Tag: Matthew 22

July 14th 2024: Ben Christofides

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Matthew 22

We are in wedding season. A wedding is a wonderful event with a huge amount of planning. It is an honour to be invited. The parable we read of in Matthew chapter 22 is a scene of a wedding banquet. Wedding banquets in Jesus’ day were even more spectacular than Meg and Jonathan’s wedding! There is a similar account of this parable in Luke chapter 14.

In this parable Jesus is speaking the week in between His triumphant entry into Jerusalem and His crucifixion. Jesus is showing religious people how very privileged they are and what they must do with these privileges is crucial. Jesus is showing then and now that your religion will count for nothing, your response to Him is everything.

In Matthew chapter 22 the end verses are unique to this occasion. On first reading, you may be wondering why this ending is included. I am convinced that verses 11 to 13 are the key part to this parable in this context. Jesus wanted us to know the destiny of our eternal soul depends on the way we are dressed – not physically but spiritual clothing.

1.Rejecting the gospel is incredibly serious.

 Many people will reject invitation of the gospel. In Jesus’ time, invitations were sent out long before a wedding. Nearer the date, a second invitation was sent out. April the 29th 2011 William and Kate got married. What an honour it would have been to have been invited. What could be more important than attending a royal wedding? Here, the king is putting on the party of all parties. The first invitation has gone out. Now has come the time to call them in (v.3). For hundreds of years the first invitation has been going out throughout the Old Testament, God telling His people. People wanted to be part of the Kingdom. Now comes the second invitation – but responses to the invite are met with indifference. They refused to come to a royal wedding feast!

Notice the patience of the king; He sends out more servants (v.4). He goes further and explains how incredible the banquet will be. It is all ready. Please come. We see a mixture of responses: some have no time for a feast (v5), others show indifference which turns to hatred (v6). God is so patient.

How many times have you heard the gospel? How many times has the invitation gone out and you still haven’t accepted, making excuses? It is possible you have become antagonistic and say, ‘How dare anyone tell me I’m a sinner!’ God wants you to be at the wedding feast. He wants to forgive your sin, to bring you into a living relationship with him through the Lord Jesus Christ, to have eternity in heaven.

Eventually, the King’s patience runs out (v7-8). Time is up. The King’s invitation won’t be sent out again. The implication for us is clear – do not play fast and loose with the gospel. Don’t assume you will have another opportunity to respond. Each time you respond to the invitation with excuses, one day you will reject the invitation for the last time, “Or he says,

“In a favourable time I listened to you,
    and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  (2 Corinthians 6:2). Now is the day of salvation.

2. The gospel invitation is wide and the banquet will be filled.

The king in this parable is relentless to bring in guests to his wedding feast. So is God in His pursuit of lost souls (v9). For the Jewish audience listening to Jesus at this time, it is clear others will be brought in if you don’t accept the invitation. The invitation will go out to the Gentiles.

The invitation has come to the Gentiles, it has come to Wales, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:18-19).

What is that great news for us today? The message of the gospel is for you and for me (Acts 10:34). God is not interested in your background, your family heritage, age or social standing. The gospel is open to all. God is interested in only one thing – your response to His Son.

We need to be encouraged in our evangelism (v10). Are we discouraged by the apathy that exists in our society to the gospel? Can we really expect people to respond positively to the Lord Jesus Christ? The first 6 verses remind us not to be surprised when people reject the gospel. But verses 10-11 give us encouragement. Get rid of preconceived ideas who is likely to respond.

The wedding feast will not begin until it is full. Jesus Christ won’t return until the last sinner has been saved. We need to invite people while we still can. The King has prepared the feast. All is ready. What are we doing? The sinner must be ready and willing. Heaven will be full to the brim – an everlasting wedding banquet, all praising and worshipping the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The gospel is no less powerful than it has ever been. God is on the throne. We need to tell and invite people.

3. Entry is for those wearing the clothes that He provided.

This is a wonderful encouragement but a sober warning as well. Who will be at the banquet? We might think we know, but there will be some surprises (v11-13). In this parable there is a man without wedding clothes who is thrown out. What is going on? In the culture Jesus was speaking to the king wouldn’t just invite guests, he would also have provided garments for the wedding guests. The king would provide everything. Here, the king notices a man who’s come in his own garments – he doesn’t want the King’s garments. What arrogance. He is thrown out into the darkness.

There is an awesome invite coming, a wide invitation. But if you think you were going in your own clothes, think again. We are filthy. God’s standard for perfection is perfection. Not a single sin. We don’t even come close. The whole Bible is all about Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament God told his people he would make a way for sin to be dealt with.

