TEACHING IN PARABLES

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Matthew 3 Continued

Lesson #06
TEACHING IN PARABLES

• Memory verse: Psa 1:6
• Background:
  • What is a parable?
    • The word has a broad meaning of uses that covers many phases of figurative speech such as a similitude, comparisons, sayings, and proverbs.
    • The root word parable means = to be like; to represent or stand for something; a likeness or resemblance.
      • The Greek word implies “beside” or “to throw or cast along side”.
      • This suggests a nearness for the purpose of comparison either for likeness or for difference.
    • A parable is put in words of a natural story with a forceful application; an outward symbol of an inward reality. It is bringing two things together so that the one helps to explain and emphasize the other.
      • Often the physical world we know was used as the basis of the parable.
      • The Jewish nation was an agricultural society at the time of the New Testament, so agricultural terms often are found in Jesus’ parables.
      • Read Rom 1:20
        • The physical world instructs us in the mysteries of faith.
        • Nature becomes a witness for the spiritual world.
  • When interpreting parables, it is important to discover to whom they are spoken for an accurate interpretation.
• Read Mat 3:7
  • To whom are these 3 parables spoken? (Mat 3:7-17)
    • To the Pharisees and the Sadducees who came to see what John was doing.
    • Evidently word had spread about John baptizing Jews in the desert.
  • Parable #1 Read Mat 3:7 and Luk 3:7 The Parable of Vipers and Their Offspring
    • Background:
      • If a grass fire broke out in the desert, all the snakes would flee before it.
      • The same picture is true of a field that is in the process of being harvested.
    • What is the central truth of this parable in Mat 3:7?
      • See Mat 7:15-20
      • The religious leaders were more related to Satan than they were to God or Abraham.
      • They could not claim a relationship to God based on Abraham’s relationship to God.
    • Who are the generation of vipers?
      • See Isa 59:1-8
      • The vipers are the religious leaders who perpetuate a spiritually dead system, hiding the truth of God and therefore, by default, perpetuate the kingdom of Satan.
    • What is the wrath to come?
      • The wrath is judgment that came in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed and the religious authorities no longer had their power and position or the sacrificial system.
      • The Jews lost the Promised Land and were scattered throughout the world.
  • Parable #2 Read Mat 3:10 The Parable of Axes and Trees
    • What is the central truth of the parable in Mat 3:10?
      • The religious system of the time will be cut down because it does not bring forth fruit for the Kingdom of God.
      • To produce fruit is a necessary result for a kingdom to continue in existence.
    • What is the ax laid to the root of the trees?
      • God will judge and cut down the system.
    • What is the root?
      • Abraham and the covenant God made with him.
      • God promised Abraham descendants, both physical and spiritual, as fruit of the nation.
    • What are the trees that do not bring forth good fruit?
      • The olive tree is a symbolic picture of the Jews back in the Old Testament.
      • There were many similar Old Testament warnings for God’s olive tree.
    • What is the fruit?
      • Repentance and righteousness.
      • Converts to faith in God.

The Jews as God’s Chosen People

The Jews had the responsibility to witness for God among the heathen nations	Deu 6:4 1Sam 43:10-12
The Jews had the responsibility to illustrate the blessedness of serving God	Deu 33:26-29 1Cro 17:20-21 Psa 144:15
The Jews had the responsibility to receive, preserve, and transmit the scriptures	Deu 4;5-8 Rom 3:1-2
The Jews had the responsibility to be the human blood line of the Messiah	Gen 3:15 Gen 12:3 2Sam 7:14 Isa 7:14 Mat 1:1 Rom 1:3

• • • What is the fire?
      • Fire in scripture is always a picture of God’s power in judgment.
      • Fire is a cleansing agent that burns up that which is worthless.
• Parable #3 Read Mat 3:11-17 and Luk 3:15-17 The Parable of the Wheat Harvest
  • The wheat harvest:
    • Wheat was a choice grain, the best, and it symbolizes true believers.
      • Read Psa 16:3
      • Winnowing:
        • Winnowing was the method of harvesting grain.
        • With his large wood shovel, the reaper would throw a pile of harvested grain into a strong wind. The good part of the wheat was the heaviest and would fall to the ground while the wind would take the light chaff away. In this way, the good was separated from the bad. The chaff was then burned.
      • Remember that the audience of this parable is the same Jewish leadership.
    • What is the central truth of this parable?
      • There is a separation of the righteous from the unrighteous eventually .
    • Who is the one with the shoes John is not worthy to carry?
      • Jesus
      • How do you know?
        • Because the context of the passage says in Mat 3:13 that “then cometh Jesus”.
        • He probably was walking up with his shoes in his hand ready to be baptized.
    • Who is holding the fan?
      • God holds the fan because He is the one who comes to separate.
      • He is the same one who brings the axe to the trees in the last parable.
    • What is the fan, the instrument of separation?
      • The fan represents Jesus Christ and His gospel that separates the people of God from the people against God.
      • What is it about Jesus that separates the righteous from the unrighteous?
        • Jesus is the only way to God

Read Joh 14:6

• • • • • Men stumble over Him. (Isa 8:14-15 1Pet 2:7-8 1Cor 1:22-24)
    • What is the threshing floor?
      • Judaism and the Jewish people.
    • What is the purging?
      • Purging is the conviction of sin in man’s heart. It is the point of decision that every man must make: to accept Jesus Christ or not.
      • Every person must decide whether to accept Jesus Christ or not.
    • What is the wheat and what is the chaff?
      • There would be a few faithful Jews who believed in God.
      • Only a few looked forward to the first coming of Jesus Christ, their Messiah: Jews like Simeon, Anna, Zacharias, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and John the Baptist.
      • There would remain much chaff on the floor–like the dead branches of the tree that produced no fruit and would be cut off.
    • What is the granary? There are 2 aspects to the granary.
      • =1= The church on earth where the wheat, the believers, are first moved for protection from the weather. Sometimes a little chaff gets in there so it is not totally pure.
      • =2= Eternal life with God in heaven where the wheat, the believers, are pure and no chaff gets in.
      • Read Rev 21:27
    • What is the unquenchable fire?
      • The chaff was burned. It lacked weight and substance just as the old Jewish leadership lacked spiritual weight and substance.
      • Chaff is the external husk. The religious leaders had the external religion but no spirit of it within. (Jer 23:26-32)
      • The unquenchable fire is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. (Rev 20:15)
• Application:
  • Once we belong to Christ, He still separates the good from the evil within us.
  • What instruments does the Lord use to separate good from evil in our lives?
    • He uses the Word of God (Joh 15:3)
    • He uses the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6:11)
    • He uses persecution and trials (Mat 13:20)

Homework

Matthew 4:1-11

• Application of Mat 3 – continued
  • How do you relate the 3 parables to your life?
  • What lesson can you learn?
• Preparation for Mat 4:1-11
  • Read Mat 4:1-11 Temptation of the King
    • What prompted Jesus to go into the wilderness?
    • Why was Jesus tempted?
    • What does this passage teach you about:
      • Satan
      • Temptation
      • The Word of God
    • How does the temptation of Jesus relate to the temptations we endure? (1Joh 2:16)
    • Read Mat 4:12-25
    • What can you learn from this passage about following Christ?
• Memory verse: Mat 4:17