okay welcome class to lesson number eight um in the parables um so we're gonna we as you remember in the beginning we talked about how we were going to divide the parables just just for our study sake there's lots of different ways that you could approach the parables but for our purpose we first focused on the character of the king and then we focused on the character of the um the members of the kingdom the characteristics so what was it like to be a member of the um of the kingdom and what we're going to look at uh now is more like the character of the actual kingdom like what is the kingdom like what are some of the um principles that jesus taught about the kingdom to recognize the kingdom to understand life in the kingdom you know again so many times in the scriptures in the gospels we see jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven is near the kingdom of heaven is upon you that his purpose you know his purpose was to establish the beachhead for the kingdom by his death and resurrection so the kingdom principle is permeates the gospel accounts and jesus did specific teaching via the parables about the kingdom too so what i'd like us to think about are you have your outlines so our theme tonight is going to be that the kingdom is going to be like a mixed group it's going to look like a mixed group that i will go into more detail about that so first what i'd like us to do is just sort of think about i was thinking about this today like what did the world look like in the time that jesus is on the earth again we believe with all our hearts that in the fullness of time god sent forth his son from galatians that he was born at the exact perfect time in society that all of time a.d hinges on his appearance the word made flesh god with us god incarnate coming into the earth so that the time that he was in the earth was the the best possible time that he could have been born um and had his ministry um but let's let's think a little bit about what first century a.d was like so we know that um at the time of jesus's birth that israel is under rome's domination and they would always be reminded of that that would be something that during during jesus's earthly lifetime it would be a constant reminder it would be reminded by giving to caesar your taxes render indices are what belongs to seizures caesar um that the roman soldiers we see evidence of them in in jesus's ministry ministering to the centurion so the people the jews of that day knew what it was like to live under a world power who at the time of their um you know lifetime was wrong that would mean that they would control your government they would maybe give you some freedoms in terms of you know your religion but essentially they are always in power they are the ones who have the upper hand they have the army they have again ability to tax you they have the ability to really impact your life in a tremendous way and if you think back to the history of the jewish people their history they knew what it was like to be a free people they knew what it was like for when they had their own kingdom when they were had their kings king david solomon that people came from around to acknowledge if we think about during the reign of solomon you know he was the richest the mightiest the wisest of all kings during the time and place that he lived in so israel had a sense our history of rising to a great heights as a nation but they also had the experience of the great fall of going into captivity under babylon under the assyrians that they knew what it was like to be raised up they also knew what it was to be beat down they knew what it's like to be under the persians they knew what it was like to be under the greeks and again as we open up in the first century they are currently under rome so we know that you know just in terms of uh what was the expectation the jews believed that their messiah was coming to establish a kingdom and they had how could they not preconceive notions of what that kingdom would be like and it would be you know if we'd be remiss if we didn't just kind of try to put ourselves in their position to think you know if you're the underdog you know you're looking forward to that day when your army rises when your king overcomes when you no longer have to take you know uh the guff of the dominate dominant society that you are able to rise up in freedom and you're able to again say these things these limitations this world dominion be moved away and for you to be free so the jews had an expectation of what it would be like when the king came and again we know that from our new testament survey course that the bible school courses are built on each other um referring back to that that at the time of jesus we had a political you know group break off of judaism which was the zealots they were like let's overthrow the roman military power is what will do it um we know that different groups had different focuses but they were all and of an expectation that the messiah was going to put an end to all their worries and all their travails so now we have jesus appearing on the scene and he begins through his example of his life and from the word of god that he is sharing that this is not the kingdom that they expected you know this is not going to be what you think this is a kingdom that is of the spirit but it will have a physical manifestation but it starts in the spirit flows into the natural and will exist as kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall this kingdom will be without end it will be established and it will continue that's the most amazing thing think of us ourselves you know we uh those of us we live in the united states you know we we live in a nation and we live under you know a rule and reign a democracy um but we're all we are always members of the kingdom of god we always have that citizenship you know it's like we're dual citizens i like that you know we're ki members of the kingdom of god and we exist in a physical material location also but the kingdom of god what it looks like what