Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Doesn't that get you a little bit excited to get in the Word and start thinking about what God might do? Man, God is good.
[00:00:06] We are continuing our series today that we've been calling Jesus versus Religion, which is a little bit of a dramatic title, but I think it's helpful. We've been looking at Jesus's confrontation with the temple leaders during the Passion week, right? So this is a very specific part of Jesus's story. It's him confronting the religious leaders of his day in the temple in the last couple days leading up to his death on the cross. And so this extended scene, like, it all takes place in the temple courts of these kind of debates back and forth between Jesus confronting the religious leaders and the various responses they come at, they come up with. And what we see here is that Jesus is really like, he's the Messiah. He's in Jerusalem in his authority, and he's rendering judgment on the Jewish religious practice of his day. That's pretty intense. And it's why we've labeled this series the way we have. Like, Jesus is giving a hard word here in his time and his moment. But here's the thing, guys. Like, it's not that religion is bad, right? It's not like Jesus is saying me or religion, you ought to pick. But religion, like all things that involve humans, becomes corrupted, becomes sinful, becomes fleshly, becomes worldly. And in these texts, we get to see Jesus critique the worldly religion of his day and contrast it with the true religion of the kingdom of God. Like, I don't know about you guys, but I feel like it's been really striking these last couple weeks as we've worked into this, seeing how sharply Jesus's thoughts still ring True today, 2000 years later, right? Like, we're in a totally different time, a totally different context, and yet people are still people.
[00:01:59] And we have the same struggles and we deal with the same false gospels and false hopes. We're going to be in Matthew 22 today. If you want to go ahead and turn there. If you don't have a Bible with you, we have house Bibles around the room. Just look underneath the chairs in front of you. We really believe in the importance of access to God's Word here at Emmanuel Fellowship. So if you're here today and you don't own a physical copy of God's Word, strongly encourage you to take one of those home or talk to one of our pastors and let us get you one that is nicer than the ones we have here. What we're going to see in our text Today, in Matthew 22, we're going to see Jesus talk about what in religious terms, we call exclusivity.
[00:02:39] Essentially, this is saying who's in and who's out, right? Jesus shreds some of the worldly religious narratives of his day, this idea that only those who are good enough get to be on the in with God. But what's interesting is he doesn't just swing the pendulum into some sort of universality of religion. No, no, no. Jesus. Actually, this part's hard for us. Jesus holds to the idea that there are insiders and outsiders in the kingdom of God. What we're going to see today in our text is Jesus inviting us into this difficult but really beautiful middle ground. It just says this. In the kingdom of God, all are welcome, but it is still Jesus kingdom.
[00:03:26] That's our main point today. In the kingdom of God, all are welcome, but it's still Jesus kingdom. You don't get to define it. You don't get to set it up however you want. I think this point will strike home really sharply in our cultural context. You know, we live in a moment where this sort of cold legalism that Jesus is critiquing in this text, it's still alive and well, right? Like many Christians today easily fall into the trap of assuming they know who's in and who's out. Do you look the right way, do you dress the right way, do you speak the right way, etc. But I think a little more evident in our cultural moment is the opposite. It's the overcorrection of that we love in our moment. Most of us. Jesus's critique that all are welcome in the kingdom, that folks shouldn't be left out because of their race, their socioeconomic status, their culture, whatever. Like we like that. But what we hate in our cultural moment is the reality that Jesus is still Lord and that he rightly demands spiritual fruit be borne in his followers. I mean, spend five minutes on social media or go on a deep dive of some Reddit threads, and you can find a dozen people asking, well, how can Jesus be loving and kind and also tell people they don't get to get into his heaven because of their sexual preferences or their specific doctrinal beliefs, or the coincidence of not being born in a predominantly Christian culture. What do we do with this?
[00:05:00] That's a loud critique in our cultural moment. It's a question that's ringing out, by the way, when you move generationally younger and younger, that question gets louder and louder amongst People who are in high school and college and in their 20s. How can Jesus be both loving, inviting and caring and also exclusive, leaving some out of his blessing? How can those things go together?
[00:05:31] Let's look at how Jesus himself addresses this with his followers. Before we get into our text, Specifically in Matthew 22, let me remind us of the immediate context here. Right? Jesus is in the temple. He's teaching in a way that is purposefully and directly confrontational with the religious leaders of his day. He's had this big moment where he's turned over the tables and cast out the money changers. He's invited the lame and the poor to enter into the kingdom courts or the temple courts, even though the religious leaders didn't want them to. And he ministered to them there. They don't want to come. And he goes, well, they must have. They must have misunderstood you.
