Thou Shalt Not Cuss

It really annoys me when I hear cussing in public. It's like they are not only rude they are stupid as well, they don't seem to understand that their conversation can be heard not only by the people they are talking to but by everyone within earshot.

Kind of like when restaurants used to allow smoking, it didn't matter where you were in the restaurant you had to breathe other people's poison.

And it's not like you are eavesdropping, you are just sitting having a coffee, trying to enjoy a meal in a restaurant or standing in line for groceries and you hear language that used to be considered not appropriate for polite company.

And it's not that I am a prude and haven't heard those words. As a young teen I spent a lot of time around barns and when I was 15 I went to work with my dad on the tugboats out of Saint John New Brunswick and hanging around with sailors it didn't take long before I had pretty much heard any words that I might have missed in high school.

And so if you take the time I spent on Tugboats, and oil tankers and Fishing Boats and the little bit of time I spent with the Military Police in the Reserves I think I've heard it all.

And through the years I've kind of developed some personal thoughts about people who use that type of language and I have discovered a few things about people who use vulgarities and blasphemies.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:17-18 "Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that's what defiles you.

It is a reflection of Who We Are for the most part we would like to separate those words from how people who matter see us and view us. That's why people apologize for their language when they find out what I do for a living. It's why people in most cases don't use language like that in front of their mothers. Because they know that it will cause people to think differently about them.

And when the language slips out they try and excuse it or justify it, "That's not really what I'm like, I don't know where that came from." We are like the Greek poet Euripides Who wrote "'Twas but my tongue, 'twas not my soul that swore." But you can't draw that line of distinction and yes my friend, regardless of how you want to colour it, it was your soul that swore. You might not want to admit it but what is in the well of your heart will eventually show up in the bucket of your mouth.

Your language says a lot about you, the use of obscenities don't require a lot of imagination or a lot of intelligent. When you stop and think about it, for the most part obscenities deal with bodily functions or body parts and don't really require a lot of imagination and while I'm not necessarily comfortable hearing them I'm not personally offended, after all they aren't usually swearing at me.

My dad put it in perspective for me a long time ago when he told me that "obscenities are the refuge of illiterates and children." Which kind of echoes the words of William Ward who said "Profanity is the use of strong words by weak people"

And you know what? When I hear someone cuss I automatically make value judgements about them, I know it's not right but I immediately put them into a stupid category, not necessarily uneducated there are a lot of educated and seemingly intelligent people who talk as if they had been to hell for a post-graduate course with the devil as their speech instructor, but they sound stupid. George Washington said "The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it."

So why do people do it? I don't know. But I here are some ideas: "Ten Reasons People Swear."

10) It makes my mother proud

9) It proves I'm a grownup

8) It demonstrates that I have self control

7) It is an indication of how clearly my mind functions.

6) It makes my conversation pleasing to everybody.

5) It leaves no doubt in anyone's mind as to my good breeding.

4) It impresses people with my education

3) It is an unmistakable sign of culture and refinement.

2) It makes me the type of person people want around their children

1) It is my way of honouring God

Regardless of the reason you might cuss, as a Christ follower here is a reason to not cuss. The word of God tells us in Ephesians 4:29 Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

But our language is not just a reflection of who we are.

Exodus 20:7 "You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. It's a Reflection of How We View God

When I hear people use obscenities it bugs me and I'm annoyed, it's like they are polluting my hearing space. But it's different when I hear God's name being misused. That makes me cringe inside, because then it becomes personal, they are talking about my God, my Saviour. The sad thing is that society as a whole and even Christians seem to feel just the opposite. They feel like blasphemy isn't as bad as some other words. I don't know how many times someone's told me about a movie and I've asked the question, "How's the language?" And I'm told that "Oh there isn't any foul language in it" and then when I see the movie I discover that there are very few obscenities but the Lord's name is misused time and time again. I've mentioned to believers about this movie or that movie that I've pushed the stop button or walked out on because of the language and they'll say, "Well it didn't have this word or that word in it." And they are right, but the Lord's name was misused frequently and the sad part is that even believers have become immune to hearing it.

And we shouldn't be immune to it. It should bother us when we hear our God's name misused. And there are several different ways that it can be misused. The first of course is the one most of us think about when we hear this commandment and that is when God's name is used as a profanity. Video clip, From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

You ever want to do that to someone? That kind of hits home with me. When I was ten or eleven, you know the age trying to be more grown up then you are, I tried out one of the new words that I had heard in the schoolyard on my parents. I very casually slipped it into a joke I was telling them, trying to appear a little more mature. I was spanked as a child, probably not nearly as often as you might think, but I was spanked and I don't recall any specific spankings that I received. I do however remember the consequences of my actions that day. And it was very similar to what happened to Indy.

So the question is why? Why is this command here? we know the what; Don't misuse God's name, but why? Shouldn't God be bigger then being offended by name calling after all what were we taught as kids, Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. You have to understand how much more there is to this then simply the name of God, which by the way we don't have. When the Old Testament was written the Gods of the surrounding countries all had names but the Jews wouldn't even speak the name of their God.

When we think of God in the Old Testament we think of the name Jehovah, but the Jews spelt it YHWH, try pronouncing that. And even then they wouldn't use it verbally instead they would refer to him when they spoke as "Ha Shem" which literally means "The Name".

Often in the Bible, the names used for God are revelatory of His character. God is revealed to us in Scripture by His names. They show us His nature.

He is El Shaddai, the Strong One. He is El-Elyon, God Most High. He is El-Olam, the Everlasting God. He is Jehovah Jirah, the God Who Provides. He is Jehovah Rophe, the God Who Heals. He is Jehovah M'Kaddesh, the God Who Sanctifies. He is Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace. He is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. He is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord Our Righteousness. He is Jehovah Shammah, the God Who is There. He is Jehovah Nissi, the Lord Our Banner. And He is Jehovah Roi, the Lord Our Shepherd.

But today we simply call Him God and so that is what is relevant for us today.

If you remember the Ten Commandments you might recall that the second commandment was concerned with making idols and the reason that was forbidden was because Idols reduce God. You take the Master and Creator of the Universe and reduce Him down to an inanimate object made of stone or wood. And while making Idols certainly reduces God, misusing his name also reduces Him. You see, any time that we diminish and trivialize the name of God by making it lower and less respected we reduce the glory of God. And that's true even if it isn't a conscious act.

You ever play King of the castle when you were a kid? You remember it might have been on a hill or a big snow pile and you'd wrestle with the other kids to stay on the top and be King of the Castle, while the other kids would be the dirty rascals. Now it would have meant nothing if there had of been nobody at the top of the hill to push off, if you could have just waltzed up the hill without any effort. The game is in pushing the others out of the way and taking the high ground yourself.

People are doing exactly the same thing when they misuse God's name. God is recognized as holding the high ground. So if people want to show how important they are then they "shove" God or Jesus off the high ground so they can occupy it themselves.

They are saying, at least subconsciously, "I'm better then God". What do I mean? Simple, when someone makes a statement like "God-damn you" they are saying "I have enough power over God that I can command him to do something and he will do it. He is my personal Genie." You never hear someone say, "Bob-damn you" or "Sue-damn you" why not? It doesn't have the same effect when the name is someone on the same level or lower then you.

The effect that the person is aiming for is to impress people with how important they are; they can even order God around and order Him to do their bidding.

In the same way when someone tries to make a dramatic statement they invoke the name of our Lord, it's not uncommon to hear the name of Jesus Christ on lips of non-believers. Yet you never hear "Tom Brown" or "Mary Jones" used in the same way. Why? Because it would be less impressive, less dramatic and less powerful. And besides they are trying to make an impression, "look at how powerful I am, I can use the name of God whenever I want and He won't do anything about it." Again it may be consciously or subconsciously.

