The banquet is free - just come in and eat from it

Luke chapter 14 verse 15 onwards, the parable of The Great Supper. How many have read that parable or remember it? Perhaps it is not one of the best known parables of Jesus but today we are going to see what God tells us through it. Remember that we are in these last Sundays and in the next ones also dedicating time to reflect, meditate on Evangelism; how to do evangelistic work, how to become a purely, intentionally evangelistic Congregation. God has put it in our hearts this year to start a new rhythm, a new inclination in our Congregation to dedicate ourselves fully in a very, very committed way to being a Church that is characterized by its passion and its evangelistic fire, amen?

And I told them that through the years God has allowed us to do many evangelistic things, I mentioned some of them I don't know if I did it in the 9 o'clock or the 12 o'clock a couple of Sundays ago but there are many things; through the internet many people. 2, 3 days ago I was looking at the letters of the reactions of different people, one of the meditations that we launch weekly and there were people from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Switzerland and not to mention all of Latin America and the United States, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, many different countries. Reading these things where God sends them are one hundred and something thousand people who are subscribed, one hundred thirty-five thousand people.

We do many evangelistic things like that, the radio program said, everything we do with Lazos de Amor and the work in Honduras as well, the cells that are evangelistic, our services where we make appeals, there are many things but God wants something new from us, an additional component. That we dedicate ourselves clearly, concentratedly to doing work and evangelistic work.

What I want in these months is to soak ourselves, you and I and the leaders of the Congregation concerning evangelism, evangelistic topics. I want to lift Christ up high in these next sermons. I want us to see him through his own eyes, hear him through his own words, and soak up his style. How did he do things? how did he speak? how did he minister? And that we also learn to put before Christ the people that the Lord is going to put before us.

God is going to bring people to us and he is going to bring people, I declare in the Name of Jesus that God is going to put an evangelistic anointing in this Church and that we are going to bring, the people are going to come and they are going to come to us . God is going to arrange divine appointments and we are going to see that we are not going to cope. I already see the blessing of God. Every time we launch that call, the few things that we have done lately, God has blessed them with a very big, very powerful affirmation. So I know that we are in the center of His Will.

And that's why I want to take these services to raise up Jesus because He says that if the Son of Man is lifted up, people will look to Him and they will be saved. So here you have a parable that tells us about the Kingdom, how does the Kingdom work? What is the heart of God like for lost souls?

Let's listen, it says here in verse 15: "Hearing this," I'm going to tell you what this is in a moment. "Hearing this, one of those who were sitting with him at the table said to him: blessed is he who eats bread in the Kingdom of God."

And then Jesus told him a parable, he told him: "a man made a great dinner and invited many, and at the time of the great dinner he sent his servant to say to those invited: come, everything is prepared, and all at one They began to excuse themselves. The first said: I bought a farm and I need to go see it, please excuse me. Another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them, please excuse me, and another said: I just get married and therefore I can't go." That one had a slightly better excuse (laughs) I could understand that a little better but I don't think it was enough as we are going to see in a moment.

Verse 21 said: "When he returned, the servant made these things known to his master. Then the householder, angry, said to his servant: Go quickly through the squares and streets of the city and bring here the poor, the lame, the maimed." and the blind. And the servant said: Sir, it has been done as you commanded and there is still room. The lord said to the servant: Go through the highways and the hedges and compel them to enter my house because I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner."

Bless the Lord His Holy Word. Do you see what a beautiful passage? speaks to us about the Kingdom of God as a great dinner, as an invitation that the generous heart of the Father makes us to humanity, God wants to have communion, community with his children, God wants to have intimacy, conversation with them and invites them to a Great Dinner. I believe that the Lord is always inviting mankind to dine with Him. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ says that famous passage from Revelation 3, I believe it is: "I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My Voice and opens the gate I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me."

The Lord always puts the relationship He wants to have with us in terms of intimate things; a meal, a fold where the shepherd has a relationship with his sheep. He wants to talk, He wants to have a sustained relationship with us. The occasion that motivates Jesus to say this parable is precisely a meeting where there are guests, it is a meal, it is a home.

And then the Lord is giving teachings in the rest of chapter 14 and he talks about weddings, and how when you are invited to a party or to a church, don't be too quick to sit in the front and also when you invite someone to your house, don't Only invite the cool people, right? People who can have a good conversation with you, who are going to bring you a gift or who are going to invite you to their house for dinner, right? They will give you back the money you invested in another dinner and it will be better than the one you gave them.

