The Parables of Jesus - Part 1 [Notes]

Jesus was a master storyteller, and He constantly used short stories or parables to communicate spiritual truths to the crowds that gathered to hear Him. When Jesus' disciples asked why He spoke in parables so often, His answer was profound. He said that the same stories that served to open the eyes of the spiritually hungry would have the effect of blinding the eyes of those who refused to believe. By telling parables, the secrets of the kingdom would be revealed to Jesus' disciples, but they would be hidden from His opponents.

Join us this week as we dive into some of Jesus's most memorable stories through our new summer series, "The Parables of Jesus."

Today's Takeaway // Cultivate your heart to receive God’s truth.

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.
– D.A. Carson

The word "parable" means "to cast alongside."

The previous chapter is probably the major turning point in the book. The King had authenticated His power by various miracles. But growing opposition to the King climaxed when Israel’s leaders concluded that Jesus worked not by divine power but by satanic power. While their full rejection of Him did not occur until later, the die was cast. Therefore Jesus turned to His disciples and began to instruct them along different lines.
– Louis A. Barbieri Jr.

On that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore.
– Matthew 13:1-2 (CSB)

Then He told them many things in parables, saying, “Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen.”
– Matthew 13:3-9 (CSB)

Then the disciples came up and asked Him, “Why are you speaking to them in parables?”
– Matthew 13:10 (CSB)

He answered, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

You will listen and listen,
but never understand;
you will look and look,
but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts,
and turn back —
and I would heal them.  

“Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.
– Matthew 13:11-17 (CSB)

Given the crowd’s rejection of earlier truth, the parables, far from granting deeper insight, actually obscure the truth they have already received and thus become a means of judgment for their having rejected the message of the kingdom. As verse 13 makes clear, Jesus speaks to the crowd in parables because they do not see (what he has already told them), not in order that they may not see (what he is now telling them). The quotation from Isaiah 6:9–10 describes their condition prior to Jesus’ teaching them parables, not as the result of the parables. Until they rightly respond to the light they have already received, Jesus will not give them more light; rather, he will take away the light that they have received. Might not this frightful word of judgment be God’s means for moving the crowds from their stupor toward repentance and faith?
– J. Knox Chamblin

Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, and He did not tell them anything without a parable, so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

I will open my mouth in parables;
I will declare things kept secret
from the foundation of the world.
– Matthew 13:34-35 (CSB)

Jesus’ diagnosis of this situation is that the problem of rejection is not with the seed (the gospel of the kingdom) and not with the sower (Jesus); the problem is with the soil (the human heart). Jesus points to four different kinds of soil representing four different heart-responses to the message of salvation.
– David Platt

"So listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path."
– Matthew 13:18-19 (CSB)

And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.
– Matthew 13:20-21 (CSB)

Now the one sown among the thorns — this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
– Matthew 13:22 (CSB)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
– Romans 12:1-2 (CSB)

"But the one sown on the good ground — this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown."
– Matthew 13:23 (CSB)

A harvest of ten to twenty times what was sown was considered a bumper crop, given the primitive agricultural technology of the period. The amazing harvest described by Jesus’s parable (a hundred… sixty… thirty) shows that true disciples produce fruit in a miraculous quantity.
– CSB Study Bible

Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
– 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (CSB)

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
– Philippians 3:7-11 (CSB)

This is Our God // You Keep Hope Alive // Gratitude // Nothing Else

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