Parables of Jesus - 01 Entering God's Kingdom — Zac Poonen

Jesus’ Parables and the Kingdom of God

Today I want to begin a series of studies. It'll be eight studies altogether, God willing, on the parables of Jesus. There are 40 parables in all and I've grouped them under eight different headings. Today we're going to consider three parables dealing with entering God's kingdom.

The Sower and the Meaning of Jesus’ Parables

Now I want you to turn with me to Mark's gospel and chapter 4. Here we read about the first parable that Jesus spoke about the sower sowing the seed, verses 3 to 8. And at the end of this parable he said to them in verse 13, do you not understand this parable?

And if you don't understand this one, how will you understand the other parables? And then he began to explain that parable. But there were only two or three parables that Jesus explained. All the others among the 40, he expected us to understand ourselves on the basis of the few parables that he did explain.

In Proverbs 25, it says, is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it's the glory of kings to search it out. So God's glory is in concealing something. And we who are kings in Christ, it's our glory to search it out.

God did not give his word to lazy people. And a person who is lazy about studying the word will never get the riches of God's word. So I want to encourage all of you to be deep students of the word of God.

And another thing I want to say here is in Mark chapter 4, the disciples asked him why he was speaking to people in parables. And we would think that Jesus spoke in parables in order to make things simpler.

You know, we tell a story or an illustration to make something simpler and to make people understand. But it was quite the opposite. Jesus said here that I speak in parables, Mark 4 verse 12, that while seeing they may see and not perceive.

And while hearing they may hear and not understand. He was referring to the Pharisees, but he said to the disciples, but to you, verse 11, it has been given to understand the mystery of the kingdom of God.

So God's word has been written in such a way that those who are not interested in obedience will get deceived by it. But those who are of a humble and a broken heart, they get revelation and understand the true meaning.

This is the reason why you see so many denominations in Christianity taking the same verses and preaching different things. We're not here to judge anybody, but God's word is true that some people take a scripture, God allows them to misunderstand it, because he sees that deep in their heart they don't love him.

They love something else, or they are proud, or they are disobedient to what God has already told them earlier, and therefore he doesn't give them further revelation. They think they understand, but they don't really understand.

In Matthew chapter 11, in verse 25, Jesus said, I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent and revealed them to babes. What does a baby have which clever intelligent people don't have?

There's nothing wrong in being clever or intelligent. If you're clever or intelligent, it's God who made you like that. It's like the color of my skin. I can't change the color of my skin. If I'm intelligent, that's the way God made me.

If I'm not so intelligent, that's the way God made me. So God can't be blaming me for the color of my skin, and he can definitely not be blaming me for being clever or intelligent, and why should it be hidden?

It's not because of cleverness or intelligence, but because of the pride in the cleverness and intelligence. A lot of clever intelligent people are very proud of the fact that they are smarter than others, and therefore God hides these truths from clever intelligent people because of their pride in their cleverness.

What does a baby have that clever intelligent people don't have? Humility. Have you ever seen a proud one-month-old baby? You won't find it. Babies are not proud because they don't think like that, and that teaches us that God reveals his word to the humble, to those who come in humility.

So as we approach the study of these parables, it's very important that we approach in that spirit. So we want to go to the first parable in Mark chapter 4 and verses 3 to 8 now. Here Jesus spoke about a sower sowing the seed.

Those of us who preach the word are pictured here. The first sower was Jesus himself. He sowed in his own physical body, and today he sows in his spiritual body, the church through you and me. And what Jesus taught here was you can be the best preacher in the world.

The sower may even be Jesus himself, but you won't get the same result in everybody because people's hearts are different. So there's an encouragement here for us if you find some people not responding to the word even though you have preached it under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

In this parable we get an encouragement that teaches us, that encourages us by saying not everybody responds in the same way. And he spoke here about three types of bad ground and three types of good ground.

Now many of us who read this parable have probably thought there's only one type of good ground and three types of bad ground which is not true. There are three types of bad ground and three types of good ground.

