Last week we looked at one of Jesus’ favorite teachings, the kingdom of God. We discovered the kingdom of God isn’t just something which will happen in the future when Jesus returns, but God is already in the process of building his kingdom, his perfect reign on earth right now. Jesus said “the kingdom of God has come upon you (Mt. 12:28).” The kingdom of God is right here and now. God’s kingdom is not geographical so you can say here it is or there it is. God’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom which begins in the hearts of those who desire to give their lives to him and follow him. Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you (Lk. 17:21). It’s easy for us to look at what’s wrong with the world and desire for God to fix it so that it reflects his heavenly kingdom, but God chooses to change the world by fixing us first, changing our hearts through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit so that his rule, his reign, his kingdom begins with us. Once God changes us so that we are doing his will then He begins working through us, his people, to expand his kingdom throughout the earth.
Last week we learned from Jesus’ parable of the sower/soils that it all begins with a choice on how we will receive this Good News about God’s kingdom. Jesus used the analogy of a farmer sowing seeds onto four different types of soil. These soils represent how people receive God’s kingdom differently. Some are like the hard packed soil, like a hiking path or dirt road, they reject the seed and will not let it grow within them, in other words they are unwilling to accept God’s good news at all. Others are like rocky soil, the seed grows quickly, they receive the good news about God’s kingdom with joy, but they never grow roots, never get to know and grow in this relationship with God. Then there is the thorny or weedy soil which also received the good news but they still try to live in both worlds. They try to live in God’s kingdom doing his things his way, but they also try to live for themselves and refuse to get rid of sin in their life. But God’s kingdom and our kingdom can’t coexist and so God’s kingdom is choked out of us by our other lifestyle, and God’s blessings, his fruitfulness go with it. But Jesus said we can choose to be the good soil which receives the seed, the good news about Jesus and God’s kingdom and chooses to live for God, to get to know him, we allow him to have control of our life, we do things according to his perfect will as revealed in the Bible and by his Spirit. This kind of life is blessed by God with great fruitfulness, the seed grows and bears much fruit. Fruits like love, joy, peace, kindness.
God’s kingdom begins within me by my own choice on how I receive the Good News of God. But that is just the beginning. When we choose to become the good soil, the more the kingdom of God’s grows.
The Kingdom Will Grow Until it Fills the Earth
In the two parables this morning Jesus compares the kingdom of God with a mustard seed and leaven worked into bread. Both of these are very small almost imperceptible yet they both grow and expand. The seed, even as small as it is, grows into a large bush for the birds to build their nests. The leaven on the other hand is placed in a large batch of flour and worked in, and even though it is only a small amount, eventually the whole batch of dough is leavened.
How many of you ever had someone give you a bag of the friendship bread mix? After you got it you weren’t friends with them anymore, huh? Because once you got it, it was impossible to get rid of it. It comes in this ziplock bag and you squish it every so many days. In the bag is leaven. You are letting it ferment and squishing it to mix up the leaven. Every so many days you add more stuff like flour, sugar, and whatever else. Then eventually you would have a starter bag to give to someone else. That is like the leaven. They would put a small amount in but it would eventually mix into the whole dough to make it rise. On your way out this morning I have a bag of friendship bread for everyone. Just kidding.
Jesus’ point is clear, the kingdom starts off small, so small that it’s sometimes hard to see where God is at work, but his kingdom will grow and expand until every person on this earth is touched by God’s Kingdom. It doesn’t mean everyone will choose to be part of the kingdom but the Good News of Jesus and his kingdom will be proclaimed across the earth. In fact, Jesus said he wouldn’t return until after that happened (Mt. 24:14).
God’s kingdom began small with his Son Jesus, a man from the virtually the middle of nowhere, a little town called Nazareth, who was totally sold out for doing God’s perfect will. He preached that God’s kingdom was near, he healed people, and after he was crucified he rose from the dead to prove that God’s kingdom was a reality. God had defeated the evil One and his claim on people. God’s kingdom had begun on earth. Then the kingdom was with the disciples as they were filled with the Holy Spirit and were totally sold out for God living for Him and doing his perfect will. They continued Jesus’ work by preaching the good news about the coming of God’s kingdom through Jesus Christ. And the kingdom grew because the nature of kingdom like the nature of the seed and the leaven is to grow. After Pentecost 3,000 more became followers of Jesus, soon afterwards they totaled over 5,000. The seed continued to grow. It will grow until the whole world is impacted and hears the good news of God’s kingdom and they have a choice on what kind of soil they will become. These people then in turn impacted others who impacted others, and together they transform this world. As people are transformed by the grace of God and live for him they influence those around them, their families, their neighbors, their culture, and society so that it reflects God’s kingdom more and more. The kingdom continues to expand.
The kingdom begins small. Perhaps there seems to be only a small amount of Christ followers in a community, but as people choose to follow God, and do His will, people hear about Jesus and his kingdom and it grows, people see their need for God and what a blessing it is living for God. The kingdom expands. We should never get discouraged because we don’t see our community reflecting God’s kingdom, we just need to look at ourselves and ask are we reflecting God’s kingdom in our life? And are we helping others hear about the kingdom? Remember God’s kingdom is created to grow, and it grows as God works through us. When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” we aren’t just asking Jesus to come back soon. We are asking God to give us the marching orders to be used by him to make his kingdom a reality on earth. When we pray that and mean it I believe God says, good I’m glad you want my will done, here’s what I want you to do.
