ARME 2: Canby, OR - May 2010

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ARME Bible Camp

Daniel Vis

The Heart to Understand The Word

Just a few more hours and we'll be heading back our different directions.

And we have lots to take back with us, don't we?

It's been a blessing, a great experience.

Thank you so much again to all the organizers for a chance to be able to come.

It's been a huge blessing for my wife and I.

We have another engagement we need to rush to right after this meeting, so we'll be leaving just immediately after.

Won't be able to stay for the whole program, So I'd like to also extend my appreciation to each of you for listening and the questions and the comments.

I've enjoyed getting to meet many of you also.

I did have a couple, quite a few people actually, Ask me some questions about our fast materials.

I didn't have a chance really to set any out, but if you're interested again in getting some of our training tools, I just want to point you to our website.

We have all of our resources on there, many free resources, Some are printed that cost a small amount to cover our cost of production.

But we have quite a bit of information there, including tools for Bible memorization, including tools on personal discipleship, including resources for evangelism, particularly small group evangelism, Bible doctrines, Bible prophecy, lots of resources.

I've had several people ask about the material I presented yesterday, the moral machinery.

We do not yet have that in printed form, but we're working on a book.

That is actually 1 chapter out of the book.

That should be, we have the rough draft pretty much finished.

We'll hopefully have the cover and the editing and all that done within the next few months.

So if you go to our website and get on our mailing list and you're interested in that material in printed form, well, I should have that ready very soon.

But anyway, thanks again for the chance to be here and to be able to share a little bit.

This morning I'd like to talk about an aspect of Bible study that very rarely gets addressed.

And yet in my view, it is 1 of the most important, perhaps the most important key to studying the Bible.

And so I invite you to bow your head with me for just a moment of prayer as we begin our topic.

Father in Heaven, we thank you again just for the wonderful blessings we've received these last few days, but we still need your spirit.

We pray that you would speak to us this morning as we continue to study and on into the next session as well.

Make your word simple and clear, open our understanding that we may know exactly what you would have us to know.

Work in our hearts we pray and I thank you and ask this in Jesus name.

Turn with me in your Bible to the book of Luke chapter 8.

I want to look at a verse that was a perplexity to me for a very long time.

In the context, you have the parable of the sower.

Jesus had just talked about the seed and the different kinds of soil, and you're familiar with the parable.

In Luke chapter 8, verse 9, the Bible says, The disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?

The disciples wanted to know what Jesus was saying.

And then notice Jesus' answer to their question.

And He said, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

And then he proceeds to explain what the parable meant to the disciples.

And I remember reading this as a new Christian and the thought crossed my mind, why would Jesus use parables so that even though they could see him speaking, they couldn't see what he was saying.

So that even though they could hear the words, they could not understand what he was trying to say.

It almost seems as if he was attempting to hide the very message he was trying to communicate.

Sometimes you'll run across verses in the Bible that just do not make sense.

And you have to file them on a shelf and say, Lord, 1 of these days I trust you're going to help me to understand this, but right now I'm going to go by what I know about your character in other places.

There's something I don't get about this verse, but I'm just going to file it on the shelf and 1 day you'll explain it to me.

You know, sometimes those verses may not even get explained in this life.

Some of them we may wait till we get in the kingdom before Jesus gives us that explanation that helps us to understand some of these difficult things in the Word of God.

But I remember reading this and thinking, why would Jesus use parables so that seeing they could not see and hearing they could not hear.

If you turn with me to the book of Mark, the same account is recorded in Mark chapter 4, but it's even a little bit more problematic in Mark.

Mark chapter 4, verse 11, exactly the same content.

He had just given them the parable of the sower.

And look in verse, we'll start with verse 10.

When he was alone, they that were with him, with the 12, asked him of the parable, and noticed his answer.

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, 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 that their sins should be forgiven them." This is even more Confusing.

Why would Jesus use parables so that they could not see, could not hear, could not perceive, could not understand?

Because if they understood, there might be a chance they would be converted and their sins would be forgiven.

In fact, notice verse 34, the same chapter.

The Bible says, "...without a parable spake he not unto them." In other words, every time Jesus got up in front of the people, He would use a parable, and He wouldn't speak to them clearly, in a way we might normally expect him to, but he was constantly using parables.

And it almost sounds as if he was using parables so they would not be converted and their sins would not be forgiven.

And I thought, Lord, I don't understand this.

Now let me just tell you something real quick.

The problem in these verses has to do with the translation.

Okay, we're going to look at Matthew's version of it and it translates it almost exactly the same, just 1 word different.

But it completely changes the meaning of these verses.

But we get a clue right here in the passage.

It wasn't actually to keep them from understanding truth, But notice verse 33, we have a clue.

And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to bear it.

We have a clue right here in the Word of God that we're not getting the passage exactly right.

Jesus was actually using parables so they could get it, as they were able to bear it.

Well, turn with me to Matthew chapter 13.

Now, You'll have to follow very closely to get the difference between these 3 passages.

I've looked in the original Greek and Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all 3 of these parables, and it's exactly the same Greek expression, but for whatever reason, Matthew translates it almost exactly the same, just 1 key word different.

Matthew chapter 13 starting with verse 10.

Again, right after the parable of the sower, the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

Same answer, he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

And by the way, notice that phrase, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

We're going to come back to that in a minute.

Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.

But whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has.

Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing hear not, neither do they understand." Do you notice the difference in here?

In the other versions, in Mark and Luke, it says, He speaks in parables that seeing they won't see and hearing they won't hear.

But here Jesus says I'm speaking in parables because seeing they can't see and hearing they can't hear.

Is there a difference between those 2 words?

See in the other versions, and I think it's just a mistranslation, and there are mistranslations even in the good old King James.

The problem in Mark and Luke, it sounds like Jesus is saying, I'm using parables so that they will not be able to understand.

But in Matthew we see a more correct translation.

Jesus saying, I'm using parables because they already have a problem.

And parables, in fact, are the only way to get through to them.

The Heart to Understand The Word

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