Turning On the Lights! Friday June 21, 2024 More Matthew! More Parables!
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters! It is Friday June 21, 2024 and we are full-on onto Summer! Today we continue our adventures in the parables of Jesus. Today, we are talking about the illustrations of the Kingdom of God.
Let’s learn from Jesus about the Kingdom of God together. The mustard seed, the yeast, and the pearl. There is a lot to discuss.
May God bless you and may you be blessed by this conversation – and, as always, WE WILL SEE YOU IN CHURCH!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 18 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, June 21, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, June 21, 2024
Good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. Welcome to the church town church of God, which looks like a gigantic garage right now. Let me take you on the tour. There’s not too much to see the beautiful sanctuary. If you’re listening on the podcast, you can always catch us at church town church on YouTube and you can see the beautiful sanctuary. This building, this rectangle was constructed in 1849. I just love this place. These are some additions later on in the mid 20th century, the overflow room, some of the things that we’ve done all that stuff. But look at all this stuff we have for our yard sale. Great gravy, great googly boogly, as they say, this is just, I don’t know, two thirds of it. Not nearly all of it. And over in the fellowship hall, there are going to be tonight by six o’clock, pies, cakes, cookies, four different kinds of soup, maybe five counting the chili. Oh my goodness gracious, you got to come out tomorrow, beginning at seven am. There’s the altar, the very classic stained glass with Jesus at Gethsemane. Oh, yeah. I’m in a good mood. I did a lot of hard work yesterday preparing. So I didn’t have to just go nuts today. I did a lot of bringing things up from the basement yesterday. I did a lot of mowing trimming. I installed air conditioners. I did all kinds of things yesterday. So that maybe today I don’t need to work so hard until this evening when people come to get set up for tomorrow morning. So it’s exciting. It is a devastatingly exhausting weekend. There is no doubt about that. Friday night bleeds into early Saturday morning bleeds into Saturday night preparation. I’m having a Father’s Day dinner Saturday night and then I’m cooking a Father’s Day dinner Sunday night. So by next Monday, I will be blown out. Father, we pray that your word will come out today. Just as you intended that it will fall on every year and penetrate every heart that you intend by the power of your Holy Spirit that is made possible by the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and our Lord. Good morning, Marlon. We are going to get right down to it. I don’t have a lot of socio political commentary today. I don’t have a lot of ecclesiastical commentary today regarding the church. Christendom is all over the place, as you well know, if you pay attention to social media, and all every so called preacher and Christian spiritual leader who is trying to take advantage of social media, you find all kinds of things out there. And I’m very nervous this one woman who was talking about how she goes and speaks with Jesus all the time. And he does this and he talked about that. And she was saying all these weird things about his hair and him touching her and stuff like that. And everybody’s like, and I looked and she has 14,000 followers. Now, in social media world, that’s not a mate, you know, but 14,000 people. It has nothing to do with but you know, God is so good. Oh, it’s frustrating. Good morning, Bryn. We’re talking right out of Scripture, you’re not ever going to get me saying, Hey, guys, hey, Bryn. I heard from Jesus last night. He told me to tell you this. He took me to the heavens. And then he did this and said that and then I have a word for you all this morning because I’m so special. Nope, you’ve got the same word I do. It’s called the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible, your prayer life, your godly conversations, we talk about it all the time. God is never silent. So long as your Bible is open, we have his word. Everybody today, not everybody, but the big trend in Christendom is to the special revelation, special revelation, special revelation, God speaks to me, we even do it. And when this denomination gets in conference, what is God saying to you right now? Oh, okay. I mean, I understand the concept. Let’s talk about 10 minutes and then write down what God is saying to you. I’m not receiving a special revelation for the conference. I’m not receiving a special revelation, I have God’s word. And if I am moved by God’s Holy Spirit, it is through my prayer life through my conversations. It is through the discernment that is provided by the power of his Holy Spirit, where I’m led in Scripture, to whom I am led, as people, all of these different things, situations that come upon me in which I am faced with decisions regarding turning toward the cross turning away from the cross, all of these things guide my actions. Yeah, right. I mean, you have to you have to be involved Marlon