Come to the Banquet of the Lord! (Luke 14, Jeff Kliewer)

Augustine’s Conversion and the Call to the Banquet

Turn with me to Luke 14, if you will. Luke chapter 14, you can find that on a phone or on a device or if you have a Bible with you. Luke chapter 14. Before we begin, let's pray. Father, how wonderful your love for us.

You are a wonderful maker. You made us and you gave us everything that we have. You're a wonderful savior. You saved us through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Now Lord, we pray that you would be here with us and fill us with your Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.

Help us to understand your word. These words would be a mystery to us in the natural man. We need your Holy Spirit to teach us what these words mean to us. Speak to us, God, we need you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Augustine was a African in the fifth century, in the 400s AD. His mother was a Christian and raised him to believe in Christ, although he personally never did. He went off to Rome and to different parts of the Roman Empire to study rhetoric and follow the different teachings of Plato and the different important leaders of the day.

He went from movement to movement, but never embraced Christianity. In fact, he thought that Christian preachers were boring. Now don't amen that part. He thought they were boring and he didn't believe them until he heard a man named Ambrose preach.

And intellectually he believed what Ambrose preached about Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. However, Augustine could not become a Christian because he recognized there was something in his life that he was not willing to give up.

He was living with a woman and they were having sex and he enjoyed that and he did not want to give that up even though he knew that what the preacher was saying was true. And so this wrecked him for two years where he was in a struggle and he was amazed that he could be presented with something eternal and life-giving and not be able to take it for so base a thing as sexual gratification.

And so he didn't become a Christian until one day sitting out back in a garden, he sunk his hands into his face and began to cry, recognizing the struggle that was inside of him and what was at stake, eternal life or eternal damnation.

He was stuck there in that moment because he could not forsake his sin until he heard a sound from next door, over the fence, pick it up and read, pick it up and read. A chanting sound over and over, pick it up and read.

And he began to think, is this a children's song? Is this something I've never heard, pick it up and read before. Until he realized that the voice of this child was not a mere song, it was God calling him, speaking through this little boy or little girl, calling him to pick up the Bible and read.

And when he flipped open the scriptures, it turned to Romans chapter 13, verses 13 and 14, which called him no longer to gratify the desires of the flesh, but to put on Christ and to make no provision for the flesh.

And in that moment, he counted the cost, he said, I believe, and he forsook his sin and he became a Christian. Do you know that Augustine, Augustine, however you say it, became probably the most influential Christian of all time after the apostles?

Guiding the church for a thousand years through his writings, wrote a million words, including the book, City of God. But it only came after that struggle and after that genuine conversion where he was born again.

He was baptized by Ambrose a little while later. And the rest is history, the rest is in the books. And so we sit here this morning, many of us in the same spot as Augustine. All of us with the same call that's being offered.

Come to the banquet, a call to come to the banquet of the Lord and to dine with him in heaven for all eternity, a free offer that we're going to read about in Luke 14. But there's three things that I want us to see.

False Religions, Hypocrisy, and the Sabbath Healing

Number one, to come to the banquet, you have to get away from the false religions of this world. The hypocrisy and the man-made traditions that enslave people and keep people from coming to the genuine thing.

That's the first thing. A second thing is you have to hear this call and accept it. You personally have to accept the call to come to Christ, to believe in him. And thirdly, you have to repent of your sin.

You have to turn away from sin, count the cost, be willing to hate the things of this world in comparison to your love for Christ. Those three things are in Luke 14. Let's go there. Luke 14, we're picking up in verse one and what we like to do at this church is we just like to go verse by verse and let the scriptures teach us what God says to us.

So the scriptures will unfold the sermon today. Verse one and following. One Sabbath, that's a Saturday that was sacred to the Jews. It was a day of rest where they weren't to do any work. One Sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.

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? And they could not reply to these things. So picture the scene. Jesus has been invited to somebody's house to have dinner and they're dining together.

And there in the midst is a man who has dropsy. So dropsy is a kind of illness that usually has to do with heart failure where the body will begin to swell. And there's swelling all over the body. You could even push your finger into a spot and the skin would not recover but the indentation would remain.

That's how you could tell that someone had dropsy. So it's swelling all over the body, severe condition and possibly close to death for this person. They're at the Pharisees' house. Now recognize if you have been reading with us through the book of Luke, the Pharisees have been a problem, haven't they?

