Sermons

[TRANS] Picking up on first question, “Why did Jesus teach this way?” and next time, fully answer, from parable of the soils, “What do parables mean?”

 

Intro: Now in part 2: Jesus Taught with Parables.

• Disciples hop meaning of parable, bc/struck by his new approach: “What is going on?”
  • Curious question (cf. v. 10), “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
    • Assumes they know meaning of basic parable.
    • Reveals did not fully grasp Jesus’ agenda.

 

• Confusion by Jesus’ designation speaking “to them” (v. 10).
  • “You might want to challenge our thinking, but why speak in riddles to the masses?” (cf. v. 10).
  • “We thought you were trying to win them over?”
    • “It appears to us that you are confusing them.”
    • “If they are rejecting Truth, why bother, if they will not understand it!”
  • Summary for why Jesus taught in parables is from verse 11.

^ESV  Matthew 13:11 And he answered them, ^a“To you it has been given to know ^bthe secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. (Mat 13:11 ESV)    

 

^ESV  1 Corinthians 2:7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, ^awhich God decreed before the ages for our glory. (1Co 2:7 ESV)

 

^ESV  Ephesians 3:4-6 ^aWhen you read this, you can perceive my insight into ^bthe mystery of Christ,

⁵ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

⁶ This mystery is¹ that the Gentiles are ^afellow heirs, ^bmembers of the same body, and ^cpartakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph 3:4-6 ESV)

 

Verse 12 amplifies what given to believers and withheld from unbelievers.

 

• Believers receive truth and keep receiving more truth.
  • “…will have an abundance” (v. 12).

 

• Unbelievers reject and lose truth they initially had.
  • Parables become indecipherable.
    • Parables cause stumbling.
    • Reveal and conceal.

 

• Ignoring Truth, so God locks people up in unbelief.
  • Parables like judgment of “Tongues”
  • Isaiah, Acts 2, 1 Corinthians.

 

^ESV  Isaiah 28:11 ^aFor by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people, (Isa 28:11 ESV)

 

• A judicial act of blinding which is also mercy.

 

[Illus] When students learn foreign language in school but will not use it, will lose it.

 

[Illus] Like going to a museum with no context, the more you hear the lecture, the more nothing makes sense, because you do not have the elemental facts. Becomes more confusing.

 

[Illus] Truth becomes “Voiceless music” “Painted suns” [Spurgeon]

 

• Refusing truth, left unable to see it.

 

^ESV  Luke 8:10 he said, ^a“To you it has been given to know ^bthe secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so ^cthat ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’

 (Luk 8:10 ESV)

 

^ESV  Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, ^aAs I live, declares the Lord GOD, ^bI have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; ^cturn back, turn back from your evil ways, ^cfor why will you die, O house of Israel? (Eze 33:11 ESV)

 

“Why did Jesus teach in parables?” To affect hearts in one of two ways.

 

• Grace to recipients and judgement to its rejectors.
  • Believers invited to know God’s will.
  • Unbelievers hardened to not know God’s will.

 

Prop: Seven parables reveal seven secrets.

 

[KEY] A secret is synonymous to what’s hidden and now revealed.

 

1. The cause and cure for spiritual blindness and deafness.

 

1. The cause

 

The secret cause is man’s sin, and the cure is grace.

 

[KEY] Humanity is inside of 1 of 4 categories. What Jesus amplifies in verses 18-23. 

 

• Diving into causes of blindness and deafness to truth.
  • Basic paragraph on depravity of man.
    • The cause is always man’s sin.
      • Total Depravity says: Man is thoroughly sinful.
      • Sin touches every area of someone’s life.

 

• Man’s sinfulness varies in category.
• Not as sinful in every area.
• Still, comprehensively sinful.

 

• No one has any single area of life with no sin.
  • Man is a sinner.
  • Born in sin, born with a sin nature.
  • Chooses to sin because born a sinner.

 

Verse 14, Matthew cites Isaiah 6 describes man’s sin in terms of rejecting truth.

