Law & Grace - Matthew 13:1-58 "Parables of the Kingdom", Part II

Well, good morning. As we proceed into the passage that Kurt introduced here, one of the things I wanted to bring up first was a couple of weeks ago, a fellow had, I think his name was Simeon, had come in here. And at any rate, there's some talk about having Simeon come back. for a visit. And so if some of you, either one, didn't see that and would like to, then talk with me about it and see if we can arrange for that. The other, if you really wish Simeon would never come back, let me know that too.

Okay. Last week we presented this. This is not in your handout this week, but one of the things that we've been using as an outline here is this demonstration. And the reason we have this picture here is because this is what we call a chiasm. It is a mirror image in written form.

And that is what the entire book of Matthew follows. In addition to that, one of the points we made is from the beginning of Christ's ministry up to this point in the parable, it's the middle of this pattern called a chiasm, but it's been about two years. That is, in Jesus' three-year ministry, he's about two-thirds of the way through that ministry time-wise. And then so about another year until the end of Christ's ministry and the end of the Gospel of Matthew. The other point that we made was even this chapter 13 has this chiasm pattern, this reflective pattern within the chapter itself, which is the middle of the book. And so it's indeed a pivotal chapter.

We also asked the question last week, why parables? We said, well, there's a parables, and that's a parables. But I'm afraid if you weren't here last week, I'm a little concerned that everything from here on out just might be all Greek to you. See what I mean?

Anyway, we probably won't do that. One of the things we did do is to talk about what's our approach to this chapter, and we put it in four points. One is that there's no distinction between kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, the kingdom, where it actually shows up once the kingdom of their father in this chapter, that those are basically taken as synonyms. Secondly, there's no mystery form of the kingdom during the present church age.

This is a mystery, as it's typically used in the Bible. See, we have the idea of a mystery as something that you can't figure out, right? In the biblical use of the word, and I'm talking from the Old Testament on into the New, the mystery is something which has been hidden in past ages and generations, but has now been revealed, now been made So that's the use of the word mystery here. It's something that Jesus is making plain that wasn't plain and clear before. Alright. The next thing, there's the kingdom, is Christ reigning as king over the land and people of Israel?

That's the last point we want to make clear. Now, we will step into the parables of Matthew 13, which is the content. Now, having looked at the approach, So we'll go through those. There are actually eight parables. Sometimes people will count and they'll end up with seven. Some of the last ones are only one verse long and that's the case for the eighth one. So we will go through the eight parables of Matthew chapter 13 here. Jesus told eight parables and then some to his disciples and then some to the crowd. So he spoke some to each.

Three of them he also explained to his disciples. That is, he told the parable and then gave the explanation. That's the case with the parable of the sower that Kirk just read for us here. It is the explanation of the parable that he told. So the crowd, all they got was, here are the parables, the ones that were told to them. But the disciples got to hear all the parables and the explanation of the three.

His purpose in providing the explanations is this. He explained why he spoke in parables, which was that he would reveal the truth to his disciples, but keep it away from those who were against him. If he said anything clearly, they would use it against him anyway. And so he used the parables to reveal to the disciples so that they, in fact, would understand. As a matter of fact, we're going to see as we go through this, at one point Jesus asked them, verse 51, do you understand? And they said, yes. And he accepted that, yes, they did.

Here is the parable of the sower. It's given once without explanation and then in the next part with explanation. The parable of the sower has the sower going along and sowing seed among four different basic kinds of soils. There's the soil on rocky ground and along the edge of the roadway. Oh, and by the way, here's the deal that they had with roadways in biblical times. See, we've got very well delineated roadways where this is the city or the state's responsibility and that kind of thing. What they would have is a roadway, and typically there would be a farmer's field next to it.

Now, if you're a farmer, do you want big rocks in your field? No, of course not. Because you've got this plow and you've got an ox, and so you don't want big rocks in your field. So what do you do to get rid of the rocks? You throw them in the road, right? And of course, the people travel along the road. Do they want big rocks in the road? No. So where do they throw the rocks? Back in the field, right? So there were rocks along these roadways.