And Jesus has not pulled any punches in talking to them. He's called them out directly, called them to the carpet and rebuked them publicly. So when you see in verse one that he's been invited to dine with them, that's a surprising thing.

I mean, Jesus and the Pharisees are not exactly getting along at this time and yet they've invited him over. Notice in verse one at the end it says, they were watching him carefully. The invitation was not to honor Jesus, it was to watch Jesus.

Their design is to expose Jesus as some kind of fraud. They want reason to accuse him and it's a Saturday, the day of rest, it's a Sabbath and so this man who's got dropsy in their midst, in order to heal him, to lay hands on him, would in their minds be work.

It would take work for Jesus to heal this person and therefore he would have to break the Sabbath. Remember, they're looking for a reason to accuse him. They're no friend of Jesus. So the man is there in verse three, Jesus asks them a question.

He says, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? Look at their reaction in verse four. They remained silent. They had nothing to say. They can't answer, just dumbfounded. If they say, yes, it's lawful, then they can't accuse him.

But if not, they can't point to anything in the Bible. See, here's the problem. For them, it's unlawful because of their man-made traditions. They have added to the word of God about the Sabbath and they have added layer upon layer, rule after rule, applying to the Sabbath that really came from their own minds, not from the word of God.

It's a false religious system that they've built that Jesus is about to tear down. So in verse four, what happens? He took him and healed him and sent him away. Jesus has the power to heal. With the word, he heals this man.

And notice, he sends him away. It is essential for us to get away from hypocrites. Religious teachers that would lead you into a system that doesn't come from God but comes from man. One of the great hindrances on planet Earth to going to the banquet, which is heaven, is there are so many man-made systems that are vying for your attention, trying to pull you in.

And guess what? The primary idol factory that makes these religions is us. Each one of us comes up with a system in our own minds that justify our own behavior. We tell ourselves that we're okay, that we don't need Jesus Christ because God accepts us as we are.

We come up with a system to rationalize our behavior so that we would be right with God on our own terms. That's what's called making yourself a god. Writing your own rules, defining truth for yourself.

But it's the essence of hypocrisy. Standing in the place of God, which only he can stand. Verse seven and following, now. So things aren't going well for the Pharisees here. They've been silenced and he exposes them by healing the very person that they couldn't help.

What they couldn't do, Jesus did. Verse seven and following, Luke 14. Now he told a parable to those who were invited. When he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him.

And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.

Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Look, note to self. If you wanna be a religious hypocrite, Jeff, if I ever wanna be a religious hypocrite, don't invite Jesus to the table.

All he will do is expose your hypocrisy. These guys invited Jesus to the table, and he notices things about what's going on at that table. He says, look how you picked the seats of honor. You love the seat right next to the host, the most honored spot.

You want that honor for yourself. You should have given it to someone else instead of lifting yourself up. I think of the 1950s in Montgomery, Alabama. People claiming to be Christians reserved the first four rows of a bus for whites only, lifting up themselves in religious pride, yet claiming to be Christians.

But who knows the name James Blake today? That was the name of the bus driver. The guy who exalted himself in these religious traditions, honoring themselves, taking the first seats, are now the dishonored.

Who here knows the name Rosa Parks? Because those who humble themselves will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled. This is what Jesus is teaching. They took the seats of honor for themselves.

They were the essence of hypocrisy, and yet God exalted the humble. And so Jesus calls them out, and he says, get away from here. When he heals that man of dropsy, the first thing he tells them is get out of here.

And I'll say the same thing to you. If you're following a system that comes from anywhere else but this book, get away, get away. There are religions and traditions, cults, that claim to teach this book, but make up their own stuff.

It comes from their own mind. The preacher says what he wants to say rather than what the book says. And it enslaves people to the lies of man-made tradition. All over this planet, all over this globe, it's happening on this Sunday morning.

Claiming the name of Christ, yet it's man-made tradition. Well, Jesus has one more thing to say to them. Verse 12 to 14, he said also, to the man who had invited him, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Jesus looked around at the dinner, and he noticed it was high society.

It was the religious leaders, the most important people of Jerusalem, and the rich. And he speaks, notice, directly to the man who invited him, the host of the banquet. He says to him, when you throw a banquet, don't just invite the rich and the powerful, so they can repay you by inviting you to their banquet, because that's your motive.

