"The Kingdom - many or few?"

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Today's bible readings from the gospel of Luke chapter 13 versus 18 to 30. Then jesus asked, what is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed which man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree and the birds perched in its branches.

Again, he asked, what shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like east that a woman took and mixed into about 30 kilograms of flour until it worked all through the dough. Then Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved. He said to them, make every efforts to enter through the narrow door because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Once the owner of a house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading. Sir, open the door for us, but he will answer. I don't know you or where you are from. Sorry, where you come from. Then you will say, we ate and drank with you, and you taught us in our streets.

But he will reply, I don't know you or where you come from away from me all you evildoers. There will be weeping there and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of god, but you yourselves thrown out People will come from east and west and north and south and will take their places in the feast at the feast in the kingdom of god. Indeed, there are those who are last who will be first first, who will be last? Well, let's come to god's word, page 1 0 4 6. Thank you, John, for reading it.

Please have that open, if you closed your bars, open it up. Page 1 0 4 6, and let me pray for us. Heavenly father, we thank you again that we have your word. Thank you that it is powerful that we are not dealing with, mere words, but we are dealing with your words, which are sharper than any 2 edged sword. And so as we come to your word, give us, humility before you.

Help us to be ready to listen and to learn and to respond. Oh, man. Well, as has been said, we are in a series, stories on the road lessons in following Jesus. And, today's stories that Jesus told that we're looking at have a a a slightly different from the previous ones. Today's theme in the stories is the kingdom of God and the growth of the kingdom of god.

And we need to hear this because as if you're a follower of Jesus, then you may feel living in this country that we are in a small minority. You may feel very outnumbered. We are very outnumbered. And you may feel, therefore, you may question at times Am I have I done the right thing following Jesus? Because we're so, we react very strong depending on what others around us think.

We're very influenced, aren't we by others? We're more influenced probably than we recognize. And psychologists know this as well that we tend to go with the crowd. We want to go with the crowd with what other people are doing and thinking. We wanna go with the crowd.

And yet the crowd around us generally are not Christians. But more than that, those around us can, it seems, be quite against Christianity. Maybe that's true for you in your workplace or your home or your street. That people oh, they're not gonna stone you for being a Christian, but maybe they just think you're a bit nuts. And after a while, you can think, am I?

Maybe I am? I'm am I doing the right thing following Jesus? And maybe Jesus' followers, when he was teaching, maybe might have thought some similar things. After all, if you've been reading through Luke 9 onwards, if you've been following the plan that we put out on the prayer diary, you've been reading through from Luke 9 onwards, you will have seen Jesus opposing the religious establishment. There's a whole section where he pronounces a series of woes against them.

In other words, that they've just got it all wrong, that they are hypocrites, and he's exposed them. And this is the religious establishment that everyone would have expected. And Jesus' followers might well have thought, are we doing the right thing following Jesus? Jesus has likened the religious establishment to a fig tree in Luke 13, verse 6, you don't need to look back on it, but he likens it to a a fig tree, which is fruitless. Fig tree, a an image of Israel, and Jesus is saying it's fruitless and is in danger of being chopped down by god.

And in the passage, just before the 1 that John read for us that we're gonna focus on, Jesus healed someone, miraculously healed someone on the Sabbath, and the synagogue leader opposed Jesus for that. Mean, ignoring the fact there is an incredible miracle that took place. And yet, because it was on the Sabbath, he opposed Jesus. Now as Jesus' followers, those listening to Jesus, You might well have thought, are we doing the right thing here? Is this right to follow Jesus and do what he's saying?

And we might think the same. Have we backed the right horse? Well, we need to hear these stories that Jesus tells about the kingdom. And there are 2 sections, you see them with the, actually, the headings in the NIV, which are part of the original, but they're quite a good division for us. We're gonna look at verses 18 to 21.

That's the first part. And then 22 to 30, that's the second part. First part is a huge encouragement. I hope you'll be encouraged by it. And then the second part Well, there's a quite a gear change.

There's quite a change, and it's quite a challenge. Okay. So I'm flagging that up for you so that you're ready for that gear change. First part though. Let's go for that first.

