Matthew: On Earth As It Is In Heaven Responding to Jesus, Part 2 * Matthew 22:1-14

Transcription

1 Matthew: On Earth As It Is In Heaven Responding to Jesus, Part 2 * Matthew 22:1-14 Good morning. It s great to see everyone here today. If you have your Bible, please take it and turn with me to Matthew 22. If you don t have a Bible I d encourage you to grab one from the pew in front of you or at the very least look on with a neighbor. Today we have the privilege of studying what I believe to be one of Jesus most powerful parables, the Parable of the Wedding Feast. It s a parable with a lot of intrigue and suspense, a tale that includes a wedding, a king and a prince, murder, revenge, and even a surprise tragic ending. It s kind of like Game of Thrones without the sex and nudity. Now to be clear, I ve never watched that show and don t plan to, and you probably shouldn t either. That s a whole other issue I know, but at least hopefully now I have your attention. The point is that even cable TV drama has nothing on the story Jesus is going to tell us today. Now, before we get to the parable, let s set the stage by doing a review of what we studied last week. The Parable of the Wedding Feast is the last in a trilogy of parables that Jesus told in Matthew 21 & 22 to explain the different ways in which people respond to his authority. So, last week we studied the Parable of the Two Sons and the Parable of the Tenants, and in those stories we learned four important things. One, we all have rebelled against the God who created us. In the words of Romans 3:23, we all have sinned and fall short of God s glory. Every single one of us. Two, despite our rebellion and rejection, God loves us more than we can imagine and has gone to incredible lengths to be reconciled with us. Three, even though God loves us, judgment is still coming. It is inevitable and inconceivably horrific. And four, we can avoid judgment by repenting and placing our faith in Jesus Christ as God s last, best offer of reconciliation. Now, let me remind you of one more thing. The key truth we learned last week is that repentance isn t simply something we say or affirm, but rather is a change in mind that leads to a change in direction. In other words, true

2 belief in Jesus is evidenced by obedience. So, that was last week, and now today in the Parable of the Wedding Feast Jesus is going to expand on these themes and go into little more detail about how people respond to him. So, with that said let s go ahead and take a look at the passage. Follow closely as I read: And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 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. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. 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. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 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. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:1-14 ESV) Ok, to understand this parable it will be helpful to know a few things about Jewish weddings in the first century. There are ways in which they were very similar and also very different to weddings today. Just a note here, by the way; I am not going to share my personal opinion on weddings because I know without a doubt that I would get myself in a whole lot of trouble. I ve tried on a number of occasions over my first 100 sermons to get you upset with me but have been relatively unsuccessful so far. However, I know that if I were to voice my concerns about weddings some of you would never 2

3 speak to me again so I m just going to leave it alone. Anyway, Jewish weddings in the 1 st century were a huge deal, probably even a bigger deal than they are today. They were a major social event and almost always lasted a minimum of a week and in many cases two or three. The festivities included a lot of parties, a lot of music, a lot of dancing, and most of all a lot of food and alcohol. Just as an example, when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana he made about 120 gallons, and this was after they had already drank 120 gallons. What s more, the wedding Jesus is describing here is a royal wedding, so the event would have been even bigger and more elaborate than normal. Of course the best example we have in modern times is the marriage of Prince William and Kate just a few years ago. Hundreds of millions of people watched the wedding on TV, in ever corner of the globe. There were lots of special guests, lots of festivities, and lots and lots of British pounds spent on the event. So, that s kind of what you have going on here in this parable. It s the wedding of the crown prince, an event that would have been the biggest social happening for years, if not decades. It s an event that everyone would have wanted to attend, an invitation that that no one would have ever considered turning down. And actually, the invitation to a royal wedding was much more of a summons than an invitation. Invitation is the nice way to put it, but everyone who got one would have known that attendance was mandatory. To not attend was a huge offense, and so you wouldn t say no to the king and think you would get away with it. Now, let me add one more thing here and it has to do with the wedding garment Jesus mentions in v This is huge. When the guests arrived for a royal wedding, before they were allowed to enter the wedding hall they were required to put on a special wedding garment provided by the king. Once again, these garments were mandatory and were likely provided to make sure that everyone had the proper attire to attend an event of that magnitude. The important thing to note is that without the wedding 3

