We’re finishing up our brief look at the Kingdom Parables of Matthew 13. There are seven in all, six of which start: “The Kingdom of God is like…”

• Keep sowing seed because not everyone responds and bears fruit
  • Parable of the sower
• The Kingdom co-exists with its opposition
  • Parable of the weeds
  • Parable of the bad fish (if we’re going to call the parable of the wheat and tares the parable of the weeds, let’s call the parable of the fishing net the parable of the bad fish!)
• The Kingdom grows and benefits others
  • Parable of the mustard seed
  • Parable of the leaven
• The Kingdom has great value (today’s topic)
  • Parable of the Hidden Treasure
  • Parable of the Pearl

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13.44 – 46, ESV)

Easy to understand; tough to apply. The Kingdom has great value, and what it costs is all we have:

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14.33, ESV)

The rich young ruler couldn’t do it:

The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Matthew 19.20 – 22, ESV)

If you’re waiting for me to show you the loophole, why this doesn’t mean what it appears to mean, I haven’t found it yet either. Except I do notice that the young man who kept all of his possessions went away sorrowful, but the fellow who sold all that he had to buy the field did it with joy.

Both men in these parables also acted with intention to alter their status quo. They were intentional and they paid attention. We could start there, couldn’t we? Tomorrow, I want to look at one place specific place to start. Hint: “Beware the leaven of…”

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. (Hebrews 10.32 – 36, ESV)

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3.8, ESV)

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliott

Back to Jesus’ parables as recorded in Matthew 13. There are seven in all, six of which start: “The Kingdom of God is like…”

• Keep sowing seed because not everyone responds and bears fruit
  • Parable of the sower
• The Kingdom co-exists with its opposition
  • Parable of the weeds
  • Parable of the bad fish (if we’re going to call the parable of the wheat and tares the parable of the weeds, let’s call the parable of the fishing net the parable of the bad fish!)
• The Kingdom grows and benefits others (today’s topic)
  • Parable of the mustard seed
  • Parable of the leaven
• The Kingdom has great value (tomorrow’s topic)
  • Parable of the Hidden Treasure
  • Parable of the Pearl

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13.31 – 33, ESV)

Again, we have two parables making the same point. A seed grows into a tree. A little yeast affects the whole batch of bread dough. Jesus has been clear from the beginning: he didn’t call us to go hide in a corner somewhere or just conduct church services but to make a difference. “The birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12.3, ESV, emphasis mine)

We interrupt our series on the kingdom parables of Matthew 13 for a different kingdom parable…

It’s that time again…it’s May 4…Star Wars Day! It’s the commemoration of a movie series (I’m most familiar with the first three, now called episodes 4, 5 and 6) that depicts the battle of good versus evil. A “parable of the kingdom” where good and evil exist together as we saw yesterday.

“May the 4th be with you,” or, as they have said since the first Star Wars movie in 1977:

May the Force be with you.

The Force is fictitious, of course, but the stories remind us of an important truth in the battle of good versus evil, the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of the evil one:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15.5, ESV, emphasis mine)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1.8, ESV, emphasis mine)

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3.8, ESV)

In Matthew 13, Jesus gives us six pictures: “The kingdom of heaven is like…” Jesus taught with imagination and creativity! Today, let’s look at the first and last of the “The kingdom of heaven is like…” parables:

• The Parable of the Weeds (verses 24 – 30)
• The Parable of the Net (verses 47 – 48)

Both come with the same explicit explanation:

…so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13.40 – 43, ESV)

So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13.49 – 50, ESV)

The two parables and their explanation remind me of a verse near the end of the story:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21.1 – 4, NIV)

“There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” clearly implies that until the old order passes away, there will be death and mourning and crying and pain. Likewise, the stories of the weeds and the bad fish remind us that there will be “sin, law-breakers, and evil” until the end of the age when they will be removed.

In the meantime, we live, perhaps, in an environment hostile to our faith. Unlike some other world religions whose adherents use force to create an environment that supports their way of life, Jesus is not commissioning us to do that but warning us that good and evil co-exist.

