Sunday, March 20, 2022 PM

I turn them to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew 13, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 23.

Now this is basically the second half of our series on the

Olivet Discourse because we have looked at chapter 24 in its context and we've come to the end of chapter 24.

And then Jesus introduces a phrase that he, by that point, had not used.

And we want to take full measure of what now is he talking about.

So, in chapter 25 of Matthew and verse 1, after explaining all that he has to say about the judgment which will come in that generation, he says, then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened.

And then later on he says the kingdom of heaven again, verse 14 following. So, as we read through, why would we, after reading through chapter 24, come to chapter 25 and say, okay, now

Jesus is talking about something other than the destruction of Jerusalem in A .D.

70. Now he's talking about something different. Something also important and significant to the lives of his apostles, to the followers of Jesus.

And it will also involve scenes of judgment and living in light of the return of Christ in terms of the final judgment coming that is listed in there in chapter 25, the goats and the sheep and so on.

But why are we now reading these images about sorting one from another and the judgment of God coming upon and the righteous sifted out from the wicked and the wicked sifted out from the righteous?

And why are we now reading about something different than the judgment of God upon Jerusalem in A .D.

70 and the cessation of the old covenant? Well, when we read the kingdom of heaven, when

Jesus says, then the kingdom of heaven shall be like, we're dealing with a phrase that Jesus has used a great deal and that he has defined and that he has put in a great deal of meaning.

And he has been discipling and teaching and explaining the kingdom of heaven for quite some time. So, when he brings it up here, it's full of meaning that he has already taught and so we are in need of understanding that.

By starting in the latter portion of Matthew and just studying chapter 24, we have deprived ourselves of the full context of the meaning of this phrase, the kingdom of heaven.

So we are at a disadvantage to see the importance of this phrase here at this turning point from chapter 24 to chapter 25.

So what we need to do now is to go back in the gospel of Matthew and see what does

Jesus mean when he says the kingdom of heaven. And we're going to find that Jesus taught his followers the meaning of the kingdom of heaven through myriad parables, stories in which he explains what that means and what it's like to live in the kingdom of heaven.

And the beginning of those instructions really comes in chapter 13. Now it traces back all the way contextually easily to chapter 10 of Matthew, but in chapter 13,

Jesus now begins to give parables, stories that will live in our memories and be with us as we walk and follow

Christ. These stories stick with us. The images are easy to remember and they constantly inform us what it is like to live in the kingdom of heaven.

The very first parable on the list, and you see this extensive list of the kingdom parables in the gospel of Matthew, you see that several of them are in chapter 13, but then they continue throughout the interim chapters all the way up till chapter 25.

So this will give us a lot of information so that by the time we get back to chapter 25 and read that, we will see that that phrase is a very significant turning point, an introduction to a theme that was not present in chapter 24, but now in chapter 25, makes a big difference about how we read the rest of that chapter.

And also, sometimes when studying the

All of It discourse and so on, I say, okay, well, so all of this was about Judea and the destruction of Jerusalem and what the people were going to do at that time.

There are some applications to us for sure, but generally the heart of the believer was, well, well, well, what's going on now?

How do I understand life now with Jesus at the right hand of God that he's going to come back and what does it mean that we live now?

And I understand that. And this is where a study of the kingdom of heaven is going to be immensely helpful.

When we studied the kingdom of heaven, we're studying what is it like to live under the reign of Jesus, who is at the right hand, who has a name which is above every name.

He has told us that all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. And believing this, that he's in charge, that he has all of his father's favor and blessing, that he has all authority, what is it like to live in this kingdom where he reigns from heaven's throne?

So that's the big picture. To get even more into detail, you will probably recognize the parable of the soils, sometimes called the parable of the sower or the parable of the seed.

You'll remember about the four kinds of soil and how the seed planted in these various types of soil fared differently.

You may remember the disciples' confusion in Jesus' explanation. But prior to this parable,

Jesus has commissioned his 12 apostles to be his voice, to bring forth his message, to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and to go to all of, he says verse 6 of chapter 10, all the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And he tells them to say something in particular. All right guys, here's what you're going to say when you go from village to village, town to town, city to city, throughout all of Israel.

Here's what you say. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Well, at hand means it's within reach, it's right here. It's very present, right in your face.

What is the kingdom of heaven? Well, we're going to find that out in chapter 13 and so on.

But back here in chapter 10, Jesus says, here's what you preach. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. In fact, we hear that at the beginning of the gospel of Mark.

Jesus came preaching and said, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

So, Christ's message is to be the apostles' message, and he tells them, you go preach this message.

And he tells them about all the challenges they're going to face. They're going to see opposition.