No, the Lord says: look when you invite people to dinner at your house, invite people who cannot invite you back because that is what everyone does, people who do not have God always looking for their interests, right? ? but you serve others, give to others, invite people who can't return the favor and who are perhaps of less social station than you.

So there is a man sitting like that in that one and I suspect he was a Pharisee or a scribe or a man who represented the Jewish religion and I am going to tell you why in a moment, that the Lord should talk about dinner, food, weddings , banquets escapes him as a spiritualoid expression there; "ah blessed is he who eats bread in the Kingdom of God" as evangelicals sometimes do, right? We get something like that very pious that sounds very nice, but it's probably superficial and formulaic but it doesn't really come from the heart.

And the Lord when He heard these things He always wanted to correct the matter and put things in a correct and clear way, and so that is why He makes and describes this parable that He is writing. It is as if to truly teach what the Kingdom of God is about and that dinner in which one day we are going to eat bread before His Presence. And then He speaks, He says that a supposedly rich man, we suppose a man of money and means, made a great dinner and invited many.

What is the dinner that this part of the parable is equivalent to? I see two types of dinner that this parable evokes in me. Number one: notice that this man is inviting these people to come and eat what he provides and at a very specific time. I believe that God has prepared a Great Supper for humanity and it is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is called the teachings, the truths, the resources that the Gospel provides.

The Gospel table is a table where there are all kinds of dishes and nutritious meals and we have to invite people to that Great Supper that God has prepared. What does it consist of?. I believe the Gospel brothers is a table where there are teachings, there are principles, there is advice, there is wisdom for life, not only for the life to come but for here. I tell people: invite people to come to the Gospel because they can eat food that will make life more bearable.

God has set a table where they will find a Word of wisdom for their marriages, a Word of wisdom for human relationships, their friendships. How to manage your money, how to deal with life's crises, how to deal with an illness, when someone betrays you, what attitudes you should adopt when you are struggling with strong things within you and how to prepare for the future, how to be a good father, how to be a good mother. All these things are found at the Gospel table, the great dinner that God has served for all of us and we have to invite people.

I tell you at this time, we have to invite the community out there to come and eat the food that God has placed before them. And it is a meal for the now and the here. The community needs that food that only Christ can give, that spiritual dinner that God has for us.

So that's a dinner, a dinner of different foods and nutrients. But the Bible also speaks of a Great Supper, a great banquet in the Kingdom of heaven that will take place at the end of time. What is that? The wedding, the wedding supper of the Lamb. But notice that it says here that this man prepared a dinner, he invited people from here to eat from it. So I believe that the two dinners are part of God's total scenario. One is the dinner that you eat here while you are in the world and another is then the dinner that awaits you at the end of time when God has accomplished all his work and then the Lamb celebrates a great dinner with all his Church.

Now we are committed to Christ but one day we will finally marry the King of kings and Lord of lords. Revelation chapter 19 says in verse 7: "Let us rejoice and give Him glory because the Wedding of the Lamb has arrived, and His bride has prepared herself, the Church, and it has been granted to her to dress in fine linen, clean and resplendent because fine linen is the righteous actions of the saints. And the angel said to me: "Blessed are those who are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And he said to me: these words are true from God."

So beautiful. There is also a final dinner that God has prepared and the only ones who will be able to participate in that Great Dinner at the end of time are those who ate the other dinner, the Gospel dinner that God prepared for all those who are willing to listen and come. , and sit at the table that God has prepared.

Then a man made a great dinner, he invited many. Do you know, brother, that God's invitation is for everyone who wants to come? It does not matter what color you are, it does not matter what race, what nation, what financial or socio-economic status you are, whether you are a man, a woman, a child, an elderly person, God's invitation is for everyone, it is a broad invitation . God wants the whole world to know about the Gospel. Preach the Gospel to all the people around you because God wants many to come to the knowledge of the Lord.

This is the time that I believe that God is going to be calling many people in the city of Boston to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and we have to prepare the networks for that to happen. Verse 17 says that: "at supper time he sent his servant." Stop for a moment there "at dinner time. There is a specific moment that God has prepared to declare His Word to humanity. The Bible says that Christ came into the world at the consummation of time, at the precise moment in which He had to come.

This man sent some invitations, probably a few days before to his friends. And he said to them: on such a day I am going to have dinner, prepare yourselves, we do not know the exact time, he told them perhaps, but I am going to send my servant and he is going to go around the neighborhood and tell them that the food is already she is ready. They knew. There was a precise moment.

