Parables in Matthew

Transcript

But so during the pandemic was the first time that I looked at this topic that we're going to consider tonight. And at that time, my family and I were attending the Simi Hills Ecclesia in Southern California. And I was asked to put together a series of classes on the parables that we find in the books of Matthew. So in our first class, we considered the parables from Matthew five verses 13 to 14 on salt and light. And we looked at both the physical and spiritual elements of these parables and how important they are in our walk towards the kingdom. We were reminded of the importance of letting our light shine to those around us by spreading the good news of the gospel and spreading God's plan with the earth. In the same manner, we saw the importance of consuming the salt of the word so we can in turn give that life preserving element to the world. And one of the core elements of the parable on salt that I wanted to leave everyone with at the end of that class was was what was found in Matthew five and 13. Where after telling his disciples that they are the salt of the world, Jesus says to them, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. In these trying times before the return of our Lord, it can be easy for us as the salt of the world, as the spiritual salt of the world to lose our saltiness. There's so much out there that can distract us and fill our minds with that we can become diluted to the point where we lose all of our saltiness. We lose that fire or that love for the word of God and the knowledge that it contains. It's not just distractions or other activities that we fill our life with that can dilute our saltiness. It can just be the stress of life. If we spend any time watching the news or browsing social media, you'll find out pretty quick that life today in the world is pretty stressful. People everywhere are losing hope and many within our community are even losing their faith. A recent CDC report showed that 41% of adults surveyed say that they had at least one mental health effect, including symptoms of anxiety or depression, symptoms of trauma or stress related disorder. And it started to or they're increasing their use of substances to cope with the stress that they're facing. For those of us with families and young children, it can be a lot easier in times like this to just close ourselves in and focus on our family or single family units. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with making sure that your own house is taken care of first, but taking care of our immediate family is one of the most important jobs in our lives. However, now more than ever, we need to have strong, ecclesial family ties as well. It's in times like these that the parables of our Lord and the study of his word can be so crucial and even revitalizing to our health or to our saltiness in the truth. As a spiritual family, this is the time that we can have the most impact on our brothers and sisters, times of great stress and uncertainty. So this week, if you're feeling a little extra salty, if you're feeling confident or sunny, share that with someone you haven't talked to in a while or just check in on another member of your ecclesia. You never know the impact that you can have on someone who may be quietly struggling. That's probably one of the biggest challenges that we face is a lot of people are struggling, struggling quietly, and we don't realize that they're that they're having the problem. So tap somebody on the shoulder, give them a hug, remind them that they're not in this alone. I think it's a great, a great lesson. So this evening, as we said, we're going to consider the parable found in Matthew chapter six and verses one, 19 and 20, which focuses on the moth, rust and thieves and the treasure of God. Now, at this point in Matthew six, Jesus is still on the mountain preaching to his disciples. And as we saw in the first 14 verses of this chapter, he focuses primarily on being genuine in our service to God. He tells us not to practice our righteousness where others can see, so we'll get recognition, nor to give long, grandiose prayers in front of people to look righteous. And when we fast to do it without giving an outward show, the example that the people had of all of these things at the time was, of course, the scribes and the Pharisees or the hypocrites, as Jesus calls them. In verse two, he says, Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. And then he comes to verse 19, where he addresses the idea of where they keep their treasure. He tells them this, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys or where neither thieves do break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It's clear from his line of teaching in previous verses that this parable is also in relation to the religious leaders of time. The scribes and Pharisees were known for having special garments, and many would embroider their robes with fine jewels or gold. In Matthew 23 in verse two, Jesus warns the people concerning them, But all their works they do for to be seen of men, they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. Two of the most basic signs of wealth in this time period was fine clothing and jewelry. And the religious leaders in their attempts to stand out from the common people put this wealth on display for all to see, leading many astray and causing them to emulate their behavior. To them, in order to appear righteous, you had to wear the finest clothing and have great possessions. That way, all could see how much the Lord had blessed you for your good deeds. This