Humility and Exaltation
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The Lord Jesus had a right to teach humility. Christ Jesus was very God of very God, dwelling in light unapproachable, and yet He humbled Himself, and was found in fashion as a man.
Certainly Christ had a right to teach humility, because He practiced it, and lived it. Christ said that an invited guest should take the lowest seat, lest one more noble than he should enter, and he should be asked to pass down to the lowest seat.
Christ even went so far as to say that one, in giving a dinner or a feast, should call in the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind those who could not recompense him for his hospitality. In all of this, may those of us who name Christ's Name follow in His steps.
2. The Lord Jesus was deservedly exalted. The way of the Cross is the path to the crown. Humility is the stepping-stone to exaltation. Resurrection follows death and decay. Exaltation follows self-negation. The way to get up is to get down. The way to save the life is to lose it. The way to eternal riches is through temporal poverty.
We who would reign with Christ must pass with Him through His suffering. We who would partake of His riches, must share with Him in His poverty. We who would enter into His glorification, must first pass with Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
I. CHOOSING THE CHIEF ROOMS (Luke 14:7)
1. Christ's all-observing eye. The Lord Jesus was the most practical of preachers. He spoke frequently by parables, and His parables were usually based upon things which He saw around Him, things which were familiar to all.
In our verse, we read that Christ marked how the ones who were bidden to a feast, chose out the chief rooms. There was nothing that was covered to the vision of the Lord. He knew what was in man. He saw how they chose out that which gave them honor and prestige.
2. The unchanging nature of the human heart. We are sure that the attitude of those guests of old is that of the guests of today. Paul truly said; "All seek their own," and exhorted; "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Is it not far better to remember the words spoken by God, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not"?
"Ego" is the big "I" that rules the human heart. We are forever saying, that we must, first of all, be true to ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar was cursed of God, because he took honor to himself, and gave not honor to God.
The human heart has never changed. What Christ saw of yore, He still sees in hearts that are not dominated by the Spirit of God.
II. A WARNING WORD (Luke 14:8-9)
As we ponder these words of the Master, we cannot help but believe that He had a far-flung meaning to His words. He was not speaking merely of the then prevalent method of self-exaltation and self-seeking on great feast days. He was looking down through the centuries to a wedding feast, to be set in the skies.
1. Christ had in view the wedding of the Lamb. We read in Revelation that the Marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Wife hath made Herself ready. We also read; "Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb."
2. Christ had in view the placing of the heavenly wedding guests. There are too many who have entirely forgotten that there will be distinctions in the placing of those who gather around the Lamb at the great Marriage Feast in Heaven. Many who have been first down here, will be last up there; and many who have been last, will be first.
The forty-fifth Psalm describes various groups in connection with the King. There is the Queen standing at His right hand, dressed in the gold of Ophir, there are the daughters, and the rich of the people; there is the King's daughter. All of these have honor and joy, but not all are equally placed.
III. THE LAW OF EXALTATION (Luke 14:11)
1. Our text reveals one of God's great paradoxes: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." These words suggest that the way to get up is to get down. This is the very thing which the parable likewise suggests. For, the host of the wedding says unto the one who took the lowest room, "Friend, go up higher"; while the one who took the highest room, is filled with shame as he is forced to retreat to the lowest room.
Is it not true that death is the way to life? Is it not necessary for the grain of wheat to fall in the ground and die, before it can spring forth into life, and unto a marvelously enlarged fruitfulness?
2. Our text is enforced by Christ as our example. Jesus Christ was a Man delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; a Man taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain; therefore, Jesus Christ was exalted to the right hand of the Father.
Jesus Christ, being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death on the Cross: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name."
IV. THE REALM OF REWARDS AND THE GRATUITIES OF GRACE (Luke 14:12-14)
The Lord Jesus, in the verse now before us, is giving an interpretation of the meaning of humility as the pathway to exaltation. Christ said, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee." We call this:
1. A warning against serving for pay. It may be all right to invite our friends and rich neighbors, knowing that they will return the compliments, and invite us again: but we may not expect any reward in Heaven for so doing. "Verily, we have our reward."
2. Serving for love. The Lord Jesus, alter advising against making a dinner to those who could again bid us, and give us a recompense, told us, "When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed."
It is not difficult to catch the meaning of the Master's words. He means that a service rendered where an earthly reward and return is unsought or impossible, shall be a basis for reward in the coming days.
It is necessary for us, therefore, to examine the basis upon which we operate. We need to weigh well the motive which prompts our service. There are some who serve that they may be seen of men. There are others who are seeking, everyone, their own gain from their own quarter. They live for earthly things.
V. THE GREATEST FEAST OF ALL (Luke 14:15-16)
As Christ spoke the words which we have been considering, one who sat at meat with Him, said, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God." The Lord may have marveled because this man grasped the deeper meaning of His words, and looked down through the centuries to that blessed hour when the Kingdom of God should be established, and the King's feast made known. The Lord Jesus immediately turned the attention of the group gathered around Him to the coming great supper. He said, "A certain man made a great supper, and bade many."
1. Let us consider the host. The "certain man" is none other than God, the Father. Is it not remarkable when we think that He shall yet prepare a table before us? This vision is not farfetched.
Have you not read how Jesus, in parable, said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain King, which made a marriage for His Son"? Christ is the Son; the Father is the certain King.
2. Let us consider the guests. Those who were first bidden, and are first mentioned, did not come to the supper. Then, the Lord said unto His servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind."
What does this all suggest? Every man is a sinner undone, unclean, and unworthy of a place at the Marriage of the Lamb. Even to the rich of earth, God says, "Miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." All men are needy; all men are lost; all men are suppliants for grace. There is no human who dares to lift up his head in pride when he comes into the presence of the great God.
VI. THE FOLLY OF THOSE WHO MAKE EXCUSE (Luke 14:18-20)
1. The invitation spurned. Here is one of the strange things which confront us in every age. God is not willing that any should perish. God has written over the door, "Whosoever will may come." God has prepared a sacrifice, and has sent forth His heralders to every nation, and to every creature; and yet men with one consent begin to make excuse.
2. The excuses proffered. One put five yoke of oxen; another put a visitation to a piece of ground; and another put marital relationships as an excuse for refusing the invitation to God's great Supper.
Saddest of all the Lord said, "None of those men which were bidden shall taste of My Supper." God's Spirit will not always call upon men. "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." The time will come when God will shut the door.
AN ILLUSTRATION
It is said that a young man from college approached a great London preacher asking him for the privilege, of filling his pulpit. As the youth was a member of his church, as well as the son of one of the parishioners, he said, "I will be glad for you to take our midweek prayermeeting service." The young theologue said, "I am not a prayermeeting preacher, but the best preacher in college. I want the main Sunday service."
The pastor granted the request, and, after introducing the young man on the following Sunday morning, sat down to hear the wonderful sermon which he was promised by the youth, The college lad arose, dressed in the height of fashion; his hair was well combed, his necktie was well placed. He tried to find his text, but could not. He endeavored to speak, but his words all left him. Embarrassed and ashamed, with drooping head, he left the platform.
As the young man went down, the pastor is reputed to have said, "Young man, if you had gone up the way you are coming down, you might have come down the way you went up."
What the preacher meant was: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.