The Secret Of The Kingdom
Preaching
What Jesus Did:
The Answer To WWJD
Reading the Gospels, it would seem that telling parables was Jesus' favorite teaching method. Jesus used parables to bring the truth of God in ways that the people of the time could relate to and understand. The Pharisees and scribes talked in rules, regulations, laws, and traditions. They were the scholars of their day, and it seems they related to the people about as well as today's scholars relate to the average Christian.
Jesus didn't want to keep people away from God with high-sounding language that really didn't say a whole lot. So he told stories. For those who were willing to listen and wrestle with the story, spiritual truth was there, waiting to be mined out like nuggets of gold in a deep cave. For those who didn't want to listen and wrestle, they might walk away saying, "What kind of preacher is he? I didn't get that at all."
Most of the parables can be understood almost immediately. Others may take some time for us to appreciate fully. We have one distinct advantage over the original hearers of these stories. We have the subsequent conversations between Jesus and the disciples, which give us the meaning of the parables. We are blessed indeed, for truly the secrets of the kingdom have been revealed to us.
The first parable Jesus told is the parable of the sower. Some scholars suggest that the parable of the sower is the foundation for understanding every other parable.
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop -- a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."
-- Matthew 13:4-9 (NIV)
Some call this the parable of the soils because the point is obviously linked to the difference in the soils. Now if you put yourself in the place of the people standing on the shore, listening to this parable, do you get much out of it? I have to believe that there were some confused minds. The disciples themselves come and ask Jesus why he taught in parables. Here is our distinct advantage. Not only did the disciples learn the meaning of the parables, but they were nice enough to write down most of them for the Church through the ages. These words of Jesus to the disciples are even more meaningful to us.
• If you had been standing on the shore, would you have understood this parable?
He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him ... But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
-- Matthew 13:11-12, 16-17 (NIV)
The secrets of the kingdom have been given to us. Not only to us who believe, but to all unbelievers around the world. What Jesus is saying is that within the parables are the secrets of the kingdom of God. Don't you like to be in on secrets? I do. Only this secret isn't one that is necessarily to be kept to ourselves. This is a secret we are allowed to tell to as many people as will listen. These are secrets that should change our lives and perspectives on spiritual realities. The parables are not just nice stories. The parables have the secrets of the kingdom within them. If you want to know how to live the victorious Christian life, listen to the parables. The secret is there.
• What do you think is the secret to living a victorious Christian life?
What if you don't listen to the secret? What if you don't act on it? "Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him" (Matthew 13:12 NIV). That is scary, but I'm sure you can think of people who used to come to church, who used to serve on boards and everything. They knew the secret, but somewhere along the line, they stopped acting on it. Now they don't come. They don't care about spiritual things. A million excuses, no good reasons. How does that happen to people? The secret is in the parable. We shall see it in a minute, but because they stopped acting on what they knew, it seems to have been taken away from them. If they come back, will it be given back? I think so. The Scripture says mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13 NIV).
• How does your church minister to inactive members?
Jesus says that we are seeing and hearing things that many of the Old Testament prophets wanted to see and hear, but weren't allowed to. That makes these secrets we know very valuable indeed. These secrets are in the parable. Meanwhile, the people of Jesus' day are somewhat left in the dark. Just as parables can reveal, they can also conceal spiritual realities from enemies and the disinterested.
This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' "
-- Matthew 13:13-15 (NIV)
This has nothing to do with God's anger, or rejection, or judgment on his people. If God was that angry, he would never have sent Jesus. Rather, this has to do with the persistence of Israel in not listening to the prophets God had sent them. Since they wouldn't listen to the plain preaching of the prophets, Jesus now comes teaching in parables. They would have to work to hear the message of God in the parables. Later, in 13:35, Matthew quotes Psalm 78 in which God declares he will reveal himself through parables. The Jews have been informed of what was to come. The point for us, of course, is that we need to see with our eyes and hear with our ears. We need to be obedient to the teaching God has already given us. We should not be rebellious against God's message.
What is the secret of the kingdom in the parable? Listen to Jesus' explanation.
Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
-- Matthew 13:18-23 NIV
Four kinds of soil, four kinds of hearers of the Word of God. The seed is the same throughout the parable. It is the unchanging message of God. The message of the kingdom is that we are sinners. The wages of sin is death, eternal death in hell. The only escape from death is through the free gift of God -- Jesus Christ. If we will put our trust in Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, confess our sin, repent of our sin, our sin will be forgiven. We must make Jesus Lord of our lives and obey him with complete loyalty.
Soil number 1 is the person of the hard heart and no interest in the things of God. This is the person who says, "Who cares?" Soon, the devil comes, takes away the message, and the person forgets they ever heard it.
