There are ten “Kingdom Parables”, and
according to vv. 1-2 they were given by the seaside [Galilee]. V. 36 says
Jesus sent the multitude away after delivering four of them, and then
entered into a house and gave more info. and more parables to His
disciples. Jesus continued to give more parables throughout the remainder
of His ministry, and eventually we’ll look at all of them.
The first 4 parables were written to the
multitude to reveal some things about God and His Kingdom, from man’s
perspective. Fact is, they are negative in nature.
·Parable of the Sower—only 1/4th
of the seed was productive.
·Wheat & Tares—evil is sowed
among the good [counterfeit Christians.]
·Mustard Seed—seed became plant,
then plant became tree…a monstrosity it wasn’t supposed to be…the apostate,
counterfeit church.
·Leaven—bad doctrine laced into
true worship of God.
But don’t get the false idea that this is
suggesting that God’s work will not triumph. It will! And for this reason
God gives the disciples more explanation and more parables, which we begin
tonite…parables of victory.
A quick overview of the next 3 parables:
Turn to I Cor. 10 for something interesting…
1 Corinthians 10:32
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the
church of God:
In broad strokes the Lord paints the human
race into 3 groups. The next 3 parables will show us what the Lord is doing
on the earth in relation to these 3 groups.
Pearl of Great Price—church
Net—Gentiles
Hidden Treasure—Jews
So, tonite’s parable is all about the nation
of Israel.
The elements: the field, the treasure, the
buyer.
The common interpretation, like many
parables, is a mistaken one. This is because Christ used parables not only
to reveal truth to those sincerely seeking it, but to conceal truth FROM
those who aren’t open to it. I hear most every day from someone who has
listened to one of our parable studies who doesn’t agree because they’ve
always heard or taught it differently. They are revealing, sadly, that
they don’t want to make sure they are right…rather, they want to believe
they have always been right, thus they aren’t open to new truth.
This common misinterpretation is that Jesus
and salvation are the treasure, and the man is a seeking sinner who sells
all that he has to receive salvation. Of course, there are problems w/ this
interpretation.
First of all, the man finds the treasure.
But truth is, people don’t find Jesus, rather, He finds them. I know what
you mean when you say you found Jesus, but in theological terms it’s not
accurate, for if you come to Him it’s only because He found you, called you,
and you simply are one who heard His voice and answered the call.
Luke 19:10
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
When Adam sinned in the garden he hid, but
God came looking for him.
A 2nd problem is that the man
sells all that he has to purchase the field. Obviously this doesn’t send
the right message about salvation by grace. It looks more like works that
way. But many are trying to buy their way into heaven, sadly.
The 3rd problem: Jesus Christ is
not a hidden treasure. He is the most prominent, best known personality in
the history of the world. The world may blaspheme Him, hate Him, and reject
Him, but one thing the world cannot do is ignore Him! One way I know He’s
truly the only real God is that when people want to curse God they use HIS
name. They don’t mention Allah, Buddha, or anyone else! He is the first
name on anyone’s mind when thinking of God, whether in cursing or in
worship. He is not a hidden treasure. He is not hiding. He doesn’t want
it to be difficult to find Him. Jesus wants people to be saved far more
than they themselves want to be saved, even if they choose to be!
This parable is not a picture of a sinner
finding Jesus and doing what it takes to receive Him. So what is the
correct interpretation?
The field is the world. The man is Christ
Himself. The treasure is God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel. The
purpose of this parable is to show God’s working in His chosen people.
Consider with me Israel’s Favour, Failure,
and Future…
This is an exciting couple of verses packed
w/ dynamic Bible prophecy.
I. Israel’s Favour*
A. Israel is God’s chosen, favored
people, a treasure chosen by God.
Psalms 135:4
For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his
peculiar treasure.
God didn’t choose Israel because they were
better, or more moral [they weren’t!], or more obedient…no, it was God’s
sovereign choice to set them aside as His own peculiar treasure. And in
doing so God has placed upon them His 7-fold blessing…
Romans 9:4-5 4 Who are Israelites; to whom
pertaineththe adoption[God has made
them His adopted family], and the glory[glory cloud—no other nation has ever had such a
physical manifestation of God to lead them], and the covenants[unconditional promises God has made to them],
and the giving of the law[the scriptures
were penned by God thru the Jews, 40 of them], and the service
of God[the leadership of the
worship in the OT temple], and the promises; 5 Whose arethe fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God
blessed for ever. Amen.
Truly, they are God’s special treasure.
Not only are they God’s chosen people, but…
B. Israel is God’s covenant people.
Genesis 12:2-3 2 And I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt
be a blessing: 3 And I will
bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.
God is making a covenant w/ Abraham.
Exodus 19:5
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then
ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all
the earthis mine:
That last phrase reminds me of the parable,
for the treasure was buried within the field, which is the world.
Everything that is belongs to God, the entire universe, but His special
creation, His treasure, if you will, was placed right here on earth.
Think about this: We’ve sent out spacecraft
decades ago that are just on the outer reaches of our solar system, that is
the 9 or 10 big rocks caught in the gravity of one star, our sun. But the
sun is just one of billions of stars in our galaxy. And they say there are
at least millions of galaxies out there, and each year as better and better
technology allows us to look farther and farther into space, we keep
adjusting our estimates of the size of the universe. The nearest galaxy
like ours [spiral] is 2.5 million light years from us. That means that if
you travel at the speed of light [186,000 mps] it will take that long to get
there…2 and a half million years. And that’s just our next door neighbor,
the closest spiral galaxy.
Light speed is awesome to think about.
