Hermeneutics: Matthew Chap 24 Pt. 8 Parables

We're starting again, this is practice for our study in hermeneutics, and again we've been examining Matthew 24, the practice, and remember it's occasioned by the questions of the Apostles coming out of the temple.

The Disciples’ Questions and the Destruction of the Temple

First three verses, and so we want to look again at those verses. I'm going to jump all the way down to here. Three questions that they ask. When will these things happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

And we concluded that these are not three unrelated questions, but they're all relating to different aspects of what Jesus is talking about, and that, of course, is the destruction of the temple. Jesus refers to these events as the coming of the Son of Man and also of the end of the age.

It's all linked together, you can't separate these phrases. So, and then one of the things that we've seen so far is that times will be very chaotic, time of false information is abounding, and so Jesus, right after answering those three questions, says, see to it that no one misleads you.

That's crucial. I go through this every week because it's so important, because if Jesus is saying, see to it that no one misleads you, then there is a real danger of being misled, otherwise he wouldn't say, see to it that no one misleads you, all right?

And then he introduces, now I'm fast forwarding right to where we're starting tonight, we're going to jump back a little bit, and after he explains all the things that are going to happen, and we've seen that, you know, the gospel going to all the nations, we've seen that the sun, the moon, and the stars are going to fall, which means the governing authorities will be falling.

He says, now learn the parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So you too, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near, right at the door.

How to Interpret Parables Correctly

And now this parable is extremely important to the whole discourse, because it comes just about in the middle of the discourse, but at the end of one section, and then he kind of shifts gears, even though he's talking about the same events.

And we'll review, and what we're going to do first is review the earlier lesson on parables, so that we don't misinterpret the parable, because this parable has been subject to gross misinterpretation, all right?

First, what is a parable? Placing one thing beside another. This is all from a previous lesson, that's why I'm going to be going through it very quickly. I'm not expecting you to take notes on this. We've already done that.

Popular meaning is that it's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Practically, a comparison drawn from nature or daily life and designed to illuminate some spiritual truth on the assumption that what is valid in one sphere is also valid in another, all right?

Just makes sense. Setting one thing against another. Purpose of parables, to stimulate thinking, to generate interest in doctrine. It's active versus passive learning, all right? In other words, it's engaging you to think.

You have to be able to think. To enhance understanding, it's a concrete display of abstract truth. In other words, taking something that's maybe abstract and putting it down into some concrete principles.

It means to reveal, to uncover, or to lay bare, to open up. Third, the principles of interpreting parallels. Look for the main point of the parable. That's so important. The main thing you have to look for in parables is what is the main point?

Why is this parable being told? The main point is usually obvious. Luke 10, 29, this is referring to the Good Samaritan parable, okay? And remember, the whole parable was told by Jesus because the Pharisees came.

Well, who's my neighbor? Remember? Jesus says, you know, love your neighbor. Well, who's my neighbor? All right? That's the point. So, he tells the parable, and then who proved to be a neighbor? And what did they, what was the conclusion?

Well, anybody who needs your assistance is your neighbor, not just the person living on your block. All right? Now, the details of the parable will relate to the main point. This is where a lot of people go astray.

They try to take every single detail of a parable and make it mean something specific to the parable. That's not always the case. That's why you have so many different parables, because each parable picks up one aspect of the kingdom.

So, the details of the parable will relate to the main point. The details are part of the central theme. They will support, expand, and illustrate the main point, okay? Fourth, understand the story's meaning for the first century listener.

This is extremely important. Our response must be the same as the first century. The widow who lost her coin. We have trouble recognizing, you know, if we lose a coin, I mean, how much is a coin in our, you know, in our monetary system?

The most is a dollar, okay? If you lose your coin, you're going to tear your house apart to find one coin? Not really, all right? But a coin to a widow back in that days meant a lot. That could be her whole allotment for a month, and so she tears the house apart to find it.

