Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. If I can, just some brief history about this chapter. This morning we're going to speak on the subject, Compelled and Commanded. And in this chapter is a story about a great feast, a parable.

And I believe there's a number of things for us to learn from this today. But Luke chapter 14 is a chapter about hypocrisy. It is amazing to me how much time Jesus spoke about, spent time on, warned, preached against hypocrisy while He was here on earth.

It is mesmerizing because it seemed everywhere Jesus went, all the good He was trying to do for people, the ones that were against Him were not the sinners. It wasn't the bar crowd. It wasn't the partiers, the drinkers. It was the religious hypocrites. It was the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And everywhere He went, they were the ones trying to stop what He wanted to do. And it makes me think sometimes if us religious people, if we often don't stop more of what God wants to do, then encourage it. But in this chapter, it's a chapter about hypocrisy.

And let me tell you why. The first verse of Luke chapter 14, you're there. You can look at this as I'm explaining this to you. He was invited into the home of one of the chief Pharisees. Now it was common for teachers, or prophets as they would call them in those days, and teachers to be invited home for a meal after services. They didn't have, you know, cafeterias and things like we did and restaurants and different things of that nature. And so oftentimes they would be invited home after church. Much like in our area, sometimes the preachers invited to eat after somebody's house or something after church on Sunday.

But this was not a time for hospitality. This was an occasion for hypocrisy. Because they had an agenda for inviting Jesus over to this chief priest's house. In fact, they had placed there a man or invited a man that verse two of this chapter says that this man had a condition called dropsy. Now many of you, this might be the first time you've ever really taken notice of this in chapter 14. If you'll notice that in verse two, it says, Behold, there was a certain man before him, and before him which had the dropsy. Now he didn't say he had the tipsy.

Some of you have had that. He had the dropsy. And they had placed that man there as an occasion to try to snag Jesus. They had purposely put him there. They invited Jesus over acting all friendly and loving and hey, come over, we want to give you a meal. And then they found this man with this condition of dropsy and they placed him there so that there's no way he could have been missed.

Jesus had to come in contact with him. Now, what is dropsy? Well, dropsy is a condition which it affects really the tissues of the body. They begin to retain water. And it's caused by problems with the heart, problems with the kidneys, and problems with the liver.

In this day, this condition of dropsy was untreatable and it was an incurable condition. And these Pharisees thought now we are going to get him. We're going to invite him over, listen, of all days on the Sabbath. And after last week you should know which day was this?

Saturday. They had invited him over on the Sabbath. And they were going to have him for a meal. And remember the law said that remember the Sabbath to keep it holy and you couldn't do work and you couldn't do different things. And they thought here that they were going to get Jesus in a position.

And here was the position. As Jesus comes across this man with this incurable disease, if he didn't heal him they would say that he is uncompassionate. That see he's a fake and he can't heal. But if he did heal him on the Sabbath they were going to point out that he had broken the law. Either way they were going to get him today. And by the way that law was punishable by death. So they couldn't wait.

They had this whole thing lined up. What is interesting is that they asked Jesus as this man was there. They asked him if it was lawful.

And they knew it wasn't. But then Jesus turns the question around. And he looks at them and he says is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day? And then Jesus turned around and healed that sick man and sent him on his way.

And they had absolutely nothing to say. Because Jesus used the scenario that if you have oxen and one of them falls and they're in trouble or they're going to die that day aren't you going to go and pull them out of the ditch and different things. And so Jesus turned the whole thing around on them. Not only did he turn it around on them but he healed the man. Isn't that just like Jesus? You know the innocent person in this whole thing was the man with the dropsy.

He's the one that had an incurable disease and they used him for bait. And Jesus knew it and he turned the whole thing on him and then he healed that man. Wouldn't just love to see some of this stuff. Take that. That's what I would do but Jesus didn't do that. Then in verse 5. Yeah drop the mic.

That would be good wouldn't it? Heal him. Right there.

There you go. Why would he have a mic in Bible days? There were no mics. Would he drop a rock or something? I don't know what he would do. Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of their heart. He reminded them how they would go out of their way for certain things on the Sabbath but yet they wouldn't go out of their way to help people. And in verse 6 they had no answer for him. And then he goes on in verses 7 to 14 and he shares a couple of parables. And in these parables he designed them to teach these men how they had a hard heart and what true humility was.

