Undeserved Honor
Luke 14:7-24 ·February 11, 2024· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke
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I'm grateful that God is the breath in my lungs because I'm still struggling with coughing. I hope I won't do that too much today. My name is Joel, and I'm grateful to be serving Christ and serving you all as pastor of new creation. We're going to talk today about self-awareness.
Self-awareness is one of those things that when you are lacking it, you're the last one to notice it, sadly. You can tell how much self-awareness has when they get up in front of people and they accept some kind of award. I was thinking this week about, over the years, how many awkward award speeches have happened at the Oscars, and I looked up a few.
In 1998, Titanic, you may remember, it won 11 Oscars. It swept nearly, I think it was everything that it was nominated for, it won. James Cameron himself won three of those awards, and he ended his last speech by saying, I'm the king of the world, which is, he was quoting his movie, but turns out people don't really like it when you win so much, and then you say, I'm the king of the world. He got kind of raked over the coals about that. George Clooney won in 2006 for Best Supporting Actor, and he admitted in his speech that Hollywood actors are out of touch.
But then he says, well, that's actually a good thing, and he starts mentioning all the things that Hollywood was like. You know, we did this, and we did this, and so he ends his speech by saying, so I'm proud of being out of touch. And it's like, you sure you want to say that, George? And then in 2014, Matthew McConaughey won, I think it was Best Actor. He thanked God, he thanked his family, and then he thanked his hero, and he kind of keeps talking, and then he reveals that his hero is himself.
Himself in 10 years, but still, his hero is himself. So he's thanking himself most of all. Well, let's be honest, self-awareness is not just in short supply in Hollywood. It's in short supply in us, too.
God is here to help us with that today. And not just any kind of self-awareness, but self-awareness about who we really are apart from him, and how it is that we got where we are today through him. So that's what Jesus reminds us of today, who we are and what he's done for us. I know we have the explorers in here, and so I want to give explorers and, you know, all kids, middle school and high school, if you want to do this also, but if you, I want you to count how many times I say the word grace today, okay?
If you, whoever gets the closest to it, you'll win some kind of prize that I'll come up with. But how many times do I say the word grace today? So let's go to Luke. Let's see what kind of self-awareness Jesus wants to bring to us.
This is Luke 14. This is the word of God for us today. Let's pay attention to it. Let's be encouraged by it. Let's be changed by it through the power of the Spirit, going forth with his word. Luke 14, starting in verse 12. Jesus said also to the man who had invited him. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I was starting too late. Verse 7. Now, Jesus told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, Give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
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. He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite 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. 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. But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. At the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.
But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 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 his servant, Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. Pray with me. Father, we come to you today, and we ask for you to make us humble before your word. Help us to trust you, to see you for who you are, to see ourselves as we truly are.
Lord, what a mercy that is when we get to see that, both of those things. For then, Lord, Lord, we run to you, eager to follow you, to listen to you, to no longer do our own thing, but to follow you, to make you the center. God, will you change us by your word? Be merciful to us. Work among us, Lord, by your great, abundant power. Pour out your Spirit upon us. And Jesus, be glorified, and magnified in our eyes, and in our hearts. And we pray this in your name.
Undeserved honor. Undeserved honor. By grace we are saved, so by grace we ought to live. That's two times now, guys. You keep in count. This, there is all kinds of great news in this passage. And I hope you're ready to be reminded by God of the truth about yourself and what he's done. In the first two paragraphs of this passage, Jesus talks about how people in his kingdom are supposed to live. Okay? That's the first two paragraphs. Don't do that.
Instead, do this. He does that twice. But Jesus knows that we need more than just new instructions. We need a new identity. It's really important. We need more than new instructions. We need a new identity. I was really encouraged yesterday at the men's breakfast. It was great to be with brothers in Christ in the same church family. And we had some great discussion, great time together, great food that was not healthy for us, but it was really, really good to eat.
Yeah, it's all good for us, John Hausman says. I believe you, John. In our discussion, Tim Middleton made a really insightful comment. He said, who you are determines what you do. And I almost jumped out of my skin because I was like, that is, that's a great setup for tomorrow's passage. Who you are determines what you do. Jesus agrees with that. The Bible agrees with that. So at verse 15, at verse 15, right here, Jesus pivots and he gives the principle that's behind the commands.