This is a huge encouragement. Here's our first, first title. No, it's not. Let's try again. Being encouraged, the kingdom will grow.

So the first part here is, stories, 2 stories, which are all about growth, aren't they? You've got the mustard seed and the yeast, and both are about growth. First off, the mustard seed. He he say he talks about the mustard seed and says, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed verse 19, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree and purchased bra and birds perched in its branches.

It's not a difficult story. I messed up saying it, but but it's not a difficult story. Is it? Small mustard seed planted in the ground, sprouts up becomes a vast tree. Jesus is actually picking up on imagery, which is in the old testament as well, in the book of Daniel, where there is a kingdom which is likened to a tree.

King never could neza, who is king of Babylon, has a dream about a tree. A vast tree with birds that come and perch in its branches. And Daniel interprets the dream and says, you, King nebuchadnezzar, are that tree. And by implication, your kingdom is like that tree. It is vast, growing.

Big, a big kingdom. And say by Jesus saying that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, he's saying it starts small, but will grow, and will be a vast kingdom. A great kingdom. That's where Jesus's kingdom is heading. Of course, it starts small.

It starts what seems weak and pathetic. And after Jesus spoke these words, it would only get more weak and pathetic. In fact, it would reduce down to 1 person hanging on a cross, and all his followers deserting him. That's how weak and small it got, and yet the mustard seed was sown and grew. And throughout the book of acts, you see it grow and become bigger and bigger and it's continuing to grow, and we'll come back to that in a moment.

And Jesus is saying that's what's gonna happen. And the second story is similar. Yeah. You have a woman who takes yeast. We're told verse 20, what shall I compare the kingdom of God to?

It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about 30 kilograms of flour until it worked all through the dough. This woman takes this yeast, puts it in the dough literally. The word is literally hides it in the dough. Until it grows and it's worked throughout all the dough. Similar theme, similar theme, the spread of the kingdom.

This time, not so much outward growth as more a kind of infiltration, a kind of spreading, spreading through penetrating through till it gets right the way through the dough. And there's this emphasis on the hiddenness of it. The yeast is hidden and yet end up permeating the day. So too with the kingdom of god, it won't necessarily be obvious growth. It might be more subtle, and yet it is sure to spread.

And in both cases, you've gone from small to big. Mustard seed to tree, yeast, small man put into a large amount of flour spreads throughout. Now do you see the encouragement here? I hope this encourages you. Here is Jesus saying, however small, however weak the kingdom looks, and may be where you are.

It is absolutely certain it will grow. The fig tree of Judaism was under threat, and yet it looked so solid. The religious establishment then looked so secure. But Jesus is saying, actually, that is under threat. It might collapse.

If the lord decides it would. But Jesus' kingdom, which looks so weak will grow and become a vast tree. Solid, secure. And as we've said, it did grow. In the book of acts, it grew.

And has continued to grow, and I just thought it would be useful at this point, just to talk a little bit about some of the statistics of where the where the church is now, just a little bit. Some of you love statistics, some of you might not. But This is incredibly encouraging. Last November, I was at the, FI National Leaders Conference, and they had a session, the the National Director John Stevens did a session on what is the state of of global Christianity, and it was a real encouragement. So I just wanted to feed on to you some of those things.

So I'm entirely dependent on John Stevens. None of this is my own research. I've not gone around the world. I mean, if you want me to go around the world and do this research, you know, I I'd be willing to give it a go, but, let's rest on John Stevens' work for the time being until I get that go ahead. And it's true over the last hundred and 50 years, Christianity in Europe has declined.

But globally, Christianity has grown enormously. Now statistics are a bit tricky, and it it can be a bit tricky to work, you know, what counts as a genuine Christian what's not. So you kinda gotta go with whatever the stats you get, but you know that there there might be some inaccuracies in there. Christianity, let me so the slides that are gonna come out are John Stephen Slides. I only only got a few of them for you.

He said, Christianity is, the biggest religion globally. 2500000000.0 Christians in the world. 32 percent of the world, Christians. So almost a third of the world. That's incredible, isn't it?

People have estimated, that I quite like this this statistic. He said, in the there are more Christians today than there were people alive in the whole world when Jesus was doing his ministry. It's quite a nice little stamp. Which means Jesus is keeping his promise. The tree is growing.

