The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 133

Psalm 133 ESV

A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 2:1-6

Psalm 2:1–6 ESV

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

Sermon

Good Morning Church! was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well this morning most likely because I am a glutton for punishment, we will be covering not one parable, which might be challenging, not two which would be, most likely twice as hard. No this morning we are covering 6 (well maybe 5.5) parables of Jesus. In doing so we will be wrapping up this parable discourse in Matthew 13. This will not be the last time we talk about parables, there are many more, for Jesus often talked in parables, but these mark the close of this section of Scripture. And so our Goal today is going to be, well though we might have a few, but our Goal today is to know and understand what Jesu is communicating to his disciples and to us. In other words, Our Goal is that we would know and learn how to read parables rightly, and that we will, in some sense, be trained by Jesus, in the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven. As I mentioned six parables we are going to cover this morning, but instead of just reading and skipping around we are just going to read them as we cover them, sort of work our way through the remaining parables in Matthew thirteen, but before we dive in lets begin with a word of prayer..

PRAY

Before we dive in I want to note WHY these parables are grouped together. They all start with the same phrase.

Matthew 13:31 ESV

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.

Matthew 13:33 ESV

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.”

Matthew 13:44 ESV

“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.

Matthew 13:45 ESV

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,

Matthew 13:47 ESV

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

These are the kingdom parables, these are not all of them, in fact, the ones that we have looked at already were kingdom parables. for example Matthew 13:24

Matthew 13:24 ESV

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

and so in one sense our aim is to just dive into what the kingdom of heaven is like. But in order to understand how we are to do this we are going to dive into the sixth parable that I said we would cover. At the end of all these kingdom parables we get one that doesn’t tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like, but rather, it tells us what those of us who seek to be students OF the kingdom of heaven are like. It tells us what those who are trained for the kingdom are like, those who stand in and understand the kingdom. Jesus starts with a question:

Matthew 13:51 ESV

“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.”

Have you understood what Jesus said. Note that it is not have your heard what I said. because there is a difference between hearing and having the meaning concealed, and hearing and knowing the truth of the kingdom. and jesus asks the second one: have you UNDERSTOOD? and the disciples, to their credit, say YES! Good job disciples. WE often pick on the disciples, assuming that if we were in their place we would do so much better (news flash, probably not!) and we could pick on them a little here, dd they really understand, because there are a few things to come that betray the fact that they might not have as clear a grasp as they think, but note that Jesus does not rebuke them, and therefore neither should we. Do you understand? Yes, we got em. Ok, Jesus said, and so he gives them the sixth parable we are looking at today.

Matthew 13:52 ESV

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.”

So here, then, our goal today in understanding these parables and understating these parables is to bring out NEW AND OLD TREASURES

Our Goal: NEW and OLD Treasures

When Jesus tells the one who understands these parables he says that's like the master who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. He is here describing then how one rightly handles these things. we should be a “scribe” an learned one, one who knows and understands, reads and applies. Who doesn’t just understand like “yeah I have a conscious understanding of what those words mean. but one who truly and deeply understands. I get in trouble a lot at my house because of my ADHD. But in particular I often hear and comprehend but don't understand. So Desiree will be talking to me while I am in ADHD land, and I can repeat back what she has said, pretty much word for word, but there is not full understanding, and it rightfully annoys my wife. He doesn’t want us to hear, he wants us to understand, and the test to know if you are doing that is to see if you can just say: yep, that's the parable, or can you bring out what is new and what is old.

There is actually a fair bit of debate about exactly what Jesus means when he talks about bringing out what is new and what is old. On one hand there is sort of the theological thought behind it on the other there is a more practical thought, I lean towards the second, but lets look at both. The theological point is this, you ask: ultimately what is our treasure? Or treasure is God’s Word. in general, our treasure is this idea of what the kingdom is, our treasures are what God has done for us, and so in comparing old and new, in church when we hear old and new the first place our thoughts often go is Old and New Testament. So these people say: Jesus did not come to abolish the Old testament, he did not come to abolish the law and prophets, we should treasure them and bring out the truths there, but also bring out what is new. how does Jesus change these things?

