I am going to open the message with the first part of John 16:13 from the Amplified Bible. “But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth).”
During the Last Supper, which is recorded in John chapters 13 through 17, Jesus tells the disciples that after He is gone, the Holy Spirit will become their Teacher. Turn to John 14:26.
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
So, we see that the primary role of the Holy Spirit in our lives is as Teacher, with a capital T. Too often we depend on man or commentaries to help us understand the Bible. But Jesus says He’s already given us THE person to help us understand the Bible. The Comforter. The Holy Ghost. The Spirit of Truth.
As I was reading Mark 4 and the three “seed” parables that Jesus taught, I read two verses that seemed to imply that Jesus was using parables because He didn’t want some of the hearers to have their sin forgiven and receive salvation. Let’s read the verses.
(10) And when He was alone, they that were about Him with the twelve asked of Him the parable.
(11) And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
(12) That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. (Mark 4:10-12)
The phrase “unto them that are without” means “those outside our circle.” In other words, they were not currently following Jesus. Was Jesus, then, deliberately hiding the truth from those who were not part of their circle? Was He purposefully condemning them to the lake of fire by withholding the life-changing message of the gospel?
No, He was not.
Jesus was teaching a kingdom truth about how some people will respond to His teachings and how some people will respond to His teachings today. And the first key in understanding this truth is found in verse 9 – “And He said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
We will come back to that in a moment.
Now, why did I say verses 11 and 12 “seemed to say” Jesus was using parables to keep people from being saved? It’s because there are too many clear scriptures that do not support this explanation. For example –
John 10:10 says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
In First Timothy 2, let’s see what verses 3 and 4 say. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
And now turn to John 3:16, the verse that pronounces why Jesus came to earth in the first place.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
These verses disagree with the notion that Jesus withholds the opportunity for salvation from anyone. So, what is the truth that Jesus is teaching in Mark 4? Let’s look at the same record in Matthew 13 to help us answer that question.
(10) And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
(11) He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Uh, Bro. Barry, it still sounds like Jesus is saying “I want you to know, but I don’t want them to know.” Let’s keep reading.
(12) For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
(13) Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
The Holy Spirit drew my attention to two words that, once I understood their meaning in the Greek, helped me understand what verse 13 is saying about the reason Jesus why taught in parables
One is “ou”, for not, and the other is “oude”, for neither. “Ou” is the root word of “oude”. Both words carry the same meaning – “an absolute negation.” There is another word in the Greek for not. It’s the word “me”, which means “a negation based on circumstances.”
Let me give you an example of each.
First, an example of the word “me”. You are going to the grocery store to buy milk, but you are only willing to pay $2.00 a gallon. You get to the store and see that the milk is on sale for $1.85 and you buy it. But, if the milk had cost $2.15, you would not have purchased it. That’s the meaning of the word “me”. The milk exceeded the price you were willing to pay.
Now, on the other hand, the word “ou” says you have already decided not to buy milk – no matter what it costs. “Ou” says there is no price that can influence you to buy milk.
“Ou” is what we are seeing here in verse 13.
We could render verse 13 the following way and maintain its integrity: “Therefore speak I unto them in parables because even though they will see, they will refuse to accept what they see, and even though they will hear, they will refuse to accept what they hear. And because of this, they will refuse to consider and ponder what I am teaching.”
Now, do you remember what Mark 4:9 says? It says, “And He said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to hearing the truth of the gospel, we will either accept what we hear, or we will reject what we hear.
The person who has ears to hear will accept the truth of the gospel.
The person who does not have ears to hear will reject the truth of the gospel.
Now, let’s pick up the record with verse 14. We’re going to read verses 14 and 15.
(14) And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
(15) For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Jesus is explaining clearly why the people in Mark 4:13, “seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
? The first thing Jesus says is the people’s hearts had become callous to what He was teaching. The words waxed gross paint an image of the person who hears what Jesus is saying as “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
? Secondly, Jesus says the people who do listen do so as if they are half asleep because what Jesus is teaching doesn’t matter to them one way or the other.
? But the third thing Jesus says is this: “they have closed their eyes” to what He was teaching.
? The people were purposefully refusing to understand or accept what Jesus was teaching. The result: the people refused Jesus’ offer of salvation and healing. So sad.
When we read verses 10-15 here in Matthew 13, we see that Jesus is not preventing people from becoming part of His circle and hearing the life-changing message of the gospel. No. The people were not seeing on purpose, and they were not hearing on purpose because of the hardness of their hearts.
Let’s contrast this with what Jesus said about the disciples in verse 16: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.” We are blessed when our eyes see, and our ears hear!
Now, why is Jesus’ explanation of why He taught using parables important to us today?
God is moving in our nation and in the world to bring the life-saving message of salvation to everyone who desires to hear it and accept it – who have ears to hear! When Jesus was here, everywhere He went, He preached the gospel of the kingdom and healed every sickness and every disease (Mark 9:35). Now look at what Jesus said to His disciples, and what He is saying to us today.
(37) Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; (38) Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Jesus wants us, the laborers, to minister to the harvest – preach the kingdom, heal every sickness and every disease just like He did! And, as we have seen in Mark 4, He wants us to understand one simple truth: not everyone is going to believe the gospel message. We are going to come across people who will refuse to hear.
But, ladies and gentlemen, that truth has no bearing on our laboring for the kingdom!
The Bible talks about a man who preached righteousness for 100 years to people, including his family members and close friends. Not one person outside of his immediate household “chose to listen and believe him.” Not one person “heard” the preacher of righteousness. The result: everyone who refused to hear died in the flood. That man was Noah. Noah had preached righteousness and the way out of certain death for 100 years. Those who died had ears, but they chose not to hear.
Hearing is a choice. Accepting what you hear is a choice.
The enemy of the soul will try to convince us that what we are doing is not bearing fruit. When people don’t respond to the gospel message, especially our family members and close friends, he will do everything he can to get us to take the rejection personally. He will try to get us to focus on “the lack of fruit” and not on the “faith we are walking in” that can produce the fruit.
The Lord helped me understand how to avoid this trap of deception with a passage from First Corinthians 3.
(1) And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
(2) I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
(3) For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
(4) For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
(5) Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
(6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
What the Lord helped me see and understand is that we only have two jobs as laborers. We will plant the gospel message into people’s lives, or we will water the gospel message that has already been planted into their lives. Planting and watering – that’s our only responsibility. Who has the responsibility for bringing forth the fruit? “…but God gave the increase.”
Let’s continue with verse seven.
(7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
(8) Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
(9) For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
Paul says the planter and the waterer are not anything. It’s not because what they do is not important. It is. But, without God doing His part, without God giving the increase, the planting and watering alone will not yield fruit. Do you see why we are not moved by the people who don’t hear? It is not our job to convince them to see or convince them to hear. We are simply the announcers of the good news!
Paul reminds us that our Father will reward us for our diligence in planting and watering because we are co-laboring with Him! In other words, now listen to me, the planters must do their jobs and waterers must do their jobs for God to do His job! That’s why Paul says “We are labourers together with God…”
In the Greek, the words labourers together mean “co-laborer or companion in labor.” Ladies and gentlemen, we labor as companions with our Father to bring the lost into His kingdom! What an honor! What a privilege!
My dear brother and sister in Christ, you will face people who will refuse to see and who will refuse hear the life-saving message of the gospel. But remember this and take comfort in it: your Father only asks you to plant and water and He will use your planting and watering to bring in the harvest!
