In the past, there was a great kingdom, a kingdom where peace, love, and joy reigned. It was a place where men and women lived together in harmony, where the young were trained up in a good manner, the adults worked together and spoke to each other of the happiness of their lives, and where the old were taken care of and respected for their wisdom. It was a wonderful place, this kingdom.
In the future, there will be a great kingdom, a kingdom where peace, love, and joy shall reign. It will be a place where men and women live together in harmony, where the young will be trained up in a good manner, the adults will work together and speak to each other of the happiness of their lives, and where the old will be taken care of and respected for their wisdom. It will be a wonderful place, this kingdom.
Today, this great kingdom exists, a kingdom where peace, love, and joy reign. It is a place where men and women lived together in harmony, where the young are trained up in a good manner, the adults work together and speak to each other of the happiness of their lives, and where the old are taken care of and respected for their wisdom. It is a wonderful place, this kingdom.
I speak, of course, of the Kingdom of Heaven, a kingdom that has existed for nearly 2000 years and will exist in the future into eternity.
What most people don’t realize is that the Kingdom of Heaven exists now and today. What most people don’t realize is that the Kingdom of Heaven is happening now, in this time. What most people don’t realize is that belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven requires us to renounce our citizenship in the world around us, to give up the things of this world, to rethink our relationship to worldly things and worldly people, to turn our back on the pile of termite-eaten sawdust that is the world around us and to sign onto the Kingdom of Heaven fully, completely, absolutely. We must make a choice – the world – or the Kingdom.
Jesus talks a lot about the kingdom in this week’s readings. He uses parables, for what he was talking about could be considered treasonous by the rulers of the Galilee and Judea where he lived and walked. His talk about the Kingdom was for the people who had already turned toward Him, the people who were following Him, the people who were looking to Jesus to change the world around Him. All of those people expected Jesus to take up a sword and lead a mighty army of rebellion against King Herod and against the Roman Empire, changing things in a fabulous year, a month, a day from the way things were – and are – to the way things might become.
It was the way King David and King Solomon had developed the Kingdom of Israel. They took up their swords and they conquered the little kingdoms around them. They built the Kingdom of Israel with their swords and spears and chariots.
But Jesus had a different idea.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
The Kingdom of Heaven, you see, would not come like a farmer’s plow, tearing up the old ways and leaving everything turned upside down. No, the Kingdom was going to start small, even tiny, and grow and grow and grow until it was a huge bush – even a tree extending up into heaven.
And so Jesus was right. The Kingdom of Heaven started with Jesus and the Twelve, a tiny band together. Soon, there were 120, then on Pentecost 3000 more joined in. Over the next few years, the Kingdom spread throughout the Holy Land, then through Turkey and Greece into Italy and beyond to France and Spain, as well as into India and Ethiopia. Soon, the entire Roman Empire had turned Christian and all of Europe, then North and South America. And now the Kingdom is growing rapidly in China and in Subsaharan Africa, and is ready to move into the last hold-out areas – Japan, Burma, Thailand, and the Muslim countries of southern Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Have you considered the difference between how God builds things and people build things? People plan carefully and then pour resources into something, building an Empire State building in year, a great bridge in two years, a house in a few months. And each of these are for a single purpose, a home for a family, a bridge for cars or trains, a building for offices.
But God….God starts small and lets the giant redwood tree grow, growing from a small seed into a 300 foot tall tree that shelters all sorts of birds and animals. The tree repairs itself if injured, replaces itself if a storm topples it, grows back from the roots if you cut it down. This is the different between a structure – which people build – and life – which God grows.
God is a farmer, rather than an engineer.
And Jesus has told us this about the Kingdom of Heaven, the Church. It is a living thing, not a building, not a structure. It grows itself – it is not built by outsiders. It is not built by the sword nor the spear nor the chariot.
Jesus gives us a second parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Yeast is again, a growing thing. In a batch of warm, moist dough it grows and seeps and moves and spreads throughout the dough, creating little bubbles of carbon dioxide that gradual rise the dough. Consider what fine bread dough is – it is not flour and water, although they are part. Flour and water combined is just a gooey mess. If you bake it, you have matzah – flat, dead, crackers that fall into your stomach and die there. But add yeast, the living thing – and now you have wonderful bread, light and lively, filled with taste, with smell, a wonderful food that gives us life!
