Where to Sit at Supper

We read the word of God beginning in verse 1 of Luke chapter 14, and I'm going to read the first 24 verses. And it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat on the Sabbath day, that they watched him.

And behold, there was a certain man before him who had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go, and answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass, or an ox, fallen into a pit, and will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things.

And he put forth a parable to those who were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief places, saying unto them, When thou art bidden by any man to a wedding, sit not down in the chief seat, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher.

Then shalt thou have honor in the presence of them that dine with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou givest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou givest a feast, call the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and the blind, and thou shalt be blessed. For they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

And when one of them that sat eating with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man gave a great supper in bad many, 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. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them.

I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things.

And then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, 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 constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I say unto you, that none of those men who were bidden shall taste of my supper. May the Lord help us to learn the lessons that he has for us from this passage. You have seen the motto hanging on the walls of many homes, and you may have one hanging on a wall in your home.

The motto says, Christ is the head of this home, the silent listener to every conversation, and the unseen guest at every meal. It's doubtful that we live as though he is listening to our conversations. And I'm not so sure we would want the Lord Jesus Christ always to be a guest at our table.

This Pharisee invited the Lord Jesus one Sabbath day to come to his table, and the result was he exposed their sins. Now most of us don't want that, but that's what Jesus did. Our Lord did not come to the table and merely banter away that Sabbath afternoon eating and chatting.

He took advantage of the situation and exposed the tragic sins of the people who were there. You may say, well I go to church to have God deal with my sins, but you know, we reveal ourselves in other ways than going to church. In fact, we bring our best self to church.

We reveal who we are and what we are by the everyday activities of life. You may learn more about me sitting at the table with me than sitting in a church seat seeing me in the pulpit. You may learn more about yourself in sitting at the table than any other way.

You may learn more about me watching me drive than listening to me preach. The Apostle Paul said, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. We can reveal God's glory by eating and drinking, and we can reveal our own sins by the way we respond at dinners and parties and banquets.

Luke chapter 14 deals with our Lord talking to people at the table. He was invited to a dinner, and from this he took advantage of the situation to open up the word of God. One theme runs through these 24 verses, and that theme is this.

People want to be important. People want to be important. Every one of us has a little sign hanging around his neck that says, make me feel important.

No one likes to be treated like less than a person. No one wants to be shoved around. Everybody wants to be important.

Well, we are important because we're made in the image of God, and if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, you're purchased by the blood of Christ. We are important. The trouble is there are some people who want to get important in the wrong way, and of course the people at the feast were guilty of this.

There are those who make themselves important by pushing other people around. They think that because they can manipulate people, they're important. There are those who think that they are important because of where they sit.

They have some special position, or the crowd that they're running with. And our Lord just reclined there at that feast, and he watched this crowd, and he smiled to himself and said, well, the time has come to tell the truth. And in these 24 verses, our Lord Jesus teaches us four important lessons about how to be an important person.

If you really want to be an important person, if you want your life to count, if you want to be somebody in the eyes of God, then learn these four basic lessons. In verses 1 through 6, there's a lesson in humanity. He tells us how to treat another human being.

And then in 7 through 11, there's a lesson on humility. He tells us where to sit. In 12 through 14, there's a lesson on hospitality.

He tells us with whom we should fellowship. And then he wraps the whole thing up in a parable in 15 through 24, and there his theme is honesty, being honest with God and with ourselves. These are the four lessons our Lord wants us to learn today, if we're going to be the kind of people who really are important in this world.

Lesson number one, a lesson in humanity. Our Lord is saying in verses 1 through 6 that you don't use people for your own purposes. Now, imagine what happened here.

They invited the Lord Jesus to the feast, not because they enjoyed his fellowship. They wanted to trap him. And in order to trap him, they brought into the feast on the Sabbath day a man who was sick, a man with dropsy.

If you have ever seen people with dropsy, you know how uncomfortable and unsightly they can be. And this man was invited to the feast. And perhaps you said, my, isn't that wonderful? They've invited me to the feast.

They didn't invite him because they wanted him. They wanted to use him as bait on their trap. And so their motive for inviting the man was wrong, and they were exploiting his weakness.

They were taking advantage of the fact that the man was sick. They said, let's bring a sick man in, and if Jesus heals him on the Sabbath day, we've got him. Now, the Lord Jesus knew what their motives were.

Notice how the Lord Jesus treated this man. There was the man put into a place of prominence so the Lord couldn't miss him. No one else could miss him.

And Jesus says, is it right? Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And, of course, they kept quiet because they couldn't heal anybody. Oh, they could keep their laws, but they had no power to heal anybody. And the word of God says he took him, and he healed him, and he let him go.

