The Ultimate Kingdom

I’m excited this morning because we get to conclude the Kingdom Come series. And we see how Jesus has revealed his kingdom in parables. And we’re concluding with Matthew chapter 13 this morning. What Jesus said that gave us this title is from Matthew chapter 6 where he says, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

Thy Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so each time we’re praying thy kingdom come like Jesus did, we’re praying that his rule and reign would fully come to our lives. So we’ve had 4 sermons that have led us to this point. The very first week we were exploring how his kingdom is one that we must be receptive to. Week 2, we talked about he— how he has a patient kingdom.

Week 3, we talked about how his kingdom is unstoppable. Last week we heard how his kingdom is priceless, and then today we’re going to see that his kingdom is ultimate, bringing every person to an ultimate and final response. And so as we’ve considered these parables these past couple of weeks, it could be really easy to kind of nod along and be like, man, this is really— this is good stuff. And then be— as soon as you leave the doors, be distracted by the chaos that has entered into our lives because school has started back in the last couple of weeks. How’s everybody doing this morning?

You surviving? This is, this is maybe what your life looks like right here. You’re like, goodness. Like maybe, maybe you’re, you’re old enough that like you don’t have kids in school or like maybe you’re even homeschooled, but there’s so many other things that come along with it. Like soccer, tennis, football, basketball.

Like maybe your kid does music lessons. Maybe they’re in theater. Maybe they’re in dance. Everything just all like starts back up at the same time and it can be quite chaotic and you’re looking at this picture and it’s giving you a twitch in your eye because you’re like, oh, it’s just too much. That’s my life right there.

And so it really is easy, I think, in the chaos to only think about the now, to only be consumed by the things that I have to do later today. And I’m thinking about maybe you’re sitting here right now and you’re already thinking about what you’re going to be doing later this week. I’m with you. I struggle with that because I’m thinking about the many things that are going on in my life. And so what sermon today is going to invite us to do is to step back out of the chaos and to lift our eyes to what really matters.

This morning we’re going to be challenged to think through what are the, the decisions that we make, what are the commitments we make, what are the things that we value, the time that we spend doing stuff— like, how is that going to be weighed in the end of this life? And we’re going to see in God’s Word this morning what are the things that were worth doing. What were the things that were worth caring for, investing in. And another thing that we’ll see here in God’s Word is a call Jesus gives us not just to understand his Word, but to respond to his Word. I mentioned that a second ago, that it can be really easy in chaotic seasons to just be like, man, that was really good.

And then go home and not do anything with it. Well, today we’re wanting to hopefully drive ourselves to a point of decision, a point where we have to respond and do something. And so this is going to mean that not only are you informed by the word of God, but that you are beginning to be transformed by his word. Jesus says to his disciples here in the scripture we’re going to read today, do you understand these things? And they say yes.

Our question to you today is, um, do you understand it, but then are you going to respond and allow God to work and transform your life. Now, this past Friday, we remembered 25 years since September 11th when the 2 towers went down. And I remember where I was at. I was in health class. I remember we were just sitting there.

Class was getting ready to start. And some— one kid came frantically running in and said, man, did you hear what just happened? And then we turned the TV on in the class. And we looked. And Tower 1 was on fire.

And then we watched live as Tower 2 got hit by that second plane. And you could hear a pin drop in the room. And we just all were just taken out of what was getting ready just to be a typical day, health class, whatever else I had going on, to now this is the only thing I can think about. School classes got canceled the rest of the day. Maybe you were already in the working world and maybe you got sent home early.

For all of us, for a short period of time, we were glued to our TVs. We were considering, man, this one thing that had happened. The whole United States of America was singularly focused. And one of the things that came out of that for me honestly was one thought was, wow, is this going to happen to our town? Like, what are the repercussions of this?

But another thing that I think came out of this was a receptivity in our hearts, maybe for the first time for some, of what if I was in that tower? What if that was me today just going to a typical day of work and then all of a sudden it all ended? And some of us had to, for the first time, consider what if I had died today, what would happen of me? Where would I go? And so it kind of forced us to stop in our tracks and to, to get out of the chaos for a moment and to think about the future.

