The parable of the vineyard is the second of three parables in a row that Jesus spoke as He was being confronted by the chief priests and elders of the Jews in the temple. It was just a couple of days after He made His triumphal entry into the city, and a couple of days before His death on the cross. In the temple this last week, Jesus had cleansed the temple, healed the blind and lame in its courts, received worship in it as Messiah, and taught the people within its walls.[1] The religious leaders refused to recognize Jesus’ authority to do these things, asking Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matt. 21:23).
When the chief priests and elders refused to answer Jesus’ counter-question about the authority of John’s baptism, He declined to answer their question about His authority. If they had repented and recognized John’s authority from God, they would have had the answer about Jesus’ authority. Yet, Jesus doesn’t just drop the matter. He tells a series of parables and continues to question them in order to highlight the real issue, namely their stubborn refusal to repent and believe.
Our passage today from Matthew 21 is the first of three parables that Jesus spoke to the chief priests and elders in Jerusalem. We have already seen in Matthew 21 how Jesus’ actions and words have provoked the religious leaders in Jerusalem. First, Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt while the people declared Him to be the Messiah and King (Matt. 21:8-11). He had purposefully arranged the details carefully to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, thus, proclaiming Himself to be the King of the Jews (Matt. 21:1-7). Next, Jesus entered into the temple and overturned the tables of those buying and selling there, saying “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Mat. 21:13). In so doing, Jesus stood against their hypocrisy and false worship.
Jesus then showed what true faith in God looks like when He healed the blind and lame in the temple and received the praise of children over the objections of the chief priests and scribes (Matt. 21:14-16). Then, He cursed the fig tree as a sign of God’s judgment coming on the Israelites for their lack of fruit and lack of faith.
In Matthew 21:23, the chief priests and elders in the temple pushed back, confronting Jesus in the temple and asking Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” It was an insincere question designed to trap Jesus and accuse Him. But Jesus, knowing their unbelieving hearts, didn’t fall for it. Instead, He turned the tables on them and asked about John’s baptism, was it from heaven or from men? (Matt. 21:25). Jesus said if they answer His question, He would answer theirs (Matt. 21:24). In fact, if they truly answered Jesus’ question, it would answer their own question because John had testified that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God. But they did not want to recognize Jesus’ authority, so they answered, “We do not know” (Matt. 21:27). Therefore, Jesus would not tell these unbelieving leaders the answer to their question either.
Yet Jesus doesn’t simply drop the matter. Instead, He tells a series of parables and continues to question them in order to highlight the real issue, namely their stubborn refusal to repent and believe.
I want to begin today by reading a passage from 1 Peter 5. Like our passage in Matthew 18, the apostle Peter wrote to the church about humility and care for the flock of God:
1The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: 2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; 4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1Pe 5:1-7).
Peter learned from the Lord Jesus that some Christians need to be humbled because they have too exalted an opinion of themselves. Others need constant encouragement because they tend to dwell too much upon their own inadequacies. So, he wrote to the elders of the church under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to feed God’s flock in such a way that would convict the proud without utterly discouraging the weak. He encouraged Christians to humble themselves and cast all their cares upon God, quoting the proverb, “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble” (1Peter 5:5; Pro. 3:34). I am sure that there are some of us here today who need to be humbled because we think too highly of ourselves, and others who need the encouragement that God cares for the lowest and weakest believer.
This is what Jesus does so masterfully in Matthew 18.
In our verse-by-verse exposition of the Gospel of Matthew, we have been studying the kingdom parables that Jesus taught in Matthew 13. Each of these parables unveils profound truth concerning the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 13:11)—truth about the beginning of the kingdom on earth, its obstacles, its spread, its immeasurable value, and its consummation in the final judgment. The Kingdom of Heaven is defined as the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus over His people. For now, that is an invisible, internal kingdom. Jesus rules over our hearts. When the Lord returns, it will be a visible, physical kingdom too.
Today, we come to the parable of the Dragnet. What in the world is a dragnet? When you hear that word, maybe some of you immediately think of the old television police show. One famous phrase from Dragnet is, “The stories you are about to see are true.” And I can tell you this about what Jesus teaches us today, “the parable you are about to see is true.” In this parable, Jesus portrays a principle of the kingdom of heaven that is absolutely true and worthy of our attention. Another famous phrase that Sergeant Friday would often say is, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Today we are going to look at the facts from the One who knows, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus teaches His disciples some truths concerning the judgment of men and the proclamation of the gospel.
