Wedding Feast

And over and over again, Jesus has put his finger on exactly their sin. They do not believe. Instead of receiving the invitation of God, instead of receiving the word of God, they reject him. They reject the stone that becomes a cornerstone. kill the prophets, they kill the son.

Well, this last parable, it follows many of the same motifs of God's grace towards a promised people and their rejection of him. It carries a similar theme, but it's the end conclusion. There is no question for them. The only lesson is many are called fewer chosen. That's the final lesson that the chief priest here. This morning, we're gonna wrestle with some hard concepts from verse 14. Many are called, few are chosen. And just to make sure we gather what's happening here, God graciously calls. God graciously chooses. God graciously prepares us in every way to be in his presence. For us, we must humbly believe.

The king's call is rejected

If you look at our parable, there's a king who's calling all the guests to come to a great feast that he's prepared And the responses of the invitation are supposed to be startling. The first thing I want us to see, our first point, the king's call is rejected. The king's call is rejected.

Verse 22,

and again, Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying.

So the continuation is obvious again. He's given two previous parables. He's told them that he will not tell them where his authority comes from. There's a significant confrontation with the chief priest, and now he's giving them this last parable.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

Well, we'll stop there. Significant characters, the king, a son, interesting, it's the only wedding I've ever heard of where the bride's not mentioned at all. A king, a son, servants, and then the invitees. Now this would be something like we've sent out an RSVP and now we're going to send out the invitation to make it official, you need to come, there's a call. The king has prepared this great, wedding feast, to celebrate the wedding of his son. And he sends his servants out to personally call everyone who was invited.

And we might miss it because at the end of verse three, but they would not come. That's weird. If you're in a kingdom, the king's the most powerful, rich person in the kingdom. The event of the year is probably this wedding feast. to try to put it in our own kind of terms. Let's just pretend somebody gave you a ticket to every World Cup match that you wanted to watch the whole way through. It was yours for free, and you said, nah, I'm too busy. I don't want to do that. All right, some of you not interested at all. Some of you, you understand how crazy that would be. But it's surprising.

He's given a call. Key word there. They're invited. He calls them. The servants go out to call, and they They don't come. Verse four, still the call rejected.

Again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, and my fat calves have been slaughtered.

Everything's ready. Come. It's a wedding feast. I've prepared a great feast. All of the best royal oxen, the royal dinner, it's all prepared. Just come. He's not deterred by the first resistance. They would not come. He kindly, and we have to understand, this is kindness. He doesn't get offended, he doesn't get upset. He sends out more servants and says, it's all ready, come to the wedding feast. They should feel honored they've been invited. They should be eager to have a feast like this because this would be an unusual great feast. Well, verse five, the tension escalates significantly.

It goes from they would not come to,

but they paid no attention and went off.

If you're looking for a word here, there's just disinterest. They don't care. They pay no attention to the invitation, to the call. They're ignoring the king. They don't care and they went off.

One to his farm, another to his business.

They went about life as normal. The king has invited them to a great feast, and they are more committed to the mundane.

Now, business and farm, these are good things. But not when the king is saying, you should come to my feast. A business and a farm are great things to be committed to, but not when the king says, come to my feast. You can do your business in your form other days, but here is a feast that the king is saying, come and be my honored guest to help me honor my son.

That kind of disinterest is dishonoring. Well, then it gets worse.

While the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed them.

Now just as you're reading there, I want you to hear there's three things. The parables oftentimes have sets of three. Seize them, treated them shamefully, killed them.

Okay, so you got an invitation, you don't wanna go where that invitation, you ignore it. This is absurd. To be an invited guest to a party and then kill the people inviting you. It shows not just disinterest, but animosity. This is an absurd reaction. The other one is just simply dishonoring. This is wild, and it's supposed to capture attention.

Who would respond this way? Who would take the servant saying, come to a feast? Come rejoice in the meal of the century here. And respond by taking the, Messengers who were saying come and seizing them, shamefully treating them and taking their lives. They're giving them a feast and they're killing them.

Well, we see the king's response to this rejection. Verse seven,

the king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

That first declaration is how he responded internally. He was angry, and then we see a set of three. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. In his anger, he's making a judgment on those who have mistreated his servants in such a way when they've given such a kind offer. Couple questions. Was this righteous anger? Maybe more specific, did the king have a right to respond this way? Another question would be, does the king have a responsibility to respond this way?

