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Sermon by Josh Rice from Mark 4:26-34.
So by way of introduction, I got a I have a seven-point introduction here. And so if you if you know me.
Well.
This is going to be difficult and I think that that we need to because today's Text is about the kingdom of God and I think the kingdom of God is a phrase that we use a lot that we Very rarely examine what that actually means and what that is.
And so the teachings this morning are Parables about the nature of the kingdom of God now as is always the case with parables. Parables are not Exhaustive studies on every on everything and every attribute of their subject.
They are trying to give us word pictures. And and they're also trying to mask meaning from those who don't understand but the the parables not to give us everything and so what I want to do is we look at the kingdom of God and That's the title of the sermon this morning is I want to look at What it is and then what these parables tell us and then what that what that means for us and what that meant for the?
People hearing so I want to give seven points. Here we go point number one. The kingdom of God is at hand in the time of the Gospels that mean that that means that it's there that it's it's it's coming on the scene and That means that if it was coming on the scene at the time of the Gospels that it was not at hand Before the Gospels so this this the kingdom of God in the way that we understand it Started in the first century.
All right. But and before that we had something else and I think that that was the time of the Patriarchs and the time of the Covenant. We see at the beginning of Mark in chapter 1 Verses 14 and 15 it says now after John had been delivered up into custody Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand and What is the message of the kingdom of God?
Well, Jesus tells us repent and believe in the gospel. That is the order of the king of the kingdom of God. How do you? Swear allegiance to the king of this kingdom you repent and you believe the gospel so point number two and we're rolling quick.
Point number two, the kingdom of God is manifest and Embodied by Jesus. Now, I'm giving you one or two verses for each one of these. Suffice it to say there are myriad verses that can be used for any one of these points.
So what I mean by that is the kingdom of God is not ethereal the kingdom of God is not a spiritual only kingdom that can only be understood by some kind of Vibration or feeling inside of your gut the feet the kingdom of God is embodied by Jesus Christ.
Who is the king of the kingdom and who is flesh and blood? He became flesh and blood and this is critical. Luke 17 Verse 20 and 21 says now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming.
He answered them and said the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Nor will they say look here or there for behold the kingdom of God is in your midst. I Think the church needs to hear that today because many times when we hear the kingdom of God we think oh, yeah.
The kingdom of God that's that's in heaven. That's not what Jesus teaches. Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God is here right now and that he is the kingdom of God. Because if there's no king, there's no kingdom and the king is the federal head and the representation of that whole kingdom.
We should have seen that in 1st Samuel, but we missed that a lot and that's gonna be much of the subject today. Point number three the kingdom of God has Spiritual supremacy. We've seen that already in Mark many times with its power and its mastery over The enemies of the kingdom of God the forces of darkness, but in Matthew 12 28 It says but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you now.
How do we reconcile that the kingdom of God was not coming with signs to be observed? That means that don't let the signs get in the way of the reality of the king. But at the same time the signs show the power of the kingdom of God.
They don't show the kingdom of God. They show the rule and the authority of the kingdom of God because Jesus cast out cast out demons because the kingdom of God is here and That is warlike language, right?
A kingdom does not come into being without defeating the existing kingdom and that gives us a picture of what's going on. Before the first century is that the kingdom of this world is Ruled by a different King and we see that in Mark when when Jesus is tempted.
That Satan is offering the kingdoms of the world to Jesus and that's because Satan was the king of the kingdoms of the world. That's hard for us. And I think that's an under taught thing to understand.
But the kingdom of God was being prepared and then it comes into the forefront and it has spiritual supremacy by taking over and destroying The king that was in rule over the nations. So now there's a new king point number four.
The kingdom of God is not ethereal and ideological. But it has real power first Corinthians 420 for the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power. If there was one message, I wish Christians today.
I'm a bonafide Christians could get it would be that one. We think that power is a bad thing because after all our King died on the cross, right? And in weakness, but what we don't understand it's not the weakness of man that saved people.
It's the weakness of God. First Corinthians tells us that it was God's weakness that we were made strong. But God's weakness is far stronger than the strength of man. So the kingdom of God is not an idea.
The kingdom of God is not long-suffering defeat as Tolkien would write the long defeat. That's not what the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is the long victory not the long defeat because the kingdom of God is not about words.