Soil number 2 is the person with no root. This is the person who likes a religion of convenience. As long as my religion causes me no hassles, no sacrifices, no problems, I'll be a Christian. But then some kind of persecution or problem or demand comes. At that point, their religion is no longer convenient and it becomes expendable.
Soil number 3 is the person who looks on the things of this life and gets wrapped up in them. These are the people who want to have their faith and a worldly lifestyle, too. The two are completely incompatible. The purpose of the seed to the farmer is to produce wheat. The purpose of the seed of the Word of God is to produce disciples, people committed to God. Just as weeds choke out wheat, focusing on this world chokes out our discipleship.
To me, this is the picture of American Christianity today. We love Jesus, but we love our lifestyles too. All the things we want to have, all the things we want to do, all the places we want to visit, and so on, choke out our fruit. Church attendance is sporadic. Service within the church from boards to choirs becomes a matter of whether it fits in my schedule or not. Giving becomes token as we want to spend more on ourselves rather than storing up our treasure in heaven. We like television and stereo and computer more than Bible, prayer, and fellowship. As Christians in America, we must be continually rooting out the weeds that choke our fruitful discipleship.
• What weeds are choking out your fruitfulness?
Soil number 4 represents the people who hear, understand, come to Jesus in faith, and say, "We surrender all." Then they go out and live it. They bear fruit. They become faithful disciples. They bear the fruit of the Spirit. They witness and bring more people into the kingdom. They have found the secret to victorious living in the kingdom of God. And you know the funny thing? These committed disciples are so blessed by God, they often times wind up with more of the world's nice things than the people who spend themselves trying to attain it by their own strength.
• Which kind of soil are you?
Finally, we have to take a quick look at the farmer, because he also has a lesson for us. In the parable, the farmer is Jesus. He goes about sowing the word on every kind of soil. He lets the soils and seed interact as they wish and waits for the results. This is a lesson for us in our witnessing. We are called to spread the message of God. That is all. We are not responsible for the results. In fact, we are not to worry about the results at all. The farmer trusted God for sunshine and rain to produce a reasonable crop. We must trust God to water and encourage the seed of his Word that we share with people. Some will produce results; some won't. That isn't our problem. Our job, our duty, at least as far as the message from this parable is concerned, is to spread the word. Our other job and duty is to make sure we are the kind of disciples who continually act on the secrets we already know, and be fruitful.
Let those who have ears, listen.
WWJD -- Pick one of the weeds in your life and uproot it. Put something in its place that will make you more fruitful for Jesus.
Jesus didn't want to keep people away from God with high-sounding language that really didn't say a whole lot. So he told stories. For those who were willing to listen and wrestle with the story, spiritual truth was there, waiting to be mined out like nuggets of gold in a deep cave. For those who didn't want to listen and wrestle, they might walk away saying, "What kind of preacher is he? I didn't get that at all."
Most of the parables can be understood almost immediately. Others may take some time for us to appreciate fully. We have one distinct advantage over the original hearers of these stories. We have the subsequent conversations between Jesus and the disciples, which give us the meaning of the parables. We are blessed indeed, for truly the secrets of the kingdom have been revealed to us.
The first parable Jesus told is the parable of the sower. Some scholars suggest that the parable of the sower is the foundation for understanding every other parable.
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop -- a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."
-- Matthew 13:4-9 (NIV)
Some call this the parable of the soils because the point is obviously linked to the difference in the soils. Now if you put yourself in the place of the people standing on the shore, listening to this parable, do you get much out of it? I have to believe that there were some confused minds. The disciples themselves come and ask Jesus why he taught in parables. Here is our distinct advantage. Not only did the disciples learn the meaning of the parables, but they were nice enough to write down most of them for the Church through the ages. These words of Jesus to the disciples are even more meaningful to us.
• If you had been standing on the shore, would you have understood this parable?
He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him ... But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
-- Matthew 13:11-12, 16-17 (NIV)
The secrets of the kingdom have been given to us. Not only to us who believe, but to all unbelievers around the world. What Jesus is saying is that within the parables are the secrets of the kingdom of God. Don't you like to be in on secrets? I do. Only this secret isn't one that is necessarily to be kept to ourselves. This is a secret we are allowed to tell to as many people as will listen. These are secrets that should change our lives and perspectives on spiritual realities. The parables are not just nice stories. The parables have the secrets of the kingdom within them. If you want to know how to live the victorious Christian life, listen to the parables. The secret is there.
• What do you think is the secret to living a victorious Christian life?
