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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed… The
kingdom of heaven is like leaven…The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden
in a field… The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls…
The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to
all of us that we may hear well. Amen.
Over the last
three weeks, all of our Gospel readings have been taken from Matthew chapter
13. Two weeks ago, we heard the parable of the sower, where Jesus speaks about
a man who sows seed, which falls on four different types of ground: along the path, on
rocky ground, among thorns, and on good soil. Last week, we read about the parable of the wheat
and the weeds. These two parables are the longest, and in Matthew chapter 13,
there are many small parables. And so today, we are going to read all of these
left-over ones.
Now, all of
the parables in Matthew Chapter 13 speak about the kingdom of heaven. Now, almost 500 years ago, in
the year 1529, Martin Luther wrote a book called the Small Catechism. This is a
book which Luther wrote for teaching the faith at home, for parents to teach to
their children. Each section of the catechism, has the heading: “As the head of
the family should teach it in a simple way to his household”.
The topic of
the kingdom of God comes up in the Small Catechism, because Jesus taught his
disciples to pray about the kingdom of heaven in the Lord’s Prayer. We pray all
the time as Christians: Your kingdom come. And Martin Luther gives a really great explanation
about this. He writes: How does God’s kingdom come? Answer: God’s kingdom comes
when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we
believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
Right at the
centre of God’s kingdom we have God’s word. But why does God give us his word?
He gives it to us so that with the help of the Holy Spirit, and by his grace,
we would believe it. And we can’t believe it without his grace and without the
Holy Spirit. But when do we believe it, this faith starts to blossom and grow
into a godly life here in this life, in time, and there in the next life, in
eternity.
And it all
starts with the word of God.
In the
parable of the weeds, Jesus tells us: The kingdom of heaven may be compared
to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his
enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants
came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the
master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master did you not sow good seed in your
field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’
So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But
he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with
them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time, I will
tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned,
but gather the wheat into my barn.’
Jesus teaches
us that in the world, there are people who believe the Gospel, and there are
people who don’t. And these people always live close together, even in the outward
fellowship of the church. On one hand, Jesus gives us external, outward things
in the church, things that are outside of us, like his word, and baptism, and
the Lord’s Supper. Jesus gives these things to us because these are the things
that the Holy Spirit uses to create faith in us.
So if we want
to find a true church, we should ask ourselves: is this a church that is
teaching the word of God in its truth and purity? And: Is this a place where
the sacraments—where baptism and the Lord’s Supper—are being carried out as
Jesus commanded? This is how we find the church. The word of God and the
sacraments are the marks of the church. If you have the word of God and the
sacraments somewhere, that’s what we call a church.
Now at the
same time, there are two kinds of people who come and hear God’s word and
receive the sacraments. There are people who believe the word of God, and there
are some people who don’t believe it. There are true Christians, and there are
pretend Christians. There is wheat, and there are weeds, and they grow
alongside of each other.
This is why
it’s so important that if we want to find a true church, that we don’t look to
see what kinds of lives people in the church are living. The people in the
church are sinners—and even those who do believe God’s word, are only making a
start at living a Christian life.
We see that
we have an external fellowship of the church, where we come together to hear
God’s word, and receive the sacraments. Those things are all outside of us. But
at the same time, Jesus wants the word to have an effect on us, he wants us to
believe it, and to trust him that his words are true. We shouldn’t get all
cocky and smug as if we think we know who the weeds are. But when we feel
particularly sensitive to our sinfulness, and think, “ Ican’t possibly be saved”—then
listen: Jesus doesn’t want you to look inside and trust in yourself, he wants
you to trust in him and his word. He is the one who has died for you, and he
calls you to look outside of yourself to him.
Now, the
church is full of sin, because it is full of people, and the only people in the
world are sinners. But the church also has a Saviour, and he is perfect, and
sinless, and he forgives us. And so the church is completely holy, not because
of us, but because of him and his word.
Now, in our
reading today: Jesus tells us a parable very similar to the wheat and the
weeds, which we read last week. He says: The kingdom of heaven is like a net
that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full,
men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw
away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and
separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In
that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here we see
the external fellowship of the church. We have the word of God, and the
sacraments. These things are like a net, and they drag in fish of every kind.
Just as in the parable of the sower, the word of God doesn’t care where it
falls, it falls everywhere. In this parable of the net, the net doesn’t care
what it catches, it just catches anything and everything. This is what the
kingdom of heaven is like. In the external fellowship of the church, we see
good fish and bad fish. But strictly speaking, the church has no unbelievers in
it. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ has no unbelievers in his
body. But in this life, to our eyes, to the eyes of human reason, the church only
looks like a net with bad fish and good fish.
Jesus doesn’t
just simply want us to be caught. As we hear the word of God today, Jesus
doesn’t simply want us to hear it, though hearing it is a wonderful thing and a
wonderful privilege. Jesus saves us through the hearing of the word, just as he
catches all the good fish with his net. He doesn’t want us to think we are
saved simply by coming to church and thinking we’ve done our bit. He wants us
to believe in his word, to trust in him, to hear the forgiveness of our sins
and to say Amen, and to remain faithful to him and persevere in the faith right
until our dying day.
So Jesus
doesn’t simply want us to be caught. Once he has caught us, he will call us to
die. All the fish in the net will die. But he will give you new life, he will
breathe his Holy Spirit into you. Watch that you don’t reject God’s word, and
turn away from this free forgiveness. Those who reject God’s word will go
smelly like a smelly fish, full of death and decay, and they’ll be no use for
the market, and at the end of the age, they’ll be thrown in hell. Jesus says: So it will be at
the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the
righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Let that word
of God’s law be a warning to you. But also, remember that Jesus has another
word, his gospel, his word of his forgiveness, his word of grace, his word of
mercy. And that gospel is a saving word, it is a powerful word, it’s a word
that catches you, and breathes new life into you.
