Alright the kingdom parables. Here we go.
Lesson number three, "The Parable of the Wedding Feast" and that's in
Matthew Chapter 22. I would advise you if you have your Bibles open up there
because we'll be reading out of that.
So let's start with a brief review of what we have covered
so far in our study of the kingdom parables.
First of all the main topic of Jesus's preaching
was the kingdom, the coming of the kingdom, the nature of the kingdom,
and how to enter into the kingdom, all of these that He explained when he
talked about the kingdom.
Secondly, throughout the Old Testament and New Testament the image of the kingdom developed until
Jesus provided a full description of the kingdom as a dimension that
existed now in human terms, but would
eventually be transformed into its complete and final version at the end of the world.
Number three, His parables.
Remember we said the word parable means to lay alongside.
So He laid down simple ideas, simple stories things
that you could see and understand, in order to highlight or explain things that were unseen and more complex.
So His parables about the Kingdom of God
or the kingdom of heaven were given to help us understand the difference between the
state of the kingdom now, which is the church here on Earth,
and the state of the kingdom in the future when Jesus will return and
all things will be fulfilled.
Number four, the parables also explain what kingdom life is like now.
How things work in the kingdom and how to be prepared for the eventual
transformation of the kingdom which will see the Father,
the Son, the Holy Spirit, the church, the angels, and the
spiritual world, all completely integrated together forever.
One other point.
In the New Testament Jesus, I mentioned this before, spoke 43 parables and of these
13 were kingdom parables and of these 13,
He used various imagery, various examples;
five agricultural examples,
four examples concerning money, two had situations involving feasts,
one was a fishing story, one was a story using food and the parable of the leaven.
So we've done those two, the fishing, the dragnet and the leaven we've done
those two. So tonight we're going to we're going to look at one of the parables
using feasts, the parable of the wedding feast Matthew 22.
So let's first of all, read the parable itself beginning in verse two.
It says, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.
And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to
come. Again He sent out other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited,
"Behold I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all
butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. "'
"But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm another to his business,
and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was
enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
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. 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 there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called, but few are chosen."
Of course there is the story itself, which we've just read, and then
there's the true meaning or the story behind the story. So let's start with the story shall we?
That a king would invite guests to a wedding feast for his son, and that the
invited guests would refuse to come for such lame excuses, is
almost unbelievable. So right away those who were listening to Jesus are thinking,
wow, this is really really strange. Imagine refusing an invitation to the
White House for dinner because you have to have the oil on your car changed. It's about the
type of excuses that that they were handing out.
That the guests would actually mistreat and kill the king's messengers,
I mean. it's beyond belief.
It says they didn't respect the king. They weren't afraid of him or even
love him. And of course they were very foolish. Now, that the
king would send his army to destroy these people is justified under the circumstances, no
one would argue with this. As far as the story is concerned. little
The story does get a strange when the king invites the common people to fill the place
of the invited guests. I mean for those listening to this parable
in the first century, it would have been strange for anyone to treat the king the way the people of the
story treated the king. It would even be stranger
for a king to then invite common people to his table.
Because kings did not do that in those days.
They stayed away from the common people and they stayed away from the slaves as much as
possible. They put a lot of layers between them, themselves and the
poor and the poor people. Now the story has even a
kind of a surprise and troubling ending as the king ejects one of the
guests from the feast because of improper attire.
The wedding garment or the wedding clothes, this was a good set of
clothing provided by the host, to his special
guests, in order to spare them the expense of purchasing a new set of
clothing for that particular occasion.
This was common in those times.
Today we go to the mall. We go to a store. We can buy anything. I mean there's any
number of places you can buy clothing, inexpensive clothing.
It's easy to find you don't even have to go to a store you go on line and you see something
you have it delivered to your house.
But in those days clothing, especially good clothing, was expensive and
very hard to come by especially for common people.
Royal weddings were often made even more opulent and grand when the king
himself provided new clothing to all of his guests, as well as
the food, as well as the drink. In this case, the poor
common people were invited and so it was natural for the king to
provide them with the proper garments to sit at the royal table.
