A parable is a fantasy used to describe a fact.  Jesus used worldly parables to describe spiritual Truths when He did not want His audience to understand those Truths.  He applied this technique for a reason, which He explains in Matthew 13:10-15.  Here we find him, as was often the case, being followed by “great multitudes” of people who had gathered in front of Him as he sat in a boat near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  He had earlier left His home in Capernaum and had walked down to the nearby beach.  As He walked, great multitudes of people had “gathered together unto Him.”  After speaking to them about the Kingdom of Heaven, His disciples asked Him why He had used often used parables when addressing the crowds, but spoke to them (His disciples) plainly (vs 10).  He explained that the disciples were allowed to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but not the multitudes because they “saw but did not see and heard but did not hear.”  Actually, he was using a parable to explain His use of parables.  The people’s blindness and deafness were self-inflicted–they did not want to hear and see the Truth that He was proclaiming (vss 13,14).

Jesus pointed out that this was not a new phenomenon.  The Prophet Isaiah (6:9) had experienced the same problem when dealing with the ancestors of those who were following Him (Jesus).  Isaiah had written that the ancient Israelites heard and saw what he said and did but did not believe, for they had perverted their own hearts (minds), stopped up their own ears and closed their own eyes (vss 13-15).  Jesus was pointing out that the Jews of Old Testament times and their descendants of His time were commanded to learn, believe and obey the same Truths known as “the Law.”

The people of Christ’s day followed Him in order to be fed, healed and delivered from demonic bondage.  They were not interested in His message, which His Father had commissioned Him to deliver personally to the Jews.  His disciples would deliver the Gospel to the other Israelites who had been scattered throughout the world because of their sins.  The Gospel message to the Jews then and the other Israelites later concerned the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God.  However, the vast majority of those who followed Him were not interested in what He said, but rather what He did.  Sound familiar?  It should, for the same attitude dominates the hearts of professing Christians today.  They reject His kingdom message and His Law that must be obeyed in order to enter it.  Instead, they focus on what He can do for them.  Read Revelation 3:14-20 to learn Christ’s attitude toward the modern (Laodicean era) church.  Verses 15-17 perfectly describe Catholicism/Protestantism today.

Not only are New Testament people commanded to obey the same Ten Commandment Law given to ancient Israel by the prophets, the Lord Himself and His original apostles, that same Lord commands them to obey it.  That Lord is the Word who became Jesus of Nazareth (Jn. 1:1-4,14).  In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 the Apostle Paul told the church that when ancient Israel came out of Egyptian slavery they traveled under a cloud (Exo. 13:21), passed through the Red Sea, ate food and drank water miraculously provided for them (Exo. 16:15, 17:6) and received spiritual nourishment from “the ROCK that followed them, and THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST.”  That Rock was the “Angel” on Mt. Sinai Who gave Moses the “lively Oracles” (Ten Commandments) “to give to us”–the “Oracles” being the Ten Commandments and “us” being the New Testament church (Acts 7:38).  Because the New Testament Jews had possessed those same Oracles for generations, they had a “great advantage” over the Gentiles when it came to learning about God, His Law and how to obey it (Rom. 3:1,2), which was necessary in order to be part of the New Testament Church.  The WORD Who was from the beginning and who delivered ancient Israel from Egyptian slavery, was the ROCK Whom the disciples followed, served, listened to, watched, touched and obeyed for 3 1/2 years before His crucifixion.

That Law-giving ROCK is not only the head of God’s true church today, He also commands that His followers to obey the same LAW He gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  He is Jesus Christ–the Word, the Law-giver, the Rock–Who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8).  His Gospel is the same today as it was when He (“the Scripture”) preached it to Abraham (Gal. 3:8).  Paul noted that the Gospel then being preached in the New Testament Church had also been preached to the ancient Israelites (Heb. 4:2).  The Gospel that the Word (the “Scripture”–Christ) preached to Abraham, which the prophets preached to ancient Israel, which the apostles preached to the New Testament Church and which is preached by God’s apostles today, will be the foundation of the Kingdom of God Jesus will establish upon His return.  Jesus said that God’s Word (Gospel) is Truth (Jn. 17:17).  Truth does not change.  Man, however, has changed Christs’ Gospel–His good news about the Kingdom of God (Mk. 1:14).  Instead of believing and obeying it, man, under Satan’s guidance, has twisted it, spun it and interpreted it until it now bears no resemblance to the God’s Word.  The end result of man’s (Satan’s) Scriptural manipulations is today known as Catholicism/Protestantism–a two-headed, multi-bodied false church that continues to spread Satan’s false gospel about a false Jesus and false salvation throughout the world (Gal. 1:6-9/2 Cor. 11:4).

The forerunner for the future Kingdom of God was establish in 31 A.D. as “the Church of God,” also known as “the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Jesus proclaimed that His church would stand, unchanged, forever.  Even though “the gates of hell” (Satan, his fallen angles and his false church) would come against it, they would not prevail  (Mat. 16:18).  At the end of this world–the church era in which we are now living–Christ will return.  Following the resurrection of His Very Elect, He will establish the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem.  From there He and they will rule the earth for 1000 years.  Afterward they will rule the entire universe forever.  Read God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  Key word–Caretakers.  Also read The Kingdom of God.  Key word–Kingdom.

Now let us return to Matthew 13 and see what Jesus said about the Kingdom of Heaven–His tiny, rejected and despised church that continues to stand in spite of Satan and his followers’ attempts to destroy it.  Read the series titled Persecution using the title as the key word.  When Christ returns He will not be welcomed by the world’s masses.  Only His tiny church will greet Him.  The world and all of its religions, including the so-called Christian religion, will reject Him and fight against Him.  In Revelation 17:1-5 Satan’s one-world, government-controlling church is pictured as a Great Whore named Mystery Babylon (Catholicism) and her Harlot Daughters (Protestantism).

In the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus is speaking about the Church of God that began on the Day of Pentecost, 31 A.D. (Acts 2:1-4).  As the reader will see, there are different kinds of people in the Body of Christ today.  The parable of the 10 virgins (saints) reveals that not all who begin right with God remain right with Him.  However, most of them remain in the church.  In the parable, 5 of them stopped obeying Him but remained in the church and continued to go through the motions of obedience.  Outwardly they were no different from the 5 obedient virgins.  Inwardly, they had embraced the “truths” of Satan.  Such is the case within what is called “the church” today.  The difference between the parable and today’s reality is that the true virgin-false virgin ratio was 5 to 5.  Today it is more like 1 to 1,000,000.

In the next posting I will explain some “fine print” information relative to the parable of the sower.  God has much to teach us about the 4 different levels of “ground” preparation.  I suggest that you read the entire chapter before we begin searching out God’s “fine print.”  L.J.