Are You Ready to Eat?
Ah, the wedding feast. I love weddings. Doesn’t anybody need to get married around these parts? I’m available to do the ceremony. One of the best parts of a wedding is the food. It seems that most don’t spare any expense in preparing the food for a wedding. It is as though there is some secret contest going on as to who can have the best food stuff at a wedding. I’m not complaining!
In our scriptures this morning, we hear about a king who has a wedding ceremony about to take place. His son is about to get hitched. One of the biggest parts of the weddings of those days was the wedding feast. Can you imagine the wonderful foods prepared by the royal chefs? Oh how it must taste. The delectable delights awaiting the most particular palate would be surely do more than just satisfy.
All was ready, the food, the decorations, the furnishings. The invitation went out to the invited guest. The guest had more important things to do. Some were busy farming; others were too busy at their jobs to attend. Others simply were so annoyed at the persistent urging of the king that they killed the messengers. Maybe this is where the phrase “don’t kill the messenger” came from!
The king finds out about how his messengers were treated and became extremely ticked off. He was so furious that he sent his armies to kill those who treated his messengers so harshly. Not only did he get revenge for the death of his messengers, he burned their dwelling places and cities. I know if I ever get an invitation from a king, I’m surely going to clear my schedule! What about your?
Well, the king has a wedding feast ready but no guest. The king does the only thing he can and sends out more messengers to invite all who will come. Well it wasn’t long before the wedding hall was filled. We are told that even the bad folks were invited!
The king comes in and checks out those who came. He finds one that hasn’t prepared himself for this royal wedding. The king notices that this particular guest doesn’t have the proper clothes on. Well how persnickety can that be? I know I’ll be sure to check with Mrs. Manners on what to wear to a royal wedding if I’m ever invited!
The king has this man thrown out because he hasn’t prepared himself for this royal event. Not just thrown out, but bound hand and foot and sent to a place of torment. I’m not sure where this was, possibly a dungeon of sorts, but I don’t imagine the accommodations were anywhere close to a four star rating. This place causes those who are sent there tears and “gnashing of teeth”. I’ve been troubled in my heart many times in my life, but I can’t remember anytime where I felt I needed to gnash my teeth. Whatever torment was to come to this poor fellow was obviously very serious. We must also note that there was no time limit on this special place of torment. I would assume that this torment was forever since there is no exact sentence.
What does this parable mean to us today? Oh, it’s just a cute story of how a king didn’t let his wonderful food go to waste. I don’t think so friends. If we are careful, we can glean exactly the meaning of this parable.
Jesus spoke this parable about things that would soon happen. God is the king, Jesus is the son, the nation of Israel are the special guests. Israel rejected the wedding invitation and even killed kings son (along with the prophets and disciples). God destroyed the murderers along with their precious city of Jerusalem. After the carnage was over, the invitation came to everyone. By the way that means you and me. Whether you were Jew or Gentile, you had/have an invitation. What you do with the invitation is totally up to you. Have you accepted God’s royal invitation to come and dine with Christ? Have you rejected this invitation? Are you too busy with the farm or perhaps too busy at your job and your precious career?
The sentence given the unprepared guest is nothing less than hell. Hell is an eternity folks, there is no special presidential pardon that can be given. Bill Clinton cannot give you a reprieve if you haven’t prepared yourself by accepting Christ into your life.
Well, the feast comes to an end eventually. What then? What is next on God’s agenda after this feast with Christ? The answer is quite simple, eternity! To begin eternity means that this old corrupt world must go by the wayside. The beauty, the grandeur of the mountains, streams, lakes and skies all will fade away one day.
The end of the world as we know it. Have you ever thought about it? Most have, some more than others. What is the end of the world? What is this “new heaven and new earth” mentioned in God’s word? When will the end of the world come? What do I need to know?
Wow! What a flurry of questions. All these may or may not have crossed your mind. I have been reading a book by Max Lucado, titled “When Christ Comes” 2. In his book, brother Max has an interesting beginning. I would like to share it with you now.
You are in your car driving home. Thoughts wander to the game you want to see or meal you want to eat, when suddenly a sound unlike any you’ve never heard fills the air. The sound is high above you. A trumpet? A choir? A choir of trumpets? You don’t know, but you want to know. So you pull over, get out of your car, and look up. As you do, you see you aren’t the only curious one. The roadside has become a parking lot. Car doors are open, and people are staring at the sky. Shoppers are racing out of the grocery store. The Little League baseball game across the street has come to a halt. Players and parents are searching the clouds. And what they see, and what you see, has never before been seen.
As if the sky were a curtain, the drapes of the atmosphere part. A brilliant light spills onto the earth. There are no shadows. None. From whence came the light begins to tumble a river of color spiking crystals of every hue ever seen and a million more never seen. Riding on the flow is an endless fleet of angels. They pass through the curtains one myriad at a time, until they occupy every square inch of the sky. North. South. East. West. Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim chanting, “Holy, holy, holy.”
