The Wedding of the King's Son
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Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “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.”
Central idea of the text or main idea of the text:
God ‘s offer will be rejected by many who do not want it and others who do not want it God’s way.
Homiletic idea: You must come to the Father on His terms, not your own.
Introduction:
I am amazed at what people spend on weddings these days. The average cost for a wedding is $26,000. Weddings are a big deal. I have seen figures for weddings in Houston that top $100,000 easily. The royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton is said to have cost $34 million. When you put on a wedding of that size you expect everything to be perfect and you expect people to come.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to set everything up for Prince William’s wedding and then have people not show up? That is the picture of Jesus’ parable today.
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “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.”
Outline:
The King Chooses the Guests
The King Chooses the Guests
that will be invited to the wedding feast. Vss2-3
will be invited to the wedding feast. Vss2-3
“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.
Matt
a. Short of the coronation of a new king, there is no bigger event than the marriage of the king’s son.
a. Short of the coronation of a new king, there is no bigger event than the marriage of the king’s son.
The wedding list is a select list.
The wedding list is a select list.
You can’t invite everyone to a wedding.
i. Israel
ii. Illustration – only 300 were invited to Prince William’s wedding.
The chosen were given the opportunity, first.
The chosen were given the opportunity, first.
Not just to witness the wedding, but to be participants in the great feast. The participants were not required to bring a gift. they were simply invited to come and partake in the celebration. And…
c. The celebration is great. V4
i. Dinner, Oxen, Other livestock
ii. Oxen
iii. Other livestock
iv. Everything is provided, just come.
Some Will Reject the King’s Invitation
Some Will Reject the King’s Invitation
V5
“But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,
Some will simply ignore the invitation.
Some will simply ignore the invitation.
i. Can you imagine anyone turning down a royal wedding invitation?
Some will believe they have more important things to do.
Some will believe they have more important things to do.
i. Tend the farm.
ii. Go to work.
iii. These are pretty lame excuses for missing the great celebration!
Others will not only reject the king, but they will be hostile towards the invitation.
Others will be hostile towards the invitation.
Others will be hostile towards the invitation.
and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.
V6
Jesus knew that his disciples would be rejected, mistreated, and even killed for simply taking his invitation to the people.
ii. Still today, we see this same response to the gospel message.
1. Persecuted and imprisoned in over 40 countries.
d. There will be suffering for those who reject the invitation.
But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
Matthew V7
Others Will be Invited to the Feast
Others Will be Invited to the Feast
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.’
Matthew 22:
Other servants will carry the invitation to those on the street.
Other servants will carry the invitation to those on the street.
i. “As many as you find there.” V9b
Who are the servants told to invite?
The good and the evil, in man’s eyes are invited.
The good and the evil, in man’s eyes are invited.
V10
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.
Don’t judge, just invite.
God does not choose based on our merits.
God does not choose based on our merits.
“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
He chooses because He loves. And He keeps His word even when we don’t keep ours!
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He chooses us, but He gets to make the rules.
We Must Come on the King’s Terms
We Must Come on the King’s Terms
“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.
.11-12
11-12
a. The man wanted to come to the feast on his own terms. V11
He was not dressed in wedding clothes.
He was not dressed in wedding clothes.
ii. Coming from the street he would not have been expected to have nice clothes.
He would have been provided what the king required.
He would have been provided what the king required.
Jesus covered this in his previous parable on the vineyard. The king provides everything we need. The sooner we learn this, the better off we will be.
iv. His own arrogance would have thought that he was good enough, just as he was.
He had no excuse.
He had no excuse.
V12
i. He was speechless.
ii. God makes the rules. He gets to call tov.
iii. We get into trouble when we call tov.
It is God’s way, or no way.
It is God’s way, or no way.
V13
i. The man who had been invited was thrown out.
ii. He was carried far away from the presence of the King.
iii. God’s way is the only way.
Conclusion:
· In our story we do see that “many are called, but few are chosen.”
· God’s chosen were called and they rejected him; them made excuses
· Some reacted violently, mistreating the king’s servants and even killing them.
· It is bad enough to reject the message, but even worse to abuse the messenger.
· Jesus was calling out the Pharisees and the religious leaders.
o Most, outright rejected him.
o Others thought they were properly serving God and they needed nothing else.
§ They were wrong.
§ They came on their own terms, disregarding the king.
Now, this is all fine as a story that would put the Pharisees in their place, but it means nothing if we don’t make the connection to how it applies to us.
· We are invited to participate in the marriage celebration of the Son. Not just to come as witnesses, but to be a party to the marriage.
o Jesus used the picture of the church as the bride of Christ.
o Everyone understands what a wedding is like and the great joy that occurs on that day. In Jesus time it was a community event.
o The king has spared no expense and he invites us to come.
§ What will your excuse be? Will you just ignore Him? Have more important things to do? (Really!?) Be hostile to His invitation?
§ You can’t come on your own terms.
· God calls all kinds of people; rich and poor, well and lame, but he doesn’t call forever.
· If we will come, it will be the greatest celebration of all time.