The Purpose of the Parables

Now this is what I want us to do in starting off. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 13. If you know anything about the parables, you might have wondered where I would start. We're going to start tonight and in this series in Matthew chapter 13. Now tonight we are starting our study and I say it like this on purpose in the parables. And I say in the parables for two reasons. First of all, there are parables in the Old Testament. I don't know if you know that. To me, one of the most famous is when the prophet Nathan confronted David in his sin. And what did he do? He told him a little parable.

He told him a little story and it was to illustrate truth and it was to illustrate his particular sin. And you can go study that in first Samuel or excuse me, second Samuel chapter 12. But we're not going to go into the Old Testament parables. And I also say in because we're not going to study every parable. We're going to study a select group of parables and we're going to also study certain individual parables, but not all of them. And I'll share with you a little more about what that will look like as we progress. Now, before we get started in the first group of parables that I want us to study, we need to answer some questions here.

Now these are basic questions, but I have really worked hard to see how we can start off properly. Because if we don't start off properly, we really can set ourselves up for failure. Now the questions that we're going to look at and getting started are questions like this. Where are the parables? How many parables are there? What is a parable and what did Jesus teach in the parables? Now you can follow me easily as I progress through the message. Don't panic when I give you a long list of questions like that. These are all basic questions, fundamental questions. You follow me and if anything hits you, you write it down.

But if not, if you need my notes, I'll be glad to share those with you. Now listen close. Let's get back to these questions. Answering these questions will do several things for us. First of all, if we do not know where the parables come from, well, we're not going to know where to go and study them. And I do trust that you'll study some on your own. Most important than where we find them, if we do not know what a parable is and why Jesus taught in parables, then we really are set up to fail from the beginning.

If we do not know what a parable is and why Jesus taught in parables, we are destined to misunderstand their meaning and we certainly will not be able to understand what it means for us today. We'll give them a wrong meaning and then we will not be able to understand for us today. So the what and the why, that's very important. Now there's a lot more that can be said here when we're looking at introducing a body of material like this that is so important. I really just worked hard over the past few weeks to to just summarize the very vital basics and I think what I'm sharing with you tonight will prepare you. I think it really will.

So the first two questions, the first two questions, where are the parables of Jesus and how many are there? Now you've got a handout so you kind of know by now. The parables of Jesus are found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That's commonly called the synoptic gospels. They are not found in the gospel of John. Now if you ask me why there are none in John, I'm just going to tell you that the Lord Jesus the Holy Spirit did not inspire John to give us any parables. Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain about 39 or 40 parables and the exact number depends on how you count them and I'm going to show you that a little bit later.

Now if you really study the parables you'll see that Luke gives more parables than Matthew. Matthew gives more parables than Mark. Now I give you a handout on purpose. This will be good for you. Now if you have a study bible you might have a chart in there that gives you the parables. As a matter of fact that came out of a workbook that I have in my study. It's the John MacArthur workbook on the parables and I think at the bottom it even mentions that it came out of a study bible. Maybe it did but your study bible could have a list of parables, a commentary, or some other kind of material like that.

Some of you have bible studies apps on your phone. Even internet sources might show you and give you the parables. Now that's real basic but that shows you where they are and how many parables there are. Some of you might be surprised at how many there are. Now the second question, what is a parable? What is a parable? If you look up the definition of the word parable in any bible dictionary or commentary or any kind of source like that you will get really the same basic definition. Simply the word means to lay alongside. It means to place one thing by the side of another. It means making a comparison.

The picture in a parable is that of laying something alongside or beside something else for the purpose of comparison. For the purpose of comparison. Now with Jesus and his parables, Jesus is laying out an earthly story and then he is laying out a spiritual truth beside that earthly story or within that earthly story. Sometimes you'll feel like they're woven all together. Sometimes the earthly stories he used were simple. While sometimes they were more complicated. Sometimes he was teaching a singular truth in the parable but other times he was giving more than one truth in the particular lesson. Now you can run across language like this.