[00:06:08] Go back. Go back and tell them. Tell them about the food. Tell them. Tell them all the sick spread I got. Tell them the bands here, they're warmed up. Tell them to come to the party.
[00:06:19] And so you get this image of these servants going back out and they're going to manors and businesses and all the types of people around this country that the king would invite his banquet. And they come back and they go, no, no, no, the party's ready and it's going to be great. The king did this. And notice here, notice that the king has added the weight in this third point to a command. Come to my party.
[00:06:44] I'm not asking you, I'm telling you for the parents in the room, right? Come to my party.
[00:06:51] And they don't.
[00:06:53] The response of most of the guests is apathy.
[00:06:58] It's so strange. They simply don't care.
[00:07:03] They go back to business as usual. Jesus is making sure, by the way, in the way he says this, he's making sure his hearers understand these are lame excuses.
[00:07:13] Tending to one's business or taking care of their property. Their farm, when you have months of warning, was something that could be easily accommodated.
[00:07:25] Easily.
[00:07:27] But these folk don't care about the king's invitation, so they just ignore it. And then Jesus ramps up the weird even more. Because some of these invited guests, they aren't even just apathetic. They're openly hostile to the king. One of the cities within this king's nation, they take these servants, these messengers, who bring the third invitation and they torture and kill them, right? Like that. Seems like a wild escalation. Hey, come to my party. It's going to be great. No, that's nuts. And yet that's what happens here. This obviously evil response at this point, it isn't even just rude like the other ones. It's rebellious against a king who is due allegiance, right?
[00:08:20] And Jesus in this part of the story is incredibly blunt. This rebellious city is destroyed by the king, burns it to the ground. He tried to offer them generous blessing and hospitality, and they responded with evil and rebellion. And so he destroys them.
[00:08:40] You guys, this essentially this part of the story, this is the summary statement of Jesus's critique of the religious leaders in the temple in Jerusalem. They have been offered kind generosity by God and they've responded with sinful rebellion.
[00:08:59] They have not borne spiritual fruit like was expected of them, but instead they've chased after worldly acclaim and comfort and power. They are, according to Jesus, the fruitless fig tree, the disobedient sons, the evil vineyard tenants, and now the rebellious subjects. And in short, Jesus says they are done.
[00:09:23] God has been kind, he's been generous, he sent warnings, he sent invitations, and now he's done. He's going to do something new.
[00:09:36] So read on with me and see how Jesus moves beyond this critique of the empty man made religion of the temple leaders to focus on this new thing God is doing. Verse 8. Then he told his servants, the banquet is ready. But those who were invited, were not worthy, can sit there for a minute, go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet. So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found both evil and good, and the wedding banquet was filled with guests.
[00:10:13] In Jesus story, this king isn't going to waste a perfectly good party. The food is already bought, the party's ready, and he will have his banquet hall filled. So he tells his servants, he says, look, they're not worthy. I set this up for them and they don't want it. So instead, go out into the roads and the alleys. Find anybody. The invitation now changes from these nobles and businessmen to literally any warm body fill the seats. And so the text says, they go out and they find warm bodies. They go out into the alleys and the streets and outside the city and just say, hey, anybody, everybody, whoever wants to enjoy the king's hospitality, you get it. You can imagine the scene, right? These servants dressed up in their royal robes, ready for this royal wedding, and they've got the invitations. And instead of wandering into palaces and buildings and businesses, they're wandering through markets, in alleys, talking to everyone they see. The king's son is getting married. Today the banquet hall is open. There's a seat for you at the king's feast. All you need to do is show up. Go, anyone and everyone. This is the kind of invitation that no one in their right mind would turn down, right? Enjoy the king's hospitality. Heck yes. So anybody and everybody floods the king's hole.
[00:11:44] The text tells us that everyone comes in good and evil. You've got merchants and laborers and mothers and prostitutes and robbers and cooks and laborers and businessmen. Anyone and everyone who could be found in the surrounding city floods the hall until it's full.
[00:12:02] Now, this part is Jesus, not so thinly veiled. Attack on the religious leaders continued. Instead of critiquing them, now he's critiquing what they've done with God's people. You see, Jesus was accused over the course of his ministry of being a friend of sinners.
