“Holy Thanksgiving: An Open Invitation”

First streamed on 11.23.22. First shared on 11.29.22. Also see the previous sermon on Luke 17:11-19.

Words in italics were not included in the live streamed study.

Introduction
Context
Bible Study Audio
Bible Study Video
Live Stream Recording
Bible Study Slideshow
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction

No Savior Side Dish

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are all able to enjoy some good food and fellowship – some fellowship and food.

Now, I’ve asked this question before but, speaking of food, what is the best Thanksgiving side dish?

For me, it’s a toss-up between macaroni and cheese and sweet potato souffle. They are the unsung heroes of the holiday.

But no matter what your favorite side dish is, on Thanksgiving, we all know that turkeys get most of the attention. Preparing a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner can take quite some time.

From what I understand, it takes 24 hours just for every four to five pounds of turkey to thaw out in the refrigerator. So, if you want to thaw a 16lb. turkey in the fridge, the USDA says it will take about four days.[1] And this is the USDA’s recommended method of thawing a turkey.

The USDA says you can also thaw a turkey in cold water, which should take about 30 minutes per pound. Or you can thaw it out in the microwave, which takes about 6 minutes per pound.[2]

But they don’t recommend that you just let it thaw out on the kitchen counter. We know that when food is at room temperature too long – the same temperature as the everything else in the room – it starts to go bad. When it’s lukewarm for too long, it can make your guests sick.

Similarly, if we’re at room temperature too long – the same spiritual temperature as everyone else in the unrighteous room of this world – we’ll start to go bad. When we are lukewarm for too long, we can make our God sick.

As Jesus tells the lukewarm Laodiceans in Revelation 3, the church made Him want to vomit them out of His mouth (Rev 3:16). See our previous study on Revelation 3:14-22 (“Room Temperature”).

That said, I also know that some people like to marinate their turkey overnight. And then, of course, it takes several hours to bake or fry or smoke or even slow cook a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

So, typically, on the day of thanksgiving, turkeys require the most attention.

Well, as the song says, “every day is a day of thanksgiving.” And, every day, Jesus deserves most of our attention. So…

If your spiritual life feels dry like old turkey
All of these idols, we gotta quit ‘em cold turkey
I don’t care if you like baked or fried turkey
If your main dish ain’t Christ, man it’s a jive turkey

Christ gave His life for His wife; we ain’t no sidechick
He’s the true superhero; he ain’t no sidekick
It’s all about His will, it’s not about my wish
So no matter your favorite, don’t’ treat’em like a side dish

In life, the Master is the main course. And, of course, we followers must follow the course of Christ. Christ deserves most of our attention – not just an honorable mention.

At thanksgiving, we often focus more on what we’re serving than Who we’re serving.

As the song says, “Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me.” So, when it comes to Thanksgiving, the Lord is the best thing to serve.

We sing, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”, we should also sing, “Great Is My Gratefulness.”

Open Invitation

Now, as you know, the last couple of years we’ve had to be careful about who gets invited to Thanksgiving dinner. We often don’t pack all of our extended family under one roof like we used to.

You know, at family gatherings, Scottons can roll like 50-60 deep. Easy. But, nowadays we often limit Thanksgiving to just close relatives.

Well, I came across an interesting story[3] a little while ago. Apparently, back in 2016, a young guy gets a text from a number that he doesn’t recognize. It says:

“Thanksgiving dinner is at my house on Nov. 24 at 3:00PM. Let me know if you’re coming…”

And the guy’s like, “Who is [this]”. And the person replies, “Your grandma [with a grandma emoji].” And he’s like, “Grandma? Can I have a picture?” And she’s like, “Of who?” And he says, “You lol”.

So, she sends him a picture of herself, and it’s a photo of a middle-aged white woman. And she’s like, “Yes, here I’m at work.”

And he responds by sending a picture of himself, and it’s a photo of a 17-year-old black boy. And he’s like, “You not my grandma [crying emoji, dead emoji, etc.]. But he says, “Can I still get a plate tho?”

And what do you know, she says, “Of course you can. That’s what grandma’s do… feed every one [cake emoji]”.

The young guy shared screenshots of this text message conversation on Twitter.[4] And it was pretty entertaining. But what’s even better is that he actually took this grandmother up on her offer.

And he’s been spending Thanksgiving dinner with what he calls his “second family” for six years.[5]

Now that’s an unexpected Thanksgiving invitation. And from the photos he shares, you can tell he’s so happy and thankful to be part of the family.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, my second family, in the gospels we read of an even greater, unexpected Thanksgiving dinner invitation. For Jesus came to serve not only His close relatives – not only the Jews – but also the Gentiles.

And, often, in the gospels, when the Gentiles realize that they too are invited – that they too can take part in the messianic banquet – that they too can taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8), they’re so happy and thankful to be part of the family.

In Luke, whereas many Jews think they already deserve to be at the table in the Kingdom of God because of their family tree, Gentiles are much more enthusiastic to have a seat with the Savior.¹

And especially from Luke 16:1 to Luke 18:14, we see that the proud, religious² Pharisees do not respond with gratitude to Christ’s words of grace.³

But this account demonstrates that the appropriate response to the Lord’s great grace is grateful faith.⁴

Brothers and sisters, when Christ comes back to consummate the Kingdom, there will be an everlasting, messianic banquet, in which we will continually give thanks. And long before the Lord’s eternal Thanksgiving feast with the faithful, the Lord has said grace.

For, no matter you background, the Lord has graciously extended the invitation for the feast to all people.

