Matthew 22:1-14 – The Parables

I'm going to be reading from Matthew chapter 22, from verse one through to 14.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

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 father cows are then slaughtered, and everything is ready.

But to come, everything is ready, come to the wedding feast.

But they paid no attention and went on.

One to his family and another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

The king was hungry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Then sent to his servants.

The wedding feast is ready.

But those invited were not to water.

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 gather all 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 garments.

And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?

And you were speechless.

Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness, in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called or few are chosen.

The Lord bless the reason of the sword.

I too am visiting as well.

So we're uh we're in good company.

Um my name is David, and I work with Mark and the team in City Church uh doing something similar in another church plant called Christchurch North Dublin, um, which you yourselves have actually helped the plant.

Um so it's a real joy to be with you this morning.

And uh we're gonna be looking at that passage that was read just a moment ago from Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

So if you've got a phone with your app on it, or um if you've got a Bible, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 22, and we're gonna look at that together.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

I'm gonna pray um and uh and then we'll get stuck in.

So let's pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you so much that you indeed are our living hope.

And in you, and you alone, we rest our hearts.

So we pray that you would speak to us in a way that each of us needs to hear through your word, written down so long ago and kept for us.

We pray that your voice may still be heard.

So be with us as we consider uh this part of your teaching.

Do you ask you?

Well, let me cast right to the Jesus this morning.

Umly because I think what Jesus is doing in this part of his really is pulling up punches.

What I think our passage wants us to consider this morning is simply this.

It matters how you treat God.

That's it.

I can't really sit down actually, just having said that, perhaps nobody can complains of brevity.

Um, but I think that's exactly what Jesus wants us to consider.

It matters how each of us, how you individually, and we corporately together, it matters how we treat God.

Now I know we will see in just a moment as we get into our passage that Christianity actually speaks to us about the undeserved way in which God has treated us.

Right?

That's what makes it such good news.

We're gonna see that as we go through this story that Jesus tells.

We're gonna see just exactly how God has treated us, but the primary reason, the one message I want you to take away with yourself today is simply simply this that as great as it is in the way in which God has treated us, it matters supremely how you treat him.

Jesus is uh on his um his last he's in his last days.

He knows that it's uh in three days' time, he's he's saying saying these things in the temple courts, and he knows in three days' time that he's going to be killed.

And so I do think that he does take off all the varnish and confront us with some very deep spiritual truths.

What we're looking at here has eternal importance, and so we're gonna see two ways that Jesus wants us to avoid treating God, two ways that he wants us to stay well clear up in this parable.

Because he knows, he knows that it does matter how you respond to what God has done.

So we're just gonna look at those two responses this morning.

Perhaps you'll find yourself uh falling into one or the other.

I certainly have, as I've uh meditated and thought through this parable um this week, uh I certainly find myself being searched and sifted that we should as we come to it.

Because Jesus wants to wake us up from any sort of spiritual apathy that we may be in.

He wants us to have a living, active, defining faith in Him and Him alone, which should shape absolutely everything else about how we consider ourselves, what's going on in the world, how we treat one another, but supremely how we respond to God.

So, two ways to avoid making a mess, if you like, of our relationship with God.

And the first is this we need to see in this parable, as Jesus teaches it to us, that double-mindedness ends in disaster.

Double-mindedness ends in disaster.

He sets the whole story up for us if you look down at verse one with me by describing the nature of the kingdom.

We'll come back to this.

But let's just say for the moment it's a lavish affair.

Right?

There's nothing boring or uninteresting or irrelevant about uh the nature of the kingdom as Jesus describes it.

As I say, we'll come back to that in just a moment.

But by the time we get to verse three, the wheels are already beginning to come off in this story.

Have a look with me at verse three.

An invitation has gone out, and the servants have been sent to let everybody know who's already received the invitation that it's party time.

The day has finally arrived.

But by the time we get to verse three, something has gone terribly wrong.

He sent his servants to tell, sorry, to call those who were invited to the wedding feast.

But look at the end of verse 3, but they would not come.

