Questioning Jesus
Over the next five weeks, we are
looking at a series of debates between Jesus and the religious experts of his
day. Now I realise that a debate may not be all that exciting an event compared
to say, the Euro 2012 finals happening tonight. We want action. We want to root
for our favourite team. In comparison, a boring, intellectual discussion on
doctrine and religious issues hardly makes for a fun night out with the guys at
the pub.
Yet whenever I get a phone call
or email saying to me, “Calvin, could we talk about something important,
please?” I have yet to meet up with such a person only to end up talking about
football. It is always something urgent. It is always personal.
These debates between Jesus and
the religious teachers are not there to entertain us, though the topics of
these debates certainly are intriguing: Why should I support a government I
didn’t vote for? Isn’t the whole idea of resurrection from the dead
nonsensical? Can you seriously believe that God had a Son and his name is
Jesus? These are the topics that Jesus deals with, which we will be looking
at closely in the coming weeks. They are all there in Chapter 22 of Matthew’s
gospel. They are interesting topics. They are intriguing issues. But more than
that, they have eternal significance. The bible presents us with two ways to
live. Just two. And what these debates are designed to do is reveal
which team you’re rooting for. Which side you are really on.
The empty banquet
Jesus spoke
to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who
prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had
been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
Matthew
22:1-3
Jesus tells a story about heaven
and he says, “Think of a big wedding dinner with all the decorations laid out,
all the food prepared, all the hundreds of waiters, chefs and cooking staff on
the ready, but with not a single guest in sight.” The hall is empty not because
everyone got the wrong date in their calendars, verse 3 says, but because “they
refused to come”.
What would you do? What the main
character of this story does is he sends out even more reminders. Look at verse
4.
RSVP
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.”
Matthew
22:4
He sends out a copy of the menu -
Roast duck! Lobster noodles! Abalone mushrooms! He says, “Tell them, all the
food is ready. Just come!” But look at their reaction in verse 5, and notice
there, two layers of responses to the king’s invitation.
But they
paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. The
rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
Matthew
22:5-6
The first group just tears up the
invite and goes back to watching the football. “We’ve got better things to do;
more important things to do, than to spend Saturday night at a party - no
matter how nice the food might be.” That’s the first response. And if we’re
honest, we’ve all done this. We get loads of invites on Facebook which we just
ignore. We conveniently chuck that wedding invitation card in the trash. “Can’t
you see I’m a busy?”
The second group is more extreme.
Verse 6: “They seized his servants, mistreated them,” - meaning, they
physically abused and even tortured them - “and killed them.”
There are two levels of responses
to the same invitation - one ignores it, the other violently rejects it - two
very different responses; and that’s important to see because of what happens
next. The king sends in his armies to punish both groups. He destroys their entire city. Look at verse 7.
Two responses, one
rejection
The king
was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their
city.
Matthew
22:7
What’s going on? Understandably,
a lot of people read this, they immediately get that Jesus is talking about God, and they
object that the king is acting unfairly towards his subjects. “It’s just a
dinner!” they might say. “I mean, if he was just punishing the guys who beat up
the servants and killed them, that would make sense. But burning down the entire
city? That’s going too far.” So the objection goes.
What is so valuable about this parable
that it helps us understand what the bible means by sin. Jesus is teaching us
that sinning against God means rebelling against the King. It’s not just
breaking a rule. It’s not just being bad and sticking pieces of gum under the
table in class. To sin is to say to God, “We don’t want you to be king over our
lives.”
And this parable is designed to
show us how all of us rebel against God in one of two ways - through idolatry or
rejection. All of us rebel against God either through idolatry or rejection.
What do I mean?
The first group of people, we
read in verse 5, “went off” and by that, we think it means they paid no
attention to the invitation. But Matthew adds the words, “one to his field,
another to his business.” This last description is very emphatic in the Greek, as it
literally reads, “to his own (idion) field or farm.” Meaning, they owned
their own land. They owned their own business. That’s the emphasis. They were landowners and business owners. You see,
the basis of comparison wasn’t the food - how lavish it was for the king to
slaughter his cows and oxen or how amazing the evening entertainment was going
to be. No, the comparison was that of wealth and power. “I have my own land. I
have my own business. Who is the king to tell me what to do? I am my own king.”
