Kingdom Reality
Notes
Transcript
As many of you know my full time job is working for the phone company. For the first fourteen or so years I was installing and repairing internet at people’s houses. Sometimes I’d get a call with a frustrated customer that explained they just upgraded their internet speed but they still get a laggy video game. They got a faster speed but it didn’t fix anything. They didn’t understand the difference between bandwidth and latency.
Don’t let me lose you this fast this morning, I know you’ve all been on the internet at some point. The speed you see advertised is something called bandwidth that’s the 300 megabit you might get from the cable company or the 1 Gigabit you might be getting from fiber. There is another speed called latency and it matters a lot more for internet conference calls or video games. To help you understand this I’m going to toss you a side story you can all relate with a bit better. Moving. You need to get all your stuff from the old house to the new house. Lets say you got five friends with cars that can help. It takes about three trips with those five cars to move all those boxes. That’s the bandwidth, how much stuff you can move per trip. That means if you have just one car it’s going to take 15 trips. The one thing that stays the same is the travel time, lets say about 5 minutes. That’s like latency, if you’re going to a different place it might take a longer time to get there but buying more bandwidth or in the case of moving, getting more cars won’t make that trip each time any faster.
Now I didn’t come up with that to talk down to a customer who didn’t understand what was happening I did it to help them understand it because the internet is invisible. It happens across wires and fiber and networking equipment in a way that just can’t be watched and just figured out. That’s what a parable generally does. A parable is something thrown alongside. That’s what the Greek word means παραβολη two Greek words stuck together and we just pulled it right into English after a short trip through Latin and French. We’re in Matthew 13 this morning which is where we get the largest chunk of parables in the book. We see something counter intuitive though as Jesus explains the purpose of using parables.
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,
but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
So when Jesus is using parables there is a two pronged purpose. One is to help you understand the invisible nature of the Kingdom of heaven the other is to confuse the ones who have rejected Him.
Jesus continues;
Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.
Let’s Pray
Father you are wonderful and glorious. Please help us to understand your Word this morning with the parables here in Matthew and how they connect to our lives right now. We depend on your Spirit that leads us into all truth. Keep us from our failings and wanderings that walk away from your word but draw us continually to you. I Jesus name, Amen
There are three pairs of parables in Matthew 13 that come after the first big parable of the sower. Jerry did a great job of preaching that and we’ll move past it quickly as the prologue for the points we’re looking at this morning. It gave us some foundation and expectations of what will occur as the Word is preached. It will be one of four realities.
Not understood and snatched away
Sprout quickly but have no roots and die at the first sign of trouble
Heard but choked out by the cares of the world
Understood and go on to bear fruit
Now we can focus on what the ones who understand and bear fruit will witness and experience.
Reach
Reach
The two parables here are each short and have a single point. Like any analogy things fall apart if you try and make everything mean something in great detail. That’s not the point of a parable. A parable generally has one point per character.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Here is a short parable most of the men that work fields easily understand. The tiny seed of mustard will turn so large birds could make nests in it. Mustard is a “garden plant” or herb not something you plant in a field like wheat or barley. In fact there were prohibitions against planting this mustard plant in any place other than a small garden. It’s a fast growing weed that will quickly take over. To the local Jewish farmer hearing Jesus say that a man sowed it in his field they’d have known that was a bad idea because it’s going to explode. In the fertile soil of Galilee that plant will get 10-12 feet tall in a single season. It would take over a field you wanted to grow regular crops in and those tiny seeds would be all over the place and just become a field full of mustard. That’s the kind of reach the Kingdom of Heaven will get.
He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Now appealing to the women who would have often been the ones baking we see the second parable about the large reach the kingdom will get. In our house Jaime keeps the flour in a 5 gallon container, that might be large for your house but we’ve got a big family and she does a lot of baking. Now imagine we’re talking about a dough made from TWO of those 5 gallon buckets full to the brim of flour. That’s about 50 lbs of flour… now if she wanted to make sure she would have nice rising bread out of all that flour she would only need a starter lump about the size of a grapefruit. She just has to knead it into the dough and eventually it’s going to make that entire batch leavened and it’s going really grow… we don't’ have any bowls big enough for a whole batch of that to sit in and rise. It’s about enough to feed a hundred.
