Matthew Pt. 83 - Parable of the Wedding

Part 83 for anybody who's counting as we've been going

verse by verse through Matthew. Hasn't it been rich though?

It hasn't been. It hasn't been a lot of glitz

and glamour this week. Our new series is this, but it's

been super annoyed because the word is anointed and the word is

so good. Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

We are coming into the third parable that Jesus is telling

against the Pharisees. So remember, final week of Jesus

is life. Jerusalem is packed.

The Pharisees hate Jesus, they're mad at Jesus.

They don't like Jesus. They're jealous of Jesus.

This is the Son of God being rejected.

This is the Lamb of God coming to be slain.

He's the man on a mission. They finally come to him after

he overturns the tables and they say about what authority you do

do these things. And he's told one parable

against them. He's told another parable

against them. And now he continues and we pick

up right where we left off, chapter 22, verse one.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables saying the Kingdom of

heaven may be compared. So here comes the parable.

What is the Kingdom of Heaven like?

You're about to find out. In a specific context, in a

specific way. I wonder what the Kingdom of

heaven is like. I wonder what the rulership is

like. I wonder what the judgement is

like. I wonder what the grace is like.

I wonder what the goodness is like.

You're about to get a picture of all those things.

I wonder what the standards are like.

We're about to find out. The Kingdom of Heaven may be

compared to a king OK, 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've prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been

slaughtered, everything is ready, come to the wedding

feast. But they paid no attention and

went off 1 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 can find. And those servants went out into

the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good, 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 was 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 out of the

out, cast him into the outer darkness.

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

for many are cold, but few are chosen.

God, thank you for your perfect word.

Jesus. Thank you for speaking to us

with clarity and with your with the wisdom of God, so that the

humble can receive, and that the prideful stay prideful as long

as a heart chooses to stay hard. God, your grace will not force

them, and yet you will still invite them.

God, I pray for every heart and every listener today.

I pray that they would soften themselves.

Help us all to be tender right now, to be humble before you, to

be eager to listen, to respond, to receive all that you have

intended for us. We thank you for this feast of

your word now in Jesus name, Amen.

You're wondering what any of that meant.

What we just read. You got to find out.

So the the context in the history lesson, remember Jesus

is talking to an audience who understands everything he's

talking about. So you and me are going, what's

this wedding feast like? That's not how our weddings

really work. So here's the traditional way

that the wedding would have worked in their context.

A king, of course, is wealthy and powerful.

A king has all authority. You did not elect him, OK?

You cannot vote him out in four years.

This king is in charge. You want to stay on his good

side. You want the king to like you.

You want to have favor with this king.

That makes sense, right? He's wealthy, he's powerful, he

rules over you. And he is having a celebration

for his son who's getting married.

This is a big deal. He's very excited about it.

And this is crazy. He's invited you.

He's invited you to the wedding feast.

The wedding feast is going to be a display of the King's wealth.

It's going to be a display of the King's glory.

And it's all going to point towards his son because he loves

his son and he's pleased with his son and he's proud of his

son, and he wants you to honor his son.

He put this whole thing on to honor and to bless his son, to

show how much he delights in his son.

He's starting to maybe put together who the king might be

and who the son might be. The king is God the Father, the

sun, and the wedding is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The bride, which isn't even referenced here is the bride of

Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, all who, all who will

believe on the Lord Jesus and trust in the Lord Jesus.

So the way this would have worked at this time, an

invitation would have probably already gone out to everybody.

We would have received our invitations and then the time

comes for the actual feast when it's saying, hey, right now it's

happening. The groom is going to get his

bride because that's the way it would work.

The the the groom would go get the bride and then he would

bring the bride to his house where they would seal their

wedding vows in the marriage bed as well.

And then they would come back out and everybody would

celebrate. Sometimes a week long

celebration, a big deal. We're not talking a couple hours

here and some rubbery chicken, you know, at some random

fellowship hall. We're talking like the best of

the best of the best really good wedding foods.

