Tag: Matthew 13
-
Prostituting Jesus
A decent man would never use a woman for satisfaction and never care to know her. The modern-day sex trade is based on the willingness of one person to use another for his or her pleasure but never caring to know that other person. Many people do this with Jesus. They desire the benefits of…
-
Discipleship: The First-Fruit of the Kingdom
What do you think the first-fruit of the kingdom is? Discipleship is lacking in many churches today. The local church lacks discipleship because people, in large part, are afraid to be wrong. Many pastors don’t start the difficult conversations that Scripture insights because they fear people will lash out at them and/or leave their congregations.…
-
The Treasure of the Church
The kingdom of Heaven is not the kingdom of this world. Many things that seem religious or good from the world’s perspective are actually contrary to Jesus’s teaching about the kingdom of Heaven. If I were to ask you what you treasure, how would you answer? Do you treasure family, friends, your house, food, comfort,…
-
Jesus On Predestination and the Rapture
A couple weeks ago, we saw Jesus tell the crowds a parable in which the kingdom of Heaven was compared to wheat and tares. He did not explain his parable to the crowds, so we made a couple observations and application but did not explain the parable specifically. In today’s text, Jesus explains His parable…
-
How to Grow the Church
As we continue through Jesus’s kingdom of Heaven parables, we see an interesting idea. We desire revival. We desire to see explosive growth regarding Christ’s kingdom. Jesus tells us how His kingdom grows, and it’s not what we expect from a human perspective. When we think about the next two parables, we will be prepared…
-
Wheat and Weeds Unexplained
Jesus told one parable concerning the kingdom of Heaven. His word is sown everywhere but only bears fruit when it is sown in the sower’s good soil. The fruit Jesus explicitly referred to was understanding and sound teaching. Now, Jesus tells another parable. He, again, leaves it dangling without explanation. Since Jesus will explain this…
-
Christ’s Fruitless and Fruitful Word
Why do people reject such a gracious Gospel? Why do people claim to be Christians but add works to grace as the basis for salvation? Why do self-proclaimed Christians hear God’s word and explain it away saying, “The Bible doesn’t really mean that”? In the previous passage, Jesus told a parable and left the parable…
-
To Him Who Has, More Will Be Given
Did you know that there are stories in the Bible that did not really happen? Christianity’s critics accuse Christians of believing stories that are not literal. They accuse the Bible of being false and unreliable because it contains stories that are not literal or historically accurate. Here, a clarification needs to be made about the…