Selflessly Serve Luke 14 Vs 7-14

You have given us your son, Jesus Christ, who has paid the ultimate sacrifice, and death, and then resurrection, so that we might live eternally with you.

God, we pray that you would bless those that are here. We pray for those that aren't able to be here because of health, or because of the weather, or for whatever reason,

Lord. May they seek you and know your presence, Father, in their heart as they pray to you,

Father. We thank you for the healing power that you have lended and provided to many in our church,

Lord. You are so faithful to care for your people, and we thank you for that.

God, this morning as we lift our voices, as we hear Pastor preach, and the things that you've laid upon his heart,

Lord, may we be receptive servants of you, Father, that we would hear the message that is meant for us, each individually,

Father. So, God, go before us as we lift up our voices in song, and just be together as fellowship worshipers,

Father. God, bless our time, Lord, and we thank you that we can be here this morning, and we give you all praise, and may you be glorified.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, if you would stand with us, our first song is going to be,

Great is Thy Faithfulness, and without God's faithfulness, we would be nothing, but he is a faithful God.

Just as I am, God takes us where we're at, and let's approach his throne in song.

I stand for his people, those that I am, and we need

God to make my soul a spirit.

We read from chapter 2, verses 1 -4.

If there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the

Spirit, any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, and keep me like mine, having the same love, be it one accord of one mind.

Let nothing be done to strive for a big Lord, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others, others better than himself.

Look not every man on the face of others.

Amen. Seraphs and angels, seraphs and angels, all are singing love of God.

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 14, verses 7 -14.

Luke chapter 14, verses 7 -14.

So he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noted how they chose the best places, saying to them, when you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place.

Lest one more honorable than you be invited by him. And he who invited you and him come and say to you, give place to this man.

And then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you're invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, go up higher.

Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Then he also said to him who invited him, when you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbours, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that we have a

God who humbly became a man and died a humiliating death on the cross, so that sinners like us would be saved.

And we pray that we would honour Jesus by reflecting humility, knowing that as followers of the humble

King, we too must choose humility.

In Jesus' name. Amen. This passage is yet another banquet text.

Remember we had a feast in which Jesus healed a man with dropsy, swelling, on the

Sabbath. And the context, of course, was a banquet. In this text, the guests are eating together, and Jesus noticed something that is troubling.

The guests are vying for the best seat. They want public recognition.

They want self -promotion. And in this context,

Jesus tells the parable that we hear this morning. This is important for us because we live in a culture in which self -promotion is a given.

When people meet, whether through a hobby or school, class, job, their main purpose is to promote themselves.

In fact, this kind of mindset would have been reprimanded a couple of decades ago.

But we have a term for it, and it's called networking. And that's something people actually strive towards.

And the danger of this is that relationships, friendships, even looking at family, becomes transactional.

It's not about commitment. It's not about love. It's not about how can

I do something for you because I love you, but it's about what are you going to do for me because I've done this for you.

And with the rise of social media, I'm not against social media, but it's a platform that agrees, that advertises, that allows for, that facilitates self -promotion.

You don't take pictures of yourself when you are sleep -deprived and you have dark circles under your eyes.

You take pictures of yourself wearing the best clothes with makeup and with the best scenery possible.

It's about self -promotion. Look how exciting my life is. And then we get to public education and psychology where everything seems to be the problem of low self -esteem.

And again, who's the focus? It's about self. It's about how you esteem yourself.

And the problem is none of those mindsets are found in the

Bible. They're not to be pursued. In fact, this text teaches us we must have a

God -word view of our lives. Not self -esteem, God -esteem.

Not how we are viewed, but how God views us. The focus is not us, but the focus is on God.

The structure of this passage is very logical.

There are two sections. The first have concerns with the humility for the guests.

And the latter half is the humility for the host. And each section starts with what not to do.

What not to do if you're the guest and what not to do if you're the host. Which is followed by what to do instead.

Then both sections end with punchlines involving God's view of the matter that summarize the whole section.

The main point of today's text is that Christians humbly serve others because their only focus is

God's eschatological plan of redemption. Christians humbly serve others because their only focus is

God's eschatological plan of redemption. Eschatological just means concerning the last things, such as judgment day, the second coming, when

God's people will see Jesus face to face. The first section is that Christians do not promote themselves because they humbly wait to be exalted by God.

