of the Kingdom :24-52 February 25th, 2018 Intro Last week we considered the question, why do some people seem to show initial excitement in the but fade away over time while others endure and produce fruit in their lives. We saw that answered that through a of four soils representing four different types of people.

This week we will examine 3 other common questions:

How should those who follow coexist and interact with those who don’t follow Christ in the world?

How can the kingdom have any influence if it starts so small?

Is the kingdom worth the personal cost to follow Christ?

These are the types of questions that Jesus’ disciples were likely wondering about as Jesus continued to teach. These are questions Christians have today. We have them in America but consider also a small house church in rural China meeting secretly in the early morning because their local government has been cracking down on unregistered churches. Consider a gathering in Nigeria that is meeting outside today because their church building was burned by Boko Haram, a Muslim extremist group. Jesus answered them by telling a series of parables about the kingdom. We’re going to wrap our arms around all of them today because they are short and connected to each other. 1. The kingdom is a present spiritual reality with an eventual literal fulfillment. a. What does a king have? People, place, rule i. The kingdom refers to God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule. b. In one sense, God rules over all the universe as King. i. Psalm 47:2 For the LORD Most High is to be feared, A great King over all the earth. c. But people have rebelled against His rule. i. Sin is basically trying to get out from underneath God’s rule and placing that crown on our own heads. ii. The result is not a Disney movie where the lead character follows his or her heart and it turns out well in the end with lots of singing and musical numbers in the middle. iii. The result is the world we find ourselves in, a world of abuse, corruption of power, broken homes, and messed up relationships. d. Jesus came to obey God’s rule perfectly and die on behalf of rebels against the King. i. 1 Peter 3:18a For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, e. When people recognize their rebellion, turn from it, and accept God’s forgiveness, they are placed back into this kingdom in a spiritual sense. i. Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. f. One day King Jesus will set up a literal reign on earth in the millennial kingdom i. Luke 21:31 "So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. ii. Acts 1:6b-7 "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” g. Biblical Doctrine, pg 44 by MacArthur and Mayhue i. They argue that the kingdom of God is the grand, overarching theme of Scripture, encompassing all the other major themes in the Bible. ii. The kingdom of God can be explained in this manner: The eternal triune God created a kingdom and two kingdom citizens (Adam and Eve) who were to have dominion over it. But an enemy deceived them, seduced them into breaking allegiance to the King, and causing them to rebel against their sovereign Creator. God intervened with consequential curses that exist to this day. Ever since, he has been redeeming sinful, rebellious people to be restored as qualified kingdom citizens, both now in a spiritual sense and later in a kingdom-on-earth sense. Finally, the enemy will be vanquished forever, as will sin. Thus, Revelation 21-22 describes the final expression of the kingdom of God, where the triune God will restore the kingdom to its original purity with the curse having been removed and the new heaven and the new earth becoming the everlasting abode of God and His people. h. These parables all explain more about the kingdom and address concerns or frustrations that believers may experience as they wait for the full manifestation of the kingdom. 2. How should Christians coexist with non-Christians in the world? The parable of the wheat and the tares (13:24- 30, 34-43) a. As a present spiritual reality with an eventual literal fulfillment, it is difficult to see who is in the kingdom. b. How should Christians coexist with non-Christians in the world? c. Historical setting i. A strategy among adversaries to sow seeds that would choke out or hinder the crops of their adversary. Common enough that Roman law had a specific prohibition against it. ii. Tares referred to a type of rye grass that looked just like wheat until the very end when it was almost time to harvest. At that point the wheat grew a head but the rye grass did not grow grains that could be harvested. (v. 26) iii. The slaves would have noticed this and asked if they should gather it up. If they did, they would uproot the wheat heads as well. They don’t have the expertise to tell the difference between the two. The better solution is to wait and let the reapers take care of it. d. Explanation (vv. 36-43) i. Referred to it as the parable of the tares, showing that they understood that to be the key issue in the parable. ii. Sower – Son of Man 1. Focused on his humility and humanity in the incarnation, title most used of himself, identified Him as the second Adam, the sinless representative of the human race. iii. Field – the world (not the church) 1. This is a picture of the church in the world not the world in the church, as it has sometimes been interpreted. 2. Some relevance to the gathering of churches in that there will always be those who profess faith in Christ but bear no fruit. iv. Good seed – sons of the kingdom – Christians, believers, followers of Christ, those who are saved 1. Different than the parable of the soils in which the seed was the word of God. 2. We see that God is planting His people in the world on divine assignment with an intent that they would influence the world, as the other parables will make clear. v. Tares – sons of the evil one – 1. 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 2. John 8:44 "You are of your father the , and you want to do the desires of your father. 3. Ephesians 2:1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 4. Two categories of people – wheat and the tares a. If you say, people don’t seem that different to me! Basically, you’re confirming what Jesus is saying here. The wheat and the tares appear identical on the outside by observation. b. If this sounds narrow minded and judgmental, listen to the next point carefully because it is essential to understanding this parable. 5. We are utterly unqualified and incapable of distinguishing the two. a. MacArthur – Christians are not qualified to infallibly distinguish between true and false believers. Every time the church has presumed to do that it has produced an ungodly bloodbath. b. Brutality committed against Muslims and Jews during various periods of the middle ages – that is wrong. The , and other efforts to use violence to convert or purify the church are utter folly and utterly wrong. c. Apparently James and John reflected a different attitude when some Samaritans did not want to welcome Jesus in. i. Luke 9:52-56 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went on to another village. d. “In the present age, believers are not God’s instruments of judgment and destruction but of truth and grace. Toward unbelievers we are not to have hearts of condemnation but of compassion.” MacArthur e. Enemy is f. Harvest is the end of the age i. The end of this period when wheat and tares grow up together without apparent distinction or judgment ii. But there will be real judgment executed by Jesus, not us, at the end of this period. 