WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.580 Last week we started a short summer series on some of the parables of Jesus, Jesus. 00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:08.259 So we're going to carry on with that for a few weeks. 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:15.800 And parables are short stories that Jesus told in the Gospels that are both trying to 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:21.879 reveal truth about the kingdom of God, but also conceal truth about the kingdom of God. 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:30.799 So Jesus uses similes and metaphors and allegory and symbol to try to communicate about something 00:00:30.799 --> 00:00:36.159 that's so deep and so mysterious and has so many dimensions to it. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:41.399 And so one of the main points of the parables is to say something to us about the kingdom 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:42.399 of heaven. 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:46.759 So you see that right there in the first verse, he tells us that he told the disciples, he 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.200 told them a parable about the kingdom of heaven. 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:54.800 And so sometimes the commentators will talk about the kingdom parables because most of 00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:58.480 the parables are about the kingdom, this idea of the kingdom. 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:02.359 The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are synonyms across the gospel. 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:06.240 And so we learned something here about the kingdom, the kingdom of God. 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:09.680 And these can be really tricky to interpret. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:14.000 One of the things you'll catch is that in the parables, Jesus is always taking the very 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:19.680 ordinary things of normal day-to-day life to tell a story with a deep meaning. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.680 And for us, we're pretty distant from a lot of the things that he was talking about at 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.240 the time, like sowing mustard seeds. 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:27.240 Maybe some of you have done that. 00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:29.600 I've never done that. 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:32.720 So we've got to connect to the context a little bit. 00:01:32.720 --> 00:01:37.960 But one of the big keys is to see that there is a simplicity and ordinariness about the 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:39.040 parables. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.920 And yet there's a real complexity about them. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:47.400 And so some commentators will talk about how did the parables just have one point? 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.320 Did they have two points, they have three points, did they have 10 points? 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:55.719 Is every single character, every single aspect of the parable a symbol for something? 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:58.719 Or are you just looking for one big idea? 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:02.040 And really, the answer is yes. 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:06.680 It's that you just have to read and just be a normal reader and try to think through and 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:11.480 digest what is Jesus saying to us here when he gives us these couple little stories, these 00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:13.120 couple little parables. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:17.439 But the thing I think that's important to say is I think that the reason Jesus uses 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:24.960 parables, the reason that he doesn't ever in any of the gospels give you a 10-word, 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:27.680 one sentence definition of the kingdom. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:31.319 Boy, I wish, we wish maybe that was there. 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:32.319 But that's never there. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:35.120 There's never a time where Jesus says this is what the kingdom of God is. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:36.599 Here's the definition. 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:38.120 And instead he gives you stories. 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:44.240 And I think that's because the kingdom is so deep, so rich, so multifaceted. 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:50.520 It's got so many dimensions that it's only story that can really get across its meaning. 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.680 It's got so much depth to it. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:55.560 And that's why he gives it to us. 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:57.400 There are all these words in Christianity. 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:02.560 I wonder if this has happened to you where somebody says, what is grace? 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:03.719 What is sin? 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:04.719 What is love? 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:10.520 Can you give me a definition of love and you say, it's one of those words that you say 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:16.199 so often in Christianity, but it's so difficult to actually define off the cuff. 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:17.699 What is the kingdom? 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:19.360 What is the kingdom of God? 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:25.039 I have a really difficult time trying to come up with a single sentence definition to say, 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:26.759 this is what the kingdom of God is. 00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:29.240 And maybe you've had an experience like that. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:36.080 And yet the very first thing Jesus says in the gospel is the kingdom is at hand. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:40.920 And Patrick Shreiner, he read a helpful little book on the kingdom a past couple years, and 00:03:40.920 --> 00:03:44.960 he says the kingdom is the idea that stitches the whole Bible together. 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:50.640 The kingdom of God is the idea that stitches the whole of human history together. 00:03:50.640 --> 00:03:56.480 And while Jesus never gives us a direct definition, the theologians will tell you that you've 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.159 got to have a kingdom concept, an idea of the kingdom of God to really understand the 00:04:01.159 --> 00:04:05.439 depths of the gospel and what Jesus is saying throughout the gospels. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:11.439 Gordon Fee, one US commentator, he says something really extreme about it. 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:14.639 I think it's probably a little too much, but this is what he says. 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:17.199 He says, you cannot know anything about Jesus. 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:21.399 And I mean anything if you miss the kingdom of God. 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:24.599 And I think that there's something to that I think it's probably better to say, we're 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:30.240 missing so much about Jesus, so much about Christianity, so much about the gospel if 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:33.920 we don't have an idea of the kingdom of God through the kingdom parables. 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:35.640 So what is it? 00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:36.640 That's our task. 00:04:36.640 --> 00:04:39.120 The next couple of weeks, we're going to look at some kingdom parables. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:40.640 I'm going to do that with you. 00:04:40.640 --> 00:04:44.280 And we're going to try to think what's the kingdom of God and the light of the kingdom 00:04:44.280 --> 00:04:45.280 parables. 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:48.760 And so today we've got the mustard seed and the leaven. 00:04:48.760 --> 00:04:50.920 What's the kingdom of God? 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.360 And he tells us three things. 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:58.439 Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is a tree, a mustard tree. 00:04:58.439 --> 00:04:59.560 We'll spend most of our time on that. 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:05.639 He tells us that the kingdom of God is a place for birds to nest. 00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:10.000 And he tells us the kingdom of God is yeast or leaven. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.280 Now that's not helpful because that's me just repeating the metaphors he already gave us. 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:18.360 But let's look at them and think about it and see what they mean. 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:25.319 So first, the kingdom is a tree, it's very possible that Jesus, when he says the kingdom 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:30.400 of God is like a mustard seed that grows up into the tallest of trees, could be holding 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:36.120 a mustard seed in his hand in that moment or maybe looking at somebody that is sowing 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:37.520 mustard seeds. 00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:42.520 So they're probably present with an agricultural setting and they're watching it. 00:05:42.520 --> 00:05:47.800 And he says that the mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds and yet it grows into the 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:49.520 largest of all the trees. 00:05:49.520 --> 00:05:52.240 Now people have come after Jesus for this. 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:57.720 Christopher Hitchens mentioned this in a debate when he was alive because the mustard seed 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:02.240 is not the smallest of seeds and it is not the biggest of trees. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:09.800 But Jesus is simply saying something very obvious and that's that in agricultural context in 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:14.840 the first century, Greco-Roman Empire in a Jewish setting in Palestine, the mustard seed 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:19.239 was the smallest seed that people were sowing to plant crops with. 00:06:19.239 --> 00:06:23.599 This is not, Jesus is not the first person to say this, we have extra biblical literature 00:06:23.599 --> 00:06:28.159 where people use this as a common ordinary phrase, the mustard seed, the smallest, but 00:06:28.159 --> 00:06:29.879 yet grows to the biggest tree. 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:34.639 So he's taking something that was ordinary speech in his day and making a point with 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:36.120 it. 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:42.039 And he immediately takes us into the context of farming and to the context of a garden. 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:47.879 So anytime that you take plant life and you arrange it and you cultivate it, you have 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:48.879 a garden. 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:51.160 A garden is just organized wilderness, right? 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:54.960 A wilderness is unorganized wilderness and a garden is organized wilderness. 00:06:54.960 --> 00:06:59.400 And so here we have a garden, that's the context he's taking us to. 00:06:59.400 --> 00:07:04.439 And like I said, it's tricky for us because we don't throw mustard seeds very often or 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:08.920 I've never, some of you have I'm sure, compared seed sizes. 