As we hear about the wonderful place of heaven, we think we would like to be there. But the message of the gospel is Jesus Christ met the standard we failed to meet. There is not a single stain on him. He is innocent of any charge. Then He was put to death on a cross. He bears the punishment of all our sin. He puts on all the filthy garments and dies the death we deserve. He rose again, defeating death. Why? So that by trusting in Him you might be clothed in His righteousness so you can have a garment for the wedding banquet.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

 (Isaiah 61:10).

Are you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus or are you hoping to get into heaven in your own clothes – through church attendance, chapel clothes? It is possible to deceive others here on earth – attending church, being a deacon or an elder, giving the impression of being a Christian but not trusting in the Saviour. Look at someone’s testimony, backed up by the life they live. The end of the parable reminds us there will be no deception on that final day.

Friends, listen. My intention is for all of us to come and marvel afresh at our own unworthiness. God has provided all that you need. Whether you have never trusted in Christ before, known Him for many years, or deceiving people, the answer is the same, “or in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27).

Are you clothed in Jesus Christ this morning? A wonderful feast lies ahead. Don’t reject the invitation. Come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins. If you have already received that, share, rejoice in the beauty of it.

January 2nd 2022: Ian Jones

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Matthew 22:1-14

We all get excited about a wedding. Today, a lot of time and money is spent on weddings. It is an important day of celebration with the bride and groom. In this passage of the wedding feast, Jesus was in the Jerusalem temple area speaking to the Jewish leaders. There were only a few days to go to His crucifixion. He tells them this parable to make them think very carefully about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, by comparing it to a wedding feast – an ordinary event they would have been very familiar with, as well as us here today.

It is one of only three parables Jesus told, known as the judgement parables, concerning their rejection to Jesus and their misunderstanding of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The King sends out servants with wedding invitations.  We need to know this is a first century wedding. This is a royal wedding. This makes a difference. Messengers were sent out initially to say to expect a wedding to be soon. Then, when everything is ready, messengers were sent out again to say, ‘Come. Everything is ready.’ You would be expected to attend. You would have been forewarned, so would be expected to clear your calendar.

Because Jesus has told us this is a royal wedding, it is even more important for the guests to attend. The King’s only son was getting married. To be invited would be a great privilege. It would be unheard of not to attend a wedding of that status. You would want to tell everyone you have been invited. We can understand the king’s frustration that the guests were not willing to come (verse 3). He thinks there must be some misunderstanding, so he sends the servants out again (verse 4). He will try to entice them to the wedding. The shocking thing here is found in verse 5, “But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,” (Matthew 22:5). It was shocking that the people have no respect for the king and the prince. Worse still, some seized his servants and killed them (verse 6). How awful! The king was seeking to invite them to the wedding and laid on wonderful things for them.

What will be the king’s response? “The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (Matthew 22:7). What does all this mean? When the chief priests and Pharisees heard this, they knew Jesus was talking to them. The king in the parable is God, the son is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the servants were prophets who were sent out with God’s word and treated so badly. Jesus acknowledged their sinfulness will not go unpunished and the city would be burned. We see this happen in AD 70.

We are told everything was ready. The wedding feast was to continue. How would this happen when there were no guests? The servants were told to go and invite anyone they could find. The banquet will go ahead. What honour will be if all are invited? Great honour. Everyone there will be looking for the king and prince. They will want to be there celebrating. There will be great honour.

Here we see the gospel call that goes out everywhere, inviting everyone to come to Christ, to come and rejoice. This is what the kingdom of Heaven is like. We see the goodness of the king, those who rejoice in the son, in the wedding. Those who will be there don’t come because of the position they have achieved in the world. They come because they have been invited. What a wonderful picture of the Kingdom of Heaven, likened to a wedding feast, a joyous occasion. It will be full of people, full of guests, looking to the king, rejoicing. It is not surprising some have linked this to the marriage feast of the Lamb.

The main purpose of this parable is found in verse 14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The gospel is still our main means of filling the church. We are reminded of the importance of calling, going out, even if few are to be chosen. We preach without discrimination. Everyone is invited to come to Christ, to come as they are, to come in response to the gospel. We also need reminding, even if we can build the church, there is still the refining process that goes on in church. There will still be believers and unbelievers.