It wouldn't do for them to sit at the royal table in their common clothing. This wasn't a
soup kitchen. They were being invited to the king's palace. All right. So the
story tells us that when the king entered to examine the feast for his son
one person had neglected to put on the garment that was provided for him.
Now the original guests insulted him by not responding to his invitation.
Now this guest insults him by wearing his old clothes or his own clothing
rather than the special garment that was provided by the king. And so the
story ends with the just punishment of the one who was in the feast
but whose heart and spirit was not right for the feast. So that's the story,
pretty straight forward. A little unusual but
not too difficult to understand, to know what's going on.
All right so now the story behind the story. We said that parables
are stories that mirror unseen realities.
In this parable, the unseen reality is
God's relationship with the Jews. That's the unseen
reality here. OK. Just before this parable was
spoken, Jesus had made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem
but had not been welcomed by any of the Jewish leaders.
As a matter of fact, the next day he was confronted and rejected by them.
So all the people are following him in,
praising him the king of the Jews, he's on the donkey and he goes into
the temple area and the people are rejoicing, the children are rejoicing, but the leaders
no, no, no, no, no.
The leaders, the Pharisees, the priests, the scribes,
the leaders, they had nothing to say to him. They didn't even welcome him.
And then, as I mentioned, the very next day they challenged him, how dare you
do this. What authority do you have?
So this parable is largely in
response to their, and by extension, the Jewish nations
eventual total rejection of him and the Gospel.
So that's the story behind the story. That's the thing that's not seen, that you
need to understand, if you're going to make some sense out of this parable.
So this is the key. Remember, Jesus as the Messiah, that's always the key.
We can lay this parable alongside Israel's rejection of Jesus
and see what God says about the Kingdom. What does he say about
the Kingdom in this context? So number one, he says the experience of the kingdom
of heaven is like a feast with the king.
It will be a joyful experience with God.
Because, remember, he said that the kingdom is like,
and then he tells the story of this wedding feast. So you're trying to think how does that fit?
And so he's saying the experience of the kingdom is supposed to be and will be a happy event.
Secondly, God invited the Jews
to be part of this experience but they repeatedly rejected the messengers who invited them.
Who were the messengers? Well the prophets.
And ultimately, they killed some of them.
In most recent memory that would have been John the Baptist. He came and said, "the Kingdom is coming,
prepare yourselves". People were being baptized and getting
ready for the coming of the Kingdom. What did the Jewish leaders do? They killed him.
Thirdly, the rejection of the son
is the rejection of Christ which in real life was carried out.
How? Well by crucifying Him.
Because remember, it said a King was having a feast for who? His son.
Next comparison.
God sends his army. It says the king here sends his army, in the story.
Well in real life God does send his army, doesn't he? He sends the Roman army
to destroy the Jews when? In 70 A.D..
They come in, they lay siege to the city for a long time. Eventually they break in.
They kill everybody. They destroy the city, they tear down the
temple, they drag people away.
Interesting thing about this parable that doesn't happen in a lot of parables,
this parable goes back and forth in time.
It's talking about what has just happened,
the rejection of Jesus when he came and so the story reflects that. But then the
parable goes forward and talks about what's going to happen in the future.
Because when this happened it was maybe 40 odd years, they were in the
year 30 if you wish, 30, 32, 33.
So in about 40 years from this time the Romans would come in and
destroy Jerusalem. So it's interesting that in a parable, is embedded a prophecy.
Just an interesting point there.
So what happens in the story? The king now invites the common people.
Who would be the common people? The Gentiles. So the king now
invites the common people, the Gentiles to come to the feast.
To come where? The feast is going to be in heaven.
Now the gospel, the invitation to come into the kingdom, is
now open to the the Gentiles.
And who are the messengers? Well the Apostles. And everyone is welcome.
Remember, here it said the evil and the good. Everyone is welcome.
All could come to the feast.
