Do you Understand?
Joining Jesus on His Mission • Sermon • Submitted
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1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Depression
John Wesley came down for breakfast in a melancholy mood. He was miserable. Sensing the situation, Mrs. Wesley went upstairs, dressed in black, and came down to join him. “Who is dead?” Wesley asked. “God,” she replied. “Oh, no!” he said. Mrs. Wesley responded, “I thought so, from your countenance and conduct.”
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
As we continue our preaching through the Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter 13 was the continuation of a very busy Sabbath day for Jesus and the disciples that seems to actually have begun in Chapter 12. Before we come to today’s text, Jesus has answered an attack from the Pharisees regarding the keeping of the Sabbath, healed a man with a withered hand, in the process addressing eh question of the lawfulness of doing good on the Sabbath, healed more people, cast a demon out of a man, spoken about the sin of speaking against the Holy Spirit, rejected the request for a sign from the scribes and pharisees, checked his natural family, taught the crowds in parables, explained the parables to His disciples, and finally, in the part where we are, taught the disciples using three parables, which they claim to understand. Are you tired yet?
We are now approaching the end of this chapter and Jesus hits the disciples with three more parables concerning the Kingdom of Heaven. By now, they have had a lot of practice in hearing and Interpreting Jesus parabolic teaching and so have we. So let’s try our hands at interpretation.
“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.
What is the treasure and the field?
Who is the man?
How do you know what the field is?
Ok, if you answered (a) the Church and the world, (b) Jesus, and (c) because Jesus told us so in the parable of the weeds, you might be a theologian, because you recognize that the Gospel interpretation of this parable is that Jesus purchases the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28). If you answered with anything that included your giving up everything that you value in order to follow Jesus ass a good Christian, you aren’t ready yet.
Let’s try the second parable:
“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.
Who is the merchant?
What are the pearls?
What is the pearl of great value?
If you answered that you are the merchant, or that the pearl is the Gospel, you aren’t ready yet.
Ok, let’s try out parable #3:
“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.
Now this one is interesting: it is a “now and not yet” parable.
Which part is the “now” part and who was casting the net?
When does the sorting out take place and who does it?
So, do you think that the disciples understood these things? Do you understand the these things? If so congratulations! Now what?
Jesus says the following:
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.”
Old and new things out of his treasure - that what Jesus says about the scribe who has been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven. Being prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven does not mean forgetting all that God has done in the past, it means that, understanding God’s past actions, we now look at what God is doing through the Gospel as a continuation of that same Missio Dei that was part of the original creation.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
The foreknowledge of God is absolute and eternal. While we are descendants of Adam, who was “made in the image and likeness of God,” we do not know what that meant, but we do know that while we may be like God in certain limited ways - we can communicate, we have a will, and we are aware of the past, the present and the future - we do not foreknow anything by our human wisdom or understanding.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
The Son, like the Father, is eternal, and yet, the Son “was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times” for our sakes, for us who, through Him - who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Ro 4:25), are believers in God.
We need to truly grasp what God has done, and we cannot do that on our own. Paul prayed:
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
It is the love of Christ that led Him to take flesh and dwell among us, to empty Himself, taking the form of a servant, to be obedient unto death, even the death of a cross. Salvation is free for us, because He expended everything for it. The Throne of Grace is accessible to us because He “descended into hell.”
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
There is no reason for anyone to go to hell when Jesus already took our place and went there. There is no reason for anyone to die in trespasses and sins when Jesus came to take away our sins. There is no reason for anyone to be hopeless, to be in fear regarding their eternal destiny. No reason for anyone to be uncertain as to whether they are loved by God...
And yet, thanks to the prince of this world, the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience, the Devil, so many are in just that condition today. Some of them have not heard the Gospel, but others have, and yet they do not have faith in the Son of God. We know that faith comes through hearing, and hearing from the Word of Christ. We also know that the devil will snatch the word away or choke the Word so that it does not bear fruit unto eternal life.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
God has appointed us to be here at this particular time when the devil is working to push people away from the hope that is in Christ, to put their trust in governors and mayors and doctors - in the wisdom of men who contradict one another, who rely on force to compel others. For the first time, we are living in a generation that not only lacks the knowledge of God, but rejoices in their emptiness. God has called us to action as His holy nation to stand in the gap for them because they cannot and will not come to him themselves. God has equipped us to intercede for those who have been deceived. To make known His deeds among the people who do not know Him. God chose you for such a time as this. There is no other explanation for why you are here, why you are alive today, why you are saved at this hour.
Do you understand all these things? That was the question that Jesus asked the disciples, and that is the question that I put to you. Christ has laid a sure foundation.
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
God is not dead; He’s yet alive. You are not dead in trespasses and sins, you are alive in Christ. We have come into the Kingdom for such a time as this. So let the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.