I'd like you to turn to Matthew chapter 13. I'd like to read the parables that are contained in this chapter and give you a topical view or presentation of Christ in the parables, in this particular set of parables. Matthew chapter 13. The setting here is described in verses 1 and 2. That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. And large crowds gathered to Him. So He got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd was standing on the beach. And He spoke many things to them in parables. And then you have the first parable starting there at verse 3. There are seven parables in Matthew chapter 13. You have the parable of the sower. which is interpreted down in verse 18. You have the parable of the tares and the wheat starting at verse 24, verses 24 through 30. And then that parable is explained starting at verse 36. You also have them, in addition to these, the two major parables in this chapter and their explanation. You also have the parable of the mustard seed, a very short parable in verses 31 and 32. The parable of the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and it closes with the parable of the dragnet in verses 47 through 50, and I'll read these in just a moment. Before I read them, I just want to point out something that I learned in my studies along the way in Matthew, that it seems as though this was a sermon, an entire sermon of Jesus that he delivered. Some of the evidences for that are seen starting at verse 2. where you see him getting into the boat, and sitting down, and the crowd gathering at the beach, and speaking many things to them in parables. And there is a bit of interaction that is true, starting at verse 10, the disciples come and said to him, remember he's in the boat, so it could be that they were nearby. He did prepare his disciples to be with him, have boats prepared, do you remember that in the Gospel of Mark? But then you notice, when he tells the parable, and explains it. It then says in verse 24 that he presented another parable to them, that's the parable of the tares among the wheat. And in verse 31 it says he presented another parable to them, the parable of the mustard seed. You see it again in verse 33, he spoke another parable to them, the parable of the leaven. And then he tells other parables, verse 44, verse 45, verse 47. And then it says in verse 53, notice, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there. So do you see that? When you piece it all together, when he had finished these parables, the seven that we have, he departed from there. And this gives us good reason to view chapter 13 as one of Matthew's five major sermons, which I mentioned in the Sunday school hour. That Matthew is constructed around these five sermons. You have the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5 through 7, what we call the missionary sermon in chapter 10, the parable sermon here, the parable of the kingdom and the church, and forgiving your brother in chapter 18, And then, it's not the parable, but the sermon, and then the Olivet Discourse, the Sermon on the Last Things. So let's look at Matthew 13 as one sermon that Jesus preached. And what I propose to you this evening for your study, for your thoughts, is that in this parable sermon, where he spoke these seven parables, and when he was finished with the seven, he departed from there, and the sermon was over. that he is presenting himself. And I would like to show you the four views of Christ in this sermon that he himself presents about himself. He's preaching about himself. So let's pray and ask the Lord to help us. Father, thank you, Lord, for every part of your word. We love your word. And from one passage to the other, you give us many delights and teach us many things and show us many different views. And we are grateful that we can see our Lord Jesus here standing just a little bit off the shore in that boat. No doubt his disciples around him, able to speak with him, speaking to the crowd, interacting with them and the crowd. And then when he is finished, he departs. Help us to see him in these parables tonight, to love him more and serve him in Jesus name. Amen. So having set the stage of the chapter itself, trying to help you to see what I learned from a former professor of mine, Dr. Robert Newman, about what I just shared with you. Let me set before you the four of you, well actually I said I would read the parables. So here they are. We start at chapter 13, verses three through nine. The parable of the sower. He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell in the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear." And as you hear these parables, I believe that we should see Jesus speaking in varied tones, very colorfully, excitedly, and the people listening, their ears perked up to hear these stories that he's about to tell, that he's telling them. So you have the parable of the sower, which you know very well. Now, starting at verse 24, we have the parable of the tares and the wheat. He presented another parable to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? And he said to them, An enemy has done this. The slave said to him, do you want us then to go out and gather them up? But he said, no. For while you are gathering them up, or while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up, but gather the wheat into my barn. And as I stated, that parable has an interpretation, which we'll talk about a little bit in a minute, but the third parable is the next one, the mustard seed in verse 31. Notice this again, another parable, another one in order. He presented another parable to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. And this is smaller than all the other seeds. But when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. The fourth parable is the parable of the leaven. Verse 33. He spoke another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three packs of flour until it was all leaven. The fifth parable comes at verse 44. The parable of the hidden treasure. Now these two parables, number five and six, are a little different. They're not parables of harvesting or growth, planting and growth. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid. And from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. The sixth parable is, starting at verse 45 again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Some similarity in those two, of course. And then you have number seven, the final parable in this series of parables of the sermon. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea and gathering fish of every kind. And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach, and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all these things? And they said, yes. And Jesus said, therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household who brings out of his treasure things new and old. And when he had finished these parables, he departed from there. Now again, I'm indebted to a former professor of mine, Robert Newman, and the studies I did there on parables, that was a special interest of his. And he actually points out as well that not only is this a sermon of Jesus, but in a sense, it's a picture of this age. It's a picture of the whole age. And you noticed that in the last parable, didn't you? The parable of the dragnet. It starts off with the parable of the sower, sowing the seed, sowing the word, and it ends with judgment. So you have a picture of this age between the first and the second coming. But I see Christ in four views here, and I'll tell you what they are, and then we'll talk about each one, one by one. But you see in this sermon that Christ is presenting himself as the sower of the Word. He is the sower of the Word. The second thing you see is that He is the Lord of the harvest. And the third thing that you see is that He is the judge of the world. And the fourth thing that you see here is that He is the treasure for this age. So I'd like to open those up just briefly this evening. The picture of Christ in the parable sermon. And Christ presents Himself as the sower of the Word. Now, when you read the parable of the sower itself, you wouldn't necessarily know this, although it would certainly be implied. But it's clearly stated in verse 37. In the explanation of the second parable, interestingly, the parable of the tares, He says, the sower is the Son of Man. The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Well, naturally, we wouldn't have any argument with this, that if this is true of the second parable, it's also true of the first parable. There's definitely continuity in these parables, and they go together, those two go together, because they're both about sowing. And so Christ is the sower of the Word. You know, you sit in a Christian church like this, and you're looking at a man, You're looking at different preachers who preach up here. And it's just easy to forget, isn't it? To look past the preacher. Or however you look past, I don't know, is it back there? Is it up there? Where is it? But Christ is the sower of the word. We're just messengers of his. We're just messengers. Christ is sowing the word. It's easy to have just response to the preacher, and preachers do say some things that are a problem sometimes, and sometimes we get ourselves in trouble, and sometimes we make it hard for you. That's true, but in general, our view should be that it's Christ who's sowing the word, and we look for the voice of Christ. My sheep hear my voice, and they know me, and they follow me. And yes, occasionally a preacher may get in the way, and we just have to forgive that. I have to do it, you have to do it, wherever we go. And we try to do that graciously, not expecting perfection from any human preacher. Of course, if you have to live with that in a church every week, day after day, week after week, sermon after sermon, then yeah, it might be time to find another church, I would say. You have to be fed, right? But the point is that Christ is the sower of the Word. Now, the difference between the two parables is that the first parable, the parable of the sower, speaks about the variety of reception, because there are four soils here. Three of them are bad, one of them is good. And we're not going to look at the parable in any detail, but you're very familiar with the different soils, the soil that falls beside the road. When he interprets it, he says, that's the devil. He comes and snatches away the seed, the soil that The seed that goes on the rocky ground where there's a little bit of earth, and then there's rock underneath, and there's no depth, and something springs up, and you say, wow, a new Christian! Hallelujah! But the person doesn't last, because there's no depth. The third soil, the seed that is sown among the thorns, and it's choked out, and in the interpretation he says, well, those are people who who are choked out by the worries of the world or the cares or riches and all these things that happen in people's lives, the worry of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. It's sad that Christ is sowing this precious seed and these kinds of things are happening. the fourth soil, of course. It's like a breath of fresh air. The windows have been opened and we see some life here. We see the fresh air of the Spirit blowing and we see people bearing good fruit, some a hundredfold, some a sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. We say that's what it's all about. That's what we wish would always happen. There would always be a harvest. Even if it's just a small one, we'd be happy. It's not true of people's lives or people that we live with or work with. We'd