Understanding the Ultimate Kingdom - Part 3
Matthew 13:47-58
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Aug. 31, 2008
*From a human point of view, about the closest I’ve ever gotten to royalty is Burger King! But by the grace of God, most of us here tonight can say we know a king. In fact, we know the King of kings! And He wants us to know about His Kingdom.
1. First: Get ready for the King’s Day of Judgment.
*We need to be ready. Jesus made this clear with a parable in vs. 47-50:
47. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind,
48. which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.
49. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just,
50. and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
*We need to be ready. -- But who is ready? “U.S. News and World Report” once polled 1,000 people to ask this question: "Who do you think is ‘very likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ to go to heaven?" They asked this question about 13 famous people.
-Of all of the celebrities, the biggest vote-getter was Mother Teresa at 79%.
-Who came in second? -- Oprah Winfrey at 66%.
-Third place went to Michael Jordan at 65%.
-Fourth place went to Colin Powell at 61%.
-Princess Diana scored an impressive 60%.
*But when it came to politicians, the figures began to plummet.
-Al Gore and Hillary Clinton each scored 55%.
-Bill Clinton at 52%. -Newt Gingrich came in at 40%.
-And the bottom figure was O. J. Simpson who got only 19% of the vote.
*But the biggest vote-getter of all was the people who were surveyed. Over 87% of them believed that they were most likely to go to heaven. (1)
*They may think they are ready. But none of those people are ready, unless they know the King. The only way to get ready for the judgment is to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. No matter how good you think you are, you are not good enough.
*Of course, some people are a whole lot better than others -- or at least they think they are. In 1990, the application for NYU contained this question: "Are there any personal accomplishments or significant experiences you have had that have helped define you as a person?"
*Humorist Hugh Gallagher gave an answer way too good to be true. Here’s just a small part of it:
-“I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I write award-winning operas. I woo women with my trombone playing. I cook 30-minute brownies in 20 minutes. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis. But I have not yet gone to college.” (2)
*Hugh got in to NYU. But all of that stuff and more will never get you into heaven. Romans 3:10 tells us that "There is none righteous, no, not one” Romans 3:23 adds that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 64:6 says that “all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” But prophesying about Jesus Christ, Isaiah 53:5-6 says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
*You could be the best person in West Monroe, best in Louisiana, best in the whole world, but that won’t make you ready for the judgment. The only way to get ready for the judgment is to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. When we trust in Jesus, He takes our sin and puts His perfect righteousness in our account. As Paul explained in 2 Corin 5:21, “(God the Father) made (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
*Bill Bouknight gave this testimony about getting ready: “I came into this world fundamentally flawed, with a tendency towards selfishness and rebellion, with an essential brokenness of mind and body. No amount of education or will-power or therapy could fix my deepest flaws. But when I confessed my condition to God, and believed the good news that his son Jesus died on a cross for me, God fundamentally changed my life. Now his Holy Spirit is at work in me, fixing and equipping me. My eternal destiny is assured. Though my present is not without problems, I am more than a conqueror because He lives in me, and his grace is sufficient. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’” (3)
*Bill Bouknight is ready for the judgment. Are you? Now is the time to get ready for the King’s judgment day. Get ready, and help everyone else get ready too. -- Before it’s too late.
2. Get ready for the King’s Day of Judgment. And make the most of the King’s riches.
*In vs. 51-52, Jesus points us to the King’s riches. There He asked His disciples:
51. "Have you understood all these things?’’ They said to Him, "Yes, Lord.’’
52. Then He said to them, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.’’
*Jesus wants us to know that we have an infinite treasure in Him. You have everything you will ever need in Jesus. And God wants you to understand His treasure. He talks about old things and new. What does that mean? One thing it means is that God is not through teaching us! We can expect more, much more of His riches as we go through life.
*During their conversation at a dinner party, Albert Einstein’s young neighbor asked the white-haired scientist, "What are you actually by profession?" Einstein replied, “I devote myself to the study of physics.”
*The young girl looked at him in astonishment and said, "You mean to say you study physics at your age? I finished mine a year ago." (4)
*You will never get finished studying the Bible. There is a lifetime of learning for us in the Word of God. We will never get to the end of the riches of Jesus Christ. That’s one thing Paul was getting at in Eph 3:8 when he said, “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
*Jesus wants us to know that we have an infinite treasure in Him. And as we go through life, we need more and more of His riches. Roger Talbott described a few of our needy situations -- situations when we feel stretched to the limit and need the resources of Christ to carry on:
*The two of you haven’t had a night out without the kids in weeks. You finally get away. The waiter has just brought your appetizer when the baby-sitter calls and tells you the youngest has a high fever and has started throwing up.
*You’ve been planning this vacation for six months. Your reservations are all made and three days before you are scheduled to go your mother calls and says your Dad is going to have a quadruple bypass as soon as the doctors can get his sugar stabilized.
*You haven’t had a day off in three weeks. Friday morning your sister calls, says her father-in-law has died and wonders if you could take her kids for the weekend.
*It has been a very long day. You woke up before dawn because your arthritis hurt so much. You had to go to the grocery store and take your dog to the vet and on the way home your car started to act up and you had to leave it at the garage and get a taxi to take you home. All you want to do is go to bed when the phone rings and it’s your friend who lost her husband last month and she just needs somebody to talk to.