The final flank of angels is followed by twenty-four silver-bearded elders and a multitude of souls who join the angels in worship. Presently the movement stops and the trumpets are silent, leaving only the triumphant trumpet: Holy, holy, holy. Between each word is a pause. With each word, a profound reverence. You hear your voice join in the chorus. You don’t know why you say the words, but you know you must.
Suddenly, the heavens are quiet. .all is quiet. The angels turn, you turn, the entire world turns—and there He is - Jesus. Through waves of light you see the silhouetted figure of Christ the King. He is atop a great stallion, and the stallion is atop a billowing cloud. He opens his mouth, and you are surrounded by his declaration: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
The angels bow their heads. The elders remove their crowns. And before you is a figure so consuming that you know, instantly you know, nothing else matters. Forget stock markets and school reports Sales meetings and football games. Nothing is newsworthy. All that mattered, matters no more, for Christ has come....
- Max Lucado, When Christ Comes (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1999), xv-xvi
Does this put things in perspective for you? It did for me. Suddenly, things that mattered don’t really have that much significance any more. This is a very “slap in the face” reality for when Christ really does come back. I had been reading this book all day Friday when towards the end of the day when Renee and I were sitting outside, she said that Jesus must be coming back real soon. I took a silent, hoping she didn’t notice, gulp and coolly said, “yep, he sure must”, as if I knew what she was talking about. I had no idea why she would out of the clear blue make such a statement. Had she been in prayer more than I that day? Had she had a vision or something? My mind was racing when she began to explain that the song “Jesus is Coming Soon” [R.E Winsett ©1942], had been playing in her mind almost all day long! Whew – what a relief! Or was it?
My mind began to reflect on the past ten chapters of the book. Was I really prepared for Jesus’ return? Had I done “all the good, by all the means, in all the ways, in all the places, to all the people” I could do? Renee didn’t really know (until now) what she had done in her amusing little statement. As if she really knew by some supernatural sign that Jesus was in fact coming soon. Was I ready? Was my family ready? Had I done the best I could? The answer was something that I didn’t like.
After taking mental inventory of my work for the Lord, it didn’t take long to realize that I had not put things in proper focus. In light of Jesus’ return, I was not prepared. I still have a lot to accomplish before He does return. I would like to share some of my discoveries with you this morning. As I share these personal revelations, maybe you too will recognize some of these as your own.
IS THE END OF THE WORLD AN URGENT MATTER?
First, I would like to share my own sense of urgency in the second coming of our Lord. I know that no one knows the day or hour (Mark 13:32). We need only to open God’s holy word to find out that approx. 2/3 of the prophecies concerning the “end of the age” have already been fulfilled. If over 2/3 have already been fulfilled, then what is left?
One such prophecy is the one concerning the Temple in Jerusalem. Let’s look at Mark 13:14-16.
Mark 13:14-16 (NKJV)
14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house, nor enter to take anything out of his house. 16 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
Jesus reveals that when the abomination of desolation mentioned by Daniel takes place, then we can expect Jesus to come again. God reveals that sacrifices will once again be made in the holy Temple.
Folks, in order for anything to happen in the temple, there has to be a temple. Well, that must mean we have a lot of time on our hands before Jesus returns. Why be in such a rush to get prepared for the 2nd coming of Christ?
Many reliable sources have recently reported a renewed zeal to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Fundraising efforts, careful selection of precut rock, training of priest to facilitate the sacrificial services and many others including possible historic geological discrepancies that place the original temple away from where the Dome of the Rock stands now. What is the truth in all this? I’m not so sure, but what I do know is that God’s will is being carried out day by day. As each day passes, that puts us closer to the 2nd coming of Christ.
All that sounds like speculation and hearsay. Is there anything else you may be asking? How about what the prophet Daniel tells us.
Daniel 12:4 (NKJV)
4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
God tells Daniel to shut up the words until the time of the end. God reveals something about the end time that is very interesting to me. It says “knowledge shall increase”.
Folks, if you don’t recognize that knowledge hasn’t increased recently, you must have been asleep for the past 100 years. 120 years ago, there were no such thing as an automobile. Thousands of years before that, transportation was accomplished the same way, the horse. Now, we travel into outer space and back, we build space stations, and we can even travel faster than the speed of sound (that’s really fast by the way). Look at technology in medicine. In 1995 I had a stint implanted into one of my arteries. I had to stay in the hospital over a week. Now a days, you don’t even stay overnight in some cases. The ability to remove a heart, kidney, etc from one human and put it into another living human is nothing short of a massive increase in knowledge.
Do you believe that we are living in the end times?
