PARABLES OF JESUS CHRIST
PARABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 13:31-35, MATTHEW 13:45,46
SEPTEMBER 12, 1982
James was born in Hamilton Missouri. He was one of twelve children raised in poverty on a farm. His father worked the land six days a week and on Sundays he preached at a little church for no pay. James accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior when he was very young, and he believed in Him all the days of his life. He got his first job at a general store. He made a little money and then he opened a small department store in a little town in Wyoming. He called it “The Golden Rule Store” because he wanted to apply the teachings of Christ to his business. He gave all of his employees a share of the profits and his store began to grow. He opened another store and then another. He sold his merchandise at low prices for cash.
Miraculously in 1927, he had 750 department stores in 45 states. Now he changed the name, but he continued to practice the golden rule. By the end of his life when he went to be with the Lord, he had accumulated 1,700 department stores all across America, each store with his name out front, J.C. Penney.
There is one sense in which Penney’s department stores are exactly like the kingdom of God. They began in smallness, but they grew to greatness. We have three teachings concerning the kingdom of heaven that may be found in the Parables of Matthew 13. The first teaching concerns the greatness of its growth. The kingdom of God began in smallness, but it will grow to greatness.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds but when it is grown, it becomes the greatest of shrubs so that it becomes a tree. The birds of the air come and make their nests in its branches.” Again, He said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all leavened.” So, we have this teaching concerning the great growth of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God was planted in this world when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ is the King of heaven, and He came to earth to build His kingdom here. He came into the world and the world was made by Him but the world knew Him not and yet He said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” When He left this earth and ascended into heaven, He entrusted the growth of His kingdom into the hands of 11 men—Andrew, Bartholomew, who was sometimes called Nathaniel, the two James—James the Greater and James the Less—John and Jude (who was sometimes called Thaddaeus), Matthew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thomas. They were not great men by earthly standards. They were not socially, politically, or economically prominent. Four of them were fishermen. One was a tax collector. We don’t even know what the others did but they had big hearts and they loved Jesus Christ. He empowered them by His Spirit, and He sent them forth into the world as seeds and the kingdom began to grow, so much so that by the middle of the first century it was said of these disciples that they had turned the world upside down.
At the University of Glasgow in Scotland, Lord Kelvin used to love to demonstrate for his physics students how little things can have a tremendous impact upon a great mass. He would bring this giant steel ball into the classroom. He would hang it from the ceiling by a chain. Then he would bring all these little baskets full of small paper pellets. He would take one of those small paper pellets and he would throw it at that giant steel ball. Of course, it had no effect at all, and the students laughed. But he would continue with one pellet after another. He would continue to throw. After a while, that giant steel ball was seen to move just a little bit as it would begin to swing on that chain. He would continue to throw and finally that giant steel ball was moving in a great arc as those little, small paper pellets had begun to totally control the movement of that giant mass of steel.
Well, in the same way, the disciples were sent forth into this world to impact with this world, to move this great globe for Jesus Christ and for His kingdom and they did. So much so that today there are millions of Christians living on this planet.
Now evil has also grown but we are guaranteed in the scriptures that when Jesus Christ returns, He will totally eradicate evil from this earth and His kingdom will come to fruition and He will be Lord of all. In the book of Daniel, the 7th chapter, Daniel had a prophetic vision whereby he saw four beasts rising out of the sea. The first beast was a lion with eagles’ wings. The second beast was a bear with a voracious appetite. It had three ribs in its mouth it had just devoured and yet it was in a position where it was ready to pounce, ready to devour some more. The third beast was a leopard with four heads and four wings. You don’t see leopards like that at the zoo. The fourth beast was indescribable. It had iron teeth and with its feet, it trampled all things. From the fourth beast there came ten horns. They joined themselves in a quest for power. Then there arose an eleventh horn, a little horn but greater than the ten, and to it was given dominion. With its mouth it uttered blasphemies. Suddenly there was a shift in Daniel’s visionary dream. He looked into heaven, and he saw a being called the Ancient of Days enthroned in the midst of thrones and served by millions, myriads of myriads and ten thousand times ten thousand. This being called the Ancient of Days opened the great books and he pronounced judgement upon the little horn and upon the ten horns and upon the beasts from which they came. Suddenly on the clouds of heaven, Daniel saw one who was called the Son of Man and He came, and He presented Himself before the throne of the Ancient of Days. To Him was given dominion, power and glory. To Him was given the everlasting kingdom.”
