Kingdom Disciples

Day of Remembrance

Jeremiah 17:7–8 NLT

7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

Pastor Eric

Today is our annual Day of Remembrance when we take time to recall the members of our church family who passed away during the previous calendar year. The current pandemic has significantly impacted how we are able to gather and minister to each other during the loss of a loved one. Thus, it is more important than ever that as a church family we support each other as we go through the ups and downs of life. We rejoice and celebrate the good things that happen. We stand beside each other and offer encouragement during trials and times of loss.

During 2020, six of our members to passed away. Even though many of us gathered around the different families to offer support, prayers, food and comfort at the time of their loved one’s death, today, we want to take a few moments to remember these six individuals.

Nelda Our Deacons of the Month, Glenn Satterwhite and Toni Ann Wheeler, will come and read each name and members of the Katie Lee Currin Mission Group will come to present a memorial keepsake to the family. Families were given the option of joining at either the 9:30 drive-in service, our 11:00 in person service or via Facebook.

9:30 We ask that family members beep their horn and turn on their flashing lights when you hear the name of your loved one so we can bring the memorial keepsake to you.

11:00 We ask family members to stand when you hear the name of your loved one so we can bring the memorial keepsake to you. For those families who have joined by Facebook, we will mail the memorial keepsake to you during this coming week.

For our church members, we ask that you take a moment to remember each individual as their name is called. Think about interactions you had with the person. What role did they play that is a part of the fabric of this church today? How did God use them in Kingdom work? If you are new to the congregation, or visiting, and did not have the opportunity to know these individuals, then, we ask that you say a prayer for the family.

Glenn and Toni Ann, please come and call the names for us.

NAMES READ AND KEEPSAKES PRESENTED

Harvey Thomas “H.T.” Brame

Jesse Jacob Cash, Jr.

Defford Hardee

Pamela Jean Stokes Roberts

Kay Suitt Turner

Maurice Thompson “Pop” Whitfield

Pastor Eric Thank you, Glenn and Toni Ann and members of the Katie Lee Currin Mission Group,

Families, we take comfort that these loved ones were followers of Jesus and had been adopted into the family of God. Now they are enjoying His presence and the heavenly blessings that await every Christian. We know you do not need this memorial keepsake to remember your loved one. You will do that anyway. It is our hope that the memorial keepsake will be a reminder to you that your church family cares very much about you and stands with you as you travel through this bereavement journey.

Nelda We also hope that this token will draw your thoughts to the good times you had with your loved one. That each time you look at it you will recall one and then another of the special, precious times you had together.

For encouragement going forward, let’s think about Psalm 62:1-2:

My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and salvation. He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Pastor Eric Lead in prayer.

Sermon

Thank you for being with us as we come to the final sermon in our series on Jesus’s parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. Next week we will start a series that will take us all the way to Easter. In that series we will look at some of the people Jesus encountered on his final journey to Jerusalem, where He knew that He would be crucified, and how their lives were changed by that encounter. I’m really excited about that series, and hope you will join us. But I’m also excited about today, and finishing our series on the parables about the kingdom of heaven.

So as a quick review of what we’ve seen so far in chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew, here are the main lessons contained in the other parables we’ve studied:

Matthew 13:1-23 - God’s desire is that the seed He plants in us grows and bears fruit.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 - God’s Kingdom co-exists with evil and sin for now, but will someday be victorious over them.

Matthew 13:31-35 - God wants His kingdom to spread throughout the world and throughout our lives.

Matthew 13:44-46 - God’s kingdom is worth more than all the other good things in our lives put together.

If you have your Bible with you today, please turn with me to Matthew 13:47-52.

Matthew 13:47–52 CSB

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish, 48 and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous, 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 “Have you understood all these things?” They answered him, “Yes.” 52 “Therefore,” he said to them, “every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom treasures new and old.”

Let’s pray…

If you’ve been with us for the whole series this past month, you might be thinking to yourself, “This parable sure sounds like the parable of the weeds.” The second parable that Jesus shared in this series talked about the good seed that represents the people of the kingdom of heaven growing alongside the bad seed planted by God’s enemy, the devil. In that parable, the servants of the farmer, the angels, will someday separate the weeds from the good grain and burn the weeds, and put the good grain in the barn. That sounds very similar to today’s parable where it’s a net that is full of both good fish and worthless fish which are sorted. Once again, the evil people’s destiny is eternal punishment in hell, and the righteous people’s destiny is eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.