 

• Ties to immediate parable of the soils in terms of “seed.”
  • Someone rejecting seed.
    • Rendering blindness and deafness.
    • This is the underlying reason people reject truth.

 

• Isaiah’s prophesy explains the three reasons us why people reject Truth.
  • Why people reject Jesus.
  • Why people do not believe.   

 

1. Man is incapacitated (v. 14)

 

[KEY] Sin left, incapacitates to receive truth.

 

• Isaiah 6 is a curious reference.
  • Context ancient Judah, trapped rebellion (cf. Is. 5, immoralities, idolatry).
  • Looming judgment represented by King Uzziah’s death.
    • Southern Kingdom, Israel on the verge of Babylonian captivity.
    • Prophet Isaiah enters the temple, caught up in a vision.

 

• High, exalted, God, John’s Gospel designates as the Lord Jesus himself.

 

^ESV  John 12:32-41 And I, ^awhen I am lifted up from the earth, ^bwill draw ^call people to myself.” ³³ He said this ^ato show by what kind of death he was going to die.

³⁴ So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that ^athe Christ remains forever. How can you say that ^bthe Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵ So Jesus said to them, ^a“The light is among you ^bfor a little while longer. ^cWalk while you have the light, lest darkness ^dovertake you. ^eThe one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

³⁶ While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become ^asons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.

³⁷ Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

^{38 a}so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ^b“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

³⁹ Therefore they ^acould not believe. For again Isaiah said,

^{40 a}“He has blinded their eyes and ^bhardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

⁴¹ Isaiah said these things because ^ahe saw his glory and ^bspoke of him. (Joh 12:32-41 ESV) (Joh 12:32 ESV)

  

• Jesus is thrice holy, LORD.
  • From throne issues His charge.
  • “Who will preach the message of the Gospel!”

 

• Isaiah, nobly replies, “Here am I, send me!”
  • What follows is what Jesus here quotes (cf. vv. 14-15).
    • On first blush is confusing!
      • Yet, Jesus is picking right up where Isaiah left off.
        • People predicted to reject what Jesus is saying.
        • Outward and inward rejection.

 

• Hearing apart from the Spirit of God.
  • No true understanding.
    • Seeing the Logic.
    • Moral principles.
    • Falling short of saving faith.

 

• Not embraced, by conviction.

 

[Appl] Should make us more gracious when people when people reject Truth. Energizing perseverance to witness when little or no response is given. Not failure, because in the back of your mind, this is all part of God’s ultimate plan.

 

In his classic work Religious Affections, Edwards said:

 

It is possible that a man might know how to interpret all the types, parables, enigmas, and all allegories in the Bible, and not have one beam of spiritual light in his mind; because he may not have the least degree of that spiritual sense of the holy beauty of divine things which has been spoken of, and may see nothing of this kind of glory in anything contained in any of these mysteries, or any other part of the Scripture.

 

[Point] Someone incapacitated to receive truth.

 

• Natural, dull, darkened, under a spiritual stupor.
  • Unable to grasp Christ.
  • Disabled to exercise saving faith.

 

[TRANS] Jesus is uncovering this key “secret” to why people do not believe. Their sin incapacitates them.   

 

 

1. Man is incorrigible (v. 15a)

 

Incorrigible: Not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed.

 

[KEY] Apart from grace, incapacitation moves, bad to worse.

 

• • More Truth makes someone duller.
    • An earlier stage in life, may have been open.
    • Now, hearing Truth makes less receptive.

 

• Moving from “barely hearing” to having “closed their eyes” (v. 15).

 

[Illus] Pictures someone dying, heart stops beating, no longer hearing, eyes closing.

 

[KEY] A sad state, but exactly why Jesus now teaching in parables.

 

• Jesus was protecting people from overexposure to Truth.
  • Slowing their digression.
  • When unreceptive, more exposure to naked Truth proves harmful and hardening.
    • Parables made Truth palatable.
    • Otherwise, casting pearls before swine.

