Great Invitations
Isaiah 55: 1-9
March 14, 2004 (Year C, Lent 3)

God is a God who invites, it is His character.  He is not a coercive God.  That’s why in the process of genuine evangelism, as John Wesley put it, we “Offer them Christ.”  We do not shove Jesus down their throats.  We don’t want to manipulate people to accept Jesus.  Instead we present them with the most compelling invitation we can and leave the decision to them. 

God has always been an inviting God.  He cherishes our ability to make meaningful decisions, our creaturely free will with which he has empowered us. 

That’s why he gave Adam and Eve one command in the garden.  Without that one forbidden thing there would have been no possibility to choose for God.  With the command they could choose to obey or disobey.

The Bible is full of God’s invitations to us and most contain the word, “Come”:

Isa 1:18  "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Mat 4:19  "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."

Mat 11:28-29  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

John 7:37-38  On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Rev 22:17  The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

I.       God never forces us to have anything to do with him – he pleads, “Come to me.”  God wants us at his table, he wants our fellowship.  In the Cross a God is revealed who aches with the pain of separation.  

Mat 23:37  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

A.    God has granted us the dignity of accepting or spurning his invitation.  This is why there is a hell -- God will not drag us into heaven, he loves us enough to chose to reject him and be separate from him. 

B.    We see this in action in Jesus’ encounter with the “Rich young ruler”:

"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Mark 10:20-22 

C.    Think about the humility of an Almighty God who literally begs us to come to him.  The invitation is so sweet, so desirable it is a testimony to human cussedness that we refuse it!

II.                 In Isaiah 55 we see the nature of the invitation.

A.    It is a free offer.  He invites us to a table we could not afford, God himself has paid the tab (through Christ). (v1) 

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

B.    He points out the stupidity of refusing the offer (v2). 

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

C.    He offers real life.  Isa. 55:3  Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.  (V2 Talks about satisfaction and rich food.) 

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

D.    He offers mercy.  A free pardon. (v7)

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

E.    He offers it for a limited time. (v6)

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

III.  It was an evening in September of 1997.  Tammy Corey, Robert Semrad, Rebekah Sharpe, and myself had traveled to Raleigh to help make phone calls for the new church Greg Jenks was planting.  My rather self serving “bribe” to get folks to help make calls was that I was going to take them all out for pizza later.  Robert told me that Lilly’s on Glenwood Ave. was voted the best pizza in town and so that sounded like a winner. 

Now, you have to realize that pizza and I have had a life-time romance going on.  I genuinely love pizza.  When I was an undergraduate I was called “Captain Pizza” because I had “extra sensory pizza perception” and could locate a freshly delivered pie anywhere in the dorm.  It was uncanny.  When I was in my early 20s I never got that full sensation after eating loads of pizza and had to rely on my jaws getting tired as the indicator for when I had eaten my fill.  Pizza is the food of heaven.

On that September evening now 7 years ago I stepped up to the counter of the Lilly’s pizza to order this most perfect of comestibles.  The pale, pierced, tattooed, university student behind the counter said to me:

“We’re not taking orders tonight, man!”  I was SHOCKED, and disappointed, “O no! No pizza!” But the slouching student at the counter continued…

“This is our 4^th anniversary tonight, man, and all the pizza is free.”

I couldn’t believe it!  Did he say what I thought he said?  “Pardon?”

“Yeah, dude, the pizza’s free!”

FREE PIZZA!!!  I began to physically shake.  Robert must have thought that something was wrong because he came up behind me.  As he approached I turned around.  Robert said that my eyes were glazed over and I had become rigid.  When I saw him, I cried out:

THE PIZZA’S FREE!  FREE PIZZA!

It was a sublimely spiritual moment in which the Holy Spirit spoke to me.  I’m not kidding!  The Lord really put this on my heart.  He said, “Ben, this is what my invitation is like.  This is like my offer of salvation:

·        People are trying to earn it, but the price has been paid and now it’s a gift.

·        It sounds too good to be true, but you’d have to be a fool to turn it down.

·        Those who accept the invitation receive the gift with great joy.

·        What they receive fills them up and it changes their life.

CONCLUSION:  Almost the last statement in the Bible is God’s invitation to us:

Rev 22:17  The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

What keeps you from responding to God’s great invitation?  Each time we come to the Table of the Lord that invitation is extended.  Here is a wonderful place to receive all that God has offered.

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Isaiah 55:1-9

55:1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,come to the waters;and you who have no money,come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread,and your labor on what does not satisfy?Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me;hear me, that your soul may live.I will make an everlasting covenant with you,my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,a leader and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,because of the LORD your God,the Holy One of Israel,for he has endowed you with splendor."
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
NIV

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