All right, if you guys wouldn't mind turning to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. And as you're turning there, I want you to imagine that you lived in a small town on the coast and you were urgently inviting people to come on a cruise ship with you, which was an amazing cruise ship. Amazing food and you wanted to bless people, but you were also urgently inviting people because you knew that a storm was coming and you knew that this storm would destroy the entire town. So there's this incredible urgency As you're inviting as many people as you can, but people are making excuses. Some are too busy. Some believe that the storm is not coming. But there are some that accept that invitation and get on that ship. And as you're pulling away from the dock and heading out to sea, the storm reaches land and destroys everyone in that town. Imagine your invitation saving someone's life. Well, in this chapter, we're gonna see something like this unfold.
Jesus has been invited to dinner with the Pharisees who are trying to trap him. They are increasingly opposed to his ministry. They don't understand him. He's contradicting everything they say and do. He is not the Messiah that they expected.
And we pick it up in Luke chapter 14 and verse 12. He, Jesus, said also to the man who had invited him, when you give a dinner or 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. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Verse 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. But he said to him, this is Jesus, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 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. 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've bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to 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 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. And the servant said, sir, what you've commanded has been done and still there is room. 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. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste My banquet.
So Jesus here uses banquets to show the Pharisees who he is and how different his kingdom is, to show us how much he cares for the ones that nobody cares about, the poor, the outsiders, the sick, The outcasts, women, children, tax collectors, prostitutes, and anyone with a low social status. God actually and surprisingly invites everyone into his family with joy. He celebrates when people discover and receive his mercy.
Now, throughout the book of Luke, Jesus is forming a new Israel. It's a new family, a new kingdom community, and every kind of person, including the Pharisees, is joyfully invited into this family. God has a great desire to fill his house. And because of this, we should compel people to come in.
So why should we invite non-Christians to the great banquet? Number 1, I have 5 reasons.
6 · First reason to evangelize: God will reward you in heaven for reaching out to those who cannot repay you
Number 1, invite them because you will be rewarded. Verse 12, when you give a dinner or 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. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
7 · Diagnoses the human tendency to seek convenience and self-benefit in relationships, leading to social insularity and tribal clustering
So in general, we do things that are easy, right? We do things that are convenient, things that benefit ourselves. And when we do make sacrifices, it's usually for our future benefit. That's why when we have people over for dinner, it's often people who are like us, people we enjoy, people we want to get to know, people who tend to think the same way we do, people in the same social and economic bracket, people in our tribe. There is a tendency in all of us to to insulate ourselves from people who are different than us. There's a tendency to gather our friends around us. It's hard for us to cross lines, to reach across to those who are poor, the socially awkward, people with disabilities, people from other countries, people who vote differently. We all have this built-in bias, this preference for people that are like us, and Jesus corrects this.
8 · Clarifies the scope of Jesus's command: he is not forbidding hospitality toward friends and family but correcting an exclusive pattern that ignores those who cannot reciprocate
He turns to his host and he says something totally unexpected. He says, stop having dinner with all the people that are like you. Throw a dinner party for the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Now, does this mean it's wrong to have dinner or to serve our friends and relatives? Should we avoid having dinner with those who are financially well off? No. The Bible encourages us to have close friendships and to use our homes for meals and fellowship and hospitality.
9 · Interprets Jesus's command through an investment framework: earthly repayment is inferior to heavenly reward
So why is Jesus saying this? Because if we only eat with those who are like us, they can repay us. In other words, it's not a good investment. Jesus is saying, don't just do things that result in you getting repaid here, do things that result in you getting repaid in heaven. God will bless you when man cannot.
10 · Enumerates the concrete costs of evangelism—time, love, prayer, hospitality, reputation, awkward conversations—and acknowledges that the investment often yields no immediate return
But the problem is it's just easier and more enjoyable to be with friends. You don't have to work at it. There's not much of a sacrifice. There's a benefit we receive. It will pay now, but not later. Jesus is saying, do things that will cost you now, but will pay you later. Evangelism will cost you now. Evangelism is incredibly costly. It takes a lot. You have to give a lot. You have to give a lot of time, a lot of love, a lot of prayer, a lot of conversation, a lot of hospitality, a lot of sacrifice. You have to risk your reputation. You have to say hard things. You have to have awkward conversations. It's not easy and it doesn't always pay off. You don't always get something back.