So, Matthew 13, 19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. So Jesus explains to them what this parable means. He's explaining this to his disciples because he does want them to understand what it means. Now as we'll see, there are other things they didn't understand, but they were understanding this. So he gives them the explanation.

And the first one, then, was along the side of the road. This is the place where it goes in and out of the field, but along the edge of the road, lots of rocks and really rough. The next one, verses 20 and 21, the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky place, is this the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy?

Oh, good! But as he has no firm root in itself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. This is the person who says, I didn't sign up for this. Right? Ah, this is a little rough. I don't want this. And so, no, I'm going to leave it. This is the rocky places. In verse 22 comes the next one.

And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and deceitfulness of wealth choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Worry, a deceitfulness of wealth. How does wealth deceive? Ah, wealth tends to promise things that it can't deliver on, doesn't it? There's the worry of having enough of it. And then there's the worry of keeping it, right?

So this is the seed falling among thorns. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundredfold, some 60 and some 30. This is the good soil. This is the soil that is productive. So the parable of the sower is one of these three that Jesus explained to his disciples. He wanted them most certainly to understand it. To the others who didn't understand it, it would just be a curious story, wouldn't it? Well, that's an interesting story, but what does it mean? Well, I don't know.

So he described the responses to the gospel of the kingdom. There are different kinds of soil responding differently to the same seed being sown. So it would be here that Christ would sow the seed and even the disciples themselves would assist in this. Only the fourth soil was responsive, at least in an enduring way. It was responsive also, do you notice, in varying degrees, some 100 fold down to 30.

People respond in varying ways also to Christ's gospel of death, burial, and resurrection, the gospel of substitution, as we've called it. You notice not everybody responds to it the same way. I've heard some people say, well, I don't need that because I'm good enough to go to heaven. I've heard people say, I don't need that stuff at all. And I've heard people say, well, I'll wait till I get older when death looks like it's a little closer. And so you'll have varying responses. And then you will have someone who says, I was looking for that my whole life.

Nancy and I met a young lady years ago. I was working with a fellow who had just become a believer, and he had had a relationship with this gal that he thought, I can't continue. I'm a believer now, and she's not. And so he wrote a letter to her across the country. He was in California. He was out with me working on the farm way out in the boonies. And he wrote a letter back to Atlanta where she was and said, I can't continue this relationship. So she got the letter, and she called up. She said, don't go anywhere. I'll be right there.

And so she was right. She got on the next plane out from Atlanta, flew to San Francisco, rented a car, and soon we started driving up about mid-afternoon, way out in the boonies at this ranch out in the middle of nowhere, two miles off the nearest paved road. We stayed up with her. Matter of fact, we talked with her about the Lord for the next 12 hours. into the middle of the night. She said, I have been looking for this my entire life. She's the fertile soil. What's interesting, this is Russ and Ann were their names. They never did get married. They went different ways and got married to other people. But Ann became, along with her husband, a missionary.

And basically to dense urban areas. So it's real interesting. She had been looking for that her whole life. She was the fertile soil. And very responsive. And also growing, too. Some believers grow more than others. Have you noticed that? Different kinds of hearts respond differently to the truth. Whether it's the gospel of the kingdom in Israel, or whether it's the gospel of Christ who died for our sins and was buried and rose again. So questions. Are the hearts of people unchangeable? Or can one's understanding impact how one responds? Can that change? You're not going to answer that question? OK, we'll go on to the next one.

The soil that had varying rates of crop growth, is that a fixed rate of growth for each heart? In other words, you got a 30 times heart, or you got 100 times heart. For each heart, or can a believer's growth rate be changed? How does that change happen if it does?

I'll let you think about that one. Now, we'll move on to the parable of the wheat and the tares. Sometimes called Darnell or a few other things. So Matthew 13, 37 and 39 goes like this. And he said, Jesus that is, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. And the field is the world. As for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. And the tares are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. That's the evil one. And the harvest is at the end of the age. And the reapers are angels. Well, here's the explanation here. End of what age?