But it's about power and our King is powerful. Number five the power was inaugurated at the resurrection first Corinthians 1520 but now Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
That means everyone is going to rise up. Some to judgment forever and some to rest that's been prepared for them by their King. We sung of it this morning in the church is one foundation that we have a mystic Communion with those who have already entered rest and they are a cloud of witnesses that in some way are connected to us today.
That the Saints of old are there with us today because God is outside of time and time is given for our benefit. Right, the kingdom of God was inaugurated the power was inaugurated. He has power over death.
First Corinthians 15 is all about that as we enter Easter season it's good to reread first Corinthians 15 and understand how this kingdom operates. It operates off of a victorious King who through his death in weakness Actually rose to the highest strength and highest power that anyone could imagine because death itself is reversed.
Point number six the kingdom of God is not of this world in origin. But the world is his kingdom. It's not of this world. Another one of those misinterpreted passages. Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world.
What he is talking about is my kingdom does not originate in this world. It's not of the same substance this world. But Revelation 11 15 we have to reconcile it says. Then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.
Remember, that's that Old Testament Harmonization. Satan was the king of the nations. Jesus in resurrection inaugurated his power and the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of God. He took it over.
Don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't do anything here because my kingdoms not of this world. His kingdom is this world. He has taken it over he owns it. And point number seven which runs us right into the sermon today the kingdom of God is for God's people and.
In context, this is out of a book that we're going to be looking at a lot today. Daniel 7 verse 27 says. Then the reign the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven. Will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the Dominions will serve and obey him.
Man.
That does not sound like the long defeat. Does it that sounds like the slow inexorable? victorious growth of the kingdom. The people of the saints of the highest one will inherit the entire kingdom. So to have a kingdom there has to be a king there has to be a people.
You can't be a king by yourself with no people. That's some that's like the Unabomber with delusions of grandeur out in the woods, right? You're not a king of anything. Maybe you're a king of yourself but probably not you have to have a people a king has to have laws a king has to have a dominion and this people Has to have cohesion and so we see that Jesus has all of these things.
He has a people that he has bought himself. He has laws that date back to the beginning of mankind. Indeed that date back to the character of God himself. The laws show us his character. He has dominion he has claimed authority and proven his authority by binding the strongman and taking over the world and this people has a Cohesion that is the mystical spiritual union of the people of God in the church and in churches over all the nations.
Bound together. We will worship our King forever. So let's get to the parable of the seeds. The parable of the seeds this is a tough one. This parable is mentioned only in Mark and It gave me fits this week.
I don't mind saying it's it's a difficult one. So here's what I want to do. I want to read it because I think the key to understanding this parable Is to read it slowly and look around and look at what's going on in this passage so here it is verse 26 and he was saying the kingdom of God is like a man who cast seed upon the soil and He sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows.
How? He himself does not know the soil produces crops by itself first the blade. Then the head then the mature grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.
The first key I think to unlocking this parable is to pray to the Holy Spirit to unlock this parable for you. There's some things that are fairly obvious about it but I think what's not obvious is That Jesus has an urgency here and there's both an individual and corporate and I think and I will admit to you one of the biggest Difficulties I had in interpreting this week was the American context because no matter what you do We are we are born in this country and we hold the cultural ideals of this country and one of them is rugged.
Individualism and one of the problems you run into is we take a passage like this and we know Mark is the evangelist, right? He's going around with Paul. He's writing this gospel and he is always an evangelist by bent and by nature.
And so when we read this what happens is we start to make this individual and we start to think okay. So Christian maturity and growth there's a seed singular, right? That seed is sown in the soil of your heart like we learned last week and as it grows there's stages of it, right?
It comes up. There's a blade. That's that's maybe you know seven year old me when I accepted Christ. There's a blade that starts to come up and then ten years later I don't know what happened like the Lord was growing me and now there's a there's a head of grain and then maybe 15 years lady.
Maybe there's some fruit coming off of that and we start to think how did that happen? And that's true. This kind of works that way. But I think the key to this is in understanding this parable is that it works in two directions.
But it mostly works in a corporate direction and I slapped my head as I was trying to recount it To Kelsey last night. One of the things that he slapped your head about is this parables about the kingdom of God the kingdom of God is corporate.
