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In episode 471 of The Reformed Brotherhood, hosts Jesse Schwamb and Tony Arsenal begin a multi-part series on Jesus's parables of lost things in Luke 15. This first installment focuses on the Parable of the Lost Sheep, exploring how Jesus uses this story to reveal God's disposition toward sinners. The hosts examine the contextual significance of this teaching as Jesus's response to the Pharisees' criticism of his fellowship with tax collectors and sinners. Through careful analysis of the text, they unpack how this parable not only rebukes religious self-righteousness but also reveals the active, seeking love of Christ for His own. The discussion highlights the profound theological truth that God's joy is made complete in the restoration of His lost children.
The central focus of the Parable of the Lost Sheep is not simply God's willingness to receive sinners, but His active pursuit of them. As Tony Arsenal points out, Jesus presents the shepherd's search not as an extraordinary act of sacrifice, but as the obvious and expected response: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost?" Jesus frames this as the normal behavior that any shepherd would exhibit, making the Pharisees' lack of concern for "lost sheep" appear not just uncompassionate but utterly irrational.
This reveals a profound truth about God's character: He is not passively waiting for sinners to find their way back to Him; He is actively seeking them out. As Jesse Schwamb emphasizes, "Christ's love is an active, working love." The shepherd does not merely hope the sheep will return; he goes after it until he finds it. This reflects God's covenant commitment to His people—those whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world. The parable thus powerfully illustrates the doctrines of divine election and effectual calling within a deeply personal and relational framework.
Perhaps the most striking element of this parable is the emphasis on the shepherd's joy upon finding his lost sheep. This isn't merely relief at recovering lost property, but profound celebration that calls for community participation: "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost." Jesse highlights Thomas Goodwin's profound insight that "Christ's own joy, comfort, happiness, and glory are increased and enlarged by his showing grace and mercy."
This suggests something remarkable about God's relationship with His people—that in some mysterious way, God's joy is made more complete in the act of showing mercy and restoring sinners. The hosts point out that this doesn't imply any deficiency in God, but rather reveals the relational nature of His love. When Jesus states that "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance," He's indicating that divine celebration isn't prompted merely by moral perfection but by restoration and reconciliation.
This understanding transforms how we approach God when we've strayed. As Jesse notes, "Jesus is never tired, flustered, or frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness or renewed pardon." Our repentance doesn't merely avoid punishment; it actually brings joy to the heart of God. This is a profound comfort for believers struggling with sin and failure, assuring us that our return is met not with divine disappointment but with heavenly celebration.
"This parable of the lost sheep gives us the beating heart of God, his normative disposition toward his children. It's really an exceptional and special window into God's design, his loving compassion for us, his heart of ministry and seeking for us, for his children who are lost." - Jesse Schwamb
"He wants us to draw on his grace and mercy because it is inherently who he is. And he drew near to us in this incarnation so that his joy and ours could rise and fall together, which is insane that God would come and condescend to that degree that in his giving mercy and in ours receiving it, Christ gets more joy and comfort than we do when we come to him for help and mercy." - Jesse Schwamb
"Christ's love is an active working love. Just as the shepherd did not sit still, wailing for his lost sheep, so our blessed Lord did not sit still in heaven pitying sinners. He comes to us, he came to us, and he continues to draw to himself those who are sheep, who hear his voice." - Jesse Schwamb
[00:00:08] Jesse Schwamb: And what's special about the series? Parables that we're about to look at is it gives us the beating heart of God, his normative disposition toward his children, which is not like, we haven't seen some of that already, but this is, I think, really an exceptional and special window into God's design.
His loving can compare for us, his heart of ministry and seeking for us for his children who are lost. It's really unequal in all the parables and probably among some of the most famous, Welcome to episode 471 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
[00:00:56] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother.
[00:01:01] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. You know, it seems like sometimes we could just summarize the teaching of Jesus like this. You get a parable and you get a parable, and you get a parable, and we've already, by looking at some of these parables, gotten to see what the kingdom of God means.
The kingdom of God is Jesus coming in His power. It's here, but also not yet. The kingdom of God is the judgment of God. The kingdom of God is a blessing of God. The kingdom of God is the treasure of God. And what's special about the series? Parables that we're about to look at is it gives us the beating heart of God, his normative disposition toward his children, which is not like, we haven't seen some of that already, but this is, I think, really an exceptional and special window into God's design.
His loving can compare for us, his heart of ministry and seeking for us for his children who are lost. It's really unequal in all the parables and probably among some of the most famous, and I think we'll probably have some maybe like semi hot takes, maybe some like mid hot takes as the young kids say.
[00:02:07] Tony Arsenal: Mid hot takes.
[00:02:08] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
[00:02:08] Tony Arsenal: So like
[00:02:09] Jesse Schwamb: lukewarm takes, well my thought is like, what is a hot take that's not heretical? Do you know what I mean? So it's gotta be, yeah,
[00:02:16] Tony Arsenal: there you go.
[00:02:16] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. That's what I'm saying. It's like, listen, we want to be orthodox in our approach here, but I think we gotta, we gotta chew these up a little bit.
Like we gotta digest them, we gotta move them around in our gut and really take everything that we've, we thought we knew about these, we just heard and they've been written on cards or postcards or crocheted into, I guess you're not crocheting bible verses, but like cross stitching Bible verses on pillows and really go deep because I think there's so much here for us, and if this were like for, for everybody that wants to say that, sometimes we take a little bit too long with our series.
Again, I do have a question, simple question for all of those people. And that question is how dare you? And the second thing I would say is, you're lucky that you're not listening to a Puritan podcast. Maybe you never would, like at the Puritans in a podcast, the series would never end. They'd start with like a single verse and be like, we're gonna do two episodes on this.
And then they'd be getting to the like, you know, 4 71 and they still wouldn't have left like the, the first five words.
[00:03:11] Tony Arsenal: It's true, it's true. We move a little bit faster than that. Pace. Not much. Yeah. Way,
[00:03:15] Jesse Schwamb: listen, way faster. By like Puritan standards, we are cruising. Like we're, we're just like NASCAR going through these parables.
And to that end, I'll try to keep us moving though. I've already delayed us already because we're, we're late for affirmations.
[00:03:30] Jesse Schwamb: Denials. The time is ripe. It is Now. The fields are gleaning with affirmations and denials. So let's, let's bring them in. Tony, are you denying against, are you affirming with something?
[00:03:40] Tony Arsenal: It's a little bit of both, I guess. Um, do it.
[00:03:44] Tony Arsenal: A little while ago, uh, it was maybe back in September, I did an episode on, uh, some theology that was being propagated by a podcast called Reformed Fringe. Um, it was a solo episode, so if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it. The affirmation here comes in, in, uh, the form of a show called, I think it's called The Reclamation Cast.
Um, there are a series of podcasts that have addressed some of the same issues. For those who haven't been following it, which I would assume is probably most of you, the issue is kind of blown up online. Um, Theo Cast, which was a pretty big a, a really big podcast in the, uh, sort of reformed ish, particular Baptist world.
Um, they actually split because of this. And so John Moffitt was one of the hosts. Justin Perdue was the other. And then John was also on this show called Reform Fringe with Doug Van Dorn. So I'm affirming some of these other podcasts that have covered the same issue, and I would encourage you to seek them out and listen to them.
I can can pull some links together for the show notes today. Um, more or less the, the issue that I identified, um, is beyond just sort of what's known as Divine Counsel Theology, which was made, made, really made popular by, um, Michael Heiser. I don't know that he would, we could say that he was necessarily like the.
Architect or inventor of that. I'm sure there are people who've had similar thoughts before that, but he's really the main name. Um, he's passed on now, but, um, Doug Van Dorn was a, uh, he's a Baptist pastor outta Col, uh, Colorado, who took his views and actually sort of like cranked him up and particularly.
Uh, troubling is the way he handles, um, the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. Um, I won't go into all of the details, but he wants to argue and he has argued in writing actually, and he, he published the paper first in 2015, and then again in 2024, he published it again, uh, with very minimal changes and nothing substantial.
It was really kind of contextual stuff. Um, he actually argues that in the Old Testament, when we see the angel of the Lord, it's not just, not just God appearing as an angel, it's God actually becoming an angel. And in his paper, at least, he argues, um, more or less that this is a sort of hypostatic union.
It's not just a temporary taking on of some sort of like outward appearance. Um, it's an actual, uh, uh, assumption of properties into the person of the sun. And the whole reason he makes this argument, which is why it's a little disingenuine, that now he's saying that's not what his argument was. He makes this argument in order to make it so the angel of the Lord can genuinely suffer, experience passions, change his mind, um, enter into covenant, come to know new knowledge, like there's all sorts of things that he wants the angel of the Lord to be able to actually do, not just accommodated, but actually.
Experience. Um, and he does that by having the angel of the Lord be an appropriation of angelic properties into the person of the sun, what we would call a hypostatic union. And in his paper, he actually says like, I would want to use all of the same language of, uh, of this union as I do of the incarnation.
He intentionally uses the words image and form kind of drawing from Philippians two. So the, the affirmation comes in and there are other podcasts that have identified this. So it's not just me. I would encourage people to go find them. Where the denial comes in is, um, there have been many people, including myself, who have attempted to engage with Doug Van Dorn, like publicly, directly, um, through private messaging.
There are many people who've tried to reach out to him, and he has just sort of waved all of them away. Which is one thing, if like you just say like, I don't really care to interact with you. I don't really care to have this discussion. But then he is also presenting the situation as though he, he is totally open to having these conversations and nobody is trying to reach out to him.
So I would encourage everyone, you're all reasonable people, search the scriptures, read what he has to say. The paper that he wrote is called Passing the Impassable pa or impassable Impasse, which is hard to say, but it's a very clever title. Um, and it was, it actually was written, I don't know a lot about this controversy and maybe I need to do a little bit more research.
It was actually written during a time where, um, the particular Baptist conventions that were out out west where experiencing a lot of internal controversy regarding impassability, and this was his proposal for how, how biblically you can still maintain the divine attributes of changeness and impassability all these things, uh, without compromising the real, the real passable, um, appearance that we see of the, of God in the Bible.
So. I don't wanna belabor the point. This is not the point of the show. We, I already did a whole episode on this. I've published, I wrote many blog articles. There's a lot that I've, I've put out on this. Um, so check it out, look at it. Wait for yourself. Um, the only reason I've been, this has come up in our telegram chat.
People have encountered this theology. Um, one, one guy was asking about it, 'cause I think like his mom or his aunt or someone close to him had, has been sort of reading Michael Heider's work. Michael Heiser was very instrumental at logos. He was on staff at Logos for quite a while. So a lot of their, um, more speculative theological articles that you might find on their website are written by him.
Um, he was a, one of the main people behind the sort of proprietary translation that, um, Laro uses the Lham, um, English Bible. So. It's not a neutral point. Pretty significant theological consequences if, uh, if our reading of what Doug is saying is correct. Um, and there doesn't seem to be any real openness to discussing that.
He has to be fair, he has published a series of affirmations and denials, um, affirming his a his orthodoxy saying he affirms the change changeness of the son. He denies that there was a hypothetic union. So that's encouraging. It's great to see that when it comes down to it. He's willing to make affirmations, uh, of orthodox things and to deny unorthodox things, but it doesn't really help the situation when those things and those affirmations, denials are still at very least difficult to reconcile with what he wrote.
I think in point of fact, they're actually contradictory to what he wrote. So the, the proper course of action would be for him to say, well, no, that's not what I meant. Or, or, yes, I wrote that, but that's not what I believe. Um, rather than to just try say, trying to say like, well, you all got it wrong.
There's a lot of people reading these papers looking at it going, Ooh, it sure seems like the sun took on an angelic nature, even if that was temporary. That's, that's got some pretty weird consequences for your theology. And one of the shows I was listening to made this point that I thought was interesting and a little scary is this is like an utterly new theology.
Um, no one that I've talked to who is aware of this, who studied these issues. Is aware of anyone ever saying anywhere that the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament was some sort of like assumption of actual angelic properties into the person of the sun. Almost everywhere that you read. It's either a manifestation view where the sun is kind of appearing as an angel, um, but it's not actually becoming an angel.
It's, it's sort of taking on created medium, uh, in order to reveal himself or an instrumental view, which would be something like there's an angel that is used instrumentally by the Lord, and so we can say that it the angel of the Lord is the Lord in an instrumental sense, kind of like saying like if I pick up a hammer.
Use that hammer for as long as I'm using that hammer. The hammer is actually sort of an extension of me. I'm moving it, I'm motivating it, I'm controlling it, it's connected to me, and then I put it down when I'm finished. Those are kind of the two main views that people, people would argue in the Old Testament, if they want to even say that the angel of the Lord is a Christoph, it would either be this manifestation view or this instrumental view, this sort of weird novel assumption of properties view.
I'm, I've never encountered anything like that and I've studied this, this, this particular issue at some length. So check out the other episodes, I'll pull together some links, uh, of ones that have done it, both that have been, uh, critical of Doug's position. And also there was one, um, on remnant radio, which I never heard of, but, um, that was acknowledging that there are some question marks, but sort of saying like, this really is an overblown controversy.
Um, and then I'll link to Doug's podcast too, so you can listen to his own words and, and sort of think through it yourself.
[00:11:51] Jesse Schwamb: Some point I have this volition, you know, places, organizations, groups might have like FAQs, frequently asked questions. I have this idea to put together for us, like a frequently discussed topic.
This would be one of them. We've talked, or we co we've come back to this idea of like the molecule way, the messenger of the Lord many times. Yeah. In part because I think there's a good and natural curiosity among many when you're reading the scriptures and you see that's the angel of the Lord and you're trying to discern, is it Christoph?
And in some cases it seems more clear than others. For instance, the Maia appearing to, you know, Joshua, or, you know, there's, there's all kinds of instances in the scripture that draw us into this sense of like, well, who is it that is being represented here? And the funny thing about this though, and I agree with you, that like makes it.
Puts it in like, I would say contradistinction to like just kind of innocently wanting to understand is that there's a lot of theological gymnastics happening here, like a lot and two, it seems to me that he's kind of trying to create a problem to find a solution on this one. Yeah. And so it should give everybody that sense that we always talk about where like the red light goes off, the flags get thrown up, that when you hear that, you're just like, well, something is not right about that.
And the thing that's not right about it is one, it doesn't subscribe to, like you're saying, any kind of historical orthodoxy. And two, it's just funky for funky sake. It's, there's really a lot that's happening there to get to some kind of end, and it's better to know what that end is. I'm glad you brought that up.
So I think you can, everybody who's listening can weigh, like, if you. Don't wanna weigh into that, or you don't really need to solve the problem that's being created here, then don't bother with it altogether. Yeah. Uh, it's just not worth your time. But people, this is the hide thing. Like when, when we are challenged to be discerning people, when we are challenged to take scriptures at face value, there is always a tendency for us sometimes to go too deep, to get too wild with it, to try to turn around and bend it to, to answer all in every single question.
And even the reform tradition doesn't attempt to do that. So here, there is something that's beautiful about these certain mysteries of God and to take him at his face, to trust him in his word, we should seek, seek out many things. Some things are just not worth seeking out. So, you know, the Internet's gonna internet and people are gonna, people and theologians are gonna theologize.
And sometimes that's good and sometimes it's not that productive.
[00:14:08] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I think to be as charitable as I possibly can be, I think, um, Doug is, has identified a legitimate. Question about the Old Testament, right? Right. The, the Bible appears when we read about God in the Old Testament. He appears to do things like change his mind, suffer yes.
Grieve experience passions. Right. Um, and, and so that's a real, um, question that needs to be answered as you read the Old Testament. Um, and the two options of course, or the two primary options of course, are either that God actually suffers, he actually experiences those things, in which case he wouldn't be a changeless God.
Um, he wouldn't be a perfect God because there's these, these modes of change within God. The other option would be that there's some sort of appearance of suffering or appearance of, of change or passions that is not actual, it's not real in the sense that he's not God's lying. It's not that God's lying to us, of course not.
But that these are appearances for our sake. We would say that's, we call that the doctrine of accommodation. Right. Um. What Doug tries to do is actually exactly what the church did in trying to understand how it could be that the second person of the Trinity suffered. Uh, why, why we can genuinely say that God suffered.
Um, we can say that and that the answer was the hypothetic union, and this is where it really kind of like jumped into full relief for me is Doug has the same answer for the Old Testament, but instead of an incarnation of humanity, I don't know what you would call it, an, an evangelization or a, something like that, um, he would probably call like a, some somatization.
Um, he uses the difference between Soma and sars as though that somehow answers the question. He says it's not a, an incarnation into sarks. It's a, an assumption of properties in da Soma. But in either case, like his answer is the same answer. That the way that the angel of the Lord suffers in the Old Testament is not according to his divine nature.
It's according to these angelic properties that are assumed into his person well. Okay, so like you get the same conclusion. There needs to be some explanation now of like, well, why is it a hypostatic union when it's the human nature, but it's not a hypostatic union when it's the angelic nature or angelic properties.
Um, and I think the, the real answer is that when Doug wrote those papers, he just didn't realize those implications. Um, Doug is a sharp guy, like, don't get me wrong, he's a smart guy. Um, I think he's got a pretty good grip on Hebrew and, and a lot of this too is, um. Not to make this more of an episode than it is, but, um, this Divine Council worldview at first feels like not that big of a deal when you, when you read about it the first time.
Um, or when you read sort of like popular treatments of it. Um, the real problem is that this divine council worldview, um, which I'm not gonna define again, you can look, I'll pull the radio episode or the other podcast episodes, but this divine council worldview becomes like the controlling meta narrative for the entire scripture for these guys.
And so if, if the son is to be the sort of lead Elohim on this divine council besides Yahweh himself, then he has to become an angel. He has to become a one of the sons of God in order to do this. Sort of almost ignoring the fact that like he already was the son of God. Like, it, it just becomes, um, this controlling meta-narrative.
And if all that this, all that this divine council worldview is saying is like, yes, there's a class of creatures. Um, that are spiritual in nature and the Bible uses the word Elohim to describe them and also uses the word Elohim to describe the one true God who's in an entirely different class. And it just happens to use the same, the same word to describe those two classes.
Okay. Like I would find a different way to say that that's maybe not as risky and confusing, but that would be fine. But this goes so much farther than than that. And now it has all these weird implications. He actually did a five, five-part sermon series at his church where his argument is essentially that like this.
This overarching narrative of the Sons of God and, and the 70 sons of God. Um, that that's actually the story that explains how salvation functions and what we're being saved to is we're not being swept into the life of the Trinity, which is kind of the classic Christian view, the classic orthodox view that because, because of who the son is by nature, in reference to the father, when we're adopted, we gain that same relationship with the father and the son and the spirit.
Um, he's, he's wanting to say, it's actually more like, no, we, we we're sort of brought onto this divine council as, as creator representatives of the cosmos. So it's, it, there's a lot to, it's, um, again, I, I don't want people just to take my word for it. I'm gonna provide as many receipts as I can, um, in the, the, um, show notes.
Um, but yeah, it's, it's weird and it, it's unnecessary and
[00:18:57] Jesse Schwamb: that's right.
[00:18:58] Tony Arsenal: It made a lot of sense to me when Michael Heiser went down these routes, because his whole program was, he had a, a podcast called The Naked Bible, and the whole idea was like he interprets the Bible apart from any prior interpretations, which of course we know is not possible.
But that was sort of his plan was he's. It wasn't necessarily anti cre, anti-real or anticon confessional. He just thought you needed to and could come to the Bible without any sort of pre interpretive, uh, positions. Um, so it made a lot of sense to me when he was like, well, yeah, this isn't the way that the historic tradition isn't understood this, but that doesn't matter.
But then you have someone like Doug Van Dorn come around who claims to be a 1689 Confessional Baptist. This is like radically foreign to that system of doctrine. So it's just a weird situation. It's kind of an abandonment of the pattern of sound words that handed down to us, the ages. Um, and it does have all these weird implications, and I'm not hearing loud and clear.
I am not saying Doug Van Dorn is not a Christian. Um, I do think that the implications of what he's teaching are heretical. Um, but we've made the distinction before that like, just because you teach something heretical doesn't mean you're a heretic. Um, that's a, that's a formal proclamation that the church officially makes not some dude on the internet with a podcast.
But the, the implications of his teaching are quite dangerous. So. Check it out. Read it with caution and with discernment, um, and with, you know, a good systematic theology that can help kind of correct you in your hands. And the creeds and the confessions. But dude, check it out. You, you're reasonable people.
Look at the scriptures yourself and make your own decisions. I don't expect anybody to ever just take my word for any of this stuff.
[00:20:25] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's right. Or like you said, don't bother with. Yeah. Or don't bother. Just read the confessions. Unaware of it. Yeah. That's also, okay. Stick to the, the, hopefully the good local preaching and teaching that you're receiving and just hang out there.
Yeah. And that's also okay. The internet is a super strange and weird place. Yeah. And that includes even among well intentions. Theology, sometimes it just gets weird. And this is one of those examples.
[00:20:51] Tony Arsenal: It's true, it's true. I often tell people that my, my goal in any sort of public teaching or podcasting or blogging or when I'm preaching, uh, my goal is to be as like vanilla reformed as I possibly can.
Like that's what I'm saying. There, there are times where like some of the stuff that I be, like, I, I'm not like straight down the middle on every single thing. There are things that I would, you know, like my view on, um, state relations with church like that, that's not exactly run of the mill vanilla presbyterianism.
Um, so there are definitely things where I'm, I'm sort of a little off center on, um, but I try to be like right down the middle of the vanilla, vanilla aisle here with maybe a little bit of chocolate sauce here and there. But it's, it's pretty, uh, my reform theology is pretty boring and I'm fine with that.
I love
[00:21:35] Jesse Schwamb: it. I love it. It's okay to be boring, isn't it? Like boring? It's is for the most part, right. On the money. Because often when we do take our views and we polarize them to some degree, we know that there's a greater probability propensity for the errors to lie there if you're always hanging out there.
Yeah. But especially in this, again, you've said all the right things it, it's just one of those things. But it's a good mark for all of us to understand that when we move so far away from orthodoxy that we're just kind of out on the pier by ourselves and you're looking around, you ought to ask what happened that you're out there so far.
[00:22:05] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Well, Jesse, save us from this train of thought. What are you affirming or denying today?
[00:22:10] Jesse Schwamb: I hope I have something that's exactly the opposite. As you know, Tony, not all affirmations especially are created equal because sometimes we throw one out there and it's, it's good. We think it's great. Maybe not for everybody.
It doesn't resonate. It doesn't hit. This is not one of those, this is for everybody.
[00:22:24] Jesse Schwamb: I'm coming in with a hot, strong affirmation, and that is one of the things you and I have promulgated for so long is the beauty, the necessity, the responsibility, and the joy of regular daily worship, and that can look.
Lots of ways, but I think you and I have tried in our own lives and we've spoken a lot about the high conviction that we have that that kinda worship should be participatory and it can involve reading the scriptures, praying, singing this spills over into convictions about family worship, leading our families, and that kinda experience, even if it's just a little bit every day and even if it's, we give it our best efforts, this is not like a kind of legalistic approach.
And so I just came across something that I think I've been testing for a while that I think is faab fabulous for everybody, could be helpful to you in daily worship. And I'm just gonna give you the website first and explain what it is. Secondly, so the website is sing the worship initiative.com. That's sing dot the worship initiative.com.
You can find it if it's easier. Just search the Worship initiative. What this is, is it is. Once you sign up for this, you'll actually get a text. It's a daily text, and that text will be a link in a browser every day. So it's not a podcast, but it comes through a browser every day. It is a time of, I would say, I'll use the word colloquially, it's a time of devotional with singing led by Shane and Shane and some of their other musicians and their friends.
And this is glorious. It's no more than 15 minutes, and it's purposely orchestrated to lead you or whoever's listening with you in singing, including in the app or rather in the browser. They will give you the words for the songs that they're gonna sing that day. And one, Shannon and Shane are fantastic musicians.
You wanna listen to this with a good speaker or set of, uh, earbuds because, uh, the music is great and it's very stripped down. It's just, it's just piano and a little bit guitar generally. Uh, but the speaking of the theological pieces of what's in these songs is fantastic. And this just past week, they've done songs like Crown Hit with Many Crowns.
Um, in Christ Alone, he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast, is an incredible piece of music and a piece of worship. So I'm just enjoying, they are using rich deeply theological songs to speak rich, deep theological truths, and then to invite you into a time of singing, like along with them. It's as if like they were just in your living room or in their kitchen and said, Hey, you got 15 minutes, especially start the day.
Why don't we gather around this table and why don't we worship together? So I haven't found something quite like this where it's like an invitation to participate, both by being active listeners into what they're saying, but by also singing together. So I. Can only come at this with a really hot affirmation because I'm being blessed by it.
And this rhythm of somebody like leading you daily into song, I'm finding to be so incredibly valuable. Of course, like we can find song in lots of places. We may lead ourselves, we may rely on the radio or a playlist to do that, but this kind of unique blend of a time that's being set apart, that's organized around a theme and then brings music into that as a form of meditation and worship is pretty singular.
So check out, sing the worship edition of.com and especially if you're a fan of Shane and Shane, you're gonna slide right into this and feel very blessed because they're talented musicians and what they're bringing, I think is a, is a rich theological practice of actual worship, not just devotionals of some kind, but like actual participatory worship of, of in spirit and truth.
[00:25:53] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I just signed up for this while you're talking. It took about a minute. It's super easy. So, um, and I'm sure that they have a way to opt out. If you start it and you hate it and you want to just stop getting text messages, I'm sure you can just respond, stop. Um, so there's really nothing to lose.
There's no gimmick. They don't ask for a credit card, anything like that. Um, and I, I'm with you, like I love me some Shane and Shane music, and I do like some Shane and Shane music, um, that, that like takes me way back. Those, there are a lot of singers who've been at this for a long time. Yes, Shane and Shane was like.
A really like popular band when I was in like, like upper high school. Oh yeah. So like, we're talking about a multi-decade career, long career doing mostly worship music, like they're performers, but they have entire, they have entire, many entire, um, albums that are psalms, um, entire albums that are worship choruses or what you might think of as chorus singing.
Um, so yeah, I think this is great. And I'm always looking for new ways to integrate worship into my life. So this could be something as simple as like, maybe you're not gonna be able to sing out loud, but you could listen to this on the bus on the way home. Or you could put in your air, your ear pods, uh, when you're, you know, doing the dishes and instead of just listening to another podcast.
I recognize the irony of saying that on a podcast that you may be listening to while you're doing the dishes, but instead of just listening to another podcast, you spend a little bit of time thinking about meditating on God's word. So that's great. I think that's an awesome, awesome information. A little
[00:27:20] Jesse Schwamb: bit like very casual liturgy, but you're right, they've been around for a while and this, the content that they're producing here strikes me as like very mature.
Yeah, both like in, of course, like the music they're doing and how they're singing, they're singing parts, but also just what they're speaking into. It's not just like kind of a, let's let tell you how this song impacted my life. They're, they're pulling from the scriptures and they're praying through.
They're giving you a moment to stop and pause and pray yourself. There's a lot that's, that's built in there. And can I give like one other challenge?
[00:27:47] Jesse Schwamb: This, this came to me as well this week and I know we've had some conversation in the telegram chat about like family worship, leading our families in worship about somehow how do we model that?
How do we bring that together? And music often being a part of that. And I think that it's especially important for families to hear their. Their fathers and their husbands sing, no matter what your voice sounds like. Can I give a, a challenge? I think might sound crazy. This might be a hot, hot take. And so you can bring me back down instead of a mid hot take.
If it, yeah, if it's a little bit too hot. But I was reading an article, and this is really from that article, and it, it did challenge me. And the article basically challenged this and said, listen, most people are actually far more musical than they understand themselves to be. And that might just not be in the instrumentation of the voice, but in other ways.
And so the challenge was if you're a, a husband, a father, maybe you have some proclivity of music, maybe you have none. The challenge was basically, why don't you consider. Learning a musical instrument to lead your family in worship. And, and the challenge was basically like, pick up a guitar and, uh, see if you can eke out a couple of chords.
Work through that just for the sole purpose of if nothing else, but saying like, I want to participate in something differently in my home. And maybe that's getting a keyboard and just, just trying it there. If I can play the guitar, anybody truly I think can play the guitar. It's, it's not really that difficult.
I just found this captivating that this guy laid down the gauntlet and said, maybe you ought to consider doing that if only to be a model of worship in your own home throughout, throughout the week. And I just thought, you know what? That's something we're thinking about. I think all of us have something there.
And that might be for some, like, maybe it means strengthening your personal prayer closet. So like your example in time of, of corporate worship of your family is stronger. Maybe it means your study of the scriptures, not just of course for like pure devotional life, but to instruct or to practice that scripture for your family.
So I, I take this point of, it's not just about the music, but it could be if you're, if you're looking and saying like, man, I wish that we had some music. Um, you, you possibly could be the music. And it's just something to think about.
[00:29:47] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I'll say this. Uh, it's not that hard to play guitar, but Jesse is actually quite a talented guitar player, so even though he's right, it's not that difficult.
Uh, Jesse is, uh, is much better than he's letting on. But yeah, I mean, most modern worship songs, um, you can get by, you might have to like find a version online of it in this key, and you might not be able to sing it in this key, but like GC, D and E Minor. Yeah, that's right. We'll get you, we will get you basically every major worship song that you're used to singing.
And those are all very easy chords to play. Yes. Um, there are difficult chords and some, some worship songs are more difficult or the, the tone is more difficult. Um, but even, even something like that, or get a keyboard and just do, you know, you can just pluck out notes, right? You can write on the notes what the, what the name of the notes are and just pluck out notes so people can sing with it.
Um, there are lots of ways you can do, get a kazoo. You could lead music, you could lead your, that's your family in worship with a kazoo, um, or get the Trinity Salter hymnal app. Like, it's, yes, there are many ways that you could incorporate music in your family devotions and your personal devotions that, um, are not that challenging and, uh, really do add a lot.
Now, I know there are some, there are probably a few people in our, our listening audience that are acapella only people. And I respect that perspective and, and I understand where it comes from. But, um, even then, like this might also be a little bit of a hot take. I'm not an excellent singer. I'm not a terrible singer, but, um, I could be a better singer if I practiced a little bit.
And with the, with the ease of finding things like YouTube vocal coaches and right, just like vocal lessons and techniques and practice. Cool. Like, you could very easily improve your ability to sing and your confidence to sing, right? And that's only gonna help you to lead your family. I'll even throw this in there.
Um. I'm in a congregation with lots and lots and lots of young families. There are five pregnant couples in our church right now. Wow. And our church, our church is probably only about 70 people on an average Sunday. So five pregnant, uh, couples is a pretty high percentage. Um, what I will tell you is that when the congregation is singing, we have lots of men who sing and they sing loud.
But when the children are looking around at who is singing, they're not looking at the women, they're looking at the men. Right. Um, and you know, we're not, we are not like a hyper-masculinity podcast. We're not, you know, this isn't Michael Foster's show, this isn't the Art of Manhood. Um, but we've been pretty consistent.
Like, men lead the way. That's the way the Bible has, that's way God's created it. And that's the way the Bible teaches it. And if you're in the church. You are commanded to sing. It's not an option.
[00:32:28] Tony Arsenal: But what I will tell you is that, um, singing loud and singing confidently and singing clearly and helping the congregation to sing by being able to project your voice and sing competently, uh, it does a lot for your church.
Yes. So it's never gonna be the wrong decision to improve your ability to sing and your confidence to sing. So I think that's great. I think the whole thing is great. You can learn to sing by listening to Shane and Shane and singing with them, and you can Yes. Invest a little bit of time and maybe a little bit of money in, in like an online vocal.
I mean, you can get something like Musician or something like that that has guitar, but also you can do vocal training through that. There's lots of resources out there to do that. So yes, I guess that's the challenge this week. Like, let's all get out there and improve our singing voices a little bit and, and see if we can, can do this together.
[00:33:14] Jesse Schwamb: I love it. I, I don't wanna belabor the points.
[00:33:16] Jesse Schwamb: I only bring it up because there might be somebody out there that's thinking, you know, I'd like to do more of that. And I say to you, well, why not you? It's okay. Like you could just go and explore and try get or borrow a relatively inexpensive guitar. And like you said, you don't need to learn to read music to do that.
You're just kind of learning some shapes and they correspond to certain letters in the alphabet. And in no time at all, you could be the person that's strumming out, eking out some chords and you're doing that at home. And that might be a great blessing. It might change your life. It might change the trajectory of how you serve in the church.
And you might find that God has equipped you to do those things. Yeah. And wouldn't it be lovely just to try some of those things out? So whatever, whatever they are, it's certainly worth trying and, and music is a big part of, I know like your life. Mine and it is someday. Tony, we have to do the sing episode.
I don't know that we've actually done that one, right? We just talk about what it like, is it a command that we sing and why I think we've
[00:34:08] Tony Arsenal: done that. I think we did have, we, it's early on in the episode on our views. Might have changed a little bit. So we maybe should um, we should loop back to, I'm sure we talked about 'em when we were going through Colossians as well.
[00:34:17] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think we did. I just dunno if we did, like, we're, we're just gonna set a whole hour aside and for us, that's definitely not an hour, but, and just talk about this in particular and like what, why do we sing and what, why does guy command this? And then why our voice is different and why do some people feel this, you know, sense of like why don't have a good voice and you know, we, you always hear people say like, well make a joyful noise.
And I think sometimes that falls flax. You're kinda like, yeah, but you don't know the noise I'm making you. That's kind of the response you hear. So some someday we'll come back to it, but I'm gonna make a prophetic announcement that there is no way we're going get through this one parable. No already. So.
[00:34:55] Jesse Schwamb: Everybody strap in because we'll do probably a part one. And if you're curious about where we're going, we're moving just away from Matthew for now, we're gonna be hanging out in Luke 15. We've got a trio of parables about lost things. And again, I think this is gonna be very common to many people. So I encourage you as best you can, as we read these to always start our conversation, try to strip away what you've heard before and let's just listen to the scripture.
[00:35:20] Jesse Schwamb: So we're gonna start in Luke chapter 15 in verse one. I'm not even gonna give you the name of the parable because you will quickly discern which one it is. So this is the Luke chapter 15, beginning of verse one. Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to him, and both the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.
So he told them this parable saying. What man among you, if he has 100 sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he is found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I found my lost sheep.
I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repentance than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.
[00:36:19] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And yeah, this, this will definitely be a multi-part episode. And, and part of that is we just spent a half an hour talking about affirmations and denials.
I think we probably should have a podcast called Belaboring The Point, which is just us talking about other random stuff. Fair.
[00:36:33] Tony Arsenal: But, um, the other part is that this parable is, um, slightly different in Luke as it is in Matthew.
[00:36:41] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:36:41] Tony Arsenal: Um, and also it's positioning in the narrative and what comes immediately following it is different.
And I think that's worth unpacking a little bit as we talk about it this week, next week and, and probably maybe even into a third week. Um, but the, the parable here on, on one level, like most parables is super, super straightforward, right? Like right. This is God's di, this is God's demeanor, and his disposition is that he seeks that which is lost, um, which is good news for us because all of us are lost.
There's only lost people until God finds them. Right. Um, and find again, of course, is an accommodated way of saying it's not like God has to go out searching for us. He knows where we are and he knows how to find us. Um. But this is also a different format for a parable, right? He's, he's not saying the kingdom of heaven is like this.
The parable is what man of you having a hundred sheep? Like the parable is a question Yes. Posed to the audience, and it, it is in the context here, and this is where, this is where looking at the parallels between different, different gospels and how it's presented and even the different variations here shows you, on one level it shows you that Jesus taught these parables in multiple different contexts and different occasions.
Right? In this occasion, it's he's sitting down, he's with the tax collectors and the sinners. They're grumbling. They're saying, this man eats with sinners. And receives them in, um, in Matthew, it's slightly different, right? He's in a different context and sit in a different teaching context. So the way that we understand that is that Christ taught these parables multiple places.
And so we should pay attention to the variation, not just because there's variation for variation's sake, but the way that they're positioned tells us something. So when he's telling the account in Luke, it's told as a corrective to the tax collectors and the um. Right on the Pharisees, um, who are, sorry.
It's a, it's a corrective to the Pharisees and the scribes who are grumbling about the tax collectors and the sinners drawing near to Christ. And so he speaks to the Pharisees and to the scribes and is like, well, which one of you wouldn't go seek out their lost sheep? Like, it's this question that just lays bare.
They're really sinful. Ridiculous Jonah. I just invented that. Like Jonah I perspective that like, oh, exactly how dare God go after how dare Christ eat with sinners and tax collectors? And he says, well, if you love something. If you love your sheep, you're going to go after your sheep.
[00:39:03] Tony Arsenal: You're not going to just abandon, uh, this sheep to its own devices, even though there is, and again, this is a, a comedy way of talking about like, even though there's some risk associated with going after the one sheep, because you do have to leave the 99, he still is saying like, this is the character.
This is my character speaking as grace. This is my character. This is the character of my father. And there's this implication of like, and it's obviously not the character of you. So I think this is a, this is a really great parable to sort of highlight that feature of parables when they're repeated across different, um, gospels.
We have to pay attention, not just to the words of the parables themselves, but what the teaching is in response to what the teaching like proceeds. We'll see when we look at Matthew, there's a very, there's a, a different. Flavor to the parable because of what he's going to be leading into in the teaching.
So I love this stuff. This has been such a great series to sort of like work through this because you, you really start to get these fine details.
[00:39:59] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. This parable of the lost sheep is I think on the face straightforward, like you said. But it is actually complex. It's complex in the argumentation and the posturing Jesus takes here, like you said, he's binding the pharisee.
This is condemning question of like which one of you, like you said. So there's that, which is slightly different element than we've seen or covered so far. There's also the context, like you said, in which it happens and I think we need to think specifically about. Who is this lost? Who are the 99? Who are the ones that Jesus is really trying to draw in with conviction, but also, again, what is he saying about himself?
And it's way more, of course, like we're gonna say, well, this is again, that default, that heart posture. Even those things are more cliche than we mean them to be. Yeah. And we need to spend some time, I think, on all of these elements. And it starts with, at least in Luke, we get this really lovely context about when the teaching unfolds.
And even that is worth just setting down some roots for for just a second. Because what I find interesting here is I think there's a principle at play that we see where. Everything that everything gives. Jesus glory, all the things give him glory, even when his enemies come before him and seek to label him.
It's not as if Jesus appropriates that label, repurposes, it turns it for good. The very label, the things that they try to do to discredit him, to essentially disparage him, are the very things that make him who he is and show his loving and kindness to his people. And I think we'll come back to this like this, this sheep this, these are his children.
So these words that it starts with, that were evidently spoken with surprise and scorn, certainly not with pleasure and admiration. These ignorant guides of the Jews could not understand a religious preacher having anything to do with what they perceive to be wicked people. Yeah. And yet their words worked for good.
I mean, this is exactly like the theology of the cross. The very saying, which was meant for reproach, was adopted by Jesus as a true description of his ministry. It is true. He's the one who comes and sits and subs and communes and touches the sinners, the ugly, the unclean, the pariahs. It led to his speaking three of these particular parables in Luke in rapid succession.
For him to emphasize that he's taken all of what was literally true that the scribes of Pharisees said, and to emphasize that he is indeed the one who received sinners. It's not like he's just like saying, well, lemme put that on and wear that as a badge. He's saying. You do not understand God if you think that God does not receive sinners, to pardon them, to sanctify them, to make them fit for heaven.
It's his special office to do so. And this, I think therein lies this really dip deep and rich beauty of the gospel, that that's the end that he truly came into the world.
[00:42:47] Jesse Schwamb: He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He came to the world to safe sinners, what he was upon Earth. He's now at the right hand of God and will be for all eternity.
And he's emphatically the sinner's friend. And without this reproach from the Pharisees, like we don't get this particular teaching and what they intended again, to be used to really discredit God, to say, look, how can this be the son of God? What we get then for all of eternity is some understanding of Christ.
And even here now with his word, we have this sense like, listen, do we feel bad? Do we feel wicked and guilty and deserving of God's wrath? Is there some remembrance of our past lives, the bitterness of sin to us? Is there some kind of recollection of our conduct for which we're ashamed? Then we are the very people who ought to apply to Christ.
And Christ demonstrates that here, that his love is an act of love. Just as we are pleading nothing good of our own and making no useless delay, we come because of this teaching to Christ and will receive graciously his part in freely. He gives us eternal life. He's the one who sinners. I'm so thankful for this parable because it sets up very clearly who Jesus is, and this is where we can say he is for us.
So let us not be lost for lack of applying to him that we may be saved. This text gives us the direct inroad to apply for that kind of healing and favor of God.
[00:44:08] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And, and I love, um, there is such a, um, subtle sort of SmackDown that Jesus does. Like, yeah. I, I think, um, just speaking on a purely human level for a second, like Jesus is such a master re tion.
Like he is so handy and capable to just dismantle and smack down people who, and I obviously, I don't mean that in like a sinful way. Like he just puts down the argument. He just gets it done with, and even the way this is phrased, right, they come, they're grumbling, this man receives sinners and meets with them.
So he told them this par ball, what, what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lost one of them, doesn't leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost, right? So he's saying like, he jumps in right away, like. This is just the obvious answer. This is just the obvious state, like who would not go after their sheep.
I think we hear this, and again, I'm not an expert on like first century sheep herding practices, right? But like we think of it, I look at it, I'm like, actually, like that seems like a really bad investment. Like it would be really bad idea to go after the one sheep and leave your 99 in the open country.
That seems like a silly answer. That's my error. That's me being wrong because he's saying that as the obvious answer. Right? I think we sometimes, um, I've heard, I've heard sermons that preach this, that make it almost like this is a super reckless. You know, abandonment. Like he's so enamored with us that he leaves the 99 and he goes after the one, and he's taking such a huge risk.
But the way that this is presented, this is the obvious thing that anyone in their right mind would do if they lost a sheet. Right? For sure. Right? It's not an unusual response. Yes. There's an element of risk to that, and I think that's, that's part of the parable, right? There's a, there's a riskiness that he's adding to it because, um.
Again, we wanna be careful how we say this. Um, God's love is not reckless in the sense that we would normally think about reckless, but it's reckless in the sense that it, it es assumes sort of ordinary conventions of safety. Right? Right. That's not really what's at play here. Like the, the fact is Christ presents the scenario where you, you go after one lost sheep and leave your 99 in the open country or in Matthew, it's on the mountains.
Like that's the normal expected course here, such that if you are the person who won't do that, then you are the one that's out of the ordinary. But then he goes on to say, and this is where, where I think he's just such a master, he's such a master at setting a logical trap. Here he says, um. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost.
And again, this is the expected answer. This is not some unusual situation where like people are like, oh man, he like, he had a party 'cause he found a sheep. That's strange. This is what, what would be expected, right? This would be the normal response. But then he says, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.
He is able, in the course of like. 30 words, like this is a short, short response. He's able to show them that their response to, to sinners is totally out of the ordinary. Like it's a, it's sort of an insane response. Um, he positions going after the one sheep and leaving the 99 as the sane response and leaving the, you know, leaving the one to be lost, leaving the sinners and tax collectors to be lost.
That's the insane response. Right. That's the one that like, nobody would do that though. Why would anybody do that? But then he goes to show like, but that's exactly what you're doing.
[00:47:55] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Right. And he
[00:47:56] Tony Arsenal: says, what you should be doing is rejoicing with me for, I found my lost, she. Right. He shifts. He shifts.
He's now the man in the parable saying, um, not just, uh, not just rejoice or not just I'm rejoicing, but he's summoning them to rejoice with him over the salvation of these lost sinners. And that is the normal expected response. And then he, he shows like there will be this rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents more so than if there was a, but, and we should address this too.
He's not saying that there is a such thing as a righteous person who needs no repentance. Right? He's saying like, even if there were 99 righteous people who need to know repentance, even if that was somehow the case, there would be more joy. There is more joy, there will be more joy over the sinner who repents than over a hun 99 people who didn't need to be saved.
Right? He makes the sin, the, the, um, Pharisees and the scribes look like total chumps and totally like. Totally self-absorbed and turned inwards on themselves in this tiny little master stroke that you wouldn't even, you wouldn't even think that that was part of the point. If it wasn't for the fact that it was positioned right after verse 15, one and two.
You just wouldn't get that from this parable. That there is this sort of like rhetorical SmackDown going on that I think is, is important for us to, to latch onto a little bit here.
[00:49:18] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, why is our podcast not three hours? Because there's so much I want to say, so. I'm totally with you. I like what you brought up about this recklessness of God, and I'm with you.
We shouldn't define that in the same way. Maybe we can modify it. I might say like His love is recklessly spend thrift. That is, we see when Paul says like God has lavished his love on us, like these big verbs that they are real. Yeah. It's not just hyper rip hyperbole or just like flowery language. And I think as you're speaking, what really occurred to me, what really kind of came through with what you're saying is, okay, what is this cost?
Why is he so particular to go after this one? And I think it's because it's, he's looking for his sheep. So these are his children. Yes. It's not just, I think Christ is out in the world because he will find his children. He will find the one who is. His own. So he is looking for his own sheep. One of his, one of his fold.
So like the sheep I might find in the world is the one that God has been seeking to save, even one of whom knows his name. That's like John 10, right? So one of, I think our problem is understanding this parable has to do with the when of our salvation. You know, we generally think it's at the time that, you know, we believe.
The people are those given to God before the foundation of the world. And God sees us as his people before we were ever born, even before the world began. And when we believe it is just our Lord finding us as his last sheep and we're returned to the fold. So he always goes after that one. So we'll learn more.
Like you said, when we look at Matthew's account about who are those other 90 nines. So we can set that aside, I suppose, for now. But it really is a matter of our status before Adam, before the fall, and then after Adam, after the fall, while all men fell with Adam. So also did God's people, which he had chosen before time began.
And so this idea of going after the one is bringing back into the fold that who is his child though, who he has made a promise, a covenantal promise to bring into the kingdom of heaven. I was thinking as well of this amazing quote and like, what that all means about God's love for us, which again, is just more than like, isn't it nice that when you are out in the world somewhere like God came to find you?
Yeah, that's fantastic. But I think it's even more than that. Like this is where I think we really need to dive into what it means that he's going after his sheep. It's, uh, Thomas Goodwin wrote this once about, uh, Christ's joy. He wrote this, Christ's own joy, comfort, happiness, and glory are increased and enlarged.
By his showing grace and mercy in pardoning relieving and comforting his members here on earth. And what I hear in that is something that I think is wild. In other words, Jesus, I don't think, doesn't just want us to draw on his grace and mercy because it just vindicates atoning work. Because like if Vindicates that he is an act shepherd, his love is active, he's out there in the field, he's going after his own, he's like you said, he's laying them on our on his shoulders and then he comes back and rejoices.
He wants us to draw on his grace and mercy because it is inherently who he is. And he drew near to us in this incarnation so that his joy and ours could rise and fall together, which is insane that God would come and condescend to that degree that in his giving mercy and in ours receiving it, that Goodwin is basically saying here that Christ gets more joy and comfort than we do when we come to him for help and mercy.
That is when he finds us, when he comes and celebrates that there's been restoration, that that celebration is real and that it forgives him and brings him great joy. What kind of love is that?
[00:52:49] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:52:49] Jesse Schwamb: That that is so dedicated to seeking his children out. That his joy is made greater as it were, in a sense, by him very much doing that, and by us repenting and coming before him, such that Jesus is never tired, flustered, or frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness or for renewed.
Pardon? Or we find ourselves outside of the fold when we're distressed, when we have needs, when we're empty. I think this is the whole point of this parable. He comes to rescue us. He comes to heal over and over and over again because we are his children and he always goes and finds his own sheep.
[00:53:27] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:53:28] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, well, as we said, this'll be a, uh, at least two part, probably three or four part episode. Yeah. Um, because it's so good. There's so much here and so good. You know, as we kind of alluded to when we were, we sort of introed this, this parable along with the, in Luke at least, along with the following one, and the one after that really are one set of teaching.
Um, we are gonna jump into, into Matthew and how Matthew positions the parable a little bit differently. And I say that to say Christ positions the parable differently within his teaching. Um, but the variations are important and this is why, this is why God's word is so great, right? Yes. We could have just had like one version of this, one instance that this teaching was delivered, but God saw fit to preserve multiple, multiple applications of this one parable.
And this also tells us that like. The people who wanna say that a parable only has one point. Um, I think maybe like the Bible itself is against you on that because this parable is ba more or less the same in Matthew in terms of the actual words. There's some minor variations, but there nothing substan substantively different in the words, but where it comes in the context of the teaching gives it a very different flavor.
Not a different meaning entirely, but a very different flavor. So I'm excited to, to keep going on this. Um, we'll go through, we'll talk about the coin, we'll talk about the lost son, uh, the lost sons, the para prodigal, God. I mean that one has a thousand different ways to label it. Um, but I'm really stoked about this series so we don't have to spend a lot of time like landing the plane here 'cause we're not even gonna really land the plane.
We're just gonna keep going. So we're cruising at 20,000
[00:55:10] Jesse Schwamb: feet easy.
[00:55:11] Tony Arsenal: So we would love it if you'd join us in our Telegram channel. We mentioned it earlier, but you can go to t me slash Reform Brotherhood, uh, that is just a little corner of the internet that we've sliced out. It's a little chat program that you can run on your phone or in a browser.
Um, lots of different conversations happening at any given point, uh, but all of them are God centered. All of them Mar God glorifying, and it really is just a genuine, friendly place to be. There's not, uh, there's, there's been very little fighting or conflict. There's been almost nobody besides bots that get kicked outta the channel.
Um, it's a very low key, very low chill, low risk environment. Low chill, uh, low chill. It's not low chill. It's high chill, high chill, uber chill. It's the uber chill,
[00:55:53] Jesse Schwamb: uber chill. Um,
[00:55:54] Tony Arsenal: but you can check it out. T Me slash reform brotherhood. We'd love to have you jump in the conversation. Um, you know, find some new food to taste and take a video of it, uh, of yourself.
Or, you know, if you need prayer, there's a, there's a place for that. If you want some memes, there's a place for that. But check it out.
[00:56:10] Jesse Schwamb: Normally, this is where I'd say, here's what we learned in this conversation, but since it's gonna be ongoing instead, I'm just gonna end with a little question for you, Tony.
I'll ask it to you first and then I'll give you my answer and that, and I'll challenge everybody to answer this themselves. I think it'll help shape how we're just thought, think about what we just heard and also the couple weeks ahead. But, um, what's one time that you lost something and were overjoyed that you found it?
So for me, and this I think generally. It's often small things. I remember this time I was going out for a run. My wife was shopping. Now I don't do this anymore, so don't anybody get ideas about this. But I used to, don't do this anymore. I used to take my keys 'cause I didn't wanna run with them, like, you know, banging around in my pants while I was running.
I used to take them and put them under this like, medium-sized rock that was like right outside in the bushes by my, my house. And so I did that. I went for a run and I came back and I saw my wife Sky was here. And so I just went into the house. I guess I just realized I could go in the door, wasn't gonna be locked anymore.
And then of course the next day I went to go to work and like lost my mind. I, I just couldn't remember where the keys were searched everywhere, like tore up everything. Made lots of accusations of myself and everybody else about whether to move the keys. Maybe you've had this experience, maybe it's just me that needs to be more sanctified.
And so I remember when finally like it occurred to me like, oh. If they're outside, I went and grabbed them, you know, you turn over that rock and there they are in all their glory. They've never moved. They were there from the beginning. And I remember this vividly. My wife already like long left for work and I called her and I was like, I found the keys.
I found the keys. I'm so happy. And she was just like, okay. It's just like, are you good now? I was like, yeah. And for her it was like, that's no real news to me. Like, okay, great. Like you lost them. I'm glad that you fought them. But it did exemplify for me that really in the finding of something that joy is made, consummate, incomplete in the rejoicing over it with somebody else.
Yeah.
[00:58:07] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:58:07] Jesse Schwamb: Um, so let's say you can you think of like a time where like you lost something at big or small and then you were just overjoyed to find it?
[00:58:13] Tony Arsenal: The only thing I can think of, um, we have this little Noah's arc kit, um, for, for the kids. And this was before Adeline, uh, came around. Um, and we lost the little Noah figure.
We couldn't find it for a really, really long time. This is Noah. And, um, this was back when we were living in the parsonage. Augie was, uh, up jumping on the couch and he wanted to put the cushions down onto the floor in order to jump off the couch onto the floor. And when he pulled the cushion back, the little Noah figure was there and I was so excited to find it.
And I was like, Augie, we found Mr. Noah. We found Mr. And the funny part is that. And I know why you're laughing so much. The funny part is that this was also being converted to text to speech somehow, and it got sent out to our entire family group chat. Um, so everybody got a good laugh outta that, but there was, and he was so excited.
Uh, he doesn't even know who Mr. Noah is at this point, but he was excited that we found something. Um, and you know, there, there is also an element too that like sometimes something is lost and it changes the nature of things. Like for sure that Noah's arc kit was no longer Noah's a, it was just some animals on a boat.
That's true. Until we found Mr. Noah and put it all back together. Um, so that's probably the, the example of that comes to mind for me. I'm sure there's a better one floating around in here somewhere, but I, I'm pretty sleep deprived right now, so. May not come to the surface too easily.
[00:59:28] Jesse Schwamb: You, I, I really think it's the smaller things in particular that prove the point.
It's an argument from the lesser to the greater. So in that vein, now it's your turn. So go to t.me back slash reform brotherhood. Hang out in the telegram chat. And I have no doubt this will be part of, uh, this week's discussion from the episode is tell us something that, tell us the story. 'cause you, we know you got one where you lost something that was yours.
It was precious to you, no matter how valuable it was economically speaking, and you found it and you were overjoyed. And I think we got to tap into a little bit of that sensibility as we think about the weeks that are ahead for us.
[01:00:03] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[01:00:04] Jesse Schwamb: But more than anything, I think we gotta remember from our conversation tonight that Christ love.
Is an active working love. Just as the shepherd did not sit still, the wailing is lost sheep and, and we're gonna see the same kind of behavior in the other peril, the parables that follow. So our blessed Lord did not sit still in heaven pitting sinners. He comes to us, he came to us, and he continues to draw to himself those who are sheep, who hear his voice.
Let that be your encouragement this week.
[01:00:34] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. That's a good way to end the show. So, Jesse, until next week, honor everyone.
[01:00:39] Jesse Schwamb: Love the brotherhood.
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In this thought-provoking episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony and Jesse dive deep into Jesus's parable of the dragnet from Matthew 13:47-50. They examine how this often-overlooked parable reveals profound truths about God's kingdom, final judgment, and the ultimate separation of the righteous from the wicked. The hosts explore the rich Old Testament connections, particularly to Habakkuk, and demonstrate how this parable complements the parable of the wheat and tares while emphasizing the judgment aspect of God's kingdom. Through careful textual analysis and theological reflection, they remind listeners that God's sovereignty extends over both salvation and judgment, challenging believers to live faithfully in light of the coming sorting.
The hosts identify a paradigm-shifting perspective in this parable: the kingdom of Heaven includes not just the blessing of the righteous but also the judgment of the wicked. Tony notes that Christians often think of God's kingdom only in terms of the elect enjoying fellowship with God, but this parable reveals that God's sovereignty and kingship extend to His judgment as well. The dragnet gathers everything in its path - both the "good" and "bad" fish - demonstrating that all people will be brought under Christ's authority for evaluation. This understanding challenges the common notion that hell is somehow outside God's domain. Rather, even the punishment of the wicked falls under God's sovereign reign. This more comprehensive view of God's kingdom reminds believers that God's authority is absolute and extends to every corner of creation and every spiritual reality.
Jesse highlights how the specific term "dragnet" (as translated in the LSB) carries significant theological weight. Unlike a typical fishing net cast from a single location, a dragnet was stretched between two boats and systematically pulled toward shore, catching everything in its path. This imagery powerfully communicates that no one will escape God's judgment - the net catches all kinds of fish indiscriminately. The hosts connect this to Old Testament passages, particularly in Habakkuk, where God's judgment is described as a net that captures entire nations. This emphasis on the comprehensive nature of judgment confronts our culture's belief that individuals might somehow avoid accountability before God. The parable teaches that all people will face judgment, with the difference being not whether they are caught in the net, but how they are categorized once caught. For believers, this underscores the necessity of being found "in Christ" when the sorting occurs.
