Category: Sermon Supplements

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.

Matthew 12:22-32 & Kingdom Conquest

Jesus heals a demon oppressed man and the crowds respond with speculation while the Pharisees respond with accusation. The crowd likely speculates because Jesus doesn’t meet their presuppositions. After all of His strong words and mighty miracles they still ask, “Can this be the Son of David?” What did they expect? Who was the Son of David to be?

The Son of David would be God’s Messiah, that is, His Anointed One. Now all the sons of David who served as kings were anointed, but the Messiah (Hebrew), that is, the Christ (Greek), would be the Lord’s Anointed. They were all only shadows, He is the substance. So they are looking for a greater David, someone to free them from political oppression and bring national prosperity. They say they are looking for the Son of David, but they are really looking for another Saul, a king after their own hearts, not God’s. Don’t miss how Jesus in answering the Pharisees’ accusation answers the crowd’s speculation as well.

Jesus says that if He drives out demons by the Spirit of God, and He is arguing that He does, then they must realize that the kingdom of God has come upon them. Jesus is God’s conquering King, and He is advancing, He is binding the strong man and plundering his house. He defeats our greatest foe. When Jesus says He does this “by the Spirit of God” He is saying He is the Lord’s Anointed; that is why the kingdom has come, it is here because the King is here.

Where does Christ achieve decisive victory? At the cross Satan is cast down (John 12:27-34). How does the kingdom advance today? In the preaching of the cross Satan’s kingdom is plundered as blind eyes see, dead hearts beat, and captives are released. The preaching of the cross is not only the power of God unto salvation, it is also the conquest of Satan’s kingdom.

Matthew 12:15-21 & Not Today

The Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus, and Jesus withdraws; please don’t mistake this as cowardice. Jesus is not afraid of confrontation or conflict. He will continually and boldly expose and challenge the Pharisees pronouncing judgment and warning on them. We will see Jesus repeatedly withdraw when things get this intense, but there is never a hint of fear of man.

After the shootout at the O.K. Corral in the movie Tombstone, as the marshall turns to arrest the Earps and Doc Holliday, Wyatt looks the sheriff in the eye and says, “I don’t think I’ll let you arrest us today.” Jesus is doing something like that here. Every time He withdraws it is as if He is saying, “I’ll let you kill me, but not today. My death will be according to My plan, not yours. It will be My victory, not yours.”

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.  – John 10:17-18

Matthew 12:1-14 & Running by Religion

Most men don’t run from religion, they run by “religion” (please understand the nuanced, pejorative way I am using the word in contrast to true religion). Man’s preferred way to oppose God and His saving grace in Christ is by religion. The more truth mixed with this religion, the more deadly. The Pharisees, unlike the prostitutes, thought they were religious. Religion is the inoculation that causes one to cry out, “Lord, Lord, did we not…!”

What is “religion” in this pejorative sense? Religion is spelled, “d-o”. It’s about what you do. In contrast Christianity is spelled “d-o-n-e”.  It’s about what Jesus has done. Religion is about a law you keep; Christianity is about a grace God gives. Religion builds pride and is for the “wise and understanding”; Christianity humbles and is for “little children”. In religion we ascend to heaven; in Christianity God descends to earth.

Sabbath, that is rest, is not something we work to achieve. Sabbath, for fallen man, has always flowed from redemption (cf. Deuteronomy 5:12-15). This is why the Sabbath is to be a delight (Isaiah 58:13-14); a day of rest and not a burden. We rest because He worked.

Jesus was born of a virgin, He took on human flesh, fully God and fully man He was the God-man; remaining what He was (God), He became what He was not (man). As the God-man He worked; He perfectly kept the law fulfilling all righteousness for us. His obedience climaxed in His willingly going to the cross and drinking the cup of the Father’s wrath against our sins down to the dregs. Now because of His work we have Sabbath.

So in one sense I plead with you to run from religion, that is, run from a reliance on your own good works to achieve any kind of eternal rest. Yes, don’t run by religion, but run from religion. Run from reliance in your good works which are as filthy rags and rely wholly on His good works.