints.

Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

We have all become broken and empty cisterns.

What does a cistern hold? It holds water, God offers us water that will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

He is the fountain — fresh, living, overflowing.

We dig our own cisterns — cracked, leaky, unable to hold what we crave.

Every false god — whether comfort, approval, or control — eventually leaks dry. The Bible calls us out not merely for being thirsty, but for trying to quench that thirst in all the wrong places.

3). God Calls Out Our Misplaced Trust

Haggai 1:5–6 ESV

5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

This is a picture of spiritual futility: when God isn’t first everything fails to satisfy.

Notice: When God calls us He always calls us to come Back.

Sermon Illustration: “The Man Digging for Water in Dry Sand”

Let me tell you a story. There once was a man walking across a wide, empty desert. He carried a shovel on his shoulder and a few empty buckets in his hands. He’d heard that if you dig deep enough, you can find your own water.

So he started digging. Day after day, the sun scorched his back and the wind blew sand in his face, but he kept digging. Each time the ground stayed dry, he told himself, “Just a little deeper, and I’ll finally find what I’m looking for.”

He was determined — determined to find refreshment his way. People passed by and said, “There’s a spring just over that hill — cool, clear water flowing freely for anyone who’s thirsty.” But he shook his head. “I don’t want someone else’s water,” he said. “I’ll make my own.”

He dug until his hands were blistered and his lips cracked. He built mountains of sand around himself — piles of effort, piles of exhaustion — but never found a single drop. Finally, as he fell to his knees in the dust, his voice barely a whisper, he said, “Why… why is there still no water?” And in the distance, he could still hear the sound of that spring — running, alive, abundant, waiting.

This is a picture of the Human Heart apart from the living water God offers.

God’s question is not meant to shame you, it’s meant to awaken you.

*God Calls us to Listen and to Live (v.3)

How God calls us:

By His Word. “Hear, that your soul may live.” Life comes from listening and responding in faith.

Into a covenant relationship. God promises a secure, unbreakable relationship—the “steadfast, sure love” (ḥesed) once shown to David, now extended to all who come.

Application: Coming to God means more than relief—it’s entering a relationship grounded in faithful love. This “everlasting covenant” finds fulfillment in Christ (Luke 1:32-33; Acts 13:34).

4) God calls us to share in His worldwide mission (vv. 4–5)

What does it mean to join the mission? God’s call to come becomes our call to go!

The Grace that satisfies us compels us to invite others to the Feast

Isaiah 55:6–9 ESV

6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

2. God’s Command: Seek Me Now

What is the significance of seeking and calling on the name of the Lord?

*To Call on Christ for Forgiveness is Essential for Salvation

Romans 10:13 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is one of the most significant aspects of the gospel that many of us overlook. This is one of Satan’s Primary Weapons to keep us away from God. Why? 

To call on someone outside of yourself to save is admitting that you cannot do it on your own. (religion without relationship)

To call on someone outside of yourself to save you is admitting a need that our pride won’t let us accept.

To call on someone outside of yourself to save you is an invitation that we assume we will have time later to accept.

To call on someone outside of yourself to save you misunderstands that calling on Jesus means knowing about Him.

To call on someone outside of yourself to save you is to be blinded by the enemy to see your need.

To call on someone outside of yourself to save you is to be blinded by shame (they are too far gone to be saved)

It is time for the spiritual beggar to come in from the cold, repent of his wicked way of thinking and lifestyle.

*To Accept His Gracious Invitation, We Must Abandon Our Way and Our Thoughts

An Argentinian chess grandmaster named Miguel Najdorf who in 1947 played forty-five games simultaneously while blindfolded (Hearst and Knott, Blindfold Chess, 25)!

That has to be one of the most amazing mental achievements that I’ve ever heard of by a human being.

But today God actively controls the events of the daily lives of seven billion people on earth, skillfully orchestrating their free decisions into his eternal plan. God’s mind is as far above ours as the stars are above the surface of the earth

Notice that verse 8 begins with the word 'acknowledging' to connect what is happening in verse 7. Therefore, if we read it this way, we can consider two possible suggestions. 

We should forsake our wicked ways and thoughts, exchanging our ways and thoughts, because God’s ways and thoughts are not wicked like ours, but are holy and exalted.

God’s lavish forgiveness is so astonishing that it soars far above ours as far as the heaven is above the earth.

God is really, really good at forgiveness, and we generally are not.

Either way, we come away in awe at how lofty God is and how gracious to invite sinners like us to sit at his banqueting table!

We plan comfort; God plans character.

We seek ease; God seeks eternal good.