"Either way, you can't escape the net. This is profound because I think so much of our culture thinks they're gonna escape the net or the nets. They're gonna be able to get outside of the net." - Jesse Schwamb
"Hell is the absence of, is the presence of God absent grace, right? Unmediated... It's God's unmediated, absolute entire wrath poured out on wicked sinners. That's what hell is." - Tony Arsenal
"We gotta sit down at the table, take our time... Have the family style dinner passed around. Talk to everybody and set aside the time... We're taking our time to enjoy and to savor. And I think you and I are always trying to grow in that to some degree. But here again, we have just a lovely excuse to do a little savoring of the scripture." - Jesse Schwamb
[00:00:45] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 470 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
[00:00:53] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother.
[00:00:58] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. How about we start with an incredible understatement. It is a blessing to have the direct teachings of Jesus.
[00:01:09] Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yes.
It's
[00:01:10] Jesse Schwamb: end of episode.
[00:01:11] Tony Arsenal: That's true.
[00:01:11] Jesse Schwamb: We could just stop there.
[00:01:12] Jesse Schwamb: We won't, because we've been hanging out in the parables, which I know sometimes people will say to us, wow, your episodes are so definitive. They're just so good. But they, they, it seems to take so long to go through things and I just wanna address everybody right now and say to you.
We hear you. We love you. But we don't care that much about that critique because
[00:01:33] Tony Arsenal: it's true.
[00:01:34] Jesse Schwamb: I think what you and I have been finding out is going through these parables is like the difference between like scarfer and a burger while you're driving down the highway versus like sitting down at the table to eat and enjoy like a seven course meal with people that you love like that, the latter of those two.
It takes time in preparing and it takes time to enjoy. Yes. So I like the pace we're going at and we're going into what I'm calling the Jesus nothing but net parable. And you know, some of what I think Jesus does here and we're gonna talk about to set all of this up, is he does have this wonderful and incredible ability, like a goldsmith who's like taking a piece of metal and hammering it out, turning it over, hammering it out.
He's fashioning it into a fixed frame of his desired choosing. But it's almost as if he's, he's prompting his listeners to a type of meditation that is the hammering of truth or a point propounded, and we're about to get to that because he's going to bring some judgment and some fire. And this nothing but net parable.
It hearkens back to something he just said, and he has this tendency in his teaching to say something like, and again, the kingdom of heaven is like this. And also, and again, it's like this. And so here we have yet another one, and I think we've done maybe four or five of these. And again, yeah. And so I say to you, love ones, and again, here we go.
It's gonna be great. Yeah. So Jesus coming with heat and with the fire on this episode and we're gonna try to bring it too, but
[00:03:01] Tony Arsenal: yeah. And we're not even out of the first chapter of Parable. No. Like we're still in the first chapter of scripture that we've started and we're like. 10 weeks into this series, so, which is great.
I love it. I'm, I'm
[00:03:12] Jesse Schwamb: all for it. Can't stop. Won't stop.
[00:03:14] Jesse Schwamb: So speaking of things we will not stop doing, we will not stop affirming with or deny against certain things. So as is our custom, Tony, I kick it to you. What do you got for us?
[00:03:24] Tony Arsenal: I'm gonna cheat a little bit. I'm gonna have a, a, a brief denial and then also an affirmation.
We're gonna old school. The denial is, uh, some people noticed, uh, maybe a couple months back, that occasionally in your podcast feed there would be something that would be like, you might also like, and it would be a random episode of some other podcast.
[00:03:43] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:03:43] Tony Arsenal: This was an advertising feature that was available to us.
I turned it on to see how it would work. It's generating like a dollar a month. So not, not a big deal, but also pretty passive. People could just skip the episode. Right. Uh, the reason I'm, I'm denying this now, is today I realized, and, and your mother was gracious enough to call me and ask me if I knew this.
I, I had heard it already, but, uh, the, the episode they decided to put in our feed today was somebody interviewing a psychic. So I immediately just to get out in front of it because I'm sure somebody out there is gonna be like, Tony's got psychics on his pod. No, I, I immediately emailed our podcast host 'cause I couldn't figure out how to turn it off and said, shut this off.
Excellent. So there's, there's no way for us to, to like specify we can, we can, um, eliminate certain categories. So I tried to eliminate categories that I thought would have blanket, like blatantly objectionable. Uh, content, you know, other religions, new age spirituality. The show that it was on, I think is like a productivity podcast, but it's one of those productivity podcasts where they kind of interview everyone and, and anyone, and they happen to be interviewing a psychic.
So if that came to your ear holes because of our feed, please accept my sincere apology. Uh, we certainly don't want to be endorsing or, or, uh, or exposing people to that kind of nonsense. So we've turned it off. It was a small amount of revenue, but even if it was a large amount of revenue, we would, I wouldn't tolerate that no matter how much money we were generating.
So if it hasn't left your feed yet, it will soon. It takes a little while for it to kind of update. It won't update until I've published a new episode. So by the time you're hearing this, probably it's disappeared. Um. But thank you for everyone who brought it to our attention. And again, I'm, I'm sorry that it happened enough of that.
[00:05:25] Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming. It's a very exciting affirmation. I'm super stoked about it. Jesse and I actually talked a little bit about this before, so a couple, I don't know, it was maybe five, six months ago, Jesse affirmed a book called The Will of the Many, uh, which is a, a book by a guy, uh, named James Islington, I-S-L-I-N-G-T-O-N.
Um, it, it sort of presents itself when you first start reading it as like, almost like Harry Potter in Rome. Like it's like, that sounds about right, right? It's, it's kind of like a guy, like a, he's not like a child like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. He's, he's, uh, probably like a late, I think late teens probably is, is where you're supposed to see him 15, 16 years old.
Somewhere in there, he gets kind of swept up into. Uh, like an academy, he gets adopted into a, like a prestigious family and he gets swept up into an academy and he's learning about these skills and this sort of like magic system that exists in his world. And there's a mysterious cataclysm that happened and it presents itself very much as like a very typical kind of, um.
Prodigy swept up into a world he doesn't fully understand Harry Potter kind of story. And then literally you read the last chapter, the story resolves, and there's an epilogue. And you realize that the story is entirely different than it, it anything you could have possibly conceived. It was, um, I haven't quite gone back and read the first book a second time, although I probably will.
Um, you tell me, Jesse, there was no, there was, I'm not gonna spoil it because it's part of the fun of getting just knocked on your butt on this. But there was nothing in the book that I could think of that even closely hinted at.
[00:07:05] Jesse Schwamb: No.
[00:07:05] Tony Arsenal: This weird twist at the end.
[00:07:06] Jesse Schwamb: No way.
[00:07:07] Tony Arsenal: Um, so the reason I'm going into all that detail is the, the final or the second book in the series.
I don't know how many are planned. I would assume it's probably three. But the second book in the series, which is called The Strength of the Few, just came out, uh, it came out just a few days ago. It's November 15th when we're, we're, uh, recording this, and it came out on November 11th. Um. If you have not read, uh, will of the many, please just go like, turn off the podcast right now.
Go listen or go read that book or get the audio book. Do it. It's super good. Um, you know, there's, um, it, I won't say that. Like there's nothing objectionable in the book. Um, you know, they have their own version of profanity and stuff that, that isn't the same profanity as ours, but like, it's the same intention as, as what we would say.
Um, but you're not gonna run into, there was no sexual content whatsoever. Even hint to that. Um, I think there was like one kiss in the entire book. Um, there really is, uh, from what I can tell, there really is no genuine romantic through line. Um, there was kind of a, sort of like a childhood infatuation or like a young teen infatuation at this academy, but it was such a small, small plot point and it doesn't sound like it's gonna be coming back around much as a big plot point.
Um. But there was nothing objectionable. Um, the violence is not particularly descriptive. Um, it's a little bit descriptive, but, um, it's pretty tame. It's just really good writing, um, really good writing, super creative, world building. Um, it's one of those things where, um, actually. A lot of books like Harry Potter for example, the character knows almost nothing about this new world that they're coming into.
And so you learn everything along with the, along with this person. This is more like the Farer trilogy or the Farer series where the, the main character actually knows quite a bit about what's going on, but the exposition of it is not like, um, it's not big exposition dumps. It's very organic. And actually there's, he leaves you with a ton of question marks about how this mysterious will system works.
Right? Um, you learn more about it as you go into the second book. So I'm recommending the whole series specifically 'cause the second book came out. I don't know when the third book is gonna come out. I would imagine it'll be a while. Um, there. Relatively long books. It'll take you a little bit of time to get through 'em.
But they're super good, they're super reasonable. Um, and they're, again, there, there's really not anything objectionable, which is hard to find even in like fantasy writing these days. Um, usually you run into some sort of the far series and trilogy as an example, I wrote, got through the first trilogy. I thought it was really good.
I started the second, uh, trilogy and I made it like two chapters in and I, there was all sorts of just unnecessary sexual content, so I just stopped reading it. I haven't found anything in these books that's even close to that. So first book is Will of the many. Second book is Strength of the Few, uh, and it is, uh, called the h or the Hierarchy Trilogy is LinkedIn has some other books that I haven't read.
I would assume they're very good, but I haven't read them yet. But yeah, check it out. It's so good. I can't recommend it enough. At least so far I haven't finished the second book, but it's, they're, they're just really good fun writing. It's not quite young adult fantasy fiction, so Right. It takes a little bit of work, um, to get through it.
Although it's not difficult reading. It just is not, um, you know, this isn't the per Percy Jackson series where you're gonna read four or five chapters in a sitting. Like, you're probably gonna read one chapter or two chapters a day and, and sort of, that's gonna be the pace you're probably go at unless you have like the week off work or something.
[00:10:32] Jesse Schwamb: It's incredibly clever in its storytelling. Even the title doesn't give anything away. You'll get a sense of what it means almost immediately, and yet you will not comprehend the fullness of what it means until really the whole thing is over. It keeps you guessing. The characters are fun, they're deep, they're interesting.
The dialogue is clever, but mostly I was impressed with like the world building. It does follow that kinda familiar, magical school type trope, but not in a way that's too tired. So. If you want more evidence that it is actually good on Good Reads, it has 28,000 reviews and a score of 4.6. Yeah. Now, if you're keeping track at home, I know some of you loved ones are, you should know that the highest rated book on Good Reads is over 10,000 ratings is Words of Ratings by Brandon Sanderson.
And that comes in at 4.76. So this thing is not far behind that. It's almost universally adored for its creativity. Yeah. It's just entertaining value and how unique it is. So I'm with you. I didn't expect to get as into it as I did. This is one of those that caught me by surprise. And so I was like, oh, I am, I'm definitely down for this.
So I'm behind you. I gotta get my hands on the next copy I can, I can get and get reading.
[00:11:42] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. It, it's um, it's a lot of classic fantasy fiction style. Sort of science, fantasy fiction style, um, tropes, but they're, they're remixed and sort of like synthesized together in a way that's very organic and genuine
[00:12:00] Jesse Schwamb: for sure.
[00:12:00] Tony Arsenal: There's a little bit of hunger games, there's a lot of, a lot of Harry Potter, you know, magical Academy. Um, there's a lot of just sort of good fantasy fiction, almost like Dragon Lance, kind of like world building. Um, what I, what I really love about a good fantasy fiction book is when you can tell the world is bigger than what's going on right in front of you.
Right. But you, but they, he doesn't need to tell you about all of it.
Right? Right.
Like, you can tell there's stuff going on and you hear about it, you read about it in the book, but it's, there's things going on in the rest of the world, um, that may or may not come into play later. But yeah, it's, it keeps you guessing.
Um, and, and again, the only thing that I maybe would've changed slightly about the first book is I would've loved. I when there's a really good twist at the end of the book, one of my favorite things is to go back and, and think about like, what did I miss that brought me here? And I'm not sure there's anything in the original part of the book, um, in the, the main body of the book that actually points you towards the twist.
Right? It's like genuinely a totally new. And I think that's on purpose. Um, I, again, I'm, I'm trying really hard not to give away spoilers 'cause I think that
it's
[00:13:10] Tony Arsenal: so tough. I think that our audience actually is really, is, is the kind of audience that would really like this. Okay. Uh, even to the point that like the, the first book is really grounded in sort of this like mythical Roman Romanesque latinized culture.
Um, it's not supposed to be like ancient Rome. It's not, I don't think it is. I mean, I guess we could find out later on that this is supposed to be some future. You know, cataclysm has reduced the culture back, you know, thousands of years. It could find that out. I don't think we're going to, but, um. The culture is based on, on like ancient roaming culture.
So there's actually a lot of like stoicism principles built into it that I've found that I think are really useful. Um, I've already highlighted you. I can tell when I'm reading a good fiction book if I really like it when I'm highlighting phrases in it, right? Because the writing is not good, and they're sort of a philosophical undercurrent that I, I'm really digging.
So check it out again. James Islington is the author, uh, will of the Many is the first book. Strength of the Few is the, the second book. I don't know what the third book's gonna be called. I'm sure he knows what it's gonna be called. The Lord knows what it's gonna be called, but I'm sure that will be recommending that book when it comes out as well.
[00:14:17] Jesse Schwamb: For sure, man, this whole sound, this whole intro sounded like we should just do an offshoot, which is like the reform book cast. That was, that was such a strong advertisement for that book, including like, you're going back to the titling again. I just wanna, I just wanna affirm you in that, that was very commendable.
That was like a solid podcasting right there.
[00:14:33] Tony Arsenal: We should actually do, I don't know how we would do that with a fiction book this long. We should do some book, book club casts on I agree. This series once it's all out, because there's a lot to chew on in this. Yes. In this story. Okay. There's a lot of moral questions.
There's a, I, I don't know if there's anything in the book that would be explicitly theological, like they're not drawing from those kinds of principles. Um, you know, I guess there's. Mention of Gods. So I think there probably are theological undercurrents, but that's not really part of it. It's, it's kind of like the ancient Roman culture where like nobody really believes that the gods existed.
Yeah.
[00:15:08] Jesse Schwamb: It's nominal.
[00:15:09] Tony Arsenal: Um, yeah. But there's lots of philosophical undercurrents and things to chew on in these books that would be fun for us to, to talk through and work through a little bit.
[00:15:17] Jesse Schwamb: I agree. I we gotta put it on the calendar.
[00:15:20] Tony Arsenal: Let's make it
[00:15:20] Jesse Schwamb: happen. And
[00:15:21] Tony Arsenal: you know what else you could do? If you happen to be reading this book and you'd like to talk about it now and you don't wanna wait.
Oh, that's
[00:15:26] Jesse Schwamb: so good.
[00:15:26] Tony Arsenal: You don't wanna wait until, you know, 2029 when we get around to the next series. Um, you can join the Telegram chat, you can go to t me slash Reform Brotherhood, uh, and that will bring you to our little corner of the internet that we've carved out. Uh, it's an open channel so you can jump in and read what's going on.
Uh, it really is, I think, one of the friendliest, most charitable kind places you're gonna find on that sort of the Christian internet. It's really sad that we have to talk about the charitable part of Christian internet versus like the rest of the Christian Internet. Uh, but that's the way it is. It's funny.
Uh, I got a Facebook message. I I have Facebook Messenger on my phone 'cause there's a few people that I keep in touch with on Facebook. Messenger that I don't have any other contact with. And I got a message on our Reform Brotherhood Facebook Messenger channel, which we haven't used in ages. Whoa. Someone who stumbled upon the podcast and started listening from the first episode, I think they were on like episode 1 68 when they messaged me.
Wow. And I said, well, you're not gonna hear about this for quite a while, but you should join the Telegram chat. So I think, I think he jumped in there. Um, that's great. So yeah, jump in there, chat about this, chat about so else and everybody. Um, I mean, there's, there's been discussions about other fiction books, um, that have come up the same bright, the, um, Sanderson series has come up.
Yes. Um, people like talk about the, the stuff they're reading. So that would be really fun if you wanted to jump in and, and chat through this. No spoilers though. This is the kind of book where like you really. Being blindsided by the, the twist at the end was part of that was really like delightful. So I don't wanna spoil it for anybody.
[00:16:55] Jesse Schwamb: I agree. Yeah. You, you definitely wanna experience it in this way. Trust me.
[00:16:59] Tony Arsenal: Yeah,
[00:16:59] Jesse Schwamb: it is, it is good. We can't say anything more about it because either we'll give it away if we just keep talking. Or we're just gonna continue to gush over how genius the whole thing has put together. It's worth your time.
It's true.
[00:17:09] Tony Arsenal: Jesse, save us. What are you affirming or denying today?
[00:17:11] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, a book. And this sounds like I'm about to pull like a Jesus juke, but that's not my intention at all Here. I'm affirming with a Bible translation just because I've, I've gone back to this one for a while as we've been looking at the parables, and I find it delightful.
So I'm coming with a strong, strong affirmation for the scriptures. And if you're looking for maybe another translation to add into the mix, into the piety, I would suggest going with the Legacy standard Bible. And if you're not familiar with that, with what that is, so imagine if two twin translations, the New American Standard Bible and the Legacy standard Bible, the LSB, so the older twin, like the NASB, he's like the kind of guy who irons his socks.
You know, he is, he's very literal. He's proper speaks like someone who proofreads street signs for fun. He's been doing this for a long time, and because of that, he's really beloved, because he carefully sticks to an exacting word definition and translation of the original text. But sometimes if you've, if you've hung out with NISB for a little while, sometimes he's so formal that you can feel like he's reading a grocery list in like Old Testament Hebrew cadence.
So enter then relatively new, but the younger twin LSB shows up and he's basically like, listen, I, I love my older brother. I wanna do everything he does, but I'm going to double down on making even more exact, which I know sounds crazy given what I just said about the Hebrew cadence. But hear me out. So if the N-N-A-S-B says something, you know, if the NF when the NSB translates like Lord.
For Yahweh, it's like the capitalized LORD and the Ls, LSB, which I appreciate is like, nah, we're just gonna use Yahweh, you know? And the NSB says, listen, we'll use slave only when it's needed. And the Ls, LSB is like, if the Greek says Doos. I'm saying slave and you can't stop me. You know? And the NASB sometimes it does, I think avoid startling you and the LSB is like, listen, if the original text startles you Good.
So I've just been enjoying as we go through the parables, and we'll get to this a little bit tonight, some of that like particular language, some of that, like the vibe that's happening here. I mean, the LSB is is basically like the NASB turned up to 11. It's stricter, it's nerdier, it's even a little bit more literal and it's proudly flexing every time.
It preserves its original language nuance and there is, I think a place for that. The strange thing about it though, I'd say with all that. Being enumerated is that I do think sometimes it reads a little easier than the NAB. All these translations have their of their place, but I would say it's definitely worth adding into the mix.
You're gonna get some lovely and different perspective by going through and taking a look at, at what the l SB has to say. And we're gonna get a little bit of that tonight so you can, I forget who publishes it. Do you remember off the top of your head?
[00:20:02] Tony Arsenal: I think it's the same. Well, MacArthur's group was really instrumental behind it.
I don't remember. Yes. I don't remember the name of it. The name of the organization. That's
[00:20:10] Jesse Schwamb: steadfast. Is it? Well, it doesn't matter. It
[00:20:11] Tony Arsenal: might be, yeah, it might
[00:20:12] Jesse Schwamb: be. I think it might be steadfast. Yes, that is true. If, if, I don't think it should be put up by this by any means. MacArthur actually is a study bible in.
In the l SB translation, he was a particular fan of it. And, uh, so pick that up. If, if you want it, that's your prerogative. Of course. Well, I think any version of it is pretty good. The psalms are particularly good in it, but I do love that you're gonna get all the, the normal, like peace wise stuff with the NASB, where like all the quotations from the different parts of scripture will be in small caps.
There's a lot of like little fun things that draw, like italicized words will alert you to the fact that that word is not actually in the Greek of the Hebrew, but is merely there for the English equivalent. And then you're gonna get yes, the proper name for God in every place, and you're gonna get a lot more detail.
So again, I like to think of these things as like the, the, it's like the LSB is like the NASB, but with a personal trainer or grammar coach and unlimited black coffee. So it's just different and yeah, by kind of doubling down on trying to get like a firm little grasp of what the original texts say.
[00:21:12] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Yeah. Little, uh, little Bible translation, lesson tutorial, I guess. Um. I never knew this even through like seminary, I never really caught onto this, but, um, when you see different. The way that English translations are named often tell you a lot about the history of the translation,
[00:21:33] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:21:33] Tony Arsenal: So we have things like the English standard version, the new international version, or the, the NIV or the uh, legacy Standard Bible.
When you see something like Standard Bible, if you, if you look, there's a number of translations that end in standard Bible. There's the New American Standard Bible, there's the Christian Standard Bible, right? There's the Holman Broadman, Christian Standard Bible. There's now the Legacy Standard Bible. All of those, all of those translations that end in standard Bible, they all are sort of like within the same, I dunno, genetic heritage of they all trace back to, I don't, I don't know what it is for the, for the standard Bible series, but they all trace back to a singular English text, right?
And so when you come out with a new translation, it's very rare that a brand new translation of the Bible is entirely from the Greek. So. The English standard version was a, was a updated version or a, a slightly different translation philosophy from the new revised or the NRSV, the new revised standard version, which was a slightly updated version of the revised standard version, which was an updated version of the authorized standard version, which was the King James version.
Right. So that's right. So when you look at the English standard version, it comes in a lineage that actually goes back to the King James version, the NASB, I don't know exactly where it goes back to, um, but it goes back to a different translation philosophy and a different sort of base English text.
That's where you find a lot of the interesting things like textual features, like certain italicized words tell you something. The LSB really is kind of the English standard version of that, of that, uh, line of Bibles Enus. Yeah. So it's, it's kind of the most modern version of the standard Bible series.
Um. If you look at the CSB and the LSB, there's very, very little differences. They're very similar. And it, it's funny too, because the CSB was originally developed by the Southern Baptist Convention because they wanted to use an updated version, but they didn't want to pay royalties on the English standard version.
So they developed, and that's fine. Like that's, that's a little quirk of history. It's not a, there's no judgment or commentary whatsoever in there. Um, but they, they selected a Bible translation and then they updated it in order to, um, have their own version of the Bible that, um, was there. So all of that to say that LSB is a great translation.
Um, it's funny you are super jazzed up about translating as Yahweh. That's my version of my body was broken for you. Like that's my version of it. I translating the, the divine name as Yahweh in English, uh, that triggers me a little bit. We can talk about that sometime, but, um. Yeah, so I'm not a huge fan of that, that feature, but, um, but yeah, it's, it's a great translation.
I've done the LSB, um, in the past for my year through the Bible reading. Great. So I've read the entire thing. It's great and it's, it's a great translation. Um, like I said, it really feels like the l like the English standard version, um, you're reading a different base text, but the translation philosophy is very similar.
Um, it's not quite formal equivalence, which is what the ESV is. It's much closer to a literal translation. Um, so I wouldn't try to put them on a spectrum, but, um, they're very similar. If you're comfortable reading the ESV and you're just looking for something a little bit different, um, then the LSB is gonna feel very, very familiar and very much at home.
It's gonna be a very similar, um, cadence and reading and, and even structure of the text is very similar.
[00:25:04] Jesse Schwamb: And it just so turns out that we can put a little bit of that difference in the practice right now because if we go and find ourselves in Matthew chapter 13, beginning of verse 47, we've got yet again.
Another incredible teaching from Jesus about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. And Tony, as you've been saying before, as we've been discussing this, I want to give everybody that great perspective off the top right from the jump of this. As you hear this, listen for the nouns and the verbs, the kingdom of Heaven is like, don't just go to the first thing that happens there, but the whole encapsulation of what we're gonna be told.
And the reason why I brought up the lsb is because I think it gives us a little bit of a true different perspective. And to just start out some of that comparison, if you were to go to your, just your standard. ESV version. Now again, the headings, the scripture break, the, all of that stuff is we know something that is not divinely inspired.
It is interesting though, how different translators and commentators have tried to sort out or provide some of that encapsulation of the topic at hand by inserting these little titles or subtitles in the ESV. This section is called the parable of the net. Now, interestingly, and I think this is gonna be something fun for us to talk about, just generally, is that in the LSB it just says a dragnet.
So what's interesting here is we're getting something more specific than just net. So let me, let me read, I'll read you to everybody from not read you. We'll save that for the horrible rec psychic recommendations that we do not condone. Let me, let me read to everyone from Matthew chapter 13, a dragnet or the parable of the nets.
This is Jesus speaking, and again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea and gathering fish of every kind. And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good fish in the containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the fiery furnace.
In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[00:27:08] Tony Arsenal: It's, uh, it's a pretty stark parable and it should feel super familiar, right? Because this is not, um, this is not the first time in this chapter that we've heard basically the same parable,
right?
Um, this is is almost identical in terms of the meaning and the structure and even the like order of things, um, to the parable of the wheat and the tears.
So again, we see Jesus, um, and. Jesus is teaching this, but we see Matthew also arranging this in specific ways that highlights sort of this inner weaving interlocking function in chapter 13, where parables that are similar are sometimes right next to each other. We saw that last week. There's the parable of the pearl, the parable of the treasure in the field, um, that are immediately next to each other and mean basically the same thing.
Now we have the parable of the wheat and the TAs and the parable of the dragnets that are separated by quite a bit, but they mean basically the same thing. So it's interesting to see this different arrangement in how it works, but this is a, this is another example of kind of an eschatological parable, right?
That teaches us not just about, um, the kingdom of Heaven as it was sort of like present in Christ Day. There are some parables that are focusing more on like what the Kingdom of Heaven is like for us right now. And then there are some parables that are sort of focused on what the Kingdom of Heaven is like in its kind of eschatological fulfillment.
This is one of those s.
[00:28:33] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's good. That's actually something I wanted to hit on right away because I thought let's define it at the end and then kind of go back into all the other lovely details. This is heavy, heavy judgment. Yeah, and you're right, of course, it plays right along the. Side the parable of the TAs and the wheat.
What's interesting though, in terms of its distinction is whereas I think the parable of the wheat and the TAs focuses like we talked about on that intervening time between Jesus' inauguration of the kingdom and the end of the age during which both he and the devil are at work in the world leading up to that final judgment, the focus on this parable is just on the future judgment itself.
It's being very, very clear about that judge. It's all judgment. It's all like, here is the end of the age. And so whereas like the parable again of like the wheat and the tears includes the destruction of the wicked, but lays like less stress, I would say upon like the end way in which the righteous will shine forth as the son of the kingdom of their father.
It's emphasizing this promise of a glorious future for our believers and the parable, this dragnet or the parable of the net or the. Nothing but net places like this emphasis upon like the destruction of the wicked. So again, for anybody who would say that Jesus is not teaching this directly and it's really not sugarcoated because he gives the explanation in the parable itself, which is almost a little bit unusual as well.
It's oftentimes he gives one and then the other often separated in like geography or time or space or location. Yeah. But here they, it's just, it's as if Jesus is saying, just in case this wasn't abundantly clear, I am talking about the eschatological fulfillment of my kingdom. And that in that eschatological fulfillment, the wicked will be punished.
[00:30:12] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things that this parable, um, highlights for me, and this is, this is one of those like working it out in real time. So, so bear with me a little bit. I think sometimes we think of, um. Ooh, I gotta be careful how I say this. I think sometimes because of the way we, um, make appropriately make a firm distinction between law and gospel, and we are very careful to keep the law out of the gospel and the gospel out of the law, we lose sight of the fact that the two are interrelated with each other for sure.
Right. So the law is not, the gospel of the gospel is not the law, but the gospel is also not the gospel without the law, if that makes sense. Um, you have to have the law and understand the law in order to really truly understand the gospel. That's why we, we always wanna preach both the law and the gospel.
This parable is, is, uh, a little bit paradigm shifting because when we think of the kingdom of heaven and the, the, to be fair, the parable of the wheat and the tear should have done this for us too. And, and I'm not sure exactly why it didn't, and maybe that's part of why this parable iss here is to sort of help to make sure we're oriented properly.
[00:31:20] Jesse Schwamb: Right on.
[00:31:21] Tony Arsenal: The Kingdom of Heaven in this parable includes the judgment of the wicked. And I think that's something we don't often, we don't often connect and think about. We think in the kingdom of Heaven as God and his elect. When we think of the kingdom of heaven eschatological, we, uh, we think about, um, the, the righteous enjoying fellowship with God forever on the new Earth.
And, you know, heaven comes down to earth and the two be sort of become one in the, the, you know, wedding feast of the Lamb. Um, I didn't mean to make that connection, but I guess it's there in scripture too. Yeah.
[00:31:54] Jesse Schwamb: Um,
[00:31:55] Tony Arsenal: the, the fact of the matter is, um, at least as far as I'm reading this parable. Hell is not outside the kingdom of heaven in, in the view of this parable.
Right? That's right. We wanna be careful to distinguish the two. It's not like hell is some cordon off part of God's kingdom or something like that. But the kingdom of heaven, and, and maybe we should think of this more as like the kingship of God. The domain and reign of Christ involves his reign over the punishment of the wicked.
Right?
[00:32:25] Tony Arsenal: So in this case, the kingdom of heaven is not the good fish that are put into good containers, but it is also the bad fish that are thrown away at the end, the throwing away of the bad fish, which is equated to the throwing of the wicked into the fiery furnace, into the place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth that falls under the authority and the rain and the kingship of Jesus Christ in his kingdom in the last days.
[00:32:50] Jesse Schwamb: Amen.
[00:32:50] Tony Arsenal: Um, we cannot lose sight of that. And I, I think we often do. Um, that's, that's maybe why I'm harping on it so much is I think it's very easy for us to think of God's kingdom as just. Just the righteousness, just the reward.
[00:33:03] Tony Arsenal: But, um, there's a very real element in this parable that it's, it's also pointing to God's sovereignty and his, I think sometimes too, like there's this, um, I understand why people say it this way, and I, I think there's a certain way we can talk about it that it's not inaccurate.
But when people, about people talk about hell being the absence of God,
[00:33:23] Jesse Schwamb: I I knew you were gonna
[00:33:24] Tony Arsenal: say that.
[00:33:24] Jesse Schwamb: Um,
[00:33:25] Tony Arsenal: it, it's not right. Right. Hell is the absence of, is the presence of God absent grace, right?
[00:33:31] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
[00:33:31] Tony Arsenal: Unmediated, um, right. It's, it's God's unmediated, absolute entire wrath poured out on wicked sinners.
That's what hell is. That's
[00:33:39] Jesse Schwamb: right.
[00:33:39] Tony Arsenal: Um, so we, we can't lose sight of that because if we do, we're missing an aspect of what God is doing and who he is. Right. He prepared vessels for wrath. That's part of God's will. And it feels a little uncomfortable to talk about that sometimes. Um, but the Bible talks about it.
We shouldn't shy away from it. And this, this parable right here is, is all over it.
[00:33:57] Jesse Schwamb: Okay, you're stealing like everything I wanted to say, but I'm glad you said that because now I can say something else. So I, this is where you led me right back into the net versus dragnet thing because I think actually all of those details are really meant to lead us exactly to that final conclusion.
Not just that like hell itself is under the purview of God, but there's like an active rule in reign even there.
[00:34:19] Tony Arsenal: Yes.
[00:34:19] Jesse Schwamb: Over all that's happening. So you're, yes, absolutely. You're of course a hundred percent correct. That is the kingdom. It's, it's not just blessing and benefits and rainbows, it's also the fulfillment of all of the other contrary promises that outside of God's mediated favor and love toward us in Christ that still occur again, his wrath is still his to, to met out and it's his to basically have again, like purview over.
So here's why I think, and this is where the Lsb kind of clued me in that the dragnet might be actually. Important in our understanding of this and why he uses that in particular? This is my theory at least, and I don't think I'm alone in this of course. So I've come to learn that when I thought, when I think about like nets, I have like a really western modern view of nets.
I'm not sure until I start to really think about actually meditate on this parable, what I thought the net was and what they were doing with it. But I think it was like, I was thinking they were just like casting it, like you just like kind of throwing it out of the boats and it would sit in the water and and kind of sink down and then they would just kind of arbitrarily haul it up.
And in that hall they would gather whoever happened to be like within the confines of the net. And I think that's very inaccurate perspective. So evidently dragnet in particular as like the name commonly implies here. Certainly this was, I guess, a technique that was very common on the Sea of Galilee and apparently like the details that the actual like taxonomy of the net itself was such that you're talking about a net, usually spend it between two boats, where at the top of it there might be something that help to float up like a cork and there'd be weights at the bottom and it would be stretched or laid out.
Usually, again, between two boats and then pulled to shore by ropes so that everything in its path would be caught as it's pulled. And so this is brilliant because I think Jesus is no doubt using this as a metaphor for this kind of judgment because it captures clearly the idea of gathering every kind of fish.
Other words, you cannot escape the net. The kingdom of God is the net and the sorting comes later. But that being brought up, like you're saying, Tony brought up into that kingdom, whether for like eternal blessing and, and you know, commendation or eternal punishment and suffering. Either way, you can't escape the net.
This is profound because I think so much of our culture thinks they're gonna escape the net or the nets. They're gonna be able to get outside of the net. So he goes on then of course, to be able to describe like these good and bad kinds of fish. But I think it's worth stopping. Just connecting what you just said.
This idea that all of this, all of this is the judgment of God and all of it is the kingdom of God and the net by coming forward and catching everything that is within its confines, like nothing gets out, is exactly the brilliant kind of metaphor that emphasizes the point you were just making.
[00:37:06] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Tony Arsenal: And you know, um, when we talked about the parable of the wheat and the tears, we sort of circled around a little bit and.
I don't know that I have a great answer for it, but I think maybe I have a little bit more clarity on it. We circled around the fact that when people employ and use the parable of the wheat and the tars, they often sort of say like, well, the field is the church. And so there's people in the church that are saved.
There's, or elect, there are people in the church that are not, and we can't really know the difference. And that's true, but in the parable, when Christ explains it, he says, the field is the world.
[00:37:39] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:37:39] Tony Arsenal: And I think this, this parable actually helps us to understand the reason why he says that, right? When he's talking about the parable of the wheat and the terras, it ends in the same place, even though the focus is different, right?
It's focused on sort of the here and the now. And we, we landed very hard on like, part of what we're being taught in that parable is like, know, your, know your role. It's not judgment. Like you're not the one that is supposed to be pulling up the wheat out, you know, trying to find the tears and rooting 'em out and stuff.
But the fact that the field is the world and that the good and the bad grow up together within it is parallel here to the fact that the net is all encompassing, right? So the kingdom of heaven is like a field where there was wheat and tears sewn together, and the field is the world. The kingdom of heaven is like a net that gathers every kind of fish.
It gathers all of them together. All of the fish are in the net together. It's all encompassing. Every single thing is covered. It's really the same parable with a different emphasis and a different picture. But it's, it is this all encompassing picture where it's not a matter of like, God is just scooping.
Right? Again, like I, I keep on coming back to this and I, I had never run into this in these parables before. This is part of why I love this series is because we're really digesting them. Um.
[00:38:57] Tony Arsenal: The dispensational understanding of the rapture is that God takes all the good people or all of the, all of the believers out of the world.
But in, in these two parables, like in this one, everybody's raptured. Everybody's, everybody's scooped up, right? And they're sorted out after that. In the field, the wheat and the tears, it's the, the tears that are taken first, they're the ones that are pulled up first. Um, this idea that, um, that there's this great sorting that happens before the end.
It doesn't seem to comport with scripture. None of, none of what Christ teaches that I see about the final judgment of things has the believers separated out except at the final judgment. Right? Right. We're gonna, I don't, I don't know if it's classified as a parable, so we may not talk about it, but, but the, the sheep and the goats, right?
The sheep and the goats are together until they're separated and it's not as though they're separated then, then later on, there's another separation, though. The separation is the final judgment in this case, the sorting of, of the fish into the good containers and the throwing away of the bad. That's all one act, right?
It's not like you sort all of the good into one container and then you throw away all the bad. If you think about how this process works, I used to watch, um, like deadliest catch. Did you ever watch that with the
[00:40:12] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:40:12] Tony Arsenal: The crab fishermen?
[00:40:13] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah,
[00:40:13] Tony Arsenal: for sure. Right. This is what's going on, right? They, they pull up the crabs, they dump 'em all out on the deck.
They start sorting through them and the ones that are too small or are deformed or aren't crabs, right, they pull up all sorts of other stuff. It's not like they're waiting to throw those back into the ocean until they're all done. They look at one, they put it in a good box, they look at the next one.
It's bad. They throw it back in the ocean. This is the final judgment. This is the final culmination of things, and this parable is showing us that like all of that happens kind of in one movement. The the net drags everything up when they get it ashore. Right. They sit down and they sort it, and the the good is kept and the bad is thrown into, you know, bad.
In this case, in the parable, probably like back into the ocean or just to the side or wherever it might be. In, in the reality and the explanation here, the evil ones are thrown into the fiery furnace. While the good are, presumably it doesn't really talk about the good. That's the other feature of this.
Like there's no statement of what's happening to the good,
[00:41:12] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:41:13] Tony Arsenal: What's happening to the righteous. It's just assumed that they're being brought into the kingdom of heaven. Um, but the angels will come out, they will separate the evil from righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. This is really, really a parable focusing on the judgment of the wicked.
Yes. Where I do think the parable of the wheat and the tears would, you know, in its eschatological elements really was more focused on the, the destiny of the righteous with sort of like the destiny of the wicked being a a, a corollary. This one is just really focusing on what judgment in the kingdom of God looks like.
[00:41:43] Jesse Schwamb: Right, and I think that would've floored the original hearers. Don't you think this, they're hearing this, there's two things at least I think that really would've like just been shocking to hear. I actually, one of them is this idea of the net because I don't think if I try to understand it in the more of the kind of grand historical and biblical context that Jesus was bearing the lead on this.
Yeah.
[00:42:03] Jesse Schwamb: This idea of the net being a symbol of judgment of God is very well known and very prolific throughout the Old Testament, and I got a couple. Passages here I wanna throw out for us to consider that. The second thing is, there is something about this sorting of the fish, which sounds very much like, uh, essentially, you know, the, the laws of what is clean and unclean that God gives to his people in Deuteronomy.
But first, going back to your point, it is all judgment. There is judgment for all. So the Christian itself as well,
[00:42:29] Tony Arsenal: right?
[00:42:29] Jesse Schwamb: But of course, we're co covered in Christ with that imputed glorious alien righteousness. So all that judgment has been paid forward that you know, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part with the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord on my soul. All of that is true. That is the claim of the Christian. But you're right here, the emphasis is certainly on this judgment and again, wrapped up in this idea of net. So I think just hearing that would've floored them. And here's why I say that. So this is from Ezekiel chapter 32, just verses one through three.
In the 12th year. In the 12th month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, raise a lamentation. Over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, you consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas. You burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet and foul their rivers.
Thus says the Lord God. I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples and they will haul you up in my dragnet. This is from Habakkuk chapter one, verses 14 through 17. You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook. He drags them out with his net.
He gathers them in his dragnet, so he rejoices and his glad. Therefore, he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet for by them. He lives in luxury and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? So there's all of this rich like contextual.
Context for I think what they're hearing. And then to have that pair immediately. I think what is shocking, like you're saying, is here's Jesus. He's been expounding and the kingdom, my heaven is like this. We just talked about the kingdom. My heaven is like these amazing treasures, like this pearl of great price and value, like these things of great blessing and worth and something to give up all that you have for to gain everything else which you could not have accomplished on your own.
And then he says, and another thing, the kingdom of heaven is like, it's like this judgment. It's like the judgment of the Old Testament. It's like the judgment of the net that God had typically reserved for the his own enemies. And now he's saying in the end, like you're saying, everybody will be pulled up and then comes the sorting.
[00:44:39] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Well, and, and now you're stealing where I was gonna go 'cause I have a cook up on my, up on my screen. Yeah. I mean, I think that the hearers of this parable would have immediately thought of, I think Habakkuk would've been the place they thought of, right? The, the final, uh, the final judgment of the people of Israel prior to the, you know, prior to the exile.
Right. Um, or, or I suppose this is the exile itself, but you, you can sort of think of the. People of like it, the ancient, uh, nation of Israel. You can sort of think of them in a couple different phases, right? There's like the, there's like the United Kingdom under David and Solomon. There's the divided Kingdom, um, through most of its Old Testament history.
And then there's uh, there's the return to exiles that come after that. The last judgment of the people of, of Israel, right? And this is just Judah. 'cause Israel's already gone. The last judgment of the people of Judah. The two remaining tribes is, is described by Habakkuk as. A dragnet, right? It's, it's Babylon.
It's the Chaldeans, uh, sweeping up everything. Right? And that metaphor, in that metaphor in Habakkuk, um, it uses three different me fishing metaphors.
[00:45:55] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:45:55] Tony Arsenal: Right. There's a fishing hook, which is very specific. That's right. You, you catch one fish with a hook,
[00:46:00] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:46:00] Tony Arsenal: Uh, there's a diff there's one kind of net, which is, uh, probably like this.
When, when you think of like fishing in North America, when you use a net, it's, you've already hooked them and you're using the net to kind of pull them outta the water. And then there is this dragnet and there's this all encompassing element of this dragnet in Habakkuk that represents the final total judgment of God's people in that phase of their existence.
Right? They come back from exile and there are very different people. Their religion is different, their culture and society is different. They have to rebuild the temple. They have a different temple. Um, even the way that the, the. Priesthood works is different. Um, not, not that it's entirely different, but it's definitely not exactly the same.
So there really is like a firm, um, seismic shift in the religion of the Old Testament that happens at the exile. Everything changes for them for many years. There is no temple. That's the judgment of that Habakkuk is describing. Right. That's the judgment that he was so aghast at that he was like, God, what are you doing like this?
Yes, exactly. The disease or the cure is worse than disease here. Right, right. Um, and then Christ is intentionally using that language. Um, that's not to say there aren't other, you know, you, you referenced a couple, there are other, um, judgment statements in the Old Testament that are Annette, but I, I think Habakkuk is the primary one, if not the only one that I can think of where it's applied to God's people.
[00:47:24] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:47:24] Tony Arsenal: Right. The net judgment in, in other places is often applied to God's enemies, but this is God's people and in this case, the judgment is. Obviously it's not on God's people. God's people face judgment, but come through it. The judgment here is not a judgment that, that people come through. So it's not, we're not referring to God's people in this judgment, in the parable.
Um, the, the but the net sweeps them up too.
[00:47:49] Jesse Schwamb: Exactly
[00:47:50] Tony Arsenal: right. It's a universal, um, all encompassing judgment. All people are swept up in it. Um, and in the Old Testament in, in Habakkuk, the remnant that Habakkuk points to, right? He's, he's, he is, uh, confident that there are those who are faithful to Jesus or faithful to God, faithful to Jesus.
He, he, you know, I think the, the prophets knew more than we give them credit for,
[00:48:13] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:48:13] Tony Arsenal: Um, the people who are faithful were still swept up in the judgment. They were still swept up in the, the nets of the chaldeans for the most part. Um, so I think there's a lot to it. There's a lot to this parable. Um, we are just scratching the surface.
I mean, and this is a short parable. This is why these, this parable series is first of all why it's gonna be like 19 years long. Um, but why it's so. Encouraging to me, and why I'm so excited about it is we really are, I really, I'll speak for myself. I hope that this is the listener's experience, and I hope this is your experience too, Jesse, but I am, I am coming to these texts and I don't think I'm finding anything new, but I'm seeing things that I haven't seen before.
I don't think they're new as in, like, no one in the history of the world has ever conducted Haku with this parable, but I, I've never thought of that before. I've read Habakkuk a bunch of times. I've read this parable a bunch of times. I never made that connection. I, um, I preached through Habakkuk, uh, a year and a half ago.
I did all four chapters over the course of a month. Uh, and I, in all my commentary, preparation, I never made this connection. Like it never came up in my mind that these two things were connected. But taking time to work through these parables of Christ and really think about and digest, his teaching has been so good for my soul.
[00:49:25] Jesse Schwamb: I agree. And of course it leads us, I think, into just these deeper waters of the brilliancy of our Lord and Savior's teaching that in just the course of a few short words, he's taken something that wasn't just like familiar, but had a full robust context. And I can imagine even with what they understood about Habakkuk, and again that passage ending with is, is he then going to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing the nations forever?
I mean, think about that plea, like just exemplifying the great power and providence and superintendent control that God has over everything, these nations and these peoples. And I can imagine the people saying, you know what? He's saying this to them saying like, who? Who are you talking to right now? It's us.
Like who you're talking to, you just said like the kingdom of God is, is for those who are willing to forsake all things and uncover this great and deep treasure and now you're coming in with all this judgment. And that's why I think it, it ending with this separation kind of coming back to where we started, which was at the very end, would've also been somewhat shocking or scandalous because it's very interesting to me that Jesus is essentially, I think drawing back to like Deuteronomy.
14 when it would've been common for these fishermen to go through. And just like in the, the beautiful practicality of this, like you commit to on this while you're working because it is directly connected to the work of the day, which was fishing. And people would more familiar with it than I am. And so when he says something like, you know, the good.
Fish are gonna be separated, put into containers in, in the bad, thrown out or thrown away, that I would imagine harken right back for them to Deuteronomy 14, where they're given the explicit command that, you know, you can eat of anything that's in the waters, you may eat all of those things that have fins and scales.
And certainly, I presume, without knowing exactly that in the sea of Galilee, there would be fish that they could not eat, that they would have to separate what was clean and unclean. And there seems to me be more than just a parallel here with that as well. So this, this judgment is about cleanliness.
It's, it's about those whom God has called and elected and saved. And those are, are the ones that he's going to be separating out. All will be caught up in that net. But this idea for the unclean and those that are clean, I think would also be just like reverberating in their minds while he's saying this.
Trying to figure out what does he mean by all of this.
[00:51:47] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, um, we don't. I think Christians can sometimes disregard the categories in Leviticus. Um, what I mean by that is like we think of clean and unclean as like categories that have no relevance for us.
[00:52:04] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:52:04] Tony Arsenal: And on a certain level that's that's true.
Like that was part of the ceremonial law. And, and the only reason they don't have relevance for us is because in, in Christ, we're all clean. But there's also an element that, that, that implies or it entails out of Christ. They're all unclean.
[00:52:23] Jesse Schwamb: Right?
[00:52:24] Tony Arsenal: Right, exactly. So someone who is unclean in the Old Testament did not have access to any of the ceremonial, cleansing or blessings of.
Uh, of the, the scriptures of God's, God's religion In the Old Testament, they didn't have access to the temple. They didn't have access to God's people. They were often, you know, castigated out of society itself. Um, I was listening to, I forget who it was, but I was listening to an excellent sermon on, um, the, uh, the, uh, woman who is suffering from bleeding.
I think it was Dr. Michael Yusef. And, um, he made the point that like, not only would she have been isolated from her religious community, her family would've had to isolate themselves from her in order to not become unclean themselves.
Right.
So when we talk about cleaning and unclean in the Old Testament, it is this picture of entire isolation, right?
Well, what, what does this parable end with? It's a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, which we learn in other parts of the gospels when crisis. Talking about this is a place of outer darkness.
[00:53:28] Jesse Schwamb: That's
[00:53:28] Tony Arsenal: right. It's a place of isolation it, it's a fiery furnace, but it's also a place where there is nothing and no one else to keep you company or to share your misery with you are utterly alone to be undone by God's wrath for all eternity.
That's the picture we have here, right? That's the picture of uncles. That's why uncles is isolating in the Old Testament is 'cause this is this picture of judgment. So I think you're right when we're talking about the sorting of fish. We're talking about the, the sorting of the good fish and the bad fish.
We probably should read that as clean and unclean fish.
[00:54:04] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, exactly
[00:54:04] Tony Arsenal: right. It's not just the good fish as in like, Ooh, this is delicious, and oh, that's kind of rotten. Like we're not talking about like, Ooh, I've got a yummy trout, and like, ooh, just like a really gross bottom feeder. That's not what we're talking about.
Right. Although I think bottom feeders probably would be unclean. 'cause they don't typically have fins per se.
[00:54:20] Jesse Schwamb: Agree.
[00:54:21] Tony Arsenal: Um, but like we're talking, we're not talking about like the quality of the fish.
[00:54:26] Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
[00:54:26] Tony Arsenal: As in like, this is delicious or healthy. Yeah. And, and this is kind of gross. We're talking about clean and unclean.
We're talking about whether or not a, a Jew could eat this fish and not render themselves to be unclean and to be excluded from the religious community and to be excluded from God's worship, to be made outsiders, even if temporarily, that's what unclean is did to you. It made you outsiders from the people of God.
Um, sometimes, temporarily, sometimes. Sometimes permanently. And, and a person who willingly eats unclean food in the Old Testament is separated. I, I think, separated permanently in some instances. So I think this is a, this is a parable that has a lot more to it than you probably would understand, just casually reading.
And I say that just to, to commend to you like a really good commentary Will, will get you to a lot of these places for sure. It will help you get to where this is. So whether you're using something like Calvin, which is available free online, Matthew Henry, which is free online. Um, I've been reading in the Pillar New Testament commentary series for a lot of this, um, which is, is a fairly technical commentary series, but you can get it pretty affordably on, on something like logos.
Um, wherever you're going, if you're using a decent commentary, it's gonna help you to see some of these nuances in ways that you probably wouldn't at just a casual first glance. And
[00:55:41] Jesse Schwamb: of course I would add to that you can just go online and take a look at a couple of different translations and just kind of marinate in that, mold them over, read them over and over again in different versions.
[00:55:51] Jesse Schwamb: That can often be helpful, I think, because what this is really giving us excuse to do is get our meditation exercise muscles. Like buffed, like, let's, let's get sw as the kids say on meditation, because this gives us an excuse to say as we're turning this over, like reading it throughout the week and then turning it over on our way to work, or as we're walking to our vehicle, or as we're heading into the grocery store.
I think that's a very thing that God rewards to build through the power of the Holy Spirit, greater, deeper intimacy with what Jesus is saying here. And then why wouldn't the Holy Spirit want to empower Jesus' words for us even now, and to give us greater insight and greater closeness to him as we grew through these things?
So I think in that way, it's a really great excuse to just use this as an opportunity to practice meditation, some deliberate meditation to sit down and to actually think, what, what is meant here by the net? What, what would a, how would they use the net? If I imagine even fishermen using a net, what can I draw from that?
Because of course, clearly Jesus was using these very practical, ordinary, normal means. To communicate grand spiritual truths and they connect in consummate harmony. So it's all there for us to really grasp hold of like, this truth is not too far away, that we cannot grasp it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I think we ought to continue to pray in that way. And this is just like a lovely excuse to really kinda lean into that more directly then some other passages of the Bible. This just lends toward that because this is the teaching of our Lord and Savior for us. He is for us, and in this teaching I see him being very much for us.
Yeah. In that he's communicating something to us that we ought to understand if we have ears. To hear that. That is the whole point, isn't it? And I take what you said, and I think that should be a great encouragement to us, that this idea that when Jesus draws near nothing remains the same. And that alien imputed righteousness is that new creation.
That regeneration is a cleanliness. And again, I can just imagine the people listening to this being very familiar with what it meant to follow the dietary restrictions very. Well, pun intended religiously and fastidiously and meticulously. And then for Jesus to use that and draw that data in this diff different way.
And I think what we've learned in this whole conversation is Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God. Is both God's sovereign future separation of the righteous and the wicked. He reigns in rules everywhere, in all places, in all realms and all spiritual realities. And I think the overall reformed reading sees this passage of reinforcing some of the doctrines you and I talk about all the time.
It's election, it's final judgment, it's perseverance. It's reminding believers to trust God's timing and to remain faithful until the end. And just like we are prone to say here, we find that Jesus is right in the center of this parable. Of course, because he, he's the one pulling up the net. He is God himself, and he's doing all the verbs.
He's pulling, he's bringing out of the water. He's sorting, he's sending. Yeah. And so we bow before him. We subject even our reasoning and our cognizance to him knowing that his ways are best, his will is the best, and that he's worthy of all praise and glory.
[00:58:59] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:59:00] Tony Arsenal: That's a good place for us to add. Um, we would love it if you would continue on this with us.
If you would, um, pick up your Bible and read and, and marinate over this. Grab a good commentary. Um, have good conversations about this. Again, the Telegram channel is a great place to have these conversations. Um, but, you know, God's word is so rich and I don't wanna ever create a canon within a canon.
Right, right. I saw an interesting video online the other day where some liberal woman was talking about how like, Christianity is the religion of Paul, and people forget that. Like, you know, Paul never even met Jesus. And like then a like a reasonable conservative Christian is like, you do know that like all of the words that we have of Christ were written are like someone else's words recorded, like
[00:59:46] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:59:46] Tony Arsenal: All of it is secondhand in a sense. Um. All of that to say, uh, there is something sweet about the red letters, right? For sure. Um, it's not that they're more inspired or that we should take them more seriously, um, but we should definitely take them at least as seriously as we take the epistles, which I think sometimes, uh, reform Christians do have a tendency to prioritize Paul over the gospels.
Um, some of that is that it's explicitly teaching material, um, which makes it a little easier to digest and a little easier to preach. Um, but we definitely should spend time in the gospels. We should spend time, um, studying the words of our savior, studying what he taught his people in, you know, the people who were with him when he taught his apostles directly.
Um, there's a lot of value to that that we don't wanna overlook and we don't, don't wanna pass by. So I'm glad that we're gonna be in the parables for the foreseeable future. I mean, it's gonna be a long time, and, and I'm, I'm stoked for it. I'm here for it.
[01:00:46] Jesse Schwamb: I'm definitely here for it. I think what we keep going back to is, wow, do they like pack a punch?
Like what? What I would've probably read through and have read before with somewhat of like a cursory attitude like, yeah, yeah, okay. It's a recapitulation just for emphasis. Right. What I found this time around was, of course it was doubling down on some things, but also giving us something completely different and new to consider.
And if, unless again, this is just. The condemnation. I feel the conviction I have is that I just spend far too little time in meditating on words like this. Yeah. It just, a little bit of meditation. I think God honors that. It, it kindles a fire within us for the scriptures, for greater love, for Christ, for closeness to Christ that is absent when we just tend to read through these, like again, like we're just eating that cheeseburger on the way home, on the highway real quick because we've got things to do and we've gotta just pack in a meal because we know we gotta eat between things instead.
Love ones. We gotta sit down at the table, take our time, get the nap, get the, get the nice cloth napkins, you know what I'm talking about.
[01:01:55] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[01:01:55] Jesse Schwamb: And have the, the family style dinner passed around. Talk to everybody and set aside the time knowing like the, the activity for today is like, like you would treat like a, a good old American Thanksgiving.
You come to that meal knowing like, this is what we're doing today is we're eating. We're fellowshipping, we're, we're spending time with one another. We're taking our time to enjoy and to savor. And I think you and I are always trying to grow in that to some degree. But here again, we have just a lovely excuse to do a little savoring of the scripture.
So come and savor with us.
[01:02:26] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, uh, something that just crossed my mind that's a little bit insane is like, if you're reading the Bible in a year, which the like Yes. Read the Bible every year. Sure. If you're reading the Bible in a year, you, you read this chapter probably along with one or two others in a single sitting.
[01:02:43] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[01:02:43] Tony Arsenal: And like, how often do we take time to sit down and really think about. Two or three or four verses and just really s like really sit in that. Mm-hmm. Um, there's a huge benefit to reading. I've said this before, like, especially I think especially in the Old Testament, um, because we're not, probably not used to.
As much expository preaching in, in, especially like Old Testament narratives. Um, we are not used to really digging deep into the Old Testament and we don't hear a lot of it. Um, there's a lot of benefit in reading large portions of text in one sitting. Like, it's great if you do a, like a reading plan where you're reading through the Bible three times in a year and you're read like 5, 6, 7 chapters in one sitting.
That's great. But also it's good to sit and read like two chapters and really, or two, two verses and really meditate on them, really think about them. Um, we don't do that as much. Right? And there's a huge, huge blessing and benefit in it. Um, so yeah, you gotta have a very diet. Sometimes you gotta read a lot, sometimes you should read a little.
Uh, ideally you're doing both of those. Most days you're spending time reading big chunks and, um, and also meditating on small chunks. But I'm glad that at least in this series for the foreseeable future, we're really taking our time and we're really kind of doing the slow roast. Low and slow is the way to go with this.
