Sunday, April 10, PM

Matthew chapter 13. In Matthew 13 we'll be reading verses 47 through 53, and if we have opportunity then we'll look forward back to Matthew 25 to anchor ourselves in our continuing study.

After we finish our survey of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 in connection to Luke 17, we then turn our attention to Matthew 25 where there is a shift, there is a change, and we are trying to understand the significance of that.

Where Jesus says, then, after he finishes his explanation of the judgment of that generation in chapter 24, then he begins to talk about things proceeding after that.

And so we want to understand what it is like to live in the kingdom of heaven.

Thankfully we have many different parables throughout the gospel of Matthew, many of them clustered in chapter 13, which tell us what it is like, the kingdom of heaven is like.

We have several different parables which will help us. And we come to the last parable in Matthew 13.

Matthew 13 verses 47 through, let's go through verse 52.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.

So it will be at the end of the age, 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. Jesus said to them, have you understood all these things?

And they said to him, yes, Lord. Then he 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.

So we're thinking about the kingdom of heaven. He says it's like a dragnet. Of course, a handful of his disciples were fishermen.

And so this story probably hit home. They lived this experience.

And of course, we find Jesus and his disciples going fishing from time to time, obviously using that as a source of food or income and so on.

So this is a very common illustration, something that throughout his ministry there around the

Sea of Galilee, many people would be able to relate to. Now, what is the way in which the kingdom takes shape here?

It is like a dragnet. It is like a dragnet.

Now, this dragnet is very much like the field. Now, you recall that Jesus gave a parable about the tares and the wheat in a field.

He says the field is the world. And he talks about the owner of the field, being both wheat and tares.

He waits until the optimal moment where the most good will be achieved. And then everything is harvested.

The tares are gathered up into the barn.

So we see a similarity here with the story of the dragnet. The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet, which drawn across the waters, gathers together all these different types of fish.

But really, there's just two kinds. There's the good fish that are to be kept.

And there is the bad fish, which are to be cast away. And this happens at the end of the age.

The end of what age? The end of the kingdom of heaven. At the end of the age, at the end of the culmination of this kingdom, everything is sorted out from among the just.

The wicked are thrown into the furnace of fire. They will be waiting and gnashing of teeth. Jesus is talking about hell.

He's obviously talking about eternal judgment. These are the expressions that he uses when he teaches on the doctrine.

It's exactly what happens in other parables and other expressions about the final judgment.

So some are separated, the wicked separated from out of the just, and the wicked are cast into the furnace of fire.

But then the good are kept and they are preserved. Like the wheat in the barn and these good fish that are kept.

So there is a day of judgment that Jesus is talking about.

It is not simply a day of the Lord. It is not simply a particular judgment on a particular people for a particular reason.

But it is a judgment that is encompassing of all of creation.

So that's what he's talking about, which brings a close to the end of the age.

So a couple of things to help orient ourselves here. In John chapter 5, teaching and the

Jews are opposing, and we read in verse 21,

For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the

Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the

Son, that all should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the

Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Most assuredly

I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

So Jesus is using the language of raising the dead and resurrection when it comes to salvation.

You were dead, now you are alive. And he means that spiritually.

Obviously they were walking and talking and breathing and enjoying God's good creation. They weren't physically dead, but they were spiritually dead.

Same kind of language that we see in Ephesians 2. So Jesus says those who believe the gospel, those who believe upon Christ, they have passed out of death into life.

They have been raised, given the gift of life. And this brings up a related subject.

Verse 25. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God, and those who hear will live. Just like he called Lazarus out of the tomb, he calls sinners to repent and they live.

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the

Son of Man. Now, given the fact that Jesus Christ is this powerful, this authoritative, that he can call the spiritually dead into life, even as God would raise the physically dead, right?

All the power of life is in God's hands. Given all of that fact, verse 28,

Jesus says, don't be surprised. He says, don't marvel at this, for the hour is coming.

Notice he doesn't say, and now is. Earlier he said the hour is coming and now is.

But here he says the hour is coming. He does not say, and now is, because the resurrection, the judgment has not come yet.

The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves, all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.

All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

And this relates to Matthew 25, as we have the scene of Jesus Christ coming in all his glory and authority, and he raises all from the dead who are in the graves.

Who's on the left? The goats. Who's on the right? The sheep.

Look, we have two groups here as well, don't we? When Jesus raises the dead by the authority of his own voice, we have two groups that stand before him.

John 5 says the same thing as Matthew 25, and again, we're not surprised about that. In the same way, we have the parable of the field with the wheat and the tares.

At the end of the age, what happens? There's a big harvest. All the wheat and tares are gathered, sorted.

The tares go to the fire. The wheat goes to the barn. Same with the dragnet. The dragnet is throughout this whole area.

These kinds of fish, at the end of it, at the end of the age, everything is sorted. The bad fish go away into hellfire.