The Seed on the Roadside: Satan Takes Away the Word

And the first type of bad ground in which the seed falls is described as the roadside on the road itself. And you know in a tarred road if you sow seed nothing's going to come because the seed has to go in and it can't go in when there's a tarred road.

And what happens the birds of the air come and eat it up. And Jesus said in verse 15 those birds are represents Satan and his demons. When God's word is preached the first thing that Jesus said is Satan is around to take that word away from people's minds.

So that word teaches us that the demons, Satan or his demons, attend every meeting wherever God's word is preached. Even if you miss a meeting Satan doesn't miss a meeting. He always attends the meetings.

But I'll tell you the meetings he does not send any demons to and that is where a man is not preaching under the anointing of the Holy Spirit or he's just preaching out of his head no not born again or it's without any dependence on God.

Satan knows well that fellow's useless no need of sending and wasting any demons on that fellow's meeting nothing's going to come out of that in any case. But wherever Satan sees an anointed powerful person preaching God's word and not his own theories he sends his demons and his strongest demons are sent to where the most powerful anointed preachers are preaching.

And they are there I believe the devil and his demons are here. Did you know that? But you don't have to get scared because they were all defeated 2 ,000 years ago on the cross. That's why we're not scared.

Every demon was defeated by the Lord Jesus on the cross. But they are here. They are here primarily to take away the word which can bless your heart by making your thoughts wander to what happened this morning or what's going to happen tomorrow or next week or to something else about somebody your mind can wander so that you don't listen to the word of God.

And so then the birds have taken it away even before it's gone in or he'll take it away soon after the meeting is over where he will divert your attention to something else and by tomorrow you've forgotten everything you've heard.

The birds have taken it away. That happens so often. That's the first thing Jesus said here. As soon as they hear immediately immediately verse 15 Satan comes and takes the word away which has been sown in them.

The Seed on Rocky Ground: Superficial Faith

And then the second type of ground that Jesus spoke of here is that which fell on rocky ground. In other words there was earth on the top but if you went six inches underneath it was rock. So the depth of earth was very little and here the seed was sown and it didn't go in.

It was just there went superficially maybe three inches and because it didn't go in it came up quickly. You know if there was a lot of depth of earth it would have taken a long time to come up because it would be taking root for a long time.

But when there's only three or four inches of earth roots are very little and quickly the plant crumbs up and everybody is excited when you see a person respond to the word of God so quickly and you think it's a revival.

Hang on it's not a revival. Just wait. Wait six months or one year and see whether the fellow will endure. And that also we have seen people who immediately respond. It says here that these are people who immediately verse 16 receive it with joy.

You know these are people who may shout hallelujah praise the Lord for that word and you think the fellow is really gripped by the word. No I'm not deceived by these hallelujahs and shouts of joy. I want to wait six months and see whether there's depth to it.

It says here he receives it with joy verse 16 but there's no root. It's only temporary. A month later there's some problem, some affliction, some persecution, some opposition from relatives and he gives up the word which he said hallelujah to a month ago.

So that's the other type of ground where there's no depth because the person was superficial. The Bible says blessed is the man who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night not just reads it. You know reading God's word without meditating on it is exactly described here.

Very little earth. You read but you don't meditate. When you meditate God's word goes deep. You think about it. You don't just try to cover the whole scripture in a few weeks. You let this instead of going through the Bible you let the Bible go through you.

That means you let you it doesn't matter if you don't finish reading the whole Bible in one year. How much have you meditated on it is more important than how many books did you read of the Bible in one year.

Don't be superficial. When you listen to God's word don't let it just superficially come into your mind and go. Let it sink in otherwise we can in time of persecution fall away. It's only through God's word sinking in that we can be strong.

The Seed Among Thorns: Riches and Competing Desires

The third type of bad ground is described as seed which fell among the thorns. Here there was no problem with depth of earth. The word went in verse 7. It sank in and it produced roots and it came up.

It was strong deeply rooted. Here's a man who meditates on the word of God. He listens seriously to the meeting which is the words that are spoken in the meeting. He pays attention. The word goes in and it comes up and he's a good brother.

