Message Info:
- Text: Luke 14:1-14, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), No. 52
- Date: Sunday morning, April 12, 2026
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Transcript:
⟦Transcript⟧ In one of the bedrooms at my parents’ house, there is a dent in the closet door that is there as a testimony of one of the scarier days of my childhood. There was one day, and I don’t remember how old I was. My mom could probably tell you, but she’s not here.
But I was in my bedroom, and I was walking through there and just went to sit in the floor because I would sit on the floor to play with Legos or whatever. And I had just sat down and suddenly there was this loud bang that she came running. I looked around like it was gunfire because it sounded like that. Not that there was frequent gunfire in our house, but you don’t know where the sound comes from.
So I’m looking around and she gets in there and we figure out one of the blades of the ceiling fan broke off and came flying across and hit that closet door just right about where I had been a few seconds before that. I won’t say that it would have killed me, but it definitely wouldn’t have been a good day if that had hit me. And to this day, I’m always a little suspicious of ceiling fans.
So I don’t know when they’re going to do that. Now, it turns out it had wobbling for a little bit, and I was a kid, I didn’t know anything about ceiling fans or really about anything. I didn’t know, you know, they start to wobble and that’s a bad thing, and it gets worse, and so over the period of about two or three days, it had started to wobble so bad, I guess it had kind of weakened a spot in the metal where it attaches the blade and it just snapped and and flew off. Anytime you get a ceiling fan that is off center, it can be a dangerous situation. And that kind of illustrates where we’re going with this morning’s message in Luke chapter 14, the idea of getting off center, not revolving around the point that we’re supposed to be revolving around.
As Jesus talked to a group of people, including the Pharisees, including his disciples, he points out some ways in Luke 14 that they were not revolving around the right thing. They had come to a place where their life, where their religious beliefs, their entire system of everything that they did, it revolved around them. And there’s an inherent danger when our religion starts to revolve around us. That’s what we’re going to talk about today, these statements that Jesus made. And Luke chapter 14, we’re going to read the first 14 verses of this.
If you’ve already turned there with me, great. If you’d stand with me as we read together from God’s Word.
If you can’t find Luke 14 or don’t have your Bible, it’ll be on the screen where you’ll be able to follow along that way. But here’s what Luke records for us. He says, it happened that when he went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him closely. And there in the front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. And I had to look that one up.
Dropsy is what we call edema today. It’s a buildup of fluid in your tissues.
If you’ve ever seen somebody that they look really swollen, but you touch their arm or their leg and it stays touched in, it’s because of that overabundance of fluid there. That’s what this man was suffering from. Verse 3, And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?
But they kept silent, and he took hold of him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day? And they could make no reply to this. And he began speaking a parable to the invited guests when he noticed how they had been picking out places of honor, places of honor at the table, saying to them, when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor. For someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him.
And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this man. And then in disgrace, you proceed to occupy the last place.
But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher, and you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And he also went on to say to the one who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may also invite you in return, and that will be your repayment.
But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous, and you may be seated. These Pharisees had invited Jesus to a meal on the Sabbath.
Now, Luke doesn’t tell us exactly what their intentions were, but we know they weren’t good. I mean, they are Pharisees after all. They’re not up to any good when they get together. Luke tells us though that they were keeping tabs on him. Right there in verse 1 it says they were watching him closely.
Have you ever been in any kind of social setting where you felt like you were being watched closely? Like, oh, he’s going to use the wrong fork. Or she’s going to use the wrong napkin. That’s why my wife and I don’t do a lot of fancy things. I know I’m always going to use the wrong fork, and I kind of don’t care.
But there are situations where people are watching us closely. And based on their history, it’s likely that they were wanting to find something to confront him about. They were wanting something to pick a fight with Jesus about. They would confront him with a question that they thought was going to entrap him, because if he gave answer A, they could nail him on this.
If he gave answer B, they could nail him on that. And the Pharisees were slow learners. They hadn’t figured out yet that there’s always answer C that Jesus was smart enough to come up with that actually made them look bad. Maybe they wanted to entrap him with a question, or maybe they just wanted him to do something that they could accuse him for. Maybe they arranged for the man with edema to be right in front of him just to see is he going to heal them or not, heal him or not.