In the old days, King David and King Solomon took care to keep the kingdom of Israel that they developed compact and solid. As they conquered more land, they took care to make sure the land was solidly part of the Kingdom of Israel. They did not overextend, they did not jump around from place to place, but always made sure they took over a city at a time, a province at a time, a small kingdom one at a time. It was like laying bricks on top of other solid bricks. But you can only build a brick building so high and so big.
However, the Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast that spread throughout the dough. The Kingdom of Heaven is composed of individual people, who move throughout the world and form little bubbles of goodness wherever they begin to talk to others. Even now in ungodly places, in towns and cities and villages all over the world, a handful of believers are gathering and forming little bubbles of goodness where they are. In places not known for Christianity, places like Cairo, Eqypt, in Shanghai, China, in Mumbai, India, in Saudi Arabia, in Pakistan, in New York, in San Francisco, in Bangkok, Thailand, in the India and Chinese countryside, in Yemen, in Syria, in Iraq, small groups of Christians are meeting today, praising Jesus and God, lifting each other up in prayer, asking for God’s help in changing the world around them. And those bubbles of goodness are expanding.
Some places the bubbles are strong and vibrant, like Atlanta, Dallas, and Charlotte. Other places the bubbles are collapsing, like in Paris, London, and Berlin. But overall, those bubbles of goodness, those pockets of Christians are growing. Even here in Harrison County, a vibrant Christianity is replacing an old, dying, stale Christianity that stayed in the building, a Christianity that focused on looks, on soberness, on dressing right. The new Christianity is more focused upon spreading the Gospel, on personal holiness, on a joyful encounter and relationship with the Prince of the Kingdom, who is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Here Jesus speaks of the great value of belonging to the Kingdom. Unlike earthly kingdoms where a person may choose to be an American, a Brazilian, a Canadian, unlike our world where a moderately wealthy person may move from state to state or even move country to country based upon the business climate, the country’s laws, the weather, the cost-of-living, where people may own a business in Georgia, a house in Ohio, and a vacation home in West Virginia – Jesus says that belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven is not a matter of one foot in/another foot out, it is not a close decision, it is not a matter of giving up a tenth of what we own, a quarter of what we own, even a half of what we own. It isn’t worth $5 a week, $10 a week, $20 a week or even $100 a week – it is worth everything. It is worth trading away everything else we have for the joy and eternal benefits it brings. We should be either in – or out – and we should be willing to pay anything to be in.
If I told you that if you will sell your car today, you will be guaranteed ten thousand dollars a year for the rest of your life, would you sell your car?
If I told you that if you sell your house today, you will be guaranteed a hundred thousand dollars a year for the rest of your life, would you sell your house?
And if I told you that if today you sold everything you own – your cars, your homes, your stocks, your retirement savings, everything in your homes, including your television, your books, your iPhones, your computers and tablets – you could have an eternal life, living in a beautiful land with all the food and drink you’d ever need, never needing health insurance because you’d be vaccinated against all disease, against cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and old age, and your neighbors would be better, more interesting neighbors than any neighbors you’ve ever known and I promised your children and grandchildren and all your descendants and family could join you there with the same deal – would you take it?
Would you give up everything in this world for that? Would you give up your politics, your tv shows, your acquaintances that hurt you, your STUFF for a life like that? Would you become like the monks and nuns of old to walk away from your former life to follow Jesus?
That is what Jesus is offering us in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The man we know as St Francis of Assisi did just that. The son of a wealthy merchant, in his late teens Francis began to understand what Jesus asks of people. One day, his father, upset that his son was “wasting” money on the things of God, took his son to the bishop. “If you do not start learning my business and giving up this nonsense, I will disown you. You will get nothing from me!” his father said.
Francis said, “That’s fine. I can live on God’s love alone.” And in front of the bishop, Francis stepped out of his overcoat, then his fine robe, then his underwear and handed them all to his father. He gave up everything to serve God. He lived off of charity and simple day laboring the rest of his life – and founded the Order of Franciscan monks, which even today take vows of poverty and live simple lives of service and following God.
