All Are Welcome (Full Version)

Luke 14:16-24 (New King James Version)
“Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 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.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 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.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 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. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”

We are living in a modern day version of this parable

“ALL Are Welcome” - Familiar words? They should be if only because they are on more church publicity boards than any other phrase. “All are welcome” has such a homely feel to it yet, I believe, it hides one of the most pernicious of delusions and lies that the enemy has ever managed to foist upon the church of God.

I have two serious questions for you.

OK – let me ask you the first question. When was the last time you had an altar call in your church? This week? Wonderful. A month ago? Well OK – at least you did one – or was that a one off? How many of you can say that “We almost never have altar calls at our church.” Well that explains the “All are welcome” on your publicity board then.

Allow me to picture for you an average church council meeting. The vicar or priest or pastor is sitting at the head of the table as chairman of the meeting. To his right is the treasurer and to his left is the secretary. Five or six other worthy souls are also sitting round the table with looks of varying interest and anticipation and, at the other end of the table sits Jesus Himself. He likes to sit in on these meetings as He is quite interested in what His Bride is doing for His Kingdom. The chairman taps his glass to get attention and the meeting proceeds. Various issues are dealt with from funds and the planned Sunday School outing to church cleaning and the voluntary register of coffee servers each Sunday after morning service. Jesus looks bored. Finally, the any other business agenda item comes up and Frank, the young almost new blood on the council starts up – “What about doing an outreach of some kind to attract new people to the church?” He has been waiting a long time to raise this point and Jesus, too, perks up and thinks to Himself, “Hey this is better – they are at last talking about My Kingdom work.” The chairman clears his throat and is clearly almost embarrassed by the question. “Frank”, he starts, “Frank. We had an outreach a few months ago when we invited folk to join us at our summer barbeque. Only three people turned up. Outreach around here just doesn’t seem to work.” Frank looks dismayed – Jesus looks somewhat abashed – “THAT was an outreach?” The chairman, in full flight now, goes on, “That was when we decided to invite everyone to the church. We discussed various ways of inviting them and finally decided that, as they don’t listen very much, we should have a permanent invitation displayed for all the world to see. That is when we had “ALL are Welcome” painted on our publicity board. Jesus got up and left. Frank subsided and gave up..

Perhaps this is why your church hasn’t had an altar call lately – there is just no need and no point having one as no-one will come. Why is that I wonder? Is it perhaps that you have no outreach program; you have no real desire to actually reach the lost. Maybe it’s someone else’s job to do that and all you are there to do is to be a members only club. Maybe you don’t want to risk getting almost radical folk into your peaceful and steady environment. After all, radicals will only cause problems and upset folk – radicals will annoy our neighbours and the local authorities may try to shut us down. Can’t have old Mrs Bloggett in pew 12 upset by someone taking her regular seat – she’s had that seat for over 30 years. Every week, same time, same place. Real old stalwart. No no – can’t have radicals they may upset the really good givers and tithers. That could ruin our finances.

So that brings us to question 2. When was the last time the Gospel was actually preached in your church. John 3:16 or 1 Corinthians 15 – when was either scripture preached in your church by your pastor.

What prompts such questions? This absolutely true story started this off as the Lord prompted me to think about what is said here.

A friend of mine tells the story of a lady who was and still is a regular church go-er. This lady was a fairly typical ‘formal’ church attendee - carried big Bible, always wore a big cross prominently round her neck. She was a choir member and has attended the same church for quite a few years. One day she was told about the son of a fairly close friend who had been to a meeting, had gone forward, prayed the ‘Sinners Prayer’, and had gotten himself saved. To her own and her pastors everlasting shame she had reacted with the following. “Saved? What’s saved?”, she said.

“Saved??? What’s ‘saved’? “

Ezekiel 34:1-6 (NKJV) “ And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”

Lord – have Mercy on us for we have all sinned either by commission or omission. We are all guilty Lord if for no other reason than we knew but we said nothing.

I have said before – only the guilty will be offended by this.