Bible Talks - Sunday Night Church
Series: Committed to the King · Talk No. 6
What kind of Kingdom?
Sunday, 11 December 2005
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1. 3D Kingdom
[Put 3D puzzle up on screen]
Familiar to many if not all of you - these 3D puzzles.
How many of you can “see” them?
These puzzles rely on viewing the page in a certain way.
Just glancing at the puzzle won’t reveal it to you. Looking at the puzzle in the way you might look at a different kind of puzzle won’t work.
You have to look at it in just the right way to get the full picture. (and you’ll have to take it from me that this is a picture of a Saturn-like planet with a ring around it!)
That is not unlike the problem that Jesus was having with the Jewish teachers and many of the crowd who followed him - the issue that has constantly come up in each passage that we’ve looked at in this series.
They were looking for a very different Kingdom to that which Jesus was proclaiming, and so they failed to see the real kingdom, the kingdom in which Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure.
2. Living, changing soil.
Last week, Leah raised an interesting point after church: She commented that the parable of the soils that we had just looked at implied that people can change the type of soil they are. That is, they can be rocky soil at one stage in their life, but then turn into ‘good’ soil later on.
And that got me thinking… the picture of our lives as ‘soils’ also implies something that is illustrated by the guys group and their vegie plot out the back here. Tim is worried that the vegies they’ve planted won’t grow quickly enough and produce edible result before the guys lose interest.
And that reminds me of back in chapter 12 of Matthew where we saw that many of Jesus’ fellow countrymen expected the Kingdom of God to happen suddenly, ruthlessly and very clearly. We’ve said before about the expectation that the Kingdom would be a political kingdom, that God’s Messiah would be the King to boot the Romans out of town quickly and decisively.
But the parable of soils - by using the whole imagery of plants and soils implies a plot line to the story of the Kingdom of God. A plot line that requires time, and plenty of it.
Think about it: With the whole soils thing we have an account of how the Kingdoms’ advance relies a great deal on how receptive people are when they hear the gospel.
Now, most Christians today believe that when Jesus comes again, it will be quick and decisive. There will be no more opportunity to evade judgement, or show opposition to God’s rule, or delay. And many of Jesus’ fellow Jews believed that when the Messiah came, swift and certain judgement would come with it!
No wonder that the first people to hear the parable of the soils found it hard to understand what Jesus was driving at.
So… he follows up this parable about parables with a whole bunch of other parables to spell out more clearly exactly what this Kingdom of his, the Kingdom of God was really like.
And these parables tell us a good deal about the world from God’s angle, and about his particular involvement in our world.
Let’s take a quick look at these parables so we can better know what Gods kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven is like…
3. The parables
a. The parable of the weeds. (v24-30)
Here the KOH is likened to the story of a man who sows good seed in his field (more seeds and weeds!)
But while he sleeps, an enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat. Eventually the owners servants recognise the weeds as the plants mature and the owner rightly puts his finger on the source of the problem - an enemy.
The point becomes clear in the conflict between the servants advice and the owners decision.
The servants want to rush in and pull the weeds out, but the owner decides to wait until the harvest when the two kinds of plants are easily separated and the weeds burned.
Jesus provides his interpretation later on (v36ff)
His point is stunningly clear:
As just mentioned: In the 1st C., the Jews were used to waiting for the Messiah, used to waiting for the end of the age, used to waiting for the coming of God’s kingdom.
When it came, they said, that would be it, the final judgement, the end to the seemingly endless tension between good and evil.
Not so, says Jesus.
God’s kingdom has come (in Jesus and his message), but the final judgement is delayed.
And that means that even though God’s reign (as seen in Jesus) is here, the final judgement will come later, and good and evil continue to mingle.
This helps us to understand the very situation we find ourselves in day by day - as we, a group of God’s people living under God’s reign, continue to struggle with the realities of a world that is opposed to God’s reign.
It helps us make sense of the many events that happen each day that seem ‘senseless’. And it means we have a logical, God-driven backdrop to understand why evil things still happen to ‘good’ people. Those wrongs will be righted but not just yet.
b. The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast. (v31-35)
Here the kingdom is likened to the story of a seed which is taken and planted in a field. The comparison is not simply with a seed, but with a seed that undergoes certain change.
The mustard seed was legendary for its smallness. But this tiny seed produced a mustard tree about 3.5 metres tall, big enough for birds to perch and nest in.
The point of the parable is this:
No fair-dinkum Jew of Jesus’ day doubted that God’s kingdom would come and it would be great and glorious!. But Jesus was adding something else to that picture.