and that’s what we’re both saying. I think you have to be engaged. You can’t just sit around and say, well, okay, I want to hear the audible voice of God. But we have so many false spiritual leaders and false Christian leaders, hi, Cal, today that are saying just that I was hanging out in the bathtub last night and Jesus appeared sitting beside me like what? What? You know that the kind of crazy stuff that we hear. So here on turning on the lights, we, you know, I may blabber on about some, like I said, socio political thing or the times or go off down a rabbit trail here or go off down a rabbit trail there. But those are my words. Whenever we’re talking about Jesus Christ, whenever we’re talking about Yahweh, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, whenever we’re talking about the word, guess where we are, the word, I don’t make things up, I don’t ever want to make things up. And my exposition, right, as I say, expository exposition of the scriptures, I want to be faithful. Speaking of which, as we’ve already prayed, we’re talking about the kingdom of God that Jesus is talking about in his parables, or as we said last week in the parables or parabels, a word that is stuck in my head forever parable, I don’t know what it means. I think I made it up. But I will as much as I say, parable, forgot. But it’s just one of those things. He’s God, I’m not. He can read a lot better than I am. Can he can speak a lot better than I can. The kingdom of God. Here’s another This is Matthew 13. Matthew, well, no, okay. Okay, fine. Okay, fine. Matthew 13, and the mustard seed. And we’re going we’ve been doing Matthew, Mark and Luke, the what they call synoptic Gospels, the three Gospels that are more in line with one another. And then other than John. And so collectively, we get a very comprehensive picture of the life and ministry, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through all four gospel accounts. And so sometimes, and of course, critics of Christianity will look at all these discrepancies, look at all these contradictions. If you actually get into the Word of God, and you become educated in the Word of God, and you take your time with the Word of God, you see that there aren’t any contradictions. You they collectively operate as a comprehensive picture of the life and times the death and the resurrection, the ministry of Jesus the Christ. So we have been in the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Many and most believe that Mark is the oldest, that Matthew and Luke draw from Mark, Luke draws from a lot of experience. And all of them draw from yet another source that you can see common threads through all of them from yet another source. And that’s the common scholarly belief in the development of the Gospels in terms of how God used man to develop them, to write them in as we gathered them and put them in our canon. Here’s another illustration Jesus used. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed planted in the field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants. It grows into a tree and birds come and make nests in its branches. Exactly more. Now this is a short little story, a short little comparison. It’s actually more of a simile. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds you planted in the garden grows into a big tree. But the big thing here for me is why does he mention at the end, birds come and make nests in its branches? I think that’s very important. Now I’m not I you know, you know me, if you know me and my preaching and my teaching, I don’t over spiritualize things. But I do not I also do not believe that a single word in Scripture is wasted. So he adds on and birds come and make their nests in its branches. Hello, fellow bird. We are in the kingdom of God. And what can we do in the kingdom of God being saved by the grace of God, we may make our homes, and we may live here. We may live here and indeed we are protected in the kingdom of God. And of course there is the kingdom of God, which we have, we have nothing to do with it is the grace of God that regenerates our souls. And we become an adopted member of God’s family and a part of the kingdom of God. That’s all God but we do. It is indicated here birds come and they make that’s a verb. They make their nests in it. So it does indicate that there is this relational aspect there are there is according to James and everywhere in Scripture, we have a response to that grace, you want to make a home in the kingdom of God, make it you want to build a nest in the kingdom of God build it. It’s a great image when you really think of it. To build a nest in the kingdom of God, you’re surrounded by your nest, which is surrounded by the kingdom of God, living and dwelling in the very power of God. It’s really a wonderful image that I think we might overlook quite a bit when we just read that last line, and then go on to the next. But it really is a wonderful is this little church and nest, right in the kingdom of God in the mustard in the mustard bush, a little nest where folks can, and you can you can talk about it in that way yourself and your own self and your own protected heart that has been regenerated by God saving grace, your family