August 11, 2013
Scripture:
Hymn 142 – A ruler once came to Jesus by night
Prayer
Matthew 22:1-10
Our story is about a king whose son was getting married. There was much preparation to do; what do you think they were going to serve for dinner? I don’t think he would have served hot dogs or tacos. In our text, it says that they killed the fatling, which would be a cow, so it must have been a great feast. The last thing to do was to send out the invitations.
Unfortunately, nobody responded to the invitations; so the king sent out another invitation to the same people, but the same thing happened. Lastly, the king sent out a third group of invitations, but it was to a different group of people and this time, everyone came.
The king in our story is a picture of God and the son is Jesus. God is preparing a wedding feast for His Son and each Christian is a part of the bride for Jesus. Do you remember the husbandmen from our last parable? The householder wanted some of the fruit from the harvest, but they wouldn’t give any to the servants that came to get it. Each of those servants was a picture of prophets that were sent to Israel. God’s first invitation (typified in today’s parable) to the Jews was when Jesus came to them. They crucified Him. The second was after the cross, culminating in the martyrdom of Stephen. The last invitation is now sent to whosoever will, anyone in the world.
The king was able to have a wedding with guests that were willing to be there. God wanted a relationship with mankind, but mankind failed. Now God offers the free gift of salvation, to “whosoever will.”
Acts 1
Acts is the sequel to Luke. Luke shows the work of our Lord, and Acts shows the work of the Holy Spirit and the start of the church. We’ve seen all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until He was taken up to Heaven; now we will see how He sent the Holy Ghost to operate in the saints and form them into a body. Some people have called this book, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit, done through the Apostles”, instead of the “Acts of the Apostles”.
The Lord was filled with the Spirit for His ministry, and when He left He sent the Spirit for His followers. The Spirit didn’t take a body like the Lord did; instead He entered the bodies of the believers and can use them if they are yielded to Him. We have the privilege to be “endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
The Lord proved to the disciples that He had resurrected from the dead by many infallible proofs. We read some of those in Luke 24. The world was allowed to watch Jesus’ crucifixion, but after His resurrection He only showed Himself to His followers. He was on earth for forty days following that first day of the week, and He talked of the kingdom of God (which includes a portion for the believer) and told them to wait for the promise of the Holy Ghost.
The nucleus of the early church was Jewish. As true Jews, the disciples asked the Lord, just before He ascended, whether He would restore the kingdom to Israel. He told them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” The Jews were offered that kingdom with Stephen, but they rejected it and stoned him. The kingdom will be restored one day, but there was and is work to be done between the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the restoration of Israel. That work is the preparation of the Church, the Bride of Christ. The disciples were thinking about earth, but a whole realm of mysteries was about to be revealed: the heavenly portion of the believer.
The disciples would receive special power when the Holy Ghost arrived. They would serve the Lord in Jerusalem, then in the wider sphere of Judea, then in the wider sphere of Samaria, and finally in the wider sphere of the whole world.
Hymn 290 – Praise the Saviour, ye who know Him
Prayer