Matthew Chapter 22
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Matthew Chapter 22 (The Called and the Chosen)
Matthew Chapter 22 (The Called and the Chosen)
Intro:
We ended a couple of Sunday’s ago with the last half of Matthew Chapter 21, and we saw the Pharisees and the Chief priests of the temple questioning who gave Jesus His authority?
They were upset over Jesus taking authority in the temple, but they also feared the multitudes because the multitudes were seeing Jesus as the Messiah, the old testament prophecy being fulfilled,
Jesus does what we see Him doing in hard situations, he turns the event into a learning moment, He gives them the parable of the two sons, and the parable of the wicked tenants,
and Leading into Chapter 22 we see the 3rd parable Christ taught them which was,
The Parable of the Banquet Matthew 22:1-14 (Luke 14:15-24)
We see this parable in Matthew paralleled with Luke’s witness in Luke chapter 14 so
Let’s get into it,
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
So what is this parable from Jesus saying so far?
It is representing the kingdom of heaven, saying that it is like an arranged marriage from a king for the kings son, and the servants were sent By the King to reach out to those invited ,
You can kind of already sort of see how this parable is being used. Jesus is to be the husband of the marriage, who is looking for a bride right?
The Marriage again is representing that entering into the kingdom of heaven .
But it says those who were “bidden” wouldn’t come?
Bidden means to call or command,
In other words, “those who were invited by the servants wouldn’t come”
Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
So in other words, the king sent more servants to invite others to the wedding and letting them know that the ceremony is all ready,
But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
So the ones invited to this wedding didn’t take it seriously,
And if you parallel this to Luke chapter 14, you see how Luke kinda goes in a little more detail here saying how the ones invited kept coming up with excuses on how busy they were.
Remember we are still reading Christ’s parable here, we will translate it a little further in a second.
And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
Remnant here is Greek word 3062 in the Strongs meaning “the remaining ones”
The ones who were invited by the servants who didn’t have a made up excuse, took it to the extreme and slew the servants,
When reading this, you may see “gees that is kind of an exaggerated response even for a parable”
Remember Christ uses parables for teaching and better understanding,
John the Baptist was a servant of God, and remember he came in the spirit of Elijah, the old testament prophet,
Look back at Matthew chapter 11
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
“if they received him” but they didn’t remember,
What did they do to John the Baptist? They beheaded him,
So you see how this parable is being taught by Christ so far?
Not to “spoil the plot” but make a note, this parable isn’t just a teaching moment for what has already happened,
We are going to see the same dots being connected with the apostles as well,
I don’t want to jump to far ahead but just make that note,
Let’s keep reading in this parable,
But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
This is where we are starting to see the “prophecy” side of this parable,
If Jesus is the Son in this parable then who is the King?
God right?
So in other words, when God knew of all the hate and sin towards His servants what would He do?
He would send His armies and destroy the murderers and burn their city.
Guess what happened in 70 AD after this event?
The Roman destruction of Jerusalem,
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Take a look at that word bidden, meaning those who were called forth,
Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
The king tells the servants to go all around and invite all that will come, the good and the bad, and the ceremony was FULL of guests,
I want us to take a look ahead here at Matthew Chapter 28 verses 18-20
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
This is Christ speaking to the disciples commissioning them to spread the gospel and make disciples throughout the entirety of the Earth.
Is what is to come from Jesus to the Apostles not an exact reflection of this parable He is trying to use to teach the chief priests and Pharisees when they question His authority?
We’ve said this before, but we kinda have it easier than they did here because remember, reading in context you gotta look at “was this lesson written to me, for me, or both?”
Ask yourself that question as we finish up this first section.
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
This man come to the wedding, but one his own terms, the king found it improper.
We’ve been connecting the dots here and there with this parable,
What should we be wearing here on Earth?
The Whole Armour of God right?
