It's His Banquet 1974

From today's gospel, Luke chapter 14, part of verse 16. 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 all things are now ready.

The man who gives the banquet in this parable is obviously God the Father. And the servant who goes out to bring people into the banquet is the son. And we notice that the son, the servant, never worries about whether the banquet is going to be a success.

And when people reject him and give him a hard time and don't want to hear his message, he doesn't fall apart and go to pieces. The banquet's going to be great. The house is going to be filled.

The Father is going to see to that. Jesus probably gave this parable the last time he ever had dinner at the house of a Pharisee. The fact that the majority of men sitting at that table with him that day rejected his message, did not hurt his feelings or throw him into despair or make him contemplate quitting his ministry.

Because he knew the banquet, the banquet's going to go on with these men or without them. See, and when the people who say they love God start coming up with excuses, as they often do, Jesus simply goes on to the people who never said they loved God. And then even beyond them, out to the people who are far, far from God, knowing that there will be some who, having heard the word, will keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.

That some of the seed is going to fall on good soil, that there are going to be some people who are so hungry and thirsty for God that they're going to answer the invitation, they're going to come. We notice that Jesus never knocks himself out trying to make people come to the banquet against their will. He doesn't try to trick them into it, or fool them, or manipulate them, or bribe them, or organize them to death.

Even when he goes way out to the highways and hedges to compel people to come in, the only force he ever uses is love. If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Come to me, all you who labor or are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

Now Jesus is so confident all through his ministry, even when things are going very badly, because he knows that there will be some. Not all, not a majority even, but some who will respond. He also knows that to those who respond, God will come and confirm the word, that nobody who comes to this door which Jesus opened is going to go away from this door empty.

They're going to taste the Father's love. Now all that took place 2,000 years ago. Today, we are the body of Christ, in company of course with our brothers and sisters across the city and the earth.

And corporately, we are now the servant of this parish. And we are the ones who are to go out to those who have been invited and tell them that all is now ready. And to go out into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor, and the maimed, and the hope, and the blind.

And then even to go beyond that, to the suburbs of the city of God, to those who are on the highways and hedges far from God, and compel them to come in. With the love, the same love that drove our Lord to the cross to lay down his life for us. But we are having problems.

We get all nervous and upset, all of us do, when people don't accept our message. We seem to think that it all hinges on us. That we have to make people believe.

And we've got to make them understand. And we have to make their lives change. And that if we're not able to make these things happen, then the banquet is going to be a disaster.

But that's just not so. It's God's banquet, not ours. And he prepared for this banquet eons before we were born.

And he rules it now. He holds it under his hand. And he is the one who draws men into it.

No man can come to me except the Father draw him. Our Father isn't helpless. He knows how to fill his house.

It's a foreborn conclusion that our Father's banquet is going to be the most marvelous, wonderful dinner we've ever experienced. Could ever imagine the fact that it already is. If we would only learn, see, to just be the servants in this parable.

And stop trying to run the banquet. Or thinking that the banquet is under our control, that everything hinges on us. Then we wouldn't be so worried and so depressed when things go wrong.

And so upset when it doesn't work out the way we planned. And what we're called to do is be the servant in this parable. Which means that we are sent to three groups of people to do three things.

First of all, we're sent to those near and hand who say they love God. And all we're to do with them is tell them. Then we're sent out beyond them into the streets and lanes of the city to bring in the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind.

To bring them. And then we're sent beyond them to the ones who are way out there, far from God. And we're sent to compel them in that order.

Now, first of all, we're sent to those near and hand who say they love God. And all we're told to do with these people is tell them that dinner is ready. That the kingdom of God is not something way off in the future that we wait for while we continue to mess around with the world.

But that the kingdom of God is not here. Now, in order to be able to tell people this, it has to be our own experience. We have to be living in the joy of God as they were saying in the Sunday school class today.

All the time. That my joy may be fulfilled in them. Our Lord prayed the night before he was crucified.

And that joy is now here and we can be in it every hour of the day. Even when we're going through dark valleys. Even when we're going through all kinds of trouble.

And when we're living in the joy of God's banquet now, then we can truthfully say to these people who say they're in love with God and that they're looking for the Messiah, Open your heart. God will fill it. Call on the name of Jesus and he will come.

And God will come in behind our words and fulfill them. Now, if most of these people come up with excuses in response to our invitation, that's not our problem. But we go on proclaiming.

We go on telling. Our problem is to just make sure that they hear very clearly and very faithfully that dinner is ready. Secondly, we are sent beyond these people who say they love God.

Into the streets and lanes of the city. To bring in, notice that, not to tell them, but to bring them. Bring in the poor and the maimed and the halted and the blind.

In other words, we are now sent beyond those Christian type people, the people who say they love God. Out to those who are so beaten and worn down and drained and abused by the world around them. That they're not going to fight us when we invite them to come to the banquet table.

They're just going to be so glad that somebody came along and paid attention to them. And we are called to bring them into the company of God's people. How can this be? That churches like ours can go on for years and years and years and never even pay attention to those people.

