The Kingdom of Heaven is a Party!

June 6, 2021

JRCC Online

Matthew: Who is Jesus?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is a party”

Text: Matthew 22:1-14

Focus: We are invited and called to invite people to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is God’s reign now.

Welcome, my name is Wally and I am on the Pastoral team here at Jericho Ridge.

• If you are joining us for the first time, or re-joining us after some time away, we’re nearing the end of a series of messages in Matthew’s Gospel where we are asking the question, “Who Jesus is?” and how does our understanding of who Jesus is, inform and change how we live.
• So, “Who do I believe Jesus to be and what difference does that make in my life?” is our question for today…
• And that includes wrestling with my preconceptions of who Jesus is… and how Jesus challenges, clarifies and invites me into a new understanding and relationship with him?
• We hear repeatedly in Matthew’s gospel that Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, to earth.
• So today we want look again at what the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven is … and I’ll use these two terms synonymously.
• What does this Kingdom that Jesus ushers in, look like, not just in Matthew’s day, but now, daily, until the Kingdom is fully realized in the future?

As we have experienced throughout this series, Jesus regularly turns our concepts and constructs about God’s kingdom on their heads and challenges us to think and act outside of our boxes.

• Friends, quite frankly, this is hard work.
• Often, the things Jesus says are radically good and somewhat challenging to practice in daily life.
• When we hear them, we can see fairly quickly that they make sense and would be truths that would benefit us if we chose to embrace and practice them in our daily lives.
• But other times, the things Jesus says are radical to the point that they are hard to understand and we can’t even begin to wrap our minds around how to live them out.
• We try to understand them, but we’re left confounded or even discouraged because the truth is too hard to process within our religious boxes and lifestyle.

Today’s passage in the book of Matthew is one of these passages that, as Pastor Brad said in the last message, we tend not to like because it’s radically challenging to understand, let alone put into practice.

• Turn with me in your Bible to Matthew 22 where Jesus tells a story to his listeners about the Kingdom of Heaven.
• If you’re new to the Bible, Matthew is one of 4 friends of Jesus who wrote inspired biographies of Jesus life and teachings.
• We find Matthew’s book at the beginning of the New Testament, which is about ¾ of the way into your Bible.

Matthew 22 begins with a parable, which is story, a form of communication that Jesus often uses to teach a deeper meaning … to get us thinking in a new/different way.

• Jesus is saying to his listeners, “You thought of something like that, but it’s actually like this.”
• And this parable, quite frankly is tough a one… it’s intended to challenge our religious boxes.
• But if you’ve been with Jericho for any length of time, you know that we don’t shy away from challenging topics or passages in the Scriptures.

So here we go … open up your Bible to Matthew 22:1 and the Parable of the Great Feast.

• This is the third of three parables going back into the previous chapter, where Jesus is teaching what the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is actually like.
• As we read this parable, I’ll unpack the verses along the way to help us understand it, and then we’ll wrap up with two personal applications.

22:1 Jesus also told them other parables.

• So, as we said, Jesus is trying to challenge his 1^st century listener’s concepts/constructs of truth, their worldviews.
• And he’s doing that for us here today through this parable.
• So, no matter what your starting point is today, whether you are spiritually curious, or you’re in a long-term relationship with Jesus, or you believe Jesus is a good teacher, Jesus is saying you need to consider this in terms of why and how you are living your life…
• “You currently think about reality like this, now consider God’s kingdom and how it is intended to change and affect you and your boxes, your constructs, your
• “Let me challenge you in how you think God relates to his creation and how you are relating to him.
• Specifically, this parable of the “Great Feast”, is intended to deconstruct our boxes of who we think are in the Kingdom of Heaven and which people are out.
• And then friends, we need to reconstruct how the truth about the Kingdom of Heaven affects my choices/lifestyle.

Jesus said, ² “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son.

• Now the first thing we need to know is that when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he’s not talking about a final destination that we’ll only see or can only know when we get there after we die.
• When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he’s talking about the current and ongoing reign of God and what it’s like to live under God’s rule, not just in the future, but right now.
• He’s saying, this is what it looks like to be a person who comes into the Kingdom of Heaven, not when you die in the future, but now, in the present.
• So, the question of this parable is, how do you know in the present who is part God’s kingdom? Who are the people of God, submitted to God’s rule, living in covenant relationship with God?

Jesus said, ² “The Kingdom of Heaven (the reign of God) can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. ³ When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!