And that's very important when we hear that would not.

It's not that they could not come, but there's something going on at a deeper level.

They would not come.

Can you imagine being a fly on the wall when those servants went back to the king who had issued that invitation in the first place?

Uh, can you imagine being a fly and just watching what transpired?

As the servants came back and said to the king, Well, we went out to those you have invited, those who had already said yes and that they were going to come, and we told them that it was already.

But but they won't.

They won't come.

Imagine the king sitting there thinking, What?

Why?

What on earth's going on?

Here's where we see the patience and the extravagance of the king in verse 4 because he reissues, he reissues the invitation only in a fuller, greater, bigger, broader way, this time explaining everything that he's done.

What?

But still, by the time we get to verse 5, look, they paid no attention and went off.

They paid no attention.

Now, these are the people, if we put it in context, these are the people who should have known better.

Right?

They already had accepted the invitation.

They knew exactly what was promised.

It was a king, for goodness sake, who was issuing this invite.

But by the time we get to verse 5, they paid him no attention.

Something seriously wrong has happened in these people's lives.

And let's just notice then what follows.

What is it that actually prevents them from going to this great banquet?

What is it that prevents them?

Well, if you have a look in verse five, actually, you might say, as you looked around, it was it was no bad thing.

In fact, it was they were good things that they were concerned about, right?

Have a look at verse five.

What is it that prevented them from following through?

Well, we're told in verse five that one went off, one to his farm, and another to his business.

Now I don't know what obligations they may have had, I don't know what responsibilities they were carrying, but you know, these aren't necessarily bad things, right?

One to his farm, one another to his business.

Perhaps they had to provide for their family.

Perhaps they felt they had a responsibility and it all rested upon them.

I don't know.

It's not really the point that Jesus is making here.

The point is that when good things become ultimate things that rival the greatest thing, then we have got some serious problems going on in our hearts.

One went off to his farm, another to his business, and look very carefully then what that gave context for.

I don't think I'm making too much of this.

If I am, perhaps you'll come and speak to me later.

I don't think I'm making too much of this because verse five is followed by verse six.

And look what happens in verse six.

This is staggering.

One went off to his farm, another to his business, while look at this in verse six.

The rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

I don't think I'm making too much of this.

But double-mindedness and a and a deep seated disinterest gives rise to a context where where disastrous things happen.

And brutality is exercised.

Do you see that?

Follow with me the sequence of this story so far.

A great invitation has been made.

People have said yes, we'll come.

When the day arrives, they they end up actually saying no, they're paying no attention.

And that disinterest, that neglect, um, that double-mindedness allows for something like verse six to happen.

It is disastrous, isn't it?

And so we've all perhaps been on the receiving end of this.

You may have invited people to a party that you've been hosting, and they've all said that they'll come.

This is actually for those of you who are new to Irish culture, this is really quite typical for Irish culture, okay?

An invitation is given, and people say, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be there.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's in the diary.

I'm definitely going to be there.

And the day arrives and you've made all your preparation, right?

You've laid it all on.

And then an hour beforehand, what happens?

You start to get the texts.

Sorry, can't make it.

Something else, come on.

Really, really wanted to be there, but unfortunately can't make it tonight.

How do you feel?

Set to the side, removed.

Depends what sort of party you're you're you're hosting.

But imagine that it's that it's a wedding party you're inviting people to.

And one by one they begin to drop off.

How they treat the invitation is what they think about you.

Now, in this instance, we see that this ends in complete disaster.

The king was angry, verse 7, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

And you might say, well, that's a bit harsh.

But again, follow the sequence.

The invitation's been extended.

The commitments have been made, and then they're completely undermined.

And why Jesus puts it in such dark terms is simply this.

I think he's screaming at us that it matters how you treat this king.

It matters on so many levels, personally, corporately, and relationally with him.

So let me just let me just pause here.

Let me just draw out some implications by asking a number of questions.

Can you see yourself how you yourself are treating the invitation?

