The Great Banquet

(All Talks)Parables
Written By Natalie King

About this series

We start a 6 week series looking at some of the parables of Jesus. Jesus used many parables as he went from town to town teaching to the crowds. He used them for various reasons: as a teaching aid, to fulfil prophecy and as way to reveal spiritual truth about the Kingdom of God to those who were serious about hearing it. Isn’t this what we so need as the crowds and busyness of life return? Truth about God and His never-ending Kingdom. Truly understanding what His Kingdom is like and how we can embrace and live it out in these days.

About this talk

Today we see Jesus dining at the house of religious leaders. The leaders are confident that they are those favoured by God on account of their race and their pernickety law-keeping. Jesus might be their guest, but they seem eager to judge him, rather than coming to Jesus eager to learn from and receive from him. Through the Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14) Jesus indirectly challenges their comfortable, entitled assumptions about their right to a place in the Kingdom of God. The story reveals that those who enter the Kingdom are not those who rely on their lineage, their impressive behaviour or their social standing, rather what matters is a humble heart response to Jesus himself (the one who ushers in the Kingdom). This same challenge comes to us - how are we responding to Jesus? Will we humbly lay everything down (our bad and our good) and trust in Him alone for our place in His Kingdom?

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Natalie King
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The Lost Sheep
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The Rich Fool