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:13.879 But actually we could go do this, I think the trickier bit for us as we interpret this 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:20.680 is where we don't immediately think like a first century Jewish person would think. 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:26.800 And they knowing their Old Testament much better than we do would immediately recognize, 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:32.240 and this is what all the commentators say, that Jesus is connecting to Daniel chapter 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:34.040 four when he says this. 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:37.300 So in the Old Testament and Daniel chapter four, and it also shows up a couple of times 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:42.759 in Ezekiel, we have this picture of a tree, a great world tree, as people have called 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:44.000 it. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:50.120 Nebuchadnezzar has a vision, the king of Babylon, and he sees in his dream a big giant tree 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:52.080 that the whole world can see. 00:07:52.080 --> 00:07:57.439 And it connects heaven and earth, it stretches from earth all the way up into the heavens. 00:07:57.439 --> 00:07:58.800 And this is the key. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:04.360 Nebuchadnezzar says, in my dream I saw all the birds of the world coming to make their 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:06.480 nest in its branches. 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:10.080 And all the animals coming and finding shade under its branches. 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:14.960 And so Jesus is very, very probably working here with the vision of Daniel four. 00:08:14.960 --> 00:08:20.319 And Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel four goes and he gets Daniel to interpret the dream. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:25.520 And in the dream, the tree is chopped down and there's nothing left but a stump. 00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:30.680 And the image is that Nebuchadnezzar thought he was going to be the great world tree, that 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:36.159 he would have the great kingdom, kingdoms being visualized as a tree, and all the communities 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:39.199 of the world would come and find its nest under him. 00:08:39.199 --> 00:08:42.439 But it gets chopped down and there's a stump left. 00:08:42.439 --> 00:08:44.319 And Daniel says there's going to be a better tree. 00:08:44.319 --> 00:08:47.439 There's going to be another tree. 00:08:47.439 --> 00:08:49.480 Yours is not the kingdom, the ultimate kingdom. 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:54.319 It's not the kingdom that's going to unite earth and heaven, which is what the great 00:08:54.319 --> 00:08:56.519 world tree of his vision did. 00:08:56.519 --> 00:09:00.039 Now the point is, let's bring it together, let's take some stock. 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:02.519 The point I think is really simple. 00:09:02.519 --> 00:09:10.199 Jesus is saying to us that the great world tree, the kingdom that will unite heaven and 00:09:10.199 --> 00:09:16.559 earth and bring people from every community in all the world, the birds of the air into 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:21.159 its branches, that it's in your hearing, it's standing right in front of you. 00:09:21.159 --> 00:09:22.360 That's what he's saying. 00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:27.799 That I and the kingdom I'm bringing is the great world tree from Daniel chapter four. 00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:31.079 Nebuchadnezzar thought he was building it, but now it's actually standing right in front 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:33.200 of you and it's me. 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:41.120 He's saying I am the tree and I am going to bring all the birds of the world into my branches. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:43.440 I'm going to connect heaven and earth. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:44.440 That's what he's saying. 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:45.440 That's what he's come to do. 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:50.840 So the very first thing Jesus says in the gospel is the kingdom of God is at hand. 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:51.840 It's here. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:52.840 I've brought it. 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:53.840 The tree has come. 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:55.920 The fulfillment of the Old Testament. 00:09:55.920 --> 00:09:56.920 What should we think about this? 00:09:56.920 --> 00:09:58.600 What should we feel about this? 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:00.440 What should we do with this? 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:02.400 Let's apply it a little bit. 00:10:02.400 --> 00:10:03.440 What is the kingdom of heaven? 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.160 What is the kingdom of God? 00:10:05.160 --> 00:10:09.360 And the first thing I think we learn here that we have to say about Daniel four and the mustard 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:14.160 tree, the picture Jesus gives us is that the kingdom of God is first got to be defined 00:10:14.160 --> 00:10:23.160 as that moment, that power when God himself brings heaven to earth. 00:10:23.160 --> 00:10:28.360 When God himself comes down and brings heaven, heaven is just the presence of God. 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:30.420 That's all heaven really is. 00:10:30.419 --> 00:10:33.319 It brings the presence of God into the world, into earth. 00:10:33.319 --> 00:10:34.319 And that's the kingdom. 00:10:34.319 --> 00:10:39.079 Jesus Christ condescended, God condescended and brought heaven to earth. 00:10:39.079 --> 00:10:40.399 It is the kingdom. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:41.519 It is his power. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:44.919 And one of the things I think he's saying is I am the tree. 00:10:44.919 --> 00:10:46.519 I am the king. 