I'm going through the Gospels making notes about what God gives me as I go
I'm not going to make it 'sermon worthy for the moment, it takes long enough just to do this, and it was just for myself really, but there are some things that I thought God would want me to share...
Matthew 13
Seven Parables about the Kingdom of Heaven; 1 The Sower, 2 The Tares, 3 The Mustard Seed, 4 The Leaven, 5 The Hidden Treasure, 6 The Goodly Pearls, 7 The Net
1-3 Jesus stops at the sea of Galilee sits in a boat and begins teaching the multitudes (Christ attracts multitudes)
3-8 The Parable of the Sower
9 He who is ready to hear will hear
10-17 After his disciples question his insistence on speaking in parables Jesus explains that some teachings are too hard for those who will not want to hear, and if they are told them bluntly, they will become more Gospel hardened. That if he says straightly that some love their sin too much, for instance, they will be forever lost because no one wants to hear that they must let go of that which they think they cannot do without! (this teaches us that we need to let the spirit guide us how we share the Gospel)
18-23 The Parable of the Sower expounded (The seeds are the hearers of the Gospel, the type of ground is how they receive it, the 'wayside' are those who hear but don't understand, the stony ground hear, understand and begin to live by it but because of trouble cannot endure, the thorny ground are the same but because of temptation cannot endure, the good ground are those who endure).
24-30 The Parable of the Tares
31-32 The Parable of the Mustard Seed
33 The Parable of the Leaven (both are about how great an effect the Gospel can have if sowed effectively into the world)
34-35 Prophesy fulfiled (Ps 78:2)
36 Multitude is sent away and attention is given to the disciples who then ask for his council (We have a special privilege in Christ to have his undivided attention, so let us seek him in every thing we need)
37-43 The Parable of the Tares expounded (we need to beware of the enemy who will come into the church and sow weeds, children of disobedience, amongst the wheat, children of God)
44-46 The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and The Parable of the Goodly Pearls (We need to treat anything in our lives that is not helpful to our 'path to heaven' as expendable just as the men who sold all they had for the treasure and the goodly pearl)
47-50 The Parable of the Net (Just like the angels in the Tares parable, the net will gather everyone, but the unjust will be cast back into the sea, or hell.
51 Jesus asks especially if they have understood these things (It is important that as disciples of Christ we fully understand these parables)
52 Jesus likens us disciples to a man who is fond of both his newer treasures and older treasures (We ought to be careful to keep on reminding ourselves of all of the spiritual teachings we have learned constantly, Jesus is reminding us that as we grow in Him there will be milestones and markers, lessons we will learn and barriers overcome, this is great as we can not only rejoice at the older, weaker person we've left behind, but also look forward to the newer stronger person we can become as we hope for the future breakthroughs we will have. But, in order to make sure we don't remake old mistakes and fall back to such an extent that we have to go over the same ground all over again, we need to constantly remind ourselves of the past spiritual lessons we learned. So, just as the man is as fond of his older treasures as he is of his newer ones, so ought we be as fond of our older lessons as we are of our newer ones...In fact, the man may be more fond of his older treasures...)
I may be off the mark with some things, if so please reply with your own thoughts, or even add your thoughts if there was something else you got from the scripture , I do so pray that some small thing I have been given proves to be beneficial to some ones walk with Almighty God. It is important that we help each other, what is family for!
I received a message from someone concerning this post, and actually I can see why they had problems with the OP;
"10-17 After his disciples question his insistence on speaking in parables Jesus explains that some teachings are too hard for those who will not want to hear, and if they are told them bluntly, they will become more Gospel hardened. That if he says straightly that some love their sin too much, for instance, they will be forever lost because no one wants to hear that they must let go of that which they think they cannot do without! (this teaches us that we need to let the spirit guide us how we share the Gospel)"
I actually understand your problem here, I think that because Jesus is speaking in parables (particularly the parable of the Sower) I felt that His Spirit gave me other things to say. concerning evangelism, since that is why we are all still here in the world after all!
