Good morning. Please take out your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 14. We continue this morning in our study through the gospel of Luke, and today we are on chapter 14, verses 7 through 14. It's always important when we study the Bible to remember that the scriptures weren't written by 21st century American authors to 21st century American audiences in a 21st century American context. That's an obvious statement, but I think it's an important thing for us to remember because there's certain mentalities and mindsets and customs that would have been assumed, implicitly understood by both author and reader back then, that can get lost on us who are separated from that culture by thousands of years and thousands of miles. And so if we're going to be careful in our study of God's Word and really seek to understand its meaning, all that God intends it to be for us, part of our homework is to familiarize ourselves to at least some degree with certain aspects of, say, first century Near East culture that are going to be helpful for us to better understand the teachings of Scripture. And one example of that which we're going to see in our passage today, is the significance in that culture of meals, eating together, table hospitality. For us, as 21st century Americans, New Yorkers in the year 2024, we're such an on-the-go, busy, busy, busy culture, And so a lot of our meals just kind of get reduced to eating as quickly as we can so we can get back to whatever it is that we're doing. And isn't that the whole point of Pop-Tarts, right? A side note, and this is not part of the sermon today, but just a side note, I think we would all do well to have more meals where nobody's in a rush and you're just sitting together and enjoying one another. But again, that's another sermon for another day. My point is this, though. Meals, table fellowship, that was a much more central part of that culture than ours. Back then, the dinner table was one of the focal points around which the rest of the society revolved. And so meals, the kinds of meals you hosted, the food you served at meals, who you invited to meals, whose meals you were invited to, where you sat at meals, like all of those things that we might not think are a huge deal, those would have been very, very important in that culture. And so it's through that lens, understanding the significance, the importance of those elements of table fellowship in first century culture, that we need to read these teachings of Jesus. And so with that said, let's look now at our text. Luke chapter 14, verses 7 through 14. This is God's word for you this morning. And we 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. He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your 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. My brothers and sisters, this is the word of the Lord. So our passage consists of two sections, one from verses 7 through 11, Jesus is speaking to the guests of the feast, and one from verses 12 to 14, in which Jesus is speaking to the host of the feast. And so, if you're taking notes, those are going to be our two points this morning. Point number one, a lesson for the guests, and point number two, a lesson for the host. But before we go through those points one by one, let me say two things about this passage as a whole. First, notice that the two parts of our passage are laid out in a very similar structure. So look at the text. In verse 8, Jesus is speaking to the guests and he says, when you are invited, do not do this lest that happen. And then you see that same exact structure in verse 12 when he's speaking to the host. When you give a dinner, do not do this lest that happen. And then in verse 10, Jesus is speaking to the guests, but when you are invited, do this, and then that will happen. And you see the same exact thing in verse 13, when Jesus is speaking to the host, but when you give a feast, do this, and then that will happen. And so given that parallel structure, in spite of the section break that the ESV puts in between our two sections here, we should view this passage as one unit. Second, again thinking about this passage as a whole, on an initial read, both parts of this passage might sound, well, overly practical. Like, here's what you need to do when you get invited to a meal. Here's what you need to do when you invite others to a meal. As if Jesus were just teaching, like, dinner etiquette 101. But of course, there's a lot more to it than just that. And Luke hints at that in the very beginning by telling us in verse seven that Jesus is here telling a parable. Now, when we think of parables, we typically think of stories. Like there was a man who had two sons. A sower went out to sow his seed. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. We think of fictional stories that illustrate some points. This is a little different from that. But if you think of a parable more generally as a real-life scenario that illustrates some spiritual truth, well, you'll see how this too should be considered a parable. It just so happens that the real-life scenario isn't one that Jesus invents. It's one that's literally happening before his eyes. And so this passage is not just about how to behave at a banquet, or where to strategically sit at a meal, or how to make a guest list, although there will be application for those things. Rather, in both sections, there is a bigger spiritual point that Jesus is drawing from what's happening at the meal. And so we want to make sure that in our study of this passage, we're walking away first and foremost with those main spiritual truths, and not just practical advice on dinner etiquette. So with all that said, let's start with point number one, a lesson for the guests. Verse seven, now he told a parable to those who were invited, and that opening reminds us right away that our passage isn't a standalone text, right? It's not a brand new section. Rather, it flows directly out of our previous passage. And so let's just remind ourselves of what we looked at last week. Jesus is invited to a meal at a Pharisee's house. It's likely a trap, right? It's a setup because they also bring in a man with dropsy to kind of see what Jesus would do. Remember how they were watching him carefully? And of course, Jesus compassionately heals the man, which wasn't against the law of God, but was against the Pharisees' Sabbath rules. But knowing their thoughts, Jesus points out their hypocrisy. 