HEAVEN AND HELL

HEAVEN AND HELL
You are Invited to a Wedding: RSVP

John Newton said that when we get to heaven, there will be three wonders:
1. Who is there
2. Who is not there, and
3. The fact that I'm there!

Read Matthew 22:1 to 14

This winter I have been preaching through a series of themes. We began with the topic of prayer- prayer is the Christians vital breath. It is God’s means of grace to do His will and to give us the desires of our hearts.

In March our theme was Spiritual warfare. God has provided us with weapons so that we can have victory over Satan, whose greatest weapon is the pride. Our great victory over Satan comes through taming our pride.

And all that is foundational to what we are going to focus on this month: evangelism. Evangelism is the labour of every Christian. It is the fruit of a life that is anchored in Prayer and Spiritual victory.

Christians must bear this mind: everyone you meet has a final destiny- it is either heaven or it is hell and it is most likely to be the latter.

In fact, every stranger you meet you ought to assume is going to hell and you may be the last Christian that they will meet before they die. If you saw that the bridge was out, wouldn’t you want to notify everyone, regardless of whether or not they were actually heading to the bridge? How much more imperative is a persons eternal destiny?

The truth is we more likely assume that everyone will get to heaven one way or another relieving ourselves of the duty to tell them how to get there.

Let’s look at this parable and see what we can learn from Jesus about our roles as servants in his kingdom.

1. So Jesus has been teaching the message about the good news of the kingdom of heaven, but for the most part it has been about abstract things, intangible things… altruistic things. Things like mercy, forgiveness, prayer, healing, charity, love…

But the practical person says, “Give me something concrete that I can sink my teeth into… something I can taste, touch, feel...”

So Jesus takes the conceptual truths of heaven and recounts them to us in the form of these parable- the parables of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who had two sons; the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner; the kingdom of heaven is like a sower; like a prince who went to another kingdom to be crowned; and here, the kingdom of heaven is like a king.

The king is God, the son- Jesus (oh how “the Father loves the Son” Jn 3:55) and the wedding is the marriage of the lamb.
In the Old Testament God over and over again depicts His union to Israel as a marriage- that’s how Jesus’ hearers would have construed this parable.

Jesus once told the parable of the ten virgins who went out with their lamps to receive the bridegroom, but some of them ran out of oil for their lamps. While they were away purchasing more oil, the bridegroom came and took the remaining five virgins, but the others were locked out of the party.

Jesus is the bridegroom. He described his disciples as his groomsmen when the Pharisees criticized them for not fasting. Jesus expected they would have plenty of time to fast once the bridegroom had gone away (Mk 2:19-20).

The New Testament tells us that the bride is much larger than just Israel though. The bride is the church, which includes believing Jews who put their faith in Jesus Christ as well as saints from the Old Testament: Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah and all.

“The voice of a great multitude was heard in heaven to say, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come, and his wife (the Church) has made herself ready.” (Revelation 19:6ff), “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

2. (Verse 3), So his servants are sent out to invite, to bid, call, to proclaim the coming wedding. Do you recall Jesus last words in the Gospel? We read it last week: Mark’s gospel says it like this, “go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mk 16:15). Luke records in the book of Acts Jesus’ last words, “You will be clothed with power from the Holy Spirit to be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). The Great commission is for us, not just the Apostles. We are invited, we are all sent to invite.

So the servants go out to call those who are invited, but the invitees don’t come. In fact, they mistreat the servants, they shame them; they even kill them. Jesus was despised and rejected. He said that if the world hated him, they will also hate his servants.

This parable is a picture of the prophets going to Israel. It’s reminiscent of the parable of the Wicked Tenants that Jesus recounted to the Pharisees. A landowner sent his servants to collect the rent but the tenants refused to pay. They mistreated some of the servants and killed the others. Finally the landowner sent his son, and they killed the son.

Those Pharisees sought to lay hands on Jesus after that because “They knew he had spoken the parable against them” (Mk 12:12). “The Stone that builders rejected has become the corner stone.”