The contrast here is so exciting. The Pharisees looked upon this man as a thing to be pushed around for their purposes. Jesus looked upon this man with compassion as a human being who needed love.

The Pharisees had impure motives in bringing the man in. Jesus had the purest of motives in taking the man out. The Pharisees touched this man and defiled him.

Jesus touched this man and healed him. Now, this raises the interesting question, my friends. When you touch somebody, does he go away better than when he came to you? That's the difference between accepting a person in love and exploiting a person in selfishness.

It's possible for this church to exploit people. It's possible for a Sunday school class to exploit people. You say, explain yourself.

I will. If, as your pastor, I ask you to do something that I wouldn't do, I'm exploiting you. If I'm asking you to do something that's going to tear you down in order to build me up, I'm exploiting you.

I recall many years ago preaching in a church up in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee for that matter. And I'd spoken to the youth group at 5.30, and the evening service was going to be at 7 o'clock. And as we left the youth group at about 6.15 or 6.30, as we came upstairs to the auditorium, a group of teenagers came in the front door of the church.

And the youth director looked at them and said, where were you at 5.30? If you had been there, we would have had 73. Now, is that the only reason he wanted them there? To be able to say, we had 73 young people. That's exploiting people.

You see, God doesn't tear a man down without building him up. If God takes something away, it's that he might give something better. The Lord Jesus recognized the need that this man had, and he healed him.

Do we recognize the needs that people have, and do we try to help them? Or do we manipulate people, move them around to meet our goals and satisfy our desires? Sometimes parents can exploit children. I'm thinking of a young lady right now who's had a very unhappy marriage. She had a mother who exploited her.

The mother didn't lift much of a finger to take care of some of the needs in the home. The girl had to do it. The girl was the assistant mother in the home, and it got to be a little bit burdensome.

And as a result, the girl revolted and rebelled. She shouldn't have, but she did. She got tired of being exploited.

You exploit somebody when you talk, but don't listen. You exploit somebody when you burden, but you don't help. You exploit somebody when you put them into a circumstance that tears them down, but you don't build them up.

The Lord Jesus never exploits people. Whatever he asks us to do, we'll build us up and glorify his name. And so when he sees these Pharisees manipulating people and using people like things, he says you'd better learn a lesson in humanity.

This man was made in the image of God. Be careful how you treat him. James had something to say about that.

In James chapter 2, he says, now don't hold the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the wrong way. Don't be one-sided. If a rich man comes into your assembly, you say, oh, sit here in the best seat.

A poor man comes in, you say, hey, stand in the corner. Or better yet, get down here low where nobody can see you. That's the same idea.

A lesson in humanity. If you want to be somebody important in the eyes of God, love the people that he's made. Don't exploit them.

This didn't set too well because in verse 6 they could not answer him again to these things. You know why? They were hypocrites. Our Lord said if your ox or your ass falls into a pit, and there were pits all over that area, you're liable to fall into a hidden pit anywhere in Palestine.

If one of your animals falls into a pit, you don't wait for the Sabbath day to end. You rescue that animal. In other words, you treat animals far better than you treat people.

And I've met folks like that. I have met wives who took better care of their parakeets and their cats than they did their children, their husbands. It's unthinkable, but it's true.

Our Lord says you better learn a lesson in humanity. This man is made in the image of God. Love him.

Don't exploit him. Then he moves on with a parable because he sees them sitting down now. He gave this account while they were gathering together.

Now as they're all sitting down, he sees them rushing to the key places. You see, when they had a feast in our Lord's day, they didn't have great big long tables such as we have and a head table. They would have low tables with divans or cushions or pillows around them.

And the middle one was the key place. At each of these tables, there was a key seat. That was where the guests of honor were supposed to sit.

And everybody was rushing for those seats. And so our Lord gives a lesson in humility in verses 7 through 11. If Vance Packard had been there, he would have said, Uh-huh, the pyramid climbers.

The pyramid climbers. Here are these people who think that you are important if you're sitting in an important place. That's a dangerous thing to say.

These people had a false view of success. They thought that success came from position, not character. Are we so foolish as to believe that because a person sits at a president's desk or a director's desk or a manager's desk that he's an important man? He may have an important job, but is he an important person? Success is not measured by the position, the level at which you are seated.

They had the wrong idea of success and they had the wrong idea of people. They used people as stepping stones to get where they wanted to get. Oh, there are Christians like that.

There are Christians like that. A friend of mine told me an interesting story about a very famous preacher. I'll not name him.