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.079 I am God. 00:10:49.079 --> 00:10:51.479 What should we do with that? 00:10:51.479 --> 00:10:55.799 There may have never been a more important time in world history to say something so simple 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:59.719 as this, but when we learn about the kingdom of God in the Bible, it's really important 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:04.000 just to say that it is the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of me. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.279 It's really important, I think, to say it's the kingdom of Jesus. 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:11.920 He's the tree, not the kingdom of you or us. 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:16.440 I think that's one of the first big emphasis that comes subtly through and underneath this 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:19.040 parable. 00:11:19.040 --> 00:11:20.040 Let me put it this way. 00:11:20.040 --> 00:11:22.519 I heard one pastor say this recently. 00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:29.320 How do you approach, if there is, if there really is a divine king, one who has the power 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:34.160 to bring heaven down to earth, how do you approach a king? 00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:35.960 How do you approach God himself? 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:40.760 How do you approach, how should you approach the divine king that has the power to bring 00:11:40.760 --> 00:11:44.400 the presence of God into this world? 00:11:44.400 --> 00:11:49.080 Heather and I, most of you that attend here will know, we had a baby recently. 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:55.280 And this week, we had to go to maternity triage for a checkup unexpected. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:59.799 And we were there for quite a long time and down at the royal, and they didn't really 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:01.240 have much literature. 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:04.919 I forgot to bring a book, and we were just sitting there. 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:08.039 You wanted something to read. 00:12:08.039 --> 00:12:09.959 And they had all these medical pamphlets. 00:12:09.959 --> 00:12:12.240 I didn't want to read that. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:13.240 But they did. 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:16.559 I did find two magazines, Good Housekeeping. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:23.799 So I picked up the Good Housekeeping magazines, and I read a couple of the articles in there. 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:27.759 And there were two articles that were both focused on a middle-aged woman and then a 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:32.240 woman that had just turned 60 and both interviewing them, both public figures. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:39.120 I won't name them about kind of what they're experiencing, turning 45 and turning 60. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:40.359 And this is what they said. 00:12:40.359 --> 00:12:43.479 One was a BBC TV presenter, the woman that turned 45. 00:12:43.479 --> 00:12:50.839 She said, I'm finally in my middle age learning to prioritize me, to enjoy and embrace my 00:12:50.839 --> 00:12:52.839 imperfections and my vices. 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:56.879 I've now learned that I don't need to get rid of my imperfections and vices. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:59.920 I need to just use them in a way that will make me happy. 00:12:59.920 --> 00:13:04.120 And she talked about how I'm looking for religion and spiritual experiences in my middle age 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:07.200 that fit me and fit my personality. 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:12.000 In the second article, the woman that turned 60, she said, now what I've learned, it's 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.720 taken me this long into my older age. 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:19.120 What I have to do with the time I have remaining is do and pursue whatever makes me happy. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:24.759 I have to spend as much time being as happy as I possibly can be and all the time I have 00:13:24.759 --> 00:13:25.759 left. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:30.720 Now that's a wildly utilitarian approach, but it is the normal approach for most humans 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:37.600 in 2024 in our great city, the city of Edinburgh, that we live life in order to chase happiness 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:42.799 and to embrace ourselves and to do whatever it is that can make us as happy as much of 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:44.639 the time as we can possibly imagine. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:47.919 Now the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ comes into the world, Christianity comes into the 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:52.959 world and flips that, it turns it upside down and says the exact opposite and says, you 00:13:52.959 --> 00:13:58.919 will never, never, ever be truly happy and find joy until you stop chasing your own personal 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:04.039 happiness, until you stop running after your own little joys. 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:06.120 And he gives you an ethic, he said, well, think about it. 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:13.000 He says, seek first the kingdom of God and you'll get everything. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:18.080 How does he say that, because what do you do if there really is a divine king? 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.480 What do you do if there really is God come to earth? 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:30.080 You just bow the knee, you kneel, you serve, you say it's not my kingdom, it's not my 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:35.639 world, none of it belongs to me, I'm not here to chase my own happiness, I'm here to acknowledge 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:41.320 what's real and to get behind meaning that's so much bigger than me and only then can you 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:43.840 actually have joy. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:49.920 Lewis, he always says it best, this is a cliche quote, but it's worth saying, I think, C.S. 00:14:49.920 --> 00:14:55.000 Lewis, he said, if you aim at heaven, you get earth thrown in, if you aim at earth, you 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:57.640 don't get either. 00:14:57.640 --> 00:15:02.920 And Jesus is saying, seek first the kingdom of God, because it is the kingdom of God, 00:15:02.920 --> 00:15:09.600 the great world tree that has the power to connect heaven and earth, because it's real, 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:14.159 because it's the only place you can actually find meaning that can give you joy. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:18.480 The second and final application here, and we'll move on, the final two points, two metaphors 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:21.040 are very brief. 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:27.040 He not only connects us to Daniel 4 to see that the kingdom of God is his kingdom, but 00:15:27.040 --> 00:15:31.080 he also tells us something new here that's not present in Daniel 4, and it's just simply 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:37.440 what he says about the mustard seed, he says, this kingdom is growing into a great tree 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:42.840 that can encompass the whole world, that will, but it starts off as the tiniest little seed. 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:47.720 So that's what he adds, that's not present in Daniel 4, that it's going to, it appears, 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:53.120 in other words, to the people listening, like something so little and so small, so weak, 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:54.240 in fact. 00:15:54.240 --> 00:16:00.200 And you think about Jesus' life, he's saying, I am the fulfillment of Daniel 4, I, how will 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:02.920 bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:08.799 But you look at that moment, and he has a tiny little bound to followers, fishermen, 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:15.479 tax collectors, public centers, people with no public reputation of any kind. 00:16:15.479 --> 00:16:20.679 Isaiah 53 and 55 tell us he was not something, he was not an extraordinary person to look 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:24.159 at, he was not the tallest in the room. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:30.480 We know he came from a poor family, a carpenter's son, somebody who didn't have enough money 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.680 to offer the proper sacrifices at the temple. 00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:38.200 He didn't come into Jerusalem on a mighty steed, he came on a donkey. 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:42.879 And what we're, what he's telling us here is the kingdom of God will be the great tree 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:47.879 that encompasses the whole world, that connects heaven and earth, it is that power, but it 00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:53.399 starts off in the most unexpected way as a tiny little mustard seed. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:56.879 And Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 15. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:04.880 And in 1 Corinthians 15, 36, he said, he says that a seed goes down into the ground and experiences 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:08.480 of type of death, the outer shell dies. 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:14.440 And in that death arises blossoms life from that death. 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:20.160 And Paul is saying that about the most unexpected thing in all of world history, that God would 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:26.000 become a wiggly little baby in order to get close to you, and that God the Christ, the 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:31.480 God, man would die, the Lord of the universe would go down as a mustard seed. 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:34.200 He would go into the ground, he would be buried. 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:38.160 He would die in order to blossom into the great world tree. 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:43.200 It's the most unexpected thing I think in all of human history it is. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.119 There's a second century graffito, that's what the scholars call it, I don't know what 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:52.160 that means, but graffito, it's a painting, it's a picture, it's an etching into a rock 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:55.519 wall in Rome, in the city of Rome right now. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:01.639 It's been cut out of a cave that it was found in and put in the Palatine Museum in Rome. 00:18:01.639 --> 00:18:09.319 And it's a picture of a man, a man, the body of a man, hung on a cross with a donkey head. 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:14.240 And underneath it it says, Alex Zamanos worships his God. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:19.079 And so somebody had etched into a cave in the second century a painting of a Christian 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:25.440 named Alex Zamanos, sorry, the God who Alex Zamanos worships, some Christian, making fun 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:34.440 of him for worshiping this crucified criminal, picturing this blasphemous image of this donkey 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:35.600 head. 00:18:35.600 --> 00:18:40.440 And you can go see it right now in the city of Rome. 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:43.680 Everybody thought it was foolishness. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.720 Christ was crucified as a public criminal. 