Kingdom Parables, Part 1

And so in chapter 13 you have a series of eight parables. And in those parables, Jesus describes the interim period.

We're in that period, and that is what makes this so profound for us. Because if we can understand what Jesus says about this period, then we can understand how to be about doing what He wants done in this period. When the Bible says the kingdom of heaven is at hand, what exactly does that mean?

Is it simply a reference to what happens after life on earth, or is it another way of describing the second coming of Christ? Well, Jesus was anything but unclear about His kingdom, and today on Grace to You, John MacArthur begins a series that unfolds some of Jesus' most powerful descriptions of His kingdom, descriptions that He gave in the form of short stories called parables. John calls his series, The Parables of the Kingdom. Now let me start by asking you, John, what is so important about these particular parables that you've chosen for this study? And how can that person who's listening expect to benefit from what we're about to hear? Well, the parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 are tools by which Jesus taught the disciples what to expect when they went out and preached the gospel.

So we're still in that same age. They basically describe how the gospel will go forth and be received and what it'll produce in the church age. It's all there. So to understand the time in which we minister, the time in which the disciples ministered, Jesus taught parables that essentially said, expect this, expect this, expect this. And the dominating expectation is that the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, will be mixed.

In other words, it'll have wheat and tares, it'll be like a big net that drags in everything, and it's going to be impossible for you to always distinguish, but that'll all come out in judgment. So having been trained by the Lord, the disciples didn't rush into the world thinking that there was going to be this amazing wide acceptance of the gospel. The Lord basically said, it's not going to be like that.

It's not going to be like that. He even talked about persecution. He even talked about the fact that they would understand things that nobody else would understand because the Lord revealed it to babes and not to the wise. So the parables of Matthew 13 give us insight into what to expect when we evangelize during this church age.

Really very, very instructive. The sower and the soils, the mustard seed, the pearl of great price, the wheat and the tares, and three more parables help us to understand the world in which the Lord calls us to proclaim his gospel. Right, and friend, the parables are some of the most treasured passages in Scripture, and yet they're often misunderstood. To see clearly why Jesus told these timeless stories and how you can apply their lessons to your life, don't miss a day of this series. So listen along now as John starts his study called the parables of the kingdom. Now the marvelous 13th chapter of Matthew marks a new division in Matthew's gospel. It is a very clear point of beginning, a new train of thought. It opens us to a new perspective in our Lord's ministry.

Let me see if I can set that in your mind. Matthew's gospel is geared primarily to present Jesus Christ as the King, the Son of God, the Messiah, the rightful heir to David's throne. And it began in chapter 1 by showing him as the one who should reign because he was in the messianic line.

He is indeed the son of David. In chapter 2, his right to reign was affirmed by the oriental king makers that we know as the wise men or the magi, who in their own understanding of prophecy and through the direction of the Spirit of God were led to confirm that this was the king. That is affirmed again in chapter 3 by the testimony of John the Baptist who was the foreordained forerunner to the king. Then in chapter 4, the king again was attested to by his conflict with Satan. And the very fact that Jesus overpowered Satan conquering the kingdom of darkness was a clear testimony to the fact that he was God's chosen anointed king. For only God's king could overcome Satan. Having then affirmed in a positive way in chapters 1 to 3 and a negative way in chapter 4 that Jesus is the king, he speaks then with authority in chapters 5, 6, and 7.

He speaks as a king. And you have the principles of his kingdom in chapters 5, 6, and 7 in that great Sermon on the Mount. Then in chapters 8 to 10, you find the credentials of the king. And there are his miracles, three chapters full of miracles.

They are the prophesied credentials. As again and again he proves himself to be the king in his supernatural power. And running parallel with his credentials in chapters 8, 9, and 10 is a mounting ascending rejection.

It's a very strange situation. The greater the evidence that he is the king, the greater the rejection which shows the profound blindness of the people. Finally you come to chapter 11 and Jesus denounces the sinful nation of Israel for rejecting him. And he promises them severe judgment. Then closes chapter 11 with an invitation.

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. So out of the message of judgment comes again the message of grace and invitation. And then when you come to chapter 12, rejection reaches its climax and the pronouncement of judgment reaches its climax as well. Their final rejection is summed up in the fact that they accused Jesus of being satanic. And Jesus then pronounces a final judgment on the leaders and says you're beyond the point of being forgiven.

But even chapter 12 closes with another invitation. Verse 50, For whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother. And what was the will of the Father in heaven? Very clearly the Father had said, This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him.

