Lesson for September 20, 2020
The Parables of Jesus
Lesson 4
The Sheep and the Pit
This parable found in Matthew 12:10-14 was in response to a question by the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus. A man with a withered hand had come to Jesus to be healed. Their question was if it was lawful to heal a person on the Sabbath. So, Jesus asked them if they would rescue one of their sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath. The answer was obvious and understood to be yes. Then Jesus said how much more valuable is a man than sheep. So, He said it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath (or any day by implication). Then He healed the man’s hand.
The application is that we are to be producing divine good every day by living our spiritual lives and representing our Savior Jesus Christ. If the Sabbath was a holy day, what better day to do good. The Pharisees were so caught up in their religion and traditions that doing anything on the Sabbath was considered a sin. Jesus was all about grace unlike the Pharisees who were all about legalism.
The Sower, the Seed and the Soils
This parable is found in Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23. Jesus now takes simple narratives and matches them up with doctrine.
The first narrative is found in Matthew 13 verses 4 and 19. Verse 4 gives the narrative; verse 19 gives the explanation. We have a person who rejects the Gospel. So, in this first narrative we have an unbeliever. Verse 3b-4 says, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.” The seeds, which represent the Gospel, fell on ground representing an unbeliever and the ground was hard and crusty next to the road representing the negative volition. Instead of making it into the soil where it could grow, it just laid on top. Then the birds came and ate it. Verse 19 explains, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.” The fowls are representative of Satan and his world system. When a person rejects Christ as Savior he has succumb to the influence of Satan’s cosmic system. The word “heart” refers to the thinking part of the mind. So, the Gospel was in his mind (sown), he rejected it (hard, crusty road), and in rejecting it he is unable to understand it (negative volition). The Holy Spirit made it understandable, but the unbeliever refused to understand it by not believing it. So, Satan succeeded in this case in keeping an unbeliever from believing the truth of the Gospel. This is a principle found in II Corinthians 4:3-4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
The second narrative is found in Matthew 13 verses 5-6 and verses 20-21. Verses 5-6 give the narrative and verses 20-21 give the explanation. Now we have a believer. Verses 5-6 say, “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.” This narrative describes a believer minus doctrine. Others refers to the “seeds” of the Gospel being sown, rocky places with not much soil represents a believer who accepted the Gospel by faith in Jesus Christ, the soil meaning there was position volition. The seeds functioned properly in the ground and then they started to sprout. They sprouted very soon because of the shallow ground. When they did sprout, there was no depth of soil and the sun scorched them and they died.
Verses 20 -21 give the explanation. Verses 20-21 say, “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.” The firm root that was lacking in this believer means that after he believed in Jesus Christ for salvation, he failed to advance in the spiritual life because of adversity and persecution caused by his faith in Christ (the word). Believing in Jesus Christ as Savior often causes strife and divisions among families and friends. The adversity and persecution may not be handled by a new believer because of no doctrine in the soul to combat it. The root is Bible doctrine, he had no root yet. This is why it is so important to begin studying the Word of God immediately when you believe in Jesus Christ.
The third narrative is found in Matthew 13 verse 7 and verse 22. Verse 7-8 give the narrative and verse 22 gives the explanation. Once again, we have a believer. Verse 7 says,“Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.” This believer had a little more doctrine, but he did not succeed either. Once again, others represent the “seeds” of the Gospel being sown, among the thorns still refers to a believer with positive volition because the seeds did come up. Unfortunately, the thorns also came up and they choked out the new sprouts of the seed on the Gospel.
Verse 22 gives the explanation. Verse 22 says, “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” This believer had a little more doctrine and had begun to learn and apply, but the details of life choked out any application of doctrine after a time. The worry of the world refers to Satan’s world system and its negative influence on this believer. Worry is a mental attitude sin that indicates that this believer was not relying on God to protect, to provide and to guide him. Instead of using the Faith-Rest Technique, this believer was relying on Human Viewpoint Thinking and his own human power. He was being deceived by the cosmic system of Satan. The deceitfulness of riches doesn’t even mean that this person was rich, it just means that it was first in his scale of values. So not only did he have the mental attitude sin of worry, but he had a false scale of values. This is an indication that he had some doctrine but not enough to change his scale of values. He either didn’t know or was not using the Problem-Solving Devices to handle the deceitfulness wealth. And because this believer could not overcome the mental attitude sins, fear, worry, envy, jealousy, etc., and because he had a false scale of values, he never succeeds.
The fourth narrative is found in Matthew 13 verse 8 and verse 23. Verse 8 gives the narrative and verse 23 gives the explanation. Once again, we have a believer. Verse 8 says,“And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” This believer had learned Bible doctrine and was advancing in the spiritual life by consistently applying the truth he had learned. Others represents the “seeds” of the Gospel, the good soil represents positive volition and yielded a crop represents spiritual growth.
