32  The Kingdom and  the Gospel—part 1  (13:1-17)

On that day Jesus went out of the house, and was sitting by the sea. And great multitudes gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole multitude was standing on the beach. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” And He answered and said to them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him shall more be given, 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 being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (13:1-17)

There seems to be no end of the books being written today on the mission of the church. From many sources and from almost every possible viewpoint, the church and its task in the world are being studied, scrutinized, analyzed, praised, blamed, exalted, damned, criticized, and shored up. Every sort of program, principle, method, and scheme is being applied to its operation. With high visibility, the church is being discussed everywhere from the back room to the boardroom, from the kitchen to the seminary class, and by pastors, theologians, laymen, and even the people of the world. Yet with all that study and concern, in few times of its history has more of the church been less certain about what it is, what it should be, and what it should do.

Some foundational truths for understanding the mission of the church are found in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel. The Lord of the church reveals the nature of the church and the spiritual characteristics of the period of time often referred to as the church age. In this marvelously prophetic chapter Jesus describes the character of the era between His first and second comings.

By His authoritative teaching and His indisputable miracles our Lord had early in His ministry proved Himself to be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and King. He had pronounced judgment on the nation and on individuals because of their unbelief, and He had offered an invitation into God’s kingdom and family to any who would believe in Him.

But because Israel had rejected her King, He would not establish the earthly kingdom. For centuries the Jewish people had awaited their Messiah and Deliverer and the kingdom on earth He would establish. They had longed for the promised times of refreshing and restoration, for the throne of David to once again and forever be established. But when the King came, He did not please them and they rejected Him and His kingdom. That most spiritually blessed and enlightened of all generations of mankind turned its back on its King, the Son of God.

In his commentary on Matthew, Stanley Toussaint says, “Not seeing the Messiahship of Jesus in His words and works, they separated the fruit from the tree.” None of the people denied Jesus’ miracles, and most of them recognized that He performed them by God’s power. While acknowledging the divine source of Jesus’ miracles, they refused to recognize that He was Himself that divine Source. The scribes and Pharisees who charged Jesus with casting out demons by Satan’s power (12:24) did not represent the majority of the common people. But even those who admired Jesus and were awed by His power would not connect the evidence with what it clearly was—proof of His divinity and messiahship.

The questions that come to the thoughtful reader are, “If Jesus came to offer the kingdom to Israel and to establish and rule it as prophesied in Scripture, and it was rejected, was God’s plan totally frustrated? Did His own predictions fail to come true? What, then, is to be the character of the present time? What is to be the nature of the message and mission of the disciples and of all believers? And throughout this time, what response is to be expected from people?” It is those questions that Jesus addresses in Matthew 13 with a series of eight parables. The underlying truth was that the kingdom in its final fulfillment would be postponed until the time that Israel would believe in and receive her King. That time will be at the second coming of Christ, when He will establish His earthly kingdom for a thousand years. God cannot forsake His promise, and in His grace He will send His Son again to offer the kingdom. On that day, the Lord promised, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born. . . . And it will come about in that day that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one” (Zech. 12:10; 14:8-9).

But Zechariah tells us nothing of what would happen between Israel’s piercing of the Messiah and her subsequent mourning over Him. The prophet does not even hint that such an intermediate period would occur—although it has now lasted for almost 2,000 years. It was a mystery until revealed here and more fully throughout the New Testament.

In the end “all Israel will be saved,” Paul declares; “just as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’ ‘And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins’” (Rom. 11:26-27). But the day of that fulfilled kingdom had to be postponed, because when the King first “came to His own, . . . those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

But an internal kingdom was established, because “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). Christ’s external, visible kingdom was postponed, but the internal, spiritual kingdom of His saints was established, and in their hearts the Lord reigns and through their lives and testimony He now expresses His will on earth.

The period between Christ’s first and second comings has been called the parenthesis, the interim, the interregnum, and many other such terms. It is a period that was not revealed in the Old Testament, a period to which Jesus refers as “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (13:11). Those mysteries will be discussed below as that verse is expounded. In the eight parables of chapter 13 and in His explanations of them Jesus describes the interim period, the period that began with His rejection and crucifixion and which has continued until the present time. An understanding of this period was essential for the disciples as they set out to evangelize.

