The Rejected Invitation Matthew 22:1-14 Part I

The Wedding Feast as a Picture of the Kingdom

Anna and I got engaged, and we knew we wanted an early summer wedding. What we discovered is how much planning goes into putting on a wedding. And for those of you who are married, you know what that's like.

Months and months of planning go in to prepare for a one-day event. We had to pick a church building, a facility for our reception, we had to pick the venue, and even the color scheme. Now, as you might expect, I had very little involvement in this planning.

I was occasionally asked, how does this sound, and I would say, sounds great. But the most difficult part of the wedding was figuring out whom to invite. The more people you invite, the more cost it was for my in-laws, but you have to have.

A limit.

At our wedding, we had a limit of 150 people. My in-laws would pay for every one of them to eat at the reception. But at the wedding, I discovered there was a problem. As we stood outside and greeted the people who rolled out of the building after the ceremony, I would ask them, or even say to them, see you at the reception.

And then they would tell me, we're not coming to the reception. And it was one of those situations where it would have been good to know that before we paid for your dinner, a meal was prepared for them, but they were not showing up for.

The meal.

Now, before I get all pietistic, I have done this. One time I was invited to a friend's wedding, and I didn't know one person there, so I made the decision to skip out on the reception, so that's a confession.

But this is something that should not be done. There was a meal prepared, but some invited did not show up. And those who don't show up miss out on the meal, this feast, and this great celebration following a wedding ceremony.

In the story of the Bible, which is the story of life, this has happened. It is happening, and it will continue to happen. And it happens in abundance. A future feast is prepared. It is the grandest of all meals and celebrations, but many, many will miss out on it.

And what is sobering is that some of those who think they are most qualified to attend won't make the meal, won't make the feast. This morning, as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see the sobering truth explained by Jesus as He tells the parable of the wedding feast.

So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 22. We'll be looking at verses 1 -7 today. This is a two Sunday sermon. It's verses 1 -14. If you're using a red Bible, it's on page 983, and the sermon is titled, The Rejected Invitation.

Even though we're only going to look at the first seven verses today, I'm going to read verses 1 -14 of 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 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

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, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off.

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 murderers and burned their city.

Then he 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. But when the king came in to look at the guests, 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. Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

Here's our big idea. What this text is calling you to do. Understand that the invitation to the king's future feast most often falls on deaf ears. Understand that the invitation to the king's future feast most often falls on deaf ears.

And we're going to see three ways how in this text, and we're going to see the first way how today. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were two weeks ago when I was last here.

We looked at the end of chapter 21 in that sermon, Jesus gave two parables, the parable of the two sons and the parable of the tenants. Both of these parables were in attack on the corrupt Jewish establishment.

What Jesus explained is that the master of the house, God, will bring justice upon those who do not produce the kingdom fruit. And he's talking about the Jewish leaders who made their own man-made religion and rejected the only way to truly become a kingdom citizen.

To become a kingdom citizen, one must repent, put their faith in Christ, and then this person will bear the fruit of the spirit. Even prostitutes and tax collectors can be in this position if they follow God's plan of salvation.

These are the ones who will be in the future kingdom, not the ones who try to get their own way. Making their own way will lead to rejection. Now this leads us to our text this morning that we've already read, where Jesus tells a parable and we will take it apart piece by piece.

The King's Invitation and the Guests Who Refused It

Let's begin by looking at the first two verses as Jesus introduces this parable. Where 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.

What we see here was common in the ancient world. When a king had a son who was getting married, the king would throw a big wedding feast. And it's different than a normal citizen who would invite their family and some of their friends.

When the king's son was going to get married, everybody was invited. Everybody in the kingdom, in the nation, was invited. And they were expected to make their way to this grand feast. It was an opportunity for the people to be in the king's presence.

And what a great honor it was to be in his majestic presence. Think of a governing official from your lifetime that you deeply respected. What if this governing official invited you to dinner where you got the opportunity to have fellowship with him?

This would be an opportunity that you wouldn't pass up. To reject that invitation would not only be a loss for you, it would be insulting to the one who invited you if you didn't have a good reason not to show up.

