Matthew chapter 13, not the whole of it
of course, Matthew 13.
That same day Jesus went out of the
house and sat beside the sea, and great
crowds gathered about him, so that he got
into a boat and sat there.
And the whole crowd stood on the beach,
and he told them many things in parables,
saying, A sower went out to sow, and
as he sowed, some seeds fell along the
path, and the birds came and devoured them.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they
had not much soil, and immediately they sprang
up, since they had no depth of soil.
But when the sun rose, they were scorched,
and since they had no root, they withered
away.
Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns
grew up and choked them.
Other seeds fell on good soil, and brought
forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty.
He who has ears let him hear.
Then the disciples came and said to him,
Why do you speak to them in parables?
And he answered them, To you it has
been given to know the secrets of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it has
not been given.
For to him who has will more be
given, and he will have abundance.
But from him who has not, even what
he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in
parables, because seeing they do not see, and
hearing they do not hear, nor do they
understand.
With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of
Isaiah, which says, You shall indeed hear, but
never understand, and you shall indeed see, but
never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown dull, and
their ears are heavy of hearing, and their
eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive
with their eyes, and hear with their hearts,
with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and turn for me to heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see,
and your ears, for they hear.
Truly I say to you, many prophets and
righteous men longed to see what you see,
and did not see it, and to hear
what you hear, and did not hear it.
This is the word of the Lord.
Would you please keep your Bible open at
Matthew chapter 13.
I was asked this term to speak on
the parables of our Lord, and I'm happy
to do that, but of course I remind
you there are 38 of them, and that
can't be done in a week.
29 are only in one gospel, and three
are in two gospels, and six are in
three gospels.
But this week we're concentrating on the eight
which our Lord told in Matthew chapter 13,
because behind these instances and examples of just
an earthly story, he's telling us what the
Holy Spirit is doing in the world until
Jesus himself shall come again.
There's some tremendous teaching in these parables.
I hope this morning you won't mind if
I just give you a kind of introduction
to them.
You may find it useful to have your
Bible and pencil with you, pen or something,
and make notes.
You should wreck your Bible every ten years,
mess it up, put all the notes you
can in it, and you'll find that helpful
to you.
And we find the answer to the question
that the disciples asked Jesus in verse 10.
Why do you speak to them—that's the word
which you emphasize, I think—why do you speak
to them in parables?
Well, let's try and just look at why
in a moment.
Because it's quite clear, as you think of
the ministry of our Lord and see the
setting of all this, he's starting a completely
new method in his ministry.
He'd already made use of parables, of course.
For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount,
the man who built his house on a
rock, and all the floods came, and it
stood its ground.
And he used parables in speaking to the
woman of Saneri, talked to her about a
well and about a fountain, and the difference
between the two, and so on.
But now, without exception, he spoke to the
people in parables.
Look at verse 34.
Without a parable, he said nothing to them.
Matthew 13 and verse 34.
The disciples noticed this and asked him the
question of our text.
Why do you speak to them in parables?
Because in verse 11, Jesus' answer, to you
it is given to know the secrets of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it
has not been given.
To you, to them.
But, out of eight parables in this chapter,
four of them are spoken to the disciples,
and four to the crowd.
So there must have been some reason both
for teaching the multitude and for teaching the
disciples by this method.
I don't think we're left to speculate about
that, because our Lord gives the answer.
An answer which has been so often misrepresented.
If you take a rapid glance with me
over this chapter, you'll see that he chooses
some of the things that are common in
life and experience of those to whom he
was talking, to illustrate what he meant.
For instance, you might like to note these.
First in verse 3, there's the sower and
the seed.
And then, in verse 24, the wheat and
the tares.
Verse 31, the mustard seed.
Verse 33, the leaven.
Verse 44, the treasure in the field.
Verse 45, a merchantman seeking pearls.
Verse 47, a fisherman and his net.
And verse 52, the householder.
All of them pictures of everyday life.
And the purpose of a parable is always
to aid understanding and never to hinder it.
It's always to aid understanding and never to
hinder it.
Yet, I have heard it said, and taught,
indeed, from pulpits, that our Lord uses this
method because he wanted to hide the truth
from those who rejected it.
