Three Jugular Parables - [Matthew 21-22]

If you had to pick a slogan that people love to say these days in America, what might that slogan be?

People love little soundbites and slogans, and I think of no justice, no peace.

That's a popular slogan or creed here in America. Maybe another one might be make

America great again, is another slogan or creed that the world believes and sells.

How about the spiritual realm, though? What's the spiritual slogan that people tend to have these days?

Is it the creed that might run like the Apostles' Creed? Is that the slogan of the day? A Nicene Creed?

Chalcedon Creed? As I survey evangelicalism in the world around it, here's the creed that most people have who aren't born again, but they know religiosity is important.

Here's their creed. I am spiritual. You hear that a lot?

I'm a spiritual person. What do they mean by I'm spiritual? Does that mean

I'm born again? I'm trusting in Jesus as my Lord and Savior? I looked it up. Here's what spirituality says in the dictionary.

A condition or quality of being spiritual. That didn't help me, so you keep reading.

An inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his or her being.

Focusing on such qualities as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, responsibility, harmony, and concern for others.

People that say they're spiritual want to make sure you know they're not religious, and especially they're not born -again evangelicals.

But this idea of spirituality without Jesus at the center reminds me of an anaconda, a pet anaconda.

How many of you have pet anacondas? And you know, you think they're cuddling you and embracing you.

Look, I framed my anaconda to just give me a warm embrace, and it slowly slips itself around your neck and begins to strangle you.

I found that the largest thing an anaconda has ever eaten is 130 -pound impala.

But the anaconda of spirituality regularly devours its prey. I'd like you to take your

Bibles, please, to Matthew 21, and turn there, turn your Bibles to Matthew 21.

While morality and spirituality and religion has some external adornment, it's nice to live next door to a moral person.

Morality makes nice neighbors. Religion makes nice friends. Spirituality makes nice co -workers, but it damns people.

It's like an anaconda. It was a week ago, and I thought, you know, there are times at BBC that I'll have my

Hebrew sermon ready, but then we have something called a snow Sunday, and then not everybody is here to continue in our trek through Hebrews.

And so I thought, I should probably get a snow sermon ready sometime for January or February.

I did not know it would be so soon. And so we're not going to be in Hebrews today.

We're going to be in Matthew 21 and talk about religiosity, religious people, spiritual people, moral people who don't want to believe in Jesus.

It's going to be very interesting as you watch this passage with Jesus in Matthew 21.

He's going to make points like this. Man -made religion tricks you into exchanging morality and ceremonies for faith in Christ Jesus.

He's going to talk to us about how if you've got your own religion to approach God, you don't need the death of Christ.

He's also going to talk about how man -made morality and religiosity and spirituality damns people because then you think your own righteousness is enough.

Who needs Jesus's righteousness? Did you know that religion damns more people?

Spirituality damns more people than illicit sex, drugs and crime put together. Did you know that Jesus loathes religion?

He detests it. He hates spirituality where he is not the center. Did you know people are going to hell with manicured lawns and manicured lives?

Before we look at Matthew chapter 21, as you know, this book is about Jesus the

King. Jesus is a king and so whenever you dive into a passage, it's good to just literally step back and survey what's going on.

Regularly when I study, I'm so focused on the text, rightfully so, I just push myself back from the desk and think, okay, where is this in the big picture?

What's the scheme of the context? If you had to summarize all of Matthew, I'd probably summarize it with Matthew 21, 5.

Behold, your king is coming to you. That's exactly what this book wants to show, that Jesus is in fact the king, the presentation of the king.

At the very end of the book, this is Jesus, king of the Jews. That was the charge they put over his head and that's actually true.

From the very beginning, we want to make sure there's not an imposter for this kingdom. Therefore, you get the genealogy, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the

Messiah, the son of David. After all, you want to have the right succession to the throne because people will try to usurp that.

Seven times in this book, Jesus is addressed as the son of David. Jesus is the king.

So what we're going to do today is we're going to look at three parables. Chapter 21, verses 28 through 32, parable of the two sons.

We're going to look at chapter 21, verses 33 through 46, the parable of the tenants.

And then we're going to look at Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14, the parable that we have of the wedding feast.

Three parables in Matthew, all designed with one goal. And that is so that you believe that you trust in Jesus, the sin bearer, and not in your own righteousness.

That you trust fully in what Christ has accomplished at Calvary, of course, by his full life as well.