 

• When rejecting truth, never force feed.

 

[Question] “What are we to do when someone is caught up in sexual sin and will not listen?”

 

• Be discerning and treat each individual on a case-by-case basis.
  • Equipped to gauge someone’s responsiveness or lack.
    • Listen to what someone says and what they do.
    • “Time and truth go hand in hand!”

 

• Rely on Church Discipline and Biblical restoration (Matt. 18, Gal. 6).

 

• Man is intractable (v. 15b)

 

[KEY] Closing off to Truth makes obstinate and stubborn.

 

• Deciding against what can save them.
  • They will not “see with their eyes” nor “hear with their ears and understand with their heart” (v. 15).
    • If they did, they would “turn.”
    • [epistrephw] “repent” from their sin.

 

• Digression from the one who hears outwardly not inwardly.
  • From bad to worse.
  • Before, sharp now dull.
    • Open to hear a sermon.
    • Closed off and shut down.

 

• “Deadened faculties” block salvation.
  • Being intractable, becomes public defiance.
  • Private rejection exasperated to open rejection.

 

• If open, Jesus would “heal” them!

 

[Question] “Why do we need to know someone’s sad state?”

 

• “Deadness is outright depressing, right?”
  • Knowing what is truly wrong brings surprising comfort.

 

[Illus] One of the most discouraging states to be in is when something going wrong physically, and you do not know why. Medical tests where your scan comes back clean, but the pain is still there.

 

A relief once a diagnosis is made and proven. Knowing the source of the problem offers guidelines to define the extent of the problem so you can work to solve it the right way with the correct procedures. At least the peace of mind to walk the hard path.  

 

[Appl] People work hard to blame everything that is going wrong with our world on anything but “SIN.” Just listen to what people substitute for “SIN” as what needs to be solved to make things right.

 

Hear the “If we had more of’s” and “If we had less of’s”. If we had more money, more food, more laws, more compassion, education, healthcare, lifespan, technology, government more…  And if we had less “hate” “bigotry” “violence” “guns” “laws” “technology” “poverty” less… Then all would be right with the world.

 

These categories all point to a single deeper issue that apart from the Grace of God, remains unaddressed. It is the issue of man’s sin. Sin that leads to blindness and deafness to truth. Truth which is the means and object of saving faith.

 

[Point] Man’s sin is only solved by God’s grace, so, “How does this help us when most everyone is rejecting truth these days?”

 

[KEY] I think it is important to see that Isaiah’s mission and ministry was defined by this prophecy and Jesus continues this mission and ministry defining it by this prophecy and that the Apostle Paul at the end of the book of Acts (in kind) defines his mission and ministry by this same prophecy.

 

^ESV  Acts 28:23-27 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening ^ahe expounded to them, testifying to ^bthe kingdom of God and ^ctrying to convince them about Jesus ^dboth from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

²⁴ And ^asome were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.

²⁵ And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: ^a“The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

^{26 a}“‘Go to this people, and say, ^bYou will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.

^{27 a}For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and ^bturn, and I would heal them.’

²⁸ Therefore let it be known to you that ^athis ^bsalvation of God ^chas been sent to the Gentiles; ^dthey will listen.”¹

²⁹

³⁰ He lived there two whole years at his own expense,¹ and ^awelcomed all who came to him,

^{31 a}proclaiming ^bthe kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ ^cwith all boldness and ^dwithout hindrance. (Act 28:23-31 ESV)

 

[KEY] These verses being Paul’s commissioning orders. What Paul clung to while under house arrest.

 

• Key to Paul’s perseverance!
• Without this anchor, rejection becomes personal and debilitating.

 

Remember the promised remnant back to Isaiah’s day.

 

^ESV  Isaiah 6:11-13 Then I said, ^a“How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until ^bcities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,

¹² and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

^{13 a}And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned¹ again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump ^bremains when it is felled.” ^cThe holy seed² is its stump. (Isa 6:11-13 ESV)

 

[TRANS] The cause for blindness and deafness is always man’s sin and the cure for blindness and deafness is always God’s grace.

