Kingdom and Empire – Luke part 23 – Lindsay Sytsma

Morning everyone. Welcome to Courtright.

We're excited to have you here this morning.

I know that the TV is slowly going to be moving over and I

just realized I should have practiced using it before the

message. Alright, it's going to be an

adventure. We're going to see what happens.

Sorry for anyone who is newish here this morning.

My name is Lindsey Sietsma. I am, I'm married to that guy.

He's a he's on staff here as one of the pastors, but I get the

privilege of guest preaching here fairly regularly.

So I'm very happy to be with you.

I'm very happy to be here with you this morning.

Oh, it even says next on it. That's helpful.

OK, I'm assuming that's the button that I'm going to press.

That's great. Thank you.

So this morning we are continuing on in our series in

Luke. So if you have your Bibles here

with you, if you like to read the Bible on your smartphone,

you can turn to Luke 8. That's where we're going to be

this morning. I will have the passage up right

here and then it should be on your side screens as well.

But we have been walking through the Gospel of Luke section by

section, and we are digging in to this gospel, this good news.

The good news is the announcement that the Kingdom of

God is here, that it is breaking through in the person of Jesus

and he is King. And Luke, through sharing the

life and the teachings of Jesus, he is painting a picture of what

life in the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like and how

the people of God should live. And moving into this morning,

we're actually going to spend maybe a little bit more time

than usual on recapping what we looked at last week.

Because while the entire narrative of Luke is is fairly

linear, the verses that we're looking today are actually a

direct extension of the passage that we looked at last week.

Oftentimes they're even looked at together.

So we are actually going to be starting back from last week.

If you weren't here last week, that's OK.

I am going to do a recap. So we're in Luke 8, starting in

verse four and then looking at verse 15, and I'm not going to

read them. I'm going to summarize.

So last week we looked at the parable of the sower.

And this is not a person who sews clothes, different

spelling. This is a person who plants

seed. And in this parable, Jesus says

that there is someone who goes out to plant seed.

They throw it fairly indiscriminately on the ground

and that depending on the soil that that seed fell on, the seed

grows or doesn't grow. So it is very dependent on the

soil that the seed falls on. And Jesus, to help his his

disciples understand what this parable meant, he he fairly

explicitly shares what it means. If we go next.

Oh, Nope, that's my passage. I think that's OK.

The passage from last week isn't there.

That's it up. Oh, there it is.

It's up there. OK, we're going to sort this

out. We're figuring this out as we go

along. This is this is a test.

So this is not the parable is parable is the seed is the word

of God. It is the gospel that is the

good news. So the seed is the word of God

and the soil that it falls into represents the responses that

people often have to encountering the gospel when

they when they hear it or when they see it.

Some people just don't really pay attention.

They never see it, they refuse to engage, they just kind of

ignore it. For other people, the worries of

life, they come up and they become such a distraction,

either the worries or the pleasures and the riches of life

that it has to offer. For other people there is when

testing comes their way, the soil or sort of the seed is not

able to really get a firm ground and testing kind of chokes it

and they fall away. But again, how the gospel takes

hold in someones life or doesn't take hold is what this parable

is about. It's about the seed being the

word of God and how it can take hold in our lives.

And the last verse of this parable says, But As for in the

good soil, those are the ones when they hear the word, they

hold fast to it in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with

patient endurance. So there's a really large

emphasis in the parable of the sower on hearing the word and

receiving the word. And one of the things I really

appreciate it about Grant's message was this invitation to

lean in that listening and receiving it isn't this passive

process. It isn't always simple or

straightforward. And it doesn't mean that we

don't wrestle. It doesn't mean that we don't

have questions. It doesn't mean that there are

seasons of life where it doesn't feel like anything is growing.

You know, there are there is seasonality to this journey.

But this parable invites us to examine our heart posture

towards God and his Kingdom. The parable of the sower is

about truly hearing and receiving the word of God and

what that can produce in those who are willing to lean in and

see the Kingdom of God that is being revealed in the person of

Jesus. And the thing that I love about

this imagery is that the gospel through this image of aliveness

and growth. And in our passage today, there

is no preamble, there's no transition.

We see the verse that happens that I read in Luke 8 verses 15,

Luke 8:15

and then Jesus very suddenly shifts the imagery immediately.

