SERMON OUTLINE

Celebrating the Bridegroom

Matthew 9.9-17; Mark 2.13-22; Luke 5.27-39

Introduction

-Parables are mostly truths about the Kingdom of God.

-Two parables: Who Jesus was and why he came; The Kingdom of God requires change.

Setting of the Parables

-Capernaum at a mega-banquet at the house of Matthew with Jesus and his disciples, tax-collectors, friends, disciples of John the Baptist, Pharisees and Scribes.

-Two questions: 1) Why do you eat with tax-collectors and sinners? 2) Why do you not fast like the Pharisees and disciples of John?

-Two answers: 1) An understanding of righteousness and the heart of God. 2) Two parables, on purpose for his coming, and required change in the kingdom of God.

The Second Question and First Parable of Jesus

-Asked by Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist.

-Contrast of their religious zeal and banqueting of Jesus.

-The presence of Jesus marked a special time in God’s program which must be celebrated. The beginning of the final fulfillment of God’s program.

-Jesus as the Bridegroom fulfilled OT pictures and promises. Isaiah 54.5-6, 62.4-5; Hosea 2.16-20

-Rather than continue their religious ritual they needed to evaluate the circumstances and not miss the coming of God to them. Matthew 23.37-39; Luke 19.41-44

Conclusion

Don’t miss God’s reality by focusing on religious ritual. This is a time of activity as we await the return of Jesus the Bridegroom. Revelation 19.9; 21.2, 9-11

SERMON NOTES

Celebrating the Bridegroom Matthew 9.9-17; Mark 2.13-22; Luke 5.27-39

-Most of the parables that Jesus spoke pointed to truths about the kingdom of God. The parables of Jesus are about the coming King which was Jesus, the coming kingdom of God which Jesus was bringing to earth, behavior in the kingdom of God, and the future of the kingdom of God.

-For the next two weeks we are going to study two parables. The first parable which we will study this week teaches us who Jesus was and why he came, and the second parable which we will study next week teaches us about the changes that will be required as people move from Old Covenant thinking to life in the coming kingdom of God.

-Lets begin by looking at the setting in which these two parables were spoken. Jesus has been in public ministry for about 1 ½ years and is presently in Galilee in the city of Capernaum. Capernaum is where Jesus lived, probably in the house of Peter and Andrew (Mark 1.29) and the center to which he would return after his preaching tours. As Jesus is teaching and healing in the area of Capernaum he meets Matthew, also known as Levi, the tax collector and commands him “Follow me”. Levi gets up from his tax booth and follows Jesus. Matthew invites Jesus to his house and has what Luke describes as a great feast for Jesus. The Greek word that Luke uses is megalen, a mega-feast, a lavish banquet. Luke also tells us that a large crowd of tax-collectors and others was present for the mega-feast. Matthew the new convert had a big party for Jesus and his disciples, and invited all his tax-collecting friends and others. Some Pharisees and Scribes were also present.

–Two questions come up at this mega-feast. The first question coming from the Pharisees is really an accusation against Jesus for defiling himself by eating with sinners. The question is found in verse 11, and is addressed to the disciples of Jesus, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The question is asked with shock and disappointment.

-We are not going to look into this question and the answer of Jesus this morning, but I would like to come back to this passage in July. What Jesus answers is that the Pharisees have the wrong understanding of God and the wrong understanding of true righteousness before God. This will be a great study when we come back to it later.

-It is the second question at this meal that leads us to the two parables we are going to study for the next two weeks. The question that is asked is “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

-Matthew tells us that it was the disciples of John the Baptist who asked Jesus this question. Luke says it was the Pharisees asking the question. Luke adds the words “and offer prayers” to fasting emphasizing the religious zeal of those who are asking the question in contrast to Jesus and his disciples who are not fasting and offering prayers. Instead of ending the question with the statement “but yours do not fast” Luke writes “but yours eat and drink” emphasizing all the more the contrast between the Pharisees, the disciples of John the Baptist, and the disciples of Jesus. The contrast between the behavior of the Pharisees, the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of Jesus is all the more emphasized by the fact that Jesus and the disciples are eating and drinking with tax-collectors and sinners which would make them unclean according to the Pharisees and disciples of John. Mark tells us that both the Pharisees and the disciples of John were fasting at this time and that both of these groups ask Jesus this question. It was customary for the Pharisees to fast twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays so this may have been one of their ritual fasting days.

