Invitation

He also said 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. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed because they cannot repay you.

Again, he's giving a clear teaching, but here, this one isn't as obvious as wisdom as the other one. He's making it clear, when you're inviting others for a feast, when you're going to invite others for a banquet, as you've just done, speaking to the man who invited him, be careful that you're going to invite people who are going to be able to pay you back. Be careful that you're only thinking of who you're going to invite and enjoy into your home, which is a significant action. To invite someone to your home, to share your life with them. You're only going to invite those who you are thinking they're going to be able to pay me back. He's really warning us here of living our lives as a constant quid pro quo. as if life is just mere consumption and transaction. A quid pro quo is just what for what. It's a, I'll give you this, and I'm gonna expect some kind of payment back, some kind of repayment. This is self-interest. This is mere selfishness. Living transaction to transaction. Make it clear. He's not saying you were never allowed to have a feast with others, but when you're thinking about who you're inviting, notice there, The poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. These are people who are dishonored in culture. These are people who would have nothing to give, they're simply receiving. Here, the person who's inviting sees themselves as a steward of God's good gifts, giving to others. Not thinking, how can I jockey what I have? How can I use what I have in order to gain more from someone else? The primary focus here, do not live your life as some kind of transactional life. It's only unsatisfying. Verse 14 is really the heart of it though. Look at the end.

For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

You will be repaid. Don't live your life as if you're trying to find some kind of payment out of others. No, here he's mentioning, he's making it clear. At the last day, there's going to be a reward. That's when you're repaid. Now we need to slow down and be very careful and very clear here. We're saved by grace. It's a gift. Salvation is in no way some kind of reward for the works you've done. Salvation is in no way God looking and saying, wow, this person has such gifts, abilities, or they've done so well, I'm going to save them. No, salvation is God looking at us in the filth of our sin, in the hearts of our wickedness, and saying, I love you. I sent my son to die for you. He forgives us of our sin. He loves us while we're still sinners. Salvation comes only as a gift received by faith. And those who have received that gift by faith are then called to good works. We had a similar difficulty last week. Jesus, when asked how many will be saved, is it few? He made it very clear, many will not be able to strive to enter the narrow door. Here, we're looking at it in that same complication in a different way. God does not reward us with salvation. There's no way to earn salvation. But when we're saved, we're then given good works. When we're saved, we're called to then, by faith, be obedient to God and good works. We're not saved by good works, we're saved for good works. The outcome of a faith in Jesus Christ would be more obedience. It would be more giving. It'd be a greater stewardship. It'd be greater generosity. And at that day, when we stand before Christ, we would receive a reward. And here there's a big difference. Are we living for an earthly reward that we can only get from others that we're trying to use as we invite them in? Are we living for a heavenly reward? because we're constantly giving over the things that God has given to us. The big truth challenge this morning. Is there a God who blesses us after death? Is there a God who blesses us after death? If not, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Try to squee it out of this life as much as we think we can get satisfaction. Live in that constant burden of quid pro quo of a transaction and consumption. Practically speaking, is this a life of constant disappointment? However, if we believe that God has given us his own son, what good thing will he ever withhold from us? If we believe God has given us so generously of his love, of his kindness, of his grace, he's going to give us reward. This is the upside down kingdom. God exalts the humble and lowers the proud. The upside down kingdom is seen most specifically. The king has come to die for those rebelled against him. And here in the payment, the king gives those he died and our faithful crowns. The king gives away the reward of crowns. for those who are faithful. So we ask, who are we inviting into our lives? Is it just folks who we get something out of or are we giving our lives over as Christ gave to us as a way of loving others and showing his good gifts? There's a call to reward. The next invitation, the next stage of this conversation, it's a call to respond, and this is the longer section here, verses 15 to 24. And notice, as always, there's some kind of comment that is a bit of a misdirection, and Jesus answers it in an unusual way. So he said here to the man who invited him, be careful who you invite, not just those who pay you back, to those who can't pay you back because you're looking for the payment of God. You're looking for the reward of God. And one of those who reclined at table with him, verse 15, heard these things. And he said to him, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. That's right. That's true. Everyone who is invited to the table of God, to the table of Abraham, to the table of Christ, to the table to participate in the life of God eternal, they are blessed and they will be blessed. It's true, but it's not true in the way he's saying it here. Because Jesus just said, be aware there's a reward for those who are faithful. And this person who's speaking seems to be trying to contradict what Jesus said, because he wants to say, no, everyone will be blessed, which is true. Everyone will be blessed. And those who are faithful will receive a reward. Verse 16, Jesus said to him, a parable.

