“The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven”
Heaven’s rule over earth was no new teaching. For centuries the prophets had borne witness to it, and pointed on to a coming day when all men should see it. That it was no merely spiritual sway of heaven’s Lord to which they referred, but a true world-kingdom destroying and superseding all other dominions, and characterized by the universal dissemination of spiritual teaching and divine authority, is plain from the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
Through the elect remnant of Israel, this kingdom is to be administered; the Gentiles coming into blessing in subjection to them. To attempt to give the passages which teach what is here briefly indicated would be to quote the major part of the Psalms and the Prophets.
Daniel, perhaps more plainly than any other, unfolds the glories of that coming reign of righteousness. In vision, Babylon’s proud king was given to behold the stone that fell from heaven, shattering the image of Gentile dominion, and becoming a great mountain that filled the whole earth. That this is a far different thing from Christianity is manifest, for Gentile dominion is not yet destroyed, nor is there any likelihood that it shall be by the spread of the gospel and the extension of the limits of Christendom.
And yet, clearly, there is a spiritual kingdom of heaven pervading the world at the present time, but with the King Himself absent in the heavens. Of this the greater part of Matthew’s Gospel treats. In fact, unless this be seen, it is quite impossible to truly comprehend that first of the Gospels.
Glancing briefly at this interesting book, we find in chapter 1 The genealogy of the promised King—Son of David, Son of Abraham. In chapter 2 The Gentiles pay Him honor in the persons of the Magi from the east—earnest of the day when all nations shall own His benignant yet righteous sway. John the Baptist comes before us in chapter 3 with the startling cry, “The kingdom (or, reign) of the heavens has drawn nigh.” Undoubtedly it is to Daniel’s visions he refers. The reign of heaven over the earth had at that time drawn so nigh that the King could be offered to Israel. If they received Him, He was there in person to establish His kingdom. In the latter part of the chapter He is baptized in the Jordan, thus identifying Himself with the remnant who own their unfitness for the kingdom proclaimed.
The fourth chapter opens with Satan’s offer of the kingdom apart from the cross, only to be spurned by the rightful Ruler, who, leaving the wilderness, goes about preaching and healing, saying, “Repent: for the reign of the heavens has drawn nigh”; thus authenticating the message of John.
In chapter 5 to 7 He sets forth the principles that shall govern when that kingdom is fully set up; yet, in closing, shows that not all who say “Lord, Lord,” shall enter into the blessings of that reign, but those alone who receive His words, and do them.
From this point on He meets with ever-increasing rejection, as chapter 8 to 11 make manifest. In the end of the last, He upbraids the cities that had seen His mighty works; and then, turning from the thought of the kingdom which they had rejected, He extends the call of the gospel to weary souls everywhere. If Israel own Him not as King, yet He is the sinner’s Saviour still, and the giver of rest to the heavy-laden.
So in chapter 12 The leaders of the nation commit the unpardonable sin for which they shall never be forgiven, in this age or that to come. The kingdom offer is therefore withdrawn for the present, because the King is definitely and finally rejected by the unregenerate mass.
It is following upon this that He begins to make known the mysteries of Heaven’s reign. Up to this point we have been going over what the prophets had predicted. They had likewise told of the ultimate reception of the King when Israel shall be born again and made willing in the day of His power. The interval between the cutting off of Messiah and His return in glory to take the kingdom was vaguely described as a time of sorrow for Israel, but what form the reign of Heaven would take during that undefined period had not been revealed. It is this which the Lord now makes known to His disciples, who, refusing the judgment of the nation, had owned His claims upon them. Heaven’s reign should go on even though the kingdom, as such, had been refused. The King was going up to the heavens, but from there He would rule, and the dispensation of the kingdom would be committed to the hands of men. This is the key to the seven parables of chapter 13.
The first one is not, properly speaking, a similitude of the kingdom at all. It gives, rather, the means by which that kingdom, in its mystic aspect, was formed. Rejected as Messiah, the Lord went about as a Sower, sowing the word.