Christians do not promote themselves because they humbly wait to be exalted by God. This passage follows

Jesus showing compassion on the Sabbath in front of the Pharisees over a meal.

Verse 7, So he told a parable to those who were invited when he noted how they chose the best places, saying to them, similar to last week, it's over a meal.

But the context is different. Jesus witnesses how the guests are seeking to sit in the best seat possible.

Now, this may be odd for us because normally where we sit for a meal is not a big deal, right?

Sure, we may want to sit next to our friends, but it's not the end of the world if we sit next to someone we barely know.

You know, it's not like you're going to move to another seat just because you didn't get the seat you want.

However, in ancient Israel, seats reflected the person's significance. It showed how important they are.

So, the closer you sat next to the host, the more important you are at the dinner.

You were the esteemed guest if you were closer to the host. And really, it's actually similar to the wedding reception or even a presidential meeting.

The closer seats are reserved for the immediate family members of the bride and groom, right?

Think parents, grandparents, right? Siblings. And then further away you go, you get, you know, your second cousin or relatives who just show up to these events.

Or in the latter case, when the president sits down at a meeting, he comes late, right?

He's the last one there. Everyone stands up and he sits in the center seat and around them, left and right, are the important secretaries, right?

Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, right? They sit closer to the president and probably the

Secretary of Transportation would be farther away. It matters where you sit.

Or rather, in this context, you matter depending where you sit.

And seeing this phenomenon, Jesus tells a parable. When you're invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him.

Verses eight to nine show us what not to do. The parable is staged over a feast, just like the banquet that Jesus is in.

The command here is, however, unlike the guests, don't seek out the best seats.

Why not? Well, there may be someone who is more important than you who is invited to the feast.

And oftentimes important figures, they don't show up early, they show up late. Which means you would not know that they have arrived when you are already there vying for the best seat.

So you sit down and you think that's your seat. You feel really good about yourself and everyone's looking at you with envy and you just think to yourself, this is nice.

However, verse nine shows the embarrassing result. And he who invited you and him, the one more important, come and say to you, give place to this man.

The host has to intervene directly to ask you to move. After all, there's a more important guest present and you took his designated seat.

And this results in a slow walk of shame.

And then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.

The slow march leads to the lowest seat because all the other seats at the banquet are already taken.

And if you did not have such a high view of your importance, this could have all been avoided.

There's a reversal here. The self -appointed seat of honor for a moment has become a seat of shame for the whole banquet.

A few seconds of self -promoted significance ruined the whole night for you.

That's the point. And verse 10 shows what to do.

But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, go up higher.

Unlike the previous verses, the situation is reversed. You take the lowest seat.

When this happens, the host himself will intervene on your behalf.

Friend, go up higher. What are you doing sitting over here? That's not your seat, silly.

You're more important than that. Come. Come over here. Sit right here.

The result is also reversed. Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.

Instead of public shame, there is public honor. Instead of a demotion, there's a promotion.

The biggest difference is that you did not promote yourself. You're promoted by the host.

It is done to you rather than actively done by you.

The point of this parable is not how to manipulate your host for self -glory, right?

Okay, this is how you really promote yourself. Take the lowest seat. Manipulation is even more wicked than what happened in the parable.

Rather, the main lesson is that you do not promote yourself, but humbly wait to be exalted by someone else, which in this case, for the whole parable, it is

God who exalts. Humbly wait until God lifts you up. And this leads to the punchline of the parable.

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

In the kingdom of God, humility marks the true disciple of Christ.

Notice how the mood of the verb is. It's reflexive, or the verbs, reflexive, passive, reflexive, passive.

The first verb is reflexive. It means that the verb is done to oneself. Whoever exalts himself, right?

It's reflexive. It reflects back to them. Well, whoever exalts himself, well, if you promote yourself, it is an action you do to yourself.

This will result in humiliation. You will be humbled, and that's passive. You will be humbled, right?

The action's done to you, but not by you. The passive verb shows that the action is rather done to you, and in this case, the subject of the action is

God himself. It's what we call the divine passive. If you lift yourself up, well,

God will bring you down to the right place. He will bring you down. He will put you in your place.

Now, the opposite's also possible. When you will be exalted, you will be lifted up.