To make sure we understood, Jesus said: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Will you trade everything for the ticket to the Kingdom? Is everything in this life worth trading to live in the Kingdom of Heaven?
When we buy homes and cars and even jewelry today, we try to buy them with the lowest down-payment and the lowest possible payment per month. We are used to paying interest to lower the monthly “expense”. And so we carry extra insurance on cars and homes and jewelry because we have to be able to pay off the mortgage, and we don’t truly own the item for years and years and years.
We take that mindset into the Gospel.
Instead of jumping into the Kingdom, most people today believe that the Kingdom is something they can buy on the installment plan, like a car or a house. They give a little bit each week in money, in time, in commitment, in belief, and expect that that minimum investment will reap them a great reward someday.
But these parables – the parable of the field and of the pearl of great price – they tell us that the wise person jumps into the Kingdom with both feet, all at once, committing totally to the Kingdom. Great rewards each day go to the person who is fully committed to the Gospel, to the Kingdom, to God, that don’t go to the installment buyer.
I have seen two ways people start with new smartphones.
One group of people say, “How do I make a phone call?” They learn and they say, “thank you”, and then they go and make phone calls. Maybe a year later, they come back and ask, “Can I text with this phone? How?” and they learn and they say “thank you”, and then they go and text a bit and make phone calls. And some of them come back a year or so later, and ask, “Can I get the weather on this phone?” and they are shown an app and so forth. They have missed so many blessings from the phone for years.
Another group of people say, “Show me how to use this phone.” And they take the owner’s manual, they download apps, they talk to friends daily for two weeks, for a month, and soon they are making phone calls, texting, Facebooking, checking the weather, checking the elevation, checking email, writing letters, doing spreadsheets, using the calculator and calendar with events notifying them and playing chess, counting calories….you get the picture. They are getting a dozen times the joy and usefulness out of the phone as the first bunch. Their phone has much greater value to them than the first group, who barely find any value over an old flip phone.
C.S. Lewis, the great Oxford and Cambridge professor, said that if Christianity is false, it is of absolutely no value, but if it is true, it is of immense value.
The pearl has been offered to you. Will you buy it today, or will you negotiate terms with God to buy the pearl over fifty years which you may not have?
“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
And here we come to the catch – pun intended.
The net is let down into the lake and all kinds of fish are caught. Some our fat, juicy trout. Some are big and full of meat. Others are thin, full of parasites and taste bad. The fishermen collect the good fish and throw away the bad fish.
And Jesus says this is like the Kingdom of Heaven at the end of the age. Jesus is saying that some of the people in the church will be harvested - and others will be thrown into the fire.
It wasn’t always that way in Israel. Under the Law of Moses, the Kingdom of Israel was based upon the rules. Those who were good were those who followed the Law – those who were bad did not follow the Law. The lawless, the law-breakers were punished, often with death or exile from the kingdom. The goal was to keep the Kingdom of Israel pure. But the Kingdom of Heaven would be different.
Over the centuries, the Kingdom of Heaven has collected many people. Many people understand the lessons of the Kingdom, they become wonderful, generous, forgiving people. They help each other and avoid hurting others. They read the Word of God and follow the Word and the Holy Spirit, walking along the Path of Holiness and they become holy people, people who show the fruits of the Spirit – peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. They become people who invite you into their living rooms or front porches or trucks and you go there to listen to them and learn and you walk away blessed because you have been touched by the Body of Christ.
And the Kingdom of Heaven also collects bad fish. People who are simply looking selfishly for eternal life, people who want to be seen, people who are needy and want people to do for them, people who take the ways of the world into the church, the politics of the world, their need to have things THEIR way, to show-off, to network for their businesses, to find customers, to be seen with the right people. These bad fish are in the church today, in almost every church, damaging the Kingdom, but the King has told us they will be there until the end of days, when the fishermen – in this case, "the angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
You see, the bad fish have to have a chance to become good fish.
And so we have the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts small and grows – it is not built. It seeps into every corner of the world in the most unlikely places.
