Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

TITUS 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“O Praise the Name”

Words and Music by Anastasia

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Father, thank You for loving us!

Rebels who ran from Your will for so long.

Yet because of Your goodness, You pursued us and saved us!

Thank You for Your grace!

Thank You for Your mercy!

Thank You for Your forgiveness!

Thank You for giving us the ability to follow You and live this ChristIan life.

We adore You Lord, Amen!

“Death was Arrested”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“King of Kings”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, we long to hear from you today.

We long to open Your Word so that we may hear You speak into our lives.

Teach us today Your glorious truths and help us to understand the depths of Your grace and mercy.

Convict our Hearts, open our minds, and move us so that we may never be the same.

SERMON

Introduction

Read the whole parable

When Jesus spoke of God’s kingdom, he spoke with authority.

And He did so because He is the King of Heaven!

Jesus came from heaven to earth to tell us about it.

If there was any reliable source about life after death, heaven, and hell it was certainly Jesus!

So when we Jesus tells these parables of truth, we must listen and take it to heart!

This parable is about the gracious invitation to come to be a part of His Kingdom forever beginning right now!

It is a call too all of us, and a description of the different responses to that gracious call.

In this parable Jesus forces us to ask: “If this parable is about everyone, I must fit here somewhere.

Which character in the story represents me?”

So I want each of us as we study this parable today to ask ourselves, which character am I? And will I leave today knowing my destiny and be satisfied with it?

Matthew 22:1-2 “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.”

IDENTIFY THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THIS PARABLE

The King

This is once again a reference to God the Father

Notice He has a Son

He also has authority over men to invite or expel them from His wedding

He also commands an army to carry out His will

He has slaves and servants that do whatever He asks of them

The Son

This once again represents Jesus

He is the son of the King

He is having a wedding banquet prepared for Him

The wedding Banquet

This represents a day that is coming for the saints who will sit at the table of our Lord and feast with Him

This will be at the end of this age, when the sky is rolled up like a scroll, and death will be eradicated.

This will be when the saints are resurrected and all believers from this age will be gathered together and the greatest homecoming feast in the history of mankind.

Isaiah spoke of this 700 years before Christ came:

Is 25:6-8 “The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.

And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.”

Revelation also speaks of it after the tribulation period

Rev 19:7-9 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’

” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.””

Church there is coming a day when we will leave this place and be seated at a great table, and feast with our God and King Jesus Christ!

There is a grand celebration coming for the followers of Jesus!

Can you imagine sitting at the marriage supper with the Lamb of God?!

No more sin

No more dying

No more sadness

No more lostness

No more fighting, or pain, or worries, or troubles

And forever in the manifest presence of Jesus Christ

Can you imagine that day!?

And it is coming!

Isaiah said, “for the Lord has spoken!”

The angel said to John, “these are the true words of God”

Not all those who are invited are willing to come

Matt 22:3-6 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.”

Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”

“But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”

Explanation

Now we need to remember this parable was spoken to the Pharisees.

And Jesus was not only addressing the Pharisees but also the Jewish people as a whole who were standing around listening

So the application here is to the Jewish people to whom the Messiah came, and they wanted nothing to do with Him.

They were invited to follow Him, they were invited to believe in him, yet they refused to acknowledge that He was the Messiah.

And notice also the reason: “one went to his farm and another to his business, and the rest abused his slaves and killed them”

Who are the slaves?

The slaves are the prophets who were sent to call God’s people to repentance

The slaves are those who pointed forward to Christ and proclaimed the coming Messiah

Over and over again in the OT, the Jews hated and even killed God’s prophets whom he sent to them, to call them back from their sin.

Bridge

But why did they not come to the banquet?

Why did they ignore and abuse the messengers of God

One went to his farm and another to his business

How familiar does that sound in our world today

I can’t tell you the number of people we encounter day after day who care nothing about eternity, salvation, hell, sin ALL because they think they have better things to do

Application

There is nothing more important than the spiritual condition of our souls

Jesus said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

“For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (mark 8:35-37)