SERMON OUTLINE:
The Wedding (vs 2&4)
The First Invited Guests (vs 3&4)
The Other Invited Guests (vs 8-10)
The Gate Crasher (vs 11-14)
SERMON BODY
Ill:
Can you guess the couples from their wedding photos quiz
• Andy Murray & Kim Sears
• Elvis Presley & Priscilla Ann Wagner
• George-Clooney & Amal-Alamuddin
• Muhammed Ali's & Khalilah Camacho Ali
• Wayne & Coleen Rooney
• Baraka & Michelle Obama
• Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt
• Prince William and Kate Middleton
• TRANSITION: Show own wedding photo
• And tell joke!
Ill:
• In a few weeks-time Penny & myself will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary;
• Someone asked us recently;
• Was there a successful recipe for keeping our marriage fresh, & healthy?
• I replied;
• Well once a week we go out for a nice romantic candlelit meal.
• Penny goes on Tuesdays and I go on a Thursday!
• TRANSITION: Weddings are special occasions:
• They are times of celebration.
• They are times when we rejoice and express joy.
• Weddings are a time when we enjoy the company of those we love;
• And we rejoice at the new bond of unison and commitment between two people.
Ill:
• In our society weddings are still big events,
• Despite the fact that the simplest of civil marriages costs less than £50,
• According to Wedding Guide UK.
• The average cost of getting married in the UK is around £11,000;
• With the vast majority of weddings falling between £5,000 and £15,000.
• That’s a lot of money!
But wedding days have always been expensive days:
• In Bible times and still today in the Jewish culture;
• Weddings were, and are, a big deal:
• There is a certain protocol that was to be followed.
• And both the poor and rich were bound by tradition and culture to abide by it.
• This parable that we are looking at this morning
• Is set in an Eastern wedding situation.
(1). The Wedding (vs 2&4)
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.”
• The custom in the East at this time was to invite people to the wedding feast;
• A long time before the occasion actually occurred.
• Now in our day;
• We send out a wedding invitation with the date, the venue and of course;
• The name of the people getting married.
• But in Biblical times it was different;
• The invitation (written or verbal) just said the name of the people getting married.
• No venue and no date!
Question: Why no venue?
Answer: Because each wedding followed Jewish tradition.
• Jewish weddings followed tradition so you knew where the wedding would take place.
• On the day of the wedding the groom would approach the brides home,
• And a cry would echo through the streets, "The bridegroom is coming."
• The groom did not enter the bride's house,
• Instead she, the bride came out to meet him.
• Then bride and groom, accompanied by their wedding party,
• Walked together back to the groom's home for the marriage ceremony.
• Then the public ceremony took place.
Question: Why no date?
Answer: Because each wedding followed Jewish tradition.
• Once the marriage had been arranged the fiancé/groom returned to his home;
• And started to build a house;
• Or more often add a room to the existing family house (i.e. John 14 style)
• This often took about a year, when the preparations had been completed;
• The groom would then return for his bride.
• And when the time was right the groom would approach the brides home,
• Weddings often took place at night.
• Groom and his associates with torches light would approach the bride’s home;
• The shout would go throughout the village, "The bridegroom is coming!"
• So the groom would come and claim his bride.
• TRANSITION:
• So without knowing the exact date;
• The custom was you acknowledged and accepted the invitation;
• And you dropped everything to celebrate this most important and great occasion.
• So everything else in life was therefore secondary to this important occasion.
• Especially if it was a royal wedding, the Kings own son!
Note:
• Obviously there were clues given as to when the wedding might take place.
• Plans normally took a year (rough guide);
• But also news would be leaked that the food was being prepared;
• Note: that you marriages were always arranged;
• These were often local occasions between families in the same village or one nearby;
• They often took place within the wider family.
• So news about the wedding preparations being near soon leaked out.
Ill:
• In recent times cooking has become a spectator sport,
• There are endless cooking programmes on the T.V.
• That seem to invade our screen every evening of the week.
• People like Gordon Ramsey, Rick Stein, Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall;
• Have achieved celebrity status.
• By knocking up a posh version of beans on toast!
• Ironically, at the same time that people are spending hours a week;
• Watching other people cook;
• The experts say most of us are actually doing less cooking than ever before!
• We eat more take-away meals than ever before;
• As well as more supermarket prepared meals.
• I read recently;
• That some single person flats are now being built without a kitchen!
In Biblical times you either cooked or you starved!
• And cooking was both time-consuming and hard physical work.
• So the kind of royal wedding banquet;
• Which Jesus spoke of in the parable we have read today,
• Was not the one-off meal;
• But a lavish feast expanding over days,
• To which a whole community would be invited.