Jesus started with the Twelve. Do not despair in starting small! This kingdom grows fast! The whole series like the gospel of Matthew is building. We’ve seen Kingdom Standards - who Christ calls us to be, Kingdom Mission - what Christ has sent us to do, and Kingdom Reality - what we should expect as the Father’s Kingdom advances.
The Kingdom of Heaven will grow exponentially
Riches
Riches
In our second set of parables we see the Kingdom of heaven as riches worth everything you have.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Here we have a man just finding treasure. In contrast with the paired parable we get the impression this was accidental. In the ancient world there were not safety deposit boxes. If the Romans were invading the rich land owner may take their most valuable things and bury them in a pot. This may have been a day laborer who just came upon it while tilling the land and having found an amazing treasure covered it back up and sold everything to get the field it’s in. This seems to mirror Matthew’s story a little bit. Jesus sees him at the tax booth and calls him out to follow.
Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.”
The tax collector might have been despised but they were educated and made a lot of money. To walk away from that job was a huge deal. You burned a bridge with the Roman government. This was not a fishing net you could go back to the next day. If you give this up you’re not going to be allowed to just pick it back up. Matthew dropped everything to follow Christ.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Similar to the previous parable with something that has great value except this person was trained to see it and being confronted with it gives up everything for it. Paul likewise is trained as a Pharisee and knows what he’s looking for but he says
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Unlike the tax collector Matthew who was reviled by his own people and looked down upon but held lots of earthly riches, Paul was an upstanding citizen regarded as a holy man who must be spiritually rich. After finding Christ on the road to damascus though, all of those riches were considered rubbish and he gladly gave them all up for Christ.
The Kingdom of Heaven is worth giving up everything.
What are you refusing to give up?
Comfort?
Money?
Time?
Reckoning
Reckoning
Our last pair of parables actually happen before, in the middle of, and after the other two pairs. These are parables of reckoning. The first is the parable of Weeds that comes just before the parables about explosive reach.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping,
his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’
He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
This isn’t one of the more simplistic parables and Jesus gives his disciples an explanation but that happens after those parables about the growing reach of the kingdom and they get inside the house to a private setting.
He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Here we have a hint about the reality of the kingdom. It started in a mixed up world and will remain that way until Christ’s return. If we tried to go around and tear up the weeds and eliminate them we would do terrible damage to the kingdom. We’re not called to institute theocracy and have a government that produces Christians while punishing unbelievers. The Lord will handle that with his angels at the end of the age. Meanwhile the righteous will shine like the sun in the Father’s kingdom. This is a bit of a bombshell and so Jesus says He who has ears, let him hear.
Jesus shifts to the Riches and then right back again to the reckoning, it was hard news and it needed to be re-iterated for it sink in.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.
When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The main point is reiterated here shorter and clearer. Hell is real and the evil will be thrown into that fiery furnace. When we put all of this together what does it communicate?
The kingdom sows good seed but the world is mixed with the good and bad.
The kingdom will grow from small to beyond containment able to hold many within it
There will be a reckoning between good and bad where the bad is tossed in the fire and the good will shine like the sun!
The kingdom has riches worth more than everything else combined so give that all up for it
The kingdom will be sorted and the bad will be tossed into torment
That takes us to the final question from Jesus and a prompt to the disciples
The Good Scribe
The Good Scribe
“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them,
“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
The scribes throughout the book of Matthew have been bad guys. They’re lumped in with the Pharisees over and over but they’re also likely the brains within the Pharisee faction as the ones who have a scholarly job to be a scribe. Jesus shift things here, he’s redeeming what the scribes should be. Instead of what they have been. The scribes, the theologians and scholars, of that day should be the pastors and teachers of today. The ones who have been trained, or discipled for the Kingdom of Heaven. They should bring out treasures new and old. This is what I’m supposed to do today as one of your pastors. Take the old and new bring it out and feed His family.
We looked at the realities of Christ’s Kingdom and what did we see?
We see the Reach: A kingdom that started very small and has spread to four corners of the earth.
We see the Riches: A King of overwhelming riches worthy of giving up everything for.
We see the Reckoning: A final day that where the world will be sifted and separated
Do you have ears to hear?
|pause|
Ask yourself these questions:
Do I like Christ or do I trust Him?
Am I bearing fruit or taking up space between wheat?
Do I treasure Jesus above everything else?
When that final reckoning comes, where will I be sorted?
*prayer*
Jerry will come up and lead us in the Lord’s Supper.
