Monday nights has begun a study on the book of Revelation.  We will be looking at chapter 8 this coming Monday (5/11).    We are trying to cover a chapter a night, and haven’t done a bad job at it.  More often than not we will read the passage and talk a little about what it is saying. The conversation naturally turns to what is happening in the world and in our lives today.  We  focus the conversation on practical application in our lives,  for the goal of any Bible study is to draw us closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.   

     2  Timothy 3:16-17   “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. ”

The Parable of the Sower (Matt13:1-23):

     Jesus interprets this parable for us. He tells us that the seed is the Word of God (the Gospel).  The Sower is anyone who tells others the Gospel.  The birds are the evil one; the various places the seed was scattered are the different conditions of the heart. (The gospel did not penetrate the heart so Satan snatched the good news away, there was no root for it to grow, so it was unfruitful, tribulation and persecution or materialism prevents many Christian from allowing God’s good news from growing in their heart and causing ‘fruit’ to grow for the Kingdom.

      This parable helps us to understand why some people accept the gospel and others do not.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matt13:24-30; 36-43):

     Again Jesus interprets this parable for us.  The wheat is the sons of the kingdom.  This would be those who are true followers of Christ.  The tares are the sons of the evil one.  They are those who have not accepted the Lord as their Savior.  The field is the church body as a whole.  This parable explains why there are so many individuals in the church (the entire body of Christ from its earliest beginnings to today…) who are not truly followers of Christ, yet appear to be.  God has allowed both the good and the bad to grow together and has not removed the evil so as not to hurt the good, but tells us that He will be the one to ‘weed’ out the good from the bad at the end of the age.

     This parable helps us to understand that there are two types of people in the church,  those who are true believers and those who are not. 

     The Parable of the Mustard Seed ( Matt13:31-32):

     We must remember to keep Scriptural consistency when interpreting/understanding scripture.  We should not give one meaning to an object and give it a different meaning somewhere else.  It means the same throughout Scripture.  This is important as we look at parables that Jesus did not interpret.  In this parable the mustard seed is the church body as a whole (as we mentioned in the wheat and the tares).  The field is the world and birds are the evil one.  This parable is showing us that as the church (the tree) grows in size that the evil one (birds) can rest comfortably in it (the branches).   Here Jesus is telling us that there will be larger structural errors finding itself in the broader church world.  These errors come across as false doctrine and false teaching. Paul, Peter, John and Jude all warn of false teaching/false teachers in the church.  Here Jesus is teaching us to be aware of such things.

     This parable helps us to understand that we need to be aware of false teachings in the church.

When Jesus gave the parable of the mustard seed and the explanation to the Wheat and the Tares, he had left the larger crowd and entered a house, sharing the explanation with only His disciples.  The following parables also were given while they were in the house.  This is significant because the following are warnings as to what will become of the church over the years to come.  Jesus wanted His disciples to hear these warnings.  And we know that these warnings are passed on to us the church through their writings.   

 The Parable of  the Leaven (Matt13:33):

     Leaven always represents evil throughout Scripture.  So in this parable is must also represent evil.  When a baker mixes leaven into a batch of dough, the leaven will make the wheat appear larger than it actually is.  In this parable Jesus is again warning us of false doctrine being mixed into the church, making it appear larger than it actually is.

Remember Jesus sees the hearts of men. 

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure (Matt13:44) and The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price (Matt13:45-46):

     These two parables tell us of what Jesus has done for us.  The field again is the world.  It has been often interpreted that the man is us and the treasure/pearl is salvation.  But we know that we cannot ‘buy’ our salvation.  It is a free gift of God.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Eph 2:8-9.  So we should look at the man in this parable as representing Jesus Christ. The treasure represents the people of the nation of Israel.  Deut 7:6 and 14:2 clearly describes Israel as God’s treasure. What is interesting is that the man finds the treasure then hides it and goes to buy the field.  This corresponds with the history of Israel.  God made them a great nation through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Today they are again hidden in the field for the people are in rebellion against Him.  However, we know from prophetic scriptures that one day Israel will experience a national conversion and will again be used by God in a major way. (See Romans 9-11. 

The Pearl is the true church.  God is active in this world and is seeking and saving that which is lost.  Pearls are by their very nature something that comes out of a very ugly creature.  Yet Pearls are something very beautiful and precious. (See ICor. 1:26-31) Oysters are an unclean animal to the Jewish people.  So we can look at the Pearl being the gentile church.  Jesus sold all that He had to buy this Pearl of great price. 

     What did Jesus have to sell?  His life!  Jesus bought our salvation.  “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2)   (and see John 3:16-17) 

 Parable of the Dragnet (Matt13:47-50):

     The parable of the dragnet encourages us not to lose hope for one day this present age of the kingdom of God will end.  One day God will once and for all end the rebellion.  One day God will judge and reestablish the kingdom of God in all of its glory.  And we who are his treasure/pearl will be with him forever.