That’s idolatry. Idolatry is turning away from God to something else other than
God and turning that thing into God.
Or, to put it another way:
Idolatry is the worship of something less that God. When we use excuses like
“I’m busy with work or study or even family issues to talk about God right now”
- and I know how acceptable those excuses sound, even here in the Chinese
Church sometimes - what we are really saying is, “Instead of worshipping God, I
would rather worship my work. I would rather worship my studies. I would rather
worship my family.” They are excuses we use to turn away from worshipping the
true and living God. That’s the first way we rebel against God, through
idolatry.
The second way is outright
rejection. But I want you to see, that it is a rejection not simply of God himself
- through violence, anger, murder. No, it is the rejection of his word. Notice
again, who the people lash out against. It’s the messengers. It is the
servants who bring the message of the king, again and again to these same
people, calling the hearers to respond to the king’s invitation. The villagers
didn’t grab their pitchforks and storm the castle in order to attack the king's army. Rather
what they did was more cowardly, and at the same time, more sinister. They took
their aggression out on the servants of the king. Literally, the word is douloi,
which is the word for slaves: These weren’t soldiers. They were simple postmen
carrying the same message. And by the villagers act of violence, they were
sending a message back to the king which read, “We reject your word of
invitation. We reject your command of authority.”
Together, these two responses
constitute one act of rebellion against the authority of the king, which is why
Jesus tells this parable. He is saying to the religious teachers and Pharisees,
“Do you know who you are dealing with?” God is a king who graciously invites us
into his presence. He calls us to celebrate the wedding of his son. He calls us
to respond to his word of grace. When we reject his word it is because we are
rebelling against his authority. When we reject the invitation to his son’s
wedding, it is because we despise how much the king loves his son and we reject
how much the king wants us to glorify him through his son.
City of God
The consequence of this rebellion
is the complete destruction of the people and their city. Again, it is vital that we notice that judgement falls on two separate levels - the people and their city. The king sends in his
army to punish the wrongdoers, those who killed his messengers (together with
those who stood and let this happen). But he also burns down their city.
These series of encounters
between Jesus and the religious leaders takes place at a specific time and
place. Chapter 21 is a turning point in the whole gospel as Jesus enters the
city of Jerusalem as the long-awaited king riding on a donkey, fulfilling the
prophecy of Zechariah that this was the Messiah, the chosen king by God to
bring order and salvation to the people of Israel. Jerusalem was the capital,
not unlike London, it was the place where everything of significance happens -
the Olympics, the Queen’s Jubilee, the opening scenes of Apprentice. But more
than that, Jerusalem was God’s city. This was the city of the great King David.
This was the city of God’s temple where his presence dwelt, which bore his holy
name.
And all the religious leaders and
Pharisees would have instantly understood what Jesus meant when he spoke of the
king destroying “their city”. He was talking about Jerusalem. It wasn’t their
city, it was God’s. But by their idolatry - by their continual rejection of
God’s word - Jerusalem, which historically was a focus of so much of God’s
attention; which scripturally, was the focus of God’s revelation; which
liturgically, was the centre of God’s worship and presence, this city was now
the object of God’s shame and judgement. It had become their city not God’s.
If you look a few verses back to
Chapter 21, and verse 45, we read, “When the chief priests and Pharisees heard
Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.” This parable was
directed at people who were confident of their standing in God’s kingdom
because of their position on earth. They were church leaders. These were the
bible experts. And just in case we are quick to then assume that they weren’t
consistent in their living or that they were too liberal in their thinking, we need
to understand that the Pharisees were among the most zealous individuals known in history to
apply God’s laws in everyday living. They memorised the five books of Moses
(word for word, and that includes Leviticus!). Many served in the Temple court for
generations. They observed all the cleanliness laws. They gave their tithes and offerings each week. They
regarded God as holy, righteous and awesome. In many ways, the Pharisees were the evangelicals of their day. They were mainstream, respected, authoritative, biblical.
They were religious.
They were religious.