Among those who profess to receive that word there are various classes (vers. 3-8 and 18-23). Wayside hearers listen, but go no farther. Stony-ground hearers professedly receive the word, but there is no root, as tribulation and persecution for the truth’s sake soon make manifest. Those who receive the word among thorns allow the legitimate things of life, as also covetousness and worldly anxieties, to choke it, so that they become unfruitful. The good-ground hearers typify those who truly receive the word and understand it, thus bringing forth fruit.
It is the word of the kingdom. All who profess to receive it constitute the kingdom of the heavens in its present mystical form. In other words, the term “the kingdom of heaven,” as used in Matthew, and in Matthew only, is practically synonymous with Christendom, which simply means Christ’s kingdom. It is that sphere on earth where Christ’s authority is professedly owned, and where His word is honored, even though it be but in an outward way. This chapter is being written in the year 1908; but it is not the computation of the Hebrew, the Mohammedan, or the pagan. The first of these dates from the creation of the world, according to Jewish traditions; the second, from the hegira of Mohammed; while each of the various heathen nations has special events from which to count, as in Japan, for instance, the era of Meija. But in Christendom men acknowledge the advent of One who, though rejected, is the true and rightful Sovereign of the universe. So they write “in the year of our Lord.” By so doing they confess His authority, however much their lives may deny it.
Now, within this broad sphere of light and responsibility is found a narrower one, consisting only of those who have truly received the word of the kingdom into their hearts. These are the converted ones of Matthew 18:3,3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3) who have “become as little children,” and thus “enter the kingdom of heaven.” The rest, while within the influence or administration of the kingdom, have never really entered it, inasmuch as it is a spiritual thing, and requires new birth ere one can “see” it (John 3:33Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)). In the present age, this converted company has, by the baptism of the Spirit, been formed into the Church, the Body of Christ, as we shall see more clearly when we come to consider the mystery of the One Body, in a subsequent chapter. Here it is only necessary to apprehend the difference between being in the kingdom in an outward aspect and being in very deed children of the kingdom.
This the next parable emphasizes—that of the wheat and the tares. In verse 24 to 30 our Lord gives the similitude. He does not leave us to ferret out the meaning of it, however; but in verse 37 to 43 He condescends to explain it Himself, in answer to the request of His disciples, “Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.”
The Sower of the good seed, He explains, is the Son of man. It was Himself come in grace into a world in which there was nothing for God, to sow the incorruptible seed, the word of life, that thus there might be a harvest to His glory.
“The field is the world.” This is of great importance. By making the field the Church, many expositors have gone astray. The world, not the Church, is the scene where the seed is sown. Here too the tares, or the darnel, are sown by Satan and his emissaries. It is “an enemy hath done this.” Satan has been busy sowing (in the same sphere where the good seed has been scattered) the evil seed of false and unholy teaching which deceives the receivers of it. Those who accept the false doctrines, “the damnable heresies,” referred to by the apostle Peter, are the children of the devil. Having a name to live, they are dead; professing to be Christians, they are the enemies of the Cross; yet they are not to be extirpated, as Rome once sought to do, lest the good be rooted out with the evil; but both are to grow together until the harvest, at the end of the age. For, be it noted, it is not the end of the world, but of the dispensation, that is here referred to, as any critical version of the Scriptures will show.
When the age closes, the tares will be gathered into bundles and cast into a furnace of fire. The righteous shall then shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. All this will be brought out in other portions as we go on.
Having thus explained for us the first two parables, our Lord proceeds to put forth others, which, with the key already given, are clear when we compare one portion of Scripture with another.
That of the mustard seed is given in verse 31 and 32. The kingdom of the heavens is likened unto a grain of mustard seed, which, having been sown in a field, developed into a great tree, in the branches of which the birds of the air find lodgment. This gives us the outward aspect of the kingdom. It has become a great thing in the earth. A tree is often used as the symbol of worldly power and glory. In the Old Testament, Nebuchadnezzar is likened to a great tree (Dan. 4:20-2220The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; 21Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation: 22It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. (Daniel 4:20‑22)). The kingdom, or empire, of Assyria is presented under a similar figure (Ezek. 31:3-73Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. 4The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. 5Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. 6All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. 7Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. (Ezekiel 31:3‑7)), even to the fowls of heaven resting in the branches. Judah also is so portrayed in Ezekiel 17.
