Matthew 13:1-23

This chapter is known as the Mystery Parables Discourse, and it’s one of the three major discourses or communications spoken by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

 

The first discourse was The Sermon on the Mount which clarifies the Mosaic law to the level that God sees it and they’re the values for the land in the coming kingdom.

 

Next there’s The Mystery Parables Discourse which we’ve arrived at now which reveals the condition of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world during the present age.

Then there’s the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapters 24 and 25 which looks to the future, to the return of the King and the things beyond this present age that we live in today.

 

We’ve seen that our Lord followed John the Baptist in preaching, “… Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matthew 4:17. And we saw Him state the values and law of that Kingdom, in the Sermon on the Mount.

Then He demonstrated that He had the power and the authority to uphold those values because He was the King. You can’t have a kingdom without a king.

After that He sent His disciples out with the message that the King of the long promised, glorious Kingdom of Heaven on earth had finally arrived but, the message was met by rejection. Israel rejected its King.

 

Therefore, our Lord hands down a judgment against the cities where His mighty works had been done and against the religious rulers. When they asked Him for a sign, He said that no sign would be given to them except that of Jonah. Jonah was a resurrection sign, and they were to have that fulfilled in Christ very soon after this.

Finally, He gave that very personal invitation that we saw in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest or literally, “rest you””.

Now there’s a question to be answered. What’ll happen to the Kingdom of Heaven?

It’s apparent that Jesus will now not establish it on the earth at His first coming. So, what’ll happen to the Kingdom of Heaven during the interval between the suffering of Christ and His return in glory?

Well, in the Mystery Parables Discourse that we’ve arrived at here our Lord sets out the Kingdom of Heaven and the conditions on earth during this interval. He does that by, using parables.

They’re called the Mystery Parables because in the Word of God a mystery is something hidden or secret up to a certain time and then revealed.

The church was a mystery then because it wasn’t revealed in the Old Testament. It wasn’t revealed in the New Testament either until after the death and resurrection of Christ and, in fact, there couldn’t possibly be a church until Christ died and rose again.

The church was a mystery to everyone but God. He had it in mind before the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time itself and He loved it even though it wasn’t revealed to man and wasn’t yet a reality in our physical realm. Ephesians 5:25 says that “… Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.”

It’s critically important for us to see that the Kingdom of Heaven is not the church nor is the church the Kingdom of Heaven.

These Mystery Parables show the Kingdom after it’d been offered to Israel, as was promised for many centuries, and rejected by them.

They reveal what’s going to take place between the time of Christ’s rejection by Israel and the time when He returns to the earth as King which He definitely will. Israel’s rejection doesn’t stop the Lord’s plans.

With these parables our Lord covers the entire period between His rejection by Israel and His return to the earth to establish that Kingdom. This is vital for we, as the church, to understand.

We’ll take a quick preview of the next few verses so as to see this very critical point.

In verse 11 Jesus answered the disciples when they asked Him why He spoke in parables and He said to them,

Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

In verse 19 Jesus explains what the seed is,

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom.

In verse 24 Jesus introduces the parable of the weeds by saying,

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Then we have verse 31 where Jesus opens the parable of the mustard seed saying,

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 

Then in verse 33 Jesus opens the parable of the leaven and He says,

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven.

Then verse 44 the parable of the hidden treasure opens with this,

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

Then verse 45 and the parable of the pearl of great price,

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. 

Then verse 47 and the parable of the net,

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind. 

Finally in verse 51 and 52 Jesus said to them,

“Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 

Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

 

How could it be possible to misunderstand the fact that these parables all relate to the coming glorious Kingdom of Heaven which can be a bit foreign to our ears as Gentiles living in today’s world, but was an all-consuming, undisputed fact to the nation of Israel even up until today.

The thing is though they completely missed it when they rejected the King who would rule that Kingdom when He arrived 2000 years ago.

This is the purpose of the Book of Matthew to reveal the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

We open this parables section with Matthew 13:1-2

On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 

And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

 

This carries on directly from the last verse in the last chapter.

Jesus was in the house where the miracles were performed that caused the Pharisees to accuse Him of being in league with Satan and He soundly rebukes those Pharisees.

He goes out of the house to sit by the seaside. Either He’s weary, or He’s going to talk to His mother and brothers. We saw that they’d come on the scene.

He may have gone out to intentionally preach to the multitudes of people that were always present.

This spot was beside the sea of Galilee, sometimes called the sea of Tiberias.

 

Although Jesus gives several parables in this chapter, He only interprets two of them: this one, the parable of the Sower, and the parable of the wheat and tares.