He pills, He paints another picture to build on what He just

said. So we are in Luke 816 to 18.

I'm going to pull it up here. And then it might be on the side

screens as well. It says no one after lighting a

lamp hides it under jars or puts it under a bed, but He puts it

on a lamp stand so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is

anything secret that will not become known and come to light.

So pay attention how you listen. For to those who have more will

be given, and for those who do not have, even what they seem to

have will be taken from them. Actually going to leave that up

since it's the whole passage. So my parents are here with us

today, which means I either should or shouldn't tell this

story. We'll find out.

We'll find out. My husband will laugh at this

one as well. So at at my house in kind of our

later teen year, teenage and young adult years, there was

this lamp. I'm gonna look at my parents.

There was a lamp sitting on the front table in our front

hallway. So I wish I had a picture.

But the house that we lived in, you, you'd walk in the front

door and there was this quite open foyer and off to the side

there was a table that had a lamp on it.

And then you had her staircase just off to the side and in the

house, the upper level looked down into the foyer.

It was open, so if the light was on on the table in the foyer,

you could see it upstairs. So one of the bedroom doors was

open, you'd be able to see the light shining in.

If the door was closed, you could see the light shining

under the door. So this light had a dual

purpose. One, it allowed people to see

what was going on in the house when you came in at night.

So as my sisters and I, as we got older, I have two sisters,

we would come home later from being out with friends or being

at work or yes, on dates. But the light was on when we got

home largely so that we weren't stumbling around in the dark and

waking up everyone else in the house.

But the other thing this light did is that it acted as like a

little mini messenger. So the last one who was home at

night. So it was your job to know if

you were the last one home coming into the house at night.

And if you were the last one, it was your job to turn off the

light. And that way when my parents

woke up at 2:00 in the morning or whatever, they could just

look under their door and they could see if the light was on or

off. And then they kind of compare

that to the time and then either worry, they're not worried

depending on how the situation is happening.

And yes, it did happen, certainly happened to me that

someone turned out the light before everyone was home.

And then you're walking home into a dark house and, and

trying to figure way you're stumbling around in the dark and

you really do miss the light in those moments.

If anyone's had to do that. And for all of you people who

are troublemakers, yes, I know the security system is flawed

and all you had to do was go into the house and turn off the

light and then leave again if you wanted to.

And I will not confirm or deny if that ever happened to one of

my sisters or to me. Don't People who are thinking

don't break the rules. The rules are you turn off the

light and then you go to bed. But the light had a job.

The lamp had a purpose. It gave light.

It is meant to be functional. It wasn't decorative.

It was there to do something. And Luke points out how

ridiculous it would be. No one is going to light a

candle or light a lamp and then they're going to hide it.

That's pointless. A late a light and a lamp is

used to give light. It's light is meant to be seen

and experienced, and more than that, it is often intentionally

put in a place where it can give the most light, where the light

can be seen by the most people. And Jesus shares this analogy of

the lamp right on the heels of the parable of the sower.

There's no break, there's no change in subject.

So Jesus introduces the lamp to connect it to what he has just

shared in the parable before. It's why we wanted to recap it.

So the Word of God, the message of the Kingdom, it is active and

it's growing and it's taking roots in the heart of people who

have ears to hear and hearts to receive.

But it has a purpose. It has a job to do.

It isn't meant to be hidden. It isn't meant to be stagnant.

It is meant to be visible and on display.

It is meant to be a light to show people the way forward.

The Kingdom is purposed and on mission.

If the parable of the sower is about hearing and receiving the

word, then the next the next section shows us that true

hearing and receiving compels a response.

The gospel brings about action. It is not passive, it is active.

The Kingdom of God. Once it takes root and begins to

grow, it is not meant to be hidden.

That's not the point. Like the seed that falls on good

soil, it produces fruit. It becomes visible.

It only reaches its purpose by producing visible fruit.

And just like that, a lamp is only useful when it is being

used to help people see. The gospel is meant to be

actively visible and working, and it is meant to be active,

invisible through people. I have so many questions for God

one day. I'm sure you have your list too.

Maybe some of them are the same, but one of my main questions is

God. Why on earth did you ever choose

to work through people? Doesn't it seem horribly

inefficient? I know me like, why does God

ever choose to work through people?

