Mathew 13
By Dr M Zigas
4 types of Christians
We see from this scripture of St Mathew, that Jesus spoke to the crowd with parables. He spoke in parables so as to not cast pearls before the swine, so as to not lay out a step by step process, as this, due to human nature, would come under question, would be dissected, discussed and argued about.
So he spoke this way that the inquiring mind would search the truth of the parable within, and from within, understanding through the Holy Spirit would come. More importantly, He spoke thus knowing that what was to be written would be adapted to ALL geographical areas of the globe. He knew that no matter what race, what colour, or where people are located, the scripture would be interpreted by the Holy Ghost correctly, for that area. Do you understand this??
Jesus sets out basically four types of Christians here:
1. The seed swallowed up by the birds
2. the seed growing in a rocky place
3. the seed growing amongst thorns
4. the seed growing in good soil
Lets look at these shall we.
Now the seed swallowed up by the birds: In 19 Jesus explains that there will be those that hear the Word of the Kingdom, but that it will go right over there heads, and as they start to dwell on it, old Snake Eyes, comes to put question, doubt and disbelief in their minds, so ANY lingering thoughts would be taken away, dumped, forgotten about, thrown in the trash.
In these present times, we see New Age, Wicca, Satan worship and the like, coming through. Snakes eyes is having a field day here, with such a multitude of ripe souls to pluck. He might be shining bright with white light, now, attracting the feeble minded and weak of heart, like moths to a flame, but rest assured that his own light will blind him, his own flames devour him along with all those shallow souls that followed him. No, these are a waste of time, but let US not decide that, even knowing that we waste our time, it is not US that decides but the Lord. Knowing most of these people will mostly ignore you, even turn away from you should not deter a stout Christian. We are STILL to give them the Word of the coming Kingdom and it is THEY that do with that word as they will. “Bible bashing” and pestering these people is to no avail, the further from God they will go if you do. Nay, just the word and let the Holy Ghost take it from there.
The seed growing in a rocky place; How many happy clappy churches do you see these days? How many “Brothers and Sisters” do you meet that precede and end everything they say with “the Lord told me…” or “the Holy spirit came upon me” etc I know many, many such people, and I pray for them.
These people literally burst forth with righteousness and espouse scripture at every turn. They seem really Holy. BUT, start to point out the truth in scripture, of verse in context and where they are blatantly erroneous in their interpretation, or watch them meet the Devil head on, and look what happens. They end up a burnt wreck, they end up disillusioned by their false pastors, their wrong beliefs, they turn from GOD!
Look at 19-21. Sure, these folk might have a truly great revelation that needs to be shouted to the world but whats the point in going duck hunting, sitting in your blind, gun ready, but you got no shells!!! They have NO root! They have no “depth” in the Word, they are shouting with joy from a physical perspective, from a physical HEART, but their SOUL is in want, their SOUL is not fed or nourished from the Word, and the Word is the Bible. The Bible is the “shells” . Whats the point in showing off how Holy you are if you don’t study and pray from the Bible?? So, for a short time, these people will flourish and bloom in spirituality, then wither and fall into the hands of New Age and the like.
They will want to go out and spread the Word, they will want to get up on a stage in front of a camera and shout the Word of the Lord, (and turn a goodly profit I might add).
Its like skate boarding down a smoothe driveway,,,wow, check this out, figure eight, 360, ¾ crouch, re-entry on a back glide….going great….BANG!!! flat on your face on the concrete! Ouch! One tiny little pebble, one insignificant piece of stone has just brought all your thrill, exuberance and ecstasy to a painful and very abrupt end!! Bugger this! You limp back home with bloody knees, a few cracked bones, throw the skateboard into the back of the garage, and shut the door!!! Think about that for a bit.
Moving on, we come to the seed that falls in amongst thorns. 22 tells us about these folk that hear and know the word, but are weak in their conviction. They are in an enviroment of worldly goods, of lust, temptation, money, goods and chattels. They peek over the fence to see what the Joneses have now, and Satan creeps up on them. Theirs is a hard one as they tend to be isolated in a sea of greed and avarice, and gradually, everso slowly, bend to will of flesh. They bend to the desire of the body, after all, its easier to go with the flow than swim upstream eh?!
I mean, really, that new 4wd would be really good to out bush camping, better than the old Toyota we have now. Look, it’s a Red one!! Goes faster too! Gee, you know if we borrowed at this interest rate we could have it payed off in 15 years………….and so the rot sets in. Choked by the weeds, drowned in a sea of worldly want, suffocated by the poisonous air of avarice and greed. They might have had their roots in good soil, but the thorns and weeds were mightier than they.
Now we come to the seed that falls in good ground. 23. Here are they that receive the word, and hear it! They understand it. They let the Holy Ghost from within, feed it and let it grow to realization. They have conviction, strength and determination. They will not by swayed from their belief, but stand strong on the face of adversity. Their strength is from within, their wisdom and compassion is gained from the Word and that Word is Christ, and Christ written is the Holy Bible. They delight in Gods Creation, they toil without complaint. They have shouldered the weight of their cross and followed Jesus, they lead the way through the narrow gate on the path of the Son of God.
Their roots are deep, and they bear good fruit and bring forth “ some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty”
Now we have seen the four categories alluded to here, which do you fit in??
I came across some writings from a Chinese author in antiquity, that wrote a similar categorization, let me read it to you; I have changed the wording slightly,
“the four types of man:
He that knows not and knows NOT, that he knows not is an idiot, avoid him.
He that knows not and KNOWS that he knows not, is a fool, hit him.
He that KNOWS and knows NOT that he knows, needs awakening, shake him.
But he that KNOWS and KNOWS that he knows is a wise man, follow him.
Let us pray.