His interpretation is a guide to the interpretation of the other parables.

Jesus backs this up before His explanation of the parable of the Sower in Mark 4 verse 10 and verse 13. In verse 10 He says,

But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.

Then in verse 13 we hear,

And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 

Now this becomes even more critical when we jump forward a bit to Matthew 13 verse 34 that reads,

All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them,

Jesus spoke to His followers about the Kingdom of Heaven only in parables. And since most of what Jesus said was either directly about the Kingdom or Kingdom related it was doubly important for his followers to understand these parables by interpreting them correctly.

So, to illustrate, the birds in this parable represent the evil one or the wicked one as some versions translate it. This is Satan and his minions.

So, from now on, when He uses the symbol of birds in other parables, we know that they don’t represent anything good. We need to be consistent and not allow confusion, so we follow our Lord’s interpretation.

So then, the parable of the Sower is the first of the Mystery Parables and the foundation for understanding them all.

 

Here’s the parable of the Sower from verse 3 to verse 8,

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a Sower went out to sow. 

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 

Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 

But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 

But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 

 

Then in verse 9 Jesus finishes the parable by saying,

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” 

Let’s look at this verse first before we look closer at the parable and then hear Jesus interpret it.

I think most of us realise that Jesus is not just talking here about hearing the sounds of His voice through the ear gate. He’s talking about hearing in a much deeper sense. He’s talking about hearing with understanding. He wants them to hear and understand to the degree that they get the importance of what’s being spoken. He wants them to not just hear but see and understand what’s being spoken.

 

Sowing seed was familiar to everyone in those day’s pretty much everywhere in the world really, but definitely to these people in this area. It was an agricultural society.

Jesus takes what’s very familiar and uses it to paint a word picture to explain something that’s not familiar or that’s not easy to understand. In other words, He’s simplifying the thing He’s talking about to make it easy to understand. That’s exactly what a parable is and as we’ve already said, Jesus only spoke from here on in these parables.

Now Jesus explains the reason why He speaks in parables and even this, as we’ll see, is a fulfilment of prophecy.

 

Now to Matthew 13:10 and we read now,

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 

The account in the Gospel of Mark tells us that it wasn’t just the twelve who come to him separately, but others who believed in him.

Notice they asked, “why do you speak to them”. Jesus spoke to his closest followers more directly but to the multitudes He only spoke in parables.

Now in verses 11 to 13, Jesus answers the question they put to Him,

He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 

Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 

 

Jesus was always ready to give an answer to his disciples, which shows great respect to them.

He explains that parables hide the truth from those who’re either too lazy to think or too blinded by their prejudice to see.

It puts the responsibility directly onto the individual. In other words, the parables reveal truth to the one who desires truth and conceals truth from the who doesn’t want it.

 

Now in verses 14 and 15 Matthew again homes in on the fact that Jesus Himself now says that He’s fulfilling prophecy with the parables.

And we read, realising of course, that we’re carrying on directly from the last verse,

And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘HEARING YOU WILL HEAR AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND, AND SEEING YOU WILL SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE; 

FOR THE HEARTS OF THIS PEOPLE HAVE GROWN DULL. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF HEARING, AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.’ 

 

This prophecy is Isaiah 6:9, which is quite a frightening but accurate picture of the nation Israel at this time. In fact, the picture still hasn’t changed 2000 years down the track. Israel is still in the same state of rejecting the Messiah now even though God hasn’t forgotten them and they’ll still, one day, come into the promised Kingdom.

Sadly, though they’ll sufferer terribly before that happens with the prophet Zechariah foretelling in Zechariah 13:8

And it shall come to pass in all the land,” Says the LORD, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it. 

 

Matthew 13:16-17

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 

 

Jesus is saying that these people before Him are blessed because they see and hear with more than just their eyes and ears, they see and hear with the heart. We might say they quote, “got it”.

He’s also pointing out that many of the prophets and righteous men of old had no clue about what they were prophesying.

A great example of this is the prophet Daniel.

In Daniel 12:8-9, after He’d written down all that the Lord told him to, he says,

Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?” 

And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 

He pleads with the Lord to be given the meaning of what he’s been writing but The Lord tells him no. In fact, God sealed the whole book relating to this prophecy until the time of the end. The time of the end is the time we’re living in right now.

This is after Daniels just written Daniel 9, 10 and 11, one of the greatest prophesies of all time, the 70 weeks of Daniel.

You see the prophets had no idea of what they were writing about even though they searched diligently to find out.