11 · Personal story of the preacher's failed evangelistic efforts toward his father, who died without responding to the gospel despite years of prayer, conversation, and invitation
There are many times that you reach out to someone even over years and they don't respond to the gospel. You can invest countless hours, meals, time spent together, prayer, conversations, countless invitations to things, And they don't come. They don't respond to the invitation. You know, this makes me think about my dad who passed away several years ago, and I invited him to so many things. I shared the gospel, I talked to him, I prayed for him, I prayed for him. I had all these conversations. I gave him Bibles, I gave him things. He didn't respond. He didn't receive the invitation. Evangelism doesn't seem like a good investment.
12 · Contrasts worldly investment logic (which would reject evangelism as unprofitable) with God's economy, where sacrificial labor that yields no earthly return is richly rewarded at the resurrection
There are certainly no guarantees, and it often ends in heartbreak. It seems, like a lot of investment with not much of a hope for return. I mean, no financial advisor would encourage you to invest this way. If you keep getting a 0% return or a negative return, you should invest elsewhere, right? Evangelism seems like a bad investment, but in God's economy, it is a great investment. Because when we reach out to those who can't or don't repay us or don't respond, we will be rewarded in heaven. Our efforts will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. God will take care of us. The payoff comes later. We are called to sacrifice here so that we will be rewarded in heaven.
13 · Direct application: identify specific people unlike you who cannot repay you, and make an effort to invite them—knowing that the reward comes in heaven, not now
Following Jesus means that we make an effort to invite people, people who can't benefit us because we will be repaid in heaven. Who can you have a meal with that is not like you and that might not repay you? Write down a couple of names. And let's do things that cost us.
14 · Signals the second major reason to evangelize and transitions into the next section of the sermon
Number 2, invite them because some will come.
15 · Returns to the narrative of Luke 14 to explain the Pharisee's interjection in verse 15—an attempt to ease the tension by making a pious statement everyone can affirm about the future kingdom feast
Now, this has been a tense dinner party. Jesus has corrected the Pharisees for their lack of care, their hypocrisy, and their pride, and he corrected the host for being exclusive and self-serving. So there's some real tension around this table. And one of the Pharisees tries to lighten things up. He tries to say something more positive, something that everyone can agree on. In verse 15, he says, well, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.
16 · Personal anecdote about the preacher's tendency to create tension and his wife's gift for diffusing it, used to illustrate the Pharisee's attempt to ease the awkwardness at the dinner table
And this is funny because it just reminds me of my wife because I usually say things that create tension. I'm really good at creating tension. And so I'll say these things that, and sometimes I'm not even aware of it, but they create this tension. And then my wife is an expert at breaking that tension. She usually tries to say something kind or nice that will break that. That's what this guy is doing. He's trying to break the tension here.
17 · Affirms the Pharisee's statement as theologically correct—being seated at the eschatological feast with Christ is indeed the ultimate blessing
And so he sidesteps all of the corrections that Jesus brought and he says, well, at least we'll all be blessed when we eat bread in the kingdom of God. Now he is right. Listen, church, he is right. It will be a great blessing to be seated at the marriage supper of the Lamb. It will be the blessing of all blessings to be seated at that table with Christ.
18 · Extended citation of Revelation 19:6-9 to support the claim that the marriage supper of the Lamb is the ultimate feast and the ultimate blessing for those invited
Think about it. Revelation 19:6 says, then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns Let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory. Why? For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride— that's us— his bride has made herself ready, and it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saint. And the angel said to me, write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God.
19 · Paints a vivid picture of the marriage supper of the Lamb and asserts its supremacy over all earthly concerns—nothing matters more than being seated at this feast
The marriage supper of the Lamb is the ultimate feast. It is the ultimate banquet. It is the ultimate place of joy. Picture being seated by Jesus. Picture Jesus pushing your chair in. Nothing in life matters more than being at this feast.
