Please turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 14, Gospel of Luke chapter 14. Our particular focus this evening will be from verse 15 to 24, but I'll begin from the beginning of the chapter. And as, or after I read, be grateful If someone might bring me a sheet of the song that we'll sing after the sermon. Thank you. Let's give our attention now to God's holy Word, Luke 14. Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? But they kept silent. and he took him and healed him and let him go. Then he answered them saying, which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him regarding these things. 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 neighbors, 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. 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 servants 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. And thus ends the reading of God's holy word. Would you pray with me? O Lord, this is Your Word and we pray that You would give us now insight into it and that You would apply it to our hearts for the glory of Your holy name. We pray through Christ, amen. Well, this passage poses a basic question to each of us. Thank you. And that question is, will you eat with Christ in His kingdom? Will you eat with Christ in His kingdom? And this question and the parable in which it comes is a most solemn parable. The occasion, as we read, is a meal which Jesus was invited to. And at that meal, he is responding to various things that happen or that are said. And in the course of the meal, someone says, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. He probably said that because Jesus has just referenced the kingdom of God. He's talking, this man, about the time when God defeats this world and the devil once and for all, when His kingdom of glory is set up. And this man is saying that those who take part in that are blessed. Now, Jesus isn't challenging that. He isn't challenging that statement. It's a true statement. He's agreeing with that statement. But he's challenging this man's assumption that he will share in that blessedness. He is, in fact, challenging the assumption of all who hear his words that they will share in that blessedness. He's challenging them to ask, will I share in this blessedness? However, before we go on to see that challenge, we need to affirm with Jesus that it is a blessed thing. As I said, this man and Jesus, they agree on that, but many in the world today don't actually. They don't agree that it's a blessed thing. And so, even if we do, it's a useful thing for us to affirm that this is a blessed thing. You see, the world is more than what we can see, feel, touch, hear, and taste. Just like we can only hear certain sounds on the range of sounds, but there are more that we can't hear with our naked ear. So, there is more to reality than what we can simply access through our natural senses. This world did not begin by chance, nor does it continue on its own. A fair look at science even will indicate that. There is much more to this world than to be born, to live, and to die. Jesus Christ, through whom the world was made, has come in the flesh as history shows. He desires for those who He has made, His creatures, to share fellowship with Him now and even more closely at His return, and He is returning. He will cleanse this earth and defeat and judge all those who oppose Him. He will restore all things and we, His people, will live and reign with Him forever and ever. Think with me, brothers and sisters, of all the fullness of this life, all the good things of this life, but without sorrow, without sickness, without pain, without strife, without wars. And think at the center of all of that, the triune God Himself and full, free communion with Him. uninterrupted by our weakness and sin, that is what we're talking about, the blessedness of God's kingdom of glory. And that is indeed true blessedness. Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But will you? This is Christ's challenge to us tonight. And we need to hear the warning of this text. We also need to see how this text shows us Jesus himself. because the way we will experience that blessedness is through Him and through Him alone. So my title is, Will You Eat With Christ? Will You Eat With Christ? And my points are, first, a warning, and secondly, a revelation of Christ. A warning and a revelation of Christ. As we consider this warning, I want you to notice with me several things about these verses, particularly verses 16 to 20. And the first thing is that there are invitations. A certain man gave a great supper and invited many. There is a wide invitation here. And he invites many, but not everyone, as we shall see. The particular people that he invites at this point are, it would seem, his friends, those who he has particular relationship with. And in our terms, That is those who are in the visible church. What is the visible church? Well, it is the church from the perspective that we can see. All those who are members, either by baptism or profession of faith, those who confess Christ and their children. And these, you, are invited to the great feast of Christ. You are invited to eat with Christ in the kingdom of His glory. That's a wonderful thing. And you might take your membership in the church, your knowledge of Christ for granted, but brothers and sisters, you shouldn't. Children, you shouldn't. Imagine getting through your letterbox an invitation with the royal crest on it, an invitation to Buckingham Palace to meet and have a conversation with the king. Or imagine being invited to a private, exclusive party with the people you most value, in this life, the people who you most care about knowing. Maybe it's other people your age that you particularly want to be in their good graces or something like that. But imagine being invited to an exclusive private event with them. I don't know what excites you more, an invitation to the palace or an invitation like that, but imagine how excited you would be. Well, as much as these things would be wonderful and nice, They pale in comparison to this invitation to commune with Christ now and particularly at His coming in all the glory that He will bring. And brothers and sisters, if you are a member of His visible church, you're invited to glory. You need not bring anything, you need not pay anything, you need not do anything but come, come to Jesus, come to the master of the house, come to the master