You Are Invited

Rejecting an Invitation

Have you ever been invited to a party and tried to come up with some kind of excuse for why you couldn’t come?

Pam and I were invited one of my coworker’s one time.

She was a Witch, like not a mean person, but an actual Witch that does Magik and the whole bit.

We didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know her husband. So we (probably mostly me) tried to come up with some kind of excuse why we couldn’t come.

But we (mostly Pam) figured we moved to ND to share Jesus with lost people and this was a great opportunity.

It was definitely awkward at times, but overall we had a good time. Actually went back one other time.

It is usually pretty easy to come up with an excuse for something you really didn’t want to go to isn’t it.

But you likely wouldn’t come up with an excuse for something really fun, exciting, or a rare opportunity right?

Amazing tickets to a sports event.

Great seats and backstage passes to a concert

A trip to a tropical island or cruise.

What about an invitation to TWWAW, God’s promised, perfect world?

Would you pass up on that?

Would you have excuses for not taking that invitation?

The Banquet and the Kingdom of God

Over the past few weeks we have looked at the desire we all have for the perfect world.

A world with our suffering, conflict, sickness, hunger, or death.

A peaceful, glorious world where we will not want and will be satisfied.

We looked how God has promised that world in Revelation, and how Jesus gave us glimpses of that world in His life.

We looked at why the world is broken, our rebellion against God, and how we as human beings cannot fix this broken world or our own brokenness.

And that Jesus is the hope we have to experience God’s perfect world.

And He extends that invitation to any who would come to Him.

But many, well-meaning, decent, even religious people will miss that invitation for a few different reasons:

Why People Miss the Kingdom of God

1) Because some let GOOD things become bad EXCUSES.

The parable tells of a rich man who invited many to come to a banquet.

The man was likely wealthy and invited others of his social class to come for the party.

He would have sent out an invite a few weeks before the party to let people know it was coming up so they could RSVP and he would have time to prepare for the numbers who would come.

After receiving the RSVPs and preparing for the banquet, he sends out a second invite/announcement letting them know everything is ready, so come on over.

“But without exception they all began to make excuses.”

First one said he had bought a field and needed to go and check on it.

Similarly, the second said he had bought 5 yoke of oxen, or pair of oxen and needed to go see them.

On the surface both of these seem like fairly decent excuses. I have some quite important things to do.

I would love to come, but my financial livelihood depends on me going to look at this field or these oxen I purchased.

I just don’t have time to party right now.

The third person mentioned says “i just got married so I can’t come anymore.”

“It sounds like a real great event, but I really need to focus on my family right now. Give time to my wife since we just got married.”

None of these excuses are bad or immoral excuses.

They were excuses that any of us would likely make, or have made.

The problem is that they didn’t recognize the importance of the invitation.

They considered what they were doing to be a lot more valuable and significant than what they were being invited to.

Apathy toward the things of God is more of an epidemic in our culture and in our own lives than any thing else we are faced with.

It isn’t that people are flocking to other religions or rejecting the idea of the existence of God, they just aren’t all that concerned with it.

The even scarier thing is that Christians are increasingly becoming more and more apathetic about the things of God.

Careers, entertainment, hobbies, sports, travel, and so many other things are so accessible that our attention and our time is monopolized.

Many of the things that take up our time, that we give attention to, and that dominate our minds aren’t bad things.

Our jobs/careers are good things. For us to make money and take care of our family, as well as be creative and productive.

Spending time with our family is a good thing. It is something God finds deeply important.

Hobbies, entertainment, and the like are not evil or immoral things (mostly) and give us opportunities to rest, enjoy life, and even connect with others.

But these good things too often become ultimate things in our lives. Like little gods that we give ourselves and worship with out time, attention, and money.

So as we give ourselves over to these things as gods, our appetite for the things of God dulls

The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable. -John Piper

We fail to understand that the invitation is not to a lame, boring church service in the sky where we will play harps and sing hymns.