It maybe forced some of us who, when we’re looking at the chaos of our life, the main thing we think we need is a personal, uh, assistant, someone to help organize it. And some of us maybe realized that day that we need actually a personal Savior. And that’s what I’m hoping this morning. I’m praying today that these parables that we hear this morning are going to cause you to stop in your tracks, step out of the chaos for a moment, and agree that we need a Savior, that we need to be changed by Jesus. Well, as we look to the Gospel of Luke in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus is going to conclude his parables this morning with a conclusion that we believe does demand a response.

And we can, we can rightly respond to these final parables today by 3 ways that we see to respond to these parables about, about the kingdom of heaven. So I want to invite you right now, let’s stand to our feet if you would. We’re gonna grab the Word of God in hand and we’re going to flip to the book of Matthew chapter 13. If you have a physical Bible, follow along. If you have the Bible app, or just look at the screen if you have neither.

But I want to start us at chapter 13 of Matthew, verse 47. I’m going to read this to us here. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was dull, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. That place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood these things? They said to him, yes. And he said to them, therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there. And coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished at said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

Are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And then they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. Would you read this last verse with me?

And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. May God bless the reading of his word. Amen. You can have a seat again.

So how to rightly respond to Christ’s final parables about the kingdom of heaven? The first response that we see here is to heed the warning. He says in verses 47 through verse 50, he gives us a parable here that is yet another end of the age parable, kind of like what we saw a few weeks ago when we studied the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Ray Fowler says this is a warning parable. It is a clarion call to all who hear not to ignore or reject the call of Christ, but to make every effort to enter God’s kingdom while you still may.

So Jesus says in 47, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net. Now, this isn’t like the kind of net you see at the beach that’s got one of them little plastic handles and a little small little hoop and you try to do the best you can. No, we see here as we study this word net, Klein Snodgrass, which is— wow, what a last name he’s got on him— he says such a net could be quite long with cork floats along the top and lead weights along the bottom. It could be stretched between 2 boats or or laid out from behind one and then pulled to shore by ropes, so everything in its path would be caught as it was pulled in. So that kind of really helps me to picture the kind of net that we’re talking about here.

It’s going to catch everything. Okay, so it says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea, and it gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad. Now it brings the question for me, how do they know what’s bad? Like, what, what describes a bad fish?

Well, it’s all in the eye of the fisherman. And so I’m— it brings to mind a show that I like called Deadliest Catch. And when you’re watching this show, you see that there are seasons to each crab that they’re trying to catch. One season they’re trying to catch king crab. Another season they’re trying to catch opilio crab.

And another season they’re trying to catch Bairdi crab. And so depending on the season that they’re in, they’re looking for different types of crab. And so as you see here in the picture, maybe they’re trying to catch king crab, but if they, if they, if they pull a Bairdi or an opilio in, they just take them and throw it back because they’re looking specifically for king crab. Crab. Now another thing that you’ll see sometimes on this show is that they’ll catch the crab they’re looking for, but it’s covered in barnacles.

And so in the fish market, if you have a crab that has too many barnacles on it, it lowers the value of the crab. And so because they catch based on weight, it’s a waste of space in their boat to actually keep crab like this. And so it can be the right kind of crab, but it can be what they call dirty And they’ll throw it back out into the sea. And so, that kind of helps me to kind of get a perspective here what they mean by good and bad. It means that some fish were not the kind of fish they were looking for, and they call those bad fish.

And so, what happens is, it says, they sorted the good in the containers, but what did they do? It says, the angels will come out, in verse 49, angels come out and separate the evil from the righteous. Verse 50, and throw them into the fiery furnace. Now, if you’ve been with us for the last couple weeks, you saw this— these 2 words already said in verse 42 when we talked about the wheat and the weeds, that they used these 2 words, fiery furnace. And what we learned that week is that it is an allusion to the story of the fiery furnace.

