Our scripture reading this morning, we're going to be in the Gospel of Luke. So if you take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke chapter 14, we will look at the first 14 verses of this chapter. Luke chapter 14, 1 through 14 is our reading today. So if you would Join me there. We always remember when we pick up the Bible that this is God's word. It's what he's given us to understand him by. It's not man's word. It's not man's ideas about God. It's inspired. The Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the person of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So this is what we trust in when we come on Sundays and throughout the week to hear God's word. Let's look at this portion together. And it came about when he went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him closely. And there in front of him was a certain man suffering from dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and to the Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they kept silent and he took hold of him and he healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well and will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could make no reply to this. And he began speaking a parable to the invited guests when he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, when you were invited to someone by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor. Less someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him. And he who invited you both shall come and say to you, give place to this man. And then, in disgrace, you proceed to occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher. Then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. And he also went on to say to those who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and in repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. This is God's word. Let's bow our heads for prayer. And Greg, would you mind leading us in a word of prayer before we study this passage today? Father, God, we thank you for your wondrous grace that is greater than all. And we thank you that you've gathered us here this morning to worship you, Father. Read your word together. May we have ears to hear it. May the Lord do His work in our hearts, and He is our only tool for faith and practice, and grant us humility here as even scriptures tell us here. Every occasion with Jesus was an opportunity for Him to teach. Every occasion that he was in was something that he would use or could use to bring understanding to the crowds that were around him to help them understand the things of God. Sometimes he was teaching them the values of the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes he was teaching them that there was a time it was time to face their own sinfulness. If you look with me at Luke chapter 14, you will see it was a Sabbath day. You'll see it was not only a Sabbath day, but it was after worship. And here is Jesus being invited to the home of one of the leaders of the synagogue. He was called a synagogue leader. He was probably a Sanhedrin leader. He was a very influential man in the community, certainly in the religious community. And he throws this dinner. for not only Jesus, but a lot of his friends to come to. That's interesting that in the whole rest of the chapter, whenever it talks about a dinner, it usually uses a word that reflects the fact that it's a big banquet. And so I believe that this one was a real banquet, too. I want you to look with me just at a few of the other verses in this chapter, and I think you can see it. Look at verse 8. In this verse, it says this. When you're invited by someone to a wedding feast. Notice, you know, there's the parable about the wedding feast. In verse 12, he talked about a dinner where you invited your friends, your relatives, and your rich neighbors. You don't invite them over for sandwiches and leftovers when you invite a crowd like that. This had to be a fancy dinner party, we would call it in verse 13. In this chapter, he called the meal a banquet. And in verse 16, Jesus talked to them about a great supper. In fact, the word that he used was the word mega. You know, we talk about a mega meal or a huge buffet. You know, you've seen these Asian buffets where there's, you know, tables everywhere. There's all kinds of food. You know, you've got Japanese food over here. You've got Chinese food over here. You've got American food back there. And then you've got a whole table of desserts. So they talk about mega meals. Now, Jesus used that term, the one, the Greek word from which we get the English word mega. So I believe that the banquet that Jesus went to on the Sabbath day after worship wasn't just sandwiches. It was a great banquet. It was a great meal. Now there was a lot of preparation that went into this meal. And one of the preparations was deceitful. One of the preparations that they made for this meal was they brought in a man that was handicapped with dropsy and they set this man right in front of Jesus. If you look at verse 2 of Luke 14, it says there in front of Jesus was a certain man suffering from dropsy. Now, This word dropsy is not one that we commonly use, I guess, anymore. It's more the term edema, and it means a swelling in the tissue somewhere in the body where there's this huge amount of fluid. So that would be hard to miss. You know, have you seen the pictures of the people that are hydrocephalic? where their skulls have all this extra fluid in it, and it stretches the skull even, and so the heads are very disproportionate. Or it could have been in the chest cavity or in the abdomen, but there was this huge amount of fluid that was in this person. And