it's like it's not governed by the the protocols of the world for lack of a better word the kingdom of god that's why jesus is teaching is so critical to change our thinking to change you know that word paradigm shift or what paradigm is like a way of thinking and interpreting things jesus's teaching is causing a total paradigm shift a different shift they're saying you know where's the messiah let's get behind him with our you know our clubs and our military might and he's talking about a kingdom that is going to be open to the the captors the romans that this is a kingdom that is so different so extraordinary so not planned to the jewish mind they have no way of comprehending it and as we read that in the beginning the first two classes we went through the scriptures where jesus said you know if you don't have an ear you're not going to be able to understand this this can only be comprehended with the heart it's not a mind comprehension that the things of god the kingdom of god has to be understood and revealed by the spirit and these teachings that we're going to go over tonight are going to be able to again show us some of the aspects of the kingdom it's not exhaustive but it's going to give us some insight to different ways of thinking so what jesus is doing is trying to break that thinking about what is it like to live under a king and in a kingdom like again we have our own views of that what we're familiar with what we see in the natural but he's talking about something that is going to be so radically different that again we're going to have to be shipped in our change and again we always go back to the fact that entrance into the kingdom is by the spirit and the holy spirit is there to accompany us on the transforming of our minds and lives to be better fit for the kingdom and that's exactly what the holy spirit his his ministry is all about in our individual lives changing us transforming us so that we can live in the kingdom in this earth at this time but for the kingdom that is to continuously will be revealed and will be the final kingdom that stands so you know i always look at it this way in my life i've accomplished the most important thing that i could ever accomplish i'm in the kingdom there was nothing more important than that in the again if you really understand scripture if you really look to it you will understand that there is nothing more important that than what you did when you again receive jesus christ as your personal lord and savior and the spirit of god brought you to life and that's why the most important thing that we can do in our lives is to draw others into the kingdom there is nothing more important than that um that doesn't take you know we have families we have a school each one of us has a scope of influence that we can be touching people in your workplace in your church wherever it is we have that ability to draw men into the kingdom of god and that was always the way it was attended first of all the most important thing probably that's so radically different in the kingdom of god is that again the open access to everyone no matter what your background is no matter where you come from that the kingdom is for all men that is sounds like a beautiful simple little truth it is radical in its application in real life right so again we want to think we want to break the world's view not not only first century a.d but even our own worldview breaking that worldview to understand what it means to live in the kingdom of god and we're going to start actually we're going to look at the the wheat and the tares we're going to be looking at the parable in matthew chapter 13 and again this is in your outline and it says here on the same day jesus went out of his house and sat by the sea and a great multitude had gathered and he go he goes on actually we're not going to spend so much time but he actually that we're going to be looking at the wheat and the tears this chapter also has the parable of this parable of the seed in the sower and also explaining why he's teaching in parables so i challenge you to go back to chapter 13 we've been in this chapter before as our first foundational parable of the explanation of this uh sower and the seed but again go back and take a look at that so we're going to pick up in verse 24. and it's another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field but when men slept excuse me but women stepped his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat those were like weeds tears or weeds and went his way but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop then then the tares also appeared so the servants of the owner came and said to him sir did you not sow good seed in your field how then does it have tears he said to them an enemy has done this the servant said to him do you want us then to go and gather them up but he said no that's why you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of the harvest i will say to the reapers first gather together the tears and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn so he's going on this particular portion he's going to go i'm actually going to jump to verse 36 in that chapter because here he's explaining and we always like to see when jesus explains things he lays down principles or images that we're going to carry through in our interpretation of the parables so in verse 36 then jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying explain to us the parable of the tares in the field so they're saying like we're not really sure what that means that parable he answered and said to them he who sows the good seed is the son of man so what is he saying in this parable he's telling you the person sowing is him is himself okay who he sows the seed is the son of man now think about that the parable of the sower it didn't define that it was the son of man or jesus it was like whoever preached the word this the person sowing it wasn't identified the soil was the important thing um the you know the various responses but it was like wherever the word was