What if you don't listen to the secret? What if you don't act on it? "Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him" (Matthew 13:12 NIV). That is scary, but I'm sure you can think of people who used to come to church, who used to serve on boards and everything. They knew the secret, but somewhere along the line, they stopped acting on it. Now they don't come. They don't care about spiritual things. A million excuses, no good reasons. How does that happen to people? The secret is in the parable. We shall see it in a minute, but because they stopped acting on what they knew, it seems to have been taken away from them. If they come back, will it be given back? I think so. The Scripture says mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13 NIV).
• How does your church minister to inactive members?
Jesus says that we are seeing and hearing things that many of the Old Testament prophets wanted to see and hear, but weren't allowed to. That makes these secrets we know very valuable indeed. These secrets are in the parable. Meanwhile, the people of Jesus' day are somewhat left in the dark. Just as parables can reveal, they can also conceal spiritual realities from enemies and the disinterested.
This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' "
-- Matthew 13:13-15 (NIV)
This has nothing to do with God's anger, or rejection, or judgment on his people. If God was that angry, he would never have sent Jesus. Rather, this has to do with the persistence of Israel in not listening to the prophets God had sent them. Since they wouldn't listen to the plain preaching of the prophets, Jesus now comes teaching in parables. They would have to work to hear the message of God in the parables. Later, in 13:35, Matthew quotes Psalm 78 in which God declares he will reveal himself through parables. The Jews have been informed of what was to come. The point for us, of course, is that we need to see with our eyes and hear with our ears. We need to be obedient to the teaching God has already given us. We should not be rebellious against God's message.
What is the secret of the kingdom in the parable? Listen to Jesus' explanation.
Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
-- Matthew 13:18-23 NIV
Four kinds of soil, four kinds of hearers of the Word of God. The seed is the same throughout the parable. It is the unchanging message of God. The message of the kingdom is that we are sinners. The wages of sin is death, eternal death in hell. The only escape from death is through the free gift of God -- Jesus Christ. If we will put our trust in Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, confess our sin, repent of our sin, our sin will be forgiven. We must make Jesus Lord of our lives and obey him with complete loyalty.
Soil number 1 is the person of the hard heart and no interest in the things of God. This is the person who says, "Who cares?" Soon, the devil comes, takes away the message, and the person forgets they ever heard it.
Soil number 2 is the person with no root. This is the person who likes a religion of convenience. As long as my religion causes me no hassles, no sacrifices, no problems, I'll be a Christian. But then some kind of persecution or problem or demand comes. At that point, their religion is no longer convenient and it becomes expendable.
Soil number 3 is the person who looks on the things of this life and gets wrapped up in them. These are the people who want to have their faith and a worldly lifestyle, too. The two are completely incompatible. The purpose of the seed to the farmer is to produce wheat. The purpose of the seed of the Word of God is to produce disciples, people committed to God. Just as weeds choke out wheat, focusing on this world chokes out our discipleship.
To me, this is the picture of American Christianity today. We love Jesus, but we love our lifestyles too. All the things we want to have, all the things we want to do, all the places we want to visit, and so on, choke out our fruit. Church attendance is sporadic. Service within the church from boards to choirs becomes a matter of whether it fits in my schedule or not. Giving becomes token as we want to spend more on ourselves rather than storing up our treasure in heaven. We like television and stereo and computer more than Bible, prayer, and fellowship. As Christians in America, we must be continually rooting out the weeds that choke our fruitful discipleship.
• What weeds are choking out your fruitfulness?
Soil number 4 represents the people who hear, understand, come to Jesus in faith, and say, "We surrender all." Then they go out and live it. They bear fruit. They become faithful disciples. They bear the fruit of the Spirit. They witness and bring more people into the kingdom. They have found the secret to victorious living in the kingdom of God. And you know the funny thing? These committed disciples are so blessed by God, they often times wind up with more of the world's nice things than the people who spend themselves trying to attain it by their own strength.
• Which kind of soil are you?
Finally, we have to take a quick look at the farmer, because he also has a lesson for us. In the parable, the farmer is Jesus. He goes about sowing the word on every kind of soil. He lets the soils and seed interact as they wish and waits for the results. This is a lesson for us in our witnessing. We are called to spread the message of God. That is all. We are not responsible for the results. In fact, we are not to worry about the results at all. The farmer trusted God for sunshine and rain to produce a reasonable crop. We must trust God to water and encourage the seed of his Word that we share with people. Some will produce results; some won't. That isn't our problem. Our job, our duty, at least as far as the message from this parable is concerned, is to spread the word. Our other job and duty is to make sure we are the kind of disciples who continually act on the secrets we already know, and be fruitful.
Let those who have ears, listen.
WWJD -- Pick one of the weeds in your life and uproot it. Put something in its place that will make you more fruitful for Jesus.