So you don't trust in religious ceremonies. So you don't think when you stand before God, well, as long as I've been baptized and catechized and confirmed,

I'm okay. Because you can have all the entrapments of morality and religiosity and spirituality and still fall short.

You need to believe in Jesus, the Savior. You're going to notice before we get into this passage,

I want to just say this. Jesus is very serious about sound doctrine. He's very serious about false teachers teaching the wrong thing.

I think too often we just kind of think, well, you know, that false teacher has a nice smile. That false teacher seems kind to his wife.

That false teacher, that false teacher, that false teacher. And we fall into this kind of this lullaby of he must be pretty good when

Jesus acts a lot differently around false teachers. And these false teachers follow their father,

Satan, who is an adversary. And 1 Peter 5 says the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

That's exactly what happens with his false teaching minions.

Why don't we go to chapter 21, verse 1, and just set the context. I'm just going to read the triumphal entry passage, and we'll work our way right up to this first parable.

Now, when they drew near, Matthew 21, 1, to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the

Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.

Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the

Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.

Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting,

Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet

Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple,

Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying?

And Jesus said to them, yes, have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. Verse 18, in the morning as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.

And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves.

And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once.

When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how did the fig tree wither at once? And Jesus answered them, truly

I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen.

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Now we're getting closer to our context here for these three parables.

If you ask yourself the question, what is a parable, that will probably help you understand what

Jesus is saying. Now I think the Sunday School definition is an earthly story with a what?

Heavenly meaning. That's pretty good. It's not always exactly true. But what happens with the word parable,

I think it's best described by looking at the root word in the Greek, something placed alongside.

You take something and you place it alongside another. So he's got a story, a real story, a made up story, a story based in agriculture, a story based in modern day events for the time.

And then he's going to teach a spiritual truth right next to it, a parable. And it helps you because it's usually fascinating.

It's usually memorable. It's usually confrontive. It's usually amazing. It usually goes for the jugular.

And so it's a great way to teach. And every parable has its reason for delivery.

Why this parable now is the good question. And we find out in verse 23, the storm cloud is approaching.

Jesus is on his way to passion week or to the passion. It's passion week. Controversy is is getting larger and larger and more heated, more heated.

And when he entered the temple, the chief priest and the elders came up to him as he was teaching. Can you imagine?

I've seen people rush John MacArthur when he's on the platform preaching. These people want to put a stop to it.

They came up to him as he was teaching. By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?

The chief priest, it could have been even Annas and Caiaphas. The scribes were the

Pharisees, mainly the elders were tribal heads, and they're all coming to him with alarm. Why?

Because he's teaching what they taught, but better. No, he's striking at the very core of what they're teaching.

He knows that they're wrong and they know he knows they're wrong. He's attacking the way they worship.

He's attacking who they really worship because it's a God of their own imagination. And if you take away the way people worship, then you also take away the leaders who control the way you worship.

So he's attacking the leadership as well. Jesus answered them. Verse 24. I will also ask you one question.

It doesn't look like Jesus is too afraid to me. I don't think Jesus is looking for the answer here or for information.

I'm going to ask you a question and you tell me the answer. Then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

If I was them, I'd be kind of saying gulp. The baptism of John, where did it come from?

From heaven or from man? They discussed it among themselves, saying,

If we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then do you not believe him? If it's from heaven and John is ordained by heaven, then why didn't you believe

John? You turned your back on John the Baptist too. But if we say from man, we're afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet.

Jesus, see what he's doing? He's staking his authority on John's authority because John is the messenger sent by God.

If you can figure out John the Baptist's ministry, you can figure out Jesus's ministry. I'm going to ask you a question.

They are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Mark, it's an imperative.

Answer me, Jesus says. I want an answer. So they answered

Jesus with great boldness, with great confidence, with great assurance like leaders do.

We don't know. They did know, but they didn't want to admit it.

Ideas have consequences. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority

I do these things. They basically plead the fifth. They don't want to incriminate themselves. And they show that they're liars and cowards and dishonest.

Jesus discredits them in front of the people. You don't just walk up to Jesus while he's teaching and confront him.

And so now we move to these three parables. That's the kind of foment and storm that was there from cleansing the temple to talking about the fig tree to these people coming up and confronting him.

What's Jesus going to say? This is the setting for these parables. And Jesus is not going to say,

Well, there's many ways to God, and you have your way. He's going to rebuke them. There's three parables of rebuke.