THE PLACE: THE SEASHORE

On that day Jesus went out of the house, and was sitting by the sea. And great multitudes gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole multitude was standing on the beach. (13:1-2)

That day refers to the day on which Jesus’ mother and brothers came looking for Him (12:46-47), probably to persuade Him to stop the preaching and teaching they knew could cost Him His life. On that day He had healed many people of various unnamed diseases, explained the true character of the promised Messiah, healed and cleansed the blind and dumb demoniac, charged the unbelieving Pharisees of committing the unpardonable sin by accusing Him of casting out demons by Satan’s power, declared that unbelieving Jews would be condemned by believing Gentiles on the day of judgment, and warned against the deceptive danger of moral reform without spiritual rebirth (12:15-45).

It is also interesting to note that, during His earlier ministry, Jesus seemed to spend more time inside, in houses and synagogues. As His ministry progressed, however, and He was more and more rejected by the Jews, He spent more time ministering outdoors—on the seashore and mountainside and in the countryside, highways, and streets.

Although the religious leaders had rejected Him, Jesus remained immensely popular with the common people, and great multitudes still gathered to Him in fascination to hear Him speak and see Him heal, and some to be healed themselves.

Perhaps pushed by the crowd to the water’s edge and seeking to put some distance between the people and Himself in order to address the crowd better, Jesus got into a boat and sat down, and the whole multitude was standing on the beach. The fact that He sat down in typical rabbinic fashion was necessary because of the moving of the boat in the water; and because the beach sloped sharply upward from the water, the people were enabled to see and hear Him best while He was seated in the boat.

THE PLAN: TO SPEAK IN PARABLES

And He spoke many things to them in parables, (13:3a)

On this occasion, and on most future occasions, Jesus spoke many things to them [the multitudes, v. 2] in parables, and only in parables (v. 34). He did not explain their meaning to the multitudes but only to His disciples (vv. 10-11, 18, 36; Mark 4:34).

Parabol (parable) is a compound word made up of a form of the verb hallo (to throw, lay, or place) and the prefix para (meaning alongside of). The idea is that of placing, or laying, something alongside of something else for the purpose of comparison. A spiritual or moral truth would often be expressed by laying it alongside, so to speak, a physical example that could be more easily understood. A common, observable object or practice was used to illustrate a subjective truth or principle. That which was well known was laid alongside that which was not known or understood in order to explain it. The known elucidated the unknown. The parable was a common form of Jewish teaching, and the term is found some 45 times in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament.

In His earlier teaching, Jesus used many graphic analogies to illustrate divine truth. He had spoken of believers as salt and light in the world (Matt. 5:13-16), of their following the example of the birds and lilies in not being anxious about the necessities of life (6:26-30), and of building their lives on the solid rock of God’s Word rather than the insecure sand of man’s philosophy (7:24-27). Although those and other such figures were embryonic parables, their meaning was clear in the context of Jesus’ teaching.

Teaching through parables and other figurative means is effective because it helps make abstract truth more concrete, more interesting, easier to remember, and easier to apply to life. When a truth is externalized in the figures of a parable, the internalizing of moral and spiritual meaning is much easier.

In the series of parables in chapter 13, Jesus uses such familiar figures as soil, seed, birds, thorns, rocks, sun, wheat, tares, mustard seed, leaven, hidden treasure, and a pearl. But in these particular parables themselves the truth is not made clear, because the basic story tells nothing but the literal account, without presenting the moral or spiritual truth. It was only to His disciples that Jesus explained what the soil, the seed, the thorns, and the other figures represent. And an unexplained parable was nothing but an impossible riddle, whose meaning could only be guessed at.

THE PARABLE: THE SOWER

saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” (13:3b-9)

As Jesus told the story of the sower, His hearers perhaps could have looked around and seen a man actually sowing seed. In any case, the scene was familiar to them, whether they were farmers or not. A man with his seed bag slung over his shoulder as he went out to sow was a common and vivid image. As he walked up and down the furrows of his field, he sowed as he went, repeatedly reaching into his bag for a handful of seed to cast on either side.

The various kinds of ground on which the seed could fall in a field were also familiar. When broadcasting seed by hand it was impossible to control accurately where all the seed fell, and some seeds were bound to fall beside the road. Palestine, especially the highly productive Galilee region, was crisscrossed with fields, and road here refers primarily to the narrow paths that separated one field from another. Farmers used the paths to walk between the fields, and travelers walked on them as they went from one part of the country to another. It was along such a road through a grainfield that Jesus and His disciples were traveling one Sabbath as they picked grain to eat (Matt. 12:1).