And until that great day comes, everyday, we should show great gratitude to the Great Physician for saving our souls from sin-sickness.

Tomorrow, I pray that you don’t merely have a happy Thanksgiving, but a Holy Thanksgiving.

[1] https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/11/18/how-safely-thaw-turkey

[2] https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/11/18/how-safely-thaw-turkey

[3] https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/family/story/grandma-man-accidentally-texted-reunite-6th-thanksgiving-81371059

[4] https://twitter.com/Jamalhinton12/status/798646484438687744/photo/3 , https://twitter.com/Jamalhinton12/status/798646484438687744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E798646484438687744%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodmorningamerica.com%2Ffamily%2Fstory%2Fgrandma-man-accidentally-texted-reunite-6th-thanksgiving-81371059

[5] https://twitter.com/Jamalhinton12/status/1459982391108202498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1459982391108202498%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodmorningamerica.com%2Ffamily%2Fstory%2Fgrandma-man-accidentally-texted-reunite-6th-thanksgiving-81371059

Context

Let’s jump right into our text today.

There are five miracles in this section concerning Christ’s journey to Jerusalem.⁵ In all of them, the miracle is not as important as what follows.⁶

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11-23-22 Luke 17_11-19 Bible Study Slides

Conclusion

My brothers and sisters, dear friends, the Gospel of Jesus Christ transcends all cultural categories.⁷It crosses all geographical, ethnic, economic, and societal lines.⁸

Because no matter who you are, if you aren’t walking faithfully with the Lord, spiritually, you’re a leper.

Yet no matter who you are, Christ calls you to come in repentance and faith for cleansing. For the forgiveness of sins. For eternal salvation. For the great heavenly banquet (cf. Lk 14:16-24) that is eternal life in the consummated kingdom.

Earlier, in Luke 13:29, Jesus says:

People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. (Lk 13:29, NIV)⁹

You see, not just Jews, but people from all over are invited to the Lord’s everlasting Thanksgiving feast. It’s not a question of who can or can’t come, but who will or won’t come.¹⁰

All receive invites but not all will choose to attend the reception.¹¹

And what will be served – who will be served – is the Lord. So though we can savor a side dish, let’s not treat our Savior like a side dish. And let’s be like this good Samaritan.

Like a leper, we were the living dead. Dead in our sins and transgressions (Eph 2:1). But God made us alive in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:5).

And all who come to the feet of Christ with faith and contrition are told, like the leper, “Arise”. For we have been raised to new life. Through faith in Christ, we can be saved.

Upon encountering Christ, the Samaritan leper calls out humbly, obeys faithfully,¹² is saved graciously, and gives thanks gratefully. We should do the same.

After receiving God’s great grace, we must respond with great gratitude¹³ (cf. Lk 18:43; Lk 3:8-9).¹⁴ We who recognize that we have been forgiven much, should therefore love much. After receiving great favor, we must respond with great faith.

Now, in Luke, we read of many Jews who reject Jesus; and many Gentiles who accept Jesus. And as Jesus says in Luke 4:24, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.¹⁵

And, as we see in this account, the people who may or may not gratefully and faithfully respond to God’s grace may not be the ones we expect.¹⁶

But the Lord should expect us to gratefully and faithfully respond to His grace. About the Lord, we sing, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. And to the Lord, we should sing, “Great is My Gratefulness.”

Gratefulness should be flowing from our heart to the Great Physician – who performed a holy heart transplant – saving our souls. We should live thankfully to the One not only heals physical conditions, and social conditions, but our much more critical, spiritual conditions.

All in all, this account presents a clear-cut challenge.¹⁷ Will we be like the majority who reject Christ?¹⁸ Will we be like most people who don’t think they need to be saved? Will we be like the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders who did not respond to Christ’s great grace with grateful faith?

Will we be the ungrateful nine?¹⁹ Or will we be the grateful one?²⁰

Will we give thanks? Will we live thanks? For a major component of faith (i.e., faithfulness) is gratefulness.²¹

Before we say grace tomorrow or any day, let’s make sure that we appreciate the grace of God – which too often goes unappreciated.²²

Dear friends, I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. And no matter who is or isn’t invited to your table tomorrow – no matter who you are – for the Lord’s Holy Thanksgiving, there’s an open invitation.

May the LORD bless you and keep you.

Bibliography

Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. [BDAG]

Balz, Horst Robert, and Gerhard Schneider. Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990–. [EDNT]

Bock, Darrell L. Luke. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994. [Bock IVP]

Evans, Craig A. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew–Luke. Edited by Craig A. Evans and Craig A. Bubeck. First Edition. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2003.

Evans, Craig A. Luke. Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1990. [UBC]

Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Second Edition. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Liefeld, Walter L., and David W. Pao. “Luke.” In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition), edited by Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, Vol. 10. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007. [LP]

Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1996. [LN]

Marshall, I. Howard. “Luke.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, 4th ed., 978–1020. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994. [NBC]

Pao, David W., and Eckhard J. Schnabel. “Luke.” In Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, 251–403. Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007.

Reiling, J., and J. L. Swellengrebel. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies, 1993. [UBS]

Robertson, A. T. A Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament, for Students Familiar with the Elements of Greek. New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1908.

Silva, MoisÈs, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014. [NIDNTTE]

Schreiner, Thomas. “Luke”. In The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary. Edited by Gary M. Burge, and Andrew E. Hill. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012.

Strauss, Mark. “Luke”. In Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke. Vol. 1. Edited by Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.

Trites, Allison A. “Luke”. In Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 12: The Gospel of Luke and Acts. Allison A. Trites and William J. Larkin. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.