WWUTT 2403 The Father is Pleased to Give You the Kingdom (Luke 12:27-34)

Jesus teaches his disciples on not being anxious, not clinging to the stuff of this world, not being too concerned with those things that are going on around us, but to concern ourselves most with the matters of the kingdom when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Luke 12:27-34 and the Call to Seek the Kingdom

Thank you, Becky. In our study of Luke's gospel, we come back to chapter 12. We've been reading yesterday and today, Jesus teaching to his disciples about how God is gonna give the kingdom to all those who are in Christ.

Therefore, you have no need to be anxious about anything. Let's read again verses 22 to 34. Hear the word of the Lord. And he said to his disciples, Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, how much more will he clothe you?

Oh, you of little faith. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them.

Instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Great lesson here, good reminder for us all, because how many things, dear Christian, are you anxious about today? How many things have you greatly concerned yourself with that consumed your thinking and has even elevated your anxiety level, has made you on edge with other people?

The things that you are most concerned about has now bled into your relationships and other things that you probably should be more concerned about, but even your relationships are being affected by the anxieties that you have over these other things.

And I'm not saying that we shouldn't be thinking about it, we shouldn't be thinking about paying our bills or buying food or how I'm gonna make enough money to buy food and pay my bills, things like that.

Those things we do need to do. We need to be good stewards of those things which God has given to us. If stuff gets way out of hand, if we're starting to live beyond our means, then we need to be responsible enough to recognize that and start cutting some things out of our lives so that we're not stressing ourselves out to live beyond what God has blessed us with.

Live within your means. Very practical, sound advice. And that can even help alleviate a lot of the stresses that you have. But ultimately, we need to keep our eyes focused on Christ. We need to trust in God, knowing that in God, our sins are forgiven.

If we are followers of Jesus Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8 .1. And so knowing that God is not holding anything against us, that takes an immense burden off of us.

You know where you're going to go when you die. Now, remember this section started with that. There was the parable of the rich young fool who was storing up stuff for himself and thought that he had enough that he could just kick back and relax and spend the rest of his life eating and drinking and being merry.

But God said to him, "'Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'. Now, these are things that I do think about sometimes. How have I been investing my time?

Have I been investing my time wisely? And if I have to stand before God just to give an account of today, have I lived my day today in enough of a way that I would be proud of the way that I invested my time?

So we need to be careful with those things. We're wasting all kinds of time staring at a phone or staring at a screen, burning all kinds of time that we should have been using to handle some other things.

So of course those things are great stressors in your life now, because you didn't utilize your time wisely to take care of the things that needed your attention. So we need to manage our time wisely and recognize that our time is short.

And any moment our life could be up and we could be standing before God to give an account. So are we living our days for God? Do we live our days trusting in Christ that our sins are forgiven and we have eternal reward with him?

Titus 3, 7, being justified by his grace, we become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And so how much does that peace govern your life? Romans 5, 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So does that peace, which is kind of an ultimate peace, right? Because knowing we have peace with God, we are friends with God and even his sons and daughters. That's a point that Jesus gets to here in this section as well.

Knowing that, how much peace does that give you in your life that we have surrendered all things to God and can therefore live in such a way pleasing unto him, knowing that he is pleased with us. God takes care of the birds.

We considered that yesterday. You cannot add a single hour to your life by worrying about it. We talked about that yesterday as well. God has already determined man's limits, which he cannot pass. You are given the amount of days that you're gonna live.

So live them unto the Lord. And then also verse 27, consider the lilies how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. We consider that yesterday as well.

God cares for flowers of the field. But you are of much more value than flowers. And God is going to provide for you. Consider this next one, verse 28. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?

Now I do believe that Jesus is being metaphorical here. He's not just literally saying God cares for the grass so he's gonna care for you. Because who is it that Jesus says is going to be bound like grass and thrown into a fiery furnace?

It's the unbelieving, right? The wicked. Those who did not hear the gospel call and turn from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. They are going to be thrown into the fire, which is a reference, of course, to hell.

So God clothes those who will one day even be thrown into destruction. This is a reference to God's common grace in that he does provide for all of creation, even though mankind is fallen and therefore all of creation is fallen since man was given the dominion mandate, God created man to rule over the creation that God had made.

And so since man disobeyed God and sin came into the world and then death comes in as a result of sin, therefore all of creation is under a curse. So God does provide for creation, even trees that man has not gone and cultivated in any way or has taken dominion over, God is still providing for those things, animals that we have not discovered, creatures that live in the very depths of the sea that we cannot get down to anyway, God is providing for all of them.

So we have this common grace that God has over his creation. He is even caring for and providing for those who will one day be destroyed. And if God cares for them, even in the span of time that they have here on this earth, will he not also care for you?

To whom he has given the heavenly kingdom as a fellow heir with Christ. Psalm 92 .7 says, though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. And as Proverbs 16 .4 says, the Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

So God will sustain the wicked for a period of time, but eventually they will perish in judgment. He provides for them. My friend, he is gonna provide for you. So do not be anxious about those things that God has promised he will provide to you.

Oh, you of little faith. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. That's verse 29. For all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them.

Remember going back up to the parable with the fool saying, I'm gonna eat, drink, and be merry. Yeah, you can eat and drink yourself into excess. And then that would be wicked. God's gonna provide you with food and drink.

But if you are doing these things to excess, that is gluttony, that is sin, right? In 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul says, whatever you eat and whatever you drink, do these things unto the glory of God.

So even our regular daily tasks of those things that we need like eating and drinking, we can do that unto God's glory, giving thanks to him because he is the one who has provided these things for us.

You know, of all the theological concepts that I've taught my kids, I can safely say that one that I have been most consistent to teach my children is that every good thing that you receive comes from God.

Do not think that you did this and you're holding onto this good thing that you worked hard for and accomplished and have received it and think to yourself, I'm the one who did this, nobody helped me with this.

It's all provided for you by God. Even those things that you labor hard for and earn, it is by the blessing of God that you received the earnings of your hard labor. So you must give thanks to God. Every time we sit down for a meal, every time we come to the end of our day and we're saying prayers before bed, we are thanking God for those things that he gave us today.

I can at least say I've been consistent on that in teaching my kids. There's various areas where I felt like I've not taught them well. You know, this will come up in church occasionally. Somebody will ask a question and my child answers with something that like a heretical answer.

And I'll be going, oh man, we got to work on that one. But I can say consistently I have taught them that whatever you receive, you give thanks to God. Be thankful to him who has provided us with all good things.

And even those difficult circumstances that we go through, that's a gift from God too. And he gives those things to us to teach us something, to grow us. It may very well be the reason for this situation is so you don't get too attached to this world.

And you would cling all the more to Christ and long all the more for his kingdom. And that's something Jesus is getting at here too. Verse 31, instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you.

Now, of course, as we read this in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew adds another element to this. Matthew 6 .33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, right? And all these things will be added to you.

Luke doesn't feel the need to have to add that extra portion but it is implied, seek his kingdom. Seeking his kingdom automatically means that you are living as a citizen of that kingdom. So you would be seeking after therefore the righteousness of Christ.

If you're seeking the kingdom, then you are clothed in the garments of the kingdom and clothed in Christ's righteousness, which is your only way that you're gonna get into the kingdom. You will therefore do those things that Jesus has instructed us to do.

So each and every day, we as Christians have a call, an exhortation, you might say, to be holy every day. Every day, there are gonna be temptations. You need to wrestle with in your spirit. You need to take captive.

Those thoughts that if you gave into those thoughts would betray Christ. It would be ungodly for you to entertain those things. Take those things captive and make them obedient to Christ. I think I've shared this before, but when I was in high school, a friend of mine and I used to say to one another, we would pass each other in the hall and we had this word that we use with each other and it would be tet cameoc.

So we'd pass each other and go tet cameoc and he'd go tet cameoc, you know. This was our accountability. It was how we kept each other's thoughts in check because tet cameoc was an abbreviation for take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.

Tet cameoc. So we would say that with each other and remember to take those thoughts, make them obedient to Christ so that I'm thinking things, even in my mind and in my heart, I am thinking those things which honor God.

And if we are letting our thoughts and our passions rule us, then we're being governed by sin and our King is not Christ, right? The King in your life, the ruler of your life is therefore the sinful passion that you have and not Christ.

So every day we have to wrestle with those thoughts, take them captive, that we may be in obedience to Christ and long for those things that are of his kingdom. So seeking the kingdom, we are seeking the righteousness of the kingdom as well.