• In this parable, God is the King, and his Son is Jesus.
• And God, the King, sends his servants out to invite guests to this great party he is throwing for his son, Jesus.
• Now, notice that the servants are going out to those people who have already received an invite previously … these people are the nation of Israel, the Jews of the Old Testament.
• And notice that they have already received the invite and that they have already RSVPed that they are planning on coming to this great wedding banquet.
• But when the king finally decides that it’s time to throw the party, every invited guest says, “No, I’m not coming.”

⁴ “So (again) the king sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ ⁵ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. ⁶ Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. ⁷ “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

• And here’s one of the abrupt stopping points that make this an uncomfortable and hard parable to digest.
• The King is God, and he sends out an invitation for people to come to his party, to be a part of his Kingdom, to come into relationship with him and live under his holy reign.
• God, in his great love, does this twice! And that sounds good, that’s who God should be like.
• But when the people refuse to come, this invitational and loving God sends his army out, not to invite again, but to destroy and burn down their city.

What’s going on here? Why does that happen?

• Jesus is using this parable to tell us that there’s a new way of relating to God that he’s finally setting in motion.
• Jesus is looking at the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people of the Old Testament, under the old covenant, who are invited to this new incredible party, and pointing out to them that they no longer want to be a part of God’s kingdom/reign.
• Now why would God’s people, who have followed God for centuries, no longer want to be a part of God’s kingdom and rule?
• Because Jesus, the son, represents/signals that there is now a stopping point in the road and that the invitation/the focal point to being a part of God’s kingdom is changing.
• Jesus is initiating a new way that people are going to relate to God… and in the parable, he’s telling the Old Testament Jews that they aren’t responding to this new way.

The Old covenant, the old way of being in relationship with God was governed by a Law that had become incredibly onerous and out of sync with who God is … the Jewish people had turned relating to God into a solely works based and very confining/restrictive religious box.

• For example, under the OT Law, practicing Jews, even today, are not permitted to work during the Sabbath… to do so would be to offend God and cut off their means of relating to God.
• To facilitate that portion of the law, for example today, you can ride a Shabbat elevator in Israel, which during the period of Sabbath, the elevator will do all the work and automatically stop at every floor so that you don’t have to “work” on the Sabbath by pushing a button.
• In other words, to push that elevator button is deemed work that could potentially alienate you from God.

Now that’s a modern-day example of the rigor and law of the Old Testament that the Israelite teachers had imposed onto a relationship with God.

• Jesus is coming into that religious relational construct and saying, no more… that way of attempting to relate to God is finished… it’s impossible to accomplish because it’s reliant on human effort.
• Now God is saying, I want you to receive the new covenant via the invitation to meet and accept my son, Jesus.
• Come to this great banquet/party of the King, thrown in honor of my son, Jesus … because Jesus is the Messiah, the new way of relating to God.
• This is actually what the Kingdom of Heaven, the reign of God is based on … not the OT way of the Law.

Rereading vs. 4-7,

⁴ “So (again) he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ ⁵ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. ⁶ Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. ⁷ “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

The new invitation to the Kingdom of Heaven has been initiated, and now, if you don’t accept this new invitation, then the parable says, God is going to be against you…

• Not by his choice, but by your choice of ignoring him and clinging to your old ways.
• And if you persist in refusing the invitation, then God is going to bring his forces to bear upon you, and your old ways will be burned to the ground/decimated.
• And 40 years after Jesus spoke this parable, that’s exactly what happened when the Roman Empire burned down the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as a representation of God destroying the Jewish constructs of how to relate to God.
• No longer do you enter the party, the Kingdom of Heaven, through the law… now it’s through God’s Son, Jesus.
• And so the reality of the parable to this point is God saying that if you reject my invitation, if you reject my Son/Jesus, you will experience the consequences of your choices.
• And that act of judgment will be seen by the whole world so that everyone will be challenged to reconsider how we relate to God and understand the kingdom of Heaven.

For us today, this a place to pause and say, “Okay, what are my religious/works-based ways of trying to relate to God?”

• What boxes do I have that are the only places where God is allowed to exist and where I’ll relate to him?
• It’s probably not going to be keeping the OT laws the ways the Jews did…
• But perhaps, you are legalistic in other ways, like your Scripture reading, or prayer, or volunteering. You do it to earn favor with God to ensure that you are “in” the Kingdom.
• Or perhaps you make sure you do more good deeds in the community than bad, so that you can tip the scales in your favor after you die.
• Friends, how do you believe that your religious constructs will earn you favor with God and get you into his kingdom?
• Or maybe I try to convict other people of their sin so that they fit into my understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven?
• Am I playing judge and jury on who is good enough to be in and who must certainly be out of God’s Kingdom?

