The Kingdom of Heaven | Dr. Mark Rutland

If you have your Bibles, if you'll take those and turn, if you will, to the book of Matthew, chapter 13. I'm going to read a lengthy passage of scripture this morning. I know that's more customary in contemporary preaching to read a a passage or two, a verse or two, but this is not a a passage that lends itself to be broken up.

So, I want to read a lengthy passage even. So, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but but a great deal of it. And I'm going to begin reading at verse 18 of the 13th chapter of Matthew. So, I'm going to be reading from the King James version.

Um, every now and again, I get asked about that. The kids at the universities used to ask me all the time, "How come you always read from the King James version?" Well, one reason was, I went to high school with King James. Um, Jimmy. We called him Jimmy.

He wasn't a king in high school. The other is the the flowery Shakespeareian sound of the King James version. All of the these and thous, they appeal to my theatrical spirit. I I like it. But, uh, you do not have to have a King James Bible to go to heaven.

Let me make that clear. One will be given you when you get there. But why stand in that long embarrassing line? I'm just joking. Always afraid somebody will Amen. No. No. I'm just You're a jolly crew. I love a church that knows how to laugh. I tell you, you should travel with me.

Go to some of the churches I go to where laughter has never touched that face. So, I'm going to read Matthew chapter 13, beginning with verse 18. I'm going to read with from the King James. You You follow me in whatever cheap communist imitation you've got. All right.

Sober up. Not supposed to have this much fun in church. Matthew chapter 13 verse 18. Hear ye, Jesus is speaking. Hear ye therefore the parable of the swer. Okay. Now in verse 18, he has already told the parable in the first 17 verses. Starting in verse 18, he's going to explain when he says, "Hear ye," he means, "Hear the explanation of the parable.

Hear ye therefore the parable of the swer." When he when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received the seed by the wayside. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it.

Yet hath he not root in himself, but deereth or endures for a while. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that receiveth seed among the thorns is he that receiveth the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

He that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some hundfold, some 60, some 30. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came, and sowed tears among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tears also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, "Sir, did thou not sow good seed in thy field?

From whence then hath it tears?" And he said unto them, "An enemy hath done this." The servant said to him, said unto him, "Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?" But he said, "Nay, lest while ye gather up the tears, you root up also the wheat with them.

Let them both go to grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, "Gather ye together first the har first the tears, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and swed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds.

But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches thereof. Another parable spoke unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spoke he not unto them, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets, saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house. And his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us, or explain to us the parable of the tears of the field. And he answered and said unto them, he that sweth the good seed is the Son of Man.

The field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tears are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tears are gathered and burned in the fire, so it shall be at the end of the world.

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and nashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father.

Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like uned unto a treasure hid in a field, the which when a man found, he hideth, and for joy goeth therefore, and sellth all that he hath, and buyth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. Put your hands on your Bible if you will and let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together. We have gathered here to seek your voice, your word, your way. Illumine our hearts, oh Lord. Brush aside all the clutter of our lives and speak to us. We long for it in the mighty name Jesus, the strong son of God.

Amen. In Matthew chapter 13, which is a remarkable chapter, you see one of the longest speeches of Jesus. Certainly, there is the sermon on the mount. But beyond that, usually there are quotations of Jesus that are a sentence here and a quick answer there, a brief dialogue. But here, Jesus just keeps telling one story or parable if you will, after another.

In this chapter, it is as though he is holding up the kingdom of heaven like a multifaceted jewel. And he just keeps turning it and he says, "There's one way to look at the kingdom. There's another way. Here's another way. Here's another way. Here's another way." And all of them together present some kind of a a composite portrait of this multifaceted splendor of the kingdom of heaven.

Now let's deal first of all with the issue of the phrase the kingdom of heaven. Some people want to make a distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. I believe the distinction is a distinction without a difference. I believe they are the same thing.

Matthew uses the term the kingdom of heaven. All the other gospels use the term the kingdom of God. There's 68 times in the New Testament where the kingdom of God is used in 10 different books. The kingdom of heaven is used 33 times in only one book, Matthew's.

Why? Matthew's gospel is often called the Jewish Gospel. And he was writing to a a largely Jewish readers. Even today when religious Jews write in English, when they write not in Hebrew but in English, if they come to the word God, they will frequently put capital G dash D because they don't want to offend the Almighty by speaking out the word God.

