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October 9, 2005
21st Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 25:6-9
Pastor Ben Berger

You're Invited to the Lord's Party

Everyone loves a party. Birthday parties, Packer Parties, Christmas Parties, Friday Parties, End of the Year Parties, whatever reason we can find Parties. I think we like parties for two basic reasons. First, we like to enjoy the blessings of a party: food, drink, family, friends, all kinds of good things. Second, parties give us an escape from the troubles of this world. The only problem with our parties is that they end. The blessings turn into trash that needs to be cleaned up; the escape comes to an end and our troubles are still waiting for us the next day. Wouldn't you like to attend a party where the blessings never ran out and the sorrows never returned? Only one person could host such a party: our LORD Jesus. And You Are Invited to the LORD's Party. At his party 1) He will provide every blessing and 2) He will remove every sorrow.

The LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food…a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest of wines (6). What blessings do you want? Let's just stop for a moment and make a list of all the things you truly want in life. Let's start with relationships: marriage, a family, friends, a close, personal relationship with your Savior God. What about material things: a home, food, clothes, toys - and not just getting by. And emotional blessings: success, accomplishment, happiness, peace, comfort, strength, guidance, direction. Anything else?

The LORD is preparing a feast with every blessing. Last week Pastor Wenzel reminded us that the LORD knows and fills our needs. Today I'm going to go one step further. The LORD provides more than we need, even more than we want.

At his party the LORD will provide the best of all his blessings. We'll have the best of meats and the finest of wines, more than we can eat and drink into eternity. He'll give us a mansion and city in which to live that is more beautiful than we could ever imagine. We'll finally have a relationship with him built only on his love rather than our fear. We'll finally live in perfect love and harmony with everyone around us. We will never crave happiness, peace or comfort again because in the presence of the LORD we'll be in perfect, eternal bliss.

Where will we find this party? On this mountain Isaiah tells us. The LORD often refers to heaven as the city of Jerusalem or Mount Zion. Jerusalem and Zion have become synonymous with the LORD's presence. Only in the LORD's presence will we find all of his blessings. On this earth blessings fade but with the LORD the blessings will never run dry. On the Last Day the LORD will gather all of his people to his holy mountain.

Who is invited to the feast on his mountain? Everyone. The LORD takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32). He wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). The LORD has sent out his people and his own Son to invite every soul to join him for the feast on his mountain.

As we heard in the Gospel reading, many people will reject the invitation. We think that we don't need the blessings of the LORD's feast because we are satisfied with what we have. Besides that we're too busy. We've got a family to raise, games to play, work to do and we need some time off to relax. How many of us already reject the invitation to worship, to Bible study, to family or personal devotion. We tell the LORD that we don't need or want his blessings. We have our own agendas and trust that we can do just fine on our own. What a bunch of phooey!

On our own we cannot find or offer the blessings of the LORD's feast. Maybe it's fine that we never enjoy his blessings because we don't deserve them anyway. We think that we know what will make us happy. We even think that we know how to find those blessings. We know nothing. There's only one way to receive all of the LORD's blessings and that's to keep his law perfectly. We don't know or understand his law perfectly. Even if we did know it, we wouldn't want or be able to keep it perfectly. On our own we will lose every blessing.

Only the LORD Almighty can host a party that provides every blessing. When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons (Galatians 4:4-5). Only God's Son, Jesus Christ, knows his Father's will perfectly. Only God's Son has the desire to keep his Father's will perfectly. And only God's Son did keep that law perfectly. Now only God's children through faith in his Son, Jesus, will inherit the blessings of a perfect life.

You are invited to the LORD's party, at which he will provide you with every blessing. Push every other invitation, all your other plans to the side. Forget everything else and in faith accept this invitation to receive every blessing you could ever want or imagine.

At his party the LORD will not only provide every blessing, but he will also remove every sorrow. The second reason we go to parties is to escape our troubles and sorrows.

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations (7). A shroud or sheet is a sign of mourning. Perhaps you think of a widow who covers her face with a veil when attending the funeral of her husband. Maybe you remember some of the pictures from 9/11 or the recent hurricanes when people buried their faces in their hands. We often try to escape sorrow by covering or hiding our emotions, hoping that if others can't see them, they don't exist.

Sorrow exists for all people; we all have sorrow buried deep in our hearts and we are adding to the pile all the time. Death is that one sorrow that no one escapes. We will all face death many times in our lives. First it will be death in general, the death we see from murder, accident and natural disaster. Then we'll experience the death of loved ones, grandmas and grandpas, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, friends and family. Finally we will face our own death possibly with fear and anxiety.

Before death comes many other sorrows will trouble our world. Let's make another list - this time of all the sorrows we want to get rid of. It starts with relationships again, doesn't it? Don't we want to remove the fear and guilt we have with God, the disagreement and differences in our marriage, the anger and betrayal with our friends. We want to remove the worry of paying the bills this month, the anxiety of saving for retirement and the fear for our children's future. Try as we may we just can't escape sorrow for any length of time.

The LORD invites us to his party where he will remove every sorrow. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth (8). When the LORD says that he will destroy sorrow and swallow up death forever, he means it. He means that sorrow and death will cease to exist. At his party sorrow will never again enter our lives. Never again will we worry about paying bills or saving for the future. Never again will we suffer anger, hatred or betrayal. Never again will we look to others for attention or approval or love. There will be no trouble, no sorrow and no death. Rather, as we arrive at the feast the LORD will wipe away our tears; he will fill our hearts with joy and put a forever smile on our faces.

Once again we know that only the LORD could host a party that removes all sorrow. We know that we deserve every sorrow that comes our way. We know that for our sin we deserve to suffer in eternal sorrow in hell. We feel the guilt and shame in our hearts; that's part of the sorrow we wish to remove. We have tried to get rid of our sorrows on our own. We work harder, try harder, party harder; it seems the harder we try, the more sorrow comes. There is only one way to remove every sorrow and that is to remove every sin - something we are not able to do.

God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son (John 3:16)… and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin (1 John 1:7). After Jesus lived a perfect life to provide us with every blessing, he offered his life on the cross to remove every sorrow. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and Jesus volunteered to die for every one of us. He gave his life on the cross and his soul to hell. Because Jesus' is the Son of God, his death removes the sin of the entire world. When Jesus rose from the dead, he proved that he had conquered sin, death and every sorrow. Now you are invited to his feast of victory.

Today, I plead with you to accept your invitation to the Lord's party, to Jesus' feast of victory. I pray that you will respond as the people in our text did. Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation (9). The LORD has spoken (8). He has offered you an invitation to his party and sealed the invitation with the life, death and resurrection of his Son. Now with the power of the Holy Spirit, accept his invitation by trusting his Word.

Show your trust and live your faith by being glad and rejoicing in his salvation. We may have to wait for the final feast, but already today we can begin to rejoice and anticipate the celebration. You are invited to the LORD's party. He'll provide every blessing and remove every sorrow. I'll see you there.