is brought out in Matthew 19, when a young man comes before Jesus and asks him what he must do to have eternal life. And the Lord tells him to keep the commandments, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man said to him, All these things I have kept, what do I still lack? And Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? It was so culturally ingrained in them that wealth was a sign of blessing from God. And if you had that much wealth, you must be righteous. We see from the young man's reaction that he knew where his treasure was, and his wealth was more important to him than the promise of eternal life. It's easy for us to get sucked into the same trap. It's in our nature. Today's marketing is so clever that it makes us want things that we don't need, and oftentimes things we didn't even want in the beginning. The depictions of the happy family enjoying life because they have the newest car or the biggest house on the block can consume us and make us feel like we have to have those things. It's one of the oldest stories in the world. The pursuit of riches can consume us. And once you have it, it can become all you do just to keep it. The Bible is full of messages about the dangers of running after wealth. We have Balaam, Ananias and Sapphira, Solomon and Ahab, all sought after material gain and met their ends losing the greatest treasure of the kingdom. Even if we do obtain the things we desire, the Lord reminds us that eventually these things will decay or their rust or even be stolen. Moths and rust and even thieves were more of a concern to those living in the first century than they are for us now, but the principle can still be applied. Clothes might not be eaten by moths, but there's not a fabric known to man that won't wear out or tear or go out of style. Rust isn't much of a concern to us in Texas. Maybe it's more for those who are in places where they salt the roads like Detroit or the East Coast, but even a car that's kept in a garage will eventually decay if it's not serviced and run constantly. With the invention of banks, safes and strong boxes, most of our valuables can be protected, but nothing can protect our wealth from economic collapse or the change in the markets. The conclusion of the matter is then, forget about chasing after the treasure of this life, find clothes, the silver and gold and precious jewels, and focus on gathering the treasure that the Lord values. Our God is a God that places great importance in treasure. There are references all through the scriptures to silver and gold, precious stones and jewels. These physical treasures have a strong spiritual significance that the Lord has emphasized time and time again. Using these physical symbols, we can extract powerful lessons and visions that remind us of God's underlying purpose and plan. For the remainder of our class, we like to focus on these lessons and symbols and highlight what the Lord sees as treasure. So when you think about the word treasure, what's the first thing that comes into your mind? This is an open question. You can unmute and give me an idea. What's the first thing that comes in your mind when you think treasure?

Pirates. Pirates. That's a good one.

Precious things, valuables. Money.

Things and money. Very good. Those are all great things. My kids. Your kids.

Oh, hey. Hey, Madison's listening to you from our hospital bed. Oh, fantastic. This is my sister, Mallory. She's in Australia. So we have people from far and wide joining the class. All right. So yeah, all these things. I think that's wonderful. I think Mallory brought up probably the best one that we can think of that naturally most of us aren't inclined to think of. But that is the greatest treasure that we're given as our children and our family and those that we can pass on the knowledge of God to. For me personally, when I see the word treasure in my mind, and this is the first thing that pops up. I think somebody said pirates. This is really the epitome of treasure that comes into my mind. But gold, silver, jewels, maybe diamonds or rubies, pearls or crowns. These things have been constants all through time. Rocks and metals that shine and glisten in the sunlight that are appealing to look at. I'd like to suggest that all of these things, while they are valuable to man in God's eyes, they're symbols of his plan and purpose with us. For example, gold, as I'm sure we've all heard before, is a symbol of tried faith. In 1 Peter 1 and verse 7, it says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So we see here the connection between gold and faith. As gold is smelted in a fire to remove its impurities, so is faith made stronger by the fire of trials and temptation. Which is why the Lord Jesus exhorts the Ecclesia and Laodicea in Revelation 3 and 18 to buy of me gold and tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. So the idea is that our faith will be tried on our walk towards the kingdom, and if it endures, then it will shine as purified gold. Likewise, we have silver, which is mentioned in Numbers 18 and verse 16. In this chapter, we're told that the firstborn of every man and beast was to be given to the Levites as their portion. However, in verse 15, he tells them everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord shall be yours, speaking to the tribe of Levi. And he says, Nevertheless, the firstborn of man, you shall redeem and the firstborn of unclean animals, you shall redeem and their redemption price at a month old, you shall redeem them. You shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is 20 garas of silver, then