Things To Come!
Sermon
SERMONS ON THE GOSPEL READINGS
Series I, Cycle A
I'd quit the ministry were it not for what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13! Here Jesus is brutally honest in telling his ministers both then and now what to expect. In the best of times ministry is difficult. In the worst of times it is downright intolerable. But there is hope! For in Jesus Christ, nothing is wasted!
Matthew 13 is a unique Bible chapter. It is all but the first time in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus used parables to teach. And, clearly, these parables comprise a single sermon, at that! The first four parables were taught to the disciples, as well as the world, using the prow of a small boat as a pulpit! (Matthew 13:1--3). Then Jesus left the crowd, went into a house with his apostles (13:36), and finished out his message with three more parables.
In the Greek, the word parable means "to cast alongside." They are similes or metaphors, literally, earthly stories with heavenly meanings. But do not be confused. They are not sermon illustrations meant to elucidate the gospel, as is commonly thought. For in Matthew 13:10, the disciples ask Christ point blank, "Why do you speak in parables?" And Jesus says, rather amazingly, "I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see ..." (Matthew 13:13). Parables are like those hidden pictures from your childhood Highlights magazines. It's easy to miss many things hidden in plain sight! To unbelievers a parable is but a simple story. Ah, but to the believer there is more, so much more, the very gospel of God itself!
Today's reading contains a mix of the "outdoor" and "indoor" parables. Let's get into them and see what light there is for the living of our days.
Mustard Seed
This parable is found in verses 31--32. The kingdom of heaven is like that tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed that is planted and grows into a shrub. Up until this point, the apostles are with him. But when Jesus said the shrub grows into a tree, they must have done a double take. "Say what!" It'd be like saying an azalea bush grew into a forest giant. The mustard shrub is the kardah plant. It is never bigger than six to ten feet, and it bears thousands of tiny seeds in its branches that when harvested and properly prepared, yield what we know as mustard, the spice.
Alas! As Jesus mentioned in the text, birds love to snatch these seeds! (Sounds familiar from the first parable!) Why, I have seen mustard shrubs in Israel swarming with birds that devour every single seed of its spice!
The popular interpretation of this parable is quite optimistic. The tiny gospel seed takes root in the world and becomes such a great sheltering tree the birds, or nations of the world, come to rest in Jesus! Yet if the birds in the first part of this seven--parable sermon represent the thieving devil, why would Christ suddenly change his symbol's meaning here in the third parable?
Consistency, my Bible scholars! Consistency! And remember that the popular interpretation of scripture is not always correct. Why, the popular interpretation of scripture crucified Jesus in his day! Jesus is saying the gospel church is like a spice shrub, but unfortunately it outgrows its divine purpose and becomes treelike. In its new organizational structure it allows the birds of the devil to come strip it of its own divinely appointed spices.
How many colleges were founded in rustic simplicity to be a Christian influence! Dartmouth College to evangelize the Indians, Princeton University to train biblical preachers, but now they have metamorphosed into endowed, politically correct, bureaucratic organizations devoid of anything of Jesus Christ. Why the birds of humanism, institutionalism, materialism, liberalism, and pride have literally pecked the church seed bare!
Read for yourself Revelation 18:15! There you'll find the birds pecking away! This is the abortion of the divine design.
Leaven
Jesus then told four more parables which he leaves for us to interpret ourselves. So, how are we doing? Rather poorly, to be frank. For these last five parables suffer from gross misinterpretation.
For instance, the parable found in verse 33 is but a one--sentence parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened." The popular interpretation is that the gospel is like leaven, which conquers the whole of the world as leaven does dough!
Yet leaven is used 71 times in the Old Testament and 17 times in the New Testament. And in every place it symbolizes evil!
For instance, in Luke 12:1, Jesus said, "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees" which is legalism. In Matthew 16:6 and 12 he bids us watch out for the leaven of the Sadducees, which is liberalism and rationalism. Then in Mark 8:14--15 we are warned of the leaven of the Herodians, that is materialism.
So the church, meant to be unleavened bread, actually has the person in charge of the household introduce leaven directly into the process!
This is the corruption of the divine agent.
