The Great Feast
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· 139 viewsThe Kingdom of God is here and now; It's up to you to accept the invitation.
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
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Emotion
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Language
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Social
Engage
Engage
Think long and hard about how you can do your best to get their attention.
My obsession with Reddit!
When have you felt like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Tension
Tension
What you’re doing here is bringing up some kind of a problem. The tension you create should make people lean in and give them an opportunity to anticipate the tension being resolved.
In our walk with Jesus, sometimes our commitment level waivers over time.
Truth
Truth
Once you’ve engaged the congregation and presented some kind of tension, you can now go to God’s Word in order to resolve the tension. The next section, Application, should happen naturally as you are teaching, and should come to a point after you teach through Scripture.
Context
Context
Jesus is at a Pharisee’s house, eating dinner with them, on a Sabbath.
Asks a couple tricky Sabbath-related questions, heals a man who had “edema” (swelling, brought on by excess fluid)
Be humble around others
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Be humble for the sake of others
Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”
Then, this guy gets all excited and blurts out how awesome the Kingdom of God will be. Verse 15. Then, Jesus tells a story:
Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’
“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’ ”
Luke 14:16-
What confuses you about this parable?
What seems important?
Who does the man hosting the banquet represent?
Who do the people he invited represent?
Who do the “poor, crippled, blind, and lame” represent?
The “Right” People Bailed Out
The “Right” People Bailed Out
Hook
This parable reminds me of a couple weeks ago. Really, it reminds me of a lot of times throughout my life. Maybe most.
I made a fake website, called “Subjective Metrics.” Should have been doing taxes, should have been budgeting, or even should have been sleeping. But, instead, I was up until 2:30 am building a fake website.
Book
Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’
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Look
The two-invitation thing was pretty common back then. You couldn’t say, banquet starts at 5:30, but you can show up anytime after 5:00. Life without clocks didn’t work that way!
They Had Their Priorities Confused
They all began to make excuses. Every last one of them. Jesus gives some specific examples, though. These excuses they’re making up are pretty dumb! Nobody buys a field, or oxen, or a car, or an Xbox, or a computer, or a phone, or shoes, or whatever without being sure that it’s going to do what they need it to do.
The newlywed almost has a good excuse. The feast was probably not co-ed, so he may have wanted to spend the time with his wife. But, he was a humongous jerk about it! Plus, he knew that this feast was coming up.
The guy hosting the banquet represents Jesus. These people he invited represents the nation of Israel. They had prior knowledge of the Messiah coming, yet they chose to ignore him when he did show up. They were the “right people,” but they didn’t like how their Messiah fulfilled his mission, so they bailed out. They had other priorities.
Took
If you’re one of the “right people,” don’t bail on Jesus!
Don’t let other things get in the way of your relationship with him.
What are some things that get in the way of following Jesus?
Why is it easy for us to allow other things to be a higher priority than Jesus?
The “Wrong” People Showed Up
The “Wrong” People Showed Up
Something
Point 3
Something
Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’
“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’ ”
Hook
I went into the wrong classroom the first day of 1st grade.
Book
“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’ ”
Something
Look
The master gets angry, but he’s pretty intent on making this banquet happen, one way or the other!
He tells his servants to go get the down-and-out people from the city. This is the same list he mentioned in the story he tells to his Pharisee host.
He tells his servants to go get the down-and-out people from the countryside. The important part for the servant is to know that he’s supposed to search high and low for these people, because this feast is designed to be full!
There’s urgency about this instruction, too. He tells his servant to “convince” people to come and take part. This doesn’t give any legitimacy to the crusades, or persecuting other faiths, or forcing people to become Christians.
The guy hosting the banquet represents Jesus. Those people he invited represents the nation of Israel. The people who come in to the banquet from the city and the country represents the non-Jewish people of the day.
Took
If you feel like you’re one of the “wrong people,” you’re in the right place.
Jesus was always about bringing God’s grace, goodness, and love to those who were oppressed, on the outskirts of society, and truly were in need.
Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong somewhere?
Is our church (or youth group) a place where the “outsiders” feel welcome? Does that line up with what Jesus talks about here?
How can
Application
Application
This should come to a point here, after application has already happened within the previous section.
For both groups, there was an invitation. For both groups there was an opportunity. Do they come, and attend this banquet, this dinner party, that has been prepared for them? Or, do they ignore the invitation? Do they go back on their prior commitment?
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, your social status, etc., the only thing that determines whether or not you get into the banquet is your response to the invitation.
The guy hosting the banquet represents Jesus. These people he invited represents the nation of Israel. The people who come in to the banquet from the city and the country represents the non-Jewish people of the day. The whole banquet represents the “Kingdom of God” that Jesus was always talking about.
Bottom Line: The Kingdom of God is here and now; It's up to you to accept the invitation.
Inspiration
Inspiration
This is the time where you can ask great questions. Could be called “reflection.”
So, who are you? Which of the roles feels like a fit for you?
Maybe you’re one of the “right” people.
Maybe you’re one of the “wrong” people.
Maybe you’re even one of the servants.
Who in the story do you identify with?
Action
Action
Think through what you want them to do in light of your message and spell it out plainly to them.
Invitation: Mark on your card how you’re responding to the invitation. If you’re not ready yet, just hold on to it.
Leads into “reflection time”
Which option did you mark on your card tonight? Was that an easy or difficult choice to make?