The Banquet Guests Luke 14 Vs 15 24

Well, good morning to everyone. It's good to see you and good to see that you are all faithful.

I think in life, as I look at life, the Lord wants us to be faithful.

And there's a lot of times I'd like to do this or that, but then the Lord speaks to me and says, just be faithful.

And so I encourage each of you to be faithful in what the Lord has laid on your heart to do. And it's good that you're here faithfully coming out.

I think most of you know that my father was a pastor. And every now and then someone would go out of the church

Sunday morning and shake hands with him and says, pastor, I won't be here tonight, but I'll be there in spirit.

My dad would say, it's pretty hard to preach to spirits. And so we enjoy having you out.

It's good to have fellowship together with each other. So just a couple of announcements before we get started in singing.

First of all, the women's Bible study will be this coming Saturday here at the church back in the fellowship hall at 10 a .m.

And they are going through the book of, you're in second Kings now, second

Kings. So come out and enjoy the fellowship together with the ladies there.

And also the next bi -weekly Bible study is

February the 21st at 530. That's not this

Friday. It's the following Friday. So you keep that on your calendar. Let's go to the

Lord in a word of prayer. Heavenly father, we come before your throne.

We thank you for the blessings that you have for us. We thank you for all those people that have come out today that are faithful to your house to glorify you as we sing songs of blessing, as we lift up our voice to praise you,

Lord, may you be in our voice and help us to think not only just sing, but to think of what we are singing.

And we would pray heavenly father, that you would be with a pastor. We pray that you would just guide and direct him and that you would just lay on his heart and help him to give to us the things that you have laid on his heart.

May your word speak to our hearts and life today. And we would thank you for that.

And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I just mentioned that our missionaries of the month are

Jim and Joan Hanson. They worked with the deaf and the deaf blind ministry in the

Los Angeles area. And that's people who can't see, can't hear, and a lot of times can't speak.

And they have been with it for many, many years. And it's a pretty rough ministry.

And yet they are now closing that ministry down. And people are they're having to find places for other these people to go live and so forth.

So you be in prayer with Jim and Joan Hanson. I don't think they're ready to retire themselves.

They're looking for where the Lord would have them go following this. So you pray for them as you think about Jim and Joan Hanson.

They've had a pretty hard ministry and they've been faithful to it for many years. So we thank the

Lord for them. So with that said, if you would stand together with me and we will join in song.

My soul, you surround me.

My home, when times of sorrow, you look so safe and share.

You know... 🎵

In the book of Romans, chapter 11, 11 through 14.

That's Romans 11, 11 through 14. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?

Certainly not. But through their fail to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the

Gentiles. Now, if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the

Gentiles, how much more their fullness. For I speak to you

Gentiles and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.

If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.

Thank you Lord for the reading of your word and we know that it will never return void.

In Jesus name, amen. Sometimes when we hear the amen after this, a lot of people don't realize it.

In today, a lot of times when they agree with somebody, they clap their hands a lot at churches.

But the word amen means so be it. So it's a good thing to learn to say after you agree with somebody, amen.

I agree with that. Let's stand together as we continue to worship our Lord. Jesus, the

Son, praise He, and we sing and we sing to Jesus, the

Son of the Father. Jesus, we sing, praise the

Lord, the

Son, and we sing to Jesus, the

Son of the

Father. Our stance on attending an LGBTQ wedding, so -called LGBTQ wedding, and the leadership unanimously approved of it.

And the reason why I wrote this up is because it is becoming a much relevant topic in our culture.

People are getting invited to these weddings and people have to make decisions.

And there are various pastors and theologians who have differing views.

And I wanted to make sure that it is clear for this church what we believe.

As the LGBTQ plus movement has gained a lot of momentum, many

Christians are faced with the decision regarding attending an LGBTQ wedding, wedding ceremonies for homosexuals, bisexuals, polyamorous, or transvestites.

First, we do not hate anyone based on their sexual orientation. We're called to love them just as Christ does.

