20260531 Luke 13:18-35 God’s Saving Reign

Luke 13:18-35 is about God’s saving reign. It discusses the Kingdom of God, salvation, inclusion, exclusion, the requirements for salvation, and the guarantee of salvation. I’m excited about Luke 13:18-35 because of its important theme, God’s Saving Reign which is relevant for all of us.

For those who are not Christians, Luke 13:18-35 can be an introduction to Christianity. For those who have been Christians for a while and have a lot of questions, Luke 13:18-35 can answer some of those. For those who are Christians, but their faith does not feel relevant in the day to day, Luke 13:18-35 is inspiring or confronting. For those who are Christians but sometimes struggle with doubt, Luke 13:18-35 can be encouraging.

Luke 13:18-35 teaches all of us about God’s saving Reign. We are going to look at three things: (1) the Reach of God’s Saving Reign, (2) the Restrictions and Surprise of God’s Saving Reign, and (3) the Response Required to enjoy God’s Saving Reign.

First, Luke 13:18-21 reveals the Reach of God’s Saving Reign

Luke 13:18-21 contains two parables, the parable of the Mustard Seed and the parable of the leaven. These two parables show that God’s work started small and even seemed insignificant, but its growth is inevitable, pervasive, and global in scope. Jesus highlights the themes of surprising growth and the abundance of God’s generosity to provide for all people.

Jesus begins with the Parable of the Mustard Seed

According to Luke 13:19, “the Kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” The mustard seed was proverbially tiny, but it grows big, into a tree. The phrase, “The birds of the air made nests in its branches” occurs in the Old Testament to evoke a sense of safety and abundance of provision. In Dan 4:10-12, the greatness of the Babylonian Kingdom is compared to a tree that provides shelter and provision for the animals and peoples of the earth. While this kingdom of Babylon does not last, Ezekiel 17:22-24 anticipates the restoration of Israel and salvation of the world with this tree imagery. Ezekiel uses the imagery of a ceder tree where every kind of bird will dwell. Jesus uses the parable of the Mustard Seed to teach he is fulfilling the restoration of Israel for the salvation of the world, in his ministry.

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It starts so small and seems insignificant, but its reach will exceed our wildest expectations. God’s Saving Reign will provide in abundance and those who will benefit will be people from all over the world.

Jesus continues with the Parable of the Leaven

According to Luke 13:21, “The kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” Notice that in the first parable, Luke used a man in his illustration; now, he uses a woman. This is a tool Luke uses. In a culture that heavily favored men, Luke shows God’s grace applies equally to men and women.

The woman hid leaven in three measures of flour. The measure refers to an ancient unit that represents 13 liters. This means she ends up with 39 liters of leavened flour. R.T. France, a commentator, suggests that she will have enough bread to feed a small village. Jesus highlights again the themes of surprising growth and the abundance of God’s generosity to provide for all people.

Application

From both parables, the message is clear. We should not be discouraged by the small size of any Christian initiative or movement. Some of Jesus’ first hearers must have doubted how one person, such as the son of a carpenter, could inaugurate the Kingdom of God and fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures.

In Brussels, many of us feel the insignificance of the Christian movement. Few or no Christians are in our schools, places of work, extended families, or neighborhoods. We can easily become discouraged and wonder if we have been deceived in believing the Christian message. Jesus encourages us with these two parables. Don’t let what seems insignificant discourage you. The kingdom of God is marked by surprising growth and the abundance of God’s generosity to provide for all people.

Illustration:

One illustration of this surprising growth and abundance of God’s provision is China. In Rebecca McLaughlin’s Confronting Christianity, she writes that it is hard to have an accurate number of Christians in China due to government persecution but “conservative estimates in 2010 put China’s Christian population at over sixty-eight million.” If this is true, it means the number of Christians has increase every year by 10% since 1979. One expert suggests that there would be more Christians in China than in the United States by 2030 and China could be a majority Christian country in 2050. McLaughlin also recognizes that there is so much uncertainty, but what an illustration of the mustard seed like or leaven-like activity of the Kingdom of God!

The first application is one of encouragement when we wonder if the Christian message has any significance. Another application of the Global Reach of God’s Kingdom is that as citizens of this Kingdom, we have brothers and sisters all over the world Christians must be interested in the world, interested in world missions, and reject racism as completely incompatible with God’s Kingdom. Also realize that when people visit our church from other churches and from other countries, which happens almost weekly at Hope, these are you brothers and sisters! Let us welcome them warmly!

Lastly, the image of a tree that protects and provides reminds us that God made human beings for peace, delight, joy. After we broke God’s law we experience violence, isolation, and depression. The global reach of God’s saving reign and the abundance of his provision to save is great news for all of us. God provides for us through Christ taking the penalty our sins deserve. Jesus died the sinners death on the cross to forgive our sins. We must now repent from our sins, trust and submit to Christ’s reign. Because of his love and provision, we can repent from our sins and enjoy life with him.

