Watch

Listen

Click here to listen to the episode on our website

Read

Come to Dinner, Then Go and Die

Luke 14:15–35

Have any of you ever been invited to a formal dinner? Has some billionaire ever called you up and asked you to come over? How about the president of the United States, ever been invited to one of those dinners? Probably not.

And yet, we have all been invited to a dinner hosted by a far more wealthy and famous host than any of those I just mentioned. According to the Bible, God himself is hosting a huge dinner party one of these days. It's called the marriage supper of the Lamb, and you can read all about it in Revelation 19. I always refer to it as the great party in the new Jerusalem. We're going to party together in the new Jerusalem.

And here's another thing. At that party, do you know who's serving us?

"Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them." — Luke 12:37

Jesus himself is going to serve us. I always feel honored when anybody invites me to dinner, they are hosting, and I love to go. But when I consider the fact that God is hosting a dinner party and has invited all of us to attend, how does one say no to that? I've already sent my RSVP in. My reservation is confirmed. They are expecting to see me at that party in the sky. And I hope you're going to be there as well.

In these verses, Jesus speaks of a celebration party given by a certain man. He speaks of those who were invited and chose not to come. In doing so, Jesus is giving us a wonderful portrait of salvation. However, there's a lot more going on here than just a dinner party. He goes on to speak to those who are following him and reminds us that there is more to being a disciple of Christ than just coming to a party.

There is a word here for everyone, for the soundly saved and for the lost soul alike.

Verse 35 gives us the gate to understanding the whole thing: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." If that qualifies you, and it does, then what you do with what follows is up to you.

What Jesus is doing here is issuing a call to all people. The call is simple:

Come to dinner. Then go and die.

Point One — The Elaborate Party

Luke 14:16–17

This was big doings. This was a lavish affair. The word great in verse 16 indicates the wealth of the host. This man was a man of great means, and he was hosting a party of lavish proportions. They were putting on the ritz. They were pulling out all the stops.

The guest list was large. All the greats from the community were invited. All the hobnobbers would be there. It was the social event of the season, the toast of the town. Many would have simply loved to have been invited. After all, one could determine their social standing based on whether or not they had an invitation to this particular dinner.

But because Jesus is teaching here, we need to see the lesson going down. Who is the man in the parable? In this parable, the man is God himself. He is shown as one of great wealth who is preparing a lavish affair and wants to invite many to come. This is a picture of heaven and the joys that await the redeemed. When the saints of God are gathered home, it'll be the social event of all eternity.

To be on this guest list is the difference between heaven and hell. How many have longed throughout their entire lives to just know that they're on that guest list?

Point Two — The Infuriating Problem

Luke 14:18–21

A call was issued. When all the things that had been prepared for dinner were ready, the gracious host sent his servant, "Come, for everything is now ready."

The primary context here points to Israel and their call to come to the kingdom. Just like the people in the parable, they had been notified of the upcoming event beforehand. Yet when the time came to go to the Messiah, they refused and would not come.

"He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." — John 1:11–12

When this happened, God turned to others to fill up his household.

"So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous." — Romans 11:11

There is a huge application to this present age of grace we find ourselves in. God the Father has prepared a means of salvation for all who will come. He did so by sending his Son to die on the cross, to take the wrath that we deserved upon himself as our substitute. And he sent his Holy Spirit into the world, and it is the Holy Spirit who invites sinners to come to Jesus.

Yet like Israel of ancient times, people turn a deaf ear to the pleading of the Spirit of God. Many people don't realize that without his call, without his wooing from the Spirit of God, folks can't be saved. Have you ever processed that?

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." — John 6:44

"This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father." — John 6:65

All those who had been invited to this lavish affair refused to come. It seemed every one of them had an excuse, what they thought was a valid reason for refusing, or at least a valid cover to save face. Each of these excuses, viable on the surface in that ancient cultural context, still applies to us today.

Excuse #1 — Material Possessions (v. 18)

The first man had purchased a piece of property without even seeing it first. He pictures the sinner who is so materially minded that he refuses the call of the gospel so he can just continue to accumulate material possessions. God has a word directly for this type of individual:

"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?" — Mark 8:36–37

Jesus is saying the same thing here that he said to another foolish man one night in Luke 12, the one who was building bigger barns, eating, drinking, and being merry. Check it out. Luke 12.

The most important thing in life is not how much am I worth. The most important thing in life is am I saved? And the follow-up to that is: am I actually willing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Where are you on this today?

Excuse #2 — Professional Advancement (v. 19)

This man had bought ten oxen, that's what five yokes means, without trying them out. And he can't come to the party because he's got to go examine them. You get the impression he is more interested in promoting himself within his profession.

Many are like this. They allow their occupations, their businesses, and their pursuit of gain to keep them from coming to God. Now there is nothing wrong with working and making money. But when these things come ahead of God, they are sinful. There are many who place their career ahead of God, and the results will not be good for them.

Excuse #3 — Personal Relationships (v. 20)

This man is a newlywed. And this one bothers me a little, until I understand what Jesus is really saying. He is saying that this man is putting his personal relationships ahead of everything else in life, ahead of coming to God. And many are in the same shape today. They won't come to Christ because they are afraid of what their family or friends might think of them. They are too absorbed in their own little world to give their lives to Christ.

Even one's family is not worth dying lost over. Jesus predicted that his appearance would cause many families to splinter (Matthew 10). Whatever it is that is keeping you from coming to Jesus, you need to realize that it is not worth what you think it is.

Nothing is worth losing your eternal soul over. Nothing.

Your eternal soul is the most valuable thing in all creation to you. When this life is over and everything you've trusted has now vanished away, what are you going to do then? What are you going to do when he comes for you? And he may be coming for you today. None of us are promised tomorrow. Come to Jesus now while you still can.

Point Three — The Next Steps

Luke 14:21–24

When those who were invited turned a deaf ear to the call to dinner, the gracious host determined to fill his house. He sent his servant out to the surrounding society — to those whom no one else seemed to have use for. Nobody seemed to care about these folks.

In this we see a picture of our heavenly Father and the love he has for the fallen members of the human race. When we look at those who were called by the servant, we find their descriptions to be a portrait of ourselves before God.

Notice who he called:

The Poor — those who could never pay him back. What a fantastic vision of God's grace. He reaches down to people who will never be able to repay him for salvation. God asks for no repayment. He just asks people to come to himself. Salvation is free. All a man needs to be saved is to be a convicted sinner, then that person can come to Jesus and be saved by grace.

The Damaged — the deformed, the twisted, those whom society feels uncomfortable being around. These are the defects of society. Yet this gracious God reached out to them. God loves the spiritually damaged. There are many in this world who possess a twisted nature, some worse than others, but there is a bent in them toward sin. The Bible calls this iniquity. Even if society and even if the church at times draws back from these people, Jesus loves them and died to save their souls. He calls the damaged among us to come to him. There is no sin so vile that will ever cause God to stop loving the sinner. It is clear when Jesus uses the word whosoever, whosoever, let him come.

The Lame — the crippled, those who are unable to get around on their own. This is a picture of the person outside of Jesus, crippled by sin and unable to get to God by themselves. Sinners need help coming to Jesus. The crippled man in Mark 2 — his friends preached a sermon that reverberates through the ages. This is the very reason Jesus seeks the sinner.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." — Luke 19:10

He knows that in and of themselves, lost people cannot get to God by themselves. They need help. Jesus is that help. Doesn't matter what state of crippled you are in. There's no corpse that's more dead than another corpse. Just like there's no spiritual cripple more crippled than another. They need the help of Jesus himself.

The Blind — these are people who are trapped in their own little world of darkness. They don't possess the resources to get to the Lord by themselves. They need a guide. They need someone to show them the light. There are millions wandering around in spiritual darkness and headed to hell.

"Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." — 2 Corinthians 4:3–4

These people need someone to show them the light. And that is the Holy Spirit's job.

Think of a Bluetooth speaker. It's nothing but electronics, metal, and chunks of plastic. It's really a paperweight. It's not worth anything until it's connected to that source. Then it's playing music. Then it's playing podcasts. But in and of itself, with no connection, how valuable is a Bluetooth speaker? Seriously. That's you and me. We're just vessels. It's the Spirit's job here. And if we're obedient, he might use us in ways that blow our minds. We just have to be faithful and obedient, because the Spirit is the one who comes in and illuminates the darkness. He makes it possible for the blind sinner to see his need of Jesus.

