The Life of Christ

“The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born” (Mt. 26:24).

Before people accept Christ, they need to count the cost, realize the difficulties ahead, and the serious consequences that await those who give up midstream.

• A good dose of realism will only better prepare the condition of the heart to make a lasting commitment.

• During the end times, converts will be told that if they accept Christ, they will most likely face certain death in the immediate days ahead.

Mt. 13:7 “And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.”

Mt. 13:22 further elaborates on this: “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” • What hinders this new-found faith is not persecution or dying to self, but the refusal to break from the love of this world (1 Jn. 2:15). 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

• Just as the nutrients of the soil feed the thorns rather than the wheat, when loving this world, we devote our energies and resources toward the cares of this life, rather than the kingdom.

Rev. 18:4 provides a sobering end-time warning to believers who have deeply into the cares of this life: immersed themselves.

• And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4).

• Rather than seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, this person has developed a lifestyle that first pursues pleasures and things of this life. Whatever is left over might possibly make its way to the Kingdom.

• Neh. 4:10 reads, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”

Mt. 13:8 “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

This appears to be a wheat harvest.

• We notice that even though the ground is good, and the seed is good the yield tends to vary: 30- fold, 60-fold, 100-fold.

• One seed of wheat will produce up to eight heads.

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Each head can produce up to 50 seeds.

• Depending upon conditions, each single stock of wheat, originating from a single seed can produce up to 400 seeds.

• 400 seeds from a single seed would be considered a 100-fold yield.

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