Gospel of Matthew Chapter 13 -- John Karmelich

 

 

1.                  A common idiom of our day is, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

a)                  Did you know this was “biblical”?

b)                  It is in the spiritual sense.  The spiritual rich get richer and the spiritually poor get poorer.

c)                  “He (Jesus) replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. (Luke 19:26, NIV)

d)                 This means that those who seek God grow in their maturity.  They become more “spiritually rich” as they learn to trust God more and more in their relationship.

e)                  Those who turn away from God also grow more spiritually poor.

f)                   OK John, that is interesting.  What does this have to do with Chapter 13?

i)                    So glad you asked!  J

2.                  Chapter 13 is, with the exception of a few verses, Jesus talking in parables.

a)                  Parables are stories and illustrations designed to make a point.

b)                  There are 7 parables in this chapter. 

i)                    Jesus only explains two of them and only to his disciples in private.

c)                  The good news of Chapter 13 is Jesus explains why he speaks in parables:

i)                    “He (Jesus) replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you (i.e., my disciples), but not to them (non-believers). 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.   (Verses 11-12 of Chapter 13).

ii)                  Jesus speaks in parables so that the “spiritually lazy” will ignore him.

iii)                Let’s face it, if you don’t care about Jesus, you have no interest to figure out what Jesus meant by the parables.

iv)                If you are prayfully studying your bible, or sitting there reading these notes,
you desire to grow spiritually as you want to know what Jesus meant.

v)                  Speaking in parables was Jesus way of separating those who want to follow Jesus from those who didn’t. 

a)                  “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” 
(Proverbs 8:17 NIV)

3.                  Now that we know Jesus style of speaking in Chapter 13, what is the topic of the chapter?

a)                  The topic is “God’s kingdom”.  It refers to those who follow Jesus and have an eternal reward in heaven for turning their lives over to Him.

b)                  The topic is designed to be taught only to those who desire to be part of that kingdom.  Thus the necessity of Jesus speaking in parables.

c)                  There are lots of parables in this chapter. 

i)                    Some are to illustrate life here on earth as followers in Jesus.

ii)                  Some are to illustrate eternal judgments and rewards.

iii)                Some are to illustrate how Jesus is to separate believers from non-believers.

iv)                Others illustrate the Gospel message itself, of Jesus paying the price of our sins.

4.                  One of the big-picture ideas to get about the bible is that Christian believers are not the only ones in heaven, but somehow we are “more special” than say, Old Testament saints or those who make it into heaven with only a limited knowledge of Jesus.

a)                  There are two judgments discussed in Revelation Chapter 20.

b)                  The first is only for believers.  At this time we are rewarded for our service for Christ.

c)                  The second judgment, a thousand years later, is for everyone else.  You get the impression that some do make it into heaven in this judgment but most do not.

d)                 My point is that among the group that makes it into heaven, the Christian New Testament believers are a special “subset” of all of those who spend eternity in heaven.

i)                    “But you (believers in Jesus) are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1st Peter 2:9, NIV)

e)                  Because we are a “special people” Jesus take the time to describe what is in store for believers, both on earth and in heaven.  That is the purpose of Chapter 13.

5.                  There are 58 verses today.  Time to get going!  Verse 1:  That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.

a)                  There are some people who believe this is a collection of parables that Matthew combined in Chapter 13.  Notice the opening words of Verse 1:  “That same day”.

b)                  I take the view that Matthew, trained as a Roman tax collector, knew “Roman shorthand” and could write fast.  Jesus could have also “filled in the blanks” for him later.  J

i)                    My point is simply that all of these parables were given at one time.

c)                  Jesus sat in a boat a little distance off the shore.

i)                    This prevented people from thronging to him.

ii)                  Further, the water surface acts as a natural sound amplifier to the shores.  Remember there were no microphones in those days.