And when we talked about King Nebuchadnezzar and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that were thrown into that fiery furnace, But also in view for all the Jews who were hearing this is when they pictured a fiery furnace, they were thinking of hell. And so when he says fiery furnace, they think he’s talking about hell, and I think we should as well. And he says in that place there will be, verse 50, weeping and gnashing of teeth. And yet again, he’s using similar words, the same words that he used a few weeks ago when he was talking about the wheat and the weeds. And he’s saying here, look guys, hell’s a real place and we will be separating the wheat from the weeds.

We will be separating the good from the bad. There are eternal consequences for today that, that for those who are called dirty, there are eternal consequences whether you’re dirty or whether you’re clean. None of us are escaping this net. This net’s going to catch all of us, and at some point the net’s going to be full and Christ is going to— he’s going to draw it in, and we’re all going to face this judgment. We’re all going to have to stand before God and, and, and be made aware of whether we were good or bad, clean or dirty.

It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, for we must all appear— we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Right there we see that there are repercussions to the actions that we are committing in our lives, good or bad. It says Jesus will come to all of, all of his people. It said in Matthew chapter 16, for the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all all people according to their deeds. So this is not just a— like, this parable is not just a story to be taken just as that.

This is actually alluding to something that’s really going to happen, and Jesus is telling it in parable form so that way we can grasp it. By thinking about it in, in terms of good fish, bad fish, we can understand what that means and what he’s saying to us this morning. He’s giving us a very clear warning for something that is going to happen. And it reminds me of like when we do see tornadoes, as infrequent as they can be around here, that there’s 2 types of words that they ascribe to them. There’s a tornado watch and there’s a tornado warning.

When we have a tornado watch, what they’re trying to say is the conditions are perfect for it. Be prepared. Just kind of be on the lookout. Okay. Don’t, don’t, don’t forget about this.

But if there’s a tornado warning, they’re saying not only were the conditions perfect for it, but we’ve seen it. It’s here. It’s happening right now. So take action. Take cover because there’s a tornado that has been spotted in our area.

Now it reminds me of— this is in 2003. I was on my way to a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was called Keynote. And that morning I had met a guy named Nate, and we were going to ride together because I was driving from Wilson all the way to Carmel, Indiana. And what you see here on the left of that picture, that’s Nate, and then that’s me on the right.

And so we met each other that morning, and we’re driving up to Indiana. We’re about 10 hours in. We got like an hour left to go on this thing, and we stopped for gas. And so Nate calls ahead just to say, hey guys, just give me a heads up, like we’re like an hour away. From being with y’all.

And they said, ooh, they said, look, you probably should take shelter because they have spotted a tornado that is literally between us. Like, you guys are here, you’re coming to us north. It’s like halfway between where you’re at and where we’re at. Should take shelter. So me and Nate look at each other like, man, driven for 10 hours already.

We only got 1 hour left. So like, if it’s halfway between, it’s probably like 30 minutes away. Maybe by the time we get to that point, it’ll be gone. Let’s just do it. And so we begin to drive, and at first conditions are great.

We’re like, man, what are they talking about? Tornado warning? And then all of a sudden, the darkest dark I’ve ever seen in my life hits, and all of a sudden I can barely see out the windshield, and lightning begins to strike. And so then one of these lightning strikes that happens, Nate who’s sitting next to me goes, eee! And I was like, he scared me to death.

And I was like, what was that? He said, I think, I think I just saw something in the field next to us. So now I’m looking and driving, looking and driving. And then lightning strikes again. And a tornado is in the field right next to us.

And we both, who had just met each other that morning, became blood brothers, hold hands. And we’re going, dear Lord, forgive us. We’re so stupid. We should have never driven through this tornado. And I floor the gas and I’m going as fast as this thing could go and mud covers the windshield.

