Chapter 22
Verses 1- 14 Read the Bible verses.
Jesus told stories to help the people understand things about heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who has a wedding feast for his son.
Certain people were invited to come, but they did not want to come.
They wanted to go about their usual business of the day. They were mean to the people who invited them. They hurt them and killed some of them.
The king was angry and sent his army to kill those people who did this to his servants. He destroyed their city.
The king said, “Everything is ready for the feast.” So he sent out more servants to invite everybody and anybody who would come.
The banquet room was filled with people. The king came in to say “Hello” to the people and as he was going around he saw a man that did not have on the proper (right) wedding clothes.
The story does not say–but it could be that the king gave each person who came a wedding robe to put on–since the people came as soon as they heard and they came as they were.
Anyway, the man did not make himself ready for the wedding.
The king said to the man, “Why have you come here and not put on proper clothes for a wedding?” (The King James Bible says: “Why don’t you have on a wedding garment?”)
The man had no answer. There seems to be no reason or excuse for him not to have wedding clothes. So perhaps a wedding garment was given at the door.
The king told his servants to take the man away and throw him into the dark place of crying and pain. (The King James Bible says: “weeping and gnashing (grinding) of teeth.”)
Then the king said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
Jesus was giving a picture of God, the king, and Jesus, the son.
The “wedding” is something that will happen in heaven someday.
The Bible tells that there will be a “marriage supper of the Lamb”.
Revelation 19:9 “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
The “marriage” is between Jesus and the “church” which is all believers. They are also called the “Bride of Christ” in some places in the Bible.
Jesus called himself the bridegroom. When the Jewish church leaders talked against Jesus’ disciples, they said that the disciples did not fast. Fasting means to go without eating for a time. The Jewish leaders did not think the disciples were being holy because to go without meals was thought to be a way to show you were holy.
Jesus answered them, “Do the wedding guests fast (go without eating) while the bridegroom is here? No, when the bridegroom is gone, then they fast.”
Jesus, the bridegroom, was still here on earth. After Jesus went up into heaven–then that would be the time to fast.
Jesus is the “groom” and the “church“ (all believers) is the bride.
Revelation 19:7 The bride (believers) has made herself ready and she is waiting for the bridegroom to come for her.
In the Jewish land, after a woman said she would be willing to marry a man. The man went away to prepare a house or place for the two of them.
When the house was ready, the man’s father looked everything over and when he thought everything was as it should be, he said to the son. “Go,
get your bride.”
In John 14:1-3, Jesus said , “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
Jesus was talking to Jewish people. They believed in God. Jesus was telling them to believe in him, too.
In John 14:2, Jesus said that he was going to prepare a place for us. This is just what the Jewish groom did.
Jesus said, “ I will come again and receive you unto myself.” He will come and take us to be with him–just like the Jewish groom.
The Jewish groom did not know exactly when he would go get his bride. He had a general idea as to when, and the bride had a general idea.
But the groom would get the bride after his father said that everything was as it should be and it was time.
Jesus said, “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:32
Jesus waits for the Father to say “It is time, go, get the bride.”
As believers, we are the “bride”, we are waiting for the groom to come get us. We have a general idea when that will be. We do not know the exact day or hour.
The Bible has given many prophecies (things told that will happen).
We have seen many prophecies already happen. As we watch the news on TV we see more things happening with Israel and around the world that show us that the time of Christ’s return is very near.
Prophecies have told of certain things that will happen and that when we see them happen, we need to look up (to heaven), because our redemption (salvation) (groom) draweth nigh (is near).
In this story of the wedding feast, Jesus is trying to show the Jewish people that the Father is the God they worship and that Jesus is his son.
The “guests” that are invited first are the Jewish people.
But the Jewish people would not receive the “invitation” to believe in Jesus and come to the wedding feast.
In the story, these people were mean and even killed the people bringing the invitation.
In the Jewish history, the Jewish people had been mean and even killed many of the preachers God sent to them. They told the people to live right and give up their sinning. They told them what would happen in the future. God invited the Jewish people to come “feast” at his table and live.
Most of the Jewish people did believe in Jesus.
John the Baptist came and told them to turn from their sins and get ready because the Lamb of God was coming. Most of the Jewish people did not receive what he said. The Jewish church leaders did not receive John’s words.
