July 26, 2026 | The Kingdom of God

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

He told them another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.

Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad.

So it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I ask that I would speak the words that you have given me to reach the ears of those who are called to hear and be incorporated into their heart.

And Father, if someone has brought a need, a hurt, a wound to this time, and a word that I speak does not adequately touch and heal.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would add words to my words as my words leave my mouth and join them and touch the person's ear, such that your healing and your mercy touches every heart, everybody gathered here this morning.

In Christ's name.

Amen.

And that's a concept that is not as familiar to us because we don't have kings.

We have presidents that we can elect, and then if we don't like them, we can impeach them, or we can unelect them, not vote for them the next time.

But living in a democracy does not really, in one sense, prepare us for what it's like to live in a kingdom.

And so the analogy for Jesus listeners about a kingdom of heaven, they would get it.

I have more trouble getting it.

I don't know what it would be like to live under a person whose word was edict as spoken.

A king who had no checks, no balance point.

What they said goes.

But our God is the God that put together the entire universe.

He existed before time, before anything.

And as I contemplate the awesomeness of God, who can fit together tiny particles that even an electron scanning microscope can hardly pick up.

And then put together galaxies, galaxies that each may have a billion or more stars, and we're told that there are probably several billion galaxies in the created universe.

And that goes beyond my comprehension.

Beyond my comprehension.

For someone who can do that, I'm prepared to say he's king.

He is in charge.

And Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven.

In this passage that was read to us a few moments ago, let's take a look at the five Ws.

The who, where, when, what, why.

The who is Jesus is teaching both his disciples, but also inevitably the crowd that gathers around, because when he speaks, people want to hear.

Where were they?

Well, Jesus had been teaching in among the towns around the Sea of Galilee.

And I'm not sure exactly which town he was in, it doesn't say when we had this particular reading this morning.

But it might well be Genesaret on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And where was he?

He was in a small boat.

He had gone down to the seashore, it's actually a lake, and sat down on the beach.

And all of a sudden he wasn't alone.

The crowds were coming.

They saw him.

They wanted to hear what he had to say.

And so he had to get up, and there was a boat anchored there, and he got into the boat and he began to teach them from the boat.

Now, I've observed that when you speak over water, your voice carries.

It bounces off the water and will carry.

I've been near lakes where you could hear people a hundred, two hundred yards away talking, and their voices carried right across the water.

So Jesus was in the boat speaking to the people who were still keeping their feet dry on the land but listening.

When?

Well, we don't again know exactly when, but it was before he went up to Nazareth.

And it was before the feeding of the 5,000, and it was before John the Baptist had been executed.

So we know it was before that.

What was he doing?

He was teaching principles about the kingdom of heaven by giving them parables that if God had anointed your ears to hear it, you would hear it and understand, but if he hadn't, you wouldn't.

And some of the parables, Jesus had to sit down with the disciples and explain it to them afterward.

So we can, if we have, if we struggle with some of the parables, we're in good company.

You know, Peter and the rest of them had a little trouble with some of them.

Well, Jesus was teaching with these parables, which had an obvious point, but it they also had an underlying meaning that touched upon the essence of what was the kingdom of heaven.

Let's look at the parables chosen for today's reading.

One example was about a small seed, a mustard seed.

Another was about a tiny spore of yeast, and how that bit of leaven can take over the whole bowl of flour.

Another one was about value, about a treasure.

Another was about beauty, a pearl of incredible beauty and value.

And the last one was about consequences.

And remember, consequences are very important.

And you need to think about things, about consequences.

But the one thing we often don't say is, what could go wrong?

Because usually there are collateral effects.

So what are the consequences?

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, a very small thing.

I've actually never seen a mustard seed, but it has to be very tiny.

And it grows into a bush that is really more a tree.

So the principle is a very small thing that grows very large.

And the kingdom of heaven is like something that starts out very small and grows into something very large.

So large that Scripture says the birds of the air, not just the little songbirds, but the heavy birds, even the vultures, could come to rest upon its branches.

So let's compare that to the growth of the gospel of the truth about Jesus Christ and the church.

We could compare it here to T and Libby, and a handful of you all that were from Pauley's Island that came up with him, and some from Greenville who received them, and a living room where it started.

And in those first weeks, who thought that it would grow into what is today St.

Paul's church family?

But it did.

It's the seed of truth growing into the fullness.

It's the tiny bit that becomes something very large.

