Hidden Kingdom

I think this group of parables is one of the weightiest portions of scripture you'll find.

Which might sound, excuse me, a bit weird, because it's just a bunch of simple little parables.

But what it opens up is a question, a statement that I'd like to begin with, and this is weighty.

And the statement is this, the kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

The kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

The Gospel of Mark began in 1, 14 and 15 with Jesus saying, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe the good news.

Mark's Gospel is all about the kingdom.

What is our working definition of the kingdom of God?

What's your definition before Jace puts it up there?

What is the kingdom of God?

Yeah, where God reigns and only He reigns.

The realm of God's eternal reign is one way you could describe it.

We've got that there.

Another one that Dallas Willard put out there years ago, and is a really helpful one, is the range of God's effective will.

The range of God's effective will where what God wants to happen is happening.

His kingdom is manifest in hiddenness.

I think we are talking about in a general sense the idea that God is at work behind the scenes.

He's at work in ways that often we miss.

Just think about the life of Jesus, the life and ministry and death and resurrection of Jesus, God in human flesh.

What do you reckon?

Manifest in hiddenness, wouldn't you say?

No one got it.

You could say the women were pretty close to it at the end there.

Is that fair to say?

Because I really want to explore this.

I'm not trying to just have you sit there and expect me that I'm saying the right things.

I'm sort of looking for some feedback.

Don't you think, honestly, the life of Jesus is an example of the kingdom of God revealed in hiddenness?

People just didn't get it.

He grabbed 12 people that lived with him 24-7, and they didn't get it.

They didn't just say, we're with you till the end, no worries, Lord.

They were all really scared at his arrest.

And it wasn't until after when they received the Spirit at Pentecost.

But even then, I would still argue, I reckon there's a lot of boldness, but a lot of hiddenness in the revealing of the kingdom post-Pentecost.

So, before we get to the passage, I want you to grab your Bibles, or just watch along here, and try to concentrate.

It's only 5.30 on a Sunday night.

It's not deep into the night.

But I'm asking you to help, to be part of this, and think about these passages.

1 Corinthians 1, 18-25.

We're trying to understand from Scripture, is the kingdom of God manifest in hiddenness?

1 Corinthians 1, 18-25, Paul's writing to the church at Corinth, and he says in verse 22, Jews demand signs, like they want to see the Red Sea open up.

They're looking for power.

Jews demand signs.

Greeks, like the goddess Athena, they're looking for wisdom.

But he says, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

Christ, the power of God, the Jews are looking for power.

They don't think the most powerful thing you could possibly do is die on a cross for the sin of the world.

But that's what Christ has done.

And dying on a cross seems pretty dumb, pretty foolish for the Greeks.

But Paul is saying, no, it's elite wisdom.

What looks weak, what looks dumb, is neither with the kingdom of God and God at work.

And then you have 2 Corinthians 1 as another example of this hidden kingdom manifest in strange ways.

2 Corinthians 1, writing back to the church at Corinth, Paul says, I've had some stuff happen to me that's been confusing.

I have got to the point, this is post-Pentecost, he's filled with the Spirit of God.

And he's like, I got to the point where I despaired of life itself.

Like honestly, that's saying, I sort of thought, can I even go on?

Do I even take my own life?

Like he can barely cope.

But he says, but I was given comfort in the midst of my despair.

In verse 10, he has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again.

On him we have set our hope, and he will continue to deliver us.

In weakness God is at work.

The Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness, not just in victory.

And then you have back in the Gospels, in a different Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter 5, 6, 7 of Matthew.

And Jesus is about to give the most in-depth unveiling of truth really jam-packed into a couple of chapters we probably find in the whole of the Bible.

And it begins with the Beatitudes saying, blessed are, and what does blessed mean?

More than happy is.

More than happy are the poor in spirit.

This is when he's unveiling all the truth, the manifesting of what is correct.

Blessed more than happy are those who mourn.

Blessed are happier than meek.

More than happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

It's odd, don't you think?

Who gets the title of blessed?

The Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

Because if you get to know the King of the Kingdom, you are blessed in ways that are hidden.

And then, you know, all we have to do is think about our memory verse a few months ago, Philippians 2, where it says that Jesus, out of humility, went to the cross, died in our place.