Some people will believe, others will not. Many will persecute them, but he wants them to stay strong and keep at it.

And then we come to chapter 11, and right after Jesus tells his disciples,

I'm bringing division through this message, there's going to be persecution and problems, then in chapter 11, we hear about how

John the Baptist is in prison, right? He's the forerunner of the Messiah. He came preaching the message that got everyone ready for Jesus' message, and guess what?

He got persecuted. He's in prison, and Jesus begins to talk about John the

Baptist, and he says something that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, though John the Baptist was the greatest of all the prophets.

Well, there's a head -turner. You go, what? How is that possible? So we hear about the kingdom of heaven in chapter 11.

In chapter 12, we find Jesus in great conflict with the religious leaders.

They say, you're breaking the Sabbath, and of course, he says, well, that's impossible. He basically says,

I am the Sabbath, so kind of hard to break that, kind of hard for my disciples to break the Sabbath when they're with me.

He also was accused as he was delivering demon -possessed individuals, he got accused of being an agent of Satan, and he began to talk about kingdoms in that context, and basically said, no, no, no,

Satan's kingdom isn't divided against itself, I'm against Satan. He says, but if I cast out demons by the

Spirit of God, verse 28, chapter 12, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you, right?

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Here's the proof. Look at the authority I'm wielding, right?

Why is the kingdom near? Because the king is near. The king stands in for the kingdom.

You can read about this throughout the Bible, that the whole kingdom is represented by the king, and what the king does, the kingdom does.

That's how a kingdom works. So Jesus is saying, look at the power that I just did, I cast out these demons, you saw it right in front of your face, what does that mean?

The kingdom of God is at hand, that's what that means. So we hear about the kingdom in that context.

And then he says, there's a distinction between those who are in the kingdom and out of the kingdom, right?

You can tell about those who are in the kingdom because good trees bear good fruit, right?

There's proof, there's evidence of a changed life, and bad trees bear bad fruit. I mean, you can tell the difference.

And if I'm out here casting out demons, that's good fruit. What are you all doing? What are they doing?

They're asking for more signs and wonders. They want to see some kind of prestidigitation across the sky. Can you write in the clouds that you really are who you say you are?

And Jesus is saying, a wicked generation, a perverse generation seeks for a sign, right?

And we all know you by your fruits. He even says about his own mother and brothers, they come laying claim on him, laying claim on him.

You know, Mary, I'm your mother, the brothers, we're your brothers. You need to be back home.

You got to come home to Nazareth. What are you doing out here? And Jesus says, no, no, who are the differences?

Who's in the kingdom? Who's not in the kingdom? Who are my brother and my mother and my family, right?

There's a distinction there. So, having gone through these three chapters very quickly,

Jesus is already talking about the kingdom. He's already talking about the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God. Those are synonymous terms that are used interchangeably throughout the gospels.

When we get to chapter 13, now we have a series of parables by which he begins to explain what this term means.

As a reader of the gospel of Matthew, your desire to understand the meaning of the kingdom is only heightened and increased as you read through the gospel.

What is this? What does that mean? And then finally, chapter 13 hits right in the middle, perfect timing.

We're going to learn what the kingdom means. And we begin with the parable of the soils.

Okay, so let me read this for us. So, on the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the disciples would come to him later and ask for him to explain some of the parables he told.

So, some of the conversations that Jesus had with his disciples and his further explanations happened later, but all of these parables were told in a series as he teaches the masses.

This is what he said. Behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside.

So, what a picture. The sower has a satchel of seed at his side, and he goes forth.

He may have a little gourd in his hand. He fills it up and slings it out at the spout of the gourd.

He just slings it out, and they just go evenly scattered, broadcasting the seed all over the field.

Of course, there's a hardened path that runs around the edge of the field, and some of the seed falls there. Well, that's a free meal for the birds.

Those seeds never have a chance to germinate. Some of the seed falls upon some shallow soil where the soil is covering over some of those limestone rocks that were so common in the area.

The seeds certainly germinate because the limestone absorbs the heat of the spring sun, and the seeds germinate, but they can't get any root going, and so they fry in the summer sun.

Some of the seed falls into areas where there are weeds, thorns that grow up, and those weeds, of course, are selfish with the resources and take it all away, and those seeds do not ultimately thrive and bear fruit.

But in the main, the sower, of course, he's sowing seed in a field. This is a field that, yes, there are thorns there.

Yes, there are stones there. Yes, there's a beaten path. But he's not trying to dump the seeds on those areas.