As if they didn't exist. We get so turned around and worked up with our own problems, we forget all about those people out there. And we get so busy trying to win special people.

You know, movie stars and politicians and athletes and this celebrity and that celebrity. Or certain ones among our friends and relatives that we just have to save. We get so worked up by this and so discouraged by the fact that we're just not getting anywhere.

And all the while we're doing this, over here in the streets and lanes of the city, is a whole sea of humanity. Just waiting to be brought. You know, they're not going to oppose you, they're just going to come.

They're just going to be glad to see you. You walk up to the man and you say, come, and he comes. And this is not an exaggeration.

You will see this happen. The Lord confirmed it to me again Friday night. Walked up to a guy who was just sitting there, you know, drinking beer on the step a few doors from the church.

And I said, come on, let's go to Bible study. You know, no argument at all. Put down his beer can and just walk right into the Bible study.

Open up the Bible, you know, and drank it all in. You know, and I really believe, you know, that every one of our cars could be filled with these people. With a little bit of scratching around.

See, these people don't have to be convinced, they just have to be brought. Right now, they're staring at the walls of some convalescent home. Or they're watching the cockroaches run races on the ceiling of their room down on 3rd Street.

You know, or they're looking out the window of their lonely house. Wondering when somebody's going to come to see them. Or they're sitting on their back porch working on 15 cans of beer right now.

Simply because there's nothing else to do. See, and they don't need to be given the four spiritual laws or the seven steps to salvation. Or the secret of successful soul winning.

All they need is to see the love of God embodied in the concrete deeds of somebody who cares. And they'll come. Now, maybe somebody says, well, I'm sorry, but I don't really know any people like that.

And if there's anybody in this room who says, I don't know anybody like that. The Lord is saying to you, go out and find them. Because if you don't know anybody like that, you need those people more than they need you.

And then we're called to a third thing. To go out even beyond the streets and lanes of the city, to the highways and bridges, to the people who are far from God. And to compel them to come in by means of the love of Jesus Christ.

Now that may not be, of course, geographical. But surely you know what I mean. People who, you know, I'm an atheist, or I'm an agnostic, or I was into that and it didn't do me any good.

What's the use? You know, God doesn't care. God doesn't give anything about me. And we're told by our Lord, you are the light of the world.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And what are they doing when they see our good works and glorifying God, our Father? They're coming into the banquet. Those people who are way out there, far out there in the highways and hedges of despair or unbelief or bitterness or whatever it may be.

Will only be convinced that there is a God and that he really cares about them. When they see a love that comes over to them in deed and in truth, usually with a minimum amount of talk. When they see this, then the atheist is going to come.

And the agnostic is going to forget all about being an agnostic. He's homesick too. And the cynic, he's going to come.

And the rich tax collector, he's going to come too. Zacchaeus, come down under that tree, I'm going to have dinner at your house today. And little old Zacchaeus, this rich man, scrambles out of the tree, glad.

He's being compelled by the love of his Lord into the kingdom of God. And before dinner is over that day, salvation has come to Zacchaeus' home. Notice that Jesus doesn't talk to Zacchaeus about hell, as he does talk about hell to the Pharisees.

I mean, sometimes people like to give the impression that Jesus never talks about hell. That's not true. He talks plenty about hell.

But to Zacchaeus, he talks quite a different way. Probably didn't talk too much. Because Zacchaeus knew all about hell.

But that day he meets a love which is able to deliver him from the hell that he now is in. Right then and there. And the question is, is Zacchaeus, the Zacchaeus that you and I meet every day, finding that love in us.

And we're not going to get these people into the kingdom with our arguments and our quoting of scriptures until it turns them green. We're going to compel them into the kingdom of God with love. Jesus' love.

Which comes down in concrete deeds that we don't remind them of 50,000 times afterward. Good works. For which we were created in Christ Jesus, says Paul.

Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. What a relief. When it begins to dawn on us that it's not our banquet and it doesn't hinge on us, it's his banquet.

And it's already wonderful. And it's going to be even more wonderful when all the guests have arrived. In the meantime, we are to go out there and call and bring and compel.

And who comes and who doesn't come is not our problem. This we can be sure of, however, that there are many out there. Right now, we're going to rise up with joy and come to the banquet as soon as they hear the servant's voice.

God grant that they may hear that voice through us or through somebody soon. Let's wait upon God in prayer. Heavenly Father, if there should be anybody among us right now that is still outside the banquet hall, we're asking that your spirit will so wonderfully speak to that person with such an encouragement and such a reassurance and so clearly that soul may right now step through the door and see the love of Jesus and be touched and healed by it right now, Father.

We're asking also, Father, that those of us who have been holding back and all turned in upon ourselves and introspective and worried about this and worried about that and worried about a thousand things may be delivered from these burdens by the blood of the Lamb and that this day we may all go forth. Lord God, to labor with joy out there where you're sending us. And in that joy, Father, may there be much fruit for every servant that goes out from here today.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.