6.                  Verse 3:  Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear."

a)                  Verses 3-9 are one of the most famous parables in the bible. 

b)                  This same parable is also told in Mark’s and Luke’s Gospel.

c)                  It describes a farmer sowing seed in the ground.  There are four results.

i)                    One type falls on hard ground, and the birds ate it up.

ii)                  One type falls on rocky ground, and it failed to take root when the sun scorched it.

iii)                One type falls among thorns that choked up the plants.

iv)                The last type fell on “good soil” and produced a crop.

v)                  In this agriculture society a “good crop” would be eight times the amount of produce based on the seed.  Therefore, when Jesus said the “good crop” produces 100, 60 or 30 times, he meant something greater than “normal” crop.

d)                 Now the good news is the Jesus explains this parable.  It makes my job easy.  J

i)                    Verse 18 says, “"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:”

e)                  Let’s break up this paragraph with the verses that tie together with these verses.

i)                    Verse 3:  A farmer went out to sow his seed.  4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

ii)                  Verse 19:  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.

iii)                The first thing we notice is that Jesus is not being literal.

a)                  I take the view that the best way to interpret the bible is the literal view.

b)                  There are times when not to take your bible literally.  The obvious time is when the author himself does not interpret the text as being literal.

iv)                The second thing to notice is that the “seed” refers to the Gospel message.  This is obvious by comparing Verses 3-4 with Verse 19.

v)                  By the same comparison “birds” are symbolically used to describe Satan/demons.

a)                  God is not anti-bird. J Birds are simply used in this parable as an illustration.  The same way birds will quickly swoop down and eat seeds laying on a hard ground, so Satan will “swoop up” God’s word before it can take root in a person.

b)                  There are many people who will hear the gospel message and simply walk away.  They won’t get it.  These people fall into this category.

f)                   Let’s tie the next pair together:

i)                    Verse 5:  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

ii)                  Verse 20:  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. 21 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.

iii)                For a plant to survive, it must develop strong roots.  If not, the wind will knock it over or the hot sun will dehydrate it.  The same applies to our spiritual condition.  One can hear the gospel message and get excited.  Yet later, when trouble or persecution comes, they walk away.

a)                  One “promise” to all Christians is that we will be persecuted. (2 Tim. 3:12)

(1)               Notice Verse 21 says, “Persecution comes because of the word”.

b)                  Satan doesn’t want more Christians.  Therefore, he focuses his energy on persecuting Christians so they won’t be effective witnesses for Christ.

c)                  Satan reads his bible too!  J He knows that many who initially follow Jesus will turn away because of persecution.  Therefore, Satan initiates persecution in order to discourage Christians to pray and be good witnesses to other potential Christians.

g)                  Let’s tie the third pair together:

i)                    Verse 7:  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

ii)                  Verse 22:  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.

iii)                The “thrones” represent the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth.

iv)                Remember that to follow Jesus is a full time commitment.

a)                  Following Jesus is not just saying, “I believe in Jesus, then just living your life as you always have.  It is a lifelong commitment.  (Yes we have bad days where we fail.  It is not about perfection.  This is about commitment.)

(1)               Jesus said, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  (Matthew 10:38-39, NIV)

b)                  Back to Verse 7 and 22, Jesus is comparing “worrying” and going after riches as “choking” our relationship with Jesus. 

(1)               If we are focusing our lives on something other than God, (e.g., worrying about things, or pursing material aspects) than we are not focusing on God.

(2)               Worrying is the opposite of faith.  Worrying is taking responsibility upon yourself that God never intended for you to take.

h)                 Finally, we have the “good” pair of verses:

i)                    Verse 8:  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

ii)                  Verse 23: 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."

a)                  To those who “take root” in Jesus, he promises us a crop greater than what can be naturally produced.  Again, a typical ratio of seed to crop is 8 times.

b)                  To live a life in service to God is to do greater things that what can be accomplished by living for your own set of goals or accomplishments.

(1)               “I (Jesus) tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”  (John 14:12, NIV)

c)                  The mistake we make is that we look at our government leaders or captains of industry and think, “Oh, these are great men who have accomplished far more than I’ll ever accomplish”.

