12 Keys to the Kingdom of God System

How does the Kingdom of God system work? The Lord Jesus taught one main message while he walked the Earth: The Kingdom of God. He taught it through parables. So if we look at the parables, and try to fit them together, we can find the basic instructions for how to live in God's world system. God's system is radically different from the world system, so we may find ourselves surprised by the paradoxes of the system.

These twelve principles are an extension of another post that dealt with an original twelve principles. For the original list of 12, Click here.

1. It Starts Small - Mustard Seed Parable (Matthew 13:31-32) - The Kingdom of God system begins very small, a person is born again and they are a new Christian. They've been declared righteous in Christ, but a long journey of growth (sanctification) is just beginning. Over the years the kingdom grows and grows within them, and they go from a tiny mustard seed, to a large and mighty tree.

2. Shine brightly - (but don't show off) - Parable of the Lamp (Mark 4:21-25) - The Kingdom of God system requires members to shine brightly before the world as an example of faith and why it's good. We don't hide our beliefs, or refuse to speak for fear of making waves or offending someone. We speak. However, we are also told not to act like the Pharisees who did things to be seen by others. They wanted to feel important. They wanted to be well thought of. We're told to strike a careful balance of shining for Christ, but not doing it for selfish reasons.

3. Examine Yourself First - Speck and Log (Matthew 7:3-5) - the parable of the speck and the log tells us that we naturally look at others and judge them. But it's different in God's kingdom. in God's kingdom we're told to look at ourselves first, and deal with sins in us, and then we can help others to find freedom from sins as well. 

4. Spread the Seed Everywhere - Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) - Our attitude in sharing the gospel should be to spread the seed far and wide. Depending on the condition of each heart receiving it, they may receive it gladly, then fall away, or reject it, or it may get crowded out by the ways of the world, but some will receive it and produce their own harvests in Christ. We may be surprised by who rejects the message, and even more surprised by those who receive it gladly. Allow God to surprise you. 

5. Hypocrites in the Kingdom - Weeds among the Wheat (Matthew 13:24-30) - in the kingdom we will encounter people who seem to be in the kingdom but are not living out what it means to be a Christian. We should not trouble ourselves in trying to sort out whose saved and who isn't. We may mislabel someone who is a new believer as a hypocrite, or a hypocrite as a true follower. The weeds and the wheat are growing together, and Jesus will sort out each grouping when he returns (Parable of the Net) (Matthew 13:47-50).

6. You can Start at any Age - Parable of Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) - For the kingdom of God, it's best to start from birth, being raised up in Christ, but, even if you join in when you're fifteen, or twenty-five, or forty, or seventy, you are welcome, and you will be rewarded for your labor. 

7. Whosoever is Welcome - Parable of the Marriage Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) - Those invited to God's kingdom had at first been the nation of Israel, but now it's gone out to the whosoever. Wealth, class, ability, lack of ability, race, gender, it doesn't matter, the kingdom of God is open to anyone who is willing to come and participate in accordance with the rules of the system. 

8. Using your Kingdom Talents - The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) - every saint born into the kingdom of God is given certain talents and abilities to be used to help and bless God's family. If you don't use them, you'll be held accountable. If you do use them, you'll be rewarded. This is also depicted in the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9). Kingdom saints should be consistently producing fruit, if not the Father will correct us, see also the vine and the branches (John 15:1-17). 

9. Reward in Heaven - the Parable of the Invited Guests (Luke 14:7-11) - We're told to serve others who can't repay us in God's kingdom, then we'll be rewarded in the next life. Otherwise the people we help will repay us and we receive no reward. Having the most important seat at the party isn't important, but instead it's best to serve others humbly who can't give back. In God's kingdom things are often reversed, the first are last, and the last are first. The greatest is the servant of all. The servant of none is the lowest of all. 

10. Sin comes from Within - Parable of the Heart of Man (Mark 7:14-23) - In general things that go into us, food or drink, or things outside of us aren't the main cause of sin. In the Kingdom of God we understand sin comes from our hearts, the things we think, the temptations we battle. Don't look at externals, look within, and ask God to bring change in your heart. Don't allow anyone to claim victimhood to external circumstances. The heart is the issue, and God can change the heart to produce good things in Christ. 

11. Tough Times and Problems - Parable of Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) - Christians will often face harder times than those of the world. They go through many trials in God's kingdom to test and refine their faith. Christians may have to die for their faith. They face persecution. Meanwhile the selfish and self-interested seem to get rich and live long lives of luxury. But in the next life, God sorts things out. The rich man had everything in his earthly life, but hell in the next. Lazarus had nothing in his earthly life, but heaven in the next. 

12. Bold Access to the Throne - Parable of the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-13) - Kingdom saints have an intensely personal access to God. Kingdom saints should use that access to it's fullest extent. Come boldly before God again and again, boldly asking for assistance, and God brings justice and mercy. You can apply the same principle to other Christians, come to them boldly for assistance. By your audacity, they may just give you what you need. 

Closing Challenge

I would challenge you: Examine the parables of Jesus one by one, and begin to fit the puzzle pieces together of how the Kingdom of God system practically works. If we understand the rules of the system, we can live and walk in accordance with the system God has designed. If we walk in accordance with that system, we can walk in deep relationship with God, living out His commands and loving Him and our neighbors just the way God wants us to! What a great challenge, but what a great adventure! 

12 Principles of the Kingdom of God System

What is the kingdom of God exactly? It’s the new kingdom authority in the world that has slowly been replacing the kingdoms of Satan.

For us as Christians though it’s a practical way of life. You could say it’s our rules for life. If you’re a Christian, this is how you do it. This is how you live. Plain and simple, the Kingdom of God system is our rule for life.

Let’s compare it to the American way of life. There are certain rules by which we live as Americans, and when we live these things, we succeed in the American system.

It’s simple stuff. We have a bank account at a local bank. We work a job. We show up to work on time. We do our best at our work. We pay our rent on time. We buy groceries. We do our dishes. We do our laundry. We have some mode of transportation. We regularly clean our homes. We have an alarm clock that is set. We have a cell phone to communicate with others. We’ve learned to read, to write, to understand language. All of these things play into a successful American life. If I stop doing any one of these things, my American life starts to get messed up.

Say that I stop doing my laundry. I’m going to survive for a while. I wear dirty clothes over and over. But pretty soon this causes me problems, and I get into trouble and can’t function right.

Let’s say I don’t use an alarm clock. Ok, I do ok for a while, but eventually I miss work, and eventually I lose my job, and pretty soon other areas of my American life system are messed up as well.

You see this with someone who starts drinking too much, it begins to affect every area of their life. They can’t hold a job. They stop doing their dishes, they pile up, they don’t do laundry, lose their cell phone. And eventually everything is out of whack.

It’s the same way with the kingdom of God. If we ignore certain parts of the kingdom of God system, we start to see our Christian life disrupted. And it disrupts everything else. If we stop praying, it starts to hurt other areas of our Christian life. If we stop forgiving others, we start getting bitter, it hurts our walk with Christ. If we stop going to church, if we disregard prophecy, if we go too comfortable in our salvation, if we start allowing sin a foothold, all these things can cause us to do something the Bible calls “stumbling.”

We start to stumble. The Holy Spirit convicts us, to make a change. If we do, we stop stumbling, and we get back on track. If we refuse the Spirit’s leading, we start to stumble more and more, and eventually we start to “fall.” The Spirit urges us to get back up, so we do, and we stumble along, and eventually find our footing again.