and your family circle and intimate circle of friends regenerated by the saving grace of God dwelling you making this nest you have one another we talked earlier about how do you hear God speak in your life? Part of the way is through godly conversations. What are godly conversations, their conversations of spiritual things with godly people, with fellow Christians. That’s what we’re talking about. So there’s a little nest. And now we talk about the local church. Here’s a little local church embedded in a little local small town in Pennsylvania, and it’s a little nest. It provides protection and the people of this church will guide and protect and love one another. And God of course, we are embedded in the kingdom of God and the power of all of that. And then we talk about the church universal. This is a big nest in the big tree, right? An Orthodox Christianity. And this is what I’m always talking about opened up again today with it. Under the umbrella of Christianity under the umbrella of Chris and dumb. Things are going haywire. We need this discernment more than ever these days. We need the word of God as it is in our cannon more than ever these days. You want to know if something is true or false? Do you want to know if somebody is just spouting off on the internet, trying to attract anybody who may be searching to worship or to glom on to some sort of a movement or somebody? The word of God is your point of discernment. The word of God is your rock. The word of God is truth. So when someone says Jesus comes and picks me up and takes me to heaven every other day, chapter inverse, please. This is something that occurs with God’s belief God’s children regularly. Well, Paul says it happened to him. You’re not Paul. You’re not an apostle. Jesus has not visited you personally. If he did, there would be authority and power in your word. It would be something completely different. And people would not look at it as an anomaly. People would not look at you as a curiosity. Okay, calm down, Brian. It’s all good. All of that from the parable of the mustard seed. And I hope and pray that you have your little nest inside that mustard tree. It’s a wonderful, beautiful image. You have created a beautiful nest inside the kingdom of God, where you may live life and live it to the full. Let’s talk about the next one. Jesus also used this illustration the kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough. Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God has spoken through the prophet, I will speak to you in parables, I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world. So let’s look at this one because it’s another very common one. And there’s a lot going on in this tiny little thing. There’s commentary after the little parable. After the little illustration, there’s commentary and we’ll get to that. But let’s look at the little illustration. The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough. Two things I want to mention here that strike me that pop out as I read this one yeast is commonly connected with sin. When we talk about the yeast of the Pharisees, when we talk about the in the Passover and how Orthodox Jews still will clean their house, and their unleavened bread, no yeast and so it’s been used in imagery related to sin. So Jesus of course takes that and turns that upside down. That would have popped out a little bit more than it does in 2024. It would have popped out a little bit more than what yeast. Jesus himself spoke of the yeast of the Pharisees, right? That sin that permeates their body. Now he’s taking that same image and saying this yeast and its effect will permeate your body. Right? And we go beyond that just like we did with the other parable. Now we have our godly circle and our godly friends that yeast permeates us, right? We’re all collectively permeated by the yeast. Now we have a local church and we want that continued growth and permeation so that the power the kingdom of God is all through us. And now we move to the church universal. And so we look at the powerful imagery that Jesus is using to say basically, an individual can be consumed by sin, or consumed by God, God’s Holy Spirit. He’s going to use the same word yeast for both. And that’s going to draw a powerful connection. And you know, we see Jesus talk about this more. We see Paul talk about this. We see Peter talk about this. And it is the permeation of sin in your life. And by the completed work of the cross, the destruction of the power of sin in your life, not just sin, the forgiveness of sin. Remember, when we talk about the cross, we’re not talking just about the the conquering of sin, we’re talking about the conquering of the power of sin. That selfish addiction that we have for selfish purposes, to fulfill our own desires and sin and sin and sin. That power is broken. We no longer want it. And if we do backslide and we do sin, we’re like, Oh my goodness, this feels quite different than when I was in love with it. Lord, I am very sorry. Please forgive me, set my feet on the path again, let me move forward. Different, we’re different. So the yeast grows, it permeates. And the second piece is is something that I always teach when we’re talking