1 Peter 1:10-12 also tells us how the prophets inquired and searched diligently but the answer was not found by them.

Jesus is highlighting just how blessed these folk were to have this mystery revealed to them and we today are the same because the mystery is revealed to us as well.

 

Now Jesus gives the disciples the explanation of the parable of the Sower.

 

Before we go into Jesus’s explanation we should point out that this parable has been picked up by the Word of Faith movement and the prosperity gospel and used as a major foundation for their teaching.

I don’t want to derail our study of this important parable, but I can speak about this movement since I was caught up in it for years as a young Christian.

I learned a great deal from these preachers and teachers but as the focus of that movement turned more and more into a self-help, “live your best life today”, positive mental attitude type movement I began to question it.

This movement, which is behind the majority of Christian television programs and is marked by mega sized churches with astoundingly wealthy leaders is far from the teaching that I received, and I’ve watch it turn and twist scripture, especially the parable of the Sower, into something it just isn’t.

Nothing marks the word of faith and the prosperity gospel more than the teaching that God’s Word is a seed that relates to anything a person wants and craves for in this world today.

A person’s material, financial and physical desires, no matter how big or outlandish they may be, can be all be a reality by sowing a seed and then “watering” it by faith. And when it doesn’t come of it’s that person’s fault because they didn’t plant a big enough seed and then have enough to make it grow. They will blatantly announce to all who listen to them that the seed is a cheque made out to them and the bigger the cheque, the seed, the bigger your harvest of wealth and riches.

I began to see many desperate people with life threatening illnesses and huge financial problems get worse as they sowed their seed and prayed the prayer of faith.

I saw 2 of my brothers die even though they had the prayer of faith and the seed of the word regarding healing sown. I saw a precious lady with more faith than I’d ever seen suffer and die of cancer waiting for seed relating to healing to grow as she watered it with great faith. I saw Christians friends die and financial situations worsen. And don’t ever try and tell me they lacked faith that they failed because their faith wasn’t strong enough or the seed they planted wasn’t big enough.

I can honestly say I saw hundreds, if not thousands of desperate people fail to get what they so badly wanted. I began to see that in the years I’d been involved I personally did not see in all those hundreds of people a miraculous answer to their problems. I didn’t see one verifiable case where a person had a certified doctor state that they had a life threating illness then certify that after they had attended a healing line or after prayer the illness was completely healed.

I hope everyone who hears this understands that I’m not saying it doesn’t happen and I’m most definitely not saying that the Lord doesn’t heal. I’m saying that of all these people I personally saw, not one could display the level of healing that Jesus performed in these passages we’re studying.

Thousand were healed. In fact, everyone, every person who came to Him was healed. And they weren’t just the odd emotional problem, they were paralysed people who walked, 100% blind people who could see, deaf people could hear and many who suffered the awful disease of leprosy were completely healed with their skin totally cleared up. Add to that those who were raised from the dead.

I don’t mean to rock anybody’s boat, but I personally saw nothing even remotely like this in my years in that movement. You may have seen it but I, personally, have not.

In my own life, I encountered the spectre of cancer. I know that the only reason I stand here today instead of with my mother, my brothers, and all those wonderful friends in heaven is because of God. He guided me twice by His grace where I ended up under the hands of two of the best of the best surgeons and He’s never left me.

 

I came to the point where I had to admit something was wrong with the word of faith/prosperity movement.

The more I thought about it the more it didn’t add up. What about those powerful Christians in the 1^st century who were hideously tortured and murdered, especially under emperor Nero. Were none of them faith filled Christians who believed unswervingly in God’s Word or were they just badly taught?

Then there were the hundreds of millions who were tortured, murdered, maimed, disease ridden and who lost their wealth throughout history’s wars. Were there no Bible believing Christians among them?

Then I looked at the person who knew God’s Word better than any person who has ever lived, The Apostle Paul. He had more revelation in his little finger than the modern day word of faith, prosperity gospel preachers.

Here’s just a snippet from his life from 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 from the New Living Translation, :

Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 

Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 

I have travelled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. 

I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. 

Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. 

 

Did the incredible man lack faith? Didn’t he sow enough?

I couldn’t ever bring myself to believe that it was God or His Word that was wrong, so it had to be the messengers who’d got the message wrong.

After a period of distancing myself from the whole church movement, and from the Word, I entered into a very dry and barren place where the things of God were concerned. However, I began to crave for God and His Word, and I knew full well that He’d never left me or forsaken me.

I began to study the entire Word and go back to the absolute foundation if you like and chuck out all my preconceptions not just about healing and prosperity but everything. I wanted God’s Word and nothing else. I become concerned only with what He said, and I found that when I took the whole counsel of God, the whole book, it was a whole lot different than what I’d thought and believed.

