Unpacking Jesus' Kingdom Parables Matthew 13 Explained

Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to Bible Study with Paulie, and my name is Paul Woodley, and many of you already know me. So today is Sunday, January 25th. I thought I'd do a special one-off here live because church services are shut down in in our area. So I thought, you know, let's keep, um, all of y'all who want to stay in the word on a Sunday in the word. So we're going to do a one-off. If you've been tracking with me for the past week or so, we've been in the Gospel of John, unpacking, um, verse by verse, the Gospel of John, chapter by chapter, And I think it was yesterday or day before we finished chapter 8. But because today is a Sunday, usually a day where I don't do the video stuff, I kind of just go to church and do church, you know, I thought that today I will minister to my spirit and hopefully it will be ministering yours if you're with me. So today we're going to do just a one-off special edition, one of my favorite parts of the Bible, which is going to be in the Gospel of Matthew this time. And we're going to be in chapter 13, and we're going to be reviewing the parables of heaven. So Jesus taught parables, as you're aware, and these particular parables are parables in which he is describing what the kingdom of God is like and what the kingdom of heaven is like. So big picture, high level, when we talk about the parables of Jesus, first, what is a parable? For those that this may be your first time, you may not have a clear understanding what a parable is. It's really just a lesson that Jesus teaches with a spiritual meaning. So he takes a story, but it has a spiritual meaning. And in these contexts, these meanings are usually allegorical, metaphorical. But it has a spiritual meaning. Some of them are literal, and I'll unpack them when we get to those parts of it where there will be some literal stuff happening. Now, I'm sure it's been a minute since you may have been in the study of the parables of Jesus. You know, we don't— unless you're just good at reading your Bible on an annual basis kind of thing, you may not be aware, but in the Bible, Jesus actually spoke 39 parables. Today, We're going to just focus on the ones in chapter 13. But when you look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where the parables are, he actually did 39. So I will give you the rundown of all of those parables right now, but we're going to focus on, um, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 parables, which is Jesus describing what the kingdom of God and what the kingdom of heaven is like. Would you like to know what the kingdom of heaven is like? Well, stick around because that's what we're going to unpack. So in Matthew, Jesus, he focuses on 20 parables, right? So we're just going to do a cross-section of that. And of course, Mark 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9— Mark does 9. Not all of the gospels have the same parable in it. Some don't have a repeat of the parable. You know, for example, the parable of the hidden treasure, which is what we'll look at today as one of the parables, is not in Mark or Luke. The pearl of great value, which is in Matthew 13:44, that's neither in Mark or Luke either. Same thing with the parable of the net, which is not in Mark and Luke. Those that are in all three of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are as follows. So the lamp under a basket, which you might know, that's in all three. Um, the unshrunk cloth, or the new cloth on an old garment, that parable is in all three. Uh, the new wine in old skins, that's in an all three. The sower, that's an all three. The mustard seed, which we'll touch on today, that's an all three, as well as the wicked tenants, that's an all three. The fig tree is an all three. But for the remaining parables, you're going to have to look at each book separately and come across that. Because, for example, In the book of Luke, there's a whole bunch of parables that Jesus goes into starting in chapter 7 that are in— that's not in Matthew or Luke. For example, the moneylender and two debtors in Luke is not in Matthew or Mark. The Good Samaritan is not in Matthew or Mark. The parable of the friend in need, the parable of the rich fool, the parable of the watchful servants, the parable of the faithful servant and the evil servant. The parable of the barren fig tree. The parable of the great banquet. The parable of the building a tower and a king making war. The parable of the lost coin. The parable of the lost son. The parable of the dishonest manager. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The parable of unworthy servants. The parable of the persistent widow. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. And the parable of the 10 minas, those are not in Matthew or Mark. So today's study is gonna be specifically on what we call the kingdom parables. Gives us an understanding of what the kingdom of heaven is like. Okay, so it's gonna be in Matthew chapter 13. Okay, so let's unpack that. So picking it up in, I'm gonna just pick it up in Matthew chapter 13. It'll begin in verse 3, but we'll start in verse 1 just so we know where we're at. It says that, "That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach." And here begins our parable. It says, and verse 3, and he told them many things in parables, saying, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. Verse 6: But when the sun rose— I'm sorry, let me back up. Verse 4: And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him hear. So that's the parable. Now We go on in verse 10. We see here that he told them this parable and the disciples didn't understand what he had just said. So beginning in verse 10, it says, then the disciples came and said to him, quote, why do you speak to them in parables? So he's actually speaking to the crowd and the disciples, but his disciples are asking, well, why are you speaking to them in parables? In verse 11, it says, and he answered them, quote, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, And hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, quote, you will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 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 turn, and I would heal them. Okay. Verse 16, but blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. So here we are, we're in Matthew 13:1-16. If you're just joining us, He's talking to the crowds in parables. The disciples are asking, "Why are you speaking in parables?" He says, "To you it has been granted, but to them it has not." He's talking about how the gospel message is gonna go out, but people are gonna hear it, they're just not gonna perceive it, they're not gonna understand it because their eyes are closed, verse 15. Their hearts have grown dull, their ears are dull, they can barely hear, this is verse 15. Right? And he's saying in verse 15 that if they would open their eyes and their ears and turn, he would heal them. And then he says in verse 16, there's a blessing: but blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Right now we're gonna go on to 18. He's going to say He's going to explain now the parable. So remember the parable that we just read. The parable originally was he's talking about how a sower went out to sow seed, and this sower threw out a bunch of seed, and we see that the seed went out and fell on different types of soils. And he's talking about how the seed will either die, be eaten up, be stolen, or the seed will grow, germinate, and produce fruit, right? So now in verse 18, we pick it up. It says, hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom— now he's explaining now the soils, and this is uber important for us to understand not only our own faith and our own profession and our own journey, because sometimes we believe at one point, but we don't really fully understand how that came about. Jesus is saying that this is how it happens. Your faith and other people's faith in Christ is always going to be based on how that seed landed in your heart. Your heart are the soils in this story. And so when we talk about people, family, friends, associates that don't come to Christ, and we wonder and we're perplexed and we're wondering why that didn't happen— they've heard, they've heard the gospel, they say they did, they say they go to church, but we've not seen any evidence or anything like that— we can kind of understand through this parable specifically how that happens, how a person can or cannot enter the kingdom of God. He says Kingdom of Heaven. So picking up in verse 18, it says, hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears— there's that word anyone again, I've mentioned that before— when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. Verse 20: As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. Okay, you're tracking. 22. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, he in— he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another 60, and in another 30. So working ourselves backwards, we see that there— the one— there's only one of these seeds that actually germinates, produces fruit. And when it does produce fruit, there's differences between the types of, uh, the amount of fruit. So, and we see here that some people who receive the seed, because it's in good soil, that some are going to do yield 100-fold, 100x. Some are going to yield 60x and another 30x, all still multipliers, all still a lot, right? So how does one produce fruit? How does one yield results, right? And we're just seeing examples of basically, in this case, 3 types of Christians, or 3 results of Christians, right? Because some might produce 2x, some might do 1x, some might do 0.5x. But we're seeing here that there are 30, 60, 100x results from those who receive it. Now, what differentiates these people from the others? Well, first It's because they have good soil. And second, and most importantly, verse 23, they understand it. They understand it. And this is why we do Bible study, is because you hear the word, but if you don't understand what you're hearing, it's just words. So we want to read our Bible with understanding, or trying to understand it. And so here, Jesus, in this case, he explains the parable for his disciples so that they clearly understand. All right, so that parable is talking about how a person comes to faith and doesn't come to faith. And my lights just went on and off, so we just have an ice storm, as we see. So we're on cellular here. Okay, so yeah, thanks for bearing with me. We're losing power as we speak, right? I'll take a break and I might lose power again, just FYI. So if we cut off, that's why we have an ice storm over here. All right, so let's just back it up a little bit, back to '18, and let's just look at the dynamics of what's what's going on to a person who hears the Bible, who hears scripture, who hears, um, who hears, um, the word. Remember, the word described here, the seed, is the word. Okay, that's what this is. So going back to verse 18, it says, hear then the parable of the sower. A sower is the farmer. He's the person who's throwing out the seed. You know, like if you're a farmer— I've never been a farmer, I grew up in the Bronx, but I can imagine A farmer, right? I know you can— there, there, there you can be very particular and put your seed in a row, whatever. But in this case, this is a context where the sower is out there and he's throwing out his seed in his, in his field, right? And he's basically— Jesus is giving this illustration. It's an agricultural time. He's given this illustration of how it works. Is that the sower, like the farmer, he's throwing out the seed in his field. Um, and Jesus is saying not all of that seed that that farmer threw out is going to produce fruit. And it's kind of the same way when we throw out the word, when we throw out scripture. Here today, this right now is a form of that, where I'm going on live, for example, and I'm reading Bible and I'm throwing out the word. I'm saying the word, not my word, the Bible word. It's going out. And depending on your soil, the soil being your mindset, will determine whether that seed germinates, whether you say you agree with what I'm saying. And it's not necessarily what I'm saying. I want us to, I want to differentiate and delineate the difference between Paul Woodley's words and the Bible's words. So what matters is, you know, when a person's heart gets pricked for the very first time, especially if Christianity is not a thing in their home, their life, this might be the very first time you're hearing some of this stuff. But the point is, is that if you receive it, that's amen to that, right? And there's a reason why you did. And same thing if you don't receive it, if it's boring to you and whatever, lackluster, whatever, there's a reason for that too. It's all good, okay? We're just simply looking at this so that we understand if not our own selves, but how other people react. Could be friends, family, associates. So we're seeing here the illustration of a farmer throwing out seed. We learn here that that is the word of God. And then we've seen here that he says, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom," verse 19 in Matthew chapter 13, "and does not understand it." So if you're hearing the Bible, If you're hearing Scripture and you don't understand it, like what you just heard, right? It said the reason why is the evil one, like if you don't, it says here in 19, "And when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." So the words from the Bible actually hit your spirit, hit your heart for a minute. Of, let's just call it rational thought, consideration. You heard what you just heard and you think about it, but just as it hits, the evil one, according to scripture, says he snatches away. It says this is what was sown along the path. So when this farmer throws the seed out, some is going in the farm, but some is hitting the path along the sides, or some is in those burrows, the path where they where the farm farmers go down the path, right? I'm thinking, you know, corn stalks or whatever. There's the hard path, right? So, so, and so how does that look like in real life, right? Here's a good example. It's interesting to me, and this has happened to me, it's happened to my friends, especially those that are kind of urban missionaries, street, street preachers, that, you know, folks like that, is if a Christian so gets emboldened to stand on a soapbox, let's say, and start preaching loud— you've seen these street preachers— or if a person even silently— or actually, this happened to me at one of my jobs, you know, when I first came to faith back in the day, 2009, '10. You know, I was so excited about Jesus when I first got saved. This is— I first got saved back in 2008, right? So 2009, '10, you know, I'm kind of in my beginning journeys. Jesus, the Bible, everything was very fascinating to me. I was very excited and all these things. So I had no shame in my game, and I just, you know, was just telling people, hey, did you hear about this? I was 35. I said, hey, did you hear— do you know about Jesus? Did you know these things? You know, and I was so excited about it. And I would— and anytime I would tell somebody, there was always someone nearby that would shush me. Or get mad about it because I was just talking about talking my experience to someone else. That is an example of how the devil and his cohorts kind of work, is you've got these listening ears around you that wanna shush you when you're talking anything that's remotely related to Jesus. It is fascinating to me that Jesus and just His very name, Jesus, is so hostile. It's a hostile word to people, to the point where people use it, his name, in vain. Isn't it interesting to me how people will say, use the Lord's name in vain, but they won't ever use any other god, little g, any other idol name in vain? It's always Jesus's name that's used in vain as a cuss word. As a byword. Isn't that interesting? So it's, it's anytime that his name is brought up, it pricks the spirit. It pricks certain spirits, if you will. And so if you're in a crowd or whatever and you're just talking about Jesus, or if that person just heard the message— for example, I can go to a friend and, and, and tell them my testimony or whatever, and there could be, you know, a spirit— let's call it a spirit, evil spirit. It could be just an atheist type spirit or whatever who just hates the gospel, just hates Christians. Well, that person is going to try to shut me down so that that other person won't hear it. That's just an example of how that could look. So applying that to the verses here, it says that when anyone hears the word and does not understand it, right? So I might tell someone something in life, a Bible verse, and they're not understanding. There's a third party nearby and they can kind of see that this person is not understanding it. That's when they'll jump in and try to derail the whole thing, right? So, or it'll start to debate you in real time, you know, try to discredit you, discredit the gospel, or whatever. So that's just kind of how it kind of would work. So we go on to see, uh, so that is the seed that fell on the path. Then verse 20 says, as for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Right? The message could be, hey, Jesus saves, you