And because of that act of humility and obedience, he's been given the promotion, given the name above every other name, every power in heaven and on earth and under the earth will kneel before him.

He is Lord to the glory of God.

Through suffering on a cross, he went to the highest place.

The Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness, isn't it?

I'm losing people as I look around.

Too many scriptures, hey?

Is that fair?

Am I making an argument that's fair?

Hebrews 11.6, without faith, you can't please God.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Hiddenness, faith is believing that God's at work, even though we're not quite seeing it the way we'd hope.

And then now we come to Mark.

Parable number one.

There's four parables here.

Parable number one.

Chapter four begins with Jesus on a boat.

He's getting a natural amphitheatre.

He's just a little bit out.

The water is resonating his voice, and he's speaking to a large crowd.

And he says to them, Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed?

Instead, don't you put it on its stand?

For whatever's hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.

If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.

What does that mean?

What is he saying?

What is he basically saying in that short parable?

I don't think it's anything more than that.

Look, revelation is meant to be understood.

God is the source of all light, and Jesus starts and he's starting teaching some parables.

He's just taught a very significant parable, which we looked at this morning, the parable of the sower, which may be the most important story ever told on earth about how people hear truth.

Listen, we looked this morning at the Shema, the holy prayer of Israel.

It begins with, hear Israel, hear Israel, Shema Israel.

And then in the sermon, the sower, Jesus in verse 3, at the very beginning of the great parable of the sower, he says, listen, a farmer sowed seed.

This whole section is about listening, hearing God's truth and receiving it with a receptive heart.

But I actually think it's exactly that.

Revelation is meant to be understood.

Light will do its job.

So can we move on?

I think that's parable one.

If you've got a lamp, you don't put it under a rock.

You let the lamp show light and revelation.

So we're like, okay, Lord, there's revelation to be received.

That's a good thing.

Parable two.

He says, consider carefully what you hear.

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

And even more, whoever has will be given more, whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.

What does that mean?

What's the general gist of the parable?

If you just had to say, what's the main thing he is saying?

It seems too simple, but it's the truth.

What you receive will expand, and you'll be given more.

But there's revelation going out all the time from God.

Psalm 19, the heavens declare his glory.

There's truth.

God's in human flesh standing there talking to people.

He's just talked about different soils in people's hearts, and it's all about how good are your ears?

Are you listening?

And so he says, there's revelation in the heart.

Revelation available, you don't hide it under a rock, and by the way, if you receive it with a good heart, with good soil, you're teachable and humble, you're going to learn more and more and more, and you'll be used by God more and more and more.

But if you shut yourself off, if you have a closed heart, it's only going to get darker.

Isn't that what he's saying?

Whoever has it is going to be given more.

And he's talking about the truth of revelation.

And we're trying to understand this in the light of the Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

So sometimes if you don't receive the truth that God is giving you, it will remain more and more hidden.

But there's something beautiful that happens when you receive revelation and you allow the Spirit to teach you more and more.

You have eyes to see and ears to hear when he's at work in ways that other people miss.

Amen?

This is Kingdom truth.

Parable 3.

He also said, This is what the Kingdom of God is like.

A man scatters seed on the ground night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

All by itself, the soil produces grain, first the stalk and then the head, then the full kernel and the head.

As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

Is it in line with what we've been saying?

The Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

Like, don't get over complicated.

What is the seed in the ground doing?

Stuff you can't see.

It's growing.

The Kingdom grows in hiddenness, but also in an ordered fashion.

Seed, seed sprout, seed grows, first stalk, then head, then full kernel, then harvested.

And you know, I think we could, many of us could relate to the idea of humility, revelation granted to us, obedience, repentance, obedience some more, blessing.

Would you agree that God is often at work a lot slower than we hope He is?

This idea of a seed growing slowly.

And there's lots of examples in life that we know about if you're trying to get fit, it takes time.

If you're building a relationship between human beings, it just takes time to build those connections.

If a child is learning how to swim, you don't see much happening for a long time, but it's all happening underneath, and they're learning.

That's what the Kingdom of God is like, a seed growing underground.

The Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

Lots of stuff that God does in our lives, He's doing it without us knowing.

And we don't understand what's going on.

That's what the passage says, isn't it?

