Transcription
Foreign. Thank you. Well, good afternoon, everybody. So, please, good afternoon. Good evening. It's 6:30 in the evening here on the West Coast of the United States. And if we've never been introduced before, my name is David Guzik. I'm here this evening to teach a Bible study. And this is the Bible study that I would have taught at my home church, Calvary Chapel of Santa Barbara.
But the problem is, is my home church just a couple days ago, on Monday of this week, was flooded. Almost every room in the church suffered some kind of water damage. And so it's going to take a couple of weeks for us to work through all of that. And until we do work through all of that, we've had to suspend normal services in that building.
Now, I'm no longer the pastor of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, but my dear friend and my pastor, Tommy Schneider, is. And we just kind of talked about this yesterday that instead of the normal midweek service, which I was going to teach at this evening, instead of doing that here this evening, I would just give the same Bible study I was going to prepare anyway. And I would do it here from my home studio, uh, that's sort of in my back garden, in my home here in Santa Barbara.
So I'm very pleased if you joined us here this evening. We're not going to have any worship. My wife, Inga, little asked me, are you going to have worship? And I said, yeah, I'll sing a couple songs before I get. No, we're not gonna have any worship here this evening. I'm just going to teach through a Bible study. And one nice thing about this is, maybe this, well, it's kind of nice for me, is I didn't feel like I needed to kind of abbreviate the time at all. Normally, on a Wednesday night, I might be teaching for 35, maybe 40 minutes. We may go a bit longer than that here tonight on the YouTube live.
And I want to say, you are very welcome to leave your comments and questions in the side chat. I'm not going to really pay attention to the side chat while I'm teaching through this section here this evening, but I invite you to leave comments and questions. And probably what I'll do when I'm done teaching is I'll scan through the side chat and see what is, um, you know, what, what I may be able to address from there.
So I want to welcome you whether you're a part of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara and you're tuning in tonight because nothing's going with the church building because we suffered that flood damage, or if you're from someplace else in the world, visiting us here this evening. Very pleased that you could join us. And whether you're a part of the congregation of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara or you're not, I would invite you to pray. Pray for Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara. Pray for Pastor Tommy. Pray for the leadership of the church. Pray for the many hands that will be doing the work that's necessary over the next several weeks to take care of the flood damage, which, what I understand, would mainly be damage to the walls, uh, you know, they take on water and all, and then to the baseboards, of course, and then also to certain parts of the flooring of the building are going to have to be replaced.
So, yes, please pray. Um, look, what a wonderful attitude, an attitude of faith that Pastor Tommy has. Uh, I know he's just trusting God in the midst of it and getting God's people to work. It's a great reminder that the church isn't a building, but it's the community of God's people, and they're really pulling together to do that.
So let me get now into the teaching I'm gonna do here this evening. What we're going to talk about is The Parables of the Kingdom. Uh, what we're doing at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara is we're trying to encourage our congregation to read through the Bible in a year. And so we're handing out bookmarks every month to everybody with a, you know, schedule of read these chapters and then you'll be able to, uh, read through the Bible in an entire year. And towards that end, on Wednesday nights, our midweek study, we're taking chapters that are relevant to the chapters that we're asking people to read through as we read through the Bible in a year. And whoever is preaching on Wednesday nights has the opportunity to preach something from those chapters or connected to those chapters. And in the assignment relevant to this particular Wednesday night, Matthew Chapter 13 was included in that. And so that's what I'm going to teach on here tonight, Matthew Chapter 13, or at least most of the chapter, where it talks about The Parables of the Kingdom.
So let's get right into it and just sort of walk our way through most of Matthew chapter 13. I'm going to try something different with the Bible text. I'm just gonna cut over to another screen that has the Bible text right on it while I'm reading it, just so that if you're watching or reading along, you can see the text right in front of you.
So we're going to begin now with the first three verses of Matthew chapter 13, where we read, "On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered together to him, so that he got into a boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, 'Behold, a sower went out to sow.'"
Jesus here is doing something that he did a few times in his ministry. He used a boat as a pulpit. Gave him a place to speak away from the press of the crowds. You know, you can imagine as Jesus would speak and teach, people wanted to be close to him, and so they would sort of press in on him. Well, if he's in a boat on the water, they can't really press in. They don't want to get all wet. It also probably provided some good acoustics and maybe something nice for the people to look at as they saw Jesus teaching there, sitting in a boat on the water of the Sea of Galilee.
