Matthew chapter 13, I want to continue our series in Matthew in this service this morning instead of our regular minor prophets that we're going through in this service for a few reasons. First, Matthew The series has reached a point where a little explanation is going to be helpful. This will be a topical message about parables. This will be more of a Bible lesson than it will be a formal sermon this morning. Secondly, we've reached a point in Zechariah where I don't want us to be constrained to deal with the text In a limited amount of time which of course in our first service we I know y'all are hearing this and going Oh, no the 1130 service. He's gonna preach forever. I won't I promise but I am excited about that text and I just want some more time to deal with it Also, I don't think it'll hurt to bounce back and forth between these series for those who are here on for all the worship services, they won't miss anything. And for those who aren't, it'll be an occasional reminder that you do miss something by not being here. So Matthew 13 is a turning point in Matthew's gospel as we've been going through it. And I mentioned back in the introduction to Matthew, that his gospel is arranged thematically. Not everything is in exact chronological order. I'm sure you remember this. It was only 47 sermons ago. He does maintain some chronological order in which things happened, but it's evident that there are sections of his gospel where he'll say, essentially, here is a collection of parables that Jesus told. So, for example, in Matthew 13, you can see in verse three, it says he spoke many things to them in parables, and in verse 24, another parable he put forth, and then verse 31, another parable he put forth, and verse 33, another parable he spoke. Right? So this is a collection of parables that Jesus told in order to teach. So this morning, we're not going to dive into any specific parable alone. I want to talk about what parables are, why they exist, how they function, why Jesus taught in parables. The answer to that might surprise you. So we're actually gonna start reading Matthew 13, starting at verse 10 through 17. It says the disciples came to him, and came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? 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, or in other words, this is why, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 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. 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. The parables of Jesus are some of the most well-known, well-regarded, and poorly understood sections of scripture. There are approximately, all told, 40 parables of Jesus. They are all found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke. There's none in John, although there are some parable-like passages there. All told, parables account for about a third, about 35% of the formal teaching of Jesus in the gospel. So I guess a reasonable place to begin is by defining a parable and why Jesus used them. So let's start off by asking, what is a parable? Very often, parables are described as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. However, it's a little bit more complicated than that. A parable was a common form of teaching, especially among the Jewish people. The word used in the Gospels in the original language in Greek for parable is the word parabola. And it means to set two things beside each other for comparison of their similarities. So the Greek prefix para means to be alongside or similar. So if you have parallel lines, those lines run alongside each other, there is a similarity between them. If you have a paramedic, he goes alongside a doctor. He is similar to a doctor. If you have a, a paramilitary unit, they are something like soldiers, right? There's a similarity there. So a parable is a story that is simple and it is set alongside, it is similar to a spiritual truth. In the Jewish culture, teaching in parables was common because it accomplished several goals. First, it gave the listener a well-known point of reference The basis for a parable was well known or easy to imagine. If Jesus in one place compares the kingdom of heaven to yeast rising as you make bread, that's because the people understood what it was to make bread and how yeast rose in that bread. And so there was something understandable to compare it to. Second, it creates a clear and vivid image, putting a visible face on an invisible truth. Third, parables tend to be relatively simple to understand on the surface of things. And fourth, parables also were easy to remember. And so they became a valuable tool in the Jewish culture for teaching. In Jesus's parables, He's always telling a story in order to illustrate a spiritual truth. Interestingly, it appears, Jesus did not really teach in parables much for the first two years of his ministry. It wasn't until the final year of his ministry, this event recorded in Matthew 13, that Jesus began to use parables as the primary means of public teaching. In private, His teaching would still be more direct. So for example, in the upper room discourse, he's sitting with his disciples. He's giving them very direct teaching. He's not using parables. But publicly, he would teach through parables and then often take the disciples aside and privately explain what the parables meant. That's what a parable is. To understand why Jesus taught in parables, you need to brace yourself for a reason that might surprise you. To understand why Jesus began doing this, think about the shift that occurs in Matthew chapter 13. Up in verse one, it says the same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside. So there's a reason Matthew's telling us this is the same day. We're not gonna get into everything in the chronology of events, but I want you to remember several things that have happened in Matthew's gospel leading up to this time. As we break up this gospel into several sermons, like we're number 48 this morning. It's easy to lose sight of how the narrative