(Sermon preached in Cairncastle Presbyterian Church 23/6/2024)
Matthew 22 v 1-14 Revelation 19 v 6-9
The Bible is a bit like a diamond offering us many different faces and angles from which to observe the same beautiful thing. The precious, beautiful thing the Bible reveals is Jesus, eternal Son of God, Israel’s Messiah and Saviour of the world and He is presented to us in many ways. Today I’d like us to consider two.
The first is a kind of legal proposition. We’ve all seen movies or TV shows where the police or the FBI have arrested someone and have them in the interview room for questioning. They have evidence to convict them but they want them to give information that will help catch other criminals so they’re willing to make a deal. So the agents say something like this:
‘Now look we’ve got you and you could be going down for a very long time but here’s the deal – tell us what you know and maybe we’ll talk to the judge and he’ll go easy on you.’
Believe it or not this is quite a good picture of the Gospel!
The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation teaches that there are consequences to our actions. It’s there in Jesus’ parable where those who treat God with contempt eventually get the punishment they deserve.
So if we do wrong we must expect judgement, in this world or the next. But here’s the deal and it’s incredibly generous. Jesus took our guilt on Himself and already suffered the punishment on our behalf. So God has placed forgiveness on the table. Full acquittal in heaven’s court. All we have to do is confess our sin, turn from it, trust in Jesus and follow Him and we can walk free.
Anyone with the tiniest bit of common sense can see it’s the best offer we will ever get! We should take it. If you’ve never done so before, do it today!
We maybe don’t like to risk offending people but Christians share this responsibility of alerting the world to God’s warnings in Scripture. Jesus and the Apostles and prophets all preached that sinful human beings need to repent. We don’t want to see people suffer punishment so we need to make them aware of this challenging truth.
That’s one valid, Biblical picture, a legal one, vitally important but not the only angle we’re given from which to consider Jesus. Here is another angle, a relational one.
The parable speaks of a wedding celebration and our reading in Revelation echoes this picture of a future day when God’s Son is to be united with His Bride, the Church, the people He loves. He is coming to bring us home to rest secure in His faithful, loving care forever. We shall know Him and be close with Him always.
The 1991 movie ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’ had a theme sung by Bryan Adams called ‘Everything I do, I do it for you’. In it he sings, ‘I’d fight for you, I’d lie for you, walk the wire for you, yeah, I’d DIE for you…’
Wow! There’s passion for you, real depth of feeling.
Bob Dylan penned these words, ‘I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue, I’d go crawling down the avenue, No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to make you feel my love.’
People the world over long to be loved like that. Do you know anyone who would fight to defend you, who would come to your rescue? Someone who would go to the ends of the earth for you? Who would love you with passion and desire but also stay with you, faithful for life? Do we know anyone who would literally die for us?
Yes, I think we do. The Bible tells us of One such person and it’s Jesus. Such is the intensity of His love for us He crossed heaven and earth to rescue us. For love of us He suffered the weight of our sin and the lonely agony of the cross. He laid down His life that we might share His resurrection. We may question or doubt many things but look at the cross! Let’s never doubt that we are loved.
At a 1st century Jewish wedding the Host would provide appropriate clothing for the guests. It would be an insult to try and attend in our own proud choice. Hence the person evicted from the reception in the parable. We cannot enter heaven in our own way, we must approach God in the way He has provided which is Jesus.
He doesn’t just take away our sin, He clothes us in His perfect righteousness. He makes us acceptable for His Father’s house. Now the status He generously confers on us is something we have got to practice day by day.
A 1st century Jewish wedding was different from our way of doing things in another way. The Bride would make herself ready and wait at home for the Bridegroom to come and collect her and bring her to the wedding. She would want to make herself as attractive as possible in anticipation of welcoming her new husband.
Christians are living in anticipation of our Lord’s return. We want Him to be delighted when He sees us, we want Him to find us attractive. How so? By practising righteousness, spreading the Gospel, building His Church. Forgive me for being blunt but when the Bridegroom arrives he doesn’t want to find His Bride in bed with someone else!
So we share the love, the grace and love we have received from God in Jesus. Some day soon we’ll get to thank Him face to face but even now we can express our adoration and devotion when we gather to worship, when we join together in service, when we encourage each other to turn from sin and idols and practise all that is pleasing to God.
‘Everything I do I do it for you’.