Here is Christ's first coming. We show a picture of the Nativity scene there, which we just celebrated weeks ago. And we show a picture of Christ resurrected here. And then a cross between indicating this is Christ's first coming. We now have the time in between. And then Christ's second coming, an event yet to take place.

And then as he comes again, he will bring us. We who believe will come with Him, not in these bodies. I'll be glad to get rid of mine by the way. It doesn't always cooperate. So, here we will come with Him in new bodies and we will rule and reign with Him as He is the King over Israel and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the nations. Following that will be the new heavens and new earth and the new Jerusalem You're about in here somewhere. At least that's what I think. Okay So we have the church That's the time when we are now and we are of the church and then you have the kingdom that follows so It is this time in here right before that that Jesus is describing here in the wheat and the tares Right as he comes back there will be this separation of And he's talking about the people of Israel and their response to the gospel of the kingdom.

And he will say, look, all these people, just because they are Israelites doesn't mean they're going into the kingdom. You see, the Jews had a mistaken idea. Matter of fact, there was a myth among the Jews that Abraham, at the last day, stood at the gate of hell to make sure no Jew ever went in. But that was myth. What Jesus is saying, and that's not the truth. Just because you're ethnically or genetically Jewish doesn't mean you're going in the kingdom. There's a response issue.

So just as the tares, these are the things that are not really wheat, are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The end of what age? This age. In the Jewish manner of speaking, and you'll find it in the Gospels, you'll also find it in Paul's writings, there's the present age and the age to come. The present age is the age we're living in. The age to come is the age of the Messiah, when Christ comes again.

That's their language. The Son of Man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness. and will throw them into the furnace of fire, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous, those who are the wheat symbolized in this picture, then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear.

So he's talking in this parable about that end time separation. Up until then you'll have those who believe and those who don't all together. But then will be a great separation as he describes it. They're going together side by side and all of a sudden one is headed one direction, a horrible direction, and the other a wonderful direction, being with the Lord, with the Messiah.

So the wheat and the tares is the sorting out of Israelites that will come at the end. The field where the wheat and the tares are being sown is among the people of Israel. Here they are, the ethnic people of Israel. All those descended from Abraham through Jacob are of Israel ethnically.

Romans 9.6, they're not all Israel who are descended from Israel. That is, Israel, the alternate name for Jacob. Just because you're descended from Jacob doesn't mean you're true Israel. Many of those who are ethnic Israelites will not go into the Millennial Kingdom. Those who will not go in are the terrors. They will be denied. They will say, you're not going there. Be turned away. Only the believers, the Huit, will proceed into this coming kingdom.

And as we've said, it could be as soon as seven years from now, what is just described here. As soon as seven years from now, maybe longer. Now we have the parable of the mustard seed. One of the things to look at, we've got a little scale here. That little scale in the picture shows that's 20 millimeters, a little less than an inch. And that's the size of the seeds, little tiny seeds. So those are mustard seeds, pretty small.

But you have a couple examples of mustard that has grown large, either because it is of a variety that can grow large, or two, just simply because it's allowed to live for a longer period of time. A lot of the mustard that is raised is an annual crop, and it's handled that way. But as you see in the one picture, it can grow up to be fairly large. One of the rabbis of the time, right after the New Testament, wrote of climbing in a mustard tree. And so it's apparently possible. The mustard seed is small, and yet over time, it can grow to be large, much, much larger than the seed itself. So what's he illustrating? The beginnings of the kingdom at the time of Christ, first coming were small with little apparent significance. Wait a minute, where did Jesus come from? From Nazareth? You're kidding! From Nazareth?

I told you about this place where I worked on the farm, that's where I went to high school. I remember one time I went over the hill to the county seat in a little town called Ukiah. That was the county seat. And I was introduced to a fellow who was a lawyer there.