To reach out to people that can't return the favor and they don't have anything that can help them but how you're supposed to help people that can't help you. And then that leads us to our verses in verse 15. Now look at verse 15 if you will. Notice this parable.

You think about arrogance. Here's these Pharisees that just tried to trick Jesus. Now he begins to talk as if they were going to be one of the chosen ones that get to sit and eat and break bread in heaven. Surely we're going to heaven.

Why? Because the Jewish people were the chosen people and they thought well we're the chosen people and so hey we get to finally break bread in heaven. We're going to be there and Jesus knew they weren't. He said unto him. He answered him with a parable. A certain man made a great supper and bade many or begged many to come obviously and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused.

What a flimsy excuse. Look at verse 19. And another said I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused.

Wow they're just getting better aren't they? Verse 20 the only person I think that had any kind of merit. And another said I have married a wife. He could have just stopped right there. We would all have been well I understand that's okay. I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. What's interesting he didn't really explain what it was.

Just doesn't really matter does it? I'm married I can't. Okay well we understand. Look at verse 21. So that servant came and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house, notice this being angry, said to his servant.

Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. And the servant said lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. The man that had just told Jesus that I'm going to be breaking bread in heaven. Amazingly Jesus ends that parable with none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. Lord we need your help today.

Please help us. Lord I pray as Jesus used this opportunity to confront the hypocrisy of the Jews. He used this story to remind us of his mission.

He used this story to remind us that he was on a mission for the souls of lost men and women. Lord he commanded us to join that mission. Lord I pray that you would help us today as we realize that we have been compelled and commanded.

Lord I pray that you would lead me to the matter and let you go home this morning. I want you to notice number one. The invitation extended. Look at verse 16 and 17. Then said he unto him a certain man made a great supper and bade many.

Number one I want you to notice the splendor of this event. We are told that it was going to be a great supper. What is interesting the Bible says that one by one they began to make excuse and yet they were only told of three individuals that were coming. Now that lets me know this that these three guys that gave excuse why they weren't coming either the Bible's lying to us and he really basically had three individuals coming and maybe their wives that you know that wasn't really a very big supper or the Bible just gives us three examples of many people that gave excuses. And I believe that's the case. Let me just say that there are a lot of excuses that people give to reject Christ. The Bible just gives us three of them.

But maybe the Bible gives us three of them because there's a reason and because maybe these three have some things in common. The splendor of this event. It was going to be great. It was going to be lavish.

This was a wealthy individual and he had pulled out all the stops. And by the way this was basically entertainment in these days. And that was you'd have a big thing at your house and then you would invite certain people.

I want you to notice secondly the scope of this event. The Bible says that he bade many. Now it doesn't mean that there's just many of all kinds of people. He bade many of a certain kind of individuals. You see because he was having this great supper and it was a very well planned event.

The people that were invited to this event were the cream of the crop. You say well how do we know that? Because we know from the three individuals that gave their responses that they were business owners. That they were wealthy individuals. One had bought property. One had bought an oxen.

The other obviously was a wimp. And so we talk about those three things. And so we know that this was the cream of the crop. They were rich. They were influential. They were the movers and the shakers of this day and time.

They were the who's who of the who's who. Everyone that was anyone would have been invited to come. And Jesus by the way is using this feast to illustrate God's kingdom.

And what heaven's gonna be like. I want you to notice secondly the invitation excuses. Verse 18 and they all with one consent began to make excuse.

And we've given you these excuses and I've gone through the three of these. And let me just explain something to you this morning. A feast of this magnitude when it was planned in this day and time it was not a spur of the moment event. They didn't just decide hey let's have a big show.

Let's have a big shindig tomorrow night. And we'll just run over to Harris Teeter or Lowe's or something like that and we'll just get all the stuff. And you know we don't have a lot of time so we'll just go up to so and so and we'll just get some ribs that are already cooked and maybe we'll get some barbecue and different things. They didn't have those resources in front of them and they didn't have those opportunities. So for somebody to have a big meal it was planned months in advance. The food had to be prepared. The food had to be gotten. It had to be gone after and they had to gather things together. Not only that they didn't have cell phones to call somebody and say hey listen are you going to come. They didn't have the mail system where you know maybe they'd send a note and you just check here if you're going to come and send it back.