[01:04:01] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, and slow like a pot roast on the Lord's day.
[01:04:04] Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yes.
[01:04:05] Jesse Schwamb: Well, whether you read a lots or you read a little, we know that. Until next time, you should honor everyone.
[01:04:11] Tony Arsenal: Love the brotherhood.
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In this thought-provoking episode, Tony and Jesse delve into Jesus's twin parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price from Matthew 13:44-46. They explore the profound economic metaphor Jesus uses to illustrate the incomparable value of the Kingdom of Heaven. Through careful examination of both parables, they discuss what it means to "count the cost" of following Christ while simultaneously recognizing that no earthly sacrifice can compare to the infinite worth of gaining Christ. The conversation moves between practical application—considering how believers assess value in their spiritual lives—and deeper theological reflections on Christ's perfect sacrifice that makes our entrance into the Kingdom possible in the first place.
The economic metaphor Jesus employs in these parables is striking—both the hidden treasure and the pearl are deemed so valuable that the discoverers "sell all they have" to obtain them. As Tony and Jesse point out, this transaction reveals something profound about how we should view the Kingdom of Heaven. It's not simply that the Kingdom is valuable; it's that its value so far exceeds anything else we possess that the comparison becomes almost absurd. As Tony notes, "For sure the worth of the kingdom of heaven surpasses anything we could imagine... there's no measure that is satisfying, there's no measure that can actually show us how worthwhile it is."
This perspective transforms how we understand sacrifice in the Christian life. When opportunities or comforts are foregone because of our faith, we're not simply losing something—we're experiencing the reality that we've chosen something infinitely more valuable. The parables teach us to view these moments not with regret but with a clearer vision of the treasure we've received in Christ.
Perhaps the most powerful insight from the discussion is the realization that the ultimate treasure of salvation is not the benefits we receive, but God Himself. As Tony eloquently states: "All of those things are attending gifts. But what we get in salvation ultimately is we get God... we get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We get swept up into the life of the Trinity... We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that."
This perspective reshapes how we understand the value proposition of the gospel. It's not merely that we receive eternal life, freedom from suffering, or other benefits—though these are real. The pearl of great price is relationship with God Himself. This helps explain why both men in the parables respond with such dramatic, all-encompassing sacrifice. When we truly grasp what's being offered, nothing seems too great a price to pay.
"What we get in salvation ultimately is we get God. We get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We get swept up into the life of the Trinity... We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that."
— Tony Arsenal
"I often say in my own line of work, that cost only matters in the absence of value... it's like at the end of days when we think about the worthiness of our God, that there's no one like him, that he's unequal, that he has no rival, that the gospel is the sweetest message that we're rescued literally from the pit. We'll just say no matter what the cost of us personally, great or small, totally worth it."
— Jesse Schwamb
[00:00:08] Tony Arsenal: All of those things are attending gifts. But what we get in salvation ultimately is we get God we get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the, the power of the Holy Spirit. We, we get swept up into the life of the, the God of the universe. Like the life of the Trinity indwells us.
And we, we become a part of that. We get swept up into that. We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that.
[00:00:47] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 469 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
[00:00:54] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother.
[00:00:59] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother.
[00:01:00] Jesse Schwamb: Speaking of ears to hear, we're back at it again with a whole new, or let's say different parable from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
And we've been talking about how really these parables give us this view of the face of heaven through these earthly glasses. And I am pretty interested in our conversation about what's coming up because sometimes we don't like to put too fine a points to our, our point of question to our faith. And in this case, we're gonna get to ask the question, what is it all worth, this kingdom of heaven, this rule and reign of Christ?
What is it all about? Who are the beneficiaries of it? And what is it all actually worth? There's a little bit of economics in this, so we're gonna get there. And while we talk and do a little affirming or denying, you should just go ahead write to just skip, go. Do not collect $200 or maybe. Pass, go and collect $200.
I dunno. But just go to Matthew chapter 13 and hang out there for just a second.
[00:01:58] Jesse Schwamb: But first, I'm always curious to know whenever we talk, are you gonna affirm with something or are you gonna die against something? We've been on a string of lots of affirmations, but I'd like to think that's just because we're fun, loving, optimistic people.
But there was a day where we had to do both. And now that I only have to choose one, I do find myself gravitating almost naturally toward the affirming width. But I leave it to you, Tony, are you affirming with or denying against?
[00:02:22] Tony Arsenal: I, unfortunately am denying tonight.
[00:02:25] Tony Arsenal: So you and I already talked about it a little bit, but uh, I'm denying Apple Podcast Connect.
Oh yes. So, uh, I. Obviously, like if you're affected by this, you're not hearing the episode 'cause it's not updating for you. But, uh, if you happen to be using Apple to listen to the podcast and for some reason you're listening somewhere else, maybe you realize that the podcast has not been updating for several weeks.
And so you went to a different podcast catcher. Um, apple just decided for some reason that none of our feeds were gonna update. No good reason. So I've got a ticket out to Apple and hopefully we'll get it fixed. Uh, if you do know someone who listens to the show and they use Apple, please tell them to subscribe to something else or to, uh, go to the website.
You can get all of the, all of the episodes on our website. You could go to Spotify, you could do something like, uh, overcast or PocketCasts. Um, it really is just Apple. It's, it's the actual account that we use to, uh, to access. Apple's Directory is not pulling new episodes and it's not pulling new episodes on another show that I run as well.
So, uh, it's not just this show, it's not our RSS feed. These things happen. It'll, you know, you'll get four or five episodes all at one time. When it, when it corrects itself, usually they're pretty quick. I put in a ticket like late on Friday afternoon, so I didn't expect them to get to it on, uh, Saturday or Sunday.
So hopefully by the time you're hearing this, uh, it's resolved. I would hope so, because that means it would be about a week from today. Um, so hopefully they'll have a resolve. But yeah, it's just th thorns and thistles. This is our own, our own, uh, manifestation of the curse here in this little labor that we do.
It's, it's thorns and thistles right now, but no big deal. Just, uh, catch up when you can. And, uh, yeah, so denying Apple Podcasts now, really, it's, it's a great service and this is a, a little glitch. It's, it's just a little frustrating.
[00:04:20] Jesse Schwamb: The sweat of our brow. Yes. Here it is. We're just toiling over getting Apple to please release our episodes.
Well, it'll be your happy day if you use Apple Podcasts and then get a bunch of them all at once. That's fantastic. It's like the gift that is over in abundance.
[00:04:36] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it is a good reminder that you just said, Tony, that everybody should go, just take some time. Head on over to our form brotherhood.com. You can find all the other 400 some odd episodes living over there.
And while you're over there and you're perusing or searching by topic to see what we've talked about before, you're probably gonna think to yourself, this is so incredible. How is this compendium, this omnibus of all these episodes just hanging out here free of cost? And I'm so glad you're thinking about that because there are so many lovely brothers and sisters who have decided just to give a little bit to make sure that all that stuff gets hosted for free for you Yeah.
And for us, so that anybody can go and explore it and find content that we hope will be edifying. So if that's something you're interested in, maybe you've been listening for a while and thought, you know what? I would like to give a little bit one time or reoccurring, we would love to, for you to join us in that mission.
You can go to patreon.com/reform brotherhood, and there's all the information for you to give if that's something that you feel you would like to do, and we would be grateful for you to do it.
[00:05:32] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. We, we have a group of people who support the show. They make it possible for your, uh, your ear holes to be filled with our voices.
And, uh, but again, you know, the costs are going up all around and, and we would, uh, certainly love to have people partner with us. Um, we've committed to making show that the, making sure that the show is free and available. Um, it's never our intention to put anything behind a paywall or to, to barrier and in that way, but we can only do that if there's people who are supporting the show and making, making sure that we've got the funding that we need to, to keep going.
So, thank you to everybody who gives, thank you to anyone who's considering it, uh, and thanking anybody who decides to, uh, jump on board with that.
[00:06:11] Jesse Schwamb: Right on. We're appreciative who we really are.
[00:06:13] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So Jesse, what are you affirming or denying today?
[00:06:16] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, this is what I've kind of done before, but I think I've found a new place for it.
I just am continually impressed and fall in love with how great and big and lovely God's world is. So I love these types of sites that give you insight into this great big world, even if it's in unexpected places or maybe in strange places. So I'm affirming with a website called Open webcam db.com.
Open webcam db.com. And it's exactly like what it sounds like. It's a database that has something like 2000 live cameras streaming daily from over 50 countries, all searchable by a category. So you can find natural landscapes, airports, construction sites, and one of my recent favorites, honestly, and this is.
It's so strange, but kind of awesome is this warehouse, it's called Chinese Robotic Warehouse Buzz, and it's just robots moving pallets around or like stacks of all of these items. It's mesmerizing. But I would encourage you go to open webcam db.com, search for like your stage or your country. You'll find so many amazing things.
So I've sat and just watched, you know, between tasks or when you know you just need a break or you're just curious about the world. Like I look, I watched the Krakow Maine Market Square quite a bit because it's. Beautiful and brilliant, and to think about the people moving to and fro and what they're doing, what their lives are like.
There's some great scenes from San Francisco Bay. There is a bird feeder in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that I often watch. So of course, like go out as we've said, and live and breathe and be in your own communities. And as well, if you're looking at scratch that itch of just seeing all these different places, all the different things that are happening in God's created world, I can firmly and unreservedly recommend open webcam db.com for that.
[00:07:58] Tony Arsenal: Nice, nice, uh, little known fact at one point, Dartmouth Hitchcock, which is the hospital that I worked for, had to block a penguin cam, uh, because it was causing such a productivity drain combined with an actual measurable decrease in internet bandwidth at the hospital. 'cause so many people were watching this little penguin cam at some zoo in Boston.
I think it probably was. Yeah, I, I love this kind of stuff. I think this kind of stuff is great. Uh, I use, uh, Dartmouth College has a, like a live one that I use all the time, especially when we're trying to figure out what the weather's gonna do. You can see it on the camera. Uh, we, we often will, you know, see, especially as we get closer to the season when we're talking about traveling to the beach and whatnot, uh, often look at the ocean grove.
Oh, that's right. Uh, pier cam. So yeah, check it out. Uh, sounds like a fun time. Do not share it with too many of your friends at work. Or it may crash the network and Yeah. But
[00:08:53] Jesse Schwamb: yeah, for
[00:08:54] Tony Arsenal: sure. That was a funny email that they had to send out. I remember that
[00:08:57] Jesse Schwamb: for sure. Use, use the penguin cam responsibly. I just did a quick search.
There are four different penguin cams. Uh, three of them are in the United States, one is in New Zealand, and you better believe I'm gonna be checking those bad boys out. Yes. I didn't even think about. The penguin feature here and penguins are an amazing animal. Like we could stop right now and just shift our topic to penguins if you want to.
[00:09:16] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. '
[00:09:16] Jesse Schwamb: cause there's so much there. And the spiritual truths are so broad and deep, but I just think penguins are kind of undervalued. Birds. Everybody should go check them out.
[00:09:26] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're pretty cool.
[00:09:28] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Um, I'm like, I will watch any Penguin documentary and just be astounded by Penguin.
Like, whether they're Emperor Penguins or South African Penguin, wherever. I just think they're phenomenal and hilarious and seem to be living the dream. And he doesn't want a little bit of that.
[00:09:46] Tony Arsenal: You just gotta get Morgan Freeman to do the voiceover in any documentary or, or nature documentary is better with Morgan Freeman doing the voiceover.
[00:09:55] Jesse Schwamb: Well, I all, this might be a deep cut real quick, but I just learned this, and I'm guessing some of our listening brothers and sisters probably already know this. Maybe you do too, Tony. So, Benedict Cumberbatch, do you know where I'm going with this? Yep,
[00:10:06] Tony Arsenal: yep. Pen wing.
[00:10:07] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I didn't. I cannot say that word or stumbles over its pronunciation.
He did some kind of big documentary in which Penguins played at least some part. Yeah. And they were in an interview. They were giving him such a hard time because they played his reading of it like within the same kind of five minutes. And his, the word just kept degenerating in his mouth every time he said it.
So it became like almost undistinguishable from the actual word. And it's like initial pronunciation. It was so hilarious. Apparently it's a big joke on the internet and I just didn't know it.
[00:10:38] Tony Arsenal: Especially for someone like Bent Cumberbatch who just is, uh, like he's a world-class voice actor.
[00:10:44] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:10:45] Tony Arsenal: And like a super smart ude guy and he just can't say the word penguin and penguin.
Yeah.
[00:10:51] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. He said, you got everybody go look it up. 'cause it is super hilarious. And now it's kind of gotten stuck in my head. But um, again, this suddenly became like the All Penguin episode all of a sudden.
[00:11:01] Tony Arsenal: I mean like, he can pronounce his own last name just fine, but the word penguin escapes him. I like to call 'em blueberry crumble bottom or whatever.
Crumble bunch.
[00:11:11] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, see that's the good stuff right there. That's what everybody we know. This is what you all tune in for. This is what you're missing when Apple Podcast doesn't send everything out on time. Yeah. You're welcome.
[00:11:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:11:23] Tony Arsenal: Well, Jesse, why don't we, why don't we get into it? Because you know it, it's interesting.
Let's
[00:11:27] Jesse Schwamb: get into it.
[00:11:28] Tony Arsenal: Well, it's interesting because when you, you know, you kind of, we, we sort of do the little lead to the episode and I, I suddenly realized that I think I've been interpreting this parable very differently than maybe you have or other people. Great. Do, uh, because I, I think I, I think I might have a different take on it.
Let, let's do it. Yeah. So let's get into it. Uh, do you have the, the text in friend you wanna read? Uh, why don't we just do 44 all the way through 46? We'll do both parables in one reading. We'll come back and talk about it.
[00:11:54] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Sorry, everybody. So here's a two for one for you. Beginning in where we're in verse 44 of Matthew chapter 13.
This is Jesus speaking. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field again. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
[00:12:22] Tony Arsenal: I think maybe this is the, like the beauty of parables, uh, when Christ doesn't give us a interpretation. I, I think we're, we're, we're not free to like make up whatever we want, but these kinds of teaching tools are useful because the fact that there can be multiple interpretations actually is, is probably intentional.
[00:12:43] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:12:43] Tony Arsenal: So it's funny because I think when you intro the episode here, it sounds like you're going to the kingdom of Heaven being a treasure hidden in a field, being something that we should sell everything we have and go after. And when I read this, I read it as the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden a field.
And the man who is Jesus goes and sells all that. He has. He gives all that he has and buys the field. So, and I, I think this is one of those ones where like. Probably both of those things are in play. Sure. But it's interesting 'cause I've never, I've never really read this and thought about myself as the person who buys the field.
[00:13:19] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Interesting.
[00:13:20] Tony Arsenal: I've probably heard sermons or read devotionals where people have said that and it just never clicked. And it didn't register until just now. And you were, when you were, uh, introing the parable that maybe you are the, maybe your way of introing your, your interpretation. Maybe that's the dominant one.
So I, I looked at a couple quick, um, commentaries while you were speaking and I didn't get a chance to do my commentary reading before the episode. It seems like I'm the weird one. So, but it's interesting, um, 'cause again, I think that's the, kind of the beauty of parables is that sometimes the, the, um.
Ambiguity of what the possible meaning could be, probably plays into the, the, um, teaching technique itself.
[00:13:58] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I, I think that's fair. I totally can take and understand what your perspective is on this. What I find interesting is that these, we've got these two abutting each other, like the cheek to cheek parallel approach here, and in doing so, there seems to be like kind of an interesting comparison between the two.
Actors in this. And I think we should get into that. Like why in one case Jesus is talking about a person who finds this in a field, which by the way, I think the, the thing that jumps out to me first about that person is this person doesn't actually own the field at first. Right. That the treasure is in.
So that is interesting. I'm totally with you. But then the second one, so in the first one there's kinda almost like this sense, and I don't wanna like push this too far, but that this person who finds this treasure does so very unexpectedly, perhaps like he's even the hired hand and of course not the one who owns the field.
[00:14:48] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:14:49] Jesse Schwamb: And in the second case, we have somebody who almost is volitionally looking for this thing of great value, but finds the one thing above all the other things that they're used to looking for that clearly has the greatest and most. You know, essential worth and therefore the end is always the same in both of 'em.
They give everything they have. They're willing for forsake all other things with great joy, recognizing the great value that's in front of them. I think there is a place to understand that as Christ acting in those ways. I think there's also interesting, again, this comparison between these two people.
So I'm seeing this as we've got these varied beneficiaries of the kingdom. They both come to this place of the incomparable value of the kingdom, but then there's also like this expulsive power of the kingdom. All, all of that's, I think in there, and again, these are really, really, really brilliant, I think, because the more that you spend time meditating on these, the layers just kind of come and they fall away and you start to really consider, well, why again is Jesus using these two different characters?
Why is he using this kinda different sense of things of, of worth what the people are actually after? I think all of it's in play. You're totally right.
[00:15:54] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:55] Tony Arsenal: So I think, you know, when we think about the kingdom of heaven, when we think about these perils, we made this point last week, we shouldn't, um, we shouldn't restrict, we have to be careful not to restrict the comparison to just like the first noun that comes up,
[00:16:08] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:16:08] Tony Arsenal: So it's not just that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, it, it is like a treasure, but it's like a treasure that's hidden in a field.
Yes.
And it's not just like a treasure that's hidden in a field, it's a treasure that's hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.
Right?
So, so like we have to look at that whole sequence.
And I think, I think, um, you know, obviously like the, the interpretation that we are the, we're the man who finds the kingdom of heaven and we, you know, we go and buy the field. Um, that, that obviously makes perfect sense now that I'm looking at a few different commentaries. It seems to be the predominant way that this gets interpreted.
And we, we look at it and we say, what, well, what does this mean for like our Christian life? Like. What does it mean? Do we have to, do we have to give everything away? Do we have to sell everything we have? Is that the point of the parable? I think some people make that the point of the parable. Um, I'm not convinced that that actually is the point of the parable.
Um, because it, you know, it, it, it just, there's lots in the scripture that, that, uh, doesn't seem to require that Christians automatically like, give away everything they have. Um, maybe that's your calling. Maybe it is something that God's calling you to do to sort of, um, divest yourself of your, your belongings, either to sort of fight materialism or greed or, or just because like you're gonna need to have that fluidity and liquidity to your assets 'cause you're gonna need to move around or whatever it is.
But I don't think we look at this parable and have like a, like a, a command for a life of poverty or something like that.
Right.
Um, really this is more about the. Utter sold outness of the Christian to pursue and seek the kingdom of God.
[00:17:48] Jesse Schwamb: Right? Right.
[00:17:49] Tony Arsenal: And and I think that that's the same in both, even though the way that the person in the parables comes a, comes across the kingdom or they come across this, this thing of great value or thing of great price, that they find their response in both parables is the same.
And to me, that that actually tells me that that's more the point of these parables. Um, or, or maybe we shouldn't even think of these as two parables, right? Some of the introductory language that we see in when we transition from one parable to another, we don't really see that here. Uh, and if, if we're gonna follow that, actually we would be going to the next parable would also kind of fall into this.
But he says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. And then in 45 he says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. We're gonna run into something like this later on when we get to like the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of lost coins. Where there are these distinct parables, but they're kind of stacked on top of each other in order to make a specific point.
All of the parables that are sort of in these parable stacks are making the same point. And so I think it's not so much about like, how do we find the Kingdom of Heaven or how do we come upon the kingdom of heaven? It's more about what do we do once we've come upon it? Once we've thrown it's, that's the point of the parable that we need to unpack.
[00:19:03] Jesse Schwamb: That's right. And I would add to that, like who is it that is the beneficiary of this kingdom? We have two different, very different individuals, which I, again, I think, we'll, we'll talk a little bit about, but I'm totally with you. I, I think it's, it's easier, it's almost too narrow and too easy to say. Well, this is really just about like physical ma or about wealth.
Like in some way the, what we're being taught here is that you have to get rid of everything of value in exchange for this. In some ways, that almost feels too transactional, doesn't it? As if like what, what we need to do is really buy the kingdom. We express our seriousness about this kingdom or the rule and reign of God by somehow just giving up everything that we own as if to prove that we're really worthy of receiving that kingdom that we prayed enough.
Right. That we've done enough, even though that we're contrite enough. Yeah. And all that stands like in direct opposition to the mercy and grace, which God gives to us through his son by the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us into this kingdom. So we know it can't really be about that. And so that leads me back again to just like the lovely details here.
And like you've already said in the first case, here's what really strikes me is. For probably most of us in the West, this idea of treasure is novel and maybe romantic. There's a adventure and an energy to it. Because we've all heard stories about this, whether it's like, I don't know, pirates of the Caribbean or the county Mount Cristo.
Like there's something about treasure finding some kind of, or national treasure. Sorry, that just came to my mind. Like I couldn't go any further without mentioning Nick Cage. So you know, like there's something there that pulls us in that finding this thing almost unexpectedly in a hidden place of immense worth and value is, has a real draw to it.
But I imagine that in Palestine being like a war torn region in Jesus' day, in the way people might store goods of great value in the fields they own. And then of course the owner may never be able to achieve for lots of reasons, including death. And then somebody might stumble upon it. And as I understand the, the laws there, of course, if you were to stumble upon something.
I was in somebody else's property and and on earth that thing take it out of the ground. In this case, you would be by law required to bring that back to the person who owned the field. So there's something interesting here that this first person, probably the more meager and humble of the two with they at least respected, like their socioeconomic status is let's, we could presume maybe going about their normal work.
They find this unexpectedly in the field and it's immediately recognized to be something of great value that it is to stop and to, again, there's like a measuring that happens behind the scenes. This person at least is measuring of all the things that I own, all things I could possibly own. The better thing for me to do is to consolidate all the rest of my wealth.
And this case, again, it's not the message of the story to do this, it's the exemplification of what's happening here. This person is so sold out to ensure that they acquire this great treasure that they stumbled upon, that they will take literally everything else of value that they own to exchange it for this very thing.
So I'm totally with you because I think the predominant message here is not like take all your wealth and make sure that you give it to the church or that it goes to ministry or to missions. That may all be well and good and it may all be the kind of calling that you receive. However, I think the principle message here is the kingdom of God is so valuable that losing everything on earth, but getting the kingdom is a happy trade off.
Like that's actually a really, really good deal. And so having the omnipotent saving reign of Christ in our lives is so valuable that if, if we lose everything in order to have it, it would be a joyful sacrifice.
[00:22:20] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think, um, I think there is a level of.
[00:22:27] Tony Arsenal: Sacrifice that happens for every Christian and.
I mean, I, I know there's a lot of people who they, uh, come to faith as young children and we've kind of talked about that as like, that's that testimony that, you know, I think everybody really wants is like they wish they never had a time that they didn't know Jesus and Right. I don't know any parent that I've ever spoken to, and I'm certainly not any different here that doesn't want that testimony for Jesus, but, or for, for their kids in their relationship with Jesus.
But. I think most people who come to faith at some point in their life when they're able to remember it, like they, they have a conscious memory of their conversion experience. There is this sort of sense of sacrifice and e even a sort of a sense of loss. Um, I think there, there are times where, and, and you know, I think maybe, um, even people who've always been in the faith, um, they probably can resonate with this.
I think there are times when we might look at how our lives could have been different or could be different if we weren't in the faith. Um, and, and sometimes there's a sort of wistfulness to that. Like being a Christian can sometimes be difficult right On, um, you know, maybe you miss a promotion opportunity because you're not willing to work on the Lord's day or because you're not willing to do something unethical.
Like you, you miss out on some sort of advancement and you think, well, if I could just, you know, if I could have just gotten past that, like my life would be much different. And what this parable teaches us is. That's an understandable, like that's an understandable emotion or response. Um, and there is this weighing of the cost.
And in the parable here, he, like you said, there's this calculation that goes on in the background. He finds this treasure, he makes the calculation that to have this treasure is worth. Everything it's worth everything he has. He sells everything he has, and he buys the field in order to get the treasure right.
And, and there's some interesting textual dynamics going on through this chapter. We've talked about how the parables kind of like the imagery across the parables in chapter 13 here of Matthew, they kind of flip certain figures around and almost, it's almost intentional because he is getting the treasure and the treasure.
The kingdom of heaven here is like the treasure, but he's also getting the field right. And the kingdom of heaven is, is the field in other parables. Um, but this, this calculation that happens, um. I don't know, maybe my heart is just sensitive to this right now. I, I, I, I feel like a lot of times we look at that sort of wis wistful second glance at what could have been if we were not Christians, and we automatically feel like that's gotta be a sinful impulse.
Like, how could I ever even consider what life might have been? Like this parable implies that that's the thing we actually have to do. You have to know and consider what it is you've sacrificed or will be sacrificing in order to make this transaction happen. You can't just blanketly say like, oh, of course.
You know, you've gotta, you've gotta count the cost, as it were, and then you have to actually make the purchase. So I think we should look at this as a source of encouragement. Um, like I said, I'm not sure why. I feel like maybe there's, maybe there's just a, a. I dunno, I'm feeling a little weird and charismatic right now.
I feel like this is something that I definitely need to be saying, like, I feel like someone needs to hear this. Maybe it's just me that needs to hear this. And that's, I'm tricking myself by thinking of someone else. But we are able, as Christians, I think God permits us and in some sense, maybe even expects and commands us to recognize what we have given to be Christians in order that we might realize how much we have gained with that transaction.
It's not just this like remorse or regret, um, for the sake of remorse or regret. It's to be able to see how good and how beautiful and how worth it is the kingdom of God, uh, to, to, to claim that.
[00:26:23] Jesse Schwamb: I like that there is a great discipline and a great joy in remembering worth and worthiness. So there's gonna be times, like you said, when it's hard and if you look back, look back at the ministry of Jesus, I've often thought that he's like a poor evangelizer from like modern standards.
Yeah. Because often people come to him and say things like. I, I wanna be part of the kingdom of God. Well, what do I need to do to enter the kingdom of God? And here you have like a seemingly a willing convert. And he always says things like this, like, you gotta go count the cost. Yeah. Like is, is this worth it to you?
Like you have to deny yourself, you have to hate your own father and your mother, and your wife and children, and brothers and sisters, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple. And in this kind of language, it's clear that Jesus is saying you fail often. And maybe this goes back like you're saying, Tony, it's like the parable of the soil that you fail to really take into account what it means to follow with full fidelity, to commit yourself in a fully unencumbered way.
Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to consider that? And as human beings, we're just not good often at counting costs. We're not good at thinking about opportunity costs. And it's interesting here that we're called out to say, even if you've already purchased the field as so to speak, that as if you've been saved by Christ, to continue to remember how good it is to be in the kingdom of God.
And that the joy. Of knowing as like the Heidelberg Catechism says in the first question that all things are subservient to our salvation. Yeah. That incredible worth of, that should be a source of encouragement in times of great trial and tribulation, no matter how big or small, so that this joy that this person has when they go and sells everything he has and he buys this field, you know those details, like you're saying, do press us.
It really comes to us with this idea that we should be able to see plainly why having Christ is more valuable than all other things. If the omnipotence all wise, God is ruling, ruling over all things for our joy, then everything must be working for our good, no matter how painful and in the end, God is gonna triumph over all evil and all pain.
So this kingdom is a real treasure. Like it is a, it is a real. A real quantity in our life and our wellbeing and in our spiritual consistency, that'll ought demand some reflection of how valuable it truly is. And then knowing that in our minds, that like influencing our behavior, our other thought patterns, and then our actual feelings about stuff.
So that when, like you said, we're passed over, we're looked over, we're ridiculed for something, we go back and we count it all joy to be worthy of being part of God's kingdom, knowing that it was because of the entrance and acceptability and the identity in that kingdom that we experience. Those things, those hardships begin with.
[00:29:05] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And, and I, um, I don't want us to miss out on the fact that even as the parable may be encouraging or forcing us to think about. The cost. It, it really is trying to emphasize the great value of the kingdom. Right? Right. We, like I said, we, we don't just count the cost. In order to count the cost for its own sake.
We count the cost in order to understand the great blessing that is ours in Christ. Right. All I, I count all that I have as a loss compared to the greatness of Christ Jesus. And, um, I think we just don't often do that. I, I, I think as Christians, that's probably a thought that is in our head more as young Christians, especially if we come to the faith in, in a time in our life where we're aware of things like that.
We think about things like that.
[00:29:59] Tony Arsenal: You know, I was 15 when I first came to faith and, um, I, I don't think I was in a frame of mind as a 15-year-old boy to think about, like. The cost of what I was doing, right? It's not like I was a particularly popular kid. I didn't have a, you know, I didn't, I wasn't unpopular, but it wasn't like I lost a ton of friends when I became a Christian.
I didn't really lose anything that was measurable. Um, but I do think that, as, you know, someone now in my forties, looking back at, you know, 15, 20, 25 years of, of Christian life, it's easy to see that things could have been different on a sort of temporal scale. Like my, my life could probably be more comfortable in terms of wealth or opportunities or other things that might, uh, aren't, aren't even bad things necessarily.
There is a sense of sacrifice. But again, God has brought us into this kingdom and he's given us parables like this and given us the ability to recognize. That we do have a cost, that there is a cost to be counted in order that we might now look at it and praise him for how great and glorious and valuable the gift that he's given us is.
[00:31:08] Tony Arsenal: And so I think, you know, I think that's the same basic meaning of this second, second half of the same parable. I guess the, the pearl of great price or the pearl of great value. But it's not exactly the same, right? It's not like Christ is just repeating the same ver, you know, parable with, with different words for variation.
Um, every word is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching correction, reproof, and training and righteousness. And I had a, I had a prophet in, uh, in Bible college who would say like, difference means difference. And he was often talking about like minute things, like the difference, um, or why, why is this word used instead of that word?
This word would've worked. And, and the author chose that one. There's a reason for that. Difference means difference, but. Christ here chooses to, to tell the parable a second time, um, in a slightly different way. Uh, and Matthew chooses to record these in the same sense next to each other in slightly different ways.
So what, what do we, what do we wanna pull out of this second parable that's different and what do we think it's telling us that's a little bit different than the first version Y?
[00:32:14] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's a great question.
[00:32:16] Jesse Schwamb: Uh, I love this idea because not until really, I was thinking about it this week when I read through them, was I really, again, drawn to the differences between these two main characters.
Interestingly, I think in both, and we can make the case that the, the treasure, the kingdom of heaven here represented in both this pearl or in this literal treasure is in a way hidden. Certainly the first man is not necessarily looking for, it's still revealed to him, but the second in a way. And on the other hand, he knew this guy knows treasure.
He's been seeking it with diligence in vigor, or at least like this is what he does for a living in his vocational career. He's out there trading pearls, presumably, and he knows something about them and how to evaluate them effectively. And so it's his business and he's dedicated himself to finding them.
And apparently he's seen plenty of them over the years. But then all of a sudden, and this is wild, the beautiful, all of a sudden, clearly the search comes to like an abrupt end because he finds this one of immeasurable value, so much beauty exceeding and value exceeding all the other ones. And he doesn't need to search anymore.
He just finds the one pearl that he can retire on a pearl with more than everything else. Or anything else that he's ever possessed and he gets it again. He does. And this brings him into symbol two with the first man. He does the same thing, then liquidate everything else and go after this one. Great pearl.
So to me, and I'm curious your perspective on this, I'm not necessarily promulgating that. Well, the first one is not a seeker and the second one is like a seeker of of God things. Right? There is though, like you said, a difference in their approach and what they're after. And so I think what we can take from this, at the very least, is that there is diversity in these beneficiaries of the kingdom of God that's covering everybody.
And just by these two kind of bookended or polar examples, that's what Jesus draws us to. But I would turn the question back to you. What do you think about this second guy? What do you think about the fact that his business is searching after these things? What? What do we take away from that?
[00:34:07] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:34:07] Tony Arsenal: And you know, the thing that drop that jumps out to me immediately in the first parable, the kingdom of heaven is, is like the treasure hidden in the field,
[00:34:16] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:34:16] Tony Arsenal: In the second one, the kingdom of heaven is the merchant who's searching,
[00:34:20] Jesse Schwamb: right?
[00:34:20] Tony Arsenal: Right. The kingdom of heaven is like the merchant in search of fine pearls who finds one. That's right. And so I think that they kind of are like, almost like mirror images of each other, right? One of them is about the treasure and what it takes to come upon it and then obtain it.
The second is about the person who is coming upon the treasure and, and finding it. And then what it takes again to obtain that treasure. And I think, I think you're right, there is an element here that. Um, in this second parable, the person who is seeking for this treasure is one he's seeking for the treasure, right?
Right. You get the image in this, in this first parable that the dude just kind of stumbles upon it. Um, I've heard this Todd as like, it's actually more like a guy who's just walking through a field rather than like a person working the field. And I'm not sure that matters that much, but there is this sense in the first parable that the guy kind of stumbles upon it.
He wasn't looking, it wasn't what he was trying to do, but you're right in the second one, the kingdom of heaven, and this is where I, this is where I think I need to think more about it, is what does it mean for the kingdom of heaven to be like a merchant searching for fine pearls
right
[00:35:23] Jesse Schwamb: on.
[00:35:23] Tony Arsenal: Rather than the pearls being the kingdom of heaven, which is what we see in the first bearable.
Um, and I don't know the answer to that question. I think I need to, need to think about it and study it a little bit more. But I do like this distinction that in, in the first case, it's sort of a happy accident. And in the second case, this is, this is the life, this man's life work. He finds he's, he's in search of fine pearls.
I'm not sure I know exactly what he's trying to do with the fine pearls. It seems like it implies that he's a pearl merchant or a pearl trader, but then he finds this pearl. He doesn't seek to sell it. He buys it. Right.
[00:36:00] Jesse Schwamb: Right.
[00:36:00] Tony Arsenal: And, and the, the, the fact that the parable stops with him buying it sort of implies that like.
He actually is not going to sell it. He's just gonna keep this pearl. Now before the, the pearls, the, the source of the value of the pearls was kind of in the, the financial gain that selling or trading them could bring. But now he suddenly finds this pearl that is so valuable. It's so great, it's so beautiful.
Everything he was working to obtain before all of the money he's gathered by finding and selling pearls in the previous like mode of living. He now gets rid of all of that just to purchase this one pearl and presumably to keep it. And I think that again, is kind of a, kind of a, um, statement on our Christian life is that we, we probably have all sorts of things that we've been doing our whole life and we are seeking to, to move forward in our life.
And the kingdom of heaven is kind of the ultimate goal of all of that, for those who are in Christ, for those who are called according to his purpose. The purpose is not just to accumulate wealth. It's not even necessarily, uh, in and of itself to like grow in righteousness. It's to be transformed to the, uh, to the image of God's glory son, for the purpose of making him great, making his name renowned.
Right. When we look at that passage in Romans that have kind alluded to, he's, he would transform into the image of Christ so that he might be the first born among many brothers.
[00:37:24] Tony Arsenal: Ultimately, our, our sanctification and glorification is about making Jesus great and glorified, um, to give him glory, to have our glorification reflect his already intrinsic glory and the gift that he gives us, and I think that's kind of, kind of in play here, is that.
Uh, we might have all sorts of goals in our life. We might have goals in our Christian life, um, that are good things that we should strive for, but at the end of the day, all of those things only serve to bring us to the kingdom of heaven, which is this pearl of great price that we, we purchase, we buy it and we just kind of hang onto it.
It is its own treasure and it's, it's not about what this, this treasure can bring to us,
right?
Which is what the fine pearls were before they were about what the merchant can find and sell. It's, it's now about just obtaining the pearl and enjoying that pearl. Um, which I think is a little bit different than, than, um, what I would've thought of with the par before.
[00:38:19] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think, I think you're actually onto something with the distinction because I think of. So much of my career has been spent in financial services among people who are buyers and sellers of things. They're traders. And the way I read this was very similar to what you were saying to me.
What resonated was if this gentleman or this person is. Trading, collecting these pearls. Presumably they have appreciation for the beauty of the pearl itself. So there is like something innate that draws them to this particular thing. And with that experience and with that knowledge and with that, that appreciation of that beauty.
I think when they see this other pearl, it moves from, well, why would I ever sell that? I've seen everything. This is the most beautiful pearl I've ever laid my eyes on. And now I want to keep it for me. I want to have it in my possession. I want to cherish it and not just keep it in the inventory and then turn around and sell it for markup, presumably, because there is no nothing that would be of greater value to this person.
'cause they just sold everything else that they had. So they, it's appreciation for the pearl itself. It's going after that finding and seeking that great beauty. And then that led me right into Philippians chapter four, where Paul writes the church in Philippi, beginning of verse eight. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever's honorable, whatever's just whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's commendable.
If there's any excellence, if there. Anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the god of peace will be with you. So this idea, like you and I, Tony, have talked about like the world has great wisdom, it has great knowledge, it has things that can lead us by way of common grace into certain amounts of peace.
But the pearl of great price, the seeking after the going after all these great things is to find the gospel, to be given the gospel it revealed to you. And then say everything else I count as a loss. Everything else is worthless compared to this thing. And if you're a person that can appreciate even just by turn of mind or God's influence in your life, you know, knowledge and wisdom, and you're seeking after that, which is the ultimate expression and representation of those things, and then you find you come upon this pearl of great price, the gospel wisdom and the beauty of God represented in his son Jesus Christ.
And you say, this is it. I, I know enough to know, again, by the regeneration that comes through the spirit, this is the real deal. Then I think the message still stands. We come through two different directions into the same final culminating point, which is there is a condition for having this kingdom of God, for having the king on your side as your friend, but the condition isn't like wealth or power or negotiating or intelligence or even good trading behavior or going out and finding the right thing.
The condition is that we prize the kingdom more than anything else we own. The point of selling everything in these parables is to simply show where our hearts are at. And so I often say in my own line of work, that cost only matters in the absence of value. Actually, it's true for everything that we. We presumably spend our time or our money on cost only matters in the absence of value.
And I think like you and I could do a fun little experiment where I don't know, you ever talking to somebody about something and you're paying a cost to have that service delivered to you and you're, and you're just like totally worth it, like I would do totally worth it. Like, yeah, that's kind of the vibe I'm getting here.
It's like at the end of days when we think about the worthiness of our God, that there's no one like him, that he's unequal, that he has no rival, that the gospel is the sweetest message that we're rescued literally from the pit. We're just say no matter what the cost of us personally, great or small, totally worth it, that that's what we'll be saying for all of eternity as we worship him.
[00:41:45] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and I think even more than saying, totally worth it. I think when we are given our new eyes to see, and we no longer see through a da a glass dimly, we're gonna recognize saying that it was worth, it is is like it's a pale, like it's a faulty answer to begin with because the, for sure the worth of the kingdom of heaven surpasses anything we could imagine.
And in our, you know, locked in little meat brains that we have now, we're kind of com we're just comparing it to. You know, like what, what we could have had or what we, what we've given up. Um, it, it's gonna be an incomparable comparison. Like there's no, there's no measure that is satisfying, there's no measure that can actually show us how, how worthwhile it is.
And, you know, we've, we've made a point of it, like the, the blessing of salvation and, and really like what it is that we're getting, uh, in, in the. You know, the Christian understanding of salvation, it's not, it's not an eternal destiny. It's not bigger mansions in heaven. It's not freedom from death. All of those things come with it.
All of those things are attending gifts. That's right. But what we get in salvation ultimately is we get God we get union with God, we get fellowship with Jesus Christ in the, the power of the Holy Spirit. We, we get swept up into the life of the, the God of the universe. Like the life of the Trinity indwells us.
And we, we become a part of that. Uh, not, not in the, you know, like. Eastern Orthodox deification sense, although I think there's a proper way we can talk about deification. Um, but we get swept up into that. We gain the relationship that the son has with the father by nature. We gain that by grace and nothing can compare to that.
There's nothing that we could ever point to. Um, it's funny, my, my wife and I, um, this is a little corny, but, um, we'll often say to, to each other instead of saying, I love you more than anything, we'll say, I love you more than everything. Right. And, and it's, it's a way to say like. You could take all that there is in the world, everything that I have that I could possibly consider and sum up the value.
And I love my wife more than that. I love my children more than that. So it's not that I love them more than any one thing, it's that I love them more than everything combined. And this is even greater than that, right? We, we will look back at our lives and if, if it's even in our mind, if we even can, can comprehend anymore.
The idea of thinking about what it costs us to obtain this pearl of great value, which is the kingdom of heaven, which is just another way to say, is just fellowship with the God of the universe. Um, we'll look at it and say no matter what it was. No matter what it could have been, I would give everything I, I love God more than everything.
Right. Right. There's nothing that could ever possibly be considered that even comes close to what we gain in, in Christ Jesus, in union with, with God. And I think that's the point of this, like I think the guy who, um.
[00:44:58] Tony Arsenal: I think about what it would take for me to even like to sell everything, like the concept of selling everything I own.
I'm not even sure how I would do that, to be honest with you. Like, I don't even know the mechanism for that kind of thing. But the idea that there's anything that could be valuable enough that I would just sell every piece of human property that I have, there's probably nothing like that in this world.
Like, there probably isn't. And to, to take that comparison and then basically say like, that's just what the kingdom of God is like. 'cause that's the other thing I think we miss about parables is you, you only make a comparison when you can't describe something, um, analytically, right? There's the difference between analogically and analytically Ana lot analytically means we're able to actually quantify and explain it kind of in strict terms, right?
I can, I can say that, um, uh, a heavy object ways, X number of grams or it, you know, or, um. Pounds or whatever. I can, I can measure that and make an analytical statement, or I can make an analogy, an analogy that is comparative. Uh, but by definition, or almost by by nature of the thing, when you make that comparison, you're kind of saying like, not only is it like this, but it's actually it, like it's more like this than I can even describe.
Right? So when we're talking about the kingdom of Heaven here, and we say it's, it's like, it's like a man who goes, he finds a treasure and then he sells everything. He has to get that treasure. It's infinitely more like that than it actually can be described. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling on that a little bit.
Maybe trying to describe something that can't be described is, is hard to do.
[00:46:35] Jesse Schwamb: It's, that's, yeah. But yeah, that's, that's very difficult to do. I'm actually totally with you on this. I think I understand clearly what you mean, this idea that no matter how hard we actually try to value it, we'll be incapable of doing so.
Yes. And at best, it almost seems like this is a strange command in a way because it's, it's asking us to do in some ways a thing that is impossible for us to do. However, I think what you're saying is it doesn't mean that we shouldn't turn our minds toward that. We're a bit like people who, I don't know if this show is still on PBS, but like, do you know that show, remember that show The Antiques Road Show?
Yeah. Where people would like come, they'd ran ransack their homes or their garages with these old antique items and they bring them to this road show where there'd be experts who would value them. And inevitably we'll be like those people who come with what we think is like a. A thousand dollars clock that we got at a garage sale thinking, wouldn't it be great?
I know this is valuable. It's probably a thousand dollars. It'll be, look at the return, tenfold return, I'll get on this item, and then instead finding that it's worth $10 million when it's appraised. Yeah, I assume it'll be just like that in the Beautific vision that even maybe for all of eternity will be growing in our appreciation for just how valuable this great salvation is.
And yet at the same time, I think what this should encourage us to do is to pray things like God make us real in seeing and savoring Christ in his saving work above all the other things. Yeah. So that, as you said in your example, we would cherish him above everything, above all things that you have that right place in our hearts or that we be inclined to undertake that posture, which says, God, though I cannot understand it in full.
Would you help me to see that?
[00:48:08] Jesse Schwamb: And I wanna just say like, as a word of encouragement, maybe I'm speaking more to myself here so everybody else can disregard this if you like, but I think sometimes there can be a little bit of intimidation then when you hear these things and say like, ah, I'm just not, I just dunno if I love God enough, like I wanna love him, or I want to want to love him more.
And I think even that posture is appropriate. Yeah. Sometimes there, oftentimes in my personal life, I'll pray something like, God, help me to know how much you love me and would you give me the strength to love you back? So that even that awareness, that energy, that volition, that vitality, that, that heat, all of that, that fire itself is kindled by the Holy Spirit.
It's not like we need to like try to again manufacture here. Because the point of these, these stories is not again, that we just find the means to do a transactional exchange here, but that instead we really just sit in the full promises of God. And of course to that, I would say we always need to go back to, to something like Romans eight.
I mean, I know that we should, like you said, Tony, the. The standard description we give for the Bible is the one that gives itself, which is that all of it, all of it's is carried along by the Holy Spirit. All of it is God breathe. All of it is useful for something. And yet, of course, I say somewhat tongue in cheek that, you know, if I have 10 minutes to live, I'm probably not gonna the s descriptions of reading a genealogy, I'm going straight from Roman and say, Romans say, I think it's just like the pinnacle of the scriptures.
And so just a couple of verses at the end there, because I think this is, this is leading us into what is this great treasure? What is the kingdom of God? Why do we value it so much? What is the saving power? And uh, these verses, I mean, always just entirely get me ready to run through a wall. So this is the end of, of Romans eight beginning verse 35.
Who shall separate us from the law of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake. We are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from a love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
[00:50:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a good word. And I, I, I like what you're saying too, is, is I think we, we can. There's this paradoxical thing that happens when the scriptures is trying to encourage us to do something, is we often like to get our, in our own way. And, and actually that becomes a source of discouragement for us.
The Bible calls us to something and we know we can't live up to it. And that's actually like part and parcel of, of reform theology to recognize that this is law, like the, the, the, the, you know, maybe not in like the strict sense, like when we talk about dividing the scripture into law and gospel, um. It may not be that this particular passage would fall under that rubric of law normally, but this idea that we need to count the cost and that we need to be treasuring Christ more and more, and then when we feel like I'm just not getting it.
I'm just not there. Like, I don't, I don't treasure Christ as much as I so should. Um, that Yeah, that's right. Nobody does. Nobody can, like, that's, that's kind of the point of this, and that's why it's law is it's, it shouldn't drive you in Christ. It should not drive you to despair. Right. It should not drive you to discouragement.
It should drive you to gratitude that God saved you anyways. That, that this pearl of great value is still yours even though you can't possibly deserve it. Um, you know, we're, we're a little bit different than the, the merchant and the man who finds the treasure in the field in that we can't sell everything we have and obtain it like they have the ability to do that in the, in the parables.
Right. Um, we, we don't, and we never will. And so rather than let that drive you to being discouraged that like you're just not getting. I recognize God is of infinite value and we are finite creatures. So we, we could, uh, value God perfectly. Like whatever that means, and I don't even know what that means, but we could value and cherish and love God perfectly as far as our capacities are concerned, and it still would not be enough to sufficiently merit God's favor for us.
Like as much as we can, even in, even in eternity. As much as we can value and worship and love and praise Jesus, he is worth infinitely more than we could ever give, even when we do it perfectly. And this is, this is why you know Christ coming to die, to live on our behalf, to die in our place. Why that's necessary is because only this is a, maybe a different take on it.
We, I think we talk a lot about how, um. Only God could, could carry, bear the wrath of God and not be destroyed. Right. Right. Only God could, um, could stand up under his own wrath, could stand up under the wrath of God and bear that punishment and not be destroyed. And so therefore, um, Christ had to be not just a man, but had to be God.
But on the flip side. And God requires perfect perpetual obedience, which involves loving the Lord your God, perfectly with your whole heart at all times. Right? Only God can do that too. So it's not just that God. It's not just that God is bearing wrath perfectly and infinitely on our behalf, on the cross, but Jesus is also loving God perfectly and infinitely and truly worth, truly worthing.
Him. Wor worship is, the word comes from worth. It's about attributing wor worth to God, only Christ, because he is, God could do that sufficiently and perfectly and infinitely. So he's doing that on our behalf too, right? He's praying and interceding on our behalf. He's standing in God's presence worshiping him in heaven on our behalf.
[00:53:53] Jesse Schwamb: That's right.
[00:53:54] Tony Arsenal: That is what this parable should drive us to. That's right. Is to recognize that yes, the kingdom of heaven is this pearl of great price that we could, we could never sell enough and and be able to buy, but someone did. Someone couldn't. And I think maybe this is where, where, and we didn't talk about it and that's fine.
But I think this is where my understanding of these came from a little bit is I've always read these to say that it's, it's Christ who is like the man who finds a treasure in a field and gives all that he has and buys that field. Right? And I guess that kind of lines up with the way that the field has been portrayed in the rest of the chapter.
And maybe that's where I got it from. I don't know. Right. Um, I don't think I've ever read it. 'cause now that I've looked at a couple commentaries, none of them make this connection. So I, I guess I want to be, I want to proceed with a little fear and trepidation. If you're the only person who's ever seen in church history, then, then go slowly and carefully.
Um, but, but the same thing is, is Christ is searching. Christ is searching in a sense for, for fine pearls, right? Sure. He says like, when the son of man returns to earth, will he find, will he find the faithful? Right? There is this element of, of God is seeking his people and when he finds them, he gives everything he has to purchase them.
That's right. Right. And, and so we need to look at these as a source of encouragement to point us to Jesus, who ultimately is the one who's obtained the, obtained the treasure and obtained the pearl for us, and has given us the kingdom of heaven. Who he himself is, in a sense, is the kingdom of heaven. Um, you know, we don't get a kingdom apart from the king who rules over it.
That's right. So to say that we inherit the kingdom of heaven is, is to say that we become co-heirs of the kingdom, which is Christ by Right. He gives that to us by grace.
[00:55:36] Jesse Schwamb: I keep trying not to say it, but it just keeps happening. It's another classic example of God does all the verbs, isn't it? Yeah. It's,
[00:55:42] Tony Arsenal: it is.
[00:55:42] Jesse Schwamb: We could speak for another couple hours then about how beautifully that fits in with the passive and active obedience of Christ, which you just described, and I, I, I'm with you. I think there's something in that parallel that's very. Very similar to let's say, like how he should appropriate or, or kind of approach like Psalm one, like who is this righteous man?
[00:55:59] Tony Arsenal: Yeah,
[00:55:59] Jesse Schwamb: it is Christ. And so the only way that we're getting, the only way that we even can give up enough is because Christ has already given it up in our stead and then welcomes us in so that again, we don't have to empty out our account, so to speak. That even like the indicative and the imperative comes together in Christ so that what he commands, he wills in our lives.
And I know time alludes us. I, I think I would be like remiss if I didn't mention how, to me as well, how. I was totally just struck by how I'll use this word because reform people will know it and you can stand, stand on your chairs and throw your hats into the air. When I say it is that, notice how irresistibly both of these characters are drawn to this treasure.
[00:56:41] Tony Arsenal: Yes.
[00:56:41] Jesse Schwamb: That when God illuminates it for them, it's, it's a foregone conclusion that they will do those things. I think that should be of great encouragement to us, because again, it's not like, well, how do I know if I find the pearl of great price or God opens up my, how do I know that I've done enough? That is a fool's errand.
You will never do enough. What we know though is that they, each of these were drawn irresistibly to do what God required because God had already accomplished it on their, in their stead and on their behalf. Yeah. And so we see sovereign grace, this justification union with Christ, like you said, and true discipleship, the believers joyful surrender of all else.
Is the fruit of a transformed heart. And I believe, like you're saying, Tony, it's not reasonable to expect that a child while truly being transformed, regenerated by God accepting the gospel. That is a real quantity. And as we grow in our lives through this idea of progressive sanctification, we come I think, to increasing levels of surrender and realization, which is all part of what it means to nly grow maturity as a Christian.
And that is also normal too. And as we do that, we should have increasing, I think, measures of joy in our life to lay these things down, to cast the crowns before Christ and say, this always belonged to you, but not, not to begrudgingly, but with great joy seeing that it is always in every way worth it.
Yeah. So I think by God's grace, the elect are gonna recognize Christ as the greatest treasure and willingly forsake all to follow him even. I mean, I'm, I'm a. Poster child for this. Even if we do a kicking and screaming that God works on us, puts us over the anvil at times and works on us in increasing levels of surrender, he's still doing that out of love and that is still a testimony that he's accomplishing the great work that he began, even if that started as you being a child and receiving this great gospel message in Word.
[00:58:27] Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
[00:58:28] Tony Arsenal: Well, Jesse, as you mentioned, time eludes us and, uh, I, I think this is just a great place to stop. Um, we're coming back next week. We're gonna come back talking about the parable of the net, uh, which is, uh, again, is kind of linked to this parable, but is a very sharp turn to a different direction, I think.
Um, so there's, there may be some, some affinities here, but, um, we're gonna come back next week. We are gonna be in the parables for a long time. Brothers and sisters, like this is gonna be a long haul. Um, maybe not as long as our systematic theology series, which was like multiple years long. Um, but it's not gonna be a short one, but it's great because I love it.
I just love it. It's so, it's so much fun to look at these parables. Um, you heard tonight. Even just working through this together. This is one thing that, um, that I hear Matt Whitman say on 10 minute Bible hour lot. He will comment regularly and he'll sort of thank his listeners that him doing the show, him producing the podcast, has forced him to look at the scriptures and to sort of be forced to learn about them.
And I feel the same way about this kind of series. Like I get it working through the parables. It's such a joy and I don't know that I would've done it otherwise. So, um, if, if you are not already reading through these with us, if you're not spending some time taking a look at commentaries, please do consider devoting a little bit of time each week to taking, taking a, a, a look at these parables.
Grab a good study bible or a good commentary. You can get Calvin's commentaries on free or on online for free. You Matthew Henry online for free. Both of those are super good commentaries and just work through these slowly and think through them and think about how they apply to your life. Like I know that going into my week, I'm, I'm set up now to be able to look at.
What it has cost me to be a Christian. And instead of looking at it with this sort of wistful, sideways eyes of like, what could have been, I can look at it and say like, it doesn't matter what could have been because look at what I've got. Look at what I get because of the kingdom of God. Look at who I get.
Uh, I get God, and that's enough. It's more than enough. It could never be, not enough. Um, so brothers and sisters, I, I'm so thankful that we're working through this. I'm so, so, um, humbled that God has brought us to a place where he's given us our, the scriptures. He's called us to study it. And thank you to everybody who supports the show, you know, not just financially, but supports us by encouraging us in the Telegram chat, uh, which we haven't mentioned.
You go to t me slash for brotherhood. If you wanna join a really nice, fun online discussion group. Um, people who encourage us there. I get emails and text message once in a while from people who listen to the show. Um, thank you for coming alongside of us and for, for giving us this opportunity to study the scriptures together with you.
It really is a joy and I, I am so thankful to be able to do it.
[01:01:11] Jesse Schwamb: So what have we learned in our little conversation today? Well, it seems clear that the scripture's giving us two really unique examples, differences of the Kingdom of God, and searching it out and finding its surpassing worth. But what's clear is that it's greater than everything anything else in life.
And when God opens a person's eyes through regeneration, they recognize it's supreme value and gladly give up all to gain Christ and His kingdom. I think we've also learned that penguin videos can be dangerous. They have real productivity, uh, consequences, and that itself is something that we ought to value.
So again, enjoy your penguins responsibly, and I would argue maybe, maybe not do it at work. Don't just do your work at work and then when you're on your free time, enjoy those penguins,
[01:01:56] Tony Arsenal: penguin. Penguin, do you enjoy the Benedict Cumberbatch? Can't say Penguin video that you are gonna look up immediately after this.
[01:02:05] Jesse Schwamb: We know you're gonna look it up. 'cause if you haven't seen it, it's, it is actually hilarious.
[01:02:10] Tony Arsenal: It, it definitely is. Yeah. I, yeah. I don't know what else to say about that, Jesse. Except, until next time, honor everyone.
[01:02:19] Jesse Schwamb: Love the brotherhood.
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In this illuminating episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony explore Jesus' parables of the mustard seed and leaven found in Matthew 13. These seemingly simple parables reveal profound truths about God's kingdom—how it begins imperceptibly, grows irresistibly, and transforms completely. The hosts delve into what these parables teach us about God's sovereign work in both our individual spiritual lives and the broader advance of His kingdom in the world. Believers can find hope in understanding that God intentionally works through what appears weak and insignificant to accomplish His purposes. This episode offers practical encouragement for Christians who may feel discouraged by the apparent smallness of their faith or ministry impact.
The parables of the mustard seed and leaven powerfully illustrate the paradoxical nature of God's kingdom. In both cases, something tiny and seemingly insignificant produces results far beyond what anyone would expect. As Tony noted in the discussion, what's critical is understanding the full comparison Jesus makes—the kingdom isn't simply like a seed or leaven in isolation, but like the entire process of planting and growth. Both parables involve something that initially "disappears" from sight (the seed buried in soil, the leaven mixed into dough) before producing its effect.
