Northside Church - Sydney
Kingdom of Heaven 2011 Week 1: Like Trying to Weed A Field
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well friends our new preaching series in February is entitled The Kingdom of Heaven in 2011. I love rhymes and the team knew that with a word like heaven and 11 it wasn't going to be long before we would link those two together. We're going to be looking at what the Bible says or what one particular passage says about the Kingdom of Heaven. You see when the Bible talks about the Kingdom of Heaven it's referring to the rule. It's referring to the values, to the influence of God in his world and in his church. That's what it's talking about in the lives of the believers. And so in Matthew 13, in Matthew 13 Jesus tells a series of parables designed to illustrate different aspects of life in the Kingdom. There are seven parables in Matthew 13, it's known as the parables chapter. We're just going to look at four of them in this month of February. The purpose of every local church, the purpose of the people of God is to live out the Kingdom values, is to bring in the Kingdom of God that people's lives are changed in this transformation. And so these parables provide an ideal opportunity for us as a church to focus on some of our core values, some of our key emphases. And so that's why it's good timing. Because during February we're going to be able to, for the benefit of our regulars and the benefit of new people, we're going to be able to spell out some of the core values and key emphases of life and witness here at Northside. I must warn us, some of these parables are a little bit weird, very, you know, off-center, even a little bit bizarre. Take the first one in the series, the one just read to us by Ian. It's generally referred to as the parable of the weeds, but it could equally be referred to as the parable of the mad farmer. Because I mean, here's a farmer who goes and plants a field of wheat. And pretty soon it becomes apparent he's got a major problem with weeds. There are these aggressive, virulent weeds growing up among the wheat, and it looks terrible. And the farm hands come and say, "Boss, do you want us to get out there and pull out those weeds and bring the place back into shape again?" And remarkably, the farmer says, "No, no, don't worry about it. Just chill. It's okay. We'll sort it all out of harvest. Don't worry about it. Let them coexist together." Now, I'm no farmer, you know, and those of you who know me, I wouldn't last five minutes on the land. I'm a rural city slicker, but when I drive through our beautiful rural areas and I see fields of wheat or corn or maize, you know, you don't see huge weeds in those beautifully plowed furrows. I mean, farmers don't want weeds choking their crops and reducing its value. That's a regular farmer, not this guy. He's happy to see the weeds grow with the same strength as the crop. So what could a story like this possibly be telling us about life in God's kingdom? What could it be saying about how we as Christians are meant to live? What is it saying about the church and its part in contemporary society? Well, it does say some things. And among the many strong messages to me is this one. The primary task of the church is not to run around trying to identify weeds in the garden. You know what I mean by that? It's not to say we don't speak into the evils of society that lead to inequality and injustice. Of course we do. It's not to say we don't address the hard issues, the hot topics that destroy lives and pull families apart. Of course we do. We speak into those situations, but it does mean this. The church is not to become so zealous, so preoccupied about rooting out the evils of the world that it fails to illuminate the dark corners and crevices and crannies of this world where the light of God's love and grace are desperately needed. You see, it's the church being proactive rather than reactive and there's a big difference. I mean, one of the popular misconceptions of the church is that we're always telling people how bad they are. It's telling them how inadequate they are, always telling them where they're failed. I say misconception, but sadly, in some cases, it's been a reality and some of us have had more than a small touch in our backgrounds, maybe in a church school or maybe in a fundamentalist church and I get to hear these stories all the time in pastoral counseling. It's sad to think that some people see Christianity as only being against everything. When really, we are for so many things. We are for hope. We are for life. We're for grace, justice, forgiveness. We are for eternity. We are for everything you and I need to live life as God intends us to live it. We're for, we're for, we're pro, all of those things. Sad when think the church is just against everything. And it's our task, rather, our task as Christians is certainly not to pull weeds. That is to pass judgment. I mean, Jesus made it clear time and time again, that's God's prerogative. That's God's prerogative. And later in Matthew 13, when Jesus explains this parable, he doesn't hold back. About the final judgment. No way. He comes on very strongly. Great detail. Verses 36 to 43 comes on very strongly about the final judgment. When the weeks as it were will be separated from the weeds. And that's the reality. That's the gospel. But again, that will be God's role, not ours. That's God's prerogative. Over the centuries, the churches has got a very wrong in this area on a number of occasions. The Puritans burned witches in Salem. Basically people who were perceived to be not believing what they should have believed about the faith. In the Spanish Inquisition, people were tortured and killed because they didn't follow the strict teachings of the church as laid out. And in the modern era, overzealous Christians have been known to kill doctors who practice abortion and bomb their clinics. These are fairly extreme examples, but there are many more subtle expressions of judgmentalism that can slowly creep into a church like spiritual elitism. When certain judgments are made about people who have and may not have certain spiritual gifts. When people's level of spirituality is subject to criticism and these are subtle things. But they're very damaging. Like the messages given to people who don't really fit in either because of a past lifestyle or because of their marital status or because of their social standing or simply because they're a little different. I'm very proud to say that Northside Community Church, in the best sense of that word pride, Northside Community Church is the sort of church where we believe anybody