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.” (Matthew 22:11). What does it mean by the king coming in to see his guests? He wants to see them. Wonderful! The guests, at the same time when He comes in, they see him. Everyone wants to see Him. Everyone is looking forward to that moment. The church may have many things that attract our attention today – being with other Christians, singing hymns, loving to hear scripture being read, the preacher, having fellowship with other Christians, the tea, coffee and cake – but most of all, our hearts cry out for God’s presence among us. We want the King to come in, we want to feel His presence among us. We call Him to come amongst us. We want the King to come in amongst us and bless us. We look back to times in our history, to revival, we want to be blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We desire the gospel to be preached and the Lord’s blessing among us.

It is very sad to be in a church where God’s presence has gone out, a dead church. We desire to see the King, to see His favour. When the King comes in and the light grows stronger, hidden things are revealed. One individual hasn’t got a wedding garment, “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.” (Matthew 22:11). Did it really matter? After all, he’s in the wedding feast. We see the King’s response. He notices him. He goes and speaks directly to that one individual, “And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.” (Matthew 22:12). ‘Friend.’ This is the way the guest may appear, as a friend to the king. But he was no friend at all.

What is this wedding garment? A particular item of clothing that makes a person suitable for a marriage feast. If you attend a wedding, you have a certain code of dress. If you went to a wedding venue, you would instantly recognise who was part of the wedding party because you would see by the clothes that they were wearing, that they were wearing those that were suitable for a wedding. It would set them apart. This is what we can see here.

There are many things we could say theologically about the wedding garments, but for simplicity’s sake, here this morning, I want us just to focus on that thing which separates us from any other person outside. That garment which separates us. To be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, to be seen to have a holy life.

Why was this individual in then? He didn’t need to come in. To get in you would have had to put on a wedding garment. That would have been the rule of the day. You didn’t come in with your own clothes that would not have been suitable for a wedding. You wouldn’t have been able to afford special clothes as people would today, so you would rely upon the king providing suitable clothing for you to join in and celebrate this important occasion. Here, it is important to recognise that for this man to come in, he would have had to push by those people who were offering the garments. He would have known he was the only one not to have a garment on.

Going in to a shop today, you have to out on a face mask. Yet, perhaps you will se some that haven’t got a face mask. You might ask the question, ‘How is it that you haven’t got a face mask?’ There will be some who will say because of medical reasons, which we have no problem with. There will be many in a church that may not have a wedding garment on because they have come in and the Lord may be working on their hearts, they are yet to be saved. We haven’t got a problem with that. But this individual could be likened today to those who we may ask, ‘Why are you not wearing a mask?’ and they might say, ‘We don’t want to, I don’t think I have a need to. I reject that system. I reject it all.’ Here is a man of a similar kind. This man has come in, but he has no regard for the king’s son. He decides not to honour the king’s son. He comes in defiance. He wants to come as he is and not change. It’s the spirit of today’s age – I don’t need to obey the rules. I don’t need to look towards God’s word. I don’t need to accept God’s word.

This man doesn’t want to obey the king. He is a rebel who goes against the king and everyone else. So, it is not surprising that the king will come straight to this one individual and deal with him. The king calls him a friend because that is how he may appear, because he is there. But he is no friend of the king. He is asked how he has come in. There are many today who think they will be saved by looking to their own way, their own thoughts. They may say that they don’t need to come to Christ the way you say. They think that when they get to heaven, they will say their reason and God will accept them. Well, here we see an example of what it will be like for a person of that kind.

As he stood before the king, this man was speechless. He had no words to say. That’s what it will be like for everyone who comes in an unappointed way to the king in whom they think they may get away with it. There will be no getting away with it. If we do not come through the Lord Jesus Christ, in faith to Him and repentance towards God, and clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be treated no differently to this man. He was speechless. He had nothing to say. He knew he was in the wrong at this moment. Worse still, he does not repent. There are no tears, no cry to the king to ask for forgiveness or mercy. This is a man who is resentful of the king and the son of the king. He has come to rebel. Sadly, these are many today in that position, going to a lost eternity. I have seen some who have rejected Christ all their life, yet even on their deathbed will not cry out to God, so hard has become their heart. They will not even repent in a moment of this kind.

The king responds by saying, “‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.” If we were to look at the Greek language here, the encouragement to us would be the servants were sent out to bring them in, with different servants to those called to bind him hand and foot and cast him out. These were different servants. The servants of the king were called to do what was required because the king would not have anyone spoil that occasion. That’s how it will be in heaven; there will be no sin. No-one will come into heaven but the appointed ones. Outside there will be darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Friends, the place described here is not a place you would want to go. There is a warning then for us. In this New Year, let us desire the gospel to go out, God’s blessing to be found in the church, for us to be defined and to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ, and others to be saved.