The kingdom of God is big and it's of the nations. And so when he says seed he's playing a game there that I think works both ways. But I also think looks back to the Old Testament and looks back to the start of the kingdom of God.
Which is the seed of Eve the seed of Eve is Jesus Christ. Who's the king who crushes the serpent and establishes the kingdom of God and when he lays the seed? No one plants one grain seed. No one does that.
Okay, because that's ridiculous. You're gonna get like five little grains off of there and that's not gonna help you at all. And it's not breaking the Sabbath to eat it as we learned before. Okay, so you plant this grain and then no one's gonna take a sickle to this one stalk of grain.
You're gonna just pick the top of it off. But what we do in our American dummy head thing is we look at these go. This is about me. The kingdom of God is about me. It's about my Christian maturity, and I don't understand how I grow the Holy Spirit is giving me growth and maturity.
And it's like Wow dummy. It's actually about the kingdom of God. He said the kingdom of God is like a man and immediately I'm the man, right? No, no, who is the man? This is the people who are going out and sowing the seed the seed is the gospel.
So the kingdom of God.
Grows.
Even when its workers are sleeping even when its workers might not be about the task. Understand this one of the main points of the parable of seeds is that while you have a role to play in the kingdom of God the growth of the kingdom of God depends on you in no way whatsoever.
It depends on no one local church understand that the kingdom of God and its harvest is sure and its time is appointed and Night and day the kingdom of God is growing. Night and day no matter what the Saints are doing.
God is growing his kingdom because the soil is something that we don't control you see that He doesn't know we don't we don't control the soil. We can't change it. It is what it is. The human heart is controlled by God the soil produces the crops and the kingdom of God is growing in stages.
It's stages and it's up and down and sometimes because we view the Bible Completely in our own cultural context and we think man, we're in a really bad time right now, but maybe it's getting a little bit better.
No, what what's happened is the kingdom of God started with a seed Jesus Christ. It started with 12 disciples one of whom betrayed him. That's a pretty high percentage of the kingdom of God right one out of twelve betrays him.
Most of the people he's talking to have no idea what he's talking about. They're swayed by the power structure. So the power structure decides Jesus is a threat. They kill him it looks like the kingdom of God's dead and then three days later the kingdom of God rises in power and is Established in its power and then from that point on the kingdom of God's growth has been almost imperceptible and we have the Middle Ages and we have the Church Fathers and we have the Enlightenment and we have Modernism and we have post-modernism and we start to think and we wring our hands together.
We're like, oh man back when I was a kid 50 years ago. We were in the Bible Belt and this was awesome. What happened what happened and the answer is we don't know we rise and we sleep in the kingdom of God grows.
Because God is growing it. There's a progression to this in the individual. It does work for us. There is an individual maturing and sanctifying and this happens almost imperceptibly, too. You know this if you look back five years.
There's probably been a lot of spiritual maturity and growth that's happened and it's been imperceptible. How does it happen when you sleep you get sanctified? Did you know that when you rise you are sanctified?
Even in the midst of us falling apart into sins that grapple with us and that enslave us. We are being sanctified. That doesn't mean that we embrace sin. But it does mean that the way out is Given to us because the way out is God himself with his Holy Spirit who sanctifies his people and never leaves us.
We're never taken from his hand, but it also works in the church. The church matures the church sanctifies or the church is condemned. The church matures and it sanctifies or it's condemned and there's timing when we read Revelation the very beginning of Revelation we have these churches, right?
No one knows of these churches today, they're gone. Right their lampstand was taken away all of them. Turkey is a wasteland today. And it's where the strongest churches in the world were in the first century.
Do we think Christendom's dead because turkeys? Decayed no, no one thinks that right because there's more Christians today by by exponential factors than there were in those times and so God takes away lampstands and churches mature and they grow and then they die and More churches come because the glory of God and the growth of his kingdom is not dependent on churches.
You need to hear that. We understand and we think in our gospel centered movement. You will hear it for the last ten years. It's all about the church. Every problem in the country is because of the church.
Judgment starts in the house of the Lord. While judgment does start in the house of the Lord the problems our nation are not primarily the fault of the church. They are the harvesting in the season. God is growing his kingdom and his purposes with America are his own Purposes and his purposes with this church are his own purposes.