1. The Parable of the Dragnet (Matt. 13:47-50).
A. The Picture of the Judgment (Matt. 13:47-48).
Again, Jesus uses a parable, a common story with a spiritual truth. This particular parable was indeed common to the disciples. After all, at least four of them had been professional fishermen and many of the others had grown up around the fishing industry in Galilee.
In Galilee, there were three common types of fishing. First was the simple hook and line. Peter used this method in Matthew 17:24-27 to catch a fish with a coin in its mouth that he used to pay taxes. Second was the one-man casting net. A man would wade out into the shallow water and hand cast this net over schools of small fish. Third was the large “dragnet” or seine that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats. It could be pulled between two boats or anchored to the shore on one end so a single boat could pull it to surround the fish. Some of these nets were very large and would drift for hours catching all kinds of fish.
The purpose of the dragnet was to draw everything that came into its sphere, pull it all to the surface or the shore, and allow the fishermen to empty its contents into the boat or onto the beach and pick through it all—selecting the best and most profitable fish, and discarding the rest. We can only imagine what types of things would be caught in a large dragnet. Weeds, refuse, small and large fish, good and bad fish. Jesus said it “… gathered some of every kind.” Anything in the path of the net would eventually be caught and gathered by the fishermen.
We see a couple of examples of this kind of fishing in the Gospels. In Luke 5, Jesus taught the crowds from Simon Peter’s boat. After He was finished, He told Peter to let down his net for a catch. And when Peter and his co-workers did so, Luke tells us, “they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink” (Luke 5:6-7). We have a similar story at the end of the Gospel of John after Jesus had risen from the dead. He stood on the shore and told Peter and his fishing partners to cast their net out at a certain spot. When they did, “they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish” (John 21:6). Eventually, the disciples came to the shore, “dragging the net with fish” (John 21:8). The Lord had made a fire and invited them to bring some of the fish they caught; and we’re told that “Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken” (John 21:11).
Jesus says in Matthew 13:48, “when [the dragnet] was full, they drew” it “to shore” and the fishermen “… sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.” The bad fish are those that couldn’t be used either because they were unclean or not suitable for market.
So first, Jesus tells the parable of the net. The kingdom of heaven is like a net catching fish in a lake. When the net is full, the fishermen collect the good fish in baskets and throw the bad fish away. What does this parable teach us?
B. The Principle of the Judgment (Matt. 13:49).
Jesus doesn’t leave us wondering what this parable means, He explains it clearly. Jesus compares the “dragnet” to the judgment by saying “So it will be at the end of the age…” Jesus specifically tells us this parable is about the end of the age. There is coming a time “at the end of the age” when all men, will be separated and judged.
Earlier in this chapter, the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares symbolized believers and unbelievers living alongside each other in the world and their separation and judgment at the end of the age. There are quite a few similarities between the parable of the weeds and the parable of the dragnet. In Matthew 13:41-43, Jesus explained the parable of the wheat and tares…
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, 42 “and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 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. 13:41-43).
That parable focused more on the co-existing of the good and evil in this present world, whereas the parable of the dragnet focuses more on the separation of the good and evil at the end of the age.
As in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, “The angels”, God’s agents of justice, “will come forth.” Their task will be to “separate the wicked from among the just” (Matt. 13:49). Notice in both these parables the role of the angels in separating the wicked from the righteous at the end of the age.
This agrees with Jesus’ other teachings in the gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 24:31, Jesus teaches that when the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, “… He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Angels also appear in Jesus’ teaching about the sheep and goat judgment in Matthew 25. There, 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).
Listen to John MacArthur’s words as he describes the judgment using Jesus’ metaphor of the dragnet:
Men move about within that net as if they were forever free. It may touch them from time to time, as it were startling them. But they swim quickly away, thinking they have escaped, not realizing that they are completely and inescapably encompassed in God’s sovereign plan. The Invisible web of God’s judgment encroaches on every human being just as that of the dragnet encroaches on the fish. Most men do not perceive the kingdom, and they do not see God working in the world. They may be briefly moved by the grace of the gospel or frightened by the threat of judgment; but they soon return to their old ways of thinking and living, oblivious to the things of eternity. But when man’s day is over and Christ returns to set up His glorious kingdom, then judgment will come.[1]
This kingdom ‘dragnet’ would not only draw people from all people groups around the world; but it would also draw both the faithful and the faithless, both the just and the wicked. And Jesus is teaching us that not all who appear to embrace His kingdom will truly have a part in it. He warns that at the end of the age—just after He returns to this earth to assume the full possession of His kingdom—He will separate out from it those who do not belong in it.
