Category: Sermon Supplements

Micah 5:1-5a & Disney Is a Cheap Knockoff

Once upon a time there was an enchanted kingdom, full of the deepest and purest of magic because loved by the highest of gods (Psalm 86:8). A great king was given to this people, and the magic was upon him heavily. Giants fell; enemies ran. But the end of his reign was marked by precursors of doom. The magic that once worked for him, now worked at times to reprove him. This was not a wieldable, tamable magic beneath him, but over him. The kingdom began to age and deteriorate with their king, for he was their shepherd. He carried them as a lamb on his shoulders. His fall would mean theirs. Yet the king was given a promise of a Son. A Son who not only would never go against the great magic, but who is Lord over it, for the great magic was simply His power, His desire. A Son would come, more ancient than His fathers.

Hopes were high in the king’s firstborn. The kingdom seemed to flourish as never before. Palaces were built, and an unequalled temple erected to God Most High. Yet the son’s kingdom was like a stack of Jenga blocks waiting to fall down. There was no spiritual cement to hold together the material prosperity. Walls were erected, but no longer enchanted. The son’s latter reign was more dismal than his father’s. To many wives with too many idols led his heart astray.

Sons were born and sons reigned, but never did any match the reign of the first king, most certainly none excelled it. Good kings would rise and rebuild, but a bad king would always follow who would tear down more than His predecessors could build up. This kingdom was destined to shine like the sun, but entropy and the law of thermodynamics seemed to set hard in just as this star was birthed. Walls cracked, gates splintered, the temple was burned, the line of kings was humiliated, hope was banished.

Then, as a shoot coming forth miraculously our of dry ground, came a Son of the sons. He too would be struck and humiliated by pagan rulers. Far deeper and harder would be His fall, for He would fall not for His own personal sins, for He had none, but for all the sins of His subjects, for He carried them as a lamb upon His shoulders.

The first king’s fall meant the ruination of the kingdom. The second king’s fall meant their salvation.The first king fell into sin precisely when he failed to war for his people (2 Samuel 11:1ff). The second king fell in battle for His people. He was the promised Warrior Prince born of Eve and Israel, born to kill the dragon and get the girl. He would rescue the prostitute and maker her His pure bride.

Wicked kings fell never to rise. This King rose never to fall, and He stands with His own as a lamb upon His shoulders. Darkness had fallen on the land, but it fell dead when the Dragon tried to consume the Morning Star. The bleak darkness only made the Son’s rising more brilliant.  This Star will never dim, of His rule there will be no end. His eternal rule is His people’s everlasting peace. This is the only true “happily ever after.”

Matthew 13:47-50 & Perform No Appendectomy!

If these parables formed a body, would the parable of the dragnet be the appendix? Seemingly all it does is repeat part of the parable of the weeds. Does this parable contribute anything unique?

I think this parable, while teaching the same truths seen in the parable of the dragnet, does contribute something unique. While there unity among all these parables, they are all parables about the kingdom, there is also diversity and progression; with that being the case why repeat an earlier theme? Also, while there are other parables that build on each other and repeat the same idea, such as the parables of the mustard seed and leaven and the parables of the treasure and the pearl, notice how these follow one another. If the parable of the dragnet is meant to do nothing more than repeat the truths of the parable of the weeds why insert so many other parables in between them?

There are two things that make this parable unique, its emphasis and its context.

Whereas the parable of the weeds stresses the delay between the inauguration of the kingdom in sowing the good seed of salvation and the consummation of the kingdom bringing full salvation and judgment, the parable of the dragnet the emphasizes judgment alone. The parable of the weeds answers the question, “Why if the kingdom has come is there still evil present?” The parable of the dragnet warns of certain judgment. D.A. Carson points out the different emphasis saying, “Whereas the parable of the weeds focuses on the long period of the reign of God during which tares coexist with the wheat and the enemy has large powers, the parable of the net simply describes the situation that exists when the last judgment takes place.” In the parable of the weeds we are told of the state of both the weeds and the wheat at the close of the age (vv.42-43), here we are told only of the state of the bad fish. The first parable is an explanation, this one is a warning.

But it is the context that I think makes this parable most distinct and powerful. I think the word that makes it explode with power is the first one, “again”. Initially I thought of this word as nothing more than connective tissue. I read some great commentators who made much of the “again” in v. 45 as indicating the close connection between the parables of the treasure and pearl. I agree there is a close connection, but was bothered by their ignoring the “again” in v. 47. Then I thought what if the “again” is meant to show the relation of all three parables? I believe it is.

How do they relate? It’s like this, the kingdom of heaven will eternally be for you either treasure or torment. The kingdom brings both salvation and judgment, so it will either be your greatest delight or your greatest fright. All that God is will either be for you to enjoy, or for you to fear. God is holy, infinite, sovereign, incomprehensible, self-sufficient, immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, righteous, and faithful. Will you know all that God is as your eternal and deepest delight or dread?

