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What’s Your Excuse? Luke 14:12-24

Introduction

Please Stand For the Reading of God’s Word

Luke

14:12-24 ESV  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.

 (13)  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the

lame, the blind,  (14)  and you will be blessed, because they cannot

repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

 (15)  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!”  (16)  But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet

and invited many.  (17)  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.’  (18)  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.’  (19)  And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of

oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’  (20)  And

another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

 (21)  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.’  (22)  And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you

commanded has been done, and still there is room.’  (23)  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.  (24)  For I tell

you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

You may be seated.

I want to start by explaining why I have

started asking everyone to stand for the reading of God’s word.Standing while Scripture is read at the

beginning or a sermon is a time-honored tradition that has lost popularity in

modern evangelic churches.But I decided to bring it back for two reasons:First, God’s Word is Holy, it is powerful, it is

miraculous that it even is available to us. It is not something to be taken

lightly, but it should be treasured and honored.And second, to put an emphasis on the key

section of Scripture that we read from every week.To set aside those verses from Luke and say

“This is our focus”Which is also why I don’t ask you to stand every

time I read a scripture, all scripture is Holy and powerful, but today our

focus is on these scriptures…Plus if I had you stand every time I read a

verse you guys would get tired quick! That’s a lot of squats…So that being said, lets go ahead and talk about

this section of Scripture from Luke 14.Jesus starts this section of scripture by

giving this bit of, well, interesting advice…

Luke 14:12-14 ESV  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.  (13)  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled,

the lame, the blind,  (14)  and you will be blessed, because they

cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

I say this advice is interesting for two

reasons:One, it’s good advice, and I think anyone who

follows it will absolutely be blessed.But two… because I think Jesus is doing more

than offering practical advice about benevolence. You see Jesus has been preparing people for the

Kingdom of God to come, and He is slowly getting them around to the very

counter-cultural idea that the Kingdom of God is for everyone… and not just for

EVERYONE but that it will even be easier for the poor and the destitute to get

into heaven than the rich and the privileged.

Matthew

19:24-26 ESV 

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go