7/27/25 Matt. 13:31-33, 44-52 “You Will Understand Everything!”

25 Jul 7/27/25 Matt. 13:31-33, 44-52 “You Will Understand Everything!”

7/27/25    Matt. 13:31-33, 44-52   “You Will Understand Everything!”

We are fortunate to live in an era where there are a lot of very good writers.  You might not know this but I am an avid reader and I know a little about writers.  I would much rather read a book than watch television.  Every year I read at least 100 books.  Some of these are by great writers, some are by ok writers and some are by very poor writers.  Now I’m not going to name names here but if you are reading a writer new to you, then you might be wise to do a little research on him or her.  I really love to read a good writer.  But I really do think that most, if not all modern writers, don’t hold a candle to what Jesus had His writers put to parchment.  Jesus knew how to give us many parables that have never been topped.  However, He did have an unfair advantage in that He was God.  Now, I give a sermon at least once a week and I also put out Today’s Moment where I quote wise sayings.  I have been doing this for years and I have not run across one person who even holds a candle to the writers of the Bible.  Jesus gave these writers parables that have stood the test of time.  I have tried but I cannot even write one parable let alone the many that Jesus wrote.  Jesus gave us timeless pieces of His wisdom.  This is what He wants us to get from the Bible, His wisdom.  He does this many ways.  As a matter of fact, I think that there is at least one piece of wisdom on every page of the New Testament.  Let’s see if we can find some wisdom in these few parables that we look at today.

Here is a humorous look at this.  Theological belief is sometimes a murky matter. A candidate for ordination as a minister was asked, “What part of the Bible do you like best?”

He said: “I like the New Testament best.”  Then he was asked, “What Book in the New Testament is your favorite?”  He answered, “The Book of the Parables, Sir.”

They then asked him to relate one of the parables to the committee. And a bit uncertain, he began…

“Once upon a time a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves; and the thorns grew up and choked the man. And he went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave that man, Sir, a thousand talents of silver, and a hundred changes of raiment.  “And he got in his chariot and drove furiously and, as he was driving along under a big tree, his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging there! And he hung there many days and many nights. The ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink.  “And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair, and he fell on stony ground. And it began to rain, and rained forty days and forty nights. And he hid himself in a cave.  “Later he went on and met a man who said, ‘Come in and take supper with me.’ But he said, ‘I can’t come in, for I have married a wife.’ And the man went out into the highways and hedges and compelled him to come in!  He then came to Jerusalem, and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high and lifted up in a window of the wall. When she saw him, she laughed, and he said, ‘Throw her down out of there,’ and they threw her down. And he said ‘Throw her down again,’ and they threw her down seventy-times-seven. And the fragments which they picked up filled twelve baskets full! NOW, whose wife will she be in the day of the Judgment?”  The story didn’t say what the committee decided, but at least this candidate had a sense of humor.

Anyway, let’s begin with the parables of the day.  First of all, I think that Jesus talked in parables because His audience was not always the most learned.  Jesus wanted them to understand what He was saying because it was important to their eternal future.  One of the most amazing parts about these parables is that they fit for everyone.  Even today, we have quite a cross section of people listening and watching.  Even today, we have many of the so-called better educated who will not listen or hear the word.  I don’t know what we can do about that except to keep on preaching the word.

The first two parables today are about a mustard seed and yeast.  These two parables are very similar in that the mustard seed is very small and the yeast is not much bigger.  Now when I was a kid, we used to spray for mustard because it was a weed that could take over a field of wheat.  It could grow to 2-3 feet tall.  There was no way a bird could nest in it because it was too weak and small.  So, I had to do a little research.  I found that there is a species in Africa where the mustard seed can grow to 10’ tall.  Now that is a mustard plant.  Anway, it comes from the tiniest of seeds.  It grows into a huge plant that will support all sorts of things.

The second parable talks about yeast.  If you put just a little bit of yeast in the bread dough, you can double and triple the size of your loaf.  All this is from a little speck of yeast that is the size of a tiny mustard seed.  These people knew farming and they knew cooking.  They knew that yeast was very important to them.  I think that this is one of the reasons that they Jewish tradition used unleavened or no yeast bread.  The yeast would stretch the bread out so more people could eat.  Without yeast, they were making a sacrifice.  If you remember, sacrifices were very important to the early Jews.  The kingdom of heaven was like yeast in that it grew the place to tremendous proportions.

So, what does this mean to us today?  As we are born, we have no faith.  Faith will come to us at some point in our lives.  And when faith does come upon us, it comes very small and it has to be grown.  And like the mustard seed, your faith has the potential to grow to be huge, absolutely huge.  It is the same way with the kingdom of heaven.  It just keeps getting better and better all the time.  We cannot contain or control it.  This is pretty similar to most things about God.  We cannot fathom how big or how great God really is because we have absolutely nothing to compare Him to.  Faith is like that.  Love is like that.  Peace is like that.  There is not a part of you that God cannot grow you into something so good that you would hardly recognize yourself.  That is a pretty good deal, if you ask me.

