An Introduction to the Parables, Part 2a

Okay. If you have your Bible, I'll throw with you to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, and tonight I trust that God will use his word to speak to you in a very mighty way. We began our study not too long ago on the greatest stories ever told by the greatest preacher who ever lived. In Matthew chapter 13, Christ begins speaking to a multitude of people, and what the Bible calls, parables. And the last time we were together, we introduced that by helping you understand a definition of parables and then begin to describe those parables of Matthew chapter 13.

We call them the kingdom parables, and we will take each of them in the weeks and months ahead and go into great detail as to their meaning, because we want you to understand the kingdom of God. But Christ simply gives an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. That's basically the definition of a It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. They are stories designed to put things in concrete form for us by using comparisons. And those comparisons are about things that we see every single day. Specifically, those people, the Jewish culture in which he addressed, would know exactly what he was talking about when he would speak in parables.

And so as we began our study, we realized that each parable had one. one main thrust, one main truth that it needed to convey to the people that would shed light on the condition of those who are listening, shed light on the condition of their heart, their soul. And so we have entitled our series Searchlights for the Soul because the parables show us the condition of our lives. And therefore, they call us to action. When we understand what the Lord Jesus is saying and understand the main thrust he's trying get a cross, it's going to call you and meet action.

And that's important for us to understand. Tonight, we want to cover the instruction and implication and ask, why did Jesus use parables? And what's in these parables for me? Matthew Jack 13, verse number 10. And the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? Remember the context? Christ had, you know, stepped into a boat. And the whole aspect of Christ's ministry was now beginning to change. At the beginning part of his ministry, he was in homes a lot. He was in the synagogue, but now he's going to be outside.

He's going to be in the streets, in boats, in villages. And it's almost like as he begins to speak in parables, he's showing us a different dimension of his ministry and a different different emphasis in his ministry. And so as he gets into this boat and begins to speak in parables, as Matthew 13, verses 1 and 2 tell us, there was a whole multitude of people. There was a whole slew of people. And at this time in the ministry of Christ, there were a lot of followers. It wasn't until the end where they just, you know, dwindled down to just a very few group of people.

But at this time, there was a lot of people still following Christ. After all, he had done so many things for the multitudes. He had fed them. He had healed them. He had done so many marvelous miracles that they followed him like, man, he was the greatest thing in the world. But it was time for him to begin speaking in parables. Why? Let me give you three reasons.

Number one is because it was the common teaching of his day. Believe it or not, it was a common teaching of his day. The rabbis would often use parables in their teachings. 45 times the word is used in the Greek subduigent in the Old Testament. The word parable is used 48 times in the first three gospels.

Twice it's used in the book of Hebrews. A good teacher, a good communicator, knows how to explain things to the people he's addressing. Christ is a master preacher. He's the master communicator. There is nobody who can tell a story better than Jesus. And the stories he would use would bring home to light those important truths that people needed to know in order to grow in their walk with the Lord. He would take those deep theological issues and put them on a plane so a child could begin to understand them.

He would take a hardcore issue, put it in natural terms, put it in simple terms so people could get an idea of what was happening. And you will note in just a few moments, that Christ is going to teach a profound lesson about a mystery. A mystery, something that was concealed in the Old Testament, but now revealed in the New Testament. And what he was going to reveal to them was the kingdom of God. He was going to reveal to them a mystery, something they did not understand because they knew nothing about.

The rabbis knew nothing about, but Jesus had a plan from the very beginning. And he was going to teach them about that by using illustrations with fields. thorns, birds, wheat, tears, mustard seed, leaven, treasures, pearls, fishing nets, all things understood by the common everyday man. He would use them to explain to them deep spiritual truths that were concealed in the Old Testament, but now are going to be revealed for the very first time to the people he's going to address.

So number one, it was a common teaching of his day. Number two, it was designed to make complex truth simple.

To make complex truth simple. Something that you can understand. You know, most of us like to think in terms of pictures, right? We are a visual society. Back in Jesus' day, they weren't nearly as visual as we are today, but they would still look at things from a pictorial view.

Especially today in our DNA, in our culture, man, we are really big into visual aids. And you realize that when someone wants to sell you something, they're going to show you a picture of what it looks like. All you've got to do is watch the advertisements about cars on television. Somebody just says to come on and start talking to you about cars. They're going to show you the car you're going to buy. They're going to show you all the little gadgets that car has and why this is best for you. If they want you to join their health spa, they're going to get somebody up there that looks good.

They're going to get somebody up there that's, you know, nasty looking and say, hey, this is how you can look when you're all done. No, they're going to get somebody up there and say, you know what, if you join our spa for so much money a month in six weeks, you're going to look like her. You're going to look like him. And you know what? We're dumb enough to buy into that. And so we give our money, man, and we start to do those things. That's why those infomercials are so, so hilarious, man. They got those people in there doing all those exercise things, you know, and say, in just 30 days, you can have a body that looks just like this.