Maybe by now, you agree that this old world is on the short rows. The day when Christ comes in final victory doesn’t seem so far away. If this is where you are now, then you must be asking, what now, what next?
First and foremost, you need to make sure you have the right clothes on. What?! Does God really care what clothes we wear? I believe He does according to the scriptures we have read this morning. The only way to be accepted into the Royal feast is to have the right clothes on. Lets see if there are other scriptures that tell us what sort of clothes we aught to be wearing;
Romans 13:14 (New Century Version)
14 But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and forget about satisfying your sinful self.
Galatians 3:26-27 (NCV)
26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This means that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Isaiah 61:10 (NCV)
10 The LORD makes me very happy; all that I am rejoices in my God. He has covered me with clothes of salvation and wrapped me with a coat of goodness, like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding, like a bride dressed in jewels.
The only clothes that are acceptable the one’s that come from Christ. Where can I get them and can I find them on sale. Do they qualify for the tax-free shopping that’s going on until Aug. 1st?
The bad news is they do not qualify for the tax-free school shopping. The best news is that the clothes are free. That’s right, free! Sound too good to be true? It sure does but I can guarantee you can’t go wrong with this one folks. All it takes is to believe in Jesus Christ, trust in Him and Him alone and invite Him to lead you for the rest of your life. Then my friends, you will have the proper clothes to gain, and stay at the Royal feast in Heaven for all of eternity.
Well I have already clothes myself in Christ so now what? This is where you should be bringing out the steel toed footwear – fair warning, here it comes!
What have you been up to this past week brothers and sisters? Have you been working in the garden till you can’t worship the Lord? Have you worked yourself so hard that you don’t have much left to give to God? Have you spent your last dime on things that one day will be turned into dust when God sends his Son back? Are you waiting for something or somebody to tell you that time draweth nigh? TIME DRAWETH NIGH children of God!! Quit investing your time in worldly things that will not bring you any good when you step into God’s kingdom. Quit storing up the harvest in your barns, it could be today that Christ comes again – will you be ready? What will Christ find you doing when He does come?
Matthew 24:46 has a message for us this morning:
Matthew 24:46 (NCV)
46 When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed.
Have you been doing God’s work or YOUR work? Will Jesus find you faithful and true on His final return? Will you be embarrassed by what you have been doing or not been doing when He comes? Church is real folks, God is real, and He wants you for real! He doesn’t just want you on Sunday morning; he wants you all the days, all the time. A relationship with God is a FULL TIME job. Believe me there is absolutely nothing that can be classified as part time in serving the Lord.
There is a final piece of scripture that I want to share with you this morning. It comes from Matthew chapter six, verse 33.
Matthew 6:33 (NCV)
33 The thing you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you.
Maybe you recognize this scripture. If you have ever looked close at one of my cards, you may notice this piece of scripture. It is so important, that I want everyone who receives one of my cards to take notice of this verse. It sums up just about everything that we aught to be doing right about now. Our top priority should be serving God, looking for what he wants us to do next.
I love my boys. I thank God everyday for blessing me with such good children. There is one thing that I believe all children go through. It is a sense of bewilderment when given a series of jobs.
For instance; the three of us can be cleaning up the yard. I can tell Benjamin to go and pick up around the shed. Benjamin is for the most part a trustworthy young man. I don’t have to tell him no more than three times to get this done. After the fourth time, he finally gets around to doing this task. Meanwhile I am working diligently on the other fifteen areas of the yard that need to be cleaned up. If I’m not careful, I’ll soon be working by myself because in Benjamin’s mind, he is through when the area around the shed is cleaned up. It doesn’t matter that the other fifteen areas look like Dorothy’s house in Kansas after the tornado swept through – get done with the yard around the shed, I’m done!
What Benjamin needs is a ever so gentle reminder that there is a big picture here to be taken in. He has to be reminded that there are other parts of the yard that haven’t even been touched yet. Sure enough, after he gets done with the yard around the front porch, he’s off to play basketball. I do love my boys, I really do!
We come to church on Sunday and we don’t bother to see the other parts of ministry that haven’t been touched. We don’t see the trash that has been laying around the church yard for the past four weeks, the jug of oil by the door, the blinds that have fallen apart and haven’t been replaced, the meetings that haven’t taken place, the families that haven’t been fed, and most of all, the lost souls that are still on a pathway where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. All because we don’t get the big picture. We find it so easy to do other things that seem more important at the time. We think – awe, I’ll have plenty of time to get around to that or the preacher can do that, that’s what he gets paid to do anyway, or someone else will probably do that. Guess what – it ain’t getting done!!
Live each day as if it were the last day before Christ comes in final victory
What if it really did happen tomorrow?
a. Would you be prepared?
b. Would your love ones be prepared?
c. Would you do anything different for the rest of today?
If you need to adjust, that’s OK; God allows changed lives! Let us pray.