He's broadcasting because he wants to see that seed to germinate and give root and then produce great amounts, 30 -fold, 60 -fold, 100 -fold, of which we hear one time in the

Bible that Isaac sowed a crop and it gave 100 -fold. But we see that this story would be very easily understood by Jesus' audience.

They've seen this more times than they can count. This is easy for them to understand.

We should not think in the story, as I was saying, that the sower is taking one seed at a time and saying, okay, one for the hard path, one for the rocks, one for the thorns, and one for the good soil.

No, that's not what's happening. But Jesus is acknowledging there are four types of soils out there.

Though the sower is the same sower and the seed is the same kind of seed, what makes the difference?

The soil. The soil is what makes the difference. Now consider that Jesus has just gone through three chapters of material and what have we seen so far?

The need to preach the kingdom of God. He sends forth his sowers to sow the seed of the kingdom of God.

He tells them, hey, some people are going to rejoice in this message. Some people are going to reject this message.

Kind of sounds like this parable that he's telling. What makes the difference between those who receive the kingdom, the message of the kingdom and the gospel and those who reject it and want to persecute it?

Well, it's all based upon the soil that the seed lands in. Is it good soil or is it bad soil?

Jesus is in the middle of a conflict with the religious leaders of Israel who are trying to discredit him and trying to oppose him and saying, you know, you'll buy their fruits.

If this message of the kingdom takes root in a person's life and bears the fruit of the kingdom, well, you know that they're one of the people of God.

But if it lands and gets kind of excited, but then goes away like so many of the crowds or it springs up, but the cares of the world change,

Demas or Judas Iscariot and so on, you realize those aren't of the kingdom.

But where the seed is planted and it bears fruit, there, those are the folks of the kingdom.

Those are the subjects of the kingdom. You can tell the difference when you see the results.

What makes the difference is ultimately the difference of the soil. Jesus is telling this parable because some of the major questions about the kingdom are needing to be answered.

How can you tell who's in the kingdom and who's out of the kingdom? Well, it all depends on how the message of the kingdom finds root and bears fruit in those, in the lives of those people.

Now at some point, the disciples, verse 10, came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parables?

He answered and said to them, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven thought.

And here's the prophecy that this is fulfilling out of Isaiah, verse 14. Jesus is teaching in parables not because these are really pithy illustrations that always make everything clear for folks.

He says, I'm teaching in parables for the exact reason that I just told the parable.

It's a sifting mechanism. It's a sifting mechanism. The seed is cast out there and those who have hard hearts don't receive it.

Those who have deaf ears don't receive it. The seed on the stony ground, on the hard path, and in the thorns, well, it doesn't produce fruit.

The teaching of the parables of the kingdom, it's a sifting mechanism. And those who do receive it are those who are coming to Jesus, for instance, saying, tell us more.

We want to know more about the kingdom. They're poor in spirit, they're meek, they're sorrowful for their sins, they are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and they're coming for more, more, please tell us,

Jesus. And so Jesus says to the disciples, but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.

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.

And so he says, it's a matter of grace. You're blessed because you do see and because you do hear.

But these things that he's teaching is a sifting mechanism. And in a very real fashion, he's quoting a prophecy from Isaiah, showing that this is actually a form of judgment.

It's actually a form of judgment, wherein by telling the parables in the way that he's doing and casting the seed of the gospel, the message of the kingdom, the way that he's doing, those who are heart of heart are only proven to be so and remain so.

Remember that Jesus has come in a particular moment in time when

God is preparing to judge the covenant breakers of the old covenant. And they have been unfaithful and they have been rejecting his message and many of them are purposefully opposing

Jesus. And Jesus is warning them about speaking against the Son of Man. You still can be forgiven, but if you believe in the

Holy Spirit, there's no forgiveness for that. What are you doing? He's warning them. And then he starts telling them parables.

So Jesus then answers his disciples question and he explains it. Therefore hear the parable of the sower.

This is where he begins to bring in the language of the kingdom. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, that's the seed that's being sown, the word of the kingdom, we also can say it's the gospel.

It's about who Jesus is and what he came to do. The person at work of Christ is the word of the kingdom.

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.

But this is he who receives seed by the wayside. Now Jesus, remember, is the master communicator.

The master communicator. He's even the word of God in the flesh. So you can't be a better communicator than that.

He's got the best stories. He has miraculous power. He's been proving himself month after month, year after year, showing that he is indeed the

Christ, the Son of the living God. He's given everybody as much proof as they could possibly have. And Jesus is preaching the kingdom and the people are not understanding it.

So is that Jesus' fault? No, that's not Jesus' fault. He told it perfect.

They're not understanding it and that's sad, but it's fair.

