“…God’s kingdom,” He said, “is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for His Son. He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn’t come! He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the Feast!’ They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city. Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out in to the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on – every place filled. When the King entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed. He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’ The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, ‘Get him out of here – fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn’t get back in.’ That’s what I mean when I say, ‘Many will get invited; only a few make it.’
MATTHEW 22:1-14 The Message Remix
What revelation is found in these scriptures! I look at the “church” today as the ‘invited guests’ – you know, the ones who wouldn’t come to the feast set before them. Jesus is calling to His chosen Bride, saying, “Come and Feast of Me” and how desperately we need to consume ourselves with Christ alone! His words from John 14, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to Father except through Me” continually echo within my spirit. He is calling to the Church and we have ignored His precious voice for the sake of doing our own thing. Just like in the scriptures above, we have “…shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop…” – how this must break our Savior’s heart!
The wedding banquet was entirely prepared and yet they ignored His call. So, He sends his servants into the streets, inviting ALL who would come, good or bad, regardless. Every place was then filled and the feast would begin. But right at the very moment the fest should begin, the King comes in and looks everything over. He peers through Holy Fire because nothing impure or unholy can make it into His presence. He finds one who had not come in prepared, he wasn’t dressed properly. I certainly do not believe this has anything to do with outward appearances. Clothing in the natural form is not what Jesus searches. He looks into and searches the heart in its truest form and intent. The person He found at the banquet was not worthy to eat from the king’s table because he did not know the King! He was not covered in His grace, and had tried to enter under his own strength, his own way of doing things. Sadly, this man was bound and cast into Hell, which is a very real place that no one seems to want to talk about any longer.
Who wants to hear about a place of eternal fire anyway? This place of everlasting separation from God is real and, when we leave this part out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we fail to share the ENTIRE truth of God’s Holy Word. Yes, He is a loving God, who is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance…” (2 Peter 3:9). But you should also know that God expects to be number One. The very first of the Ten Commandments is about Him:
“No other Gods, only Me.”
Exodus 20:3 The Message Remix
And He is a “most jealous God” – His words, not mine. Read verses 4-6 of Exodus 20. He does not expect or desire to be anything less than FIRST in your life. Nothing less will do either. You cannot be half committed to Christ, while still being committed to your own life and how you want to live it. For one, it isn’t yours in the first place. The Word of God says “you are not your own” and that “you have been bought with a price”, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Second, Jesus gave His whole, entire and pure life so that you can have eternal life in Him. There is only ONE way to this eternal life and that is thru Jesus Christ. He took on the sin of the world, past present and future; He was painfully tortured and crucified; He died and was buried but He rose again from the dead on the third day – glorious and victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave! All He asks of you is nothing less that what He willingly gave in the first place.
Now the tough words from the story of the wedding feast….
When the second set of messenger’s went to the invited guests and told them, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the Feast!’ They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop.” We have already established that, basically, they could have cared less about the feast, merely interested in doing their own thing, going out things like “business as usual.”
What happened to the messengers? The remaining guests, those who weren’t going off to “do” something, really had nothing else but time on their hands. So…”The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. “ Yes, they killed them and such will happen to messengers of the King. But notice the very next line, “The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.”
The messengers were killed but the soldiers destroyed the others – both worked for the King. Some were killed while giving the message and, in the end, the King executed his judgment on the rest and His soldier’s did the killing. “Vengeance is Mine” says the Lord, “I will repay” comes to mind here (Romans 12:19).
I suppose this writing is more of a word of warning than anything else. Just because you call yourself a believer, don’t think for a moment that God’s judgment isn’t coming. It is coming and it is coming FIRST for the House of God, the Church. The Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ and it MUST be pure and without spot or wrinkle. His Holy Fire is coming to purify so that we may be found worthy of entering into His kingdom, to dine at that Wedding Banquet.
