2.10.14 2.28.2021 Matthew 13 Church A Place of Creating
Notes
Transcript
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Entice: This is a hard sermon for me to preach, it was a hard sermon for me to write. Not because the passage is obscure or unfamiliar but because it has become my favorite chapter in the Bible. The temptation for me is to go overboard and to preach everything rather than the one thing essential to our current focus. As you will find it is a sermon that required me to take the advice I prescribe in the sermon during the very process of study, writing, and preaching the sermon.
Engage: Kingdom means that God is remaking the world through Jesus. Jesus is still doing that work through the Church. If we want to bring kingdom to life in an empire-defined world we need to
rediscover the approach of Jesus.
rediscover the approach of Jesus.
we need to
recommit to his methods,
recommit to his methods,
we need to
re-inhabit the story.
re-inhabit the story.
Expand: Matthew 13 is Matthew's parable chapter. Jesus tells stories. Some of His more familiar stories at that. The tempo, the key, the rhymes and rhythm's change. but the Song remains the same.
Kingdom Come.
Kingdom Come.
Kingdom Spread.
Kingdom Spread.
Kingdom Work.
Kingdom Work.
Kingdom over all pretensions of grandeur and pretenders to the glory which only belongs to God.
Excite: The tales themselves are not tales of grandeur and glory. The parables are stories of sowing seed, losing money, catching fish. Jesus not only teaches lessons in these stories He teaches us how to listen, how to see, how to understand; and He teaches us something central about the nature of the Kingdom.
Explore:
The creative voice of Jesus should intensify our voice today.
The creative voice of Jesus should intensify our voice today.
Explain: In the least known section of this famous chapter Jesus gives us pretty specific directions.
51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.”
52 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.”
1. Discernment.
1. Discernment.
1.1 Sloppy Thinking.
1.1 Sloppy Thinking.
10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
1.1.1. In-attention.
1.1.1. In-attention.
1.1.2 Ill-intention.
1.1.2 Ill-intention.
1.2 Slippery Kingdom.
1.2 Slippery Kingdom.
1.2.1 A sower....
1.2.1 A sower....
1.2.2 A man sowing
1.2.2 A man sowing
(a different man?!? good seed…)1.2.3 A grain of mustard...
1.2.4 A woman preparing dough...
1.2.4 A woman preparing dough...
1.2.5 A treasure Hidden in a field
1.2.5 A treasure Hidden in a field
1.2.6 A pearl of great price
1.2.6 A pearl of great price
12.7 A dragnet....
12.7 A dragnet....
How are these things even related?
Is their a connection?
2. Discipline.
2. Discipline.
34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.
35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
2.1 Stories of the Kingdom.
2.1 Stories of the Kingdom.
2.2 Strategies of the Kingdom.
2.2 Strategies of the Kingdom.
Sow
Sow
Seek
Seek
Separate
Separate
2.3 Struggles of the Kingdom
2.3 Struggles of the Kingdom
Misplaced
Misplaced
Misunderstood
Misunderstood
Misaligned
Misaligned
Misguided
Misguided
3. Discovery.
3. Discovery.
3.1 Treasure
3.1 Treasure
3.2 Re-imagined.
3.2 Re-imagined.
3.2.1 A Trusted "expert."
3.2.1 A Trusted "expert."
3.2.2 Old and new:
3.2.2 Old and new:
Applications=what, why
Applications=what, why
Contexts=when, where, who
Contexts=when, where, who
Opportunities=how.
Opportunities=how.
Shut Down:
As disciples we are trying to live these stories. To make them real in a world which is far different from that world where these stories were first told.
That describes the Kingdom Mission of the Church. Making the words and presence of Jesus real in a new world. A world still hostile to Kingdom. A world still rebelling against the King. Resisting His message. Deaf to His call. Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear. Time to respond. Time to obey. Time to join Him in creating the Kingdom anew.