Weddings don't have the the best reputation for having the best

food right now. You're not thinking like we're

going to have the most incredible food we've ever

eaten. The bride and groom want it to

be, but it just never is. You know it what my the food at

our wedding wasn't the best. Maybe yours was, but it was just

OK. You know, we tried hard, but the

thing we're celebrating is the is the groom here, most

importantly, and that's the priority.

So to reject this announcement, to reject this invitation

whenever the king says, hey, it's time to come after you've

been invited already, you know that this was coming and now

everybody goes out. It's time, it's time, it's time

everybody make your way to the palace.

It's time to celebrate in this giant feast.

It's time to begin to reject. This is a massive, massive,

massive insult, just like Jesus would tell parables and

everybody's kind of scandalized mid parable because he's like,

there's a man who got beat up on the side of the road and all the

Jews are listening to this and like, OK, he's a Jewish man

because that's what they're picturing, because that's what

they are. So yeah, he's a Jewish guy.

He says, and a priest comes by and he avoids them.

And another man comes by and he avoids them.

And Jews are, yeah, I could see me doing that too.

And he says, and then a Samaritan comes by and they're

all like, yeah, like that's how they would have heard that

story. And Jesus said, and the

Samaritan went and loved the man and cared for the man and

they're all like, what? What?

He messed them up because they hated the Samaritans.

So he messed them up. And in the same way, even as

they're hearing this parable and I and the king sends the

invitation and all the Jews in their mind are going like,

everybody's going to be so excited.

We're about to eat food that we will never eat again ever in our

lives. You and I have access to

opulence. We have access to really good

steaks. If you haven't had one, don't

make you one. We have access to that kind of

thing, kind of on a normal basis.

Maybe not every day, but we could, we could save up for a

big nice steak night and make it happen, right?

They couldn't. Not everybody had a fatted calf.

Not everybody had all the feasts that they were being provided.

So the Jews were like, yeah, yeah, King invites them.

They're all getting ready to go to the feast.

And Jesus said, but they said, no, I'm busy already.

All the listeners like, this is crazy.

That would never happen. Why is he telling us the story?

Because the Kingdom of heaven is like this.

That's what's happening right in front of their faces.

It's time to celebrate the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the

Father invites everybody. He's invited the nation of

Israel, and he sends servants. It says go, go, go, go servants

or the prophets. Go tell Israel to honor the Son.

Go tell all my people to honor my son.

And now let's start gathering the whole world into my house,

which was Israel's priority anyway, to be the beacon of

light that then brings this, the lighthouse that shows everybody

else the way. Not to say, ha, ha, we're in and

you're out, but to say the father calls everyone in to

become his. So the listeners are going, this

is scandalizing. I can't believe they would do

this to the king. So the Jews have rejected the

king and now the king rejects them.

But this parable, interestingly enough, it calls out Jesus's

followers as well, those who he had already been redeeming their

made to take notice and those who are just kind of following

in the crowd, they would certainly take notice to a

certain man in this parable. The point is we must come to the

king, but we must come on the King's terms.

What you see here is people who reject the invitation

altogether. I'm not coming at all.

I dishonor you and I dishonor your son.

I'm not coming at all. Those people are called out.

Those are the obvious ones, right?

But there's another person in this parable.

There's a man who went into the wedding feast.

What was his problem? We'll get to him later.

But his problem was he said, I want all the blessings of this

feast, but I won't abide by the standards of this feast.

And that was the call out for all those who are listening and

watching. Oh, yeah, I'm going to come to

the feast. I'm going to come to the feast.

If you want to come to the feast, by the way, you're

invited. There's a way to come to the

feast, and if you don't come to the feast the way the king says

you must come to the feast, then we see what happens to that man

as well. Let's walk through it.

Verse 5, verse, we're in verse three.

