Twenty-Third Meeting
(February 20, 1964 P.M.)
We are
coming back to Matthew's Gospel, and this evening we are
going to be occupied with Matthew 13:31 and 32, "Another
parable set He forth before them, saying, 'The Kingdom of
Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man
took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than
all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the
herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the
heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof."'
You note that what is in this chapter has two names. One
name is "the parables of the Kingdom." Jesus
called them "the mysteries of the Kingdom of
Heaven." Whether you call them parables or
mysteries, the meaning is the same. The meaning is that
something is being said which has a deeper meaning than
the ordinary mind of man can recognize. Anybody can read
what is said, and everybody may think that they do
understand. But the very meaning of the parables and
mysteries is that you may read and not understand. It is
not what you read that is important, it is what you
understand.
We are
told that great multitudes gathered to hear what Jesus
had to say. The great multitudes heard Him and went away
with the story but without the meaning. Only a very few
of those who heard got the meaning. We must remember
that, because that is the governing thing all the way
through of what we have to say.
Now before we come to the meaning and the
message, let us look at these parables in a general way.
We have seen that there are seven parables in this
chapter, and they are divided.
Firstly,
they are divided between those which were spoken to the
multitude, that is from verse eleven to verse
thirty-five. The parables spoken to the multitude were
the parables of the sower, the darnel (the tares), the
mustard seed, and the leaven. So that four parables were
spoken to the multitudes. And then it says Jesus left the
multitudes, and went into the house. And He gave three
more parables to the disciples alone, from verse
thirty-six to verse fifty-two. The parable of the
treasure hid in the field, the parable of great price,
and the great net let down into the sea. The first two
parables were explained by Jesus. The next four were not
explained.
Now it
is very important for us to recognize one or two general
truths. First of all, we must recognize the law of
consistency. When Jesus used any symbols more than once,
He always meant the same thing. If He spoke of the sower,
He always meant the same person, He meant the Son of Man.
If He speaks of the field more than once, He always means
the same thing, which is the world. In the first place,
He is not speaking of the Church, He is speaking about
the world. If He speaks about the birds of the air, and
in the parable of the sower, He says the birds of the air
were the evil one; then, when He says that the birds of
the air find a place in the great tree, He means the same
thing. The same words mean the same thing every time.
Perhaps
you wonder why I say that. It does not sound very
interesting or very important, but it is very important,
because these parables have been misinterpreted. You will
see what I mean as we go along. Jesus never did confuse
people's minds by using the same thing for two opposite
purposes. If He spoke of birds, He always meant something
evil. In one parable, He speaks of the birds and He says
that is evil. In another parable, He speaks of the birds,
but He does not say they are not evil, but He means the
same. So the law of consistency is important, and you
have to notice that through these parables.
Now let
us look at some of the overall facts. The first overall
fact is what He calls the "Kingdom of Heaven,"
and we have already seen that the meaning of the Kingdom
of Heaven is the Sovereign Rule of Heaven over all
things. It does not mean that the Kingdom of Heaven has a
lot of wicked things in it - the Kingdom of Heaven has a
lot of evil birds in it - the Kingdom of Heaven has the
darnel (the tares) in it. It simply means that over all
these things is the Sovereign Rule of Heaven, and all
these things come under that Rule. Good things and bad
things come under the Rule of Heaven. That is one of the
great truths in these parables.
The
second general thing is this: These parables are intended
to show what will come into this world under the Rule of
Heaven. What the Rule of Heaven will allow and what the
Rule of Heaven will do with it. Is that quite clear to
you? There are a lot of things here that have got to be
dealt with in judgment by the Rule of Heaven. And there
are a lot of things here that would come under the
blessing of the Rule of Heaven. So the great overall
truth is that the Rule of Heaven takes account of
everything. And the Rule of Heaven deals with every thing
according to what it is, whether good or bad. Jesus is
doing two things with these parables. As you notice,
first of all, He is speaking to the unbelieving nation.
He says of that nation that they are blind. Their
blindness is due to their unbelief. They had not believed
the prophets, and as Isaiah is quoted here,
"blindness came upon them because of unbelief."
Now
Jesus in the first place is speaking to this unbelieving
nation in order to find out whether there are any people
there who want to believe. Do they want to see, or do
they not want to see? Will any of these people forsake
the ground of their blindness and take the ground of
faith?
You will
remember that on several occasions, Jesus gave sight to
blind people, but He only gave sight to blind people who
came to Him to have their sight. They cried out,
"Jesus, Master," and He said, 'What do you want
Me to do?' They said, 'Lord, that we may receive our
sight,' and He gave sight to those people. So, He is
testing the unbelieving nation to see if there are any
people in it who want to see. All these people heard the
parables, most of them went away. They only heard the
words, but there were a few who said, 'Now we do not
understand what He means, but we are going to find out.'
They were not satisfied with the parable, they wanted the
meaning. He was testing the faith of these people by
speaking mysteries to them.