He invited the guest to a wedding feast. He's not an evil tyrant. He offered twice an invitation and a call to a feast, and they murdered his servants. And so then he sent his troops." We have to recognize here this king, he's very much like the God we just read of in Romans 11. He's kind and severe. He's gracious and just. He's gracious to send his invitation out the first time. He's clearly gracious to send it out a second time, and he's just to send his troops to bring judgment upon those who killed his servants.

Now, let's pause here. It's a parable. The kingdom of God is compared to, and we don't want to go too far in thinking through what these different things mean. The king seems to be God the father, and we'll seem to understand the son would be God the son.

Jesus, the invited guests, that would be Israel, the chief priest, that's his target audience, that who's been in the focus of who kills somebody the entire time. The servants have been consistently the prophets. So here, the chief priest should understand, they're the ones who received such an invitation, such a great invitation, and killed the servants. And the king is going to bring a great judgment upon them and destroy their city. So the wedding feast parable is really focused on the king and the people. The king and the guest.

How gracious he is. How kind he is. And here, how they've not responded the right way. How they've responded in such a selfish way. Reminds me of Romans 10 as well. We read earlier of Romans 11, but the continued invitation all day long, God holds out his hands to a stiff neck and obstinate people. How gracious he is to be patient for generations of Israelites who rejected him and rebelled against him and worshiped other gods. Listeners of this parable, you, the audience, should hear this and think, What a ridiculous way to respond to a great invitation. He's not inviting them to do something harsh, cruel. He's inviting them to a feast, to his own feast.

If you're not a Christian this morning, you might take for granted that you can come to Christ anytime you want to come, or any way you want to come. You must understand, God graciously calls. He sends out the gospel word. Jesus Christ came to die for your sins and rise again. Don't take for granted that you can just come whenever or however you want.

The disinterest that says he's not worthy of coming now probably means he'll never be worthy. That phrase, but they would not come. Don't let that be you. They would not come. Don't let that be you. What preoccupation or sin keeps you from coming to Christ? It's not worth it.

A sinner repenting entertains angels. Oh, the heavenly host will rejoice when one turns to Christ. Can I have a picture of the heavenly angels? The heavenly host must be just grieving as they see people not responding. Christian, you should be thinking it's absurd for someone to reject Jesus' salvation.

You've come to the taste of things of the Spirit. You've come to enjoy the things of God. You've come out of the guilt and the enslaving power of sin. Christian, I want to ask, are you eagerly and still regularly coming to God, knowing his grace is sufficient for you. Have you decided that you might not need to come to God every day? You might not need Christ, his word, his church. There's ways in which we tend to just kind of slowly veer into apathy. Have you grown cold? has an invitation to know Christ and his word and his gospel more. Has that grown dull? Does it no longer excite you?

My ongoing concern as I watch people do this year after year, kind of a slow slide away from the things of God, convincing themselves there's some kind of safe distance from God and his word and his people, it's devastating to watch. Because it seems like there's an intuitive, I'll just keep a safe distance.

It's the most counterproductive thing you can do in your walk with Christ. The audience targeted the parable are those who need to hear a warning. The chief priests who are rejecting God and his word right here, but I believe we all need to hear the warning of how dangerous it is to not come when we hear God calling. The second point, God's call to all.

God's call to all

Verse eight,

then the king 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 find. And 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.

Now, verse eight is a significant transition. The very special invited guests, well, I think we can see that Israel, the chief priest. Something happens here in verse eight where there's a greater, broader invitation. Whoever you find, Important, those invited were called. Now it's whoever you find are called. Go out and get every scallywag and scoundrel you can find, anybody in the streets. The wedding feast is ready. The hall must be filled.

It continues the same motif we've seen. Remember, the tenants who killed the prophets and killed the son, they were going to be replaced by new tenants. There's a continued theme here where Jesus has told the chief priest, you will be replaced. Those who rejected and refused the invitation, the invitation, it's going to keep going out. The hall will be filled. Notice here, the father's committed to honoring the son of the wedding. The father is committed to filling that hall. The word changes from call those invited to call whoever you find. One last word about the previous group.

Those who were invited, they were not worthy. How do we know that we're not worthy? They didn't come. What made them not worthy? They refused. They were shown grace in that they were invited. They were shown grace in that they were called. How do we know they're not worthy? They would not come. They would not hear and respond with faith. Now, this is where we're gonna do some fun wrestling in a text. the previous invited group they were deemed not worthy.

