THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD TODAY
Jesus said that He taught by parables to make known the secrets of His Kingdom to those who seek the truth with humble spirits. And to keep the proud and hard – hearted, who do not want to accept the truth, from seeing the secrets of the Kingdom of God.
The parables of, The weeds, The Mustard seed, The Yeast, and The Net in Matthew 13.
The first two parables in Matthew 13 use the same everyday example of sowing wheat. But the truth about the Kingdom taught in the parable of the sower is different from that of the weeds. In the Sower, the Wheat represents the message about the Kingdom, while in the Weeds, the Wheat represents the sons of the Kingdom who have been sown by the Son of Man, that is Jesus Christ.
Those who heard Jesus speaks these words were familiar with the qualities of the soil of Galilee and the crops grown there. They also knew the harm weeds could do. See Matthew 13:27–28, The owner’s servants came to him and said, Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field ? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up?
Some Christians feel like this today. See what the Master said in verse 29, it says, No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. According to Jesus, the judgment had to wait until the end of the age.
So, God’s purpose in His Kingdom is clear. There will be a time in the future when the servants would gather up the sons of the evil one.
After Jesus taught His disciples what they were not to do in attempting to set up the kingdom, He went on to tell them just how the kingdom would grow. See Matthew 13:31–32, He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.
They are those who expect the kingdom of heaven to become full – grown overnight. However, the picture that Jesus gives us teaches that the kingdom must be given time to grow. See 1st Corinthians 3:6, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
The growth of the Kingdom does not come through force or threat. It is born from within by the Holy Spirit, as each person gradually discovers for him or herself the great value of the Kingdom of God.
The parable of the Net teaches us what to expect when people say they have put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Matthew 13:47–50 says, Once again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, as the “fishermen” (Evangelist) throw out their net by preaching the word of the Kingdom. Many will respond and claim to become members of the Kingdom.
Among these we must expect a mixture of good and bad, true and false.
The Weeds had to do with the continuing presence of the sons of the everyone in the world. The parable of the Net deals with a similar problem, but as regards the Kingdom of God itself. Often Christians are perplexed, not only by the evil in the world, but by evil in the church itself. In these parables, Jesus is preparing us for what and what at the end of the age.
Evil in the church is, without doubt, a worse problem than evil in the world.
But in the parable of the Weeds we learn that we are not to use force to try to remove all evil out of the world. Also, the Parable of the Net, we learn that unfortunately we cannot expect to have a perfect church on earth; there will always be some evil people who falsely claim to be members of the Kingdom. In other words, the evil ones will only be finally removed from both the world and the Kingdom at the end of the age by the angels.
Jesus said that He taught by parables to make known the secrets of His Kingdom to those who seek the truth with humble spirits. And to keep the proud and hard – hearted, who do not want to accept the truth, from seeing the secrets of the Kingdom of God.
The parables of, The weeds, The Mustard seed, The Yeast, and The Net in Matthew 13.
The first two parables in Matthew 13 use the same everyday example of sowing wheat. But the truth about the Kingdom taught in the parable of the sower is different from that of the weeds. In the Sower, the Wheat represents the message about the Kingdom, while in the Weeds, the Wheat represents the sons of the Kingdom who have been sown by the Son of Man, that is Jesus Christ.
Those who heard Jesus speaks these words were familiar with the qualities of the soil of Galilee and the crops grown there. They also knew the harm weeds could do. See Matthew 13:27–28, The owner’s servants came to him and said, Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field ? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up?
Some Christians feel like this today. See what the Master said in verse 29, it says, No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. According to Jesus, the judgment had to wait until the end of the age.
So, God’s purpose in His Kingdom is clear. There will be a time in the future when the servants would gather up the sons of the evil one.
After Jesus taught His disciples what they were not to do in attempting to set up the kingdom, He went on to tell them just how the kingdom would grow. See Matthew 13:31–32, He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.
They are those who expect the kingdom of heaven to become full – grown overnight. However, the picture that Jesus gives us teaches that the kingdom must be given time to grow. See 1st Corinthians 3:6, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
The growth of the Kingdom does not come through force or threat. It is born from within by the Holy Spirit, as each person gradually discovers for him or herself the great value of the Kingdom of God.
The parable of the Net teaches us what to expect when people say they have put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Matthew 13:47–50 says, Once again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, as the “fishermen” (Evangelist) throw out their net by preaching the word of the Kingdom. Many will respond and claim to become members of the Kingdom.
Among these we must expect a mixture of good and bad, true and false.
The Weeds had to do with the continuing presence of the sons of the everyone in the world. The parable of the Net deals with a similar problem, but as regards the Kingdom of God itself. Often Christians are perplexed, not only by the evil in the world, but by evil in the church itself. In these parables, Jesus is preparing us for what and what at the end of the age.
Evil in the church is, without doubt, a worse problem than evil in the world.
But in the parable of the Weeds we learn that we are not to use force to try to remove all evil out of the world. Also, the Parable of the Net, we learn that unfortunately we cannot expect to have a perfect church on earth; there will always be some evil people who falsely claim to be members of the Kingdom. In other words, the evil ones will only be finally removed from both the world and the Kingdom at the end of the age by the angels.
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