The Highway and Hedge Dwellers — lastly, the servants are scouring all of humanity. Highways and hedges, anyone wandering out there on any journey anywhere would be within the servant's call. The servant would meet anyone and everyone and call them all to come to the banquet.

I hope this speaks directly to your heart today. Anyone, anywhere, can come to Jesus for salvation. God will turn nobody away. The wealthy man was determined that his house would be filled. And if the intended guests refused to come, he would fill his house with others. His goal would be realized.

And so it is with God. He calls all to come to himself. Yet many refuse the gospel call. And I'm here to testify, it isn't wise to refuse the call of God, to put off the gospel call. Because there may come a day when he won't be knocking on your door anymore.

Think of Moses and Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Then guess what? God hardened his heart. And when that happened, his cork was sunk.

Notice in verse 21 the servant was to go quickly. This speaks of the urgency of the situation. This day, this hour may be all the chance you will ever have. And verse 23 tells us the servant was to compel them, use all that is in you, everything you've got. God sees this call as being extremely urgent.

The question is: do you?

Point Four — The Real Deal of Discipleship

Luke 14:25–35

Now, we get sold all kinds of goods in religiosity and in so-called Christianity. You can't swing a dead cat on YouTube and not hit a false teacher nowadays. So what is the cost of real discipleship?

In the last ten verses of our text, the price tag is enormous. Lest anyone think that being a follower of Christ is cheap, Jesus makes it very clear that it is anything but cheap. The price, in fact, is more than most are ever actually willing to pay.

See, the large crowds that followed Jesus would have wowed many folks. But after Jesus wooed the people, he would then challenge them. And it is at this point, listen carefully, it is at this point that we can safely separate the Christian from the disciple. They are not the same.

• A Christian is one who has received Jesus into his or her heart.
• A disciple is one who has surrendered everything to Jesus and is following him faithfully, even unto death.

Jesus tells us five basic things we have to do to be a disciple of Christ. Anyone who is not willing to pay the price and do these things, you may be saved, but you are not a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Requirement #1 — The True Disciple Loves Christ Supremely (v. 26)

"If anyone 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 cannot be my disciple."

Every other love in our lives will seem like hate when compared to our love of Jesus Christ. And that, my friends, is a tall order. But it is simply the fulfillment of what the actual value of eternal life and salvation really is.

A lot of people get hung up on the word hate here. At first glance, does that not seem to contradict other biblical commands to love family, honor parents, and even love one's enemies? We need to understand the original Jewish context and how the original word is actually used.

The Greek word is miso. Yes, it can mean literal hatred. But many times this same word is used to mean to love less, to put in second place, or to reject in favor of something else. Keep in mind Jesus is speaking in a Jewish context, which many times must include very strong contrast to drive home the point. That's the culture he's speaking into.

An example from Hebrew history: Leah is said to be "hated" in some English translations. Yet Jacob clearly did not despise Leah. The point was he massively loved Rachel more. And God loved Jacob and hated Esau, same principle. We get caught up in the English understanding of the word because a translation can carry that word, and then we get all skewed in our understanding.

Understand this: English is a garbage language when it comes to carrying the weight of the original. It's really hard to get the original languages into English. That's why we have so many different translations.

But the point is this, Jesus used strong language because he is really laying out the true cost of discipleship. Being a true disciple back then meant being rejected by your family, losing your inheritance rights, being expelled from the synagogue, and even social isolation. And after the resurrection, after Pentecost, it also meant death for a lot of saints.

The message of verse 26 lives on through time. When it is loyalty to him or to anything or anyone else, true disciples choose Christ.

I had a man tell me that his new son-in-law told him he loved Jesus more than he was ever going to love his daughter. And this man, being a disciple himself, loved that, because he knows his daughter now has one of the best guys in the country. You love Jesus more than you love anything and everything else, and you will make a difference for the kingdom of God. You won't be able to help it.

Requirement #2 — The True Disciple Bears His Cross (v. 27)

"Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."

The cross is not a bad situation in life. It's not a disease. It is not, "Oh, this is just my cross to bear." No. The cross is a pathway of reproach, suffering, loneliness, and even death that the believer voluntarily endures for Jesus's sake.

