Jesus for Everyone

This blog is to supplement the current teaching series through the Gospel of Luke at Beaverton Foursquare Church, in Beaverton, Oregon. We are providing weekly self-study/digging deeper questions for those desiring to go beyond the scope of the sermon in your exploration of the complete passage. We are also providing links to the sermon introduction videos filmed for this series on-location in Israel. Our prayer is that we can better learn how to live and love like Jesus this year!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Week 29 "That My House May Be Filled"


Video is normally posted early Sunday Afternoon.

Video Notes: "Facts about Bread"
  •  What types of bread were eaten?
    • Sukkot: booths or Tabernacles...wheat harvest
    • Shavuot: weeks or Pentecost; barley harvest (poorest people)
  • Their staple food was bread, and it was such a vital part of each meal that the Hebrew word for bread, lehem, also referred to food in general. The importance of bread to the ancient Israelites is also demonstrated by the fact that Biblical Hebrew has at least a dozen words for bread, and bread features in numerous Hebrew scriptures. Bread was eaten at just about every meal, and is estimated to have provided from 50 to 70 percent of an ordinary person’s daily calories. The bread eaten until the end of the Israelite monarchy was mainly made from barley flour; but during the Second Temple period, bread from wheat flour become predominant.
  • Everyone likes to eat. Not many enjoy eating alone. Community and table fellowship play a large role in the gospel narratives and should play an important role in our congregation as well.
  • Bread was generally leavened, except around Passover when the feast of unleavened bread took place.
  • Bread was not just the meal, but the utensil and plate as well. Bread was used instead of fork and spoon to dip gravy or flavored broth and grab food.
    • It was little like Tortillas on steroids.
    • If you dipped bread into the bowl and then gave it to someone it was considered an honor.
      • Jesus dipped his bread in the bowl and handed it to Judas on the night he was betrayed.
  • Village life celebrated community and bread was always at the center of it.
  • Each family would bake once or twice a week. Women of the village would always knew who had bread left on any given day.
  • Breaking break became synonymous with fellowship over a shared meal
  • People grew grain, harvested it, threshed it, ground it into flour (one source said that it took 3 hours a day to hand-grind enough grain into flour to feed a family of five), and baked their own bread.
  • Jesus claims to be the bread come down from heaven
  • Bread comes to symbolize the body of Christ broken for us.

Text: This week we’re covering Luke 14:1-24 dealing with Jesus’ dialogue with the Pharisees regarding another Sabbath healing (to which they were silent), and parables about humility and honor, about invitational motivation, as well as the surprising guests at the Great Banquet.

Other passages to read: We encourage you to read "horizontally" in these passages that are parallel to our text from Luke:

·         Sabbath healing is an idea repeatedly touched on in the Gospels: Luke 6:6-1; 13:10-17; Matthew 12; Mark 3; John 5:1-17; 7:23-24; John 9.
·         Take the lowest place rather than the highest: Proverbs 25:6-7; Luke 11:43; 18:14.
·         Instructions about inviting those who can’t pay you back: Luke 6:34;
·         The Great Banquet: Isaiah 25:6-9; 56:6-8; Luke 13:22-30; Matthew 22:1-14; Prov. 9:1-6.
 
Pastor Randy's Sermon Notes: Full House

“On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare 
a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. 
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;

he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
In that day they will say,“Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.

This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9)

1.    Mercy and Grace
2.    Investing and Inviting
3.    Excuses and Judgment

“Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory! 
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean,
 was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:7-9)

Points to ponder: In your study this week, you might want to think about one of these questions:
·       Once the man with dropsy is healed he was sent away. Have you ever wondered why he was at the dinner in his condition and why was he sent away? Look closely at the text for clues.
·       To whom is each of the parables spoken? Who else would have been listening? Does this observation affect how we interpret them or add a level of meaning to this passage?
·       What is it about these three excuses that just don’t make sense?
·       What makes the master mad in this parable? And what does he do when he is mad?
·       What word is used more than any other in this passage? What does this tell us about God’s heart?

We try to answer these questions on the Jesus4Everyone blog in the next week’s post (so you have time to think about them and then check your work!). 