You
remember that is always a principle of teaching. You have
a lot of teaching, what are you going to do with it? Are
you going to say, 'Well, I do not understand what he is
talking about,' and you go home. You seem to say, 'I do
not understand,' and that is the end of it. Will you go
with the multitude, or are you going to say, 'I believe
that he has something that I do not see. He has seen
something that I do not see, but I am going to find out
what he has seen.' It is always a law of teaching. It is
a test as to what our reaction will be. If you go back to
the parable of the sower, that is exactly what Jesus
meant by the ground, He meant an honest and good heart.
The honest and good heart ground brought forth thirty,
sixty, and hundredfold. All the others said, 'Well, we do
not understand so we are going away.' It is just a matter
of whether you really want to see. So in the first place,
the Lord Jesus was testing these people as to whether
they had an honest and good heart; and, as to whether if
they did not understand, they would not give up until
they did understand.
Now
Jesus was doing a second thing. He was instructing and
warning and preparing His own disciples for what was
going to come into Christianity. He was preparing them
for what they might expect in the future. It is always a
very good thing for us to be able to say, 'Well, it is
exactly what He said would come.' You see, quite a lot of
people just forget what He has said. Jesus said,
"Through much tribulation we must enter into the
Kingdom, or in the world you shall have
tribulation." Well, the tribulation came, they knew
the tribulation in the world. They were able to say,
'This is just exactly what Jesus told us would happen.'
So they were prepared and fortified. They were not
surprised. And that is exactly what Jesus was doing with
His disciples, He was preparing them for what was coming.
Did you
notice that in the first four parables, He shows the
things which are against the Kingdom of Heaven? Here are
many antagonistic elements to the Kingdom of Heaven. Go
back to the first parable again, the parable of the
sower. A sower goes forth to sow, and the first three
parts of his work falls by the way side, on the stony
ground, and amongst thorns. Well, the apostles had to go
out with the seed of the Word of God. Jesus had already
taught them that a lot of their work would be in vain.
There were the birds of the air that would be carrying
away the seed. There will be evil things against their
work, and a lot of their work would be destroyed by the
devil. It is well to note that He was warning them that
it would be like that.
Then the
parable of the darnel (the tares): The Lord has sown His
true children in the world, but the enemy comes in and
sows false children. The Lord says that would go on right
to the end of the age. Do not be surprised if all those
who professed to be Christians turn out not to be true
Christians. A lot of them will take the name of Christian
and prove to be false. The apostles met that sort of
thing later on. The Lord had already warned them that it
would be like that.
Well, He
is saying on the one side, there are a lot of evil things
that you have to meet which are against the Kingdom of
Heaven. That brings us to our present parable, the
parable of the mustard seed. Another parable is just like
this: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a seed, which a
man sows." It is like the mustard seed, and the
mustard seed is amongst the smallest of all seeds. But
the mustard seed can grow, and it can be cultivated until
it becomes something very big, and the birds of the air
lodge in it.
All
right, what are you going to make of that? Now this is
where the parable has been wrongly interpreted; and this
is where our law of consistency comes in. This parable
has been interpreted as meaning the Kingdom has a small
beginning, but it grows and grows until you can find
anything and everything in the Kingdom. It is going to
become so big that it will embrace everything. THAT IS A
FALSE INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE. Jesus was not
meaning that. He is not using birds here as good things
when He called birds bad things before. The birds
mentioned by Him, are always bad things. It is quite true
that the beginnings were small. It is quite true that
things grow and spread over the world. The Church did
expand and it has become something big. But not this: The
mustard seed does not naturally become a tree. Naturally
it is not a tree. It only becomes a tree when men take
hold of it and cultivate and develop it themselves. So
the mustard seed was developed for commercial purposes.
If you really want to get money for your fruit, you will
have the biggest fruit you can get. The very commercial
element in it must make it as big as possible. So by all
kinds of artificial means you make it big, but that is
not its true nature. You have done something with it! You
have put your hands on it! And now it represents the work
of man, rather than the true work of its own nature.
Now
Jesus is saying that is what is going to happen between
the time that I am speaking to you, and the time which is
the end of the age. Men will take hold of the things of
the Kingdom of Heaven, and make them something bigger
than they are by nature. There will be an artificial and
abnormal developing of Christianity. And because men do
that with Christianity, Christianity becomes like a tree
with every kind of bird lodging in it. Can you count all
the birds that are in Christianity now? Do you know all
the kinds of birds that call themselves Christians now?
Christianity, as we know it, can just cover anything; and
Jesus is saying that is not good. He says that is bad,
this is evil work. And it has come about in history, just
as Jesus said it would. This thing would be developed by
man's hands until it would cover anything you like. I am
not going to try to name all the things that are embraced
by the word, "Christianity"; but there are many
many things which go by the name of Christianity which
are not Christianity at all.
Now do
we have anything in the Word which proves that we are
right in this interpretation? Well, let us look at this
matter of the birds. We can go back in the Old Testament.
