A Feast Worth Dressing Up For
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Holy Week
Passage is found in what is believed to be the events of the Tuesday of the holy week.
Princess Diaries Illustration
Explain the movie-
Mia—awkward nerdy girl at school with big hair who has no idea she is royalty and then goes through a transformation into this make up, well groomed, princess.
Show Picture
In Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus shares an important parable about A Wedding feast, an invitation from a great king to celebrate with his invited guests.
One of the most important pieces of the parable boils down to the attire of one of the guests. He wasn’t ready for the feast.
Are you ready for the wedding feast?
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.”
1) To have fellowship with God, you must come when invited.
1) To have fellowship with God, you must come when invited.
A. The first invited guests rejected the Kings gracious invitation.
A. The first invited guests rejected the Kings gracious invitation.
Exposition:
Servants likely refers to the prophets of the OT.
the invited guests that refused the invitation likely refers to the Jews refused to respond to the prophet’s message and the people who rejected the the teaching of the prophets and Jesus.
Rejecting a King’s invitation to a banquet would be unimaginable. It would be held as extreme disrespect and could end up with punishment as severe as death.
These invited guests did not only reject the kings invitation, they mistreated and killed the second set of servants sent to invite them.
The result, the king justly destroyed their property and destroyed the murderers.
The king proclaims that those invited were not not worthy. Those who rejected Jesus, specifically the Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, were not worthy of their invitation.
Application:
The rejection of Jesus’s invitation is a costly rejection.
When you choose to reject God’s invitation to follow Jesus, you are guilty of rejecting the King’s invitation and it will cost you everything.
b. The second invite was given and accepted widely.
b. The second invite was given and accepted widely.
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.
Exposition:
The invitation went from exclusive to any and all who were around. Likely, it is a reference to Jews rejection and the gentiles being grafted into the the true vine.
Paul explains this reality extensively in Romans 11. We don’t have enough time to examine all of what he says but here are a few highlights:
1. God has not rejected the Jews. (Romans 11:1-10)
Paul gives himself as proof of this fact.
Paul uses Elijah as his second proof.
2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
2. God has grafted in Gentiles (Romans 11:11-24)
Paul explains through the Jew’s failure Gentiles are brought into fellowship so that Israel would ultimately respond with saving faith. (Romans:11-12)
In perfect timing, when Israel turns to Jesus in mass, we will know the time is come for Christ’s return. (Romans 11:15)
15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
We have been grafted into the true root. (Romans 11:17-24)
2) To have fellowship with God, you must repent.
2) To have fellowship with God, you must repent.
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.”
Exposition:
The invited guests came, yet one was not clothed in wedding garments.
Wedding garments is reference to the change that takes place when you repent and turn to Jesus for saving faith.
Even if you respond to the invitation to come to church and you do church things, unless you have experienced saving faith, you are not going to be accepted into heaven.
As we see in the account of Judas, who accepted the invitation to follow Jesus. He did not have a true relationship with Jesus. He betrayed him.
Jesus warns in Matthew 7:21-23,
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
These accounts are very similar. And they both demonstrate to us the desperate need we have to be clothed in righteousness.
Application:
If we are not clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, we cannot enter into eternity.
There are too many people in the world around us who know all about the invitation to follow Jesu but have no personal relationship with him.
Conclusion:
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Have you moved from the called to the chosen? Has your family members moved from called to the chosen? What Jesus means here is have you been clothed in his righteousness.
Are you prepared for the wedding feast? What better time to see if we are ready than this Holy Week celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord and King.