So that's where we're going to start today. We're going to start with the principle, then we're going to go back to the commands and see how the principle works itself out in our lives. Okay? So here's the principle. Grace brings you in. Starting at verse 16. No, 15. So Jesus tells a parable about a man planning a banquet. Okay? This is way bigger than just having a few folks over for dinner. This is more like throwing a Christmas party or a block party or something like that and inviting just a ton of people.
No one brings anything. You provide everything and it just, it's a lot of people. It's a lot of planning and preparation. This guy is going to host a lot of people. Probably everybody he knows by name. That would be the kind of thing that you would do back then. He sends out invitations just like we would do and then he spends weeks getting ready. It's going to be great. He's pulling out all the stops. He's going to have a huge spread of food. He's going to bring out the best olive oil he's ever made.
He's hiring musicians. Peter, Paul, and Mary are going to play. There probably would be musicians singing and dancing afterwards. It's going to be a lot of fun. People would stay overnight probably. This is an event that you don't want to miss. The whole community would be buzzing about this. The banquet is coming. I wonder when it's going to happen. Have you heard anything yet? No, I haven't heard anything yet. I can't wait. He makes the best olive oil.
Now in this day and time, we don't really do this, but in this day and time, on the day of the event, the host would send out a personal reminder. A person would come knocking on your door and say, it's time to come. It's tonight. Come. A personal message to the guests. So he sent out his servant to say to those who had been invited, come for everything now is ready.
But they all alike began to make excuses. I've got to inspect some land I bought. I want to test out my new yoke of oxen. My wife and I are spending quality time together. We just can't make it. These are lame excuses. Okay? They really are. Who buys land without inspecting it first?
Your oxen, your land, your wife, they're all going to be there after the party. They're not going anywhere. The party is happening now. It's important to remember that in the ancient Near East, hospitality was universally esteemed. It was a collective value. They had a huge value on hospitality. You can't really overstate that. Both giving and receiving hospitality was incredibly important. When a host was expecting you, waiting until the day of the banquet to say you're not coming and giving such lame excuses would be obscenely rude.
It would be offensive. This is the kind of thing that would lead to lifelong estrangement between families and people if this happened. Sometimes, actual conflict would get started by this because this is a statement to the host, the gift that you're trying to give me is beyond worthless. I'm not even going to honor it enough to come up with a believable excuse as to why I don't want it. It's like getting a gift and immediately just putting it in the trash right in front of the person.
It is extremely rude. Imagine this. Maybe this is a modern day example. Imagine that you wanted to honor your friend, a very close friend. And so you said, I'd love to take you out to dinner. Let's go to the halfway house. I'm going to make reservations for us and you know what? Actually, I'm going to reserve the whole restaurant. It's just going to be the two of us and I know the chef. I'm going to have him cook up something extra special, something off the menu just for us.
We're going to have the whole wait staff to ourselves, our own menu, and your friend says, okay, that sounds great. And you say, how about the last Friday of this month? And they say, that sounds great. Last Friday of the month rolls around. You pay up front to the halfway house. You know that's going to be expensive. You pay up front. You pull up to their house in a limo. You walk up to their door. You knock on their door. And they answer in their PJs.
And they say, oh, was that today? You know, I'm in the middle of this show on Netflix. I'm really, I just can't stop in the middle of it. You should see it. It's just really gripping. I think I may finish it tonight.
Imagine how you would feel. It would be crushing. There would be this mixture of just bottoming out disappointment and also like, what does this even mean for our friendship anymore? Like that was just, that's just so rude. I can't believe that my close friend would do this to me. If you feel that, you're beginning to feel how this master felt. Okay? He's angry and rightfully so, but look at what he does. He's gonna, he's gone to all this trouble.
He has all this food, all this drink. He makes a new guest list. He says to his servant, okay, you know what? Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city. Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And when that has been done and there's still more room, there's still more food, there's more paella to eat or whatever they would make back then, he says go out outside the city, out to the country, to the highways, the hedges.
Compel people to come in. My house will be filled. I want people here. I've got a banquet to serve. I want to honor and serve people. Bring them in. These people are so shocked about the invitation, they need some convincing. They are brought in. They are compelled. Did you see that? Bring in the blind, the crippled, the lame. Compel the people out in the highways to come. the master really is calling you. he wants you there. You are wanted. Come and fill his house.