20 · Pivots from affirming the Pharisee's statement to exposing his false assumption: not all the Pharisees will be at the feast
So the Pharisee reclining at the table is right to assume that this feast will be a great blessing, but he's wrong to assume that all the Pharisees will be there.
21 · Highlights the shift from third-person parable to first-person declaration in Luke 14:24—Jesus is the master, this is his banquet, and the rejection is personal
So Jesus tells him a parable about a banquet that nobody wants to come to. And in verse 21, the master actually becomes angry because they've rejected his invitation. And did you notice how this switched from Jesus telling a story about a great banquet to using first person in verse 24? He says, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. So this is his banquet. Jesus himself is throwing this party, but people still don't want to come.
22 · Interprets the master's anger as Jesus's righteous response to rejection and asserts that judgment will come upon the Jews who refuse the Messiah
So it makes sense that he would be angry, right? He's provided this amazing party and people are making lame excuses. They aren't interested. And the result will be judgment. The Jews will be judged. They will be rejected and cast into outer darkness for their blatant rejection of the Messiah.
23 · Corrects a distorted view of God as primarily wrathful by asserting that Christ's heart naturally inclines toward blessing and love—judgment is necessary, but blessing is his default disposition
But there is good news, church. Judgment is not the last word because listen, the heart of Christ naturally bends toward blessing. He is overflowing with love. And some of us don't understand. I don't understand the heart of Christ in this. Sometimes we have a distorted view of God. We have a distorted view. It can be poison. It's twisted. We can see God more as a judge. His heart is to love. He's overflowing with blessing. That's what he longs to do. Now, he will bring judgment when he has to. But his heart is to bless.
24 · Extended quotation from Dane Ortlund supporting the claim that God's natural disposition is blessing, not wrath—what leaps out of God most freely is the desire to bless and bring joy
Listen to this quote from Dane Ortlund. He says, there are some things that pour out of God more naturally than others. God is unswervingly just. But what is his disposition? What is he on the edge of his seat eager to do? If you catch me off guard, what will leap out of me before I have time to regain composure will likely be grouchiness. If you catch God off guard, listen to this, church. Let this sink into your heart. Let this change your perception of God. If you catch God off guard, what leaps out most freely is blessing, the impulse to do good. The desire to swallow us up in joy. Come on, man. That's the heart of Christ.
25 · Observes the surprising pattern in the parable: those expected to come refuse, while those not expected accept
Now, the crazy thing is that when you invite someone to the feast, you don't know who will accept the invitation. People that you would expect to come don't, and sometimes people you don't expect to come will. I mean, you would expect God's chosen people to accept the invitation to God's banquet, to be a part of God's kingdom, but they refuse. They have nothing but excuses. So what does the master do? Well, it tells us in verse 21, it says that the master of the house became angry. And watch how it turns. He will judge when he has to, but watch his heart. Where does he go immediately? He 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. So the master doesn't postpone the banquet. He sends his servant to the streets and alleys to bring in the poor and needy, and these people are responsive. They accept the invitation.
26 · Applies the parable's pattern to contemporary evangelism: the poor and needy are often more open to the gospel because they are more aware of their need and less distracted by worldly things
And I found the same thing to be true in today's society. The poor and needy are often more open to the message of the gospel than those who are better off, probably because they're more aware of their need. Maybe they've had things ripped away. They aren't as distracted by the things of the world. Maybe they're more aware of the brokenness of the world. They have less to live for here. When you think about evangelism and inviting people in, the people who accept the invitation are not always who you would expect. And they're often not those who are well off.