A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. At the time, For the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come for everyone is now ready, but they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a field and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I need to go examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported those things to his master.

Jesus here is confronting the person who has tried to level out his declaration. There's a repayment. There's a reward that comes in heaven. The man tried to level it out by saying, no, everyone's blessed. And Jesus then likens this invitation to a banquet. Oh, this is similar to what would happen with the RSVP. A man's planned a great feast, a banquet. He sent out the RSVP. He sent out the information. We will have a banquet. And on the day of the banquet, he sends his servant back out to go and inform those who've been invited and RSVP'd. We know these are excuses. They're pretty lame excuses. They bought land. They've got to go look at it. I bought some oxen. I've never bought oxen, but I think you probably examine them before you buy them. We have some farmers that can either confirm or deny that, but I'm pretty sure you would examine before. The last one, I've married a wife, I must not have been a plus one option on the RSVP. But they're all excuses. They've all counted the cost, there's a banquet, it was RSVP'd, but I have something more important to do. Let's go back to the statement, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. The real danger of what that man is saying is in the assumption, I'm going to come to the kingdom of God. The great assumption that's dangerous is that he assumes that he's going to be able to enter and that it'll be a great blessing for everybody, even over against his lack of faithfulness. They all made excuses. Notice how the host responds. Verse 20,

then the master of the house became angry and said to his servants, go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city, bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And the servant said, sir, what you have commanded has been done and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of these men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

This host, it's God in the parable. The one thing he's insisting on is my house will be filled. The one thing he's insisting upon is I have prepared a great feast and it will be enjoyed. If those who have refused first will not come, go and get everyone else. And notice the parallel in these two parables, these two stories, poor, crippled, blind, lame, that was from verse 13. Go and get those that weren't invited. Go and get those who can't pay back. Fill the banquet hall. Even when it's still not full, go compel them to come. Here we see the host's desire is that everyone would come and enjoy. But now because of the excuses, because they refused, the main point here, the main emphasis, verse 24, I tell you, those who gave excuses who were invited first, They shall not taste it. This is a warning passage. It might be a warning passage for Israel because here we have Pharisees who are refusing Jesus. They're going to be cut off from the vine and Gentiles be grafted in maybe. But I think here we need to consider this for ourselves. The warning, the kind of delayed obedience The kind of putting off yet another day, the kind of presuming upon God's grace. What a gracious host. What a kind invitation. He's insisting his house will be full. The real challenge for us is what kind of excuses do we make not to receive his invitation? What kind of excuses do we make to refuse Jesus's invitation. The last two points. First, call to follow. The scene changes. The crowd's here rather than the Pharisees. We've seen the invitation, be humble in the way you relate to others, not trying to take a seat greater because God is the one who honors. Be careful who you invite. Be a steward because God will repay. Be careful to hear the invitation. Come to the feast when invited. And now he's going to make clear what it means to be invited. Verse 25,

now the great crowds accompanied him and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

And then drop down to verse 33.

