He gives some parables about God’s kingdom
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📚✭And again he began to teach by the lakeside, and a huge crowd gathered before him, so that he went into a boat, and sat out on the lake, and the whole crowd was on land by the lake. 2 📚And he taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching said to them, 3 📚“Listen! Look, a sower went out to sow. 4 📚And as he was sowing it happened that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. 5 📚And some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. 6 📚But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 📚And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 📚And other seed fell on good ground, and springing up and growing it yielded a crop. Some seed produced thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundredfold”.
9 📚And he said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.
10 📚And when he was alone, those around him together with the Twelve asked him about the parable.
11 📚And he said to them, “To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those outside all these things come in parables, 12 📚so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; that they might not be converted and their sins be forgiven them”.
13 📚And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? But how then will you understand all parables? 14 📚The sower sows the Word. 15 📚And these are the ones by the wayside, where the Word is sown. But when they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that was sown in their hearts. 16 📚And in the same way these are the ones who are sown on stony ground. When they hear the Word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 📚But they have no root in themselves, and so last only for a time. Afterwards, when trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, immediately they fall. 18 📚And these are the ones who are sown among thorns; they hear the Word, 19 📚and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things coming in, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 📚And these are the ones who are sown on good ground; they hear the Word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold”.
21 📚✭And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not to be put on the lampstand? 22 📚For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed; nor has anything been kept secret that will not come to light. 23 📚If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear”.
24 📚And he said to them, “Carefully consider what you hear. Whatever measure you use will be the one used for you; and to you who hear more will be given. 25 📚For to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away”.
26 📚✭And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man scatters seed in the ground, 27 📚and night and day he sleeps and rises, and the seed sprouts and grows; how, he does not know. 28 📚For the earth produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 📚But when the grain shows itself ready, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest✭ has come”.
30 📚And he said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we illustrate it? 31 📚It is like mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground, is smaller than all the seeds that are in the ground. 32 📚But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes the largest of all garden plants, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade”.
33 📚✭And with many such parables he spoke the Word to them, as much as they were able to understand. 34 📚✭But he did not speak to them without a parable. But when they were alone, he explained everything to his disciples.
He causes a storm to cease
35 📚And the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side”.
36 📚And when they had sent the crowd away, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. And there were also other boats with him. 37 📚And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already becoming full of water. 38 📚And he was in the back part of the boat, asleep on a cushion. And they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”
39 📚And he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the lake, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 📚And he said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
41 📚And they were very afraid, and said to one another, “What kind of a man is this, that even the wind and the lake obey him?”