The soil on and beside the road would, of course, be unfilled and packed down hard by the walking, which prevented any seeds that happened to fall on it from penetrating and taking root. Because those seeds were exposed and easily accessible, the birds came and ate them up as soon as the farmer got a safe distance down the path. What was not eaten by birds “was trampled under foot” (Luke 8:5). Undoubtedly, birds followed closely after a sower.

The second type of ground on which some of the seeds fell Jesus refers to as the rocky places, where they did not have much soil. Rocky does not refer to loose rocks, because the farmer always removed all rocks, sticks, and other such objects from his field before planting. It rather refers to underlying beds of solid rock deeper than the plow reached, mostly limestone, which did not have much soil covering them. The seeds that fell on such ground immediately . . . sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. When the seed began to germinate, its roots could not penetrate the rock that was just below the surface, and the little plant would instead start to spring up above ground much faster than it normally would.

For a brief period these plants would look healthier and hardier than those in good soil, because more of them showed above ground and they grew faster. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. Lack of roots prevented the plants from reaching and absorbing moisture or nourishment. After the sun had risen in the morning, the plants that looked so promising were scorched and quickly withered away.

The third type of ground on which some of the seeds fell was infested with thorns. After this ground had been cultivated, it looked perfectly good, but when the grain began to sprout, so did the thorns. These tough, thistle-bearing weeds came up and choked. . . out the good plants by taking most of the space, moisture, nourishment, and sunlight for themselves.

The fourth type of ground on which some of the seeds fell was good soil. It was away from the path and was loose and soft. It had sufficient depth to support the good plants and it was free of weeds. Because of those favorable conditions, it yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

In Palestine during New Testament times, the average ratio of harvested grain seeds to those that were planted is said to have been less than eight to one. Even a tenfold crop would have been well above average; and the yields of which Jesus speaks were truly phenomenal.

At the end of this unexplained parable Jesus said, He who has ears, let him hear. That is to say, “If you can understand it, then understand it.” Jesus was not mocking His hearers but was rather pointing out to them that they would need more than their own human understanding to interpret the meaning. He may have been giving an invitation to those in the multitudes who were serious about following Him to come to Him and ask for an explanation, as the disciples were about to do. Otherwise, they would not have ears to hear what He was really saying.

Only those who accept the King can understand the King and profit from His teaching and lordship. To all others His teaching is meaningless riddles.

THE PURPOSE: TO REVEAL AND TO CONCEAL

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” And He answered and said to them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him shall more be given, 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 being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (13:10-17)

When the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them [the multitudes] in parables?” it was the fact that the parables were unexplained that puzzled them. They were asking, in effect, “Why do you bother saying anything to them at all, if they can’t understand it?”

At this point Jesus gives the twofold reason for His speaking in parables: to reveal meaning to those who receive Him and to conceal meaning from those who do not. He answered and said to them, “To you [who believe in Me] it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [who do not believe in Me] it has not been granted.”

Mysteries does not refer to stories such as those found in modern mystery novels, whose complex plot and unexpected situations pique the curiosity of the reader. In the ancient world a mystery was a sacred secret known only to initiates and sometimes only to upper level religionists. The system of mystery religions began in ancient Babylon and spread in various forms to every part of the civilized world. An influential Greek philosophical system of New Testament times was called gnosticism, a name derived from gnsis, which means knowledge. Gnostics considered themselves the ones “in the know” as far as philosophical matters were concerned.

In ancient Egypt a popular religious mystery involved the mythical god Osiris and his goddess wife Isis. Osiris was a wise and benevolent king who was persuaded by his wicked brother Seth to come to a banquet, where, with the help of seventy-two co-conspirators, Seth placed the king in a coffin and threw him into the Nile River to drown. Osiris was rescued by Isis and brought home; but when Seth discovered his brother was alive, he went to the palace and cut Osiris into fourteen pieces, which he shipped to fourteen far-separated locations throughout Egypt. After Isis managed to collect all the pieces of his body, Osiris miraculously restored himself to life; and from the time of his “resurrection” he became the immortal king of both the living and the dead.

Although the story itself was fascinating to anyone who heard it, its deeper meanings were known only to initiates of the Osiris and Isis cults. For them each person and incident in the story had special significance. For example, Osiris represented all good and was attacked by Seth, who represented all evil. The unrelenting devotion of Isis represented the redemptive and triumphal power of love. The ultimate secret, or mystery, was the formula, “I am thou, and thou art I,” which, when spoken to Osiris, would place the worshiper in eternal union with that god.

