Fear the reaper
Notes
Transcript
Parables
Parables
The word parable comes a combination of two greek words
Para - alongside.....Think paralel.
bole - Throw. think bowling
It is to take a literal story and compare it to an abstract thought for illustration.
Aesop’s fables-
The Dog and the bone. Be satisfied with what you have.
The Tortise and the hare. Be consistent and don’t give up.
The limitation of parables.
Fortunately, last weeks and this weeks parables are actually explained by Jesus, so Jesus himself told us what it meant.
A parable is a vehicle to carry an idea, but you can’t make it walk on all fours.
Meaning, Not every tiny detail of a parable has to have great meaning.
Take for instance the parable of the Good Samaritan:
Man from Jerusalem went to Jericho and was robbed, beaten and left half dead.
A priest saw him and passed him on the other side of the road,
A Levite also saw him and passed him on the other side of the road.
A Samaritan saw him and had compassion on him and put him on his donkey and took him to the inn and took care of him and then followed up on him the next day.
Jesus tells his followers to go and do the same.
the point of the story is that the two people that should have helped this Jewish man, didn’t but a Samaritan, who generally didn’t like the Jews and vise-verse, was the one who stopped and helped.
The point is to help those that need your help, regardless of how you feel about them.
Love your enemies as your friends.
But Augustine of Hippo mid to late 300 AD didn’t like the Jewish people. He felt that the church completely replaced the Jews as the new Isreal and thus their continued existence as a people was a representation of Judas who betrayed Jesus. He believed that all Jews should bear the guilt of killing Christ.
So where the story of the good Samaritan should have been a clear instruction for him to love and be kind to Jewish people, he took a hyper allegorical approach.
He took every small detail of the story and assigned new meaning.
For Augustine, the man on the road represented Adam who left Jerusalem (the garden). The robbers are the devil and his angels. The Priest and the Levites are the Jewish leadership. The Samaritan represented Christ, and the inn keeper is The Apostle Paul.
WHAT?
We see this kind of careless handling of God’s word today. I watched a debate recently where a Female Minister married to another woman, tried to tease out of the Bible justification for living the lifestyle that she was living. Not only was she arguing that it wasn’t sin, but was saying that God the Father had blessed her union.
Sin is sin, and we all fall short, but don’t try and twist the Word to say that you can have a wife and a mistress, or that you can hate who you want, or that you can steal as long as its from bad people.
That dog won’t hunt.
So when we look at the parables, we need to understand what Jesus meant to the people He was talking to, and then ask how that applies to our lives today. Anything more is adding to the text and distorts God’s Word.
The Tares among Wheat
24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
tares - Darnel - a ryegrass
26 “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
When Darnel is young it looks just like young wheat plants. but as the heads of the grain developed, the imposter would be revealed.
27 “The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
28 “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’
29 “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
I am not a farmer, but as a kid growing up in farming country, most everyone I know worked in a field at some point. I’ve pitched melons, build irrigations systems, worked at a seed and fertilizer company, worked in a cotton gin, but by far the worse job was Chopping Cotton.
Chopping cotton. In the middle of the summer, the roots of the cotton plant were deep and the plant was sturdy, so we would go into the field with a hoe and chop out the Johnson Grass or whatever other grass or weeds were in the field.
But Darnel that grew alongside the wheat would intertwine it’s roots with those of the wheat, so if you tried to pull it out of the ground, you would uproot the wheat before it was time for harvest.
30 ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
As the wheat plant matured and it’s fruit grew and became heavy, the wheat plant would bow it’s head under the weight, but the tares would all stand straight.
That would make it easier for the reapers to come in the field and pull the darnel without ruining the wheat, because it was the time for the harvest anyway.
The Meaning
The Meaning
36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
Isn’t that great!
37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;
39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
Don’t you go getting a big head, thinking you are such a good seed. If you are a good seed, it is because he made you a good seed.
40 “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
If you die apart from a relationship with God through Christ, you will spend eternity separated from God in Hell.
Hell is not a party! weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
For those that die, or live to the end of the age and have a relationship with God, through Christ we will live in the presence of the Lord!.
So what do we do with what Jesus shared?
The distinguishing characteristic between the wheat and the tares is the fruit.
When the wheat sprouted and bore grain.....
16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
Examine your fruit. Honestly.
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Go home, look in the mirror pull up Galatians 5:22-23 and ask yourself, have I submitted to the lordship of Christ and are these fruits manifesting themselves in my life?
Wherever you are lacking - pray.
2. He is the judge of those who are wheat and those who are tares.
Your job is to love and share Christ. He will do the separating.
3. Not a contradiction of Church discipline.
If anyone sins, go in private, then with witnesses, then to the whole church. Then if there is no repentance, invite them not to come back.
4. The miracle of the Gospel.
Jesus can turn a tare into wheat!
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
He can turn a tare to a wheat!