Answering the call
Yet through this parable, Jesus
exposed how religion can actually lead us away from God. It can even lead
us to rebel against God. We see this in the way the city-dwellers were
repeatedly described as invited.
Verse 3: The
king “sent his servants to those who had been invited”.
Verse 4: “Tell
those who have been invited.”
Verse 8:
“Those I invited did not deserve to come.”
The Greek word keklemenoi
comes from the root word kaleo, which simply means “called”. These were
the called ones. In fact, whenever we see the word “tell” in this
parable, it is the exact same word for “call”. Meaning, the king send his
servants again and again to call those who have been called. The
parable is summed up at the end in verse 14, as “For many are called,
but few are chosen.”
We misunderstand the word call
today whenever we say, “I think God is calling me to be a pastor.” Or, “I feel
God’s call for me to go to China.” And whenever we use the word “call”
exclusively and primarily to mean some kind of mystical experience which
spiritually authenticates God’s direction for our lives, we display that we are
dangerously close to being in the same camp as the Pharisees and religious
leaders Jesus addresses in this parable. They took God’s call for granted. They
assumed by their status and religiosity and knowledge that therefore God was
going to accept them based on their status, religiosity and knowledge.
And what they missed was God’s
call as his gracious invitation to glorify him through his Son. For us today as
the church - which means “called out” in Greek (ekklesia = ek [out]
+ kaleo [called]) - how much more does this parable remind us the
importance of responding to God’s primary call to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6), and
not to turn away because of idolatry or because of the rejection of his word.
In other words, you might have been coming here to the Chinese Church for years.
Week after week, you hear about Jesus. But have you ever RSVP’d his call to
belong to his Son? Don’t mistake your attendance or even your long service
record as your basis of acceptance before God. That was the danger of the
Pharisees and religious leaders. Just because you are a musician. Just because
you are a church leader. In fact, all the more because you are a leader,
the bible is asking you, “Have you answered God’s call to be in Jesus Christ?”
Jesus is speaking to leaders,
old-timers, Sunday School teachers. But then he turns to the rest of us to say,
“How about you?” As we shall see (from verse 8 onwards), there is yet another
invitation. The king sends out more servants, but now the call goes out to
everyone, not just to the privileged few. It is a call from God to rejoice in
Jesus Christ his Son. And what I want to put to you today is that this call
isn’t just a call to be in heaven. Answering this call involves God’s plan for
the church here on earth.
The good, the bad and the
gospel
Then he said
to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not
deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you
find.” 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.
Matthew
22:8-10
“Go to the street corners,” says
the king, “and call anyone you find.” The street corners (NIV) is not talking
about the sidewalks (or street corners where you find a Starbucks, and the
such) but actually describes “busy road”, that is, the roads the lead out of
the city, where they turn into highways. The image then, is of these servants,
going out as far as they can to the very edge of the kingdom to invite everyone
and anyone they meet. Hence, by the end of the exercise, the entire wedding
party is filled with every kind of person, verse 10 says, “both good and bad”.
This isn’t talking about heaven. I mean,
it is talking about heaven, but it's not just heaven; it is describing God’s open, free and gracious
invitation to enter his kingdom through Jesus Christ (the wedding banquet is
for his Son, after all) and yet the action of the servants in “calling” is now
coupled with “gathering” (sunagogon) all they could find. And that is a
description of the church. The church is a gathering of God’s people in
response to God’s word. God sends his word of invitation out and those who
respond to his good news - his gospel - are gathered into his presence.
Earlier, I mentioned that ekklesia was the New Testament word for the
church, which literally meant those who were “called out”. In the Old
Testament, however, the Hebrew Qahal refers to a “gathering”. And the
two terms come together here in Jesus’ parable to describe, on one hand, God’s
initiative in calling his church through the gospel (1 Peter 2:9, “God... who
called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”), and on the other, our
response as the church of gathering around his word and around his Son (Acts
7:38, “The church/gathering in the desert... living words passed down to us”).
