1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;
And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2You have given him his heart’s desire,
And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
4He asked life from You, and You gave it to him–
Length of days forever and ever.
5His glory is great in Your salvation;
Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.
6For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
7For the king trusts in the LORD,
And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8Your hand will find all Your enemies;
Your right hand will find those who hate You.
9You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger;
The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath,
And the fire shall devour them.
10Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth,
And their descendants from among the sons of men.
11For they intended evil against You;
They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.
12Therefore You will make them turn their back;
You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces.
13Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength!
We will sing and praise Your power.
On our Fifth Sunday Sings I often love to bring to you a portion from the book of Psalms. Psalms is the songbook, the hymnal, of the Bible. These songs were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God as scripture, were sung by Israel in their worship, and are given to us for teaching and admonishing one another (Col. 3:16). We are to sing them with grace in our hearts to the Lord. In their praise, we worship the Lord. In their theology, we meet God. In their prayers, we learn to pray.
Today, I want us to look briefly at Psalm 21. David, king of Israel, composed this Psalm as a song of praise and thanks to Yahweh, the Lord God, in the aftermath of victory. It is a companion to Psalm 20 which is a prayer for going into battle. In Psalm 21, David rejoices in the great victory that the Lord had won. It’s all about what God has done. A quick reading of the Psalm brings that easily to light.
(1) “The king shall have joy in YOUR strength, O LORD”
(1) “in YOUR salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!”
(2) “YOU have given him his heart’s desire”
(3) “YOU meet him with the blessings of goodness”
(3) “YOU set a crown of pure gold upon his head”
(4) “YOU gave it [life] to him”
(5) “Honor and majesty YOU have placed upon him”
(6) “YOU have made him most blessed forever”
(6) “YOU have made him exceedingly glad”
(8) “YOUR hand”
(8) “YOUR right hand”
(9) “YOU shall make”
(9) “The LORD shall swallow”
(10) “YOU shall destroy”
(12) “YOU will make them turn their back”
(12) “YOU will make ready YOUR arrows”
(13) “Be exalted, O LORD, in YOUR own strength!”
It’s clear, isn’t it? King David has returned from battle victorious, but he’s not taking credit for a single aspect of the victory. The Lord delivered him, and David is honoring God and rejoicing in the Lord. David knew that every victory he experienced was from the Lord. And like David, we could sing this song giving credit to God for every spiritual blessing and victory.
But I want you to notice something else about this psalm. Rather than writing in the first person using “I” and “me”, David writes it in the third person, using “he” and “him”. This could be because David wanted the congregation to sing about the victories God gave him. But I think there is more to it than that.
Notice that in Psalm 21:1-6, David looks back with gratitude for the victory that God gave, but in verse 7-12, he looks forward with confidence and hope. I believe that David wrote the psalm this way because he wanted us to see the greater King in the future. This is a psalm ultimately about the Messiah, our Lord Jesus. Like many of the psalms do, it speaks about David but looks past David to fulfillment in Christ Jesus. It is a prophetic picture of the certain victory which God will grant His Messiah-King. David praised God not only for the blessings and victory that were his, he praised God for the blessings and victory that belong to Christ. David rejoices in these blessings. He sings praise to the Lord God.
So, if these blessings and victory belong to Christ, what do they mean to us today? Here is where our union with Christ comes in. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” If I am in Christ, and Christ receives all these blessings, so do I! This is why we sing and rejoice.
What are these blessings that belong to Christ?
Salvation – Psalm 21:1 says, “The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD; And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!” The Lord saved David from his enemies. God delivered him and gave him life and victory. Jesus Christ was delivered from death and received the victory over sin when God raised Him from the dead. This is what we sing about—Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s victory. After writing a whole chapter in 1 Corinthians on the resurrection, Paul says, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57). Because Christ has been delivered from death, we who are in Christ have been delivered from sin. Salvation is ours in Christ.
Christ is blessed with salvation, and second, Christ is blessed with …
Answered Prayer – “You have given him his heart’s desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips.” (Psa. 21:2). The Lord answered David’s prayer for victory in battle. But even more, God always answered Jesus’ prayers. At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus prayed, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me…” (John 11:41-42). David rejoices that God answers the prayer of His anointed, namely Christ. And because we are in Christ and we pray in the name of Christ, we can also rejoice in answered prayer.
David rejoiced in answered prayer through Christ, and third, Christ is blessed with …
Eternal Life – “He asked life from You, and You gave it to him–Length of days forever and ever.” (Psa. 21:4). David looked ahead to Christ and rejoiced in the eternal life that is His through His resurrection. Eternal life is knowing Christ. Rejoice that you know Him!
David rejoiced in eternal life in Christ, fourth, Christ is blessed with …
Glory and Honor – “His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.” (Psa. 21:5). God placed upon Christ the highest glory and the highest honor. Rejoice that we who are in Christ will be glorified in Him. This glory is Christ’s and ours in His presence. “For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.” (Psa. 21:6). Rejoice in the blessing of God’s presence through Christ.
These blessings are Christ’s because He trusts in God the Father. “For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.” (Psa. 21:7). David knew these blessings because He trusted in Christ, and that is how we know them as well—by faith, by trusting in Christ. It’s through the mercy of the Most High. It’s by God’s grace showered on us in Christ.
The first seven verses describe the blessings Christ in His victory over sin and death through His resurrection. The rest of the psalm is about the future victory of Christ at His second coming. Christ will have the …
Victory – In Psalm 21:8-12 we see that all of Christ’s enemies will be exposed (Ps. 21:8), they will be destroyed (Ps. 21:9-10), and completely defeated (Ps. 21:11-12).
And so David concludes the psalm, “Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.” (Psa. 21:13). When we look at Christ and see all that God has done through Him and for Him, we rejoice and sing praise! God has delivered Him, answered His prayers, given Him eternal life, glory, and honor in His presence, and total victory.
These spiritual blessings in Christ also belonged to David because he trusted in the Lord. And they are ours when we are in Christ. Rejoice in the blessings Christ has received! In Him, those are your blessings as well!
In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in parables. The Jews in Jesus’ day, including His disciples, had certain expectations about the kingdom of God. They knew the prophecies about the glory and grandeur of God’s kingdom, but they misunderstood the nature and timing of the kingdom.
We have already looked at four of the parables. First was the parable of the sower. In it, Jesus showed why there are many who will not receive the King and His kingdom. They expected that when the Messiah-King arrived, all Israel, indeed the world, would instantly turn to Him. That didn’t happen. Many rejected Jesus and His message of the kingdom. Jesus explained that they could not receive the message of the kingdom because their hearts were hardened, shallow, or worldly.
Second was the parable of the wheat and the tares. The disciples expected that when the kingdom came, all the wicked and all evil would immediately be judged and destroyed. Jesus explain that the sons of the kingdom will grow together with the wicked until the end of the age. Only at the final judgment will God separate them.
Next, Jesus told the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast. The disciples expected God’s kingdom to be glorious and immense, and they were not prepared for the humble form of the kingdom that they saw. Jesus explained that though the kingdom appears small and insignificant, it will eventually grow and permeate the whole earth.
Today, we look at two more parables of the kingdom of heaven—the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price. These two parables share the common purpose to teach us about the precious, immeasurable value of the kingdom. Both parables follow a similar pattern. Each begins with an object of enormous wealth, a treasure in a field, or a costly pearl, but its full value is unseen or unrecognized. Then someone discovers its true worth. Finally, that person trades all that he has to acquire the vast riches unrecognized by others.
First, I will explain the two parables and then I will draw some application from what we learn. First, we see that the kingdom of heaven is like…
1. Treasure Hidden in a Field (Matt. 13:44)
Jesus taught in Matthew 13:44, “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 that field.”
The details of the parable all support the main point: the kingdom of heaven is incomparably valuable. First, it is a treasure, something stored up, hidden away because it is precious and costly. In the days before there were reliable banks, people commonly buried their valuables to keep them safe. This was especially true in the land of Israel which had been subject to countless military raids and wars over its long history. Jesus’ story implies the treasure had long been hidden and forgotten, and whoever buried it was no longer around to claim it. It couldn’t have belonged to the present owner of the field, because, if it did, he wouldn’t have sold the field, or at least, he would have dug up the treasure first before selling.
According to Jewish rabbinic law, if someone found treasure, it belonged to the finder.[1] But if it was on someone’s land and the finder lifted it out, it belonged to the owner of the land.[2] In that case, “finders, keepers” didn’t apply. By not disturbing the treasure, reburying it, and purchasing the field, the man who found it legally acquired it for himself.
The second element that shows its great value is how the man felt about founding it—“joy”. The man doesn’t go off dutifully or reluctantly to raise the funds to purchase the field. No, he is so full of joy at the discovery of the treasure that he is glad to sell everything he has to obtain it.
Thirdly, its value is demonstrated by what the man does, “he goes and sells all that he has.” Imagine this man figuring up the value of the land and making an offer to the owner. Then the man sells everything he owned—literally everything—to scrounge up all the money he could. Selling everything he had could have made him experience temporary hardship, homelessness, and hunger. But he was happy to suffer whatever the loss because of the great gain he would have.
But this parable is not about the cost of the kingdom of heaven, it’s about the overwhelming value of the kingdom. It is a precious, priceless treasure. Finding it brings great joy. It’s worth more than everything else you have.
And that brings us to the second parable. Its theme is the same. The kingdom of heaven is like…
2. A Pearl of Great Price (Matt. 13:45-46)
Jesus teaches, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matt. 13:45-46).
Again, this parable is a twin to the parable of the treasure in the field. The details are different, but they also support the main point—that the value of the kingdom of heaven is most precious and priceless.
The merchant in this story is a person who buys and sells commodities. And this particular merchant is on a quest to find pearls. Pearls were considered the most valuable items in Jesus’ day, more precious than silver or diamonds or gold. Jesus tells us the merchant is looking for “beautiful pearls,” which means he is looking for fine pearls, the best pearls, those of the highest quality and value. A pearl that was perfect and beautiful was priceless.
Notice the difference between the man who found the treasure and the pearl merchant. The man in the field was not necessarily seeking treasure, he just discovered it, perhaps by chance. But the merchant is seeking his treasure, the most beautiful pearls. And Jesus tells us he found it—”one pearl of great price.” It is very valuable, extremely costly. The merchant knows his business. He would know what a pearl was worth. He certainly wouldn’t be duped into overpaying for a pearl. No, he understands how valuable this pearl is. “This was the granddaddy of all pearls, the pearl of pearls, the best of them all, magnificent, beautiful, of the highest quality, unequaled, unrivaled, incomparable, matchless, superior, supreme.”[3]
And notice that this merchant does the same as the man who found the treasure in the field, he “went and sold all that he had and bought it.” This merchant considered the pearl so valuable that he sold everything he had to buy it. He knew it was worth more than all he had. He knew he was getting a good deal.
Again, that is the point. The kingdom of heaven is like that. It is like a treasure or a pearl more valuable than anything and everything we have. It’s not about the cost you will pay. It is about the value you will receive.
So those are the parables and their explanation. Let’s make three points of application…
The Kingdom is priceless.
Both parables teach us the incomparable value of the Lord’s Kingdom. In his commentary, John MacArthur quotes Thomas Guthrie, who writes about the preciousness of the treasure we have in salvation:
In the blood of Christ to wash out sin’s darkest stains, in the grace of God to purify the foulest heart, in peace to calm life’s roughest storms, in hopes to cheer guilt’s darkest hour, in a courage that defies death and descends calmly into the tomb, in that which makes the poorest rich and without which the richest are poor indeed, the Gospel has treasure greater far than east or west unfold, and its rewards more precious are than all the stores of gold![4]
Christ and His Kingdom are treasure precious beyond comparison. It is incorruptible, undefiled, and eternal (2 Pet. 1:4). Do you know, O Christian, the great treasure you have in Christ and His Kingdom?
When you recognize the value of the kingdom of heaven and realize it is yours, what do you do? REJOICE! Because …
B. The Kingdom brings joy.
The man’s response to finding the treasure was joy (Matt. 13:44). When God truly reveals himself to you through Christ, there is a joyful, spontaneous abandonment of self and sin for Christ and the gospel. That’s the joy of salvation.
The world pursues happiness. But happiness is fleeting because your happiness most often depends on what happens—your circumstances. When something good happens, people get happy. When something bad happens, they are unhappy. Christian joy is not like that. Joy is not tied to what happens. Joy is tied to Christ and His kingdom (Rom. 14:17). It is found in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ (John 15:11), “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8). Joy is the gift of God, the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
O Christian, do you have this joy? “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Phl. 4:4).
The kingdom is priceless, the kingdom brings joy, and finally …
C. The Kingdom must be personally appropriated.
In both parables, the one who found the priceless treasure “sold all that he had and bought it” (Matt. 13:46). This, of course, isn’t saying that we can “buy” our place in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We know from the rest of scripture that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. No amount of money, or good works, or religious rituals, or keeping God’s law could ever purchase for us a place in the kingdom of heaven.
So why does Jesus stress that the men sold all they had and bought the field or the pearl? Gil Rugh points out that “The point in buying or purchasing something is in securing it for yourself, having it as your possession.”[5] The point of buying in this parable is securing it for yourself.
Let me show you how this concept is used in other places in scripture. Proverbs 23:23 says, “Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” That proverb is not teaching that you can purchase truth or understanding. The opening verses of Proverbs, show that knowledge, wisdom, and truth are found in fearing and trusting in the Lord, not purchased with money (Pro. 1:7; 9:10). The point is to obtain the truth, to get wisdom, instruction, and understanding for yourself—to make it yours. The emphasis on buying the truth is not on paying money for it necessarily, but rather the emphasis is on doing whatever is necessary to secure the truth. It may cost you to stand for the truth. No matter what, secure it for yourself.
In Isaiah 55:1, the Lord gives this call to His people: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.” Here again, the idea behind buying is not trading money for the refreshing water of life. Even those without money can secure it for themselves because it can be obtained “Without money and without price.” The idea is securing it as your possession.
Jesus used this same approach in Revelation 3 when He wrote to the church at Laodicea. This church thought it was wealthy and needed nothing. Yet Christ said they were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). So, He tells them in Revelation 3:18, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” Can you purchase these spiritual blessings from Christ? No. His salvation is by grace and spiritual blessings are free gifts, but you can buy it from Christ in the sense of securing it from Him. What you need to be righteous before God you can get only from Jesus Christ.
So, the emphasis on buying is securing it for yourself. What is the emphasis on selling all you have? The point is that the kingdom of heaven is so valuable that you should let nothing keep you from it.
Do you remember the story of the rich young ruler? (Matt. 19:16-22). He asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life. He told Jesus that he had kept the law from the time he was a youth, but he knew something was missing. “What do I still lack?” he asked. Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Matt. 19:21-22). Jesus then said to his disciples, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24).