This very famous preacher was at a meeting and after the meeting was over, he began shaking hands with various people who were there and greeting the various pastors. And someone said to him, Why are you wasting time shaking hands with these relatively unknown people when you're such a great preacher? He gave a very interesting answer. He said, I didn't need these people on the way up, but I might need them on the way down.

That's an interesting observation. God put him where he is. God gave him his ministry.

And he realized he wasn't there alone. Now, my friends, do you use people as a stepping stone to get someplace else and then when you've used them, abandon them? Some folks are this way with their friends. Some people are this way with the church.

When you first get saved and you get into the church and certain people help you and encourage you, then you start becoming important. You don't need them anymore. Oh, do you? They had the wrong idea of success.

They had the wrong idea of other people. They had the wrong idea of themselves. They were saying, I am more important than he is.

There's an interesting statement in Paul's letter. He says, Let each esteem others, Philippians 2, more important than themselves. Our authorized translation says better.

The word means more important. Now, there are many people here who are better athletes than I am. I have no problem saying you're a better athlete.

But what do you do with somebody who is your equal in gifts and talent? Do you compete with him? Our Lord says through the apostle Paul, Look, let each esteem other better. No, more important than themselves. It's far more important for you to have the blessing than for me to take it away from you.

My, what a wonderful church family we would have. And we do have a wonderful church family. But how much better it would be if each of us would just simply say, What does the other one want? What is the will of God? The pyramid climbers.

Now, there's a tragedy to this thing because Jesus says, Hey, wait a minute. You've scrambled over everybody's face. You've stepped on everybody's shoulder to get to the top.

And it's rather temporary. Where God puts you is not temporary. Where God puts you is rather permanent.

This is temporary. And it's rather dangerous. And the host may come and say, You know, you shouldn't be sitting there.

I'm sorry, there's only one seat left, way over there by the door. Would you make room for this man who is better than you are? And then the fellow has to get up very shamed, facedly, very dejected. He says there's a difference between humility and humiliation.

Circumstances humiliate us sometimes. We do dumb things. Only God can humble us.

And so he tells us here to learn a lesson in humility. You see, our Lord is telling us what true success is. The Lord wants us to be successful.

The Lord is not condemning true ambition. The Lord is not saying, When you get into that organization, wherever you're serving, stay on the lowest level as far as the chart is concerned. Don't better yourself.

He's not saying that at all. In fact, he practices quite the contrary. He says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I'll make you a ruler over many things. I'm going to promote you from being a servant to being a ruler.

I'm going to promote you from a few things to many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord. The Bible clearly teaches we as Christians should be the best we can and do the best we can.

And if this involves promotion, praise God. What he's saying, though, is you don't do this with the wrong motive. Albert Einstein is known primarily as a great mathematician and physicist.

Did you know he was quite a philosopher? Mr. Einstein had a mind that was truly amazing. And in some of his writings, you find wisdom. I suppose this may grow out of his national heritage, but he was a man who could think deeply.

He made this statement in one of his writings, Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. I like that. Try not to become a man of success, rather try to become a man of value.

There are many valuable men that the world does not consider successful. The world measures success by the rug on your floor and the sign on your door. The world measures success by the automobile that you drive and the bank that you do business with.

The Lord doesn't measure success that way. Joseph was a tremendous success when he was a prisoner. Moses was a success when he was an alien.

Our Lord Jesus had neither real estate nor bank accounts, and yet he was a tremendous success. The Apostle Paul was looked upon as being less than the scum of the earth. Away with this man.

He's not fit even to live. And yet he was a tremendous success in the eyes of God. Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Our Lord is saying that true humility gives us value. Now, what is humility? Humility is not denying your gifts. Humility is not saying, oh, I can't do this, I can't do that.

That's a false humility. Moses tried that stunt. It didn't work.

Oh, I can't speak. Who made your tongue? I heard you, Lord. Now, humility is not thinking meanly of yourself, said Andrew Murray.

Humility is just not thinking of yourself at all. Just saying, Lord, here I am. Put me where you want me.

Do what you want with me. It's the host who puts the guest where he wants him. It's the Lord who puts the servant where he wants him.

And so just wait before the Lord. A humble person is one who knows himself. He's not kidding about himself.

He knows who he is. He knows what he can do. He knows what God's given him.

He knows himself. And he accepts himself. He's not trying to be somebody else.

And he is himself. And he betters himself all he can in the will of God. And God takes him and uses him for God's glory.

A great lesson in humility. Especially in these days when we find Christians competing with each other and wondering who is the greatest. Now, he gives us a third lesson in verses 12 through 14.

This is cute. Our Lord has now seen the people seated. And he's kind of rebuked them for trying to be important.