-So we have both the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist fasting and praying while they observe Jesus and his disciples eating and drinking at this mega-banquet with tax-collectors and sinners. They appoint a spokesman and approach Jesus with this question on why Jesus and his disciples are not fasting and praying but eating and drinking at this banquet with sinners. Not only are they not practicing righteousness by fasting and praying, they are defiling themselves by eating with tax-collectors and sinners.

-Jesus answers their question with two parables. In the first parable in verse 15 Jesus taught them that his presence with them was a special time. He was bringing in the kingdom of God. In the second parable, verses 16-17, Jesus teaches that the coming of the kingdom of God will require change. We will study the first parable this week and the second parable next week.

-In verse 15 Jesus uses the parable of himself as a bridegroom and the disciples as the wedding guests to teach the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist, and his own disciples that his presence on earth with them marked a special time in God’s program. With Jesus present with them it was not the time for maintaining the status-quo religious system but a time for spiritual evaluation. This was a special moment in God’s history and needed to be properly evaluated and then celebrated.

-Jesus had come to earth to establish the kingdom of God. The coming of Jesus was the beginning of the final fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. The leaders of Israel must wake up to that reality and not miss God’s plan.

-In the OT the bridegroom metaphor was repeatedly applied to God who would come and one day marry His people (Isaiah 54.5-6, 62.4-5; Hosea 2.16-20). The Pharisees and disciples of John would have been familiar with this picture and promise of God as the Bridegroom in the OT. It is interesting to note in John 3.29 that John the Baptist considered himself the “best man” of Jesus the bridegroom (the friend of the bridegroom). John’s disciples may have been aware of John’s viewpoint.

-Jesus is saying to those listening to Him that in his coming, God has come to them to establish the Kingdom of God and to marry His people. A new age is dawning. Jesus is ushering in the promised New Covenant of the Spirit and true forgiveness (Hebrews 8.8-13). Therefore the presence of Jesus with them is a time for reflection and celebration and not a time to maintain the status-quo religious system. Something momentous is taking place and they need to be aware of it and if they miss it the consequences will be tragic. The Jewish leaders did miss the coming of God to them and the whole nation suffered for it. (Matthew 23.37-39; Luke 19.41-44)

-Along with the announcement of this momentous occasion of the coming of God to them and the establishment of the Kingdom of God, and the fulfillment of many of the OT promises, Jesus makes it clear that the bridegroom will be taken away from them for a time and during that time his disciples will fast. That time between the first coming of the bridegroom and when he returns to take his bride is now. We are presently in that in between time in the history of God’s purposes. Now is the time for us to fast and pray and be witnesses of Jesus as we await His return. Soon Jesus the bridegroom will return for his bride the Church.

-All that I have said this morning is not new to most of us and because we have heard it before and are familiar with it, it does not fill us with awe. Let me challenge you to rethink what Jesus was saying here and be awed by it. With the coming of Jesus, God the creator and sustainer of the universe came to earth to establish His kingdom. By the death of Jesus on the cross salvation from sin was made possible and the kingdom of God came into the hearts of individual people and they were brought under the rule of God. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension to heaven the Holy Spirit was sent to earth to join all the saved together into the Church which is the Bride of Christ. You are now the Bride of Christ if you truly belong to God by faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit that assures that you truly belong to God. We are at a point in God’s history when the return of the Bridegroom seems very near. What Jesus began when He came to earth will certainly be fulfilled.

-Like Jesus who attempted to make those around him aware of the unfolding of God’s history before their eyes, so I want to make you aware of God’s history that is unfolding before your eyes. I do not want you to focus this morning on the religious ritual of the church service but on God’s reality. I want you to see this morning that God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. I want you to see that Jesus died on the cross for your sins so that you could belong to God. I want you to see that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and will soon be coming back. I want you to see that now, this morning, at this present time, the reality is that you either belong to Jesus Christ and are part of the Bride that he is returning for, or you have not entered the Kingdom of God and are just going through religious rituals. I pray that God will put in your heart a desire to ask questions that will lead you to understand God’s reality in Jesus Christ, and that you will come to know that you are walking with God in the fulfillment of His purposes in history.

-God’s Word closes with these words, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. …And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. …‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” (Revelation 19.9; 21.2, 9-11)

-What John saw was you and I and all God’s people from Sudan and Iran and Nigeria and China, and all over the world, past and present, united into one body by one Spirit called the Church, made holy and beautiful by God, reflecting the glory of God, ready to be joined to Christ as His eternal Bride. Two thousand years ago the Bridegroom came and introduced Himself to us. He engaged some of us by giving us the seal of the Holy Spirit within us. One day soon He will come to marry us and embrace us into His eternal love. Even so come Lord Jesus!