Invitations to the Banquet: Discussing Inclusivity in Christianity

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, Jeff, Hey

Chris, it is I didn't even I didn't even ask you if you're going

to do it. I just I looked at you thinking I was I was

thinking, if you were gonna do it, I was gonna call it.

It's the fanfare. It's the fanfare announcing the beginning of another amazing episode of

The Bible The Bible Guys. And we didn't have some sort of jingle or

something. The Bible Guys. Oh that's mail bags, isn't that? They

whatever it is? Uh, you remember here's Johnny Johnny. That was very

iconic for anybody who's forty five and older. I was gonna say, yeah,

so all your stories lately have been Hey, I have one life,

Jeff. I didn't live too like I lived my own life. Yep,

so I can only reference Gillian's Island and such, by the way. That's

that's how. That's one of the very first things I ever did as a

pastor of high school students. I was only like my mid twenties, but

I actually said, hey, everybody stand up, shake hands, and tell

everybody your favorite cast member of the Gilligan's Island. I really said that back

in like nineteen ninety three. Yes, it was like ninety four. I

said it like ninety four, and like ever we looked, you said,

and they said, Gillian's what good. It was one of the very first

times I thought, oh I'm old. Yeah, I'm older than the people

I'm talking to. Right. I wasn't old, yep, but I was

older than them. So, Gilligan's Island. Did you watch Green Acres of

course? And Beverly Hillbillies? Yes, yeah, and yeah Petty Coak Junction,

No, I didn't watch that to Western for me? What else?

Yeah, there were a bunch of those back then. That's funny. Yeah,

okay, So so today, of course we were watching the reruns.

Yes, of course it was. It was really the generation before us.

It was our my older brother's generation. Okay. So today, Desiree says,

this today's parable that we're about to read is about the wedding dinner.

So we're going to focus today on food. Yeah, Jeff is going to

tell you, Chris two truths in a lie. And I missed breakfast this

morning. So I'm glad about this one. Oh yeah, well it's gonna

make you more hungry. I know about some of his grilling and cooking experiences.

Okay, you'll have to figure out which one's to lie. And by

the way, for our listeners who do not know Jeff Is in my world,

I would call him a master griller. He wouldn't consider himself a master

griller. Maybe you do, but he is the grill meister, especially to

our staff. So for all of the people out there who work at other

churches, just coming over to here to church, we'll grow for well,

I'm going to brag on you, Jeff. I've never been a part of

a church or we haven't even heard of a church where when there's a staff

meeting and there's you know probably what forty staff on our staff, you go

out there and in the hot sun in some cases and slave and cook and

delight us with some of the best food ever. And I think honestly that

our staff doesn't appreciate it, because if this is their first church they've ever

worked out, this is just what happens. That's it's just all they know.

The CEO always cooks for everybody, right, and here I am coming

in from other places and I'm going, you do what and I and I'm

I'm eating and going like, guys, this doesn't happen everywhere else like this

is. This is a privilege and it's so good, dude. It's so

you know, Jesus to show that he loved his disciples and to serve,

he washed their feet. And I'm never going to touch your feet. I

will never touch your toest breast. But I'll grow you a steak, I'll

make some tacos. It is the twenty first century, you know, it's

it's the twenty first equivalent. Yeah, so I love it. It's a

it's I love So. I'm kind of a recipe guy in that I'm not

very innovative, or I'm not I'm not very inventive. I don't make up

a new thing. Yeah, but I love to get a hold of some

kind of a formula and then tweak it right, make it a little better.

Yeah. So that that's that's what I love about it. So,

even though cooking is so different from everything else I do, I usually cook

from a recipe of something, and so that's why I do that. Hey,

by the way, let me let me since we already opened the can

of worms about the foot never touching the fins. Let me just go ahead

on which is coming up in a few days. Yes, oh that's right,

it is. Let me go on record and say, oh, well,

you know what, We'll save it for two days, Cliffhanger. Okay,

I don't know that it's two days, but it's it's it's coming up,

okay, because we're in the last few days of Jesus life. He

does it in the upper room. Yes, okay, So Cliffhanger, for

I have something to say about it, very special story. Well kind of.