Questions to ask ourselves: The following questions are intended to help us move towards greater application of what we learn about Jesus…

  • Do we seek public recognition and honor from others or do we humble ourselves and allow God to raise us up?
  • Have we ever prepared a special meal for others who then chose not to show up? How did we handle it? What did we do with our feelings?
  • When God invites us to spend time with him, do we come with enthusiasm or do we offer lame excuses and keep doing our own thing?
  • What excuses do we use most often? What are some ways we can prevent this?
  • Where do we see ourselves in these parables? Who do we most closely identify?

 
Quotes and Commentary:

“This passage and the following one incorporate several elements--healing, conversations, and a parable--all tied together in dinner-table conversation--a familiar device in ancient literature. The conversation, except for its opening, revolves around the response and behavior of dinner guests. This leads into the response of would-be followers of Jesus and the cost of discipleship.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary Vol. 9, 976)

“Luke’s gospel has more meal-time scenes than all the others. If his vision of the Christian life, from one point of view, is a journey, from another point of view it’s a party…In chapter 14 Luke has brought together two parables about feasting.” (N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, 174).

“In the kingdom of God points to the future messianic banquet, to which the people of Jesus’ day would have understood only godly Jews would be invited. Jesus, however, uses the parable to teach his listeners, contrary to their expectations, that the guests invited originally will miss the banquet (v. 24) and will be replaced instead by “the poor and crippled and blind and lame” and the outsiders (the Gentiles) found in the “highways and hedges” (v. 21, 23). (ESV Study Bible)

v. 16-17 Two invitations would have been involved. The first would have concerned reservations for the banquet and would have been given well in advance. The second invitation would have been given on the day of the banquet, announcing that the time for the banquet had come and everything was ready. (ESV-SB)

v. 22-23 “Once again, therefore, the challenge comes to us today, Christians, reading this anywhere in the world, must work out in their own churches and families what it would mean to celebrate God’s kingdom so that people at the bottom of the pile, at the end of the line, would find it to be good news. It isn’t enough to say that we ourselves are the people dragged in from country lanes, to our surprise, to enjoy God’s party. That may be true; but party guests are then expected to become party hosts in their turn. (N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, 178-179).

“This final image is a reflection of the heart of the master of the banquet. Above all, he is determined that his feast be full, no matter what the social station or class or pedigree of the persons who come. He wants his house to be full, like his heart.” (Michael Card, Luke: The Gospel of Amazement, 178)

Previously on Ponderables:

  • Why do bad things happen? Do bad things only happen to bad people? Bad things happen because we live in a world tainted by sin, fallen from perfection, and subject to frustration. Sin is endemic in the world today. However, God’s mercy and grace are also at work. The truth is that we all deserve to die (Romans 3:10-12, 23; 6:23), but that most of us don’t die…right away. Difficult circumstances and disasters cannot with consistency be explained as punishment for specific personal sin. God’s cycle of reward and retribution is not fully contained in this life.
  • If you were to characterize God, as he is revealed in the Bible, how would you describe him? What metaphor would you use to describe his default attitude towards mankind? Well we know that there is nothing that really can be compared to him. However, He does reveal himself via a number of metaphors. However, imagery aside, the most consistent description of God in the Old Testament is Psalm 103:8 “The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (See also Exodus 34:6-7; Numbers 14:18; Psalm 86:15; 145:8; Nehemiah 9:17; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2)
  • When we consider these two sections in verses1-5 and 6-9, what connections can we see between these two sections? The urgent need to repent and bear fruit!
  • Are there repeated themes or phrases in these verses? In 1-5, there is the repeated idea that they thought those who suffered were worse sinners. Repent and perish are also used twice in identical phrases in v. 3 & 5. In v. 6-9 the idea of seeking fruit is repeated along with “Cut it down” if it continues to be barren.
  • How many years of mercy did the fig tree receive? Three. The parabolic present was the third year of looking for fruit. The first year of looking for fruit was when it was expected. The two years since were mercy and now a third year of mercy is added.
  • How does the story of the fig tree end? This parable was a “create-your-own-ending” sort of story. Unfortunately history tells us that the Jewish leadership failed to produce fruit and the “tree” was cut out of the ground in a.d. 70.

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