More or Less

Today we continue in Matthew 13 and we are going to look at a lot of parables. The thing is some of them repeat themselves and all of them are aimed at one particular idea. Lets look at the first two parables.

Matthew 13:31–32 NASB95

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

This parable tells us that the kingdom of heaven begins small and then becomes larger than anything else. It began with one man, Jesus and he spread it to 12 men who spread it to others who spread it all over the world and it will last into eternity.

Matthew 13:33–34 NASB95

He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable.

This parable tells us that the kingdom of heaven is spread from one to another, it is not spread by lecture, education or information but it is spread from one to another like leaven spreading through dough. By the way when you work leaven into dough you do that by kneading it, a process of chocking and squeezing and mixing the dough in order to work the leaven into the dough. If you want to get the kingdom of heaven into someone it takes time and it takes work, the dough must be stretched and pulled and worked until the leaven (the kingdom of heaven takes hold)

If you skip down to verses 44-46 you get the next set of parables

Matthew 13:44–46 NASB95

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Both of these are the same, the kingdom of heaven is extremely valuable. It is worth giving up everything else in your life to obtain it. If you do not have it then you have nothing, but if you have the kingdom of heaven you have everything.

The parable of the dragnet is just like the parable of the Tares, it tells us that there is a time limit.

Matthew 13:47–50 NASB95

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There will come a day of judgement when everyone will be gathered up and divided into two groups, those who go to heaven and those who go to hell. At that point it will be too late to make a change and eternity will truly begin for mankind.

All of these parables are meant to tell us about the kingdom of heaven, what is is, how it spreads, what its worth, who does what. Each of these ideas is worth a sermon in itself and each of them is critically important but the one idea I want to return to today is the reason Jesus gave for teaching in parables. Why didn’t he just come out and say these things plainly and explain them, why the mystery, do you remember what Jesus said.

Matthew 13:10–17 NASB95

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “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. “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. “In their case 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; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. “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.

This is great information, Jesus himself says that many prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear these things but were not able to. Jesus also says that whoever has knowledge of these things will get more and have an abundance and whoever does not have knowledge of these things will lose even what little he has.

Is Jesus trying to hide something, to keep people from learning and understanding, of course not. He is merely explaining the way things work.

Since I agree that it is a little confusing at first I brought a neat way to try to explain it. How many of you think I can stick this pencil through this baggie of water from one side to the other without letting any of the water come out.

Lets just suppose you don’t think I can do it. You are not sure, and you assume there must be some trick to it or I wouldn’t have made the offer but you just aren’t quite sure I can do it. So I do.

Now you have seen it done once and it worked, you may still think I am a little sneaky and am deceiving you some way or another but if I asked you if I could do it again you would probably say yes. So I do. Now you have seen it twice and are pretty sure I can do it but lets suppose I asked you if you could do it. You might doubt it and think that I know some special trick or something but if I had you come up and do it it would work just like this. (third pencil).

You see the trick is not my trick it is a trick of science. the water pressure in the bag presses the plastic around the pencil and makes a seal so that the water does not come out. Anyone can do it. It just works that way.

If you watched me do it several times and you would be sure it was possible and after you did it a few times your confidence would grow that you could do it too. The more people you saw do it and the more often you did it yourself the more convinced you would become that it was easy and the more comfortable you would be with doing it yourself or even teaching someone else to do it.

But let us suppose that I you were not here today and someone told you I had done it but you never actually saw it for yourself. Your doubt might be even greater because you didn’t see it for yourself. Now suppose you came up to me next Sunday and told me that you didn’t believe me and I refused to repeat it. Since you never saw it yourself and you doubted it in the first place you are not nearly as likely to believe it later even if someone shows it to you.

Once we make up our minds we don’t want to change them. When you were first introduced to the idea of sticking the pencils through the bag you didn’t have any preconceived notions about whether it could be done or not, but once you are confronted with the idea and decide that it is not possible something happens in your mind and in your spirit. That becomes your opinion and you are duty bound to defend it.

Have you ever realized that you were on the wrong side of an issue and still found it hard to change sides? As a matter of fact the longer you have been on a particular side and the louder you have proclaimed which side you are on the harder it is to change. Once everyone knows what you believe it is hard to admit you were wrong and change to the other side. Sometimes even if you can admit you were wrong and change sides your friends and family won’t believe that you have changed sides. In their minds you are the same as you always were.

Many of us run into this when we become Christians, especially if you got saved as an adult. The people who knew us back when we were just like them often resent the changes we have made try to get us to change back, they don’t want to let us change, it is hard. The longer it takes the harder it is.

This is what Jesus means by saying

Matthew 13:12 NASB95

“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.

You see if you have a little faith. If you dare to believe Jesus is right then when Jesus proves to be right and true, and he will, your faith will be reinforces and you will believe a little more. The more examples of Jesus proving to be true you see the easier it is to believe. After seeing it a few times in others you will be ready to exercise some faith yourself, to trust what Jesus says and act in faith, and Jesus will prove to be true and right and so your faith will become stronger.

Just like watching me poke pencils through the baggie makes it easier for you to believe that I can do it and the more times you see it the easier it is to believe. Then if you pushed a few pencils through yourself you would become even more convinced and even more comfortable with the idea.

The more you are around people who exercise their faith and trust in Jesus and the more you see their faith proven true the more your faith can grow. Then when your faith has grown enough by seeing the example of others you are able to believe what Jesus says for yourself and are able to step out in faith so that your faith grows even more so that to him who has even more will be given and he shall have an abundance. Trusting is a habit, it builds upon itself, so does doubting.

The more you begin to doubt what Jesus says the less willing you are to give a fair hearing to someone who disagrees. The longer you have doubted and the stronger you have doubted the harder it will be for you to even consider that Jesus may be true and right.

Just like the second example of the pencils. The person who didn’t see it and so doubted, the longer you doubt and the more people you tell that you doubt it the harder it would be to change.

The longer you doubt Jesus and the more people you tell that you don’t believe and the stronger your opinion gets the harder it becomes to change.

The first time you are confronted with the truth of Jesus you don’t have any preconceived notions one way or the other so you have an even chance to receive or reject him.

Scripture tells us that each person has a measure of faith, but you can quench that faith. The longer you doubt the harder it becomes and the more convinced you become That Jesus is not true the more you quench the faith you were given so that even that which you have is taken away, not by Jesus but by your own doubt.

Faith and doubt both build on themselves and become stronger with both time and exercise. The longer you doubt and the more you think about and express that doubt the stronger it becomes until your heart becomes hardened against God.

The longer you believe and the more you use and exercise your faith by stepping out and trusting God even when you don’t have it all figured out the easier it becomes to trust God the next time and the more your faith grows.