The question is: How do you know
you have been called and have answered that call? The picture that Jesus gives
us in this parable is the gathering of the called. It’s the church, which isn’t
a building, but people. The church, which isn’t a gathering of good people, but
both bad and good (The word “bad” actually occurs first - bad and good -
as if to give it extra emphasis), meaning, it’s not because we have done anything
to deserve God’s call. The church, which isn’t a gathering to do good things,
but a gathering in response to the good news, did you notice that? What did
they do there? It doesn’t tell us. What it does tell us, three times, is that
God’s word goes out, and it is his word which brings his people in. What this teaches us is:
God’s word gives birth to the church, not the other way around. The purpose of
the church is not so much to preach God’s word, as much as the church is the
product of the preaching of God’s word. This is important for church planting -
you don’t plant a church by getting a bunch of people in order to preach to
them. You preach God’s word and it calls people to repentance and trust in
Jesus Christ. It means at times people will ignore, that’s what we see in the
parable. It means there will be seasons of persecution, we also see that in the
parable. But God keeps sending out his word, such that when people do respond
to his word, he gathers them around Jesus and they are his church. They are the
called ones.
This is counter-intuitive for many of us. We want to set up committees. We want to plan for budgets and search for
the right building. And of course, in doing so we wouldn’t dream of leaving out
bible study and preaching; we wouldn’t do that. And yet, Jesus teaches us
through this parable that God’s word is primarily responsible for gathering his
people as the church - not our programs, not our planning. Preaching isn’t
simply the feeding of the flock. It’s not something you do as part of your
Sunday program (“We have singing, then the offering, then the preaching”). This
is something much more fundamental. God’s word produces God’s church, that’s
what Jesus is saying. Meaning, when God’s word is absent from our gatherings or
when the gospel takes a backseat in our meetings, you really have to start
wondering if those who are gathered here in God’s name are truly God’s people.
I understand that we need to find
the right people. I know that many of us pray for God to send us the right guy.
But hasn’t God given us his word? The ones who carry them are douloi -
slaves. Their job is simply to repeat that word and to deliver the message. It
is not the messenger, but the message that gathers the guests into the banquet.
The messenger is often ignored, he might be rejected, he might even be killed.
God sends more servants, carrying that same message, “Come in. Rejoice in
Jesus, his Son. Trust in his offer of forgiveness, grace and glory. Everything
has been prepared.”
The result is a full house. “The
wedding hall was filled with guests” (verse 10). Full of Chinese? No. Full of
Cambridge students? No. Full of the bad and the good. Full of those from near
and far. Full of people who weren’t part of the initial guest list. Full of
people you would never expect to be at such a fancy affair. That is the church. The question is: Is it ours? If we keep on preaching the gospel, it will be. “Go to the street
corners and call anyone and everyone.” That’s a very risky thing to do. It is a
scary thing to do. And yet it is precisely what God calls us
to do. Why? So that we can have a great big church and lots of people will hear
about the English congregation which meets in the middle of nowhere? No,
because God has done all the preparations to bring all glory to his Son. The
king says again and again, “I have prepared my dinner. I have slaughtered my
cattle. The banquet is ready.” He has done everything. He has paid for
everything. He has done all this for the sake of his Son, and the message is
sent out to all who will respond to join him in rejoicing over his Son.
We speak the gospel to the
end-roads, to anyone we can find, to the good and bad, to bring glory to Jesus
Christ. That’s the last lesson we see in the parable, and it might be the
hardest one yet. It would be great if the story ended here: the guests having a
good time, the king satisfied that his event is a success, everyone living
happily ever after. Instead, we read about one guy who gets thrown out.
Instead, we read about final judgement.
Wedding clothes
But when
the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing
wedding clothes. “Friend,” he said, “how did you get in here without wedding
clothes?” The man was speechless.
Then the
king told his attendants, “Tie him hand and food, and throw him outside, into
the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 22:11-13
Matthew 22:11-13
What are we to make of this? The
king notices a guy who doesn’t have his tux on and decides to throw him out of
the party. How can that be fair? Weren’t the servant given instructions to
invite anyone and everyone to the party - irrespective of whether they were bad
or good? Perhaps this was a poor homeless man, it would have been unfair to
expect him to turn up in a dinner jacket and black tie, wouldn’t it?