Matthew 13:44-46 & Happy Hobos

If these two parables were Americanized they would end with the “man”, perhaps a tenant farmer, being vindicated as he now lives in a plush mansion with tricked-out camels, and the merchant being famous, having sold the pearl for many times what he bought it. But neither the man, nor the merchant sell their treasure to buy other things, rather, they sell all other things to buy the treasure. The merchant doesn’t buy the pearl to sell it; he sells all to buy the pearl. The kingdom of heaven is not a means to an end, it is the end.

Some today buy stunning pieces of art and rare artifacts, not to profit from them, but to simply enjoy them. Still its unheard of for a lavishly wealthy person to go for broke to own a single piece of art.

Merchants were extremely wealthy and powerful, and this merchant was certainly so, searching only for fine pearls (likely the most valued jewel of the time by Romans). Imagine hearing that a Bill Gates joyfully liquidated every asset to own one piece of art. There is video of footage of the former business magnate now gone hobo standing on the street corner with a grin on his face staring at his piece of art.

I think you would conclude either one of two things must be true. Your first impulse is that he must be nuts. But then you grow curious. You haven’t seen the work of art. What if glory and beauty exist that are really worth that price tag? Wouldn’t it be wonderful?

There is a glory this stunning. It is a glorious mystery revealed to some (13:11). They see the hidden treasure others don’t. To others their actions look absurd, but if you have seen the value of the kingdom, you know it’s worth sacrificing everything for. That’s the way we ought to live, as hobos with a smile on our face enjoying a treasure others can’t see, making them think, “What if a glory like that really exists? I don’t know that it does, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if it did?”

Matthew 13:31-35 & Marvel at the Shrub

No good Jew doubted that the Kingdom would be glorious, that was expected. What was a shocking stumbling-block, and what Jesus was communicating here, is that it would grow from the smallest, most humble and insignificant of beginnings.

I am not an optimist in regards to history or the future. I don’t suspect that humanity is steadily progressing, nor that the kingdom will ultimately win over the world before Jesus’ return, but I am not a pessimist either. What can we expect in the future? I think things will get both better and worse. The parable of the weeds reminds us that the kingdom hasn’t come in all its fullness yet; and that until the end of the age, evil will grow and our salvation will not be complete. But the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast remind us that the kingdom is growing, and that God’s mission is global.

Our Western eyes too often look on the 20th century as a time of decline for the church; as though she has lost her power and influence. We are missionally myopic judging the whole of Christianity in light of ourselves. I think our arrogance is displayed when speak in such ways as this, “Things are so bad here – Jesus must be coming soon!” Indeed He may come soon, but from a global perspective Christianity has flourished as never before. Consider the following figures (taken from Let the Nations be Glad by John Piper and Operation World by Jason Mandryck):

  • At the beginning of the twentieth century, Europeans dominated the world church, with approximately 70.6 percent of the Word’s Christians. By 1938, on the eve of World War II, the apparent European domination of Protestantism and Catholicism remained strong. Yet by the end of the twentieth century, The European percentage of world Christianity had shrunk to 28 percent of the total; Latin America and Africa combined provided 43 percent of the world’s Christians.
  • In 1900, Africa had 10 million Christians, representing about 10 percent of the population; by 2000, this figure had grown to 360 million, representing about half the population. Quantitatively, this may well be the largest shift in religious affiliation that has ever occurred, anywhere.
  • The number of African Christians is growing at around 2.36 percent annually, which would lead us to project a doubling of the continent’s Christian population in less than thirty years.
  • “This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined.”
  • “The number of practicing Christians in China is approaching the number in the United States.”
  • “Last Sunday . . . more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called ‘Christian Europe.’”
  • ‘Live bodies in church are far more numerous in Kenya than in Canada.”
  • “More believers worship together in Nagaland than in Norway.”
  • “More Christian workers from Brazil are active in cross cultural ministry outside their homelands than from Britain or from Canada.”
  • Last Sunday “more Presbyterians were in church in Ghana than in Scotland.”“The survival and growth of the Church in China are two of the decisive events of our generation. The staggering recent growth of the Chinese Church has no parallel in history – from 2.7 million evangelicals in 1975 to over 75 million in 2010.”

Some look at these figures and say, “Yeah, but they’re not all truly regenerate.” I agree, but many are sons of the kingdom; and oh how sad it is if you don’t have eyes to see the glory of the kingdom and rejoice in it.

We need to be aware, and we need to praise God. We need to be kingdom-minded people. The mustard seed is a shrub – marvel at it!

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 & Weeds Gone Wheat

The kingdom of heaven – it’s here, it’s in breaking, it’s moving!

The King is the Sower of the seed of salvation. The seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But if the kingdom is here, what is with the weeds?

Jesus’ answer – the kingdom has been inaugurated, but it is yet to be consummated; the kingdom will come in full glory, the weeds will be removed and the sons will shine like the sun, but not yet.

It is good that the kingdom does not come instantly in its fullness for naturally we are all weeds.

In Adam we are wheat gone wild, wheat gone weeds. But Jesus plucks weeds, recreates them, and sows us as sons of the kingdom. In Jesus we are weeds gone wheat. Sown by the Sower of salvation, we are being renewed in His image to one day shine like the sun.

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:2-3).”