so but in this particular parable jesus is saying that person represents me he who sows the good seed is the son of man what do we say there that means the good seed is the person who comes to true saving knowledge of jesus christ it can only be done by god in other words you can't convert somebody it doesn't happen through your intellect there's no family tree the only way to come to salvation to be a good seed is to have received it by god so that's principle is being laid down here the field is the world and that's always consistent in the parables where everybody's mentioning a field it's almost like the whole wide world and what i want you to think about that that world includes the church so the field think about it as the whole world it means the world systems so that includes government finance secular areas all those parts of entertainment for our purposes even in the society that we live in which has a lot of influence so the world includes the church is there but it's more it's all of the different world systems that are impacting people again the world system that's important to know so the field is the world the good seas are the sons of the kingdom but the tares are the sons of the wicked one the enemy who sows them is the devil and the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so we will be at the end of the age so this is also considered you know an end times parable too saying what's going to happen at the end what he's talking about here in the parable is that in the field he says the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed seed in the field but when men slept the enemy came so we have the true church the true believers but in the field too we have others who maybe you're not you know again this this comes down to what we say like even like you could we could look at this and take it another step we could say the institutional church like everybody says they're a christian in this country like lots of people is everyone having a personal salvation via jesus christ so even in the institutional church you can have the sowing of tares meaning they're people who are not christians who are not true believers mixed in there so that's the scene that he's setting it's that there are the true those are the seeds that he has sown those are those who have come through him i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me the only way is through him so we say that's the good seed but there's some other seed out there that's sowed by the devil that could be cults that could be deception even people who think you know they are you know good people but they are not in a personal intimate saving relationship with via jesus christ um what does he say to do about that we look around us we want to say well who's in and who's out that's no you know we talk about one of the things i think i always reflect on in the parables it's like you know and and i have to be honest i you know it's like your thought goes there about the fairness thing like how you know we talk about the parable where jesus rewards them all the same it's like oh is that fair we think about the prodigal son and the son who stayed home you know is that fair we have to probe deeper because jesus is revealing to us certain principles that have to break our thinking have to transform or shift our paradigm um to think of things the way he sees things so what is he saying here yeah there are tares the enemy is sewing people in the field meaning in the world and that can include again the institutional church um that we have here in the united states or wherever else in the world but what does he say to do he says don't disrupt them we might say well i want to say that this um particular you know we have to rip up and punish and destroy you know this particular group's occult this uh you know even people can come on a personal basis where someone says you know i don't really know if this person is saved this is clearly a message to us to say it's not your place you don't know that when they when weeds anyone of you who like i love gardening one of the things that i'm always amazed at when i plant something and a weed comes up the weed will look like the flower and i'm like you know i just found that fascinating because it's like and again i'm like again being being a gardener you become a wheat expert and many times people say i don't know if i should pull that up is that a flower is that a weed because the weed that grows near the flower or the plant take it is something that at first you're not it's not going to be so radically different it looks similar which is amazing like a principle of nature so but what do you do again in gardening you're going to pull that lead because you become knowledgeable but in the kingdom of god no pulling of the weed that's not for you to do you don't let them grow together because it says if you gather up the tears you uproot the wheat with them meaning you don't have the ability to discern the wheat and the terror and this is the area of judgment we know is part of you know the gospel message judge not least you be judged like we're not a righteous judge as god is so he says leave it to me i'll make the decision he will make the decision he'll give the instructions as to how to separate out because if you sometimes you go in like a you know like the bull in the china shop you're pulling up things you're damaging potentially those new wheat plants so again to protect the good you he's he's his advising and giving direction do not go berserk ripping up the tails let it go it's very clear here let them go and at the time of harvest now what does harvest mean harvest is actually talking about the end of the age at the time at the end i will do the separation i will do that um you know again we know that we looking outwardly again that's the whole point of like you know the weeds growing up in around plants they have initially a similar look until they start growing and then they become clear so it's the same thing again in the kingdom of god you may be shoulder