Again, this is a divine passive. God will be the one who will lift you up when you humble yourself.

When you humble yourself, when you put yourself in the right position. I watched a short video where they had, like, five or six people.

I don't know how many, and they all have different careers and different backgrounds, and they told them,

Arrange yourselves by talking to one another who would have the highest IQ and the lowest IQ. Now, this is not to say

I believe the IQ is the measurement of one's intelligence. I don't believe that. There are other ways in which people are intelligent without the

IQ test, right? But the point was to arrange themselves accordingly by talking to oneself.

And, of course, they talk about what they do, what their jobs are, and their education background. And there was this one lady who

I think had a PhD, and she was working for a pharmaceutical company, and, you know, with the pandemic, pharmaceutical company, you know, is very fronted, right?

It's very valuable, and everyone's just shocked, and she's like, She's got to be up there, right?

She's got to be number one or two. And, you know, and she felt that, and she took over.

It's like, yeah, I think you're actually number five or four, right? And then, according to her lead, she put a high school graduate who serves in the military as, like, number five, or, like, one of the last.

I forget whether it's five or four, but she actually said, Well, you know, you're in the military. You didn't go to college.

And then, after a certain amount of time, they read the result of the IQ test that all five of them took, and what happened was the military gentleman was actually number two, and she was dead last.

But she was the one who exalted herself, and she actually humbled.

She put the military man on... She's the one who argued for last.

So, it's that reversal, except this will happen in real life when

Jesus comes back. Those who have exalted themselves will be humbled, and those who have humbled themselves will be lifted up.

And what's important is self -promotion is not just prevalent among nonbelievers, but it also happens in the church.

There are Christians who make every conversation about themselves. Right? You share one thing, and then maybe something you're struggling with, or you're weak, and then it's all of a sudden something that's related to them.

Oh, I remember when I didn't get to sleep well. It's like, okay. We can talk about you then.

Right? And so on. The conversation is just dominated by the other person.

Also, there are Christians who publish their good deeds. Look what I've done. Look what

I've done this week. I got to read this much of the Bible. How much do you get to read?

Right? I got to do this for the church. I got to give this much to the church. How much do you give?

Right? Self -publishing. And Christians who boast about the knowledge of some obscure doctrines.

I saw a lot of that in seminary. Yes, you're devoting five years to that, but who's going to read your book?

They promote themselves constantly. However, self -promotion is out of place for Christians.

When Christians exalt themselves, they're actually robbing God of his job.

After all, the one who exalts Christians, the people who are marked by humility, is

God. Our job, actually, according to this text, is to humble ourselves.

Our job is to know and accept the honest and accurate view of ourselves without drawing attention to ourselves.

That's humility. Humility isn't just a victimization. Oh, no,

I'm the worst person. I've experienced the worst things in life.

No, no, no. It's an honest and accurate view of yourself in line with how

God sees you. That's humility. And because when you victimize yourself, you draw attention to yourself.

That's actually pride. For Christians, self -promotion is actually out of character with God's kingdom.

And the reason is we are to humble ourselves because we belong to a humble master,

Jesus Christ. Philippians 2, the chapter that Dave read from, is a crucial text on humility.

Not just any humility, but the humility of Jesus Christ. I'll read from 5 through 9.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Paul's command is, that mindset of humility must be in you because it was in Christ Jesus.

Because it is in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it something to be held on to, be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name.

Paul, the apostle Paul argues that Jesus did not exalt himself, although he could have.

He's in the form of God. What does that mean? He is, by essence and nature, divine.

He is God. Yet, he did not consider it something to hold on to.

Rather, he humbled himself by becoming a man. He became mortal.

The immortal God became mortal. The inexhaustive

God became... chose to be tired as a man.

That's what Jesus chose to do. That's humiliation. That's humble. Not only that, he humbled himself by dying on the cross in obedience to his

Father. The cross is the form of execution not to cause the most efficient way of killing, but it's to cause the most amount of humiliation.

You strip a man naked and you pierce him on the wrists and the feet and lift him up for everyone to see the public humiliation of it.

That's how Rome did it. It was so humiliating that Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified.

And God himself went through that on the cross. Now, what's the result?

