2013 6-23 ‘Jesus Exposes Apathy’ Luke 14 15-24

“JESUS EXPOSES APATHY”
LUKE 14:15-24

I. Introduction
“Répondez s’il vous plaît!” If you don’t answer me, you’re being apathetic. Répondez s’il vous plaît is better known as “RSVP.” It literally means “Respond, if you please.” If you’ve ever invited someone to a wedding, a party, a dinner, or some other event where you need to know how many people will attend, then you’ll understand the importance of including an “RSVP” with your invitation.

Most people respond, “Yes, I’ll (we’ll) be there with bells on!” No apathy there! Some respond with, “No, I (we) can’t make it, but thank you for the invitation.” No apathy
there either. Then there are a few who come up with some ridiculous excuse that no one really believes. And there’s always one or two who simply ignore your invitation. It means little or nothing to them, so they don’t reply at all. They don’t care. That’s apa-thy. And apathy says, “I don’t respect you enough to tell you the truth, or even to give you the common courtesy of an answer.”

The dictionary defines apathy for us. It comes from two Greek words; “a,” meaning “without” or “no,” and “pathos,” meaning “emotion.” So apathy is unconcern, indiffer-ence, lack of interest and, in short, no emotion. Apathy says, “I just don’t care.”

In the last few weeks we’ve seen Jesus make it clear that He hates the things that drive the Pharisees. He hates their hypocrisy, and He hates their pride. Today we’ll see that Jesus hates their apathy, too. What are the Pharisees apathetic about? They’re apathetic about the very God they claim to worship. They’re hypocritical and prideful. So it fol-lows that their religious traditions and their purported love for God are little more than false fronts designed to make them look good to others and feel good about themselves.

Too much of the modern church is just like that. It looks good on the outside and feels good on the inside, but Jesus isn’t even there. The NT tells us about such a church. It’s why I asked Isaac to read about the church in Laodicea this morning.

Laodicea is the last of the seven churches Jesus addressed in Revelation. It is the church that looks like much of the church in the western world today. Laodicea looks good. It appears to be alive and well on the outside, but like the Pharisees, on the inside, it is full of dead men’s bones.

One of the Laodiceans’ problems is that they think so very highly of themselves.
*Revelation 3:17 (they say…)
17 “…I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.”

They’re wrong. In fact, they’re “dead wrong.” They need Jesus. But they don’t know they need Jesus because they’re so full of themselves.
They may get emotional about a wide variety of things, but they have little or no emotion about Jesus Himself. Such is the epitome of spiritual apathy. And Jesus hates it! Look back just two verses.
*Revelation 3:15
15 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would (wish) that you were cold or hot.”

Let me paraphrase that. “I know you. You’re apathetic. I wish you could work up some strong emotion about Me. Either strong emotion – cold or hot – at least that would prove you’re paying attention. But I’ve sent you an invitation, and you won’t even ‘RSVP.’ You just don’t care.”
*Revelation 3:16
16 “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

The word “spit” does not convey the magnitude of what the original language says. The KJV uses the word, “spew,” which gets a little closer to what Revelation actually says. The Greek is “ĕmĕhō” and it means “vomit.” Jesus is saying that those who profess to know Him, but are in fact apathetic and indifferent about Him and His Word, literally make Him sick to His stomach.

That’s the problem with the church at Laodicea. It uses His name. It says it is Christian, but in reality it is completely indifferent to Christ. It claims to care about Him, but it really doesn’t. It cares about itself and its image. The people may have a zeal for their church, but they have little or no zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ. They think they are self-sufficient. “…I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” They don’t need Jesus. They have their church. In fact, they’re so wrapped up in themselves and in their church that they don’t even know Jesus isn’t there among them.