But for me and here is my heart, but also my thoughts on context and what Jesus is saying, here our treasures are most directly these parables. And so this is why this can serve as our overarching thought this morning. As we talk about the kingdom, as we go through these things this morning, some of these things maybe you have never heard before. WE are going to talk about the nature of the kingdom and who is in the kingdom, what this look like and how this works. Maybe something we talk about this mornings new to you I would encourage you grab hold of it, that is new treasure. But for many of us there will not be anything profoundly earth shattering and new. you may not find in anything we look at this morning anything that is brand new. And that is OK, that is our old treasure. Grab hold of it, treasure it.

My goal today is not to retell and bend and warp these parables to the point where you think: wow, I have never heard anything like that before! That’s crazy, rather my job, and my goal, here today is to bring our the treasures of these parable either old or new. And if we view them as such, if we view them, not as needing to contain some deeply profound, never before hear or understood truth, but instead we bring out of them joys and truths that are old and new we can see and we will be one who has been trained for the kingdom. SO in all of these we are going to walk through them and we are going to try and bring out treasures. Some may be old, some may be new, but all of it, the hope and prayer is are of value for your soul.

So lets walk through them this morning, our first one, going way back is the parable of the MUSTARD SEED

The MUSTARD SEED

Matthew 13:31–32 ESV

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 in the parable of the mustard seed what do we learn of the kingdom? what is the kingdom of heaven like? and as in all parables, it is important to understand what pictures in here are useful, what ones do we need to fully understand what is going on, and which things just drive the narrative along. What is a critical picture and what is a secondary picture. I would say that there is really only one picture in this parable we HAVE to get and it is the most clear and most direct one. It is the mustard seed.

What is this seed of mustard? well Jesus says it is the smallest of seeds, it is tiny. If you have ever gotten fancy mustard, the kind that still has the seeds in it you know this to be true. and The kingdom of heaven, we are told starts like THAT. It starts small - literally speaking it starts 2000 years ago in ONE person Jesus christ, then 12 people the disciples, fast forward to acts 1 and we have a company of around 120, then we read about thousands and thousands being added, and it grew and grew until now in our day and age Christianity is the religion with more self professed followers than all others in the world.

And so the kingdom of heaven may start small, it might start tiny, it may have started with one man 200 years ago with one man walking around Jerusalem and Judea, and yet it will grow. Larger than all other garden plants. It will become a place of peace and comfort, a place of shelter and hiding, It will become great. The kingdom of heaven historically speaking starts small and grows, but we can say more.

In our lives this can also be the case. As this seed is sown in our hearts and we begin to realize, and we begin to learn and we start to realize as we become sanctified that the kingdom is growing. Here is just a truth of life. I am not as good of a christian today as I hope to be tomorrow. and 40, 50 years from now God if God allows me to live that long or tarries in returning God willing I will be a better christian then than I am now. The kingdom of heaven, in our lives may also start in different ways different times but it will grow.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. and then we have another parable, the next one is the leaven.

Matthew 13:33 ESV

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.”

SO we read it, but this morning we are going to skip it. The parable of the leaven is very interesting parable because it is a super SHORT but super hard parable. What it means falls somewhere between the two extremes of the parable we just talked about the parable of the mustard seed and one we will talk about in a little bit the parable of the net, but it is a really really difficult one. It is hard enough that I saw fit to talk about it on Thursday. We will devote all of grace group to the parable of the leaven, but I wanted to read it because when we are done with Matthew I don’t want anyone to say, well you didn’t TECHNICALLY finish all of Matthew because you skipped one parable!

So now I want to turn our attention to two parables together. The parable of the hidden treasure, and in the ESV the pearl of great value, but I like the KJV reading of that one, the pearl of great price

The HIDDEN TREASURE and PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

Matthew 13:44–46 ESV

“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. “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.

