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A sower went out to sow the message of the kingdom, and it was well received by some.
But there were others who had that message snatched away by the devil, others who fell away when things got hard, and others who were too in love with the cares of this world.
We've been reviewing the parable of the sower this week, so we might better know who has the message of the kingdom and who does not when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. Jesus asked his disciples, Who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter replied,
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
This passage in particular has been on my heart this week because the Pope has been in the United States of America, his first visit to the
USA ever. And it is this passage in Matthew chapter 16 that the entire papacy is built.
But when you read a little bit further, you find out that Jesus gives the same charge to all of his disciples.
In Matthew 18, 18, it says, Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
That sounds familiar, doesn't it? Jesus just said it to Peter two chapters before, but it was not exclusively to Peter.
It was to all of the apostles. Dare I say, it was to all of the disciples of Jesus Christ.
As Jesus goes on in verse 19 to say, Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my
Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
It has been given to the church to determine who has the message of the kingdom and who does not.
The church is able to discern these things, not just the apostle Peter. We see in Revelation chapter three, verse seven,
Jesus defines his own words as the words of the holy one, the true one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open.
And that's hearkening back to Isaiah chapter 22, that Jesus would be defined in such ways.
And it is that very key that has been given to his disciples, to his church, to preach the gospel and to know who has received that message of the kingdom.
It is not something that belongs exclusively to the Pope. Don't be fooled by such doctrines.
It is upon each and every one of us to know the message of the kingdom, to tell it to the world.
And then we should be able to discern who has received that message and who has not helping us in understanding that is the parable of the sower, which
Jesus gives in Matthew chapter 13. We see it also in Mark four and in Luke eight. But Matthew 13 has been our root text this week.
In the parable of the sower, we read a sower went out to sow and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil.
But when the sun rose, they were scorched and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them.
Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some a hundred fold, some 60, some 30.
He who has ears, let him hear. The disciples came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parables?
And Jesus answered them to you. It has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given for to the one who has much will be given and he will have an abundance.
But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Then Jesus goes on to explain the parable of the sower.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
As for one, as for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choked the word and it proves unfruitful.
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.
He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case, a hundredfold in another 60 and in another 30.
Lord, as you have taught these things to us, your disciples, I pray that we are able to discern and understand them.
Teach us your ways. We pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. So we've been looking at the parable of the sower this week, better understanding who has the message of the kingdom and who does not.
In Mark chapter four, when we read the parable of the sower, immediately after that we have the parable of the seed growing.
In Mark chapter four, verse 26, Jesus said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
He sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how.
The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
But when the grain is ripe at once, he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.
What Jesus is going on to explain here in the parable of the seed growing is that the kingdom of heaven would grow over a long period of time.
It wouldn't be something that would immediately be manifest in a way that we can observe and see with our eyes.
And that's the way that all of the Israelites thought that the kingdom was going to come about. They were expecting something that would be immediate.
They were expecting a Messiah coming on the clouds. Everybody would see him and they would know immediately the kingdom of heaven has come.
But Jesus was saying this kingdom would not come in the ways that you are expecting the kingdom to come. It would happen slowly over a period of time.
And when he talks about the harvest, bringing the sickle and harvesting the fields that were ripe for harvest, he's saying there that the kingdom has reached its fullness.
And that's when Christ returns. So we have the parable of the sower.
Our duty and our faithfulness is to know the gospel of Jesus Christ and to preach it.
It will take time for it to grow. We know not how that happens. Simply in our faithfulness, we are to we are to preach the word of God.
And it is that parable that we have been reading out of Matthew chapter 13.
The explanation that we have of the parable of the sower starts in verse 19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
This is what was sown along the path. Now remember what we said about the seed. The seed is the message of the kingdom.
Mark chapter four and in Luke chapter eight, it is defined as the word of God. That is true. That's what it is.
But Matthew's more specific about that. Matthew says the seed is not just the word of God.
It is specifically the message of the kingdom. Everyone's right. All right. Matthew's right.
Mark is right. Luke is right. But Matthew's more specific. The message is the word of the kingdom.