God the Father exalts the Son. God the Father lifts up the

Son. He has given the name above every name. Jesus, although already glorious, does not exalt himself.

He is rather exalted by the Father precisely because he has humbled himself to the point of his humiliating death on the cross.

That's the concept here. For Christians, we do not stray from the master's path.

If Jesus, who could have held onto his full glory as the divine God, chose to become man and was humiliated, what right do we have to selfishly promote ourselves?

If the king of the kingdom of God is characterized by his humility, what business do we have exalting ourselves?

Second, Christians serve selflessly without seeking any gain because God will ultimately reward them.

Christians serve selflessly without seeking any gain because God will ultimately reward them.

From how to be a proper guest, Jesus turns to how to be a proper host.

Then he also said to him who invited him, when you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid.

Here in this context, the supper or dinner is not just any dinner you have with your friends.

Jesus is not saying, stop inviting your friends, but it's actually a big feast, right?

It's an important feast. This is the type of feast that Abraham gave, right?

This is the type of feast that Esther gave, right? It's a big one. It's an important one.

It's a ceremonial one. So, after addressing the guest,

Jesus addresses the host of the feast. Now, just because you're not the guest does not mean you're off the hook regarding humility, right?

But after all, it may seem like you are the humble one. Man, you're the most humble one. You got to invite everyone here, right?

You're not vying for the best seats. That's giving away. Someone else can take that.

After all, you're providing free food to all these people. You're selflessly entertaining the guest, right?

That's the mindset. However, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. The command here is not to invite those who can pay you back.

The list is great. Remember, your friends, your brothers, your relatives, your rich neighbors, right?

Not just any neighbors. The ones who can invite you back. You know, the ones who always have the barbecue on the 4th of July.

Invite him. You'll be invited back. The repayment is not just financial, right?

It's not like they're bringing money to eat at your table. It's relational. Well, if you invite them for your birthday party, expect an invitation back.

The focus when we do that is no longer the guest, but you.

That's because it has become transactional. The invitation is sent out to get something else in return.

The invitation is not a gift, right? Gift has no expectation. Gift has no expectation of a return gift.

Oh, maybe if I buy someone a birthday gift, then that person will get me a birthday gift on my birthday.

That's not a gift, then. That's a trade. And this also goes with, like, thank you cards.

Some people don't write thank you cards, but if you make it about the thank you card, how come you didn't write a thank you card?

Well, then it's not a gift. It's a trade. The invitation is no longer a gift, but a business transaction.

It's not other -focused, but self -focused. After all, look at the list.

Friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. They're precisely the very people who are likely to and capable of inviting you to their parties when they have them.

You scratch their back, and they will scratch yours. That's the concept. Quid pro quo.

Now, what is the humble response when you're the host? But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.

The maimed means it's someone who is crippled or injured. They can't really move around well.

What do all these people have in common? Well, first, they're social outcasts.

Leviticus 21 would have excluded them from the temple worship because they're not whole.

They're not complete. If you're going to worship a God who is perfect, you better be complete, not lacking.

But thanks be to God that through Jesus Christ, we are made whole.

So anyone, despite the physical condition, can approach God through Jesus Christ.

But that wasn't the case for the Judaism. The second thing is that these are the very people who cannot repay you because they have tremendous needs themselves.

These people did not get disability checks. They had to beg.

They were often abandoned by their family members. They cannot possibly have a feast and invite people back.

They could not pay back because they have nothing else to pay back with. In one sense,

Christians serve the very people that God takes care of. Right in the Old Testament, these people were actually taken care of by God.

The social outcasts were taken care of by God. What Jesus is saying is,

Christians, you must do what God does. And now, what is the result of the selfless service?

And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

Again, note the passive verbs here. You will be blessed. The action of blessing is not done by you, but it is done to you.

You're the recipient of the verb blessing. You will be repaid.

Again, you're not the one who's getting or who's repaying, and nor is it the guest that you've invited.

It doesn't say who is repaying and who is blessing. And again, we see a case of the divine passive.

When we have passive verbs, and in the context, can be read as God, we believe and we know the subject of the verbs, the passive verbs, has to be

God. The context here is the resurrection of the just. That's because who's at the resurrection of the just other than God?

He's the one who's raising them up. The one who blesses and repays those who serve selflessly is

God himself. The one who repays will be God on the last day. The resurrection of the just is the eschatological event of God raising his people from the dead.