It's more of a opinion about foot washing in general. Oh okay,

but it's a biblical opinion, okay, about why I will never do it.

Okay. And by the way, for some people, that is like

that's it's almost as big as communion and baptist Yes, yes, And I

want to acknowledge that, Like, I'm not saying that my way is the

best way, and I'm not trying to disrespect foot washing. I'm just saying

I'll never do it. Right. So anyways, my grilling is is the

way that I like to serve people. So let me give you a couple

of stories I have to give you two truths. Oh yeah, I thought

we were done with a segment. Let me go quickly here, Yes,

go ahead, So this has to be super fast. One time I cooked

for about what was it, about six people, and the chicken was a

little raw and everybody got sick. I one time had my grill too close

to my house and I destroyed a six foot by six foot plate glass window

because the heat broke the glass. I once cooked grilled for over one hundred

people. Those are the three. Okay, so so almost killing six people

with raw chicken just sick destroying I'm being I said almost, I was being

dramatic. It was just under cooked, breaking a glass window from sheer heat,

or cooking for one hundred people, because that's a lot of people cook

for. I'm going to say the lie is cooking for a hundred peop.

Yeah. No, I've cooked for a hundred people. Yeah, yeah,

we for a hundred people. One of the guys in our church helped us

one time, and we did smoked pork for eight hundred people for heritage at

one time. Holy But I didn't do hardly any of the smoking. He

did all of it, so that was great. But yeah, I've served

on a hundred people. Now, the lie was, I've never had anything

get sick from my food that I know of. Nobody's ever told me that.

Ok, yeah, sick, Yeah, but I did. You gotta

be careful having your grill too close to your house because you can melt siding

and break windows right right, And that's just from the heat. And you

only have to learn that once. It was just one time. One time.

It was our second grill, and it was our very first house that

we ever owned. Oh no, so we'd only been in a few months.

We had this nice little porch that I just built on the front of

it. Yeah, and then I thought, oh, the grill looks perfect

right here in front of this window. Yeah, and yeah, they broke

it. So there you go. That was it. That was thrill.

Yes, by the way, it had to been just people are like,

are you serious? Yes, Okay. So today we are reading Matthew twenty

two one through fourteen. This is the only place that Jesus tells this story

specifically, and he's telling about a wedding dinner, which is why we're talking

about this. Yes, Jesus told them other parables. He said, the

kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a

great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent

his servants to notify those who were invited, but they all refused to come,

and so he sent other servants to tell them the feast has been prepared,

the bulls and fat and cattle have been killed, and everything is ready.

Come to the banquet. But the guests he had invited it ignored them

and went their own way, one to his farm and other to his business.

Others seized his messagers and assault them and killed them. The king was

furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their

down. And he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready,

and the guests I invited aren't worthy of the honor. Now go out to

the street corners and invite everyone you see. So the servants brought in everyone

they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled

with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he

noticed a man who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for a wedding friend. He

asked, how is it that you're here without wedding clothes? But the man

did no reply. And then the king said to his aids, buying his

hands and feet, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be

weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

Woo. Yeah. So, so if we're connecting the dots here,

the wedding feast is the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of

this. So obviously it's a story about heaven. It's about the kingdom,

which means that God the Father is the king, right, the wedding feast

is a celebration for his son, right, So this is almost a continuation

from yesterday. Yeah, Well, do you remember a few days ago it

said that he was teaching every single day in the temple, right, Remember

he was leaving every evening and going out to the hillside or Bethany or the

Olive Mount of Olives or whatever. But then he was coming in every day

and teaching in the temple. So he did it the first night, so

we're left to assume that he probably did it every night. But it did

say he was teaching every day in the temple. Yes, and so these

are the teachings. Could have been a different day, yeah, yeah,

this is, or it could have just been last hour. I taught you

this one in this hour, I'm teaching this one right, right, something

similar, which he sometimes did to reinforce the same point. But this is

all from the teachings in the temple, is what I'm saying there. So

yeah, and then so so it's sort of left to assume that the same

application of yesterday's podcast, you know, the ones he invited, you know,

killed and murdered and seized the messengers that would be the prophets, right,

they didn't come to the feast, they didn't come to the celebration of

the sun, which means they're not receiving the sun. Right. So it's

just like the stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone thing.