Not a very pretty picture of the church and what ministry would be like, eh? Oh, the frustration of wasted seed, the galling bitterness of a mixed harvest, the bureaucratic nightmare of a proud and savorless denomination and the evil right inside the church!
Like I said at the outset, I'd quit if this is all there was to the crucible of ministry! But it is not! For Jesus, having finished these four parables before a mixed multitude on the seashore, walked into a house with his apostles, then told three more parables. Check it out in verse 36.
It is these last three parables that give us hope that something worthwhile is happening as we minister, something rich and beautiful, something nourishing, ah! But things hidden, not yet revealed. Things that must be trusted by faith!
Treasure
The parable in verse 44 is of a man who discovers treasure buried in a field, covers it over, then rushes out to buy the property.
Again, the popular interpretation is that Jesus is the treasure we inadvertently discover buried in our world. Excitedly, we rush off to buy him, or something like that.
If one returns to Jesus' interpretive key, the field is the world, the man is Jesus, and the treasure? Again and again in the Old Testament Israel is God's rich possession, his treasure! (Exodus 19:5; Psalm 135:4; Malachi 3:17). God found the Jews in the world, loved them, and quickly sought the covenantal business arrangement that they might be his!
But what is this covering over of his treasure? In Matthew 23:37, Jesus weeps over Israel's rejection of his love and laments, "You will not see me again until ..." It was 70 A.D. when Roman armies sacked Jerusalem and Israel was covered over until she began to regather in the twentieth century, actually becoming a nation once more in 1948.
Pearl
Next comes the merchant of pearls, who finding one perfect pearl sells all to own it. The popular notion of Christ being our pearl is quickly debunked since it is works/righteousness. Since when do we have anything with which to buy our salvation? (Ephes--ians 2:8, 9).
Fact is, the sea, where of course pearls are found, is very unfamiliar to the Jewish nation. It is a place of evil in the Old Testament, and there will be no sea in heaven. Exodus 28 describes the priest's ephod covered with twelve precious stones, none of which is a pearl. Jews simply did not value them.
Watch carefully here: so far Jesus has spoken only of the familiar - fields, seed, yeast, weeds, mustard. Now he introduces an unfamiliar element - pearls. This gem is not mentioned in the Old Testament. But it is mentioned in the New Testament in Revelation 18:12. The pearl is the only precious stone produced by a living organism, and it comes from a wound. They were a prized treasure for the Gentiles.
Here it is fitting to think of Christ as the merchant seeking pearls, seeking treasure the Jews did not value, that is, the gentiles. As in the book of Jonah, God was extending his love beyond Israel to the Ninevite, yet Jews were slow to understand. God was intent on a relationship with the gentiles and he was willing to give everything on the cross for it.
Dragnet
The final parable is in verses 47--50 where Christ says his kingdom is like a dragnet pulled beneath a fishing vessel and catching all sorts of creatures. The day is coming when the net is hauled in and the catch is sorted, good and bad.
One sees here men dragging the nets ashore. Grace does not work alone. We co--labor with God. The catch is a mixed haul, some good fish, others worthless. A time of sorting comes.
Do you see the hope Jesus is sharing in these last three parables? Now watch this: In verse 51, Jesus asks the twelve, "Have you understood all this?" And they readily respond, "Yes!" They hadn't the slightest clue, even as we today often do not!
Scribe
Verse 52 begins with the words, "Now therefore." Anytime one comes to the word therefore he must inquire, what is the therefore there for? It is a capstone, a summary argument. As with an octave of musical movement where the first sets the theme, two through seven develop it, and the eighth resolves it, the first four parables set the conflict theme forth clearly, the next three give hope, and this eighth and concluding saying of Jesus brings the resolve.
Christ calls us scribes, in the Greek grammar or words. Ezra was the first scribe, a man devoutly dedicated to study, doing and teaching God's word (Ezra 7:10). Jesus says every scribe trained or discipled for God's kingdom is like a householder, literally a house despot or lord, who brings out, literally lavishes upon others the things of his treasure old and new. In other words, regardless of the world's tastes or demands, rejection or applause, we lavish God's word on the world ... and leave the results to God. Yet all the while knowing there will be a treasure in Israel, a pearl of the gentiles, a net full of fish! Just you wait and see!