He's a good sister but after some time along with the sea along with this plant the thorns come up and choke it and the plant's life is crushed. There's nothing wrong with the roots. Nothing wrong with the plant.

Healthy seed healthy plant but the thorns came in and choked it and Jesus said this is a picture of those who grow up well in the beginning but the cares of this world. Now when you're young you don't have so many cares of this world.

I hope not but when people get married oh they have a lot of cares of this world. A lot of people to get backslide when they get married because other things begin to take in priority in their life and God's word is no longer the priority and that's what happens when the cares of this world and it could be many other cares and deceitfulness of riches.

The bible speaks about money as a very deceitful thing. It can fool you. How does it how do riches fool us? Notice what Jesus said here in verse 19. The worries of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.

That's one of the thorns that come and choke the word. In other words here's a good brother a good sister who's responded to the word of God wonderfully who has meditated. The word is sunk deep into his heart and he's a wonderful wholehearted brother but the devil's got his eye on him.

Wonderful wholehearted sister that but the devil's got his eye on her and says I couldn't take away the seed before it was sown but I'm gonna make sure I crush it and how does he crush it? By drawing this person away by the love of money and material things.

There are multitudes and multitudes of preachers in our land whose life has been choked by the deceitfulness of riches. Jesus said you cannot serve God and money. The devil says you can serve God and money.

I'll show you how and we get deceived. We think we can serve God and money and I want to tell you Jesus' word is true. You cannot serve God and money. Sometime in your life you must make a decision which one you're going to serve.

It's either going to be God or it's going to be money but it cannot be both. That is impossible but the deceitfulness of riches is here in the sense that riches tell you I can make you happy. You know the saying in the world there's a saying in the world that money can do everything.

The bible says God can do everything. Well the world says money can do everything. What do you want get you want something done? Do you want admission somewhere? Do you want a job? Do you want this that or the other?

Money will do it. That's a lie. That's the deceitfulness of riches and so when people are in a difficult situation they think oh if I had money this would solve the problem. No that's a lie. If you have God that can solve the problem but do you think every Christian believes that?

A lot of Christians they've been fooled by the deceitfulness of riches. They're not stealing money. They're just trusting in money and that becomes like a thorn that chokes and then it also says the desires for many other things.

A lot of Christians when they start their Christian life they're very devoted, dedicated. They say Lord I want to live for you. I don't want anything in this world but as time goes on they begin to have desires for a lot of things which they didn't have when they started out their Christian life and so the desires for this thing they see something with somebody and they say I want that.

They see something else with somebody else's house and they say I want that and the desires for these things crush out the word. So those are the three bad soil. Now the three good soil. In verse 8 of Mark chapter 4 we read other seed fell into the good soil and it grew up and increased and here you find the three types of good soil.

One yielded a crop 30 fold. Another yielded a crop 60 fold and another yielded a crop a hundred fold. Why the difference? Why is it three believers who all receive the word and who are careful that it sinks deep, who are careful to avoid the deceitfulness of riches and the lust for other things still do not produce the same fruit?

That's because the degree of their passion for Jesus Christ is different. There are some who are passionately devoted to Christ. There are some for whom the kingdom of God is uppermost morning, noon and night is the kingdom of God that's uppermost in their life.

They dream about the things of God's kingdom when they sleep at night and there are others who are good brothers, good sisters. They don't commit any gross sin or anything but they're not so radical. They're not so wholehearted.

They're not careful to obey every little thing in God's word and so the results are different. It says in Luke chapter 8 and verse 15. Luke's gospel chapter 8. The same parable in Luke's gospel. It says the good soil are those who have an honest and good heart.

That's the first thing. They are absolutely honest and they acknowledge their sin. Now not everybody is equally honest. Some people are honest to a degree and the others are not so willing to acknowledge their fault even among believers but the more radically honest you are about your sin without blaming somebody else, the more chance of your producing a hundredfold instead of thirtyfold.

That's the first thing. The other thing it says here. They hold the word fast. Luke 8 15. They hold on to it. It says they persevere and bring forth fruit. When God tells them something, they obey immediately.

