010823 - “The Kingdom of Heaven”...Matthew 13:24-43

Psalm 24:1-2...“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for He laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.”

Romans 13:1-2...“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves”

Proverbs 21:1...“The king’s heart is like streams of water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever He chooses.”

Exodus 9:16...“I have raised you up for this purpose: to show you My power and to make My name known in all the earth”

Daniel 4:29-30...“As he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king exclaimed, ‘Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built by my vast power to be a royal residence and to display my majestic glory?’”

Daniel 4:31-32...“While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you. You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men, and He gives it to anyone He wants.’”

James 1:13...“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one”

Psalm 76:10...“Surely the wrath of man shall praise You”

Revelation 11:15...“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’”

Psalm 2:1-4...“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision”

Sermon In A Sentence: Jesus teaches that those who wish to be His followers will live today with an active expectation of the last day.

Matthew 13:23-30...“He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

The Kingdom Of Heaven As Represented In This World:
-Will advance even though the enemies allies are present
-Will include a mixture of true faith and hypocrisy
-Will become great despite it’s unimpressive beginnings
-Will move toward a final judgment for saved & unsaved

Luke 17:20-21...“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

2 Corinthians 13:5...“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test”

Matthew 13:36-39...“Then He dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached Him and said, ‘Explain the parable of the weeds in the field to us.’ He replied: ‘The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; and the good seed— these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil”

Matthew 13:31-34...“He presented another parable to them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the vegetables and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches. He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it spread through all of it.’ Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, and He would not speak anything to them without a parable”

Revelation 7:9-10...“There was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, Who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Matthew 13:39-43...“The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!”

The Judgment of the Saved:
“For we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or worthless” -2 Cor. 5:10

The Judgment of the Lost:
“Then I saw a great white throne and One seated on it… I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life… and anyone not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” -Rev. 20:11-15