By the way, if you're driving up 23rd Street, I don't know if you've seen it yet,
between Henny and Hiwassee, what would that be, the South Side,
we have a billboard up there. Yeah, we have a billboard up there.
And what does it say? It says, "SINNERS are welcome
at the Choctaw Church of Christ". Same thing as this parable.
The evil and the good, everyone is invited to, everyone is invited to come in.
Next part of the story the king provides the wedding garment.
Well what is the wedding garment? Well, the garment is the righteousness of Christ,
obtained through faith, expressed in repentance and baptism,
Galatians chapter 3 verse 26 and 27. All those who were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. There's the garment.
And notice that the king provides the garments for his guests. In the same way,
God gives righteousness. Man doesn't have to provide his own
righteousness. God gives us the righteousness. He puts it on us.
He puts it on us. the word I was looking for, he "imputes".
There's the word. He imputes righteousness upon us.
He surrounds us with forgiveness. All we have to do is put on
the garment through faith, as I say, expressed initially through
repentance and baptism. Another part of the story,
One guest enters in, but on his own terms, doesn't have the robe.
Some want to be followers of Christ on their own terms without following or obeying the gospel.
Remember the previous parable that we talked about, the dragnet? What did they do?
The fish that were in the net, they were in the kingdom right? That represented the people in the kingdom.
And then what did the fisherman do? They went through and they kept the good and they threw away the bad.
Remember I said to you, that was showing that there is going to be a reckoning for
those within the kingdom. Those outside of the kingdom, they're condemned. They're done.
OK? Just a matter of time. Those within the kingdom, the parables teach us that there
will come a time of reckoning when God, through the angels, will
separate those who belong from those who don't belong. Well this is a kind of a sideways
reference to the very same thing. Somebody is there. He's been invited.
He's sitting with everybody else except he doesn't have the garment on.
Now that could mean a lot of things. He is pretending he's righteous,
he didn't obey the gospel, but he... How many people come to church?
I've known people who come to church for 20 years, who haven't obeyed the Gospel.
There was one such a man in Canada that I knew.
20 years he came, at least 20 years, he'd come Wednesday night,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, come with his wife she was a member. And after a while
people got so used to him. They asked him if he'd sit in with the
men's meeting, to make decisions, because they'd forgotten that this person had never obeyed the gospel.
And every preacher, this congregation, a
small congregation, maybe 100 people, they had different ministers would come in, guy would
come in five, six, seven years and then move on to another place and they'd get another minister. Every new
minister would go in there boy... The first guy they would try to get is this guy sit down and
study the Bible, try to get this boy in the water. Nothing.
And the thing that was maddening is that he was like a better
Christian than a lot of the people who had confessed Christ,
who had been baptized. He was a righteous man.
He gave liberally, he did everything except one thing.
He did not obey the gospel. I'm happy to say it finally happened.
I wasn't there at the time. I never preached at that church, I wasn't in Canada at that time. But I met
him at a convention or something and he came up to me. Proud,
he said guess what? I don't know. You got a new job?
No, he said, I obeyed the gospel! Oh so happy!
And it wasn't through a big long Bible study. He just realized that the problem wasn't the preacher.
The problem was him.
He says, I just realized I was being pigheaded for no reason at all. Just being stubborn for
the sake of being stubborn. And it dawned on me why would I do this and throw...
I believe! His point was, I believe,
I want to go to heaven. And then it dawned on me, why would I throw that chance away just
for being stiff necked? And so he happily confessed Christ
was immersed and continued on what he had always been, a faithful man.
So he's a good example of somebody just sitting there. Just because you're in the pew,
doesn't mean you're in the body. And this example here points to that thing.
Another thing, God will judge all those in the church and remove
those who are there under false pretenses. And I'm just mentioning again
about the one who was there without the robe. One other thing. His final word,
many are called, few are chosen. This has been troubling.
A little difficult to explain. OK.
Always keep it in context of the parable and what the parable is explaining.
So many are called and few are chosen. This refers to who will
or will not come into the kingdom. So let's break it down.
Many are called. Actually, all are called right? Through the gospel of Jesus.