If you're going to miss Jesus, the sin bearer, and come up with your own morality, you're going to get rebuked.

Three parables designed to show you you need a sin bearing Savior. This will help you if you're a

Christian because it'll help you evangelize. If you're here today and you think you can get to heaven on your own, these parables are right for you.

Parable number one found in verses 28 and following the parable of two sons.

That's probably what your liner notes say. This is a parable that talks about religion, tricking you into ceremony over repentance and faith.

So don't be tricked by this. It answers this question. How does one demonstrate that he's a son of the kingdom or a daughter?

Verse 28. What do you think? Put on your thinking caps.

I'm now inviting all my listeners to put on your thinking caps because the

Pharisees, in fact, have had their caps on. But I might say they're dunce caps. Now I want you to think with your thinking caps on.

What do you think? Now, what do you feel? Not to what's popular. A man had two sons.

He went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered,

I will not. But afterward, he changed his mind and went, changed his mind.

What's that sound like to you? Another word for repentance. He repented and went.

He took his father at his word and said, you know what? I better change my mind. And he went to the other son and said the same. Son, go and work in the vineyard today.

And he answered, I go, sir, but did not. Now remember, a parable is there's something laid alongside of another thing.

So here's a story about two sons. But there's really another thing going on that Jesus wants to teach.

Who's the second son representing? We'll talk about the first son in a second. But the second son, I'll go.

I'll go and work in the vineyard. But didn't go. It was the religious leaders. He's after the religious leaders.

They say they're going to obey, but they're not going to obey. They, the religious leaders, have taken ritual instead of obedience.

They've taken some external requirements and done those instead of being righteous and receiving the righteousness from God, the son.

Micah 6 says, he has told you, oh, man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your

God? Which of the two did the will of his father?

Verse 31. They said the first. Jesus said to them, truly,

I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.

The second son was the false teachers, the religious leaders. The first son is the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the riffraff.

The outcasts. Which one did the will of the father? Remember, not the Jewish people, not the

Jewish leadership, but the Gentiles, the scum, the dregs, the dirty people, the filthy people.

This is going to make these leaders mad. I mean, you can't even go into a marketplace and exchange money where these filthy kind of people were.

This is religiosity turned wrong side up, where at the top of the ladder of religious moral people are the tax collectors, prostitutes, terrorists, suicide bombers,

Hollywood sex scandal people, and the list goes on. He's going after the hierarchy in Israel.

Verse 32. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. That's the issue.

Who are you going to believe? But the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Remember, he's staking his ministry on John.

And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your mind, repentance and believe him.

You want to do and you're supposed to believe. You want to control and you're supposed to humbly accept.

He's making those religious leaders mad, but he's also trying to make people jealous. It says in Romans 11.

I say, then, they did not stumble so as to fall. Did they? May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the

Gentiles to make them, the Jewish people, what? Jealous. How can they get in?

You mean to tell me the pariahs, the worst people, the kind of people, you know, you tell your children, don't look over that way.

You probably shouldn't tell your children that because they're going to want to look all the more. These people are the ones getting into the kingdom.

Yeah. Initially, they said, no, we're not going to follow you. But they then change their mind and repent. But the leaders say, yes, of course, we'll do what you say,

God. But they don't really obey. The focus is belief.

And for some weird reason, if you're here today and you say to yourself, you know what? This parable gives me a privilege and here's a privilege.

I just won't obey quite straight away. I'll sin now, repent later.

That's a real bad strategy, by the way. He indicts these leadership minions.

Did I already say minions once today? I've never said minions in a sermon in my life. Remember, it was

Phil Johnson. And he would take MacArthur's information and sermons and all that and then put it in a book form.

And he usually tried to have like a signature word that he would put in there. So you knew Phil Johnson was here.

And I think that word was bogus. And so this is the real Mike Avendroth. Minions is this.

It's because Cooley the other day said to me, the kids, you put the minions on and they just watch. You know, the minions are fascinated by the minions that I don't have grandkids.

I don't know what a minion is to me. A minion is is a false teacher that's got these followers.

They're wicked. The people come up and charge

Jesus while he's teaching. And now he gives a parable and he's trying to put them in his in their place and let everybody else know as well.

This is not the way to God. He gives another parable now found in verses 33 and following.

Remember, Jesus is on his way to the cross. Verse 33. Here, another parable.

There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it. Doug, a wine press in it, built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.

Jesus, by the way, is going to go after these people who say they follow and believe, but don't.