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? You would, in compassion and mercy and love. You would pull your son or your ox out, even if it was a Sabbath. You have provisions in your rules for cases like that. So why can't Jesus, in compassion and mercy and love, pull this man out of his suffering, even if it's a Sabbath? And the Pharisees have no response to that. They're quiet, they're silenced. Luke tells us they could not reply to these things. But like we pointed out last time, instead of kind of relishing in this mic drop moment, like his enemies just took a major L there, but he's not just gonna walk out triumphantly. He stays. He stays because there's still truth to impart. There's mercy to be extended. There's good news to be shared. And that first truth comes as he notices something among the guests who were present, how they chose the places of honor. Now, what's that all about? Well, like we said earlier, communal meals were a big deal in that culture, in that society. Because meals weren't just about food and eating, like, again, microwaving a Pop-Tart, meals were also very important social events. And in a culture, a society that really prized social status, social hierarchies, meals were one of the primary ways in which your social status would be on display. Now, some of that was about who you ate with, which, by the way, is why it was so controversial that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners. Look ahead to the beginning of the next chapter. Look at chapter 15, verse 2. The Pharisees would get so mad about this kind of stuff. Why is he associating with them? Why is this prominent teacher eating with those people? And so some of it was about who you ate with, but another way in which meals would communicate social status, like given that you were already invited to a certain meal, was where you would sit. And so this is not like the meal that we had last Sunday after evening service, right? Tables and chairs are just kind of generally set out and it doesn't really matter where anybody sits. No, for a typical meal in that culture, where you sat was very, very important. The host of the meal, of course, would have the most prominent seat. So it's typically in the middle at the head of the table. And the two most important guests, the two most honored guests, the two most distinguished guests, would have the seat directly to the left and directly to the right of the host. And then from there, the exact configuration might have varied from meal to meal, but there was some system that everybody present would have mutually understood, some system of seating that would determine your honor relative to everybody else's at that meal. Basically, the closer you were to the host, the higher your honor. And the further away you were from the host, the less honored and less prominent you were. But it's not like there were place cards at every seat. This seat is reserved for so-and-so. And so what would happen is that as soon as the guests are ready to be seated, it's like a mad dash for those most prominent seats. Picture like one big game of musical chairs with grown men. Everybody's gunning for the places of honor. Jesus notices that. I'm sure it looked rather ridiculous. And then he tells this parable. verses eight and nine. When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down at 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. So you can probably picture this scene in your mind. You make a mad dash for seat number one, right next to the host, and you put up some stiff arms and some jukes and whatever, and you get that seat. You get seat number one. You're thinking, man, this is awesome. Everybody's looking at me now. Everybody sees how important I am. Everybody sees that I'm in this most prominent position. You're kind of glorying in that for like a minute. And then a VIP walks in, someone more distinguished than you. It's now the host, but the host also himself cares a lot about social status. He certainly wants this most distinguished of guests to be honored at his dinner. And so the host asks you to give up seat number one. And he said, well, okay, I guess I'll have to give up seat number one. I'll just take seat number two. The only problem is, seat number two, of course, is taken, or someone snatched it up as quickly as you snatched up seat number one. Same thing for seat number three, seat number four, seat number five, and then you realize that now that everybody's here, like if there is exactly as many seats as guests, the only seat that's gonna be open is the one that's literally the furthest from the host. The one that signals the lowest status. And so you, even as everybody else in the room is seated, they're all watching you, now you begin with shame to take the lowest place. So here's your lesson. Don't go for seat number one, lest you be shamed that way. Instead, verse 10, 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. So start in the worst seat, and then, I mean, it can only go up from there, right? Like, you're not the most honored guest, but you're probably also not the least honored guest. And so when you get that upgrade, when you get bumped up to first class, friend, move up higher. then you're gonna feel like a champ, right? Now, first glance, that's kind of a strange teaching. Sure, there's some general wisdom to it. Wisdom that's actually reflected in some of the Proverbs about not standing in the place of the great. But is that really all that Jesus is saying here? Like just giving practical, worldly advice to the guests so that, I don't know, seating is not going to be so chaotic at the next banquet? And also, don't these instructions, like just taken literally at face value, don't these instructions sound a little backhanded, manipulative? Like seeking your own glory in a straightforward way by just going for seat number one, that might cost you. But see, if you do it in this kind of sneaky way, a little facade of self-deprecation and false modesty, then you can manipulate your host into feeling bad for your place of dishonor, and then you'll get the glory and the honor that you're looking for. Sounds kind of like a backhanded means of self-promotion. It's like how to game the system by utilizing false humility. But again, remember what we said at the outset. This is a parable. It's not literal instructions on table etiquette, like how to avoid a social faux pas at a banquet. This story is teaching a larger spiritual lesson. And we can be certain of that because Jesus tells us what that larger spiritual lesson is in the very next verse. for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Like that's the main point of this parable. That's the main point of everything Jesus just said. And so this isn't literal instructions about where believers should sit at dinner any more than the parable of the sower is literal instructions about farming. No, it's an illustration. The person who sought the best seat, him getting moved all the way down, that's an illustration, perhaps even a funny one, of everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And the person who sought the worst seat, getting moved up, again, that's an illustration, perhaps even a ridiculous one, of he who humbles himself will be exalted. So this whole thing is an illustration of the importance of humility and the dangers of self-exaltation, the very kind of self-exaltation that was so clearly on display in their mad dash for the most prominent seats. So point number one, a lesson for the guests about self-exaltation. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because it's one of the most oft-repeated teachings in the Bible. Luke 18.14, this is kind of the conclusion of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus says, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Or Matthew 23.12, this is when Jesus is in Jerusalem, pronouncing woes on the Pharisees, and he says there, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. James 4.10, Jesus' half-brother, he teaches the same exact thing in his epistle. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. And Peter, Peter gets in on the fun also. 1 Peter 5, 6, And for all the repetition, it's a relatively straightforward teaching. that the pursuit of your own glory, typically in the context of you trying to elevate yourself in the eyes of other men, self-exaltation will lead to God humbling you. But seeing yourself seeing God rightly, which then leads to seeing others and their needs as more significant than you and your own, that this genuine pursuit of humility That will lead to exaltation by God. But just because it's often repeated, and just because it's relatively straightforward, well, that doesn't make it easy, does it? Certainly wasn't easy for the Pharisees. This kind of pride and self-exaltation. It characterized the Pharisees and the scribes. They love to exalt themselves. They love to be recognized and praised by men. They love to pursue their own glory at any cost. And so we see Jesus on multiple occasions rebuke them for it. Like Luke 20 verse 46. Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues. And here it is, the places of honor at feasts. But it's not just the Pharisees and the scribes. It also wasn't easy for the disciples. You remember when James and John, they go up to Jesus and they ask him, grant us to sit at your right hand and at your left in your glory. I see now we have a better idea of exactly what that means. They are angling to have the two greatest positions of honor in relation to Jesus. They're seeking to elevate themselves, especially in relation to the other disciples. And so Jesus gently rebukes them. You do not know what you're asking. But lest we just sit here and engage in Pharisee bashing and disciple bashing. God, I thank you that I'm not like those men. Let's examine our own hearts and look for similar strands of pride and conceit and this desire for self-exaltation. Because maybe we're not rushing for the best seats at the banquet, the chief seats at the dinner, but there can still be this a very strong desire for recognition in our own hearts. We always need to be the center of attention. We always need to one-up other people. We always need to be seen, and heard, and acknowledged. Like it was said of Teddy Roosevelt, that he wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening, It's kind of funny and ridiculous until we realize the degree to which it's true of our own hearts. Or maybe it's how we can get so bitter and so resentful when others are recognized instead of us. Because when you think really highly of yourself, it's easy to feel threatened by the success and praise of others. Or maybe it's most clearly reflected in our words about others. how stingy we can be with encouragement for others, lest they be elevated above us, and how quick we are to speak negatively and critically that we might raise ourselves by putting them down. Or maybe it's how we daydream about ourselves, or how quick we are to mention our accomplishments, or how we just replay those compliments about us in our heads, how we compare ourselves to others, how much we care about what others see and think about us, or maybe something entirely different that we haven't mentioned at all. The thing about pride and self-exaltation is that they can take on so many different forms. But all of it has at least this one thing in common, that to the extent that we cherish and cultivate it, To the extent that we refuse to repent of it and we nourish it and we feed it, whether we realize it or not, we're setting ourselves against God. Because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And that's a position that none of us want to find ourselves in. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted. It's a scary thought. And particularly so when we begin to just kind of peel back the layers of pride and self-exaltation in our own hearts. But I bring you good tidings of great joy by reminding you of that which is of first importance, right? That Christ died for our sins. including the sins of self-exaltation and pride and lack of humility. And Jesus did that for us, not by seeking to exalt himself, but quite the opposite. In Philippians chapter 2, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." But it's in light of that gospel, Christ humbling himself and being exalted, that we then as God's people have the power to put self-exaltation and pride to death and instead embrace humility. That's Paul's whole point, because remember what he writes just a few verses before that passage we just read. Philippians 2 verses 3 and following, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, That mind of humility that Christ put on full display through the gospel. So the gospel not only saves us from our sinful self-exaltation, but it also serves us as the ultimate example of what true humility looks like. So point number one, a lesson for the guests about self-exaltation. And that brings us now to point number two, a lesson for the host about self-interest. Jesus now shifts his attention from the guests at the banquet to the host of the banquet. Verse 12, he said also to the man who had invited him, this is the host, 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. Now this is not saying that if you have lunch or dinner plans with your friends or family that you need to cancel them