What a contrast he was to the man in Jesus’ parable! He didn’t sell all that he had “for joy” over Jesus’ offer. In fact, he went away sorrowful. He did not consider eternal life to be of more value than his possessions.
When Peter heard this, he looked at himself and his fellow disciples, and saw how they had forsaken all to follow Jesus. He said to the Lord, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” (Matt. 19:27). Peter wants to know if it is all worth it. Is the kingdom of God so valuable that it’s worth more than everything? I think it was a very good question to ask.
Jesus told them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:28-29).
The answer is: Yes, it is worth it. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is a treasure far more valuable than anything and everything. The “great price,” was paid by Christ for our redemption. He emptied Himself of His glory, came to earth in the form of a lowly servant, and shed His precious blood on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. It cost our Lord Jesus Christ everything—humility, rejection, suffering, and death on a cross. His blood has purchased salvation, eternal life, the kingdom of heaven for all who believe in Him. To us, it is a free gift. We cannot earn it or pay for it. Christ has already paid the ransom for our freedom from sin and death. We receive it free of charge by God’s grace through believing in Jesus Christ.
Then why did the man sell all he had to obtain the treasure? FOR JOY! Once you truly see Jesus Christ as Lord, the eternal Savior and King, no one will have to tell you to go, sell all you have and buy that field or secure that pearl. You will joyfully give anything and everything just to have Jesus Christ and His kingdom. It will be like abandoning trivial trinkets to possess eternal treasure. It will be like giving up your garbage to possess a lavish kingdom.
The apostle Paul writes about His salvation in Philippians 3. First, he lists the self-righteous things that once gave him confidence in the flesh. He thought these things merited him the kingdom of heaven. He writes that he was “… circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” (Phil. 3:5-6). These were his self-righteous treasures of the flesh. But meeting Jesus Christ changed everything. He writes,
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:7-11).
In comparison to the kingdom of heaven, to knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, everything else is rubbish—garbage, dung.
Every day, people are tempted to trade eternal joys for worldly pleasures. They pursue self-righteous, works-based religion rather than receiving God’s gift of salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ. Some people never come to Jesus because they are afraid they would have to give up their sinful desires and the trinkets of this world. But nothing is more valuable than the kingdom of heaven. Nothing is more important than entering the kingdom of God. Only Jesus can bring you into the kingdom, and so no one is more important than Jesus.
If you have not yet trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, what stands between you and Christ? What do you think is more important than eternal life? Your family, your job, your prestige, your influence, the pleasures you now enjoy? Repent of your folly. Change your mind about Jesus Christ. He is Lord and Savior. Surrender your all today.
[2] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 328. Carson quotes Derrett (Law, pp. 1–16) who pointed out that “under rabbinic law if a workman came on a treasure in a field and lifted it out, it would belong to his master, the field’s owner; but here the man is careful not to lift the treasure out till he has bought the field.”
We are again in Matthew 13 Jesus told His disciples “it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 13:11). In this chapter, Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven using parables, concealing the truth from those who refuse to hear it, and at the same time, revealing the truth to those who will receive it.
In our previous lessons, we have looked at two of the seven kingdom parables. The first was the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soils. In it, Jesus explained the mystery of, “Why doesn’t everyone enter the kingdom?” We saw that the kingdom of God begins with hearing the message of the kingdom with a receptive heart that will bear fruit for the kingdom. Those with hard hearts, shallow hearts, and worldly hearts will not hear, receive, and bear fruit.
The second was the parable of the wheat and the tares. In it, Jesus explained the mystery of, “Why is evil still present, if the kingdom of God has come?” We saw that an enemy, the devil, planted “sons of the wicked one” alongside the Lord’s “sons of the kingdom,” and they only remain because the Lord doesn’t want the wheat harmed. Separation awaits the judgment at the end of the age. The Lord “is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NASB).
Today we will look at two parables: The Mustard Seed and the Leaven. We are taking these two parables together because they are short, and they teach similar lessons. The mystery that Jesus explains is, “Why does the kingdom seem so insignificant?” Remember, Jesus came proclaiming, “… the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). He taught about the kingdom of displayed the power of the kingdom by His mighty works. And even though, at times, multitudes flocked to Him, many did not really believe in Him. Jesus’ true disciples were a very small group.
Yet, these disciples, no doubt, had great expectations of the kingdom. They knew the promises of the prophets concerning the kingdom of God. For instance, Isaiah prophesied,
2 … the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.3The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. … 11Therefore your gates shall be open continually; They shall not be shut day or night, That men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles, And their kings in procession.12For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, And those nations shall be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:2-3, 11-12).
And the Zechariah prophesied,
20 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Peoples shall yet come, Inhabitants of many cities; 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD, And seek the LORD of hosts. I myself will go also.” 22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the LORD.’ 23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ‘ (Zech. 8:20-23).0
This is what they were expecting the kingdom of God to be like. When the Messiah-King arrives and His kingdom appears, the Jewish nation would be glorious, other nations and kings would bow before Him or perish, people would cling to them saying, “Bring us to God.”
But what has been the experience of Jesus’ disciples so far? Instead of people flocking to the kingdom, many are rejecting it. Instead of the nations bowing or perishing, they don’t even notice it. And so Jesus teaches these parables to explain why the kingdom seems so small and insignificant.
We begin with …
1. The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matt. 13:31-32)
Matthew 13:31-32 says,
31Another 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, 32 “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.” (Mat 13:31-32).
So, what is the kingdom like according to this parable?
A. The Kingdom Starts Small (Matt. 13:31)
Jesus says that “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed”. The mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the world, although it is the smallest seed that was commonly planted in Israel. Mustard seeds are proverbial in the Bible. They symbolize that which is small, and which seems—at first glance—to be utterly insignificant.
In Luke 17, Jesus’ disciples came to Him and said, “Increase our faith.” Jesus told them that it wasn’t a matter of having great amounts of faith, because He said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed”—just the tiniest little amount—“you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:5-6). In Matthew 17:20, Jesus told them, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
God’s kingdom starts small. And, as I said, this surely seemed strange to the disciples. Here was Jesus proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven had come. But they look around, and what do they see? It’s just Jesus and a bunch of unschooled fishermen in the remote areas of Galilee traveling around and teaching the people. They weren’t attracting worldwide attention. In fact, even by the Jews, they were being rejected, choked, and persecuted. They must have felt insignificant compared to the power of Rome with its legions of soldiers or the pomp of Jerusalem with its temple and treasure. I am sure that most people didn’t give the disciples of Jesus a second glance.
Jesus teaches that the smallness and seeming insignificance of the kingdom is not an anomaly. It’s not a mistake. It’s God’s plan. The kingdom of heaven is not about huge crowds, a flashy show, or worldly power. The kingdom comes by changing people’s hearts and lives one at a time. Jesus did not come seeking the brightest and the best, He came to seek sinners who would repent and believe. This is the way the kingdom works.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church,
26For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
God’s kingdom starts small. It has humble beginnings. There didn’t seem to be much about it that would have impressed anyone that it would come to much of anything. It began with a humble Teacher who organized no army or assumed no political office. He gathered a group of men around Himself—a tiny band of twelve. One of them would betray Him, one of them would deny Him, and all of them would flee and desert Him. And He Himself would be rejected by the people to whom He presented Himself as King. They would crucify Him as a despised criminal. And from these humble, “mustard seed” beginnings, who would have expected anything great?
The mustard seed aptly illustrated the lesson that Jesus was seeking to teach—that something so remarkably small grew into something far beyond proportion with respect to its beginning. Even though the kingdom seemed small and insignificant …
B. The Kingdom Will Grow Large (Matt. 13:32)
The tiny mustard seed grew into a large brush—almost like a tree in size. The mustard bush sometimes reached a height of ten to twelve feet! Such mustard bushes had branches that spread out, and were strong enough for birds to light on and rest. And that’s the picture that Jesus is seeking to paint for us—that the kingdom of heaven is like that seed. At its beginning, it was something very small and tiny—something that no one would ever expect to grow into something so big that birds could rest on its branches.
The of a tree with the birds of the air resting in its branches is a common image for a prosperous kingdom in the Old Testament. In Daniel 4, God gave King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon a vision. In that vision, Nebuchadnezzar saw his own kingdom as,
“10 . . . a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong; its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. 12 Its leaves were lovely, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it” (Daniel 4:10-12).
In Ezekiel 17, God uses these same terms to describe the downfall of Babylon and the future glory of Israel when Jesus returns to reign, saying,
22Thus says the Lord GOD: “I will take also one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. 23 On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell. 24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it.” (Eze. 17:22-24).
Jesus promised that even though His kingdom starts small, it would grow to be like a great tree whose branches would spread out, where the birds could find shelter and blessing. His kingdom is that very kingdom that was promised to Abraham when God told him that, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Jesus’ kingdom is that kingdom foretold by the prophet Daniel, “the stone cut without hands” that struck all other nations at the base and caused them to crumble, and that then “became a great mountain” that “filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:34-35).
The point to Jesus’ disciples is that although the kingdom may look unimpressive now, just wait, it is like a mustard seed, it will become the most glorious. That is a good lesson for us today. Sometimes it can become discouraging, as we wait for the return of Christ. Jesus’ church isn’t popular in the world. The Lord isn’t honored. Our church is small, most overlook it or think we are weak and insignificant. That is not the end of the story. One day, the kingdom of heaven will rule the world.
So in this parable, we learn that even though God’s kingdom starts small and seems insignificant, it will eventually grow to be the greatest of all kingdoms in the world—the kingdom that will truly bring about the blessing to all the families of the earth.
Second, Jesus taught …
2. The Parable of the Yeast (Matt. 13:33)
33Another 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.” (Matt. 13:33).
Jesus says that His kingdom is like “leaven”. Leaven is that substance that is used to ferment a lump of dough. It causes the bread to rise. The chief characteristic of leaven is that it spreads throughout whatever it is put into until it permeates the whole thing. In the Bible, leaven can picture the spread of something negative or positive.
In Matthew 16, Jesus taught His disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matt. 16:6)? He called their hypocritical behavior and teaching “leaven” because, once allowed to make an entry into our hearts, such hypocrisy spreads itself throughout our whole life and thinking. The apostle Paul had to rebuke the Corinthian believers for tolerating sinful behavior in the church warning, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Cor. 5:6). Once sin is permitted to come in, and once its presence is tolerated, it spreads itself and corrupts everything!
So leaven pictures something small that, when introduced, eventually spreads or permeates the whole thing. Only in this parable, the leaven does not picture sin spreading in the kingdom, but the kingdom spreading throughout the world. The truths it teaches are, first …
A. The Kingdom Is Initially Hidden (Matt. 13:33a)
And just as the parable of the mustard seed teaches us that God’s kingdom starts small, the parable of the yeast teaches us that God’s kingdom remains hidden at first. Jesus says woman who took a bit of leaven and “hid” it into three measures of meal. This is no small batch of dough. It would have been the rough equivalent of about three dry gallons of meal, making enough bread to feed dozens of people. By the way, it’s the same amount that was used in the Old Testament by Sarah, Gideon, and Hannah when they were making bread (Genesis 18:6; Judges 6:19; 1 Samuel 1:24).
And this generous amount of flour and small bit of leaven is meant to serve as an illustration—something “big” into which something “little” was hidden. You can’t see the yeast in the dough at first, but it is still there—it is growing and spreading. The leaven will end up permeating every part of the very large lump of dough. So the kingdom of heaven is initially hidden in this world, but …
B. The Kingdom Will Spread through the World (Matt. 13:33b)
The Kingdom of heaven is like leaven. It has an amazing way of growing, by spreading to those around it. In this way, God’s kingdom will spread through the whole earth. The kingdom spreads when you (as one person) go and share the gospel with another person. It doesn’t require fancy gimmicks, huge platforms, or any elaborate programs.
Jesus started with twelve ordinary men. They had no degrees, no fame, no great musical talent, no riches. They just went and proclaimed Jesus everywhere they went to everyone they could. And like leaven, the kingdom began to spread. The book of Acts records how the kingdom spread in those early days:
Acts 2:47 says, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Acts 4:4 says, “However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” Act 5:14 says, “And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” Act 6:7 says, “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Acts 12:24, “But the word of God grew and multiplied.” Acts 19:20, “So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.”
And on and on it went even until today. Here we sit two thousand years later—in a building dedicated to His worship, reading His word, and encouraging one another to walk faithfully with Him and to serve Him until He returns to this earth—and we’re doing so in a spot that is on nearly the exact opposite side of the globe from where it all began. We’re just one church hundreds of thousands scattered across our nation—and just one nation among many in the world—that worships Him! His kingdom has truly spread throughout this vast globe like leaven throughout dough! It has permeated the whole world; and is spreading in the world all the more even as we speak!
Like the yeast, the kingdom of God exerts its influence from within, not from without. God first changes the heart of a person, and that internal change has external manifestations. The gospel influence works the same way. One Christian influences someone in their family, or a friend, or a co-worker, or a neighbor. Their heart is transformed by believing the gospel. Slowly and sometimes almost imperceptibly, the kingdom spreads. The nature of yeast is to grow and to change whatever it contacts. When we trust Christ, His grace grows in our hearts and changes us from the inside out. As the gospel transforms lives, it exerts a pervasive influence in the world.
So we see that the kingdom is initially hidden but will spread throughout the world. Finally look at …
3. Jesus’ Use of Parables (Matt. 13:34-35)
34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, 35 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.” (Matt. 13:34-35).
Here again, we are reminded just how wonderful it is that we have been given these truths, for not all have been granted them. Jesus spoke these parables to all, only explained them to some. That’s why we’re told that Jesus spoke these things “to the multitude in parables”; and that, “without a parable He did not speak to them . . .”
Jesus said that this was so “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet” (Matt. 13:35), and He then quoted Psalm 78:2. Psalm 78 is a long psalm that outlines the history of the Jewish people. It was a psalm that the Jewish people knew well. It speaks of God’s constant grace to them, and of their persistent hardness of heart toward Him. And it begins with an appeal:
Give ear, O my people, to my law;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us (Psalm 78:1-3)
The Psalmist called, “Give ear! Incline your ears!” That was Jesus’ cry to the people; “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:9). Jesus, the Messiah-King, is speaking to them in the very manner that it was foretold that He would speak to them—in parables. Only those with hears to hear would receive it.
And this reinforces what Jesus just taught. The kingdom didn’t grow by marching armies and political conquest. No, Jesus invested these truths in 12 men, and let them spread it to the rest of the world. Jesus’ method was to teach those who received the word and then they would go and spread the truths they learned.