know, your sins will be forgiven, believe in Jesus. It could be, it could be any, anything that makes a person say, I love that, that sounds good, that's me, I want, I want that, I want that Jesus, right? But it says verse 20, yet 21, yet he has no root in himself, he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. So these are those These are those people who, you know, are very excited for Jesus, may even just get baptized, right, because they got a lot of adrenaline going on and maybe they're being pushed and, and, you know, and they're going, they're going in that direction. But the problem with these, um, I'll call them baby Christians, the challenge here is that they don't have any root in themselves, right? They don't have any root. They'll endure for a little while Um, but what happens to them? Well, in verse 21 it says, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. So for example, this could be a person who is just really stressed out, going through some stuff, finds a church, maybe someone brings them to church, a lot of promises are made, and they, they, they say, yes, I will follow Christ, I will follow Jesus, and they raise their hand, feel out the card, maybe even get baptized, but they don't have any root in themselves. See, so it's all based on milk. Bible calls it milk. They're all— it's, it's based on just beginnings, beginning information, because the Bible is, is— there's a lot, right? There's a lot that we can unpack. You can go through your whole entire life and not fully comprehend, um, all of the Bible, right? So, but these individuals are, are— they're off to a good start, They're very excited. And they start professing Jesus Christ. They start telling the world, telling their friends, "Hey, I'm a Christian." Now they're using the label Christian. "Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm a believer." Right? Okay. What they don't realize is what's going to come, as it always comes to anyone who does that, is you're going to get resistance. Right. It's going to probably come starting with your family, then your friends, and probably associates. There is always going to be resistance if you are— if you are— if you're telling people you're a Christian. Right. But that's okay. We learned in the Bible that it's okay. So— but these folks feel like that's not okay, obviously, because they go out, oh, I'm a Christian. And then now— now they're dealing with their friends, family, associates, saying, oh, you think you're better than us? Oh, you think you're holier than us? Oh, you think you're sinless? Oh, you think this, this, or that? Because, oh, I remember you when you were doing this or that. I remember when you were, you know, an addict. I remember when you were a thief. I remember you when you did this, this, or that, right? And these are going to be the people that are always going to try to remind you of your old self and, and And so they're going to try to discredit your admission to being a Christian. And it says here that because of the word, not necessarily because of them, but because of the word, because especially this is the type of person who, you know, it's the label, it's the Christian that they're saying, it's the identity part. Oh, I now identify with Christ. I'm now going to follow Christ. I'm now a Christian. It's that part. That they're going to give you a hard time about. And so when they do, this person doesn't like that. This person wants to be accepted by everybody, wants to be friends with everybody, and so they fall away. Verse 22, there's another type of person. It says, as for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, same thing, they hear the word, but the cares of the world, and here it is, the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, okay? And it proves unfruitful. So this is the prosperity gospel, right? This is, this is the part where a person comes. There's two problems with this person. There's two challenges that this person can't overcome. One, the cares of the world, to the deceitfulness of riches. Okay, so the cares of the world, right? So this is, you know, um, they, they, they're just too into the politics, they're too into, um, they're too into, um, the, the news, the news channel, that they can't, um, put their focus on Christ. They can't, they can't, um You know, people are challenging them and saying, hey, you know, your faith is false. You know, Christians, what about the Crusades or whatever? And so whatever is going on in the world that cares, that bothers them to a point where they quit their journey. The other part is the deceitfulness of riches. And for sure, I think at least in the Western world, here in America, this is, I see, a real big problem because this is where the prosperity gospel really reigns because there's a lot of false prophets out there that are promoting Jesus as the magic genie. If you come to Jesus, you'll be rich. If you come to Jesus, you're gonna be blessed. If you come to Jesus, you're gonna be healed, all these things. Not saying that's not true, but to this person here, you know, they— they're— the riches is deceitful. They're coming to Jesus with the wrong motive. They're coming with the expectation that they're going— that they're going to have all these blessings, and then when they don't, they fall away. And then it says, um, the fourth person is actually the person that bears fruit. Verse 23 says, as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. So the, so the part that separates this person from the others, this soil from the others, is the fact that this soil understands what they're hearing. Which means for understanding anything, you have to study it, correct? So it says, and he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case 100-fold, in another 60, and in another 30. Great. So now we're going to go into another parable. Now this That was the parable of the, um, sower, the farmer that throws out the seed. So in that parable, what we're learning here, the reason why Jesus said that parable, is he's talking about how a person gets saved, a person, and what type of person gets saved. So Exhibit A, the person that gets saved is the person whose heart is prepared to receive the word. And when they receive the word with understanding, they will produce fruit. So that's exhibit A, that's the Christian, right? And, you know, he makes this parable as a point because he's also showing us that, hey, that there's a sower out there and the sower is throwing out the seed, the word of God, He's just— he's trying to produce crop, but he, but he knows that not all the seed is going to produce crop. Some are going to fall on these different soils. So it's a numbers game to some degree right now. Verse 24, we're going to hear the second parable in Matthew 13, which is the parable of the weeds. This is a good parable. We'll unpack it after I read the whole thing. So verse 24, it says, He put another parable before them, saying, quote, the kingdom of heaven may be compared. Now this is a comparison one. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, Then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' Verse 29, but he said, 'No.' lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. Okay, so now we're talking about how the, the, the good seed, how the wheat will live in this field, and we learn about certain characters. So if you've been following me in my other Bible studies, I'd like to make the point that when we read our Bible, it's good to kind of step back for a second, analyze the scene. What is the scene, and who is in the scene? So in this parable, what is the scene? Well, the scene is that we have a man, and this man, he's sowing, it says, good seed. So in the last parable we just did, right, we learned about a sower, right? Also another man. So he's going, he's bridging that with this parable, and he says that we see that there is a man We see that he's doing an action. His action is sowing, which is throwing out the seed. We see that there is seed in— that's the subject matter. We see seed also mentioned here again, and we see that this seed is good seed. It's not bad seed, it's actually good seed. So with good seed, the expectation is that this is going to produce crop. We also see in verse 25 that this man who throws out the seed, that this man has other men or workers that help him, right, on this, on this farm, if you will. And we see that now, um, we have the men who are also labeled or recognized as his servants in verse 27. And we see that, um, he mentions that there is an enemy. And so now we learn that there is an enemy, and then we learn what the enemy's motive is and what the enemy is trying