Why did Jesus tell two parables with the same main idea? I believe He did this for emphasis! The other truths about the kingdom are important. But the reality of a day of judgment is something that Jesus felt was important enough to teach about twice. Let’s look at what we can learn about the Kingdom of Heaven and Judgment Day from this parable.

God is actively gathering people into His Kingdom.

In the Old Testament, we find verses that talk about God’s activity in seeking out humanity,

Ezekiel 34:11–12 CSB

11 “ ‘For this is what the Lord God says: See, I myself will search for my flock and look for them. 12 As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and total darkness.

And in Hosea it says:

Hosea 2:23 NLT

23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’ ”

The Apostle Peter tells us that…

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Jesus’s last command to His disciples before He went up to heaven after rising from the dead was for them to go to the ends of the earth and tell others about Him.

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So clearly God is actively pursuing us and He wants us to know Him and follow Him. This is important because contrary to what our culture tells us, Christianity isn’t ONE OF MANY ways to heaven or to God, it’s the ONLY way. The Kingdom of Heaven isn’t one net among many nets catching men and women and offering them a chance to enter paradise, it’s the only net.

John 14:6 CSB

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Years ago I used to watch a TV show called “Deadliest Catch” about a number of Crab Boats that competed against each other to see who could catch the most crabs in the waters off of Alaska. But in the Heavenly fisheries, there is not a Christian boat, a Buddhist boat, a Muslim boat, and a Mormon boat, all competing against each other to offer people access to their version of heaven or paradise.

There is only one net, and there is only one God, and one Kingdom of Heaven.

There aren’t many ways to heaven, there is only one way: Jesus. Because this is the reality that every person will someday have to face when they die and are faced with judgment, Jesus calls on His disciples to share the message of God’s love, and salvation with the people of the world.

At different times I’ve heard people ask the question, “Well, what about people in the remote jungles of the Amazon or on some small island in the middle of nowhere that never have a chance to hear about Jesus? Won’t God make some kind of exception for them?” But if that was the case, then Jesus would have told His disciples, “Make sure you don’t tell anyone about me, because if they don’t know about me then they won’t be accountable for their sins.” But He didn’t say that. Instead He gave His followers instructions to go and tell everyone to believe in Him and obey His commands.

How else can I explain it? Imagine that every person in the world had cancer, and we knew that every single person would die from that cancer. But one day a cure for cancer is found, and we have access to that cure. We would go and give that cure to everyone we knew so that they would not die a painful and horrible death. We would take that cure to other places that didn’t know there was a cure, and we’d try to get them to take the cure too.

That’s exactly what the situation is. Humanity has a disease called sin that guarantees that every single person will die and suffer unthinkable pain and agony. However God sent His Son to die for us and pay for our sin, so that we could be freed from the consequences of our sin. There are other options out there claiming to cure cancer too, but they are ineffective. Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, good works, Hinduism, and every other system that claims to have the answer will ultimately fail to solve the problem of humanity’s sin. So we are called to go tell people the truth that no matter what your background is, no matter what country you live in, what religion you were born into, what good or bad deeds you’ve done, God wants to offer you the cure to your sin.

That’s what we are called to do, but I think the reason that Jesus told two separate parables about the day of Judgment was to emphasize a point.

Someday the net will be full.

A day is coming when there will no longer be a chance for people to make a decision to put their faith in Jesus and receive God’s salvation. For now, God is patiently waiting, as it says in 2 Peter 2:9, waiting for people to repent and put their faith in Jesus. So now there are Christians who are going to their neighbors, friends, co-workers, classmates, and telling them about Jesus, hoping that they will put their faith in Christ and be saved. There are thousands of Christians from the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and even Christians from Muslim countries who are sharing their faith and going to places on the earth that have never had a chance to hear about Jesus, so that those people also have a chance to be a part of God’s kingdom. Every single day that goes by, we are one day closer. Even as I was writing this sermon, I wondered if someday I’ll be preparing a sermon and a message about how Christ’s return is imminent, and I won’t get to deliver it because Jesus returns before I get to preach it.

Salvation is available for a limited amount of time. Don’t miss out on your chance to share it with others!

In Matthew 24, Jesus told His disciples near the end of His ministry that there is a day and an hour when the end will come and people will be judged. He told them that no one knows the day or the hour when that will happen, and so they should always be prepared for that day.

