THE POWER OF AN INVITATION
Invitations mean a great deal to our society whether you are young or old. There is something about invited to an event that makes you feel special and accepted. For instances when we use to be in school you could determine very quickly if you belonged to a particular group if they invited you to their birthdays and such. I know sometimes some kids cross their fingers hoping that they will be invited to the cool kids party and if that happens then that person will jump for joy at the invitation. There are certainly other examples of this such how a young lady feels when a handsome young man invites on her on a date or how a person feels when then boss invites them out to dinner. Of course many more examples could be given but we can certainly see that giving and receiving invitations are powerful in our society. But, this same thing is true when it comes to Bible and learning about God and that is what I want to look at this morning.
We will be examining several aspects of what the Bible shows about the power of an invitation. The first thing we are going to look at are several examples of how some came to know Jesus because of a simple invitation. Our first example comes from,
John 1:35 Again,
the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He
walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him
speak, and they followed Jesus. 38
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you
seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when
translated, Teacher), "where are You staying?" 39 He said to them, "Come and
see." They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that
day (now it was about the tenth hour). 40
One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon
Peter's brother. 41 He first
found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the
Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah.
You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone).
Here we can certainly see
the power of invitation and what became of it. Because Andrew took the time to
invite his brother Peter to come and see Jesus, Peter ends up becoming one his
followers which leads him to becoming one of the chosen 12 apostles of Christ.
From there as we a read in our Bible we learn that Peter becomes a reckoning
force in furthering the
John 1:43 The
following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to
him, "Follow Me." 44
Now Philip was from
Once again we see a
simply invitation given to Nathanael by Philip. At first Nathanael is hesitant
because he couldn’t understand how anything good come from
What we need to learn
from this is that sometimes people are going to be hesitant about being invited
to know Christ but we must be persistent and tell them how important it is to
know Christ and that they just need to see it for themselves and experience it.
There is no greater invitation that you give as Christians or accept as a
non-Christians than to know Jesus because He has the Words that lead to eternal
life. When you get to know Jesus and understand what he represents it is only
natural for you to want to invite other to know him as well, and we have example
of this when Jesus stops at Samaria and is waiting by Jacob well,
John 4:7 A woman
of
You have to understand
most Jews would walk around
John 4:10 Jesus
answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who
says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have
given you living water." 11
The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well
is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 "Are You greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his
sons and his livestock?" 13
Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst
again, 14 "but whoever
drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life." 15
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst,
nor come here to draw." 16
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered and said,
"I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I
have no husband,' 18
"for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your
husband; in that you spoke truly." 19
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped on
this mountain, and you Jews say that in
Now put yourself in the
shoes of this women and imagine how awkward you would feel for a Jew to be
talking to you and then for this Jewish man to start telling you that he has
water that he can offer that cause you never thirst again. While your pondering
that thought He lets you know that you are open book to him and he knows about
your personal life even though you have never seen him before. At this point
you realize there is something very special about this man so you ask him about
worship and tells what true worship is going to be which worshiping God in
spirit and in truth. Then finally he reveals to you that he is the Christ the
coming Messiah. Thing about how overwhelmed you would be to know that you were
in the presences of the Son of God. You would have forgotten all about your
water pot as well and as we see this cause this woman to go tell all the people
she could about Jesus and what he had done. She was inviting people left and
right to come see Jesus.
John 4:39 And
many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the
woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans had come
to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
Once again we see the
power of an invitation and how this sinful women was able to lead many to
Christ that would not have know him otherwise. This is what God is all about.
He invites people to share in his love and to become his servant. He never
tries to force anyone because he wants you and I to choose whom we will serve
because he has given us a free will. Just as Joshua says,
Joshua 24:15 "And if it seems evil to you to serve the
LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or
the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house,
we will serve the LORD."
Since he has given us this free will this is why God only asks us to invite people to know the Lord and to let them choose their own fate. This is illustrated for us by Jesus in,
Luke 14:16 Then He
said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 "and sent his servant at
supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now
ready.' 18 "But they all
with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have
bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me
excused.' 19 "And
another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I
ask you to have me excused.' 20
"Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot
come.' 21 "So that
servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the
house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and
lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the
lame and the blind.' 22
"And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still
there is room.' 23 "Then
the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and
compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 'For I say to you that none of
those men who were invited shall taste my supper.' "
This is an easy story to
understand. The supper was made and people were invited and the first set of
people rejected the invitation and they made excuses of why they couldn’t come.
It important for us to realize that not everyone will accept you invitation to
know the Lord and just the people in the stories when they don’t want to say no
they will start making excuses but this is going to happen and we must press on
just the man did in our story. He went back out and went to a different class
of people and invited them and they accepted but there was still more room so
he went out and invited all to come to his feast. Of course Jesus was showing
in this story the rejection of Jews to hear him and how that the Gentiles would
be called to know him and become a child a God and how that there is room for
everyone in God’s kingdom who will accept the invitation.
We must always keep this
is the back of our mind. Never give up on giving out invitation to know the
lord. When you rejected over and over again just keep inviting the next person.
Most likely you finally find someone that will accept the invitation and who
knows they may become the next great leader for the cause of Christ. Another
thing you should consider is even if you invite people all your life and no
accepts the invitation you can feel confident that you did not fail because you
have done what God has asked you to do and you can rejoice in that.
The last thing I want to
look at this morning is 2 different ways that you can use the power of an
invitation to lead people to Christ.
1. We need to invite
people to come worship with us or to come to our Bible classes. One survey I
looked at showed that the number 1 reason why people started attending the
worship services was because a friend or a loved one invited them. Now I don’t
remember the exact percentage but it seems that it was around 80% of the people
said this was the reason.
Each one of you comes in
contact with people that nobody else knows and you should be inviting these
people to worship with you. Now, I know that is scary to ask people this
sometimes but must overcome this fear and not worry about what they are going
to think about you because your invitation could be the key to their salvation.
Notice what Paul says in,
1 Thessalonians 2:3
For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in
deceit. 4 But as we have been
approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as
pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.
5 For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you
know, nor a cloak for covetousness -- God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from men,
either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of
Christ. 7 But we were gentle
among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for
you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also
our own lives, because you had become dear to us. I encourage you don’t pass up
the power of a invitation.
Basically
Paul is teaching that as Christians we are not to be concerned about trying to
appease men and women by speaking flattery to them instead we are should be
sharing with them the truth from God’s Word. But at the same time we are not to
shove it down their throats. We are to be gentle and inviting by building
relationships with them which will cause their hearts to more open to God’s
Word and to your invitations.
2.
A second thing we can do has do with building relationships and that is by
inviting people into your homes or inviting them to events where you can get to
know them better and open up opportunities to have a Bible study. This could
also include accepting invitation to other people’s homes. Again, don’t waist
any opportunities of inviting people to know the Lord.
In
conclusion we have learned just how powerful and invitation can be. We saw how
Peter was invited by his brother to know Jesus and how Philip invited Nathaniel
to know Jesus and we saw the results from this and we looked several other
examples that showed how difference a invitation made in people lives and we
can harness that same power today by inviting people to know Jesus and allowing
them to choose whom they will serve. So don’t ever forget the power of an
invitation.
As
always at the end of every lesson I want to offer you invitation and that
invitation is from the Lord,
Matthew 11:28
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. 29 "Take My
yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. 30
"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Jesus want you to know
him and he wants to be part of your life and he is standing at the door
knocking waiting for you to invite him in. (give plan of salvation)