And whoever recognized Jesus as the Son of God and whoever heard His message would come into an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. So Christ has been proven to be the King. The people have rejected Him as the King. He has pronounced judgment on them and yet offers an invitation to whoever will believe.

So as you approach chapter 13, the die is cast. Israel has rejected the King. Israel therefore has rejected the Kingdom because you cannot separate the Kingdom from the King. For centuries they had awaited the Messiah. For centuries they had awaited the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth. They had awaited the times of refreshing, the restoration, the granting back of the glory and the blessing that was man's before the fall. And when it was offered to them, they refused it and they lost it in that generation.

And so as you approach chapter 13, you enter a new dimension, a new perspective in the ministry of Christ. Stanley Toussaint in his commentary on Matthew says, not seeing the Messiahship of Jesus in His words and works, they have separated the fruit from the tree. And I think that an important statement because it is not that they denied His miracles. It is not that they were not fascinated by His words. It is not that they were not aware of His power.

It is that they never traced the fruit to its logical conclusion. They separated it from the reality of who He was. And so as you come to chapter 13, you can see the shadow of the cross looming in the background. Already in chapter 12 verse 14, they had sought to destroy Him. They had reached the point of wanting only to kill Him. They have rejected the King. They have rejected His kingdom. Now the question that immediately comes into my mind and in the mind of any intelligent reader or any thoughtful reader is this. If Jesus came to offer the kingdom, if Jesus came to bring His kingdom to earth, to reign and to rule and to establish that which was promised, and they refused Him and refused His kingdom, what then happened to the kingdom? What happens now?

And that is exactly the question answered by chapter 13. It tells us what is going to happen. Because you see, the kingdom cannot come...listen carefully to this... until the nation of Israel receives the King. And so at this point, the kingdom had to be postponed in terms of its full fulfillment.

And I know that sounds redundant, but it's still a good phrase as I hope you'll understand before we're through. Because they rejected the King, the kingdom in its full fulfillment had to be postponed. And it had to be postponed to a future time.

What time? The second coming of Christ. You see, that's why Christ is coming a second time, to bring the kingdom that was refused the first time. He came and His message was this, Repent, for the kingdom is at hand. And the message of John the Baptist, his forerunner, was the same. Repent, for the kingdom is at hand.

And the message of the apostles, chapter 10, verse 7, was the same. The kingdom of God. They were preaching the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom. And the people said no to the King and no to the kingdom. And the kingdom, therefore, was postponed.

You say, well, why didn't God just eliminate it altogether? Because God made a promise to Israel and God keeps His promises. God is a God of His Word. And if God just set the kingdom aside and said, forget it, I gave you one shot at it and dropped it, then His prophecies would not come to pass and His Word would be violated.

And so it is postponed. Until they believe and the day will come when they do, you know. For example, Zechariah says the day is coming when they will look on Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as an only son and at that moment a fountain of salvation will be opened up to the line of Israel and the nation will all be regenerated. They will be redeemed.

There is coming a day when they look on the one they've pierced and they will have a fountain of cleansing open to them. They will be redeemed. So all Israel will be saved, Paul says.

We know that's to come and we believe it to come in the time known as the Great Tribulation. At that time also, it says in Revelation 7, there will be so many Gentiles saved they will be unable to be counted, an innumerable host from every people, tongue, tribe and nation across the globe. So you have the nation of Israel redeemed. You have worldwide Gentile salvation. And when the kingdom of God comes into the hearts of men internally, then it will realize its full fulfillment externally as Christ reigns on the earth for a thousand years in the millennium spoken of in Revelation 20. And so when we talk about the full fulfillment of the kingdom, we mean that kingdom which comes to pass on the earth both internally, that is in the hearts of believing people, and externally as Christ rules and reigns as King on the earth.

Now there were some. There was a remnant who received the King internally. And there are today those who receive the King internally.

But someday there will be a massive response. And when the kingdom comes internally at the level that it does in the tribulation time, then it will come externally in the wonderful millennial reign of Christ on the earth for a thousand years. But what happens in the middle?

What happens between now and then? This is the period that some theologians have called the parenthesis. Some have called it the interim.

Some have called it the interregnum. But it is a period that is not seen in the Old Testament. And so Jesus calls it the mystery. That is that which was hidden from time past. They didn't see this period of time.

That's why you have to have chapter 13 because they had no teaching on what it would be like. And so in chapter 13 you have a series of eight parables from verse 1 on to verse 52. And in those parables, listen now, Jesus describes the interim period.

He describes that parenthesis in which we live. We're in that period. And that is what makes this so profound for us. Because if we can understand what Jesus says about this period, then we can understand how to be about doing what He wants done in this period, you see.

We need to understand chapter 13 because it's talking about our time, our period. What it will be like when the king has been rejected and the kingdom postponed until he comes again to set up his kingdom, what's it going to be like? Our Lord said it would be this way and each of the parables discovers another facet of this period and you'll see how they perfectly parallel our time. Now we call this the mystery form of the kingdom, the mystery form. And by that we don't mean that it's a sort of a clandestine, secretive thing. Mystery simply means something that was hidden and is now revealed.

That's the biblical use of the term. But it means that this is something they didn't see in the Old Testament. This is something they didn't know. They only saw the Messiah coming and setting up His kingdom.

Now there were a few subtle little hints that there might be something going on in there, but they never got a description of it. They just saw the Messiah coming and establishing His kingdom internally and externally. They didn't see this period and so we call it the mystery form, that which was hidden from the past. And it is a period of time, mark this carefully, when the kingdom goes on with the king being absent. Jesus at this point is in heaven. Now that is not to say that He's not present in our midst, obviously the Bible says it, but in terms of where He identifies Himself biblically in terms of that glorified body, He dwells with the Father at the right hand, interceding for us in heaven.

And He is awaiting the time to return to earth. So there's a sense in which this is the kingdom with the king in absentia. Now some theologians have found difficulty with this and therefore determined that you cannot have a kingdom if the king isn't here.

But that is not the case. There is a realm here and there are people here who are subjects of Christ and Christ is the king by definition of who He is, though He is in absentia. And the classic illustration of this is found in David.

David was still the king of Israel even when Absalom rejected him, even when Absalom's revolutionary cohorts rejected him, even when they chased him into the wilderness and he hid for his life for a long period of time, he was still the king, Israel was still his realm, he still had the right to rule and he was still the recognized monarch in the hearts of many of the people and there was a day when he came back to take up the throne that was rightfully his. And so Christ in that sense is the king in absentia. Now the chapter then describes this period of time when the Lord Jesus Christ is ruling on the earth, though He Himself personally in His glorified form is absent. Now to help you understand this further and I want you to get ready, here's your theology lesson for this month and you need to get this foundation. I want you to understand the concept of the kingdom. Now may I say at the very beginning that this is a very big issue to discuss and it's got all kinds of possibilities and ramifications. We could spend hours and months and years studying the kingdom.

But let me see if I can reduce it down to something and really grab onto and get the heart of the matter. There are two basic aspects of God's kingdom and you need to understand these at the very beginning. First is God's universal kingdom and that's very simple to understand. That means God rules everything and everyone forever. He rules everything and everyone forever. He is the sovereign. He is the creator.

He is the sustainer. He is the beginning and the end of all things. He dominates all things. He rules over everything and everyone forever. In Psalm 29, for example, in verse 10 it says, The Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea, the Lord sitteth King forever. He is then eternally the King. There is no time when He is not the King and there is no time when someone else takes His place. He is the King forever.

Then if you look at Psalm 103 verse 19 you would read this, The Lord has prepared His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all. So He is not only the King forever but He is the King over everything. You say, Well what about the devil? He's the King over the devil. Well what about the demons? He's King over the demons.

What about the unbelievers? He's the King over them. That's why He has the power to throw them all into hell. That's why the Bible says, Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. He is the King of hell. Hell is not run by Satan. Satan is punished in hell along with all the others.

God runs hell just like He runs everything else from the viewpoint of His universal monarchy. He is the King over everything and everybody forever. In fact in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 11 it says, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty.

For all that is in heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. God is the King. God is the universal King. So that the first perception we need to have of the kingdom of God is that which gives us His universal rule over everything and everybody forever.

And that's very important and very basic. And sometimes when you read the term the kingdom of God in the Bible it is that which is being spoken to. But then there's a second aspect of God's kingdom. And I suppose that Alva McLean has given it a title that's as good as any.

I've searched my own mind for a better one and haven't found one. Let me use his term. He calls it the mediatorial kingdom. That is, it is mediated. It is not the direct rule of God.

It is mediated through some other agency, through some other individual or individuals. And it refers to God's rule on earth. It is directly referring to God's rule on earth. Now it is this kingdom that is in view in Matthew chapter 6 when the Lord says this, pray this way, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.