27 · Extended personal story of Patty, a woman the preacher reached out to for years without response
And I've seen this so many times. There was a woman, I go to this local Chick-fil-A and that's where I get like my salad and my, you know, vinaigrette dressing and my, iced tea with a little bit of lemonade. Okay, anyway, I'm getting sorry off track, but I go there, I meet people and connect with people. There's this woman there that I've been reaching out to for years. Her name is Patty. Probably reaching out to her for I don't even know at least like five, six, seven years that I've known her, and I have talked to her so much. She's she's older. She's had her both her parents died this past year. Her husband died four years ago, and she just been through, and she kind of. Carries this weight. I mean, I've sat down with her for lunch when she's eating. Hi, Patty. I have her number and I've texted her. I've invited her to our Bridge course, which is like your Alpha course, so many times. I've prayed for her. I've tried. She's a great friend. Big hugs when I see her. And I've invited her so many times and she didn't come. Well, this last Bridge, the Bridge course we finished up in the spring, or we finished up in June, in the very beginning of that course I had texted some people out and I texted this whole group of people and I texted Patty was one of them, but, you know, none of them responded to me, didn't even get back to me. I probably had a list of like 12 people. But even with Patty, I knew, I just, I didn't even have faith that she would come. I was like, I had negative faith. Like she's not gonna come. That's called negative faith. This won't happen, even though I texted her. And so we were in our Bridge prayer meeting before and I was just praying and I was praying through and I just prayed for her and it just broke my heart and I just was in tears just praying, God, please, Please. But then I forgot about, again, the negative faith kicked back in. She's not gonna come. There's no way. So I'm— this is here. So I'm greeting on the main doors and I'm there and everybody's coming in and people are eating their food and I'm gonna get my food a little bit late. So I'm there for a good amount of time and someone comes up to me. One of our leaders says, Patty's here. I was like, what? So I walked up to this group and she was in the older group. And I was like, Patty, I can't believe you're here. And she— so she stood up and she immediately just begins to cry. And I'm hugging her, I'm crying, we're both crying. Bridge hasn't even started yet, we didn't do anything, and we're just in tears. I couldn't believe it. God made a believer out of me in that moment. But I've seen this so many times. People that you don't expect to come will come.
28 · Concludes the section by reiterating the second reason to evangelize: God has called us to invite because some will respond, even when we don't expect it
And God has called us to invite them because some will come.
29 · Transitions to the third reason to evangelize, drawn from the servant's announcement in Luke 14:17
Number 3, invite them because everything is now ready.
30 · Expounds the urgency in Luke 14:17—the servant's announcement that everything is ready and the invitation to come immediately
Now the servant tells them to come in verse 17. He's like, he's like, come on, what are you waiting for? Everything is ready, come. You're invited, you're called to come.
31 · Direct pastoral address to non-Christians or uncertain attendees—teenagers, visitors, those in Alpha—assuring them they are invited and everything necessary for salvation is ready
And I wanna speak directly to those here who have not come. You're not sure, listen, you're not sure that you're part of the family of God. Maybe you're a teenager or younger. Maybe you've grown up in this church. Maybe you're a visitor. Maybe you're going through Alpha or you've been through Alpha. You are invited to come to the feast. Everything is now ready.
32 · Contrasts Christianity's grace-based salvation with all other religions' works-based systems
And this is one of the amazing things about Christianity and what sets it apart from every other religion. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to bring something to the dinner. This isn't a potluck. The table has been set and the food is hot. It's all been prepared just like salvation. When it comes to being a Christian, you don't have to do good works. You don't have to earn your salvation, but you do have to come. You have to repent and believe. All other religions, including Catholicism, require works, obedience, faithfulness. Christianity is based on grace, and that's what makes it unique. And so does the personal loving friendship that God desires to have with us and the substitutionary sacrifice He endured to bring us into this friendship.
33 · Direct instruction to the congregation: when evangelizing, emphasize grace, personal friendship with God, and the readiness of the banquet—these are the core gospel truths to communicate
Church, as you think about inviting people, tell them about grace. Tell them about the personal friendship that God wants to have with them. Tell them that everything is now ready.
34 · Transitions to the fourth reason to evangelize, signaling a shift to urgency and the reality of coming judgment
Number 4, invite them because time is running out.