And it says there at the beginning part of verse 3, that he spoke many things to them in parables. Now, the idea behind the word parable is to throw alongside of. And you could say that a parable is a story thrown alongside the truth that was intended to teach. Parables have been called earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. One commentator through the gospel of Matthew that I've appreciated, a guy, M.R.T. France, he says that the Greek word, uh, parabola, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, that its meaning is wider than that of what we usually just translate or think of as a parable. He said that it could include proverbs and riddles and wise sayings, as well as parables.
And so Jesus spoke in parables to those who wanted to listen. These were teachings that had an illustrative aspect to it, as we're going to see tonight as we take a look in Matthew Chapter 13. "The kingdom of God is like this," or "God's work is like this."
Now, one thing to remember about parables when we take a look at them is that they generally teach one main point or principle. Parables are not allegories. Now, do you know what an allegory is? An allegory is something like, um, Pilgrim's Progress, that famous book by John Bunyan, where, you know, there's a man named Christian, who of course is a Christian, and he travels through the Slough of Despond, and he's on his way to the Celestial City, and he has to pass through Vanity Fair. And every aspect of the story has an individual lesson and meaning. An allegory is different from a parable. An allegory, every detail has some kind of inner meaning. That's not the way it is with a parable. And sometimes theologically, we get into trouble with parables. We sort of act or think that a parable should have an intricate theological purpose with every small detail. No, the better way to approach any parable is to say it's really trying to communicate a main point. Um, but we shouldn't treat parables as if they were allegories where every single detail has a great significant spiritual purpose.
All right, so let's get on to the story, the parable that Jesus told about a farmer and sowing seeds. Here we go. Now, Matthew Chapter 13, uh, let's begin now again at verse 3, where he says, "And he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, 'Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'"
So here Jesus is telling a story connected to the agricultural customs of his day. In those days, seed was scattered, uh, first, and then it was plowed into the ground. Now, friends, that look, I can't say that I know enough about ancient agricultural procedures to tell you why they thought that that was the best way to do it. But a farmer would go through his field scattering seeds, and then he would run the plow through his ground. So that's how they did it in those days. So he would take the seed, he would bring it forth, and in this parable, the seed fell on four different types of soil, as Jesus described.
Verse 4 mentioned the wayside. That was what we might call a path or a, a footpath, a sidewalk in, you know, uh, American English. It was the path where people walked, and nothing could grow because the ground was too hard. Then in verse 5, he described the stony places. That's where the soil was thin, lying upon a rocky shelf. When you read the phrase stony places, you kind of think that, well, the, the seed just fell upon rocks. No, that's not really it. It fell upon soil, but underneath the soil was a very, um, high level of a rock deposit. So it was a thin layer of soil upon some hard rock. And on this ground, the seed sprung up quickly because of the warmth of the soil, but the seed was unable to take root because of the rocky deposits or shelf underneath it.
Then in verse 3, Jesus mentioned the soul, the seed that was cast among thorns. That described soil that was fertile. Now, perhaps it was too fertile, because not only did the seed grow in it, the wheat seed, but also thorns grew there as well as grain. And then the fourth category is found in verse 8, good ground. That describes the soil that was both fertile and weed-free. So a good productive crop grew in the good ground.
Now, once Jesus explained this very simple story, and I want you to notice in the story that Jesus told, at least up to this point, there was really no spiritual application to it at all. He's just telling a story about a farmer who's sowing seeds, and the seed has four different soils or destinations that it, uh, lands upon. And at the end of it, he says, verse 9, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Now, that was not a call by Jesus for everybody to listen. It's not like he was calling out to the, "Hey, everybody, listen to me!" No, rather, this was a call for those who were spiritually sensitive to take special note. And this is especially true considering the next few verses, in which Jesus explains the purpose of parables. Maybe we should take a look at that, starting right now at verse 10.
Why did Jesus use parables? Now, hold on for this, because it's counter-intuitive. In this context, I'm not going to say that every time Jesus used a parable, it was for this purpose, but Jesus explains himself pretty well in this context. Jesus used parables to hide the truth from those who would not listen to the Holy Spirit. Look, you'll see what I'm talking about when we take a look now, starting at verse 10. We're going to look all the way now, following through to verse 17. This is what we read: "And the disciples came and said to him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?'" Pretty straightforward question there, don't you think?
Verse 11: "He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because, listen carefully here, 'seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.' And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull.'" The actual word there is fat. They've grown fat and insensitive. "Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts, and turn, so that I should heal them.'"
Now, Jesus continues here. She's making a little aside. Jesus continues, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For assuredly, 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."