And then uh, and then he goes out to the highways and the hedges,

he goes out to the you know, to everybody, and he invites

them and and so he's going to other nations. That's just like yesterday's pod

or you know, podcast or topic. And then he finds one guest without

wedding clothes and so what do you think that represents. So that's the biggest

topic in this whole thing, right, So I personally believe that, uh.

Well, one, so just understand it was customary when a king would

invite people to his party that he also uh would do a couple things.

It would be multiple invitations, the reason being. The first one would be

the invite would you come, and then you affirm yes, I will come.

Okay, we'll let you know when it's ready, because they didn't have

microwaves and timers to be able to They're cooking over fire, right, all

that kind of stuff, so it takes a long time to prepare and it's

not very precise, and so okay, I'll send my servants back to come

and get you when it's ready. And so that's why there's two invitations.

There's the first one, would you come, second one, Hey, it's

ready, come uh in the second one or in the first one if you

agree, then then in the second one you would receive wedding clothes. Because

nobody had the resources that the king has, right, so you'd receive wedding

clothes from the king, and that would be like showing your ticket. The

fact that you were wearing. You're not wearing peasant clothes like everybody else wears.

You come walking in wearing clearly whatever the outfit was, that we're supposed

to be wearing for the for the feast. So if that is the analogy

he's using, that the king is the one who provides the wedding clothes,

that's why he would have noticed that somebody wasn't wearing wedding clothes. Right,

Hey, I sent out specific stuff and I didn't send that. So in

that case, then I think it refers to personally. I think it refers

to where the Bible says, like in Romans, chapter eight, verse one,

there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

over and over and over again. It talks about the Bible talks about when

we're truly saved, we are in Christ and metoric it talks about we're clothes

and his righteousness, right, and we put on His garment of righteousness.

And so that would be the thing, is that what he noticed was that

this guy's an impostor. Everybody else was clothed by the king and he is

not. This is an imposter trying to say he could be an enemy,

could be from a foreign land. He's definitely not someone who and again and

to me, to me, by the way, side note, it makes

more sense if the king was the one providing the clothes and they were the

ones who refused the clothes, meaning, you know, we preach the gospel,

those who receive it receive it. Those whore rejected rejected it. Yeah,

because this story is not saying this guy tried real hard and just didn't

have good enough clothes, right, right, It's that the tradition would be

that the king provides the clothes and a lot of that. But it's also

they go out of their way to say the man had no reply, because

if he was a person who said, hey, I tried, I just

don't have any clothes. I'm just poor, that's not what he's saying here.

The man had no reply, no excuse, is what it's saying.

And so many are called, but few are chosen. Right. The chosen

ones were the ones who showed up in the clothes they were given, right,

right, That's what that's really referencing there. Yeah, So in my

mind, whether or not the king provided the clothes or whether or not,

it was just absolutely customary. And again I'm a believer that the king did

supply the clothes, by the way, but whether or not they just it

was just absolutely an insults against custom to show up without the proper clothes.

Either way, what he's saying is you have to be the parable is you

have to be clothed in a certain way to be part of the wedding banquet,

which again could represent salvation. Right. So whether the king provided the

closer didn't, I don't even think it even really matters, but it makes

way more sense than the king would provide and that they would reject. But

the point is is that there is one at the dinner party who refused to

put on the right clothes. So and it had no reply, right,

So I think that you know, the word picture is clear. So you

know Jesus talks about in John chapter fourteen. He says, I'm the Way,

the Truth, and the life, and no man gets to the Father

except through me. And if there's anybody listening now on the podcast, maybe

around the world who doesn't think that that's a you know, a reasonable claim.