Then he looks around and sees that everybody there is in the same social class. This Pharisee has invited Pharisees and relatives and wealthy people. And our Lord takes the guest list and he goes over the guest list.

And he says, what a failure. It's a lesson in hospitality. He says to his host, you know why you invited these people? So they'll invite you back.

And the host kind of hung his head and was admitting it. And our Lord says, look, there's nothing wrong with inviting your friends and your neighbors and your relatives to your house. But don't do it for the wrong motive.

And don't do it exclusively. There were two sins being committed here. Number one, a sin of motive.

The only reason he invited them was so that they would invite him. It's the old policy of you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. And there was a sin also in exclusiveness.

The Lord says, where are the really hungry people? These folks aren't hungry. They've eaten too much. They ought to be on diets anyway.

Where are the really hungry people? Now, before we condemn this Pharisee, we had better think through our own hospitality. Our Lord, of course, is not talking just about inviting people over. That's a good thing to do.

It's a good thing to do. The Word of God says, given to hospitality. Hospitality is a gift.

I thank God for Christian people who make strangers feel at home, who make new Christians feel at home. They open up their home and open their hands and their hearts. It's a wonderful thing.

That's not what our Lord's talking about. Our Lord is saying, in your life, do you do to others because you want them to do to you? Is that your motive? Now, even the golden rule isn't like that. The golden rule is much deeper than that.

There are Christians in every church who have this attitude this Pharisee had. I will give only if I can get. I'll pay out only if I can take in.

It's the attitude Peter had when he said, Lord, we have left everything to follow you. What are we going to get? And the Lord said, you may not get anything. In this world, you're going to have tribulation.

I'm going to give you husbands and wives and sons and daughters and brothers and sisters. And in the end, everlasting life. But, then he went on to tell that story about the husbandman who hired in the laborers into his vineyard and gave them all the same amount.

He says, Peter, the important thing is not what are you going to get. The important thing is what can you give? You see, our Lord is telling us here that you can get your reward one of two places. Either in heaven or on earth.

If you get your reward on earth, you won't get it in heaven. He says, why don't you invite people in who can't pay you back? In fact, he puts it somewhat satirically here in verse 12. He says, don't call your friends or your brethren or your kinsmen or your rich neighbors left.

There's a danger here. There's a danger they might invite you back. That's exactly what I want.

Oh, no, you don't. Because if they do, God can't reward you someday. You see, he's talking about living by faith.

Here's someone we do something for and never even get a word of thanks. That's all right. God knows about it.

People work in the church. They serve the Lord and their name is never in the bulletin. They're never recognized in the platform.

That's all right. The Lord knows about it. Are we doing it for public recognition? Are we doing it for personal recompense? Let's hope not.

Are we doing it that one day when we stand before the Lord, he'll say, well done. Well done. You live by faith.

You gave and didn't get back. I'll give to you. There's going to be some poor people in heaven.

Christians who had to have their reward now. And they pulled every string and pushed every lever to get their reward now. And the Lord says they have their reward.

How much better it is to live by faith and to use our generosity, our hospitality, knowing God will someday give the reward. Well, here are three rather hard lessons. A lesson in humanity, don't use people.

Don't exploit people. A lesson in humility, don't think that because you've got a high position, you're a high person. Major on character, not reputation.

Mr. Moody said if I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself. A lesson in hospitality, don't give just for the motive of getting. Give that God might be glorified.

And then before they have a chance to sneak away, our Lord wraps the whole thing up in his parable of the great supper. And here's a lesson on honesty. He introduces us to three dishonest people.

This parable is a picture of salvation. Salvation is not a funeral, it's a feast. Salvation is a marvelous supper.

The Lord pictures salvation as a wonderful supper where God lays on the table everything we need. People are hungry and people are thirsty. And the Lord says here it is.

A certain man made a great supper and invited many. Now back in that day, in that time, whenever you were going to have somebody to your house to eat, they got two invitations. Some weeks before you would say, I want you at my house at such and such a day to partake of food.

And the person would say, I will be there. Then right before the feast, you sent out your servant for that last invitation. These people had already agreed to come and they wouldn't come.

Do you know why? They were liars. They were dishonest. The first man said, I have bought a piece of ground.

I have to go see it. I hate to buy any kind of real estate, but I want you to know something. I'm going to go see it before I buy it.

I don't care what it says in the listing. I don't care how many people have praised it. I want to see it before I buy it.

But sir, you already told us you were going to come. Have me excused. The second fellow said, I bought five yoke of oxen.

He must have had a great deal of money. That's 10 oxen. That's a lot of power.

That's a lot of investment. And I've got to go prove them. That's like a fellow buying a used car or a new car and not trying it out.