And so the kingdom of heaven, this is kind of a pattern that we are following.

Second parable is a spore of leaven, a little yeast and a whole bowl of flour.

How many of you bake bread?

Raise your hand if you do.

Okay, so you know about yeast.

And uh and if you bake bread, you also know things can go sometimes can go wrong.

Um I want to tell you a story.

Um a fellow from Alaska was attending my seminary in Virginia.

He didn't last long because he couldn't handle the heat.

Um but while he was there, he helped Marianne and me start some some sourdough starter using the old Alaska method of potato water.

And I was very dubious.

But finally, after doing this routine, he said, now we do it again, we do it again, we do it again.

And he was refining it to the point where we got a starter that was right.

And we've kept that starter since 1968, I guess.

Um my wife has tried to kill it several times accidentally.

So we were in Glasgow, Montana, in in late February, and it was um chilly in the rectory because they had bought a house uh in pieces and assembled it from California.

And it did not have insulation that the Canadian border town of Glasgow, Montana should have had, where we can get 35, 40 below zero every winter.

So she mixed up a bowl of the starter and the flour, and she needed some place to put for it to be able to rise without a breeze coming through the kitchen.

And she put it in the oven and closed the door just so it would have a quiet place to rise.

And she went up, cleaned up the kitchen and did some other things and was thinking about baking the bread, and she turned on the oven to preheat.

And after just a little bit, she started to smell that wonderful smell of baking bread.

And she realized and she quick opened it and pulled it out and tore it apart, and there was a tiny half a teaspoon of still moist starter in the very center of that, what was becoming a loaf of bread, and she took it out and she quickly tried to resurrect it by putting it into a new bowl of flour and didn't put it in the oven and covered it over with a towel.

And that, the sourdough starter we have today, is descended from that tiny little bit she rescued from her oven.

The little bit grows into the very large.

So the kingdom of heaven is like a little bit of leaven, the truth about what God wants to do with the world and who Jesus is and what authority Holy Scripture has.

And that truth, when planted in the hearts and minds of men and women, grows to enormous size.

And then the third one: the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure of great value.

A man gives up all he has to acquire the field that has the treasure.

Now that example is a little sketchy because he dug up the treasure and looked at it, and then buried it again.

We won't go too far into that part of the story.

But the fact is he knew there was a treasure of incalculable value, and his heart's desire was to have it, and he sold everything he had to be able to buy the field, to have that treasure for him.

The kingdom of heaven is the greatest treasure there is to be a part of what God is doing in the world and included in his Almighty God's chosen domain.

So if you could, what would you give up to acquire entrance into the kingdom of heaven?

Now, I know it's not for sale.

There's nothing we we we have, no way to buy your way in.

But just think for a moment.

What to you is more valuable than your relationship with Jesus Christ?

What is more valuable to you than being incorporated into the kingdom of heaven?

That's a thought worth reflecting on through the week.

It tells you what things put our souls at risk.

We're called to love our spouses, our children, larger family, our neighbor, our country.

But anything that we put number one between us and Almighty God becomes an idol.

So in order for our loves to be properly blessed, they really need to be properly ordered.

Let's move to the fourth, a pearl, a perfect pearl, a pearl of great beauty and value.

Apparently a jeweler finds one, and he sells everything he has to acquire.

This is very similar to the treasure in the field.

And again, like the treasure before, what would you give to be a part of the kingdom of heaven?

And in fact, how could you acquire it?

Then the fifth, a fishing net thrown into the sea.

And we say, wait, what?

I mean, we're talking pearls, we're talking treasure in the field, seeds, all this stuff.

A fishing net thrown into the sea.

When it was full, when the time was right, the net is drawn up, and the catch is sorted out, and the edible fish are saved, and the unedible fish are disposed of.

Unedible meaning they're not kosher, they don't meet the biblical standard for what the Jews could eat.

So the kingdom of heaven is like a fishing net thrown into the sea, in that at the close of the age, and that has to do with timing, and I don't.

Jesus said of the end of the age, he said, that that's not my information.

That is in the hands of the Father.

So I certainly don't know the end of the age.

I'm aware that scripture says there will be wars and rumors of war, but that's not new.

I mean, the wars and the rumors of war and the earthquake and disasters have been going on for thousands of years.

But at the end of the age, at the close of the age.

The angels will separate the righteous from the evil.

The action is the separation.