And we're thinking, oh, wow, man, this is great. Give them my credit card. They send us a thing in the mail. It sits in our garage for about six weeks before we ever unpack it. And once we get it unpacked, we can't put it together. and if we get somebody over to help us put it together, we're too tired to get on it to exercise to look like the person they said we were going to look like. Come on, you know, as well as I do, that stuff doesn't work. But they want to show you the picture. Why? Because pictures are worth a thousand words, aren't they?

Christ is going to give us pictures, snapshots. And you're going to see things as you've never seen them before. And the very first picture he's going to give us is the picture of a sewer going out to sow seed on the ground.

Because Christ wants you to get a picture of the kingdom. He wants you to understand what it's going to be like when you begin to sow seed in the world. Of course, the seed is the word of God, and we'll talk about that. And we're going to talk about how when you throw that seed on some ground, Satan comes and snatches it up. You throw it on rocky places, or you throw it on thorny places, and every once in a while you're going to throw seed on good soil. It's going to take root, and it's going to grow.

The Christ gives us a picture. Why? Because you know and I know that it's very easy to get discouraged in the kingdom age when it comes to talking to people about Jesus Christ. And we want to know why people don't respond. How come they're not excited about receiving the free gift of return of life? Why don't they want to follow Jesus? And Christ is going to tell us at the very outset about his kingdom and why some people are going to respond and others are going to respond quickly, but what they respond to is not what you thought they responded to.

And while others are just going to turn you off automatically. He's going to explain it all to you. He's going to give you a picture, a snapshot. He's going to use soil to explain it to you. And when you leave this place, you're going to go with a better idea of why people, your neighbors don't accept Christ. You'll have an answer as to why so-and-so gave their life to Christ, presumably two or three years ago, and today they want to have nothing to do with God. And Christ says, I'm going to tell you why that happens.

I'm going to explain it to you. That's why he talks about the mustard seed and the leaven. Because you want you to understand the permeating influence of the kingdom of God in the world. And if you just get a picture of the mustard seed and how it grows and the leaven on how it permeates, what you're going to see is how the church of Jesus Christ is going to infect the world with the gospel. And make an impact. He'll give you a picture of treasure to help you understand how valuable the kingdom is.

and get you to question in your own mind, how valuable do you see the gospel? How valuable do you see the kingdom? What have you given to follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he the number one priority in your life?

He's going to take complex truth, make it very simple. He's going to talk to you about the end of the age and how the Lord is going to separate the wheat and the tears. He's going to give you a picture of the separation process. He's going to show you how he does it. Number three, why did Christ use parables?

You'll notice that when someone gives an illustration tells a story, it tends to grab our attention, right?

We tend to set up and take note. And when Jesus begins to tell stories, especially to people in the Hungarian culture as he spoke to them, they began to realize what he was saying. And while we might read the story of the parables and not really get them at the outset, you can be sure that they're going to stood them. because they understood wheat and tears. They understood good soil, roadside soil, thorny soil, patchy soil. They understood those things. And so we'll explain to you to help you understand the Jewish culture and how they would respond.

He told them stories not to entertain them. He didn't want to entertain them. He wanted to zero in on the hearts of his listeners. He wanted them to come to grips with the truth. So the third aspect is very important.

Not only did he want to make complex truth simple, not only was it the common teaching of his day, but thirdly, he wanted to conceal even as he revealed the truth.

He wanted to conceal, even as he wanted to reveal the truth. He revealed further truth to those who responded, responded, and he hid and concealed truth from those who rejected. Let me explain to you.

First of all, by way of context, if I was to take you back to Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter 1 would emphasize, number 1, the ancestry of the king.

That's chapter 1 of the book of Matthew. It's the genealogy of Christ. It's written to show that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah. He is the rightful heir to the throne of David. He is the king. Matthew chapter one gives us the ancestry of the king. Matthew chapter two gives us the adoration of the king. Because you have the wise men who come, bow down, and worship the king. When you come to chapter three, you have the announcement of the king. Because you have the ministry of John the Baptist. And the ministry of John the Baptist was to announce the arrival of the king.

He was the forerunner. So chapter one proves that Jesus is the king. Chapter two shows you how to worship the king. Chapter three announces the king to the world. When you come to chapter four, you receive the authority of the king. Because Christ was presented as God's chosen one. In Matthew chapter four, Christ has his conflict with Satan as he's up in the wilderness for 40 days and is a long ordeal about the conflict between Christ and Satan in which you have presented to us is the authority of the king.

He is the one with all power. He is the one with all authority and Satan is subject to Christ. When you come to chapters 5, 6, and 7, you have the address of the king. The king is going to present his very first sermon.

He's going to preach to the people. He's going to gather them together on the hillside the Sea of Galilee and give them an understanding of what it means to live like a child of the king. If you were with us a number of years ago, we did a series on the sermon on the Mount and titled Living Like a Child of the King. This is the address of the king. This is the state of the church or the state of Israel or the state of the world address. Matthews 5, 6, and 7. When you come to chapter 8, Chapter 9, in chapter 10, you have what we call the accomplishments of the king.