In any case, it’s very similar in the kingdom of God, if we live by the teachings of Christ in the parables, we find a smooth Christian life, we walk with Jesus, it’s not easy, but we’re able to fly above the storms of life. If we don’t it starts to get more and more difficult.

The kingdom of God as explained in the parables is kind of like the armor of God. It’s a complete picture of how to live rightly in this world. With all the principles of the kingdom of God, we are able to live a proper Christian life, honoring God in all things.

So let’s take a look at the parables as one big picture.

First, the parable of the prodigal son identifies our position apart from Christ, a child who has gone astray. Squandering their inheritance. Ruining themselves. Ruining the gifts God gave them. But God’s heart is for the prodigal to grow so weary in the emptiness of this fallen world, that the prodigal returns to Him. And the Father runs out toward the prodigal, covers him in a new robe, and throws a celebration, he’s so excited he's returned to Him.

That’s the heart of God to the lost.

Principle #1 Our Return Home
That’s the first principle today, the ultimate purpose of the kingdom of God is God’s glory and victory in our wonderful return home.

Or not. Free will is baked into this whole equation. We can return home or we can face judgment and condemnation. Oddly enough both scenarios bring glory to God, mercy or justice. But God prefers we return home safely.

The parable of the good Samaritan mirrors the prodigal son, God says, this is my heart toward you, like a Father coming to welcome his lost son home, now do the same with the lost and hurting around you, rescue those who are in danger, show them my love, through your actions.

Principle #2 Redeemed Redeemer

Principle 2 is that once we’ve returned, we help return others. Makes sense. We’ve found precious gold, now help others find it too. Basic.

Remember the parable of the old cloth on a new coat, or the new wine into old wineskins? When the Father puts his garment on the prodigal son, just as when he puts his garments of righteousness on us, we become new people. And we are called to a new way of life. The old human can’t be the kingdom of God in the world. Only a born again person can be.

Principle #3 Transformation

Only the new can inherit eternal life. This can only be accomplished by God changing us inside. The truth is written on our hearts. We are new people, this is God’s work in us.

So as we build this new life, we’re told to count the cost, recognize the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. Therefore be a wise builder, who builds on the rock of Jesus Christ. That’s similar to the wineskins parable, because we can’t build on the old way, we have to build on the new way, having been transformed by Christ. We are a new project, a new creation, and we’re being transformed over our lives into the likeness of Jesus Christ. 

Principle #4 Commitment

Count the cost, and the dedication needed to complete this journey. The way is narrow that leads to life. You must take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. You must forsake the world, and follow the new path completely. It’s a big commitment.

Luke 14:27 says, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." And again in verse 33, "So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." 

In short: Go all in. 

Principle #5 First Importance (Value)
The parable of the hidden treasure in the field, or the pearl of great value, reminds us of the immense value of the salvation we’ve found in Christ. It’s everything. We should value it in such a way that our whole way of life is transformed. It’s a pearl of great value, infinite value.

Jesus tells the parable of the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the lost sheep. If a Christian gets lost, Jesus comes seeking after them, to bring them home. How important is it? The most. 

The lost coin parable, of a woman who loses a coin of great values and sweeps the house and finds it, illustrates the value of God's kingdom. She celebrates to illustrate the excitement of heaven when one sinner turns to Christ.

Principle five of the kingdom reminds us nothing is more important than what we’ve found in Christ. Therefore, keep God first in your life, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). 

Principle #6 Humility
Many of the parables indicate the incredibly important value of staying humble in your walk with Christ. Pride is perhaps the single greatest danger to a Christian, pride tells us to take credit, to judge others, to think of ourselves as better than others, the humility of Christ reminds us to stay so focused on the reality that God is all and my job is to love and serve others.

The parable that best displays this is the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, one man beat his chest and cried out for mercy humbly, and the other, a Pharisee said thank you lord I'm not like this evil tax collector. Which one did God justify? The humble one.

These are all sidelines and boundaries for a kingdom saint, you, and how you’re to live.

Principle six is guard against humility (pride is the chief danger to the kingdom of God system). How? We must guard our hearts.

Principle #7 Forgiveness
Several of the parables outline the concept of forgiveness, that we must forgive those who have hurt us. That’s how the kingdom works, our sins are forgiven by Jesus own blood so we are commanded to forgive others their wrongs against us, with the caveat, that if we don’t forgive others, we also won’t be forgiven on the last day.

This is illustrated in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35. The master cancelled a large debt for his servant, but then the servant went and had a man imprisoned who owed him money. The hypocrisy is searing. We who have sinned so terribly against God have no business holding up unforgiveness to those who have hurt us. Forgive quickly. 

Principle #8 Persistence
Do you recall the parable of the persistent widow? She kept bothering the judge day and night asking for justice and as a result, she finally received what she asked for. That’s how the kingdom of God on earth works too, we must keep praying, keep seeking God, keep crying out, and He answers. But the key is dogged persistence, never giving up, day and night always persistent (Luke 18:1-8). 

Principle #9 Faithfulness
The test of God in the kingdom system is faithfulness when no one is looking. Will I keep serving God? Will I be committed even when the master is delayed? 

The parable of the faithful servant reminds us to be faithful day in and day out, committed to God, because we don't know when His return will be. 

As it says in Matthew 24:45-46, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns."

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus reminds us of the consequence of a faithless life. The rich man lived a self-serving life, rejecting God, rejecting the ways of the kingdom, and he paid for it by being sent to hell. And Lazarus had nothing but God, so he received salvation, because he had faith.

Principle #10 Action unlocks the kingdom
In the parable of the two sons, the father asks the sons to go out and work in his field. One son says yes, but never goes. The second refuses, but later changes his mind and goes and works in the field. It points right at hypocrites pretending to be part of God’s kingdom and says: Your words don’t matter as much as your actions. They prove who we are. It points to the concept of fruit bearing, you will know people by what their actions produce. That's a key kingdom secret. These are keys that open doors in the kingdom of God. Without them we’re blind and we don’t understand how to live rightly.

Many of the parables are aimed at Israel and how they had failed to recognize the coming of the messiah, and so the kingdom was being passed on to gentiles ahead of them. This is indicated in the parable of the wedding feast where the people invited to the wedding won't come, so the king sends out his servants to the streets and the markets and invites anyone who wants to come. And they come and they celebrate the wedding.

Many of the parables deal with the end times and the final judgment, Jesus clearly wanted us to consider the day when we’re judged and prepare for it carefully.

It all fits together. The parable of the talents reminds us that we will be held accountable for how we use the gifts God has given us. We must prove ourselves faithful in our actions. 

Principle #11 Watchfulness
The parable of the wise and foolish virgins emphasizes supremely the concept of watchfulness, of having the expectation that Jesus will return at any moment, and so we should we watchful and ready, seeking God day and night, storing up oil for his arrival, like the wise virgins did.

The parable of the watchful servants also underlines this principle of waiting up late for the masters return, always watching carefully the times which we live in.

Principle #12 Preparation
The sheep and the goats reminds us that the proof is in the pudding. A cook can talk about what a great cook he is, but the proof will be in if his food is delicious or not. So, we too, will be proved out by how we live. We can say we’re Christians all we want, but our actions will prove it. Similarly with the sheep, they practically served God, meeting needs, food, water, shelter, visiting prisoners, providing clothing, and the goats did not. So at the final judgment the sheep are accepted, the goats are rejected.

And of course the parable of Drawing in the Nets reminds us that at the end of the age there will only be two camps, the bad fish and the good fish, the bad fish are tossed out, the good fish are brought in. We see this also repeatedly explained as a harvest being brought in, where the wheat is harvested and brought into the barn, and the weeds are burned in a pile.

