The Pattern of History (7)

“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matthew 13:43

Listen Now | download

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

A day of harvest is coming, and Jesus is working to cultivate the world as His own cherished harvest field. He is sowing the good seed of the Kingdom of God throughout the world, and everywhere that seed takes root and begins to grow, it reproduces the righteousness, peace, and joy of Jesus Christ into all of life and culture. In the final day, when Jesus uproots and condemns the weeds in His Kingdom field, only the righteous will be left, only the good seed of the Kingdom will remain to populate the new heavens and new earth; thus they will shine without hindrance of any darkness or sin, radiating the glory of God to the ends of the world, forever and ever.

Email This Article

---

Print This Article

---

Share This Article

Subscribe to Podcast

Send us your comments

Until that day, however, the good seed of the Kingdom must strive against the incursions of the weeds of unbelief, taking deep root in the rich soil of the Gospel and straining toward the Light of Christ, that we might grow to maturity and bear fruit to feed a starving world. Lost souls await the Good News of a new era of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit. The creation groans for the redeeming touch of the sons and daughters of God. The culture, steeped in the stench of sin, pines for renewal in the grace and truth of God. Our society sinks daily into the miasma of pragmatism and passionate whim, but the good seed of the Kingdom bring the Law of God to renew the morals and hopes of communities burdened under the weight of relativism and unbelief. Too many of the followers of Jesus Christ seem content to remain mere shoots of promise in the Lord’s harvest field; they have lost the vision of maturity and fruitfulness and seem content to wait out the storm of unbelief until the Lord comes to gather them into His barns.

Given that believers have been translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, we must embrace the call to seek the Kingdom of God in all our words and deeds, and force our way, by daily struggle, into the fuller light of its growing presence (Col. 1:13; Lk. 16:16). Kingdom seeking begins in seeking the Lord, day by day, through the diligent practice of those disciplines and exercises that bring us into the presence of God’s glory. There we may be renewed in the Spirit and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:12-18). From there we go forth into our daily lives, making disciples as we are going and bringing the glory of God into every detail and opportunity of our daily lives (Matt. 28:18-20; 1 Cor. 10:31).

It is a struggle, true, and one, alas, to which all too many believers seem unwilling to rise. Content with a narrow understanding of the grace of God, and largely ignorant of His truth, believers today practice a shallow contentment with being forgiven and hoping in eternal life. They have little stomach for the hard work of renewal and the courageous enterprise of proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom to their neighbors.

And so the Church in this country languishes, in spite of outward appearances, while the weeds of unbelief encroach ever more tenaciously on every abandoned or neglected patch of American soil. Until the harvest, brothers and sisters, we are called to struggle, not to retreat. Let us take up the challenge in full expectation that Jesus, Who administers His Kingdom on high, will bring it to increasing fullness wherever we follow Him faithfully, in every area of life.

Start your own ViewPoint discussion group. This week’s series is available in a free downloadable format, suitable for personal or group study. Download the series, " Pattern of History ."

For more information on this topic, get the book, The Bookends of the Christian Life, by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington, from our online store. Or read the article, “From the Couch to the Cross-shaped Life,” by T. M. Moore.