4 garment, you didn t get into the wedding. Two things were needed to attend a royal wedding, an invitation and a wedding garment. So, with these things in view, lets quickly walk through the text. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a king who plans a wedding banquet for his son. However, when the invited guests receive the invitation, some of them respond with indifference and some with hostility. Some are too busy to come and others get angry and lash out at the king s servants. The king, of course, doesn t take this sitting down and so he sends his soldiers to exact revenge on those who would not come. Jesus says that the king actually has them killed and burns their city. Then, because he has a big party planned and no one to attend, the king sends his servants to the streets to invite anyone they can find, telling them not to discriminate anyone who will come is welcome, whether they are good and bad. And in this way the king is able to fill his wedding hall. So, everything is good. The wedding hall is full, and the festivities are about to start. But here is where the big twist comes in; here is where we find the surprise ending. When the king comes into the wedding hall to greet his guests he finds a man who has snuck in dressed in his regular clothes. He hasn t bothered to put on the wedding garment like everyone else. Apparently he thought it was unnecessary and he was good as he was. However, that s not the way the king viewed it, and so when the man can t give an answer for why he doesn t have a wedding garment the king has him banished from his kingdom forever. Now, that s quite a story isn t it? Like I said, you could make a great movie out of this one. However, it s much more than an interesting story. We are actually going to see that it reveals some of the most important truths in the world, truths about the wrong way and the right way to respond to Jesus. So get this; just like we talked about last week, the way you respond to Jesus makes all the difference in the world. And that s what Jesus is trying to get across here. He s trying to show us the wrong way and the right way respond to who he is. So, let s look now at how the Parable of the Wedding Feast displays the four different ways people respond to Jesus. Four Ways People Respond to Jesus 4

5 1. Indifference The first way people respond to Jesus is with indifference. Look at v. 5 again: But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business. So, once again, the king invites people to a great big wedding party for his son. He makes all the arrangements and he spares no expense, but when the people receive the invitation some of them act as if they have much better things to do. Jesus told a similar parable to this one in Luke 14. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. (Luke 14:17-20 ESV) There are many people who respond to Jesus the same way; they make all kinds of excuses as to why they can t follow him. One of the most common, of course, is that they don t have time. Many people, maybe even a few of us, have way too much going on, and don t have the time, or better said don t make the time to obey Jesus summons to follow him. I really believe that this is one of the primary ways the devil attacks Americans today. He tempts us to keep really full and busy schedules so we won t have the time to think about spiritual matters. He tempts us to think that we will eventually get around to following Jesus when things settle down. Have you ever said or thought this? That you will get serious about following Jesus when things aren t so crazy? Maybe when the kids get a little older and you will have more spare time? Well here s the problem with the I will get around to it attitude. First, things never slow down and 5

6 second, as we talked about last week, another opportunity to follow Jesus isn t a given. It isn t a guarantee. Today, right now, might be the last opportunity you ever have to accept Jesus invitation to follow him. Charles Spurgeon once gave a great example of this. He told of the interaction between a Christian and a ship owner. The Christian asked, Well, sir, what is the state of your soul? to which the merchant replied, Soul? I have no time to take care of my soul. I have enough to do just taking care of my ships. However, the man was not too busy to die, which he did a week later. 1 Do you get the point? You might think you are too busy for Jesus, but your not too busy to die. Let me make some application here that I hope will be helpful but will also likely step on some toes at the same time. I m just going to lay it out there for you, because this is too important to soft-pedal. If you don t regularly have time in your day to read your Bible and pray, you are too busy. Something needs to go. If your kid s activities keep you from faithfully attending corporate worship, some of them need to go. Not your kids, their activities. If your hobbies keep you from living in community with other believers, your hobbies need to go. And if something keeps you from living on mission to make disciples of Jesus, then that something needs to go. Maybe it s the fact you work too much or spend too much time with your extended family. If it s keeping you from making disciples, it needs to go. Now listen; I have to admit that I am preaching to myself here too. Busyness is as much of a challenge for the Carr family as it is for everyone else. So I am not trying to act like I have it all figured out, because I don t. But here is what I do know, the stakes are way, way too big and if we don t intentionally fight against the busyness tide in our culture, we very well may find that we become indifferent to Jesus, and if this happens the end result will not be pretty, for us or for our children. So friends, take this word seriously. Jesus is not someone to get around to; seek him first and he will give you all the time you need for everything else. 1 Boice, J. M. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 468). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. 6

