Secrets of the Kingdom

Charles J. Tomlin, February 14, 2021, 

Kingdom of God Series, 7 of 14

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

In the 1950’s and 60’s, one of the top television games shows, was the nationally syndicated show: “I’ve Got a Secret.”   Celebrities would compete against each other with a contestant who would have a secret to figure out.   Sometimes these contestants had done something notable.  Other times they were just regular people doing regular things, but the celebrities had to ask questions and try to learn their unique ‘secrets’. 

As a child, I loved to watch “I’ve Got a Secret” because I needed to learn almost everything.  The whole world was one ‘big secret’.  

Life can certainly be like that for any of us.   It can be a big, mysterious, and hidden secret.  When we are children, it can seem like adults are keeping all kinds of secrets from us.  

Of course it’s one thing for humans to have secrets, but in our text, Jesus speaks of the ‘secrets (or mysteries) of the kingdom’.   He is telling God’s truth in ‘parables’; mysteries, or stories.   Why in the world would God be keeping secrets from us?   Why didn’t Jesus just, as people used to say in the 70’s, just ‘let it all hang out!’ 

We’ve been talking about the Kingdom of God.  Today, we must understand that Jesus didn’t give direct descriptions of God’s kingdom.  He most always spoke about the kingdom indirectly, in stories, or riddles, which are called parables. 

Parables are like verbal windows that help us see out of what’s happening in our lives now, so we can look into a larger, and sometimes very different kind of reality.   Don’t you like to look out the window?   During the Virus Outbreak, some of you have had to look through a window to see your loved ones in Nursing Homes.  They had to look through windows to see you, and to know that you hadn’t forgotten them.   It’s difficult not to be able to touch them, huge them.  But windows can be ‘good’, and important for us to have.

 Parables serve as ‘windows’ to see into a reality that is true, but it’s also not yet, but it’s coming.  Remember, Jesus said, “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done.  It’s not yet, but we pray it ‘will be done’.   

The kingdom of God is also a form of reality that is alternative to our own.  It may be and idea already known by a few people, but it’s still largely hidden.  As Jesus said in our text:  "To you it has been given to know the secrets1 of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given(Matt. 13:11).” 

Finally, the kingdom may be reality just beginning to be realized in the world.  It may just be starting out and very small, but it’s a true possibility and already starting to take shape and grow.  This is the heart of what Jesus is saying to us in the parable about the sower we are going to consider today.

In each parable, Jesus opens a windows for us to look into the mystery or secret of the reign and rule of God, which was being revealed through him and to his disciples, and any who had eyes to see and ears to hear, the truth of his life and his teachings

WHY DO YOU SPEAK ... IN PARABLES?" (10)

Near the end of our text, which is in the middle of this whole account, Jesus was asked by his disciples ‘why’.  “Why do you speak to them in parables? (Matt. 13:10).  Notice, Jesus speaks about God’s kingdom in parables to the crowds and outsiders, not the disciples.  Have you ever wondered why?  Why Jesus didn’t just come out and talk straight to everyone?

In the Mini-Series from HBO, entitled Chernobyl, a historical, dramatic retelling of one of the worst nuclear accidents in modern history, which took place in April of 1986, in the Ukraine.   At that time, the Ukraine was still under complete control by the Soviet Union, and at first, Soviet authorities attempted a coverup.  But it didn’t work, because the ‘fallout’ was already being detected in air over Europe and the United States could also see how bad it was, from spy satellites.

In the early moments of the story, a Belarusian Nuclear Physicist knows how bad this event is, and she is attempting to talk to some of her colleagues about it.  They are talking on the telephone, but the physicist is using ‘code’ to talk about her thoughts, because she knows that her phone lines are being tapped and she is being listened too.

It’s hard for us to imagine a world that is listening to us, and waiting for a chance to see whether or not they can ‘pin’ something on us—find some way that we are not being loyal to their way of seeing things.   When I lived in Eastern Germany, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I heard stories from many Germans about how afraid they were to say anything political on the phone or even to their friends.  Sometimes even so-called friends would turn in their friends in order to get a better job from the government who ran everything.  

