So "The Kingdom Parables," that's the name of the series. We are on lesson number five.
We're going to do "The Parable of the Hidden Treasure", "The Parable of the Pearl" and
"The Parable of the Debt". Three parables today, we're going to cover.
By way of review, always, just about a minute or so.
Remind us of what we're talking about here. We said that parables are lessons that
use physical things and situations in the material world
in order to explain or to mirror principles and situations
that exist in the spiritual or the unseen world.
Pretty much a common definition of what a parable is. We know that Jesus spoke many parables.
And the theme of a great many of these was the
kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven;
thirteen out of forty-three parables talk about that. So that's why we're
studying those in this series. And some of the things that we have learned about the kingdom
from the parables so far:
Number one, the kingdom exists wherever God rules His servants.
Wherever God rules, the kingdom exists.
God and His servants together.
We also said that at the moment the kingdom exists in two dimensions,
the kingdom of heaven in heaven, where God rules with His angels and the saints,
the martyrs, and the kingdom of heaven on
earth, where He rules with His people.
We call that the church.
And so, we've also learned that the kingdom of God on earth is really the church.
So when we're taught... When Jesus is talking about the kingdom he's talking about the church here on earth.
Another thing that we have learned, at the end of the world when Jesus returns
both dimensions will be joined into one, there will be a merge.
The kingdom of heaven in heaven, the kingdom of heaven on earth will
come together into one unit.
Couple of other things.
The parables of the kingdom actually describe the state of the kingdom here on
earth and also its development until fully formed and
ready to merge with the heavenly kingdom. So that's why we say
the church is not perfect. We're still growing.
Well, that's the idea.
It's growing and maturing to the point when it will be ready
to join with the kingdom that exists already in heaven. And as far as the kingdom on
earth is concerned Jesus' parables have taught us that
first, the kingdom of heaven, here on earth, affects the rest of the world. Right?
He says it in different ways, that we should be the salt, that we should be the light.
We have an impact on the world around us.
Also the kingdom of heaven on earth has both sincere and
insincere people who claim to be in it.
However, Jesus will purify the kingdom before the one below is
joined to the one above. That's always a big surprise.
Always a kind of a shock to the system when we realize that God knew and told us in
advance that in the kingdom of heaven there would be the sincere and the insincere.
And they would be side by side inside the kingdom.
Because a lot of people assume that everyone in the
kingdom belongs in the kingdom, will be OK in the kingdom.
And then we have a hard time understanding why we see some people in the kingdom that are such hypocrites,
that are so weak, that are so non-Christian, and we wonder
what are they doing here? Well, Jesus talks about that. He says don't worry about that. Don't get all
upset if you see that it doesn't seem that everybody who is in the
kingdom at the moment wants to be here or acting like they should be here.
He just tells us, you just be patient. At the end we will do the separation and we have...
We've already talked about parables that tell that exact story.
Also the kingdom is open to all who enter in based on God's invitation and condition.
And those who are the genuine citizens of the kingdom, are faithful to Jesus
and bear good fruit of holy lives and service to God and man.
But it's not for us to decide that. We don't get to decide
you're fruitful, you're not fruitful enough. And we don't get to decide because we don't know all the facts.
Only God knows all the facts, only God knows the heart of the person, only God knows the tortured
and twisted road that that person may have had to take to get into the kingdom.
OK? So today we're going to add a few more ideas to this mix as we
study the parables concerning money.
So hidden treasure, pearls, and the debt. So let's begin reading
Matthew Chapter 13, in verse 44 to 46.
He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field,
which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and
sells all that he has and buys that field."
Jesus continues, He says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking
fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and
sold all that he had and bought it".
So here again the stories are obvious. They are easy to understand.
In the first one, the parable of the treasure, the man working in a field is probably a
hired worker or someone who is subcontracting the land for farming
or perhaps someone assessing the land for purchase.