[00:12:17] This is one of the things that was used to insult him in public because he was a guy who shared meals with tax collectors and proselytes. He lowered himself to minister to children and to people with debilitating diseases. And these were all the sorts of people, the people that Jesus ministered to, all the sorts of people that the temple leaders looked down their noses at.
[00:12:39] These are the sort of people the temple leaders didn't want besmirching their beautiful temple. Did everything they could to keep them out.
[00:12:47] These temple leaders, they were righteous. They followed God's law. They were above these common sinners. But Jesus says, no, no, no.
[00:13:00] All those who thought they were really slick were really not worthy.
[00:13:06] And the king is going to let everyone in. Good and bad, high and low, sinner and righteous. They are all getting in, and the king's hall is full.
[00:13:22] Can we stop there for a minute? Can we sit in that truth? Can we marvel at both the beauty and the difficulty of this truth?
[00:13:32] The idea that God's kingdom is open to all of us sinners, I mean, that's beautiful. Praise the Lord, right? What a gift. I know I'm not worthy of entrance. I know I wouldn't make it in if it depended on me. How wonderful that God is so gracious and generous with his hospitality. Right, but what about the other sinners?
[00:13:57] What about the ones that we would prefer not be there?
[00:14:02] Beloved, it's a worthy exercise to take a moment and to consider who you might turn your nose up at if you saw their name on the guest list of heaven, who you might go, I'd rather not share my eternity with that person, thank you very much.
[00:14:20] Generosity of God is Wonderful when you consider that it allows you in. Right?
[00:14:28] But what about the people you don't want in?
[00:14:32] If all sinners are welcome to come and find life and forgiveness when they drink of the living water of Jesus, that means all sinners.
[00:14:41] That means abusers, racists, rapists, pedophiles.
[00:14:49] Can we get worse for a moment?
[00:14:52] Even the people who have so grievously sinned against you.
[00:14:57] I know in a room like this, many of us have deep and painful traumas we carry.
[00:15:05] Many of us in a room like this have been victimized in some of you guys in some horrific ways.
[00:15:11] And the grace of God that says all are welcome, the door is open, means even that person is invited into the kingdom.
[00:15:23] And that's.
[00:15:24] That's hard.
[00:15:27] That's really painful.
[00:15:29] I know that even as I say that some of you in the room, it's like it's this. Oh, it just bristles you and even that person with what they've done, with that evil. Like they're invited in to experience the generosity of God.
[00:15:45] Yeah.
[00:15:47] Yes.
[00:15:49] Yes.
[00:15:51] All us sinners are welcome to come to the feast of the Kingdom of God.
[00:15:59] That's a hard truth.
[00:16:01] That's weighty.
[00:16:03] But beloved, that's the gospel.
[00:16:06] That's why we are who we are as the church. Because our God is not content to allow sin to have the final word on the people in the world he created, to be good and to be connected to himself. Our God through Jesus has made a way for sinners, all sinners, like there's no asterisks there. God has made a way for all of us, the worst sinners and you and me, to have our sin paid for, to have our guilt cleansed, to have our lives restored to their original design of perfect unity with our Creator forever.
[00:16:43] It is the pleasure and generosity of our God to offer up this grace to all of us.
[00:16:52] What a gospel.
[00:16:54] What a gospel.
[00:16:56] Beloved, the grace of God is costly.
[00:17:01] It's wonderful. It's beautiful.
[00:17:03] It's costly. It weighs something.
[00:17:08] Let's read on.
[00:17:10] Is there still some tooth yet in this text for us? To be honest with you guys, Jesus isn't here just to rebuke the legalistic religious leaders of the temple.
[00:17:21] He also has a difficult and necessary word for us sinners who've been brought in because of the King's generosity.
[00:17:27] Read on. Verse 11.
[00:17:30] When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man who was not dressed for a wedding. So he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes? The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, tie him up hand and foot and throw him out into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that's where the parable ends.
[00:17:55] And Jesus says, for many are invited, but few are chosen.
[00:18:00] That's the mic drop moment, right? You go, hold on just a minute, Jesus. Can we back up in this story for a minute? That is not what I would call a satisfying ending.