We can’t imagine a world like that, but desperate people can be that way, and it’s one of the major reasons Jesus spoke in parables.   If you look into the chapter just before this one, in Matthew 12,  while He is speaking, Jesus’ own family come to ‘take him home’.   Even Jesus’ own family and his own home town didn’t agree with many of the things he was saying (12: 46-50).  Not only did religious leaders think he was ‘full of the devil’, some of his one family were very close to that too. Once, the people in his hometown wanted to throw him off a cliff. 

Maybe this helps begin to understand better, why Jesus most often spoke in parables.  They which were a kind of ‘code’ language that allowed him to tell stories that would allow about things many people didn’t want to hear, at least not yet. 

Parables were ways that Jesus could share truths about God and his kingdom, that could be very challenging to the ‘status quo’---to what was commonly believed and practiced, but which was quite contrary to what God wanted to do in the world.   Jesus could share these truths to those who were ready to hear them, but those who didn’t want to hear them, would be slower to understand, because they didn’t want to understand.   This is what Jesus meant when, right after our text, he quoted Isaiah who said: 'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive (Matt. 13:14 NRS).

But at the same time, while some were ‘blocked out’ of understanding by these parables, others were able to understand exactly what they needed and wanted to hear.  This is Jesus meant by the ‘blessing’ he adds to these in Matthew 16: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.  Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”  It’s such a beautiful blessing, isn’t it?   This reminds us that while some where unable to look through the ‘window’ of God’s truth, because of the ‘dirt’ in their lives, others were able to see and remember God’s truth, even better because of these parables.   The understanding of a parable was mostly based upon the individual ‘desire’ of the person who wanted or didn’t want to understand.

‘A SOWER WENT OUT TO SOW’ (2)

So, now, with this introduction to Jesus’ first parable about the Kingdom of God, let’s take a closer look through the ‘window’ of this first ‘secret’ of how God’s Kingdom comes on earth, as it is in heaven.   Jesus says it is sown like and like a seed and grows.

But this is a very different, even funny way to sow a seed, isn’t it?   Who would every sow a seed and expect a harvest from doing something as crazy and strange as this?   Well, no one would, unless this story is a kingdom story about a God who sows his seeds most extravagantly, often excessively, and very liberally, broadcasting the seeds of his grace into the world.  

And this is exactly what Jesus later explains this parable to be about, to his disciples, but not to everyone else.   This parable of the ‘sower’ is about how God sows his ‘word’ into the world.  He throws the seeds of grace and truth everywhere, in hope that the conditions will be right, for the seed to spout, take root, and to grow and produce a harvest.   

But, of course, success is always hoped for, but success and growth of the seed is never a sure thing in a harsh world like ours.  The problem, however isn’t the seed, but it’s always the soil.  The kind of soil is always the major challenge for grower of God’s kingdom truth.  If the soil isn’t right, or there are or problems in the environment, the harvest will be limited.   The growth of the kingdom, not only depends on the sower, but the growth of the kingdom also depends upon the soil.  And the soil is us. 

The ‘soil’ is at the heart of what Jesus is saying about God’s kingdom in this parable.  Jesus wants his disciples to know, that the ‘gospel’ they are preaching is good seed, wonderful seed, and productive seed too.   They are becoming ‘sowers’ of a wonderful potential harvest, but sadly, sometimes there won’t be any harvest.   But the problem isn’t the seed, nor is it the sowers, but the growth of the seed is mostly dependent upon the type of soil that receives the seed.   The type of soil can be the greatest challenge to the growth of God’s kingdom in the world.

During the Coronavirus Outbreak last year, I received several Town Hall phone calls from NC Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who included me in those meetings.   When I wasn’t too busy, I’d turn on the speaker phone and listen to the conversation as the Senator reported to his constituents and took questions and attempted to give needed answers and advise.  

In one of the calls, a woman asked whether this whole ‘Virus thing’ was a hoax.  After the Senator assured went to great pains to assure her that it wasn’t, she answered honestly, “I’m glad you set me straight on that.  I just thought somebody made the whole thing up. “

One of the things I heard on call after call, was the Senator trying to help people see the truth of how things were, and advising them to wear masks in order to slow the spread of the virus and, as he said, to help the economy get back on track.  I thought it interesting, that this time, the Senator had to appeal to the economy to get his point across, more than he appealed to saving lives, as he had done in previous calls.  

