Realities of the Kingdom

6th Sun. after Pentecost; 8:30 am Holy Communion and 10:00 am Baptism & Holy Communion

 

“Realities of the Kingdom”

Matthew 13:31-35, 44-52

 

Opening Prayer:

Lord Jesus, you have taught us new things about the kingdom of God; by your Holy Spirit, help us grasp the depth and implications of that newness so that we may more fully live out the realities of the kingdom of our Father in heaven.  Amen.

 

Introduction

 

Did you ever wonder why Jesus used parables or stories like the ones we have just heard to communicate his message?  Because he wanted both to engage us and to make us think.  Anecdotes and riddles catch our interest; I find I always listen more intently when the preacher tells a story – I wish I were better at it!  A story with a point (which is what a parable is) can also make us think – and a lot of Jesus’ stories are not that straightforward – they get us to ask questions – What does that mean? How could he say that?  Jesus had some new and surprising things to reveal to us that needed to be conveyed in the most provocative and engaging manner possible – so he used parables. 

Today, we are going to look at five such parables in Matthew 13 – four are only told here in Matthew and nowhere else.  The parables speak about the Kingdom of heaven – or the Kingdom of God.  Now a kingdom is a place where a king rules.  The Kingdom of heaven stands for the rule of God.  It doesn’t mean something which is “up there” or in another dimension, but the place where things happen the way God wants them to happen – in other words, his style of operating – reality the way it is meant to be.  Jesus wants us to know how God operates so that we will be able to change our way of thinking and functioning to be in line with God’s way.  So today, using the parables found in Matthew 13, we are going to examine “Realities of the Kingdom.”  We will discover that the way God works is with small beginnings and hidden growth, God’s Kingdom is of immense value and worth every effort to obtain, and finally, be warned that the enemy will try to nullify the effects of God’s rule, but be encouraged by the ultimate defeat of evil.

Smallness and Hiddenness

 

The first reality is that the kingdom of heaven – the way God works – is with small beginnings and hidden growth.  First, the kingdom starts from small beginnings:   

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches (verses 31-32).

Apparently, in Palestine the little grain of mustard seed does grow into something very like a tree.  The plant can grow to up to twelve feet high or more and it is quite common “to see such mustard bushes or trees surrounded with a cloud of birds, for the birds love the little black seeds of the tree, and settle on the tree to eat them…In eastern language and in the Old Testament itself one of the commonest pictures of a great empire is the picture of a great tree, with the subject nations depicted as birds finding rest and shelter within its branches (Ezekiel 31: 6).”[1] 

What is Jesus telling us here?  The kingdom of heaven starts from the smallest beginnings, but no one knows where it will end.  The Old Testament teaches that it is “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).  The implication of this is that God’s kingdom is not going to come all of a sudden with a great display of worldly power, but with tiny and insignificant beginnings like a mustard seed.  Yes, it will have a great impact when it is fully grown, like the mature mustard tree, but it will begin quietly and minutely. 

What’s more, the impact of the kingdom will appear initially in a hidden way:

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough (verse 33).

Like the yeast in a batch of bread dough, the kingdom of heaven will not be heralded initially from the house-tops, but it will be hidden and seemingly inconsequential to begin with.  However, its impact will soon be felt in the society where it takes root.  Without disparaging pita bread, there is a huge difference between its appearance and that of a regular loaf of bread.  Just as the presence of yeast causes the loaf to rise, so will society be eventually effected by the gradual kneading in of the yeast of the Spirit’s transformation.  That transformation is accomplished in and through you and me.   

The implications for us are profound.  Think about smallness.  Jesus based the expansion of his ministry on a small handful of people; he has continued to operate that way throughout history.  God effects great changes through just a few lives committed to him and submitted to the Holy Spirit.  The Church itself has grown through the sharing of the faith beginning with 120 people on the day of Pentecost – it now numbers millions and millions.  The impact of a few individuals standing up for God’s way has influenced whole societies.  Most of us are familiar with William Wilberforce, who with his small band of evangelical Christians laboured in politics for thirty years for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.  From the small beginning of a few people, millions were effected for good.  William Barclay tells of the impact of another individual further back in time, the monk Telemachus of the fourth century:

One of the great stories of the Christian Church is the story of Telemachus.  He was a hermit of the desert, but something told him – the call of God – that he must go to Rome.  He went.  Rome was nominally Christian, but even in Christian Rome the gladiatorial games went on, in which men fought with each other, and crowds roared with the lust for blood.  Telemachus found his way to the games. Eighty thousand people were there to spectate.  He was horrified.  Were these men slaughtering each other not also children of God?  He leaped from his seat, right into the arena, and stood between the gladiators.  He was tossed aside.  He came back.  The crowd were angry; they began to stone him.  Still he struggled back between the gladiators.  The prefect’s command rang out; a sword flashed in the sunlight, and Telemachus was dead.  Suddenly there was a hush; suddenly the crowd realized what had happened; a holy man lay dead.  Something happened that day to Rome, for there were never again any gladiatorial games.  By his death one man had let loose something that cleansed an empire.[2]

You may feel insignificant or hidden away, of little influence and status but you can make a difference.  Jesus is saying that you are important: even though you may be the only believer in your family, or the only one to stand up for the truth in your church, or for righteousness in society – you are not there alone; the Spirit will use you as a small beginning, perhaps hidden and unnoticed, but he will turn you into a towering shrub and major leavening influence.  A negative view of smallness reflects a lack of confidence in the love and power of God.  He is able to use anyone and anything we do in his name, no matter how insignificant you feel about yourself or inconsequential your action for him.  

