Transcript

Take This Kingdom Seriously!

Matthew 13:31-35, 47-58
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Pastor Randy Smith

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You can imagine how the disciples felt. No one denied that God's kingdom would be great, but no doubt the population could not fathom how God's great kingdom could be inaugurated through these men. They were a motley crew composed of uneducated fishermen and social misfits. They claimed to have something great, but failed to have the numbers behind them to support it. After all, if this was the inauguration of God's mighty kingdom, where were all of the followers? Why were they such a small minority?

Sounds like a problem we experience in our culture today!

Second, why should the world listen to their message? There were other spiritual sects to follow. There were other avenues, possibly ones even more attractive on the outside, to which people could devote their time and energy and finances. Why their cause? Why submit to the demands of total dedication required to be a Christian?

Again, sounds like a problem we experience in our culture today!

I have entitled this message, "Take this Kingdom Seriously!" Like the original disciples, we live in a day and age that people look down on our faith because we have relatively few committed followers - especially in our community. When I was preaching in Chicago last week I told the audience that I have conservatively estimated the born-again population in our region around 1%. If biblical Christianity is so great, where is everybody? We are definitely not winning any popularity contests!

Furthermore, why should people devote their lives to Jesus Christ? Where is the appeal? What are the consequences for failing to do so? To most people, the demands of Christ limit their fun and freedom. Sure, a little religion is important, but is there really a need to take everything so seriously?

Today we will look at three parables that address this issue.

1. GROWTH WILL COME

The first two parables promise us that growth will come - our first point. These parables contained in verses 31-33 basically make the same point. Don't be fooled by the small beginnings. For many things start off small and then finish very large.

At the time when Christianity began, Jesus only had a few committed followers. In comparison, most of the local region was devoted to Judaism. And outside the borders of Israel the rest of the world followed their gods that were particular to their respective culture. Again, the complaint could be submitted, if Christianity is so great, where is everybody? Where is the power and the glory and the triumph of good that God promised in the Old Testament? Why is your leader being hailed as a heretic and not a king? How can you ever expect this movement to survive?

To those complains Jesus presents another parable. And as we have witnessed already, He begins with an earthly story to teach a spiritual lesson.

In verse 31 He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field." A mustard seed produces a mustard tree, a tree commonly valued for its oil. But the point of the parable is found in the following verse. "And this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES" (Mt. 13:32). Our attention is drawn to the contrast.

While there were seeds smaller than a mustard seed, it became a common proverb of the day to compare small things to a mustard seed. Jesus did it in 17:20 when He spoke of "faith the size of a mustard seed." And while this mustard seed is very tiny, folks of the day knew that it produced not just a plant, but according to verse 32, a "tree" (often 12-15 feet in height) full enough for birds to nest in its branches.

In the same way, the kingdom of God will have a tiny beginning. It may appear insignificant now but just wait and see what it becomes.

The second parable found in verse 33 follows the same lines. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.

Leaven was a piece of last week's dough. Add it to this week's dough and you can expect to get some significant rising. Bread was commonly baked in the local homes so all the women knew this simple fact. A small piece of leaven could add a substantial increase. Once again, the kingdom is compared to this transformation.

Has this prophecy been fulfilled? According to statistics, Christianity is the largest religion comprising approximately 2.1 billion people or 33% of the world's population (www.adherents.com). The snowball that started out with a Messiah being born in a manger and then gained some converts in the Palestinian region now has its followers among almost all the people groups in the world. Despite modernization Christianity continues to grow, especially in the continents of Asia and Africa. For example, in 1990, there were 8.7 million African Christians. Now there are 389 million African Christians today (www.the-tidings.com).

One church historian remarked, "One of the most amazing and significant facts of history is that within 5 centuries of its birth, Christianity won the professed allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the Roman Empire and even the support of the Roman state. Beginning as a seemingly obscure sect of Judaism, one of the scores, even hundreds of religions and religious groups which were competing within the realm, revering as its central figure one who had been put to death by the machinery of Rome" (Kenneth Latourette).

Amazing! As B.B. Warfield once said, "A dozen ignorant peasants proclaiming a crucified Jew as the founder of a new faith; bearing as the symbol of their worship an instrument which was the sign of [shame], slavery and crime; preaching what must have seemed an absurd doctrine of humility, patient suffering and love to enemies - graces undreamed of before; demanding what must have seemed an absurd worship for one who had died like a [criminal] and a slave, and making what must have seemed an absurd promise of everlasting life through one who had Himself died, and that between two thieves" (The Divine Origin of the Bible, 1991, I.432).

How did it happen? The only explanation is the power of God! Reason does not explain how these disciples with whom we have become very familiar could have as the Bible says "upset the world" (Ac. 17:6). God was with them as He is with us. And He is today, as He did back then, still using His choice instruments called people to build His kingdom.