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:51.680 And Paul tells us, he said, the Greeks said it was foolish to the Jews, it was a stumbling 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:52.680 block. 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:59.840 Today, one third of all the humans in the world follow this man, Jesus Christ, and say 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:01.000 that he is God. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:03.680 2.4 billion people. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:08.960 It was a tiny little mustard seed, and billions upon billions upon billions of people across 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:11.240 world history have said, this is God. 00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:12.400 He is God. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:14.960 He is the Christ. 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:19.160 He went down into the ground in weakness, taking on our sin. 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:24.440 He rose up to become the great tree, the kingdom of God himself, the power. 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:28.880 And I just want to move on by saying, it's important for us, especially if you've grown 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:34.759 up in the church, to remember this was totally unexpected. 00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:37.640 The Jews did not expect this. 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:39.279 The Greeks did not expect this. 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.279 The Romans did not expect this. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:45.519 This does not find precedence in mythologies. 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:51.879 This came into the world as the most unexpected power, and that means that it's true. 00:19:51.879 --> 00:19:53.920 That means that it's real. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:55.480 It's so unexpected it has to be real. 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:56.960 It couldn't have been written. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:59.359 It couldn't have been made up. 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:02.920 Sewn in weakness, raised in strength, the kingdom of God. 00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:05.519 What can you do with it? 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:06.839 It's very simple. 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:13.639 The call of the kingdom ethic is simply this, we've got to be willing to go down with him. 00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:18.320 It's the opposite of every instinct we have in 2024 to chase our own happiness, to be 00:20:18.320 --> 00:20:22.120 great in and of ourselves, to build our own little kingdoms. 00:20:22.120 --> 00:20:27.840 And the gospel ethic is this, go down with him, die with him, be buried with him, say, 00:20:27.840 --> 00:20:29.480 be willing to say, I'm a sinner. 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:30.880 I can't build my own kingdom. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.000 I'm not in charge. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.600 I know that there is a God and it's not me. 00:20:34.600 --> 00:20:37.280 That's the one thing I'm sure about. 00:20:37.280 --> 00:20:41.320 And be willing to go down with him so you can be raised up with him so you can find real 00:20:41.320 --> 00:20:43.160 joy, real meaning, meaning that lasts. 00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:49.240 But let's conclude with the final two metaphors, which are just little applications. 00:20:49.240 --> 00:20:53.759 Jesus says the kingdom of God is the great world tree, and then he tells us that it's 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:58.560 a place where the birds can put their nests, and it's like leaven, that leaven is a whole 00:20:58.560 --> 00:20:59.880 loaf of bread. 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:04.840 So the second one he gives us is that the kingdom of God is a place where birds can 00:21:04.840 --> 00:21:09.040 find a place to nest. 00:21:09.040 --> 00:21:10.160 Very simple, very brief. 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:11.960 It's just to say this. 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:16.920 He's telling us here from Daniel 4 that when you realize the reality, the truth, and the 00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:24.440 objectivity of the kingdom of God, of the gospel, that Jesus really is the tree of life. 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:27.680 When you come to him, you find home. 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:30.400 Coming to Christ is homecoming. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:35.079 It's a place, he is a place, the kingdom of God is a place where you can come and put 00:21:35.079 --> 00:21:36.680 your nest. 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:38.120 You can find rest. 00:21:38.120 --> 00:21:39.319 You can be at home. 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:40.319 It's homecoming. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:44.919 He's also, as I've written, very famously said, one of the most famous quotes of Christian 00:21:44.919 --> 00:21:49.439 history outside the Bible, that you will not find rest. 00:21:49.439 --> 00:21:54.960 You will not find rest in your heart until you find rest with and in God, with Christ. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:22:00.480 And that's just to say that Jesus is telling us here that he himself is the place where 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:01.480 you find home. 00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:04.639 Now, again, simple points. 00:22:04.639 --> 00:22:07.639 There is a God and we're not him. 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:13.240 The kingdom of God is real and seeking it gives you meaning above all else in life. 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:18.440 And third, very simple idea from the Bible. 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:21.680 We were made by God for God. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:25.360 And if we're not seeing that, if we're not leaning into that, if we're not chasing that, 00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:31.320 if we're not realizing that God's presence is our ultimate home, then we'll be homeless 00:22:31.320 --> 00:22:33.720 in our souls. 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:40.120 So if you're struggling today with a soul that maybe feels homeless, that you have success 00:22:40.120 --> 00:22:44.680 in your life, your circumstances are good, but your soul is not healthy. 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:45.680 It's not at rest. 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:47.600 It's not at peace. 00:22:47.600 --> 00:22:51.519 It's because the only place that you can put your nest and it be secure and stable, the 00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:57.640 nest of your soul, is in the homecoming you find in the presence of the living God. 00:22:57.640 --> 00:23:00.319 Being with God is home. 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:03.559 And wherever God is, that's where you want to be. 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:07.480 And Jesus is saying that when he comes, when he brings the power of heaven into earth at 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:13.279 the point of his resurrection, he is bringing the heavenly home into the earthly realm. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:14.440 That's the big vision of the kingdom. 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:21.119 He's making this world his home and thus our true home, because our real home is being 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:23.240 in the presence of Jesus Christ himself. 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:25.879 Lastly, the leaven. 00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:33.200 The last one he gives us is that this woman takes three ephas of flour. 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:40.360 I had to go find this out, but three ephas of flour is about 24 kilos worth of bread. 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:43.680 So that makes about 24 kilos of bread, not flour, but bread. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:45.920 That's a lot of bread. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:49.960 And so Jesus is being extreme here with the amounts, because he's trying to get us to 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:50.960 see something. 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:58.160 And a woman takes a tiny little pinch of last week's dough and sticks it into three ephas 00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:02.079 of flour and makes 50 pounds of bread out of it. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:07.160 And the highlight here is that you only need a tiny little bit of last week's dough to 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:12.440 fill up, to fill an entire, a huge amount of bread with leaven, to fill it up with air, 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:15.039 air pockets, you know? 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:16.680 The mother, isn't that what it's called? 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:19.559 The last week's sourdough. 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:22.399 The very literally sourdough, that's what he's talking about here. 00:24:22.399 --> 00:24:23.399 That's how they did it. 00:24:23.399 --> 00:24:27.879 They kept a little bit of the dough from the last time and stuck it into the new flour 00:24:27.879 --> 00:24:30.919 and it provided yeast, right? 00:24:30.919 --> 00:24:39.799 The kingdom of God, so small in the beginning, permeates and fills the whole world. 00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:43.319 He's talking here about the future of the kingdom and he's saying, what looks so small 00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:49.279 at this moment, such a little band of followers, so weak, the cross itself. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.519 It has power to fill the entire world. 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:58.680 Not only with God's people, but boy, all throughout the Gospels and in the Old Testament, one 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:04.279 of the interesting things we see is that the writers talk about the leaven, you remember 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:07.279 the phrase, maybe the leaven of the Pharisees. 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:10.279 Typically in the Bible, leaven is negative. 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:12.519 So it's sin. 00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:18.039 Adam and Eve's sin, the leaven of human sin, just a little bit of it destroyed the whole 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:19.519 world. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:22.000 It filled up everything. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.759 And Jesus in this moment is taking that metaphor that we see from Genesis forward and flipping 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:31.159 it on its head and saying, now that the kingdom of God has come, a little bit of leaven, the 00:25:31.159 --> 00:25:37.599 cross, something that seems so foolish and weak, will fill the world with grace and mercy. 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:39.559 It'll change everything. 00:25:39.559 --> 00:25:42.599 The leaven of Christ is so much greater than the leaven of the Pharisees. 00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:47.279 The leaven of Christ is so much more powerful than the leaven of our sin. 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:52.319 That though our sin destroys and devastates the world, our sins, there are many, His mercy 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:53.319 is more. 00:25:53.319 --> 00:25:54.440 It's bigger, it's greater. 00:25:54.440 --> 00:25:59.960 His leaven will cleanse in a way that is well beyond the destruction our sin has brought. 00:25:59.960 --> 00:26:05.960 And that means that when He comes again, the new heavens and the new earth will be so much 00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:08.879 greater than we could have ever imagined. 00:26:08.879 --> 00:26:12.359 The tree, the tree that is coming. 