Well remember, this wedding is a representation of the kingdom of Heaven,
Once we have been transformed after that last trump, what then will we have on? That white linen spoken of starting in Revelation 19 verse 7
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
This is what is being prophesied spoken of here by Christ in this parable,
The man at the wedding had on the wrong garment, what we see here in revelations is the clean, white linen is representation of the righteous acts for God from the saints.
This man in the parable is a representation of the opposite of that,
He is spiritually naked.
Lets read through these next 2 verses before we go over this.
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Bind the man hand and foot and cast him out, there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth,
You pretty much see for itself what this is referencing here, we’ve covered Daniel on Wednesday night Bible studies, a good depiction of the end times at the LAST trump not before.
For many are called, but few are chosen.
How powerful is this verse, “MANY are called, but FEW Chosen”
This is one of the parts of the bible where here in Matthew, this parable is documented for us to see what is taking place with Christ and the Pharisees,
But every parable spoken by Christ is ALSO written TOO us not just for us,
Re read verse 14 again,
For many are called, but few are chosen.
We have to remember who Christ is speaking to here,
The ones who claimed to be men of God but weren’t obeying the commandments of God, they were worried more about there social status and “class” rather than performing the works God called them to do, they literally turned the temple in Jerusalem, a place made for worshiping God and learning the word, into a flea market.
Like we went over in the last half of Matthew chapter 21,
Don’t just put yourself in the shoes of the righteous person to self reflect,
Look at this parable, and this situation here in Matthew from the Pharisees and Chief priests point of view,
Ask yourself this,
Are you being called by God,
And are you answering to that calling?
We just saw in revelations how we will be clothed based on our Acts toward God’s service,
The man in this parable was invited to the kings son’s wedding, but didn’t care enough to wear the proper clothing, that’s what the king was offended by,
Now look at the flip side of that,
You have a direct invitation into the kingdom of heaven,
I’m going to quote the most well referenced verses in the entire Bible that objectively and ironically the most overlooked verses because of it’s popularity,
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus Christ is our invitation to the wedding,
But remember there is a huge word that is overlooked drastically,
whosoever believeth in him “SHOULD” not perish, it doesn’t say “SHALL” but have everlasting life
After learning this parable which in Matthew here was written FOR and TOO us,
You have to ask yourself, now that your invited, are you performing your calling from God?
or in other words, now that your invited to the wedding, are you going to care enough to dress up for it?
Are you going to do what it takes to wear your fine white linen when you get to the kingdom of Heaven?
Again looking at the importance of that last verse for this parable verse 14,
MANY are called, but FEW are chosen,
Think about that,
But looking at this next section here in Matthew chapter 22 picking back up at verse 15, we see
Paying Taxes to Caesar Matthew 22:15-22 (Mark 12:13-17, Luke 20:19-26)
Caesar was the king of the Roman’s at the time, and I want to make note, this wasn’t Augustus Caesar that was the ruler during the birth of Christ that called for the census which forced Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem,
This is Tiberius Caesar, this is the ruler of Rome we are going to see through Jesus’s Crucifixion,
I just wanted to make note there that this is NOT the same Caesar we saw back with Mary and Joseph during Jesus’s birth.
Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.
So what we are going to see in this next section is the Pharisees aiming at getting Jesus to speak against the ruler which would be charged as treason,
So the Pharisees are trying to corner Jesus
And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
Herodians were those Jews who were following Herod Antipas, who by extension supported Roman rule,
They are saying “we know that your true to your teachings, and your teachings are the truth of God, We know that no man comes into standings with God”
Take a look at this next verse.
Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
So remember, the asking Him this question are the ones that were sent by the Pharisees to try and get Jesus to speak against the ruler which is considered treason.
in other words they are asking Him, “if your focus is solely on God, the laws of Caesar don’t matter right?”
