10/9/2020 - Sermon Preview Friday: The Parable of the Wedding Feast

good morning everyone what a blessed friday it is uh here at uh faith lutheran church morning cindy uh happy uh 70 plus one day that's right morning norma morning uh that's right what a good day it is uh and uh today uh we're gonna do sermon preview friday uh matthew 22 verses 1 to 14. um the wedding feast the parable as jesus teaches yet again you know i know you see my um picture from our children's message on sunday and yeah i like it right it looks good with the the foam board too it really makes it stand out the uh the cornerstone of christ i don't know if you see it but uh yeah it's gonna stay up for a while we'll see how long it stays up there uh until it falls down i'm not sure when it will fall down but i think with christ it will never fall down of course but um anyways uh what a great what a great picture that is by the way from our children's bulletin which um families i encourage you to always if you're at home um uh to download those um uh as jeff puts them up on the website for for the children but also at church when you come you know pick up both bulletins the younger bulletin the slightly older bulletin for age groups and give them both to your children have them look at it and i think picture wise this one is just spot on it's just you know bullseye so i i just love it anyways um pastor young here uh faith lutheran church in moorpark california a foggy one this morning but i love it i love the fog really i do um but blessings to you here why don't we begin with a word of prayer why don't we begin with a word of prayer almighty god you invite us to trust in you for our salvation deal with us not in the severity of your judgment but by the greatness of your mercy through jesus christ your son our lord who lives and reigns with you in the holy spirit one god now and forever amen amen yes uh the colic for the day for sunday so you'll hear it again on sunday but remember invite us to trust or the gracious invitation by the very word of god to trust by the faith that is given to us by the holy spirit for our salvation right deal with us not in severity of your judgment because indeed as we'll talk about today there is severity for those who refuse and reject but by the greatness of your mercy mercy right the elaios uh this hilaias is um the mercy of god and uh uh well we'll talk about the good and bad in god's mercy so uh yes uh why don't we begin here uh we'll just kind of shoot into this because i know um i came in a little late but uh matthew 22 matthew 22 verses 1 to 14. i'll read it for you listen in get your ears get your ears out this morning and um or get your book out your bible and read along with me but matthew 22 verses 1 to 14. all right again jesus spoke to them in parables saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast but they will not come again he sent other servants saying tell those who are invited see i've prepared my dinner my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready come to the wedding feast but they paid no attention and went off one to his farm another do his business while the rest seized the servants and treated them shamefully and killed them the king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city then he said to his servants the wedding feast is ready but those invited were not worthy and what's that about go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find again we're in matthew 22 verses 1 to 14 the parable of the wedding feast and those servants went out in the roads and gathered all whom they found both good and bad so the wedding feast was filled with guests but when the king came in to look at the guests he saw there a man who had no wedding garment and he said to them friend how did you get in here without a wedding garment and he was speechless then the king said to the attendants bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth verse 14 for many are called but few are chosen this is the gospel of the lord praise to you o christ all right so when we look at this text today and this is an interesting text with the parables again the context what is the context right we've been going through matthew on uh our sunday lectionary uh and we've gone through the parable of the two sons two weeks ago last week we discussed the parable of the tenants uh the word where uh you know where all these were sent and they were killed why not send my son and he would also be killed let us go kill him for we'll have an inheritance will be an heir right um and now jesus is doing what again jesus is speaking to them in parables now who is them the chief priests the pharisees the religious leaders right um so we see jesus teaching teaching teaching teaching teaching now i know uh this is again in context of what is to come this is during holy week this is during uh this week of the passion and and what a what a great picture this is that jesus is still teaching right yeah that's the thing you know i think teaching is great you know we're not swirling around in our own thoughts or in our own way or in our own ideas but rather it is jesus who shows us the the great benefit of teaching and you know i think as a church as a lutheran church uh this is uh this is our great benefit is that we're always teaching right whether you're becoming part of the church you you go through a confirmation class you go through instruction class you know adult instruction class you know you go to bible study all these things are teaching teaching teaching i mean the catechism we're always teaching right always always always but i guess the point is is that jesus continues by his merciful grace to teach them the truth right so okay so jesus spoke to the these parables and he brings up this parable of the wedding feast um you know they had this feast for his son in verse 2 and he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding piece but they did not come now many refused and many even what what happened there in verse 6 they would seize those servants that were calling them out in this invitation and not only shamefully uh rejecting them but also killing them right i think this is what i want to focus on today is verse verse 8. uh then he said to his servants the wedding feast is ready but those invited were not worthy now what does it mean to be worthy for the feast i think that's the thing right the religious leaders they wanted nothing of jesus right they you know when it comes to worthiness they didn't see that worthiness attained or given by the lord jesus christ they actually rejected him right um and see it's all about the invitation here i think and i think that's the really one of the big nuggets here there's a lot of nuggets here by the way i think this this this uh sermon this text uh can be preached in so many different ways not not in a sense of different ways but different sections have so many different things that we could focus on right but i think here we see uh those who are not worthy right but the question is who is worthy right who is worthy um so verse 9 go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find verse servants went out gathered people and they found both good and bad now worthiness good and bad um usually when we think of worthiness we it should say by our human standard right and the servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found all the good ones right but this is right there both good and bad so they filled the the banquet hall the wedding hall with with uh with these guests so what is worthiness right