God s Great Invitation Text: Matthew 22:1-14 Series: Parables, #2 Pastor Lyle L. Wahl June 22, 2003 Theme: The Chosen Respond To God s Gracious Invitation. Introduction In preparing for today, I was impressed with how extensive one concept and phrase is in our world: Chosen One(s). Chosen selected, one of destiny, outstanding ability, accomplishment or fame. It is, as well, obviously and frequently overused. It is used in sports. Jackie Robinson, first black player in major league baseball. The book The Chosen One: Tiger Woods and the Dilemma of Greatness. And, of course, it is used of the latest and greatest draft picks in all sports. It is used of a player who can bring a team together, lead it to success. The phrase is also use in the arts of music, movies, television. Also of the successful, rich, movers and shakers in business and politics. And it is not restricted to just people, but is used of innovative, successful, hyped devices. Then, there is the negative side, the unchosen. Orphans whom no one adopts. Those not selected for the side, team, special circle of kids, for a school, job, career. It is even used in emotional descriptions of unchosen puppies and kitties. Where does this come from? We all have an inner desire to belong, to be special. It goes even deeper. Look at religion and philosophy around the world, The Chosen One, or The Chosen Ones is a dominant theme. The Old Testament speaks of the Messiah, Jesus, as The Chosen One. The Jewish people were chosen, brought into being as a nation by God. Christians, are called chosen Ones. All of this is based on basic truth that is not well-received by many today: there is one God and one God only the God who reveals Himself to us in the Bible. God created us and wants to us to know Him always, forever. God has placed within every person a deep inner
desire to know Him, to be a chosen One. But not all people do known Him, not all are chosen ones. And there is only one way to becoming a chosen one, God s way. Today, in our second week in a series on Jesus Parables, the parable we are looking at speaks to these issues. Remember, the general idea of a parable is to create a visual picture that makes an impact on the listener which can be easily remembered and passed on. In brief, a parable is a true to life story designed to picture and teach one spiritual truth, which often suggests others. The parable before us today is about God s Great Invitation. It is one of three parables given together to the leaders of Israel and the nation as a whole a week before Jesus crucifixion. The Pharisees, Scribes and Chief Priests by now had banded together to get rid of this trouble maker Jesus of Nazareth. They set traps to catch Him as He taught, but failed. These parables start in Matthew 21:12 with Jesus in the Temple, the leaders wanting to grill Him, and Jesus rejecting their attempts to be His judge. The first is the parable of two sons sent to the vineyard by their father to work in verses 28-32. One said No, but went; the other said Yes, but didn t go. Jesus asked the leaders, which of the two did the will of the father? The leaders correctly answered the first, the one who went. Jesus states His point, Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. The second parable is about a landowner s vineyard, in verses 33-46. It was a good vineyard, complete with walls, tower and a winepress. The owner rented it out and took an extended trip. At harvest he sent servants to collect his share for the rent but renters beat and killed the servants. The owner then sent a second group, which was met with the same results. Next the owner sent his son, and they killed the heir. Jesus question to the leaders, was, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? Their quick reply was, He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine -growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons. Jesus then stated the point of this parable, Did you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation 2
producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. The narrative goes on, When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet. Then, Jesus came to the parable of The Wedding Feast, our subject for today. It is God s Great Invitation, God s great invitation to the Kingdom, to a relationship forever with Himself. Jesus message then and today is the chosen respond to God s gracious invitation. Jesus Message To Israel. We begin with the historical, first sense message, Jesus s message to Israel. God had repeatedly invited them (2-4). In the opening 4 verses, there are three invitations to the party. In that culture, an invitation from the king was indeed a command performance, Be there! It also was expected for the guests to bring gifts to the one honored. To refuse the invitation was to disobey King s desire and decree, to show that you thought the King s son not worth a gift, or that you did not approve of the marriage or, even worse, that you were no longer loyal to the king. To refuse an invitation from the king was very serious! In this parable God is saying to Israel, Time after time, generation after generation, through the prophets, judgments, the exile & return, I have invited you. Jesus, specifically, over three years of teaching, living among them, inviting them. Yes, God had repeatedly invited them. God had repeatedly invited them and they had repeatedly refused (2-6). In the parable we see that they ignored the first invitation, were unwilling to listen to the second one and paid no attention to the third, and worse as they carried on their business, beat and killed the messengers. This is a constant, ongoing, intensifying refusal. Jesus said to Israel s religious leaders, in the next chapter, b. To Israel, a bit later, 3
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation [Zechariah in the Jewish Scriptures was in the last book, so from the beginning to the end] (23:29-37). Another part of the message in this parable is that judgment was coming. In the parable itself, verse 7, But the king was enraged, and sent his armies and destroyed those murders and set their city on fire. Insurrection, rebellion against the king would be, of course, a capital offense. The message to Israel s leaders was to those who thumbed their nose at God Almighty. The picture was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when Rome burned Jerusalem. God now set aside Israel and will use the church to reach the world, until the church age is fulfilled. A fourth part of the message in this parable is that God s invitation will go to others. We pick it up at verse 8. Then he said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast. Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests (8-10). The slaves were instructed to invite as many as they could find in the public places. It was in invitation to all the rich and poor, the good and bad. 4
