St Mary's

Today Talk from Rev'd Julie

26th July 2026

The kingdom of heaven is a key part of Jesus teaching.  He opened his ministry by preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  (Matt 4:17) Jesus also taught about the kingdom of heaven, often using parables to help people understand what the kingdom of heaven is like. 

First of all, we need to understand what the kingdom of heaven is before we can work out what it is like.  The kingdom of heaven is Matthew’s way of saying the kingdom of God.  Dallas Willard defines the kingdom of God as “the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done.  The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organising principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom. (p 33 The Divine Conspiracy).

John Piper defines God’s kingdom as “God’s kingly rule – his reign, his action, his lordship, his sovereign governance.”  (Desiring God website)

In other words, the Kingdom of God is the place where God reigns, where his will is done, and is filled with those who willingly submit to God’s authority and obey his will.

That is what Jesus is teaching us about in these parables. He is also teaching us how we are to understand what the kingdom of God is like.  The Rabbis of Jesus day often used parables to help their audience understand difficult concepts.  A parable is a deceptively simple story that is used to help us think more deeply about and better understand what the Rabbi wants to teach.  A deceptively simple story on the surface but one that contains a deep and important truth.

Jesus was a rabbi and he too taught in parables.  He used simple concepts that the people around him could understand seeds, yeast, treasure, pearls, and fishing in order to help them understand a very complex reality. He used accessible images of daily life to illustrate a bigger, less accessible truth.

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that grows into a tree that birds come and perch in. He is saying that the kingdom of God starts very small but soon grows to cover the whole world.  He is probably referencing Daniel 4 where Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: “The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds— Your Majesty, you are that tree! You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth.”  The kingdom of God, like the tree that is Nebuchadnezzar, will become great and strong, and have dominion over the whole world.  The birds perching in the tree represent the nations coming into the kingdom.  In the Old Testament the image of birds often represented “the nations”; the Gentiles, all those people who were not the children of Israel.

Jesus then likened the kingdom of heaven to “yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”  Like the mustard seed, yeast is very small, but it spreads and grows.  It is a tiny part of the mixture, but it affects and changes the whole of the dough.  So the kingdom of God begins as a small part of the world and over time affects and change the whole world.  Equally on an individual level the kingdom of God begins as a small part of a person’s life but eventually grows within them to affect and change the whole of their life.

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like “treasure hidden in a field.  When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”  He also said that the kingdom is like “a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”  In both of these parables Jesus is telling us that the kingdom of God is so valuable that we should be willing to give up everything we have in order to have it.  Jesus is not saying that we can purchase the kingdom with money or good deeds but that we have to be willing to give up all that we are, all that we have, our very life in order to have the kingdom of God.

Finally, Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to a net which caught many fish.  He is saying that the kingdom of God is inclusive, everyone has access to it, can belong to the kingdom if they choose.  Jesus also said that the fishermen sorted out the fish the net caught, that they “collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away”.  Here Jesus is referring to the final judgment where “the angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous.”  Jesus is warning that although the kingdom of God is accessible to everyone, not everyone will accept it and the unrighteous, those who don’t accept it, will be separated from the kingdom.

So through these parables Jesus gives us a clear picture of the kingdom of God. 

The kingdom of God in the world has small beginnings and it works unseen, but it grows and works powerfully as it spreads through and changes our lives and the world.  We can’t see the kingdom of God, but it is working everywhere, growing and building until the time of the final judgement.  Like a seed that is planted or yeast that is mixed into dough, the kingdom is hidden, it works unseen but powerfully, spreading everywhere and changing lives as it does so until it covers the whole world.

The kingdom of God is valuable, it is a hidden treasure, the most valuable pearl.  When we find it, it is ours to have.  But it is expensive because it costs everything we have, our resources, our time our energy, our gifts, our lives, our very selves.  Everything.  But the kingdom of God is treasure, a pearl of great value, something that is worth everything that we have to give.

The kingdom of God is available to everyone; it is inclusive and we will all end up in it eventually at the final judgement. While it is available to everyone, we have to look for it, “seek first the kingdom of God” and when we find it, then we have to accept it.  If we don’t then, like the bad fish we will be “thrown away”.  So, while it is inclusive not everyone can stay.

Like the treasure and the pearl, we have to give everything we have for it and join in the growth, the movement, the change.   It seems expensive, giving everything we have, but the cost of not accepting it is more expensive.  We risk losing the kingdom of God and with-it God himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Accepting the kingdom of God costs us everything in this life but not accepting it costs us everything in the next life. And that cost is so much greater.

Jesus taught and lived the kingdom and in doing so he divided the world into two: those who followed him and those who rejected him.  He still does today, there are still those who accept him and those who reject him.  This will continue until that day when God will remake the world in justice and truth and all those who have rejected Jesus and formed themselves around injustice and lies will find that they are like the bad fish that the fishermen have to throw away.

This is a stark note of warning and a sharp contrast to the other images that highlight the beauty and worth of the kingdom.  It points out that the kingdom of God will ultimately be the only place that there is.  To us now, the kingdom may sometimes seem small, sometimes we can’t see it and it is hidden.  But the kingdom is waiting to be discovered, it is treasure waiting to be unearthed, a beautiful pearl waiting to be found.  The kingdom is the place where God rules, where love, grace, truth, forgiveness, mercy and justice are found.  In this world living in the kingdom of God may cost us our time, our resources, our energy; it may cost us friends or even family, it may cost us our reputation.  It will cost us our lives.  But the kingdom of God is worth so much more than that. The kingdom of God is worth everything that we have because we gain so much more.  We gain Jesus and his life; we gain the benefits of his death and resurrection.  We gain the Holy Spirit as our teacher and guide.  We gain access to the Father, we are welcomed as children into his presence.  And ultimately, we gain eternal life, in the presence of God, welcomed, loved, forgiven.  We become the people God made us to be, dwellers in his kingdom forever.  We gain everything that he has for us. That surely is worth the price of everything we have to give up for him now, gaining everything that God has for us.  Giving up everything is costly but we gain the treasure that is the kingdom of God, we gain everything that God has to give.  Not giving up everything is easy, not costly at all.  In this life.  But if we do not give everything, we have to gain the kingdom of God in this life, that will cost us everything in the next and that will be unbearable.

The kingdom of God is small in this world now, but eventually it will become the whole world.  The kingdom of God is a treasure, a valuable pearl, something we cannot afford to lose.  The kingdom of God is hidden, we have to find it, we have to give everything for it.  But it is worth it and the cost of losing it is immense because the kingdom of God is everything.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  The kingdom of God is ours to accept today.

Amen.