Looking Forward to the Kingdom of God

01/14/12

Scripture:

I’d like to invite you to join with me in the reading of the Gospel of Matthew.  If you have your own Bible, that's wonderful.  I invite you to turn there to Matthew chapter 8.  If not, you can turn your eyes to the screen and we will read this text together.  Before we do, we are in a sermon series now entitled Finding Your Way Into the Kingdom of God.   We talk about the kingdom of God here at the church.  We pray about it in our prayers.  We read about it in the Bible.  Well, for the next 11 weeks we’re going to look closely at what it is that Jesus tells us about the kingdom of God and how we are to respond to it.  Our story today involves Jesus entering a town called Capernaum, a town of about 1000 people, a village town on the Sea of Galilee, and there he’s approached by a man asking for help.  I invite you to listen to the story and to listen to the things that Jesus would teach us about the kingdom of God. 

Matthew 8:5-13   ⁵ When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ⁶ "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly."  ⁷ And he said to him, "I will come and heal him."  ⁸ But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.  ⁹ For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."  ¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.  ¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  ¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment.

This morning I want to ask you to turn your attention to the screen and I want to show you a couple pictures of people’s facial expressions.  And I want to ask you to look at them and to tell me what it is you think they’re expressing through their face.  Here’s the first one...surprise.  I just found that picture on the internet and I thought wow, a lot of emotion there—the open mouth, the eyes wide, surprise, amazement.  I have another one, somebody you probably recognize.  Taylor Swift, right, and she’s there I believe on a talk show sitting in a chair and what do you think she’s thinking.  Is she angry?  No, she’s amazed, right...shocked by whatever has been said to her that caught her off guard and her face tells a story.  That’s my face the first time I asked a girl out and she said yes...like really, you’re going to go out with me?  So anyway, the reason I wanted to show this to you is because we all kind of understand this is kind of an amazed look, a shocked look.  And I want to ask you, what are kinds of the things that cause you to marvel, to have these kinds of facial expressions?  What are the things in your kids’ life where you’ve seen that look on their face?  Maybe it’s when they opened their presents under the tree this year they had that look like wow, and they were amazed.  Maybe it’s a beautiful fireworks display that you watch just amazed at all the colors and the lights.  Maybe you’ve had amazement because you’ve watched a football game and the team that’s behind throws this amazing pass, wins the game and blows everybody away.  We’ve all had moments like that.  I imagine if you and I could join Jesus on his travels around Galilee we would have seen a lot of amazed looks on people’s faces as he did miraculous things causing paralyzed people to walk, causing a woman who had for 18 years been hunched over with terrible back problems to stand straight and to walk out with a healthy back.  We would be amazed at that.  I think if we were to stand by the funeral procession of that little boy and hearing Jesus announce for him to come to life and he sits up in front of the crowd, we would have seen that look.  We probably would have had that look our self.  

What do you think it takes for Jesus to have that marveled look in his life?  Probably not the miracles because he’s the one that did them, but in our text today it tells us that Jesus marveled when the man came and asked for help.  It says, “When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him,” and then we’re going to look at that more closely.  But Jesus was marveled because of a person.  Not because they came to ask for help because many people did that for him but because of this person’s level of understanding.  It caused him to be amazed.  And there Jesus began to teach those around him about the kingdom of God.  So I’d like today to look at these texts a little more closely and to get a sense about what it is from Jesus we can learn.  

Let me give you some background.  The person who asked for help is not identified by their name, but rather by their title—centurion.  How many of you think you know what a centurion is?  A soldier, okay.  Do you agree with that, is that why your hand’s up?  Okay, so maybe you know, maybe you don’t know.  A centurion...you’ve heard the word century, right?  A century is how long?  One hundred years, so a centurion is a Roman soldier responsible for a hundred men, a military commander so to speak.  Now this means that this person was a battle-seasoned leader.  He had been a part of the Roman military for a while.  He had been a part of the strongest military in the world and he is there in the land of Jesus executing his duty which is to control the people for the Roman Empire.  That tells us that this man is not Jewish, he is a Gentile.  He is probably a God fearer, which would be a non-Jewish person who has come to believe in the God of Israel.  He’s also a man aware of certain customs because he says to Jesus, “I am not worthy to have you come into my home.”  And that is an awareness of the tension that lived in the time of Jesus between Jewish people and Gentiles.  They didn’t mingle.  You don’t marry a Gentile, you marry a Jew.  The Gentiles—you don’t go in their homes because it was considered kind of the wrong thing to do.  But here in this transaction between this Roman leader and Jesus we find Jesus being amazed at what is said, and he begins to teach us some very significant things about this idea of the kingdom of God.  So I’d like to ask you to look with me at the text.  We’re going to work our way through it and get a sense of what the kingdom of God is like from Jesus.  

The Image of the Kingdom 

First of all, I want to ask you to consider the image of the kingdom of God.  Jesus uses different images in different places to paint a picture for us what God's kingdom is like, and he tells us here in verse 11 these words, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”  Now here Jesus paints a picture for us that the kingdom of God is reclining at the table, sitting down for a family meal so to speak.  You’ve been there with potlucks, family gatherings.  Jesus is telling us here the kingdom of heaven is like reclining at a banquet table, and he uses this imagery here to an audience that’s aware of the significance of it.  You and I may not think too much about the idea of God's kingdom being like a dinner party, but to the people of Jesus’ audience, the Jews of his day, this was not a new concept.  This was something that came out of their Bible and told them about what God was about.  Let me give you one example.  

Before I read this example from the Old Testament, I want you to be aware of who is mentioned being at the table...Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.  Now you need to know that they all lived a long, long, long, long time before Jesus and by the time Jesus said this they’re all dead and dust.  But I want you to hear these words from Isaiah and then we’ll begin to understand why at the banquet three dead people are mentioned to be there.  This is from Isaiah 25 verses 6-9 if you want to scribble that down and read it on your own.  This is Isaiah the prophet speaking for the Lord and he says:  ⁶ On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.  ⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  ⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.  ⁹ It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."   

Did you get that?  A fine banquet with great wine and great feasting and something significant—no more death, no more curse, a place of blessing.  This is the imagery of the Old Testament to which Jesus is telling us the kingdom of God is like.   It’s like a banquet party where the dead and the living are raised and gathered together and there’s celebration and there’s no more suffering and evil and pain.  Now that’s the first thing I want you to see, the image of the kingdom. 

The Inclusiveness of the Kingdom 

The second thing I want you to see is the inclusiveness of the kingdom.  Jesus said, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”  Now the context here of this statement is significant.  Jesus has just been interacting with a non-Jewish person.  He is speaking to his audience of mainly Jewish people about how in God's kingdom it’s open to all people, not only to Jewish people, but to people from all of the nations.  He says they will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  There’s a place in God's table, there’s a place in God's family, for people who are not descendents of these great men of faith—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Now I want to say here for a moment that the New Testament goes a long way to capture this idea that the kingdom of God is open to all who would come, to Jew and non-Jew alike.  It’s found in the letters of Paul, it’s found in the Book of Acts, and it tells the story of the early church.  It began as an all-Jewish group but over time began to say God's promise of Jesus is available for all.  Why?  Why be so inclusive?  Because Jesus himself is in his teaching about the kingdom of God.  He ministered to Jews and non-Jews alike.  He ministered to people that would have been considered outside the norm in their day, but they were welcome to come into His family.  

Now you need to understand how radical this was and so let me invite you to take a moment and to consider this weekend.  Tomorrow our nation celebrates the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., and some of you that were alive when he was alive can remember quite well.  Where were we as a nation?  We were a nation with great division that said that certain people were not equal to white people because they were black.  They couldn't eat in our restaurants.  They couldn't use our water fountains.  It was a place of division and animosity.  Now I want you to realize that Martin Luther King and many of those who stood with him called out for justice.  They asked for our nation to change its laws and to reflect the equality of the American dream the way it’s truly supposed to be.  And so our nation through much pain began to break down that wall of division between black and white.  We no longer segregate out our bathrooms.  We no longer segregate out our restaurants.  We’re a nation that by law has said everyone is equal in the United States.  Now that was something the government forced to change, but I want you to realize that in the time of Jesus there was that same level of division between Jew and Gentile and it was the message of Jesus that changed the heart of people and it opened up the church to say that the church is for Jew and non-Jew alike.  And the point being is anyone can come into the kingdom of God, can come to the banquet table, even a pagan Roman like this centurion.  I want you to be aware of that, the inclusiveness of the kingdom.  That’s why the church proclaims the message that we do to all people, not just the people that we want.  

The Exclusiveness of the Kingdom 

But thirdly I want you to see Jesus at the same moment painting an inclusive picture sticks a knife into us and helps us to see that there’s a sense of exclusiveness about the kingdom of God.  He goes on to say that while many will come from east and west, “While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Now that’s a hard thing to hear.  We might as well admit that, that we live in an age that wants to have kind of a ‘niceness’ to what Jesus has to say and what he says here is not terribly nice if you’re one of those that’s cast out and can’t have a place in the kingdom.  In fact, this is such a hard thing to hear that some dismiss it, some resent it, but if we’re clear about the kingdom of God and we want to hear what Jesus has to say, we have to acknowledge that it is there.  

Back in 2009 there was a Congressman named Jim McDermott.  He’s from Washington State, a fairly politically liberal person, and he wrote a letter on his US Congress letterhead to all of the members of Congress asking them to join him in condemning the Southern Baptist Church for their behavior.  Now what did the Southern Baptists do that was so bad?  They issued a prayer book for their members and in one section it asked for them to pray for people that were Hindu that they would become Christian, that they would open their hearts up to Jesus Christ, and so Representative McDermott and a few others in Congress thought that was wrong and insensitive and hateful and drafted a letter to all of the members of Congress asking them to join him in condemning the Southern Baptist Church.  Now this is in a land where we have the First Amendment and everybody has a right to worship the way you want to worship.  But Representative McDermott was offended by the assumption behind the request that not everybody is on the same place spiritually and that people need to come to Jesus Christ to enter into the kingdom of God.  But that’s exactly what Jesus is saying here.  He is saying that there is an exclusiveness to the message of the kingdom and we need to hear it, and the exclusiveness is this:  The sons of the kingdom will be thrown out.  Well, who are the sons of the kingdom?  Is that you and me, is that something we need to worry about?  

The way I read if, if the kingdom of God...remember the people at the table?  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob...they were the fathers of the Israelite people, the Jews.  It was them that God invited into the special relationship and promised to bless them and to include them in his redemptive plans.  It was to their offspring that Jesus came and preached and taught about the kingdom and did miracles.  It was those descendents that rejected him and crucified him and turned their back on him and claimed that he was demon possessed or insane.  So the way I read it the statement here is Jesus is indicting those who reject him even if they’re Israelites, that they can be excluded from the kingdom of God.  So you and I ought to hear that with some sobriety.  We ought to think about if Jesus is saying that some will be excluded, how do we make sure that’s not you and me?  I think the answer is to look at the key of the kingdom which is the remarks of the centurion.  

The Key to the Kingdom 

He is praised here, remember?  The centurion says to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof , but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.  And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."   It’s that statement that caused Jesus to marvel and to announce about the kingdom of God.  So what is it that this centurion did that was right?  

He recognized something about Jesus.  He compared Jesus to himself.  He said, “I too am a man under authority.”  This centurion, he’s under the authority of his commanders all the way up to the Roman Senate and the Roman Emperor, and he has men underneath him to whom he has the power to tell what to do.  And he says Jesus, you and I are similar; like you I am a man under authority.  So what authority does he see in Jesus?  He sees in his healing the sick, in his teaching, in his words about the kingdom of God that he’s not just a lowly carpenter but he is a man under the authority of God to rule the kingdom of God itself.  He sees that Jesus doesn’t have servants underneath him but he has in his own words the power to heal the sick, to bring life to the dead because he in fact is the king of the kingdom.  He believed that and Jesus saw that and Jesus celebrated his faith and said even in the nation of Israel I don’t see faith like this.  Faith in Jesus Christ is the key to the kingdom of God.  

So what I’d like for you as we journey through this study together is I would like you to have that faith.  I’d like you to have the faith in Jesus Christ and to see him and to be able to go into his kingdom because you trusted him as the king of the kingdom of God.  And so I'm going to teach you about this.  I want to ask you to come and to pray and to listen and to reflect on what you’re learning and to make sure that you have that faith and then join me as we seek to share that faith with others, with our children, with other adults, with visitors, with our neighbors in the community.  It’s the faith in Jesus Christ that’s the key to enter the kingdom of God.  May you have that faith, may you be welcome at the table and there may you find the peace of God for you.   Let us pray.

Our Father and our God, I thank you for the imagery of the kingdom of God bestowed here, this welcoming to the table and inviting into fellowship.  You want us to be connected with you.  You’ve come in Jesus so that we might be personally connected to you.  And in that crowd was the centurion who had faith.  And in that crowd were disciples who also were growing in their faith.  And there were those who mocked, rejected, and said no to you and to your offer to be at table.  Lord, help us not to be like those but to be open to have faith, to trust you as the sovereign over the kingdom of God.  Help us to follow after you and to seek to be your servants to do your will.  Bless our understanding.  Help us with application of this truth to our lives.  May we share the good news of the kingdom but help us not to water it down and to change it to make it easier.  May we be faithful to you, Lord, for I ask this prayer in your name.  Amen.