*And always, when we think we have given all we have to give there is always more need: the starving people in the midst of a famine; refugees from war; the devastation of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes; to say nothing of our neighbors who are hungry; the children who need someone to care about them; the youth in our community who have nowhere to go and nowhere to grow. (5)
*We can get to the end of ourselves in no time at all. But as believers, we have infinite riches in Christ. Cleavon Matthews reminds us that in Christ you can:
-Lose hell and gain heaven,
-Lose heartache and gain happiness,
-Lose despair and gain delight,
-Lose condemnation and gain justification,
-Lose destruction and gain restoration,
-Lose the world and gain the Word,
-Lose foolishness and gain wisdom,
-Lose confusion and gain comfort,
-Lose evil and gain eternity,
-Lose folly and gain forgiveness,
-Lose misery and gain mercy,
-Lose sin and gain salvation,
-Lose guilt and gain grace,
-Lose turmoil and gain triumph,
-Lose bitterness and gain blessings,
-Lose hatred and gain love. (6)
*Jesus wants us to know that we have an infinite treasure in Him.
3. So make the most of the King’s riches. And be warned about rejecting the King.
*In vs. 53-57 we see people who made the terrible mistake of rejecting the King. Matthew says:
53. Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there.
54. And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
55. Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?
56. And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?’’
57. So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.’’
*We need to notice an amazing thing in vs. 55-56. The King of the whole universe loves us so much humbled Himself to become a man like us. He was part of a family like our families. So in Phil 2:5-8 Paul says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
*And Hebrews 4:15-16 in the Living bible tells us that, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned. So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need.”
*The Apostle John opened his Gospel with an exaltation of Jesus Christ, calling Jesus “the Word.” John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:1-4)
*But John then said, “He (Jesus) was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” (John 1:10-11)
*Here in Matthew 13 we see some of the people who refused to receive the King.
-These people made a fatal error.
-They let past experience keep them from faith in Jesus.
-They let their limited understanding block them from finding true wisdom.
-They let earthly connections keep them from making eternal connections.
-They made the fatal error of rejecting the King.
*Don’t let anything lead you to reject the King!
*Stephen Olford was one of the best known preachers of the last 40 years. But for many years he rejected the King. Stephen grew up as a missionary kid in Africa. But he did not want to go through the trials and tribulations of being a missionary.
*Then Stephen was mistreated by some Christians in England, and he rebelled against God. He studied to become an engineer, developed a new carburetor, and got into racing motorcycles. But Stephen was injured in a motorcycle accident and given just two weeks to live.
*Still rebelling against God, Stephen refused to see the pastors who visited him. Then, he received a letter from his dad. This letter had been mailed long before Stephen’s accident, and it included this powerful message, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, -Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
*God used that message to touch Stephen’s heart and he prayed, “Lord, if You will heal my body, I will serve You anywhere, any time, and at any cost!”
*God did heal Stephen! And his life was greatly used by God because He received that wonderful warning, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, -Only what’s done for Christ will last.” (7)
4. Be warned about rejecting the King. -- And realize how important your faith is to the King.
*In vs. 58 we see the incredible importance of faith, because there Matthew tells us that: -(Jesus) did not do many mighty works (in His hometown of Nazareth) because of their unbelief.
*We must believe. We must believe in the infinite wisdom, compassion and ability of Almighty God. We must believe that all things are possible with God. We must believe that He is able to work any miracle. Remember that if a miracle is a one in a million thing, there are over 6,000 miracles a day, because there are over six billion people in the world.
*Many of us have testimonies about God’s miraculous intervention in our lives. At home we have a copy of a will from some old friends of ours. This will made us the legal guardians of their children -- if necessary.
*When I worked for the Air Force in the late 70’s, one of my best friends was a Captain named Bill. We got a call from Bill in the fall of 1993. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And he wanted to ask us to raise their two children if anything also happened to his wife, Chrissy. Bill and Chrissy chose us, because none of their close relatives were Christians.
*Bill went to Cleveland for a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save his life. The surgery involved taking his face off to get to the tumor. They did one last CAT scan just before the surgery. Bill was lying on the bed in pre-op when the doctor came in and said, “I am in shock and disbelief. And I can’t justify the surgery.” Bill asked, “Why?” And the doctor said: “The tumor’s gone! We’ve been looking at the CAT scan for an hour. And we can’t find it.”
*Jesus Christ is able to work any miracle. We must have faith in Him.
*But Christian, you may ask: “Where’s my miracle?”
-Well, you may not receive a healing like that, but God knows best, and He has a far better place waiting for His children. And even if you never get physically healed, I promise you that you have a miracle in your lap right now, if you brought your Bible to church tonight.
*The Word of God is a unique book, sent to us from God through men who were inspired by His Holy Spirit. God’s Word is able to guide in every situation of life. God’s Word is even able to save our souls -- if we will believe in the One who gave it to us, if we will put our faith in the King.
*And if you have trusted in the King -- You are saved! That is the greatest miracle of all. You have a home in the Kingdom. You have a place at the King’s table. You are part of the royal family of God.
*You can believe in the King! He died on the cross for us. He is a worthy King. He is the King of kings. Trust Him, love Him, serve Him today and forever.
(1) Christianglobe.com sermon “What Are Your Chances of Going to Heaven” by James Merritt - John 14: 6
(2) Taken from essay, by Hugh Gallagher that won first prize in the humor category of the 1990 Scholastic Writing Awards. It appeared in the May issue of Literary Cavalcade, a magazine of contemporary fiction and student writing published by Scholastic in New York City.
(3) Christianglobe.com sermon “Called into Covenant” by Bill Bouknight - Gen 9:12-17 - 2002
(4) Today in the Word, September 25, 1992.
(5) Roger G. Talbott, Good News For The Hard of Hearing, CSS Publishing Company. (Found in 08-04-02 email from Sermonillustrations.com)
(6) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain” by Cleavon Matthews - Phil 3:5-14
(7) SermonCentral illus Contributed by Mark Hensley
