Seeking the Kingdom

Intro

-What is a parable

-How do we interpret/apply them

Luke 12:13-34

Before and after this section Jesus is preparing the disciples for life without Him and for those who will oppose them.

-1-3 talks about being wary of the Pharisees and their hidden faults

-4-6 Don’t fear those who can kill the body (more valuable than the sparrows)

-8-12 Don’t deny Christ (Proclaim Him)

-22-34 Exhortation to not be anxious

-Following passages address being ready.

Nestled in this section of instructions for the disciples.

In the middle of it,

Confronting Covetousness (13-21)

13-15 Setting the Scene

-”Tell him to...”

-Inheritance (Common for Jewish people to consult Rabbi’s)

-There are some rules laid out for sharing inheritance in Dueteronomy and Numbers.

-He wanted a judge to decide between them. Jesus’ response is telling (14-15).

-Man likely only focused on the $$

-”They wanted Jesus to serve them, not save them” -Wiersbe

-(15) Warning against covetousness - putting the material world in the right place

-Like many societies, definitely a divide between the have and have nots.

-Several new testament writers address issues between the haves and have nots. 1 Cor, James (Plug for Bible Study tomorrow night)

-definitely a desire to be among the “haves”

-Our society is no different American Dream

-”Your identity and joy can not be in what you own!” (Getty song, My worth is not in what I own”)

-Point he is making is that you cannot let desire for wealth take you over. You have to look past your possessions. There is something better to chase after.

-We can get into the same cycle of desire and covetousness.

-it’s not limited to wealth, can be many things (Prestige, leisure times and vacations, even knowledge and human wisdom) -none of these are bad in and of themselves, but they are not what we should be chasing after and they are not things that will bring joy.

16-21 The Parable

-Man has everything and then immediately dies.

-Couple of notes in the story ..

-He’s not chasing after gold/silver wealth, this is about food.

-He didn’t chase after it, it was a blessing from God.

-vs 17 - the overabundance is a problem because he doesn’t have a space to store it.

-never a thought in his mind past himself.

-never crosses his mind to share it, to help those who don’t have.

-Solution is to make bigger barns, and I’ll be great and I can retire!

“Say to my SOUL, rejoice...” - Finding his happiness in his abundance

The point Jesus is making here is that being rich in the material is worthless compared to being rich towards God.

-remember the context - covetousness.

-not an exhortation to be unwise, save nothing and live “YOLO”

-It is foolishness to chase after more and more material things.

-laying up treasure for himself vs being rich towards God

-Not simply it won’t make you happy, but it is foolishness.

You can’t take it when you go.

-This man didn’t chase after it, yet he couldn’t take it, it didn’t fulfill him. How much worse is it when we chase after those riches and make them our idol.

Clear then, that we want to be rich towards God.

What does it mean to be rich towards God? Keep this question in mind, because we are going to come back to it at the end.

Addressing Anxiety (22-34)

22-34 Follow-up to disciples

-change of audience is important

-not talking to crowd anymore, to his disciples specifically.

-people who were called to follow him in a different way.

-These are the people he is directly teaching and will be entrusted with the building of the Church. If we want to know what it looks like to be rich towards God, then we should look at what He taught them, and what they in turn taught the Church.

Therefore - leads us back up to our parable. Because you are seeking to be rich towards God...

Don’t be anxious about the physical things you need. Life is more than food, the body is more than clothing.

Greed and anxiousness here are painted as two sides of the same coin. It’s all focused on the material.

24- 28 Ravens and Lillies (Food and Clothing)

-God takes care of the birds, they don’t have to store up food.

-Your anxiety over these things doesn’t add anything to your life (25-26)

-God clothes the fields, why not you?

29-31 Seek the kingdom of God

-Very clear in it’s admonition, don’t seek the material things, don’t be anxious about them.

I don’t think Jesus intends this to be a don’t ever think about this ever. Just put it out of your mind. Other scriptures indicate the importance of working and providing for family/each other.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

2 Thessalonians 3:10–12 ESV

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

Theology of Work - another topic for another day.

What he is getting at really comes out in vs 30 -the nations

This is important because, just like Israel, the disciples and the church is supposed to be different from the rest of the world. We are supposed to have different desires and different goals. Our goals are not the material things. The heart is different.

The anxiety here Jesus admonishes has the same root as the covetousness that he warned the crowd about. Both means we are seeking the material world and not His Kingdom.

Seek His Kingdom, to find our riches in Him and the rest will follow. (31)

Put this in perspective, when we look at 1 Tim 5:8 again. We don’t go work to make sure they eat, but we go to work because we love them and we want to honor God by caring for those entrusted to us. It’s about our goal and our heart. It’s also about trusting God with the results. He feeds the birds, he clothes the fields, how much more will he take care of you.

Seeking His Kingdom first also affects how we use the resources that God has blessed us with.

32-34 Don’t be anxious, chase after the imperishable

We probably all come to this passage and focus in on vs 33 and ask ourselves, do we really need to sell everything and give it to the poor?

I’m not going to say no, because in some cases, that’s precisely what He wants us to do. Instead, I want to shift the focus. Let’s look carefully at vs. 32.

-Fear not, little flock

-the kingdom is of greater value than anything on this earth.

Sell in vs 33 is an imperative, it is a command, but the context is this: Don’t worry, you chase after the kingdom and the other will follow.

This isn’t about compulsory giving, this is about the freedom to give without worry.

-disciples were called to drop everything and follow, but not everyone was (Lazarus, Mary and Martha)

-It’s about seeking His Glory first and trusting Him with the rest.

How do I seek the Kingdom of God?

Big question: What does it look like to be rich toward God? To Seek His Kingdom First?

Chasing after the imperishable. To Be rich in spiritual things.

Jesus references this in Matthew, it’s an echo of what is said here in Luke.

Matthew 6:19–20 ESV

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

1 Timothy lays out that looks like

1 Timothy 6:18–19 ESV

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Thus is like so and therefore, it says go back to the statements before to see to do to get to this end. We want to store up treasure in heaven, to be rich towards God, then we need to … do good, be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share.

The book of James is an amazing place to see what those good works are and what a life chasing the kingdom looks like.

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Lots of things in first chapter:

-Count everything as joy, even trials

-Be slow to anger, quick to hear

-Be Meek

-Bridle your tongue

-Care for the ones who cannot care for themselves.

So many things we can do, but it boils down to what Jesus taught as the greatest commandment: to love our God with all that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

When we love our God, and we desire to honor Him, then we seek to love the things that He loves.

-We seek to follow his commands and do what he asks of us

When we love our neighbor we seek to build them up and ultimately point them to the God that loves them.

Not salvation, comes after salvation

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

When we are saved by God, through the work of Christ, we are changed. We are a new creation, made with new desires and a new heart. It’s not simple, we still must battle the old desires. C.S Lewis addresses this in Mere Christianity:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.

-C.S. Lewis

Keeping alive the desire for our “true country” as Lewis puts it isn’t always easy. We need reminders of where are our heart belongs.

-Weekly church, communion