Many are given the chance to enter in,
many hear the words, many know what they must do, but they don't do it.
They've been called, but they don't answer. When we give the statistics, brother...World Bible School.
World Bible School, they say well, we've sent out 5,000
lessons and we got back 2,040 lessons
and we baptized 167 people. Well that means that,
many were called, Five thousand.
But how many answered the call? One hundred and sixty seven.
And we shouldn't be discouraged about that. Jesus tells us,
the road is wide that leads to destruction but the road is very narrow, that leads to life.
Christians are never in the majority.
So for those who do answer, they become the chosen.
The words "called" and "chosen" are both adjectives in the Greek.
They modify and describe nouns in the same way that they do in English.
For example, the called, well, there are many.
There are lots of them, the called. The chosen, well then there's a few of
those because not many answer the call.
So if you answer the call, in other words, you come to the feast you put on the robe,
you believe in Jesus, you put him on in baptism right?
Then you become the chosen. You are considered
one of the chosen ones of God.
If you don't answer the call, in other words, you don't come to the feast. You sneak in
without the proper cover. You become the many.
Many who are on the road to destruction. Many are lost.
So one of the reasons why this
verse has been mangled for many years, Calvinists
Calvinists have often used this verse as a proof text for their
version of the doctrine of election.
Calvin said, man doesn't have the ability to choose right from wrong.
Doesn't have the spiritual insight to respond to God's offer
of forgiveness. He is too bad, too morally blind, too depraved.
That was the thinking of the Calvinists, classical Calvinist.
They've changed somewhat over the years. But originally this was the idea.
Calvin said that God simply, because man was so depraved, couldn't really
choose, so God simply chose
some to be saved and others to be damned. And if you had a problem with this
then it's because you're so blinded by sin that you don't even see what God is trying to do.
It was like a circular reasoning.
This verse, in their thinking, proves what they say. Many are called, few are chosen.
Another words, many are called by God, but God only chooses a few for
salvation, just like these common people were chosen to come to the feast.
Man has no power, if you wish, to change his destiny.
OK? Now the Bible does teach the doctrine
of election, but not the way that Calvin taught it.
The Bible says, although man has been weakened
by a sinful nature, in other words, the effect of sin in his life,
man still has the ability to exercise his free will.
It's just that he doesn't always make the right choices.
But man can and still does
choose to believe and obey God's directives and obey the gospel.
All right, so the answer to Calvinism is not that man is unable to make a choice,
it's just that he doesn't always choose what is right.
But he does, at times, choose what is right. I mean Abraham, did he
not choose to follow God to Canaan.
Moses reluctantly chose to go back to Egypt didn't he? He didn't like it. He was scared.
But he went. Joshua, what did Joshua say to the people?
Choose this day who you will serve. Right?
One of the thieves chose to believe. The other one didn't, but he did.
Demas chose to leave Paul and the work.
Every presentation of the Gospel, in the New Testament, challenges
people to decide to obey or not to obey. Some do and some don't.
Some fall away and come back. Some fall away and choose to remain unfaithful.
When we read about Pentecost Sunday and we all say, Wow, 3000
people came forward or came to be baptized that day. That's great. But 3000 out of how many?
There may have been a hundred thousand people there.
There were huge crowds in Jerusalem during the time of
feast, so this was Pentecost. So it's not
3,000 out of 4,000, it's 3,000 out of 500,000 or 200,000. Right?
So God also makes a choice. It's not that God doesn't choose.
God also chooses but he doesn't choose which person will be saved or which person will be lost.
God makes one choice regarding salvation.
He chooses who will save man. And in this regard
he chose Jesus Christ. In First Peter chapter 2 verse 4,
It says, "And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been
rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God".
Chosen by God, here is a prophecy, Peter is talking about a
prophecy here, made about the coming of of Christ. The idea that God
chose Jesus and sent him to be the one to save mankind.
And then in Luke Chapter 23,
I believe, Luke writes, "And the people stood by, looking on.
And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, "He saved others; let him save
Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One."