Or maybe the reason isn't malicious it's simply ignorance. This individual trivializes the name of God without even thinking. In fact most people who use the Lord's name in vain through profanity do not even think about what they are doing. They are not intentionally cursing God. Their words are not directed either to God, or about God. Many of these people are not even aware of their profanity. Their profanity is simply a habit pattern for their speech. They've grown up with it. Perhaps their parents cursed, or their friends cursed. The use of profanity has become part of their speech. They are ignorant as to what they are doing, they are probably unaware that this issue really offends God; I mean God takes it fairly serious. The entire commandment reads Exodus 20:7 "You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.

Did you catch that? "The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name." Maybe not today, but God will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. And God is no man's debtor.

It's a Reflection of a Believer's Ignorance

If the only time I heard God's name being taken in vain it was by someone who didn't profess to follow Christ it wouldn't be so bad.

When I hear a non-Christian misusing God's name it bugs me, when I hear a Christian misuse God's name it really bugs me. "Surely you can't be serious Denn? How would a Christian misuse God's name? They don't cuss." No they don't use it as a curse word or a swear word but they bandy it around as if it were just another collection letters. They trivialize God's name.

Last Sunday Angela and I were grabbing a coffee at Tim's before we went to the service at the Berkley and a group of church ladies came in from another evangelical church and within the first minute that they were there I am sure I heard "Oh my God" used six times. By the way just typing OMG doesn't make it any better.

And that is not uncommon among some believers, you'll hear them say "God this, or God that" or "Oh my God". Listen up, if you use God's name and you aren't speaking about God or speaking to God then you are misusing God's name. It is not just a word, it's not a word that we use to emphasize a point it is a holy word, which names a Holy God. It was the poet William Cowper who wrote "It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme."

It's also a misuse when you carelessly say things like "God said" you better make sure that he did. When a person is anointed for healing and the person who is praying for the sick person makes a cavalier remark like "God has healed you" they better make sure that He has. When we tell people "God wants me to do this, or this is God's will" you'd better make sure that you're not just using God's name to justify what you want to do. Don't confuse God's will with your will that you've stamped God's name on. When I was in Bible College it wasn't unusual to hear God's will invoked as a reason for someone to break up with their boy friend or girl friend.

It's not just a command about the way we speak, it's also a commandment concerning the way we live. When you call yourself a Christian then you are calling yourself a follower of Christ, you are in effect taking his name. And when your life does not reflect your commitment as a Christian then you are misusing his name. When you call yourself a Christian then live like the devil what does that say? What are you doing to the name of Christ with the way you are living?

This morning each one of us who takes on the name of Christ needs to examine our lives, we need to search our innermost heart, our deepest motives and our attitude toward other people. Then we need to ask ourselves this question; can God sign his name to our lives? We need to look at our daily schedule, our routine, and our priorities and ask; can God sign his name to that list? Then we need to look at our physical life, at our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit. The instrument of your personality for sin or for righteousness.

What do your activities, recreation, sex life, service, work, diet, fitness maybe even the way you drive your car say about the one whose name you carry? Can God sign his name to every activity of your physical temple?

The list is almost endless isn't it? Does God co-sign His Holy Name in your cheque book? What about your home, your habits, your moods, your manner how about your disposition?

How about your marriage, do you remember the opening line of your wedding ceremony? No? It probably went something like this, Dearly beloved; we are gathered together in the sight of God, and in the presence of these witnesses. It was in the sight of God that you promised to love, comfort, honour and keep your spouse. It was to God that you promised to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do we part. According to God's holy law.

What about when you stood in front of God and dedicated your children to him, promising to guide their feet to the sanctuary and to teach them early the fear of God, or when you stood as a new church member committing yourself to the vision and dreams of this church. How about the hundred of promises that you've made to God through your life? "God if you'll do this I promise I'll do that, or I promise that I'll stop doing something else."

Can God sign his name to your life? Does your life honour his Holy name? If so then you are keeping the third commandment. If not then you need to say, "I'm sorry". And maybe we need to make Colossians 3:17 our guide, you remember what it says?

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

 

 

Those Who Accept the Kingdom are like. . .

I have a confession to make and I hope you don't think less of me after I'm done; That's right I love country music. I love listening to the new artists like Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and Dean Brody and I love listening to the outlaws from the seventies like Willie and Waylon and Merle Haggard and I even love listening to people like Mel Tillis and Buck Owens, George Jones and Dolly Parton. And my parents are to blame, it's the only think I blame them for, and that's because I grew up on Country music. My folks listened to Country and Western and until I received a portable record player as a gift when I was eleven or twelve I listened to what they listened to, bizarre concept isn't it? There were no iPods, no mp3 players, no diskmans, no walkmans, no boom boxes. But at least we didn't have to crank them. And so for my formative years if there was a record on the hi-fi, we had hi-fi back then and they were furniture. So if there was a record on the hi-fi there was a pretty good chance that it was Johnny Cash or Farron Young, Patsy Cline or Jim Reeves

Now when I became a teenager my listening became a little more colourful, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. Did the Kiss thing and Alice Cooper, Trooper and BTO, but deep down hidden in the secret place of my heart was this love for country music. When I was in high school the radio station in Saint John CHSJ played country for two hours in the afternoon between 2 and 4 and my best friend hated driving home with me because you know the rule, my car, my radio.

Now all that being said a few years ago I was watching a biography on Jim Reeves. Reeves was a major player in country music scene in the 1960s until he was killed in a plane crash in July of 1964. My folks had a couple of his record so he is what I would call classic country. And in the biography I was watching the comment was made about the problems he had being accepted into the country music scene because he used horns and violins. Violins, not fiddles but violins in his music. And that just wasn't country.

The funny thing is that some of the country music celebrities who were remembering Reeves as such an innovator and saying what an impact he had had on the genre were some of the old guys that I have heard dumping all over new country. And that isn't unique in Country music, listen to the old rockers talk about the new music, listen to the old actors talk about the new breed of actors, or for that matter listen to older Christians talk about what they think of the church today, of the music, the way people don't dress up today to come to church and after they get there they drink coffee in the sanctuary.

This is the tenth and last week of my Summer Preaching series, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like. . ." and since the middle of June my preaching has focused on the eight parables that Jesus began with the words "The Kingdom of Heaven is like. . ." And we've travelled the roads of Palestine together as Jesus described the Kingdom of Heaven to those who followed him using every day events to illustrate these eternal truths. A farmers spreading seed in a field, men picking grapes in a vineyard, a woman kneading bread in the kitchen, a fishing net being thrown into the sea. And through it all we have watched the Kingdom as it was planted, was cared for and flourished having an impact locally and globally.

And we started the series with an Inukshuk. Anyone want to buy a used Inukshuk? My first message was "The Kingdom of Heaven is like an Inukshuk" and it was based on a couple of premises. The first being that the Inukshuk would have been just the type of thing Christ would have used as an illustration had he been teaching in the Far North instead of the Middle East. Not many wheat fields, mustard plants or vineyards in Nunavut. But the primary reason for the Inukshuk would have been that it would be very easy to see how the characteristics of the Inukshuk are characteristics that we should see exhibited in Christ followers as they live out the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.

And in case this is the first time you've been out, or if like me your memory is getting shorter and shorter we've talked about how the Inukshuk provided landmarks in an environment where there were very few natural landmarks. In the same way the church is to provide landmarks in a culture where there seems to be very few moral landmarks. By the way, that is not necessarily unique to our time and culture almost three thousand years ago this was written, Judges 17:6 In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

The second thing the Inuit relied on the Inukshuk for was to point them in the right direction, and we in the church are to point the way to God and heaven. And the third function the inukshuk served was to warn people of danger and the church still needs to be telling the world that there is a heaven to be gained but also there is a hell to be shunned.

So here we are at the end of the trail, and this parable does not reveal more clues about the Kingdom of Heaven, instead this tells us about the person who has embraced what Jesus has already taught about the Kingdom of Heaven.

Six of the eight parables that begin with the words "The Kingdom of Heaven is like. . .' are contained in Matthew 13, and at the end of the chapter Jesus ties the entire package together with a bow when he says in Matthew 13:51 Do you understand all these things?" "Yes," they said, "we do."