to do here. So this is the part we're going to unpack verse by verse. Okay, now let's go back to verse 24 and let's see. Okay, so you got your Bibles? I'm— we're— I'm, I'm using the, uh, ESV, so— but you could use your version. So let's go back. Verse 24, Matthew 13. He put another parable before them. So this is back to back. He says— and remember, our study today is about the kingdom. What is the kingdom of heaven like? This is what Jesus is trying to tell us. What is it like? Okay, so he says, he put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared— it's a comparison— may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Okay, so he sows the seed, he thinks, I did my job, it was a good day's work, I'm going to bed. Right? And he went away. And it says that when he did that, that the enemy, while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Okay? So that kind of gives us an idea of what really goes on in life. What is this spiritual warfare that we're dealing with here? right? It almost sometimes feels we're taking one step forward, two steps back sometimes, but God always wins, right? So this man is throwing out seed. He's throwing out good seed. He's expecting a crop, a good crop, right? He goes rest on his labors, but the enemy is watching, right? The enemy's always watching us, and he's watching this man, and he's watching his workers. The enemy here is sees that these guys just threw out seed into the field and took the opportunity when the men were sleeping to go into the field and sow weeds among, among this, among the seed. Now, this particular weed that they, that they're sowing is a darnel. We're going to get to that because that's important. Okay, so just know that this is the kind of weed— a darnel is a kind of weed that mimics wheat. So when it grows up, it's going to look like wheat. Okay, and weeds are parasitic, so it's like a parasite. It's going to grow with the weed, this darnel, the type of weed that it is. and it mimics— it looks like wheat, but it's not wheat. And the only way you're going to be able to distinguish the darnel from the wheat is you have to let it grow together. You have to let it come to full life so that you can identify what is darnel and what is wheat. That's why this parable is talking about, uh, let them grow up together, then separate, because in the beginning stages it's difficult to see what is good, what is bad. That's the point of this parable. So we go back, right, to where we left off, verse 26. So when the plants came up, right, so obviously it's going to take some time for these to grow up. When the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. So right at the part of the harvest, right when the grain comes out of that wheat, when it's time to reap, it says then, then the weeds appeared also. And it was at that point in verse 27 we see the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? I mean, they completely prepared the field. They put out good field, and now they're asking him, we're seeing these weeds on top of the good stuff, what happened? And the master says to them in verse 28, it says, he said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then do you want us to go and gather them? So now they're like, okay, they know, they noticed that, um that the wheat is starting to show grain. So it's not fully developed, but it is budding. But that's also the time they see the darnel. And they said, well, do you want us to just, you know, reap it right now? And the story goes on, verse 29. But he said, no, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. He says in verse 30, let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into, into my barn. So here the, the wheat is growing, it's starting to bud, you know, it's not ready for harvest apparently, They're saying, his servants, should we gather it now? He says, no, not yet, because you, if you do that, you might kill the good wheat, right? And so he says, just let it all grow up to harvest time, and then we will be able to distinguish the good from the bad and separate them. And when we separate them, you're going to take the good wheat, you're going to put it into my barn, and you're going to take up all of the darnels, the bad weeds, and put that— we're going to burn it. So now he's talking about— it's a parable, remember. It is talking— it's a spiritual explanation of what the kingdom of heaven may be compared to in the beginning of this passage. Before we go further, I want to hit on what a darnel is, these weeds in this passage specifically. I'm going to borrow from my notes here. It's, um, it says probably this type of weed was called a darnel, and that can hardly be distinguished from wheat until the head matures. In an agricultural setting, sowing darnel in someone else's wheat field was a way for enemies to destroy someone's livelihood catastrophically. It pictures Satan's efforts to deceive the church by mingling his children with God's, in some cases making it impossible for believers to discern the true from the false, right? And then we're going to see this parable further explained later in this chapter in verses 36 through 43. Okay, so right now he's told the parable, and that is his explanation is simply in the parable, in the story, the master says to the servants, no, just let them go. Grow up, we'll separate them. Some will go in the barn, the good, the bad will burn. Right now, that is part A of the whole story. He's going to later explain specifically what this means and what this means to us. As far as we're concerned, imagine this is the first time we just hit this for the very first time. We're coming here. We hear just like them. We heard this parable. Okay. He's explaining that there's an enemy He's explaining that an enemy is going to sow weeds with the good seed. And we're learning here that the master of this house is telling his servants, let them grow up together, but there will be a separation. That's what we know so far. Okay, so verse 31, he puts another parable before them. Verse 31, if you're tracking. Hold on. Verse 31. This is the mustard seed and the leaven parable. It says here, he put another parable before them, saying, quote, the kingdom of heaven— remember, these are kingdom parables. We're talking about. Jesus is telling us what the kingdom of heaven is like, and also he's talking about who the kingdom people are like as well. Verse 31: He put another parable before them, saying, quote, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. We're going to read it, we're going to unpack it. So verse 32: It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Okay, so that is the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven. Now give me a sec here. Let's take a look. The mustard seed. Now, this particular, um, parable is one of the parables that is also in the other two, um, gospels. Remember I said not all the parables are in all the gospels, but this parable, the mustard seed, is also in Mark and also in Luke. And why that's important and why that's good for us to know is it's good practice to look at all 3 or sometimes 4 accounts of a Bible verse and put it all together so we can get the mostest out of the story, out of what we're reading. So you've heard this little bit here about the mustard seed. What I'm going to do here now is I'm just going to bookmark my Matthew 13 here And I'm going to go over to Mark 4:30-32. You could do it too if you're with me. So let's go over to Mark 4:30-32 and let's see if there is anything different, anything we need to add to the story. Let me see, Mark 4:30-32, and let's see if there's anything else that was missing from the Matthew account. Okay, so I'm going to Mark 4 And I'm going to verse 30. Let me read it from there. And he said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all seeds on the earth. Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. So almost the same thing. Let's now look at Luke's account. So Luke chapter 13, 18, verse 19. So I'm going to go to Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke. I'm going to go to 13. Luke 13. Okay, and we're going to go to verse 18 and 19. Here it says, he said, therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? This is Jesus asking his disciples, what is the kingdom of God like, is the question. And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. Okay, so I did all that because I want— what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to see if there's anything that was not, um, that's missing. Sometimes it could be just a word or two that adds more flavor to a passage, but for the most part, it's a very short parable. They all seem pretty identical. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have basically recorded exactly, almost word for word, for what he says. So we're going to go back to Matthew because that's where our study is today. And we're going to look at it and unpack it. First off, as he said, the— it is the smallest of all seeds in his field. Okay, so a mustard seed truly is, um, one of those seeds. A mustard seed is, um, it's almost like a pepper, like a, like a pepper, like a little, little tiny pepper. Like if you take some black pepper out, but when you just isolate one of them, like it's that tiny. It's very, very small. So Jesus is saying that, that this is how the kingdom of God is like. It started off that way, it started off that small, but yet it just keeps on having this multiplying effect, right? And so he's saying that it has a multiplying effect. And what's interesting— and let's go back to 31— when he says the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, again we see that a man took and sowed in his field. Again, he's talking about a man Sowing this seed, there's always an individual, and it's identified in these parables so far as a man, that this man has thrown it. The purpose is to produce. That's what seed's purpose is, right, is to produce something. He sows it into his field, and it says it is the smallest of all the seeds, right? And but when it has grown, it's— when it's full grown it's larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, right? Now I'm going to borrow from my notes here just so for context as well. It says here, and when we're talking about the tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches, it says here Palestinian mustard plants are large shrubs, sometimes up to 15 feet high, certainly large enough for birds to lodge in. This is undoubtedly a reference to several Old Testament passages, including Ezekiel 17:23, Ezekiel 31:6, and Daniel 4:21, passages which prophesied the inclusion of Gentiles in the kingdom. So the kingdom of heaven is like that. It's like this big garden plant, this big tree, as he says. That the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. It's going to be— it's going to grow up from a very tiny thing into this big tree where the creatures will find its rest in. And so now he goes with another parable in verse 33. In verse 33, he said— it goes on to say, he told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in 3 measures of flour till it was all leavened. Okay, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in 3 measures of flour until it was all leavened. Okay, I'm just looking right now at my notes. I'm trying to see now if this parable was mentioned in any of the other synoptic gospels. And you know what? It is. This, this one is, um, also mentioned in Luke chapter 13:20 and 21. So if you want to go with me to Luke, uh, what'd I say, 13? Go to Luke, um, 13. So we're going to go to Luke 13. Matthew, Mark, Luke. 13, and we're going to go to verse 20. Luke 13, verse 20. Here we go. This is Luke's account. And again he said, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in 3 measures of flour until it was all leavened. Same thing that Matthew said. And, um, okay, so, so far we're tracking Matthew and Luke basically said verbatim what the parable is. And so what does that look like? So remember, he's talking about what the kingdom of heaven is like, right? That's what we're trying to understand. So, so far what we've talked about so far is we talked about the characters in the kingdom, we talked about the seed We talked about the enemy. We're talking about the natures of people. We're talking about how the seed and the darnel grow up together and there'll be a separation. We talked about how, um, um, how the man throws good seed, um, which is what I just mentioned. We talked about the mustard seed and how the kingdom of heaven will grow and be like a big, big tree or shrub where the creatures basically of the earth will find its shade. In that context, we're looking at how the gospel is going to be like this covering, this kind of like a supernatural covering, a tree of sorts, where it will be the instrument God will use on earth to keep the creation subdued or protected, right? Because just imagine a world without Christians. Imagine a world without Christianity, for example, right? Because in reality, Christianity preaches love, right? And preaches divine accomplishment while all other religions do not. All other religions talk about how a person— or man-made religions— all other religions talk about how live your best life now. All other philosophies and religions are self-centered, while the Christian philosophy and religion is by divine accomplishment. See, so that's kind of like the spiritual tree. This gospel, this spiritual tree, is a covering of sorts that keeps this world, keeps the anger and the evil suppressed, per se, because if God was to remove the Christians from the earth, what do you think will happen? It'll just be chaos. It'll be every man for himself, right? So that's kind of how we're seeing how this little mustard seed germinates over time, grows into, you know, a covering of sorts, and how all creation is, is more or less covered underneath the, uh, the tree. They're living in the branches and so forth, right? So now he's talking about leaven. So what is leaven? Right? So, um, leaven is yeast, basically, right? So, um, you know, if you're making bread, you put a little bit of yeast in your, in your bread, and it's what makes the bread rise. It has an active ingredient inside it that makes, makes the bread, you know, grow real fast. Um, I'm going to borrow from my notes here. It says here that here the kingdom is pictured as yeast multiplying quietly and permeating all that it contacts. The lesson is the same as the parable of the mustard seed. Some interpreters suggest that since leaven is nearly always a symbol of evil in scripture, it must carry that connotation here as well. They make the leaven some evil influence inside the kingdom, but that twists Jesus's actual words and violates the context in which Jesus is repeatedly describing that kingdom itself as the pervading influence. Follow? So he's saying here that the actual gospel message is like leaven. It is the active ingredient that is leavening out the world. Right. So that's the positive context of what the Bible is doing. Remember, I've mentioned this, one of my favorite quotes is, you know, God says, my word will never return to me void. The more we witness to this world over time, since the beginning, the leavening is happening. There is a leavening now where the message is becoming clearer and clearer as time approaches, especially through the digital age and whatnot, and books and internet. The word is going through all of the earth at exponential clips. And of course, as we know, the devil, through his people and schemes, is trying to suppress all that. Depending on the various countries that you're in, right, it's just not going to stop. The message is unstoppable is the point. It's unstoppable. It's leavening. It's going to multiply. You can't stop the gospel. It's going to leaven out until that bread, per se, is going to rise, right? It's going to be ready. That's what we're witnessing today, is that there is a leavening happening right now, supernaturally, spiritually speaking, where we're at According to the Bible, we're in the end times where we're waiting for Jesus' return. But in the meantime, what we are experiencing today is we're experiencing the leavening that's going on, and we're also witnessing the tares and the wheats as well, even though this is kind of in the context of the church, which is what Jesus is going hit on in the next few verses. Gotcha. Okay, so that was the other parable that he said in Matthew 13. Now it says in, uh, verse 34, all these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, quote, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. Okay, and so that is why Jesus spoke in parables, to fulfill prophecy, right? Now, according to this, right? So now it says in verse 36, then he left the crowds and went into the house. Okay, and And his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. Now remember, we opened up that, that story, that parable of the weeds. He threw out the good seed and it fell on different soils, whatever. So let's track. He said 4 parables, boom, boom, boom. Now they go back to the house and now they're like, you know 'Oh, that parable you were talking about, the weeds, can you explain that to us?' This is great. This is great for us Christians. This is great for us Bible study students, per se. Many times, and here's a good example, Jesus explains himself. So we don't got to go around trying to over-spiritualize the text on any particular things. 