If God says go and apologize to that person whom you've wronged, they obey immediately. Okay, they'll bring a hundredfold. Somebody else God says go and apologize to that person you've wronged and he takes three, four days to do it.

Okay, he's going to produce a sixtyfold and somebody else apologizes after a month. Well, he's going to produce thirtyfold. You see the difference. Some are radical in their obedience. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

How do the angels obey? Immediately. So there is a difference among believers. Not all are going to produce the same fruit. It depends on how honest we are, how radically we hold fast God's word, and how radically we hold on to it till the end.

The Wedding Feast and Israel’s Rejection of the Gospel

Now we go to a second parable. The second parable is found in Matthew's gospel in chapter 22 concerning entering God's kingdom. And this also, you know these parables, this is about the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said is like a man who gave a wedding, a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. His son was getting married and he made a big feast and he sent out his slaves to call the people to the wedding feast and they were unwilling to come.

Now this speaks primarily about the Jewish nation to whom God sent the first message of the gospel, come to the wedding feast of my son. And they said no. It says here they said we're not interested. And he sent other slaves, these other prophets whom God sent.

And he says my dinner is ready, the oxen and fat and livestock were for all butchered. Come to the feast. They paid no attention. They went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business. They were more interested in their business than in the kingdom of God.

And so they rejected God's servants and God's message. And then some people were so bad that it says in verse six that they caught these slaves and even killed them. It's like some of the prophets were killed and the Jews killed many prophets.

The Gospel as an Invitation to the King’s Feast

So here we see a parable that describes the preaching of the gospel. And I want you to see how Jesus described the gospel. How did the king send out his messengers? That's the way you and I should go and preach the gospel.

The king didn't send out messengers saying hey you few fellas don't come we'll kill you. That's not how he preached it. We're not to go and preach the gospel saying listen if you don't believe you'll go to hell.

That's not the way to preach it. We don't see the apostle Peter preaching like that. How did they preach it? There's a feast. There's a wedding feast. You want to come? Now who would refuse an invitation to a wedding feast?

And especially if it's a king's wedding feast. And that you see that that's the way the gospel is to be presented. It's the king's wedding feast that you're invited to. And you need to ask yourself when you preach the gospel.

Are you presenting it in that way? This is the king's wedding feast friends. Come. Not with threats. The judgment comes later. But we proclaim the gospel initially as the king's. It's a royal wedding feast.

And it's not only the Jews who rejected it. You find throughout church history that certain people who initially accepted the word of God. You see many denominations which when they started out were powerful wholehearted spirit-filled groups for God.

Today you look at those denominations they are dead. Just like the Jews who initially when they started out in the days of Joshua. They were a tremendous power for God. But gradually by the time Christ came they had given up on God.

They had a religion without God. And that's what's happened to so many groups. And God sends his prophets and his servants to try and revive them and stir them up. But they reject it. Notice another thing he says here that when these people rejected this message.

Then he said to the slaves verse 8. The wedding is ready but those who were invited were not worthy. So go to the highways. This is the great commission. Go. Go to the highways and the byways and go and find the beggars who are sitting on the side of the road and invite them for the feast.

All the big shots whom we invited didn't want to come. Okay we're going to forget about them. The king says we're going to invite the beggars. We're going to invite the lepers. We're going to invite the people who are out on the streets.

And you know that's where we come in. We were the beggars. We were the lepers sitting out on the streets. And we got invited. We who don't deserve even to have a meal have been invited to this royal wedding feast.

The Wedding Garment and the Righteousness of Christ

And here we read when the king came in to look over the dinner guests. And that's something we see. You know the wedding hall it says in verse 10 was filled with dinner guests. What a radical wholehearted work those servants did.

They were wonderful preachers of the gospel. They went into all the streets and got people in to sit in the feast. And that's a great challenge to us to make sure that heaven is filled with those whom the Lord invites from the streets.

But then the king came to examine to look over the dinner guests. Verse 11 Matthew 22 11. And that's something which the Lord is going to do. He's going to look and see if everybody sitting here is qualified to be here.

