Beloved, I am glad to share with you today on the kingdom of God explained through the seven parables of the Lord Jesus, namely that of the sower, of the tares, of the mustard seed, of the leaven, of the hidden treasure, of the pearl, of the net. We find this in Mat 13.1-52 from where we noted that the hearts of the Hebrew people had hardened, and that they had voluntarily closed their eyes and blocked their ears. This is why he now chooses to speak to them in parables, even though he reserves his teachings only to his disciples. As you will see in the summary below, this is a very rich chapter on understanding the kingdom of heaven.
Already, in the parable of the sower, we note that the Lord Jesus is always ready to explain to his people what they are eager to understand, by saying why he speaks in parable, before providing the explanation. Let’s ask the Lord God to explain His Word to us. For Israel’s rejection of the Messiah has yet another consequence, since finding no fruit to reap among his people, the Lord will now sow the world with the word of the Gospel or “the implanted word” which has the power to save souls (Jac. 1.19-27).
But, if there is only one kind of seed, all are far from receiving the Word in the same way, and among those who hear the word, the Lord in his perfect knowledge of the human heart, distinguishes four classes of people. The first is compared to the beaten ground of the path, which has become hard from being trampled by everyone. Would our hearts be like this path the world goes back and forth, so that the Word can no longer enter it? No.
Others, like these “stony places”, are superficial spirits, for their conscience has not been deeply plowed in order to be able to forsake sin. And the fleeting emotion felt upon hearing the gospel is only the appearance of faith. So that’s someone who will say when they come out of a sermon: “This speaker has spoken well; it was really beautiful; I will come back to hear it ”. Because there is a certain satisfaction there, especially if the preacher knows how to touch the feelings. But the test will come. For the world looks with displeasure at the effects of the Word in a soul, however superficial they may be, so that those who show the changes that have taken place are quickly exposed to mockery and even persecution, as well as other tribulations.
So seeing the painful consequences that result from having received the Word, they withdraw and it’s all over; like wheat in a rock garden that springs up immediately, when the sun hits it, it dries up quickly, for it has no root. And the conscience has not been exercised, for the heart must be plowed by the word of God for lasting results to occur, since the Word never produces an effect pleasing to the senses to begin with, because it shows to the sinner the state of his heart and all the evil in it.
But if true faith necessarily has invisible roots, it’s by its visible fruit that it makes itself known. For without works, faith is dead, choked like those grains raised in the midst of thorns (Jac. 2.14-26). And those who are sown in thorns are those who hear the Word which also produces outward effects, like a stalk of wheat in a bush; it can reach a certain height, even bear an ear, but without fruit. For worries are a kind of thorn that chokes the Word of life; that’s all the present century can make a man worried about, and how many causes of worry there are!
For to a soul who has not been led by the Word to put his trust in God and who does not know him as that Father who knows what we need, everything causes worry; and it is still worried; it admits that you have to deal with the Word, but that Word, immediately choked, cannot produce fruit. Then there is another kind of thorn that stifles the Word in which man places his trust: these are riches; because we desire them and we never tire of working to obtain them. Meanwhile, what can the Word do? And what does wealth give? Disappointment for example; one is the victim of their deception, because they produce neither lasting satisfaction nor peace; and they leave you or you should leave them, and what about a Christianity without fruit and without value, neither for the soul, nor for God?
Fortunately, the seed also fell in good soil where the ear will be able to ripen in its season: one grain gave a hundred, another sixty, and another thirty. Here’s a man who understands the Word. His heart was prepared as we have seen in speaking of those who were sown in stony places. Conscience has been plowed with truth, and when the outward manifestations of life take place, real fruit is produced. It flows from divine life to the glory of God. The fruit is the manifestation of the life of God in the believer in whatever form. Only this fruit is pleasing to God and remains for eternity. May we all carry, not only thirty, not sixty, but a hundred! As Paul said to the Philippians: “Being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ to the glory and to the praise of God.”