And now, let me ask you: How do you hear these things? Do you have ears to hear? Do you tune out when you hear them? Do you fall asleep when they are presented to you? Do you close your ears to them? Or does your heart thrill; and do you long to hear more? And are you influencing others around you with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then I hope—dear brother or sister—that you draw encouragement and strength from the truth being taught to us in these two wonderful little parables! Never despise the apparent “smallness” of the success of Jesus’ kingdom on this earth. It began as something very small; but its expansion and growth is assured, and it’s success in this world is absolutely guaranteed—no matter what.
And if you are not yet a follower of this great King, then the good news of His kingdom is being offered to you. He will, one day, return to this earth to claim His rightful rule; and you will stand before Him then. May you be given the ears to hear the news of His kingdom now—in this day of grace; and may you trust Him today as your Savior and Lord!
In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are in Matthew 13 where Jesus teaches the parables of the kingdom. Matthew has shown us that Jesus is the Messiah King who came to bring everlasting righteousness by saving His people from their sins. Now, the King teaches the mysteries of the kingdom (Matt. 13:11) in parables. First was the parable of the sower, which taught us how the kingdom begins. The message of the kingdom is sown like seed, and how people hear it, receive it, and bear fruit from it reveals the condition of their hearts. That’s how Christ’s Kingdom began on this earth—through the sowing of His gospel and by its reception by those in whom it produces fruit. That’s how it continues to grow even today—through preaching and proclaiming the message of who Jesus is and what He has done.
In our passage today, Jesus teaches a parable that answers one of the most basic and perplexing questions people can have about His kingdom. If the kingdom of heaven has indeed come, why is evil still present? If, as Jesus said, “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28), why was it that Jesus was meeting with such great opposition from the Jewish religious leaders? Why were they plotting to kill Him? Why was there so much resistance to Him as “King”?
And for us, as we look at the condition of our world today, why does it seem that evil is stronger than ever? If it’s true that Jesus’ kingdom has begun on this earth, then why does it seem as if evil has such a powerful sway over the hearts and lives of so many? Why is sin and wickedness so prevalent, and the gospel message so resisted?
Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares answers that question. It teaches us that Jesus was fully aware that evil would seem to prevail in this world. In this parable, Jesus teaches us that, though evil will be found mixed into His kingdom for the present, it will be fully separated from His kingdom at the end of the age. The Lord and His people will be victorious in the end. Righteousness will rule this earth. His kingdom will prevail.
With that introduction, let’s look first at…
1. The Parable (Matt. 13:24-30).
Like the parable of the sower, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes of people on the shore of the sea of Galilee as He sat in the boat to teach (Matt. 13:1-3). After this parable, Jesus taught two more (the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven) then He sent the crowds away and explained the meaning of it privately to His disciples.
Matthew 13:24 tells us that Jesus “put forth” a parable to the people. The word means “to place beside” or “to place near”. It suggests deliberate and thoughtful care. Jesus taught what “the kingdom of heaven is like”. The whole story is designed to teach something about God’s kingdom.
It is, He said, “like a man who sowed good seed in his field” (Matt. 13:24). Notice how this is similar to the parable of the sower but also different. In the parable of the sower, there was just one sower, and it was all good seed but four different types of soil. Here there is one field or soil, but two sowers and two different types of seeds.
The man “sowed good seed in his field,” suggesting that he was careful to select just the right seeds, good seeds that would take root, and sprout up, and would produce a productive crop in his field.
Then Jesus tells us that something very evil happened. While the man and his servants slept, under the cover of night, an enemy crept into his field and sowed “tares” in the very field where the man had sowed good seed (Matt. 13:25).
Scholars tell us that “tares” refer to ‘darnel’, a weed that was prevalent in those days. It looked very much like wheat when it sprouted up, and it even appeared to have an ear that looked like an ear of wheat as it developed. If the kernels from the tares became mixed up with kernels of wheat, the bread that would be made could make whoever ate it dizzy and sick. It was difficult to tell the difference between them until they both became ripe. Then it became clear that the tares were most definitely not wheat. Matthew 13:26 says, “But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.”
The one who sowed the tares in the other man’s field was “his enemy” (Matt. 13:25). He was seeking to sabotage and destroy the other man’s crop. It’s an evil thing to do to someone.
Eventually, the man’s servants notice the tares growing in the field and wonder about the source of the problem. “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?’” (Matt. 13:27).
I think they asked a question that was very much like a question you and I may ask. If Jesus’ kingdom has come into this world, then how is it that evil is found to have sprouted up in it? Why is there so much opposition to the kingdom of Jesus today? Why is there so much harm done to people in its name? Why are there so many governments in the world that are hostile to the spread of the gospel, and that oppress their people in disregard to the message of Jesus’ kingdom? How did so much wickedness seem to grow along with the spread of His kingdom on earth? “Jesus,” we may ask; “didn’t You sow a good kingdom in this world? How then does it have tares?”
The owner immediately identifies the source of the problem. The tares are there not by accident or by natural causes. No, this is intentional harm. “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’” (Matt. 13:28).
The servants suggest a simple strategy for dealing with the problem. “The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’” “Should we go pull the weeds?” It sounds sensible but the owner exposes the problem with that strategy. “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.’” (Matt. 13:29). By that time, their root systems had become so intermingled together that you couldn’t pull one out without destroying the other.
Instead, he told his servants, basically, to ‘put up’ with the weeds for a while. He said, “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matt. 13:30). At harvest time, he would send out his reapers into the harvest and tell them, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matt. 13:30). The harvest will be the right time for separating the wheat from the tares.
But now, notice . . .
2. The Explanation (Matt. 13:36-39).
For the explanation, we need to jump ahead a few verses because Jesus told two more parables to the multitude in between this parable and its explanation that He gave privately to His disciples. We will look at these parables next time. Matthew 13:36 says, “Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house”. And that’s when the disciples sought greater insight into their Master’s teaching. And so, we read, “And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’”
Jesus is always glad to give insight to those who genuinely seek it from Him. And look at how He begins! He gives them a point-by-point explanation of the details of His parable!
He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels” (Matt. 13:37-39).
Here, we have the key to understanding this parable from the Lord’s own lips. He presents Himself as the sower, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” As with the parable of the sower, the problem is not with the sower or the seed. Jesus sows good seed. The message of the gospel and the fruit that comes from it are good.
Then Jesus explains “the field is the world.” This is a parable about the kingdom’s spread in the world. Many people have mistakenly made the “field” out to be the church; and have used this parable to explain why there are sinful people found in the church. It’s certainly is a problem that sinful people make their way into the church; but that is not what this parable is really about. Rather, we’re told that the field is the world—the realm of human life and activity.
This is in accord with other passages in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus expresses the world-wide mission of the kingdom. Jesus is a Savior for everyone. Therefore, the gospel is to be sown in the whole world. God’s kingdom is to encompass the whole world (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus then says that the good and bad seeds represent two kinds of people who have two kinds of destinies. “The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom”—that is, those who hear the word of the Savior, and respond to it by believing in Him and following Him. “But the tares are the sons of the wicked one”—that is, those who are still under the devil’s regime. Like their evil father, they openly oppose God and fight against His kingdom. So the two seeds and the plants that come from them refer to believers and unbelievers.
Jesus told the people of his day who did not believe in him: “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God…. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do” (John 8:42, 44). The letter of 1 John says this about believers: “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).
Jesus tells us clearly who the enemy is: “The enemy who sowed them is the devil” (Matt 13:39). He sows the “sons of the wicked one” into the Lord’s field. The tares grow in the same field as the wheat. They may look, to the careless eye, as if they were “wheat”. But in time, they will be revealed for what they truly are—“tares”, “sons of the wicked one”.
Then, notice who the reapers are: “the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels” (Matt. 13:39). The reapers, who are sent out authoritatively by the Lord Himself to gather up the tares and separate them from His wheat, are His angels. And they do their reaping at “the harvest”. The Old Testament often uses the image of the harvest for the last judgment at the end of the age. (Jeremiah 51:33; Hosea 6:11). Jesus says the harvest is “the end of the age”. This speaks of the time of judgment at Jesus’ return—that time He described when He said, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31-32).
3. The Application (Matt. 13:40-43).
Jesus has explained the various elements in the parable. Next, He goes on to apply the truth of the parable, showing that it describes the fate of believers and unbelievers.
Here we learn three very important things about the fate of believers and unbelievers at the end of the age. Frist…
A. God will weed out of his kingdom all evil and sin
40“Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.41“The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,” (Matt. 13:40-41).
That’s good news! Remember the question we asked at the beginning of today’s message? Why doesn’t God do something about all the evil in the world? Part of the answer is He will do something about it. God will weed out all evil and sin at the end of the age.
This is exactly what we find when we come to the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament. We read in John describes the glory of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:
23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Rev. 21:23-27).
One day, there will be an end to all evil and sin. The new heaven and new earth will be perfect in every way. That’s the first thing Jesus says about the fate of believers and unbelievers. God will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. Secondly…
B. Unbelievers will be punished for their sin
42“and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 13:42).
Jesus says just as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. All those who cause sin or do evil will be weeded out of the kingdom, and God’s angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is also exactly what we find in the book of Revelation. We read John’s words in Revelation 20:
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:11-15).
What will be the fate of believers and unbelievers at the end of the age? 1) God will weed out of his kingdom all evil and sin. 2) Unbelievers will be punished for their sin. And then finally…
C. The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father
43“Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 13:43).
This language comes from the Old Testament book of Daniel which also speaks of the fate of believers and unbelievers at the end of the age. We read in Daniel 12: “2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever.” (Daniel 12:2-3).
Once again, this is exactly what we find when we come to the end of the book of Revelation. We read in Revelation 22: “3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” (Rev, 22:3-5). The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of heaven. All evil and sin will be removed from our lives. We will be glorified and perfected in Christ.
Now, all of this teaches us that we should not be surprised by the fact of evil. But neither should we despair! Jesus lets us know that evil will be permitted by Him to grow with His kingdom until ‘the harvest’ at the end of the age. And then—and only then—will it will be fully removed. At that time, when the great angelic announcement of Revelation 11:15 is finally made—that “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”—then, with all things that offend taken away, and those who practice lawlessness completely removed, the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father!
In closing, let me suggest some practical lessons we should draw from this parable, and from our Lord’s explanation of it.
First, I we need to understand that it is the Lord’s plan that His kingdom citizens be sown in this world and bear His influence on it. You see this from Matthew 13:24, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” And in His explanation of this parable, He tells us, that “the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom”, and that “the field is the world” (Matt. 13:38).
Our Lord has chosen to leave His redeemed people to live in this world—the great “field”—to bring His influence upon it. Before He went to the cross for us, He prayed for believers and said,
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:14-19).
That’s Jesus’ great plan for this lost world—to sanctify a people unto Himself from out of it, and to send them back out into the world to bring His influence upon it. You remember His closing ‘marching orders’ to us, don’t you?
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
If you have heard the message of the gospel, and have believed on Jesus Christ, you are that “good seed” that He has sown upon this earth. And I hope you are thrilled with a sense of the greatness of your vital purpose! You bear the life-changing message of Jesus Christ to the lost people of this world; and Jesus has left you here in this world—for a time—in order to bring His influence to bear in it.
Another sobering principle we draw from this parable is that, so long as Jesus’ kingdom grows in this world, the devil will ensure that evil will also be present. You and I need to realize that the devil does everything in his power to frustrate and destroy the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The consummation of God’s kingdom means Satan’s eternal doom. And so, the devil seeks to sow his own wicked influences in the Lord’s field—sometimes even in the very places in which the good seed was sown.
I think we can get a good sense of the kind of evil that he seeks to plant next to the good seed by what Jesus says He will one day tell His reapers to remove. He calls them to gather out of His field “all things that offend”. Literally, He speaks of “stumbling blocks”—that which causes His people to stumble in their faith or fall into temptations to sin; and “those who practice lawlessness”—that is, those who practice and advocate actions that violate God’s standards of holiness in His law.
There are malicious people who, under the inspiration of the devil, seek to cause professing believers to doubt their faith, or persuade them to sin. This is no small problem. Jesus warned that “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). But for now, so long as the kingdom is being spread in this world, the devil will seek to sow tares where God seeks to sow wheat.
A third principle we draw from this parable is that, as Jesus’ followers, it is not our role to remove evil doers from the presence of this world. The owner of the field answered those who wanted to pull up the tares immediately, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.” He left that important work to the reapers, the angels, at the time of harvest. This teaches us that it is not our role to take out the evil doers from the world. We are not here to root out all the unbelievers by force and rid the world of them by violence. That is not our mission. We are not qualified to do it. We do not know a person’s heart. Only the Lord knows so only the Lord is able to ultimately judge. Our role is not to pull out the weeds, our role is to continue the work of Jesus in sowing the seed of the gospel, making disciples of all the nations, baptizing and teaching them. That’s it.
Now, I hasten to add that we must keep this in balance with other passages of Scripture. It is, for example, a very important part of our duty in this world to serve as “salt” and “light”. Jesus told us in the Sermon on The Mount, “You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16). We are to let our light so shine in this world that men will see our good works and glorify our Father. And we are to serve as the preservative in this world that will keep the corruption of sin from overwhelming everything around it. And when it comes to the church itself, it is our duty to lovingly confront sin in our midst and call one another to repentance (Mathew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:12). The Bible tells us to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
But we need to remember that evil will always be present in this world all the way to the day of judgment; and it is not our role to make heaven on earth—nor is it even in our ability to do so. Historically, whenever the church has established some movement to purify the world of evil, or come campaign to forcibly remove sin from the culture, it ended up harming everyone—including the good people of Christ’s kingdom. We end up uprooting the wheat!
The removal of evil from this world is a job for the angels at the time of judgment. It is not the job of the seeds to pull the weeds. We are to patiently persevere in faith and obedience until the day that Jesus Himself orders the complete removal of all evil from the presence of the world. We are to trust that “the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).
Finally, look at how Jesus ends His interpretation in Matthew 13:43, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” The warning of this parable is a dreadful one. It tells us that, if a man or woman is not one of “the sons of the kingdom”—that is, someone who has heard the message of the gospel, has placed their faith in Jesus Christ, and now trust Him and follow Him and obey Him—then they are among the tares who will be gathered up by the angels on the day of judgment at the end of the age; and will be cast into the furnace of fire, where there will be eternal “wailing and gnashing of teeth”.
If you fear that you are one of the tares, let me tell you the good news. You don’t have to remain a tare. The miracle of the gospel is that God takes sons of the wicked one and turns them into sons of the kingdom. Paul wrote to the Colossians, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:13-14).
