Wedding Clothes
Background Story: Jesus often spoke in parables revealing the deep truths of God in stories.
Read Matthew 22:1-14
Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven 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!
4 “So 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. 8 And he 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.
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. 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.”
Big Idea: Sin is covered by the blood of the Lamb.
God has invited all to come to the wedding feast He is preparing. But in the parable, the King noticed, “a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding.” What must we wear to be dressed and ready to attend?
-WHAT NOT TO WEAR: We can’t wear our good deeds. No matter how good or bad we have been in this life, we will never be “good enough” to enter on our own merits. And when we try to cover ourselves with our good deeds and righteous acts, Isaiah 64:6 says, “they are nothing but filthy rags” compared to the perfection and holiness of God.
-WHAT TO WEAR: Salvation is found in Jesus and Jesus alone. His blood alone covers our sin and shame making us right before God. Starting at the first sin when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and sin, we read in Genesis 3:21 that, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” God clothed their nakedness, sin, and shame with the garment of sacrifice.
To attend the feast in God’s kingdom, we must come clothed in Jesus’ sacrifice. We do this by admitting our sin and utter need for a Savior. By faith, we confess that Jesus died on the cross to take our place and rose again defeating death and the grave. This is propitiation which means that Jesus is our substitute who took upon Himself the consequence of our sin and makes us righteous before God. Through Jesus we proclaim, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).
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