So therefore, anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Notice how clear these statements are. They're exclusive. If you do not do this, you cannot be my disciple. This is a heavy teaching. This is a significant point that Jesus is making. If you're going to receive the invitation to come, this is what it means. Now I want us to first see, if anyone comes to me, if anyone comes to me, Christ's invitation is to come to him. Not a list of principles, not just an ideology, not just some kind of morality. It's a call to God. It's a call to the God who created us, the God we rebelled against. The God who's come down to save us, the God who became like us in every way, the God who died on the cross for us, the God who rose again, the God who says, come to me. The ultimate call is to come to Jesus. The ultimate call is to come to a person, not some kind of principles or just a simple thought process or a new way of living. No, it's to come to God, to know him, be known by him, a religious relationship. the creator inviting us, the creatures, back to him. He's making it very clear, if you come to him to be his disciples, it's going to be at significant cost. Again, every invitation has a cost, right? If one were to want to run a marathon, you don't just all of a sudden sign up that morning of and throw in a penny. You're not gonna finish the race. Anytime we make a commitment to a degree, if you wanna go to school, there's a cost. If you're going to enter a relationship, there's a cost. Jesus is making it clear to come to him is not something we do casually. Coming to Christ is going to go beyond comfort. It's costly. I hope we can see that the more important the invitation, the more costly it's going to be. Here, it's God himself inviting us into his very presence. He who is most worthy says, come to me. We have to fight against cheap grace, cheap discipleship, a cheap gospel. The real question we ask, is he really good enough to care for me if I come to him? Is he really going to be kind enough to give me everything he promises? Is he powerful enough to do all the things he says he will do? Let's hold those questions out and hopefully come back to them. Jesus makes coming to him very clear what it'll cost us. It's a high bar. These are challenging verses. We're gonna have to really wrestle with them.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

To come to Jesus is to come to him and be disciplined to follow his discipleship. And what he says here is very provocative. It's provocative. The first one is clearly provocative for us. We need to really wrestle with it. What does it mean to hate these other significant relationships? We have to think about this. The God who created and designed us to have husband and wife, mother, father, children. that the God who ordained the family as good is saying you must hate them in order to follow me. Now, we need to wrestle with how this fits with the rest of what scripture says. Jesus is also gonna make it very clear, you honor your father and mother. This is a clear command that has eternal ramifications for us. It's still binding on us. Honor your mother and father. So we have to wrestle with what it means to hate mother and father to follow Jesus with Jesus' clear call to honor your father and mother. Jesus also teaches love your neighbor. These relationships are still neighbors. Neighbors are those who are closest to you. These are the closest neighbors you have. And even if there's a difficulty, you love your enemy. So what are all these words and how do these relationships work? I think one of the most difficult things is we've actually got to figure out how to rethink the word love. Love and hate in scripture function differently than how we use it in our own culture. You see, we talk about how you can fall in love. The Bible doesn't have a category for falling in love. You fall into the trap of the prostitute, you don't fall in love. The Bible has a category of falling in the trap of sin. If you're easily and gradually falling into something, it's dangerous. It's not love. Love is a commitment. Love is setting your affections on someone. God himself says,

Jacob, I have loved, Esau, I've hated.