flows as Matthew is writing it. So John the Baptist has just been executed by King Herod. So the forerunner who's preparing people for Jesus has been rejected. Back in chapter 12, just before this, Jesus had cast out a demon and heals a man's blindness and his inability to speak. And the accusation from the religious leaders was, well, he doesn't have power from God. He's actually using the power of Satan to cast out demons. And Jesus responds by saying that is such blasphemy that it is unforgivable and they insist Give us a sign to prove who you are. And we talked last week that Jesus refuses. He refuses to give them a sign. He tells them that asking for a sign is yet another example of their wickedness and unfaithfulness. He is not gonna play the game where he does miracles on demand for skeptical bystanders. And so, For about two years, Jesus has been preaching and healing and teaching, but now the day has come when John, the forerunner, has been rejected and murdered. Jesus himself has been rejected by the religious leaders in the most unforgivable, blasphemous way. And by the time we get to the end of chapter 13, Jesus will have returned to his hometown of Nazareth and been rejected by those people. So faced with all this rejection and still surrounded by all these people, some of whom are believers in him, many of whom, most of whom are not believers in him, Matthew tells us that now Jesus begins teaching a little bit differently. Right? So up in chapter 13 verses 1 through 3, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside. Great multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into a boat and sat and taught the multitudes who stood on the shore. And then he spoke many things to them in parables. This is why he starts using parables. From now on, most of his public teaching is going to be in parables. He's, in the face of this rejection, he is not switching to parables in order to make hard truths easier for unbelievers to understand. That's not what he's doing. In fact, he's going to do this so that hard spiritual truths become virtually impossible for unbelievers to understand. Now, I know that sounds odd to say that Jesus taught in parables so the message would not be understood, but this is exactly what Matthew is telling us in chapter 13. In the beginning of chapter 13, we have the parable of the sower. It's a well-known story where Jesus says a farmer, a sower goes out and he's throwing out seed and some of it lands on different grounds, some of it grows, some of it doesn't. We'll look at that in future weeks. But for now, I just want you to just glance verses three through eight. You have the parable of the sower. Then, down in verses 18 through 23, there is Jesus explaining the parable of the sower to the disciples privately later. And what I want to look at this morning is the verses in between those that we've read. When Jesus finishes that parable of the sower, he says in verse 9, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Right, so he just started teaching a very different way. He ends that by saying, essentially, whoever can understand, let him understand. Now, do you think Jesus saying that makes it clear that he knows there are some people who can't understand? Well, of course, that's the case. And his disciples ask in verse 10, why do you speak to them in parables? And this is Jesus' answer, starting at verse 11. 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, that's why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 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 eyes, sorry, their ears, their heart of hearing, their eyes they have closed. lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts in turn, so that I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." So the rejection of Jesus to the extent of ignoring his miracles, ignoring his teaching for two years, accusing him of being in league with Satan. That rejection was so complete, Jesus says, that it fulfilled the prophecy of God to the prophet Isaiah. That's what Jesus is quoting here. And Isaiah was called to be a prophet, and God told him, I'm sending you out with a message, but don't expect success. I'm sending you out to people who will not and cannot hear you. And so this is what God had said in Isaiah 6 verses 9 and 10. Go and tell this people, keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed. Jesus just quoted that. He was sent by God to proclaim God's judgment on sin and wickedness and unrighteousness in this world and was told, don't expect them to listen. And now Jesus says, look, that's it. I'm going to start being, from now on, I'm gonna start being like Isaiah to these people who don't hear and don't see and refuse to understand. And to do that, he begins teaching in parables. So that is a mixed multitude, right? You've got all these people around Jesus. Some are believers, some are not believers, right? It is a blessing to hear the parables. It's a blessing to those who are willing and able to hear and believe the truth. And it is a condemnation to those who close their ears and refuse the truth. Parables are not meant to make hard truths simple. They are meant to reveal truth to believers and conceal truth from unbelievers. That's probably not the way you've thought about parables, but it's evident that's the purpose. So we should keep that in mind as we continue in Matthew's gospel and see some of these parables that that's the purpose. This brings us to our third issue this morning. If part of the purpose of a parable is to conceal truth, then how is it that we're going to read them and understand them? Well, first off, Remember that the purpose is not to conceal truth from believers. It is to reveal truth to believers. It is to teach truth to those people who believe in Jesus and trust in him as savior. If the only reason that Jesus taught in parables was to keep things secret from everybody, he didn't have to teach in parables. All he had to do was stop talking altogether. So clearly, in