I mean it was word of mouth and they had to ride to these areas and find out from individuals. So these invitations had been given months in advance and these individuals for months had told them that they were coming. So this guy had put all this money, all this planning, all these people had all this time and they said they were going to come so the man had put all the money, he had made all the preparation and all the provision and now it was ready. The time was there and then they began to make excuse that they couldn't come.

The invitation excuses. By the way let me just say this for those of you that like to study the Bible. One of the things that Jesus is making a point about right here is the nation of Israel. Israel was the chosen people. That is who God obviously had given the invitation to. They were the cream of the crop as far as God was concerned because of the fact that the lineage of his son would come through the Jewish people. And so Israel was the chosen people and yet when Jesus came to them they rejected him. I love about this story is that when the cream of the crop rejected then he began to invite everyone else. He made it available for Jew, Gentile, black, white, it doesn't matter what color we are he has made salvation available to us.

How wonderful. This is also an application to the fact of grace. As this individual has all these people that didn't come and he extends an invitation to all those who weren't originally invited. That's what grace is all about.

This man has his riches and he wants to make it available to anybody that will come. That's what grace from God is like. The fact is that you and I don't deserve it.

We haven't done anything to earn it. But he has made grace available to anybody that will come. I want you to notice first the excuse of possessions. The Bible says this man had purchased a piece of property. What is interesting about this and I know you all are aware of this.

I'm not going to belabor the point. But who buys property without seeing it? This guy didn't say I'm interested in a piece of property I'm going to go look at it before I buy it. He says I bought a piece of property and I want to go see it. Sure. If that's the case I got some oceanfront property in Florida I want to sell him.

Who does that? You know what is amazing that this man used the thing of possessions to say no to God. This man and his excuse picture literally a sinner who is materially minded and he refuses God because of all the world has to offer. Possessions. Do you know a lot of times that possessions can keep individuals out of heaven? Because he had a lot of possessions. You know why a lot of people don't serve God?

Because they're afraid it's going to cost them too much. I was a youth pastor for a number of years and I preached numerous youth camps, youth conferences, Christian schools, youth revivals for a number of those ten years when I was in evangelism. Probably half my year I was preaching to young people and different things.

I don't think you can make enough money doing that. I've got my dreams. I want to be wealthy.

Dear friend, I want to tell you something. Possessions can keep you out of heaven. The Bible talks about a person that the Bible calls a rich fool. And this rich fool had all this barns and had land and property and had so many things. The Bible says that he would walk around his property and he would look that his barns were full and he would take inventory.

Of all the things, all the income and the outgo and all the expenditures and he would sit at night and look at his desk and he would sit back and think, man, how wonderful, how great it is to have all these possessions. And in that very passage God says to that individual, thou fool. This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall all these things be? All these possessions you've worked hard for.

They're not going to do one thing for you in eternity. This man said no to the feast of all feasts because of possessions. Once you notice, second, the excuse was given was the excuse of profession. This man basically says that he had bought 10 oxen and he hadn't tried them out. And he wanted to try these oxen out because that was his line of work and he wanted to make sure that they were working the way that they should and so I can't come to the property because this is my business and this is what I'm doing and I'm going to go get the oxen and make sure that they're working correctly. And you think about this, this man couldn't have been much of a businessman if he's telling the truth that he would buy all these oxen without even looking at them or testing them first. He was trying to get ahead in the world.

Of course his excuse is a lame one at best. Who buys oxen without trying them out? Not only that, secondly, who buys oxen and tries them out at night? How could you tell if they plowed great?

Pitch black dart, go through, hey, yeah, they did a great job. You can't see anything. How do you know? Makes no sense whatsoever. This man and his excuse picture a sinner that's a little bit different. There's a lot of us that are just like this guy. They allow their oxen and their occupation, their business and their pursuit of getting ahead to keep them from having time for God. How many times do I know people because they want a bigger house or a nicer car or more toys for the kids or to be able to go on nicer trips with the family? That they will sacrifice a relationship with God and time in God's house and even time with their own family to get ahead in the world. The feast should have been the thing that was most important and yet apparently everything else was more important to this man.