The final principle is preparation. The kingdom man or woman is preparing carefully for the day of judgment, living a faithful life of love, fearing God, loving God, living in faith, and in deep relationship with God, while also actively living out what it means to be a Christian through practical acts of service, sharing the gospel and meeting needs in His name.

To Review:

1. Our Return Home (or not) - The chief goal of the Kingdom of God system is to open the door for the return home of every lost human being. But it's not forceful. It's a choice. The door is open. But you can also say no. 

2. Redeemed Redeemer - The Kingdom of God's redemption of the person immediately charges them to guide others toward redemption as well. 

3. Transformation (born again) - The old person can never inherit eternal life, the Kingdom of God system requires that the person be born again according to the new birth in Jesus Christ. 

4. Commitment - We're told to count the cost of being a disciple. We may have to give our lives for Jesus. We may lose friends, lose family, lose wealth, and prestige. We go all in for Jesus, full commitment and we never look back. 

5. First Importance (value) - the Kingdom is not one of many interesting things to add to our lives, it is the most important thing, and the kingdom system commands that we value God first. Nothing less will do.

6. Humility - The kingdom system places much emphasis on humility, rejecting pride, and coming to God as a little child. We're told to think of ourselves as "Servants who have only done our duty" (Luke 17:10). 

7. Forgiveness - A kingdom child is a forgiven forgiver. We're instructed to forgive others quickly when they hurt us, just as God has forgiven our sins. Holding unforgiveness is unacceptable. 

8. Persistence - We're told to keep being persistent, keep praying and never give up. The journey will get long, but keep staying encouraged and serving God. 

9. Faithfulness - One who is given much must prove themselves faithful in what they steward. It's a natural aspect of God's kingdom system. 

10. Action - Don't be hearers of the word only and so deceive yourselves, do what it says (James 1:22). Action is vital in the kingdom of God. Anyone can talk about doing good things or believing, but it's proved out in how we actually live our lives. 

11. Watchfulness - the kingdom system commands us to be watchful of the times we live in, redeeming the times, being salt and light to civilization. We're charged to be watchful of what's happening in the world, what God is doing, and how we can best participate in God's will. We also watch for the second coming of Jesus. 

12. Preparation - in the kingdom of God the saints of God are called to watch over their lives carefully, to give careful thought to their ways, and to prepare for the day when they meet Jesus face to face. 

Further Reading: Check out this follow up examining 12 additional principles of the Kingdom of God System

The Pharisee & the Woman weeping at Jesus' Feet: The Two Debtors

What does it really mean to say our sins are truly forgiven? In our Christian faith we call that justification. A word rooted in the word justice. Which is what my name comes from, justin, means justice or to be justified.

“What is justification? It is the declared purpose of God to regard and treat those sinners who believe in Jesus Christ as if they had not sinned, on the ground of the merits of the Savior. It is not mere pardon. Pardon is a free forgiveness of past offenses. It has reference to those sins as forgiven and blotted out. Justification has respect to the law, and to God's future dealings with the sinner. It is an act by which God determines to treat him hereafter as righteous--as if he had not sinned. The basis for this is the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, merit that we can plead as if it were our own. He has taken our place and died in our stead; He has met the descending stroke of justice, which would have fallen on our own heads if He had not interposed.” -Albert Barnes

That is the meaning of the forgiveness we’ve received in Jesus Christ. Our sins those terrible things we did, little, small, big, giant, all forgiven by Jesus. Paid in full by Him. And today we’re going to look at what it means to be so amazed by that blanket forgiveness that it draws great love out of us.

Today we find ourselves addressing the last of the parables, which we find in Luke chapter 7. Jesus was ministering in various ways to those in need of healing and even healed the child of a roman soldier, after he sent a response to a request made by John the Baptist who was in prison at this point. It’s an excellent chapter, your homework today is to go home and read Luke chapter 7 and see all that Jesus did, it's a good round picture of who Jesus was in his public ministry.

But here we find Jesus meeting in the home of a Pharisee. Let’s just dive right in, from Luke 7:36-50

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

So in these first few verses we see the context for our parable today. Jesus is ministering to a pharisee, but a woman who was a known sinner came and wept at Jesus’ feet. The Pharisees response is telling. He is offended at the woman who is there.

Sometimes we can find ourselves offended as well, at those around us who have not received Christ. Or even those who have! Let’s see how Jesus responds.

40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Jesus is explaining the paradoxical nature of how salvation in Christ works. We would assume that someone who is in the depths of sin is not worthy of Christ. We’d be mistaken. Paradoxically that is one who will be even more deeply in love with Christ, because they’ve been forgiven such a lengthy list of sins.

Jesus often drew this comparison between the pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, and the common sinners who would often come to Jesus for mercy and forgiveness and to listen to him teach.

Interestingly enough, though Pharisees could just as well follow Jesus and obey Him and find eternal life, often the sinners who came to Christ would find a much deeper love and commitment to Christ, because of the intensity of the amazing grace poured out to them.

It continues, 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Jesus is drawing a comparison between the woman and the pharisee. The pharisee is apparently a follower of Jesus, but he wasn’t particularly welcoming to Jesus, he didn’t provide the various courtesies, done upon entry, but the woman treated Jesus with great respect and adoration.

And a result this love she showed for Jesus was evidence that her sins were forgiven. They were forgiven by Jesus.

Then in verses 48-50 it concludes like this:

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

So in our parable today we find a fairly basic principle, but I think we’re seeing that it’s not really as basic as we might think, it’s; the concept of the weight of one’s love linked to the amount that one has received forgiveness.

This parable is linking love with forgiveness, if I’ve been forgiven a small amount of debt by someone, my love and appreciation for them will exist, but it will be small. I owe someone $50 they forgive the debt, don’t worry about it man, that’s great, I’m free of that debt. But it’s not the biggest deal.

Now say I owe someone $50,000. And they come along, or a get a letter in the mail, and they forgive the debt, my appreciation and amazement is going to be much higher isn’t it?

How many sins have you committed in your life up to this point? Every lie. Every manipulation. Every ill-spoken word. Every drunken spree. Every theft. Every time you hated someone in your heart. Every woman, or man you used or misused. For some of us it’s a very long list. For some it’s not as long. But we were all in that pit of mud, all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That’s why we needed a savior to come, Jesus Christ, to forgive us.

I want to talk about three seats in this parable. Three seats, and which we want to be in.

In this parable, we sometimes find ourselves in the seat of the pharisee, judging someone else who sins differently than us, or more than us, and we scoff at the possibility of them coming to Christ.

There are people who come to the corps, or who I see around town, that I’ve seen and known for years, and I sometimes can end up with an attitude of the pharisee thinking they could never come to repentance. But only God knows. That assumption may be accurate that they have refused Christ, most do, from what I can tell, most people refuse Christ. So it may not be an inaccurate assumption, but that isn’t my position to sit in and make that judgment. I have to regard them in my heart as an opportunity to share the love of Jesus. That isn’t always easy.

Be careful of ending up in the seat of the pharisee. Because our ire for the person Jesus may just regard as ire for him. The pharisee thought poorly of the woman who was a known sinner. This was an attitude predating the incident because we know he did not treat Jesus with the appropriate level of respect, you have God in human form in your home but you don’t anoint his head with oil, or offer him water to wash his feet or even give him a ceremonial kiss. His proud attitude caused him to disregard the savior, or at least not treat him with great respect.

Maybe that’s true for some of us who have bene forgiven a shorter list of sins. We don’t love Jesus very deeply. And hopefully by humbling ourselves, we can learn to love him more and more deeply. Though I don’t know if that’s actually implied in the parable. That may be true though.