about the Lord’s Supper. There’s not a better way of doing it. Then the body and the blood represented in the in the bread and the wine, the bread and the cup. Because as we put those things into our bodies, what happens by the very, by the very design of God, those things are broken down to their molecular form, and they permeate throughout our bodies. When we talk about communing with Christ, we’re not just we’re not talking about him walking beside me saying, Hey, man, we’re talking about the power of God in dwelling me every cell of my being, and there’s no better way to portray that then with the Lord’s Supper. So you see how those two things that makes me think of that, when you talk about how it permeates through the entire being. Powerful stuff, like I said, if you slow down a little bit, you’re like, Whoa, I never connected to the Lord’s Supper. We never connected that with Lord’s Supper, but we see the same type of theme. Talking about yeast and then when he talks about the Lord’s Supper, this is what’s happening. He’s indicating that it where he’s not a an idol on a shelf that we bow down to or we make sacrifices to we give ourselves over to him. And he indwells us it’s a whole different thing than what everybody had known as religion to that point and what everybody knows as religion from that point. It’s a whole different thing. There are so many unique things about Christianity about being a Christ follower as opposed to every other belief system faith religion in the world. Here’s one of the most unique things right here’s one of the most unique things so final commentary for today. He talks about. He always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables and it fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world. But why parables if I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world, why not just explain them? Well, I can give you a really good reason and it is the fact that you are a watching this live stream this morning and we are talking about this parable in 2024. B you’re maybe watching now on YouTube delayed. And we’re talking about this parable in 2024 or see maybe you’re listening to the podcast and guess what we’re talking about this parable 2000 years later in 2024. We’re picking it apart. We’re deciphering it if you will. And we are explaining it yet again. And this is an easy one. It’s kind of like there it is. But how many sermons have been preached over it? How much commentary has been made over it? How much learning has come from it? How much encouragement edification has come from this parable, which it is not this is not a textbook, Scripture is not a textbook. Jesus didn’t teach conventionally, like many teachers do with a lecture. There are times Sermon on the Mount comes to mind when he’s sort of delineating. And really Sermon on the Mount without going off on too big of a rabbit trail is is the connection between the old you have heard it said, and the new but I say, and so it’s kind of got a whole different vibe going on a whole different thing. But these parables are there so that here we are over 2000 years later, 2000 years later, talking about them picking them apart, looking at the words that are used looking at the original words that are used, making sure that say, is that really what he is saying? Is that a good translation? Not really. It sounds like Satan is it did God really say that’s not what I’m saying? No, no, no, no, I’m talking about is that a really good translation? Is that you know, does that really hit the nail on the head in terms of what Jesus is teaching? We’re doing all of that. Because God, of course, knew what he was doing when he created scripture. So there you go. And these things as we and if you read the church town weekly, we followed the principle and we always follow the principle scripture informs scripture. The first commentary that we ever go to, to try to learn more about a passage of scripture is scripture itself. What else is said about that person that word that thing that passage that idea throughout scripture. This is where we talk about all of the issues that we may have in terms of eternal security, etc. Women in ministry, etc. Women are even not necessarily in ministry, but how women are to behave in the church. People want to pick and choose and say have this one in a vacuum over here, take this passage in a vacuum over here and build an entire theological construct around it. I say. Let’s take a look at scripture. Let’s look at the entire issue. We’re gonna talk about homosexuality and sexual behavior and sexual immorality. You wanna talk about what it means to be a man or a woman who is designed by God and adopted as a child of God. All of these things you wanna talk about faith versus works. You wanna talk about the role of women in the church. You wanna talk about eternal security, etc. Let’s look at the depth and the breadth of all scripture. Not just a verse. That’s the way I approach it and say, well, geez, that sounds a lot harder than just taking a passage and saying that’s the way it is. It is a lot harder, but just like the parables we have scripture and we have had it now for a couple of thousand years. Well, three hundred and seventy