Jesus tells
two parables about this word of his gospel: the parable of the mustard seed and
the leaven.
He says: The kingdom of
heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all
the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.
You can see
that this word of God—the free forgiveness of all your sins—that we plant looks
so small and insignificant. And yet, once it’s planted, it just keeps growing
and growing. And so, as we get to know this word of God, and learn it, we see
just how powerful it is, and how large it becomes in our life. We might have
thought once upon a time that the word of God was something that grew out of
us, as if it was something that a whole lot of dead people just made up. No—the
word of God keeps growing and growing, and so like birds, we make nests in its
branches, and we’re completely at home. Jesus says: Come to me, all you who are weary and
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Jesus also
says: The
kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of
flour, till it was all leavened.
Here we see
another parable about how powerful God’s word is. You put some leaven in some
flour, and it just effects everything. As our eyes are opened, piece by piece,
to God’s word, we see how it effects everything. Jesus death on the cross, his
resurrection from the dead on Easter Day, his ascension into heaven, his
prayers for us, his free forgiveness—all of this has an effect on every single
aspect of our lives. It effects every single thing that we have ever done or
that has ever happened to us. It effects our hearts, our minds, our souls, and
even our bodies. It effects our homes, our families, our loved ones—it changes
everything. It effects our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, our societies, even
our governments. God created everything, so no wonder his word and his kingdom
effects everything that he has made!
And people
often don’t like to see God’s word having such an effect, and try their hardest
to get rid of it, and by doing so, they are only promoting it further! The
world can be very warm place—it can be very hot and very angry. And yet, the
word of God is there, like leaven in flour, rising in a hot place by the stove,
until all the flour is leavened.
So now, what
happens when we hear God’s word? Jesus tells us two parables about that: the
parable of the hidden treasure and the parable about the pearl.
Jesus says: The kingdom of
heaven in like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.
Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
I remember
having a man in one of my former congregations who came to church for years.
And then one day he came to me and said, “Pastor—I just realised that Jesus is
God, isn’t he?” He’d never really realised it before. And the man all of a
sudden started to put a bible on a table in his shed, and he would go and read
large portions of it every day.
The word of
God is so powerful and so amazing. And sometimes, we think we know everything
there is to know, and what we don’t know isn’t worth knowing. And then we
stumble upon the gospel, we fall over it, we trip over it, and we hear it like
we never heard it before. And we think for the first time: I’m not saved by
what I do! Forgiveness is completely free! Jesus died for me, for me
personally! Jesus has called me by name!
It’s like we
just discovered a treasure buried in a field, and then we go and sell all that
we have just to buy that field. We sacrifice everything we have without even
thinking about it, because we know the treasure is worth more than the whole
field, and more than everything else we own!
Jesus says: The kingdom of heaven
is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great
value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
There are so many
people that know that the truth exists somewhere and they spend their whole
lives trying to find it. Sometimes, they begin to despair, and they even begin
to think that there is no truth. They think it can’t be in the bible and in the
church, because Christians are ordinary people and the bible is far too common
a book. They see the weeds and wheat growing together, they see smelly fish
mixed in with the good. They think the bible is nothing but a grain of mustard
seed, and looks like a lump of flour and water. But do they know that this
mustard seed will grow into a tree? Do they know this lump is leaven which will
leaven the whole lump?
The
gospel—the fact that Jesus died on the cross for you to forgive every single
one of your sins and make you his own—this is the finest pearl in the world. If
only those who search for it, knew where they could find it. What a wonderful
thing it is for us who have found it! Do we value it? Do we treasure it? Do we
know just how precious it is? Do we know just how wonderful and faithful and powerful
and loving our Saviour really is?
Have you understood all these things? Jesus says to his disciples at the
end of the reading. They say: Yes. Soon he will send these disciples into the far corners of the earth with
this word on their lips. He will send them out to sow his word wherever it
lands. He will send them out to let down his drag net. They will plant mustard
seeds that will grow into huge trees, and they will hide leaven that will
leaven all the dough. And some of the people will become Christians, and
realise that the Jesus they speak about and the word that they preach is like a
treasure in a field, is like a fine pearl.
And so, Jesus
gives them a word of encouragement. He says: Every scribe who has been trained for
the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his
treasure what is new and what is old.
Jesus says:
store up the word of God. You understand what I’m saying? Now store it up.
Learn it, and put it in reserve. Sometimes you will learn something, that you
immediately have to pass on straight away to a person that I will send you. It
will be something new for you. Sometimes you will pass on something that have
known and stored up for years.
Sometimes as
a pastor, I have found that during a week, I learn something from the bible I
have never realised before, and I have to preach it straight away that very
Sunday. Jesus allowed me to learn something for my benefit, and for everyone’s
benefit. And sometimes we preach things we have known and thought about for
years, and that might be a word that someone needs to hear.
And so Jesus
says: A
scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a
house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.
So, dear
friends, treasure up this word. Store it in your basement. With his word, He
will strengthen you each day with whatever you need. And when you are trained
in it, you can help others, and bring out of your storehouse, old things—things
you learnt long ago—and new things—things about which Jesus just opened your eyes.
Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus who said: Did not our hearts
burn within us when [Jesus] opened to us the Scriptures?
Let’s place
ourselves in his hands so that he may use us wherever he sends us! Amen.
Heavenly
Father, your kingdom come. Send us the Holy Spirit, so that by your grace we
may believe your holy word and live godly lives here in time and there in
eternity. Amen.
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