So I think that what Matthew did was take the phrase the kingdom of God and just substitute the phrase the kingdom of heaven. Indeed, in Matthew chap 19 23 and 24 is the only place where he uses kingdom of God and he uses the two phrases backto back in the same sentence.

Meaning to me that he used them interchangeably. Now what do we say to all of these things that Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven? The first thing is often overlooked because it's the most obvious. When I was in uh undergraduate school working on my bachelor's degree right at the u end of the civil war, I remember that I took a course in psychology and the professor was going to teach us a lesson on observation.

So she held up a big photograph and she said, "I want you to tell me what you see." Well, we were all eager to please and we kept uh coming up with more and more creative ideas. It's a man with a lot on his heart. He looks sad.

His eyes are downcast. And she kept saying, "No, tell me what you see." We kept trying. More and more flamboyant answers. Finally, a boy in the back of the class raised his hand and he said, "I know what I see." And she said, "What?" He said, "A photograph."

She said, "Right." So sometimes the most obvious thing is what is overlooked. So what is the most obvious thing about the kingdom of heaven? it is that it is a kingdom. It is a kingdom ruled over by a king. The kingdom of God is his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven and he rules over it as king.

Sometimes it's easier to talk about the kingdom of God and the issue of kingship in some countries other than in the United States. We are a republic and it's it's so ingrained in our American zeitgeist. No, no king but Jesus. Pry my cold dead fingers off of my gun.

One person, one vote. At least that's the way it used to be. And so sometimes we get this idea of a republic as being the the right kind of governance and it is among the governance of human beings. But the kingdom of God is not a republic. The kingdom of God is a kingdom and God is king.

It's so difficult sometimes for people in the corporate body of the church to understand that there are a bunch of things that God can decide without us voting on it. God is God expects to be obeyed. The second thing about a kingdom is this. Not only is it a kingdom because it's a king, it's a kingdom because there's only one king.

If you have more than one king, it's not a kingdom. It's a civil war. He expects to be not only king of his kingdom, he expects his kingdom in our lives. Therefore, he expects to be king of us. Not simply our silent partner in life but the absolute lord and only potentate whom we obey without question.

It is a kingdom because he is king. Therefore because it is the kingdom of heaven. It is God's kingdom. Then the second thing that we see is that it is God's initiative. Jesus says the word is planted because it's the the word of the son of man. God God is the initiator of the kingdom.

It's God's initiative, God's word, God's authority, God's love, and God's ultimate triumph. We are participants in the kingdom, but we are not co-owners. He is the Lord and and King of his of his own kingdom. Now the third thing is where it starts to get a little diceier and that is in the outward uh the manifestation the outworking of the kingdom which we might call the church the the visible portion of the kingdom.

It is that it remains until the second coming of Christ very much a mixed commodity. The story of the wheat and the tears. Get out of your mind that there is some perfect church. People say, "I just want to go to a perfect church." If you find one, don't join it.

You'll mess it up. There is no perfect church. First of all, because there is only one perfect person, and that's Jesus. Second of all, there's no perfect church because there are varying levels of imperfection. Jesus makes that clear. It's hard for us to understand that amidst amidst all of the the fruit of the kingdom, all of the wheat that is planted in his kingdom, there are also these tears.

That is the the children of iniquity, the children of darkness that are mingled in with the with the the children of light. Now, what we want is to be the ones who decide. We want to say, "Okay, you're in. No, you back out. In, out." He says, "I I will send my angels at the end of everything, and they get to decide.

At the end of it, they will separate out. They'll put the tears in bundles and burn them, and the wheat they'll take into God's kingdom, into his barn." In the meantime, we kind of tolerate and live through the character of the mixture. Sometimes that mixture is painful to us.

We see things that disappoint us and we think, "Oh, how did that happen?" But we are we were told from the beginning that there would be mixtures that would cause difficulty and pain and disappointment. We are we are called to participate in the mixture, not to divide it.

Now then we come to these wonderful parables at the end of this long sermon on the kingdom and that's the parable of the of the wheat of the uh of the cast and the pearl of great price. That's where we want to zero in. So the cast net obviously implies the evangelistic work of the church that we are supposed to put the de net in and put it in deep that we're supposed to a drag net and we're supposed to bring in every kind of fish.

