Walking in the Reign: A Study of the Kingdom of God
Introduction – January 18, 2008
Introduction:
Begin a new series on the Kingdom of God, called Walking in the Reign
The kingdom is a dominant theme in the Bible from the Old Testament through Jesus’ preaching and in to the rest of the NT
OT – Looked forward to a kingdom – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel – all prophesy about God establishing a kingdom
Then when Jesus comes, talk of the kingdom is rampant
We’ll be in Matthew for the most part so let’s look at the Kingdom in Matthew:
The Magi
Matthew 2:1-3
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
John the Baptist
Matthew 3:1-2
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Jesus’ first sermon in Matthew:
Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
You can just imagine the excitement. It’s finally here!
• Things are going fairly well, Jesus performs miracles, people are taken by his teaching – but all in all this doesn’t look like a typical kingdom.
• There’s trouble – the religious leaders, Pharisees, are upset with Jesus
• Jesus is not surrounding himself with dignitaries
• There’s no mention of getting rid of the Roman presence in Jerusalem
• And even John the Baptist, the one who announced the kingdom coming, is in prison!
Matthew 11: 2-3
When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus assures John that he is the one. Everyone seems concerned, but Jesus. He’s not fazed by what’s happening. But I believe Jesus can sense that some are confused, so in Matthew 13 he devotes a block of teaching about the nature of the kingdom.
Because confusion is not good and when there’s confusion there is usually doubt, discouragement, and frustration.
I see the same thing today – in my life, in the lives of others. We talk about Jesus reigning, we talk about the kingdom of God and many times we look around and it doesn’t seem like the kingdom is actually here. I believe there’s as much confusion today about the Kingdom as there was in Jesus’ day. So we too need to be educated about the kingdom, we need to know how it works. We need to know what it’s like to walk in the reign of God. And to help us we’re going to look at the parables in Matthew 13.
There are seven of them, six begin with the introductory phrase - The kingdom of heaven is like … followed by some story, a parable. Stories that are about ordinary stuff, but bear some insight into the spiritual workings of God’s kingdom. I hope that through this study we can be less confused about that kingdom that was prophesied 100’s of years before Christ, announced by John the Baptist, and inaugurated by Jesus himself.
Let’s pray.
Today we are not actually going to look at any of the parables. Today is an introduction to two things. First we need to briefly remind ourselves what a kingdom is. And second, we wll look at Jesus’ explanation of why he used parables.
First, what is a kingdom?
A political or territorial unit ruled by a sovereign.
It is a form of government that recognizes a monarch, a king. One person is in charge. In the Kingdom of God, guess who’s in charge? GOD. He is in control. He makes the calls. Everyone else is a subject.
This may sound elementary but we must remind ourselves of the sovereignty of God. We may disagree, we may not understand, we may even get mad – but when you sign up to be part of a kingdom you sign up to be under the sovereignty of the King.
Recently heard a story of a governor from Massachusetts who was running for president. This was many years ago, can’t even remember the man’s name. But after an especially long day on the campaign trail, a day in which he was so busy he had time for neither breakfast nor lunch, he was attending a picnic event for his candidacy. A rule at the picnic was that there was enough food for only one piece of chicken per person. He went through the line, enjoyed his chicken, but was still hungry. He wasn’t a man to take advantage of his position, but today he thought was the time to do it. So he went back through line and the lady serving refused him a second piece of chicken. He said, “Do you realize who I am. I am the governor of this state. I think that entitles me to a second piece of chicken.” The lady calmly replied, “Do you know who I am? I am the lady in charge of the chicken.”
There’s someone in charge of this kingdom, and it’s not me and it’s not you.
Isn’t true that sometimes want to make the rules? Isn’t true that sometimes we want to play God? Isn’t it true that sometimes we think that exceptions should be made for us?
Perhaps the most important aspect of understanding this kingdom is t realize that God is the king and we are the subjects. Commenting on this Dallas Willard writes somberly:
The ultimately lost person is the person who cannot want God. Who cannot want God to be God. Multitudes of such people pass by every day, and pass into eternity. The reason they do not find God is that they do not want him or, at least, do not want him to be God. Wanting God to be God is very different from wanting God to help me.