'Oh, you know, this means that.' when it doesn't. So if Jesus explains a parable, that's what it is. Leave it at that. And here's a good example of him doing that. So they asked him in verse 36, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. Verse 37, he answered, quote, the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. So remember before in the parable it just said a man. A man went out and sowed fields. So now he's explaining who that man is. It says here, the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. So now we know that that man in that parable was the Son of Man, and that's capital S, capital M, Son of Man. He's talking about himself because that's how he addressed himself, the Son of Man. That was his messianic title. That he liked to call himself, the Son of Man. He called himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man. Okay, so verse 38, it says, the field— so now we— what is the field? It represents something, remember? So now he's explaining what this means. Says the field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. Okay, so The first parable, uh, so, so now we're really kind of honing in on what is the seed. Now, in some context, the seed is the word itself, but here he's saying that the good seed here is the sons of the kingdom. So not necessarily the word, all right, like Bible verses, but now we're learning that this good seed is the sons of the kingdom. So now we're introduced to this other people group who are called the sons of the kingdom. Okay, so what do we know so far? We know that there is the Son of Man, he's the, he's the sower, and the Son of Man, and we know that the field is the world. So we've got Son of Man, we have Jesus, we have the world, and we have the sons of the kingdom. Tracking so far? We've identified 3 subjects. The Son of Man, who is Jesus, the world, and the sons of the kingdom according to this parable. Now he says, the weeds— I'm in verse 38— the weeds are the sons of the evil one. So that's the fourth subject: people, place, things, right? So now we know that you've got this Jesus, the world, the sons of the kingdom, and now the sons of the evil one. So that's what we know so far, right? Then he goes on to say, verse 39, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. Another person in the story. So now Jesus is telling us, Son of Man, the world, the sons of the kingdom, the sons of the evil one, and the devil. Which means just by that, we know who the characters are in the story. We also know who the real-life characters are in our story. Got it? So we know at the bookends of things we have Christ who's the Son of Man, who's the sower. We have the devil, right, who is the evil one. Those are, those are the polar opposites going on right now in our world. And in the middle, we have the sons of Jesus, which are the sons of the kingdom, and we have the sons of the devil. And in the middle of that is how I'm visualizing it. We have Earth, we have the world. That is the dimension, the reality that we live in today. That is what's called having a biblical worldview by definition right here. If Jesus said it and you believe Jesus is real and he's the truth and God can't lie, then what he just described here is facts. Follow? So that's the characters, not only in this parable but in our life. So he goes on to say in verse 39, at the end of verse 39, now we're talking about the harvest, because remember the parable he's talking about? No, let them grow up together. There's going to be harvest. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Hmm, did you know that there is such a thing as angels and they're actually real? Some people don't. Some people just think that they're thoughts, right? But they're real persons, the angelic race per se. So who do we have in this parable? Who is in the story? We already know on the bookends: Son of Man, evil one, devil. Sons of the kingdom, sons of the devil, the world. Now we're learning that there is another party called angels. They are the reapers in the story. We also know that there's a harvest in our story. So what happens at harvest is you reap. You take the sickle, you pull apart the branches from the fruit, right? You get your produce. That's harvest. The whole point of being a farmer is to plant seed, cultivate that seed, nurture that seed, so that at the end of its lifespan, basically, it produces fruit. And when it produces its fruit, you pluck it, you sell it, you have profit, you produce. It's purpose. So we see here that, um, at the harvest, in our understanding of worldview, is that there's this thing called the end of the age. So the end of the age, and he's saying that the— at the end of the age comes the harvest, is the harvest, and the people that are actively in that end of the age are the angels. The reapers are the angels. Now, the reapers, FYI, are not the sons of either/or. Got it? The reapers, who are the people who are tasked to do the reaping, those are the ones that are tasked to do the separating. That's not the sons of the kingdom. That's not their job. Neither is it the job of the evil one. Which means in real terms, humans, sons of the kingdom, Christians, they're not the reapers. We're not the reapers. It's not our job. We don't do the reaping. In essence, by default, we're also not doing the judging, right? What are we supposed to do? We're like the workers, right? And this says it's the good seed, but we don't do anything. We're just the good seed. Christ threw us out. He threw out the good seed. He threw out his sons, metaphorically speaking. He planted his sons into the world, right? To produce fruit. That is, if you're a Christian, that is what happened. Jesus is the sower, the Son of Man. He planted his sons of the kingdom into the world. And what is seed? Seed is supposed to produce fruit. The intention is to produce fruit. Will all seed produce 100-fold? No, we learned some don't. That's okay. But we also learn that— we learn one thing: there's an intention. I plant, I throw seed, there's an intention, I get fruit. And then we learn in another parable, not in these ones, where we learn about the talents, for example, right? So where we're not supposed to bury our talent, God expects us to invest. He expects us to produce. His intention is for that, right? We don't ever want to be that servant, that slave, where he says, you wicked and lazy slave, you should just put my money in the bank, right? The intention is for us to— we're planted into the world to have an effect on the world. But what's going to happen? We're going to join Unfortunately, many times even in church, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna do life with the sons of the devil, and we're gonna grow together. And it's not our place to try to separate the two prematurely. That's part of the message here, is this— the, the sower the man said to his servants, "Let them grow together." So in real life, we're not supposed to be the type of people where we're so judgmental, where we don't want to do life with unbelievers, per se. Some of these unbelievers were planted on purpose by their father to ruin the church or our testimony or whatever, But in reality, God is sending his reapers, aka angels, to separate us at the end of the age. Tracking? So verse 40: Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out his kingdom They will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers. Okay, so this is Jesus talking. Give me a sec. He's saying— remember, he's calling himself the Son of Man. He said it many, many times. The Son of Man will send his angels. So the angels are his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers. So that's the purpose of the angels at the end of the age, is that they're going to come and they're going to gather out all causes of sin, and all lawbreakers. Okay, so we're in verse 41, and let's see here. I think I have a reference to chapter 18:7 on that. Let me just see here. 18:7. That says, woe— Matthew 18:7— woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptations come. There was a little note on that section there. So the angels are coming to do that— remove all lawbreakers and causes of sin. Let's see. 41. I'm going to look at chapter 7:23 in regards to lawbreakers. See, what I'm doing here is when many Bibles, they have a cross-reference note on a certain passage. So if you want to see what it said about that word before, anywhere in the Bible, you could always go back to your notes and go back. So now I want to see, okay, it made mention of lawbreaker. So there's a note in my Bible