 

• This grace always comes by means of the truth.
• We are saved by grace through faith, but faith must have an object and this object is truth.

 

1. The cure

 

The cure is grace, those who respond to truth  find it.

 

• Pronounced contrast between man’s depravity and being illumined!
  • Until feel loss of man’s sinful condition on this scale, will not value saving grace.
  • Understanding that your former condition.
    • Incapacitated, Incorrigible, and Intractable.
    • Now set free, then blessings.

 

[Point] Without the sense of your own rescue, no real blessing.

 

• Understanding the human condition directs how treat the human condition.
  • Grace alone saves!
  • Only recourse!

 

• Only way grace, not man’s presentation.

 

^ESV  Matthew 13:11 And he answered them, ^a“To you it has been given to know ^bthe secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. (Mat 13:11 ESV)

 

[Question] “How does a lost person, find grace?”

• Truth, that confronts and frees!
  • Grace is activated inside someone’s heart.
  • God gives news eyes and ears that see and hear Christ speaking to their hearts!

 

[Question] “How much does a new believer see and hear from Christ?”

 

• Verse 17 …more than the “…many prophets and righteous people” of old.
  • Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea.
  • Foresaw Messiah in a veiled description.

 

^ESV  John 8:56 ^aYour father Abraham ^brejoiced ^cthat he would see my day. ^dHe saw it and was glad.” (Joh 8:56 ESV)

 

^ESV  1 Peter 1:10-12 Concerning this salvation, ^athe prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,

¹¹ inquiring ^awhat person or time ^bthe Spirit of Christ in them was indicating ^cwhen he predicted ^dthe sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

^{12 a}It was revealed to them that ^bthey were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you ^cby the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, ^dthings into which angels long to look. (1Pe 1:10-12 ESV)

 

• Seeing and hearing Christ directly on earth in physical flesh was blessed.
  • Holy Spirit affords unique access to Jesus.
    • We see and hear him as he speaks through Scripture.
    • Through our daily walk.

 

• Privilege to trust in Christ’s in his physical presence.
  • Rejecting Christ before he came, standing in front of him, or today are all equally tragic.
  • We trust him today.

 

• We have panoramic view of Christ.
  • From the drone.
  • We view Christ and within his past, present, and future story.
  • We have Christ’s personal presence within our daily experience.

 

[KEY] Matthew the writer expects this blessing for all his readers!

 

• Readers in the early church read this verse (v. 17) just like we do today.
  • Early church read this after Christ was ascended to heaven.
    • Like us, blessed through seeing the invisible Christ by HS!
    • “Glasses” help me see my Bible clearly!
      • Glasses picture the HS bringing Jesus clear and near to our hearts!
      • Prophets saw Christ who had not yet come!

 

• We see, Him who came, whom we know!
  • This was what was being confirmed to Jesus’ disciples.
  • They were being illumined.

 

^ESV  Matthew 13:51 ^a“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.”

 (Mat 13:51 ESV)

 

^ESV  Mark 4:34 He did not speak to them ^awithout a parable, but ^bprivately to his own disciples he ^cexplained everything. (Mar 4:34 ESV)

 

^ESV  Luke 24:45 Then ^ahe opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, (Luk 24:45 ESV)

 

^ESV  Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. (Psa 119:18 ESV)

 

• What a day it is to know Jesus!

 

[Conclusion] The most famous hymn of the church is known to be: Amazing Grace.

 

• John Newton, a former captain of a slave ship and slave trader.
  • Incredible how this song lives even within today’s culture.
  • Unthinkable with culture steeped in CRT.

 

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!

 

• Like an uncompromising Grandfather,
  • These lyrics indict what is wrong with our world.
    • Man’s sin.
  • And celebrate the only way things can be right again.
    • God’s grace.

 

• God’s grace cures man’s blindness, turning it back to sight!

 

[KEY] Next week we see only means to God’s grace, “seed” which is the Word of God!