It can be said that a parable is a figure of speech. Some people might even call it a story using a comparison for the purpose of teaching a spiritual lesson or lessons. A parable may use metaphor. It may use simile. It may even involve a proverb, a word picture, but no matter what is contained in the parable there is some type of a comparison within the parable to illustrate spiritual truth or truths. Now part of understanding what a parable is is understanding that most of Jesus parables needed some kind of an explanation. So if you start reading in the parables and you think I'm not getting it that's okay the disciples didn't either.

That's why we're here together. We're going to dig in here and we're going to find out what they mean but that is part of the parable. Some were easy to grasp. Some were difficult to understand that is why Jesus would give his disciples and you'll see we'll see they were private explanations. Now one more thing that we need to see here this will help us what a parable is not. Some of my resources go on and on and on about what a parable is not. A parable is not a fable. It is not a myth.

All the stories Jesus used in the parables were normal everyday earthly stories that could happen in real life whereas that is not the case with a fable are a myth and some of you know the difference in a fable, a myth, and a parable. Now the last question in this section of the the lesson tonight or the message tonight why did Jesus teach in parables? Now this is a simple question but it can be difficult for some to accept. I think you'll see what I mean when I get going here. There are two reasons basically. First the purpose that Jesus had was to conceal spiritual truth from certain people.

He was concealing truth from certain individuals and then second he was revealing spiritual truth to others and this was all very purposeful. This was all very purposeful. Let's look at Matthew 13. I want us to look at the first two or three verses and then verse 10 to 17. Verse 1 "On that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea and a great multitude gathered to him so that he got into the boat and he sat down and the whole multitude was standing on the beach." I think you can get that imagery. "And he spoke many things to them in parables saying." So he begins this long discourse of parables here.

Most commentators and scholars say that all of the parables he spoke at one time and he may even have given some of the other parables at this time as well. But notice after he gives the first parable notice verse 10. "And the disciples they came to him and they said to him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?'" In other words, what are you doing? We don't get it.

"And he answered and he said to them, 'To you,'" he's talking to his disciples, "it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them," talking about the Jews, the Jewish leaders, "but to them it has not been granted for whoever has to him shall be given more and he shall have an abundance but whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see and while hearing they do not hear nor do they understand." And in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled.

And if you read those verses you see that Jesus is doing what the prophet said he would do. And then verse 16, "But blessed are your eyes," talking to the disciples, "because they see in your ears because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, it did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but they did not hear it." So we see the purpose to conceal and to reveal. So by teaching in parables, Jesus was concealing truth from who? These hard-hearted, unbelieving Jews. Remember, they were rejecting Jesus and we're going to talk more about that as we continue.

And then he is revealing truth to those disciples, that band of believers who were following him. Now I'll talk about this when we get into Matthew chapter 13, but this is simply what we have going on here. As Jesus taught in parables, think about it. He stimulated the disciples to know what Jesus was saying. Isn't that what we saw? He taught the first parable, they came wanting to know what was going on. Then in private, Jesus explained the meaning of the parable. And then simply, the parables were a part of Jesus teaching his disciples the spiritual truth. Their curiosity brought them in more.

Things were a whole lot different with the rejecting Jews, the Jewish leaders, because of their unbelief, their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. God was shutting them up to their sin and he was shutting them up to their unbelief. And this is exactly what the prophet Isaiah said would happen. Now let me summarize what we have here. At a particular time in Jesus' ministry, a purposeful time, a planned time, Jesus shifted and he began to teach in parables. These were earthly stories and they were meant to communicate spiritual truth or truths. And he did so to conceal these truths from the unbelieving, rejecting Jews.

And he also did this to reveal truth to his followers. Well, I do believe that that sets us up for the select groups of parables that we'll study and the certain individual parables that we will study. I believe that helps us understand what's going on and I believe that helps us be prepared to get into the parables. And if there's any further introduction to the groups or the particular parables, I'll give those to you. Because again, if we don't know what's happening here, we will misapply them in their day. We will misunderstand what Jesus is trying to do and then we never can make good application in our day.

Now let's turn our attention to the first group. The first group is found in Matthew chapter 13. Now you can follow along with me in your Bible because a lot of Bibles will have a heading above each one. I see some of you nodding so you see what I'm talking about. And if you don't have a Bible translation that has a heading, it's okay. That's why I gave you the handout. Now this is what I want us to do. I want to point something out to you. I want you to look at the handout, maybe look at your copy of God's Word and notice what we have here.

