Matthew 22:1-22

Matthew 22:1-22

Kingdom Passion: A Tale of Two Kingdoms

Big Idea:

Jesus shows the reality of two kingdoms and our place in one of them. When we see ourselves clearly, Jesus calls us to respond rightly and rend our lives completely.

Respond rightly to the invitation of Jesus. (Matt 22:1-14)

Rend your life to Jesus completely. (Matt 22:15-22)

Intro:

February 15, 1545 the English outnumbered the Scots on their northern border in what would be known as the battle of Ancrum Moor. Henry VIII was seeking peace for England and a wife for his son Prince Edward. Henry VIII attempted to have his adult son marry the Scottish Queen Mary, who was one year old. When Scottish Parliament rejected this proposal, he gathered his troops and sent them to the border for some 'rough wooing.'

Over 5,000 English troops began smaller raids in Scottish territory late January. February 15, the remaining local militia of the Scotts dug in at Ancrum Moor. They were greatly outnumbered and attempted to lay a trap. Things went from bad to worse when the Scots saw the English had hired 700 mercenaries who were known for fierce battles at the border. Who were these people? It was the Kerr clan. They stayed in the rear, ominously staring at the battle. The English advanced on the fighting positions of the Scots. As they approached the outnumbered militia, they forgot the reality of two kingdoms. The money they gave them did not remove them from the Scottish Kingdom. There isn't enough money to go from being a Scottish Kerr to an English subject. The Kerr clan approached from the rear and routed the English. The clan received their motto that day from the Earl of Arran, Sero Sed Serio which means, Late, but in Earnest. If you know me, you know no truer words have ever been spoken.

The reality of the two kingdoms in the battle of Ancrum Moor is easy for us to see with the English and the Scots.

AT:

Do not be deceived, there are two groups of people here. I'm not talking English and Scots. There are believers and unbelievers. These are not enemies. There is a war. Our weapons are faith, love, and the message of the gospel.

There isn't enough money you can pay to change kingdoms. Today's passage teaches us the reality of the two kingdoms and what to do about it.

For those here who are checking us out, who are interested in the gospel, or maybe you had to come today. You have no interest in anything I am about to say. If that is you, I want to say, welcome. I understand your position. I am sympathetic to it. I came to faith as a bit of an antagonist. I had questions that I formed as arguments. It was through those answers that I turned my life over to the Lord. If you have these questions, I hope you will listen well and my hope for you is that you will choose today to surrender your life to Jesus. Some of you aren't so much as an antagonist but you are a person who goes through the motions. You are here because you had to be here or you are afraid that something bad would happen if you are not here. Either way, my prayer today is that you too will see today as God's invitation to surrender to Jesus.

The second group of people are those of you who are believers. There will be much of this sermon that will be biographical for you. As we see the clear picture of the gospel, you will see some of your story and some of your journey. For you today, I want you to find comfort in seeing your life as one who has been changed by Jesus and let that fuel your life. I want you to be encouraged by the message of the gospel and leave convinced of your need to tell others.

FCF:

Jesus uses these stories to clearly show his listeners the kingdom in which they live. We need the same clarity knowing which kingdom we live. Only when we know where we are can we respond rightly.

PQ:

Do you wonder how you are to live in this world with all the temptations and challenges while being a Christian? Have you ever wondered how you fit into God's eternal purposes? If you have ever been frustrated in your attempts to share your faith and thought, why is no one responding? Then today is for you. Let's jump into Matthew 22:1-22 and see how Jesus shows the reality of the two kingdoms and we will learn what to do about it.

The theme I want us to see how Jesus shows the reality of two kingdoms and our place in one of them. When we see ourselves clearly, Jesus calls us to respond rightly and rend our lives completely.

This parable is peculiar to Matthew's gospel

Respond rightly to the invitation of Jesus. (Matt 22:1-14)

Matthew 22:1-2

them - Chief priests and Pharisees

Matthew 21:45 (ESV) When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

Cleansing the Temple - he messed with their money, stopped sacrifices so he stopped the means of some of their food.

Entering Jerusalem - he had fame and honor.

Miracles and healings - people went to him

Teaching - he taught as one having authority and people followed him.

Kingdom of heaven

Jesus is being very clear about what he is speaking about. He is speaking about heaven so this guides the rest of the imagery.

Matthew 22:3-4

Two invitations:

They would not come to the first invitation.

Then when the meal was ready, he sent his servants again. They did not come.

The meal was 'dinner' which is Southern for lunch. Supper is your evening meal. It is possible the wedding ceremony happened at night and then this was the big celebration the next day.

Was this a morning wedding? No, it was an event. Usually, weddings went on for several days if not a week (Judges 14:17)

The hanging weight of an ox is around 1000-1500 pounds. The fat calves would be hundreds of pounds more of meat.

Matthew 22:5-7

3 rejections: They paid no attention. 2 by indifference and one of active hostility.

Farm

Business

Violence

Response of the King

Judgment

Matthew 22:8-10

They were not worthy -

They were not worthy because they did not respond appropriately to the invitation.

Find as many as you can

Found both bad and good.

Wedding hall was filled.

Matthew 22:11

No wedding garment

Traditional use of giving wedding garments to guests.

Did he think his garment was good enough? Did he come just to shame the king who invited him?

Matthew 22:12

Speechless

The king's expectations were clear. He knew he was in the wrong.

