Why God Speaks in Riddles-The Purposes of Parables

in my need his power is displayed to this I hold my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will the oh the night has been one and I shall overcome yet not I but through Christ in me f I dread I know I am forgi the future sure the price it has been paid for Jesus bled and suffered for my paron and he was raised to overthrow the grave to this I hold my sin has been defeated Jesus now and ever is my oh

the chains are released I can sing I am free yet not I but through Christ in me with every breath I long to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will renew until I stand with joy Before the Throne to this I hope my hope is only Jes Jesus all the glory ever more to him when the race is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me to this

I hold my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more to him when the race is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me when the race is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I through Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in me and IPS were he must increas and iase that meot Lord we today Comm Our Lives to you we’re thankful for your word and your truth and believe today that give us Destruction

for life and darkness in Jesus name pray amen e and you’re tired of it do something about it again the visualization there are two mistakes that we make when we interpret Parables I’m going to give this as about a five minute introduction then we’re going to go right into Matthew 13 the two interpretive excesses that we get into with Proverbs are one that we over elaborate we get into this kind of reaching for the Stars kind of truths from the parable and it was never intended

to do that one author took the parable of the prodigal and he said it’s kind of a gospel within a gospel and you know you wonder what that means kind of like you wonder what CA Harris means when she talks what is it mean a gospel within a gospel it doesn’t mean anything secondly the second illustration that you can give the second interpretation you give to a parable that’s wrong is not an over elaboration but an under excuse me an oversimplification you can say about a

parable well I want to find one truth in each Parable that’s the safe thing to do and in some Parables they do lend themselves to one truth we’re actually going to talk about the parable of the mustard seed and that’s one truth that comes out of that but the prodigal for example again going back there has three truths to it it has the truth first of all of the beauty of a father and its forgiveness of a son it secondly has the warnings about excessive living

foolishly and third with the older son it has the message of jealousy and resentment so you can’t over simp simplify or you can’t over elaborate Parables you have to try to look in the context of the parable itself and understand what it means Parables come in three or four different forms in your Bible they come from nature we looked at that at parable of the soils and for those of you that are farmers you know that the picture of the farmer planting the seed became Jesus’s

imagery to teach about wise living we had that again yesterday when in talking about the phrase that that Peter that Jesus warned Peter about that Satan’s Desir is to sift you like wheat we had Doug explaining to us what it meant to grow up on a wheat farm it’s great stuffff and helped visualize what the imagery was the second Parables come from familiar scenes that the disciples knew like you’re like lost sheep well they saw flocks of sheep and Shepherds on a daily basis Third Way

Parables can come is with events that the listeners to Jesus knew about I love the one in Luke 18 about the unrighteous judge because that’s kind of the world that I’m in although I’ll be quick to say the judicial quality that I’m in front of is remarkably good on a consistent basis but that unrighteous judge who feared neither God nor man the Widow went to him and pled with him for justice time and time again until the judge says This Woman’s going to wear me out

and gave her justice and Jesus taught Luke 18 that Parable to teach us that we should always pray which to analogize back to our political scene in this country is the first and best goal for us as Christians so it sometimes comes from familiar settings and sometimes it comes as is obvious in the story itself as to the facts the rich man who had a great crop and he said I’m in I’m going to tear down my barn and build bigger Barns and God said you

fool don’t you know that tonight your life will be required of you and that’s the way it is for those who are not rich toward God that’s a story right in itself it’s familiar you have the imagery of a foolish man who lives for wealth in this life and not in the life to come so the purpose of Parables is to to instruct us in a way that warns us that either instructs us or shoots up a flag and says that’s something that you should be

careful about you should understand that it is a hotline out of that fish tank right up to heaven itself to teach you how you are to live speaking of hot lines there was a psychiatric hotline that made the news said if you are obsessive compulsive please press one repeatedly if you’re codependent please ask someone to press two if you have multiple personalities press three four five and six if you’re a paranoid delusional we know who you are and what you want just stay on the line

so we can trace the call if you’re schizophrenic listen carefully a little voice voice will tell you which number to press and if you’re a manic depressive it doesn’t matter which number you press no one’s going to answer sometimes hot lines don’t work but in our passage they do so in Matthew 13 and verse 13 Jesus gives the instruction that from The Parables he is though seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear or understand that’s out of the psalm Psalms 82 where

basically a warning shot is put out to the readers and listeners of Jesus and it could be a warning shot that at one point says I’m going to hide the truth from you even if you want to see it that’s some people’s view of God he’s kind of like the troll under the bridge and as we walk across the bridge he wants to hide from us and maybe come out and strike us but that’s not at all what parables are parables are closer to the imagery