Similar attitudes of exclusiveness and concepts of mystery are seen in modern secret societies, whose most important rituals and principles are known only to members, and sometimes only to the highest ranking leaders.

In Scripture, however, mysteries refers to the revelation of something previously hidden and unknown. New Testament mysteries are therefore revelations and explanations of divine truths that were not revealed to saints under the Old Covenant.

The particular mysteries about which Jesus teaches here have to do with the kingdom of heaven (see also vv. 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52)—which from parallel passages in Mark (4:11, 30) and Luke (8:10; 13:18) is seen to be the same as the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 19:23-24). One title emphasizes the King (God) and the other emphasizes the sphere of His reign (heaven). Of this kingdom the Old Testament gives only limited and incomplete glimpses. Most messianic prophecies in the Old Testament point to Christ’s second coming and the establishment of His earthly millennial kingdom and His subsequent eternal kingdom. Only hints are given about His present earthly kingdom, that began with His rejection and crucifixion and will continue until He returns. This is the kingdom that exists spiritually in the hearts of His people while the King is physically absent from the earth. He is present with believers, but He is not visible or evident to the world, except as revealed through their lives and testimony.

Some interpreters insist that no present kingdom of heaven of any sort can exist because the King is absent. But David’s reign over Israel while he was fleeing from his rebellious son Absalom is a classic instance of a king having full rights and authority over his realm while temporarily being unable to exercise those rights because of certain circumstances. During the period of usurpation, David is repeatedly referred to as King David, although he was unable to sit on his throne or even to live in his capital city of Jerusalem (see 2 Sam. 15-17). David’s kingship was acknowledged and respected only by those Israelites who remained faithful to him, but his rejection by the followers of Absalom did not make him any less the rightful king. He was the only legitimate monarch, and every faithful citizen of his kingdom recognized it.

In much the same way, Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, now rules in the hearts of His people, although He is physically absent from earth and rules them from His heavenly dwelling through His Spirit—while the usurper Satan temporarily is the spiritual ruler of this world (John 12:31).

The kingdom of heaven has two important but distinct aspects. First is the universal kingdom, which includes every created thing in every time and place. God is the Creator and absolute Sovereign of the universe, and will be eternally. Nothing exists or occurs without His divine provision or permission.

David reminds us that “The Lord sat as King at the flood; yes, the Lord sits as King forever” (Ps. 29:10). He ruled the earth even when it was so wickedly rebellious that He destroyed every human being except Noah and his family in the Flood. Again David tells us, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). God is sovereign “over all,” even over Satan and his demons, whom He has allowed certain freedoms for a limited period of time. Their final and certain destiny is hell, which God rules just as surely as He rules heaven. The Lord has prepared that place for the specific purpose of their punishment along with every unbelieving human being (Matt. 25:41). “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty,” declares the writer of the Chronicles; “indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all” (1 Chron. 29:11).

The second aspect of God’s kingdom is what Alva McClain has appropriately called mediatorial, because His rule is mediated through others. Both the universal and the mediatorial aspects of the kingdom are seen in the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus commands us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). “In heaven” refers to God’s universal and direct reign, whereas “on earth” refers to the present kingdom, in which only His saints are His subjects in the fullest sense.

From the beginning of creation God intended the earth to be ruled by human instruments in His behalf. After everything had been created except man, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26). When Satan succeeded in leading Adam and Eve into the rebellion he had begun in heaven, he became the temporary ruler and prince of earth (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). But, like Absalom, he is a usurper, and his rule is both illegitimate and doomed to end.

Even after the Fall, God maintained certain dominion over the earth through human mediators, and since that time every person who has trusted in Him has been a channel for expressing His will and power on earth. Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel, Joseph, Moses, David, and countless others mediated the Lord’s rule on earth. Through select individuals God gave His holy Word, which was written down for all men to know and obey. In that Word He revealed His nature, His will, His moral and spiritual standards for mankind, and His promises of redemption and restoration. He called out a special people, the nation of Israel, to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6) before the world, to be the forerunners of His Son as “a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). He raised up prophets, priests, and kings to give special leadership on His behalf.

When the Son of God became incarnate, He was God’s unique Mediator, the divine/human instrument of rule, who in His own right deserved to establish and reign over God’s earthly kingdom. When the Son was rejected, God continued to rule through those who belonged to Christ, those who were now empowered within by His own indwelling Holy Spirit. From Pentecost through the present day and until Christ returns, Christians are God’s mediatorial rulers on earth.