say, okay, there's some passages that talk about lawbreakers. And in my Bible it says go look at Matthew 7:23 to see what it said on that. And so I'm going to 7:23, and 7:23 says And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Now we're all very familiar with that. How many people will say to Jesus, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons in your name, prophesy in your name, did mighty works in your name? And he'll say, I never knew you. So, um, because in that passage says, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, right? Now, 42, what's the conclusion here of this parable? It says the reapers, the, the angels are coming, they're going to gather out of Jesus' kingdom, 41. All causes of sin and all lawbreakers, right, and throw them into the fiery furnace. And then it says, in that place— what place? The fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. So what we're seeing here is there's going to be a purging of the earth according to this, and this is how it goes down. So when that purging happens, who remains are the sons of the kingdom. Tracking? So then in verse 44, he goes into his next parable. Remember, these are what we call the kingdom parables— what it's like to be in the kingdom. And the kingdom is both— the kingdom is in this context here on earth, so you're living in the kingdom right now. Here on earth today in 2026, we're living in a kingdom. There's the kingdom of light, there's the kingdom of dark. There's two kingdoms that are coexisting as we speak, and you are in one of those kingdoms right now, and you are following one of those fathers, and you are following whatever order of that kingdom. And we see these kingdoms contrasted in these parables of the tares and the wheat, or the darnels. And we see that they grow up together, these two kingdoms, these two sons, but at the end of the age there'll be a separation. So that's what's going to happen. And when that purging happens, By the instruments of God, by the instruments of the Son of Man, aka the angels who are called the reapers, what will remain are the sons of the kingdom. So now he goes into verse 44 and he says, the kingdom of heaven— and this is probably my favorite parable, because this parable talks about how a person gets saved. In fact, this talks about— the next two parables talk about how most people get saved, if not all people get saved. And I'm not sure if you see that or saw it yet, but you're going to see it now. The next two parables are— we're talking about treasure hidden in the field, and we're going to talk about a pearl merchant. And before we get into parables, I'm going to set up the scene so that we know what's going on here. or I'm going to describe two types of believers. I'm going to talk about two types of unbelievers, and this could be you. This could have been your journey. Most likely it's one of the two, and it's found in these two parables. So what are these two parables? We're talking about, we're talking about unbelievers here that come to Jesus one of two ways. You're either a seeker— you hear that term quite a bit in Christendom— you're either a seeker of God, you're seeking God, you know God exists, you're trying to get God's favor, you want— you're a seeker, you're a seeker. Or you're not. And the nots personally is me in this first parable we're going to talk about, the parable of the hidden treasure. This describes how a person who is not a seeker finds Jesus and believes in Jesus. Now I guess you could say, so we're only talking about the two types of people that, um, get saved, find the value in Jesus. Of course, the rest are unbelievers. There are the rest that, that never will come to Christ, right? But we're talking about, um, the two types of believers and how they became believers. So let's go to the first one, Exhibit A, the hidden treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered it up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Okay. Um, I'm just confirming that that's the only parable of the Gospels, of the Synoptics, and it is. It's only found here in Matthew. Okay, so this is my favorite because this describes me, my own personal journey. And this is not about me, but I'm just giving an example. He says, "The kingdom of heaven." He's saying this is what it's like to be in the kingdom of heaven. It's like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. So the scene is this: there's a man walking in somebody's field that doesn't belong to him, stumbles across hidden treasure, and it goes on to say, then in his joy He goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. It's kind of like in modern-day vernacular, let's say you're in real estate and you, um, are looking at rundown homes or whatever. Let's just say you're— no one sees the value of this particular property. It's a rundown home or whatever, but You happen to be in there and you go to the basement and you notice this little hidden wall or whatever, or floorboard. You open it up and you realize there's like, let's just say, $500 million worth of gold. Crazy amount, right? Like somehow it got there. $500 million for the house. Is worth, let's say, $100 grand. But in the floorboard, there's $500 million worth of gold. It's hidden treasure. But the man— you in this, in my example— you don't have the legal right to just take that gold. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to whoever owns that house. But someone's selling the house. The gold can be yours if you buy the house, then it's yours, everything that belongs in it, because it's being sold as an as-is condition per se, right? So this man could be you in this example. You see this treasure and you see the opportunity. It's a huge opportunity. I can get this treasure if I could just buy this land that it's in. But it's not— the land is not necessarily cheap because the man had to go sell all that he had to buy it. But he knew the value of that treasure. That's why he did it. And that's the point. Is there are many people out there. The key here is, are you an opportunist? I think I am, in the sense that, can you see value in things? And if you do see value in things, will you act? Right? We're talking about kingdom things here. We're talking about salvation. We're talking about eternal life. That's the message that Jesus is preaching. If you believe in me, you will have eternal life. That's his message. And many people hear that message and they don't see the value in that, so they don't buy Jesus. They don't buy it. He is the hidden treasure in this parable. This man was not seeking hidden treasure. He was just walking along and found it, but he saw the value, the high value of it, and he sold all that he had to get it. So the key is there is one type of person out there who is pretty smart, who is realistic, who sees the value. And that's the key. You have to see the value in Jesus. It's important. That's very important to the journey of everybody. You're either going to see him as high value or not. You don't necessarily have to be a seeker, but you have to be a kind of person that when opportunity comes, you see the value, you pull the trigger, per se. This guy did. He sold everything he had to get the treasure. That's what Jesus' point is. That's what it's like. Some people will just accidentally find Jesus and quickly understand the nature of their sin, understand the nature of their situation, and say, I want that. If I continue going the path I'm going on, it's destruction for me. They get it. That's what the point is. It's about people who get it. It happens, they get it, they act. And the selling of it all doesn't necessarily mean you got to sell all your assets per se, but it is selling yourself, your identity, all that, that, you know, you have to let go of your old identity because you're going to get a new identity now. So are you willing to sell that identity if it's required to get Jesus? So this man did. He stumbled across it. It was an accident, but he saw the value in it. Then we see the other type of believer, the seeker, in verse 45. He says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. So now you have a pearl merchant. His whole business is finding fine pearls, and he's looking for the ultimate pearl, right? And when he finds that one, he's willing to sell all his little pearls, all his other stuff, He's willing to sell it all because he's looking for the perfect pearl, the biggest pearl, the pearl of great value. It says he went and sold all that he had there. So we see the two types of believers: a seeker who's seeking, he's trying to find the path. He might be that person who's exploring multiple religions, all kinds of religions and whatnot. But