Commencement Speech 2006

Some Sobering Thoughts on the Kingdom

Robert C. Newman

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here this morning to celebratethe graduation of these 97 men and women of the class of 2006 from BiblicalSeminary. As you are aware, thoughthis ceremony marks the end of several years of hard work, it is neverthelesscalled “commencement” because it marks the beginning of their labors asseminary graduates in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.  They will join with him in God’s mission– bringing people from every tribe, tongue and nation to find forgiveness,peace, and fulfillment in knowing God as their creator, redeemer, and bestfriend.

As they and we think about what this will mean, it isappropriate that we look at a rather extensive passage in Matthew chapter 13,where Jesus sketches for us the progress of the Gospel, a passage of some 50verses which I have labeled “Some Sobering Thoughts on the Kingdom.”  You may already be sobered to hear thatI am going to be speaking on 50 verses, especially if you have heard preachersspend half an hour on one verse. But this will be a flying overview, rather like W. A. Criswell’s singlesermon which covered the whole Bible in a few hours. I promise to keep this somewhat shorter.

We have in this passage seven parables of Jesus, usuallycalled the “parables of the kingdom.” These are the parables of the sower, the wheat and the weeds,the mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price,and the dragnet. It would take toomuch time for me to develop the arguments for how I think these parablesconnect with one another, but let me say that they appear to be a sketch of howthe gospel will typically fare at various times and different culturesthroughout the history of Christianity. In this sense, they will give all of us, but our graduates this morningespecially, a feel for what to expect as we go out to spread God’s messagewherever in the world he leads us.

The Parable of the Sower

Matt13:3-9 (NIV) Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmerwent out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along thepath, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where itdid not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered becausethey had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked theplants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred,sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear."

The first parable is that of the sower.  Using a picture his original audiencewould know well, Jesus sketches for us a fellow planting wheat seed in theusual way it was done back then. The fellow walks through the field with a bag of grain slung over hisshoulder, reaching into it with one hand and pulling out a handful of grain,which he then scatters on the ground by flinging it abroad.  We get our word “broadcasting” fromthis method, though that word has now changed its meaning a good deal.  As it happens when wheat is plantedthis way, some of the seed falls on the hard-packed paths bordering the field,some falls on thin soil with bedrock just beneath, some on deep soil but withcompeting weeds, and some on soil that is just right.

Jesus tells us that this is a picture of how the Gospel willbe received. Although our messageis one of great good news – what, after all, could be better than knowingthat God will accept us as his friends, that he will forgive our misdeeds, thathe will repair us so we will naturally be what we ought to be, and he will giveus an eternal life of joy and peace beyond imagination?  Yet, in spite of this, not everyonewill jump on the bandwagon. Andeven among those who do, some will jump off again.

So, as we go out to live out and speak out the Gospel tothose God will bring across our path, we should not expect an enormous response. Of course, should God give us anenormous response we shouldn’t turn it down in unbelief – but we shouldnot expect it as what we will normally get.

Instead, some will hear the good news but make no response.  Like the seed falling on hard ground,the message will not sink in. Satan may even see to it that they don’t remember having heard it.  Others will get excited and receive themessage with joy. But once itappears that it is going to cost them too much, that they may face trouble orpersecution just because they are following Jesus, they will bail out.  Others, particularly in such places as herein the US today, may not face persecution, but they will succumb to theenormous number of distractions from wealth and worry they encounter.  They too will fall by the wayside.

But, praise God, there will be some people who really willhear, and understand, and obey God’s message. They will turn their lives over to him and find that he willchange them. By the time they die,they will have lived a life worth living, one that will count for somethingthousands of years after they have lived it. To have even a handful of such people respond to our messagewill make it all worthwhile.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds

Matt13:24-30 (NIV) Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven islike a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone wassleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27"The owner's servants came to him and said, `Sir, didn't you sow good seedin your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 28 "`An enemy didthis,' he replied. "The servants asked him, `Do you want us to go and pullthem up?' 29 "`No,' he answered, `because while you are pulling the weeds,you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until theharvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds andtie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into mybarn.'"

The second parable is that of the wheat and the weeds.  It assumes that a landowner has alreadyplanted a field of wheat, but now an enemy comes along, and to spite thelandowner he secretly scatters a great deal of weed-seed on top of the newlysown field. Since both the wheatand the weeds are grasses, the enemy’s scheme does not become apparent untilthe grasses put on their seeds, some time before the crop is ripe.  Though the owner’s servants want topull up the weeds, he forbids them lest they pull up the good wheat aswell. Instead, the harvesters willseparate the two crops when they are reaped.

