SPEAKER_00: Matthew, Matthew 22.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read to you in a minute the 14 verses that we're looking at.
SPEAKER_00: We're in the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new to the Bible, Matthew's a biography about Jesus teaching his life and teachings that he did.
SPEAKER_00: It's a historic account that was made first century by one of Jesus' apostles.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Before he met Jesus, he was a scoundrel tax collector, but he had a writing ability.
SPEAKER_00: And God used his ability to write to record for us this account of the life of Jesus and his teachings.
SPEAKER_00: And the church has been reading the Gospel of Matthew for the last 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_00: And it serves as our template for worship.
SPEAKER_00: So we happen to be in Matthew 22, just so you know, kind of a big picture.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 21 through 27 is the life of Jesus, the seven days where he goes into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He's crucified five days later.
SPEAKER_00: So this is like Easter week.
SPEAKER_00: Some people call it Holy Week.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at Jesus' life during that time.
SPEAKER_00: We happen to be on the third parable that Jesus told.
SPEAKER_00: He's in a public setting.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the Temple Mount.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you remember the slide where I showed you, it's a big open courtyard with colonnades and kind of shade porches around the perimeter, but it's a big, giant open space.
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere in that space, the chief priests and the Jewish elders confront Jesus and they say to him, Who gave you authority to teach in this way?
SPEAKER_00: Where did your authority come from?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I'll answer your question if you answer mine.
SPEAKER_00: Was the ministry of John the Baptist, was it from heaven or was it of men?
SPEAKER_00: And they ponder it and they're stuck.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Well, if we answer it one way, we're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: If we answer it the other way, we're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And so they say, we don't know, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to get away from it by saying, oh, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how to answer the question.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, fine, I'm not going to answer your question.
SPEAKER_00: But then he goes on to tell three parables.
SPEAKER_00: The first parable was the parable of the two sons.
SPEAKER_00: All of these parables are a rebuke.
SPEAKER_00: They are a um they are a stories that confront the very problem that these religious leaders represent.
SPEAKER_00: The chief priests, the elders are rejecting the work of God for the nation of Israel, for the world.
SPEAKER_00: They're rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they have a history of rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a history of rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm getting passionate.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is loving enough that he doesn't let you just sit in your rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't let you just kind of go on in your rebellion against Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, listen, I'm going to tell you a story, a story you can relate to.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus loves you and he wants to rescue you from your rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to get the third story.
SPEAKER_00: The first story was about the two sons.
SPEAKER_00: And it's who's obeying, the first son or the second son.
SPEAKER_00: Then we had a story about the landowner that leased his property out to tenant farmers.
SPEAKER_00: The tenant farmers are the chief elders in the story, basically.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you've been entrusted with this vineyard to oversee.
SPEAKER_00: And they reject the owner's terms.
SPEAKER_00: They reject the effort to collect.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is just hammering these religious leaders with these parables to help them to see that their historic rebellion is ironic, shocking, foolish, and that there is a destination.
SPEAKER_00: And you just need to know that your historic and my historic rebellion to God is ironic, shocking, and stupid.
SPEAKER_00: And those of us that have come and we've surrendered our life to Christ, and all of a sudden the puzzle pieces come together, and all of a sudden stuff starts to make sense, and our hearts are flooded with the peace of God, and we know forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God's forgiven us for the crummy things that we've done.
SPEAKER_00: And we experience just this flood.
SPEAKER_00: Even after we follow Jesus and we screw up our life, we know that we can return to Him.
SPEAKER_00: We can play the prodigal and come back home.
SPEAKER_00: When that stuff, when that happens, it's just like, oh man, it fits.
SPEAKER_00: How ironic was my rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: How dumb was I to rebel against God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at this parable.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read it to you, the first 14 verses of chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he sent out other servants and said, Tell those who are invited, see, I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, or their fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.
SPEAKER_00: Come to the banquet, to the wedding banquet.
SPEAKER_00: But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, and while the wrest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
SPEAKER_00: The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.
SPEAKER_00: Then he told his servants, The banquet is ready.
SPEAKER_00: But those who were invited were not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.
SPEAKER_00: So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good.
SPEAKER_00: The wedding banquet was filled with guests.
SPEAKER_00: When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: So he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?
SPEAKER_00: The man was speechless.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king told the attendants, tie him up hand and foot, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_00: For many are invited, but few are chosen.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we pray that you would teach us through your word.
SPEAKER_00: We know that this historic document about Jesus and his teachings were not just for the first century followers of Jesus, but they're also for us.