they took that person, and they set them right smack dab in front of Jesus. And they did it on purpose, didn't they? Because what was the purpose? It's a Sabbath meal. It's after the worship service. They take this man at this banquet and they set him right in front of Jesus. And their point is, is Jesus going to heal this man? Is Jesus going to heal him? Because if he does, healing they consider to be work. And since it was the Sabbath day, they said, we will catch Jesus working on the Sabbath and show the people that he is guilty of violating, breaking the Sabbath commandment not to work. Now, Jesus wasn't afraid of these guys, was he? How many times in the Scriptures do we have evidence of Jesus healing on the Sabbath? Well, I looked it up. There's about seven. Seven times that Jesus is specifically stated as healing on the Sabbath day. So Jesus is not afraid of their trap when they set somebody. You remember in John chapter 8, you remember they took a trap for Jesus. They took the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery and they bring her in front of Jesus and they say, OK, what are you going to do about her? We found her taken in the very act of adultery. What kind of rule do you want to bring against her? What kind of judgment? Are you going to keep what the law says or are you just going to be compassionate and blow it off? So you see that we're trying to trap Jesus. The Pharisees had set this trap up because they knew that once Jesus healed this man, which they were sure he would do, then they could then they could point to the whole crowd and say, look how guilty Jesus is of working on the Sabbath day and ignoring the law of God. But what Jesus did was he turned the tables on them. As he often did. Jesus turned the tables on him and look what he said to them in verse three. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? So he put the ball in their court. He put the ball in their court because what he wanted to do was to teach them that the kingdom of God's values are different for the kingdom of this world. That the world's values are so different, so skewed, that you have to have the Son of God come from heaven and teach us what God's true values are. The world's values aren't the values of God's kingdom. Now, this world values a couple of things, doesn't it? Well, we know what it values. It values performance and pride. A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to the news and I heard an article on Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong, who has won seven times, I think it is, that Tour de France cycling championship. And you know, for years, they've been trying to get Lance Armstrong. They've been saying, well, you are guilty of using performance enhancing drugs. You took something that's given you an advantage over all the other people on the Tour de France. What did you do? So they've gone after him. And finally, what was it? A couple of weeks ago, he said, OK, I'm not going to fight you guys anymore. He said, I'm not admitting guilt, but I'm not going to fight you anymore. What about when Barry Bonds was the one that was using performance enhancing steroids so that he could hit more home runs than anybody else? Or the other athletes that we keep seeing, because what does our culture value? Our culture values pride based on performance. Now that's the very thing that these folks valued. They valued pride based on law performance. If they kept the law so good about the Sabbath, if they kept the laws, if they made all these itsy-bitsy laws and then kept them, then they had performed for God and God had to love them. God will have to love me because I have performed His law. I have kept not only the law that He said, but I've kept laws related to everything about the Sabbath. I don't walk far on the Sabbath. I don't eat my food on the Sabbath. I don't do this on the Sabbath. I don't do that on the Sabbath. I tithe. I give gifts. I give away alms. I do all this stuff. So the world values pride based on performance. Now, Jesus is trying to attack their values and show them that their values of pride based on performance aren't kingdom values. That it's not what the kingdom of God is based on. These people wanted Jesus to be guilty of violating the law so that they could feel good about how well they keep the law. They wanted to feel proud about how wonderfully they keep the law and obey it in every one of its aspects. And look this guy who thinks he's a prophet come from God. He does not keep the law. He would heal a person on the Sabbath day in violation of the law of God. What is the world value? It values pride and performance. What is the kingdom of God value? Jesus says the kingdom of God values compassion and humility. God's kingdom values two things that the world does not value. God's kingdom values compassion and humility. Jesus looks at this man and he says, let me ask you guys a question. How many of you, if you had an ox or even your son, fall into a well on the Sabbath day? Would you rescue your son from that well on the Sabbath day? Would you pull your ox who had fallen down into a well? Would you get a rope and grab it and get your neighbors and pull that ox out of that well where he had fallen? Wouldn't you do that? Don't you do that every day? Yes. That was an example that Jesus had used with people before. Yes, they definitely did that. Which one of you would have a son or an ox? Wouldn't you pull him out? So you have compassion upon a son or an ox as far as, that's not work. But you don't have compassion on a man who's sick with dropsy and you're going to judge me as a lawbreaker because I will heal him on the Sabbath. He says you don't have