3. How can the kingdom have any influence if it starts so small? The parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (13:31-33) a. How then will the kingdom grow if it seems like such an underdog in the world and we can’t say with certainty who’s in and who’s out? i. Two short parables that address this question. ii. Question is whether to take these two parables as positive (the kingdom will grow and spread) or negative (the weeds will grow and spread) 1. Reasons they can be taken as negative: a. leaven often (but not always) has a negative idea – i. Leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy (Luke 12:1), ii. Same with legalism in Galatians – little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough (5:9), also in 1 cor 5:6 iii. But the point is that leaven and hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and legalism, all are pervasive and powerful in their influence as they spread. b. The Bible is clear that things will get bad before the end. i. 2 Timothy 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ii. But even with the difficulty there is the command to take the gospel to the ends of the world, which is more the point of these parables, not that the spread of will usher in a period of prosperity. b. Like a small seed growing into a tree, so will the kingdom start small but grow over time. i. Mustard seed was the smallest of the agricultural seeds planted in the middle east and was proverbially used to describe something very small. ii. Passes over other stages of growth because it is irrelevant but focuses on the end result. iii. Imagine being a part of the fledgling church in Acts and in the decades afterward. You are a religious minority in a hostile empire, experiencing hostility from the people around who view you as an aberrant version of Judaism and from the Roman government who view you as trouble makers. You hold no positions of power. You might think, how could this movement every amount to anything? And yet, 2,000 years later there are followers of Christ around the globe in almost every nook and cranny of the world. iv. It can still feel like that today as Christians are typically in the minority. Even in the Bible belt, many Christians struggle with the veneer of Christianity around them but talk about the challenge of finding true followers of Christ. Kids in high school may feel like they are the only Christians, and in this area that can often be the case. v. May wonder, are we on the right side of history? c. Like leaven in dough, so will the kingdom spread and permeate the world. i. A household would usually make bread once a week. They would mix in a small piece of the dough left over from the previous week to act as leaven that would spread through the dough. 1. Often a jewish girl when she was married would be given a gift from her mother of a small amount of leavened dough from a batch of bread made the week before the wedding. She would use that as a starter for bread she would make her household through her married life. It was a precious gift. ii. This is a large amount of dough 1. 3 pecks as about a bushel (no help to me) 2. 1 bushel is about 8 gallons (picture a gallon of milk) iii. Like the wheat in the field, the leaven in the dough pictures Christians as inserted into the world, not separate in their own little enclaves. 1. An emphasis in the leaven is the permeating and influential way in which the leaven spreads through the dough. 2. It’s as if in the parable of the wheat and tares, the tares could actually become wheat through the influence of the wheat around them! 3. Likewise, Christians should have a permeating influence to those around them. iv. Christianity has outlasted the Roman empire, the Assyrian empire, the Babylonians, the Ottoman, the Mongols, the Third Reich, and on and on. You can find believers around the globe – in China, North Korea, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, and Idaho. 1. But still many places where the gospel is not known or not growing. Work to be done! 2. In March we will have a chance to hear from a house church pastor from China who will be here with Kevin Pettit. 4. Is the kingdom worth the personal cost to follow Christ? The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl (13:44-45) a. Not a parable about how to conduct sneaky business dealings. Jesus often used less than reputable characters in a parable, perhaps to capture His audiences’ attention. i. Example - Parable of the shrewd money manager ii. Don’t need to get in to whether he disclosed this discovery of the pearl b. In both parables someone comes across something of great value and sells everything else to buy it. i. In the first parable, they seem to come across the treasure by accident. ii. In the second parable, they were seeking after a treasure and found it. iii. The first is like the woman at the well in Samaria in John 4. 1. John 4:7, 29 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." … 29 "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" iv. The second is like the Ethiopian eunuch Acts 8 who was pouring through Isaiah trying to understand it. 1. Acts 8:27-28, 35 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. … 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. c. In both cases they sacrificed but it was worth it. i. Like if you exchanged $100,000 for land that was worth $100 million dollars – that’s a good deal! ii. When becomes a Christian, when they enter the kingdom, they do so when they are convinced that it is worth the cost. 1. Worth turning away from a lifestyle that dishonored Christ, worth losing family who reject the person, because they are gaining something far more valuable. 2. Otherwise, they become like the 2nd and 3rd soils that we looked at last week, initial positive response but choked down by adversity and worry. 5. Will God always allow opposition to Him to continue? The parable of the dragnet (13:46-52) a. Similar to the parable of the wheat and the tares. b. Several types of fishing on the sea of Galilee i. With a hook and a line, catching one fish at a time, like when Peter was told by Jesus to catch a fish to pay a particular tax in Matt 17. ii. With a small net that could be used by one man that he would cast into shallow waters and catch small loads of fish. This is what Peter and Andrew were using when Jesus called them to be fishers of men in Matthew 4. iii. With a very large net called a dragnet that required a team of fishermen to operate, covered up to half a square mile, pulled in a giant circle around the fish, gathered in everything in its path – weeds, good fish, gross fish, garbage. They kept what they wanted and threw the rest away. c. Like the parable of the wheat and the tares, this ends with separation and judgment. i. At this point, God allows rebellion against Him, wickedness, unbelief – we read about it in the news and are horrified at particularly graphic occurrences, but we see it in passive indifference among otherwise nice people. ii. But these parables look to a time when that patience from God comes to an end and He brings about judgment. 1. It’s sobering but clear in both of these parables. 2/25/18

