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Jul 14, 2019

The Greater Feast

Passage: Luke 14:12-24

Speaker: Craig Lotz

Series: The Parables of Jesus

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: identity, story, righteousness, grace, idols, need, banquet, outsider

In the parable of the Great Banquet, an invitation is given to a select few then to great many, but only those most hungry (and aware of their need) will be drawn to the greater Feast. 

Order of worship

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 34:1-2,5-6,8

READING: James 2:5 & Matthew 5:6

MUSIC 

CONFESSION: The Worship SourceBook – Section 2. 31

ALL: Eternal and merciful God, You have loved us with a love beyond our understanding and have set us on paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Yet, we have strayed from Your way, having sinned against You in thought, word, and deed. As we remember the lavish gift of Your grace, we praise You and give thanks that we’re forgiven in the finished work of Jesus. Grant us now, the gift to die daily to sin and self-righteousness and to rise daily to our new lives in Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.       

MESSAGE: The Greater Feast

CENTRAL TEXT: Luke 14:12-24 

12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “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. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” 15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

ILLUSTRATIONS: Stranger Than Fiction, Dumb & Dumber, Quantum of Solace, Chocolat, Green Eggs & Ham, Poldark (see media album below)

BENEDICTION: Revelation 19:6-9

LEADER: 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ 

ALL: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ 

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Isaiah 61:10a
  • Matthew 11:28-30
  • John 6:35
  • Romans 1:16
  • Romans 5:10
  • Revelation 7:16-17

MEDIA:

7.14.19 Album

  • Antwone Fisher: Antwone is welcomed home to the family (Thanksgiving) meal.
  • Babette's Feast: "There comes a time when we see mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude."
  • Chocolat: Party is held for all the social outcast. Son joins grandma but mother look on in disapproval, unwilling to attend. 
  • Dr. Suess: Sometimes, God's offering to us can (in our flesh) seem like Green Eggs & Ham. The Spirit continually chases urging us to feast on the finished work of Christ (anytime, anywhere).
  • Dumb & Dumber: We dress ourselves up in ridiculous attire and think we can flash our unearned money (self righteousness) around and enter the party. We simply need to be invited and given better garments (no money needed).
  • Game of Thrones: Nothing more powerful than stories, Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it. Parables imprint us the same.
  • Kacey Musgraves: We're never late to the party when we're late to the party with...Him.
  • Lion / Witch / Wardrobe: We feast on turkish delight (will never satisfy) and are urged to invite our family / friends to a deadly banquet. 
  • Poldark: We're hesitant to attend the dinner because we'll feel judged and unaccepted. Our marriage to the Groom makes us acceptable and reason to attend the dinner. 
  • Quantum Solace: We often find ourselves stranded in deserts. Eventually, we'll get thirsty and drink poison. We are spiritual beings in need of nourishment. The craving will be met one way or another. 
  • River Runs: A meal is graciously offered to us by the father. But we often (lie a child) stubbornly refuse it.
  • Stranger Than Fiction: We find ourselves in a story. What's our character / role and where are we headed? Parables call us to reflect the same.

DISCUSSIONS QUESTIONS:

  1. Why do you think the first 3 invitees gave such foolish excuses to the invitation?
    1. In what ways do we respond similar to Christ’s daily invitation to feast with Him?
  2. Why did the Master then extend the invitation to such social outcasts?
    1. Why did these new invitees seem hesitant (at first) to attend and what would compel them to eventually attend?
    2. In what ways are we similar to this second group in how we respond to Christ’s daily invitation to feast with Him?
  3. Make a list of the lesser banquets we tend to hunger for (and attend) each day.
  4. What role does the Spirit play in our attending the Greater banquet?
    1. To see the banquet (and ultimately Jesus) as what we truly crave?
    2. That Jesus is enough and all we need.
    3. That Jesus was cast out of His “banquet” with the Father so we could be invited in.
    4. That His finished work covers us with new clothes (righteousness) for the banquet.
  5. What might it look like for us to throw “banquets” for the surrounding community?
    1. Who would you invite?
    2. Who would invite you?
    3. What would compel you to attend or not attend?
  6. Give examples of extending “gospel” hospitality to others.
    1. To bring in outsiders just as Christ did for us.
    2. To love and serve others as Christ did for us

QUOTES:

  • What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing more powerful in the world than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it. - Tyrion Lanister (Game of Thrones)

  • “My godfather said that story was about taking the chaotic jigsaw of life, making it into a picture and putting a frame around it so that we could look at it, have control over it. Story and art are the humanizing elements of us all.” – Emma Thompson 

  • “It is impossible in reading this parable not to interpret the guests and their replacements as representing the attitudes of the religious leaders and the outcasts of Israel” - Robert H. Stein (An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus)

  • “The notion that a wealthy, prominent man would invite poor, despised outcasts to a banquet was as preposterous as imagining that the original guests would turn down the invitation en masse. There was not the slightest chance that either would have happened much less both.” - John MacArthur (New Testament Commentary)

  • “God is the eccentric host who, when the country-club crowd all turned out to have other things more important to do than come live it up with him, goes out into the skid rows and soup kitchens and charity wards and brings home a freak show - Frederick Buechner (Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale)

  • “We are always one or the other. We are either hosts or we are guests” - Rosaria Butterfield (The Gospel Comes with a House Key) 
  • Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing. - Shakespeare (Macbeth)
  • “For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.” - C. S. Lewis (Present Concerns)
  • “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

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