35 · Explains the urgency in the master's command to 'go out quickly' by drawing an analogy to calling kids to dinner when the food is hot—delay means missing the meal
Now in verse 21, The master says, I don't know if you noticed this, to go out quickly. Why? Well, because there is an urgency to this task. In our story, dinner's on the table, the food is hot, and there's a need to eat it right away. And this used to happen every single night at my house. We would call people like, dinner, and then the kids would like delay for, you know, this amount of time. So then the next, you would try to call them earlier You know, like anticipate a couple minutes before, but then if you called it too early and they were down and it wasn't ready, then the next time they're not gonna— I mean, it's like a chess match every night to try to figure this out, right? But the point is this, dinner's ready, it's hot, it's on the table. You gotta come down right now. And the same is true in our world. There's a need to come right away. God has provided this amazing banquet. The reception is about to start. Time is running out.
36 · Asserts the grave reality that lost people are 'gathering speed' toward eternal judgment and cites Proverbs 24:11 to establish the biblical mandate to intervene and rescue them
Think about the lost people that God has placed in your life. Your neighbors, coworkers, unsaved relatives, old friends, classmates, they are gathering speed. Listen. They're picking up speed for an eternity separated from God in hell. Proverbs 24:11, this is one of the most sobering verses in the Bible. It says, rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
37 · References the Holocaust and Schindler's List to illustrate the horror of people stumbling toward death—an image that serves as a vivid analogy for the lost heading toward eternal judgment
This reminded me of the movie Schindler's List. I don't know if you remember this. Oskar Schindler was a friend of the Nazis, and during World War II, as the Nazis began to persecute the Jews, he grew incredibly sympathetic, and he actually dedicated his life and his millions of dollars to trying to rescue as many Jews as he could. He rescued 1,200 Jews. But there's a scene in Schindler's List that reminded— this reminded me of that scene, and I tried to go back and I, I tried to go back and watch the movie. I saw it like whatever, 25 years ago. I can't do it. Like there's no, I can't watch this movie again. But I remember this scene where all of these women are in this line and they're all lined up and they're just stumbling forward to go into these ovens, this crematorium. To just be burned up. And it's a horrible scene. They are staggering. They're staggering toward their death.
38 · Applies the Schindler's List imagery directly to evangelism: the lost people around us are in a line toward eternal fire, and though they don't appear to be in danger, they are—and we must intervene
Picture the lost people that you know or the people that you see every day, people in your neighborhood, on the way to work, or in your apartment, People shopping in grocery stores, picking up coffee. Picture them in a long line waiting for their turn to be thrown into the eternal fire. Picture them being taken away to death, stumbling to the slaughter. This is reality. I mean, people don't seem like they're in danger. But they are in the gravest of danger. They're stumbling to the slaughter and we have to rescue them. We have to do something about this. We have to step in. We have to hold them back. There is a tremendous urgency when it comes to evangelism. It is life and death.
39 · Returns to Luke 14:23 to highlight the command to 'compel' people to come—linking the urgency of the invitation to the master's explicit instruction
That's why verse 22, the master says to compel them to come in. The servants of the master. And the master has called us to go out with great urgency, and he's called us to compel people. Look at verse 23. The master said, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in.
40 · Acknowledges the cultural resistance to 'compelling' evangelism—it feels aggressive and offensive—but insists the biblical mandate is clear and must be followed despite cultural discomfort
We should compel people to come in. Now it can be very easy in this increasingly hostile environment to just, to keep the gospel to ourselves. The idea of compelling people seems offensive, doesn't it? It seems too aggressive. But we are clearly called to compel people to come in.
41 · Diagnoses the problem: people need to be compelled because they are not interested, not aware of their need, and not aware of the coming judgment
Now, why do they need to be compelled? Why won't they come? Well, Jesus highlights a significant problem. Most people aren't interested in God's family. They're not interested in the banquet. They don't wanna come. They aren't aware of their need to be at the banquet and the consequences that will come if they ignore the invitation. They don't know that a storm is coming. The master has provided a great banquet and it seemed like people were interested. They had already RSVP'd. But when the second invite goes out, letting people know everything is ready, they don't wanna come. They're not fighting for seats at this banquet. They're making excuses, lame excuses.