And yet the Bible, the story of God, it's pages are filled with

story after story of God calling people to be an active part of

what he is doing on this earth. Even the very disciples who are

listening to him share this. Even you and I who are in this

room and the Word is speaking to us now, the Word, the gospel, it

is meant to be lived out in those who follow Jesus, the

gospel, the good news that Jesus is King and that his Kingdom is

here and available. It is not meant to be just

pretty words. It's not meant to be decorative.

It has a job to do and we are meant to be a part of this.

We are supposed to participate in it if we call ourselves his

followers. There's an old church song.

If you were raised in the church for any amount of time, there's

a song that's called This Little Light of Mine.

I'm sure many of you know it. This Little light of mine, I'm

going to let it shine. And that doesn't mean that we

need to stand on street corners yelling at people about the love

of God, which is generally off putting and often sounds more

like condemnation. But when we talk about living

out the gospel, sharing the gospel, it is the grace and the

love and the freedom in Christ that we have experienced, the

good news that we have received, and the knowledge that it isn't

meant to be hoarded. It isn't meant to stop at just

words. It's not about performative

gestures. It's not something we bury in

our lives that we just pull it out when we need it, or

something that we keep at a distance so that it can't ever

take root in our lives. It isn't meant to be a gate to

keep us in or offence to keep other people out.

So often I think we we have this knowledge of the Kingdom as

being this static finite thing, but it's not.

It's not finite. It's expanding and it's growing

and it is meant to be seen and shared and spread and lived out.

The gospel is a light to people. The Word of God is a light to

people and it is to be available to all people.

And Jesus shares why this matters in verse 17.

Do I have just verse 17 up here? Let's see.

Nope, that's alright. Verse 17.

There's numbers right there to help us.

In verse 17, Jesus shares why this matters.

He says for nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor

is anything secret that will not be made known or come to light.

And there's a dual image of what this means.

I know the sentence structure is kind of weird to our ears, but

there's this dual image of what the gospel or the word of not as

light means. So in the Bible, light often

refers to hope, or to write seeing, or to understanding, or

to revelation. And Luke is playing with all of

these meanings. So on the one hand, when we see

this verse 17, for nothing is hidden that will be disclosed.

This is the Kingdom breaking into the world.

It's about being the light that is revealed in the person of

Jesus himself. And the parable of the sower.

Jesus made it clear for some, the Kingdom is always going to

remain elusive. The word of God is going to be

shared and not everyone is going to see it and not everyone is

really going to hear it. Not everyone is going to

understand. Not everyone is going to choose

to choose to follow. Jesus even quotes Isaiah 6 in

the passage to describe this reality, and it talks about a

heart posture of people who can hear but they can't truly

listen. And they can see, but they don't

really see or perceive what's going on because their hearts

are hardened towards it. And this is a reality.

But in that same passage of Scripture, in that same section,

there is Isaiah 9, a passage that is often linked to the

messianic promise, the promise that there will be a forever

Messiah king coming. And it is a promise that Jesus

fulfills. And the Scriptures say this,

that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light

on those living in the land of deep darkness.

A light has dawned, so for those who truly hear, for those who

receive the Word with open hearts, a light breaks through.

That is the connection between the passage of the sower and the

lamp. There is a clear seeing, there

is a clear hearing and receiving and doing.

Jesus is the revelation of God and people will see Him for who

He is, that He is the fulfillment of the Kingdom

promises. The Bible also talks not to

spend as much time on this. But the Bible also talks about

the one day when Jesus will return and every eye will see,

every ear will hear, every knee will bow down.

It's called an eschatological promise of what is coming in the

future. And this verse does speak to

that of the Kingdom fully in its culmination being revealed one

day. But Jesus is bringing increasing

light, increasing right sightedness.

He reveals more and more of what the Kingdom of God looks like

and what the people of God are called to look like.

And that is the hope. That is the light.

That is a hope and light for this world.

So when a piece of this in verse 17, when it talks about things

being disclosed, things coming to light, this is about the

Kingdom being revealed, about people having an increasing

understanding, an increasing revelation of Christ that

nothing is hidden, that will not eventually, that will not

eventually be visible. And this brings an increasing

hope to the world. But there is another side to

this image of light in verse 17, and it's a little bit more, dare

I say uncomfortable, because light doesn't just show up to

help us see and understand what is beautiful and what is good,

but it also exposes what is hidden and it confronts the

darkness. The gospel.

