What's in it for me?
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What’s in it for me?
What’s in it for me?
The challenge of going through the entire gospel of Luke during church is that it must be broken up into sections that make it difficult to see the organization and connection of the text across chapters.
Today, we are going to try and get to the conclusion of a section that began way back in Chapter 12:49.
That was a moment when Jesus says something really challenging:
I have not come to bring peace to the earth.
Following me will divide people against each other.
Some things never change.
What is the cost of following Jesus?
That word COST probably means different things to each of you.
Money
Behavior (Fun)
Family
Lifestyle
Time
As usual, how scripture presents this may not be popular for us.
What God asks of us, what Jesus asks of us, is far more than we can imagine.
Let’s get into our text today and see what we can learn.
First, we need to establish Jesus’ authority again.
Luke 14:1-6
Luke 14:1–6 (NLT)
One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely. There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?” When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away. Then he turned to them and said, “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?” Again they could not answer.
Again, we see Jesus healing on the Sabbath.
And again, we see the religious leaders were out to get him.
Two things:
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. He is showing he is in control of how the day is honored and teaching us how to look at the day.
Jesus is continuing to incite the religious leaders. He will need them to be angry at him when it comes time for the crucifixion.
Luke 14:7-9
Luke 14:7–9 (NLT)
When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!
We don’t know if this is the same Sabbath dinner or not, but it links well if we leave it as the same Sabbath dinner. (THIS WILL BE A PROBLEM LATER WITH COMMUNION ‘Paul Corinthians’)
This section is pretty straight forward, and generally good advice.
We still do this today. At a wedding, the bride will figure out who sits with who, etc.
Luke 14:10-11
Luke 14:10–11 (NLT)
“Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This is all self-evident. But what is the point he is making?
Don’t try to exalt yourself by making yourself important.
Who is he saying this too? All of those in attendance.
He is not asking us to judge others, he is asking each one to judge himself as lower than others.
Is is the master of the house that will bring honor through recognition (Hebrews, I will introduce you as my brothers and sisters among the divine council)
But, the host must abide by this too...
Luke 14:12-14
Luke 14:12–14 (NLT)
Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”
Ouch…again, this is pretty self explanatory.
It costs money to host a great party.
You want your party to be at least as good as the one your friend gave, hopefully a bit better.
That costs money, and soon, everyone is outdoing each other. The less wealthy will not be able to host a party because it will be lowly.
Have you ever attended a party with someone who has never thrown one and does not have the money to do it well?
Example: Bible study at our 1st house in Phoenix, those who don’t have much were intimidated by us, in our early twenties, owning a home. And we were broke!!!
God recognizes your parties…but only if they are for the correct people. The poor, crippled, lame, and blind.
Luke 14:15-20
Luke 14:15–20 (NLT)
Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
Oh, you want to know how God, the King, throws a party? Let me tell you...
***** NEXT SLIDE *****
Who is the man that prepared this great feast? God.
Hard to imagine anyone saying no, but there will be some who have all kinds of excuses.
What is the man to do? He has this great feast and no one will attend.
Invite others!!!
Luke 14:21-24
Luke 14:21–24 (NLT)
“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’ ”
Notice it is the same group that Jesus told the banquet master to invite. Not your friends, but those who cannot repay you.
But even then, there is plenty of room...
Go over the borders, invite anyone you can find!
And those I originally invited, well, they are where?
Stuck on the outside…just like we read before.
At some point after this dinner, Jesus is back on the road, headed to Jerusalem.
Luke 14:25-27
Luke 14:25–27 (NLT)
A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
Well…now we are at some interesting parts aren’t we!
There are scenes in the gospels where Jesus will say things like this and the writer will record that many people left and went home that day.
You see, everyone wants to be at the banquet, but they don’t want to do what is required to show up.
Fields, oxen, and spouses, that is what we value above all.
First, let’s deal with the word and phrase that bothers you. “hate everyone else-including your own life.”
We use a phrase, “nailed it!” to convey that we got it right. Not that we “nailed” something with a hammer and nail, or a nail gun!
We load the word HATE with all kinds of things. Scripture is not like that. It uses extremes to expose the truth.
A better word here is LOYALTY. Biblical use of HATE is more like “love less.” But for biblical authors, you love all the way or you don’t love at all. In other words, if you love something more, then you have, essentially, ranked things in your life as what is most important and least important.
If you say you love your family, but you spend more time with video games than them, then how will they feel? Unloved. And you can say you love them, but the evidence tells another story.
Another word is FAVOR...
And that will cost something...
Luke 14:28-32
Luke 14:28–32 (NLT)
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ “Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away.
Jesus knows exactly what he is asking us.
There are no illusions in following Jesus. We just don’t promote these because it will make it harder to fill a church building.
If people knew the true cost of discipleship, there would be more atheists.
Luke 14:33-35
Luke 14:33–35 (NLT)
So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. “Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”
Does Jesus want us to get rid of everything we own?
Nope.
You can still possess something that does not belong to you.
Have any of you ever prayed over a meal and thanked God for it? Who does the food belong to? God. Did you eat it? Yes. Do you get it?
You can have the house, car, bank account, savings account, retirement account, but it does not belong to you.
You give up its purpose as something you own, and give its purpose to God, the true owner.
ENDING...
What is the cost of following Jesus?
Jesus is asking us to surrender our WILL, DESIRE, HEART, PURPOSE, to Him.
When we started Chapter 13, I said this was the beginning of a large section that opened with Jesus saying he did not come to bring peace to the earth.
Following him would divide families.
Sadly, it does, sometimes.
And this is how it happens. Try this…invite your proud family to a dinner with poor strangers, and then honor the poor strangers and make your family serve them. See what happens.
When you honor those who cannot give to you, then you bring honor to the King of the Universe who will in turn honor you.
BUT JEREMY…are you saying I should abandon and leave my parents and family?!
NO, of course not! Is that what Jesus has been teaching? It cannot mean that, Children honor your mother and father is a commandment.
That commandment means, bring honor to your mother and father.
It means if your parents are poor, lame, and unable to help you financially, you take care of them.
Jesus is teaching us that we should see all we have, including our breath, as belonging to God. We don’t have to get rid of it, we have to put what we have to good use in the Kingdom.
All of these have different excuses too.
I don’t have time
I have a new job/field
I have a new tractor/car
I have a wife/husband
These categories don’t matter to Jesus. If someone falls into the category of:
poor
lame
blind
crippled
Then you get busy. And if a member of your family needs your help, then you help them.
Here is the key:
You love your neighbor when you love God first
I hope you are starting to sense how seriously God loves others. So much, that when we mistreat anyone, even in our own family, we become like one who is outside the city, outside the house, outside the banquet, weeping and screaming to get it.
That is what’s in it for you.
Inside God’s glorious city
Inside God’s merciful house
At the table of God’s great banquet
When you make sure that those who are less than you are there first, in the chair of honor before the master.