He sent his servants to call those who were invited to the

wedding feast, but they would not come again.

Insanity. Already things have gone off the

chain. This is wildly, ridiculously

crazy. This wouldn't happen, but this

is exactly what happens in the Kingdom of God.

He sent servants to call those who were invited, but they would

not come. It could be the Jews, could be

you could be me, could be anybody who says I got stuff to

do, I'm living my life, I like what I have going on.

I've got a farm. Come on.

Farmers are hard workers, right? That's a legitimate thing, isn't

it? And yet there's a time and a

place to set work aside and say it's time to honor the Lord.

Sunday morning is a time to do that.

There's other times to do that other other work.

You got emails. They legitimately have to be

answered. You got stuff you actually have

to do. Mamas have to take care of

babies. People have things that they

have to do It's legitimate. The king isn't saying you have

nothing to do. The king is saying you need to

choose the right thing at the right time and you need to

prioritize what matters most. This is what they've missed out

on. Verse 4 again.

He sent other servants already. That's another crazy thing.

The king sent servants a second time to invite you.

You, the King's like, please come to my party.

That's not how kings behave. Kings aren't desperate.

You don't have anything that they need.

Everything is theirs. They can take everything you

have if they want to. So the kings have all the power

and they're saying, come. And you said that and they send

servants again. This is the great mercy and

kindness of God to you and to me over and over and over, in his

patience, in his grace, in his kindness, in his goodness.

Hey, come, please come to this feast.

And he said, tell those who are invited.

He's like, maybe I need to sweeten the deal and make sure

they understand. I've prepared my dinner.

My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered.

Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.

The bread is done. It smells amazing.

The meat is falling off the bone.

The banquet hall is decorated. The groom has gotten the bride.

Come feast, rejoice. Honor my son and remember,

that's what it's about. The feast is first about the

honor and joy of the son. And everything in the Kingdom

revolves around him. Verse 5 but they paid no

attention and went off 1 to his farm and another to his business

distractions that they could justify not wickedness for the

these folks weren't wicked. Doesn't seem like it.

It's just like I hope it's a beautiful day.

I hope you all have a great feast.

I wish you well. Tell tell the king I send my

regards. That wasn't the invitation.

The invitation was not a pat on the head to the king and to his

son. The invitation was to come honor

the son completely in a participatory way, not a wink

and a nod and say, oh, the king understands.

I'm a real busy farmer. The king understands.

My schedule's just crazy. Have you met anybody who's ever

said how you doing? And they say super busy.

Of course you have. Haven't you been that person?

How you doing, man? I'm just slam, slam, slam.

I can't find anybody who's not crazy busy.

I can't find them. I'm not because I'm, I'm

ruthless about trying to kill that busyness, but it's hard to

find and it takes real deliberate effort to build a

life that actually has margin and space in it.

But you need to do it. It's not normal.

It's not normal to do it. But you don't want normal

church. Normal is normal's not good.

Normal's not good in any area of life.

Normal's not good physical health if you're normal.

Normal's not good marriage if you're normal.

Normal's not a good spiritual walk if you're normal.

We don't want normal, we want God's bullseye.

We want his highest and we want his best.

Margin is a part of normal living.

And for up until about 5 minutes ago in human history, everybody

had margin in their life. Because when the sun went down,

work had to stop and you had to be in the house and you had some

candles lit and somebody played some violin and somebody read

something and somebody played a game.

And then we all kind of got sleepy and maybe we prayed

together and we went to sleep. But now the sun goes down and

you and me, we got screens. It's time for Netflix.

How many episodes can I binge tonight?

How much can I doom scroll? What's going on in this room?

I don't know where the kids are. What's going on that like we're

just turn on all the lights in the house and we can keep

ourselves up and keep ourselves engaged.

What's happening on the schedule?

This sport is coming up, but that practice is tomorrow.

We've got this appointment here and there and everywhere.

