The Lord’s Day 1 May 2005
EXPLANATION OF A PARABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
AND THE CONTENTION WHICH FOLLOWED
Reading – Matthew 22:1-35 – (A great chain of events followed the telling of this parable. God willing, we will look at these next week, but this week, we will look at the parable itself in the context in which it was given – Note the summary of the chapter as follows.)
The chapter begins with a parable, to teach the people a lesson, and continues with no less than three challenges from the Pharisees and Sadducees, which Jesus had to answer before there could be peace. Notice that this is very reminiscent of a recent lesson from Matthew 4, where Jesus was tempted by the devil three times before he would back off. God’s Truth is always under attack – “There is no discharge in that war”. No wonder Peter said, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”(1 Peter 5:8) – We must resist the devil, and we must resist every attack against our faith (and against “the faith” in general), recognizing it is the devil himself who is behind them. Remember poor old Peter at one point opposed the Lord to His face, vowing and declaring that He would not be going to His death, and the Lord rebuked Peter with the most shocking words, “Get thee behind me Satan: thou art an offence un to me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matthew 16:23).
Yet this provocative parable and the challenges that followed opened up a marvellous opportunity for Jesus to add to the parable four more lessons, handed down for the benefit of all generations. Let us remember too that, not only did Jesus not shrink from the confrontation (as we tend to do), but even the parable He gave in the beginning was quite provocative when you consider that He spoke it in the ears of the Pharisees and Sadducees. In other words, Jesus deliberately taught truths which He knew would be unpopular, which He knew would even stir up strife, but He knew He must for it is by God’s Truth that those who are willing are set free. (John 8:32). And we might well add, that if nobody had received His doctrine on that day, it would still have been the right thing for Him to declare it, for it is God’s Truth, and God is glorified in the declaration of His infallible Truth! So He patiently laboured on, bearing insults and conflicts, for the sake of His needy people, and for the glory of God. We must do likewise!
So, before we even get to the lessons covered in the parable, let us take note that we must press on in the face of all challenges and temptations, for this is the great lesson running through the entire event of that day, as we see in this chapter. If your personal holiness is under attack; if your authority as a mother or father is being challenged; if as a husband your position and duty are being challenged by your wife; if as a Church our important doctrines are being attacked and challenged, or if the order of the Church is being jeopardized in some way; let us patiently press on. The victory is ours for the taking through Him who put both the devil and his agents to flight every time. The outcome will be glorious, for God’s Word shall not return void; it will prosper and prevail, no matter how precarious the situation might look.
Lessons Of The Parable:
Note, the term, kingdom of heaven is used – Recently we studied in depth this term and noticed that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are the same thing; also that the word “heaven” here carries a strong connotation that the kingdom is from heaven, that it is based in heaven, that the King is enthroned in heaven, that its nature is heavenly as opposed to earthly, spiritual in both nature and character. Yet, while it is a heavenly kingdom, it has already begun (properly at Christ’s ascension to His heavenly throne), and is now affecting all the earth. If we do not see this at first, the whole parable will be confusing to us. It is interesting to note that even in our Scripture reading this morning (Psalm 11), we read, “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.” Even David, in his day, understood that the kingdom of heaven was a spiritual kingdom, and that the true “temple” and “throne” were in heaven.
God is the “king” – (verse 2)
Christ is the “son” – (verse 2)
The wedding invitation is the preaching of the gospel of Christ – (verses 3-4), especially to the Jews at the time of Christ. You will recall also that we noted even at the commissioning of the twelve apostles, they were told not to go to the gentiles but to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”. (Matthew 10:1-7)
Note, there was a finishing work for the Lord to do in Israel. Her days were numbered. These were the days of final warning before the judgment.
The responses to the invitations represent the response of the Jews to Christ and His gospel – (verse 5-6). Some were indifferent and preoccupied with their own business; others were violent and spiteful. So it is today as the gospel is preached. Gospel preaching is not a peaceful occupation. The message and the messenger at continually reproached – either by being ignored altogether or by being under attack in one way or another.
