God reveals the Kingdom of Heaven directly to us through the simple. Jesus taught in parables which we began discussing with the sower. Today, Jesus will show us how His Kingdom spreads, what we need to do to enter it, and how God’s judgment at the end of time will look.
2. Matt. 13:31-33 The Parable of The Mustard Seed and the Yeast
These two parables explain the increase of the Kingdom life or spiritual life in us as well as the increase of the Spiritual Kingdom throughout this fallen world as a whole. A couple points to notice are:
- It takes time to grow. He doesn’t transform us as individuals or the world as a whole nearly as fast as we would like; Do not worry, His ways are better for us and the world. He is not worried about the end result, but is enjoying the process of us coming ever closer to Him, knowing that we will have a beautiful eternity together. We should too!
- The end result is more amazing than we can imagine from where we are
- The transformation will reach its fullness and be complete in every way
3. Matt 13:44-46 Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
These two parables talk about the preciousness of the Kingdom. It is worthy of everything we have to get a hold of it. Jesus is showing us that the things of this world seem wonderful to us, and each of us has different things other than God that we value highly. But if we will drop these things for Him, we will find that He and his Kingdom are a much greater reward to us. It seems so incredibly hard to let go of these things we value, but our reward is priceless. We only come to know this AFTER we trust Him and follow Him in this.
4. Matt. 13:47-50 Parable of the Net
The content of this parable is the same as the Parable of the Weeds, but it is more concerned with the judgment aspect. It will be as simple as the angels coming down and throwing the “bad fish” away.
Judgment is never a comfortable topic for the human soul; it produces fear and dismay for the unbelieving; bitterness and anger for the rebellious; joy and praise for the just and righteousness. But only those whose faith is approved by God would have no fear and be able to rejoice.
These few parables can actually boil down the whole story of humanity from beginning to end. Only Jesus could make the complex so simple. Jesus came to proclaim His Kingdom and it has been expanding to reach all corners of the world. The time is coming close to the end, and if you read all the old prophecies, it is happening exactly as predicted. The time is short, if you do not know about these things, I want to urge you to look into them. He’s giving us every chance to choose a blessed eternity with Him, rather than be caught “weeping and gnashing our teeth.”
After these teachings, Jesus again reminded the disciples how to receive wisdom and teachings about the Kingdom. We must be discipled by a teacher who knows the Kingdom not just the Law. God uses such teachers to unveil all truths in the Bible and bestow treasures of wisdom not only from of old, but even new revelations and understandings.
What have we missed in this explanation of these parables?