THE PARABLES OF JESUS, #014, Part-1
A Chronological Study
"To Him who opened His mouth in parables and
uttered things hidden since the creation of the world."
Psalm
78:2
"The Sower, The Seed, The Soils"
The Mysteries of the Kingdom
Mt. 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15[i]
INTRODUCTION
The term, “The Mysteries of the Kingdom”
brings to mind what many of us have experienced sometime in our past. There came
that day when a parent, friend, or confidant spoke to us and said something
like, “It’s time for you to start growing up.” They probably followed that
statement with some truths about life that you didn’t really want to accept –
but they were true none-the-less. “No, you can’t have that expensive car… you,
I, we, don’t have that kind of money.” “No, we can send you to that
university…,” “Sometimes people just get sick and die.” Then as we grow we get
introduced to many truths in life… many are wonderful and exciting, and many are
hurtful and hard.
Absolute Authority – God’s will in
all things.
This is where Jesus’
disciples were at this time in His ministry. In fact, this parable is a set of
truths that is often avoided or outright rejected by some. The Judeo-Christian
God, Yahweh, The “I AM,” the one God of all that is and more… is in absolute
authority and control of all places, and all people, and all things. When it
comes to His election, His calling, His choosing, His predestination and His
will… nothing that happens does so without being in agreement with His absolute
will. If Jesus simply called the universe into existence
[John 1:1-3] – then there’s nothing He cannot do. That’s what absolute
authority means.[ii]
His well controls the plans and progress of all things – to His glory.
In this parable Jesus will teach His disciples and the crowd
around them a hard but essential truth concerning true Biblical faith. How does
one become a child of God, born from above, Saved? What is God’s role in this
process and what is the role of the individual? Hard questions and hard answers.
This parable is not about how you should act or react to what
Jesus has to say. This parable is about Him – not about you. We’ve all heard so
many teachers and preachers going on and on about how we need to identify what
kind of soil we are and work toward becoming “The good soil.” Nope! This parable
is all about who God is and what He has done (and doing). So, don’t look for
yourself in His explanation of the parable… look for who He is.
Leading Up To
Our Parable:
Matthew’s chapter 12 deals largely with
authority issues. Jesus and His disciples ate grain in a field on a sabbath
Saturday. The Pharisees were watching and confronted Him about it. We found out
that God was bigger than the law and that the religious leaders missed that
fact. We found out that Jesus, “the son of man” was “The Lord of the Sabbath,”
not the law or the Pharisees.
Then Jesus healed
a man with a withered hand on that same Sabbath… and again the religious leaders
tried to condemn Him for it. Jesus’ answer to their complaints was to heal all
those who were ill who were following Him that day. A clear “right at the
moment” statement showing them exactly who He was by fulfilling the prophecies
of the Old Testament prophets. The religious leadership responded by looking for
ways to destroy Him – as they had killed the prophets in the past.
The Pharisees,
trying to test Jesus again, brought Him a demon possessed man… and when Jesus
healed him, they told the crowd that He was healing people by the power of
Satan. Jesus responded to them “by your words you will be judged and condemned,”
forever.
Jesus’ own family
was seeking Him, they thought He had become deranged, and He proclaimed that
those like the disciples were His true mother and family, “For whoever does the
will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
So, you should be
able to see that Jesus is leading up to and talking about issues of God
Almighty’s sovereignty… and who are those people of faith that benefit from
God’s grace, mercy, and salvation. This important parable, spoken of in Matthew,
Mark and Luke brings much clarity concerning these things. But first we need to
find some definitions concerning the text. We’ll be interconnecting Matthew,
Mark, and Luke using our “Linear Text.”
Jesus Teaches in Parables
The Text:
“That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. And large
crowds gathered to Him, [Lk 8:4b] and those from the various cities were
journeying to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was
standing on the beach.”
“And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying,
[Mk 4:3] “Listen to this! [Mt 13:3]
Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the
road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places, where
they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no
depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they
had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns
came up and choked them out. [Mk 4:7b] And it
yielded no crop. [Mt 13:8] And others fell on the
good soil and *[iii]yielded
a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
[Lk 8:8b] As He said these things, He would call out, ‘He who has ears,
let him hear.’”
Initial Thoughts
One of the principles I try to keep reminding myself of
is: "Don't skip over the words." this is an important principle to begin with
right off. When I first composed this lesson I violated that principle trying to
"get on with it." But look, "That day." Right out of Chapter 12 comes the first
words in Chapter 13... "That day." Not even a single day has passed between
these two chapters. Chapter 12 was all about the closing of Jesus' close
dealings with the Nation of Israel. The final straw came when the Pharisees
proclaimed that Jesus power to heal and cleanse a man from demons came from
Satan himself - a sin never to be forgiven. He told them that their evil words
would be used to judge them and prove them guilty before Almighty God.
His next words were that he "went out of the house" -- He
left the nation of Israel -- and He was sitting by the sea--a clear reference to
the common reference in the Old Testament to the Gentiles being as the sea. So
hidden in this parable is the transition of Jesus ministry from the Nation of
Israel, who would eventually put Him to death to "destroy" Him, and the
beginning of the Gospel ministry to the Gentiles.
