HUMBLING DOWN & LIFTING UP

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 24, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: March 24, 2021 from Luke 14:7-14

Theme: In Jesus’ kingdom, we should both humble ourselves down and welcome the humble up.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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The Lord Jesus got invited once to a Sabbath-Day dinner at the home of a very important Pharisee. He went. And as you might expect, it presented our Lord with some rich opportunities to teach. Most of Luke 14 concerns the lessons that He taught at that dinner.

Already, we’ve seen one of those lessons. It began when the Lord healed a man of a disease called ‘dropsy’. The Pharisees and lawyers who were present were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. And after He did so, He asked them,

“Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 14:6).

It was starting off to be a pretty interesting dinner! He taught the Pharisees that it was in keeping with God’s will to do good on the Sabbath—including the good of healing a sick man. And that takes us, in our time this morning, to two more pieces of instruction that He gave during that dinner.

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We find the first of these two dinner-time lessons in verses 7-11;

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:7-11).

This passage starts by telling us that Jesus noticed how, at this dinner, the dinner guests were seeking the best places for themselves to sit. Rabbis, who wrote later on in history, explained the typical seating arrangements of that time. Back in those days, you didn’t sit at a table in a chair like we do today. Instead, you reclined on a couch. It was a three-person “U” shaped couch called a triclinium with a table in the center. The center place on the couch was considered the place of honor. And to the left of the center place was the second place of honor. But the place to the right of center was considered the third place of honor—or the lowest place. Then, it got more complicated. The three-person couch that was to the left of this first couch would be considered to be in a less honorable position than the first couch. The person on the center of that left couch would be in the fourth most honored position, then the person to that center person’s position would be fifth; then the person to the right would be sixth. And then, the couch to the right of that most honored couch would be the third in honor; with the center position being the seventh most honored position; and the person to the center position’s left would be the eighth; and the person to the right would be the ninth.

You and I can be glad that we don’t have to go through that today! But you can also imagine how people—when they came to dinner—would be jockeying around for the more honorable seats. And the Lord Jesus watched as they did this. And that’s when He spoke this first lesson. It’s that, in Jesus’ kingdom …

1. WE SHOULD HUMBLE OURSELVES DOWN (vv. 7-11).

He said to the dinner guests—many of whom would have been religious leaders and scholars—that when anyone invites them to a fancy dinner, they shouldn’t run over and plop themselves down on the best seat before anyone else. If they did, the dinner host might have to come to them and say, “Please get up. That seat is reserved for an honored guest.” And then—with utter embarrassment—they would have to get up in front of everyone else and sit elsewhere. The only seat available—by that point—would be the least honorable one. Instead, they should go immediately to the least honorable seat. That way, the host would come to them and move them up to a more honorable place.

Now; the Lord wasn’t concerned primarily with seating arrangements or with giving us a tip on how to be honored in front of everyone. Rather, He was using the circumstances to teach—as we’re told in verse 7—a ‘parable’. He was teaching a much larger and more basic principle—one that’s applicable to all of life in His kingdom. He states this larger principle in verse 11;

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 11).

It was a principle that these biblical scholars should have already known. It was described all the way back in Proverbs 25:6-7; where it says,

Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,
And do not stand in the place of the great;
For it is better that he say to you,
“Come up here,”
Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince,
Whom your eyes have seen (Proverbs 25:6-7).

It’s the basic principle that—in Jesus’ kingdom—social gravity goes in reverse. Whoever raises themselves up must come down; and whoever humbles themselves down gets lifted up. It’s illustrated to us powerfully in the story of how two of His disciples came to Him one day—trying to get themselves exalted above the others. They jumped ahead of everyone else and asked that they be allowed to sit with Him on His right hand and on His left when He came into His kingdom. It was a bold request; and as you might remember, it resulted in them both walking back into the midst of the other disciples rather humiliated—and with the other disciples pretty angry at them. But that became an opportunity for the Lord to teach them about how true greatness is to be pursued in His kingdom. He told them;

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).

That’s the basic principle. How do we put it into practice? In Philippians 2:3-4, the apostle Paul wrote;

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4).

And then, Paul gave us the greatest example of all to follow:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (vv. 5-11).

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So; the first of these two ‘dinner-time’ lessons is that, in Jesus’ kingdom, we should seek to humble ourselves down. If we do, we will be raised up.

But there’s a second lesson. That first lesson was directed to those who had been invited to the dinner. It’s that in Jesus’ kingdom, we should seek to humble ourselves down. But the second was directed to the person who did the inviting. It’s the lesson that …

2. WE SHOULD LIFT UP THE HUMBLE (vv. 12-14).

Perhaps Jesus looked around at all those who were trying to get the best seats and saw that they were all viewed as honorable and important people in this world’s eyes. And perhaps He detected from this that the dinner host—a leader among the Pharisees—was ‘keeping up appearances’ by who it was that he invited. So, we read in verses 12-14;

Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:7-14).

To a certain degree, we do this today; don’t we? We sometimes evaluate who we should have over for dinner on the basis of ‘who we owe’. Or we might have someone over for dinner in the hopes that they might be obligated to us. There’s nothing very gracious or particularly generous in having people over for dinner that we know will have us over in return. Instead, Jesus said to invite people over who can’t invite you back. He suggested that we invite those whose circumstances of life make them only able to receive—and not able to give back.

And again, notice the larger principle. He mentions it in verse 14;

“And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (v. 14).

This is a principle that our Lord taught elsewhere—in the Sermon on The Mount. In Matthew 6:1-4, He said;

“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly” (Matthew 6:1-4).

It’s a principle that comes from a conviction that it’s not just other people who see our actions. God also sees them. And it’s an act of great faith in Him to do good to those who cannot repay us—trusting the Father to reward us in His good time.

This is a principle that is very important in our Lord’s kingdom. And just think of how wonderful that reward will be! He said that on the day of His return, He will separate the sheep from the goats—with the goats on His left and the sheep on His right. Matthew 25 tells us;

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:34-40).

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Now; I have to confess that I’m not where I should be in this. But I want to grow; don’t you? I want to measure things less by this world’s standards; but instead, look ahead to the time when our Lord comes into His kingdom reign. That’s when true greatness will be put on display.

And so; let’s be praying together that the Holy Spirit will show us the areas of our lives where we’re too concerned about ourselves, and not enough about others. In the light of our Lord’s coming kingdom, let’s humble ourselves down and lift the humble up.

EA