In the ancient world, to reject the king's invitation would be to reject the king. To be a no-show was deeply insulting. The king would see it as a rejection of his authority. Now let's read what happened after the king extended an invitation to the whole country in verse 3.

And the king sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. So the king sends out his servants telling people to come to the wedding feast, but many people don't listen to the messengers, to the servants that the king sends out.

But the king is persistent. He's not done inviting the guests to come enjoy the celebration of his son's wedding, as verse 4 tells us. 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, and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding feast. What we see here is the graciousness of the king. He is largely rejected at first, but he gives the people another chance. He continues to extend an invitation to attend the feast as he sends out other servants to deliver the same message.

And that message is, the feast is prepared, and now it's time for you to come as this invitation goes out to them. The servants are sent out describing to the countrymen how wonderful this feast is going to be.

At this feast, the best of his cattle have been slaughtered, and everything has been carefully prepared. This is first class in every sense. Who would not want to come to this grand feast? But even after the second fleet, he once again gets the same disappointing response.

We'll see this in verse 5. But they paid no attention and went off. One to his farm. Another to his business. So as the king is calling them to come through his servants to the people of the country, the people of the country don't care.

They are apathetic. They would rather go on with their ordinary activities than pause for a time of celebration to celebrate his son's wedding. We experience these pauses in life as we go through the year, don't we?

We have Thanksgiving, Christmas, Resurrection Sunday, July 4th. When days like these come, it is good to take the time to celebrate, especially Christmas and Resurrection Sunday as Christians. Christmas celebrates the time when God came to this earth as a man in the person of Jesus Christ.

Resurrection Sunday celebrates the glorious bodily resurrection of Jesus. These are days to pause from our ordinary activities to celebrate,.

To feast,.

To have rich fellowship. We also have one day a week that is a time to stop our ordinary activities. And that is, of course, today.

Sunday.

Think about it. You guys are going in all different directions all throughout the week. And you put all that on pause to come to Eureka Center, to this place, to worship God with his people. It is a day to abstain from your ordinary work activities, to take special time to enjoy God, your church family, and your family afterwards.

Every Christian should set aside this day. Now I realize, some people have Sunday work hours on occasion and there are legitimate conflicts from time to time, but Christians should make this a big priority and it is a blessing to those who come.

What people find is that when you come to worship God with God's people, you experience enormous blessing. This is how God designed it to be. It is designed by God to be a place of encouragement where your gas tank is filled up so that you can go through your week.

It is healthy to set aside ordinary activities on certain days, including Sundays. Now the ones I have mentioned, I'm missing one here. And that's what our text is about. And that, of course, is a wedding.

You have to have a pretty good excuse to miss the wedding of someone you know very well.

Do you not?

You have to have a very good excuse. Back when Bree and I got married, our wedding was approaching. I had a friend at my wedding tell me that he might not be able to make it. And when I heard his reason, I had to be blunt with him.

I told him, you need to be here. And he came. It was a situation where he could be there.

And he came.

But when people are invited to a special event like a wedding and they don't come, it's disappointing.

It hurts.

And you can see the king in our text is strongly desiring the people to come, but many, many don't come. They don't make the trip. They don't stop their days to join this grand feast. This is what verse 5 tells us.

They ignored the invitation and went on with their day. As the text says, one goes to his farm and another goes to his business. If they really want to be there, they can be there. But they don't have any good reason.

The only reason that they're not coming, they don't want to be there. They don't want to come. When you get down to the bottom of it, any excuse they make, the real reason they're not there is they don't want to be there.

As the king makes this invitation and many people don't come to his son's wedding, he's hurt and insulted. Their reason for not coming is not that there is a death in the family or they're severely ill.

Or they're crippled.

The reason they don't come is because they don't want to. They reject his invitation to go do what they can do any day, such as working on the farm or doing their ordinary business activities as verse 5 says.

The work will always be there. There's always more work to do. But how important it is to take a pause to celebrate. We've all had that experience where we invite someone to come to a special event, whether it's a birthday party,.

A wedding,.

Or to see your kids in a play. And how sad it is when one comes up with an excuse not to be there. In this parable, this king has been rejected by many in his kingdom who reject the invitation to attend his son's wedding, even though this grand event has been prepared for them.

