Matthew 13:18-23

This month's Series is The Gospel According to Matthew. In the previous post, we covered the beginning of Matthew 13. Here is the summary:

In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus changed His approach: He spoke in parables. He did this in order to reach the Unaware Brains of the masses. Jesus found teaching principles directly only reached half the individual and the masses were able to "not hear" the truth because their conscious brain disregarded what had been taught by Jesus. Also, Jesus confirmed teaching truth directly to leaders of His time resulted in the leaders becoming worse. (We saw this in Matthew chapter 12.) Once Jesus had confirmed this, He could no longer do it without being guilty of causing them to stumble...so He stopped!

We will see Jesus then spent the next SEVERAL CHAPTERS working "Plan C". These are the passages most people quote from Matthew because they still reach us today...because we are living in a time where we can for the most part only be reached through stories (which is what Ayn Rand and CS Lewis wrote in the 1960's). Jesus let people decide if they were followers without disrupting the non-believers or causing them to stumble...


MATTHEW 13:18-23
"18 Hear then ye the parable of the sower."

(Then, Jesus gave to His disciples ONLY, the direct principle-based explanation of the "farming" story He told. This is the spiritual message. This is doctrine.)

"19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side."

(People who hear the Word of God in both of their brains AND their conscious brain does not understand it, end up losing the Word. The person may choose consciously to NOT hear and NOT see. The person may NOT be able to hear and see because they are prideful.)

(The Word is sown in the heart. The Unaware Brain has access to things put into the heart. The physical analogy for people who don't get the Word planted into their conscious brain with understanding is seed being sown by the "way side".)

"20 And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it;
21 yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth."

(This case covered the person who associates a positive emotion with the Word. This occurs with the completion of the Second Feedback Loop! This person has planted the Word in their conscious brain with a positive emotion. However, when tribulation (inside the person) and persecution (outside) occur BECAUSE of the Word, they make Unprofitable choices...and avoid the Word. WHY? Because just as they quickly and easily associated a positive emotion with the Word, they now associate a negative emotion with the Word...and want to avoid the Word. They have changed their brain with another completion of the Second Feedback Loop. It doesn't look like the person either understands the Word, is fully convinced of the Word, or has DONE the Word. This is analogous in the physical realm to seed being sown in "rocky places".)

"22 And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."

(This case covered the person who plants the Word in their conscious brain, yet the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches ("if I only had more money...") eventually make the Word Unprofitable because the person is living with contradictions. The thorns are seen as the world. Notice, the person BECOMES unfruitful...the person may appear to be Profitable, but over time (in the Long Term) they will eventually be Unprofitable. This is the same as completing the Second Feedback Loop with a contradiction, so the person is unable to access the Word during subsequent First Feedback Loops because of the endless contradictory loop.)

"23 And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

(Notice, this case is the ONLY case that mentioned UNDERSTANDING. The Word with understanding leads to Profitability. Hundredfold is perfect Profitability. I believe Jesus showed there are levels of Profitability...you can be in God's Will AND NOT be perfect. God's good (thirty), pleasing (sixty), and perfect (one hundred) Will.)


SUMMARY
Jesus continued to teach THE SAME message as His Premiere Teaching (Matthew chapters 5 through 7). After Matthew chapter 12, Jesus taught in story form.

Notice, this parable covered many aspects from Jesus' Premiere Teaching...Matthew 5:10-12 is persecution because of Jesus (the Word)...Matthew 6 with various Reward levels...the end of Matthew 6 concerning the cares of this world...Matthew 7:17-20 speaking of fruitful...Matthew 7:24-27 hearing and doing the Word.

This parable was a Reward parable. People ended up with different levels of Reward.

Jesus' message hadn't changed...the WHY hadn't changed.

Jesus' METHOD of delivering the message had changed...the HOW had changed.

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