Does that absolve us of work? No way, that's not the point of the parable. The point of the parable is this rest assured Christian the kingdom of God will grow. It will continue to grow it has always grown and it's grown in ways that we can't imagine.
It's amazing to see it and then he says the thing that gave me fits, but it starts to become more clear when you understand this he says Immediately when the grain is ripe. So if it's individually this falls apart, right?
When the grain is ripe, that means I'm fruitful right? Whack. You're dead off to heaven. No, I don't this is where we have to understand the kingdom of God the kingdom of God is there is a time when you sow the grain as a farmer when you sow the grain, you know.
That there's a time of harvest. This time is predictable and this is where God controls the time. And so God knows as the harvest he knows when it's going to come in and guess what? When the full maturity of the kingdom of God comes in Immediately he's gonna bring the sickle and the sickle is a scary thing if you're not a mature grain because here's what happens.
The mature grain is cut off and it's brought into the barn and you have a big feast, right? But that that's not the grain the stalks and the chaff and the tears. They're burned in judgment and that's where we get to what Jesus quotes.
This quote Immediately puts in the sickle. This is comes from a very scary passage indeed, which is out of Joel 3 I'm gonna read in its entirety verses 12 through 16. Let the nations be roused up and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Here it is send in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come tread for the wine press is full. Now, let me ask you that sounds great, right? This is gonna be good.
It's a harvest. But what are the wine vats full of? Yeah, here we go. The vats overflow for their evil is great multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision the sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness and Yahweh roars from Zion and gives forth his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earthquake.
But Yahweh is a refuge for his people and a strong defense to the sons of Israel. So understand this the kingdom of God is growing. It's growing by God's power. There's a time set for the maturity of the kingdom of God on earth.
And when that time is set and when that time comes and it does not matter your eschatological position here. It doesn't matter at all. What we all agree is Orthodox Christians is this thing that there is a time When the judgment books it's time for them to open and when it's time to open the sickle is immediately gonna be laid to the head of the grain and it's gonna thrash and it's gonna cut and when it cuts there's a Valley of decision and the world ends.
That's what that language in Joel means. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their Brightness. What that means is the kingdoms of this nation are snuffed out. They're gone when you come across that in Revelation when you come across that in all of it in Matthew 24.
What you have to understand is that is prophetic language that comes from Joel that comes from other minor prophets. That's talking about nations being turned off. They're gone. That's what it means because in the old world what they believed was that the celestial bodies were the kings of these nations.
They were the gods and so the prophets say when when the Sun's out that means your king is gone. That means like the god of that nation has been turned off. It's over a little bit of helpful reading on some of these passages because what we think in our Modern was that that the moon's literally gonna go off.
That's not what these are saying. What that's saying is that these nations are gonna come to their harvest and if they are tears. They're gonna be burned up. But we get a promise in the midst of the wrath and Joel 3 and that is that Yahweh defends the sons of Israel.
So we have to ask who are the sons of Israel? The sons of Israel are God's people. God's people and God's people have always been if you don't believe me read Romans to read Romans 9 10 11. God's people have always been decided by faith by faith.
So who are the sons of Israel? Those are those who have faith in Christ. Those are the people who swear allegiance and loyalty to the king and they are gonna be spared from condemnation. But everyone else will have condemnation and it will happen immediately and understand understand.
There's a dual meaning here and this would get me in a lot of trouble even in our country right now. But you can't miss it. Understand what's going on with the scribes understand where we're at in Mark.
Jesus is giving a warning in this parable to the people that listen that the time is very close for Israel. The time is very close. John said that the axe is laid to the root of the tree. Does that not sound very familiar to the sickle is laid there that it's going to come in and so Jesus is warning his own people.
The harvest is coming for you. This age is almost over and if you are not with me. You're gonna be chopped off and you're gonna be gone if you don't believe me. We're about to get much more of that in the next passage here.
So let's move on to the parable the mustard seed which is much easier to understand in principle. But it's actually much more difficult when you look into his quotation of Daniel, which is difficult. So let's read it as he was saying.
How shall we compare the kingdom of God or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed which when sown upon the soil though. It is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil.
Yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the largest of all garden plants and forms large Branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. So first of all understand that the mustard seed was proverbial in this time, okay proverbial.
It doesn't mean that's literally the smallest seed and it doesn't mean that a mustard tree is literally the biggest plant. Okay, the mustard seed what grew into a bush that could have like a four-inch trunk on it.
They could have birds in it, but it's like saying your mom is as big as a house. That doesn't mean that your mom is literally the biggest person ever and it doesn't mean that a house is literally the biggest thing you Can think of all right, so then you can one-up and say well your mom is bigger than the Empire State Building.
Okay. Well your mom is bigger than the Milky Way. All right, all that kind of stuff. So understand what Jesus is saying. This is a common colloquialism of the time that they would have understood that he's making a point that from something very tiny Comes something very large and impressive.
That's the idea and as we look at it It really holds right the kingdom of God. Remember what is the kingdom of God? It has to have a king and the kingdom of God is in the midst right now because it's embodied in Jesus Christ.
So understand that there is a humility and weakness in the beginning of the kingdom of God. Is there not? How did the kingdom of God come on the scene well a blue-collar no-account bunch a Virgin who was pregnant and would have been a social outcast was protected by her betrothed because of angelic.
Interposition.
Basically results in a lowly birth in a stable in an occupied nation. That is the beginning of the kingdom of God born in a barn in a country That's occupied by someone else by two greater powers than your own people the Herodians and the Romans.
The king doesn't even have a kingdom. It's ruled by others. How does it grow up? Well as a blade the kingdom of God grows up as a blue-collar Carpenter in the in the northern country of Israel in a place where later the Pharisees would say what's ever come from Nazareth?
Right, that's a that's a slam. That would be like saying I never met anybody worth anything from Lincoln and that proverb would be mostly true. Right, but you could find somebody somewhere Josh shakes his head.
Yeah. Yeah. Had to do it so understand that that they totally missed the point Jesus came on the scene and What happened is as he grew and he started teaching with authority? Then people were surprised because this came out of nowhere and What people what happened is as he started doing signs and wonders that they started mistaking signs for the king.
Right and they missed the message because what they thought was gonna happen and we'll see that very clearly in a couple weeks. What they started to think was going to happen was that Jesus was going to overthrow Rome and become the king of Israel and that he was the Messiah and what the Messiah means is Jesus is gonna be our king and we're gonna throw off all these guys and Israel is gonna be great again.
Just like it was with David. That's the idea. That's what they think and so they miss it. And so at a carnal glance judging with the eyes of the world the seed of Eve looks quite unimpressive. Does it not?
He's walking around without a pillow to lay his head on as he would say. Right going from town to town being run out by the religious elites having no real power to speak of but the crowds follow and It looks quite unimpressive.
It reminded me and I have to read it first Corinthians. We've been there a lot this morning and we'll go there a lot more in short order. First Corinthians 1 verses 27 through 31 some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible.
I quote them often it says. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and The despised God has chosen the things that are not so that he may abolish the things that are.
So that no flesh may boast before God but by doing by his doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and Righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that just as is written.
Let him who boasts boast in the Lord. Understand this today Christian that humility and weakness in no way. Characterize the maturity of the kingdom of God. Do you get that the humility and weakness? Was for a purpose and that humility and weakness is because Jesus was the great sacrifice but now Jesus is also the great high priest who intercedes for us and Jesus does not come in humility and weakness anymore because he has become greater than any other name.
Right every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord and why will they do that? Because he lowered himself into the form of a man and died on the cross and because of that he has achieved great victory.
And so today we do not characterize the kingdom of God as being one of weakness and humility. We characterize the kingdom of God as being the mustard seed that has grown into the largest plant in the garden and whose birds take shelter in its limbs.
Now.
When you see what he's doing here you see in your Bible, that's probably in all capitals, right? The birds of the air can nest under its shade. That is a quotation. That is a quotation from Daniel 4 and it's very interesting because what what Jesus is quoting there Jesus is quoting the words of Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar the king who brought Israel into captivity the king who tried to Completely oppress Israel and wipe them out by taking their young men and trying to retrain them, right? That's what Nebuchadnezzar was doing.