But what troubled the king even more is what happened next. Let's see this in verse 6. While the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. So some people go on with their ordinary activities and just don't want to come to the wedding.

Others do even worse.

Much worse.

They treat the servants who are sent out to invite them to come to the wedding. They treat these people poorly. And even kill them. You can see what Jesus is getting at in telling this parable. Remember, parables are stories that describe spiritual realities, and the reality being described here is the rejection of the kingdom by the nation of Israel.

The countrymen are invited to come to the feast of the kingdom, and they don't want to come. In the parable, the king is God. God the Father. And the son, the one for whom the wedding feast is being prepared,.

Is Jesus.

Jesus describes the future kingdom as a grand feast. Revelation 19, verses 6 -10 describes the marriage supper of the Lamb. What this future feast communicates is the rich fellowship that will be enjoyed with Jesus in the future kingdom.

When we look at our lives, some of the best memories we have are of times when we feasted. Think of those Thanksgiving dinners that you enjoyed with your family. Think of the wedding celebrations and the birthdays you've enjoyed.

Think of the dates that you and your spouse have gone on. These were meals that you enjoyed together. Meals and fellowship go hand in hand. Feasting is an important part of life. It's so good to pause from your day to join together to celebrate what is worth celebrating.

At all these feasts,.

You remember conversations that you had that you didn't want to end. And you wonder where the time went. But a day will come when the best fellowship you have ever enjoyed on earth will pale in comparison to the fellowship in God's kingdom.

The best fellowship will be with Christ Himself. Fellowship, by the way, is a very Christian word. It's a word, of course, society uses. We're going to have fellowship together. It's just a very Christian word.

Some of you are Lord of the Rings fans. The first book is called, what? The Fellowship of the Ring. And there's Christian overtones in that book. Fellowship is such an important part of life. This great future feast where Christ forever enjoys fellowship with His people and people who have been completely made new will enjoy fellowship with one another.

But the sad part is this. This rich feast, this great, grand feast in the future will be missed by many. And the people who will miss it will not just miss out on this glorious experience, they will also be punished for rejecting the invitation to come.

The king is angry at the rejection he has received. They were invited, but they didn't want to come. And he is angry that the people have mistreated his servants. So this is what he does in verse 7 as we continue reading this parable that Jesus is telling.

The king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. What's interesting is that what Jesus describes in verse 7 is likely describing a fulfillment of prophecy that took place about 40 years after this.

After the Messiah came and Israel largely rejected the Messiah Jesus, the nation continued on as usual. There were still sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. The powers that be, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were still in power.

But God didn't let this go on for too long. They rejected the Messiah. God would show His favor to those who killed His prophets, who killed His Messiah, and rejected His glorious plan for the world. In the year 70 AD, during the Jewish revolt against the Romans, the Romans killed over a million Jews and the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.

And to this day, almost 2 ,000 years later, the temple has never been rebuilt. There have not been sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem.

For that long.

This was God's judgment on the nation of Israel. The people rejected the Father's Son and they have rejected the kingdom offer and God has punished His people for their rejection. His punishment has come temporarily in the destruction of the temple.

And those who rejected the invitation will also experience eternal destruction as we're going to see at the end of this parable next Sunday. God is not pleased with indifference toward His glorious plan and He of course is not pleased with hostility.

What we see in verses 5 and 6 is often the response given when presented with the Gospel. This is not just the Jewish people of the first century when this grand, glorious kingdom was offered to them.

When the Gospel of the kingdom is offered today, this is what the response is. So often, some people are indifferent while others are hostile. Some people just don't care and they are too wrapped in their lives to care.

This group has some attraction to Christianity, but is not hostile to it. But they live for their idols. But the group that Jesus describes in verse 6 are in a different boat. They are hostile. Both groups have no love for the Lord, but this second group, the hostile ones, have a special hatred for God and His people that burns in their hearts.

Why is it these ardent atheists, why can't they just go away? Instead, they write these books attacking Christianity, going after Christians. There's something going on here. These people are hostile toward the Christian faith.