Outwardly the kingdom was to assume an aspect of grandeur upon earth. This has been fulfilled in the history of Christendom. Unquestionably “the Church” is a power to be reckoned with in the world to-day, and has been since the days of Constantine. But who are the birds of the air who find lodgment in the branches? In the first parable they were declared to be the powers of Satan. Without doubt they mean the same here. Babylon is to be the hold of every unclean and hateful bird. These are evil workers and false teachers who yet find a refuge in the professing Church.
Another parable connects intimately with this, in the verse that follows—that of the leaven. Perhaps few portions of the word of God have been more misunderstood than this. It is generally made to mean the triumph of the gospel, which, like leaven, is supposed to be permeating the world, and will continue to do so until all mankind are regenerated. If such be its meaning, it is directly contrary to the universal testimony of Scripture elsewhere. Nowhere is it hinted at that the world will be converted eventually through the preaching of the gospel as we now know it. The very opposite is the declaration of the Lord Jesus, that at His return He will find the days of Noah and of Lot reproduced. Neither is leaven, in Scripture, ever a symbol of anything good; nor meal a type of unregenerate mankind.
Leaven, throughout, is evil and false. It was to be rigidly excluded from the offerings which set forth the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the thank-offering and the Pentecostal loaves it was permitted because needed to picture the fallen nature of those through grace redeemed. In the New Testament the Lord warns against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; the leaven of the Sadducees, which is false teaching; and the leaven of Herod, which is a combining of the world’s politics with religion. Paul writes of” the leaven of malice and wickedness,” and contrasts with it “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Therefore, if leaven in the parable before us sets forth something good and pleasing to God, it is in direct opposition to the only use made of it elsewhere by the Lord Himself, and by all Scripture.
On the other hand, “three measures of meal,” in place of picturing unregenerate mankind, full of sin and iniquity, always speaks, in Scripture typology, of that which is good to the use of edifying. It was “three measures of fine meal,” which Sarah prepared, at Abraham’s bidding, to set before the mystic “three men” who came to him in the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18:66And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. (Genesis 18:6)). The meat or meal-offering, setting forth the undefiled and undefilable humanity of the Lord Jesus, was made of meal from which all leaven had been rigidly excluded (Lev. 2).
Allowing Scripture to explain Scripture, it is manifest that the parable of the leaven teaches the very opposite to what it is commonly understood to mean. The meal is the food of the people of God, that good deposit which was committed to them by the Lord and His apostles. But a mysterious woman has risen up who secretly insinuates evil into that which should have remained unleavened, or undefiled. Is it too much to say that this woman is identified for us, in the epistle to Thyatira, as “that woman Jezebel” (Rev. 2:20-2220Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. 21And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. (Revelation 2:20‑22)); and in the vision given to John, as “Babylon the Great” (Rev. 17:55And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:5))? Unquestionably it is the false Church, the great Anti-Church of the Christian centuries, which has usurped the place of teacher instead of learner, and has literally tampered with every precious truth of Scripture. Of this we shall find fuller information when we come to consider “the mystery of lawlessness,” in a future chapter.
The four parables we have been looking at were spoken in the open, by the seaside. They show the beginning and the growth of Christendom in its outward aspect and its true character.
Sending the multitude away, and going into the house, the Lord gave fuller instruction to His own disciples, setting forth three more similitudes concerning the kingdom. These likewise have often been quite misunderstood. We turn now to briefly notice their teaching.
First, He tells of a treasure hid in a field. Remembering that “the field is the world,” we ask, What treasure was here hidden? All through the Old Testament, Israel is so pictured. They formed Jehovah’s “peculiar treasure.” To them Christ came from glory, but the time had not yet arrived for His acceptance; so He “hideth” it, and then went to the cross to pay the purchase-price for the whole world—the field, not merely the treasure. Hidden still that treasure remains, but soon it shall be brought forth from its hiding-place, and He shall acknowledge it as His own. “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My peculiar treasure” (Mal. 3:17,17And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. (Malachi 3:17) literal rendering). It is the earthly aspect of the kingdom, which will, it is hoped, be made clear as we proceed.
The parable that follows has striking differences, though in some respects similar.
