Kingdom Parables: A Joyful Revolution

INTRODUCTION

MAIN POINT - THE KINGDOM OF GOD STARTS IN JOY AND FEASTING AS JESUS RESTORES THE OUTCASTS, THE BROKEN, THE OPPRESSED, AND THE DESOLATE TO YAHWEH!

Good Morning Life Church!

Today we start a new series on the Parables of the Kingdom of God.

These are stories or images Jesus told to help his original audience understand how God’s Kingdom was breaking into the world, to rescue His people from the tyranny of Satan, sin, and death.

The Jewish people had a promise found in the law, the prophets, and the wisdom literature that spoke of a savior, a Messiah, that would come from God, to rescue God’s people and to bring in an eternal Kingdom.

THEY HAD LONGED FOR THIS, FASTED FOR THIS, WAITED GENERATIONS FOR THIS KINGDOM AND NOW HERE IS A SIMPLE MAN PROCLAIMING THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND.

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

GOSPEL OF GOD = THE GOOD NEWS FROM GOD OR THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD.

THE GOOD NEWS FROM GOD IS, THAT GOD HAS COME IN JESUS, AND HIS KINGDOM - RULE - IS HERE TO ENTER.

He is claiming He is the Messiah King they had all been waiting for.

He is also proclaiming the revolution has begun.

---------------------------------------------------------------- NOT ONLY DOES JESUS PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM IS HERE IN HIM BUT, HE ALSO DEMONSTRATED IT.

Showing that it does not fit their expectations and therefore they need a change of heart to receive it.

Mark 1:16-20 - Jesus chooses fishermen to be his first disciples.

Mark 1:21-28 - Jesus demonstrates His authority over demons by exorcising them.

Mark 1:40-45 - Jesus touches the unclean and restores them physically and ceremonially.

Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus demonstrates the authority of the Kingdom of God by forgiving the sins of a man and then healing Him.

Mark 2:13-17 - Jesus cut through religious taboos by eating with cultural outcasts and restoring them to the faith. / Chooses a tax collector- traitor to Israel to be a disciple.

He freed people from insanity and demon possession, he cleansed those who were ceremonially and physically unclean and unable to participate in corporate worship, He forgives sins, which only God can do, and He reached the religious and culturally outcasts to restore them to Yahweh.

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JESUS IS NOT MEETING THE COLLECTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE MESSIAH.

WHERE IS THE ARMY? THE CALL TO PERFECTION? THE REMOVAL OF OUTCASTS, THE DEFEAT OF THE ROMAN OCCUPIERS?

WHY DO YOU WELCOME OUTCASTS AND SINNERS?

WHY DO WASTE YOUR TIME HEALING AND RESTORING PEOPLE WHEN YOU SHOULD OVERTHROW ROME?

WHY DOES THE KINGDOM NOT LOOK LIKE WE EXPECTED?

THESE ARE THE KIND OF QUESTIONS THAT THE PARABLES OF JESUS ADDRESSED.

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WHAT DOES JESUS TEACH US ABOUT HOW THE REVOLUTION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAS COME INTO THE WORLD?

GOD IS HERE AND HE BROUGHT HIS KINGDOM, LETS THROW A BRIDAL PARTY!

Mark 2:18 NASB95

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

Pharisees fasted from dawn to dusk 2 days a week.

The Pharisees fasted and prayed for the Messiah to come.

belief was - God is waiting for us to be righteous as a nation before He sends the Messiah.

John and his disciples were known for their fasting and eccentric life style of denying the flesh in anticipation of the Messiah.

JESUS IF YOU ARE REALLY APART OF THE JEWISH RENEWAL MOVEMENT, WHY ARE YOUR DISCIPLES NOT FASTING?

Mark 2:19 NASB95

And Jesus said to them, “While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

THE WEDDING:

Jewish wedding -

Family and friends gather at the Bridegrooms house.

Bride and Bride maids wait at the brides house.

Bridegroom goes and claims his bride and the bride maids proceed them in dancing and song to the Grooms house.

Once the Groom and bride arrive, a party erupts and continues all night long.

Jesus is saying something so special, like a wedding feast is taking place in His ministry that fasting would be seen as disrespectful.

THE KINGDOM IS ERUPTING ON THE EARTH IN JESUS AS A CELEBRATION! A WEDDING FEAST!

-------------------------------------------------------- JESUS’ WORDS ARE STILL EVEN MORE PROFOUND.

Why does Jesus use the wedding ceremony sysmbol to describe his ministry?

Why does he use the symbol of the Bridegroom for Himself?

Hosea 2:19 NASB95

“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion,

By referring to Himself as the bridegroom, Jesus is identifying Himself with Yahweh.

You fasted for this day and now Yahweh has come in me as the Messiah to bring the Kingdom.

The Good news of God is God is here and his Kingdom and authority is at hand!

This is not a time for fasting, this is a time for a party!

Mark 2:20–22 NASB95

“But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

The reality of the Kingdom of God which is brought in Jesus cannot be contained in old forms.

The Jewish ceremonies served their purpose. they pointed to a future reality in type and symbol.

But now in Jesus, Yahweh’s future is bursting on the scene.

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JOHN IN HIS GOSPEL USES AN EVENT IN JESUS LIFE TO PAINT THIS SAME PICTURE.

John 2:1–11 NASB95

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

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APPLICATION

The Kingdom of God was inaugurated by Jesus as a restorative revolution.

Judgment is coming but first the Kingdom is offered to restore the broken, outcast, oppressed, sick and hurting to Yahweh.

In and through Jesus, God is restoring those under the tyranny of Satan, sin and death.

The Good news has come to the abused and the abuser offering forgiveness, freedom, deliverance, restoration, life, joy, and beauty.

The Good News of the Kingdom has come to the outcasts of religions, culture, and society, offering a new family, a new society, a community of the HS, bound to Jesus and one another.

The Kingdom has come for all to be restored to Yahweh.

THE KINGDOM CALLS OUT, “COME BE HEALED, BE SET FREE, BE CLEANSED, WASHED, BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY OF GOD, AND HAVE YOUR IDENTITY AS SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD RESTORED.

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THESE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM APPLIES TO US IN ONE OF TWO WAYS.

FIRST, it speaks to those of you who have been told your not good enough for God to love and care about.

It speaks to those who are trapped in sin, demonized, and tortured by a broken identity.

To you the Kingdom of God says, come! Come and experience healing, transformation, washing away of the guilt and sin. It says come and be born again into the image of Jesus.

Come in JOY! Knowing God receives you and will free you, transform you, and establish you!

Secondly it speaks to us by saying, go! Go to the outcasts, the demonized, the broken, the sick, the prisoners. Go and take the Good news that the Kingdom of God is Here in Jesus.

Go into your work, your profession, your home, and be a people who offer the Kingdom of God.

Be a city on a Hill all the world can see and longs to be apart of .

Go and cast out demons, heal the sick, and make disciples in the name of Jesus.

And Go with joy and laughter knowing God is growing His people, His Kingdom, and is and will continue to transform the nations until Jesus returns.

----------------------------------------------------------------- TODAY I WANT TO INVITE YOU TO THE ALTAR.

Come and recieve forgiveness, come and be embraced by the King, come and leave behind this world and step into the Kingdom of God.

Come to the altar for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.

A Spirit of Holiness, truth, and power. The Spirit that empowers us to take the Gospel of God’s Kingdom to our neighbor, family, stranger, friend and enemy.