If you will repent—change your mind about your unbelief—and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Repent and believe. And let me clear up something today. Repentance is not saying, “I am sorry for my sins. I can do better. I can please you, God.” No, repentance is not “I can”. It is realizing that “I can’t.” It’s to realize that I am lost without Christ. I am a sinner, condemned to hell. I need a Savior—and Jesus Christ is the Savior. Believe on Him. Trust in Him. Rely completely on His finished work of redemption for your salvation. He will rescue you from the domain of darkness and bring you safely into His Kingdom of light. God will forgive your sin because Christ paid your ransom by His death on the cross. He will raise you to a new life because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Imagine, if you will, four people who come to church. All of them experience the same worship service. They hear the same sermon. But each of them has a totally different response.
Why is it that one person responds to the gospel and is deeply moved and all they can think about is knowing Jesus, and all they can talk about is sharing Jesus with others—while at the same time, another person seems to care less that Jesus died for them? You find one person moved to tears by the gospel and another cold and distant.
Not everyone responded the same way to Jesus and His message of the kingdom of God. Some thought Jesus was the son of God, their awaited Messiah. Others thought Jesus was a deceiver, even the devil. Why do people respond so differently? Why does one person come away with a radically changed life and the truth begins to bear fruit in his daily life—while others go away unmoved, unchanged, and unfruitful?
Jesus sheds some light on this in His Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. Last time, we saw that Jesus began speaking to the crowds in parables (Matt. 13:1-2). He taught about the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:11). As we said, His subject had not changed, but now His method was different. We saw that Jesus taught in parables as an act of judgment because although many heard Him teach, they did not have ears to hear His truth. They were dull, deaf, blind, and hardened to the message of the gospel of the kingdom.
So, in Matthew 13:10-17 we saw that Jesus taught in parables both to conceal the truth from those who did not really want to receive it and to reveal their unreceptive ears and calloused hearts. On the other hand, Jesus spoke in parables to reveal the truth to those who believed in Him. His disciples believed and were blessed to hear and understand His teaching about the kingdom.
We looked briefly at the first parable—the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soils. It was an illustration taken from a real-life situation to convey spiritual truth about the kingdom of God. But remember, Jesus did not explain the meaning of the parable to the crowd—only to the disciples later. All the crowd got was a short story about farming. They heard the story but did not have ears to hear the message Jesus taught by the story. Later, Jesus explained the parable to His disciples. In Matthew 13:18 Jesus says to them, “Therefore hear the parable of the sower.” That is what we will consider today—Jesus’ explanation of this parable.
The Elements of the Story
First, let’s consider the elements of the parable. Jesus tells a story about a sower, seed, and four types of soil. Consider first,
The Seed
Jesus clearly teaches that the seed is “the word of the kingdom” (Matt. 13:19). In Luke, Jesus says, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). In Mark, Jesus says, “The sower sows the word” (Mark 4:14). The explanation is consistent. The seed is the word of God or the message of the kingdom. From the beginning of His ministry, the Lord preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17) and “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). It is kingdom seed—preaching the King—God who became flesh and dwelt among us. The word of the kingdom points to the King’s work as Prophet who revealed God to us, as Priest who atoned for our sin by His death and resurrection, and as King who rules and governs our lives as members of His kingdom. It is gospel seed.
Let’s make a simple point of application here. Everything that grows and bears fruit starts with seed. Imagine a farmer complaining about the barrenness of his land. He says, “I’ve borrowed a small fortune to buy this land. The previous owner told me is was good land. But I think he lied. I’ve worked that soil. I’ve irrigated it. I’ve invested in the best fertilizers known to science. I’ve been spraying insecticides and pesticides. I’ve worked from sunrise until it was dark. And nothing is growing on that land!”
You might say to this farmer, “That’s very odd. I can’t imagine getting absolutely nothing for all your effort. What did you plant?”
“Plant?”
“That’s right, what seed did you sow?”
“Seed? What do you mean, seed? I didn’t know you had to plant seed.”
If you want to have a harvest, you have to plant seed. What’s true in farming is also true in spiritual growth. The harvest of righteousness only comes when we faithfully plant the seed of the word of God. It’s true in salvation. The Bible says we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8) and that faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17). Peter writes that we have “…been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” (1 Pet. 1:23). It’s also true in spiritual growth. 1 Peter 2:2 says, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” Salvation and spiritual growth must start with sowing the seed of the word of God in our hearts.
Knowing what the seed represents in the story helps us to understand who is represented by…
The Sower
Jesus said, “Behold, a sower went out to sow” (Matt. 3:3). The sower is the one who proclaims the gospel, the word of the kingdom. Jesus Himself constantly sowed the message of the kingdom. John the Baptist did before Him (Matt. 3:2). Jesus also sent the twelve with that message in Matthew 10:7, saying, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Now, after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has given the commission to His church to proclaim the word of the kingdom, the gospel message (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-47; Acts 1:8).
In the parable, the sower broadcasts the seeds generously, knowing that some of the seeds will lodge on good soil and produce fruit. He sows liberally because he wants a harvest. So, we learn from the sower to scatter the seeds of the gospel generously, liberally, on all types of soil. We are to scatter the gospel seed everywhere to everyone. Not everyone will receive the gospel message and bear fruit, but that should never limit our sowing the seed.
That brings us to …
The Soils
The different soils represent the different conditions of the heart in response to the gospel. The seed, Jesus says, “was sown in his heart” (Matt. 13:19). In the Bible, the heart is not just the center of our emotions but also our understanding and volition. It is where we think, feel, and choose. And each of the four soils where the seed fell—the wayside, the stony places, the thorns, and the good ground—are meant to illustrate various ways people receive the word of the kingdom in their hearts.
1. The Hardened Heart
In His parable Jesus said, “And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them” (Matt. 13:4). Because the soil on the “wayside” would be packed down and hardened, the seeds could not penetrate the soil, but lay exposed so that the birds snatched the seed and ate it up. Jesus’ explanation for this soil is, “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 seed by the wayside.” (Mat 13:19).
Jesus said these people hear the word but do not understand it. Is the problem that the word is too hard to understand? No, the problem isn’t with the seed. The problem is with the soil, their hearts are hard. The Pharisees in Matthew 12 were like this. They heard Jesus teach and saw Him do miracles and they rejected it completely and willfully. Jesus said, “… the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed” (Matt. 13:15). The seed of the word of God just bounced right off the surface of their hard hearts.
How do people get such hardened hearts? Maybe they love their sin and refuse to believe. Maybe they are calloused and cold toward the things of God and refuse to hear. Maybe they have heard the call of the Gospel for years and shrugged it off, or said, “I’ll get serious about God someday.” But with each rejection, like a path repeatedly trampled underfoot, their hearts have become hard.
Here is the danger that this person does not see. Even what little bit of gospel he has heard and understood is taken away from him–“the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Matt. 13:19). Here is a warning to anyone that tries to brush off their need for Christ. The evil one may very well snatch away what has been sown in their heart so that their intentions of later following Christ will go unheeded.
The devil will make them think that the gospel is either so complicated that it takes a degree in theology to understand it, or so simple that only an idiot would ever think it was true. He’ll send all the distractions in his power. He doesn’t care how it’s done; just so long as the word of the gospel is snatched up from the hearer before he or she can understand it, and believe it, and be saved by it.
I pray that no one here has such a hardened heart. The second soil is…
2. The Shallow Heart
In the parable, Jesus said, “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.” (Matt. 13:5-6). The stony place has an underlying layer of limestone rock with just a thin layer of soil on top of it. There was enough soil to plow and plant but no depth for plants to take root. Then Jesus explain this in Matthew 13:20-21, “But he who received the seed on 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.” (Matt. 13:20-21).
Notice that Jesus uses the word “immediately” twice in describing this person. He “immediately receives it with joy” and “immediately he stumbles.” He received it quickly with joy and excitement but when trouble came he abandoned it just as quickly.
I have met many people like this over the course of my life. They suddenly appear at church and are very excited about everything that is going on. They tell everyone how much they love Jesus and how wonderful life is. They are happy, but they remain shallow in their faith. They jump into church activities and even read their Bible, but they stick to passages that make them feel good and avoid things that would force them to stretch their faith and think deeply.
Then, just as suddenly, they disappear. You go to them and what do you find? Some difficulty has arisen in their life. They have some personal difficulty such as a physical illness or financial problems or a troubled relationship. They question why things are not easy anymore and they stumble and fall away. They say, “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.”
So, what happened? Again, we know the problem wasn’t anything in the seed. The problem wasn’t the tribulation or persecution—those things come to all of us. Those things only revealed the problem. Jesus says they had no root. In Colossians 2 the apostle Paul writes, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught.” (Col. 2:6-7) You must be rooted in Christ. A person with no root is a person without Christ. It was a false profession. Those who heard the word and received it with joy but later fell away had a shallow faith that did not go deep enough to change their hearts.
The third soil represents…
3. The Worldly Heart
Jesus’ parable says, “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.” (Matt. 13:7). Jesus explains this saying, “Now he who received 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.” (Matt. 13:22).
Jesus says that a worldly focus can choke the word out of a person’s life. And he gives us two examples of what a worldly focus looks like.
First, there are the worries of this life. Some people say, “Well, I would receive Christ, but this is such a bad time. I have so many problems at home, with the kids, with the car, etc. Once I get everything all straightened out, then I’ll come to Christ.” And so, the word gets choked out, because the person gets distracted by the worries of this life. The things that distract and draw people away, in and of themselves, may not be wrong things. We all have to live in a house. We all have to drive cars. We all have to work, and make a living, and care for our families. But when these things begin to occupy the place in our lives that only the Lord should have, that is where the problem is.
And then the second thing is the deceitfulness of wealth. Think of the rich, young ruler who walked away from Jesus because he could not part with his wealth. That seed got choked out real fast! But you don’t have to be wealthy to get tripped up by this one. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) You don’t have to have a lot of money to have your heart set on it. Paul warned, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptations and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:9-10). Jesus asked, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
I have to say that, in my experience, this is where many “church-going” people fall off. The apostle Paul even lost a trusted co-worker in this way. He told Timothy, “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world . . .” (2 Tim. 4:9-10).
The seed of the message of the gospel had reached three kinds of ground—the wayside, the stony places, and among the thorns; but it was unfruitful because it was either snatched away by the evil one, or thrust away because of persecution and trials, or choked out because of the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.
While these kinds of soils are used to speak about the matter of salvation, there is another application that we can draw from them as well. If we are not careful, we that are saved can allow ourselves to develop the wrong kind of heart. We can become hard hearted toward the things of God, toward His House and toward His Word. When this happens, we will find ourselves fruitless and defeated as a believer! Or, we can grow shallow in our commitment to the Lord and His work, this too can hinder our fruit production. Or, we might allow our lives to become filled with the wrong kinds of things, thorns of sin and worldliness that will hinder us and keep us from being fruitful for the glory of the Lord.
Finally, we see the fourth soil…
4. The Fruitful Heart
Jesus’ parable says, “But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matt. 13:8). This “good ground” was in the middle of the field away from the “wayside,” the “stony places,” and the “thorns.” Because they fell on “good ground” and were not hindered, they “yielded a crop.” There was an abundant harvest. Jesus explains this saying, “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.” (Matt. 13:23).
The seed in the good soil represents the person who hears God’s word, understands God’s word and then grows in God’s word. The soil of his heart was proved to be good because it produced fruit. Of course, this cannot means that this person was saved because they were good. Their fruitfulness was not due to their own personal merit. We can’t take the credit for our salvation. The farmer didn’t produce the fruit, and neither did the soil. What produced the fruit? The seed.
It is the word of the kingdom, the gospel message, that produces the fruit of salvation. Paul says in Romans 1, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,” (Rom. 1:16). It is the seed that produced the fruit. Someone had to sow the seed, and the soil had to receive the seed, but God did the work of making it grow. You see the progression—he hears the word, understands it, and bears fruit.
What kind of fruit? It is the fruit that God produces in us from hearing the word of God, understanding it, accepting it, and holding fast to it. It would include the fruit born out of serving God to His glory as Jesus described in Matthew 5:13-17. You will be salt and light, and your good works will glorify God. It would include the fruit of the Holy Spirit which Galatians 5:22-23 lists as love, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. It is the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of Christ-likeness. It would also include the fruit of our witness as we go out to sow the seed of the gospel in the hearts of those who are lost.
If you are not producing fruit, it’s time to examine your heart. The ground did not become good by producing fruit, it was proved to be good because it produced fruit. We are not saved by our good works, but we do good works because we are saved.
Can you be honest with yourself today? If you can, ask yourself the following questions:
What kind of soil is my heart?
Have I become hardened to the things of God?
Am I shallow in my commitment to Him and His work?
Am I constantly distracted, burdened and defeated by sin and the cares of the world?
Am I bearing the kind of fruit that indicates a heart transformed by Christ?
Today as we begin Matthew 13, I thought it would be good to remind ourselves of what a profound thing it is to hear the word of God. In the Bible, we have the word of the living God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by the Lord’s apostles and prophets, preserved by His providence, and translated into our language for our spiritual benefit.[1] Do we take it seriously? Think about it! In Matthew 13 we have the very words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke. It is the third of five extended sections of Jesus’ teaching that we have in the Gospel of Matthew. Can there be any greater privilege than to hear the Son of God teach us?
Not only is it a great privilege to hear God’s word, but it also carries with it a great obligation. When we hear the word of God, we are responsible for what we hear. How will you respond to the Lord and His word today?
Some will hear God’s words with humble reverence and a sincere desire to understand and obey what He says. They will hear His word with genuine trust in Jesus Christ—coming to Him for the words of life. I hope this is you today. Because if you desire to listen and obey God’s word, God will give you what you desire. If we hear and receive His truth, He will graciously respond by giving us more of His truth. He will allow us to truly hear it, understand it, be saved by it, and transformed by it.
Some, on the other hand, will hear the word of God and ignore it, critique it, sit in judgment of it, or altogether reject it. They will harden their hearts to God’s revealed truth. I hope that is not you today. Because the danger of turning away from God’s truth is that God, in judgment, may respond by giving you what you want. If you do not want to hear and understand what God says, then His judgment may be to keep you from hearing or understanding His word. The same word that brings salvation to some brings condemnation to others.
It is never a trivial thing to hear God’s word! And when we hear it, nothing is more important than how we respond to what we hear. In the Gospel of Matthew, we have seen that the multitudes in Galilee had the great privilege to hear the word of God from the very lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son. They heard the Messiah King teach about the Kingdom of God. They were eyewitnesses of many of His miracles. They saw how He acted in the power of God and spoke with the authority of God.
