Sermon Summary
Refusing the invitation of someone throwing a dinner party seems inconsequential, but not when that someone is Jesus, King over all things, and when his dinner party is actually an eternal banquet. This parable is meant to reveal the danger in placing other things—anything, in fact— above the priority of knowing Christ and accepting his merciful invitation to those who are spiritually destitute.
The Sermon Text
“When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”” (Luke 14:15–24 ESV)
The Main Point of the Sermon
Nothing is more eternally consequential than undervaluing the invitation to sit at Jesus' banquet table.
SERMON APPLICATION
Psalm 139:23-24
"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"
Our hearts have what seems like an endless ability to be hidden from us. The warning of this parable is to not presume that we'll be on good terms with the Master even if we functionally reject what he calls for us to do in order to enter his kingdom. So, we are in need of the Holy Spirit to search us and to reveal wherever we might be clinging to the neglect of following Christ wholeheartedly. What priorities have you allowed to subvert the greatest priority of following Christ? What might be a hindrance or misplaced love that prevents you from following and obeying all that Christ has commanded? What sort of things have stripped your excitement and readiness to be at his banquet?
________________________________________
RESOURCES FOR THIS WEEK
LISTEN
DWELL Playlist - Week 4, 2021
If you don't utilize Dwell, please click HERE to join for free.
Read the Following Scriptures
(while you listen if you utilize Dwell)
Day 1 - Isaiah 25-26
Day 2 - Revelation 19-21
Day 3 - Luke 14:12-35; Psalm 139
Day 4 - 2 Samuel 9; Psalm 23
Day 5 - Philippians 3-4
Day 6 - Matthew 22:1-14; Ephesians 1
WATCH
Bible Project Video Explaining Parables