Celebrate and Party!

I love the thought that we've have been invited to the marriage of heaven and earth.  This is the meaning of the biblical phrase, "new heavens and new earth."  And, we are not just to be observers, but participants!  Revelation depicts this with Jesus as the groom with the church as his bride.  However, you envision this, we are to be part of the greatest celebration that's ever occurred.  In fact, the celebration has already begun.  When Jesus walked out of the tomb a new era began.  Old things are past away, "I am making everything new!" (Rev. 21:5). 

I loved the depiction of the king in today's parable.  The ruler of all pleading with people to come enjoy his bounty.  The supreme ruler refusing to be offended by those who deserved to be punished.  The royal lord and master welcoming all to his table of blessing without taking into account their past or their mistakes.  Only a fool would refuse such a gracious invitation from such a loving host.

That's Not Fair!

One way to know if you've really understood a parable of Jesus is to check your reaction.  Here are some reactions that demonstrate you probably did NOT get his point:

• You think to yourself, "this really applies well for  (name of someone besides yourself)"
• You think the point is being able to explain the meaning and U.S. currency equivalents for denarii, talents and minas. 
• You allegorize the details so that every character, event, animal, and object has a direct parallel.

One way to know that you have indeed gotten the point is to proclaim, "God have mercy on me a sinner."  Jesus' parables have a way to pointing out our flaws in such a subtle way that his point may not hit you right away.  Sometimes the parable has to roll around inside your head for awhile and then, when you least expect it, it hits you right between the eyes. 

The parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16) is like that.  I can relate to the men who worked 12 hours and were upset that those who barely broke a sweat got paid that same wage.  Surely this would have potential to be a class action lawsuit.  When I think of my own hard work in the kingdom of God, do the years and years of effort, study, sacrifice, and self-denial not pay off in some BIG way?  After years of resisting temptation and willingly suffering abuse and ridicule for my faith, do I now have to share my crown of glory with a sexual pervert and mass murderer who comes to Christ in the 11th hour?

God hears my pitiful cry of "That's not fair!" and responds, "What are you upset about?  I want to give grace to everyone who turns to me, even those who come at the last minute.  Don't I have a right to do what I want with my grace?  Or are you envious, because I am so generous?"  Ouch, right between the eyes.  "God, have mercy on me a sinner." 

(If you want to read about Jeffrey Dahmer's conversion to Christ read Dark Journey Deep Grace.  To read my review check our Amazon and search the reviews.)

Remember and Forgive

Around 10 years ago I preached the same sermon I preached this morning.  A woman was in attendance who had suffered a terrible wrong in her life.  She told me a few days after the sermon that she had decided to forgive the one who had wronged her and her family.  Such a horrible sin had been committed against her that I marveled at her faith. 

Today she was in the audience again as I spoke about remembering what the Lord has done for us and allowing that forgiveness to flow through us to those who sin against us.  I asked her after the sermon if she remembered the first time I had preached the sermon.  Tears filled her eyes.  At first I was afraid that all the pain of her terrible ordeal was bubbling up.  Instead, she said, "I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't learned to forgive."  Tears of grief had been replaced with tears of gratitude.  Allowing God's forgiveness to flow through us to others brings blessings upon blessings to our lives. 

Wheat and Weeds

"He really knows the Bible well."  I've been told this more than once by some well meaning person about someone who is obviously not following Jesus.  The person described as such a knowledgeable Bible student may be a drunkard, a wife beater, a drug abuser, or someone who can't control their temper and is so arrogant that no employer wants to keep them on the payroll.  Their life is so out of control that no one would confuse them for a disciple of Jesus, but still, as I visit with a relative, or concerned friend, they will comment on how much Bible they know.  "They just quote the Bible all the time." 