I imagine that for the vast majority of us in here this morning, many of us are those who would say, Yeah, we've got the invitation in my back pocket, I'm signed up, I'm ready, and I'm waiting.

In other words, you'd identify yourself as being an active living Christian.

But how are you really treating this invitation?

Is there anything in your life that would take preference over living in the light of such a great party?

One at his farm, another at his business.

Not bad things, good things.

Is there anything that matters more to you than actually getting ready for the party that'll end all parties?

There's an old um bishop called J.

C.

Ryle.

I always think very highly of anybody who's got JC Ryle on their uh on their shelves at home.

Um, and he, reflecting on this parable, maybe a hundred plus years ago, says this.

Now listen very carefully to this.

There are thousands of hearers of the gospel who derive no benefit from it whatsoever.

Who sit in churches, pretty much like us, maybe not just like us a hundred plus years ago, sitting in a cinema like tonight, but there are thousands of people who hear the gospel and derive no benefit from it whatsoever.

They listen to it Sunday after Sunday and year after year, and do not believe it to the saving of their souls.

They feel no special need of the gospel.

They see no special beauty in it.

They do not per they they do not perhaps hate it or oppose it or scoff at it, but they do not receive it into their hearts.

They like other things far better.

He goes on.

Their money, their land, their business, or their pleasures are all or are all far more interesting subjects to them than their souls.

It's an awful state of mind to be in, and it's awfully common.

How are you yourself treating the invitation?

You've received it.

You've said you'll be there, you're waiting for it.

But really, how are you treating the invitation?

Do you care enough for your own soul to prioritize it above everything else?

Can you see, secondly, can you see that how you treat the invitation has a massive influence on others?

A massive influence on others.

I think that's the connection again between verses five and six.

Right?

Some said, yeah, well, you know, I'm I'm I'm going.

I said I would be there, but actually now when it comes to it, my my farm needs tending or my business needs looking after.

I'll be there, but whatever comes after that but is what is more important to you than your own place in the kingdom.

And you must see, you must see that how you treat it has a great influence in others.

This is why you gather together, isn't it?

Sunday by Sunday, I hope.

You're here not simply to receive, um, but to encourage and to build one another up and to strengthen one another and to sharpen each other's focus on this.

How you treat the invitation is of a great influence to the person sitting next to you, behind you, and in front of you.

And it does provide the context for either the growth of your spiritual health or its demise.

Because verse 5 is followed by verse 6.

And what effectively is going on in verse 6 is the silencing of God's word.

It's the cutting down of that voice so that others may not hear.

Others may not receive.

How you treat it has a massive influence on the way in which others view it and value it.

So have you seen it?

Have you truly seen what's on offer?

Can you see yourself how you're treating it?

Can you see that it has an influence on others?

Can you see what truly is on offer?

This uh old bishop um he maybe doesn't paint it in the best light for us today, modern, enlightened 21st century um people, when he says that what actually is on offer is a feast of fat things.

I imagine that doesn't appeal to many of us in here this morning.

But in this context, this is luxurious.

What's being promised is extravagant.

What is it that he says is actually an offer in verse 4?

He says, Go to the servants and tell them, go to those who have been invited and tell them that uh I've prepared my dinner.

My oxen and my fatted calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready.

Now, if you go to another parable that Jesus told, the parable of the prodigal son, um, you'll see there something similar where we're told that the father, in receiving the son back, ordered that the fattened calf be slaughtered.

And this was an extravagance, right?

Meat was not a plenty in these days.

Um to actually provide it was seen to be incredibly generous.

You were digging deep into the reserves of whatever you may have saved and you were laying on something extravagantly lavish.

That's what's on offer.

And the only way that you will begin to work on the double-mindedness, on the half-heartedness that perhaps plagues your own soul, the only way that you will be able to work on it to eventually reduce it is by meditating and savoring what is what is an offer in the gospel.

It is extravagant, it is luxurious, and Jesus tells this here because He He doesn't want us, He doesn't want us treating God wrongly.

He wants us to be delighted for this to be the nourishment of our lives, that we can see what God has done and what He is offering.