He exposes the motive of this man. It was not giving at all, it was giving in order to get. He exposes that motive. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

Here again, Jesus exposes their hypocrisy. And so that's the first thing. There are hypocritical religions that vie for your attention all the time, to pull you into their man-made rules and their system, which keeps you from the genuine.

And now Jesus will tell about another banquet. He's sitting at a banquet, but now he will tell about a banquet of his own, where he's the host, where he's the master of ceremonies, where he's the one in charge.

The Great Banquet and the Excuses People Make

Verse 15 and following. 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. Now Jesus responds to that comment.

So what's the comment? Hey, anybody who eats bread in the kingdom of God is blessed. They're at a banquet, they're having dinner, and he makes a good observation. That's where you wanna eat bread. Look, we can have our fill of food here on this earth, but guess what, we're hungry the next morning, aren't we?

Almost seems like the more you eat the night before, the more hungry you are in the morning. Gets that metabolism kicked up. But this man makes an astute observation. Blessed is the man who eats bread in the kingdom of heaven.

See, here's the issue. Will you be there? Will you be at that table? Will you be there after the resurrection of the just, seated with God, or will you be outside? Now notice verse 15, that's the question, that's what's stated to him, and Jesus answers in 16 and following.

Let's read it. A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. So Jesus is gonna tell a story to illustrate something here, it's a parable. 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 the 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 the crippled and the blind in the lane.

And the servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done and still there's 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 who were invited shall taste my banquet. The first invited to the banquet were the Jewish people, the nation of Israel and especially here, the leadership of Israel, the Pharisees, the lawyers, the people that he's dining with in this context.

This parable is directed to them. They need to recognize that they're the first invited in the story. A man throws a banquet and he invites the people, the important people, the high society, they're allowed to come.

But one after another, they make excuses. Now, I like what Matthew Henry says at this point about these excuses. Their excuses were what? I bought a field, I have to go look at it. I have some oxen, I gotta go try them out.

I got married, I can't come. The point is, they should have been making excuses for the other thing and value the banquet more than what was happening in their life. They should have been saying, I bought an oxen.

Excuse me while I go to this banquet, I'll have to look at it later. There's a field that I'm considering. I'll look at it later, I gotta go to this banquet. Or I just got married, guess what? Can I bring my wife too?

Is there room in the house for her too? This should have been the priority. Here's the issue. They were valuing the things of this world more than the kingdom of God. They had no concern to eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Their value was placed in this world. I've heard a lot of excuses these days. Because we were part of a basketball team over at the gym and we won like 11 games in a row. And so every team we play, they're making excuses.

And I'm actually kind of prone to this too. One time, my friend Jabri was setting me up. I'm coming down from the baseline, he sets me up. I've got nothing but a wide open lane. And I'm 6 '4", so what should I do?

Dunk it, which is not what I do. I finger roll. And so everybody yells, dunk it, dunk it. And I say, 10 years ago, 10 years ago. Now the truth is, 10 years ago, I finger roll. But that's my excuse. I'm 39 now, I can't dunk anymore.

You see, excuses keep people from the kingdom of God. Come to church. You see, church is like a love feast. You know it was called the love feast back in the day? It was a place where Christians would come and dine together and share life together and receive the bread of life together.

And it was a picture of the coming kingdom of God when God in the midst would serve us at the marriage supper of the lamb. And so every Sunday morning, the Lord's Day, people come to hear the word of God, to receive from God and to enjoy fellowship together.

But don't people make excuses today? I've got a sports, my kid's playing in a sports program. That takes priority over. Or there's a birthday party, or there's, I don't know, any number of excuses, we all make it.

Maybe it's just, I feel tired. We make excuses for coming to hear the word of the Lord. And that's true also of the eternal kingdom of God. Maybe somebody's told you, you need to come to Jesus. Come now so you can be in the eternal kingdom eating bread later.

And you make an excuse, maybe I'll do that when I'm older. But I need to live my life now. There's an invitation going out. But notice this invitation. When people make excuses, God continues going on.

It's almost like he shakes the dust off his feet and says, you don't want this table, I'll take it elsewhere. I'll take the offer elsewhere. So he goes out and invites the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.

Notice this. Those who don't have so much hope in this world come to Christ much more easily than those who feel comfortable here. The poor, the blind, the crippled, they had no problem coming. They were happy to come.