For some reason I kept thinking about this as I prepared this sermon.  It didn't seem to work into the content of the sermon and after writing the above paragraph, I'm not sure it even fits that well with the parables we discussed from Matthew 13!  However, it does illustrate the point that just knowing the Bible is not enough.  "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," Jesus said repeatedly.  But notice that in the Parable of the Soils (Matthew 13) Jesus' description of the person represented by each kind of soil had heard the word.  They heard the word  BUT:

• they "do not understand it" (Path - 13:19)
• "since they have no root, they last only a short time" (Rocky - 13:21)
• "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word" (Thorns - 13:22)

"But the seed falling on good soil refers to people who hear the word and understand it" (Matthew 13:23).  Who cares how much Bible you know; the world needs to see people LIVING the word.  Or, to say it more in line with the teaching of Scripture, they need to see the Living Word living through us!  That is the person who truly has "ears to hear."   And that is the person who is living as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

Obtaining True Treasure



All the kingdom parables seems to build on the two we talked about today.  But what do they mean exactly?  What does it mean to sell all you have to possess the kingdom?  I've wrestled with this off and on my entire Christian life.  It can't mean literally sell everything can it?  That doesn't seem to be how the earliest Christians interpreted this.  They continued to own property for instance.

When I think of what it has cost me personally to live in the kingdom the cost doesn't seem that high.  There's been some financial sacrifices; but perhaps that was only because I was called to full time ministry where compensaiton has not always been on the same level as my contemporaries.  Our kingdom priorities caused Liz to forgo her career as a teacher and be a stay-at-home mom.  That was not really a sacrifice since she wanted to be a full time mommy much more than to have the extra income. 

We always tithed our income, but that has never kept us having anything we really needed in life.  In fact, I adopted the attitude I learned from my father.  When talking about these things he always brings up the intangibles such as profesional services or possessions we had received for little or no money.  He would also talk about how long our cars might go without needing repair or the good health our family had.  I can make a similar list when thinking about my own family though the years.  So, I don't think I've missed out on anything by my practice of giving 10% of our income to church.

Looking deeper into my life I can see times where my pride needed to be crucified, along with other fleshly attitudes such as prejudice, judgementalism, arrogance, and the like.  It's hard to see these as sacrifices since they were destructive. Knowing Jesus as savior really means he saved me from sins like these!  Taking these attitudes to the cross allowed the Holy Spirit to create new attitudes in me that enable me to live the kingdom lifestyle.  That could hardly be called a sacrifice, considering what I was given in return. 

I guess I could include certain acts of service I've done over the years.  They might include sacrifices of time and comfort.  But in reality, those were the times in life when I have felt most alive.  I guess the bottom line is that all "sacrifices" we make for the sake of the kingdom seem HUGE at the time yet so small and insignificant once the treasures of the kingdom come into our possession.  The butterfly never complains about missing her little feet and squishy body - she just floats though the air on her beautiful wings.

What Were You Expecting?

The kingdom of heaven is often thought of as restrictive, as though the king's highest priority is keeping his subjects in line by requiring them to follow a list of do's and don'ts. When we read the teaching of Jesus, however, we discover the kingdom offers the most incredible freedom.  It's not freedom to do whatever we like (which is in effect a terrible form of bondage); rather, it is the freedom to be all that God intended humans to be. 

The kingdom parables offer a glimpse into the thinking of Jesus as he discloses the nature of the kingdom using ordinary, earthy illustrations.  The sermon series will work though these illustrations seeking to let Jesus develop our expectations.  Here's my list of the 12 parables of Jesus that begin, "The kingdom of heaven is like . . ." 

▸ A man who sowed good seed in his field (Mt. 13:24-30; 36-43; Mk. 4:26-29)


▸ A mustard seed (Mt. 13:31-32; Mk. 4:30-32; Lk. 13:18-21)

▸ Leaven (Mt. 13:33; Lk. 13:20)

▸ Treasure hidden in a field (Mt. 13:44)

▸ A merchant looking for fine pearls (Mt. 13:45-46)

▸ A net (Mt. 13:47-50)

▸ The owner of a house (Mt. 13:52)

▸ A king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants (Mt. 18:23-25)

▸ A landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers (Mt. 20:1-16)

▸ A king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son (Mt. 22:1-14)

▸ Ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom (Mt. 25:1-13)

▸ A man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them (Mt. 25:14-30)