And our working definition of love is a passionate desire for God's best for the other person, even at a great cost.

And our standard for love is God's will, not the cultural trend. Hence, it is not possible to truly love someone else while going against Scripture.

Since the Bible is clearly against homosexuality and so -called transgenderism, it is impossible to love the

LGBTQ plus community by affirming their views and lifestyle. Romans 1 .26

through 27, 1 Corinthians 6 .9, 1 Timothy 1 .10. Second, as Christians, we are ambassadors for Christ.

2 Corinthians 5 .20. As ambassadors, what we implicitly or explicitly approve signals

Christ's approval to the public. This calls for discernment and faithfulness to Scripture in whatever we do and say and wherever we go.

Third, as Scripture clearly shows, the only marriage that God approves of is between a man and a woman,

Genesis 2 .24, Matthew 19 .4 through 5. This means God does not, and therefore we do not, view the so -called homosexual wedding, polyamorous wedding, adulterous wedding, and transvestite wedding as legitimate.

Therefore, unless you plan on publicly objecting to the ceremony in person when the officiant gives you the opportunity, we must politely decline to attend such events lest we misrepresent

Christ and His Church. In fact, the most loving thing to do when you're invited to such an event is to kindly decline and explain

Jesus' will for their lives by sharing the gospel. Jesus died for them, suffering for their sin, so that they may live for Him.

And this is our stance as a church. And if you would like a copy of the statement that I wrote,

I'm more than willing to print it out for you. Now let us turn to Scripture.

Let us turn to Luke chapter 14, verses 15 through 24. Luke chapter 14, verses 15 through 24.

Now, when one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him,

Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then he said to him,

A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at suppertime to say to those who were invited,

Come, for all things are now ready. But they all with one accord began to make excuses.

The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it.

I ask you to have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them.

I ask you to have me excused. Still another said, I have married a wife, and therefore

I cannot come. So that servant came and reported these things to his master.

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 here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.

And the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. Then the master said to the servant,

Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. This is the word of the

Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that your invitation goes out to many, and your banquet is spacious.

And Father, we pray that all of us who are here to hear the gospel would respond in faith to leave behind sin and to cling tightly to Jesus, who has died for our sin and rose from the dead, in Jesus' name.

Now this passage is the last passage on the series on the banquets.

Remember, it started out with Jesus eating with the

Pharisees. And during all of these banquets, Jesus warns the

Pharisees that unless they respond, they're not going to be at the eschatological banquet, the banquet in the last days.

This is what we believe is the eternal life.

When you make it to the banquet in the last days, you're going to be with Jesus for all eternity.

And remember that Jesus has been dining with the Pharisees, and they're the religious establishment.

The Pharisees were quite popular among the masses because they took Scripture seriously.

The problem was they also held to the traditions of men.

So it's not that they didn't like Scripture. It's that they held the traditions of elders to be the guiding glasses, lens, to interpret

Scripture. They had the traditions of elders come in between them and Scripture.

Now these are the religious leaders.

These were highly regarded. These were the rabbis, the teachers of the law who guided the lay people, the

Israelites in understanding God's Word. And these were also the very people who ought to have celebrated and trusted

Jesus. Yet, Jesus here ends his dining experience with a stark warning.

If you do not respond in faith, your seats at the banquet will be filled by someone who will.

You will not even get a taste of the food at the banquet table. And this is the plot twist at the end of the meal.

The very people who were vying for the best seats. Remember last week they were arguing, who's going to sit at the best seat?

They will lose their seats in heaven to a bunch of nobodies if they refuse to receive

Jesus. The key to entering the banquet is

Jesus himself. It's how you respond to Jesus. And ironically, these people who think they deserve the best seats will get no seats at all unless they listen to Jesus.

And what's important is that the eschatological banquet, the banquet of the last days, will not be filled with a religious establishment, but anyone and everyone who has responded to the host,

Jesus Christ. It will not be their religious resume that serves as their entry ticket to the banquet hall, but solely the trust in the banquet host.

