In Matthew 13 we find Jesus proclaiming the “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” (vs 11) to “great multitudes” of people who have followed Him out of Capernaum and down to the Sea of Galilee where He had gotten into a boat and pushed out a short distance from the shore.  The people had gathered to hear Him speak.  He talked to them about the Kingdom of Heaven–the church He would soon establish in Jerusalem that would endure until His return to earth following His death and resurrection.  Instead of speaking to them plainly He used parables.  He began by telling them a story about a man who was sowing seeds on his land.  The symbolic “seeds” he sowed were “the words (Gospel) of the Kingdom Heaven” (vs 11,19).  He sowed the kingdom seeds in every part of his land.  The types of land represent the types of people who call themselves God’s people and are known globally as “the church.”

Some words fell by the wayside where the people heard them but did not believe them (vs 19).  Because the words lay on the ground unused, the birds quickly came and took them away.  At some point wayside people “join the church” because it is expected of them. Usually they join because other family members are in the church.  Wayside people have heard God’s Word but dismissed it, refusing to obey it.  Because they had performed the prescribed ritual and had “gotten saved,” they are declared to be “Christians.”  The most evil human I have ever known was declared by a local preacher to be a Christian because his name was on the church roll.  Though he never went to church after getting “saved” in his teens, and though he openly flaunted his woman-chasing ways, he was declared “heaven bound” when he died.

Stony ground people  (vss 5,6) are those who receive God’s words with joy and for a while obey them and bear religious fruit.  But because they have no inner strength to withstand the persecution that comes with believing and obeying God, they are offended and become “closet Christians.”  They “worship God in their own way,” which is acceptable because they have been “saved.”

Unlike stony ground people, thorny ground people (vs 7) continue to go through the motions required by the church but only on Sunday.  Initially they hear the sower’s words, received them with great joy and become very religious.  For a while they are among the most religious and zestful within the church.  But over time they begin to look back on the carnal joys of this world that continue to tug at their hearts.  Eventually their craving for the world overpowers their craving for more of God’s Truths (vs 22).  Though they remain in the church, often in positions of importance, their hearts are far from the sower’s words.  These are they who honor Jesus with their lips but their heart is far from Him.  These are those who call Him ‘Lord, Lord’ and do wonderful works in His name but do not obey Him.  Like the wayside and stony ground people, their worship is in vain (Mat. 15:9).

The good ground people hear the words of the kingdom, believe them and obey them.  These are the few, the Very Elect who continually judge their lives by the Holy Scriptures.  These are they who will rise in the first resurrection and rule and reign with Christ forever (Rev. 22.5).

Beginning in verse 24 Jesus tells the people another parable about the Kingdom of Heaven.  Here He likens the church to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while his hired men slept, an enemy came and sowed tares among the good seed.  When the plants grew to maturity the tares became visible.  The man who sowed the good seed is the Lord Jesus (vs 37).  The field is the world and the good seed are His obedient servants.  The tares are the servants of Satan.  The reapers are the angels (vs 38).  God’s people and Satan’s people will remain in the same field together until the end of the age when the angels will separate them and destroy Satan’s people with fire. (vs 40).  Those whom the angels will burn are church people who practice INIQUITY–break God’s Law (41).  1 John 3:4 tells us that “to transgress the Law is sin, for sin is the transgression of the Law.”  The good seed are those who obey God’s Ten Commandment Law, including commandment #4.  These are they who one day “WILL SHINE LIKE THE SUN IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD” (vs 43).  Those with ears to hear will hear.

Then Jesus put forth another parable of the Kingdom of Heaven (vs 44).  In this parable a man (Jesus) is searching for treasure (obedient saints).  These treasures (true believers) are they whom all false treasures (false believers ) reject and avoid.  When the treasure hunter found a true “treasure” he gave up everything he owned to buy the field.  Jesus gave His very life to pay for that field.  In verses 45 and 46 the same story is told using a different “treasure”–a goodly pearl which the man pays for with his life.  His treasures are “bought with a price,” therefore they are to glorify Him in everything they think, say and do (1 Cor. 6:20).  Note that the good seed, treasures and goodly pearls are mixed in with all other seed, treasures and pearls–church people.

Such is also the case of the fish (vss 47,48).  In the parable all fish–both good and bad–are together in the sea and will be netted together and brought to shore (to judgment) where the bad fish will be separated from the good fish and thrown away (vs 49).  Such is also the case with the good seed and the tares.  In verses 49 and 50 Jesus tells us that good and bad church people will remain together (be called “the church”) until the end of the age.  At that time the angels will separate God’s few righteous people from the masses of false believers.  They will then cast them into the lake of fire.  Scripture tells us that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In two of the parables Jesus prophesies that the Kingdom of Heaven will become large and filled with those who are not God’s people.  In verses 31 and 32 He likens the church to a mustard seed, which is the smallest of seeds.  His true church is comprised of the few (the remnant) who have looked for, found and entered His strait (difficult) gate and have walked His narrow (restricted) way ever since.  However, the mustard seed (church/Kingdom of Heaven) would eventually become a tree and would grow into a large tree.  “Birds” would build nests in its branches.  Those “birds” are false Christians who make up the vast majority of people in professing Christendom.  We all know what birds do to the trees in which they nest.  Like birds, false Christians defile the church by filling her with false “truths” such as those listed in the Introduction to this website.

Small portions of leaven placed in dough will affect the entire loaf, causing it to puff up and become much larger than its original size.  Christ’s parable of the leaven (vs 33) speaks to the way Satan’s people put forth their false, self-centered, heathen-originated doctrines and practices which attract others like themselves.  This makes the church much larger than it was designed to be.  God characterizes His church as small–the “few” who “find” His strait gate, “enter” it and “walk” His “narrow” path to His kingdom (Mat. 7:13,14).

In verses 53-58 we find a Truth that is hard to comprehend.  Following his sermon at the sea shore, Jesus returned to His home town (Capernaum) and taught the people in the local synagogue.  Those who had heard him speak and had seen Him perform miracles remarked that He had great “wisdom” and that He performed “mighty works” (vs 54).  In spite of this, “they were offended by Him!!” (vs 57).  Is it any wonder that He spoke to so many people in parables?

Nothing has changed.  Bible-toting, Scripture-quoting, cross-wearing people will admit that what is written in the Bible is true.  Then, having been introduced to God’s “fine print,” they will adamantly reject that most important part of His Truth and proclaim the rightness of their church doctrines which refute His Word.  Truly, “Satan has deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9).  L.J.