Matthew 13:10-17

Well open your bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 13….

This morning it is so good to be with you all and have the privilege to share the word of God with you. Our text this morning is driven by what I am going to be preaching this summer. Your elders have graciously invited me to preach through the summer on Sunday nights here and as I considered what it was that the Lord desired for me to preach through I was led to the parables of Jesus. Jesus’ main teaching mode was parables. Across the three synoptic gospels, matthew, mark, and Luke, parables are recorded, sometimes a little different. Sometimes exactly the same. But the importance is this… His disciples remembered them. They were the main vehicle of Jesus’s teaching and it would go on to be the main vehicle of the Disiplces remembering. Which means if they were important to Him, they should be important to us. Not only that, but if the disciples could gain so much from them, so should we. So, this summer on Sunday evenings I want consider the parables of Jesus and gain some insight into the mind of Christ, so that we look more like him.

This morning though we want to consider the why… As you get to know me I am a why guy. Not a wise guy, a why guy… I have sought, imperfectly, the last 13 years of my life with this principle, if I don’t know why I am doing it, it’s not worth my time. OUr human nature is bent toward spending a lot of time on things we don’t know why we do them. If I were to evaluate your day, week and month and asked, why you spent time in various place you would inevitably respond to some areas.. hmm I don’t know. So, why did Jesus spend so much time teaching in parables and why were they so powerful? He tells us! So if you are able, lets stand this morning in honor of the reading of God’s word and read our text for this morning.

Matthew 13:10–17 LSB

10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 And Jesus answered and said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Lest they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 “For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

The disciples were curious about the why. Why do you speak to THEM? The curiosity could come from the style of teaching because Jesus opened his ministry with the sermon on the mount. No parables were there. And then as recorded by Matthew in Matthew 8-12, as he taught the disciples and did miracles there were no parables. So, why now? What is different now? Well consider verse 2 of chapter 13… LARGE crowds gathered to him… What was happening was the time of dividing the crowds. Jesus’ fame was growing, and now there weren’t just some people listening, there were large crowds. But wouldn’t you want to keep the large crowd, the mega church pastor might ask? Jesus uses a quote from the book of Isaiah to drive His reasoning.

He speaks in parables he tells them because they, the crowd sees but they don’t actually see… They hear words but they do not understand. This quotation from The book of Isaiah is recorded in all the gospels…all four of them…and used the exact same way. Jesus told them that this prophecy spoke by God and recorded by Isaiah was being fulfilled at that very moment…Why is this important? Why is it important for you to know that Isaiahs prophecy is being fulfilled? Well consider this… What is happening is God stuff. Our living God who is the same yesterday today and forever is fulfilling what he spoke of the gospel ministry of Isaiah is still happening in the gospel ministry of Jesus. God words are being spoken, and the results are the same. Should we be concerned that our churches aren’t as big as the ones down the street? No. Should we be concerned that our family isn’t keeping up with the jones’? No. Jesus wasn’t concerned about crowds. He was concerned about being faithful to do all His father had told Him to do.

The quote itself is not really that encouraging. I was a hardship to Isaiah too. Chapter 6 Isaiah was standing in the glory of God, and in the midst God ask, “who will I Send and who will go for us”? Isaiah responded, I will go and declare your glory on earth! And God says ok, and then tells him about the people he will be speaking to. They will keep on hearing but not understand. They will keep seeing but not precieve. Why? Because their hearts have become dull… They are neither hot or cold, they are dull. They are there, and will hear you, but will be uninterested. The glory of God could fall from heaven and these people would rather go their own way.

Here is the deal, their hearts are dull by their own choice. God tells us why in the same quote. They choose not to listen to the words they have heard. Did you know there is a difference between hearing what someone said and actually listening? James tells us in chapter one of his letter to James 1:22-24

James 1:22–24 LSB

But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was.

One who hears the word of God and doesn’t do it is a deluded man. Christ says that he who does not listen to His words is like a man who builds his house on sand. Isaiah says these people’s hearts have become fat: or lazy and complacent… because they have not listened to the word of God and worked out their salvation with fear and trembling. Their sin has bound their hands and blinded their eyes to be closed off from the truth.