(1)               First of all, I’m not putting down people like that.

(2)               God raises up leaders like that in society.

(3)               I believe that greater rewards in heaven await those who live in service to God than these worldly leaders.  We are taking steps to lead people to eternity.  Praying for others salvation, being a good witness to others, living in service for Christ, produces “fruit” at a rate of 100, 60 or 30.

(4)               Just exactly “how much” fruit we produce is up to God, and not us.  Our job is to make ourselves available to God and step out in faith and let God use us.  The results are his problem.  He only promises us that what we produce for God is far greater than what we can naturally produce on our own.

d)                 I also want to discuss the literalness of “100, 60 or 30”. 

(1)               There are commentaries filled with speculation as to what those numbers “secretly mean”. 

(2)               I believe Jesus choose those numbers simply to illustrate that as believers we will produce far greater fruit than what is common in agriculture.  The varying number means that some will produce more than others.  That is it.

i)                    In Verse 9, Jesus ends this parable with:  “He who has ears, let him hear."

i)                    This is Jesus trademark expression. 

ii)                  It goes back to my opening premise of the “spiritually rich get richer and the spiritually poor get poorer”.  Jesus desires that we read and hear these verses and let them sink into our heads about what they mean and how to apply them.

j)                    Some commentators I read take the “4 soils” parable, that we read here one step further:

i)                    They say that all four types can apply to all believers:

ii)                  There may be some aspects of our lives that we haven’t given over to God and therefore the “birds eat that part of the soil”.

iii)                There may be some aspects, or some days when we fear persecution or care more about material things where we are not living in service to God.

iv)                There are other days when we pray and study God’s word, and make ourselves available to God, where God does use us.

v)                  While this pattern can be true, I do believe they are reading this out of context.

vi)                Jesus describes this parable being about different types of people, not about “good days” and “bad days” for the Christian.  Therefore I disagree with this view.

7.                  Verse 10:  The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

a)                  I talked about this set of verses in the opening. 

b)                  The disciples are asking why Jesus is talking in parables and not blunt sentences.

c)                  Verses 11-17 are Jesus’ response to that question.

d)                 “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you (us!)”.

e)                  Jesus talks in parables so those who seek God’s kingdom diligently study and learn what it is all about.

f)                   This is Jesus “weeding out” program, to separate the true believers from those who don’t care about Christianity.

g)                  What makes this concept so special is that it brings the “free-will” aspect into our lives.

i)                    People can willfully choose to not learn more about Jesus.

ii)                  This means they will have no excuse on judgment day.

iii)                That is why Jesus chooses this method of teaching.

8.                  Verse 13:  This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.  14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: " `You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 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.'

a)                  Verse 15 is a quote of Isaiah 6, Verses 9-10.

b)                  Jesus is saying he speaks in parables to fulfill the prophecy as listed in Isaiah.

c)                  Let me try to paraphrase what Isaiah is saying, “The gospel message is obvious for anyone who hears it.  If you think about it logically it makes sense.  But since you willfully choose to reject Jesus, I God-the-Father, will make your hearts (not your heads!) “cold” to understanding the message.”

i)                    Remember my opening premise of the “spiritually rich get richer and the spiritually poor get poorer”?  That is what is being taught in Isaiah.

ii)                  Whether we like it or not, God’s redemptive plan is saying in effect, “If you choose to willfully reject God, I’ll make it harder and harder for you to change”.

d)                 Why is that?  Doesn’t God want everyone to be saved?

i)                    First of all, yes he does.  (See 1st Timothy 2:4 for verification!)

ii)                  I believe part of it has to do with our free will.  God will not violate our free will.  The gospel message is logical to those who contemplate it.  Yet, if you willfully choose to accept the gospel message, God is saying in effect “Ok, if that is what you want, I’ll make it so you can’t accept it”.

iii)                Is there a point of no return?  I don’t know that point.  I pray for many around me that their heart be opened to the truth.  Only God the Father knows who will be saved and who won’t.  Our job is not to worry about that and pray for all people.