If you want margin in your life, and you should, you will have to

feel like it will feel like you're ruthless.

Everyone else will think you're like crazy and you're really,

you're just living like your great grandparents lived and all

of your descendants before them. Everyone today will think you're

crazy. But then they'll start to see

the fruit of your life and they'll go, that looks really

nice and you go. It is.

It's such a relief. And they'll go, how do you do

it? You go.

Well, you called me crazy for a long time.

I don't know if you remember any of that.

And you thought it'll never work.

And here it is working. And it's really nice.

Oh, like, what do you do? Like me and my wife, we like,

sit on the sofa and talk. It's kind of cool.

We like, have time to think. We can, like, go for a walk.

I took a nap the other day. A nap?

What is this thing you speak of? Like it's it's again, it's been

a part of normal human history since Adam and Eve.

But now we're like, I'm not, I'm not some lazy person.

I'm busy. I'm somebody.

I'm important. I have many text messages.

I have many emails. You have no, my inbox.

Oh, your inbox. Oh, you think you're in?

I've seen it. I've seen business Bros like

Measure the inbox, my I came back from vacation and 2000

emails. Oh, I came back one time at

3500. Not that we can't talk about

those things and laugh at the ridiculousness of it.

That's OK. But whenever it's a source of

I'm somebody. You're somebody because you were

invited by somebody to a feast. That's it.

That's why you're somebody because you're loved by God and

he invites you. That's it.

Not because of your farm and not because of your business, not

because of all the other work that you and I was a I'm a

farmer, Lord, I can't come enjoy it.

It must be nice to be able to go to a wedding feast.

Must be nice, but some of us got real stuff to do.

That's not the flex. You're you're posting your L for

everybody to see. You're you're playing yourself.

The win is going to the feast. That's the win.

You're taking the loss and bragging about the loss.

Margin is victory. Margin is a blessing.

All this was free today. None of this was in the notes.

But the Holy Spirit loves you, and he wants you to take a nap,

just like Jesus did in the middle of a storm.

The ultimate servant leader himself.

While the disciples struggled through the storm, He slept in

the boat while they rode. And they're like, Lord, don't

you care? I do care.

Well, she hadn't woke me, but I do care.

He settles it all down. The Lord wants you to have a

life of rest. One thing at a time.

Don't go drop a nuclear bomb into your life.

But you've got to start to build towards this thing.

You got to have a bullseye. You got to have a target.

And you need to know whenever you live in Crazy Town all the

time, you need somebody who doesn't live there to go.

Hey, friend, just so you know, you live in Crazy Town like, no,

everybody here is like that. I know.

I'm telling you, the whole town's crazy.

It's called Crazy Town. Everybody's doing it.

But yeah, you need to move out. You need to move out.

So Pastor James telling you, move out of crazy town, get

margin, get time to hang out and just be.

I don't want to be alone with my thoughts.

I know that's the problem too. So let's walk that in deeper

into prayer. Let's talk with the Lord about

that instead of just running from things.

All right, all that's free. Y'all got to hurry up now and

listen faster. Verse 5, they paid no attention,

went back to their work, went back to their distractions, all

the things they could justify other so-called followers of

Jesus distract themselves with as well.

Followers of Jesus have done it as well.

What takes you away from His Kingdom?

What takes you away from His word?

What takes you away from His presence and prayer?

What takes you away from His gathering on a Sunday morning?

These are the things that we want to get rid of, trim off and

properly prioritize the feast with the sun.

That's what makes you somebody. That's what makes you special,

not your work. Take away Salt Church and Pastor

Joe Michael. Man, that stinks, but I'd still

be John Michael. If you take off the pastor, I'm

still John Michael, son of God, loved by God.

Take away Natalie and the boys, that'd be devastating, but I'd

still be John Michael. Take away the family captain.

I'm a coach to that. These are important parts of my

life. We're not trying to minimize

them, but they come secondary to my identity in Christ.