to shoulder with people who you believe you think are christians or whatever or have the same belief as you but as time goes on you see that that's not the case is it your job to gather them up or burn them no your job is to just make note get your distance or again to know the truth yourself and to make sure you know that you're in the faith that you know that you're walking after god that even the key that what we see of the church in the earth is going to be a mixed group that's part of this message too you know and again i don't that doesn't mean and i you know from the past uh pastor demoli used to talk about fruit inspectors we're not called to be food inspectors right we're called to bear fruit but not to be inspecting somebody else's fruit so you know don't give in to that temptation but realize that there you can be around people who look very similar to you but the bottom line is it's god is making the final judgment to know what that final outcome is going to be um don't expect this is another thing for us not to accept what we see here um don't expect the world to be part of the kingdom of god the kingdom of god is not it doesn't look it's not going to be the same as the world system it is a whole different whole different thing that's what we have to change our thinking i'm just going to jump back to that section um starting in verse 36 where jesus is described and teaching his his disciples what the parable means he goes therefore at 40 as in the as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so it will be at the end of this age the son of man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father he has ears to hear let him hear so what does he like what is he alluding to here he goes they will gather out of his kingdom meaning he's saying his kingdom meaning this is a again a mixed group but what is he going to do he's going to purify and bring forth those who um who are true the true members of the kingdom of god there will be and and again i think what's hard for us to look at at this which is we want to skip this sometimes is that there's really a health there's a weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth that there is going to be a judgment um and that's why sometimes for us we don't you know we always have that kind of um and this you know the hell we don't want to go into what we call the hellfire and brimstone because you know it's not appealing when you're sharing it doesn't make you open-minded this is the principle that jesus lays down there will be a day of reckoning there will be a day of separation and it's under his counsel his decision his judgment as king of the kingdom and there will be a separation and there will be those who are going into eternal suffering and those who will be righteous and shining forth as the son in the kingdom of their father and that's a beautiful thing to aspire to i want to shine forth in the kingdom of my father that's my life goal to shine forth to be a light to be able to gain entrance into that kingdom having walked in it in this earth that i walk into eternity in the kingdom of god so again only god can separate the true from the false it's not for us to do and that is really clearly the message here that there will be a mixed group but it's not for us to choose and to make that difference okay now the next uh parable we're going to look at is the parable which is just going to be a little bit further down actually 13 31 and that's the parable of the mustard seed and it's interesting jesus these parables again you know i mentioned to you um matthew tended in his writings to group things together for a teaching purpose like a rabbinical jewish perspective so these parables are listed it doesn't necessarily mean that he taught them all one by one it just means that for the purpose of this gospel account they're grouped together um so but the parable the mustard seed let's talk about that a little bit so jesus actually he he likes the mustard seed that's it's actually an image that he uses several times he says if you would have faith the size of a mustard seed um and again and then i i also like this is this is probably one of the you know greatest questions when the apostles say like how often do we forgive someone seven times and he says uh you know and them saying seven times was like you know i think in the jewish tradition it was like twice one two or three times and you're out maybe that's where we got that from baseball but the the disciples of jesus are saying do if we forgive him seven times and they're thinking wow aren't we all that and jesus turns around and says no seven you know seven times seventy like you know no this forgiveness is if you are to if you're uh flowing in the nature of god forgiveness is consistent and ongoing you just forgive because that is the nature of god the nature of the father so he mentioned and so then they go on to say how do we do that he says if you have again the faith the size of a mustard seed for this forgiveness takes faith and faith has to start even if it starts with something small the mustard seed is the smallest seed and i'm sure like and those of you who went to vacation bible school i didn't have that advantage growing up but um you know there's always a little uh project that you do in in the children's ministry with the tiniest tiniest little seed and you see that it's like faith the size of mustard seed and again it's considered that seed is considered the word of faith that faith planted can bring forth such fruit so let's look at the parable of the mustard seed it says another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like i just want to reiterate you'll see him interchangeably saying the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of god the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of god um for our purpose we're not separating that out so i've seen people you know kind of separate them differently but for our purposes we're not going to do that kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and so