Matt 13:13-15 "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ’Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them."
INTRODUCTION: ODD VERSE (“Difficult Sayings”) – “So that I should heal them”
A. Sounds As Though God Doesn’t Want To Heal Them or Save Them. As If…
1. Jesus: “I’m going to keep talking in mysterious parables”
2. “I don’t want to be too dead obvious”
3. “It’s good that their ears are hard of hearing & eyes have closed”
4. “If it was too dead obvious, I’d be obligated to save them”
5. “I don’t want to save them”
6. Parables are a padlock to saving truth. Understand parable, then saved.
7. Dancing around the truth to keep us from stumbling on the truth
B. Yet That Seems So Contrary To The God I’ve Become Accustomed To:
1. The God that said, “I didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it”
2. The God that left the 99 in search for the one – went out of his way
3. The God that left everything (heaven) and gave everything (Calvary) who loved world so much that “whosoever” should be saved
C. So What Gives? Does He Want To Save or Not?
SOME KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING THIS VERSE
– Why He Doesn’t Speak In Plainly -
I. THIS KINGDOM RELATIONSHIP IS INHERENTLY MYSTERIOUS!
A. Kingdom Matters Are Inherently Mysterious
1. Cannot be just spoken of & understood “plainly”
2. As simple as we may speak of it, still parts of it incomprehensible
3. I still have yet to comprehend:
a. Kingdom breadth & width & depth
b. Kingdom future
c. Kingdom authority – we reign with Him
d. Kingdom morality
- 100% righteous, but hell-bound w/out God’s righteousness
- 100% wretched, but heaven-bound w/ God’s righteousness
B. Beyond Just The Things Of God Being Mysterious, God Himself Is Mysterious Yet This Mysterious God Wants Relationship With Us?
C. How Many
…Men would agree that women are mysterious creatures?
…Women would agree that men are mysterious creatures?
D. In The Redemptive Relationship – You Have Two Principally Different Agents
1. The Creator and the Creature (mankind) the bride of Christ
2. As different & more so than a man / woman relataionship
3. Pre-marital counseling – 2 hands
a. very much the same – but so very different closer together
b. this is why closer a person grows to Lord, more he is aware of how base he is and need of God’s forgiveness and apt to be less judgemental
c. the judgemental, legalistic, Pharisees not at all close to God
4. Understanding what Jesus was saying in Matthew 13 – understanding dynamics of Creator/creature (male / female) relationships
E. Much Of Mystery In Male/Female Relationships Is Their Brains Are So Different “If I Could Just Get Inside Their Head”
1. It’s said that women talk more than men
a. women 20,000 words/day; men 7,000 words/day
b. women have 11% more neurons in her brain centre for language and hearing than a man.
2. It’s said that men want sex all the time – women not so much? brain space devoted to the female sex drive is 2 1/2 times smaller than the space set aside in a man’s brain.
3. It’s said that women seem more emotional? Or…It’s said that women remember special occasions better than men The principal hub for emotion and memory formation -- the Hippocampus -- is larger in a woman than in a man.
- women have an 8 lane superhighway for processing emotion
- men have a small country road
4. It’s said that men are typically more aggressive - The amygdala, which registers fear and triggers aggression, is larger in the male brain.
F. Apply This Male/Female Relationship Difference To Bride of Christ & Her Groom
Built-In Mystery (Inherent) Because We Are So Different From The Creator
1. Women, trying to understand the mind of God (or a Matthew 13 parable) is like trying to understand the mind of a man
2. Men, trying to understand the mind of God (or a Matthew 13 parable) is like trying to understand the mind of a woman
G. God Is Truly Not Trying To Trick Us
1. Men, sometimes with your girlfriend / wife, feel like she’s trying to trick you, trap you, trip you up with a cross-eyed question
a. do you think I’m pretty?
b. what are you thinking?
c. does my butt look big in this dress?
d. what do you think of that new chick in church?