Let’s explain this further. First, the seed sown along the path symbolizes the heart that does not understand the Word. He does not understand. Why? Does he lack intelligence? Is he deaf? No, but his heart is like the hard road because everyone goes on it, their heart is not there; and they are distracted by games, readings, walks, as well as their studies, work, business, not to mention bad things in themselves. The seed then stays on the surface, and the devil has soon taken it away.
Then, from the parable of the tares, we learn that the enemy not only stole the good seed whenever he could, but also sowed bad seed while men slept. Because spiritual sleep puts us at the mercy of all bad influences. Hence the need to be continually exhorted to vigilance (Mark 13.28-37; 1 P 5.8-9).
This mixture which characterizes Christian teaching today is also illustrated in another way by the parable of the weeds of the field which the Lord explains here. Indeed, we know that the name Christian is carried today by all who are baptized, whether or not they are true children of God. And the Lord endures this state of affairs until the day of harvest (Revelation 14.13-20). He will then show by the final fate of each other what he thought of each of them. But instead of being vigilant so that the Word is presented and maintained in its purity as the Lord and the apostles had taught it, men rather allowed to enter with false doctrines and lifeless people that the tares represents, and today they form the majority in Christendom.
So at harvest time will be the sorting by the angels. And the harvest in the Word is the figure of judgment which separates the wicked from the righteous. This is what the Lord said to the disciples: “In the time of harvest I will say to the reapers: First pluck up the weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat in my barn.” That time is almost here.
For “he who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; and the field is the world; and the good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the tares are the children of the wicked; and the enemy who sowed it is the devil; and the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels ”. “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so will the end of the world be. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather up all scandals and those who do iniquity out of his kingdom, and they will cast them into the fiery furnace: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Who has ears to hear, let him hear ”.
And in the six “parables of the kingdom” which follow that of the sower, the Lord Jesus exposes what will be the result of his sowing in this world. The parable of the mustard seed becoming a great tree describes the outward form assumed by the kingdom of heaven after the rejection of the king, while that of the leaven hidden in the dough emphasizes a secret work that alters its character. It is the time of the responsible Church. After a very small beginning with a few disciples, Christianity had the great development that we know it. But its success and its spread in the world are by no means proof of God’s blessing and approval and do not protect it from the attacks of the devil. For he was early invaded by evil.
For “the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid among three measures of flour, until all was leavened.” It is another form of evil that characterizes the kingdom. The leaven is the symbol of the false doctrine introduced into the kingdom from the beginning and which penetrated the whole mass, corrupting divine teaching, so as to make Christianity a religion which allows men to live without being worried by the truth who always judges them.
These are the three outward aspects which characterize the kingdom of heaven in the absence of the king: 1° a mixture of good and bad; 2° an earthly power; 3° the false doctrine which has pervaded everything with its corrupting principles. The Lord Jesus spoke these words before the crowd, according to the words of Psalm 78.2 “I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old.” And in the last three he set forth what is in his heart amid the various forms of evil that the kingdom assumes.
Then the brief parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl point out two wonderful truths: first, the very great price that Christ Jesus attached to his Church and paid to acquire it; for He sold all that he had and he gave even his life. Then, the joy he finds in it. Finally, the net of the gospel is cast into the sea of peoples. The Lord had announced to his disciples that he would make them fishers of men. So here are the servants at work. But not all fish are good, nor are all Christians by name true believers! For it is the Word that makes it possible to distinguish them: the good fish can be recognized by its scales and fins (Lev. 11: 9-12) and the true Christian by its moral armor, by its capacity to resist penetration and destruction and the driving current of this world.