Yet, in the last few chapters, we also saw the opposition to Jesus and His message of the kingdom of God mounting. Some rejected Jesus with cold apathy, and some rejected Him with fiery hostility. Jesus saw their unbelief and warned them of the danger they were in if they did not repent. Jesus has been proven to be the Messiah King. But many have rejected Him. He has pronounced judgment on them. And yet, He offered His gracious invitation to whoever will do the will of the Father and believe in Him.
Now, as we come to Matthew 13, Matthew points out a change in the Lord’s teaching ministry. The theme of His teaching is the same—the Kingdom of God—but the manner of His teaching is different. Matthew 13:3 says, “Then He spoke many things to them in parables …”
In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches using a number of parables. The word “parable” is the Greek word parabolē (παραβολή) from para meaning “beside” and ballo meaning “to throw.” Thus, the word literally means something “thrown beside” or something “cast alongside another thing.” When something is cast beside another thing, we can see the comparison or apply the illustration. A parable is a story from real life or a real-life situation from which a moral or spiritual truth is drawn.[2] They are earthly stories with heavenly meanings.[3] Behind it stands the Hebrew word māšāl, a word used in the Old Testament to refer to proverbs, similes, allegories, comparisons, riddles, or stories embodying some truth.[4]
Already in Mathew’s Gospel we have seen Jesus use many graphic analogies to illustrate divine truth. He said believers are salt and light in the world (Matt. 5:13–16). He spoke of following the example of the birds and lilies in not worrying about the necessities of life (Matt. 6:26–30) and of building our lives on the solid rock of God’s Word rather than the insecure sand of man’s ways (Matt. 7:24–27). Although those and other teachings were in the vein of parables, so far in the context of Jesus’ teaching, when He used a parable, He also made their meaning clear. The difference now is that Jesus will teach using parables, but He will not explain them to the crowds, only His disciples.
Jesus using parables in this manner was a significant change. Matthew indicates this change in three ways.[5] First, as he introduces the first parable, Matthew wants us to notice the change, when he wrote, “Then He spoke many things to them in parables…” (Matt. 13:3). If this was the same as what Jesus had always done, Matthew would not have needed to tell us this. Second, Matthew points out that Jesus’ disciples noticed the difference in His teaching. In Matthew 13:10, they ask Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Third, in Matthew 13:34 he writes, “All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them.” We will see the reason for this change to parables in Matthew 13:11-17 as Jesus answers the disciple’s question. We will look at this in a few moments.
But first, I want us to see an overview of the chapter. Matthew 13 contains seven or eight parables. They are meant to illustrate to us, as it says in Matthew 13:11, “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” They all have the same theme—the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God. The word “mystery”, as it’s used by Jesus, refers to a divine truth that was hidden in times past but is now revealed by God.[6] It can only be known as God chooses to reveal it. Jesus is the King who has come to this earth to establish His kingdom. These parables teach truths about His kingdom that we would never know by mere research or investigation.
Jesus reveals the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven—the fullness of the gospel message and the coming of the church age. Both were hinted at in various places in the Old Testament but, for the most part, they were not understood. In Christ, these mysteries of the kingdom are unveiled. Paul writes a doxology to the Romans about the mystery of the gospel saying…
25Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith– 27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. (Rom 16:25-27).
God has now made manifest the mystery of the kingdom and its full meaning through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the truth that Jesus is proclaiming. As we will see, Jesus’ parables explain the initiation of the kingdom and why some enter it and some don’t. They explain the kingdom’s nature, how it grows and where it is headed. They tell the value of the kingdom and the cost of being part of the kingdom. And they tell the ultimate victory of the kingdom and its purification at the end of the age. They tell of salvation for those in the kingdom and judgment for those who refuse it.
The first four (the parables of the soils, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the yeast) Jesus spoke before the multitudes. The next three (the parables of the hidden treasure, the fine pearl, and the dragnet) Jesus spoke before the disciples only.[7] Then Jesus closed by speaking one last parable to His disciples—the parable of the master of the household (Matt. 13:52). The central focus of this section signals judgment. Even Jesus’ use of parables was a judgment on those unwilling to hear.
With that introduction, let’s look at Matthew 13:1-17 under three headings: 1) the popularity of Jesus; 2) the parable He told; and 3) the purpose of parables.[8]
First, I want you to see…
1. The Popularity of Jesus (Matt. 13:1-2)
1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 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. (Matt. 13:1-2)
Notice this—when Jesus shifted to teaching in parables, it was not because people were losing interest. Matthew says that there were “great multitudes” flocking to Jesus on this day. It is a striking scene. Jesus left the house where He had been teaching disciples and He sat down on the beach by the Sea of Galilee. Everywhere Jesus went, people thronged to Him. They were constantly seeking Him. This day is no different. In fact, the crowd is so large on this day that in order for Jesus to be able to teach without interference from the needy crowd, He got into a boat, pushed back from the shore, and sat down to teach from the boat. The shores along the Sea of Galilee slope upward creating an amphitheater effect, and so the people may have been standing or sitting along the banks listening to Jesus as He taught.
So, we see that Jesus didn’t start teaching in parables in order to draw a crowd. The multitudes were already there. Why did they come? Some may have come out of curiosity—no one else did the works Jesus did or spoke in the way He spoke. Some may be there to get something from Jesus—healing, deliverance, food. Jesus will describe these people in Matthew 13:13 saying, “… seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” These people have hearts that are dull, ears that are deaf, and eyes that are blind. Most could care less about the truth. They only wanted to be entertained and gratified.
Therefore, Jesus tells them…
2. The Parable of the Soils (Matt. 13:3-8)
The parable starts in Matthew 13:3 where Jesus said, “Behold, a sower went out to sow.” He described a sight that they would have been very familiar with in their day—that of a farmer walking along, sowing seed for a crop. Next time, we will examine Jesus’ interpretation of this parable in Matthew 13:18-23. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I know that most of us have been taught the meaning of this parable many times. However, today I want you to think about what it was like to hear this story for the first time without an explanation. Listen to it:
… “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 “And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matt. 13:3-8).
It’s a farming story—one that everyone in that agrarian culture would be very familiar with. The sower probably carried a bag of seed slung over his shoulder and reached into it, grabbed a handful of seeds, and scattered them across the field.
The seed fell on four different types of soil. First, some “fell by the wayside” or the walking path where the soil was trampled down. The seed just sat on top of the hardened dirt so “the birds came and devoured them.” It bore no fruit.
Second, some seed “fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth.” Picture a shelf of limestone rock covered by a thin layer of topsoil. The seed germinates and “immediately sprang up” in that warm shallow soil. But because it could not put down deep roots, “when the sun was up they were scorched.” It also bore no fruit.
Third, some seed “fell among thorns.” It also sprouted, but its growth was hindered by the weeds, bushes, and thickets around it—”the thorns sprang up and choked them.” It could not bear fruit either.
Finally, other seed “fell on good ground.” It produced what the farmer was looking for—it “yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” That’s very good soil! The seed produced either thirty, sixty or a hundredfold what was sown.
End of story. And I am sure that everyone listening to this story on that day understood those truths about sowing seeds. They knew the woes of farming. Birds, rocks, the scorching heat, and thorns were perpetual problems for growing crops in that part of the world. They got it. The problem is that for most of the crowd, that is all they got, because Matthew makes it clear that Jesus did not explain the parable to them. All they got was a story about farming.
We know that Jesus meant more by that story—not only because He later explained it to His disciples, but because after the story He exclaims, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 13:9). Obviously, everyone who heard those words had ‘ears’. But not everyone had ‘ears to hear’. Only those with listening ears could really hear the spiritual point that Jesus was making. Not everyone can hear God’s word and take it to heart.
Jesus’ disciples knew there was more to it than just a farming story. Mark and Luke both record that the disciples came and asked Jesus to explain the meaning of the parable (Mark 4:10; Luke 8:9). They knew that Jesus was teaching something significant. Maybe they didn’t yet understand all the details, but they wanted to learn more. They had ears to hear. But did the crowd understand this? Did they have ears to hear? Probably not most of them.
That is the parable. Next, Jesus’ disciples ask Him about…
3. The Purpose of Parables (Matt. 13:10-17)
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” (Matt. 13:10).
Matthew inserts the disciples’ question here in the middle of Jesus’ speaking to the crowds, even though it probably occurred later in private. He does so because, as we will see next time, this first parable will illustrate what Jesus says to His disciples about why He teaches in parables.
Imagine the disciples watching the faces of the people in the crowd. I am sure, as Jesus taught this parable, they saw some perplexed looks on many faces. Jesus is not speaking in a plain, straight-forward way, but rather in parables. As we said, most probably did not get the meaning. Even the disciples weren’t entirely sure they understood His parable either (Marl 4:13; Luke 8:9). But before asking about the meaning of the parable, they ask “Why do You speak to them in parables?” They are wondering, “Why doesn’t He speak to them plainly? Why the parable?” And so, when His teaching was over, they went to Him privately and asked Him about it.
Jesus answers their question in Matthew 13:11-17. And His answer has two parts. The reason Jesus spoke to the people in parables Is to conceal and to reveal.
A. To Conceal (Matt. 13:11-13)
Look at Jesus’ answer:
11He 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. (Matt. 13:11)
Here’s the shocking thing about Jesus’ answer—He actually didn’t intend to be plain in His teaching. He didn’t intend for everyone to hear and understand it. He spoke these mysteries in parables so that they would be revealed only to certain people while remaining mysteries to others! Jesus says, “it has been given to you,”—that is, His disciples who believed in Him—“to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” But, He says, “to them,” meaning the crowds who did not believe, “it has not been given.”
Now, I don’t believe this means that our Lord was refusing to reveal the truth to some who truly wanted the truth. He is not hiding the kingdom of heaven from those who are truly seeking the kingdom. Remember how Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). I believe Jesus gladly reveals the truth of His kingdom to whoever genuinely believes in Him and sincerely desires to understand. In the Gospel of John, when Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king, Jesus replied, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” It is the Lord’s mission to reveal the truth of the kingdom. That, in fact, is why He has commanded us to preach the gospel of the kingdom in His name to the world. He wants people to come to the truth, believe the gospel, and enter the kingdom.
It’s never a matter of whether or not the Lord is willing to reveal the truths of His kingdom to those who sincerely want to hear. Rather, it’s always a matter of whether or not people are willing to hear. Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 13:12,
12 “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.
It almost doesn’t sound fair, does it? Those who have get more, and those who don’t have get less! What is Jesus saying here? I like the way Rory Mosley illustrated it.[9] When our children were young and we had a fellowship meal at church, we would fix their plates for them as they went through the line with us. When a child asked for more of something than we had given them, we would say, “Eat what you have, and then I’ll give you more.” Why? Because kids’ eyes are often bigger than their stomachs, and we didn’t want to waste food.
Jesus is saying something similar. These crowds of people had truth incarnate right in front of them, speaking to them. He had revealed the truth about who He was both by His words and His works. They had a plate full of truth. But until they digested the truth they had, they weren’t getting any more. He says, “For whoever has”—whoever has accepted the truth they’ve been shown—”to him more will be given.” But “whoever does not have”—whoever has not accepted the truth they’ve been shown—”even what he has will be taken away from him.” Jesus didn’t grant them to understand more truth because they hadn’t done anything with the truth they had.
This multitude looked like they were hungry for the truth, but Jesus knew otherwise. And so, He concealed the truth in a farming story about seed and soils. Jesus says in Matthew 13:13, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” They saw the truth but paid no attention to it. They heard the truth but did not listen to it to understand it. Jesus conceals the truth—not because He doesn’t want to reveal it, but because they don’t want to receive it.
This is an act of judgment. Because they will not hear with understanding, Jesus will now speak words that they can’t understand. He confirms them in their stubbornness and hard-heartedness. Jesus speaks in parables to conceal.
Jesus also speaks in parables …
B. To Reveal (Matt. 14-17)
In Matthew 13:14-15, Jesus says,
14“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;15For the hearts of this people have grown dull. 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.’ (Matt. 13:14-15).
This was no surprise that they rejected Jesus and His message of the kingdom. They were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9-10 which Jesus quotes here.
If you remember the context of Isaiah 6, the prophet saw a remarkable vision of the Lord sitting on His heavenly throne, “high and lifted up” (Isa. 6:1-4). It was at this time that the Lord humbled Isaiah, purified his lips, and atoned for his sin. Then Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” (Isa. 6:8). The prophet answered, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah was compelled to go on God’s mission and proclaim God’s message.
Then, the Lord revealed to Isaiah what a difficult mission and unwelcome message it would be. God would send Isaiah to deliver a message that the people did not want to receive—a message that would, in fact, result in judgment on the people who heard it. God told him,
Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed. (Isaiah 6:9-10).
God told Isaiah that his prophetic ministry would result in the people of Israel hearing the truth, but not understanding it or perceiving it. It would only result in them becoming more spiritually dull, deaf, and blind. Isaiah would proclaim God’s message to them until, at last, God’s judgment would finally fall upon them (Isa. 6:11-12). Isaiah’s preaching would condemn the people when they rejected it. It would reveal how blind they were. It would reveal their unhearing ears and their hard hearts. It would render them without excuse.
Now, with the coming of Jesus and the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, this prophecy is also fulfilled in His generation. Jesus spoke the message of the Kingdom of God. And when the people heard it, their souls grew calloused and dull. They became hard of hearing. They shut their eyes. They hardened their hearts.
In the Gospel of John, after Jesus gives sight to the man born blind, He says, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” (John 9:39). This statement troubled the Pharisees who opposed Jesus. So, John writes, “Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”” (John 9:39-41). Jesus spoke in parables not only to conceal more truth from them but to reveal their blindness.
If they were not blind in their sin, they would see the truth about Jesus. If they had ears to hear, they would understand. This is why Jesus’ disciples did understand. Even though these parables mean nothing to many in the crowd, they meant a great deal to the disciples. They knew that the parable was about more than just farming. They wanted to hear more. They may not have initially understood it all, but they understood there was more. And they wanted more. That is why they came and asked Jesus to explain the parable to them.
So, Jesus says to them, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear …” (Matt. 13:16). Jesus’ parables not only reveal the blindness of those who reject Him, but it also reveals the spiritual sight of those who receive Him. After Jesus teaches the parables of the kingdom in this chapter He asks His disciples, “Have you understood all these things?” And they answered Him, “Yes, Lord” (Matt. 13:51).
What they saw in Jesus was such a great blessing that He says, “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.” (Matt. 13:17). These humble disciples saw the Messiah-King that others—even the prophets and righteous men in past generations—had longed to see.
Peter later wrote to his believing Jewish brothers and sisters…
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:10-12).
What a blessing—to have been given such spiritual sight!
How did they get such spiritual sight? Where did they get ears to hear? How did they understand when others did not? It’s certainly not that the disciples were any mentally smarter or morally better than others. These “ignorant” men could understand the truth that the “educated” religious leaders could not grasp! What was the difference?