Verse 23 gives the explanation. Verse 23 says, “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” This believer had learned Bible doctrine (understood it) and had been consistent in applying it. He had continued with Bible doctrine for a period of time and the result was divine production (bears fruit). We have three categories of believers who were advancing in the spiritual life. The first category was those believers who advanced to spiritual maturity and beyond (hundredfold). The second category was those believers who reached spiritual autonomy (sixtyfold). The third category was those believers who reached spiritual self-esteem (thirtyfold).
The Tares and the Wheat
This parable is found in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. Matthew 13 verses 24-30 give the narrative and verses 36-43 give the explanation. Matthew 13:24-30 says, “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’ This parable teaches the disciples about the end of the Millennium. Though this parable has application to any age, it was teaching specifically about what will happen at the end of the Millennium. Tares were weeds called darnel that looked similar to wheat but were not edible. When they were cooked with the wheat, they caused the food to be bitter and not edible. Jesus was talking about believers and unbelievers living together. The time of the harvest is when believers go to Heaven for all eternity and the unbelievers go into the Lake of Fire for all eternity.
Verses 36-43 give the explanation. Verses 36-43 say, “Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’ And He said, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.’” As we see from the explanation that Jesus gave, there will always be believers and unbelievers living together. Jesus is the One Who plants the good seed of the wheat, analogous to believers. And Satan is the one who plants the tares among the wheat analogous to unbelievers. The slaves in the parable are elect angels who do the harvesting of the crop. This parable teaches that the harvest for each dispensation occurs at the end of that particular age. In this case, it is the end of Millennium when Satan and those who followed him in the Gog and Magog rebellion at the end of the Millennium are destroyed and cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity.
The Mustard Seed
This Parable is found in Matthew 13:31-32. Verse 31-32 says, “He presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” This parable describes how the Kingdom of Heaven grows from a small seed to covering the entire planet during the Millennium. It also describes how the seed of the Gospel when believed by a person grows spiritually as that believer embraces the Word of God through study and application of Bible doctrine to their daily experience. The growth of the number of spiritually mature believers is like a tree where there is protection and safety from God (the birds nesting in the tree branches), which will be the case in the Millennium.
The Leaven
This parable is found in Matthew 13:33. Verse 33 says, “He spoke another parable to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.’” Leaven is always used in a bad way; leaven always depicts evil in the Scripture. The true Biblical meaning of leaven is found in Exodus 12:8, 15, 19; 13:7; 34:25, and it is always evil. There are five kinds of leaven in the New Testament and they are all evil: the leaven of Herod (worldliness), Mark 8:15; the leaven of the Sadducees (rationalism or human viewpoint of life), Mark 16:6; the leaven of the Pharisees(religion and legalism), Mark 8:15, Luke 12:1; the leaven of the Galatians (legalism for salvation and spirituality), Galatians 5:9,; the leaven of the Corinthians (sensual pleasure), I Corinthians 5:6,7. Even though Satan will be bound for 1000 years during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, there will be those who reject Him as Savior.
Hidden Treasures
This parable is found in Matthew 13:44. Verse 44 says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” A treasure is believers. The field is the world. A man is Jesus Christ. Sells all he has and buys that field is the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. God is not willing that anyone should perish so he sent Jesus into the world (field) to die on the Cross for all those in the “field.” The treasure however is those who believe in Christ as Savior. Those who reject Christ are not treasure and are not stored away (hid again). Hid again means believers are eternally saved and secure in Christ. Those who reject Christ will stand before Him at the Great White Throne Judgment and give account regarding there failure to believe in Him. There ultimate sentence will be the Lake of Fire.
The Costly Pearl
This parable is found in Matthew 13:45-46. Verses 45-46 say,“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls,and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” A merchant is Jesus Christ. Fine pearls are those who are positive toward the Gospel. One pearl of great value is the one who believe in Christ as Savior. Sells all he had and bought it is the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The pearl is kept by the merchant (Christ) meaning an eternal home in Heaven.
The Dragnet
This parable is found in Matthew 13:47-50. Verses 47-50 say, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So, it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous,and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Like the previous parables Jesus was teaching the separation of believers and unbelievers at the end of the Millennium. This parable is the separating of the good fish (believers) and the bad fish (unbelievers). During the battle of Gog and Magog unbelievers join Satan to fight against Jesus and believers in a final attempt to overthrow the sovereign rulership of Jesus Christ. Of course, he fails in his attempt and is finally for all eternity cast into the Lake of Fire along with those who followed his rebellion.