42 · Humorous personal story about Aunt Wendy making excuses to avoid babysitting—used to illustrate the absurdity of the excuses in Luke 14 and the pattern of people caught off guard by the invitation
This reminds me of my Aunt Wendy when my brother and I, I have an identical twin brother, and when we were younger, my mom used to call my Aunt Wendy to babysit and she hated to babysit. We would just torture her. We'd pretend we were the other person, switch on her. And so she would always try to make these excuses. But the problem was, and I know this is gonna be hard to understand for some of you, When my mom would call on the phone, back in those days, the phone was attached to the wall. And there was actually a cord that attached you to the— so you couldn't go that far. And this is the other thing. You actually didn't know who was calling you. I know it's hard to comprehend this. It was a surprise. So my mom would call and my Aunt Wendy would answer. She'd ask if she could babysit. And my Aunt Wendy'd be like, just that, you know, she just couldn't do it. And that's exactly what's happening right here. Like these people are getting caught off guard. It's like, I bought this field and I'm gonna go look at it again. Or I just got, what did I get? 5 yoke of oxen and I'm going to inspect them again. Or the other person's like, I just got married. So what? It's free food. You can both come. Your expenses are only going up from here. Free meal. What's the problem?
43 · Diagnoses the root problem in the parable and applies it: people reject the invitation because they prioritize earthly things over eternal things
These people don't want to come. The banquet is not attractive to them. Why? Because they've put second things first. They're distracted by earthly things. The things in this world are more important to them than the things in the world to come. They don't think about eternity. They put second things first. Do we put second things first? A better way of asking this is, what second things are we putting first? It's easy to do, isn't it? This world provides plenty of distractions. Like the Pharisees, are we being distracted from the things that really matter? Do we realize that time is running out? Do we see the lost people around us that are staggering to the slaughter? Is there an urgency to rescue them and bring them into the banquet?
44 · Defines what 'compelling' looks like in practice: persuasion, apologetics, challenging false beliefs, risking offense and rejection
When was the last time you tried to compel someone? I'm not just talking about sharing the gospel with someone or inviting them to church. Are you compelling people to repent and believe? Well, what would that look like? Well, it sounds to me like not taking no for an answer. I think compelling looks like trying to persuade someone. Good arguments, pushing back on wrong worldviews, using apologetics to challenge false beliefs and ideologies, not being afraid to bring the truth. Listen, it is very easy to sacrifice truth on the altar of grace because we don't want to ruffle any feathers. But compelling someone means we have to risk offending. We have to risk being rejected. We have to open our mouths and challenge someone. Brothers and sisters, we have the truth. We have a worldview that makes the most sense out of the world we live in. We understand the power of the gospel. We have been forgiven. We know what we believe. We have no excuse. We have to compel people to come in.
45 · Cites Proverbs 24:10-12 to argue that God holds us accountable for failing to rescue the lost—pleading ignorance will not excuse us, and God will repay according to our work
Here are the surrounding verses to Proverbs 24:11. Listen to what this says. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back. Those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay man according to his work?
46 · Transitions to the fifth and final reason to evangelize, drawn from the servant's report in Luke 14:22 that 'there is still room
Number 5, last point. Number 5, invite them because there is still time.
47 · Expounds Luke 14:22—'still there is room'—and interprets the highways and hedges as an allusion to the gospel going to the Gentiles, people outside Israel who will fill the house
And verse 22, I love how it says it. The servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done and still there is room. So the great banquet starts to fill up, but there's still room. And the master says, go out of the city now to the highways and the hedges. This is alluding to the gospel going to the Gentiles, people who are far from God, people of different ethnicities. They will fill his house.
48 · Personal reflection on preaching in churches with empty seats, interpreting those empty seats as a sign that there is still room for the lost to be saved
Now there were 2 phrases that deeply affected me. The first was, still there is room. Now I've had the privilege of preaching in many Sovereign Grace churches and lots of other venues and contexts, both in the US and around the world, and I often look out and I see empty seats, sometimes lots of empty seats, and you know what I think? There is still room. There is still room for people to be forgiven of their sins. There is still room for people, men and women, to come to know Christ. There is still room for the lost and dying. There is still room for the condemned and guilty. There is still room for the addicted. There is still room for the self-righteous. Is still room. Brothers and sisters, we are not done. Our job is not finished. Still there is room.
