The Secrets of the Kingdom

Introduction

Morris

The Gospel according to Matthew 2. The Purpose of the Parables, 13:10–17

Commitment to Jesus is the prerequisite for a true understanding of his parabolic teaching.

Two Kinds of Listeners

When Jesus answers the question as to why he speaks to the people in parables, Jesus makes a clear distinction right away in his answer between some listeners and others. In verse 11, Jesus tells his followers that to them, that is to those who have willing decided to accept Jesus’ teachings and follow him as their Lord and Messiah, it has been given to know the mysteries, or secrets, of the Kingdom of heaven, but the same privilege has not been given to the people at large who merely hear what he says but do not commit themselves to following Christ.

The Spiritually Unresponsive

We will begin by looking at how Jesus describes the spiritually unresponsive in this text. That is, those who are glad to come and hear Jesus speak, but are not committed to following him as Christ.

Jesus makes it clear that these are the ones he is speaking in parables for. The secret of the Kingdom of God is revealed to the disciples, but since it hasn’t been made plain to all, they are given parables instead. In light of this, it is important for us to understand two things: what is the secret, or mystery would probably be a better translation, and what are the purpose of parables?

What is the mystery? What is clear in our text is that the mystery or secret of the Kingdom is not something that can merely be intellectually grasped. Anyone may continue to read this chapter and find Jesus explaining the meaning of these parables, and yet still not be privy to this mystery. It is also clear in our text that knowledge of this mystery is something that is given by God, not something that can be attained through human pursuit alone.

Thankfully, we have several clues that may give us a hint as to what these secrets are.

Paul talks about a mystery in Eph 3:6

Ephesians 3:6 ESV

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Now, we shouldn’t conclude that the main thrust of the Gospel is that it is available to the Gentiles as well as the Jews, which indeed is an important shift in the revealed plan of God. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, he is still mainly reaching out to the lost sheep of Israel and his parables here hint to the inner work that must be done for someone to believe the Gospel. But rather, the focus should be on the last phrase, “partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” In other words, the mystery is that we, whoever we are, may be partakers of the promises of God by faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Again, we should be careful that this isn’t merely an intellectual knowledge. Someone may be able to say the words I just said and still not understand the mystery. That is because the mystery is only revealed by true faith, a faith that drives someone to follow Jesus and trust in his promises in the Gospel. Someone who knows this secret has committed themselves to Christ, body and soul. They are not simply aware of the Gospel in their minds, but they have taken a leap of faith by committing themselves wholeheartedly to obeying the teachings of Christ after having placed their faith in him as their Lord and Saviour from sin and death.

As we know, this is only done by a work of the Spirit in our hearts. Naturally, we are blind to the things of God because of our sinful nature. We can hear, but not understand. This is clear when Jesus quotes Isaiah 6 in verses 14-15 of our text. They hear the words of the prophet, but they never truly understood them. That isn’t to say they didn’t understand what the different words formed into sentences were communicating, but rather they were spiritually blind to the truth these words contained. They were unable to trust and obey God in the ways that the prophets called them to.

Second, what is a parable?

Wise saying, illustration, analogy.

A short story with a main point that relates to some aspect of the Kingdom of God.

Why use parables for the people who do not have access to this mystery? Jesus gives the answer in verse 13.

Essentially, they are not able to see understand the full truth that is being described, and uses it both as a way to reveal the truth to them so that they are without excuse, and also to hide the true meaning, limiting it to those whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit. We will look more into how this works in a moment.

The Spiritually Sensible

First, let us look at what Jesus says about the Spiritually sensible listeners, the disciples.

They have been given the knowledge of this mystery.

Again, Morris:

The Gospel according to Matthew 2. The Purpose of the Parables, 13:10–17

The disciples were not disciples because, left to themselves, they had decided that this would be a good thing. They were disciples on the Gospel view because God had chosen them. And it was in the outworking of this divine choice that they came to see Jesus for who he was and for what he was doing in bringing in the kingdom of God.

The Blindness of Israel

The reference to Isaiah 6 and the hardness of Israel’s hearts.

The Purpose of Parables

vs 34-35

Psalm 78 and speaking to children.

The hardness of heart that the Israelites back then displayed is still at work in the time of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus must speak to the people in the most basic, simplistic way because of their spiritual blindness, and yet they are still hard to the truth of it. In this way, they are without excuse because the truth has been communicated in such a way that even a child could understand, and yet just as each of those Israelites was taught the OT and the great things God said and did, they still don’t believe. Therefore, the fullness of the truth behind these parables is reserved for the disciples, who have had the mystery revealed to them and have exercised true faith in God by following Christ.

Conclusion

To know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven is to experience them through an active faith and discipleship after Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of revelation from God.