Come To God’s Rich Feast

Sermon on Isaiah 55:1-5

Text: “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 you will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you 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 ruler and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.”

One of the staples of a family gathering is a good meal. We see this especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas. As you sit in the house, the smells of the meal cooking fill the house. Your mouth is watering as you think about the wonderful things you will soon eat. You try not to snack on things because you want to make sure that you save room. Then, you hear those wonderful words that tell you that the feast is ready. As you sit at the table, you see all that has been prepared. Finally, you get to eat what you have been anticipating for so long. This morning, God invites us to come to a feast that he has prepared. There is no other feast like it. COME TO GOD’S RICH FEAST. 1. It Is Free. 2. It Satisfies. 3. It Makes Us God’s People.

The invitation to the meal rings out in verse 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.” First of all, take note of those who are invited to the feast. It is those who are thirsty. They also have no money to pay for what they will receive. Whom is this referring to? It refers to all the people in the world. God is speaking to you and to me. The reason that we are in poverty is we are sinners. Every single sin that you and I have ever committed put us further and further into debt to God. Every time that we have had a cross word with someone else, we racked up our debt. Every time that we assumed the worst about someone else rather than thinking the best increased our poverty. We were spiritually destitute and cannot afford to buy the feast of salvation and eternal life. We would have been shut out of the banquet hall of heaven and would have spent our eternity in the darkness of hell.

Yet, God invites us to come to this feast that he has prepared. He offers to give it to us free of charge. This is not to say that this wondrous banquet did not cost anything. It cost God dearly. It meant that he would send his own Son into the world to be our Savior. Jesus loved you and me so much that he left his throne in heaven to live on this earth in perfect conformity to his Father’s will. Jesus was perfect in every aspect of his life for us. Then, Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation as he willingly went to the cross to pay the debt of sin that we owed God. Our salvation cost Jesus his life. The act of Jesus’ love for us did not end on the cross. He further showed his love for us by rising from the dead. This tells us, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our entire debt of sin was paid in full. This is why God can invite us to the banquet of salvation free of charge. Jesus paid for everything. Now we are invited to come and eat and drink of this feast. It has all been paid for.

There is a part of us that distrusts things that are given to us for free. We catch ourselves thinking that if it is free, it must not be worth anything. This, unfortunately, also comes into people’s thinking when it comes to the salvation that is offered. If it’s free, it isn’t worth much, so I had better find something else that will fill the spiritual hunger that I have. As a result, people run after the pleasures of this life to try and satisfy themselves. The problem with the pursuit of earthly things is that they never completely satisfy us. When we get one thing, we see something else that we think we need. If I get a certain position at work, there is another one that I want more. When I try to fill my life with sinful actions, I don’t find the satisfaction that I thought they would provide. Instead, I am filled with shame. This way of thinking will never take care of my spiritual hunger.

Another thing that we might think of when we hear that something is free is that there has to be a catch. Nothing is truly free. There must be some hidden charge. That thought process also goes on when it comes to our salvation. Surely, it can’t be as simple as that. There must be something that I have to do to receive what God offers here. As a result, we think that if we live a certain way, God will take notice and I will have earned my spot at the eternal feast. So we go through life living as morally as we can. We compare ourselves to other people and think how much better we are doing than they are. This means that we overlook a few things, because they aren’t really big sins. However, if we were to try to enter into God’s feast by paying our own way, we would come up short. The only way that we can enter into heaven is by paying the full price. This way won’t do the trick. Then, what happens is that we see that we are not perfect. When we are honest with ourselves, we see that, no matter how hard we try, we cannot earn our way in. It seems the harder we try, the more we realize that we can’t do it. None these ways will ever satisfy the spiritual hunger that we have.

Listen to what God says in verse 2&3, “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 you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” God asks us, ‘Why would you want to put any effort into things that can never satisfy your spiritual hunger?’ Trying to earn your salvation will only leave you feeling empty. You will try and try and never get there. Jesus did it all for you. What about those sins that keep gnawing at our conscience? Jesus comes to us and assures us that he paid for that sin, too. We also realize that when we have this relationship with God, it puts everything else into perspective, as well. The things that are on the earth really only have meaning because of our relationship with God. Then, we don’t put as much emphasis on these things, which are here today and gone tomorrow. When we know that Jesus is our Savior, we have everything that we truly need. It is in Christ and the salvation that he won for us that we find true satisfaction.

God invites us to listen to his invitation. He says, “Give ear and come to me.” We find this invitation in his holy Word. As we read and study his Word, we see God’s love so clearly. We read about what he did to save us. We also see that this not just a temporary relationship that he enters into with us. He speaks of an everlasting covenant that he makes with us. He is the one who is at work in this agreement. He has done it all for us. He promises that when we come to this banquet, we will be his guests forever.

In verse 5, the guest list is defined a bit more, as God shifts his words from speaking to us to speaking to the one who made the banquet possible: “Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” This invitation is for all people. The Jewish people in the Old Testament had a special relationship with God. He revealed himself to them in a way that he had not done for other nations. He gave them his law. He protected them. He brought them into a land of promise. Yet, the message of salvation was not for them, alone. Throughout the Old Testament, we see many examples of people who were Gentiles, who were believers. As we go through the New Testament, we see that same theme. One of the last things that Jesus told his disciples is that they were to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19&20) When you read about the missionary journeys of Paul, you see the invitation going out to more and more people. This invitation has continued to go out for centuries. By God’s grace, you have heard the invitation. Through the working of the Holy Spirit, you have accepted the invitation. As God’s dearly loved child, you have been seated at the banquet of salvation that has been prepared for you.

We also know that this invitation does not stop with us. God wants to invite more and more people to his banquet. So, we remember our missionaries who are near and far, sharing what God has done for people. We pray that God would bless them and give them the courage and the encouragement to continue to invite people to the feast of salvation. We also pray that God would give us the opportunities and the willingness to share this invitation with others, as well. Each of us knows people who do not know about Jesus and what he has done for them. Because we know what Jesus has done for us, we want to share that with them. They may not accept the invitation right away. We may need to keep inviting them. If they are brought to accept the invitation, that is God’s doing and to his glory. What God wants us to do is to keep inviting them. What a blessing and joy it will be if, through our invitation, that person is brought to faith and takes their seat at the rich banquet that God has prepared for his children.

When we gather with family at a holiday dinner, it is a joyous time. We have the opportunity to be with our loved ones. We can share the joy that comes with being with them. We, also, enjoy the wonderful food that has been so lovingly prepared for us. There are some people who notice others who will not have the opportunity to gather with family at this time. Many have shown the act of kindness and invited them to come and join them so that they won’t be alone and can enjoy the feast with them. This is a pale comparison to the feast that God has prepared for us. He offers us the banquet of salvation. It is there waiting for us because his Son came to the world to be our Savior. Any earthly feast only keeps us full for a period of time. The rich banquet which God gives satisfies us for all time. The invitation goes out to all people. We thank God that we have been invited and we praise God every time another seat is filled. Dear friends, let us continue to come to God’s rich banquet. Amen.