In my copy of my New American Standard, it doesn't have the parable of the sower listed, but we see above verse 18, the sower is explained. So we see at the beginning of the chapter, we have the parable of the sower and then next we have the parable of the wheat and the tare or the tare in the weeds. Sometimes the titles are changed a little. Then the third one is the parable of the mustard seed. And then we have the parable of the leaven and that's just one little verse, verse 33. A lot of times teachers will combine these as they're teaching. We're going to get into that in a little while too.

Then the fifth one is the parable of the hidden treasure and then the parable of great price. And then we have the parable of the dragnet. Now there's an interesting note here. That's seven, but there can be considered an eighth versus 51 to 52 sometimes is considered the parable of the householder or new and old treasures. Now we're going to get into that as we get going, but I want you to see here that we've got seven or eight parables, some long, some short. Parable of the sower covers a lot of verses, but we have seven or eight. Now why do I say seven or eight?

It's because different commentators, different teachers will group them a little different. I'll share with you something a little bit funny. This handout that I gave you, the bottom says the source is from the John MacArthur study Bible. It's John MacArthur material. But if I look in my John MacArthur commentary on Matthew 8, Matthew chapter 18 to 15, in his commentary he says there are eight, but then here in his handout he says there's seven. I thought that was funny. And as I was studying and going through them all and preparing for tonight, really even a couple of weeks ago, I did see that.

Now I'll point that out just because you'll run across those things. I will probably mention seven and eight as I continue through the parables, but really I will probably deal with them by calling them eight parables or mentioning saying it is eight parables. Now if you happen to think it's seven, don't hold that against me. Okay. But here chapter 13, we've got eight parables and they were spoken for a particular purpose. Jesus spoke these parables for the purpose of describing and representing the kingdom of heaven. You might say, wait a minute, I thought it was to reveal and conceal. That's true. But what he's doing here is this.

Jesus is speaking these parables for the purpose of describing and representing the kingdom of heaven. Go back to verse 10 and 11. The disciples came to him and they said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? Why? What are you doing here? And he answered them and he said to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. So you see that Jesus spoke these parables for the purpose of describing and representing the kingdom of heaven. Now before we get into the parables, we must understand a few things here. We must understand the meaning of this word mystery.

We need to understand the meaning of this word mystery. We need to understand the meaning of this word kingdom and then the overall purpose. We need to understand the overall purpose of the parables that speak of these mysteries of the kingdom. This really comes out of verse 10 and 11. And I think when we get through this, you're going to see how important this is. So the first thing that I want us to see, I want us to see the meaning of this mystery. Isn't that what he says? To you it has been granted to know the mysteries, the mysteries. Now words have meaning and words have purpose.

This word mystery has both meaning and purpose and it speaks to something that you might not have ever seen. Now some of you do have the English standard, it says secrets. Now let me clear up a misconception here. These mysteries or secrets do not speak of stories like we have today in maybe murder mysteries. This is not like a crime mystery or a murder mystery. Today we have books and TV shows. As a matter of fact, Christy Minach and the other night, she said, I think all of these shows that are on right now are about murder. We have TV shows and movies and really the whole plot of all of these shows is a simply who done it mystery.

And some of them can be very unhealthy for us to watch. That's another subject to another day. But that is nothing, it's nothing like that when we get into what these mysteries are. So don't get confused there. In the scriptures, mysteries, secrets, speak to the revelation of something that was before unknown, it was hidden, it was concealed. The New Testament mysteries are revelations of truth that was not known to the Old Testament saints. You see, these New Testament mysteries are simply revelations of truth that was not made known in the Old Testament, nor was it made known to the Old Testament saints.

Now it doesn't mean that these things were incomprehensible. No, it just means that they were hidden, but now they are revealed. This all pertains to God's timetable, his plans and his purposes. You see? Well, that's what we have here. These mysteries that are contained in these seven or eight parables are all centered on the kingdom of heaven. They were previously hidden and now they are being revealed. Well, a question, what is the kingdom of heaven? That's the next question that we have to ask. What is the kingdom of heaven that he is speaking of here? Go back to the verse.