And they said, you know, here's Bern. He's from Boonville. And his comment was, can anything good come from Boonville? Right? Well, that's kind of the response that Jesus got. Here he is from this town of Nazareth, right? And so then he goes and carries out his ministry largely in Galilee, this backwoods, backwater kind of place. The beginnings were insignificant. So all right, so you're going to have this great kingdom. How are we going to start this? I'm going to pick some fishermen. How about that? Right? Oh, a few of them. And they'll speak with a Galilean accent. We might say it's sort of a hick from the sticks kind of accent, right?

Yet the kingdom of heaven on earth will grow in global and cosmic significance by the start of the millennial kingdom. Here is the backwards, backwater part of the Roman Empire, and within that, this place that's a hick from the sticks kind of place, that's where the kingdom will start. By a guy born to a Jewish girl from a small little town. That's the start. And he's going to invite fishermen to be his beginning disciples. From there, you will have a kingdom over which all Israel is ruled and the entire earth. Growing from this tiny little start into this massive, not just global, but cosmic significance.

Ephesians 1.10 says that God will manage all of history and all of creation to sum up everything in Christ. That will be the coming kingdom. Christ will come again, they say it could be as soon as seven years from now, and rule over Israel and over the entire planet.

Now we have the parable of the leaven. Well, leaven can be a symbol of evil in Jewish thinking, and in some cases it is. They have the Feast of Unleavened Bread where they're supposed to get rid of it all, right? That's not always the case. We have a couple instances here in Leviticus that we give as examples where it's not evil. It seems to have a good connotation, in fact, in that context, as in this one.

Just like the yeast in the dough makes the bread rise, the developing of the kingdom happens as an unseen process. They can tell something's happening, but you can't really see how that's taking place. You can't see at the level where it's taking place. Eventually, it has visible results. The bread rises.

I heard of one couple that made a whole bunch of bread, and they didn't know quite what to do with it, the dough. So they put it in a pan in the oven and then went away. Oh, boy. Well, they came back, and the oven door was laid out, and the dough was covering the oven door, but that wasn't all. It was all over the kitchen floor, right? The dough had risen, in fact, from this leaven, the yeast that was in it.

God's process in us is not visible either, however. We're not Israel, and our hope is not in the land of Israel. But what God has done in us when we first believed, and the process He is carrying out in us, are invisible as well. The Bible makes clear that you were placed into Christ when you believed. Feel like it? Christ was placed in you. You in Christ and Christ in you. That also took place when you believed. Did everybody notice? No. God has, in fact, made you a part of His flock when you believed. But you didn't look very sheepish, probably. God did things when you believed that are not evident.

In fact, He's carrying on processes now that are not evident. Some invisible things do not change once we're saved. And there are things that God does, and he does over time. Processes of growth, process of being conformed and transformed into his image. Those are processes that are invisible. People can't watch it and go, wow. Hey, let's go watch Vern grow.

It's a little bit like watching paint dry, right? God is doing things in our hearts and in our lives so that ultimately what does Romans 8, 28 and 29 say? You are in the process of being conformed and you are predestined to be conformed into the image of a son if you're a believer. Is it something that people go and get in a stadium for and pay money for tickets for and are there scalpers so that everybody can watch? No. It's not something like that. It's invisible.

Ah, the parable of the hidden treasure. With the hidden treasure, Matthew 13, 44, the parable of the hidden treasure speaks of a person recognizing what's truly of great value so that he sells off everything else to buy that field with the treasure in it. He recognizes, wow, what a treasure I have found. The recognition of the treasure's value causes that man to trade everything else he has to gain that treasure. It's worth everything I have for that.

We in the body of Christ have blessings, treasure, a glory to behold, beholding the glory of the Lord in His word, that's totally invisible to the rest of the world. Ephesians 1 3 you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Can I see it? No You can't and everybody else see it no But they are there and they are Wow blessings We have this treasure 2nd Corinthians says in earthen vessels And we've got a bunch of earthen vessels there and one standing up here the treasure is not in the vessel. The treasure is in the vessel. See the difference?