The good fish are gathered together. So this is repeated several different times using various metaphors, but it's all saying the exact same thing.

The fact that it's repeated so often tells us that it's pretty important, that we should be paying attention to that, that it should be, in some fashion, governing our thinking as we live our lives in the here and now.

Now, Jesus also, at the end of all these parables in Matthew 13, there's a bunch of scribes that are instructing his own followers in understanding.

We're not brand new things. There was a newness to them, but there was an oldness to them as well.

He was taking up the images, the stories, the principles, the history, the truths of all of the

Old Testament, and he was saying to them, to the people, have you not read? Isn't it the fact that you've heard it said?

He's taking up the old things, but he's also bringing the new things, seeing all of the old in light of the new, to have the right understanding as he teaches about the kingdom of heaven.

So we're going to look at several other parables of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew, spanning, you know, chapters 18 and 22 and so on and so forth.

But I thought it would be helpful tonight to go ahead and skip back to chapter 25 to anchor ourselves in this text that we're trying to understand.

So we've made that transition out of chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse, and then Matthew, we have chapter 25 and this transition.

So what does it say in Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13?

Then, I'm just going to stop right there. We have just read about the coming of the

Son of Man on a great tribulation, a judgment that happens upon Judea. When you see the sign, you get out of Judea, you head for the mountains, pray it's not the

Sabbath, get off the top of your roof and head out, okay? And he says, this is how it's going to be like.

This is the things that you need to expect. Don't get deceived. And he said, when you see all these things, know that it is near.

It is at the doors. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

He says, you know, immediately after the tribulation of these days, this is what's going to happen. And all his language is about the things that are imminently coming upon them.

It's near. It's at hand. You need to be ready for this. And this judgment is going to come to pass and this is what it's going to be like.

After that, things go on. After that, life persists.

The timeline doesn't end with the destruction of the temple. The timeline doesn't end with the destruction of Jerusalem.

The timeline doesn't end with the end of the old covenant era. Life goes on.

But, how disorienting for a Jew. How disorienting for a young lad who was raised in synagogue and heard his rabbi read the

Psalms and the law and the prophets to him every week. Who would travel when he was of age to Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate in the feast days and to participate in sacrifices.

And was taught of all the promises and hopes and dreams throughout all of the old covenant. How disorienting for all of that to suddenly be gone.

What's left? The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like.

Singing the song of the redeemed and following the lamb wherever he goes. This is what it's like. Then, the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten with them.

But the wise took oil and at midnight a cry was heard in their lamps.

And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answered saying, no, lest there should not be enough for you and us.

But go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut.

Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, assuredly,

I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore for you do not know, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming.

One of the first things that the readers of scripture will note is the similarity of some of this language here in chapter 25 to that of chapter 24.

The reason for that is that every single day of judgment, every single day of the Lord recorded throughout the history of the scriptures is only anticipating that great day of the

Lord, which is also a day of judgment, a day of sifting, a day of setting things right. So we need to keep that in mind.

But do you notice that in Matthew 25 verses 1 through 13, the wheat and the tares are back?

And look, there's the bad fish and the good fish again. Did you see it? But this time they're called virgins.

There's the five foolish ones and the five wise ones. And do you remember how the tares were gathered up into the barn and the fish were gathered up and kept and preserved?

Look, the five wise virgins get to go in to the supper with the bride and bridegroom.

But the others are left outside. Look, it's the same pattern, isn't it?

Now, what's going on here? This story is fairly weird to us.

We don't do weddings like they did in the ancient Near East. In the ancient

Near East, the bridegroom is off with the bride's father, paying him the dowry for the hand of the bride, finishing that up.

The bride is with optimally 10 of her friends. And you know, they're all about 14 or 15 years old.

Okay? It's time to get married. Now, these are her unmarried friends.

These are her unmarried friends. And today is her wedding day. They have no idea how long the negotiations are going to go on as the bridegroom pays the dowry, how long he's going to be delayed.

But they're there making ready with the bride. All her friends are there. And they're waiting for the bridegroom to come and whisk her away to the wedding supper.

Now, they all have oil. That's the same.

They all have lamps, I should say. They all have lamps. Okay? That's the same.

They're all in the same place. They're all virgins. They all fall asleep as they're waiting, as the bridegroom is delayed.

They all are happy to be there. They all want to be at the wedding.

They're all, they're the same in all these ways. What makes the difference is that five of them provided no oil for their lamps.

And five of them were absent when the bridegroom came. And five of them were left out of the wedding party.

It was customary at big wedding parties that your ticket in was that you came in with the group.

You come later, you don't, you're not in. Your ticket was that you were with the bridegroom.

Right? He was your authorizing way in. If you weren't there in the group, you don't get in.

So they missed out. The lamps that they have are not the indoor lamps that you would think of.

The clay pots with a wick set up on the side, and you light the wick and it feeds off the oil and so on.