Nothing compares to it.

That's the first first reaction.

Double-mindedness, you need to know.

Double-mindedness ends in disaster.

It matters, folks, how you treat God.

How are you treating him?

Search your own soul.

Learn wisdom from this parable.

How are you treating him?

Is it that your the invitation you have received is the most important, the most precious, the most promising.

Invitation that you have in this life and so you're longing for it and looking for it.

If that's uh warning number one, then warning number two is perhaps even more um more precise.

Because if double n double-mindedness ends in disaster, we need to see that self-elevation ends in eviction.

Jesus wants us to be there, and he wants us to enjoy what his father has promised and will provide.

But there is only one way to be there and to enjoy all that God has promised.

Look at verse uh nine with me.

Uh the king says, Go therefore, having brought a line, drawn a line under the first group of invitees, he goes to verse nine and says, Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding, feast as many as you can find.

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.

You need to know that at the center of the kingdom is the determination of a king to make much of and celebrate the joy of his son, and invite as many people as he can to enjoy that too.

You need to know that that's what lies at the heart of the kingdom.

That's what has been pushing it out over the centuries, around the world, across borders, into cultures, in almost every nation that there is now.

This determination of a king to welcome in as many people as he can to enjoy the joy of his kingdom.

But yet, what we find as the story goes on is that there are some who have neglected the generosity of this king.

A little bit of background here might actually help us understand this because from verse 11 down to verse 14, it can seem a little bit, again, unfair, but that's where we need to know that when someone like a king threw a party such as this, the expectations on him were massive.

He not only was to prepare well, um, to make sure that what was actually going to be offered was of the highest quality, uh, and that the entertainment was all laid on.

In other words, it wasn't only uh incumbent upon him to ensure that no corners were cut, but it also rested upon him to provide even to go so far as to provide garments and wedding clothes for all the guests who have been invited.

Maybe you're coming into a king's palace's banqueting hall.

It's not simply that you can walk in in any old rags.

There's a decorum, there's a certain level of expectation.

But isn't it wonderful to know, actually, in these days, that uh that all of that was met.

Or at least it should have been, all provided for from the king's own coffers.

How would it make you feel if you had been invited to a wedding?

Right?

I know this is perhaps slightly more um stressful for the ladies amongst us this morning, but you run out and you have to get a new wedding attire, right?

You scar the latest fashions and you look at what's in your wardrobe and you think that's never gonna do.

Can you imagine being invited to a wedding?

And the invitation extended to you would say, everything's gonna be provided for.

You don't need to spend a thing.

Not a thing.

Because even down to the garments that you will wear, everything's gonna be provided for.

And they're opening up the royal wardrobe.

Well, my I'm sure that there isn't one of us in here who wouldn't want to at least take a peek.

And that is why the king is so surprised when he comes in at verse 12.

You see, he's provided absolutely everything.

He's laid it all on, but there's someone who's who's there and and who's refused, who's refused to take on everything that the king has provided.

And so the king comes in in verse 12 and says, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?

And look what look what the guest actually says.

Nothing.

And he was speechless, because in this context, again, he would have known that to refuse such generosity was was a real insult to the king who had provided it.

He perhaps thought that actually what he was wearing was enough.

The garments that he was uh already dressed in were sufficient.

But this self-elevation ends in eviction.

Verse 13 bind him, the king says, hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You see?

Into utter emptiness.

Self-elevation ends in eviction and land you with nothing in utter emptiness.

And this is so so important for us to understand about Christianity.

Right?

Jesus says it really matters how you treat this king, really matters how you do that.

How you treat him because he has been nothing else than generous to you.

To refuse it, therefore, is not polite.

It's not wise.

What lies at the heart of Christianity is recognizing that nothing in ourselves can make us worthy.

In another part of the Bible, it says that even our um our our greatest works, the things that we are tempted to take pride in and place our confidence in are like filthy rags compared to his splendor and glory.

Filthy rags.