He was an enemy of God but God in his sovereign power grew Nebuchadnezzar great and he grew him so great That Nebuchadnezzar was looking out over his kingdom one day. I was thinking Everything I can see is mine.
I am unparalleled. I am the greatest thing that's ever happened to any of us. That's the words of Nebuchadnezzar and then Nebuchadnezzar has a dream in this dream. It really messes with him because this dream comes to fruition.
I'm gonna read his entirety. We need to hear it and this is gonna be a lot of teaching here. Okay, the kingdom of God. It's growing from humble beginnings, but it's eventually going to be a greater kingship than Nebuchadnezzar's and that's important.
So Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 4 verse 10 now, these were the visions in my head as I lay on my bed. I was looking and behold there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great. The tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant and in it was food for all the beasts of the field found shade under it and The birds of the sky inhabited its branches and all flesh fed itself from it.
I was looking in the visions in my head as I lay on my bed and behold a watcher a holy one Descended from heaven. He called out loudly and said thus Chop down the tree and cut off its branches strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit.
Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches yet leave the stump with its roots in the earth but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field let him be drenched with the dew of Heaven and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.
These are the words of Nebuchadnezzar. The greatest King are Jesus quotes them. So so a few things here that you can miss. True the kingdom of God is one that grows from a small mustard seed into a tree.
That.
Has all the birds sitting in it that it gives fruit to the whole garden. It is the biggest tree in the garden. But what we have to understand is that when Jesus is quoting this the mustard tree is him.
The king is the tree in John 15. He tells us that he is the vine. The branches come off the vine, but Jesus is the vine. Paul would tell us that Jesus is the tree. He's the olive tree and all of the branches.
Come on to the olive tree. The branch is dead if it's not on the tree. It has to be grafted onto the tree. So, what do we understand in this parable from this quotation of Daniel number one? We have to understand that Jesus is the king and he is the tree and Nebuchadnezzar was a tree who fed all the people of the earth and if you read through Daniel you remember that there's four kingdoms.
Right and Nebuchadnezzar represents the golden head. He is the king of all the kings of the earth. There was no king greater than Nebuchadnezzar because Nebuchadnezzar was above the law. Do you understand that?
No law was binding Nebuchadnezzar. He was like a god in that way that Nebuchadnezzar could make up his own law anytime he wanted and he was not accountable for it. He could kill someone at a whim. He could take any woman he wanted.
He could take anyone's property that he wanted and there would be no repercussions. Whatsoever because Nebuchadnezzar was unbound by the law. He was Rex Lex king over law. That's him. And that's why he's depicted as the golden head, right pure gold beautiful a King like no other there would never be another king like him except one and that's why Jesus is quoting this.
Because at the end of the day, you'll see that Nebuchadnezzar he became like a beast in the field. The history was chopped down. Right and its fruit was scattered everywhere and Nebuchadnezzar sent spent seven years wandering around like a madman in the fields.
This great king over all the earth needed to be taught a very important lesson that even in the time before the kingdom of God was Here that Nebuchadnezzar was a pawn in the game. The greatest king of the earth is a pawn Under the king of Kings who created the earth because as much glory as Nebuchadnezzar for a mass could amass for himself.
He didn't create the world. He was merely a king over the world and although he was great. There was one greater and as you see the picture in Daniel play out. He's the golden head and then there's lesser Kings after him with the Persians and then there's lesser Kings after him with the Greeks.
And then there's lesser Kings after him that are in the time of Mark the Roman Empire. And what happens is Daniel says there's a small stone that looks like it was not cut from human hands. It's a supernatural stone.
What does it mean to say a stone not cut by human hands? That means humans couldn't cut this stone it's supernatural and this stone gets hurled and it cracks this statue and Then it gets planted into the ground and this stone starts growing until it's a mountain that covers the whole world.
That's what the kingdom of God is like in Matthew 13. Jesus in explaining this parable gives us one verse and he says the kingdom of God is leaven. That's put into 48 pounds of flour. And you guys ever baked with 48 pounds of flour.
I know we got some bakers in here. That's a lot of flour. Okay, you're gonna have to have a big old mixer for that one. But what Jesus is saying is when you put a little bit of leaven into that 48 pounds of flour.