He finds a treasure by accident. It is so precious
he sells everything that he has in order to buy the field and become the legal owner of the treasure.
Notice he doesn't steal the treasure and take and run away with it. He's an honorable man.
He wants to own it but he wants to own it legally.
In the second parable, the parable of the pearl, the person is a merchant who is deliberately
seeking pearls. He didn't find the pearl by accident. He was looking for pearls.
Like all precious jewelry, it requires knowledge and training to spot and
evaluate the true value of these items, especially pearls.
In his search he finds not only a good pearl but one of such
exceptional beauty and value that he sells all that he has in order to
own that one pearl of great price.
So these stories are basically the same except one person finds a treasure by accident
and the other is actually looking for the treasure.
However, both find treasures, both give up all they have in order to possess the treasure
that they have found. Again, simple stories. Happy Endings,
happy endings for both. But for those who were listening
with an ear to understand about the kingdom, because Jesus said in the beginning of both of these
stories the kingdom of heaven is like...
These people learned a few more facts concerning the kingdom. Remember I said pieces to the puzzle.
Well they added a couple of extra pieces to the puzzle,
based on these two parables. A couple of things they learned.
One, it is not obvious to everyone. Not everyone sees the kingdom.
Sometimes you find it without expecting to find it.
Like the person who found the treasure, sometimes you find
the church by accident by... You weren't looking for the thing.
You were doing something else. Maybe somebody shared the gospel with you
or you visit a church service just to be polite to someone else or because your new girlfriend
invites you to church or in a moment of difficulty you
call out to God, the God that you don't know very well. That was my case.
My case and I am not going into too long a story. But I remember
making the prayer. I know you're there.
You're there somewhere.
Let me know who you are. I'm looking for you but I don't know who you are. That was kind of my prayer
I was saying. I was so confused because there was so much quote
"religion" around and I was going, but this religion stuff it
can't just be that that represents You. Of course what I was looking for was this.
This is what I was looking for but I didn't know it.
I didn't know where to find Him. OK?
So I'm like that guy. I wasn't looking for the pearl I was saying... I was wandering around.
Or you read the bible, for example, or some other book and it leads you to Christ.
Sometimes you go through a long period of searching, like the person who was looking for the
pearl, you go from one church to the other.
How many people have come here saying, "well, I tried this church and I decided I want to go back to
God but I'm not... I've been across the street and I've been to that church and this church and
I'm trying..." they're looking.
Or they spend time praying to God to lead them or they read books
or they talk to people about religion or spiritual things looking for the truth.
Looking for something that resonates, something that they can kind of latch onto,
like the guy looking for the pearl. So the Kingdom is there but
most people are oblivious to it. Why do I say that?
Well, read any newspaper from A to Z. Will you find a mention at all of the kingdom
in any newspaper, in any place in the world? Listen to the broadcast
news. And listen to every single broadcast news
from any country and see if they talk about the kingdom.
They don't. Oblivious to it.
They see a field but they don't see the treasure.
They see clams not the pearls.
They see religion. They see church buildings but they don't see the living Christ.
So, what do we learn about these two parables? Well, we learn it's not obvious to everyone.
Another thing we learn about the
kingdom from the parable, the two parables, one the
hidden treasures and the other one of the pearl. It's worth everything that you have.
Note that both persons had to liquidate everything they had in order to
possess the treasure, to buy the land so they could have the treasure
or for the pearl merchant to have that one particular pearl, had to sell everything he had.
However, they did it in order to become wealthier than they already were.
The kingdom is like that. In order to enter in. You need to leave everything behind so to speak.
Things like your former beliefs.
You leave those things behind for exclusive faith in Jesus Christ.
In some countries and some religions you can add Christianity
to your existing religion.
He becomes just one more god. OK now we've got 15 gods one more god can't hurt.
Christianity is not like that.
You can't add another religion to Christianity. Christianity is exclusive.