We want quick answers; God works through process.

Example: Joseph didn’t understand why God allowed betrayal and prison — but later saw that what others meant for evil, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20).

God’s ways often feel hidden, but they’re never random. He sees from the heights of eternity what we can’t see from the valley of the moment.

GOD’S PERSPECTIVE IS INFINITELY HIGHER

Our limited vision often leads us to ask “Why, God?” His higher vision reminds us, “You can trust Me, even when you don’t understand Me.”

Isaiah 55:10–11 ESV

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

3. God’s Provision: His Word is Powerfully Effective

Chapter 10 begins with the word “for” which means what? He’s trailing off of what He has just said. It is trailing off of God’s thoughts and ways being higher than our thoughts and ways.

To produce the transformation that sinners like us need where should we go........

The lavish invitation and call to the feast are found in the life giving word of God that do not come back empty or void.

He compares the word of God with the rain and snow that comes from heaven that brings fruit from the ground. He is using the same life cycle that we see built into His creation with the world of God that is proclaimed.

He is asserting that God’s word will never return to Him without accomplishing the purpose for which He has sent it out into the world.

That is the only way to see that God’s word never returns to him without results but always achieves the purpose for which he sent it. As the invitation to come to God’s banquet is published far and wide in this world, it is obvious that most people will reject Him and His word. To some people, evangelists are the fragrance of Christ; to others they are the stench of death (2 Cor 2:15–16)

2 Corinthians 2:15–16 ESV

15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

This does not mean that God’s word is not affective for the purpose that God sent it out, it is more an indictment of the position of the heart, is their heart hard against God and His word or is it like the heart of flesh ready to receive His word. Is their heart the good soil ready to receive the word of God or is it full of weeds and rocks that choke the word out.

When was a time you thought God’s way didn’t make sense — and later you saw His wisdom or mercy in it?

The all Knowing GPS

Have you ever typed in an address into his GPS and started following the route. After a few minutes, the GPS said, “Turn right.” But the road it wanted him to take didn’t look right to him.

It looked slower. It looked out of the way. It looked unnecessary.

So he ignored the instructions and kept going straight.

The GPS paused… recalculated… and said again, “Turn right ahead.”

Again, he refused. He thought, “This way is faster. I know what I’m doing.”

A few miles later, he hit a line of stopped traffic. Cars were backed up for blocks. No movement. No clear reason why.

He eventually learned there had been a major accident — one he couldn’t see, one he didn’t know about, one the GPS did know was ahead.

And the route he kept refusing —the one that seemed slower, stranger, and unnecessary— was actually the only one that would have kept him moving and gotten him safely where he needed to be.

The Point

We are often just like that driver.

God directs us.

He prompts us.

He calls us to trust Him.

He leads us in ways that don’t make sense to us.

But from where we sit, God’s ways sometimes look:

too slow,

too roundabout,

too painful,

too confusing,

too different from what we would have chosen.

And yet God sees the “accident” ahead — the dangers we can’t see, the consequences we don’t understand, and the future we cannot possibly know.

So when He leads in ways we wouldn’t choose, He’s not punishing us — He’s protecting us. He’s keeping us from things we don’t know are coming. He’s guiding us to a destination we can’t yet see.

Isaiah 55:12–13 ESV

12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

This text may be talking about evangelist who are sent out to call people to the banquet feast. They will go out with joy in their heart and peace in their spirit.

The end of the gospel, the end of the book is everlasting joy in the New Heaven and New Earth that is offered to those who will accept the invitation and call on the name of Jesus Christ for Salvation.

The language of verse 13 is a complete removal of the affects of sin and death at the fall in Genesis.

God’s word will win a victory one day and the tall, stately trees that overtake the weeds will be a sign of his creative power at work in his world.

CONCLUSION

The Burned Forest That Came Back to Life (Transformation and Joy)

A massive wildfire once swept through part of Yellowstone National Park. After the smoke cleared, what remained looked hopeless — blackened ground, charred trees, and dead soil. People thought nothing good would ever grow there again.

But the rangers knew something the average visitor didn’t: that forest wasn’t dead — it was preparing to live again.

Within months, the first shoots broke through the ash. Wildflowers bloomed where there had been only blackness. Lodgpole pine cones only open under intense heat, so the fire had actually prepared the seeds for new life.

A place that looked lost was transformed into a place of beauty.

The Point: Isaiah says that when God restores His people, “instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of the brier the myrtle.” God brings life out of what looks dead. Joy rises out of grief. Peace comes out of chaos. The burn scars become gardens.

Creation itself rejoices because God is making all things new.