You know, and we've said this before in the past, Well,

Christianity is the only one, you know, that is all inclusive, right,

right, I mean everybody, it's for everybody, because you know,

in other world religious systems, you know, there's no passing grade, there's

no you know, like there's no clarity on how many good deeds are enough

to get to heaven, you know. But in Christianity, it's it's true

that everybody is invited, everybody is qualified, and everybody gets in the same

way. Everybody can make the cut. Everybody's in, and everybody gets in

the exact same way, And no other world religion is that actually true.

So it's not an exclusive and everybody that gets in gets in through the gift

of the Father. That's right, through the gift of the King. It's

not it's not that they bought their way in, right, because that they're

clothed in His righteous Because only in the story of Jesus does God himself pay

for our sin, right, right. We don't have to pay for it

ourselves. We don't have to do good deeds because God himself loves and sacrifices

for us. So it just requires faith, it requires belief, and so

it's not an exclusive claim to only get to God through Jesus. It's the

most inclusive invitation that exists in mankind. In Ephesians chapter five, it talks

about it says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and

gave himself for it, right right. But then it goes on and it

talks about how he clothes his bride in the cleanest and holiest of gowns.

Right well, the Christianity, the Church is the bride of Christ, right

right. So when you get to the Book of Revelation and he's talking about

the Church of Sardis, he talks about how they soiled their clothes, their

clothes were dirty clothes. He had to give them white robes, holy robes.

Right, that's because the church had walked away from him and back into

the world. And then he's like, no, I have to clothe you

again in my righteousness. And then when you get to the final thing,

and this is what I just looked up. In Revelation chapter nineteen, verse

seven, it says, let us be glad and rejoice. Oh, let

me go above. Verse six it says, praise the Lord for the Lord,

our God. The Almighty rains, and it says that this is a

vast crowd of people singing sounds like the roar of a mighty ocean waves that

crashed aloud thunder, So just shake in the whole thing, right, And

they're singing, Praise the Lord, for the Lord, our God, almighty

rains. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to

him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb,

and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure

white linen to wear, for the fine linen represents the good deeds of God's

holy people. Right and uh so the only people I believe that this story

is alluding to that final great feast, the great banquet, right, the

marriage sepper of the Lamb, and it was it's the groom gave the bride

the clothes. Yeah, well it definitely would support that, right right.

Yeah, so I think it's the same because there will be no impostors at

that point, right, And that's it. It's that's what I think Jesus

is talking about here. Personal. That's that's very cool. Yeah, And

it's a it's a pretty clear uh uh you know, indication that there's there

is an eternity separation from God. It'll be weeping, and they'll be gnashing

of teeth, they'll be they'll be casting into outer darkness. You know,

when people want to erase, erase the idea of hell. It's really hard

when you hear parables like this and you're like, what does that mean?

Right? Right? So you know that's why, that's why it's so imperative

when when when God says to share my message with other people, uh to

you know, let everybody know about God's radical love and his grace for them.

The reason why you are so adamant about you know this this initiative around

the world more than most. You know, you're a part of an organization

that concentrates on planting churches, starting churches in villages and in places where there's

no churches. Our goal is a church in every village everywhere, a chief

the first letter of each of those a church and every village of achieve.

We want to achieve achieve. Yeah. And the Timothy Initiative is what you're

a chairman of on the board. And it's like and there's other organizations that

are like that, none by the way, as effective as the Timothy Initiative.