So in these verses, Jesus is giving, um, an explanation, really, an answer, you could say, to the question of his disciples back in verse 10. The disciples asked, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" The way Jesus used parables prompted the disciples to ask this question. Now, again, this is a little bit counter-intuitive. The way many people speak of parables and Jesus's use of parables, they assume that Jesus was using parables as illustrative stories to make the truth as simple and as clear to understand as possible. But really, that wasn't the reason Jesus used parables, at least in this context. You can argue for it in other passages that perhaps he was using parables for that context, for that reason, but not here. It was not as simple or easy as an illustration of spiritual truth. If so, if that was plain, if that was apparent, then the disciples would have never asked the question.
So they asked the question, "Jesus, why do you speak to them in parables?" And now, verse 11, he's going to give the answer. "Because, Jesus says, 'it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.'" Jesus explained that he used parables so that the hearts of those rejecting would not be hardened further.
Friends, in this context, and I'm saying that again and again because I just want to emphasize this idea, we can't say that Jesus used parables the same way and for the same purpose in every instance. But in this context, he did it not so much to reveal the truth, but to hide the truth, almost, you could say, to encode the truth into a package that only people who were listening to the Holy Spirit could receive. That only people whose hearts were already turned towards the Lord could grab a hold of.
It's interesting, isn't it, that two people could walk away from this parable of Jesus, the parable we usually call the parable of the sower, who goes out and sows seed and it falls on four different types of ground? You could imagine that people could walk away from that parable with two very different ideas. Somebody could just say, "Well, isn't that an interesting story about what a farmer did?" And somebody else could say, "I need to listen carefully to the word of God so that it bears rich fruit in my life." The same story, two different effects.
Friends, it's true that the same sun that softens the wax hardens the clay. And in the very same gospel message that humbles the honest, seeking heart and leads them to repentance, it can also harden the heart of the dishonest listener and confirm that particular one in their own path of disobedience. You could say that this parable conceals the truth from those people who are just set against the truth of God, too lazy to think about the things of God. It is a bit of a puzzle to say, "I want to understand what Jesus of Nazareth means through this parable." So I'm going to apply my heart, I'm going to apply my mind to it. And to those seeking hearts, God revealed what he wanted them to know in and through the parable.
And so, the parables that Jesus spoke to the crowds, at least in this context, it wasn't a way to simply give them information. It was a challenge to the hearers. That's why Jesus said, did you notice it in verse 12? "For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." The idea is this: that those who are open and sensitive to the spiritual truth, more will be given to them. They'll receive more spiritual truth through these parables. Yet, to those who are not open, those who do not have a desire to really seek the things of God, those ones could end up in an even worse condition.
Now, verse 13, Jesus said, "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." In this sense, the parables of Jesus, as I said before, were not simple illustrations making difficult things clear to everybody. No, in this context, the parables presented God's message so that the spiritually sensitive person could understand it, but the hardened person would merely hear a story without heaping up additional condemnation for rejecting God's word.
Friends, in this way, parables are an example of God's mercy towards the heart and person. The parables were given in the context of the increasing rejection that the religious leaders had against Jesus and his work. And, and it's almost as if Jesus didn't want to easily give them more reasons to reject him. So to the spiritually hardened, these were just stories. But to the ones who had an ear to hear, they could hear what the Spirit was saying.
Now, in all of this, as Jesus says in verse 14, "the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled." By speaking in parables, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, speaking in a way that the hardened would hear but not hear, that they would see but not see, because, verse 15, "the heart of this people has grown dull or fat."
Now, verse 16. Jesus said, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." In light of this, those who did understand the parables of Jesus, those people were genuinely blessed. Not only did they gain the benefit of the spiritual truth that the parable illustrated, but they also had the encouragement of knowing, "Hey, um, my understanding of this means that the Holy Spirit's working within me." Friends, if, if you can understand things from the word of God, just simple truths in the word of God, you, you should take encouragement from that. I think God wants that to be an encouragement to you. God wants to encourage you with the truth that it means that you're listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Okay, let's continue on here, starting now at verse 18, where we read, "Let me switch over here to the Bible text where it says, 'Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on the stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.'"
Okay, so as we discussed before, earlier in the chapter, Jesus referenced four different kinds of soils that received the seed. Maybe this is a good place to mention this. I don't think I've mentioned it so far. Most people, by tradition, call this the parable of the sower, and you can see why, because a sower goes out to sow seed, that's what Jesus is saying in this parable. But it should probably be more accurately described as the parable of the soils. Why do I say the parable of the soils? Well, I would call it the parable of the soils because it's the soils that are different. The seed was the same in every instance. There was no changing in the seed. The difference was found not in the seed, but in the soils that received it.