This reflects the upside-down nature of God's kingdom work, where what appears weak becomes the channel of divine power. For first-century Jewish listeners expecting a triumphant, militaristic Messiah, Jesus' description of the kingdom as beginning small would have seemed offensive or disappointing. Yet this is precisely God's pattern—beginning with what appears weak to demonstrate His sovereign power. This same pattern is evident in the incarnation itself, where God's kingdom arrived not through military conquest but through a humble birth and ultimately through the cross.
One of the most practical applications from these parables is the encouragement they offer when we feel our faith is insufficient or when the church appears weak. As Jesse noted, "God is always working. Even when we don't feel or see that He is, He's always working." The kingdom of God advances not through human strength or visibility but through God's sovereign work.
These parables remind us that spiritual growth often happens imperceptibly—like bread rising or a seed growing. We may go through seasons where our spiritual life feels dry or stagnant, yet God continues His sanctifying work. Just as a baker must be patient while bread rises, we must trust the invisible work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the church. When we feel discouraged by apparent lack of progress, these parables assure us that God's kingdom—both in our hearts and in the world—is advancing according to His perfect timing and plan.
As Tony explained, "The fact that it feels and looks and may actually be very small does not rob it of its power...in actuality that smallness is its power." God deliberately works through weakness to display His glory, making these parables powerful reminders for believers in any era who may feel their impact is too small to matter.
"We shouldn't despise small beginnings. Let's not despise whatever it is that you're doing in service to God, to your family, to your churches, especially in the proclamation of the gospel... Faithfulness and not visibility—that's the measure of fruitfulness." — Jesse Schwamb
"The Kingdom of Heaven is at work not only in our midst as a corporate body, but in each of us as well. God's grace and His special providence and His spirit of sanctification, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness and the one who makes us holy. He is doing that whether it feels like it or not, whether we see outward progress or not." — Tony Arsenal
"What cultural transformation looks like is a man who gets married and loves his wife well, serves her and sacrifices for her, and makes a bunch of babies and brings them to church... We transform culture by being honest, having integrity, by working hard... without a lot of fanfare, without seeking a lot of accolades." — Tony Arsenal
Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 468 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother.
Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother, you and I have said it over and over again. One of the incredible truths that the Bible conveys about the kingdom of God is that it's inaugurated in weakness.
It's hidden. It advances irresistibly by the sovereign work of God through the Word and the Spirit. It transforms both individuals and nations until Christ's reign is fully revealed in glory. And so as we're about to talk about parables today, I can't help but think if that's one of the central positions of the Bible, and I think we both say it is how would you communicate that?
And here we find Jesus, the son of God, our great savior, you know where he goes. He goes, mustard seeds and yeast. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. And if you're just joining us maybe for the first time or you're jumping into this little series, which is to say, we do know tiny series, this long series on parables, you, I go back to the last episode, which is kind of a two-parter because Tony and I tried this experiment where we basically each separately recorded our own thoughts and conversation, almost an inner monologue as we digested each of those parables, both the one of the mustard seed and then the leaven sequentially and separately.
And now we're coming together in this episode to kind of talk about it together and to see what we thought of the individual work and to bring it all together in this grand conversation about the kingdom of God that's inaugurated and weakness and hiddenness.
Jesse Schwamb: So that's this episode, but it wouldn't be a episode without a little affirming.
And a little denying it seems, 22, we should this, every now and again we pause to say why we do the affirmations and denials. Why, why do we do this? What, what is this whole thing? Why are we bringing it into our little conversation every time?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. I mean, it, it, at its core, it's kind of like a recommendation or an anti recommendation segment.
We take something that we like or we don't like and we spend a little bit of time talking about it. Usually it ends up taking a little bit of a theological bent just 'cause that's who we are and that's what we do. And we use the language of affirmations and denials, uh, because that's classic, like reformed confessional language.
Right? If you look at something like the, um. I dunno, like the Chicago statement on Biblical and Errancy, which was primarily written by RC sprawl, um, it usually has a, a statement, uh, of doctrine in the form of things that we affirm and things that we deny. Um, or you look at someone like Turin, a lot of times in his, uh, institutes of elected theology.
He'll have something like, we affirm this with the Lutherans, or we affirm that or de deny that against the papus or something like that. So it's just a, a little bit of a fun gimmick that we've added on top of this to sort of give it a little bit of its own reformed flavor, uh, onto something that's otherwise somewhat, um, Baal or, or I don't know, sort of vanilla.
So we like it. It's a good chance for us to chat, kind of timestamps the episode with where we are in time. And usually, usually, like I said, we end up with something sort of theological out of it. 'cause that's, that's just the nature of us and that's, that's the way it goes. That's, and that's what happens, like when we're talking about stuff we.
Like when we're together at Christmas or at the beach, like things take that theological shift because that's just who, who we are, and that's what we're thinking about.
Jesse Schwamb: By the way, that sounds like a new CBS drama coming this fall. The nature of us.
Tony Arsenal: The nature of us? Yeah. Or like a, like a hallmark channel.
Jesse Schwamb: It does, uh,
Tony Arsenal: it's like a a, I'm picturing like the, the big city girl who moves out to take a job as a journalist in like Yosemite and falls in love with the park ranger and it's called The Nature of Us.
Jesse Schwamb: The nature of us Yes. Coming this fall to CBS 9:00 PM on Thursdays. Yeah. I love it. Well, this is our homage to that great theological tradition of the affirming with, or the denying against.
So what do you got this week? Are you affirming with something or you denying against something?
Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming. This is a little cheeky. I'm not gonna throw too much, much, uh, too much explanation. Uh, along with it. I'm affirming something. I'm calling no quarters, November. So, you know, normally I'm very careful to use quarters.
I'm very careful to make sure that I'm, I'm saving them and using them appropriately. And for the month of November, I'm just not gonna use any quarters. So there'll be no 25 cent pieces in my banking inventory for the month. Oh. So I'm, I'm making a little bit of fun. Of course. Obviously no, quarter November is a tradition that Doug Wilson does, where he just is even more of a jerk than he usually is.
Um, and he, he paints it in language that, like, normally I'm very careful and I qualify everything and I have all sorts of nuance. But in November, I'm just gonna be a bull in a China shop, um, as though he's not already just a bull in a China shop 95% of the time. So I'm affirming no corridors. November maybe.
No corners November. Everything should be rounded.
Jesse Schwamb: That's good too.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. No, no. Quatro November. Like we don't do anything in Spanish. No fours in Spanish. I don't know. Okay. I'm just making fun of that. I'm just making fun of the whole thing. It's such a silly, dumb enterprise. There's nothing I can do except to make fun of it.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's fair. That's basically the response it deserves. This time, we, we brought it up for several years going, it's such a strange thing.
Jesse Schwamb: It's hard not to see this thing as complete liberty to be sinful and then to acknowledge that. Yeah. As if somehow that gives you, reinforces that liberty that you're taking it, it's so strange.
It's as if like, this is what is necessary and probably we'll get to this actually, but this is what is necessary for like the gospel or the kingdom of God to go forward is that kind of attitude at times.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I will say this, I do always look forward every year to seeing what he sets on fire.
'cause the, the videos are pretty great. I'm not gonna lie. Like the video quality is, is certainly compelling. Um, and you could say it's lit is another little punny way to get at it. Uh, I, I haven't seen it this year. I mean, that's, we're recording this on November 1st, so I'm sure that it's out. Uh, I just haven't seen it yet.
But yeah, I mean, it's kind of, kind of ridiculous, uh, that anyone believes that Doug Wilson is restraining himself or engaging in lots of fine distinctions and nuance. You know, like the rest of the year and November is the time that he really like holds back, uh, or really doesn't hold back. That's, that's just a silly, it's just a silly gimmick.
It's a silly, like, I dunno, it's a gimmick and it's dumb and so I'm gonna make fun of it 'cause that's what it deserves.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's right. You know, I was thinking recently because as you said, the counter just rolled over. And generally this time of year I end up always watching that documentary that Ligonier put together on Martin Luther, which is quite good.
And I think it does, has a fair treatment of him, including the fact that he was so bombastic and that he was very caustic with his language. And I think they treat that fairly by saying, oh, that some of the same things that we admire in somebody can be some of the very same things which pull them into sinful behavior.
And there's no excuse for that. And, and, and if that's true for him, then it's true for all of us, of course. And it's definitely true for Luther. So I think this idea, we need to be guarding our tongues all the time and to just make up some excuse to say, I'm not gonna do that. And in some way implying that there's some kind of hidden.
Piety in that is what I think is just so disturbing. And I think most of us see through that for what exactly it is. It's clickbaits. It's this idea of trying to draw attention by being bombastic and literally setting things on fire. Like the video where he sets the boat on fire is crazy because all I can think of is like, so if you judge me, one more thing on this, Tony, 'cause I, I, when you said that, I thought about this video, the boat video implicitly, and I've thought about this a lot since then.
There's a clip of him, he sets the boat on fire and it's kind of like him sitting on the boat that is engulfed in flames looking out into the sea, so, so calmly as if it's like an embodiment of that mean this is fine, everything is fine, this is fine. Right? Yeah. And all I can think of is that was great for probably like the two seconds that somebody filmed that, but guess what happened immediately after that?
Somebody rescued you by putting out the fire on the boat.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: It's just like insanity to presume that, encapsulating that single moment and somehow conveying that he is a great champion, pioneer advocate of things of the gospel by essentially coming in and disrupting and being caustic and that him setting thing on fire makes everything better is a mockery, because that's not even exactly how that shoot took place.
Yeah. So I, I just really struggle with that, with the perspective he is trying to bring forward.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, I'm dubious whether or not there was actually any fire involved. Well, that's, I think 95% of it is probably camera magic, which is fine. Like, I don't know. That's fine. Like, I don't want Doug Wilson to burn up.
That's, that wouldn't be cool either. But, um, yeah, I mean, like the fruit of the spirit is love, joy piece patience, kindness, good as gentleness, setting things on fire and being a jerk in November, apparently. And I, I just don't, I, I've never fully understood the argument. Um, and this is coming from someone who can be sarcastic and can go over the top and go too far.
And, and I recognize that about myself. I've just never understood the argument that like, it's okay to be a jerk sometimes. Or, or not even just, okay. It's necessary to be a jerk sometimes. Exactly. Um, there's a difference between boldness and being a jerk. And, you know, I think, um, the people who, who know me well are gonna like fall off their chairs.
I say this like, Michael Foster is actually someone who I think. Does the boldness with a little bit of an edge. I think he actually does it really well. And just like all of us, I, you know, he, he probably goes over the line, uh, on occasion. Um, and, and, but I think he does the, I'm just going to be direct and straightforward and bold.
And sometimes that might offend you because sometimes the truth is offensive. Um, I think he does that well. I think where we go sideways is when we try to couch everything in sort of this offensive posture, right? Where, where even the things that shouldn't be offensive, uh, somehow need to be made offensive.
It, it's just, it's dumb. It's just, um, and I'm, I'm not saying we should be nice just for the sake of being nice. I think sometimes being nice is. When I say nice, I mean like saccharin sweet, like, like overly uh, I don't know, like sappy sweets. Like we don't have to be that. And uh, there are times where it's not even appropriate to be that.
Um, but that's different than just, you know, it's almost like the same error in the wrong direction, right? To be, just to be a jerk all the time. Sometimes our words and our behavior and our actions have to have a hard edge. And sometimes that's going to offend people because sometimes the truth, especially the gospel truth is offensive.
Um, but when what you're known for is being a jerk and being rude and just being offensive for the sake of being offensive. Um, right. And, and I'll even say this, and this will be the last thing I say. 'cause I didn't, I, I really intend this just to be like a, a jokey joke. No quarters, November. I'm not gonna spend any quarters.
Um, I don't know why I was foolish enough to think we weren't gonna get into it, but, um. When your reputation is that you are a jerk just to be a jerk. Even if that isn't true, it tells you that something is wrong with the way you're doing things. Right. Because I think there are times where, and I'll say this to be charitable, there are times where Doug Wilson says something with a little bit of an edge, and people make way too big of a deal out of it.
Like they, they go over the top and try to condemn it, and they, they make everything like the worst possible offense. And sometimes, sometimes it's, it's just not. Um, and there are even times where Doug says things that are winsome and they're helpful and, um, but, but when your reputation is that you are a jerk just to be a jerk, or that you are inflammatory just to get a reaction, um, there's something wrong with your approach.
And then to top it off, when you claim that for November, like you explicitly claim that identity as though that's not already kind of your shtick the rest of the year. Um, and just, it's just. Frustrating and dumb and you know, this is the guy that like, is like planting a church in DC and is like going on cnn.
It's just really frustrating to see that sort of the worst that the reformed world has to offer in terms of the way we interact with people sometimes is getting the most attention. So, right. Anyway, don't, don't be a pirate. N November is still my way. I celebrate and, uh, yeah, that's, that's that.
Jesse Schwamb: That's well said.
Again, all things we're thinking about because we all have tendency to be that person from time to time. So I think it's important for us to be reminded that the gospel doesn't belong to us. So that means like that sharp edge, that conviction belongs to Christ, not to our personalities. So if it's tilted toward our personalities, even toward our communication style, then it means that we are acting in sin.
And so it's hard for us to see that sometimes. So it does take somebody to say, whoa. Back it down a little bit there and you may need to process. Well, I'm trying to communicate and convey this particular truth. Well, again, the objective that we had before us is always to do so in love and salt and light.
So I agree with you that there is a way to be forthright and direct in a way that still communicates like loving compassion and concern for somebody. And so if really what you're trying to do is the equivalent of some kinda spiritual CPR, we'll know that you, you don't have to be a jerk while you're doing it.
You don't have to cause the kind of destruction that's unnecessary in the process. Even though CPR is a traumatic and you know, can be a painful event by it's necessary nature, we administer it in such a way that makes sure that we are, we have fidelity to the essential process itself, to the essential truths that's worth standing up for.
Yeah, it's not a worth being a jerk.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: Jesse, let's, let's move along. What are you affirming or denying tonight
Jesse Schwamb: and now for something much lighter? So, my, my affirmation I share at the risk of it being like so narrow that maybe nobody will actually want to use this, but I actually had you in mind.
Tony, I've been sitting on this one for a little while 'cause I've been testing it. And so we're, we're just gonna run like an actual quick experiment 'cause I. I'm guessing you will find this affirmation useful and will come along with me and it and might even use it, but you and I are not always like representative of all the people in the world.
I say that definitely tongue in cheek. So we're a little bit nerdy. We love our podcasts and so occasionally, I don't know if this happens to you, I'm guessing it does, but I want to capture like a moment that I heard while podcast is playing on my phone. Maybe somebody says something really interesting, it's great quotes, or it's mathematical nature and I wanna go back and process it.
And so generally what I do is I, I don't know, I stop it. I try to go back and listen to it real quick if I can, or maybe I can't because running, driving, all that stuff. So. When I hear something now that I want to keep, I just cry out to my phone. I have an, I have an iPhone, so I say, Siri, you could do this with Google.
Take a screenshot. What happens is the phone captures an image of my podcast app with a timestamp showing of course what's being played. Then I forward this image, this is the crazy affirmation part. When it's time to be alive, I forward this image to a certain email address and I get back the text transcript of the previous 90 seconds, which I can then either look at or file into my notes.
What is this email address sent it to you. Well, here's the website so you can go check it out for yourself though. Website is actually called Podcast Magic App, and there's just three easy steps there, and this will explain to you how you actually get that image back to you in the format of a transcript.
And the weird thing about this is it's, it's basically free, although if you use it a lot, they ask for like a one-time donation of $20, which you know me, I love. A one time fee. So I've been using this a lot recently, which is why I've been sitting on it, but it is super helpful for those of you who are out there listening to stuff.
They're like, oh, I like that. I need to get that back. And of course, like you'll never get it back. So if you can create this method that I've done where you can train your phone to take a snapshot picture of what's on the screen, then you can send it to Podcast Magic at Sublime app, and they will literally send you a transcript of the previous 90 seconds no matter what it is.
Tony Arsenal: That is pretty sweet. I'll have to check that out. Um, I don't listen to as many podcasts as I used to. How dare you? I just, the I know. It's, it's crazy. Where do we even do it Feels like heresy to say that on a podcast that I'm recording. Yes. Um,
Jesse Schwamb: we've lost half the audience. Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: Well, yeah. Well, the other half will come next.
Um, no, I, I, I just don't have as much time as I used to. I, I live closer to work than I used to and um, I'm down to, we're down to one car now, so, um, your mother is graciously giving me a ride to work. Um, 'cause she, she drives right past our house on the, the way and right past my work on the way to her work.
Um, but yeah, so I guess I say that to say like, the podcast that I do listen to are the ones that I really wanna make sure I'm, I am, uh, processing and consuming and, uh, making sure that I'm kinda like locking into the content.
Jesse Schwamb: Right.
Tony Arsenal: So this might be helpful for that when I do hear something and I do think, like, it's hard because I use matter, which is great, and you can forward a podcast to matter and it generates a whole transcript of the entire episode, which is great.
Um, but I don't often go back and, you know, a lot of times, like I'll go through my matter, uh, queue and it'll be like three weeks after I listened to a podcast episode, I be like, why did I put this in here? Right? I get that. I don't wanna listen to the entire 60 minute episode again to try to remember what that special thing was.
So I just end up archiving it. So this might be a good middle ground to kind of say like, I might set, I might still send it to matter to get the whole transcript, but then I can use this service to just capture where in the transcript actually was I looking for? Um. It's interesting. I'll have to look at it too, because you can, you can send, uh, through Apple Podcast, the Apple Podcast app and through most podcast apps, I think.
Right? You can send the episode with the timestamp attached to it. Yes. So I wonder if you could just send that, that link. Okay. Instead of the screenshot. Um, you know, usually I'm, I'm not. Uh, I don't usually, I'm not driving anymore, so usually when I'm listening to a podcast I have, my hands are on my phone so I could actually send it.
So yeah, I'll have to check that out. That's a good recommendation.
Jesse Schwamb: Again, it's kind of nuanced, but listen, loved ones, you know what you get with us, you're gonna get some, it could be equally affirmation, denial that Doug involves Doug Wilson, and then some random little thing that's gonna help you transcribe podcasts you listen to, because life is so hard that we need to be able to instantly get the last 90 seconds of something we listen to so that we can put it into our note taping at note taking app and put it into our common notebook and keep it.
Yeah, there you go.
Tony Arsenal: There's a lot of apps. There was actually a, a fair number of apps that came out a while ago that were, they were trying to accomplish this. Where you could, as you were listening to the podcast, in that app, you could basically say, highlight that and it would, it would highlight whatever sentence you were on.
But the problem is like by the time you say highlight that you're already onto the next sentence, you now you're going back trying to do it again. And I didn't find any of that worked really seamlessly. It was a lot of extra friction. So this might be kind of a good frictionless or less friction way to do it.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I'm totally with you.
Jesse Schwamb: I mean, speaking of like things that cause friction, there's no doubt that sometimes in Jesus' teaching on the parables that he himself brings the heat, he brings a little friction in his communication. And since you and I basically did go through each of these parables, we don't have do that again on this conversation.
In fact, what I'm looking forward to is kind of us coming together and coalescing our conversation about these things, the themes that we both felt that we heard and uncovered in the course of talking through them. But I think as well ending with so what? So what is some real good shoe leather style, practical application of these ideas of understanding the kingdom of God to be like this mustard seed and like this lemon.
So why don't I start by just reading. Again, these couple of verses, which we're gonna take right out of Matthew chapter 13. Of course, there are parallel passages in the other gospels as well, and I'd point you to those if you wanna be well-rounded, which you should be. And so we're gonna start in verse 31 of chapter 13.
It's just a handful of verse verses. Here's what Matthew writes. Jesus puts another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all leavened. Alright? Yeah. So Tony, what do you think?
Tony Arsenal: Uh, I mean, these are so like, straightforward. It was almost, it, it felt almost silly trying to like explain them. Yeah.
One of the things that, that did strike me, that I think is worth commenting too, um, just as a, a general reminder for parables, we have to be careful to remember what the parable is saying, right? So I, I often hear, um. The smallness of the mustard seed emphasized. Mm-hmm. And I think your, your commentary, you did a good job of kind of pointing out that like there's a development in this parable like it, right?
It's a progression and there's an eschatology to it, both in terms of the, the parable itself, but also it comments on the eschatology of the kingdom of heaven. But it's not just that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sewed in his field.
Right? It's that whole clause that is the, the kingdom of heaven is like likewise, the kingdom of heaven is not just like leave, it's like leave that a woman took in hidden in three measures of flour till all was leavened. So when we're looking at these parables. Or when we're looking at really any parable, it's important to make sure that we get the second half of the, the comparison, right?
What are we comparing the kingdom of heaven to? You know, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a sower who sowed seeds among, you know, in three types of four types of soil. This kingdom of Heaven is like, this is like that. We don't wanna miss part of the parable because we latch on to just like the first noun, and that follows the word like, um, but I think these are great, these are great little, um, parables that in some ways are almost like, uh, compliments or ex explanations of the other parables that we're looking at too.
They, they explain to us something more about what the Kingdom of Heaven is using similar kinds of analogies that help us flesh out the parables that are surrounding them. So the Kingdom of Heaven. You know, again, we always want to caution against kind of like overinterpreting, the parables, but the, the parable of the sower is talking about the seed that is sewn into the field, right?
And then there's the parable of the wheat and the tears, and there's seed again. And we, we might have a tendency to sort of miss the nature of the kingdom in a certain sort of dynamic. This fleshes this out. So we might think of like the parable of the sowers, like we don't know what, what proportion is of good soil, you know, good soil versus bad.
We know that there's three types of soils that are bad soils or unproductive soils and one type, but we don't know like how much of the soil is, um, like what percentage of the field is that. Similarly, like we don't know what percentage of the field was wheat and what was weeds. This is kind of reminding us that the, the kingdom of heaven is not found primarily in the, um, the expansiveness of it.
Right. It's not, it's not initially going to look like much. It's going to initially start out very small. Right. And in some ways, like in both of these, it appears to disappear entirely. Right? You sow a grain of mustard seed. I don't, I've never seen a mustard seed, so, but it's very small. Obviously you sow that into the ground.
You're not gonna find it again, you're not gonna come back a week later and dig up that seed and figure out where you sewed it. Um, similarly, like you put a, you put a very small amount of yeast or lemon into a three measures of flour. You're not gonna be able to go in even probably, even with a microscope.
You know, I suppose if you had infinite amount of time, you could pick a every single grain of flour, but you're not gonna be able to like go find that lemon. It's not gonna be obvious to the eye anymore, or even obvious to the careful searcher anymore. So that's what the kingdom of heaven is like in both of these.
It's this very small, unassuming thing that is hidden away. Uh, it is not outwardly visible. It is not outwardly magnificent. It is not outwardly even effective. It disappears for all intents and purposes. And then it does this amazing thing. And that's where I really think these, these two parables kind of find their unity is this small, unassuming thing.
That seems ineffectual actually is like abundantly effectual in ways that we don't even think about and can't even comprehend.
Jesse Schwamb: Right? Yeah. I would say almost it's as if it's like, well, it's certainly intentionally, but almost like offensively imperceptible. And I think that's the friction that Jesus brings with him to the original audience when he explains it this way.
So again, from the top, when we said this idea that the kingdom of God is imperceptible, it's hidden, it grows, it conquers, it brings eschatological resolution. And I'm just thinking again, in the minds of the hearers, what they would've been processing. I think you're spot on. I liked your treatment of that by focusing us to the fact that there is verb and noun and they go together.
We often get stuck on the nouns, but this, that verb content means that all of this, of course, is by the superintendent will of God. It's volitional. His choice is to do it this way. It is again, where the curse becomes the blessing, where it's the theology of the cross or theology of glory, where it is what is small and imp, perceptible and normal by extraordinary means becomes that which conquers all things.
And so I can. Picture, at least in my mind, because I'm a person and would, would wanna understand something of the kingdom of God. And if I were in a place, a place of oppression physically and spiritually living in darkness, to have this one who claims to be Messiah come and talk about the inauguration of this kingdom.
My mind, of course, would immediately go to, well, God's kingdom must be greater than any other kingdom I could see on this earth. And I see it on the earth that the sun rises. And cast light across provinces and countries and territories in a grand way. And then we have this kingdom of God, which, you know, theory, the, the sun should never set on it and the sun should never be able to shine, but on a corner of it.
And it doesn't have provinces or countries, it doesn't even have continence, but it has, it encapsulates worlds. And it doesn't stretch from like shore to shore or sea to shining sea, but from sun to sun or star to star from the heavens to the earth, its extent couldn't be surveyed. Its inhabitants couldn't be numbered.
Its beginning, could never be calculated because from Tard past, it had no bounds. And so I'm just thinking of all these things and then like you said, Jesus says, let me tell you what it's really like. It's like somebody throwing a tiny seed into a garden. Or it's like a woman just making bread and she puts yeast into it.
These seem like not just opposites, but almost offensive, I think, in the way that they portray this kingdom that's supposed to be of great power and sovereign growth, but it comes in perceptibly and how perfect, because the one who's delivering this message is the one who comes imperceptibly, the person of Christ preaching the gospel and the hearts of believers.
But that grows into a vast and global proportion, and that of course, that aligns exactly with so many things you and I have talked about in process before. These doctrines are providence and sovereign grace, that God ordains the means that is the seed and ensures the outcome, which is the tree.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Yeah. And I think too, um, you know, I don't, I don't know of any affinity with mustard seed in like the Old Testament law, but there's, there's a sort of a reversal of expectation here too, because although Levin is not always associated with like impurity, um, I think most Jewish listeners would immediately have a negative connotation with Levin for sure.
Right? So when, when all of a sudden he's comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven it, it becomes sort of this, um, the reason Levin is so pernicious and the reason that in the Old Testament law, you know, they're, they're, they're not just not making their bread with leave for the, for the Passover. They have to like sweep out their whole house.
They have to empty all their stores out. They have to clear everything out. And that's not just because like. In, in, in Old Testament, sort of like metaphors, leaven does get associated with sin, right? Uh, and that gets carried on into the New Testament, but just the actual physical properties of leaven is like, if there's any little bit of it left on the shelf or even in the air, like even on your hands, it's can spoil the whole batch.
It can cause the entire batch to go a different direction than you want it to. And in a certain way, like the Kingdom of Heaven is like that, right? Um.
Tony Arsenal: You hear about, um, you hear about situations where it seems like the presence of God's people and the, the kingdom of God is just, it's just eradicated.
And then you find out that there's actually like a small group of believers who somehow survived and then like Christianity is thriving again like 50 years later. Um, you can't just wipe out the kingdom of heaven because it is like leaven and any small remaining remnant of it is going to work its way back through the entire batch in a way that is, uh, mysterious and is somewhat unpredictable and is certainly going to surprise people who are not expecting it to be there.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: One of the things I really picked up in your treatment of that, that kind of drew me in in a special way was, you know, we think of some theological terms. We have really, I think, strong. Rubric for processing them, and especially like their multifaceted nature. So for instance, when we think about sanctification, we often talk about positional and progressive.
And those are really helpful ways to understand a concept that brings us into modeling where it's finite and precise to a degree that allows us to understand it and comprehend it with a greater degree of confidence. And knowing it's many parts, because it is many parted.
Jesse Schwamb: And I was thinking as you were talking about the leaven, how the kingdom of heaven here that is inaugurated by Christ, that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit is growth and always deny that.
But what you drew out for me was I think we're definitely seeing in that this idea of the intensive growth and then of course in the. Parable of the mustard seed. It's more extensive growth and they're both important. So they're in consummate harmony. It's not just like one recapitulating the other. And what that made me think about was even as you were speaking now, this really interesting difference, you know, the woman is taking this, again, talking about the verb, there's two nouns here actually.
There's like the, the proper pronoun of the woman there is the act which she's doing, which she's taking the leaven and working it as it were like into the flower. I just did like a weird motion here on the camera if you're watching on uh, YouTube. Sorry about that.
Jesse Schwamb: Almost like I was giving CPR, but she's working it into this meal or this flower and the working it from within outwards and that working itself like changes the whole substance from the center to the surface of this meal.
Now I was thinking about this 'cause you noted something about bed bread. Bread baking in yours. And I did actually just a couple weeks ago, make some bread and the recipe I was using came with this like huge warning. Some of the recipes are like this, where when you're using some kinda lemon, most of the time we're using yeast.
You have to not only be careful, of course, about how much yeast you put in because you put in too much, it's gonna blow the whole thing up. You're gonna have serious problems. You're not gonna make the bread anymore, you're gonna make a bomb, so to speak, and it's gonna be horrible. You're not gonna want to eat it.
But the second thing is the order in which you add the ingredients, or in this recipe in particular, had very explicit instructions for when you're creating the dry ingredients. When you have the flour, make a little well with your finger and delicately place. All of the yeast in there so that when you bring the dough together, when you start to shape it, you do it in a particular way that from the inside out changes the whole thing so that there's a thorough mixing.
Because the beauty of this intensive change is that. As you know Tony, like there's so many things right now in my kitchen that are fermenting and I talked about before, fermenting the process of leavening something is a process of complete change. It's taking something that was before and making it something very different.
But of course it retains some of the essential characteristics, but at the same time is a completely different thing. And so it's through a corresponding change that man goes to whom the spirit of God communicates His grace. It's hidden in the heart and chain begin, change begins there. You know, the outward reformation is not preparing a way for inward regeneration.
It's the other way around that regeneration, that reformation on the outside springs from a regeneration that's on the inside, growing out of it as a tree grows from a seed as a stream flows from the spring or as leave, comes and takes over the entire lump of dough.
Jesse Schwamb: It's amazing. This is how God works it.
We again, on the one side we see the kingdom of heaven. That is like the manifestations of his rule in rain coming, like that seed being sown and growing into this mighty tree. It brings shade. The birds come nest in it. And that may be a reference Allah to like Ezekiel or Daniel, the Gentiles themselves.
There's that inclusion. And then to be paired with this lovely sense that, you know what else, anywhere else, the power of the kingdom of heaven is made. Manifest is in every heart in life of the believer. And so the Christian has way more in religion in their outer expression than they do anybody else.
Because the inner person, the identity has been changed. Now you and I, you and I harp all the time on this idea that we, we don't need some kind of, you know, restoration. We need regeneration. We don't need to be reformed merely on the outside by way of behaviors or clever life hacks. We need desperately to be changed from the inside out because otherwise we.
Where it's just, I don't know, draping a dead cold statue with clothing, or all we're doing is trying to create for ourselves a pew in the house of God. What we really need is to be like this bread that is fully loving, that grows and rises into this delicious offering before the world and before God.
Because if you were to cut into this outwardly looking freshly baked bread and find that as soon as you got through that delicious, hard, crispy crust on the outside, that in the inside all it was, was filled with like unprocessed, raw flour, you would of course say, that's not bread. I don't know what that is.
But that's not bred. What a great blessing that the promise that God gives to us is that the kingdom of God is not like that. It lies in the heart by the power of God. And if it's not there, it's not anywhere. And that though the Christian May at times exhibit, as we've talked about before, some kinda hypocrisy, they are not essentially hypocrites.
Why? Because the Kingdom of God is leavening us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That gospel message is constantly per permeating that yeast through all of who we are, so that it continues to change us. So that while the natural man still remains, we are in fact a new creation in Christ. So to start with, you know, bread and or not bread to end with bread, but to start with flour and water and yeast and salts, and to be transformed and changed is the intensive power of the growth of the gospel, which is with us all our lives, until we have that beautific vision.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I think, um, you know, to kind of take a, a pivot maybe to the practical, I think this is, this is not the point of the parable necessarily 'cause the parable. I think there's a lot that these parables have to say to us about like, personal, individual growth, but they really are about the growth of the kingdom or the, the, maybe necessarily the growth of the kingdom.
I think that's there too. But really like the nature of the kingdom as this sort of like, hidden, hidden thing that then grows and creates big results.
Tony Arsenal: I, I think this is a, this is a parable that should encourage us. Like absolutely for sure we should look to this and, and be encouraged because. It is not the case.
Um, I know there are lots of people who wanna act as though like this is the worst time anyone has ever lived in, and everything is the worst as it's ever been. It's, this is not even close to the worst time that the church has ever existed in, um, there are, it's funny, um, we'll give a little plug. Some of our listeners have started their own new show called Over Theologizing, and, um, it, it was, it was funny listening to the second episode they had, um.
Pete Smith was on there and they were saying, like, they were talking about like, how do you feel about the nature of the church? And Pete was like, it's fine. Like it's great out here. Like there's lots of churches, lots good. Like I, I think that there are pockets in our, in our world, um, particularly, you know, my, my former reference is Western World and in the United States and in some senses in, in Europe, um, there are certainly pockets of places where it's very dark and very difficult to be a Christian, but by and large it's not all that challenging.
Like, we're not being actively persecuted. They're not feeding us to the lions. They're not stealing our businesses. They're not, um, murdering us. You know, like I said, there are exceptions. And even in the United States, there are places where things are moving that direction. But there are also times when the church is going to feel dark and small and, and like it's failing and, and like it's, it's weak.
And we can look at these parables and say, the fact that it feels and looks and may actually be very small does not rob it of its power that does not rob the kingdom of heaven of its power. It in, in actuality that smallness is its power, right? Leave is so powerful of an ingredient in bread because you need so little of it, right?
Because that it, you can use such a small quantity of lemon to create such a, a huge result in bread. That's the very nature of it. And it, its efficacy is in that smallness. And you know, I think the mustard seed is probably similar in that you, you don't need to have, um. Huge reaping of, of mustard seed in order to produce the, the crop that is necessary, the trees that are necessary to, to grow that.
So when we look around us and we see the kingdom of heaven feeling and maybe actually even being very small in our midst, we should still be encouraged because it doesn't take a lot of leave to make the bread rise, so to speak. And it doesn't take a lot. And, and again, like of course it's not our power that's doing it, that's where maybe sort of like the second takeaway, the baker doesn't make the bread rise by his own like force of will, right?
He does it by putting in this, this agent, you know, this ingredient that works in a sort of miraculous, mysterious way. It's obviously not actually miraculous. It's a very natural process. But I think for most of history. So that was a process that probably was not well understood, right? We, we, people didn't fully understand why Bread did what it did when you used lemon.
They just knew that it did. And I think that's a good takeaway for us as well, is we can't always predict how the kingdom of heaven is gonna develop or is gonna operate in our midst. Um, sometimes it's gonna work in ways that seem to make a lot of sense, otherwise it's gonna seem like it's not doing anything.
Um, and then all of a sudden it does. And that's, that's kind of where we're at.
Jesse Schwamb: I like that. That's what a great reminder. Again, we all often come under this theme that God is always working. Even when we don't feel or see that he is, he's always working and even we've just come again on the calendar at least to celebrate something of the Reformation and its anniversary.
Uh. What again, proof positive that God's kingdom will not fail. That even in the places where I thought the gospel was lost or was darkens, even in Israel's past in history, God always brings it forward. It cannot, it will not die.
Jesse Schwamb: So I wanna tack onto that by way of, I think some practical encouragement for ministry or for all believers.
And that is, let's not despise small beginnings. Like let's not despise whatever it is that you're doing in service to God, to your family, to your churches, especially in the proclamation of the gospel. This is from um, Zacharia chapter four, beginning of verse eight. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, the hands of the rebel have laid the foundation of this house.
His hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zabel. So I love this encouragement that is for all Christians. That's one. Again, God is doing all the verbs like just.
For one last time for everybody in the back. God does all the verbs. Yeah, and in so doing, because he is doing all the verbs, he may, but he chooses to start with small things because again, he is always showing and exemplifying his glory and he does this in these normative ways. It's a beautiful expression of how majestic and powerful he is.
So let's embrace those things with be encouraged by them. The gospel may appear weak or slow in bearing fruit, yet God guarantees its eventual triumph. God guarantees that he's already stamped it. It's faithfulness and not visibility. That's the measure of fruitfulness. So if you're feeling encouraged in whatever it is that you're doing in ministry, the formal or otherwise, I would say to you.
Look to that faithfulness, continue to get up and do it, continue to labor at it, continue to seek strength through the Holy Spirit, and know that the measure of his fruitfulness will come, but maybe in a future time, but it will come because this is what God does. It's God doing all the work. He's the one, he's essentially the characters needs of these parables, sowing the seed, working in lemon.
Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And I think, you know, like I said, the, the parables are not necessarily about individual personal growth. Um, but I, I think the principle that is here applies to that as well is I think oftentimes we feel like, um. I'll speak for myself. There are have been many times in my walk as a Christian, um, where it just feels like nothing's happening.
Right? Right. Like, you just feel like it's dry and like you, you're, you know, you're, you're not like you're falling into some great sin or like you've walking away from the faith, but it just feels sort of dry and stale and like God isn't doing anything. And, um, I've only ever tried to bake bread once and it was a, it was just a terrible, terrible failure.
But, um, I think one of the things that I've. I've read about people who bake bread is that there is a level of patience that has to come with it, right? Because oftentimes it seems like the bread isn't rising. It seems like the, the lemon is not doing what it's supposed to do until it does. Right? And like, if you take the bread out of the oven every couple of minutes to check and see if it's rising, it's never going to rise.
It's never going to do what it's supposed to do. And, um, you know, I think that is kind of like the Christian life in microcosm too, is we, we have these spiritual disciplines that we do. We pray, we read the scriptures, we attend faithfully to the Lord's Day service. And oftentimes it doesn't feel like that's doing anything right.
But it is. The Kingdom of Heaven is at work in not only in our midst as a corporate body, but the kingdom of heaven is at work in each of us as well. That's right. God's, God's grace and his, uh, special providence and his spirit of, of sanctification, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness and the one who makes us holy.
Um, he is doing that whether it feels like it or not, whether we see, um, outward progress or not. If the spirit dwells within us, he is necessarily making us holy and necessarily sanctifying us. Um, and and so I want us to all think about that as we, we kind of wrap up a little bit here, is we shouldn't be.
I, I don't wanna say we shouldn't be discouraged, um, because it's easy to get discouraged and I don't want people to feel like I'm like, you should never be discouraged. Like sometimes the world is discouraging and it's frustrating, and it's okay to feel that, but we should be able to be encouraged by this parable.
When we look at it and we remember like, this is just. This is just the parable form of Paul saying like, God glories by using the weak to demonstrate his strength. Exactly right. He, he is, his power is shown in, in using the weak and frail things of this life and this world to accomplish his purposes. And so when we are weak, when we are feeling as though we are failing as Christians, we should be able to look at this and say, well, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
It's like a tiny mustard seed, a tiny mustard seed of faith that grows into a large tree. It's, it's like this little little spark of leave that God puts in us and it's hidden in us and it leavens the whole loaf. And that's us, right? And that's the church, that's the kingdom. It's the world. Um, God is at work and he is doing it in ways that we would not ordinarily see.
Even the person who has this sort of like explosive Christian growth. That's not usually sustained. I think most people when they first come to faith, especially if they come to faith, you know, as a teenager or a young adult, um, they come to faith and they have this like explosive period of growth where they're like really passionate about it and on fire.
And then that, that passion just kind of like Peters out and you kind of get into like the, the day in, day out of Christianity, um, which is not, it's not flashy. It's not sexy, it's not super exciting. It's very boring in a lot of ways, like right, it's, it's basic bread, it's basic water. It's hearing a, a person speak and it's, it's reading words on a page.
But when the Holy Spirit uses those things, he uses them faithfully to finish the work that he started.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. The spirit's work of leavening, it continues quietly, but it powerfully, yeah. And we shouldn't despise that quietness or that smallness that I think is altogether a gift of God.
And again, we're talking about the one who embodies the perfect will of God, who came and condescended to his creation was like us in every eight, where every way without sin. This is the one who became, I think as Paul writes in Galatians, a curse for us. And so again, this blessedness arises out of, again, what I think is this offensive means.
And if that is the model that Christ gives to us, we ourselves shouldn't despise that kinda small beginning or even despise the sacrifices we're often called to make. Or those again, I would say like offensively and auspicious kinds of beginnings. All of that is peace wise, what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
And there's a beauty in that. And I would say, I want to add to what you said, Tony, 'cause I think it was right on, is this idea that's easy to be discouraged is. It doesn't require any explanation. I, I, I'm totally with you. If you were to pick up any, or go to any kind of website and just look at the headlines for their news reporting, you're going to find plenty of reasons to be discouraged and to feel melancholy.
And yet at the same time when I think we, you and I talk about these things, what I'm prone to consider is what Paul writes elsewhere to the church in Corinth, where he says in two Corinthians chapter 10, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Being ready to punish every disobedience when you're disobey, when you're obedience is complete. And so what I think that applies to us in this particular case is understanding that this is the promise of God. Like you're saying, you and I are saying. Discouragement happens. And yet the truth is that small inauspicious beginnings in the kingdom of heaven always result in outsized gains that God never ceases to work.
That he's always with us, that he's always for us. Then we do have to take captive those thoughts that lead us into kind of a disproportionate melancholy that pull us away or distract us from this truth of God, the knowledge of God, which is that he is super intending, his sovereign will completely over every molecule in the universe because this is what the Kingdom of Heaven does.
And so that gives us, I think as I said last week, hope and evangelism we're storming those gates of hell we're coming for you like because there is a triumphalism in Christ that will be manifested in the final day. It's the reformed understanding of the here but not quite yet.
Jesse Schwamb: And like the last place that Le that leads me to like some practical, I think application is, and I wanna be careful with this, so I'm curious for your opinion.
It's cultural engagement. You know, if we're thinking about this, leave permeating this dough, this tiny seed growing to overtake the garden, then I think believers should labor to continue to bring biblical truth into every sphere. So your family, your vocation, arts, politics, everything under Christ's lordship.
I think sometimes that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be. As we've talked about the top of the show, really outspoken in a provocative kind of way. I think sometimes, again, that same quiet though, consistent work that the Holy Spirit does that's powerful in leavening us is the same thing that we can do with just our attitudes at work or our attitudes in our family, or our willingness to serve or our kind words.
Of course, it does require us to preach the gospel using words. It also means that the power of the leaven is that quiet power. It doesn't jump outta the bread. It doesn't boast, but it is present. So maybe I'm saying Christians, let's be present, and leavening means to be present with the attitude and the mind of Christ.
What? What do you think?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I think that's, um, I think that's right on, you know, um, it, it's not quite a parable, but Christ, Christ commands his people to be like salt and light and true. Um, and, and by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, you know, like a, a measure of leaven that was hidden away in three measures.
Um, he's also commanding us to be like leaven, right? And he is commanding us to be like the, the mustard seed because that is what we are. And I think, um, we shouldn't think that we can cloister off or sequester off the kingdom of heaven from the rest of culture and create like, um, I'm not quite, uh, I'm not quite to the point where I'm, I'm a transformational in the sort of like Tim Keller sense, but I do think that.
We, and I don't like this word, but I'm not sure of a better, a better way to say it, but like, we like to set up these little Christian ghettos where like we, we isolate ourselves culturally into these little subcultures and these little sort of cordoned off areas of culture. Um, where we, we actually then strive to look just like the culture that's around us, right?
Right. We subsection off Christian music and although it's, you know, typically it's like a decade behind the curve in terms of what music is good, we're really just doing the same music as the rest of the world. We just baptize it with Christian language. Like, I remember my, my youth pastor in high school rewrote the song closing time to Be Quiet Time.
And like that was like, that was like the most Christian thing he could do at the time, was rewrite the lyrics to a song. But like, that's, that's absolutely not what cultural transformation looks like. Right. Well, cultural transformation, and maybe I'm channeling a little bit of, of Michael Foster here, what cultural transformation looks like.
Is is a man who gets married and loves his wife, well, serves her and sacrifices for her, and makes a bunch of babies and brings them to church, right? Like that's, that's cultural transformation. And in our culture, like that is a very counter-cultural way to do things. It's actually very counter-cultural.
There have been times when that's not particularly countercultural and there probably will be times again where it is. And actually it seems like our broader American culture is moving away from the sort of like two kids, two kids and a dog is a, is a bygone era fantasy. And now it's like two single people living in a house together with a dog.
Um, you know, and, and that's not to say that that's the only way to be, to transform culture, right? That's just one example of sort of the most mundane, natural thing is actually the way that we do it. Um. We transform culture by, um, by being honest, having integrity, yes. By, um, working hard, right? Yes. Going to work, doing your job well, uh, without a lot of fanfare, without seeking a lot of accolades, um, and just doing a good job because that's what God commands us to do when he tells us to honor our employers and to be good, faithful bond servants in the Lord.
Um, that is also very, uh, that also will transform culture. Um, you know, I think we think of cultural transformation and we, I think we immediately go to, for better or worse, we go to like the Doug Wilsons of the world and we go like, that guy's engaging the culture. Well, yeah, I guess in a certain sense he is.
Um, or we, or we go to. The Tim Keller's of the world where they are, they're engaging culture in a different way. But I think for most of us, for most Christians, our cultural engagement is very nor like very normal and very boring. It's living a very ordinary, quiet life. Um, you know, what does Paul say?
Work quiet life. Mind your own business. Work with your hands, right? Like, don't be a busy body. Um, like that's, that's actually the way that culture is transformed. And that makes perfect sense. We will have to come back and do another episode on this sometimes, but like, that makes perfect sense. When you think about how God created Adam and what he was supposed to do to transform and cult, cultivate, right?
The word cultivate and culture come from the same roots to transform and cultivate the entire world. What was he supposed to do? Plant a garden, tame the animals, right? You know, bake babies. Like, it's, it's not, um, it's not. Rocket science, it's not that difficult. And again, we are all called to different elements of that.
And God providentially places us in situations and in, in life, you know, life circumstances, we're not all gonna be able to fulfill every element of that. But that's where this, that's where this becomes sort of the domain of the church, right? The church does all of these things in the culture, and I don't mean the church as institution.
I mean like the people who are the church. They do all of these things in very ordinary, normal ways, and that will, that will transform the culture. Um, right. You, you show me a. And this is not, you know, by God's common grace, there are lots of really nice people out there who are more or less honest and have integrity and work hard at their jobs.
So it's not as that, that's a uniquely Christian thing. But you show me a, a, a person who is known to be a Christian and works hard as honest is straightforward, is kind, is charitable, is self-sacrificial in, in all arenas of their life. Um, people will notice that and they will see it as different and they will associate it with Christianity.
They will associate it with Jesus Christ. And that is really powerful.
Jesse Schwamb: Agreed. Yeah. I think there's something in that for us to really take away with and, and try to apply.
Jesse Schwamb: And I want to this week, you know, do you remember back to the days of COVID and its most T stages, and we had all of this technology, all these conversations about contact tracing.
Yeah. And I was just thinking about that. What if we tried that just as a thought experiment with considering ourselves as the leaven in the world that God has put us in. So if you were to go through your day and think about all the people we've interacted with, all the experiences you've had, the text messages, the emails, the conversations, the interactions on the road and at the supermarkets and at daycare, if you consider all those things, and then instead in each of those ways in whatever the interaction is, am I bringing forward the God's kingdom in my interactions?
I think what you'd find is that we have this tremendous opportunity to use what is normative. And by the way, this is what God does, right? Like the yeast is. Is empowered by God, but it's simple in, its like first principles that make it react, but God is doing the reaction in the same way, like you've said, Tony, God has called us to, is to live small lives in many ways.
So I think wrapping it all the way back to the beginning, how many people, even in our, let's say, our own sphere of influence, I'm talking like at your place of work, in your office, in your home, or at your churches, and again at the grocery store, how many of those people care what Doug Wilson is saying?
Care what he's doing. Yeah. Even know who he is. Yeah. They know you or they're getting to interact with you. And so they're interacting with me and with Tony. And it's our responsibility as God empowers us to be that true salt and light. And if we did a little contact tracing, I, my guess would be, we'd be surprised if we were treating it like we were concerned that we were communicating some kind of sickness and we really made particular effort to go back through and trace all of our contacts that we would find that we interact and do a lot and that is our opportunity.
Yeah. And that is the small and quiet working of the Holy Spirit in those things. What if we were praying that God would use those opportunities to, one, be a model, that kind of Christian behavior that you're talking about, Tony, the kind of fruit of the spirit and to beyond that, to use that by God's divine appointing to have opportunity to speak directly and forthrightly and lovingly the gospel message.
Like what if that's how we were praying? So yeah. Will you join me in praying that way this week? 'cause I, I'm, I'm gonna be praying that for myself and for my wife, for my church, these. Little parables have really pushed me, I feel in that direction that there's so much here for us, because we should get pumped up by this.
We shouldn't be discouraged by this. And instead we should see like, well, if this is how God handles his kingdom, like what else can he do in the world? And the answer is all the things, everything. And he will do it. He will bring it to completion. So what's funny is, strangely, mustard seed and yeast, and I haven't said this in a while, so I'm gonna say it now, have got me in this place where I wanna run through a wall.
I wouldn't have expected that that's where it started. But doesn't it make sense that that's where it ends?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jesse, that's a good way for us to wrap this up. Um, next time we'll be getting into some more parables, a little hidden treasure, a little bit of pearls of great value. We'll see how, how many episodes it takes us to get through those two parables.
Um, but Jesse, this is such a fun, um, and I think really a really transformative series for us. Like, I think, I think. What you just said is spot on. Like, I would not have expected these two really micro parables, right? It's like five verses. I would not have expected these to have this much driving force for like Christian living.
Um, you know, all of scripture is God breathe. All of it is profitable for, for teaching correction, reproof training, and righteousness. But it feels like this one would not have been in my top 10. But now that we've talked about it, it's like, yeah, like let's get out there. Yeah. Let's be leaven, let's be mustard seeds.
So I think that's great if you wanna get after it together with other like-minded brothers and sisters who are, are on this same, um, sort of journey with us. I'll just use all the postmodern language. They're taking the same pathway with us. They're, they're on the same journey. Um, you can go to t.me/reform brotherhood that'll take you in your browser or on your phone, or it'll take you to a little app called Telegram and it'll jump you straight into our little slice of the internet that we have.
Uh, it's a great little group. Um, there's maybe a couple hundred people in there. There's not a ton. Um, you know, maybe like 30 really active people and a bunch of people who are lurkers and that's just fine. Um, but there's a place for prayer requests, which are faithfully prayed for. Um, people will a, will absolutely pray for you.
Um, it's one of the few places that I've been online where when you ask for prayer, you, not only do you trust that people are doing it, but they actually like type out their prayers for sure to show you what they're praying, which is great. Um, there's lots of great channels for memes and there's a baptism discussion.
It's specifically called charitable baptism discussion, and it actually is like, it really does. Uh, we really do try hard to maintain a level of charity and to decorum and love for our each other. Um, so please do join us t.me/reform. Brother, we would love to hear your thoughts on this parable. We'd love to hear, especially like what.
What kinds of things are you doing this week differently because of what we talked about today, right? Like how has this actually made a difference in how you're walking out your Christian faith?
Jesse Schwamb: Right? I love it. So what have we learned about these two parables and maybe in this conversation in particular?
Well, one, we've learned it's really best not to set your boat on fire. Just don't do it. If you have a boat, I feel like you're blessed enough, possibly, although I, I don't know how a boat, would they say the best two days of a boat or the day you buy it and the day you sell it, not the day you set it on fire.
That's not a good day. We've also learned that these parables of the mustard seed in lemon, they teach us that the kingdom of heaven, God's kingdom, it begins in small, hidden, or seemingly insignificant ways, but it always grows powerfully and inevitably through sovereign work. And the mustard seed illustrates that the kingdom's visible expansion is present.
It's here, not yet. While the 11 highlights this internal transformative influence, and there's something there for all of us to take away and apply. It's not just head knowledge. Loved one. We gotta get that meditation. Yeah, we gotta bring it inside. We gotta process it by the holy power of the Holy Spirit, and as the Puritans would say, warm ourselves by the fire of meditation.
So now it's up to you to do that as Tony and I will endeavor to do it this week until we come and talk to you or talk at you next week. But while you're doing that, here's what I would say. Honor everyone.
Tony Arsenal: Love that brotherhood.
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In this episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal explores Jesus' parable of the leaven from Matthew 13:33, revealing profound insights about the nature of God's kingdom on earth. This short but powerful parable illustrates how the kingdom of heaven operates not through outward glory or conquest, but as a hidden, transformative influence throughout the world. Tony examines how this parable connects thematically with other parables in Matthew 13, showing that believers are called to be like leaven - seemingly small and hidden, yet profoundly impacting the entire "loaf" of society. This teaching offers a refreshing perspective on how Christians can understand their role in the world and how God's redemptive purposes work through His people.
The parable in Matthew 13:33 is deceptively simple: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened." Tony notes that just as leaven is often the same color as flour but with a different texture, and just as a small amount can affect an entire batch, the kingdom of heaven may seem small and unassuming in the world, yet its influence permeates everything around it. This parable teaches us that God's kingdom doesn't operate through visible conquest or outward glory. Rather, it works quietly from within, transforming the whole of society as believers live out their faith in various contexts - whether at work, with family, or in other relationships. The impact of the kingdom, like leaven, is not always immediately visible but ultimately transforms everything it touches.
This parable helps us understand that while the church may not always be the dominant visible institution in the world, its influence continues to work powerfully. Tony explains how this connects with the parable of the wheat and tares, where both grow together until the harvest. Similarly, the kingdom of heaven is present within the world, often hidden from plain sight but still exerting tremendous influence. This perspective counters triumphalistic views that expect Christianity to always visibly dominate culture, while also rejecting defeatist attitudes that minimize the church's impact. Instead, it offers a balanced understanding that even when believers are in the minority, they serve as God's means of leavening the whole of society with kingdom values and influence.
"We should look at this parable and think about how the kingdom of heaven on this earth is not going to be about outward glory. It's not gonna be about outward conquests, accoutrements or accolades."
"As we go into our workday, as we interact with our family, whether that's our immediate family, our wives or children, our parents, or it's our extended family, some of whom may not even know Christ, as we interact with our fellow Christians in the church or online, as we interact with unbelievers online, we are to be like leaven that is hidden in the flower and our presence in the flower, our presence in the world actually leavens the whole world."
"If it were not for God's intent and desire to save a remnant from fallen humanity, if it was not for the covenant of redemption in which the father, son and the spirit pacted together to redeem a people for their very own, God would've had no reason not to just destroy the whole thing and start over. But because he has seen fit to redeem out of the fallen whole, a portion, he is leavening the whole with that portion."
we should look at this parable and think about how the kingdom of heaven on this earth is not going to be about outward glory. It's not gonna be about outward conquests accoutrements or accolades.
Welcome back to episode 467 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Tony and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brothers and sisters, if you are joining us for this second part of, uh, episode 467, any of you have not listened to Jesse's contribution, then you are like me. I also have not listened to Jesse's contribution yet, but, uh, you should go back and listen because, uh, we're doing a fun little experiment this week, Jesse and I.
Our schedules didn't quite line up, so we thought we would do something interesting.
Uh, we've been working through the parables of Christ, which has been an absolute joy, and we come to these two sort of little micro parables that, um, commentators and editors often clump together. And Justin and I thought it would be a fun experiment for us each two separately talk about, uh, one of the parables.
Uh, and then next week, uh, we're gonna come back together and we will probably talk through all of it after we've had some chances to, uh, process and marinate in it a little bit. We thought it'd be fun to see kind of how the two episodes gel together or don't gel together, uh, when uh, we have not talked about it and did not record together.
So I'm gonna go ahead and kick off. I don't know if Jesse did affirmations or denials. I don't know what Jesse did. I, all I know is he recorded an episode and I'm sure that it's amazing. Uh, but I'm just gonna go ahead and kick off right into the, uh, the. Uh, reading here. So we're looking at Matthew chapter 13.
Uh, we've spent our entire time in this series so far in Matthew chapter 13, and I'm gonna pick it up at verse 33. It reads here, he told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all leavened. Now this is a short parable.
Uh, it's, it's pretty straightforward. And this episode will be a little bit shorter. I don't know how long Jesse went. I mean, I, I guess I kind of have an idea 'cause I edited the, uh, episode, but I dunno how long you went. So I'm gonna keep this short and sweet and we're gonna talk more about all of this next week.
So I just wanna share a few observations with you first. I think it's important for us to sort of recognize that. Matthew as the inspired, uh, writer of this, uh, gospel and in some ways, uh, as an inspired compiler and editor of Christ's public Ministry. Right. He's writing the gospel, but he's also a witness to the events.