nine years. As a cannon, as our cannon to continue to dig and continue to dig and continue to dig. I don’t think God put passages in there to say, oh yes, regardless of what you may have said. Or you may have thought, regardless of any of that, you know, regardless of what else is all in scripture. This is it right here. This passage right here focus on it and nothing else and you will know that women are not to speak in church and then two paragraphs later, he says when women speak in church, make sure their heads are covered. Well, which is it? Nobody wants to go there. Nobody wants to dig into that. Something’s going on. Alright, so there’s a hermeneutic for you. And that is a way that approaching scripture in that hermeneutic is that scripture informs scripture. Scripture informs scripture. Alright, one more because it’s little. It’s the hidden treasure and the pearl. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hit it again. He sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field again. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything and bought it. Now this is a little thicker if you will because it’s not a direct sort of one to one type of a thing. You discover the truth of the word of God. You profess with your mouth. You believe in your heart. You find that pearl. Okay, I do believe. Now what? Now what? Well, you sell everything so that you may obtain eternal life and that imagery is that you make yourself a living sacrifice unto God. You give yourself to him. You say I am yours because I am your child. Let your will be done on earth through me. And I mean it. I mean it. Not just words. Right? There’s a there’s an eternity of difference between knowing what to say and actually believing what you say. And so you find this pearl and then guess what? You must make an action. Oh, that’s workspace salvation. Not really. No, it’s not. The gift is here. It is free. Only God can has provided this way. Will you receive this pearl? This gift of great value. Will you sell everything to get this one thing? Will you and so we translate that spiritually. Will you give yourself to God? Will you make yourself a living sacrifice worthy of your calling as his son or your daughter? Will you walk in the ways of the Lord? Will you meditate on his scriptures? Will you follow his command to love God and love one another? It’s quite easy for an individual to sit in a pew or anywhere else and say, you know, this is the old evangelism. Put your head down if you want saved today. Raise your hand. We’ll pray a prayer. You’re saved. Congratulations. Okay. It’s quite easy to do that. It’s a whole different story when we talk about walking in the Spirit of God. Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. I found it. The truth of the word of God. In his excitement, he hit it again. Okay, what do I do with this? I do believe I found the truth. What do I do with this? And he sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Yes, Lord. Yes. Not only do I believe, not only do I profess, Lord, I am willing. I am yours. Use me as you will. I love it, man. Right? It’s not rocket science. It’s a foot wide and it’s five miles deep. I get that, but it’s not rocket science. But this whole communion thing, communion, walking with the Lord does not mean that Jesus is walking beside you. Walking with the Lord means that the very power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. And you are open and you are willing and you are responsive to the power of God, to the will of God. And you’ve sold everything. You’ve sold everything. You’re all in. But, Lord, I never thought in a million years that my friends would forsake me because they became a Christian. Read, sing some of the old hymns. Look at the life of Paul. Look at the life of Jesus. Yeah, you didn’t think so? Listen to some of the teachings of Jesus. I’m not going to sell you a bill of goods. It’s right here. All right. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. I’m seeking to worship. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything and he bought it. We’re all, I believe all humans are built to worship as we have been disconnected from our creator. And we see today, especially through this information super highway culture, oh, there are so many things that we can worship. So many idols that get in the way between God and us. And we just read that in 1 John, “My dear brothers and sisters, don’t let anything come between you and Yahweh.” Father, we pray that that will not happen. We thank you for your teaching and your word. We thank you for the ability to get that your word and teaching out there to the world, Lord. We are blessed. We are fortunate. And we know it. And I pray that everybody that’s hearing this today is willing that they have given their lives to you, not part but whole. And they are open. Where you go, I will follow in Jesus name. Amen. Brothers and sisters, it all starts tonight as we prepare 7am tomorrow morning. 9am is the auction that will include two pans of smoked mac and cheese. And maybe for an extra little donation, I’ll throw in the recipe. God bless y’all. And wherever you are, we’ll see you in church. We’ll see you in church.
0 Comments