Thank you for inviting me to this banquet. And that's true of the kingdom of God. I'm close with a friend in India. India has a caste system. And this believer, he's a great missionary, great, well, he's from India.

He's a great man of God who preaches Christ. Well, no one's a man of God. Let me take that back. We're all depraved sinners who need Christ. And we're just wretches who hold out the offer of life. And that's what this man does.

He goes throughout India, but guess who responds? By and large, it's the lower class. It's the bottom of the caste system that comes to believe. It says, wow, you're offering me this life, I'll take it.

And yet so often, high society says no. And yet God saves from them too, from all. Notice how it goes. So then, what's the final conclusion of this parable? Go out to the highways and the hedges, the byways, and compel people to come in that my house may be filled.

We're sent out as messengers to invite people to the kingdom of God. Some will come and others will refuse. But we compel them to come in. And now I'll say just a quick word to Christians here. You're a believer.

And someone's told you along the way, this tradition, don't try to convert people with your religion. Just live the Christian life, and they will be attracted to your life, and they'll ask you why you believe.

Maybe you've been told that. Imagine if you were in this parable, and you came back to the master with that answer. The master sends you out to go compel people to come in, and you go back to your master and say, well, master, I walked the streets, and my radiance was shining.

And I was luminescent and brilliant. But nobody asked me, so I didn't tell them. So there's no one to come in. What did the master mean when he said compel? He meant tell them. Not about how your splendor or your glory.

Tell them about the splendor and the glory of another. The master of ceremonies. The host who's offering this life. Tell them about your wonderful God. Tell them about your wonderful savior. Tell them how he made the world, and he's the one that makes your heart beat.

Tell them that he died on a cross, that his blood was shed and poured out on the wood of that cross. For you, if you'll believe. And that he rose from the dead. Now there's some glory, there's some splendor, there's something luminescent and radiant that will attract them to come.

Here's my point. We are commanded to go. Go tell. We need to speak. It's necessary that we use words. Compel them means we preach Christ, not ourselves. And there's nothing in this preacher that would compel anyone to come.

So all I know that I'm to do is to go tell people about Jesus. He's the one who's worthy. So take from this parable a charge to go tell it on the mountains. Go to the highways and byways. Tell the lame, the crippled.

Tell everybody you see that Jesus is alive, that he's the king. Invite them to come to church, yes, but more importantly to him, to know him. Preach Christ and him crucified. Let's go forth as good messengers.

Counting the Cost of Discipleship

Finally, last point. So that's the offer that's there that people have to accept it for themselves. Many will make excuses, but others will come. The final thing, though, is surprising. 25 and following.

You have a big crowd that likes what he has to say. Now, great crowds accompanied him. So there's a lot of people following Jesus here. Great crowds, thousands of people. And he turned and said to them, brace yourself, "'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.'".

Did you hear that? There's a tradition in evangelicalism where you turn to your neighbor and you repeat what the preacher says and you slap him a high five. Slap him a high five and say, I'm blessed more than the rest.

Can you imagine doing that with this text? Turn to your neighbor and say, I hate you. What is Jesus saying here? Slap him a high five, I hate you. Verse 26, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he's going on and on, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

What is our Savior, who is love, who taught us love, to love your neighbor as yourself, what is he teaching us here? He's saying that you need to so value the host of the banquet. You need to so worship him that every other affection in your life looks like hate compared to it.

So he's not literally here saying to hate someone. He's teaching how strong your love for the host needs to be if you want to follow him. Why? Because anybody in your life could very well disown you for following Christ and the early listeners understood that.

Christians were often put out of their homes and disowned for naming the name of Christ. And Jesus understood that. Verse 27, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

So the idea of hating your family is not to be taken literally, but rather to exalt Christ as worthy of devotion, even if it costs you everything. So have you counted that cost? If you haven't, look at 28 and following.

For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.

The man building on the foundation, he couldn't do it. Because he hadn't realized how much it would truly cost him. So when the going got tough, he was out. We have some people getting baptized today.

Three people. And I'm actually going to dismiss you guys now to go put the robes on. I bring this up now because baptism pictures what this text is all about. Baptism means that as Jesus carried the cross, buried a cross, died on that cross, and was buried in the ground only to rise on the third day, to follow Jesus means this.

You need to die. You need to die to your old way of living, be buried under the ground, and come back to life. This water that we have here, pictures for us dying with Christ and rising to new life. It's identifying with Christ.