The last parable (Matt13: 52):

    This last parable encourages us.  We have this new treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And the old treasure is a deeper understanding of the kingdom of God which is taught to us.  (See I Peter 1-2)

   These parables give us a clear description of what the kingdom of heaven/God is like today.  They also help us to understand the situation in the church.  The parable of the treasure and the pearl shares with us the good news of Jesus Christ and His great love for us, while the last two parables are of great encouragement o the believer.

  Starting the week of Nov. 24,  Monday Night Home Fellowship will begin a study on the end times as discussed in Matt 24-25.

     The parable covered this past Monday was on the mustard seed.  This parable is not interpreted by Jesus.  I think however that sufficient clues have been given to us in the previous parables.  A mustard seed is a spice plant that, by its nature, should not grow to the enormous size it does in this parable.  But this is a beautiful description of the church; not the true church, which is the body of Christ, but the outward church.  You might call it Christiandom.  The birds represent evil, or the devil.  The teaching that Jesus reveals to he people is an outward church structure that will be marked by evil feeling very comfortable in its branches. 

     The parable of the woman and the yeast is looking at the same outward church, but the focus of this parable is on the inward teaching of the church.   Much false teaching has been incorporated into the church over the millenium.  We are also told in the Scriptures that as time goes on, this corruption will only grow worse.  Compare to 2 Peter 2:1-3, I Tim. 4:1-5, 2 Tim. 4:3, Matt. 7: 15-20, I John 2:18-23, Acts 20:19-31, Jude. 

     In summary, Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of heaven as seen in Matthew’s gospel is a very gloomy, but accurate description of what we see going on in the church today.  The next two parables are still focused on the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus shows us that even though we see all the bad, God sees the good.

  Tonight we talked about the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt: 13:24-30) with Jesus’ interpretation of the parable in Matt. 13:-36-43.  We also talked about the distinction between the true church, which is the body of Christ;  and the false church, that I will call the wordly church. 

     The parable of the wheat and the tares covers a very large time period.  It begins with Christ saving the seed of His church in this world and ends at His return when He will divide the wheat and the tares.  This parable should comfort us a great deal as it shows us what we experience in the church today.  Why does the church have both good influences and bad influences? The parable of the wheat and the tares helps us to better understand this.  We will find out more details in the next two parables how the enemy is busy sowing his seeds throughout the Christian world.

Oct. 6:  We began the study of Jesus’ parables today.  The majority of the time was spend going over the handout about the parables.  You can go to the Monday Night tab to see an example of this handout.

Oct. 13:  The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven was the topic for this night.  We first talked on how an understanding of the kingdom of heaven was important to understanding the parables.  Most of Jesus’ parables deal with some aspect of the kingdom of heaven and God.  Then we talked about whether there is a difference between the two phrases, ” The kingdom of God” and “The kingdom of heaven.”  We came to the conclusion that there is no difference.  To finish up the discussion we talked about what the kingdom of heaven is.  The kingdom of heaven has a past, a present and a future aspect.  The past aspect is that God created the universe, and that His right to rule His kingdom is based on His role as Creator and is not based on His power.  The present aspect of the kingdom starts with Adam and Eve’s fall, the rebellion they introduced into the world, and will conclude with the second coming of Christ.  The future aspect of the kingdom deals with when God is in control over all of His creation again.  Check Eph. 1:10 and I Cor. 15:24-28.

Oct. 28:   After two weeks of preparation, we started the “parable of the Sower.”  Dan would like to report that this was a good discussion with no confusion, but that would not be the truth.  It turned out to be exactly what a parble should be, something that generates a lot of discussion on just what Jesus meant when He taught the parables.  It was also a good lesson on how we should not read too much or too little into a parable.  It was also a good reminder as to why we should not read our own theological debates into the parables.  (see parable study sheet on Monday night tab)

Oct. 27:  We finished the parable of the sower this night.  Last weeks confusion gave way to a wonderful study of the parable.  We drew lots of comfort as we saw that there is nothing wrong with the seed (the Gospel), but there is something wrong with some of the soils (our hearts).  We came to the conclusion that what this parable tells us about the kingdom of God is that not all will recieve the gospel of the kingdom.  Jesus tells us why they don’t recieve.  We then talked about ways to prepare the soil, so that it is ready to recieve the seed. We discussed the purpose of God’s law in the world (check I Tim 1:8-11, Gal. 3: 21-25).  The law is a school master that leads us to Christ.  Understanding our sinfullness and how much trouble we are in with God goes a long way in tilling up the soil.  We finished the evening with beautiful testimonies of how God has planted His seed in us individually and how His plan has grown in our lives.