This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s, Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 16th October 2011; St Oswald’s is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are:
Exodus 32:1-14 Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 Philippians 4:1-9 Matthew 22:1-14
Our Gospel text for today’s sermon is Matthew Chapter 22 verse 1 to 14: “Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Please join me in a short prayer: Loving Father, open our hearts and our minds to your word this morning, that we may hear with joy your message within today’s parable, and that we get a real sense of your power and glory, and your great love for us, least we deserve it. Amen.
Introduction
Today’s sermon is entitled the “Great Wedding Invitation” which comes from one of three parables in which Jesus spoke directly to the chief priests and Pharisees who opposed Him. … These parables were recorded just a few days before he was nailed to the cross, so they are important.
And this parable is the most remarkable of all, as Matthew's Gospel was written to the Jewish people in order to prove to them that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah; … and in this parable, we find the whole message of Matthew's Gospel.
Now, I think that of all the social and cultural events people can attend, a wedding can be the happiest and most joyful of all; and it is usually an honour to be invited; because the invitation is a way of expressing that you are an important person to the one who invites you; and that they desire your company in the big event. (Although not always, you may have to be invited to keep the peace, but please run with this definition for now).
In biblical times, as today, an invitation to a wedding was something to be taken seriously, and the wedding feast in Jesus' parable was to be taken even more seriously because it was arranged for the son of a king; and to be invited a very great honour indeed!
Jesus then used this analogy to teach the chief priests and Pharisees a lesson; meaning that such a wedding is a picture of the kingdom of heaven that he Jesus came to extend to those who would worship him. It is obvious therefore the king is God the father; the bridegroom is Jesus himself, the king’s son; and the 'invited guests' are God’s covenant people, the Jews.
This parable then is a good illustration of how Jesus came and presented himself to the Jews as the Messiah; and how they rejected Him; and yet the wedding feast went on regardless, … and extended the invitation to the gentiles, and who were brought in to replace those guests who rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
I hasten to add however, that God has only temporarily excluded the Jewish people for now, as he will still keep the promises He made to them as a nation. Romans 11:25 says the "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will eventually be saved"
Anyway, the whole Gospel of Matthew is about that invitation to enjoy the full blessings of the kingdom of God, and in this parable, we see the true nature of that invitation. It is an invitation that is to be treated seriously; and this morning, I will share briefly five important points that it makes.
1. The father loves his son, and has organised the full the wedding in his delight.
The first important point is simple, we all know that the father loved his son, and has therefore organised the full wedding in his delight. In those days, this would have been a very great event, with many days spent feasting and celebrating; where the news of it would have reverberated throughout the whole land; because the king was calling all people, (ie. all the Jews in the land), to honour and celebrate the union of his beloved son with his bride.
And so, after they planned and prepared for the great day, when the oxen and the cattle were slain and being cooked, and all things were made ready, the king sent his servants out to call those who were invited. The scene would now have been set.
2. The guests refused to come
However, things turned sour and the guests refused to come; and that is my second point, the father showed great patience to those who refused to come. Think about it, if any of us had went to the great expense to set up a wedding to honour our children, and the guests refused to come, patience would be the last thing on our minds.
But this king was patient, and Jesus tells us that after the first announcement had been rejected it; the king sent out his servants again to re-invite them; but again they defiantly refused.
In fact it would have been an act of rebellion against the king, and against the honour of his son. The invited guests actually went so far as to 'make light' of their invitations; some passively; by attending to things on their farms, or to their businesses; but others 'made light' of it actively, by actually seizing the servants who came to invite them, and killing them.
Can you see the great parallel in history, where God has shown patience to those who rejected our Lord Jesus? The Jewish nation had been given promises in the Scriptures from the prophets, who told them time and time again that their great Messiah was coming. When Jesus was born into the world, though witnessed by the shepherds and wise men, the rest of the Jewish nation didn't even notice.
And then, when our Lord reached full age, God sent a mighty herald to announce the coming of the King in the person of John the Baptist; calling the people to repent of their sins and prepare the way for Him; but again, they didn't listen and John was later beheaded.
And even after the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, they still did not listen. Anyway to move on, a warning is written in the Book of Proverbs 29:1, which says: "He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy". And so, after the repeated invitations had been disregarded or rejected, and after those whom the king had sent were mistreated and killed, Jesus next tells us of:
3. The father anger towards those who scorned His invitation.
The king became furious and sent armies to destroy those who had killed his servants, defied him and dishonoured his son.
