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The Bountiful Harvest

The Parable of the Sower
Matthew 13:1-8, 18-23

Slide 1

O Lord, as the seed of the Gospel, the seed of the Word of the kingdom is

read and preached now would You be pleased that it might fall on the
good soil, receptive hearts, that our lives might bear fruit - a hundred

fold, sixty, or thirty - to the glory and honour of the name of Jesus, in
whose name we now pray. Amen.

My favourite biblical readings are the parables.

In every parable, there exists a relationship between an idea that is

unfamiliar to the listener and an idea that is familiar. Parables teach
lessons through these comparative relationships, are easy to remember

and their application relates directly to everyday living. In many cases
Jesus selected an agricultural background so that His people would be

able to relate to the story.

Jesus' had two distinct purposes for using parables.

The first one was to reveal truth to those whose hearts wanted to believe
and whose ears wanted to hear but had difficulty understanding. Verse

13 reads “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do
not hear or understand.

The second purpose was to conceal the truth from those who willingly

rejected the message because of their calloused hearts.

Slide 2

Vs 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly
hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they

might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their
hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’