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Sermon from January 17, 2010
Brother Joseph Barr
Matthew 22:1-4 “1And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.”
I have been preaching the parables of Jesus. In order for us to understand the parable in Matthew 22 above, we’ll have to back up to Matthew 21, to see a particular situation Jesus was facing in dealing with the Pharisees.
This particular parable has to do with the early period of the church age. Go back to Matthew 21:42-46, “42Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.” So Jesus was telling them some things concerning the kingdom and that He was the son of God and they should fall in and follow Him. But they –the Jews - rejected Him. God had given the Jews the priveledge of coming into His kingdom first, but they refused Jesus. In the reading above, He’s answering what He read them thinking in their minds. Let’s add versus 5-14, “ 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 11And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
This parable is indeed about the church, in its Gospel age. Some things are happening here. His ‘servants’ in the parable, are the preachers and prophets of the day. In verse 3, there’s a set, in verse 4, other servants, and then in verse 8, the first set went out to invite the guests and they wouldn’t come. This first set refers to the Jews and Christ is the son being prepared for the marriage, which is the relationship between Christ and the church. That relationship is what we’ve enjoying right now. Everything is read and we come in and participate. After the day of Pentecost, we see another set of servants going out. Paul went out and preached to the Jews for the first 20 years. But again, they rejected it and even killed Stephen and killed James.
Then they sent out the 3rd set of Servants (Acts 10.) Peter had a vision where he saw unclean animals let down 3 times and God told him to ‘eat.’ Finally Peter got the message and Peter said, “For who could forbid them water?” because he saw God at wrok on the Gentiles. That means, when Cornelius and family were baptized, Gentiles became a part of the kingdom of almighty God. This happened in the parable in verse 8. Then those servants went out and preached the word to every creature and all who obey will be saved.
But the question is, do you have your wedding garment on (vs. 11)? He didn’t have on any righteousness, even though he was in the church (at the marriage). The servants couldn’t determine whether or not he had on the wedding garment. It took the King to see it, to see if this man was prepared for the wedding.
That means you and I could sit up in the church house and we look good to one another but it’s up to God to make the final judgment. We’ve all been called but few of us are chosen. I don’t know about you, but I want to be chosen. The Bible says in Romans 2:16: “16In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” It may be the secret things that keep you out of heaven. Many are called but few are chosen. We must determine in our hearts and minds to be among the chosen.
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