Second, Luke 13:22-30 Reveals the Restrictions and Surprises of God’s Saving Reign

Following the global reach of God’s Saving Reign, Luke 13:22-30 addresses a restriction. In Luke 13:23, someone asks, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Jesus reveals the exclusive nature of God’s saving reign. Jesus warns that we must strive to enter through a narrow door. This exclusion comes as a surprise since it is addressed to Jesus’ hearers. Jesus teaches Israelites not to presume that being part of the community of God’s people means enjoying God’s saving reign. This is true for the children who are raised as members of the Covenant community who receive baptism in their infancy. It is true for all of us. Being part of God’s church, or in proximity to the church is not a substitute for personally knowing God.

Text

Luke 13:24, to answer the question concerning the number of the saved, Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

What does it mean to strive to enter the narrow door of salvation? In the NT, spiritual salvation refers to entry into the kingdom of God, obtaining eternal life, the rescue from God’s judgment of sins, and the forgiveness of sins.[i]

In the storyline of the Bible, salvation corresponds to enjoying God’s undoing of the consequences of sin so we can experience Eden. This Eden state is one of harmony and delight with God, other people, within ourselves, and with creation. This is what Christ came to offer. This is what is at stake when the individual asks if only few will be saved. Will few enjoy the abundance of New Creation and New Eden in Christ?

Jesus says we must “strive” to enter a narrow door, to be saved or to receive God’s Kingdom. This implies you do not just “drift into the kingdom of God.” This is one of the mysteries of the Christian message. On one hand, salvation is a free gift that we simply cannot earn, and we must strive. We must repent from sin. We must believe the gospel. We must follow Jesus. We must deny ourselves, and we are saved by grace, it is all a gift, none of our work, repenting, believing, discipline, counts at all towards our salvation, it is only the work of Christ, by the Grace of God that saves us. Phil 2:12-14 expresses the tension perfectly, “12… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Salvation is entirely a gift. And the Christian life includes work. The Christian life is a gift, and we are empowered by God to work! The idea that salvation is a gift so we do not have to do anything is not biblical. We can work with the comfort of knowing God’s salvation is a gift! The reason we must strive to enter is that many will not enter. Jesus says, “many will seek to enter … and not many will be able.”

In Luke 13:25-30, Jesus explains who will come in and who will not. Those who are excluded are marked by two characteristics. First, the exclusion is a surprise. The master's surprising words to those who stand on the outside of the closed door are: “I do not know where you come from.” Those who are excluded claim proximity to Jesus. They ate before him. He taught in their streets. Yet, he does not know them.

Many of Jesus' Jewish hearers lived with Jesus but did not know Jesus. They rejected him. “They may have been physically close to Jesus, but they never responded to him in such a way so that he could now recognize them as his own.”[ii] Some who expect to be in will be out. The first characteristic of the excluded is they thought they would be included.

The second clue is found in Luke 13:27. Jesus called them “workers of evil!” He calls them enemies of righteousness. This is who we are when we do not find refuge in Jesus. Jesus came to bring righteousness. No one has righteousness of their own but those who trust in Christ are clothed with Christ’s righteousness. We enter into the kingdom by faith that is coupled with repentance. It is not that we fully repent from all sins once and for all but we seek even imperfectly to submit to Christ’s saving reign. Those who do not are left to their own devices, they can be called “workers of evil.” When we refuse to repent and worship the creator, and live for his glory, we are “workers of evil.” This is true of all of us until we place our faith in Christ to enter God’s Kingdom.

Following the surprising restriction of the narrow door for his Jewish hearers, there is a second surprise. Jesus says in Luke 13:29, “People will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” While some Jews are left out, many among the Gentiles will be included. Some who expected to be in will be out and some whom all imagined would be out, will be in.

Application

This was a message addressed to Jesus’ Jewish hearers to challenge them about the kingdom of God so that they would not make any presumptions. This warning remains today. No one drifts into the kingdom of God. We do not get in by attending the right church or based on our parents’ faith. A good church and faithful parents are a great advantage. But the door to enter the kingdom of God remains narrow. We must strive to enter the narrow door by believing and repenting. Being “near” the church or “near” Christian values isn’t the same as knowing Christ. Jesus must be our personal savior, Lord, and friend.