He is probably, um, ordering things in particular ways to make a theological point. Christ probably also taught this same message multiple times in multiple venues, so there's nothing shady or a historical going on. Um, but Matthew is. Putting together these, uh, counts and particularly these parables, which probably were all given at the same time.
Um, Christ probably deliver them all at the same time as well. And there's some good reasons in the text to think that. But these parables all fall within the context of each other. So when we talked about the parable of, uh, the soils, um, or the parable of the sower, we, we recognize, um, that the kingdom of heaven is not as obvious as we would think, right?
The sower sows the seed, um, he sows it promiscuously a across various different kinds of soils, fully knowing that some of it will not be receptive. And then of course, we saw the outcome. And then when we looked at the parable of the weed, weed, uh, wheat and the tears, uh, we see that, you know, the, the good sower recognizes that the wheat and the weed will grow up next to each other, and that at the end of all things, he will separate those things and will, you know, destroy the wicked and will reward the righteous.
And an interesting feature of this chapter is that Christ often tells a parable, and then there's either some commentary, or in this case today, there's actually additional parables in sort of inserted, and then Christ gives the, uh, interpretation of the parable. So the, the parable of the mustard seed immediately follows in the parable of the 11, kind of considering those together.
Immediately follows the parable of, uh, the explanation, or no, sorry, the parable of, um, the weed and the weeds. And so he gives us this parable right in the middle there. Then he gives us a little explanation and a second, you know, explanation of why he speaks in parables. And then he goes on to interpret and.
There's a, a technique that was often used in ancient text, in ancient documents called an iuso, where they would start an account. Uh, they would start sort of a literary segment with, um, a phrase or a concept. Then they would explain, you know, they would give all their explanation and then they would close that same section with a similar theme or a similar, um, kind of, um, concept.
We see this in Luke, right? We see at the beginning of Luke. There's a statement that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. Then we see the, um, the account of Jesus in the temple. And then we see again at the end of that, it says again, he grew in wisdom and stature. And so Luke, there is telling us that we should read that whole section, that whole area as a, a single unit.
And the theme of that unit is Jesus growing in, um, wisdom and stature. A similar thing is happening here. So we have the, the parable of the sower. We have some commentary, then we have the interpretation of the parable of sower. Then we have the parable of the wheat and the tears, and then we have this in the middle, the parable of the weed of the, um, mustard seed and the lemon.
And then we have the explanation or the interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tears. So we should see this parable as part of that literary unit. That's, that's what Matthew is doing here. So we have to interpret it in light of that.
And so what do we see in the first, uh, parable that we talked about?
Well, we see that the kingdom of heaven is, uh, is sort of hidden within the world. We see that God sows or the, the good sower sows his seed. The master of the household sows his good seed into the world. The field is the world and it starts to grow, and then the enemy comes and he sows his seed into the world, and that starts to grow.
And until the end of things, um, the good weeds, the good wheat is sort of hidden among the weeds just as the weed is hidden among the good wheat, the, the parable of the mustard seed, um, Jesse, I'm sure explain. We'll find out. Um, explain that the, the mustard seed is small. And so when it's planted into the garden, it becomes kind of hidden and it's an unexpected, um, influence on the, the rest of the garden.
Not only does it grow, but it becomes, uh, it becomes a central feature of the garden. Uh, it gives shade to things. It, you know, birds come and live in it. Um. It becomes a central feature in an unexpected way. And the Parable of 11 is, in my opinion, is really just a restatement in some ways of the parable of, uh, the wheat and the tears.
It says the kingdom of heaven is like 11 that the woman took and hid. In three measures of flour till it was all lemon. So Jesse could tell you more about baking bread than I could. Uh, he, he probably would've been better to give you this parable and, and if we did any sort of planning at all, we would've thought about that, but.
Lemon is often, um, the same color as flour. Um, it's a different texture as flour, but it takes just a very small amount of it in a large portion of flour or bread dough or whatever you're putting into to then permeate and affect the whole thing. So you might have, you might have a pound of flour. Um, or in this case, three measures of flour, which I, I don't know off the top of my head how much that is.
Um, my logos Bible software is, is not helping me all that much here. But you may have a, a large quantity of flour, say a pound of flour, you might put just a few, um, a few grams into that flour, and once you've mixed it all up. Even though that lemon, uh, that lemon is, is at a much lower ratio than the flour, it still affects the entire, the entire outcome and the entire loaf of that, uh, bread that you're making.
So, in one sense, what Christ is saying is that the kingdom of heaven, uh, it's it's small. It's, it's unassuming. It is hidden in this broader bunch, just like the wheat is in the good field. Um, it's hidden in the good field in that when you first, you first sow it, you don't see it. And as it starts to grow alongside the weeds, it's hidden among the weeds just as the weeds are hidden among the weeds because you can't tell the difference.
In this case, the lemon is, is hidden among the measures of flower, and that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. And so we should look at this parable and think about how the kingdom of heaven on this earth is not going to be about outward glory. It's not gonna be about outward conquests or outward, um, accoutrements or accolades.
Um, it certainly should be visible, right? Christ also says that, uh, the kingdom of heaven is like a city on a hill, and we'll get to that when we get to that, or we'll talk about that at some point. But it's not as though this parable is saying The kingdom of heaven should be invisible. But it's not, um, it's not going to be the dominant outward force in the world, just as the wheat in the first parable we talk, or in the second parable we talked about is not gonna be outwardly, uh, visible and apparent.
Um, but it's still present in the world and it's still. Part of the reason that the master retains the field instead of just burning it over. If, um, if we saw that an entire loaf was ruined, we'd throw it away. But because the leaven is present in the loaf or it's present in the three measures, it, it permeates that.
And the second thing that I think that we should think about, uh, and this will be where I close here, is the kingdom of heaven is, um, is not an, an inert force in the world. Even though it's not going to be outwardly dominant, dominant, it's not going to be the primary, uh, visible institution in the world.
Um, it, it certainly has been at points if, if you equate the. The visible church with the Kingdom of Heaven, which our tradition certainly does to a certain extent, but regardless of how present or hidden it, it visually appears and how apparent it is, it still is leavening the whole loaf. So when we read passages like God so loved the world, we don't have to do exegetical gymnastics to try to say, well, God so loved part of the world, or the world only means the elect.
We can say without, you know, crossing our fingers or talking outta both sides of our mouth, that God loved the world, the whole world, but part of the reason he loved the whole world is because. One, he created it. But his love for the world in that passage and his sending of the sun is a particular love for the whole world.
On the account of all of those who would believe so the, the, the parable here, just like the parable of the weeds. Or maybe as an extension of the parable of the wheat and the tears is teaching us that Christians, particularly the sons of the Kingdom, to use the language from the, the parable of the wheat, the sons of the Kingdom of God are hidden among the world.
And just as we are commanded to be salt and light earlier in the gospel, here we are to leaven the whole world. So as we go into our workday, honestly, I'm sitting in my office at work recording this episode right now 'cause it's the most quiet place I can get. Um. As we go into our workday, as we interact with our family, whether that's our immediate family, our wives or children, our parents, or it's our extended family, some of whom may not even know Christ as we interact with our, our fellow Christians in the church or on online.
As we interact with unbelievers online, we are to be like leaven that is hidden in the flower and our presence in the flower. Our presence in the world actually leavens the whole world if it were not for God's intent and desire to save a remnant from fallen humanity. It was not for the covenant of redemption in which the father, son and the spirit, uh, pacted together to redeem a people for their very own.
If it were not for that, God would've had no reason, would have no reason not to just destroy the whole thing and start over. But because he has seen fit to redeem. Out of the fallen hole, a portion he is leavening the hole with that portion. So I'm obviously not arguing for some kind of universal salvation, but the the common grace that the fact that the rain falls on the just and the unjust or the fact that we all have air to breathe and there's food to eat and that.
Uh, evil is restrained, uh, to a certain extent and, and that, um, the good things in life are preserved and that even, even the unbelievers can experience good and pleasurable things like marriage and good food and drink and, and other, um, common grace pleasures that God has provided. All of that is on account of, and because of his desire to redeem the whole, to have a kingdom of God on Earth.
So I'm gonna leave you there and it'll be an interesting, fun experiment once these, uh, two dueling episodes come out to, to compare notes and to see how close Jesse and I. Are in interpreting these and where we overlap and where we may even disagree. And we will come back next week and see, uh, where we go when we start to discuss the two together.
So thank you for bearing with us with this sort of interesting, unorthodox experiment. I hope that you've enjoyed this, and until next time, honor everyone. Love that brotherhood.
Welcome back to episode 467 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Tony and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brothers and sisters, if you are joining us for this second part of, uh, episode 467, any of you have not listened to Jesse's contribution, then you are like me. I also have not listened to Jesse's contribution yet, but, uh, you should go back and listen because, uh, we're doing a fun little experiment this week, Jesse and I.
Our schedules didn't quite line up, so we thought we would do something interesting. Uh, we've been working through the parables of Christ, which has been an absolute joy, and we come to these two sort of little micro parables that, um, commentators and editors often clump together. And Justin and I thought it would be a fun experiment for us each two separately talk about, uh, one of the parables.
Uh, and then next week, uh, we're gonna come back together and we will probably talk through all of it after we've had some chances to, uh, process and marinate in it a little bit. We thought it'd be fun to see kind of how the two episodes gel together or don't gel together, uh, when uh, we have not talked about it and did not record together.
So I'm gonna go ahead and kick off. I don't know if Jesse did affirmations or denials. I don't know what Jesse did. I, all I know is he recorded an episode and I'm sure that it's amazing. Uh, but I'm just gonna go ahead and kick off right into the, uh, the. Uh, reading here. So we're looking at Matthew chapter 13.
Uh, we've spent our entire time in this series so far in Matthew chapter 13, and I'm gonna pick it up at verse 33. It reads here, he told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all leavened. Now this is a short parable.
Uh, it's, it's pretty straightforward. And this episode will be a little bit shorter. I don't know how long Jesse went. I mean, I, I guess I kind of have an idea 'cause I edited the, uh, episode, but I dunno how long you went. So I'm gonna keep this short and sweet and we're gonna talk more about all of this next week.
So I just wanna share a few observations with you first. I think it's important for us to sort of recognize that. Matthew as the inspired, uh, writer of this, uh, gospel and in some ways, uh, as an inspired compiler and editor of Christ's public Ministry. Right. He's writing the gospel, but he's also a witness to the events.
He is probably, um, ordering things in particular ways to make a theological point. Christ probably also taught this same message multiple times in multiple venues, so there's nothing shady or a historical going on. Um, but Matthew is. Putting together these, uh, counts and particularly these parables, which probably were all given at the same time.
Um, Christ probably deliver them all at the same time as well. And there's some good reasons in the text to think that. But these parables all fall within the context of each other. So when we talked about the parable of, uh, the soils, um, or the parable of the sower, we, we recognize, um, that the kingdom of heaven is not as obvious as we would think, right?
The sower sows the seed, um, he sows it promiscuously a across various different kinds of soils, fully knowing that some of it will not be receptive. And then of course, we saw the outcome. And then when we looked at the parable of the weed, weed, uh, wheat and the tears, uh, we see that, you know, the, the good sower recognizes that the wheat and the weed will grow up next to each other, and that at the end of all things, he will separate those things and will, you know, destroy the wicked and will reward the righteous.
And an interesting feature of this chapter is that Christ often tells a parable, and then there's either some commentary, or in this case today, there's actually additional parables in sort of inserted, and then Christ gives the, uh, interpretation of the parable. So the, the parable of the mustard seed immediately follows in the parable of the 11, kind of considering those together.
Immediately follows the parable of, uh, the explanation, or no, sorry, the parable of, um, the weed and the weeds. And so he gives us this parable right in the middle there. Then he gives us a little explanation and a second, you know, explanation of why he speaks in parables. And then he goes on to interpret and.
There's a, a technique that was often used in ancient text, in ancient documents called an iuso, where they would start an account. Uh, they would start sort of a literary segment with, um, a phrase or a concept. Then they would explain, you know, they would give all their explanation and then they would close that same section with a similar theme or a similar, um, kind of, um, concept.
We see this in Luke, right? We see at the beginning of Luke. There's a statement that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. Then we see the, um, the account of Jesus in the temple. And then we see again at the end of that, it says again, he grew in wisdom and stature. And so Luke, there is telling us that we should read that whole section, that whole area as a, a single unit.
And the theme of that unit is Jesus growing in, um, wisdom and stature. A similar thing is happening here. So we have the, the parable of the sower. We have some commentary, then we have the interpretation of the parable of sower. Then we have the parable of the wheat and the tears, and then we have this in the middle, the parable of the weed of the, um, mustard seed and the lemon.
And then we have the explanation or the interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tears. So we should see this parable as part of that literary unit. That's, that's what Matthew is doing here. So we have to interpret it in light of that. And so what do we see in the first, uh, parable that we talked about?
Well, we see that the kingdom of heaven is, uh, is sort of hidden within the world. We see that God sows or the, the good sower sows his seed. The master of the household sows his good seed into the world. The field is the world and it starts to grow, and then the enemy comes and he sows his seed into the world, and that starts to grow.
And until the end of things, um, the good weeds, the good wheat is sort of hidden among the weeds just as the weed is hidden among the good wheat, the, the parable of the mustard seed, um, Jesse, I'm sure explain. We'll find out. Um, explain that the, the mustard seed is small. And so when it's planted into the garden, it becomes kind of hidden and it's an unexpected, um, influence on the, the rest of the garden.
Not only does it grow, but it becomes, uh, it becomes a central feature of the garden. Uh, it gives shade to things. It, you know, birds come and live in it. Um. It becomes a central feature in an unexpected way. And the Parable of 11 is, in my opinion, is really just a restatement in some ways of the parable of, uh, the wheat and the tears.
It says the kingdom of heaven is like 11 that the woman took and hid. In three measures of flour till it was all lemon. So Jesse could tell you more about baking bread than I could. Uh, he, he probably would've been better to give you this parable and, and if we did any sort of planning at all, we would've thought about that, but.
Lemon is often, um, the same color as flour. Um, it's a different texture as flour, but it takes just a very small amount of it in a large portion of flour or bread dough or whatever you're putting into to then permeate and affect the whole thing. So you might have, you might have a pound of flour. Um, or in this case, three measures of flour, which I, I don't know off the top of my head how much that is.
Um, my logos Bible software is, is not helping me all that much here. But you may have a, a large quantity of flour, say a pound of flour, you might put just a few, um, a few grams into that flour, and once you've mixed it all up. Even though that lemon, uh, that lemon is, is at a much lower ratio than the flour, it still affects the entire, the entire outcome and the entire loaf of that, uh, bread that you're making.
So, in one sense, what Christ is saying is that the kingdom of heaven, uh, it's it's small. It's, it's unassuming. It is hidden in this broader bunch, just like the wheat is in the good field. Um, it's hidden in the good field in that when you first, you first sow it, you don't see it. And as it starts to grow alongside the weeds, it's hidden among the weeds just as the weeds are hidden among the weeds because you can't tell the difference.
In this case, the lemon is, is hidden among the measures of flower, and that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. And so we should look at this parable and think about how the kingdom of heaven on this earth is not going to be about outward glory. It's not gonna be about outward conquests or outward, um, accoutrements or accolades.
Um, it certainly should be visible, right? Christ also says that, uh, the kingdom of heaven is like a city on a hill, and we'll get to that when we get to that, or we'll talk about that at some point. But it's not as though this parable is saying The kingdom of heaven should be invisible. But it's not, um, it's not going to be the dominant outward force in the world, just as the wheat in the first parable we talk, or in the second parable we talked about is not gonna be outwardly, uh, visible and apparent.
Um, but it's still present in the world and it's still. Part of the reason that the master retains the field instead of just burning it over. If, um, if we saw that an entire loaf was ruined, we'd throw it away. But because the leaven is present in the loaf or it's present in the three measures, it, it permeates that.
And the second thing that I think that we should think about, uh, and this will be where I close here, is the kingdom of heaven is, um, is not an, an inert force in the world. Even though it's not going to be outwardly dominant, dominant, it's not going to be the primary, uh, visible institution in the world.
Um, it, it certainly has been at points if, if you equate the. The visible church with the Kingdom of Heaven, which our tradition certainly does to a certain extent, but regardless of how present or hidden it, it visually appears and how apparent it is, it still is leavening the whole loaf. So when we read passages like God so loved the world, we don't have to do exegetical gymnastics to try to say, well, God so loved part of the world, or the world only means the elect.
We can say without, you know, crossing our fingers or talking outta both sides of our mouth, that God loved the world, the whole world, but part of the reason he loved the whole world is because. One, he created it. But his love for the world in that passage and his sending of the sun is a particular love for the whole world.
On the account of all of those who would believe so the, the, the parable here, just like the parable of the weeds. Or maybe as an extension of the parable of the wheat and the tears is teaching us that Christians, particularly the sons of the Kingdom, to use the language from the, the parable of the wheat, the sons of the Kingdom of God are hidden among the world.
And just as we are commanded to be salt and light earlier in the gospel, here we are to leaven the whole world. So as we go into our workday, honestly, I'm sitting in my office at work recording this episode right now 'cause it's the most quiet place I can get. Um. As we go into our workday, as we interact with our family, whether that's our immediate family, our wives or children, our parents, or it's our extended family, some of whom may not even know Christ as we interact with our, our fellow Christians in the church or on online.
As we interact with unbelievers online, we are to be like leaven that is hidden in the flower and our presence in the flower. Our presence in the world actually leavens the whole world if it were not for God's intent and desire to save a remnant from fallen humanity. It was not for the covenant of redemption in which the father, son and the spirit, uh, pacted together to redeem a people for their very own.
If it were not for that, God would've had no reason, would have no reason not to just destroy the whole thing and start over. But because he has seen fit to redeem. Out of the fallen hole, a portion he is leavening the hole with that portion. So I'm obviously not arguing for some kind of universal salvation, but the the common grace that the fact that the rain falls on the just and the unjust or the fact that we all have air to breathe and there's food to eat and that.
Uh, evil is restrained, uh, to a certain extent and, and that, um, the good things in life are preserved and that even, even the unbelievers can experience good and pleasurable things like marriage and good food and drink and, and other, um, common grace pleasures that God has provided. All of that is on account of, and because of his desire to redeem the whole, to have a kingdom of God on Earth.
So I'm gonna leave you there and it'll be an interesting, fun experiment once these, uh, two dueling episodes come out to, to compare notes and to see how close Jesse and I. Are in interpreting these and where we overlap and where we may even disagree. And we will come back next week and see, uh, where we go when we start to discuss the two together.
So thank you for bearing with us with this sort of interesting, unorthodox experiment. I hope that you've enjoyed this, and until next time, honor everyone. Love that brotherhood.
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In this episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse Schwamb explores Jesus' parable of the mustard seed from Matthew 13. The seemingly insignificant mustard seed grows into a mighty tree, providing a profound metaphor for God's kingdom—beginning in humble, ordinary ways yet expanding to glorious fulfillment. Jesse unpacks how this parable challenges our expectations of power and glory, revealing that God intentionally works through what appears small and insignificant to manifest His mighty power. This episode offers a meditation on God's kingdom, which operates contrary to human expectations, growing unstoppably between Christ's first and second comings despite opposition, and ultimately providing shelter for all nations.
The parable of the mustard seed demonstrates what Jesse refers to as "the theology of the cross" versus "the theology of glory." God consistently chooses to work through what appears weak, small, and insignificant rather than through impressive displays of worldly power. As Jesse explains, "The theology of Cross is always looking to these normal, ordinary insignificant things. It's God's stacking the deck against himself to show his great power that he works not... in the circumstance of what people perceive to be great and powerful, but the exact opposite." This approach reveals God's sovereignty—He needs no human advantage, political power, or military might to accomplish His purposes. The kingdom that began with Jesus' seemingly humble first advent will culminate in His glorious return, showing that God's power is made perfect in weakness.
One of the most encouraging aspects of this parable is how it portrays the inevitability of the kingdom's growth. Just as a mustard seed inevitably grows into a tree according to its nature, God's kingdom advances despite opposition. Jesse notes how throughout history, attempts to destroy Christianity have always failed: "History is replete with those... who have tried in their own way to silence God, to destroy the scriptures or to somehow eradicate Christianity. And of course, history will be filled up with all of their failures." Even the martyrdom of Stephen in the early church, which seemed like a defeat, actually caused the gospel to spread beyond Jerusalem as believers were scattered. This illustrates Jesus' promise that "the gates of hell will not prevail against his church" (Matthew 16:18). The kingdom continues to grow by God's power until its final consummation when Christ returns.
"The humble inauguration was not a mistake. This is planned by God and it is for his great purpose. It shows His great power, his love for his people, and the ordinary way in which he brings about all of these things." - Jesse Schwamb
"This unassuming seed, which God plants, continues to grow by his power, his volition, his sustenance, until it takes over all things." - Jesse Schwamb
"The one who took on flesh and was born in a humble state will return in splendor and judgment to consummate this kingdom." - Jesse Schwamb
the theology of Cross is always looking to these. Normal, ordinary insignificant things. It's, God's stacking the deck against himself to show his great power that he works not with great po, not in the circumstance of what people perceive us to be. Great and powerful, but the exact opposite.
Welcome to episode 467 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse, and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brothers and sisters. Well, we're back at it again.
On this episode, we're talking about seeds and leave. In what other ways would Jesus describe the kingdom of God? And we're gonna get to all of that, but in a slightly different format.
Something special for everybody on this episode. It may have noticed that. Right at the top. Tony is missing, but fear not. He's still here. We're doing something different on this episode and that is we're gonna speak about the kingdom of God as Jesus describes it in parable form with the mustard seed and the leave.
And so what we decided to do is I'm gonna give a quick little primer, my thoughts, my observations. On the mustard soup parable, and then Tony will be right behind me to talk about the leaven. And then in the next episode, we're coming together and we're gonna see how all of our different explanations kind of come, came together and coalesced around single themes.
So this is a fun little game where you're gonna hear from. You're gonna hear from Tony, and we're gonna see how all of this comes together in the end, because neither of us is having the conversation in real time, but I'm sure that we're gonna have a lot of the similar things to say and it'll be a fun little game of seeing how all of this comes together.
So if you wanna play along. And you definitely should come hang out with us in Matthew chapter 13.
So we've gone through a couple parables already and the beauty of looking at these parables, of course, one of the many beauties, I guess I should say, is that we're getting some direct teaching from Jesus, which is always great, and we're getting it directly about the Kingdom of God.
The God perspective on salvation. Clear, concise, in parable form. And so we found ourselves looking at fields, looking at planting, looking at weeds, looking at tears, looking at wheats. And now after all of that, we're coming back. To in some ways, at least for me, a familiar form. And that is we're back to seeds again.
And this time it's a particular type of seed. It's the mustard seed, and Tony's gonna handle something new, a total change in direction, a totally different comparison. He's gonna get into lemon and bread making and all that kinda good stuff. But in either case, what we're finding is Jesus is specifically coming to us once again.
With these finely tuned stories to help explain to us the kingdom of God. And of course, like this is clear because in all of Jesus' teaching, the kingdom of God holds this like high and lifted up this prominent position. It gets hegemony in all the other topics. And as he goes about his earthly ministry, wherever gospel you look, you're gonna find that he's proclaiming his coming to earth and that this coming meant that the kingdom of God was at hand.
Now, I can only imagine, and you ought to as well, that if you were in that time, if you were listening to Jesus. What an incredible thing that would be that you're trying to understand and really discern what the he means about this kingdom of God. And perhaps like you, I would have my own perceptions of what that was, and if he's inaugurating it, I'm waiting for that thing to happen.
And a kingdom is a powerful representation of ownership. Power in hierarchy in a place that's clearly manifested. And so as Jesus is in the midst of all these hears, these disciples that are gathering around the throngs of people that are trying to understand what he has to say. If he's coming and saying, I am here to inaugurate the kingdom of God, then my first question would be.
Where is it? Tell us what it's gonna look like. Show me what you mean when you say that the kingdom of God is here, that you're ushering it in. And so how strange and unusual then for Jesus to say something like the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, or the kingdom of God is like lemon in bread. So it seems altogether fitting that Jesus would want to and would have to explain what exactly he means.
It's a little bit though mysterious that he uses these elements. To bring about that kind of explanation. I find that endlessly fascinating.
Speaking of which, I think one of the reasons why Tony and I are discovering that we're loving these parables so much is that it forces us to do something that sometimes is Modern Christians we're honestly just not that good at it, not skilled and often not practiced because our lives are filled with many things.
And we prefer not to do this, and that is to actually meditate on what he's saying, to actually like turn it over in our minds to think about it. Like personally, practically, seriously, and earnestly to understand how the truth of God's words should look in life. And it just dawned on me this week that really the parable forces us into that rubric, whether we want to or not, because the whole purpose is to take what he's saying and to dwell on it to such degree that we receive something of the promises that are therein.
By chewing on them. And it's just too easy to read the scriptures, of course, and to take with you as you pass by those words, something of a little bit of the knowledge that's contained within something about the phraseology or about the facts of it. But really what God's after here is this idea that we would spend time meditating on the words of Jesus, so that we might truly understand what he means by the kingdom of God.
And then we might take that kingdom into our own realm, as it were, into our own sphere of influence to manifest it. And to worship him through it and to be obedient in it. Be not because of works on the righteousness, of course, but because we already have been saved by a great savior for this kingdom.
And now we know something about what it's actually like by way of these beautiful metaphors. And of course, like the metaphors, even if they're straightforward. As we're about to find in this one, still force us into them to really say, well, what? What does it mean? We're gonna talk about seeds and mustard plants, and where else we find trees in the scriptures.
Without meditation, we lose so much of this without meditation. Truths are maybe devoured, but they're never digested. I like what the great Puritan Watson wrote. He said, it's better to meditate on one sermon than to hear. Five sermons. Many complain that they do not profit from sermons. This may be the chief reason, because they do not chew the cud.
They do not meditate on what they have heard. And I think one of the great goals that Tony have in this series is that even as we're thinking about this before we have conversation with each other and present it all to you, that we really wanna spend time truly meditating on it, thinking practically, deeply for a long period of time.
On what is being said here, what Jesus means by it, that it is for us, that it is a gift that he gives to us. And so I really totally resonate with what Watson is saying here, that when a Christian enters into meditation through the scriptures, that they receive healing, they receive power from God, that receive insights and wisdom, that receive his comforts, that receive his direction for life, and that all of that is, or most of that.
Rather is lost if we move too quickly by it. We tend to gather a lot of knowledge, but maybe not a lot of the wisdom that's contained in there. So even if this sounds simple, this little parable that's before us, it's just a couple of verses. Loved ones that there is so much in it for us to understand and to chew on.
I don't think we can expect to get all the understanding in one go and that's okay. We keep coming back to it. Certainly. I'm not gonna cover it all here. This is definitely not going to be, though. You might expect it, the definitive episode. On the parable of the mustard seed in the lemon. It can't be really, and that's because there's just so much for us to understand here and to receive from God.
So that is the longest intro ever. So let me cut it there and let's just go right to the scripture, which of course is the best part of this podcast. Always. So this is Matthew chapter 13, beginning in verse 31, just a couple of verses. Jesus put another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed than a man took and sowed in his field.
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree. So that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Lovely. Right. It's wild because it's such quick language there. It's so brief and already I wanted to go further, but I would be into Tony's verses, which he's gonna hit with us in just a second for.
But it's really compact statement of just a couple of things. One, can we just agree that I love the way that this particular little passage begins? It just starts by saying, Jesus put another parable before them. What beautiful language that he's really throwing before his disciples placing for them to evaluate again, to meditate on these beautiful words of his that express what the kingdom of heaven is like.
It's of course, well within God's purview. To not have given us any kind of direct revelation here, or direct expression or even metaphorical or comparative expression of his kingdom. How kind that he does this. And then I think there is something for us to study in this, again, to chew the cut, as Watson would say, on what it means for us to think about heaven as this grain of mustard seed and that a man took it.
And he sewed it in his field. It's very small, yet it grew larger than all of the other garden plants that would probably be in that field. It became a tree, and then as a result of that, the birds of the air come and make its nest in its branches. So you can see that there's all this interesting, logical pro progression throughout this passage.
And we're talking about really just two verses, really, just that many sentences. It's really exceptional thing, you know.
I find it interesting that this illustration progresses this idea of the kingdom of God between its inauguration and consummation. There's something built in there, and like I said, I think it's realistic to assume that so many who are hearing these words we're really, truly trying to understand.
Where was this kingdom, Jesus, that you're bringing in as the Son of David, show us this kingdom and its power and my own expectation. I still don't mean to put this on. Those who would've been there would've been that this kingdom would've come in power. I was waiting for it to be manifested with this sense that it would be very clear that Jesus was in.
That all things, all realities both here and now in spiritual principalities will be clearly under his foot. We were looking for, we want to see the serpent crusher, the head crusher the better. David, the one that comes inlays Goliath Finally. Where is that pump and where is that power? And interestingly, Jesus says, no, actually, it's more like a mustard seed.
And of course, I mean, you don't need to know much about seeds, but if you haven't looked up a mustard seed at this point, you definitely should because it's very tiny. That's obviously implied from the text, but it is very tiny, like crazy tiny, like almost so tiny that when I look at a mustard seed, whether you're like, you're looking at your.
From your like spice rack or you go and Google one, it almost seems inconceivable that any size plant could come forth from that very, very tiny seed. It's so mundane and insignificant that the idea that Jesus would say, this is what this glorious kingdom of God is like, is almost mind boggling. Like even now it's mind boggling.
And if it's not, it's because you have not looked at a mustard seed. Go check that bad boy out. It's so small. And so of course like Mustard would've been a common agricultural product that grew quite prolifically in that particular area. You know, the variety of mustard seed growth in PA in Palestine is probably similar, I imagine to like maybe most of like the northern hemisphere.
There's various. Kind of varieties, of course of mustard seed. What I've learned since trying to chew on this text, and they grow in very all kinds of varieties, but this idea that this small seed can become something that you put in your garden, that grows to such a great extent that it dwarfs all of the other things.
And of course it starts. In the most, I don't wanna say humble, that's like, that's almost too much. The most insignificant way is incredible. So the fact that, again, we have, I think in this something that Tony and I have come back to quite often, and that is the difference between the theology of glory and the theology of the cross.
That the theology of Cross is always looking to these. Normal, ordinary means these insignificant things. It's, as we've said before, God's stacking the deck constantly against himself to show his great power that he works not with great po, not in the circumstance of what people perceive us to be. Great and powerful, but the exact opposite.
And I think not just as the Bible communicates, not just to display his mighty power, but also to shore forth his great glory that he needs no other thing. And because he needs no other thing, he doesn't need things to go right for him. He doesn't need the right political leaders to be involved. He does not need armies.
He does not need kingdoms. He inaugurates his own. And his own is so great and so powerful that it became, it can begin in the most insignificant way because the power is not itself in the planting of that thing, but in the thing that makes it grow. And so here we have this clean and clear delineation when it comes to trees that God, again, is doing the planting and this tree is gonna grow to such a great extent that dwarfs all the others besides it.
And that not just that, it becomes a resting place. It becomes a living place, a place that provides shelter. And so. It's, that is a common theme that we find, like throughout all of the scriptures. In fact, I, I often think like God has a thing for, for a couple of different items. One is tense. God loves tense, loves sojourning jam.
Then the third would be trees. I mean, look throughout the scripture and see where God is either using trees directly or using, this becomes like a grand metaphor explanation for so many of other great spiritual and theological principles. That's whether we go back all the way to the beginning in the guided and we see the tree of good evil, tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Tree of Life rather. In addition to that, then we have all these other references, especially in the Old Testament, but I mean, whether it's Abraham and he's souring and he's, we're getting way points by way of trees, for instance, or whether we are in the New Testament and we're talking about fig trees.
There are all these references to trees. They're embedded and impounded in the lifeblood of God's work and the story that he's telling, the grand narrative of salvation of his people.
And nowhere is this, I'd say more true than in places in the Old Testament, especially when we're speaking about like the book of Daniel Daniel, chapter four.
So for instance, if you go back there, you're gonna find that this description here in some ways. Has it. I think parallel is probably not strong enough a word. There's like this direct connection between what God talks about and through the power of the Holy Spirit in the book of Daniel and what he Jesus' son is saying here.
And in that book we see the descriptions harkening back to King Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon. He had a dream about a tree that had grown so large that the birds of the air rested in it. However, that tree was chopped down an instant. And Daniel's interpretation revealed that all the kingdoms a man will collapse, even this mighty nebuchadnezzar's kingdom.
But God's kingdom that Jesus draws a parallel here to here is different. Although the inauguration of his kingdom was unimpressive, it's going to grow until it reaches final glorious form, until the birds of the heavens common nest and its branches, which by the way, is basically exactly out of Ezekiel 36, 31, chapter six.
All the birds of the heavens made their nest in its bows under its branches. All the beasts of the field gave birth to the young and under its shadow, lived all the great nations. So lest is hearers miss this message here. You know, Jesus is saying very clearly, listen, there is growth of God's kingdom.
Between his first and second advents and in them, Jesus showing the manner in which he's ushering in this kingdom of God and need not sow any doubts concerning the power and legitimacy of his Messianic office and of this kingdom that he's bringing in. The humble inauguration was not a mistake. You know, this is planned by God and it is for his great purpose.
It shows. His great power, his love for his people, and the ordinary way in which he brings about all of these things. And we can see this in fact, some. One of the great blessings is that we sit in this place where we can interrogate, examine, have these parables read us, and we see that since Jesus uttered these parables, the mustard seed has in fact taken root and blossomed, you know?
Those who oppose Jesus and his followers after his ascension tried to squelch this infant church to chop down this tree. I love, you've heard me say before, loved ones. I love this description of job that we get from the scriptures, that even in our, let's say, the most miserable times, even when it seems like all hope has been cut off from us.
Even if it seems though it's never the case, even if it seems that we've been forgotten or forsaken, the scripture tells us of job. There's hope for job, like a cut down tree. There again, we have a tree and this, this idea that even though it was removed, it, new life springs forth from it again. New unassuming life, the kind of life that can only come from the creator, the one who restores all things, redeems, all things, loves his children, and for whom.
We find the exact truth manifested in from Romans 8 28, that for those who love God and are called according to his purpose, all things, all things, all things work for good. And so this infant church, while in its time it was trying to be. There was so many attempts to crush it, to destroy it, that it went far beyond Jerusalem.
All the attempts to do this were exactly futile. In fact, the more that God's enemies came both in the present day and in the previous day, the more they come where their AEs and try to chop at this tree, the more the tree grows. You know, a really wild example of this in the first century is the martyrdom of of Stephen, which I think is illustrative to this end because it precipitated a dispersion that carried the gospel beyond Jerusalem, into Judea, into Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, literally.
That's Acts eight. You know, the history of the church is truly the fulfillment of Jesus' promise right here in this text that not even the gates of hell would prevail against his church. That's from Matthew 1618, and I know I've said before, but man, does it bear repeating. That gates don't attack anybody.
Gates don't go out to battle. It's so for the Christian here, for what Jesus is saying, it's not that we have to worry that the gates of hell are coming after us, but that the normative position of the church is to grow in such a powerful and unassuming and mysterious way that even these gates, which will try to defend against the light, will not overcome it.
And so because of that, we find that. It now houses the birds of heaven, that it feeds the nations that is lifeblood and it provides fruit for all who are there? The kingdom that Jesus inaugurated awaits his return for its full and final consummation. And so in the interim, we walk by faith and not by sight.
We're citizens of that kingdom and we know it cannot be shaken. We know it's growing. You know, this is one of the things that I find incredible. I think you could have chosen. Any number of course of metaphors to explain what God's kingdom is like, and sometimes we choose our own and that's fun. We're trying to explain it in a particular way or maybe to express some kind of nuance of that kingdom.
But my bet is that we would not use the words that Jesus has given us here if it were left to us to try to explain it without any kind of great insight. And again, the reason why is because this is too humble. It's too unassuming. It doesn't seem like it contains within enough power, but that's because we have in this, again, this super intending will of God that he's so great, so majestic, that his thoughts are so incredibly deep that even what we have to do here is let our consciousness and reason bow down to who God is and to what he says his kingdom is like, because he always.
Brings it forth in every generation. He always brings it forth and it cannot be stopped. And of course, history is replete with those both individual leaders and cultures, movements and political heroes who have tried in their own way to silence God, to destroy the scriptures or to somehow eradicate Christianity.
And of course, history will be filled up with all of their failures because this unassuming seed, which God plants. Continues to grow by his power, his volition, his sustenance, until it takes over all things. And in that final consummation, it absolutely will loved ones. And so we find, I think so much encouragement in that when Christ returns to consummate the kingdom of God, no one will be able to deny its glory then.
And while many of us now where we look for that glory, we obtain that glory by faith and not by sight. And in the same way here that Jesus challenges us to say, look, this is how it works. And wow, do I wanna speak so much about the 11, but I've gotta save that for Tony. You know, the one who took on flesh and was born in a humble state will return in splendor and judgment to consummate this kingdom.
And so in some ways this is a warning. That what started as this humble means of Jesus in the first advent coming speaking peace to his people that will will ultimately be bookended with this kind of final judgment that reflects his full unvarnished glory. And then finally. Finally the dwelling place of God will be with man.
And in that way, the birds of heaven will nest in this tree, in this lovely coming together of a new heaven and a new earth of God with his people and us finally having that beautific vision of Jesus. So there's so much here. I think that's. We can spend a little bit of time chewing on, even if we just mull over in our mind, what does it mean again?
That this kingdom of heaven is like, like a grain of a mustard seed, that it gets sewn. That's the small must of seeds, but that when it's grown, it's larger than all the garden plants, and then it becomes a tree. And because it is a tree and is this great and glorious tree, all the birds of the air come and make its nests and its branches.
What are the birds? What are the, what are the nests? What are these branches? And of course, I think. There's so much there for all of us to really consider as we continue to ponder what it means for us to really follow the Lord Jesus Christ closely. So that is your little quick. Conversation about the mustard seed and the leaven.
Now, before I turn everybody over to Tony, I wanna remind you that you all probably have thoughts on this, and as you meditate on it, you'll certainly have thoughts on it. And the best place to come and hang out and share some of those thoughts is by joining our Telegram Chat Telegram. It's just a messaging app and we have a little.
A little closed off corner of that world for you to come and hang out and meet and interact with other lovely brothers and sisters who are hanging out, listening to the podcast and hopefully doing a little meditating of their own. So the way that you find that, it's super easy. If you don't know by now, then you gotta know.
You just go to T or t, me slash reform Brotherhood t me slash reform brotherhood, and that will take you a link to there. So loved ones. Go think about this Kingdom of heaven. It's like the grain of a mustard seed, but you know what else? It's also like the in bread. And for that, I'm gonna turn you over to.
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In this profound episode of the Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb delve deeply into the Parable of the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30), exploring its implications for Christian assurance. Building on their previous discussion, they examine how this parable speaks to the mixed nature of the visible church, the sovereignty of Christ over His kingdom, and most significantly, the doctrine of assurance. Through careful theological reflection, the hosts unpack how true believers can find solid ground for assurance not in their own works or fruit-checking, but in the promises of Christ and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. This episode offers both encouragement for those struggling with doubts and a sobering challenge to those resting in false assurance.
The Reformed tradition has always emphasized that believers can and should have assurance of their salvation—a conviction recovered during the Reformation in contrast to Rome's teaching. As Tony noted when reading from the Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 18), this assurance is "not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation." This assurance rests on three pillars: the promises of God in Scripture, the inward evidence of grace, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing with our spirit.
What makes this understanding particularly comforting is that it shifts the foundation of assurance away from our performance to God's faithfulness. While self-examination has its place, the Reformed understanding recognizes that looking too intensely at our own hearts and works can lead either to despair or to false confidence. Instead, we're directed to look primarily to Christ and His finished work, finding in Him the anchor for our souls.
One of the most sobering aspects of the Parable of the Tares is its implicit warning about false assurance. Just as the tares resemble wheat until maturity reveals their true nature, many professing Christians may outwardly appear to belong to Christ while inwardly remaining unregenerate. As Jesse observed, "The tares typically live under false assurance. They may attend church, confess belief, appear righteous, yet their hearts are unregenerate. Their faith is maybe historical, it's not saving, it could be intellectual, but it's not spiritual."
This echoes Jesus' warning in Matthew 7 that many will say to Him, "Lord, Lord," but will hear the devastating response, "I never knew you." The parable teaches us that this self-deception is not always conscious hypocrisy but often the result of spiritual blindness. As Jesse noted, referencing Romans 1, Ephesians 4, and 1 Corinthians 2, the unregenerate are "not merely ignorant, they're blinded... to the spiritual truth by nature and by Satan." This understanding should prompt humble self-examination while simultaneously driving us to depend not on our own discernment but on Christ's perfect knowledge and saving work.
"Assurance is the believer's arc where he sits Noah alike quiets and still in the midst of all distractions and destructions, commotions and confusions." - Thomas Brooks, quoted by Jesse Schwamb
"When we are confessing, repenting, seeking like our status in Christ because of Christ, then we have confidence that we are in fact part of the children of God. When everything is stripped away from us and all we're crying out is only and completely and solely and unequivocally Jesus Christ, then I think we have great reason to understand that we should be confident in our assurance." - Jesse Schwamb
"The sacrifice and the service that a husband performs for his wife, whom he loves and trusts and is committed to and knows that she's faithful and committed to him, that is not causing that faithfulness. It's not causing that trust and that love. It is the outcome and the outflow of it." - Tony Arsenal on how good works flow from assurance rather than cause it
Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 466 of the Reform the Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother.
Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. We're going back to the farm again. Can't stop. Won't stop.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I'm stoked.
Tony Arsenal: The last week's discussion was interesting and I think, um, it's gonna be nice to sort of round it out and talk about some things you might not think about, uh, when you first read this parable.
So I'm, I'm pretty excited.
Jesse Schwamb: Oh, what a tease that is. So if you're wondering what Tony's talking about, we're hanging out. In Matthew 13, we are just really enjoying these teachings of Jesus. And they are shocking and they're challenging, and they're encouraging, and they're awesome, of course. And so we're gonna be finishing out the Parable of the Tears and you need to go back and listen to the previous conversation.
This, this is all set up because we have some unfinished business. We didn't talk about the eschatological implications. We have this really big this, this matza ball hanging over us. So to speak, which was the, do the TAs in this parable even know that they are tarry, that they are the TAs? And so in this parable, the disciples learn that the kingdom itself, God's kingdom, the kingdom that Jesus is enumerating and explaining and bringing into being, they are learning that it's gonna be mixed in character.
So that's correcting this expectation that the kingdom would be perfectly pure and would have, would evolve righteous rule over all of the unrighteous world. And so it's a little bit shocking that Jesus says, listen, they're gonna be. Tears within the wheats that is in the world, the seed that God himself, the sun has planted and that they're gonna exist side by side for a long time.
And so we, they have to wait patiently and give ourselves to building up the wheats as the sons of the kingdom and be careful in their judgment, not to harm those who are believers. We covered a lot of that last week, but left so much unsaid we couldn't even fit it in. This is gonna be jam packed, so I'm gonna stop giving the tees instead start moving us into affirmations and denials.
Jesse Schwamb: It's of course that time in our conversation where we either affirm with something really like or we think is undervalued or we deny against something that we don't really like or is a little overvalued. So as I usually say to you, Tony, what have you got for us?
Tony Arsenal: I am affirming a YouTube channel. Um, I, I think the algorithm goes through these cycles where it wants me to learn about bugs and things because I get Okay, like videos about bugs.
And so I'm, I'm interested. There's been this, uh, channel that's been coming up on my algorithm lately called My Wild Backyard, and it, it's a guy, he's like an entomologist. He seems like a, a like a legit academic, but what he does is he basically goes through and he talks about different bugs, creepy crawlies, looks at like snakes, all that kinds of stuff.
It seems like his wheelhouse is the stuff that can kill you or hurt you pretty bad. Nice. But, um, it's interesting and it's. It's good educational content. It's, you know, it's not sensationalized, it's not, uh, it's not dramatized. Um, it's very real. There's occasionally an instance where he, he's not, sometimes he will intentionally get bit or stung by an, uh, by an animal to show you what it does.
So he can experience and explain what he's experiencing. And sometimes he just accidentally gets bit or stung. And so those are some of the most interesting ones. So like, for example, just looking at his, his channel, his most recent, um, his most recent video is called The most venomous Desert Creatures in the US ranked the one previous was.
The world's most terrifying arachni isn't a spider. And then previous to that was what happens if a giant centipede bites you? So it's interesting stuff. If you are one of those people that likes bugs and likes creepy crawlies and things, um, this is definitely the channel for you if you're not one of those people.
I actually think this probably is the channel for you too. 'cause it kind of demystifies a lot of this stuff. Um. You know, for example, he, he will commonly point out that, um, spiders don't wanna bite you and they just wanna leave you alone. And, and as long as you leave them alone, even, even something like a black widow, which people are terrified of, and I think, right, rightfully so.
I mean, they can be scary. Those can be scary bites. He'll, he'll handle those, no problem. And as long as he's not like putting downward pressure on them, uh, they have no interest in biting, they really just want to get away. So even seeing that kind of stuff, I think can help demystify and, and sort of, uh, make it a little bit easier.
So my Wild Backyard, he can find it on YouTube. Um, he's safe for kids. He's not, he's not cussing even. I mean, I think occasionally when he gets bit on accident, you might, you know, you might have a beep here or there, but, um, he's not, he's not regularly swearing or things like that. And he does a pretty good job of adding that stuff out.
Jesse Schwamb: What a great title for that, isn't it? This, yeah. Confluence of your backyard. That space that seems domesticated is also stealing its own. Right. Wild. And there's a be Yeah. Both those things coming together.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. It, it's interesting stuff and it's really good. I mean, it's really compelling videography.
He does a good job of taking good photos. You'll see insects that you usually won't see, or spiders you usually won't see. Um, so yeah, it's cool. Check it out.
Jesse Schwamb: What are you, uh, yeah, I myself would like to become more comfortable with the arachni variety. If only be, I mean, I don't know. It's, it's a weird creature, so my instinct is to be like, kill them all.
And then if I can't find them and I know they're around, then we just burn everything that we own.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: They just can't sink into the ground fast enough.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. There's something about the way they move, like their, their bodies don't move the way you would anticipate them to. Right. And it freaks, it just weirds out human sensibilities, so.
Right.
Jesse Schwamb: They're also like, I find them to be very surprising. Often. It's not kind of a, a very like, kind of measured welcome into your life. It's like you just go to get in the shower and there's a giant spider. Yeah. Oh yeah. Although I guess that spider, he's, he or she's probably like, whoa, where'd you come from?
You know, like, yeah. He's like, I was just taking a
Tony Arsenal: shower. You know what's interesting? Um, I saw another video was on a different channel, um, like common jumping spiders. Yeah. Which there are like hundreds of species of common jumping spiders.
Jesse Schwamb: True.
Tony Arsenal: Um, but spiders and jumping spiders specifically, actually you can form almost like a pet bond with, so like the, that jumping spider that like lives in your house and sees you every day.
He, he probably knows who you are and is like, comfortable with you. And they've done studies that like you can actually domesticate jumping spiders, so they're not as foreign and alien as you might think. Although they certainly do look a little bit strange and weird. And the way their bodies move is almost designed to weird out people like it just the skinness, like the way their legs skitter and move it, it just is, it's, it triggers something very primal in us to That's wild.
Be weirded out by it. Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: It's wild. I love it. That's a good, a affirmation. I'm definitely gonna check that out. I, any, anything? I really want to know what the, what like the terrifying arachni is. That's not a spider.
Tony Arsenal: It's a, well, it's called a camel spider, but it's not really a spider. Oh,
Jesse Schwamb: I know what you're talking about.
That is kind of terrifying.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. They, they actually don't have any venom. Um, yeah. Check out the video. I mean, it, it was a good video. Um, but yeah, they're freaky looking and, um, but even that, like he was handling it No problem. Yeah. Like it wasn't, it wasn't aggressive with him once Wow. Once it figured out it wasn't, he wasn't trying to hurt him and, and that it couldn't eat him.
Um, it, it just sort of like hung out until he let it go. So
Jesse Schwamb: yeah, just be careful if you watch it one before bed or while in bed.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Probably not right before bed. Yeah. You'll, you'll get the creepy crawlies all night.
Jesse Schwamb: I love it. But there's something somewhat. Like invigorating about that isn't there?
Like it's, it's kind of a natural, just like kind of holy respect for the world that God has created, that they're these features that are so different, so wild, so interesting and a little bit frightening, but in the sense that we just draw off from them because they're so different than what we are.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: And you know, again, there's places you would be happy to see them, but maybe your bathtub or like shooting out, like, you know, like where you live, the jumping spiders are legit and they will just pop out on you, you know? Yeah. You're just doing your own thing and then all of a sudden they're popping out.
I think part of that is just that what, what gets me is like them just, you know, like I remember in my basement here, once one popped out from a rafter and then I was holding, happened to be holding up broom. My instinct just naturally was to hit it. I hit it with the broom and it went across the room and fell on an empty box and sounded like a silver dollar had hit the box.
Like it was just a massive, I mean, again, like, it's like fish stories, like it's a massive spider. It was a big spider. Yeah. But you just don't expect to, to see that kind of thing. Or maybe, maybe I should, but anything that moves in that way, and again, like centipedes, man, forget it. We have those too, like in our basement.
Like the long ones. Oh
yeah. Yeah.
That thing will come like squiggling down the wall at you, like eye level and you just wanna run up the stairs screaming like a little girl.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, you do run up the stairs screaming like a little girl. It's not that you want to, it's that usually you do. I don't mean like you specifically, although probably you specifically.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's, yeah, you just react. Well, j Jesse enough freaking out. I mean, we're getting close to Halloween, so I suppose it's appropriate, but, uh, enough of that. What are you affirming or denying today?
Jesse Schwamb: Once again, without like any coordination, mine is not unlike yours. I know you and I, we talk about the world in which we live, which God has created, and this lovely command, this ammunition to take dominion over that.
And one of the things I appreciate about our conversations is I think you and I often have maybe not like a novel. Kinda perspective on that, but one that I don't hear talked about often and that is this idea of taking dominion over what it is possible to know and to appropriate, and then to apply onto wisdom.
Jesse Schwamb: And so my information is in that realm. It's another form of taking ownership of what's in the wild of knowledge that you can possess. And again, equal parts. What an amazing time to be alive. So I'm affirming with the website, Khan Academy, which I'm sure many are familiar with. And this website offers like.
Thousands of hours. Uh, and materials of free instructional videos, practice exercises, quizzes, all these like really bespoke, personalized learning modules you can create for topics like math, science, computing, economics, history, art. I think it goes like even starting at like. Elementary age all the way up into like early college can help you study for things like the SAT, the LSAT AP courses, and I was revisiting it.
I have an open account with them that I keep in love and I go back to it from time to time. And I was working on some stuff where I wanted to rehearse some knowledge in like the calculus space, do some things by hand, which I haven't done. And I was just like, I'm blown away at how good this stuff is.
And it's all for free. I mean, you should donate if you. You get something from this because it's a nonprofit, but the fact that there are these amazing instructional videos out there that can help us get a better understanding of either things we already know and we can rehearse the knowledge or to learn something brand new essentially for free.
But somebody's done all the hard work to curate a pedagogy for you. Honestly, this is incredible. So if you haven't looked at that website in a long time or maybe ever, and you might be thinking, what, what do I really wanna learn? Lemme tell you. There's a lot of interesting stuff there and it's so approachable and it's such a good website for teaching.
And if you have children in particular, even if you're looking for help, either helping them with their own coursework or maybe to have like kind of a tutor on the side, this is so good. So I can't say enough good things recently about Khan Academy 'cause it's been so helpful to me and super fun to like just sit and have your own paced study and in the private and comfort of your own home or your desk at work or wherever it is that you need to learn it.
To be able to have somebody teach you some things, to do a little practice exercises, and then to go on to the world and to apply the things you've learned. Ah, it's so good.
Tony Arsenal: Nice. Yeah, I've, I've never done anything with Khan Academy. I'll have to check it out. There's, um, there's some skills of needing to brush up on, uh, at work that I am probably not gonna be able to find in my normal channels, so I'll have to see if there is anything going on there.
Um, but yeah, that's, that's good stuff. And it's free. Love freestyle. It's, and of course, like
Jesse Schwamb: things like this are legion. So whatever it is, whatever your discipline or your field of study or work is, there's probably something out there and, uh, might, I humbly maybe encourage you to, if you use something like that and it's funded by donations, it's worth giving, I think, because again, it's just an amazing opportunity to take dominion over the knowledge that God has placed into the world and then to use it for something.
I mean, I suppose even if all it is is you just wanna learn more about, like for me, I, I find like the subjects of, of math and science, like just endlessly fascinating and like the computing section I was looking at, I, I don't know much about like programming per se, but there is such a beauty. Like these underlying principles, like the, the organization of the world and the first level principles of like physics for instance, are just like baffling in the most glorious kind of way.
How they all come together. So having somebody like teach you at a very like simplistic level, but allow you to grasp those concepts makes you just appreciate it leads me to doxology a lot when I see these things. So in a weird way, it ends up becoming maybe not a weird way and the right way. It becomes worship as often as I'm sitting at my desk and working through like a practice problem on like, you know, partial differential equation or, or derivatives is what I was working on today.
And ah, it's just so good. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one. I, it's not be super nerdy, but you, are you ever like at your desk studying something? And it might not be like theological per se, but you just have a moment where you're overcome with some kind of worship. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, um, this we're the nerdiest people on the planet, but let's
Jesse Schwamb: do it. Um,
Tony Arsenal: when I find a really fun, interesting. Uh, Excel formula and I can get it to work right. Uh, and it, and then it just like everything unlocks. Like, I feel like I've unlocked all the knowledge in the universe. Um, but yeah, I hear you like the, the Excel thing is, is interesting to me because, like, math is just the description.
Like it's just the fabric of reality is just the way we describe reality. But the fact that we can do basically just take math and do all these amazing things with it, uh, in a spreadsheet is really, uh, drives me to praise. Like I said, that's super nerdy, but it is. Oh, you're speaking my language.
Jesse Schwamb: I, we have never understood each other better than just this moment right now.
We, we had some real talk and, uh, a real moment.
Tony Arsenal: Yes. Welcome to the Reformed math cast.
Jesse Schwamb: We're so glad that you're here.
Tony Arsenal: Yes. We're not gonna do any one plus one plus one equals one kinds of heretical math in, up in here.
Jesse Schwamb: No.
Tony Arsenal: Well, Jesse, I have a feeling that, excuse me. Wow.
Jesse Schwamb: We don't edit anything out. Listen, I'm choked up too.
It's it, listen, love ones just so emotional. The moment Tony and I are having it. We're gonna try our best right now to pivot to go into this text, but it's, it's tough because we were just really having something, something special. You got, you got to see there. But thank you for trying to
Tony Arsenal: cover for me for that big cough.
Jesse Schwamb: This is like presuppositional editing. You know, we don't actually do anything in post. It's not ex anti editing. It's, it's literally presuppositional.
Jesse Schwamb: But to that end, we are in Matthew 13. This is the main course. This is the reason why we're here. There's lots of reasons to worship, and one of them is to come before and admire and love our God who has given us his specific revelation and this incredible teaching of his son.
And that's why we're hanging out in Matthew 13. So let me read, because we have just a couple of really sentences here, this really short parable and that way it'll catch us up and then we can just launch right back into we're, we're basically like, we're already in the rocket. Like we're in the stratosphere.
We're, we're taking it all the way now. So this is Matthew chapter 13. Come hang out here. It's in the 24th verse. And this is what we find written for us. This is the word of the Lord. He put another parable before them saying. The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the weeds and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also, and the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?
He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then, do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, no less than gathering the weeds, you root up the weed along with them. Let both grow until the harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but to gather the wheat into my barn.
Tony Arsenal: That's good stuff. That's good stuff. Um, you know, we, we covered most of. I don't know, what do you wanna call it? The first order reading of the parable last week.
Jesse Schwamb: Right.
Tony Arsenal: On one level, the parable, uh, as Christ explains it, uh, a little bit down further in the chapter is extremely straightforward. It's almost out, it's almost an allegory.