kingdom values. What you have is pride and performance values. What I want you to have instead is I want you to have compassion for hurting, needing ones. I want you to have humility, not pride based on your performance. Jesus called them to face their hypocrisy, that they would definitely pull an ox or their son out, but they wouldn't help this poor person who was suffering. What kind of values does the kingdom of God have that doesn't have pride? And hypocrisy is its values. You remember, Jesus called them hypocrites in chapter 13. And when he did, he dealt with them about this. There was a woman in verse 11. There was a woman who for 18 years had a sickness caused by a spirit. And she was bent double and couldn't straighten up. And he was teaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath. Verse 10, then verse 12, Jesus saw her and called her over and said, Woman, you are freed from your sickness. And he laid hands on her and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. So Luke 13, 14 says the synagogue official was indignant. He says, there are six days in which work should be done. Therefore, come during them and get healed and not on the Sabbath day. But the Lord answered and said to him, you hypocrites. Jesus is calling them on the carpet because of their hypocrisy. The kingdoms of this earth value pride based on performance, and they end up being hypocrites about their values. And they lack compassion. And Jesus says, the values that I want you to embrace are compassion and humility. Compassion and humility. Now, Jesus didn't let it go. You know how Jesus doesn't let things go? He'll tell example after example after example. Parable, story, interpretation. He hammers us sometimes. That's what He's doing to these guys. Look at verses 7 through 11 of Luke 14. He began speaking to them a parable to the invited guests when he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table. So Jesus is beginning to hammer them with a second area of their pride. They wanted to be the ones that had the coveted seats of honor. They wanted to go sit up at the head table. They wanted to be recognized. They wanted to put on their best clothes. They wanted to come to this feast. They wanted all those powerful people there. And then they wanted to stroll up to the head table and sit over there next to the host. Boy, they'd feel good then, wouldn't they? And Jesus says, I've watched how you do this, that you seek the coveted seats of honor. And then he said, OK, here's what I'm going to tell you to do. Don't go to a party and try to sit at the head table. What if someone more distinguished than you comes and the host looks and says to you, you've got to get up and make way for this one because he's more distinguished than you. You go find yourself a seat someplace else. And he says, you know what will happen to you? There will be only one seat left and it will be down at the very end, the farthest table away from the speaker. The farthest one from the power. The farthest one from the honor. And if you go up and try to be seated at the head table and to take a place of honor, the host will ask you to be seated and you'll end up being seated back there in the very back. Jesus says, you're going to be dishonored. You're going to be humiliated if you try to be proud and take the highest place. So here's what you need to do instead. What you need to do when you go to a party or a great banquet is to go sit back there at the very end table. The table farthest away from the head table. Go sit back there and talk to the people there and be humble. Because then the host can come in and he can see you seated at the back table and say, friend, move up higher. Move up here close to me. Move up here and he says, then you will be honored in the presence of everybody. Now, Jesus summed up what he was teaching them about pride and humility in verse 11. He says, everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled and the one who humbles himself shall be exalted. Susan and I were flipping the channels the other night, looking for something decent to watch on TV, and we came across one channel and we let it sit there for a while. And it was the X Factor. Now you know what the X Factor is. The X Factor is that one that Simon Cowell went to and started when he got tired of doing the other show that he was doing. So he comes and does this one. So now he's sitting up at the head table and they've got cameras on these people everywhere. They've got cameras out in the audience. They've got cameras on the people that are preparing to sing. And these are the kids that are coming up there and young adults and they're saying, I'm going to be the best singer in America. I'm going to get the $5 million prize. I'm going to get a recording contract. I'm going to be famous. And there was one little girl that we watched this week and she didn't look 20 years old. She and her sister. And she was coming up to the front and she said, boy, I'm good. They're going to really like me. I'm going to get out there and wow this crowd. I'm going to win it. Nobody deserves this more than I do. And so she was all excited and she comes out there and she picks up that mic and she's going to sing. And she sings about three bars and Simon Cowell throws his hand up and he says, wait a minute, stop band. He says, you have anything else you could sing? He said, your singing sounds like you're dying. You better get off the stage. And she's humiliated. I mean, she's based all her hopes on this, and she just walks away in this humiliation. But you see, she walked on the stage, I'm the best, I'm going to win this thing, I'm going to get the five million dollars, they're