The reason these two parables are grouped together is that they have a TON of similarities. Lets look at them first. The first one, is one that they have in common with all the ones we are talking about this morning, they are about the kingdom of heaven. But more that that these both paint for us a picture of the kingdom of heaven that magnifies its value and worth and WHY sacrifice and why complete devotion and why complete and utter giving of ones self to the kingdom i worthwhile and right.

These two parables both sow us that the kingdom of heaven is worth sacrificing everything for. These two, together and individually show us that the kingdom is ALL that we need, and should be all that we desire. It is the best and ultimately the ONLY thing of value that we have. We are given other gifts and blessings in light of what God has done. But ultimately if we think through this is like a huge universal statement the kingdom of heaven is the greatest good for us. SO it is like a hidden treasure and a pearl of great price. That is what they have in common, but where do they differ? and here is some great beauty.

The first man, the one who finds this treasure in the field we should note this: We are not told he was looking for it, in fact, it is most right to assume that he was NOT in fact looking for any treasure. The kingdom of heaven, to this man is sort of thrust upon him. If you read commentaries and read people who are trying to flesh out all the finer details of this parable they have landed here. Probably this man is just tilling this field, he is working for some great lord and land owner and as he is going about his every day business and he just stumbles upon this treasure. It was probably buried, if we wanted to dive deep into the details of this, it was probably buried at a time when some warring army was coming, so you would bury your treasures so some invading army would not get it. This was a time before modern banking and safety deposit boxes. and so, though we might scoff at the thought of digging a hole in your field and burring your treasure but it was probably more secure than many places they might have.

But, the person who originally buried this treasure, probably dead and gone, maybe this army took them over, maybe something else happened, but either way this man finds a treasure. Not one he was looking for but one that would change his life either way. and this treasure that he was not looking for but that came to his heart he immediately sees and grasps the great value of the treasure. The kingdom of heaven is filled with people who were not necessarily looking for some great treasure, they were just living their life walking along, but yet by the grace and mercy o God they were shown the infinite value of the kingdom. Praise be to God that he calls us out of darkness and into light, sometimes when we are not even looking for it, but this is contrasted, in some sense, with the merchant who is looking for pearls.

The merchant is searching for fine pearls, he is looking for some sort of worth and value. the merchant here, we could sort of push this, he has lived his life, he has tried to over the course of his life find things to bring him success and happiness, he has looked for value and worth and fulfillment in this or that, but his whole life the true pearl has eluded him. He has looked high and low for fulfillment in his life but then one day, he has been looking through all these different pearls, from shop to shop, place to place, finding some pearls of fleeting value, some pearls of “alright” price, but then, in verse 46 he finds the one, the pearl of great value. And in seeing this one pearl he realize that no other peal could compare, nothing else in this universe could compare to this! And so every pearl that he has collected over the course of his life, he sells it, everything that he thought, up to this point was worthwhile and good is now not worth holding on to, so he sells it, casts it all out for the sake of this one great pearl.

Sometimes, like the parable of the hidden treasure we are walking along, minding our own business and the Truth of the kingdom hits us like a ton of bricks. But sometimes, people are diligently and actively searching and looking for some truth and some hope and some joy and they find the kingdom and find all hope and truth. They see in the kingdom their great hope and joy and beauty and they are willing to sell everything to possess it.

In both of these what is important is that we see the value of the kingdom, in both of these what is critical that we see the beauty of the kingdom, in both of these what is essential is that we understand the idea of giving EVERYTHING. the men in BOTH of these sell all that they have. The kingdom is worth sacrificing everything for. The joy in contemplating these tow tougher is this: sometimes wen we are not looking God saves us, sometimes when we are looking he saves us either way HE saves us into his glorious kingdom.