7 2. Hostility The second way in which people respond to Jesus is with hostility. We see this in the parable, of course, by those who kill the servants. We saw the same thing in the parable of the tenants last week. And this kind of hostility is not uncommon today; in fact, it s becoming more and more prevalent, not only in our own country but also in many places around the world. You have no doubt heard just this week that the terrorist group ISIS has given Christians in central Iraq the option of converting to Islam, leaving the country, or being killed. The result has been an unprecedented departure of Christians from that region. I read this week that there is a church in Mosul that last Sunday didn t serve the Lord s Supper for the first time in 1,600 years. And this is just one example. There is a lot of hostility to Jesus in our world today, and that hostility is only going to grow. That said I want to point out that hostility to Jesus doesn t just occur outside of the church; it is also present inside the church. In fact, it s very possible that there are those here today who are angry with Jesus. Maybe you would never say it out loud and maybe you would never admit it to anyone, but for whatever reason, you are angry and bitter at God and therefore are refusing his invitation. You refuse to give in and follow him. And here s what I want to say to you today. I want you to know that God desperately desires to be reconciled to you. Even though you hate him, and have rebelled against him, and want nothing to do with him, he still loves you. What s more, his invitation is still open to you today. No matter how hard your heart is, no matter how broken and hurt you maybe, Jesus can and will give you a new heart and heal your brokenness if you will let him. He will reconcile you to God and give you a place in his kingdom. He offers you peace today, will you receive it? 3. Effort The third way people respond to Jesus is with merit. Another term we could use is works or effort. The man who tries to get into the feast without a wedding garment represents this response. Think about it. All the man has 7

8 to do in order to gain entrance to the feast is to accept the wedding garment that the king has graciously provided him with. The only thing he has to do is accept the king s gift. However, instead of simply exchanging his old clothes for new ones, he decides to try and make it in on his own. He decides to trust that he is good enough as he is. He believes that he can stand on his own merit and doesn t need what the king has offered. And this, of course, is how many, perhaps even most people respond to Jesus. Instead of accepting his free gift, they think they can make it on their own. They think that they are good enough, that in the end their good deeds will outweigh their bad and therefore God will accept them and allow them into his kingdom. These people aren t indifferent or hostile to Jesus. In fact, they want a relationship with him. However, they fail to understand that the relationship only comes by grace, not by works. The key to understanding this parable is in recognizing what the wedding garment represents. And while there is some debate about this, I think it s pretty clear that it represents the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If the feast in the parable represents fellowship with God in his coming kingdom, then the one and only requirement for having that fellowship is the righteousness that only Jesus can supply. Let me show you this from two other passages in the New Testament. First, 2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV) Then there s 1 Peter 3:18: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18 ESV) These verses tell us that God is a righteous God, and in order for us to have a relationship with him, we must be righteous as well. The problem, of 8

