This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. I want to welcome you to our study of Matthew chapter 13. This is day four in this study, and in this day we're going to take a look together at what Jesus has to say about the Kingdom. But before he talks about the Kingdom, I want to go back a few verses. We looked at the beginning of the week at the parable of the sower and then Jesus' But in between the parable and the description, he has some things to say about parables and why he's teaching the way that he is. So listen to verses 10 to 17. It sets up everything he has to say about making the Kingdom more simple. In verses 10 to 17, the disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables? " He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven has been given to you but not to them. Whoever has will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables. Though seeing they do not see, though hearing they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. You will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them. Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men long to see what you see but did not see it, to hear what you hear but did not hear it. " Jesus talks in these verses about the secrets of understanding God's Kingdom and he says the secret is in our heart, the secrets in our understanding of God. You notice he talks to the disciples and he says whoever has will be given more and it will have an abundance. He's not talking about material things in these verses, he's talking about the understanding of God's truth. And reduced to its simplest terms, this passage, Jesus is saying truth has to be acted on in order to be retained. You have to act on the truth in order to retain the truth. He's saying these that know the truth so well, they haven't acted on it and so they're seeing it but they're not understanding it. They're hearing it but they're not comprehending it. Now as Jesus talks about the truth and he goes straight into some teaching or he goes into some teaching later in the passage about the secrets to the Kingdom that he talks about here in verse 11. What are these secrets to the Kingdom? What is God's Kingdom like? Well there are volumes and volumes of books that have been written on that but in this one chapter, Jesus simplifies the Kingdom. Four simple truths to act on, not just to understand and know but to act on. Four words, goodness, growth, value, and judgment. Jesus says those are four words to understand and act on when it comes to the Kingdom. What's the Kingdom of Heaven like? Well he tells several stories. First he says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing good seed and an enemy sowing weeds. Now we're going to look at this one in more detail tomorrow but today I want to focus just on what it says to us about the Kingdom. The simple truth Jesus says here is the Kingdom is about good, is about goodness. Somebody who sowed good seed. God is making all things good. Good seed, good soil. And sometimes this word good, it seems so small to us but in actuality it's an expression of all that God means for his creation to be. In the beginning when God created everything, remember in the book of Genesis he looked at it and he said it is good. It's good. It's very good. And what God is working in his Kingdom to create is good again. The good in you through God's Spirit. The good in eternity through God's Kingdom in eternity. The simple truth about God's Kingdom is the goodness of God seen and expressed in our lives. It's living in the midst of, in the beauty of, in the joy of God's goodness. That's the Kingdom. The simple truth about Kingdom is a second thing Jesus says. It's about growth. And here Jesus talks about a mustard seed. In verses 31 to 32 he says he told, the Bible says 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 it becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. So Jesus says the Kingdom is about growth and it starts little. He describes his growth but it doesn't stay little. Jesus says the smallest of seeds. So he says in the growth of the Kingdom what God is doing in this world, don't be intimidated by a small start. Sometimes we look at the small church, the small start, the small thing that God seems to be doing in our lives, the small step of faith that I've taken and it intimidates us because I've got so far to grow and there's so many needs in this world. There's so much evil in this world. How in the world can that small start make a difference? Well Jesus says that's how the Kingdom grows. It is not that noticeable at first. It's a small start but God's growing it into something that will last for eternity. The Kingdom is about growth. He uses the picture of a mustard seed and then he uses the picture of yeast. In verses 33 to 34 Jesus told them still another parable. The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. So it was fulfilled what was spoken to the prophet. "I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world. " So these verses remind us what we're hearing now. It's been hidden from people. It was hidden from people all through the Old Testament. People couldn't see these simple truths that Jesus is teaching. God's Kingdom and what it's about. They wanted it to be about something very noticeable, about human governments and God somehow controlling all the human governments in this world and Jesus says no, it starts very small. It's like a mustard seed. So don't be intimidated by the fact that it's very small. And here he says in the picture of yeast, he says it's unnoticed. But when you put yeast into the dough, it affects all the dough. It affects everything. Now notice he says here, this yeast, this little bit of yeast is put into a large amount of flour. So just like you're not intimidated by the small start, Jesus