represents that which is redeemed or ransomed by paying a price under the law. They would pay this silver as a foreshadowing of the price that would be paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. In First Peter one and 18, he says, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So silver and gold, then, are symbols of true believer who has faith that has been tried and proven true and who is redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is the silver. So Paul exhorts us on how we should use these precious materials in his first letter to the Corinthians and First Corinthians three and verse 10 through 15. Sorry, I've got that reference here in First Corinthians three and verse 10, Paul writes to them, According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work, each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Now it's clear here that Paul is building on the same parable the Lord Jesus spoke in Matthew six that we read at the start of our class. Once we receive that foundation stone, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, we have two choices of how we can build on it. We can either build on it with the treasure of gold, silver and precious stones, or we can use wood, hay and stubble. We can build with materials that wear away, or that are quickly destroyed in a fire, or we can use materials that will last forever and stand up to the temptations and the trials of life. And so we have here a symbol of the characteristics that we need to be working on in ourselves that reflect the foundation that our lives are built on. Do we have characteristics that can withstand the trials and the fires of this life, or will they crumble and fall when we are put to the test? Now I know we all stumble and we all fall. That's just the curse that is our nature. We're going to fail when we pass through fiery trials. But the true test of our character is if we get back up again when we fall and try our very best to continue on and make the effort to remove that stumbling block from our path. That is how we build upon our foundation with gold and silver and precious stones by strengthening our faith and looking to our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, who we have to rely on for forgiveness. Now, while we're on this topic or this idea from Paul of the foundation, I'd like to take a short detour to two references that highlight another treasure that's found in scripture. Now we went to references on gold and silver, and now we'll see the importance of precious stones. You don't have to turn it up. I'll put this up on the screen. But at 1 Peter, chapter two, in verses three through seven, Peter says, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And skipping down to verse nine, Now the other thought that comes to mind when we're considering the stone that is the Lord Jesus Christ is the image spoken of in Daniel, chapter two, the image of the nations of man. Now this image was made of precious metals, not precious to God, because they are all grounded to dust, but precious to a man from precious to the man who was Nebuchadnezzar, which he saw in his dream. And in Daniel two and 45, Daniel tells the king that he saw a stone that was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. I've often imagined this stone that is the stone that he says is cut without hands to be a rough misshapen rock, like many of the images and our libraries depicted. But after reading this passage in Peter, it's hard to see it as anything other than a flawless gemstone that glistens in the light and is precious. After all, what makes the most valuable gemstone so valuable is the fact that they aren't manufactured or cut. They occur naturally. They're cut without hands. And this great stone that is treasured of God will come and destroy the things that are treasured of men by grinding them into powder. And once it grinds the things of men into powder, Daniel says that it grows into a great mountain that covers the whole earth. One day, very soon, Lord willing, the stone will come and his kingdom will be established and encompass the whole earth. A wonderful vision of what we have to look forward to. But finally, we'll come to 2 Timothy chapter two, verses 19 to 21 to wrap up this idea of the foundation that we're built on. Paul says to Timothy in verse 19 of chapter two, but God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. This passage is a symbol of the ecclesia of God. Surely the foundation, which is Christ, is sure. And the house that God is building may be filled with some that have the characteristics he's looking for and some that don't. When he comes to inspect his house, he will remove those who lack the precious metals and stones so that only the faithful redeemed will be left. Now is the time for us to be storing up in ourselves the precious metals and stones that will withstand that day of judgment. And we do that by burying ourselves in the word of God, by filling our hearts and our minds with its teachings and building one another up as we work together as an ecclesia. We're given a great example of this and a contrast between two ecclesias in the book of Revelation chapter three.

Now, earlier in our class, we mentioned the ecclesia in Laodicea. We know from history that it was a wealthy city and it flourished under the Roman Empire. It benefited greatly from its position on a trade route and became one of the most important and flourishing commercial cities of Asia Minor. It was known to be a place where large money transactions and extensive trade in black wool were carried on.