Even during the Tribulation, God will raise up 144,000 faithful believers from among the twelve tribes of Israel, and an innumerable host of Gentiles, “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues,” will also be converted and stand “before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (Rev. 7:4, 9).

Throughout its history the mediatorial kingdom has attracted both true and false citizens; and it will remain so until its end. Failure to understand that truth has caused untold confusion in interpreting many Bible passages. Among other things, it has caused many sincere Christians to believe that salvation can be lost.

Careful study of Scripture shows that, although the true subjects of God’s kingdom are only those who belong to Him by saving faith, those true citizens can be infallibly distinguished from false ones only by God Himself. God’s chosen people, Israel, was always composed of both the true and the false. Jesus spoke of certain “sons of the kingdom” who would “be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). Those “sons of the kingdom” obviously were not true subjects of the King. As Jesus makes clear in His explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares, from the human perspective the true sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one are often not distinguishable (Matt. 13:38). In the figure of the vine and branches, Jesus illustrates the truth that many branches that seem to belong to the vine really do not. Jesus even spoke of the spurious branches as being “in Me,” but those branches will be pruned away, dry up, and be thrown into the fire to be burned (John 15:2, 6). The people represented by those unfruitful branches were closely, but superficially, identified with Christ. Condemned “sons of the kingdom” are never part of God’s spiritual kingdom, and unproductive “branches” are never a part of Christ. They only appear to be from man’s imperfect view.

Paul says, “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants” (Rom. 9:6-7). As the apostle had declared earlier in the same letter, only “he is a Jew who is one inwardly” (2:29). Yet in Scripture such terms as Israel, God’s people, and disciples are frequently used in ways that include both nominal and real believers.

The gospels frequently speak of the twelve disciples, or apostles—a group that included Judas, an unbelieving traitor. Throughout its history, the visible church has always included adherents who have not trusted in Christ and who therefore do not belong to Him and are not a part of His spiritual body.

Even during the Millennium, when Christ perfectly and directly rules His kingdom on earth, there will be disloyal citizens of the kingdom. It is from among those false subjects that Satan will gather together his rebellious army in a last futile attempt to defeat Christ (Rev. 20:7-8).

God’s universal kingdom over heaven and earth has no conditions. To exist is to be in that kingdom. To be in His mediatorial kingdom, however, requires intentional identity with Him. For the false citizen the identity is hypocritical and superficial. For the true citizen the identity is genuine, being based on repentance, faith in Christ, and the new life that faith in Him brings (Mark 1:15).

When Christ bodily returns to earth, His indirect rule in the mediatorial kingdom will become His direct rule in the millennial kingdom and then in the eternal kingdom of the new heavens and new earth.

God’s kingdom and the church are distinct in that the kingdom preceded the church and will continue eternally after the church as such has ceased to exist. But during the present mediatorial period, often called the church age, the kingdom and the church are identical. That truth is part of the mystery “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:5-6).

Expanding on the truth that His parables were given to reveal and conceal, Jesus continued, For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

Whoever has refers to those who believe, those who have been sovereignly given the gift of eternal life, received by trust in Jesus Christ. These are the true citizens of the kingdom who have received the King. And whoever accepts salvation from God, to him shall more be given. The person who accepts the true Light (John 1:9) will receive still further light as he grows in obedience and maturity in the Lord. To the believer who lives up to the light he has in Christ, more and more light will continually be given until he shall have an abundance.

But the fate of the unbeliever is just the opposite. Because of his unbelief, he does not have salvation, and therefore even what light of God’s truth he has shall be taken away from him. Many thousands of people heard Jesus teach and saw Him perform miraculous signs as evidence of His divine messiahship; but most of them did not recognize Him as Lord or receive Him as Savior. They were exposed to God incarnate, and yet they rejected Him—either by direct opposition or by indifferent neglect. They said no to the King, and because they refused to receive the divine light that shined on them, they drifted deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness.