49 · Interprets 'that my house may be filled' as capturing the heart of God—his desire for his house to be full is the driving force behind the Great Commission and the church's evangelistic mission
Now when the servant pointed out that there was still room, the master responded with the other phrase that stood out to me. He said, that my house may be filled. And this phrase captures the heart of God and the heart of Christ. He is not a God that desires anyone to perish. He desires to bless, to forgive, to save. He desires that his house may be filled. And God is saying to us this morning, fill my house. Cross of grace, fill my house. Fill my house. Fill my house.
50 · Returns to the Schindler's List imagery to make the gospel vivid: we were in the line to slaughter, but Jesus took our place
Now let's go back to that image in Schindler's List of standing in line. Do you remember when you were standing in that line? Do you remember when you were staggering towards your own death, stumbling to the slaughter? We had no way to escape. We were doomed until Jesus tapped us on the shoulder and took our place in that line. He exchanged places with us. He took up the cross, our cross. He placed it on his shoulders and he staggered forward. He stumbled up the hill called Calvary, taking the death that we deserve, taking the hell that we deserve, absorbing the wrath and fury that we deserve. He gave his life because it was the only way he could fill his house. He had to die so that we could be brought into the banquet.
51 · Interprets the servant's mission to the highways and byways as an image of Christ pursuing us when we were running from God—and now calls us to join him in that same pursuit
And then he pursued us. I love the picture of, the servant running out to the highways and the byways. This is what Jesus did for us because we were running full speed away from God. We were far from God, but he went further. He ran us down to bring us in to fill his house. And now he calls us to join him in this glorious task.
52 · Extended historical illustration from Hacksaw Ridge—Desmond Doss rescuing 70 men one at a time through the night, praying 'Lord, give me one more' after each rescue
Let me close with this story. Some of you might have seen the movie Hacksaw Ridge. It was based on a true story. A private named Desmond Doss was in Okinawa during World War II, and he refused to fight. He was a believer and he was a pacifist. He even refused to carry a gun, and he was persecuted terribly for this. But in the battle for Hacksaw Ridge, which was up this huge cliff, it was like, I don't know, like 60 or 70 feet up. The American soldiers would have to climb up this netting and then they would battle the Japanese. Well, in this one battle, they pushed the Japanese back, but the Japanese counterattacked in the late afternoon and just cut the Americans down. The Americans were called to retreat at around 6:00 PM and men just flew down this netting to get away. But Desmond Doss refused to leave. And this is where his work of rescuing men and women began. He crawled around hiding from the Japanese. He crawled around among the bodies and he found men with shattered legs and bandaged them up. And then he took them back to the cliff and he lowered them down with ropes. And every time he would rescue a man, he would say, Lord, give me one more. And then he'd go back and he found men choking on their own blood. He cleared their airways. He dragged them back and lowered them down and say, Lord, give me one more. He found men riddled with shrapnel, men that had lost limbs. He used tourniquets, many tourniquets. He'd pick them up, carry them back, and lower them down and say, Lord, give me one more. And as night grew, he had to hide from the Japanese soldiers who were coming through, killing everyone that was still alive. There were even men that were crazy stumbling toward the Japanese line. He would grab them, drag them down, drag them back, and lower them back down. And every time he would say, Lord, give me one more. And all through that night in utter darkness, exhaustion and dehydration, he dragged one dying man after another back to that cliff and lowered them down until over 70 men were rescued. Lord, give me just one more.
53 · Concluding charge to the congregation: adopt Desmond Doss's prayer as your evangelistic posture—'Lord, give me one more
Brothers and sisters, that needs to be our prayer. Lord, give me just one more. Who are the people in your life that are far away that you can reach out to, that you can invite to the banquet? Remember that person that invited you. Don't give up. Don't stop compelling men and women to come in. Let's, by God's grace, fill his house. Amen.