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.
34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:"
Today, I want to preach about an important attitude to have in order to understand parables. We can gleam some facts from the above verses.
That is to say, to know the mystery of heaven is permitted to the disciples but not for "the multitude" or the masses of people. Another fact is that this distinction between disciples and people is made through parables. In other words, if any person is not the Lord's disciple, then the mysteries of the parables are not opened to him or her. Therefore, if we want to seek the understanding of parables, we have to ask myself this question first. "Am I a disciple of the Lord or not?" If we are not His disciples, we should become one. If we do not, we forfeit knowledge into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
In the time of Jesus, there were disciples of his. In this time period, there also are disciples of the Lord and shallow followers of the multitude (believers but not disciples). There has elapsed 2000 years since the time of Jesus. So, by now we have been able to acquire every kind of biblical information. In the Christian church, we have acquired every kind of biblical commentary and reference book. We are now living in this age of information, including biblical info. But have we gotten to know every kind of biblical knowledge that there is? Hardly not. This world is really chock full of information. But the truth still stands of the Lord's word that says, "but to them (people) it is not given."
If it was not permitted to people at large "to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" in Jesus' age, it remains so even in this age.
In the age of Jesus, the disciples and the people are divided by access to parabolic understanding. It is also true even now. Now, we have so many Bible commentaries or reference books as compared to Jesus' time. However, one fact is still true, which is, Jesus opens his parables to his disciples while the people remain separated from the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven because of parables. They are on the opposite side of the parable.
Many people write many descriptions about Bible parables. Many commentaries and reference books are published to no end. But one fact is still clear. That is, a parable is opened to disciples and not to the people. If any person is not the Lord's disciple, regardless of how intelligent or educated, this principle remains unchanged.
Intelligent persons may try to write commentaries on the scripture but unless they are a true disciple of the Lord they will not be able to truly break open the parable and feed the sheep concerning the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. We are living in risky days because of the huge amount of books being written and the number of false teachers out there.
When false teachers write and teach, it is really "the blind leading the blind" and "both will drop into the hole." That is to say, both teacher and people can not grasp the truth of Bible. Therefore, it is important for us to judge everything before we read any commentary or book.
In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes could not understand the parables told by Jesus, "seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand." They were not even aware of the fact they did "not understand." They had a strong but false conviction about their correctness. So, can we not conclude that "the same error may happen in our age?" Therefore, when we try to understand a parable of Bible through a commentary, it is very important whether the author of that commentary is the Lord's disciple or not.
Some people think like this: if one reads enough commentaries, any Christian can understand a biblical parable, prophecy, or mystery. But, the reality is this: if you are not a true disciple of Jesus, you are dead wrong. Because the Lord clearly told us, "but to them (people) it is not given."
Let's be the Lord's disciple and proceed on to the mystery of the kingdom
of heaven.
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