Foolish. No warranties involved here, I'm sure. But he's lying.

He's saying, have me excused. The third fellow said, I've married a wife and I cannot come. If she is like many newly married wives, he better have gone.

She may not have known how to cook. If I were he, I would have taken her along and said, Honey, here's the way it's supposed to be done. As far as I know in the Bible, there's only one law that applied to newly married men that they could use as an excuse.

They couldn't be drafted for one year after they were married. The reason being, there's no reason why a man should have two fights at one time. Stay home and love your wife.

Stay home and get to know your wife. Then when your home is what it ought to be, go on out and fight the battles of the Lord. No soldier is going to be much better than his home life.

They were lying. They were lying because they said we would come, and then they said we're not coming. Then they said, excuse us.

Now, when you say excuse us, that means I will come next time you invite me. How can you be sure? You know what condemned these people? These fellows didn't say, Please have me excused. I plan to rob a bank.

Please have me excused. I've got somebody I'm going to murder. Please have me excused.

I'm going to go out and write. No. These people were settling for second best.

Nothing wrong with oxen. Nothing wrong with real estate. Nothing wrong with marriage.

But it's second best. First best is salvation. Now, what's the Lord saying in this parable? He's saying this.

Jesus watched these people take their places and vie for places of importance, and the Lord said, Look, when it comes to salvation, everybody's important. When it comes to salvation supper, everybody is invited. When it comes to salvation supper, we want everyone to come.

The servant comes back and says, Lord, they won't come. Now, the host here is the Lord because in verse 24, Jesus says, I say unto you, plural, that none of those men who were bidden shall taste of my supper. He identifies himself with the host.

The host is the Lord. And when the servant came back and said, They won't come, does the Lord begin to pace the floor and say, Oh, what shall I do? Not on your life. He said, If they won't come, somebody else will.

Who's going to take your place? Are you being honest with yourself? Are you being honest with God? Who's going to take your place? God gives to you the invitation to come to salvation supper. And he says, Everything is ready. It's a great supper.

Great in provision and great in price. It cost him the blood of his son. It's a supper that is great in the blessings it'll give to you.

If you're hungry for peace, there it is on the table. If you're thirsting for power, there it is. Whatever it is you need, it's there.

Are you being honest with God? They all with one consent begin to make excuse. Billy Sunday hit the nail on the head when he defined an excuse as the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. Oh, I can't get saved, my mother and father.

I can't get saved, my job. I can't get saved, my... You're what? Let's just talk about one thing. You're sin.

You're sin. That's the one reason why you ought to come and get saved. And our Lord is talking to this vast assembly of people who are eating at this feast and he says, the Lord said, go out then into the streets and lanes of the city and get the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind and the servant went out and he came back and said, there's still room.

I'm glad there's still room. I'm glad this servant can say to this congregation, yet there is room. I recall flying out to Boston one time in the middle of winter to preach at one of Jack Wurtzen's meetings and they picked me up at the airport and we drove to some forsaken spot in Maine and we went into the hotel and they didn't have our reservation and the place was filled and I could just see myself sleeping on a park bench in the middle of the winter.

It's an awful thing not to have room. And I say to you today, there's still room. Yet there is room.

He says, then go out into the highways and the hedges and constrain them to come in. I want my house filled. You know, God's going to have his house filled.

Hell is not called an ocean of fire. It's called a lake of fire. Heaven's going to be filled.

Are you going to be there? If you're honest, you will. You'll say, Lord, I'm not going to argue. I'm not going to try to impress anybody.

I'm just going to confess I'm a sinner. I want to come and receive your invitation. I'm going to come to the supper.

Come and dine, the Master called us. Come and dine. You can feast at Jesus' table anytime.

He that fed the multitude, turned the water into wine, in his tender voice, his calling, come and dine. And so there's a lesson in honesty. Would you be honest with yourself and with God right now and say, Lord, I'll come.

I'll come. I'll come to your table and receive your blessing and your forgiveness. I will trust Christ as my Savior.

I'll come. The Christian life is a feast. It's a constant experience of satisfaction.

The life of the sinner is a famine, a constant experience of dissatisfaction. Make the right choice today and come to Christ. Gracious Father, we're thankful for these lessons our Lord teaches us.

Help us to treat others as we ought to. Help us not to try to make position for ourselves, but to be what you want us to be. Help us not to be out to get, but to give.

And oh, most of all, I pray for those who need to respond to your invitation. Come, for all things are now ready. Oh, how wonderful it is.

Everything is prepared. It's all done. It's finished.

Oh, may there be many today who will believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. For it's in his name that we pray. Amen.