Reflected light travels from the moon to the earth in 1.5 seconds. It took
8 minutes to get from the sun to the moon. It takes another 22 min. to
Jupiter, and 30 min. more to Saturn. It takes another 3 hours to get to the
edge of our solar system. Light is booking it, for our most sophisticated
jets travel at mach 2, and would take over 200 years to go the same
distance. The closest star is Alpha Centauri. But it would take light 4
years to get there…that only took 4 hours to get to the edge of our solar
system. The Voyager 1 spacecraft is about 10 billion miles away now, 30
years after launch. It travels at 40 thousand mph, but still would take
70,000 years to get to Alpha Centauri. As a measure of how vast space is,
consider a model in which the Sun is represented by a large grapefruit; the
Earth would be the size of a fancy pinhead ten paces away and the next
grapefruit (Alpha Cen) would be in Cleveland! And then you’ve only gone 4
light years. You’d have to go 2.5 million light years to get to our next
door neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, which is but one of millions we can see.
I said all of that for 2 reasons: 1.] I love
to think about it! 2.] To make a major point…
…from a secular, worldly perspective, this
all means we are very small and insignificant.
Ill.—one scientist said, “ours is a 5th
rate planet, revolving around a 10th rate sun, in a forgotten
corner of the universe.”
Where would you have to park your
brain in order to make a statement like that? That reminds me of the guy
who said to his wife, “you must think I’m a perfect idiot”, to which she
replied, “well, close, but nobody’s perfect!”
Only a perfect idiot would make such
a statement as that scientist.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Earth
is infinitely significant. It’s the only place where life is. They keep
looking for it other places, but Genesis says Eve was the mother of all
living…case settled! The world and movies say that’s a big waste of space,
but it just shows us how powerful and massive our God is and how much He
loves us! We are His special creation made in His image. And it was on
THIS planet that God came in the flesh and dwelt for 33 years, and died and
rose to redeem us. God has a special plan for His special creation on
planet earth!
The point is that of His special creation,
man, it all centers on a hidden treasure, the nation of Israel. God wants
to bless US and all nations of the earth thru Israel. In 1948 Israel became
a nation, and preachers began proclaiming “keep your eyes on Israel” even
when it seemed insignificant…I mean, we’re talking about an area less than
1/4th the size of our state, and yet it’s the center of the news
each evening. It truly is the center of the spiritual universe! Someday
the creator and God of the universe will rule and reign from Israel, from
the throne of David.
That’s Israel’s Favour…they are a chosen,
covenanted people…
II. Israel’s Failure
In this parable, the treasure is hidden in
the field. Israel is the treasure, and the world is the field. We could
say it like this: the treasure is out of circulation.
Now remember, the man is Christ. When Jesus
came to earth 2,000 years ago what did He find? A hidden treasure, lost in
this world. They were in failure. Their golden era had passed, they were
living under the iron fist of the Roman Empire. Their leaders were corrupt,
and the people were poor and miserable. They had been blessed by God and
made a great nation, and under Solomon they were the perfect example of what
a nation is meant to be. When the queen of Sheba visited she said wow, I’ve
heard about this magnificent place, but the half has not been told! Those
were the glory days, but over the years they lost most of what they were,
and when Jesus visited it was not like that at all. They had no power and
no purpose…it was just a buried treasure.
And for a period of time when Jesus walked
the earth He uncovered the treasure, and let Israel know their true destiny.
Matthew 12:28
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is
come unto you.
But they rejected their King.
Matthew 13:15
For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should
heal them.
Some say, I feel so sorry for the Jews--their
Messiah came but they didn’t recognize Him and they missed out! No…this
verse makes it clears they closed their eyes and ears to the truth, and
willfully chose not to believe! So what did Jesus do? Just what the man
did in the parable…He covered the treasure back up!
Matthew 23:37-38 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
What happened there? They rejected Him, and
He rejected them…and covered the treasure back up.
Their favour? They are God’s treasure!
Their failure? They became a buried treasure.
III. Israel’s Future
v. 44b The shocking part of this is that
the man not only wanted to buy the treasure, but to buy the whole field.
And in redeeming the whole field, He also regained the treasure which He
found.
This is the beautiful language of the cross.
Jesus gave everything He had…He emptied Himself and died for us! He was
rich and became poor for our sake, so that we might be made rich in Him.
Truly, Jesus paid it all!
Jesus died for the whole world. The entire
field can be saved…but He died in a special way to redeem Israel.
Isaiah 53:8
…for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
God is not finished w/ the nation of Israel.
One day He will reclaim His treasure. I realize some theologians say the
church has replaced Israel, but it has not.
Ill.—a pastor put an article in the paper
stating that on Sunday he would preach on the subject of “How to destroy
the Jews”. That caused quite a ruckus. That Sunday you couldn’t find a
seat in the auditorium, and right in the middle was a Jewish rabbi from the
local synagogue. He was poised and ready for a fight. The pastor stood and
said, here’s today’s main point of how to destroy the Jews, and then he
read…
Jeremiah 31:35-36 35 Thus saith the LORD, which
giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and
of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from
before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease
from being a nation before me for ever.
Everyone was amazed, the rabbi was grinning,
and a powerful point was made. Nothing can destroy God’s people, Israel,
not killing all male babies, not burning their cities, not gas chambers or
concentration camps, and not a nuke from Ahmadenijad, or anyone else!
Don’t misunderstand. As special as God’s
people are, individual Jews are not saved automatically because of their
Jewry. They need to be saved just like Gentiles…there is no difference.
The Apostle Paul’s heart desired that they would be saved!
America—stand behind Israel, God’s people.
Don’t mess w/ Israel! And Jesus gave all to purchase the whole field, inc.
you and me, and now we are part of God’s chosen treasure, adopted into the
Kingdom!
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