If that’s how I think and live, then Jesus is saying you’re rejecting me … you’re not accepting me as the way into the Kingdom of Heaven.

• You’re just like the people who RSVPed but never showed up.
• You say you want to be a part of the party, but you never actually enter into God’s party, God’s kingdom, God’s reign … you actually never meet and accept me/Jesus as the focal point of the Kingdom of Heaven…
• And the consequences are that you are now against me and God’s power and judgement will be brought to bear against you…
• Why… because God is somehow now a mean God?
• No! Because God is so loving that he wants everyone else to know that they should not follow in your footsteps.
• John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life.”
• And if your example is leading people away from Jesus and the kingdom of heaven, then God in his great love for humanity will come against you, so that others won’t follow you.

Talk about turning not just the Jewish, but any “religious” “works-based” constructed kingdoms on their heads!

• This is a parable that extends into the present and turns our personal religious boxes upside-down.
• It challenges us to reconsider the truth that we must accept, not just once, but daily, moment by moment, that Jesus, God’s son, is the only way into the Kingdom of Heaven … and anything I do to minimize or negate that positions me against God.
• Friends, we need to sit with God and honestly evaluate how our beliefs/lifestyle reject God’s invitation into the kingdom of heaven through the person and grace that is Jesus Christ.
• “Lord, reveal to me how I am standing in opposition to you and your reign in my life and in the world.”

This is a hard conversation to have with yourself.

• So if you want someone to process this with, one of our pastoral team would welcome that confidential conversation.
• If you are watching live on our Church Online platform, you can click the prayer button and talk with someone right now. Otherwise, you can always reach out to us anytime at . We would love to meet with you.

Let’s keep reading in Jesus’ parable,

⁸ And the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. ⁹ Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ ¹⁰ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

• Okay, now we are back on track with a loving and invitational God…
• And notice this time that everyone came, the good and the bad alike … which is the point of this parable.
• In your religious box, you think those people are in and these people are out because of how they think and act and live.
• And God says, I want everyone in, so go and gather everyone and bring them to my party.
• Including all the people who were deemed unworthy by the Jewish nation who I invited but who rejected me.
• What incredible mercy… God pursues everyone!
• It’s not about who keeps the rules or is good enough!
• In fact, those that thought they were good enough/religious enough to be in, are actually unworthy to be at the party because they reject Jesus as the Son of God, as the new focal point of the party/Kingdom.
• And now the invite is going out to everyone.

So, the wedding hall in vs. 10 is finally packed with guests… and we are back on track for a great story with a happy ending.

• God inviting everyone into the Kingdom of Heaven, which is his reign, through the person and grace of his Son, Jesus Christ.
• But the story doesn’t end on that happy note…

¹¹ “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. ¹² ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 

• Loving invitational God, with a packed house, all of a sudden makes a scene.
• And notice that the man has no reply or defense … this is significant.
• The man could have said that he didn’t own wedding clothes…
• He could have said, “King, you just invited me from out on the street and I came immediately, so how could I possibly have appropriate wedding clothes with me… can you help me?”
• Or, “You, King, interrupted my day with your invite and I still came, so what else do you expect from me?”
• The man doesn’t give any excuse or rationale; nor does he appeal for God’s direction or mercy… he’s refuses to reply.
• Why?
• The man has made a conscious personal choice and he’s not going to change his mind.
• He’s actually standing in defiance to the king.
• Yes, he’s at the party… “Thanks for the invite, King.”
• But, he’s also saying, “I’m coming on my own terms.”
• Now remember, the party represents the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the reign/rule of God at all times in all places.
• We don’t get to tell God when he gets to rule or what’s his area to reign in and what’s our domain… it’s all God’s domain to reign at all times.
• So, what does the king do with the man?

¹³ Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

• And here again is another reason why we don’t like to talk about this parable.
• God leaps outside of our “God-box”.
• He turns into a God that we don’t like and don’t think he should be like.
• Particularly in the Western world, we don’t like a God who has boundaries and challenges us, or disciplines us.
• We want a God who loves everyone and is all-inclusive … like our favourite resort, where what I say, what I want goes and someone will serve me to that end because I’ve paid the price.
• We want God to be our server who is ready when we decide to call on him and then he provides what we ask of him.
• In this parable, we see a different God and we don’t know what to do with him because he doesn’t fit into our religious box… so we tend to ignore him, or at least this part of him… just like the first group of people who got the invite.

