Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him, Why do You speak in parables to them? 13:11 And He answered and sa
Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 35 THE UNVEILING OF THE KINGDOM’S MYSTERIES (1) Bible Verses: Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him, Why do You speak in parables to them? 13:11 And He answered and said to them, Because to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given. 13:15 For the heart of this people has become fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, lest they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and they turn around, and I will heal them.” 13:16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. [THE INWARD REALITY AND OUTWARD APPEARANCE OF THE KINGDOM] In this message we come to chapter thirteen of Matthew. In order to understand this chapter, we must keep in mind that Matthew is concerned with the doctrine of the kingdom. The basic point concerning the kingdom is the need to differentiate between the inward reality of the kingdom and the outward appearance of the kingdom. If you do not differentiate between these two things, you will not be able to understand this book concerning the kingdom of the heavens. In chapters five, six, and seven [where we see the reality of the kingdom] there is no falsehood; everything is pure, genuine, heavenly, spiritual, and, to a certain extent, divine. In these chapters we see the nature of the kingdom people and the influence they exert upon the world. They are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We also see the uplifted law of the kingdom people and the righteous deeds of the kingdom people. These deeds are pure, genuine, and real, performed in secret without any outward show. Furthermore, we see the attitude of the kingdom people toward material wealth and the fact that they have no anxiety regarding riches. Finally, we see the principle of the kingdom people in dealing with others and the ground of their living and work. In this section regarding the reality of the kingdom everything is real, pure, spiritual, and heavenly. The situation in chapter thirteen, the chapter concerned with the appearance of the kingdom, is altogether different. In this chapter we have the tares (vv. 25-30) and a great tree which is no longer according to its kind (vv. 31-32). In Genesis 1 God created everything, especially the plants and vegetables, according to its nature. But in Matthew 13 a mustard seed becomes a great tree. This indicates that it changes its nature, that it is no longer according to its nature. Therefore, in this chapter we see something of a façade, an appearance without reality. Along with the tares and the façade, there is also leaven (v. 33). All these things, found in the appearance of the kingdom, cause the appearance of the kingdom to be a mixture. [BEING IN THE BOAT WITH THE KING] Matthew 13:1 says, “On that day Jesus, going out of the house, sat beside the sea.” To most Christian teachers, this verse is insignificant. When I read this verse as a young man, it meant nothing to me. But now I realize that this verse is very meaningful. At the end of chapter twelve, the heavenly King, having been fully rejected by the Jewish leaders, made a break with them. On that day He went out of the house to sit beside the sea. This is very significant. The house signifies the house of Israel (10:6), and the sea signifies the Gentile world (Dan. 7:3, 17; Rev. 17:15). The King’s going out of the house to sit beside the sea signifies that after His break with the Jews, He forsook the house of Israel and turned to the Gentiles. It was after this that, on the seashore, He gave the parables concerning the mysteries of the kingdom. This signifies that the mysteries of the kingdom were revealed in the church. Hence, all the parables in this chapter were spoken to His disciples, not to the Jews. The first three words of chapter thirteen, “On that day,” join this chapter to chapter twelve. The words, “On that day,” refer to the day that the Lord declared that He had forsaken Israel, the day He cut off
Israel and grafted in the Gentile believers. On that day He went out of the house, signifying the house of Israel, to the sea, signifying the Gentile world. Verse 2 says, “He stepped into a boat to sit and all the crowd stood on the shore.” The boat, which was in the sea but not of the sea, signifies the church, which is in the world but not of the world. The sea is the Gentile world, and the boat is the church in the Gentile world. It was in the boat, in the church, that the King of the heavenly kingdom, after forsaking the Jews and turning to the Gentiles, revealed the mysteries of the kingdom in parables. Hallelujah, today we are neither the house nor the sea—we are the boat! We are the boat with the King. One day the King stepped into our boat. Now we have the King in our boat, the church. But the crowd stood on the shore. Are you standing on the shore, or are you in the boat with the King? I can testify that I am not standing on the seashore—I am in the boat. Verse 3 says, “And He spoke to them many things in parables.” He spoke these parables in the boat on the sea. Do you want to know the mysteries of the kingdom? If you do, then you must leave the house and not stand on the seashore, but get into the boat close to the Lord. This is the only place where we can understand the mysteries of the kingdom. Oh, we are in the church, in the boat! The church is neither the house of Israel nor the sea of the Gentiles; rather, it is the boat of the believers. In the church all the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to us. [BEING BLESSED TO SEE AND TO HEAR] . Verses 10 and 11 say, “And the disciples came