Whoever Accepts the Invitation Can Come

Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The ministry travels of Jesus is an amazing path to follow.
What you find when you begin to follow his footsteps is that his ministry was not a surprise but was carefully planned.
His plan was always to take him to Jerusalem.
His preaching follows that plan.
When Jesus was closer and closer to his death on the cross, His teaching became more and more focused on the fall of Judaism and the rise of the Gentile people coming into the Kingdom of God!
One of the things the Jewish people forgot Was that God's kingdom was to eventually include all people from all over the earth!

As you begin to read the last chapters of Matthew There is a distinct message from God concerning the Jews!
Basically, being a physical Jew was not enough; they had to accept God's call through Jesus Christ!
Read with me Matthew 22:1-14!
The time we are in here, is a very important time in Jesus' life. These days are going to change the world forever.
Jesus is repeatedly being confronted and challenged by the religious elite of Judaism. After always silencing them, He teaches sometimes in a parable and sometimes, like in Matthew 23, directly giving the details of Jerusalem's destruction.
Notice his parable here:
Jesus is speaking about the kingdom of Heaven!
Now the kingdom of Heaven can either mean the church on earth or heaven itself.
Many times it doesn't matter to the meaning of the story because one represents the other in many respects.
Here, I believe it is heaven because of vs.13!
Jesus says, the kingdom is like this:
A king sets a great wedding feast for his son.
There are certain people he wants to invite.
Yet, the people invited would not come.
So, the king went all out in preparing this feast.
Still the people invited thought nothing of it and went on their own way.
The real insult however comes not just in the slighted invitation!
To add insult upon insult the people mistreated the servants who brought the invitation.
The story doesn't end here though.
The king has the final say!
Now, he sends his armies to destroy the murderers and the city.
Where the king at first sent humble servants who could be mistreated
He now sends armies who will not be defeated.

There is still the problem though of guests for the wedding. So, the king goes and invites whoever is found.
It's important to see that their invitation is not based on worth.
As the feast proceeds someone tries to join without a garment
Without being able to answer he is thrown out!

There are a lot of obvious teachings here:
The sons' wedding is clearly with reference to Jesus Christ!
Who were the people invited to it?
Obviously, Jesus is speaking about his own people.
A sad commentary on the Jews is John 1:11 when John said, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not."
God had gone all out for this feast
God constantly wanted Israel to partake of the blessings of Christ. Yet, the Jews refused to accept the prophets' messages.
Even when Jesus did come, they wanted no part of him.
It came to the point that the Jews murdered those who preached God's message. (Matthew 23:37)
The king, God, then would destroy the Jews and burn Jerusalem.
All this occurred as Jesus predicted in 70 ad.

Who then was invited?
Whoever the servants found.
Everybody was invited, whether bad or good.
The beauty of God's kingdom is that all can come to it!
Peter said in Acts 2:39- "the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

It doesn't matter what you were,
It matters what you do with the invitation.
One last thing Jesus reminds us of:
You can't get in without a garment!
What is the garment?
Galatians 3:26,27-"For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Or "clothed yourselves with Christ."

What Jesus does for us in the last few chapters of Matthew is invaluable.
He details for us the repeated attempts of God to call Israel to salvation.
Then the rejection and the destruction to come.
He goes on to tell us the universal call of the gospel.
It is available to all regardless of who they are and what they have done.
Finally, only those who accept the invite can get to the feast.
We encourage you tonight if you have never done so before to come to Jesus and be baptized into his precious name.

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