Side note, But the reason why is because of this, it's because

that's our mission, that's our goal. Our goal as Christians is to first,

primarily a chief priority above anything else, is to give the Gospel and

tell the story of Jesus, which, by the way, is exactly why

we choose to use our weekend services. And we gear it towards those who

don't know God. Right right now, not everybody does that, right,

I've always said our good friend Nick Nick says, there's all kinds of churches

for all different kinds of people, right And so I don't know, people

can actually have their own opinions and that's fine, and they say like,

oh no, the church on Sunday morning should be geared for worship and the

Christians and everything else, And it's of course it's for the Christians. And

what we're talking about is the church the worship service or what's happening on Sunday

morning the gathering. So my big answer to my board when they were asking

this when I was like thirty four years old and I had just kept thirty

five, I just come to hear to church and they were asking what is

the purpose of the church. Is it for lost people or is the church

for Christians? And you said right, And I said, well, I

think that it's the question itself is faulty. I think what you're asking is

what is the purpose of the church services? Right, that's what you're asking

because we are the church and we are here for the world. So then

my question was, if that's the case, we are the church. The

people are the church, not what happens for an hour on Sunday morning.

But we are the church. The building is not the church. We are

the church, and God left us on this planet to reach the world to

invite everybody to the banquet. Right, that's our job. We're here for

the world. Then that changes the question because now I'm asking what should I

what should I be doing together as the church at different times during the week,

what's the most strategic time in our community to bring people to Christ to

hear the gospel? Right? And we did a survey. We surveyed five

hundred people. Don't if you knew that. We went to the mall and

we just went around and asked people, Hey, are you a regular church

attender? And if they said yes, we'd say okay, thank you,

you know, and whatever. But we had five hundred people who said no,

I don't go to church regularly. I'm not really big on faith.

I'd say, Okay, if you wanted to get right with God, let's

just say suddenly there was this moment you want to get right of God.

What would you do? And I'm telling you, I don't remember the exact

number now, is like four hundred and seventy five said I would either go

talk to a priest or pastor, and I'd go to church. So of

the ones, the four hundred of them told us I'd go to church.

He asked when would you go to church? They'd say, I'd go on

a Sunday morning. What time? What time is the best time? Oh,

I don't know what time? Did they go? Like ten or eleven?

And so then I go back to my leaders and I say, in

our community, this isn't in every community, but in our community, if

a lost person says I need to get right with God and they don't know

where to go, they're going to show up at a church building somewhere in

the middle of the morning at ten eleven o'clock. Well, you had to

back up your answer. I did. Well, I'm that guy, though,

I'm the guy who goes and gets evidence. I don't just argue right.

And so I went and got the evidence and came back and said,

hey, four hundred people told me that they would go to church. They'd

go to a church building. So I'm not saying that everything the church should

do is and four non Christians. But our ten o'clock, our eight thirty

are ten or eleven thirty, and our one o'clock gatherings on Sunday morning we

target at lost people and not for lost people. But we're targeting them at

lost people. We are aware that lost people in the room. Everybody benefits,

right, We're aware that they're there. We're translating it. We're trying

to capture people's attention long enough, capture hearts for Jesus, but everybody benefits.

Lost people can't worship, you know, they can't do those things,

but they can enjoy the music. They can be inspired by the message.

Yeah. My favorite thing to say is when Jesus told us to go be

fishers of men, the biggest question is did he want quantity of fish or

quality of fish? And the answer is yes, yes, he wants both.

He wants both. I want lots of big fish, right, lots

of big fish, which means which means that Sunday morning should be for both,

right, like you can, by the way, you can do both,

yeah, right, But it takes incredible intentionality to make certain that you

know that everything gets funneled through the eyes of the first time guest, which

is what we do anyway. All that to say, it's because of passages

like this, because the importance of it. Right, So when it talks

about how the stakes are high, how souls are at steak, and eternity

is at stake, and then God gives us the mission, it's like,

how could you possibly not include that somewhere prominent in your ministry somewhere, And

for us, it's on Sunday mornings. So anybody who attends heritage or knows

about heritage, this is just a great reminder for us of why we do

what we do and how we do it. It's fantastic. So, hey,

I think that's a great place to end, and we'll see you hopefully

on Monday on the Bible. Guys,