In verse 17, he says to the brethren of the ecclesia there, For you say I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Although they may have been very wealthy, spiritually they were miserable, poor, blind and naked. Here was an ecclesia of believers who had stored up for themselves riches on earth and they had put their trust in them. In contrast, we have the ecclesia of Smyrna, who were apparently poor and destitute. The spirit says of them in Revelation two and nine, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are Jews are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Here, even though they were poor in material things, the Lord calls them rich, because they were rich in the things of God. Their faith and their steadfast dedication to the truth, despite their trials, made them precious in God's sight. As someone who grew up in the US and abroad, that was raised in relative luxury, middle class family, it's easy for me to see myself as one of the Laodiceans. If we look around us, it's rare to see someone within our community that lacks all of the creature comforts of life. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but for the majority of us, we live stable financial lives and oftentimes the stuff that we have can distract us from our need for God. Just a thought to consider as we go about our daily lives. Let's not let the things that we're blessed with become a distraction to us in our walk, as apparently the Laodiceans did. Now there's one other precious material that comes up in the Bible that we haven't mentioned yet, and that's the pearl. In another parable of Jesus in Matthew 13, he says that the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. I'm sure this is what it was like for many of us who were not born into our faith. You search and you search for years, sometimes a whole lifetime to find the truth, and once you finally find it, you're willing to give up all you have to obtain it. Many have lost family, friends, and even their own lives for the sake of the truth, because the value of the kingdom is far greater than anything this life can give us. It is truly a pearl of great price. Now the pearl is a unique treasure because it's the only precious material that's formed by an animal. Pearls are only formed by oysters and saltwater and mussels and freshwater when an irritant or a parasite makes its way into the shell of the mollusk. Now once the irritant becomes trapped, the mollusk starts to coat it with a substance called nacre as a defense mechanism, and the unique luster or glow of pearls comes from this nacre. The mollusk coats the irritant with thousands upon thousands of layers of it, and over time, a pearl begins to slowly form. Now how long it takes for the pearl to form is dependent on the growth rate of the nacre, but most pearls typically take anywhere between two to four years to fully develop. It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for the mollusk because in most cases, they have to live their entire life with this irritant inside them. But all the while, they work with the irritant and live with it until eventually they produce something from it that's beautiful and unique and treasured by man. What a beautiful illustration of how we live our lives and service to our Father. We all have different irritants in our life, different trials and struggles, but we can take comfort in knowing that if we work through those trials and use them to develop the character of God, then in the end, we'll have produced a treasure that is precious to our God. The trials of this life are working to develop in us pearls and precious metals. In Acts chapter 14 of verse 21, it says, And when they preached the gospel to the city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, saying, We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. In the Greek, the word tribulations is threepsis, and it means oppressing or pressure. Did you know that the most almost all naturally occurring precious metals and stones only require two conditions to be formed? They need heat and they need pressure. So again, we have this wonderful symbol of how pressure and fire or trials create the characteristics that are treasured by God. There's one last example of precious stones that I'd like to look at today, and that's centered around the ceremonial dress of the high priest. I started this study by simply looking for references of treasure of treasure and precious stones or gold and silver in the Gospels. And when I started looking at the fine clothing that the scribes and the Pharisees used to wear that Jesus warns his disciples not to long for, I came across this picture of the high priest. What's shown here was a special garment that only the high priest wore. So it's not what Jesus was referring to in his parable. But all the same, it made me want to look closer at the ceremonial garments. And if you notice on the breastplate of the high priest, there are 12 gems. This has great significance because everything in the law was for a purpose, and it was a foreshadowing of what was to come. Paul tells us that the law was a schoolmaster that brought us to Christ. The high priest especially and everything pertaining to him was significant because the Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest and mediator and took over the role of the high priest from the descendants of Aaron. To see this, we'll have to go to Exodus chapter 28. And in this chapter, we have a description of the high priest garments. The garments that it says in verse two were made for Aaron for glory and for beauty. And in verse three, they were there to consecrate him. So in verse four, we're told, and these are the garments with which they shall make a breastplate and an ephod and a rogue and a broider coat, a miter and a girdle. And they shall make holy garments for Aaron, my brother, and his sons that he may minister unto me into the priest's office. And dropping down to verse 15, we have the description of the breastplate where the stones were held. It says in verse 15, you shall make a breastplate of judgment and skilled work in the style of the ephod. You shall make