And we have to assume they had caught what he had taught. Jesus' intent was to make the things of God clear, Christianity was not one of the mystery cults shrouded in questions and hidden behind riddles. And Jesus seemed to make that assumption that they did indeed understand because he moves ahead saying, Matthew 13:52 Then he added, "Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old."

It is easy to dismiss this as simply referring to teachers and preachers. The various translations "Teachers of religious law" or "Teachers of the Law" or "Scribes" And that is always part of the issue of understanding the exact meaning of something written to a different culture in a different time.

For example, if I was telling you about a person who worked on a ship and referred to him as a stoker, you might know what I meant, that they were part of the engine room crew. But would you actually know what a stoker did? The term is still used sometime but it is totally irrelevant. Because the term originally referred to the crew member who shovelled coal into the coal fired steam engines of ships from a 150 years ago.

And so if we go back to the original language, do I bore you when I do this? The word that Jesus actually used in the Greek is γραμματεύς Grammateus, gram-mat-yooce and it meant either Scribe or Town Clerk, now we can probably safely assume that Jesus didn't say Matthew 13:52 Then he added, "Every town clerk who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old."

 

So that leaves us with the definition of Scribe, but what was a scribe? Well originally the scribes were the people who copied the texts of the Old Testament. When you stop and think of it that makes sense, there were no printing presses so everything was written out by hand, it was very time consuming and very exacting, and it was checked and double checked to make sure that nothing was altered.

Eventually when people had questions about the scriptures they went to the "Scribes" for their answers. By the time of the New Testament the word scribe had kind of morphed into meaning: learned teachers and authoritative leaders. They were primarily drawn from the priests and Levites, but there were also common people who were called scribes. Remember in the Christmas story when the wise men appeared before King Herod and he wanted to know where the Christ Child would be born we read this account Matthew 2:4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So that being said, Jesus was simply preparing his followers for a role that they would assume, and each one of us as a Christ follower fills this role, people are learning about Jesus from our words and from our actions, that's kind of scary isn't it? And so before you can instruct you have to be instructed, before your lips can speak knowledge your head must contain knowledge.

I remember a conversation I had with a barber who led a church in his home, and I have no problem with people that do that. However in our discussion we happened upon the topic of the length of hair that was appropriate on a man, don't know why the topic came up but it did. And he told me, "Well Jesus had long hair" And I was intrigued because I tried to use that with my father when I was a teen to no avail. The closest I got to success with that was when I reminded Dad, "Jesus had long hair" to which he responded "Yes and he walked everywhere he went."

So I asked the barber, "How do you know Jesus had long hair?" to which the man, who taught people the bible in his home responded "Because he was a Nazarite and they weren't allowed to cut their hair." Now the man was half right, Nazarites weren't allowed to cut their hair, Numbers 6:2 & 5 "If any of the people, either men or women, take the special vow of a Nazirite, setting themselves apart to the LORD in a special way, "They must never cut their hair throughout the time of their vow, for they are holy and set apart to the LORD. Until the time of their vow has been fulfilled, they must let their hair grow long.

The problem is that as far as we know Jesus wasn't a Nazarite, he was a Nazarene and the reason he was a Nazarene had nothing to do with a vow he took he was because he came from the town of Nazareth. And this man was teaching people about Jesus.

So let's go back to our scripture, Matthew 13:52 Then he added, "Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old." The message is a paraphrase of the Bible by Eugene Peterson, and I love the way Peterson writes this Matthew 13:52 (the Message) He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."

So what can we learn from this parable?

There is Junk and there are Gems Each one of us is a mixture of our past and our present. We all come to where we are via different routes and through that process we collect stuff. Stuff that is a result of what we have done and what people have done to us, but inevitably it has been the result of choices we made.

We've been through this before but before we can take control of our future we need to accept responsibility for our past. Notice that I didn't say take the blame simply the responsibility. Every choice we make and have made in our life has shaped and will shape who we are. The choice you made when you were a child to pay attention in school or slack off, to hang out with good kids or bad kids, the decision of which university to go to, what job you would accept, who you would date and who you would marry, whether you would be a spender or a saver. We are who we are because of choices we have made.

Teens this is one of the most important things you will hear me say so listen up, the choices you make in your life right now will dictate who you will be in the future, so choose carefully.

And as a result of our choices our life is like the junk drawer in your kitchen. How many of you have a junk drawer? Sure it's the place where you put stuff that you aren't sure where to put it. And once in while you go through the drawer and discover stuff that has value and stuff that is junk.

So each of us today has junk in our lives and gems in our lives.

We Need to Ditch the Junk. Jesus doesn't say this but it is certainly implied. If it is the gems that are brought out and used than implicitly what aren't gems aren't used. Not everything in your past are gems. Each one of us has in our life junk, hurts, habits and hang-ups. The result of what others have done to us and what we have done to others.

If we have been hurt by someone we need to forgive them and get on with life, and remember forgiveness is not an emotion it is an action, it is not something you feel it is something you do. And there is nothing in the bible that would indicate that someone has to ask for your forgiveness in order for you to forgive them. And in a lot of cases they don't even know they hurt you, and you grumble and stew about it. Remember how Jesus taught us to pray Matthew 6:12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And at the end of the Lord's prayer Jesus adds this warning, Matthew 6:14-15 "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

And if you are the one to blame then you need to go to the other person and make it right. Matthew 5:23-24 "So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

And maybe the junk in your life has nothing to do with other people, maybe it is habits that you have that you can't seem to get control over or mistakes and choices from your past that you can't seem to forgive yourself for. Understand that as a Christ follower when you asked Christ to forgive you he forgave you. King David had that figured out when he prayed in Psalm 51:7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. And if God, the creator of the Universe, master of all things, holy and spotless and pure can forgive you, what makes you think you are so special you can't forgive yourself?

And it's not just the past you need to examine; if you are a Christ follower the one you are following has certain expectations about how you behave and how you speak today. Jesus reminds us in John 14:15 "If you love me, obey my commandments." That's one of those verses that shouldn't need a whole lot of explanation, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room there. John 14:15 "If you love me, obey my commandments." If we take time to examine our lives today, are there behaviours that you know don't belong in the life of a Christ follower? Habits and attitudes that you need to ditch if you are truly going to be obedient to Christ?

And it is the same in the church, just because it worked yesterday doesn't mean it will work today. And some things that were gems yesterday are junk today. The bus ministry that churches used incredibly well in the 1970's would never work today. Imagine if you will going door to door in Kingswood to let people know that on Sunday a used school bus driven by a stranger would be by to pick up their children to take them to a church they had never attended. But it worked back then. Churches used to hold special meetings twice a year and fill their churches every night for a week. Of course there was little or no tv, kids weren't involved in a dozen different things through the week and the special meetings were the biggest show in town.

A number of years ago I heard a Baptist preacher by the name of Ed Stetzer say "We sacrifice our children for our traditions." Let's be careful that the things that we value from the church of yesterday don't become idols that we are worshipping today instead of Christ.

But that being said let's go back to the original scripture again Matthew 13:52 Then he added, "Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old."

So along with the junk that we need to ditch We Need to Save the Gems Some times we are like the old time Country singers who thought Jim Reeves had no place in country music because he used horns and violins. And those folks need to be reminded of the truth of Philippians 3:13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. We can't live in yesterday and we can't saw sawdust, yesterday has been here and it is gone.

But there is another temptation and that is to think that only the new is worth anything and anything older than last week has no value. While there are things that we need to move past when we become Christ followers that is not to say that there is a line that is drawn in the sand and everything on the new side is good and everything on the old side is bad.

The apostles were all Jews, raised and steeped in the Jewish faith and Jesus was telling them to remember the things they had been taught about God and his commandments and to incorporate them into their new lives.

Jesus never commanded us to forget all we knew before we met him, instead we are to see that knowledge and experience in a new light and use it to serve him. Everyone one of us brings something to the table when we choose to follow Jesus. Our gifts, our talents and our experiences, and they are incredibly valuable if they are used right.