Each, each element of the parable has a, a, a figure that it's representing. And the main purpose of the story is that the world and specifically the church, um, is going to be a mixed body until the last days, until the end of time. And so there's, there's the Sons of God or the Sons of the Kingdom, uh, and then there's the sons of the evil one.
And we talked a lot about how. These two figures in the parable, the, the, the weeds or the tears? Um, tears is a better word because it's a specific kind of, uh, specific kind of weed that looks very much like wheat at its immature stages. Right. And you can't actually discern the difference readily, uh, until the weed and the wheat has grown up next to each other.
Um, and so, so part of the parable is that. The, the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the enemy, or the sons of the evil one, they don't look all that different in their early stages. And it's not until the sort of end culmination of their lives and the end culmination of things that they're able to be discerned and then therefore, um, the, the sons of the devil are, are reaped and they go off to their eternal judgment and the sons of the kingdom are, uh, are harvested and they go off to their eternal reward.
What we wanted to talk about, and part of the reason that we split this into two episodes. Is that we sort of found ourselves spiraling or spiraling around a question about, uh, sort of about assurance, right? And false assurance, true assurance. And there is an eschatological element to this parable that I, I think we probably should at least touch on as we we go through it.
Um, but I wanted to just read, um, it's been a little while since we've read the Westminster Confession on the show. So I wanted to read a little bit from the Westminster Confession. Um, this is from chapter 18, which is called of assurance of grace and salvation. This is sort of the answer to Jesse's question.
Do the, do the tears know their tears or, or could they possibly think that their wheat? So this is, uh, section one of chapter eight. It says, although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presuppositions or presumptions of being in favor with God in the state of salvation.
Which hope of their shall perish yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.
And so we, in the reform tradition at least, which is where we find ourselves in the reform tradition, um, we would affirm that people can. Deceive themselves into believing that they're in proper relation with God.
Jesse Schwamb: Right?
Tony Arsenal: And so it's not the case that, uh, that the weeds always know they're weeds or think they're weeds.
It's not even the case. And this was part of the parable. It's not even the case that the weeds can be easily distinguished even by themselves from, uh, from the weeds. So there is this call, uh, and this is a biblical call. There's a call to seek out assurance and to lay claim to it. That I think is, is worth talking about.
But it's not as straightforward as simple proposition as like, yeah, I'm confident. Like it's not just like, right, it's not just mustering up confidence. There's more to it than that. So that's what I wanted to start with, with this parable is just maybe talking through that assurance. 'cause I, I would hate for us to go through this parable.
And sort of leave people with maybe you're a weed and you don't know it. 'cause that's not right. That's not the biblical picture of assurance. Um, that's the, that's the Roman Catholic picture of assurance that like, yeah, there's no such thing as assurance and people might not realize, but assurance of salvation is actually one of the, one of the primary things that was recovered particularly by the Reformed in the Reformation.
Um, and so I think we, we often sort of overlook it as maybe a secondary thing. Um, but it really is a significant doctrine, a significant feature of reformed theology.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I'm glad you said that because it is a, is a clear reminder. It's a clearing call as the performers put forth that it is. Under like the purview of the Christian to be able to claim the assurance by the blood of Christ in the application of the Holy Spirit in a way that's like fully orbed and fully stopped.
So you can contrast that with, and really what was coming outta Catholicism or Rome at the time. And I was just speaking with a dear brother this past week who. Grew up in the Catholic church and he was recounting how his entire religious experience, even his entire relationship, if we can call it that in a kind of colloquial sense with God, was built around this sense of deep-seated guilt and lack of true performance, such that like assurance always seemed like this really vague concept that was never really fully manifested in anything that he did.
Even while the church was saying, if you do these things, if you perform this way, if you ensure that you're taking care of your immortal sins and that you're seeking confession for all the venial stuff as well, that somehow you'll be made right, or sufficiently right. But if not, don't worry about it.
There's always purgatory, but there'd be some earning that you'd have to accomplish there. Everywhere along the way. He just felt beaten down. So contrasting that with what we have here. I don't believe, as you're saying, Tony, that's Jesus' intention here to somehow beat up the sheep. I, I think it is, to correct something of what's being said about the world in which we live, but it's at the same time to say that there are some that are the TAs is to say there are some that are the children of God, right?
That there are some that are fully crisply, clearly identified and securely resting in that identity without any kind of nervous or anxious energy that it might fall out of that state with God that, that in fact their identity is secure. And as I've been thinking about this this week, I, I'm totally with you because I think part of this just falls, the warning here is there's a little bit of the adventures in Romans one here that's waiting for us, that I like what you said about this idea of, of self deception and maybe like a.
Subpart to this question would be, are the, are the terrors always nefarious in their lack of understanding? So we might say there's some that are purposely disruptive, that the enemy himself is, is promulgating or trying to bring forward his destruction, his chaos by way of these tears. But are, are there even a subgroup or another group, uh, co-terminus group or, you know, one in the same hierarchy where there's just a lot of self deception?
I, I think that's probably where I fall in terms of just trying to explain that. Yes, I think it was present here is a real quantity, a real identity where they're self-deceived. Imagining themselves to be part of God's people, yet lacking that true saving faith. And this just, I'm gonna go in a couple places where I think everybody would expect in the scriptures, if we go to like Ephesians four, they're darkened and they're understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.
And one Corinthians, when Paul writes, the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, and he's not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. And then the book that follows the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. And of course then like everything in Romans one, so I bring all that up because E, even at the end, we're gonna get there, the Es, this eschatological reality when you know God is separating out the sheep and the goats.
Still, we find this kind of same trope happening there. But the unregenerate, what I'm reading from this. Importantly is that the unregenerate, they're not merely ignorant, they're blinded, as we all were on point to the spiritual truth. Yeah. By nature and by Satan. That that is also his jam. He loves to blind, to lie, to kill, steal, and destroy.
So thus, even if they're outwardly belonging to the church, they're outwardly belonging to the world. They're outwardly belonging to some kind of profession. They cannot perceive the reality of their lost condition apart from divine illumination. Who can, that might be stating the obvious, but I think that's like what we're getting after here.
I I, I don't know if there's like any kind of like conspiracy here. It's simply that that is the natural state of affairs. So why wouldn't we expect that to be reflected again in the world and that side by side, we're gonna find that shoulder to shoulder. We are, there are the children of God, and there are those that remain blind and ignorant to the truth.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know, it, again, I, I, um, I don't know why I'm surprised. Uh, I certainly shouldn't be surprised. Um. But Matthew is like a masterful storyteller Yeah. Here, right. He's a masterful, um, editor and narrator. Um, and he's, he's put together here, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Um, and, and there's some good reason to think in the text we're not gonna get too, in the nitty gritty here, there's some good reason to think in the text that Christ actually delivered these parables as a set as well. So it's not just, it's not just Matthew coating these, although it could be. Um, but it, it seems like these were all delivered probably as like a common set of parables.
And the reason I say that is because when we start to look at this parable and the one we previously went through, the parable of the soils, um, or the parable of the sower. Um, what we see is the answer to your question of why do some people, you know, why are some people deceived? Well, yes, there is secondary causation.
The devil deceives them. They blind themselves. They, you know, suppress the, the, the truth and right unrighteousness. But on a, on a primary causation level, um, God is the one who is identi, is, is identifying who will be the sons of the, you know, devil and the sons of the kingdom. Mm-hmm. This is another, and yet another example of election is that the, the good sower sowed good seed, and the good seed was the elect and the enemy.
Although in God's sovereignty, God is the one who determines this. The enemy is the one who sows the reprobate. Right? So all, all men. Star, and this is, I, I guess I didn't really intend to go here, but this is good evidence in my mind for, um, infra laps, Arianism versus super laps. Arianism, right infra laps, arianism or sub lapse.
Arianism would say that God decrees, uh, to permit the fall and then he decrees to redeem some out of the fall, right? Logically speaking, not temporally speaking. Super laps. Arianism, which is the minority. It's the smaller portion of, of the historic tradition, although modern times, I think it's a little bit louder and a little bit more vocal, but super relapses.
Arianism would argue that God, um, decrees. Sort of the, the decree of election and reprobation is logically prior to the decree of the fall. And so in, in that former or in the super laps area model, the fall becomes a means by which the reprobate are justly condemned. Not, um, not the cause of their condemnation, but a way to sort of justify the fact that they will be separated from God, right?
Because of their reprobate.
Tony Arsenal: I know that there's, there's probably some super lab streams that would nuance that differently and some that are probably just screaming straw man, uh, in a coffee shop somewhere and, and people are thinking you're crazy. Um, but by and large, that's actually a rel, a relatively accepted, um, explanation of it.
There are certainly potential problems with, uh, sub, sub lapse agonism as well. But in this, in this parable, what we see is the people who are, um, who are elect, are sowed into the field and the people who are reprobate are also sowed into the field. And so God saves the people who are sewed into the field that are, they elect, he saves them out of this now mixed world by waiting and allowing them to grow up next to the reprobate, um, in sort of this mixed world setting.
And then he redeems them out of that. Um, and, and, and so we have to sort of remember. Although it is a pretty strict, sort of allegorical type of parable, it's still a parable. So we shouldn't, we shouldn't always draw like direct one-to-one comparisons here. It's making a theological point, but, um, but it's important for us to re remember that, that it is ultimately, it is God who determines who is the elected and who is not.
But it's, it's our sin. It's the devil deceiving us. It's the secondary causes that are responsible for the sons of the devil, right? It, the, the men come to the, to the sower and say, who is done this? He says it was an enemy.
Jesse Schwamb: Right? Right.
Tony Arsenal: He doesn't say like, well, actually I put the seed there and so, you know, I'm, I, it's not an equal distribution.
He's not sowing good seed and bad seed. He sows the good seed and the devil sows the bad seed.
Tony Arsenal: Um, and, and that's a, I think that's an important theological point to make. And as far as assurance goes. We, we can't depend on our ability to perceive or sort of like discern election in a raw sense, right? We have to observe certain kinds of realities around us.
Um, and, and primarily we have to depend on the mercy and, and saving faith that God gives us. That's right. Um, you know, our, our assurance of faith does not primarily come from fruit checking. Um, we have to do that. It's important, we're commanded to do it, and it serves as an important secondary evidence.
But a, a, a person who wants to find assurance. Of salvation should first and foremost look to the promises of Christ and then depend on them. Um, and, and so that's, I think all of that's kind of wrapped up into this parable. It's, it's, it's amazing to me that we're only like two parables in, and we're already, you know, we're already talking about super lapse arianism and sub lapse arianism, and it's, it's amazing.
I, I love this. I'm loving this series so far, and we're barely scratching the surface.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it's all there. I think you're right to call that out. It strikes me, like, as you were speaking, it really just hit me higher that I think you're right. Really the foundation on this, like the hidden foundation is assurance and it's that assurance which splits the groups, or at least divides them, or it gives us, again, like the distinct, kind, discrete compartments or components of each of them.
So. Again, I think it's help saying, 'cause we wanna be encouraging. That's, that's our whole point here is when the Apostle Peter says, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing of you. That herein we have the scripture saying to us, time and time again, be sure of what God has done in your life.
Be confident in that very thing. And so if assurance is, as we're saying, that's the argument hypothesis we're making. That's the critical thing here.
Jesse Schwamb: Then the division between the children of God and the children of the devil is false versus true assurance. So the tears, I think what we're saying here, basically they typically live under false asserts.
They may attend church, confess, belief, appear righteous, yet their hearts are unregenerate. Their faith is maybe historical. It's not saving, it could be intellectual, but it's not spiritual. And of course, like just a few chapters before this, we hope those famous verses where Jesus himself drops the bomb and says, listen, many of you, he's talking to the people, the, the disciples around him, the crowds that we're gathering and thronging all about.
He says, many of you're gonna say to me, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy your name?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me. These are not people who knew they were false, they thought they belonged to Christ. Their shock on judgment day is gonna reveal this profound self-deception.
And that self-deception is wrapped up in a false type of assurance, a false righteousness. So I think one of the things that we can really come to terms with and grab a hold of is the fact that when we are. Confessing, repenting seeking like our status in Christ because of Christ. Then we have confidence that we are in fact part of the children of God.
When everything is stripped away from us and all we're crying out is only and completely and solely and unequivocally, Jesus Christ, then I think we have great reason to understand that we should be confident in our assurance.
Jesse Schwamb: You know, I was reading this week from Thomas Brooks and did incidentally come across this, a quote, an assurance and reminded me of this passage, and here's what he writes.
You know, of course he's writing in like 16 hundreds, like mid 16 hundreds. It's wild, of course, but we shouldn't be surprised that what you're about to hear sounds like it could have been written today for us. In this conversation, but, uh, he writes, assurance is the believer's arc where he sits Noah alike quiets and still in the midst of all distractions and destructions, commotions and confusions.
However, most Christians live between fears and hopes and hang, as it were, between heaven and hell. Sometimes they hope that their state is good. At other times they fear that their state is bad. Now they hope that all is well and that it shall go well. Well with them forever. Then they fear that they shall perish by the hand of such corruption or by the prevalency of such and such temptation.
They're like a ship and a storm tossed here and there, and. I think that he's right about that. And I think the challenge there is to get away from that. I love where it starts, where he says, what wonderful turn of phrase assurance is the believer's arc or Noah, like, you know, we're sitting and the commotion, the destructions, the commotion, the confusions of all the world.
That's why to get this right, to be encouraged by this passage, to be challenged by it is so critical because we're all looking for that arc. We all want to know that God has in fact arrested us so completely that no matter what befalls us, that everything, as we talked about before, all of our, all of the world, in fact is subservient to our salvation.
But that's a real thing that cannot be snatched away from us because God has ordained it and intended it, built it, created it, and brought it to pass. And so I think that's all like in this passage, it's all the thing that's being called us to. So. I, I don't want us to get like too hung up. It's a good question, I think to ask and answer like we were trying to talk about here, but you're right.
If we focus too much just on the like, let's gaff for these tears. Who are they? Like let's people's, like Readers Digest in People's magazine these tears. Like who are they? Do we have a list of them? Who do we think they are? How could it be me? Is it really me? Am I, am I anxious about that? Really what we should be saying is following what Peter calls us to do that is to be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and his choosing.
So even there like our emphasis and focus, isn't it like you're saying Tony about like, let me do some fruit inventory. I got like a lot of good bananas. I got a lot of ripe pears. Like, look at the tree. This, this is good. Even there, the emphasis is to turn our eyes on Jesus, as it were, and to make certain about his work, his calling and his choosing of us.
And I think when we do that, we're falling down in worship and in yielding and submission to him, rightfully acknowledging that the righteousness of Christ is the one that is always in every way alien to us and imputed. And that is what makes us sons and daughters of God, that good seed sown by Jesus himself.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I just wanna read, I wanna um, round out a few more paragraphs here out of the Westminster confession because I do think, you know, when we even talk about assurance, we're not even always all saying the exact same thing. And I think that's important because when we talk about assurance of faith, we need to be understanding that this is the rightful, not only the rightful possession of all Christians, but it's the rightful responsibility of all Christians to seek it.
So here's, here's section two of that same chapter. It says, this certainty referring to assurance. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a, a fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the spirit of adoption, witnessing with our hearts that we are the children of God, which spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.
So. One of the, the things that I think is, is important here is people read this and say the inward evidences of those graces unto which these promises are made. They read that and they think that it's referring to like good work and like spiritual renewal, but it's, it's not, it's the inward evidence of those graces unto which of the promises are made.
So it's this inner, inner renewal. It's the spirit testifying to our spirit. And then, um, chapter, uh, section three here, it says. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it, yet being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given of God.
He may without extraordinary revelation there, right there is response to Roman Catholicism in the right use of ordinary means at attain there unto. And therefore, it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence, to make his calling and election. Sure. And thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and in joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience.
The proper fruits of this assurance so far is it from inclining men to looseness? Right.
Tony Arsenal: So we often hear and and I, I think there are good, um, there are good reformed Christians that put. The emphasis of assurance on, or they, they put an overemphasis, in my opinion, on how good works function within our assurance.
Right. They, they often will ask us to look to our good fruit as sort of, not the grounding, but as a strong evidence. But at least in terms of the confession here, the cheerfulness in the duties of obedience is the fruit of assurance.
Jesse Schwamb: That's right. Not
Tony Arsenal: the cause or grounding of assurance. So rather than, this is what this last line says.
It says so far, is it from inclining? Mental looseness assurance should drive us to obedience and fruitfulness in Christ. And so yes, it is in a certain sense an evidence because if that fruitfulness and obedience is absent from our lives, there's a good reason for us to question whether this infallible assurance is present in our lives.
But the assurance is what drives us to this obedience. Um. You know, like, I think you could use the analogy of like a married couple. A married couple who is very secure in their relationship and in their, uh, love for one another and their faithfulness to each other is more likely to cheerfully serve and submit to each other and to respect each other and to sacrifice for each other than a couple that's maybe not so sure that the other person has their best interest in mind.
That's or maybe isn't so sure that this thing is gonna work out. I think that's the same thing, like the sacrifice and the service that a husband, uh, performs for his wife, whom he loves and trusts and is committed to and knows that she's faithful and committed to him. That is not causing that faithfulness.
It's not causing that trust and that love. It is the outcome and the outflow of it. It's good evidence that that love exists, but it's not caused by it. And assurance here is the same kind of dynamic assurance is not. We can't assure ourselves of our salvation by doing good works. No matter how many good works you do, there are lots and lots of people who are not saved and who will not be saved, who do perfectly good works in appearance.
Right. They have the, the outward appearance of godliness, but lack its power. Right, right. Out of right outta Paul, writing to Timothy there. Yes. So that's, that's important for us as we continue to parse all this out, is yes, the fruit is present. Yes. The wheat is to, is discernible from the tears by its final, fruitful status.
Right? It grows up to be grain, which is fruitful rather than weeds and tears, which are only good to be burned, but it is not the fruit that causes it to be wheat. It's wheat that causes the fruit to grow. If, if it wasn't wheat, it wouldn't grow fruit, not because the fruit makes it grain, but because it is in fact wheat to start with.
Jesse Schwamb: Right. Yeah, that's right on. So I think like by summation we're kind of saying. At least the answer to this question. You know, do the tears know that they're tears? Yes and no. Some do, some don't. I think, yes, there are some that are gonna be consciously hypocritical, willfully rejecting Christ while pretending for worldly gain.
I think that's, that's certainly plain to see. And at the same time, do the tears know the tears? Sometimes? No. There's self deceived under spiritual blindness and they have some kind of false assurance. And this idea of, again, coming in repentance before God and seeking humbly to submit to him is I think one of those signs of that kind of true assurance, not a false assurance.
And you already stole where I was thinking of Tony by going to Second Timothy again. Thomas Brooks in precious remedies against Saint's device is one of like the best. Books ever. I know that he's really outspoken. He loves to harp on the fact that one of Satan's most effective snares is to make men and women content with a form of godliness without its power.
Yeah. And that's often what we're talking about here, I think, is that Satan loves to fish in the shallow waters a profession. And really that can happen in any kind of church or religious culture, that there is this shallowness where that loves religious appearance, prayer, knowledge fellowship, but not the Christ behind them.
And so whether we're looking to somebody like Brooks or Jonathan Edwards and we're trying to parse out what are our true affections, not in a way again, that somehow leans well, I feel enough, then somehow that justifies, not inwardly, but again, definitely trying to understand our conviction for conversion tears.
For repentance that. Really what we're after is not like just the blessings of Christ, but Christ himself, which I think really leads us to this eschatological perspective then to round all everything out because you know, we talked about before, there's an old phrase, it's like everywhere. A lot of people talk in heaven.
Not everybody's going there. And so this idea of like, people will talk about be so great to be there and it's sometimes this, the heaven that they speak of is like absent Christ, you know, as if like, if Christ wasn't there, at least in their perspective, it still wouldn't be half bad. And so I think that does lead us to understand what is this in gathering?
What is this? You know, bringing everything into the barn and burning everything else up. And like you just said, if at the beginning you cannot tell the injurious weed aside from that beautiful kernel of wheat that's coming up, but if in the end you can see what's happening in the end, then that brings us all to consummation.
What does it mean in this parable?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: And, and I think this actually sort of forces us to grapple a little bit with, with another sort of persnickety feature of this parable that, that I think, I think personally sometimes gets overlooked is we are very quick to talk about this parable to be about the church.
And it is. Right. And, and there's reasons to talk like that. But when Christ explains the parable, he doesn't say the field is the church. He says the field is the world. Right. And so we have to, we have to, we have to do a little bit of, um. We have to do a little bit of hermeneutics to understand that this is also speaking of the church, right?
It's not as though the church is some hermetically sealed off body that the dynamics of the world and the, the weed and the tears like that, that doesn't happen in the church. But when we talk about the end of the age here, he says the son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom.
All causes of sin in all lawbreakers. Right? So, so the, the final eschatological judgment, it's all encompassing. And I dunno, maybe I'm, maybe I'm becoming a little bit post mill with this, um, the, the world is already the Kingdom of Christ. Right? Right. That's right. It, it's not, it's not just the church on earth that is the kingdom of Christ.
And so when we talk about this eschatological reaping, um, what we see is, is very straightforward. There are those who are, uh, who belong to Christ, who were sown by him into the world, who were, uh, were tended by him, who were protected by him, who he intended to harvest from the very beginning, right? The good sower sows good seed into the field, and that good seed is and necessarily will be wheat.
It's not as though, um, it's not as though, and again, this is one of those ways where like the parables sometimes, uh, are telling a little bit of a different story. Even though they're sharing some themes in the first parable, in the parable of the sower, he sows the same seed into the world. But the seed in that first parable is not the, is not the person receiving the seed.
The seed is the one is the word of God. Yes. And so the word of God is sewn promiscuously, even to those who will be hard soil and who will be rocky soil and have thorns. The word of God is, is sewn to all of those people. Across the whole world in this parable. The seed that is the good seed that is sown is and always was going to be weed that was, or wheat, which was going to grow into fruitfulness and be gathered into the barn.
Right? That was a foregone conclusion. The, the, when the sower decided to sow seed, all of that said he is the one who did that. He's the one that chose that. He's the one that will bring us to completion, right? And then also the ones that are not of his kingdom, the sons of the devil, they will also be reaped at the end.
Actually we'll be reaped before the, you know, they'll be reaped and gathered and, and tossed into the furnace before the sons of the kingdom are gathered together.
Jesse Schwamb: Right.
Tony Arsenal: So it, again, this is a parable and even though this is Christ's explanation of the parable, I don't think that Christ was intending to give us like a strict timeline.
Right. I don't think he was encouraging us to draw a chart and try to map out where this all happens in order. Um, I do think it's relevant that, that, at least in the explanation of this parable, I mentioned it last week, that, that the rap, the rapture is actually the wicked being raptured. They're the ones that are gathered and taken out of the world and cast into the fiery furnace before the, before the righteous are gathered together and, and brought into Christ Barn.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, there's a great unmasking that's happening here in this final stage. I mean, that's critically the point. I think there's a lot of stuff we could talk about open handedly and kind of hypothesize or theorize what it means. But what is plain, I think, is that there's this unmasking, this unveiling of the reality of the light of Christ's perfect judgment.
But that judgment is for both parties Here it is coming and what was hidden beneath outward religion or more, a facade is gonna be revealed with eternal clarity. That's just the reality. It is coming. So in some ways it pairs. I think at least well in this, well purposely of course in this teaching because Jesus is saying, hold on, like we talked about last time.
Do this is not for you to judge. You are ill-equipped. You are not skilled enough to discern this. And therefore though, you wanna go in hot and get spicy and try to throw out all the weeds. Wait for the right time. Wait for the one like you're saying, Tony has from all of eternity past intended for it to be this way.
Super intending his will over all things in the casting of the seed. And as we say, Philippians, of course, finishing that good work, which was started, he will finish. It is God's two finish again. And so he says, listen, that day is coming. There's gonna be a great unmasking. Uh, get ready for it. And the scriptures bear witness to that in so many other ways.
So. There's such a journey in these like handful of verses, isn't there? I mean, it's really wild. The things that not like we come up with or we read into the text, but as we sit in it a little bit, as we just spend even a cursory amount of time letting it pour over us, that we find there's like a conviction in a weight in these things that are beyond just the story and beyond just even like the illustrations themselves.
What we find is, again, it's as if Jesus himself in his brilliance, of course, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is illuminating the mind in the spirit to open up our conception, understanding of the kingdom of God by bringing it to us through his perspective in our own terms, of course, which is both our language and like the context of the world in which we live, and that simple example of farming and seed.
And again, even just that there are these interest weeds that look like wheat. I went on this like rabbit hole this week and did a lot of research on like tears and Yeah, like especially people in like the Midwest United States who like know a lot more about agriculture than I do have a lot to say about this.
It's not just like we shouldn't be surprised like. Isn't it incredible that like there are actually weeds out there that look like, yeah, it's a brilliance of just knowing that this teaching is so finely tuned. Like we can even just talk about that. Like the world is finely tuned. This teaching is so finely tuned to these grant theological principles that we can at one point be children and appropriate them enough and assume them into our own intellectual capacity so that we can trust in them.
And yet even as like adults with like, let's say like the greatest gift of intellectual capacity, still find that we cannot get to the bottom of them because they're so deep. They draw us into these really, really grand vistas or really like extremely deep cold theological waters. And I just find. That I am in awe then of what Jesus is saying here because there's a truth for us in assurance that we ought to clinging to.
And there's also like stuff that we should come back to. We shouldn't just stop it here and put it out of our minds until the next time we, we want to just be stimulated by something that's interesting or that we want to just grab somebody and shake them cage style, cage two style and say like, look at this great thing that I just learned about this, this particular parable.
But instead, there's so much here for us to meditate on. And in that, I think rather than the Christian finding fear in this parable, what they should find is great comfort. We should be Noah alike sitting in the ark saying, it is well with my soul. And our reason for that is because we know God has cast a seed through his son Jesus Christ.
And to be a child, a child of God is the greatest thing in all the universe.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And I, I think that, um, transitions nicely to, uh, I'll make this point quick because we're coming up on time here. Um.
Tony Arsenal: The other little subtle thing that Christ does here in this parable is he, he absolutely asserts his divinity and sovereignty overall creation.
Jesse Schwamb: That's right. Yep.
Tony Arsenal: Right. It, it's almost like a throw. There's a couple little like lines that are almost throwaway lines, right in the, the first, the beginning of the parable here. Um, the parable itself, uh, he says, um, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed into a field. And then he says, um, the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, right?
And then when he interprets the parable, he says, well, the, the servants are, the field is the world, right? So he's the master of the world, and the servants are the angels. So he's the master of the angels. And then if, if there was any doubt left in your mind. Says in verse 41, the son of man will send his angels.
That's right. And they will gather out of his kingdom, which is the world, all the causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. Right? So we have this, this robust picture that there is election. The the good sower sows good seed into the world, and the good seed will necessarily grow into wheat and will be preserved and protected and ultimately harvest Well, why can we have assurance that that will be the case?
Well, because the master of the house is the son of man who is the Lord of the universe and the creator of all things. And his angels do his will. That's right. So, so the whole thing is all wrapped up. Why can we have assurance? Because God is a good God and Christ is a good savior, and the savior of the world is the creator of the universe, right?
If any of those facts were not true. Then we couldn't have assurance. If God wasn't good, then maybe he's lying. If Christ wasn't the savior of the world or the God of the universe, the creator of the universe, then he wasn't worthy to be the one who saves. All of this is wrapped up in the parables, and this is what's so exciting about the parables.
In most of the instances that we look up, especially of the sort of longer parables, these kinds of dynamics are there where it's not just a simple story making a simple point, it is making one primary point. Usually there's one primary point that a, that a parable is making. But in order to make that primary point, there's all these supporting points and supporting things that have to be the case.
If the, if the good sower was not the master of the house and a, a competent, uh, a competent landowner who knew the difference between wheat and weeds, even at the early stage, right? His, his servants go and go, what happened? What's with all of these weeds? They can tell the difference somehow,
Jesse Schwamb: right?
Tony Arsenal: He's immediately able to go, well, this was an enemy.
Jesse Schwamb: That's right.
Tony Arsenal: And while they're bumbling around going, should we go rip it all up and start over? He is like, no, no, no, no. Just wait until, wait until it all grows up together. And when that happens, the Reapers will come and they'll take care of it and they'll do it in my direction, right? Because he's competent, he's the savior, he's the creator, he's the good master, he is the good sower.
Um, we can be confident that not only is our assurance provided for us, our salvation is provided for us, but it's provided for us and secured for us both our assurance and our salvation itself because of who Christ is and what he's done. And the fact that he is the, the ruler and the creator and the sovereign overall things.
Jesse Schwamb: So what have we learned in this conversation? Well, it seems clear that Jesus in this parable is calling believers to a patient faith, humble self-examination, but also to assurance, yes, a rock solid assurance, knowing that the wheat, those truly united to Christ by grace will never be uprooted and are surely going to be gathered into his eternal kingdom.
I think we've also learned that if you're looking for love in your life, you're looking for an inexpensive pet, the jumping spider is really where you wanna be. So the next time you see one, don't be so quick to just grab your shoe, instead name it, claim it, and start to take dominion over it.
Tony Arsenal: I don't know where to go from there.
Are you gonna name it? Joel Olsteen The Jumping Spider. Joel The Jumping Spider.
Jesse Schwamb: There we go. We listen. We've started so many trends in our 466 episodes, it seems. Why should we stop now? Why should we stop that? We shouldn't stop now. Honestly, if you wanna join us in all of this trend setting, and I can tell you, listen, if there's something I hear about the Refer Brothered podcast, it's that we are trendsetters.
That's really the number one feedback we get. So why don't you join us in that? You've heard us say it before, but we will not stop inviting you to come hang out with us in our little corner of the internet that's in our own little chat group, and you can get there by going to T Me Reform Brotherhood.
You know it loved ones. I know you've heard it, so this is your chance. There's no better time than now, except before. You know, it's like they say like, when's the best time to plant a tree like 50 years ago or today? So if you haven't joined yet, you should join now by going to t.me. Access Foreign Brotherhood.
Do you take through chat and there's all kinds of brothers and sisters and they're there hanging out processing with us and a lot of great conversation about this particular series because there's so much great stuff to talk about. Like someday I'd like to think like, we'll do this stuff, Tony. Like we never get to, we'll just do a whole series, which will be like probably a decade long and we'll just call it like all the deleted scenes, like the things that we wanted to say or like, 'cause I know you and I that we don't plan for like an actual outline of the episodes.
We are, we are so good at this podcasting thing now that I can tell when we are both self editing because like the time is coming to an end. Yeah. Or we just know that like. We could talk about this parable for like another four episodes, honestly. Mm-hmm. I think you and I could just go there, but we know, listen, it's time to move on.
Someday we'll do those episodes. But you know what a great place for that to happen is in the Telegram chat. Like, come hang out there, talk about all the stuff that you wanted to hear and didn't hear, and we can talk about all the stuff we wish we could say, but the time alluded us, it's a great place to come hang out.
So I've gotta tell you that's that's a place you want to be on the internet.
Tony Arsenal: It's true. It's true. And one last thing, if you're, if you're still listening to this, then you're among the most loyal people who listen through all the announcements. Uh, what you could do that would really help us out actually is go to iTunes, or I guess you can do it on Spotify.
Uh, leave a review. Um, the reviews don't change how easily people find us in the algorithm, although reviews are searchable, so people will occasionally find it through like Google or something like that. True. But what it does do is if people do stumble upon the show and they're trying to figure out if they want to commit time to listening to it, they look at the reviews.
I look at reviews when I'm gonna listen to a new show. Um, I look at reviews when I'm buying a new product. Um, so what we would really appreciate it, I think our most recent review is from like two years ago.
Jesse Schwamb: Oh, wow. People been out there. So
Tony Arsenal: if you're, if you are listening to the sound of my voice right now and you've, it.
Into 58 minutes and through all of the announcements, uh, please go. I would assume if you're still listening that you think this show is worth five stars. Please go give us an honest five star review. Leave a comment explaining what you like about the show, maybe something you've learned. Uh, and we would also love it if you would just share the episode with a friend.
Find someone that you know that you think would benefit from this. Uh, maybe their wheat, maybe their tears. Who knows, the Lord knows. But share the episode with them. Uh, it gives 'em something to think about. Uh, and we would really appreciate that
Jesse Schwamb: more parables coming at you next time. We got so many on top there, all stacked up.
Yep. And we're just going to keep getting after them. So again, what a blessing to be able to jump into the teachings of Jesus. And already, I think if anybody was surprised that we've only done, we've done two, right? Yep. Two in like four episodes. Is that what It's five
Tony Arsenal: episodes?
Jesse Schwamb: Five episodes. I underestimate it still.
And the whole point I was gonna make as a joke was. Did Was anybody surprised that we're taking?
Tony Arsenal: Apparently you were.
Jesse Schwamb: And I still couldn't even get Yeah. I inadvertently surprised myself.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Little funny story. And then we will, we'll log off. Uh, you know, I use, I use artificial intelligence to help me write some of the show notes just because that's like the most tedious, boring part of any podcast producer's world is trying to write show notes.
And I had to work really hard to convince the AI that I use, that we weren't doing a series on the Parable of the sower, that we were doing a series on the parables, uh, just because we did a, we did a, apparently a three part series on the Parable of the Sower, and it was convinced we were doing a two part series on the Parable of the, the Tears.
So it, it just goes to show like, you can, you can do a lot, you can talk a lot. And, um, you know, I think these are gonna be great episodes. I've already learned a ton. Me too. So I'm excited, Jesse. And until next time, honor everyone.
Jesse Schwamb: Love the brotherhood.
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In episode 465 of The Reformed Brotherhood, hosts Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb explore Jesus's parable of the wheat and tares (weeds) from Matthew 13. This thought-provoking discussion examines Christ's startling teaching that good and evil will always coexist within the visible church until the end of time. The brothers carefully unpack the theological implications of Jesus's command not to separate wheat from weeds prematurely, challenging our natural tendency to judge others while offering wisdom about God's sovereign plan for final judgment. This episode wrestles with difficult questions about church purity, assurance of salvation, and how believers should approach the reality of false professors within Christ's church—providing biblical guidance for faithfully enduring in a mixed communion.
Jesus's teaching in the parable of the wheat and weeds directly challenges our natural desire for a perfectly pure church. By instructing the servants not to pull up the weeds lest they damage the wheat, Christ is establishing an important ecclesiological principle that will hold true until His return. This means that no matter how rigorously we apply church discipline or how carefully we examine profession of faith, we will never achieve a perfectly pure communion this side of eternity. The visible church—which can be understood as those who profess faith and are baptized—will always include both true and false believers. This reality should cultivate humility in how we approach church membership and discipline. Jesus isn't suggesting that all attempts at church purity are wrong (as other Scripture passages clearly call for church discipline), but rather that perfect purification is impossible and attempts at achieving it will inevitably damage true believers. This teaching directly refutes movements throughout church history (like Donatism) that have sought absolute purity in the visible church.
One of the most challenging aspects of this parable is Christ's implicit teaching that true and false professors can appear nearly identical, especially in their early development. Like tares growing alongside wheat, false believers can profess orthodox doctrine, participate in church life, and exhibit what appears to be spiritual fruit. This creates profound implications for how we understand assurance of salvation. As Tony notes, while "assurance is the proper and rightful possession and inheritance of every Christian," there's also the sobering reality of false assurance. Some may sincerely believe they are saved when they are not, raising difficult questions about self-examination and spiritual discernment. This doesn't mean believers should live in perpetual doubt, but rather that we should approach assurance with both confidence in God's promises and healthy self-examination. True assurance must be grounded in the finished work of Christ rather than merely in our experiences or behaviors, while false assurance often lacks this proper foundation. The brothers wisely note that final judgment belongs to God alone, who perfectly knows who belongs to Him.
"The visible church is set before us as a mixed body. Maybe everybody else's churches, but certainly not my church, like the one that I actually go to on the Lord's day. So it seems like there might be this shocking statement possibly that he has for us, whether you're Episcopalian or Presbyterian or independent or Baptist or Christian life assembly, whatever it is, that no matter what we do to purify the church, our churches, we're never gonna succeed in obtaining a perfectly pure communion." - Jesse Schwamb
"I think that's what I find shocking. It is like a massive statement of reality that is at equal points totally sensible. And other times we would think, 'well, surely not in the church Lord, like of all the places, like aren't we talking about a kind of purity of your people?' ...and what I think he's striking at, which I do find a little bit wild, is that Jesus is essentially saying, at least to my ear, anything we try to do, even the purest preaching of the gospel, is not gonna prevent this in every age of the church." - Jesse Schwamb
"I'm affirming that assurance is the proper and rightful possession and inheritance of every Christian." - Tony Arsenal
Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 465 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I am Jesse.
Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother.
Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. Guess what? It looks like you and I are taking another trip back to the farm on this episode.
Tony Arsenal: Yes. For a couple episodes.
Jesse Schwamb: For a couple episodes. Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: Because what, Jesus will not stop leading us there.
We're looking at his teachings, specifically the parables, and we're gonna be looking in Matthew chapter 13, where it seems like, is it possible that Jesus, once again has something very shocking for us to hear? That is for all the ages. 'cause it seems like he might actually be saying, Tony, that good and evil will always be found together in the professing church until the end of the world.
Like in other words, that the visible church is set before a mixed body. I mean. Maybe everybody else chose churches, but certainly not my church, like the one that I actually go to on the Lord's day. So it seems like there might be this shocking statement possibly that he has for us, whether you're Episcopalian or Presbyterian or independent or Baptist or Christian life assembly, whatever it is, that no matter what we do to purify the church, our churches, we're never gonna succeed in obtaining a perfectly pure communion.
Could that possibly be what Jesus is saying to us? I don't know what we're gonna find out.
Tony Arsenal: We are. We are gonna find out.
Jesse Schwamb: It's gonna be definitive. And if now that makes sense. If you don't even know why we're looking at Jesus' teachings, you could do us a favor even before you go any further. And that is just head on over in your favor, interwebs browser to or reform brotherhood.com, and you can find out all of the other episodes, all 464 that are living out there.
There's all kinds of good stuff, at least we think so, or at least entertaining stuff for you to listen to. And when you're done with all of that in a year or two, then we'll pick it up right back here where we're about to go with some affirmations or some denials.
Jesse Schwamb: So Tony, before we figure out what Jesus has for us in Matthew 13, in the parable of the weeds, or the tears, or the tears in the weed, what gets all of that?
Are you affirming with, are you denying against,
Tony Arsenal: I am denying. First of all, I'm denying whatever this thing is that's going on with my throat. Sorry for the rest of the episode, everyone. Um, I'm denying something that I, I think it is. How do I want to phrase this? Um, maybe I'll call it theological integrity, and maybe that's too strong of a word, but maybe not.
So the listener who's been with us for a little while will remember that a while back. Um, you know, we've, we've talked about Matthew Barrett and he was a Baptist, uh, who's heavily involved in sort of the theology, proper controversies. He wrote Simply Trinity, which is just a fantastic book. He was a teacher or a professor at Midwestern, um, Baptist Theological Seminary.
And he recently, um, uh, converted is not the right word. I hate calling it a conversion when you go from one faithful Bible tradition to another. But he recently, um, changed his perspective and joined the Anglican Church. And at the time I kind of, you know, I kind of talked about it as like, it's a little bit disappointing, like the reasons he cited.
Tony Arsenal: Where I'm bringing this into a matter of sort of theological integrity. And it's not, it's not just Matthew Barrett. Um, there's other elements of things going on that I'll, I'll point to too is it's often the case when someone who is in some form of professional theological work or professional vocational ministry, that as they start to change perspectives, um, there comes to be like an inflection point where they should notify whoever it is that they are accountable to in that job or vocation, uh, uh, and then do the right thing and step down.
Right? And so with Matthew Barrett, um. He continued to teach systematic theology at a Baptist Theological Seminary, which has a faith statement which he was obligated to affirm and hold in good faith. He continued to teach there for quite some time, if, you know, when he, when he published the timeline and he's the one that put all the timelines out there.
So it's not like people had to go digging for this. Um, he continued to teach under contract and under that, that faith statement, um, for quite some time after his positions changed. I remember in college, um, sim very similar situation, one of my professors, um, and I went to a Baptist college. It was a General Baptist college.
Um, one of my professors became Roman Catholic and for quite some time he continued to teach without telling anyone that he had converted to Roman Catholicism. Um. And I think that there's a, there's a, a level of integrity that public theologians need to have. Um, and it, it really makes it difficult when something like this happens to be able to say that this is not a moral failing or some sort of failure.
Um, you know, James White has jumped on the bandwagon very quickly to say, of course we told you that this was the way it was gonna lead. That if you affirm the great tradition, you know, he was very quick to say like, this is the road to Rome. And I think in his mind, um, Canterbury is just sort of one, one stop on that trip.
Um, it becomes very hard after the fact to not have this color and tarnish all of your work before. 'cause it starts to be questions like, well, when, when did you start to hold these views? Were you writing, were you, were you publicizing Baptist theology when you no longer believed it to be the truth? Were you teaching theology students that this is what the Bible teaches when you no longer thought that to be true?
Um. Were you secretly attending Anglican services and even teaching and, and helping deliver the service when you were, you know, still outwardly affirming a Baptist faith statement. And the reason I, I'll point out one other thing, 'cause I don't want this to be entirely about Matthew Barrett, but there's a big, uh, hub glue going on in the PCA right now.
Um, a guy named Michael Foster, who some of our audience will probably be familiar with, um, he and I have had our desktops in the past, but I think he and I have come to a little bit of a, of a uneasy truce on certain things. He, uh, went to work compiling a, a list and there's some problems with the data, like it's, it's not clean data, so take it for what it's worth.
But he compiled a list of. Every publicly available church website in the PCA. So something like 1800 websites or something like that. Huge numbers. And he went and looked at all of the staff and leadership directories, and he cataloged all the churches that had some sort of office or some sort of position that appeared to have a, a woman leading in a way that the Bible restricts.
And that more importantly, and starting to say it this way, but more importantly, that the PCA itself restricts. So we're not talking about him going to random church websites and making assessments of their polity. We're talking about a, a denomination that has stated standards for who can bear office and it's not women.
Um. So he compiled this and people in the PCA are coming out of the woodwork to basically defend the practice of having shepherdess and deacons. There was one that he cataloged where, um, the website actually said, uh, that was the pastor's wife and the title was Pastor of Women. Um, and then as soon as it became public that this was the case, they very quickly went in and changed the title to Shepherd of Women or Shepherdess of Women or something like that.
So it's, it's really the same phenomena, not commenting, you know, I think we've been clear where we stand on the ordination of female officers and things like that, but not that all that withstanding, um, when you are going to be a part of a body that has a stated perspective on something and then just decide not to follow it, the right thing to do the, the upstanding morally.
Uh, in full of integrity move would be to simply go to another denomination where your views align more closely. PCA churches, it's not super easy, but it's not impossible to leave the PCA as an entire congregation and then go somewhere like the EPC, which is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which still on the spectrum of things is still relatively conservative, but is in general is in favor of, uh, female officers, elders, and diegans.
So I, I think, you know, and you see this with podcasters, there was the big, there was a big fu and Les became a Presbyterian, and then when Tanner became a Presbyterian on the pub, I think it is, um, incumbent on people who do any form of public theology and that that would include me and Jesse when our views change.
There comes a point where we need to disclose that, be honest about it, um, and not try to pretend that we continue to hold a view that we don't be just because it's convenient or because it might be super inconvenient to make a change. I don't even want to pretend to imagine the pressures, uh, that someone like Matthew Barrett would face.
I mean, you're talking about losing your entire livelihood. I, I understand that from an intellectual perspective, how difficult that must be, but in some ways, like that kind of comes with the territory. Same thing with a pastor. You have a Baptist pastor or a Presbyterian pastor. It can go both ways, I think.
I'm more familiar with Baptist becoming Presbyterians. I don't, I don't see as many going the other direction. But you have a, a Baptist pastor who comes to pay to Baptist convictions and then continues to minister in their church for, I've, I've seen cases where they continue to minister for years, um, because they don't, they don't have the ability to now just go get a job in a Presbyterian context because there's all sorts of, um, training and certification and ordination process that needs to happen.
Um, so they just continue ministering where they are, even though they no longer believe the church's state of, you know, state of faith statement. So that's a lot to say. Like, let your yes be yes and your no be no, and when we really all boil it down. So I think that's enough of that. It, it just sort of got in my craw this week and I couldn't really stop thinking about it.
'cause it's been very frustrating. And now there are stories coming out of. Doctoral students that, um, that Barrett was teaching who have now also become Anglican. Um, so, you know, there starts to be questions of like, was he actively pros? I mean, this is like Jacob Arminius did this stuff and, and like the reform tradition would look down on it, where he was in secret in like sort of small group private settings.
He was teaching convictions very different than the uni. I'm talking about Arminius now. Not necessarily Barrett. He was teaching convictions very different than the, the stated theology of the university he taught for, and then in public he was sort of towing the line. You have to ask the question and it is just a question.
There's been no confirmation that I'm aware of, but you have to ask the question if that was what was going on with Barrett, was he teaching Baptist theology publicly and then meeting with, with PhD students privately and, and sort of convincing them of Anglican theology. I don't know. I'm not speculating on that, but I think it, the situation definitely right, brings that question to mind.
It forces us to ask it. Um, and had he. Been transparent about his theological shifts sooner than that may not be a, a question we have to ask. Um, the situation may not be all that different, but we wouldn't have to ask the question.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's totally fair. I mean, disclosure is important in lots of places in life and we shouldn't think that theological dis disclosure, especially like you're saying among our teachers, among our pastors, it is a critical thing.
It's helpful for people to know when perspectives have changed, especially when they're looking to their leaders who are exhibiting trust and care over their discipleship or their education to express that difference. If there's been a mark, change it. It's worth it. Disclose, I'm guessing you don't have to over disclose, but that we're talking about a critical, we're talking about like subversive anglicanism, allegedly.
Yeah. Then. It would be more than helpful to know that that is now shaping not just perspective, but of course like major doctrine, major understanding. Yeah. And then of course by necessary conviction and extension, everything that's being promulgated or proclamation in the public sphere from that person is likely now been permeated by that.
And we'd expect so. Right. If convictions change, and especially like you're talking about, we're just talking about moving from, especially among like Bible believing traditions, just raise the hand and say loved ones, uh, this is my firm conviction now.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I think if someone walks up to you and says, do you think that we should baptize babies?
And you're like, yeah, I think so. Then you probably shouldn't be teaching at a Baptist seminary anymore. Like, seems like a reasonable standard. And that seems to be what happened, at least for some period of time. Um, you know, and, and it, that's not to say like, I think, I think there are instances where the church, a given church or um, or a university or seminary or, or whatever the situation might be, can be gracious and recognize like, yeah, people's perspectives change and maybe we can find a way for you to continue to finish out the semester or, you know, we can bridge you for a little while until you can find a new, a new job.
Um, you know, we'll, we'll only have you teach certain courses or we'll have a guest lecturer come in when you have to cover this subject that is at variance and like, we'll make sure we're all clear about it, but it doesn't seem like any of that happened. And that's, um, that's no bueno. So anyway, Jesse.
What are you affirming and or denying Tonight?
Jesse Schwamb: I'm just gonna go with something brief. I suppose this is an affirmation of me. I'm saying that like somewhat tongue in cheek, but maybe it's, wait, I'll rephrase. It's because this will be more humble. I'm affirming getting it right, even more than I thought.
So I'm just gonna come back to the well and dip it into something that I mentioned on the last episode. So the keen listener, the up-to-date listener might remember. And if you're not up to date, uh, just let this be fresh for you. It'll, and I, it's gonna be correct because now I have posts, you know, I'm on the other side of it.
I've clear hindsight. I am affirming with the album Keep It Quiet by Gray Haven, which I affirmed last week, but it came out on the same day that the episode released. And since you and I don't really like record in real time and release it like exactly as it's happening, I only did that with some, a little bit of reservation because I only heard they only released three songs in the album.
And I thought I was overwhelmed that they were, they were so good that I was ready to jump in and loved ones. Oh, it, it turns out. I was so correct and it was, it's even better than I thought. So go check it out. It's Grey, GRE, YH, and they are, this is the warning, just because I have to give it out there and then I'll balance it with something else for something for everybody here today.
So, gr Haven is music that's post hardcore and metal core. You're getting two cores for the price of one, if that is your jam. It has strong maleic sensibilities. It's very emotional, it's very experimental. But this new album, which is called, um, again, keep It Quiet, is like just a work of arts. It real like the guitar work is intricate haunting, lovely, and it's bold, like very intentional in its structure and very el loose in its construction.
It's got hook driven melodies and it's got both heart and soft. It really is truly a work of art. So if you're trying to, to put it in your minds, like what other bands are like this? I would compare them to bands like, every Time I Die, Norma Jean, let Live Hail the Sun. If you just heard those as combinations of words that don't mean anything to you, that's also okay.
No worries. But if you're looking for something different, if you're looking for something that's maybe gonna challenge your ear a little bit, but is like orchestral and has all of these metal core post hardcore, melodic, textured movements, there's no wasted notes in this album. It's really tremendous. If that's not your thing.
I get, that's not everybody's thing. Here's something else I think would be equally challenging to the ear in a different way. And that is, I'm going back to one other album to balance things out here, and that's an album that was released in 2019 by Mark Barlow, who I think is like just. So underrated.
For some reason, like people have slept on Mike Barlow. I have no idea why he put together an album with Isla Vista Worship called Soul Hymns, and it's like a distinct soul and r and b album of praise with like these really lovely like falsetto, harmonies. It's got these minimalistic instrumentation, warm keys, groove oriented percussion, like again, like these false soul driven melodies.
It's contemplative. It's got a groove to it. This is also equally a beautiful album for a totally different reason. So I think I've given two very book-ended, very different affirmations, but I think there's something for everybody. So my challenge to your loved ones is you gotta pick one or the other.
Actually, you could do both, but either go to Gray Havens, keep it quiet, or go to Mike Bellow's Soul hymns. I do not think you will be disappointed. There's something for everybody on this one.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, it was funny because as you were saying the names of those bands, I literally was thinking like Jesse could be speaking Swahili and I wouldn't know the difference.
And then you, you, you know me well, yeah. Uh, I haven't listened to Gray Haven. Uh, I probably will give it a couple minutes 'cause that's how it usually goes with songs that meet that description. Uh, I can always tell that the music that Jesse recommends is good from a technical perspective, but I never really, I never really vibe with it.
So that's okay. But I mean, lots of people who listen to our show do so check that out. If, if you ever. Want a good recommendation for music. Jesse is the pers so much so that he can recommend amazing music before it's even available and be a hundred percent correct, apparently. That's right. So
Jesse Schwamb: affirm with me everybody, because turns out I was right.
Uh, it was easy to be correct when of course I had all of that fair sightedness by being able to listen to those. Yeah, those couple of songs, it, this is a kind of album. Both of these, both of these albums. When I heard them, I reacted audibly out loud. There are parts of both of 'em where I actually said, oh wow.
Or yeah, like there's just good stuff in there. And the older you get, if you're a music fan, even if you're not, if you don't listen to a lot of music, you know when that hook gets you. You know when that turn of melody or phrase really like hits you just, right. Everybody has that. Where the beat drops in a way.
You're just like, yes, gimme, you make a face like you get into it. I definitely had that experience with both of these albums and because. I've listened to a lot of music because I love listening to music. It's increasingly rare where I get surprised where, you know, like sometimes stuff is just like popular music is popular for a reason and it's good because it's popular and it follows generally some kind of like well established roots.
But with these albums, it's always so nice when somebody does something that is totally unexpected. And in these, I heard things that I did not expect at all. And it's so good to be surprised in a way that's like, why have I never heard that before? That is amazing. And both of these bands did it for me, so I know I'm like really hyping them up, but they're worth it.
They're, they're totally worth it. Good music is always worth it.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I think that is a good recommendation. I will check those out because, you know, you're a good brother. I usually do, and I trust your judgment even though it, you'll like the second one. Yes. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: You'll like the second one.
Second one is like, just filled with praise and worship. And like, if, if you're trying to think, like say, here's how I'd couch the proper atmosphere for Mark Barlow's soul hymns you're having, you know, it's, it's a cold and chilly. A tal evening, the wind is blowing outside. You can hear the crisp leaves moving around on the pavement and the sun has gone down.
The kids are in bed, the dinner dishes are piled up in the sink. But you think to yourselves, not tonight. I don't think so, and you just want that toneage to put on. You want that music as you dim the lights and you sit there to just hang out with each other and take a breath. You don't just want some kind of nice r and b moving music.
You don't want just relaxing vibes. You want worshipful spirit filled vibes that propel your conversation and your intimacy, not just into the marital realm, but into worship and harmony with the triune God. If you're looking for that album, because that situation is before you, then sol hymns is the music you're looking for.
Tony Arsenal: See, I'm gonna get the, I'm gonna get the recommendations backwards and I'm gonna sit down with my wife with a nice like evening cup of decaf tea and I'm gonna turn the music on. Yes, it's gonna be like, yes. That was me screaming into the microphone. That was not good for my voice. Well, the good news is it's gonna, it's gonna wake the kids up.
That's, I'm gonna sleep on the couch. That's, it's gonna be bad. That's,
Jesse Schwamb: honestly, that's also a good evening. It's just a different kind of evening. It's true. So it's just keep it separated again, uh, by way of your denial slash affirmation. Tony disclosure, I'm just giving you proper disclosure. Everybody know your music KYM, so that way when you have the setting that you want, you can match it with the music that you need.
So it's true. Speaking of things that are always worth it.
Jesse Schwamb: I think the Bible's gotta be one of those things.
Tony Arsenal: It's true.
Jesse Schwamb: And this is like the loosest of all segues because it's like the Sunday school segue into any topic that involves the scriptures. We're gonna be in Matthew 13, and how about we do this?
So this is one of these parables and in my lovely ESV translation of the scriptures, the, we're just gonna go with the heading, which says the parable of the weeds. You may have something different and I wanna speak to that just briefly, but how do we do this, Tony? I'll hit us up with the parable and then it just so happens that this is one of the parables in the scripture that comes with an interpretation from our savior.
It's true. How about you hit us up with the interpretation, which is in the same chapter if you're tracking with us, it's just a couple verses way. Does that sound good?
Tony Arsenal: Let's do it.
Jesse Schwamb: Okay. Here is the parable of the weeds. Jesus puts another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sewed good seed in his field.
But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sewed weeds among the weeds and went away. So when the plants came up and bork rain, then the weeds also appeared, and the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?
He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then, do you want us to go and gather them? Then he said, no. Lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them, but let them grow together until the harvest and at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first, and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Tony Arsenal: Alright, so then jumping down. To verse 36. We're still in Matthew 13, he says, then he left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angel. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age, the son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom, all that, all causes of sin in all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace.
It is that in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears let him hear.
Jesse Schwamb: So let me start with just like a little bit of language here, which I've always loved in this passage because where else in like the contemporary context, do you get the word tear?
Yeah. Aside if you're like using a scale, and that's a totally different definition. I like this. I like the word tear. It force, it forces to understand that what's common to our ear, why that's being used, it often is translated weed. Here's just like my, my little like linguistic addition to the front end of our discussion and is the reason I like it is because here does have a specific definition.
If like you were to look this up in almost any dictionary, what you're gonna find is it's like a particular type of weed. It's actually like an injurious weed that is indistinguishable in its infant form from the outgrowing of green. So I like that because of course that is exactly why. Then there's all this explanation of why then to not touch anything in the beginning because one, it causes damage to it looks like everybody else.
I just thought I'd put that out there as we begin our discussion.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, yeah. You know, I, um, I am a homeowner and I don't own the land that I'm on, but I'm responsible for the land that I'm on. And we have this really gnarly weed problem. There's this, uh, sort of floor growing, uh, carpeting weed called, uh, I think it's called like a carpeting knob, head weed or something like that.
Some really descriptive thing. And I went out there the other day and there's really nothing you can do about this other than to rip it up. But I went out there the other day to start to pull some of it up and it totally wrecks the yard. Like it totally pulls up the grass, it destroys the sod. And when you're done, this is why it's kind of nice that I don't have, I'm not responsible for the land as I'm not gonna have to pay to resod the land.