Jesus here tells us that coming along behind the spreadingof God’s good news is Satan, who will spread his own messages and produce hisown converts. Adding this to thealready distressing fact that many who hear the message will not respondproperly, we now see that there will be other messages appearing, and fakeChristians who will help discredit the gospel – as if real Christiansaren’t good enough at discrediting it already! Our own reaction to this will naturally be to want to getrid of these false teachers by casting them out of the church (or worse).  As Paul and John indicate in theirletters, some sort of church discipline is necessary. But Jesus assures us that this will not work as well as wewould like, that real believers will get torn up with the false ones, and thatthis problem will not really be solved until the great harvest at Jesus’return.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Matt13:31-32 (NIV) He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven islike a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it isthe smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of gardenplants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in itsbranches."

Now comes the parable of a farmer planting a mustard seed, avery tiny seed indeed, but this one grows into a large plant, even becoming asmall tree, so that birds come and perch in its branches.

Jesus is telling us that, despite the difficulties sketchedin the first two parables, the church will typically grow in the society whereit comes. Typically, notinvariably; sometimes the church has been wiped out of a particularculture. In the better cases, however,it will grow and become very large, transforming the society into which itcomes.

But what are we to make of the birds nesting in the brancheshere? Jesus doesn’t tell us.  The symbolic use of birds in theparable of the sower to represent Satan snatching away the message, and thebirds in the Egyptian baker’s dream interpreted by Joseph to represent thebaker’s death, don’t sound promising. In the Old Testament, the symbolism of tree and birds is sometimes usedto picture an empire and its dependents. Perhaps we see the church becoming a little empire as it has done in anumber of places in Europe and the West. We might even suggest that the birds represent outsiders entering thechurch without actually being born again, as has so frequently happened when Christianitybecomes dominant in a culture.

The Parable of the Leaven

Matt13:33 (NIV) He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven islike yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until itworked all through the dough."

With the rise of modern technology, fewer and fewer peoplehave much idea how bread is made, though the appearance of home bread-makingmachines may have reversed this trend for some. I remember my mother making rolls by using a cake of yeastand warm water, which was later added to the dough. But back at the time of Jesus’ ministry, bread was oftenmade at home using the sour dough method. A little bit of dough left over from the previous batch of bread (whichby now was leavened, and so sour) was set aside and then added to the new doughfor the next batch. After a bit,the new batch would puff up due to the leaven in the sour dough, and this wouldbecome the dough for a new baking. This is what Jesus pictures in this parable, how the woman puts the sourdough into the new batch, and the leaven from the sour dough eventually worksthrough the whole batch.

What does Jesus intend us to understand here?  Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell us, andinterpreters have gone off in two very different directions.  Most think the dough is the world andthe leaven is the church or the gospel, which spreads throughout the world.  A few think the dough is the church andthe leaven is heresy or unbelief, which spreads to corrupt the church.

I think the latter group is right, though I doubt I canconvince you in a couple of sentences. I see in this group of seven parables the planting of the good and theplanting of the bad, the growth of the good and the growth of the bad, and theharvest of the good and the harvest of the bad, so the leaven would be thegrowth of the bad. Besides, althoughleaven makes bread taste better for me and for most people, its symbolicsignificance in the Bible is generally bad.

I suggest our lesson here is that typically, when the gospelhas permeated a whole society (as in the mustard seed) and become big enough toattract the birds, unbelief of various sorts begins to permeate the church.  You may take my interpretation or leaveit, as you wish, but it is noteworthy that this tendency to corruption in triumphantchurches is a standard refrain in church history. It reminds us that Satan does not throw in the towel justbecause he has lost a round.

The Parables of the Treasure and the Pearl

Matt13:44-46 (NIV) "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 hehad and bought that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like amerchant looking for fine pearls.

46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had andbought it.

Among these seven parables of the kingdom, a number of themseem to be in pairs. The first twoparables are about the planting of the good and the bad.  The third and fourth are about thegrowth of the good and bad (if we are right), and in any case, the parable ofthe wheat and the weeds sketches for us the planting, growth and harvest ofboth good and bad. The lastparable (the dragnet) and the second (the wheat and weeds) picture the harvestof good and bad. And here, theparables of the treasure and the pearl also seem clearly parallel, whateverthey may mean.

In both someone finds a treasure. In both, the finder gives up everything in order to be ableto own that treasure. In both, itappears, the finder recognizes the value of what has been found, and feels hehas gotten a great bargain in spite of the price paid.  We suggest that the treasure or pearlis Jesus (or the gospel), the finder is a seeker, and the cost is not tellingus that we can earn our salvation, but that we must be ready (and may be calledupon) to give up everything in order to have and keep Jesus.

There are differences between the two parables.  The first fellow is probably a daylaborer or tenant farmer who stumbles across the treasure, probably whileplowing. If he shows up in thevillage with the treasure there will be questions, and the owner of theproperty on which it was found will get the treasure. So he hides the treasure and buys the field, though it costshim everything, in order to have clear title to the field.  Then he can “find” the treasure and itwill be rightfully his.