Okay, so what does Jesus say about the first soil in verse 19? Now, before I talk about the first soil, let me just say, I am bringing this to you on a YouTube live, and you can leave questions and comments in the side chat. When I'm done with my teaching, I'm going to scroll through the side chat and, you know, maybe I can answer a question or two. I'd prefer it if your questions are kind of on the text that I'm talking about tonight. I'll do what I can to, to look at your comments and your questions scrolling through them quickly. I can't promise I'll get to everything, but if you want to leave a question or comment, I'll try to look over when I'm done with this teaching.
Okay, now back to verse 19. Jesus is describing the first seed. He says, "This as the birds devoured the seed on the wayside," he described that back in verse 4. So some people receive God's word with hardened hearts. The word never penetrates, and so the wicked one quickly snatches away the sown word. The word, in that case, has no effect on that person because it never penetrated, and it was quickly taken away. I don't know if I could be a little bit silly. I've got a Bible here, and you could just think, you know, the Bible sort of bouncing right off a person. Of course, it wouldn't make much difference if an actual physical Bible bounced off somebody. But if the truth of God's word never penetrates a person's mind, a person's heart, it's all just kind of external. They just know it, they hear it, but it's quickly forgotten. There's no sort of penetration to the truth and the power of God's word. Then it's very much like this first kind of soil. Those are people who hear the word of God but never really receive it with any kind of understanding.
Friends, the word of God must, in some measure, be understood before it can truly bear fruit. Now, I believe that the word of God is living and active and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, as Hebrews chapter 4 tells us. And I believe that there is power and effectiveness in God's word that goes beyond our ability to understand it. I don't think that the power of God's word is restricted only to the times and circumstances in which we understand it. But for full fruit, so to speak, we need to understand what it says. And one of Satan's chief works is to keep men and women in darkness regarding their understanding of the gospel. He's always out there to sort of snatch away the word. And so this is what is described in the first category, the soil that falls on the wayside, on the footpath, so to speak.
Okay, uh, here now, verse 20. Jesus described the meaning of the seed that fell on the stony places. This was seed that fell on the thin soil on top of a stony deposit that quickly springs up, but then quickly withered and died. Jesus described that in verses 5 and 6 of Matthew chapter 13. See, even so, there are some people who respond to God's word with immediate enthusiasm, yet they soon wither away again. These are people who receive the word enthusiastically, but their spiritual life is short-lived. Why? Jesus said, "Because they were not willing to endure tribulation or persecution." Notice the phrasing there in verse 21, "because of the word." Friend, I want you to think about that just for a moment. Any person who's really going to see the word of God do its effect in them, any person who's going to experience and live after the way of God, you've got to be willing to endure some tribulation or persecution because of the word of God. I understand that there are things that the Bible teaches that are of great offense to the world, to the culture around us. And of course, it's always been true, it's not like it's just true today, it's always been true. The, the point of offense may differ from culture to culture and from time to time. But there are points at which the truth of the Bible offends what the world says. And you, I, and everyone who endeavors to be of that fruitful soil, bearing fruit unto God, we must be willing to bear tribulation or persecution because of the word.
You see, the problem wasn't that they suddenly sprung up. No, no, there can be sudden conversions that are a great blessing. No, instead, the problem was that they weren't willing to endure hardship for the sake of the word of God. They weren't willing to say, "This is what the Bible says. The Bible's true. I'm going to rest on it. And if you think I'm a fool, and if you think I'm, you know, out of step with the culture, if you think I'm on the wrong side of history, if you think any other bad thing you might want to call me, I'll bear it for the sake of the word of God, which reflects us the character, the nature of God."
One commentator, R.T. France, I've already mentioned once before, he saw that there was some significance in the three terms in verse 21. He said tribulation is just sort of a general term for suffering which comes to a person from the outside. Persecution is something that's deliberately inflicted, usually implying a religious motive. And then the third phrase in verse 21, "or word is stumbles," and literally, that's tripped up. It's not a gradual loss of interest, but a collapse under pressure. We must be willing to endure all of those things for the sake of God's word.
And I want to emphasize with this, there are people who hear what I just say, "willing to endure hardship, hatred, adversity, persecution for the sake of what the word of God says." There are people who would think, "You're making an idol out of the word when you say that." Well, first of all, I want you to understand it's Jesus in this parable who said that. The problem here was that they weren't willing to endure tribulation or persecution or stumbling for the sake of the word of God. That was Jesus who said it, not myself. Secondly, we're not making an idol out of a book, but the truth that this book tells us is the truth of God. It reveals to us who God is in the fullest capacity of our ability to understand. I don't think that the Bible is the only revelation that God has given us. We have a revelation in creation, and we have a revelation in conscience, but those are far inferior to the revelation that we have in and through the word of God.
