Empowering people to be Christ’s followers in the world….
Sunday 09 February 2014
“Not my will but yours be done”
Pictures of the Kingdom
A short series exploring some of Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom
The Gathering Kingdom
PREACHER
Martyn Day
READINGS
Isaiah 60:1-4 ● Revelation 19:5-9 ● Luke 14:15-24
VERSE
“He who does not gather with me scatters.”
Matthew 12:30
09 520 5652 • www.stgeorgesepsom.org.nz
All of us know how good it is to gather around a table with others to enjoy good food and friendship. And we’ll be
doing that today on Welcome Back Sunday as we gather for the famous St George’s Parish Lunch after the 10.45am
service.
Today we are kicking off a mini teaching series exploring some of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom and it felt very appropriate to me that today’s parable should be a parable of gathering. And that’s why we have heard the parable
of the Great Banquet.
This concept of gathering features a number of times in the teaching of Jesus. In particular, the following verse from
Matthew gives us some important truths.
Matthew 12:30:
“He who does not gather with me scatters.”
It’s a short verse, but we learn 2 things immediately about the ministry of Jesus:
1. Jesus is in the business of gathering
2. Jesus anticipates His followers to join with Him in this work of gathering, “gathering with me.”
But what does this work of gathering look like? And what does it look like for us to join in? This is where today’s parable helps us. Jesus said that this parable gives us insight into what His kingdom is like. It is a gathering kingdom.
Those who first heard Jesus’ parable would have connected with it easily because Jesus included conventions of party invitations which were common in His day, but which might not be followed today. We’ll see these as we go
through the parable.
Over-arching the whole parable is the metaphor of the banquet. In the Bible, the great banquet is a metaphor for
salvation. It is used, both of our current experience of knowing God and also the final fulfilment of salvation for us
when Jesus returns to make all things new in a new heaven and earth.
We see this future dimension of salvation linked with the banquet metaphor in the book of Revelation:
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory! For the wedding of
the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready . . . Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Rev 19:6-9)
I believe as we kick off this new year of our journey together that God wants us to be excited about this idea of being
part of His gathering kingdom. I want to speak about 3 things today from this parable:
1. The message of the gathering kingdom
2. The scope of the gathering kingdom
3. The urgency of the gathering kingdom
And for each of these points there is a challenge for us.
1. The Message of the Gathering Kingdom
In the parable, the master invites many guests to his banquet. In Jesus’ day, a host would contact their guests twice.
When their invitations were first sent out, the day of the feast was stated, but not the hour. Then, on the day itself,
when everything was ready, the host would send word that it was precisely time to come.
This is what the master does in Jesus’ parable. He sends his servant to those already invited and the message is,
“Come, for everything is now ready” (v17).
This is the message of Jesus’ kingdom: Everything is ready. When Jesus first began to preach publicly, His message
was, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near” Mark 1:15.
Jesus announced that in Him, the reign and rule of God had broken into the world in a brand new way. That kingdom
was demonstrated through the words and works of Jesus, as people were healed, delivered from evil, given dignity,
shown compassion, restored into their communities.
Today we proclaim the same message of the gathering kingdom. We say that in Jesus, the gracious rule of God can
break into our lives and into our local community, bringing forgiveness, healing, restoration, peace, love, joy, justice
and so on. In the metaphor of the banquet, we are proclaiming, “The meal’s ready. Everything’s on the table. Taste
and see that the Lord is good.”
What is the challenge for us because of this message of the gathering kingdom? Declare good news.
In the parable, the master of the banquet proclaims a piece of positive news: everything is ready. Good food is on
the table. Come and enjoy it.
Sadly, over the course of history, the Church of Jesus has sometimes been better known for what it doesn’t like, than
for the positive things it does stand for. Now please hear me clearly, there are times when it is right for the Church to
speak against something: injustice, human trafficking, poverty, unethical conduct of banking executives, etc.
But we must be known better for the positive realities of what it means to follow Jesus, who brings the rule of God into
our lives. Through our words and actions, people should be able to see the positives of the kingdom. Are we known
for being positive? If we were like a battery, are we more like the positive end of the battery, or the negative end?
What do people remember about us?
In one of my previous jobs in the UK I was an administrative manager in a university medical school. People got to
know me as a Christian. One of the interesting phenomena that I experienced was work colleagues apologising to
me if they swore in my presence. They would utter some profanity, then take a sideways look at me and then say,
“Oh, sorry.” Now I’m OK that they made the association that Christians shouldn’t use bad language. But it still represented an understanding of Christianity that concerned what Christians don’t do. The question for me as I look back
to that time is whether I helped my colleagues enough to understand some of the positive things I got up to because I
was a Christian. I probably didn’t do that so well.
2 Cor 1:20:
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.”
Life with Jesus represents a massive Yes to all the good promises of God. Let’s reflect on how we can declare good
and positive things about the God we follow.
The message of the kingdom is that “The meal is ready.” The challenge is to declare good news.