00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:15.279 Now let's close final word. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.319 If you think about what He's taught us here, what's the, and somebody asked you, what is 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:19.319 the kingdom of God? 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:21.160 Here's what you can say. 00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:25.559 The kingdom of God is the power of Christ come down into the world. 00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:29.879 It's the people, the birds of the heavens that find, the birds of the air that find their 00:26:29.879 --> 00:26:35.440 place, the nest in His home, and it's His permeating presence. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:40.639 Now I don't like alliteration very much, and I usually don't do it, but what is the kingdom 00:26:40.639 --> 00:26:41.639 of God? 00:26:41.639 --> 00:26:43.960 It's the power of heaven coming to earth. 00:26:43.960 --> 00:26:49.279 Jesus Christ Himself, it's the people that God is building into the great tree that is 00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:56.720 His kingdom, and it is His permeating presence to fill the world with mercy and peace. 00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:01.960 It's His power, the people, and His permeating presence. 00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:03.519 What do you do with it? 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:09.120 This week, as we step into the Lord's Supper, and as we step into Monday, I think Jesus 00:27:09.120 --> 00:27:13.720 is inviting us here to kill every desire, to mortify every desire right now in our 00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:18.279 hearts, to say, I want to be great, I just want to be happy, I want to build a life, 00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:23.360 a personal kingdom of happiness, and then said to be small and to go down in weakness 00:27:23.360 --> 00:27:28.640 and to say, my sins there are many, His mercy is more, it's greater. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:33.039 And to acknowledge and believe and trust that what was sown in weakness in the middle of 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:38.000 history was raised in strength, and that that's the very ethic, the very way we receive the 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:43.120 gospel, the very way we step into the world in the light of the gospel, to go out in weakness, 00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:47.279 to actually find strength, to go down like a little mustard seed, to grow up into a great 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:50.279 tree in our lives. 00:27:50.279 --> 00:27:55.399 When you believe that, when you embrace that reality, that power, that gospel, remember 00:27:55.399 --> 00:28:02.159 the parables are stories, and that the truth of this parable becomes your own story. 00:28:02.159 --> 00:28:03.159 What's the story? 00:28:03.159 --> 00:28:10.199 The story is this, that in the beginning of world history, God put us humans in a garden, 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:15.519 and there in the center was God's presence represented through the tree of life. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:19.319 And when we chose to eat from the tree of death, the tree of life, the presence of God 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:20.880 was taken away from us. 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:22.440 We were exiled. 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.960 And in the middle of the Old Testament, God said through a vision, there's going to be 00:28:25.960 --> 00:28:29.440 a great tree, another tree of life. 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.519 And it's going to come and fill the world with the presence of God. 00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:36.200 And in the middle of history, in the gospels, the tree of life himself came and said, the 00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:39.240 kingdom is at hand, it's standing right in front of you. 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:45.160 But the tree of life because of our sin hung upon the cursed tree of death. 00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:50.559 And when he rose, he blossomed forth, the tree of life that we see in Revelation 22, 00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:55.880 the tree of life standing in the middle of the new Garden of Eden, himself with us, the 00:28:55.880 --> 00:28:58.759 birds of the air gathered around him. 00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:01.799 That's the meaning of world history, and it's your story. 00:29:01.799 --> 00:29:05.440 It's the meaning of your life, it's joy, it's peace. 00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:09.720 And that's the meaning of the meal that we're now about to celebrate. 00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:10.720 Let's pray. 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:16.640 Father, we thank you for the parables, and we thank you for the meaning of the kingdom. 00:29:16.640 --> 00:29:21.640 We long, Lord, to live in a kingdom of peace and justice and mercy. 00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:24.799 And we know we don't have that in the kingdoms of this world. 00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:30.120 So we look today to the mercy and forgiveness we find in the mustard seed of the cross so 00:29:30.120 --> 00:29:33.480 that we can have the resurrection, the great tree. 00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:38.120 Lord, we look to you today and just say, we need you, Lord, we need you every hour we 00:29:38.120 --> 00:29:39.400 need you. 00:29:39.400 --> 00:29:44.640 And we need today to be healed from our self-centeredness and our focus on building our personal little 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:45.640 kingdoms. 00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:51.799 And so right now, as we come to this great meal, we ask that you would refocus our hearts 00:29:51.799 --> 00:29:54.519 on the true meaning of life, the kingdom of God. 00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:56.519 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:06.519 Amen.