Look at v. 20. This verse is often used out of context as an evangelistic tool. But when left in its context it immediately becomes clear that it isn’t about evangelizing the world at all. It’s about a church that claims to be Christian, but in fact, has locked Jesus out.
*Revelation 3:20
20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

What irony! Such people are so spiritually blind and so spiritually deaf and so wrapped up in their religion that when Jesus comes to them and seeks to enter into what they say is His church, they won’t let Him in because they have no idea who He is. And while they use His name and claim to be His, His words leave them untouched and unmoved. Jesus neither angers them nor thrills them. They don’t care and so they don’t respond. No “RSVP!” No nothing. Thus He says they make Him sick.

How does a church degenerate to such a point? I believe it starts with false teaching. Just as the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, pride, and apathy about the truth of God led the people of Jesus’ day away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so the false teachers of today are doing the same thing in the Church of Jesus Christ. But we were warned.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but want-ing to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires;
4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

May none of us ever become indifferent to Christ or apathetic to the truth of His Word!
Solomon spoke of the consequences for those who would be indifferent to God, His Word, and His wisdom. God’s wisdom is personified in Proverbs 1. As we look at this passage think of an urgent invitation sent from God. It calls for an urgent “RSVP,” but it receives no response. How will God deal with that?
*Proverbs 1:24-33
24 “Because I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand, and no one paid attention;
25 and you neglected all my counsel, and did not want my reproof;
26 I will even laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,
27 when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you.
28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me dili-gently, but they shall not find me,
29 because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD.
30 “They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof.
31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be satiated with their own devices.
32 “For the waywardness of the naïve shall kill them, and the complacency of fools shall destroy them.
33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely, and shall be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Let me be very clear about this: You cannot call yourself a Christian if you ignore God’s call on your life, or if you refuse His counsel and reproof, or if you are complacent about the Person of Christ, or unconcerned, or indifferent, or apathetic about Him. You cannot call yourself a Christian if your religion, or your traditions, or even your church means more to you than does Jesus Himself. You simply cannot!

Apathy was a problem with the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. And apathy is a problem with the false teachers and many who profess to be Christians in the church today.
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II. Review
In Luke 14:1-14 Jesus has been at a dinner supposedly given in His honor. But it was really just a “set-up” so that His hosts, a number of the Jewish religious leaders, could accuse Him of breaking their laws and find yet another excuse to condemn Him. But, of course, Jesus wasn’t fooled. He told them a parable about their hypocrisy and pride. They would need to humble themselves before God.
*Luke 14:11
11 “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

Jesus concluded His parable with a straightforward statement about the resurrection of the righteous and the eternal rewards God has for them.

Naturally, all of the self-righteous religionists in the crowd believed that they were doing a wonderful job of earning their way into heaven. And why not? Didn’t they meticu-lously keep every law they ever made? So the Pharisees were convinced that they would be among the most prominent guests at heaven’s great feast when they would be resur-rected to eternal life. Hadn’t the Prophet Isaiah said so?
Isaiah 25:6-8
6 And the LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain (Jerusalem); a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.
7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering (death) which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time, and the LORD God will wipe away tears from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.

Jesus never gave people false hope. Rather, He warned those who believed their own righteousness was sufficient to gain entrance into heaven that they were victims of a fatal deception. The greatest deception of all? “You can go to heaven without Jesus.”

But in John 14:6 He said, “No one comes to the Father, but through Me.” So hope placed in anything or anyone else is false hope. Such false hope is very often the result of the false teaching that tickles the ears, but condemns the soul. False teaching about a false Jesus inevitably leads one to become apathetic toward the real Jesus and His truth.
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III. Text
With that let’s go to this morning’s text.
*Luke 14:15-24 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
15 And when one of those who were reclining at the table with (Jesus) heard
this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the king-
dom of God!”
16 But He said to him, “A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invit-
ed many;
17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invit-ed, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him (to the slave), ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
19 “And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen; and I am going
to try them out; please consider me excused.’
20 “And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I can-
not come.’
21 “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
22 “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
24 ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my din-ner.’”

It’s the Sabbath. Jesus has broken the Jews’ law and healed a man. Then, by way of a parable, He has dealt with the manners of the assembled guests. Then He has turned to the host and spoken to him about his manners. I suspect you could hear the proverbial “pin drop.” Jesus had just rebuked the host and said to him…
*Luke 14:13-14
13 “…when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
14 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.”