just be happy to see just a little bit of fruit. because the little bit of fruit, the 30-fold, is promised of more fruit to come. Now, in the second parable on growth, where Christ is the sower of the Word, is the parable of the tares. And I'll read the interpretation because it just helps us to see the fullness of this parable and the distinction between this parable and the first parable. And the explanation starts, In verse 37 he said, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man, and the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. And, of course, the devil appeared in the first parable. And the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and he will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. It's that onerous parable. It's ominous, isn't it? Especially where he talks about the furnace of fire. He talks about that again, remember, in the parable of the dragnet. These aren't just sweet little stories, you know. This is serious business here, in the parables. Jesus is about serious business. And he's calling the people to listen to him. Verse 9, verse 43, he's saying, listen to me. If you have ears, listen to me. You have ears, that's what they're for. You need to hear what I have to say to you. I am the sower of the word. Second thing is, then that Christ is the Lord of the harvest. Now, you see this in the explanation that comes right after the parable of the sower, starting at verse 10. And it's a bit of a complex Explanation, going back to the book of Isaiah, where he quotes from the prophet Isaiah at verse 14, you notice, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, you will keep on hearing, but will not understand. You will keep on seeing but will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull. With their ears they scarcely hear. They have closed their eyes. Otherwise they would see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. Truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. So in this section here, where he actually talks to them about interpreting the parables, verse 11, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it has not been granted. Again, some serious and sobering thoughts here. But what do these things mean? They mean that Christ is the Lord of the harvest. Those different receptions that we read about in the first parable, where we heard they heard, is not just happenstance, it's all part of God's control. He is the Lord of the harvest. In the parable of the sower, where you have these different responses to the word of God, it's implied there, it's only implied that Christ is the Lord of these responses, that they are not outside of His control, that there is a divine purpose working mysteriously in the world and in the spread, in the proclamation, propagation of the Gospel. Christ is the Lord of the harvest. He's not just the sower of the work. He actually controls the harvest. Now, you see it again in the parable of the tares, verse 30. chapter 13, verse 30, where he says, I see this in the words, allow both to grow together until the harvest. Remember the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, sir, verse 27, did you not sow good seed in your field? Why does it have tears? And the master says, verse 28, an enemy has done this. And of course, they were upset about that. They were angered over that. Oh, let's go out and get those bad guys, so to speak. Do you want us to go and gather them up? And he says, no. Very graciously, it sounds to me, in verse 29, No, for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat also with them. Allow them both to grow together till the harvest. And I see in those words, allow them both to grow together until the harvest. That sense of control, that Jesus has control over this harvest. He's the Lord of the harvest. I'll take care of this. See, that's what he's saying. I'll take care of this. You don't have to go out there and start weeding out all these that you think are tares. Imagine if we had to weed out all the people we didn't think were Christians. Imagine what it would be like. Well, we'd have people out of the kingdom left and right. Because we're like that. We're kind of critical like that, aren't we? Well, he can't be a Christian. It's not easy. So He says, allow both to grow together until the harvest. Why? Because He is the Lord of the harvest. The parable of the mustard seed, verses 31 and 32. The kingdom of heaven is like the mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, that is smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree. How does it do that? The whole point of that parable is that He is the one who gives the growth. He is the one who takes that small seed and makes it into a mighty tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. That also tells me that Christ is the Lord of the harvest. His harvest is not out of His control. You know, farmers really believe and they understand that their harvest, their farming is really out of their control to some degree, right? They can cultivate the ground properly and they can do everything, but in the end, they look waiting for the rain. And if they're Christians, they're praying that God would water their crops. Because they know that God is the Lord of their harvest, their actual physical harvest. And these passages are telling us that Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. He actually says that in the Gospel of Matthew in another place. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers into his harvest field. There it's stated. Pray the Lord of the harvest. Who is the Lord of the harvest? It's Jesus. Parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the leaven, verse 33. He spoke another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leaven. It's implied there that He is the Lord of the harvest. Then when you come down to that last, the seventh parable, the parable of the dragnet, which I think for the disciples... Remember, the disciples are fishermen. They've done this many times. Separate the fish. That's their job. And Jesus is taking them on that shore Doing what they normally do as part of their occupation, separating the sheep to different buckets, so to speak. And he's saying that's what's going to happen at the end of the age. I wonder what went through the disciples' minds when they heard that. The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet, verse 47, cast into the sea. You gather up fish of every kind, you bring it up on the beach, verse 48, you sit down, and you, into containers, you gather the good fish into containers, but the bad you throw away. Now if you're a fisherman, that's great work because you're looking to get the good fish so you can have a good profit and feed people. You don't want the bad fish. But he applies it to the end of the age because Christ is the Lord of the harvest. So you see these two views of Christ so far. He is the sower of the word and he is the Lord of the harvest. Thirdly, he's the judge of the world. He is the judge. You see this particularly in verses 40 and 41. He says, The Son of Man, verse 41, will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the righteous will shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father. That's those of us who are believers, that's where we're headed, that's our destiny, to shine forth as the son in the kingdom of our father. That's where we're headed in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Great way to end the day, isn't it? With all the troubles we have and the burdens that you're sitting here with. That's a great thought, isn't it? Christ is the judge of the world. And then, of course, you have the whole eschatological parable at the end, the parable of the dragnet, verses 47 through 52. There's eschatology in the parable of the tares and also in the parable of the dragnet. The parable of the tares, verse 30, and then in the explanation, verses 41 through 43. And then the parable of the dragnet, which I read a few moments ago, you have in verse 49, that it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Gospels have a serious side and a sobering side. If you ever take the time to read a gospel through in one sitting, which is a good practice to do occasionally with any Bible book. I remember when I did that some time ago in the Gospel of Matthew. I just read the whole thing through. It takes about an hour and a half or so. Just so you feel the weight of the overall impression of the entire book. And when you do that, one of the things you come away with in Matthew is just the seriousness of this issue of life. the end of the age. And parables are attractive stories. So many of the parables and the other sections of parables that we have in the Gospels, we have another section, a whole group later on in Matthew, and then in Luke you have parables scattered here and there in Luke's way. But parables are meant to be attractive stories that people want to listen to and get involved in. And here they're very serious, very sobering. Christ is the judge of the world. Paul said that in the book of Acts, chapter 17, that God has appointed a man to judge the world in the last day, and that man is Jesus Christ. In his parable sermon, while he's standing there on the boat, speaking to the people on the beach, he's saying, yes, I am that man. I am the judge of the world. But the fourth one changes the tone a little bit, the subject matter, if you will, and it's a little different. Because this is found in the fifth and the sixth parables, the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the costly pearl, which are fundamentally different from the others. The others are planting and growing and harvesting parables, which really fit, don't they? They really fit the way the kingdom goes out and progresses. But these are different. And yet he told these two different parables with different subject in that same series. And here I think is the reason why, because He's setting Himself forth in these different lights, different aspects. So He's the sower of the Word. He's the Lord of the harvest, He's the judge of the world, but He's also the treasure. He is the treasure. Verse 44, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again. From joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. It's a story that apparently people who heard it in those days would have known because you don't have banks like you do today and so people when they had money they hid it in the ground. What happens if you forget where you put your money or you forget that you put it there and you sell your house or you sell the field or you abandon it and there it is and someone finds it. And unless this man will be caught with this treasure and have to legally argue for it, he figures that the safest thing to do is to buy the field. To get whatever he can scrounge up and buy the field so that he'll actually be richer. So that he'll have the field and the riches that come with the field. And then like that, in verse 45, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. So in the fifth parable, the man just stumbles on the treasure. And in the sixth parable, he actually is looking for the treasure. And there's no value in making a lot of distinction between those. They're two different types of stories. And so you look for what is in common with those two stories. And what is in common, of course, is the treasure. Now each of those parables has a different emphasis, just like the parable of the sower and the parable of the tares. They're both about sowing, but they have different emphasis. Well, these have a different emphasis as well. The emphasis