The associated feast and celebration is the worship of the visible Church on earth. Sometimes we make the mistake of seeing language in scripture which is similar to something stated in another place, and so we assume the meaning is the same e.g. sometimes whenever Christians see the word “baptism” they assume it speaks of water baptism, but the word is used in other contexts. So, we must look carefully at the context of what we are reading and the meaning will be clearer. The other trap is to read parables and prophecies too literally. It has to be remembered that a parable is an illustration in the form of a story and the story itself is not necessarily factual, nor does it illustrate every detail perfectly. The point here is that many remember “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19), which is commonly interpreted as being an event which occurs at the return of Christ, and an assumption is made that this parable speaks of that day. This is a striking illustration of the fact that we are strongly swayed in our thinking by all sorts of prevailing opinions and traditions. This is the very reason why we must continually study the Scriptures and apply them to every issue and aspect of our lives and thinking. Never assume that your thinking is truly independent and unbiased! This is a fatal mistake. But it can easily be cured if we do not make the second fatal mistake of not allowing Scripture to test all of our thinking and opinions.
This might at first sound a bit far-fetched but, as I say, the parable is simply an illustration, and you will find that if we get the correct meaning of that illustration, other Scriptures will chime in perfectly with that correct meaning e.g. in the letter to the Laodiceans, Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20). Again this metaphor Jesus used speaks of fellowship or communion with Him in the Church.
The Lord’s Supper is a reminder of this each week. Luke 22:15-22 provides further insight into this same subject of “the kingdom of God”. Christ’s death was a fulfilment of the shadow-prophecy of the Passover feast – the Lamb slain. And here in His last Passover with His disciples, He declares that that event was to be equated with the kingdom of God, and event which was to occur that very day! Similarly, in verses 17-18, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.” In this, Jesus was simply saying, “This is the last time I will drink with you in this way. In just a few days I will be enthroned “on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3), and my kingdom will be an eternal reality.
The “marriage” is the union between Christ and His Church – i.e. literally the spiritual union which occurs between Christ and a believer the moment of the new birth. It is a bond that can never be broken. It is an eternal union with Christ and with God. This is why marriage is so important and why Jesus said, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matthew 19:6) So, for marriage to be a true picture of Christ’s eternal union with His people, it must be kept pure and intact otherwise it fails to show the eternal nature of that union with Christ.
If Christian marriage was more often the very pinnacle of love, joy, peace, harmony and heavenly order it is intended to be, I wonder if such a picture of Christ’s union with His Church might catch the attention of many more potential converts to Christ? In general, if Christian homes were happier, would more friends and neighbours be happier to look to Christ and find eternal life? Here is a challenge for us all – It is not so much the work we do for God that counts, but it is what we are in Him. The greatest thing any man can do is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church; and the greatest thing any woman can do is to be an “help meet” for her husband. These two things are the greatest things a man and his wife can do for their children.
Those invited as guests are in reality also the bride (Note: the bride is not actually mentioned in the parable. This is the reason, for it is impossible to illustrate some spiritual truths in every detail by earthly examples, and why parables must not be stretched beyond their intended meaning.)
Those who refused to come are unbelievers, whether religious or irreligious, but particularly the Jews who would not receive Christ. They are subjects of the King, i.e. the people of God in a broad sense. They had been God’s Covenant people for centuries. And they are those guilty of killing the prophets.
Jerusalem is the “city” (verse 7), which was burned up – This happened in 70AD as history records (just 40 years after this parable was told).
The king’s “armies” (verse 7) were the Roman armies under general Titus. This prophecy was fulfilled in a very real way.
Those from the highways (verse 10) and hedges are people of all nations who receive Christ. Under the New Covenant in Christ, as never before, the kingdom of heaven is thrown open to all nations, and the declaration and invitation is to be taken to all nations.