I can barely see. And fortunately there was a vehicle in front of us that was apparently just as stupid as we were and we followed their 2 headlights— or taillights out of this thing. To this day, that might not have even been a real vehicle. It might have been just angels trying to guide us for all I knew. But I just knew I was following them and we some— by some miracle got around this tornado.

And made it safely. And you better believe we had some stories for them when we got to Keynote that day. And man, I look back on that, I’m like, that was so stupid. I’m so grateful that I’m here talking to you this morning because that could have been the end of my story right there because I didn’t heed the warning. And it’s fun to talk about now because I survived, but it wouldn’t have been so fun if they had had to tell my parents what happened.

And so today, friend, I encourage us to heed the warning, step out of the chaos of life for a moment this morning, and I want to— we should take a quick evaluation of ourselves and consider, are we good or bad fish? You see there that the, the good and bad fish are in the same net together. They’re doing life alongside of one another. And so maybe you’ve been coming to church And you’ve been experiencing the benefit of being alongside someone who is pursuing Christ and surrendered to Christ. And it’s been a blessing for you that you’ve maybe been on a moral standpoint, just kind of looked at this as like good karma, man.

Like when I do good things, good things happen to me. If I just listen to these teachings, man, this seems to be like a pretty good life. But at some point, if we haven’t, you know, in a, in, on a very personal way, surrendered our lives fully to Jesus Christ and said to him, as, as we heard here this morning during worship, that I, I will— I’m going to receive you. I need you to make me into a new creation. I need you to make me into an entirely different kind of fish.

And what we see here in the, in the scriptures is that Christ says to to us that when you receive him, that you become a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. Man, I love it when I now compare it to this parable, because I see here clearly that in order to be a good fish, I have to become an entirely different person. I can’t be a bad fish. I can’t be a king crab trying to pretend I’m an opilio crab.

They’ll never, they’ll never pull me in, even if I act like a a pilio crab. Just like if I’m not straightened out here in my heart, I can do all the right things but still be a bad fish. I can be a crab who’s got barnacles all over his back and I can’t do anything about it. I can’t, I can’t clean myself of this dirtiness that I have. And there’s only one who can clean me, and he has to start right here in my heart.

And when I say heart, what I mean is he has to start at the very thing that drives me. The very essence of who I am as a person needs to change in order for me to be good in his eyes. And so, friend, here’s what we’re calling us to this morning. It’s time to repent. It’s time to finally say, you know what?

This was an ordinary day. This was just September 13th. It was a Sunday. And I was just living life, but this was the day that I, I just drove a stake in the, in the dirt and said, I’m giving my life to Jesus today. Let that be a marker in your life from here forth that this was the day that you repented and surrendered your life to Jesus, and he brought you from bad to good.

He cleaned those barnacles off your back and made you clean, not dirty. That’s where he’s calling you to today. And then he challenges us to steward the truth. When we look at verse 52, we see another parable here that says the kingdom is— kingdom of heaven is like a master. Now, this is the last parable we’re going to see in the book of Matthew, and it’s the one we’re studying finally here.

He says in 51 to the disciples, have you understood? Now, how do— why do we know that he’s talking to just the disciples here? Well, prior to that, in verse 36, we see it says Jesus left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples were with him. So now he’s no longer speaking to a large crowd. He’s gotten into a smaller group.

Now these are just his disciples who are hearing this message now from him. And he says, have you understood? And they said, mm-hmm. And so then he says, therefore. Well, if you’ve been part of Eastgate Church for any length of time, you know that when we see the word therefore, we have to ask the question, What’s it there for?

And why do we ask that question? Well, it’s because therefore is pointing at something we’ve already heard, something we’ve already learned that is now going to impact what we hear now. And so we saw several parables here. Jesus told some to the large crowd, and then now he brought the disciples into a smaller crowd, and he’s saying, look, everything I’ve set up to this point is adding up and stacking, and now here we come to This is the final thing I’m going to tell you, and therefore do this. And what does he want us to do here?