But there is a further dimension to these two parables and that is the way the kingdom grows within us.  Within yourself, the impact of the kingdom may begin in small and hidden ways; you may feel you have so much to learn or so far to go before God can make a difference in your life; do not underestimate what God can do within you.  Do not despair that progress seems so slow and hidden.  God is at work.  Value tiny and insignificant beginnings; do not disparage them, for this is how the kingdom gets built up without and within.  God’s kingdom begins in small ways and is hidden but, by his power, will bring about immense transformation.  This is the first realty of the kingdom.

Value and Urgency

 

However, though the kingdom may begin small and progress in hidden ways, it is of immense value and worth every effort to obtain it.  This is the second reality of the Kingdom expressed by the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price: 

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (verse 44). 

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it (verses 45-46).

Modern versions of these parables might go something like this, “A man in Saskatchewan was out putting in post holes when all of a sudden, up comes this geyser of oil!”  Or, “A geological prospector, who had spent years looking for the greatest oil reserves on earth, was rewarded by his patient research when he came across the pool of oil under the Beaufort Sea.”  One discovery is by chance, another after serious searching.  Some people are looking for God and seem very spiritual by nature.  Others may be fighting God or are just indifferent to his claim on their lives.  Whatever your spiritual journey – whether the kingdom is discovered by surprise and unexpectedly like the treasure found in the field (C.S. Lewis called his conversion “Surprised by Joy”), or the result of a life-long and concerted search, as in the case of the merchant and the pearl, Jesus tells us that it is worth any price and effort to obtain. 

First – the kingdom of God is of great value.  It is like buried treasure or a priceless pearl – worth so much that anything else you have pales into insignificance.  Is doing God’s will the most important thing in your life?  Is seeing his kingdom established and his values lived out the driving force behind your life?  Or is the spiritual side of things merely an “added attraction” for you – something any civilized person should have in their life; somewhere you get to meet folk and enjoy nice feelings?  The first point of these two parables is the enormous worth of God’s kingdom – it is the end and goal of history, the purpose behind the universe, the meaning of life.

If you know this, then you will fulfill the second point of the two parables – you will sacrifice anything else you might posses or accumulate in this life to get it.    That sacrifice and cost may mean giving up certain aims and ambitions, some security or comfort, some advantages or acclaim.  Jesus says that establishing the kingdom within and without is worth any discipline or denial that might be necessary.  Now, the Kingdom is freely offered – it is a gift; it cannot be earned.  So the challenge is to let go of the other things we may be clutching on to that will prevent us receiving it. But doesn’t letting go of anything else we may be trusting in for our ultimate meaning and value make sense?  Jim Elliot, martyred in the 1950’s as a missionary to the Auca Indians in Ecuador, wrote:  “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”  Do you need to let go of something in order to receive what God has for you?

To see the kingdom established in your life and society – in other words, to see God’s will done – is of more value than anything else – are you willing to pay the cost?  This is the second reality of the kingdom.

Warning and Encouragement

 

The final parable of the drag-net hauling in both good and bad fish takes us back to story of the weeds and the wheat of last week’s section of the chapter. 

Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.  When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away (verses 47-48).

This is a warning that, as we live out the kingdom, there will be negative elements beside us that will try to confuse and deny the realities of the kingdom.  They will despise the smallness and hiddenness of the kingdom, its value and urgency.  The enemy will use even church people to try and deter us from our course of valuing the kingdom and searching for it above all else.  He will use the same tricks he tried with Jesus to get us to be impatient with or give up on ourselves because our grasp of the kingdom is not growing faster or seems too hidden in its effects.  The parable of the net warns us that the enemy is at work amongst us. 

But the parable also is there to encourage us.  First, to cast the net wide – the good news is offered to all – don’t be too narrow in your appeal.  But then, take heart, though there may be evil in the kingdom it will have a day of reckoning – there will be punishment for wrongdoing, even though now the judgement seems to be delayed.  There is encouragement that the counter-kingdom forces will have their day in court and we will be vindicated.  There is warning but there is encouragement.

Conclusion

 

Jesus wants you to know how God operates so that you will be able to change your way of thinking and functioning to be in line with God’s way.  He told these parables to remind you of the realities of the kingdom both for yourself and for the society in which we find ourselves.  The kingdom begins small and hidden, yet it will have enormous and widespread impact in the long run – both in society and in your own life.  The kingdom has immense value which is worth paying any cost to obtain – don’t let anything deter you from receiving it.  Finally, when you see the enemy at work to nullify the effects of God’s rule, take the warning to heart and yet be encouraged by the ultimate defeat of evil and know that God’s kingdom will be established in the end.  These are the realities of the Kingdom – take them to heart!