"And he answered and he said to them, 'To you it has been granted to know the mysteries, the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.'" Now, honestly, this is right where people start to miss it. This is where people start to miss it here. Now, this is not that complicated. And when we understand what this kingdom is, honestly to me, this unlocks the door of understanding all that's going on here. And this unlocks the door for us to be able to apply it to us in our day properly. Now, in the scriptures, the kingdom of heaven can be seen in three ways, but only one applies. First, we have God's universal kingdom.

We do understand that God's rule and reign is universal. We understand that. I've taught you that here thoroughly. He, that's God, rules over all things in time and in history. He rules over things seen and unseen. He rules over all men and peoples and nations. When we watch the news, it's kind of hard to feel like it's kind of difficult to see that, but he is ruling over all men and peoples and nations. God is the creator of all and he is the ultimate sovereign ruler of all. And God will rule as the sovereign ruler all throughout eternity, all throughout eternity. He is always ruled. And you know, today we need to be reminded that.

Let me just pause there. We do. And if you've been battling with fear, I'm going to get you to write down a couple of verses, Psalm 29, 10, and then Psalm 103 verse 19 speaks to God's sovereignty. God is in control. So we have God's universal kingdom. He is the ruler of all, of all time, of all space, of all history, all men, all nations, and that includes Satan and his demons. But that's not what the parables are talking about. Second, we have God's future kingdom. We have God's future kingdom. Now, when we speak about God's future kingdom, kingdom, we're speaking of, if I can say it like this, eternity future.

Of course, this involves that theological word eschatology. Eschatology is the theology and the study of the future and future events. Of course, this involves the return of Christ, the judgment of mankind in the end of time, in the end of creation, as we know it, all of that stuff that we find in the book of revelation and other places. I think I've said this before every now and then Maggie asked me when I'm going to preach the revelation, the book of revelation. I'll get there one day, but what do we have here? We have God's future kingdom, those things that are to come, but that's not what he's talking about in the parables either.

Third, we have God's present kingdom. So we have God's universal kingdom. We have God's future kingdom. Third, we have God's present kingdom. Now, when I speak of God's present kingdom, I am not speaking of his universal kingdom, but a specific particular kingdom. I'm speaking about the kingdom that came into being through Christ Jesus, his death, and through those who were redeemed by his sacrifice on the cross. Notice how, and this is Albert Barnes, an old Presbyterian commentator, long since been dead. It's a free resource. You can find that online, Albert Barnes. Notice what he says here.

He calls this, and I'm quoting, "The establishment of the new kingdom of the Messiah, which had not been understood." Which had not been understood. Simply, this present kingdom of God is the New Testament church. This is the church age, the past church age since Acts, the present church age now, and the future church age until the age of the church ends. So we have God's present kingdom in time and on earth, his rule and his reign in his church, his present kingdom, the church. And these parables are about the church, the church age, which is the kingdom of God on earth at this time, at this time.

Well, we understand the meaning of the kingdom, but what was Jesus' overall purpose here in all that he's teaching? What was the purpose? What was Jesus seeking to accomplish? This is the purpose of the parables is what I call it. Now, I've already spoken to this Psalm. I know I said it, to conceal and to reveal, to conceal and to reveal. If you have that, you're going to be good, but I need to flesh this out a little bit more. I want to go deeper, and I want us to see more of what's happening with this concealing and more of what's happening with this revealing. Now, I'm going to take them in reverse order than the verse.

I'm doing that on purpose. And this leads us right to how it all applies to us. I promise first this concealing, to understand what's happening here, we must grasp what's been happening before chapter 13. Now, I'm going to give you a fast overview of what's been going on up to this point, up to chapter 13. At the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, Jesus is found in the synagogues teaching the Jewish people. He goes to the Jews. We know that Jesus taught like no one had ever taught. Even the Jews admitted that Jesus performed great miracles that attested to his deity.