In our small groups tonight we will further discuss that quote. But for now, let me remind us all that this is a kingdom and we will forever be frustrated until we accept that God is the king. God is sovereign.
Second, I want us to look at Jesus’ explanation for using parables. It comes after the first parable that we’ll talk about next week. Matthew13:10-17.
Mt13:10-17,
The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 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. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “ ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 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.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Using this explanation let’s consider why Jesus used parables. I believe that even in this explanation Jesus is saying something about the kingdom of heaven.
Clarify the mysteries/secrets
The word mystery or secret is usually used in the NT to describe something that God has made know, but that requires some degree of spiritual insight. Jesus is not talking about some secret password or secret knowledge that we have to have – something that is unavailable. He’s simply saying that the kingdom of heaven is something that requires some spiritual insight.
In other words, you have to know the rules. You have to know how the kingdom of heaven operates and these parables can help you understand that.
Ever play a board game and try to play without reading the rules? You figure you can figure it out as you go. And then you get to a situation that you don’t know what to do. Err one has a different idea, people start getting mad, people quite the game, call others names, cheaters. Why the confusion and frustration – people don’t know the rules. If they knew how the game worked then there would be a lot less confusion and frustration and name-calling and quitting.
The same goes for the kingdom of heaven. We need to know the rules. We need to know how it works. If we don’t there will be all this frustration and name calling and quitting that we see in a lot of churches and among a lot of Christians.
The parables help clarify the ground rules of the kingdom.
If you’ve ever played baseball you know that certain parks have ground rules and the umpires and coaches discuss these rules before each game.
For example:
Wrigley Field a ball that gets lodged in the vines by the fence is an automatic ground-rule double. If the ball lodges in the vines, the fielder can raise his hands in surrender, even if he can see the ball perfectly well, and the batter is limited to a double.
The Metrodome is the place where infielders and outfielders (temporarily) lose balls in the glare of the roof, where batters lose home runs to giant speakers, and where once everybody lost a baseball that just never returned to earth. As you might suspect, all these "quirks" necessitate a number of special ground rules, most of them relating to what happens if a batted ball hits one of the many speakers suspended from the Teflon-coated fiberglass roof.
So in these parables Jesus is laying done the ground rules for the kingdom of heaven. They teach Jesus’ disciples about the nature of the kingdom of heaven, clarifying its mysteries, which thus shows how the kingdom operates in this world in a very different way from that expected by the religious leaders and the crowds. He wants to eliminate frustration that comes from confusion. So as we study the parables we are receiving insight into the kingdom.
Confounds the heard-hearted
Those who are unreceptive the parables will have the exact opposite effect. Instead of making things clearer, these parables are going to make things even more confusion.
It seems as if Jesus is saying that if you’re not willing to make some degree of personal investment then even what you know about the kingdom will be taken away form you. The diligent person will learn more about the kingdom, but eh lazy person will become even more confused about the kingdom.
That sounds a little crazy, but realize that that’s a general rule for almost anything in life. If we are not willing to show some diligence, then our knowledge or skills decline over time. These stories will reveal those how really want to understand the kingdom. If you’re not really interested you’ll just write Jesus off as some crazed storyteller and fail to understand his kingdom.
It’s the classic “use or lose it” law of life. If you have a skill that you don’t use, you eventually lose it. If you’re lazy, demonstrate no diligence you decline!
Over the Christmas holiday our family went to Mexico. I studied Spanish for four years – that of course was many years ago. I rarely speak Spanish or even attempt to speak Spanish. Yet, you would think that after four years I’d be able to speak the language. I went to Mexico and realized how little I remembered. I remember I once knew the word I was looking for – but I couldn’t recall it. Use it or lose it.
On the other hand, my daughter Melanie who is on her fourth year of Spanish was speaking with the kids much more fluently than I was. Do you think she is smarter than me? That may be true, but I know one reason she knows more Spanish than I do is because she is currently using it. Use it or lose it.