When you put the net in deep enough you go into deep water fishing you're going to get some curious fish. There are some weird fish in the ocean of humanity and we're to bring them all in. We don't get to we don't get to decide. We bring them all in.

And there's some odd ones. There's some fish that are so flat and narrow-minded that both of their eyes are on the same side of their head. You want to try to reveal them any truth, you got to sneak up on them from the side. There's puffer fish. Anybody know what puffer fish are?

Puffer fish are little fish. Their only defense mechanism is to puff up like that and they have little spines on the outside. They they get between two uh rocks or something like that. And and when a predator comes after them, something that threatens them in some way, they just puff up and wedge themselves against those stones.

I can see some of your faces thinking, "Well, we don't have any puffer fish in the church." Just announce that you're changing something. We're changing where your Sunday school meets. We're changing the time of the divine conference. Oh, there's puffer fish in the church. You put the net in deep enough and you're going to drag in some sharks.

It's a it's a very difficult and painful reality to understand that amidst all of the good fish that God wants, there are also sharks that come in. Now, here's the thing. You cannot clean fish that you haven't caught. So, a good fisherman doesn't tuck a buoy knife between his teeth and dive overboard, start trying to gut fish.

We got to get them in here first. There's a lot of cleaning that has to take place. I know some of you some of you need a lot more cleaning than the others, but the but you can't clean fish you haven't caught. Hence the parable of the the cast net.

Put the net in deep. Keep putting it in. Don't don't worry about the mixture and don't try to sort fish. At the end, God will sort the fish. That's not our job. Our job is to catch fish. Then there is this wonderful parable of the treasure buried in the field.

Jesus says that uh the story is that there is a man who's walking through a a a very difficult depressed area some some dangerous place and he trips trying to hurry to his car and he dislodges a cinder block. When he looks under it, there is an old sea chest, obviously been buried there for hundreds of years.

And he opens it and realizes it's pirates treasure. There's gold deons and silver and jewelry of every kind. And he realizes it's a king's ransom is buried in there. But this is a smart businessman. He knows that if he takes that treasure out of that field without the permission of the owner, that he is guilty of theft because the mineral rights of that field, according to the criminal code of Georgia, the mineral rights of that field belong to the owner.

So, he just pushes the cinder block back in and covers it with his foot and taps it down. Nobody saw him. He finds an old real estate sign fallen over and shot full of bullet holes. on it. There's a number for a real estate agent and he calls him and says, "I'm interested in that vacant lot."

The real estate agent puts his hand over the phone and tells his secretary, "I got a live one here." And he buys that field. How many of you know he does not care anything about that blot? What he wants is the treasure. That is what God is trying to say about us. that he sees us as a treasure buried in the field of the the wickedness and depravity and filth that we can pile up.

Many years ago, I was preaching in a camp meeting. I preaching morning services and night services. In the afternoon, I went to a little house, a little cabin type thing they provided for me, and I just stretched out for a for a nap. And I looked across the road, and there was a field across the road.

And there's a guy out there. It looked like he had a a mind sweeper. And so I went out there to him. He's got earphones on and he he's going like this and every once in a while he do this like he's crazy. Throw it down, drop to his knees, take a buoy knife and start digging in the ground.

I was just overcome with curiosity. I said, "Hey buddy, what are you doing?" He said, "This is my hobby. It's a metal detector." He said, "I I find all kinds of things. Civil War artifacts, mini balls, uh sometimes a belt buckle from some uh Confederate soldier or something.

He said, "This is my hobby." I said, "Well, how does it work?" He said, "This can detect something worth digging up under 8 in of dirt." And he said, "It sends an electrical impulse to this box on my hip, which translates it into an audible sound, and I hear beeping in my ears, and I know there's something down there worth digging up.

I got on a plane in uh LA Lax, Los Angeles International. I've been preaching on the West Coast about six times. I was just worn out. Just I know there are a lot of preachers here this morning. You know exactly what I'm talking about if we're honest with each other.

You come to the place where you just preached out. You don't want to hear anybody else's story. You don't want to pray with anybody. You just I and I had some extra frequent flyer miles. I got bumped up to first class. I'm going to ride all the way from Los Angeles non-stop to Atlanta first class.