Not all believers are crossbearers. It is possible to be saved and to leave your cross on the ground. How do you do that? You do that by living a nominal Christian life. You go to church, you claim Jesus as Savior, yet your Christian walk goes no deeper. It's a surface thing.

But when you decide to go all out for Jesus, you can expect to face the same level of satanic opposition that Jesus faced while he was here on earth. Are you bearing your cross for Christ today?

Requirement #3 — The True Disciple Follows Jesus (v. 27)

To follow Jesus means to be engaged in the work that he did. When we are following him, we will walk as he did, speak as he did, live as he did, and love as he did.

And when you get there, the first thing you're going to realize is, it's hard to maintain. It is hard to maintain.

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." — Galatians 2:20

If you want a verse to memorize this week, make it that one.

There are going to be days when you are not following Jesus as you should, even for those who have committed to be disciples. And that battle is like hunger. You fight it off every day by taking in nourishment. When we are following Jesus, we are demonstrating the Father to a lost and dying world. It is possible for people like us to live this way for Christ in this present day. It is possible. But only as we yield to him and allow him to live through us daily.

Requirement #4 — The True Disciple Counts the Cost (vv. 28–33)

"For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'" — Luke 14:28–30

"Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace." — Luke 14:31–32

The true disciple will weigh their worldly attachments against the demand of the cross and enter into the race knowing it'll cost them everything they have for the sake of Christ.

Here's the big showstopping number right here. The bada bing bada boom. True discipleship demands that everything, everything, be placed on the altar of sacrifice. Very few are ever willing to pay that price.

But those that are will find a grace for living that the rest of mankind will never experience at that level. They will find a peace that others can't comprehend. They will know power with God and for God that others can only dream of.

True disciples will know that the power of God working through their lives has nothing to do with them. That's why the people who do the manipulation, who seek significance and want special revelation and all that other stuff, they are false in their approach. Because a true disciple lays it all on the altar. And the first thing you see when God's power begins to work through you is that you ain't much. You're a Bluetooth speaker. Until the Spirit is going through you making that noise, you're nothing but a paperweight.

Hard cheese, isn't it? But you will find peace that others can't comprehend. You'll see the power of God in ways you couldn't see before. And when compared with the payoff, the price is actually extremely cheap.

Requirement #5 — The True Disciple Fulfills His One Purpose (vv. 34–35)

"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." — Luke 14:34–35

Salt has one purpose: to flavor food and make it taste better. When it becomes incapable of doing that one thing, it's worthless and good for nothing.

The disciple of Christ has one purpose in life: to show Christ to a lost world. When we fail in this mission, we are worthless to the cause of Christ. When people can no longer see Jesus in our lives, we're worthless as far as any ministry is actually concerned.

Bringing It Home

Here is the bottom line, and it is both the best news and the most serious news you will ever hear:

Anyone can come to Christ and get saved. Salvation was costly for the Lord, but it is free to sinners. That's the good news. However, after salvation, there is a price to pay to be everything that God desires and demands from his disciples.

What strikes me sad is not how many times I have fallen as a disciple and had to pick myself back up, that number is many. What gets me is that there are many people who are saved, and they know they are. But they also know that their Christian life doesn't go any deeper than that, and they never take steps to change it. They seem content to be far, far less than what they could be.

Every Christian has the potential through Christ in them to be great for the Lord. Yet so many just seem satisfied with a nominal walk. If the time is short, and it is, wouldn't you say it's time to get off the fence? It's time to be everything you can be for Jesus.

Salvation costs nothing. It's free.

But being a disciple costs everything.

That's what your Bible says.

Maybe you are someone who needs to come to God for salvation today. He has awakened in your heart a desire to be saved. Please don't delay, come to him now and he will save your soul.

Perhaps you are a Christian who finally needs to sell out fully. Today is that day.

Whatever the need, Jesus can and will meet it if it's brought to him by faith.

So, will you come to dinner, and then go and die?

Come to God by faith. Be saved. And then pay the price to be all out for Jesus, a true disciple. The first step is simply being obedient to what the Spirit is laying on your heart right now. And your heavenly Father will bless your soul.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Amen.