Yet, that’s not even the half of
it. The king orders the attendants to tie the poor guy up and throw him
outside, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. This phrase
occurs several times in Matthew’s gospel, always as an allusion to Hell and
eternal punishment. It is a picture of extreme sorrow (weeping) together with
extreme anger and resentment (gnashing of teeth, see Matthew 13:42 [The parable
of the weeds], 13:50 [The parable of the net], 24:51 [The parable of the wicked
servant], 25:30 [The parable of the talents]).
First of all, notice that the
king comes specifically to meet with his guests (verse 11). They aren’t just a
faceless crowd there to fill the empty seats. This king is actually interested
in who they are and wants to see each guest face to face. But as he does so he
comes across one individual who isn’t dressed in the proper attire: he doesn’t
have “wedding clothes” - which isn’t a reference to expensive clothes, but
rather, clean clothes. Notice how when asked, this man didn’t have a proper
excuse - verse 12 says, “He was speechless”. He didn’t say, “I couldn’t afford
it. I didn’t have it. I didn’t know.” But rather, by his speechlessness, it implies that he didn’t
bother, he wasn’t bothered, and he didn’t care, not even to put on a clean
t-shirt. He turned up presuming on graciousness of the king. He thought he could
hide in the crowd.
On the surface, it seems
superficial. It implies that God is looking for decorum, that the king was looking
for an external quality - wedding clothes - that made his guests suitable and
acceptable. Yet, the bible repeatedly uses the change of clothing as a picture
of what happens when God covers us with the external, outer righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Ezekiel describes how God clothes his bride with fine linen and costly garments
(Ezekiel 16:10). Paul calls on believers to put off the old sinful nature and to
put on the new, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”
(Ephesians 4:22, 24). Elsewhere, he tells us to clothe ourselves with Jesus
Christ (Romans 13:14). In each and every one of these references, God clothes
the Christian believer with an external beauty and righteousness, something we
did not earn or deserve, rather it is because of everything Jesus did for us on
the cross, that makes us acceptable before the King of the universe, and God
our heavenly Father. In fact, when God looks at the believer clothed in the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, it means he looks upon this former rebel and
sinner, as he does his own Son. In Jesus, we are truly and wholly loved by the
Father.
Friend of sinners
One last thing. I find it is
interesting how the King addresses the man as, “Friend.” At first glance, it
may appear that the king is simply playing the gracious host. He doesn’t say, “Hey you!”
He calls this man, who has presumed upon the king’s invitation, his friend. And
though the man was inappropriately dressed, the king still gives him the
opportunity to respond to the charge.
The particular word used here in
the king’s address of “Friend” (hetaire), occurs only three times in the
New Testament, and all three are found here in Matthew’s gospel. In the first
two instances, here and back in Chapter 20 (as part of the parable of the
workers), spoken by a ruler addressing his servants with
gentleness, in a moment of tension addressing an audience that is antagonistic towards the speaker. So, in the parable of the vineyard in Matthew 20, the workers confront their boss. The grumble against him and gang up against him. The landowner says to one of them, "Friend."
Interestingly, in the third and last instance in Matthew's gospel, we find this address of "Friend," used by Jesus Christ himself. It occurs a few pages on in Chapter 26. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is betrayed by his disciple, Judas Iscariot. He is betrayed by his friend.
Interestingly, in the third and last instance in Matthew's gospel, we find this address of "Friend," used by Jesus Christ himself. It occurs a few pages on in Chapter 26. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is betrayed by his disciple, Judas Iscariot. He is betrayed by his friend.
Judas arrived with a mob, armed
with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and elders. Perhaps thinking
he could catch Jesus off-guard, Judas devised a plan.
Now the
betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest
him. Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.
Jesus
replied, “Friend, do what you came for.”
Matthew
26:48-50
Jesus addresses his betrayer as,
“Friend.” You see, Jesus knows precisely what this friend of his has in store
for him. Yet unlike the parable of the wedding banquet, it isn’t the “friend”
who is bound and thrown out in the darkness. Instead, Jesus would be the one
who was arrested, it would be his hands and feet that was bound, it was Jesus
would was interrogated and put on trial. Jesus would be stripped of his
clothes, stripped of all his dignity and hung on the cross. And it would be
Jesus, near the end of his life, who would be alone in dark, as he cried out on
the cross to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46)
On the cross, Jesus bore our
punishment for sin and rebellion. He was thrown into the darkness. He bore our
nakedness and shame. And it is this act of sacrifice and friendship shown by
Jesus Christ on the cross, from which we receive our righteousness, from which
we are clothed in holiness, through which we are loved as sons and daughters of
God.