You know, a man once pointed out that the first two businesses in a new town are the taverns and the churches. It has also been pointed out that the last two businesses to leave a dying town are the taverns and the churches.
The Kingdom of Heaven goes everywhere, but sin runs with it, keeping pace, because sin was there first.
And that is why the people in the pews around you are good, holy people, or reasonably good, somewhat worldly people, or not so good people who have a lot of issues. It is because the Kingdom Fisherman has caught a lot of people in His net.
But he doesn’t care. For sitting in the pews today, you – or the person beside you – has understood something new about the Kingdom that you didn’t understand a week ago, and now you have the chance to make a change for the better, to become a better fish, to forgive others, especially the one who hurt you, to become less selfish, to remember the person in that other pew whom you may have hurt without thinking, to apologize, to thank for the word of correction they gave you, to consider what it means to REALLY read and study the Word of God, to reconsider what you would trade for eternal life in the Kingdom.
What have you given up for the Kingdom? Finances – yes. But where are your priorities? How many priorities do you have?
A man once said that the ideal number of priorities is one – spreading the Word of the Kingdom to everyone he met.
Would you trade an hour of television time for an hour of study with fellow believers?
Would you trade an evening of soccer practice for an evening bringing your children more fully into the Kingdom?
Would you trade space on your wall for a Bible verse? Would you pay extra tuition to send your grandchildren to a Christian school? Would you devote a couple of hours a week to holding a Bible study in your home? Would you get up thirty minutes earlier on Sundays to give someone a ride to church?
Jesus does not ask many people to give up everything they own to trade for a ticket into the Kingdom, but Jesus does ask all of us to be ready and willing to give up everything for the Kingdom.
It is that important, it is that valuable, it is worth more than anything else we can do or say or own.
Jesus asked: “Have you understood all these things?”
“Yes,” they replied.
Jesus was speaking that day to his disciples, a motley crew of men who were political activists, bureaucrats, fishermen, and teachers of the Law of Moses.
In our churches, our Sunday School teachers often fall into the trap of teaching the Law of Moses, teaching the right and the wrong, the rules. But we all need to focus upon teaching about Grace, the fact that Jesus chose to deliver us from our paddling’s, our spankings, our punishments by taking them on Himself even though He did not need to. We are good at teaching about the Law, but weak on teaching about God’s grace. And so many of our children grow up learning the rules but not the really important part - the Grace of God.
Jesus’ lessons were new to His disciples. The Kingdom of Heaven was not a just a new word for the Kingdom of Israel, but it was a new way of thinking, a new look at an old concept, a New Testament approach. No longer was the worship of God to be spread by the conquest of nations as it was done in the time of King David and Solomon. Now, the worship of God would grow like a mustard plant, spread like yeast in bread dough, and the purification would take place at the end of days. People would give up everything of the world to join the Kingdom. And at the end of the age, God and the angels will separate the good fish and the bad fish, throwing the bad fish – the bad people in the Kingdom – into the fire.
He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
The Teachers of the Law taught about the Law. But the only thing the Law could show us were the hundreds of way to offend God and other people, the ways that lead to death, to defeat, to despair. Teaching the Law seemed on the face of it to be very good, but it led to people giving up, walking away from God, and piling evil bricks upon evil bricks.
If you will teach as a Christian disciple – and all Christians should teach people who know less than they do – you are like a person who gives to visitors your treasures as gifts. Some of the treasures are very old – these are lessons of the Law, the Old Testament, the stories of Genesis and the Kingdom of Israel. Yet some of the treasures are much newer – this is the Gospel, the idea that God is a forgiving God who is not waiting to smash us into rubble but is just waiting for the chance to forgive us when we ask, to lovingly help us out of our messes, to point us to a path, the Path of Holiness that leads to wise, abundant living and away from foolish, sinful living. The new treasures point to eternal life, to the peace of Christ, to life and away from death.
At the beginning of my talk today, I talked about the kingdom that was and the kingdom that will be. I even talked of the kingdom that is.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a reality. Around the world, there are pockets where the kingdom is functioning the way it is supposed to function. And there are many places where the Kingdom is functioning like an old Chevy with 150,000 miles on it – it needs a few repairs.
