"WHAT IS GODS KINGDOM LIKE?"

9.00am and 10.30am Sunday 23 March 2003

Rev Des Botting

Reading: Luke 13:18-35

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and it is so true. One of the rules of communication is that if you ever want to get a message across, always include a picture. Most of us tend to think in pictures; and most of us have difficulty in grasping abstract ideas. This is certainly the reasoning behind all modern mass-media, whether it be television, or through the printed page. These people know that pictures attract an instant audience. To a large extent it is what sells newspapers and magazines to people. What is it that most people look at first when they flip through a magazine? It is the pictures, and if it takes their interest, they will read what the pictures are about. If they dont have time, the pictures themselves have got across the basic message. Pictures communicate reality much clearer, and quicker, than words can ever do. They are more quickly absorbed by the mind, which has that amazing facility of being able to store them away for instant recall.

Jesus was an excellent communicator. He did not have at His disposal all the technology of modern mass-media, but he knew how to get His message across. He used parables, word pictures about familiar things. This was a common form of communication in His day. There are also a number of parables in the Old Testament. The prophet Nathan told King David a story when God sent him to show the king the enormity of the sin when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered on the field of battle so that he could marry her. Read.

Jesus had a very important reason for using these word pictures, these parables. A parable has been defined very simply as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus, therefore, used this method because he wanted to lead the minds of his hearers to think about heavenly things. Furthermore, this highlights the fact that there is a very natural affinity between the natural and the spiritual realms. For example, Paul says in Romans,

It has been said, "Beauty is Gods handwriting". On the tombstone of Sir Christopher Wren in St Pauls Cathedral, the church that he designed, there is the simple inscription, "If you want to see his monument, look about you." This is what Jesus was saying to His hearers about God. If you want to know what God is like, look about you. There is evidence of His handiwork in all of creation.

Jesus had another reason for using parables. It was to open peoples minds to new truths. He told stories, the meaning of which would have been very clear to His hearers, and then applied them to their lives in such a way as to reveal something about themselves, or Gods purposes, to which they had been blind before. Nathans story to David is exactly like this. David was immediately convicted of his sin, and had the grace to acknowledge it. Parables take the scales from peoples eyes to see reality as God sees it.

Lets apply this to the passage we read this morning. Note, first the

1. IMAGES of Gods Kingdom. Jesus takes two things that would have been very familiar to all His hearers, a mustard seed and leaven, and likens Gods kingdom to them. There were both things that were readily accessibly and affordable for people. Both were small and insignificant of themselves, but, given the right conditions, they have the potential of creating an impact far beyond their size. Jesus said, Gods kingdom is like that. Though seemingly small and insignificant, it will have an all-pervading influence on the world. And this is exactly what has happened. What started with a group of 120 people on the Day of Pentecost, has grown to touch the lives of at least a third of the worlds population, and it continues to spread at a phenomenal rate.

Further on in Luke, in answer to a question from the Pharisees about the coming of Gods kingdom, Jesus says, "the kingdom of God is within you." We, as part of His kingdom, along with all His people, have the potential to influence this city and nation beyond our imagining. And so the mustard seed and leaven remind us of

1. Gods RESOURCES God has put at our disposal all we will ever need to impact our nation for His kingdom purposes. He has uniquely equipped each of us to play our part in this work. As Paul says, "And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." I believe this verse applies to us both personally, and as His church.

But these images also speak of

2. Our RESPONSIBILITY For the mustard seed to grow, someone must plant it. For the leaven to work, someone must mix it in with the flour. For Gods kingdom to have the impact Jesus intends, every believer must be a good steward of the gifts God has given. Jesus said, "Servants are fortunate if their master comes and finds them doing their job." Paul says that " our first duty is to be faithful to the one we work for " One of the things that we have been praying for at Power Plant, our weekly prayer meeting, is to ask that God will lay on the heart of each member of the congregation the area of ministry He wants them involved in. We want people to have a sense of call in what they do in the church, that this is the mission given to them by God. If you sense Gods Spirit speaking to you about being involved in an area of the churchs ministry, talk to someone involved in that aspect of the churchs life or mission. This will help us as a church to do what God wants done. It may mean dropping some of the things we are doing at the moment, and picking up some new things. Each one of us has a responsibility to be listening to God and keeping in step with His Spirit.

Finally, note

3. An AWESOME OUTCOME We should never underestimate what God can do. The Bible is full of inspiring examples of people who have trusted God with the little they had, and the outcome has been truly amazing. An example of this is when God called Gideon to lead his people against their enemy, the Midianites. The Midianites had been ravaging the land of Israel, destroying their crops and making the lives of Gods people a misery. God told Gideon to gather an army. He sent out word to the neighbouring tribes and 32,000 men turned up. Your army is too big, God said, and this was when he was facing an enemy army of 120,000. He was told to send home all those who were afraid. 22,000 men returned home. God said to Gideon that he still had too many soldiers. He was told to take them down to the river to drink, and "The Lord said, Gideon, your army will be made up of everyone who lapped the water from their hands. Send the others home. Im going to rescue Israel by helping you and your army of three hundred defeat the Midianites." In human terms it was madness to take on an army of 120,000 with 300 men. But we need to remember that nothing is too hard for the Lord. And God wanted Israel to know that it was the Lord who won this battle, not themselves. As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, "I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forever bring praise to God. His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine."