SPEAKER_00: And they're to help us understand how to be a follower of Jesus, how to be a part of your kingdom, your new society.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, Lord, that your spirit would speak clearly to us, like that song that we were singing earlier.
SPEAKER_00: We're ready to listen.
SPEAKER_00: We're ready to listen to your voice.
SPEAKER_00: Please teach us.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You ready to obey what the Holy Spirit speaks to you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what he's going to say?
SPEAKER_00: But this is the reality is that he knows your story.
SPEAKER_00: He knows where you're doing it wrong, and he knows where you're doing it right.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the anxieties of your heart, and we get to come and read this text and trust that the Spirit of God is going to instruct us, correct us, rebuke us, and comfort us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said to Timothy that that's what the Word of God does.
SPEAKER_00: It works in that way in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're anticipating.
SPEAKER_00: So be praying.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you this morning, something that doesn't even come out of my mouth, but it's in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: God's laying something on your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the first three verses.
SPEAKER_00: We'll take this one little bite at a time.
SPEAKER_00: It says that Jesus spoke to them in parables.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that a parable is a story that is used to bring a kingdom idea into just a real, concrete, you know, you can sink your teeth into it.
SPEAKER_00: You can feel, and it just teaches one aspect.
SPEAKER_00: It usually emphasizes just one particular theme.
SPEAKER_00: I would suggest that the theme, one of the broad themes of this parable, is just the invitation of God.
SPEAKER_00: Come in.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Come in to the come into the banquet.
SPEAKER_00: Come in, be a part of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: That might be something that you hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you this morning because it's right there in the text that we're looking at.
SPEAKER_00: This invitation, you feel invited in to the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is telling these parables, and he says that the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the third verse.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read the third verse for you as well.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn't want to come.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been proclaiming the good news about his kingdom from the very beginning of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Just again, if you're new to the Bible and the message of Jesus, you need to understand that when Jesus went and spoke to a crowd that looked like this, he often used this term kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He was essentially saying that there is a foreign kingdom that I'm bringing to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's come near to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to receive the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to step in.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to enter into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That was the language that he was using.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may have grown up in the church and heard that this idea of you need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's also in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus teaches that to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, in John chapter 15, in John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about having a personal relationship with him, a spiritual relationship where you're unified with him.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is hidden in him.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't, you and I don't just have a personal relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so all throughout his ministry, he's preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And it means that our relationships happen differently.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationship with this earth happens differently.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationship with money and stuff happens differently because we are a part of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is telling a parable about the kingdom with these religious leaders right in his face.
SPEAKER_00: And what it does, what this kingdom parable does, is it paints the picture of a wedding feast, a king hosting a wedding feast.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God invites some people to a wedding feast.
SPEAKER_00: And they reject the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: This parable, one of the crazy things about parables is that it doesn't describe heaven in the future, right?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say when you die and you go to heaven, here's what your life is going to be like.
SPEAKER_00: No, parables describe the history, the present moment, and a piece of the future.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes kind of bleeding into the second coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But it's very much something now.
SPEAKER_00: And so this parable here takes the image of a wedding feast and it layers it on to the history of Israel and says, Israel's been being invited to this wedding feast for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: You've been invited to the work of God, the messianic work.
SPEAKER_00: You go back to John the Baptist, you've been invited in.
SPEAKER_00: But it also seems like this parable, it kind of echoes or hearkens back to like the prophets that God sent to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That God's been inviting his people into his kingdom work before John the Baptist, you could say.
SPEAKER_00: And the invited people, the genetic descendants of Abraham, have this historic relationship of being invited and rejecting.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some responded, but here this parable is highlighting those invited who don't respond to the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And the beautiful thing, I don't know if you know the God of the Bible yet, but the thing you need to know is that the God of the Bible loves people.
SPEAKER_00: He's inviting them in.
SPEAKER_00: And he's been doing this incredible historic work going all the way back to the very beginning of your Bible, Adam and Eve, trying to rescue them from their own rejection of an invitation in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: They turned away from God and God's trying to pull them back and redeem them back to himself.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just an invitation to a work party, it's not just an invitation to a birthday party.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't like a Sweet 16 or a kin sinera.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is a wedding feast.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're an Israelite, if you're Jewish, you know that this picture of a marriage and a bride and a bridegroom has captured the prophetic imagination for centuries.
SPEAKER_00: God has been telling the nation of Israel that he is the groom and that they're the bride.