Can you imagine the tension in the room? None of these super-religious men know how to react or even know what to say. But Jesus had just made reference to the resurrection, and the Pharisees do believe in the resurrection. In fact, they’re sure they will be among the first to be resurrected. So one of them thinks he can break the tension.
*Luke 14:15
15 And when one of those who were reclining at the table with (Jesus) heard
this, (Jesus’ mention of the resurrection) he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

J. Vernon McGee called this as a “pious platitude.” I love that description. This man is just regurgitating a tired religious cliché. There are a lot of those around today too.
Here are just two that are frequently heard. “Hallelujah!” “Praise the Lord!” Now, so there is no misunderstanding: It is a wonderful thing to say “Hallelujah,” which, by the way, means “Praise the Lord.” However, if it doesn’t come from the heart, if it’s said so often and uttered without thought, then it becomes nothing more than a cliché. The last thing the Lord wants from His children is a string of tired, worn out, and pious clichés.

This man’s, “Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” seems to have a three-fold purpose. First, and most obvious, is his desire to break that tension we just talked about. Second, is his assumption that all Pharisees would be in the kingdom.
Third, and somewhat more subtly, is this man’s scornful rebuke of Jesus for daring to imply that all of these good and righteous Pharisee’s might not enter into God’s kingdom. It’s as if he’s saying, “Who does this upstart Galilean think He is – saying that our laws, rituals, and regulations won’t secure our eternal future? Why, we’re sons of Abraham!”

How does Jesus respond? Does He argue with them? No, He tells them another parable. Notice that He directs his story to the pious one, the one who has just said “Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
*Luke 14:16-17
16 But He said to him, “A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invit-
ed many;
17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invit-ed, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’”

It was the custom in Jesus’ day that notification of a major event would be sent out far in advance. This is what v. 16 is about. Then, as the event drew near, a formal invitation would follow. It would have all the details the guests would need to know; all the speci-fics, as it were. This is what v. 17 is about. We do something similar today when we ask someone to save a future date because a formal invitation will soon follow.

Those who were initially notified indicated they would come. No apathy! But as the date approached and formal invitations arrived, people started changing their minds and coming up with what we might call “lame excuses.”
*Luke 14:18-20
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him (to the slave), ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
19 “And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen; and I am going
to try them out; please consider me excused.’
20 “And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I can-
not come.’”

Look again at v. 18. What’s truly amazing here is that it isn’t just a few of the pre-invited guests who make excuses. It’s virtually all of them!
Remember that originally they had all indicated that they would come. Now they’re beginning to show their “true colors.” Not only are they displaying their indifference and lack of respect for the host, the one who has invited them, but they’re proving to be insincere. Some might go so far as to call them liars because their excuses are so shallow as to be humorous.

“I just bought some land and I need to go and look at it.” But would this fellow have bought the land before he looked at it? And if he had, couldn’t he go look at it afterward? “I just bought some oxen and I need to see how they well they work.” Really? Would he have paid for animals he had never seen and examined? Again, if he had, couldn’t he go and “try them out” after the dinner party?

This third excuse is as weak and as shallow as the first two. “I’m married so I can’t be there.” That’s really a flimsy story. When you consider that the women of Jesus’ day were held in such low esteem, even the Pharisees would have considered this excuse
to be laughable. “My wife won’t let me go,” would have been unheard of in that day and time. Couldn’t this man bring his new wife to the dinner? Besides, wouldn’t most wives enjoy being among the guests at such a large banquet?

The Pharisees who are hearing this parable must be incredulous. Who among them, the proud status-seekers that they are, would turn ignore a dinner invitation from a well-to-do and well-connected host? That would be completely out of character for them.

Jesus’ point in this parable is plain to see. It certainly applies to the Jewish leaders with whom Jesus is speaking, but it applies to everyone down through the ages as well. This is because people have always offered up excuses and alibis when God has invited them to respond to Him. You may remember some of the excuses and alibis you used before you came to faith. Were some weak and shallow, and looking back now, even laughable?