9 course, is that our sin makes us unrighteous. It makes us unworthy to come into God s presence. Even those of us who might be good by human standards fall way short of God s standard. Again, that s where Romans 3:23 comes in. All of us have sinned, and therefore we all fall short of God s glory, of his righteousness. Therefore, if we are going to enter into God s presence, if we are going to come into his kingdom, we must be granted righteousness from outside of ourselves. We need, in the words of Martin Luther, an alien righteousness. We literally need righteousness from another world. Now let s get back to the parable. Notice in v. 12 that when the king asks the man how he got into the banquet, he is speechless. Have you ever had an experience like this? Have you ever been caught red-handed doing something you weren t supposed to and had absolutely no answer for why you were doing it? Here in the parable the man had every opportunity to enter the right way. The wedding garments were just as available to him as they were to everyone else. He just decided that he wanted to try and make it on his own, and so he had no excuse when he got caught. There was nothing he could say to the king, no answer that would work in anyway. Now, let me paint the picture of what this means for you and me. To do so I want to share an illustration I have used before. I want you to imagine that you are going to stand before God one day, and that shouldn t be hard because it really is going to happen. And imagine that on that day he were to ask you why he should allow you into heaven, why he should allow you into his kingdom. In the words of the parable, what if God were to ask you how did you get in here? What will your response be? Think about it for a second. You are standing before the God of the universe and its time for your eternity to be determined. God has one question for you and your answer determines your next billion plus years. What answer are you going to give for why he should allow you into heaven? What are you going to say? 9

10 I ve asked this question many times, and when I do I get a variety of responses. Many people struggle to answer the question. Some respond like the man does here in the parable. They are speechless. They don t know what to say. They don t have an answer. Others respond that they have been a pretty good person and have done the best they can. And then there are some who say that God lets everybody in at the end; that he is gracious and merciful and would never send anyone to hell. I ve heard these answers over and over again, and every single one of them grieves me, especially when I hear them from people who think they are Christians. Listen to me carefully here; I want to be gentle but you need to know that if you give one of these answers then you are going to end up like the man in the parable. You are going to end up being cast into outer darkness. You are going to be banished from God s kingdom forever. Why? Because these answers reveal that you aren t wearing the wedding garment. They show that you don t have the righteousness of Christ. They mean that at the end of the day you are trusting either in your good works or in the fact that God just accepts everyone. But you need to realize today that this simply isn t the case. It s obvious from our parable today that works don t save and God doesn t accept everyone. He only accepts those who have exchanged their sin for his son s righteousness. Get this; and we saw it last week as well. God the Father spares no expense in making it possible for us to come to the wedding banquet. Even though we have rebelled against him to the point of murdering his son, he still has done everything needed, everything possible in order for us to go to heaven. All we have to do is put on the wedding garment that he has provided. It really is that simple. However, if we refuse to do so, if in our ignorance, or indifference, or hostility, or pride, or whatever, we decide not to accept the wedding garments, he cannot and will not let us in. There is only one way to heaven, there is only way to the kingdom, and that way is through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 4. Faith 10

11 Now, this leads to the fourth response to Jesus that we see in our passage, and that is the response of faith. Let s go back to our illustration for a second. What s the only answer that works when God asks the question of why he should allow you into his kingdom? Well, it goes something like this: You know God, you really shouldn t. I have nothing to offer but my sin and rebellion. I ve tried to live a good life but I fall way short of your standard. However, your Word says that Jesus died so that I could have his righteousness. Therefore, I have placed my faith in this truth and stand before you today based not upon my merit but upon Christ s. Here s how the Apostle Paul explained it in Philippians 3: For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. (Philippians 3:7-9 ESV) So where do we get this righteousness that God demands? We get it through faith in Jesus. Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus. That s what it means to put on the wedding garments. So friends, do you have this faith? The faith that doesn t trust in what you can do but upon what Christ has done? Will you stand before God one day in your own clothes, on your own merit, or will you do so dressed in the righteousness of Christ? Let me come at it this way. This is so huge I want do my best to make sure everyone understands. A number of years ago George Gallup took a poll of what Americans considered to be the most pressing issues they would face after they died. In the poll, 42% of the people said that one of the things they were most concerned about was whether or not God would forgive them. 2 Maybe you are here today and the same is true for you; maybe your biggest 2 Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church. 11

12 concern is whether or not God is going to forgive you. Friends, if you have the righteousness of Christ you can be sure that he already has. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, God has exchanged your sin for Christ s righteousness. Therefore, you can be absolutely sure that when God looks at you, he doesn t see your sin, but instead he sees Jesus. And because he sees Jesus you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when your day comes and you stand before him, he won t hesitate even for a second to put his arms around you and welcome you into his kingdom forever. Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers by Chris Carr. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Harmony Bible Church s website address ( on the copied resource. 12