The Weightiness of the Kingdom

Today on Summit Life, an invitation from God Himself. How important is an invitation from God?

Everything else compared to that is lame, it's ridiculous, it's not really even that relevant. So if there were an invitation from God, wouldn't it trump everything else on earth? Any excuse we ever give pales in importance to the invitation we've received. Not all invitations are equal. A backyard barbecue invite might show up in an email or a text message, but a wedding invitation?

That's probably going to make a bigger splash, right? And today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer explains that when an invitation from God shows up, it deserves our full attention and a very quick RSVP. We're starting a new message today titled, The Waitiness of the Kingdom, and it's part of our series called, Kingdom Come.

You can catch up on previous messages that you may have missed when you visit jdgreer.com. But now turn in your Bible to Luke 14 and let's join Pastor J.D. What I am going to talk to you about today is something that Jesus explains is, listen, is of such dire importance that everything else in your life almost becomes irrelevant compared to the way it is. I'm going to show you how Jesus said that. A lot of times people have the question of, you know, is God really that relevant to my life? What you're going to see is Jesus turns that around and says, based on how relevant this is to your life, I'm not sure you would call anything else.

Your job, where you live, who you marry, I'm not even sure you would call that relevant compared to how important this question is. I want you to get your Bible if you have it and I want you to open it to Luke 14. Luke 14, right? Luke chapter 14 verse 7.

Luke chapter 14 verse 7. Now Jesus told a parable to those who were invited to this particular party when he noticed how they chose the places of honor and he said to them, when you were invited by somebody to a wedding feast, don't sit down in the place of honor. Let someone more distinguished than you be invited by him and then he who invited you both will come to you and say, give your place to this person and then you will be embarrassed and begin with shame to take the lowest place.

No, no, no. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Now at first this just seems like really good practical social advice, doesn't it? I mean, so you get invited to the wedding of the daughter of the president of your company and so you're a little late going to the reception and you walk into the reception hall and you notice that there's a few chairs open at various tables but you're like, hey, I see some chairs open at table number one and so you will mosey your way up there, you go up on that little platform overlooking all the other tables and you kind of, you know, sit down next to the mother of the bride and the bride and the groom and you're like, oh lovely wedding, your dress looks fabulous, can I ding the little cup to get you guys to kiss? And as you're kind of, you know, getting situated and an usher comes up to you and says, uh, excuse me, sir, um, these seats are reserved for the close friends and the family of the president and you are not one of those and so I'm going to ask you to get your stuff and make your way back and he points way to the back of the room, not even to a table but to those little chairs that are lining the side of the room and he says, that's actually where we'd like for you to sit and we'd also request that you not get anything from the food line until everybody else has gone through, that's how unimportant that you are, right? And so you get your stuff and you begin the walk of shame. Now turn that around, all right, say that you go into the wedding feast in the reception and you sit back there at the back and then as soon as you sit down the usher comes up to you and says, sir, the president has requested that you come and sit at his table because he wants your, his family to get to know you a little better and he'd like you to come up there, that's the walk of honor and you're walking there by saying, who is that?

Why does the president want to know him? That's Jesus's parable. Now that's just good practical social advice, right? Practical social advice, is that Jesus's point?

I mean, it's kind of random isn't it? He's telling these parables about the kingdom and about God and about the prodigal son and then here's some good advice when you're at a party and then we go back to, you know, it just seems random. No, there is actually a profoundly important point in this that explains what he's about to say in the next story so let's go ahead and get to that one and then I'll show you how the two tie together, right? 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. So you see, we're staying on the theme of the kingdom of God as a party, right? So verse 16, but Jesus said to him, while Mance once gave a banquet and invited many, real quick, I love the fact that Jesus so often and so consistently compares the coming of his kingdom to a party. You want to know why?

You want to know why? Because Jesus was trying to say that the kingdom of God is everything our hearts have yearned for and wanted to come true. You know Jesus's first miracle? Jesus's first miracle was to fix the broken tap at a party, John chapter two. Now that's significant when you consider the fact that, like I explained to you before, that Jesus's miracles were not random magic tricks where he showed off how much power he had. Jesus's miracles were called signs, which means each of them had a message. So the fact that he began his ministry in John two with a miracle of fixing a broken tap at a party was trying to tell us something, right? You're like, well, what is he trying to tell us? And why would he choose that one? Why would he like, you know, create a burning effigy of Satan in the sky or at least raise somebody from there?

That would have been a good depiction of his ministry. It's because what he was trying to show us is that our hearts have been yearning for something because we know something's wrong with the world. Every world religion has taught consistently, all of them have taught that there's something fundamentally wrong with our world. That's why there are earthquakes and there are tsunamis and our bodies are broken and there's pain and there's war and there's broken relationships and there's mental illness.

