The Vision (9.4.26): The Secretly Growing Seed

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 4:26-34.

“And he said, so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground… and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how” (Mark 4:27-28).

“It is like a grain of mustard seed, which… is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it is sown, it groweth up... and shooteth out great branches…” (Mark 4:31-32).

What do we learn from our Lord’s parables of the secretly growing seed (Mark 4:26-29) and the mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32)?

First, we need to apply this teaching to our understanding of Christ’s kingdom. It is here, but not yet.

The Lord is sovereign over his own work. His kingdom is here, and it is secretly growing, just like that seed in the parable. It is his work. He will bring the fruit when he is pleased to do so and according to his timetable. Rest assured, however, a harvest time is coming.

Sometimes the present kingdom can look to us like such a small and weak thing. No bigger than a mustard seed. But it has a great God behind it. And when he is pleased it will become a mighty branch and a resting place for men from many nations.

As the prophet Zechariah asked, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10).

That is the view from the macro-scale, but we can also apply this, secondly, to the micro-scale.

You may look at the seed sown in you and see little growth and no fruit, and you may despair.

You may look at the small seed sown in the lives of loved ones, children, friends, and neighbors, and ask, Where’s the fruit?

We are reminded today to put our trust in the Lord. The kingdom is like a secretly growing seed. It is small as a mustard seed. But it is a great God’s work, and he who began this good work will be faithful to complete it. Consider the words of James:

James 5: ⁷ Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

⁸ Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

All the aches and pains and disappointments will indeed be ended at the time when Christ comes again with power and great glory. It will be the time of the final harvest, the final resurrection. So, let us take heart, fellow pilgrims. Let us be steadfast, unmoving, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

He is lisping this to us in ways we can understand and untangling it for us in ways we can grasp, as he did to the first disciples in parables (Mark 4:33-34).

The kingdom has come in Christ’s incarnational ministry. It is here right now. And it will be here one day in ways greater than we ever could have asked or imagined.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (8.28.26): Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel?

 

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 4:21-25.

And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? (Mark 4:21)

In his explanation of the parable of the sower, Christ told his disciples that the “good ground” was those who heard the word, received it, and brought forth fruit (Mark 4:20).

He followed this up with figurative teaching about a lamp or light that should not be hidden.

The simplest and most sparsely furnished first century home would have had these basic items, an earthen lamp, a basket, and a mat that rolled out into a bed.  The Lord Jesus is saying that when it is night a man does not take the candle or lamp and hide it under a bushel basket or under his bedding, but he puts it on a candlestick or lampstand.  And the higher you put it the more it illumines the room.

The Lord Jesus is here speaking about the responsibility of believers (good ground hearers) to be a source of light and truth in the world.  They have been given insight that others do not have.  They are glowing with the knowledge of the gospel and of Christ. This is not be hidden or obfuscated.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ made a similar point:

Matthew 5: ¹⁴ Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

¹⁵ Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We sometimes sing the children’s song based on this parable: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna to let it shine….”

In John’s Gospel there is an account of a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a “ruler of the Jews” who came to Christ “by night” (3:1-2). Later there is mention of another man named Joseph of Arimathea whom John describes as “being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38).

John records that when Christ was crucified and died on the cross, it was indeed Joseph who went to Pilate and asked for the Lord’s body for burial (John 19:40-42). John also notes that Nicodemus was there helping him (v.39).

Witnessing the cross work of Christ made these men finally cast caution to the wind and let their light shine, as they made it publicly known, whatever the consequences, that they were his disciples.

In John Calvin’s day there was a group of Frenchmen who had privately embraced the gospel but publicly and outwardly had remained in the Roman Church. Calvin wrote several tracts calling these men “Nicodemites” and urging them to declare outwardly what they had confessed inwardly.

Are we “good ground” hearers of the Word? Have we heard and received that Word, and are we bearing kingdom fruit?

If so we must not hide the light but set it as high as we can that others might see and be drawn to Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (3.10.23): Applications from the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

 

Image: First century oil lamp with original wick, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 25:1-13.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut (Matthew 25:10).

What applications can we draw from Christ’s parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)?

First, we are to be watchful as we live in “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4), never flagging in our zeal for the coming of Christ.

Christ closes with the exhortation, “Watch therefore” (v. 13a). We are to avoid the error of the foolish virgins, who were not prepared to live the Christian life for the long-haul.

I think one commentator got it right when he wrote, “The lamps that are lit are a symbol of spiritual intensity and vigilance, readiness to greet the Son of man who may come in any watch of the night. The lights that are going out, on the contrary, are a symbol of lack of preparedness for this meeting, of carelessness and irresponsibility” (Alfeyev, Parables, 371).

I remember as a younger Christian hearing often the warning that when we take up any activity or action in this life, we should ask ourselves, Would I be willing to be found doing this if Christ were to come in the midst of it? Or would it bring me shame and disgrace?

Second, there is a warning here against false professors.

The foolish virgins missed the coming of the bridegroom, “and the door was shut” (25:10b). They cried out, “Lord, Lord, open to us” (v. 11), but the bridegroom responded, “I know you not” (v. 12). This echoes Christ’s teaching on false professors in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:21-23).