did his field and again what is the field the field is always going to be the world he sews it in the field which indeed is the least of all the seeds meaning it's the most humble it's the smallest of all the seeds but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree so that all the birds of the air come and rest and nest in its branches so again what is that seed that seed represents that word of faith that smallness and you know think about this the nature of jesus just his how how he even defines himself i am meek and lowly you know you see the seed also to me it represents that humbleness of jesus something that is so small um to start with like something that has such a small beginning could grow and that's the truth because actually you know if you look at the thing that's interesting about the mustard seed again it's the least of all of them but it actually can grow between six to twenty feet high have a 20 foot spread you know it could actually even reach up to 30 feet high that's how so when you look at it it starts so tiny but it has the ability and i think the thing about that that's noted about the mustard seed is that it oversteps its boundaries it's like some you know things grow and they have a certain like size and they kind of conform to that and most trees like you know if you're planting things you know you know pretty much what it's going to grow to the the the mustard seed is like unpredictable it overtakes its boundaries it could be like i said either this big or that big it has the potential to grow and break through what boundaries are usually expectations so i like to think of it that way that the mustard seed the plant as it grows can break every expectation every boundary that's set to limit it it breaks through it starts out so humbly so small but it has the ability and that's what he's saying about the kingdom of heaven starting out so humbly with a a crucified king you know in the days of jesus you know again here he was crucified people say how could you be following a crucified king he was crucified and rose and began the newness of life the establishment of the kingdom you got to know the whole story but again that was the thing when people didn't know and they were sharing the gospel in the early church things like how could you know he's how humble could you be that he's crucified that you know he's gone that he's but no he rose again that's the whole for the purpose that he came to give his life as a ransom to establish to destroy the works of the enemy and establish the kingdom of god on the earth so that small beginning that humble submitting himself to death the ultimate humiliation humbleness started a kingdom that could break through every boundary and if you think about it even throughout this whole world as we stand like even at this moment in time you know we are we are abiding we're living in the united states we're at a time of transition you know of our own country and throughout the whole world there are christians and believers the kingdom has permeated every culture every nation um it's not limited by a boundary like we're limited you know we have canada here we have mexico here we have the oceans on either side but there's usually kingdoms have boundaries you know rome always that was their thing to try to break the boundaries of the civilization so that they would encompass every known culture but men can attempt to do that but only the kingdom of god can be that kingdom without end without boundaries able to grow so the image of the mustard seed is perfect for the kingdom of god um again the least of all the seeds something so small can show such amazing growth that's the parable of the kingdom now it's interesting here it says it's grows it's greater than any herb and it becomes actually a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches it's a little bit like you'd like to kind of leave that piece out but we will not do that because we're people of the word of god and we study the words so what do those birds represent so here we have the mustard seed it grows into a tree it's broken through all its boundaries and expectations and as it's done that as it becomes a tree it says then once it's grown and maybe you know wow something to behold the birds of the air come and nest in its branches now think about back to our parable of the sower in matthew what did the bird represent the evil one we're going to take that same application to this parable too so the birds in the branch that come in nest show the infiltration of satan attempting to infiltrate the kingdom or the organization the organizational church so again as great as the growth of the mustard seed there's that warning there will be an infiltration don't think it's strange you know and i think that that's something you know when i think of you know i reflect back on on being first being a christian um you know i think we all have that that bad feel of like you know you you think you know you want everything to be perfect you don't want to be disappointed um and seeing things close up and realizing everything is not perfect in the kingdom because you come into the kingdom of god so like wow with it that when you start to see weaknesses in people or somebody who uh betrays or whatever you could become so like disappointed but this parable is teaching us like don't be surprised that there will be an infiltration and don't let that get you off course like again what you're prepared for you won't think it's strange you won't let it like somebody say you know like you know i remember talking to people you know uh over the years saying you know i used to go to church i sweep then i saw the hypocrisy of this person or that you know and now i'm not even serving god like how did you let that evil that bird in the tree take you down i'm just going to be honest that's exactly what it is you've allowed instead of being wise enough to say well you know what jesus warned us about this that even though the kingdom would grow and be blessed and full of faith all of that