He even made claims of being the Messiah of God, yet the Jews increasingly rejected Jesus. And if you study Matthew starting at chapter four, verse 12, which is the beginning of his earthly ministry, if you started his earthly ministry and go all the way to chapter 12, you will see that there was this rising opposition from the religious leaders. And there's this increasing divide between the religious leaders and Jesus. And this divide wasn't some friendly disagreement. These Jewish leaders hated Jesus and they hated him more every day and they hated him enough to kill him. And eventually they did. You know it.

And you can really see this rising opposition even more starting in chapter nine, going into chapter 12. And a lot of times it's centered on what he did with the Sabbath. Well, in chapter 13, we see this purposeful change in Jesus. He changes his teaching ministry. Whereas before he was usually in the synagogues teaching the Jews, here we see Jesus on the seashore teaching the crowds. And from now on after chapter 13, Jesus increases this divide between himself and the religious leaders. One of the ways he does this is by teaching in parables.

And Jesus teaches in parables to conceal from them the mysteries of the kingdom, the mysteries of the church, the mysteries of the church age. And if you keep studying Jesus' earthly ministry in Matthew's account, you will see that after chapter 13, he eventually even leaves Jewish territory. He goes to the Gentiles. And we need to ask why Jesus is doing this. For the most part, Jesus is withdrawing from the nation of Israel. From the most part, he's withdrawing. He's withdrawing his teaching. He's withdrawing his miracles, his ministry from the Jews, from the nation of Israel.

And by teaching in parables, he was concealing from them the mysteries of the kingdom. Of course, there were still Jews who did come to faith in Christ after this transition in his ministry. Although Jesus did withdraw from Israel, it wasn't that some Jews didn't come to believe in him. Some continued to believe. So Jesus was rejecting the Jewish religious establishment and the nation as they had rejected him. And by teaching in parables, he was turning them over to their sin. He was turning them over to their unbelief. By teaching in parables, Jesus was literally shutting them up into their unbelief.

He was saying something like this, "Is that what you really want? I'm going to give it to you." Listen, folks, this was judgment. You need to see that. This was judgment. This was judgment for rejecting Jesus as the true Messiah. And this was prophesied back in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 9 and 10. And that's all that Jesus is quoting right here, starting in Matthew 13, in verse 14. He's quoting Isaiah. So first, this concealing is a little more than maybe you knew before. But second, this revealing.

Now, just as we need to look back to grasp what Jesus was doing with the Jewish leaders and Israel, we need to look forward to see what Jesus was doing with his disciples. Jesus was judging the Jewish leaders in Israel while at the same time he was blessing his disciples. If we fast forward to the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, we know what Jesus did. Jesus commissioned his disciples, and he commissioned those early believers and his disciples to take the gospel to the nations. We see this in Matthew 28, it's commonly called the Great Commission.

And starting in the book of Acts, after the giving of the Holy Spirit, we see that these very disciples did take the gospel to the nations. They evangelized the Jews first and the Gentiles second. Now, we know they struggled to believe that the Gentiles were coming into the kingdom, but they evangelized the Jews, then the Gentiles, and what did they do? They formed them into local churches. And the entire story of the book of Acts is the birth and the spread of the church, you know that. And the Holy Spirit of God birthed the church through these men. Jesus said in Matthew 16 that he would build his church and no demonic power could stop him.

Will Christ Jesus fulfill that promise through these men? And we know there were other men besides the chosen disciples. They were the apostles, the church fathers. Now, back in Matthew 13, Jesus was giving them once hidden secrets concerning the kingdom of God on earth, the church. Jesus was giving them vital truths and lessons concerning the church and the work of the church. These are secrets, mysteries that they must get. These are truths and lessons that they must live by throughout their ministries if they were going to be all that he wanted them to be within the church. So Jesus was blessing the disciples. You see?

He was blessing his disciples, those who were true followers. And by teaching in parables, he was drawing them into himself and giving them secrets about the kingdom that Old Testament saints like Moses and Abraham and even King David, they never knew. They never knew. Whereas Jesus was judging the Jews, in Israel, he was blessing his chosen disciples. He was blessing his chosen disciples. Look at verse 16 and 17. "But, bless your eyes." What is he saying? You're blessed because they see in your ears, "Blessed are your ears because they hear.