Who will do it?

The angels.

And the consequences, the evil will be destroyed.

Well, that brings us to another question.

So who are the righteous ones?

We kind of would like to be in that group.

Well, let's turn in our our prayer in our Bibles.

I'm going to turn to page 941.

If you've got a pew Bible, it would be page 941, column 1, two-thirds of the way down.

It's Romans 3, 23.

But first, I'll read Romans 3.10.

Since we are told that none is righteous, no not one.

That's a clue, we're in trouble.

Okay?

And Romans 3.23 and following says, and I'm reading it and you can too, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

So for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We're in trouble.

But not for long.

So how do we claim that faith that this passage of Scripture is talking about?

Well, you've got it open to Romans.

Let's go to Romans ten verse nine.

My Bible's pages are very thin, and my little sticky markers like to stick several of them together.

So Romans ten verse nine.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Think about that for a minute.

How do you become included in the righteous?

The part that is saved.

Do you have to work really hard and wait till you die, and then St.

Peter hits the total button on the cash register in the sky?

And you either come up with a black number, that's good, that's positive, or you come up with a red number and you're in deep trouble.

That's actually not.

Well, actually, no, he doesn't.

So it says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him, Jesus, from the dead, you will be saved.

Not maybe, will.

Well, as I thought about that, I thought, you know, I've told Jesus dozens of times that I'm on board with him, I'm with him.

But I want to I want to say this over again with you, and I'm gonna change the pronouns.

You know, pronouns now seem to be the end thing in our culture.

So I want to change the pronouns here.

Um and I'm gonna I'm gonna say it line by line, and if God puts it in your heart that you want to say this with me, repeat after me after I say it, do so.

And own it in a fresh, new way.

So, Heavenly Father, I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord.

And I believe in my heart that you raise Jesus from the dead, and you raised Jesus from the dead.

Amen.

You see, if you said that with the words being sincerely meant as you spoke them into space, they went to the heart and the ear of the Almighty.

He has heard, and he's either called it a reaffirmation or a new affirmation, but it is fresh in his mind as it is in yours and mine.

These are the words that bring us into the kingdom of heaven.

You and me, but it's only the beginning.

The problem is a lot of people stop right there.

I'm in.

Now you're in, but you're just getting started.

It's like when you're doing a puzzle and you put down the first couple pieces that are on the border, and you say, I've got it.

Not yet.

There's a lot of putting together.

You've got the puzzle, but it's in pieces.

Now let's assemble it.

There is a reason for us to be here.

I believe that God has called every single one of us to be a part of His, as T would call it, His ragtag army.

We're not here by accident.

We need to prepare ourselves.

We need for the Lord Jesus Christ to prepare us to grow personally, spiritually, from the oldest here to the very youngest.

Now, I'm an octagenarian, but there are some of you older than I am.

Some of you are in nineties.

Down eighties, seventies, sixties, fifties, forties, thirties, twenties, teens, into youngsters.

We're all in a journey, but we're called to grow and be equipped for what?

For the work of ministry.

In God's plan, and it's clear in Ephesians, in God's plan, the ones with the white collars aren't supposed to be the ministers.

The ones with the white collars are supposed to help the Holy Spirit equip the saints, that's you guys, all of us, to do the work of ministry.

To be Jesus' hands and feet and eyes and arms, to love people, to feed people, to help people along.

I want to say to parents, if your children are small, you should be praying with them every night.

And you should lay your hands on your children's heads and ask God to fulfill his purpose in their life.

They're not here by accident either.

We're a part of what God is intending to do.

We need to be trained in biblical literacy.

A little dab every Sunday morning for a few minutes isn't enough.

It takes initiative on the individual Christian's part to open holy scripture and read it and study it and ask questions and to seek wisdom.

We need to be trained in spiritual wisdom, to be equipped for ministry, perhaps a niche ministry.

I can think of several niche ministries right here at St.

Paul's that are alive and strong and important.

And we can always have more.

A niche ministry, perhaps, where side by side we can take the love of Jesus to those who do not know it or have not experienced it, and are receptive to it through the prevenient grace, that means God's holy grace that goes before a person and prepares their heart to receive what God has, and all are receptive to that help through the prevenient grace that the Holy Spirit brings.

So I'm going to stop there.

O Lord, may the Holy Spirit fall upon us this morning and cover us and grant us all that I have spoken of.

Amen, Amen, Amen.