Now, I do want you to keep your finger there and turn to Isaiah chapter five. There's all kinds of vineyard language in the

Old Testament. Jeremiah has some other passages have some, but Isaiah five maybe is the easiest to see.

So you can get the context better and see the Jewish symbolism. If you don't know what

Jesus is talking about, you're going to say this parable is essentially crime doesn't pay. But that's not the point of the parable.

These tenant farmers are going to be Israel's leaders because Israel is the vineyard.

The owner of the vineyard is God. So let's just take a look at it because it's very fascinating.

Isaiah chapter five, reading in the NAS, verse one. Let me sing now for my beloved a song most beloved concerning his vineyard.

His well -beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill and he dug it all around, removed its stones and planted it with the choices vine.

He built a tower in the middle of it and hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones.

I mean, every expense was taken for this vineyard. Verse three and now, oh, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do for my vineyard than I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones?

So let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed.

I will break down its wall and it will be trampled to the ground. I will lay it waste and it will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up.

I will also charge the clouds to rain, no rain on it. For the vineyard of the

Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah, his delightful plant.

Thus he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. So if you'll turn back to Matthew chapter 21,

I just wanted you to see that the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. This is well known.

They all knew it. Jesus uses this because he knows they know it. The vineyard is Israel. The owner is God. The tenants are the

Jewish leaders. All the expenses taken to make this thing really a wonderful vineyard.

Verse 34 of Matthew 21. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.

These are the servants, the prophets, as Jeremiah would say. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, stoned another.

And again, he sent servants more than the first and they did the same to him. Jesus isn't mincing any words here.

Do you see what's happening? God prepares Israel. He's done everything for her, rescued her.

Out of the land of slavery, out of the land of Egypt. And now there's these leaders controlling

Israel. And God sends in prophets to preach. He sends in Elijah. He sends in Isaiah.

He sends in Jeremiah. He sends in John the Baptist. He's sending in himself. And what do these tenants do?

They kill, they stone, they beat. And the ones that didn't get killed, they of course probably went back to the owner.

Take that message back to the owner. It is true that Elijah was driven into the wilderness by the king.

Isaiah, it was said according to tradition, was sawn in two. Zechariah in 2

Chronicles was stoned to death. John the Baptist beheaded. Legend says Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, and Habakkuk also killed.

Did not Stephen say, was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one.

Israel is the apple of God's eye, the pupil of God's eye. And he's done everything for her.

And the leadership is now rejecting all the prophets. Finally, verse 37, he sent his son to them, saying,

They will respect my son. It's interesting, Mark and Luke call the son, my beloved son.

Doesn't that sound familiar? This is my beloved son in whom I'm, what, well pleased?

I mean, I've tried sending all the prophets. Let's send the son. This is my last card to play, as it were.

We'll send in Jesus, my beloved son. Is that going to work? Verse 38. Remember, Jesus is on his way to Calvary.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

They didn't say, Well, I don't know, it could be another servant. They didn't say, Well, we're not really sure who he is, but we don't like his message.

They recognized him for who he was. They knew perfectly well that this was the son.

They wanted to control the nation. Jesus is barging in on their power. It is said in John 11,

So from that day they planned to kill him. This is already getting hatched, this plot to kill

Jesus. Verse 40. Jesus says, When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?

Raise us for all. They said to him, He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits of their seasons.

They know justice must be done. The listeners know that.

You send in Isaiah, he gets sawn in half. You send in John the Baptist, he gets beheaded. Now Jesus is here.

They kill him. What should we do to the leaders? Justice. Verse 42.

Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures? Side note, the importance of the scriptures for Jesus.

The importance of the scriptures for us. How authoritative they are. Have you never read in the scriptures?

Jesus didn't say they were translated a long time ago. By the way, don't you notice the default of people?

I just saw it the other day. When you confront someone with scripture and evangelism and they don't like it because they know it's true, what's one of the first things they do to try to just get the monkey off their back?

That was written a long time ago. It was written by men. Translated lots of different ways.

Here our Lord Jesus, He could have said, You know what? Just go by my words because I'm here right now.

It's hard to look back in the Old Testament. Lots of translations and vowel points and Masorites are going to come along and all these, you know, it's just a general tone of things.

No, what does Jesus say? Have you never read the scriptures? You should have read the scriptures and they are authoritative.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the

Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Here's essentially what

He's saying. When's the last time you ever read the Bible? It's Passover season. It's like not reading the

Bible around Christmastime or Easter. Now that word rejected there, isn't that interesting?

