The Prince’s Feast: Joy and Judgement - Part 1

Call to Worship

Psalm 126

Leader: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.”

All: “Then our mouth was filled with laughter,     and our tongue with shouts of joy;”

Leader: “then they said among the nations,”

All:    “The Lord has done great things for them.”

 The Lord has done great things for us;     we are glad.

  Restore our fortunes, O Lord,     like streams in the Negeb!"

Leader:  “Those who sow in tears     shall reap with shouts of joy!

He who goes out weeping,     bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy,     bringing his sheaves with him.”

Invocation-

Even now, you prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. 

Come Thou Fount

Jesus our Judge and Our Savior

Isaiah 25:6-9

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

7  And he will swallow up on this mountain

    the covering that is cast over all peoples,

    the veil that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

    for the Lord has spoken.

9 It will be said on that day,

    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.

    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;

    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Revelation 19:6-9? 

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.

9 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.”

Confession of Sin: What good news we hear in these verses this morning, O Lord — that in Your kingdom You will hold a great feast, and death itself will be swallowed up.

We who sow our fields in tears and sweat, who suffer through barren seasons or the great pain of childbearing, can hardly imagine what it will be like when You wipe away every tear.

Forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive us for responding so sluggishly to the gospel call. Forgive us for losing sight of the glory that awaits us in Christ.

We hear such good news — that You will remove our reproach forever, and clothe us in fine linen, the righteous deeds of the saints. O Lord, whatever we lack in these things, let us be among those chosen to have them.

Blessed be the Lamb who takes away our reproach by becoming a servant — the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. | John 3:16-18a

“A Prince’s Feast: Judgement and Joy”

Scripture Introduction: This Please open your Bibles with me to Matthew 22:1. In our study of Matthew 21 we found Jesus tell the High priests, scribes and Pharisees that they will be replaced by those who believe Jesus, repent of their sins (21:28-32) and bear fruit (21:33-46). In the passage we will look at this morning, we will hear a parable of Jesus that predicts their demise. 

Scripture Reading:

22 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[a] 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.”

Prayer for illumination: Our Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your name this morning. Hallow this ground again, anointing us with the presence of Your Holy Spirit as we reflect upon the passage to which You have brought us today. Let my words please You, and may Jesus be praised. Amen. 

1. Introductory Hook and FCF – Why This Matters

Many of you here have probably thrown a wedding and a reception before. To do something like that takes a lot of preparation, doesn’t it? Some weddings more than others depending on the expectations of the bride and family, as well as the resources that available.

One aspect of the whole process is the invitations. Right? Picking them out. Getting all the information correct and present in it. Getting everyone’s address. Postage. Maybe the thought even brings back memories. Once you send them out, one of the challenges the groom, and bride and family face is tracking down those who don’t get back to you; those that don’t promptly fill out and reply to the RSVP. 

Sometimes the whole process is disappointing, isn’t it? Because sometimes good friends and family members are unable to come. Perhaps even sometimes they don’t want to come. You know, faultlines in the family system can emerge. Unhealed wounds. Distance. Coldness. You may also have those who are invited and you hear back from them, but you know that they are kind of a …wildcard. Perhaps they are the kind of family member that brings drama with them. They make you a little nervous. You have certain conditions you would like present like peace. You rightfully want the guests to be dressed appropriately. And then during the wedding and the reception, you want appropriate behavior and interactions. The toasts need to be funny, but not over the top. Grandma needs to keep her comments to herself. And hopefully Uncle Dwight doesn’t hit the wine and champagne like he does the Coors Light for Monday night football. Right? These are the terms: dress appropriately, celebrate, and don’t do anything that will ruin the moment. 

 I bet, we could survey the room and find some wedding stories here. Both from the invitations and guests, the ceremony itself, and the reception that follows.

As you can see in the Scripture reading from this morning, God has some wedding stories He has put in the Bible as well. Why has he done that? Well, in the big picture of the Bible it is  because our earthly weddings are a picture of the wedding of Christ to his Bride the Church and He wants us to look at our relationship to Him through this lens. 