there is still going to be an attempt for the enemy to infiltrate until that final ending and ruling and reigning where jesus puts everything under his feet until that time the enemy is still going to try to infiltrate so don't be surprised and don't let that move you at all in terms of where where are you going um so again thinking of the mustard seed again we talked about the fact that the birds represent satan trying to infiltrate but again the humble beginning of the kingdom of god will to continue to grow and to spread um the power of the kingdom the demonstration of the kingdom in this world um the next parable we're going to take a look at let's look at we're going to still we're going to continue in 13 and we're going to look at verse 47. we're going to stay in matthew and maybe have time to go into luke for another parable um here's a parable that's called in 13 verse 47 and again this is in your outline it's the parable of the net it's called actually sometimes it's called the dragnet you know the net efficient now think about this you know we were talking about you know the parables are always going to be based on things that are very familiar to the people so the mustard seed was familiar to uh first century israel they were very you know aware they used that spice that was very something that they were very aware of weed and tears agriculture it's an agricultural society so they were comfortable and they were uh aware and familiar with the wheat and the tears and planting and being part of an agricultural society now the parable of the dragnet or the fishnet think about jesus's first followers they were fishermen so being a fisherman and having a net would be something that would be very familiar uh to the people of the time so let's start there we're going to start in verse 47 in chapter 13 of matthew and it says again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind every kind of what fish maybe it has some coral whatever but it when you take a net it's pretty indiscriminate you're going to the whole ocean you're dropping the net and then you begin to drag it to pull in your catch which when it was full they drew to the shore and they sat down and gathered the good into the vessels but through the bad away so it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth again mentioning he's repeating this theme about the angels which i find really interesting being involved at the end of the age being there in terms of almost like ministering the separation of the good and the bad he goes so it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth and then jesus said to them do you understand all these things and they said yes and then he said to them therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old so he's commending them he's actually saying like are you getting all this and they're like yeah they're getting it because he's interpreted a few of the parables for them um they're under starting to really get an understanding and he commends them he basically says you're like a scribe which was again a scribe in uh jewish tradition was the person who you know documented taught they had like they had an important ministry he's saying well you're you're you're there for every scribe and struck to concern the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things old and new so we say you know think about the kingdom we're pulling out the old things and we're adding and there's new things to both things new teachings um maybe old laws old scriptures but also new teachings because he's acknowledging what he's teaching them is new and different radically different to be a jew you know you you got into the you know their assumptions you get into the kingdom by your lineage this is what he's presenting is something so different so let's go back the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea so the sea in this place the vastness of the sea is like the field the image of the of the neck being cast and the net is usually an illusion not a excuse me an illustration of the church so what is it here's the whole sea just like we talked to the parallel is to the field you take this net which is the king you know the kingdom of god the sharing of the good news the gospel you throw it into the whole of the sea and then when you gather it up what do you bring in to the kingdom of god so what are they saying here he takes um we know that the uh that again the net is representing the boundary of those who are responding to the gospel um and but it goes on here and he says you know and cast me to the first we says to them they sat down and gathered the goodness of the vessel but threw the bed away so it will be at the end of the age angels will come forth and separate them so what is he saying he's saying leave it to do the separation that there will be though in this neck meaning the call of the gospel mixed some good some bad some long-lasting they'll they'll be clearly established in the kingdom of god and then some not so much so not really so much at all um so again but just back the to the imagery the sea represents all the people of the earth and again i really want to um really underline how radical this was that jesus was talking about a kingdom that represented all people it wasn't a kingdom like anything else that had previously existed you know again it's a kingdom that has every language every culture every age all men so again c represents all those people the net again represents the boundary for those who are responding to the gospel so as they're throwing out their nets this is like the call of the gospel that they're throwing out and again it talks about this fish remaining together so first when they're pulling that net in until they don't separate it until they come to the short and that's talking about like towards the end time and that's the image of the image that jesus gives so the good and the bad are together not their role until a certain appointed time to do that separation so again it's the reminder that we can't separate the good