So, how can we understand the God of vss. 11-14?

• Twice in this parable, God is rejected.
• The first rejection was when people/Israel RSVPed and then didn’t show up and God punished them and opened up the invite to everyone.
• But now, a person takes God up on the new invitation, shows up to the party and God is bent out of shape because he’s wearing the wrong clothes.
• What’s going on here?

Friends, when we decide to call the shots, we reject God and there are consequences.

• We make conscious choices to follow or reject God based on our desire for him to have or not have reign over our lives.
• We have these moments when we say to ourselves, “I want that part of God’s kingdom but I don’t want this part.”
• We say to God, “I like your idea of a party and I’m in, but I think the party should look like this. And I’m going to signal to everyone, by what I wear or don’t wear, that I have a different opinion than you on the parameters of this party.”
• And in saying that, we are saying that we want to live according to our rules, our design … we are saying that we are not fully with you God … or in more blunt terms, we’re against you, God.
• Folks, that’s an act of my heart/will saying, that I want to live my own life, if not fully, then at least in this area.
• I want to rule over this portion… God, I’ll give you this area, but over here, this is my domain … this is where I am god and I’ll choose what’s right or wrong.

The man in the parable comes to the wedding feast and chooses not to wear the wedding clothes as per the invitation.

• He knows that there is a dress-code, a way in, and for whatever reason, he chooses not to abide by it, nor does he appeal to the king for assistance or mercy.
• The guest knows that he is guilty and has no reply for the king.
• He has decided that he wants to do things by his rules, not the king’s.

Now, in our mindset, we read this portion of the parable and we get fixated on a cruel King, on a God we can’t reconcile.

• But remember that a parable is telling us that something is not as it seems.
• On the surface, it seems like God is some mean cruel God who really only wants to have things his way and if people don’t like it they get wiped out.
• The reality is that whenever we reject God’s reign/rule in our lives, the natural implication is outer darkness according to vs.13.
• This goes all the way back to Genesis with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden … humanity wanting to be God, rather than living under God’s reign and receiving all the perfect benefits that come with that.
• God is the good God who gives us light, so when we reject him, of course the outcome is darkness.
• God is the good God who gives us living water, so when we reject him, of course we end up dying of thirst.
• God is the good God who offers forgiveness through his son, Jesus and so of course when we reject him, we end up in the anguish of our own sin, vs.13.
• God gives us all good gifts in life: nature, music, sex, family, art, laughter, friendships … so when we say that we don’t want God, then the spiritual reality that comes to bear upon us is that we live without God’s good gifts for eternity.

Friends, it’s not God who somehow changes and becomes this cruel God.

• God remains the God of mercy who is pursuing and inviting everyone.
• He remains the giver of all good gifts, including forgiveness, grace and eternal life in the Kingdom.
• But when we decide that we want to live outside of his reign, outside of the Kingdom of Heaven, then the natural implication is darkness, anguish, weeping and death.

Friends, how often do we say that we are going to “show up” to God’s party, and then we either outright refuse, or we decide we’ll show up on our terms?

• This is the God of the universe inviting us.
• We don’t get to alter the invite.
• When someone sends you a wedding invitation for June 6, you don’t get to say, “I’ll be there, but only on June 13^th.” Or, “I’ll be there but only if I get to wear the wedding dress.”
• Either we are all in with the invitation as it’s presented or we are out?
• This isn’t about God changing, it’s about me changing my understanding of who’s kingdom it is and God’s Kingdom comes to bear on my life today.

So, let’s draw out just two ways God’s Kingdom as described in this parable, radically informs our lives:

• First, now that our province is loosening restrictions, think of a night out with friends/family … the kind of evening you are really excited to go to…
• The kind of event we tell everyone about at work because we are so excited to be going…
• In fact, we’re so committed to this event that we tell people that they should come and join us…
• Friends, that’s what God’s party is like.
• God says, “If you’re in relationship with me, if you’re already attending the party and you’ve met my son, Jesus, then you know how good my party really is.
• “You’ve met Jesus, and you know what it’s like to come to me through the grace and person of my son.
• “You’ve experienced why I’m throwing a party in his honor and inviting everyone.
• Now, here’s the question … are you still all-in with me?
• Because I’m sending you out to invite everyone else to join us at the party?
• 3 & 4 of the parable, “God sends his servants out to remind and to re-invite…”
• God initiates the invite to the Kingdom of Heaven and he uses us, his people, attendees of the party, followers of Jesus, to do the inviting.