Daniel was told that these beasts rising out of the sea were the future kingdoms of man, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire. The ten horns were ten nations which would arise at the close of the age and align themselves in a quest for power. The one horn, the little horn, was Antichrist, the most hideous expression of the kingdoms of man. But God, who is the Ancient of Days, will open the great books and He will pronounce judgement. Dominion will be taken away from the kingdoms of men and given into the hands of the heavenly Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ and He will reign and rule forever and forever.”
Now this is the consistent prophetic picture that we have in the scriptures, that Jesus Christ is destined to reign. “Unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His kingdom and of its peace, there will be no end.” The scriptures affirm that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. The day will come when every knee will bow to Jesus Christ in the heavens and on earth and under the earth.
When you go out of your house at night and you look up into the heavens and you look into the thickness of the Milky Way and you see those millions of stars, you are seeing only a fragment of our galaxy, a galaxy so vast that it takes light, moving at the speed of 186 thousand miles per second, a hundred thousand years just to cross our galaxy, and yet our galaxy is only one of billions of galaxies. We are told in the scriptures that Jesus Christ is destined to rule all of that. He will rule the heavens above and the earth beneath. He is destined to rule, and that rule began as He was planted as a seed in Bethlehem and His kingdom grew.
And so, we have this first teaching concerning the kingdom of God and it concerns the mystery of its growth. The kingdom of Christ began in smallness, but it will grow to greatness.
In these Parables, we have a second teaching concerning the kingdom of God. This teaching is directed at the citizens of the kingdom. All of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. This second teaching is a message to us. We who are citizens of the kingdom have been called to bear fruit. We have been sent forth into the world to minister. We are the seeds planted in the earth. We are the leaven planted in the bread and we have been called to minister. The cushions of the generations past have served Christ and they are now in heaven with Him. The kingdom has now been entrusted into our hands. We have been sent forth as light in the midst of darkness. We have been called to ministry and God wants us to take it seriously.
Two thousand years ago on a roadway between Bethany and Jerusalem, Jesus Christ cursed a fig tree and it withered to the ground. The disciples were amazed at the greatness of His power, but our Lord took no joy in cursing a tree. He did it as an object lesson because, you see, the fig tree was barren, and it represented Israel’s barrenness. Israel was barren and had born no fruit. They were under a curse.
We’re told in the Bible that the kingdom has been taken away from Israel and given into the hands of the church, into the hands of the gentiles, and we have been grafted onto the tree of the kingdom. But God wants us to know that we, now, have been called to bear fruit in His name. We have been called into ministry. We have a King to serve on this earth.
Many years ago, King George V was given an address and his words were so important that they were broadcast throughout the western world, even here in the United States. But something happened at a radio relay station in New York City. An important wire broke in two and people here could not hear King George, but there was a man at that radio relay station and his name was Harold Vivian. He was a British citizen, a citizen of the United Kingdom, and he knew what he had to do. With one hand, he took hold of one end of the broken wire and with the other hand he took hold of the other end. Two hundred fifty volts of electricity surged through his body, but he stood there, and because he did, the people heard his king.
Now that’s a true story and yet, you see, we have a King who is far greater than any earthly king. We have a King who has a message that is far more important than any message that any earthly king has ever given. That message has been entrusted to us who are citizens of His kingdom. We have been given the privilege of priestly mediation. God wants to speak through us and so He sends us forth into the world. Sometimes that’s painful for us because we must learn to love and serve our families and our neighbors and people at work in order that they might hear Christ through us.
You know, sometimes people come up to Bob or me and they want to know if we have a ministry for them here at Cherry Hills Community Church. They’re looking for a church where they can have a ministry. There are some ministries here at the church. We need Sunday School teachers. We have elders and there are other ministries here in the church. But ultimately, we do not have a ministry for every one of you here at the church. There’s more than 500 of you gathered in this room. We don’t have a ministry here at the church for each one of you. Most of you have been called to minister in the world. You come to the church to be fed. You come to church to receive the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ and to be strengthened. You come to be built up by His word, both through preaching and teaching. You come to be edified and strengthened in order that you might be able to go out into the world and do the work of a minister.
Bob and I have been called to minister to you. You have been called to minister in the world and you are on the cutting edge of the kingdom’s growth. The Lord wants you to take that seriously. One man who did was a man who was named Jonathan Goforth. He was a missionary to China. Can you imagine a better name for a missionary than Jonathan Goforth? When he was 70 years old, the United Church of Canada forced him to retire. He didn’t want to. He wanted to serve the kingdom all the days of his life, and so he appealed to the mission board, but they refused, and they replaced him, and they put others in his place.