and the bad it's something that has to be left to god's timing and god's direction and again they must be taken together god will do the separation okay we're gonna have time to look at one more parable i'm gonna turn into the gospel of uh luke luke chapter 13. and um this is this is an interesting parable too sometimes i've read different commentaries describe it differently we're going to take the view of consistency in scripture okay so luke chapter 13 in verse 20. it's a short one actually it's the parable of the leaven and i think it's interesting some of the parables are long some of them are just like a phrase this one is pretty short um and he says to them and again he said to watch shall i liken the kingdom of god it is like lemon which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all leavened it's interesting so again if you look in luke which is more about chronological order the parable of the leaven is in luke but if you look here the parable right before it is the mustard seed and again the gospel of luke set a goal one of its goals stated in the beginning was to set things in chronological order so probably these were ministered at the same time and again when you see jesus repeating a theme he's you know what we just learned in the mustard seed now we're going to take a look at how does that impact the 11 um so the parabola of 11 what is 11 11 is something that um it spreads and let's before we even go further when we think about the 11 when we've heard it in the gospel it counts before it's actually usually been in a negative way the 11 of the pharisees the 11 of false teaching so um we're going to go with that because i think that's most consistently what we see um again i've seen teachings that we'll talk about that the lemon could mean the holy spirit infiltrating into a person's life or infiltrating it to the church um we're just that we're not going to go there but i just want you to know that as a bible school student you read different commentaries you'll see different things for our purposes in studying this we're looking at it in the context of these other parables and the teaching that was going on at that time so 11. we're looking at it in terms of lemon is something you and you put it into bread and it permeates has a great effect um it and it's almost like secret you know when you put you know when you think about it at the jewish holidays they eat on like matzah is unleavened bread meaning there's no lemon in it so it's flat but when you put lemon and bread what happens it puffs up um you can't separate one thing from the other it becomes totally um intertwined integrated as one so as the loaf rises with lemon in it you can't see what 11 is and you can't see where the the grain is they're totally in together um and again lemon has a great effect it totally changes the look of a flat mozza to a beautiful loaf of bread totally different um what does lemon also bring it has an aroma lemon brings like a sweet um a sweet smell it's something that again so when we look at it and it says here the woman takes it and says to whom shall i like and it's like 11 which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was old and again the idea of hiding kind of like you know using that word the woman takes they're all familiar with bread they're all familiar with unleavened bread and like you know whatever so she takes it and she hides it and again the point here is that lemon changes the flour or meal whatever it is that you're using to bake once you introduce lemon it can't be separated they become one and they become again in a sense if you want to use the word larger more puffed up whatever it is um so those references so again it's your choice that's from something for you to study the word of god but my when i look at this following the parable of the mustard seed where we see the birds in the nest to me when i look at this parable 11 my interpretation i see this as the 11 being something infiltrating into the kingdom being mixed in so that you can't tell the difference which is consistent with the teachings that jesus gave about the wheat and the tares um that the dragnet you can't separate them that this and again it's a consistent theme that the character of the kingdom will be like a mixed group that will be a mixing in that you don't have as a bystander or even as a member of the kingdom the ability to discern that it's something for god to make that final judgment um and i think you know when you go further on in this teaching of luke jesus goes on because we said his teaching was not just parables but discourses signs and wonders um and he went on throughout the cities and villages teaching and journeying towards jerusalem and once said to him lord are there few who are saved you know that's what they're sort of like asking after this kind of teaching and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i say to you will seek to enter will not be able to when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock saying lord lord open for us and he will answer and say to you i don't know you this goes back to again one of our other teachers so if you put this in the context he's saying yeah you can get into the kingdom but everybody who's saying lord lord is not of the kingdom that is for him to discern and separate out that is his position that he will take in the kingdom of god so actually we got through all the parables the wheat and the tares the mustard seed the parable of the leaven and the parable of the net and again the theme was that the kingdom that the world will have a mixed group and that final separation is something that is left up to god his decision so let's just end there father we just thank you for your word lord it always encourages us it feeds us lord god in life and it shifts and changes our thinking so that we're able to see and understand what the kingdom is like and to seek after greater understanding of that we thank you for the ministry of your holy spirit imparting that to us in jesus name amen see you next week