Hello everyone!
This morning, my pastor gave an awesome sermon and I would really like to share it with you. This is the combination of his notes, and also what I wrote as he spoke.
The title of today’s sermon was “The Parables of the Kingdom, part 3: Opposition to the Kingdom.” Reference: Matthew 13:24-43
1. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (24-30, 36-43)
a. The illustration (24-30): Among the good seeds were scattered weed seeds, planted by the enemy. The weeds have someone sewing them as well, they don’t spring up by accident. If the weeds are planted with the seed, the seeds have to be fully grown before it is safe to remove the weeds. They have to be mature.
b. The interpretation (36-43): The tares are the offspring of the wicked one. They grow in strength as we do. There are only two kinds of spiritual seeds, and Satan is the master of imitation, but there is no “gray area” to God.
2. The Parable of the Mustard Seed (31-32) – The mustard seed is the tiniest of seeds, but it still grows into an impressive plant. So big, even, that birds can take refuge in it. Positive interpretation: With even the tiniest amount of faith, we can do great things that others can learn from. Negative interpretation: Satan doesn’t have to use a lot of force to get our sin to snowball and take others down with us.
3. The Parable of the Leaven (33): In almost every reference to leaven in scripture, leaven is used to illustrate evil, and Jewish tradition before Passover was to remove all yeast from the home as an outward symbol of removing sin and impurity from one’s life. This parable shows that even the tiniest amount of leavening affects the whole batch of flour.
It strikes some as odd to say that Satan has a strategy. They mistakenly conclude that because our enemy is sinful, he must be equally stupid. Such reasoning has been the downfall of many in the church. He does not act haphazardly or without a goal in view. – Sam Storms
“… and the gates of hell shall not prevail…” Gates are DEFENSIVE. While the enemy certainly does act proactively, the point of this illustration is that we ought not wait for hell to come to us, or for evil to come knocking on OUR door. We are to GO to IT/THEM. The church is on the offense, moving against the devil and sin.
Also, it is important to remember that Jesus spoke in parables to conceal the truth from those who openly (or privately) rejected God’s teaching, and to reveal it to those who were hungry for understanding. Only the disciples were privileged to hear the interpretation from Jesus himself. But today, WE have the very word of God before us, we have his words. And not just what HE said here on earth, but everything God wanted us to know since the dawn of man! And we don’t have to wonder what the meaning is, God is always available for us to ask. We ought not dismiss the power of prayer in our lives. We have the ability to commune with our heavenly father on a daily basis, an hourly basis, a minute-to-minute basis. Let us pray without ceasing. We can have the answers. God wants us to have them. And he has made the way for us. We should be celebrating our privileges as Christians, worshipping our savior with abandon, and LOVE everyone unconditionally. Will you choose to do that or with you bemoan the “burden” of serving your Lord? It is a daily choice. God will not make even a single one of us follow him. If we do, it should be because we are glad to, because we love him. Because we KNOW that HE loves US and we do not deserve it!
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