When Jesus came and said that he was God’s son, they would not receive him. In the end, they asked the Romans to kill him.
In the story, the king got angry and sent his army to kill those people who would not receive his invitation and who hurt and killed his servants. The king destroyed their city.
About 70 years after Jesus went back to heaven, the Romans destroyed the temple (Jewish church) and the city of Jerusalem. They killed thousands of Jews.
In the story, the king invited anyone who was willing to come. It did not matter who they were or where they were.
When Jesus was here on earth, he talked to the Jewish people about God and heaven. After Jesus went back to heaven, the disciples also told the Jewish people about Jesus and heaven. Then one day Peter saw a dream/vision. He was told to go to the Gentiles (not Jews) and tell them about Jesus and heaven.
After Peter started telling the non-Jews, then all the disciples started telling non-Jews about Jesus. They told anyone and everyone who would listen. They all were invited to come to the “wedding feast” in heaven
someday.
In the story, many people came. The king was happy to see them. Then he saw one man without the right clothes for a wedding. He did not have on the “wedding garment”. As we said before, it seems this garment was given to people when they came to the door.
Did the man try to sneak in without accepting the covering given to him? That was not going to be allowed. He had to have the right covering.
The king had the man taken out and thrown into “outer darkness where there is weeping (crying) and gnashing (grinding) of teeth (great pain).
Jesus was telling the people that they were all invited to the feast, but they had to be ready by putting on the right covering–the wedding garment (robe).
Revelation 19:7&8 “ ……for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted (given) that she should be arrayed (dressed) in fine linen (cloth), clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints (believers).”
Revelation 7:9 “I beheld (saw) a great multitude (crowd) ….of all nations….people…..stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes.”
Revelation 7: 14 “….and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”
Isaiah 61:10 “…..for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh (dresses) himself with ornaments (jewelry) , and as a bride adorneth (dresses) herself with her jewels.”
The wedding garment is a robe of salvation. It is given to us by the bridegroom. When we receive the invitation and we come to the “door”–Jesus–we will be given a robe of righteousness to cover our sin.
We cannot sneak past the door.
We cannot be at the wedding feast if we do not have on the wedding garment of salvation.
If we try to do that, we will be found and thrown out into a place of complete darkness of crying and great pain.
Some people talk very lightly and joke about going to heaven and what they are going to do up there.
They will be in for a big surprise. God decides what will happen in heaven and he decides who will stay.
God has tried very much to tell everyone what needs to be done so they can be ready. God has invited everyone. It is free. God has given the wedding robe to put on. It is free. But you cannot ignore it, and pass by it.
Vs. 14 Jesus calls many. Jesus wants all people to come to the wedding feast in heaven. But few choose to receive Jesus. They do not put on the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives. Only those who choose Jesus will be chosen for the wedding feast.
Verses 15-22 Read the Bible verses.
The Jewish leaders are trying to find something they can blame on Jesus. They want to find him guilty of something so they can put him in prison or have him killed.
If they can get him to say something against the Jewish law, they will punish him for being against God. If they can get him to say something against the Roman rulers, then they can get the Roman rulers to punish him.
They ask Jesus about paying taxes. The Jewish people knew that God had promised them the land of Israel hundreds of years ago. This land was to be theirs. But now the Romans had come into Israel and took over. The Jewish people did not think that they should have to pay taxes to live in a land that was really theirs.
If Jesus said not to pay taxes–like the way Jews thought–then these dishonest leaders would turn him over to the Roman rulers and say that Jesus was talking against the Roman rulers.
If Jesus said to pay the taxes–the Jewish people would think that he was not a true Jew and he was speaking against God.
Jesus would be in trouble no matter which way he answered.
So Jesus decided to ask them a question. “Whose picture is on the money?”
They said, “Caesar, the Roman ruler.” Jesus said, “Then give the Roman ruler what belongs to him, and give to God what belongs to Him.”
Jesus was telling them that the things of the earth are for the earth.
The things of the spirit belong to God and we should give them to God.
The Jewish leaders were not very good at giving their spirits to God and really doing what God wanted. Most of them were proud, mean, dishonest, and show-offs.
Verses 23-33 Read the Bible verses.
The two main groups of the Jewish leaders were the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
The Sadducees did not believe in life after death. They thought that when you died that was the end. They did not believe the body resurrected and was changed into a new body and taken to heaven.
