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Turn with me to
Matthew 22: 1-14
The marriage dinner
1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,' 3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.' 4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.'
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:' 6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.' 7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.' 8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.' 9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.' 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.' 11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:' 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.' 13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.'
Introduction:
Here in Matthew chapter 22,
Jesus tells a story that has to do with clothing, and what to wear, and he even talks about wearing the wrong thing.
It’s a disturbing story in some ways,
it doesn’t have a happy ending.
At least not for the one dressed wrong.
But it’s a story with several important lessons to learn, so let’s take a look at this story together this morning & see what we can learn from it.
I. The Message of the Parable
A. The invitation rejected.
In those first two versus it says
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,' And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding:
Now it was very unlikely that any of the people Jesus was speaking to had ever actually been to a royal wedding feast,
but they were all familiar with wedding feasts in general
they had some idea of the importance and magnificence of one that a king would prepare for his own son.
In that day and time, a wedding feast was the highlight of all social life.
a wedding feast that a king prepared for his son would be the “feast of all feasts”.
Jesus was painting a picture here of the most elaborate celebration possible.
This was the ultimate party.
If it took place in Jeffersonville, it would no doubt make everything that’s happened all year long look like nothing at all.
I think it’s important to notice that Jesus compared his kingdom to a feast or a banquet. Being a part of God’s kingdom is like going to a party.
It’s a festive occasion,
a time of fellowship,
a time of joy.
A lot of people seem to believe that you can’t enjoy yourself if you’re a Christian,
to be a Christian means you have to denounce every joy and pleasure in life.
I think Jesus wanted us to understand that the greatest true joys this life has to offer are found in his kingdom.
Verses 2-5
2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,'
3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.' 4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.' 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:'
Now in that place and time, there was a two-stage process of being invited to a wedding. The invitation was actually sent out well in advance of the banquet and everyone sent back their RSVP.
Then, those who had said "yes" received a courtesy reminder on the day of the banquet itself.
So the king sent out his servants to tell everyone to come join the party,
those who had been invited wouldn’t come.
So he tried again, sending out his messengers to say, “Look, it’s going to be a great party -- lots of food and fun!”
But they said, "We’ve got other things to do.
Sorry, can’t make it.
We’d love to,
but we’re just too busy.
You all know how it is.”
And you know how the king felt also.
We’ve all had that happen to us at some time or another.
You work like a dog getting ready for something. Maybe it’s a party.
Maybe it’s Sunday School or an outreach program.
Maybe it’s some get-together for some group in the church.
You spend hours and hours getting everything ready.
You work hard and you’re excited about what you’ve got planned.
The big day comes.
You planned for twenty and three show up.
You planned for thirty and you get eight.
It makes You want to cry.
It makes you angry, frustrated and depressed.
You know how the king in this parable felt.
if you know how the king in this parable felt, then in some small way, you know how God feels whenever one of us rejects his invitation to be a part of the kingdom that he has prepared for us.
But it got even worse.
Versus 6-8
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.' 7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.' 8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.'
I’m sure the Jews listening to Jesus would have thought to themselves,
"Who would do such a thing -- refuse to go to a king’s banquet?
The very idea is crazy." Let’s face it, attending the royal wedding would be the greatest honor a man or woman would ever enjoy in their entire life.
yet these people refused to attend.
They just went on with their everyday lives as usual.
Some of them got downright violent with the messengers
So the king gets furious.
He punishes those rebellious people,
then he decides to extend the invitation of this feast to anyone and everyone who wanted to come.
He tells his servants, “Round up all the people you can.”
Versus 9&10
9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.'
10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.'
Basically the King says, “The food is ready. The drink is ready. We’re gonna have a party.” And he did just that,
He invited everybody.
Anybody who wanted to come was welcome to enjoy the feast -- good and bad.
the chosen people refused,
he invited everyone else.
The banquet hall was filled with people.
Now, to understand what Jesus was trying to say, you need to remember that for three years, Jesus had been teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
which included proclaiming himself as the Messiah, the Son of God.
His message was primarily for the people of Israel,
the chosen people of God
the people who for had said, “We want to be a part of God’s kingdom.”
The king in this parable is God,
the invited guests were his chosen people, the Jews, who had already been called by him. The servants God sent to them again and again were John the Baptist,
Jesus himself,
New Testament apostles
all the old testament prophets.
John the Baptist was rejected and beheaded,
Jesus was rejected and crucified,
the apostles and prophets were rejected and persecuted, many being put to death.
When the Jews rejected the kingdom, the invitation was then extended to anyone and everyone who wanted to come.
In Acts 13:46, Paul and Barnabas said to the Jews of Antioch, "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles" And that’s exactly what they did.
Notice that by the end of the parable, there is no one who is not invited to the son’s wedding feast.
that’s one of the points of the parable.
When God throws a party, it’s the biggest bash in town,
there isn’t a single person who is left off the invitation list.