There was nothing wrong with working and there was nothing wrong with making money. But when those things become ahead of God and when they take the place of family, then those things are wrong. God doesn't give people jobs to take them away from God.

God doesn't give people personal relationships. This man was a newlywed. Now we can understand that he wanted to spend time with his new bride. But yet I want you to understand something that weddings in the Middle East were extravagant events that had been planned for months. This man knew about the wedding and knew that he would have a new bride way back at the time where he told this man that he would come to his dinner.

So he knew all this was gonna transpire and he knew about the wedding when he accepted the invitation to the feast. But this man placed his personal relationships ahead of the picture of God in this passage. You know there's a lot of people that won't come to Christ because they're afraid of what their friends or family might think. They might not accept the invitation to his feast because they're afraid of what others might think or say.

Or what the buddies at work might think if they quit telling those jokes and they quit talking about those things. And all of a sudden if the family realizes that now we're faithful to church and we give at church and we tie the church. And a lot of times people, their excuse is personal relationships. I've seen over the years by the way, listen to me, I've seen wives come and pray that God somehow would fix their husbands and change the hearts of their husbands so that they'll come to church. And I have over the years seen where God finally did prick the heart of those husbands and those husbands came to church. And when those husbands came to church, they became much more active, much more faithful, much more into church and the wives ended up resenting it.

Personal relationships. People still make excuses. They make excuses in our day. They come up with reasons and things why they can't come to church and why they don't have time for God and why it's not time to get right with God yet.

And yet those excuses are as lame as these are. Because in the picture of this story and in life in general, there is nothing in your life or my life more important than our relationship with God. Nothing is more important than that. The invitation extended, the invitation excuses. I want you to notice number three.

The invitation expanded. Look if you would at verse 21 if you will and I love this. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things. He came back and said these are the excuses they've given. Let me let you notice.

Let me let you notice something real quickly. These people did not give these excuses to the master. They gave the excuses to the servant that came to their house to get them for the feast. A lot of people give excuses to the pastor. And as a pastor a lot of times you have to act like it's okay.

Because they're going to be mad if you act at all like well you know I don't think you did right. Well you know what I know that's where you went but you should have been in church. Can't do that as a pastor. You should have been used to the servant. But dear friend you've got to worry more about when you give that excuse to the master.

It doesn't really matter what the servant thinks. The master is the one that's in charge. So the servant comes back and he tells the master everything that had happened. Look at verse 21.

Then the master of the house being angry. Now this passage is a picture of God and obviously God has extended this feast through this son Jesus Christ and so we're told here that when you reject Christ and we're always told about how God is love and how God is long suffering and God is merciful and all these things and I'm here to tell you that is exactly right. But I'm going to tell you something about God that is also true that God is a holy God. He's a just God and he gets angry. The Bible says that God is just. God is holy and God gets angry when we reject him.

Here the master is angry. Notice if you would verse 21. He said to his servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. I've got all this and nobody wants it. So I'm going to send out my servant and invite anybody that wants it.

They can come get it. Do you know God knew when he sent Jesus into the world that his offer of salvation would be rejected by the nation of Israel. He knew that. He also knew that the poor and the diseased and the downcast and the downtrodden would come to Jesus. They're the ones that needed him. He also knew that the rich and the powerful and the religious would not come to Jesus. God invited his people to come just as he told him he would but when they refused he expanded his invitation and the Bible puts it this way whosoever will may come.

I'm here to tell you dear friend Jesus wants you. You have been invited. Let's take a few minutes to look at this expansion that took place. I want you to notice under this verse we see that the expansion was critical. You see the master of this feast he sends out his servant and he tells him to quickly quickly find enough people to come and fill his house. There is a sense of urgency and haste in this command. It is urgent that a multitude be found because the feast was ready and the food would spoil in a short period of time. And the master knows that it's a short period of time that he's got to get people in his house.

So he tells the servant go out and quickly find them. It's important. People all around us live like they're going to live forever but they're not. It's just not the case. Our lives are short. . . . . .