Jesus is your invitation.

 

Sermon for Trinity 2, June 26, 2022

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Amen.

Jesus is your invitation.

Dear friends in Christ,

            Did you ever ponder why you might accept, or reject, an invitation?  If you are invited to a wedding reception, graduation party, or governor’s ball, how do you decide whether, or not, to attend?  Do you base your decision on whether you have other things to do?  Or what food or entertainment is offered in the invitation?  Do you attend in order to honor someone with your presence, or because you are honored to be invited?  Any, and all, of those considerations may be valid points in your decision-making process when we are talking about the ordinary celebrations in our lives.  However, there is one banquet that you simply do not want to miss, and Jesus is your invitation.

Jesus had been invited to dine at the home of a Pharisee.  As He attended the dinner, Jesus noted several quirks in those attending, and He responded to those observation by teaching important truths.  One man was quoted saying, “Blessed is the one who will feast in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15)  We can safely say that was the understatement of all time, for to miss out on that feast is to spend eternity in hell.  Thus, Jesus warns against despising our invitation to feast with Him.

Luke 14:16–24  ¹⁶Jesus said to him, “A certain man made a great banquet and invited many people.  ¹⁷When it was time for the banquet, he sent out his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’  ¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses.  “The first one told him, ‘I bought a field, and I need to go and see it.  I ask you to excuse me.’  ¹⁹“Another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out.  I ask you to excuse me.’  ²⁰“Still another said, ‘I just got married, and so I am unable to attend.’  ²¹“The servant arrived and reported these things to his master.  Then the master of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’  ²²“The servant said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’  ²³“Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and urge them to come in, so that my house may be filled.  ²⁴Yes, I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’” (EHV)

In this parable, the great man Jesus mentions is His heavenly Father.  God has been preparing for this festival celebration since before time began.  The invitation was being sent throughout the course of history ever since God first promised a Savior when He told the devil, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.  He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)  God sent numerous prophets to prepare the way for the Savior of the world culminating in John the Baptist.  Furthermore, God has continued sending His servants still to this day to call people into the heavenly wedding feast of the Lamb.  The question remains who will come in.

Many of those at the dinner Jesus attended that day didn’t respect Him.  They openly questioned His motivations, credentials, and authority, as well as the message He delivered.  Jesus’ point with this parable is that in their time, He was God’s chief servant calling them into the heavenly banquet.  Yet, Jesus was serving His Father in so much more than just delivering a message.

The Lamb’s wedding banquet had to be prepared.  For you and me to enter heaven, we needed holiness.  We needed to have the stain and stink of our sins removed.  No wedding celebration would ever allow guests to attend in the filthy rags of unwashed enemy slaves.  Yet, that is the condition in which we were found because of sin.  Therefore, Jesus came into the world to change all that.  For the perfect righteousness we need to attend God’s great banquet, Jesus lived in perfect and complete accord with the law and His Father’s will, never once stumbling or falling short of holiness in thought, word, desire, or deed.  No other human in history could ever come close, but Jesus did that perfectly for you and me.

To remove our guilt, the death of every sinner was required.  There is no rule bending in the courtroom of our holy God.  Through Ezekiel, the Lord declared, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)  Thus, because we are all sinners, we all were deserving of death and eternal separation from God.  Thankfully, our God is not only just and righteous, He is also gracious and love.

Because we all deserved eternal death, which God does not desire for us, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  With the stench of the world’s sin on being put on Jesus, there was no other remedy than that He had to die, and die He did in the most shameful way man has devised.  By taking on the form of a servant, Jesus died the death of slaves and traitors as He was crucified.  In this, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.  As it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” (Galatians 3:13)

By carrying out every detail of His atonement plans, God prepared His heavenly wedding celebration of which He wants all people to participate.  “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  Jesus hand delivered that invitation in His time on earth, and what was the response?  We see the results in the parable He told.  Some thought earthly property was more valuable than the invitation.  Some thought that the activities of earthly life were far more important than celebrating with our God and Father.  Another was too involved with his family relationship to be bothered with God’s invitation to eternal salvation.

