The Secret of the Kingdom

Have you ever wondered why Jesus left this earth without first having taught His disciples how to run the Church? Did it seem to you that He was assuming they would learn it all after His death?  Even though Jesus’ Holy Spirit imparted much to the disciples about the Church, Jesus did in fact tell all who were listening about how the believers should act, before His death.  This information was in His lessons, called the “Parables”.

Isaiah prophesied that God would speak to His people in a way that they would not understand (Is 6:9). Jesus told His disciples that was the reason He spoke in parables. “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables . . . “(Mk 4:11). The information from the parables was that important.  Only believers, such as the Disciples of Christ, could have the secrets contained in them.

If the Parables of Jesus are important, we would see the “moral of the story”, or the point of Jesus’ parables repeated by the Apostles, wouldn’t we? And we do.  In fact, Jesus began many of His Parables with “The Kingdom of God is like . . . “, and it is the Kingdom that Jesus brought amongst us.  The Church is to inhabit God’s Kingdom. The Apostles referred to the points in Jesus’ parables often. In fact, they expounded upon what Jesus taught.

The information in Jesus’ parables is just what we need to “clothe” ourselves with.  He taught about forgiveness, faithfulness, valuing the Kingdom, and much more.  Jesus did not want to come and find His people “naked” (Rev 3:17), for the shame of nakedness belongs to those who fail to obey His words. Jesus wanted to clothe us with an attitude of heart, expressed through our behavior, that would express His nature.  Even more, He did not want us to lose our battles with the enemy, satan.

One parable that clothes us, equipping us to win our battle against satan, is called “The Unmerciful Servant.” (Mt 18:23-35). In this story a man refuses to forgive his fellow servant, even though his master forgives him.  Jesus warns the believers that they need to forgive in order to be forgiven. In the following sets of scriptures, Paul also admonishes believers to forgive each other.

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Col 3:13) and

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Eph 4:31-32)

When we fail to forgive, we lose our battles to satan.  He destroys us, and our relationships. Our spiritual battles become an exercise in futility, all because we failed to obey Jesus, and simply forgive.

A second example of a parable that clothes and equips us is found in this statement;

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14)

Though a short statement, Jesus is asking us not to hide our godly nature, or “light”. He goes more into length on this topic in the parable about the Talents (Mt 25:14-30).  Jesus wants us to develop and use the talents He has given us.  Peter writes,

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet 4:10-11).

When we hide our light and fail to use our talents not only do we suffer loss, but the Church herself becomes impoverished and fails to grow.

“but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (Eph 4:15-16)

The failure of churches can be linked back to the failure of individuals who hid their light, and buried their talents.  Each time a believer is defeated, our enemy has won a victory.  Each time a church is defeated, the enemy has won a battle.  If we are passive about being clothed and equipped in Christ, he will win the war.

Yes, Jesus told us how we should run the church.  The secret of the Kingdom are not new lessons, but ancient.  If we follow Jesus and obey what He has told us to do we will find ourselves clothed, equipped, and victorious.  Amen.