The marriage stories of the Bible explain to us the joy and the glory that God has in throwing the most epic feast that the the universe will ever know. Even some of what we do here, on Sunday mornings serves as a dress rehearsal for that final wedding and feast which is why we agonize in preparation for coming here together sit at Jesus’s feet on Sunday mornings.

2. Transition Into the Text

Interestingly, the emphasis in the wedding story here in Matthew 22  is on the invited guests and their reaction to the invitation: 

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. (Matt. 22:1-3)

“But they would not come.” These words  illustrated for the Pharisees and priests the wickedness of their faithless reaction to the coming of the first, John the Baptist, and finally, the long awaited the arrival of Son of God. 

FCF - Sounds familiar right?  Both in your practical life experience you can probably relate to this, because you may very well know friends and family feel that they better things to do than to come to the wedding feast of Jesus Christ. They are like the invitees, who when getting a second invitation pay no attention: 

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,

And then there is something that is equally heartbreaking. This Parable of Jesus serves as a sobering reminder that not everyone who is a member of the church visible is a member of the church eternal. I say this because if what we find in verses 11-12. When the King finally has guests at the feast for his Son the Prince we read:

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. 

He then is cast out of the Feast into the darkness, a place of weeping. (Verse 13) and Jesus concludes the parable in verse 14 by saying:

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

I take this to mean that many hear the call to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and they hear the teaching of the Lord. But the call does not produce and effect without the work of the Holy Spirit drawing them and giving them new Birth. This was the case for the pharisees and priests.

Proposition:  Now hear me, the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus says, is like a wedding feast that God the Father is giving for His Son. But some will refuse the invitation — maybe even some here today. Others will appear to come, but not on God’s terms — trusting in themselves and their own way rather than receiving the garments of His grace and deeds. The result of refusal is not joy, but judgment.

This parable is a warning to for us, packaged as a sobering story, urging you to examine your heart by God’s standards so that you may be confident you truly belong to the Bride of Christ. 

Transition Out of the Text

So what does this mean for us today?' I want us to take away three things we can do in light of this Parable. 

Identify the Three To-Do’s

Heed the King’s warning.

Accept His invitation.

Serve His purposes faithfully.

Heed. Accept. Serve.

MP1 - Heed the Warning - First of all heed the warning of these verse. That is I want you to observe, or you could say pay careful attention and regard to the very serious consequences the religious leaders are facing, having rejected Jesus. 

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. 

This reflects the character of the leaders of Israel. Their fathers killed the Prophets, Herod killed John the Baptist, and they were plotting to kill Jesus. I want you to notice something about the character of God here: The King sent out his troops to destroy the murders, and burned their city. God is patient. He is long suffering, but He is also just. Jesus is reminding whoever is willing to pay careful attention that God will not let the sins of this generation go unanswered. 

Application: I believe our generation needs a reminder that God is real, and he will not let our sins go either. We all must consider what makes God angry. And when we observe those things in our lives, we must turn from them to Christ. How are we making God angry? Well, start with asking about the plainly stated commands of God. To love him and receive in his Son. Wherever we are breaking the command to Love  God above all other things is a great place to start.  Secondly, when we do not love God as we should, the result is how we treat our neighbor. In the parable, the servants were treated shamefully and murdered by some of those invited to the feast. Whenever we have gone astray from the King, it comes out in how we treat others, especially those who are trying to call us to repentance and faith as is the case with the servants. This leads us to the second of your to-do’s:

MP2 - Accept His Invitation and His Clothing -  Having sent out ambassadors to invited guests only to have his servants shamed and killed, the King sent out invitations to those who had not yet been invited.  

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.

It is likely that Jesus here is speaking about the gospel call going out to the non-Jewish peoples of the earth which after the resurrection, ascension, and pentecost would happen. And indeed many would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, it is important to note, that one of the guests who came accepted the invitation, but didn’t come in the wedding clothing:

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.

It appears that this one unnamed guest did  it their own way. And this is just as bad as refusing to join.  Because this is the second judgement of the parable. 

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.”