Suggested Prayer
Oh Lord God, the duty is mine, the results yours. Keep me true, keep me true. For Christ's sake. Amen.
Stephen M. Crotts
Matthew 13 is a unique Bible chapter. It is all but the first time in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus used parables to teach. And, clearly, these parables comprise a single sermon, at that! The first four parables were taught to the disciples, as well as the world, using the prow of a small boat as a pulpit! (Matthew 13:1--3). Then Jesus left the crowd, went into a house with his apostles (13:36), and finished out his message with three more parables.
In the Greek, the word parable means "to cast alongside." They are similes or metaphors, literally, earthly stories with heavenly meanings. But do not be confused. They are not sermon illustrations meant to elucidate the gospel, as is commonly thought. For in Matthew 13:10, the disciples ask Christ point blank, "Why do you speak in parables?" And Jesus says, rather amazingly, "I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see ..." (Matthew 13:13). Parables are like those hidden pictures from your childhood Highlights magazines. It's easy to miss many things hidden in plain sight! To unbelievers a parable is but a simple story. Ah, but to the believer there is more, so much more, the very gospel of God itself!
Today's reading contains a mix of the "outdoor" and "indoor" parables. Let's get into them and see what light there is for the living of our days.
Mustard Seed
This parable is found in verses 31--32. The kingdom of heaven is like that tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed that is planted and grows into a shrub. Up until this point, the apostles are with him. But when Jesus said the shrub grows into a tree, they must have done a double take. "Say what!" It'd be like saying an azalea bush grew into a forest giant. The mustard shrub is the kardah plant. It is never bigger than six to ten feet, and it bears thousands of tiny seeds in its branches that when harvested and properly prepared, yield what we know as mustard, the spice.
Alas! As Jesus mentioned in the text, birds love to snatch these seeds! (Sounds familiar from the first parable!) Why, I have seen mustard shrubs in Israel swarming with birds that devour every single seed of its spice!
The popular interpretation of this parable is quite optimistic. The tiny gospel seed takes root in the world and becomes such a great sheltering tree the birds, or nations of the world, come to rest in Jesus! Yet if the birds in the first part of this seven--parable sermon represent the thieving devil, why would Christ suddenly change his symbol's meaning here in the third parable?
Consistency, my Bible scholars! Consistency! And remember that the popular interpretation of scripture is not always correct. Why, the popular interpretation of scripture crucified Jesus in his day! Jesus is saying the gospel church is like a spice shrub, but unfortunately it outgrows its divine purpose and becomes treelike. In its new organizational structure it allows the birds of the devil to come strip it of its own divinely appointed spices.
How many colleges were founded in rustic simplicity to be a Christian influence! Dartmouth College to evangelize the Indians, Princeton University to train biblical preachers, but now they have metamorphosed into endowed, politically correct, bureaucratic organizations devoid of anything of Jesus Christ. Why the birds of humanism, institutionalism, materialism, liberalism, and pride have literally pecked the church seed bare!
Read for yourself Revelation 18:15! There you'll find the birds pecking away! This is the abortion of the divine design.
Leaven
Jesus then told four more parables which he leaves for us to interpret ourselves. So, how are we doing? Rather poorly, to be frank. For these last five parables suffer from gross misinterpretation.
For instance, the parable found in verse 33 is but a one--sentence parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened." The popular interpretation is that the gospel is like leaven, which conquers the whole of the world as leaven does dough!
Yet leaven is used 71 times in the Old Testament and 17 times in the New Testament. And in every place it symbolizes evil!
For instance, in Luke 12:1, Jesus said, "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees" which is legalism. In Matthew 16:6 and 12 he bids us watch out for the leaven of the Sadducees, which is liberalism and rationalism. Then in Mark 8:14--15 we are warned of the leaven of the Herodians, that is materialism.
So the church, meant to be unleavened bread, actually has the person in charge of the household introduce leaven directly into the process!
This is the corruption of the divine agent.
Not a very pretty picture of the church and what ministry would be like, eh? Oh, the frustration of wasted seed, the galling bitterness of a mixed harvest, the bureaucratic nightmare of a proud and savorless denomination and the evil right inside the church!
