Luke 14:12-24 Revelation 19:6-9

COME THE BANQUET IS READY! GOD’S HOUSE MUST BE FILLED

•  PARABLE OF THE GREAT SUPPER

•  PARABLE OF THE WEDDING FEAST (Matthew 22:1-14)

•  Guest List – who’s in, who’s out, who’ll come, who’ll not

•  Hospitable Grace – banquet for the down & out

1.  WHO’S OUT? – Those with the Excuses

2.  WHO’S IN? – Those who need Grace

3.  REACHING IN, REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

•  THE SETTING: Dinner Table Lessons

§  Healing on Sabbath – lesson on sympathy (Luke 14:1-6)

§  Seat of Honor & Guests – lesson on humility & generosity (Luke 14:7-14)

When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite [do not always keep inviting] your friends or your brothers or your

relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the

crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection

of the just. (Luke 14:12-14)

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!” (Luke 14:15)

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

everything is now ready.’ (Luke 14:16-17)

•  The Host of the Banquet = God

•  The Banquet = Messianic Banquet (Isa 25:6-9), Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:6-9)

•  Initial Invitation = through the prophets

•  Final Invitation = Jesus §  “The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent

and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15) §  “Come, for everything is now ready” (Luke 14:17b)

1.  WHO’S OUT? – Those with the Excuses (14:18-20)

•  Lame Excuses § Property, Livestock, Spouse §  “We are not interested in You, Jesus!”

1.  WHO’S OUT? – Those with the Excuses (14:18-20)

•  Excluded from Guest List For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste My banquet. (14:24)

1.  WHO’S OUT? – Those with the Excuses (14:18-20)

•  Application § Pray! Look for Opportunities!

So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his

servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the

servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the

highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. (Luke 14:21-23)

2.  WHO’S IN? – Those who need Grace (14:21-23)

•  The Poor, Crippled, Blind & Lame, Strangers & Beggars § Needy & outcasts, neglected & nobodies

2.  WHO’S IN? – Those who need Grace (14:21-23)

•  The Gracious Host § A heart for those in need § Generous hospitality for all

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

“There is still room… compel the people to come in… so that My house may be filled!”

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

Reaching those in need of His grace, particularly the physically poor & needy, and the

spiritually blind & lame

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

•  Reaching In – practicing hospitality as a church

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers (Heb 13:2)

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

•  Reaching In – practicing hospitality as a church § Newcomers & visitors

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

•  Reaching In – practicing hospitality as a church § Those different from us

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

•  Reaching In – practicing hospitality as a church § The poor & the needy

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

•  Reaching Out – practicing hospitality outside the church § Home, workplace, school

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

Many Christians rarely link discipleship with hospitality. We like our individual space, and besides, we’re always busy and hospitality is often viewed as an imposition. When we realize, however, that the people we are to invite into our

homes are the same ones God has invited to His kingdom banquet, we realize how important it can be. Done as an act

of discipleship, hospitality can be an expression of God’s love to others.

3.  REACHING IN & REACHING OUT – Practicing Hospitality

Gospel hospitality is welcoming people into our living space and treating strangers as family so

that God can turn some of them into friends.

Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready.

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb!

(Rev 9:7, 9b)

There is still room! Compel the people to come in so that My house, My banqueting hall may be filled!