Kingdom-Week 4

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like… Week 4

The parables of Jesus PT 2.

Luke 20:9–16 NIV

He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”

The Kingdom is about God Dealing with What’s His

Part of what Jesus was trying to address in his parables is this simple fact -

Psalm 24:1 NIV

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

Jesus is clear - the kingdom is about God dealing with HIS stuff.

First off - we’re his.

This takes some humility to be able to accept.

But it means that - every decision we make, every path we follow, everything we get and how we use it - we owe an accounting to God about it.

STORY - What i’m like with my own stuff - vs someone else’s stuff

Secondly - everything here, everything around us is his.

He created the earth and everything in it.

He also gave us all creativity, will, and drive.

Have we ever looked at our lives like this?

What if we stopped looking at it like, what can I do with MY life, and start looking at it as , ‘what can Jesus do with this life - that belongs to Him already anyways?’

Or our stuff - move from ‘What can I do for God with my stuff’ to ‘What is god telling me to do with his stuff?’

Matthew 22:2–14 NIV

“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. “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.’ “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. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So 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, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. “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.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

The Kingdom is about God Setting the Standards - For a Reason

Don’t get me wrong. The kingdom of heaven is an incredibly welcoming place.

But we take that comparison too far sometimes. We take it to mean, God has absolutely no standards or expectations on anyone. Just throw the doors open, and however anyone wants to act or be, whatever! None of it matters!

The truth is - God’s kingdom IS about God welcoming in people exactly how they are. But it doesn’t stop there.

God’s trying to fix a problem - a broken humanity, a broken universe.

STORY - Amazing Just the Way You Are - STUPID SONG.

It’s not love to leave someone who is sick in their sickness, or someone who is broken in their brokenness.

But only God really, REALLY knows what the problem is. And the kingdom is about him rooting it out, once and for all.

That’s why we push and obey his standards. Not because they’re tickboxes for us to make our way into heaven. But because we know there’s a big problem - and that God is trying to solve it.

But sometimes - people don’t want to address the real problem. People don’t want to hear, or just don’t care. Sometimes people are even happy to BE the problem.

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Matthew 13:24–30 NIV

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”

We Need to be Ready for the Kingdom of God to Come

The bible is clear - it’s not that the kingdom is being offered to people who possess some kind of innate ‘goodness’. It’s not like he’s picked the smart people, or the kind people, or the generous people, and left the rest out.

1 Corinthians 1:27–29 NIV

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

the kingdom is about the fact that not one of us deserves it or has earned it on our own.

And this parable, Jesus goes onto explain it.

But the dividing line between wheat and weeds in this parable isn’t innate goodness or some quality we possess - it’s readiness.

And readiness for this exact outcome that Jesus is talking about - one where, one day, he clears the field. He deals with sin and all those who have no interest in the truth or in right living.

Next week we’re gonna talk about this set of parables - what will the kingdom of God be like on that day when Jesus comes back.

But today, we needed to end on this point - God is going to set everything right in his kingdom and his universe. and we need to make sure we’re in the boat when that happens.

God is inviting us all to be citizens of his kingdom

This is what the cross was. It was God tearing down and burying every possible excuse for us to be able to give.

I’m not good enough

I’m not strong enough

God hates me

I’ve done too many bad things

But God in his wisdom and love, has created a place for us. Where we can be free - and really and truly free, for the first time ever.