Okay, so that was the seed that was cast upon the stony ground. So we've had the stone, the, the seed cast upon the wayside or the footpath, the seed, the seed cast upon the stony ground. Now, number three, Jesus described the meaning in his parable of the seed that was cast among the thorns. This is in verse 22 of Matthew chapter 13. "A seed falling among thorns grew. The stalks of grain were soon choked out." Jesus described that back in verse 7. "Even in the same way, some people respond to God's word and they grow for a while, but they're choked, they're stopped in their spiritual growth by competition from unspiritual things." The, the weeds, the thorns grow up and they compete with the resources of the soil, with the, uh, wheat seed that was planted, and they choke it out.
This soil represents fertile ground for the word. You could say that it's too fertile, because it will also grow all sorts of other things that will choke out the word of God, namely, Jesus describes these things in verse 22. They will embrace the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. That's what will choke out the word of God. See, here's the thing: if you're going to embrace the truth of God's word, it also means that you're going to have to push away other things that aren't ultimate in their truth or their goodness.
So we got three soils: the, the path or the wayside, the stony ground, the thorny ground. Now, here in verse 23, Jesus describes, describes in verse 23, the good ground. "A seed falling on good ground brings a good crop of grain." So some people respond rightly to the word, and they bear fruit. That soil represents those who receive the word, and it bears fruit in their life in differing proportions, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. But each one of them has a generous harvest.
So Jesus says in verse 18, "Therefore hear the parable of the sower." We benefit from seeing bits of ourselves in all four soils. Like the wayside, described in verse 19, sometimes we allow the word of God no room in our life at all. Secondly, like the stony places, mentioned in verse 20, we sometimes have flashes of enthusiasm in receiving the word, but it quickly burns out. Verse 22 mentioned the seed among the thorns. Sometimes the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches are constantly threatening to choke out God's word and our fruitfulness. And then in verse 23, the good ground, the word bears fruit in our lives. Again, I want to stress, the difference was in the soils, not in the seed.
Now, this parable was an encouragement to the disciples. Even though it might seem to them that few people responded, let's face it, if one in four respond, that's the proportion we're dealing with here. We're like, "Well, that doesn't seem like very many." But still, the harvest that's great gained through that one in four more than makes up for it. God is in control, and his harvest will certainly come. And that would assure them, even though opposition was rising against Jesus. But even more than describing the mixed progress of the gospel message, the parable of the sower compels every one of us to ask, "What kind of soil am I?" How can I prepare my heart and my mind to be the right kind of soil?
Listen, friends, I don't want anybody to receive this parable of the sower, or the parable of the soils, whichever you want to call it, I don't want anybody to receive it fatalistically. "Well, I guess I'm the hardened path. C'est la vie." No, this parable invites action so that we would, empowered by God's Spirit, break up the fallow ground. We would weed out the thorns. We would shoo away the birds. We would plow deeply to break up the stony heart. We would do and invite God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, to do whatever is necessary within our hearts.
Now, it's a great parable, don't you think? But Jesus didn't end his parables there. Coming up now, starting in verse 24, he's going to give another parable, one that's commonly called the parable of the wheat and the tares. Let's take a look at that right now, here starting at verse 24.
"Another parable he put forth to them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while the man slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?" He said to them, "An enemy has done this." The servants said to him, "Do you want us then to go and gather them up?" He said to them, "No, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. That both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the Harvest I will say to the Reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
This particular parable describes the work of an enemy who tried to destroy the work of the man who sowed good seed in his field. The enemy's purpose in sowing these tares, or we might call them weeds, among the wheat was to destroy the wheat. But the wise farmer would not allow the enemy to succeed. Instead, the farmer decided, "I'm gonna sort it all out at harvest time."
Now, what's interesting, this parable clearly describes, and we'll see because Jesus will interpret the parable for us later, it clearly describes corruption near the people of God. Just as in the previous parable, the wheat represents the people of God, and now some corrupting influences brought near to the people of God. And that corrupting influence may look genuine, even as tares can resemble real wheat.
Now, please notice, friends, Jesus did not say that the tares and the wheat were the same. And as we'll be clear later, he didn't say that there was no problem with having both tares and wheat in the church. You see, friends, the field here isn't the church, but it's the world. Jesus said that the tares would grow up next to the wheat, and that God would sort them all out in the interest of preserving and protecting the wheat. The wise farmer did not separate the tares from the wheat until the time of harvest.
So knowing the explanation of this parable, as Jesus will explain it in a few verses later, we understand why Jesus said it right after explaining the parable of the sower. Especially in the perilous sower, Jesus described the seed that grew up among the thorns. Jesus said that some of the seed would grow up with thorns around it. What should God's people do in response? Should they tear out the weeds? With this parable, Jesus said, "No, they should not."
Now, let's take a look at the next couple verses. A third parable. First, we had the parable of a sower, then the parable of the wheat and the tares. Now, here is the parable of the mustard seed, starting now in verse 31, where we read, "Another parable he put forth to them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.'"
Here Jesus describes a remarkable growth of the kingdom of God. I mean, that is what he said, isn't it? He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like this." Now, by the way, I'm one of those who believe that when Matthew uses the phrase "kingdom of heaven," it's not meant to be understood any differently than other places and other gospels that use the phrase "kingdom of God." I don't think there's a difference between the two. And Jesus just simply says that in the kingdom community, there's going to be this radical growth.
Now, please understand this. Some, or even most commentators through the centuries, have understood this as a description of wonderful church growth and the eventual dominance of the church, the kingdom community. But I have to say, I take a contrary perspective to that kind of normative interpretation. Normally, this is seen as a wonderful parable about the beautiful growth of the church. But in light of the parable itself, and in the context of the parables that are given both before and after this, I think that this should be regarded as another description of corruption in the kingdom community.
The parable of the wheat and the tares described corruption. And what Jesus says here in verse 32 is that this tree that grows forth from the mustard seed, he says, "when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." Again, I want to emphasize, many or even most in church history regard this as a beautiful picture of the church growing so large that it provides a refuge for the whole world. But I regard this mustard seed plant. Now, I'm not saying me alone. A favorite commentator of mine, uh, here, G. Campbell Morgan, in his commentary on the gospel of Matthew, he would develop the same line of thinking. To be honest, I can't remember if I got it from him or somebody else. But the idea here is that the mustard seed plant grows unnaturally large, and it harbors birds.
Now, friends, in the previous parables, birds were emissaries of Satan. We see two references to that already here in Matthew chapter 13. And so, uh, this is an oversized, if you want to say, a monstrous growth of the tree of the church that becomes a refuge for demons, emissaries of Satan. And you could say that this parable accurately describes what the kingdom community became in the decades and the centuries after the Christianization of the Roman Empire. In those centuries, the church grew, what I would consider to be abnormally large in its influence and its dominion, and it was a nest for a lot of corruption. Again, a quote from G. Campbell Morgan in his commentary: "Birds lodging in the branches, most probably refers to elements of corruption which take refuge in the very shadow of Christianity."
Now, if you have a hard time believing that, if you've only seen the parable of the mustard seed and the birds of the mustard seed plant in a positive sense, look at the next parable, verse 33, the parable of the leaven. Here, verse 33 says, "Another parable he spoke to them, 'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.'"
Jesus used a surprising picture here. Again, I want to emphasize, the majority interpretation of this throughout church history has been, "This is a beautiful expression of, just like leaven works its way through an entire lump of dough. You put a little bit of leaven in a lump of dough, and it makes the whole thing expand. It just doesn't make part of the lump expand, but the whole thing." And the beautiful how the kingdom of God grows so beautifully. That's the majority interpretation of this. But friends, I think leaven, I don't think this is just, it's really beyond dispute. Leaven is consistently used in the picture as a, in the scriptures, as a picture of sin and corruption. You see it again and again. Both the content and the context point towards this being another description of corruption in the kingdom community.
I like what William Barclay said. William Barclay said that the listeners to Jesus would have been in shock at hearing the kingdom of God compared to leaven. And by the way, did you notice in verse 33, it says that the woman took and hid three measures of meal in it? And, and this again is an unusually large amount of meal. You're talking about something approximately 50 pounds of flour. What is that? That's a good 20-some kilos of flour. It, it's way more than any woman would normally prepare. So you have an abnormal size and corruption working its way. And I think it's very much the same kind of principle as the parable of the mustard seed, describing an unnatural growth and corruption entering into it. Again, G. Campbell Morgan wrote that the leaven represents the paganizing influences brought into the church.
Now, let's go on to the next couple verses here, verses 34 and 35, where Jesus is going to describe his teaching. Here it says, "All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, 'I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.'" Matthew there quoting from the Old Testament to help us understand Jesus's teaching in parables. He was revealing things that were kept secret, kept hidden. And apparently, some of these principles, uh, again, in my understanding of these parables about the corruption that would happen in the kingdom community, God was explaining this to us before these happened so that we would understand.