I gotta be, I gotta be careful. I said I really struggled with

how to how to frame this section.

So I hope the sentiment behind the words comes out If the words

are not perfect. But the gospel is not something

that is soft or gentle, that is meant to quietly coexist in this

world but never disrupt it. The Kingdom of God is meant to

expose this world for what it is.

It holds up the values of the Kingdom and it puts them next to

the values of this world. And the contrast should be

clear, and it should sure, it should stir us, and it should

make us wrestle and question and be reflective and look at our

lives and our world and in the things that we are doing and in

the places that we inhabit. And even if we try to hide from

it, we can't. The darkness comes to light when

God's Kingdom breaks in. Nothing is secret that will not

come to light. That's what the Bible says.

And that is both hopeful and a little bit of a warning.

The hope is this. There is a hidden darkness that

festers in our world. There is corruption and greed

and oppression, injustice and hate, and there is unspeakable

things that humans do to one another, but it doesn't get to

stay hidden forever. The Gospel, like the light

flooding into a dark room, will expose it all, and only once

it's exposed can it be confronted and healed and

ultimately defeated. I love how Jesus describes the

Kingdom in the Gospels. The Kingdom is a mustard seed.

Mustard seed. It's small and unassuming, and

yet it is stubbornly invasive. It's a weed.

It's yeast, quiet at first, but absolutely impossible to

contain. It's a light put on full

display. The Kingdom is not subtle or

passive or fragile. It moves in, it grows, it

invades. And like flipping a light switch

on in the dark room, the darkness doesn't stand a chance.

But that same light will also confront the darkness within us,

the hidden places that we don't want anyone to see, the

compromises, the decisions that we wish we didn't make, the sin

and the struggles we wish that we didn't have, the things that

we might rather keep in the shadows.

The gospel exposes and confronts it all.

And it does not do this to shame us.

It does not do this to condemn us.

It does this to call us into the light.

Throughout Luke, Jesus is saying that the Kingdom is here, it's

right now, and it is breaking in.

It is a truth that is still real today.

The Kingdom is on mission, and that mission is the light of the

world. We are called to be hearers and

doers of this word, to be a part of this work, to confront this

darkness, to share the light and to bring the things that are

happening and the darkness to light.

And with that in mind, Jesus ends these this three verse

section that we're looking at with what I think is a little

bit of a sober warning. And verse 18, he says then pay

attention to how you listen. For those who have more will be

given and for those who do not have even what they seem to have

will be taken away. So pay attention to how you

listen. Because of hearing and receiving

our lived out in our actions, then we need to be really,

really careful that we are in tuned to the gospel capital G,

not any gospel. Because friends, we have to be

really honest about this. There are false gospels out

there. There are words that sound like

truth, but in the end they are not going to lead to any kind of

life. There are messages floating all

around us, whispering, sometimes shouting that the values of this

world will lead to success and happiness and peace and

security. And you've heard them.

I've heard them, I've bought into them.

I'm still probably buying into some of them.

They sound very convincing. They're the gospel of self, that

if you focus on yourself, protect yourself, pursue your

own comfort, and chase your own happiness, then you're going to

be fulfilled. And it doesn't really matter if

you have to burn some bridges to do that.

There's the gospel of achievement that if you work

hard enough and you climb high enough and you earn enough, you

will be secure and no one can take it from you.

There's the gospel of appearance that if you look the part, that

if you curate the your image correctly, then you will be

accepted and appreciated and loved.

There's other gospels, the gospel of hate, the gospel of

oppression, the gospel of exclusion, the gospel of

injustice. And they say that these things

are just necessary parts of a fallen world.

And perhaps the one that I am the most scared of is the gospel

of apathy. It says that there is nothing

that we can do to change the way that they that things are.

So why would we even bother? Jesus showed us.

He told us that his Kingdom it doesn't sound like, and it

doesn't look like the world's version of Kingdom and of

empire. His Kingdom does not look like

what this world values are called success or says simply

must be. His light reveals the cracks in

those false gospels and in the way that they enslave us, how

they lead to death and never to life and friends.

I don't say that as a warning. I say that because it is a

grace. Because once exposed, we don't

have to be fooled anymore. We don't have to be taken in by

those false gospels, even as seductive as they can be

sometimes. The Word of God, heard and

received, calls us into action, and how we respond is telling.