This last group, whoever they find, good and bad come. It could be good and evil, for just a different translation. What's the difference between being evil and not worthy? That's a fun question somebody should try to answer. Did the king change his standards? What's happening here in this text? Most basic important point of this text is, again, a king filling the wedding hall with guests.

The first refused, and so it's broader. This is a New Testament, new broad declaration.

Go make disciples of all nations.

Go from Jerusalem to all of Israel, to Samaria, to the outer parts. There's a broadening out to where the word goes that we will see later in the New Testament.

But the king is committed. It's really supposed to be shaking our heads in disbelief, all the more of how gracious this king is. Amazed that he's still generous and still inviting people even though rejected, even though his servants have been killed. A few things we can see, he cares about his people. He cares about his son. The king again is God. That's where we must believe in things that are hard for us to hold together.

He is generous and he's just. His generosity is the most significant focus of what this text is. He's generous and he's just. He's merciful and he's righteous. He is love and he is true. We like to pit these two things as if they're always against each other. No, we must hold firm. God is perfectly love, mercy, and grace, and perfectly just, righteous, and true. God is perfectly love, mercy, and gracious, and he is perfectly just, righteous, and true, and there is no contradiction in God.

Now, you're supposed to want to be one of these folks who he just finds in the streets. That might not be real flattering that you're found in the streets, but that's who you want to be. Because you actually get to the feast. You should want to get to the feast. You should want to respond properly. All right, let's seek to answer that question I left hanging so awkwardly earlier. How is it that some were not worthy, but yet even the evil can come in and sit at the banquet? Well, Jesus has given us his own decoder ring to help us understand what he's talking about, and that's verse 14.

Many are called, few are chosen

Many are called, few are chosen.

Many are called, he calls all kinds of people. The good and the bad really is just saying he calls everyone. The gospel call, the public will of God is that all would hear and that all might believe. The chosen are those that God has given the grace to respond.

Many are called, few are chosen. Simply put, the unworthy invites were called but they refused to respond to go to the royal wedding. The good and the evil invites, they were called, and they responded by attending the wedding. They were called. God's calling is broader than His choosing. He calls many. This is the public will of God. He said he wants all people in all places to worship him. He desires the word to go forth as we sung earlier, across the nations, across the world, God's word goes out.

How do we know they were not worthy? It's simply this, they did not respond with faith. How do we know they were not chosen? They did not respond with faith. How do we know the evil might be actually worthy of the kingdom? They respond by faith and attend the feast.

We like to take this word chosen, and it's one of these words we can just kind of keep in the abstract. Those who hate the idea of God's elect or chosen, or those who are way too excited about it, like to keep it way in the abstract. Election, predestined, chosen. The more we keep these in the abstract, the more confusing they can be.

Make sure we have another word that we put in that word group. Love. Elect, predestined, chosen, love. All those words are in the same group. They're all referring to that same kind of idea that God is sovereignly directing his affection and his attention and his saving power towards a people.

Do you want to know if you're called? Well, right now, here, you're called. You're hearing the gospel. Jesus Christ died for sins and he alone can forgive you. Jesus Christ rose again and he alone can give you life. You were just called. Are you chosen? Simple. Do you believe that? That's how simple that really is. Sometimes you have to be smart enough to keep it as simple as possible. You hear the gospel and you believe it. That alone is what makes you worthy.

We all come with our filthy rags. We all come in our own sin. We all come sinful and unworthy to be at the feast. We all come with hard hearts that hate God. Oh, but he keeps calling. He holds out his hands all day long to a stiff-necked and obstinate people. Our call is to believe. Our call is to love him who first loved us.

If you think about this last round of people who were brought into the kingdom, that would be the tax collectors, the prostitutes, Gentiles, Scythians, barbarians, Greeks, Romans, all kinds of people, good and bad. They're called, and we know they're chosen because they actually respond and go to the feast.

Again, we have this very important theological concept that the public will of God is that all will hear, all will hear the call. The private or secret will of God is who will hear with faith. The one thing you have responsibility for right this second is will you believe? I like to follow in the long line of what might be called bad Calvinists of Charles Spurgeon. I pray that God will keep his elect and elect more. Getting into the abstract of understanding if you're elect or chosen, you're pretending you can get into the mind of God's secret will that he has not revealed.