The servants (verse 10) are gospel preachers. Jesus said to His apostles, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16:15-16)
Compare gospel preaching to a wedding invitation and you get a good picture of the best approach. All sorts of methods are employed these days to get people into Church or to get them to make a so-called decision for Christ. All that the Lord requires of His preachers is that they “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), i.e. somehow he reaches the whole population with the message. This does not mean the local Church or every local Christian is personally responsible to reach every soul on earth! It means that the whole Church (worldwide) must reach the whole world with the message. It does not mean that the Church must build hospitals and orphanages and feed and cloth all the poor. A very good parallel example of a similar invitation is before us at present. Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s funeral is advertised in the local “South Burnett Times”. It is a State Funeral, but it has been stated plainly that all may attend. This message has been sent to potentially 30000 or so people in the whole South Burnett district. Those who wish to come cannot say they were not invited. Those who have other things to do can please themselves. Do we see the government or the Bjelke-Petersen family sending out thousands of ushers to knock on every door, agitating and hassling the people, asking them again and again when they will do the right thing and answer the invitation? The idea would be ridiculous! Yet people do this when it comes to gospel preaching! Did Jesus do this? Did His apostles do this? No! They simply declared the Truth of God publicly and to individual persons as the Lord brought them in contact with by His providence.
Notice, Jesus in this chapter, was exercising a public ministry within the realm of the order of religion of the day, and this, in turn, led to questions and challenges, as the Lord God brought them to pass. The Lord has set a pattern and plan for His Church which is so simple and straight-forward that we don’t have to be university graduates to understand it. In fact it is usually the more highly educated who confuse and complicate the message and work of the Church. If fisherman, tax-collectors, farmers and children could understand the message, it couldn’t be too difficult. But of course, highly educated theologians have arisen and their complicated and convoluted dogmas need to be answered by the Church. Let us remember that, although we must answer the questions and meet the challenges of our day, that the basic plan for the Church and its mission is very simple! Too many good men are casualties of Christian Ministry because the Church has followed a sophisticated plan which was impossible for them to maintain. How can we expect young men to take on the awesome responsibility of the Ministry if they are faced with such an impossible task? May the Lord bring on the day again when fishermen and farmers are called to the Ministry, and who understand what the ministry of the Word is, so that ordinary people everywhere will see the glory of God in the local Churches, revealed in the simplicity of faithful practical family-based Christianity!
Notice that “good and bad” are called by the gospel – Well might we sing, “Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God I come.” The gospel is for sinners, for Christ came to save sinners. We cannot make ourselves fit to come to Him. By God grace alone, we are made fit for the kingdom of heaven.
The “wedding garment” (verse 11) is the righteousness of Christ imputed to His people. All who trust in their own righteousness or in anything other than Christ’s righteousness alone are not saved, not admitted into the heavenly kingdom. This is not the scene in heaven, for in heaven there are only those who do have Christ’s “wedding garment” on. The parable is not speaking of heaven, but of the “kingdom of heaven”, which we have seen repeatedly, is a present and spiritual kingdom affecting people on earth now. So the scene of this feast is the gathered Church on earth. “Our conversation is in heaven…” (Philippians 3:20). Some translate this as our citizenship being in heaven, which probably throws a little more light on what the apostle was really saying.
“Many are called” (by the preaching of the gospel) but, “few are chosen” (verse 14) (called inwardly by the Spirit of God) – Few are the elect of God, “Israelites in deed”. Few are Jews inwardly, having the circumcision of the heart. There is a great need to clarify this doctrine – as straight forward as it is, it has been confused no end by the heresies that abound. In fact, it would be fair to say that Reformed Churches around the world are currently in crisis on this point, but like the Pharisees and Sadducees, most are oblivious to the importance of this issue, and many even contend hotly against the truth because the current traditions are so strong and well-entrenched.