Illustration

There is a book by Kyle Idleman called “Not a Fan.” When you are a fan, you know facts about a celebrity. You can feel like you know them well, but there is no mutuality, there is no friendship, the star doesn’t know you at all. We cannot be fans of Jesus, we must know him and be known by him. Knowing a lot of theology is not being known by God. Religiously keeping the 10 commandments is not being known by God. Being known by God, is growing in awareness of his love, mercy, kindness and forgiveness for us

Being known by God changes Bible reading, into hearing God’s voice, it turns our prayers from a list of requests to worship and a transformational experience of communing with our father. Being know by God is generally combined with deep friendships with Christians, image bearers God uses as instruments of his love, comfort, rebuke for our growth.

Still to this day, it is true that people come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. This is great news for all people. The church is made up of those from the east and west, and from north and south. We are mostly Gentiles and we recline at table in the kingdom of God. We can expect to be surprised, those we consider to be “outsiders” will become “insiders of the kingdom of God.

Conclusion

The scope of the Kingdom of God is global, but there are surprising restrictions and surprising inclusions. We now turn to the required Response to God’s Guaranteed Saving Reign.

Third, Luke 13:31-35 presents The Response required to God’s Guaranteed Saving Reign

In Luke 13:31, some Pharisees warn Jesus to leave because Herod wants to kill him. Jesus’ response first guarantees salvation and then instructs all people on how to receive it.

Text

In response to the Pharisees, in Luke 13:32, Jesus says, “Go tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course’” Then in Luke 13:33, he says, “It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” Jesus is emphatic that he will finish his course. Jesus came to fulfill God’s plan and nothing will hinder him.

Jesus then Laments over Jerusalem. He calls it the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Israel was the apple of God’s eye. They were God’s chosen people because he chose to love them. And yet, throughout her history, they were faithless. Jesus uses the image of God as a hen who tried to gather them under his wings, but they were not willing. In Luke 13:35, Jesus foresees the destruction of Jerusalem and also warns them of the only way to receive salvation. It is by saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.”

Application

These final verses assure us of salvation. Salvation is not something that Christians perform or achieve. Jesus achieved salvation for us and he has provided salvation successfully. Jesus finished his course, he died in Jerusalem for the forgiveness of sins and rose of the third day in victory, guaranteeing our salvation. When we doubt our salvation we need to take our eyes off ourselves and remember that salvation is the work of Christ. We can have great assurance.

Illustration:

There is a commonly known story that is told of Martin Luther. It is said that the devil approached Luther and presented him with a long list of sins of which he was guilty. When he had finished reading, Luther said to Satan, “Think a little harder; you must have forgotten some.” The devil added other sins to the list.

At the conclusion of this exchange, Martin Luther simply said, “That’s fine.’ Now write across that list in red ink, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.” There was nothing the devil could say to that.[iii] This is the confidence every Christian must have. Our salvation is not hindered by our sin, but it is guaranteed by the blood of Christ.

Salvation is guaranteed by the blood of Christ, now we must respond. We respond by saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.” Jesus accomplished salvation. Now, we must believe in him and acknowledge him. A heart that acknowledges God is a transformed heart that lives for God.

Conclusion

Being a Christian is recognizing that we have a good God who reigns, who made all things. The longings that we have for safety, food, intimacy, joy, rest, testify that we were made by God and for God, in the good world he created. Following our sin and our desire to find satisfaction apart from God, our thinking, our desires, our health, our relationships, our worship have all been damaged. The Good news is that our Good God is like a hen who gathers her brood under her wings. This is redemptive history. God has a plan to restore, to redeem, to make all things new. Jesus’ ministry shows that while sin led to hostility with God and others, disease, alienation, havoc in creation – Jesus calms storms, heals diseases, makes the unclean clean, forgives sins… To be a Christian is to see Jesus and exclaim – “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Conclusion

For those who are not Christians, Luke 13:18-35 introduces Christianity – We have a good God who pursues sinners we must trust in him. God’s saving reign rests on Christ’s finishing the course, accomplishing his atoning sacrifice. Jesus took our sins and the punishment we deserved so that if we trust in Him, we can be justified, declared not guilty on the basis of Christ’s washing our sins away.

To those who doubt, the Christian message is about what Christ has done, whether our faith is small or great, what matters is that Christ’s work guarantees salvation not our failing faith. Having said all this, we don’t do nothing, we respond to this message. We enter in through the narrow door. We believe, we respond, we grow in our faith. We live out our faith in the church community. We learn, we apply, we repent, we forgive, we make God’s mission our mission.

Luke 13:18-35 spoke of the Global Reach of God’s Saving Reign. There are restrictions. Not everyone will be saved. Those who are close should not expect to be in, while God saves even those who seem far. The required response is the same for those close and those far. We must respond to the God who gathers his people like a hen gathers her brood. We must respond to Jesus saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! AMEN.

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[i] I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGNT 3 (Exeter, U.K.: Paternoster Press, 1978), 564.

 

[ii] [2] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, 3, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994). 13:27.

[iii] Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching. Includes indexes. (311). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.