The mustard seed. You've got to know what a mustard seed is. You've got to know what a mustard plant is. Otherwise, how are you going to understand the parable, okay? As far as I know, mustard comes in a squeeze bottle, you know?

I like the spicy brown myself, you know, but that's not the point of the parable. Words must be understood in the first century context. What's a Samaritan? Remember, we talked about this. We think if somebody calls you a Samaritan today, that's good.

You know, thank you, all right? What would happen if you called a Jew in the first century a Samaritan? Probably get a pop in the mouth, you know? A talent. Matthew 25, it's talking about money. It's not talking about our talents.

Now, you can make some sort of secondary application, but that's not the primary application of it. Fifth, compare the parable to other texts, Old Testament associations. If you read the parable of the vineyard in Mark 12, 1 to 2, and then you read the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5, it is strikingly the same.

And so you always want to pick up the themes from the Old Testament into the New Testament. There is certainly continuity there. Beware of making parables proof texts for doctrine. Parables are not meant to give you doctrine.

Parables illustrate the truth. They do not define it. Example of Samaritans, the wheat and the tares. There are people who have, and I'm giving, these are actual misinterpretations. No church discipline.

You've got to leave the tares alone. They're going to grow. Okay? Does that mean we're not supposed to discipline people in church discipline? No, because that goes right against Matthew 18. All right?

Vineyard laborers. No negotiating a labor contract. That's not the purpose of the parable. All right? These sound funny, but these have been actual interpretations that people have put into commentary.

Okay? So we don't get our doctrine from parables, but parables help us explain and understand doctrine. Look for common themes. The mystery of the kingdom of God. Remember, there is certain mysterious aspects to the kingdom of God, and the parables are given to us to help explain what those mysteries are.

All right? Or the nature of the kingdom of God. Remember, the nature of the kingdom of God is different than the nature of our world and the principles that govern, that man governs our world with. Examples, Matthew 13.

Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to, notice, putting one thing alongside another. All right? And this is obviously the parable of the sower. With that in mind, that was just a very brief reminder of how we interpret parables.

The Fig Tree Parable and the Nearness of Judgment

We come to the parable in chapter 24, verse 32. Now, learn from the parable of the fig tree. This parable is given to further explain the answer of Jesus to his disciples. You have to see that. Now, learn from the parable of the fig tree.

Could anything be clearer? In other words, the fig tree is not supposed to hide things from us. It's not supposed to make it more difficult to understand. It's supposed to make it easier to understand.

Okay? I'll pause there for a minute. There is a sense in which parables judiciously veil, judicially veil truth, but not to the people of God. That's to the non-believer. To the believer, the parable is meant to explain, to enhance, and help us to understand, because remember, who's Jesus talking to in Matthew 24?

Disciples. Remember, he took them privately, which is another reason why this whole chapter is often misinterpreted, because when he's talking to you, when he's saying you, he's talking to the disciples.

He's talking to believers. He's not talking to non-believers. He's not even talking to the Jewish community in general, but he's talking to his chosen. All right? So, when will these things be? This is one of the questions that starts the whole discourse into motion.

Remember, Jesus is telling them what to expect so they can escape this Great Tribulation. Remember, that's the purpose of this discourse, is so that when the Great Tribulation comes, when the judgment comes upon Jerusalem, that they will be able to escape.

How do we know that from the parable itself? What have we read so far that unequivocally tells us that Jesus is giving them this information so that they will escape the Tribulation? There's a couple of verses, but one verse in it with crystal clarity.

When you see the abomination of desolation, what does he tell them to do? Flee Jerusalem. If you're up on your house tops, don't go down and get something. If you're out in the field, don't go back. Flee.

So a big part of this whole discourse is for the elect of God, especially the disciples and those who have come to faith in Christ, so they can flee and avoid the Roman travesty that is coming, okay? He gives them this parable from their everyday life.

In other words, one thing you know in the Middle East, it's fig trees, okay? I mean, I'm not a farmer, but here in New York, I know a little bit about apple trees, because I used to climb them when I was a kid to get the apples, all right?

