What a Kingdom!

Matthew 13: Kingdom Extravaganza (7)

Pray Psalm 110.3, 4.
Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
The LORD has sworn
And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

Sing Psalm 110.3, 4.
Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation
Your people in Your power, arrayed in holiness,
like dew of morning’s hour shall serve like youth refreshed.
The LORD has sworn and never will He His promise check:
“You are a priest forever after Melchizedek.”

Read Matthew 13.1-58; meditate on the question: How greatly do I desire Kingdom of God?

Prepare.
1. How many different ways does Jesus illustrate the Kingdom of God in this chapter?

2. What’s the purpose of all these parables?

Meditate.
Matthew 13 is like watching a trailer for a movie entitled, “The Coming Kingdom of God!” We get to see the Kingdom from a variety of angles, by a wide assortment of illustrative devices. Jesus didn’t teach the Kingdom in abstract, philosophical or theological terms. He was not appealing primarily to the minds of His hearers.

Jesus aimed at their hearts. He wanted them to desire the Kingdom, not to be able to define or debate it. He projected the Kingdom to them in familiar tropes—fields, plants, pearls, treasure, nets. The people who heard Him knew these things, and Jesus showed how each offers a powerful insight to the Kingdom He had come to proclaim and bring near.

Those who had ears to hear would have grasped immediately what Jesus was seeking to convey. And they would have been reminded of what Jesus taught each time they came across one or another of those items during the course of their day. 

Jesus made His teaching “sticky”—easy to understand and remember and exciting to contemplate. He drew from Old Testament prophecies and types as well as New Testament images and truths. He wants us to desire the Kingdom, so that we will seek it as the defining priority of our lives (Matt. 6.33), and pray earnestly and every day that it might come on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6.10). Jesus wants us to lay hold on the Kingdom with holy spiritual violence (Matt. 11.12), so He describes it in terms we can readily grasp, and that excite us with the prospects as His Kingdom advances throughout the world.

What a Kingdom we have to bring to our Personal Mission Field! 

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
A Slip of the Tongue (1956) was the last sermon C. S. Lewis ever preached, and it can be found in its entirety in the book, The Weight of Glory. In it he speaks of the total giving of oneself to the Kingdom—wholeheartedly living in the Kingdom of God.

“For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; 
it is not even all our time and all our attention; 
it is ourselves.”

And then Lewis quotes William Law, who said, 
“If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, 
it will make in the end no difference 
what you have chosen instead.”

Our Kingdom life then, does not consist in us working really hard to give God more and more of our time.
Or, we are determinedly going to attend more and more church activities, or spend more time in prayer and study. No. To live in the Kingdom is our life. It is our all in all. It is everything we are, do, and consist of.
We are subsumed in it. 

Then Lewis goes on to quote John the Baptist, who said, 
“[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3.30). 

Again, Lewis: 
“For He claims all, 
because He is love and must bless. 
He cannot bless us unless He has us. 
When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, 
we try to keep an area of death. 
Therefore, in love, He claims all. 
There’s no bargaining with Him.”

“Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asks (Matt. 13.51).

Solomon would have answered thusly:
“Evil men do not understand justice, but
those who seek the LORD understand all” (Prov. 28.5).

The psalmist prayed: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous works from Your Law” (Ps. 119.18).

In the Word we will find encouragement to lose ourselves in Him.
Not clinging to anything of “our own.”
To seek first, foremost, and only His Kingdom (Matt. 6.33).

If we imitate Paul, as he told us to do (1 Cor. 11.1), we will take on his Kingdom only attitude.
When facing persecution and possible death his response was this:
“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, 
so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, 
to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20.24).

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; 
and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt. 13.44).

All for Jesus and His Kingdom!

Reflect.
1. To you, what is the sweetest part about being a citizen in the Kingdom of God?

2. With whom could you share that thought today?

3. How can believers encourage one another to focus more on the Kingdom of God and less on self?

We then say, Those things which are brought forth from the old are enlightened through the new. We therefore come to the Lord that the veil may be removed. Augustine (354-430), Sermon 74.5

Pray Psalm 110.1, 2, 5-7.
Seek the Lord to help you proclaim His Kingdom and righteousness today.

Sing Psalm 110.1, 2, 5-7.
Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation
“Sit by Me at My right hand,” the LORD says to my Lord, 
“until I make Your foot stand on all who hate Your Word.” 
The LORD sends strength from Zion: “Rules all Your enemies.”
While those Him rely on go forth the LORD to please.

The Lord is at Your right hand to execute His wrath,
and judge all kings and all lands—doomed sinners in His path.
Then, all His foes defeated, He takes His hard-won rest,
in glorious triumph seated with us, redeemed and blessed.

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

We invite you to join us in ReThinking Church. We explain further at our ReThinking Church page, here.

Other columns of interest: This week: Our Read Moore podcast begins a new series of readings from our book, The Joy and Rejoicing of My Heart. Our Crosfigell teaching letter concludes our series on the state of the Church in Europe at the time of the Celtic Revival. The ReVision column continues our examination of the hope for the church, especially struggling churches. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.