And this is important because a lot of the times when people hear about Christianity, the church,

Jesus, their main excuse for not trusting Jesus or receiving

Jesus is that they're not good enough. And that's because they're operating on the lie that they have to be at a certain, reach a certain level of holiness, a certain level of goodness, certain accomplishments in community, a certain way they need to be viewed in order to have eternal life with Jesus Christ.

However, this parable shows us it's far from the case. It is not the people who have it all together who are invited to the banquet and will be at the banquet.

It's that many are invited and the only requirement to enter the banquet hall is that you trust that Jesus died for your sin and rose from the dead, which the

Pharisees were not willing to do. So, the main point of this text is while God graciously invites many to his kingdom, only those who faithfully prioritize

Jesus will enter. While God graciously invites many to his kingdom, only those who faithfully prioritize

Jesus will enter. First, those who reject

Jesus make excuses for rejecting his salvation because Jesus is not their priority.

Those who reject Christ make excuses for rejecting his salvation because Jesus is not their priority.

Now, following Jesus' illustration of God's eschatological banquet, the banquet in the last days, the heavenly banquet, a certain

Pharisee makes an astute observation. Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Yes, they may have been fighting over seats just previously, but man,

Jesus, sounds like the kingdom of God that you speak of, man, if you enter the kingdom of God, just any seat is worth it, right?

In a very minimized way, it's kind of like, I'm not a football fan, but if you are a football fan, it's just like if you get a ticket to the

Super Bowl, it seems like any seat is worth it at this point, right? It's like thousands of dollars, some millions.

It really doesn't matter if you get the box seat or you're among the crowds. It seems like if you're a football fan, just any ticket's fine.

But that's what this guy is saying. Jesus, you're talking about this eschatological banquet, man, and it sounds good.

You're getting rewarded by God in the resurrection of the just. At this point, at any seat is just worth it.

Blessed is he, right? God had special favor on you. If you get any seat there, what a privilege it would be to be invited to such a banquet hall regardless of the seating charts.

The assumption here is that the Pharisees will definitely be present at God's eschatological feast.

After all, they are zealous for the kingdom to come. They consistently fast for the restoration of the

Davidic kingdom. They religiously keep their traditions. They know it and other people know it.

Although this guest may be daydreaming about his seat at God's banquet, he and the other

Pharisees, however, have been rejecting the host of the banquet all this time.

Over and over again, they have not responded to Jesus in faith. And in order to challenge this notion,

Jesus tells a parable, a certain man gave a great supper and invited many.

And his servant at his suppertime and sent his servant at his suppertime to say to those who were invited, come for all things are now ready.

This parable starts with a great banquet. Again, it follows the theme of the banquet that Jesus is speaking to these people at a banquet.

The host in this parable is God himself and he invited many.

This is not a privileged private dinner with the politician of your choice if you donated a lot.

Anyone's invited. Everyone's invited here. The first invited guests represent actually the religious leadership, the

Pharisees. After the invitation is sent, it was customary for the host to send out his servants to remind the honored guests the feast is ready.

Now you may come. Right? They don't have text messages or social media. They send out servants, right?

It's ready. You can come now. So the servants are sent out not to send out the invitation that's been sent out.

That's been. That was a while ago. Now the servants are sent out in this case, one servant sent out to remind the guests it's time for the feast.

The food is ready. And similar to the current etiquette, it was actually very rude to not show up after receiving the invitation and RSVP that you'd be there.

And in the end, just flaking out and saying, oh, never mind. Yet we will see three cases of such poor mannered excuses.

And verse 18 gives us the first one. But they all with one accord begin to make excuses.

The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.

Although there are three excuses and there are three different excuses, they reject the host with one mind.

They're unified when they are rejecting the host. Logically, it does not make sense why he needs to go see the piece of real estate that he already owns at the exact time of the feast.

If you own it, you can see it at any time. Couldn't he have done it before the banquet or even after the banquet?