Second, some of you may end up in the seat of Jesus at the table. You don’t want to end up this seat either. You don’t want to be in the seat of the pharisee or the seat of Jesus. Some of you may have a savior complex, they call this in psychology the martyr complex, where you’re constantly dying for others, which dying to self and helping others and being poured out for others is vital, but, sometimes we end up rushing toward people who don’t really want to change, and we get the martyr complex, do everything for them, almost dragging them behind us, to try to force them to change, and inevitably, they slide back into the mud and mire, because they were never really ready or even interested, not fully, in salvation or growth or a new life. Many, most are just not there yet, unfortunately.

And we don’t do them any favors by trying to drag them into the kingdom of God kicking and screaming, that’s not our job, let God do that, and sometimes he does. But only Jesus can make people ready to receive salvation.

The parent who constantly rescues her son or daughter from court dates, or jail or homelessness or bills is probably in most circumstances simply enabling their disfunction. Sometimes we have to let people chase the wind, so they can realize just how vacuous and empty it is to chase nothingness.

Thirdly, we want to find ourselves in the chair of the woman. The woman with the alabaster ointment. She is so amazed by what Jesus has done for her, she weeps at his feet, and she anoints his feet with oil, she kisses his feet, she is in total submission to God. She is internally bursting with the life of God, with love itself, bubbling up out of her, like a river, pouring itself out onto the feet of Jesus. Total humility, at the feet of the savior.

And that has been our purpose during this entire sermon series. Parables of Jesus, sitting at the feet of the master. We ought to always find ourselves kneeling at the feet of Jesus.

In tears, amazement, amazing grace attitude at what hes’ done to justify us in His sight. To wash away all our sins.

Listening to him teach, listening and learning from Him.

Kissing his feet, offering up our prayers as a fragrent aroma to God.

Humbly knelt down at his feet, submitted to God, in total subjection to His will and plan for our lives.

In such deep love with Jesus, Jesus says to us again and again in life, Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

The Parable of the Growing Seed: The Growth of God's Kingdom vs. the Kingdom of Babylon

“Lloyd was proud of his architectural marvel. He called it Taliesin in honor of a Welsh bard and his romantic poems. The Chicago architect planned to enjoy plenty of romance in his Wisconsin getaway. And that’s exactly why the locals were scandalized. Whenever they spoke about Lloyd’s house, they put the emphasis on the last syllable: Talie-sin. Some tried to get up a petition to bulldoze it. Others threatened to burn it down. The school superintendent warned that the goings-on there would corrupt the morals of area children.

What caused this firestorm? After Lloyd had finished the house of a wealthy client, he stole the man’s wife. When he ran off to Europe with Mamah Borthwick, he abandoned his wife and six children. That was scandalous enough in the big city of Chicago. But there was outrage in Spring Green when he built a love cottage for his mistress. Lloyd couldn’t care less. He was the world’s greatest architect. Laws and rules applied to lesser people. He once said to a reporter, “Two women were necessary for a man of artistic mind —one to be mother of his children and the other to be his mental companion, his inspiration and soul mate.” But Lloyd’s plans would be turned upside down on August 15, 1914.

Lloyd was away when his mistress and two of her children sat down to lunch on the porch at Taliesin. Workers were eating in the dining room. Barbados native Julian Carlton was serving lunch. After Julian served the soup, he took an ax outside, where he hacked Lloyd’s mistress and her children to death. Meanwhile, the workers in the dining room saw fluid spreading across the floor. Suddenly, the liquid erupted into a blazing inferno, and the door to the dining room was shut and locked. Some of the workers managed to bust through the door, only to be met by Julian with his bloodied ax. By the time townspeople arrived at the burning love cottage, seven people, including three children, had been brutally murdered. Julian had swallowed muriatic acid. It would take him seven agonizing weeks to die.

The conventional wisdom in 1914 was that Mamah got what she deserved for breaking up Lloyd’s happy family. But what about the man who was above convention? He immediately set about to rebuild his love cottage. A year later he moved in with another lover. The world remembers Frank Lloyd Wright for his wondrous architecture. But few folks remember the getaway that he built in Spring Green or what happened there. Maybe the Taliesin tragedy is a morality tale. Certainly, we ought to grieve for the innocent victims. But we should also question Lloyd’s assumption that we can ignore the laws indelibly written into creation by its Creator. When we are tempted to think that we are the exception to the rule, we ought to recall something Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:

Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” -Robert Petterson, One Year Book of Amazing Stories

Today we find ourselves in the gospel of Mark, which is the only place in the four gospels where our parable today is located.

Our parable today is nestled within a discourse of Jesus the messiah, where he teaches several parables in rapid succession. He teaches the parable of the sower, the parable of the lamp under a bushel, then our parable for today.

Jesus defines the meaning of the parable this way: “This is what the kingdom of God is like.”

Just like last week, the parable describes the kingdom of God, and in particular, how the growth of the kingdom of God works.

Last week we saw that the kingdom of God is like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a mighty tree, or like yeast that causes bread to rise. Today, we see the picture of a man growing a crop.

This is what Jesus says, in Mark 4:26-29 “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Here Jesus is speaking again about the growth of the kingdom of God, and how it works.

When you think of a profession like someone who builds houses for a living, him and his work crew, they put in their bids to build houses, and someone selects their offer, pays them, and they get to work. They come everyday to the worksite building the house.

I recall last year in town Scott and I would go over to starbucks for coffee in the mornings during kettle season and we’d see the progress the workers were making on the Frankenmuth credit union by home depot. Slowly but surely they got the work done.

What would happen if they had just sat at the work site and waited and watched? Would the materials begin assembling themselves? Would the ground be dug out, would the foundation be placed? Would the wood begin to rise and the shingles plop down from heaven onto the roof? Certainly not.

They work with the supplies provided by others, and put it together into a house. It’s a great deal of work, no doubt.

It’s quite different with farming, and growing crops. My great grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers, and came from farmers, one side from Poland, and they were potato farmers, and the other side from France and Austria, and Germany, they were also farmers.

Farming is an interesting profession, because, you plow the fields, you plant the seeds, you water the seeds, and then you wait. You wait and you wait as the crops grow. You don’t go out into the fields with the various parts of the corn stalk and or wheat stalk and begin gluing it all together piece by piece.

The seed grows from the fertile soil and from the nutrition it receives from the sun.

It’s a long, agonizing process, requiring a great deal of patience I assume.

I recall as part of a class project in grade school I was given tomato seeds and attempted to grow them inside in little planters. I cared for them and watered them and over weeks and months they grew. I was amazed and pleased to see them grow so well. Unfortunately then one day I found them knocked over and chewed to pieces by my cats. Which is terribly disappointing for me.

In any case, it takes patience. And if it doesn’t grow, it doesn’t grow. There’s nothing a human can do to make it grow, necessarily.

So it is with the kingdom of God. The man tosses the seeds out everywhere, and it begins to grow. Similarly, when we spread the gospel, God uses those seeds, and causes them to grow. And it does not happen on our time table.

It may happen quickly, even in just a few months and they get saved. Then again, it may take years and years and years. Only God knows how it happens and how it works.

We see this principle used by the apostle Paul in the book of 1st Corinthians 3:6, Paul wrote, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”

We plant the seed by sharing the gospel with someone, letting them know that they can escape from the empty miserable life of sin they are living. They can escape from a miserable one dimension life, a life of service to self. People of the world live that way, we all used to live that way, we lived to fulfill our basic desires, food, shelter, friendship, influence, romance. 3 instincts of life, security, social, and sexual instincts. Essentially, do what feels good. We live on emotion first, mind second.

