Must we put on a Choir or Priest’s robe before we can minister before the Lord?

The answer is “No” and “Yes”. I said this because we do a lot of things out of tradition without understanding the context. God instructed Moses on how he wanted the priest to appear before him in Ex28:4. However, the robe is a type and shadow of things to come. The same way Jesus said in Jn4:24 that how we worship is more important that where we worship, it is not the physical robe that will make us acceptable to God.

Therefore we need to pay attention to the parable of Jesus in Matt22:1-14. In this message, we will be looking at the robe and the vestry.

You cannot sing in the choir or minister as a priest in the temple if you don’t have the robe on in orthodox churches we should just throw away this tradition without understanding what it stands for.  It doesn’t matter who you are or how you came to church as long as you are wearing the robe people think of you differently. It’s the same in the kingdom of God, we must wear the new testament garment designed by God before we appear before Him. Choirs don’t make their own robe! Therefore, we cannot appear before God the way we want. Moses got specific instructions in Exodus 28 &29 about the robe for Aron, his children and even the Levites.

Jesus said in Matt22:1-14 that the kingdom of God is like a King who prepared a great feast and invited guest but they turned down his invitation and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Let me take a side walk here, as servants of God there is a time when no matter how hard you tried, people will not listen to your message. I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with your message, its just that people have chosen not to listen to you. When the servants of the king went out in vs3 no one came, in v4-5 the invited people gave excuses for not attending . They were preoccupied with their businesses. Today many people have good reasons not to attend church meetings, read the bible, pray or go on evangelism. However, v10 said the servants went out again at the instruction of the king and the wedding hall was full. It might look like your effort is yielding small fruit now but the time is coming when you will have  great harvest. Most of the successful people today went through what is called the wilderness experience.  The Lord will send the people that he  has opened their hearts to listen to you.

In Matt22:8 the king said to his servants, the wedding is ready, go to the high street and bring in whoever is ready to come in whether they are good or bad. God cannot and will not wait for any man, if  we refuse to answer his call he will extend his invitation to someone else. The Lord wants me to tell you to stop procrastinating and take a step of faith to do what he asked you to do.

The ceremony started and the King came to check out the guest and he saw a man without the wedding garment and he said   The king said, ‘Friend, how were you allowed to come in here? You are not wearing the right clothes.’ But the man said nothing.

Let’s talk about the Vestry – a room or building attached to a church, used as an office and for changing into ceremonial vestments. In our story, I believe the man was handed the wedding garment in the vestry, the question is how did he enter the without the robe? Certainly, the gatekeepers allowed him!!!

Firstly, the man must have said why should I put on the robe when I have another dress I want to wear. The fact that we have responded to the call of salvation is a noble thing. However, we must be willing to let go of our old ways of doing things.  The church today is full of people who want to wear what they like and serve God the way they want. Some will leave the church because they don’t want to hear the truth and appoint a pastor for themselves that will tell them what they want to hear. 

Secondly, the man went in because the gatekeeper allowed him! The gatekeeper in this case could be the Pastor, Choir Leader, Parent, Husband, Uncle, Aunty, Brothers, Sisters  or anyone in position of authority over us. As gatekeepers we need to know that God will not lower his standards, we must not allow people to indulge in sin. Paul wrote to Timothy,  “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure” – 1 Timothy 5:22

In conclusion what are the robes we are expected to put on in the new testament? This is more important that the priest or choir robe.

1. The new man – Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
2. The whole armour of God – Ephesians 6:11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We are in the battle field and most of us are using physical weapon to fight spiritual battle. The weapon of our warfare are not canal. We must learn how to use our spiritual weapon.
3. The armour of light – Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. We are children of light, we must not walk in the darkness.
4. The bowel of mercy and love –  Colossians 3:12-13 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
5. Finally, our  mortal must put on immortality when the Lord appears– But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes- it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal

If you want to give your life to Jesus , say this prayer:

Lord Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner, I repent of my sins today, I believe you died for me so I can have eternal life. I ask you to come into my heart  and be my Lord and saviour in Jesus name. Get in touch with us for books, spiritual support, counselling and prayers. Email:info@havenofglory.com,Tel:07940539320

Read the full parable

Matt22:1-14 Jesus used some more stories to teach the people. He said, 2 “God’s kingdom is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. 3 He invited some people to the feast. When it was ready, the king sent his servants to tell the people to come. But they refused to come to the king’s feast.

4 “Then the king sent some more servants. He said to them, ‘I have already invited the people. So tell them that my feast is ready. I have killed my best bulls and calves to be eaten. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’

5 “But when the servants told the people to come, they refused to listen. They all went to do other things. One went to work in his field, and another went to his business. 6 Some of the other people grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them. 7 The king was very angry. He sent his army to kill those who murdered his servants. And the army burned their city.

8 “After that the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready. I invited those people, but they were not good enough to come to my feast. 9 So go to the street corners and invite everyone you see. Tell them to come to my feast.’ 10 So the servants went into the streets. They gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike, and brought them to where the wedding feast was ready. And the place was filled with guests.

11 “When the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in the right clothes for a wedding. 12 The king said, ‘Friend, how were you allowed to come in here? You are not wearing the right clothes.’ But the man said nothing. 13 So the king told some servants, ‘Tie this man’s hands and feet. Throw him out into the darkness, where people are crying and grinding their teeth with pain.’

14 “Yes, many people are invited. But only a few are chosen.”