Do you know that Christ came into the world, came into history at God's precise moment? It is said by historians, people who know from history that the Lord Jesus Christ came at a time when the whole world was prepared in terms of very wide and extensive highways that the Roman Empire had built, had conquered all the known nations on Earth. at that time. It had reached as far as Africa, as far as Asia, India, the whole Mediterranean world had been conquered by Rome, and Rome, wherever it went, built good roads so that its armies could get there, its administrators could get to those places, and it had forts and stations. his side anywhere throughout the entire known Earth at that time.

And it had a government that it had established, laws, order, what is called the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, which was a peace, a government that Rome established. There was a language like English today is used in all parts of the world for business and for science and for culture so also Latin was everywhere and Greek too. Greco-Roman culture had reached all parts of the world.

So God had been preparing things strategically throughout history, He had been preparing humanity. Judaism with all its laws, all its religious legal apparatus was a mere foretaste of what was to come through Jesus Christ. God was preparing humanity and humanity was developing and growing, and becoming more complex, before they were savages doing things around here, killing each other etc, the time came when there was a certain level of complexity in human culture and in that moment when man could receive the teaching through this language and these highways and all this, Christ comes into the world. The time has come.

And then at that moment God begins to announce to humanity that there is a new way to approach the Father through Christ Jesus. This passing servant that the Lord commands is a type of God, the Father who sends His Son that it is time to enter dinner, this servant is a type of Jesus Christ. So when everything is ready, Jesus arrives, the Church also arrives in a sense to announce the Gospel and tell the people: now come and sit down.

To enter that dinner you have to pass through Jesus Christ. The Bible says that He is the door and all those who enter through the door are accepted but if they do not enter through the door they are thieves and robbers. He is the door through which you can enter the dinner. And then when everything was ready, what happens? who begin to make excuses for one thing and others for another. Ah I can't go because I bought five oxen, today we would say: ah I bought a cart and I have to go test it over there on the road. I bought a house and I have to go see how many rooms it has and whatever and I can't go, excuses.

He says they all started making excuses. Evidently they were too busy with their own chores, their own things, to heed his invitation. Here what we see is that, right? that God prepared history, God has prepared His message, God sends His Son, Christ dies on the cross of Calvary, incarnates in the form of a man, leaves His precious blood, leaves us a wealth of teachings, all these are delicacies placed on the table. And what happens? humanity rejects the Word of God, rejects the banquet that God has provided.

The banquet is free, you just have to come in and eat from it. But people prefer the cares of their life. It is interesting that the things that he puts here, what he portrays are the people involved in the efforts and things of life. Why don't people accept the Father's invitation to be saved and enter eternal life? because they are too involved in the things of the now and the here. They are more concerned with the immediate thing they have, the little toy they have. It is like the child who is too preoccupied with a tiny and cheap toy to accept something much greater that is offered to him because he only thinks in the moment.

And so is the human race. The world is so involved in pleasures, in the things of life that they do not want to accept Jesus Christ. You know the parable of the seed, it says that the seed fell in different places, the sower sowed seed and a type of seed fell next to thorns, it says that when the seed wanted to grow the thorns came around it and strangled and killed it . And the Lord says: those thorns are the cares and pleasures of the world that drown.

How many people feel the desire to go to the Gospel? How many people come here to Church, to our own Church, they listen, something inside them vibrates, they feel the desire to receive the Lord, they know that what they are hearing is good and true but they think: ah, but I have to stop doing this , I have to stop doing the other thing, I have to stop going to the disco every Saturday and getting drunk, I have to stop womanizing, I have to stop deceiving people, I have to do this business that I know is not good give up or I'm going to have to set my life up in a way that counts the price. For a moment they realize what they have to do, their conscience pricks them and they say: hm, I'd rather not.

Others accept the Lord, they even begin the path of faith but the test comes or because they have no root says the Word and they also abandon the Gospel. There are many reasons. What the Lord is saying through His Word is: look, don't allow anything in the world to rob you of the privilege of sitting at the Lord's table. What do you have to give, is there something in your life that prevents you? Look, the Bible says that the Kingdom of heaven is like a person who finds a treasure in a field and sells everything he has to buy that piece of land because there is a treasure inside. She also says that it is like a woman who loses a coin and sweeps the whole house, and until she finds it, she is not calm. Saying: the Kingdom of heaven is valuable, you have to do whatever it takes to enter.