It's not like there's pieces of the flour that have leaven and some don't but imperceptibly quiet over time that that whole 48 pounds becomes leavened. That's the kingdom of God. That's the kingdom of God and there's great hope in Jesus quoting Nebuchadnezzar.
But there's also great judgment because the reminder is this you Israel have set yourself up a certain way and the sickle is laid here. But also the tree got chopped down and they're gonna try to chop this tree down.
Do you understand what they're doing. The people in Jesus time are gonna try to cut down this tree? But just like in Nebuchadnezzar's time that tree grew back up didn't it. Nebuchadnezzar was given his kingdom again and Nebuchadnezzar praised the name of the one true God and I think I believe others don't but I believe that we will see Nebuchadnezzar in glory.
I think that he understood who the king of Kings was and that he was humbled and so his tree was restored to be a Picture of this tree and this tree is still growing today. There's words of judgment in it for Israel who would try to cut down this tree.
They hated Nebuchadnezzar. They loved it when that tree got chopped down, but they also hate this tree in This tree there's promises associated these words that he quotes are also echoes in Ezekiel in two places.
Ezekiel 17 thus says the Lord Yahweh I will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and set it out. I will pluck from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one and I will plant it on an exalted and lofty Mountain on the high mountain of Israel.
I will plant it that it may lift up boughs and yield fruit and become a majestic cedar and The birds of every kind will dwell under it. They will dwell in the shade of its branches and all the trees of the field will know that I am Yahweh.
I bring down the exalted tree exalt the low tree dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am Yahweh. I have spoken and I will do it. There's something much greater than just the mustard seed going on Jesus quoting this because there was promises tied up in the Old Testament with Daniel and Ezekiel and what what Jesus is saying here Is understand the tree that has the birds.
This is the kingdom of God. They knew this. And so what he's also saying is there was a promise in Ezekiel. What's gonna happen? He's gonna take a small little sprig from a dried-up tree and he's gonna plant this dead thing on A mountaintop and it's gonna grow and it's gonna host all the birds of the field.
Do you understand what he's saying there? Jesus is the dry twig. He is going to unite the people and he's gonna be planted on a high place. What's that high place?
Calvary and.
He's going to die but from that death is going to come the growth of a beautiful tree and everything that looks green and fruitful to The people of his day is going to wither up and die. And then this small little dried-up twig it's gonna grow up and it's gonna be the biggest tree that the only thing anybody can see and They're all gonna bow down.
And then in Ezekiel 37, which is explicitly a new a new covenant passage Jesus promises to unite Israel no more split kingdom and he also says that there will be no more defilements. That's what Ezekiel's message is.
That Judah was the lofty cedar tree that was torn down by the king of Babylon. But even out of that teardown comes this promise that Daniel makes right in Daniel 7 that he says there is going to be one who gives all of the Kingdom to the people through the sons of Israel.
This is the promise that's going on the kingdom of God in short will grow into a majestic tree that shelters and provides habitation for everyone and it's all that anyone's gonna see. And then he ends with a warning in Mark 4 33 through 34 and With many such parables he was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear it and he was not speaking to them Without a parable, but he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples.
We saw last week they could hear but many could not understand and so it is anytime the Word of God is preached. It is foolishness. To those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the wisdom of God.
Many can hear the people and understand understand this if you have the Holy Spirit in you. Then we have no excuse we have to understand these teachings and we have to act accordingly. We have to act accordingly when we understand we have to dive deeper.
And we have to seek wisdom as the great treasure that it is. That's another parable that the kingdom of God is a treasure chest. Buried in a field and that what you know is when you see when you know that that treasure chest is in the field.
You're gonna spend your life savings to buy that field that's what we do is we spend our life to be able to get the great treasure and Understand that does that's not some weird Pietistic message. Okay.
It's not it's not about spending your whole life to Have quiet time at all times. There's action in the kingdom of God. This is not a Jesus Jew thing. If you don't know a Jesus Jew thing is I'm gonna I'm gonna break the glass for you.
That's like saying you desire peace with Ukraine. Why would you want to do that? Jesus is the Prince of Peace and seeking peace is a fool's errand until you know Jesus that look there's truth in it. Understand this.
I think what we understand about the kingdom of God is that we think that the way that we are productive members of the kingdom of God is by devoting our whole life to church stuff and Reading scripture and while it's certainly no less than that.