In the same way, I know there are some people who have all the knowledge about Jesus and about God, and they understand what it means to be a Christian, and they even understand what they will have to give up and sacrifice in order to receive Christ’s offer of forgiveness. They have all that knowledge in their heads, and they have decided that one day they will take that step to become a Christian, but not yet. They want to live life on their own terms, and after they’ve had their fun, they will receive the free gift God offers them. The scary thing is that we have no idea when Jesus will return, and if they have not taken that step where they honestly and truly choose to repent of their sin and turn to God by the time Jesus returns, it will be too late. Here is how Jesus puts it in Matthew 24...

Matthew 24:36–41 CSB

36 “Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son—except the Father alone. 37 As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38 For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. 39 They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill; one will be taken and one left.

Two men will be watching the game and one will be taken and one left.

Two women will be out drinking coffee and one will be taken and one left.

Matthew 24:42–44 CSB

42 Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. 44 This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

So we know it’s coming, we just don’t know when, so we need to live our lives as if it going to happen today or tomorrow. The passage tells us that when that day comes, there will be different outcomes for people depending on whether they belong to God’s kingdom or not.

The good people will be gathered.

The idea here is that those who are part of God’s kingdom will be kept safe. They will be set apart and will remain. They don’t suffer the punishment that is reserved for those who have to pay for their own sins. It’s not that we are any better or more deserving than others, it is that we responded to God’s offer of forgiveness and Jesus has paid for our punishment instead of us having to pay for it ourselves. But those who have not repented and accepted Christ’s gift of salvation WILL have to account for their own sins.

The evil people will be punished.

Every single human being deserves punishment because of the sins that each of us are guilty of. The standard that God holds us up against is not how good we are compared to someone else. If that were the case, we could justify ourselves and say things like, “I am not as bad as Hitler, or as someone who shot up a school or as a terrorist.” But God’s standard is not other people, it is His own perfection and none of us comes even close to being good enough compared to Him.

Again, I’ve heard people who argue, “How can you believe in Hell? The Bible says that ‘God is love’ so I don’t believe that a loving God will do that to people.” However, I recently heard someone explaining that the problem with that logic is that people who think that way have a wrong understanding of who God is. God’s greatest attribute is not His love, it is His holiness. Holiness is when God’s goodness, His love, His justice, His righteousness, His purity and justice and every other attribute of God work in perfect harmony and agreement with each other and with God’s character. God’s justice and mercy and love and righteousness and grace all work together in His decision to send His son to die for us on the cross, and also in His decision to allow sinners who refuse His salvation to pay for their own sin. Punishment is the right response to sin and rebellion against God. Forgiveness of the believer is God’s grace and mercy expressing itself in line with God’s other attributes.

Once again, this is why Jesus repeated this lesson in a second parable. The reality of judgment and punishment is important enough that Jesus wanted His followers to clearly understand it and adjust their lives and behavior in light of this truth.

Jesus ends this entire series of teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven by asking His disciples if they understood what He had taught them. The very beginning of the chapter had started with Jesus’s statement that people who were not a part of God’s kingdom would not understand these deeper secrets and truths about the Kingdom, so here he ends the series asking them if they understand what He has told them. When they responded that they did understand it, he gives them one final mini-parable.

Matthew 13:52 CSB

52 “Therefore,” he said to them, “every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom treasures new and old.”

The word used in this verse in the Greek is “Scribe”. A scribe was a person who taught and also who studied the law and was an expert in the Law of Moses. They taught others about the law, so for Jesus to say that a Scribe had become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven was a statement that would draw attention from the listeners. This was something that took humility and showed a deep desire to learn and be open to the new things God was teaching through Christ.

Jesus’s teachings often gave insight and sometimes corrected misunderstandings that the religious leaders had about what God had said in the Hebrew Scriptures that we call the Old Testament. A scribe who was willing to follow Jesus had treasures that were new from Jesus’s teachings, and also was able to bring out some of the old treasures found in the Hebrew Scriptures in the context and truth of Christ’s message.

As Jesus’s followers, we should be students of All Scripture, interpreting the treasures of the Old Testament in light of Jesus’s life and His teachings. We should bring out these treasures and share them with others around us.

As we come to the end of our study of the parables of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus calls us to understand that we have access to the treasures of Scripture, but that we aren’t to keep those treasures to ourselves, but rather we should share the incredible truths of salvation with others around us because there is a limited time of opportunity for those who do not yet know Christ as Savior and Lord. If you want to know more about how to become a follower of Christ, please reach out to me, Pastor Nick, or one of the other leaders here at First Baptist. If you want to go into deeper study of God’s word, I encourage you to join our Wednesday night Bible studies. They are all accessible online through ZOOM link on our church website’s main page. The men also meet in person in the sanctuary.

Let’s pray...

Hebrews 13:20–21 CSB

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.