It's not about how he feels towards one of them based upon how they've acted, it's his own focus, it's own allegiance, his own setting his affections. So the thing about how we would hate parents, it's not how we feel about parents in order to follow Christ, no, it's how we relate to them. This is complicated, so here's a couple ways we wanna think about it. Most basic level, Jesus here is saying we need to have a properly ordered life. A wise life is one where your loves are properly ordered. If you love your parents more than Christ, you're not a disciple of Christ. If you love your spouse more than Christ, you're not a proper disciple of Christ. There's a sense in which Christ is he who we love with all our hearts and all our minds and all our strength. There's a proper order of loves that is at least being taught here. Secondly, I believe we can see here an allegiance shift, a commitment. For many who would be Jews, they would have to be disowned, and they would have to disown their families in order to follow Christ. There's a way in which the family was so important in the structure of society for protection, for provision. There's a choosing to move away from the family in order to follow Christ. It's a change of the most significant relationship. When you look at that third qualification, verse 33, who does not renounce everything. There's a way in which we're putting off these relationships and making them a priority, and we're making Christ now our true priority. There's a willingness to lose. What kind of relationships are closed-handed versus open-handed? Just a few weeks ago, we saw Jesus teach. He did not come to bring peace, but division. He came to even bring division in the family. I believe here's what he's assuming. that many who will come after him will have to be disowned and left by their families. I pray this isn't true for most of us. It has been true for many. Coming to Christ led to persecution. Following in the footsteps of Christ led to families breaking away. There are parents or children or even spouses that have abandoned someone because they confess Christ. And the temptation would be, is Christ really worthy? Is Christ really worthy of me losing that relationship with my parents, even an inheritance? Is Christ really worthy of me giving up this girlfriend, even someone who's willing to divorce me because I am going to follow Christ and they will not? Here Jesus is making it very clear. If you're not willing to prioritize, make him your ultimate and final allegiance, you're not really his disciple. It's just another relationship in your categories. Parents, this is a helpful challenge for us. What kind of commitments do we have that demonstrate our first love for Christ? I pray that the children that are raised within the church here among our members, they don't have to come to this decision of how they're going to follow Christ or parents. Are we regularly presenting ourselves as demonstrating a following of Christ, a love for Christ, so that it's clear for our children that for them to love Christ, we're loving them? It's all aligned. Oh, how we'd love for them to love Christ more than us. Parents also, what kinds of extra expectations do we place on our children that make following Christ more complicated and confusing? What kind of extra expectations do we place on our children that make following Christ more complicated and confusing? If you're not a believer this morning, the call of Christ is to come to him. The call of Christ is to come to him. He's inviting you out of sin, out of judgment, out of lies. He's inviting you to life, peace, and truth. Jesus separates us from sin. He doesn't separate us from good things. He gives us all that's good. When Jesus invites us to himself, he's inviting us to everything good, and we have to realize, because of sin, we love sin. And there's going to be allegiance challenges. And Jesus is always worthy. The second way he carifies what it means to follow him is to carry your cross. Culturally speaking, we see crosses everywhere. There's like 50 behind me. Those are crosses. We've appropriated this image as it's changed in value. And that's really significant. You see, the world Jesus is speaking to right now in the text, you wouldn't talk about the cross. It's a shameful thing to talk about. The cross was the punishment Rome had reserved and perfected to bring the greatest shame and pain upon the greatest convicts. The cross was a symbol of shame and suffering in a way that people wouldn't talk about it. What's amazing is we see how that value changed because of Christ. Here, they're not quite getting it yet, but they will after he's died on the cross and he rose again. The cross will change because Jesus turned his face to Jerusalem to die on the cross. The value of the cross changed because the greatest evil took place in the day that Christ died on the cross. Creatures killed their creator. The cross, the value of it changed because it's where the greatest kindness took place. The father sent his son to die on that cross. God saved us only because of that cross. The cross defines so much of who we are, what we believe. The cross today has this wonderful image, but we have to go back and remember, no, at that time, it represents shame and suffering. Henry's saying, you cannot follow me if you're not gonna take up your cross. Christian, the call to be a disciple is to follow in the footsteps of Christ, whom they mocked, they beat, they will be nailed to the cross. We might not be nailed to a cross like Jesus, Peter is reported to have done so, but every Christian will go through some kind of suffering. If we're truly faithful to Christ, and it's not a universal suffering, in the sense of everyone's going to suffer the same kind, but it's your own cross, everyone will suffer some kind of suffering, if we're being faithful to Christ. Might be shame, might be abuse, might be physical, Here, Jesus is saying, are you willing to take up the suffering that's going to follow being my disciple? And the question we have to ask is, is he worthy? Well, as we ask, is he worthy, here we have to ask the final question, or see the final charge invitation, the call to count the cost. Jesus makes it clear, verse 28,

for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he had laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, send a delegation and ask for terms of peace. So therefore, anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? If it is no use either for the soil or for the manure pile, it is thrown away. He who has ears, let him hear.