And that was the very way that Jesus started his ministry. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We saw
John the Baptist preceding Jesus's ministry exactly the same way. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven. And when a person has been transformed by the kingdom of heaven, they are ones who are represented by the good soil.
That message falls into good soil. It grows up and produces a harvest. Some 30 fold, some 60, some a hundred, meaning that you see the evidence of that transformation in their lives and they go out and preach the gospel and others are transformed by that message.
And so this is the explanation of the parable of the sower. The message of the kingdom is the seed.
When a person does not understand that message, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
This is what was sown along the path. So when the sower goes out first, he goes out and he tills up the field.
We talked about this as well. The sower tills up the field and he makes it ready to receive the seed.
This would be like a person going out with the law. They preach the law. They preach as Jesus preached.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They say this is wrong. This is the way of the world, but this is the way of God.
Here is the way of godliness, getting specific about these things so that a person will be convicted in their heart of their wrongdoing.
They will hear of themselves spoken about when a person preaches the law. When a person says, don't commit adultery, stop in your sexual immorality.
What you are doing outside of marriage, when you are having sex outside of marriage, which is what God created sex for.
He created it for the marriage bed, but you who are participating in sex outside of marriage, you are who are engaging in porn and all of these other things, you stand condemned before a holy
God. And when a person hears that declared, they will be convicted in their hearts that they've broken the law of God.
And so they will come to repentance and then they are ready to receive the gospel, the good news of the message of the kingdom.
And that seed can be sown in good soil. They will grow up in repentance and growing in justification and sanctification as they continue to develop according to the word of God.
So this is a person who has received the message of the kingdom when the sower has properly conditioned the soil to receive the seed.
So as the, as the sower goes out, he's tilled up his rows, but he's also left these packed paths every few rows or so, so that he can walk down those paths and scatter the seed.
So when it says that some of the seed fell on the path, that's what's being talked about that those packed rows there that the sower did not till up to receive the word.
And when the seed falls on that path, it doesn't take root. The evil one comes and snatches away that message so that it cannot take root in his heart.
The devil is more specifically how the evil one is defined in Mark chapter four and in Luke chapter eight, the devil comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
This is what was sown along the path. So we have that message falling on that packed ground.
It does not get into the soil. It has no opportunity to grow because the devil has snatched it away.
That is what is being exemplified by the seed that falls on the path. Jesus goes on in verse 20 to say, as for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
So again, what was sown in rocky ground, he hears the word and something starts to show itself as having received it.
We have some kind of grant of plant that begins to grow. He immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself.
He's not actually taken root in Christ. He's tried to be rooted in himself. And so therefore the plant has no nourishment.
It has no true nourishment, which comes from Christ, which we read in Colossians chapter two in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
But this person is not rooted in Christ, they're rooted in themselves. So they try to grow the plant and nothing happens.
He immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself. He endures for a while.
There appears to be some evidence of a transformation of this person's life for a while.
But when true tribulation comes, when things get hard or when persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
And one of the other ways that we define this earlier this week, we said that a person, um, they might receive
Christianity immediately as something that they're excited about at first, but when people start making fun of them for it, or maybe their family won't receive them because of it, stuff starts to get hard and they might try to redefine their
Christianity. Well, you know what? I'll redefine it as something that is a little bit easier for me and a little bit easier on other people around me.
So when somebody makes fun of them for being a Christian, they go, no, no, no, no, no. That's, that's not what it is that I believe as a Christian.
I actually believe this, right? Okay. You take one of the issues in our society today, homosexuality.
All right. Oh, well, you're a Christian. Well, you think that all gays are going to hell, a person who's, who's a homosexual was going to hell.
No, no, no. That's not what we believe. See, we love everybody. So I love, I love homosexuals too.
They wouldn't, God wouldn't send them to hell for being a homosexual. The Bible says that he would. In first Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through 11, we see that those who practice homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God.
So when a person starts to soften their Christianity and they redefine it as being something else that is not given to us in scripture, they are like a person who endured for a while.
But when it got hard and when persecution arose on account of the word immediately, they fell away.
It's not that they've completely renounced Christianity, at least not verbally. They've not spoken about it that way, but they've redefined their
Christianity to be something that is not according to what scripture says it is. It's something that's a little bit more comfortable for them.
