Matthew 22:1-14
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.
6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
To negate taking the object verse out of context, I included the whole parable even though I want to focus on one verse, the last one.
Do you know what I notice the most about that last verse? Jesus didn’t even say ALL are invited, He said MANY. Well that makes sense to me, and it should make sense to every believer. No one will deny that there are people who die every day who have never heard the Gospel. The MANY “invited” are the ones who have literally heard the Gospel - and the ones who believe are the few God chose and placed in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), the ones ordained (appointed) to eternal life (Acts 13:48), the ones He did a work in and MADE them believe (John 6:29).
Anyway, Jesus said MANY are invited, but few are chosen. But, few are chosen - Man, there it is again. Chosen, chosen, chosen. The few that are saved are saved because they are the few that are chosen. There it is in Jesus’ own words.
And in a similar parable in Luke 14, Jesus said in verse 23 (the mate of verse 9 above), ...COMPEL them to come in. That sounds like the Irresistible Grace the Bible speaks of. (But more on Luke 14:23 later.)
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” Believe it, love it, live it, ...
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