The builders rejected. Here's what it means. Okay, you're going to make a rock wall or something and you just take a look at a particular rock for a foundation and you look at every side and you've got to measure it and you look at it and you think that won't fit.

I have to discard it after carefully testing it. That's the idea.

Jesus was rejected. The stone which the builders rejected. But in fact, what has

He become? What's the text say? The chief cornerstone. Implied in there even the resurrection. The head of the corner.

He goes from rejection by these people to the Father exalting Him, the chief cornerstone.

No wonder Philippians 2, it says, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess Jesus is the Christ to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is standing around the remains of Solomon's temple talking this way. One writer said this,

Jesus teaches that seemingly endless patience of God is extended toward those who oppose Him.

But when this patience ends at the rejection of His Son, God's swift retribution is sure to follow.

In other words, how patient must have God been sending prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet?

Very patient. But once they reject His Son, the pinnacle of revelation, there's going to be judgment.

Peter said in 1 Peter 2, Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in Him shall not be what?

Disappointed. This precious value then is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone.

And it came about from the Lord. What's that mean? It came about from the Lord. Wow! This was the

Lord's doing. All planned by God in eternity past. It was planned that this exact thing would happen.

God ordained that the Father would send His Son. One man said,

God has a strange way of working. And what's our response? It's marvelous in our eyes.

It's marvelous in our eyes. It's remarkable to think that God is going to overrule all this human rebellion to get sinners saved.

Verse 43, Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

This is great. I'm so glad Harry read Ephesians chapter 3 today.

I just think it was the luck of the draw as we just were picking passages. It's just so fascinating how fortune, fate, chance, serendipity, and luck where he read

Ephesians 3. The Jews say no? Okay. Then the Gentiles can believe.

And God even part of His doing and His marvelous working, I'm going to have Paul an apostle for the

Gentiles. It's all planned out by God. Verse 44, And there are ramifications for you to turn your back on the sin bearer.

And the one who falls on this stone, talking about a stone that people reject or a stone that the Father exalts, will be broken to pieces.

And when it falls on anyone, we're talking about pulverizing. It will crush him. So believe now while you can.

That's the point. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they actually were thinking properly.

They perceived that He was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest

Him, they feared the crowds because they held Him to be a prophet. The patience of God, the persistent love of God.

Luther said, If I were God and the world had treated me as it had treated Jesus, I would kick the wretched thing to pieces.

There is justice one day and finally, but until then, God is very, very patient. And now the final parable found in chapter 22.

Three parables designed to show you, you need a sin -bearing Savior. You're not going to stand before God and say,

I want to get in because I've done these religious things. Verse 1 of chapter 22, the parable of the wedding feast.

Here's what you should be asking yourself. Well, if this is what Jesus said to the leaders, this is what

Jesus said about the Gentiles, if this is the pulverizing effect of rejection of Jesus, I'd like to get into the kingdom.

How do I? And he answers the question. Israel rejects the

Messiah, but how do I get in? I don't want to reject the Messiah. And we have the answer in chapter 22.

And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

Okay. I think in the news there's going to be a big wedding on some island someplace in the future.

Yes? Next year? Larger island? You're all looking at me like...

I think in England, yes, there's going to be a big wedding. A big to -do. I remember back in the day. Was it 1980?

Was it Princess Diana and Prince Charles? They were married. It was this huge thing. Weddings are pretty big in America.

But they're bigger elsewhere, especially in eastern countries. I've been in India several times, and I'm trying to sleep in like on a

Saturday or a Sunday, trying to get a nap or something in the afternoon, and there is a procession going down the street.

And there are men on horses, and like tikka powder going everywhere. I don't know what everything's called, but it is massive.

It is a huge production. How big of a wedding celebration would it be if the king's son was going to get married?

It's going to be a big deal. It's going to be a feast. And by the way, it's going to be great food. How would you just like to eat gruel every day of your life, and all of a sudden now you get to go to the king's feast?

Would you want to go from gruel to... I remember talking to Bernard once. Remember Bernard, our friend that attended here?

He was from Uganda. And I said, Bernard, what's like the best food you have at a wedding in Uganda?

What do you do like for the sweetest, most wonderful -tasting food? I mean,

I think like in India, I get these kind of things that are orange with pretzels and oil.