But so he gives them the parable of the fig tree because they know fig trees. So he says, look to the fig tree. Why, what are we going to, why does he tell them to look to the fig trees? When its branches has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near, okay?

You can look at a fig tree and you see when the shoots are starting to come, you know it's summertime is coming. I mean, this one, I can't even really understand this one, because we see that even here where we live, where the seasons change, right?

We've just gone through early spring. Now the leaves are all green, but we knew, all of a sudden, you see those little buds. That's what he's saying. He said, when you look to the fig tree, you see that?

He said, you can see the signs of summer coming. You don't have to be a horticultural genius, and what's the purpose of that? Even so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that he is right, that he is near, right at the door.

Well, what things does he talk about? Well, it's not, he's not talking about fig trees. He's using the fig tree to tell you, just like you see the fig tree, you say, oh, summer's coming. When you see all these things take place, what are all these things?

What things? Everything he's described so far in this chapter. What do these things mean? It means he's coming soon. That's what it says. When you see all these things, recognize he's near, he's right at the door.

And again, notice, near, right at the door. This is all language of a certain amount of immediacy. He's not talking about thousands of years. He's talking about there's an immediacy to the things that are coming.

The judgment of the nation of Israel is certain and fixed. Jesus has made that absolutely clear, and he's giving these warnings so his followers will be spared the persecution. Remember, he began the discourse with these words, see to it that no one misleads you.

Keep coming back to that. And then, midway through the discourse, behold, I've told you in advance. And he gives some specifics. If somebody says he's here, somebody says the Messiah is here, don't believe them.

Don't believe them. Don't be led. Don't be misled. I've told you in advance. Now he adds the parable, and what's the purpose of the parable? Well, you know me. I have that kind of thinking. Show me something.

I'm always going to say, why? What's the purpose of this? Don't give me a job to do it, to just do this job. No, no, I want to know why am I doing this, because that's, well, that's just the way I'm wired, all right?

So now he adds the parable. Why is this parable here? To add to the urgency and importance of his words. The apostate people will neither understand nor heed any of these warnings, but Jesus tells his disciples what is coming and when it is coming.

It's not just what's coming, but when it's coming. Remember what he said. It's right at the door. It's near. And then, for emphasis, he adds one more statement. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Truly, I say to you, that should mean something to everybody here, right? What does it mean? Listen up. This is the captain speaking, all right? Take heed. Whenever you see that, that means, now everything Jesus says is important, but when he adds a truly, I say to you, remember what's the word that's translated truly?

Amen. Amen. Okay? This generation. What generation is he talking about? Who is this whole discourse addressed to? His disciples. This generation. The generation that he is addressing and talking about what's going to come upon them, it's that generation.

This generation, the last of those people, is not going to die until all these things take place. Do you see the time text? The time frame. The phrase truly, I say to you, is used for emphasis. In other words, pay close attention to what follows and what follows.

This generation will not pass away until all these things take place. All these things will take place in the lifetime of the generation alive at the time of Christ. That's his point. That is the meaning of this generation.

It's the consistent grammatical meaning of the phrase there, using the Greek word genea, okay? That's what it means. This is consistent with the uses of Matthew, of that same word, that same phrase, in the entire, in all the other parts of his gospel.

So to take this generation to mean some future generation, it's bad grammar, it's bad Greek, it's bad exegesis. It's just bad. If you change the meaning of the phrase this generation, it negates the emphasis of Jesus.

Why does Jesus put this, verse 34, in the middle of this discourse? He's adding emphasis. He wants these men that he's speaking to, his own, he wants them to understand and to avoid the coming judgment.

And so he adds this in there. If you make this, oh by the way, this might not take place for 2 ,000 years. It just negates all the urgency that he's given for the first 33 verses. So it can't possibly be that contextually either.

And the culpability of that generation. Remember, why this generation is so important? It's the generation that is the culmination of all the evil because they crucified the Christ, they called down the oath upon themselves, and rejected Christ.

