Untitled Sermon (2)

The Invitation

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. Again, he sent out other servants and said, “Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”

What is Jesus saying? Essentially, Jesus is teaching by telling those listening what the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be like. Jesus often taught in the form of parables because he understood the power of stories. This is what makes snapchat so fun right? Because there is something a little more authentic a little more real and tangible in a story that you cant get in other interactions. Stories allow us to “feel” the truth even if we don’t “know” the truth.

a story about how God’s Kingdom—heaven—is like a wedding baquet that God has prepared for Jesus and His Bride, the Church. See when you really boil it down, this is really what the whole story of the Bible is about. When you open up your Bible and begin reading, you see that the story began with this wedding—between a man and a woman—Adam and Eve. Then when you turn to the end of your Bible you find that the Bible ends with a wedding at the end of Revelation. See, the Bible is the greatest love story ever told. It tells the story of how God marries himself to His people. His bride rejects that love, giving Herself to other lovers—money, sex, fame, success, power, and temporal pleasure—committing spirutal adultery. And then the story ends with God and His Bride reunited for eternity.

So Jesus doesn’t just come out and give us facts about heaven. He tells us a story. He says that heaven is like being invited to a party. But not just any party. This is a HUGE party. This party is being thrown by GOD Himself. Look at what Jesus says the party is like here: He says that the party is thrown by a king for his sons wedding. Now, I want to paint the picture for you here because this is important. Back in these time periods, wedding feasts were like the biggest parties of the year. Some of you think that you party hard, but you don’t party like the Jewish people partied. Their parties would start at the end of the wedding and no one was allowed to leave until the bride and groom got back from their honeymoon! But this wasn’t just any ole party though, this is a party thrown by the king…so it would have been like the party of a life time for everyone invited.

To put this in perspective, the next royal wedding between Prince Harry and Megan Markle is 17 days away from today. Right now people are estimating that the festivities are 42 million dollars…and that’s only for one day! This would have been a royal wedding party that lasted not one day, but like a whole week. So we are talking about the equivelant of a party that is well over 100 million dollars! THIS IS THE PARTY…not a party. That’s what Jesus is saying God’s Kingdom is like! If you think that Christianity is boring it is probably because you aren’t a Christian!

So the party of the invitation is about to be thrown, the king calls his servants to go invite all of the people on the invitation list...but something unexpected happens—none of them come.

What’s Jesus saying? Who are these people that decide not to come? Look at what Jesus says,

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didnt want to come. Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See I’ve prepared my dinner, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.”

They didnt want to come because they didnt love the King. In other words, it would be like the church people of today. Many of you have grown up in church your whole lives and you know about the invitation to be apart of God’s kingdom, but you have rejected it because you think there is something more important. You think that you have something more important to pursue than accepting God’s invitation. So you go on about your life becasue you dont love God, you love yourself and doing what you want to do.

” They didnt want to come. In other words, it would be like the church people of today. Many of you have grown up in church your whole lives and you know about the invitation to be apart of God’s kingdom, but you have rejected it because you think there is something more important.

Look at what Jesus says happens to these people, “The King was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murders and burned their city.”

Not accepting the God’s invitation of salvation is a declaration of war. By not responding to God’s call of salvation you are actively declaring that you know better than Him and you have more important things to Him…see here is the point… This King had to make some incredible sacrifices to throw this party. He had to kill his most expensive cattle, prepare food for everyone, and get everything ready for the party.

By not accepting the kings invitation these people were essentially saying that they didnt care about the sacrifices the king made. It was an act of defiance and a declaration of war.

And see here is the point. God has made preperations for you to attend the wedding party