We find various calls in the Scriptures for self-examination (see 1 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 13:5-6; 2 Peter 1:10).

Here are at least four Scriptural tests by which we might examine ourselves:

First: the doctrinal test. Do you say you believe? See Romans 10:9; Acts 8:37.

Second: The ethical test. Are you striving to keep the commands of Christ?

John 14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 15:14: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Third: The social test: Do you love the brethren?

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Fourth: The endurance test. Are you remaining in the faith?

Matthew 24:13: But he, that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

May we be like the wise virgins watching and ready when Christ, the Bridegroom, comes with power and great glory!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (6.3.22): Let them alone

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 15:10-20.

But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: “ (Matthew 15:13-14a).

When the disciples came to Christ reporting that the Pharisees have been offended by his teaching, he responded: “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up” (v. 13b).

This statement recalls other teachings of our Lord, like that in John 15:2, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.”

Even more striking is the parallel to Christ’s parable of the wheat and the tares, recorded in Matthew 13:24-30, in which Christ describes how an enemy came in the night and “sowed tares among the wheat” (v. 25). When the servants suggested to the master that he uproot the tares, he forbade them, lest “ye root up also the wheat with them” (v. 29). Instead, the wise householder said, “Let them grow together until the harvest” and then separate them (v. 30). See also Christ’s interpretation of the parable in 13:37-43.

What is Christ saying now in our passage? He is saying that these Pharisees are tares. They have not been planted by the heavenly Father, but by an enemy, the devil. This recalls Christ’s words to his opponents in John 8:44, “Ye of your father the devil.” At the end of the ages, Christ says, they will be rooted up!

Christ then adds in v. 14a: “Let them alone.” Again, this is like the parable of the wheat and the tares. The response of Christ to the presence of ungodly men in the assembly of the saints, unconverted men who claim to be pious and holy and conscientious, zealous for purity, is simply to let them alone. Wait till the day of judgement, when such men will be plucked up, placed in the scales of divine justice, and cast into hell.

There is a solemn warning here against those, like the Pharisees,  who were offended by Christ, never considering that Christ might be offended by them. Such men will one day be rooted up.

As with the parable of the tares, there is also a reminder here to the church that we must trust the Lord’s judgment in the end and not presume we can sort all these things out ourselves in this age. Sometimes the wisest thing to do is to heed Christ’s words: “Let them alone” (v. 14). We can trust the Lord to defend his own cause.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.15.22): Every Scribe Instructed Unto The Kingdom Of Heaven

 

Image: Red bud, North Garden, Virginia, April 2022.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 13:47-52.

Then he said unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old (Matthew 13:52).

Having completed his parabolic teaching in Matthew 13, Christ asks his disciples, “Have ye understood all these things?” (v. 51).

Every good teacher knows that after you’ve given the lessons, there needs to be some instrument of evaluation. Textbooks often provide summary questions at the close of each chapter to test comprehension. Christ is probing, examining, evaluating his disciples.

Matthew reports, “They say unto him, yea Lord” (v. 51). But did they really? Probably not. The witness of the Gospels is that the disciples did not really begin to understand all things till after the cross and resurrection (see, e.g., John 2:18-22).

Christ then says that every scribe instructed (literally, discipled) “unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who is a householder…” (v. 52).

There are several things of interest here.

To begin with, Christ compares his disciples to “scribes.” This is a rare positive use of the word scribe (grammateus). Usually, the scribes and the Pharisees are jointly listed as the chief enemies of our Lord. The Jewish scribes were experts in the law and responsible for the proper transmission of the Scriptures. Christ says here that his disciples are to be like Christian scribes, discipled in the ways of the kingdom in order properly to handle and divide God’s word and pass it on to others.

For another thing, Christ offers here yet another parable. Christian “scribes” are like a householder who brings forth of his treasure things new and old. What does this mean? Mature disciples will be able to bring forth all the things they have learned from Christ in the past alongside all the new things they are continuing to learn from him.

Spurgeon takes it as a general Christian duty: "What we understand we must teach. What we have received into our treasure we must bring forth. If the Lord has instructed us unto his kingdom, it is for the sake of others."

So, the student of Christ has learned Christ, but he is also always learning more about Christ. He never tires of adding more to the store of his knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and he never tires of sharing what he has received with others for their edification.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.8.22): Finding Hidden Treasure & Seeking the One Pearl

 

Image: Pear tree blossoms, North Garden, Virginia, April 2022

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 13:44-46.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a pearl…. (Matthew 13:44).

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls…. (Matthew 13:45).

In Matthew 13:44-46 Christ tells the twin parables of hidden treasure and the merchant man seeking goodly pearls.

They describe two different ways by which the thing of greatest value (the kingdom, Christ himself) is discovered.

In the first parable, of the hidden treasure, “the kingdom of heaven is presented as an unexpected discovery” (Alfeyev, Parables, 118). “The man who bought the field, it seems, was not seeking anything in particular. He unexpectedly stumbled upon the kingdom of heaven, finding it as a treasure buried in someone else’s field” (118-119). In the second, however, it comes as “the result of a search” (118).