When I live that way, I'm blessed by it.

When I forget that, I start to build little idols out of

Natalie or my children or you or the church or success in

business, but I want to continue to eat the feast that the Lord

has provided and honor the Son in doing so.

Verse 6. This thing just gets ridiculous

at this point. Other servants get even worse.

While the rest seized His servants, they grabbed his

servants. That's crazy.

Would not happen, but it happens in the Kingdom of God.

And they treated them shamefully and killed them.

So now he's talking about the Jews who killed the prophets.

Again, he's telling parables against the Jewish leadership.

But what authority do you do this?

And Jesus is blasting them in front of everybody.

And they know after the second parable, it says they knew he

was telling them the parables against them.

And now this third one, they know it's against them.

And now he's just twisting it in even deeper in front of

everybody. They're going, what?

This is what the Kingdom of heaven is like.

And he's already said the prostitutes will come in before

you, the tax collectors will come in before you.

You rejected the King's invitation to honor the son.

He's been calling himself the Son of Man the whole time.

They know that he's saying he's the son.

They know that he's saying it's his wedding feast.

He's telling this all right to their faces.

Everybody understands all the Messianic language and all the

weight of what's taking place here.

And Matthew's readers remember Matthew wrote his Gospel to Jews

as well, so they understand nobody's missing anything,

treated them, seized them, and then killed them.

Notice the King's patience. He was patient.

He sent multiple times, multiple servants.

He sends people twice before his judgement.

His mercy precedes his fury, thankfully.

And then in verse 7, the king was angry and he sent his troops

and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

This is likely referencing what's going to happen 40 years

later. 40 years later, the king sends people into Jerusalem, and

Jerusalem is burned and destroyed completely and all of

the ruling class is murdered and their families.

He burned their city because they rejected the Son when it

was time for his feast. This whole story has taken a

wild turn, right? It's supposed to be a wedding.

You're invited to the party. And now cities are being burned

to the ground and people are being killed.

Hating the gospel and hating the servants of God brings God's

judgment because God takes very seriously the honor of his Son.

God says about his Son Jesus that he's going to make the

nation's his footstool. So you can either sit at the

right hand of Jesus or Jesus will prop his feet up on you.

You don't want to be the footstool.

You might think, I don't mind anything for Jesus.

That's not what it means. It means you're going to be the

one broken with the rod of iron. It means you either submit to

him and say, yes, Lord, I'm yours, or your city is

destroyed, or you're like this other man we're going to come to

in just a moment, who somehow seems to be in the party and

then is ejected from the party. Verse 8.

Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but

those invited were not worthy. I invited the Jews.

They were not worthy. Now I want you to go get the

Gentiles, get everybody in my house.

And this is again, scandalizing the Jewish leadership.

They're going, you're bringing in who?

And he's saying, and the Jewish leadership also thinking like

Pharisees, scribes, priests, we're the ones who invited the

party. And he's saying, give me the tax

collectors now you know what? Get that homeless guy at that

stoplight that I see when I come through the city and get that

other guy too. Fill the party.

That's your only mission. Fill the party with the good and

with the bad. Those invited were not worthy

here. Worthy doesn't mean that they

could have earned it, it just means that they refused the

King's terms. Worthiness is simply coming when

called and being clothed as he requires.

Verse 9. Go therefore to the main roads.

Invite the wedding to the wedding feast, as many as you

can find. And those servants went out to

the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Go wherever you can. We're going to celebrate, we're

going to feast, we're going to party in this house.

My house will be filled. Call the good, call the bad.

That's the Jew, that's the Gentile, that's everything in

between. Those who come on the King's

terms are counted worthy, and they will sit at my table and

they will honor my son. Aren't you thankful that God

invited you? He invited everybody.

Everybody is invited. Everybody is loved and cared

for. The bad like me, like you, who

would never have an opportunity like this before or after they

are brought in to have food that they would never tasted in their

lives to see the glory of their king.

