Wedding Invitation
Notes
Transcript
The history of the world is God inviting His people to a wedding... and they are either too busy or they kill the messenger. God is throwing a party, a wedding, and you and I are invited. He used this language at Sinai, he uses it again in the New Covenant: we are invited to the wedding. He is NOT lowering the standards or altering the dress code for the wedding, instead he has made provision for you and I to be dressed in perfect robes of righteousness. Get ready for the party.
The Wedding I Missed
The Wedding I Missed
25 years ago I missed a wedding. HUGE regret.
Dustin Riley was getting married. We shared a first name, we were in a band together for 3 summers, we wrote a bunch of songs together, played games together, disc golf together every Saturday for years. One of my best friends by that point.
And he was marrying a girl from upstate New York. And he asked me: Hey man, it’s a small wedding, we don’t have many people, but it would mean so much to me if you came.
Now, I had gotten married a few months before. I had a full time job, I was finishing up my degree… I had a lot going on.
“Oh man, I am so happy for you, I wish it was closer, I just can’t go.”
He was disappointed. That isn’t the part that kills me.
A week later, he calls me. Mindy and I talked. It would really mean SO much to me if you could come. We will pay for your ticket.
Now, you have to understand, we were all broke… and they were “I’m barely into my 20s, about to get married and then move across the country” broke.
This was an unbelievable sacrifice, a measure that no matter WHAT I had going on, this meant the world to him, to them, and I needed to drop everything and go.
You know what I said? “Oh man, I am so happy for you. I wish it was closer. I just can’t get away from work and life… I just can’t go.”
The Wedding I Missed.
Wedding at Sinai
Wedding at Sinai
God created marriage, union between man and woman, at the very beginning. It was always part of the plan.
But I believe it was always training wheels for the committed, intimate partnership that he desires to have with us. The devotion, the enjoyment, the “in it forever”, even the vulnerability of it… they all teach us, a shadow of what God’s love is like.
And then God points to it over and over again. So explicitly in a story like Hosea, where the prophet marries a prostitute who betrays him again and again, and God says this is like you, Israel, betraying me again and again… and like God restoring his Bride to fellowship again and again.
But even before that, at Mount Sinai. I heard a great teaching on how all of Mount Sinai is just like a wedding ceremony. The
Mount Sinai itself, like a Chuppah over them, that canopy thing in a Jewish wedding.
This is in the Rabbinic literature, they thought of it this way.
Mount Sinai is likened to a wedding because the giving of the Torah established a solemn, enduring marriage covenant between God and Israel, with Moses serving as the matchmaker and the people's "I do" to the covenant mirroring wedding vows. The Torah itself acts as the ketubah (marriage contract), and the dramatic events at Sinai, including the presence of fire, represent a spiritual betrothal that continues to be celebrated annually on Shavuot.
And then Jesus picks up this metaphor again and again.
He spoke of people feasting with the Bridegroom, calling Himself the Bridegroom, that’s why his disciples don’t fast yet.
He speaks of Bridesmaids being ready for the Bride, that’s coming.
He will set the cup of the Covenant before us, this is my cup, and that’s a Betrothal Cup for His Bride to pick up and drink.
But here are words of lament. Lament over all the people that refuse to come to his wedding.
Recap
Recap
Recall that this is a season of prophetic judgment. Jesus has had the Triumphal Entry, they shouted Hosanna! He cleaned the temple, judging it and the high priests. He condemned the fig tree, a metaphor for the fruitless religious leaders, he gave the parable of the two sons and the parable of the tenants. Ending with these words:
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
And they knew he was talking about them.
And they were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowds.
And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables:
Invite: God’s Gracious Call
Invite: God’s Gracious Call
1 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,
2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,
3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’
Kind of crazy how the king, God, is so persuasive, so inviting. He should just be able to command them, right? But he persuades. He describes the dinner, the food, they have already refused, He is trying to talk them into it.
You might explore how the initial invitation is extended generously to many. The King is preparing a wedding banquet, symbolizing God's desire for a joyous relationship with humanity. This section underscores that God's invitation to His Kingdom is open and gracious. Perhaps you could emphasize His patience and repeated calls to us to join in His celebration, encouraging listeners to consider their response to such a generous God.
2. Ignore: The Complacent Choice
2. Ignore: The Complacent Choice
5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,
Oooof. That feels familiar.
“Oh man, I am so happy for you. I wish it was closer. I just can’t get away from work and life… I just can’t go.”
Matthew 1. True Discipleship versus Harsher Condemnation for the Jewish Leaders (19:1–22:46)
They compound their culpability by adding apathy to rejection. “They paid no attention” is, more literally, they didn’t care
They did not care. They had their own “cares.” They were “busy.” Sound familiar?
Some ignore, busy, complacent… but it gets worse.
6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
Instead of apathy, these respond with murderous intent to silence the servants and the message of the King.
7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
3. Include: Wide-open Welcome
3. Include: Wide-open Welcome
8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’
10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Both the bad and the good… and the wedding hall was filled.
This is such a great forecast of what is coming. It speaks again of the judgment of Israel, the fruitless fig tree, and the Kingdom being given to those who will answer the call.
And now the call is going out to all, as many as you find, out into the roads and gathering all, Jew and Gentile, to be the ekklessia, literally the “called out” ones… which we translate as “church.”
This is good news. That you and I are invited to the wedding. So let’s go.
Oh wait, there’s one more thing.
Next week I won’t be here. Logan and I have been invited to a wedding, Molly Looper, so we are driving out to Lincoln, Nebraska. Road trip!