We will never know the answer to this question, but we can know one thing.

This man doesn't have his priorities straight. He values his land much more than the banquet.

He values the site of his land much more than the banquet. The entry to the feast represents the entry to the kingdom of God.

If you make it into the banquet, if you enter the kingdom of God, you are saved. If you enter the kingdom of God, you belong to the king,

Jesus. If you enter the kingdom of God, you're on God's side. That is what's at stake here.

This is not just any meal. This is not a meal where you say, I'm not really that hungry. It is an eschatological meal in which your soul is at stake.

Yet, this person would rather go see about his own field that he owns rather than to respond to the host.

The second excuse is just as lame. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm going to test them.

I ask you to have me excused. The second person is extremely wealthy.

Normally, a general layperson would own maybe one yoke of ox, one animal.

But here, this man has five. That means he must own a lot of land.

Not only that, they are a recent purchase.

He wants to test them out. Think of this in our culture.

I know we don't have oxen here. Unless you do, then please let me know. I would love to learn.

But think of it as I got five new cars.

And they're not Toyota Corolla, right? They're Lamborghini Bugatti.

I got to test them out. I got some shiny toys. I got to see them first.

Please have me excused. The third excuse is even more curtailed.

It's short. Still another said, I have married a wife, and therefore

I cannot come. Unlike the first two guests, he does not even ask to be excused.

He just assumes the host to just understand. Now, this is not to say that marriage is not important, nor did

Israel think new marriage to be less important. After all, when young men were drafted to fight battles and wars, if they were newly married ones, according to Deuteronomy 20, verse 7, they were exempted.

Go back. Go enjoy your time with your newlywed wife. So it was an important thing.

However, it also did not make sense to decline an invitation to an important banquet. After all, there was no chance that he wouldn't return after the banquet in this parable.

It's not like he was going to a war. He was going to a banquet, and it was an important one.

Now, what do these rejections mean? These rejections are more than just a banquet invitation.

It's the rejection of God's only way to salvation.

If you reject Jesus and his ministry, you have misplaced your values.

If you don't prioritize Jesus and his ministry, your priorities are, frankly, out of order.

When you don't value Jesus and reject him, you will prevent yourselves from entering the banquet hall.

And this was exactly what the Pharisees were doing. Note that Jesus did not set up guards, security guards, to prevent the

Pharisees from entering the banquet hall. They were invited. They just refused to enter because they regarded something else much more highly.

They desired something else or someone else higher in value.

They desired that more than Jesus himself. And the rejections of this parable convict the

Pharisees. If you truly believe it is a blessing to eat at God's kingdom, why do you keep on rejecting the host?

Why do you keep making excuses to avoid trusting Jesus? Although this parable applied to the religious establishment in its original context, this also is relevant to us this morning because we all know of people in our lives who make excuses to exempt themselves from following Jesus.

And these people are not ignorant of Jesus. Just like the banquet guests, they've been invited.

They've heard the gospel. They understood its implication. They know that the only way to be saved is that Jesus had to take your place.

You can't be good enough. You just can't perform an infinite amount of good deeds to even erase one sin of your record.

Only God himself had to do it, and that's why Jesus does it by dying on the cross for your sin.

And he rises from the dead. Yet they refuse to follow Jesus.

And here are four common excuses that you may have heard.

First, I'm too busy right now. Second, I don't feel comfortable trying something new.

Third, I want to live a little before I follow Jesus. Fourth, you know what?

Jesus and I are cool. I don't need to do whatever you tell me, right?

I don't really need to commit to him, as you say. These are four vastly different excuses, and if you've heard some of them or all of them, you probably heard them from four different people.

But what they do all have in common is that they have misplaced their priorities. They treasure something or someone else more than Jesus.

They cherish something more than Jesus. So consider this.

If you're too busy right now to follow Jesus, you find your time doing something else more valuable than spending it with Jesus.

That's what that excuse is. I'm too busy right now is I'm too busy for Jesus right now.