is saying here don't be intimidated by the greatness of the task. It's a big world. There's a big task. There's seven billion people in this world. How in the world is the gospel going to make a difference? Is the kingdom going to make a difference? Don't be intimidated, Jesus said. It's the kingdom. It goes everywhere. That's the nature of the growth of the kingdom. You can have confidence in that. So when you understand God's Kingdom, you understand it's about good. You understand it's about growth. A third thing you understand is you understand it's about value. It's about true riches, true value, true priority in life. Jesus tells a couple of stories about this. He tells in verse 44 the story of a hidden treasure. He says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy he went and sold all that he had and he bought that field. Jesus is talking here about the value of the kingdom. Now he's not talking about buying your way into the kingdom. You can't buy your way into God's kingdom. What he's saying here is there's nothing remotely worth what the kingdom is worth. That's why you have joy when you find a relationship with God. That's why you have joy when you find that you can have an eternity with him. The word joy here, that which you find as a priority of life in God's kingdom, when you find that that is worth everything, the natural response is joy. Because instead of trying to somehow find value in this world, trying to squeeze the value that I can out of this world, to get enough value out of this world to make my life seem significant and meaningful, all of a sudden you realize that value is given to me in God's kingdom. I don't have to squeeze it out of this world. Whether I have a lot or I have a little in this world, that value of who I am and where I'm headed and what life was all about, it is gifted to me in God's kingdom. And you have great joy in that. Jesus tells another parable, another story about the value of God's kingdom, a famous one, the pearl of great price in verse 45 and 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for pine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and he sold everything he had and he bought it. In one sense, Jesus is saying here, the kingdom, the value of the kingdom, it's what you've been looking for all your life. I love these two pictures back to back. With the field, he unexpectedly finds this hidden treasure. And with the pearl, he'd been looking for it all of his life. That's the kingdom. The kingdom is that which you'd never expected to find, but God brings it into our lives. And the kingdom is also that which you've been looking for all of your life. In God's kingdom, you get what you've been looking for all your life that you never expected to find. You get the joy and the hope of eternity. The simple truth is God's kingdom is all about value. And that's why we put priority in God's kingdom because it's the one thing of true eternal value in this world. Everything else pales in comparison to the value of God's kingdom. Now Jesus says one final thing. He says the kingdom is also about judgment. He gives the picture here of a net and a catch of fish. In verses 47 to 51, 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 and they sat down and they collected the good fish in baskets and they 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. Have you understood all these things? Jesus asked. Yes, they replied. You get this sense the disciples have been scratching their heads as Jesus is telling these stories. But then he tells these fishermen, many of them, a story about fish and they finally get it. He says the kingdom is also about this time of separation because not everyone is a part of God's kingdom. And those who are not will be separated from him. Those who are will spend eternity with him. Now God invites everyone into his kingdom but God will not force anyone into his kingdom and he will not allow anyone to force their way into his kingdom. You come in, well go back to goodness, the good fish. You come in through the goodness of God. The only way I can get the goodness of God applied to my life is through what Jesus did for me on the cross, the forgiveness that he offers me on the cross. That's where the kingdom and the cross connect, is the forgiveness that Jesus offers. That's what allows me to get into, to enjoy the value of, the growth of, the goodness of God's kingdom. So the question as we come to the end of this very quick look at these parables of the kingdom is how am I going to act on this truth? Well here's four things to do. You appreciate God's kingdom, the goodness, the beauty of it. Appreciate God's kingdom today. You grow in God's kingdom. There's a lot of areas in life you could choose to grow in today. Grow in God's kingdom. Grow in trusting God. Grow in making the things of God priority in your life. You invest in God's kingdom. And then finally you expect God's kingdom. That time of judgment is a time of joy for all who know him. So you expect God's kingdom to come in a different way where we'll spend eternity with him. Let's pray right now together that we'll be able to do those things today. Our Father we pray that this day you would help us to appreciate your kingdom, to grow in your kingdom, to invest in your kingdom, to expect your kingdom. So easy to get caught up in the kingdom of this world, all that's revolving around us so fast. But we lift our eyes above that, above that confusion right now. We focus on you and pray for your spirit to do something miraculous in us. Help us to be people of your kingdom today, to live above and beyond what's happening in this world around us. Help us to be the people of God in the world today. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at a parable that reveals the truth about good and evil. Amen.