They saw because they believed. God was showing them grace. As John Newton wrote in his great hymn,
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The Spirit of God reveals the truth of God by grace to those who believe. The disciples had repented of their sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, so it was granted to them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. They saw that Jesus was the Savior, the promised Messiah-King. And because they believed, God allowed them the blessing of seeing more. To them, Jesus explained the parables so they could understand the kingdom of God.
What they did with Jesus determined everything else. Jesus is the Light of the World. When He shines His light on you, it either reveals more truth to you, or it reveals that you are blind. What have you done with Jesus? Have you believed He is the Son of God who was sent by God the Father? Have you believed He died for your sin so that you could be redeemed? Have you believed He has risen from the grave and is alive today?
It is a serious thing to hear the word of God. Hear the truth today–“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Will you receive it, repent and believe it, and be saved?
[3] Hal M. Haller Jr., “The Gospel according to Matthew,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 61.
[4] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 302–303. Carson points out that twenty-eight of thirty-three instances of māšāl in the OT are rendered parabolē [parable] in the LXX (Num 23:7, 18; 1 Sam 10:12; 24:13; Job 27:1; Pss 49:4; 78:2; Prov 1:6; Eccl 12:9; Isa 14:4; Ezek 12:2; 17:2; 24:3; 13; Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6).
Today we were due to start a new section of the Gospel of Matthew. But since on this special Lord’s Day we are observing both baptism and the Lord’s Supper, I thought it would be good to remind ourselves of the meaning and importance of these church ordinances. So, we will wait until next time to begin Matthew 13. While I prefer to preach expositional sermons verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible, sometimes, it is helpful to pull together verses from the scripture that speak to a specific topic to help us get a wider biblical understanding. So, that is what we will briefly do today. I will not be able, in the time we have today, to present a comprehensive study, rather I intend to simply give a quick overview of the ordinances of Baptist and the Lord’s Supper.[i]
Let me begin by making some statements about ordinances. Like most Baptists, we refer to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as “ordinances” because they were especially “ordained” or ordered by Jesus. Other churches will sometimes use the term “sacraments” instead. This term comes from the Latin word sacramentum referring to a rite or oath of allegiance. In the sense that we observe baptism and the Lord’s Supper in allegiance to our Lord Jesus, we could call these events sacraments. But largely due to the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, that term has taken on a different meaning. For them, a sacrament is a rite which, by its very nature conveys the grace of God. In other words, some churches teach that when a person is baptized or takes communion, by that act itself, salvation is imparted and sins are forgiven. We believe the Bible teaches that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith alone. So, to avoid confusion, we don’t usually use the term sacrament.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are symbols, or visual aids of the gospel as they retell the story of redemption. Church ordinances are determined by three factors: they were instituted by Christ, taught by the apostles, and practiced by the early church. And therefore, we are called to observe them today.
Baptism in the Gospels
In the Gospels, baptism begins with John, the prophet God sent to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Mark 1:4 says, “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Baptism was a sign that people repented from their sin. Mark 1:7-8 says, “And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” So, baptism was a sign that people repented and believed in the coming Messiah.
In Mark 1:9-11, Jesus Himself was baptized: “It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”Jesus had no need to repent because He had no sin. Yet, as Matthew records, Jesus was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.” In being baptized, Jesus identified Himself with sinners and with the righteousness He would provide to all who repent and believe. In this way, baptism depicts the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit in the salvation of those Jesus came to save. The Father loves the Son and sends Him into this world to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The Son gives His life on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. The Spirit convicts of sin (John 16:8) and draws the believer to the Father through the Son. All the glorious truth of the mercy of God through Jesus Christ is on display at His baptism.
How did baptism become a lasting ordinance for the church? In Matthew 28:19-20, we see that Jesus commands new disciples to be baptized: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” Simply put, we believe in baptism, and we practice it, because Christ commanded it. Making disciples of all nations includes baptizing them.
The early church in the Book of Acts practices baptism. There are ten accounts of obedience to this ordinance in Acts alone. Let me point out a couple of them.
Baptism in the Book of Acts
In Acts 8, the evangelist Philip preached Jesus to an Ethiopian eunuch. Then Luke records, “Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.”(Acts 8:36-38).
When should I get baptized? As soon as possible after conversion. As in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, it often happened immediately after someone got saved. Remember, baptism is not a mark of spiritual maturity, but rather a statement of personal identification with Jesus Christ. You don’t have to wait until your spiritual life is where you want it to be. It’s an obedience issue, not a maturity issue. Baptism has always been a sign of submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
When Paul preached the gospel in Corinth, Acts 18:8 says, “Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.”
Here’s one overriding truth from how it was practiced in the book of Acts – baptism always takes place after someone believes! This is why we practice “believer’s baptism”. The order is important—believe and be baptized. In the Bible, belief always precedes baptism. So, this is why we do not baptize babies. Without the ingredient of faith, baptism becomes just an empty church ritual. Someone put it this way: “Unless you have already come to faith in Jesus, being baptized does no more than get you wet.”
Someone might ask, “If I was baptized as an infant do I need to be baptized again as a believer?”
Yes. Since baptism is a public statement of your own personal faith in Jesus Christ, then it’s important to make your statement as a believer. Actually, you’re not really being baptized again because when you were sprinkled as a baby it wasn’t biblical baptism. When you are baptized as a believer by immersion, it will be your first baptism.
Meaning and Mode of Baptism
Why do we baptize by immersion in water when some other churches baptize by pouring or sprinkling? First, the primary meaning of the word “baptize” is “to dip, plunge, or immerse.” Interestingly, while there were Greek words for sprinkling or pouring that were available; the writers of Scripture chose the word baptizo, or immersion.
Also, baptism by immersion gives us a picture of the Gospel that other modes do not. In Romans 6, Paul writes,
3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.5For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (Rom. 6:3-5).
Water baptism is a picture of the spiritual reality that occurs at salvation when we believe in Jesus Christ. When we are saved, we are united with Christ. By faith, we have died with Him and been raised to a new life with Him. As you stand in the water waiting to be baptized, you symbolize Jesus dying on the cross. As you are lowered into the water, you’re providing a visual demonstration that Jesus was buried in the tomb. As you come out of the water, you’re picturing Jesus rising from the dead. And you are declaring that Jesus has done that spiritual work in you. I have died with Christ to sin, my old life has been buried, I am raised to a new life with Christ.
If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, have you followed Him in baptism?
The second ordinance of the church is…
The Lord’s Supper
In Exodus 12 we learn about the roots of Passover. The head of the family was to take a lamb without blemish and slaughter it at twilight and then the blood was to be put on the sides and tops of the doorframes. That same night they were to roast the lambs, and gather bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They were to eat in haste and be ready to travel because God was going to judge the Egyptians by killing their firstborn. Only those who were under the blood of the lamb would be “passed over.”
After being freed from the Egyptians, God’s people enjoyed a covenantal relationship with the Almighty for hundreds of years. As you read their history however, you quickly discover that they disobeyed and ruptured their relationship with Him time and again. When we come to the prophet Jeremiah we discover that God promised a new covenant: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).
The night before Jesus was crucified He had a final Passover meal with His closest followers.
Luke 22:14-16 says, “When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”” Jesus was set on celebrating this supper because He knew the meaning behind this final meal.
During this Passover meal, Jesus changed the ritual that the Jews had always done because Jesus Himself was the fulfillment of the Passover. So Matthew 26 records,
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Matt. 26:26-29).
The Savior is saying that this bread is a symbol for His body that was about to be broken for them on the cross. The cup represents His blood, His death, which would inaugurate the new covenant.
In the early church in Acts, we find that the church practiced the Lord’s Supper, calling it, “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42; 20:7; cf. 1 Cor. 10:16). It was always practiced in a church community as they gathered for worship and instruction, not individually. As far as we know, this memorial meal was celebrated with dignity and decorum, until we get to the chaotic and confused church in Corinth. Because of their abuses (1 Cor. 11:17-22), Paul finds it necessary to correct the Corinthian church concerning the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. In doing so, Paul gives us some timeless principles for observing the Lord’s Supper.
We observe the Lord’s Supper …
1. To Remember – “Look Back” (1 Cor. 11:23-25).
Paul received these instructions from Jesus Himself: “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” (1 Cor. 11:23-25). Twice in this passage we’re told to remember what Jesus did for us. The Lord’s Supper is a reminder of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ died for our sins. The bread and the cup are tangible representations of a deep spiritual reality.
When we take the Lord’s Supper, let’s pause and remember what Jesus did for us.
Also we observe the Lord’s Supper…
2. To Rejoice – “Look Forward” (1 Cor. 11:26).
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” Not only do we look back and remember His cross, but we also look forward and proclaim His crown. To “proclaim” means, “to announce publicly, to declare, publish, and perpetuate.” The bread and the cup tell the story of redemption and look ahead to the culmination of history. Jesus said He would “drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29). We eat and drink now in anticipation of a glorious heavenly banquet to come.
When we take the Lord’s Supper, let’s pause and rejoice that Jesus is coming again.
And then, we observe the Lord’s Supper …
3. To Repent – “Look Within” (1 Cor. 11:27-28).
“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” Once we remember by looking back, and rejoice by looking forward, we can’t help but look inside and see our need to repent. Paul is cautioning us about approaching the Lord’s Table in a trite manner. Take time before coming to the Lord’s Table to examine your attitudes, actions, and your affections. Pause and repent of those sins the Lord shows you.
Finally, we observe the Lord’s Supper…
4. To Reconcile – “Look Around” (1 Cor. 11:29-34).
The Corinthians were not showing love to one another in their observance of the Lord’s Supper. They were split into factions (1 Cor. 11:18). They did not wait to eat together and had no concern for others who had nothing (1 Cor. 11:21-22). Listen, the Lord’s Supper is a time for community in the body of Christ. We need to make sure we’re living in unity with each other. Jesus has made us one, so we need to act accordingly. 1 Corinthians 10:17 says, “For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
Is there anyone you need to ask forgiveness from? Anyone you need to extend forgiveness to?
In the Bible, dining together signifies two things: appropriation and participation. By eating the bread and drinking from the cup we’re saying that we have received redemption and we’re declaring that we are in community with one another and with the Lord.
Conclusion
When our church practices the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, we obey the command of Jesus, and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. What a gift from our Lord these precious ordinances are for us!
In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the characters says, “you can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family.”[1] Think about it. How would your life change if you could pick your family? What if you could have chosen your father and mother and decided how many brothers and sisters you would have and who they would be?
It’s obviously just a fanciful question. We have no choice in our blood ties. As that quote from Lee’s novel continues, “… they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not.” But spiritually, we can become a part of a new family—the family of God. Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, has a family that He considers more important to Him than any other earthly relationship—even more important to Him than His natural family. And this passage in Matthew 12 shows us that you and I may be a part of that wonderful heavenly family also.
Consider the context of this morning’s passage. Matthew’s Gospel uniquely focuses on presenting Jesus as the Messiah-King. In Matthew 12, although Jesus has done many miraculous signs, taught the word of God, and preached the Kingdom of Heaven, opposition to Him is mounting. The religious leaders accused Jesus and His disciples of breaking the Sabbath laws because they did not follow the traditions of the Pharisees. Jesus claimed to be “Lord of the Sabbath,” and after He healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath in their synagogue, they plotted to destroy Him.
They also opposed Jesus’ spiritual authority, accusing Him of casting out demons by the power of the devil. The unbelieving scribes demanded that Jesus give them a sign, but He refused, and instead, he pointed them to the future sign of His resurrection and warned them of God’s judgment because they would not repent.
Then we come to today’s passage at the end of Matthew 12. Here, we see a contrast between Jesus’ physical or natural family and His spiritual family.
First we see …
1. Jesus’ physical family (Matt. 12:46-47)
Matthew 12:46 begins, “While He was still talking to the multitudesbehold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him.” Jesus was in the middle of teaching the multitudes of people when His family arrived. The “multitudes” were those people that Matthew mentioned back in Matthew 12:23—the people who were amazed when Jesus healed a demon-possessed blind and mute man so he could both see and speak. They said, “Could this be the Son of David?”—which was another way of asking, “This Couldn’t be the long-awaited Messiah and King could it?” The amazed crowd incited the Pharisees to further oppose and even blaspheme Jesus. Now, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ family appears wanting to speak with Him.
We only know a little about Jesus’ earthly family. Of course, both Matthew and Luke tell us a few things about His mother Mary and His adopted father Joseph in their birth narratives. Besides the birth narratives, the one reliable story we have from Jesus’ childhood is told by Luke. When our Lord was twelve years old, He accompanied Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Passover. When the feast days were over, Mary and Joseph went with the throng of relatives and acquaintances on their way home—supposing that Jesus was also with them in the crowd returning to Galilee. But when they searched for Him along the way, they couldn’t find Him.
So, they returned to Jerusalem to look for Jesus. And after three days, they found Him, sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers of Israel, listening to them, asking questions, and astounding them all with His understanding and answers. His parents were amazed, and Mary said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously” (Luke 2:48). To which Jesus answered, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).
Jesus spoke about His heavenly Father, whose business was in the Temple and revealed in the scriptures. Jesus felt compelled to “be about” His Father’s business. And that is why Jesus went about teaching the multitudes, preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out demons. Jesus has a heavenly Father and a kingdom family that takes priority over even His earthly family.
The Bible makes it clear that, after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had other sons and daughters. We even know some of their names. In Matthew 13, we’re told that the people from His own hometown of Nazareth were amazed at His wisdom and mighty works, and said of Him, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?” (Matt. 13:55-56).
Yet, even though these half brothers and sisters of Jesus had been raised in the same home as Him, we’re told that as adults, His own brothers did not believe in Him. In John 7, Jesus indicated that He was not yet going up to Jerusalem to the Feast of Tabernacles. He stayed in Galilee “because the Jews sought to kill Him” (John 7:1), saying “My time has not yet come” (John 7:6). John tells us Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world” (John 7:3-4). And John comments, “For even His brothers did not believe in Him” (John 7:5).
Eventually, after His resurrection, His brothers did come to believe in Him. We find them in Acts 1 with the apostles and Mary, praying with one accord. The Lord’s half-brother James became an important leader of the church in Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18-19; Acts 15), and later wrote the New Testament epistle of James. And it has also been the tradition of the church from its earliest days that the New Testament book of Jude was written by the half-brother of our Lord named Judas, who, in His writing, humbly called himself “a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” (Jude 1). But during the time of His earthly ministry, our Lord’s brothers—including even these two great leaders of the early church—did not believe on Him.[2]
Matthew 12:47 says, “Then one said to Him, ‘Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.’” The parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark tells us why they came. Mark says, “Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”” (Mark 3:20-21). Luke tells us they “could not approach Him because of the crowd” (Luke 8:19). That is why they “stood outside” (Matt. 12:46) and had someone else tell Jesus that they were there.
