Growing Opposition

Second Preaching Tour of Galilee

(Lk 8:1-3)

^8:1Soon afterward he started traveling from one town and village to another, announcing God’s kingdom. The twelve were with him, ²as well as some women that he’d healed from evil spirits and illnesses: Mary, called the Magdalene, that seven demons had come out of; ³Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager; Susanna, and quite a few that were contributing to them out of their personal resources.

The Pharisees’ Charge That Jesus

Was in League with the Devil

(Mt 12:22-37; Mk 3:20-30)

²⁰He came home, and again such a crowd gathered that he and his disciples couldn’t even eat. ²¹When his neighbors heard about it, they went out to take custody of him because they said he was out of his mind.

²²Then they brought Jesus a demon-possessed blind mute, and he healed him; he could speak and see. ²³The crowds were amazed, “This isn’t the Son of David, is it?”

²⁴When ²²scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem heard it, they said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.”

²⁵He knew their thoughts and called them over and gave them an illustration.

“What sense would it make for Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴A kingdom divided against itself can’t stand and is desolate. No city or ²⁵household divided against itself can stand. ²⁶If Satan casts out Satan, he’s at cross purposes with himself; so how will his kingdom stand? ²⁷If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, who do your students cast them out by? So judge for yourselves.

²⁸“If I cast out demons by the God’s Spirit, then God’s kingdom has reached you. ²⁹How can somebody go in a strong man’s house and seize his property unless he ties him up first? Then he can ransack his house.

³⁰“Whoever’s not with me is against me, and whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters around. ³¹So, every sin or blasphemy can be forgiven except blasphemy against the Spirit. ³²Whoever insults the Son of Man can be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit won’t ever be forgiven in this age or the next. [³⁰He gave them this warning because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”]

³³“Consider a tree and its fruit good or bad together, because a tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴Nest of vipers! How can you evil people say good things? The mouth says what the heart holds. ³⁵A good person brings good things out of his good treasure, and a bad person brings out bad things.

³⁶“At the judgment, people will give account for every off-handed comment they say. ³⁷What you say will justify you or condemn you.”

Scribes and Pharisees Demand a Sign

(Mt 12:38-45)

³⁸Some scribes and Pharisees answered, “Rabbi, we want to see a sign from you.”

³⁹He answered them,

“An evil and adulterous generation is straining to find a sign, but it won’t get one—except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰As ‘JONAH WAS IN THE STOMACH OF THE SEA MONSTER FOR THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS’ [Jon 1:7], the Son of Man will be in the ground for three days and nights. ⁴¹The people of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with people of today and condemn them. They repented at the preaching of Jonah; something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴²The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with people of today and condemn them. She came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon’s wisdom; something greater than Solomon is here.

⁴³“When an unclean spirit leaves a person, it wanders through desert places looking for rest and doesn’t find any. ⁴⁴It says, ‘I’m going back to the house I left.’ He goes and finds it empty, swept out, and decorated. ⁴⁵Then he takes seven spirits worse than he is, and goes in and takes up permanent residence. That person’s last condition is worse than the first. That’s the way it’ll be with today’s evil people.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

Interrupt His Ministry

(Mt 12:46-50; Mk 3:31-35; Lk 8:19-21)

⁴⁶While he was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers were standing on the outside of the crowd, trying to get to him to speak to him. ³¹They sent a message in to him, calling him. ²⁰It was relayed, “Your mother and brothers [and sisters]ms are standing outside the crowd and want to see you.”

³⁴He looked at the crowd sitting in a circle around him, ⁴⁸“Who’s my mother? Who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹He held out his hand toward his disciples, “My mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰Whoever hears God’s message and does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, my sister, my mother.”

The Sermon in Parables

(Mt 13:1-35; Mk 4:1-34; Lk 8:4-18)

13:1That day Jesus left the house and sat down by the lake. ⁴A large crowd was gathering, and people from various towns were traveling to him. ²So many were gathering that he got in a boat and sat down while the crowd stood on the shore. 3He spoke for a long time in parables.

“Listen. A sower went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he sowed, some seed fell along the path. People walked on it, and birds ate it.

⁵“Some fell on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much soil. It sprouted up right away because the soil was thin. ⁶But when the sun climbed high, it was scorched, ⁶and shriveled up because it didn’t have roots or enough moisture.

⁷“Some fell among thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it out, and it didn’t produce anything.

⁸“But others fell on good ground, grew up, and produced thirty, sixty, or a hundred times over.

⁹“Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁰When he was by himself, the ones around him with the twelve asked him, ¹⁰“Why are you speaking to them in parables?”

¹¹“Because you’re allowed to know the unrevealed things about the kingdom of heaven, but they’re not allowed to know. ¹²Whoever has, will receive; whoever doesn’t have, will lose even what he has. ¹³That’s why to the rest outside I deliver the message in parables so that, though they see, they don’t see; though they hear, they don’t “hear or understand.” ¹⁴They illustrate the way Isaiah describes them:

‘THEY’LL CERTAINLY HEAR, BUT NOT UNDERSTAND;

THEY’LL SEE, BUT NOT PERCEIVE,

¹⁵BECAUSE THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME INSENSITIVE.

