Read Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-25 and Luke 8:4-18. Our Lord did much of His teaching using parables. A parable is a story that has a spiritual application or truth in it. There are many opinions on how one should interpret the parables. On the one hand, some suggest that we should assign every character or object in the parable a specific meaning and carry this meaning over into those other parables with the same character or objects. On the other hand, others suggest that such a process of interpretation is dangerous and misleading. One should take only the general lesson from each parable as suggested by the context. The best approach seems to be somewhere in between. Obviously, from the parable of the soils, our Lord intended various characters and objects to represent certain things. It would also seem that sometimes at least, these meanings do carry over into other parables. To insist, however, that every detail of the parable must have a spiritual application or counterpart seems to be forcing the parable beyond its intended purpose. It also appears that, while some similar representations are found in several parables, to insist that the items in one are always carried over into every other parable is artificial.
1. Did Jesus use parables to make spiritual truth clear to everyone? Explain.
Without a doubt, He intended them to help those who believed to understand more clearly spiritual truths; however, He also used them to hide spiritual truth from those who would not believe.
2. List the four types of soil given in this first parable, and in your own words, tell what kind of person it represents.
a. Soil by the roadside - This is a hard person, one who never even considers the truth of God. Such a person is clearly lost.
b. Rocky, shallow soil - This represents a person who hears the Word and initially accepts it as true, but when pressure comes, no fruit is ever seen. If the fruit represents true faith, then this represents an almost persuaded person, one who has accepted the facts as true but who never came to rely upon this truth. This person would be lost. If the sprouting of the seed represents faith, this picture represents a person who has come to believe but later drifts away due to pressure.
c. Weedy soil - This is a person who hears the word and initially accepts it as true, but other things in life crowd it out, and it dies. If the fruit represents true faith, then this represents an almost persuaded person, one who has accepted the facts as true but who never came to rely upon this truth. This person would be lost. If the sprouting of the seed represents faith, then this picture represents a person who has come to believe but later drifts away due to competition from other things
d. Good soil - This person hears it, accepts it as true, comes to trust in it. This person grows and bears fruit. This person is obviously saved.
3. What do you think Jesus means when He says:
a. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” a phrase also used by our Lord in several other places) and
Those who have the spiritual capacity to understand (believers), let them listen and learn.
b. “Take care how you hear; for whoever has, more will be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken from him.”?
If you have the spiritual capacity to understand and act upon what you know, you will get more understanding; if you reject what little truth you have, even that will be taken from you.
Read Matthew 13:24-53 and Mark 4:26-34. Jesus probably taught many parables, some of which are recorded for us and some of which are not. Matthew, in addition to the parable of the soils, records six others for us. Mark records two others, one in common with Matthew.
4. Summarize, in your own words, what you think each of the following parables is saying:
a. Wheat/weeds (Matthew 13:24-30)
Believers and unbelievers will exist side by side in the Kingdom. Too difficult to tell apart in the beginning, they will be separated at the final judgment.
b. Mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32 and Mark 4:30-32)
The Kingdom starts small but ends up large, including all kinds of people, good and bad.
c. Leaven (Matthew 13:33)
Sin starts out small but finally spreads throughout the whole Kingdom by its end.
d. Treasure in a field (Matthew 13:44)
The Kingdom is so valuable that it is worth all you have to gain it.
e. Valuable pearl (Matthew 13:45-46)
The Kingdom is so valuable that it is worth all you have to gain it.
f. Dragnet (Matthew 13:47-50)
The good will be separated from the bad at the end of the Kingdom.
g. Sowing/harvest (Mark 4:26-29)g. Sowing/harvest (Mark 4:26-29)
The Kingdom is spread by the word of God until the time of the final judgment.
The Applications:
What are the applications of these passages to our lives today? Identify as many as you are able.
1. People still react the same way to the Word of God in our day as they did in our Lord’s day. There is a vast number of people who will not even listen to the message of God’s Word or who, upon hearing the message, refuse to even consider it. There are others who do consider it, and who may even accept the truth of the message, but who drift away either from the pressure of opposition of the world or the pressure from the competition from the world without ever really coming to that point where they put their trust in it. A smaller group hears, believes, grows in their faith and produces fruit.
Believers too may be drawn away from the Word by either persecution from without or from within from the desire of the things of the world.
2. Although the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven all have reference to the Kingdom, that is, the glorious 1000 year reign of our Lord upon the earth, they do have applications for us living today as well.
At the very beginning of the Kingdom, there are no unredeemed people, for only those who looked for the true King are allowed to enter it. All others are judged and sent away into judgment (The sheep and goat judgment). However, those who have passed through the tribulation and entered the kingdom while redeemed are not perfect. They still have the old human nature. The kingdom then, in the beginning, while composed of the redeemed, only still contains a little sin. For 1000 years, humanity will flourish, multiply and repopulate the earth. The children of the original population, their children and so on must all make the decision to accept the King of kings as their own sovereign and savior or not. Not all will; little by little, unbelievers will increase with the result that, by the Kingdom’s end, the greater majority will rebel and follow that great deceiver who will be released at that time.
This principle or pattern also applies today. A great beginning does not ensure a good finish. This principle works in nations—our own is a good example—and smaller groups such as organizations, schools, churches and denominations and even in us as believers. Sin, ever-present in our old nature, spreads and multiplies with the result that what started as a wonderful work of God ends up in rebellion against Him.
3. The parables of the treasure in a field and the valuable pearl also have reference first to the kingdom and then to us today as well. The coming Kingdom is so valuable it outweighs all else we possess. Those living in the time of the tribulation will recognize this, and many, if not most, will give all they possess and their own lives to gain it. Others will keep their possessions and their lives but forfeit the Kingdom and the life eternal that comes with it.
The question should be asked of us today as well. How much value do we place upon the coming Kingdom and eternity after that? How much of our own possessions are we willing to give for it? Do we seek its establishment? Do we pray for it to come as our Lord instructed us to do when He taught His disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come?” Or are we more satisfied with our lives now in the age in which we live?