Clearly, they wanted to “speak to Him” because they were alarmed by the crowds and concerned for His wellbeing. Did they expect Jesus to stop whatever work of the kingdom it was that He was doing, put them first, and come out as soon as He heard that they were waiting for Him? Did they come to talk Him into coming home with them and putting a pause on His ministry work? Even the members of His own earthly family didn’t understand Him.
How many of us have family members that don’t yet understand Jesus? How does it affect your relationships with them because Jesus is your Lord? Do some in your family disapprove or even oppose your faith in Jesus? It should not surprise us when that happens. In Matthew 10, Jesus told His disciples,
21“Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. … 34 Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:21-22, 34-37)
Jesus teaches that our commitment to Him is to be greater than any other commitment on earth. It must even exceed our natural commitment to our physical, earthly family members. If our family makes us choose between them and Jesus, we must always choose Jesus first. He must have first place in our heart’s devotion. And Jesus models that attitude for us here. I believe Jesus loved His earthly family. He honored His earthly mother and father. In fact, I believe that the full depth of Jesus’ love for His family is shown in that Mary and His brothers eventually became His followers and were saved by Him. But Jesus placed His own earthly family behind His commitment to His spiritual family.
So we have seen Jesus’ physical family. Now let’s consider …
2. Jesus’ spiritual family (Matt. 12:48-50)
How does Jesus respond to hearing that His family is asking to speak to Him? First, He asked a …
a. Question: Who is My family?
Matthew 12:48 says, “But He answered and said to the one who had told him, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’” By asking this question, Jesus draws attention to the conflict that can arise between family and mission. Jesus is teaching the multitudes. He is on mission, and He refuses to be interrupted. The mission comes first. The Kingdom of God comes first. Yes, His family has a claim on Him as family, but His heavenly Father and the kingdom of God have a greater claim.[3]
As much as He loved His earthly family over whom Joseph had been the head, that family took second place to His spiritual family over whom His heavenly Father was head. Who is Jesus’ family? Clearly, it wasn’t those who were outside—those who didn’t believe on Him, or who would try to dissuade Him from His mission.
One of the things that this teaches us is that the Kingdom of Heaven is not gained through blood ties. If you think you will make it to heaven because some relative of yours is a fine Christian, then think again. The Jewish leaders of that time thought they merited heaven simply because they were blood descendants of Abraham. They were wrong. And even Jesus’ own blood relatives are not part of His spiritual family until they come to Him personally and place their faith and trust in Him as the Messiah. A relationship with Jesus is not determined by the family you are born into. A relationship with Jesus is determined being born again into the family of God. John writes, “11He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:13who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13).
b. Declaration: Behold My family!
Matthew 12:49 tells us, “And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples”—that is, to the crowds of people that were, right then, listening to Him as He taught and were believing on Him—“and said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers!’” Jesus identified Himself with a spiritual family that was more precious to Him, closer to Him, of a higher priority to Him, than even His own earthly mother and brothers. He treats them in every way as “family”, and awards them all the rights and privileges that come from being members of His Father’s household.
Being a part of God’s family has nothing to do with your physical birth. It has everything to do with faith in Jesus and obedience to God’s word. Hebrews 2:11 says this: “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Jesus redefines the family of God around Himself. He is not ashamed to call us brothers. Jesus welcomes us into His family when we put our faith in Him.
Jesus’ real family was not simply those who were members of His physical household. Nor was it those who would have considered themselves “related” to the Messiah simply because they were Jewish. Rather, His “family” was those people who were, even right then, sitting before Him with receptive hearts, and listening to His teaching, and believing on Him.
In Matthew 12:50, Jesus gives us the …
c. Explanation: Whoever does My Father’s will.
What does it look like to be in Jesus’ family? He says, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Mat 12:50). Jesus’ real family is “whoever does the will of My Father in heaven.” In the parallel passage in Luke 8:21, Jesus says, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”
This concept of doing the will of the Father or doing the word of God is not new in Matthew. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). And then, as if to answer the question of what the will of His Father was, Jesus went on to say, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:22-23). So, we see that the will of the Father is not a matter of doing all great and marvelous things ‘in Jesus’ name’, but rather, it is being known by Jesus personally. It is being in a relationship with Him by faith.
In the Gospel of John, some of the people who heard Jesus teach asked Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” So, Jesus answered and said, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He sent” (John 6:28-29). So, what is the will of Jesus’ Father in heaven? It is simply this: that you would believe in Jesus His Son! What does it mean to do God’s will? It means to repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
We do not work our way into a relationship with God. No amount of good works will merit us salvation or a place in the kingdom of heaven. The Bible is clear that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8). It is not by our good works (Eph. 2:9). Doing good works on the outside cannot change an evil heart on the inside. The Pharisees were proof of that. Outward morality is not what Jesus wants, He wants inward righteousness. Even being close to Jesus physically was not enough. Jesus’ family was proof of that. You must believe in Him. Even being one of Jesus’ followers was not enough. Judas Iscariot was proof of that. He was one of the twelve, but he did not believe.
You must repent and believe in Jesus to be in His family. Whoever hears the truth about Jesus, and puts their faith in His sacrifice on the cross for their sin and His resurrection as Lord, has entered into a saving relationship with Jesus. Whoever believes like that loves and trust Jesus so much that they walk in the way that He commands them to walk. By faith, they are obedient to His commandments. The apostle John writes,
1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1Jo 5:1-5 NKJV)
Whoever believes is doing the will of the Father. And whoever does the will of the Father is a member of Jesus’ family—His brother and sister and mother. Like Jesus, our spiritual ties in the family of God are more important than the blood ties of our physical family here on earth. They say, “Blood is thicker than water,” but the Spirit is thicker than blood. Your physical family is for this life only, but your spiritual family is for all of eternity.
Jesus redefines the family around Himself. And part of following Jesus means finding your place in the family of God. If you have not yet believed in Jesus Christ, come today. He gave the invitation, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). Repent of your sin and believe in Jesus. He will forgive your sin and make you a child of God.
And if you have been saved, but have not yet united with the family of God in His church, I invite you to do that today. Church is a family, and therefore we should function as a family. That means church should be a place of love, forgiveness and acceptance. Church is a place where every believer belongs, where each member has a purpose to fulfill, love to share, encouragement to give, gifts to exercise, and service to do. Church is a microcosm of the family of God in heaven. We sing a song in our church every communion Sunday:
Blest be the ties that bind
Our hearts in Christian love
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.
Listen again to that complete quote from To Kill a Mockingbird: “You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.” The Bible says whoever loves God loves His family also. Do you?
Would you come to Jesus and unite with His family today?
In Matthew 12, we are in a narrative section of Matthew that focuses on mission and conflict.[1] As Jesus and His disciples go about the mission of preaching the kingdom of God, conflict arises and intensifies with the religious leaders of the Pharisees and scribes. At the beginning of Matthew 12, the Pharisees were provoked because Jesus and His disciples did not follow their Sabbath traditions. When Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath in their Synagogue, the Pharisees were so enraged that they began to plot with their rivals, the Herodians, to murder Jesus (Matt. 12:14).
Then, when Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute so that the man could speak and see, the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, responded by disproving their ridiculous and blasphemous accusation, and by warning them that they were demonstrating themselves to be evil men who speak from evil hearts. Jesus warned them against blaspheming the Holy Spirit and committing the unpardonable sin. This warning troubled them, but they were still not convinced that He was the Messiah—far from it. So, in this next section, they demanded a sign from Jesus. In return, Jesus rebukes them for asking for a sign instead of believing, assesses their spiritual condition, and warns them of judgment.
Have you ever asked God for a sign? If you have, you’re not alone. In the Bible, God sometimes gave signs to both believers and unbelievers. To Noah, God said, “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” (Gen. 9:13). At the burning bush, God said to Moses, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” (Exo. 3:12). Gideon asked for a sign that God would use him to save Israel by laying out a fleece of wool and asking that it be wet or dry. And God graciously gave him what he asked (Judges 6:36-40).
God actually told unbelieving King Ahaz, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” (Isa 7:11). When he refused, God Himself gave the sign of Immanuel in the virgin’s birth (Isa. 7:14).
And of course, Jesus did work signs. His miracles were signs of who He is. Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, says, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.” Even His enemies could not deny that Jesus did miraculous signs. In John’s Gospel, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.” (John 11:47). In the next chapter John writes, “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,” (John 12:37).
We see from the scriptures that signs from God can be good things. But they are no guarantee of faith. Faith is believing what God has said not seeing what God has done. The person who believes what God says is one who trusts the very nature and ability of God. The skeptic is uncertain whether God will or God can do something—and so he asks for a sign. In the case of the scribes and Pharisees, they asked for a sign, not because they wanted to believe in Jesus, but because they were determined to disprove and reject Jesus.
First, we see that…
1. They ask a sign from Jesus (Matt. 12:38)
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” (Matt. 12:38).
Think about when they said this. Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man who was blind and mute, so the man could see and speak. And they ask Jesus for a miraculous sign? Since no previous signs had been enough to convince them, they are apparently asking for something more spectacular than what they had seen.[2] So they ask to see a sign, presumably a miracle performed just for them, something that would amaze them while presenting irrefutable evidence that His claims were true (cf. John 6:30). In Luke’s parallel account, he writes, “Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.” (Luke 11:16). They demanded something that required no faith but just sight. What did they want? – “that the heavens be moved, the clouds made to gyrate, sun, moon, and stars to perform antics, visions to be painted in the sky with unearthly colors, angel hosts to parade down the milky way?”[3]
Doesn’t their attitude sound a lot like what the devil said when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4? Satan said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” (Matt. 4:3). And again, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” (Matt. 4:6). The scribes and Pharisees were also daring Jesus to do a sign on demand for them. But they had no more intention of believing in Jesus than the devil did. It would do no good to give such a sign. Lenski writes, “Suppose for a moment that Jesus had met this demand…” Such a sign would “… meet no spiritual need, point to no deliverance from sin, have no affinity with saving faith…”[4] Even if Jesus did some sign in the heavens, they would soon be asking for more. It would only further fuel their unbelief and rejection of Jesus because their attitude came from an evil heart.
Look at how Jesus answers their request.
2. He announces the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-40)
Matthew 12:39 says, “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’” Jesus exposed the evil hearts of these scribes and Pharisees. Their craving for a sign only indicated that they did not trust God as they claimed.
They were “an evil and adulterous generation.” Earlier generations of the children of Israel had been declared adulterous because of their worship of the false gods of Baal, Molech, and Asherah. They had been unfaithful to God. Although this generation had abandoned the Canaanite gods, they were still unfaithful. Instead of following God, they placed their hope and trust in the idol of man-made religious tradition. They were spiritual adulterers.
So, Jesus refuses to give them the sign they are demanding. Jesus did not perform signs like magic tricks just to entertain the stubborn-hearted. He said, “no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” They would not get the convincing sign they demanded, but God would give a confirming sign. Jesus was telling them that they would have one more opportunity to believe—the sign of His resurrection would prove who He is and what His life and death were all about. They had rejected every other sign that Jesus had given them, so there was one more, but they would have to wait for it.
Jesus calls it “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” If you remember, Jonah was a prophet of Israel who was appointed by God to go to Nineveh, the capital of Israel’s enemies, the Assyrians, and warn them of God’s coming judgment. Jonah did not want to go. The Assyrians were a wicked and violent nation, and nothing would have pleased Jonah more than to have God destroy them. So, Jonah got on a ship heading in the opposite direction. God caused a severe storm to arise and eventually, Jonah is tossed overboard. God saves Jonah from drowning by preparing a great fish to swallow the prophet. After three days and nights in the belly of this sea monster, it spits him out on the land. Jonah then goes to Nineveh and completes what God told him to do in the first place.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus explains what He means by “the sign of Jonah”, saying, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” This was a prediction of Jesus’ coming death, burial, and resurrection. That would be the sign God would give.
No miracle Jesus worked proved Him to be the Messiah more than His resurrection from the grave. Paul writes in Romans 1:4 that Jesus was, “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection proved Jesus is the Son of God.
Would they look for it and heed it? Sadly, No. Jesus said in His story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:31, that “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” God’s word is sufficient. God’s word is enough. If you don’t believe God’s word, then even if someone rises from the dead, you’re not going to believe. And looking at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, that is exactly what happened. When the guards came and reported the empty tomb, the angels, and all that happened, the religious leaders paid them to spread a lie that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body while the guards slept. Even the resurrection wouldn’t work to prove who Jesus was to them. It would only confirm them in their evil unbelief.
Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead would be the sign given to them – but they would reject that too and it would be part of the judgment against them. Jesus now explains how certain their judgment would be because of their hardness of heart to see and respond to what has already been given to them.
3. He assures them of judgment (Matt. 12:41-42)
Jesus says, “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.” (Matt. 12:41-42).
Jesus has just spoken about the sign of Jonah, and now he draws another lesson from Jonah’s life. The people of Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching. We read about this incident in Jonah 3. The Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah obeyed God and went to Nineveh to proclaim the word of the Lord. Jonah 3:4 says, “And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’” Jonah just preached God’s judgment. He didn’t tell them why they would be destroyed or even call them to repent. And Jonah certainly did not prove his prophecy with signs and wonders. Yet, Nineveh repented. The Gentile, pagan people of Nineveh repented at the reluctant preaching of Jonah.
Now, this generation has the Messiah in their midst–“a greater than Jonah is here.” Infinitely greater! The Son of God has preached the gospel of the kingdom, taught the word of God, and demonstrated His authority by signs and wonders. He has called them to repent. But unlike Nineveh, they would not repent.
The Queen of the South is the Queen of Sheba mentioned in 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-9. She was from the country of the Sabeans located in lower Arabia some 1,200 miles southeast of Israel. At that time considered the “ends of the earth.” She, like the Ninevites, responded to what little she heard. She heard reports of the fame of King Solomon concerning the name of the LORD (1 Kings 10:1). She had no invitation, but she wanted to hear His wisdom. So, she made a long journey carrying gold, jewels, and spices as gifts for Solomon. All she had was a second-hand report. And the report didn’t even do justice to the truth, but she came.
The Queen of Sheba’s lavish respect for Solomon stood in stark contrast to Israel’s flat-out rejection of Christ. Yet Christ is greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42). Solomon was a son of David, but Jesus is the Son of David who is also the Son of God. Solomon was rich, but Jesus is the Creator of all riches. Solomon possessed the gift of wisdom, but Jesus is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (Col. 1:24). Solomon built a temple for God, but Jesus is the temple of God (John 2:21).