Throughout history and in our world, in this day, the most common reasons the Kingdom had problems were the mis-understandings of the Kingdom we talked about today. People tried to build the Kingdom instead of letting its life and the life of Christ that is in it grow the kingdom. People tried to establish firm geographic boundaries for parishes, churches, conferences, and denominations instead of letting the Kingdom seep into the surrounding world. Perhaps most importantly today, people insist that the Kingdom is something they can buy on installment, partially, never truly jumping into the Kingdom, being cheap with their commitments, sowing seed carefully and sparingly, and thus they do not reap a full harvest of joy. For you must buy the pearl outright, you must own the field without a lien to dig up the treasure – so don’t treat the Gospel as an expense in your lives, but instead as a source of joy. like a well that bubbles up more water or more oil the deeper you go. And the deeper you go into the Kingdom, the more joy in your life.
Our final problem in these days is the idea that belonging to the Kingdom is an easy thing. It is ….but it is not something for the lazy. Jesus specifically talks about the wheat and the tares, the weeds, in the Kingdom, and he talks about the good fish and the bad fish who are both in the Kingdom – until the end. Sunday morning is not enough.
Those who believe that coming to church gives eternal security – This is not something that Jesus taught, it is not what John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism taught, and it is not correct. “Once saved, always saved” is a nice slogan, but it is possible to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus died for our sins, but ignore His teachings. You may be saved from God's wrath, but if you wander far enough from the path of holiness, you may never find your way back. You will become a "bad fish".
For Jesus talked in these parables about the bad weeds in Jesus’ field being burnt in the fire and He talked about the bad fish caught up in the Kingdom net being thrown into the fire. Thankfully, this sorting comes at the end - not at the beginning. If we have become too comfortable we can change.
It has been said that a pastor’s job is to “Comfort the afflicted – and to afflict the comfortable.”
Delve deeper into the Kingdom and find joy, peace, and love.
Consider whether you are comfortable or afflicted. Reconsider your relationship with God.
Amen.
And so we have the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts small and grows – it is not built. It seeps into every corner of the world in the most unlikely places.
You know, a man once pointed out that the first two businesses in a new town are the taverns and the churches. It has also been pointed out that the last two businesses to leave a dying town are the taverns and the churches.
The Kingdom of Heaven goes everywhere, but sin runs with it, keeping pace, because sin was there first.
And that is why the people in the pews around you are good, holy people, or reasonably good, somewhat worldly people, or not so good people who have a lot of issues. It is because the Kingdom Fisherman has caught a lot of people in His net.
But he doesn’t care. For sitting in the pews today, you – or the person beside you – has understood something new about the Kingdom that you didn’t understand a week ago, and now you have the chance to make a change for the better, to become a better fish, to forgive others, especially the one who hurt you, to become less selfish, to remember the person in that other pew whom you may have hurt without thinking, to apologize, to thank for the word of correction they gave you, to consider what it means to REALLY read and study the Word of God, to reconsider what you would trade for eternal life in the Kingdom.
What have you given up for the Kingdom? Finances – yes. But where are your priorities? How many priorities do you have?
A man once said that the ideal number of priorities is one – spreading the Word of the Kingdom to everyone he met.
Would you trade an hour of television time for an hour of study with fellow believers?
Would you trade an evening of soccer practice for an evening bringing your children more fully into the Kingdom?
Would you trade space on your wall for a Bible verse? Would you pay extra tuition to send your grandchildren to a Christian school? Would you devote a couple of hours a week to holding a Bible study in your home? Would you get up thirty minutes earlier on Sundays to give someone a ride to church?
Jesus does not ask many people to give up everything they own to trade for a ticket into the Kingdom, but Jesus does ask all of us to be ready and willing to give up everything for the Kingdom.
It is that important, it is that valuable, it is worth more than anything else we can do or say or own.
Jesus asked: “Have you understood all these things?”
“Yes,” they replied.
Jesus was speaking that day to his disciples, a motley crew of men who were political activists, bureaucrats, fishermen, and teachers of the Law of Moses.