Many are called
Jesus ends his parable with these
words:
For many
are invited (or called), but few are chosen.
Matthew
22:14
It is an unexpected conclusion. I
would have expected him to have said, “For many are called, but few answer the
call.” Isn’t that the consistent picture we get from the parable? The king
sends out invite after invite, but not everyone responds? Not everyone takes it
seriously?
Or, some of us would have
expected Jesus to say, “For many are called, but few are live up to the call”,
thinking of the guy without the wedding clothes, as a parable of those who
presume on God’s call and don’t take it seriously.
But no, Jesus says, “Few are
chosen.” Meaning, salvation is God’s prerogative from start to finish.
Salvation is God’s grace in calling as well as in choosing. The word “chosen”
is the same word elsewhere translated as “elected”. it is saying that God is
the one who calls us into his presence and God is the one who enables us by his
Spirit to answer that call. It is a totally unexpected conclusion to the
parable!
What does this mean for us as
Christians today?
1. God has prepared
everything for our salvation
Salvation is entirely at God’s
initiative and expense. The king repeatedly says, “The wedding banquet is
ready. I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and cattle have been slaughtered.”
And for us as Christians, God even clothes us with his righteousness in Jesus
Christ, to make us acceptable in his presence. God has prepared all, done all,
sacrificed all to ensure our entrance into his kingdom and our continued
faithfulness to him as our King.
2. God’s call is the good
news of his Son
“The Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus
tells us, “is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.”
It isn’t simply about the food, in fact, it isn’t at all about the blessings or
the food. It is all about the king’s son. God plan of salvation is for all
creation to recognise the glory of his one and only Son. He sends out messenger
after messenger with the same good news, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
3. Rejection of Jesus is at
the heart of our sinful rebellion against God
Jesus spoke this parable against
the Pharisees and religious leaders, not simply to expose their
double-standards, but to reveal how their rejection of him was indicative of their
rejection of God. Through idolatry, the leaders had chosen to make God’s
salvation about themselves; trusting in their privilege, their heritage, their
traditions and their own status. Through pride and rebellion, they would
initiate the murder of Jesus by condemning him to death on the cross, because
they rejected Jesus as God’s chosen Messiah.
4. God's call is sovereign and gracious
It doesn’t mean that we aren’t
responsible for our actions. But it does mean that salvation is by grace from
start to finish. For you to have heard the gospel, and for it to have made
sense in your hearts and minds that, “Jesus Christ really did die for me on the
cross,” - that is God’s gracious call to you and me. And for you to respond,
“God, please forgive and change me through the cross,” - that, too is God’s
grace working in you. It means, we should never take the gospel for granted,
but always seek to hear and be changed by the message of forgiveness and
reconciliation offered to us by God in his Son.
As Christians today, we sometimes
obsess over the question, “Have I been called?” thinking that it is our calling
that sets us apart as special or unique in God’s purposes for our lives. Jesus
brings our attention back to the God who calls and the God who enables us to
answer that call, first and foremost, as a call to respond to his
salvation in Jesus Christ. He sends out his word - the gospel - calling
everyone and anyone to turn to him in repentance and to rejoice in his Son. He
sends out his servants to speak the gospel clearly and faithfully, calling his
people to give their lives in obedience and love to Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Saviour. This is the God who calls us out of darkness into his wonderful
light, who calls his enemies his friends, who calls sinful rebels his sons and
daughters making them holy and clothing them with righteousness through the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his Son, on the cross.
Hear the call of the kingdom
Lift your eyes to the King
Lift your eyes to the King
Let His song rise within you
As a fragrant offering
Of how God rich in mercy
Came in Christ to redeem
All who trust in His unfailing grace
King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus' name
As a fragrant offering
Of how God rich in mercy
Came in Christ to redeem
All who trust in His unfailing grace
King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus' name
“Hear the call of the kingdom”, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