Because, frankly, they're not too busy to eat. They're not too busy to work.

They're not too busy to plan their vacations. Second, I don't feel comfortable trying something new means you value your comfort over Jesus.

If you really believe that Jesus is the only way to be saved, then how much worth is your comfort?

And the reason why that excuse works for that person is they value their comfort much higher than their eternal destiny.

Third, I want to live a little before I follow Jesus means you place your pleasures above Jesus.

I want to do what I want to do. And really, that's the lie from the devil.

You getting to do whatever you want to do being the supreme good is really what

Satan tempted Adam and Eve. Hey, that fruit that looks good, did God really say that you shall surely not die?

Oh, you will not surely die. You'll become like God.

You'll become like God if you eat of it, right? It's about self -autonomy. You get to be God. And really, when you make that excuse, you get to be

God. Just for a little bit, though. Of course, eternally, there's only one

God. Fourth, Jesus and I Are Cool shows that you value your standard of relationship with Jesus more so than how

Jesus calls you to follow Him. You have the control over the dosage of Jesus in your life.

You get to control the dose. You get to control the volume.

You get to control the channel. You're in control. You get to decide how you follow

Jesus. It is no longer the Lord and Savior who calls you to bear your cross and follow

Him, put to death your sin, and obey

Him. This is the controlled, safe Jesus who always approves of everything you do and say, who never challenges you to do anything hard.

Yeah, you and Jesus are cool. The reason why you and Jesus are cool is that you and Jesus, in your mind, is actually just you.

You get to set the standard, not Jesus. Not Jesus of the Bible. Now, how do we prevent valuing something more than Jesus?

You have to look to Christ. You have to actually see the true value of Jesus.

The call to follow Jesus is not a call to lose something that's more valuable and gain something that's cheap, right?

This is not a call to give up your mansion so you can live in a mobile home.

The call to follow Jesus is the opposite. Hey, you need to retire that old, clunky 20 -year -old

Kia because there's a new car that will actually run without breaking down.

It's the flip. You have to actually see the true value of Jesus. What are you actually gaining when you respond to Jesus in faith?

Because in the end, all of those excuses are based upon lies about Jesus. It's the lie that Jesus is not worth your time.

It is the lie that Jesus is less delightful than what the world can offer. It is the lie that your comfort is far more pleasant than following Jesus.

What this means, you have to taste and see that Jesus is supremely good.

There's no one else who's sweeter than Jesus. There's no one else who's kinder than Jesus.

There's no one else who's more forgiving than Jesus. There's no one else who is more understanding than Jesus.

And there's no one else who's more loving than Jesus. And there's no one else who died for your sin even though you didn't do anything good, even though you didn't deserve

Jesus dying for you. That's how precious

Jesus is. And this is not just that one time, one day, you make that decision, you pray that prayer, and you're good, right?

It's not when you sign up for an insurance, right? You don't have to worry about it until you have to pay the next year.

It's the act and attitude of consistently seeing how valuable

Jesus is in your daily life. When you wake up in the morning, you just can't wait to feel

His presence when you open up the Bible. When you read it out loud, not that I'm saying you have to, but when you read it out loud, the truth of the

Bible of how much Jesus loves you just hits hard. And you haven't tasted any kind of love like that in the whole world.

How can you reject that kind of love? That has to hit. I'm not saying it has to hit every day.

It probably won't. But those of you who have responded to Jesus, that has happened.

You've experienced that. Wow, even if I lose everything that I own, that I've cherished and valued, the fact that Jesus is with me is more than enough.

It's that you can't wait to talk to Him when you kneel down to pray. And you can't keep it in yourself when you do see that Jesus listens to you and answers your prayers, even if it's the littlest things.

Right? You just can't keep it in because, man, I got to talk to Jesus.

And you're filled with excitement when you think about how He has died for your sin and rose from the dead, and you do not have to hold on to your sin anymore.