Verse 10 Notice just here the word gathered.

A simple point I'll make here. They were gathered around.

Gathering is what the Church of Jesus does.

Gathering is what the Church of Jesus is.

Church means the gathered people of of Jesus.

So to say that we love the king, but not to want to gather with

the King's people, it doesn't make any sense.

It's not an actual thing. This is not a virtual feast that

they had over Zoom that there or that they did on YouTube.

People in the Kingdom gathered to worship.

People in the Kingdom gathered to eat.

Christians gather for fellowship.

They gather for love. They want to keep gathering

together. It's really weird to say that

you love the king but you refuse the King's gathering.

Those things don't go together and they don't make any sense.

Verse 11, Here we are. Now we turn the corner.

So you think the parable's finished?

So I filled the house with guests, and they all lived

happily ever after. Not so fast.

Verse 11 But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw

there was a man who had no wedding garment.

So now he turns to talk about a man at the feast who could also

represent those who said I accepted the invitation.

This is those who say, yeah, I'll come and I'm in and I'd

like that blessing. So what you need to understand,

again, historically in this context, this is crazy.

Whenever the king would prepare a wedding feast, the king also,

when you were invited, provided you the wedding garment that you

were to wear to the wedding as a show of his grace, as a show of

his generosity. You're receiving this expensive

wedding garment that's a part of the overall decor of the whole

banquet. So everybody comes in looking

how they're supposed to look for with whatever has been designed

for whatever, with whatever has been decided.

So you've got to understand this guy who's in the banquet and

doesn't have the right clothes on, this isn't like the homeless

guy they found. And he's like, I'm sorry, I wore

my best and the King's like, I don't care.

Get out. That's not what's happening.

What's happening is he was invited and said here's the

garment to wear to the wedding feast.

Here's your garment to wear the wedding feast.

Here's your garment to wear the wedding feast.

Here's. And everybody puts them on.

Of course you put it on. Of course you put it on.

First of all, of course you accept the invitation.

That's where it's already crazy. And then of course, you put on

the garment. It's just, duh, it's how it

works. But this guy, I want the wedding

feast, but I don't want the standards that are required.

So remember Jesus's actual followers, they're used to him

kind of like bragging about them in the face of the

self-righteous. They're used to him defending

them in the face of the self-righteous.

He's been throwing it in the Jewish leadership's face.

He's saying I've redeemed prostitutes and they will enter

the Kingdom before you because they thought these are the worst

of the worst. And Jesus goes, but I redeemed

the worst, but I change things, I make things new.

You still don't get it. They're like, that's a tax

collector following him. He's like, I know I'm powerful.

I can give a new life. And they were still looking down

on that. So Jesus followers are used to

going like, wow, I've never like felt dignity before.

This is nice. The Lord is actually honoring

me, not because of me, but because of him.

But I'm not being shamed and condemned anymore.

I'm used to being hated in my own society, and now I'm being

treated with dignity and value and worth.

But this is a warning even to them.

This warning makes everybody stops in their track stop in

their tracks because it shows, yes, you were invited, but it

clarifies you must come the right way to enter the Kingdom

of heaven is not being a part of some roving band of hippies who

just enjoys the kindness of Jesus.

He's just cool. He's just good.

We're with him. We're still sinning.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what's happening.

That's not what's happening when you become a follower of Jesus.

So now we've got a proper wedding banquet, people

everywhere, great atmosphere, all is well except for one man.

So to accept this invitation but not come with the proper terms

is still just a massive, massive rejection of the king and a

massive dishonor of the son being married.

Everybody knows this. The listeners know it.

Matthew's Jewish readers of this gospel know it.

Now you and I know it. This is the, this is the voice

of the person saying, I'll take all your blessings, but I reject

your standards. Verse 12, He said to him, the

king said to him, friend. So it's interesting Matthew uses

friend, like when Matthew is his friend, it's not a good thing.