[00:18:11] That doesn't have, like, the little happy, feel good, tie a bow that I'm looking for in my general hallmark spirituality, right? Like, that's rough, that's painful. What a wild way for Jesus to end out this parable. This story takes a dark turn where the king suddenly turns on one of these guests and has him bound and thrown out of the party to the refuse pile with the wild dogs.
[00:18:38] I want to encourage us here with a general truth of biblical reading before we move on.
[00:18:44] I know if you've spent any time in church or with the Bible, you've had this experience before. We all do. It's normal. Tell me if you, if you resonate with this. Sometimes you read your Bible and you just have this moment where you go, huh? That just sits really terribly with me. That makes Jesus. That makes God look really neat, right? You ever had that before? You read a text, you hear a text and you go, I don't like that one. Makes God sound petty, sound mean, sound bad. Like, what's. What's going on there. He seems unfair. I want to give you an interpretive lens that I think will be beneficial for you. And it goes like this.
[00:19:20] The Bible is always presenting God as perfectly loving and perfectly just.
[00:19:27] Whether it's talking about God the Father, God the Spirit, or God the Son, it is always presenting him as perfectly loving and perfectly just. And by the way, this is not just my theologian. I'm a pastor. Confirmation bias speaking. This is a common literary idea used by secular biblical scholars in terms of understanding the text and its cultural context. Because the Bible's very pro Yahweh, right? Like the people who sat down and wrote this, we believe the Holy Spirit is the one who wrote it and preserved it and keeps it, interprets it for us. But he did that through people. And the people who wrote the books were very pro Jesus and very pro Yahweh. They loved God and they believed deeply and fully that he was totally loving and totally just. And he is always presented in the text as perfectly loving and perfectly just. And I would encourage you guys to ask yourself this question when you come across those moments when you read a text or hear a text or engage a text and it makes God look angry or petty or sinful, I would encourage you to ask if it actually is doing that or if you're missing something, because the authors of the Bible would never write about God in a way that is petty or sinful because they believed in their deepest heart of hearts that he's perfectly loving, perfectly just.
[00:20:51] I would challenge you guys to consider the idea that the Bible is actually complex.
[00:20:57] And then if you're reading it and God comes across as sinful or petty or angry, there's probably just something you don't know. There's probably some facet of the text. It's just eluding you in the moment. And so you might need to study a little deeper to figure out if there's some cultural or historical piece that you're missing that's tinting it. Why do I say that? Because this is a pretty harsh text, right? On a surface reading, doesn't this make God seem so unfair? He tells his servants, go find anyone. I don't care. Anyone. Bring him in. This is a sick party. Come on. Come hang out. Then he walks out and goes, who let you in? Get out of here. You go. Well, hold on just a minute. You're the one who brought that guy in. That seems totally unfair. And that's, on a surface reading, exactly how this text looks. There's a couple things I think that will help us understand this. See, guys, the idea that God is perfectly just is sometimes just uncomfortable.
[00:22:01] It's just uncomfortable. I will tell you, there's a difference between God being just or God being petty or selfish or sinful. And oftentimes that's where the rub comes in. There's some aspect of God's justice that you just don't like.
[00:22:19] And it's worth sitting in that and wrestling with that in our text. If you're anything like me, your immediate reading of this part at least makes you go, I don't know what I think about this king. He seems kind of mean, right? That seems really unfair.
[00:22:35] But there is something under the hood. First off, remember that this is a parable, not a historical story, right? This didn't literally happen. Jesus is illustrating a point with a fictional story. But step beyond that.
[00:22:48] Why were the original invited guests not worthy of the king's hospitality?
[00:22:55] Well, some of them were openly hostile, right? But the main issue of the majority of the guests seems to be their apathy.
[00:23:04] They didn't care about the king. He was Offering them radical generosity and this amazing opportunity, and they didn't care.
[00:23:15] That's exactly what's happening in this part of the text as well. You see, there wasn't some, like, special magical uniform that you had to wear to go to a wedding in first century Palestine. I mean, unless you were the bride and the groom. But even that, a lot of openness, right? The expectation was that you would wear the nicest, cleanest clothes you had, not that you would find some secret magic marriage robe that every Jew had for some reason. No, no, no, no, it's not that. It's just the idea that you would show up with some honor and respect, that you would put on your cleanest and nicest clothes. And this was when these servants went out to the roads in the city to find guests. All they needed to do was go home and change before they go to the party, right? I mean, you can picture this guy, he's out in the middle of his working day. Maybe he's a field laborer or maybe he works in the market, but regardless, the day's grime is on him.