How many of us have treated God’s invitation just as lightly at times?  God hand delivered His invitation to eternal celebration as His Holy Spirit gave us faith and life in the cleansing waters of baptism.  Yet, how often do we lay that invitation aside by refusing to return to it in repentance?  God calls us to enjoy a foretaste of His heavenly banquet with His invitation to weekly worship.  Do we always make it a point to come and partake?  How many of us have decided we don’t really need the Supper Jesus prepared to strengthen our faith and restore our righteousness through forgiveness?

Perhaps, there are times when we are not so much different than those scribes and Pharisees who rejected Jesus’ invitation to believe in Him as their Savior.  Indeed, many rejected the idea that they needed a Savior to intervene on their behalf.  Many a person, both then and now, arrogantly assumes they can crash God’s heavenly banquet in their own clothes.  We will leave that idea for treatment with another of Jesus’ parables, but I’ll give you a hint—it doesn’t turn out well for those who imagine they can crash God’s celebration.

Whenever there is a presidential ball, the wedding receptions of the rich and famous, a royal inauguration, or any truly grand and glorious celebration, it is absolutely mandatory that you hold an invitation in order to attend.  This is a mere shadow of God’s heavenly wedding celebration.  No one will enter heaven by his own choosing.  No one can enter heaven dressed in rags stained by sin.  We need Jesus.  We need Him as our invitation.  With His perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus earned the right to celebrate with His Father in heaven.  Through the faith in Jesus granted to us through the work of the Holy Spirit, our names are added to the list of invitees who are counted worthy to attend.  We dare not neglect our faith in Jesus because without it, there can be no heaven for us.

Jesus gave a firm warning to those who were rejecting His message.  As the servant reported the reluctance of the invited to attend, “The master of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’  The servant said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and urge them to come in, so that my house may be filled.  Yes, I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”

You and I should give thanks that so many among Israel refused the invitation to attend.  Actually, we should give thanks that God is so merciful that He sent His servants out to the highways and byways, to the distant lands and the far corners of the earth, so that we might hear His call and accept His gracious invitation.  Though we were of no account and had nothing of our own to offer the Creator of the world, He has invited us to enjoy heaven forever—solely because of Jesus.

At the same time, take heed of Jesus’ warning—those who reject His invitation will never taste the joys of heaven.  When Jesus sent His disciples out to spread far and wide the good news of His forgiveness and salvation, He told them, “Whoever listens to you listens to me.  Whoever rejects you rejects me.  And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” (Luke 10:16)  Ultimately, that is the sin that caused the rejected to be kept out of the banquet of the parable.  It wasn’t that they rejected the master’s servant, or even merely that they didn’t value the invitation.  Instead, by rejecting the servant and ignoring the value of the invitation, they disrespected the one who sent the invite.  The point is: those who reject Jesus reject the only God who can save them.

So, what should we do now that we have heard Jesus’ warning?  King David wrote, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is everyone who takes refuge in Him.” (Psalm 34:8)  Our Lord is giving us a foretaste of heaven every time we consume His holy Word.  As we gather together to sing God’s praise and hear the message of salvation through faith in Christ, we are given a tender morsel from God’s banquet table.  We are joining in the celebration with all the saints who have entered heaven before us.  We are singing with the angels who rejoice that God has made all things ready through His Son Jesus.

How can you ensure that you don’t miss out on the heavenly celebration?  Make the use of God’s Word your highest priority.  When we were children, we often had to be drug into church kicking and screaming because we didn’t yet know the joy of God’s feast.  Now, understand what God is doing for you every time you enter this building to partake of His Word, and every time you open your Bible to read of His Son, for you are not just obeying God’s command to hear His Word, you are being fed from His life-giving food.  Open your Bible and drink deep.  Come to the Lord’s Table to taste and see Christ’s body and blood, for it strengthens you against the distractions of the world. 

Dear friends, cling to your invitation with all your strength.  Never let go of the One Man who paid the price for your ticket to God’s heavenly banquet celebration.  Cling to the Savior, your Lord Jesus, who is your invitation into the banquet hall of the marriage feast of the Lamb.  Amen.

Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, both soul and body, be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.  Amen.