The message to Israel is that in light of their rejection the gospel now goes to gentiles, equally. Now everyone is on equal footing. Gentiles do not have to come through Israel. This is, of course, the clear teaching, practice of the New Testament. God s Great Invitation. God repeatedly gave the invitation to Israel. The nation repeatedly rejected. Now there would be judgment and God would move on to all equally. Jesus Message To All Today. This parable, as do all the others, has a message for us, for everyone today. First, the message is that God s grace is great. We see this in the repeated invitations to the invited guests. He could have said, Once is enough! After all, I m the King! God is King, He is God! But, as 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us, The Lord is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. God does not take joy in the death and eternal judgment of an unbeliever, of any unbeliever. God loves all the people He has created. There is a warning here as well: continual rejection of God s invitation leads to hardening of your heart and to judgment. Romans 11:7 tells us What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened. The message today remains the same, God s grace is great! Regardless of your background, social standing, sin, God s grace is great to all. A second part of Jesus message to us is that God provides the means of entrance. In the parable were gathered out of public squares, markets, roadways. There was no time to go home and get dressed up and besides, many would not have owned anything suitable. History records kings sometimes providing festive clothing for their guests. So here, the king s servants provided the required attire without it, they could not join in and celebrate. This is a beautiful picture for us. The reality is that to enter God s presence, His holiness, righteousness, perfection is required. No matter how good we think we may be, no matter how hard we try, our best intentions and attempts don t even show up on the scale of perfection. God provides the means of entrance in Jesus! We are told in Galatians 3:27, For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Think of the pictures in the book of Revelation about white/bright indicating clean, pure, happiness. Chapter 3 verse 4, they will walk with Me in white. The next verse, He who 5
overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments. Chapter 19 verse 8, It was given to her [the church] to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean. All of this in Christ. God provides the means of entrance. That s the positive and wonderful side. There is also a negative side: God rejects all other attempts to entrance. Go to verse 11. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place thee will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (11-13). Have you ever had problems, questions with this? Remember, all were offered robes, but this one man refused. Why? Was he a non-conformist? ( I m not just one of the herd. ) Was he an individualist? ( I will do my own thing, thank you. ) Was he self-righteous? ( I m okay the way I am! ) Whatever the motivation, he tried to enter his own way, disregarding the one, loving, gracious way provided. And so, he was rejected, not admitted and he received rightful punishment. The overall message here is about entering the Kingdom of God, of salvation. Remember Jesus familiar words, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me (John 14:6). Again, in Matthew 7:13-14 he tells us, Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. People keep trying so many different ways. Ivan the Terrible was as bad as his nickname. The Russian Czar tortured thousands of citizens. He led a life which showed no meaningful moral values. He believed he was divinely chosen to rule Russia so, no matter how terrible, what he did was an act of God. On March 18, 1584 he died. In keeping with the customs of the time, it was declared he died a monk. His head was shaved like a monk and he was buried in a monk s robes. Many expected that by this he would enter heaven. Not so, 6
according to Jesus, according to the clear, consistent teaching of the Bible. God rejects all other attempts to entrance. The last truth for us here is that God s chosen choose Him. Verse 14, For many are called, but few are chosen. Jesus tells us that the invitation goes to all everywhere. Few respond, few are chosen. There are two dimensions to this which in our time today, we can only mention: There is God s dimension and ours. Only God can see both with 100% accuracy, with 20/20 vision. The Bible makes it clear that God, before the foundation of the world, chose those who will respond to His gracious invitation. That s the theme of Ephesians chapter 1 and is also stated clearly elsewhere (e.g., Colossians 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). The Bible also makes it clear that our part, what we can see, is how we respond to the gospel we have freedom and responsibility. Paul wrote, that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). This too is clear in many other places in the Bible (e.g., John 20:31; Acts 16:31). We cannot fully and finally fit it all together with our limited abilities. God, and only God can. If we push to hard on either side we rush headlong into a ditch of error. We know with certainty from Scripture that God s chosen choose Him. Application. The timeless message of Jesus is that the chosen respond to God s invitation. Jesus speaks to those who are not sure, or who even know that they have not responded to God s invitation. God speaks to you regardless of who you are or are not; regardless of what you have done, or have not done; regardless of what others think of you, what you have or have not done. Jesus tells us, the only way to life with Him now and forever is to accept His gracious invitation He came to earth, lived a perfect life, died and rose from the dead to provide the one and only was to life with God. Jesus also speaks to those who are sure, who know you have accepted his gracious invitation. Beyond personal assurance, He gives us assurance about our witness of Him to others. That is something where the doing is often a lot harder than the knowing. Jesus tells us: His grace is great, He provides the only means of entrance, and that His chosen will 7
choose Him. Becoming confident and skilled in witness is, in some ways, like the other things we learn in life (with the advantage here that God is doing His work!). Right now I am spending a lot of time around computers. I look back to the mid-80's when I got my first computer, set it up, and then looked at the short reference guide for the word processing program. It was a card that unfolded, and unfolded It was printed on both sides with keystrokes and codes. I looked at it and thought, Did I make a mistake or what? I kept it. It took time and practice, and while I still know a lot less than I don t know, I am comfortable around computers. When it comes to our witness, it can seem daunting. How can I ever do it effectively at all? The truth of this parable reminds us that it is not all up to us. It reassures us that while we don t understand a great deal, we know the chosen respond to God s invitation and we can trust Him. Go to God in the next quiet moments. Thank Him Thank God that His grace is great, that He does provide the means of entrance, and that if you have chosen Him, you know He has chosen you. At same time, no assumptions. If not sure where you stand with God, or if you know you have not chosen Him, you can do that right here, right now. Tell God you know that Jesus died and was raised for you, to pay the penalty for your sin. Ask God to forgive you of all your sin and to give you everlasting life with Him. Thank Him that you now know He has chosen you. If you do that, talk about it with me or someone you know today. 2003 Lyle L. Wahl Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. 8