So whenever Jesus says to Judas friend, do what you have to do.

And another time Matthew use it or Jesus uses it and Matthew

says so whenever it's friend, it's the actual word used is a

genuine word for friend. But the context shows that like

we're actually not friends. I'm being polite, but this was

the king. So the king is going around the

banquet. This is awesome.

People everywhere. The house is full.

My son is being honored. Friend, where's your wedding

garment? The king is.

This is wrong. But let me give him the benefit

of the doubt for half a second. OK, Maybe something.

What's going on? Friend, where is your wedding

garment? And the man was seechless.

That's what everybody's going to be.

Who is flexing on earth when they stand before Jesus, when

they stand before the Father and say, where is the covering of my

son's blood on your life? Nobody's going to go.

No, it will just be lights out. This is the first time, friend,

How did you get in here without a wedding garment?

And he was speechless. Then the king said to his

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 cold, but few are

chosen. The gracious host.

What you need, Jim, turn off. I'm good now, OK?

The gracious host waits for some kind of reasonable explanation.

Friend, it's a stern warning. He's saying, what's going on

here? Explain it to me.

And when he realizes that no explanation is coming and that

this man has just been caught as a false insider, then the king

takes swift action. He's ejected from what he had

been invited to because he refused to be properly clothed

by his host. If you won't be clothed by

Jesus, then you can't be clothed at all.

And if you won't be clothed by Jesus, it's outer darkness.

This is a heavy, heavy word. And that's all that Jesus has

been giving lately. Of course, we've been taking it

one week at a time. You saying, man, pastor, this is

heavy stuff. I need some encouragement.

Be encouraged. You've been invited to the

wedding feast and the Lord wants to cover you with the

righteousness of Christ and not only the righteousness of

Christ, but with holy living. Those are the two things that

most scholars and theologians as they just because that's the

ultimate question that you and I need to be asking right now.

What is the garment? Lord, I accept the invitation.

I think that you're already there.

Lord, we accept the invitation. What in the world is that

garment? Do I have it on?

What is that garment? That's the question the humble

heart should be asking in this moment.

That garment is 2 things. That garment is the

righteousness of God-given to you by your faith in Christ and

the fruit that comes from that life.

It is both and it is the righteousness of Christ imputed

to you by God's grace through your faith, and it's also the

holy living that proceeds from it.

This man is missing that he wants to be around.

I want to eat all the steak of the Kingdom.

I want all the bread of the Kingdom.

I want all the wine of the Kingdom, but I don't have any of

the standards of the Kingdom. The king says that's not how

this works. You will be clothed and covered

by my son. That's part of being invited to

the wedding feast, and you will have the holiness that

accompanies it. God is moving through our church

in a special way. He's also giving false converts

a chance to be real converts, and he is looking for the real

fruits of repentance. This shaking that's happening in

our church is a kindness and a mercy, and it's an extra

invitation. That's what it is.

It's an extra invitation to say come to the feast, come to the

feast, come to the feast and be covered by Christ fully.

Verse 14. Many are called but few are

chosen. Many are called and invited to

the party but few are chosen. I want to clarify here.

Chosen does not mean that God pre selected who would make it

into this party. That word chosen makes me think

that it is saying that. And yet the full context of

everything we just read in the parable reveals that is an

impossibility for it to mean that.

So the word chosen here has to do with the fact that the king

approves of them because they answered his call by coming in

and wearing the garment. So that word chosen has brought

in confusion for some in this passage.

But over and over the the context makes it plain Refusal

of the invitation or coming on your own terms leaves you

unchosen. Humble obedience on the King's

terms marks you as chosen. And I'm closing Chris and Kayla,

can you get us the elements? They're going to serve as

communion this morning. Thank you, Chris, you can get

that pulled up that Galatians 327.

Just talking about the garment that covers us for as many of

you as we're baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Christ is what we put on. Christ is our garment.