Good and evil live together. An Air Force friend of mine used to say, “Why would you expect your fellow fighter pilots to behave like Christians when they’re not?” Our job is to be salt and light in the midst of sin, law-breakers, and evil – not wonder why these things don’t go away.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.16, NIV)

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, NASB)

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world… (Philippians 2.14, 15, NASB)

My friend Bill Mowry just challenged our writers’ group to use our imaginations:

How can we use our imaginations to write about what is familiar? Allow me to be real. I get bored reading one more blog or article on Scripture memory or a minor dissertation on the Great Commission. We seem to quote the same references, share similar anecdotes, and rely on the same arguments. My heart and mind scream out, “Tell me something new! Take a familiar topic and make it inviting!”

I read Matthew 13 recently, and Jesus was big on imagination and creativity: seven “parables” – stories and metaphors – and six of them begin with “The kingdom of God is like…” The parable of the wheat and the weeds says the same thing as the one about a fishing net. Really? And how is a mustard seed like yeast in bread dough? Let’s look at those over the next few days.

But first, what’s the one parable in Matthew 13 that doesn’t begin, “The kingdom of God is like…”?

And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13.3 – 9, ESV)

Yep. The Parable of the Sower. Often preachers challenge us with “What kind of soil are you?” I think that’s OK, but I’m not sure it’s the main point. The obvious message seems to be that when you’re sowing seed, no matter how you do it, some respond and some don’t. (Jesus explicitly explains later that the sower is sowing teaching about the kingdom, as Jesus is doing in this chapter.) And because some respond and some don’t, the sower needs to keep sowing seed!

Unlike some traveling evangelists, I don’t think Jesus would report the numbers of those who “made a profession” and stuck around for a week or a month. His objective was long-term fruit. And even among the fruit-bearers, there are differences. Jim Rohn used to say, “Don’t send your ducks to eagle school!”

So stay tuned: “The kingdom of God is like…”

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15.8, ESV)

School shootings shouldn’t be a regular occurrence, but they seem to be. In nearby Denver, two high school administrators were shot by a student they were patting down to see if he had a gun! You can’t make this stuff up. Then shortly after, we had a woman(!) killing three 9-year-olds and three administrators in a small Christian elementary school in Nashville. That one felt close to home for obvious reasons.

Christianity Today posted an article written by a victim of a school shooting: Taylor Schumann was injured in 2013 when a gunman opened fire at New River Community College in Virginia. She wrote this article in 2019 about “thoughts and prayers.” Here’s how it starts:

As a shooting survivor, I believe in action. At the same time, I believe in the power of prayer. I know firsthand what living through a shooting does to a mind and what a bullet does to a body, and I believe that my recovery and healing is a direct result of prayers that were prayed for me.

It is easy to feel powerless in the aftermath of a mass shooting. As we mourn the lives lost in El Paso, Dayton, and every other community where gun violence is an everyday reality, it can seem impossible to find the words to pray.

Being a survivor doesn’t mean I can singlehandedly solve the crisis of gun violence. What I can offer, though, is insight into some specific ways to pray for survivors as one part of our response to gun violence.

I recommend her article in its entirety. Here is her list of what to pray for:

• Pray for physical wounds, pain, and future treatments.
• Pray for their invisible wounds.
• Pray for wisdom for doctors, nurses, and all medical specialists they encounter.
• Pray for shielding from photos and information of the shooter.
• Pray against nightmares and for the ability to sleep and rest.
• Pray for financial provision for medical costs and other needs.
• Pray for guidance and support during the legal process.
• Pray they would have a strong support system for the long haul.
• Pray for support from other survivors.
• Pray against re-traumatization after other shootings.
• Keep praying.

To the last one she adds:

If I can convince you to do just one thing on this list, I hope it is this one. Keep praying. For many survivors, including myself, the day of the shooting is not the hardest day. The hardest day comes later, when you are confronted with your new reality in the aftermath. When the cards stop coming, when people stop asking how you are, and when the news cycle changes, you begin to feel forgotten and isolated. People praying for you months and years after the shooting is a significant way to show support. – Taylor Schumann, August 4, 2019

…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6.18, ESV)

I’ve been going back and forth with myself on whether to write about the case recently argued before The Supreme Court: Can the Post Office Force a Christian to Deliver on Sunday? The linked editorial, published in the Wall Street Journal on April 17, 2023, covers the details and legal ramifications, not just for Christians, but for people of all religions. Naturally, I don’t want America’s historic commitment to freedom of religion eroded. (And that’s the position of many editorials I’ve read in Christian outlets such as World Magazine and Christianity Today.)

