“A Parable about Parables” // A few days later when West Elm delivered our credenza I said, ‘Wow! You got this for 40 to $100?!?!?’ And she said, ‘No!? $1,400.’ My jaw hit the floor and I was distraught.” Matthew 13:1–23 // Listen #1 Again, listening is a critical life skill. And, whenever Jesus told parables, he would say, and you’ll hear it today, Listen. I’m so encouraged by hearing how God is working in and through our college students...the vision of our college ministry is not any Today, we’re going to look at a parable Jesus told about why he told different than the vision of our church: to make disciples who go and parables—which, I know sounds like a biblical version of Inception: make disciples. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray we never get a parable within a parable about parables. tired of seeing God work miracles among us. Amen? But this one is absolutely fascinating. I was always taught that Open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew—Matthew 13Today we parables were “earthly stories with a heavenly meaning” where Jesus begin a series on the parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, and used simple, every-day analogies to help people understand profound the series is called “Listen.” truth. ● It’s kind of like today when we say, “It’s like that movie…” or “Do Listening, of course, is a critical life skill. One of our campus pastors you remember that scene from The Office?” told me this week that he was at home working in the yard when he ● Had Nic Cage been around in Jesus’s day, he would undoubtedly got a phone call from his wife, who told him she was at the mall in a have featured frequently in Jesus’s teaching. store he’d never heard of called West Elm. She told him she wanted to buy a ‘credenza’ that cost $1400 and asked if it was ok.” And that’s true. But this parable shows us that there was more to it than that. In fact, in a twist of irony, Jesus tells us that he sometimes He said: “First, I had no idea what a credenza was. I thought it was a told parables to obscure truth rather than illustrate it. cooking book. Second, because I was working in the yard and not paying much attention I heard ‘$40 to $100.’ So, I said, ‘sure.’ And I know that sounds confusing, but today is going to answer a lot of questions for some of you, I think. Frankly, I was surprised how grateful she was. She just kept saying ● It will explain to you why some people, even though they are over and over, “Thank You! Thank you!” For the life of me I couldn’t really smart, can’t seem to see the truth. imagine what was so exciting about a cookbook, but I was glad she ● And why so many people interpret the Bible in different ways. was glad. Works Consulted: “Kingdom Seed,” Ian Nelson “The Good Soil,” Joby Martin “The Seed and the Soil,” James Boice Matthew 13, J.C. Ryle and Helmut Theilicke “The Seed of the Kingdom,” Tim Keller sixty, and some thirty times what was sown. 9 Let anyone who has I’m also going to explain today why some of you have such a hard ears to hear, listen.” time paying attention in sermons, and why some of you get drowsy the exact moment I stand up here to speak. And I’m going to explain 10 Then the disciples came up and asked him, “Why are you speaking why a bunch of you middle and high school students suddenly have to to them in parables?” use the bathroom the moment I start speaking. ● From up here it’s like watching a parade. Evidently, a bunch of the people were confused—which might be good news for a bunch of you who get confused during sermons— By the time I am finished today I think I will have convinced you that you probably would have made a pretty good disciple of Jesus. having to use the bathroom while I am preaching is sign of demon possession. If someone gets up during the sermon, maybe you So, Jesus’s disciples are like, “Jesus, why don’t you just come out and should cross yourself or hiss at them when they walk by. Just kidding. tell us what you mean?” But I am going to explain a lot of different spiritual forces that are work when I am up here preaching. I’m going to suggest that you have probably asked this same question at some point—you’ve asked why, if Jesus is true, he wasn’t The Parable: Matthew 13:1–23 more straightforward and definitive about it. It comes out like: ● God, if you really are the author of the Bible, why not prove that 13:1 On that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the to everybody? sea. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat o Why not have a little angel hover over the Bible when people and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore. There were reading it saying, “This stuff is true?” so many people Jesus had to get into a boat and push out to shore to o Or, why not make it so that whenever you hold it up you it’s create some space. This was his version of overflow lobbies and like one of those Magic Eye pictures where you see a figure satellite campuses. (BTW, I’ve been trying to get our elders to buy me skater come out whose movements somehow symbolize your a boat so we could be prepared for this if it happens, but they keep life’s journey? saying that is not a valid application of the text. But I think they are o Or, why doesn’t every time one of your professors denies the just being hard-hearted—it is the plain meaning of the text) truth of the Bible God put a Darth Vader strangle-hold on them? 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “Consider the ● Do you ever ask things like that? sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the ● Some Bible critics use Jesus’s lack of straightforwardness to try path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seed fell on and suggest that Jesus didn’t even believe he was God; that was rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly something later Christians added on to him. since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 But when the sun came up, it was o Bart Ehrman over at UNC points out, for example, that in scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus doesn’t seem to aggressively among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. 8 Still other put forward his deity—he doesn’t come out that often and seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some say, “I am God.” o Now, in the Gospel of John he does, and that shows, o You see this all the time in politics. Democrats think that Ehrman says, that that was something John added in later. everything that Republicans do is wicked and shows their Jesus didn’t believe he was God; later Christians under wicked, evil intentions and vice-versa. John’s influence added that.” o Or, think of it in reverse—Do you ever see someone so biased o Ehrman says, If Jesus really was God, surely he would by love that they can see no faults in someone? Hank Murphy, have talked about it more directly—he’d have come out one of our WP’s, so loves Lebron that no matter what he does of Mary’s womb with a solved Rubik’s cube saying, “Good Hank sees it through a positive lens. morning everyone, I’m God! Now, watch me levitate.” o If Lebron has a low-scoring game and Hank says, “What an unselfish player to let his other teammates score.” So that’s the question: Jesus—you really are who you say you are, o If Lebron goes 0-15 from the field Hank says, “Only an and if this really matters as much as you say it does—why weren’t you elite player of incredible confidence would keep shooting more straightforward and definitive in your claims. Why leave any after missing 14 straight shots.” room for doubt or confusion? o If Lebron punches another player in the face, Hank says, “He’s just got such passion for the game and touch is his Jesus’s answer is as follows: love language.” o If you want an hour of entertainment, just go up to Hank 11 He answered, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have and say, “I really think Stephan Curry is an all-around been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. better player” and then cancel your plans for the rest of ● 1. Insight into truth is a gift of the Holy Spirit. No matter how the afternoon. smart you are, you can’t understand without God’s help. ● Well, our sinful hearts are like that, but in reverse.