Jesus then told the Pharisees that the only sign they
would get from Him was the sign of Jonah, the prophet of God who was sent on a
mission away from the nation of Israel, he was cast from a boat and swallowed by
a great fish. He spent three days in the place of death as the servant of God.
He then came forth from the fish to go unto the Gentiles and they were saved.
"Following this, the Lord Jesus solemnly pronounced the
coming judgment of Heaven upon that wicked generation, so that their last state
should be worse than the first [vv 43-45].[iv] Jesus
then severed the connection of the flesh ties (the nation of Israel) and He then
told His disciples of the Spiritual ties with only His kinsmen -- "For whosoever
shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, the same is My brother and
sister, and mother [vv. 46-50]. This is a major moment in the New Testament, as
Jesus leaves the Nation of Israel as the purveyors of the Gospel and gives it to
His Disciples and the Gentile world.
The Disciple’s Question Asked
The Question:
And therein lies an important question. “Do you not understand this parable? And if you don’t…, “How will you understand all the [other] parables.?
So, as you
work your way through this lesson keep your mind focused on who God is, who His
Son is, and who His Holy Spirit is. In each case of a “Soil” focus on these
three persons of the Godhead, and the answers you find may just prevent you from
compromising your beliefs in your daily walk.
Jesus Answers Their Question:
Theme #1
The Text
When I read this, I am astounded that this
common folk, fishermen, tax collectors, etc., are told here that because of
their faith and continued following of Jesus… they have been granted the
knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom… and that the others in the assembly
had not. We’re not told here[v] what those
mysteries are but we should recognize right away that Jesus, through His
authority, has granted to some this benefit and not to others. So here in His
first words of explaining this question establishes this important theme – that
to some… and not to others, especially not to those religious leaders who
proclaimed that works of God the Father, through God the Holy Spirit, by Jesus
the very Son of God to be the work of Satan himself (Mt Ch 12).
Theme #2
The Text:
[Mt 13:12]
“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but
whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
I am intrigued by Jesus’ words here. It
sounds like favoritism at first look – but it is not for I know that God spreads
His grace upon the whole world. I know that Jesus died on that Cross for the
whole world, not just for those who would believe.[vi] I know
that my place as a child of God, a brother of The Lord Jesus Christ, is based on
my faith in Him and not my works. And I know that the destination of Hell is for
those who won’t receive Him as the only route to His kingdom, heaven, and
eternity by faith.
By this verse I can also now see that
belonging to Christ will bring joys and benefits that will not come to those
outside of Christ (as part of the Mysteries of the Kingdom). Those outside of
Christ will not have these joys and benefits… and the end result will be
literally “Hell” for them and the removal of all benefits and joys. So the
meaning here is those who “Have Christ” will continue to have more and more… and
those who do not have Christ will continue to have less and less until they lose
all. This is an eternal truth, not one for here and now.
[Mt 13:13a]
Therefore I speak to them in parables;
A Hard Reason:
The Text:
[MK 4:12]
so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may
hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”
So, the question that comes up is, “Does
God, for His purposes, turn His heart away from some?”
And the answer comes back, “Yes.”
We know He does not turn away from those who
are in Christ – who are true believers. Sin can certainly interfere with our
relationship with Him and His relationship with us… but He remains faithful to
those who are His own – through His Son, Jesus. There are even times when
members of the Body of Christ have been removed from earth to heaven… rather
than let them damage the testimony of a local church or larger witness or
testimony [Acts 5:1-11]. But there are many
places in scripture where God has left the unfaithful, unrepentant, or
unbelieving.
[Isaiah 59:2]
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and
your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
One of the most dramatic moments in the
scriptures occurs in the book of Ezekiel and Chapters 10 and 11. God has put up
with unbelieving, unrepentant, rebellious Israel for centuries. Then the moment
came when God had had enough. First, He left the Holy of Holies in the Temple,
then He left the Temple, then He went to the edge of the city and looked back,
and then He went out of the city to a nearby mountain, and then He was gone.
Four hundred years of silence ensued before He sent His Messiah to save the
lost. So, is there a breaking point for God? Yes. So, if these Pharisees
committed the ultimate sin – calling the works of God the Holy Spirit as being
done by Satan – then we can better understand Jesus’ words about speaking in
parables to that wicked generation – those who would knowingly put the Christ to
death – then He shall not speak to them in a way that would lead them to
repentance and possible forgiveness.
Three lessons ago we learned about that
moment when the Pharisees accused Jesus of healing and doing miracles by the
power of Satan. We read these words…
[Mt 12:30]
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me
scatters. [Mk 3:28] Truly I tell you, people can
be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal
sin. He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure [demonic]
spirit.”
The Text:
[Mt 12:13-15]
“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see,
and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the
prophecy of Isaiah[vii] is being
fulfilled, which says,
You will keep on hearing, but will not
understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
For the heart
of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And
they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I
would heal them.’