To this day, no people on earth are more religiously disoriented than Jews. They were called to be God’s people, given His promises, His covenants, His laws, and His immeasurable blessings. They were even sent His only Son as one of their own people—to teach, heal, comfort, redeem, and deliver them—but they would not have Him rule over them (Luke 19:14). Because they rejected God’s perfect Light, even the light they had went out, and everything in their religion lost its true meaning. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, and with it the priesthood and the sacrifices. The ceremonial and sacrificial requirements of their covenant with God could no longer be met; but since that time Jews have continued to follow various aspects of their ancient religion—without prophets, priests, kings, Temple, or sacrifices. Even those who call themselves orthodox believe and practice only a small part of what their own Scripture teaches and commands. The conservative and reformed branches of Judaism believe and practice even less. Most Jews do not even try to make sense out of most of the Old Testament. For most, all that is left is a nonreligious tradition.

All men are either progressing or regressing spiritually. No person remains static in his relationship to God. The longer a person knows and is faithful to Christ, the more his Lord is faithful to reveal His truth and power. The longer a person rejects the knowledge of God he has, whether much or little, the less of God’s truth he will understand. Willful human rejection leads to divine judicial rejection. When a man says no to God, God says no to that person. God confirms men in their stubbornness, and binds them with their own chains of unbelief.

TO CONCEAL

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 being fulfilled, which says, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.” (13:13-15)

Those verses from Isaiah 6:9-10 perfectly describe the unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ day. Isaiah wrote during a time of sweeping judgment on Judah. He had just pronounced a series of curses on the people for their drunkenness, debauchery, immorality, dishonesty, injustice, and hypocrisy. While Isaiah was preaching his message of doom, King Uzziah died (6:1) and the nation was plunged into some of its darkest days. They were on the verge of captivity by Babylon as part of God’s judgment; yet they refused to turn to Him for mercy and help.

The people kept on hearing, but they did not understand; and they kept on seeing, but they did not perceive, because they had intentionally closed their eyes and their ears to God and refused to understand with their heart and return to Him in order for Him to heal them. Because they chose to ignore God and His word, God judicially locked them up in their unbelief so that they would fear His judgment.

The first fulfillment of Isaiah’s warning came in the judgment of the Babylonian Captivity, just as the prophet promised. The second fulfillment, Jesus declared, was about to be accomplished as Israel once again turned her back on the Lord and faced the judgment of centuries of darkness and despair.

Jesus’ parables were a similar form of judgment on unbelief. Those who would not accept His clear and simple teachings—such as those in the Sermon on the Mount—not only would not be able to understand His deeper teachings but would lose the benefit of the teaching and miraculous witness they had been given.

The gift of languages in the early church was still another form of judgment on unbelievers. Quoting from Isaiah 28:11, Paul wrote, “In the law it is written, ‘By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,’ says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers” (1 Cor. 14:21-22). Tongues were manifested in an astounding and dramatic way on the day of Pentecost and continued to be manifested from time to time during the apostolic age as a form of testimony against those who refused to believe. The Lord first gave His truth to Israel in simple, clear teaching; and when that was ignored, He spoke to them in parables, which, without explanation, were no more than meaningless riddles. Finally He spoke in unintelligible languages that could not be understood at all without translation.

TO REVEAL

But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (13:16-17)

When men choose to believe God’s Word and trust in His grace, He gives them salvation and more and more truth by which to walk and to worship. Blessed are your eyes, Jesus said to His disciples, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.

Christians can understand even the deep things of God’s Word, because they have them written in the New Testament and illumined by the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9-10). When Jesus finished explaining the parables to His disciples and asked, “Have you understood all these things?” they could honestly answer, “Yes” (Matt. 13:51). It was not that they were smarter than the unbelieving Jews. The scribes and Pharisees were highly educated and had studied the Scriptures diligently since their youth. But their eyes were blinded to the truth of Jesus’ teaching because of their unbelief. The eyes of the disciples, on the other hand, were able to see and their ears were able to hear, because they did believe.

Part of the Lord’s ministry was to give understanding of His Word to those who trusted in Him. In his account of this occasion, Mark says Jesus “was explaining everything privately to His own disciples” (4:34). During perhaps His last appearance to the disciples after His resurrection, Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). The psalmist knew he could not comprehend God’s Word in his own intellect, and he prayed, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law” (Ps. 119:18).

Not even the most faithful and enlightened saints of the Old Testament were given the insights that the apostles and every believer since have been given the privilege of having. For truly I say to you, Jesus continued, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person and time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look” (1 Pet. 1:10-12).

Even for believers there must be divine illumination, and that is promised to every Christian who searches God’s Word and relies on the Holy Spirit within him (see 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 1 John 2:20, 27). As Christians, we not only have God’s completed revelation in Scripture but the very author of that Scripture living within us—to explain, interpret, and apply its truths.