and said to Him, Why are You speaking in parables to them? And He answered and said to them, Because to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given.” When the disciples asked the Lord why He spoke of the kingdom in parables, the Lord seemed to say, “In order to keep it from them and to let you know. Everything depends on you and on them, not on Me. Whether or not you can understand what I speak in parables depends on you.” Verse 15 says, “For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with the heart and turn around, and I will heal them.” The reason those in that stubborn generation could not understand lay in their heart, which had grown fat. Fat signifies the pride of having something. The heart of those in that stubborn generation was proud. That was the actual situation of the Pharisees. Because their heart had grown fat, their eyes and ears were affected. They could see, but not perceive; they could hear, but not understand. As a result, the mysteries of the kingdom meant nothing to them. All the parables were mysteries simply because of their pride. We must learn the first lesson given in the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (5:3). When we are poor in spirit, we have no pride in our heart. We are not proud of anything. Rather, we are unloaded, empty, and ready to receive something new from the Lord. We all need to prepare ourselves for what is revealed in this chapter. The Lord also said that His disciples were blessed. According to verse 9, they were blessed to have a hearing ear. Moreover, verses 16 and 17 say, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. Because of the situation of today’s Christianity, we all need to know this crucial chapter, a chapter that is even more crucial than chapters five, six, and seven. We need the enlightenment concerning this chapter in order not to be leavened, mislead, or corrupted. Read the verses and footnotes online: http://online.recoveryversion.bible/ Read the complete message online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm
Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 36 THE UNVEILING OF THE KINGDOM’S MYSTERIES (2) Bible Verses: Matthew 13:3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow. 13:4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the way, and the birds came and devoured them. 13:5 And others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much earth, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 13:6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered. 13:7 And others fell on the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them. 13:8 But others fell on the good earth and yielded fruit, one a hundredfold, and one sixtyfold, and one thirtyfold. [THE LORD JESUS COMING AS THE SOWER] When the Lord Jesus came, He came to do the preliminary work for the establishment of the kingdom. Throughout His human life, from His birth to His resurrection, the kingdom of the heavens still had not come. What He did in His life was a preparation for the establishment of the kingdom of the heavens. Verses 3 and 4 say that a sower went out to sow some seeds. In His preliminary work for the establishment of the kingdom of the heavens, the Lord Jesus came as a sower. Several times the Lord was called a teacher. But here He likens himself not to a teacher, but to a sower. The sower in verse 3 is the Lord Himself (v. 37). Actually, the Lord did not come to teach, but to sow the seed. What is this seed? It is the word of the kingdom with the King in it as life (v. 19). The seed is also the sons, the people, of the kingdom (v. 38). If we check with our experience, we shall realize that the seed sown by the Lord Jesus into our humanity is just Himself as life to make us the seed of the kingdom. Here three things are interrelated: the word of the kingdom, the sons of the kingdom, and Christ Himself as the life within the seed. These three cannot be separated. The word of the kingdom actually is Christ Himself as the word of life. This seed eventually produces the sons of the kingdom, who are the believers. Therefore, the seed refers to the word of the kingdom, to Christ Himself as life, and to us, the sons of the kingdom. By Christ’s being the living word of life sown into our being, we are made the sons of the kingdom. In this parable we see that Christ establishes the kingdom of the heavens not by fighting or teaching, but by sowing Himself as the seed of life into believing people so that the kingdom of the heavens may grow up. The establishment of the kingdom of the heavens is absolutely a matter of growth in life. To establish the kingdom is to grow the kingdom. [THE KINGDOM BEING A MATTER OF GROWTH IN LIFE] The kingdom is not established by outward working, but by inward growing. We need to emphasize this matter again and again. Because many Christian workers have not seen this, they still think that the church is built up by work and labor. But the church can be produced only by sowing Christ as the seed into humanity. This seed will grow within people and produce the church. The seed of life, Christ Himself in the word, sown into humanity will grow the church. The church is not produced by work; it is altogether produced by the growth in life. Therefore, the kingdom of the heavens is brought into being not by teaching or by working, but by sowing Christ as the living word of life into humanity. This seed will grow, and the life in it will produce the kingdom. If we see this vision, we would no longer trust in what we do because we would know that the kingdom is a matter of life, that the church is a matter of growth in the life seed sown into our humanity. Therefore, we would trust completely in the growth of life.