THEY’RE HARD OF HEARING, AND

THEY’VE CLOSED THEIR EYES

SO THEY WON’T SEE WITH THEIR EYES

OR HEAR WITH THEIR EARS

OR COMPREHEND WITH THEIR HEART

AND BE CONVERTED

AND I SHOULD HEAL THEM’ [Is 6:9-10].

¹⁶“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷Many prophets and good people have wanted to see what you’re seeing and didn’t see it, and to hear what you’re hearing and didn’t hear it.

¹³“You don’t understand this parable? How will you understand any parable? ¹⁸You listen, then, to the parable about the sower. ¹¹This is what it means:

“The seed is God’s message about the kingdom. ¹⁴The sower sows the message. ¹²The seeds along the path represent people that hear it and don’t understand it. The devil comes and takes it away from their heart so they won’t believe it and be saved.

¹³“The seeds on rocky ground represent people that hear the message and are happy to accept it right away. But they don’t have root in themselves and just last a while. In trying times, difficulties, or persecution because of the message, they soon give up their faith.

¹⁴“The seeds that fell among the thorns represent people that hear the message; but as they go, the cares of the world, the deception of wealth, the pleasures of life, the desire for other things chokes them out, and they don’t produce anything.

¹⁵“But the seeds in the good ground represent people that hear the message with a good and upright heart. They understand it, and produce thirty, sixty, a hundred times over by staying with it.

¹⁶“People don’t light a lamp and stick it under a bucket or a bed. They put it on a stand so people that come in can see it. ¹⁷Everything hidden will become obvious; everything secret will come to light and become known. ²³Whoever has an ear, let him hear!

²⁴“Be careful what you listen to. The measure you measure with you’ll be measured by—and more so. ²⁵Whoever has, will receive more; whoever doesn’t have, will lose what he does have.”

²⁴He presented another parable.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man that sowed clean seed in his field. ²⁵While people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnels in the wheat. ²⁶When the plants grew and began to make, the darnels showed up too. ²⁷The servants came to the owner, ‘Sir, didn’t you plant clean seed in your field? Where’d darnels come from?’

²⁸The owner said, ‘An enemy has done this.’

“‘Do you want us to go pull them up?’

²⁹“‘No, that would uproot the wheat too. ³⁰Let them grow up together till harvest. I’ll tell the reapers, “Gather up the darnels first and tie them in bundles to burn, but gather the wheat into my granary.”’

²⁶“God’s kingdom is like a man that puts seed in the ground. ²⁷He sleeps and gets up night and day, but he doesn’t know how the seed sprouts and grows. ²⁸The ground produces crops on its own—the stalk, the head, then the grain in the head. ²⁹When the crop is ripe, he gets out his scythe because it’s time to harvest it.

³⁰“What can we compare God’s kingdom to? What’s it like? ³¹It’s like a mustard seed ³¹a man planted in his garden. ³²What’s smaller than all the other seeds people plant, ³²grows up bigger than the other garden plants, and puts out branches so birds build nests in its shade.

³³“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast a woman put in a bushel of meal till the whole bushel had risen.”

³³Only with parables like these was he speaking the message to the general audiences as they could understand. ³⁴Privately he’d explain them to his disciples. He did so ³⁵like the prophet said,

“I’LL SPEAK TO THEM IN PARABLES;

I’LL DECLARE THINGS UNREVEALED SINCE THE FOUNDING OF

THE WORLD” [Ps 78:2].

Further Private Instruction in Parables

(Mt 13:36-53)

³⁶He left the crowd and went in the house. His disciples came, “Explain the parable about the darnels in the field.”

³⁷Jesus answered,

“The One who sowed the clean seed is the Son of Man, ³⁸the field is the world, the clean seed is the sons of the kingdom, the darnels are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹the enemy that sowed them is the devil, ⁴⁰the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴¹The darnels are gathered and burned just like it’ll be at the end of the age: the Son of Man will send his angels to gather out of his realm everything that causes stumbling and people that do lawlessness, ⁴²and throw them in the furnace. There’ll be bitter crying and gnashing of teeth there. ⁴³Good people will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Whoever has ears, let him hear!

⁴⁴“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure a man found in a field. He hid it and with excitement went and sold everything he had and bought that field.

⁴⁵“The kingdom is like a businessman who was looking for valuable pearls. ⁴⁶When he found a really valuable one, he sold everything he had and bought it.

⁴⁷“The kingdom is like a net cast in the lake and gathers every kind of fish. ⁴⁸When it’s full, the fishermen pull it up on the shore and sit down. They put the good ones in containers and throw the bad ones away. ⁴⁹That’s how it’ll be at the end of the world. The angels will come out and separate the bad from the good, ⁵⁰and throw them in the furnace. There will be bitter crying and gnashing of teeth there.

⁵¹“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

⁵²“So, every scribe that’s become a kingdom disciple is like a homeowner that brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he left.