Kingdom Secrets: Reaping

 Matthew 13:24-52

Good Morning Saints!

 

Welcome back to the second half of what Carl called two Sundays ago the boom in the chiastic structure of the book of Matthew. As you recall Carl pointed out how the series of ideas in the first half of the book of Matthew are reflected in the second half in reverse order. This chiastic structure reinforces important points and creates a particular focus on the midpoint of the chiasm, the very center of the text and its key theme.

 

So, last week Tim shared the first half of the midpoint Boom in chapter 13 verses 1 through 23. That half of the boom contained the parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus explained that the seed represented the message of the kingdom. This parable focused more on the four different types of soil that the seed fell on and how the soil represented the four different attitudes of the hearts of the people that heard the message of the Kingdom. Some fell along the path soil and the Satan came and snatched it away. Some fell on rocky ground and it was received with joy but it had no root so it withered and died and some fell among the thorns and the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth came and choked it out. Finally, some fell on good soil and it yielded thirty, sixty and a hundred fold.

 

Kingdom Secrets: Sowing

 Matthew 13:1-23

 

Welcome back to the heart of Matthew’s gospel. Last Sunday Carl showed us the chiastic structure of this book, pointing out how the series of ideas in the first half of the book are reflected in the second half in reverse order. This structure reinforces important points and creates a particular focus on the midpoint of the chiasm, the very center of the text and its key theme. So, the end of chapter 12 and the whole of chapter 13 are what Carl labeled in his outline as “Boom!” – the focus of the chiasm that encompasses the entire book.

 

At the end of chapter 12, which we looked at last time, Jesus asks an important question about his mother and brothers: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” He was in a house, while his family was waiting outside, wanting to speak to him, it says. The assumption in that culture was that family deserved special treatment. Family is important to us as well, but in societies around the world that are more honor-shame oriented, the ideas of preserving family honor and fulfilling family obligations are some of the most powerful motivators of a person’s behavior. One’s extended family provides one’s identity to a very great extent. Individuals do not have the freedom to choose their own identity, as so many people try to do in America. That is why, for example, the book of Acts records entire households converting to Christianity at once. Such decisions may not have been considered on an individual basis. This is also why in many places in the world today an individualistic approach to evangelism, encouraging one person to make a decision for Christ, is less effective than trying to reach entire extended families or even communities. Sometimes God does want a person to stand up against the opposition of their family in following Jesus, but sometimes he works it out for entire families to proceed together toward right relationship with him.

 

In any case, when Jesus asks the question, “Who are my mother and brothers?” he was shaking the foundation of Jewish worldview. He was not disparaging family but he was redefining it, in particular the family of God. He was making the point that the family that one is physically born into is less important than being born again into the family of God. The Jews had blurred this distinction. They thought they were automatically part of God’s family because they were Jews, his chosen people. But Jesus says that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

Jesus does not mention following the Jewish law. He, in effect, opens the way for anyone to become part of God’s family, to have that as their new identity, a new place to belong. In chapter 13 he talks a lot about the kingdom of heaven, another way of describing this new community and new identity for his followers to be a part of, as they acknowledge his lordship and the fellowship of all believers. Being able to join this universal family is part of the “Boom!” that Carl identified last time. This is an amazing work and blessing of the Holy Spirit, making us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, as Paul describes in Romans 8, sharing in both his sufferings and his glory. “You who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” That’s Paul in Ephesians 2. Everyone everywhere is invited to be part of this family. This was yet another part of Jesus’ message that would seem radical to his audience.

Who Are My Brothers

 Matthew 12:38-50

Welcome! As we continue our journey into the Gospel of Matthew, I want to start by discussing a few things from what you could call a 40,000-foot-high level. Although all four gospels are fundamentally written chronologically, starting with Jesus’ early ministry (or even His birth) and ending with His death and resurrection, the Gospel of Matthew is generally considered to be the least chronological of the four gospels. I believe that Matthew is doing this for many reasons, hopefully some that we can get into more deeply in later messages in this series, but today I want to highlight just one of those reasons: to create a powerful narrative structure. Before I go further, let me mention that some of these ideas have been mentioned in previous messages by our other wonderful speakers. But I think this bears repeating, in part because of the particular passage we are going through today.