it of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. Shall you make it? It shall be square and doubled a span, its length and a span, its breadth. You shall set in it four rows of stones, a row of sardis, topaz and carbuncle shall be the first row. In the second row, an emerald, a sapphire and a diamond. In the third row, a jasinth, an agate and an amethyst. In the fourth row, a burl, an onyx and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. And so we have described here this order of stones with all the names of the tribes of Israel. And every stone had a name engraved on it with gold. Now in verse 29, it says, It's not just that it was to be worn on his chest. It specifically says that it should be worn on his heart. And why his heart? Well, because that's what the high priest was supposed to treasure. Jesus told us in the very parable that we're studying, Where your treasure is, there will your heart also be. And so when we consider the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, who came to lay down his life for his friends, where was his heart? It was focused on the people of God. It was upon the treasure of God, not the treasure of man. Now the people of God, his peculiar people, were written on the very heart of his high priest. And every time he put on the ceremonial robes, he would be reminded of the importance of that treasure. Now we can take this one step farther. Now here is the traditional layout of the stones like we saw in the original picture of the high priest. You can see each stone has a name engraved on it. We have four rows with three stones in each row, just as described in Exodus 28 and verse 17. You shall set it in four rows of stones. However, if we look at the Hebrew word row, which is tour, it can also be translated as a wall round about. So we could translate verse 17 like this. You shall sit it in four walls of stones. If this is the case, then the breastplate would have looked more like this. And if this looks familiar to anyone, it's because you've probably seen this layout before. Only it was in the layout of the camp of Israel when they would make camp each day. Every day, the children of Israel set up camp. And no doubt the Levites and the priests would have been involved in the organization of these movements. They would have been reminded of how they were meant to be a peculiar people, a special treasure to God. Every time the high priest put on the breastplate of precious stones, he would have seen the people laid out by their tribes surrounding the tabernacle and the mercy seat. So now that we have this image in our minds, let's look ahead to the future application of this layout, which we find in Revelation chapter 21. In this chapter, we have a description of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, starting in verse nine, that perfected city that will house the temple of the Most High God, which the angel calls the bride, the wife of the lamb. He says there, Then came one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. And it had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and at the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. And on the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Now, this description of the layout of the city sounds amazingly similar to the description of the camp of Israel, and the positioning of the stones on the breastplate of the high priest. In fact, they're almost identical, which cannot be anything more than a deliberate act of the spirit. And so, in the Kingdom Age, we come full circle to a complete fulfillment of what was laid out in the law. The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem, like the twelve stones on the breastplate, will have the names of the twelve sons of Israel inscribed on them, and each gate will stand a judge, one disciple for each tribe of Israel. If we continue on in verse 19 of Revelation 21, we read, And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third a chalcedony, the fourth an emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysalith, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth a chrysophorus, the eleventh a jicent, and the twelfth an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. If you notice, the foundation of the city is no longer made of one stone than the Lord Jesus Christ that was spoken of by Paul. The foundation of this perfected city is made up of twelve different stones, just like the twelve stones that are listed in Exodus 28 for the twelve tribes. This new foundation is made up of those who dedicated themselves to the work of God and spreading his gospel message and allowed the pressure and the fiery trials of life to transform them into jewels, precious stones that can be used by our Father to fulfill his purpose. And each gate is made of pearl, the pearl that, as we pointed out earlier, is formed from the constant struggle with irritants in our life, but through perseverance and hard work is transformed into something precious. This is what we have to look forward to in that great kingdom age, the age when, Lord willing, we can be added into this glorious city of beauty and light, so that we, in turn, can reflect that light of our Father to the world around us. As someone pointed out to me that each gemstone that we find in these lists have no luster of their own. If you have it sitting on the ground, it's not bright, it doesn't look like anything special, but when you shine a light through it, it becomes radiant and beautiful. And that's a perfect example of what we are to our God. If we put on the characteristics of his son and are transformed into a gem, we can have the light of God shown through us and we become beautiful to the world around us. So as we face the trials of this life in the coming week, let us try and forget about vainly storing up for ourselves the riches of this earth that can be eaten by moths, tarnished by rust, or that can be stolen away from us by thieves. But let us rather store up within ourselves the treasures of heaven so that when our Lord does come, we will appear to him as polished gems and precious pearls fit to be added to his city.