Compared to the real commitment that matters, it's costly. Some commitments are just natural for us. We wouldn't even think about them when we're invited. We're gonna go and we just know because of habit, it's something we know is worth the cost. Here, Jesus has made the call to follow him provocatively difficult. Are you willing to renounce family? Are you willing to suffer the most shameful way, the most painful way? And God does what only a good God would do. He wants to be clear. He wants to help us understand what he's actually calling us to and even invites us to count the cost. Again, anytime we take up any activity, any invitation, we're gonna count the cost. Consider the marathon runner. If someone is really going to cross that finish line, the cost, to say I'm going to run that distance, the cost, the hours of practice, you can't be fair-weathered and run a marathon. You have to run in the rain. You can't be averse to suffering. You're gonna have to run through blisters, through pain, through difficulty. You're gonna have to have your eye on the prize for the medal or the cross line to just finish the task. Jesus here says the same thing. If you're going to enter into this training, this relationship, count the cost. He first likens it to building a tower. Building a tower would be a very public thing. Right? People would see someone who's building a tower, and the warning here is, can you imagine someone who would try to build a tower and they don't complete it? When people pass by it, they would say, this guy, he tried to do this and he couldn't. It's kind of like that building in the downtown mall. I don't know where it is, but it's next to a CVS or something. What a eyesore in the middle of our city. Somebody began to build, I think, a hotel, and it's been sitting there ever since, empty. I actually came across this, I was trying to build a large patio in my backyard and came across many roadblocks and difficulties and at one point I thought, this is going to be embarrassing, I don't know how to finish this thing. People come over and they'll just see this kind of half-done thing in the backyard. There was at one point I was trying to figure out some stairs and I kept having to build them and take them apart and my wife said wisely,

you should look at Pinterest.

I said, I'm not looking at Pinterest, I'm a man. Then she showed me something on Pinterest, like, oh, that's how I'm gonna do it, and it worked out. But I truly felt this. What if I can't finish? What if I don't know how to bring it all together? People come over and see this half-baked backyard. There's a shame there with the tower illustration. The next one's even more focused. That's deadly. To count the cost of going to war, 10,000 or 20,000, that's two times more. Oh, make peace, count the cost, recognize how dangerous that is. To count the cost. Is it worth it? Is he worthy? Is this truly the commitment that I wanna make? Let's look at verse 34 and 35 because I think they're related to this counting the cost. The heading there should not exist because Jesus is still teaching between 33 and 34. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? I believe here the salt is like someone who did begin the task and lost the way. The salt is someone who actually goes into that commitment and doesn't finish and they're thrown away, there's no use. There's a real danger here. Some will come to Jesus and lose heart. They'll deny the faith. They'll deny the builder who does not complete the tower. There's a real danger here. Some will come to Jesus and get overwhelmed with temptation. They'll be like the general who goes out to battle without really counting the cost and they'll be overwhelmed. We need to be very clear here. Jesus is not telling us we can lose our salvation. We'd have to go elsewhere for that. You can begin a good work and you will complete it. The emphasis here, though, is for us to seriously take to heart our responsibility to endure, to persevere, to discipline ourselves, to put forth the effort. There's a warning that we who begin this task need to consider how significant it is, what it will cost us, because if we deny him, We'll be thrown away. There's no benefit of just having a casual relationship with Jesus. We're either coming to him in his discipleship or we're thrown away like salt that's lost its taste. Hear the call. He who alone can save you invites you to himself. He alone who has paid your sin debt offers you forgiveness. He who alone is near to the Father and invites you out of shame and into the holy presence of God invites you. He who alone knows your sin and loves you while you're a sinner invites you. Come to him. Grace is what invites us in and grace is what allows us to stay on the path. But the real warning is someone who would casually consider this call. casually try to complete this call. This isn't legalism. If you just work hard enough, you'll get there. No, it's by God's grace. We'll believe him. We'll obey him. And it's worth the cost. So the invitation. Trust God who gives us honor. Trust God who gives us the reward. Consider him who calls us as worthy. Friends, as we consider this, Is he good? Is he really good enough to give us all the things he promised? Is he really able to give us all the things he promised? Is Christ truly worthy? Christian, as we end our meditation on what Christ has invited us to, go to 1 Peter 1. He has purchased us with his precious blood. Oh, the danger of making it cheap grace. the danger of a cheap gospel, the danger of cheap discipleship. He purchased us with his precious blood. He who calls us, he is worth it. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you've not left us in our foolishness, in our sin, in our rebellion. You've given us your Son to renew us in dignity and honor as your image bearers, to even reward us with the gift of Sonship, to be able to call you Father. to give us what lies before, to realize we don't have to live this life in constant transaction, but we, Lord, can live a life knowing you will fulfill your promise to reward. Help us, Lord, to hear this invitation. Help us, Lord, to truly count the cost, to see the cost that's before us. and to see how your promises make your invitation worthy of following. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Here, our song of response. Softly and tenderly printed on page 11 of your bulletin.