So the Jews, I mean the ones, even the priests and the
rabbis, they understood that God would be the one to choose
who the Messiah would be.
They understood that, they believed that, they just didn't believe that God had chosen
this person, Jesus Christ.
So Christ excuse me, so God does make a choice, not
whose saved whose lost. He chooses the one who will accomplish salvation, Jesus Christ.
Christ also chooses. Christ only makes
one choice concerning salvation, to accept the cup of suffering,
which he does in the garden by saying, not as I will but as thou wilt.
So he makes one choice. And that is, he accepts
the cup of suffering, he accepts to go to the to the cross.
He doesn't choose who gets saved who doesn't get saved.
You know who he chooses? He chooses, He gives opportunities to
different individuals to follow him or to serve in some way or not.
You want to follow me? Be an apostle?
But the people that he chose, offered opportunities to serve, they could have said
no, I don't want to be an apostle.
You know what comes to mind? The rich young ruler.
What did Jesus say to him? Go sell all that you have or give away everything that you have.
Come follow me.
What was that? That was an invitation to follow him. He could have been an apostle.
But he chose not to. And then he comes to us.
We make only one choice concerning salvation, to believe and obey
Jesus or to reject him. The same choice that the Jews and the
Gentiles had in the first century, nothing has changed. So when we choose Christ then
we become the chosen of God. This is how that happens.
Many are called by the Gospel but not many respond to it.
Only a few become the chosen ones.
So what have we learned from this parable concerning the kingdom? Well first of all at its ultimate
state, the kingdom will be a glorious, royal, enjoyable,
happy experience like a wedding feast.
This helps us to understand and be patient. When at the present time, the kingdom in its
present form has flaws. It requires effort. It's pressed from many sides.
People get the wrong idea. We say well,
the church is the kingdom on Earth. But sometimes they think, Heaven will be
the church transported to heaven the way it is. No, I don't want that.
I don't want that to happen.
John has just too much work to do. You know what I'm saying?
No no no. The church represents the Kingdom
here on Earth, but it will be glorified.
All the things we yearn to be, when they say I want to be a better woman, I want to
be a better man, I want to be like Christ, but somehow I got a long way to go.
Well that will finally be
fulfilled when we get to Heaven.
Number two idea, there will be a joining or an integration that will take place like that at a wedding.
Of course the kingdom of heaven on earth
will be perfected and glorified by the Holy Spirit. And then it will be
joined to Christ and the kingdom as it exists in Heaven.
So the kingdom of heaven exists in Heaven. And the kingdom
of God on Earth exists as the church. The point is at the end these two
will merge to create one unit.
And the idea of a wedding feast is there to give us an idea that there will be a joining. All right?
Number three. All are welcome to enter in, many are called.
Some received a special invitation, the Jews.
Some were called in a general way, through the gospel, but everyone has been
invited to the very same feast, the same kingdom is open for everybody.
Number four. You must be dressed for the occasion.
Now, God provides the covering for us, which is Christ.
But we must put on the garment if we wish to remain.
God offers salvation through grace. In other words, forgiveness is free, we can't buy it.
We can't make it, we can't earn it. However, we must receive it
and the Bible tells us that the way to receive it is to respond to
Jesus Christ, again, by believing in him, confessing his name, repenting of
our sins and being immersed in water. This is how you
put on the wedding garment. Galatians chapter 3 verses, excuse me,
26 and 7, it says, "For you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you
who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
OK? And then number five.
Those who refuse the invitation, those
who do not accept the invitation in the proper way, will
simply not be part of the feast, because this is the only feast.
This is the only feast in town.
There is no other feast, only one feast. There is and will be only one kingdom.
Now there are two, one in heaven, one here. At the end they will be joined together,
and forever be in that way.
Now there might be some other lessons, a couple of other ideas that we may be searching for
in this particular parable, but I think we've covered the main idea,
the main ideas that the Lord was trying to get across here
using this particular parable. OK, that's it for this time.
We will continue next time working our way through all these Kingdom parables.
Thank you for your attention.