The merchantman seeking goodly pearls pictures the value of the true kingdom in His own eyes. For He, not the sinner, is the merchantman. Were salvation a pearl of great price, none could ever buy it, for all unsaved ones are bankrupt and unprofitable. Neither is there any that seeketh after God. But He who was rich, for our sakes became poor, leaving the glory that He had with the Father before ever the earth was, and coming into this scene to seek a goodly pearl to adorn His diadem forever. One pearl He found, and that of great price! It is the heavenly aspect of the kingdom—the Church for which He gave Himself. At Calvary’s cross He paid the full price of its purchase; and now none shall dispute His title to that Church which He path purchased with His own blood. He “loved the Church, and gave Himself for it” Not all the failure and apostasy of Christendom can alter the value, or touch the purity, of this pearl so greatly prized. Amid all the corruptions of the centuries, it remains perfect and lovely in His eyes. Soon it will be removed from its surroundings of evil and filthiness, and be placed in its proper setting, to be the chief ornament of His crown throughout eternal ages.
The story of the drag-net closes the series. Cast into the sea, it brings together of every kind, good and bad. When it is full, the good are collected into vessels; the bad are cast away. The Lord Himself elucidates it: “So shall it be at the end of the age (not the world): the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (vers. 49, 50). At the end of the age, then, in place of a converted world, we find good and bad being separated by angelic agency. The good are the true children of the kingdom, and are saved eternally. The bad are false professors, taken in the gospel net, but who have not really received the word of the kingdom in their hearts. Their end is judgment.
Solemnly the Lord asks, “Have ye understood all these things? “They reply in the affirmative, though it is evident from their after-history that they but feebly entered into what He had set before them. He adds, “Therefore every scribe discipled unto the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old” (vers. 51, 52).
“The mystery of the seven golden candlesticks,” in Revelation 2 and 3, coincides in large measure with these seven parables. There we find the seven candlesticks symbolize seven churches. Prophetically, they set forth seven distinct stages of the professing body, from the apostolic times to the Lord’s return. We may compare the parable of the sower, with Ephesus; the wheat and tares, with Smyrna; the mustard tree, with Pergamos; the leaven, with Thyatira; the treasure, with Sardis; the pearl, with Philadelphia; and the drag-net, with Laodicea. While the aspect is often different, it will be noted by the careful student that the moral order is practically the same, though, of course, viewed rather from the standpoint of the assembly than the kingdom. Israel is therefore not brought in, as having no part, nationally, in God’s present work.
A few other scriptures require notice to complete our necessarily hurried survey of the Master’s teaching as to the reign of the heavens.
In chapter 16:18 we get the first intimation of the Church; a subject which will occupy us in its proper place. To Peter, the Lord adds, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter, then, is to open the door into the kingdom. It is not into heaven, as vain men have foolishly imagined; nor even into the Church; but the sphere of Christian discipleship and profession, where the authority of the Lord is acknowledged, alone is meant. On the day of Pentecost we find Peter using the keys, and admitting the Jews. In the house of Cornelius, he opens the door to the Gentiles. Since that day, what multitudes have pressed in!
But of them all, none really enter that kingdom, in its true spiritual sense, save such as “be converted, and become as little children” (chs. 18:2,3). Within the borders of the country in which we live are found persons of all nationalities. None are citizens but those born such, or who have renounced allegiance to every other government. They alone “enter” the American nation.
The kingdom is the sphere of rule. So in the latter part of this eighteenth chapter we have governmental forgiveness illustrated, and afterwards revoked. The question of eternal forgiveness before God, fitting a soul for heaven, is not here raised. A king is reckoning with his debtors. One is found owing what would, according to Jewish calculation, be over fifteen million dollars. He pleads for mercy, upon hearing the command that he and all his are to be sold. His lord, moved with compassion, forgives the debt. Afterwards the forgiven man finds another servant, debtor to himself in the paltry sum of about fifteen dollars. Though he pleads for pity, none is shown; but he is cast into the debtors’ prison. It is no question of judgment after death; simply the principle upon which forgiveness is granted to those who sin after becoming subjects of the kingdom. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The servant who fails will forfeit his Lord’s pardon in His discipline or government on earth, if He extends not the same grace to his fellow-servant. Subjects of grace are all who have a part in the kingdom; but the Father, “without respect of persons, judgeth according to the work of each” in this life, disciplining and chastening as His wisdom sees to be necessary. Therefore it behooves me to forgive from the heart my brother’s trespass, that I may be forgiven myself (vs. 35).