You see, we have in the physical realm five senses. In the same way that we have five senses in the physical realm, scripture says we have the analog of these in the spiritual realm. What do I mean by that? Scripture talks about the eyes of your heart, talks about having tasted, talks about hearing and aroma and feeling. Scripture makes reference to all five, and I give just one example here, all five of the senses in the spiritual realm. In order to see these things and to perceive them, we have to have spiritual senses that are turned on. That's true of the believer. Vision, for example, is one of them. So as we have five senses in the physical realm, Believers also have five senses to see things and to value things in the spiritual realm.

The parable of the costly pearl, similar to the parable of the treasure. Like the man who finds the buried treasure is a merchant who seeks valuable pearls, comes upon the one pearl that's worth more than all the others and he sells all the other ones that he's got and everything else he has in order to get this one pearl that's more valuable than all the rest. So the merchant who's been buying and collecting the pearls turns around and sells them all in exchange for the one pearl that has the greatest value of all.

You see, we have spiritual investment decisions ourselves, don't we? What kind of a good trade is it? Matter of fact, you're coming here. You've made a spiritual investment decision. Haven't you? You've said, well, what's of value? What's a good trade for my time?

Then there's the parable of the dragnet, verses 47 through 50. Jesus tells about a fisherman who throws out a net. And of course, most of the disciples are thinking, yeah, well, I know about that. And so they'd throw out the net. They'd pull in all sorts of fish. Now, he talks about sorting out the good from the bad. And we say, well, what's a bad fish? You see, they had rules, Leviticus and Deuteronomy give them, they had rules about what fish you could keep and which ones you couldn't.

If it didn't have scales and fins, you can't keep it. No eating eels, okay? Of course, maybe that doesn't appeal to you, but at any rate, they weren't allowed, the Jews were not allowed to eat them. Why? It's got to have fins and scales. If it's lacking either one of those, it's no good. Got to throw it back or sell it to a Gentile. Like the parable of the wheat and the tares, this parable says that there's going to be a sorting out time. We've got these that we'll keep and those that we won't.

Only those who are faithful will be the ones entering the kingdom. So we ask them in verse 51, have you understood these things? And their answer, yes. When we know that there's a difference between the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of Christ's death for sins, his burial and resurrection, is they didn't understand the gospel that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again at all for a long time. We've got chapters ahead of us. It's clear they are not going to understand it. Every single gospel says that the disciples did not understand Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again until after it had all done. the parable of the scribe who becomes a disciple.

So the one who has been studying what is revealed in the Old Testament, as we call it, and then becomes a disciple of Christ and hears the new truths that Jesus has just taught about the kingdom, he's like the one who pulls out the family treasure chest. and draws out treasures about the kingdom that are old, things from the Old Testament, and new ones, the things that he has just revealed. You've got the old and the new. The disciple can now share both. And in fact, they do understand.

The last part of the chapter, Jesus goes from Galilee and goes to Nazareth, his old hometown. And so, oh, it's you again. Jesus comes to Nazareth. He teaches in the synagogue. And the people are amazed at both his teaching and the miracles he performs. But they become offended at him when they realize that he is related to all the familiar people in town whom they have known all along. Wait a minute. Aren't your brothers here? Yeah. Brothers and sisters. Isn't your father a carpenter? Yeah. Hey, we've seen you before.

We're just not interested. Can it be that God is doing the extraordinary in what looks ordinary? Is God doing something extraordinary in your life and we don't recognize it because it just looks ordinary? We've seen that before. Oh, this is just like before, is it?

Okay, let's pray. Lord, we do thank you as we Look at this passage. Just thank you for what you've revealed here. You've revealed your love and care. And we pray that we would bring to heart the insights from these teaching of the parables and for the comparisons that are there for us who are in the body of Christ. And we just look to you to guide and lead us through the course of this week from these insights. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.