Well, he says in verse 52, every scribe who has been trained. Now, a scribe, synonym of that is the word disciple. It means to follow one’s precepts and instructions. Uh, Ellicott’s Commentary says, our Lord compares his own work to that of the scribes of the Jewish schools. He was training the disciples, unlearned as they were, to be successors in that office.

Now, something that I love about God’s Word is that because it was written in— original language was Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic— that when we’re trying to now understand it in today’s English, that there’s so many translations out there that can help us to better understand this. And so as Pastor Jonathan and I— he’s our, he’s our lead pastor in Rocky He’s my brother. We were studying together this week. I was like, man, this is just— I feel like I’m like trying to understand the words of Yoda here or something like that, like the way he’s putting this. And but when then we found the NIV, what it says for Matthew chapter 13, verse 52, it says, therefore every teacher of the law has become a disciple.

Well, NIV just says it like it is. It’s a disciple. And the kingdom of heaven is like the owner. Now ESV, what we just read, it said like a master. So NIV just goes ahead and calls him an owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom.

Remember, we just read in the ESV it says brings out of his treasure. So he says storeroom, new treasures as well as old. This is helping me kind of wrap my head around it a little bit cleaner. I now see that he’s saying if you’re a disciple, that you’re like an owner who brings out of your storehouse treasures that are new and old. Well, New and old treasures was still a common wording here in these 2 different translations.

And so I’m still kind of puzzled by that when I’m reading it. Well, reading on about this further, we’ve come to the conclusion that the new and old treasures— what Jesus might have been referring to here is that he’s talking about the new revelation that he’s giving to his disciples in this moment are new treasures that he’s offering. And so you see, if you, if you look at the Bible, you have the New Testament and you have the Old Testament. He’s saying that the New Testament could be the new treasures and that you have the old treasures. So we’re not throwing away the Old Testament.

These are treasures that are valuable. Um, Johann Bengel is another commentary who looks at this and says that the order was significant. The fact that he mentioned new before he mentioned old was actually significant. And I think it’s important because you hear us say here all the time, Pastor Gail say, that as we view the Old Testament, that because we’ve seen Jesus in the flesh in the New, we’ve seen how that story went, we see the gospel and him dying on the cross and then raising from the dead and him ascending to heaven, it helps us to put on some glasses and actually view now the Old Testament, what these words mean. So when you’re bogged down in the book of Leviticus and you’re like Beats me what this is talking about.

It’s helping you now to— when I look at it and say, I’m looking for Jesus on every page back here, I now value this as treasure, not just old words that should be forgotten. Does that make sense?

And so the question I have for us this morning is, do we value the word of God as treasure? That’s, that’s new and old. And, and do we— are we stewards of it? In 1 Corinthians 4, it says, this is how one should regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that we be found faithful.

1 Thessalonians 2 says, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, So we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. He’s saying here, I have entrusted you with these words that— guess what? You wouldn’t know a thing about me if I had not poked my finger down into earth and said, here’s what I want you to know about me. This is the, the revelation of the eternal and living and incomparable King of Kings, the living God of the universe. And here it is right here in words.

Him wanting to help you understand who he is. Who his Son Jesus is. And what he has done for us. It’s the story of Jesus. And it is a vast treasure that you can read over and over and over again.

And always find something new that’s valuable to you. He’s asking us this morning, is this treasure to you? Or are these just words that— in a book that should just collect dust on a table somewhere? He’s entrusted with his gospel to us, and he challenges us to be faithful. I’m mindful when I consider this of a possession that my brother and I had growing up as kids, which were— we had so many Legos.

And I know it’s supposed to be called Lego. We called them Legos, okay? So you can correct me later on that. But we called them Legos, plural. And we would keep all of our Legos in one room.

And Because we knew, like, we’d experienced it. I had the experience of losing some Legos one time. It was the worst thing ever, because then you go to put it back together and that one piece is missing. And so we kept all our Legos in one space. So then we grow older, and there— I couldn’t find this picture, but there’s a picture of us one of our first Thanksgivings.

