The Secret Message of Jesus July 23, 2006
The Cost of the Kingdom
Matthew 13:44-46
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44"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.
45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it
The cost of the Kingdom – read Jeanie Wylie-Kellerman in Sojorners
She gets the cost of the kingdom
The worth of the Kingdom
The way God meant it to be – the Garden of Eden
When the dream went wrong – Genesis 3
Sin is separation – Paul Tillich
The effect of sin is separation
Separation from God – cast out of garden,
Isaiah 59:1-2
Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
Separation from one another – the woman you gave me caused me to eat…
Cain & Able,
we see how our own sin separates us from the ones we love, whether it is directly hurting them, or it is just distraction from the time that we should be spending with them,
- sin hurts others – there is no victimless sin.
- This separation is born out in divorce, estrangement, & warfare
Separation from the environment – cursed is the ground because of you;
Through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life
In the garden there was work – work is good and part of paradise, but we have been alienated from our work – we no longer partner with creation for our work, but it is almost as if creation, to a certain extent works against us and sabotages our best efforts.
On the other hand we too have become an enemy of creation – we have worked against her.
We can see today that we have continued the curse, and that because of our greed and lack of wisdom, we are cursing the ground – global warming, acid rain, environmental disease… We have made the earth sick with our sin both directly and indirectly
Separation from our true self – “I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.
… with pain you will give birth to children…”
Not only is the partnership between humanity and creation broken down, but the partnership between ourselves and our own bodies has broken down, so that we don’t work the way we should, we get sick, we get aches and pains, even the things that are bodies were made for, like childbirth is difficult, non of us are pleased with our bodies…
There is even separation in our own soul, so we can say things like “I just don’t feel like myself today, we do things that we don’t want to do, and we do things we don’t want to do. This separation is born out in addiction and mental illness for some, and a constant struggle for integrity for most of us.
That is the bad news
The kingdom of God reconciles what has been separated
The first time I preached on the Kingdom I read from Isaiah 65:17-25 for a description of what the Kingdom is like (read it)
Reconciliation with God – Isaiah 65:23-23
…they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
Revelations 21 says of the new city
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. …
…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. (Revelation 21:3, 22-23)
Reconciliation with one another – Isaiah 65 says poetically that The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox
Paul writes to the Galatians That all the things that divide us are broken down in Christ: So in Christ Jesus You are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28)
He writes to the Ephesians: For (Christ) himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14)
Galatians 5:22-23 tells us how we get to that peace by telling us that when we are indwelt by the Holy spirit, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Reconciliation with the environment
We are no longer alienated from our work – Isaiah 65
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the works of their hands.
– Romans 8:19-21
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Rev 22:1-2 gives this picture of a restored environment in the kingdom “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Reconciliation with our true self
Paul describes how our bodies will be changed in the resurrection by comparing this body to a seed and the resurrected body to the plant. This is how Eugene Peterson translates it. This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality! 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
When Paul asks who is going to save him from this conflicted and separated self, in Romans 7, he replies: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
In Christ, in the Kingdom of God, we become our true self, the Child of the King!
This is the kingdom; the treasure, the pearl. Isn’t it beautiful?
Restoration in all of the relationships that we were created to be in
Reconciliation with God
Reconciliation with one another
Reconciliation with our work and the whole of creation
Reconciliation within ourselves!
The cost – everything
In both stories the men sell all they have to buy the treasure
This is not a new idea for Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom. Jesus often says “This is the kingdom of God, it is the way it is supposed to be, but if you join it, you will lose all that you have.
Matthew 10:37-39
37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 19:29-30
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” – Matthew 511-12
The first readers of the gospel would have understood these parables well – to accept Jesus and his kingdom was to give up at least the ability to earn a living in their community because of rejection, at most they would end up giving up their lives.
The Greek word for witness is where we get our word for martyr! When Jesus said, you will be my witnesses, he said you will be my martyrs! So many of Jesus’ witnesses died in the early days that the word martyr came to mean someone who gave their life for the sake of the kingdom.
In Ireland, after Patrick began to spread Christianity, the experience was the same, many Christian died for their faith. Within a generation, Christianity became the common religion in Ireland and people were no longer martyred. The devout Christian didn’t know what to do with the expectation of suffering for the Kingdom when they were no longer in danger for their lives. The created something called “green martyrdom” where Christian would rid themselves of all worldly comforts voluntarily and go live in the wilderness, in a cave or some rough shelter.
We might begin to ask the same question – In a country where we are free from persecution, what does it mean to give everything to enter the Kindom?
Understand to whom you belong
Decision making – Stewards, Ambassadors
Thought process – Romans 12
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will
Behavior - sin
18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6
Solidarity – there are many places all over the world where people are persecuted for their faith – they are paying the price of everything for the treasure – They are part of the family of God as we are – Pray, finances – why should we live in comfort when they are in prison?
The kingdom is a treasure like no other; it only costs your life.
