April 10 Elevate

And elevate this week we took a look at some Four short parables found in Matthew 13..

We took a look at the mustard seed in verse 31. We took a look at the bread verse 33
the hidden treasure in verse 44. The big Perl verse 45.

We took the first two together to try and see what aspects of the Kingdom of God was Jesus referring to, or trying to illustrate. One of the assistant insights was at the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven is more about the sanctification of people in the world than it is about the salvation. We do understand that sanctification does not take place without salvation of people but to limit God's kingdom to only the act of receiving Christ as your savior is just, that very limiting.

The idea of a mustard seed illustrates the point of the Gospel of salvation containing far more than just a guarantee of Heaven. Within this mustard seed of faith there is all that is needed for a very large tree to be produced. This tree takes a long time to complete, and is not something that can be rushed. The tree when completed brings benefit to many people, and is clearly seen by anyone who is passing by.
This concept is also pretty clear in the idea of yeast affecting the flour of bread. For just a little bit of the yeast a whole lot of flour is affected and grows. The idea of God's kingdom being something that starts small again affects a large portion of those around it was pretty clear.
The Kingdom of God is also something that evidently is very easily seen and its effects on those around someone who contains the Kingdom of God . This little beauty beast or this mustard seed allows positive benefits to the world because he is in and amongst the world.
We see in these two illustrations that there is not a large pile of yeast separated from the flower. There is not a large bag of mustard seeds separated from the garden. What we see in these illustrations as well as the other illustrations of Matthew 13 is that we are to be right along side of those who do not have the Kingdom of God in their lives.
We need to challenge the concept of building walls to protect all the seeds or Eastern of God's kingdom and instead figure out ways to plant and spread about all the garden or flower of the world. We as individuals need to grow, or infiltrate with the positive effects of what has been built into us when we accepted the salvation of Christ into our hearts.
We can tell how the kingdom is doing based on the effect that we have on those around us. Are they drawn to us because we give them nourishment, filling them with the aspects of the kingdom like hope peace and love. Are they drawn to us because we give them a place to rest, have shade, and refreshment.
These are the aspects of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus was trying to allow his people to understand. The kingdom of heaven is not about politics and power or military conquering its about affecting the world in such a way that they desire to have more of it.

Second two illustrations that of a treasure in the field, and that of a pearl that is worth a lot carry would it a similar theme with a different picture. In both cases people who had possessions got rid of them all in order to obtain what the parable used to illustrate the kingdom. In both illustrations we see that what they obtained gave them great satisfaction and contentment because what they gave up was nowhere near the value over the long term of what they now possess.
We acknowledge that this probably looked very strange to those around them .This is true often of Christians experience in the world.Many times what we give up makes no sense to those who are observing us. What we seem to walk away from versus what we obtained for it doesn't look like a good deal to those who don't understand. The values of the kingdom of God are something that might not make a lot of sense to those outside of the kingdom.
Once again it goes against the concept of an earthly kingdom. The earthly kingdoms are constantly seeking more and instead of selling everything to gain something of great value .They look for ways to gain everything because they do not understand the long-term investments that God's Kingdom makes it people.

Many of those present on Saturday night were encouraged by God's Holy Spirit to see that what they had given up was worth it. That the kingdom that they are investing their time and energies into is the better deal even though it might not make much sense to those who do them now. They need to continue to be reminded that this is a long-term growth concept of God, and in the end many will be the blessed.