God Uses us to Expand His Kingdom
God expects to us to be his vessels for bringing in the kingdom.
What would our family, our community, and our world look like if it truly reflected God’s perfect heavenly kingdom? There would be no more…you fill in the blank…poverty or hunger, disease like AIDS, malaria, or cancer, abuse, murder, pollution, divorce, loneliness, and most importantly no person who doesn’t know God personally through Jesus Christ. There would be more…love, kindness, gentleness, justice, mercy. Every single one of these areas we have mentioned is important to God in order to help make our community, our state, nation, and world reflect God’s kingdom.
God wants to empower us to impact the world for Him so that it reflects His Kingdom.
The problem is we tend to look at our community and complain about how terrible it has gotten, more drug and alcohol problems, more broken marriages, undisciplined children, houses not being cared for, people far from God. But it is our responsibility for expanding the kingdom through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
How do we do this? Ask yourself, what burden has God placed on your heart? What is wrong in our community or our world that doesn’t reflect God’s heavenly kingdom? Whatever unsettles you is God’s invitation to join him in his kingdom work. Is it the environment? Perhaps you have a passion and desire to help care for it. Perhaps the desire of your heart is to help hurting people find healing. God’s invitation may be through the medical realm, or by praying for healing for others. Some may have a heavy burden for those who go without food in our community or around the world, or maybe you feel strongly about those who have disease like AIDS and malaria which is killing over a million people each year (Circuit Rider, July/August 2007, ). Others feel for the children in our community and want them to experience love which they may not get at home. Each one of these is very important to God, when we participate in these ways we are an extension of God’s hand into the world to make it look more like God’s kingdom.
For Martin Luther King Jr. racial injustice was his burden, and he had a dream for all people regardless of gender or color living in peace together. For Mother Theresa it was the sick, the overlooked, the marginalized of society. She got down into the worst of the worst to be God’s expression of love to the poorest in India. Jimmy Carter had a desire to see every person have a home and so he joined Habitat for Humanity and put all of his heart into it. Billy Graham had a passion for people to know Jesus and live forever with him. What burden has God placed on your heart? What is it in our community or world situation that doesn’t reflect heaven? That’s your invitation. Some people are looking for a bright flashing sign in the sky which says go this way or do this? But God’s invitation usually comes through a burden on your heart.
However we need to remember that the centrally most important part of God’s kingdom is for every person to be in a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Our service or whatever burden God gives us becomes an extension of helping others know God. It is good to build the kingdom by helping the environment, or healing ministry, or feeding hungry people because we are making earth reflect heaven, but according to the Bible the most important goal for us should always be people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and following him. Because we won’t be on this earth forever, at least not the way it is now.
What burden in our world has God placed on your heart, how will you respond to it, and how can you use it to help bring people to Him. Because one day Jesus will come back and he will gather the elect, those who are written in the Lamb’s book of Life.
In WWII the U.S. was called the sleeping giant because with all of our resources and manpower we chose not to directly get involved in the war against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Even though things didn’t look good in Europe, North Africa, and even in Asia, everyone knew that if the U.S. got directly involved it would turn the tide. After Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor the Sleeping Giant awoke, the angry bear took action, and it was our direct involvement in the war which brought about the victory against evil.
I believe the Christian community is a sleeping giant. There are supposedly two billion Christians in the world which has a population of over six billion people. That’s almost 1/3 of the world’s total population. That number is probably a little inflated because these are self-avowed Christians, but still imagine all the resources, abilities, skills which are available to use to impact our world for God’s kingdom. If every Christian followed their God given, and God empowered calling to do whatever he asked to build His kingdom I believe earth would come close to reflecting heaven (although it will never completely reflect heaven until Christ returns), and all people would hear the Good News and see it lived out. The Bible says “if God is for us, who can stand against us?” Yet we still do so very little. God has given us a responsibility over this community, we are responsible for our neighbors and neighborhood, but how are we helping God expand his kingdom? It may begin small with one person touching one other person, but the kingdom is created to grow and work it’s way through us into the entire community. One person, one church following God’s plan will make a kingdom difference.
Rather than complain about the problem of alcoholism in our community, perhaps God would give you the burden to start a recovery ministry for alcoholics. Rather than be troubled about the divorce rate, perhaps you may feel led to begin a ministry to help divorced families rebound and receive God’s love and forgiveness, and build a foundation on the Rock. Rather than complain about the youth who can’t seem to stay out of trouble, perhaps God has given you a burden to help with a community youth ministry to show them the difference Christ can make in their life. Rather than see children who are unloved we would have a ministry which would attempt to mentor children from troubled families. God will give us all we need to accomplish his kingdom building work right here, we just have to decide what we are going to do about it.
The Sleeping Giant needs to awaken. It’s time we woke from our slumber, and allow God to build his kingdom through us right here in our community. If God is for us, who can stand against us. Determine the burden God has placed on you, ask God where he wants you to join him, and join him. If you don’t know how to begin, call me, we’ll set an appointment to talk about what you can do with the burden God has given you. But let’s not continue to slumber.
Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Mt. 9:37-38)."
Are you willing to be sent?