That freedom, that light feeling where the burden of sin is gone, that all the bad things you've done, all the bad things that other people know that you've done, that's been taken care of, and it's no longer with you because Jesus had taken it away and suffered on your behalf.

That when that reality hits your heart and it rings true, there's no way you would value anything else but Jesus.

How could you give that away? If you know who Jesus truly is, how can anything and anyone come between you and His invitation?

There's no way you would lose that invitation. Now, what is the host's response to all these rejections?

God extensively fills His kingdom with those who do respond to Christ. God extensively fills

His kingdom with those who respond to Christ. After the servant tells the master of all that happened, the master responds.

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 here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.

The meal is ready. It is prepared. But those who are first invited refuse to come.

Hence, the master formulates a new guest list. The servant goes out to the streets and lanes.

The streets here are the big roadways, the big streets. Of course, not for cars, but it's where a lot of people are passing by.

Think of it as a public square. It's where you run into a lot of people. Go to the big streets.

And lest you think, those are the only people invited, the city folks, go to the lanes, go to the small suburbs, right?

Go to the country roads. Go indiscriminately.

Whether broad public squares or narrow side streets, the servant is to extensively reach out to any and all who are available to come, who are willing to come.

Throw that invitation. Give it to them. The list of the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind are normally the very people who are not invited to fancy feasts.

After all, they won't be able to invite you back. What's the point of inviting them?

However, the host will not postpone the banquet any longer for those who rejected him. He will not say, okay, yeah, go take a look at your field and let me know when you are done and you can come anytime.

That's not the host's response. The time has been set for the eschatological banquet and the food will be served just when the host decides.

He will not wait for those who rejected him. In fact, the rejection of the influential religious establishment is the precursor to the fulfillment of the

Isaianic prophecy found in the book of Isaiah written 700 years before Jesus.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison of those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.

When Jesus comes back, all those people who have been rejected by the world because they have received

Christ will be vindicated. They will be comforted.

They will be restored. And the eschatological blessing of the

Lord will be lavished on the needy and the rejects, social rejects, because they will be the ones who gladly receive the coming of the

Lord. They will actually respond in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the servant faithfully obeys the master's command, yet he runs into another problem.

And the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there's room. In response to this, the master orders the servant to go out even further, go out into the highways and hedges, compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

The highways are actually the roads that exist outside the city proper, right?

The big streets and the lanes were actually in the city, but now the invitation has to go out outside the city.

The hedges represent, like, fences or walls. They're protective structures.

Now, what's the importance of the protective structures? Well, as you can see from Sacramento, where the homeless tends to dwell, it's usually around fences and structures.

Why is that? Why is that for? Because it's protective. You don't have to worry about one side or multiple sides if you're in a corner, right?

It's protective. So a lot of beggars and homeless would actually dwell by hedges, just like now.

The master is actually going beyond who would normally be expected to be invited to the banquet.

He's abundantly distributing the invitation to anyone, anyone who will respond.

This reveals four important aspects of God's kingdom. First, God graciously wants to save.

Ever since the first part of this passage, the invitation was sent out to many. He is not some stingy

God who's dispensing his mercy to just a little group of people, just the ones that he really likes.

The inner circle, there's none of that. Second, God's salvation is extensive.

His invitation goes out far beyond the city. This new group includes not just the

Jews, but really it would include anyone outside the city, the

Diaspora Jews, so the Jews who have been exiled and have not returned to Israel because they've settled elsewhere in a pagan city.

And they weren't looked favorably, right? Basically, they're kind of traitors. You were exiled, and you decided to marry pagan wives, and you probably don't even visit the temple, but the invitation goes out to them, and the invitation goes out to the

Gentiles. Gentiles, people who are not Jews, so the most of us, unless you're

Jewish. Gentiles worship pagan gods. Gentiles offer sacrifices to false gods, yet the invitation goes out to them.

If they're willing to respond to Jesus, they are welcome. Three, God does not drag anyone into his kingdom.

He invites them. He does not coerce or force those who do not want to trust

Jesus. In heaven, there will not be anyone who does not want to be with Jesus.