He wants you to be there. But I'm telling you the truth. Come with me. Now remember, Jesus is at a dinner with some Pharisees. This is the last time Jesus has dinner with some Pharisees. Okay? He's given them a lot of chances. This is the last time that he's sitting down with them in a house talking to them.
It was his word spoken by his prophets and written in the scriptures about his saving plan, about the Messiah and the King that would come and bring in the kingdom of God. You read those things. You heard those things. You said you were coming. You said you were in. But now when it's time, you refuse. You refuse. You find one excuse after another to reject me and to reject my banquet of salvation.
So meanwhile, Pharisees, I'm going to those that you've scorned. Those that you consider dirty. Those that you consider to be sinners outside the kingdom of God. Hopeless and helpless. Those who are needy and I'm bringing them in. You complain to me about spending time with tax collectors and sinners, prostitutes and beggars. Pharisees, those are the ones that are responding to me.
And finally, Pharisees and religious leaders, get ready because the biggest shock is coming to you soon because the message is going to go outside the city. It's going to go outside to the peoples and the nations that are beyond the walls of this community. It's going out to people from all across the globe. They're going to be compelled to come into the kingdom of God. Anyone who repents and puts their faith in me, Jesus says, will be in my kingdom.
So, here's what we learn. This is the message for us about the truth about who we are. Those outside the kingdom had something better to do. They heard about it and decided that other things are more urgent or attractive. I've got land that needs tending to. I've got a tractor that needs servicing. I want to spend time with my family, my wife, my loved ones. Those things are more important to me, God, than you are.
If that's you today, if you don't find Jesus' invitation all that compelling, all that attractive, I urge you to take another look. The banquet that the world wants to serve you will disappoint you. And it probably already has. Jesus alone will satisfy you.
But here's the other thing we learn. And this is just as important. Those inside the kingdom don't deserve to be there. They don't deserve to be there. They've been brought in by grace. They were the outcasts. They were the undesirables. The people who were helpless and hopeless on their own. They were far away from the banquet. Some of them didn't even know it was happening. They didn't even know. They were compelled by the gracious master. He said to them, come in.
Yes, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. Come into my house. Come in. Friends, which group are you in? At the end of the day, there are only two. Those who had something better to do and those who didn't deserve to be there. Those are the only two. Oh, how I want everyone I meet to say, yes, I'm coming to the banquet of the Lord. I'm coming in through Christ.
But if you're in, do you see what that means you're acknowledging? You're saying, I'm poor. I'm crippled. I'm blind and I'm lame. That's who I am. That's who I am because I'm in the kingdom of God. I was far away. I didn't deserve it and it's only by the grace of God that I am here. Turn to the front of your bulletin.
You see anything different on the front of the bulletin today? What does it usually say if you've been noticing? Exalting God through new life, right? Well, today I put something new. New Creation Presbyterian Church is home of the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.
You have to realize that's your testimony. If you're a Christian, that's what you're saying about yourself. This is me. I am helpless. I'm hopeless. I didn't deserve to be here. I didn't earn my way in. I'm the crippled, the poor, the blind, the lame that Jesus has brought in. He went out to get me.
Listen, I grew up in the church. My whole life I've spent in the church. I've never known a day that Jesus wasn't my Savior. But every single season of my life of spiritual growth has been accompanied by a deepening understanding and grasp of how helpless I am. The deep need I have for a Savior. The deep need that feels even deeper as time goes on. We have to take hold of this identity of ourselves and not be ashamed to admit it. You can't be a Christian and be a capable person at the same time.
They don't go together. If you say, Jesus is my Savior, you're saying, yeah, I'm a mess. I could not save myself and I never would, no matter what I did. I was outside the kingdom of God. I was helpless and hopeless. Jesus brought me in. That's your testimony, friends, if you belong to Christ. There is no other Christian testimony.
If you call yourself a Christian, remember how you are and how you got here. You didn't just wake up one day and say, I've got to get my act together. And you finally found your way to Christ. He went out and He got you.
Now, like Tim said, who you are determines what you do. Okay? It's really important to lay that foundation of how it is that you got here and how it is you're supposed to live because the next two sections are how grace ought to come out in your life. If you belong to Christ, here is how grace ought to show up in your life. The first one is this. Grace gives you humble confidence. Humble confidence. Go back to verse 7, all the way back to the beginning of the passage.