going to choose me, I've got a great voice. And the guys that are pros, they say, your voice is terrible, you sound like you're going to die. This humiliated this poor girl. Now, in a way, you feel sorry for her, but she was so arrogant. You know, on another hand, you almost say she needed a little dose of that. You see, Jesus says. In verse 11, everyone who exalts himself is going to be hunted. And everybody who humbles himself is going to be exalted, but he didn't stop there. You remember, he's hammering the crowd because he says, your values are pride based on your performance and you have no compassion. So I'm going to hammer you with parable, interpretation and parable. So Jesus keeps going. Notice what he does next. He keeps going to the next section in verses 12 through 14. He continues to show them how his kingdom is different from the world. And Jesus says, here is what the world does, and I don't want you to behave like them. The world operates on the patronage system. Did you notice verses 12 through 14? When you give a dinner or lunch and you invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, your rich neighbors, lest they invite you also in return and repayment comes to you. He says, this is the patronage system. The world operates on the patronage system, doesn't it? A man seeks power and influence and wealth. And what does he do? Well, he says, I'm going to throw a big dinner. I'm going to announce my candidacy for the state Senate. And I'm going to bring everybody of my friends, my rich neighbors, big donors. I'm going to bring them to my house. I'm going to have everybody here. We're going to do everything in a powerful, big time way. And I'm going to announce my candidacy for the state Senate. And when I bring them in here, I'm going to reward them. I'm going to give them this big dinner. I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to call these people out. I'm going to put them on the mic. I'm going to let them stand in front of all this crowd. And they're going to be honored in the crowd. And then one day, when I need a favor from their district, Or from their checkbook, I'll be able to call them and I'll say, I had you for a dinner at my house and you're part of my network. So you help me, I help you. When you need a bill passed in the state Senate, you come to me and I'll grease the skids and this one will come right on through. It'll get right on through and we'll see it and we'll vote on it and we'll do what you want. But you've got to help me now. You've got to deliver the votes from your district. You've got to write a big check. You've got to help me. You've got to get other people who can help me. You've got to get the vote out. The patronage system. The world operates on the patronage system, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Who's at those conventions that we saw two weeks ago? We saw the typical people who support, whether it's big business or big labor or big government, they were all there. Because you see, if they weren't there, they don't get invited to the party. The patronage system is exactly what Jesus is talking about. He says here, look, you're part of the patronage system, aren't you? You believe that the patronage system is the way it all works. You're proud. You're going to throw a big party. You're going to invite all your friends. You're going to pump them up. And when they come, you're going to ask them for a favor later, aren't you? You're going to have them invite you to their party. You see, that's how the patronage system works. If you're part of the club or the party or whatever, you call upon them for gifts or help. And that's the way the world works. But what does Jesus say? Look at verses 13 and 14. But when you give a party, a banquet or a reception, Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Wow! That's not what we expected, is it? Jesus says, blow off the patronage system. You don't need that. Here's what you do when you have a party. Remember, he's adding, he's doing what he's against, what pride based on performance, lack of compassion. He wants to instill in them humility and compassion for those around them. And so Jesus says, when you give a big party, don't invite the people that will invite you back. Instead, you're going to be rewarded if you invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Because this is exactly the opposite of what the world would do. In Jesus' kingdom, you don't invite the people that can repay you. You invite the people who can't repay you. You invite the people who have no way to repay you. Not the people that can afford to help you out, but the people who can't afford to help you at all. Now, I can't help but think this morning of my friends who are the flood victims in West Africa. Whose homes are damaged, who don't have jobs, whose hospitals are damaged by the floodwaters. who are sick with diseases that come because the floods open up the sewers and the sewers spread disease. And those people have to walk in it, in that water, in that filth and in that mess. And a lot of those people get sick as a result of the floods. And I can't help but think of them this morning. Are we going to help those people? Are we going to help those people out? You see, Our brothers and sisters, that's who they are and they have needs right now. And one of the things the Presbyterian Church of Senegal is going to do tomorrow is to begin a week of helping their neighbors for the sake of Christ. And I don't know about you, but I would love to help them with that kind of outreach. Some of those people are out of jobs because their job is stopped because of the flood. Some of the people have sick