My brother and I are both married men now, and there’s a picture of us with these big smiles on our faces because we’re putting our Legos back together the day after Thanksgiving, just having a great old time. Well, then we went to have kids. And all of a sudden, the values that we had had of these Legos were completely forgotten. And these kids come along and they see this treasure of Legos at the house and they begin to play with them, except they take them downstairs. They take them outside.

They take them home with them. And these little pieces that I’m looking at and going, oh, I remember what that Lego went to. Like that was, you know, and now it’s at my house and I don’t know if it will ever get it home again. So like the idea of getting to play with my Legos ever again is just shot because my kids didn’t value it the way that I did. And so one of my favorite Legos ever is the Blacktron Aerial Intruder.

This thing was so stinking cool, man. It had 2 ships that could disconnect from it. It was one big spaceship, 2 ships that would disconnect, a door that would unhatch, and then 2 cars would come out of the middle of it. Man, what a cool spaceship. This thing is worth $175 now.

And that’s just one of my Legos. Well, it’s not valuable to me anymore. I’d never find all the pieces again because my kids have scattered them across the earth.

And it’s because their stewardship of the treasure that I had collected was poor, first of all, because they didn’t understand what was in their hands. They didn’t understand the actual cost it took, not just financially to collect all this, but the cost to keep keep it and take care of it. And unfortunately for us, I think we don’t value the cost that it took for God to make sure these words arrive to us today, that it costs real blood for his son Jesus that he would offer to us the treasure that is knowing and living a life surrendered to Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t value it enough. And so then therefore These words don’t mean as much to me— to us as they should.

And so then they just get put to the side and we forget about it on a daily basis. Maybe we come to church on Sunday and we’re stirred up, but then the rest of the week this isn’t in our life. We’re not stewarding it because we didn’t value it at first. And then second of all, because we didn’t value it, because we’re not studying it, we don’t know what to do with it. So I don’t know how to take the treasure of his word and I don’t know how to apply it to my own life.

And then if someone were to even show eagerness to me of like, tell me more about this Jesus, I wouldn’t know how to talk to him about it because I don’t know what his word says about it because I don’t value this enough. He’s calling us to be stewards of his word, of the truth of the gospel. Question to us this morning is, are you willing to become a treasure expert? Are you willing to become like Nicolas Cage in the National Treasure movies where you just have the singular focus in your life of, I want to pursue this one treasure with everything I have, throwing all else aside for this one thing? Are you willing to become an expert of God’s word so that way it would change your life and change the lives around you?

And then finally, receive the king. Receive the king. The, the very last part we see— the parables are done now. And now what we’re going to see happen here is Jesus is, he’s, he’s going to come back to his hometown. It says in verse 53, when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there.

Verse 54, and coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished. And so what the people’s first reaction was when he heard them teaching, this is Jesus back home, is they were like amazed by this. But then something happens. They heard the word, then they began to say, wait, where did this man get all this wisdom and these mighty works? Verse 55, isn’t this the carpenter’s son?

You know Joseph? He’s just a regular guy, carpenter. Didn’t we see Jesus raised up in his tutelage? By the way, there’s only 2 places in the Bible that tell us that Joseph’s dad, or Jesus’s dad Joseph, was a carpenter. And this is one of them.

The other one’s in Mark chapter 6. I find that very fascinating that this is one of the places we learn that he was a carpenter. So they’re saying, isn’t that, you know, he’s just a carpenter’s son. Isn’t his mom Mary? And he just— she’s just like a regular— like, that’s Mary’s kid, lives down the street.

Aren’t his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Like, those boys are always up to some mischief, you know. They’re just right there, like I know these kids. Aren’t his sisters with us? Jesus had a big old family.

They’re saying like, we know, we know his family. He’s just one of us. And so they begin to discredit everything they said that he said. And not only that, I find this, this, this hard to, you know, hard to swallow, but I think it’s the reality of where this hits some of us today. It says in verse 56, or sorry, verse 57, They took offense at him.