During the years I was with Brother Nee in China, I saw that he was not working; he was sowing Christ as a seed. He told me that Miss M. E. Barber did not come to China to work. She was in China sowing Christ, even sowing herself in Christ. She was a seed sown into that district in China. Eventually, something grew out of that seed. The Lord’s recovery today is the produce of the seed sown by Sister Barber and Brother Nee. Do not think that our working means very much. No, our working does not mean anything. If you study the Gospels again, you will see that the first Christian worker was Christ Himself. However, He did not work very much. Instead, He was sowing. [THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER] . The parable of the sower seems very simple, but it is actually deep and profound. It exposes the real condition of our heart in the presence of the heavenly King. Whatever is in us is exposed. This parable covers the hardness by the worldly traffic; the hidden lust, self, and flesh; and the anxiety of the age and deceitfulness of money. These are the wayside, the rocks, and the thorns. As long as you are either the wayside, the soil with hidden rocks, or the soil with thorns, the kingdom cannot grow in you. In other words, the church cannot grow in those types of soil. In order for the church to grow, the seed must fall on good earth. Verse 8 says, “And others fell on the good earth and gave fruit, some indeed a hundredfold, and some sixty, and some thirty.” The good earth signifies the good heart that is not hardened by worldly traffic, that is without hidden sins, and that is without the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches. Such a heart gives every inch of its ground to receive the word that the word may grow, bear fruit, and produce even a hundredfold (v. 23). The good heart is a heart which has no worldly traffic, no rocks, and no thorns. It has no hidden sins, selfishness, lust, or flesh and no anxiety of the age or deceitfulness of money. This kind of heart is truly pure to match the spirit. Such a heart is the good soil that grows Christ. Christ as the seed of life can grow only in this kind of heart, this kind of soil. This is the soil that can grow the kingdom. Although there are so many Christians, I wonder how many are the good earth. How many have no worldly traffic, no hidden sins, flesh, lusts, or self, and no anxiety or deceitfulness of money? How many are poor in spirit and pure in heart? It is very difficult to find such Christians. Although we may be surrounded with Christians, we rarely find one who is truly poor in spirit and pure in heart. How about you? Do you still have worldly traffic in your heart? Are you truly poor in spirit and pure in heart? Are there any hidden rocks deep within? What about the anxiety of this age and the deceitfulness of money? Although we must consider these questions, we should not be discouraged. Rather, we should be encouraged. Nothing can stop God’s economy. There will be at least some who are the good earth. The Lord is merciful. We might have had too much traffic, but the Lord saved us from the wayside and placed us in the center of the farmland. I know of many brothers and sisters in whom the Lord has dug out all the hidden things and uprooted all the thorns to make their heart the good earth. Praise the Lord for this! There is no doubt that among us a good many are the good earth, the good soil. The kingdom and the church are growing here. Here in the church life we are growing Christ, and we are growing the kingdom. Read the verses and footnotes online: http://online.recoveryversion.bible/ Read the complete message online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm
