The Kingdom of Heaven: Who's in, who's out?
Matthew • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 12 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Welcome
We’ve been studying Matthew and it’s a fascinating book. It’s the first book of the New Testament and it’s separating year’s of prophecy and from the fulfillment of that prophecy.
God is constantly communicating to His people and they are constantly messing up! Sound familiar!
I read such a good quote a few weeks ago, I had to social media the crap out of it…
Paul Tripp wrote in his devotional book…
“The appropriateness of my responses to others is directly related to the accuracy of my view of myself, and for that there is grace too.”
What is Tripp saying? Tripp is making the point that in order for us to respond in a healthy way to others we must have a realistic awareness of our self!
“We’re so quick to snap off at somebody! We’re so swift to criticize someone else’s life choices… [WE SHOULD LIVE LIKE CHRIST, WE SHOULD PURSUE HOLINESS!] But what I am talking about is the quick, self-righteous comeback… The harsh tone, the yelling, the ‘I told you so’...”
What Tripp is saying — is that when we do that we’re forgetting how messed up WE ACTUALLY ARE! When we do that we’re forgetting how patient God has been and is being with us!”
Throughout history God has been speaking to His people. Are we listening?
Or are we just hearing what we don’t want to hear?
Because here’s what’s real: “We all need to wake up to God’s truth, found in the Word of God (BIBLE), and we must continually submit to God and relent from our own selfish ways.”
“When we ignore God’s Word and, as a result, our relationship with God, we become pharisees and fools.”
We become the people of God in the Old Testament! Always wondering, always messing up, always freaking out… wondering where God is —> and God has been speaking but we don’t like the message.
When we neglect the Bible and our relationship with God (synonymous) — (you can’t do one without doing the other) —> We become like the Pharisees… following a set of rules without a relationship
Rules without relationship = Pharisee
Cause what does that look like to others? Does that look attractive?
Does that look attractive?
What does it mean to be a Christian? “Uh, to follow rules.”
But that’s what it can become, and oh how terrible that is — and how contrary it is to what God desires for us!
So we look to the people in the OT and point our finger… we look at those around us and consider ourselves so much better… Maybe you’ve been doing better than you were before… BUT we’re still in need of God’s grace!
And here, in Matthew Jesus has come… the Messiah is here. The prophesies in the OT are being fulfilled in His ministry.
And so it makes since that Jesus begins by communicating about a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God!
Sop if you’re able, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word:
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.” ’ ”
:
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.” ’ ”
Matthew
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
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.
matthew 13:
“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.
Today, we will focus our attention on two big ideas from the text: (1) This idea of the lost and the found and (2) we will wrestle with the question, “how do we get found?”
THE LOST AND THE FOUND
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.
The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous
there are several ways this idea has been articulated:
the regenerate and the unregenerate
regenerate — made new
unregenerate — not made new
saved and unsaved
born again
Heavenly Kingdom
“Wheat and Weeds and Fishing analogies...”
What is Jesus talking about? Well in light of everything he’s said… He’s reminding his hearers once again that they live in God’s world!
“All of us will be accountable to God… Why? Because God is in charge… God is over all things. God is over your decisions, your life.”
We live in a world created by God, God allowed us to make certain choices, we chose wrongly, it led to breakdown… And the biggest casualty was our broken relationship with God himself. WE NEED OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED.”
Jesus is saying that in the end, “some will be regenerate and some will be unregenerate — some will be saved, some will not — some will be right with God and some will not — Some will be wheat and some will be weeds — some will be caught in the net, others will be left in the darkness of the ocean.”
A pastor can’t save you, a vague organized religion doesn’t save you, your money doesn’t save you… God saves and God alone.
We see this explicitly here, don’t we?
Does this text give any indication that the fish catch themselves or that the weed can work its way to become wheat?
NO.
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,
“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man...”
God does the work of choosing and saving and restoring! It is God’s work and he gets to take credit for it.
So there is a heavenly kingdom! Jesus is telling of it’s coming… Like many other things Jesus has said, it’s both a warning and invitation… It should invite introspection… many of Jesus’ hearers would consider themselves religious… So the question is should elicit in people is, “Am I headed towards the heavenly kingdom or not?”
The Kingdom of Darkness
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.” ’ ”
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.
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.
Matthew 13:
Here. Jesus acknowledges the idea of hell, a place of eternal separation from God. We see this explicitly through Jesus’ teaching… Jesus paints this picture of separation from God as being the ultimate penalty of sin, the ultimate death as it were.
So the reality that Jesus is positing here is that there will be those who are friends of God and those who are not and they will be doing life together until the end.
Unfortunately, the fate of the lawless will not be a good one.
HOW DO WE GET FOUND?
Justice will be enacted, fully and completely at this time.
All sin will be accounted for, all wrong-doing divinely punished, every wrong will be made right!
This is what a good judge WOULD do. This is what a good God does.
So we see here that there are those who are lost and those who are found… amongst us all the time… The question is?
HOW DO WE GET FOUND?
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Matthew
matthew 13:
Now, this text is important. How is is that Jesus talks about the righteous, plural, then refers to God being their father?
a
“How in the world do earthly strugglers (like us) become, not only inhabitants of Heaven, but family, more specifically sons, of God!”
“We already talked about how messed up we are and can be! We’ve already recognized our imperfections… Jesus refers to “the righteous” — righteousness refers to complete ‘right-ness’ before God, a characterization that I’m fairly confident none of us would completely resemble.” So, what is Jesus saying? How do we get into this family? How do we become one with the righteous? How is it that we get found?
Well, once again, Jesus says this, knowing that he is the Messiah… Jesus says this, knowing his earthly mission. Jesus says this, knowing about the cross to which he is headed towards…
Jesus knows that he is the one who is able and willing to take all that justice, all that sin, all that wrongdoing… and bear it on his shoulders
Just like any criminal or one found guilty, we have accumulated a long list of wrongdoing and that has consequences that need accounted for — and Jesus takes all of that record, all of that… and carries it to the cross and dies the death we deserved…
Literally trading places with us as a result — FOR ALL WHO WOULD PUT THEIR FAITH IN HIM… it’s a relational thing.
Later, after Jesus’ resurrects from the dead, Jesus looks to his old friend Peter and asks him, “who do you say I am?”
Later, after Jesus’ resurrects from the dead, Jesus looks to his old friend Peter and asks him, “who do you say I am?”
Ultimately, this is the question we all have to answer one way or another.,
Ultimately, this is the question we all have to answer one way or another… This is the most important question?
“Who do you say I am? Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?”
So how do we get found? We put our faith in Jesus Christ! When we do that, genuinely and completely, it proves that God is at work in us.
APPLICATION
See this is what Jesus is doing in Matthew. He’s showing the religious rulers and the people of his day, which has implications for us, that life is about God — what God says matters!
Stop building up a religious system that makes you look good.
Stop living your life as if you make all the rules.
Stop being the lord of your own life.
There is a God and he is ushering in his kingdom. He has come and he is coming again.
He’s trying to get the religious leaders to wake up to reality — to wake up to Gospel theology, to what God is really up to… To get over their way of looking at things.
Jesus wants them to take their own Bible seriously! Not in just the following of the rules but in the love and grace of God that envelopes all of the scriptures… the rules are not an end in and of themselves… the rules point to the ruler… and the ruler is good, and just, and holy, and loving!
Be patient with other’s — we’re all in process. As we said earlier. If we’re self-aware, and we’re Christian, we recognize that God has been patient with us. If God has been patient with us, why do we get so impatient with other’s?
Call people to repent
Call people to believe in the Gospel
But be patient! This is God’s work… and we typically change slower than we’d like.
Heaven is a place for people who love God!
A good litmus test for genuine Christianity isn’t the list of personal accomplishments you’ve achieved, but rather the condition of your relationship with Jesus.
Can you say you love Jesus? How does that manifest in your real life?
What do healthy loving relationships/friendships look like? Does your relationship with Jesus look that way?
COMMUNITY GROUP REFLECTION:
Reread . How is this challenging and encouraging?
The idea of hell, eternal separation from God, sounds harsh to modern ears. Why is divine justice significant?
How do persons become righteous, as seen in verse 43?
COMMUNION
L: In the night in which he was betrayed, Our lord Jesus took bread,He gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat; this is my body, given for you.Do this for the remembrance of me.
L: Again, after supper,He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying; this cup is The new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.Do this for the remembrance of me. Silent Reflection – to prepare our hearts toCome to the Lords table
L: Jesus' death brings us life and this meal reminds us that we are fed by Jesus and forgiven because of Jesus.
C: We rejoice that You have died, have risen, and are now with the Father advocating for us. Amen.
L: With our money, time, and talent we give generously, knowing that through Your Son, Jesus, You have generously given to us.
C: We rejoice that You have given everything and we joyfully give everything back to Your care. Amen.
L: If you believe Jesus died to forgive you your sins you are welcome to come,
L: Come for all is ready
BENEDICTION
Go as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, through the blood of the Son Jesus and kept by the power of the Spirit. Peace be with you.