2. The scope of the gathering kingdom
The scope of the kingdom is that “Everyone’s invited.” In the parable the master is restless until his house is full. v23:
“Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house
will be full.” ”
The master keeps extending the scope of his invitation. First it’s just to some specific guests. Then it’s the streets and
alleys of the town.
Then it’s everywhere in the surrounding district. It becomes all-encompassing. Everyone’s invited.
The man whose conversation with Jesus sparked the telling of the parable, when that man spoke to Jesus about the
happiness of those attending the great banquet of God, he would never have thought that non-Jews would have
been there. God’s salvation was, in his view, reserved just for the Jewish people. So Jesus’ parable would have painted a more expansive picture. As we know from the book of Acts, the early followers of Jesus came to realise that
God wanted His salvation to extend to Jews and non-Jews alike.
This is the scope of God’s kingdom. Everyone is invited to participate in the life to the full that comes when we submit
to the gracious rule of God. No one is excluded from that invitation.
What is the challenge to us of the scope of the kingdom? Widen our efforts.
The master in the parable keeps extending the scope of his invitation. We are called to keep on extending who we
reach out to with God’s invitation. I’m going to be speaking more about this in a few weeks’ time when we have Vision Sunday and I’ll be speaking about the priorities we believe God has laid on us as a church for 2014. One of the
priorities is about stretching for God, seeking to extend our reach.
That’s about our response as a church to widening our efforts. What might this look like in our own lives? Here’s a
couple of practical suggestions.
You might have given up praying for someone to come to faith, because you have written them off as a hopeless
case. This parable and many other stories in the Bible declare to us that God can get through to anyone. So one
response would be to start praying for them again.
Another idea might to be break some new ground in a relationship with someone so that your faith is communicated
to them.
One idea is to seek an opportunity to pray for someone if they tell you a concern that they have. Maybe the person tells you that they are worried about the health of their brother. You could say to them, “Would you mind if I
prayed about that for you? I’m a Christian and I have found that God can act if we invite Him into situations.”
What is the worst that could happen in that situation? That the person says, “No, thank you.” But even if they say
no, they will be touched that you offered some kind of support to them.
2 Peter 3:9:
“God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
The scope of the kingdom is that everyone’s invited. The challenge is to widen our efforts.
3. The urgency of the gathering kingdom
The urgency is “Don’t miss the invitation.”
The parable ends with a sobering word from the master of the banquet, “I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” (v24)
This is a reference to one of the customs at feasts in Jesus’ time. If someone was invited to a feast, but was then not
able to come, then the host would send a package of the food to the person straight afterwards, so that they could
have a taste, even though they were not there in person.
In Jesus’ story, however, this custom is not followed. The master declares that those who did not bother to attend the
banquet, would not be sent a food parcel later. They would not be able to participate. This shows there is an urgency to God’s invitation. The door will only be open in our lifetime. And everyone knows how unpredictable life can be.
The master says to his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets . . .” There is an urgency in the invitation of the master.
What is the challenge of the urgency of the kingdom? Seize the day. We are called to make the most of every opportunity in offering others God’s invitation to be part of His kingdom. How do we do that?
1 Peter 3:15:
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
Last week I missed an opportunity because I wasn’t prepared in a particular way. I love inviting people to Alpha
courses and I normally always have with me a few invitation cards to help me do that so I can put some information in
their hands when I’ve told them about it.
Last week a salesman called at our house and I was going to invite him to Alpha, but I realised I had not cards at
home. I know I could have invited him without the card, but it works so much better to put something into the person’s hands. I’ve now got a supply of invitations cards so I’m all sorted. I encourage you to pick up a few Alpha
cards from the Welcome Desk and use them when the opportunity presents itself to invite someone to this year’s Alpha course.
Now being ready to share our faith with others isn’t just about having a set of invitation cards for Alpha in our possession. It’s also about having confidence in explaining what our faith means to us. This is something we could offer
some specific training about. Let me know if this is something you would value, as we could include a short course
about this as part of our EQUIP training courses later in the year.
The urgency of the kingdom is “Don’t miss the invitation.” Our response is to seize the day.
Jesus’ parable opens a window into the generous heart of God towards His world, which He passionately loves. God
is the great inviter to eternal life that is found in Him alone. There is a message, a scope and an urgency to that invitation. And we, His people, are called to mirror God’s generous heart and be those through whom God’s invitation
comes to all.
On January 20th 1961, JF Kennedy made his inaugural speech as US President. As part of his speech, he said, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Wouldn’t it be good if it was said of us that “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend”, to be assured that we have offered God’s invitation of life to them? May God by His Spirit make that so. And
all God’s people said: Amen.
Discussion questions for home groups or personal reflection:
1.
Reflect on Jesus’ words: “He who does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30). What do these words tell
us about the importance of the kingdom concept of gathering?
2. What are some practical ways that we can “declare good news” to others? How can we demonstrate the positive
things we stand for as Christians?
3. In what ways might our efforts to reach others with the good news of Jesus become restricted or stunted? In what
ways could we “widen our efforts” to reach more people?
4. If there is an urgency about God’s invitation to life, what might it mean for us to “seize the day” in terms of making
the most of every opportunity to share God’s love with others?