King of the Promise to David

Matthew 12:1-37
 

We have a lot of ground to cover today, and sadly being creatures bound by time, we are going to have to move quickly across our passage to get it all in today. So, I am not going to review, we are going to jump right in and begin.

The Prophet

 Matthew 11:1-30

Good morning! We are underway in our new series from the book of Matthew. We picked up last week in at the end of Matthew 9. There, Jesus exhorted his disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers because the harvest was plentiful but the workers few. Then, directly at the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus called his twelve disciples and sent them out to do miracles and preach that the kingdom of heaven is near.

 

Jesus gave them instructions on what to do and told them of the challenges they would face both in those days and in days to come. Jesus’ words do not gloss over or cover up difficulties. Jesus’ words ring true. There will be difficulties, yes, but we should take heart because He has overcome the world. And there is great reward in following Jesus.

 

That is a quick intro, and it brings us to the immediate continuation of events in chapter 11. Let us pray and jump in.

 

Lord Jesus, speak to us from Your Word. Give us eyes to see and hearts to retain the good news. I pray for each soul who will hear this message. Guide us to Yourself and what You have prepared for each individual. Glorify Your Name we pray. Amen.

 

Working for the King

 Matthew 9:35-10:42

There have been many times when I have taken my kids to work with me while doing lawn care. My kids have never said anything to me like, “Daddy, I really like picking up sticks. It’s one of my favorite hobbies.” They did not go with me because they were into sticks. They went with me because they were into their dad. They wanted to spend time with me. Of course, not all of these excursions were voluntary. They did not always have completely pure motives. I do pay them for working, at least when they got older. Sometimes I would say there was no choice. They had to go even though they wanted to stay home. They claimed that they had more important things to do like petting the cat or performing some kind of ground breaking science experiment (not on the cat).

Somewhere in those experiences lies a good reason why we work for the king. There may be certain things that we are not quite into yet. But that will come in time. Right now, the question you can probably ask is, “Do I want to be with the king?” In John 5:17, “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.’” Do you want to join him in working?

Song of Praise

 2 Samuel 22:1-51

 

Today we come to the end of our message series on the life of David, and next week we will start on the second half of Matthew’s gospel, which will take us until next Easter. At this juncture, therefore, we will be turning our attention from David to the Son of David, the promised descendent who would fulfill the prophecy of David’s throne lasting forever. You may recall back in 2 Samuel 7, when David wanted to build a temple, that God told him that his son would be the one to do that, but that God would also establish his house or his lineage. The Lord stated it clearly: “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” The Jewish people who recognized Jesus as the Messiah referred to him as the Son of David, for example during the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” It was an important part of where he had come from, who he was, and how he was identified. And we, too, as believers, have been brought into that eternal House of David that God promised to establish and sustain.

 

As he wrote his account, Matthew was careful to point out how Jesus fulfilled so many Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. Jesus is the eternal, perfect king that David could never be. As we have studied the life of David, especially the latter part here in 2 Samuel, we have seen just how human he was. His sin with Bathsheba was not the solitary wrong thing that he did, though it was an indication of the lust that was in his heart at times. He certainly made mistakes in raising his children, resulting in much conflict and heartache. That seems to have been the focus of the last several messages in our series. And yet we know that his heart was continually turning to God in repentance, love, and worship. He was indeed “a man after God’s own heart” who recognized his need for forgiveness and grace.

Securing Peace

 2 Samuel 20:23-21:22 

Finally, this week, we come beyond the consequences of David’s sin.  However, today we will see some of the consequences of Saul’s sin.  The first portion of chapter 21 covers this sad situation, and I would like to give a word of caution to those who may have younger listeners.  The Bible does not conceal what happened.  It does not glorify wrong, nor does it hide the consequences of evil.  I have shared a couple of times in this series that we should be aware that sin is bad, and we should seek to stay far from it.  Again, I can say the same in light of this passage.

 

Before we move into chapter 21, I will reread the last few verses of chapter 20.  As you likely remember, the conspiracy of Absalom against his father David has ended.  David has been restored in Jerusalem as the king over all the tribes, over the whole nation of Israel.  As such, he has a number of officials in his government.

 

With that rather brief introduction, let’s pray and jump right in.

