January 23, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 13:18-23
OBSERVATIONS
The thing that jumped out at me this time was how the seed is explained as the message of the kingdom. I’ve always thought that the seed was the bible. Now in a secondary sense this is true, because the bible does communicate the message of the kingdom, but keep in mind the bible was not yet written. Jesus announced the message of the kingdom, the fulfillment of God’s promise to restore His kingdom on earth. This is what people had to respond to.
Some people rejected it right away (the religious leaders), some accepted it at first until they realized how much it demanded of them (many in the crowds), some choose to follow Jesus but got sidetracked by worldly desires (Judas), and some choose to believe it and live according to it (other disciples).
The message of the kingdom is the good news, not just the message that I am saved. Salvation is part of that message, but the message involves so much more. I think many Christians have a shallow understanding of the message, this is why there are so many fruitless followers.
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
What is the message of the kingdom?
God through Jesus takes back the creation throne for Adam (humanity) by succeeding where Adam (humanity) failed – faithfully living the God-like life, resisting sin and Satan, and overcoming death (the curse of sin). In Christ, Adam (humanity) is in charge again (good news) and we are invited to join in and experience the blessing by living the God-like life for God, with Jesus, in the Spirit.
To believe this is not just to sit back and wait for Jesus to bring us to heaven; to believe this is to join Jesus in living this kingdom life here on earth, assured of His forgiveness, enabled by His victory, empowered by Spirit.
This is the harvest, when our lives change, no longer primarily producing bad fruit but now increasingly producing good fruit, the fruit of the Spirit.
My mission, my calling is to become an ambassador for Jesus through love, joy, peace, patience, etc, wherever God sends me (my neighborhood, my workplace, in the store, with strangers, with my enemies).
Am I producing this harvest, or am I resisting/rejecting the seed?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
So here is the explanation of the parable of the sower, from a few days ago. Even though I have heard this story explained many times, it is good to read it again, just these few verses. It is easy to gloss over this and think to myself, that of course, I am a Christian, and so I will be in the last group, producing much seed. And then I try to explain to myself that the seed must be love, joy, peace….
Reading this today, and thinking about each group that Jesus talks about tells me a different story. The groups to me represent a continuum in which a person can place themselves. It also represents different societies. The first group doesn’t even hear or respond. The second group has to deal with trouble, ridicule, torture because of their belief. The third group deals with worry about life in general or striving for wealth, and the fourth group responds to the message of the kingdom by reproducing this message many times.
I can see that I plainly belong to the third group. I worry about stuff that doesn’t matter. I worry about stuff that will never happen. I work hard, and strive for wealth, without much thought of the kingdom. This fourth group produces a crop. While I talk to others, and tell people of the good news, I am often preaching to the choir, and I need help in producing a yield. This yield is that which was sown, the good news of the kingdom of God. Notice that some of the seed will not be fruitful, and will end up at group number one. But am I sowing the seed?
I pray that God will help me to move from being a worrier, and a materialistic person to a person who gets what the kingdom of heaven is about, so I can produce a yield of what was sown.
Observations:
The parable of the sower is revisited. God’s Word tells the meaning of the parable and that’s the best. The seed – the Word of the Lord – must take root and produce fruit. The sower expects fruitfulness – a crop. And its growing the seed has fallen and taken root in the good soil but it did not say anything about the rocks and thorns and thistles while growing. The seed took hold and produced. That is the purpose of the seed.
Application:
What is in the heart, so is he. The soil is the heart for there come the issues of life. My heart must be receptive to the Words of the Lord. My hands are an expression of the heart. My hands show where my heart is at. Doing the Word of the Lord. And then my head – the mind – good thoughts directing my life in His SonLight catching His Rays so that I can continue to do what I was created to do – grow. Produce good fruit. And they will know we are Christians by our love – fruit – yield. Although there may be rocks and thorns and persecution, I hear the voice of Jesus say – this is the way and I follow and grow – until harvest time.
Prayer:
Help me each day Lord to have an open heart and mind to do Your will as I continue to grow in Your SonShine this day. Make me GodStrong so others can see my fruit.
“The fruit of the Spirit’s not a coconut! The fruit of the Spirit’s not a coconut! If you want to be a coconut, you might as well hear it, you can’t be a fruit of the Spirit! ‘Cause the fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control!”