The parables of Jesus  cover a variety of subjects. But I think that one subject stands out as predominant, and I would like to address that today, even if only briefly. We probably know that Jesus preached the gospel, and that this gospel is often described as "the gospel of the kingdom of God." This is not the most common description of the gospel, but it is the second-most common description. We know that Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, and that many of his parables were about the kingdom of God.

He would say, the kingdom of God is like this, and he would tell a parable, a story that would describe some aspect of the kingdom of God, and that is what I would like us to focus on today.

I will begin with the simple observation that when Jesus described the kingdom of God, he did not talk about people sitting under vines and fig trees, basking in the millennial sunshine. He did not talk about who was going to be in charge of world re-education, or racial distribution, or church-state relations, or any of those details that interested us so much. He didn't talk about the size of the harvests or how long people would live or any such thing.

What he talked about is how people get in. He said very little about what they do once they get in. The most important thing about the kingdom of God is not what it's like, but how to get in.

The kingdom of God is like this, he would say, and then he'd tell a story — a story of how people get in, a story of what people are supposed to do now, a story of people being judged. He said almost nothing about what people do after they are judged. That will take care of itself; we don't need to worry about it. All we need to know right now is getting in, about passing the judgment.

You see, the most important thing about the kingdom of God is not where it will be, or how much space we will have, or how many people will be in charge or how many people we will rule. The most important thing about the kingdom of God is not people — it is God.

If we are going to live forever with God, we need to know what he is like. If we are going to live under his rulership, we need to know what kind of ruler he is — that's even more important than the rules he has. We need to know what he is like, and the way that we get into the kingdom tells us a lot about what God is like.

Now, the Jews had the right God, but they had some important misunderstandings as to what God is like, and Jesus came to reveal to them what God is really like. He's really a lot like Jesus. If we have seen Jesus, then we will have seen what God is like. I'm not talking about his physical appearance — I am talking about the way that he gets along with people, about the way he loves people, about the way that he seeks to save the lost, about the way that he eats and drinks with gluttons and winebibbers and taxcollectors and sinners. That is what Jesus revealed God to be like.

Jesus' actions spoke even louder than his words, and his actions got him into just as much trouble with the Pharisees as did his words. His actions were parables. They were stories that tell us about what God is like. When he healed people, he was showing his authority to forgive sin, and he was showing that God likes to forgive sin. In his actions, Jesus is showing us something about God, and something about the kingdom of God. When we think about the kingdom of God, we are thinking about a world in which love and mercy are the dominant characteristics of the ruler.

Now, Jesus also told stories about the kingdom of God, and as stories, they touch on many different things. They may tell us something about ourselves, or something about the church, or something about the final judgment. But they also tell us something about God, and I would like to look at some of Jesus' parables today to see what they can tell us about God. When we talk about the kingdom of God, what sort of king are we talking about? Everything else depends on that, doesn't it? God is going to set the tone for everything else. He is going to make the kingdom the way that he wants it, and if we want to understand the kingdom of God, we need to focus on God as the maker and the ruler of the kingdom.

With that in mind, I would like for us to turn to Matthew 13. This is the biggest collection of Jesus' parables that are specifically said to be about the kingdom of God. This kingdom of God is like this. It is like this first story, and it is like this second story, and it is like this third story. And I would like to look at these stories to see what they tell us about God.

Matthew 13, verse 1: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.

It seems that this formed some sort of natural amphitheater. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by hills, and the "shore" is often a hillside, and many people could stand there and see Jesus and hear him. They were looking down on him.

3 Then he told them many things in parables,

And the first parable is a story about a sower, his seed, and different soils. We know know this is about the kingdom of God because a little later in the chapter Jesus explains that the seed represents "the message about the kingdom."

Now, before we get to the explanation of the parable, we have an important question from the disciples concerning the way in which Jesus was teaching the people. Verse 10:

In other words, it was not yet time for Jesus to make his meaning more clear. He had to teach his disciples first. Now, of course, since the explanation of the parables are now written down for everyone to read, the secrets of the kingdom are much more available. But even so, not everyone is willing to understand, and that is what the parable itself is explaining, as we will see.

Jesus says in verse 12, Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Here Jesus seems to be taking a regular proverb and applying it to this new situation. In English we have a similar proverb: The rich get richer. Spiritually, we might say that people who are willing to listen to some of God's truth are likely to be given more.

Verse 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.

So many people heard, but few understood. If they did understand, then they would have repented, and God would have healed them. But that is not what happened. The people had hard hearts. They did not want to listen.

For I tell you the truth, Jesus says in verse 17, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. The prophets wanted to see the Messiah. They wanted to hear what he taught, but it was not yet time. Now, Jesus says, it is time.

Verse 18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. So the gospel message goes out, and some people do not understand it. God does not force everybody to understand it. He lets them have their excuses, if they want them. They can choose not to believe in God, if they want to. God lets them do it.

If God made his existence too obvious, and his power too obvious, he would overwhelm everyone, and even selfish people would believe in God and for selfish reasons try to serve him. But God does not want that kind of service; he does not want people to obey simply because they are afraid of punishment. God is not looking for friends he can force into loving him — he wants people who of their own free will are willing to love him, and so God gives people space to make mistakes, space to reject him, the freedom to reject the gospel, the freedom to not hear what he says.