Well, that's contrary to any conception of the
whole purpose of the ministry of Jesus.
The parable veils the truth, but only that
people may grasp it.
If you hold a piece of dark glass
up to the sun, you veil the sun.
But, without the glass, you couldn't even look
at it.
Light which isn't veiled could blind.
Veiling the light gives the opportunity of vision.
I love that verse in 1 Corinthians chapter
13.
I'm giving it to you in the Living
Bible, verse 22.
Listen.
We can see and understand only a little
about God now, as if we were peering
at his reflection in a poor mirror.
But, someday, we're going to see him in
his completeness, face to face.
Not now.
Now, all that I know is hazy and
blurred.
But then, I will see everything clearly.
Just as clearly as God sees into my
heart.
I think that's terrific.
The prospect of heaven, glorious.
But, my problem is getting there.
I won't expand on that.
But, the fact is, all we see is
hazy and blurred.
And, so often, we just don't understand what
God is doing with us and in us.
And, many situations are beyond grasping.
But then, we shall see clearly and understand
fully, just as clearly as he looks into
our heart right now.
What a tremendous comfort that is.
Light, veiled, gives an opportunity of vision.
And, I notice that at this point in
the ministry of Jesus, he was really having
the pressure put on him, increasingly.
You don't have trouble to look this up,
but you might just note the verses.
They were challenging his claim to forgive sin,
chapter 9, then verse 3.
They challenged him because he ate with sinners,
and criticized him for it, chapter 9, verse
11.
They faced him with his attitude to the
Lord's day, chapter 12, and verse 2.
And, just at that moment, when things were
really toughening up, Jesus turned to this new
method, and listened to his explanation.
Because, to you, it has been given to
know the secrets of the kingdom, but to
them, it has not been given, verse 11.
If he had only had said that, and
nothing more, I'd have understood him to mean,
wouldn't you, that he was compelled to speak
in parables, so they should not know the
truth.
And, I've been very perplexed.
But, he didn't stop there.
Verse 12, to him who has, more will
be given, and you have abundance.
But, from him who has not, even what
he has will be taken away.
You notice the contrast, which that verse explains.
To you, it has been given.
To them, it has not been given.
To him who has, more will be given.
He's saying, quite clearly, that it's been given
to the disciple to know the mysteries of
the kingdom, because of something they possessed.
Listen again.
To them who has not, even what he
has will be taken away.
He says that it was not given to
the crowd to know the mysteries of the
kingdom, because of something they lacked.
What was it, do you think, that the
disciples had, and the crowd hadn't?
What was the difference between those disciples and
the crowd who stood there?
Wasn't it one very simple thing, that the
disciples had received Jesus as king, and by
reason of their attitude toward him, and their
relationship with him, they were able to receive
the secrets of the kingdom?
Certain people had received Jesus, and a whole
crowd had said, nothing doing.
To those who received him, secrets of the
kingdom were given.
To those who rejected him, these messages couldn't
be given.
Therefore, those who denied Jesus, the Lord gives
pictures, the parable, to lead them on to
the truth.
Because of their dullness, and their disobedience, their
disloyalty to the Lord, Jesus spoke to them
in parables.
You know, a school teacher will often arrest
a class with a story.
And here's the great teacher talking in parables.
Not that people might not understand, but in
order to help them to do so.
If I could say it this way, I
would say that the parable is therefore a
method of love, of grace, tenderness, to meet
the desperate need of the people who rejected
the authority of Christ.
Jesus is very, very reluctant to give up
his search for men who refuse him.
What a comfort that is to know.
He never wants to give up.
It's the outcome of the grief of a
broken heart over the hardness of the hearts
of these people.
And the Lord, who daily prays for us
in heaven, knows what tears are, and knows
how to weep over lost souls.
And I don't think, though I can't substantiate
this altogether, but I don't think Jesus ever
gives a convert to anybody unless, if, if,
if, they can't live without, if they can
live without them.
I've said that very clumsily.
God never gives a convert if I can
live without him.
If I'm happy to go on in Christian
life and never see anybody want to him,
all right, I'll never see a convert.
But if I know something of a broken
heart, and the heart of Jesus, who prays
and prays on and pleads for lost men,
if I pray through tears for souls, then
the Lord pours out the blessing.
I learned that, I think, from this passage.
But something else.
There's what I would call the scope of
the parables.
We'll see this more clearly through the week,
but it tells us the progress of God's
kingdom in the age in which we live.
Just look at this.
Twice, in verses 39 and verses, verse 49,
the Saviour speaks of the end of the
world, the close of this age.
And every one of these parables, apart from
the initial one, the parable of the sower,
commences, the kingdom of heaven is like.
The kingdom of heaven is like.
So we have eight pictures of the condition
that exists in the kingdom between our Lord's
first coming and his second.
There's sort of God's searchlight on what's going
on.
And under that title, we're having these lectures
this week.
But this I want you to notice this
morning.
The first four of these parables, that is,
the sower and the seed, the wheat and
tares and the mustard seed and the leaven,
are all spoken to the crowd.
And in them, you have the external facts
of the kingdom of God, its outward growth
and progress in the world.
But notice verse 36.
The Lord takes the disciples away from them,
the crowd disappear, and he goes into the
house.
And the second four, the treasure, hid in
the field, the merchantmen seeking pearls, the fisherman
in his net, the householder, are all spoken
to the disciples.
In these, there's the internal secret of the
kingdom.
Notice that very carefully.
External facts, what you'll see all around you,
to the crowd.
Internal secrets of what God is doing to
the disciple.
The kingdom from the divine aspect to the
disciples.
The kingdom as they would see it in
the world, well, the crowd can see that.
And if you take the first four parables,
you find antagonism, conflict, failure predominates.
In the first parable, the sower and the
seed, only 25% of the seeds produce
anything.
In the second, in the parable of the
tares, in verse 25, there is an enemy
at work, sowing tares among the wheat.
And you've got the sign of, in verse
32, the third parable, you have the development
of worldly power.
In the growth of a great big tree,
which a mustard tree could never possibly be,
a great big tree affording shelter to evil.
And in the fourth, in verse 33, you
have the leaven of evil, which makes for
destruction.
So the picture gives to the crowd of
what's going to happen between his first and
second coming, is not an age where everything
gets better and better.
Rather, it's an age characterized by conflict and
battle, and it appears that the enemy is
winning.
The enemy injures the seed through the soil
in which it falls.
The enemy sows tares.
The mustard seed, contrary to all law, becomes
a great big tree and shelters something evil
in it.
The leaven speaks of corruption, outward failure.
That's the outward scene.
A kingdom as the crowd will see it.
Something's wrong.
We seem to be losing the battle.
You can easily identify with that picture today.
But the Lord draws the disciples aside, and
he tells them the internal secrets of the
kingdom, the working of the king, and everything
here is victory, verse 44.
The treasure is found in the field.
The field is bought in order to possess
the treasure, and the picture is that of
the king himself.
Verse 46, the pearl of great price is
found.
Everything is sold in order to possess it.
Now I'm sorry, but in spite of all
we sing about, that parable, it isn't the
picture of a sinner finding Jesus.
The pearl of great price is not Christ.
You don't buy him.
You don't purchase him.
When you receive Jesus, you receive him as
the gift of God.
What's the pearl of great price?
You and me.
The church.
People redeemed by the blood at infinite cost,
and to purchase us, Jesus gave up everything
in order he might win his people.
He lives us, loves us, you see, like
that.
And verse 47, the net is cast into
the sea.
At the end of the age, it's gathered
in.
The good separated from the bad.
You notice the contrast?
To the crowd, outward facts.
What's going on apparently?
To the disciple, oh, beyond the outward facts,
there's an inward victory.
The pearl of great price.
And God is gathering out of this world
with all its filth and all its sin
and all its evil.
Something very precious to him.
You and me.
Why do you speak to them in parables?
Well, it's the picture of 20th century achievement.
The word in common use ten years ago
was that we live in an age of
enlightenment.
Tremendous.
But now we live under the threat of
momentary destruction.
Great achievement, but overshadowed by the fear of
total destruction.
That's the explanation of the parable.
But look at him, listen to him, Jesus
explaining that to the crowd.
His love, it's a method of absolute love
and pity.
The parable is the way he leads people
into truth.
He's not surprised by the outward evidence of
sin and failure.
He said it would be so.
But he's doing everything he can to win
everybody.
Hardening of the heart.
That was blindness.
Refusing to listen, or if listening, being merely
critical.
Let me say this to you.
Think about it.
Let me think about it again, as I
said.
Your capacity, anybody's capacity to receive God's truth
into your life depends on the surrender of
your will.
Moral conquest of the will must precede intellectual
enlightenment of your mind.
You got that?
Let me repeat it.
Moral conquest of the will must, must precede
intellectual enlightenment of your mind.
Capacity to receive God's word into your heart
depends on the surrender of your will to
Jesus.
I can have as much of God as
I want, but I won't get any more.
Read verse 15.
More or less, that is.
Let me give it to you.
I don't know what version you're using.
I wish I did.
I've got too many versions.
Maybe you use King James, I don't know.
How many of you use the King James?
One.
Oh, no.
Sorry, Pete.
How many of you use the revised King
James?
How many of you use NIV?
That's it, there you go.
The not infallible version, I call that.
Or, if you like, the nearly indispensable version.
I won't have an argument with you about
that subject, bless you.
I use the RSV as a rule.
I hope we don't have any more, but
I'll leave it at that.
I might develop it later.
Look at verse 15 here, reading from the
RSV.
For these people's heart has grown dull, and
their ears are heavy of hearing, and their
eyes, notice this especially, their eyes they have
closed lest they should perceive with their eyes
and hear with their ears and understand with
their heart and turn for me to heal
them.
Notice that word, lest.
The lest is the lest of their attitude.
They've done it, they've closed their eyes, they've
shut their ears, lest they should hear.
It's not the withdrawal of God's mercy.
They've hardened their hearts for fear of being
drawn to God.
So in a renewed attempt, he spoke to
them in parables.
How, again I repeat, reluctant is the goodness
and mercy and grace of God to give
up the struggle for people.
He'll write on and on and on, and
he never wants to give in.
The lest is not the lest that God
has withdrawn forgiveness.
No, the lest is deliberate shutting eyes, closing
ears, lest they should be drawn to God.
The Lord is fighting through that impossible situation.
And so to the disciple, he reveals the
inner secrets.
For if I'm to serve Jesus for his
glory, and if you are in this age
in which you live, you've got to understand
what God is doing.
He has a broken heart.
You won't be able to take it.
If our eyes are set on something that
you expect of some purpose which isn't God's,
an extension for instance of the whole world
into a Christian influence until it becomes perfect,
you'll get heart sick.
But if I understand his secret purpose, then
I know that Jesus is coming back, and
Jesus is going to fulfil that.
And all God's purpose in us will be
fulfilled as we think of the purchase of
the pearl and the treasure and the overthrow
of the enemy.
And in these days of apparent catastrophe, that's
what God is doing.
And I want to try and hope and
pray that in these few days the Lord
will open to us afresh the inner secrets
of his kingdom.
He can.
Listen.
Psalm 35, 14.
The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear him.
The New English Bible has that.
The Lord confides his purpose to those who
fear him.
That's a wonderful thing he's prepared to do.
Matthew 10, 27.
What I hear in secret, I am to
declare on housetops.
What God tells me of his secret, I'm
to get out where the action is and
preach it.
Let me tell you this in finishing.
In every arena of battle, there's got to
be an altar of worship that he may
reveal his secret to you.
And that's what I was saying briefly last
night, that they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength.
Above everything else, keep the altar in good
repair.
A place where you meet with God alone,
that he may speak his secrets to you.
And I tell you, you leave Caponry with
a heart that's on fire for him.
More of that, hoping you'll be able to
take it, Monday through Thursday.
And of course, we won't ever get to
the end of 38.
As you see, we'll possibly get to the
end of a few in chapter 13.
And then we have another few days later
in June.
Meanwhile, K-O-K-D, keep on kicking
the devil.
And just, hallelujah.
Anyway.
Bless you.
Let's pray.
Lord, speak to me that I may speak
in living echoes of thy tone.
And right, Lord, that we may be those
whom you can trust with your secret.
Whose lives are utterly abandoned to the sovereignty
of Jesus.
And through whom you can communicate truth and
life in the power of the Spirit of
God.
Answer prayer, for your name's sake.
Amen.