teaching a parable, he means for somebody to hear it and understand it. Parables become a kind of divine code which the Holy Spirit deciphers for the faithful. There are truths that we can learn from parables. But to learn from parables, we have to approach them the right way. The first step we've already talked about, knowing what a parable is and why parables were used, from there we've got to take some steps to get the spirit intended meaning of the story. So I wanna give you four rules to follow as you study the parables of Jesus. Four rules to follow as you study the parables of Jesus. First, look at parallel passages. A few parables are recorded in more than one gospel. So, for example, we have the parable of the sower here in Matthew 13. We also have in Luke chapter 8 a shorter version of the same parable. It's the parable of the sower. and an even shorter version of why Jesus taught in parables. So if you read these verses in Matthew and you think, well, I'm not sure that Jesus is concealing truth in parables, listen to how concisely Luke says this. In Luke 8, verse 10, Jesus says, to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they may not understand. This makes it very clear, the purpose of Jesus in teaching this way. And when we compare, when Matthew and Mark and Luke tell us the same story and we can look at them side by side, this'll help us with understanding. As with anything in the Bible, looking at parallel passages is helpful. Second, look for what issue or question is in the context when the parable is told. Look, if you would, at Luke chapter seven. I'm gonna give you a couple of examples. Very often, as Jesus told a story, as he taught in a parable, it is because some event just happened or some question was just asked, and Jesus is teaching in regard to that event or as an answer to that question. So in Luke chapter seven, Jesus is sitting at dinner in Simon the Pharisee's house, and this woman comes in and pours perfume on his feet and washes her feet with her tears, and this prompts a thought from Simon the Pharisee and an answer from Jesus in Luke chapter seven verse two. 39, it says, now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself, right? He's thinking inside. This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who touches him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said to him, just stop for a second. The guy's thinking things in his head, and Jesus is responding to what he's thinking. This is the nature of our Savior. Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher, say it. And what follows is known as the parable of the two debtors. And we're not gonna go through it all, but one of the debtors owes a lot, and one of the debtors owes a little. And that mirrors Simon and this sinful woman. And if we lift that parable sort of out of that context, and just read it by itself, we're probably gonna miss what's being said because it's actually addressing an event that just happened in the context. For another example of this, look at Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15 in verse 1 there's all these tax collectors and sinners and they're coming to Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes are appalled that Jesus would have anything to do with them. Y'all aren't you glad that Jesus has something to do with sinners? In verse two, they say, this man receives sinners and eats with them. What a horrible accusation, right? Immediately, verse three, Jesus starts speaking to them in parables. He spoke to them in a parable saying, and in fact, he starts essentially speaking spitballing several parables related to this specific accusation of why would he be sitting and eating with tax collectors and sinners? And they all have the same theme. In verses four through seven, you have the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd went to find the sheep that was lost. In verse eight through 10, you have the parable of the lost coin. This widow woman who had lost a coin goes to her whole house searching for it. In verses 11 through 32, you have the parable of the lost son, sometimes called the parable of the prodigal son. The whole point in context is explaining why is it Jesus associates with sinners. Well, he's like a shepherd who's come to look for his lost sheep. He's like a widow woman who's scouring her house for the lost coins. He's like a father who is willing to receive his lost son. He loves and values and cares about what is lost. He has come to seek and save the ones that are lost. So understanding that's the question in the context helps us understand the meaning of those parables. So you have to look for what issue or question is in the context. A third rule for understanding the parables is see if Jesus explains the parable. Not going to have a lot to say about this one because it should be obvious, but the best understanding of a parable comes from Jesus' own explanation. We don't always have an explanation, sometimes we just have the parable. But in Matthew 13, the parable of the sower, Jesus tells it and then later on he takes his disciples aside and he explains to them what it means. When Jesus tells a story and then explains, here's what the story means, guess what? That's what the story means. We don't have to invent a bunch of interesting, speculative interpretations of a parable. You would be surprised how often we just wanna ignore when Jesus says, here's what it means. Fourth, determine the central truth and avoid imaginative interpretations. determine the central truth and avoid imaginative interpretations. There is in every parable a single central truth that is being taught. Now I understand Jesus is able and sometimes does teach more than one truth at a time and yet We will get caught up sometimes trying to understand the minute details of every story He tells as a parable, as if every little detail we can identify, it must mean something. Sometimes it's fruitful to look at those details. So for example, in