In My Father’s Kingdom

 Matthew 26: 14-30

Charles J. Tomlin, March 28th, 2021,

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Kingdom of God Series, 13 of 14

 

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

 ¹⁵ and said, "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver.

 ¹⁶ And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

 ¹⁷ On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

 ¹⁸ He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'"

 ¹⁹ So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

 ²⁰ When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve;

 ²¹ and while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me."

 ²² And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, "Surely not I, Lord?"

 ²³ He answered, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.

 ²⁴ The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born."

 ²⁵ Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" He replied, "You have said so."

 ²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

 ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you;

 ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

 ²⁹ I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

 ³⁰ When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

(Matt. 26:14-30 NRS)

 

We began this series of messages about the Kingdom with Jesus’ boldly proclaiming: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 ESV).   As we come to Matthew 26, we are nearing the end when Jesus’ shares his final Passover Meal with his disciples. 

There’s great drama playing out around the Lord’s table, but the most important is drama is still to come.   That’s what Jesus is focusing on at the close of the meal, as he picks up his cup to announce that his ‘blood of the (new) covenant is about to be poured out for the forgiveness of sins.”  

We are all familiar with these words a part of the communion ceremony.   But it is the last part that is not so familiar to us where Jesus concludes with this promise, “I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 

At first glance, Jesus seems to be postponing the ‘kingdom’ until sometime in the distant future, doesn’t it?   Since Jesus taught us to pray, ‘thy kingdom come’ and he told Pontius Pilate,  “My Kingdom is not of this world”,  most people assume that the God’s kingdom is still far, far, away.   The kingdom rule of God may have come close during Jesus’ life and ministry, but now it’s long gone, at least until the day when Jesus returns to rule in the last day.   But when Jesus names the kingdom his ‘father’s kingdom’ it maybe a kingdom that is closer than we think. 

 

MY TIME IS NEAR (18)

When I was in elementary school at Harmony, we had a sweet lady who came to the school every year, especially at Christmas time, to teach us music.  “Miss Joy”.  What a wonderful name for a music teacher, don’t you think?

One of those wonderful songs we used to sing with her, which everyone always sang the loudest was “Joy To the World”.   We thought is was Mrs. Joy’s song:“Joy, to the world, the Lord, has come, let earth receive her king.  Let Every heart, prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing...”

We love to sing that song at Christmas, but I’ve heard it sung at other times too. It’s much bigger than a Christmas song.  It’s a standing invitation, especially when it says, ‘the Lord has come, let earth receive her king’?   The next verse is even more direct: “Joy to the World, the Savior reigns, Let men their songs employ...’   Then, comes the last verse stating in the strongest terms, what is happening now, not later: “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.”  

A pastor went to a Christian school to help a friend’s widow choose where to send her four young children.  While they were touring that large school, the principal showed them the auditorium where the school choir were, in fact, rehearsing this song, ‘Joy to the World’ in preparation for the upcoming Christmas concert.  At the conclusion of the song, the choir director instructed the children that Joy to the World really didn’t apply for today.   She said, this is a “millennial hymn” looking toward to the future because “Jesus doesn’t yet reign today.”  

That’s how I’ve often understood the coming kingdom too, haven’t you?  God’s rule on earth is ‘not yet’.  It’s still coming, but it’s not happening right now.   Of course, there’s a partial truth here, Christ doesn’t yet rule in every heart, but I think Issac Watts saw something else.   I think he was teaching us to also sing about Christ’s kingdom that is close to us, right now.   Isn’t this what was implying when he sent his disciples to get a room for the Passover:  “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.' (Matt. 26:18 NRS).   As we know, this ‘time’ isn’t just Jesus death, because Jesus also was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, and now, as Scripture says,  he ‘sits down’ at God’s right hand?’    It was part of this time that Paul meant when he wrote: ‘God has given him the name that is above every name, that at the feet of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11).   

