Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 52 – September 1978

 

Seek First His Kingdom

 

Sermon by Rev. J. W. Westendorp, B.D. on Matthew 6:33

Scripture reading: Psalm 37:1-11, Matthew 6:19-34

Psalter Hymnal: 323; 257; 64; 484; 299:1, 2, 6, 8

 

Dear Congregation,

One of the things that we all value greatly in life is SECURITY. All of us, whether we are young or old, want security. We like to know where our next meal is coming from. We like to have enough clothes on hand for a long way ahead. And it's nice to know that we have a job to go back to tomorrow. These are the assurances we need and like to enjoy. And if we can have some security for the day of retirement, then so much the better. Security... and then sometimes I begin to wonder... life so often seems just a mad scramble for providing security. Stocking up goods ... saving money building for the future. Sometimes it seems to be all we live for ... maintaining that high level of security.

We seem to have lost something of the carefree nature of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.

It's good then again to hear those words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. They, too, were spoken against that background that background of man's mad search for security in life. · What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? Those basic questions of life. And the world... and we spend so much effort finding answers.

Jesus' answer is: "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well."

A. THE PRIORITY CALLED FOR IN SEEKING THE KINGDOM.

1) Of course it's not so that Jesus excludes these basic questions of life. God's Word is not so "other worldly" that it ignores them. Food, drink and clothing are legitimate concerns for God's people. Because when we listen carefully to the words of Jesus, then we see that Jesus did not say: Seek ONLY...! Seek ONLY the Kingdom and forget about the rest. Jesus did not say: Seek only spiritual things because the world is evil. These worldly things only lead us astray - withdraw from them. Jesus does not say that, and WE can't live that way.

And yet there have been and still are Christians who like to imagine that Jesus said exactly that: they want to be so spiritual that even food, drink and clothing are regarded only as necessary evils... something to be used but only because we have to. Jesus did not say: Seek ONLY and so we may assume that these things are valid interests for the people of God. Not only necessary, but good, and to be enjoyed.

2) No. What Jesus is challenging us to do this morning is to make sure that in all these things that keep us busy in life, OUR PRIORITIES ARE RIGHT. Where does God's Kingdom - and the things of the Kingdom - where does all that come in YOUR daily life? What place does the righteousness, the obedience of the Kingdom... what place does it have in your day to day affairs?

Sometimes we'd like to put this verse a little differently: Seek ALSO... Seek ALSO His Kingdom and His righteousness. I know it doesn't say that, but we'd like to read it that way. It's a lot easier to seek ALSO the Kingdom because then this statement leaves our daily life alone. There is daily life on the one hand and then, of course, at times also the Kingdom. And so we can pat ourselves on the back today - after all we are seeking, that's why we're in church today. Of course, during the week it's different, there are times when we can't really seek the Kingdom, after all our work mates wouldn't understand and we might lose friends at school if we started seeking the Kingdom at school and at work.

Yes, it would be nice if Jesus had only said: Seek ALSO the Kingdom and its righteousness.

Perhaps others of us would have liked Jesus to say: Seek the Kingdom LATER ON. Seek it when you are older or later when you are sick. But not now - after all there's so many other interesting things. Yes, let's seek the Kingdom and its righteousness LATER ON. That would be so much more practical.

Seek God's Kingdom in your business LATER ON. For the moment run it your own way, after all you still have to establish yourself. When it's flourishing, secure. Well, you can always seek the righteousness He demands later on. There's plenty of time. Yes, we'd like that: Seek His Kingdom and His righteousness later when its convenient.

3) No! Jesus says: Seek FIRST... and if we in daily life read it differently, then we are putting the Kingdom outside our daily life. If in our life the Kingdom comes ALSO or LATER or LAST, then we are divorcing God and His Kingdom from daily life.

You see: Jesus speaks this challenge right into our daily existence. In your daily affairs concerning food, clothing, shelter, seek FIRST OF ALL His Kingdom and His righteousness. He's speaking to the farmer as he ploughs his paddocks. And to the housewife who's busy changing dirty nappies. He's saying that to boys and girls with their maths problem. He's calling on us to live out every part of our life in His Kingdom.

One of the big mistakes that Christians so often make is to think that the Kingdom of God deals only with Sundays, only with church activities, catechism and Bible study. And so we keep our religion for church services and for Cadets and Calvinettes and the Ladies’ Guild. And then we live as though the Kingdom of God has nothing to do with the way boys and girls behave at school on Monday or at play on Tuesday. And then a Christian runs his business without caring two hoots about the principles and demands of the Kingdom of God, failing to apply the righteousness of God to his work.

No! Seek FIRST... the Kingdom... that is: allow God to have every part of your life. Daily life with all its concerns about food and clothing and work is to be lived out of the Kingdom of God and the obedience that membership of the Kingdom demands. Live out every part of your life as a Kingdom member.

B. THE EFFORT REQUIRED IN SEEKING THE KINGDOM

1) But why is it that Jesus tells us to SEEK the Kingdom and its righteousness? Why do we have to look for it? Why this seeking? That becomes an even more important question when we realise that the Kingdom is God's gift to us. Please turn in your Bibles to Luke Chapter 12 and read with me from verse 32:..pause... Read it.