Like I said at the outset, I'd quit if this is all there was to the crucible of ministry! But it is not! For Jesus, having finished these four parables before a mixed multitude on the seashore, walked into a house with his apostles, then told three more parables. Check it out in verse 36.
It is these last three parables that give us hope that something worthwhile is happening as we minister, something rich and beautiful, something nourishing, ah! But things hidden, not yet revealed. Things that must be trusted by faith!
Treasure
The parable in verse 44 is of a man who discovers treasure buried in a field, covers it over, then rushes out to buy the property.
Again, the popular interpretation is that Jesus is the treasure we inadvertently discover buried in our world. Excitedly, we rush off to buy him, or something like that.
If one returns to Jesus' interpretive key, the field is the world, the man is Jesus, and the treasure? Again and again in the Old Testament Israel is God's rich possession, his treasure! (Exodus 19:5; Psalm 135:4; Malachi 3:17). God found the Jews in the world, loved them, and quickly sought the covenantal business arrangement that they might be his!
But what is this covering over of his treasure? In Matthew 23:37, Jesus weeps over Israel's rejection of his love and laments, "You will not see me again until ..." It was 70 A.D. when Roman armies sacked Jerusalem and Israel was covered over until she began to regather in the twentieth century, actually becoming a nation once more in 1948.
Pearl
Next comes the merchant of pearls, who finding one perfect pearl sells all to own it. The popular notion of Christ being our pearl is quickly debunked since it is works/righteousness. Since when do we have anything with which to buy our salvation? (Ephes--ians 2:8, 9).
Fact is, the sea, where of course pearls are found, is very unfamiliar to the Jewish nation. It is a place of evil in the Old Testament, and there will be no sea in heaven. Exodus 28 describes the priest's ephod covered with twelve precious stones, none of which is a pearl. Jews simply did not value them.
Watch carefully here: so far Jesus has spoken only of the familiar - fields, seed, yeast, weeds, mustard. Now he introduces an unfamiliar element - pearls. This gem is not mentioned in the Old Testament. But it is mentioned in the New Testament in Revelation 18:12. The pearl is the only precious stone produced by a living organism, and it comes from a wound. They were a prized treasure for the Gentiles.
Here it is fitting to think of Christ as the merchant seeking pearls, seeking treasure the Jews did not value, that is, the gentiles. As in the book of Jonah, God was extending his love beyond Israel to the Ninevite, yet Jews were slow to understand. God was intent on a relationship with the gentiles and he was willing to give everything on the cross for it.
Dragnet
The final parable is in verses 47--50 where Christ says his kingdom is like a dragnet pulled beneath a fishing vessel and catching all sorts of creatures. The day is coming when the net is hauled in and the catch is sorted, good and bad.
One sees here men dragging the nets ashore. Grace does not work alone. We co--labor with God. The catch is a mixed haul, some good fish, others worthless. A time of sorting comes.
Do you see the hope Jesus is sharing in these last three parables? Now watch this: In verse 51, Jesus asks the twelve, "Have you understood all this?" And they readily respond, "Yes!" They hadn't the slightest clue, even as we today often do not!
Scribe
Verse 52 begins with the words, "Now therefore." Anytime one comes to the word therefore he must inquire, what is the therefore there for? It is a capstone, a summary argument. As with an octave of musical movement where the first sets the theme, two through seven develop it, and the eighth resolves it, the first four parables set the conflict theme forth clearly, the next three give hope, and this eighth and concluding saying of Jesus brings the resolve.
Christ calls us scribes, in the Greek grammar or words. Ezra was the first scribe, a man devoutly dedicated to study, doing and teaching God's word (Ezra 7:10). Jesus says every scribe trained or discipled for God's kingdom is like a householder, literally a house despot or lord, who brings out, literally lavishes upon others the things of his treasure old and new. In other words, regardless of the world's tastes or demands, rejection or applause, we lavish God's word on the world ... and leave the results to God. Yet all the while knowing there will be a treasure in Israel, a pearl of the gentiles, a net full of fish! Just you wait and see!
Suggested Prayer
Oh Lord God, the duty is mine, the results yours. Keep me true, keep me true. For Christ's sake. Amen.
Stephen M. Crotts