That's an indoor lamp. You put it in an alcove that easily gets blown out by the wind.

Okay? These are more like torches that are covered with rags, and the rags themselves are, have to be dipped in oil.

A jar of, notice they have jars of oil. They have oil with them. Okay? They have to put the rags into oil to soak them in oil and then light them on fire.

That'll give you a nice 15 minutes of flame. And then you're gonna have to do it again and again and again.

So if you bring your torch and your rags but you have no oil, that's pretty foolish. And five of them were foolish, and five of them were wise and prepared.

So, that's the way primarily that they are different. Of course, they wanted the five foolish, one of the five wise, to share their oil, but there wasn't enough.

There was only enough for those who had brought it. There wasn't enough for those who didn't bring it, and so they went to go find some.

So what is the, what is the lesson in this? Now, be prepared, right?

Be prepared. That's the basic difference. You notice a few things about this story that are different from chapter 24 altogether.

In chapter 24, Jesus is saying things like, you know, it's in this generation and immediately and this is at hand and this is near.

Now he tells a story about people waiting around while the bridegroom was delayed.

A word which means that he lingered, that he tarried. He didn't show up for a long time, and all of them fell asleep.

Do you notice that Jesus does not point at the sleeping virgins and say, they did the wrong thing?

The wise ones fell asleep as well as the foolish ones. The sleeping wasn't the problem.

That was not wrong. Probably a good idea to be well -rested, okay?

The bridegroom was lingering. He was delaying. The time wasn't immediate. It was taking a long time for this to materialize.

The very next parable about the kingdom of heaven, by the way, is a story about a landowner, a lord, who goes away on what is called a long journey.

And after a very long time, he comes back. Chapter 24, Jesus is talking about immediately at hand.

Chapter 25, he's talking about delays and lingering and long periods of time.

Do you see how he's shifted gears? Now, how do we live? Then, at that time, speaking of the future, what is it like to live beyond the end of the old covenant?

Then, the kingdom of heaven is like this. Keeping our attention upon the bridegroom.

Keeping our attention where it belongs as we live through however long this delay is going to be until he arrives.

Now, you don't know when he's coming, right? But precisely because you do not know, you are to do what?

He says, watch therefore. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming.

Did you notice that he says, watch because you don't know the day or the hour? Did you see that?

He doesn't say, watch because you have inside information and are kind of suspicious that it's at a certain point in time.

He doesn't say, watch because, you know, your theories are that he's coming within the next year or two, you know?

Watch because, you know, like Jerry Falwell, you know, he's coming before the year 2000, right?

Or Hank Hanegraaff, he's coming in 1988, okay? No, he says, watch because you don't know.

You have no idea. The point is he is coming. That cannot be denied.

Therefore, live your life in light of his arrival, his coming, because everything depends on him returning.

And so, the word watch means to give strict attention to, even to be cautious, even to be active.

So, to be watchful means to be ready, to be prepared, to be doing everything in light of the, in this story of the bridegroom's arrival.

Did it take a long time? Yeah. Did it take longer than they thought it was going to be? Yeah. I mean, they all went to sleep, but five of them were ready even though they fell asleep, weren't they?

They had done everything that they needed to do to be prepared because everything depended on that night about the bridegroom's arrival.

So, the lesson, the significance for us is not that world news indicates that Jesus is coming back within the next two months, two years, or whatever.

The significance is we have no idea. So, Jesus says, you have no idea.

But given the fact of the return of the king, everything in our life has to be lived accordingly.

All right? We live as Christians, we live in hope. The three Christian virtues are love, faith, and hope.

The greatest of these is love. They function like a river. The most thing, the thing you think of when you think of river is you think of water, okay?

But that's not the only part of a river. I think we think of Christian life, Christian virtue is love. The greatest of these is love.

By this, all men will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. So, love is the supreme thing.

But it's also the shape of the river, isn't there? The banks of the river, the twists and turns of the river, that's like our faith.

It shapes everything that matters to our lives and channels the kind of love that we have.

It's not a love that just goes anywhere, everywhere. It's a love that is channeled and shaped by the faith that we have in Christ.

But if you have a shape filled with water, but it's not going anywhere, you have a puddle, okay?

Hope is the gravitational pull. When you think of a river, you think of water, but that water has a distinct shape, and that water's on the move.

That water's on the move. And in Christian life, hope is like that gravitational pull. We have a direction that we are going.

We don't know how long it's going to take for the kingdom of heaven, this great broad river that is widening all the time, like the great

Mississippi that is getting bigger and bigger as we go. We have no idea when it's going to empty out into the bay of the hereafter.

We have no idea if in watchfulness and readiness for the return of the king, the showing up of the bridegroom, it is the fulfillment of all of God's promises in perfection.

So the kingdom of heaven is like that. Alright, questions or thoughts before we close?