It will happen on the last days. On that day, God's people who love those who cannot repay lavishly will be repaid by none other than God himself.

God will repay on behalf of those who cannot. That's who he is.

He watches and protects those who cannot defend themselves because he is compassionate and caring.

And he knows when you serve selflessly even if no one else recognizes you because that's who he is.

And he will be sure to pay you back because he is just.

And that's a great, great news for many of us. You may serve others and there may not be any recognition.

You may love others and it's never returned.

But what Jesus is saying on the last day, there is someone who did not miss a beat and he will repay you.

The focus is not on us nor the other people we're serving, but rather the focus is on God and what he is up to, what he will do.

And that allows us, as God's people, to care for people who cannot pay back because, and we can selflessly serve them because we don't have to have any expectation of repayment because God will.

We live in a culture where friendly services or generous acts actually come with ulterior motives.

That gentleman just gave a homeless guy a hundred bucks.

Yes, but he was filming a video which he will make thousands. This lady remembered my name and my family and my interests that I shared a week ago.

Yes, but she is networking to get her next job. In the end, these generous acts and friendly gestures are not other -focused, but self -focused.

These actions actually boomerang back to them. Ultimately, they're serving themselves.

In their minds, they're always calculating. How can this relationship benefit me?

How can this meeting increase my influence? This is not just among politicians.

This happens with people. And sadly, this happens with people in the church.

And what they all have in common is that these are all transactional relationships. I pay you something, you pay me back.

I've had a Christian who got angry at someone because that someone didn't do what that Christian guy expected him to do.

And it wasn't like a sin issue, right? And the words out of his mouth was,

I've been so loving to you. How come you didn't do that for me? Well, that moment, it wasn't love that you did it for him.

You were expecting a return. We live in a culture where love is rare.

Remember what love is. It's not just a warm feeling, although it does include warm feeling and emotion.

Sure, it can. Love is a passionate desire for God's best for the other person, even when it is costly.

Love is a passionate desire for God's best. Not your best, not his best, not whatever he wants.

God's best for the other person, even if it hurts. Even if it is expensive.

Transactional relationships cannot be loving because the moment it becomes costly, they will fall apart.

Remember, transactions, you gotta calculate. Well, the moment it hurts, well, bye.

It's all in the calculation. However, Christians have the best motive to love others because we have a

God who loves selflessly. We're not just commanded to love selflessly because God will pay us back.

That is true in this text. God does pay us back, and that's a promise. But we're also to love selflessly because we are loved selflessly by God himself.

Our God is a loving God. Our God is a God who gave himself for us.

Our God, Jesus, is a God who loved us so much that he sacrificed his life for us, to save us.

When he hung from the cross, when he bore our sin, when he suffered the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin,

Jesus stayed on the cross because of his passionate desire for God's best for his people, even at such a huge cost to himself.

The ultimate example of love in your life, if you're a Christian, is Jesus hanging from the cross.

You may not have been loved by your parents. Your parents may not love you still. You may not have friends who love you but use you.

You may have spouses who abuse you. And all of that is just wicked.

No question about that. But if you are a

Christian this morning, there is a God who loves you selflessly, even when it hurts.

There is a God who will not leave you when it gets hard. You might have had people who leave you, abandon you when it got hard, when it got awkward, when it got uncomfortable, when it got too raw.

But not so Jesus Christ, because he stayed on the cross when it was the hardest for him.

That's love. And that's our ultimate reason when we serve selflessly, love lavishly, at no immediate gain to us, even at a cost to us.

In the end, our reward, other than the heavenly reward that's promised, our best reward, our best gift from God is the inseparable eternal fellowship with such a

God who loves us selflessly. That's what we look forward to on the last days.

We have that figure in our lives now, and you will be united with Jesus one day face to face.

Then you don't have to do any of the calculations. Love generously.

Love dangerously. Love when it hurts. Love sacrificially.

Let us pray. Father God, we do thank you for sending

Jesus, who willingly died on the cross on our behalf so that we may be saved from our sin.

And now that we are forgiven and redeemed people, that we can, just like him, love sacrificially and selflessly.

Help us to do so throughout this week, not to calculate what we can gain, but to focus on what