once he finds Jesus, he's like, that's the one, that's true religion. And he comes, and he too has to sell his identity or whatever it takes to get Jesus. There's a cost. It's different for all of us. In both cases, both people were willing to accept the price necessary to get Jesus. That's what it takes. So now we get to verse 47, which is, um, our last parable that we're going to talk about in these kingdom parables. And this is, um, about judgment. It's a tough— it's a tough parable for some people to hear and understand. Because we're going to talk about how the kingdom is like a net. So how does this all go down? We know already from the previous parables that there's this thing called the end of the age, and we know at the end of the age the Son of Man is going to send his angels to separate the tares and the wheat, and he's going to bundle both. Some go in the barn, some would go into the fire. That we know. Now we're going to learn about how world history is playing out and how it plays out today. Okay, picking up in verse 47, it says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We'll unpack that in a second, but I'll end, um, in verse 51 and 52 right after that. It says, have you understood all these things? They said to him, yes. And he said to them, therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. So, Christian, that's what we're doing here. We're training. Right, we're training so that we can bring out of the house the treasure that is new and what is old. We're talking about— we're training so that we can explain to people the Old Testament and the New Testament and put it together to explain to people about this kingdom and what it's like, and the parables are part of it. So this final parable: what is the kingdom of heaven like? It is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. So when we talk about this net, we're talking about a drag net, okay? There are many kinds of nets that they use back in the day to go fishing. You're familiar with the fishing pole. So that's one form of fishing, right? There were fishermen. Fishing was their— one of their main things. So you can fish with your pole and go single, one fish at a time. You can do the net that you've seen in the movies where it's a circular net. It's got weights at the end of it, right? You throw it out and it's about 10 feet, maybe 12 feet in diameter. It's that, it's that net that's got— it's like a circle. It's got weights, long string, twirl it, throw it into the sea, the weights go down, then you pull it up like a drawstring. You capture your fish from the shore, right? Or even from a boat, that area. But that's not the net that we're talking about here. This net is a serious net. This here is what we call a drag net. This is the kind of net that modern-day fishermen actually use in those big monster boats. This is, this is a net that canvases almost the entire sea. So the idea here is the way they would use this net is they would anchor down a large net, a couple hundred yards long, very large. They would anchor that net to shore and they would row out as far as they can go, as far as the net allows, right? So they anchor it here and they'll just go from left to right in a circular motion around the sea, back to the starting point in a boat. And this is a big wall, a big net. It's a drag net. It's a big— this, this— it's a big wall that is just capturing everything inside of it. And the boat goes out in a circular and comes and is coming closer to the shore. You following it? It's like a great scooping Follow. So this net is— and it says here it's the kind of net that just captures everything in its path. That's why it says it catches fish of every kind, just whatever. If this was in our lakes, it might catch garbage and fish and all kinds of stuff, but it's catching everything. And the idea here is that Human history is in this kind of net from the beginning. From the beginning of time on Earth, we're all in this net. You and I are one of the fishes that's getting caught in this net. The net is like time. The net basically represents not only this represent just the, the harvesting, but it's— and the separation. But it's also indicative of the fact that time is slipping. If you're in the net like a real fish, if you're caught up in this kind of net, it's only a matter of time before that net takes you from 100 yards out in the sea to shore. You follow? That's what's happening right now. Everyone is in this net. Net is time. We're running out of time is what I'm saying. For some people, the net is pulling slowly, year by year, minute by minute, closer and closer to shore. Closer and closer, minute by minute, it's getting closer to the end of the age. Trackin'? And in this net, there's all kinds of fish. The net began when Adam and Eve started, but now the net is getting closer and closer to shore. And in the net is your family, In the net is your friends. In that net are your cousins. In that net are your colleagues. Every human being is in that net that ever existed, that ever will exist, until the net reaches shore. And that shore is the end of the age. So picking up what's going to happen here at the end of the age is what he's saying. Verse 48: when it was full. That's what's happening. The net's got to get full. It may take 3,000 years to get full. When the net is full Men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now I can go on. And on about the characteristics of hell. We all know this is a depiction of that. This is also another example or an exhibit for those who believe in annihilationism, per se, where you think when you die, you're just out of existence and that's it. But unfortunately, according to what Jesus says, that the unrighteous who are being pulled out from the angels and put it into this fiery furnace, that they will have weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the only way you could have weeping and gnashing of teeth is if you're still alive. And that's very difficult for people to understand, and I know people are going to fight me on that like they fought people before me. But that's why we talk about the glorified body, and I've talked about that before. Why? On the final day of resurrection, we all will be resurrected, both living and dead. There will be a final resurrection, some to eternal life, some to eternal death. But you will have a physical body. This particular body, in this case, in the negative, is fitted so that you unfortunately will endure the pain that comes with it. But you also have— if you are on the righteous side of the coin, if you are wheat, you will have a resurrected body that will live forever, eternally, and have many magnificent capabilities. I went over that. Think of the glorified Jesus' body, for example. Well, that is the kingdom parables, guys. Thanks for sticking with me. We're in chapter 13. You can read it yourself, but I thought I would go off script today since it's a Sunday, um, and do something different out of a different book in Matthew. Um, but there are 39 total parables. We only hit, uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of them today. There's 32 more if you're inclined to read them all. And I hope this blessed you. So let's pray, and I'll see you on the next one. Father, we thank you for this time in your word. We thank you for the opportunity. I thank you, Lord, that you've allowed me to keep my power on so that we can go live on this subject. Uh, your word never returns to you void. I pray, Lord, that this was edifying to somebody. I pray, Lord, for that person who doesn't know you, that they will see you as hidden treasure. That they will see the great value in you. They will see the upside in believing in you. There is no fear and condemnation, Lord. This message is not about trying to make someone fearful, but just listen— the message that, hey, you know, God wants you saved. Jesus wants you to believe in him. He says he's the bread of life that comes down from heaven, and that whoever eats his bread, whoever eats the bread that he gives, will have eternal life. That's the promise. God never lies. Jesus said he's the Son of God. He could do nothing that the Father doesn't do. So if we believe the words of Jesus, we believe the promises of Jesus, we believe the promises of God, and a God that cannot lie, you can feel confident and assured that you too are a son of the kingdom. Son and daughter. And my prayer is for everyone that will hear this message in the future, that they will have that kind of confidence and continue striving. We pray all these things in the name of your son Jesus. Amen. All right guys, you have a great day. Till next time, talk to you later.