SPEAKER_00: And that he loves them and that he pursues them.
SPEAKER_00: And that it's not just a friendship that he has with the nation, but it is a marriage that he has called them into.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of a covenant and the covenants that were given Israel.
SPEAKER_00: All of this language, it's like high stakes, high-level commitment, incredible romance and love.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you just a sense of a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: A wedding banquet at the time of Jesus, when he tells this parable, it was a festive occasion in the life, in the Jewish life.
SPEAKER_00: A wedding for a Jewish person in their town, it would typically last from five to seven days.
SPEAKER_00: That is a long event.
SPEAKER_00: That's a long wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Five to seven days.
SPEAKER_00: Though the full festivities, they could last up to 30 days.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, autumn for them, their autumn, was a preferred season after the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: That would be what would be our kind of, from my understanding of it, that would be like our May and June time.
SPEAKER_00: When people could relax.
SPEAKER_00: There was no formal religious ceremony at the banquet itself.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it featured blessings from the family.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, like how your groomsmen in our weddings, they'll get up and give a speech.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in Ruth 4.11 in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The songs would be drawn.
SPEAKER_00: They would sing songs based off of the book of your Bible, Song of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: There would be a procession where the groom would fetch the bride from the father's house.
SPEAKER_00: The couple would sit under a canopy and a ruler of the feast.
SPEAKER_00: There would be like a somebody in charge of the feast, would oversee the event, kind of like an MC, but also like a wedding coordinator MC type role.
SPEAKER_00: They would ensure that the guests had everything they needed and they were directing.
SPEAKER_00: This person who was the ruler of the feast would direct the servants.
SPEAKER_00: There would be games, gift giving, exalting the bride was common with an atmosphere of prizing hospitality and refusing to participate or show disrespect was a major social faux pas.
SPEAKER_00: These banquets, they symbolize prosperity and divine blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me talk to you just a little bit about the invitations.
SPEAKER_00: So you already have invitations that were sent out.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like our save the date, right?
SPEAKER_00: You send out the cards, hey, save the date, your um invitation will follow.
SPEAKER_00: They would have something like that, but it was more of a general, like, you're on the list, you're invited.
SPEAKER_00: But because um of the nature of planning during this time and preparations, there was no ability to say exactly when the event would occur.
SPEAKER_00: It was just a general invitation, and the summoning to the feast would follow.
SPEAKER_00: So in the first century Jewish culture, invitations were like a modern-day RSVP without fixed times.
SPEAKER_00: An initial invitation was sent out in advance to gauge interest and allow preparation, but without a specific date or an hour.
SPEAKER_00: The timing depended on the home or when the feast was ready.
SPEAKER_00: Then when everything was prepared, the servants were sent to summon the already invited guests, essentially saying, Come now, the banquet is ready.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see this when we get to another parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25.
SPEAKER_00: The summoning was a call to immediate action, and to ignore that summoning was a profound rejection.
SPEAKER_00: It was like a massive no-no to say, to reject the summoning.
SPEAKER_00: This practice accounted for the unpredictability of the preparations in an agrarian society without modern communication.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, you don't know when the food's gonna be ready and when the bridegroom will have built the chamber for his guest, right?
SPEAKER_00: So there's a bunch of preparations that are going on, and so it's kind of like okay.
SPEAKER_00: The groom is now ready.
SPEAKER_00: Send out the servants and let's go.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that they send out the summons, and those invited did not want to come.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to four through six.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he sent out, this is the second wave of invitations.
SPEAKER_00: He sent out other servants.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Look, tell those who are invited.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatted cattle, even it has been slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is ready.
SPEAKER_00: Come to the wedding banquet.
SPEAKER_00: So there's more details included in this particular invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: They said they paid no attention.
SPEAKER_00: They went away, one to his own farm, another to his own business.
SPEAKER_00: But this is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: This is almost like hyperbole.
SPEAKER_00: This would never happen.
SPEAKER_00: But it happened in the history of God relating to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
SPEAKER_00: Like, when's the last time someone sent you a wedding invitation and you're like, I'm going to kill you for sending that to me?
SPEAKER_00: No, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: You may just be like, I regretfully decline to attend.
SPEAKER_00: But here in this parable that Jesus is telling, he's like, listen, you've got to understand, the God of the Bible, God who is king, my father, he has been inviting you as a people for years into my work.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the degree to which it's like the the meal is already prepared.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: Just just come and show up.
SPEAKER_00: And they're not ready to show up.