So he’s sitting there, he’s having this meal, they’re watching him very closely. Jesus is smart enough to know that they’re watching him. He’s smart enough to see what they’re doing. Smart really isn’t even the right word for it. Smart doesn’t begin to cover it.
He knows all. He sees all. So, He was wise to their plans. They didn’t realize that. And so, instead of waiting, Jesus takes the initiative here.
It’s pretty clear, even to us, reading this story, that as we’ve gone through Luke chapter 13 and back even in Luke chapter 12, Jesus has been issuing warnings about the spiritual condition of Israel and about the spiritual condition of its leaders. And it’s clear from the fact that they’re watching Him in way that they have not taken those warnings to heart. They have not repented. They were not softening toward Jesus.
If anything, their hearts were becoming hardened. And so seeing this, that they were not heeding His warnings about the spiritual danger they were in, Jesus moves in to confront them. He doesn’t even wait for them to ask the question. He takes the question and He asks them. He says, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?
Because if he had taken a step toward that man, he knows they’re going to ask that question. Should you really be healing on the Sabbath? The pearl clutching that would go on at that table, if he tried to heal that man, Jesus just, here, let’s just get it out in the open. Do you think it’s acceptable? Do you think it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
He asks them that question, and then he, in what we’ve just read, he confronts them with two other scenarios that also involve sitting around tables. Everything he said to them that day had to do with what they were doing right then about sitting at the table, which was such a big part of their culture. And he probably was responding, well, no, he was responding to things that he had watched them do.
These were very religious men, but by confronting their actions that day, Jesus drew a clear line between religious people who serve themselves and religious people who serve God. Because we can go either way on this. I think the word religion gets a bad reputation. You’ve probably heard it said, you may have even said yourself, I know I’ve said yourself, it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship, right? You’ve heard that, you’ve said that, probably?
That’s partly true, it is a relationship. I get the sentiment. When we’re talking about following Christ, when we’re talking about Christianity, it’s not a religion in the sense that it’s just a list of rules, something that we can do outwardly. There has to be an internal component to it. There has to be a relationship with Jesus Christ or it’s not real.
At the same time, if we say it’s not a religion, it’s just a relationship, then we make it a little subjective and a little touchy-feely and it’s all about my feelings and my walk with Jesus, and we ignore the fact that there are actually things Jesus told us to do. And if there are rules and there are standards, then it’s a religion too. Religion’s not a bad thing. It’s just there’s a difference between religion that revolves around us and religion that revolves around Jesus. And what Jesus is doing is calling out and confronting religion that revolves around us.
So we look at verses 2 through 6, and we see the first section of this. It’s right there. They’re sitting at the table. He’s talking about what’s happening right in front of him. It’s when he asked this question, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
And they don’t answer. He begins to correct them. And from his correction, we see that self-centered religion is selective, but Jesus calls us to consistency. One of the reasons why these men watched Jesus so closely was because of this man with edema right in front of them. And they thought Jesus might try to heal the man.
They thought he might try to heal on the Sabbath, right? We can’t overlook that that’s when they’re sitting there eating. And I can’t imagine that the Pharisees, they don’t seem to have had a problem with somebody was laying out the food for them to come and have this dinner party. Does that not work?
But see, they’re being selective in what they consider work. They’re considered to be a violation. They thought Jesus might try to heal this man on the Sabbath, and they could not allow such a violation of the rules. And by the way, to be very clear with this again, anytime we deal with this issue of the Sabbath, Jesus never violated the law of God, not one time. Never happened, not one time.
Sometimes it’s framed as though Jesus, you know, they came and they represented the law, and Jesus represented grace, and he said, well, let’s ignore the law. No, Jesus never once violated the law of God. He couldn’t. He came to fulfill the law of God. He came to lift that burden off of us not by saying it doesn’t matter, but by saying I’ll do all the things that it requires for you.
He came and removed that burden from us that way, but he never violated the law, not even one time. When we’re talking about, oh, you’re working on the Sabbath, or, oh, you’re doing this, or you’re picking grain in the field, or you didn’t wash your hands, These are not the laws of God.
These are the traditions of men that the Pharisees and others like them had built up around the law of God. So we just need to understand, we’re not talking about Jesus saying, oh, this Old Testament, we can just rip this out.