We plant the seed. Someone else comes along and waters it. Another Christian comes along and fertilizes it. But God himself causes the seed to sprout up from the dirt, and grow.

And this person is taken from an empty life, to beginning to realize the true nature of the universe and the planet Earth, that it is the design of an infinite creative intelligence. And this God begins to lead them toward the path home, and this leads to the salvation we find in Jesus Christ, for our sins to be washed away.

This 2-dimensional person, living on emotion and selfishness, comes to Jesus, cries out to Jesus, and Jesus gives them a new nature, a new heart, new desires, and washes away their sins.

Suddenly, this person is rocketed into a new dimension of life, they go from desperately trying to fulfill the three basic instincts for security, socializing, and sexuality, to the 4th dimension, the dimension of faith in God, reliance on God. And instead of seeking security, social, and sexual instincts first, instead this approach is completely replaced by seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness.

Instead of living lives of quiet desperation, fearfully trying to fulfill our desires for security, safety, friendships and romance, instead we live by the great mystery of Christianity, we live by faith in God.

We live in total trust with God. And as a result, God causes us to grow into new people, people made for the kingdom of Heaven.

Trust in God, that is what all this is built upon. If we want to be people who are like the growing seed, that is always growing, and if we want to be people who are soul winners, who are drawing people to Jesus Christ, we must have a radical trust in God.

To really trust God when everything is going wrong, to really trust God when we don’t see anything changing on the surface, to really trust God when we keep evangelizing and sharing our faith with people, and we keep inviting people to church but few ever come, can we really trust that our efforts have not failed, that God will be do more than we can imagine?

The farmer has to trust that the seeds are going to grow. No amount of effort over the months can force the seed to grow. They can create to a certain extent good conditions, they can plow good rows, they can water the fields, they can apply fertilizer, they can drive off wildlife, but they can’t make the seed grow and produce it’s fruit.

Only the sun, and the fertile soil, and the DNA of the seed can produce the harvest. Similarly, in your walk with Christ, I can provide a quality sermon, we can provide groups and social media encouragement, and instructions on prayer and bible reading, but only God can really cause those things to flourish in your life, and it also takes your submission to Him and your willingness to live out the Christian life on a daily basis.

If you struggle with that willingness to submit to God and give real time to Him, pray, ask God to help make you more willing to submit to Him. But there is something that will certainly disrupt your intimacy with God, it’s sin, if you allow sin a foothold in your life, it will disrupt your walk with God, and if you fill yourself with the world, entertainment, movies, videogames, music, parties, politics, hobbies, culture, all that, you may find yourself so filled with the world that God ends up with a backseat.

So in your own life, only God can cause your seed to grow, and connected in this is your willingness to let God control your life, practically.

So submit to Him. Make Him the true head of your life. Make Him King of your life. Maybe you’ve never done that. Maybe you’ve received Jesus Christ as your savior, but you’ve never received Him as King of you life, where you literally check your decisions with Him, and do what he wants you to do, well you can do that today, say Dear Lord Jesus, You are my savior, and I make you my King, I give my life to your service, guide me to know your will and do you will, I unseat myself, and give you the seat of kingship in my heart and my life. Use me as you see fit Lord, in Jesus name, Amen.

That is the personal application of our parable for today. Internally it looks like trusting God to do the work in you while submitting to Him. Internally it looks like trusting Him to provide for all your needs as you seek His plan and kingdom first. Internally it looks like trusting Him, as you spread the seeds of the gospel in Owosso, in this state, in this world, that even if you don’t see the fruit, God is still causing those seeds to grow, maybe not right now, but in years, or longer. Trusting God’s word will not return void.

Now, let’s flip to an external perspective on the parable of the growing seed, what does this look like in western civilization, in the United States and our world today?

Yes, this parable is an encouragement for us that God will cause the seeds we plant to grow, and yes it’s an encouragement that God will cause us to grow as we submit to His will, but this is also I believe a statement Jesus is making about the progress of history on planet Earth.

We’re talking about the march of two kingdoms, the march of God’s kingdom vs. the march of evil.

We’ve seen a battle on planet Earth over the last six thousand years between two kingdoms, the kingdom of Satan, often called Babylon, and the kingdom of God. The entire Earth has been under the control of the evil one since the fall in the garden of Eden, but slowly but surely God’s kingdom has spread, beginning with one man, Abraham, to the nation of Israel, a beacon of hope to the nations, but Israel fell over time to idolatry, which led God to come in human form, Jesus Christ, and his life, death, and resurrection from the grave began the spread of the kingdom of God across the planet Earth. It spread west through the roman empire, into Europe, and eventually to the new world, to the Americas, and then into Africa, and asia, India, Japan, and across the nations of the Earth.

But with the rise of modernism, technology, vast economies and wealth, and world wars, Christendom in western civilization began to decline as sin and wickedness and pride and self-focus spread. Christendom, Christianity as a controlling force in the United States and Europe, essentially collapsed completely in the last 50 years.

So today we find ourselves in an odd interplay between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Babylon. The kingdom of God is spreading like wildfire through the eastern world, China, India, the Philippines, South Korea, and through the continent of Africa, beginning in the southern half and spreading rapidly north, but at the same time in the western world, the United States and Europe, we see the decline and collapse of Christianity, and the rise of the kingdom of Babylon.

This is of course all part of the growth of the seeds of the kingdom of God upon the Earth. Piece by piece and part by part the kingdom of God grows, from a seed, to a sprout, then a stalk, then a head, and full kernels of the fruit of the crop in the head. Until it is fully grown, and then waits as the weather becomes increasingly cold, and windy, and bitter, until the harvest comes.

Perhaps those are the days we find ourselves in, the harvest of God’s kingdom moving toward being fully grown across the nations of the Earth, now waiting, as the weather grows increasingly cold, because, the last days are approaching.

Because we know in the time of the tribulation, the end times in revelation, the kingdom of Satan will have it’s time of control of the Earth, to test those who remain on the Earth, so they may make their choice, whom will they serve, God or Satan, obedience to God or rebellion against God?

That is the fundamental choice before every human soul on Earth. Rebellion to god’s system or obedience to the kingdom of God? What is your choice?

Today in the United States it feels a lot like me, to the kingdom of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings series. Yes, a Tolkien reference, you thought you might escape without such a reference but here we are.

Gondor had once been an incredibly powerful kingdom with vast armies. But over the ages Gondor became increasingly weakened by corrupt leaders, a plague that spread across the land, and a civil war. This had increasingly weakened Gondor. Plus, Gondor as a nation was placed just to the west of evil Sauron’s kingdom. So they had to constantly fight off attacks by ork armies, to protect the rest of the Earth. They grew increasingly corrupt and weak, their armies exhausted and defeated, and soon, even Osgiliath had fallen, the city closest to the capital of Minas Tirith.

Hordes of orks moved freely throughout middle earth, because Gondor could no longer keep the rest of the nations safe.

This reminds me of the state of Christianity today. We’ve grown weak in our constant battles against the kingdoms of hell and darkness. We’re not particularly united amongst our denominations, and western civilization has turned against us, favoring modernism, technology, sin, and debauchery, in favor of truth and beauty and light. They’ve declared their victory of the old fairy tales of the past, and declared that science will now light the way, and Christianity is of no particular value to the west any longer.