He did everything for us at Calvary. He died for us back then. Let’s live for Him today!
Matthew 22 v 1-14 Revelation 19 v 6-9
The Bible is a bit like a diamond offering us many different faces and angles from which to observe the same beautiful thing. The precious, beautiful thing the Bible reveals is Jesus, eternal Son of God, Israel’s Messiah and Saviour of the world and He is presented to us in many ways. Today I’d like us to consider two.
The first is a kind of legal proposition. We’ve all seen movies or TV shows where the police or the FBI have arrested someone and have them in the interview room for questioning. They have evidence to convict them but they want them to give information that will help catch other criminals so they’re willing to make a deal. So the agents say something like this:
‘Now look we’ve got you and you could be going down for a very long time but here’s the deal – tell us what you know and maybe we’ll talk to the judge and he’ll go easy on you.’
Believe it or not this is quite a good picture of the Gospel!
The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation teaches that there are consequences to our actions. It’s there in Jesus’ parable where those who treat God with contempt eventually get the punishment they deserve.
So if we do wrong we must expect judgement, in this world or the next. But here’s the deal and it’s incredibly generous. Jesus took our guilt on Himself and already suffered the punishment on our behalf. So God has placed forgiveness on the table. Full acquittal in heaven’s court. All we have to do is confess our sin, turn from it, trust in Jesus and follow Him and we can walk free.
Anyone with the tiniest bit of common sense can see it’s the best offer we will ever get! We should take it. If you’ve never done so before, do it today!
We maybe don’t like to risk offending people but Christians share this responsibility of alerting the world to God’s warnings in Scripture. Jesus and the Apostles and prophets all preached that sinful human beings need to repent. We don’t want to see people suffer punishment so we need to make them aware of this challenging truth.
That’s one valid, Biblical picture, a legal one, vitally important but not the only angle we’re given from which to consider Jesus. Here is another angle, a relational one.
The parable speaks of a wedding celebration and our reading in Revelation echoes this picture of a future day when God’s Son is to be united with His Bride, the Church, the people He loves. He is coming to bring us home to rest secure in His faithful, loving care forever. We shall know Him and be close with Him always.
The 1991 movie ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’ had a theme sung by Bryan Adams called ‘Everything I do, I do it for you’. In it he sings, ‘I’d fight for you, I’d lie for you, walk the wire for you, yeah, I’d DIE for you…’
Wow! There’s passion for you, real depth of feeling.
Bob Dylan penned these words, ‘I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue, I’d go crawling down the avenue, No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to make you feel my love.’
People the world over long to be loved like that. Do you know anyone who would fight to defend you, who would come to your rescue? Someone who would go to the ends of the earth for you? Who would love you with passion and desire but also stay with you, faithful for life? Do we know anyone who would literally die for us?
Yes, I think we do. The Bible tells us of One such person and it’s Jesus. Such is the intensity of His love for us He crossed heaven and earth to rescue us. For love of us He suffered the weight of our sin and the lonely agony of the cross. He laid down His life that we might share His resurrection. We may question or doubt many things but look at the cross! Let’s never doubt that we are loved.
At a 1st century Jewish wedding the Host would provide appropriate clothing for the guests. It would be an insult to try and attend in our own proud choice. Hence the person evicted from the reception in the parable. We cannot enter heaven in our own way, we must approach God in the way He has provided which is Jesus.
He doesn’t just take away our sin, He clothes us in His perfect righteousness. He makes us acceptable for His Father’s house. Now the status He generously confers on us is something we have got to practice day by day.
A 1st century Jewish wedding was different from our way of doing things in another way. The Bride would make herself ready and wait at home for the Bridegroom to come and collect her and bring her to the wedding. She would want to make herself as attractive as possible in anticipation of welcoming her new husband.
Christians are living in anticipation of our Lord’s return. We want Him to be delighted when He sees us, we want Him to find us attractive. How so? By practising righteousness, spreading the Gospel, building His Church. Forgive me for being blunt but when the Bridegroom arrives he doesn’t want to find His Bride in bed with someone else!
So we share the love, the grace and love we have received from God in Jesus. Some day soon we’ll get to thank Him face to face but even now we can express our adoration and devotion when we gather to worship, when we join together in service, when we encourage each other to turn from sin and idols and practise all that is pleasing to God.
‘Everything I do I do it for you’.
He did everything for us at Calvary. He died for us back then. Let’s live for Him today!
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