He says that if you have to enter the Kingdom one-eyed or one-armed, do it but enter anyway because it's worth it. Do not let anything of this world, no pleasure, no appetite, no work, nothing of this world break the possibility of entering the Kingdom of God, pay the price you have to pay because one day when you find yourself enjoying the Dinner of the Lamb you will say: thank God that I had the sense to leave those silly things and exchange them for the privilege of dwelling eternally before Your Presence.

Brothers, let's do everything we can do, let's not let anything in this world rob us of the privilege of entering the Lord's Supper, no excuse, no appetite in this world. I'm finishing, what he says here is that this man who had such a generous heart, was so happy, so excited, he could already see his friends sitting there in that delicious meal that he had prepared for them and when he sees his contempt says he gets angry.

Remember that there is the other side of the coin. On one side is the loving, gentle, gracious heart of God, eager to bless humanity. On the other side is the wrath of God, the King who is angry when we reject his offer. There is no neutrality before God's call, there is no "I'm sorry" and God says: okay, don't worry, there's no problem. That's what people believe. God is a very clear God. When He invites you have two options: either you accept and you are blessed or you renounce the invitation and receive the Judgment of God.

It says here that the father of a family, now he is a father of a family, pater familias, as it says in Latin, is a being full of glory, very honorable, and he feels very angry because he has been despised. He who does not accept Christ as his Savior despises him. What does Christ say? he who does not collect with me scatters. Either you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior and receive God's blessing or you reject him and receive God's wrath, there is no middle ground. We can't refuse. God has been so careful, he has put so much love in his invitation.

It says that: "how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" The Lord has invested His angels, His Power, His gifts, He shed the blood of His Son on the cross of Calvary, the Gospel has been preached for thousands of years, He has invested everything He has to save souls. Do you think there will come a day when someone can say to you: "Lord, I'm so sorry, I just didn't pay attention, forgive me but let me in"? He will say: manganson, you missed the opportunity. I did my part, now turn away from Me into everlasting fire.

People don't want to believe in hell but the Bible continually talks about doom, it continually talks about eternal damnation. I don't know if it's like they say there that it's like a fire there with a little devil poking you there for all eternity, what I know is that it's a place where you don't want to be, brother. You want to be in the Presence of God, you want to enjoy the joy of the Lord when you go and sit at His table, not the wrath of the Lord when you reject His offer.

So we tell them: tell people that there are two alternatives that you have that will determine your destiny where you will spend eternity. God has told me something clear about that, that if we are going to preach the Gospel we also have to from time to time, it may not be the first thing that we are going to say but we also have to tell him at some point in the conversation if you see that people are not acknowledging their part, so tell them: look, do you know exactly what you are consigning yourself to? that is eternal damnation, you don't want to go there and God instead offers you salvation and communication and fellowship with Christ Jesus.

I am shocked by what happens at the end. The gentleman says: since these distinguished ones do not want to enter, go to Rossie's place, go to the Palm Street Inn, go to all the shelters in the city, invite the homeless, invite the drunkards, invite the prostitutes, invite the homosexuals , invite the poor, invite the illiterate and come and eat from my table. The Jews says the Bible that: he came to his own and his own did not receive him and the Lord complied.

There are many people at universities like Harvard and Yale, and Boston College and all these great universities reject many of them, intellectuals many times renounce the simple Gospel that the Word proposes to us, rich people feel very powerful to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Who are the ones who have generally accepted Christ first? the poor, the unliterate, not highly educated people, the people who don't have much to lose because they've already lost everything anyway.

Later, with time, when the rich who are not stupid and never lose a good business see what is happening to those people who are receiving the Gospel, they want to enter, they come last, it has always been like that. When the Gospel was preached in the first century, those who came were the Samaritan woman, who does the Lord present to us there? the Samaritan woman, the thief on the cross, Bartimaeus the blind, Plunder the publican, Peter the fisherman, the Lord did not choose from the great sectors of society, he chose the poor and for almost the first four centuries of Christianity he was persecuted, he was rejected, it was trampled on and the powerful people did not want to accept.

In the fourth century, history says, a great vision was given to the Emperor Constantine, in the year 345 I think it was after Jesus Christ and this emperor, after seeing a vision, testifies that he accepted Christ, and then when he converted to Gospel the whole world wanted to convert with him, and he called, ordered his soldiers: the entire Christian Roman army from today, and his entire court: Christians, all his bureaucracy and all his workers: Christians. Overnight Rome went from being a persecutor of the Gospel to now being a follower of Jesus Christ.