This seems to indicate that different people find Christ and the gospel in different ways.

Some people seem just to stumble upon him. They weren’t really looking for Christ, but they uncovered him or encountered him unexpectedly. But once they find him, they see and recognize his inherent value, and they know that everything must be given up for him.

Some, on the other hand, go out seeking “goodly pearls.” They may be, as the old country song puts it, “looking for love in all the wrong places.” But they keep looking, and one day they come across Christ, and they say, Here is the one pearl. Here in the pearl of unparalleled value, and I must spend all I have in order to have him.

They are like the ones Christ promised in Matthew 7:7-8 that if they would ask, it would be given them; if they would seek, they would find; if they would knock, the door would be opened.

It doesn’t matter how you think you found Christ. Whether you stumbled upon him, like a treasure in a field, or whether you thought you went out looking for someone like him or something like the faith connected to him, and you discovered him to be the “one” pearl of great price. It had, in fact, been he who was seeking you the whole time. “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). If I might paraphrase: We found him, because he first found us.

Spurgeon notes this difference between the two parables and concludes:

“In both cases all was sold to win the prize; and so in any case, however our conversion takes place, we must give up all for Christ.; not of compulsion but willingly” (Matthew, 184).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff

The Vision (4.1.22): The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed

 

Image: Ground cover, North Garden, Virginia, April 2022.

Note: Devotional take from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 13:31-35.

Another parable, put he forth unto them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field (Matthew 13:31).

This parable is striking on a prophetic and historical level. Christ is our great Prophet, Priest, and King. When Christ spoke these words, he was an itinerant teacher with what, in the world’s eyes, would have seemed a small and insignificant following. A Jewish teacher with twelve disciples. Who would have ever guessed that this movement would grow into a mighty branch, become a resting place for men and women of all nations, and that it would leaven the whole world?

Think of the humble beginnings.  A Jewish messiah in the backwater of Palestine leading a movement that ends with his crucifixion and claims by his followers of his resurrection.  His apostles were primarily a rough mix of unlearned men, fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and one brilliant former Pharisee.  Within a few decades pockets of his followers would gather in every major city of the ancient world, meeting in his name and singing songs to Christ as to God.  In Philippians 4:22 Paul can send a greeting to his fellow believers in “Caesar’s household”!

We can trace how his followers brought an end to blood sports in the Roman Empire; raised literacy through their dogged determination to read Scripture; established the world’s first hospitals, universities, and orphanages; ended slavery in the Western world; brought dignity to women; created a climate where personal, intellectual and economic freedom abounded and where science and technology blossomed.

We can trace that movement as it suffered corruption and then rebirth at the Reformation, going back to the roots of Biblical faith.

Everywhere Christ is preached there is light and truth and blessing.

Spurgeon observed:

We could not have guessed that our Lord and his twelve apostles would produce the myriad churches of Christendom. We cannot even now tell whereto a humble effort to do good may grow. We know not to what our inner life will come. It has an expanding power within it, and it will burst every bond, and grow to a thing which will cast shadow, yield fruit, and lend shelter. If the Lord has planted the incorruptible seed within, its destiny is a great one (Matthew, 179).

We might lament those today who ignorantly try to push it to the margins, but let us not lose hope.  He is still expanding his kingdom, and one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.

 Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (3.25.22): Spurgeon on the Parable of the Tares of the field

 

Image: Forsythia, North Garden, Virginia, March 2022.

Note: Ipreached last Sunday on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-44 (or, as the disciples call it in Matt 13:36, “the parable of the tares of the field”). As I’ve preached through Matthew I have been reading Spurgeon’s commentary on this Gospel (Matthew: The Gospel of the Kingdom, Banner of Truth, 1893, 2019). Here are a few quotations from Spurgeon I tweeted out this week:

Matt 13:28: "He said unto them, An enemy hath done this...."

Spurgeon: "It may have been a learned doctor, or a clever poet, or a treacherous orator, who scattered doubt among the people, and introduced skeptics into the church; but the worker behind the scenes, the real author of the mischief, is always the devil himself."

Matt 13:29: "But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them."

Spurgeon: "Hasty disciplinarians have often cast out the best and retained the worst. Where evil is clear and open, we may not hesitate to deal with it; but where it is questionable, we had better hold our hand till we have fuller guidance."

Matt 13:30: "Let both grow together...."

Spurgeon: "Magistrates and churches may remove the openly wicked from their society; the outwardly good who are inwardly worthless they must leave; for the judging of hearts is beyond their sphere."

Matt 13:38: "The field is the world...."

Spurgeon: "In many cases the cruel treatment of the very best men has been produced by the notion that they were erroneous teachers and therefore ought not to be tolerated. To contend earnestly against error by spiritual means is right and needful, but to use carnal weapons, and other remedies of force, is absolute folly and wickedness. This world is now a field of mingled growths, and so it must be till the end come."

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle