PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM—Part 1

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Matthew 13:1-30
Lesson #32
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM—Part 1

• Memory verse: Gal 5:22-23
• Why did Jesus teach in parables?
  • Parables make truth concrete. It’s easy to remember.
  • Parables relate to what a person already understands. Especially at the time in which Jesus walked on earth.
  • Parables take you from an earthy story to give you a heavenly meaning.
  • Parables enable you to discover truth for yourself.
  • Parables hide the truth from those who are too lazy to study, or are apathetic to God. The responsibility for understanding is on man.
  • Parables reveal the mysteries of God. (11)
    • What is a mystery of God?
    • A mystery of God is something that was previously hidden spiritually but is now being revealed.
• Explanation of Matthew 13 parables:
  • There are either 7 or 8 parables in Mat 13 depending on how you want to list them. Some theologians divide them into 7some into 8.
  • They are all about the kingdom of God on earth in the present day in which Jesus lives, and are relevant up until the second coming of Christ. They give us a good picture of how God’s kingdom works in our present day. Therefore, keep that in mind as you study them.
  • The first four were spoken to the mixed multitude, while the last four were spoken to the disciples privately.
• The Parable of the Sower and the Seed (Mat 13:3-23)
• Read Mat 13:1-23 and Luk 8:4-15
  • Three basic elements in this parable:
  • The sower, the seed, the various soils
  • The identity of the meaning of the following objects:
    • The sower:
      • The sower is a generic term, an un-named person. However, while some translations say “a” sower, the Greek says “the” sower.
      • It is God in Jer 31:27
      • It is Christ in Mat 13:37
      • It is every Christian in 1Cor 9:11
      • The responsibility of the sower is to sow the seed.
        • He is not responsible as to what happens after that.
        • He cannot make it grow.
    • The seed:
      • The seed represents the word of God in the kingdom. (Mat 13:19)
        • All the seed must be sowed.
        • The whole gospel of God must be presented.
      • The nature of the seed:
        • It is living and incorruptible. (1Pet 1:22-25)
        • The Word of God is powerful and soul saving. (Rom 1:16; 10:17)
        • The Word is heavenly and divine. (Isa 55:10-11)
        • The Word is immutable and everlasting. (Isa 40:8)
        • The Word is able to save. (Jam 1:17,18,21)
      • The manner of sowing the seed:
        • There were 2 ways seed was sown in Israel.

=1= It was sown by broadcasting it (scattering it at random).

=2= It was sown by putting a sack of seed on the back of a donkey, tearing a small hole in the corner of the sack, and walking the donkey up and down across the field until all the seed ran out of the sack.

• • • • • Jesus is the Word in Joh 1:1, so He is also the seed

Jesus is the sower and the seed

Luk 4:16-22

• • The attention is on the soils and their reaction to the seed.
  • The soils are therefore the human heart and their reaction to the word of God.
    • Ground #1, The wayside (4)
      • The hearer with the closed mind, destitute of spiritual perception; the unteachable. (Psa 14:1)
      • The seed is on the surface but not in it.
      • The fouls:
        • Satan and his demons are represented by the foul that eat the seed.
        • What causes a person to have this closed mind?
        • Pride, prejudice, or an immoral character.
    • Ground #2, The stony places (5)
      • This is not a field filled with stones. It is an underlying shelf of limestone with a thin covering of dirt over the top.
      • It represents the emotional hearer, devoid of depth, superficial.
        • The seed falls on the surface of the soil and enters the soil, but not down into the depths of the heart enough to establish roots.
        • Hard rock is underneath.
      • Sun:
        • The sun represents temptations or hard times.
        • It is that spiritually dry place.
    • Ground #3, Among thorns (7)
      • The ground is deceptive. It looks like a clean place to plant but in it there are the tiny seeds of thorns that grow faster than the good seed.
      • This represents the hearer with a wandering mind.
        • The seed takes root but bears no fruit.
        • The seed is on, in, and down into the ground but does not come up because it is chocked.
      • Thorns:
        • Daily cares, desires of the world, pleasures, riches.
        • These are forces in opposition to the nature of the seed that are allowed to exist.
        • Why does your garden have thorns?

Because of neglect.

What are these thorns that we neglect to pull?

They are the petty trifling distractions, events, family, desires, work, etc.

Some may be legitimate within themselves but there’s a lack of God as top priority.

• • • • • Why do people have this kind of choked mind?

People fail to follow through with what they begin because of a lack of priority and focus.

Notice they are not just weeds, but thorns. We get caught on them!

• • • Ground #4, Good ground (8)
      • This soil represents the spiritually perceptive hearer.
        • The seed is on, in, down, and up.
        • The seed took full hold, filling the soul, mind, heart, conscience, and will.
      • Fruit:
        • The fruit is produced for the sower, Christ, and benefits other people around you.

The seed bears fruit in proportion as it is allowed to posses the heart. (Luk 8:15)

What does the 30, 60, 100-fold in verse 23 mean?

There are unequal rewards to the Christian according to what he produces in his life.

What causes a person to have this kind of mind?

He is open to God and what God wants to do in his life.

He is prepared to hear God.

He listens with understanding.

He is always looking for ways in which God wants to change his life.

He is determined to obey.

• • What is the overall central truth of the parable?
    • Human hearts are not equally receptive to Christ and the Word of God but allow other things to take priority.
    • God wants us to be spiritually perceptive and produce fruit for His kingdom.
• Summary:
  • Notice that the enemy in the first 3 sowings is:
    • Fowls = The devil
    • The sun = The flesh
    • Thorns = The world
  • Question to ponder:
    • Which of the four hearts represented by the four soils would you say is saved?
      • #1 Since the devil stole the word before it got down inside, the person is not saved.
        • How do we know?
        • Luk 8:12 says “lest they should believe and be saved“
      • #2 Since the word did get down inside, the person is saved but living a carnal life
        • Luk 8:13 says “for awhile believe”
        • The word “believe” is saving faith.

The original Greek indicates they have no firm root. It does not indicate no root.

Anytime there is germination and growth, there is some root in a plant.

• • • • #3 Since the word did get down inside, the person is saved.
        • However, there will be no rewards at the judgment seat of Christ.
        • Luk 8:14 says there is no fruit, but it does not say there is no belief.
      • #4 Since the word did get down inside, the person is saved, and since he produces fruit, he will be rewarded.
    • The message to the sower of the word (the preacher, the teacher, the evangelist, the witness):
      • Every seed does not germinate.
      • When you sow, you never know which heart will be the most receptive and produce fruit.
      • The sower must not look for quick results.
• The Parable of the Tares and the Wheat (Mat 13:24-30; 36-43)
• Read Mat 13:24-30; 36-43
  • This parable is spoken to the mixed multitude.
  • We have 2 sowers, 2 kinds of seed, 2 harvests.
  • Who is the man who sowed good seed? (24)
    • Jesus as the creator who owns the field. He sows the seed.
    • What is the good seed?
      • The same as the wheat, the true children of God.
      • They had received the word of God in the last parable. (Mat 13:38)
    • What is the field?
      • Some theologians teach that the field is the church.
      • That does fit the parable, but Jesus tells us in Mat 13:24,38 the field is the world.
    • Who is the enemy that also sows? (25) Satan is the enemy who does nothing original but always imitates.
    • What is the wheat plant that springs up in verse 26?
      • The true believers in Jesus Christ that are growing and maturing in the faith
      • They are bearing fruit in the corner of the world where God has planted them.
    • What are the “tares” (26)?
      • Tares are a bearded weed that looks like wheat until harvest (lolium temulentum). By the time you can distinguish the wheat from the tares (tares are a grey color), the roots are so intertwined that to pull up the tares would also cause you to pull up the wheat.
      • It is not a marketable product, so it’s worthless.
      • It’s a poisonous plant.
        • In the days of Rome, there was a practice whereby a person seeking revenge would sow tares in his enemy’s field.
        • Rome passed a law making this a grave criminal offense.

It would take great labor by hand to separate the wheat from the tares, as well as years to rid one’s field of such pollution.

What do the tares represent?

Satan’s opposition by imitation produces people who look like Christians, but are not.

See Mat 13:38 Joh 8:44

• • • Who are the servants of the householder (27)?
      • The disciples of Jesus Christ at that time who wanted to call down fire on those who were sinful.
      • Notice the 2 questions in Mat 13:27 recognizes that the ownership of the field, the world, as Jesus Christ.
        • From where do the tares come?
        • In other words, why does God allow Satan and evil to exist in the world? No answer to that question is given here.
    • What is the harvest (30)? The harvest is final judgment at the end of the age (Mat 13:39 Act 17:31)
    • Who are the reapers? (Rev 14:14-20)
      • The angels (Mat 13:39)
      • The parable tells us that man does not have the wisdom to discern the difference, but evidently angels do for they do the dividing at the judgment.
    • What is the barn? Eternity with God (Joh 14:1-3)
    • What is meant by burning the tares?
      • The tares were gathered in the field, bound in bundles and then burned.
      • The bundling together of the tares is becoming more and more apparent as we get closer to the second coming of Christ.
        • There is less and less grey area as evil is becoming more apparent. People are less able to sit on the fence.
        • Rev 20:11-15 is the great white throne judgment and the result of the lake of fire
    • What is the central truth of the parable?
      • There is the true and the counterfeit, good and evil, in the world today that produces either believers in Jesus Christ or unbelievers.
      • It will be so until the final judgment when believers and unbelievers will be separated. Believers to eternal life and unbelievers to an eternal death.
• Summary:
  • The parable is similar to the last one.
  • We have a mixed character to the kingdom of God.
  • This parable presents the problem of evil. The intermingling of good and evil is ever present with us in all levels of society as well as within ourselves no matter how hard we legislate or try to separate the good from the evil, we find that the real and the counterfeit are always with us, even in the church.
  • Remember when Jesus told Peter that he would be sifted by Satan, and that in the sifting the chaff, or tares would disappear? (Luke 22:31)
• Application:
  • First of all we want to decide within ourselves if we are tares (unbelievers) or wheat (believers).
  • If we are wheat, then we must realize that we still struggle with the sin nature (Rom 7:15), and that God sifts us to get rid of sin.
  • We must be very careful not to judge other people. We cannot know the true nature of another’s heart. Nor can we know the character pattern of his whole life.
  • Judgment by God comes at the end.

Homework

Matthew 13:31-35

• Application of Mat 13:1-30
  • Relate the character of the soils to the nature of your own heart. Which of the soils do you most identify with? Why?
  • How can you make your heart more like soil #4?
• Preparation for Mat 13:31-35
  • The parable of the mustard tree and birds (Mat 13:31-32)
    • This is a difficult parable often misunderstood.
    • What do you think is the central truth?
  • The parable of leaven and meal (Mat 13:33-35)
    • This is another parable often misinterpreted.
    • What is the meaning of leaven?
    • What do you think is the central truth?
• Memory verse: 1Cor 5:7