There's something wrong with the world, but every world religion teaches that it wasn't always that way. There was a time when the world was at peace or was at harmony and when Jesus shows up saying, my kingdom is a banquet, it's a party. It's a party of all parties. He's saying everything your heart has yearned for will come true.

Everything your heart has ached over will become untrue. It is everything that you've been looking for, it is a banquet. And so he consistently compares it to a party.

Keep going, verse 17. 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. Now see what happened in those days for a big feast, they would always be two invitations because in those days before there were electricity and all the modern conveniences we have, they couldn't tell you exactly when the party would happen because there were too many moving pieces.

You'd have to go out and catch the food and then prepare it and you couldn't refrigerate it. And then like you had out of town people coming and there was no telling when they'd be able to show up. So they'd have a first invitation where you would RSVP to the party and then there'd be a second invitation telling you everything is now ready and you were supposed to come on if you RSVP'd yes. So Jesus' story, these people have RSVP'd yes already and now they just sent out the word that says it's time to come, everything's ready.

So verse 18. They all alike however began to make excuses and the first one said to him, I bought a field and I got to go out and see it, please have me excused. Question, who buys a piece of property without ever having looked at it? And even if you hadn't looked at it, what's so important about it that you got to go look at it right now? I mean it's dirt, it's not going anywhere, it's a pretty lame excuse. Verse 19, another one said I have bought five yoke of oxen and I need to go examine them. Well that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

I mean buying five yoke of oxen was a major investment back then. It's like buying a car today and imagine you're walking out your door and your friends are like where are you going? You're like I bought a car. Like what kind is it? I don't know.

I just gave some dude $12,000 on the internet and I got to go see what I bought. That didn't make any sense. That's a lame excuse also.

Verse 20, and another one said I married a wife therefore I cannot come. Right, right, right. Because the last thing a new wife wants is to get dressed up and go to a nice feast and eat finger foods with rich people. That's the last thing she wants.

Oh no, she'd much rather stay home and watch ESPN with you and eat foods that in an Etoes, Cheetos, Doritos, Taquitos, that's what she wants. All right, right. See these are pretty lame excuses. Verse 21, so the servant came and reported these things to the master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame.

What? What rich person does that? And people, my friends can't come to my birthday party so go get me a bunch of homeless people. Go get me a bunch of poor people.

Go get me a bunch of ex-cons and bring them in. There's two shocking things about this story. The first is that the original people did not respond to the invitation of this incredibly important man. The second shocking thing about this story is that he filled up his house with the poor, the blind, and the lame, and the crippled. Verse 22, then the servant said, sir what you've commanded has been done and there's still room. Verse 23, the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in so that my house may be filled.

Now we really go a step farther because now he's telling them to go out to the highways and hedges. In Jewish parlance, what that meant was I want you to go outside of the city to where the outsiders live. People that are not accepted within Jewish society. We're talking about people who are street people, people who run the highways, people who are prostitutes, people who are so far gone that they're not even accepted in our cities anymore, people who live in the hedges, people with rough past centers.

And I want you to bring them in. Verse 24, for I tell you, notice by the way, that at this point he switches into the first person. Up until now he's been telling a story in the third person, now he switches in the first person. He says, I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. He's talking about the Jewish rejection of him.

You see the Jewish people in that day were the ones who had received the first invitation to the party and they had RSVP'd, yes. That invitation came from the prophets and they said, yes the Messiah is coming, we want in, we want a part of the Messiah. And so Jesus comes, he's like the second invitation, and now that he's here they got a hundred reasons why they don't have time for him and they're not paying attention to him.

And most of them have to do with just the normal day-to-day task of life, getting married, pursuing a job, buying real estate, buying real estate. And so Jesus says, you go out to the Gentiles, you go to the outcasts, you go to the marginal, you go to the sinners, because they'll understand how incredible of an opportunity it is to be invited to the king's banquet. This really bothers Jesus by the way, you know how I know that? Verse 25, it says right after this he turns to this big group of people that are following him and he makes this statement, he says, if any of you comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life he can't be my disciple.

Some of you see that word hate and you're like, what? I mean Jesus is telling us to hate our mothers and fathers, I thought Jesus wanted us to love our mothers and fathers and our children and our wives and our and to honor them. Yes, anybody who has followed Jesus will tell you that the result of following Jesus is that you begin to love your family more not less, but what he is saying is this, compared to the weightiness of the invitation that you are receiving from Jesus, even your most close and tender relationships will seem like hate because of how much importance you give to the one who invited you to his banquet. That's steep I realize, but that's how important Jesus is saying this invitation is. It trumps every relationship, it trumps getting married, it trumps where you work, it trumps everything.