It will tell us something about ourselves.

It'll tell us if we live in a Kingdom of our own making or if

we live in a Kingdom where Jesus is king and his word is truth.

I love how the author Fred Craddock puts it.

He summarizes this verse by saying those who lean forward to

hear, who invest trust and commitment, who come to the

altar of the word seeking, asking, and hungering, these are

the ones to whom more will be given.

Those who think they already know, who acknowledge no

blindness, who listen with ears that register only likes and

dislikes, who fold the arms across the chest waiting to be

convinced or entertained, who want information without

obligation, those are the ones who discover painfully that even

what they thought they had has been taken away.

In the Hebrew scriptures, the wisdom literature, so there's

several books like things like Proverbs.

There's this idea that those who are wise will seek greater

wisdom and will be given it. And this idea is coming from a

similar tradition. Those who hear and listen and

act out what has been shared with them will receive ongoing

knowledge and understanding and a greater measure of the

perception of the Kingdom that is continually being revealed.

And to those who hear and reject or refuse to listen, those who

are blinded by their own belief in their rightness and their own

self righteousness, that's not ultimately going to count for

anything. And so Jesus leaves his audience

at the end of this passage, and he leaves it with us here today

with a choice. Are we going to be people who

lean in, those who come with humility and hunger, with a true

courage to listen? If that's the case, then more

will be given. The Kingdom will keep unfolding,

The light will grow brighter, the understanding will deepen.

And I'm not saying this is about having all the answers.

It's about having the posture of a disciple, a heart that says, I

don't know everything, but I want to see Jesus more.

I want to hear and see what he is doing.

I want to know him. We want to be part of the

Kingdom that He is building. The other choice is to be those

who come with arms folded and hearts closed off, Those who are

convinced they already see clearly, who approach God's Word

like consumers instead of seekers.

Even what little they have won't really amount to anything that

matters. So this morning let me just ask

a few questions. How do we live as bearers of

Christ light? If we call ourselves his

followers, Are we hearing and responding and reflecting his

light, his word, the Gospel to others?

Are we living as people of the Kingdom individually or as a

collective unit? Or in some ways, are we more

like little black holes who absorb but never reflect, taking

in but never shining out. The Kingdom of God is not hidden

to those who want to see it. And when they do see, the light

is not meant to be hidden or covered up.

It's meant to shine this little light of mine.

I'm going to let it shine through our lives, through our

words, through how we love others.

And that's even when the world pushes back.

And yes, it is going to push back.

But the good news is this. The Kingdom of God is here and

it is moving. The light shines, the seed

grows. And for those who lean in, who

listen, who respond, who act, they get to see the Kingdom

unfold. They get to see God at work and

the light. It's not just there to expose,

it'll also heal and restore and set free.

So how are we listening As individuals, as a community, as

a church, inside these walls, as part of the greater worldwide

church, How are we listening? Are we leaning in?

Are we attuned to the gospel that Jesus taught and lived out

and poured out? Are we bringing the light?

Are we putting the Kingdom on display even when it costs us?

Are we confronting the darkness both in the world and in

ourselves? Are we listening?

If you'll bow your heads in prayer, Father, we thank you

that you are a God who speaks, that you are alive and active

and moving, that we can see you at work, that you are not

distant and you are not hidden, but you are present.

That you are revealing yourself through your Word, through your

Son, and through the Kingdom that is breaking into this

world. God, may we be attuned to the

work of the Kingdom breaking in. God, would you give us this

morning and in the days to come, the years to come, the time to

come? Give us ears to hear, not just

for the sake of hearing, but so that we can truly listen.

Can you give us hearts that are soft enough to receive your word

that it would transform us from the inside out, that we can take

it to the world? God.

God, we know that there are times that we are going to

resist. We know that there are times

where we hide from your light, from what you are doing.

We know that there are gospels in this world, and sometimes we

settle for them. God but today we just ask for

the courage to be aware of that, to just give us an awareness of

where that's happening in our in our lives.

That maybe be people who listen. Well, may we be people who

reflect your light in our own lives and our church community,

that we bring that light to this city, into this country, into

this world. God that we can just remember

that we carry your Kingdom around in the spaces that we go

to. God, thank you for letting us be

part of this work. We pray all this in your Son's

name, Amen.