How do people hear about this incredible party that God wants everyone to be at?

• How do people hear about the love and grace of God’s son, Jesus Christ who is the focal point of the party/the kingdom of Heaven?
• How do people come into the Kingdom of Heaven and start living under God’s reign?
• God sends his people… that’s me and you who have already said yes to the invite and met Jesus.
• We’ve been at the banquet; we’ve tasted and know that wow, this is good. So good that we believe others should be there too.

I would never have met Jesus, God’s son, if a group of teenage peers hadn’t invited me to the party and if Henry Kliewer hadn’t explained to me what this party was all about.

• The youth group and Pastor Henry put all their own agendas aside and invited me to come meet Jesus, enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and come under God’s reign.
• These people had to go outside of their comfort zones and befriend and invite a stranger, who was definitely not a part of God’s kingdom, not knowing how I’d respond.
• And it took intentionality, time and relationship.
• And that’s still the formula God is using today … he’s sending us, his people, his servants out to invite.

Here’s the challenging part for of the parable for those of us who have said yes to the invite and already shown up at the party… the King sends us back out into the streets to tell everyone, good and bad, to join us.

• We don’t just get to stay and fatten ourselves at the banquet table.
• We are sent back out to invite.
• The story is built around a group of people who go out under God’s rule and tell people they too are invited.
• “Everyone, there’s a feast, there’s a celebration put on by the king of the universe … he’s celebrating his Son Jesus as the way into the Kingdom of Heaven … and he wants you to be a part of this … not just maybe in the future, but right now.”
• “God is sending me and I want to tell you about his incredible invitation to a radically new way of life based on the grace and the friendship of Jesus Christ.

Jericho Ridge, are we excited that God is sending us out?

• Are we intentional with our sending and with the invitation we carry?
• Am I actually making space in my schedule; am I trying to relate outside of my church relationships; am I ready to invite at a moment’s notice?
• Or am I assuming that people around me will somehow figure it out because I am a good person who does kind things…
• Do I think that because I’m a good neighbour, they’ll one day follow me to church and then someone at church will invite them into the Kingdom of Heaven and they’ll figure out that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for the forgiveness of their sins and rose from the dead as the way the truth and the life into the kingdom of Heaven …
• …that somehow all of that will happen because I talked about who the Canucks over the fence, or mowed their lawn.

I’m not where I am today, who I am today, unless Henry Kliewer asked me face to face if I wanted to accept Jesus’ invitation into the Kingdom of Heaven and then along with other Jesus-followers began to teach/model for me what it looked like to live under God’s reign.

• But even I forget this.
• I get so caught up in the workings of the “party” that I fall into this fog of thinking someone else will go out and invite or somehow the invitation doesn’t need a voice behind it and people will get it by osmosis.
• That they’ll somehow overhear our singing and partying in the banquet hall and just wander in…
• But the reality in this parable, is that God is sending us out to invite everyone.

And this isn’t a guilt trip; this is a heart check.

• This is asking myself/yourself if we’re all in on the reign of God in our lives?
• This is asking if what you’ve experienced in Jesus as God’s son, the Messiah, is still worth telling others about.

And if you are listening to all of this and wondering if the invitation might be intended for you… the answer is, Yes!

• Absolutely! Today I offer you the invitation to come to the party and meet Jesus. Come and see what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
• Today is your opportunity to accept the invitation and enter the party.

Maybe you’re listening to this parable and something is stirring and making you consider the invitation.

• You’re wondering, “Do I really want to be a part of this?”
• Do I really want to meet the King’s son, Jesus?
• Am I willing to accept this invite today and become a part of the Kingdom of Heaven?
• Remember vs. 3 in the parable, “the king sent his servants to invite, but they would not come.”
• This is that pivotal moment in your life right now.
• God is sending you his invitation.
• God is making the first move, and in his grace, he is saying come, I want you at my party.
• I want you to meet my son Jesus so that you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven and come under my gracious reign today.
• God, the King, is pursuing you.

And it doesn’t matter whether you place yourself in the “good” or the “bad” category.