And here's what you need to understand. This second group, the hostile group, is growing and growing strong in America. It used to be that the dominant group of unbelievers in America that had no love for the Lord was the indifferent crowd.

This country has always been full of nominal Christians, but the people who are indifferent toward biblical Christianity are shrinking, and those who are hostile to it are growing. This shift is happening because our country in the mainstream has become godless to the core.

The values of society are at odds with the values of the Bible. So there's a collision course that we are on. The mainstream country has zero resemblance to biblical Christianity. Our country is proudly sinful.

Proudly supporting every sin, even the most heinous. Listen to Romans 1, verses 24 -32, and you will see this. This describes our country in the mainstream. God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God.

For a lie,.

And worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameful acts with men and receiving in themselves the penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

If I've got three minutes to speak to Congress in Washington, D .C.,.

All I need to do.

Is open up Romans 1, read verses 24 -32, and then close with the word repent. Repent. This is what we have become. This describes American society to a T. This is the mainstream. Pretty much every mainstream institution is in this place.

We have reached a point where it is hard to be indifferent toward Christ. In an increasingly polarizing nation like America, we are getting to the point that you are either with Christ.

Or you're against Him.

It's hard to be in the middle. Many, many people are against true biblical Christianity when it comes down to it. What is interesting is that some of the hostile people toward biblical Christians are Christians.

Or people who identify as Christians. But really, they hold to a false understanding of Christianity. It is a worldly version of Christianity that desires to be like the world. It's a worldly Christianity.

And this is why I've said that when the persecution hits really hard down the road in America, some of the people who throw the first stone will be so-called Christians. They will say, this is not the way of Jesus.

These are a bunch of bigots. These are a bunch of haters of mankind. These are people who contribute nothing to society. It's interesting. Paul Washer, who's a famous preacher, he wasn't even preaching a sermon.

It was a Q &A. And he said, that American Christians are going to be persecuted so horribly. And what he said was that there's this false group of Christians that are going to be some of the lead people attacking the real Christians.

You have to be aware of that. Just because a place calls itself a church, doesn't mean it's a church. Just because people say they follow Jesus, doesn't mean they follow the biblical Jesus. Who is it that the Bible says He is?

We need to follow Him in full. Not just the Jesus we like.

There will be wolves.

Who really belong to the world and truly are hostile toward biblical Christianity. And even the last few years, people have been siding on every wrong position. And you wonder, what side are they on? Down through the centuries and into the present day, Christians have been maligned for their faith.

God's messengers have told people the Gospel. They have told people that one only enters the Kingdom through Jesus Christ as He went to the cross and paid the full penalty for sinners. God's messengers have told people God's grand plans for His future Kingdom.

This grand feast that He has prepared that Jesus describes in verse 4. A dinner with oxen, fat calves, with grand fellowship. This is what has been told. But many, many people are hostile to this message.

To bring this message to rebels with a hard heart, this is not attractive to them. The aroma of Christ, as 2 Corinthians describes, you either smell good to people or you smell horrible to people. And if you're around someone who's close to coming to Christ, you're going to be attractive.

But if you're around someone who hates God, who hates Christ, who hates the Bible, you're going to smell horrible.

To that person.

As you go through the life of faith, you will experience this opposition and some of you already have. And I'm telling you that it's only going to increase as time goes on. I'm not crying wolf here. You must understand that this will come.

The Bible tells us how the world is going to end. It's not going to be like America is exempt from this. America is not exempt from this. It will come here. And this is why I've been stressing to people.

We have to build strong communities.

Eureka.

Polk County. Burnett County. St. Croix County. I mean, these are areas we can coalesce together and build strong communities, build strong families, build strong churches.

Get involved.

Because if we do that, we will be a place that Bible-believing Christians want to come to. And the communities will only be stronger. We want that for our kids,.

Do we not?

We want that. You can't save some places. You're not going to save Washington, D .C.

It's gone.

Jesus didn't go to Washington, D .C. and say, we can turn this place around. In the Bible, when He goes to these cities, do you know what He does? He doesn't say, okay, we need to come up with new methods.

