MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN-THE SEVEN PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM. Matt. 13:1-57

July 9, 2019

Key: SCHAFF: “When the Lord open his mouth, we should open our ears and hearts”

Reasons for speaking in parables continues. Matt. 13:10-17.

“Those called to be the Disciples of Christ, and were truly desirous to be taught of him and were instructed, were made to improve greatly in knowledge, by these parables… the things of God were made more plain and easy, more intelligible and familiar, and more apt to be remembered.” M. Henry

  1. Matt. 13:16-17 “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear…”
  2. ‘Blessed are your eyes for they see’ Job. 42:5, Jn. 14:19; 16:14-15. It is a promised blessing, that in the days of the Messiah the eyes of them that see shall not be dim Is. 32:3; 29:18.
  3.  It is a divine favors and the blessing of God to be able to see Christ in ‘the carpenter the son of Mary’ Mk. 6:3. Moses saw the invisible Heb. 11:27 to believe in Christ and be his disciple is by revelation Matt. 16:16-18, Gal. 1:15-16.
  4.  ‘Blessed are your ears for they hear.’ Pro. 8:34; 15:31; 20:12; 25:12, Ps. 40:6, Eccl. 5:1, Jas. 1:19. These are happy people
  5. Matt. 13:17, 1Pet. 1:9-12. “Though the men under the Old testament were favorites of heaven, with whom God’s secrets was, yet they have not seen the things they desired to see, because God had determined not to bring them to light yet….There was then, as there is still, a glory to be revealed something in reserve, that they without us should not be made perfect. Heb. 11:40.” M. Henry
  6. The Old Testament is a shadow. Heb. 10:1-18, 2Cor. 3:7-18. We can now see God without a veil in the city of the Living God. Heb. 12:18-24.
  7.  “All the longing demises of the pious throughout the Old Testament centered in the Messiah. To behold him was the loftiest object of Old Testament hope. This blessing was granted to the disciples, and all their happiness, all their glory consisted in this, that they were illumined by the radiance of the Sun of righteousness.” Olshansen. According to Theophyl “In two respects the apostles excelled the prophets, in seeing bodily, and in better understanding spiritually.