Now, the next two parables are also related.  First, we have a man who finds treasure in a field.  Then he hid it again before he went and sold all he had so that he could buy the whole field.  Another thing that these ancients knew was land.  To them, the most important thing that you could own was land.  We read about this a lot in the Old Testament.  Therefore, they knew that the treasure had to be very great in order that the man would sell all he had.

I really don’t know how to put this in more modern terms.  For some, land is still very important and valuable.  Others may own a vast portfolio of stocks and bonds.  I think the bottom line of all this is money.  There are people who would do anything just for a little more money.  They fail to realize that they can take none of this with them.  Anyway, think of the most valuable thing that you have.  Just how much treasure would there have to be in order that you would sell everything for you to have it?

Then we go to the next parable which is very similar to the treasure.  The man is looking for fine pearls.  Then he finally finds some that are worth far more than anything he has ever seen.  You can see how similar this parable is to the last one.  The man then sells all that he has so that he can purchase these fine pearls.

I think that times have changed a little since the Bible was written.  I don’t think pearls are worth as much today as then.  Today, I think we would have to substitute in diamonds or gold in place of the pearls.  Still, this is hard to believe because how much in diamonds would it take for you to sell all you have so that you could buy them.  The last parable talked about people who thought land was the most valuable thing in the world.  The pearl story was about people who thought things were most valuable.  We still have many of both these types of people today.

So, what does this mean?  I would guess that most of us are tied to our earthly possessions.  But if we really look close at this, we find that Jesus really isn’t talking about land or possessions.  He is talking about you, your soul.  He telling us that you have to give up all of ourselves if you want to get to heaven.   This is not always so easy.  When I first came to Jesus, I thought that I could just try it out.  I thought I could take Jesus for a little test drive.  Guess what?  It did not work.  I had to give myself up totally to Jesus and then He came flooding in.  He has been in me ever since.  This is the part where I tell you how to do this.  Confess your sins to Jesus.  Confess them all.  You don’t have to name each one.  Just ask Jesus to take away all your sins.  Then ask Jesus to live in you as your Lord and Savior.  It is that easy.  If you do this, then Jesus will instantly be with you.

And this leads us to the parable of the net. This is the last of this series but it sure is not the least.  The people Jesus was talking to were a pretty simple people.  They eked out their existence in either fishing or some kind of farming.  There might be a few merchants sprinkled in or there might have been some of the church officials.  Life was simple and these people knew about things like fishing.

They knew that the fishermen would catch all kinds of sea critters when they cast their nets.  These nets are like the nets of today in that the nets did not know the difference between a walleye and a bass.  When the nets were brought in, there were all kinds of fish in them.  They would have to sort out the fish as they were caught so they did not kill the fish they did not want.  They knew that most of these fish were beneficial.

So far, this is pretty simple.  You keep the fish you want or the good fish and you throw back the ones you don’t want, the bad fish.  But do you think for one minute that Jesus is really talking about fish here?  Of course, He is not.  Jesus is talking about people going to heaven.  After all, He has been talking about various aspects of heaven.

This is for all the people who think that everyone will get to heaven.  When we get to heaven, Jesus will be there to help us if you knew Him in this life.  If you don’t know Him, then you will be like the fish that are thrown back.  You will not get into heaven.  That only leaves one place where you can go.  Please believe me when I tell you that this is the place where you never want to be.  It is hot.  It is evil.  It is everything bad that you can think.  There have been many people over the years who have died and came back for some reason.  But they have gotten a glimpse of this terrible place and when they came back, they were scared to death of hell.  They became the best Christians ever.  That is just how ugly a place that this is.

Now contrast that with the wonderful place where you will spend eternity or I hope you will anyway.  It is really hard for us to vision something that we have never seen before.  Jesus will be the source of light and there will be no shadows.  This is because there will be no darkness in heaven.  There will be no death in heaven.  Once you get there, you will always be there.  And do not think that this eternity will be boring.   You will not be playing a harp in heaven.  You will be doing work in heaven.  But it will not be the type of work that you do not like.  You will love this work because it will make a difference to everyone.

Your pain will also be gone.  Personally, I cannot imagine a life where there is no pain.  This is probable true for most of us older folks.  Not only these good things but we will also see many family and friends who have gone before us to heaven.  It will be a reunion that will be beyond anything you have ever been to before.  Any type of sadness will be gone forever.  You will have the joy of God in you and all the happiness which is beyond our comprehension.

But the truly best part of all this will be your ability to talk with Jesus at any time.  You can ask Him questions that have perplexed you all your life.  Suddenly, you will understand all the vague parts of the Bible.  You will understand His view of the universe.  For the first time in your life you will be at complete peace with everything, because you will understand everything.

Jesus tells us about these parables so that we will understand a little before we get to this great place.  He tells us about these parables so that maybe we can appreciate the love that He has for us, you.  You are the most important person in the world to Jesus.  He loves you and loves you and loves you.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.