The old method didn't work. The old method being, just preach the Gospel. That didn't work, so here's what I'm going to do. We're going to try to make the Gospel palatable. We're going to try to make it acceptable to the people.

And then maybe they will come and join us. Does that sound like any preachers out there? It does, doesn't it? That's not what Jesus did. You know what Jesus did? He pronounced judgment upon these places.

They've been given over. It doesn't mean that no one from that place will ever be saved again. It just means that largely speaking, the place has been given over.

It's not going to be.

A great place to live.

It's not going to be.

A light for Christ. So what we need to do is build strong communities where there's still a chance to build strong communities, where they haven't been given up to their sins. But this message to many is not attractive.

And why is it not attractive? When you go after the idols of society, this is when persecution comes. When you tell people that sex is only permissible between married people, that only one man and one woman can marry, that you can't abort a baby,.

That victimization.

Should not be promoted but called out. When you go after the idols of society, the things they love, this is where the hostility is going to come. And let me say this too. Sometimes people love this country more than God.

We need to go after that idol too. They say God and country. Sometimes it's country and God. We need to go after that idol. I was watching a debate the other day and I'm thinking, is anybody going to ask these people about marriage?

About marriage between one man and one woman? It's like it's too conservative. It's like it's too biblical to ask that question. The whole society has drifted. When you go after people's idols, this is when they will hate you.

If you present a Jesus where they can keep their idols, they're okay with Jesus. But if you present the real Jesus who says you cannot have two masters, that's when they will hate you. When people reject God's messengers and the grand plans of God that are told through them, what you are doing is going after their idols because they have to leave those idols to follow Jesus.

Now we know that nobody perfectly leaves their idols, but you have to say, I hate this idol. I want to turn from it. And by God's grace, you can turn from it over time. It's not the presence of sin that's the problem.

It's the absence of repentance that's the problem. As one pastor once said, and this is why people will call you all kinds of names and even be willing to harm you. People hold on to their sins because this is where they find their joy.

This is where they find their identity. Sin provides instant gratification. Sin provides a thrill for a time. But the great irony in all of this is that those who are rejecting God's invitation and messengers either through indifference or hostility, are in fact forfeiting their only chance to true, deep, everlasting joy.

The way of Jesus is not instant gratification. The way of Jesus is real joy that can never be taken from you. In this parable, Jesus is describing this future, grand wedding feast.

With the best food,.

The best drink, the best fellowship that one can imagine. And this is what people are giving up. It's like preferring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich over a Thanksgiving dinner. That's what people are choosing in this world.

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And you can have this grand feast.

And you don't want it.

I know C .S. Lewis once had a quote. People choose the mud pies.

On the shore,.

Over the holiday at the sea. They pass up the invitation because they believe the lies of their own idols. They would rather live for their idols than live for the living God. By rejecting the invitation, they are putting a nail in their own coffin.

But this is what most of the world does. There is the opportunity for fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, and people don't want it. They would rather hold on to their idols that will never satisfy.

Never.

And that's how sin is. Instant gratification. It feels good for a time, but it always leads to pain.

Always.

And we know this from our experience,.

Do we not?

Every room I go into, everywhere I speak, which I don't speak in too many places, but mostly here, I know this about you.

You're a sinner.

You're like me. You need a Savior. Instant gratification is what we've all experienced when we sin. But we've all been left empty. We've all been left longing for something more. And we find that in only one other place.

Jesus Christ. And this is the story that Jesus is telling in these first seven verses. The invitation to the future kingdom is being offered, and specifically in this context, is being offered to the nation of Israel.

The ones who should most of all.

Have been prepared and ready to receive this invitation.

To go to this feast.

The opportunity to feast with God the Father and His Son Jesus, but instead of the message being met with great joy, it is met with indifference and hostility. People go through their days like there's something more important out there.

And even worse, people make it their mission to attack the truth and the messengers of the truth. I mean, think about Richard Dawkins. Can you imagine him standing before the judgment one day? You made it your life's mission to destroy Christianity.

And now you get your reward for that. Which is not a reward, of course. People hold on to their idols so dearly they're either indifferent to God or they're hostile toward God. And this is what God calls us not to do.