Not only did the words fall flat, but they took it as a slap in the face what he was saying. It was an insult that he was doing mighty works. He was teaching them amazing things and they went from astonishment to insult just because they looked at him and saw him as being familiar. Oh, he’s just— man, it’s like they had this moment of clarity and then completely just stomped out by the fact that he was familiar.

And so my question to us this morning is, who is Jesus to you? I think we have to answer that question. If he’s just a good teacher and you just look at the words that he spoke and you look at the Bible and you say, kind of like we were talking about earlier, like, Oh man, it’s good principles. Like, I really, I really do feel like I have a better life when I just live by the things that he said. But you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re all about the things that you do and how it feels to you and not about actually having some real life change.

And because you’re just looking at him as just this historical figure and not the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that familiarity has made it fall flat in your life. And not only that, but some are offended by this. And the fact that you’re sitting with us this morning, maybe, maybe you’re still offended by it, but someone invited you to come today, and for, for only God knows why, you came. And I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad that maybe you have felt that offense in the past, because this is written to you.

Because maybe you’re looking at your own heart right now and going, I have been offended by the gospel. I have heard it and said, eh, doesn’t apply to me. I got too many questions about this Jesus. I’ve got too many questions about his church. I’m too offended by the hypocrisy of his people that I can’t surrender to him.

And he’s not in your eyes. He’s not who he really is. In your eyes, he’s just this person. That was once a baby and then grew up and then said some good things and then died. And you’re not seeing him the way that he sees himself.

Sandy, I’m going to skip around here for a minute. Let’s go to Revelation chapter 19. It says on his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus, when he comes again one day, he’s got it on his thigh, says King of Kings. He’s not received about himself.

He’s not like— when people were calling him king in, in the, in the New Testament, he’s not looking at that and going, oh, that was a really nice thing to say, but it’s not actually true. No, he, he professes his own lordship. And then when we see the Book of Revelation, not only does it profess, but we see him for who he really actually is. He’s no longer in this shell of flesh. He’s now the King of Kings and Lord of Lords for who he actually really was.

And now they see him. And so then what does he offer to us? I’m going to flip back here, Sandy. Here we go. John chapter 1.

Says, and he came into the world, the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. That’s a passage that I personally think is too familiar. I, I find that the longer I’ve been a Christian, the more I puff myself up and into believing that I’d— being a child of God is just one of the many benefits that I deserve.

But I’m reminded this morning how amazing of a treasure and a gift that is, because Jesus could have just been a Savior to us, and that would have been way more than I deserved. He could have just— even though the fact that he had to step down from his heavenly throne and come and take the form of a baby and die on a brutal cross and hang there half naked in the embarrassment and allow people to mock him and not strike him down with lightning in that moment. He didn’t have to hang on that cross until he died. And he didn’t have to go into that grave for 3 days. And he didn’t have to rise from the dead and then finally offer to us the deepest treasure you could ever imagine.

That didn’t have to be like— he didn’t have to do more than that. ‘Cause that was amazing. I don’t deserve that. But he adds to it even more, this thing that I don’t deserve. And that is not only I’m going to save you from your dirtiness and your sin, but I’m going to invite you to become one of my own children.

I’m going to call you son, and I’m going to put a robe on your back and a crown on your head, and I’m going to give you my inheritance. You don’t deserve it. I’m giving it to you.

Wow! What an amazing treasure that he’s offered. But here’s the problem. For some of us, he’s too familiar. And I’m not receiving it because I’m looking at him as just this historical figure.

And I’m not looking at him as the way that his own brothers viewed him. I’m mindful that, you know, like on Instagram, I like to follow some some, some of the bigger names like superstars out there. It’s because it’s fascinating me to learn about their lives. And so one of the people that I follow is Henry Cavill, and he posted this picture not long ago of him with his family. And I consider sometimes, how interesting would that be to know Henry Cavill?