Again be wary of those who counsel people in their church to cut all ties with their past. There are gems to be saved.

And there are Gems from the church's past that need to be saved and used. Just because it was used yesterday doesn't mean it can't be used today. And the church has 2000 years of history and knowledge to draw on. How many people either read the Da Vinci Code or saw the movie? Sure, it was touted as being this new discovery that would threaten the church and why hadn't we been told anything about these things before? You ever watch or read legal thrillers when a lawyer objects to a line of questioning and says "That question has already been asked and answered." Well, all of the questions raised in the Da Vinci code have been asked and answered over the past two thousand years.

The one thing I remember from my grade ten history class was the statement the my teacher made on our first day when he said "Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it." I thought it was original with Mr. Seeley but he was referring to what is sometimes known as "Santayana's Law of Repeating Consequences." Which came from Spanish Poet George Santayana's statement "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Later I came to understand the truth of Friedrich Hegel's statement "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."

So my challenge to you this week is to look for the gems in your life, the gems from yesterday and the gems from today and gather them together to be used for the Kingdom today and tomorrow, it was Hubert Humphrey who said "Our greatest songs are still unsung, our greatest days are ahead of us."

8 The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Landowner

The story is told that a man once encountered Abraham Lincoln walking down the street with his two young sons and both boys were howling. "What's wrong with the boys Abe?" the man asked. "What's wrong with the boys is what's wrong with the world" Lincoln responded "I have three chestnuts and they both want two."

Actually I think the president was wrong, I don't think the main consideration for Tad and Willie was that they wanted more than their brother I think what they were more concerned about was whether or not their brother would have more than them.

It is one of the most common and least enviable traits that people exhibit. The fear that someone else is going to get something that you didn't get. It's really hard.

And it's not the big difference, I really couldn't care less that someone got a great deal on Rolls Royce, but if I bought a new Corolla and found out that you got yours for a thousand dollars less it would be tough for me to celebrate with you. Does that make me a bad person?

And if it was limited to material things it wouldn't be so bad, but I think deep in the dark place that hides inside of all of us we might be able to agree with Gore Vidal who wrote ""whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

So here we are, week nine into our series "The Kingdom of Heaven is Like. . ." Way back in June we started looking at the parables that Jesus began with those words. Parables were one of the teaching methods that Jesus used in his preaching. Not the only method but perhaps his favourite method. Parables are short stories that contain a moral, kind of like a fable but different. And some of them are fairly clear and some are a little less clear.

And so as Jesus taught his apostle what they could expect the Kingdom of Heaven to be like he used the everyday to illustrate the eternal, the secular to reveal the sacred.

"Look my kingdom will be like, a man working in a field, a fishing net being thrown into the sea, a mustard seed taking root on the side of the road, a wheat field or bread rising in a kitchen" Everyday things in their world that they would be familiar with . And so we began our series not with one of Jesus' parables but instead with the statement "The Kingdom of Heaven is like an Inukshuk" Because really isn't that the type of thing that Jesus would have used if he had of been teaching in Northern Canada instead of Palestine.

If Jesus had of been teaching the Inuit people in their language, which is Inuktitut, he wouldn't have used wheat fields and vineyards as illustrations, instead he would have looked around the barren northern landscape and part of what he would have seen are the stone sententials that are so familiar in that area. And he would have said "The Kingdom of heaven is like an Inukshuk."

 

And if you've been here for some of the messages or perhaps you just really knowledgeable about inukshuks then you know that in Inuktitut Inukshuk means "likeness of a person" or in the larger definition "something which acts for or performs the function of a person." Inuk meaning person and shuk meaning similar. And the Northern People saw the inukshuk as an integral part of their world, just as Christ followers, living out the commands of Christ should be an integral part of the world today.

 

And in the same way that the inukshuk provided landmarks in a landscape that had very few natural landmarks we are to provide moral landmarks. And just as the inukshuk pointed the Inuit in the right direction as they travelled we are to provide a moral compass for our world, and just as the inukshuk was used sometime to warn people of potential danger the church is to warn people of the consequences of sin and of the horror of an eternity without God and his love.

 

But Jesus was not teaching in Nunavut on this day, instead we are told that his travels had taken him east of the Jordan river and it was there as he taught that he told the story of the Landowner and the Vineyard. Matthew 20:1-2 "For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.

You know at least part of the story because Karen read it earlier, it was time for the harvest and so the man went out to hire people to pick his grapes. I love grapes don't know if I would be the best person to send out to pick them. But the story tells us that the man went to the marketplace very early in the morning, in the original language we are told that is was at six a.m., and yes as surprising as it seems there are two six o'clocks in the day. And we are told that that work day would have continued until the next six o'clock, apparently back then you only had to work for a half day and it didn't matter which 12 hours it was.

Culturally we are told that this would be a very common scene two thousand years ago as day workers gathered in the central square of a town or village looking for work, as a matter of fact it is a sight that is still seen in third world countries around the world. And we are told that these men wouldn't have had much going for them, they survived by gosh and by golly. They had no permanent work and if they didn't find work than at the end of the day they would have no pay, kind of like an ancient temp agency.

And the men who were hired were promised a denarius, which was a Greek coin, now we could get into how much a denarius represented two thousand years ago and what it would be worth in today's money but that is irrelevant, what is relevant is that we are told that two thousand years ago it represented a day's wage. And so they were promised a day's pay for a day's work, and not one of them would complain about that.

And the story continues, perhaps the landowner underestimated how many grapes had to be picked or overestimated how many grapes the men could pick but we are told that at 9 a.m. he returned to the market place and hired more men, and again at noon time and 3 in the afternoon.

From the story we are told that when he hired the first men he agreed to pay them a denarius, a day's wage. But as he hired the subsequent men he told them Matthew 20:4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day.

And the story as you know if from our earlier reading ended with verses 6 & 7 Matthew 20:6-7 "At five o'clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, 'Why haven't you been working today?' "They replied, 'Because no one hired us.' "The landowner told them, 'Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.'

And we can understand that, it makes sense. And we would assume as did those who were hired that if those who were hired at 6 a.m. and worked the full day received a full day's wage then those who were hired later in the day and worked less would receive less pay and that would be fair and just. And at the end of the day everyone would got home happy, or at least their expectations would have been met.

But had we continued with the reading we would have seen the story get interesting. Let's pick the story up where we left off. Matthew 20:8-10 "That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o'clock were paid, each received a full day's wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day's wage."

And they were a little cranky. Now I know that we are all getting up on our spiritual high horse and silently protesting that we wouldn't have been like that, that we would have been glad that they received as much as we did even though some of them only worked an hour. Oh stop it, hypocrisy doesn't look good on you, you know very well that you would have been just as cranky as they were.

On January 24th 1989 Ted Bundy was executed after confessing to the murder of 30 people, media outlets all over the US requested interviews with Bundy that he turned down, but on the day before he was to be executed he requested an interview with Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family.

Bundy felt that there was a very real correlation between the escalation use of pornography in his life from the time he was a young teen and what he had ended up doing and he wanted to warn people about that. If you watch the interviews you come away knowing why they referred to him as the Gentlemen Killer.

But that is not what we are here to talk about here today. In a later interview, with Dobson not Bundy, Bundy was dead by then, James Dobson talked about how he felt that Ted Bundy had been truly remorseful about what he had done and in those final hours had asked Christ's forgiveness and turned his life over to Jesus.

How does that make you feel? That Ted Bundy, a self-confessed killer, in the last hours of his life could have a death bed conversion? When you get to heaven he could be your neighbour. Bet that knocked you off your high horse.

This parable is abstract until it become personal. I wonder how the Christ followers who were gathered around at the foot of the cross felt when the thief next to Jesus said in
Luke 23:42-43 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom." And Jesus replied, "I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise."

I wonder if there were those who thought "Wait just a minute, we've spent the last three years following Jesus and obeying his commandment, how does this reprobate warrant a free pass?" and I wonder if anyone there connected the dots back to this story?