1) "if they are told them bluntly, they will become more Gospel hardened."
I honestly cannot tell you where this came from, Jesus actually 'appears' to be talking of purely children of disobedience actually, of those who are simply too hard hearted to hear. But the Spirit tells me that God doesn't want us to simply give up on everyone and to listen to Him all the times so as to ensure we say the right thing.
2. "That if he says straightly that some love their sin too much, for instance, they will be forever lost"
3. "because no one wants to hear that they must let go of that which they think they cannot do without!"
I think in fact these ideas come more from John 3:19-21
I can elaborate on that if you like, but would hope you understand already. Perhaps you were just questioning why I put the ideas in an exposition of the verses in Mt 13, I really cannot say. I just found myself typing it and then when I read it back I did think to myself 'hold on, was that what Jesus was saying?' But then because it made sense in and of it's self I decided to keep it it!
You asked 'Does Matthew 13:10-17 say Christ insisted on using parables, or does it say He spoke in them?'
and then
4. "After his disciples question his insistence on speaking in parables"
Mt 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Obviously the word 'insist' is not here, I was paraphrasing. To me it seems pretty clear that the disciples are wondering why he is speaking so much in parables. Just to be clear, I haven't suggested that Jesus himself insisted that he or we should speak in parables either. Perhaps I chose the wrong word! I was merely pointing out that his disciples had noticed he spoke a lot in parables. Clearly this was not something teachers of the Law did often, if at all.
5. "this teaches us that we need to let the spirit guide us how we share the Gospel"
Okay, it isn't explicit, but perhaps implicit that Jesus wants us to be careful of who is hearing his message. I just don't think Jesus would condone us thinking we should not even try with 'certain' people because we think;
Mt 13:15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed,
Which is what some people might get from it, as a way to ease their conscience for not even trying...
So I guess I was moved to interpret it in this way.
Thank you again for the message though, all blessings in Christ!
I would also like to add that when I began writing the OP I wrote it using my own Bible, which uses the title 'Seven Parables of Christ' in the margin next to Mt 13. For reasons I cannot fathom it does not recognise the last parable of the Householder as a parable. So if I could, I would rename my post 'Eight Parables of Christ from Mt Ch13'
Okay, I really wish I could delete this post and start again!
I must appologise for the way I formed my OP, it was a little sloppy to say the least.
'10-17 After his disciples question his insistence on speaking in parables Jesus explains that some teachings are too hard for those who will not want to hear, and if they are told them bluntly, they will become more Gospel hardened. That if he says straightly that some love their sin too much, for instance, they will be forever lost because no one wants to hear that they must let go of that which they think they cannot do without! (this teaches us that we need to let the spirit guide us how we share the Gospel)'
This was actually mostly a thought about the whole chapter and not just about Jesus' words, more importantly though, I should make it clear that it is worded incredibly poorly...'I believe' that the above was what Jesus was trying to say, but that is not to say he actually was! It is not something I would preach, but rather something I would put up for discusion in an open forum (such as this).
I guess the problem is that I have formed it as somewhat like a preaching (which was not my intention) as indicate by the brief (albeit easily overlooked) statement right at the end of the OP
'I may be off the mark with some things, if so please reply with your own thoughts, or even add your thoughts if there was something else you got from the scripture , I do so pray that some small thing I have been given proves to be beneficial to some ones walk with Almighty God. It is important that we help each other, what is family for!
I hope that everyone can see that I have tried to put right my mistakes, I thank God that hes made me humble enough to admit that I have made an error which I will certainly learn from!
God gives grace to the humble, and respects when a man owns his error. I hope I speak for all when I say that I appreciate the original intention to encourage the body and to help people by giving insight into God's word.
May the Lord bless you as you study His word and bring it to feed His sheep, and may He keep you from all harm.
Ps 145:8,9
"The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works."