of Jesus in Romans chapter 1 where Paul wrote in terms of asking and answering the question is God fair about he how he treats the Affairs of men Paul writes the wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all gotten godliness and witchness wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness since they they may be known about God what they know about God is plain to them because God’s made it plain to them for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities

his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse so in the great final Reckoning at the Judgment seat of Christ and at the judgments of the living and the dead there won’t be anybody that can say you didn’t give me a chance you didn’t give me enough information Romans 1 says the world we live in is the starting point of information for us about God and in responding to it he then moves

us to The Next Step I’m reminded of missionaries that visited a third world country years ago and they gave the message to a tribe after they learned their language and they notice in back that a man was sitting and weeping and after the service they went up to him and said said sir can I help you and he said I always believed in Jesus I just didn’t know his name and that’s the imagery of Romans 1 that’s the imagery of the fairness of God and it’s

seen more often in Mar in Matthew Chapter 13 in a second illustration a second explanation of Parables and it’s in verses 34 and 35 of third of chapter 13 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in Parables he did not say anything to them without using a parable so was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet I’ll open my mouth in Parables I’ll utter things hidden since the creation of the world so it’s God truth of God diving into our aquarium and giving us who

he is and what his world and what his kingdom is like and in that respect we covered the first Parable a few weeks ago on the parable of the soils and it talked us how to live wisely in the midst of a spiritual battle it talked about the desires for worry the worries and desires for everything being Thorns that surround us and choke us and it promises that to those that are faithful there’s a blessing 30 60 and 100 fold now we should have known in

Matthew 13 that the price tags were getting flipped because the end of Matthew 12 puts it out like a bright Beacon if any if people know anything they know things about who is my family what’s my parentage while Jesus was talking in chapter 12 to the crowd his mother and brothers were outside wanting to speak to him someone told him your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you he replied to them who is my mother and who are my brothers pointing to

his disciples he said said this is my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother so Jesus in the midst of these Parables is saying I want you to brace up for the fact that I’m going to talk to you about things that are counterintuitive that you don’t understand in your aquarium in terms of the world that you normally see but they’re true about God and about the kingdom of God and the first

of these is the parable of the Mustard Seed Matthew 13 verse straightforward the text says he said to them another Parable the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his field through it it’s the smallest of all your seeds yet when it’s grown it’s the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air may come and Purge and its branches there’s a parable that just has basically one interpretation it is things that

are seemingly insignificant in the beginning and small become great and powerful and shelters as they grow and you know that’s an imagery of when you believed in Jesus if you think back to your Christian Life and the circumstances of your life you’d realize that that the seed which was born in you as you believed in Jesus is growing and thriving and now to things that you’re asked to do and faith that you’re asked to believe you might say I I never in my early years as

a Christian could have gone there or alternatively you look back at your life and you say to me that event in life looked like a catastrophe but I can see now how God has grown it up and become a blessing to me and taught me things I could not otherwise have known that’s the parable of the Mustard Seed the second Parable is a little more elaborate it’s the parable of the good seed among weeds and there the text has two sections the first is verse 24

Jesus said to them in another Parable the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who swws good seed in the field but while everyone was sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away when the wheat sprouted in forc forced heads then the weeds appeared also the owner’s servants came to him and said sir didn’t you sew good seed among your field where then did the weeds come from an enemy did this the master replied the servant asked him do you want

us to go and pull them out no he answered because while you are pulling the weeds you may root up the wheat with them let both grow together and the Harvest at the time I will tell the Harvesters first collect the weeds and then and tie them into bundles to be burned then gather the wheat and bring them into my barn before we go into Jesus interpretation on that this is one that some interpreters have gone far as stream and says let’s talk about the fire

let’s talk about burning let’s apply it to consequences and discipline no don’t make that rise up on all six it has a basic interpretation to it and Jesus gives that beginning in verse 36 then he told the crowd and went into the house his disciples came to him and said explain to me the parable of the weeds in the field he answered the one who sow The Good Seed is the son of man the field is the world now you’re letting Jesus interpret his own Parables

and The Good Seed stands as the sons of the Kingdom the weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who SWS them is the devil the Harvest is the end of the age and the Harvesters are angels as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire so it will be at the End of the Age the son of man will send out his angels and they will s and they will weed out his kingdom everywhere that causes sin and all who

do evil they will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth and the righteous will shine like the sun in the king like the son in the Kingdom of the father he who has ears let him hear what’s the meaning of this Parable it’s again pretty straightforward it says the wise Christian is patient you want to uproot all that stuff around you that’s inconsistent with God’s purposes in your life that irregular family member who just wears you out or