Here again is that old acorn which seems so hard to crack. There are basic doctrines of the faith that are clear in the Scriptures, were made clear again during the Reformation, but have since been lost by the Church to a large extent. Let me digress a little to explain how that many great men and popular teachers have ever so subtly brought division and confusion to the Church. As we also read in Psalm 11 this morning, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” We must, by all means, keep the foundational doctrines of the Church solid:- JC Ryle was described by the great CH Spurgeon as “the best man in the Church of England”, and indeed, Ryle was likely one of the best men ever to have been a member of the Church of England. But this is not to say he was perfect in every way. Personally I value Ryle’s work so highly that I use his commentary on the gospels every day, yet I recognize he was not a true Calvinist (to put it in theologian’s terms, JC Ryle was not Calvinist but Amyraldian – I use the term so you can recognize it if you want to do further research. Most heresies throughout Church history have been labelled by the names of those largely responsible for making them popular. Such is Amyraldianism, which is closely related to Arminianism. If Calvinism is white and Arminianism black, then Amyraldianism is a very pale grey. “Calvinism”, by contrast, is not an heresy, but is so named because Calvin gave the most thorough defence of the gospel against heresies in his day and since.) i.e. Ryle had a slightly distorted understanding of God’s outworking of His plan of salvation for mankind. What that boils down to in simple terms is that he believed and taught that Christ died an atoning death, not for the elect only, but for every man. The implication, which he also taught is that while God planned to save only His elect people chosen from the foundation of the world, yet He still desires that all men should answer the gospel call and be saved. Of course this is self-contradictory and impossible, but Mr Ryle and others justify it by the idea that we can’t understand the deep things of God. But while it is true that we can’t understand all the deep things of God, it is just as true that we can understand that God does not contradict Himself. God is not less intelligent that we are – He is infinitely more intelligent, but being more intelligent does not mean irrational. What we can also be quite sure of is the things that are plainly written, and this is where Ryle and others fail. You see the problem we have today is that, like the Pharisees, modern theologians like to be popular, and it is hard to be popular when you state the plain truth that God has chosen some and rejected others, without any reference to their supposed personal virtues. This is not a difficult doctrine if we simply let the Scriptures be our only rule. Romans 9 is the apostle Paul’s defence of this doctrine. You might like to note also that it was on this very doctrine that the Lord Jesus lost many of His followers – See John 6:66, and notice why they departed by reading the previous verses.
You might at times be almost wearied by my continual mention of these points of doctrine, but if you are patient, in time you will understand the importance of re-establishing this doctrine in the Reformed and Evangelical Churches. It is the very neglect and distortion of this doctrine of predestination that has been white-anting the whole structure of the Christian Church for decades. It is the loss of this doctrine that has been undoing the great work of the Protestant Reformation. Nor is this a difficult doctrine suited only to theologians and high intellectuals. It can and must be taught to children. Every child can understand that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, He gave His life for His Sheep, He personally rescues His lost sheep and they are for ever safe in His keeping, that we are His sheep if we hear His voice and those that do not hear His voice cannot hear it because they are not His sheep. This is the reason I constantly labour to make this doctrine clear to you – so that you have a sufficiently clear understanding of it that you can teach it to your children and to others. I can think of no greater tragedy for the Church than that the Ministers understand the important doctrines but they don’t teach it to the people, so the doctrine is lost to a generation because they failed to pass it on, which is their primary duty. But a worse tragedy has befallen the Churches of our day – in many cases the Ministers themselves do not understand the doctrine, so the blind lead the blind. Just the other day I read an article which pointed out that the Baptist Union of South Australia published an advertisement extolling Pope John Paul ii as “a great Christian statesman” with “vibrant faith” and “clear Christian teaching”. Such a statement could only be made by a rank unbeliever, but these are the sorts of men who are leading the Baptist Churches of our day! Over the years, those who have stood boldly against errors in the Churches have been ridiculed as extreme or fanatical or obsessed, but with the passage of time it is being proven that these so-called “obsessions” were justified – the issue has not been some minor point of preference but the very foundation of the gospel itself!
The Lord’s Supper:
Remember what we read in Luke 22:15-22, and let us reflect on this as we commemorate the Lord’s death and resurrection in the emblems He provided for the purpose. Let us note particularly today, that these things are now fulfilled in the kingdom of God, and we worship a risen and reigning Saviour, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.