But you know what's interesting? that unfortunately with that conversion also came the pressure to change the Gospel. What happens many times when rich people come to Church or intellectually gifted people? they begin to want to change the genuine Gospel, that's why we have to be careful. Let me tell you as our Church grows and more people come there is a danger, and that is that many people will come hungry for the Gospel but they will want to haggle with you. And say: well, I do enter but you have to stop preaching this, you have to stop saying that because I don't like this and that is my great struggle, but I am not willing to sell the Gospel too cheap either.

If they come, they have to make themselves simple, they have to accept the simple Gospel, they have to become like children, they have to humble themselves, they have to recognize their poverty. Only the person who recognizes: I have need, I am a poor devil, without Christ I am nothing. Oh yes I have money, I have education, I have influence but I know that at the end of the day if I look in the mirror with shorts and a flannel I am a man like any other and when I jump into my bed I am simply a body that I need of God, there is no influence or titles or anything. When you're in a doctor's office and you're wearing a green gown, those that grab you back here, you're a man, a poor needy human being. And what if the doctor tells you: look, you have 6 months left to live, you have cancer, you have diabetes or something like that, that's where all human pretensions have gone, brothers.

We must all recognize our poverty, we are nothing except for what God puts in us. Only the poor enter the Kingdom of God. I invite you in the Name of Jesus, recognize that without Christ you are nothing, recognize that Jesus is your only hope, your only salvation, your only way to the Father. Humble yourself before the Lord and sell everything to possess the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Force them to enter tells you the Lord Congregation Lion of Judah. Preach the Gospel on time and out of time. There is room in the house of the Lord. God still has His doors open. I still say that the best harvest is ahead of us. There are still many people to save and that is why we have to campaign and say (singing): we are campaigning and we have to save. The people are already excited. We have to campaign, that's the way. We are in the campaign because there are souls to save hallelujah, force them to enter, let the house of the Lord be filled, let them come from everywhere, from the north, the south, the east, the west, come to the house of the Lord, eat from the table of the Lord

The Lord invites us to be fishermen of souls, how many would like to be a fisherman of souls? Let's ask the Lord to make us radioactive, ask the Lord to give you a ministry of bringing souls to Christ Jesus. Right now, pray, pray to the Lord for that Word. God tells you: force them in, force them in. Preach the Gospel in your factory, preach the Gospel in your neighborhood, young people share the Gospel with someone, a classmate don't be shy, dare in the Name of the Lord.

Christ to sit at His table. He wants to enter hearts, He wants a committed Church. I declare the Spirit of Evangelism, raise your hand now receive a special anointing. I prophesy that this Church becomes a great industry of souls, it becomes a great machinery of faith that receives anointing in the name of Jesus the house will fill up, and we will have to tear down the walls so that more can enter but we will not stay sterile.

Rise up and raise a song, you who have never given birth, you have been pregnant and raise a song because more will be the children of the unmarried than of the one who is married, says the Lord. You will spread to the right and to the left, to the north and to the south. Your children will inherit the devastated cities, you will restore the fallen walls. Do not be scanty, widen the site of your tent and your curtains are extended. Lengthen your ropes and strengthen your stakes because you will stretch out to the right and to the left, to the north and to the south.

Extend the site, extend the place of your tent and let the curtains of your room be extended. Let the courts of your tent be lengthened as well and the strength will also be deeply buried into the ground and be made larger and firmer because you shall extend to the left and to the right, to the north and to the south and you shall possess the nations, your children shall inherit the cities and you shall establish and renew the desolate places says the Lord, so conceive a great vision for God. Conceive a great vision for God this afternoon.

In the name of God I declare the Spirit of Evangelism running, life life life, capacity to give life, you are pregnant right now with the Glory of God. We receive Your Power Father more than Your Glory, make us fertile Lord, make us fertile Father. Delight us with a continuous pregnancy giving birth continuously lives for the Glory of the Name of the Father. We adore you, Lord, we bless you, thank you, thank you, we received your call, don't let us get off, Lord, from that glory, please.

We ask you we beg you Lord keep our minds upright Lord until we see Your Glory fully manifested and be Your Name glorified thank you Lord in Jesus Name. I bless you my brothers the Grace of the Lord be with you.