the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son, there's the part of the story where he is actually sitting at a hog trough eating with the pigs. And if you realize that that would be so offensive in the Jewish mind, and it certainly relates to the idea of Jesus eating with publicans and sinners, like there are details worth looking at. But not every time we have a detail of a parable do we need to identify exactly what it means. Historically, there are famous commentators who are otherwise solid biblical interpreters who get very creative in interpreting parables. One of my favorite examples is a guy named Augustine of Hippo from back in 400 or so AD. Look at Luke chapter 10 if you would for a second. I love to use the example of his interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan. You're probably familiar with this parable. Starting at verse 30, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Let's just pick up in verse 29, so we read through it. This certain lawyer wanted to justify himself, and it says, he wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? So Jesus has just told him the two most important laws all the Old Testament can be summed up in, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And this guy, instead of just accepting the direct teaching of Jesus, said, well, who is my neighbor? Okay, verse 30, Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him and whatever more you spend, when I come, I will repay you. So, which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said, he who showed mercy on him. And Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Now, what's that parable about? Let me tell you what Augustine of Hippo said that it was about. You ready, I get so tickled by this. The man's going to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem represents the Garden of Eden. Jericho is where he's leaving. Jericho is the moon, and I don't even know how Augustine came up with that. You know you're in trouble already. Right? The wounded man is Adam. The thieves are Satan and his demons. The priest and Levite are the Old Testament law and sacrifices. The good Samaritan is Jesus who forgives sins. The oil and wine that gets poured in was our hope and our encouragement to do good works. The mule was the birth of Jesus, the inn was the church, and the innkeeper is the Apostle Paul. Isn't that just a little bizarre? Some of y'all are looking at me like, that is the craziest thing I've ever heard. It is, it's nuts. That is no way to approach parables. I like one writer said that he, Augustine clearly sat down at his desk and thought about that for so long that it can't possibly be right. Our goal with parables is going to be to try to identify what is the central, single truth that it's trying to teach and not try to get caught up in every little detail. We're gonna try to make the plain truth the main truth. If we follow our rules with this parable, remember, first off, the context, what's happening in the context, Doesn't this parable have to answer the question of verse 29, when the man asks, who is my neighbor? And in fact, at the end of the parable, Jesus even looks at him and says, of those three men I described, who was the wounded man's neighbor? That has to be the point. This is identifying who, when Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, who counts as your neighbor? And our goal is going to be to remember that central point. I don't know, Sesame Street had a song, right? Who are the people in your neighborhood? They're the people that you meet when you're walking down the street each day. It's like Sesame Street could figure this out, and Augustine, the theologian, was completely baffled by it. Because they're trying to make everything mean something. At a pastor-teacher seminar, my friend Louis Kiger shared this story. He said he wasn't sure where he got it, but I found it amusing and helpful. So imagine, just imagine, this is not a parable of Jesus, clearly, but just imagine, Jesus was teaching about the brevity of life and the importance of making good decisions, and in the course of teaching about that, he spoke this parable. Once there was a blonde-haired little girl in a cute little blue dress. She was playing out in her front yard, kicking around this pink ball while her parents were sitting on the porch watching. And all of a sudden, the ball rolled out into the street and the little girl ran after the ball. She was struck and killed by a black Cadillac. Now, do you know what we would do with that? Preachers and theologians and scholars would spend 2,000 years debating what the little girl's blonde hair and blue dress represented or what the pink ball symbolically means. We would hear things like, oh, her blonde hair is symbolic of worldliness and the ball is a symbol of her wasted youth. You know, her parents are the church trying and failing to protect her, and her chasing the ball is a symbolism of fleeing from the will of God. The black Cadillac clearly is symbolic of death. Y'all, if you told your children that story, what would have been the point of you telling that story? Don't chase a ball into the street. You might get hit by a car. There's a simple, single, central truth to the parables that Jesus told, and we need to treat them like there is a central truth to all the parables. When we study the parables, In Matthew's Gospel, my goal is that you are not going to have to come to church with your magic decoder ring in order to decipher what parables mean. We're not going to get so consumed into thinking that every minor detail has to mean something that we miss. Every parable has a central main point for us to grasp. As we go back to Matthew and we continue through Matthew's gospel and we start in with a section of parables, in a couple of weeks we're going to be at the parable of the sower. You're welcome, read through Matthew 13, read the parable, read Jesus's explanation of the parable and be ready to study it in a couple of weeks, okay?