For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and they did not see it and to hear what you hear and they did not hear it." You see this tremendous blessing. Now sometimes I will run across something that somebody else says and I just can't see it any better. To be honest with you, most of the time it's that way. I was doing some reading in Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry was one of the old Puritans, very famous for his commentaries. His solid good material. If you run across a Matthew Henry commentary in a bookstore or buy one online or even one of those free copies online, it's good study material.

Sometimes you might struggle with the wording, but he has this way of reaching out and grabbing what I have been teaching you. I'm going to use it. I'm going to read what he says here and this will lead us really to conclude this part of what I want to share tonight. Listen to what he says and I'm quoting. "There are eight parables recorded in this chapter," say he says are eight. "There are eight parables recorded in this chapter which are designed to represent the kingdom of heaven, the method of planting the gospel kingdom in the world, and of its growth and success." You see?

He just reaches out and he summarizes all that I have been sharing with you. They are blessed. They've been given the secrets of the kingdom, the truths of the kingdom that they're going to take with them all throughout their ministry. So I've introduced the parables and I've introduced these seven or eight parables. Next week we will study and learn what Jesus taught in the first parable, the parable of the sower. And the parable of the sower is verses one to nine. We've already read verses 10 on down to verse 17 and then it picks up in an explanation starting in verse 18.

So if you struggle with verses one to nine, don't fret, just go on over to verse 18 and Jesus will explain it to you just like he did his disciples. Now not only will we learn and understand what this parable means, we will see just how vital this teaching is in our day. And listen folks, everything we teach, everything I teach, everything you learn, everything we dig into here will speak to our church. It will speak to our evangelism. It will speak to our families. It will speak to our church roles. It will speak to how we baptize. It will speak to more than you know.

And when you let these things soak in all of these parables, you will see and understand why so many other churches suffer. Before I move to my conclusion, I want to share this with you. I am thankful that when I first came to Christ, I had a home church pastor that taught through these parables and he established foundational, vital truth and understanding when it comes to these things when I first came to Christ. Because I have known people who have struggled in some of these areas truthfully for years. Now I want to close by asking a question and giving an assignment.

I said earlier that here in Matthew 13, Jesus was giving his disciples once hidden secrets concerning the kingdom of God on earth, the church. And I said that he was giving them these vital secrets and he is giving them these vital secrets, these truths to equip them for their work. And this was the work that they were going to set out in starting in Acts. Now here's my question. Do these secrets of the kingdom pertain to us today? Yes. Mom's dads, you've got to know how to deal with your sons and your daughters properly.

If you teach a small group, if you teach vacation Bible school, you got to know how to deal with little boys and girls properly. Leaders, men in the church, we have to know how to deal with people when they come seeking to know Christ. We have to know how to deal with people when they leave the faith and leave the church and abandon their membership. This applies to us today far more than you know. And again, many fail here and many churches suffer because they do not understand what's happening here. Now here's my assignment. Read Matthew 13. At least read the parable of the sower. It's just one chapter. I promise you've got plenty of time.

Read these parables. Read it in more than one translation. Some of you have Bible studies, you have study Bibles, you have good materials. Read mull over these verses. Write down questions. Come in here next week with these verses on your mind because we're going to try to cover a lot of ground. I'm going to combine where I can combine. Some of these really go together. And I want us to be able to spend the time in the parables, but yet move through them enough where we don't string them out, where we can get our minds around all of them and all that the Lord is teaching.

And if you read and if you study, even if you need my notes, if you'll do that, I promise it'll help you get all that you need to get. Now the title of the message is real simple. To be honest with you, I didn't have a title until late this afternoon. It's the purpose of the parables. And notice how that applies. I gave you the purpose of all the parables in the beginning. What they are, where they're found, how many, what Jesus was doing. I gave you the purpose of all of the parables. I applied to the ones in Luke, the ones in Mark, the ones that are repeated, the ones that are not, and then the purpose of these parables.

Let me say this and then we'll close. I really, really, really wanted to start off with a parable of the sower, but I think what I shared with you tonight helps you more than you know. And I'll say this because it helped me. It really, really helped me. These are some things that I have not seen and I have studied and taught through the parables, especially Matthew 13, for years.