There are a couple of different views of what Jesus was trying to illustrate with this parable. There are some who tell us that it is about God's covenant first with the Jews and then with the Gentiles. Matthew Henry writes "The direct object of this parable seems to be, to show that though the Jews were first called into the vineyard, at length the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, and they should be admitted to equal privileges and advantages with the Jews."

Guess that never dawned on me, but it certainly makes sense. The Jews having had a relationship with God since the promises made to Abraham and now the invitation being extended to the Gentiles as well. I can see that.

There are others who see the parable as a synopsis of how the Gospel began to spread, that those who were hired at 6:00 a.m. were the apostles, and then those at 9 a.m. were those converted at Pentecost and so on and so forth right up to those who will come to know Christ during the Great Tribulation. Guess that never dawned on me either, but that certainly makes sense.

Guess I am just a simple kind of guy because I always looked at this story as an illustration about where each of us personally met Jesus on our life's journey. I have friends and family members who tell me that they made that decision to follow Christ as very young children. My daughter Deborah falls into that category. There were very aware of what Jesus was offering and took advantage of it.

Have read their bible almost since they were able to read, said goodnight to God just as naturally as they said good night to their parents or siblings and greeted him the same way in the morning, never wandered and never strayed. In the vernacular of the business world they were early adopters. And there is a lot to be said about people like that, and they will never have to carry the luggage that some of us carry because of some of our behaviour and choices that were made before we met Jesus.

And then there are those who made that decision as teens, or as young adults. If you fall into that category than you are the 9 a.m. people. I was 19 when I made the choice to become a Christ follower, and it seemed that I had lived my entire life without God, and I had. For others of you that decision was made in your twenties or thirties, would that be around noon time? And then there are some here who came to know Jesus at three o'clock.

So what do we learn from this story?

Matthew 20:8-12 "That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o'clock were paid, each received a full day's wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day's wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 'Those people worked only one hour, and yet you've paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.'

For Some It was a Story of Greed. I really wasn't sure what to call this first point, in one sense it was greed but not a normal type of greed, it was a nefarious type of greed. Because it wasn't so much that they wanted more, they had in fact received what was fair, even they would agree to that. It wasn't so much that they wanted more, they wanted the others to receive less.

I'm sure you remember the 10 Commandments, you can probably get most of them down pat, Don't cuss, don't have other gods, don't build idols, remember the Sabbath, honour your parents, don't kill, don't lie, don't steal, don't commit adultery. But do you remember the last one the one that sees so innocent compared to killing, lying, cheating and stealing.

Kind of like the Sunday School class that was studying the Ten Commandments. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what the last commandment was and a little girl raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted, "Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbours' wife." Which is close it is actually Exodus 20:17 "You must not covet your neighbour's house. You must not covet your neighbour's wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbour."

And that commandment is there because God knew that would be the root that would eventually lead to murder, theft and adultery. Covetness is not simply wanting something like someone else has, it is wanting what they have or if that can't happen than it's wanting them not to have it.

That's why way back in Genesis Cain killed Abel, because Abel had what Cain wanted, God's blessing and if he couldn't have it than Abel wouldn't have it either.

It is why David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband.

It's why the civil war began in Sierra Leone, the rebels never believed that they would be able to have all that the rich folks had, (and rich folks being defined as anyone who had more than them) they just didn't want them to have it.

Earlier in the month there were protests in Dartmouth because some people were getting t take a short cut around a detour and others had to drive the long way around. And it was settled when the city locked the gate to the shortcut and nobody could take it. And the protesters were happy with the outcome because now somebody wasn't getting a break that they weren't.

And that is the reality of life, God offers you the free gift of eternal life and the reason the devil will do anything to keep you from accepting that offer is he is afraid you are going to get what he has already lost.

Matthew 20:13-15 "He answered one of them, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair! Didn't you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?' But the main lesson here is that For All It was a Story of Grace In each case the worker was hired by the grace of the landowner. The Landowner had no obligation to hire any one specific worker. There was no seniority list, there was no contract, there was no union telling him who he had to hire. When he went into the village he could have offered his position to anyone but he offered it to them.

As far as we can tell he didn't offer them work because of how many grapes they could pick or how few grapes they would eat, it was not based on education or experience it was an open invitation.

Those who were hired at six in the morning were no more qualified than those who were hired at five in the afternoon. And each one of those people who were offered employment in the vineyard had the same option, they could choice to work for the landowner or they could choice not to it was their decision.

Justice would be that the fewer hours a man worked the less he should have been paid, because justice is getting what you deserve, so eternal justice for us would be an eternity without God. That's what we are told in God's word in Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the story doesn't end there it continues to say but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

In our Christian experience we are each offered the opportunity to serve Christ, not because of who we are or what we have done but because God in his grace has extended that offer. In Revelation 22:17 Christ extends the invitation Revelation 22:17 . . . Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. In the KJV it says it this way Revelation 22:17 . . . And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. I love that word, whosoever. The invitation is open to all to drink from the spring of life, not because of who we are but because of who he is, not because of what we've done but because of what he has done John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. The offer is extended to the world, to whosoever will and everyone has the same option. We can choose to accept the offer or we can choose to not accept the offer but it is our choice.

But understand it doesn't matter when the offer is made it is an offer of Grace, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. We can't earn our salvation, no matter how long we serve God.

A couple of quick closing thoughts.

Matthew 20:6-7 "At five o'clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, 'Why haven't you been working today?' "They replied, 'Because no one hired us.' "The landowner told them, 'Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.'

It was a Story with a Warning

This is not a game. If you are sitting there thinking "well I'll just wait until the last shift and enjoy all the world has to offer before I make a decision to follow Christ."

Remember, the ones who had been hired at five o'clock had not been offered the position earlier in the day and turned it down. It doesn't spell it out but I think that it would have been unlikely if at 6, 9, 12 and 3 they had turned the landowner down if they would have been given the opportunity at 5. Someone once said "A deathbed profession is burning the candle of your light for the devil and then blowing the smoke in the face of God." Another person said "Many a man who was planning on coming to God at the eleventh hour died at 10:45."

The word of God tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:2 For God says, "At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you." Indeed, the "right time" is now. Today is the day of salvation. Not next year or next month or even next week, today is the day of salvation.

And finally this entire story would have been for naught if all the workers had of embraced the truth of Romans 12:15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.

It's easy to do the second part, to weep with those who weep, but how good are you at rejoicing with those who rejoice?

So where are you at this morning?

7 The Kingdom of Heaven is like Wheat and Weeds

When I was in High School we did the musical "The Music Man" and in that play is the line by the lead character Professor Harold Hill, the Music Man himself, "what we have here is trouble, trouble right here in River City." In the musical Hill tells the people the trouble "starts with a capital P and it rhymes with T and it stands for pool."

 

Well Jesus is now telling the people there will be trouble in the Kingdom of Heaven and it has nothing to do with pool.

 

After a two week break we are now week 8 in our summer series the "Kingdom of Heaven is like. . ." and we have been looking at the various parables that Jesus told that began with the words, "The Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God is like. . ."

 

If you've been with us from the beginning back in June we started with the premise "The Kingdom of Heaven is like an Inukshuk." Just in case you were wondering about all the inuksuit around the property, on your bulletins, the window ledges and this wonderful creation on the platform. And the premise of course is that the Inukshuk was an integral part of the Inuit's world acting as a landmark, a direction guide and a warning of danger. And that we as Christ followers are supposed to provide the same functions in our world.

 

Because when you think about it the primary function of the Inukshuk is to make sure people don't get lost and the grace of Jesus offers the same assurance, and that grace is to be revealed through his church. It is not much of a stretch that because the church performs these functions today Jesus can say "Now the people will know that I was here."

 

And so over the first seven parts of this series we have seen how Jesus looked across the country side looking for everyday events to illustrate the eternal nature of His Kingdom, a man working in a field, a net being thrown into the water, a woman kneading her bread.