The accomplishments of the king. You have his credentials as he begins to do miracle after miracle, after miracle, things they had never seen before, all to prove that he is the anointed one, that he is the Messiah. And during this time, there comes a mounting rejection against him. As you read chapter 8, chapter 9, and chapter 10, while Christ is doing what Christ came to do, what happens is that there comes a growing rejection toward his authority. And the greater the evidence that he demonstrates that he is the king, the greater the rejection comes.

When you come to chapter 11, you have the acceptance from the king. For in chapter 11, he promises judgment even upon sinful Israel. But he closes chapter 11 with the great acceptance speech, which says, come into me all you that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He says, I want to accept you. In order for me to accept you, you must come to me on my terms. So you have the acceptance of the king. When you come to chapter 12, you have the attacks on the king. king. The attacks on the king.

The rejection reaches its climax, and so does the pronouncement of judgment upon those who will not accept the king, and the religious leaders had a choice. The choice is, this Jesus from Nazareth either is or is not the Messiah. If he is the Messiah, we have to listen to what he says, we have to obey what he says, we have to follow him. If he's not the Messiah, he must be of Satan. So what do they do? They chose the latter. He must not be the Messiah. He must be of the devil. So they attack the king.

They attack his accomplishments. They attack his address. They attack his authority. They attack his appointment. They attack everything about him to show people that this so-called Messiah is of Satan. That brings this in chapter 13 in that. That's our stuff. And this is the action of the king. This is what Jesus is now going to do as a result of the mounting rejection against him. And we told you earlier, there's a whole multitude of people following him. There's a whole bunch of people excited still about what Jesus is doing.

They've seen his actions. They've seen his accomplishments. They understand his authority. And they want to follow him. At least so they think. So Christ now begins to act. And notice what it says in verse number 11 of Matthew chapter 13.

The disciples asked the question in verse number 10. In chapter 11 he says, And he answered and said to them, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it has not been granted. Christ makes a distinction between you and between them. And you will note that he goes on to say in verse number 13, 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 and in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled which says you will keep on hearing but will not understand and you will keep on seeing but will not perceive for the heart of this people has become dull and with their ears they scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and I should heal them.

But blessed are you. Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. Christ says, there is you and there is them.

To you that has been granted to hear and to see and to believe. But to them, but to them, I speak in paramed. To them, these are just going to be nice little stories they're going to hear. To them, there are going to be stories that they might understand the basic meaning of them because they are taken from everyday life. But the spiritual truth, they're not going to be stories. into grass. I'm not going to get, because I'm going to conceal that from them. To you, I'll give more. To you, you'll see more, you'll hear more, you'll understand more, but to them, they're going to be confused.

They are not going to understand. Let me explain to you further. Christ says this, to you, it's been granted to know the mystery.

What's the mystery? What's the mystery? There's a mystery. You can just see the disciples. A mystery. What mystery? There's something we don't understand? It's something we don't know? What is it? How are you going to convey it to us? And the kingdom parables is that mystery. If you go over to the book of Ephesians, the third chapter, it says this.

Ephesians chapter 3, verse number 3. We start with verse number 1. For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles. Indeed, you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you. that by revelation, there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit.

To be specific, here it is, here's the mystery, that the Gentiles, are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. That's the mystery. That the Gentiles are going to receive the gospel. That Jews and Gentiles are going to be together in the kingdom. That's the mystery. That's what they did not see in the Old Testament. That is what I did not reveal to them in the Old Testament. But I'm going to reveal it to you. you're going to see it.

He's going to reveal it to them by way of parables by telling them stories, then explaining those stories to them in a way that they will fully understand. Now note this. Look at verse number 11, chapter 3 of Ephesians.

This mystery was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This mystery, listen, is not something that just happened to come about. It was with the eternal purposes of God. This was the way God mapped it out from the very beginning. He just didn't let the people in the Old Testament know about it yet. It wasn't for them to know. It was for the people that Jesus came to teach for them to know. To the disciples, they were given the mystery of the kingdom of God.

They were given the very heart of the gospel. To those outside the realm of Christ, They received nothing but parables, and they would lack the understanding, and they would not come to grips with it. Why? 1st Corinthians chapter 2 tells us that the natural man does not understand the things of God. Does not get them, does not grasp them, does not get them. Look at verse number 12.

For whoever has, to him shall more be given. And he shall have an abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him now you might read that and think wow that's not very nice with the lord is it i mean after all they've got something he's going to take it away from him so he don't get anything else but those who already have are going to get more what is that is that right for christ to do that it sounds like christ doesn't want somebody to believe in him but you've got to be careful because the verse really truly clearly points to the fact that the words of Christ have already been rejected.

Because you see, that which they have already received is going to be taken from them. They have already seen the miracles. They have already heard the sermons. They've already seen the effects of his ministry. And they've rejected. That's why you need to know the context of where Matthew 13 is in conjunction with the first 12 chapters.

Those people who saw, those people who heard and did not accept it to be seen, it's going to we take it from there and all they're going to hear is start nice little bedtime stories that mean nothing to them because they lack the spiritual discernment that's pray Thank you.