So many people just don’t get the kingdom of heaven. Is it because they are dumb? No, it’s because they are not spiritually diligent. Either they don’t care about spiritual things or they are too busy with other things that they have no time to think spiritually. So, these little stories just go in one ear and out the other. It’s like speaking to a brick wall.
ASU story at Nautilus
While working out I noticed a man wearing an ASU shirt on the treadmill next to me. I assumed Arizona State University – I don’t see many of those here in Texas. For several weeks I ran next to my ASU fan until I day instead of looking at him in the mirros I looked at him face to face and realized his shirt said USA. I had been looking at everything backward through the mirror. Unspiritual people will not be able to make sense of the parables because they look at everything backward.
Another passage we’ll talk more about tonight:
1 Corinthians 2:14
But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
For the unspiritual, the parables just confound.
A third thing we learn about parables,
Compels discovery
Jesus will make us think. I find that in other teaching methods of Jesus. Jesus often asked people questions. Instead of just telling us something, he forces us to discover truth and in doing so that truth can hit home.
Jesus wants us to have that “Ahah” moment where it really sinks in, and these stories make us think and help us discovery what the kingdom of heaven is like.
That’s an important education philosophy. Sometimes instead of just telling a kid something the teacher will lead them to discover or experience the fact or principle she wants him to learn. And in discovery there is greater impact and retention of those facts.
I saw this at work when I went to Camp Goddard with the fifth graders. At Camp the children didn’t sit at desks and copy things off the board. They went on hikes to experience the different types of trees and habitats. They dug in the limestone to discover fossils instead of just listening to lectures about fossils. They experienced science and chances some will remember a lot more about what they learned at Camp Goddard than what they learned sitting in a desk.
Jesus recognized that many people learn better when forced to discover the truth themselves. The parables are the laboratory of the kingdom of God. Those who are receptive listen to the parables, consider them, and discover truths about the kingdom they never would have learned had Jesus simply given them a fact sheet. Some things have to be experienced, they are beyond definition. The parables help us experience the kingdom.
In some ways the parables are like going to an open house – visiting a house you’re considering buying. You may have read the fact sheet, know all the dimension and features of the house, but at the open house you actual experience the kingdom of heaven. The parables are a tour of what the kingdom is all about.
I like how Jesus ends this section of parables:
Matthew 13:52
He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
I pray that in this series of lessons we will find out new and exciting things about the kingdom.
Have you heard the story about this lady?
Last summer, Bernice Gallego pulled an old baseball card from a box of antiques. She figured it might be worth something to someone, so she listed it on eBay.
The starting bid was $10.
But after getting a flurry of inquiries about whether the card was authentic or not, Gallego started to suspect she was holding something a little more valuable and immediately ended the auction.
Turns out her hunch was correct. She did have something more valuable. The card she found was made in 1869 and featured the "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the sport’s first professional team. It’s considered one of the first baseball cards ever produced and its actual value could be worth more than $100,000 when she puts it back on eBay (with a higher starting price, of course).
Some of these parables may seem like old antiques to some of you – you’ve heard them over and over. But perhaps there is a treasure in here that will surprise you.
Hebrews 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
This is a kingdom that will never fail you. Ever other kingdom either has fallen or will fall, but not the kingdom of God.
In 200, 300, 400 years so many of the things we value will not matter one bit. It won’t matter how healthy, successful, pretty, athletic, or rich you are. Because once you are welcomed into the unshakable kingdom all of those treasures will pale in comparison, You’ll wonder why you were so obsessed with those things.
In 200, 300, 400 years so many of the things that trouble us will not matter one bit. You may have s miserable life – bad health, bottom of the class, struggle paycheck to paycheck. Because once you are welcomed in to the unshakable kingdom the pain of all those things will be long forgotten in the wonder and awe of God’s kingdom.
The kingdom of God is the only thing that matters in the long haul. So let’s keep walking in the reign – the reign of the almighty God.
Jesus holds out the invitation to everyone. If today you want to place your citizenship in that kingdom come as we stand and sing.