You leave your former... many of your former goals and dreams for the goal of
heaven and righteousness. Doesn't mean you don't have...
You're not motivated in life perhaps, to excellence, to grow in your work
or to grow your business. No. Christianity
doesn't ask you to become less or mediocre.
But you do change your ultimate goals. My ultimate goal is to go to heaven and I won't let
any thing in my work, for example, or in my hobbies, that will take me away
from that goal. So you do change your ultimate goals.
You leave behind, for sure, your sins, your worldly pleasures, in order to maintain fellowship
with the Holy Spirit. However, whatever you leave
behind, whether it be good or bad, the Lord will bless you
one hundred times over in the kingdom. In our case it was very much our family.
Our family, it just didn't get what we were all about here.
They just didn't understand about the Bible. They wouldn't read the Bible. They wouldn't look at the Bible.
They didn't even... when I was on television and had a
network television program teaching the bible throughout the entire province of Quebec.
A lot of people watched that program, except one group,
my family and Lise's family. They wouldn't even watch the show
just for the novelty of seeing their son or their son in law on television, on network
television. Even that was not enough to move them to open and just
listen to the Bible.
Now that doesn't mean we never spoke to our parents again or never spoke to... no of course not.
We went to birthdays and Christmas dinner and things like that. But it was never the same
after we became Christians and after we began to grow in
our faith and our commitment and I went into ministry. Boy that just... that even
open the divide even wider. But however,
in our Christian faith, talk about a hundred. Well, we've made more than a hundred
people, our brothers and sisters.
In any, almost any major city in Canada I can go and I can just pick up the
phone and call somebody and say hey I'm in town. Come on over. You need a place to sleep
or you need a meal or...?
So we've been blessed a hundred times over with "our church family".
So it's worth everything. It's worth everything you leave behind.
The Kingdom provides peace and joy,
confidence and salvation, freedom from death and condemnation.
And most importantly the sweet experience of knowing and serving the Lord himself.
So the kingdom is not obvious to everyone but if you find it
it's worth giving up your life in order to possess it.
So there's a couple of things we learn from these two very
short parables. So now we move on to another parable. This is the parable of the debt.
If you're following along and your bible that's Matthew Chapter 18.
This parable was spoken at a time when the Apostles were keenly interested
in the life within the kingdom. They were grappling with Jesus's
teaching about the kingdom and for the most part they believed that the kingdom that
Jesus spoke of was to be some type of earthly domain.
They were still under that impression as he was explaining the nature of the kingdom through these
parables. So their thinking matched the common hope that the Messiah
would usher in this golden period of power and prosperity for the
entire Jewish nation. They were Jews and they thought like Jews.
So up to this point the Apostles saw themselves as like co-rulers
with Christ in some kind of earthly kingdom that resembled the
worldly kingdoms that existed at that time. They still really didn't get it.
This is why a little before this parable is
spoken, they ask Jesus who among them would be the greatest in his kingdom.
That question alone demonstrated that they did
not understand the nature of the kingdom of God.
Why? Because what they were desiring was position. What position am I going to have? Who's going to
be higher or lower than me? Will that's... If you know anything about the church you know that it
doesn't work that way. Of course Jesus answers them how?
By saying that the greatest in the kingdom are going to be the least in the kingdom.
Those who are like children. After this the Lord explained to
them that another characteristic of those who are in His kingdom
is that they have the ability to forgive. And the need to
maintain unity by being reconciled to brothers that they offend or who offend them.
So at this point... Understand now, I'm telling the story that leads up to this parable.
So they want to know who's the greatest and who's up and who's down.
And Jesus says well you have to be like a child and you have to be able to forgive and you have to be
merciful to one another. And so Peter, at this point, wishing to show that he has
leadership material for the kingdom asks his question about
forgiveness, which sets the stage for this parable. So we look at...