And also Revelation 19 to reference the holiness.

Revelation 19 verses 7 and 8 says let us rejoice and exalt

Revelation 19:7

and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come

and his bride, that's us, has made herself ready.

I didn't make myself ready, only Jesus made me ready.

That is so good and so perfect theology when it's when we're

talking about that thing. But we're not right here because

I'm reading the Bible to you. So, so you're not getting some

distortion and some turn away from grace.

Of course we have to be clothed and made righteous by Christ,

and yet his bride has made herself ready.

There's a making ready that you and I still do.

How do we do it? By God's grace, of course, with

his help, of course. But there is work done as a

Christian. There is effort put in as a

Christian, not to earn and not to deserve, but there is effort,

there is progress, there is pursuit, there is worship.

I'll keep reading. His bride has made herself

ready, and it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen,

bright and pure. For the fine linen is the

righteous deeds of the Saints. That's the fine linen, the

righteous deeds of the Saints. So it is the righteousness of

Christ covering us. Hallelujah, I'm a new creation.

Old has passed away. All things have become new.

And also to be fully clothed. There were righteous deeds of

the Saints. A transformed life is the

garment being referred to here. God is looking for fruit, not

just leaves on the tree. The prostitute isn't a

prostitute anymore. That's the point.

The tax collector isn't a tax collector anymore.

The liar isn't a liar anymore. The adulterer isn't an adulterer

anymore. The prideful isn't prideful

anymore. So that's the question we ask

ourselves. Where is my holiness?

Where is my wedding garment? Where is my fruit?

If you were given the righteousness of Jesus in the

new birth, then do you bear the fruit to continually preach

that? Chris and Kayla, would you serve

us? I'll continue as you do.

The Kingdom of heaven may be compared so all that we just

heard is what Jesus compares the Kingdom to.

The Kingdom of heaven is just like this.

What is it? What did we just hear?

You heard about a feast of grace.

Don't just skip to the judgement.

Notice the feast of grace. Notice the kindness and the

generosity of a king. That's what you should have

heard. That's what you should be

excited about. I don't have to be the guy who

rejected the invitation easy. And I don't have to be the guy

who refuses to be clothed easy. Nothing but feasting for you,

nothing but rejoicing for you. But also, you did see the

Kingdom of heaven as judgement for those who refuse.

That fills us with fear and trembling.

That causes us to pray for ourselves.

That causes us to pray for our loved ones.

That causes us to pray for our enemies.

God, they get thrown out. There's false converts in the

feast. There's false ones who say

they're in and they look like they're in, but when the king

comes, he'll say nobody else. The other guests didn't even

notice. The other guests didn't throw

him out. The other guests didn't say,

hey, get this guy out of here, get him out.

The guests didn't do it. The king did.

The king said, friend explain this and he goes, I can't.

And he goes, well, that's what I thought.

It is what it looks like. It is a rejection of me.

It's a rejection of my son and his honor and the standards.

It's judgment for those who refuse.

It's rejection for those who want the King's blessing but

aren't clothed in the King's righteousness.

Thank God when he invites you to this banquet, He provides the

clothing that you need. The clothing is the blood of

Jesus. The clothing is holy living.

If your heart is tender and you fear that you're the man who's

underdressed, you can come to Christ right now.

Receive His garment by repentance and by faith, and he

will clothe you, and He will grow the fruit through you that

He commands you to bear. When Jesus comes, He's not

looking for knowledge. He's not looking for prestige.

He's not looking for how great your farm is, or her how great

your business is, or how successful you were, or how cute

your kids are dressed on a Sunday morning.

And my wife had some cute kids dressed on Sunday mornings over

the years. He's looking for fruit.

He's not looking for fig leaves. Used to cover and pretend.

He's looking for actual figs. So come to the sun today, repent

and believe, be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, and

enter the feast. We come to the table, Lord, we

come to the feast.