[00:24:16] And when the servant comes and says, hey, king has open seats at his banquet. Come celebrate. Rather than taking the 20 minutes it would take to run inside and change clothes, this guy just wanders up to the palace and steps into the wedding in his dirty work clothes. I don't read too much into this, right? Like there aren't layers of symbolism here. Like, remember that parables are stories that are meant to be told and understood quickly. So there isn't some like, deep, multi layered thing here about him spiritually preparing himself for the banquet, like making himself good enough to approach God. That's not what's going on here. What's simply being shown here is that this guy, even though he was a new guest, he wasn't one of the old guests, he's one of the new guests. Even though he's one of the new guests, he is just as apathetic and just as unworthy as the original guests.
[00:25:09] He's being offered a once in a lifetime radical generosity. And he doesn't care enough about his king to change into clean clothes before showing up to a royal wedding.
[00:25:23] Jesus is getting at a really difficult truth of the kingdom here. And it goes like this. Yes, the kingdom of God is full of grace.
[00:25:34] It is all about grace. He has opened the door to us sinners to come to him for life. Sinful and hypocritical men like the temple leaders don't get to decide who's in and who's out. Because anyone and everyone can come to God exactly as they are.
[00:25:52] Praise God.
[00:25:54] But in the same breath we have to know the truth that Jesus is still Lord.
[00:26:01] He is still God over reality. He still expects spiritual fruit as shown in repentance.
[00:26:08] He sums it up with this closing line. Many are invited but few are chosen. Now don't miss what he's saying here. I think if you spend a lot of time around church folk, you might see that word chosen and think Jesus is making some comment about like God's sovereignty and choosing who will be saved, like. But hey, no, this actually isn't a reformed theology thing. That's interesting and we can nerd out about that. But that's not what Jesus is getting at right here. Jesus is speaking in the temple to a Jewish audience and he's using this term in the way a Jewish audience would have understood it. The term chosen was deeply connected to the Jewish self identity. God's chosen people. It was a shorthand for being on the in with God. Jesus is saying here that everyone is invited into the kingdom, but few people are actually willing to be in the kingdom.
[00:26:58] Remember Jesus's own words in Matthew 7, enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who go through it. But narrow is the gate and difficult is the road that leads to life and few find it.
[00:27:16] Jesus parable here is a hard word. He has capped off his critique and challenge of the religion of the temple leaders with the critique and challenge of his own followers.
[00:27:28] The kingdom is grace. You are invited. God has a seat for you at his banquet. Will you respond and take it?
[00:27:39] Will you engage in the generosity of God or will you be as apathetic and disengaged as those who came before you?
[00:27:48] He's such a sharp critique of man made fleshly religion. Jesus, I think here is spelling out two ditches of error that the worldly religion can easily fall into. On the one hand, there is this strict legalism that tries to keep a hold of who's allowed in and who isn't that Jesus was critiquing in these temple leaders. I remember early on in Kim and I's married life we were serving at a church where a pastor told us that Kim needed to remove the small gauge earrings she wore because it was distracting people from being able to worship on a Sunday.
[00:28:23] There were folk in our church who just couldn't think of the kind of person who wore gauged earrings as being the kind of person who would be in a church worshiping God.
[00:28:36] And I say that pretty harshly because that kind of selfish hypocrisy believes that it alone is the true arbiter of who is in and who is out in the kingdom of God. That stuff is nuts and it's still alive and well today.
[00:28:51] You see it even now when people say things like, I just don't see how someone could be a Democrat and still be a Christian. Anyone have that conversation in the last six months with anyone? Anyone? No, we don't want to volunteer for that. Okay, that's funny.
[00:29:05] Or the other side of it where someone says, I just don't see how someone could claim Christ and support this current president.
[00:29:11] Or fill in the blank when we start deciding who gets to be in and who gets to be out on God's kingdom based on our definition of holy and godly.
[00:29:23] Beloved, be careful.
[00:29:25] You are lining up next to the Pharisees who told the Samaritans and the poor and the blind that they weren't welcome in God's temple.
[00:29:33] You are joining a side you don't mean to join. Don't do it.
[00:29:38] But the other ditch is just as wide and just as inviting. In our cultural moment, we can take the amazing grace of Jesus to such an extreme that we rob it of its beauty and its power.
