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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 [counterfeit gospel] 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 now…parables of victory.
A quick overview of the
next 3 parables:Look at I Cor.
10 on screen 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 these 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, this parable is all
about the nation of
Israel.Do you stand with Israel?Does America?
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 often 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.Aren't you glad God came looking for you?
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, "Oh My Buddha," or anyone else!He is the first name on anyone’s mind when thinking of God, whether
in cursing or in worship.
Irony:at the democratic convention this week they argued over whether to
put 'God' back into their platform.Why?Because it's not
really about what specific name they want to call God...they don't want to
even have to have that discussion, but hide Him away.
Well, 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!
This parable is not a
picture of a sinner finding Jesus and doing what it takes to be saved.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 Favor,
Failure, and Future…
This is an exciting couple
of verses packed w/ dynamic Bible prophecy.
I.Israel’s Favor*
A.Israel
is God’s chosen, favored
people, a
treasure chosen by God.
Psalms 135:4 For the LORD hath chosen Jacob
unto himself, andIsrael 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...
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 us
of our 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.
[slide] Think about this:We’ve sent out spacecraft 35 years ago that are just on the outer
reaches of our solar system, that is the 9 or so 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 billions 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 that light 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 more than 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 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 billions out there.
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 on Mars and 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 soon the Creator and God of the universe will rule and reign
from Israel, from the throne of David.
That’s
Israel’s Favor…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 ... 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 clear 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 favor?They are God’s treasure!
Their failure?They
became a buried
treasure.
III.Israel’s Future*
v. 44bThe 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 the next 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 [sun and moon] 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
as Pharaoh and Herod tried, not burning their cities as Titus and others
did, not the gas chambers or concentration camps of Hitler, and not a nuke
from Mahmud "I'm a dinner jacket"
[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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