Matthew 13:10-17 & Revealing and Concealing

Jesus’ speaking in parables both conceals and reveals. In the same act, Jesus reveals the mystery of the kingdom to his disciples, though He will have to explain the meaning later, and conceals the mystery of the kingdom from the crowd. So while this revealing and concealing is simultaneous, it is not symmetrical. Jesus reveals by giving, He conceals by withholding. If light is present, God is to be praised. If darkness is present, self is to be blamed.

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 & The Pew or the University?

When you think of the seed falling on the path, hard hearts, deaf listeners – who comes to mind?

Agnostics?

Atheists?

Doubters?

Cynics?

Skeptics?

Yes, they have hard hearts, but that isn’t the most vivid and immediate illustration we have in our context – the Pharisees. The hard hearted believed in Yahweh. The hard hearted loved the Old Testament. The hard hearted were zealous worshippers and tithers. The hard hearted were teachers and leaders. The heard hearted were ardently moral and religious.

Beware! The pew may be the best place to bake and harden.

Beware if you think this has never been the condition of your soil (Ephesians 2:1-3).

The hardest of hearts as easily belongs to the legalist in pew as the relativist in the university.

Matthew 12:46-50 & Jesus’ Blood Is Thicker Than Ours

For Jesus, regeneration trumps generation, that is the new birth is bigger than natural birth.

Blood may be thicker than water, but Jesus’ blood is thicker than ours, creating a newer, truer, eternal family. By blood we are all related to Adam, and in Adam we are all guilty and polluted. By His own blood we are now related to Jesus, and in Jesus we are justified and cleansed. In Christ we are adopted. Our primary identity and allegiance is no longer to any earthly family, but a heavenly one.

Matthew 12:38-45 & No Show On Demand

Jesus, unlike many entertainment corporations today, does not offer a show upon demand. When the Pharisees ask for a sign it further reveals their attitude toward the miracle Jesus has just performed (Matthew 12:22, 25). It reveals their attitude toward all of His miracles, their attitude toward Jesus himself. The Pharisees do not need a new sign, they need new hearts, for they cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

And yet Jesus promises them a sign. What does Jesus mean that He will give them no sign except the resurrection? He has give them many signs, and He will perform many more. If we look at some instances of the apostolic preaching of the resurrection where this “evil and adulterous generation” is also mentioned I think we will see what Jesus means (all emphases mine).

[T]his Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.  – Acts 2:23-24

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.  – Acts 3:13-15

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead,

[B]ecause he [God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”  – Acts 17:31

[Jesus] and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,  – Romans 1:4

The resurrection is the vindication of Jesus. It shows the wicked and adulterous generation to be wrong in their opinion concerning Jesus. They kill Him, God raises Him from the dead. And still today the resurrection is the sign that all doubters, skeptics, agnostics, and atheists have to deal with (toward understanding and using the apologetic strength of the resurrection I recommend beginning with The Reason for God, specifically chapter 13).

So to all who ask, “Why on earth doesn’t God do something? Why doesn’t He prove Himself?” We reply that God has indeed on earth done something; in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ and everything in between, God has indeed on earth done something. To those who ask a sign to validate our message I love the reply of Calvin. When Roman Catholics contended that their miracles authenticate their message, and then asked where the reformers miracles were, Calvin replied:

In demanding miracles of us, they act dishonestly. For we are not forging some new gospel, but are retaining that very gospel whose truth all the miracles that Jesus Christ and His Disciples ever wrought serve to confirm.

Doubters, skeptics, agnostics, and atheists don’t need new signs, they need their eyes open to the signs that are.

Matthew 12:33-37 & Evil Trees Cannot Produce Good Fruit

When Jesus asks the blaspheming Pharisees (Matthew 12:24), “How can you speak good when your hearts are evil?”, he means for us to realize that this is impossible.

But don’t fallen, unregenerate men do good? Yes, in one sense, by God’s common grace, on a horizontal plane, men do “good” things, but on a vertical plane and in the most ultimate sense, all of their acts are evil. Consider pirates.

In a gang of pirates we may find many things that are good in themselves. Though they are in wicked rebellion against the laws of the government, they have their own laws and regulations, which they obey strictly. We find among them courage and fidelity, with many other things that will recommend them as pirates. They may do many things, too, which the laws of government require, but they are not done because the government has so required, but in obedience to their own regulations.”  – W.D. Smith

As fallen, unregenerate men we are pirates, glory thieves, stealing the glory of God and giving it to other things. All of our life is one of idolatry. All behavior flows from the heart. If our actions are not springing from a heart that treasures Christ supremely, something else is being treasured. In doing “good” we are doing a greater evil. We “keep” other commandments only to break the first one (Exodus 20:2). As fallen men we are never truly good, at best we are subdued. We “obey” only when it is convenient to get what we want, only so that we can live to rebel another day.

Where then do the good trees (hearts) come from that bear good fruit; fruit that will serve as evidence of one’s justification (v. 35, 37)? Answer: Regeneration.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  – Ezekiel 36:26-27

All praise be to Jesus for the good tree that I am and the good fruit I produce.