But when you're done pulling up this weed, you have to resod the whole place. You have to regrow all the grass because it, first, it takes over for the grass, and then when you rip it up, it rips the roots of the grass up as well. And so this parable, um, on one level is immediately obvious, like what the problem is, right?
The situation is such. That the good, uh, the good sower, right? He's a good sower. He knows what he's doing. He understands that simply ripping up the weeds. Even if you could distinguish them right, there's this element that like at an early stage, they would be very difficult, if not impossible to distinguish from, uh, from wheat.
Even if you could distinguish them, you still wouldn't be able to pull up the weeds and not do damage to the grain. And so we, we have this sort of like, um, conflict if you wanna follow like literary standards, right? We have this conflict and as we come to sort of the climax of this, of this plot is when all of a sudden we see that, that the problem needs a resolution and there is a resolution, but it's not necessarily what we would think it would be.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's what I find shocking. It is like a massive statement of reality that is that like equal points or equal times totally sensible. And other times we would think, well why surely not in the church Lord, like of all the places, like aren't we talking about a kind of purity of your people, the very people that you're assembling together, the chief of which is Christ and the apostles being the building stones and Christ of course being the cornerstone.
And I, I think that's what I find and I wonder the people hearing this, if they thought like, well, surely Lord, that not be the case like you are bringing in and ushering in this new kingdom. Isn't this new kingdom gonna be one of absolute purity? And, and what I think he's striking at, which I do find a little bit wild, is that Jesus essentially saying, at least to my ear, anything we try to do, even like the purest preaching of the gospel, is not gonna prevent this in every age of the church.
The same state of the things that's existed in that is in the time of the early fathers. In the first century, and the church as it stands right now in the land and the time of the reformers, and of course with the best ministers at this hour right now and on your next Lord's day, and everyone after that, there is always and ever will be a visible church or a religious assembly in which the members are not all wheat.
Yeah. And then I like what you're saying. It's this idea that. There's a great harm that's gonna come about if you try to lift them up because you cannot tell. So, and this is what's hard, I think this does influence like how we interact with people online. Certainly how we interact with people in our own congregations, but we are going to have no clear convicted proofs.
We might only have like probable symptoms if we're really trying to judge and weigh out to discern the weeds from the weeds, which at most can only give us some kind of conjectural knowledge of another state. And that is gonna sometimes preemptively judge cause us to judge others in a way that basically there's a warning against here.
It, it's, it's not the right time. And ba I think mainly from the outside where I find like this parable coming together, if there's like maybe a weird Venn diagram of the way Christians read this and the way unbelievers hear this, the overlap between them is for me, often this idea of like hypocrisy and you know.
When people tell me that the church is full of hypocrites, either like Christian or non-Christian, but typically that's a, a, you know, statement that comes from the non-Christian tongue. When people say that the church is full of hypocrites, I do with a little bit of snark, say it's definitely not full of hypocrites.
There are always room for more in the church and, and there's like a distinction of course between the fact that there is hypocrisy in the Christian or whether the Christian is in fact or that person is a hypocrite. So like when I look through the scriptures, we see like Pharaoh confessing, we see Herod practicing, we see Judas preaching Christ Alexander venturing his life for Paul.
Yeah, we see David condemning in another, what he himself practiced and like hezeki glorifying and riches Peter. Doing all kinds of peter stuff that he does, and even all the disciples forsaken Christ, an hour of trouble and danger. So all that to say, it goes back to this like lack of clear, convicted proofs that I think Jesus is bringing forward here, but only probable symptoms.
And I'm still processing, of course, like the practicality of what you're saying, Tony, that in some ways it seems like abundantly clear and sensible that you should, you're, you're gonna have a problem distinguishing. But our human nature wants to go toward distinguishing and then toward uprooting sometimes.
And the warning here is do not uproot at the improper time. And in fact, it's not even yours to uproot because God will send in the laborers to do that at the time of, of harvest. And so there will be weeds found among the wheat. It's just like full stop statement. And at the same time it's warning, do not go after them now.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, I'm sure this, um, I, I'm sure this will spill over into a second conversation, but we, I think we have to talk a little bit about the interpretation here before we, before we even like talk more about the parable itself, because if you're not careful, um, and, and. I need to do a little bit more study on this, but it, it's interesting because Matthew almost seems to want you to sort of blend these parables together a little bit.
Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
Tony Arsenal: Right. These, these, there's three, um, there's three, maybe four if you count the parable of the treasure in the field. But there's three agricultural parables that have to do with sowing seed of one, of, one way or another. And in each one the seed is something different. And I, it almost seems to me. And then on top of that, the parables are like interwoven within each other.
So like right smack in the middle of this, we have the parable. Uh, is given. Then the next parable of the mustard seed, which we're gonna talk about in a future episode, is given, and then the explanation of this parable of the tears is given. Um, and so we have to talk a little bit about it and sort of establish what the seed is, because we just spent three weeks talking about the seed in the par of the sower.
Um, or the parable of the, of the soils. And in that parable, the seed was the word of God in this parable. And this is where I think sometimes, um, and again, this is like the doctrine of election in parable form, right? Yes. I think sometimes we read this and we, we misstep because the seed is not, uh, is not the word of God in this.
The seed is the believers.
Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
Tony Arsenal: Right. So the good seed is sewn into, uh, into the field, which, you know, I think maybe there'll be some, we, we can save this for, for next week. But a little sneak peek is, it's not always clear exactly what the field is. Right. And I think we often, we often talk about the field as though it's the church that doesn't necessarily align a hundred percent with how Christ explains the parable.
So we'll have to, we'll have to talk through that a little bit. I affirm that it is the church in, in a, a broad sense. Um, but, but the, the way that Christ explains it slightly different, but the, the seed is sewn into the world. The sons of the kingdom of heaven are sowed into the, into the world. And then the seed of the enemy, the bad seed, is the sons of the devil that's also sewn into the world.
And so these two seeds grow up next to each other. If we think about the seed here as though it's the word of God, rather than the, the actual believers and unbelievers that elect in the ate, we're gonna make some missteps on how we understand this because we're not talking about, um, the, the seed being, you know, doctrine being sewn into the world.
And some of it grows up good and some of it grows up bad or good doctrine and bad doctrine. We're talking about the believers themselves.
Sorry, Jesse is mocking my rapid attempt to mute before I cough, which I, I did. That was pretty good.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that was, that was pretty good. Listen, this is real. Podcasting is how it goes. Yeah, I'm with you. Thank you for pulling out that distinction. 'cause it is critical. We, we have some overlap of course, with Jesus being really ascribed as the farmer, the son of man, right.
He's sowing this good seed, but not the word. It's believers or the sons of the kingdom. And it is into his field, which is the world. Part of that world of course, is necessarily the church, right? But while everybody's sleeping, this enemy, the devil, he comes, he sows weeds or unbelievers, the sons of the evil one among this weed, they grow, go up together.
And of course, like if I were servants in this household, I'd ask the same thing, which was like, should we get the gloves out? Yeah. Just pull those bad boys out. Like and, and so again, that's why I find it very so somewhat shocking that. It's not just, you could see like Jesus saying something like, don't worry about it now because listen, at the end of all time when the harvest comes, uh, I'm gonna take care of it.
Like it's just not worth it to go out now. Right. That's not entirely The reason he gives, the reason is lest they uproot the wheat by mistake. So this is showing that the servants who are coming before Jesus in the parable, in this teaching here to really volitionally and with great fidelity and good obedience to him to want to please him to do his will.
He there, he's basically saying, you are not qualified to undertake this kind of horticulture because you're just not either skilled enough or discerning enough to be able to do it right.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think, um. Maybe just a word of meth methodology too. Um, this parable also flies in the face of all of the, like, parables are not allegories, kind of kind of people.
Um, and this is, we talked about this in our introductory episode. You have to take each parable for what it's worth, this parable very much is explained like a traditional allegory, right? Right.
Tony Arsenal: It's got, it's got several different elements and Christ goes through and the first thing he does is tell you what each element represents, right?
The sower is the son of man, the field is the word. The good seed is the sons of the kingdom of the weed. It's like, he's like clicking down all of the symbols and then he explains how all of it works together and like a good, all like a good allegory. Once you understand what each element and each symbol is, the rest of it actually is very self-explanatory, right?
When you understand who's what in the parable. The outcome and the sort of the punchline writes itself as it were. And I think this is one of those parables that we would do.
Tony Arsenal: I think we would do well to sort of let marinate a little bit because it does challenge a lot of our sensibilities of what, um, what is real in the world, what is real in terms of our interaction with the world, right?
What's real in terms of the role of unbelievers in the life of a Christian, um, whether we can identify who is or isn't an unbeliever. Um, I think we, you know, I, I'm not one of those people that's like, we should assume everyone's a Christian. And I'm certainly not one of those people who's like, we should assume nobody is a Christian.
But I think there are a lot of times where we have figures either in public or people in our lives. Like personal acquaintances that have some sort of outward appearance. And, and that's like the key here that that distinction between weeds is a, is not a great translation as you said. Right. Because right.
That distinction between wheat and weeds, to go to my analogy, like it's very clear what is grass and what is this like carpeting, knob weed. Like there's no, there's no doubt in my mind, which is the weed and which is the grass. Um, that's not what we're talking about here. And so it does, it does say here, I mean, it implies here that it's not going to be easy to distinguish the difference between exactly.
The, a son of the kingdom and a son of the evil one. And I think that's a, that's a. A theological pill that is very difficult to swallow. Yes.
Tony Arsenal: Because a lot of us, um, and this goes back to like what I, what we were saying in the last, the last parable, A lot of us were reared in our Christian faith on sort of this idea that like, you can check your fruit or you can check other people's fruits and you can determine, you can easily identify who's a Christian and who's not.
I remember when I was in high school, you know, I got, I was converted when, when I was 15 and, um, I got to high school and it felt very easy to me to be able to identify the people who were play acting Christianity and the people who were real Christians. That felt like the most natural thing in the world to me.
Um, it, it's an interesting story, but one of the people that I was absolutely sure was not a Christian. That he was just doing kinda civic Christianity. He was in confirmation 'cause his parents wanted him to. Um, and I had good reason to believe that at the time he was very worldly. He, he, um, did not seem to be serious about his faith at all.
There was good reason to make the assessment that I did. And then I ran into him on Facebook like 15 years later and he's a pastor at the Lutheran Church and he's, you know, he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. And he would not explain it as though he had a later conversion story. It's not as though he would say like, well yeah, in high school I pretended to be a Christian.
And then, you know, I got through college and uh, I really became like I got converted. He would, would grow this, or he would explain this as slow, steady growth from an immature state that knew the facts of the gospel and in a certain sense trusted that Jesus was his savior and didn't fully understand the ramifications of that.
I mean, who did at 15 years old? Mm-hmm. Um. And, and that it was a slow, steady growth to the place that he's in now.
Tony Arsenal: So I, I think we should take seriously, and maybe this is the takeaway for this week at least, and we can, we can talk about it more, is we should take seriously the fact that the Sons of the Kingdom and the Sons of the evil one in this parable are not only inseparable without doing damage, but in many ways they are not easily distinguishable.
Jesse Schwamb: Right. On.
Tony Arsenal: Um, and that, that's a baked into the parable. And I think we do spend a fair amount of time and I, I'll. I'll throw myself on on this. You know, this, we, I'm not just saying we, um, we as a genuine statement, like I have participated in this. I'm sure that I still do participate in this sometimes intentionally.
Other times, uh, subconsciously we spend a fair amount of time probably in our Christian lives trying to figure out who is a Christian who's not. And it's not as though that is entirely illegitimate, right? The, the, as much as we kind of poke at the, the, um, workers in this who sort of are kind of chumps, right?
They're sort of like the idiots in this. They, they don't seem to know how this happened. They propose a course of action that then the master's like, no, no, that's not, that's not gonna work. They can tell the difference, right? They can see that some are weeds and some are are weeds, and they're asking, well, what do we do about it?
But at the same time he is saying like, you're not really competent to tell the difference,
Jesse Schwamb: right? On
Tony Arsenal: a good, uh, a good. Competent farmer could probably go out and take all the weeds out. Just like a really good, I dunno, landscape technician, I'm not sure what you would call it. I'm sure someone could come into my yard and if I paid them enough money they could probably fix this knobby grass, weed, whatever it is.
Um, infestation. They could probably fix it without damaging the lawn. Like there are probably people that could do it. I am not that competent person and the workers in this are not that competent person. And I would say by and large in our Christian life, we are not that competent person to be able to identify who is and who isn't, um, a Christian who is or isn't a son of the kingdom versus a son of the devil.
Jesse Schwamb: And there's sometimes like we just get history reprised, or it's like, again, the same thing microwaved over and served to you three or four times as leftovers. So it's also gonna remember like any as extension that like any attempt to like purify the church perfectly, and this has happened like donatism in the fourth century I think, or even like now, certain sectarian movements are completely misguided.
Yeah. And Jesus already puts that out ahead of us here. It's almost like, do not worry what God is doing because God again is, is doing all the verbs. So here's a question I think we should discuss as we, we move toward like the top of the hour. And I think this is interesting. I don't know if you'll think it's interesting.
I, I kind of have an answer, but I, I'll post it here first.
Jesse Schwamb: So the setup like you've just given us is two things. One, we got the visible church, we talk about the visible church. I think a lot across our conversations. Yeah. And we might summarize it, saying it's like the community of all who profess faith, maybe even the community of all who are baptized.
Right. Possibly. Yeah. And it's going to include then necessarily as Jesus describes it here, true and false believers. So that's one group. Then we've got this invisible church, which as you said is the elect. Those who are known perfectly to God. So the good seed is those elect true believers. The weeds, then the weeds to me, or the tears, even better, they sound a lot like that.
Second and third soils that we talked about previously to some, to some degree. I'm not, I'm not gonna lump them all in because we talked about receiving the word and it taking root, all that stuff, but to some degree, and also probably like a soil one. But here's, here's the way I would define them up and against or in contradistinction to the elector believers.
They're the reprobate. They're false professors or they're children of the evil one. Now here's the question, Doni, Alex, I, I think this is very interesting. I'm trying to build this up for like more dramatic effect. 'cause now I'm worried it's not that good. The question is, I'm going to presume that this good seed, the elect, true to believers, the confidence of perseverance of the saints, the justification in sanctification of God's children is in fact though we at some points have our own doubts, it is made fully aware and known to the good seed.
That is, we should have, as you and I have talked about before, the confidence that God has in fact saved his elect. So the question that on the other side is for the ta, do the tears always know that they are the tears?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think, um, I've said this before and I, I mean it, and I think it takes probably more.
More discussion than we have time for tonight. And and that's fine because we can do as many episodes on this as we want to. 'cause this is our show and you can't stop us actually.
Jesse Schwamb: Correct.
Tony Arsenal: Um, I've said before that assurance is the proper and rightful possession and inheritance of every Christian.
Jesse Schwamb: Amen.
Tony Arsenal: Right. So I, I am not one to say that the technical terminology is that assurance is not of the essence of faith. Um, I think we have to be really careful when we say that it's not, but we have to be equally careful when we say that it is. Because if we say that assurance is of the essence of faith, then what that means is someone who doesn't have assurance, doesn't have faith.
Um, the reason I say that we can say that is because there's a sense that that's true, right? If you don't believe you're saved, then you don't believe you're saved and you don't trust that you're saved. But that doesn't mean that you always have full awareness of that confidence. And, you know, I think, um, I think.
I think you're, you're right that, um, it may not always be, let me put it this way. I, I think that we have to consider the entire life of a Christian when we're, when we're making that analysis. And in a certain sense, like, I'm not even sure we should be making that analysis. That's kind of the point of the, the, um, the parable here, or at least one of the points.
But, um, when that analysis is made, we'll, we'll channel a little bit of RC sprawl. It's not as funny when he's actually, uh, gone. I don't really mean channel RC sprawl. We will, uh, speak in the tradition of RC sprawl, um, in the final analysis, whatever that means. Whenever that is. You have to consider the whole life of a Christian, the whole life of a believer.
And so there may be times in the life of a believer where they don't possess that full assurance of faith or that that full assurance is weak or that it seems to be absent. But when we look at the entire life of a believer, um, is it a life that overall is marked by a confident trust, that they are in fact children of God?
Um, that a confident, uh, a confident embracing of what the spirit testifies to their spirit, to, to borrow language from Romans, I think in, in the life of a true elect Christian, um, that with the perseverance of the saints, uh, with the persistence of the saints and the preservation of the saints, um, I think that yes, those who are finally saved, those who are saved unto salvation, if you wanna phrase it that way.
They finish the race, they claim the prize. Um, that assurance will be their possession in their life as a Christian.
Jesse Schwamb: Right on.
Tony Arsenal: All of that to say, I think there are, are, there's a good case to be made for the fact that there is also people who have false assurance, right? And this is where it takes a lot more, you know, finagling and jockeying and theological explanation of how can we know we have true assurance versus false assurance.
You know, it's kinda like that question, like, does an insane person know they're insane? Well, does a false, does someone with false assurance know that their assurance is false? I don't think, I don't think so. Otherwise, it wouldn't be false assurance. Um, if they knew it wasn't real assurance, then they wouldn't have any kind of assurance.
So I, I think I agree with you at least where, where I think you're going is that we do have to, we do have to make some judgements. We have to look at our own life, right? Um, there is an element of fruitfulness in this parable, right? We'll talk about that. I, I think we'll get into that next week. But it's not as though this is entirely disconnected from the parable of the soils.
Both of them have a very similar kind of. End point.
Tony Arsenal: At the end of all things, at the end of the harvest, when the end of the age comes, and the reapers, the angels are sent, what they're gathering up are fruitful Christians, right in the parable, he sends out the, it's funny be, I love my dispensational brothers and sisters, but in this parable, like the rapture is the rapture of the unbelievers, right?
The angels go out and reap the unbelievers first. The, the weeds are bundled up and thrown into the fire, and then the, the fruitful wheat is gathered into the barns. Um, there is this delineation between the fruitless weeds and the fruitful wheat or the, the grain that has borne, you know, borne fruit. That is part of what the, the outward.
Elements of this parable are, so we should talk about that more, of what is this trying to get at in terms of not just the difference between weeds and wheat and how that maps up to those who are in Christ versus those who are not in Christ, but also like what is this telling us about the, the end of the age eschatology.
All of that's baked in here and we haven't even scratched the surface of that
Jesse Schwamb: yet. Yeah, we, we, I, and we just can't, even on this episode, probably, you're right, we're gonna have to go to two so that, I guess it's like a teaser for the next one. I'm told they're with you. It's interesting. I've been thinking about that, that question a lot.
And I do like what you're saying. You know, at the end here, it's almost as if Christ is saying at the time of harvest, things become more plain, more evident In the beginning. The chutes are gonna look really, really similar, and you're gonna go in and you're gonna think you're guessing properly or using your best judgment, and you're gonna get it wrong in the end when he sends out those who are harvesting.
I liken this passage here in the explanation as you read to us starting in verse 36, how there's this comparison of heat and light. And so there is the heat and light of the fiery furnace into which, as you said, all of those who are the children of the enemy will be gathered up and burned. And then there's that contrast with in verse 43, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
So there is like a reward that comes from the bearing of the fruit and that made evidence by a different type of heat and light. So I do struggle with this question because. It's easy to answer in some ways if we're defining the weeds in pirate or the tears in pirates as false professors typically.
Let's say false professors of a nefarious kind, then it seems pretty plain that somebody, right, that the enemy has implanted certain people to stir up trouble with the intention to stir up trouble that is in fact their jam. Or they know that even if they're putting on heirs, that they're in fact play acting that the hypocrisy is purposeful and that it is part of like the missional efforts that they're doing to disrupt what God is doing in the world.
So I might think of somebody like when we go, when we're looking in, um, Exodus, and we find that at least to some degree, all of Pharaoh's magicians can replicate everything that Moses is doing. Moses doing that by the power of God. But the magicians are so good and whatever means they're using, but they know, I presume they know they're not, they're not using Yahweh, they're not drawing their power or their influence from Yahweh.
Tony Arsenal: Right?
Jesse Schwamb: But it's so convincing to the people that Pharaoh is like, eh. Obviously I've seen that before because we just, we just did that here. Come back with your next trick until God flexes his mighty muscles in a really profound way, which cannot be replicated. And at some point there's a harvest that happens there.
There's a separation between the two, those who are truly professing, the power that comes from God, the one true God, and those that are just replicating the cheap copy, the one that's just pure trickery and smoke and mirrors. So. That's an easy category. I'm with you. And I'm not saying that this is an invitation to bring the kind of judgment here that we've just spoken against.
I'm not condoning this. What I do find interesting though is if the enemy is crafty, is it possible that they're always going to be forms of terror in the world that do feel that they have very strong conviction and belief about biblical things? Maybe there's, there's strong hobby horses or there are misguided directions here that pull us apart, that become distractions.
Or maybe it's just even attitudes, uh, things that can be divisive, disruptive, derogatory that again, pull us away. For making the plain things, the main things and the main things, the plain things, which in some ways draws us back to like the whole purpose of you and I talking every week, which is we wanna get back to what the scripture teaches.
We wanna follow the our Lord Jesus Christ very, very closely. I'm gonna clinging to the hymn of his rob as we walk through life so that we do not fall to those kind of false convictions. So I'm not, please hear me, loved ones. I'm not trying to call into question your faith as Tony just said. I am saying that there, this is kind of scary, just like we talked about.
There are elements of the parables of the, of the soil that were equally scary. And so it's just in some ways to say, we gotta keep our heads not theological, swivel. We, we gotta be about the Lord's business, and we gotta be about understanding through prayer and study and communion with him, what it is that he wants to teach us in the purest way, knowing that the church itself and the world, of course, is never going to be entirely pure.
At the same time, it is our responsibility to, as you already said, test for ourselves to understand what is that true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because some tears are going to be maybe easy to identify and with without, you know, throwing too much shade or. I was gonna say spilling the TI don't think that works here, but I'm not young anymore, so I'm trying to use or or put on blast.
Yeah. I'm looking at you Mormons or Jehovah's witnesses. Like it's, it's easier there to be like, yeah, right, this is wrong. It is a false profession, but we've just gotta be careful even in our own hobby, horses not deviates into ground. I think that doesn't preclude us from being children of the light and children of the kingdom, but can still be disruptive or uh, you know, just distracting.
But either way, yeah. I think what's scary to me about this is exactly what you said, Tony, is, is could it be that there are people that are very sincere about the Christian faith, but are sincerely wrong?
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: And what does that mean for God's elected purpose? What does that mean for our understanding of how to interact in our churches in the world?
Does that make sense?
Tony Arsenal: It does. And I'm not sure whether you were trying to set up the, what might be the first genuine reformed brotherhood cliffhanger, but you did. Because we're on minute 54 of a 60 minute podcast, and, uh, there's no way we're gonna get into that and not go for another 60 minutes. So, Jesse, I, I'm, I'm glad that we are taking our time.
Um, I know that sometimes it's easy when you put out a schedule or you put out a sort of projected content calendar to feel like you have to stick to it. But I wanna give these parables, the time they deserve and the effort and the, uh, the, uh, study and the discussion that they deserve. And I think the questions you're posing here at the end of this episode are really, really important.
And they are questions that this parable forces us to ask. Right, right. It's not as though we're just using this as a launching pad. Um. If the workers can't tell the difference between the, the seed and the, or the, the weeds and the weeds, it's reasonable to think that the weeds themselves may not be able to tell the difference.
Right? The sons of the evil one, um, are probably not in this parable, are probably not the people like in the back, like doing fake devil horns, right? And like, you know, like there's, there's probably more going on that we need to unpack and, and we'll do that next week.
Jesse Schwamb: I love it. So we've got some good stuff coming then, because we've gotta, this is like, do you ever remember when you were in, uh, you know, doing your undergraduate postgraduate work, you'd get like a topic or an assignment or a paper and you'd be super stoked about it and you start reaching it, be like, okay, researching it.
And you'd be like, all right, I've got some good topics here. And then you get into it, you're like, oh, but I'm gonna have to talk about this. And Oh, like before I could talk, I'm gonna have to explain this. Sometimes when we get into these, as you and I have been talking, that's what it feels like. We're like, we can wrap this up.
Right. And not, because we're like trying to put it into like these really fine bite sized, you know, little sound bite, discrete chunks. But I did think, yeah, we should be able to do this. And then the more you and I talked, the more I was thinking, wow,
Tony Arsenal: yeah,
Jesse Schwamb: there is so much for us here. Like I'm, it's just opening up into these grand vistas and we've gotta stop and do a 360 view.
We gotta like take out the phone. We can't just snap a quick couple stills. We gotta take a video and do that whole panoramic thing on the iPhone and it takes time. You gotta go gently. Yeah. With the phone. You do too fast. Just like a blur. You end up with like. The same person on both sides, you know, it's, it's gonna be weird.
So next episode, we're definitely gonna have to hit this stuff. We already talked about the enemy, Satan, but here's what we're gonna have to get into the harvest. We got some final judgment action. The reapers, we got angels executing God's justice. And then there's the barn. Yes. Which is probably the consummate of kingdom and new creation.
So
Tony Arsenal: yeah,
Jesse Schwamb: there is, there is so much left, but because we've always scratched the surface, Tony, if people have their own thoughts on this and they might be thinking, I only wish I could tell Tony and Jesse my perspective on this. There's, there's gotta be a way. Have we made a way?
Tony Arsenal: Is that even possible? I feel like there's a way.
If I can just, so if you go to t Me slash Reform Brotherhood, um, I'm guessing if you've made it this far into the episode, you're still listening. You're probably already in the Telegram chat. But if you're that random person who listens to the ends of podcasts, uh, even though it's just announcements, if you want to, uh, come have that conversation, we would love to have you.
Uh, telegram is just a chat service. It's a, it's a pretty straightforward. Text messaging app with some extra features. Um, we have a corner of the internet that we've carved out that for the most part is, uh, kind and friendly. Um, people are are genuine and because we fill sort of a little niche and we all are sort of weirdos in the same way, it's pretty easy to spot when like a bot comes in there and we get those outta there pretty quick.
Um, but we, we care about each other. We pray for each other and we talk through theology and we share funny videos of us tasting new foods that are gross and weird. Um, so come check us out, t me slash your for Brotherhood. If you don't have Telegram, that will guide you to how to install it on whatever device you'd like.
Um, and it at pretty much every device that you can get apps on, you can get Telegram on. Um, if you do have Telegram, it'll jump you right into the channel and you can look around before you join and then you can join. And we would love to have you. And as long as you're gonna be contributing to the friendly part of the internet that we're trying to build, um, then you'll fit right in.
Jesse Schwamb: And it's been so much great conversation. Maybe what we should do is I'm just gonna drop into part of the telegram chat and call out somebody so that way you know, that we're, we're always in the mix ourselves, but that it's just fun to see these are brothers and sisters, men and women from all over the globe.
I mean, we can say that confidently because we know people often disclose where they're listening to us. But I'm just gonna call it Brother Wesley who has dropped in this week and has had some spurt, some great conversation, and he did it in a particular way because not only can you type your messages and who, I mean, it's the world in the land of text messages, who doesn't love that?
But in Telegram, you can also leave a voice message, so you can actually have your own voice in the Telegram chat for people to listen to and then to respond. And like for instance, Tony and I are recording right now, and somehow I can see that Tony's typing in the telegram. He, I mean, that's how good it is.
Loved ones, we're not even done yet talking. Tony's already in the telegram, so go to t me slash reform brotherhood. Over to you, Tony.
Tony Arsenal: If you, you're too fast. I, uh, I had to throw a little gif up there. Nobody's gonna know what it's about until they listen to it, and that's great. I love it. So, yeah, please join us.
Um, we usually have a bunch of other announcements, but we'll skip that for now. Um, we are really excited about this, uh, this series that we're on. Um, I, I mentioned it before, like, there's something so great about just getting together with someone, you, um, someone you care about and just talking about the Bible.
And that's really what this podcast is about. Jesse and I have these kinds of conversations when we are in the same place, whether we're at the beach or we're at, you know, together at Christmas time, or chatting on our own private telegram chats or phone calls or whatever. And these are just conversations that are great to have and it's, it's always good to sit and chat about the Bible.
So please do, um, pick up a decent commentary. Please read ahead. Uh, we're gonna be still in the parable of the TAs next week, um, for sure next week and maybe even the week after that. Who knows? Only the Lord knows. Um, Jesse, and until we get there. Oh, you, oh, I could see you're jumping in.
Jesse Schwamb: No, I was just, uh, well, okay.
Can I give, like, we didn't talk about this, but can I give like a preemptory like survey thing?
Tony Arsenal: Yes, do it.
Jesse Schwamb: You just, you just remind me of something if you made it this far. Congratulations. You're of the elect. No, I'm just kidding. Um, so you reminded me that we are together at certain times of the year. One of those times is coming up.
We're coming up to like celebrating in that new year, the really the 10th anniversary, which is so incredible and hard to believe. I was thinking about that today. It feels like maybe max five years, but somehow I know a decade has gone by and we just won't stop talking. So, because you and I are gonna be together at the end of the year, we're recording this, we're sitting in October right now.
I wanna give everybody some time to think about this. We always talk about when we're together doing something special, something different. And so let's throw it out to the listeners and we'll maybe keep this in front of you. What would that be? So like, I'm gonna throw all of our family, our combined family under the bus, Tony, and just volunteer them if there's enough strong interest from the listening loved ones.
So what would you like to hear slash see? That could be, we could do some tastings. We've talked about that. Whether it's like neck wafers. Other kinds of candy, kimchi. We got all kinds of stuff there in the mix. Maybe you would like to hear from our resident pastor, who is my father, Tony's father-in-law, uh, the venerable Reverend, Dr.
Kevin Schwam, or my mother. Or maybe you'd like to hear we, we floated this before, but that's that elusive, the reformed brotherhood wives tell all episode where we don't even, we're not even on that episode. It's true. And, and they just talk. Assuming we can convince our wives to do that, but I bet we could if there was interest.
So here's your chance to jump in a telegram chats and just let us know and, and we'll keep bringing up what did I miss, Tony? What would be other things that we've said over the years that I know would be different and fun that we could really only do or do really well when we're actually sitting in the same place?
Tony Arsenal: I don't know. You kinda put me on the spot. I don't know. I'll think about it a little bit. You know, the only, the only member of our family, uh, and this isn't even really true, but the only member of our family who has not made an actual appearance on the podcast is your wife. Yeah. I mean, aside from one time, one time I text messaged her and told her to walk in the room and yell Ysi and walk outta the room, and she did it.
And that's the only appearance of the elusive Jessie's wife on the podcast.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's that's true. But, uh, our wives have never really done a podcast together. Right. That's
Tony Arsenal: true. That's true.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I mean, well, if she's never been on this show and, and to some degree your children haven't really been on, but like they've been present and they've been on the camera a couple times 'cause they're adorable.
That's
Tony Arsenal: true. Yeah. Sometimes gie makes a little bit of noise when he's on.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, sometimes. I mean, he's, he's chatty. He could just carry a whole, I mean, the listener doesn't know that's, uh, you and your wife actually are corded. Like this'll be, it's secretive. Uh, but there was like a,
Tony Arsenal: what was it called? Um, he, he likes to do podcasts now.
He says, uh, let's record a podcast. And I go, alright, let's open the podcast. He goes, hi, everybody. This is the GIE show. Yes, that's, and he is like, let's talk about how I fell down at the library today and Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: He's good. He's natural. It's amazing. I'm not,
Jesse Schwamb: I'm not gonna lie to you guys. It was better than 75% of the podcast that I listened to you, like I'm talking both production and content.
And the kid was definitely natural when impressed me. Tony, and I know we're well over time, but now we're, now we're really advertising for other podcasts that'll be in the network, like the Auggie show. It's fantastic. And had me on the edge of my seat. 'cause I was like, what did happen at the library? It's interview style, which was delightful.
But you said, what do you want the people, uh, your wife who was doing the first episode with him, it's wild. We can talk like this, of the Auggie show. Said like, what do you want the people to know? And he's just in the background going, podcast. Podcast. Yeah. I didn't even know he knew that word, but like the annunciation of that particular word was like so good and strong.
I was like, you are your father son.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Well, it's because it's, well, we'll wrap this up. I promise, as soon as I say this, I'll, I'll say the thing and we'll end the show, uh, because, uh. This is like a sub affirmation. It'll have to be a real, like a formal affirmation at some point. Um, the listener knows that for a while I was recording outside.
Now it's like, like 58 degrees, like 40, 55 degrees by the time I'd be recording. So, um, your mother, my mother-in-law has been gracious enough to let me use a spare room at her house. So every, every Saturday night, I have to tell I'm gonna go. I have to go. I'm not gonna be here for bedtime. And he, he always goes, well, what, where, where are you going?
I say, well, I have to go record a podcast with Uncle Jesse. So now he started saying like, I wanna record a podcast with Uncle Jesse. And I'm Uncle Jesse wants to record a podcast with you kids. So it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen.
Jesse Schwamb: I love it. So everybody be thinking of what kind of fun things we can do together.
What, what you like to, like to hear. Honestly, you've heard a lot of us. And maybe there's something in particular, but it's always fun. We could actually be together and we're gonna have all this family together. And so if you want a little bit more insights or you're just tired of hearing, Tony and I talk.
That's okay. We got some other people that you might be interested in hearing. It's a, it's a pretty strong network. Alright, that's enough from both of us. We hope that you will come back next week because there's so much more to say as there has been for the past decade. But until that time arrives or if the Lord comes before then let's honor everyone.
Tony Arsenal: Love that brotherhood.
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In this episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb conclude their three-part exploration of the Parable of the Sower, focusing on the final two soils. They examine the sobering reality of the thorny soil—where cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke out genuine faith—before unpacking the nature of the good soil that bears fruit. The discussion weaves together important theological concepts including divine regeneration, the dangers of idolatry, and what true fruitfulness in the Christian life looks like. Rather than causing believers to anxiously question their salvation, this episode offers encouraging clarity about God's sovereign work in preparing hearts to receive His Word and produce lasting spiritual fruit.
The thorny soil represents perhaps the most unsettling and deceptive condition in the Parable of the Sower. Unlike the path (where the seed never takes root) or the rocky soil (where it quickly withers), the seed among thorns actually establishes roots and begins to grow before being choked out. This makes it particularly frightening to contemplate—it represents those who receive the gospel with apparent sincerity and show initial growth, but ultimately prove fruitless because worldly concerns and material desires claim their ultimate devotion.
As Tony points out, "This is talking about someone who is not chosen by God. He is not the elect of God. Otherwise, the riches would not have choked out the word, but it is a divine act of judgment." The thorny soil shows us how God can use our own idols—whether wealth, career, family, or even good causes—as instruments of judgment when we elevate them to a place of supreme importance in our lives. When we attempt to serve two masters, we inevitably end up serving only one, and it will not be God.
The good soil in the parable represents those whom God has specially prepared to receive His Word. The hosts emphasize that the soil doesn't prepare itself—this is entirely God's work of regeneration. Just as a field left to itself doesn't naturally become productive farmland, no heart naturally receives the gospel without divine intervention.
Importantly, the parable doesn't teach that Christians must produce a specific quantity of fruit. Whether 30, 60, or 100-fold, the point is that genuine faith produces fruit—period. As Tony explains, "This is not a call to look at your fruit and try to figure out how much you have and if you have enough of it. The point of the parable is not, your only good soil if you produce at least 30 fold. That's overinterpreting the parable." This understanding brings freedom from anxious self-examination about whether we're "fruitful enough" and instead focuses on the fundamental reality that those whom God has regenerated will bear the fruit of Christlikeness in their lives.
"I tend to think, as I've gotten older, but also just I think as I've learned more experientially about theology and about the faith... I don't think you can be serious enough about Jesus Christ." — Tony Arsenal
"It's not that the fruit makes the tree good. The good tree makes the good fruit... The indicative here is the good soil. The indicative is what God has done in preparing the soil." — Tony Arsenal
"The struggle is real, but it's a battle that I think is worth fighting... We've gotta do better and it's worth trying." — Jesse Schwamb
Jesse Schwamb" Welcome to episode 464 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.
Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear.
Hey brother.
Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. The band is back.
Tony Arsenal: It is. It's, and we're gonna be
Jesse Schwamb: digging through a little dirt and sifting some soil. Today on this episode. Sounded like a threat. We're gonna be digging up some dirt. I realized once it came outta my mouth, it sounded like we were, what? What did the kids say? Like, spilling the tea.
Spilling the tea. It sounded like we were gonna talk about something scandalous. Actually, maybe it is. It's a little bit scandalous. Yeah, it's not, not scandalous. Not
Tony Arsenal: that kind of scandalous. Yeah. This is not that kind of podcast.
Jesse Schwamb: Yes, that's true. If you were tuning in thinking it was that podcast, whatever that is, it's not what you're thinking.
True. It's something far better.
Jesse Schwamb: In fact, one of the things that it seems like we're always talking about is how the Bible makes it clear that those who make a genuine profession of faith will continue in that confession of faith. And that's really the theme on which we're about today. We're gonna be wrapping up this whole parable of the sower or the soils.
We started with the first two soils, then took a quick excursion where we went back and kinda looked at some of those things happening in the first two soils all over again. And now we're gonna close it out. So we're, we're gonna get down and dirty, not in the way that you're thinking. More, more in like a, a Matthew 13 kind of way.
All right. So yes, come meet us there. Roll up your sleeves if you wanna get your hands in the soil, that's where we're gonna be hanging out. But of course, before we do that, before we get into any kinda gardening, any kinda horticulture, any kinda seed throwing, let's first do a little affirming width or denying against.
So, Tony, I missed you last week. It was, it's always, it's never the same. Yeah. And I was always thinking, man, I need a Tony right now. So, hit us with, are you affirming with something or are you denying against something?
Tony Arsenal: I, I'm coming in hot with a denial today.
Jesse Schwamb: I, I thought you might be, I suspected,
Tony Arsenal: yeah. So I was on, uh, Twitter or I suppose they call it X Now.
That's never gonna stick in my mind. Uh, and I came across a little meme, and I don't know if it's because the pope. Is like crazy, like did this weird ice blessing thing or if it's just the algorithm. But I've been getting a ton of like Roman Catholic stuff on my, my Is a Feed. Okay. I don't even know what they call it anymore.
Uh, has been coming across my screen on, on X and I'm gonna, I'm gonna give a disclaimer here. What I'm about to describe is a meme that has a two, a second commandment violation in it. There's no way for me to describe the meme without describing the meme. So if, if you don't want to hear it, then just fast forward, hit the little, like 15 second forward button twice on your keyboard.
I, I don't feel convicted that I'm sending by describing this to you, but if you do, I understand that conviction. So feel free to skip ahead. So the meme is a picture, it's a little cartoon, it's a picture of Mary, and there's a, a, I think it's supposed to be a toddler, although it wasn't really drawn like a toddler.
There's a, a small child sort of standing behind her, grabbing her sleeve going, mom, mom, mom, obviously this is supposed to be, uh, Christ. And the caption says the first Hail Mary, right? And, and so I'm denying, first of all, like I'm denying that this meme exists because of course we shouldn't be making images of Jesus and, and.
It's flippant and all those things. Um, on on top of that, this is an encapsulation of what the Roman Catholic Church actually believes about the relationship between Christ and Mary is that Mary is essentially in charge of Christ even now. This is why the Roman Catholic Church would argue that you go to Mary to get salvation because she then gets it to, gets it for you from Jesus.
And so the meme is blasphemous like. To the nth degree on a couple different levels. Of course, it's blasphemous in that it is perpetuating a false, uh, a false understanding of the relationship between Christ and Mary, where Christ, uh, I think, I think the most technical Roman Catholic theologians would probably say like Christ as a man, although I'm not sure how they sustain that, because they actually would, would argue that, you know, they would, they would argue that the reason that, uh, Mary can give you salvation is because she can ask it of Christ.
And Christ is obligated to, um, grant her request and obey her, um, her directions and commands. Um, but then of course, like it also just reveals. Um, at least in this particular instance, it reveals that there is a certain form of reverence and a certain, certain form of regard that is typically reserved for Mary.
And there was no qualms in this case of basically making Jesus look like a whiny toddler. Um, you know, again, I affirm the full humanity of Christ. Uh, toddlers are not necessarily sinning when they have a temper tantrum that it's a brain development thing. It's, it's not necessarily sinful. So I think Jesus cried as a baby.
He probably had tough time dealing with emotions as a, as a toddler, just like all toddlers do. But to sort of make this into, uh, make, to make Jesus the punchline of the joke as like the whiny toddler yelling, mom, mom, mom, um, you know, and Mary's got like a wide eyes, like a frustrated mother. Uh, it, it just, everything about it rubbed me the wrong way.
So I'm denying, I guess, the Roman Catholic. Veneration of Mary in like the most core sense, but just also that veneration of Mary has necessarily denigrated Christ from his proper role. That that's it. That's the denial.
Jesse Schwamb: That was full, that was chock full of all kinds of good stuff. I'm with you. We've had a long tradition, I think you and I have as we've grown.
I think it matured into some degree of really just coming against all kinds of representations in this way, like all kind of kitschy niche, like jokes of this kind of manner. Even if there's like seemingly well intentioned or they're just poking a little bit of fun, whether that's like the, the encapsulation of those like precious moments style figurines where Right.
This is time where it's like the sacred bowing to the secular and it's, you know, or sorry, the other way around. Yeah. The secular bowing, the sacred where you have, you know, Santa Claus bowing before the manger. It's weird. Or whether you have like that t-shirt that is an image of Jesus. Goal on soccer says Jesus saves.
Yeah. You know, this is way worse than that, but it's in this weird realm of wanting to like poke and have a little bit of fun and be cute about spiritual matters. Yeah, and you're right, certainly has like an entry point or a root and things like that. Sometimes, like we we're not even. I think sometimes the people putting those things out aren't even understanding themselves.
But it causes like all kinds of problems with like this idea of Mary, for instance, as a emrex, which are, in some ways you're talking about this weird cooperation and, and even if it's insubordinate way with a Christ redemptive work, her free consent in baring him as a son and then the spiritual union with him and suffering on the cross.
And probably many people, if there posting it be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not at all what I intended. But really it draws all of that in. It's so problematic. And so, yeah, for the person that's looking at that and then actually does some research and wants to understand what could be implied in this, you're gonna find all kinds of really horrible stuff that leads you astray.
And then for those that just look at it and say, well, isn't that funny? That's also equally a problem because Yep. It's not a matter to be trifled with or to be a punchline of a joke. Some things are just not I, I'm with you. You know, we've talked about. Whether or not in that old Christmas hymn, like not a, not a sound, he makes no crying.
He makes, whether that's doism or not. And we've said that so much time in cheek, but it illustrates this point that Jesus identifies with us critically and fully in our humanity, yet with without sin, he doesn't cease to be the son of God in his coming down and condescending to be like us, to be with us.
That's all critically important, but the minute that we denigrate that by these, this kind of imagery or this kind of joke making is really the place where you fall really. We just fly really fire field of what the Bible teaches. It's good to have this warning. Yeah. It's good to have the, I think you're, you're calling us like the alarm bells in our mind and, and that's good.
Whether it's like blatant that we see it and we can critically identify it in front of us or whether like we're just prone to make the joke or to participate it. Yeah, because we think, uh, it's, it's edgy and that's okay. It's just not.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: I tend to think, um, and I've, I've come more this direction as I've, as I've gotten older, uh, but also just I think as I've learned more experientially about theology and about the faith, um, you know, I think you come outta seminary with a head full of knowledge and not a lot of experiential religion.
And as I've had more experiential religion in my life, I don't think you can be serious enough about Jesus Christ. Yeah, that's fair. And so I think anytime that you are trying to say like, well, don't take it so seriously. Like, what do you mean don't take the God of the universe so seriously? Don't take the savior of the world and the, the one who died for my sin.
So seriously. I, I just think there are probably people out there that would be like, quit being such a like scrooge about this. Why can't, you just can't just take a joke. And I think if I'm gonna err on the side of either being too serious about. The one who died in my place and not risking, uh, denigrating him or reducing him to the butt of a joke or, uh, or err on the side of, you know, being funny.
Like, I think I'm gonna take the safe option and just say like, God says not to blaspheme his name and not to make light of, and take vain the things that he uses to reveal himself. And certainly. Jesus is the supreme revelation of God and is God himself. That's right. So we should not ever take that lightly or vainly.
So, and again, like it's funny that you say like, people who are looking at this, you bring in concepts of the trics might be like, whoa, that's not what I meant. I, I think actually the thoughtful, well, well-informed Roman Catholic, that's exactly what they meant. And that's also why, uh, we're getting to that time of year where that Mary, the constellation of Eve, um, painting is about to start circulating and everybody's about to start fighting online like that, that image of Mary looking down at Eve's belly or you know, Eve looking down at, at Mary's belly.
And it's very beautiful and very touching and very emotional. Um, oh, and also like Mary is standing on a snake's head, right? Like, it, it's Roman Catholic theology baked into the, baked into the pie. Right. And you can't get it out of there. So I, I think that's important to, to remember and just in general, like we should just.
There's no place for that in reformed theology. There's no really no place for that in Protestant theology. Um, I suppose you can make an argument that, um, other Protestant traditions do hold Mary in a higher regard than reformed theology does. I, I would dispute that because I think when we put her in a place that she shouldn't be, we're actually putting her in a lower regard.
Um, so that's enough about that. Again, that's, that's the denial. It shouldn't surprise anybody that I'm, I'm an anti papus, uh, not an anti papist. I'm anti papus tree. I like papus. Papus tend to be nice people. There you go. Um, and, and I want them to, to know Jesus truly and fully, but uh, their theology's junk.
I'm not afraid to say it. That's good. All I've got to say about that
Jesse Schwamb: big swing and a miss. Yes. And I should probably say, Les, anybody think we're moving in this direction? I wanna clarify something. I think you'd agree with me on this, Tony, that we're certainly not implying, nor I think would it, we would actually believe if pressed on this, that Jesus himself didn't have a sense of humor.
That's not really what we're saying here. I think this is more about the fact that Jesus deserves our, like every ounce, every modicum of respect, adoration and worship that we give him. He deserves it all and more. So it's interesting to me when you look at the span, like kinda the swath of word religions and philosophies.
I, and maybe we talked about this before and I don't want to get us like on, off, off, on some kinda weird excursions. It's interesting to me how in some of those views. They hold their prophets or they hold their religious figures in higher regard, and the world respects that. I think one of the ways we see that Christianity is in fact real, that it is separate and distinct from all those things, that it is the absolute truth is that we would expect that if the first commands in particular are focused on us, honoring God, worshiping him rightly, holding him in a nce and highend lifted place, then the enemy would do everything possible to undermine that in every conceivable medium, in every conceivable way.
Yeah, and that's exactly what we find with Jesus, both his name and his image. I, I just find that very interesting that why is it that cultures around the world, if you want to take someone's name in vain, it is predominantly the name of Jesus, right. And so I, I just think there's like a massive attack that, that the enemy leverages against humanity, against Christians, against culture to say denigrate Jesus.
Anything that you can do to put him down in some kind of way to make him the brother joke, small or large, to use his name in a way that's opposite the way it's ought to be intended. And everywhere we fine. That's exactly what's happening. And in a way that's like, to my mind, I haven't done like a formal survey.
You tell me like disproportionate to any other name, any other expression, any other like profiting or profiling like a religious leader or worldview to use in some kind of negative or like horrible way?
Tony Arsenal: I, I can't think of another, I actually can't think of another example of that in, at least in the West, um, I, I, you know, people would joke around and be like, buy Odin's beard, but like that's obviously a joke.
Yes. Um, it's obviously people who are trying to. Mock the mockery of Jesus like there, yes. And in, in itself, that's actually an attempt again to demonstrate how foolish they think Jesus is by comparing them to the obviously false, ridiculous idea that Odin is existing. So I, I think, yeah, I think you're right.
I, I, I don't think I know of a serious actual usage of another religious figure's name that is comparable to the way that people bla him our Lord. So again, it's, you can't take Jesus seriously enough. Uh, you can never take him too seriously. And, uh, we, we should always err on the side of reverence when we're talking about God.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I love that. It's such a good reminder. You're right for all seasons, but especially the ones we're about to enter into, and I think you're right. You'll never be disappointed. I don't think I'll ever look back and say I'm, I really regret that I took as hard stance on that, like in my family, how I interact with my children and my spouse, how I use the know Jesus.
I will say, and I'm taking us away again, but I, I want to point out something because you, you've brought up a conviction in my own life recently, and that is like, even we've talked about this in the episode before, but more so for me recently, like substitutionary words I use. Yeah. And, and they are like in our culture, accepted.
So let me give an example just real quick, and that is like saying, you know, people might say, oh my gosh. Uh, I'll often say like, oh my word, or I'll, I'll say like, holy cow, or something like that. I've really been convicted recently that in this same vein, that the, there are words that, and representations and substitutes that just should not be made.
You should just strike 'em from your language altogether. And that's increasingly my conviction. And it's, it's very much in this vein is, is let yes be yes, and let my worship be completely devoted in my mouth. Be pure in the way that I speak. So that like, 'cause even something like as simple as you think, you're, you're saying, oh my word, and you're substituting, that might sound innocent, but what is the word we're talking about?
Like, we of all people should be able to say, like, what am I saying
Tony Arsenal: here? Yeah.
Jesse Schwamb: So it's just, there's, the struggle is, is real, but it, this is a battle that I think is worth fighting. And if people say, why don't you say certain things? Or because it's, it's, we did a whole episode where it's like, for Christians.
Don't do substitutes. If you're gonna do substitute, you might as just say the thing. Yeah. 'cause people are interpreting that anyway, as you're just doing like a poor man's use. Right. Of taking the Lord's name in vain or, or some kinda derivative. And you may be very intentional about that because you don't want to, and so you're, I'm with you.
Loved one, so Yeah. I'm with you in that. I just think it's, we've gotta do better and it's worth, it's worth trying, I don't know, make up your own phrase that's that's not related or. Fiddlesticks. Yeah, but see,
Tony Arsenal: like this, this, and this is where we don't have to rehash it. 'cause this is where we landed on the, the episode when we talked about this is, it actually doesn't matter what phrase you're saying or if it is etymologically related to, you know, a mint oath is where you, you would be saying a, a straight out, blasphemous phrase, but you substitute, um, you substitute words in.
But at the end of the day, if you're just making up a phrase so that you don't say men's oath or so that you don't actually say blasphemy, like it's still the same thing in your heart. And like it's inescapable. And I think this is the last thing I'll say because this is not the episode and it doesn't need to be the episode.
Um. Uh, Marcus Aurelius in meditation says something that is, is pretty profound. But I also think something is really, uh, that's really useful for Christians in our particular flavor of theology, um, especially for like moral, ethical things, is that we should be strict on ourselves and gracious with other people.
And I think, you know, I, I have the same conviction you do about men's oaths, and it's very, very difficult. And it is not just a matter of taming your tongue, it's a matter of taming your heart. And that is impossible, um, this side of glory. But there are other people who aren't gonna have the same convictions and Right.
Um, and I'm not talking about like straight out sin there, there's a, there's a category of a well-intentioned sin where someone is still sinning, but they're doing it with a desire not to be sinning. And we all do those things. We all have those things in different areas. And I think when we encounter those things, I think this is one of those things where, just like you said, someone might say.
Oh my goodness. Or oh my word, or, oh my gosh. They might say that thing in the attempt not to take the Lord's name in vain. Right. Meaning to say, I wanna hold God's name in reverence so I'm not gonna use it flippantly. Those are not the exact same sins. They're not the exact same thing. And I think we have to have some grace for people.
'cause we can't do any better ourselves. I agree. Like I said, even if we come up with a nonsense phrase, we're just replacing one men's oath with another that's not at etymologically connected to the original phrase. So I think that's a good reminder. Take God seriously. Um, I, Jesus, I'm sure Jesus had and has a sense of humor.
Um, I'm sure he was probably a pretty funny, probably is a pretty funny, charming guy. Um, you know, but, um, but he also demonstrates in the scriptures, he had a very, he was a very serious person. Yes. Um, we're gonna see as we go through the parables, actually, there are lots of places that are pretty funny.
They're, they're humorous, they're funny examples. Um, you know, so anyways, I think that's enough about that. We don't need to make this the whole episode. Jesse, what are you affirming or denying tonight?
Jesse Schwamb: I'll, I'll try to keep this tight since I extended us so long on that really good, uh, denial. Two quick affirmations.
So I know I said quick, but I'm gonna do two, but I promise it'll be really fast. Okay, so here's the, the first one, given our schedule, now, this makes me seem like I'm clairvoyant or appreciate at least, and that is I'm going to affirm with a brand new album that will drop the same day you're hearing this episode.
So you should just go to wherever, device, whatever subscription service or whatever. CD or vinyl store you get your music from.
Tony Arsenal: Nobody listens to CDs anymore. Justin,
Jesse Schwamb: assuming those, they're coming back, they're printing those bad boys CDs. Yes.
Tony Arsenal: That's dumb.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: Still, at least vinyls have some sort of like, I'm derailing this here, but at least vinyls are like tactile and like analog CDs are just, I guess like on a technical level there's, they're also analog, but still, yeah, it's like the digital,
Jesse Schwamb: you know, every, everything becomes nostalgic as you get older.
Right. So you can now buy CD players. Anyway, I was actually just looking at the recent, I still have a whole like thing, like a hole. Stack Tower of cd. Anyway, wherever you get your music, we're, we're just gonna go everywhere tonight. Unashamedly, wherever you get your music, go get this album. It's by Gray Haven.
It's their second album or third album. I can't remember now because I'm thinking about CDs and it's called Keep It Quiet. It's gonna come out on October 10th. You're gonna want it. Here's the, the interesting thing for me is I've only heard three songs because that's all that's, that's released again, this, you couldn't do this when it was just CDs.
So you get these three songs from the album. They're so good that I can repre, I can recommend this like unreservedly. So just, just go get that. The second thing ends in this kind of, I would say, crosses over somewhat to what we were just talking about in the denial. And that is, uh, this weekend in my household, for many people, I love, one thing always happens and that is there's this local running festival.
Where you choose a duration of time, it's what's called an ultra event and you just basically run into your legs, fall off for the time runs out. And I'm just so proud of I, I couldn't do it this year because of some health stuff which I was disappointed about. I am so proud though of so many people I know and love who did this.
One is my wife who put in 28 miles today, and then also my good friend and brother Nate. He was, he's long been after this elusive and running what's called 50 kilometers, which is a little over 31 miles and he got it today and I'm just so happy for both of them. It, it's, if you've run like around the block or I don't know, a hundred miles, it doesn't matter.
Running is hard. This is why people still show up to like cheer on runners because they recognize that if it were easy, everybody would do it. It's just hard. And of course I always think back to the Apostle Paul using that particular metaphor to describe the Christian life, and I agree because we were just talking about like, Hey.
Fighting sin or you know, really coming in. Participation as a Holy Spirit leads us to, with our own volition, our effort, devoting ourselves to working out our salvation as Christ works within us. To work out that salvation, that is like a long slog. People speak to me. I've heard people talk about like this victorious Christian life, and I know what they mean.
Yes, in the end it's victorious, but I don't know. Sometimes it feels like it's just one battle off the next, or it's the same battle. It's a bit like running where you're literally forcing yourself to say one foot in front of the other by the power of got one foot in front of the other, and then the race ends.
You put in your 50 K, you finish the 5K, you finish the one mile run, and you think to yourself. Man, there's joy in finishing, you know, and finishing well, like not giving up, keeping after doing that thing. So I'm proud of them and it's an encouragement to me about like that being the Christian life. So wherever, whatever you're running these days, loved ones, whatever, wherever you are in that race, like maybe it's the marathon and you feel like you're in mile 24 and it's all uphill and you just wanna give up, do not give up.
Like lean into God, trust in God, ask for the power of the Holy Spirit again and again to fill you up so that we can all finish that race really, really strong and really, really well.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I'm gonna ruin your spiritual metaphor here and just say like, and. I think if you told me I had to run 30 miles, I could probably run directly to the hospital and just die.
Like if you, if you got behind me with a, like a knife and said, if you run a mile, I'll stop chasing you. I don't think I could make it at this point. Yeah. So to hear that, to hear that your wife ran 30 miles or uh, or 28 miles you said, right? Yes. 28. Um, or that, that your friend ran 30 miles. That's. That's crazy.