And when he looked over the wedding guests dinner guests he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes. Now in those days when the king invited people and particularly when he called all these beggars from the streets he didn't want them to come with all their ragged clothes and torn clothes and sit there at the king's wedding feast.

That would be an insult for his son's wedding. So he had ordered all the the slaves at the gate to give a new wedding garment to every person who came. A beautiful garment. Every person who came to the gate of the palace.

Whatever his dress may be good or bad. The king's servant said here is the dress you must wear when you go into the wedding feast. And of course the beggars who probably had no clothes on or very little or torn they were delighted that they could wear this wonderful dress.

A picture of the righteousness of Christ which God offers us at the gate. To put on so that we're qualified to sit in God's presence otherwise we are not. So all the beggars and the people who were in rags picturing the filthy sinners who knew that they were sinners.

Who knew they deserved nothing but hell. Who knew that they were good for nothing. Gladly accepted this garment and they sat in the wedding feasts and looked exactly you know underneath the garment one fellow's may rags may be better than the other fellow's rags but it doesn't make a difference when the garment is put on and that's a picture of how the righteousness of Christ equalizes us.

You may be better than somebody sitting next to you but once you come to Christ you're equal accepted in Christ. But there was one fellow when he came to the gate he looked at his shirt and his trousers and he said well I don't think there's anything wrong with this I'm not like these beggars with torn clothes.

I've always been a little more particular about my dress so I don't want any of this. I think I'm all right as I am. The servant of the gate said okay if you want to go you're on your own that's up to you.

I mean this is offered free if you want it. So he went there proud of his dress and sat down and you can imagine how easy it is to detect somebody like that in a crowd where everybody's dressed in this beautiful white robe of the king.

There's one fellow sitting out there and the king came in and examined and said hey how did you get in here without a wedding dress. Verse 12 and the man couldn't say well I didn't have the money because it was free.

He couldn't say nobody offered it to me because it was offered at the gate. It says he was speechless he had no excuse and that's the picture of first of all the pharisees who rejected the righteousness of Christ saying we're not like these sinners.

We're not like this woman caught in adultery. She may need a dress but not me. I'm a holy man. I know the bible. I know the law of God. I go to the synagogue every Saturday. I pray three times a day. I fast two times a week.

I give tithes of everything I possess etc etc. My dress is okay and that's the fellow whom the king picks out and says bind him. Verse 13 hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness where they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You know Christianity is the only religion if we can call it a religion. I don't like to call it a religion. It's a faith in the living God but you call it a religion which teaches that God came looking for sinners.

Every religion in the world teaches that God chooses good people. He looks for the good people on the earth and picks them up. He's going to weigh all the good deeds with the bad deeds and determine who's going to go to heaven or hell except the message of Jesus Christ who came who said I came not to call the good people.

I came to call sinners. Why didn't he come to call the good people? Because they were proud of their goodness and why could the sinners respond? Because they they were like the beggars in the rags. They were delighted to have this free garment given to them.

How have you come to the Lord? How do you look at other people around you? Do you look at somebody else and say well I'm better than him? Well you're the one who's in danger. The other fellow may be worse than you but he's probably safer because he feels the need of this garment and because your life is so good you may not feel the need of this garment and then you can't be saved.

The thief on the cross was probably one of the most wicked men in Israel. Rags but he got clothed with the righteousness of Christ went to heaven whereas so many people in the synagogues whose lives were a thousand times better than his went to hell.

So that's the message here of the gospel that the man who's proud of his own righteousness ends up in hell. Now I want to say sure tell you one more thing before I close this parable. That is it's only the king who could detect it.

Finally the king came. We're not here to judge one another. The servants did not throw the fellow out and I'm not here to throw anybody out because the king determines who is going to be in his kingdom and who is not.

But one day we can be sure even if that man sits right until the last day in the church when the king comes in the final day and examines them he'll throw them out. So I say okay he fooled me but he couldn't fool God.