Jesus died on the cross, he was buried, he rose from the dead. And so we get laid down underwater like a dead man, buried, only to come right back up with new life. What does it say to the world? It says, I'm crucified with Christ.

I no longer live, but Christ who lives in me. The old things have gone. Behold, all things have been made new. The water of baptism pictures being buried with Christ. It's saying, I'm willing to count the cost, even if people make fun of me, even if people disown me, and if we lived in the Middle East right now, even if ISIS kills me, I will leave the man-made religion and the tradition for the genuine.

I'll get away from that even if it costs me my life. That's what Jesus is talking about. Verse 29, all who see it begin to mock him. 30, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not first sit down and deliberate whether he's able with 10 ,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20 ,000?

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. The man going to war, if he recognizes he can't defeat this army that's coming against him, he needs to send a delegation and ask for terms of peace.

In the same way, count the cost of becoming a Christian. Are you willing to forsake this world? Like Augustine who was, he was plagued with this question for two years. Eventually he said, no, all the pleasures of this world are worthless compared to the eternal glory of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord.

Count the cost, but in the end, sell out everything in this world and do follow him. He alone can save you, he alone is worth it. Verses 34 and 35, salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It's of no use, either for the soil or for the manure pile. It's thrown away, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. You say, wait a minute, I'm trying to hear, but I don't understand, what's the salt that loses its saltiness?

Someone who claims to be a Christian has been around Christianity, but in the end turns away, loses its saltiness. This is the picture of an apostate. Someone who wanted to look the part of Christianity, but in the end, they weren't really willing to bear that cross, and so they depart.

And the end of that person is not good. The end is the manure pile, it's thrown away. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear. So in conclusion, there's just three things. Get away from man-made tradition, even your own justifications of why you don't need Christ, and why you'll be okay on your own.

Get away from those things. Number two, hear this invitation. You are invited. You say to yourself, well, wait a minute, you don't know what I've done. Well, you don't know what I've done, either. I'm not worthy to be invited to this table, but I stand here preaching the word because I accepted the invitation that was by grace.

His blood washed away my sin, and I had nothing to bring to the table. I had no dish to bring. I didn't bring the dessert. I had nothing to bring to the table, and he said, you're welcome at my table, and so this is what I say to you.

No matter what you've done in the past, the blood of Jesus is valuable enough to cover that sin, no matter what it is. This offer is open and real and genuine. It's extended to everyone, and it's going forth all over the planet today, isn't it?

So what's the cost? Count it. Leave everything behind. You don't have to do any religious ritual to be saved, but you have to recognize to turn to Christ means to turn away from this world, to count him more valuable than any other thing.

Let go of your pride. Let go of your intellect. Augustine was one of the most intelligent people in the history of the world. He had to humble himself like a child to come and believe. Humble yourself.

Repent of your sin. Turn away and follow Christ. So with that, I'm gonna give an opportunity for anyone here that would like to accept Christ. Worship team, would you come on up? We're gonna do one more song, and then we're gonna do a baptism.

When you see the baptism, it's a picture of the gospel. This gospel is for you. So right now, let's just all bow our heads, close our eyes. If you've heard this invitation, and you want to accept Christ, you want to repent of your sin, count the cost, and follow Christ, with all eyes closed and heads bowed so that we're not a distraction to each other, you want to be a follower of Christ.

You want to eat bread in the kingdom of God. You believe Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead. Would you just slip your hand up in the air right now so I can see it? You want to accept Christ.

Count the cost. I turn away from this world. Would you just slip your hand up so I can see it? Not for anybody else? Okay, wonderful, wonderful. Is there anybody else that would just like to pray to accept the Lord?

All right. Here's how you accept that invitation. You say yes, and you call on his name to save you. So in your own heart, confess your sins to him. Confess them, he hears you, he knows them anyway. Ask him to take your sin away.

Tell him that you believe that Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead to bring you to God. Invite him to come into your life and save you. Call him Lord, not just Savior. That you will submit to him and turn away from the things of this world.

And when you fall short, you'll repent quickly and ask for forgiveness. But right now, in your heart, say, Jesus, save me. Jesus, save me. Save me from my sins. I want to eat bread in the kingdom of God.

In Jesus' name, amen. Awesome, let's give a hand clap for those who did that. Thank you.