The Wedding Feast
Lesson #12 - The Wedding Feast
In Zephaniah 1, there is a parallel of this wedding story
Main Point: God is gracious and patient, and He has made the offer of salvation to everyone. It is up to us to RECEIVE His free gift of salvation.
Matt 22:1-14 1Jesus told them more stories. He said, 2"Here is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a wedding dinner for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the dinner. The servants told them to come. But they refused.
4"Then he sent some more servants. He said, 'Tell those who were invited that I have prepared my dinner. I have killed my oxen and my fattest cattle. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding dinner.'
5"But the people paid no attention. One went away to his field. Another went away to his business. 6The rest grabbed his servants. They treated them badly and then killed them.
7"The king became very angry. He sent his army to destroy them. They killed those murderers and burned their city.
8"Then the king said to his servants, 'The wedding dinner is ready. But those I invited were not fit to come. 9Go to the street corners. Invite to the dinner anyone you can find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets. They gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad. Soon the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11"The king came in to see the guests. He noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man couldn't think of anything to say.
13"Then the king told his servants, 'Tie up his hands and feet. Throw him outside into the darkness. Out there people will sob and grind their teeth.'
14"Many are invited, but few are chosen."
PowerPoint: Matthew 22:1-3 Jesus told them more stories. He said, "Here is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a wedding dinner for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the dinner. The servants told them to come. But they refused.
Say This: Can you imagine REFUSING to attend the wedding of the king’s son? The people had been invited to the dinner, but they refused to come. In this particular culture, refusing to come to the king’s wedding was like declaring war. This was very serious!
And if you read that verse carefully, you’ll notice that the people HAD BEEN invited. So when the king’s servants were sent to the people, this was actually their 2nd invitation!
Jesus is using the wedding invitation as a word picture to the people listening to Him teach. The Jewish people had been told for many years that the Messiah was coming. The first invitation, though not mentioned in the Bible, was really a way of saying, “There’s going to be a dinner”.
Now the king is sending his messengers to tell the people, “It’s time for dinner – everyone is welcome!”
Matthew 22:4-6"Then he sent some more servants. He said, 'Tell those who were invited that I have prepared my dinner. I have killed my oxen and my fattest cattle. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding dinner.'
"But the people paid no attention. One went away to his field. Another went away to his business. The rest grabbed his servants. They treated them badly and then killed them.
Say This: The king really wanted the people to come to the wedding dinner, so he gave them another chance.
The king represents God. God wants EVERYONE to trust and believe in Him.
By sending another invitation to the dinner, the king is showing a lot of patience.
God often shows incredible patience with us in giving us MANY opportunities to turn to Him.
But the people still did not attend because they did not care. They paid no attention. Listen to their excuses:
· One went away to his field – It’s certainly not wrong to work in the field, but obviously, obeying the king should have been more important than working in the field.
· Another went away to his business – It’s easy to be busy doing things, but we should never be too busy to obey God.
· The rest of the people grabbed the king’s servants, treated them badly, then killed them. - This is a picture of how the world treats true believers. Think about Christians who live in foreign countries who are not “allowed” to worship God in the freedom that we enjoy. Many believers have been treated very badly; many have been killed because of their faith in God.
The king became very angry when the people refused to come.
PowerPoint: Matthew 22:7 The king became very angry. He sent his army to destroy them. They killed those murderers and burned their city.
Say This: The people who refused to come to the wedding dinner were now destroyed. It was too late for them.
This is a serious reminder to us all. God is patient, and He is very loving. But there is a time when enough is enough. That’s why it’s so important to LISTEN and OBEY Him the first time!
PowerPoint: II Peter 3:9 . …The Lord is patient with you. He doesn't want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, he wants all people to turn away from their sins.
Say This: It was too late for the people who had been invited, but listen to what the king does next!
Power Point: Matthew 22:8-10"Then the king said to his servants, 'The wedding dinner is ready. But those I invited were not fit to come. Go to the street corners. Invite to the dinner anyone you can find.' So the servants went out into the streets. They gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad. Soon the wedding hall was filled with guests.