There's nothing in your life that carries the weight and the importance of this. And so what Jesus has done in these two parables is he has taught us the two reasons that most people miss the kingdom of God. The two reasons that most people miss the kingdom of God.

I would encourage you to write these down because most of the people that are going to miss the kingdom of God are going to fall into one of these two categories right here. Number one, number one, some fail to recognize the importance of the invitation. Some fail to recognize the importance of the invitation. The excuses that are given in this story are not outright evil.

Did you notice that? Nobody's like, hey I can't come, I got a drug deal I'm doing, I've kidnapped a little kid, I got a dog fighting ring that I run, I can't come to your party. None of the excuses are outright evil, they're just lame compared to the weightiness of the invitation they're receiving. All excuses are lame is his point. All excuses are lame compared to how important this is, even if the excuses sounded legitimate to you.

You're like, J.D., I think you're being too hard on them. I mean a real estate deal, that's kind of a big deal. I think that's a good excuse.

You're getting married, I mean the wife, you don't want some alone time, she wants a honeymoon, that sounds perfectly fair to me, okay. Maybe they are legitimate in that sense, but all excuses are lame compared to the importance of the invitation they're receiving. Give you an example, sometimes you know I'm in my office and somebody will call in for me and if I'm meeting with somebody else my assistant will tell the person calling, I'm sorry, he can't talk to you right now, he's talking with somebody else. Or maybe, you know, I'm just in the zone, I'm working and I don't want to be disturbed because I know if I get out of the zone I'll never get back in it. And so she'll be like, I'm sorry, he's really tied up, you know, he can't take your phone call right now. Usually people receive that, you know, most of you don't really have a problem and that's the answer that you get back if I, you know, I promise to call you back.

But my assistant knows that if the person on the other end of the line says, your wife is in the hospital, then she interrupts me. So the question being asked here is, how important is an invitation from God? That's the question. How important is an invitation from God? If there is a God then He is the Creator of everything there is. If there is a God that He invented the Adam, if there's a God all things come from Him, all things are upheld by Him, all things are going to Him, ultimately the only opinion of your life that matters is His opinion. If there's a God there's only one thing that you and I ought to be worried about is do we know that God?

Everything else compared to that is lame, it's ridiculous, it's not really even that relevant compared to how witty that is. If there is a God that would trump absolutely everything. I once heard Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE say, if you want to succeed in an organization, any organization, figure out whose organization it is, how they keep score, and score, that's how you succeed. If this is God's universe, if it's God's world, then the only scorecard that really matters is His scorecard. So if there were an invitation from God wouldn't it trump everything else on earth? Any excuse we give, ever give, pales in importance to the invitation we've received.

This is to be treated as a matter of life and death. I want you to an atheist professor who teaches at a school not far from here, who asks his class every year, how many of you believe the Bible is the Word of God? He says about two-thirds of the hands in his class will go up.

We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Then he says, how many of you have read it all the way through? Says at least 90% of the hands go down to we're talking four or five percent of the class still got their hand raised. He said, all right, put your hands down. He said, let's take a popular book. How many of you have read the Twilight series all the way through?

50-60% of the hands go up. He says, you can put them down. He says, I don't really think you believe the Bible is the Word of God because if you did believe it was the Word of God you're telling me you wouldn't even have read it? Now at that point what his purpose in doing that is just trying to shake them a little bit to show them that what they say they believe is not really what they believe. But I actually tend to agree with him on his point. I tend to agree with him that, you see, there's two kinds of atheists. There's intellectual atheists who say there's no God and then there's practical atheists who say there's a God but then live like there is no God. If there is a God then that trumps everything.

It trumps everything. You know, some of you guys listen to that you're like, Twilight series, I don't really read what you call books so that doesn't apply to me. All right, some of you guys that don't read books, you can tell me anything I want to know about your profession.

You can tell me every major league baseball score and stat and team and what they're doing. You got non-fantasy football leagues running in your head at any given point and you can't tell me hardly anything about a book that you believe comes from God. If you treated your relationship with God or you treated your job like your relationship with God you'd be fired before the day was out. It doesn't make any sense to me, listen, it doesn't make any sense to me somebody that says they believe in a God and doesn't give it importance. We're talking about God. It makes sense to me when somebody says I don't believe in a God and then they live like that's true. What doesn't make sense to me is when somebody says they do believe in God and live like he's not really there, don't give him any weight. What I don't understand are people who say they believe in the resurrection of Jesus and then give it absolutely no weight who come once a year, tip their hat to it at Christmas time and Easter but then go on throughout their lives like it doesn't really matter that much.