He was saying that while the Kingdom of God would have a wonderful climax at some time in the future, it would actually have a tiny, seemingly insignificant beginning with himself.
And therefore small beginnings are not to be knocked. Just as the tiny mustard seed is not to be dismissed just because it is not yet a great tree.
So, once again, false expectations have been exploded.
The KOG would not come in its full splendour at the first coming of the Messiah.
The story of the yeast builds on this.
Now, you may have never cooked using yeast. But if you are making something like bread from scratch, to make it light and fluffy you need to add yeast. You only need a tiny bit, and when you add it to the dough, it must be worked very thoroughly into the mix, otherwise your loaf of bread will turn out like a giant Sao cracker.
Remember, you just need a tiny amount of yeast to treat a big batch of dough. And just as yeast produces an effect way out of proportion to its size, so this is true of the KOG.
The yeast, though small, produces an intensive transformation.
So it is with God’s Kingdom. It may start small, but it’s power to transform the world is unmatched! .
c. The parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl. (v44-46)
These two parables deal with the value of the kingdom.
Under Jewish law, if a workman came across a treasure in his master’s field - left there perhaps by some previous generation trying to hide it from invaders - he had two choices.
If he lifted it out, it became the property of his master.
If he left it where it was, he could quite legally wait until he could buy the field and then remove the treasure.
The point is simple:
The central truth of the parable is the supreme value of the “treasure” - the KOH is worth whatever it takes to get it. Whatever sacrifice it takes, it’s more than worth it.
The parable of the pearl (v45) doesn’t show how you can buy the kingdom, but that even a person who spends all his life on valuable pearls, once he has found a truly exceptional pearl, will cheerfully sacrifice all his other treasure to obtain it.
To be part of the KOH is worth dumping absolutely everything for, it’s worth far outstrips anything else we may think is worthwhile.
d. The parable of the net (v47-48)
This has echoes of the first - the parable of the weeds.
Some fishermen take a good catch using some kind of dragnet. Once beached, the net full of fish is emptied and the fish are sorted.
Worthless fish - those can be neither eaten nor sold - are thrown away, and the good fish kept.
This, Jesus says in v47, is what the KOH will be like at the end of the age. At that time, good and bad are still present in the world, but a final separation will take place - the wicked from the righteous.
Justice will be done, God’s kingdom will be completed on that day. An eternity of God’s reign will begin - the reign that started as the size of a mustard seed, with the ministry and work of Jesus.
4. The Kingdom and you.
In preparing this series from Matthew, I was struck yet again by a great truth: No matter how many times you come back to the often very familiar territory of the gospels. No matter how many times you read or hear the parables and other text of those gospels, God does a remarkable thing. He takes those familiar passages and reveals new things about himself - and us - all over again. I found this was so, and I hope it was true for you too.
So to my mind, the big question is: what have we learned from the Bible these last two weeks about the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom that most of us would claim to be part of – although perhaps not all?
Last week we learnt that it is established by the gospel word - the message which Jesus Christ brings. We saw that some people will respond and bear fruit, others will turn away and remain non-citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
Tonight, we have seen that the kingdom starts small and seemingly insignificant - like a mustard seed - but over time, little by little, grows large enough to provide “shelter” for all those who want it.
We see there is nothing more precious than being a citizen of this kingdom. And also, whilst in this world there is a mixture of righteous and unrighteous, good and bad, kingdom members and others, and these will finally and permanently be separated on judgement day.
Those who have rejected the rule of God’s kingdom will be condemned eternally.
Some questions for us:
1. Are you a wheat or a weed?
Again, what is your response to the gospel message? Are you part of the kingdom of heaven, or are you a spiritual weed? God has been very patient, but one day soon, the weeds will be bundled up and burnt.
And what does this parable suggest about how effective the proclamation of the Kingdom will be before Jesus returns?
2. Thinking of the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl, how precious is the kingdom of heaven and following King Jesus to you? Or perhaps the question should be: Why should anyone today regard the KOH as the supreme treasure, the pearl for which it’s worth sacrificing everything?
3. As you have read and heard about the final judgement in these parables (weeds and net), how do you feel about the prospect of that judgement? Do you think it’s all a bit extreme or unfair? Do you feel that it’s all bit “fire and brimstone” for you? Or do you feel that at last justice and righteousness will finally reign, albeit in a tragically permanent way for some?
Your answer to those questions will point to how you really value God’s rule on the earth and in your life.
