You Are Invited

October 19, 2014

You Are Invited

Matthew 22:1-14                     NOTES NOT EDITED

SIS— If we respond passionately and enthusiastically to the invitation of God we will experience the unimaginable blessings of God—both here and now and in eternity.

What is the largest church in the world?  According to the Guinness Book of World Records it would be The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in Cote d’Ivoire (or the Ivory Coast) of West Africa.  It would have to be a large church just to have enough room to fit its name across the entrance!  This church holds a massive crowd of 18,000 people.  The Ivory Coast is a poverty stricken area and this church has been described as, “a pearl rising out of the surrounding squalor.”  This church covers 322,917 sq. ft. and rises at its highest point 518 feet.  In laymen’s terms it would be considered, “ginormous.”  It was the lavish attempt of the former dictator to memorialize himself. Most people would consider a $300 million church in an area where the average annual income of $650 per person to be extraordinarily self-indulgent.  The fact that this church is nearly empty every Sunday only accentuates the wasteful nature of the project.  It is estimate that less than 350 people attend with any kind of regularity in this church that holds 18,000.  One thing we can know for sure is that the former dictator, Felix Houphouot-Boigny, had a “Go big or go home” view of life.  I agree that the former dictator went way to far in his “go big or go home” approach but I also think that so many churches in America don’t “go big enough.”

Boigny was benevolent and effective leader allowing the Ivory Coast to experience an unusual time of prosperity.  He was a “big thinker.”  I don’t know his relationship with God but I do know that in a way, this benevolent dictator was like God.  Boigny went big.  God Always Goes Big! A favorite verse says, “For God so loved the WORLD!” That’s a God-sized target! That’s a God-sized mission.

Yet, consider the American church in general.  One of the major problems of the church in America is that, for the most part, we are “little thinkers.” We don’t think big thoughts. A sermon that too heavily taxes the mind is considered dull, or uninspiring.  A pastor’s continual call to wade into faith a “little bit deeper,” can become annoying to many members content to swim in the shallow end of the pool. 

As an example, consider that in the 1950’s and following there was a “church building boom” in California (and other places). Thousands of churches were erected with the average seating capacity of 150. Today, most of those churches have an average attendance of less than 75%. We had a “little vision” and we have tapped about half of it. What if we had built 300 seat auditoriums; or, 3000 and only maxed out at half? My point is that when we “think small” we accomplish even less! I’d rather aim for the moon and miss it by a mile than aim for nothing and hit is dead center. It’s not too late to start “thinking big.” Maybe you are old with more water under the bridge than you want to admit. Maybe your bridge is even washed out.  Don’t stop “dreaming.” Don’t give up on what time you have left. Ask God to give you a “Big Idea” and see what happens.

Our text today, like many others in the N.T. portrays God as the Great Inviter, inviting us to join Him in His glorious mission of loving the world and reconciling the world unto Him.  It is an invitation reminiscent of an invitation to a Grand Party where the feast and festivities are beyond anything one could imagine. 

So few, however, respond to God’s invitation.  They persist in rebellion and activities of self-gratification.  Life is full of activity and nearly devoid of meaning.  Let’s think deeply about the invitation God is making to any that would respond.  We read about this in Matthew 22:1-14.

READING

1.  FIRST, CONSIDER THE INVITER (vv 1-4)

“The kingdom of heaven  may be compared to a king
who gave a wedding banquet for his son.

Jesus is speaking in a parable.  A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  It is different from a myth or allegory in that it involves real, every day experiences.  In this case the event or experience is a wedding banquet, quite common in this time as it has been throughout time.  The King represents God.  We know this because the verse tells us the story is to be “compared to the kingdom of heaven.” 

One of the most significant revelations about Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is His inviting nature.  He is depicted from the Book of Genesis on as a God who initiates contact with man.  It is so common that it would not be possible in our short amount of time to list all the verses that show God’s inviting nature.  One of the most beautiful to me is Isaiah 55: 1:

 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters;

and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come,

buy wine and milk without money and without cost!

“Come, come, come” unto me.  Three times in this verse God invites man to partake of heaven’s glory and goodness.  This is God’s nature.  He is an inviting God.  He is an initiating God.  He has everything, lacking nothing, and He desires to share it with man.  That’s Who Yahweh is.  That is His very nature.

God’s inviting nature is emphasized in verses 2-4.  Look at verse 4:

⁴ Again, he sent out other slaves, and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

The intenseness of God’s desire to share Himself and His bounty with man can be seen with the adverb that begins the sentence:  “again.”  The response to the initial invitation was sparse to none.  The people just didn’t care that the king was inviting them to a grand banquet.  Many kings throughout history have demonstrated that such a slight to the king would result in imprisonment or death.  Yet, this king who represents Yahweh doesn’t lash out in anger, but reaches out with an even stronger invitation.  He adds a description of what awaits those who respond:  the king has brought out the very best of his herd, “the fatted cattle” and every detail has been attended to in preparation for this great feast.  If this were a Godfather movie we would say that the king is “making us an offer that can’t be refused.”  But, sadly they did in fact refuse.  Verse 5 says, “But they paid no attention and went away one to his farm, another to his business.”