Jesus said himself in John 5:23 that "He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him" and there comes a time when the Father's patience is exhausted toward those who persist in disregarding His Son; and sadly, the day came in history, within forty years after Jesus speaking these very words, that the Roman armies came and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Matthew 24:2 says "Not one stone of the temple would be left upon another”; and history proved it wasn’t.
My third point this morning is that God is patient toward those who are hardened against Him; he will allow time for repentance, but, (and it is a big but), there does come a time when the offers ceases, and the outpouring of His wrath begins.
Notice if this be true of His covenant people back then after Pentecost, how true would this be in today’s dark times of unbelief, and false prophets in which we now live? This is a grave warning for those with the hardened hearts.
4. The Father extended grace towards those who had NOT been invited
We move on, the wedding feast had not been cancelled, it would go on as scheduled, but the king graciously sent his servants out onto the highways to find as many people as they could, and invite them to come to his son's wedding and fill the banquet table. And so my fourth point is this, that the Father extended grace towards those who had NOT been invited, and by that I mean us, the gentiles.
Jesus tells us that they gathered together all whom they found, both the bad and the good. There were no qualifications other than to honour the son. They were all gathered in, and were all filled and they all became extremely happy guests.
They included every kind of sinner you could possibly imaging, they included foreigners from outside the king's realm; they even included us. It includes all people who would never have expected to be so privileged as to sit at the wedding feast of the son of a great king; and yet, there they all were! There we all are, praise God.
And that brings us, and my final point is that the King required everyone to wear to our very serious closing note. The offer to come to the wedding feast was open to all who would receive it, but it wasn't without conditions a wedding garment.
5. The King required everyone to wear a wedding garment.
A garment, serious yes, because Jesus tells us that, “as the king entered into the banquet hall, and observed all the guests, his eyes fell on a man who was not wearing a wedding garment”. This sounds harsh, but remember that when a great king would put on a great feast, he would not only provide all the food, he would also provide the necessary garments to wear at the feast.
The wearing of a wedding garment was an important addition to the dignity of the feast, but this man was wearing no such garment. He defiantly wore his own filthy rags. Verse 12 “And when the king saw him, he said, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” and “He said nothing”.
He had presumed to enjoy the benefits of the feast while, refusing to be adorned with the garments the king provided; and as a result, the king ordered that he not be merely shown to the door, rather, and I quote verse 13, “he was bound hand and foot and thrown into outer darkness”; where as Jesus says, “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
This is strong stuff, but this is a warning, a very great warning.
The bible speaks regularly about clothing us in white raiment; white for purity, for example in Revelation 7:9 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
And in Revelation 3:5 it says “and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”
We must not think that we can enter into the blessings of God’s kingdom by our own righteous works. That is equivalent of turning up at the wedding feast adorned in your own clothes.
No, we need the righteousness of Christ to approach God; we are to be washed in the blood of the lamb. We are to be made righteous before God by the confessing Jesus is Lord, and although we do not feel righteous at times, we are not doing it under our own righteousness; we are approaching God under the righteousness of Jesus himself.
The only garment that the Father will accept on any of His guests at His Son's wedding feast is that of His Son's righteousness; anything less than that will result in being thrown out into outer darkness. It is all about what Jesus achieved for us; not what we achieved for ourselves.
Jesus closes by saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” And you may say, “How then do I know for sure that I'm among the chosen?” The answer is simple; can you truly confess in your heart of hearts that Jesus is Lord?
If your answer to that question is a definite yes, then you are saved.
Do you place your life in the hands of Jesus? Do you place your trust in His sacrifice as payment for your sins? Do you, by faith, count on His righteousness alone to make you favourable in God's sight? And are you progressively turning from sin and following Him in loving obedience?
If not, what are you doing here today? I have said it before; you would not be in this very church today if you answered a definite no to these questions.
I know we all fail, we all sin, but that’s what we are here for, we’re here so that our sins may be forgiven, we are here to worship God and God along, and we are here to do his bidding on this earth. So let us go forward, and enjoy that great wedding feast with Him. Amen.
Let us pray.
Father we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for what he achieved on the cross and that our sins are forgiven.
Father we all fail, and feel unworthy, and without purpose; but when these feelings of worthlessness devour us, let focus on the victory Jesus achieved on the cross.
The victory that lets us enter your presence, to receive your blessings, and your endless love.
Father give us today the revelation that it is not our righteousness that you want, it is not our good deeds that you desire, but the righteousness of your son Jesus Christ that through his righteousness we are acceptable with you.
We are here today father to worship you and you alone; so give us the strength to face our challenges in times ahead, give us the guidance to do your will here on this earth, and give us that sense of comfort of knowing that you are watching over us every step of the way.
We ask in Jesus name,
Amen
