Luke 14:15-24

Luke chapter 14 versus 15 through 24. And when one of them that sat at meet with him heard these things, he said unto him, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then he said unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready. And they all, with one consent, began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray they have me excused. And another said, I have bought. five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that the servant came and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets, and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there’s room. And the Lord said under the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none. of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. God bless to us his sacred this morning. We talked last week about Christ’s discourse regarding being feasting and who you invite to the feast and so forth. And we see the duty of the feast and so forth. morality goes beyond inviting those who can repay you. And we see that you’re not absolutely forbidden to invite friends and relatives and even the rich to a feast with you. But that’s not charity. Your feast, we also said, should not be a personal show for your wealth to show for your wealth to show off your splendor and how much you have and what kind of feast you can provide and so for. The duty of hospitality should make you eager, we said, to help those who are poor, especially the Christian poor. And it’s commendable hospitality, which requires you to help those who are in need. And you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the Jesus of the Jesus, just for helping the poor. And we looked at Matthew 25 regarding that. Now, at this point, Christ elevates his discourse, changes it into a more spiritual direction than it was before. And he starts talking about the great gospel feast here. The occasion of this discourse was, given by one of the guests, which stated this in response to what Jesus had previously said, the guest said, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Verse 15. Now, it’s not easy to determine exactly what the man had in mind. Jesus having mentioned the resurrection, of the just, he may have in mind the kingdom of God above. We know there is the marriage supper of the land, a great feast that is to come for the people of God. And it speaks of the happiness of heaven, set forth in that kind of phraseology. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, Revelation 199. The man, however, most probably referred to the people God on earth. And like most Jews at this time, they had a carnal view of what the Messiah’s kingdom would be like. It would be like most of your other kingdoms in this world. On several occasions, when the tendency to carnalize to carnalize, was brought to the forefront. Jesus would change the thinking of people and bring out the spiritual aspects. It’s a spiritual kingdom I’m talking about, not an earthly and material kingdom. It’s within you the kingdom of God. And we find that he’s that it’s that it’s, if my kingdom of this world, like everyone else’s kingdom, my servants would fight. And so Jesus here spiritualizing the feast of the Messiah, for many had erroneous ideas about it. And this leads to the present discourse about the great gospel feast. So we see how he’s transitioned from regular feasting. now to something spiritual in nature. This is why it is presented in the form of a parable, because parables take something that is of the earth and gives a spiritual meaning to it. And that’s what we have here before us. Now, he focuses your attention on the true blessings of salvation under the image of this gospel feast. For physical and material things are used to portray spiritual things. So Jesus corrects the man’s false ideas, I believe, by elevating his discussion to the blessings of the gospel. You remember in the question. count of the woman at the well. He elevated the issue of getting water to the spiritual blessings of the water of the water of life. That, well, if you drink of, you will live forever. So here we have Jesus elevating the matter and starting to speak of the great feast of the gospel. Now let me begin by saying this. You should realize what blessings. are associated with this great feast. Verse 16 of our text says this. Then he said, A certain man made a great supper and bade many. The parable of the great supper in verses 16 to 24, we find is intended to instruct all those who are present about the gospel feast. And of course, since it’s written in scripture, it’s for all of us that it’s written out. Now, you are called to partake of the blessings of the saving knowledge through the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a blessing of the saving knowledge of the saving knowledge through the gospel of Jesus Christ. His life eternal, scripture says, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, John 17. 3. Surely, you should count all things but lots, but for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. As Paul says in the book of Philippians, this is the most important thing. more important than our daily bread is that we know the Lord, and that’s what this feast is associated with. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, Philippians 3A. So you are called to feast on the free and the full pardon of all your sins, and the fact of acceptance with God. Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4 and 7 and 8. Here we’re talking about a way for someone to be totally forgiven and not be charged, to his account not charge with sin. And this is such a blessing. It should be great joy like a time of feasting. This scripture says in, thus scripture says this in Ecclesiasties 9. 9.7, son, go thy way, eat thy bread with joy. Drink thy wine with a merry heart. For God now, now. accepteth thy works. There’s a feast here. God has accepted us and we are embraced in Jesus Christ. In Matthew 22, which Russell read earlier, the gospel is portrayed as being called by God the king to come to the marriage supper of his. son, Jesus Christ. And there is that in Christ and the grace of the gospel which will be food and a feast for the soul of man, as Matthew Henry puts it. In Isaiah 226, and in this mountain, shall the Lord of hosts, make unto all people, a feast. of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves. Again, we have this idea of God providing a feast for people. You should realize then what blessings are associated with the gospel. Labor not for that meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endoth, but for that meat which endureth, unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, John, chapter 6. And that’s what we’re talking about this morning. Now, secondly, what is implied in you coming to this gospel feast? What does that mean to come to the feast? Well, it supposes your desire and your endeavor to obtain the blessings associated with the gospel message. The gospel is a feast of fat things because of the multitude of blessings that are found in the gospel. It’s rich and satisfying food for your soul. Everything your soul needs is supplied by the gospel. There’s nothing lacking for the salvation of your soul. All is provided by Christ himself. and is received by believing in him. Now look with me at John chapter 6, beginning with verse 53. One more book over, John chapter 6, beginning with verse 53. And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, verily I said to you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood. You have no life in you. Oosovo eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him, as the living father has sent me, and I live by the father. So he that eateth me, Even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Now, obviously Christ is not talking about cannibalism in this passage of scripture. He’s not talking about literally eating of him, but you’ll notice. In verse 47 through 51, what he means. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat man in the wilderness and her dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he is. shall live forever. And the bread that I give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. And so we see here, Jesus indicating that his work, his death on the cross, his suffering, his perfect life, all these things, we partake of by faith, and we get the blessing that comes from. that should bring us joy like being in a feast. Because it is a rich feast to enjoy these benefits that Christ provide. You know, it is a vain idea that the unspeakable precious blessing of the feast of salvation may be purchased with money or holy living or something of this nature. As Peter said, thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Acts chapter 8. The scripture emphasizes the freeness of the gospel feast. You come without money. You come without price. You come without price. come as you are. Here’s what the scripture says. O every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Ye come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfies not. Harkened. diligently unto me. And eat ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear unto me. Here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55 tells us about this. One to three, I believe it is. And so he’s saying here, eat of me. Listen to what I’m saying. Believe it. And live. Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It’s a fat feast. There’s nothing lacking in Jesus Christ. To come to this feast then is to receive the gospel by faith. You accept the blessings for you. And dedicate. yourself to the Lord, desiring to be holy in heart and life. So what is implied by you coming to the great gospel feast? It means believing on Christ. The third thing this morning is this. You find God employs his son, his servants, to call people to this great gospel feast. Now the Lord God, is the master of the house that makes the great gospel feast, as Matthew 22, I think, makes very clear to us. His own son is the chief servant, or a messenger of the covenant, whom God sent to call guest to the feast. Now, I don’t know if you notice, if you listen carefully or not, but you’ll notice in Matthew 22, servants is plural. where here the word servant is singular. And I think in the singular part, Christ is the great messenger of the covenant and his apostles and his gospel ministers are also servants and do the same kind of work. But Christ is the primary one that we’re dealing with here. Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I have polled, mine elect, in whom my soul delighted, I have. put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now, during his personal ministry on earth, Jesus labored untiringly to present the gospel. He went throughout all Galilee. He went through Judean. He spoke at the temple. He spoke all kinds of places, little and great, to present the gospel and of Jesus Christ. Especially he called the Jews to this great gospel feast because, as he said, he was sent to the lost sheet of the House of Israel. And so at first, his focus was only with regard to the Jews. Now, there were some Gentiles that were converted. We know that the woman at the well was a Samaritan. We also know that the Roman centurion also believed there were men and women who did believe who were not Jews. But for the most part, Christ’s ministry was to the Jews. But as we saw in Matthew 22 and here in this gospel, they made all kinds of excuses, to come and we’ll have to look at that in detail later. But Matthew classifies this call as that made by a king. I want you to think about that in this. This implies that this is not a mere invitation. You know, when the king gives you a call, the implication is it comes with authority. You know how to obey it. You have a demand. It is to obey it. Jesus, he doesn’t plead with men. Please, please come to the feast. As though the power rests with men. But as the gospel tells us, God commanded all men everywhere to repent. He comes as a command to us. Therefore, to make an excuse not to come, places us in dire situations, which the king, because he has commanded us to come. Christ, we read in scripture, is going to come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Second Thessalon is 1A.8. What does it mean that they didn’t obey the gospel? It means when the king said, repent and belief on my son, and you didn’t do it, you’re going to be held accountable for that. There are those who never hear the gospel. So what do they know? They don’t know anything. They know not God. But there are those who hear the gospel, but don’t obey it. And they will be held accountable. And so this is not an offer. It’s not really an invitation, per se, but it’s a command that you are to obey. And you’ll notice that men of every description are called the righteous and the wicked. The respectable, I should say, and the wicked. The high and low of society. Those who resent it, those who embrace it. In particular, it is those who are sinners who have something wrong with them that need this good gospel health that’s being spoken of. He mentions here the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind. For Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners. sinners. Sinners to repentance. In other words, the most depraved, the chief of sinners are called to receive the blessing of pardon and mercy and sanctifying grace through the gospel. All that the Father giveth unto me shall come unto me, and him that cometh unto me, I will no wise cast out, Jesus said. There is every reason for you to come then to the gospel feast. Every reason. The king commands you. you to do so. There are great blessings associated with, including eternal life. Are you laboring and heavy ladened because of the burden of sin that you feel? Or Jesus says, come unto me. And I will give you rest. Are you thirsty? Are you dying because you lack the water of life? Jesus said, if a man any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, and your soul will be satisfied. Are you poor and hungry? Jesus said, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Your personal sinfulness should not keep you from coming to the feast. For Jesus Christ receiveth even the worst of sinners. were told here. So you find God here employs his servants to call people to this great gospel feast. And so this is important for us to note. Now let me conclude. Jesus turns the conversation from a human feast to that of the great gospel of the truth. Now here is an important skill that we should learn from Christ. And that is to be able to turn the things of this world to spiritual conversation. To bring to light something spiritual that could be portrayed in the earthly things of this life. The blessing the blessings of this great gospel feast is the knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ. It is the full and free pardon of every sin that you’ve ever committed. It is spiritual food to nourish your soul. Coming to the great gospel feast, we said, implies a desire to obtain all the spiritual blessings granted us in the Savior Jesus Christ. You’ve partake of the full provision of Christ eating and drinking of Jesus Christ, we said, is to believe on him. It’s important we said to emphasize the freeness of these spiritual blessings. One must just believe and he will receive. Admission to the gospel feast then is free. God employs his servants to call men and God employs his servants to carry the gospel to people of all walks of life, all social status, all states of sinners, for all need to eat of the feast. So when we look at eternal life, we should see it as a joyous blessing like a great feast given by a king. And we should find in Jesus Christ the the nourishment, the strength that we need. He is the Savior. He is the bread of life for us to eat. Well, let’s close with a word of prayer this morning.