9.                  Verse 16:  But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.

a)                  Jesus says that we are to be grateful that God choose us and have eternal salvation.  I don’t know why God choose me and not others, but I am grateful He did and I want to live out my life here on earth in gratitude of that fact.

b)                  I do pray for the “lost”, but at the same time I am grateful that God choose me.

10.              Verse 17:  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.

a)                  I stated earlier that Christians are a “special subset” of all those who get to spend eternity in the presence of God in heaven.

i)                    In that sense, we are blessed because we get to understand God’s greater purpose.

b)                  Let’s talk about the phrase “many prophets and righteous men”.

i)                    This indicates to me that many Old Testament people spend eternity with God.

ii)                  The Old Testament Prophets had “some” understanding of Jesus and the Messiah.

iii)                It also means they desired to see the work of the Messiah (Jesus).

iv)                They may not have fully comprehended it, but they wanted to see it.

11.              Verses 18-23 have already been discussed.

a)                  This is the explanation of the “four types of soil” parable given in Verses 3-8.

b)                  Therefore, to save time, I’m moving on to the next verse.

c)                  Verses 10-23 are “out of time” of the rest of the chapter.

i)                    Notice Verse 10 says, “The disciples came to him and asked”.

ii)                  This means that Verses 10-23 are not part of the “parable speech” given from Jesus off of a boat on the shores of Lake Galilee to a large crowd.

iii)                These verses were given later in time as an explanation of the verses.

12.              Beginning in Verse 24, we have a bunch of other parable stories.

a)                  Each one begins with the phrase “He (Jesus) told them another parable.

b)                  Who is Jesus speaking to in Verse 24?  Are “them” the disciples or the crowds?

c)                  The answer is Verse 36 of this chapter:

i)                    Then he (Jesus) left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

ii)                  This means that the other parables were spoken to the “crowd” and not just to the 12 disciples. 

iii)                It is given to the disciples and to us to understand the meaning of the parables, but not the crowds.

13.              Verse 24:  Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 "The owner's servants came to him and said, `Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 28 " `An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, `Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 29 " `No,' he answered, `because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

a)                  This is the only other parable where Jesus gives an explanation in Verses 37-43.

b)                  Like last time, I’ll break this up and tie the parable verses with the explanation.

c)                  Let’s break this paragraph up into bite-size chunks with the explaining verses:

d)                 Here is the first set of comparative verses:

i)                    Vs. 24: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.”

ii)                  Vs. 37-38a: “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom.”

iii)                The first thing to notice is that Jesus is not being literal.

a)                  He is not referring to a literal field and literal wheat.

b)                  Verse 37 teaches us that the one sowing the “good seed” is the Son of Man.  This is a title of Jesus himself.

c)                  The seed itself represents the “sons of the kingdom”, which is believers.

d)                 The field is the world, which means the people of the world.

e)                  Now, let’s look at the next set of comparisons:

i)                    Verse 25:  “But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.”

ii)                  Verse 38b-39a: “The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. “

iii)                In this parable, the enemy itself is the devil.  The “weeds” the sons of the evil one.

a)                  Therefore, are the weeds referring to demons or non-believers?

b)                  I would argue non-believers, because Verse 25 says that the enemy (devil) sowed “weeds” among the wheat.

c)                  I would argue that this is referring to false believers in the church. 

(1)               This would include cult members who claim they Christians.

(2)               It would include those who go to church, but don’t really believe it.

(3)               It would include false-prophets among church members.

(4)               It would include those who started out sincere, but the influence of Satan himself caused these people to turn away.

iv)                Notice it says, “while everyone was sleeping” is when the enemy sowed.

a)                  You get the impression that because the church’s “guard was down”, is when the devil (“enemy”) allows false believers in the church.

b)                  What pop’s in my head is the fact that the night before Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus asked Peter to pray with him three times.  All three times Peter fell asleep.