of the world. So we see here these invitations. But secondly, we see the servant. at suppertime, what does it say? He sends out His servant at suppertime with these invitations. Brothers and sisters, Christ has servants too. particularly His ministers, like myself, that preach forth His gospel. But not only that, it might be friends or parents, those who speak the gospel to you. And the question that this passage raises for us is, do you pay attention to them? They direct you to Jesus. They plead with you to come to Him. Do you pay attention to them? We need not restrict this simply to a one-time conversion at the beginning of your Christian life. But we're talking about, do you come to Him regularly? Do you walk with Him? Do you heed the call of those who preach the gospel to you, those who speak to you of Christ, to come to Him? Do you pay attention to His servants? Because the third thing I want you to notice from these verses is the excuses The men of this parable, they didn't pay attention to the servant when he went out to them with these invitations. They, in fact, made excuses, which we see in verses 18 to 20. And I want you to notice that these excuses are not made on the basis of bad things. These excuses are made based on worldly but good matters. A field, new livestock. These excuses are made based on natural relationships. I have married a wife. Perhaps, That last excuse is even made seemingly on biblical grounds. We read in Deuteronomy 24.5 that a man was excused from military service for a full year after he married a wife. So we need to think a little bit more about these excuses, in part because they have to do with things that aren't a part of our normal life. A lot of us aren't regularly buying fields. A lot of us regularly aren't buying oxen. So we need to think about what they mean for us today. Well, when we think about this new field and these new oxen, they're talking about farming, they're talking about productivity. So today that would translate into our work, the business that we're a part of, our school, matters relating to our duties of all sorts. And just like it wasn't wrong for these people to be involved in them, it's not wrong for us to be concerned about these things. It's not wrong for us to apply ourselves to our work and to our duties. Ephesians chapter 4 reminds us that we are to labor working with our hands what is good, that we might have something to give those who are in need. In 2 Thessalonians we read, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. And in 1 Timothy, we read, but if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So, these things are right and good. We are to apply ourselves to these things, and we could support that in various other ways from Scripture as well. These things could also be applied not only to our duties but also to our righteous hobbies and things that aren't bad in themselves and we love to do. For me, that might look like researching military history or things about politics and culture. Again, these things are lawful. But the point in all of this is that even these things, even these good and lawful things can steal away one's focus and one's heart from Christ. And I want to ask you tonight, where do your duties, your interests, your hobbies keep you from Jesus, from his word, from his worship, from the prayer meeting perhaps, from conversation with others about the things of Christ. How do you excuse yourself Maybe there are exams to revise for, there are deadlines to meet, work commitments. You need to provide for your family, you think, and so you're so caught up in your employment, or you have to care about all sorts of other things. Where do these things distract you from Christ? And then the other excuse here is not based on worldly things, but it's based on natural relations. And this, I think, cuts even more deeply into our hearts because family is rightly a wonderful thing. We read in verse 20, still another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. Like I said, to love and to prioritize one's family, even one's friends, is a good thing. When you see a young couple in love with one another, it's a beautiful thing, isn't it? It's a scriptural thing, as we saw, for a couple to prioritize their relationship, particularly early on in establishing good patterns. But what Crikes is saying is even these things, even these good and wonderful things can draw us away from Christ. They can become distractions from Him. And therefore, even these things when used wrongly can become bad and even dangerous. Matthew Henry on this passage wrote, note, things lawful in themselves when the heart is too much set upon them prove fatal hindrances in religion, fatal hindrances in religion. You, brothers and sisters, friends, if you are hearing the sound of my voice, are invited to glory, to eat with Jesus, what excuses do you make in communing with Him in your daily life? Because it's that communion that prepares you for communion with Him forever. It's an important question because at the end of this parable, the invitation to the original group is rescinded. We read there in verse 24, I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. Matthew Henry again, even those that are bidden, if they slight the invitation, shall be forbidden. When the door is shut, the foolish virgins will be denied entrance. These verses, brothers and sisters, are a warning to all of us, especially those who are outwardly Christ's friends, who are invited to his supper. we must ask ourselves, will we eat with Christ in his kingdom? We must be careful that we don't make excuses, excuses for why we cannot spend time with Christ or prioritize Christ or his things. To echo Matthew Henry, if we excuse ourselves now, we will be excused when Christ comes. Well, that's the warning. But secondly, we see in this passage a revelation of Jesus Christ. And that revelation helps us to properly deal with the warning and respond to it. And this revelation is in three parts, really. We see Christ here as the master of the house. He is one who is wrathful, who is gracious, and who is zealous for His glory. In verse 21, we read that when the servant comes back to his master and tells him of the excuses of his friends, how does he respond? He is angry. Now, This is not a capricious anger, especially if we're applying this to Christ, but it's a subtle antipathy to unrighteousness and injustice. And if we are applying this to Christ, we