2. Not trying to set out booby trap, just looking for re-assurance
3. She’s checking where your heart is – your love & loyalty
4. In same way, you may feel like a parable like Matthew 13 is cross-eyed
a. every parable is all about Creator/creation relationship
b. when a woman says, what are you thinking
- wrong answer is “when does the game start”
- correct answer is “I’m thinking about YOU, dear”
c. figure out the parables just with your head – correct but wrong
d. figure out the parables with your heart – may not figure out the entire mysteries of the kingdom – but you’ll have gotten it right – will have gotten the point
II. THIS KINGDOM RELATIONSHIP IS PURPOSEFULLY MYSTERIOUS!
A. Necessary In That Some Level Of Creator / Creature Mystery Should Be Should Be Preserved – To Facilitate Attraction
B. Dear Abby,
I come from a rather close-knit family, and was raised by parents with very good morals. I graduated from M.I.T. and am very intelligent (GPA 3.9). I’ve been blessed with good looks and an athlete’s physique. I own a lucrative business that I operate from my beautifully decorated condo, drive an expensive European sports car (goes from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds!), and have absolutely no difficulty meeting women. So what’s the problem, you might ask? I seem to be cursed. For one reason or another, I cannot keep a woman interested in me. Signed – “I just don’t get it.”
Dear “I just don’t get it”, Your curse is your big mouth. Most men feel very pressed for time, as if they only have a small window of opportunity to attract the attention of a woman. As a result, they feel that the only way to impress a woman is by telling her everything about themselves within the first few dates. Some men even go as far as telling their whole life story within the initial ten minutes of their first date.
The problem with telling a woman too much up front is that a man will lose the mystique behind his character. This is a big mistake because the mystery behind a man is one of the key elements to keeping a woman attracted to him.
The secret is to hold your horses and reveal only the essential information needed in order to keep her interest level high. A man can do this by simply responding to the things his date asks him about, and then returning the focus of the conversation back to her.
C. Mystery Attracts In Dating
1. Conversations – don’t pour out your whole life story
2. Dress – leave a little mystery
3. Hugging, holding, snuggling – leave a little mystery (Shulamith, “don’t arouse my love till its time”
D. In Same Way God Facilitates That Mystery
1. In His teachings – Bible
2. In His appearances to man – never showed Himself entirely
3. Moses – hidden in cleft of the rock
III. THIS KINGDOM RELATIONSHIP IS NECESSARILY MYSTERIOUS!
A. We Are God’s Mysterious Bride of Christ
1. Mysterious in that He gave us free choice, free-will
2. Risk – that we might reject him / robots / choice to accept Him
B. True Love Necessarily Involves Risk…involves Mystery & The Unknown To Truly Love & Surrender To God…Involves Mystery, Risk, Chance & Choice I Call It Dancing With The Divine – May I Have This Dance, Yes? Or NO?
C. For This Reason, Jesus Spoke In Parables
1. Not to frustrate us, but to lure us…lure us into the mystery of who He is
2. Not to learn truth, but to experience Truth
3. Not to keep us off the dance floor but to invite us to the dance floor
a. Jesus said, “I am the way, the Truth…”
b. don’t just “know of me”, but really know me, dance w/ me
D. In The Parables Jesus Saying, “Don’t Think You’re Going To Come To Me By Anything Apart From Relationship”
1. If just head-knowledge or following rules – no diff from other religions
2. Christianity is not just any other religion
a. founder risen
b. salvation grace (not rules or knowledge)
c. salvation by faith (not working up belief, but relationship of surrender, free-will, free-choice – risk and mystery)
INVITATION
A. This Morning I Want To Invite You To This Relationship
1. Not just for the sake of eternal life
2. But for the sake of right now living
3. Revelations 3:10 “Behold I stand at the door…I will sup with him”
4. I will be with you –
5. Do you fully have to understand it all before you come to Christ? No!
a. you’ll never have it all figured out
b. you’ll never come close to having it all figured out
6. God loves you – not trying to distance you – come to Him!
B. This Morning I Want To Invite Some To Re-new That Relationship
1. Some have drifted, it’s lost its mystique & mystery & attraction
2. You’ve lost your first love – repent and do the first things again