God, the Great Inviter, still does not give up.  Verse 9 records one more attempt by God to reach out to man:

Therefore go to where the roads exit the city

and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’

God has never given up on inviting man to have fellowship with Him.  However, the same God that passionately desires “everyone” to enjoy the banquet is also a holy God who will punish iniquity—both in eternity and also here on earth.  His justice and wrath are as real as His love and mercy.  Look at verses 6-7:

⁶ And the others seized his slaves, treated them outrageously and killed them. ⁷ The king  was enraged, so he sent out his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned down their city.

For today, let me focus on the primary focus of God as the Great Inviter.  You are invited to share in God’s glory.  If you accept, you will be treated to an eternal banquet of glory.  If you refuse . . . well, then God will “burn down your city!”

2.  Second, let’s examine the INVITATION

First, as we have mentioned briefly, the invitation of God is PERSISTENT.  He pursues us relentlessly hoping that we will freely and passionately accept the invitation.

Second, God’s invitation is COMPREHENSIVE.  God’s invitation covers the whole spectrum of life here on earth, as well as of course, life after earth—or, eternal life.  Too often we as Baptists in our passion to see people get saved, we give an inadequate or incomplete invitation.  We do not believe that simply saying a few words at the end of a church service, even when those words are moved by deep emotion, constitutes what it means to be saved.

What I mean is that it is not enough simply to want to accept Jesus as Savior.  Who in his (or her) right mind would not want to be saved and avoid going to hell for eternity.  That’s a “no-brainer.”  Yet, far too many people few salvation as a sort of “fire insurance policy” that kicks in after we die, but lies dormant in a drawer while we are busy going about our lives. 

(1) Of course, there is the most important invitation, the invitation to ETERNAL LIFE.  Nearly every people group in the world has a translation of the Great Invitation found in John 3:16:

¹⁶ “For God loved  the world in this way:  He gave
His One and Only  Son,  so that everyone who believes in Him

will not perish but have eternal life.

This is God’s gateway into blessing.  This is not about where our lives with the Lord “ends”—that is eternal life—so much as where it begins.  Eternal life begins when we are saved, not when we die.  From the moment a person responds to the salvation invitation, that person is spiritually changed.  There is no way to overstate the importance of responding to God’s invitation to be saved from sin and spared eternal punishment in hell.

(2)  God’s invitation also encompasses an invitation to WORSHIP.  Worship is a greatly misunderstood concept.  It does not primarily refer to any particular activity like singing, clapping hands, raising one’s hands, or even dancing.  There are a multitude of expressions of a worshipful attitude throughout Scripture.  Worship expressions spring from a worshipful attitude.  Really the invitation to worship is an invitation to enjoy God’s presence.  When we express our attitude of worship we actually experience the Presence of God on, in, and with our lives.  Consider the Tabernacle of the Israelites.  This movable building became the “house or dwelling place” of the very presence of God.  Nearly half of the Book of Exodus chronicles the building of the Tabernacle and associated articles of worship like the table of showbread, lampstand, and most importantly the Ark of the Covenant.  This Tabernacle was also called the “Tent of Meeting” because it represented the very Presence of God in the lives of the Israelites as they worshipped God in the wilderness.  Notice how Exodus ends with God inhabiting the meeting place of His people:

^40:34 The cloud covered the tent of meeting,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

There is much more to be said about the Tabernacle but it was a “Tent of Meeting” where Israel experienced the very Presence of God represented by a “hovering cloud” over the Holy of Holies, or third partition of the Tabernacle.  Regardless of what particular activities may be involved, worship means entering into the very Presence of God.  God’s invitation is an invitation to WORSHIP.

(3)  God’s invitation is an invitation to SERVICE

v3:  “He sent out His slaves . . .”

Look again at verse 1 of chapter 22.  Once more Jesus spoke to them in parable.  The verse begins with the adverb, palin.  It means, “again,” or as the HCSB translates it, “once more.”  This word serves as a conjunction connecting the parable of the wedding invitation with the two parables before in chapter 21:  the parable of the two sons and the parable of the vineyard.  In all three parable there are two main characters—a ruling master and various servants.   The servants include two groups—one who serve obediently and others who do not.  In the first parable the father, or master said to go work in the vineyard.  One son went.  One son didn’t.  In the second parable the slaves do the master’s bidding but the tenant farmers rebelled, killed the vineyard owners slaves, and kept the harvest.  They even killed the owner’s son.  In the third parable we again have slaves obediently delivering the master’s invitation and various groups failing to respond for various reasons.  The outcast group responded and attended the banquet.  A significant aspect of these parables is that God’s invitation to salvation and worship is also an invitation to service.  There is much more truth to be mined in these verses, but that is a basic truth we must get, especially from the third parable of the Great Invitation.  The invitation to salvation and worship is also a call to service.  God will deal justly, and harshly, with those that either do not respond at all to His invitation, or who respond to salvation and worship, but not to service. 

