A Deeper Dive Into the Book of Revelation - Part 11
In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus gave us seven parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.
- The Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:3-23
- The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares - Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
- The Parable of the Mustard Seed - Matthew 13:31-32
- The Parable of the Leaven - Matthew 13:33
- The Parable of Treasure Hidden in a Field - Matthew 13:44
- The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price - Matthew 13:45-46
- The Parable of the Net Filled with Fish - Matthew 13:47-50
When Jesus spoke these parables together, in this order, He gave a profound prophecy about the future of the Church. These parables together give us an overview of the Church Age from the time of Jesus’ ministry on earth until the harvest at the end of this age.
These seven parables also correspond to the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
- Ephesus - Revelation 2:1-7
- Smyrna - Revelation 2:8-11
- Pergamum - Revelation 2:12-17
- Thyatira - Revelation 2:18-29
- Sardis - Revelation 3:1-6
- Philadelphia - Revelation 3:7-13
- Laodicea - Revelation 3:14-22
When we compare the seven parables of Matthew 13 to the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we can see an overview of the Church Age from God’s point of view.
1. The Parable of the Sower - Ephesus
This parable speaks of the birth of the Church at the time of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus sowed the seeds that gave life to the Church as many Jewish disciples experienced the new birth. People’s lives were transformed according to their capacities to hear and understand the words of Life that Jesus spoke. Later, the Jewish believers took these words of life to the Gentiles. Those who received and understood the good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom changed the world!
In this parable, Jesus describes the three distinct groups of believers that we will see again in the book of Revelation. The group that you are in will determine your destiny. The choice is yours.
This parable corresponds to the letter to the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2.
Jesus had given the Church a wonderful start, but Paul warned the Church in Ephesus that, after he was gone, wolves in sheep’s clothing would enter into the Church. We read this in Acts 20:29-31:
“I know that after I am gone, [false teachers like] ferocious wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;** **even from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse and distorted things, to draw away the disciples after themselves [as their followers]. Therefore be continually alert, remembering that for three years, night or day, I did not stop admonishing and advising each one [of you] with tears.” (AMP)
The fulfillment of Paul’s warning is exactly what we see in the next parable.
2. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares - Smyrna
This parable gives us insight into how wolves in sheep’s clothing got into the Church. They were intentionally planted among us by the devil.
These are not just misguided individuals who sometimes disagree with us. Jesus said bluntly that these are the offspring of Satan.
Jesus calls out these tares again in His letter to the church of Smyrna in Revelation chapter 2, saying, “I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan” (Revelation 2:9 NLT).
Jesus warned us about these tares in Matthew 7:15, saying, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (NKJV).
How will we recognize these false brothers and sisters? We will know them the same way that we will be able to tell the difference between wheat and tares—by their fruit.
This parable describes the era from the loss of the original apostles to Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. From that time forward, there was more tolerance for Christianity, but there was also mixture with pagan traditions.
In the teachings of William Branham and Paul Keith Davis, this covers the years from about 170 to 312.
3. The Parable of the Mustard Seed - Pergamum
In this age, from about 312 to 606, the Church firmly took root in society and grew to become a strong influence, just like the tree that grew from the mustard seed.
Severe persecution had somewhat subsided as Christianity was more widely accepted in culture and society.
But the fowls of the air came. Jesus told us in his interpretation of the parable of the sower that these birds do the work of the devil. During this period in Church history, these birds came in the forms of moral compromise and doctrines of demons to build nests and lodge in the branches of the Church.
Jesus addressed this in His letter to the Pergamum church.
“But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.”—Revelation 2:14 (NKJV)
There were also those in the Church at this time who sought to elevate the status of the clergy to an exalted position above the common people. Jesus doesn’t often speak of His hatred for certain things, but He hated this idea, and He let the Pergamum church know about it.
“Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”—Revelation 2:15-6 (NKJV)
4. The Parable of the Leaven - Thyatira
This is the parable of the Church descending into the Dark Ages.
This is the age of the Thyatira church from Revelation chapter 2.
The Church became thoroughly compromised as the leaven of false doctrine permeated the Church. During this time, the Church sank into doctrinal and moral depravity as the leaven corrupted the whole Church.
In the letter to the Church in Thyatira, we learn the spiritual name of the woman who hid this leaven in the Church’s spiritual food. Spiritually, she is called Jezebel. The compromise and moral corruption that had just begun in the previous age thoroughly corrupted the Church in the Dark Ages.
In Scripture, leaven represents false doctrine and moral corruption.
Jesus said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against the **leaven **of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
“Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [false] teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”—Matthew 16:6 and 12 (AMP)
Israel was instructed to celebrate the Feast of **Unleavened **Bread in the first month of every calendar year.
“You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day be sure to remove all the leaven from your houses, because any person who eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh will be cut off from Israel.”—Exodus 12:15 (ISV)
“Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, neither shall there be leaven in all your territory.”—Exodus 13:7 (AMPC)
Paul strongly rebuked the Corinthians for their tolerance of immorality and compromise.
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, namely, that someone has his father’s wife… .
“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let’s celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”—1 Corinthians 5:1-8 (NASB)
5. Parable of Treasure Hid in the Field - Sardis
When Jesus begins His letter to this church in Sardis, He acknowledges that this church is dead. This was the state of the Church in the darkest of the Dark Ages. The tares in the field, the fowls of the air, and the leaven had thoroughly corrupted the Church and robbed it of the true Life of God.
But our God is a God of resurrection and restoration! This parable speaks of the time of Reformation in the Church in which the light of revelation restored the glorious treasures of scriptural truths of justification by faith and water baptism for believers; and restored the Bible itself to the common people through the ministries of John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Martin Luther and many others. These heroes of the faith could not work openly because of the threat of severe persecution which was determined to steal these treasures from the Church once again.
The hidden treasure of Scriptural Truth was rediscovered and made available to those who were willing to pay the price, and many paid for it with their lives.
This is the age of the Sardis Church, which had been almost completely dead, but those things that remained were rediscovered, resurrected, and strengthened in the time of the Reformation.
6. Parable of the Pearl of Great Price - Philadelphia
This is the age of the Philadelphia church. This is the age of the Great Awakening and the ministry of George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and others.
The Pearl of Great price was the Sanctified Church for whom many gave everything! Many ministers in this time laid down their lives in pursuit of the Truth of Scripture.
Jesus had nothing negative to say about the church in Philadelphia. The true Church of this age really was a pearl of Great Price. In this era of the Church, sanctification, moral standards, and prayer were restored.
This was also an era of missions and evangelism, as God declared to the church of Philadelphia, “See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name” (Revelation 3:8 NKJV).
7. Parable of the Net Filled with Fish - Laodicea
This parable speaks of the Church in our day. We are living in the era of the Laodicean church. This is the time of the Great Harvest in which the Wheat and the Tares will finally be separated and face their eternal judgments and rewards. We are living in the age that will see the return of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And what is the overriding attitude of the church in this era? Complacency.
“I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”—Revelation 3:17 (NKJV)
We have the distinction of being the church that makes God sick to His stomach.
“So because you are lukewarm (spiritually useless), and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth [rejecting you with disgust].”—Revelation 3:16 (AMP)
In the era where it matters most, we are totally unprepared to partner with Him to bring in the great final harvest, … and we don’t care.
In correcting us, Jesus says that “[you] do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”—Revelation 3:17-19 (NKJV)
The door was **opened **for the church in Philadelphia, as it was for the wise virgins of Matthew 25. But like the foolish virgins, the Church in our era has the door **closed **between us and the Heavenly Bridegroom, but He has not given up hope for us. There is time for us to repent, but the time is short.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”—Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