 

 

 

THEN HE TOOK THE CUP... (27)

What is challenging is to bow and bend before this one God has crowned now, because God has made Jesus the Christ, Messiah, and King, Jesus rules the world very differently than other Kings, Rulers and Presidents still do.   Remember, just a few days before this Passover Meal, Jesus rode into town on a donkey, a very ironic, strange and humble way of declaring Jesus the King.   On the cross too, Pilate put those iconic and ironic words over his head, “This is the King of Jews”.    Strangely enough, Pilate was rightly declaring  a dying, crucified, and suffering Jesus a different kind of King.   Jesus is crowned on the cross and rules the world already, but he doesn’t rule like other have ruled, because Jesus rules the world as God rules the world.  

            This is why it was the father’s will for Jesus to ‘take’ this cup?   This was his Father’s kingdom.  All the other kings and kingdoms came and went, but of this Kingdom and of this king, there is no end.   It is already a kingdom through which God rules in Jesus through the cross.  On the cross Jesus establishes the Father’s Kingdom as because he dies for our sins and for the sins of the whole world.

Maybe this is why people keep missing how the kingdom that is already here, among us right now.    People miss the kingdom because it comes through the cross, when we confess our sins, receive God’s forgiveness, and then we ‘take up our cross’ and follow our king who rules our lives through a cross.   Jesus reminded his disciples very plainly, that they would also have to be ‘baptized’ with the ‘cup’ he was going to be ‘baptized with’.   The cross is how the Father establishes his rule in this sinful world.

 In you recall, in the gospels, when Peter rebuked Jesus about his cross, Jesus turned and called him Satan.  And when we see the kingdom of God as any other way than the way than to share Christ’s cross of suffering love, we are in danger of becoming Satan too.   This is because when we refuse ‘the way of the cross’, God can’t rule in our hearts.  Remember, the word ‘Satan’ means ‘adversary’ ---to stand opposite to the way of the cross—is to refuse to live way God’s loving, suffering love comes into our world.  

For me, the clearest way to see that the how the Father’s kingdom is here, realized in Jesus, is when we too live in cross-like ways like those in the Sermon on the Mount,---not holding on to anger, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, not seeking vengeance or making senseless vows, but by loving others as ourselves, even loving our enemies.   We seek first the and find the kingdom, when we seek righteousness, now.   This is how Jesus rules our lives from heaven.  Even in this sinful world, when we make Jesus our Lord, the Father’s Kingdom comes to us, now, when Christ rules in us on, earth, as Christ rules in heaven.

 

I WILL DRINK IT NEW (29)          

But now, one more thing about ‘the father’s kingdom.  Think once more about how the choir director at the Christian School felt the need to tell those students that the Christmas Carol, ‘Joy to the World’ is something only about the future.    What she missed is that the Father’s Kingdom rule has started already, on the cross with a crown of thorns and it comes to near to us when we take up our cross daily.  

But she was right about this: there is still something else.   Listen to Jesus closely.  He isn’t just speaking spiritually, when he told his disciples:  “I will drink it new with you’.  That points to a renewed, very physical kingdom, doesn’t it?   The New Testament doesn’t simply speak of people simply having immortal souls, but Jesus was raised from the grave with a renewed physical body too.   Everything in this Bible,  points to some kind of coming, eternal kingdom that is previewed both on the cross and in Christ’s resurrection.  Through our lives in Jesus and dying in Jesus, seeds being planted for a harvest of hope that is yet to be revealed.

One day, Jesus tells his disciples, which includes us, we will take the ‘cup’ together and drink of the ‘fruit of the vine’ in God’s new world.   And this cup, will be pure love, without the suffering, without the sin, and without the struggle because the kingdom of this world, will once and for all, become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, forever and ever.   As Scripture says, ‘Eye hasn’t yet seen, nor has ear heard, nor has never even entered into human imaginations., what God has in store.’   So, if you think you can explain it, figure it out, or even read everything about it in the Bible, you’ve not understood just how great and glorious, this new, eternal reality will be.  As John says: ‘it has not yet appeared what we shall be.  But we know, when Christ will appear.  We shall be like him.   We will see him, just as he is.’

So, the choir director was wrong about God’s kingdom not yet being here now. Jesus is already crowned King in the Father’s Kingdom and rules with  truth and grace.  She was right, however about hope for the future.   But what we remember again today, as we share the table with our King, is that this joy comes through the cross before it can be realized beyond the cross.   As the song says, only ‘The way of the cross’ leads home’.  Amen.