We have no king but Caesar, and that's what Jesus said, the blood of all the prophets from Abel to Zechariah is going to come upon what? This generation. So the only way you can have this generation mean anything else is to insert a foreign thought into the text, something that's not there.

The Certainty of Christ’s Words and the Unknown Day and Hour

Now I want you to notice something. Notice that Jesus is not only giving time text, but he's giving the signs of his coming. Here's what I mean by that. Even so, when you see all these things, again, who is the you?

He's talking to his disciples. When you see all these things, recognize that he is near. There's the time text. When you see these things, what things? What will tell us when these things? Notice, these things, these things.

These things has the same meaning throughout the entire discourse. So what are all these things and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Oh, I got a crooked line up there. That's gonna bother me now until I fix that.

So what he's saying is, when you see all these things that I've just described to you, what's going to happen? Recognize he's near right at the door. What are these things? I'm going to just review. These are the things that we've seen so far in this discourse.

False Christs, wars, rumors of wars, many natural disasters, famines and earthquakes. They're just the beginning of the birth pangs. That's only the beginning. That's not the end. There will be great tribulation, which will include persecution for the cause of Christ.

Tribulation will spark apostasy and betrayal. False prophets will arise. Time of great lawlessness. During this time of trouble, the gospel will be preached throughout the known world. Things will grow worse.

The abomination of desolation will take place. Then Jesus warns that when the abomination of desolation appears, flee from Judea. And he shows the urgency of the warning by indicating, just run, forget your personal belongings, don't even look back.

Why this urgency? Because when the abomination of desolation appears, the tribulation will reach its zenith. It will be of great magnitude. So bad that if the days were not cut short for the sake of the elect, by God, no life would be saved.

Then Jesus again warns about the danger of false...Christ's false prophets. Then Jesus inserts another word concerning the certainty of these events. Verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Heaven and earth. There's two ways to really interpret this, and they're both actually correct. All right? Heaven and earth can mean the physical heaven and the physical earth, which you see used in biblical terms to mean permanency.

Especially in Jewish thinking, there's nothing more permanent than the heavens and the earth. They had no thought that this word would physically pass away. So that could be it. But there's another thing because the scripture also uses heaven and earth to mean the old covenant, which gives way to the new heavens and the new earth, meaning the new covenant.

Either way you take it, and I don't really care, then there's good arguments both ways. The point is that heaven and earth is meant to be something of permanency. That will pass away, the permanent, the un...how can I put that?

The something that can't pass away, it's more likely that heaven and earth will pass away than the words of Christ will pass away. You follow? And so what he's saying is, my words, everything that I've just told you, all right, is certain.

It's going to happen. There's no equivocation on this. There's no way that this is not going to come to pass. But then, he inserts a word of caution. But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the sun, but the Father alone.

Notice what he says. Don't get cocky, all right? Don't become a date-setter. And how many date-setters do we have? How many date-setters have we seen, all right? He says, don't get cocky because the day and the hour, no one knows.

No one knows. No one can predict the exact time of judgment, so be ready at all times. He puts this in there so that you will...everybody who's listening should be ready for his coming, even though they don't know the exact time.

But it will be soon, and we can pick the times in general. Now, I believe this also applies to the end of the age. But in the secondary application, what it's referring to primarily is the judgment on Jerusalem.

And that, I think, we've cleared up. Any questions? But you see now, we've worked through 34, 35 verses, and systematically, and noticed that there's no inconsistency in the Scriptures whatsoever. Yes, John?

It's so sad because when I think back to all the nonsense that I was taught pertaining to that chapter, it's just so far a field that's ridiculous.

Yeah, it's speculation. If you read any of those end-time books, 99 .9 of them is pure speculation. Well, I think...and if you read them, that's exactly what they say. Well, I believe that this means this.

The grasshoppers, you know, the locusts with the faces, those are Apache helicopters. But there's no basis in Scripture for that type of interpretation, none whatsoever. No? Okay. We're all set. Let's pray.