Along with the treasure that the Lord found in his own, this parable shows us what the disciple has in His Word. Is it for each of us the treasure from which we know how to draw “new things and old things”? Alas! the unbelief of the crowds shows that they see in Jesus only “the son of the carpenter”. So that his grace cannot be exercised towards them. However, note that it was no accident that the Lord came out, for the house is empty now because Christ was rejected. So he takes his place in a boat on the sea, and from there he preaches to the crowds gathered around him. Now the sea, in the Word, is often taken as a symbol of the nations in a state of confusion; This is generally where people of the earth outside Israel were found, and it’s there now that God will operate. These are facts that show us the change that results from the rejection of Christ, for the Jews and for the nations.
So the Lord Jesus had come to seek fruit in Israel, which he likened to a vine (Psa 80.9-17; Isa 5.1-7); but, as we have often said, without the life of God, it is impossible for man to bear fruit for God, despite all the care that God gave him, as he did with Israel. So to obtain fruit, the Eternal God changes his way of acting because instead of claiming from our natural bad heart the good that it cannot produce, he first sows his Word which produces if it is received by faith, a new nature through which God can obtain what he has claimed in vain from man in the flesh. For the field where the Word is sown is not only Israel; this is where the Lord and the apostles began, but the whole world, and the ground where the word is sown is man’s heart. Then, the grounds intended to receive the seed are separated from those which are not cultivated; and we therefore only sow on good soil.
So the disciples asked the Lord why he spoke to the crowds in parables. His answer shows that now he is making a difference between the mass of people and those who listen to his Word and receive it. Who are those whom the Lord can recognize as members of His body in the midst of all this Christian profession? These are the ones who received him as Savior and Lord and who put his words into practice.
For “He loved the assembly his Church, and gave himself up for it,” in order to possess it forever. What a price it has for his heart, as well as all those who will benefit from his dedication until death, the death of the cross! Through the sad history of the kingdom, presented in the first three parables, the Lord sees there this treasure, this pearl, always the object of his joy and his love. So in the last three parables it is all about what is good. Here, the fishermen, having seen the results of the fishing, take care of only good fish. In the parable of the weeds, it was necessary to let everything grow until the harvest, although the workers wanted to take care of the bad plants to destroy them, but this was neither the time nor their business.
So, good fish had fins and scales; all who did not display these characteristic signs were unclean, however good they might appear to the judgment of the fisherman. Likewise today, if a servant of God wants to recognize among those who bear the name of Christians, which must be set apart as having divine life, he does not rely on his own judgment, but he resorts to the Word which indicates the characters of the true believers, represented by those of the good fish. So the believer must have what corresponds to the fins, have the capacity to go upstream with the driving current of this world, thanks to the energy given by the life of God so as not to be diverted from the path of the Lord. Scales represent the ability to resist the influence of the world in which we live, while standing out from it. It is said that “whatever is born of God conquers the world” (1 John 5.4). So all those who carry in their walk these proofs of God’s life must be set apart from what has only the Christian profession without life.
- Let’s complete all this with a supplement of reading on particular privileges: Mt 13.11-12; Luke 10.23; Rom 5.2; 1 Co 2.10; Col 2.26-27; 1 Jn 2.
From all of the above, we note that the Lord Jesus had to bring to man what could produce fruit, true understanding of the Word being affirmed only of those who produce fruit. True understanding of the Word places a soul in connection with God, because the Word reveals God and expresses what he is. Because if you understand it, then you know it; and true knowledge of God (that is, of the Father and of his Son Jesus Christ) is eternal life. Then comes judgment executed by the Son of man on the wicked, who are cast into fire; and the manifestation of the righteous in glory. Our prayers are with you all in your efforts to bearing fruit.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite anyone who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me as follows:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you and ask forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as my Lord and personal Savior. I acknowledge that you died on the cross of Calvary and that you rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me each day to eternal life you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal to me and strengthen my heart and my faith so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me in your divine family so that I too can contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To you all worship, power, and glory, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be glad to respond to your queries and comments as necessary, before sharing with you next week on what Peter’s doubt means : “Lord, if it’s you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. ‘Come’, he said.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you profusely.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.