i mean uh you know um uh when i think of movies i think of uh wayne's world you know wayne's world uh old school movie but uh it's always that uh meme right we're not worthy we're not worthy and uh it just makes me think uh what we think of worthiness and the invitation a lot of times i think that invitation is based on our goodness i think this is the world's definition of of what it means to be invited or welcomed into this wedding feast but for the religious leaders you know it would seem that they had all the ducks in the row right they were holy people there were righteous people or so they thought right they were followers of the law or so they thought but what they failed to see is what true worthiness is now when we talk about worthiness here in verse 10 worthiness is found in both good and bad right like how is worthy and this is the thing you know it's good and bad how how could that be uh so so the question is for us in this text is what what is worthiness now there's all these other nuggets right we could talk about uh the wedding garment we could talk about uh what are other nuggets we could talk about we could talk about the wrath of god which is real right as uh as we'll see right here um verse seven how how do we deal with the wrath of god that the king was angry and sent his troops and destroyed those murders and burned their city right uh but but i think for today uh we'll just focus in on the worthiness i'll we'll see what happens on sunday because i haven't written the sermon yet i just i don't write it until um yeah until probably later today or tomorrow morning just kind of when i massage it enough you know pray on it and read it and and dig and meditate um but um but today i think what i what really popped out was this worthiness now how are good and bad worthy now obviously good we're like okay by world standard that sounds like we're worthy we have the merits right but is it about merits because it says good and bad so how is good and bad how do they how how do they coexist in a sense of what it means to be worthy um matthew 11 27-28 come all you who uh who who are broken and heavy-laden and i will give you rest right that is the gracious invitation jesus comes for the sinners the tax collectors and the prostitutes that is the gracious invitation true worthiness is not about what again we bring to the table but but living under the authority of our king of our lord right knowing that we fall short knowing that we are not worthy in our own work but rather that gracious invitation is uh is given by our lord right we don't we don't go up to the feast and say look look what i've done. right but rather we go um by the lord's grace both good and bad because we're all sinners all of us we cannot save ourselves not even a little just like the bible study of the other day if we have any confidence in the flesh we might as well try to fulfill the whole law saint paul says he gives the galatians that that uh he gives them that charge well if you if you believe in circumcision as your salvation go fulfill the whole law and when we talk about our worthiness it's not contingent upon ourselves but our worthiness is christ who garments us by his body and blood our worthiness is in what he has done for us and uh when we talk about these days in asia and again uh verse 14 for many are called and few are chosen this is a very uh interesting text here right because i think the world thinks and world thinks otherwise right the world the the way we live it in the world it's it's um you know all that we have done to be worthy but uh the scripture says you know what we talk about our worthiness it is christ and uh what was i going to say yes the parable of the sower right we know that we know that text so well that's the mystery of god's grace some are you know some of the seed lands on the path and they dry up and get pecked out by the birds uh some are thrown into the thorns and they're twisted in the deceitful riches of the world right and the cares and the drunkenness and the dissipations of the world right caught up in those things right and and i think this is where uh this text really shows us what is true what is the way to salvation right there is no other way it's either jesus or nothing at all right we're not playing the um coexistence cards that all paths lead to eternal life no jesus is clearly pointing here to the line drawn in the sand right it is jesus only jesus only christ in what he has done for us that is where we find our worthiness in his body and blood that garments us right so what we speak of uh this parable again this is during the week before during the week before soon he is going to go to the cross he continues to teach the religious leaders speaking to them again to show them the truth right that their worthiness is not in themselves but rather for the good and bad the world will look at good and bad and say oh yeah the good ones they deserve it the bad ones they don't deserve it but that's not the faithful way to look at it is it right jesus came for sinners he didn't come for the righteous he came for sinners so when we look at this text clearly it shows us for me and you come all you who are broken and heavy laid and i will give you rest right that is where our worth is outside of ourselves extranos jesus outside alien foreign coming to us dying for us rising for us shedding his body and blood for us destroying the grave for us giving us from the fruits of the cross the gift of our baptism so when we talk about uh this wedding feast i think one nugget here which i think next in the three years later if i preach this i'll probably focus in on something else but something about that worthiness what makes you worthy that's a that's a question to be thinking about here what makes you worthy and this is the question i think a lot of times when we look at the religious leaders they failed to see as they were blinded by their own their own ways their own rules their own laws of holiness that they they failed to see the true worthiness that is christ because good and bad by the eyes of legalism will say yeah good ones bad ones right but here um yeah what an interesting picture that is so anyways what a graceful god we have i know we'll probably stop there but um god blessings to you this day um and hopefully this went well with you why don't we pray together dearly father o lord we thank you for your for your worthy gift the gift of christ lord we know that in our own self uh we cannot save ourselves that that that we are not by our own merits and worthiness we can never bring enough to the table that we fall short that our works are inefficient but thank you lord of forgiving us in your grace our lord christ bless us o lord this day in the victorious life that you have given that we live move and have our being always in your grace thank you o lord for coming to us and garmenting us with the gift of holy baptism and thank you lord for giving us by your grace the keys to eternal life bless us today and lead us always in your name we pray this in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen amen all right friends have a wonderful day good friday to you and uh we'll see you lord willing on sunday um what a great day it will be but until then god's blessings to you today and we and we will see you once again all right good day adios and goodbye

Channel: Faith Lutheran Church

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Keywords: lutheran, christian, sermon

Id: iUMyLr22uFY

Length: 19min 21sec (1161 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020