This is all the stuff they had made up. But even at that, they’re looking, we can’t allow such a violation of the rules. There is, part of God’s law does say not to work on the Sabbath.
But they were the ones who had decided that healing this man would be a violation of that. That was their rule, not God’s.
So Jesus knew what they thought, and he confronted them on the issue. Verse 3, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? And here’s the difference between Jesus and the Pharisees. They couldn’t even answer the question, and Jesus could answer the need. They had nothing to say.
He says, is it lawful to heal the man? I don’t know. Kind of like when you ask a class or your kids at home, who did this? I don’t know. Everybody.
I don’t know. They knew nothing. They couldn’t answer the question. And Jesus healed the man.
But here’s the problem. The problem was they would help on the Sabbath. They would help somebody on the Sabbath.
Jesus knew it. They knew it, and Jesus pointed it out and said, there are things you would do. He says, you would help an ox of yours. You would help your son. Some translations say a donkey.
You would help on the Sabbath. And verse 6 says they didn’t answer that either. They couldn’t deny it.
What this shows us is they were very good at getting around the rules when they wanted to. When it was for things that they wanted to do, when it was for the people that they wanted to help, they were really good at getting around the rules.
But they were also really good at working the rules to get people. If it wasn’t something they wanted to happen, if it wasn’t somebody they wanted to support, they were really good at twisting the rules to make it where that thing couldn’t happen. And this is where we see the consistency that Jesus calls us to versus the selectiveness that they were practicing.
Following Jesus calls us to obey God consistently and not twist His word to support our plans. Now, again, the things He’s talking about doing, these are not violations of the Sabbath.
But there was a problem with their perspective because they, at least outwardly, believed that they were. okay if you believe that it’s a violation of god’s law to heal somebody on the sabbath with just a word or a touch but you think it’s not a violation of god’s law it’s less work it’s less of a violation to go and pull an ox out of a ditch because it’s yours there’s a consistency problem oh but see it doesn’t count because of this reason or that reason if that reason is not rooted in what God said, then what you’re doing is twisting.
And we can fall into this real easily if we want to and if we’re not careful. I’m saying, oh, I can find a reason. I can find a pretext maybe why you shouldn’t do this, but I can find a pretext why it’s okay that I do that, do something very similar. When our religion is focused on self, we will find ways to select this and that that we’ll follow.
But to Jesus’ point, if we’re going to follow Him, we’re obedient to everything He called us to do. Does that mean we always get it right? No. That’s the goal. That’s certainly the goal is obedience in every area.
We are not going to hit that goal. But if we don’t aim for that goal, we’re going to get even further from it. We aim for that goal, that our goal is obedience to Jesus Christ in everything he told us to do, not just when it’s easy, not just when it’s convenient, not just when it fits our agenda or feeds our needs, but everything he told us to do, we obey and we call others to obey instead of picking and choosing when it benefits us. That’s what the Pharisees did.
Then we move into the second phase of this, not just the immediate event that’s happening right there, but Jesus finishes up with talking to them about this and says, and another thing, he doesn’t literally say that in the text, but let me talk to you about what I witnessed as y’all were coming in and how they were jockeying for position at the table, seeing who was going to be the most important. We see in verses 7 through 11 that self-centered religion is prideful, but Jesus calls us to humility. See, the people that Jesus confronted in these few verses here, they loved using religion to bring them prestige and recognition. Oh, I could be the most important person.
If I’m seen sitting next to that person, I can be more important in this gathering. If I’m at that gathering at all, I can be seen as important. And it’s, on some level, it’s a foreign world to us. I don’t think most of us really get that worked up over who we sit next to at a function. Although we had dinner with all the grandparents Friday night and all the clamoring and wailing and gnashing of teeth because everybody couldn’t sit by Poppy.
Poppy doesn’t have five sides but other than that most of us don’t get worked up about well I didn’t get to sit next to Rick that maybe I could squeeze over there next to Cindy, and then I’ll really be in the prominent seat there. We don’t get worked up about that, but I’m sure there are things in the recesses of our heart where we look for recognition, we want to be recognized, we want to be seen. They wanted to be seen in the right groups. They wanted to be seen in the right seats in those groups so everybody knew that they were important. and Jesus said when you’re invited to a feast don’t go and take the place of honor don’t walk in and say well that seat right there at the head table is available you’re setting yourself up for problems because he says someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him.