That's impressive.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I a problem. It's also maybe like an encouragement for somebody who needs it right now. Do the hard thing. Yeah, and that might be a physical thing. Maybe it's like you're studying for a test and you know you need the discipline to like really buckle down and get on schedule. Like do it loved one, like trust in God, seek his help and his support.
Maybe it is like your training for some event. I have no idea. Like do the do the hard thing, like it's controlled suffering and there is like a beauty in that. There is a spirituality that forces us to realize how contingent we are and then to come before God. I'm not saying you have to go and run your own ultra marathon.
That might be a little bit wild. But I do have a special respect for anybody who puts in some like crazy hard work. Honestly. You know what that is? Basically. It's also like raising children, isn't it? I mean, you know best like Yeah. Sometimes that's the marathon is you do that every. Day. And it's both physical and spiritual and emotional.
Mental like, and you don't give up. You trust in God and you do not get up, give up like even when maybe you don't get up. But when you are on the ground, yeah, and you still have the parent, you're still parenting. So for what it's worth, keep doing the hide thing. Keep trusting in God for that.
Tony Arsenal: It's true.
Tony Arsenal: Jesse, should we talk about some soil?
Jesse Schwamb: Listen, I've been waiting to get into the soil. I thought you would, you would never ask if you would just stop delaying us and turning us onto all these side, side topics. So I, I think everybody, hopefully if you were tracking with us. You know, we're hanging out in Matthew 13.
I'm, I'm gonna refer you to that passage and I think what we should go over is we want to hit like these last two. And so just as like a quick refresher on like where we've been. So Jesus gives this amazing parable. He's speaking about salvation from like a God perspective, from his perspective, and he uses his farmer who's sowing seeds in his field.
He's walking on the field, he's scattering the seeds and they four, they fall in four different places. The first is the hard path where the birds eat it. The second is the rocky ground where it springs up immediately because it's, the soil's nice and warm. There's probably like a bed of limestone underneath it, but because that bed is there, it's soon scorched by the sun because it can't develop any deep roots.
We talked about those. Go listen to us. Super good. As far as I'm concerned, it was definitive. Let's talk about the last two, because these really are. Well, the last one essentially is, is like the punchline of the whole thing. This, this is the big reveal. It's the finale. And so we've got the penultimate seed, which is the one that falls among the thorns where again, it grows up, but then is quickly choked out by the stronger weeds.
But then lastly, Jesus of course, ends with this good soil where it not only sprouts, but it bears this fruit that's 30, 60, even a hundred times its original offering, or a hundred times itself. So let's get into these last two.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So I'm just gonna read, um, starting here in verse uh, chapter 13 verse seven, just so we have the word in front of us.
It says here, other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grains. Some a hundred fold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let 'em hear. And then I'm gonna skip down here. It says in verse 22, it says, as for what was sewn among thorns, this is Christ interpreting the parable to his disciples.
It says, as for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word. We could probably, uh, just a little bit of commentary. We could probably, uh, translate that word hears as receives, right? This is, this is not just someone that the, the words bounce out their eardrums. This is someone who has some sort of reception of the words.
All of these are someone who has some sort of reception except the very first kind it says, as for those, uh, as for what was sown among ths, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. As it proves unfruitful, as for what was sewn on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.
He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundred fold in another 60 and in another 30. So Christ interprets the parable to us. So on one level, like we, we probably don't need to talk about much, but
Jesse Schwamb: end of episode.
Tony Arsenal: Yep, end episode. But we got another 30 minutes to go and I'm sure that we will make good use of it.
So, you know, the first two soils. The, the first soil, nothing happens, right? It, the, the seed doesn't even take root. The second soil, the seed takes root and begins to sprout, but it, it gets burned out by the sun and it never, it never, uh, actually blooms or fruits, right? Uh, the third soil, it, it takes root and it grows and it sprouts.
But because of the thorns, and the thorns are the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of the world because of those things, it never bears fruit. And, and in my mind, and you can tell me if you agree with me, Jesse, like those, that's the scary one for me. Like, I think the, the, the other two, I think, um. You know, there gets to be a certain point in the Christian life where, you know, you're not the first soil, right?
Because you've got, at least you, you've got at least some sort of roots. You could be relatively confident that you're not the second soil because you have some sort of staying power. Um, and then you start to think about like, well, am I the third fruit? Am I the right or am I the third seed? The soil, the, the unfruitful soil?
Um, and then of course we all want to be the final fruit and or the final soil. And what I think is so interesting about this is the final soil, it's not, um, there are a lot of different ways you can understand this. You know, a hundred fold, 60 fold, 30 fold.
Tony Arsenal: I think what's really stands out to me is like, it's not the amount of fruit that is necessarily the important part of that.
And I think saying there is these different levels of fruitfulness. It. It's almost as though Christ is saying it bore some fruit and some fruit was enough. Right, right. This is not a call to like try to analyze, did I bear enough fruit? It's a call to say the one who bears fruit will persist until the end, even if it's just a little bit of fruit.
It might be a little bit, it might be a lot. Um, but the one that bears fruit will persist. What do you think?
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I totally agree with you.
Jesse Schwamb: This is the terrifying one. Because there is this emphasis, first off, that the roots are settled down, that they actually go to some extent deep, like it can support a plant that is in some ways, like at least in adolescence, but it's growing up.
What I find that's like the most terrifying thing about this is it's almost like this in my mind. Uh, I'm not critiquing like the perfection of this parable. I find that this language, this really dramatic verb set here is almost like better suited to like another metaphor, another environment. It's brilliant that the parable in this example of using like farming and the sowing the seed, that it actually is wide enough to encapsulate all four of these different soils.
But when you get verbs like choking out, like the, the way the thing goes to my mind is like, it's almost like, Hey, you've heard and received the word. You've been trained up. You're ready to go. You made it. Into the ring, but guess what? Now you gotta fight somebody. Yeah. And they're gonna come and choke you out.
Yeah. Like they're gonna knock you out. They're gonna take you out of the game.
Jesse Schwamb: And so this actually does, I think, go back to the very place where we started, which is that the Christian life in some way is, is a battle. And that what's being, at least propagated here is that without having a severe loyalty to the gospel, to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you will get choked out by something else, by anything else, by everything else.
This is Jesus, you know, saying in, in Matthew chapter six, no one can serve two masters. And this is like so dramatic. Think about this. No one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Now, this seems to me like directly parallel here, and I think even that language, you might find Christians to say, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying.
Like, I can, I can do all these things. I can really have a, a, a love for like the physical things and appreciate the finer things in life and really, you know, feel okay and have some support and confidence in my bank account and still love Jesus here. Now again, I don't wanna play that too fast and loose or too finely tuned.
But the point is that I think we, we have to be on guard here. And that the one who truly receives this gospel is the one who forsakes all things for the sake of Christ, for his glory, for our good. So, I'm with you because this is the terrifying one. It's, it's the one that should cause you to say, what, what camp am I actually in here?
Yeah. How do I understand the severity of what Jesus is speaking about here? Because. If what he's saying is true, then distraction to like earthly matters, to lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh to money and possession and wealth, that these things can choke us out and choke out the gospel message.
And we have to, I think, at least be honest in understanding that that's a possibility.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think, you know, Christ is so gracious to us to give us this interpretation, right? Mm-hmm. There, there are lots of, there are lots of parables that the Holy Spirit, either Christ never interpreted them to the people who heard them, which is certainly a possibility.
Um, or I think in, in many cases probably he did and just wasn't recorded for us. But this is a, this is a clearing call. And, and as the sort of like. We've talked about how this parable is sort of like the Rosetta Stone of all the parables,
Jesse Schwamb: right?
Tony Arsenal: Right. It's, it's the theology of parables and what parables are for, and what parables do in a parable is that there are some people who hear the same, they hear the same thing, they hear the same gospel.
Um, in, in some ways, at least on a, a temporal, horizontal level, they appear to react and, and receive the gospel in the same way, uh, at least at first. And then they allow their allegiance and they allow their desires and their concerns to take a priority over, over God. Right. I, I'm, I'm working on some, um, some revitalation revitalization of my blogging activities, and so I've been beginning to work through like the beginning parts of the catechism.
The, the Westminster larger catechism. And you know, if God is our chief end, if, if enjoying God and Glor or glorifying God and enjoying him forever is our chief end, nothing else can be our chief end.
Jesse Schwamb: Right? Right.
Tony Arsenal: And so the second we allow something else to be our chief end or to try to even, even if we try to say like, well, money or fame or riches or my family or my job, or anything, like, that's a, that's an equally chief end.
We've already lost the plot. Right. And this is, you know, this is what Christ is talking about when he says you, you know, you, you cannot serve God and money you cannot serve God. And wealth is that if you allow wealth to become your God, then you've lost the true God. Right. Plain and simple. Like that's all there is to it.
Tony Arsenal: And so when, when Christ here says that the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word and it proves unfruitful it, it's actually, um. I would say it's actually an act of divine judgment that the riches have done this to you, right? It's not that they are in themselves, uh, negative or evil or in themselves corrupted or somehow dirty or anything like that.
But if you have, if you have allowed them to become. Your God, then God will use those very things to choke out the word. He will use those very things to displace the power of the gospel in your life. Uh, and this, this is, it almost feels weird to be talking in this way because we talk about how the gospel is, you know, we talk about like effectual calling and irresistible grace, and those, those all have their particular meanings.
Um, but that's talking about like God's work in, in the elect. This is talking about someone who is not chosen by God. He is not the elect of God. Otherwise, the, the, the riches would not have choked out the word, but it is a divine act of judgment. It's like in Romans one where, you know, there's this list of all these, uh, sinful things that God is enumerating in Romans when Paul's enumerating in Romans one, and then it says, and he turned them over to their passions.
Jesse Schwamb: Right?
Tony Arsenal: Right. We tend to think of the passions primarily, you know, passions in that case's, talking about sexual passions, you know, illegitimate sexual desires and passions. Um. We think of those things as the sin itself, and it, it is, but it's also the thing that God uses to judge us for that very same sin.
He allows us into this death spiral of increasing sinfulness. That in itself is what destroys us, and this is what's going on, is the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of the world, right? It's not as though caring about your family or caring about your finances, or caring about being a good neighbor or taking care of the environment, anything that you might wanna do, that's a good and noble and admirable thing, right?
It's totally fine to think that recycling is a thing we should do. It's not fine to think that recycling is somehow a, a responsibility that's on par with church attendance, right? Or worshiping the Lord or serving your community. Serving your community of faith. Um. You know, praising Jesus prayer, all of the, you know, attending to the means of grace.
Um, if we allow those things to supplant God as the rightful ruler of our heart, then he will use those very same things as the, the means of our condemnation and judgment. And that is what proves it unfaithful, is that it becomes. In itself, it becomes the fruit, the, the, the deceitfulness of riches becomes the fruit.
It replaces the fruit itself. So again, I think this is, this is a really sober warning, but how gracious is Christ to give this to his disciples and to give this to us right up at the front of all of the teachings on parables.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think you're right about that. It's, it's an overconcern that results ultimately in idolatry.
And this is just old-fashioned idolatry here. That's the warning. It's, and I think we should be clear and honest that this is always a temptation of God's people. Right. I'm with you. It's this desire to move what is a right concern into an over concern, either resulting in anxiety or then idolizing something in your life such that it becomes your source of comfort and strength.
And what we have here is that the third soil never comes up to the full standard of New Testament Christianity. There's no fruit that's being brought to perfection here. And I like what you're saying. I think this supports like my theory about what it means when we say like the, the. Scripture that goes out.
The message God's word never returns void here. The return that, like the, the echo that comes back is in the form here of judgment. It just merely reveals that this is our default condition apart from God. Now, the reason why I wanna be honest about this is because I think this is hard. It's hard to think about.
It's hard to understand that, well, how can anybody bear fruit when this temptation to focus on other things? That is, to have this grand secret that destroys and chokes out is just a condition of being in the world and being concerned about the world and having cares of the world who doesn't have those current concerns and cares.
The good news is the disciples ask that question of our Lord and Savior directly. You know when, when he's, Jesus said, listen, it's way easier for a Campbell to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for our rich men to be saved, and the disciples say what all of us should say. And what I'm grateful that they did say, and that was who then can be saved.
And God, of course, Jesus gives that amazing line, which is with God, all things are possible. Yeah. And that's what we're talking about here, right? And it's inevitably leading us that with God, all things are possible. That's the bridge here that we're gonna traverse into quickly like this fourth soil. It is possible with God and apart from God, we're adventures in Romans one, we're getting this kinda judgment.
But all that to say, I like where you kinda started us idolatry is. The real threat, loved ones, like it's the real, it's not just about like competing in priorities. It's not syncretism, it's not right having something in a parallel track. It's that God wants all of us in that when he is not everything, the other thing is gonna choke out the gospel.
There will not be fruit. So if we think that we can somehow have divided minds, split personalities when it comes to our devotion, we're definitely fooling ourselves. And the judgment is right here in the text force. Yeah. So I think this is like, there is, like you're saying in some ways as we move through these soils.
We see like kinda increasing, you know, maybe reception. You know, we might say that the third soil is, is understanding, giving a scent to this message. In their judgment they approve of it, their conscious might be affected by it, their affections are in favor of it. Maybe they even maybe acknowledge that all is right and there's a goodness and wordiness to it, but they stop short because they cannot abstain from all the things which the gospel condemns.
That is like this dual mindedness in what it means to be devoted and in, in the focus of their worship, in the thing that they actually set their mind and their talents and their abilities upon in a closed handed, not open-handed way, but a closed handed way. And so in some ways might say, well, it's getting better.
In a way it almost seems like it's getting worse because as you said, there is like this double judgment of saying like there was a receiving of it setting down of the root. But all of that root, that setting down, that actually growing up with the plant was to demonstrate God's great judgment in that he is should have acy over all things including, and especially our devotion to him.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah.
Tony Arsenal: And, and I think the, the last, you know, as we kind of round out the time a little bit here, I think this is such an interpretive key passage for really the rest of the New Testament. Um, I mean the whole Bible, but the New Testament especially, and, and I don't think people recognize how critical this is.
So just we've already talked about, like, this ties into, um, you can talk about this in terms of like preaching methodology, right? Right. It has something to say about the fact that when Christ pictures himself, uh, or, or when Christ, um, embeds himself into the parable. And when we get to verse 24, in the next parable, we'll see that this good man who is sowing the seeds is, is Christ.
He is the one who sows the seeds. Um. We pattern ourselves after him. He, he doesn't just put the seed of the word on the soil that he knows it's going to grow. Right. So there's that, this is, you know, the whole doctrine of election baked into this parable. It's also the doctrine of the, uh, the indicative preceding the imperative.
Yes. Right. When we get to the good soil, it's not, it's not that. The fact that the plant, uh, fruits that makes the soil good, it's the good soil right
Jesse Schwamb: on
Tony Arsenal: that makes the plant fruitful. It's the good soil that brings forth the fruits, not the fruit that brings forth the good soil. And, and this is the same as when Christ, you know, and other parables will talk about it, but he, when he talks about how, um, from a good tree comes forth, good fruit, and from what, from a wicked tree comes forth wicked fruit, it's not that the, the fruit makes the tree good.
The good tree makes the good fruit. And I think this is, this is a key. Thing that we need to understand is the indicative here is the good soil, right? The, the indicative is what God has done in preparing the soil. There's an implication in this text. The soil doesn't become good on its own, right? Right. A a a field left to itself is not going to be going to be able to support agricultural produce, right?
If you go out into a field, you may find lots of things growing, but what you're not going to find is a plant that yields of, of, you know, a harvest of a hundred fold. You're never gonna find that. Um, you might find some wildflowers, you might find some wild strawberries. You're not gonna live off of what just naturally grows in a, a, you know, an acre of land for any sustained amount of time, you're gonna pick it clean pretty quickly.
So there's an implication in this, that the part of the reason that the soil is good is because it's been prepared. Okay? Because it has been tilled, although we talked about how oftentimes they would till the ground after the soil. But there's a, there's a difference between the land that is prepared for the seed and the land that is not prepared for the seed.
And all of the land, apart from the good soil, is in a sense land that is not prepared for the seed, right? The land that has thorns on it is not prepared for the seeds. The land that is shallow and has bedrock immediately under it is not prepared for the seed. And the pathway is not prepared for the seed, but the soil that is good soil that not only receives the word, right?
We, we talked about how you could translate, here's the word, is receives the word. It's actually like a reception of the word and understands it. Right in the New Testament, it is consistently articulated that those who are able to understand the word in, in a salvific sense can only do so because the Lord enables them to, whether we're talking about John three, where it says, no one can see the kingdom of Heaven apart from the spirit, right?
Or we're talking about the more explicit passages where. You know, spiritual things. We, we, we share spiritual things, interpreted as spiritual people or, um, you know, uh, that the, the supernatural cannot be comprehended by the natural. It's across the whole New Testament. It is God who makes it. So not only is the word heard, but it understood it is comprehended, is spiritually appropriated.
That is what we're talking about here. That is the prepared soil is the soil that can hear the word and can spiritually apprehend it. And that soil, that person, that believer who has been tilled up by God, who has been prepared in advance, not in the like, preparatory grace sense, we're not talking about like preparation, but who has been given ears to hear, right?
There's a reason that that's at the end of the parable, the one who has been given ears to hear. And understand. He is the one who bears fruit and yield and, you know, a hundred fold, 60 fold, 30 fold. And again, I don't think that, this isn't saying like there's these different measurements. It's, it's saying the yield itself is not the measurement.
The fact that there is a yield no matter what the measurement is, whether it's 30, which is probably a somewhat, uh, somewhat modest yield, or 60, which would probably be like a bumper crop or a hundred fold, which is like an unimaginable yield, whatever it is. If there's a yield, if there is fruit, there is fruit.
Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I notice that it's not, I, of course, I'm always thinking of numbers, especially when I see them pop up in the scriptures like this. I love some good multiplications of product, you know, stuff know it's not one-to-one. Even at that quote unquote lower yield, God is doing something in a multiplicative effect through normal means, in his ordinary ways that produce almo like a supernatural event, supernatural outcome or, and I mean that in like a supernatural outcome.
Jesse Schwamb: And so I think that we can end with this. I'm hoping people are hearing that this is encouragement and, and maybe we should kind of draw it there because I've heard some people say that this parable refers to like three different categories of quote unquote save people. Yeah. And only the last category receives the heavenly reward, although the three of the four soils are saved.
And I think like you're saying, you've drawn a good distinction for us. It's clear that the middle two soils do not hear. They do not receive truly and and understand. And we are talking about the gospel here. So I hope people are not saying or hearing, especially after what we just talked about in that third soil.
This is not a, I don't know why you're clapping, I'm talking about you situation. Yeah. This is really to be a great encouragement. And I say that because sometimes. Even as we study these things, we take ourselves too seriously. Like I know that we wanna study, we wanna learn, we want to get to all the nuance theology on this.
We wanna learn the right terms. But when we come to this final soil with everything you just said, which was really great admonishment that again, God is doing all the work, God is preparing that soil. God is doing this great regeneration in our lives. That's really what we're talking about here. Then what we're really saying is the forest soil.
Are those who just simply receive Christ's truth into like the bottom of their hearts in the essence of their believing, and they believe it implicitly and they obey it thoroughly. It is like really a childlike faith that just recognizes because the Holy Spirit has illuminated the mind and given the heart the ability to receive it and just says.
I know the truth when I see it and God has given me this ability to say, this is in fact the truth and I'll stand in it as simple as that. So what it doesn't mean is that of course everything is perfect for us or that everything is, is easy like we've been saying, but it just means we're gonna have like a uniform, plain and unmistakable results in the hearts and in the life because God has allowed us to receive this because of the great prep work that he's done.
So that means even though we're gonna be sinners still, that that sin is like really hated in our lives, that we mourn over it, that we resist it as best we can, and that we renounce it. We are quick to come before God. And as Spirit said, keep short accounts. I think that's critical. It's again, it's better like running that race.
It doesn't mean that we, we don't stumble that we trip, we get bloody knees, but that by the power of God we stand up again. And through his strength in the in the spirit, we keep our legs moving. I think it means things like we're going to trust Christ at his. And even though that's hard, we're gonna ask him then, Lord, would you help me?
Whatever unbelief I have, of course, I believe, would you help my unbelief? Yeah. So that Christ is truly loved, he's trusted, and we follow him, we obey him. And that, as we've talked about a lot on this podcast, that we have some interest, some volitional proclivity toward holiness that shows itself in our lives, in humility, in spiritual mindness, in the fruit, not fruits, but fruit of the spirit.
So we're patient, we're meek, we're kind. We seek charitable charity. I think all of these things are just peace wise, what it means to be in the forest soil, and it doesn't necessarily mean that we're the smartest person in the room when it comes to all of this theology. I think what it really calls us to is to trust God in his character for who he is and for who he says he is.
And that the ability to do that, as you're saying, Tony isn't dependent on our getting enough knowledge or the knowledge is important because of course we cannot worship God properly without knowing him. But I'm gonna go all the way back to the start of this episode, and I think you said it best, which is what is our experiential faith like?
And I think that is what God is calling us to here, and that experiential faith is the one that just acknowledges and receives this word of God and trust in it so deeply that it begins to know God so thoroughly because it has no other choice but to trust him in every moment of life to. Perform to exhibit and to make good on his promises in a way that moves us beyond just knowing what the scripture says by rear and rote ascent to the principles, but instead is not just a relationship with God, but is trusting in him as a child with trust in a parent who takes care of them.
And God's basically saying, whom I save? I never, never deliver up the baby to be left on the doorstep. And here, I think in this parable, we find proof positive that that's exactly what God does, that he loves us. I was thinking today as we were preparing in my mind for this conversation, somehow I was just going back to First John.
And I don't know, is it chapter three or chapter two? I can't remember. Somebody will call me out on it. But where? Where John says, see what love God has lavished on us, that we would be called children of God. Like see, come and see. See what love God has lavished on us and it's this, in fact, it's this love that calls us to like this.
The simplest of responses here, it's not that complicated. It's challenging at times, but it's not that complicated. And that is to receive this word and then to trust in that word fully, knowing that it's God who gives us the faith to begin with and therefore it's God who beginning that good work in us will see it through to completion.
Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I like what you're saying here and I think you know, a bear's saying, um, because there are some quarters of. I'll, I'll do the quote unquote thing. Um, there are some quarters of quote unquote reformed Christianity. Um, and the reason I'm doing the quote unquote thing is 'cause I don't actually think that this represents reformed Christianity.
Who, who would sort of minimize the call to hard work as a Christian. Right? They would, they would, they would almost degrade it to the point where a, a Christian who, who works hard and tries to get after it for holiness is somehow actually less holy than the one who. Doesn't, and that that's not a, that's not a biblical Christianity or a reformed Christianity that I recognize.
I I've never seen that in the scripture. I've never seen that anywhere in the reformed confessions. Um, I've never seen any reliable, reformed thinker, um, who has articulated that we should be lazy or that we shouldn't work hard. Right. And there's a difference between saying we should work hard and get after it in regards to holiness.
Um, and saying that the, the working hard is what produces the fruit or that the working hard and getting after it is what creates the holiness. That that's not at all what we're saying. What we're saying is that God creates the holiness Yeah. And he expects us to work hard out of that holiness.
Jesse Schwamb: Yes.
Right
Tony Arsenal: on. Right. He expects us to work hard because that's the kind of people that we are now. Right. He's made us into a new creation. He's made us into a new creature in Christ, and he has prepared good works in advance for us to walk in them. And he expects us to walk in them. Um, and, and he chastises us when we don't.
He never lets us go. He never condemns us. He never brings final judgment upon us. Um, he, he may bring temporal judgment upon us. There are times that we are chastised and we face, uh, face divine consequences if we are not obedient to his word. But he never, he never ceases to be our heavenly Father. He never ceases.
We don't ever become unjustified or even unsanctified. We're always still called according to his purposes. Um, and I think that that's where I would leave it here is that this is what it is to be good soil and. This is not a call. Um, again, to be maybe to close with a little bit of an encouraging word.
This is not a call to look at your fruit and try to figure out how much you have and if you have enough of it. The point of the parable, um, i I is not, uh, your only good soil if you produce at least 30 fold. Right. I don't even know what that would translate to. Right. That's overinterpreting the parable.
That's a danger we get into with all of these when we start to start to say things, you know, like you're talking about with sort of like second blessing Christianity and stuff, where, well, if you got the 30 fold or the 60 fold, then I guess like maybe you'll make it through the fire. You're, you're the, you're the person who's saved through fire in, in second in first Corinthians, right?
But you really wanna bear fruit. You really want to get the reward in heaven. You really wanna have the big mansion, then you gotta be the a hundred fold Christian. That's just not the point of the parable. It's not, um, the point of the parable is that the good soil is prepared by the one who sows the seeds and the one who sows the seeds does so wisely.
And the good soil does what good soil does, and it bears fruit. That's the point of the parable. And if we start to go outside of and beyond that point of that parable, that's where we start to lose the plot. When we over-interpret or we, we try to find these side stories or side points that really just are not, they're just really not there.
Um, so Christian, I would, I would really encourage you, it is worth looking and seeing, am I bearing fruit? Am I the soil that's bearing fruit? But you know, the fruit is not, um, is. Even necessarily the good works we do, that is certainly a kind of fruit. But when we talk about fruit, we're talking about are you the kind of person that looks like Jesus, right?
Are you loving that? Are you kind? Are you patient? Are you, you know, are you self controlled, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control against such things? There is no law, right? We're talking about the fruit of the spirit. We're talking about the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love are those things.
What mark your life? Then obviously you're a good soil, right? Not those things are not what have made you good soil. Those things are in your life because you are the good soil who's received and understood the word, and it has produced those fruits.
Jesse Schwamb: So what have we learned in this whole parable? Well, it seems clear that the parable of the sower is teaching us that the gospel call goes out to everyone, but only those whom God regenerates that good soil like we've been talking about, will receive it savingly and bear fruit, and we ought to spend some time trying to at least assess.
I think this is good to try to understand in what camp do we fall here. It's a parable that, as we said, highlights all kinds of amazing things about who God is, his. Ability of sovereign grace to direct the course of all things. The necessity of fruit is evidence of true faith and the assurance that God's word never returns void among his elect.
And I think it's also been made clear, at least in our conversation with me and you today, Tony, that um, we're all runners at least spiritually, and it's probably a marathon or an alter race. And so as you're saying that we need to be about the business of God, not because it's that business that somehow Meritoriously elevates us to a place of good standing with God, but it's more because he's equipped us for that run.
And then he says, you're ready. You have my power and my strength. I've trained you up the, the same power that right. Rose Christ, my son from the dead is alive and well in you. And now move your legs, get going. And so we need to do all of those things. Uh, we've also learned that we can somehow keep the affirmations Nile to less than 30 minutes, even when I do my best to pull us off track.
Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yeah. Jesse, uh, you know, I'm, I'm super excited to get into the rest of the parables. I don't think they're all gonna take three weeks. I hope they don't all take three weeks, or we should just rename this, the reformed parable. Brotherhood or something like that. Um, but we, we wanna go as quickly as we need to go, but take as much time as we need to take.
And I don't, I don't know what the schedule's gonna be because I think sometimes with these parables, you start to get into 'em and you start to peel it back and you start to realize there's more to what you, there's more there than what you thought. And just like the rest of scripture, and maybe perhaps even more than the rest of scripture, um, the parables have this way of reading us, of sort of standing over us in judgment and bare, like laying us bare.
Mm-hmm. And so we wanna let them do that work. We wanna let them do that. So.
Tony Arsenal: Another place that you can, can help process this. If you are reading through the parables with us, or if you're listening to them and you wanna have more conversation. We have a little, uh, telegram chat, which is just a little chat app, uh, our own little corner of the internet where we talk about memes and we try new foods and we take videos of ourselves and we, you know, we do all sorts of stuff.
Uh, there was a long conversation, uh, yesterday about whether it was deceitful for a restaurant to include, uh, to calculate the recommended tip based on the post-sale tax amount. So there's all sorts of conversations happening going on there. Um, but it's a fun place. People are charitable, they're gracious.
If you've got a need for prayer, people will pray for you. They will check up on you. If you need someone to help you fix your air conditioner, there's usually someone there that's willing to help. Uh, you can go there by going to t Me slash Reform Brotherhood. You can do that from any browser, and it will either bring you into the group if you already have Telegram or I'll prompt you to download Telegram.
Uh, it's an open group so you can look around, you can see if what I'm saying about it being a kind place and a charitable place is true before you join. Uh, but I do hope that you will join us. Lots of good conversation happening in there. Uh, really it's just a great place for people who are a part of this reformed brotherhood, um, experiment that we've been on for the last, almost, almost 10 years.
That's crazy. It's coming up to, to really gather and just talk about this and to get after holiness together. I mean, that's really what it's about.
Jesse Schwamb: Double digits. Loved ones. It's happening technically next year, I guess at the end of this year. But I'm with you. There's a bunch of channels there and I've loved, we have a whole channel and just like talking about the episode, people are just jumping in there with their own observations.
Great conversation about what you and I are talking about, expanding it out. I think that that's super awesome. I do love that. The way that you sold this though was let's talk about how we calculate tax like that. That's always in tips, like that's always a real crowd pleaser. If you were looking for some esoteric math about how you are gonna calculate the tip, either gross or net, then this is your place and there's so much.
If you think that's good, then I can confidently say, oh, you're gonna love it. 'cause there's a whole lot of
Tony Arsenal: other more fun stuff than that. Yes, there is. Well, Jesse, this has been a great conversation. I'm super excited as we move forward on this. Uh, you know, it's, it's gonna be a good time. So if you are not subscribed to the show, somehow you're listening to this, you're not subscribed, you can go ahead to, you know, apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you happen to be listening to this.
Uh, and click on that subscribe button. Uh, if you're on watching on YouTube, I guess some people will be watching on YouTube, I suppose I'm supposed to say, like, hit the reminder bell and smash that like button or something like that. Uh, but Jesse, I, I, I sound like an idiot. I'm not gonna try that again.
But Jesse, until next time, honor everyone.
Jesse Schwamb: Love the brotherhood.
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In this solo episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse Schwamb explores the profound depths of Jesus' Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. While this parable might seem unassuming compared to others, Jesse reveals how it serves as the "granddaddy" of all parables—offering a God's-eye view of salvation through the ordinary imagery of farming. The episode examines why different people respond differently to the same gospel message, and challenges listeners to consider what kind of soil their own hearts represent. Through historical context and theological reflection, Jesse unpacks how this parable prepares believers for the mixed responses they'll encounter when sharing the gospel and reminds us that the efficacy of salvation depends not on the sower's skill, but on God's sovereign work in preparing hearts to receive His Word.
The power of God's Word stands at the center of the Parable of the Sower. Jesse highlights Isaiah 55, where God declares that His word "shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose." Unlike human words that often fall flat, God's Word always achieves its intended effect. This doesn't mean universal salvation, but rather that God's purposes are never thwarted. When the gospel is proclaimed, it always returns to God "full" of something—either acceptance or rejection. The parable illustrates this reality by showing the various responses to the same seed. This should encourage believers in evangelism: we are simply called to faithfully sow the seed, while God determines the harvest according to His sovereign purposes. Our success is not measured by conversions but by faithfulness in proclamation.
The historical context of Jesus' ministry reveals a profound disconnect between what people expected from the Messiah and what Jesus actually delivered. Jesse explains how the Jewish people anticipated a conquering king who would overthrow Roman oppression and establish a visible earthly kingdom. Instead, Jesus announced a kingdom that begins in the heart, dividing even families according to their response to Him. The Parable of the Sower anticipates this mixed response, preparing disciples for both acceptance and rejection. This teaches modern believers an important lesson: the gospel will not be universally embraced, even when perfectly presented. Some hearts are like paths, others rocky ground, others thorny soil. Yet we continue sowing because God has appointed some to be good soil—hearts prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive the Word and bear fruit. This reality should both humble us and embolden our witness.
"The power of this message is in the message itself, but the medium by which it is delivered... it does pierce the heart. It does pierce through bone and marrow. It does divide because it always returns full of either acceptance or full of rebellion and denial." - Jesse Schwamb
"We find ourselves humbled. We find ourselves rushing in, coming into the kingdom, fighting to come into it because God has impassioned us with that same zeal that has accomplished this very thing. He implants it in our hearts, in our minds, in our guts, so that we would come before him and worship him." - Jesse Schwamb
"Consider what it means that this good news... that God's word is his deed. This is why... it's such a blessing to live in this period of time where we have such easy access for most of us to the word of God, and that we ought to be zealous about getting that word out to all people because behind it and within it and around it is the full power of the Holy Spirit." - Jesse Schwamb
Welcome to episode 463 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse, and this is the podcast for those with ears to hear. Hey, brothers and sisters, so I am just one half. Of the Reform Brotherhood squad. Tony, of course, wanted to join us on this episode, but it sometimes happens in life. Our schedules were a little bit crazy this week, and God gave us responsibilities that put us in opposite directions for part of the time.
And so that means that today on this episode, I thought. You and I, we could just hang out and Tony will be back to join us in the next episode.
But for now, this is one of those solo or formed brotherhood episodes. And if you have been tracking with us, we just started this great and amazing journey on going through all the parables that our Lord and Savior gives to us in teaching us about the kingdom of God and its power.
And we just started by talking about the parable of the sower, in fact. In the last episode, we just covered basically the first two soils, the first half of that amazing little story, and I thought it would be really, really great to camp out in that for just a little bit more because even though Tony's not here, the podcast goes on and we, Tony and I never really.
Thinking about these things and when we start a series in particular, we always find that we just gotta keep going back on it in our minds ruminating on what we said and what God was teaching us and the conversations like all good conversations that draw your mind back to the things that you talked about, which I should say maybe before I begin in earnest, that is also my denial, which is saying things like, let's camp out in this text now to be.
Sure. There's no wrong reason why, or there's no bad reason to say words like that. It's just when I hear myself say them, I think about all the things that Christians say, like saying like, we should camp out in this text, or Let's sit in it for a while. And I think maybe it's because I'm just not into camping or maybe because I think most of the time when you use the phrase like, sit in, it's not.
A happy or blessed or joyful thing that you're describing. So I always find that funny, and yet here I am saying it because I just couldn't think of anything better to say except, you know what? We should pause and maybe ruminate a little bit more. On all of this good stuff that's in Matthew chapter 13, where Jesus gives us the parable of the sower, so you can join me in sharing which little Christian phrases maybe you think you hear, we say too much or just become rote or part and parcel what it means to talk.
The best way for you to do that is do me a. Go to your favorite internet device and in the browser, type T me slash reform brotherhood, that will just take you that little link to a part of the internet using an app called Telegram where a bunch of brothers and sisters who listen to the podcast are chatting about the podcast, their live sharing prayer requests, and there's even a place for you to share, Hey, what are the things that Christians say that you think.
Why do we say that? Why are we always talking about hedges of protection? Why are we always talking about camping out in a text? So that's a place that you can come hang out. So go to t.me/reform brotherhood.
But enough of that, let's talk a little bit more about this incredible parable that our Lord and Savior gives us in Matthew chapter 13.
It's so, so short in fact that I figured. The best parts of any conversation about the Bible is just hearing from God in his word. So let me read just those couple of verses. It's just eight verses beginning in Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the sower. That same day, Jesus went out from the house and sat beside the sea and great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down and the whole crowd stood on the beach.
And he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched.
And since they had no roots, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seed fell on good soil and produced grain. Some a hundred fold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears let him hear.
I have to say that of all the parables, and we mentioned in the previous episode that this one is kind of the granddaddy of them all.
It's a god's eye view on salvation told in this lovely kind of encased way about horticulture and farming and growing plants. But to be totally transparent, I never really got into this parable. It was never really my favorite one. Like of all the things that Jesus says, of all the creative and wonderful terms of phrase, this one for me always just seemed to be lacking That stuff.
You know, it doesn't have really strong characters. It's about a sower, seed and soil, and compared to some other things that seems kind of unassuming and. Not very exciting, quite honestly, to me, and it's not as exciting, I think, as stories about, I don't know, losing something of value and then suddenly finding it and rejoicing and having the characters, feeling yourself in those characters as they go about experiencing all the emotions.
That Jesus expresses and keyed in these lovely little riddles called parables. And so for this one, it's always been a little bit kind of like a, okay. It's interesting and the point seems fairly straightforward and it just doesn't captivate me as the others. And I've been thinking about about that, how even in this, it just seems like a really normal, mundane, kind of pedestrian expression of a life in that time.
And it's all wrapped up in gardening. And throwing seeds into the ground, not even having control of their outcome. And then in this way, though, expressing and explaining this grand narrative and arc of salvation from God's perspective. So it is, again, another lesson in God using ordinary, normal, almost seemingly mundane things to express his power, to express our lack of control and to show so that he does.
Did I just say so to, so that he does all things and certainly we get so much of that in this parable, and so it made me think this week after Tony and I talked about it a little bit. Just how it raises a question in this really normative, kind of unassuming, almost boring, if I can say way, this really profound question, which is, will we be this fruitful, fertile soil?
Will we be fruitful followers? Of Jesus Christ. And it doesn't just raise this question, I suppose it also gives us some hope, but it also does so with a warning. It is a maybe a little bit of law and gospel even embedded in these simple means of, again, talking about what it means to plant something and to entrust the planting, the acy of the growth there to the soil and the seed, and there's hope.
There's warning and there's so much of that that's in this context of the parable, and that's what's led me to wanna talk to you all a little bit about that as we kinda process together more of what this means.
I was thinking that when Jesus began his ministry, when he's coming forward, he's really announcing the arrival of the kingdom of God.
And it's helpful, I think, to meditate as a second on how profound that is, that he comes again, not just as the message, but the messenger and the medium of that message. I was just kinda ruminating on the fact that. Everybody had high expectations. There was no one, I think, with kind of a low opinion of what was about to happen or of what the Messiah was going to bring or what he was going to do.
And here you have like explicitly Jesus' hearers, their ancestors would've been taken into exile and captivity because they had broken the covenant with God. And the prophets had made this case for God's punishment because of their idolatry and their injustice. But that message, and you get this especially in in books like Isaiah.
Where there's this mixture that's bittersweet. There is not only an exclusive message of woe for the people, but there is at the same time up against sick, almost running parallel. This promise of a day when God, by his own effort in Zeal, would bring about a restoration where he'd set up visibly an earthly reign through his anointed Wanda Messiah.
And so I can only imagine if I could. Even partially put myself in the place of these people who are hearing this particular parable, that there is all this sense that we have strayed from God, that we're covenant breakers, but that he has promised to make a way and that his own zeal will very much accomplish this, but it will be visible and earthly, not just spiritual in the sense that we believe these things and we internalize them in the sense for our being, and therefore we speak about them in these kind of grandiose and ephemeral terms.
But more than that, that God was going to come and set up an earthly reign, purely manifested in the world in which we live and breathe and have our being. And so two things would happen. Israel's oppressors would be defeated. And God would institute a pure worship and a reestablished pure worship. And so I can't help but think maybe there was some of this expectation.
They're, they're seeing this Messiah, this Jesus, the one who speaks with a different kind of authority, come into their midst. And there I think all these things are somewhere in their minds as their processing. Maybe they should be in ours as well. And so there's this portrait that's being painted here of the prophet saying there's gonna be.
Restoration and this image of a seed being sown. And then of course you have these metaphors that Jesus is employing in his own time. Very reminiscent of passages like in Isaiah 55, where you find the prophet saying, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and I shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. What an amazing, glorious promise of God that there is no suboptimal nature. In his expression of who he is and what he's accomplished, that the very thing that he intends to do, he always does, and this word comes back.
I think what really strikes me about this passage in particular is the fact that it does not return to God empty. I mean, think about what that means. It's strange in a way. That. In other words, it's full of something. And here I think it's full of response. It's full of anticipation. It's full of this.
Like what? What has gone out is now received by the individual and then returns with either acceptance or denial, very much in the same way that we're about to receive it in this parable before us. And in fact, even our ability to understand the parable. This if you have ears, he has ears. Let him hear that itself is an expression.
So in other words. The power of this message is again, in the message itself, but the medium by which it is delivered, it does pierce the heart. It does pierce through bone and marrow. It does divide because it always returns full of either acceptance or full of rebellion and denial. And so when we think about the people of Israel.
They exactly in that way. They return from exile under Ezra Nehemiah. But even those returns, even those improvements or some of that remediation seems to me like to come short of expectations. You know, Ezra rebuilt the temple, but it paled in comparison to Solomon's original, in fact. If we go to Ezra chapter three, there's like so much honesty as the people are seeing this rebuilt temple.
Their response is, is like tragic in a way. So this is Ezra chapter three, beginning verse 12. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers houses, old men. Who had seen the first house as the temple of God wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy so that the people cannot distinguish the sound of the joyful from the sound of people's weeping for the people shouted with a great shout and the sound was heard far away, even in just the setting up the foundation, the base layer.
There are those saying this is. This is not like it used to be. Even this is just far piles in comparison and falls very far short of the original. And of course you have Nehemiah's rebuilt wall around Jerusalem. Couldn't even ensure the holiness of God's people. And so everything up to that point. All of it was still just a shadow.
It was like a big, giant disappointment, a blemish as it were, on God's people. Even as there was an attempt to restore, there was still this longing from the inside to have the real McCoy to everything made right to have the true Messiah come, not the one that was the type. Not the thing that was the shadow, not the the poor replacement or the analog, but the real thing.
And so you have in response to this, you know, some of God's people move into the wilderness and pursue holy living. Some accommodated to Roman occupation like the Sadducees, some retreated into kind of individual individualistic piety or rule keeping like the Pharisees. And then there's all kinds of accounts of God's people in rebellion.
Like Simon, the Zealots. There were some who even located themselves under the legitimate, yet Roman endorsed leadership of Herod, you know the Herodians. So you have all of these people you can imagine literally in the same audience. Jesus pushes back and he begins to teach them. And he starts by talking about horticulture.
He starts by saying, A sower goes out and he throws all this kind of seed. And it's not difficult to imagine that all of the seed, all the soil, everything is represented in what he's saying right there. And then it's not a story as if like, well, you take this away and try to process it in such a way that you might come to terms with it later on.
It's happening in the here and now. Even what he's saying. Even the message that he's communicating is being man made manifest right there in their midst, and it's not returning a void to him. The one who wrote it to begin with is the one who's speaking it, and it's having its desired effect, even as we read it now, and it reads us today.
And so it's amazing that it's on this stage that Jesus steps out and he stands, especially in the synagogue when he reads from the Isaiah scroll. And he announces that the true jubilee has now arrived and it's arrived in him. You know, by the way, what's interesting there is we have, we have no real reason to think that Israel ever really practiced Jubilee as it was outlined in the scriptures.
So we have this beautiful instruction for a reset, a pure reset, and one that is liberty and freedom in so many ways, but especially demonstrated in this economic reality. And Jesus commences his public ministry proclaiming the good new. News that the kingdom of God has arrived. I feel like we have to go there, right?
Because this is just so good. So in MOOC chapter four, Jesus stands up. He asks for the scroll, and this is what he reads. Loved ones. These are fantastic words. I mean, hear them from the mouth of our Savior. Again, Jesus reads this, the spirits of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. It's such incredibly strong and powerful news. We're getting this sense that there are those who are poor that need. To hear that something will be different.
That they are her, that they're seen that all of the straining in life and all of their labor is not in vain, but here is one who's come to rescue them and that those who have been set in prison, those who are chained and under duress and find themselves locked up. That here he has come to proclaim liberty to the captives, and then for those that cannot see, that have lost their way entirely, that are groping in the dark, here is one that's coming to recover the sight.
Hear that word, not to give it brand new, but to restore that which was originally present to begin with. Imagine the horror of having your sights and then having it taken away that. Knowing that there was something there that was beautiful in your midst, something that was precious to you, and now to have that restored, in fact, like Blind by de MEUs the Greek, there is more when God says, or Jesus rather, says, what do you want me to do for you?
The Greek is very clear, just says, sight again, sight again. And I think we like our ancestors and Israel here before us. We ought to be always clamoring and crying. Then I tell God like, son of David sight again. Would you help me to see truly not as the world appears to be, but we spiritual eyes, to know the truth, to understand how much you love me, and would you gimme the strength to love you?
Me back love you back by way of giving, yes, this sight. And then for all those who are downtrodden. Where, wherever, and whatever that means, physically, emotionally, spiritually, that here's the one who has come to, again, set you at liberty and then to say, do you know what this time is? This is the time of the Lord's favor.
Why? Because the son of man is here and where the son of man is. There is freedom and restoration. There is a new king over all things. There's one who super intends over all of the earth. Who has been given control over all things and has come to win literally the day for those who are rebellious before God, for those who have sinned, who are covenant breakers, who are gospel abusers, while we were at yet enmity with God at the right time, Jesus and his son for us.
And so we find that it's like the pretext, it's the context for all of this, and especially this parable. And of course, rather than. Everybody listening to what Jesus has to say here and just being one over being filled with some kind of winsome logic of what's being said here, of being thoroughly convinced.
We know that of course it's not just a matter of evidence, but unless the Holy Spirit comes the same spirit, which is upon Jesus, the sin of God, to change us, to open our ears, that we do not hear these things, we don't hear them as we ought to. We do not give them heed. We do not internalize them, and we cannot understand them.
And so because of that, rather than of course meeting with universal acceptance, Jesus, of course, he encounters a host of reactions. Some opposed him. The crowds sometimes were way more motivated, like people in our day by novelty or curiosity or by presume rewards or blessings. You can imagine this is what makes, of course, something like the Blat and grab, its kind of gospel, the prosperity of some of our modern evangelical expression, so incredibly dangerous.
Because of course people will say, well, if I can get that blessing, of course I want Jesus. Or if I'm gonna be made, well, yes, I'll, I'll find, I'll take Jesus. If I'm gonna get wealth and riches and a 401k, that's gonna suit my every need. Well sure I'll take Jesus. And of course, the blessing, the reward of getting Jesus is getting the son of God, getting the one who restores us first and predominantly.
With God the father himself, that all of those blessings are already ours in the spiritual realm because of Jesus. In fact, we've, we've already been placed with him in the heavenly realms. That is the reward. And so sometimes the gods were a little bit more motivated by, this guy's given us bread before.
Let's see if there's gonna be another buffet, rather than he says We ought to eat and drink his flesh. That in that is eternal life, and so we get distracted. And so sometimes novelty and curiosity just win the day. And then of course, on the other hand. Some of the most unlikely unseemly, most sinful were responding with incredible joy and embracing Jesus and his announcement.
Tenaciously like voraciously, the ones who were humble, who knew that they needed a savior, they needed a reconciliation that was alien and outside of themselves. Something powerful that could defeat even the sin that was within them and bring about a pure and unbridled atonement, unreserved in its ability to clean.
These were the ones who were saying, come, Lord Jesus, these were the ones crying out, saying, have mercy on me, son of David. And we like them. Ought to follow that example. And so throughout Matthew's Gospel and Luke's gospel. There's a mixed response throughout the entire ministry of Jesus. And again, what's unique about this parable, I think, is that Jesus comes setting the stage for that unique response.
All of those different kind of options and how people will perceive him, how they respond to him, what they will say to him. And so whether as you go through the narratives in the gospels, you look to. The Samaritan Leopard or the blind beggar, or the Chief tax Collector, or the impoverished widow, all of these were those who were forcing their way into the kingdom in response during the good news.
There's really something I think that's beautiful about that, that God allows for us to force our way as it were. When we are convicted of this kingdom, that he is the kingdom and that he brings it to us. That we come headlong, rushing in, falling over ourselves to get into that kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that's why I think, why, why Luke writes in chapter 16 of his gospel. The law in the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. What a amazing and lovely thing that God allows us. Which is the truth, to force our way into that.
So these were the ones who proved to be the fertile soil for the word of the kingdom, not the ones who chose the places of honor or the privilege, or we saw Jesus one of many important priorities to be managed. What we have here is the ones who forced their way in. These were the ones who proved to be the fertile soil, and I'm not gonna steal.
Any of our thunder, because Tony and I are gonna talk about that in the next episode. But I bring that up merely to say there's so much that's rich here. When we think about are we as Christians fruitful and fertile? In our following, after the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's Matthew's great theme of reversal, like beginning in the birth narratives of Jesus and continuing through the very end of his gospel count.
Even like in his final parable, Jesus forced the confrontation with his opponents by declaring that God would give the kingdom to those who had produce a harvest for God in honor. His son. That's the truth. And so he was more than simply this messenger in these cleverly created stories announcing the arrival of God's reign.
He was the one who brought the kingdom. And actually, in fact, Jesus embodies the kingdom because he was the king, not only of Israel, but the royal son of God who would rule the nations. And because of that. He did represent a threat to overthrow to some just as much as he was meant as a salvation and a blessing to others.
He is divisive. In fact, what's interesting is if you track Jesus standing up in the temple. And he comes forward and reads from Isaiah. It's interesting where he stops reading. This is really before kind of the, all the language about the second coming back, him really coming not to bring just salvation, but to bring retribution, to bring justice and punishment for those who are God's enemies.
And so really this first coming. Jesus is all about this. It's it's all about having the message of God go out in that return void. It's returning full of the response of God's people, full of the response of God's enemies and therefore. This parable, an ex explanation to his inner circle would be understood as an accounting for the surprising range of responses.
And even more than I think like an ex explanation, like explicitly it would be this kind of preparation. This kind of, again, setting a table or opening up a pathway for this hard road that lay ahead for those who would remain true to Jesus. These would be the ones who would serve the ultimate purpose of God's great act of sowing in his son to produce a great harvest.
And of course. That is partly what lies the hope for us. I mean, I think I said last time we spoke about this, what I appreciate about this teaching is not only that it doesn't pull any punches, but it's just so. Real, it's so resonant because Jesus already gives us some of the breadth and scope or the continuum of the responses so that when we go out and we should so unreservedly that that is by proclaiming Jesus as the king who has come as the kingdom already ushered in as here, but not yet.
When we do this, we can expect already that there'll be various responses. So one for us, it takes away the surprise. The second is it does prepare us. That these things might in fact happen. And three, it gives us a sense that, again, the efficacy of salvation. And we're getting, by the way, this view of salvation from, from God isn't again dependent on the skillset of the sower.
Instead, it is God's prerogative. It's always God's prerogative. And here as loved ones, you've heard me say again, I must invoke the phrase, we have God doing all the verbs, right? He's the one walking in the field. He's the one reaching in into the seed bag, as it were. He's the one casting it liberally across the ground.
He's the one making it grow. All of this is what God is doing. The preparation of the soil, the casting of the seed, the being present in. Farmland. All of this is what God is doing now. We emulate that by design. So now the call is to do what Jesus has done here in Mala for us, and that is that we also go out into the world and we proclaim this good news because what is unequivocally true is that the good news of Jesus Christ.
Is for all people. Now, this does not mean that all people will accept it. That is abundantly clear in the message that Jesus gives to us. It does not prevent though us or him from casting it out to all people. We see that really, really. Vividly. Some will be given ears to hear. We ought to pray that our neighbors, our children, those in our churches and our communities, our politicians, we ought to be praying that all would be given ears to hear, and the seed of God's word will accomplish exactly what God intends and Jesus' word, a proclamation announcing the good news of the kingdom of God.
We see vividly the point that God's word is. Deed that this word that he spoke speaks is his action. It's not simply that God says what he will do, but that his very act of speaking is the means by which he does that very thing. When we hear God speak to us, it is proof that we are alive. Not only do like dead men tell no tales, I think I've just inadvertently like quoted from Disney's.
Um. Pirates movie, but they hear no tells as well. You know, you have been born again, not a perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. Incredible. Isn't it? Loved ones like it's incredible this story that to me on the beginning seems like so kind of. Boring and not particularly catchy and maybe not as interesting as some of the others contained within.
This is literally all the words of life in the seed that we've seen thrown and in. It is like the continuum we find, not that it emulates the Old Testament, or that it somehow compliments New Testament, but within all within this parable is all of the scriptures and all of the full plan of God and all of his great love for us.
That again, while we were at his enemies, he came and on this path, as he walks among the field, he casts the seed. To all, and he, by his power, gives to some these ears to hear. We find ourselves humbled. We find ourselves rushing in coming into the kingdom, fighting to come into it because God has impassioned us with that same zeal that has accomplished this very thing.
He implants it in our hearts, in our minds, in our guts, so that we would come before him and worship him, fall down and find. The one who is our savior, who ushers in the visible kingdom of God, the one that is not built merely on political theories, on good rules. The kind of gospel that didn't come to make bad people good, but came to make dead people alive again.
And I think that that is the absolute. Untouchable, unfathomable, almost completely un understandable, if you will, truth of this particular parable. I think this is why the Westminster confession describes the word of God, and particularly the preaching of the word as a means of grace. The word is powerful in itself by the spirits of God.
I had to quote the Westminster, of course, at least in honor of Tony, so.
That's my little challenge to you on this short little episode. It's just you and me and I'm saying to you loved ones. Consider this parable again. Consider how palpable this parable is. Consider what God has for us in it. Consider this soils.
And then think about what it means that this good news, we see this within it, this vivid point again, that God's word is his deed. And so this is why though we do not create any kind of legalistic, conscription, or prescription around something like daily Bible study. Why? It's such a blessing to live in this period of time where we have such easy access for most of us to the word of God, and that we ought to be zealous about getting that word out to all people because, because behind it and within it and around it is the full power of the Holy Spirit that is always going out into the world and returning full with response and that when God.
Speaks his word. He's always accomplishing his act in that very deed. And so it should be a blessing. We should be compelled to find ourselves in it as much as often as we can because what we're finding there is the power of God for us, in us speaking, administering to us to produce in us a great harvest.
That's the promise it's coming, and we're gonna get there in the next. Episode, but what I'll leave you with is just those first two soils thinking about if you have ears to hear, if you have been made alive together with Christ, then consider that there was a time when you are one of the other soils and God who's being rich in mercy has rescued you.
Not because of work done in righteousness, not because you've come forward and. Elevate your place to the, to elevate your state to the place of deserving poor. Not because like you came forward with, with empty hands and somehow convinced God that you are worthy enough, or sorry enough or contrite enough.
But because of his great mercy, and it's that mercy, I think that compels us to say things to Jesus like Son of David Sight again. Son of David, have mercy on me, son of David. You are the real arrival of the Kingdom of God and your word bears testimony and your Holy Spirit has in a great work in my life.
And to that end, I want to follow you and I want to ensure that this word that you've given to me is given to all people. So there's work to do, loved ones. And there's a lot there to process. I hope that you will take some time. Think about this in your own way, and as you are processing this as God is speaking to you, as you are joining together with loved ones from literally all over the world who are hanging out and listening to Tony and I chat about this stuff, that again, you would share your own voice, the best way to do that.
Why do you make me beg you? Come join the Telegram chat. You'll have a great time. It's super fun. T me slash Reform Brotherhood. I would also be remiss if I didn't on behalf of myself and Tony, thank everyone who does hang out there, everyone who sent us the email, everyone who shares prayer requests or has prayed for us, and as well everyone who makes sure that this podcast.
Is free of charge. It comes with its own expenses. It's not free to produce. And so we're so thankful that those who've said, listen, I've been blessed by the podcast, or It's just been important or special to me. God has done something in it. Or God has renewed a different kind of desire and passion to talk about the things of God or to encourage me in my life.
I'm so happy if other things have happened. By the way, it's not because of Tony or me. It's because God is good to us. I mean, can I get an amen? I see that hand. In the back, God is good to Tony and me and we're just so thankful that we get to do this. And so if you'd like to join in supporting financially.
Every little gift helps. You can go to patreon.com/reform brotherhood patreon.com, reform Brotherhood, and there you can find a way to give one time or reoccurring all of those gifts together. Make sure that there's no payrolls on this bad boy that you're not gonna get any super weird ads in the middle of it.
You're just gonna get us talking. We want to em, I would say be emblematic of what we've talked about here, which is. Freely we've received freely want to give. And for those who join and say, I wanna make that possible so that no one has to be compelled to pay for this kind of thing, I love that we are here for that every day of the week and twice on the Lord's day.
So next episode, Tony and I are gonna continue in this parable. We're probably, you know, gonna get together. We'll set up our tents, we'll just camp out here for a little bit. So until we get the tents out, we get the s'mores. And we start camping. Honor everyone love the brotherhood.