Matthew 22:13

Judgment

The judgment was right because the expectations were clear.

The judgment was the same as those who did violence to the king.

Matthew 22:14

For many are called, but few are chosen

Two groups of people

Some refuse to come

Some refuse to submit to the Kingdom requirements

All are without excuse - speechless when it comes to answering the King.

How are we to understand these verses: Respond rightly

The garment given is the righteousness of Christ. We must see the imagery of the wedding as Christ and the church. The banquet now points us forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Isaiah 61:10 (ESV)

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

my soul shall exult in my God,

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Revelation 19:1–9 (ESV) After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.” Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

The righteous deeds of the saints must start with the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is the seed and the deeds of the saints are the fruit of a faithful life.

The garment is supplied to the man. He is speechless because he is present at the wedding without the necessary attire. We are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, we are invited to dine with the Lord but we must take up the wedding garment provided us in Christ. He provides all we need.

You need to know the invitation of the King is not one with strings attached, you are given all you need. All that is required is offered you.

Your presence and membership in the church is not enough. You can be in attendance but not properly clothed. If you are here but if you have not been transformed by Jesus, you have no excuse, you need to repent and fully surrender to Jesus. The parable of the sower and the seeds, if you are not bearing fruit, if your soul is at war within you when you hear these words, then do not try to convince yourself of your spiritual state, let the clarity offered through this parable and the conviction of the Spirit lead you to Jesus to repent of your sin and trust in Christ.

If you are a believer, you are here, you have the righteousness of Christ, see your role as the servant (doulos) of Christ and invite as many people as you can.

Invite them to Jesus, not the church.

Invite them to church so they can meet Jesus. He is the reason we are here.

Know, without a shadow of a doubt, there will be people who come to Christ.

It is not our job to know who "the chosen" are, our job is to be involved in inviting and introducing people to Jesus. Too often, we are like spiritual snipers instead of taking a shotgun. We are 'duck hunting' here, not deer hunting.

I had a friend who was telling us how good he was at shooting clays. He was good, much better than me. He also had more money. He had a nice over-under. It was all decked out. decorative, smooth, shiny, and super nice. I was using my grandfather's old 20 We are to use a broad approach. We can get upset when we do not see results.

The King does the choosing, not us. We are to do the inviting. Somehow, we look at people and we judge them based upon how we think they will respond. If we think they are a likely candidate, then we will invite them. We act like we are God, seeing who is chosen instead of seeing our role of inviting.

I worked in fine dining for a number of years. When I would train new servers, I would challenge them to provide the best possible service to people without any regard to how they are dressed. I learned early on that you shouldn't judge people based upon their dress. I was only stiffed once in many years of serving. It was by a nicely dressed couple who had their grandkids with them. I gave them great service, they ran me to death, and when they signed the bill, they didn't leave a tip. At the same time, there was another couple who was eating who when it was all said and done, made the night worth it. They were just dressed casually. He was in jeans and a polo, nothing elaborate.

Do we do this as Christians? Do we see someone who is dressed differently or uses certain language and we think, well, they aren't a viable candidate so I won't engage them with the gospel. Sometimes we try to take the place of God. Our job is to be servants who invite, who share, and who bring people to Jesus.

When we see our place in the Kingdom, we must respond rightly and we learn the second thing we are to do.

Rend your life to Jesus completely. (Matt 22:15-22)

Matthew 22:15-17 The Pharisees plot

Pharisees and Herodians:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Herodians were those who supported the rule of Herod, they were included because the Pharisees thought Jesus would answer negatively and they would be able to get Jesus in trouble.

These common enemies became friends so they could trap Jesus in his words.

Tax

The Zealots claimed the poll tax dishonored God.

Everyone had a strong opinion on the tax. The Pharisees brought both sides.

Teacher - a chance to butter him up

Matthew 22:18-21 Jesus responds

Jesus was aware of their malice

malice is a separate kind of wickedness

Hypocrites - two faced actors, like the man at the wedding feast without a coat.

Denarius - Tiberius Caesar

Rend to Caesar and to God

Rend - fully surrender and yield to the authority.

If you owe your taxes, the IRS will not take a partial payment. They will not take an IOU, they will garnish your wages. They will put a lien on things you own. Jesus is saying, Pay the tax!

He was not justifying the tax.

He was not defending the tax.

He was not encouraging the tax.

For the next two months and then two years, we will have the opportunity to live this out. You will have many opportunities to speak about the government and elections. This doesn't mean we don't stand for and speak up for issues relating to God's created order. It does mean that the most important issues are not taxes and inflation. Look at what Jesus said: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

The money is made in Caesar's image but you are made in God's image.

We must speak up for God's created order, God's declaration of gender, and God's definition of marriage.

The way we get there is not to argue with people through our logical arguments. We won't get people back to God if they know our preferred political candidates and positions and nothing of our love for Jesus and for them.

Don't be like the Pharisees and leave here marveled at the message of Jesus but not the person of Jesus. You have but one life to live. You can only live in one kingdom, it should be clear to you. Do you know? Do you know what kingdom you are in? Maybe a better question to ask is this, "How have you responded to the invitation of Jesus?" Have you ever surrendered your life completely to Jesus?

Maybe you have and you have realized you have played God by trying to choose who to invite. We are called to be generous with our inviting.