And Jesus describes the results here: The devil comes and takes the message away. If we don't value the message, we will not keep it for long. A person who does not want the truth will not keep the truth even if it is given to him. As Jesus said, "Whoever does not have, even what he has, even if he is given something, it will be taken from him. "

Verse 20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

Again, God does not force the gospel to take over people's lives. Even if they like it at first, he does not force them to respond all the way. If they like the gospel only when things are going well, only when they get what they want, only when they have health and wealth, then they have no root, and they will fall away. If they love God only when he does their will, they do not really love God, so he lets them go.

Verse 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

Now here's another reason that people can give up: They are deceived by wealth, into thinking that wealth will give them what they want. They might be wealthy, or they might be poor, either way they can be deceived by wealth, and they can begin to serve Mammon instead of Christ. And God allows that.

This is the kind of kingdom we are entering: A kingdom that does not force its people to stay, but a kingdom that lets people make bad choices if they want to. It invites us in, but does not force us to stay in. People are simply going to respond in different ways.

23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Part of this is our choice. Are we going to receive the message? Are we going to give up when trials come? Are we going to be distracted by the day-to-day worries of this life, or are we going to stay focused on what God is offering us? God wants us, yes, but not at all costs. He wants us to want his kingdom, and that requires our cooperation. We can choose the kind of soil that we are. We can be full of rocks, or thorns, or we can be the kind of soil that the gospel takes deep root in.

Verse 24 Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So God is here compared to a farmer, sowing seeds — spreading the good news. And he allows an enemy to work in his field, too. There are other messages being spread, and that is what the kingdom of God is like. It is not a monopoly. It is not the only message in town. God allows competition. He allows people to make excuses, to respond to the false messages instead of his.

Verse 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 "The owner's servants came to him and said, `Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 28 "'An enemy did this,' he replied.

"The servants asked him, `Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 29 "'No,' he answered, `because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'"

So there is both good and bad messages bearing fruit right now, and God is patient with that. He doesn't want the bad in his kingdom, but for right now he is content to let it be. Eventually he will get rid of the bad, but for now, the good and the bad are growing together. This tells us something about the patience of God. The owner's servants wanted to do exactly what most of us would want to do — we want to get rid of the bad right now. But God says let them both grow for now, and Jesus says this is what the kingdom of God is like. This is what it's like right now. It's only after we let people grow and see whether they bear fruit, that we can tell whether they are worth keeping.

Now, I am really glad about that — not because I enjoy seeing bad grow, but because I was once bad, and I still have some badness in me. I am glad that God did not root me out of the kingdom right away, but gave me some time. In the parable, of course, a bad plant does not turn into a good plant - that can't happen in real farming — but the point is that God gives people time to grow. He is not in a hurry to get rid of the bad. As it says in 2 Peter, he is patient, wanting everyone to come to repentance.

That is the kind of God that Jesus is talking about in this parable — a God who wants us to be good, but does not force us to be good. Rather, he is waiting for us to choose what is good. We do not do that on our own, of course, it has to start with God sowing the seeds.

Now, this parable doesn't tell us everything there is to know about God's grace or his Holy Spirit or the process of salvation. No one story could. That is why Jesus told many different parables, each to explain a different side of the story. This one is about God's patience, and the next one is similar, in verse 31:

The mustard seed is the smallest garden seed, but yet the plant grows quite large, and Jesus says the kingdom of God is like that. It starts small, and grows large. Right now, it's small. Later, it will fill the earth, but right now it is small, and it will grow.

God is willing to start small. He is willing to start with people like you and me, not because we are great, but because he can do great things in us.

And the next parable is similar — verse 33:

Earlier, Jesus compared God to a farmer. Here he compares God to a woman. He's putting his treasure into a lump of dough, and waiting for it to grow. It may not look like much at first, but it does grow and has larger and larger results in the world.

This is what the kingdom of God is like. Now, this doesn't fit into the picture we used to have of the kingdom of God starting only when Christ returned in power and glory. Then, the kingdom will be large and powerful. But Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God starts small. It is starting now, with the scattering of the seed, with the waiting for people to respond, with the waiting for growth. It doesn't grow in every person, but overall, it is sure to grow. God will see to it.

Let's skip down to verse 44: "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.

And the next parable is similar: 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

What is the point? It is that the kingdom of God is a wonderful treasure. Not everyone sees it, but when we do, our eyes light up, and we will make sure that we can get it. This is something that is so wonderful that we will give up everything else to get it. The trials will not distract us, the worries of life will not distract us, and money will not deceive us. The better we see the treasure, the more focused we will be on laying a hold of God's kingdom. Why? Because God is good, and we want him more than anything else. That's what the kingdom of God is like.

Verse 47 "Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Yes, the message about the kingdom collects both good and bad. But God does not want the bad to stay bad. He wants them to bear fruit. He is patient, but eventually the time will come when things are sorted out. The good will be gathered into the kingdom; the bad will be excluded.

So, seize the kingdom with joy, and with patience bear fruit, and we will be gathered into the kingdom, where there will be a wedding banquet like you have never seen before. But that is another parable, and it will have to wait for another day.