Now, verses 36 through 43, Jesus explains the parable of the wheat and the tares. We're going to pass over that right now, other than just to emphasize that in verse 38, Jesus emphasized that the field represents the world. The field in the parable of the wheat and the tares is not the church. This isn't directly about how there are, uh, converted and unconverted in the church, even though that's true. That's not what this parable is about. The field in the parable represents the world. And the important thing to see there is that Jesus says God sorts it out at the end of the age. And the enemy that does this sowing is the devil.
Right now, we're going to take a look now at just a few more parables and finish our time here together. We're going to jump down now to verse 44, where Jesus talks about the parable of what people call the hidden treasure. Here, starting now in verse 44, where Jesus says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field."
Look, friends, these are different kinds of parables. The other parables describe the work of the word of God, corruption in the kingdom community. But now Jesus is describing himself. Jesus is the man who gave all that he had to buy the field. This parable and the one following it are different in character than the previous three. The previous three parables, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the leaven, all spoke of corruption among and in the kingdom community. But these parables speak about how highly the king values the people of his kingdom. This treasure in the field, described in verse 44, is so wonderful that Jesus gave all to purchase the individual believer. Jesus gave everything. Let's just say he gave everything to redeem the whole world, to preserve the treasure in it. And the treasure is his people.
Then in the next two verses, verses 45 and 46, we have the parable of the costly pearl, where we see again, "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he has found one pearl of great price, went and sold all and bought it." Again, very much like the previous parable, Jesus is the buyer, and the individual believer is the pearl that he sees is so valuable that he'll happily give everything to have it forever. You know, it seems crazy, doesn't it? Crazy for a merchant to sell everything that he has for one pearl. But for this merchant, it was worth it. And that shows how much the merchant valued the pearl of great price, and how much Jesus values his people.
All right, we're going to take a look at one more parable here, starting now at verse 47, the parable of the dragnet, which in some ways reinforces the point of the parable of the wheat and the tares. You'll see what I mean here. Verse 47: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind. Which, when it was full, they drew to the shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the End of the Age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Here, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that's cast into the sea, and it pulls up all kinds of fish, some good, some bad. And it's up to the fishermen, so to speak, those who draw in the net. That's what it's going to be at the end of the age. There will be wicked and just until the end of the age. The world will remain divided right up until the end. The church is not going to reform all the world, ushering in the kingdom. But there will be those present with God, those cast away from God, all up until the very end.
Let's summarize what we can learn from these Kingdom parables.
Number one, we learn that the work of God's word is different according to the cultivation of a person's heart. We need to pray and seek God for cultivated hearts. Friends, if you read and hear the word of God and it's just like it, it does nothing for you, you need to pray. You, you need to seek God and look. Maybe the preacher's not that great. Maybe the Bible translation you're working with is difficult, but with a soft, plowed, so to speak, heart, God can speak, and he will speak. So the work of God's word is different according to the cultivation of a person's heart.
Number two, these parables show us that there will be pretended believers, false disciples, both in the world and among believers, right up until the end. That's the way it is. And ultimately, it's God's job to sort out the false disciples from the true disciples.
And finally, God loves you so much that he gave everything to redeem you. The man who sold everything to buy the field with the treasure in it, the man who sold everything to get the pearl of great price. Look, that doesn't describe how much you must sacrifice for the kingdom of God. That describes how much Jesus Christ gave up for you. Dear friend, would you receive his love? Would you receive his grace and his goodness to you? I hope that you will, and I hope that God's word will continue to cultivate and to bless your particular heart. That's my prayer for you.
Now, the very end here, looks like we're right up to about an hour that we've been here together. I'm going to go up to the comments and just look through them carefully and see if there's any kind of question or comment that I can respond to. Richie, listening from the Philippines using the app. God bless you, Richie. You say that I'm one of your references in preaching. I'm very happy. God bless you in your preaching ministry there, Richie.
Tim says, asks a question. Um, he listens to me daily while he's at work. Do you have any books? New books in the Bible going to be building on audio soon? Um, we're working on it. Uh, right now, I'm working on the Book of Genesis. It's going to be soon begin to be released on the YouTube channel. That'll go out on audio as well on our YouTube channel. We're also releasing the audio for, uh, Romans, I think it is. So it's out there, Richie. And we're working on bringing more out. Excuse me, Tim.
Leila, nice to hear you. April from South Dakota, welcome. Nice to see you. Enjoy the Blue Letter Bible commentary for about three years now, April. I'm so happy to hear it. Thanks for your word. Layla from Arkansas. God bless you. Yvette from South Dakota. Wonderful. I'm Tim from Michigan. Joseph from Wisconsin. Abba Care from South Carolina. Ridge from South Carolina. Emma from New Hampshire. Listen, I love it. Audience all from around. Topper from South Texas. Stacy M from Jamaica. God bless you, Stacy. Um, AdvoCare again. I'm just sort of scanning these. Audrey from Dallas. Um, hey. PGT from Australia. God bless you. God bless the Australian people. Uh, I've loved visited there in the past and, uh, maybe someday I'll have the opportunity to do it again. Um, Ryan, thanks for your comment.
Um, Topper, could parables be true stories? He's asking. I'm thinking especially of Luke 16. Topper, I believe that Luke chapter 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus, I don't think it is a parable. I think that is a story that Jesus is telling. In no other parable does Jesus assign a name to somebody in the parable. And I think this is describing something that Jesus knew about and could speak to because Jesus, of course, is God and knew things of the world beyond that a mere human would not know. So, Topper, I, I would classify the story of the rich man in Lazarus in Luke 16 as not being a parable at all. It's a story, but it's a true story, not a parable.
Um, LF Ridge asks, should I be concerned about my spiritual sensitivity if I don't understand a parable from Jesus when I read the Bible until I read a Bible commentary that explains the parable? No, Ella fridge. Let me explain. We should never feel, uh, like we're falling short if we use a Bible commentary. A Bible commentary is just somebody teaching, and God uses gifted teachers and preachers to help people in his kingdom. So nobody's going to understand everything, and God helps us to teach one another. So that's all the commentary is. It's just teaching in written form. Some are better, some are not. By the way, if you don't know, I have a written commentary on the entire Bible at enduringword.com. Some people find it helpful.
Um, AdvoCare Johns, those who say they hate will be the haters. That's the funny part. Yes, I mean by that. Ryan Felder believes in just scanning over this. Yes. Amanda's making the connection about being hated by men for all men's sake. Um, Jesus himself is the seed that was put in the grinder to feed us. Pray, man. John, you're correct in that. In that Jesus spoke of his body and the resurrection as being like a seed that sprouts. Paul uses that imagery in First Corinthians 15. But let's not forget here specifically, Jesus is saying that the seed in this case, in this parable, is the word of God. Now, Jesus is the Living Word of God. He's the logos, but here it's, it's speaking about the word of God directly.
Um, again, I'm just scanning over. Thankful for your contest, Stacy. And leaven is often used as a symbol for hypocrisy, but Jesus uses it to describe the kingdom of heaven. Again, I think that, uh, Jesus was describing something bad with the leaven there, Stacy Ann, not something good. Um, again, looking over. I kind of, uh, apologize if I'm skipping over some things, but wonderful Gary to see your presence there. Hilda, um, Pastor, what do you think that the talent represents in the parable of the talents? Is the parable just a believer's only? Well, Hilda, yes, I would say that the parable of the talents is addressed to believers only. But I would also say that it has application to even people who aren't believers. But no, I would say that the parable of talents was given to believers only.
Um, let me get just, just a couple more of these, um, questions. Slightly off topic. Any resources or material and spiritual gifts, Ryan? Um, look, I, I don't mean to kind of ring my own bell, so to speak, but I think if you go through my commentary on First Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14, I think that would be very beneficial. Um, one of the best books I ever read on spiritual gifts was an older book by Pastor Chuck Smith called Charisma versus Charismania. He also wrote another really good book on the works of the Holy Spirit called Living Water, but for some reason, I prefer that previous book, Charisma versus Charismania, even more. And then just one more.
Hannah's saying thank you for hard work. Abacare, Deborah, and Miriam, women prophetesses. Is that the same as preachers or prophets? Is different? Um, Abigail, I think that definitely Deborah and Miriam were God's messengers, but transferring that to women preachers and pastors in the church today, that's another matter altogether. But God can definitely speak through women and uses women. There's no doubt about it. It's how he uses them and what spheres, that's really what we're getting at.
All right. Well, look, I'm not going to get to other ones. I want to thank you for everybody who's tuned in tonight and so pleased that you could join us. And if you don't mind, I am going to ask again, those of you who are listening, especially those of you outside the area of Santa Barbara, California, would you remember to please pray for Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara as they just go through the work of getting the church building, um, back into shape after the flooding from the intense rains that maybe you saw about there was national news, the intense rains were, and that rain affected the church facility. I, I praise the Lord that the church family of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara is stronger than ever, and God's going to use this brief, relatively brief adversity to do great things in and among our church family, but it's going to happen in and through your prayers. So if you don't mind, please pray for that.
And, um, I'm so pleased you could you join me for this unusual time of getting together for this live stream. God bless you and thank you for joining me this evening. Bye-bye.
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