can come to this church. And we had that once as our slogan, "The church anybody can come to." And in part, we draw our inspiration from the teaching being given in passages like this one. Our role is not to judge. Now so far we've looked at what the parable says we shouldn't be doing. But what about the positive aspects of this teaching? The things that the church and Christians are meant to be doing in terms of bringing in the kingdom. Well, if we had time, we could redevelop this, but we're working on a shorter time span this morning because of all the other things that have been taking place. Let me summarize it this way, here it is. In the context of this parable, the primary task of the church is to grow and flourish. That's what the farmer wanted for that wheat. The primary purpose, the primary task of the church is to grow and flourish. God wants his harvest to be healthy and flourishing despite the presence of evil. That's a recurring theme throughout the New Testament, the references to salt and light, darkness and light, good and evil. We can bring many passages to bear, but let me take it to Philippians chapter 2 verses 14 to 16. On this very point, let's know what Paul says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may be innocent and pure as God's perfect children who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars, lighting up the sky as you offer them the message of life." See, that's the task of the church, friends, to be a beacon, a beacon of hope, a beacon of faith, a beacon of love, a beacon of optimism and everything else the message of Jesus has to offer in a world that needs a good, solid dose of all of those things and everything else that he has to offer. But you know, there's an aspect to this story which we must consider before we close the book and think, "Oh, well, we've looked at that parable, we'll go on to the next one." There's an aspect we must consider, and it has to do with the essential theme and the essential meaning of this parable so we dare not leave it out. Yes, this is a parable about the final judgment. Yes, it is a parable about the coexistence of good and evil. That's the world in which we live. And yes, it has much to say about the role of the church and individual Christians in terms of how we are meant to be bringing in the kingdom. But look closely at the second part of verse 28 and verse 29. Look at this. So here's the workers have said, "So, boss, do we go out and pull up all the weeds and bring the place back into shape again?" And that's what he says, "No," because as you gather the weeds, you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. Let the wheat and the weeds grow together until harvest. Now, friends, yes, there's a danger of pulling up the wheat, but in the context of all we know about God and his grace, I believe we can assume that there was also the danger of pulling up weeds that had the potential to miraculously be transformed into wheat. And that's why God, that's why the farmer does not want to go rooting out the weeds before harvest because he is hoping and praying and believing that many of those weeds may yet become part of the harvest. You see, we've got to remember the sort of God we're dealing with here. I mean, we're dealing with a God who, in other parables that Jesus told, is depicted as one who's holding a banquet, a big, lavish banquet. And the servants come and say, "Well, Master, shall we go through the who's who as we compile the invitation list? Shall we get the A list of celebrities?" The who says, "Get the book of who's who," no, "get the telephone book." Like anybody who's listed, anybody can come to my banquet. And then we've got the parable of the lady who loses a coin. It's one little coin. She rips the place apart trying to find this one coin and when she finds it, she throws a party because she can't believe that she's found this one coin. We've got the guy who got 99 sheep in the fold. And there's missing, "Ah, we'll check on him tomorrow." It's a cold night. No. Up in the mountains, a great personal risk searching, trying to find out one lost sheep. This is the kind of God we're dealing with. In these and in many other cases, the central character representing God goes to extraordinary lengths, extraordinary lengths to include as many as possible with him in eternity. You see, friends, once our God starts planting, once he starts inviting, once he starts searching he doesn't know where to stop. He does not know where to stop. That's his grace. And so that's the aspect of this parable. Yes, it's about judgment, but it's about grace. It is about grace. Don't pull out those weeds. In my plan, some of them are going to become wheat. That's life in the kingdom. Not writing people off. Not passing judgment. Him? I don't think so. You've got to be kidding. It's not the way it is in God's kingdom. Coexisting together in the hope that many of the weeds will become part of the wheat. God is not willing that any should perish as the Bible. And that's why I'm excited about this rather bizarre on the surface of it, this bizarre parable. It tells us much about life in the kingdom, tells us much about the DNA of Northside Community Church, which has always been a place of healing. There's always been a place of nonjudgmental love. There's always been a place of tolerance and acceptance. There's always been a refuge for people who've been burned in other settings where that hasn't been the case. It requires faith. It requires risk, but it's a risk we're prepared to take. It's life in the kingdom. Are you part of the wheat? Are you part of the weeds? God's grace around you and love you so that you will be part of His harvest. And for those of us who know we're part of the harvest, let's take our work seriously as workers in the harvest, because there's a lot more conversion, a lot more converting of weeds to wheat yet to come. That's barren prayer. Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you for what appears at first to be an obscure story, and one that obviously tells us so much about life in your kingdom. You allow good and evil to coexist because your heart says you want to bring some who may appear to be among the weeds. You want to bring them into the harvest. Why prematurely go rooting people out when there's always a possibility of transformation and of miraculous conversion? And so Lord, we want to be part of your great harvest. We want to work in your harvest to bring your kingdom to fruition. And so please be with us in 2011 as a church and as individuals as we take that role very seriously in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.