Jesus warns the Pharisees that the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba will both condemn them at the day of judgment. Why? Because Jesus is greater than either Jonah or Solomon. Nineveh repented, the Queen heard, came, and praised God. This evil and adulterous generation would do neither.
Finally, In Matthew 12:43-45 Jesus describes the judgment that would come upon them because of their neglect to repent and believe.
4. He alerts them to the danger of empty religion (Matt. 12:43-45)
Jesus illustrates His warning to the scribes and Pharisees for their refusal to repent and believe in Him. He uses a rather disturbing illustration of an evil spirit who returns and finds his former home empty. Listen to it:
43“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.45Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” (Matt. 12:43-45)
First, let me say that Jesus is not teaching a course on demonology in this passage.[5] Jesus is not giving any teaching about demons here other than that they can inhabit a man, go out of the man, and then return later with more demons. He does not tell us why the demon left. Nothing explains what the “dry places” are or why the demon is wandering around in them. We can discern that it is not the kind of place the demon wants to be because the demon wants to go back to the man he had inhabited before. Let’s not get lost in trying to figure out the demon. Remember the context. Why did Jesus tell this story? His conclusion is, “So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” Jesus’ purpose in telling this illustration is to point out the judgment that would come upon that generation. They would end up in a worse condition than what they had started out in.
Remember the history of the Jewish people. In the centuries that preceded Jesus’ coming, the Jewish people had fallen into the sin of idolatry. They worshiped the false gods of the pagan nations around them. As a result, just as He had warned through the prophets, God cast His people out of their land and sent them into exile in Babylon for seventy years.
After the exile, again, just as God promised, God restored them to their own land. Historically, they never again fell into the sin of idolatry as they had before the exile. They had, you might say, “cleaned up their act” they “swept” and “put it order” their lives and their nation. They reformed.
But by the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry, their religion had all become a merely external ‘moral reform’. They had developed, and had carefully articulated, all the “do’s” and “don’t’s” of the law. They built up traditions that took the place of the word of God. They prided themselves on their strict obedience to their traditions. But it was not a matter of the heart. It was not a matter of “relationship” with the living God. They had drawn near with their mouths, and honored God with their lips; but their hearts were far from Him (Matthew 15:8). They were “empty, swept, and put in order,” but far from God.
Think about the remarkable times in which these Jewish people lived! They heard the preaching of John the Baptist as he pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Son of God walked among them. They beheld His miracles and heard His teaching. And yet, they rejected Him. They saw Him work miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit, and yet they dared to accuse Him of working in the power of the devil.
They were morally upright but spiritually empty. You see, it’s not enough to be empty. You need to be filled. It’s not enough to be empty of evil or wickedness. You need to be filled with Christ’s righteousness. It’s not enough to hear the gospel. You need to respond to the gospel. What good does it do you to get your life together, if you don’t give your life to Christ?
Those who hear the gospel and reject Christ are worse off than they were before. The apostle Peter describes such people in this way:
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:20-22).
You need to respond to the gospel. It’s not enough to be empty; you need to be filled. Just like the man with the evil spirit, those who hear the gospel and reject Christ are worse off than they were before. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).
It should also serve as a warning to us in our daily duty of presenting Christ to the lost people of this world—to our family members, our friends, our workmates, and our neighbors. Our goal is not to simply help the people around us to live “better lives”. That’s certainly a good thing in the right context; but if that alone is all that happens, then it’s a dreadfully bad thing! If that’s all we do—if all that we do is help them live moral lives, but do not help them trust in Jesus Christ as Lord in their hearts—then all we’ve done is, as our Savior has put it, made them “empty, swept, and put in order” . . . and also dangerously open and vulnerable to even worse evil.
If you have never responded to the gospel, what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a sign? God already gave you the best sign he could ever give. Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and he rose again on the third day, triumphant over sin and death and the grave. He offers you new life through the Spirit, forgiveness of sins in the present, and eternal life with him when you die.
Are you seeking signs from Christ? Or are you seeking Jesus Himself? Don’t leave today, whether believer or non-believer, until you can leave knowing that your life is right with God.
[2] Hal M. Haller Jr., “The Gospel according to Matthew,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 59.
The Bible has much to say about our words. The book of Proverbs repeatedly warns us about the dangers of our tongues. For instance, “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.” (Pro. 10:19). One man said, “As you go through life you are going to have many opportunities to keep your mouth shut. Take advantage of all of them.”[1] Proverbs 12:19 says, “The truthful lip shall be established forever, But a lying tongue is but for a moment.” Proverbs 21:23 says, “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles.” And Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
In the New Testament, James also warns of the destructive power of the tongue, calling it “a fire, a world of iniquity” (James 3:6). He says, “… no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).
Yet, the real problem lies not in our words or the tongue that speaks them. The real problem is the evil heart that lies beneath the evil words because everything that springs forth from our mouths comes from what is in our hearts. Our words indicate the condition of our hearts. Jesus will teach His disciples in Matthew 15,
18 “… those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.20These are the things which defile a man …” (Mat 15:18-20 NKJV)
If you want to check the oil in your car, you pull the dip-stick, because that is the gauge that reveals how much oil your engine has. If you want to check the spiritual condition of your heart, where do you look? Your mouth. When a man opens his mouth and sinful things come out, this reveals him to be a sinner from the heart.
James writes, “11Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?12Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.” (James 3:11-12). The mouth is the bucket that draws from the well of the heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.”
The context of Matthew 12 demonstrates this principle for us today. The Pharisees had just thrown a blasphemous accusation at Jesus. The Lord had mercifully cast a demon out of a blind and mute man so that he was healed and could now see and speak (Matt. 12:22). Those who saw it were astonished; and asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matt. 12:23). But the Pharisees said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (Matt. 12:24). In other words, they saw the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated through Jesus doing the works of the Messiah. And yet, their hearts were so hardened against Him that they attributed His power to cast out demons to the devil himself.
As we saw last time, it wasn’t that the Pharisees merely misunderstood Him. It was because they hated Him and resisted the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Him. When they made this blasphemous accusation against Him, they revealed the profoundly hardened, evil condition of their hearts. Jesus warned them that they were in danger of committing an unpardonable sin—blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Words matter because they have a source. The source is the heart.
That brings us to our text today in Matthew 12:33-37 where we see a threefold progression: 1) Your fruit displays the character of your life (Matt. 12:33); 2) Your words display the condition of your heart (Matt. 12:34-35); and 3) Your heart determines the verdict of your soul (Matt. 12:36-37).
First, Jesus teaches …
1. Your fruit displays the character of your life (Matt. 12:33)
In Matthew 12:33, Jesus says, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.” Jesus used this same metaphor of a tree and its fruit in Matthew 7 to refer to the works of false prophets who were wolves in sheep’s clothing. Now Jesus applies this principle in proverbial style to words. This brief parable has a very simple message. If a tree is good, the fruit is good. If a tree is bad, the fruit is bad.
How does this principle apply in the context of Matthew 12? First, it applies to what the Pharisees were saying about Jesus. Everyone, including the Pharisees, saw Jesus do good. He healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, set demoniacs free, and preached righteousness. No one would say that fruit was evil. Not even the Pharisees could deny the good works and words of Jesus.
The Pharisees were saying that Jesus’ fruit was good but the tree is bad. They were making Jesus out to be evil at the root, but good in the fruit. They knew sickness, disease, demonic possession, and sin came from Satan. They knew healing, casting out demons, and forgiveness came from God. So, if good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit, then how can you conclude that Jesus is an emissary of Satan?
So Jesus tells them to drop the double standard. If they make the tree out to be bad, then they would have to say the fruit is bad also. If they look at the fruit and say it’s good, then they have to admit that the tree is good also.
Jesus is calling them to a decision. “Either say that, in casting out demons, I do evil and am evil at the root; or say that, in casting out demons, I do the work of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, and I am of God!”
Jesus is calling all of us to make a decision about Him as well. Will we receive Jesus for who the Spirit shows Him to be? Or will we try to ride the fence and say that Jesus did good, but He was not who the Spirit was showing Him to be. If Jesus’ fruit is good, He must be good. He must be the Christ, the Son of God.
A second application of this verse is that it our fruit also reveals the good or evil in our hearts. Jesus goes on to reveal what sort of tree the Pharisees were proving themselves to be by their words.
So we see first, your fruit displays the character of your life and …
2. Your words display the condition of your heart (Matt. 12:34-35)
The Pharisees were making an evaluation. They were seeing the good things that our Lord did, and they were saying something evil about it. They refused to say that Jesus was the Christ from God. Even though it was obvious, they still wouldn’t admit it. So in Matthew 12:34 Jesus reveals why. They have an evil heart. He says, “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt. 12:34).
He calls them “Brood of vipers!” or, “O generation of vipers . . .” (KJV). A viper is a particularly deadly and venomous snake. When Jesus calls them “vipers”, He highlights their deadly and dangerous character.
Think about the dangerous words that came out of their mouths at that time. Jesus performed good works—miracles done in the power of the Holy Spirit—and many of the people were beginning to believe on Him. But the Pharisees—who were jealous of Him and had already committed themselves to killing Him (Matt. 12:14)—they dared to attribute His miracles to the devil in an effort to dissuade people from believing on Jesus. The Pharisees had the outward appearance of being holy and pious, like poisonous snakes that look beautiful to the eye, but are deceivingly deadly.
The word translated as “brood” or “generation” means “offspring”, speaking both of their evil character and their evil source. They are “offspring of vipers”—vipers who come from a family of vipers! It’s the same description that John the Baptist used, saying, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). Jesus would later say to them in Matthew 23,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt” (Matt. 23:29-32).
They were the sons of those who killed the prophets. And now they were plotting to kill the One those prophets prophesied about! They truly were a “brood of vipers”. The Pharisees wouldn’t confess Christ because they had a wicked carnal heart that was not capable of doing so.
The Pharisees said what they said about Jesus because they were evil at heart. What came out of their mouths was simply drawn up from the well sin that was in them. Thus, Jesus says, “How can you, being evil, speak good things?” (Matt. 12:34). They could not speak anything else but evil. It was impossible for them to do otherwise, “For out of the abundanceof the heart the mouth speaks.” The mouth overflows with what is in the heart.
Jesus then illustrates this principle in Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” A mouth that speaks cursing and bitterness is from a heart that is bitter and full of cursing. A mouth that speaks hatred or gossip is from a heart that is full of hatred and gossip. A lying tongue is from a deceptive heart. If your mind and heart are full of murder, sooner or later, that will come out of your mouth in hateful murderous words.
But words that bless and love and encourage come from a loving heart. Hopeful words come from a hopeful heart. Kind words come from a kind heart. If your mind and heart are full of grace, sooner or later, gracious words will come from your mouth.
It’s wise to ask yourself; “When I get rattled and shaken deep within, what is it that comes spilling out? When I’m in a time of trial and testing and pressure deep in my inner being, what comes out of my mouth? When good things happen to others instead of me, what do I say?” If someone walked along behind you and listened to your words, what kind of tree would you prove to be? What kind of heart does your mouth reveal to be within you? What kind of treasure is deep within?
This is why the Pharisees said what they did. They had a heart problem. And this is still the main problem of humanity. Man’s problem is not bad influences, bad parents, or ignorance. Man’s problem is an evil heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
The only possible way for anyone to confess Christ is to have his or her heart redeemed. If the heart isn’t right, the confession won’t be either. Listen to what Paul writes about salvation:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Rom. 10:9-10).
A person first believes in their heart, and then the confession comes out of their mouth. The point is that the heart must change. And only God can do that. It is a work of His Holy Spirit when He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). It is the work of the Holy Spirit causing you to repent of sin and turn to the Savior. It is the work of Father drawing you to Christ when you hear the gospel that Jesus died for your sins and was raised for your justification.
The Pharisees needed to acknowledge that their hearts were sinful and to turn in repentance and faith to the Savior, Jesus Christ. They needed a new heart.
And that is important for us today because …
3. Your heart determines the verdict of your soul (Matt. 12:36-37)
Jesus says, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36-37).
The word translated “idle” means “lazy, useless, or unprofitable”. Some translations (NASB and ESV for example) translate it “every careless word”. This is a careless or thoughtless utterance that we might excuse by saying, “Oh; I didn’t mean what I said. I was just kidding anyway. Don’t take things so seriously.”
Jesus warns us that He takes such “careless” or “idle” words very seriously. And there’s a good reason why. Such words tend to indicate what’s in our hearts more truthfully than a carefully thought-out and prepared set of words ever could.
You see, we can control our mouths at least part of the time, but eventually what is in the heart will come out of the mouth. And when it does, we can’t claim that it was just “careless” words, just idle talk. For even the careless words have weight and will be judged. If even careless words will be brought forward for judgment, how much more the deliberate, wrongful, hurtful words we have spoken.
Our words prove what is in our hearts. Based upon that truth, the Pharisees stood condemned. Their words were wicked because their heart was wicked. And Jesus lets them know that based upon their words, their judgment is both certain and just.
This is why Jesus then says, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned”. He who will judge our words will also prove to be the One who knows the true condition of our hearts. And it will be our words that will, on judgment day, stand as the evidence of the true nature of our hearts.
Let’s be brutally honest with ourselves and with God about this. If the pattern my speech is evil, then it reveals an evil heart. The mouth pulls up nothing from the well except what’s truly there.
So first, let’s be very sure we have trusted Jesus as our Savior and have been washed of our sins. The point of this passage is not merely that we try to clean up our dirty mouths. That should happen, but that’s not what needs to happen first. If the well itself is dirty, it doesn’t do any good to clean the bucket that draws out the water. And if the heart itself is still evil, it doesn’t do any good to try to merely clean up the mouth.
If we come to Christ—confessing that we are sinners who need to be saved, repenting, and placing our trust in the cleansing power of His blood—then He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Let’s be sure that we have first trusted in Him; and then, our heart—the wellspring of our words—will be clean.
This is where it starts, with God giving us a new heart. Even with a renewed heart, we can, at times, sin with our words. We have habits of the flesh, the allurement of the world, and the temptations of the devil to contend with. We constantly need the Holy Spirit to be producing in us the fruit of righteousness in our lives. He does this as we yield in submission to His will. And we know and love His will by the renewing of our minds with the word of God. The more of the truth of God’s holy word we put into our minds and obey in our hearts, the more our words will reflect the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will begin to sound more like Jesus. Give yourself to Jesus Christ. Present your whole body as a living sacrifice to Him. Dedicate all that you are—including your lips—to His service.
Your fruit displays the character of your life. Your words display the condition of your heart. And your heart determines the verdict of your soul. By the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in Christ, may we prove that He has placed a good treasure in our hearts by bringing forth what is good from our lips.
