PARABLE OF THE SOWER
Hope you are not going to get too mixed up with my logic here! For we will look at the parables in alphabetical order, except for this one! And with this one, we will first look at the middle, before considering the beginning and the end! Please bear with me, for all will be revealed! (No, that is not a parable!)
The Parable of the Sower is a key parable, not only for its contents, but because Jesus took the opportunity here to explain what a parable is. Hence why we are starting in the middle.
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 an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 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.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men lon ged to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matthew 13:10-17)
Jesus made several points here that will help us understand the parables better.
1. All the parables are about the kingdom of heaven and the parables are all about the kingdom of heaven!
2. Knowledge about the kingdom is restricted in its distribution.
3. This knowledge is given on an 'all or nothing' basis.
4. Unbelievers will neither understand the parables, nor the kingdom lifestyle.
5. Those who do understand, and live the lifestyle, will receive a special blessing that would be the envy of many prophets and righteous people from Old Testament times.
We are so privileged to live in a time in history when the secrets of the kingdom have been revealed to those who wish to respond. This has been the case for the past 2000 years.
Today however, we are doubly blessed. For in the ongoing pattern of God since the Reformation, which has seen the gradual restoration of truths (eg. personal faith, believer baptism, Holy Spirit anointing, healing, spiritual gifts, etc.) lost from the end of the first apostolic age (from the time of the death of the apostle John), we are now experiencing the revelation that the kingdom is not only future, but also to be a present reality today.
When I was a boy, before I even believed, I could not understand the Lord's (Disciples) Prayer when it said;
10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
I was taught that it was future, but even then, had my doubts about that. For it seemed, even then in my innocence, to be worded as much in the present as in the future, along with the other petitions of the prayer.
Today, I am grateful (and relieved!) to see that there is a new and growing revelation amongst many, many, dedicated believers that 'the kingdom is for now' too.
This is both a privilege and a responsibility! Yes, there is a great blessing but along with the blessing comes a responsibility to live out the revelation of the kingdom lifestyle.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48b)
But if your heart desire is to experience more of your Saviour and Lord;
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)
Amen.
(Continued next week)
No comments:
Post a Comment