• It doesn’t matter if you think that only this kind of person should get in or that kind of person deserves to get in.
• God doesn’t operate according to our religious boxes.
• God’s invitation is for everyone.
• And right now, God is meeting with you and saying, “I want you to come and meet my son Jesus Christ.”
• Throw away how you think this should look.
• Throw away who you think can be in or who is out.
• You are welcome in my Kingdom.
• And when you come to the party, you meet my son, Jesus:
  • he knows you and welcomes you because I’ve invited you.
  • he offers you mercy, forgiveness, grace … all the benefits of living under the King.
  • he turns your life upside-down from trying to work for salvation, to offering it as a gift of grace because he died for you on the cross and rose again.

Friend, this story is saying that things are not as they seem.

• • God is so loving and good, that he is giving you a call right now to come to him.
  • God is giving you an opportunity to cut through all the unbelief in your life so that you can commune with him.
  • The precarious part right now, is if we start to listen to our doubts and rationales of why I shouldn’t be at the party, and we decide to delay our response.

Another one of the hard parts of this story is thinking that we have all the time in the world to respond to God.

• • That I’ll delay meeting with God until I’ve got everything set out the way I think it should be.
  • The reality of this story is that God is already sending you his invite … it’s happening right now.
  • This is his timeline for you and the truth is that the invite might cease for you.
  • Why? Because God doesn’t love you anymore?
  • No, because he has a timeline of how things will unfold for creation in our current state … and our current state, your physical life is not going to exist forever.
  • It’s the same for everyone, we don’t get to keep extending God’s invitational timeline forever.
    • Think about it… when someone makes a meal at home and calls the family for dinner.
    • We don’t get to respond with, “Thanks, I’ll come down when I’m ready. It smells great, but right now isn’t good for me, so maybe I’ll be there tomorrow. In fact, let me consider the pros and cons of your meal and I’ll get back to you next month with my decision.”
  • Now that’s a crass analogy, but I hope you get the point.
  • God’s not inviting you for a future day, he’s inviting you now.
  • Please don’t assume that you’ll have next week or next year to consider the invitation.
  • You need to consider your life today and ask yourself if Jesus is the person you should come and meet.

And as I said to the church earlier, this is not a guilt trip.

• • It’s sobering because it’s a matter of the heart that needs your attention… which is part of what a parable is intended to do… get our attention in the now, in the present.
  • God in his grace is giving you his invitation.
  • Now is the time to accept the invitation to God’s party, to the Kingdom of Heaven.
  • It comes back to the question I asked at the beginning, “Who do you believe Jesus is and what difference does that make in your life today?”
  • The invitation to the Kingdom of Heaven comes to us in the person of Jesus, who is the centre piece of the party and he’s waiting/he’s expecting you to come to him.

• Throw away your preconceived religious boxes… things are not as they seem.
• The way into the Kingdom of Heaven is to say yes to God’s invitation and come, meet Jesus.
• He wants you to come and experience his love and grace today.

If you are watching live on our interactive digital platform, then you can click the “I give my life to Jesus” button.

• This signals to us that you want to meet Jesus.
• And then I encourage you to click the next button that appears and join one of our pastoral staff in the confidential prayer room.
• Why? This is your opportunity to tell someone that you are entering the party, and for lack of better terms, you’ll want a friend at the party to help know how best to enjoy the party.
• And if you are watching a recording of this message, please email or call our church office at 604-629-7804 and one of our pastoral staff will welcome you into the party and help you with next steps.

In just a moment, our worship team is going to lead us in singing as a time to respond to our King.

• The invitation remains for you.
• And church, the call remains for us to keep inviting … God is not done inviting everyone to the Kingdom.
• So let’s pray to these ends:

“God, thank you for sending out your invitation to me and all who have already said yes. You call us your people, your church, your servants and you send us back out with invitations for everyone. Remind us daily of your call. Give us joy and courage in inviting people to come and meet Jesus.

Thank you, God, that you are inviting people right now. You are pursuing someone at this moment. For those who have your invite in hand, would you grant them the gift of faith to say yes, I am coming to meet you, Jesus! Would they experience the mercy and grace that you offer in your son, Jesus! May everything else in this moment pale in comparison and may Jesus become so clear as we enter into his presence. Jesus, we say yes, we want to meet with you, we want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

Benediction

Our benediction today comes from Ephesians 3,

²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!

¹⁷ Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Amen.

Thank you for being with us today. I invite you to join us again next week as Pastor Brad concludes our series in Matthew’s Gospel, asking once again, “Who is Jesus and how does he change my life?”