The call has gone out, we are invited, we are going.
Here is the picture in my mind: we have driven all day. We are running late. We arrive just in time in our car clothes. For me, that’ll be basketball shorts and a camp t-shirt.
And it’s time for the wedding so we go in, dressed as we are.
And it’s okay, right? They will be SO glad to have us there. After all, we have done so much good in their life. We have driven so far. They will just be thankful, they SHOULD just be glad that we have graced them with our presence!!!
How dare they even question our clothes, actually, that’s messed up!
In the same way, the king was desperate for guests, right? So He will be happy with what he can get, anything he can get.
Turns out… not so much.
4. Inadequate: The Missing Garment
4. Inadequate: The Missing Garment
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
Some have proposed a tradition in this time of a host, especially one like a king, providing all the guests with appropriate attire. I think of it like the fancy restaurant that requires a dinner jacket having ones on-hand to provide for any guests that need it.
If so, it is NOT that the man didn’t have access to, or didn’t have time to get dressed appropriately, but that he actively refused the provided wedding garments.
To be fair, there is some scholarly debate about how common that was as a practice at that time. But I know this for sure, it is the case in the coming wedding. More about that later.
But, at the deepest level, has the king changed the standard? Changed the requirements? Will the King accept less glory, less beauty, less perfection?
Nope. Not so much.
13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
“into the outer darkness” makes literal sense in the context of the wedding. It’s nighttime, it is lit inside at the party, cast him out into the darkness.
But the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” definitely brings in all kinds of punishment concepts.
Maybe they are just SO upset out there that they are missing the wedding.
Maybe hell. In fact, it is pretty much a straight quote of Jesus a number of times earlier, first in Matthew 8:12
12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Completely and entirely possible that Jesus is referring to eternal punishment, aka hell here. More about that next week.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth can be a picture of internal regret, of guilt and internal torment, more than anything external.
How long does it last? We don’t know, but note that there is no timeframe given. It doesn’t say here anything about eternal conscious torment if we are wrestling with the question of “what is hell” or annihilationism.
Just as an example from Psalm:
10 The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!
But if the wedding is the Wedding of the Lamb. The King is God. You and I are the guests invited to the wedding. The very Kingdom of God.
We want to be in. We want to be there. We want to be on time, in the right place, wedding invitation in hand, and dressed to the nines.
You Are Invited to the Party
You Are Invited to the Party
Hear the good news. You are invited to the party.
Get Dressed.
You may have labeled yourself bad. You think you’re not good enough. Here’s the beautiful thing, remember that verse who the King was inviting? Who he sent is servants out to find?
The good and the bad. Alike. That wasn’t the standard. That wasn’t the test.
Unlike every other “religion” out there, Christianity stands apart. It isn’t about what you do. It isn’t about being good enough. You’re not. It is the invitation that gets you in. It is the King that provides the clothes.
Your only job is to say yes to the invitation. Your only job is to receive and wear the robe you are given.
If you think your clothes are messy, if you KNOW your life is messy… good, then you won’t hesitate to put the new robes on over what you have.
I think the big danger Jesus’ parable highlights is those who think they are good enough. That’s more likely the case with the religious leaders in his audience.
You may have labeled yourself good. That’s okay, you can be wrong about some things. There is good in you, good about you, absolutely. And you’re coming with some gross, some ugly, some stupid.
The only danger of saying “I’m good” is that you think “I’m good enough” and you refuse.
The wedding guest who says “My jeans and a t-shirt are good enough, they should just be glad I’m here.”
To step away from the clothing metaphor a second. C.S. Lewis has a great quote that goes something like “God lets everyone in to heaven who can STAND to be there.” In essence, anyone who can survive the perfection and glory of God.
What does that require, if all your sin and gross was burned away, and everything associated with it, connected to it, what would that leave?
For the sinner? Nothing.
For the saint, redeemed by Jesus, clothed in His righteousness? You, made whole, perfect, sanctified and redeemed.
Does God lower the standard? He does not. The beauty of the scene, the glory of the feast, the shekinah glory of His presence requires the finest clothes.
And you don’t have them. You couldn’t afford them.
But Jesus lived a perfect life, creating perfection, human perfection, and Scripture calls it a “Robe of Righteousness.” And he offers it to us. Not just as guests. But as the Bride.
Zechariah saw it coming, with another high priest named Yeshua:
4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”
5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
And the apostle John saw it coming at the end of all things:
6 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.
7 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;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
You Are Invited to the Party
You Are Invited to the Party
Here is the good news. Here is the Message. Here is the instructions for getting in the party and staying in the party.
God has called you, an invitation to the party. Say “yes.”
Yes to the party. Yes to the feast. Yes to forever. Yes to Jesus.
To enter the party requires that you are clothed in the Righteousness of Jesus.
That means he forgives you and cleanses you from all your sin, and clothes you, covers you in His Righteousness, so that in Jesus you are free forever from sin, guilt, shame and death. When God sees you at the party, He sees the perfect Righteousness of Jesus because you are His and clothed in His clothes.
And Jesus offers you the Robes of Righteousness for His Wedding.
Say yes. Yes to His forgiveness and His Righteousness. Yes to forever. Yes to Jesus.
In fact, while the worship team comes forward, I invite you to pray with me.
Lord, I want to be part of the feast, part of the wedding, part of the party.
I say yes.
Lord Jesus, I believe that you lived a perfect life, died on the cross for me, that I could be dressed in your Righteousness instead of my sinfulness. Forgive me, cleanse me, dress me… and I say yes to the party, my Lord and Savior.
