The Kingdom of Heaven

Jesus uses a series of short stories, parables, to help us learn about the Kingdom of Heaven and about how to live each day. Eternal life, faith, judgment, obedience and preparedness are the principles explored in this video. The Kingdom of Heaven begins with Jesus in the clouds and angels in the background. There are people from different times and different races looking into the clouds and seeing Jesus. Jesus begins to speak to the people about the Kingdom of Heaven and how the treatment of others is the same as actions toward Him. Slowly, Jesus' shining garment is traded for an earthly robe and He is preaching to a gathering of people. Two Pharisees watch and listen. Boaz, one of the Pharisees, is angered by what he hears Jesus saying and the other Jeremiah is intrigued. David and Sarah, brother and sister, listen also. Boaz says that all Jesus does is tell silly stories. Jeremiah tries to explain that perhaps Jesus wants everyone to discover the meaning from the stories. Sarah agrees that Jesus is trying to teach about the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says, "He who hath ears to hear, let them hear," and begins to tell a story. Jesus explains that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who plants a field of wheat. One night an enemy comes and scatters bad seeds among the freshly planted wheat. The Master comes to observe the crop and notices tares among the wheat. The wise Master tells the servant that it is not his fault, an enemy has done this, and not to pull up the tares because the wheat might be damaged as well. "Let them grow together until harvest and then the reapers will gather the tares together and burn them", the Master says. The wheat is gathered together and stored in his barn. The scene returns to the shores of Galilee where Jesus is preaching. Jeremiah is overjoyed that he understands that the wheat is symbolic of the good people, and the tares are representations of the bad people. Boaz claims that Jesus is teaching blasphemy and wickedness and demands that Jeremiah leave with him at once. Jeremiah is at a moment of indecision and then weakly goes with Boaz. Next, Jesus tells the parable of the Pearl. A wealthy merchant is visiting a seaside port and finds a precious pearl that amazes him. The wealthy merchant now dressed in common clothes, stands before a wealthy man and signs a piece of paper. The merchant then receives a chest of jewels and money which he sits behind him in a wagon. The wealthy man does not seem to understand the merchant's decision to trade all his belongings for a chest of jewels and money. The merchant returns to the seaside port and trades the chest of jewels and money for the pearl, stunning the shop owner. The video returns to the shores of Galilee where David, Sarah's brother, is astonished by hearing the parable of the Pearl. David states that he cannot give up all he has worked so hard for in life and follow Jesus. He decides to leave despite Sarah's plea for him to stay and hear the truth. Jesus then compares the Kingdom of Heaven to the parable of the ten maidens. Five of the maidens are wise and five are foolish. A wise maiden, Leah, walks with two foolish maidens who are going into town to wait for the bridegroom to arrive so they can follow him to the wedding. Since it is broad daylight, the foolish maidens do not understand why Leah had them bring their lamps so they did not fill them with oil. Leah tells them that sometimes the bridegroom does not arrive until very late. The bridegroom is shown getting ready for the wedding and tells his confidant that he will not leave until sundown, because he wants to make sure that everyone has a chance to get into town. At night, the bridegroom Judah and his confidant arrive. The Town Crier runs around the town announcing Judah's arrival. After several trips around the town, Judah is assured that all have had time to join the wedding party. Leah and the other wise maidens quickly join the wedding party with their oil filled lamps. The foolish maidens are unable to see and ask for some of the wise maidens' oil. Leah explains that they can not share oil because they would all run out of oil and quickly joins the wedding party. During the wedding procedure, Judah hears some women calling to him from outside the gates. He approaches them asking why they did come when he called. The foolish maidens say they have no oil and their light has gone out. Sadly, Judah says that if you were my friends, you would have come when I called. His last words were, "I know you not." Jesus is now speaking and says that we should watch, for we know neither the day of the hour when the Son of Man will return. James asks Jesus why He speaks to the people in parables. He tells him that their ears are dull and their eyes are closed. James asks about the parable of the sower. He understands that Jesus is the sower and the seeds are the word of God; but what does it mean, the seeds falling by the wayside? Jesus explains that there are those who hear the word and refuse to understand it, those that receive the word with joy at first but rebuke the word when persecution rises, and those that care for the world and the deceitfulness of riches and are no longer full of faith. Those that receive God's word into good ground and hear the word and understand it will bear fruit. The final scene is Sarah walking toward Jesus who is now in the sky surrounding by all the different people from different times and different cultures. All kneel to Jesus with him saying, "Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."