The Sadducees had a question for Jesus. They thought they would trick him. They made the question long and tricky.
The question was about a law from the Old Testament. In this law if a man died before he had a son or a child, the brother of the dead man was to marry the man’s wife and when she had a child, the child was to carry on the dead man’s name and get the dead man’s land.
The purpose of this was so the dead man’s name was not lost to history, and so the land stayed in his family. If the wife had married another man from another family–the dead man’s name would not be carried on, and his land would not be kept in the family.
So the Sadducees thought up this question having 7 brothers–all of them dying before they had a child and all of them marrying the same woman.
So they asked, “When they get to heaven, whose wife will she be?’
Since the Sadducees did not believe in heaven, they thought this would be a really tricky question.
Jesus said, “ You make a big mistake because you don’t know the Bible verses about heaven. People are not “married” in heaven. They are not wives and husbands. They are new bodies–they are not male or female.
They are like the angels, because the angels not male or female either.”
We will know each other–“but then shall I know even as I am , known” (I Corinthians 13:12). We will know each other, but we will not have the same emotions for them that we had here on earth.
We will not think of each other of “That’s my husband. That’s my wife.” and have the same feelings for them that we had on earth.
Those kind of feelings are for the earth. They are for the purpose of having families and making people to fill the earth. There is no need of that in heaven.
Some people think that this verse when it says “we shall be like the angels in heaven” that we shall become angels when we die. No, angels are special beings made thousands and thousands of years ago with God.
Angels are spirits that can take on any body shape needed for the job they are sent to do.
When our bodies are resurrected from the dead, they will be like Jesus’ body when he raised from the dead. Jesus had a body that Thomas, the disciple could touch, Jesus ate bread with the disciples, Jesus also just suddenly appeared and disappeared. John 20:19,27, Luke 24:15,31,36,39-43.
Jesus said, “For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” and yet Jesus was able to disappear and go somewhere else in a blink.
Jesus said to the Sadducees that when Moses was at the burning bush and God spoke to him, God said, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” God did not say, “I was the God of Abraham.” He said, “I am the God of Abraham.”
Jesus said, “God is the God of the living, He is not the God of the dead.”
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were believers and had eternal life. God is their God forever.
People who are believers live forever with God. People who are not believers are in a state of dying forever. Meaning: they are alive and feel pain and sorrow and regret, but they are not in heaven truly alive.
Verse 34-40 Read the Bible verses.
The Pharisees were the other main group of the church leaders. They did believe in the resurrection and eternal life.
The had a question for Jesus, too. They wanted to know what Jesus would say was the most important commandment.
Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
All the commandments rest on these two. If you love God with all your heart then you will not worship any other, you will not use his name in disrespect, and you will honor his holy days.
If you love God with all your heart, you will not steal, lie, cheat, kill, or tell lies about your neighbor, or be jealous about what he has, or make love to his wife (or husband).
Verses 41-46 Read the Bible verses.
Jesus asked the Pharisees a question. Jesus said, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
They said, “He is the son of David.”
Jesus said, “If the Messiah is David’s son, why did David call him (the Messiah) my Lord?”
Jesus was trying to get them to see that Jesus was both David’s son and David’s God. Jesus was both human and God at the same time.
Jesus as a human was a great grandson of David,( great grandson about 28 times over). Jesus came in the line of David. He was from the tribe of Judah. As a man, he was a relative of David.
As God, he was born of a virgin and he had no earthly father. His father was God.
Jesus was both David’s son and David’s God.
Jesus as God lived long before David was born.
The Jewish people have always believed that Psalm 110 was David speaking like a prophet talking about the Messiah. That is why Jesus said, “David talking in the spirit called him Lord.”
David, in the spirit, called his great grandson Lord.
The things that are said in Psalm 110 are things that only Jesus will do them all:
1. Sit at God’s right hand.
2. God will make his enemies be under his feet.
3. He will rule from Jerusalem.
4. In “that day of battle” the people will serve you willingly. (This speaks of Armageddon and the millennium when Jesus will be King over the whole world and rule from Jerusalem.)
5. He will be a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.
6. He will strike down many kings.
7. He will punish the nations.
8. He will shatter heads in the whole earth.
9. He will be victorious.
After this answer, the Jewish leaders did not ask any more questions.