What are they called again, Pradeep? Jellabies or something? Jellabies? Jelloppies? Special things to make, and you go, it tastes so good.

There's butter chicken served and all that stuff. I said, what do you do in Uganda? He said, we get this cow.

We get this water buffalo. And it gets all gutted and everything, and it's hung up by this rope.

And then there's a special butcher, and he just slices off raw pieces to give to all the wedding guests.

Oh, you can see her faces. That would taste so good. The only thing that would be better than that, take like a raw egg and crack it on top of that for that extra carnivore in you.

I took Luke to this restaurant in L .A. It's called Animal. And we had these bone marrow burgers with these raw eggs cracked on top.

Succulent. What's for lunch, honey? I mean, whatever life offers, just the best of the best of the best.

The king's son is getting married. You're all invited. Verse 3,

And send his servant to call those who are invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. You don't have iCal.

You don't have Outlook. What they would do back then, it was very simple. The king's son is going to get married on such and such a day.

And then you would be reminded. The servants would come. The runners would come. The heralds would come. Today's the day.

Don't forget. Summon those invited to the wedding feast.

There's already been an invitation. It didn't even need to be granted. The king didn't have to do it. Who would not want to go to a royal banquet?

You're living in some realm, and now you get to go to the king's house. If you got asked to go to some presidential dinner, or you got to go eat with Queen Elizabeth, would you go?

But the guests persistently refused. It's an imperfect tense. We don't want anything to do with you.

Okay, now think for a second. Parable. There's truth alongside of something. What's he trying to teach? For a long, long time,

Israel knew. The Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. Prophet after prophet after prophet.

Sent to Israel. Sent to Judah. The prophets are saying, Jesus is going to come.

The Messiah is going to come. And now he's here. Advanced warning was given in Scripture.

Advanced warning was given through the mouth of prophets. Verse 4.

I mean, how patient is God? How kind is God? Before I read this verse,

I think to myself, how many times I should have been damned before God saved me, but his long suffering was greater than my sin.

And he sent other servants, saying, tell those who are invited, see,

I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fat calves.

They've been slaughtered. Everything's ready. Come to the wedding feast. He outdoes himself.

It's just all there. Prophet after prophet after prophet.

Forgiveness found. Trust in the Messiah. Believe on the Messiah. The table, the banquet table's there.

And again, coming from an attitude of, what did you normally eat? What they probably have every day.

Rice every day. And some vegetables. And now they get the meat. I was in India, and I was a special speaker, and they said to me, do you know what?

After you speak today, we want to prepare some special meats for you. And I wasn't really thinking, you know what, this family's probably safe for a week to buy this meat for me.

And they said, would you like mutton, or would you like chicken? Now I said to myself, do you know what?

I don't want to be an American that just is demanding. So I said, well, you know what, whatever you want, that's fine by me.

I'll eat whatever you cook. They took that as, he won't tell us we have to buy both.

So I came home that night to mutton and chicken, because they didn't want to let down the guest. To have meat.

I mean, we just go to the store now and just buy meat. Look at all the meat here. The fat calves have been slaughtered.

Not just skinny calves, the fat calves. Can you imagine all the fat on that steak? I can imagine that.

The patience of God. The forbearance of God. The kindness of God. One person after another, after another.

And even in our own lives, this is only an application. The text isn't teaching this. How many people did God send in our lives, praying for us, preaching to us, evangelizing us, one after another, after another.

But these guests, they could care less. Verse five, they paid no attention and went off.

No big deal. One 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 murders and burned their city. You ought to probably be thinking 70

A .D., when Jerusalem is destroyed. Deuteronomy 4, the

Lord our God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Matthew 22 .8, then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready.

I mean, I've got all this stuff prepared, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main rows and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.

I mean, the magnanimous generosity and kindness of this king. Of course, we know he's talking about our triune

God. Hey, I've got everything ready. These other people who were invited, they wouldn't come. Now go out and get people that hang out at these type of places.

Main roads. These are kind of the people that were slaves.

They hang out at main roads. These are people that are, to use the last parable, tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes.

They hang out there. Go find people from all walks of life. Find Jews.

Find Gentiles. Find males. Find females. Find free. Find slaves.

It's important. Do you think I'm going to cancel the feast for my son just because some of you have no manners?

No possible way. Go out to these intersections. By the way, the manners and customs books would tell us that poor people also congregated on the main roads.

Verse 10, and those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

That is, acceptable people on the side of Israel, non -acceptable. I mean, everybody, of course, no one does good.