And so as we see the west reject Christianity, we see the multiplying of evil across the west, they invent new ways of doing evil says the word of God, that is certainly true of this nation, pornography, human trafficking, domestic violence, abortion of unborn children, gender ideology, relativism, increased crime, assisted suicide, we see all the precepts of Christianity that once held the west together, from the sanctity of life, to marriage and the nuclear family, and the ten commandments and concepts of law and justice, all derived from Christianity, slowly being pulled apart by the west and replaced with Marxist darwinistic theories of justice, truth, politics, economics, psychology, and ideology.

So we find ourselves as Christians, as a holy remnant of God, in a civilization increasingly hostile toward Christianity, hostile toward Christian values, and hostile toward us. We are like a anti-body, or a white blood cell in a system, that once functioned to protect the system, but now is regarded as a foreign adversary to the system, regarded as alien and to be removed, if not now, someday.

Yet still, a holy remnant remains true, maybe only a few million strong across all 50 states, acting as guards and watchmen and women, groups of us fight the kingdoms of darkness still in the fallen lands of the USA, like a resistance movement, like a secret movement, we still fight in these lands, drawing people to Jesus Christ, battling sin in society, upholding what little justice and truth remains in our government systems and law and culture, praying against the kingdoms of darkness, striking at their rulers and authorities and foot demons in the heavenly places across our lands.

It reminds me of groups of soldiers in Tolkien’s middle earth called “rangers of Ithilien.” They would move about secretly in groups of 50 or 100 or 20 or a few hundred, ambushing orcs and enemy troops as they moved across the lands of middle earth.

Though hordes of demons and sin and darkness freely roam across the 50 states of the USA, they are never safe from groups of Christian soldiers, who ambush them and crush them where they are found attacking the free people of the USA. We’re weak, we’re battered, we’re barely holding on, but we have not given up, and we continue to fight the enemy, and win souls to Christ, across all 50 states of this nation, day and night. And we will never surrender, though the night get darker still, we will grow ever brighter, we will not give up, we will keep winning souls to Christ, we will keep casting our the demonic hordes, we will keep praying angels to fight them, we will keep speaking up boldly for Christ everywhere we possibly can.

Because we know that the end is near, and everyone needs Jesus. The harvest of God’s kingdom is ripe, but the workers are few, so we are praying hard for God to send workers into these fields, they are ripe for harvest. One day soon, brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ will return to this Earth, like the man in the parable, to harvest the grain that has grown and been made ready by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Praise the Lord!

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven Dough

Our parables today, we’re looking at two, are both illustrating the same point, and are found in both Matthew and Luke’s gospel recordings of the life of Jesus the messiah. We’re going to look at these parables from Matthew’s gospel, found in Matthew 13 starting in verse 31.

Jesus is teaching the crowds at this point, he was actually standing in a boat so he could speak to the crowd more clearly because it was such a large crowd, most likely in the thousands.

Jesus is telling several parables in Matthew 12 and 13 referencing seeds, and planting and growing crops, and he had just told the parable of the weeds among the wheat, and so nestled among several different parables talking about how the kingdom of God works, we find our two parables today. Let’s take a look.

From Matthew 13:31-33: He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

What is Jesus talking about? Well, Israel had been hoping and dreaming of the messiah to come, but in their theology, their understanding of scripture, they believed the messiah would come and take military and political control of the nation and the world. That was the dream. They wanted total victory over the nation of Rome which had control of Israel at that point in history.

So when Jesus spoke of the coming of the kingdom of God the crowds assumed that Jesus would lead a rebellion against the roman empire, overthrow them, and begin conquering all the nations of the Earth.

So Jesus is clarifying what the kingdom of God really is. In previous statements and other parables Jesus had said the kingdom of God isn’t something you’ll be able to point to and say there it is, because he said the kingdom of God is within you. And you don’t know where it comes or where it goes, like the wind, you don’t know for certain those who are born again of the Spirit, and who are truly a part of this kingdom of God that has come.

The seed that Jesus planted seemed very small. He had 12 disciples, he had a larger following that were called the 72. He had crowds of hundreds and thousands following Him, but in the grand scheme of Israel and the planet Earth it didn’t seem that large. It was a small seed, and after Jesus was crucified many would depart, the 12 went into hiding, and the early church faced unprecedented persecution and harassment from the Jewish authorities and the roman empire.

Jesus identifies the growth of the kingdom of God as something similar to a mustard seed. The mustard seed is very, very small. Yet it grows very quickly, and can become up to 9 feet tall. So large in fact that birds may come and find shelter under it’s branches.

The mustard tree then provides nutrition to those who feed from it. But the mustard plant is by others viewed as a weed, it grows very very fast, and when it’s seeds drop they germinate and grow immediately. A gardener may have a difficult time getting rid of the mustard plant once it’s growing and releasing it’s seed. So it is as well with the body of Christ, as it spread across the world, many a time, and even to this day countries, peoples and governments try very hard to get rid of it. They try to uproot and destroy the body of Christ, this is common in today’s world in countries like China, Iran, Afghanistan, India, North Korea, Russia, and other nations. The early church was severely persecuted by the roman empire. Yet even when believers were killed for their faith, it would just seem to cause the body of Christ to spread even further.

So two thousand years ago, the body of Christ seemed to be only a tiny, tiny seed, you could say, it began with one man, the God-man, Jesus Christ, who was planted, He was crucified. Jesus himself said in John 12:24, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Jesus our messiah’s death, and his resurrection from the grave, became the seed of the body of believers to this very day. It began with Jesus, one man, one mustard seed, planted, and this one seed became a giant tree over the last two thousand years, to the body of Christ in the world today, about 2.7 billion people on the face of planet Earth claiming Jesus Christ as their savior.

What do the birds symbolize in the parable then? The mustard tree could represent the nation of Israel being gathered unto Christ, and the birds could represent the gentile people across the planet coming to find safety in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Similarly, we see the parable of the leaven, a large amount of flour, 60 lbs., or 3 portions, and a woman takes yeast and mixes it into the flour, making it into a dough. And the yeast mixes throughout the flour and causes the dough to rise.

In tying these two parables together Jesus is speaking to two different occupations, one to a farmer in the fields, a predominantly male profession, and to a cook in the kitchen at the time a predominantly female profession. So he’s speaking to both men and women, addressing it in two different ways as well, so people could understand in plain terms.

So you’ve got the whole world, as a chunk of dough, flat, and the living organisms the yeast work their way through the dough and the dough rises as a result. And this is for me how it is to live in the world today. A non-believer in Jesus seems to me to be flat, empty, sorrowful, afraid, and often quite uninteresting. Yet when someone believes in Jesus and they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they become quite alive, Spirit-filled, alive, and active in the work of the kingdom. So it is with the living organisms the yeast working through the flour, it causes it to rise.

How fitting then that after we die, Jesus promises to raise us from the dead, to eternal life.

So that is how the ancient audience may have viewed these two parables, as speaking of the rapid growth that would take off from the kingdom of God, something that seemed small, with only a handful of disciples led by Jesus, to becoming something that would spread rapidly to many peoples everywhere.

In a moment we’ll talk about how to apply this to our lives today, but first take a look at verse 34-35 which are connected with these two parables.

It says, “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” 

-Matthew 13:34-35

Jesus taught the people in parables, and this was a fulfillment of Psalm 78:2. He taught in parables, knowing that some would believe these things, and some would reject these things, the universal truths of the kingdom of God and indeed universal truths about our world today.

So how can we apply this to our lives? Three areas, I want you to consider, personal, body of believers, and world.