When Jesus died on the cross and was made sin for us, no one was left out.
The only thing that leaves us out of the feast is if we refuse to accept the invitation,
then it’s entirely our own fault.
God’s desire is to fill his banquet hall with guests.
God wants to throw a party,
he’s invited the world.
So, it’s easy to understand the parable to this point, but then there is this “incident”:
C. The guest without a wedding garment.
Versus 11-14
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:' 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.' 13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.'
The king came in to see how the banquet was going, and he spotted someone without a wedding garment and he was furious.
Illustration:
At the end of World War II, the Russian head of state gave an elaborate banquet to honor British prime minister Winston Churchill. The Russians arrived in their best formal wear -- military dress uniforms -- but their honored guest did not. Churchill arrived wearing his famous zipper coveralls that he had worn during the German bomb attack in London. He thought it would provide a nostalgic touch the Russians would appreciate. They didn’t. They were humiliated and insulted that their prominent guest of honor had not considered their banquet worthy of his best clothes.
You see, wearing the right clothing to a formal dinner honors the host and the occasion. neglecting to wear it is an insult.
Weddings were such a big and important occasion in that day and time that people were expected to wear the proper clothing.
Getting cleaned up and dressed up was a way of showing appreciation and respect for the invitation.
At first, you might wonder how any of those who accepted the king’s invitation could have been expected to come properly attired.
They had been rounded up from every part of the land,
many of them had been taken off the streets.
Even if they had time to dress properly, they didn’t have any clothes for such an event as the wedding of the king’s son.
Well in those days the king supplied the wedding garment himself.
All the guests had to do was just put it on.
here was a man who didn’t even make the small effort involved in putting on the proper provided clothing
It’s important for us to remember that accepting an invitation means accepting the terms of the invitation.
If you go to eat at a restaurant which has a sign out front that says, “Coat and tie required”, don’t go wearing your jeans and T-shirt and expect to get a good reception at the door. Accepting an invitation means accepting the terms of the invitation.
At first glance, it seems a small thing, but it’s not.
This guy without a wedding garment thought he could come to the king’s feast on his own terms,
Like his own clothes or way was good enough.
Forget about what the king wanted or had provided for the event.
that's the case with a lot people and the kingdom of God?
A lot of people want to be a part of the feast, but they don’t want to submit themselves to God’s terms.
II. Lessons For Us Today
As I said earlier, the parable of the wedding feast was originally intended for the Jews, especially the Jewish leaders
Just like God’s salvation.
God chose the people of Israel, but time and time again they rejected God’s prophets, and refused the invitation to follow God’s commandments.
Then, God sent Jesus -- and again, the people of Israel refused to believe that he was the Messiah.
So the invitation was then given to anyone --
the good and bad,
those who knew God’s law and those who didn’t,
both Jews and Gentiles.
And that’s a nice way to read the story, because we believe in Jesus.
Since we believe that Jesus was the Messiah, this story sort of makes you want to smile and get excited because after all, we’re not like those bad old Jews who didn’t accept Jesus.
We believe in Jesus.
We’re in!
Except for this part about the one who "just showed up".
I mean, I could feel good about this story even though it doesn’t really have much of a happy ending….
But I believe this story has a message that is somehow deeper than just the difference between those who believe in Jesus and those who don’t.
The more you study this story, the more you get the feeling that this story says something about the difference between believing in Jesus and really following Jesus.
the difference between accepting Jesus as Savior, and serving Jesus as Lord,
the difference between “joining the church” and being the Church.
There are several lessons that stand out:
A. Our response to God’s invitation is crucial.
It’s a dangerous thing to make light of God’s invitation!
In the parable, some of those who were summoned ignored the king,
others declined because they were too busy with other things,
still others became hostile and violent.
But all of them, each in his own way, "made light" of the invitation.
Hebrews 2:3
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
The invitation to the feast just wasn’t important to any of those who were invited;
it had no priority for them.
Reminds me of people we know who just don’t seem to have any interest in spiritual things. they just simply have no time for them.
Even those of us who are Christians need to examine our lives to see if we are responding to God’s invitation on a daily basis.
Do we still have the love for God that we once had,
the desire to do everything we can to serve him?
Or have things changed?
Somehow our original enthusiasm for the kingdom has a way of growing dim
We can find ourselves in the position of making light of God’s invitation to be his people.
When Paul and Barnabas said to the Jews in Acts 13, "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles"
it’s important to understand that their unworthiness had nothing to do with their qualities or lack of them.
The Gentiles weren’t a morally better people.
it was the Jews’ stubborn attitude and their refusal to obey that made them "unworthy".
What makes a person worthy of salvation today is the same thing that has always made a person worthy of salvation --
a willingness to commit our lives to God and take him at his word,
obey him.
Whether or not God judges you as worthy of his kingdom is determined by your response to him!
it’s not just your initial response in becoming a Christian, but your continued response in being an obedient follower of Christ.
B. God’s invitation is extended to everyone.
The king sends his servants out into the streets to invite everyone they can find,
"both bad and good".
Revelation 22:17
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Who can accept the invitation of God?
Anybody who wants to!
God’s invitation is extended to people who have lived moral, upright lives since the time they were little children, as well as to the most wicked sinners of society --
the murderers, rapists and prostitutes of this world.
Everyone is invited,
"both bad and good".
That’s what’s known as grace.
It’s one of the things that distinguishes the kingdom of our Lord.
By grace, God invites all kinds of people to the party --
even tax collectors and prostitutes,
the good and the bad.
I Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
That’s the grace of God’s invitation.
It calls you wherever you may be to something better.
C. Grace doesn’t eliminate standards.
The fact that we enter the kingdom by grace doesn’t mean that there are no standards.
The king who gave this banquet discovered a man who had no "wedding garment".
This man hadn’t made an effort to prepare himself for the feast
showed a half-hearted attitude;
he obviously wasn’t taking his presence at the feast seriously.
Even though salvation is by grace, the kingdom of God involves living by certain standards. Being a part of God’s kingdom means a serious effort to live up to kingdoms standards. Spiritual sloppiness will not be acceptable at the banquet of the King of Kings!
It’s true that the door of salvation is open to all men,
when we come through that door we must put off the old man and put on the new man. Grace is not just a gift; grace is a responsibility.
Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
A man cannot go on living the life he lived before he became a follower of Christ.
He must be clothed in a new purity
a new holiness
a new righteousness.
We’ve got to be committed to getting our life in line with what God wants us to be.
I’m talking about a lot more than just sitting in this pew and enduring an hour of worship service every Sunday morning.
Let me tell you, you can get wet from head to foot and be physically baptized a thousand times over. But if you’re not baptized from the inside out; if your heart stays the same, there’s no amount of water on the face of this earth that can save you.
Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen.
That’s another way of saying:
Everybody is invited, but very few wind up at the table.
Why?
It certainly isn’t God’s fault.
He’s prepared a feast for everyone,
but he’s not going to force anyone to eat and drink.
If you miss out on the party and you go hungry, you have only yourself to blame.
Everyone has the opportunity to enter the kingdom of God, but only a few will accept the invitation
Only a few will be serious enough to clothe themselves properly
Conclusion:
I have a story I'd like to read to you about a family that was working through some problems. The dad, it seems, was a classic example of a workaholic 20th-century American capitalist. And because of this, the family had done quite well -- in terms of money. But he worked long hours, and sometimes seven days a week. He had invested most of himself in climbing the corporate ladder and making money, and he’d done well at that. He was now one of the top executives in his organization, but his marriage had been in trouble for years. His wife had put up with a lot, and tried to hold the family together. She had actually done a pretty good job of it, and their two kids were turning out pretty good. But there had been some acting out and some incidents with their son at school. And so the mom started going to a family therapist, to help herself deal with some of the pain in her own life, and to help her children deal with some of the issues she sensed they were
dealing with. But over and over again, the conversations seemed to come back around to Dad, so after weeks of asking, and pleading, the father finally showed up for one of the sessions.
It was during the third session with the whole family that the daughter, who was now in college, decided to confront her Dad about some things which had caused her a great deal of pain when she was growing up. She’d been trying to get her courage up for several weeks, and finally the time had come. She turned to her father, and said, "Couldn’t you have come to at least one of my softball games when I was in elementary school? And when I was in middle school and got a part in the school play, do you know how much I wanted you to come and see the performance? Even though you told me you couldn’t, that you had to work, I still kept looking for you that night, I still hoped you might be there. And then when you weren’t there to see me on senior prom night, I guess that was it. I guess that’s when I stopped counting on you to be there."
The father listened, and looked as if he was getting angrier and angrier as these charges were leveled at him. Finally he said, "Okay, I messed up, all right?! You say it hurt you, I believe you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you, okay? Forgive me, all right? I apologize."
And the daughter said, "I’ve already forgiven you, Daddy. I had to do that to get on with my life. And I’ve learned to deal with the pain and disappointment. That’s not the worst part. The worst part is what happened to you. You missed out on getting to know me, and you missed out on enjoying me. The saddest part is you -- you missed out on me.
I can’t help but feel that if God spoke to you this morning, he’d say the same thing.
His biggest regret is that you have missed out on the opportunity to be with him,
to get to know him.
The bad news is, those years can never be recovered.
You can't do anything about the years you've wasted
The good news is, the invitation still stands.
God has prepared a spiritual feast for anybody who wants to join him.
He wants you to partake of that joy with him.
But no one will enjoy the "feast" of the kingdom if they refuse to take the kingdom seriously. Whether or not you come to the feast depends on you.
If you take the kingdom of God lightly, you won't be there.
There will always be some excuse you can come up with.
But if you give the King’s invitation the priority it deserves,
willing to believe it and obey it,
then you will enjoy the blessings of that kingdom throughout eternity.
