Riddle:
Some will use me, while others will not
Some have remembered, while others have forgot
For profit or gain, I’m used expertly
I can’t be picked off the ground or tossed into the sea
Only gained from patience and time, can you unravel this my rhyme?
What am I? (Answer at the end)
When you’re asked to figure something out that’s new (riddle, new language, new concept) there are a number of responses you may have:
- Yawn, mini stretch…this is dumb
- Oh, interesting, but unimportant
- I love learning new things
- Wow, I understand a little bit and this makes me want to know more. I’m going home to do some studying!
Whatever your response was, I challenge you to be a #4 as we study the parables of Christ in the coming weeks.
What is a Parable?
- True-to-life story that teaches specific spiritual truths, unlocking secrets to the kingdom of God, God himself or the citizens of the kingdom of God
- They start with a well-known analogy that the people of that day would have immediately recognized
- Then those analogies were partnered with spiritual truth in order to reveal something that had been previously hidden.
Pull out your Bible and Read Matt 13:11-17
What’s going on here?
The arrival of Jesus Christ on earth marked the beginning of a new age.
- No more talk about a Messiah coming, he was here!
- No more waiting and watching for signs, here was the flesh and blood Messiah, the perfect sign from God.
- No more wondering about timing, the time had come.
The prophets in the OT foretold the coming Messiah. They had predicted the arrival of a Savior who would free people from their bondage (see Isaiah 2, Daniel 2 & 7, Zach. 14 to name a few).
The prophets had predicted a king who would establish his throne and all people would bow down to him. They had foretold of the judgement of the nations and the restoration of Israel.
So why do we find in Matt 12:38 the Pharisees and scribes asking Jesus for a sign? They were hoping to expose him as a fraudster. They were demanding that he perform clever tricks for them. They had no intention of relinquishing their powerful hold over the people or their sway over the Roman government! It was a ruse! They were going to trap him so they could destroy him (Matt 12:14).
An interesting note here…Jesus had not spoken in parables before the scene in Matt 13. So we have to ask ourselves what was the pivot point?
The demand for a sign.
Prove it, the Pharisee’s said. Prove you are who you say you are.
But guess what? Demanding a sign exposed their hearts.
Hard
Unrepentant
Disbelieving
Jesus uses the very thing the Pharisee’s ask for to prove that the mysteries/secrets of the kingdom themselves are the sign, the sign of unrepentant hearts. He was exposing their unbelief.
Why?
The Greek word “mysterion” doesn’t mean unknowable, instead it actually means that something is only knowable by divine revelation from God. We can only understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God by direct revelation from the Lord because God has decided to reveal them!
So the parables expose our own hearts by proving that not everyone’s heart is able to comprehend. Not everyone is able to perceive.
Your heart will expose the true YOU.
There is a two-fold message of every parable:
- An invitation to come to the living water, drink deeply, see, hear, respond, live fully, to expose greater truth and bring them into intimate fellowship with the Lord
- An admonition/warning to those hearts that have grown cold, dull ears that cannot hear, eyes don’t clearly see that they are in danger of missing the greatest truth ever told
And the secrets of the kingdom…
- Will be revealed to a true disciple who is open to truth, teachable, desires to learn, longs to connect – their eyes will see the workings of a Holy God, their ears will hear the message and be changed because of it
- Will be hidden from an unresponsive heart, cold, unmoving, cynical – their eyes won’t see God at work and their ears won’t hear the message so clearly laid out for them
Turn to Isaiah 6:8-10
“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’
Then I said ‘Here I am! Send me.’
And he said, ‘Go, and say to 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 blind their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.’”
Context of this passage:
The book of Isaiah in a nutshell is a call back to God. It’s a call to join him as he moves history towards the final blessing of eternity spent with him and the supreme rule and reign of God over all.
Isaiah uses some weighty words to describe God such as “The Holy One of Israel” and the “one who is high and lifted up”, “Sovereign”, “has fierce wrath” and so on.
Chapter 6 specifically refers to God as him whose cleansing touch atones (pays the price) for sin (coals from the altar) and introduces a key theme…God purifies his people through judgement.
Purifying through judgement doesn’t sound too great does it?! We know that judgement has to come so that his grace can then override sin and punishment!
Don’t you see how wonderful this message is?
God loves us so much that judgement (which should have condemned us to die) actually became the vehicle for our salvation! It is the ultimate hope for sinners, the coming of the Messiah as a visible sign of the grace of God.
Why does Jesus refer to Isaiah as he’s speaking to the crowd?
- It would have been a well-known passage from the OT
- It would have immediately brought recognition from the crowd, thereby capturing their attention
- It was meant to explain there is a dual effect when people are faced with the truth, either there is conviction that leads to repentance (open eyes and ears) or condemnation that leads to a hardening (unseeing eyes and unhearing ears) of their hearts
Read John 12:37-43
- Even after miracles had been done in front of them, some still would not believe
- Isaiah is quoted to expose that the Jewish rejection of Jesus as the Messiah had been predicted and was now coming to pass
- Their eyes were blinded
- Their hearts were deadened
- Many of the leaders of that day had come to faith in Christ but they were so fearful of the Pharisees that they would not publicly confess Jesus
- The desire for approval from their peers kept them from following Jesus intimately and publicly
- They sacrificed Jesus on the altar of their own commendation (Def: a formal means of praising someone, praise as being worthy of confidence, a recommendation of worth and value) to their condemnation (their desire for peer acceptance and recognition kept them from fully committing to publicly follow Christ)
- They were condemned because of their need for commendation
WOW!
The 2 charges against the people were this:
- They had eyes but they couldn’t see
- They had ears but they couldn’t hear
Spiritually blind and deaf.
As we study the parables, my challenge to you is to open your spiritual eyes and ears and you will be able to do this in 4 ways:
- Seek wisdom (James 1:5)
- Search the Word of God (2 Tim 2:15)
- Listen to the voice of God (John 10:27)
- Live as you ought (Eph 5:8)
What mystery or secret did we uncover today?
Some hearts will embrace the message of Christ (eyes WILL see, ears WILL hear)
*To them there is an invitation to draw deeper
Some hearts will be hardened (eyes WON’T see, ears WON’T hear)
*To them there is an admonition or warning about the perils of hard hearts, wake up or miss the greatest story every told and risk eternal damnation
Jesus, and only Jesus, is the fulfillment of all prophecy. He IS the Messiah and the invitation to come to Jesus will always be extended. The purpose of judgement was to expose my sin and thereby create an opportunity to reveal his grace to me.
He longs for us to search his word, to seek his face, to uncover the riches of his grace! And so I encourage you today, the state of your heart cannot be hidden from the Lord, it will be exposed by either our embrace or rejection of the Messiah and his message! Press in. Lean in hard! He will meet you wherever you are.
Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life.”
Answer to the riddle:
I’m Knowledge