should remember that we owe every good thing to Him. We owe even our lives themselves to Him. And to reject His invitation to commune with Him now and especially in the end is a great injustice, to reject Him, to slight Him. When Matthew recounts this parable or a similar one in his gospel, He speaks of the response of the king in that case in this way. But when the king heard about it, the excuses of his invited guests, he was furious and he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers and burned their city. We like to think of Jesus as meek and mild, but He is also a great King, and He will not be slighted. Do you believe that? Do you believe that and tremble, brothers and sisters? Do you apply it to your life? When you are tempted to put off Bible reading for some excuse, you've got to do some other good thing. When you don't go to the prayer meeting, when you get so consumed with your duties and the pressures of life and the worries of your life that you think you don't have time to stop and to pray even briefly. Do you believe that Christ is a great King and that He will not be slighted, that He is wrathful towards those who reject Him and slight Him? It is not a wrong thing as a Christian to have this realistic view of Christ, our King. But then He's also revealed to us in these verses as one who is gracious, extraordinarily gracious. Verse 21, then the master of the house being angry said to his servants, 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. It is the Master's initiative that we are hearing about here. Christ is revealing something about Himself, about Himself and His Father's desire to have those who are unlikely and those who are helpless. You see, that's who He asks His servant to get, the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. On one hand, they're not the people that normally would find themselves in a banquet in the ancient Near East. They're unlikely, and oftentimes God in His graciousness does draw those who are unlikely into His house. but they are also those who are helpless. They have nothing to recommend themselves. But even still, even though they have nothing in themselves to recommend themselves to be there, he would have them come. Brothers and sisters, I would have you reflect tonight that we are likewise poor and helpless. that we have no reason why we should commune with Christ in ourselves. We have no reason why we should be with him in glory forever and ever. But he invites you to come, and he would have you come if you see your need, if you see that you have nothing to recommend yourself, and you cling only to Christ. He says, go quickly and bring them in here. And what he's saying there is to his servant, he wants his servant to bring these people in. It should humble us that those are the people he wants. We can sometimes, like Doubtless, this man who said this thing, we can build ourselves up because we are those who know good theology, we know all sorts of things, that we have something to recommend ourselves, but we really don't. And this should humble us. It should also encourage us. Because if we have nothing to recommend ourselves, then it's all down to Christ. And He is the rock alone upon which we build. then once all the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind are gathered in, there's still room. And the master tells his servant to go further afield, to go into the highways and the hedges. You see, it's not okay to him that there's more room left in his house. It's not okay to him that there's seats left at his table. He wants to show off his hospitality. Empty seats knock his glory, and so he would have his house filled. You see what we're being told about Christ here, that He is zealous for His own glory. He would have as many as possible to feast with Him. And therefore, He tells His servant to compel them to come in. The priority is His glory, and nothing should get in the way of that. The point is not that we may go out there and force people to accept Christ or something like that, but rather it is that Christ is so zealous for His own glory and that of His Father that He would have His house full. And so we are to go out and to persuade, to be urgent and likewise zealous in holding out Christ. And we are to do that out of this same desire for His glory. If Christ has this desire to have His house full, we also should have a desire that His house should be full, that even this church should be full. of men, women, and children praising and honoring our Lord Jesus Christ. This text invites us to Christ. It exposes the faults security that we sometimes have, it exposes the excuses that we sometimes make, but it also reveals Christ to us, one who is wrathful, who will not be ignored, one who is greatest, able to save, desirous to save those who have nothing, and one who is zealous for his own glory, committed to having a people for himself. So, brothers and sisters, friends, will you eat with Christ? You're invited to. It's an invitation like none other. Will you commune with him this week? Will you commune with him every day left to you on this earth? And will you commune with him in the end? commune with him because you have recognized that there's nothing in you to recommend you to him. You've cast yourself on him. And you've trusted that he, in his zeal for his own glory, has provided a way for you to know him. He's sent his own son. He's caused that son to live a perfect life He has made that son to drink the cup of wrath that you deserve. He has raised that son even as he will raise you. That son is reigning even as you one day will reign. In his zeal for his own glory, he has provided everything. He's invited you, therefore, Don't slight His invitation. Come, eat with Him now that you may eat with Him in glory. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that you would help us to not be like these excuse makers. We see in our own lives the excuses we make, and we're truly sorry. Help us to turn from them, to commune with you now, and especially to commune with you at the glorious supper of the Lamb forevermore. We pray in his name, amen. Well, please take your sheet. We're going to sing Christ our hope in life and death. This hymn reminds us that He is our only hope. It picks up on that theme that we have nothing to bring. But it also speaks of feasting with Him in glory. And we will feast in endless joy when Christ is ours forevermore. Let's sing to His glory.