Bringing All to The Feast

 

Luke 14: 12-14; 12) “Then Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friend, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13) But when you give a banquet, incite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14) and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Let’s look at these verses and add a twist to them, if you will. Let’s look at them through the eyes of a believer, who filled with the Holy Spirit, has burning desire to tell others about Jesus and His love for the ones He has created, which are ALL of us.

          Now if he/she goes to their friends, family, co-workers or neighbors who already believe in Jesus, and walk in His ways, what are they accomplishing for the kingdom? They are speaking to those who already believe. Now they may encourage some of those they speak to, which helps those who may be struggling, but the love of Christ is not truly being spread. There is a repair job being done, nothing is being changed, in respect to the advancing of the gospel. In essence the dented fender is being repaired but the car is the same. There is an inner feeling of something good being done, between the believers, but is there really heavenly reward?

          But if the believer truly listens to the voice of Christ and steps out in faith to minister to the poor, of inner courage, or the crippled, of unbelief, or the blind, who do now know the word, or the lame, whose walk is hand in hand with the world, Christ will store up treasures for the believer in heaven, if the believer shows those people Christ first hand by the way they live their lives and by the actions that they show in their lives. And they can express to this world that the Creator of ALL the world is storing up treasures for them also, and they can claim those treasures if they only accept Christ as their Savior.

          Through the life of the believer, they share the love God has for His people. They display the actions Jesus Christ displayed towards the same kind of people He came in contact with. Through the words that God lays on the believer’s heart, they share with those who Satan has lied to or distorted the truth to.

          The believer then becomes somewhat of a healer. He opens the eyes of the blind. He helps the lame and the cripple to walk in Christ. They share with them their past, of how Christ came in and healed them, how He restored them to spiritual health. And through the gifts He has bestowed on the believer, they use those gifts to further God’s kingdom. How He gave Himself as a sacrifice for their sins. And the non-believer may now become a believer and start his own collection of heavenly treasures.

          So the obedience of the believer opens their hearts in order for the Holy Spirit to enter in an even greater way. So through that indwelling, the believer’s desire to share the gospel, and live an even stronger life for Christ prevails. It over flows out from them flooding their lives and so washes over those around them too. Christ’s love flow to those whose lives need the living water making the believer, in essence, an oasis in the desert of this world.

          And so the believer, through their understanding of His word, are filled with the knowledge that treasures for them, are in heaven. They are filled with patience no longer wanting to live for the here and now, but live to share God’s word with all they can. When they give away they know they will receive more. Their faith in the truth they know, is the force behind their sharing, Jesus has demonstrated, in their lives, His truths! He has done what He said He would do! And the believer, filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, goes to the poor, crippled, lame and the blind using the words of Jesus to bring them into the banquet hall so they may ALL SHARE the feast Jesus has for them to eat.