I'm just going to vegetate. I get in my seat up at the front of the plane. This guy comes in and he and the flight attendants are just going at each other and I can hear him and he's a big old fat guy and he's just yelling at them and they're yelling at him.

And it dawned on me this empty seat. So, I I kind of turned to the window this way, trying to use a little body English. You know, you know, when you let go of that bowling ball, you know that actually body English won't help, but you can't help you.

So, I thought if I turn to the window, it would force him into the coach section. He comes up the aisle, slams his right over me, sits down beside me, smells like a brewery. He sits down beside me. He buckles in and he's talking about the blanking airline and the flight attendants, everything else.

Fine. We took off and after a little while, he turns to me and he says, "Hey, I'm sorry. I'm not always like this." He said, "I've just had a horrible weekend." He said, "I flew all the way to Los Angeles to make a sale and I blew it.

I didn't get it. Cost me a lot of money." He said, "I got stoned in my room last night. I wanted to say I I I know. And he said, "This morning when I was coming to the airport, my daughter in Philadelphia called me." He said, "I'm a lapsed Catholic.

I haven't been in church since first communion. And this morning on the on the way to the airport, my teenage daughter in Philadelphia called me and she said, "Great news, Dad. I went to a Youth for Christ rally last night and I got born again." And he said, "I I don't even know what that means.

What do you think born again means? Beep. Now look, he he didn't get gloriously saved. I always envy preachers whose stories end right. He didn't get gloriously saved, but we talked we talked about the Lord. I I tried to explain to him what his daughter's experience was and how he could communicate with her.

And I asked him if he wanted to pray the sinner's prayer. He didn't want to. But that all that seed was planted. That was all done. The point is this, that underneath all that drunken, loudmouth, foulmouth filth, there was a treasure in that field that God knew was in there and wanted it dug up.

We have to train ourselves. We have to train ourselves to get kingdom eyes to if we're going to be in this kingdom, we have to think like the king. We have to see the way the king sees. So, you're driving down the road and you see some homeless guy with last week's vomit dried on his shirt.

Can is it just the disgust that you can see? Or can you train yourself to understand underneath all that filth there's something worth digging up? A treasure in the eyes of God. And then there is the final and the sweetest of all the parables which is the most meaningful to us.

It's the story of the pearl of great price. A merchantman going through the the markets of the world trying to find goodly pearls and finally he finds one pearl of great price. He goes and sells everything that he has and returns and buys that pearl of great price.

That parable has been either misunderstood or misapplied at least poetically. And I I'm willing to grant some latitude on on literary application that Jesus is often called the the pearl of great price. And I understand that he is certainly of inestimable value. But that's not what this parable means.

It says that this merchantman is going through the markets of the world seeking pearls of great price. You weren't seeking for Jesus. He was seeking for you. And when he finds the pearl of great price, it says he goes and sells everything that he has in order to purchase that pearl.

You didn't sell anything to buy Jesus. You didn't get him out of the market. He found you. He searched for you. He bankrupted heaven. He drained the blood out of Emanuel's veins. You understand how encouraging this parable is? Look, everybody in the world may say you're an idiot and that you're a failure and that you're not worth anything, but Jesus says you're a pearl of great price.

The parable is encouraging to us. You're pearls of great price. He He treasures you. There is a fascinating book called The Screw Tape Letters written by CS Lewis. It's a an allegory, if you will. And it reveals the way that the satanic mind works. There is an older demon, if you will, a veteran demon named Screw Tape.

And he is mentoring an a new demon, I guess, is the way to say it, called Wormwood. He's teaching Wormwood how to attack these human subjects, particularly this one. And here is a quote from that book. Screw Tape says to Wormwood, talking about God, he says, "Remember always."

He, meaning God, "Remember always, he really likes the little vermin." That's us. Satan sees us as vermin, rats. But Screw Tape says, "Remember, God really likes the little vermin and sets an absurd value on the distinctiveness of every one of them. that God sees you are not just a number in the kingdom.

He sees you as important, different, unique, valuable. You are a pearl of great price and you are and you are and you are and you are and he sees the value of every one of you. We must therefore find the kingship of God in our hearts and in our lives.

