As we were going home last Sunday evening, Judy told me that she liked my message on the healing of the Centurion’s servant. But then she went on to say that there was a part of that scripture which I didn’t expound. She said what I didn’t preach has been as much a blessing to her through the years as what I did preach. The scripture which I didn’t address is found in verses 11 and 12, and she was referring to verse 11 – “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.”

If we can understand it, that statement of the Lord Jesus should be a blessing to everyone in this room. A few months ago, I was introduced to a man who lives in Illinois, and we’ve exchanged a few general emails. Earlier this week he sent an email which was a little more specific and personal. He had learned that I was pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, and he replied by saying that he was the pastor of a Congregational Church. That surprised me, because I made an earlier assumption based on his family name – Goldberg. Without any ill-will toward him – in fact with some respect – I assumed that the man was a Jew. But in actuality, whatever his family background might be, in his current religion he is a Protestant. I can’t say for sure that Mr. Goldberg is a child of God, but for the sake of illustration let’s say that he is, and we’ll also say that his family is Jewish. If these things are both true, then he is right in middle of this statement by the Lord Jesus.

Consider very briefly once again, the Lord’s reference to the Kingdom of Heaven.

I’ve been over this a dozen times in the last few years, so I won’t go into it in detail this morning. But the Kingdom of Heaven is a multifaceted subject – culminating in the upcoming Millennial Kingdom. I firmly believe that the terms “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God” are interchangeable. That Kingdom entails the Lord’s sovereign reign over all of His creation from the days of Adam to today. But the Lord often used the term specifically thinking about Heaven’s saintly citizens, the children of God. The most wicked man on earth may be an out and out, thorough rebel against God; He may not acknowledge the existence of the Son of God, and totally rejects Divine sovereignty. But despite his rebellion and rejection, he is still a subject of God and will be judged accordingly. On the other hand, there are those people who, by the grace and mercy of God, have recognized and renounced their wicked rebellion. They have humbled themselves – or been humbled by the Lord – and to them has been given repentance and faith. They have been regenerated and given new, spiritual hearts. They have begun to worship and reverence the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Their citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven is no more real than that of the rebel, but their relationship to the King of that kingdom is entirely different. They are servants and worshipers of Christ, and when the Lord finally purges and purifies His kingdom they shall begin to rule and reign with Christ.

So there is a sense, and we have it here, that the word “Kingdom of Heaven” relates to salvation. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And out of dozens of other references there is Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 6 – “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

What Christ was saying here in Matthew 8, and what ought to be a blessing to you and me, is that true citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven will come from every corner of the globe – even ours.

Now think about the privileged citizens of that kingdom.

There are Patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and there Christians like Peter, John and Paul. According to what I read in the scripture, I am not prepared to say that there will be great distinctions in Heaven made between the saints of the Lord. When the apostles of Christ were arguing about their ranking in the Kingdom, the Lord essentially told them that it wasn’t worth fighting over. Mrs. Zebedee once came to the Lord Jesus asking that her sons, James and John, might sit on Jesus’ right hand and left in the Kingdom. The Saviour replied by saying, “to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” There will be Heavenly distinctions between servants, and there will be rewards for earthly service, but those distinctions will not be as important as salvation itself.

Without doubt both testaments throw the spotlight on Abraham. I think that if anyone sits near the Saviour when He will reign from His millennial throne, Abraham will be one of those people. And what was it about that man which set him apart from the people of his generation? What was it which the Lord and others said about him, making him an example to us all? It was precisely what Christ was praising in the Roman Centurion – “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great FAITH, no, not in Israel.” “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham BELIEVED God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” There are 230 references to Abraham in the Bible with 70 in the New Testament. I think that we can say, as it seems that the Lord Jesus says here, that Abraham, along with his son and grandson, are prominent citizens of the Lord’s Kingdom. And, praise the Lord, it is to be recognized that these men were sinners saved by the grace of God. They were not perfect, and they were not saints in the way that untaught sinners use the term today. Abraham had been an idolater from Ur of the Chaldees, but by the grace of God he was saved from his sin, having been given faith and repentance to trust the promise of the Lord.

As students of the Old Testament are aware, divine promises were given to this early trio of believers. They were told that their descendants, specifically the children of Jacob, would become the Lord’s elect nation. Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel,” and the people of Israel became God’s chosen people. This is why I respect and honor Israel and the people usually called “the Jews.” As wicked as most of them are, and as out of place as Zionism might be, Israel has been given promises by the Lord – and those promises will be fulfilled. Bible believing Christians should give due respect to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants.