Personal application, recognize that the smallest seed that you plant, by sharing the word of God with someone, sharing the gospel with someone, praying with someone, posting something on social media, sending an email to a friend, blessing someone with your good deeds, that tiny little seed can accomplish much more than you realize.

That single moment will become for them a link in a chain that is leading them to salvation in Jesus Christ. When I think back on my salvation journey I can remember each of them, one by one, who tried in various ways to share the message with me. I bet you could look back as well and consider people who shared it with you, and it’s become part of your testimony. So remember that, even something small can make a big difference.

Secondly, body of believers, specifically let’s just talk about this church, three years ago, we started to work building up this corps. When we first started, there were only a few people who came to dinner church, 5 or 6. There was no morning church service we drove to Flint on Sunday mornings. We didn’t have a bible study, we didn’t have a womens group or a recovery group. Today three years later we have a morning church of about 15 believers. We have a dinner church of about 20 believers. Our groups have 5-10 believers attending them depending on the week. We went from 2 employees to 4 employees. This was all a work of God almighty, all glory goes to Him, I didn’t do anything, we didn’t do anything but obey our master, that’s it. But look at how just a small group of people can make such a big difference in Shiawassee county. God has impacted thousands of lives through you. That’s miraculous. That’s the tiny seed of a small body of believers, surrendered to Christ, and the footprint Christ leaves on a community through them.

Now imagine if we stay faithful and firm to Christ for another three years, or five years or ten years, we’re a little mustard bush now, but we could become a tall mustard tree.

But it’s up to us to be surrendered to God. As many as have stayed with this little church the last three years, just as many have drifted off, fallen away, and abandoned us over the years. The enemy has attacked us severely. Yet we’ve stood the test.

What will your legacy be? To drift off and quit? Or to stand firm? That is the challenge to all of us in Christ today.

Thirdly, world application. We often see things going on in the world, in culture, in politics, in crime, in the economy and feel powerless don’t we? The thing is we’re not powerless. We have incredible authority in Jesus Christ, as His body of believers, to pray to God, and things change on the national and worldwide stage. Do you believe your prayers can change the world? Change the united states? Change the state of Michigan? Or do you think of prayers as well just thoughts and prayers? Wrong! If you pray in Jesus name, God answers, and the world changes. I’ve seen it time and again, what if we as believers united in prayer and said no, in Jesus name, we will not allow this corruption. In Jesus name we will not allow crooked politicians in office. In Jesus name we will not allow Michigan to become an abortion hub of the Midwest, what if we said in Jesus name we disallow false teachings in the church. The whole world would change. Believe in the power of prayer. I dare you to believe that your prayers can change the world in Jesus name. Because they can. I’ve seen it happen. You have authority in Jesus Christ to win the world for Jesus, so pray, and pray, and don’t stop praying.

That prayer may seem like a tiny little mustard seed that couldn’t possibly affect anything in the world. But it actually can. That tiny little mustard seed will become a tree in the spiritual realm as your pray and cry out to God for mercy on this land. So I call you to do that today as a believer in Jesus Christ. Cry out to God, when you see something sad on the news, some corruption, some evil agenda taking root, instead of getting angry stop in that moment and say Lord, In Jesus name over that evil, in Jesus name I stand against that, in Jesus name, may those evil schemes come to nothing. And watch the world change. Amen.

The Barren Fig Tree: Personal, National, and Universal Applications of Fruit Bearing

“Mordecai was seven years old when he decided that God had called him to be an evangelist. He started by preaching to barnyard animals. He even tried to immerse a cat in a water trough. When the feline began to scratch and claw, the budding evangelist threw him down and screamed, “Go on . . . go to hell!” It’s no wonder Mordecai grew up to be a “hog-jowl and turnip-green preacher” —country slang for a parson who gets in people’s faces. Whenever he brought his gospel tent to town, he would ask the locals to identify their most notorious sinner. He would then make a beeline for that person. Atheists, agnostics, and backsliders went into hiding when Mordecai Ham came to town.

In the twilight of his “hog-jowl and turnip-green” ministry, handsome Hollywood preachers came selling a softer gospel using Madison Avenue techniques. Folks stopped listening to the hellfire and brimstone of old Mordecai Ham. It seemed that he was washed up.

One night a pitiful handful in a half-filled service came forward. Mordecai Ham went back to his hotel room and wept in despair. Maybe he should have paid attention to one of those converts that night: a gangly North Carolina boy by the name of Billy Graham. In an age that measures success by the numbers, we need to step back and reevaluate what really matters. The impact we can have through a single prayer, a single conversation, a single act of kindness, or a single [you fill in the blank] —on a single child, man, or woman —is both incalculable and underrated. A child learns to walk one step at a time, and a race is finished by putting one foot in front of the other. Mordecai Ham died years ago, but what happened that one amazing night should encourage us with this truth: A single person doing the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time has the power to change the whole world.” -James Petterson, The One Year Book of Amazing Stories

Mordecai Ham was one who bore fruit for the kingdom of God. He was a fruit filled fig tree, you might say. And people came to know Jesus because he bore fruit in keeping with his faith.

Today we’re talking about the parable of the barren fig tree. It’s found only in the gospel of Luke, in chapter 13. This parable is very interesting because we’re going to see there are multiple layers of meaning here.

Jesus when he told parables, being the King of the universe, told parables with multiple layers of meaning, so as you dig into it, you’ll find deeper and deeper truths as you examine what he’s saying.

The three layers we’ll see are first, being applicable to our salvation journey personally. A message for individual believers. The second level is a message to Israel as God’s chosen people. The third layer is universal, it’s a message about the fabric of reality itself.

First let’s talk about the context, at this point in the gospel of Luke, Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to do ministry work, then he sent out the 72 to do ministry work. Later they had gathered again, and Jesus had taught crowds, then he had rebuked the pharisees and teachers of the law openly, after this the pharisees began openly opposing Jesus. But crowds of thousands began following Jesus, it says at the beginning of chapter 12, he’s teaching his disciples there as well, and he begans teaching many parables, and truths. Then at the beginning of chapter 13, we see our context, and it says this,

From Luke 13:1-5, “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Jesus is teaching his disciples, teaching to the crowds, thousands of people in fact, and people are coming to him telling him about recent events in the news. Apparently Pontius Pilate had executed several of the jews while they were making sacrifices at the temple. Obviously this news is going around in the newspapers on the tv, and the people are talking about it. Similarly another event is being talked about, a tower was being built in Siloam, and it fell, killing 18 people.

It was common in those times to assume the people that were killed must’ve been sinners and God was judging them. Jesus says no that’s not necessarily the reason these events happened.

They happened because life on Earth was and is tough and random, and terrible things happen. And Jesus gives the crowds of thousands a warning, unless you repent you’ll perish too, like those who died in those events.

You don’t know when your day will come, death can come for us at any time. When we hear news stories we focus on other people and their sins. It’s a great way to get the focus off ourselves and onto others problems. We do that even when we listen to sermons or read the Bible, we think oh I know someone who needs to hear that my sister or a friend or someone at work. But Jesus says what about you? What about your own sins? Examine yourself first.

Immediately following this statement Jesus tells our parable for today. It says this:

6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

What is your chief job as a Christian on planet Earth? Your chief duty is to bear fruit. Bear fruit, bear fruit, and bear more fruit. You are a fruit tree. You are a fruit bearer.

It says in Psalm 1:3-4, “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.” –Psalm 1:3-4

In Psalm 1 we see a believer pictured as a tree planted by water. The stream of water is God almighty you might say, or for us Christians, the stream of water is Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit surging through our veins.

And that tree surging with the power of God produces fruit. That fruit is pleasing to God.