Being careful here, the text is literally
saying that those whose hearts are completely turned away… God has said that
even though they may continue to hear God’s word, the Gospel… they will not be
able to understand or perceive it – by God’s dictate.
There’s a term in the discipline of art
called “white space.” Sometimes much of the message portrayed in art is hidden
in the white space of an image. What is the “white space”? It’s the part of a
picture that most people don’t pay any attention to. The places around the
portrayed image. The same is true in writings. Often there is a “hidden” message
that you can only understand if you take the time to “see or hear” with the
intention of finding it.
Looking at the three verses above we can see
what the text says. But… what is there that it doesn’t say? The very topic of
our study… God, the Sower, sows the seed. And the Seed is the Word of God.[viii] Looking at
Jesus’ words we see that “while seeing they do not see, and while hearing
they do not hear, nor do they understand.”[ix] –
Understand what? God’s Word being sown by God on them!
But Blessed Are Your Eyes
The Text:
[Mt 13:16-17] But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
When we look
at these verses, in Part-2 of this lesson, we need to remember that when Jesus
speaks these words His death, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost are yet in
the future. Throughout the Old Testament men and women of God have had the
presence of the Holy Spirit, not to permanently indwell, but to indwell for His
purposes. So, Jesus is speaking to His disciples and telling those who have
become true believers and followers of Jesus they have been given the gift of
hearing and seeing and understanding the parabolic truths that Jesus is teaching
them. But… beyond that, He is telling them that “The Mysteries of the Kingdom,”
the one whom the prophets spoke of, the coming messiah, was standing before them
and teaching them things that were mysteries in the Old Testament – even for the
prophets. They had looked, they had listened, but they did not fully comprehend
what God was telling them through direct revelation or from the prophets. What a
marvelous blessing for the disciples and for us. Oh, that all believers would
take the time and do the work of reading, memorizing, working through the
scriptures – seeing, hearing… and then teaching others. We’ve been given the
indwelling Holy Spirit of God to enable us to see and hear the very hidden
things of God. How glorious and how wonderful is our King.
FOLLOW-UP QUESIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS
1. Of all the authorities in our world who holds the absolute authority over
all things and what does that mean?
2. What can or do I decide in this
life?
3. What is this parable basically about?
4. Why does Jesus
teach in parables?
5. What lesson does Jesus teach about faith?
6.
What sins can be forgiven?
FOLLOW-UP QUESIONS WITH ANSWERS
1. Of all the authorities in our world who holds the absolute
authority over all things and what does that mean?
God Almighty. Absolute authority means that God is
the one who makes those decisions that He deems to be absolute. Nothing anywhere
is, becomes, is changed, is determined, etc… except through the mind and will of
Almighty God.
2. What can or do I decide in this life?
God has given the right to decide and do those things
that we will be responsible for. All of my decisions will be weighted by the
mind and will of God and I will be found to be in alignment with His will, or
against it. And I will be held responsible for my intentions, decisions and
actions.
3. What is this parable basically about?
In this first part of this lesson we can see from the
chapter leading up to Ch-13 that it sits on a trajectory of the authority of
God, especially as it applies to Jesus and the forces of evil against Him, and
His choices as to who has the opportunity to “Know the mysteries of His
kingdom.”
4. Why does Jesus teach in
parables?
Jesus reveals that teaching in
parables allows those whom God has given “Eyes to see” and “Ears to hear” His
word, to come to faith in Him and Grow in salvation and grace to become His
children as part of His family.
5.
What lesson does Jesus teach about faith?
In Mt 13:12 Jesus tells us that those of faith will
be given more and in abundance; but whoever does not have faith, even what he
has shall be taken away from him. Hard but direct words concerning the authority
of God.
6. What sins can be forgiven?
Mk 3:20 tells us that people can be forgiven all
their sins… except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This special category
comes in two forms. First, those who told Jesus (and those who follow in time
who speak the same blasphemy) that His works (as God) were performed by the
power of the Devil. Second, anyone who goes to death without receiving the Lord
God Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
[i] All
scriptures are from the NASB unless otherwise noted.
[ii] For more
please see Ephesians 1:3-14
[iii]
Translated in the “Historical Past.” The Greek language often speaks in
a story as if things were happening at that moment when they happened in
the past. Thus, in this case, Jesus said, “And others fell on the good
soil and yields a crop.” The translators changed the tense to make the
statement more understandable.
[iv] Arthur
Pink, The Prophetic Parables of Matthew 13, Calvary book room,
Covington, KY 1928
[v] Jesus
seems to be explaining how current events develop old promises. The NT
consistently links the events of Jesus’ ministry and message with Old
Promises (Rom 1:1-4; Heb 1:1-2).
[vi] 2 Peter
3:9 “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard
slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for
any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
[vii] Isaiah
6:9-10
[viii] Luke
8:11 The Seed is the word of God.
[ix] Matthew
13:15 A quotation from Isaiah 6:9-10
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2022-05-01