I believe you know my vision for the Grace Tabernacle. There is no way I went into pastoral ministry or left my family in the Midwest to simply be a social club or place to "hang-out" or even a location simply for personal enrichment. It is my prayer that we will be a force used by God to build His kingdom and transform this world. If God could use 12 uneducated and often ignorant men back then, what prevents Him from using the nearly 400 that call this place home right now? Why can't we see this "mustard seed" analogy happen before our very eyes? After all, what could be a greater or more loving cause than to give others through the Gospel satisfaction and meaning and hope and joy and forgiveness from their sins? How can we not wish to see this community experience what we enjoy everyday?

How will it happen? Obviously it is God's sovereign call, but I believe it will not happen until we are committed to four areas. We must devote ourselves to private and corporate prayer, learn Scripture well (the Catechism classes!), get our lives in order by living above reproach and open our mouths to share the Gospel.

2. SEPARATION WILL OCCUR

So the kingdom of God will start off small and then grow. It will go from one to billions. It will go from a manger in one location to homes in every location. It will start off in our hearts and one day be seen everywhere when "every knee will bow…and…every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:12-13).

Yet there is another reason that people must take this kingdom seriously and that is because a separation will occur - our second point. When and how this separation will occur is found in the final parable we will examine this morning.

As of Friday, the earth's population is estimated to be 6.792 billion people. Statistics say approximately 2 people die in this world every second (The U.S. Census Bureau). That means 9,000 people will die just during the time of our morning service. Where will those individuals spend eternity?

I am reading from verse 47, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind."

There were many professional fishermen during the time of Jesus. And when they worked their trade on the Sea of Galilee they employed three different techniques. Some used a traditional hook and line which produced one fish at a time (Mt. 17:27). Others cast a net attended with weights along the perimeter. Pull the rope and the net comes together entrapping the fish inside (Mt. 4:18). We have seen them here in New Jersey used along the bays to catch bait fish. And then third is the "dragnet" spoken of here. A dragnet is trolling for fish. Tie the net between two boats and sweep the water. Obviously this net is less discriminatory. It catches everything that comes into its contact. As Jesus said in verse 47, it "gathers fish of every kind."

Verse 48, "And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away." In other words, everything is picked up in this net. The fish are sorted out. The good are placed in containers. The bad are discarded.

Jesus now applies the parable for us. Verse 49, "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous."

This parable is very similar to the Parable of the Tares that we already studied. Both the righteous and unrighteous will co-exist together - the tares with the wheat and here the good fish with the bad fish. But there will come a time at the "end of the age" that there will a time a separation, a time of judgment. The righteous are sent to blessedness and the unrighteous, according to verse 50, "Will [be] throw…into the furnace of fire [and] in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

It is important to remember what I said two weeks ago. The righteous and unrighteous in the Bible are not determined by a system of scales, hoping that our righteous deeds will outweigh our unrighteous ones. If it were set up that way, we would lose every time. Moreover, if it were set up that way, why did God need to send Jesus to suffer on a cross? The cross is a reminder that we cannot earn our own salvation. The cross is the only hope whereby Someone would take away our sins and give us His perfect righteousness. Simply put, those who accept Christ by faith are the righteous and those who reject Him are the unrighteous. We all deserve the "furnace of fire," but God in His mercy has sent us a Savior. Matthew 1:21, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." And salvation from our sins means salvation from hell. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

John MacArthur said of this verse, "That net moves through the world. It is invisible to those around who can't yet see it. And if perchance it touches the back of a fish, the fish simply [swims] a little further ahead and enjoys the freedom he thinks is his permanently. And men live in this world imagining themselves to be free, moving about, fulfilling their own desires, going here and going there as they will, with little knowledge that the net comes closer and closer and closer. People float about in the liberty of the wide-deep sea of life, not knowing the invisible lines of judgment move closer and closer and closer. And each time they are touched by it, they move a little further away. And they're touched again and they move a little further away. And finally [they move again and] hit it on the other side because [the net is] moving toward the shore… Wildly the fish may dart for the sea only to be caught again in the same net…finally to be dragged [on] the shore and [with] the last throws of a flailing and flipping [they] enter into a silent death. And that's how it is. Men may not perceive the kingdom, they may not see God moving in the world, but He is moving. And men very often when touched by the gospel of Jesus Christ, or threatened by the threat of judgment, dart into the freedom they think is ahead of them but sooner or later they run right back into the same net because there's no freedom there. And they are inexorably moving toward inevitable judgment" (www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/2304).

God has ordained a kingdom. People that will be saved by grace. People that will be trophies of His work in their lives, righteous by divine declaration. And people who will also be righteous in their practical living as they are continually conformed to Christ. As we know, "faith without works is dead" (Jas. 2:26). This kingdom will grow and those people will stand out by their love for each other and devotion to their churches and harmony in their homes and passion to share their Savior with others. And as they share, that kingdom will grow, and as they share, God will use this blessed message entrusted to them to save people from the "furnace of fire."

But pastor, people will reject me! Hey, you're not alone. Look how they treated Jesus! The chapter ends with the following words beginning in verse 54, "He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, 'Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?' And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.' And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief" (Mt. 13:54-58).

Yet despite the unbelief in Jesus' day, which is also seen in our day, we must remember that the Kingdom will grow and the kingdom will ultimately triumph. May we take the news about the kingdom as seriously as Jesus does. May we walk by faith in these truths and not by sight.