 

Through the pictures he has drawn his followers have seen the Kingdom planted and begin to grow and mature, having an impact on individuals and society as a whole. And there has been no hint of problems, everybody having a wonderful time. And sometimes that's what we expect of church and life, just a meandering ride down a gentle flowing river. When I was a teenager we lived on the Hammond River, just outside of Saint John New Brunswick, and sometimes in the summer we would cart our big inner tubes upstream and drift down the river, just lying back in the sunshine.

 

But that isn't life and it certainly isn't the reality of God's Kingdom as long as there are people involved and as long as there are forces out there that oppose the kingdom of God. Through these parables Jesus was explaining what the Kingdom is really like not simply reinforcing how we would like to see the Kingdom.

 

And so Jesus looks out across a wheat field gently swaying in the afternoon breeze and says look, Matthew 13:24-26 Here is another story Jesus told: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

 

In another one of Jesus' parables he talks about a farmer sowing seed and how some of the seed fell on the path way and didn't take root, and other seed fell on shallow soil and wasn't able to survive and other seed feel into thorn bushes and was choked out, and finally how some seed landed in fertile soil and produced a flourishing crop.

In that parable Jesus was illustrating how his words and teaching would be received by the world, how it would not be productive in everyone's life. And we understand that, we see it happen, but we kind of hope that when the seed finally begins to grow and reproduce that is the happy ending to the story, and everyone lived happily ever after.

But here we see the reality, the crop has been planted, the seed has taken root, the wheat begins to grow and then those tending the fields notice a problem, they discover that not all the plants are the same. That the majority of the plants are indeed the wheat that was planted but in amongst the good wheat are plants that look like wheat at first glance but upon closer examination are something completely different.

In the NLT we read Matthew 13:25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. But that doesn't really say it all, because we aren't really an agricultural society we don't get the true meaning of Christ's words. When we think of weeds we think of dandelions and thistles and other nasties that invade our lawns. And they are a nuisance and aren't ascetically pleasing but not much beyond that. In the King James Version the verse reads this way Matthew 13:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. Which means even less because nobody here really knows what a "tare" is. But if we were to go back into the original language the word that the NLT translates Weed and the KJV translates Tare is actually the Greek word ζιζάνιον, or zizanion (dziz-an'-ee-on) but you probably already knew that. And this story is the only place that this word is used in the Bible. And it doesn't just mean weed it refers to a very specific type of weed.

Those is the know tell us the weed that is spoken of here was what is known today as Bearded Darnel, or false wheat and that when darnel is starting to grow that it looks like wheat, here is a picture. But the grain of the darnel was slightly poisonous. William Barclay describes it this way "It causes dizziness and sickness and is narcotic in its effects, and even a small amount has a bitter and unpleasant taste. In the end it was usually separated by hand."

But what does it all mean? There's the farmer and the enemy, the wheat and the weeds, people wanting to tear up the wheat and others saying wait not yet. Kind of confusing in a parable sort of way, but unlike most of the other parables Jesus took the time to explain this parable a little more. Apparently he wanted to make sure that they understood the ramifications of this one, it was important and he didn't want any confusion.

And if it was that important to those who first heard it than it should be that important to us, so if you have your bibles turn with me to Matthew 13:37-43 Jesus replied, "The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. "Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

So let's take a look at the explanation.

First of all There Is One Field. Jesus tell us the "The field is the world". And there is only one world, sometimes you will hear the media talk about the first world, or the third world or people will try to define various parts of the planet as the "Christian world" or the "Muslim world". But there is only one world and that is a world that Jesus came to live in, to preach to and to die for.

We all know John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." Jesus didn't come simply to reach a specific people group, while offering no hope for the rest of humanity. His sacrifice wasn't simply for one slice of the population he came for the world.

And he expects his people to take his message of hope and grace to the entire world. The last command of Christ to his apostles if found in Matthew 28:19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And for two thousand years Christ followers have been doing that. Within a generation of the resurrection of Jesus his message had been spread across the Middle East, into Asia and Europe and down to Africa. Before the first apostles died there were believers worshipping in India, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy and beyond. They had reached the world as they knew it.

It was Wesley who said "The world is my parish." But he was simply following the command of Jesus and the example of those who went before him. And it is why when the European nations started to colonize the "New Worlds" that they had "Discovered", which is kind of like Newton discovering gravity, did things just float around before he made that discovery?

Sorry, a little bit of a tangent, when the New World was opened up the church was there with the message. Was it because they wanted to eradicate the culture of the aboriginal people? No, it was because they wanted to share the grace of Christ with them. They truly believed the words that Matthew quoted in relation to the coming of Christ, Matthew 4:16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined."

And that is why Cornerstone is actively ministering to people in Haiti and Ghana and Ukraine and Japan, because we are still obeying his command to spread the word of his grace to all people. Christ came for the whole world, not just our little corner of it and there are people of the Kingdom all over the world. The message is alive in them. If they are doing their part then we shouldn't be asking "Well what about those who don't know about Jesus?" Wherever there is a Christ Follower then people should know about the Christ they are following.

So, There Is One Field.

And There Are Two Sowers. In the parable Jesus tells us that the famer spread good seed and then his enemy came and spread bad seed. And then in the explanation of the parable Jesus tells us first in Matthew 13:37 Jesus replied, "The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. And most people would like the explanation to end with that statement. Most people that we know have no problem believing in Jesus, even if they never develop a personal relationship with him they have nice warm, fuzzy thoughts about him, the baby Jesus in the manger, Jesus feeding hungry people, Jesus holding a lamb. But Jesus continues in the story to tell us Matthew 13:39 The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil.

A number of years ago I was in a conversation with a minster from a more liberal denomination who was talking about his time in Newfoundland and he said "You know they still believe in the Devil there?" Surveys show time and time again that the vast majority of North Americans believe there is a God, there are very few atheists in North America, they might live like there is no God but they believe there is one.

On the other had the number of people who believe that there is an actual Devil is considerably fewer. But Jesus had no doubts about the existence of Satan, nor does the bible.

Kind of like the two little boys who were talking about the Devil, and one little guy said, "I figure in the end he just like Santa Claus, it will turn out to be your dad in a red suit."

Jesus best friend while he was on this earth wrote in 1 Peter 5:8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Did you catch that, "Your great enemy". The Devil isn't just some impersonal force, he is not just the personification of evil he is real and he is the enemy of those who serve God and he whispers in people's ears, "there has to be more than one way", "It doesn't matter who you worship as long as you are sincere", "You're really not all that bad" and "A loving God wouldn't send people to hell." And all the time he is sowing seeds, seeds that take root.

Which leads us to the next point.

Matthew 13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one.

There Are 2 Crops There was the wheat and there was the weeds. And remember they looked very much alike but they were different very different, one was good and one was bad. And again most people don't want to hear that there is such a clear delineation, they don't want to see that line drawn that clearly in the sand. Most folks, outside the church and inside the church would like to see the line fuzzier, they would like to think there are those who serve God and then there are those who are at various places and levels and almost serve God and only kind of serve the Devil, or don't serve God but don't serve the Devil, they serve. . . well they are not sure who they serve.

But Jesus didn't say there were 12 different crops, or 7 different crops not even 3 different crops, there were two. One represented those who chose to serve God, those who belong to the Kingdom and those who chose not to serve God, and then there were those who don't belong to the Kingdom, they belong to the Devil. It goes back to the Bob Dylan song that says "You gotta serve somebody, it might be the devil or it might be the Lord but you got to serve somebody."

And Paul gives us this insight in Ephesians 2:2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 2 thoughts here 1. If we are Christ followers, before we were Christ followers we were obeying the Devil but now we are obeying Christ. 2. If we are not Christ followers we are still obeying the Devil.

As much as we'd like to think that people who are good, nice, sincere people but don't have a relationship with Jesus are going to be kind of ok, that isn't what the word of God says. Jesus tells us in John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." Because if we could get to heaven by being good, nice sincere people than there would have been no reason for Christ to come and for Christ to die and for Christ to be raised from the dead, and instead of
John 3:3 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." Jesus would have said John 3:3 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are good, nice sincere people, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."