It's actually, it doesn't make sense logically when nonbelievers pass away, and it is really sad.

But other nonbelievers try to console themselves saying that they're in heaven. But what makes you think someone who spent decades, close to a century, not wanting anything to do with Jesus would want to be with Jesus when they die?

There's inconsistency there. No one will be in his kingdom who has no desire for Jesus.

Fourth, no man can enter without the invitation. No man can enter the kingdom without the host.

God has the prerogative to save. No one can just enter the kingdom through any other methods that they want.

Oh, yes, I believe in Buddhism, but I'll enter the kingdom that way.

Doesn't work that way. It has to be the only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ and his accomplishment on the cross alone.

The response to the invitation is necessary. You have to respond in faith. Just knowing about it is not enough.

People often think the entry to heaven, there would be, like, some sort of quiz. What are you going to say when you do...

No, it's who you know who's inside. It's about the relationship.

It's about the trust that you placed when you were alive. You're not going to get a theological quiz.

It's not the knowledge of someone that saves you. It is the trust in that someone that saves you.

Afterward, Jesus summarizes the main point of the parable. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.

That is a judgment. The primary guests on the list will not experience the eschatological blessing of Christ's kingdom because they've rejected

Jesus. Even the religious establishment whom the broad public would assume, of course they would be invited to the eschatological banquet.

They will not make it in on their own righteousness alone because they've rejected the host.

And this morning, the danger of missing this banquet exists today. The first type of response that threatens our attendance is characterized by the prideful presumption of the

Pharisees. We can easily think we deserve to be saved, although not desiring anything to do with the host.

It is all too easy to assume your eschatological standing before Christ, although you want nothing to do with Jesus.

It is all too easy to lean on your religious resumes and forget about the host,

Jesus Christ. Oh, I grew up in the church. I got baptized when

I was a kid. I've been a member of the church for decades. Yet, if you don't respond to Jesus in faith, you stand outside the banquet hall while you watch former drug addicts and prostitutes enter gladly.

It's not about your resume and how good you are. It's about what

Jesus had done, and how do you respond to that? And there is also the second type of response to the heavenly invitation.

Oftentimes, we think heaven will be filled with squeaky clean, morally spotless people.

Yet, today's text shows us the only requirement to God's banquet hall is a faithful response to Jesus' invitation.

It does not matter what your childhood background is. You might have grown up in a broken home.

You might have grown up in a pagan home. That's my story. It does not matter what kind of family you come from, and it does not even matter what kind of sins you've committed.

There is no sin that is too great for Jesus' compassionate forgiveness.

He will forgive you if you go to Him and confess in faith.

The only thing that matters is that you put your trust in the banquet host who suffered for your sin.

He experienced the wrath of God that you deserved so that that wrath would not be poured upon you.

And He rose from the dead. And when you put your trust in Him, you have an unending, eternal relationship with the host.

And the host will see to it that you make it to the banquet house no matter what. However, you do have to respond.

What are you going to do with the host? The requirement is not met by your accomplishments, but His accomplishments alone.

The entryway is not paved with the spotless records of your doing, but His alone.

And this morning, if you have not made the decision to trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin and for the rest of your life, all eternity with Him, if you have not trusted

Him, do not hesitate to respond to the host who longs to dine with you.

He will not look down upon you based upon what you've done and who you are. He eagerly longs to see any and all who have received the invitation to respond.

Trust Him. Trust Him this morning. We don't know when the banquet hall will be open.

It's too urgent of a matter to miss.

Let us pray. Father, we're grateful that Jesus' death is not limited to just a few, but His death and resurrection apply to any who will respond.

And through His death and resurrection, we will be invited into His great banquet hall where the space is not restricted, but any and all who respond to Jesus Christ will be there.

And we pray that You would help us to persevere until that day, that we not value anything or anyone else higher than Your Son, Jesus, lest we make another lame excuse to not enter the banquet hall.