Jesus says Gods kingdom is like that. What it can become is far beyond what was ever thought possible, like the tiny mustard seed becoming a tree in which birds can build their nests. Gods kingdom can leaven the whole of society, and this is what is urgently needed today. It is not only individuals who need to be brought to Christ, it is also our New Zealand culture that needs to be evangelized and permeated once again with Gods kingdom values and principles. And it is not only here, but it is needed throughout the world.

Jesus then goes on in the next verses to speak of

2. The Dangers of being EXCLUDED from Gods Kingdom. Again He uses word pictures to get His message across. This time it is the narrow door to a house. It was something very familiar to the people of his day. People would lock their door at night, and it would not be opened until morning. He told this story in answer to a question, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved.

There is a story about William James, a noted philosopher and a respected mind in the field of psychology. He liked to tell this story about himself. One day in his home, he heard the sound of water running on to the floor upstairs. He went up to discover that his son had left the water on in the sink with the plug in and it was running over on to the floor. His son, seeing his father standing in the doorway said, Dad, this is no time to philosophise, grab a mop.

There is a parallel in this story to the question Jesus was asked. Jesus, as He always did, cut right through the irrelevancy of the question to the persons real need, saying in effect, forget about how many will be saved; what about you? He went on to bring home the truth that

1. JESUS is the WAY to life in Gods kingdom.

"Go in through the narrow gate," He said. "The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it." Make sure youre one of them, Jesus was saying. Dont philosophize; grab the mop. Do something while there is opportunity. Believe in Gods words and act upon them. Once the door closes its too late.

There is a Jewish proverb that goes like this.

Four things come not back;

The spoken word,

The sped arrow,

Time past,

And the neglected opportunity.

This is so true. An old Arab proverb says something the same: One cannot mount a camel that has not yet arrived; or one that has already left. Jesus said the kingdom has now arrived; its time to act. This is the moment. Believe and act upon it. There is coming a time when your opportunity will have departed. Then it will be too late. The door will be shut. Youll stand there knocking, wanting to be let in. Opportunity knocks but once. Jesus said,

"I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture." Dont delay. Enter in through Christ today.

Secondly, Jesus is saying that

2. Entry requires EFFORT He says, "Do all you can to go in by the narrow door! A lot of people will try to get in, but wont be able to." It is very easy to go with the flow. As we read a few moments ago, The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. One must make a concerted effort to enter the gate to life. Jesus at great cost has secured eternal life for us. Do we fully realise what it took for Him to make it possible. When He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before he was betrayed, Luke tells us, "Jesus was in great pain and prayed so sincerely that his sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood. Isaiah said, "He suffered and endured great pain for usHe suffered for our sins and asked God to forgive us." Jesus said, "But if you keep on being faithful to the end, you will be saved." We have to live with an eternal perspective, as those of you who use the daily devotional, Word for Today, will have read yesterday. We need to remember that we are "citizens of heaven". Were on a temporary visa. This life is the short story; heaven in the unending one. We need to "keep on being faithful to the end".

Thirdly, what is needed is

3. Not CONTACT but CONNECTION . We need to be connected to Christ and His church. It must be much more that just contact. Jesus uses another picture to describe what it means to be connected to Him. He said,

"I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you,

then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me." We have to be grafted into Christ in this way.

The third picture that Jesus uses about Gods kingdom in this passage is one that speaks of

3. JUDGEMENT and GRACE Jesus uses the picture of the hen with her chicks to illustrate that Gods love for His people was a love that would not let them go. When we lived at Duntroon we used to hatch chickens. They were always so cute when they were very small, in the way the mother hen would gather them under her wings, and they would peek out between the feathers. It is a beautiful way of describing how God longed to reach out to His people and to gather him under his wings of protection to save them from the coming judgment. But they stubbornly resisted His entreaties, His calls, first through His prophets, and then through His own Son. Many did not even recognise Who He really was, and if they did, they had no time for Him. As John said, "He came into his own world, but his own world did not welcome him."

Jesus closes with the words, "Now your temple will be deserted. You wont see me again until the time when you say, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." Notice how He says your temple. God was extending His grace before judgment came. And He does exactly the same to us. God is merciful, but He is also just. Sin cannot go unpunished. "But if we confess our sins to God, He can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sin away." If we fail to act now, it will be for us like it was for those five girls in another story Jesus told. They had not brought extra oil with them in case the bridegroom was late in arriving. When word came that he was coming, they had to go and buy oil. The story says, "While the foolish girls were on their way to get some oil, the groom arrived and the doors were closed. Later the other girls returned and shouted, Sir, sir! Open the door for us! But the groom replied, I dont even know you!"

How can we be ready? How can we live with an eternal perspective? Let me share with you a

4. Formula for SUCCESS that is based on the words we read from Matthew, "But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it." To succeed at anything you have to make trade-offs. Let me suggest three that Bob Gass mentions in a devotional written on this verse from Matthew. a) Immediate pleasure for personal growth. It takes decades to grow an oak tree, but days to grow a squash. What would you want to be? Are you willing to discipline yourself to do it? b) Everything for one thing. The younger you are, the more experimenting you should do. Thats fine, but once youve found Gods purpose for your life, stick with it, give it all youve got, and, like Paul, refuse to be side-tracked.

Finally, if you want your life to count,

May God bless His word to our hearts and lives today.