"And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."
In today's quote, Jesus presented the parable of the sower wherein He explained how His church would come to grow and expand.
When Jesus was again alone with His apostles, they asked what the parable had meant. In explaining it, Jesus said, "Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."
That explanation was necessary because it was not possible for anyone other than the apostles to understand what the full gospel of Christianity would be until such a time as Jesus had died, been buried, and had again arisen to fulfill His divine soul redeeming mission. The apostles were given to understand only because Jesus would teach them what was going to happen through the ministry of His gospel before He ascended back to the Father in heaven.
It behooves every child of God to remember that there was no such thing as salvation by grace through faith, as we know it today, until Jesus had died, been buried, and had taken the sins of the world to the grave with Him, leaving them there for those of us whom have placed our faith in Him. ~
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