In the second parable, the seeker is a pearl merchant.  He knows what he is looking for and,like a collector of antiques or rare books, he knows value when he seesit. He is glad to give upeverything to get that once-in-a-lifetime bargain.

The gospel is like that. Some have been looking for something like this all theirlives. Others happen to run intoit even though they weren’t really looking. And in a society where Satan has planted many other gospels,finding the true one is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack,especially if the leaven has done its work thoroughly.

The Parable of the Dragnet

Matt13:47-50 (NIV) "Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that waslet down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, thefishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the goodfish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the endof the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashingof teeth.

The last parable, like the end of the second parable, is aparable of harvest, but this time it is fish rather than plants.  Dragnets are still in use today.  A dragnet is a long, narrow rectangularnet whose width is just a few feet, about the depth of the water one is fishingin, and whose length may run to hundreds of feet. One long edge of the net has floats attached to it, theother has sinkers. When the net islaid out, the one side drags on the bottom, the other floats on the surface.  The net is set out in the water andthen the two ends are brought to the shore. As these ends are dragged further and further on shore, thefish inside are trapped and brought on shore with it. The fishermen then sort the fish into those that can be soldand those that are worthless.

As in the parable of the wheat and the weeds, so here, Jesusreminds us that a judgment is coming. Whether the end of the age comes in just a few more years or not for athousand, for each of us individually the end of our age comes when we die,which might be today or not for many years, but probably well under a hundred.

Notice that this judgment does not seem to involve manyshades of gray, but is quite black or white, accepted or rejected.  How can this be?  It sounds very unreasonable in our ageof diversity and political correctness, but of course there was plenty ofdiversity in the Greco-Roman world (and even the Jewish world) when Jesus spokethese words.

The explanation turns on what the Bible tells us about whathumans are like, what God is like, and what he has done to bring us to himself.  All you graduates know about this, butperhaps some in the audience do not, so I give a quick sketch.

The bad news of the good news is what we call sin.  None of us are near as good as we oughtto be, or as we were designed to be, and it’s at least partly our fault.  Though all of us try to ignore thismost of the time, it is as obvious as our daily newspaper, and as near as ourinnermost thoughts. We don’t needa special message from God to tell us this, though in his mercy God does remindus in the Bible. All of us humansare sinners, all are in rebellion against God in the sense that we don’t wantanyone telling us what to do. That’s what humans are like.

Now God is good. He is so good that we can’t even imagine how good he is.  He also is the one who made us, bywhatever method he may have used to do so and however long it took.  You don’t really think this enormouslycomplex and finely-tuned universe just happened by itself, do you?  So God is our owner and maker, and hepresumably has a purpose for our life.

Now, let’s try to look at this purpose from God’s point ofview. Suppose you have just boughta used car. Your purpose is tohave reliable transportation. Youcome out one morning, and the car won’t start. Do you think the car deserves a break today?  No, you want the car to start!

So with us. Wehumans were designed to love God with our whole heart and to love each other aswe love ourselves. But we don’tfeel like it. We don’t do it.  What is God going to do?  Just as we have two choices with thecar, so does God with us. We caneither junk the car or repair it. These are our two judgments. So too with God’s judgments. If we turn to God and ask him, he will repair us.  If we reject that alternative, we haveno other choice but to become part of the junkyard of the universe.

Conclusions

Let’s pull this all together: Jesus told us two thousand years ago that our message willreceive very diverse reactions: some won’t respond at all; some will respond and then bail out; somewill respond but never go anywhere because there is too much else going on intheir lives. But we can beencouraged that some will be transformed, and that will help make all ourefforts worthwhile.

Jesus also predicted that Satan will have counterfeitgospels and counterfeit believers, and this will make our work as followers ofJesus much harder than it otherwise would be. But we can be encouraged in this: that God knows who arehis, and they will be recognized one day.

Jesus tells us that the church will grow, and it has!  From a few followers in AD 30 to aworldwide movement counting over a billion people today.  Yet the church’s numerical success hasoften been a prelude to its spiritual defeat, and that should sober us up.

Yet no matter how obscured the gospel sometimes seems to be,there will be seekers and finders. And they will recognize (truly!) that having Jesus is a bargain worthfar more than anything they can possibly give in return, even though it coststhem their lives. May the Lordhelp us to keep this perspective as we go out from here to serve him.

And let us never forget, that we live in a universe whichwas created and is upheld and overseen by the true and living God, who sees andknows everything, even the most secret thought of our hearts.  One day, each of us will be seen to beeither the junk of the universe or its repaired, recycled ones.  May it be the latter for each of ushere!

So, may our Lord grant us a new vision to go out to servehim in the strength he provides, knowing both the difficulty and the importanceof the work set before us, knowing both sadness and joy as we (with Jesus) setbefore those we meet the choice of life and death. For God has sent us out to be his messengers and hisambassadors to our generation.