May 18, 2025

Luke 14:1-24

The Table Set By Grace

Sunday Sermons

What if true freedom begins with honesty? What if real joy grows in the soil of humility? What if grace doesn’t ask you to earn your seat—but simply invites you to come?

There is a table—where you don’t have to be a somebody to get a seat, where the humble become the joyful, and where outcasts, outsiders and the overlooked are all invited in.

Join Pastor Jim as he leads us into the house of a leader of the Pharisees in Luke 14 and Jesus opens our eyes to a banquet of scandalous welcome, where grace rewrites the guest list. This is The Table Set by Grace—and there’s room for you.

Speaker

Jim Thomas

Series

The Gospel According to Luke

Go to Series

Scripture

Luke 14:1-24

Topics
Community Life Growth & Discipleship

Sermon Notes

Luke 14:1-24

The Table Set By Grace

Pastor Jim Thomas

1. The Freedom of Gospel Honesty

The Miracles of Jesus:
  1. Arouse curiosity about Jesus
  2. Display the power of Jesus
  3. Reveal the compassion of Jesus
  4. Affirm the identity of Jesus
  5. Inspire the worship of Jesus

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

2. The Joy of Gospel Humility

“The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend.”
A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Humility is a whole new way of approaching life: an acceptance of our status as sinful and yet loved in the gospel, and consequently a self-forgetful, unpretentious bounce in our step that lives life to the full, embracing it as a wonderful gift from God.”
Gavin Ortlund, Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness

3. The Scandal of Gospel Hospitality

“God’s invitation goes not to the well-connected but to the well-aware—to those aware of their need.”
Michael Wilcock, The Message of Luke

“I used to think that God liked only certain people – those who lived up to his standards. But I’m increasingly surprised by his choice of friends. And even more surprised that his choice includes me.”
Steve Brown, What Was I Thinking?

God’s desire is to fill His table set by grace.

“The gospel is not good advice to men, but good news about Christ; not an invitation to us to do anything, but a declaration of what God has done; not a demand, but an offer.”
John Stott

“The Master of the house is more willing to welcome than we are to come. His heart is set on filling His table.”
Charles Spurgeon

Discussion Questions

  • What excuses do we make to avoid helping others? Are our priorities out of order? What keeps us so fixated on ourselves that we don’t show up for others? Are we ready to roll up our sleeves and get busy working for the kingdom? Do we realize that our efforts on earth can echo into eternity?
  • How can we cultivate a heart of humility? Are we exhausted by constantly trying to prop up our image and pretend that we have it all together all the time? What happens to our hearts when we finally lay down this human–fueled hypocrisy and prideful posing to start walking in the full freedom of gospel grace and honest humility?
  • How can we unpack the paradox of the depth of our sin and the heights of the love of Jesus? How do we lean into, and live out, these two truths? Do we understand that the more seriously we see our sin, the more amazing God’s grace looks in comparison?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“King Forevermore (God The Uncreated One)“ by Aaron Keyes and Pete James
“He Is Making All Things Right“ by Ben Shive, Bryan Fowler, Skye Peterson
“Before The Throne Of God Above“ by Charitie Lees Bancroft and Vikki Cook
“All My Boast Is in Jesus“ by Bryan Fowler, Matt Papa, Matthew Boswell, Keith Getty
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: Let us go to the House of the Lord

Leader: I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord!
People: Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God!

Leader: Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.
People: Blessed is he whose hope is in the Lord, Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.

Leader: The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.
All: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

The beginning lines of this Call to Worship are taken from Psalm 122, one of the Psalms of Ascent, which Israelites would sing and recite as they traveled up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

Classic Prayer: Bonaventure, 1221-1274

Let us bow the knees of our heart in devotion before the throne of the eternal majesty. With tears and groans before the royal throne of the Trinity, let us pray without ceasing that God the Father, by his blessed Son, would grant us the grace of mental acuity in the Holy Spirit, that we may know what is the breadth and length and depth and height of His love.

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