And so to waltz into his presence thinking that this is enough, that you're dressed in in sufficient clothing to stand before a king, just won't fly.

This is what lies at the heart of Christianity.

God has provided it all.

All.

And he expects us to come with nothing else but open hands.

As needy, dirty, um, uneable people.

And when you put it like that, you know, that flies in the face of so much of what we're told about ourselves today.

I understand that.

Because if you're to be anybody today, the one thing that you must be is true to yourself.

Well, here's the Christian twist on that.

If you're going to be true to yourself, it leads you to see how much of a need you have for what the king has provided.

So let me let me again draw some conclusions just as we finish.

Some questions.

Have you put on the attire that's been made available?

Or are you still standing in your own righteousness and in your own garments of respectability and moral achievement?

Is that what you're standing in?

Is that what you expect that will um not simply gain you entrance but keep you there?

No.

Jesus wants you to see that that is a great offence to the God who has provided it all.

Take those filthy rags off.

See them for what they are, and accept with open hands the garments that have been provided for you.

Have you seen what you're really dressed in?

Bishop Ryle once again says the most fundamental issue, the most important matter in this parable is simply this.

Have you put on Christ?

And are you standing in him and him alone?

You may sing it, you may say it, but in your heart of hearts, is he is he the splendor and beauty of your life?

Is he the one whom you have set your heart upon?

Him and him alone?

And what about others then?

Because in this parable we can see that in verse 10, we're told that it's the bad and the good.

And I think what that basically means is it's the bad and the good according to the world standards.

But both bad and good need to be covered in the garments of the king.

And when you find those who are dressed as such, well then I think the parable would suggest that we treat them as an equal guest, gathered around the feast of the king.

In City Church, I know that you're working hard at trying to build community and bedding each other into the life of what's going on here.

And one of the greatest ways to do that, one of the best ways to do that, is to see that you yourself, like everybody else, is wearing nothing other than what the king has provided.

In other words, that you don't deserve to be here any more than anybody else does.

And once you get that into your mind, you know what it does?

It allows you to be joyfully servant-hearted of one another.

Because you're you're dressed not in anything that you have made for yourself or earned by your own merits.

You're dressed in the garments of the king.

And that humbles you and allows you to joyfully serve one another.

And again, that has that ripple effect, right?

Throughout throughout your fellowship, throughout your your life together as a church.

Where you want to encourage one another to see the true value and the extravagant gifts and everything that God has provided for each and every one of you.

Because ultimately, in the end, did you notice that actually in this parable the sun never makes an appearance?

Right?

We're told that it's a wedding feast for the son.

We're told that it's a banquet that uh is to mark uh the father's joy in the marriage of the son, but he never shows, he never makes an appearance.

Well, that is because the son is actually the storyteller.

And Jesus knew that in order for you to be clothed, he had to be stripped.

Jesus knew for you to be brought in and accepted, he had to be cast out and rejected.

He went into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, so that you never have to.

Because he knew that the only way for any of us to have certainty, security, peace, and joy in this kingdom was for him to provide it all.

And he didn't shrink back.

He wasn't double-minded or half-hearted.

He didn't elevate himself.

But he laid it all down for you and for me.

And once that begins to take shape in our hearts, once that begins to grow and become uh the most defining feature of our lives, that it's not what we do for ourselves, but but about what God has done for us.

Well then we can truly live and treat God as He deserves with gratitude and joy and thanksgiving.

So how you treat God really matters.

Jesus wants us to wake up from our spiritual apathy, he wants us to consider what value we really are putting upon God's invitation.

And to what degree, to what extent we have truly accepted all that He has provided.

It's on Him and Him alone.

So have you done that?

Are we doing that?

We're going to come to the Lord's table in just a moment.

And as we do, perhaps it's an opportunity for us to realize the great gift of the kingdom that it is, that we should be invited to such a party as this.

And as we eat and drink the bread and wine, perhaps it will be there that we can once again refocus, recenter our hearts, our minds, our lives, our passions, our loves and desires on the kingdom of heaven that will never ever pass away.

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