Matthew 22:1-14
New International Version (NIV)
Matthew 22
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Day Ten
Don’t ignore Your Invitation
Life can sometimes becoming so hectic and busy that we can lose sight of our ultimate goal. That is why God sometimes has to slow things down for us in order to turn our sights back towards him. Because without His help sometimes we can get so far off track that it would be impossible for us to make it back on our own. Thankfully as we walk through the wilderness He is always there to give us a little tug and push back in the right direction.
This being the tenth day of our journey, we want to turn our attention back to the goal that we pray will we obtain at the end of this journey. By April 8, 2012, Resurrection Sunday, we want to be able to say that we are walking closer with the Lord, living in accordance to His words, and we want to be either out or coming out of our spiritual wilderness ready to take on any of life’s challenges. With that being said our ultimate goal in life should be, not to ignore God’s invitation.
In our scripture Jesus has just enter Jerusalem as a king riding on a donkey while the people of Jerusalem screamed, “Hosanna, the Son of David! Blessed he that came in the name of the Lord! Hosanna, in the highest heaven!” Jesus knows that time will soon come for His death and then His sequential resurrection, so during this time His sermons to the people and to his disciples, were based even more so on the kingdom of heaven and how to get there.
As always Jesus spoke in parables, we learned earlier that He does this in support of our free will making us decipher the parables meaning in order to gain understanding. In this one He tells the story of a king who wants to have a wedding reception for his son. He sends his workers to tell the people he wanted to invite about the reception, but those invited people refused to come. He sent more people out to inform the invited people that the food and drinks were already prepared and that they would not have to do anything but come. They still refused and even tormented and murdered the messengers. This angered the King and after he sought revenge on the people that murdered his workers, he sent more people out telling them since the invited guests did not want to come go out and invite every person you see, good and bad, so that his son’s reception would be filled. Still when the king was looking over the guest he saw someone without the proper attire, when the king as the man were is his suit and tie the man is speechless and then the king has him throw out. Jesus ends by saying that while many are invited few are chosen.
We know just by looking at the text that the king in this story is God. The son in the story is Jesus and the wedding reception is when the Kingdom comes, when Jesus comes back to earth for His bride, the church. The servants or messengers send out by the King are the prophets and preacher send out by God to tell the world that Jesus is coming back. The first guests are the non-believers, or people that heard the word and chooses to reject it. The second groups of guest are believers of God’s word and believers of His son Jesus Christ.
With our goal being not to ignore our invitation we certainly do not want to be in the first group of guest. Hopefully everyone reading these words has already accept Jesus Christ has their Lord and Savior, (I will pause here to say that if you have not I pray that you will open your heart and let Him in while you still have time. See my email address below and you can email me if you have any question or need prayer.) So in order to make sure we don’t fall into the first group of guest we must receive the word and obey the word.
While we want to be the second group of guest that was invited to the reception we do not want to be like the man who showed up in the wrong attire. Even though this man received the word and did not turn down his invitation, he still was not ready to go when the workers came to gather the guest. What Jesus is telling us is that we must always be alert looking for His return. In Matthew 24: 42-44 Jesus tells us to always be on watch of his return. Just as if a homeowner know what time a thief would try and enter his house he would be alert and not let his house be broken into, in the same way we must be ready because the Son of Man will come in the hour that we least expect him.
So as we continue to make our way through the wilderness we must remember our ultimate goal, and that is not to ignore our invitation from God. We do so by living in the Word, studying the Word, and by abiding by the Word. We must always be alert and ready because God’s invitations can come at any time. We want to make sure we are ready when we receive them. So that we can hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant”
Tomorrow is a day of rest and I encourage you to go and fellowship with like-minded believers. There is no greater joy than worshiping the Lord with others, the power of the Holy Spirit can be felt throughout the room. If you don’t have a church home let me suggest Greater Shiloh Baptist Church. They are located at 1108 N. E. 50th St. Oklahoma City Oklahoma 73111. Pastor Orlando J. Black is their shepherd.
Please leave your comments or you can email me at jamesanthonylove@gmail.com. Thank you all for reading and thank you all for your support!
Until Monday God Bless,
James Anthony Love
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