But that would be just like a person who received the word and endured for a while, but then fell away seeds in the rocks.
As for what was sown among thorns, Jesus said, this is one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves to be unfruitful.
So like the seed that fell in rocks, we see something that looks like, looks like a person has received the message.
It starts to grow a little bit, but the thorns choking out. Eventually it is the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke it out.
And they would rather have those things. They would rather have the stuff of this world rather than the true message that comes from God's word.
And again, somebody may redefine Christianity in such a way that makes them more able to enjoy the stuff of this world and still call themselves a
Christian at the same time. But when you truly look at their faith, you see that they're following something that is not what scripture says a true
Christian should be. And so they've redefined it to make it a little bit better for them.
The true word has been choked out by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.
And again, the deceitfulness of riches, that aspect tends to be something that we gravitate toward when it comes to the thorns.
Okay. A person who's more in love with stuff like rich people, okay, they would be thorns.
They get more in love with their riches instead of in love with Christ and the word of God and being able to sacrifice or using what they have to advance the message of the kingdom.
But it's not just a person who has fallen away according to the deceitfulness of riches. It's also a person who falls away because of the cares of this world.
That can be a person who just experiences too much anxiety because of stuff that happens in the world. They're too concerned about their job.
They watch the news. They become a conspiracy theorist because of all the stuff they see happening in the news.
A person who looks at all the bad things that happens around them and says, why would a good God allow so much evil to happen in the world?
Okay, that would be a person who has the word choked out by the thorns, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.
And it proves to be unfruitful. We also use Demas as an example of this. In 2nd Timothy chapter four, the apostle
Paul mentions a man named Demas, who at one point showed himself to be a faithful missionary.
He served with Paul. Paul mentioned him to the Colossians and to Philemon. But as Paul talks about Demas to Timothy, he deserted
Paul in his darkest hour. He abandoned Paul and went back to Thessalonica because he was too in love with this world.
That's how Paul defined him. So Demas would be a person who is exemplified by the thorns. The cares of this world choked out the message of the word and it proved to be unfruitful.
Later on in Matthew chapter 25, when Jesus is talking about the coming of the son of man, he says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all of the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.
Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?
And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?
And the king will answer them, truly I say to you is you did it for one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.
Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me. You cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me.
Then they also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
Then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you is you did not do it to one of the least of these.
You did not do it to me and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
And what we see here in Matthew chapter 25, the sheep are those who were transformed by the message of the kingdom so much so that they showed themselves to be citizens of the kingdom and did what the king told them to do.
But those who were not transformed by the message of the kingdom showed themselves not to be citizens of that kingdom.
They were not messengers of the king and they did not care for the citizens of that king.
And so they were sent into eternal punishment. But the righteous, the citizens of the kingdom into eternal life.
If you have received the good news of the message of Jesus Christ who came to this earth to die on the cross for our sins, dying in the place that we should have died.
He died in the place of his people, redeeming us from all lawlessness, purifying for himself a people who are zealous for good works.
As it says in Titus chapter two, if you have been transformed by that message of Christ who died in our place and rose again from the grave so that all who trust and hope and follow him will receive his life, eternal life with our creator
God. If you've received that message and you've been transformed by the message of the kingdom, you are a follower of Christ and you've been given eternal life.
But if you have not been transformed by that message, you still stand condemned before God. Perhaps you are like one who is the path seed fell along the path.
You've heard that message, but the devil snatched it away from you and it never took root. Perhaps you are like rocky ground seed fell in the rocks.
But when believing got hard or when persecution came on account of the word, you fell away.
Maybe you're like the thorns. You heard the message of the kingdom. Maybe you embraced it for a little while, but the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world choked it out.
I call you now to repentance, repent of your sin, follow the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
Only in Christ's righteousness can we have salvation from death.
Lord, as we have looked at the parable of the sower this week, I pray that you continue to work these words in us.
Give us wisdom so that we might know who has received the message of the kingdom and who still needs to receive it, who is walking in righteousness and who needs to be called to repentance.
Continue to work these things in us. May they be our salvation, our sanctification as we come to understand the word of Jesus Christ and grow in this all the more until your kingdom come.