immediately. Do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors. That doesn't mean you can never eat with such people. And we know that because Jesus ate with such people. Think about the Last Supper. Who was invited to the Last Supper? The disciples. What does he call them there? He calls them friends. We'll just think back a few chapters to the end of Luke chapter 10. Jesus is eating with Mary and Martha, whom he loved. Now the key to understanding what Jesus is saying there is at the end of the verse, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. What Jesus is calling out here is the prevailing mindset of that culture that who you invited to meals, like who was on your guest list, was really just a means to get something back from people, to be repaid. Again, this is something that kind of culturally might get lost on us, but in the first century Near East society, like they were huge on this idea of reciprocity. This idea that if I give you a gift, then there's a strong cultural expectation that you give me a gift of similar value back. And if I invite you to a banquet, then again, there is a strong cultural expectation that you give me a similar invitation back. And so a major reason why people would invite certain kinds of people to their meals, your friends and your brothers and your relatives and your rich neighbors, is so that they would then have to invite you back. And Jesus is saying, don't do that. Don't think like that. Don't use invitations merely as a means to get something. viewing hospitality and relationships and friendships merely in terms of self-interest. No, instead, verses 13 and 14, 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. The poor, The crippled, the lame, the blind. That's four categories of people contrasting with the four categories that we just saw in verse 12. This is four categories of people that can't return the favor. They're not gonna be able to repay you with anything. Picture Mephibosheth sitting at King David's table. Mephibosheth has nothing to offer David. Mephibosheth has nothing to give to David. He can never repay David. But David invites him simply to show him the kindness of God. That's how you ought to think about hospitality. As a gift to be given. As a way to freely love and serve others without thinking about what you can get out of the relationship. As a matter of fact, inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, in that culture, not only would that not get you anything in return, it would actually cost you, in terms of social status, to have those kinds of people at your meal. If you love and serve others in that way, you may receive no earthly reward. You may not be repaid at all in the here and now. You may receive no honor and no prestige and no status. As a matter of fact, your honor and your prestige and your status may even decrease, but for the kingdom-minded disciple, that's really no big deal at all, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. That is, your reward will come from God himself. And whatever that is, it's guaranteed to be better than the fleeting praise of men. And so the first lesson to the guests was about the dangers of self-exaltation. The second lesson to the host is on the related topic of the dangers of self-interest. Point number two, a lesson for the host about self-interest. Now, how might we practically apply this point? Well, the culture that we're in is different in some ways, but let's think about our hospitality, our friendships, our relationships. To what degree are those things driven primarily by our own self-interest? That is, do we only reach out to and spend time with those who, in some way, will benefit us? And I realize that sounds kind of crass, but I think you know what I mean. Those who are convenient for us. Those with whom we're already comfortable. Our small inner circle of those whom we already know are gonna love us back. Those are the only people that we give ourselves to. Or do we extend ourselves in our hospitality, our friendships, our relationships, so that it's not driven primarily by how we can benefit, like our own self-interest, what we can get out of it, how we can be repaid, but it's driven by how we might freely bless and love and serve other people, even if that's going to cost us. But I think if we're honest, it's so easy for that kind of self-interest to mark our thinking. And so it's good for us to be aware of that, to be aware of the ways in which we fall short. But again, we don't want to stay there. We don't want to be staying in dwelling on our sin and our sinfulness. No, we want that to lead us to look to Christ. look to Christ, who not only died for our selfishness and our self-interest, but also was the perfect example for us of the kind of selflessness that this passage is referring to. Because Jesus came to save us, not because we were, to use the language of this passage, his friends or his brothers or his relatives or rich neighbors. Romans 5 tells us that we were still weak. that we were ungodly, that we were sinners, that we were enemies. No, we were much more like the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. But again, isn't that exactly who Jesus said he came to save? Luke chapter four. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. That's what he came to do. And so the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Poor, crippled, lame, blind sinners like me and like you. My friends, the gospel is of first importance. Maybe you're here with us today and you're not a Christian. I tell you to look to the gospel. Look to the fact that Christ died for sinners like you, that you might be saved. Or maybe you are a Christian. I also tell you to look to the gospel. Because again, the gospel not only saves us from our sinful self-interest, saves us from the way we look at relationships and friendships as just means to benefit ourselves, saves us from our selfishness, but it also serves us as the ultimate example, Christ coming to die for his enemies, the ultimate example of what true, sacrificial, selfless love looks like. So look to Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gospel. For Lord, in the gospel, you have not only forgiven us of all the ways in which we fall short, which even this passage reveals so many things that Lord, we seek to exalt ourselves and seek our own self-interest. Lord, this passage reveals those things, but this passage also shows us that Christ not only dies for those sins, but also is the perfect example in his humble, self-abasing, sacrificial death for sinners like us. So Father, we thank you for Jesus, and we pray this all in his name. Amen.