SPEAKER_00: They're not ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: You're lost?
SPEAKER_00: Did you say you're lost?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
unknown: Okay.
unknown: That's on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually so Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you have a problem with the end, which is the hardest part.
SPEAKER_00: So let's unpack the first part, because there's two invitations.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna the next thing that's gonna happen is judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So let's see what the um second invitation looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Or this is the second, this is the first judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.
SPEAKER_00: So again, if you know Jewish history, there was a season where Israel rejects God's work in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They totally rebel against God.
SPEAKER_00: God's given them a promised land, he's given them a kingdom, he's given victory over their enemies, he's given them prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's some of your story, right?
SPEAKER_00: God's done everything he could do for you, and the people are still rebellious.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we're sometimes we're dumb.
SPEAKER_00: They were dumb.
SPEAKER_00: And God let Israel go through seasons where it's like, fine, I'm gonna let your enemies come and attack, take you off captive.
SPEAKER_00: That happened during the exile in 700 AD.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So this picture, these images are not all that foreign to those listening.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Then he told his servants, the banquet is ready.
SPEAKER_00: But those who were invited were not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: So he's he's like, listen, the meal is ready.
SPEAKER_00: We invited some people, but they just didn't want to show up.
SPEAKER_00: So what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: Go then where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yes.
unknown: I don't understand why.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't gotten to that part yet.
SPEAKER_00: I understand.
SPEAKER_00: I understand, and I'm not I'm not gonna tell you that I fully understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: We're still at the invitation part.
unknown: He was even reconvening back.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He's so the the awesome thing here is that he says, um, well, who do you think in this story are the invited people?
unknown: Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Well, before we get to the Gentiles, before this, we've got the Jewish people, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people are the ones who are the official invitees.
SPEAKER_00: They're the chosen ones, right?
SPEAKER_00: But be careful about using the word chosen because we're going to use the chosen word at the end of the this section.
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, they're the ones that God elected and said, I want to work through Abraham and through your descendants.
SPEAKER_00: But did God just pick.
unknown: Abraham wasn't Jewish?
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, we didn't get there.
SPEAKER_00: I know you are jumping ahead.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be patient.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know, you can't.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, we're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_00: The people that are invited in the parable are Jewish, right?
SPEAKER_00: They are summoned.
SPEAKER_00: Now's the time.
SPEAKER_00: The Messiah's here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: They're summoned.
SPEAKER_00: Do they respond?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Who's he taught?
SPEAKER_00: Who's the audience?
SPEAKER_00: Who's in front of them?
SPEAKER_00: Is this all the Israelites?
SPEAKER_00: No, because there's Jewish people that are responding to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The audience that he's speaking to are these chief priests and elders, the ones who are rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he's telling this parable to a specific audience.
SPEAKER_00: Keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So not everybody has rejected, but the people who obviously were on the invite list, the chief priests and the elders, they reject the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: So we've rejected it twice, and even the second group was murdered.
SPEAKER_00: So God's like, fine, we're gonna, those of you that killed it, we're gonna like wipe you out.
SPEAKER_00: Then we go to the second, the this third invitation that goes out.
SPEAKER_00: This is this broad invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Go out to the highways and the byways.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's invited.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody can come in.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how he describes them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, oh, this is what a highway would look like at the time.
SPEAKER_00: This is what um, these are like the main way areas where the primary Roman roads would cross.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So stand there.
SPEAKER_00: It's like go stand at Broadway and Eastern, where the like there's a lot of traffic.
SPEAKER_00: Go stand where the squeegee boys stand and then just start inviting the cars in.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's the idea that he has here.
SPEAKER_00: So those servants they go out to the roads and they gathered everyone they found.
SPEAKER_00: Look, they found both evil and good.
SPEAKER_00: The wedding banquet was filled with guests.
SPEAKER_00: When the king came in to see, okay, now we're gonna get to this second point, okay?
SPEAKER_00: When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing a proper wedding garment.
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, so we've got to step out of our culture and we've got to go, what are wedding garments, right?
SPEAKER_00: Wedding garments at this time are, let me find it in my notes, essentially a wedding garment was a provided by the host of the wedding.
SPEAKER_00: If you're at like a really fancy wedding, they're gonna provide you with special attire when you show up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what a parallel is to that in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: I know when you go to the hospital, you have to wear like something you wouldn't want to wear.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not like that.
SPEAKER_00: But you go to the wedding and you're given like wedding attire.