This is something that we're talking about. God, can I ask you a question? What, listen, what if what the Bible says about heaven and hell, what if it's true? What if it's true that heaven is an eternal banquet in which every one of our hearts desires what we have yearned for and longed for is fulfilled and it comes true? What if it's true that the opposite of that is a place called hell where people go which is a place of anguish and torment. Jesus called it by the way anguish and torment. Sometimes people are like oh well hell that's like Old Testament stuff that's God in his cranky years when he was angry then Jesus comes along he's gentle and kind he teaches. No, Jesus talked more about hell than anybody else in the Bible.

You know why? Because he loved us. What if what he said about it was true? What if what he said about it was true? What if what he said about what he was doing was true? That he was living and suffering for us in our place that we deserve condemnation and he was going to absorb it on the cross in our place and he was going to take into himself the penalty we deserved. What if it's true in what he said that there's two ways that you and I pay for sin one is we suffer for it eternally the other way is he pays for it on the cross for us and he suffers the wrath of God in our place. What if it's true when he said John 14 6 that he was the way the truth and the life and nobody comes to the father but through him. What if that's true?

You understand how important that is? There's a picture I've given people in our church several times and I'll share it for you know for the rest of you too because this is how I see myself it's how I see our church. A story took place out in California several years ago when there was an earthquake and God was driving along the road about 3 30 in the morning there was an earthquake and the earthquake lasted about 30 seconds so he pulls his car off the side of the road and he kind of stops waits it out doesn't think it's a big deal pulls back on the road starts going across a bridge cruising across this bridge about 70 miles an hour when he notices the tail lights of the car in front of him just disappear he thought well that's kind I mean that's that's that's odd so he he stops his car gets out and realizes that what's happened is the middle section of that bridge had dropped out and what he'd seen was that car drop off the edge and dropped out about 75 feet to the death of everybody in the car so he turns around he said he was on a talk show telling the story he said I watched his four cars are coming toward me I start waving my arms to get him to stop no question you're driving along outside of Los Angeles at 3 30 in the morning and there's a dude on the side of the road waving his arms you're going to stop no this guy said he watched his four cars drove right by him at 70 miles an hour and plunged to their death he said I looked and saw a bus coming across that bridge he said I made up my mind that if that bus went across that bridge it was going to take me with it he said so I stood right in its path and I waved my arms I took off my shirt I started to wave it that bus honked its horn and flashed its lights trying to get me to move he said I wouldn't move that bus driver got out started cursing at me but then I showed him what I saw and the bus driver saw it so he parked his bus so nobody else could go off the side of the cliff here's the question I asked what what if you had been the first one to be at the scene of that accident isn't that what you would have done of course I mean how could you not would you would you have cared that people thought that you were a moron out on the side of the road no because you see something they don't see I get notes here from people who visit our church they're like oh I love your church love the music but you know I felt like you were a little too passionate I feel like you yelled too much there's a reason that I talk like this and the reason listen the reason is because I believe these things are true and if these things are true I don't think sitting up here on a stool and talking about my feelings is really in order I see I look at you and I look at me and I look at our church and I look at people who are headed to a destruction that is much worse even than that scene on that bridge and I said all right call us a fool say we're a little too passionate but there's a reason we're like this there's a reason I'm trying to tell you because I believe what Jesus says about these things are true and I believe because of that they have the weightiest of importance as JD said today getting an invitation from God is the most important thing in our lives and part of God's invitation is to know him and that's through his word you're listening to summit life the bible teaching ministry of pastor author and theologian J.D. Greer if you've missed any of the messages in this series you can listen to them online free of charge at jdgreer.com one of the most destructive myths in the church today is that only a few of us are actually called to the ministry but here's the truth all Christians are called to ministry not necessarily to vocational ministry but to leverage their lives for the great commission and pastor JD's new book titled what are you going to do with your life he considers Jesus's radical call to give our lives away to the greatest cause of all it's time for all of us to view our life from the perspective of eternity we'd love to get you that new book today and with it we'll include a special edition study guide to go alongside your reading the work book will guide your time in reading through some of the passages of scripture included in the book it also includes a handful of devotionals to spur you along we pray that as you read this book you'll gain a fresh passion for the gospel allow us to get this new resource to you by reaching out at jdgreer.com you're welcome to request it when you support this ministry with a donation of 25 dollars or more when you give to summit life you're really giving this program to your fellow listeners making sure that we stay on your station and on the web and the book and workbook is just our way of saying thanks for your support remember to ask for your copy of J.D. 's newest book what are you going to do with your life when you call 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or if it's easier you can give online at jdgreer.com now before we close let me remind you that if you aren't signed up yet for our email list you'll want to go online and do that today it's the best way to stay up to date with pastor jd's latest blog posts and we'll make sure that you never miss a new resource or series it's quick and easy to sign up at jdgreer.com i'm molly vidovich i'm so glad you joined us today be sure to come back tomorrow where we'll learn a lesson in gospel irony and pastor jd will explain the parable of the wedding feast that's friday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer jd greer ministries