He rules over us. Secondly, we must learn to develop kingdom eyes, a kingdom heart, kingdom mind. To think the way the king thinks, to realize that it's our job to keep putting in the net, to keep bringing in the fish, to keep waiting at the end of everything.

He's going to sort it out. He's going to divide it. He's going to separate the wheat from the tears, the good fish from the bad fish. He's going to divide it. But not us. We don't we don't have the authority to do that. We don't have the discernment.

We are we are we are citizens of this mixed kingdom and we wait on the end time when it will all be separated and made clear. Meanwhile, we live and work together with kingdom eyes and kingdom heart. Now, how would you know? Somebody might say, "I value you.

You're a pearl of great price. I purchase you. I redeem you. I believe in you. But how how would you know if he really wanted a relationship with you if he invited you to sit down at the table with him and eat in the night that Jesus was betrayed?

The very night that he was betrayed. Talk about the mixed kingdom. He's got 12 guys with him. The night he's going to be arrested and tortured and crucified the next day. He's got one guy that's just sold him out for money. One guy that's so cowardly he's going to deny him three times before dawn.

And Jesus says, "Let's sit down and eat together." That's why holy communion is one of the clearest witnesses that God values you. He wants you at his table of grace. He wants you to share with him in the divine supper, even this communion. You should have one of these communion cups when you came in.

If you don't have, would you please raise your hand? And some of our ushers are going to bring them to you right away. We want everyone to have these. Here's some right over here. These are not our usual ushers. They're on loan to us from Universal Studios. And that's why they're all so strikingly handsome.

Now, if you'll take this cup, you'll notice that it's in two parts. If you'll peel away the top layer of cellophane, underneath is the wafer, the bread, and then the second layer will be for the juice if you'll wait. We'll all take together. So, if you'll peel away the top layer and then remove the wafer and hold it in your hand.

Are we ready? Has everybody been served? All right. In the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it and he says to his disciples, "This is my body broken for you. Take, eat, and feed on him in your heart by faith. Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to his disciples, and he said, "Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of a new covenant, a whole new contract between God and man, signifying unto you the forgiveness of sins. and not yours only, but the sins of the whole world.

Drink, my friend, and rejoice. Your sins are forgiven. Welcome to the table of God and to the kingdom of God. Praise his holy name. Before you leave, before you leave, treasure these things. Listen to this. Ask God for kingdom eyes to see the treasure buried in other people's fields.

Ask God for a kingdom understanding of who you are. You are a pearl of great price. And ask him for patience to wait. He's going to sort all this crazy mixture out at the end of things. Will you stand and look right up here? And now, may the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit keep your hearts and minds in perfect peace until the day of his appearing.

And when the battle's over, we'll all wear a crown. God bless you and God bless Free Chapel. Well, what an incredible, amazing message we have received this morning by Dr. Mark Ratland. And as he was talking about this parable, I encourage you to take time this week to read it again.

And as the word of God is received in your heart, ensure that it falls on fertile ground, on good ground, so that it can bear fruit in your life in everything that you do throughout the week. And if you said yes to Jesus this morning, as pastor, or rather Dr.

Rutland was uh preaching this morning and praying, congratulations. Welcome to the table of God. Just like he said, welcome to the family of Jesus. Go ahead and text the word yes to the number 510510. And also, if you need prayer for anything, we're here for you. We're ready to stand and rally behind you.

Go ahead and text the word prayer to the number 510510. Also, we want to take a minute to thank each and every one of you that continue to stand with us in ministry, to partner with us in ministry. We cannot do half of the things that we do without your partnership and without you coming alongside us.

And so, thank you for your generosity. Um, we have divine conference coming up. and all this uh amazing outreach that we get to do on a monthly basis and it's all because of your partnership in giving. So, thank you so much for giving. And as I talked about divine, I want to send a reminder to all the ladies out there who are watching.

It's not too late to grab your tickets to go ahead and purchase your divine tickets and join us September 20th and September 21st right here at our Gainesville campus. Bring mom, bring your sister, bring your best friend so that together we can have an amazing time at Divine Conference.

But for now, from me, Christy, from Pastor James, who's not here right now, and the entire production team, it's God bless you and have an amazing week. 
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