Welcome to the Kingdom of God 1986

I'd like to read from Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

When the man bought that field, at the cost of everything he had, he was changed. He was never the same again. When Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing boats to follow Jesus, they were buying the field.

The direction of their lives was changed forever. They were changed men. The only thing which makes it possible for us to come together like this every week and break bread in the name of Jesus and know what we're doing.

The only thing which makes it possible for us to get up in the morning and present our bodies each day as a living sacrifice to God makes it possible for us to take a hunk of our income, a healthy slice of what comes in on a consistent basis all the time and give it away whenever we feel led as an offering to God. The only thing that makes it possible for us to spend ourselves as sons and daughters of the kingdom is if we know, know that we've been changed. We've bought the field.

We've sold everything we had to buy the field. And the thing that lies behind the fact that we are together like this, the only reason God has called us together into this particular body, we're not just here by volunteer free will. We're actually here because we're called.

It's so that the lives that we touch at least have a chance to be changed. We're not bringing them to a club. We're bringing them here so that they can see the treasure hidden in the field and decide whether it's worth it for them to sell everything they have and buy it.

When I was 16 years old, I heard a call from God. I didn't hear a voice. I didn't have a vision, but I knew.

The only problem was I had nobody that I could talk to about this. I didn't know anybody like you people that I could go to at age 16 and say, this is what's going on in my life. What does this mean? Stood about it for a year, went away to school, convinced that there somebody would be able to explain it to me.

What a dream. No way. Finished, went on to seminary, hoping that at least there somebody would describe to me what this is.

Show me this treasure hidden in the field. And there I met some people, a few people, who had an urgency for the kingdom of God, but among many who were on their way to be religious professionals. But I graduated from seminary still looking for the treasure hidden in the field.

They sent me to Nova Scotia to start a church. What do I know about a church? And so I gathered people together who, like I, was. We're looking for the kingdom of God.

We had that in common. We put up a building and we filled it with people. But we were still looking for the treasure hidden in the field.

After four years out of seminary, buildings up, churches full, summer of 55, I come to the point where I say to myself, this is ridiculous. There's got to be more than this to it. If there isn't more than this, I'm getting out.

And so that summer, on vacation, we had a month, Jean and I dropped our two children that we had at that time, who were just little girls, off at their grandparents in Pennsylvania and made a kind of a round trip to North Carolina where we were heading for a school. And I can remember going with my brother-in-law on a Saturday night through downtown inner city Cincinnati. You know, just I was just hungry and looking.

And there was this storefront Baptist church. And this guy's in there. There were seven of us in the church, including us.

And he's banging away. He says, if there's nobody in this church, I'll preach Jesus to the wall. We went to a building that was, I think, originally occupied by mainline Presbyterians.

It was now Church of God Prophecy. And it was the same night. And there was a guy up there with a microphone hollering away.

And back in the back view, a couple was necking. It was ridiculous. It was, you know, but looking, trying to find.

The end of vacation, we ended up, one Sunday night, Jean and I went into this little new factory type building outside Reading, Pennsylvania, with a blue neon sign on the roof, flashing off and on, where the healing waters flow. We went in there. The place was crazy.

And the minister was strange. But there was something in the atmosphere of that church, which clear cut said, Welcome to the kingdom of God. Here were people you could tell who were changed.

Not all of them, maybe, but many of them. There was a change, a radical change that had taken place in their lives. Wasn't a preacher.

It wasn't the music. It wasn't the style of worship. But it was the fact that there were people who were in fact changed, who had sold all they had to buy the field.

I walked out of there breathing a new spirit. And from that point on in my life, I guess it was 27. I knew that Jesus was alive on this earth to change people's lives.

And that when he forgives, you're really forgiven. And that when he blesses, you're really blessed. And when he calls you into the kingdom, it's an awesome call that's going to cost you the rest of your life.

And that when you answer that call, when you sell all you have to buy the field, you change. John chapter four, verse one. Now, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

He had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there.

And so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Now, this woman comes to the well at high noon, the sixth hour, because she wants to come when nobody else is around. Nobody's around at twelve o'clock noon. It's too hot.

She wants to come when no one's around because she feels like an outsider. She feels like a loser. She knows she's messed up her life.

And who of us hasn't felt that way on this particular day? She doesn't realize that she's being drawn to the well at that moment in order to come into the encounter that's going to change her life. Jesus says to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself and his cattle and his children and sons? Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. For the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

I'm going to give you life. Never mind what a mess you've made of your life. I have something new for you.

I offer you living water. I welcome you into the kingdom of God right now. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst or come here to draw.

Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. I have no husband. You said it.

You've had no husband. You have no husband. You've had five husbands.

The one you have now is not your husband. True enough. Oh, I perceive that you're a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you Jews worship in Jerusalem. What's the right place to worship? Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will they worship. You worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming. And now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth.

God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming.

He was called Christ. When he comes, he will show us all things. Jesus said to her, I speak to you.

She's had five husbands, none of whom ever made her feel like she belonged. The man she's with now isn't doing any better for her. But this man sitting on the edge of the well, who isn't even touching her, is opening a door for this woman into a life such as she's never seen.

And she's getting a glimpse of it, even as she talks with him. He's welcoming her into the kingdom and she's going to go through that door. And when she does, her life is never going to be the same.