the critic who can never stop criticizing the decisions that you make and you want to say I want a world where that’s all gone and Jesus says no you don’t I understand the kingdom of God is like the world which has good seed and it has weed it has angels and it has demons and the spiritual Demand on a Christian is such that he and she perseveres with patience with wisdom trusting that and here it is that in the final accounting there will be a cleans

cing of our whole world and Jesus will sort out the weeds from The Good Seed and those who are evil and who are against his purposes will suffer their condemnation and those of us who have believed by faith that God’s hand is in our life we’ll move from grace to Glory that’s what Parables do they come down into our aquarium and they shine truth to us in a way that says this is the way I’m supposed to live well if Jesus is teaching about the kingdom

of heaven and The Parables he first of all is teaching to two kinds of people first kind of people I suggest are called Tire kickers and they actually these folks if you’ll turn to Matthew chapter 7 I don’t know whether to be more U upset with them are to be more sad but Matthew chapter 7 and verse 14 says enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it if there’s one thing

that our human instincts say it’s that I don’t want to be left out I want to be pick to be on the team I don’t want to be the last person standing I don’t want to be alone I don’t want to be in the outg group I want to be in the ingroup those are there’s people around us that I call Tire kickers and maybe the best way to describe them is that staggering verse in James chapter 2 when James was teaching you about the necessity

of Works following Faith he said show me your faith without deeds and I’ll show you my faith by what I do and then he says you believe that there is one God good even the demons believe that and shudder when I talk to people about spiritual things and their response back to me is I believe in God that doesn’t give me much consolation because I know that even the demons are deas they believe in God but they’re not redeemed so what do you do with an

answer like that I’m believe in God I suggest that as with the apostle Paul when he dealt with the philosophers that he ministered among he said you’re at a good place you’re near the truth of God and you move them from Believers in God to introductions to Jesus because belief in God alone doesn’t redeem on the other hand Jesus was teaching the disciples and I’m not sure you quite realize this but his disciples were Old Testament Saints what we’re reading right now is still part of

the Old Testament kind of because the cross hasn’t happened and when Jesus came to his disciples and said follow me they did not say who are you they were looking for the Messiah and through either the instincts that they knew are that the message of John the Baptist they said this is he the one we waited for so the redem redeemed disciples began a long journey of three years with Jesus to teach them about what it meant to be redeemed to move from the broad gate

to the narrow gate and we read in Matthew chapter 7 but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it if you’re looking as a Christian to be part of the in group to be having crowd consensus you put your ladder up against the wrong building it’s not going to happen because those who are believers in Jesus are ones who said There is a broad way which leads to destruction but there’s a narrow way and it comes

from him who is the life who is the path to the father so how do we understand being part of that narrow way Jesus instructed in Matthew chapter 7 therefore whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock the rains come the streams raise and the winds blow but against The Rock it did not fall because it had its foundation on this rock so there are two gates there are two kinds of

people in the world that we’re part of there are the well-intentioned but ignorant or the tire kickers are the ones who are hiding the true disposition that they have opposed to God by platitudes and outside language but that’s not who this is talking about this is talking about those who are given Parables because they need the truth they need direction in life they need affirmation that what has started in us as small is going to grow like a mustard seed into a mustard tree that what

is true about us as we see the the conflicts around us and those that are diametrically opposed to the purposes of God we say I’m going to forbear and hang on because in fact it is God’s purpose to deal with judgment and the Affairs of men in his time so really what we’re really talking about is the subject of Truth and understanding truth and authent authenticity and living in a way that’s honoring to God one Old Saint said be who you is because if you ain’t

who you is then you is what you ain’t I’ll do that again be who you is because if you ain’t who you is then you is who you ain’t Spurgeon tells a story of a friend of his a Dr Norman Hall who wrote a book come to Jesus and as that book was published and as it got into the Affairs of the community in which that Pastor worked there was both a positive reaction of the book and it brought critics and Dr Hall was particularly frustrated

by his critics and so after weathering that criticism for six months he sat down and he wrote a letter in response he was going to set the Affairs right on all of his critics who criticized him about his book before he published his letter he went back to Spurgeon and Spurgeon said it’s a good letter you only forgot one part and Dr Hall said what was it he said underneath your signature you need to write the words the author the author of come to Jesus Dr

Hall heard that comment and he took that letter and he tore it up this is God’s Affair it’s God’s purposes in our life who will set our paths straight and so as we pray for those around us as we worry about our children and our families and our churches and those that that are persevering in the purposes of God we say because it’s true God will set the Affairs right of men in his time I have a poster in my office that in fact I like

for a couple reasons one because it’s Micah 68 and my son’s name is Micah and the second is because of these words act justly love mercy and walk humbly you may never have a book written about you you may never have your

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 3,914 words.