The only thing you can hear is the gospel, and believe. That's what God calls us to. Christian, the gospel will go out in great power. His word will not return void. The true and great gospel call of God, Christian, hear it, believe it, encourage each other in it, and be all the more eager to proclaim it. Because those who are called They will only believe if they hear the word.

The king's last judgment

Our last section, gods are the king's last judgment. So we've seen him call his invited guests. They've rejected him. They've even killed his servants. He sends out more servants. The hall has been filled, and now we see the king's last judgment. Again, this whole section is warning. And so we have to understand this is a warning. The last section, it goes beyond what the previous parables taught us. Because now he's going into that second group of tenants, or the second invitees, and he's making a judgment within them. He's making a judgment within what we will call the church.

But when the king came in to look at the guest, he saw there 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. And the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This section shows how God is going to continue to make clear judgments. The king is entering now into the banquet, and the banquet is full. He comes and he looks at the guests. And at some level, this has been his ambition. The whole story has been building up to making sure there's a full guest hall to enjoy the food he's prepared, to enjoy the animal slaughter, to honor his son, to honor him, the king, who's invited all of these people in.

And now the people off the streets. And he's looking at the guests. And it's a new scene. It's a new stage. It's a new problem. All those have been gathered in this great feast. He's going around and seeing them, and he's probably enjoying everyone's come. But then he notices there's a man who does not have a wedding garment on. All right, there's a handful of things I think must be going on here. The king said, go out and find everybody. And there's a beauty of the gospel. You come as you are.

Here in the wedding. though, in the banquet hall, he finds somebody who's not dressed appropriately. There's somebody there that heard the call, answered the call. They came in, but they didn't come in with the right dress. They didn't come in the right way. There's no wedding garment.

Now, since the king would expect you to be dressed properly for his son, there's an assumption here in the text. My assumption, what I think is implied, The king who went out and said anybody should come in also provided the garments for all those who would come in. If he has an expectation that everyone should be dressed appropriately, he's invited the people off the streets, the poor, the good, the bad. It assumes they would have the garments or he would have provided the garments. Even his question, how did you get in here without a wedding garment, makes it sound like it was obvious these things were all provided.

Now notice he says friend. This is a kind way of speaking to the young man. He has a question. How did you even get in here? It's as if he snuck in. As if the invitation itself had a clear expectation of what you would wear and probably even provided what they would wear. Friend, how did you get in here? You're not dressed appropriately. You've not come the right way with all that I provided for you.

Notice whoever this person is, he's speechless because there's no answer. He's just guilt. He has no answer because it's obvious he is found guilty. In the same way, the whole idea of everybody else is in the right garments and he's looking around realizing he's the only one not dressed appropriately. He's speechless. The king orders his attendance, verse 13. It's different than the servants. He orders the attendance, maybe the ushers that we would have at a wedding.

Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There's a severe judgment here. In the same way, the king was just to take the lives of those who murdered his servants and to destroy the city. Here, the kind king who gave an invitation, the kind king who gave clarity as to what was expected in terms of how they would be dressed, and I assume even provided wedding garments, there was a just judgment. I wanna say there's an otherworldly judgment here, not just destroying their cities. Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He's referring to what we call hell. A spiritual real place.

A spiritual real existence of torment, pain, and agony. for those who've rejected God. By God's common grace, those who reject him do not feel the full consequence of their rejection. But hell would be the existence of forever feeling the full consequence of our rejecting God, forever under his judgment, forever seeing who he is and how kind he has been and how glorious he is without any common grace that protects us. It's the forever judgment fully experienced.

Weeping and gnashing of teeth is just trying to capture how horrible this forever existence is under the judgment of God because you did not believe and come to him according to his way. If you hear this, that grace still stands today, you can come by faith and be saved. You can come by faith in Christ and have life and joy, or you can continue in rejection and face this kind of judgment. The king filled his banquet hall with all kinds of people. with all kinds of rascals, good, bad. The broad invite was for all people and he clothed them as they come in. The guest hall is full of those properly clothed.

Again, the judgment here, the warning for us is not to be a guest without the proper garments. Someone among the people came in without the right garments and we need to hear the warning of what this means. There's other warnings like this. Jesus gives them the gospel of John, someone who jumps over the gate instead of walks through the gate. People who come into the things of God and the people of God and taste them, but they don't really belong. They're among us, but not of us is another way of saying it. There's a wonderful warning to this passage we must hear. There's a warning that is weighty for the people of God.

The right garments

Now let's just wrestle with what it means to have the right garments, because we should all want to make sure we're in the banquet with the right garments. Does this mean you need to clean yourself up before you come? Does it mean you need to make sure you've washed away all your sin before you can come to the presence of God? I see some heads shaking no. Does it mean you need to afford the right clothes before you can come to the things of God?

You need to be able to have a purchasing power that gets you in the right place to have the right garments. You need to find the garments, you need to steal them. How do you get these garments? Again, I believe the only way to make sense of this text is that the king not only called you, but he gave you the right garments. Christian, the only garment that you wear in the banquet hall of God is the one that Christ provides for you.

Over and over again, this picture is used for the gospel. We take off our filthy rags. We take off our sin that we've produced from our own hearts. God puts that off. What's the most amazing thing is on the cross, that's what God judges Jesus for, as if he's wearing all of our sinful garments, to punish them once for all, so that he can forgive us, and not just forgive us of the sin we've committed, but then he puts on us Christ's righteousness. The entirety of the gospel is that he who had no sin but was perfectly righteous, he died for us and our sin. There's a wonderful exchange for us. He takes our sinful garments and dies for what we've done. And he gives us his righteous garments so that we can now come into the presence of God.

God gives you a whole new life and identity. It's not one earned, but it's one that you grow into. It's not like the Pharisees where you've got this kind of outer shell that looks righteous, but a heart that's all twisted. No, the garments are referring to a whole new identity. One that we actually see at baptism.

As Paul says in baptism, when you're baptized by faith, you're putting on Christ. You're having that old life washed away and you're putting on Christ who gives you a new identity as alive, forgiven, even a child of God. We're still sinful with those garments, but we're being changed by the righteousness of Christ.

The only way into the presence of God is in the name of the Son, washed by him and clothed in his righteousness. Now, let's just step back. God graciously calls you. He graciously chooses you. He then provides the garments you need with the death of His Son so that you can enter into His presence. He's done everything you need. Believe. He's provided all you need to be at the banquet, to enjoy the feast of His Son, Believe.

You respond by faith and learn how to enjoy those new garments, how to fit into them, how to live up to them. The only way to respond, Christian, is with gratitude for all God has done. The only way to respond is by wanting to be near Him and with Him and reject the idea that I'm going to stop coming somehow to God. Oh, come nearer and nearer. Enjoy his presence all the more. Hold firm in faith to the God who is gracious.

There is a real end

As we conclude, we do need to just wrestle. There is a real end. And there are only two destinations, just like there's only two ways to live now. There's a real hell. There's a real judgment. If you're not a Christian, I want to present this to you as the end that you are facing apart from faith in Christ. And Christian, I want to remind you that that is the end of everyone we know who does not believe in Christ. There's a real judgment. We cannot reject God's command and his word that says all who reject him will die and suffer this judgment. hearing that word and believing the gospel are the only hope the world has.

Secondly, oh, the king is so kind and so gracious and so patient. And he invites us to simply come to him in faith. We receive all that he wants to give us by faith. His gracious call is to take us out of death and into life. His gracious call is to take us out of the streets and put us in the banquet hall where we enjoy the things of God.

Oh, C.S. Lewis' words,

when God calls us on holiday, we just rather sit on the shore and eat mud pies.

We'd rather just keep doing our business and attend to the farm and do anything and everything but what God calls us to be most important. We've got to quit making excuses for doing the things of God, for following in faith what God has called us to. There's a lot of good things that distract us from the things of God.

Finally, the Great Commission. We'll hear at the end of Matthew where it will be,

go out and make disciples of all nations.

Go into the streets and call everybody. We're to go proclaim this word that will not return void, that we will proclaim that word that carries with it its own power. And we do so longing that one day we will see the King. We will be invited to the wedding feast, and we will rejoice greatly in all the grace he has given us.

Will you pray with me? Father, may we hear the word today that we would put off all the ways in which we've justified not coming to you. We would long to be nearer, to draw each other nearer, that we would stir each other up into the things of God. Lord, hear the warning of how easy it is to presume upon the grace that you've given us so abundantly. Lord, may we all grow with great gratitude for how your hands remain open in the grace you offered us. May we respond by faith and grow in that grace. May we extend to that grace. Help us, Lord, to be thankful and to respond to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.