Did you notice that? Jesus says in this verse: "Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom."

It is God's gift. Yet in verse 31 of that same chapter Jesus speaks the very words of our text: Seek His Kingdom...! How are we to understand this? Is the Kingdom something we have as God's gift. Or is it something we don't have...? Something we must find by looking for?

The answer is this: God does indeed give us the Kingdom. In Christ the Kingdom is ours, the Kingdom with its blessings. Salvation, eternal life and everything else it includes. We have the Kingdom, it is ours, gloriously ours.

So when Jesus calls on us to SEEK the Kingdom and its righteousness, then He is not suggesting that we still have to find it. Rather, He is challenging us to apply what we have already to every part of our life.

You have the Kingdom, now seek to live it out in life. Seek to make it more and more a reality - in every part of life.

2) The problem we face here is that we are really so often PRACTICAL ATHEISTS. Not atheists in thought or doctrine, but in life. We're involved in a lot of seeking, seeking for security. But so much of it is a seeking without God. We keep God, so often, for our spiritual life and we leave Him out of our questions about food and clothing. And then we are a living denial of the Kingdom of God.

On Sunday we acknowledge the Kingdom and worship the King. But on Monday we manage our studies at school, and our work in the office as though He were not there.

Seek... seek His Kingdom and don't be content with a practical atheism that denies His Kingship over every part of life.

3) So you see, it's really no wonder that Jesus uses this word SEEK.

It is a word that implies effort, hard work. Go to work and start looking, search it out. In fact the original language has the idea of continuity in it: Seek... and keep on seeking - search and keep on searching. Work at it all the time continuously. Strive hard for it day after day to find that way of obedience and discipleship... not only in your devotional life... but in all that you do daily.

Those of us who have tried to do this seriously know how difficult it is. It is not easy to seek the righteousness of God at work. It isn't easy to live as Kingdom members at high school.

That confronts us with numerous questions day by day. How do I obey the demands of my King in this situation? How do I know how a Kingdom member behaves here? To help us with those daily questions we also need to seek first the Kingdom in the church and in Bible study and in prayer. If we want to put the effort into Kingdom living that Jesus asks, then we'll also have to do more seeking and searching in those places where we find the answers to our questions.

Are we really SEEKING...? Are we really searching... when a second worship service on a Sunday is really too much for us? Are we serious about seeking the Kingdom and its righteousness when we're never at Bible study groups? How can we really seek first the Kingdom in our daily life when we are not learning how to do that through the preaching of the Word and the study of it? Put some effort into your seeking, into your searching. Seek... and keep on seeking first His Kingdom.

C. THE ADDED BLESSINGS FOR THOSE SEEKING THE KINGDOM

1) Congregation, these words of Jesus are really very practical and down to earth. Remember Jesus is speaking here against the background of man's struggle for security... food, clothing, shelter. And now Jesus says that, this advice, this challenge, is precisely man's way to security. Seek first of all His Kingdom and all these will be yours also. Food and drink and clothing, all these things shall be yours as well... isn't that security?

All these life-sustaining blessings, they belong to the promises of the Kingdom. Not only salvation and eternal life and peace with God, but these other things are added as well, they too are part of Kingdom-life on earth. Seek first His Kingdom and then you also find your security.

2) Let's just make sure though that we understand this in the right way: Jesus is not at all meaning that these additional things are OUR REWARD - a reward for our seeking. It is not God's way of paying us for a job well done. Nor must we ever seek first the Kingdom IN ORDER to have these blessings, they may not be the reason for our seeking.

Notice that our Saviour does not say: Seek first... BECAUSE then these will be yours as well. There is no cause and effect relationship between our seeking and our receiving these things. Rather, Jesus simply says: AND. Seek first... AND these things will be yours as well. They are part-and-parcel of Kingdom-life.

They are not given as a reward or a payment. Nor are they an enticement to get us to seek the Kingdom. They are simply the things that make Kingdom-life possible.

That's why Jesus can tell us not to be anxious and to just enjoy the carefree life of the birds and flowers. Kingdom-life... that brings with it the care and protection of the King Himself and that King is none other than our heavenly Father. The heavenly Father Who knows that we need all these things. Food, clothing, shelter, He knows we need those just as much as He knows that we need forgiveness and peace and joy.

3) All of this shows us that God's Kingdom and daily life ought never to be put into separate compartments. Faith and practice... religion and life... Kingdom and work. These belong together and may not be separated. As believers we are called to live moment by moment as sons of the Kingdom whether it is in the classroom or in the kitchen, whether it is in the garden or in the workshop.

The Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His Father and ours, is a Kingdom that takes up within it "all of life" whether we like it or not.

And so it is within that Kingdom that food and clothing and life and health and all things find their highest fulfilment not only for time but also for eternity.

Let us not be like the Gentiles, the unbelievers who strive for security, who struggle for the necessities of life... apart from the Kingdom of God, apart from the righteousness of God. Let us by the help of the Holy Spirit live moment by moment as sons and daughters of the Kingdom, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness and then finding... wonder of wonders... security and material well-being there as well.

Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well.

Amen.