Matthew 22:1-14
New
International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
22 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 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, both good and bad, 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 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here
without wedding clothes?’ 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.”
How many
of us, if asked to attend a wedding banquet at the king’s house would simply
not show up? I can only imagine what
that feast would be like. The thing I
would worry about the most is what I would wear. In this parable we see that someone did come
to the banquet not dressed appropriately and was thrown out.
When I
think of the spiritual marriage banquet with God our King, I must also wonder
what I will wear. If I don’t have the
proper clothing now, why would I think that I would have it when it
counts? So, I decided to look and see
how I should be dressed and I found the following verses that I would like to
share with you.
In Romans 13:13-14, Paul describes to us
how we should act as true believers and how we should clothe ourselves here on
this earth. He says,
13”Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and
drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and
debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the
desires of the sinful nature”.
In Colossians 3:12, Paul instructs God’s chosen
people,
12 “Therefore,
as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience.”
And look at what Peter has to say to the young men of God
in I Peter 5:5,
5 ‘Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the
proud
but gives grace to the humble.”’
but gives grace to the humble.”’
Humility, compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, does
that sound like someone you know? It is
the clear picture of Christ? I have not ever heard of anyone more
compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, or patient, than Christ Himself. Now
look at I John 3:2, 2 “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we
know that when he appears, we shall be
like him, for we shall
see him as he is.”
If we do not have the seed of our Heavenly
Father planted within us, we cannot be “like Him” and thus won’t have on the
wedding clothes such as the man in the parable.
What happened to him? He was
bound and thrown out of the wedding banquet, thrown where there was darkness,
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Not a
pleasant place to find yourself.
There are people on this earth who claim
to be children of God. They claim to
have God’s seed within them and they will try to sneak into the banquet. How do we know who to believe? Let’s look at I John 3:9 – 10, “9 No
one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he
cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know
who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is
right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”
If
someone proclaims to be a child of God but continues in the lifestyle of a
sinner or cannot find enough love in their heart to forgive a brother, they are
not a child of God. It doesn’t matter
how much lip service we may do, maybe we proclaim the Word of God by teaching
Sunday School, by preaching, by simply witnessing. Maybe we do compassionate things for other
people, raise money for charities, volunteer on a worthwhile committee, or even
go and do missionary work in another country but don’t love our brother, it
says that we are not a child of God.
Maybe we show love to your brother but continue in sin, hidden sin or
public sin, we continue a lifestyle that is not right in the eyes of God, knowing
full well that it is wrong we choose to continue in that lifestyle, this
scripture is clear that we are not a child of God. It is my belief that these will be the ones
that will be thrown out of the banquet as Christ parables speaks of. Those who know, but choose to disguise
themselves as God’s chosen people. Those
who God has given the opportunity to but who have not listened, they were
invited but did not accept the invitation, the ones who chose instead to kill (
literally or figuratively) those who did believe.
It is imperative for
each and every one of us to search our hearts and make sure the seed of God is
within us. We may know that
He is in us because His Holy Spirit will give us confidence of this, Ephesians 1: 13 – 14, 13 “And you
also were included in Christ when
you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise
of his glory.”
As
you seek Him may you find His seed implanted in you in the form of the Holy
Spirit and may you serve Him with gladness, knowing with confidence that
someday you will be attending the most fabulous wedding banquet and you will be
clothed in the wedding clothes acceptable to our Lord.
If
you are not confident of this, do not delay, He is waiting for you to call upon
His name and be saved through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Seeking
Him with all my heart,
Sheila
No comments:
Post a Comment