Thus the kingdom of heaven though it starts small, small like a mustard seed that becomes this great tree, and here a great treasure of great value that nothing can compare to. But as it grows and flourishes and becomes this great treasure that cannot be likened to anything and there is another issue that might arise. What if some people see this man with the treasure and think: that seems nice. they see this guy with a pearl and think: OK, that seems like an OK pear, I would like to have one like it, I mean , it am not wiling to give all for it, but it’s nice. What if, as the kingdom grows others are drawn in, but not all those drawn in believe? Well now we have the parable of the net.

The NET

Matthew 13:47–48 ESV

“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.

That’s the parable, this one, like a few others we have looked at in this chapter Jesus gives an explanation.

Matthew 13:49–50 ESV

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 parable of the net is like a hyper abbreviated version of the parable of the weeds. But in it’s abbreviation it teaches us something very important. last week in covering the parable of the weeds I said that my belief was that the parable of the weed was not about judgement of the weeds but rather hope for the wheat. It was to the disciples who are struggling and feel the weeds pressing in around them. they think the world should be better but it’s not and they are struggling and to those disciples Jesus says: don’t worry I know that you are growing and it might be tough. But i am letting your roots run deep so that you will glory. you will shine like the son in the kingdom of the father. You disciples, i am working on YOU.

Here, in the parable of the net this is pure judgement. If the message of the weeds was hope for believers the message of the net is that f you are thinking you can just trifle with and sneak into the kingdom, if you are just gong to treat the kingdom not like a treasure worth selling everything for, if you are going to look at it as a pearl of some value not the pearl of GREAT value, if you are going to play games with the kingdom, it will be bad for you. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You will be judged. there will be an end of the age and there will be there, jesus says judgment.

There are a few thoughts in this parable, this is a rich and wonderful parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a net and yet in that net there may be, no, there will be fish of many kinds. If you spend any time looking through different denominations and dealing with what we could call ecclesiology and what we would call the doctrines of churches you will come to this question: is the church mixed? and the lesson here is, yeah, there will be some people in the fellowship, some people that seem like they are in the kingdom but they are not kingdom members. How I would say tis is that every church in THE church there are believers and unbelievers. our Goal should be to get rid of these bad fish now, but we do so knowing that one day God will take care of all that in a final and complete and perfect way.

The kingdom of heaven is a great net yet you should not think that just because you are caught in the net you are OK. Let me state that clearly, you should not think that just because you come to church you are good. You should not think, for even one second that our just BEING in a gathering of people who all claim to be Christians makes you one. When the net is full they draw it ashore and they begin to sort: good and bad. The angels will come, separating the evil from the righteous. Though here on earth the church may be mixed company, there will be a day, Jesus teaches us, where the one who knows the hearts of all me will have his angels sort. His angels wills separate the evil from the righteous. There will come a day when the bride of Christ is made pure. There will come a day when his judgement will go out. This is a message of justice of judgment and it tells us what the kingdom of heaven is like.

Our goal in this is to find treasure. In the mustard seed that treasure is fairly easy. What treasures do you get there, it is the ides of the power ad the growth of God’s kingdom. In the treasure and pearl of great price, the treasures are the TREASURES! The treasures are our high calling the joy of sacrificing all for the kingdom, the high calling we will receive. But here in the parable of the net what is the treasure? I would say a few. It is to know that God is sovereign. What is the treasure in knowing the kingdom of heaven might be mixed. Well, if we know it we can protect against it. We will eventually get to Matthew 18 and church discipline, we care for and our desire is not to just be like, whelp, the net is filed with good and bad fish, our goal should be that we have good fish HERE. But more than that it is to know that God is aware of what is going on. this is all a part of his plan as he grows the kingdom he is still sovereign. This parable can be a reason why bad things can happen at a church, it can give us a robust answer when pastors and other in the church fall int some sort of moral failing. It helps us not be naive while still holding on to truth. For the kingdom is for us our home, our joy, our identity, it is our treasure of great value our peal of great price.

Lets PRAY