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Remember, they were buttering Him up, calling Him Master, claiming they know His true teachings,
But Jesus immediately catches on at what they are trying to do,
I want to pause here for a second,
I want us to realize why and how important it is not to let your pride and ego be a stumbling block in your life,
Jesus could have easily heard them trying to butter Him up and get His head big, but He didn’t,
He wasn’t focused on their words, He was focused on their hearts, their intentions
Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
So He is telling them, “bring me a physical piece of this currency”
And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
He is holding this coin saying “tell me whose face is on this coin”
This is the same coin we saw referenced in Matthew 17 where Jesus told Peter to catch a fish and the fish had 2 coins in it’s mouth for them to pay the temple tax.
Just wanted to show what this currency looked like, and it literally had a picture of Caesar’s face on it.
This is why Christ is showing them this, verse 21
They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
Christ simply tells them, “this temple tax has nothing to do with God, this is simply for the law of the land to the ruler, what is Caesars is kept to Casesar and what is God’s keep to God,”
They were trying to catch Jesus slipping and they were comparing Apples and Oranges,
A little side note, not really important, but an interesting study is going over the history of the Roman coins, how they started, why they started, and just how much of an impact they had on society ever since,
They were first minted around 211 BC and it completely changed Rome’s foundation for a median of exchange and even politics,
That’s why they started stamping their leaders faces on them as a form of mass media, basically having their leaders faces on something that “represented” stability and wealth,
They were kind of brainwashing people into seeing that as there focus for stability and happiness, and that is why Christ is using this against the herodians because they only true happiness and stability in this world is from the word of God,
The sad part of it is, this is a practice that the United States and other countries still use to this day, it had such an economic impact that pretty much the entire world ended up adopting it.
But also,
Yes we have to be able to feed our families and pay taxes etc etc.
You having currency doesn’t contradict God as long as it doesn’t become that stumbling block,
What belongs in the flesh stays with the flesh, what belongs to God stays to God,
Kind of like saying that you paying property tax is against God,
We can’t help that, that is the law of the land, that doesn’t contradict my faith in God either?
That doesn’t mean I'm “doubting God not providing a home”, We know what it takes to live in home for our family,
And there's a side to this where you can compare it to tithing, etc etc which we aren't going down that rabbit whole today,
What I wanted us to focus on here, was how Christ doesn’t fall into their trap, he never disobeyed the law by speaking against Caesar, he simply uses the word to prove the truth,
It almost goes back to not proving someone wrong with the word of God, try to prove it right, and when it can’t be, the answer will be revealed without heart ache and confrontation.
Conclusion:
Reading through the first 22 verses here in Matthew chapter 22, what speaks to me the most is the verse at the end of the first section
For many are called, but few are chosen.
There is just so much being said in 8 words,
and tieing it back to the lesson, the parable of the banquet,
How many times have you felt on your heart and on your mind that God is telling you to do something,
God is calling you to speak to this person while your in town, or to pray for this person, whatever the case may be, and how often do we say “well maybe I'll do it later, or there alright they don’t need my help”
That is us being selfish and prideful, and this is an issue I struggle with on a day to day basis,
We have to remember that it isn’t about us, it’s about what the Holy Spirit does through us,
When God calls us to do something, we should do it and do it to the best of our ability wholeheartedly,
We cant take our calling and works from God lightly, just like the man in that parable, he didn’t take his invitation to the wedding and showed up in the wrong attire, and it offended the king,
Our clothing for the kingdom of heaven comes from what?
our righteousness for the Lord, Revelation 19:8
Take your callings from the Lord serious, meet Him halfway to allow the Holy spirit to work through you, don't get caught up in “well I don't want to embarrass myself” or whatever,
Look at Christ as the comparison here in the first half of this chapter,
He didn’t allow the herodians to sweet talk Him and swell his head up, why?
Because Jesus was focused on His mission here on Earth, and didn’t let sinful desires like “pride” and “ego” get in His way,
That’s how we should be, focused on the word of God, so that when God calls us to perform His works unto others, we are able to without hesitation,
We HAVE to take our callings and works for the Lord with all seriousness and without hesitation.
Matthew Chapter 22 (The Called and the Chosen)
Matthew Chapter 22 (The Called and the Chosen)
