So His House May Be Filled
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Everything today is built around “rewards.” If you purchase their credit card, you receive rewards. If you download the app, you will receive rewards. Work incentives, academic awards, athletic achievements. These are good things, but they can lead us astray.
Need: We try to build rewards in this life. We want to be rewarded for our hard work and diligence. Our hearts feed off of the rewards we get. My junior year, led the team in batting average. Utility guy on the field. One of my best seasons ever as a player, hoping to get all conference, but I didn’t. I was crushed. I’m reminded by our text that nothing in this life is greater than the reward we will have.
Main Idea: The reward in heaven is greater than anything here
Jesus was invited to a Pharisee’s house.
Truth #1: Jesus will provide physical and spiritual healing (1-6)
Exp. Jesus is at the house of a Pharisee on the Sabbath, and they were watching him carefully = looking to find fault. Verse 2. Why get his diagnosis but not a name? Dropsy = swelling of the body. Uncontrollable swelling. Also used to describe gluttonous people and money lovers. Of which Jesus will call the Pharisees in chapter 16. The man with dropsy is physical image of the spiritual nature of the Pharisees. Jesus asks first: Verse 3. He’s asked this before, but he preemptively is asking. Verse 4. They have emergency exceptions, but this wouldn’t fall in it. Healed the man. Verse 5. Using rhetorical question to prove a point. Verse 6. Jesus heals a man with dropsy in front of people have been gluttonous with their positions. Jesus is showing them what he will do one day.
Christ - Jesus brings healing on the Sabbath. We will experience ultimate healing in glory. Not only from physical ailments but from sin. The gluttonous will find satisfaction in Christ. He will reward the repentant by removing the sin and giving us a new heart. One that is not full of sin.
Ill. He will heal those with sin. Reminds me of changing my alternator. It was messing with my battery and other things. When I replaced it, everything worked great. That’s what Jesus will do to us. Give us a new heart.
Arg. God prophesied this in Ezekiel 36:26
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
App. What do we do?
Rest. Jesus wasn’t condemning the practice of rest, just the hypocrisy. Rest is something we need and will ultimately have in heaven.
Don’t use obedience to puff yourself up. You aren’t better because of obedience. Obedience is actually humbling.
Truth #2: Jesus will exalt the humble (7-11)
Exp. He will look at the other guests at the banquet. Verses 7-9. Sitting in “places of honor” was up for the host to decide. Also, symbol of honor. To be asked to move from that seat would be shameful. Verses 10-11. Instead give up the best seats to sit in the lowest seats. Then, when asked to move up, you will be honored.
Ill. Reminds me of my couch at my house. We have a crew that dominates the couch every week. One Sunday, another group got there early just to take the couch. They wanted to beat them to the comfy seats. I’ve also seen folks give up their seats on the couch to sit in the floor. Way less comfy. But this applies even more than that.
App. Don’t think higher of yourself than you ought to. Remember James and John asked to sit in the places of honor.
Don’t expect high praise. Work, school, or athletics.
Don’t expect promotion. Work or athletics.
Humbly serve where you are. You are not too good for whatever you’re asked to do.
Arg. This is exactly how Paul describes Christ.
Christ - Jesus is the picture of humility for us to emulate. We will be exalted later in glory. Philippians 2:5-11
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Christ - Christ who is God became a servant and obeyed to the point of death. How much more should we humble ourselves. Later, he will exalt the humble.
Trust #3: Jesus will host a banquet for those dependent on him (12-24)
Exp. Now he will turn to the host of the banquet. Verses 12-14. Don’t invite those who will repay you. In this culture, it was expected to repay your host in some way. The guests would get a gift or invite the host to their place. They typically wouldn’t invite someone who couldn’t repay because this was for social status. The list he gives them to invite cannot repay. One commentator said not only could they not repay, they had to be helped to the table. Repaid at the resurrection of the just. Another way of saying the judgment at the resurrection. Those who are found just, will not receive judgment. Verse 15. One man blurts this out but he’s missing the point of the instruction, so Jesus offers a parable. Verse 16-20. Everything is ready, therefore people can’t come when they want. First part, everyone is too busy with lame excuses. Verse 21-24. Go and get the same group he mentioned earlier. Servant goes and get them, still more room. Go the outskirts of town. The people who don’t live in the city? Why? SO MY HOUSE CAN BE FILLED. The men with excuses, they are not dispatched to the lowest seat, they are excluded from the banquet. The poor, crippled, blind, and lame mean people with infirmities, but like the man with dropsy, they represent the humility and dependency we should have toward Christ.
Ill. Dependency is a word we don’t like. Diabetes = dependent on insulin. Commute = dependent on a car. Can’t live without these things. Jesus, who holds everything together, holds you. You are dependent on him. Do you acknowledge that? Or do you still try and live independently from him?
App. What do we do?
Serve without expecting recognition or reward. Our reward is not here. We serve because God told us to.
Don’t excuse yourself from sitting at his table. Sitting at the lowest seat is still at his table. Looking at your fields away from the banquet is not at his table. Don’t live independently from Jesus. You can’t do it.
Christ - All of these truths point toward and end. The reward we will receive is sitting at his banquet. Salvation is consummated in the resurrection. Where the bride of Christ will enter into eternity with Christ and the marriage supper of the lamb will commence.
Conclusion
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