So we have one field, two sowers, two crops and then Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. There is 1 Harvest Remember when the servants discovered that the weeds had been sowed they wanted to rip them up but the farmer told them to wait. Matthew 13:29 "'No,' he replied, 'you'll uproot the wheat if you do."

We need to protect our relationship with Christ, that's important. And throughout the New Testament we see that we need to protect the local church from false teachers and false teachings, that's important but from this parable it would seem that Kingdom of Heaven is capable of taking care of itself. That in the end it's not our mandate to try and dig up the weeds too soon.

That's why the inquisition was so wrong they were trying to tear up the weeds. And that is why the witch trials were so wrong they were trying to tear up the weeds, and we just aren't qualified to make that decision and end up with situations like this (video clip about witches from Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Any time we try to legislate morality or head down the path of our own private Jihad (holy war) against some particular behaviour in the world we end up doing more damage than good. I read one day that if God hates the same people that you hate then you can be pretty sure you've created God in your own image. In the end we need to let God sort it out.

So Jesus tells us that the weeds will be separated from the wheat at the appropriate time, and when is the appropriate time? Matthew 13:39 . . .The harvest is the end of the world . . . And there is no reason to get into great theological debates about when that is going to happen because it is enough to know that it is going to happen. It's going to happen corporately, that is the world as we know has a best before date and we don't know what that date is but someday this is all going to end. But personally there will be an "End of the Word" for each of us individually. That is that our existence in this world will end, and this is what the word of God tell us in Hebrews 9:27 . . . each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment.

Every one of us share that in common, we are all going to die, that is the end of our world and we are all going to be judged. But that leaves us with the end of the parable, Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn. There are 2 Futures There used to be a time that the church preached that there was a Heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned but then somewhere we decided that we didn't like the concept of hell and stopped preaching about it, but that didn't make it any less real, it just meant that we were shirking our responsibility. In Jesus' explanation of this parable this is how he spells it out. Matthew 13:41-43 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

When we tell people that Cornerstone exists to help depopulate hell we believe it. We believe that there will be people in heaven who would have been in hell if this church didn't exist to tell people there is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be shunned.

Will hell be fire and brimstone, and demons with pointy tales poking people with their pitchforks? I don't know. What I do know is that when it will be a separation from God and from love and from light and from all that is good and all that is pure.

I want to finish with one of my favourite stories and I know you've all heard it before but bear with me. The story is told that when Calvin Coolidge was Vice-President of the United States he was chairing a congressional meeting that was becoming very heated. During the meeting one Congressman stood up and told another, "Sir you can go straight to hell". Well the victim was understandably upset and looked to the Vice President for support and saw that he was reading a book. "Mr. Coolidge" cried the victim "Did you hear what he told me to do?" "Yes" replied the Vice-President, "But I checked the rule book and you don't have to go."

Well friends I have checked the rule book and you don't have to go. The word of God promises us in James 4:7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

So where you at? When the harvest comes, and it will come what will be your destination?

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Yeast

For seven of the eight parables that Jesus began with the line "The Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God is like. . ." he used everyday events that were happening around those he was teaching, outside, but in one instance he took them out of the fields and vineyards, away from the sea and market place and returned them to the place they had grown up, their homes and specifically to the kitchen and a task that they had watched countless times throughout their lives.

Matthew 13:33 Jesus also used this illustration: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough."

We are now in week seven of our summer series "The Kingdom of Heaven is Like" and we've looked at treasure and fishing nets, mustard seeds and pearls. We've talked about faith, salvation, dreams and determination. We began in June with the premise "The Kingdom of Heaven is an Inukshuk" and we looked at how these amazing stone sculptures served the Inuit people in so many important ways, providing landmarks, guiding people in the right directions and warning them of potential dangers. All things that we as the church, the Kingdom of Heaven manifested today, are supposed to do in our world.

And so now Jesus uses an illustration that would have familiar to everyone who had ever watched their mothers or wives make bread. And that would have been an almost daily occurrence. Bread is one of those things that we tend to take for granted in 2010, and we have so much of it and so many different varieties. We have bagels and pita, tortilla's muffins, rolls and baguettes, white bread, whole wheat bread, multi grain bread, raisin bread. But two thousand years ago in Palestine they would have had bread. And the bread would have been made daily. Remember in the Lord's Prayer, right after Jesus taught us to pray that his will would be done on earth, do you remember what he taught us to pray. Matthew 6:11 Give us today the food we need. But do you remember the way you memorized the Lord's prayer? Sure you do Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread. And in the original language the word used is very simply, bread.

But the Kingdom of Heaven isn't like bread; it is like the ingredient that makes the bread rise. In the New Living Translation it is translated as Yeast but in the King James Version it is translated as Leaven. The reason is that yeast as we know it is a fairly recent innovation, commercial yeast has only been available for less than 200 years. And long before we were able to go to a store and buy yeast in an envelope or a bottle people have been eating bread that was not flat. And it was this rising agent, this leaven that Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, in the New King James Version it reads this way: Matthew 13:33 Another parable He spoke to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened."

Culturally we are told that bread was a staple in the time of Jesus, it was a very important part of their everyday diet. 2000 years ago they didn't have the luxury of grocery stores and restaurants. Food was prepared at home and if you were going to be away from home your food was sent with you.

And bread was an essential part of that, when Jesus fed the five thousand with the little boy's lunch it was fish and some bread. When Jesus instituted the last supper he used bread as a symbol for his body. In the book of Acts when Paul was being shipped to Rome to stand trial and the ship they were on ran aground they ate before they abandoned ship, and what did they eat? Acts 27:35-36 Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat—

Remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness he had gone 40 days without food and the Devil appears and says Matthew 4:3 During that time the devil came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread." Personally, for me anyway pizza or a burger would have been more tempting, but Satan used the familiar, the everyday for the temptation.

And so just as when Jesus directed their attention to the farmer in the field, or the mustard plant growing on the side of the road or the fishing net being cast into the sea Jesus uses the everyday as a simile for the eternal, he draws from the secular to describe the sacred.

Matthew 13:33 Jesus also used this illustration: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough."

So what is it that we learn from Yeast or Leaven.

Leaven Has a History I had told you earlier that 2000 years ago they didn't have yeast in packets and so you might be wondering where did this leaven come from? Anyone here ever do the sour dough starter thing? When I was a teenager we kept "Herman" in the fridge, Mom called it monster bread. You fed it and periodically you would split it, make incredible biscuits with it, and keep feeding the remainder.

And it really is quite simple to make, the recipes are everywhere, you start with a tablespoon of water and a table spoon of flour and mix them together in a container, in eight hours you add two tablespoons of water and two table spoons of flour and you wait, and in eight hours you double it again, and you wait. In a couple of days it looks like this. (YouTube clip of sour dough starter.) And that my friend is leaven. You keep it in your fridge in a sealed container and use it to start your sour dough bread, biscuits of pancakes. It is leaven.

2000 years ago it was very similar, when dough was prepared and had risen, before the bread was baked, a piece was torn off and it was wrapped and put aside. And it was that piece that was used in the flour for the next loaf that started the process again. That was leaven.

In my research I discovered that there are bakeries that have been using the same leaven for generations, it is the secret to their breads.

It's kind of like people. Most of you know that our Grand Daughter was born a little over a month ago and she is part Deborah and part Stefan, but she is also part Denn and part Angela, and part Mark and part Karen and part my parents and part Angela's parents and on and on it goes. And so there is some American and Canadian and Irish and Estonian, and English and native and Asian all mixed in there. She's a little bit of a mutt and she has a history.

The Kingdom of Heaven did not just suddenly appear. Throughout the Gospels and the Book of Acts the history of the Kingdom is constantly referenced, they talk about Moses and Abraham, about Isaac and Jacob, stories are told from the Old Testament.