I hope you guys will forgive this sidebar.

 

Matthew 13:18-19

Therefore, hear the parable of the Sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 

 

What is it that’s being sown here in the heart? It’s the Word of the Kingdom. We always remember that it’s Jews who’re being spoken to and the whole scene is still centred around the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, we clearly see here the seed that was sown was the Word of the Kingdom and it was sown in the heart of the ones who heard it.

Now, I’m convinced that today, when we hear the Word relating to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to the forgiveness of sin, in other words the Gospel of Grace, that the exact same process takes place as Jesus is showing here with the Word of the Kingdom.

Jesus says here that when a person doesn’t understand that Word, Satan, the wicked one comes and snatches it away from the heart. Satan obviously has this ability.

 

 

Mattew 13:20-21

But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

 

Notice that the persecution here arises quote, “for the Word’s sake”.

These rocky–ground folk are the opposite of the first group.

It was the Devil who took the Word away from them, but the flesh is the culprit with this group.

This person’s not an accidental hearer of the Word, like the last one. He’s heard it, receives it and understands, to a degree, what he hears. He’s often the one that gets all the historical facts right and will even talk about His belief in the Word.

The trouble here is that there’s no real softness of heart where the Word can take root. Instead, there’s a hardness of heart, a pride, which is never broken by the word.

Just like the ones who Jesus is referring to here who received the Word of the Kingdom, the picture also fits the stony ground Christian today.

They go along to church warm and fuzzy, and emotional. They often shed tears and they’re outwardly very moved by the message or the music. There’s a lot of outward froth and bubble but they never let the Word take root in them. They like church and the social aspect but don’t fully accept the Word of God. This is also true of serial churchgoers who religiously attend church out of a sense of duty or tradition habit. These ones sit in the pew year after year but never get the real reason church even exists, much less become firmly grounded in the Word.

Then when the circumstances of life bring tribulation or persecution their way these people buckle and turn from the Word.

 

Now to Matthew 13:22

Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

With these folk the world crowds out the Word of God like weeds in a flower bed.

The Devil got the wayside folk, and the flesh took care of the rocky–ground folk, but the world chokes out the Word for this class of hearers. The cares of the world move in. Sometimes it’s poverty, and other times it’s the deceitfulness of riches.

What’s going on in the world about them grasps these ones by the throat and they become obsessed with those things.

Many people in the day when Jesus gave this parable let the cares of the world crowd out the Word of God and it’s just as true today.

Here’s what the apostle Paul says about these people Israel and it directly relates to this parable.

Romans 10:17-21,

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: “THEIR SOUND HAS GONE OUT TO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.” (Paul’s quoting from Psalm 19:4 here).

But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: “I WILL PROVOKE YOU TO JEALOUSY BY THOSE WHO ARE NOT A NATION, I WILL MOVE YOU TO ANGER BY A FOOLISH NATION.” This is from Deuteronomy 32:22. 

But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME; I WAS MADE MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.” (Here Paul quotes Isaiah 65:1), 

But to Israel he says: “ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND CONTRARY PEOPLE.” (Pauls quoting Isaiah again, this time 65:2).

Pauls saying here that prophecy is being fulfilled by Israel hearing the Word and rejecting it.

We should note here that these three types of soil don’t represent three types of believers. They’re not believers at all! They’ve heard the Word and have received it, but they don’t believe it.

 

Some seed fell on good ground, and The Lord interprets this for us.

Verse 23,

But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” 

 

These are the hearers who receive the Word and understand it. Some of them don’t bring forth much fruit—only thirtyfold, but some bring forth a hundredfold!

There must be an understanding of the Word.

In Acts 8:26-0, we hear of the Ethiopian eunuch, who was reading the Word from Isaiah 53:7-8, which describes a suffering servant who is led like a lamb to the slaughter and bears the sins of many. He didn’t understand but he wanted to understand it and that was the key.

So, the Spirit of God put Philip there to ride along with the Ethiopian and explain the Word to him, that in this prophecy written 700 years before Christ came to earth, the One who was led as a sheep to the slaughter was the Lord Jesus Christ, that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The Ethiopian believed and received Him.

Philip was sowing the seed of the Word of God. This is a Kingdom–of–Heaven situation as it reveals that the Sower, the Lord Jesus Christ, is sowing the seed of the Word of God in the world and that the Holy Spirit applies it to the hearts of those who want to believe.

Until next time my friend may God give each of us a clear understanding of His Word.