What is not fair, what would be gracious and merciful, is that rebels against a holy God who are seared in their conscience, who have been stubborn and stiff -necked in their idolatry, who have stopped their ears against the word of God, should be given the grace of God to understand it and receive it.

So this is not the fault of the messenger. It is not the fault of the gospel.

Oh, what a difficult message to believe. It really doesn't jive with the culture of the time.

It's not the fault of the sower. It's not the fault of the seed. It is squarely the fault of the one who is receiving it, the nature of the soil.

Verse 20, but he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy.

Remember the crowd. Hosanna, hosanna to the son of David. All right, Palm Sunday. Where were those cheers and chants a week later?

Yet he has no root in himself, but only endures for a little while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

Now he who receives 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.

But he who receives 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, and some thirty.

So Jesus has commissioned his disciples, he's made them his apostles, and they're going to go forth and preach the word of the kingdom, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, who he is and what he came to do.

And he's telling them, now this is what it's going to be like. It's going to be like you're a sower, and you've got this seed, and you're going to be spreading it all over the place.

And some are going to respond, and blessed are those who do respond, praise be to God for those who respond.

And some are not going to respond, or they're not going to respond and stick with it. But look, it's not really about the sower, it's not about Jesus, who is working through us to sow his seed, it's not about the message itself that we have to change.

We don't have to change the author of the message, we don't have to change the content of the message, this is the way things are as we live in the kingdom of heaven.

There will be those who rejoice to be under the rule of Christ, to be blessed under the rule of Christ.

There will be those who are the people of Christ, communing with God in his place he has made for us, meaning

Christ himself, and then there are those who are going to be opposed to Jesus Christ.

Those who remain outside of the kingdom, those who remain in rebellion to the one whom

God has made king of kings and lord of lords. In the meantime, what do

Jesus' followers do? Sow the seed, sow the seed, sow the seed, bear fruit, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold.

So this is the biggest parable out of all of the group here in chapter 13.

It kind of sets the tone and the direction for things. The main things that we hear is that in living in Christ's kingdom, we've got a message that we need to broadcast and proclaim.

And this message is not one that's going to be received by all. It's going to sift.

It's going to sift. It's going to be a cross between those who are his and those who are not his, those who are in the kingdom and those who are out of the kingdom.

But we are told that the sower goes out to sow. And so that's the first parable.

We're also told that not hearing and not understanding and not perceiving is the fair and righteous judgment of God upon those who are in rebellion to him.

But hearing and responding and believing is a blessing of the Lord, the grace of God.

We are going to hear, moving forward in the stories of the kingdom, all of these things.

How the kingdom spreads slowly, gradually, kind of like an agrarian approach, organically the kingdom spreads.

It's like sowing seed in a field, not taking up arms and conquering a neighboring country.

It's going to be a sifting process where it becomes clear over time who belongs to Christ and who doesn't.

That will become clear. It'll be a matter of a hidden process.

The seed will be hidden in the ground and later on we'll hear about yeast hidden in dough and another type of seed hidden in the ground and maybe treasure hidden in a field and so on.

All of the themes of the kingdom parables are captured here in the first one, but given more focus as we move through the rest of the chapter and the rest of the parables.

We've got ourselves started on the kingdom of heaven. Any questions or thoughts as we close?

Yes. Okay, so good question.

Historically we have a word called Christendom and the question is does the kingdom of heaven is that equivalent to the word

Christendom? Christendom has been a blessing in the main throughout world history and it has to do with the influence of Christianity broadly.

For instance, things like hospitals, things like if you have to be put on trial you have a jury of your peers,

English common law, the

Puritan work ethic, I could go on. There are a lot of things that pertain to Christendom, meaning things that were based upon the values and the principles and the truths of Christianity.

Now somebody can be an active proponent of Christendom, involved in Christendom and not at all believe in Christ, glad to benefit from it, but not truly be born again.

This is where the difference is between Christendom and the kingdom of heaven because in the kingdom of heaven we're going to see that those who are in the kingdom are genuinely, truly born again, changed, the life of Christ is evident.

So those would be different. Okay, any other questions?

Comment? Yes, yes,

I'm going to keep going and that's why it's a surprise, right? And that's why we, if it were left up to us, we'd do a very bad job of it.

God saves and he saves surprisingly, surprisingly.

And that's kind of like, you know, whoever's starting a garden this year, I'm always surprised every year what comes up and what doesn't.

And I didn't plant that, but okay, it's growing, that makes me feel better, I'll water it.

It's always a surprise. But you see that there's a theme of surprise throughout the kingdom parables.

Yeah, yeah, that's sad.

Sad. All right, well, let's close by singing the doxology together.