In our churches, our Sunday School teachers often fall into the trap of teaching the Law of Moses, teaching the right and the wrong, the rules. But we all need to focus upon teaching about Grace, the fact that Jesus chose to deliver us from our paddling’s, our spankings, our punishments by taking them on Himself even though He did not need to. We are good at teaching about the Law, but weak on teaching about God’s grace. And so many of our children grow up learning the rules but not the really important part - the Grace of God.
Jesus’ lessons were new to His disciples. The Kingdom of Heaven was not a just a new word for the Kingdom of Israel, but it was a new way of thinking, a new look at an old concept, a New Testament approach. No longer was the worship of God to be spread by the conquest of nations as it was done in the time of King David and Solomon. Now, the worship of God would grow like a mustard plant, spread like yeast in bread dough, and the purification would take place at the end of days. People would give up everything of the world to join the Kingdom. And at the end of the age, God and the angels will separate the good fish and the bad fish, throwing the bad fish – the bad people in the Kingdom – into the fire.
He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
The Teachers of the Law taught about the Law. But the only thing the Law could show us were the hundreds of way to offend God and other people, the ways that lead to death, to defeat, to despair. Teaching the Law seemed on the face of it to be very good, but it led to people giving up, walking away from God, and piling evil bricks upon evil bricks.
If you will teach as a Christian disciple – and all Christians should teach people who know less than they do – you are like a person who gives to visitors your treasures as gifts. Some of the treasures are very old – these are lessons of the Law, the Old Testament, the stories of Genesis and the Kingdom of Israel. Yet some of the treasures are much newer – this is the Gospel, the idea that God is a forgiving God who is not waiting to smash us into rubble but is just waiting for the chance to forgive us when we ask, to lovingly help us out of our messes, to point us to a path, the Path of Holiness that leads to wise, abundant living and away from foolish, sinful living. The new treasures point to eternal life, to the peace of Christ, to life and away from death.
At the beginning of my talk today, I talked about the kingdom that was and the kingdom that will be. I even talked of the kingdom that is.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a reality. Around the world, there are pockets where the kingdom is functioning the way it is supposed to function. And there are many places where the Kingdom is functioning like an old Chevy with 150,000 miles on it – it needs a few repairs.
Throughout history and in our world, in this day, the most common reasons the Kingdom had problems were the mis-understandings of the Kingdom we talked about today. People tried to build the Kingdom instead of letting its life and the life of Christ that is in it grow the kingdom. People tried to establish firm geographic boundaries for parishes, churches, conferences, and denominations instead of letting the Kingdom seep into the surrounding world. Perhaps most importantly today, people insist that the Kingdom is something they can buy on installment, partially, never truly jumping into the Kingdom, being cheap with their commitments, sowing seed carefully and sparingly, and thus they do not reap a full harvest of joy. For you must buy the pearl outright, you must own the field without a lien to dig up the treasure – so don’t treat the Gospel as an expense in your lives, but instead as a source of joy. like a well that bubbles up more water or more oil the deeper you go. And the deeper you go into the Kingdom, the more joy in your life.
Our final problem in these days is the idea that belonging to the Kingdom is an easy thing. It is ….but it is not something for the lazy. Jesus specifically talks about the wheat and the tares, the weeds, in the Kingdom, and he talks about the good fish and the bad fish who are both in the Kingdom – until the end. Sunday morning is not enough.
Those who believe that coming to church gives eternal security – This is not something that Jesus taught, it is not what John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism taught, and it is not correct. “Once saved, always saved” is a nice slogan, but it is possible to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus died for our sins, but ignore His teachings. You may be saved from God's wrath, but if you wander far enough from the path of holiness, you may never find your way back. You will become a "bad fish".
For Jesus talked in these parables about the bad weeds in Jesus’ field being burnt in the fire and He talked about the bad fish caught up in the Kingdom net being thrown into the fire. Thankfully, this sorting comes at the end - not at the beginning. If we have become too comfortable we can change.
It has been said that a pastor’s job is to “Comfort the afflicted – and to afflict the comfortable.”
Delve deeper into the Kingdom and find joy, peace, and love.
Consider whether you are comfortable or afflicted. Reconsider your relationship with God.
Amen.