That said, I believe Christians have the right NOT to exercise all of their rights! I don’t want to criticize this particular brother who is a committed Sunday observer, who hired on with the Post Office before there were Amazon-mandated Sunday deliveries, and who even transferred to a Post Office 50 miles away to avoid Sunday deliveries. He seems to be a good man. People are comparing his stand with that of Chariots of Fire hero Eric Liddell. And we have Paul’s clear instruction:

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it…. (Romans 14.5, 6, NKJV)

In a perfect world, Amazon wouldn’t be pushing the Post Office to make Sunday deliveries.

But God has people in all kinds of arenas, many of which are 24/7 operations. No one asked me whether or not I wanted to work on Sunday when I manned a radar site in the Air Force. Hospitals need nurses, Christian or not, on Sundays, and I’m glad we have police and firefighters working on Sundays, protecting our lives and property.

For someone to refuse to work on Sunday requires someone else to work on Sunday, and I can’t imagine that in an organization like the Post Office that anyone wants to work on Sunday. So what is the loving thing for a Christian to do? Fight for all he’s worth to protect his “Sunday purity”? Or lovingly give up his rights so he can do his fair share?

And of all the issues to take a stand on (and we have many options today!), Sabbath keeping might be of lesser importance. Jesus was frequently accused of violating the Sabbath. For example,

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3.1 – 6, ESV)

Jesus equated NOT working (healing) on the Sabbath equivalent to doing harm.

We are blessed with rights in this country that people in other countries can only dream of. But having a right and exercising it are not the same thing. I’m just suggesting there are options.

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. (1 Corinthians 9.12, ESV)

My son Matt has always loved fishing (like his grandfather, not his father!). A few years ago, he arranged (and June paid for) a guided fly-fishing trip for all the Ewell men on the Red River in Arkansas. It was a wonderful time: I’ve never caught so many fish. 

Afterward, I recorded these observations comparing the guide’s approach to teaching fly-fishing and disciple-making:

• The guide’s purpose was not to catch fish. His purpose was to help me catch fish.
• He provided training. Not a lecture but a demonstration. IDEA: instruction, demonstration, experience, assessment. 
• He was not afraid to introduce technical terms: cast, mend, strip, but he also used learning devices, “Coca-Cola” for rhythm, for example.
• He expected me to be able to do what he taught, but he also was not upset by mistakes. He was always encouraging. He never put down.
• With respect to evangelism, we decided that we didn’t “miss” a fish, “the fish didn’t want to play.”
• Also with respect to evangelism, we have to go to where the fish are. They don’t come to us. 
• One more observation on evangelism, we have to speak the fish’s “language.” We have to provide bait that looks like food the fish likes. Not what we like.

There were a lot of things about fly fishing that I didn’t learn:

• How to drive the boat
• How to operate the remote-controlled trolling motor
• Where on the river the fish are, how the water depth affects what we do, etc.
• What kind of flies to use
• How to tie flies

In fact, he said, “There are a hundred lessons in fly-fishing; this is lesson 1.”

More observations:

• We didn’t talk about fly-fishing; we fly-fished. Teaching/learning was in the context of doing.
• The guide fishes by himself some days. He’s a practitioner, not just a guide. In order to be a good guide, he must also stay in practice.
• The disciple-maker helps people be disciples and make disciples themselves. The disciple-maker’s role is to help others succeed and “do ministry.” Not just do all the ministry themselves.
• The disciple-maker trains, but he trains in skills, not just technical knowledge. He teaches how to have time with God, how to make disciples. He doesn’t merely tell people what to do, he shows them how to do it:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.19, 20, NKJV, emphasis mine)

• The disciple-maker introduces enough Biblical language for the disciple to get started, but he doesn’t burden the disciple with a bunch of technical theology, a lot of which is outside the Bible and not necessary for real life.
• The disciple-maker develops easy-to-grasp tools to help disciples learn quickly (e.g., the wheel, the bridge, The Navigators’ 2:7 Series, etc.)

We could learn a lot from Greg, the fly-fishing guide!

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4.18, 19, NKJV)

I want to close this series with some thoughts on “the Bible.” We’ve already pointed out that prior to the early 300s, there was no “the Bible.” There were people proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead.