In Jesus’ day the Jews thought of themselves as the nation of God – the only people of the Lord. They believed that they were the only citizens in God’s Kingdom – the only redeemed people on earth. But Jehovah had become so disgusted with their pride, arrogance, blindness and idolatry that He had temporarily cast them aside. In Matthew 23 He will say, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

Even before Israel was put on the shelf, so to speak, the Lord had been adding to His list of citizens. This time it wasn’t nations – He has not added the United States of America – but He has added individuals. Along with the first citizens of the Kingdom, there have been many others added to the role of the blessed. It may not be theologlically proper, but you could say that these newcomers have become naturalized citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. They have been coming from the east and west, from the north and the south. And they have been sitting down – literally “reclining” – in order to dine with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They have been feasting on the best of the Lord’s Kingdom as equals with its most prominent citizens.

By what right, and upon what grounds, have these newcomers been added to the role of the citizens? By the free and sovereign grace of the Almighty King of that Kingdom. But more specifically, these new comers have blessed as they put the same faith in the Lord that Abraham and his early descendants put in Him.

As Paul was fighting false doctrine in Galatia, he wrote an important letter to the churches of that region. In that epistle to the Galatians he reiterated the importance of salvation by grace through faith. Galatians 3 – “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” This is where Matthew 8:11 becomes such a wonderful statement to people like you and me. We are not by heritage the children of Israel, and even if we were that is not an end it itself. We are people from the north and the west – we are strangers and foreigners. But we have been invited to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to feast on the riches of the grace of God. Were you as blessed as you should have been by the scriptures which we read earlier? “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:     Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

Generally speaking, citizenship in the Lord’s kingdom was once confined to the people of Abraham. But today people are coming from all over the world to dine as equals under God’s rule. They come from the east – Viet Nam and Virginia. They come from the north – Canada and Scandinavia. They come from the west – Washington and Idaho. And they come from the south – Brazil, Mexico and Peru. Praise to the gracious name of Christ Jesus, the King.

And yet there remains a very sad aspect to this great scripture.

“But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and which were reiterated to David somewhat differently, had several different aspects. For example there were promises of a nation and a King. I don’t have time to read you all the Old Testament scriptures which speak about these. But God promised that there will always be a nation of Israel. And there was an additional promise that a Son of David would rule over that nation of Israel. That promised king related to Solomon and Rehoboam, but it was more completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But there was a caveat to some aspects of this divine promise…. The nation of Israel, which shall be the head of all the nations of the world during the days of Christ’s thousand year kingdom on earth – today has been laid aside because of sin. That was a clearly explained part of the promise, even though Israel has chosen to ignore it. It’s not that she will not be restored, but today God is focusing on other citizens of His Kingdom.

The point is this: just because the physical descendants of Abraham and Jacob think that they are a part of God’s eternal kingdom and promise, such is not necessarily the case. If they are not children of Abraham’s faith as well as his family, they will not enjoy the eternal kingdom. “The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness….” “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This “outer darkness” where its residents shall be gnashing their teeth together in physical, mental and spiritual torment is in some places called “hell” and in others “the lake of fire.” The Lord Jesus says a great deal about this judgment of the wicked – the unbeliever. “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” He said of the Jewish Pharisees, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Christ spoke about the wicked entering “everlasting punishment” in contrast to righteous’ enjoyment of ”life eternal.” The Lord’s apostles picked up that theme from Christ and from the Old Testament. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”

As I close this morning, please consider carefully the context of this great statement: As the Roman Centurion asked for the Lord’s help, he displayed faith in the power and authority of Christ. “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” The natural citizens of Israel and the Kingdom of God, were not, and are not, very often people of great faith. I hope that my new acquaintance is an exception to that statement. But the Centurion – that foreigner, that former idolater, like Abraham so many centuries before, was a man of true faith. He believed what the Lord had been teaching. He believed in the Lord’s authority – what he was doing. He believed that Christ could meet the need of that hour. He trusted the Lord Jesus in a very particular way, which I think became faith in Christ as Saviour. The citizens of Jesus’ own long-time nation, however, were not people of the same faith. Faith is the difference between being a true citizen of the Lord’s kingdom and remaining a rebel and eventually cast out.

You may not be a child of the kingdom by nature, but you may become one by faith. The King of this Kingdom has come – and in order to purchase His citizens, gave up His life on the cross. He paid the ultimate price with His own blood to redeem His people from their sins. Some of those people can be found in the nation of Israel, but many others can be found east, west, north and south of Israel. You may be among them, and you can prove it by your broken repentance before God and by your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Did Christ die on Calvary to save your sinful soul? Trust Him, cling to Him, believe on Him.