In the next chapter our Lord presents the ideal subject of heaven’s reign. “Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto Me; for of such is the kingdom of the heavens” (19:14). The believing parent is encouraged to bring his little ones to the Lord ere they wander out into the paths of this world’s sin and folly, that they may grow up in the kindly shelter of the reign of heaven, “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Receiving the word in all simplicity, they are the models of what every other member of the kingdom should be.
The day when this kingdom is fully displayed will be earth’s glorious regeneration, for which the whole creation waits, groaning and travailing in pain, because of the fall and its bitter consequences. To this our Lord refers in verse 28 “Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” It is His twelve disciples to whom He speaks—Matthias, I take it, occupying the forfeited place of the traitor; Paul’s apostleship being altogether of a different order, as we shall see when we consider his special mission in connection with the great mystery of Christ and the Church.
But if such shall be the future exaltation of those who followed the Christ in His rejection on earth, they become the patterns for all who would share His glory by and by. So another parable of the kingdom immediately follows (chs. 20:1-16). A householder sends laborers into his vineyard; and though they work for various periods of time, yet all alike receive the same wage when the day is over. It is a faithful response to the Master’s call that receives reward in the time when service is ended, and it is manifested that “many are called, but few are chosen.” All are chosen who heed the call, let it come when it may: so none have righteous ground for complaint.
The mother of James and John now comes to Jesus seeking positions of power and authority for her sons. She learns that rejection and death, the dreadful baptism of judgment, must for the Lord precede the day of glory; and an undefined period wherein His servants shall be similarly treated by the world is hinted at, though no clue is given as to its duration.
But He rules out all thought of a temporal kingdom at the present time by warning His disciples that they are not to pattern after earthly lords and Gentile dignitaries, but are to find their joy in lowly ministry. Alas, for how many might the words have just as well never been uttered 1 Christendom has to-day its lords spiritual as it has its lords temporal, and is not bowed with shame, but lifted up with pride over its departure from the Master’s command!
This, however, shall not hinder the going forth of the gospel invitation; so He gives another similitude of the reign, showing how, ere the King comes, a great host shall be gathered out from the Jews and Gentiles to the gospel feast; but warns that some will seek to avail themselves of that feast who have never dropped the rags of their own righteousness for the wedding-garment of His providing.
Then He pronounces, in chapter 23, woes upon those who had rejected His testimony, concluding with His grievous lamentation over Jerusalem, and declaring that “Ye shall not see Me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (vs. 39).
In His great prophecy on Olivet (ch. 24), He sets forth the sorrows and tribulations through which Israel must pass ere they see the Son of Man, returning in power and glory to establish the kingdom prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is because of this rejection of the King when He came in lowly grace that they must pass through the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 31) ere He return in majesty and judgment.
Meantime the kingdom of the heavens is likened unto ten virgins going out to meet the Bridegroom. It is the professing body of the present dispensation looking forward to the day of His return. But there are as many foolish as wise; true and false are all mixed up tether. The midnight-cry it is that puts each in his true place. All have been sleeping till aroused by the message, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” Awakened, some are startled to find their lamp of profession dying out; others are ready to go in with Him to the marriage. For those bereft of oil it is too late to buy. When they come seeking admittance, their prayer is denied (chs. 25:1-13).
The next parable is not of the kingdom, though the italicized words so state; but they do not belong to the original text. It pictures the service and reward of those who labor in the king’s absence (vers. 14-30).
The judgment to be executed on the Gentile nations, when the Son of Man conies to take the kingdom and to assert His rights, is set forth in the balance of the chapter. The rest of the book details Messiah’s final rejection, His mock trial, His death, and His glorious resurrection. Owning the crucified yet risen Jesus as the only Sovereign-Lord, His apostles are bien to disciple the nations in view of His coming again.
Such, in brief, is the outline of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. If uninstructed therein, the present age becomes a puzzle for which there is no solution.