Matthew 22:1-14

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TALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

The Parable of the Wedding Feast and the Invited Guests

BACKGROUND NOTES



DOCTRINAL POINT(S)

  1. The kingdom was rejected by most Jewish people.

  2. The kingdom has been received by many Gentile people.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. Have you received the robe of righteousness?

QUESTIONS

  1. Who was the original audience of this parable?

  2. What was the point of the three parables Jesus told here?

  3. What is the kingdom of heaven?

  4. What do the different aspects of this parable represent? The wedding, the guests, etc.

  5. When the invited guests rejected their invitation a second time, the king sent his servant to “go into the highways” and invite anyone who would come. When do we see this fulfilled in the biblical account?

  6. What is going on with the man without a wedding garment at the end of the parable?

ANSWERS

  1. The chief priests and elders who were trying to trick Jesus in His last week of ministry (Matthew 21:23).

  2. To condemned the Jewish leaders for their rejection of the Messiah

  3. In Matthew, the kingdom of heaven is the form of the kingdom now, between the two advents of Christ.

  4. The wedding and marriage feast represent the kingdom prepared by God for his Son, Jesus Christ. The invited guests were the Jewish people. Gentiles are represented by guests from the highways.

  5. After the Jews rejected the preaching of the apostles, Paul and Barnabas turned their attention to the Gentiles in Acts 13:44-49.

  6. This man would have rejected the garment that the king tried to provide for him. Thus he represents a professing believer, who seems to accept God’s invitation, but has never put on the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

DISCUSS/CONSIDER

  1. The Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was a fulfillment of Matthew 22:7. Discuss how the Roman armies were “God’s armies.” God used the armies as His instruments to deal with the nation of Israel for rejecting their king. Can you think of other biblical examples where God used ungodly nations to fulfill His purposes? Could and does God still work this way today?

  2. Discuss the robe of righteousness as pictured in this parable. You must have it to be part of the kingdom. You cannot buy it, and you cannot make it. You must receive it from the Lord Himself. He bought it for you with His own life, when He died on the cross for your sins. Refer to 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Isaiah 61:10. What does it mean to have Christ’s righteousness?

CHALLENGE

  1. Have you responded to God’s call, the invitation to His feast? Don’t delay in making this critical decision.

KEY VERSES

  • “Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” Matthew 22:9

  • “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD…He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61:10



Matthew, Talks, New TestamentDeb HarmsMatthew 22:1-14