And, it's not even growth throughout the entire world, different continents, different countries. Obviously, there's different different degrees of growth. The most staggering growth has been in Africa, So his, stat that he gave on that, growth in Africa in 1901 percent of the popular of population of Africa were Christians 20, 49 percent. That is a huge amount of growth in Africa in, just over 100 years. Other continents have seen growth as well as Asia has, Latin America has, not not quite as dramatic as that.

But they have seen big growth as well. And the last slide I I'm gonna give you is, the 1 where he said, the the the growth that there has been, is often in unexpected places. So, he gave a map of the fastest growing countries of Christians, yeah, where Christianity is growing the fastest, basically. And here are the places, the the the lighter ones are the ones where you've got the faster growth. And what's interesting there, I think, is you've got some way you might expect, that there would be vast growth, maybe you'd expect it in America, South Korea, those kind of places.

But you've got some places, which maybe you you wouldn't expect, Russia's there, China. I mean, we know that there's big growth in of the church in China, but it's oppressed. The the Christian Christians are oppressed, the Iran, other countries there as well. You can see them. But interesting, isn't it?

It's a global thing that Christianity is spreading. It is growing. The yeast is spreading. The tree is growing. So be encouraged by this.

1 last stat for you. It's not on a slide. Overall, it is estimated 168000 people become born again Christians. Every day. Say that again.

It's estimated that 168000 people become born again Christians every day. It is a vast number. The tree is growing. The yeast is spreading. Now John Stevens also pointed out.

His second point after talking about growth was about, persecution as well and suffering of of of god's people. Which also spreads. Not so much actually people dying for their faith. I mean, that does happen, but it, the, the, in the context he gave it, you said, actually, it's not as big as you would expect the number of people dying for their faith. Does happen.

And, actually, the worst place for that is in Nigeria, where where you get people being killed for their faith. But, actually, it's more in persecution in being marginalized, and oppressed. So that goes with it as well, but we're thinking about growth here. So as we see in these stories, Jesus says the tree is growing. The yeast is spreading.

Often in small ways to begin with, in hidden ways. And it's often slow. There's an implication in the stories. The tree trees grow slowly. The yeast, takes time for yeast to have its effect.

And so, therefore, we need to keep persevering. You say, well, what about us in toll with Lord? What are you doing here? Well, we need to keep persevering. Keep at it.

In keep asking friends to come to things. You're asking them to join something that is gonna be big. It already is big. It's gonna be the biggest kingdom the world has ever known. That's what you're asking them to join.

So keep asking friends, and don't worry if you get knockbacks. We get knockbacks. I think I've spoken to others who when it came to inviting people to the passion for life events. I invited someone. They they said no.

Don't be discouraged. Keep going. Keep asking people, don't give up. Often, it starts small in hidden ways, small things. That the lord will use.

Keep going doing door to door outreach. We're starting that up again today on the estate. Please be praying for us. And it won't seem very powerful. I don't think well, I don't know.

We'll see what happens. Likely it is, it won't seem very powerful. But trust that the lord will use it. Keep going with the toddler's group. Passion for life events, those kind of things.

Other ways that we try to reach out, let's keep going. And 1 day, we will see it that it is an enormous tree of vast kingdom. Now we're gonna come to the second section. And you're prepared already that there's gonna be a gear change. There's a bit of a gear change here.

Someone then asks Jesus. Verse 23, Someone asked him, lord are only a few people going to be saved. Interesting. This comes straight after those parables, those stories about growth. And this person is saying, are only a few people gonna be saved.

And Jesus then doesn't answer the question, but issues a challenge. First 24, would you have a look at that with me? He said to them, make every effort to enter through the narrow door because many I tell you will try to enter and will not be able to. Interesting. Luke put these puts these things together.

He says Jesus said about this tree growing and about the yeast spreading. And then this story where Jesus says, okay, that's the kingdom out there. That's what's gonna happen. But now what about you? He says, make every effort to enter the kingdom.

