Mar. 15, 2020

matthew 13:1-23

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 4:1-4

Background: Jesus has just proclaimed His superiority to the Pharisees in Galilee. He has established Himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament and now is beginning to reveal Himself to common people through agrarian parables.

Read/Pray: Father, give us ear to hear and eyes to see your glory through your Son, the perfect, superior revelation. Glorify yourself as we seek to bring you glory. Amen.

Study:

1.) The power of the parable.

i. It reveals the simplicity of faith.

ii. Jesus outs the cookies on the bottom shelf.

b. The focus of the parable is not the sower, though it is the name of the parable. The focus is the soil.

i. Any person who proclaims the Gospel is a sower.

ii. The seed is the Word of God; the Gospel.

iii. The soil is the heart of the hearer.

1. The condition of the soil determines the fruitfulness of the seed.

c. The purpose of the parable is to edify the disciples and judiciously condemn the hard of heart.

i. They have the revelation before them but do not hear nor see.

2.) The product of a prepared heart.

a. No preparation- The wayside, unattended, hardened. The heart that ignores completely. Satan snatches away.

b. Shallow dirt on a hard bed. Springs up quickly. Falls in love with the healing and not the healer.

i. Faith that withers when the trials come.

c. The good soil consumed with the world.

i. The rich young ruler

ii. Ananias and Sapphira

iii. Judas

d. The good soil prepared for the seed and nourished and treasured the seed above all else.

3.) The plow of the Holy Spirit.

a. We have a heart problem; one that we cannot change.

i. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; Who can understand it?"

b. Thanks be to God that he is a heart surgeon.

i. Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Conclusion: The fallow ground of hearts needs to be broken up, prepared to be filled with the Word of God and the hope of eternity through Christ Jesus. Let us cry out to God, echoing David, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Only God can change our heart and give us understanding.