The farmer doesn't quite understand what's going on, but he trusts, yeah, sow the seed, water it in the soil, and God's doing a work.

Parable 4.

Again, he said, what shall we say the Kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?

And then I find this fascinating.

This is the Word of God.

This is Jesus, you know, God incarnate.

He's watched all of human history, all of life itself.

He could come up with anything he wants, yes?

He's about to choose to pick a metaphor, a picture, a parable that describes what the Kingdom of God is like, anything at all.

And he says, I know, I know.

It's like a mustard seed, the Kingdom of God.

It's the smallest of all seeds on earth.

And us, in the 21st century, go, I love that Lord.

Because sometimes I feel like I've got little faith, like I've got tiny faith.

But you're telling me the Kingdom of God is like that, people who just, you know, they bring their brokenness and they're just a little bit of faith, but God sees it and he does a work.

And look, that's the truth.

He's saying something about the smallness of the faith required.

But then he says, where it heads, he says, when it's planted, verse 32, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.

With many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them as much as they could understand.

He did not say anything to them without using a parable, but when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything.

When I was growing up, I used to just imagine, mustard trees must be so awesome.

I've never seen one, but I've seen massive gum trees or huge red cedars.

I've never seen a mustard seed, but it must be bigger than that.

Right?

Because he can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

God can do anything.

Mary was told, with man this is impossible, with God it's possible.

Like, dream, but, you know, God can do anything.

That's certainly what I thought was the mustard tree.

This is the mustard tree.

It grows about 10, 12 feet high.

Mike's an agriculture guy and he looked it up at our Bible study and he said, they grow very quickly.

That might be some of the takeaway that Jesus was saying.

Are you blown away?

Are you blown away?

This is it.

This is our Lord.

He's the most creative being in the universe.

He knows everything and he's creative, does a great job of coming up with symbols.

Communion, baptism.

Here's his moment to shine, to just put it out there.

And we would look back and go, wow, the Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

He says, it's like a mustard seed.

It takes a long time to grow.

And then when it grows, she's a beauty, isn't she?

Have you ever thought about when Jesus was doing his life and ministry, he went up on that mountain and he was transfigured in glorious, shining revelation, glory.

How many people did he give it to?

Three.

Peter, James and John.

When he was resurrected from the dead, truly glorious, glorious, he didn't do the transfiguration again.

I would have thought that he would have gone, OK, guys, here we go.

There's 500 of you.

Let me show you.

I never showed you this.

I was self-limited, but here we go.

Boom.

The transfiguration stuff.

I'm not being disrespectful, honestly.

You only get that in revelation.

And even in revelation, he's got blood coming out of him.

My point is, the Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

Even the Lord Jesus.

His life and death and resurrection.

Clearly, there was hiddenness there.

People didn't understand what was going on, what God was doing for the universe through him.

But you think that when it's all finished, he would go, ta-da, it's all here.

The big red cedars of Lebanon.

No, no, he looked more like a mustard tree.

They thought he was the gardener.

And then he sent, he went back to heaven, disappeared into a cloud, gave his spirit to his church, and they had boldness for a while, for sure.

But they got stuff wrong.

And before we came in, there was a song being played, Oh, What a Beautiful Life.

Oh, what a beautiful life, what a beautiful life.

And I thought, isn't it cool to be living in a time in history when you just sing that song?

Because a lot of people who have lived and called Jesus Christ their Lord, that was more of a hidden truth.

Do you know what I'm saying?

That was a hidden truth.

That was a hidden truth for people that lost their lives in the first century when Jesus said, I send you out as lambs among walls.

I think he was describing a mustard tree.

Now, you might be sort of thinking, where are you going?

This is so depressing.

I just want to point out that Gandalf came back at the end of the Lord of the Rings on a white horse, didn't he?

Jesus comes at a white horse in the end in Revelation, I think, but he's certainly glorious.

But the life we have been called to live is gloriously understated.

It is.

Maybe this is why we read truth bombs like this in James, James 1, 4.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature.

That is teleos.

That is perfect.

That is lacking nothing and complete, not lacking anything.

This process of getting the truth that's in the revelation of the lamp, that isn't hidden, but it's found in strange places.

Trials, sufferings, glories, the hiddenness of human frailty.

Like a truth bomb in Romans, chapter 5, verse 3, not only so, we glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.