The question is, who is the greatest in the kingdom? So we go to 18
verse 21 and 22. "Then Peter came and said to Him, 'Lord, how often shall my
brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?'
Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to
seventy times seven." Now we need to understand that in
Jewish culture the maximum times you needed to forgive, if asked,
was three times. That was the law, three times.
You had to forgive three times if you were asked. So Peter, wanting to show that he was
good material for leadership in the kingdom says, I'm prepared to go
past that. How about seven times? Not three, not four, not six. How about
seven times? So Jesus responds that forgiving
a limited or set number of times is forgiveness according to rules.
According to law.
He then says that... He didn't say "in the kingdom", but in brackets, understood. OK?
Between the Lines. In the kingdom, forgiveness is a
natural characteristic. You're just like that.
Seventy times seven actually means infinitely, like it's a
character trait. It's part of you. As many times
as required, as much forgiveness as is needed.
This is how much forgiveness you offer because sometimes the forgiveness
needed is for a small offense.
And then sometimes it's for a great offense. Like someone I don't
know, knocks over your glass of water on to your nice dress
or something and "oh, I'm so sorry".
"That's ok, don't worry about it." Forgiveness for a small matter.
Or how about forgive if your spouse is unfaithful? Now that's not just spilled water.
That's a big thing right.
As much forgiveness as is needed to cover the offense.
I have enough forgiveness to cover spilt milk.
I have enough forgiveness to cover
a terrible offense against me.
Seventy times seven, not only repeated forgiveness but also the amount of
forgiveness, as much as is needed.
So Jesus then gives the parable to demonstrate the magnitude of forgiveness
available in the kingdom and the attitude each needs to have
to be considered a citizen of the kingdom.
So we keep reading, verse 23, he says, "For this reason the Kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him".
And so a slave in a high stewardship
position has made bad investments and lost his master's money in some way.
The amount of course is staggering.
I mean ten thousand talents that's like millions of dollars today. All right?
So to get the amount right here. So we continue reading. "But since he
did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his
wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying,
'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.' And the lord of that slave felt
compassion and released him and forgave him the debt."
So the lord had complete power over this slave or
steward and the judgment was fair since he had entrusted him with a fortune.
And this person had lost his fortune.
So the man pleads to have a chance to repay, which actually
was impossible. That was impossible. He was a slave.
How was he going to repay? There's no way he could repay.
He was simply asking for mercy, complete mercy. The master feeling
compassion goes one step further. He doesn't just say, "all right here's what we're going to do".
"We're actually going to sell your wife and children so I can get some money and I'm going to put you to work
over here. And I'm going to take 80 percent of your pay for the next two hundred years. He doesn't make any
conditions, complete forgiveness. All right? It's good.
The debt is paid. You go back to where you were.
He forgives him the debt and that's what forgiveness means.
The debt is paid off. You don't owe me that ten thousand talents any more.
That's what forgiveness is. It's not forgiveness if he says, "OK, you're not going to be in jail but you owe me
that money. You still owe me. And I will remind you that
you owed me every time I see you. So whenever the
slave walks by and the king will say, "Yeah, here's the guy who owes me ten thousand talents".
Here's this guy over here, don't lend him any money. You know what happened with me?
This guy blew my fortune". That's not forgiveness.
What do they say? You bury the hatchet but you leave the handle sticking out of the ground so you can find it.
Something like that. And I want you to note that
he also returns the slave to his former position of responsibility.
Because with forgiveness comes restoration.
God doesn't just forgive you but then adds more punishment. If he forgives you,
you're forgiven. He restores you afterwards. So we read on.
It says, "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred
denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you
owe.' So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying,
'Have patience with me and I will repay you.' But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison
until he should until he should pay back what he owed".
So the same scenario repeats itself but this time another slave who owes was a hundred...
20 bucks, hundred denarii, twenty dollars.