The righteousness that comes from Christ, the king of that kingdom. Fear not little flock, verse 32, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God is not begrudgingly handing us the kingdom.

Well, you really shouldn't have earned this, but here, I guess, have this anyway. That's not God. It is a delight for God to give us those keys to that kingdom that we may enter in, that we may dwell with him forever.

God is inviting us in and he's doing more than that even. He's bringing us in. We by our own nature would not just pick ourselves up and walk into the kingdom. We would try to get there by our own righteousness, which we wouldn't be able to get there by that anyway.

God has clothed us in new garments and has given us the kingdom of God and it is his good pleasure, Jesus says here, to give you the kingdom. God wants us there to dwell with him. And so Jesus goes on to say, sell your possessions and give to the needy.

Now, as I've said previously, we talked about this even on Monday when we were in the parable of the rich fool. There's a lot of this in Luke's gospel, an encouragement to sell what you have, be content with little.

And so there are people that will take these, especially with the way that it's worded in Luke's gospel. There are people that will take this to say, well, if you're gonna be a good Christian, you shouldn't be having all this stuff anyway.

You should sell all your stuff and give it to the poor because that's what Jesus told you to do. This is specific to the disciples because of the calling that he is giving to them, the directive that he's going to give them with regards to the apostolic ministry he is going to send them on.

So they do need to sell their possessions. They are not gonna have like a home base of operations. They're going to be all over the world sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. So sell your possessions and give to the needy.

But it also, but the principle behind it rather needs to be understood by us that we cannot be ruled by our stuff and we cannot cling so much to these things that we are unwilling to help others who are in need.

God has blessed us with everything that we have. Once again, that lesson that I've given my kids, be thankful to God for everything. Everything you receive comes from God. There needs to be an acknowledgement of that.

And if God has given this to you, it may very well be that he's given it to you to bless someone else with it. So be willing to sell what it is that you have, give to those who have little, provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, Jesus says.

He's not telling them to go buy literal money bags, but that they would have a treasure that is laid up in heaven with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

You know, God is gonna provide us with those things that we need, food, shelter, clothing, things of that nature. So having those things is not bad. It's not sin, it's not wicked to have those things.

So Jesus is not saying, well, if God gives you food or if God gives you clothing, then you need to sell that and give it to the poor. That's not what he's saying here. But we would have such a loose grasp of this world that nothing is tying us here.

I mean, nothing's gonna keep you here anyway when it's your time to go, then it's your time to go. But you don't have in your heart this longing to cling to the earth. You have such a loose grasp of the things that are going on here.

And not just the stuff that you possess, but even political happenings, so on and so forth, friendships that you have, relationships. You have such a loose hold on those things that on that day when it's time for you to go, you're ready to let it go and be with the Lord.

There was a song I wrote a number of years ago. The last verse of the song says, when the mission is finished and we hear that trumpet's call, we will leave this world behind us and we will not mind at all.

We will sit down at the table of that glorious heavenly hall and hear the father say, my child, well done. There was another song. Let me bring up another lyric. Rich Mullins, who wrote a song called Elijah and the chorus goes, when I leave, I'm going to go out like Elijah with a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire.

And when I look back on this star, it'll be like a candlelight in Central Park and it won't break my heart to say goodbye. And that's the kind of heart for the kingdom that we need. We are less concerned about the things that are going on here in this world.

Not to say that we don't have any concerns for these things because we need to be sharing the gospel with others that they may join us in this heavenly kingdom. There is a concern for those things, but our hearts, our minds are ultimately for that kingdom that God has promised us where the treasures that we will be given will not fail.

No thief can come in. No moth will destroy. For where your treasure is, verse 34, there will your heart be also. And that's not just talking about material things again. It can be talking about relationships.

It can be talking about philosophies, ideologies, concerns, passions, anything else that belongs to this world that will burn up with this world, leave it all behind. Have a heart and a mind now that long for the kingdom of God.

Colossians 3, one through four. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Heavenly Father, I pray that that would be our prayer. Even what we read there in the scriptures, teach us to seek those things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Help us to set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. When Christ who is our life appears, then we also will appear with him in glory. And we thank you Lord for the promise that is laid up for us in eternity with you.

We pray with the Apostle John, come quickly Lord Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.

Program Sign-Off and Schedule

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.