SPEAKER_00: You have a formal uniform to participate in the wedding.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees somebody, this this king sees a guest who's not wearing the formal attire.
SPEAKER_00: So he's like, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: The king told the attendants, take this one who's not dressed right, right?
SPEAKER_00: Tie him up hand and foot, throw him into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
unknown: That's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: So, okay, we're in a parable, right?
SPEAKER_00: Parables use irony and hyperbole.
SPEAKER_00: So we already had some hyperbole when we had people getting an invitation and they're like literally killing the servants.
SPEAKER_00: That's like a crazy exaggeration, right?
SPEAKER_00: Here we have something that would be not normal.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you had a wedding that you held and your custom was you've got to have a uniform for the wedding, and somebody is just just ends up not wearing the uniform, are you gonna tie them up and throw them into hell?
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus here is stretching what's normal to make a point.
SPEAKER_00: Because why would he use hyperbole?
SPEAKER_00: He wants your eyebrows to go up and go, whoa, wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: This is like, this is a weird scenario.
SPEAKER_00: So the question becomes so, first of all, Jesus is telling it, so it is like Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you you are saying this is not Jesus, like no, this is Jesus telling this.
SPEAKER_00: So our heart needs to be like, help me understand this, because Jesus, I know you as gracious and pursuing and loving and merciful and forgiving, and you're telling a story.
SPEAKER_00: You're telling us a story where you're tying people up, and they're the the king is throwing people into a place of extreme suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Help me understand, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That that's so remember the whole like when we're reading the Bible and we get to a uh like a bump in the road, we don't cruise past it in our own Bible reading.
SPEAKER_00: We pause on it, we sit in it.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on just a second, because I'm I'm going over time, and this is really, really important.
SPEAKER_00: So we ask, we start asking questions.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says this, what is he telling to these individuals, these religious leaders that are standing in front of him?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna take a stab at it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you Revelation 19 in a second, but I'm gonna take a stab at it.
SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of people that stood in the crowd when Jesus is talking about the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: They got fed loaves and fish, they got healed, they got the blessing of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about it.
SPEAKER_00: We got people that show up on a Tuesday and Friday, they get the blessing of the kingdom, they show up for this kingdom work of a food distribution where you're getting free food.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But does that mean that everybody who is there participating in the kingdom is a part of God's kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Are they God's people?
SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
SPEAKER_00: Mary, could you hold off for a second?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
unknown: How do you weed them out?
SPEAKER_00: How do you weed them out?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, who's the judge?
SPEAKER_00: That's an important question.
SPEAKER_00: How does God know out of everybody that comes and gets food from us on Tuesday and Friday, because that's a kingdom work, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's Jesus' kingdom working through people to distribute food.
SPEAKER_00: Out of that group, are all of those people born again in love with Jesus, following him?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But how who knows which one is which, right?
SPEAKER_00: God's the judge of that in the end.
SPEAKER_00: God's the one who's gonna judge which ones are reconciled back to him, who have surrendered their life to him, they're born again, and which ones are not.
SPEAKER_00: Those that are not, the Bible is explicitly clear, and you all need to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: God makes it very clear the terms of salvation, that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: You can't go and follow Muhammad and live eternally in God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: Muhammad is not going to save you.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot follow the Buddha and be live eternally in God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible teaches that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody comes to the Father but through him.
SPEAKER_00: It is an exclusive claim.
SPEAKER_00: And God in his love makes it very clear that unless you are reconciled back to God through his son Jesus Christ, you're gonna go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Now, God doesn't want that for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's the God that invites.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one here who opened up the invitation to everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Come on in.
SPEAKER_00: The normal, regular people, they rejected the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Come on in.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus makes this weird point in the end of the parable that says, Well, this guy is excluded because he's not wearing the right clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read to you from another writer from the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: This is a vision that John the Apostle has of something that is yet to happen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the wet, this is the wedding feast of the groom.
SPEAKER_00: Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come.
SPEAKER_00: And his bride, who's his bride?
SPEAKER_00: We are, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we are followers of Jesus, we are his bride.
SPEAKER_00: His bride has prepared herself.
SPEAKER_00: She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.
SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing the parallel here?
SPEAKER_00: You're given wedding garments.
SPEAKER_00: The bride is given wedding garments.
SPEAKER_00: For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Here, this messenger of God, who is either an angel or another human, that's helping John understand this vision that he's seeing, right?
SPEAKER_00: This messenger says that the clothing that the saints are wearing are the righteous acts of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: So there is a, I don't want, I want to just basically make this really clear for you.