And we pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Pope comes from the
Latin word Papa, also a child's word for father. The title is given to the Bishop of Rome, leader of the
Roman Catholic Church. The office of the Pope is called the Papacy, also known as the Apostolic See, based on the understanding that the
Pope is the successor of the Apostle Peter, considered to be the first Pope. Following Peter is this unbroken chain of apostleship, as Peter passed his authority on to his successor and on down the line.
According to Roman Catholic doctrine, today's Pope is regarded as perfect and without error, his revelations, judgments, and decrees as authoritative as the
Bible itself. But while Peter was hugely influential in the building of the church and spread of the gospel, he was not given authority that superseded the other apostles.
At one point he was rebuked by the Apostle Paul, and he called Paul's writings as authoritative as the rest of scripture.
Peter was also married, which is forbidden for the Pope, and he would not have called himself perfect. The Apostle John wrote that if anyone thinks they have no sin, they're deceived and the truth is not in them.
Now we are to submit to apostolic teaching even today, but it's the authority of the apostles who wrote the
New Testament, upon whom Christ built his church. Paul stated that he was the last apostle, no others would be appointed after him.
If anyone teaches a doctrine different than what those apostles taught, they're a false teacher. So the
Pope is not the father of the church. The only head of the church is the Lord Christ. Roman Catholicism says that if a person does not receive the authority of the
Pope, they're anathema and cursed to hell. But the Bible says that curse is for anyone who teaches a different gospel, when we understand the text.
Here's a question that's been asked of us multiple times, but I've chosen James out of Hastings, Nebraska, to respond to dear watch says some wonderful things about what videos, but ultimately the question he's asking is this, how long does it take you to do a video?
Thank you for your question, James. You know, it can take anywhere from four to eight hours and that's, that's pretty much the average, uh, what you're talking about, uh, from the completion of the script to the point that the video is uploaded on YouTube, it takes about four to eight hours.
Uh, the scripts can vary. I really don't time how long it takes to write a script because sometimes
I could write a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow, then it turns out to be like three, four or five minutes long.
Uh, as my wife had mentioned through our Twitter account, uh, earlier this week, it's about an hour long video before I whittled the script down to 90 seconds.
So it always starts way longer, uh, than it turns out being, you know, we have to get everything trimmed down, uh, to a certain number of words and we know we can fit that words, that number of words into 90 seconds.
So anyway, so that can take however long a process. And sometimes that script will be passed through different hands and there are people who make suggestions about it and we'll say, uh,
Hey, I think you should mention this or this Bible verse should be mentioned in there. Sometimes we don't have enough words to say the verse.
We don't have enough time to be able to fit the Bible verse in there. So you'll see the Bible verse in print on the screen as you're watching the video, but not actually hearing me quoting the verse, uh, as I'm doing the voiceover for the, for the script.
So the verse does make it in there. It just may not be quoted word for word just because we have time constraints because we're trying to fit everything into that 90 seconds.
I've also had it asked to me, why is everything 90 seconds? Well, there's no real straight answer for that. But I, again,
I come from a radio background and my radio background, uh, everything was to the second.
Everything is exactly 30 seconds, 60 seconds or 90 seconds. And so that's just where that comes from.
And when we decided that we can make good solid points in a minute and a half, then, uh, then that's how everything eventually got tripped down, trimmed down to 90 seconds.
So anyway, kind of rambling about it here, but overall it's just to say that a video, you know, the actual editing process, doing the image searches, creating those slides.
And every time you see something change on the screen, that's a new slide. Uh, it's, it's an animation.
All things considered, the videos are put together as an animation. Uh, so putting all of that together takes anywhere from four to eight hours.
Uh, but we all have other things that we do. Everybody who is involved in when we understand the text is a volunteer, even the people who help to manage our social media accounts.
So, uh, um, you know, it was just kind of whenever somebody has time, whenever we have a season, we're able to do some more videos and we got some more coming up this next week.
So be sure to visit our website, www .utt .com, tell somebody else about this podcast as well.
Thanks for listening this week. We've got some other issues we're addressing next week before we start our series in Colossians.
God bless. We'll talk to you again soon. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes.
For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt
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