10/15 Sermon - God’s Wonderful and Dreadful Invitation

God’s Wonderful and Dreadful Invitation

Matthew 22:1-14

- Do you know Taylor Swift? Her followers are called “Swifties.” Her recent tour has jumpstarted the economy. Concert goings spend on average $1300 in the cities they visit: hotels, restaurants, merchandise, shopping. Tickets range from $500 - $7,000 apiece.

- Imagine that someone gave you a Taylor Swift ticket. Would you go? Maybe not 😊. I’d go, if someone gave free tickets.

- Are there any invitations you would always say “yes” to? Superbowl tickets, backstage passes for your favorite singer, a tropical cruise?

- What makes these invitations so amazing? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You would never say “no” to these, right? These would take precedence over anything else.

- There is one invitation that takes precedence over everything else in life. Or it ought to… God invites us to share in his blessings. That’s what our story is about. God’s dreadful and wonderful invitation.

- In the story of the Wedding banquet. There are a number of strange details,  

- The wedding feast would be amazing beyond experience. The wedding feast for a prince. The king provided everything.

- Yet these people say “no” to invitation from the “president.”   

- But the king has patience. He tries again.

- Apathy. If the president invites you to a White House dinner, and you’d rather fix a board on your fence.

- Open hostility! Imagine not wanting to go to your neighbors party so bad you kill the post worker who brings you the message.

- The king destroys their cities and kills them. A harsh price for saying no to a party. Twice this happens.

- He invites all people, good and wicked. Who invites the wicked to their son’s wedding?

- The king goes out and sees something not dressed appropriately. In love, he tries to figure it out. “Friend, why?” 

- Speechless. The man has no words for why he did this. He tried to enter the wedding on his own terms. He did not respect the king and son. He is harshly punished. Twice this happens!

- Two themes jump out at us: How wonderful this invitation is, and how dreadful this invitation is.

- Let’s just sink our teeth into the details of this parable. As we do, we’ll get whiplash. The parable goes from wonderful, to dreadful, back and forth.

- The first detail we see is a delicious wedding banquet.

- Imagine the most delicious food possible. Here’s mine: smoked meats, cheesy potatoes, bowls of fruit, platters of cheese and sausage, toasted bread & delicious jams. What are your favorites?

- Scripture often uses a feast to picture what heaven will be like. Isaiah 25 does this for us. Heaven is this: rich food, aged wine, the best meats, no death, no tears, no disgrace.

- The parable tells us that God invited first his chosen people, the Jews, to this banquet. But they said no. “Sorry, we can’t come to the wedding feast. Today is just too busy. Too much going on.”

- Some had Apathy. Apathy is just not caring, indifferent, doesn’t matter. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. If our spouse just doesn’t care what we do, that hurts worse than a fight.

- The Jews were indifferent to Jesus’ message of salvation.

- Apathy isn’t just limited to the Jews of Jesus’ day. We show apathy in our hearts as well. Sometimes, we just don’t care.

- If we travel and skip church, which happens, do we even care that we missed Sunday church? Do we set aside devotion time still?

- We open our bibles each day, we come here to church to grow in God’s amazing grace and eternal life, but the motions become repetitive. We’re thinking about lunch or our chore list at home.

-  “I’ve been too busy to think about God lately or intentionally live for him. He knows; he understands.” We act as if our trivial daily life trumps eternal life.

- We treat the life-giving message of Jesus Christ, the only way for us and our families to live in paradise, as not a big deal

- Apathy. The Jews had it. We have it too.

- Some had hostility! They actually killed the king’s messengers. So he kills them and burns their cities. This is a warning for us.

- We don’t kill God’s messengers. But if we continue on the road of apathy, if we don’t repent and turn to Jesus, we eventually will reject Jesus. If we reject Jesus, he rejects us. As American’s, we can disrespect the president and nothing bad happens. If we disrespect the KING, he rejects us.

- What does the king do? He moves on. He invites all people, from every street corner, good and wicked, to his son’s wedding feast. And the king filled the wedding hall with guests.

