Mat 13: Seeing and Hearing Mysteries from Heaven.

Class Outline:

Sunday March 2, 2025

Main Idea: In the church age, those who walk with the Lord will see and hear the kingdom of heaven.

 

MAT 13:1-17.

 

Jesus will thankfully explain the parable of the sower, so we will wait until then for a deeper dive. Our focus today will be MAT 13:10-17.

 

Text:

 

Parable of the “Soil.”

4 kinds; only one is “good.”

 

Disciples are in the boat with Jesus and the crowd (along with Pharisees present) are on the shore. These positions are significant, setting us up for one of the vital decisions that each person will have to make in this age: living, walking close to Christ, or distant.

 

Two groups:

In the boat with Jesus.

On the shore away from Him.  

 

ISA 6:9-10 is fulfilled in those who are there. They are clearly chosen to reject Jesus as Messiah, and also, God has blinded them (sovereignty) as judgment upon their unbelief.

 

Open of Isaiah:

ISA 1:2-3

Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;

For the Lord speaks,

"Sons I have reared and brought up,

But they have revolted against Me.

3 "An ox knows its owner,

And a donkey its master's manger,

But Israel does not know,

My people do not understand [good soil]."

 

Issue in this age: You understand or not the Lord Jesus.

PHI 3:10

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death

 

ISA 6:9-10.

 

Two groups: Inside and outside (like mother and brothers at end of Mat 12).

 

The first four parables are heard by the public. The last four are told in the house to the disciples. Only the disciples ask for and receive interpretation.

 

MAT 13:11, the granted and the not granted. The seeing and hearing and the blind and deaf (MAT 13:13, MAT 13:16). Those who have will have more. Those who do not, will lose everything (MAT 13:12).

 

Looking into the text:

 

Parable: story or epigram with a moral teaching that is not on the surface.

 

The parable demands that we seek the meaning by engaging with the story and properly interpreting the parts of the story. (Fortunately, Jesus does this for us with the first two parables.)

 

All the parables are about the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven is the theme of Jesus’ third sermon in Matthew.

 

Mystery:

 

These parables are not only concerned with the kingdom of heaven but more specifically with the mysteries of that kingdom (MAT 13:11; MAR 4:11; LUK 8:10). 

 

The Greek term musterion, which in the three parallel passages, appears for the first time in the NT, and the only time in the Gospels. It refers to that which is hidden and secret, what can be known only to those who are specially initiated or taught.

 

What was kept secret?

 

The most important has to do with the mystery as an interim (interregnum - an interval between two periods) which would be a time that stood between the King's first advent and His second coming. 

 

The parables, in light of the wheat and tares, reveal this, but not yet very plainly.

 

Seen and heard by those who had eyes and ears made by faith, it would be a period of seed-sowing, of growth, and a harvest. But the harvest would not come until the end of the age and reaping would be done by angels.

 

The age would be brought to a close when the Son of Man returns and establishes His kingdom on earth when the lawless will be taken away and the righteous will be made to “shine forth as the sun” in that Kingdom (MAT 13:41-43).

 

The interregnum was caused by Israel’s rejection of her King, but her King would not reject her, and when He returned He would, by His own power and love, establish the Kingdom in full accordance with Old Testament prophecy. The length of the interregnum is not revealed. 

 

Part of the interregnum: the church age.

 

Soon, in Matthew (chapter 16), the Lord will use another word for the first time, which is common to us - church. He speaks of it in terms of the future, “I will build My church.”

 

Following the crisis marked by the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and the announcement of an interregnum and the building of a new church, Jesus began to focus on His death and resurrection.

 

Some see and hear the secret and some do not.

 

How did Christ give the believers in the interregnum the ability to see and hear?

 

Regeneration into His family, a new creation in Him, position in Him, the complete revelation of truth in Scripture, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

 

Those who take advantage of those things through a life of humble learning, trustful obedience, and faithful doing, will learn spiritual skills that will sharpen eyes and ears, and more will be given.

 

What to take home:

 

Having been given the ability to see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, we have a choice daily … DAILY.

 

The local church is only the staging point. It is not remotely the whole of the Christian life. It is the place where First Battalion gathers their gear, cleans their weapons, rests, encourages one another, goes over the objective once again and the battle plan for the upcoming operation. But church is not the battlefield, and actually, not the place where you really learn your skills. The mission cannot be carried out without the staging point. And a lot is learned in church and from the pastor, but you cannot know just from church. That mentality has made for a lot of knowledge filled Christians who have no spiritual skills. They went to the staging area, rested, gathered some equipment and they remained there. If they have not faced combat repeatedly, they have failed to attain skills.