And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4.33, NKJV)

Given that we have a Bible today, does one have to believe all of it to become a Jesus-follower? Or, as a friend of mine puts it, “Have we made the Bible the fourth member of the Trinity?” Do you have to believe in Jesus AND the Bible?

People have written books on this sort of thing including John Lennox, whom I mentioned a few days ago. I highly recommend his book Seven Days that Divide the World, especially if you’re wondering if someone strongly committed to the authority of scripture can avoid getting caught up in debates about particulars of how, for example, God created the universe. Some would say that if you don’t believe in creation in six 24-hour days, you don’t believe the Bible, but John would argue otherwise.

As I wrote yesterday, Billy Graham chose to stake his faith on the authority of scripture, to “believe his beliefs and doubt his doubts.” The power of his ministry is unquestioned. On the other hand, I have worked with a lot of people over the years, trying to help them grow in their faith and help others do the same. I have found that those who approach the scripture with a skeptical or questioning attitude don’t do as well as those who choose to believe and submit.

I told my friend, “When you have figured out how to disciple someone without the Bible, let me know.” I have just not seen a lot of fruit from teaching that stems from a weak view of scripture. People have tried, for example, to extract the teachings of Jesus from accounts that include his miracles. Among these is the so-called Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson:

The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is one of two religious works constructed by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson compiled the manuscripts but never published them. The first, The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1804, but no copies exist today. The second, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1820 by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson’s condensed composition excludes all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine. – Wikipedia

I’m reading Matthew right now, and if you took out the miracles you wouldn’t have much left. The Sermon on the Mount does take up chapters 5 – 7, but many chapters are nothing but one miracle after another. (See, for example, Matthew 8 and 9.) I choose to believe the Bible even, as Billy Graham said, there are parts I find difficult to make sense of.

That said, our faith should not be in “the Bible” but in the God of the Bible who raised Jesus from the dead. Our “daily time with God,” which certainly should include Bible reading, should be fellowship with God. My friend and Navigator mentor Skip Gray used to say that some people fellowship with a habit – not with God.

But circling back around, those of you who know me and read this blog regularly know that I operate from the presumption that the Bible is true and ought to be believed and followed. That’s why I close each blog with at least one Bible passage.

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4.4, NKJV)

Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15.16, NKJV)

The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119.130, NKJV)

I wrote yesterday that the fact that people wrote about Jesus and his resurrection is compelling evidence that there was a resurrection since none of his followers expected him to come back to life. But there are some for whom that evidence is insufficient. Bart Ehrman comes to mind. Dr Ehrman is a very popular professor of New Testament at the University of North Carolina. A professor of NT who doesn’t believe the NT.

My friend Rob Webster knows Dr Ehrman from Rob’s time as a Campus Crusade representative at UNC. I asked Rob the other day, “Bart is a graduate of Wheaton! What happened to him?” Rob explained that when Bart was a grad student, a professor made a notation on one of his papers, “What if the Bible is just wrong here?” Bart had never considered the possibility that the Bible could be wrong, and he has devoted the rest of his life and career (so far) to proving just that.

Do you know the name Charles Templeton? How about Billy Graham? You may not have heard about Templeton, but in the late 1940s, he and Billy Graham were both traveling evangelists for Youth for Christ. Thousands came to faith under the preaching of both, and some said that Templeton was a better speaker than Graham. Here’s how his bio begins:

Charles Bradley Templeton (October 7, 1915 – June 7, 2001) was a Canadian media figure and a former Christian evangelist. Known in the 1940s and 1950s as a leading evangelist, he became an agnostic and later embraced atheism after struggling with doubt. – Wikipedia

What happened to him? Same as Bart Ehrman: he began to have doubts about the scripture. His friend Billy Graham began to experience the same doubts, but Billy went for a walk in the woods to figure out what to do. Unlike Bart and Charles, Billy came to a different conclusion as told by his grandson Will Graham:

One night at Forest Home, he walked out into the woods and set his Bible on a stump—more an altar than a pulpit—and he cried out: “O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck and others are raising.”

And then, my grandfather fell to his knees and the Holy Spirit moved in him as he said, “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word!” – The Tree Stump Prayer

Others, and maybe Billy himself, have condensed this commitment to:

I have beliefs and I have doubts. I have decided to believe my beliefs and doubt my doubts.

I have made the same commitment, and I renew it regularly. More tomorrow.

For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? (Romans 3.3, NKJV)