Saturday, 5 June 2021
Title: The Root of The Problem
By: Wong Yoke Ming

Matthew 13:20-21

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Jesus often spoke to His disciples in parables – sometimes – known as stories with intent. What, then, was the intent of the parable of the Sower which told of four types of soil which received seed (read: ‘life’)? Of the four types of soil, three were not well prepared. Where would such soil likely to be? Such types were surely along the fringes of the farmer’s field. The receptive soil can only be the soil in the middle of the field where the farmer must have spent a lot of time and effort tilling and nurturing in order that good fruit may be borne.

What then was this rocky soil? Immediately, we should understand that the rocks make it exceedingly difficult to retain life giving water, which would just flow down to deeper channels and out of the field. Secondly, the soil, we are told, is shallow and thus, makes it difficult to retain nutrients needed for good fruit to grow.

We should remember that the area around the Sea of Galilee, which was the setting for this parable, was rich agricultural land – it still is so today. The farmers, in the crowd and listening to Jesus, would immediately know the solution – prepare the soil to be much more receptive to plant growth.

There are two parables in this chapter of the gospel according to Matthew – one about the soils and one about weeds and wheat. In the former, Jesus did not explain who sowed the seeds whereas in the latter, the Sower of the good seed was the Son of Man. In the latter case, it was undoubtedly a case of sabotage (with the weeds). In the parable of the four soils, there was only seed mentioned, no weeds.

So, we who profess Christianity, need to ask ourselves how we have prepared our ‘soil’ (heart) to receive the word of God. Those who share the gospel need to ask how the hearts of new believers are to be ‘tilled’ and prepared. Quite clearly, saying the “sinner’s prayer” would hardly be sufficient, because the ‘soil’ in new believers would, for sure, be rocky soil.

Here is where we see the way Jesus told a ‘probing’ parable. The farmers would say that they would not sow seeds in a field that had not been prepared. In those days, most of the farmers were tenant farmers – they pay rent for the field, they would make sure that the produce would be sufficient to pay the rent and to give them life!!

Which then brings us to the point on evangelism – do we have a ‘follow-up’ ministry for new believers? An evangelistic ministry would draw non-believers as well as new believers!! Neither are grounded in the gospel – a well-founded ‘follow-up’ ministry must unquestionably be put in place.

We often see the parable of the Sower as a parable of four types of soil – we need to see that bad soil, shallow soil or thorny soil can all be remedied. They can all be tilled and watered with nutrients added so that the soil can receive seed and produce good fruit – then the yield would be hundredfold, or sixty-fold or thirty-fold. When the soil has been well prepared, the fruit would be of good quality; when the heart is well prepared and nurtured, the fruit of the gospel would manifest for the glory of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your Word; that hearing is insufficient, ‘doing’ is critical. When we share Your truth, we need also to act. James reminds us that ‘faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead’- so Lord, we pray that we will not show our faith through evangelistic outreach without completing the process to bear good fruit for kingdom glory. Amen.

每日靈糧
星期六, 2021 年 6 月 5 日
标题：问题的根源
作者：黄玉明弟兄
翻譯 : 王靖端姐妹

马太福音 13:20-21
撒在石头地上的，就是人听了道，当下欢喜领受；只因心里没有根，不过是暂时的；及至为道遭了患难，或是受了逼迫，立刻就跌倒了。

耶稣经常用比喻對他的們徒說話，有時這被称为有含意的故事。那么，講述四种撒了种子的土壤（“生命”）的比喻含意是什麼呢？在四种土壤中，三種没有準備妥當。这样的土壤可能在哪里？这种类型的肯定是在農田的边缘。合適的土壤只能是田地中间的土壤，農民必須花费大量的时间和精力，耕犁和施肥，好结出豐滿的果实。

那么这块土浅石頭地是什麼？我們马上就应该明白，土浅石頭地是不能留住提供種子生命的水，這些水只會流向更深的渠道，進而流出田野。其次，我們知道土壤很淺，因此很難保留果实生長所需的養分。

我們应该暸解，加利利海周围地区是这个比喻的背景，那里有肥沃的農地，而如今依然如此。農民們在人群中聆听耶稣的话，会立即知道解决的辦法：妥备土壤，使其更容易適合植物的生长。

根據马太福音，這一章有两个比喻：一个是關於土壤，另一个是关于稗子和小麦。前者耶稣没有说明谁是播种者，而后者提到好种子的播种者是人子。在后一種情况下，这无疑是蓄意破壞（對稗子）。在四種土壤的比喻中，只提到了种子，没有提到稗子。

所以，我們這些信奉基督教的人，需要问问自己，我們是如何準備好我們的“土壤”（心）来接受上帝的話語。那些傳福音的人需要自問，新信徒的心如何被“耕犁”和培育。很明顯的，只说“罪人的祈祷”是不够的，因为新信徒的“土壤”肯定是土淺石頭地。

在這里，我們看到了耶稣如何讲“探討性”的比喻。農民們会说他們不會在没有耕培好的田地里播种。在那個年代，大多数農民都是佃農——他們要付地租，他們会确保農产品足以支付租金并能靠之為生！！

这让我們进入了传福音的重点: 我們是否有针对新信徒的“跟進”事工？傳福音事工会吸引非信徒和新信徒！！两者都沒有很強的福音基础——毫无疑问，必须建立一个十分妥善的“跟进”事工。

我們经常把播种者的比喻看作是四种土壤的比喻，但我們需要意識到是，不管坏的 、浅的或長荆棘的土壤，它們都可加以改良。當土壤被耕犁和浇水，添加肥料，使它們適合被撒种并结出豐盛的好果实時，那么产量将是一百倍、六十倍或三十倍。当土壤肥沃时，果实的质量就会很优良；当人心得到充分的栽培和滋养时，福音的果子就会為荣耀神的国度而彰显出来 。

祷告：天父，我們感谢祢的话语；只听道是不够的，行動才是关键。当我們分享你的真理时，我們也需要采取行动。雅各提醒我們，“这样，信心若没有行为就是死的。” 所以主啊，我們祈祷我們不会没有完成的程序，而通过传福音延伸表明我們的信心，为神国度荣耀结出好果子。阿门。