That's a theological point, but these are highfalutin people and people on the lower ends of the food chain culturally.

So the wedding hall was filled with guests. I mean, that is amazing.

So here's what's happening, okay? This is crucial for you to understand it. If you go to a wedding,

I think the last wedding I was at, I was at Vincent and Rachel's wedding. I had clothes, and I wore clothes.

They were too cheap to buy me a tuxedo to match everybody else. Not true.

But what if Vincent said to me, you know what, we've got this big Unitarian church here that we rented out.

By the way, I love to say it, that Unitarian church, when I did the service, besides Rachel, you look beautiful,

Vincent, you look handsome, I like to say, the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit declares in His word, that was great.

Vincent looks around and says, you know, Mike, before we do this, this is only like half full. Let's go invite some people.

Why don't we go down to the, oh, there's a bunch of people from prison working on the roads picking up papers.

Why don't we go get them and have them come? Now here's what would happen. If you're working on roads with orange prison garments, you can't come into a wedding like that.

So the same thing happened back in those days. The people who were on the streets and the poor people, they're not going to just come into the king's palace dressed like hobos.

So what would the king do? He would have garments for them. He would have robes for them. He would have nice clothes for them.

Remember back in these days, people usually had two sets of clothes, what they wore and one extra. That was it.

So the king, he not only prepared this great feast for the son and this great wedding, he also gave people the clothes to wear.

That's the idea. So verse 11, it says, but when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there was a man who had no wedding garments.

And what everybody would get if they were reading this was, the wealthy host would always provide that. So he provided this person with this nice garment and the person wouldn't wear it.

My own clothes are good enough. See where this is going? My own righteousness is good enough to come to the king's presence.

I don't need someone else's robe. I don't need someone else's robe of righteousness. You've got to wear the right clothing to a wedding.

And the king provided it. He did everything. No expense. No corners cut.

And he said to him, friend, now when

I see the word friend, I think Jesus is a friend of sinners. I think of all kinds of things.

This particular form of address is found in chapter 20, 26 and here.

And each time, it's almost like not quite too friendly. There's some irony here.

Friend, this is not buddy. This is not old pal. Friend, it's still kind of got an appeal but with a scorpion stinger at the end.

How'd you get in here without a wedding garment? It's like when you walk into the wedding hall, you were given one.

How'd you get in here? And he was speechless. Come to the king on the king's terms.

And of course, this is a great picture that we have access into God's presence in his throne room, not only because Jesus pays for our sins but because Jesus has earned righteousness and does not

Isaiah chapter 6 call that robes of righteousness. Our robe of righteousness was like a filthy garment.

All our deeds like a filthy garment, Isaiah 46. But now according to John Wesley, and he's right,

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. Verse 13 and we've got to wrap this up.

Then the king said to the attendants, bind him, hand and foot, cast him into outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I mean, he had done everything. And if you won't come to God on his terms, this is the final end game. This is like the father in Luke 15 where the prodigal son comes home and the father gives him a robe.

The sins of your past are forgiven. I forget about what you've done. Here's a robe. Come in and dine with me.

Did any of this take God by surprise? Verse 14 and we end. For many are called but few are chosen. It's all part of the plan.

What's the application with these three parables? God is gracious and patient and keeps on offering the gospel to people while they're alive.

But do not presume on the patience of God. Don't be caught unprepared. These people in Matthew 22, some didn't care, they were indifferent, too busy with family to believe in Jesus, too busy with business to believe in Jesus, too busy to be involved with hobbies to believe in Jesus.

Some were rebellious, some were self -righteous. The parable of the wedding feast, the parable of the two sons, and the parable of the tenants.

Jesus is not only a great teacher, but he's a wonderful savior and you must believe in him. Do you?

Let's pray. I thank you Father for this time in your word and these dear people who want to come before you based on not their own righteousness, but your sons.

I think about those that could be here that reject you in this great, wonderful offer of salvation compared to a banquet, a feast.

I pray that you'd convict them. I pray that you would help them realize that Jesus is the chief cornerstone.

And Father, for us as a church, would you help us to evangelize, especially this time of year?

You have done so much. Salvation is so full and free and wonderful.

I just think about the words reconciliation and friendship and forgiveness, adoption, and yet people want to turn their back on it because they're too busy.

And Father, that was us before you intervened. And so help us to be patient with people and help us to be biblical as we describe this great banquet feast called