[00:29:51] In World War II, there's a Lutheran pastor and theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he called this trap cheap grace.
[00:29:58] Cheap grace where we say that because God is loving, he holds nothing against us. Why would he? He's loving. He's God. He knows our hearts and he gets. He gets us. And so he knows why I give myself over to this sin pattern. And he knows why I don't believe this truth about him. And you know what? Because he's loving and gracious, he's not going to hold any of that against me.
[00:30:21] In this view, God sets aside his standards and love becomes defined not by care and not by sacrifice, but by acceptance.
[00:30:31] God is only loving in this view if he joyfully accepts whatever and however you want to live.
[00:30:39] A ditch is surprisingly popular today, right?
[00:30:43] Culturally, we have bought the lie that love equals acceptance and promotion of whatever the object of the love believes or does.
[00:30:54] But here's the thing, guys.
[00:30:56] If we take a minute and think about that soberly, we know that is inherently not true.
[00:31:02] It is not how you define love. Love is not unquestioning acceptance and commotion. It isn't. And if you don't believe that, like, if you don't believe that, go Talk to the parents of an addict.
[00:31:18] Like, go have that conversation. It's not what it looks like.
[00:31:24] Talk to the grandparents of someone floundering in a mental health diagnosis.
[00:31:29] It's not loving to hand loose cash to an opioid addict who asks you for it.
[00:31:36] No. Loving this person involves painfully and faithfully meeting them when they fall, challenging them back to truth. Healing and repentance involves a long road, not just of acceptance and promotion, but of steadfastness, of care, of sacrifice, of truth telling, of challenge, of consistency.
[00:32:02] Love is much deeper than simply affirming the object of your love.
[00:32:08] It involves discernment. It involves challenge. It involves caring for their actual flourishing.
[00:32:15] In the same way, Beloved, your sweet and wonderful Jesus grace to you is not as cheap as simple acceptance.
[00:32:25] Listen, don't mishear me. You are invited to come to him exactly as you are. We need not fix what is broken in us in order to come to the foot of the cross. The invitation of Jesus is to come exactly as you are, with all your brokenness, with all your messed upness, with all your failures, and to fall at the foot of Jesus.
[00:32:44] And that invitation is open to everyone. The grace of Jesus is freely available to all of us, regardless of our past, regardless of our present. Beloved, this invitation is for you here, right now.
[00:32:57] But you must know. You must know.
[00:33:00] To come to Jesus is to face your own brokenness.
[00:33:04] And it is to submit to the lordship of Jesus.
[00:33:09] It is to submit to the authority of the God of the universe.
[00:33:14] Yes, he receives you exactly as you are, but he also does something with you because his very Spirit will sanctify you, will purify you, will remove your sin from you. He accepts you exactly as you are. But his love and his justice drives him to not leave you stuck there, but instead to grow you into more.
[00:33:38] The gospel of Jesus moves us beyond the brokenness of our sin because God is perfectly loving and perfectly just.
[00:33:48] So he calls us, he invites us, and he receives us just as we are. But he does not ignore sin.
[00:33:56] No, he takes it very seriously. In fact, he pays for it.
[00:34:00] He sheds his own blood as the just payment for your and my sin. And he washes us clean that none of the curse might remain in us.
[00:34:11] This means to come to Jesus inherently means to reject whatever God calls. So to come to Jesus means to receive his grace and to reject the brokenness of this world and the curse. It means to see our own lives steadfastly and slowly changed away from the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of sin and towards the Kingdom of our wonderful Jesus. Beloved in the kingdom of God, all are welcome. The Gospel is good news for all people, but it is still Jesus kingdom.
[00:34:47] He is Lord.
[00:34:50] And you must respond to this. You must engage this truth. I think there are two primary challenges for us to take away from this text. Chris, if you want to come back up, two thoughts I want to give us as we land out.
[00:35:03] First one is this.
[00:35:05] I think we should take a moment to consider our own lives.
[00:35:09] Like, where are the spaces in your life right now where you have become content in your own sin? For those of you who are in Christ, where has apathy toward the Lord of the banquet crept into your heart?
[00:35:22] Guys, you got to know.
[00:35:24] Today is the perfect day.
[00:35:26] It's the perfect day to come to the Lord in repentance. If you're in this room and you don't know Jesus, I have great news for you. Today's the perfect day to know Him. His grace is here for you. His salvation is a free gift he joyfully wants to give to you. Today's the perfect day to come to him in repentance.