Welcome to the kingdom of God, he's saying to her. Welcome to the kingdom of God means that you're cut loose from the sin of your past. Means that you get a new start and you got the wind of God pushing at your back.

Means that you're in communion with the God of the universe. Means that you have sisters and brothers who will stick with you. Means that you have a calling on your life that you have to fulfill.

On this particular day, this woman enters into the kingdom. Now to do this, it's absolutely free and yet it's not cheap. For this woman to enter the kingdom on this day is going to cost Jesus something and it's going to cost her something.

To bring her into the kingdom, to set her free from the chains that bind her when she's put herself as we all have under the judgment of God is going to cost Jesus his life. To deliver her from the trammels of the consequences of her sin, he's going to have to buy her out with his own blood. But she also knows that when she answers his invitation to come into the kingdom, it's going to cost her the rest of her life.

She's going to have to leave her old life behind. So the woman left her water jar, which is a symbol of her old life, and went away into the city and said to the people, come see a man who told me all I ever did. Is not this the Christ? They went out of the city and were coming to him.

For years, this woman walked around the town of Sychar with her eyes down, never looked at anybody in the eye. But today, she looks square into each face and she says, come see a man who told me all I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Welcome to the kingdom.

They look at this woman and they know that she's been changed. They can tell. They hear her speaking and they hear God talking to them, inviting them to come.

Welcome to the kingdom. And they respond. Now what happened to this woman has actually happened to every man, woman and child who has ever entered the kingdom of God.

There is a welcome. They enter. They change.

Peter sees this net coming up loaded with fish and he's scared to death. Depart from me, I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. And again, Jesus says, welcome to the kingdom.

Don't be afraid from now on. You're going to be catching men. And he changes at that point.

He's never the same again. When they brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. That didn't mean that their lives were perfect.

They had many things to learn, much changing to do, but they never, ever went back to where they were before that day. So you say, how come it was so clear cut for them? And it's so nebulous for us. Why do we seem to spend years of our lives with one foot in and one foot out, or maybe the little toe in and the rest of us out? The answer is that it's not God's fault.

The welcome Jesus gives us today in this place is no different from the welcome he gave to that woman at the well, or to Matthew, or to Peter. And when we respond the way they did, our net will come up loaded with fish. We will also catch men.

We'll bring the whole town like she did. Jesus welcomed the woman at the well into the kingdom by means of a threefold word, a word of forgiveness, a word of blessing, and a call to serve him. First of all, there was a word of forgiveness.

If you knew the gift of God and who it is who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water, water to wash you clean, water to make you new inside. Forgiveness. And then Jesus spoke to her a word of blessing.

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give will become in him or her our spring of water, welling up to eternal life. I will give you my spirit to live inside you. Then Jesus speaks to her a call to serve him.

Go call your husband and come here. For her, this meant call the whole town. And she did.

And her net came up loaded with fish just like Andrew, Peter, James, and John. Today, the same Jesus is once again brooding over the face of this flock. All of us calling us into the kingdom in all the way in, not lingering at the door, blocking it for others and never getting in ourselves, not trying to put one foot in and one foot out, but all the way in.

And he welcomes us into the kingdom. First of all, with a word of forgiveness. Ask me, I'll give you a living water.

He says, I will give you water that will wash you, cleanse you, make you fresh and new inside. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, not everybody else's sin.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But Lord, you don't understand what a mess I am in here. You don't know how hard my head is.

You don't know how perverse I feel, how weak I feel, how wrapped up in my own ego I am. And he says, don't be afraid. If I could handle Peter, I can handle you.

From now on, you're going to be catching men. Welcome into the kingdom. Today, when you eat the bread and drink the wine, hear him say to you that word of forgiveness.

This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for your sin. You're forgiven inside.

Take it and believe it. Hold on to it and let it do its work in you. Jesus welcomes us into the kingdom of fresh all the way in today with a word of blessing.

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give, that water will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. In other words, I want to put my spirit in you afresh. I'm going to fill you with my spirit, my spirit, my heart, my mind, my holiness, my mercy, my memory, my power, my grace.

I put into you in my spirit, create me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from my presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit. That's exactly what he does today.

As you eat the body and drink the blood, believe that he's opening a spring in the desert of your heart. He's renewing his spirit to you. Believe it.

Finally, Jesus welcomes us all the way in afresh into his kingdom by laying upon each of us a call. No, don't do it. Go call your husband and come back.

Don't be afraid from now on. You're going to be catching men. Your life isn't yours anymore.

It's mine. And I ordain your life to be a kingdom doorway, a welcome point, a place where people who are hungering and thirsting for the living God will find him, be blessed by him and will begin to follow him. Your life is to be God saying to the world around you, welcome to my kingdom.

So as you eat the bread and drink the wine today, believe the spirit when he says to you, and now you are to be what I am. Bread for the world, wine for the world, healing for the sick, life for the dead by bringing them to me. So the woman left her water jar and went away into the city and said to the people, come see a man who told me all I ever did is not this to Christ.

If you will believe his word of forgiveness to you, if you will receive his word of blessing and if you will answer his call, you will walk out of this building like the man who sold all that he had to buy the field. You'll be in the kingdom with both feet. And when you say to your neighbor, your friends, even your enemies, come see a man who told me all I ever did.

Come see the Messiah. They will follow you right to the edge of the well and they will hear Jesus saying to them, welcome to the kingdom of God. Let's have a time of silence.

Just think. Let the spirit speak to our hearts.