Make every effort, which isn't saying that there are sort of things you've got to do. A sort of tasks you've gotta complete to get in, but he is saying, nevertheless, don't assume. Make sure you're in. And he tells a story, a story about people entering a kingdom, his kingdom, the kingdom of god. And in this story, it would have been shocking for Jesus' first heroes to hear this story because as we've seen, there are people who assume that they will be in who would expect to get in, who don't, and other people who the people listening would have expected not to be in, who get in?

I'm sure you, know, the experience of not being able to get in somewhere, maybe not being able to get into a restaurant. I seem to have this knack of reserving tables at in restaurants when you don't need to, and they're not reserving them when you do need to. You have that experience. You book the table. You book the table.

You go along. You find out there is no 1 else in the restaurant. But yet you still go through the process of when the waiter comes over to you to welcome you, says, hi there. You say, I booked a table. And they look at you and say, okay.

And go through the the fictional day of getting the book out and finding your name there, the only name, and crossing it off, and then saying, where do you wanna sit? But then other times, you go to the restaurant and you find actually it's really busy. And you go in and you say, okay, you know, can we have a table? And they say, have you booked? So, no.

So where are you gonna have to wait? You're gonna have to wait in the queue. You go outside and you see the queue there that you spotted before and thought, wonder why those people are there. And you realize that's the cue that you're gonna have to join the vast long queue and you go and join at the far end, and you're watching everyone inside, having a lovely time, taking a very long time over their desserts, seeming to take forever to pay as you're just getting hungrier and hungrier. Jesus says, some who think they should be able to come in who assume their table is reserved in the kingdom, won't just have to wait in a queue.

They're not gonna get it. He describes the narrow door, which isn't, which means not everyone is getting in. And it implies maybe fewer get in than expect to. Indeed, it says people will try to get in but can't because he says verse 25, there's a time limit. He says once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, sir, open the door for us.

Jesus is saying very clearly, there will come a time when the owner of the house will shut the door. And at that point, it will be too late to come into his kingdom. And the picture he has here is of people banging on the door pleading to come in. And the master says verse 25. He will answer.

I don't know you or where you come from. And they are surprised. First 20 sixth, they will say then you will say, we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets. Now this is a moment when Jesus reveals who the master I said, master of the house, that's getting a bit lame as a Robert. It's not that.

We're the owner of the houses. Jesus reveals who the owner of the house is. Here, doesn't he? It's the person who's ate and drank with them, who's taught in their streets. It's Jesus.

Jesus is the owner of the house. And notice, Jesus, the owner of the house is I mean, the story almost collapses here, doesn't it? Because he's not talking about them, those people who try to get in the kingdom, he's saying, you It's very pointed here, isn't it? He says, you will say. Thank you saying, you know, we're gonna we're gonna be in this scenario in the future.

I'm the owner of the house. I'm gonna be there. You're gonna be there. But you'll be on the other side of the door, and you'll be pleading to come in. And I will say, I don't know you.

And you'll say, but we ate and drank with you. And eating and drinking with Jesus is, eating and drinking back then was a sign of fellowship. It's a bit bit more than just having a meal, though, we would now it's a sign of fellowship. And they'll say, but we ate and drank with you, and and you taught us in the streets. We heard your teaching.

We were there. You remember you remember me? I was there. I was listening. I I loved what you said.

I I I I heard it. It it was great to hear. And Jesus says, the owner will say, and he repeats it. First 27, I don't know you or where you're from. Away from me, you evil doers.

And those on the outside will be in despair. Verse 28, there will be weeping there and gnashing of teeth. Commentators say gnashing of teeth is a sign of anger. There'll be tears. There'll be anger from those on the outside.

Now this is frightening. It should hit home to us searching. This is really frightening. And maybe you struggle with this. Your initial reaction is to say, I I don't want this kind of teaching.

I don't I don't wanna hear this on a Sunday morning. I don't wanna get this kind of teaching. And we need to ask ourselves, when Jesus is saying this, is he saying this just to scare people? Or is he doing it because he loves them? Remember begins the story by saying, make every effort to come in.

He wants them to come in. He's urging them not to stay as they are. And therefore, it like a parent with a child, where They are trying to convince their child not to run into the road. And sometimes you have to say to the child, if you do this. If you go out into the road, you will get seriously hurt or you may be killed.

