On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. (Matthew 13:1-2)
He got into a boat:
Jesus very often used a boat as His pulpit.
And great multitudes were gathered together to Him:
Very often people ask me, “How come Jesus spoke to such huge crowds without any sound amplification?”
There is a scientific explanation as to how Jesus spoke to such huge crowds. During the day, the wind blows from the sea to the land. Jesus sat in a boat facing the land and so it is logical that the wind carried His voice from the sea to the land and to those eagerly listening.
Then He spoke many things to them in parables... (Matthew 13:3)
What is a parable?
Like the rabbis of his time, Jesus used simple word-pictures, called parables, to communicate deep mysteries of the Kingdom of God.
...saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:3-9)
The “Parable of the Sower” is one of the few parables that is found in three different Gospels: In Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. In this parable, the seed fell on four different types of soil.
· The Wayside soil
· Stony Places
· Among Thorns
· Good Ground
The Wayside was the path where people walked and nothing could grow because the ground was too hard.
Stony places were where the soil was thin, lying upon a rocky shelf. On this ground, the seed springs up quickly because of the warmth of the soil, but the seed is unable to take root because of the rocky shelf.
Among thorns describes soil that is fertile - perhaps too fertile, because thorns grow there as well as grain.
Good ground describes soil that is both fertile and weed-free. A good, productive crop grows in the good ground
This parable reveals the four different states in which the hearts of men can be classified. You could ask yourself which of these four categories describes you!
Why do You speak to them in parables?
Why did Jesus speak in Parables?
The reason Jesus chose to speak in parables is so that His disciples and followers could understand, but His detractors could not (Matthew 13:10–11).
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