PowerPoint: Matthew 22:11-14 "The king came in to see the guests. He noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man couldn't think of anything to say.
"Then the king told his servants, 'Tie up his hands and feet. Throw him outside into the darkness. Out there people will sob and grind their teeth.'
"Many are invited, but few are chosen."
PowerPoint: Wedding clothes
Say This: If it seems strange to you that the king would be enraged about a person’s wedding clothes, think about this: wedding clothes were not something that people wore to the wedding. It was actually the host’s job to provide the correct clothes. Since, in the story, the king is a picture of God, we can assume that he had plenty of wedding clothes available.
PowerPoint: Isaiah 61:10 The people of Jerusalem will say,
"We take great delight in the Lord.
We are joyful because we belong to our God.
He has dressed us with salvation as if it were our clothes.
He has put robes of godliness on us.
We are like a groom who is dressed up for his wedding.
We are like a bride who decorates herself with her jewels.
The problem was that the man refused to wear the clothes provided to him. He thought that his clothing was “good enough”. The clothing he wore represents “good things that he did”. This is a picture of a person who wants to get into the kingdom of heaven his own way.
Ask: Is there ANYTHING we can do to be “good enough” for God? (No – even the good things that we do are as filthy rags)
Say This: Notice what happened when the king asked him about his clothes:
PowerPoint: Matthew 22:11-12 "The king came in to see the guests. He noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man couldn't think of anything to say.
Say This: The man couldn't think of anything to say – he was speechless!
Interesting verse for the teacher: Rom 3:19 What the law says, it says to those who are ruled by the law. Its purpose is to shut every mouth and make the whole world accountable to God.
PowerPoint: Matthew 22:13-14 "Then the king told his servants, 'Tie up his hands and feet. Throw him outside into the darkness. Out there people will sob and grind their teeth.'
"Many are invited, but few are chosen."
Note to Teacher:
The lesson closes with an explanation ("for"). Many are "called," but few are chosen. The word "many" is not intended to be a restricted number; it is used several times in Isaiah 53 to speak of those for whom Christ poured out his blood. The invitation has gone out to all who care to listen, but some just refused, and some wanted to come but refused to submit to the requirements of entrance into the kingdom. So none of these will be present in the kingdom. Those Jesus refers to as "chosen" are the people who respond to the invitation to come, and respond in the proper manner so that they are prepared to enter the kingdom. Because the Bible refers to the recipients of grace as "chosen," we may conclude that it intends to say that God is not surprised by the acceptance of some and the rejection of many--in other words, sovereign grace is still at work, even though on the human level we see how some refuse and some accept and prepare.
In Jesus’ experience the invitation to the Messianic banquet had been extended to the Jews first, those who had the promise of the covenant, the kingdom, and the King; but they refused. But then Jesus began to turn to the Gentiles, and as many as believed in him would enter the kingdom in the place of the others, even if the ones who believed were formerly prostitutes and sinners rather than scholars and sages.
More people will reject the invitation or fail to meet the requirement of faith in Christ than those who are chosen, that is, those who truly believe and enter the kingdom.
In our day the invitation goes out from the Church by the Spirit through the Church: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’, “ And whoever wills may come and drink of the water of life freely. Those who refuse, whether violently opposed to Christ, or pretending to be in Christ, will have no part in the kingdom, but will be cast into outer darkness.
This is the message of the Gospel, the good news. It is only good news if salvation delivers us from darkness (if there is no darkness, no judgment, then there is no reason for good news). The Church must carry the invitation to the world, even if the world might refuse the invitation, or even treat them violently and kill them.
By: AllenRoss, Th.D., Ph.D. from his exposition on Matthew www.bible.org
Say This: The man who refused to wear the accept the clothes (of salvation) was thrown outside into the darkness where people cry and grind their teeth. The guest wouldn’t wear his robe.
They threw him into the outer darkness.
Main Point: God is gracious and patient, and He has made the offer of salvation to everyone. It is up to us to RECEIVE His free gift of salvation.
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