TheGarments

of

EASTER

How Do WeFollow Easter?

By UnderstandingIt’s Great

Implications!

Matthew 22:11-14

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a

man…

…there who did not have on a

wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did

you come in here without…

…a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

Then the king said to the servants,

‘Bind him hand and foot, take him

away…

…and cast him into outer darkness;

there will be weeping and

gnashing of teeth.’ ‘For many are

called, but few are chosen.’”

Pretty harshtreatment for not

wearing the appropriategarment!

One of our Lord’s favorite

metaphors for the Kingdom of

God was a wedding or a

wedding feast!

Really twostories here…

…at least two truths!

Invitation to a Wedding (v. 1-7)

Invitation to a Wedding Feast (v.

8-14)

There is a Work Required to Appropriate

Easter!

“...we are all invited --

summoned, actually, to

discover, through following Jesus,

that this new world is indeed a place

of…

… justice, spirituality,

relationship, and beauty, and that

we are not only to enjoy it as such but to work at bringing it to

birth…

…on earth as in heaven.”

N.T. Wright, “Simply Christian”

A First Century‘Save the Date’

Invitations went out before time was announced!

God has thrown a wedding feast!

Put It On Your Calendar!

“It is very easy for a man to be so busy with the

things of time that he forgets the

things of eternity, to be so

preoccupied…

…with the things which are seen

that he forgets the things which are

unseen, to hear so insistently the claims of the

world…

…that he cannot hear the soft

invitation of the voice of Christ. The

tragedy of life is that it is so often the second bests which shut out…

…the bests, that it is things which are good in themselves which shut out the

things that are supreme. A man can be so busy…

…with the administration and the organization of life that he forgets life itself.” William

Barclay

Formalor Informal?

Wrong Question!

The attendees did not come

properly prepared!

An issue of Grace!

Colossians 3:9-11

“Do not lie to one another, since you

have put off the old man with his

deeds…

…and have put on the new man who

is renewed in knowledge

according to the image of Him who

created him, where there is…

…neither Greek nor Jew,

circumcised nor uncircumcised,

barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is

all and in all.”

Grace is not onlya gift, It is a awesome

Responsibility!

You cannot go living the life you lived before you

met Jesus!

We must be clothed with a new holiness &

goodness

Garments of themind, heart &

soul

This teaching has nothing to do with

the clothes we wear, but it has everything to do with the spirit in which we travel

Not Come As You Are, but Come with an Anticipation of

whatCan Be!