He asks the former slave the same thing, of course, Jesus repeats the same words to kind
of make his point if you wish. But of course
the pleas fall on deaf ears and the slave is cast into prison by the former
slave who had been forgiven. So we finish it off here. "So when his fellow slaves
saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came in reported to their lord
all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you
all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had
mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?'
And his lord, moved with anger handed him over to the torturers until he should
repay all that was owed to him."
So this conduct is reported
to the master who rebukes his unforgiving servant for being so hard hearted, hard like a stone,
especially after having received such mercy
himself from the master for an unpayable debt.
This time he's put in prison. He's tortured until all is repaid. In other words, a life sentence. He gets a
life sentence. Verse 35. Final verse.
"My heavenly Father will also do the same to you,
if each of you does not forgive his brother in your heart."
So Jesus now speaks directly to his disciples, in summarizing the
parable, by warning them that if their forgiveness is not sincere for their brethren, even
makes it very specific, they also who have been forgiven by God
will receive punishment that they originally escaped and deserved.
So again, a couple of things that we
learn about the kingdom in this parable. Number one, offenses are
possible in the kingdom. The kingdom, as it exists here
on Earth, in the form of the church, has not yet been perfected in glory
and so there is still the problems caused by sin. It's like a marriage. Two people come
before God with all sincerity. They're Christians. They say to God please bless our
marriage. We're married. We're focused. We're going to be together, we promise,
for life. We're going to do it right. And then life starts.
I tell many people you can't put two sinners together committed to live together for
their whole life and not be trouble, and there
not be differences, wrinkles. Well imagine,
take 400 people and put them together in a relationship, brother and sister in Christ.
Put 400 people and put them together in a relationship and get them to work
together, building and serving and doing stuff.
Don't you think they're going to be some trouble there?
Of course.
People offend and hurt each other intentionally or by mistake.
Some hurts are huge and others are small but either way someone is hurt and someone has to
make it right.
People who are offended and discouraged or criticize the church because it
is imperfect and because there is sin,
those people need to understand that there will always be sin. They'll always be hurt in the
church because it's filled with sinners who are in the process of becoming saintly.
But sometimes that process is slow.
Jesus acknowledges that from time to time we will be in debt
to each other for various things.
So, one lesson about the kingdom, offenses are possible,
probable, even in the kingdom.
Secondly, well Mercy is the answer.
In the world we look for justice, fairness, compensation, to take
care of offenses and mistakes. That's what lawyers are for.
We all hate lawyers until we need one then we don't hate them so much.
In the kingdom mercy is the solution. That's the point.
And response to offenses and mistakes is mercy not justice. Not restitution.
I'm not saying there can't be a sense of justice. Somebody borrows your
lawnmower and breaks it. And they apologize, and I'm sorry, and that was your favorite
lawnmower or whatever and they say, "look, I'm going to make it right". Let's go to Lowe's or at least get you
another one. Well there's the inconvenience and whatever.
But there has to be some mercy there.
The reason for this is because it was God's mercy that allowed us entry into the kingdom
in the first place.
Not justice. It wasn't His justice that enabled
us to come into the kingdom. It wasn't His fairness.
It was His mercy that allowed us to come in.
I mean the Justice and the restitution, that was done on the cross.
That's where that is. We're here because of mercy, all of us.
So God so loved us that He gave up His Son, Jesus, on the cross, so he could offer us
forgiveness for every sin, great and small and welcome
us into his kingdom based on mercy. And so the point is if you're here
on mercy, well, then you've got to be merciful yourself.
Which is the third point. Mercy is our guarantee.
God's mercy guaranteed us a place in the kingdom.
God's mercy guarantees us that we will keep our place in his kingdom.
I'm in the kingdom, not because I've managed to, over the last
nearly 40 years, get it all right.
I'm here, because 40 years later, God is still having mercy on me. That's why I'm here.
However, if we don't show mercy to our brethren for their offenses against us
then our lack of mercy will guarantee that we will lose our place in the kingdom.