Not only have they closed their ears but they have closed their eyes too… They know there is an issue with their life, but they close their eyes. They are more pleased to deny the problem they know they have than to get to work making it right. They have closed their eyes in willful stubborn rebellion.

Now, the quote ends with the fact that if they opened their eyes and opened their eyes they would return to God and be healed. They would be forgiven their sin and made right with him. That is what is wrong. This is why Jesus speaks to the crowds in parables. Because his mission on earth was not to save everyone. He didn’t come to save the ones that were already righteous in their own eyes… He came to save the sick. The drunks. The addicts. The ones that had a rage problem. The ones that felt as if they could never measure us and would never be clean enough… He was crucified for the sins of the world, but the reality is that not everyone would be saved.

Now we get to the answer… He speaks in parables because the effect his word has to have. He did not come to call everyone to himself… Turn in your bibles to John 9:39

John 9:39 LSB

And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

Peter describes this in his first letter chapter 2, saying the word of Jesus Christ has become to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble because they are disobedient to the word. He came to save those who will willfully acknowledge, I have a problem… The self righteous spend so much time trying to deny their sin, while the sick he came to save wear it on their sleeve. The ones who were on the earth that could not see admit it. I can’t see, I don’t know what to do, I have no hope… help me! While the righteous go on preaching, follow this rule and this one and this one and then it will all be better.

The word of Christ then has two effects on a person. It either hardens the heart or softens the heart. The same sun that hardens the clay melts the wax. When the word is preached and not received, the heart of man grows harder in rebellion toward God. But when it is received and believed the heart of man grows soft. Soft preaching tends to produce hard hearts there is no unvarnished gospel to till the soul… while solid gospel preaching tends to produce soft hearts. 

But look at what Jesus says to his disciples. Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. Jesus said in verse  11 that they were given this gift of grace to be able to hear and see. Many prophets and righteous people longed to see it and did not. Now you should be asking yourself, Isaiah saw the glory of God… what did he not see?? He didn’t see the incarnate Christ: the word made flesh. He prophesied a lot about it! But he never got to see Christ.

That is the focus of this passage. It is Christ. The disciples won’t understand everything he says… but they have him. The sinners, they won’t be saved by law. They won’t be saved by modifying their behavior, they will be saved by Christ. And not only that those who pursue Jesus, as he said will have him and more in abundance… this is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christians are those people who have not rejected Jesus, but earnestly seek Him through His word and in turn are given the Holy Spirit. What is the primary job of the Holy Spirit, you might ask? His primary job is to explain the scriptures to you. To open upo the treasure of scripture and enable you become a doer of the word and not a hearer only. We can’t do it without Him. And we can’t have Him without having Jesus. 

Let me leave you with two questions. 

Where is your heart in relation to the desire of the word of God? Do you cherish it? Do you need it? The Christian’s fruitful life solely depends on feeding on the words of Christ because man CANNOT live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. How does a Christian describe the word of God? Listen… It restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, much more desirable than gold, and sweeter than honey, in them is a great warning, but in them is a great blessing if they are kept. Do you talk about the word this way? Where is your heart in relation to the desire of the word of God? 

And secondly… 

2. Do you respond to this word today in hardness of softness of heart? As Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord and said hear am I, send me, The disciples were drawn to Christ and he sent them. Are you sent? Are you a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ in which you are learning to obey every command… we are about to sing a song called the battle hymn of the republic, and I don’t know if we will sing this verse or not but listen to this verse in this song… 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat; Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.

Oh my friends be swift to answer him… be swift to respond to this word. You will not obey perfectly. God doesn’t require perfection of you because he was satisfied with the perfection of Christ! He requires Christ in you…

This mom ring, repent of your sin of taking this word of his lightly and receive His grace that will refresh you soul. For if we confess our sin god is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us 1 John 1:8-10… this is a soft heart, confess, repent, replace. Hear the call of Christ your captain this morning, he wants your heart. So give it to him. How does one do that? Obey his word. believe the Lord Jesus that he died for the forgiveness of your sin, and rose from the dead to secure your resurrection, and you will be saved. Then work out your salvation, Lee your heart from becoming dull and fat by living in the word and put it to work in your life. May Christ be your cornerstone, may Christ be the Lord of your life.