God came to Abraham once, and God was going to make a
covenant with Abraham about His seed. He was going to
tell Abraham that his seed would become a nation, and
that that nation would go into bondage and be in bondage
for four hundred years. Then God would deliver those
people, and bring them into the land of promise. God
said, 'I make a covenant about this and these are the
terms of the covenant. You take a sacrifice, and you
divide it in two, you put one part there, and you put the
other part here. That part is you; this part is Me. We
are going to be joined in a covenant.' So Abraham took
the sacrifice. He divided it down the middle. He put one
half there, and the other half here, then he waited. What
happened? The fowls of the air came down, and tried to
devour the sacrifice before the covenant could be
completed. But Abraham drove off the fowls of the air,
and he kept on doing that until the sun went down. Then
when the sun went down, a light appeared. The natural
light had gone, a Heavenly Light came in; and God
completed the covenant.
Well, we
know the story that Israel went into captivity for four
hundred years, and then God delivered them and took them
into the land of promise. But the point is this: Those
fowls of the air represented the evil powers who want to
destroy the covenant. I say this to show that these birds
of the air are evil things. Now we come over to the
parable of the sower, and Jesus says that the birds of
the air are the devil, who comes to snatch away the seed
in order to destroy the work of Christ.
However,
we can go on further in the New Testament. In Ephesians,
chapter two, the apostle says to these Ephesians,
"We all had our conduct according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the
air." He says, 'Our former life, before we came to
the Lord, was according to the prince of the power of the
air.' That is only another way of saying, according to
the evil power that is all around. Note that this is the
beginning of the Letter of the Ephesians.
Now when
we come to the end of that letter, in chapter six, we
have this: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against the powers,
against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the
spiritual hosts of the wicked spirits" (ASV). Now I
want you to notice something. At the beginning of that
letter, Paul speaks about the absolute Lordship of Jesus
Christ. You would remember the words: "The exceeding
greatness of God's power, which He wrought in Christ,
when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His Own
right hand, far above all rule, and authority, and
principality, and power." JESUS IS ENTHRONED OVER
ALL THE FORCES IN HEAVEN AND IN HELL AND ON THE EARTH.
But although that is true, and the apostle has said that,
he goes on to say, our warfare is with principalities and
powers and hosts of the wicked spirits.
The fact
that Jesus is Exalted far above all, does not mean that
our warfare is at an end. In this world, we are still
wrestling with principalities and powers, with hosts of
the wicked spirits, in other words, the birds of the air,
the prince of the power of the air. And this big tree
called "Christianity" is the place in which we
meet many of those evil powers.
Now this
is a very difficult thing to say, but it is quite true
that many Christians find their real enemies amongst
Christians. The world does not treat you as badly as
Christians do sometimes. That is a terrible thing to say,
but it is true, oh it is so true. It is within this big
tree called "Christianity" that we find so much
that is not of the Lord. In this parable of the mustard
seed becoming a great tree, that is what Jesus is saying
to His disciples. You will find the evil powers working
in the world. They will turn the world against you. You
will be persecuted by the world; but always remember that
you will also find a great many of your difficulties in
Christianity.
I think
I need not enlarge upon that. Some of us have to say the
greatest sorrows and sufferings that we have met have
been amongst Christians. The most disappointing and
discouraging things that we have met are inside of
Christianity. Yes, those birds of the air have gotten
into this tree. Jesus said to His disciples, in effect,
do not be surprised if it is like that. I am preparing
you for that. When it comes, do not be perplexed; I have
told you that is how it should be.
Now one
last word, we come right back to where we started when we
began this parable. The great need is that we have to be
able to discern between the good and the bad, not only in
the world, but in Christianity. This Christianity has
become such a big tree, and there are so many kinds of
birds in it. Very often, we just do not know what to make
of this or that. What kind of a bird is this? Is this a
good one or is it a bad one? How we need spiritual
understanding in Christianity, that we may be able to
discern what is of the Lord, and what is not of the Lord,
even in Christianity. You notice how the Lord concludes
all this. He says, at the end of the age He would send
forth His angels, and note this - be very careful to note
this - and He will take out of His Kingdom all things
that offend. So within this Sovereign Rule of Heaven,
there are a lot of things that offend, a lot of things,
to use His Own words, "which make people
stumble." Within that range of the Sovereign Rule of
Heaven, there are many things like that. But in the end,
He will send His angels, and He will take out everything
that offends.
Do not
be surprised, therefore, if you find things in
Christianity and amongst Christians that are not good. If
you realize that the Lord Jesus said it would be like
that, it will save you from some trouble. I have met some
Christians, and some young Christians, who have gone away
from the Lord. They are no longer walking with the Lord.
And when I asked them why, they have said, 'Oh, I saw a
certain Christian who was so bad that I felt that I did
not want anything to do with Christianity. A certain
Christian treated me so badly that I am giving up
Christianity.' That sometimes, of course, is an excuse.
But sometimes they are made to stumble by Christians. If
they realized that Jesus said it will be like that, they
would not be surprised. Then they would say, 'Well, Jesus
told me that it would be like this, and they would be
saved.' That is the message of the parable: Within
Christianity there is a great mixture. There is good and
bad in the branches of the tree. It has become something
so big. Almost anything can get into it.
But,
beloved, Jesus knows what is the right and what is the
wrong. And the Holy Spirit in us will teach us what is
the right, and what is the wrong. We leave it there for
the time being, we may have something more to say on this
at another time.