WE ARE STUDYING THE FOUR GOSPELS MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE AND JOHN TO KNOW THE LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM.
Our Savior was rejected in Nazareth see;
Then He;
We see that He;
He then tells us how to get saved;
Jesus ends His Ministry in Judea and;
John the Baptist Exalts Christ.
Jesus finished His Ministry in Judea and went up to Galilee but did not take the long road the Jews normally take to avoid going through Samaria but went straight to a place called Sychar near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria.
Jesus returned via Samaria to Galilee and we see The Rewards Of Service John 4:28-38, The Growth Of Faith John 4:39-45 and lastly The Reward Of Trusting Jesus’ Word John4:46-54.
Back in Galilee after a year in Judea;
Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds.
Nazareth’s loss was Capernaum’s gain. The people in the latter city recognized that His teaching was authoritative. His words were convicting and impelling.
The Sermon on the Mount.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
The Beatitudes. Salt and Light.
Christ Came to Fulfill the Law
Retaliation and Love Your Enemies
Secret giving and secret praying
What to Seek and Whom to Serve
Ask, and It will Be Given & The Golden Rule.
Rewards Of Faith, The Great Physician
The Helper Of The Needy And The Friend Of Sinners
a Sermon Christ in Me by Dr. Sidlow J. Baxter.
Hope for the hopeless. Tender Ministry to Maid and Women. Curing the Incurable and Raising the Dead
The sending forth of the twelve in Chapter 9 opens the third year Jesus’ public ministry
The Harvest Is Plentiful, the Laborers Few
Messengers from John the Baptist
Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest
Matthew 13:18-23
“Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. “
Frederick Brotherton Meyer, a contemporary and friend of D. L. Moody and A. C. Dixon, was a Baptist pastor and evangelist in England involved in ministry and inner city mission work on both sides of the Atlantic presents it to us this way regarding Matthew 13:18-23
TEACHING FOR THE TEACHABLE
Note these points in our Lord’s explanation of His parable: (1.) Beware of the evil one, who comes surreptitiously as soon as the sermon is over. (2.) The joy of the young convert must be distinguished from that of the superficial hearer. It is joy in Christ, rather than in the novelty and beauty of the words about Christ. (3.) Expect tribulation where the gospel is faithfully proclaimed. (4.) The cares of poverty hinder as well as the riches of wealth.
We thank William MacDonald (1917-2007) who, for more than forty years, written directly about the key issues of Christianity. Leaving a promising business career as an employed investment analyst with First National Bank of Boston “at the foot of the Cross”, he had travelled worldwide, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ for the Believer’s Bible Commentary on Matthew 13:18-23
Explanation of the Parable of the Sower
13:18 Having explained why He used parables, the Lord now proceeds to expound the parable of the four soils. He does not identify the sower but we can be sure that it refers either to Himself (v. 37) or to those who preach the message of the kingdom. He defines the seed as the word of the kingdom (v. 19). The soils represent those who hear the message.
13:19 The hard-packed pathway speaks of people who refuse to receive the message. They hear the gospel but do not understand it—not because they can’t but because they won’t. The birds are a picture of Satan; he snatches away the seed from the hearts of these hearers. He cooperates with them in their self-chosen barrenness. The Pharisees were hard-soil hearers.
13:20, 21 When Jesus spoke of rocky ground, He had in mind a thin layer of earth covering a ledge of rock. This represents people who hear the word and respond with joy. At first the sower might be elated that his preaching is so successful. But soon he learns the deeper lesson, that it is not good when the message is received with smiles and cheers. First there must be conviction of sin, contrition, and repentance. It is far more promising to see an inquirer weeping his way to Calvary than to see him walking down the aisle light-heartedly and exuberantly. The shallow earth yields a shallow profession; there is no depth to the root. But when his profession is tested by the scorching sun of tribulation or persecution, he decides it isn’t worth it and abandons any profession of subjection to Christ.
13:22 The thorn-infested ground represents another class who hear the word in a superficial way. They appear outwardly to be genuine subjects of the kingdom but in time their interest is choked out by the cares of this world and by their delight in riches. There is no fruit for God in their lives. Lang illustrates this by a son of a money-loving father with a huge business. This son heard the Word in his youth but became engrossed in the business.
He had soon to choose between pleasing his Lord or his father. Thus the thorns were in the soil when the seed was sown and germinated; the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches were already at hand. He fell in with his father’s wishes, devoted himself fully to business, rose to be head of the concern, and when well on in life had to acknowledge that he had neglected things heavenly. He was about to retire and he expressed his intention to be more diligent in matters spiritual. But God is not to be mocked. The man retired and died suddenly in only a few months. He left £90,000 and a spiritually wasted life. The thorns had choked the word and it was unfruitful.
13:23 The good ground represents a true believer. He … hears the word receptively and understands it through obeying what he hears. Although these believers do not all produce the same amount of fruit, they all show by their fruit that they have divine life. Fruit here is probably the manifestation of Christian character rather than souls won to Christ. When the word fruit is used in the NT, it generally refers to the fruit of the Spirit (Gal_5:22-23).
What was the parable meant to say to the crowds? Obviously it warned against the peril of hearing without obeying. It was calculated also to encourage individuals to receive the Word sincerely, then to prove their reality by bringing forth fruit for God. As for the disciples, the parable prepared them and future followers of Jesus for the otherwise discouraging fact that relatively few of those who hear the message are genuinely saved. It saves Christ’s loyal subjects from the delusion that all the world will be converted through the spread of the gospel. The disciples are also warned in this parable against the three great antagonists of the gospel: (1) the devil (the birds—the evil one); (2) the flesh (the scorching sun—tribulation or persecution); and (3) the world (the thorns— cares of the world and the delight in riches).
Finally the disciples are given a vision as to the tremendous returns from investing in human personality. Thirtyfold is 3,000 percent return, sixtyfold is 6,000 percent return, and one hundredfold is 10,000 percent return on the investment. There is actually no way of measuring the results of a single case of genuine conversion. An obscure Sunday school teacher invested in Dwight L. Moody. Moody won others. They in turn won others. The Sunday school teacher started a chain reaction that will never stop.
Please pray the Holy Spirit-The Paraclete will use these sermons and studies to bring many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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Thank you for your kind words. May God who knows your heart better than you yourself bless you.