You know, to know Superman, you know what I’m saying? But that’s fascinating thing about knowing him. Do you think those brothers and that mom and dad of his look at him and go, oh, thou art so Superman. Bow to thee. No, they just see him as Henry, the regular dude that we grew up with.

And they probably have a funny nickname for him somewhere. And that could have just as easily been Jesus’s brothers. But here’s what we read that it says. So 2 of Jesus’s brothers went on to write books of the Bible. I don’t know if you knew that.

When we read the book of James, that’s a brother of Jesus. James starts his book with this. James 1:1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the word servant here in the original Greek also in a synonym could mean slave.

He calls his own brother Lord and he calls himself a slave to him. And then Jude, who is one of his other brothers, writes his first— the very first verse of his book. He says, Jude, a servant of Jesus. And the brother of James. I love that, man.

There’s the contrast. He’s my brother. That’s my Lord. These are his own brothers, his own flesh and blood. We see how they perceive him.

What a catastrophe it would be for all of us today to not see him for who he really is when his own brothers recognized him as Lord. So look at him and be changed. Take a step back out of the chaos this morning and lift your eyes to him. See him for who he really is and see the love, the deep love that he has for you, that he’d be willing to die for you even when you were shaking your fist in offense of him. He died for you.

So over the last 5 weeks, Jesus has revealed what his kingdom was like. It’s a kingdom that we must be receptive to. It’s both patient and priceless. It’s unstoppable. And today we see that it’s ultimate.

A day is coming, that day is coming, that the net’s going to be cast and everyone’s going to stand before him. So heed the warning, steward the truth, receive the King. He’s coming again. So don’t let the chaos of this existence that we are in right now distract us from the future that is coming. The King of Kings, Jesus Christ, when he comes and he separates the good from the bad.

He is coming again. That day’s coming. We may not know when, but it is coming and it could be today. Your time could come today whether he comes or not. My time might end today because I don’t know what’s facing me when I walk out those doors.

Are you ready for that day? Let’s pray.

God, I thank you so much for telling it to us in parables because there’s so many things about your kingdom that would just go over my head. But when you put it in story fashion like you did about the fish, I, I get it. But I pray, Father, for all of us here that it be so much more than understanding, but that you would drive us to a point now of response. Someone here right now has heard this word and they feel God stirring their heart right now to, to call this the day that I’m going to surrender. Friend, I wholeheartedly believe that is the Holy Spirit tugging on you.

That is Jesus speaking into your life saying, follow me. And he’s inviting you to take what was a very difficult thing for him of dying on a cross for you, and he’s made it quite simple in the fact that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Simple thing to believe, but it came at a great cost. Friend, would you be willing to pray with me right now and surrender your life to Jesus and ask him to be your Savior? Let’s pray together.

Jesus, I, I’ve made so many mistakes and I’m dirty. I’m sinful. I pray that you would forgive me for all that I’ve done and all that I know I’m yet to do. I’m going to call you Lord from this day forth. I surrender my life to you and I ask you, save me from myself and change me from bad to good.

Make me a new creation. And I pray that you would give me the faith to keep living as you would have me live. Friend, I believe that if you prayed that prayer, that because of the great cost Christ paid and the great treasure he’s laid before us, that you have been changed. You’ve gone from old to new, and you are now in his eyes clean.

Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve prayed that, but you’re recognizing the fact that you have not been a good steward of his truth. And maybe he’s become so familiar to you that you, you don’t even really call upon him. You don’t really talk to people about him like you should because it’s just same old day, right? Just same old, same old. Would you pray with me?

Jesus, forgive me for ever looking at you as just familiar. Forgive me for ever looking at your word and seeing it as just another book that I’ll get to at some point. God, change my heart. Help me to see from the core of my being the vast treasure that your truth is to me. And I pray that it would be like an endless thirst, that I just can’t get enough of it when I read your word.

Help it to just be so intoxicating and satisfying when I read your word. And I pray that you would change me, make me a good steward. Help me to bring out the treasures, not only for my own life change, but for the change of lives around me. We ask this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.