A sermon based upon Matthew 13: 24: 14; Acts
1: 6, Mark 1:15; Luke 11:2
Preached
by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin,
Flat
Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
15th
Sunday After Pentecost, October 1st, (Series: THE MISSIONARY CHURCH)
Almost
everywhere you go in Europe, be it to Germany, France, England, Scotland,
Ireland, Italy or Spain; you will find the ruins of old castles. Those old castles represent the medieval
world of territories that were once ruled by Lords, Dukes, Princes, Kings and
Queens. It sounds very romantic, and
perhaps it may have been for a privilege few.
But most people who lived in that time were peasants not lords. For the majority, the old feudalistic world
was filled with more disadvantage than advantage. Only the royal or noble bloodlines had the
‘cards’ stack in their favor.
The
castles I imagined most as a child where located along the Rhine River in
Germany. Perhaps you have fantasized
about some of those castles too. Those old
ancient Castles still represent a ‘fairy-tale’ world of long, long, ago. Walt Disney seized upon this fairy-tale image
to create his own vision of a ‘magic kingdom’.
The castle that provided his inspiration was Neuschwanstein located in Bavaria. This was not a medieval castle. King Ludwig II had it built in 1886, trying
to escape back to an already-forgotten time.
Ludwig nearly bankrupted the government while building it. His own ‘kingdom’ finally declared him
‘insane’ and put him under house arrest.
Shortly thereafter, he was found drowned in a nearby lake. http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/ludwig/biography.htm.
In
the real world, where most people live and have to finally ‘come down to
earth’, it is very difficult to establish or maintain a fairy-tale world. This is why most castles are uninhabited or
in ruins today. Even here in America, where
we don’t have castles, we have had the Vanderbilt’s, the Rockefellers, or the
Reynolds. But those fairy-tale lives were
just as difficult to manage or maintain as their houses, weren’t they? This is normally how it is with human
kingdoms; here today, but gone tomorrow.
What
about God’s kingdom? In our text today,
close to the end of his ministry, Jesus told his disciples that ‘this good news’ or ‘this gospel’ of the kingdom must be preached throughout the world, as a
testimony to all the nations…’ (Matt. 24:14). Jesus often spoke of the
Kingdom of God or Heaven (Matthew). In
fact, the Kingdom was the most important ‘theme’
in all of Jesus’ preaching and teaching ministry. But where is it? What is it?
And what does the kingdom mean when we live out the mission of this
church? Is the Kingdom just as ‘outdated’
as a world long-gone, or is there still an important ‘gospel’ significance in the
message of God’s kingdom?
LORD, IS THIS THE TIME….? (ACTS 1: 6)
In
the book of Acts, as Jesus was preparing to ascend to heaven, some of his
disciples around him, had to ask him a final question. They had just a few more moments left with
Jesus, but it wasn’t Jesus’ leaving that was primarily on their hearts, but it was
their own expectations about the kingdom.
Expectations can tricky. During
his last 40 days of Jesus’ time on earth, Jesus was still ‘speaking about the kingdom of God’ (Acts 1:3). Now, as he leaves, he tells his disciples
they were ‘not to leave Jerusalem’,
but instead to ‘wait there for the
promise of the Father (4).’ The
suspense is killing them, so they ask: “Lord, is this the time you will restore
the kingdom to Israel?” (6).
The
disciples still don’t get it. In this
final moment with Jesus, some of them are still imagining an earthly, political
kingdom of Israel, whereas Jesus has been trying to get them to understand the
‘kingdom’ is no longer just about Israel, but it is a ‘gospel that must be preached throughout the world…to the nations’
(Matt. 24:14). But like us, the
disciples want to keep the kingdom close as their own, but Jesus says, ‘you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).
It
was the vision of God’s ‘glory filling
the whole earth’ (Psalm 72:19) that they had trouble comprehending. They only envisioned the kingdom in Israel,
as it had been envisioned by their forefathers and ancestors, going all the way
back to David. David was the King ‘after God’s own heart’ who ruled in the glory days. Scripture even promised that David’s kingdom
would be ‘established forever’ (2
Sam 7: 16). How could this happen unless
God restored the Kingdom to Israel from Mt. Zion, just as all the prophets had
also envisioned (Jer. 31:6). This was
the major question on the minds of Jesus’ disciples as Jesus’ earthly ministry
came to a close. When? How? Is
it ‘time’ now to ‘restore’ Israel’s kingdom?
I
don’t know how much you know about ancient findings in the land Israel, but one
of the most difficult areas of biblical archaeological research is to prove
that David’s kingdom ever really existed.
There have been no references to him in Egyptian, Syrian, or Assyrian
documents recorded of that time. Most
scholars have suggested that not only did David not exist, but even if he did,
his kingdom rule was more like a large tribe or chiefdom, rather than a glorious
kingdom.