C. The Peril of the Judgment (Matt. 13:50).
In Matthew 13:50, Jesus says that the “wicked” will be “cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” I think it’s very instructive that, in this parable, the Lord doesn’t tell us about the destiny of those who are His “just” ones. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, He does tell us about their destiny. He tells us that, on that great day when He returns to this earth and commences His earthly reign with the great “separation”, then “the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43). But there is no such joyful note here in this parable.[2] Instead, Jesus ends with the dreadful warning that the angels “will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:49-50).
“Wailing” suggests anguish. Hell is a place of conscious torment. And I believe that one of the greatest aspects of that torment will be an eternal separation from the God who made us for Himself and loved us, but whom we refused. The wicked did not want to bow to Him or serve Him or even know Him. And then—to their eternal anguish—they will have what they wanted.
The phrase “gnashing of teeth” describes intense hatred and malice. King David wrote of how the wicked “plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth” (Psa. 37:12) and of how ungodly mockers at feasts “gnashed at me with their teeth” (Psa. 35:16). Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations of how the enemies of Israel “have opened their mouth against you; they hiss and gnash their teeth” (Lam. 2:16). And in the book of Acts, after Stephen preached to the Jewish leaders—just before they rose up and stoned him to death—we’re told that “they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth” (Acts 7:54). Hell is a place of eternal torment for those who hated our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
We find similar imagery in the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament where we read: “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:14-15)
The biblical doctrine of hell is hard for many people to accept. However, if we are to be true to God’s Word, we must accept its reality. The teachings about judgment in Scripture are essential. If there is no judgment, then there is no need for salvation. If there is no final judgment, then many of the wicked in this life would get away with their wickedness. If there is no moral reckoning, then God is unjust. But God’s kingdom is a kingdom of justice, and so, yes, there is a day of judgment coming.[3]
Hell is not a mythical place. Jesus spoke more about hell than any other prophet or apostle. He constantly emphasized the reality of eternal punishment. And He used horribly graphic terms to describe it. There is a reason. It’s because He is the Savior of mankind who will also one day come as the Judge of all the earth. He loves people more than they could ever know and does not wish for them to suffer eternal punishment. Therefore, He tells the horrible facts about it because He does not want people to experience it and has come to save them from it.
When people die, or when the Lord returns, they do not go out into nothingness or cease to exist. God will “separate” the wicked from the righteous and “cast them into the furnace of fire.” Jesus Himself knows those who are truly His within His dragnet. And on the great day of judgment when the angels pull the dragnet to shore, the Lord will see to it that the wicked are separated from the righteous—both to the praise of His grace, and to the glory of His justice.
The Bible teaches that the Lord has no pleasure in the destruction of wicked people. In Ezekiel 18:23, the Lord asks, “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is … longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Luke 19:41 records how Jesus wept over Jerusalem because the people would not repent. Our Lord is a good and merciful Savior. And when the final judgment comes, no one who heard His gospel will be able to say that He did not give them ample opportunity to believe it and trust in Him. No one under the influence of His “gospel dragnet” will be able to have an excuse for not knowing Him and trusting Him as they should. In fact, Mt.25:41 tells us hell was not created for men but was “prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Jesus’ teaching in the parable of the dragnet is clear. It is a warning that judgment is coming. Those who have rejected Christ and His kingdom will be separated out of it and sent away to eternal torment.
Jesus has just shared all seven of these parables of the kingdom. Now he encourages the disciples to teach these parables to others. So He teaches them …
2. The Parable of the Householder (vv. 51-52).
A. Have you understood? (Matt. 13:51)
In Matthew 13:51, Jesus asked His disciples, “Have you understood all these things?” The word “understand” means “put together”. We could say that He was asking them, “Have you put all the pieces of these things together so that you now comprehend them?” Remember the parables are designed both to conceal and reveal. The parables are meant to conceal the truth from those whose hearts are hardened towards God. And they are meant to reveal spiritual truth to those whose hearts are open towards God.
“Have you understood all these things?” That’s a good question for us. Do we have an understanding, have we put together these vital truths of the kingdom and the judgment? The truths Jesus teaches in these parables disclose God’s program for history and eternity.
Do we really believe what the parable of the sower teaches—that we come into the kingdom by hearing and receiving the message of the gospel so that it produces fruit in us? Do we believe that even though we live alongside unbelievers like wheat and tares in a field, that there is a time coming when we will be separated? Do we believe that the kingdom, even though it appears small and insignificant like a mustard seed, will ultimately permeate and rule over the whole world? Do we believe that the kingdom is a treasure worth more than everything else in life? Do we really believe that judgment is coming, that hell is real, and that the kingdom of heaven is glorious?