Well, Jonathan Goforth continued to plead with the mission board, “Give me some place to minister.” Well finally they gave him a small mission in Northwest Manchuria. Now Jonathan Goforth’s wife was an invalid and they sent him two women who were semi-invalids and a little boy who didn’t know the language. They thought that this would be harmless enough. They couldn’t imagine the depth of his commitment to Jesus Christ and the power of Christ that was in him. In those few years that remained in his life, two thousand people accepted Christ in Northwest Manchuria.
You’ve been called to minister too. You who are citizens of the kingdom. You are seeds planted in the world. You are leaven planted in the bread. We have this second message concerning the kingdom of God. We’ve been called to bear fruit.
Thirdly and finally, we have a message concerning the kingdom of God and its value. How valuable is the kingdom of God to you? Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. In his joy, he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.” Again, He said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a merchant in search of fine pearls who, upon finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” How valuable is the kingdom of heaven? It’s worth everything you have.
There was a man some years ago who was on an airplane. He noticed that the woman sitting next to him had a beautiful diamond pendant. He turned to her and said, “Ma’am, that’s got to be just about the most beautiful diamond I’ve ever seen in my life!” She said, “Thank you.” She said, “This is the Klopman diamond, you know.” He said, “The Klopman diamond?” He said, “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that. She said, “Well, have you ever heard of the Hope diamond?” He said, “Yes.” She said, “Well, the Klopman diamond is a lot like the Hope diamond. It’s not as large of course but in clarity and beauty, it is every bit the equal of the Hope diamond and like the Hope diamond, the Klopman diamond comes with a curse for the person who wears it.” The man said, “Really? What kind of curse?” The woman smiled and she said, “Mr. Klopman.”
Now, everything in this world has a price and that’s true, too, of the kingdom of God. It has a price. If you would enter the kingdom of heaven, if you would enter the kingdom of God, there is a price. You must be willing to take Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian, said, “When Jesus Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” There’s a sense in which that’s true. If we would enter Christ’s kingdom, we must die to ourselves and we must live to Christ. We must step off the throne of our life and we must let Christ reign. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”
What is the price? What is the cost of entering the kingdom of God? It is accepting the Lordship of Jesus Christ and it is well worth it because nothing is more beautiful than accepting the Lordship of Christ. It would be the greatest investment we could ever make.
I love the story of Ida Fuller. She died in 1975. She was 100 years old. She was the first woman to ever receive a Social Security check. Her Social Security number was 000 00 001. She paid $22 in income taxes, and she received $22,000 in social security. She got more than $1,000 back for every dollar she put in. You and I both know that Social Security does not normally work like that, but the kingdom of God does. You give our life to Jesus Christ, and He gives His life to you. You get a lot better deal than He gets because your life is finite. Your life is empty apart from Christ really. But, you see, Christ’s life is infinite. It is eternal. It is full of joy. It is full of meaning. It is full of purpose. When you give your life to Him, He gives His life to you. The greatest investment you could ever, ever make, and He gives you eternal life.
You will recall that story in the book of Matthew where the disciples came to Jesus Christ and they said, “Lord, we’ve given up everything and followed You. What, then, shall we have?” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, in the new world when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of the Sons of Israel and everyone who has left homes or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or lands or anything for My sake will receive a hundredfold and receive eternal life.” What greater investment could you make? The Bible tells us that we give our lives to Christ, and we receive a hundredfold.
People in this world have given their lives to many strange things. The Greeks sought the mythological land of the Elysian fields, a land of light and sun where flowers and meadows grow. They gave their lives to a quest for knowledge just for that illusion. The Buddhists sought and still seek Nirvana, the land of the blessed where desires cease, and they give themselves to a life of aesthetic self-denial and all for an illusion. Ponce de Leon sought the fountain of youth. He never found it. Francisco Coronado sought the Seven Cities of Cibola or the Seven Cities of Gold. He never found them and even if he had, what eternal purpose would it have served?
Some people in this world give their lives in a quest for money. Some people give their lives in a quest for fame, for recognition. Some men give their lives in a quest for women. Some women in a quest for men. But the Bible tells us that there is only one thing in this whole universe that is worthy of our life’s quest and that is the kingdom of heaven. It is a treasure hidden in a field. It is a pearl of great price. Jesus said, “Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness and I will give you everything you need.”
And so, you see, we have these three teachings concerning the kingdom of heaven. The first teaching concerns the mystery of its growth. It began in smallness. It will grow to greatness, ultimately encompassing the universe. The second teaching is directed to us as citizens. We have been called into ministry. We are seeds planted in the earth. We are leaven planted in the bread. The third teaching concerns the greatness of its value. It’s a treasure hidden in a field. It’s a pearl of great price and it’s worth everything we have. Shall we pray?