We have been invited to a banquet feast, where the desire for a perfect world that lives deep in our hearts will be fully and gloriously satisfied.

Don’t let good things become poor excuses.

Luke 14:25–27 ESV

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.

For some here today the thought of following Jesus just cost too much.

2) Because some don’t think their INVITED.

You have to know the context of the parable to understand what Jesus is doing here.

Luke 14:1–6 ESV

1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

The Pharisees were the super religious types of the day and they really hated Jesus.

They tried several times to trap him so that they could charge with something or at least discredit him to the crowd.

So Jesus goes to the house of one of the leading Pharisees (maybe Nicodemus from John 3) for a meal.

As they sit down for the meal, a man with Dropsy (a condition where you retain a lot of fluid in your tissue) is suddenly before Him.

This is not an accident, because a man with Dropsy would have been considered unclean and sinful, so he would not have been invited to a Pharisee’s house without a purpose.

They were going to try and trap Jesus, so they were “watching him closely.”

If He heals the man on the Sabbath then they will get Him for breaking the Sabbath laws.

But if He doesn’t heal the man then they could accuse Him of being cold and hardhearted.

Jesus never falls for their tricks.

He asks the wise religious men if it is lawful for someone to heal on the Sabbath.

If they answer yes, then they are liable, but if they answer no they would be the cold, hardhearted ones.

After Jesus heals the man He asks that powerful and personal question

Which one of you would leave your son, or even your ox, in a well to potentially die just to follow a bunch of rules you made up yourself about the Sabbath day.

They have no answer, because they knew He was right.

Jesus follows with a short parable and lesson on throwing parties.

The point in both was to stop thinking of yourself as the most important and most valuable.

So when we get to our parable, Jesus is making a very powerful statement.

For those the world deems insignificant, undesirable, or deficient...

And for those that religious people have labeled broken beyond repair, unworthy, or unacceptable...

God invites them to the party.

4x Jesus extends an invitation in this passage. He keeps saying, “Come!

Let the poor and the broken come!

Let the wandering and afraid, come!

Let those who have fallen away come! Let the shamed and rejected come.

Let those who are discouraged, come!”

Let those who have been abused, come!

Let those whose lives are filled with regret, come!

Whosoever will may come!

He doesn’t say to come and stay who you were, He says to come and be made new.

This parable is tremendous news to those here today who feel unworthy to be invited to the party.

The master send the servant into the streets and the ally, then into the highways and hedges where those who were unworthy to even enter the gates of the city would have been.

You are invited to the party, not because you are good enough, but because Jesus was good enough and invites you to join Him through His blood.

3) Because some WON’T make it to the PARTY.

There were 2 invitations sent.

The first was an RSVP

The second was an announcement

Luke 14:24 ESV

24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

Jesus had shared the parable in third person until verse 24.

The ones who thought they were good because they checked the “Yes” box on the RSVP, they wouldn’t be at the party.

This is a serious and tragic warning for anyone who rests their eternity on an event that happen 5, 10, or 20 years ago and yet has little to no effect on their lives today.

I have been to funerals where the pastor points to a baptism 20 years ago and hinges someones entire eternity on that few minutes when there is little to no evidence that the person laying in that coffin had any real relationship with Jesus.

No one is perfect. We all stumble and fall. We all get off track and wander from time to time.

But if you are here and you made a profession of faith years ago, even got baptized, and yet God has been a distant afterthought in much of your life since, then there is a real good chance that you will not make it to the party.

But it isn’t too late.

Don’t let pride keep you for admitting your need for a savior.

Don’t let excuses keep you from tasting the glorious feast God is preparing for those who trust in Him.

Acts 2:21 CSB

21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Response

In the quietness of your soul right now, ask the Spirit to reveal in your hearts how you need to respond today.

Are you making excuses?

Do you feel unworthy for an invitation?

Have you gotten off track?

Right now, I want to encourage you to speak to Jesus.

He is listening and He is ready to receive you, either for the first time, or for the hundredth time.