Jesus is at dinner at a Pharisee's house. The seating arrangement would be a weirdly shaped table to us. It probably would be a U-shaped table. And the host would be sitting at the bottom of the U. The more honorable seats would be the ones the closest to the host. The closest to the host you could sit, the more honorable the seat was. Social standing would determine where you sat. But also, where you sat would confer some kind of social standing to you.
So, if you could manage to get a better seat, you could walk out of that dinner party with a little bit more prestige, a little bit more in the community, a little bit more social standing. That's how it worked. Jesus was there, and he saw what's going on. He noticed how they chose the places of honor. He sees what's going on. He sees people going after the more honorable seats, trying to look good. Maybe kind of a little elbow. That's okay. I'll get this seat.
Politely, discreetly, but nevertheless still trying to get in there, trying to get as close as you can up to the host. We do the same thing all the time, don't we? We live in a world where everyone is looking out for themselves. Everyone. And we live in a time when self-promotion is at an all-time high. So things like our reputation, compliments, social status, they become idols very, very quickly to us.
We want honor, and when we see everyone else grasping for it, something inside us kicks in, and we start grasping for it, too. It's like when the pinata bursts open at a kid's birthday party. Even the most well-mannered child suddenly turns into a barracuda, and they just dive into the candy. I've literally seen shoving and punches get thrown.
We do the same thing, don't we? We are those kids. We act all well-mannered, and then when we see the grasping happening, we just get in there, too, and we start grabbing for it. We've got to get some honor. There's going to be none left for me. The grace of God steps in right here and gives us a sanity check. Okay? And here it comes. If Jesus is your Savior, you've already admitted you don't deserve any honor. You've already admitted it. You're a sinner who is far off, hopeless and helpless on your own.
That's the humble part, okay? That's the humble part. But also what's true is that you have already received honor from God. You've been brought into His kingdom. You've been esteemed. You stand accepted before the King of Kings. That's the confidence part. It's both of these things, humble confidence, that is the posture of a Christian, the posture of a Christ follower. Because of this, you don't have to grasp after worldly honor. You can take the low place.
You can say, you know what? I don't deserve that, and you know what? You're telling the truth when you do that. I don't deserve that, but you know what? I don't even need it because I'm loved by Jesus.
This is freedom from the endless search for attention, acclaim, and recognition. Oh, that is sweet freedom. Jesus said everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The first part of that's a warning, but the second part is a promise of something better.
I play guitar, as you know, and I love to play guitar, but I oftentimes run across people that are way better than I am, on YouTube certainly, but then in person also, and it is hard, that feeling comes up that I'm just like, why can't I do that? Jealousy, I try to find a way to write it off, something like that. I'm just, I feel so intimidated and so small. You know, what have I been working on for all this time?
One of the bands that I was in, this is about five years ago, I was in a band and we played a wedding, and before we went on, we were playing the reception, before we went on, one of the band members who knew the family that was getting married said, hey, is it okay if the father of the bride comes up and plays a song and uses your guitar? And I, you know, like during our set, and I said, sure, And I was thinking, oh, father of the bride, this is going to be cute.
He's going to get up and, you know, kind of strum something. It's going to be, you know, it's going to be really sweet, but yeah, of course I'll do that, right? Well, he comes up at the beginning of our second set, and they count off and they start playing Johnny Be Good. And this guy is just flying around on the guitar, like crazy. Holding my guitar, he plays, one point he plays it behind his head, and the whole, and I'm standing off to the side, watching the band that I'm in, my guitar, I'm watching.
And he's playing, and they're taking solos, and the band's having a great time, and they finish, and the crowd's like, yeah, and everyone's clapping, you know, they know it's the father of the bride, it's a really cool moment. And then he walks off stage, and he hands me my guitar, like smoke coming off of the guitar, and I pick it up, and I'm like, okay, and walk back up on stage.
It was one of those moments that would have easily, I would have wanted to crawl into a hole, would have just crushed me, like, that's, it's my guitar that he's picked up and played. So, I mean, I could never play like that. I could practice for 20 years and probably couldn't play like that. But in that moment, God, God, God gave me the grace. He reminded me, it's not about that. That's not your value, your value is not in how well you can play that instrument.