It's much more than that. James gives us the word, right? Blessed are those who hear the word and then do it. I think too often what we decide is that Christianity and maturity in Christ is Understanding a bunch of theological propositions and ascribing to them.
Yes, I'm a mature Christian because I believe all these doctrines. But that's not how the kingdom of God grows. The kingdom of God Grows through his people taking risks and Jesus is explaining these things to his disciples and we have to look what did his disciples do?
When they were explained the parables. What they started to understand was first they had hope right if you understand that the kingdom of God is going to grow by God's grace and through God's power then that emboldens us to take risks and to do the things that we should do.
Understanding that victory is sure. When a man understands that he's going to win no matter what. Then the game and the struggle itself has a hope to it and you'll keep fighting because you know, you're gonna win.
We've seen the end of the story and so too often. I think we act like we're gonna lose. I've even heard great men of God say it we lose down here. That's not that's not what the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is winning.
Right, that doesn't mean that you're gonna be rich and healthy and wealthy. What it does mean is that you're gonna spend your life and you're gonna push and you're gonna press on and Your work is gonna be fruitful because it's God's work and at the end of the day his kingdom is going to win.
If Jesus is really the king of everything doesn't that change the way we have to act? I think so I think it means that our will and our ways are put under and subjected to his will and his ways. We do the things that he wants us to do we follow his law.
So we have to operate according to the Kings demands and we do that with everything we build we fight we disciple. We encourage we exhort we rebuke we repent we preach we study we laugh and everything and we do this as though we are Forgiven we do this as though we are free and we do this as though we will inherit the kingdom of our father.
We're gonna inherit everything. Do you know that Christian? Why are you so sad? Don't be sad we have pains and struggles here, but we've been promised that we're gonna enter rest and That rest is not gonna be that we lay around and get bored.
That rest is gonna be like we're gonna work like we've never worked before with no toil and sweat of our brow. But endless bountiful joy in work and we're gonna sit at the table of our King so we should act like it if God has indeed saved us if God has indeed given us an inheritance if God has indeed achieved a Victory then that means we work with hope and we work with positivity and I think that we have fun.
It's fun to be on the Lord's side. It's joy to be on the Lord's side. Because you know as I as I tell my friends all the time my fun in playing games is winning. That's what's fun when I play a game. I have fun if I win and it's much less fun if I don't win.
All right, so it is being a Christian right winning is assured so we can have fun in the midst of trials. How do Christians survive trials? We know we know that at the end of the day that God has got us and he's with us and he's for us.
And if he is for us who can be against us. That's what the kingdom of God's like. It's a joyful thing. It's a great thing. Let's pray Lord Jesus. Thank you for your promises. We thank you that The Lord we we are not thrown out here to try to make up a way by our own devices and our own wisdom.
But instead Lord you have established a kingdom and your kingdom has commands and laws. But also your kingdom has the grace of growing outside of us or that we are not responsible for the growth. We're responsible for loving you Lord and you have given us the way to love you.
You have given us your Holy Spirit Lord, you've given us regenerate hearts. You've given us revelation through Scripture. You've given us friends. You've given us family. You've given us a church Lord, you've given us a nation here things that many people don't have.
Lord, I pray that we would be a joyous people that we would that we would be a people who even when we struggle even if we suffer that we can say like Job did Before that though you slay me. I will still praise you Lord the world doesn't understand that but we understand that we praise you because you hold our ultimate destiny and you have given us promises Lord that your tree grows.
That your mountain covers the whole earth and though we may be in an early stage of it. Lord. The tree is growing inexorably, we don't understand how it happens, but it keeps happening and so Lord We praise you as the as the grower of the kingdom as the king of men's hearts and Lord, we pray that that harvest would be bountiful in our area.
We pray that we would spread that seed that we would preach the gospel of the king and that many would repent. But Lord that we would not be discouraged in the way understanding that you hold men's hearts and so we trust you and We pray that you would grow your kingdom and Continue to grow it and Lord that we might have the joy and the privilege of being a small part of that Lord not as thinkers and planners, but as instruments in your hand as broken vessels who have no appearance of glory for us.
But who contain this message that is full of your glory or the glory of your son the glory of salvation. We pray these things in your holy name. Amen.