Here in Luke 14 God is in the process of offering salvation, full and free, to the people of His chosen nation. God’s own Son is now speaking to them. Yet the Jewish religious leaders are so blinded by their own self-righteousness and self-importance that they can-not see God even when He stands in their midst and talking to them.

But saying, “No” to God’s invitation, or ignoring it altogether is nothing new for these people. They would rather have their religion than God’s provision, the blood of His Son. Seven hundred years earlier the Prophet Isaiah had said…
Isaiah 65:2-3
2 “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,
3 a people who continually provoke Me to My face, offering sacrifices in gar-dens and burning incense on bricks…”

Now the Jews are saying, “No” again.
*Luke 14:21-23
21 “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’”
22 “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

In v. 21 the parable continues, and in it we can begin to see what will become the birth of the church. It’s as if God were saying, “If the people of My chosen nation, Israel, refuse My invitation, then I will invite the Gentiles. What I have prepared is far too important, far too valuable, and far too precious to be left alone or ignored. If Israel ignores My invitation and doesn’t want what I have prepared, then I’ll find someone who does.”

The host is not about to cancel his banquet. So he will invite the very people his original invitees would disdain and reject. These are the ones Jesus spoke of back in v. 13 – “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” They’re the ones Jesus said the Pharisees should be inviting. But those are the last people with whom the Pharisees will associate them-selves. How ironic, in Jesus’ parable, those are precisely the ones the host now invites.

In v. 22 all the people mentioned in v. 21 have come. The slaves have gone through the city and brought in everyone they can find, but still, there is ample room at the table. So, in v. 23, the host tells his slaves, “Go outside the city, into the country, and find more.” This host knows they’re out there. He says, “…compel them to come in.” He is not calling for people to be physically bound and dragged in kicking and screaming. That’s not the force he’s talking about. Rather, he’s talking about the compelling force of the message, the invitation, the gospel. That will compel them to come.

Thus ends the parable. The message is clear, isn’t it? When God’s chosen people hear the message, the gospel, they will not be blasé about responding. Neither will they be indifferent nor apathetic about the One who has invited them. They will “RSVP,” won’t they? When you and I were invited into God’s kingdom, when we were called to come to the great feast in heaven, we responded, “Yes, we’ll be there.”
Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salva-tion to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the (Gentile).

When Jesus came from heaven, He came first to His own people, the Jews, but…
John 1:11b-12a
11b …those who were His own did not receive Him.
12a But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become child-ren of God…
When the church was born, the gospel went first to the Jews, then to the Samaritans, (the “half-Jews”), and then into the whole world.
Acts 1:8b
8b “…you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

That’s what the Great Commission is all about.
Matthew 28:19-20
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
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IV. Conclusion
The parable is over, but there’s one more verse in this text in Luke that we dare not over-look or ignore.
*Luke 14:24
24 ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my din-ner.’”

Jesus now drives home His point. He says to the Pharisees, “I tell you…” Those who are invited, but ignore God’s invitation, those who are indifferent to the gospel, and those who are apathetic about Jesus, will not be at the great feast God is even now preparing for all those who have joyfully responded with, “Yes, I’ll be there!”

Self-righteous, self-centered, and self-important religious people – like those who called themselves Christians in the church at Laodicea – all think they’ll be there. They all think they’ll have a place of honor at God’s table, but they have no respect and no love for Him. They don’t care about Him. They haven’t even bothered to respond to Him. So Jesus says, “I will spit (them) out of My mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)

Is there anyone here this morning who has heard Jesus’ call, but has not responded? “Répondez s’il vous plaît!” Receive the invitation and answer it while you still can. Listen, please. The day will come when the door to the great banquet hall will be shut, locked, and barred. Please don’t wait. Respond to Jesus.

And for those of us who have responded, who have already “RSVP’d” – the feast is
almost ready. And we can’t even imagine how wonderful it will be.
1 Corinthians 2:9
9 “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered to the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

~ Pray ~