I find it, I just find it challenging.

We did this, looked at this stuff in Bible study this week, and when I put this forward, I feel like a faithless person.

I feel like I'm undermining the glories of Christianity.

But I still look at these parables, and I look at the life of Christ and the Church, and I think it's more hidden than you think.

We could talk about glorious Christian mission, couldn't we?

Reaching China, Church growing, big churches in America, in Africa, in South America, like all the great stuff that God has done.

And you know, He does, He does bless.

But like the Proverbs, not everything is true all the time.

I'm suggesting to you tonight that the typical expectation of the Kingdom that we should expect is hidden, less powerful than more powerful.

Think of the evangelicals of America.

Are they looking far better now that they have access to more power?

They're not.

Christians all over America are saying, well, I can't call myself an evangelical anymore because that's been loaded with a whole lot of stuff that I'm not.

And a lot of that stuff is about power.

Is that fair to say?

I'm not trying to bash on any particular wing, but Christianity, when it gets more and more powerful, normally gets more and more further away from who she is meant to be.

Because of this truth, the Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

It looks like a mustard tree, but it's a glorious mustard tree.

So, I got to the end of this prep of this sermon, and I was like, Oh Lord, okay, let's go out and be mustard trees.

And what are we saying?

Are we saying that this is pretty less than what we hope for?

But that's not it at all, because the answer is found in Philippians, where Paul writes about the kingdom of God.

In chapter 4, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always, I'll say it again, rejoice, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near.

Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God.

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There's a work going on that is hidden in us, isn't it?

Like we are hidden in Christ.

The Kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

It's what is happening in here that matters.

And of course, there will be good that comes from that.

But when Paul writes a little bit further on in Chapter 4, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Others might look at my life and say, Paul, you had so much potential, you just ended up a mustard tree.

And he's like, oh yeah, but I'm a mustard tree who knows God.

And that's what he says.

He says, I've learned to be content.

I know what it is to be.

It's funny, I don't know why this has got me so emotional.

Probably because it's close to the truth, I think.

He says, I've learned the secret of being content.

Being content, which is a big secret, isn't it?

That's a hiddenness of the kingdom.

Other people would look at Paul and think, well, there's no way you could have joy.

There's no way you could have peace because you're, you know, the list of the ways he's been treated.

He's had terrible things.

He's nearly drowned, beaten, this, flogged out.

He said, no, but I found the way to find the king of the kingdom.

In the midst of all that, I found him.

And that's the secret, right?

That's the secret of Philippians 3.

Whatever was what I sought after in the past, in Philippians 3, he says, I don't consider that of any worth at all, but what I really think is worthwhile is what?

Knowing Christ.

And I think what Paul is saying in that passage is, I learnt how to make God the end in himself and not a means to my end.

He's not the one I go to to get blessed.

He's the one I go to to know.

Just to know.

He says, I long to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the glorious stuff, along with that, the power of the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.

Isn't that wonderful stuff?

That that's what it's all about, this Christian life.

Knowing Christ, knowing Christ Jesus.

And if you haven't worked it out, that's a profound graduate Christianity journey, amen.

It's not just another Bible study.

It's to find a piece that transcends what's going on in my life and out of that piece of knowing Christ, there is this joy and there's an ability to love others.

And I get my eyes off what I'm trying to establish because I'm so convinced that I'm meant to have a red cedar to the glory of God that is my ministry or my job or whatever.

I think that's what Jesus is saying.

It looks like a mustard tree.

It's not bad, but it doesn't look, the world's going to look at you and go, huh, power.

Isn't that what Paul said at the start of this?

Power and wisdom, that's found in someone who recognises that knowing Christ is the end we seek, amen.

Knowing Christ himself is the secret.

The kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

We talked about this at our Life Hub, as I said, and one of our members said something so great at the end.

She said, my identity in Christ is hidden.

That's what matters.

And that's how nothing can touch me, because I am in Christ.

The kingdom of God is manifest in hiddenness.

I am in the kingdom, I belong to the king, I am in Christ.

But you wouldn't know it from looking at me, because it's all in here and here, amen?

I am in Christ, I am hidden in him.

And what he does through me might look hidden to the rest of the world.

But I know he's at work, because he's planted a seed in me.

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