- This is where we come into the picture. The gospel imagery for us in this parable just beautiful. Let me lay it out in 5 pictures:

- 1. God invites you to the wedding feast of his Son, to the delicious banquet, to heaven. That’s what heaven will be like: we will eat the most delicious food day after day, we will fill our days with laughter and joy, we will never again see a loved one die, we will never again cry tears of sorrow. Jesus bought this all for us with his blood.  

- 2. This invitation is universal. All people, good and wicked, from every street corner of this world, are invited to this wedding feast.

- 3. This invitation does not depend on us. “Invite the good and the wicked,” the king said. It’s doesn’t depend on what we do, how good we are, or our own condition. It depends entirely on God’s grace.

- What comfort! When our conscience condemns us or we feel unworthy, say this, “I am part of the world, I am a sinner.” So what?

- 4. The invitation is received through faith. The wedding hall was filled with guests who believed the invitation. This is what our reading from Romans says. This salvation and righteousness from God is by faith.” We receive salvation not by our works, but only through faith in Jesus. We have forgiveness of sins, a new life in Jesus, and eternal feasting through faith in Jesus as our Savior.  

- 5. All of this, the banquet, the invitation, the faith, has been prepared and given by God. It’s all a gift. The banquet, the invitation, the faith the believe, the robes of Jesus’ righteousness. It’s a gift.

- A wonderful invitation, but a still dreadful invitation.

- The king walks into his Son’s wedding feast, and he sees the man who is not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend, why aren’t you properly dressed.” The man is speechless. The king threw him out into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

- Wow. Way to kill the vibe, right? Why did the king react so harshly to one improperly dressed man?

- It’s another warning. We can’t stand before God on our terms. This warns Americans in unique way. We love to praise the “self.” My freedom, my choices, my life. If we try to stand before God in our own clothes, by our efforts, by our works, by our choices, by our decisions, ignoring God’s Word, we will be thrown outside, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

- Let’s discuss some good take-aways from this gospel reading.

1. God calls us wherever we are at, but he doesn’t want us to stay there.

- God invites all people. He doesn’t care how much or “badly” we’ve sinned. God forgives every sin in Christ.

- But God doesn’t want us to stay in sin. We don’t use God’s grace as an excuse to sin. God calls us to live drastically different lives of love. It’s hard. We fail. God forgives. But we keep aligning our life every day with God’s Word, not the other way around.

2. The gospel is an invitation. Always has been. We can’t force our beliefs on people. We can’t make others believe. 

- One of our mission statements at Our Savior is “go.” All we can do is go out into the world and invite people. Tell others about the wedding feast that God prepared.

3. Many will reject it. Many will be apathetic. Some might respond with hostility. Don’t be surprised. All we can do is invite.

- Who knows how God works? That invitation might be one in a long line of invitations that finally gets someone to church 20 years later. We can’t usually see the results of our work, we don’t know what plans God has, we simply invite and tell people about this wonderful feast.

- Reminds me of the parable of the Sower and the Seed. All we can do is cast seed, invite people to come and see. The rest is in God’s hands.

4. We live life like a hamster in a wheel. Go-go-go. Keep running, keep moving, what’s the next thing. We distract ourselves so easily from what’s important, like family, and from God.

- My encouragement to you: slow down. Money, hobbies, sports, toys. We can’t find joy and purpose in these things. Don’t listen to the lies of this world. Slow down and put Jesus first. In him alone we find life, salvation, and joy. Put his invitation first.

5. A quick on the war over in Israel. So many Christians think this means something. It’s part of some grand millennial plan. It’s just another war. The battle is done. We are waiting for Jesus to return, to take us to the wedding feast. That’s our focus, that’s our hope.

- God’s invitation to the feast is dreadful. Jesus warns us in this reading what happens if we say no.

- God invitation to the feast is wonderful. Jesus promises us the blessing, feasting, and joy that is ours now, and will be ours forever.