 

Lord Jesus, speak to us from Your Word we pray.  Please connect what we read today with our own lives.  Help us to walk in the light as You are in the light.  We pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

Joab was over Israel's entire army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; Adoniram was in charge of forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder;  Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Ira the Jairite was David's priest. – 2 Samuel 20:23-26

 

Before looking at individuals, let’s consider the roles of David’s officials.  The first two are military positions.  Due to the nature of the region in which Israel is placed, we see a great deal of conflict among the nations there.  Then, we have the leader of forced labor.  During David’s time, there was unprecedented prosperity for the kingdom of Israel ultimately setting up Solomon as the wealthiest man who ever lived.  As a result of the military conquests, there were conscripted workers from among the defeated nations who in turn were put to work on public works.  Then, we have two administrative roles, recorder, and secretary.  Then, we come to the chief priests of the nation as well as David’s own priest.  Israel was a nation created by God and as such, the nation has a priesthood also established by God.

Revolt Quelled

 2 Samuel 20:1-26

 

Good morning Saints. Before we start, I want to take a minute and ask the Lord to bless this message and also bless our breaking of bread and sharing time afterwards.

 

Now we are continuing our series titled “David: Kingdom Builder”.  Last week we learned how David replaced Joab as commander-in-chief of his army with his former enemy Amasa who was the commander of his rebel son’s army. David did this in order to reunite all the tribes of Jacob and once again be recognized as King over all of Israel. Today we are going to examine passages in 2 Samuel 20 to see how this plan to replace Joab as commander-in-chief worked out. Before we do that let’s first look back at how Joab originally obtained the battlefield promotion to the rank of commander-in-chief for bravery by reading 1 Chronicles 11:6

 

David had said, “Whoever leads the attack on the Jebusites will become commander-in-chief.” Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and so he received the command. – 1 Chronicles 11:6

 

Fast forward a bit from here to the time period just after Joab murdered David’s former enemy Abner who commanded Saul’s army. David had just that day made an alliance with Abner. In the alliance Abner agreed to help David bring all the tribes of Israel under David’s reign as King. Does that sound familiar? It should because we learned just last week that David made a similar arrangement with his former enemy Amasa for the same reason. David was so upset with Joab for murdering Abner that he cursed Joab, his father’s house and Joab’s future generations saying in 2 Samuel 3:28-29:

 

I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the LORD concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house! May Joab’s house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food. – 2 Samuel 3:28-29

 

Fast forward again to Joab murdering Bathsheba’s husband Uriah the Hitite in 2 Samuel 11:14-17.

 

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. – 2 Samuel 11:14-17

 

Fast forward again to Joab murdering David’s son Absalom despite the fact that David had given Joab a direct order to deal gently with him.

 

“Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.” And ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him. – 2 Samuel 18:14-15

 

Now let’s begin where Carl left off last week in our series to see if Joab’s pattern of murdering David’s enemies and former enemies continues.

Return

2 Samuel 19:1-43

 

Good morning! Today we continue with our account of David, focusing on chapter 19 of 2 Samuel. Today’s message will be family friendly, as much as is possible for any message from 2 Samuel.

 

A quick reminder of past events. Starting in 2 Samuel 15, we see David’s estranged son Absalom prepare and implement a long plan to usurp the kingdom from his father. Over time, he drew more and more people to his side, playing loosely with the truth, presenting himself as a kinder, more compassionate, and more effective leader than his father all the while casting aspersion on his father’s rule. Receiving warning that a coup was imminent, David and his household hurried to leave his palace, and leave Jerusalem, preventing Absalom from slaughtering everyone, which he almost certainly would have done. We are told that the people wept for David as he left, and David also wept. He was barefoot and his head was covered, all signs of mourning. The people and David mourned together.

 

David and his party crossed the Jordan, going to one place; Absalom and his men also crossed, going to another. Each had an army. David’s army went out to fight Absalom’s. David stayed behind, at his general’s request. David asked them to “be gentle” with Absalom. Based on Absalom’s discussions with his counselors, we know that Absalom had no such inclination towards his father. Although one can understand why David is conflicted, words like this are never what an army wants to hear. The job and purpose of an army is to obtain victory, not “be gentle.”