I may have let him into the kingdom because I'm a human being. It's like these checkposts you know where they lift the barrier so that you can go through and because the fellow fooled me I lifted the barrier and let him go through but what he forgot is there's another checkpost there where God is sitting there and he couldn't go through that one.

That's what we see here. The king came and examined the guests and one of these days he's going to come and examine and he's going to see whether you came with empty hands and accepted the free forgiveness and the righteousness of Christ recognizing that in God's eyes you are no better than anybody else.

You'll be saved but if God sees in that day that there was some secret pride in your own righteousness your feeling that you were better than others well God have mercy on you on that day now is the time to repent.

The Wise and Foolish Builders: Religion Versus Spirituality

And then we see a third parable concerning entering God's kingdom in Matthew chapter 7 verse 24 to 27. Here Jesus spoke a parable about two men who built houses on rock and sand and you know the story and I want to tell you the man who built on sand is a picture of a religious man and the man who built on rock is the picture of a spiritual man.

There's a lot of difference between religious people and spiritual people. The pharisees were religious. Jesus was spiritual. Now in many ways they're both similar. The pharisees prayed. Jesus prayed.

The pharisees fasted. Jesus fasted. The pharisees knew the bible. Jesus knew the bible. The pharisees did evangelism. You read that in Matthew 23. They crossed land and sea to make proselytes. Jesus did evangelism.

The pharisees Jesus gave money to the father. So religious people and spiritual people look a lot alike on the outside. They pray. They fast. They tithe. They come to all the meetings. They listen to God's word.

They carry a bible with them but there's a big difference between religious people and spiritual people and it's not on the outside. See these two houses which the wise man and the foolish man built look exactly the same on the outside.

Perhaps the foolish man's house looked a little better. Where did the difference lie? The difference lay in the foundation and the foundation is the hidden part of a house. It's the part you cannot see.

In your life and my life there are two parts. One is the part other people can see. It's like the top part of a building but there's another part of us which is the foundation and that's the part people cannot see.

It's like this building. There's one part you can see. There's another part underground which you can't see but the strength of this building does not depend on the walls or the color or the doors or windows.

It depends on the hidden part. If the foundation is only six inches I would not like to stand in this building. It'll fall. It's the foundation that determines how strong this building is and it is that hidden part of your life, that inner part of your life that determines whether you're a strong Christian or not.

That's the message of this parable. The hidden part and the foolish man was the man who did not bother about the hidden part. He said what does it matter. Nobody's going to see the hidden part. Let me just put a quick little foundation on sand.

The main thing is what other people see. Let me build the superstructure grand with the beautiful colors and windows and wonderful architecture and everybody appreciates it. The other man, the wise man said well I'm not bothered what people think about it.

I want to dig deep. I want to blast the rock with dynamite. He had to spend such a lot of money to blast that rock with dynamite. It's expensive. You have to pay a price to be a wholehearted radical Christian.

The foolish man wanted to build a cheap house and people who try to live the Christian life without paying a price who want it cheap end up like the foolish man. The wise man blasted the rock and he was much more concerned about the part which other people cannot see and he probably spent more on the foundation.

Do you know how much money it cost to blast the rock and then he built on that and then we read it looked all right for some time and religious people and spiritual people look all right for a long time until the rains come, the winds blow and the floods come.

Trials from the heavenlies and trials from the earth. Floods and the heavenlies, the rains and the wind. Demons begin to attack this both people and suddenly one man's life crumbles and falls. Trials come upon earth which come to all human beings like the floods and one man's Christian life collapses.

Why is it some Christians collapse when trial comes? Here is the answer. They did not watch their hidden life. They did not watch the foundation of their life. They were always more concerned. Do other people see me as a good Christian?

The superstructure of the house. Do other people see that I'm reading the bible regularly, I'm praying, I'm fasting, I'm doing everything that other people think I should do and I get a reputation before men.

A beautiful superstructure but no foundation and what is this foundation? Jesus said he who hears my word Matthew 7 26 and obeys it. He who hears my word and obeys it. In this parable Matthew 7 24 27 verse 26 it says he who hears my word and obeys it.