of the first parable, of the hidden treasure, is that When you begin to hear about Christ and see how wonderful He is, then you should sell everything you have in order to have Him. You should make sure that you get Christ. Whatever you have to do to get Him, get Him. And the emphasis of the second parable is that you should be looking for the true meaning of life and the source of real comfort and the assurance of eternal life. People should be looking for that, and then they find it in Christ. But what's in common between these two parables is this theme of the treasure. In verse 44, the treasure. In verse 45, the pearl. So it's specifically mentioned as a pearl. The first one may be referring to money, coins, riches, treasure. But the whole idea of both of them together is that Christ is the treasure. People do argue about what is the pearl of great price. Sometimes they say, well, it's the kingdom of God. And another one says, no, it's Christ. And another one says it's this. Another one says it's that related to Christ. But it seems to me that it's just everything about Christ all rolled up into one. He's the treasure. So Christ is the pearl of great price. Christ is the treasure for this age. It's a beautiful accent to the whole sermon, isn't it? Which is all mainly about growing and good seed, bad seed, good response, bad response, good fish, bad fish, right? Enemy, sowing in the good field. So this is a nice accent to the whole sermon. And that's just the way Jesus was a great teacher. He was a great teacher. He knew how to paint pictures. And here he is painting himself as the treasure for this age. Of all the Gospel writers, or all the apostles and letter writers, I think Paul captured this the best in his letter to the Colossians. Please turn there. Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapters 1 and 2. I've been reading that lately in my devotions, and I love the section starting at verse 15. Colossians 1, where Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. And so many things are said about Christ in these two chapters that are really unique and really wonderful statements about Him. He's the firstborn from the dead in verse 18. I love what He says in verse 19. It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. If you go over to chapter 2 and verse 9, he says in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So that explains chapter 1 and verse 19, chapter 2 and verse 9. The fullness is the fullness of the deity, the Godhead, the Trinity is dwelling in Christ. Something to ponder, isn't it? And then in chapter 2, he starts to speak about Christ as the treasure. He's turning his attention now to wealth. He says, what makes us truly wealthy and rich in this world is to be encouraged and to be knit together with the people of God, attaining, notice verse 2, all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, and in Greek it just says Christ. It just says God's mystery, Christ. It's a real emphasis there. The knowledge of God's mystery is Christ. So Christ is the mystery of God, meaning I think that Christ is the one who's been prophesied in the Old Testament. Now he's fully revealed and he's just so wonderful, so beyond our imagination. But then he says in verse three, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There's the phrase, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Comes directly out of the parable sermon. where in the fifth and the sixth parable, Christ is presented as the hidden treasure. So according to Paul, if Christ, if in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, what should we do based on the parables? Well, we should make sure that we have him and that we sell everything that keeps us from having him. and we should be like that merchant who is looking and looking and looking for the finest pearl and then he finds it and he sells all that he has and he buys it just like the other man. What is it talking about when it says that we sell everything that we have to have Christ? Well, I think it just means that we, in a little different way, We get rid of everything that keeps us from having Christ. So it's a little different way of looking at it, isn't it? We sell everything to have Christ. Christ is the most valuable possession we have. Not a possession, but a person possession. He is the most valuable. He is the pearl of great price. Is that what he is to you tonight? So remember that in the parable sermon, Jesus is presenting himself as the sower of the Word, the Lord of the harvest, the judge of the world, and the treasure for this age. Something to think about in the week ahead. May the Lord fill our hearts with all of His good things as we think of Christ, our wonderful Savior, Master and Teacher. Let us pray. Well, we thank you, Lord Jesus, as we pray specifically directly to you thinking of you standing there on that shore in Galilee and preaching to the people on the sand, on the beach, and going over these parables one after the other before departing and going on to another ministry. And we tonight have seen what you said about yourself and We bow before you and we worship and adore you for who you are, Lord Jesus, and what you're doing in the world today. So help us, Lord, to be comforted and encouraged on the one hand, and also, Lord, to be sober that there are important issues going on in the world today for people to understand. and for us to pursue. So help us, Lord, to be like that man who found the treasure in the field, sold all that he had so that he could have the treasure. Lord, there is nothing more important to us than having Christ. And like the man who is seeking for fine pearls, he sold all that he had so that he could have that one fine pearl. And so, Lord, help us to treasure Jesus Christ as our wonderful Lord and Master. In his name we pray, amen.