Whether that person received this ‘true message’ depended upon the kind of ‘soil’ they were.  It had little to do with whether his message was considered true, but whether they really wanted to listen to his advice or not.  Fortunately, after polling those who participated, 86 percent were today actually wearing masks when they went out in public, in contrast to about 23 percent in the first phone call when the Virus first started. 

This is what Jesus meant when he said some seeds fell on the path, others on rocky ground, some fell among thorns, and some on good soil.  It’s the kind of soil that makes all the difference, not the quality of the seeds.  The seed will grow, if conditions are right; if the soil is receptive.  This is how the kingdom grows too, Jesus implies; if we are the kind of people who want the seeds of the kingdom to take root in our lives.

BROUGHT FORTH,...A HUNDREDFOLD. (8)

The ‘seed will succeed’. This was Jesus major point.  There is nothing wrong with God’s kingdom or God’s truth; but there can be problems with us, and whether we allow the  ‘seeds’ to take root and grow in us. 

This is the great question about the kingdom.  Whether the kingdom comes or not; whether the kingdom grows or not, or whether the kingdom succeeds or not---has most to do with us and whether we are receptive to allow God’s kingdom into our own hearts and lives. 

The seed of God’s kingdom will grow in the world, if we allow the kingdom to grow in us.  This is the first, and perhaps the most important foundational truth about the kingdom.  The kingdom belongs to God and is about God and about God’s rule in the world, but the great secret and mystery is, that the growth of the kingdom still depends upon us.  For when the soil is right and the conditions are right, the seed will always out do itself.  But for this to happen, we must partner with the sower and with the success that is programed into the DNA of seed to ensure that a bountiful harvest takes place in the world in which we live.  And this partnership begins in our ‘hearts’.  Our hearts is where the seed takes root and grows.  If our hearts are prepared to accept and cultivate the seed of God’s kingdom, it’s success will be limited in us.

Last year when George Floyd was murdered by police in Minnesota,  a great outpouring of justified Protest broke out, not just in Minnesota, but it went around the world.  There is a lot of hurt and pain in the world, and a lot of injustice too, and this clear human rights violation and murder incited feelings that were deep within the hearts of many.  

The question that still remains, is what will come out of all this.  Good, I hope.  Understanding, I hope.  Change, too.   But what does it take for real, lasting change to happen, so that those people who need to change, those systems and laws that need to change, really do change?   What will it take for this ‘new’ reality to break into the old reality of our world?

Interestingly, when you look back at the early church, and the preaching of the kingdom, you have a great picture of what it took for the preaching, mission, and ministry of the church to bring change.   Within 300 years, the Church that was being persecuted and put down, became accepted and appreciated as ‘the religion’ of Rome, which has once attempted to wipe it out.  What changed?  How did this change come?

Clearly, the church didn’t openly protest, or ‘force’ this change.   Now, I’m not saying that today there isn’t any place for protest.  Of course there is.  We live in a free society, and ‘protest’ and ‘civil disobedience’, is part of our democratic process.   But what made the change in Roman society so amazing is that the church had no real power at all; except to influence the human heart; and that’s exactly what happened.  By winning the hearts of people over to the truth, change came that impacted the whole world.

I think this is an important lesson to be remembered still today.  If we want a new reality to come into the world, we have to win hearts and minds, not just change laws and tear down the old ways.  Those old ways have to be changed, not only outwardly, but inwardly too.   If that doesn’t happen, the new ways won’t stick, or they might cause hate to rise up in a way that was never intended.

My point is that if, we want God’s kingdom to come, we must first plant the seeds deep in our own hearts; then we must win the hearts and minds of others to this kingdom.  That’s how the early church impacted the world the first time, and it’s still how God’s kingdom come.   It starts in us, and after having a great harvest within our own hearts, it overflows, often ‘unintentionally’ into the hearts of others, and accomplishes the purpose God has had in mind all along.

What about you?   How in the kingdom way of God growing in you?  You can’t expect it to grow in others, until it is growing within you, impacting your own life in every way.   

This is why the kingdom is a ‘secret’.  It’s not a secret because God keeps is from us, but it’s a secret because, for the kingdom to grow, it must start growing first in the deep, secret corners of our hearts.  For only when grow there, will it succeed elsewhere.    AMEN.