You can be sitting in the pew it doesn't mean you're in the kingdom.
So God's mercy and our mercy gets us in and keeps us
in and lack of mercy towards others will get us out and keep us out.
That's also a strong lesson. I think I mentioned that last week or
the week before. We think oh, we're going to study the parables, they're so cute those.
Until we actually start studying them and you realize, wow, there's a pretty powerful message there.
So the Lord adds more pieces to this puzzle about the kingdom with
these few parables. 1) The Kingdom is not
easy to find but once you found it you have found it. It's worth everything you have.
That's one piece of the puzzle. The other piece of the puzzle.
Those in the kingdom are rich in spiritual treasure, spiritual treasure.
We don't become more wealthy, obviously, because we become Christians.
Some do, because in leaving off their former ways, their former
sins, if you wish, enables them to be more successful in whatever their work,
their studies, their married life. So yeah, but that's not why we
desire to enter into the kingdom.
It's the spiritual treasure that we find here. The other piece,
mercy guarantees your place and your growth in the kingdom.
There are growing pains in the kingdom and the basic virtue that
guarantees your place and your growth is mercy because it
reflects perfectly God's nature and involvement in your own life.
How do I see the face of God in you?
Your mercy towards me. I see His face in your mercy towards me
and you see His face in me because of my mercy towards you.
Not just that, mind you, hopefully a pure character, a
willingness to serve, all of those type of things. But certainly one of His most
dynamic and impacting virtues, as far as we're concerned, is his mercy.
So we have a building here in Choctaw that is
functional, it's comfortable, it's pleasing to the eye.
But if people who come here do not find the church pleasing to their hearts
as well as their eyes, they won't stay.
We often talk about improving it and we do. We've got to get the carpets cleaned.
And there's talk now about expanding some parking because we have more and more people coming so
there's nowhere to put all the vehicles when everyone's here. That's fine. There was even some discussion about
expanding somehow, we don't know how yet, but perhaps, building a multipurpose room where
we could have more classrooms and a larger space to do all
church events. There's only about room for about 100 people in this room but we've got 400
people to accommodate. But where do we go if we want to do something all together. So that's fine,
that's good. That's just the sign of a growing congregation.
But if we can't match that kind of growth with the growth,
inward spiritual growth that's not what gets... People may come here
and examine the situation because they see the outward trappings of
growth but they only stay because of the people.
The gospel is what brings them in, it's love that keeps him here.
That's important.
A church that is pleasing to the heart is a church full of mercy and
kindness for those who have made big mistakes in life and those who even offend us,
but receive our mercy nevertheless.
So let's not forget to build this up as well.
So that God will be glorified not only with the building
but by the love and the mercy that exists within the building.
That's why that sign is up on 23rd Avenue. Twenty five feet across
and 12 feet high. The billboard that's on 23rd.
This is exactly what's there. So somebody is driving up 23rd going to the west.
And over there to the left, where the auto plex is, there they look up and they see this thing
25 foot across that says SINNERS!
That gets your attention. And then they look down and it says "you're welcome at the Choctaw Church of Christ".
Why? Because that's all we have here.
We don't have any other type of person. Everyone that's here, is a sinner.
And we hope that people get that idea when they see this
particular sign. The other thing that's interesting or ironic is that the sign is right
above and next to the police station. So I don't know
what they will concur from that placement. And then our old sign the
Choctaw Church of Christ, if you're heading east, just the street
over, if you're heading... If you're going west on 23rd you see this sign, if you're heading
east on 23rd, you see our older sign that just says Choctaw Church of Christ speaking the
truth in love, which is fine, but that sign is right next to a bar.
So I guess people must be getting an
impression that we chose these spots on purpose but we didn't. Those were the two
signs that were actually available. So, those are those three parables hope we get
something out of that. We'll just keep on going until we finish the series.
So thank you for your attention.
And we'll keep going next time.