Read and Believe in Jesus.

“Have you understood all these things?” Matthew 13:51

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REVIEW – Jesus told the parable of the weeds sown in a good farmer’s field, then later explained to His disciples that it pictured the end of the age, when the true and false inhabitants of the kingdom would be sorted out. The parable confused the crowds, for how could evil exist in the Messiah’s Kingdom?

In the two parables of growth, the mustard seed and the leaven, Jesus pictured His kingdom beginning small but growing to include the other nations of the world. The disciples “kind of” got the stories, but the crowds were clueless. Jesus said this was because they had closed their minds to the things of God.

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Matthew 13:44-52.

Jesus now tells three short parables to His disciples.

First: The Kingdom of heaven is like TREASURE hidden in a field. A man comes by, discovers the treasure, hurriedly re-buries it, and then buys the field with all the money he can get together… to possess the TREASURE.

Second: The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls who, when he finds a rare PEARL of great value, sells everything he has to buy that one magnificent PEARL.

Third: The kingdom of heaven is like a NET in this parable, thrown into the sea and then gathered back in. It is full of all kinds of fish and stuff. The fishermen sort the good fish from the trash, throwing the latter into the furnace to be burned up… much like how the unbeliever spends eternity.

So, “Do you understand all these things?” Jesus asks His disciples and us.

“Yes,” they answer.

Um, no, I answer.

But I “think” I get the first two. The treasure and pearl picture salvation as something hidden from most people, but so valuable that people who have it revealed to them are willing to give up ALL THEY HAVE to possess it.

Hebrews 2:3 – “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him”.

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The third short parable seems to point to the visible kingdom of heaven, with true believers and those who only claim to be believers. At the end time, at the judgment, God’s ministering angels will separate these two: the righteous to their reward, and the charlatans to the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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Then Jesus tells His disciples that if they truly understand what He’s teaching them, they will be like trained scribes who bring out what is new and what is old from their treasure. They are not to forsake the OLD (Law and Testament), but to understand the NEW teachings by laying them alongside the Old and gaining wisdom.

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This concludes this time of teaching through parables. I bet the disciples wiped their brows and muttered, “whew!” as they headed to Nazareth.