• The whole community knew that the wedding day was fast approaching.
So the King in Jesus' story:
• Had spent a vast amount of human energy in making the feast;
• And it was put together at a huge financial cost.
• Notice the reference in verse 4;
• The expensive animals which had been slaughtered to provide meat for the occasion.
• A great deal of valuable food was be used,
• And meat was a treat for these agriculture or fishing based communities.
• Only when the food had been prepared would the actual date of the wedding be known;
• So lives had to be organised around that factor.
But again tradition tells us:
• If it was a first time wedding (i.e. the bride were a virgin);
• Then the wedding normally took place on Wednesday.
• If it was a second wedding (i.e. the bride was a widow etc.);
• The wedding took place on a Thursday.
• So once again tradition helped you or guided you to what day of the week;
• The wedding was likely to take place.
(2). The First Invited Guests (vs 3&4).
“He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 ‘Then he sent some more servants and said, “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.””
• In any age an invitation from royalty to a wedding was a great honour;
• Just out of curiosity;
• How many of you went to the wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton?
• Was it just me!!!
• Chances are if you did go,
• it was only to stand with the thousands of onlookers and gaze on from afar.
To be invited to a royal wedding was and always has been a great honour:
• As mentioned earlier;
• In Bible times the custom was to send two invitations:
• The first was to tell everyone that the event was being planned;
• And then the second was to tell everyone that everything was ready and about to begin.
• The invitation that we read about in verse 3;
• Was the second invitation to the selected few.
• They had already received the first invitation and had indicated that they would attend.
So twice the King invited these people:
• In fact the second time the King makes the invite even more appealing.
• Verse 4 says have gave them yet another chance to respond.
• I love the way the Living Bible translates verse 4:
“So he sent other servants to tell them,
‘Everything is ready and the roast is in the oven. Hurry!’”
• Note the peoples response to this second invitation;
• They just go about mundane things; “one to his filed the other to his business,”
• Seems they are more interested in making a little bit more money;
• Than obeying and pleasing the King.
• But others (verse 6 says);
• “Seized the messengers and mistreated them and killed them!”
• The response goes from bad to worse;
• Not just snubbing the king or ignoring the king;
• Now they are rebelling and opposing the king.
• At this news the King responded like any ancient royal monarch would;
• He was so outraged by their treatment of his messengers;
• That he would send his army to destroy the murderers and burn their city.
This might be a good point to stop and bring some interpretation to the parable:
• Question: Who is the King?
• Answer: No prizes for guessing the King represents God the Father.
• Question: Who is the Son?
• Answer: No rewards for predicting the Son represents Jesus Christ
• Question: Who are these first set of invited guests?
• Answer: The Jewish people. The chosen people of God.
Ill:
You need only look at the end of Matthew chapter 23 (verse 37) to get the point!
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing"
• Historically, the Jewish people had been invited to the wedding;
• The messengers/servants (representing the prophets of God);
• Reminded the Jewish people again and again of their unique position.
• The invitation was to come and have fellowship with the Son.
• (Notice that the marriage feast is for ‘the son.’).
• And although the Jewish people had eagerly been awaiting the Messiah!
• The problem is the Messiah – Jesus – is not exactly what they wanted!
• He did not fit their understanding.
• They were looking for a political Messiah to rid the nation of their Roman oppressors;
• And Jesus came to fight bigger enemies than the Romans;
• He came to destroy sin, death and the devil!
Now because those religious leaders (Pharisees, scribes, & rulers);
• Had made up their mind to reject him and even to kill him!
• Jesus told this parable;
• It is linked to the previous two parables recorded in chapter 21;
• And the key verse that links them is (chapter 21) verse 43):
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit”
• Now when Jesus spoke those words;
• He was not out to win friends and influence people;
• He knew that his announcement would upset any Jew;
• So you can imagine the anger and rage those words stirred up;
• In the heart of these fanatical religious Jewish leaders.
• Especially, when they hear these words from a ‘carpenter turned preacher.’
• Who was he to say that they the religious aristocracy;
• The guardians of the faith;
• Where going to lose their privileged position as God’s people.
Noting:
• The excuses given in the parable.
• A reminder that the things that make people deaf to God’s invite;
• Are not necessarily bad in themselves.
• One man went to his estate, another to his business;
• None of the go off to wild and immoral adventures.
• They were so consumed with the everyday things of life;
• That they forgot about the important issues of eternity!
• Verse 5: “But they paid no attention”
• Like many today, lethargy rules, they could not be bothered!
• They were more concerned with the ordinary, normal matters of life;
• Counting them as of far greater importance than the Kings invitation;
• Their hearts was fixed on the insignificant instead of the important.