And the parent says it with tears in their eyes, and the child says it reacts with tears. And yet the parent is doing it because he loves the child. And Jesus is loving the people here and saying, don't stay on the outside, make every effort to come in. It's a loving challenge. What about you and me?

Have you responded to Jesus? Don't presume you're okay. When Jesus here, what what's he saying? He's saying the issue is for those people on the outside, he says, I don't know you. Now to know someone there is is to be in relationship with them.

It's not just knowing about them. It's to be in relationship with them. So Jesus is saying, look, it's not enough for you just to have been near me. Just for you to have heard my teaching or for me to have eaten with you, you we need to know each other. I need to know you, be in relationship with you.

So today, don't presume you're okay on the basis of your nationality or on the basis of family background, Christian Past, that you grew up in a Christian home. Wonderful thing, but don't presume upon that, or that you come to a Bible teaching church. Proximity to Jesus' teaching clearly doesn't get you in. You need to have faith in Jesus. Unlike the religious leader, the religious establishment of the day who were rejecting Jesus.

Jesus says, now you don't be like that. Put your trust in Jesus. Come to him. Have you turned to him? Confessed your sins to him, asked for forgiveness, and submitted to him as your lord.

Next week, we're gonna think more about what that means, what that cost is. But have you done it? Have you turned to Jesus yourself? Make every effort, he says? And you can do it today.

Don't leave it for another time. You don't know when the door will close. Now if you want to talk to someone about this, if you're thinking, I I I'm not sure. Oh, I need to talk to someone about this. Please do.

You could talk if you're in a gospel community, talk to 1 of your gospel community leaders, or 1 of the elders or to myself, we're very happy to talk about these things. But don't leave this. Jesus says, don't assume, but make sure you'll come in. And anyone who comes to Jesus can come in, he welcomes all who put their trust in him, and will come on more in the next couple of weeks to what it means to turn to god. We'll come to that in a couple of weeks when we have the guest service where we're gonna be thinking about parable of the prodigal son.

But notice as we finish, we're gonna finish on a more positive note. Here you get. More positive now. Notice as we finish who will be in the kingdom. It says first 28, there will be weeping there and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham.

Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of god, but you yourselves thrown out. He's saying they will be in there. Interesting that, isn't it? Abraham, Isaac, the prophet they're in. Old testament believers.

We're in. Just because the fig tree is in danger at Jesus' time of the religious establishment. Doesn't mean all old testament people you read in the old testament that they were none of them were in. No. No.

If they believe they were in, he's saying they'll be in. Will you? And then he says verse 29, people will come from east and west and north and south and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of god. People will come, he says, from all over the place, all over the world. As we were seeing in that that map of the world, where where Christianity is growing fastest, people from Russia and China and Iran.

People are coming in. He's saying, they will, and they are. And these people listening to Jesus would have thought, those are the people on the outside. They're not. Would they come in?

He says, yeah, they'll come in. First 30. There are those who are last, who will be first, and first who will be last. So don't assume you can't come in because you feel like you're on the outside. Because you feel like you're 1 of the last.

Because you assume Christians come from a particular ethnic background or certain class or have to be well educated or, or that you can't come to Jesus if you're from a different religion. Now any can come to Jesus because what gets you into the kingdom is being in relationship with him, and he welcomes any who will come to him. So make every effort to enter through the narrow door, come into the kingdom, and be part of what is growing. Started as a mustard seed started so small and weak, but is now growing. And growing and growing to be a vast tree come in to that if you haven't yet.

Come to Jesus, enter through the narrow door. Let me pray for us. Further, we thank you for the encouragement from your word. Thank you that, your kingdom has grown, is growing, is a vast tree. And we praise you for that.

Thank you. You are keeping your promise. And we hear this challenge, father, from your words, help us to make sure that we make every effort to be in your kingdom, to turn to Jesus. And we pray many more words, people from this estate, from the signal park towers, from Tollworth, Kingston, and beyond. We pray for our friends, our families, those in our streets, those in our workplaces, father, we pray that they would come in, bring them in, we pray.

And help us, we pray everyone here in this room would enter through that narrow door. Ah, ma'am.