Only
recently, has there ever been any evidence outside of the Bible to support the
existence of King David. This evidence
came on July 21, 1993 when a team led by Prof. Avraham Biran, excavating Tel
Dan in northern Galilee, found a triangular piece of rock, measuring 23 x 36 cm. On it was an Aramaic inscription dated in the
9th century, about a century after David is thought to have ruled. It said: “Bet
David” (House or Dynasty of David). The
only other external evidence of David’s kingdom comes from surveys kept from
digging around in the hills of Judea, showing that during the 11th
and 10th centuries, the population of Judah almost doubled http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myth-and-reality-of-king-david-s-jerusalem
.
The
point I’m making with that though it might be proven that King David and his
Kingdom actually existed, this is still a long way from a ‘kingdom’ established
forever (2 Sam. 7: 16). Although
there is a nation of Israel today, there is still no ‘throne’ nor is there any
kind of house of David. In the day Jesus disciples inquired about
‘restoring’ Israel, whatever there had
been of David’s kingdom, had already
‘crumbled’ in the Jerusalem dust. Since
Jesus didn’t restore it, would he return to restore it?
THE KINGDOM…. IS NEAR (Mark 1:15)
Perhaps
the most important question here is why did Jesus disciples even think about
this? How did the restoration Israel’s
long-lost kingdom become a renewed in their hope? The answer, of course, comes from Jesus
himself. According to the opening
chapter of Mark’s gospel, we read that “Jesus
came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good
news” (Mark 1:14-15).
There
are several clues to why Jesus is preaching ‘good news’ about God’s
kingdom, long after David’s kingdom was gone. First, notice where Jesus begins to
preach. He is not in Jerusalem, where
David’s throne was located, but Jesus is in Galilee, far north of Jerusalem and
Judea. Another interesting clue is about
when the kingdom comes. Jesus
does not say that God’s kingdom has already actually come, but that God’s
kingdom has ‘come near’. It is carefully worded that this is not
the final fulfillment; the beginning,
but not the final coming of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom comes ‘near’, but it still not
fully ‘here’. To add to this, finally the
how of the kingdom is addressed.
The entrance to God’s kingdom
is not through a gate or a door, but God’s kingdom is entered the spiritual
responses of repentance and having faith in God’s good news.
This
all means that God’s eternal kingdom, promised in David, and now being realized
in Jesus, is a different kind of Kingdom.
This was very hard for Jesus own disciples to understand, so Jesus spoke
about God’s kingdom with parables, or stories.
The disciples were stuck trying to visualize a politically, national
kingdom, but Jesus wanted them to imagine the kingdom spiritually, using
earthy, but non-political, less nationalistic terms.
Perhaps
the best place to grasp Jesus’ own understanding of the ‘secret’ of the kingdom (Mark 4:11), is to make a quick review of the
seven kingdom parables found in the gospel of Matthew. You will remember these as (1) the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13: 1-23,
(2) the Parable of the Weeds (13:
24-30), (3) the Parable of Mustard Seed
(13: 31-32), (4) the Parable of the Yeast
(Matt. 13: 33-35), (5) the Parable of the
Hidden Treasure (13: 44), (6) the
Parable of the great Pearl (13:45), and (7), the Parable of the Net of Fish (13:47-52).
Each
of these stories have a little something different to say about the ‘nearness’ of God’s kingdom, from
showing how the kingdom grows, how it is hidden, is of great value, and is
determinative for the future. But what
all these parables have in common is even more striking. Even though the Kingdom has come near and has
been made available, the kingdom becomes realized in the kind of humans should make. In other words, to put it in the daily
terminology of Jesus’ day: someone has to sow the seeds, someone has to leave
the weeds, someone has to put in the yeast, someone has to hunt for the
treasure, someone has to pay the price for the great pearl, and finally, someone
has to cast out a net to catch the fish.
In each case, the nearness of
the kingdom depends upon the participation of God’s people, as much as, it the
kingdom depends upon God.
If
any of you are Will Ferrell fans, you may be familiar with the 2006 film,
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Ferrell plays the role of Ricky
Bobby, a dimwitted daredevil who is also the most successful driver on the
NASCAR circuit. In typical Will Farrell
fashion, Ricky Bobby is morally and ethically bankrupt. The only things that
matter to Ricky Bobby are winning races and self-indulgence.
