First, before we get to that parable, I’d like to toss a few questions your way…

1.  Have you gone to church all your life?  Most of us have.
2. Have you noticed in Scripture than when our Lord taught, the people were amazed?  In Matthew’s gospel, check out 7:28-29; 8:27; 9:8,33; 12:23; 13:54; and on and on.  It’s all through the gospels.
3. Question:  Why were they amazed?  There are several possibilities but the best answer comes in John 7 where the temple authorities sent their soldiers to arrest Jesus and bring Him to them.  The soldiers found our Lord teaching in the public square, but before arresting Him, decided to listen to what He was saying.  An hour later, they showed up at the temple empty-handed.  The authorities were livid.  “Where is he??? We sent you to arrest Him!”  The soldiers answered quietly, “No one ever spoke like this man.”   That’s why people who heard Jesus for the first time were amazed.  It was new.  They had never heard anything like this before.
4. So, the big question is:Why aren’t we amazed? We read our Bibles and close them and go away saying “That was nice.”  We honored the Lord’s word, but we were not amazed by it.  The reason is: It’s not new.  We’ve heard it all our lives.

And that is our problem.

You’ve heard the expression Familiarity breeds contempt.  It’s not contempt we feel for God’s word. We love it and we honor Holy Scripture.  But we are so familiar with its teachings from reading it for years, we fail to see how amazing it is.

Let’s talk about this.  Is there a way to put the “wow” back into our Bible reading?

Satan has two lies to keep us from spending quality time in God’s word.  He says–

a. You already know that scripture.  You’ve read it a hundred times.  It’s boring.

b. No one can understand scripture.  It was written thousands of years ago in far-off countries in foreign languages.  Furthermore, it’s contradictory. There is no point in reading it.

In John 8:44 our Lord said Satan is a liar.  Lying is his specialty, his spiritual gift if you will.  Lying is what he does best. After all….

–Even if you have read a scripture many times, you do not know all it has in it.  Scripture is not boring; we are boring!

–Scripture is not that difficult.  Paul said to Timothy, From a child you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). In our  churches we give New Testaments to children as soon as they learn to read.  There is much they can read and understand.

We must stop believing Satan’s lies.

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY….

Grandpa was in the house alone. The family had gone into town to do some shopping and he would have a couple of hours to himself.  He goes into the attic and finds the old chest.  He opens it and removes the top lid. Inside are his treasures:  an envelope containing money for an emergency;  a packet with love letters his parents wrote to each other during the Second War; his father’s railroad watch; his mother’s pearl necklace.  But look–here’s a diamond ring. That wasn’t here the last time he opened this chest.  In fact, the last time he opened it he found a $100 bill that had not been here.  Every time he comes, Grandpa finds all his old treasures and one or two new ones.  It never fails.  It’s wonderful.

Like that story?  It’s my version of the parable our Lord told in Matthew 13:52. (Note:  Matthew 13 is a chapter of parables.  Earlier in that chapter, our Lord presents seven parables.  Now, even though I call verse 52 the eighth parable, I suspect most people will see only 7 parables in this chapter.  This is because verse 52 does not read like the other parables. It’s different.)

Here it is:

Therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings out of his treasure things new and old. 

Some translations/paraphrases have it read something like: Therefore, every expert on the Law who becomes a disciple of the kingdom finds all his old treasures in it and keeps finding new ones.  

And that is the point.

A scribe–we need to point out–was a writer.  That’s what the word means.  For hundreds of years, if you wanted a book of the Bible, you sought out a scribe and paid him to copy it for you on a scroll.  You want Jonah?  It’s only 4 chapters, he can do that in a day, it’s not expensive.  You want Job?  That’s 42 chapters and will take weeks to do. It’s going to cost you.

Eventually, because they spent their lives in the Word, scribes were considered experts on the Scriptures.  People would ask, “Does the Bible say anything about…?”  and “What does the Bible say about….?”

So, now, in the parable, a scribe gets saved. That’s what it means to become “a disciple of the kingdom of heaven.”

Thereafter, every time the born-again scribe opens his Bible–the Old Testament, of course–he finds there all the treasures of God’s word he has loved for years.  But now that he is reading Scripture through the lens of the cross and under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, he discovers new treasures.

Isn’t that something?  It’s true and completely wonderful.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO SAUL OF TARSUS (THE APOSTLE PAUL).

We would not know this if all we had was Acts chapter 9.  However, we have Paul’s own story found in Galatians chapter 1.

After Paul got saved, he says he went to Arabia, and later back to Damascus, Syria.  And then, without a word of explanation, he says, “three years later” (!) he went to Jerusalem for a couple of weeks.

After that quick visit to Jerusalem, he traveled back in his home area of Syrai and Cilicia.  What was he doing there?  We have no idea.

And then, finally, he began to preach.  See Acts 9:19-22.

Paul was a graduate of the school of Gamaliel in Jerusalem.  So he knew his Old Testament scriptures.  And then he got saved.  So, interestingly, he spends the same time–three years–in the Arabian desert with Jesus (it’s not presuming to say that!) that they apostles had spent with Him up and down those Galilean hills.  What was he doing?  He was realizing the fulfilment of Matthew 13:52.  He was going back into the Old Testament and finding all the old treasures he had known and loved for years.  And he was finding new treasures.

If you would like to see the result of those years of re-analyzing God’s word with Jesus as his new paradigm and the Holy Spirit as his teacher, read Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.  It’s the complete gospel, laying out for all who would follow Jesus how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  The Epistle to the Galatians is a pocket-sized version of Romans.

THERE IS A PROMISE FOR YOU AND ME HERE

He will show us new things in His word.  He will restore the WOW to our Bible reading.

I suggest that anytime we open God’s word to read it and study, we utter the prayer found in Psalm 119, verse 18.  Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.  

One more thing to those wishing to restore the WOW to their Bible study:  Don’t be in a hurry.  God refuses to give His most intimate revelations to the lazy.  Don’t rush off.  This is your Book for the rest of your life.  Take your time.  Enjoy it.

By the way.  It’s just a personal thing, but I suggest after you have read through the Bible in a year a time or two, that you not do that any more.  It’s like seeing Europe in a week.  Sweden for 6 hours, Germany and France in a day, etc.  The best way to see a country is to land the plane and move into a home with the residents.  Learn the language and the customs.

Enjoy your Bible reading.  Some day perhaps you will be able to say with Job, I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food! (Job 23:12).