Consider This Your Invitation
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
RSVP
What if the even is for a close friend or relative? How do you respond?
Some might not send the RSVP back thinking they can get out of having to directly tell the person that they do not wish to attend. This is still a “no.”
Some might respond with a “yes” and not show up, perhaps having some last minute excuse that they come up with. This also is really a “no.”
The only real answer that you can give is a “yes” that you attend.
What about Jesus’s invitation to us to join the kingdom
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.” ’
5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,
6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
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.
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.
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.”
Pray
Background Principles for Interpreting:
Parable = highly symbolic elements
Context = Jewish leaders and their treatment of Christ is still in view
1. Our Invitation to the Wedding (vv.1-4)
1. Our Invitation to the Wedding (vv.1-4)
Matthew 22:1-4
To the Jew first
These verses represent the Old Testament and Jewish believers who were invited first
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
God works in different times and in different ways
There has always been a light of the promise of God that would have passed from Noah to all of the sons and their descendants
Man has forsaken the promise given to Adam and Eve in the Garden for their own gods made in their own likeness and that of creation (Romans 1)
Man is without excuse because of the daily witness of creation to the power and existence of God
There is a tension that we live in to realize we live in an age of unprecedented access to the gospel that has not always existed in the same way equally for all time and people.
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
The Jews had more light and access to the promises than any other nation, yet they rejected it and had their city, their nation, and their priesthood removed and God began to work among the Gentiles
Matthew 22:8-10 - The the Gentiles and the Undeserved
These are the sinners and tax collectors that were despised by the religious elite
Jesus began to call them and the call continues through the Church
Don’t neglect so great a grace as to have access to the gospel now and be able to know about Jesus. You still have greater access than the majority of people in the world today.
What will you do with this access?
2. Our Responses to the Invitation (vv. 2-6)
2. Our Responses to the Invitation (vv. 2-6)
Look again at vv. 2-6 and the different responses that were given.
All of these can be reduced to three types of responses.
Delay and Procrastination
Some came up with excuses
Business
Land Purchase
Rejection and Refusal
Some flat out rejected the invitation
Rebellion and Sedition
Some took and seized the servants (heralds) and treated them shamefully and killed them
Remember this is the king’s invitation
No one refuses the king
It is an insult to him and his sovereignty to turn down an invitation to so great an event
We have also been invited to something far greater than just a simple party.
This is our wedding that we are being invited to.
Christ our Husband and We His Bride
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
New Jerusalem like a Bride
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Heed the warning for those who would refuse the King’s invitation
He destroyed their city
An allusion to what would later come in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem
He destroyed them
Many were killed in the destruction of the city as the Romans marched through the land of Israel and removed their control and little power they once had.
They lost the nation and were scattered
3. Our Required Dress Code (v.11-13)
3. Our Required Dress Code (v.11-13)
Wedding garments were required for entrance to the wedding celebration
Our garments are not good enough - they were passively clothed
Our garments represent our human efforts to get in
They will be rejected
The wedding garment is given to us and represents Christ’s righteousness
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.
The cost of rejection:
These (the Jews and the one not wearing a wedding garment) serve as a warning to mankind for those who would reject the kindness of God and His graceful invitation (vv.13-14)
Weeping and gnashing of teeth
Outer darkness
Always refer to final judgement in Jewish literature
This is a clear picture of Hell
Conclusion
Their is a final statement that Jesus makes that may offend the person who still thinks that given the chance on their own, they would be able and willing to do everything it takes to get into heaven.
If they just had the invitation, they would not reject Christ.
Take a moment and survey the course of human history and see where this has ever been so.
From perfect Adam and Eve all through the halls of history, man has always turned away from God in rejection without His help to believe and come
Many are called- the gospel call goes out to all
General Revelation tells us there is a God to whom we will give an account
This is why secular humanism, and marxism, and new ageism, and all the isms seek to change God or eliminate Him
There is a desire to get rid of the Judge so there can be no trial
God has given us His Word, though limited to some, to invite us all to the feast
As a Church, we are part of the heralds of that message
Few are chosen
Greek word means the “called out” ones
It is a term that refers to election throughout the Bible
It is so prevalent throughout the Bible as to be overwhelming
In the Declaration of Independence, the writers used the phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident...”
Well, there are two truths that are self-evident and also declared throughout the Bible
The Invitation is a Universal Call that Can Save Anyone who Comes
Only the Elect will come with the help of the Savior
You might be concerned and wonder if you are the elect or if you have permission to come
Spurgeon addressed this in a sermon called “Heavenly Worship.”
But why should it keep any one from going to Christ? “Because,” says one, “if I go to Christ I may not be elect.” No, sir, if you go, you prove that you are elect.
“But,” says another, “I am afraid to go, in case I should not be elect.” Say as an old woman once said, “If there were only three persons elected, I would try to be one of them; and since he said, ‘He that believeth shall be saved,’ I would challenge God on his promise, and try if he would break it.” No, come to Christ; and if you do so, beyond a doubt you are God’s elect from the foundation of the world; and therefore this grace has been given to you. But why should it discourage you?
Suppose there are a number of sick folk here, and a large hospital has been built. There is put up over the door, “All persons who come shall be taken in:” at the same time it is known that there is a person inside the hospital, who is so wise that he knows all who will come, and has written down the names of all who will come in a book, so that, when they come, those who open the doors will only say, “How marvellously wise our Master was, to know the names of those who would come.” Is there anything dispiriting in that? You would go, and you would have all the more confidence in that man’s wisdom, because he was able to know before that they were going. “Ah, but,” you say, “it was ordained that some should come.” Well, to give you another illustration; suppose there is a rule that there always must be a thousand persons, or a very large number in the hospital. You say, “When I go perhaps they will take me in, and perhaps they will not.” “But,” says someone, “there is a rule that there must be a thousand in: somehow or other they must make up that number of beds, and have that number of patients in the hospital.” You say, “Then why should not I be among the thousand; and have not I the encouragement that whosoever goes shall not be cast out? And have I not again the encouragement, that if they will not go, they must be fetched in somehow or other; for the number must be made up; so it is determined and so it is decreed.” You would therefore have a double encouragement, instead of half a one; and you would go with confidence, and say, “They must take me in, because they say they will take all in that come; and on the other hand, they must take me in, because they must have a certain number: that number is not made up, and why should not I be one?” Oh, never doubt about election; believe in Christ, and then rejoice in election; do not fret about it till you have believed in Christ.
C. H. Spurgeon, “Heavenly Worship,” in The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 3 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1857), 29.