children and they can't afford the medicine. Some of them are sick themselves and they can't afford the medicine for their lives. I would encourage you to pray with me about ways that we can send a gift to help our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ in this part of the world. Because Jesus taught that in this chapter. He taught that the world operates on the basis of pride and performance, but his kingdom operates on the basis of compassion and humility. Have you ever asked yourself why the kingdom of God operates on compassion and humility? Well, isn't that the character of God? Doesn't it operate on compassion and humility because it's the character of God? How did Jesus come to this world? Did he come as the king? Did he roll down the highway? Did he come as a full-blown adult? Did he come as a king? Did he come from the palace? Did he come taking over? Did he let the glory that he had in heaven shine all around him so that everybody in the crowd would know who he was and bow down to him and give him honor and praise and glory? You know better. We're getting ready to celebrate Christmas in a couple of months, right? Jesus didn't come like that. How did he come? He came as a baby. Jesus came as a little infant. And there's nothing more powerless than an infant. An infant needs everything. They cry because they need food, or their diaper changed, or just because they hurt, because they have something bothering them. They cry because they're not cuddled, or warm, or held. You see, an infant is powerless. He has no power in society. He has no strength. I guess that's why we murder little children, is because they have no power. Sometimes they've got nobody to speak for them. So we just say, let's just get rid of them. We don't need them. They're powerless. Jesus came, though, as a little child, dependent, helpless in a way. He came to earth as a baby, born not in a nice hospital, but in a barn, born in a barn, placed on hay in a feeding trough. He came not as a king or a prince or a ruler. Instead, he came as a servant. Isaiah called him the suffering servant. He had no stately form or majesty that we should look on him. He was despised and forsaken by men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. According to Paul and Philippians 2, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. He came to be cast out of the city so that you could be accepted. You remember the person that they valued almost in nothing, in no way, they took outside the city gate and they put him on a cross and they hung him between two murderous rebels. Because they didn't value Jesus any more than we would value a common criminal. And so they took Jesus outside the gate and tossed him on a cross and cruelly executed. He came to be cast out so that you could be brought in. He drank the cup of judgment so that you could drink from the cup of mercy. He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? so that you would not hear those words, so that you would not be forsaken, so that you would not be abandoned in your sins and deserted to die in rotten hell forever. Because the words that we're going to hear is not, be gone, you workers of iniquity. But what we're going to hear is, welcome my beloved child. Enter into the joy of your master. You see, Jesus came to do that for us. The reason the kingdom of God operates on compassion and humility is because those are two of the very characteristics of God. Out of His compassion and love for you and for me, He came. God the Son came to die on the cross for us. Out of his humility, he took the lowest place. He took the place of the thief and the criminal on the cross. He took the place of the little child. He took the place of the despised prophet. He took the place of the nobody so that we could mistreat him and reject him and kick him out and send him away and say, not him, give us Barabbas. You see, Jesus took that place so that you could be included, so that you could be welcomed, so that you could be forgiven, so that you could have the grace of God. The reason the kingdom of God operates on grace and compassion and humility is because God is like that, because that's His character. If you're not a Christian, which system do you want to be part of? Do you want to be a part of a system that operates based on the patronage system? You do something for me, I do something for you. When have you ever done enough for God and who can ever do enough for God to be accepted? You don't want to be a part of that system. Do you want to blast people with criticism like Simon Cowell and the people on The X Factor? Or do you want to be somebody that forgives because you've been forgiven? Do you want to embrace the way of Christ because that's the way of life? You see, that's what God is offering us, the way of life, of hope and of redemption through his son, Jesus, who tells us that his kingdom is based on compassion and humility and grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that your Holy Spirit is here. And you said that wherever two or three are gathered together in your name, there you are in our midst. And so, Father, when you convict us of sin and righteousness and the judgment to come, we can be convicted and convinced that we need to change. So will you change us in the ways that we need to be changed? Keep us, Father, from operating according to the premise of the world, where they love pride and performance. and they don't love compassion or humility. Help us, Father, to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us while we were yet sinners and died in our place. And we pray in that name that's the name above every other, even the name of Jesus. Amen.