This is a warning to everyone here in this room, that we not only accept the invitation to come, but that come in the wedding garments of the King. Now, the challenging thing about this is that what the wedding garments are, is not addressed. Many commentators do not want to venture into suggesting what they are either. However some are willing. And when you are preaching this text, people certainly want to know, because the cost of not coming properly clothed is so high. Well, where the parable is silent that does not mean scripture is silent everywhere. We must observe what Jesus has already said in Matthew to help us know what kind of requirements he us looking for. Well, if we look at the other two parables that come before this one we may have a good clue. Because there we see him speak of those who come to the Lord’s call. And we can say that it is faith and fruit that Jesus seems to be pleased with in the previous parables. Faith in the preaching of the good news of the kingdom in Matthew 21:32:

“For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

And Jesus is pleased not only in the faith of the tax collectors and prostitutes, but he is also pleased with  fruit which he emphasizes will be produce by a people other than the chief priests and Pharisees, Jesus says in Matthew 21:43:

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 

Application: The rest of Bible outlines for us the terms of joining in the people of God: 

We come by faith in Jesus Christ. 

We come ready and willing to listen to him.

We come genuinely, not with lip service only but with a real desire to join him in His mission and his ways.

We come not in a righteousness of our own, but looking to his Cross, a ransom for many. 

And we come accepting the fact that there will be all kinds of people joining him, not just people from our class and and family group, but from other classes and families, some of them coming from even backgrounds that make us uncomfortable. 

This is where I want you to do some soul searching today. Do you have genuine faith and belief in Jesus, and are you truely bearing fruit in your life? That is the difference between being called and chosen. This leads me to the last thing that this passage calls us to do, and that is that we are to

MP3 - Serve Faithfully - 

Here I want us to put ourselves in the shoes of the slaves sent out to call people to come to the feast. Some folks will not only refuse to come, but they will get violent when you press them.

And you have found that can’t make them come. You can’t push them into the kingdom of God. You can’t even persuade them. We can preach, and invite to come to Jesus, we can even persuade and urge them to come. But many refuse.

Here is where I want you to really heed the last word of parable, in verse 14. “Many are called but few are chosen.” You see, we cannot be the Holy Spirit. We can’t do what only God can do. We can and should share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our friends and family. We can and should invite them, even press them to come to the feast and enter into the joy of it all. But we cannot make them do anything. We cant give them a Damascus road experience. We can’t persuade them into the kingdom of God. Nor can we love them into the kingdom. Maybe we can get them to come to church on a Sunday. But we cannot produce genuine faith and fruit in their lives. 

What do we do with that? Well, we need to be faithful at our post for one. We need to obey the command of the King and announce the wedding and feast for the Prince and the Bride is happening.  Ad we also need to accept the hard truth that if they persecuted the Prophets, and Christ and the Apostles, they will persecute the church as well. But there will also be those who are chosen who will respond. And sometimes it won’t be the people we expect. Sometimes it will be the deplored. The despised. The outcast who will come. 

Closing

You know, the interesting thing about this passage is that it’s not just those who refuse to come to Feast of the Father for his princely son who pay the cost for sin in this story. The servants of the King also pay a cost, being treated shamefully, and being killed by the invited guests. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, not only came as the Groom fit for a wedding and feast, but as a Suffering Servant. You may have refused him, and even sought to harm Him. Or you may have said “yes” to His invitation, but once coming, you didn’t really care about outfitting yourself on his terms. Perhaps you are here this morning feeling the weight of guilt for your refusal or doing it your own way. To you I would say, don’t let your guilt keep you from the feast. The fate of those who have come to his feast, dressed in the robes of His righteousness and saintly deeds will feast in His house, and they will weep no more. In the house of the Lord are pleasures forevermore. Turn to Him humbly, openly, making no excuses, and trusting in Him for forgiveness. He was treated shamefully and killed for His Bride. She will not be burned by the fire.  Come to Him on his terms even now for the forgiveness of sins, and strength to live in quiet submission to Him. 

Benediction: Now the God of peace, Who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. | Hebrews 13:20-21