Knowledge Is The Key Series

January 24, 2010

Morning Worship

Text: Matthew 13:10-23

Subject: The King of God

Title: Knowledge is the Key

Have you ever seen the ads on TV that tell you that you may have money waiting for you? That you possibly have money that the state is holding while they have been looking for you. I get emails like that too. You know when I first heard about that it thought, “How silly”! But then I started to rethink the possibilities. What if I did have money just waiting for me and I didn’t do anything about it. What if that money was there, just waiting for me to claim it, and I didn’t know about it. What good would it do me?

Let’s go a step further. What if my car broke down on the highway and I had to call a wrecker to come and tow it in? So after six months or so, I’ve been thinking about it so I call my insurance company and say, “You know, I don’t want that to happen to me a gain. I would like to purchase some towing insurance. And they tell me that I had towing insurance all along. My ignorance of the truth cost me something. I held something in my own hand that was mine, that came with the package, and I didn’t use it because I didn’t know it was there.

There has been a downward spiral in the church of Jesus Christ for the last 1500 years in which many of the benefits of being called a child of God have taken a back seat to human tradition and religion. The church has always had the keys to the kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 16, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven… Now it has been commonly interpreted that the keys to the kingdom are in reference to the authority of Christ that has been given to the church. But I want to show you today that the keys go beyond authority. I believe the keys to be the knowledge that you have Christ’s authority. You see, you can have His authority, but unless you know you have it, it doesn’t do much for you.

Hosea 4:6, my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

Let’s look today to see that knowledge is the key.

Read Matthew 13:10-23

Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM. 10The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” 11He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Why was knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom given to the disciples? It is because they are Christ followers. They listened. They believed. They wanted more. They could never get enough. Where did that knowledge come from? It came from the words that Jesus spoke. Even though Jesus was speaking in parables the disciples were able to harvest the spiritual information that was contained in them. They wanted to understand and to receive more. Now, did the disciples always understand Jesus’ parables? Obviously not, because later on He sees that He has to take time to explain it to them. But it is being revealed to them because of their desire to know. Verse 12, Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Whoever has what? Whoever has the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Do you realize that knowledge isn’t something that is just handed to you? There is something that must transpire on your part in order for you to attain spiritual knowledge and understanding. Jeremiah 33:3, ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. God didn’t say that we could sit and wait until we received revelation knowledge. He said that we need to call to Him. We need to ask seek and knock. We need to desire to know more of His word and the spiritual implications that are contained there for us. Whoever has some knowledge of the kingdom, if they are seeking God and wanting more understanding, they will be given more and they will have an abundance. When Jesus says in verse 12, Whoever does not have, refers to those who have missed out on revelation knowledge because of their rejection of who Jesus is. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Romans 1:20-23, 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Paul is talking about how people know that there is a God. You cannot look at creation and honestly say that there wasn’t a Creator. All evidence points to the fact that there is. But for those who have that knowledge and don’t do anything with it, even that will be taken from them. 13This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ The keys to the kingdom is in the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom.