Be Excited For God’s Banquet

“Are you ready? It starts at 6 o’clock.”  Ready for what?  It doesn’t really matter.  Maybe it’s a wedding or play, or a ball game or a movie.  You’ve been in that situation.  You want to get going to wherever it is you’re going, and you’re wondering if the person you’re going with will ever get their shoes on so you can go!!?? Today I want you to change places. First, put yourself in the shoes of the one who has arranged the banquet or is performing in the play or playing in the ball game or running the movie theater.  Second, put yourself in the shoes of the one who is trying to get her shoes on.  If you do this before Jesus returns on Judgment Day it is going to be a game changer to

Be Excited For God’s Banquet

RSVP – to the Host

Most of us don’t speak French, but we see it on invitations – the abbreviation RSVP.  It means, “Respond, if you please.”  God sends us an invitation today through this parable recorded in Matthew 21 because the banquet is ready. Jesus does not offer a lot of details about the preparation of this wedding banquet or the items on the menu.  He simply begins his story by saying,

“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” 

Jesus didn’t tell us about all the details of this banquet. It is enough for us to picture this banquet as elaborate, elegant, and exquisite, grand, great, and glorious, matchless, magnificent, and marvelous, superb, sublime, and sumptuous.  What more details do you need?  You’ve got the picture!  It’s going to be awesome and the host would love to hear that you’re coming!

The one point of the story we do know is what the banquet stands for.  It is a picture of what it means to be in the sphere of God’s love.  And the most important factor for us to know is that it’s all prepared.  When the king sent out the invitations, he did not send his servants with the message, “The king would like you to come to his banquet hall for a delicious banquet which you will enjoy right after you scrub the floors and wash the windows.”  The servants did not say, “The king is inviting you to a banquet, but it’s b.y.o.s. – bring your own steak.”  Nor did the servants say, “The king would like you to join him at a banquet.  Tickets are on sale at TicketMaster for just $59.99 per person or $69.99 if you want soup, salad, and dessert.”  No!  In the story the king made it abundantly clear, especially in the second wave of invitations,

“Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!”

It’s done.  It is finished.

Jesus uses this parable to give insight into the Host and the blessings of his banquet.  He says, “If you want to connect with me and be truly happy now and forever, then you have to match up to my standards. 

Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy”

Leviticus 19:2

We say, “Lord, that’s impossible.”  He responds, “That’s right.  It is impossible for you.”  But instead of continuing by saying, “Tough luck!  Greet the devil for me when you see him,” God says, “What you cannot do, I am sending my Son to do.”  Jesus did it.  He lived up to the full measure of God’s expectations.  He matched every detail of God’s demands.  “It is finished,” he cried from the cross.  There is no more to do, and nothing anyone could do.  Now here’s the good part.  God counts what Jesus did as though we did it.  That’s the banquet of God’s love.  That’s what’s on the menu.

You’ve probably heard this before, but I’ll tell it anyway because it fits.  Dad decided to take his little five-year-old daughter to the ball game.  It happened to be “Glove Night.”  As they walked through the turnstiles, a ballpark employee handed a glove to the little girl, but when Dad looked down, he saw tears streaming down her cheeks.  “What’s the matter, Honey?” he asked.  Choking back the tears, the little girl replied, “Daddy, I really wanted to come to the game, but I didn’t want to have to play!!”

Imagine if God appeared to you on your way out of church today and said, “If you want forgiveness, you are going to have to play the game of human life, and you’ll have to play by all of my rules all of the time.  Otherwise, no forgiveness of sins for you!”  Thank God, he simply invites, “Come to the … banquet.”  The fact is we way too often blow it and do not play by his rules.  That’s why we want to RSVP to the Lord by reading God’s promises in the Bible.  That’s why we RSVP our fears with a Christian friend who is willing to listen and then ready to speak, “You’re forgiven,” why we come to worship every week, why walk down this aisle to his holy meal every other week.  We say, “Lord, we have sinned,” and he responds, “I know.  But Jesus didn’t.  The blessings of the banquet of my love are yours anyway.  He earned them, and he gives them to you.  The meal is ready.  It is done.  Come to the … banquet.” My friends, RSVP to God with a BIG THANK YOU and Be Excited!  You’re Going To The Lord’s Banquet!  Then think about some others you might know that need to RSPV too!

Share Your Invitation

We know Jesus’ parable divides people into two groups.  While we praise the Lord that we belong to the group who anxiously waiting to attend the banquet,  there are those who are in the “not interested” category.  Some were some afflicted with apathy and some filled with shocking hatred!

“⁵ “But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them.” 

This breaks our hearts to hear the news. This is a big difference between Christianity and other religions.  You know of religions that say, “If you don’t believe in my god, then I’m going to kill you.”  Christians say, “If you don’t believe in Jesus, it’s going to kill me!”  So, in the parable those who rejected the invitation we would call unbelievers.  They would be judged for their rejection of the host’s invitation,

“⁷ As a result, the king was very angry. He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.”

However, the gracious Host of the Banquet wasn’t finished.

“⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹ So go to the main crossroads and invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰ Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”  

It is easy for us to get Jesus’ point of this parable:

“¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

I hope and pray you take this parable to heart and invite others to come and hear the glorious gospel.  Think of a neighbor you could invite.  Think of an acquaintance at grocery store you run into all the time, a relative that has drifted away from church, a friend who is a great person, but needs Jesus.  Pray for them and then invite them.

There is another surprise in Jesus’ parable that we want to pay attention to. I once read that it was a common practice for the host of a wedding to provide clothes for those invited.  This seems to be obvious to those who heard Jesus’ parable. What a surprise to hear this!

“¹¹ But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. ¹³ Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Can you imagine the guests getting their wardrobe and heading to the changing rooms, but one guys says, “You can hand me whatever outfit you want.  I’m not going to put those wedding clothes on.”  That is outright rejection and leads to his judgment. Dear Christian friends, the Lord Jesus has clothed you with his robe of righteousness at your baptism. Listen to the apostle,

“All of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ”

Galatians 3:27

That is a historic fact!  Praise the Lord for your wedding robe.  Remember what you’re wearing when your physical health goes south and your patience is being tested.  That’s a perfect time to Be Excited About God’s Banquet in heaven where there is no more pain or suffering. Remember what you’re wearing when your marriage hits a bump in the road. That’s a perfect time to Be Excited About God’s Banquet in heaven and get back to where God wants you to be as husband and wife. When work piles on, when the folks have to go to a nursing home, when the baby is coughing and wheezing in the middle of the night, when the demands of the schedule seem to overwhelm you, when you can’t seem to find the right job, when the stock market crashes and your retirement investments seem to be sinking like the Titanic…. That’s a perfect time to Be Excited About God’s Banquet in heaven. Then think of someone you can share this invite with so they can be excited with you!

Are you ready? I’m not talking about your next date night, ball game, or movie.  I’m talking about heaven.  First, look at the host of Wedding Banquet of the Lamb in Heaven.  He did it all for you.  RSVP often that you’re ready! Second, put yourself in the shoes of someone you know who is trying to get their shoes on. Be quick and eager to Share Jesus’ Invitation with them and say, “Jesus loves you.  He died for you.  He forgave all your sins.  Trust in Jesus.” Come on Everybody!  Let’s Be Excited For God’s Banquet!  Amen!