SPEAKER_00: The clothing that the is in this parable that was missing from the man that was cast out, it is either that he's not in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a Christian, he's not clothed in Christ, he hasn't put on Christ, he's participating in the kingdom, which you can easily do, but he doesn't have a relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Or, it's what we see here in Revelation 19, that the clothing that we wear is a life evidencing the internal relationship we have with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus makes us righteous and the things coming from our life are righteous acts.
SPEAKER_00: So you're now no longer a gossip about your friends, but you're a truth teller.
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer a complainer, but you're an encourager.
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer a thief, but you're a hard worker.
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer a victim, but you're you are taking responsibility for your own story.
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are a part of like the righteous eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus transforms your life, you are changing.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus again, the problem would be to read this and to see the guy wearing the wrong clothes and be like, he was a victim.
SPEAKER_00: He um he just got blindsided by wearing the wrong clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Or that Jesus has something against like the dress code of people.
SPEAKER_00: That that totally, if that's how you read this, you're totally missing it.
SPEAKER_00: You got to put it back into the framework that listen, when that guy walked in to that wedding, he was handed an outfit.
SPEAKER_00: And he rejected that outfit.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I don't want to wear that cloth.
SPEAKER_00: And the king after the fact is like, well, why is he not wearing the outfit?
SPEAKER_00: And it would have been that he made a decision to not wear that outfit.
SPEAKER_00: So he rejected it.
SPEAKER_00: He rejected, he rejected it.
SPEAKER_00: He's like the last step of rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: So, broad picture in this parable, we've got people rejecting the invitation of God, and then we have uh an individual who rejects the clothing offered to the wedding guests.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Felicia, does that help at all, or are you still up mad at Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: You're okay.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate you saying it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the funny thing is you always verb you verbalize what we're all feeling.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that that's a strange part of the text.
SPEAKER_00: It just comes out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the beautiful thing, here's the beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's turn this into a gospel invitation because not everybody here is wearing the garments that God offers you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The beautiful thing is that you're invited to a wedding feast, and at the door, Jesus is like, here's the outfit.
SPEAKER_00: My righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to accept it or do you want to reject it?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's merciful.
SPEAKER_00: He's merciful and he's just.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on just a second.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to make this really clear because we're going to do communion.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, go on.
SPEAKER_00: I know you had your hand up, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Or the guy on the island, right?
SPEAKER_00: The guy on the island?
SPEAKER_00: Like who doesn't ever heard about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we'll do the Amazon.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I I got the Amazon.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: If they don't know Jesus.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: What what's your name?
SPEAKER_00: What's your what's your name?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Image.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, image.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, I'm gonna answer your question, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So your question is could God be just and fair to send somebody to hell who never even had an opportunity to hear the name of Jesus, whether that person's in the Amazon or on an island.
SPEAKER_00: If you read through the book of Romans, Romans 1 through 5, Paul is a lawyer.
SPEAKER_00: He acts like a lawyer, defending God as the one who is on trial to determine is God fair or unfair to send people to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul explains that God sends people, uh God judges people, sends them to hell, but he judges people according to their response to revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that the heavens declare the glory of God, and that the truth about God is written on people's hearts, and that people are gonna be held responsible to respond to the degree of revelation they received.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's gonna be many, many people who are in heaven who never knew the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Well, because why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they were born before the time of Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: There were people who lived at the time of Jesus in the Amazon, who are looking at the clouds, they're looking at trees, and they're like, there has to be a God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who he is, I don't know what his name is, but that God I want to live for, worship, and serve.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul, as the defense attorney for God, says that God is right and just because he judges people for their response to revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that it's the Jews who have special revelation of God in the scriptures through the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Through the covenants, and they're going to be held, so they have special revelations, so their degree of responsibility before God is all that much more.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to worry about the person in the Amazon.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to worry about the person on the island.
SPEAKER_00: But we do want to proclaim Jesus to as many people as possible because it's not just about living eternally in the presence of God, but Jesus comes back and says, I want to bring you my kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to bring, I want to start this path of restoring your life.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not worried about nobody in the Amazon.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm worried about my own self.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just go one step further?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm already like way over time, right?
SPEAKER_00: But this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: Image, you're not going to get into heaven based off the good things that you did.
SPEAKER_00: You know this.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to get into heaven because of your response to the message about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you say yes to Jesus, he gives you the wedding garment and you belong there at the wedding feast.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.