Ill:
David Shepherd story.
(3). The Other Invited Guests (vs 8-10).
“So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
• When the select few reject their offer;
• The King sends out an open invitation to all men, everywhere!
• Everyone is invited.
• It does not make any difference whether they have a respectable reputation,
• Or are disreputable in the eyes of society.
• Both bad and good as used here are only men's evaluation.
Once again the application is straight forward:
• These other guests are Gentiles (non-Jews);
• People like you and me!
• This is the message and history of Christianity;
• The gospel has gone out to all the world,
• And it has always been "whosoever will may come,"
• And for the last two-thousand years;
• Billions have come in response, out of the highways and byways of life.
From this parable, I want to point out a very important truth:
• The gates of God’s kingdom are open wide.
• Salvation is not based on ethnicity, education, income bracket,
• It is not based on popularity, personality type, athletic ability, or attractiveness.
• It is based on grace!
• The invite is free and contains your name but it requires R.S.V.P.
(4). The Gate-Crasher (vs 11-14)
“‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.
13 ‘Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
14 ‘For many are invited, but few are chosen.’”
The high point of the feast was when the king himself came in to the celebrations.
• For many who attended this may well be the highlight of this feast;
• An opportunity for a personal acquaintanceship with the king.
• When he enters the celebrations he saw there a man without a wedding garment.
• He was what we would call today a gate-crasher.
• He came in without the prescribed proper dress.
• He was there on false grounds.
Ill:
• At every Eastern wedding like this,
• The one who gave the marriage feast always provided wedding garments for the guests to wear.
• They did not cost the guests anything -- they were provided.
• The robe was important because the robes placed everyone on the same footing.
• Rich and poor, city and country, family and friend,
• They were all welcomed and honoured and respected on an equal footing.
• The robe was not just acceptance.
• The robe was a symbol of transformation.
• The robe transformed everyone into being a member of this one special wedding family.
• So all they needed was to put on the wedding garment and they could come to the feast.
• Yet when the king comes he finds a man there without one.
Once again it is not difficult to interpret this;
• The invitation may be universal, “Whoever may come”,
• But it is also conditional!
• Although the gates of God’s kingdom are open wide,
• The kingdom still has gates and we must enter through them.
• The kingdom imposes conditions on us.
• We must wear the right garments to the feast.
Question: What are the garments?
Answer:
• Both the Old Testament and the New Testament mention robes/garments;
• Often as symbols of righteousness.
Ill:
• Isaiah chapter 61 verse 10 comes to mind.
• At the end of this chapter praising what God will do when the Messiah will arrive,
• And bring the year of the Lord’s favour.
• Verse 10 proclaims (Living Bible):
“Let me tell you how happy God has made me! For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and draped about me the robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.”
• God provides the garments of salvation, the wedding clothes to wear at His banquet.
• All the invited guests would be offered the wedding garment.
• So the offense of this man who was thrown out,
• Was that he wore his own clothes, instead of the celebratory wedding garment.
• In other words, he thought he was good enough as he was!
Ill:
• There are some people that believe that they are good enough;
• To enter into God’s kingdom based upon their good works or good life!
• Yet the Bible teaches when we depend on our own righteousness;
• It is just like “Dirty rags”
• Quote: Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6 (Living Bible):
"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags."
• God wants you to respond to His invitation just as you are,
• But He expects you to understand;
• That just as you are is not good enough!
• You must ask for His forgiveness;
• And be clothed in the righteousness of Christ in order to enter into His kingdom.
• He will provide the wedding garments,
• But you must choose to put them on.
Note:
• This man was standing there without a wedding garment.
• And, in the original Greek text, Greek language,
• The account makes clear that his was a deliberate refusal.
• The Greek word used in the text implies a deliberate action of the will.
• When confronted by the king:
• We read that the man was speechless; he had nothing to say.
So the king said,
“Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are invited, but few are chosen.’
• So this parable ends with a sobering ‘sting in the tale’.
• It is there to make you think and if need be respond!
Ill:
• Someone described the preachers job as:
• “To comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable”
• This short parable does exactly that!
Notice:
• The lesson closes with an explanation "for many are called, but few are chosen.”
• The word "many" is not intended to be a restricted number;
• The point is this, that the invitation has gone out to all who care to listen,
• But some just refused!
• Those who refused will not be present in the kingdom of God!
• But those that Jesus refers to as "chosen";
• Aare the people who respond to the invitation to come,
• And respond in the right manner which made them prepared to enter the kingdom.
Punchline: What will or have you done with your invitation from God?
Sermon audio link:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=rthqAMaMAEuqNrUecDkxJymUFDZs2Wav&forceSave