What's the next phrase? On earth as it is in heaven. The as it is in heaven perceives the universal kingdom of God. The on earth perceives the earthly mediated kingdom of God. And the prayer says, God, rule on the earth the way you rule everywhere else. So that the earth somehow is isolated in the midst of God's universal kingdom as a point of rebellion.

And it is the only point really where the rebellion is focused in the universe. And here is the prayer, God rule on earth as you rule everywhere else in your universe. And this brings us to the perspective of the mediated kingdom. In God's great glorious universal kingdom there is a little tiny stage of rebellion. Now when God created the world, He designed to rule on the earth through human instruments.

Now keep that in mind, that's the key. He designed to rule on the earth through human instruments. The first Adam and Eve. And He said to them, have dominion over the earth, didn't He? Have dominion over everything that's created. You rule for Me. You are My vice regent. You are My vice monarch. You are My sub-king, if you will.

You rule for Me. You mediate My rule on the earth. And of course they fell prey to Satan. And at that point the rebellion set in. And Satan became the god of this world. Satan became the prince of this world. Satan became the monarch of this world. And there is now ruling in the earth a usurper, isn't there?

But God then comes back and says, I still want to mediate My rule on the earth. I want My will known. I want My word known. I want My principles known. I want My moral standards known.

I want people to be subjects to Me. And so I want to call men into My kingdom. And He designed to do that and He did that and has done that from that time on.

You say, even after the fall, that's right. And if you follow the book of Genesis, you'll see that God mediated His rule on the earth through patriarchs. Great godly men who knew the mind of God, the heart of God, the will of God and gave that expression of His will and heart and mind to the people of their time.

You see them there. And you can trace the men that God used. You can see the Seths and the Noahs and the Abrahams and the Isaacs and the Jacobs and the Josephs and even the Melchizedek at one point who was a priest of the Most High God. But God mediated His rule through certain individuals. And then God called out a nation of people who would be His human agents to mediate His rule. And it was the nation Israel. And what was Israel's calling? Israel's calling was to give to the world the word of God, wasn't it?

The statutes of God, the principles of God, the mind of God, the heart of God. And to call the world to the knowledge of the true God, Deuteronomy 6.4. And God in the nation Israel particularly called out prophets, didn't He? And priests and kings to be His key human instruments to mediate His rule on the earth. And you have that all throughout the Old Testament. You come to the New Testament and all of a sudden God directly gets involved in mediating His kingdom through the human instrument, Jesus Christ. And Jesus becomes a man.

And Jesus comes into this world in human form. And He tells us what God is like. And He tells us what God's standards are. And He preaches the kingdom of God. And He calls for people to be subjected to the kingdom of God. And He is mediating God's kingdom as it were to men.

Jesus is rejected. He goes back into heaven and immediately the message goes on. And it is carried by the apostles. And it is carried by the prophets. And the church then becomes the agency. And in our day God is mediating His rule on the earth through the believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

And we are God's agents to speak the Word of God, to hold up the standards of God, to bring to men God's will and way and moral values. And we are here to call men to enter into God's kingdom. And there will be a day in the future in the tribulation when God will anoint 144,000 Jews. And those Jews will mediate in the sense that they will take God's message to the world. And there will be a worldwide revival so that innumerable Gentiles and the nation of Israel is saved. And then Christ will come back and mediate His own kingdom on the earth again. And then that mediated kingdom ultimately will merge completely into the eternal kingdom which is known as the new heavens and the new earth. And all that once began at the creation will end at that final merger and will go into eternity that way. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John's current study is helping you understand the kingdom of God, both what it is and how you fit into it. It's titled, The Parables of the Kingdom. Also, friend, let me remind you that John has written a book simply titled, Parables. It gives you even more details about the parables of the kingdom that we're looking at in our current radio series. And it digs into other well-known parables that are often misunderstood. To order a copy of, Parables, contact us today. You can place your order at our website, gty.org, or call us toll free at 800-55-GRACE. With individual chapters on many of Christ's most popular parables, as well as helpful sections on how to interpret the parables, this book is ideal to go through with a small group or a Bible study. To order your copy of John's book titled, Parables, call today 800-55-GRACE or shop online at gty.org. And if one of our resources that you already own has helped you better grasp Christ's teaching, or overcome a besetting sin, or grow in grace and obedience, or if your family has been strengthened by this broadcast, we would love to hear your story. You can email your feedback to letters at gty.org. That's our email address, letters at gty.org. Or if you prefer regular mail, you can write to us at Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week off with Grace To You, and make sure you're here tomorrow when John looks at the one true way into God's kingdom. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.