I remember years ago, many years ago, I was in high school and we were invited to an event, one of our school groups was invited to an event at the governor’s mansion and it involved a prayer breakfast hosted by Governor Keating and people trying to figure out where to sit, somebody said there’s a chair right there, like that’s the governor’s chair. There’s a little card right there that says the Honorable Frank Keating, you will be made to move if you try to sit. Just because there’s an open seat, don’t go as an 11th grader and try to sit in the governor’s chair. You will be made to move. Don’t do that.
Don’t look for the most prestigious spot and say, well, I’ll just sit there because after all, I deserve it because somebody more important will come along and you’ll be made to move. Jesus warned of the immediate dangers of this kind of pride. He said, somebody’s going to come make you move, and then what? You’re going to be embarrassed. Think about that long walk back.
Maybe you belonged in seat 7, and you tried to move up to seat number 2, and now you got pushed out of that because person number 2 showed up, and now you’re back in seat 46. Oh, they couldn’t stand that thought.
Jesus said, but that’s what’s going to happen. but even pointing out this practical thing of what happened in their social gatherings and saying don’t be prideful, don’t make it all about you, don’t make these gatherings of all the Pharisees and all the rabbis and everybody, don’t make it all about you. There’s also a spiritual dimension behind this, behind this practical one, because he teaches that we should be humble and it works out better for us. There’s that practical reality that if you’re humble, it’s more likely that you’re going to be moved up than try to take the first spot and get sent back down to zero.
But the humility He teaches us is not a tactic to get what we want. He teaches us to be humble because that’s who He is, because that’s what He modeled for us. Tonight, we’re going to look at Philippians chapter 2, in a passage that I’ve been working through with the middle schoolers that talks about this humility that Jesus exemplified, that He started out as God and was worshipped as God and received all that worship that He deserved. And He never stopped being God, but He humbled Himself to come down here and be with us.
Jesus was the ultimate example of humility. He tells the Pharisees just out of self-interest to be humble.
But for us, there’s something deeper. This is not a tactic.
This is not a self-interest thing. This is imitating Christ, doing the things that He did. And the reality is God doesn’t exalt the prideful. He exalts the humble. He tells us that several times in His Word.
God exalts the humble. God humbles the prideful but he exalts the humble because those are the people he tends to use that’s why he says in verse 11 everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted if we make our religion if we make our service if we make our devotion to God all about us and all about showing off and getting recognition we’re going to be humbled but if we practice humility if we imitate Christ practicing that humility, He exalts us not in the sense of being worshiped, but by putting us in a place of being closer to Him, of being entrusted with more responsibility, God calls us to humility because He works through those who are more impressed by His goodness than by our own greatness.
And then we go into verse 12. And once again, He says, essentially, and another thing. He’s talking about all the guests. They’ve come into this house as the meal was getting started. He watched them vying for position at the table.
But now he turns to the host, who has been oh so gracious to throw this little soiree for them. And talks about the calculating behavior that went on. Maybe from this man, but certainly from others like him.
And we see that self-centered religion is calculating. And Jesus calls us to generosity. You see, these people had figured out a great scam.
Because of the customs of the time and the culture, hospitality was a huge thing. It’s still this way today in many parts of the Middle East.
If you were to admire something of your hosts, with some exceptions, they’re expected to give it to you. Oh, what a beautiful elephant figurine on your bookshelf. Oh, it’s yours. if somebody shows up at your house you’re expected to feed them you’re expected to clothe them you’re expected to show as much as much lavish generosity as you can as my grandparents used to say putting on the dog i don’t know how they arrived at that saying that does not sound fancy at all to me but that that’s the expectation and people realize too that because of their culture if we do this for somebody then they have a social obligation to do this back to us so what we’re going to do we’re going to get all the fanciest people all the most influential people we’re going to get all the richest people we know and we’re going to invite them over and then guess what they’re going to have to do to us. They’re going to have to invite us over to their house and put out their best for us.
A really smart scam if you have no self-respect, I guess. They’d figured out this scam. Take people who have more than you, be generous with them, and then they’ll have to show you an even better feast in return. That’s why Jesus says to this man who had invited him and invited all these others, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may invite you in return. And the guy’s thinking, that’s the point.
Jesus says, and that will be your repayment. He’s saying you don’t get points with God for generosity with what you’re doing. God sees what you’re doing.
By the way, this is not a blanket command from Jesus that we’re never to invite people we know over to our house. As we’ve had the opportunity and on those rare occasions when the house is clean, we’ve invited some of you all over to the house. We would do that more, but like I said, rare occasions when the house is clean. We have five children. Miss Billy, you know.
You understand. Not saying your house is messy, just the five children part. You’ve got it. Some of you have invited us over to your house.
Jesus is not saying we sinned in doing this. Oh, you can’t invite anybody you know or you like or that might have you back.
Jesus is dealing with people that that was their motivation was to see what they could get out of this. What they could get for themselves. They would show off how godly they were by the way they served others, knowing that they were going to get something in return. And Jesus told them to stop. Not because it was wrong to host others, but He’s telling them if they’re hosting as a display of generosity, He says in verse 13, invite the poor, invite the crippled, invite the lame, invite the blind.
If you’re going to show off your generosity, actually be generous. Don’t use your religion and the things that go along with it as an opportunity to see how can I get more stuff. How can I improve my standing? How can I rub the right shoulders? How can I be recognized?
He says, invite the people who could never do a thing for you. And sure, the guy who lives in the cardboard box down at the marketplace, I guess they didn’t have cardboard back then, The guy who lives in poverty, begging on the street, he’s not going to invite you over to his place.
But that’s really not the point. Your repayment will be in the eyes of the Lord.
If you’re trying to show off your godliness and your generosity, actually be generous instead of calculating. Jesus calls us to real generosity, and this is most clearly seen in how we treat those who don’t have what we have.
Now, are these the only three things that get off kilter when we start to make our religion center around ourselves? No, they’re just the ones that he deals with in this story.
But this is a pretty good start, that when our walk with God, our outward service, all the things that we do that we would call religious, when they become selective and we’re using it as a way to work the rules to our advantage, or we’re doing it as a way to seek recognition, or we’re doing it as a way to seek stuff, Jesus said, stop it, this is not the way to follow me. Even to the Pharisees who weren’t interested in following Jesus, this is not even the way to serve God. You’re not even doing Judaism right, let alone Christianity.
These stories remind us as believers of what God expects. That the things we do and how we serve Him cannot be centered on ourselves. They must be centered on Him. Or they quickly devolve into something ugly. And they don’t benefit anyone.
But they also show us that religious actions are not enough. These men outwardly look like the most moral, religious people in their society.
These were the ones who knew the Old Testament scriptures They had studied theology They could argue the finer points of the law They went to the synagogue every Sabbath They kept all the obligations They did all the sacrifices They went to the temple every time they were supposed to And still there was this ugliness in their hearts Jesus’ confrontation with them shows us That religious activities and religious actions are not enough what they were missing was the change of the heart that only Jesus can bring. And if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, the one thing you need to understand today, the rest of this is informative to you maybe, but it’s been directed toward people who are already followers of Jesus Christ.
If you don’t have that relationship with Him, the main takeaway you need to have from this this morning is that just doing like the Pharisees and doing the religious things and looking good and sounding good, it’s not enough without the change of heart that Jesus brings. And if you’ve never trusted Him as your Savior, It is as simple as recognizing that we’ve sinned against a holy God, that our sin is offensive to Him, it has to be punished, it has to be paid for, and it will keep us separated from Him as long as it’s there. And you and I could spend eternity separated from God and still never pay enough for the wrong that we’ve done. And so into that scenario, step Jesus to take responsibility for my sin and yours. How could He take responsibility for everyone’s sin?
Because He was God in human flesh and He never sinned even once. And He took on responsibility for my sin and your sin and He was nailed to the cross and shed His blood and died as the full payment for everything that you and I have ever done wrong. Everything we’ve ever thought wrong, every time our heart posture’s been off every time we’ve made it about us he paid for that on the cross and then to prove it three days later he rose from the dead and all that’s left for you to do is to understand that you’ve sinned against God believe that Jesus Christ is the only way that that sin can be forgiven and your slate can be wiped clean and ask for that forgiveness
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