Similarly in John chapter 15 verses 1 and 2 Jesus talk about how the disciples are like branches in a grape vine. It says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” –John 15:1-2

If a branch bears fruit, it’s pruned so that it produces even more fruit. That pruning we understand to be the guidance and correction of God in our Christian lives.

But we also see it says if a branch doesn’t bear fruit, it’s cut off. Later it says branches that do not produce fruit are cut off and burned.

Similarly in our parable today the believer is pictured as a fig tree. A fig tree produces fruit, it produces figs, a wonderful fruit common in Israel in the middle east.

Could Jesus be talking about a wicked sinner here as a fig tree? No. Unbelievers do not produce good fruit, only bad. No one can please God unless they are in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is saying here, a believer, is like a fig tree, watered and cared for by God. And God expects there to be evidence of belief on the branches of the believer. That evidence is good fruit.

What do you think Jesus would mean by fruit? He could be talking about the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Could be. Those would be internal fruit, fruits of your character. He could be talking more about good works, things like loving people, witnessing to others, feeding people, clothing people, visiting those in prison, caring for widows, caring for the elderly, inviting in the homeless, and so on. It could be both, one in turn must produce the other right? If the Holy Spirit is producing the fruit of the Spirit of love in mean, that love must manifest itself as practical actions in my life.

As it says in the book of James, faith without works is dead. My faith cannot be put under a basket, like a candle, it would burn out from lack of oxygen.

In James 2:14-17 it says, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” –James 2:14-17

So we know that the evidence of our faith is found in good deeds. But without deeds, faith dies. The word of God, in the book of James even says that if we know the good work, the good thing, the help we’re to provide, we know we’re supposed to do it, we feel the Holy Spirit convicting us to do it, and we don’t it is sin to us.

From James 4:17, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

So Jesus tells this parable of a man going to his vineyard and checking a particular fig tree for fruit, and he’s really frustrated, it’s been 3 years and still there is no fruit on this stupid tree. He’s put money and time into it, he has workers there who have been caring for it, and still nothing.

I remember growing up my mom planted an apple tree in our yard. But there was something wrong with the soil in that yard, and nothing would grow well. But the apple tree actually did grow, and it produced all sorts of leaves. But no fruit. Nothing of any value. And we had such high hopes for that apple tree, but it just wouldn’t produce any fruit.

Similarly, Jesus comes to us as believers to see if we are bearing fruit for his kingdom. And obviously any Christian ought to be bearing fruit. But he tells us that he does find that some Christians become lazy, or mired in sin, or they stop caring, or they drift away from the message, and they aren’t producing fruit.

And what does Jesus say he will do? He says I’ll cut down that tree because it’s useless. I’ll pull that branch off the vine myself and toss it in the fire. Serious stuff, he expects his people to bear his fruit. And if we don’t, we’re in danger of being cut off. For three years this fig tree produces nothing. But still the master is merciful. He has his servant fertilize it, water it, work the soil around it, give it one more year to produce fruit.

God is very merciful and patient with us. Even if we do get lazy as Christians and stop producing fruit, he’ll come to us and fertizile our soil, stir us up, convict us, to that we do produce fruit. Yet if we remain stiffnecked and refuse him, he will deal with us. We can be assured of that from this parable.

If it bears fruit next year, it says, fine, great awesome, you’re set then. No crime, no fowl for those 3 years of failure. It’s forgotten you’re bearing fruit now, that’s all that matters. But if even after that fourth year theres still no fruit, well, what does that mean? The believer will then fall away, perhaps without the possibility of returning? We know from Hebrews that in a particular situation, when someone falls away, not in all circumstances but in some, that they are not able to return because they would be “crucifying again the Lord Jesus Christ and holding him up to public shame.” Would that be the case in this situation? I don’t know. Perhaps they would “fall away” but could return again to the Lord in the future, if they came again to repentance and faith in Christ? Hard to say, I’m not sure how all this fits together. But it’s wise to study this parable carefully.

So that’s the first layer of this parable, the layer of personal application.

The second layer, is that Jesus is also talking about Israel. We’ve seen this in numerous parables that Jesus is often giving multiple layers of truth in one parable. It gives us a picture for our own lives, but also speaks to larger topics.

Israel had rejected God’s prophets, had rebelled time and again, worshiped false gods, and now Jesus had been with them for 3 years, preaching and teaching the truth. The image of the fig tree is often referred to in the Old Testament as representing Israel, as well. So 3 years of Jesus ministry, and they’ve still rejected him. But wait even a fourth year, even after Jesus is crucified, and resurrected, the early church would minister in Israel, but would also be rejected, mistreated, martyred, and they would take their message into the Roman empire. And eventually Israel, as the fig tree of God, was cut down, in AD 70 when Rome destroyed Jerusalem, and burned down the 2nd temple, after Israel rebelled against Rome. So the fig tree was after everything, cut down.

Though just as prophecy predicted, after WWII, the Jews returned to Israel, and are there right now, having rebuilt the nation, though they have not yet rebuilt the temple. Maybe that’s a picture for us, that perhaps believers who fall away can return, though only through God’s mercy.

So this parable is a rebuke to the pharisees, and the religious leaders and the nation of Israel in general, saying you are not producing the fruit I require, the fruit of repentance and turning to me, to Jesus, and so you will be cut down.

Thirdly, this parable is speaking about a universal reality.

This is a principle of wisdom you can apply to numerous situations. You’ve got an old car that’s been on the fritz for years, it’s having engine issues, oil is leaking, the brakes are bad, etc. Apply the principle in the parable, you could give it another chance, look for the underlying issue with the vehicle, fix it up again one more time, give it another chance, if it runs well again great, if not, get rid of it. You’ve got a friendship that’s been causing you problems for years, ups and downs, fights and make ups, but you have the option to give it another chance. Sit down with the friend let’s find the underlying issue here, let’s fertilize the situation, let’s go down deep and work up the soil itself, and give it another chance, but if not, after that, it’s time to end the friendship. You’ve got an old barn, or an old house, it’s given you problems, for years, once again, you can give it one more chance, go to the underlying issue, turn up the soil, fix the foundation, and hey, you try your best, and it’s fixed, it’s good again for another 20 years. Or, the fix didn’t hold, time to give it up.

I’m sure it’s a principle you’ve probably already used in numerous situations without realizing it. In layman’s terms, “one last try.” But just take that now, as a tool in your wisdom tool box. 3 years, no fruit, last try, one more year, end. Now if it’s only been one year, in these situations, you don’t want to prematurely give up either. Then again there may be situations where you know, this isn’t going to work from the start. That’s all the rub of wisdom and discernment.

So in conclusion today, what should our response be to the parable of the barren fig tree?

Should it cause us to fear God and tremble before His holiness? I think it certainly should.

Should it cause us to fear falling away, or fear losing our faith, or fear that we won’t be able to measure up in our own efforts? Or fear we won’t produce enough fruit to make God happy? Absolutely not.

It should remind us of the example of Mordecai Ham, that even in a half filled service, there may be a future Billy Graham in the room. It should remind us that fruit bearing is not able numbers, but about quality. It’s about faith in God. It’s about trusting in Jesus Christ. It’s about falling so madly in love with Jesus that we bear fruit naturally, because we love God so desperately.

So cultivate your love with God, your relationship with God, your dependence on God, and you will bear fruit in it’s proper season, like the tree planted by streams of living water. But if you get lazy, become complacent, hardly pray, hardly witness, hardly seek God, then you should be concerned, you should fear God, and tremble, and repent, and be at work for His kingdom and His glory. Amen.