1. The kingdom is a present spiritual reality with an eventual literal fulfillment.

Psalm 47:2 For the LORD Most High is to be feared, A great King over all the earth. 1 Peter 3:18a For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God,

1. The kingdom is a present spiritual 1. The kingdom is a present spiritual reality with an eventual literal fulfillment. reality with an eventual literal fulfillment.

Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued Luke 21:31 "So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that us from the domain of darkness, the kingdom of God is near. and transferred us to the Acts 1:6b-7 "Lord, is it at this time You 14 are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 kingdom of His beloved Son, He said to them, "It is not for you to in whom we have redemption, know times or epochs which the Father the forgiveness of sins. has fixed by His own authority”

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Biblical Doctrine, by MacArthur and Biblical Doctrine, by MacArthur and Mayhue Mayhue The kingdom of God can be explained in this Ever since, He has been redeeming sinful, manner: The eternal triune God created a rebellious people to be restored as qualified kingdom and two kingdom citizens (Adam and kingdom citizens, both now in a spiritual sense Eve) who were to have dominion over it. But an and later in a kingdom-on-earth sense. Finally, enemy deceived them, seduced them into the enemy will be vanquished forever, as will sin. breaking allegiance to the King, and [leading] Thus, Revelation 21-22 describes the final them to rebel against their sovereign Creator. expression of the kingdom of God, where the God intervened with consequential curses that triune God will restore the kingdom to its exist to this day. original purity…

2. How should Christians coexist with 2. How should Christians coexist with non-Christians in the world? The parable of non-Christians in the world? The parable of the wheat and the tares (13:24-30, 34-43) the wheat and the tares (13:24-30, 34-43) 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of Ephesians 2:1-2 And you were dead in God, and that the whole world lies your trespasses and sins, 2 in which in the power of the evil one. you formerly walked according to John 8:44 "You are of your father the the course of this world, according devil, and you want to do the desires to the prince of the power of the air, of your father. of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

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Luke 9:52-56 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered 3. How can the kingdom have any a village of the Samaritans to make influence if it starts so small? The parables arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not of the mustard seed and the leaven (13:31-33) receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went on to another village.

4. Is the kingdom worth the personal cost 4. Is the kingdom worth the personal cost to follow Christ? The parables of the to follow Christ? The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl (13:44-45) hidden treasure and the pearl (13:44-45) John 4:7, 29 There came a woman of Acts 8:27-28, 35 So he got up and went; Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to and there was an Ethiopian eunuch… 29 and he had come to Jerusalem to her, "Give Me a drink." … "Come, worship, 28 and he was returning and see a man who told me all the things sitting in his chariot, and was reading that I have done; this is not the the prophet Isaiah. … 35 Then Philip Christ, is it?“ opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.

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5. Will God always allow opposition to Him to continue? The parable of the dragnet (13:46-52)

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