When Peter was preaching at the Day of Pentecost he reminds the Jews of the history of the Kingdom. Acts 3:13 For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate's decision to release him.


There is a great statement in Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

There is a trick here, whenever you come across the word therefore in the bible you need to go back and see what it's therefore. In this case we go back to the beginning of the previous chapter, which has been called the "Faith Hall of Fame" and it starts with these words.

Hebrews 11:1-2 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

And for the next 39 verses the author regales us with story after story of the faith of those who went before and in verse 39 he writes Hebrews 11:39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith.

Which of course leads us to Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. So who is the huge crowd of witnesses? All those who have gone before us.

And we can add to that 2000 more years of history, we don't stand alone we stand on the shoulders of believers and teachers, theologians and lovers of God. Each generation tears off a little piece of their dough and adds it to the next generation to help them rise and to keep it right.

And that's why I warn people to beware when all of sudden someone has a new revelation and they want you to ignore the history that we have. They want you to ignore Augustine, and Calvin and Wesley and Tertelluen and thousands of others who have studied and taught the scriptures over the past two millennium. But we have a history, and we can't be separated from the history any more than you can separate bread from the leaven that made it rise.

And sometimes the media and the world want you to think that our history is something to be ashamed of, they trot out the crusade and the inquisition and residential schools and wag their fingers at us. But they forget that the Crusades began because Christians and Jews were being killed by Muslims and thousands of men volunteered to leave their homes and families to go and defend people they had never met, but shared a common faith with. And yes there were excesses and yes did not end up being our finest moment but understand there is more to the story. And really, nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition.

But our history includes the first hospitals, and the first schools for the blind and the deaf, the first orphanages, the fight to end child labour, and the end of Slavery in western, Christian cultures. The women's rights movement had its birth in a Wesleyan Church in New York.

We can't forget our history and we have to understand that we have an obligation to pass on what we have. And that's why churches have to grow and reach people. Unless we do that we are not leaven we are simply bread, we are prepared and baked and served and then we are gone. And that is not the purpose of the Kingdom; it's not only to provide a church for today it is to provide a church for tomorrow.

Leaven Has a Purpose The reason that leaven was added to the bread mixture was to make it rise, it wasn't added to increase the flavour or change the colour. They didn't add leaven so there would be more fibre in the bread, they added leaven so it would rise and become light and fluffy. And if the leaven functioned the way it was supposed to that's exactly what it did. And because of that the bread tasted better, and had a nicer texture and was easier to eat.

There are bakers in the sour dough industry who claim their starter not only causes their sour dough to rise but that it adds a distinct flavour to the dough, and that may be the case but the primary function is to make the dough rise, the flavour it adds is a secondary benefit.

The church has a purpose as well and it's spelled out in Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

The churches purpose is to make disciples. And sometimes people forget that. They try and write grand vision statements about the church impacting their communities and making a difference. And that is not the purpose of the church. Seriously it's not, you might think it is, you might be wondering if our purpose is not to impact our community and make a difference than what is the use of CIA, Cornerstone in Action? You might be wondering about Christ's command for us to be salt and light. About all the good that can be accomplished by the local church. After all Bill Hybels the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church reminds us over and over again "The local church is the hope of the world."

And those things are all wonderful but they really aren't the purpose of the church. They are the purpose of the disciples that the church is supposed to make. And when the church loses its focus and sets it eyes on doing other things, rather than making disciples, no matter how noble those other things might be they are the wrong things.

Don't get me wrong I think that the people of Cornerstone are supposed to make a difference in the world. And that happens because Cornerstone has made a difference in their lives.

The purpose of the church is to change society by changing people. I love the change that we see in people when we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.

Paul writes to the believers in Corinth tell them 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Sounds like a bad bunch but listen to what Paul writes next, 1 Corinthians 6:11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

That is our task to see people changed, and then turn them loose to fulfil their purpose and that is to make an impact on the world. Which leads us to our next point.

Leaven has an impact There is a great story in the book of Acts chapter 17. Paul and his friends have arrived at Thessalonica and we read Acts 17:4 Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.

They were doing what the church is supposed to be doing, making disciples, but it wasn't long before they were dragged before the authorities and I love the charges that were made against them. In the NKJV it reads this way, Acts 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too."

These who have turned the world upside down. Wow, I would say that Kingdom of Heaven was at work in those believers that they were having an impact on their world.
Wouldn't it be great if people described the Christ Followers who make up Cornerstone as "These who have turned the world upside down."

You see the Kingdom of Heaven is not Cornerstone Wesleyan Church, the Kingdom of Heaven is "You" and you are supposed to make an difference, you are to permeate the world. It's not enough that Christianity made a difference 2000 years ago, it's not enough that Christianity made a difference 200 year ago or 20 years ago, we need to be making a difference today.

Acts 13:36 . . . for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. It's good that the church has a great history, that the Wesley and Calvin and Mother Theresa did the will of God in their own generation, but they have died, they were buried with their ancestors and they bodies have decayed and that was yesterday and this is today and we still need to be doing the will of God in our generation, still making an impact and still being leaven in our world.

William Barclay wrote in the Daily Study Bible, "The whole point of the parable lies in one thing--the transforming power of the leaven. Leaven changed the character of a whole baking. Unleavened bread is like a water biscuit, hard, dry, unappetizing and uninteresting; bread baked with leaven is soft and porous and spongy, tasty and good to eat. The introduction of the leaven causes a transformation in the dough; and the coming of the Kingdom causes a transformation in life."

We aren't just here to take up space, we have been left here to make a difference. Last week we spoke about the impact the Kingdom of Heaven is supposed to have on individuals but now Christ reminds us that we are supposed to change our world as well.

Jesus left his followers here so we can have an impact locally and globally. And we are serving our purpose as Christ Followers when in his name we prepare meals for Ronald McDonald House, and collect food during Harvest for the Hungry, and when we reach out locally through CIA and when Emily ministered in Thailand, and when our teens travel to Guatemala in February and when we were able bless orphanages in Jamaica and Haiti. And all the things that you do that I don't know about and don't need to know about.

Leaven Needs Time to Work This is probably the toughest thing for me, waiting. I'm probably the only person here who struggles with patience, who wants things to happen right away. The rest of you probably have buckets of patience, but not me, I'd be a terrible buzzard, I'd be like "Forget waiting let's go kill something." But not everything happens right away, some things take time, and that's tough for me, I want it to happen and I want it to happen now.

That's why I hate golf, because I want to be good at it but I don't want to practice, when I was in college I started playing around with guitar, but I wanted to be able to play it right away. I didn't want to learn to play a G cord, I wanted to learn how to play the minuet in G.

But sometimes it takes time for leaven to work its way through the dough. That was the toughest part about starting Cornerstone was how long it seemed to take to get going, it was like watching bread rise. But if you interrupt bread making in the middle and say I can't wait any longer and just put the bread in the oven it will be ruined.

In the summer of 2003 I'm not sure that many would have expressed much hope for this Church, we had been around for eight years and we just couldn't seem to break through, and there were those who were actively lobbying for the church to be closed. And at that point there weren't a lot of counter arguments. At a district board meeting around that time the district superintendent was heard to comment, "I don't know if we need to rescue Bedford from Denn or Denn from Bedford." But what would have happened if we had of pulled the plug back then? Well we would never have known what this church could have accomplished, never have seen the impact that would have been made.

Sometimes we get impatient with those we seek to have an impact on, we want to see the world change tomorrow, but it doesn't always happen that way, any more than leaven works that way.

So this is probably a good place to bring in the obligatory motorcycle application.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like riding a motorcycle, we get on at the beginning of the journey and we know that at some point we will get off, but while we are on we need to keep moving and stay balanced. And it's a lot easier to balance when you are moving with a bit of speed but it is even more critical to maintain your balance during those times that you aren't moving very fast.

If you've been with us through this series then you understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is not like one single thing instead it is like a series of things, and the secret is in the balance.

So here is the question and we will ask it again before we finish this morning; How will you change the world?