[00:35:44] And if you are in Christ, I have wonderful news for you. Today is the perfect day to come to Christ in repentance. Because we all, we all, we all turn back to our flesh.
[00:35:58] We turn back to our sin patterns and our idols and they feel easy and they feel comfortable. And slowly we numb ourselves to the conviction of the Spirit and we build up calluses and we just kind of give ourselves a free pass on some areas of our life.
[00:36:13] Today's the perfect day to think about that afresh.
[00:36:18] Maybe you need to be bold today and you need to confess that hidden sin pattern to a friend, to your GC leader, to a pastor, to a counselor, to anyone, someone.
[00:36:30] So you can bring it into the light and begin walking toward the light. Walking toward healing and breakthrough and freedom in your life.
[00:36:39] Maybe you need to address afresh that sin pattern that you've become so used to that it no longer chase you. Oh, that's just how I am. I don't know. I'm just a grouchy person. Beloved, put your wedding clothes on.
[00:36:52] Put your wedding clothes on.
[00:36:55] Let's, let's, let's not. Let's not ignore these things in our lives.
[00:37:00] That's not just how you are.
[00:37:04] You know something well, but your gossip can be killed for the sake of the kingdom.
[00:37:10] That can happen today. If you come to him in repentance, your sinful anger and your wrath, you can submit that to Christ right now.
[00:37:21] You can give Your lusts over to the lover of your soul and walk in freedom. Your jealousy can be redeemed by your Lord who loves you.
[00:37:32] Maybe you need to be proactive and growing in your faith.
[00:37:36] Maybe today is the day that you need to take a next step in your spiritual growth. A friendly committing to actually read your Bible or memorize scripture or meet with a brother and sister or sister for discipleship and accountability.
[00:37:50] Whatever the Lord is telling you today, beloved, please, please, please take it serious.
[00:37:56] Choose to walk the narrow path.
[00:37:59] Seek the Lord. Put on your wedding clothes. You will be amazed. You'll be amazed.
[00:38:08] The same Holy Spirit that helped sinful you to even come to Jesus in the first place will supernaturally empower your sanctification and help you grow in holiness. This isn't some white knuckle challenge for you to just be better. That's not what I'm telling you. I understand it. We are all of us prone to return to our flesh and our old patterns and our own items. I'm not telling you to just be more disciplined. Telling you to come to Christ afresh to see what the Holy Spirit might do in your life. How he might break you through to freedom and holiness. Seek him and see what he does.
[00:38:46] Challenge him with that. See what he might do in your life.
[00:38:50] I guarantee you can't imagine. I guarantee it's better. Whatever you're thinking of right now, I guarantee it's better.
[00:38:59] And secondly, and lastly guys, can we just consider the truth to God wants his banquet hall full.
[00:39:07] There is room in the wedding feasts of the Lamb.
[00:39:12] There are empty chairs.
[00:39:14] There are empty seats for your friends, your neighbors, your co workers, your classmates, your grandkids. Fill in the blank.
[00:39:23] There's just enough seats.
[00:39:26] There's room for them to come and enjoy the amazing generosity and hospitality of the King.
[00:39:33] It's open. It's ready. It's available for all. Will you join with the servants of the Master to invite Noor?
[00:39:42] Who is who is that one more in your life? Let me encourage you to think about them right now. Who is the one more that you can pray for?
[00:39:52] Who is the one more that you can invite church? Who is the one more you can read your Bible with? Who's the one more that you could share your testimony, your story with? Who's the one more that you could bring before the Lord? Every time you think of them to soften, ask them to soften their hearts.
[00:40:07] Don't miss this beloved. There is room.
[00:40:11] And God wants his banquet hall full.
[00:40:15] So let's do this.
[00:40:18] Let's say just a few minutes. I'd encourage you to get into a posture of prayer, whatever that looks like for you in the seat, if you can do that in your chair. If you want to get on your knees. If you need to come grab one of the pastors to pray with you, whatever that looks like. I want to encourage you to come into a space where you can connect with the Lord for a minute, and I want you to reflect on this.
[00:40:39] We're going to sit in this silence for just a minute or two.
[00:40:43] I really want you to ask the Lord, or what is the next step you want for Ruth? What does it look like?
[00:40:51] See what he puts in your heart.