It's just not. And for one of the few times in my life, I was able to watch him play and be like, man, that's awesome. How cool is that? Everyone's having a great time. His daughter is loving that he's playing. Everyone's enjoying this. That's awesome. And I could walk up and pick up my guitar and be like, all right, you know, I'm going to play the rest of this set. I'm going to have fun. And it just kind of, it wasn't a thing. One of the few times that that's happened, and I pray for more of those times, it's times like that that Jesus wants us to step into when we are walking in grace.
If you belong to Jesus, your posture is humble confidence. It's not about the worldly honor that you could grasp for. You don't deserve it and you don't need it. Jesus has given you something far better, and it's yours now. You already have it.
Here's the second thing. Grace enables you to be radically generous. When Jesus is a guest at dinner, you know it's not going to be dull. And it's not dull in this setting. He has already called out all of the guests there. Hey, this thing that I just saw you doing, you shouldn't do that. Jockeying for better seats. But now he calls out the host, and he tells the host, you know what, here's who you should invite next time. I mean, who goes to a dinner party and says that, right?
Jesus does. When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. Our default is to seek reciprocity. What's in it for me, we ask. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. This is how we protect ourselves from being taken, what, advantage of. That's how we protect ourselves. Maybe you don't think about this when you throw a dinner party, but what about when you show kindness to someone else?
What about when you forgive someone? What about when you serve your spouse or your sibling or your neighbor? How much do you have to give before you start withholding? Because you're like, you know what, I'm not getting as much back as I'm giving. Let me start turning that spigot off.
But once again, here's where the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ breaks in and breaks that cycle for us. If you belong to Christ by faith, you have been given an abundance. Abundance. An abundance. He welcomed you. He brought you in. He gave you living water. He gave you the bread of life. He's covered your sins. He's freed you from the bondage that you were into them. He's changed your entire future. Your cup overflows. In fact, it's such an overabundance of blessing, it has blown reciprocity out of the water.
It's nothing close to a fair trade between you and the Lord God. Nothing close. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. That you, by his poverty, might become rich. In high school, I had a friend that worked at Dunkin' Donuts, and they told me one time, hey, every night we throw out a bunch of donuts, because it's the end of the shift. If you want to come, like, I'll give them to you instead.
And so I told some friends, and we showed up. We thought we were all going to get a donut or two, but he rolls out the big, like, you know, tray, and it's just, I mean, we filled up, we literally filled up garbage bags full of donuts, and we were greedy little kids, and we were like, we'll take all of them. And so we're just, we get a garbage bag, and we're just dumping, we don't know what we're going to do with all these donuts, we're just dumping them in, right?
And we go back to someone's house, and we eat two, and we're like, I don't know that I want any more donuts, and so we, we bring them to church the next day, or not church, to school the next day, because we had so much. We had so much. We, we can't have all this. It's over, our cup is overflowing with donuts. Come, high schoolers, have donuts. We're just giving it away.
You, by his poverty, have become rich. That's why Jesus says, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Do you recognize that list? Does it sound familiar? That's the group that's brought into the banquet. That's the group that you're a part of, that I'm a part of. That's everyone who belongs to Jesus by faith. He's saying, see people the way God saw you, and then go serve people the way God served you, lopsidedly, generously, one-sidedly, graciously.
When we live this way, Jesus says we'll be blessed. We'll be walking in step with the grace that saved us. And we will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Church, there is a banquet coming. It's real. It's real. Don't you know it? It's coming. What we have received is just an appetizer, right? It's just a sampler. There is a feast coming. It's going to blow your mind. It's real. It lies ahead of us in the new heavens and the new earth. And we will get there by the grace of God.
Let's pray. Lord, we praise you because it is your work. From start to finish, it's your work. The passage we read earlier said it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Lord, we want more of that in our lives. And to do that, we know that we have to be re-centered and reminded of how we got in in the first place. It's by grace. Lord, help us to be unashamed of our testimony that we are poor, crippled, blind, and lame people that were brought in by the mercy of the Master.
Lord, help us to be bold, to acknowledge that, and then to walk in that, to be humbly confident, and to be radically generous. Lord, it's your work. When these things show up in our life, it is a testimony to your power in us, working to glorify your name as we become more and more like our Savior. Jesus, we love you, and we pray this in your name.