The disciples answered, “Yes, Lord.” Though their understanding was far from perfect they understood what they could at the time. They accepted the things they understood and they were eager to understand more. The truths about the kingdom that Jesus teaches in these parables are meant to be received by eager, hungry learners who love Jesus Christ, have ears to hear Him, and a heart to go forward and follow Him. They are for those whose heart cry is “Thy kingdom come!” Apart from Jesus Christ, the truths in these parables cannot be understood. But through an authentic relationship with Him by faith, they can be.[4] In Matthew 13:12, Jesus said, “For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance.”
So we respond to the parables of the kingdom by being eager learners, disciples who want to hear and understand.
B. Then be like good householders (Matt. 13:52)
Finally, in Matthew 13:52 Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
This verse is like a mini-parable that sums up the disciples’ responsibility concerning all the other parables. The word “scribe” means “one who writes.” In those days the term referred to a student and teacher of the law. The word “instructed” is the verb form of the word disciple. Under Jesus’ teaching, the disciples were becoming scribes—students and teachers of the truths of God’s kingdom.
Jesus implies an expectation of us regarding the mysteries of the kingdom. We aren’t supposed to sit passively and receive information about the kingdom—as if the Lord wants to merely pour knowledge into empty heads. Rather, we are to grow. We are to be scribes and disciples—astutely trained scholars in the school of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, who work hard at understanding and applying the kingdom truths He imparts to us.
Jesus said such a scribe was to be like a “householder.” This literally means the “house-master”. He was the manager of a household, or a family, or a large estate. He would maintain supplies of food and clothing and use them wisely. He was responsible for making sure that everything in the treasure-store was well-stocked; so that when anything was needed for the provision of each member of the household, and for the smooth operation of the house, it was provided.
The “householder” or head of the house would “bring out of his treasure [storehouse] things old and new.” They were to “bring out” the truth, which means to “cast forth.” They were not to keep the truth of the kingdom to themselves. They were to bring it out and cast it forth. In other words, one of the distinguishing marks of a true disciple of the kingdom is that they share the treasure. They share the truth of the kingdom, the word of God.
The disciples, later, as they became apostles would dispense both “new and old” revelation. In other words, both the Old Testament and the New Testament are important. They are both the word of God. The older teachings about God and the kingdom are still valuable and true. But now we must add to them these newer teachings about the kingdom.
The newer teachings do not replace the old teachings. Rather the new teachings complete them and fulfill them. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” A teacher of the law who only knows the Old Testament can only teach the law. But those who know the New Testament also teach faith in Christ and God’s grace given to us in his Son Jesus.
We read in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
God has given you everything you need in His word to teach others about the kingdom and to reach others for Jesus Christ. All Scripture is useful for teaching, both the old and the new. The new completes the old. So, we focus on Jesus and His teachings about the kingdom.
Jesus is coming again. When He comes, this world will end. God’s great dragnet will sweep through the earth and no one will escape. All people, great and small, will stand before the throne and be judged according to their works. The punishment for the wicked will be serious and severe. Those who have rejected Jesus Christ will experience eternal pain, mourning, and regret. Only those whose names are found written in the Lamb’s book of life will be saved.
And so, now is the time to make your decision about Jesus. It will be too late after you die or after Jesus returns. Now is the time for salvation. When Jesus returns, that will be the time for judgment. Because God will make the division then, you must make your decision now.
Have you trusted Jesus for salvation? If not, I urge you, I encourage you, I invite you, I welcome you – come to Jesus today. He loves you. He died for you. He is waiting for you. What are you waiting for?
And to us who already belong to Christ, are you telling others about Him?
I remember another phrase from the show, Dragnet. Sargent Friday would say, “We were working the day watch.”
There’s a whole mass of humanity all over the world moving toward judgment. God has placed this church here to be a lighthouse, a rescue operation to get the word out about the kingdom of heaven, about eternity, about heaven and hell, but most importantly to get the word out about the Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you working the day watch?
The church is not a country club where you come to socialize, pay a few dues, and leave. We are not a performing arts center where talented people do their thing up on stage and the congregation applauds and nods approvingly and leaves unaffected. We’re the body of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit and commissioned to proclaim to our world that Jesus saves.
The stakes are high. It’s not just life and death, it’s eternal life and eternal death that hangs in the balance. We have the treasure, the good news of the kingdom of heaven—the word of God. We have the Savior Jesus Christ. We have the Holy Spirit to empower us. We are His church. Let’s bring the treasure of the gospel to everyone.
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[1] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary—Matthew, p. 395.
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).
