Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last
The Mysterious Kingdom of God
Beloved of the Lord......Over
the course of a Christian's life, sooner or later we struggle with that
question: why are some saved and not others?
While it is true God's elect are a certain number of people that God
through the merits of Christ chose to be His own from eternity, we cannot then
teach God has likewise chosen a certain number for hell. That is an argument which comes only from
REASON. While it seems reasonable to us
that if God chose some for heaven, He must have chosen others for hell, if we
truly believe that then there is no such thing as the Gospel. For plainly the Gospel teaches us that "Christ
died for all", and "God would have all men to be saved". The Gospel then is NOT IN ANY WAY, that
Christ died for godly people, rather
the Gospel is Christ died for ALL UNGODLY PEOPLE, ALL HIS ENEMIES. Romans 4:5 plainly says, "To him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth THE UNGODLY, his faith is counted
for righteousness." This passage
teaches us if we don't try to work our way into heaven, but we believe on Jesus
who JUSTIFIED the ungodly, our faith is counted for righteousness - namely God
counts us as holy THROUGH Christ. Do you
see then how greatly the Word of God overthrows this TERRIBLE TERRIBLE teaching
that God has somehow chosen a certain number of people for hell? Though reason then is a gift from God, we
dare not make our reason our own Savior.
God's Word is higher than reason and Christ alone can save! But why then do some people perish in
unbelief! The simple answer is it is
their own fault, because of their own unbelief.
They refuse to believe the truth, that Christ died for all! On the other hand we who believe take no
credit whatsoever for our own salvation!
Rather "We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men,
specially of those that believe."
I, The mysterious and invisible growth of the
Kingdom of God. Let us now begin today with the clear
understanding, the Kingdom of God in our lesson of which Christ speaks, is the Holy
Christian Church on earth, namely you and all other believers, who confess sin
and Christ our Savior from sin. Now, what
does this Kingdom of God resemble? Jesus
says it is like a small mustard seed which grows into a great tree, or a pinch
of leaven or yeast which spreads throughout the dough. This FIRST means the Kingdom of God has a very
small beginning, almost insignificant.
When Jesus gave His life on the cross a ransom for all, there were only
eleven disciples, and a few believing women.
There were a few more, of course, like Nicodemus and Joseph of
Arimathea, but the point is there weren't many true believers. But that is not the case today. Throughout the world the Kingdom of God is
quite large compared to what it was in Jesus' day, and there are Christian
Churches in every nation. Some
Christians however must meet secretly like in Communist China or Muslim
nations. This day may also come for the
United States.
Our SECOND point concerning the Kingdom
of God is that it continually grows by the power of the Gospel. While we are God's witnesses and it is truly
our job to preach and teach His Word to all nations, this continually growth of
God's Kingdom is the Lord's doing and not our own. Also the growth of God's Kingdom then is far
beyond our powers of observation, but we should have faith it does indeed
grow by God's power. How is this
done? The Kingdom of God grows by the
power of the Word which we speak, both Law and Gospel, the Sword of the
Spirit. "For the word of God is
quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The Law of God is like a sharp plow which
cuts deep furrows in man's heart. It
unearths or digs up our innermost sinful thoughts which we would never confess
to anyone. Every hour of every day God
knows every thought we think, and so He sees all our thoughts, even before we
think them. God also threatens to punish
this evil. In Isaiah 13:11 the Lord
says, "I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for
their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will
lay low the haughtiness of the terrible."
This knowledge of sin by the law, coupled with a man's own conscience is
sometimes why people commit suicide. They
are so tortured by their burning conscience, they believe death is better than
life.
When
we as Christians then speak God's Word to people, we must constantly work to
rightly divide the law and Gospel. Generally
in our conversations we want to speak both law and Gospel, for we want the
world to see their sin, and also their Savior from sin. When we are dealing however with someone who
is quite stubborn and impenitent, such people need the hammer of the law. Jesus said we are not to cast the pearls
before the swine, lest they turn around and tear us to pieces. On the other hand, when we are dealing with
those who are troubled by their sins, or those suffering from a guilty
conscience, by all means we should give their guilty conscience peace through
Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Seeing
Christ to be their Savior, they are like the birds of the air who find rest in
the branches of the Mustard tree. The
Gospel alone then which brings Jesus, is the sure remedy for every guilty
conscience.
When we thus speak of the power of the
Gospel, and we say the Kingdom of God grows by the power of the Gospel Word, we
are teaching something far above human reason.
We are teaching that "God was in Christ, reconciling the whole
world unto Himself, not imputing [or charging] their trespasses unto
them." Wherever then this Gospel is
preached or taught or even spoken in the simplest voice, the Holy Spirit
Himself is omnipresent, efficacious or working in the spoken Word. For example, even if a person is an
unbeliever, and he rattles off a Gospel passage to another unbeliever, the Holy
Spirit still will be working in that Gospel Word to convince and convert the
hearer. This truth should impress upon
us how truly sincere the Holy Spirit desires that all men believe in Christ. There is true forgiveness for all their
sins. God is not lying to any one of us
when God says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come
into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
This is how our guilty conscience finds
peace and rest among the branches of God's Kingdom. This is the peace of Christ which surpasses
all understanding. Even if right now we are
living in unbelief so that we are afraid of God, afraid of His punishments for
our sins, and afraid of hell, right now it is our tender Jesus who wants us
to believe all sins which trouble us are forgiven….even the sins we don't
know we've committed. His own blood, the
blood of the very Son of God, washes away all sin. These sins which plague us in the conscience
were long ago nailed to the cross, in the very body of Christ. By His blood Jesus blotted out "the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." When Jesus therefore says "Verily, Verily",
Jesus is saying, "Listen now, for surely and certainly I am saying
something which is absolutely true and certain, believe in Me and you will have
everlasting life. I will not condemn you
when you die, but I will bring you through death to heaven for I am the Door." Truly Christ by His blood absolves our guilty
conscience giving peace. That's why
Hebrews 10 says, "Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
From all this it should be more than
evident, God's Kingdom grows in a mysterious yet powerful way. We cannot see the Holy Spirit working on a
man's heart, yet by faith we know it to be so.
This then is our THIRD point regarding God's Kingdom. It grows in mysterious way, for His ways are
higher than our own. Jesus said,
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that
is born of the Spirit." By God's
direction, the Gospel goes from place to place, nation to nation, but if the
Gospel is rejected, God can always take it away and go somewhere else. That is why we should believe and receive the
Gospel now while we have life and breath.
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."
II. Those who trust in their works cannot enter
heaven. This ties into the common question "Are there
few that be saved." The followers
of Christ asked this question not from faith, but vain curiosity. Over time as they followed Christ, their
numbers were dwindling. Rather than
making sure they themselves were true believers, they were trying to "see"
God's Kingdom, who was a believer and who was not? Jesus didn't answer their question. Rather He said, "Strive to enter in at
the strait gate: for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not
be able." Jesus said this to
redirect their thoughts so they would begin to focus on themselves and not
others. Jesus also spoke of those who
think they are going to heaven, but are not.
"We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in
our streets". To this God answers,
"depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." Those who trust in works and die without
Christ will find the door to heaven closed.
If we trust in our Lutheran heritage, if we trust that we come from a
long line of Christians, we will make the same mistake of the Jews. Though God did choose them to be the nation
or family from whom Christ would come, God never chose or elected them by their
works. God's election of sinners is
always an Election of Grace. That is why
Jesus then spoke to the Jews of seeing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom
of Heaven above, but "you yourselves thrust out."
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