PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM – THE FIRST - THE SOWER OR RATHER THE SOIL – Part 7 of 7
This final message is covering some new ground for you. We have been looking at the Parable of the Sower and now look into its position in Church History. It is a shorter message.
TWO INTERESTING, IMPORTANT FOLLOW-ONS FROM THIS PARABLE OF THE FOUR SOILS/SOWER
The parallels of the 7 Kingdom Parables of Matthew 13 with the 7 churches of Asia Minor to whom the Apostle John wrote are quite remarkable - The 7 Kingdom Parables match the 7 Churches in Asia Minor. This is quite fascinating actually. Shortly we will see that there there is some correlation with 7 periods of Church History from Pentecost to now.
What I am going to write on now might seem strange to some because they have never heard it before. Some might think it is fanciful but please consider it. If you are encouraged through it, very good, but if you disagree I won’t take issue with you.
[A]. NUMBER 1 – THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS
In this series we will match each parable with one of the churches in Asia Minor from Revelation 2 and 3. This time it is Ephesus.
WE DO THE FIRST HERE. THE SOWER AND THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS
Ephesus is the most doctrinal letter Paul wrote discounting Romans, which I like to think of as The Gospel According to Paul.
Ephesus was crowned by the Temple of Diana, four times as large as the Parthenon and the city was chocked by idolatry and occult practices. Its name means “Desired one” or “Desirable”. It is the term applied by a lover to the woman of his choice. All these churches arose from within Asia meaning “slime” or “mire.”
Jesus called His Church through the cross, (the Church = the Desired One}, from the mire of the world. He has established it forever as the Desired One, His Bride. Ephesus represents the calling of His Church as it was in the first century.
The City was the centre for the study of arts and magic; renowned worldwide for talismans, incantations, magical books and charms. The city was deeply infected with black arts of the exorcists, mystic names, secret magical rites.
John’s letter to this church shows the wooing of the church, the decline of the first love and the rise of ecclesiastical pretensions. That is the picture existing at the end of the Apostolic period, around 100 AD. A church council at Ephesus of 200 bishops in AD 431 decided to call Mary “The Mother of God”, a further elevation of her position to a supreme being. Long before this though, even at the end of the first century, love had declined and enthusiasm was disappearing. This letter covers in a prophetic sense the church history from Pentecost to the end of the first century.
QUICK EXAMINATION OF THE EPHESIAN LETTER – Revelation 2:1-7
(A). THERE WAS A REAL TRUENESS TO THE PREACHING OF THE SOWN WORD. John commended them – {{Revelation 2:2 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, and you found them to be false.”}} It is wonderful that the Ephesian church of A.D. 96 remained true to the teaching of Paul. The seed had fallen on the good ground.
(B). The church fought against error. {{Revelation 2:6 “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate.”}} They fought hard to maintain the purity of the good seed to keep it from contamination.
(C). THE SEED WAS BEING TESTED. There was the beginning of fracturing here – {{Revelation 2:4-5 “but I have this against you, THAT YOU HAVE LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and REPENT and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place - unless you repent.”}} The Ephesian church remained loyal to the true seed they had accepted, and became converted, but their love for the Lord was slipping.
After 45 or so years they would have scored very highly, BUT they had settled down and did not cherish the good seed as they should have, and so they left their original love they had in Paul’s time. People misquote this. They had NOT LOST their first love; they had stepped slowly and imperceptibly away from it, leaving it, and may not even have noticed. That is a real challenge to us also.
[B]. NUMBER 2 – THE APOSTOLIC AGE
The 7 Kingdom Parables also match 7 periods in Church History. This is quite fascinating actually.
The first period was the Apostolic age and that ended around A.D. 96 or 100. The Apostle John was the last of the disciples. His writings – all done around 96 A.D. ended the Canon of New Testament scripture. There have been no more revelations since, or additions to scripture. That also ended all prophecy so those running around today claiming to be prophets with so called prophecies from God, are false.
This period represented the seed being sown by the Apostles. They were the sowers, directly from the Lord. Jesus was the initial Sower for this period. As their ministry and evangelism ended, the church was beginning to be affected by error and the start of persecution, and was leaving its first love.
WRAPPING IT ALL UP:
The Church chosen by Christ is DESIRED and desirable. He raised it from the mire of sin and established it on the good foundation. Ephesus had left its first love (not lost it). What was “desired” and “desirable” like the lovely woman a man chooses, had become indifferent to love’s claim by the end of the first century. The honeymoon love of the Apostolic church was in decline.
Thus this Ephesus period represents the establishment of the chosen one of Christ (His Desired one, the CHURCH, His Body) and sees it in decline by the close of the Apostolic period in around 96 A.D. They had not renounced the faith. They became cold and just stepped aside from their love. They left it - not lost it. (How careful we must be). (Revelation 2:4). The Lord promised if they would not repent from that He would remove their standing and witness (lampstand or candlestick [AV]) – {{Revelation 2:5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you AND WILL REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND OUT OF ITS PLACE - unless you repent.”}}
It matches the first of the Kingdom Parables - the Sower (Matthew 13:3-23). The Sower is the Lord and represents the beginnings of the Church with the sowing of the seed, the preaching of the Word of God, and includes the mixed results of that sowing. It fits the Ephesus period so well. The Lord, through the Holy Spirit is sowing the word of God.
The next parable will be the wheat and the tares (or darnel, false wheat). We shall look at that Parable and its relationship to Smyrna.
