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South Bay SDA Church

Phil Mills

God’s End-time Church Prophecy

Did you ever notice that people from England talk with an English accent and people from Australia talk with an Australian accent?

In fact, my staff in Blue Ridge, Georgia tell me that if you listen carefully, you'll notice the only people who don't have an accent are Southern.

Have you ever watched people and noticed that people from South of Africa dress like South Africans?

And people from Mexico eat Mexican food and Chinese prefer Chinese food.

There is a reason and it's an important reason.

And in the course of our Bible study together, we'll see why this is true and how it applies to us today.

Dear Lord, bless us as we study your word.

I pray that The Holy Spirit may speak to our hearts, may fill us with fresh thoughts of Jesus.

The gospel writers give us the outline of 2 very important sermons that Jesus preached.

1 is the Sermon on the Mount which was the ordination sermon for his 12 apostles and it was given in 2 of the synoptic Gospels Matthew and Luke.

But a few months before this important sermon was given a sermon was given that was so important that it's recorded by all 3 of the synoptic gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

This was the sermon by the sea, and it was about 1 and a half years into Jesus' ministry at the start of his Galilean ministry.

The disciples had not left their occupations full-time to follow Jesus.

They had fished all that night because they needed some resources to provide food for the family and clothes for the family.

And it was just becoming light as they rode toward the land.

Though it was not yet sunrise, through the misty shadows, the disciples could see the form of Jesus who was walking along the beach, waiting there that early morning hour to talk with them.

Hoping to get private instruction from their beloved teacher, they quickly brought their boat to shore.

But it was already too late to allow the luxury of much private communication with Jesus.

Already the depressed, the sick, the dying had discovered Jesus' location.

And not wanting to miss their opportunity for healing, they looked for Jesus early.

There's a teaching point here if we want to find Jesus, if we want to be healed by Jesus we should start at an early hour.

Proverbs 8 17 those that seek me early shall find me.

This morning I read something very interested in Selected Messages 377 ministering angels are waiting about the throne to instantly obey the mandate of Jesus Christ to answer every prayer offered in earnest living faith just waiting to answer our prayers.

The scripture account makes it possible to join the disciples as in our imagination we watch him with tender compassion bend over the forms of the suffering, the despondent, and the dying.

Every despondent soul was tranquilized by his words of hope and forgiving love, as Ellen White described in a talk to the sanitarium patients at Gugwak Lake.

Those that were healed didn't immediately leave after their healing.

With interest they watched as Jesus then healed others.

They also knew that Jesus had more than healing to offer them and they stayed around to hear his instruction after the last sufferer was relieved.

In this glimpse of Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, we are observing what can be our daily experience.

Each morning we awaken sick and ready to die with the disease of sin.

Rolling out of bed, we cry out for help to the mighty Deliver.

He bends low to hear our request, and touching us banishes the sickness of our soul and of our mind.

But we don't just hurry off to the day's activities.

After our healing, we listen intently for his words for our day's instruction.

The compassionate Savior has listened to our cries and now we listen to his instruction.

The crowd that early morning was great, seeking to be close enough to Jesus to hear his words.

The multitudes jostled 1 another as the throng surged forward.

Jesus was in danger of being pushed into the lake and stepping into Peter's boat he pushed off slightly from the land and that humble fisherman's vessel became the podium for an unforgettable sermon.

The sermon by the sea was filled with stories.

When we compare the 3 gospel accounts found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8 we find that there are 9 parables since there are 40 parables that are recorded for Jesus this is almost 25% of the entire collection of stories that we have of Jesus right here 1 sermon these were kingdom parables because they tell about the kingdom of heaven 4 of the 9 parables talk about seed sowing and harvest.

This is the Bible sign language for evangelism.

If you noticed Christ approached that morning was to begin with healing then he moved on to evangelism.

To get the context for our Bible study this morning please open your Bibles to Luke.

We want to look at a verse in Luke 8, Luke chapter 8.

And Jesus started his sermon by the sea with the parable of the sower.

It's a simple story but it has a profound depth.

In this parable Jesus told the farmer who was planting seed by throwing it on the ground.

The farmer's seed landed on 4 different areas of the field.

The farmer was systematically sowing seed everywhere in the field.

Some seed landed on the hard, unplowed soil on the outskirts of the field on hardened pathways that men walked on.

Other seed landed in areas filled with rocks and containing little soil.

Some seed landed on soil that was covered with thorny weeds.

And finally, Some seed landed on soil that was covered with thorny weeds.

Finally some seed landed on soil that was plowed, prepared, and fertile.

Then using time-lapse photography Christ told what happened to the seed that season.

In the parable, what does the seed represent?

Jesus explained that the seed in the parable was the Word of God.

It is the Word of God proclaimed, written, and preached.

And Leaving Luke's account, please turn to the book of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, and look at Matthew chapter 13, Matthew 13, and it is from Matthew 13 that we'll get the remainder of most of our study today.

This morning we want to see what happened to the seed on that fertile prepared soil.

Let's start reading with verse 23, Matthew 13, 23.

You want to follow along because there's some interesting insights that you see when you actually look at what the Word of God says.

Let's read verse 23, but he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it who indeed bears fruit and produces, some a hundredfold, some 60, and some 30.

What happened to the seed on the good ground?

But we notice that the crop yield had great variability with some soil producing 30-fold while other soil produced 3 times as much a hundredfold.

But the ending to this story introduced the next story.

Those who are listening must have wondered why is there this astonishing difference between the 30 fold and the a hundred fold in yield?

Why did some soil produce one-third of what other soil produced.

To explain this, Jesus told the next parable, and we'll continue with the next verse, verse 24.

Another parable he put forth to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like.

Jesus wants us to understand what the kingdom of heaven is like.

He's not talking about what the kingdom of heaven will be like after he comes and purifies and cleanses all of the evil and all of the sin from the world.

He's talking about what the kingdom of heaven is like right now in this sinful world ruled by Satan.

The kingdom of heaven, he said, is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

It's like an evangelist sowing good seed in a field.

And who is the evangelist spoken of here who sowed this good seed we don't have to guess because in verse 37 Jesus explained he who sows the good seed is the son of man.

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God’s End-time Church Prophecy

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