Submit yourselves wholly unto the Lord. Let Him have His way in your life, forgetting your hopes, dreams and your own desires instead seeking after His kingdom. Yes, it is a great sacrifice but also one that comes with an eternal reward – life everlasting in His presence!
MATTHEW 22:1-14 The Message Remix
What revelation is found in these scriptures! I look at the “church” today as the ‘invited guests’ – you know, the ones who wouldn’t come to the feast set before them. Jesus is calling to His chosen Bride, saying, “Come and Feast of Me” and how desperately we need to consume ourselves with Christ alone! His words from John 14, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to Father except through Me” continually echo within my spirit. He is calling to the Church and we have ignored His precious voice for the sake of doing our own thing. Just like in the scriptures above, we have “…shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop…” – how this must break our Savior’s heart!
The wedding banquet was entirely prepared and yet they ignored His call. So, He sends his servants into the streets, inviting ALL who would come, good or bad, regardless. Every place was then filled and the feast would begin. But right at the very moment the fest should begin, the King comes in and looks everything over. He peers through Holy Fire because nothing impure or unholy can make it into His presence. He finds one who had not come in prepared, he wasn’t dressed properly. I certainly do not believe this has anything to do with outward appearances. Clothing in the natural form is not what Jesus searches. He looks into and searches the heart in its truest form and intent. The person He found at the banquet was not worthy to eat from the king’s table because he did not know the King! He was not covered in His grace, and had tried to enter under his own strength, his own way of doing things. Sadly, this man was bound and cast into Hell, which is a very real place that no one seems to want to talk about any longer.
Who wants to hear about a place of eternal fire anyway? This place of everlasting separation from God is real and, when we leave this part out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we fail to share the ENTIRE truth of God’s Holy Word. Yes, He is a loving God, who is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance…” (2 Peter 3:9). But you should also know that God expects to be number One. The very first of the Ten Commandments is about Him:
“No other Gods, only Me.”
Exodus 20:3 The Message Remix
And He is a “most jealous God” – His words, not mine. Read verses 4-6 of Exodus 20. He does not expect or desire to be anything less than FIRST in your life. Nothing less will do either. You cannot be half committed to Christ, while still being committed to your own life and how you want to live it. For one, it isn’t yours in the first place. The Word of God says “you are not your own” and that “you have been bought with a price”, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Second, Jesus gave His whole, entire and pure life so that you can have eternal life in Him. There is only ONE way to this eternal life and that is thru Jesus Christ. He took on the sin of the world, past present and future; He was painfully tortured and crucified; He died and was buried but He rose again from the dead on the third day – glorious and victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave! All He asks of you is nothing less that what He willingly gave in the first place.
Now the tough words from the story of the wedding feast….
When the second set of messenger’s went to the invited guests and told them, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the Feast!’ They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop.” We have already established that, basically, they could have cared less about the feast, merely interested in doing their own thing, going out things like “business as usual.”
What happened to the messengers? The remaining guests, those who weren’t going off to “do” something, really had nothing else but time on their hands. So…”The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. “ Yes, they killed them and such will happen to messengers of the King. But notice the very next line, “The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.”
The messengers were killed but the soldiers destroyed the others – both worked for the King. Some were killed while giving the message and, in the end, the King executed his judgment on the rest and His soldier’s did the killing. “Vengeance is Mine” says the Lord, “I will repay” comes to mind here (Romans 12:19).
I suppose this writing is more of a word of warning than anything else. Just because you call yourself a believer, don’t think for a moment that God’s judgment isn’t coming. It is coming and it is coming FIRST for the House of God, the Church. The Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ and it MUST be pure and without spot or wrinkle. His Holy Fire is coming to purify so that we may be found worthy of entering into His kingdom, to dine at that Wedding Banquet.
Submit yourselves wholly unto the Lord. Let Him have His way in your life, forgetting your hopes, dreams and your own desires instead seeking after His kingdom. Yes, it is a great sacrifice but also one that comes with an eternal reward – life everlasting in His presence!
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