The Great Puritan preacher, Richard Baxter wrote:
"Why are not our hearts continually set on heaven? Why dwell we not there in constant comtemplation?...Bend thy soul to study eternity, busy thyself about the life to come, habituate thyself to such contemplations, and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory, but bathe thyself in heaven's delights."

3. (Verse 7), the king… God is incensed; He’s furious. He is an all consuming fire- God will have His vengeance though. “…do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10:28).

So the king sends out his armies (not his servants). I believe these may be angels and this is an allusion to the judgment of the last days. But there is a double meaning here and the armies are the Roman armies who came and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 72 putting an end to temple Judaism and it is still rubble to this day. And this is a prophecy of Jesus that was most certainly fulfilled in the lifetime of most of his hearers.

Jesus came not to call the righteous, but to call sinners (Mk 2:17). He calls his sheep by name and leads them out (Jn 10:3). “Moreover, whom He predestined, these He called, whom He called, these He also justified” (Rom 8:30) and has washed in the blood of the lamb and given to them new garments to wear.

This is the rejection of Israel, or rather, Israel’s rejection of their God and Messiah. From now on there is neither Jew nor Greek, we are all one in Christ. The church age has begun. The age of ritual sacrifices and Priestly intercessors has ended. Jesus is now our sacrifice and our high priest. There is no longer any need for a priest or a pope or a pastor or prophet to mediate between us an God- we have access to His throne.

We are His servants… sent out to call, to proclaim, to preach… to invite people every tribe and tongue and nation. This is a Holy Calling. Come to the wedding feast. Come out of darkness into light.

How beautiful are the feet that bring good news. Are not the feet beautiful of the ones who told you about Jesus? Are your feet beautiful?

No longer are we servants, we are friends, brothers and sisters. George Whitefield said, “Christ will take in the devil’s cast-aways.”

4. (Verse 11), finally the wedding feast is about to begin. The guests are made up of Jew and Gentile alike, prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners, the dregs of society because the religious and the self righteous decline to attend. They had their own wedding feasts, their own kings, their own religion. They did it their way and now the banquet is about to begin and the door will be locked.

But an undesirable guest is among them, to be sure, he is an anti-Christ with the appearance of religion but denying the power. And like those first invitees, this man has refused to put on the robe of salvation. He’s a counterfeit convert.

Here two images, one of an enormous banquet with oxen and lamb, fine spices and the fruit of the vine, a wedding with guests and speeches and music, a celebration of life and salvation, friends that have not seen one another for many years, a family reunion….

The great Methodist preachers John Wesley and George Whitefield were mired in a bitter dispute over Election and Free will that lasted many years and severed their friendship. During the height of the controversy, a friend of Whitefield asked him if he believed he would see Wesley in Heaven, Whitefield was quick to reply; he said, “"I fear not, for he will be so near the eternal throne and we at such a distance, we shall hardly get sight of him."

And then a second image: one of chains, loss of will, darkness, loneliness, weeping, agony…. A place without exits.

People are going to one of two places, either heaven or hell.

There are people who have been taught since childhood about the love of Jesus, but they refuse to believe. They go to hell with the drops of their mother’s tears on their heads.

Hell is the place of God’s wrath. His fire burns, but the soul is never consumed. It is a place of everlasting anguish and torment.

How can a loving God make such a place you ask? The same God who came down here and warned us of the wrath to come and then died on the cross so that we would not have to go there.

What kind of God? A just God. Nobody goes to hell who does not belong there. The Justice of God is as faultless as His love. And they are both are satisfied at the cross. Refuse His love… choose his wrath.

Two applications:
1. I place before you life and death. Choose life. Choose the cross, cling to Jesus. Throw yourself upon him before he throws himself on you. Repent and believe the gospel. Come to the Father’s house, to the heavenly country, to the rest, to paradise, to the presence of His joy, to your heavenly treasure that never rusts, there is no more death there, no more tears, come to the wedding of the lamb- you are invited. Please RSVP.

2. Servant of God, go and warn people that there is coming a time of reckoning. Tell them about the cross, about the good news and the wedding feast of the lamb. If they come, you have turned them away from destruction, if they decline, their blood is on their own hands. Many are called, few are chosen.