The third parable adds an additional character that represents those who try to “sneak into the party so to speak.”  This man represents those who want to get into the party on their own terms (v11, dressed improperly).  We cannot get into heaven dressed in the rags of our own self-righteous acts.  Religion does not prepare you properly for salvation, worship, and service.  The custom was for the person putting on the wedding feast to provide garments for his guests.  God only can “fitly dress us for heaven” in the garment of His grace.  Self-righteous works will only dress you for destruction.  Look at v 13:

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot,  and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

God is the Great Inviter.  The invitation is both persistent and comprehensive involving salvation, worship, and service.  There is a third aspect of this invitation we must consider:

3.  The INVITEES

In this parable we have “two guest lists” mentioned.  This parable is very similar in this regard to the one in Luke 14.  The first guest list is mentioned twice (verse 3 and again in verse 4).  You might call this the “list of preferred guests” or maybe even “VIP’s.”  Now, don’t stretch the parable to its breaking point suggesting that God shows favorites.  Indeed, the Bible says, “Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism,  ³⁵ but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34-35).

The first invitation implies VIP status in the sense that these would be people who would expect to be invited to the party, even if they had no intention of going—which they did not.  This list of invitees represent the majority of mankind—those who give little or no thought to God, or worse, act in hostile disobedience to Him (see verse 6).  The Bible tells us that this is how most of mankind thinks in regard to personal sin (Proverbs 21:2):

All a man’s ways seem right to him,
but the Lord evaluates the motives.

Why are so few people getting saved?  Well, certainly members of Jesus loving churches are not doing enough to get the Word out.  But, there is another reason many will not get saved.  Most people don’t value salvation because they don’t really believe they are lost.  Look how these kind of people act when invited to God’s banquet:

^22:5 “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business. ⁶ And the others seized his slaves, treated them outrageously and killed them.

The response to a gospel invitation can range from total apathy (“paid no attention, or too involved in the business of life”) to outright
hostility (“treated God’s servants outrageously and killed them).

That’s list one of which the Bible says in verse 14:  “For many are invited but few are chosen.”

Now, there is a second “guest list” of invitees mentioned.  Verses 8-10 give us a shockingly different “guest list”:

⁸ “Then he told his slaves, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  ⁹ Therefore go to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’  ¹⁰ So those slaves went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good.

A similar parable in Luke 14 describes this “guest list” more illustratively:

21 Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame!’

Let me say something shocking that came to me as I studied these passages in Matthew and Luke.  The thought that I believe God put in my mind was this:  a church that is not filled up with the undesirables of the world is probably empty of the Presence of God.  I wanted to delete this as I typed it into my notes.  It makes me feel uncomfortable.  Most churches I’ve been in have been pretty much occupied by “respectable folks”—folks that smelled good, looked good and most importantly “gave” good!  But, the respectable people of this world for the most part reject the gospel.  Why would someone who drives an expensive car, wears and expensive suit, dines each night at an expensive restaurant be convinced when someone tells them how much the “need Jesus.”  In their eyes, they need nothing. That’s how most of the people on “guest list one” respond to God’s invitation—they don’t.

Now, when you don’t drive an expensive car, but you live in one that barely runs, and when you don’t have a decent pair of shoes, let alone an expensive coat, and you not only don’t dine out at expensive restaurants but you “eat out of garbage cans,” then it is a little bit easier to see your “need.”  The gospel throughout history has always found its best soil for growth among the common people, the regular folks, those that have a sense of brokenness in their lives.  Nobody ever gets saved who does not first realize he or she is lost.  Nobody ever gets fixed who does not first realize they are broken.

I think we at the church may be working on the wrong “guest list.”  Perhaps we ought to take a look at this “second guest list” and then recall what is written on the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The greatest nation in the world was built on the backs of those who had little standing in the world.  We, the Church, would do well to remember that our Statue of Liberty is the Cross, and God invites all to share in what His Son accomplished on our behalf.

We began this message talking about the largest, most extravagant church in the world, the The Basilica of Our Lady of peace of Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast of West Africa.  It will hold 18,000 people but for the most part it is practically empty come Sunday.  We can’t fault the man who commissioned it for his lofty vision.  He was a “big thinker.”  We could use a few more big thinkers who are also “big doers.” 

If we are honest, our church is not doing much better.  We can seat 160 easily and we have about 80 or so.  We certainly have more room to grow than we have any right to brag!  Could it be we are working off the wrong “guest list?”  Could it be that if we sincerely and sacrificially responded fully to God’s invitation, including service to others as well as salvation and worship for ourselves, that we would fill up God’s House?

Perhaps this message has made you uncomfortable for one reason or another.  Are you are like those who rejected the invitation.  Perhaps you are too busy with your own affairs to be concerned about God’s affairs.  Only you can answer that question, but know that the answer you give will have eternal consequences.

Are you saved?  Do you sense God’s Presence on and with you as you worship?  Are you serving where the sanctuary “exits” (v. 9)?  The answer to all these questions have significant consequences.  If we respond passionately and enthusiastically to the invitation of God we will experience the unimaginable blessings of God—both here and now and in eternity.

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