Gospel Matthew study

⁴⁷ “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸ When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. ⁴⁹ This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:47-50)
This parable is similar to the parable of the wheat and tares we studied earlier. Here the fish represent people. The Lord Jesus told his disciples to be the fishers of men. The sea represents the world. The net was cast into the sea and gathered all kinds of fish, which means that the gospel will be spread throughout the world. When the net is full, people will draw it to shore. That is, at the end of the age, when the Lord Jesus comes again, he will send angels to separate the righteous from the wicked. What does a righteous person mean? A righteous person is one who practices righteousness, practices God’s righteousness, do God’s will.
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)
This was the message that the Lord Jesus preached at beginning of his ministry. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Lord Jesus hopes that everyone will repent and turn to him. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God, the kingship of God. If a person is willing to live under the kingship of God, believes and is baptized, he will receive the Holy Spirit, has the presence of the Lord, and has the kingdom of heaven in his heart, when the Lord Jesus comes again, the angels will take him to the kingdom of heaven to be with the Lord, as mentioned in the parable.
⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ ¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ ¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)
Here we can see that the Lord Jesus does not like self-righteous people, people who despise others, He likes humble people. If we see our sins, confess and repent, we will be forgiven by Him, and we will be considered righteous in His eyes.
May God bless you and your family. 🙏😊

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matthew 13:44)
We see that when the man found the treasure in the field, he hid it instead of took it away. Why? Because the field did not belong to him, it was illegal for him to take away the treasure hidden in the field. However, if he bought the field, all the treasures in the field belonged to him.
From the previous parable study, we know that man represents the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, and the field represents the world. So what does the treasure represent? Some people think that the treasure represent God or the Lord Jesus, but the treasure is hidden in the field, we can not say that God or the Lord Jesus is hidden in the world. The treasure represents man. Everyone is created by God. In God’s eyes, they are all treasures and precious. So the Lord Jesus was willing to sell everything he had to buy this field. In order to redeem mankind, the Lord Jesus died on the cross. He gave up his life and shed his precious blood. He redeems us from the world with his precious blood.
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, (Exodus 19:5)
This is what God said to the Israelite. If they listen to God and keep God’s covenant, then they are God’s treasured possession.
I tell you, even so there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10)
Here we see that when one sinner repents, the angels of God will rejoice over him, and heaven will rejoice over him. There are many treasures on earth. Every time the Lord Jesus finds a treasure, he will rejoice, and heaven will also rejoice. The Lord Jesus is willing to find every treasure, and is willing for everyone to turn to him and be born again and saved.
May God bless you and your family. 🙏😊

³³ He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” ³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵ So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:33-35)
Previously, the Lord Jesus told the parable of the mustard seed, which talks about the development of the kingdom of heaven, just like the mustard seed, which grows from the smallest seed to the largest vegetable and becomes a tree.
Here, the Lord Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. What does this mean?
⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
Paul said the same thing here, “a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough” This refers to the fact that there was adultery in the Corinthian church. The yeast here refers to sin. leavened with malice and wickedness mentioned here all refer to sin. Sin will affect the entire church. There is adultery in the church, Paul wants the church to excommunicate him. We see that the church may be affected by sin.
Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be^[a] on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. (Luke 12:1)
Here the Lord Jesus said that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:6) Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:12)
Here the Lord Jesus wants the disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The yeast here refers to their teachings, that is, wrong teachings.
Here we see that yeast represents sin and wrong teachings, sin and wrong teachings will affect the church. We should read the Bible more, do the Lord’s will, if we have sins, confess and repent of our sins, draw near to the Lord, have a close relationship with the Lord, be the sheep that listen to the Lord’s voice, and discern the wrong teachings.
May God bless you and your family! 🙏😊

³¹ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³² Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)
Here the Lord Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds. It is planted in the field. The parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel says that it is planted in the garden. When it grows, it is larger than all garden plants and becomes a large tree. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, was very small at the beginning, starting with the Lord Jesus and the twelve disciples. The Lord Jesus only had three years of ministry on earth, but it developed into the largest. We know that the gospel spreads globally and the kingdom of God develops globally. When the Lord Jesus comes again, he will rule the world for a thousand years, and the world will be at peace. The parable talks about the birds of the air coming to lodge in his branches. The Kingdom of God becomes a shelter for people, a place for people to live, a resting place.
²² “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. ²³ On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. (Ezekiel 17:22-23)
This is a similar parable in the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. It talks about the cedar tree growing up from small and all kinds of birds nesting under it. This prophesies the development of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Christ from small to large, becoming a shelter for the people.
May God bless you and your family! 🙏😊

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. ²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
Here, the Lord Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing good seed in a field, that is, sowing wheat in a field. Here, the man or the owner is the Lord Jesus, and the field represents the world. The enemy sows weeds among the wheat. The enemy is the devil, Satan. The good seed is the son of the kingdom of heaven. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. When both the wheat and the weeds grow up, the servants of the owner of the field ask the owner whether he wants to pull out the weeds. The owner says no, and waits until the harvest time to pick out the weeds and bind them into bundles and burn them, while the wheat is gathered into the barn. The harvest time is the end of the age. The reapers are the angels.
 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)
Here Revelation talks about the second death, that is, the death of the soul, which is the burning of the weeds mentioned earlier.
¹⁴ I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man^[a] with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵ Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶ So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. (Revelation 14:14-16)
Revelation here talks about in the future, at the end of the age, the Son of Man, that is, the Lord Jesus, and the angels will use a sickle to reap the harvest, that is, to gather the sons of the kingdom of heaven.
May God bless you and your family! 🙏😊

¹That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13:1-9)
Here the Lord Jesus taught the parable of the Sower. The seed represent the word of God, and the soil represents the heart of man. The seeds were sown on four different kinds of soils, representing four different kinds of responses to the word of God. The seed sown on the roadside are eaten up by birds, this means that people hear the word of God but do not understand it, and the evil one, the devil comes and takes away the seed sown in their hearts. The seed sown on rocky places are those who hear the word and immediately receive it with joy, but they have no root in themselves and are only temporary. But when the sun came up, the sun represents trouble or persecution, that is when trouble or persecution occurs because of the word, they immediately fall away. The seed sown among thorns are those who hear the word, but then the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. The seed sown on good ground are those who hear the word and understand it. They bear fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.
May God bless you and your family! 🙏😊