But
Ricky Bobby is religious, after a fashion. He even prays when it suits his
desires. In one scene he is saying grace before a meal. He prays, “Dear Tiny,
Infant, Jesus . . .” And he continues to address Christ throughout the prayer
as “Lord Baby Jesus.” Finally, his wife
and his father-in-law decide to interrupt him as he prays to the Lord Baby
Jesus. Carley, his wife, says “Hey, um, sweetie . . . Jesus did grow up. You
don’t always have to call him baby. It’s a bit odd and off-puttin’ to pray to a
baby.” To which Ricky Bobby replies,
“Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I’m sayin’ grace. When you say
grace, you can say it to Grownup Jesus or Teenage Jesus or Bearded Jesus or
whoever you want.” (Adapted from a sermon by The Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell, http://day1.org/1109-our_first_calling).
It’s
a bizarre sequence, but also quite revealing. I suspect that many of us would
prefer to keep Jesus as a baby, not a king. Many of us would agree with Ricky
Bobby that the Christmas Jesus is best. The Christmas Jesus is no threat to our
childish views of the universe or our self-serving views about faith. The Christmas
Jesus is soft and huggable. He says nothing to us about taking up a cross or
saving a dying world. But from the very
beginning of his Gospel Mark gives us a picture of a grow-up Jesus. Mark says
nothing about Jesus’ birth. Instead he begins with Jesus’ baptism, then telling
us how Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news which means ‘The
Kingdom of God has come near, so we must repent and believe the good news!’
When
God’s kingdom came near in Jesus, people still had the choice of either to receive
him with repentance and faith, or to reject him. The kingdom is never a ‘done’ deal. We have to put our hearts into it, or its
fails to stay ‘near’ or ‘here’ and close to us.
Even after Jesus finished his earthly ministry and ascended to God’s
throne, the church had to be ‘wait’
to be ‘filled’ with God’s Spirit and
go into the world as witnesses. The kingdom came close, but the kingdom doesn’t
stay close, unless we stay close to Jesus.
We still have to follow Jesus by believing and obeying God will, for the
kingdom to stay close to us in this world.
THY KINGDOM COME…. (Luke 11:2)
So,
will the kingdom ever fully come to us, not just ‘come near us’? Will the rule of God ever be actually be
realized ‘here’ and ‘now’, in this world?
Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Thy Kingdom come’ (Luke 11.2). Does this mean that God’s Kingdom will one
day be fully established on ‘earth, just
as it is in heaven?’ That is what
Jesus taught us to pray for, isn’t it?
Maybe.
But
Jesus’ most direct answer was that ‘is
not for [us] to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own
authority’ (Acts 1:7). Everybody has
in their own mind a ‘plan’ of how it will all work out, but only God has the ‘authority’ to make it work out. Instead of trying to figure everything out, Jesus told his disciples to ‘receive’ the Spirit’s power and be witnesses where they lived. Our obsession should be the simple doing of God’s
kingdom work, not figuring out everything.
We shouldn’t do that because we can’t.
As Jesus said “God’s kingdom is
not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it
is! Or ‘There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:20-21).
Do
we fully understand what Jesus is saying?
The kingdom is not some kind of individual party you have within
yourself, when you say ‘yes’ to Jesus in repentance and faith alone, but the ‘kingdom of God’ is God’s rule ‘among you’ as come together in
repentance, faith, and fellowship, and then go back out into the world to do the
kinds of kingdom ‘work’ God commanded the church to do. The parables really point to everything the
church’s kingdom work should be about:
We are to sow seeds of the gospel on good ground. We are to stop injuring the wheat, by
pulling on the weeds. We are to put in
the yeast and let it rise up. We are hunt
for the hidden treasure, then pay any cost to keep it. We are to search for great pearls and when
we find the one with the greatest value, we are to buy it, no matter the
cost. Finally, we are to cast our gospel
nets to catch all kinds of fish and put them in our baskets.
Do
you understand all this? Jesus asked his
disciples. They answered ‘yes’! But before
we answer yes, we’d better make sure we understand. Perhaps a story can help sum it all up: A six year old boy was assisting his mother
with some spring gardening. The mother was absorbed in her work while the
little boy explored the miracle of growing things exploding everywhere. All at once the boy picked up a daffodil bud,
and sat down on the ground, and studied it. Then with his two little hands, he
tried to force it open into a full blossom. The result, of course, was
disappointment and a mess: limp petals and a dead flower.
Frustrated,
he cried out, "Mommy, why is it that when I try to open the buds, it just
falls to pieces and dies. How does God open it into a beautiful flower?"
Even
before his mother could answer, a broad smile broke across the child's face,
and he exclaimed, "Oh! I know! God always works from the inside."
When
God rules over his kingdom, he rules from the inside out. God’s kingdom is alive and it is growing, but
God’s rule can’t be realized in the world until he rules in us from the inside
out. God is the king, we can’t make him
rule, but we must allow him to rule. It
is then, and only then, that the kingdom comes near and comes here, beginning in
us, and continuing to be realized in this world through God’s people, the
church. Are letting God rule in you,
from the inside out? The kingdom can’t
come near us, unless it comes here, within us.
Amen.
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