Stay on Mission – 31st October 2017

3. Matthew 13: 1-9 ‘The Seed’.
‘That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other see 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.”
So, the sower sewed the seed all over the place, he ‘scattered it’. But what does the seed represent in the parable? Later in the chapter, in verse 18, Jesus describes the seed as ‘the message of the Kingdom’ this is the ‘good news’ or ‘the gospel’.
The seed is the gospel and in Romans 1:16 Paul writes: “ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile”.
The gospel is ‘The power of God’ and the original word that we translate into ‘power’ is the same word as ‘dynamite’ in English. The seed represents the gospel and the gospel is explosively powerful!
As you read these words, let me ask you a question. ‘Do you believe that the gospel has the power to change a person’s life?’ I am guessing that you may have answered ‘yes’ to that question, but let me ask it again, slightly differently. ‘Do you believe that the gospel has the power to change the life of a person that you know who isn’t a Christian?’ and ‘Do you believe that God could use you to share the gospel with the result that a person’s life would be changed?
There are many things that we believe but do we really believe them?
In Mark chapter 9 a father brought his son to Jesus because he was possessed with an evil spirit. He said to Jesus “…if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” V22.
Jesus responded by saying. “If you can, Everything is possible for one who believes.”
In response, the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
I have a feeling that many of us are a little like this man, we believe Jesus can do it but we don’t really believe it enough to believe that He can do it in and through us.
This week, I encourage you to spend some time alone with the Lord. Focus on the words that Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 and ask the Lord to help you overcome your ‘unbelief’ and then, go and begin to scatter the seed of the gospel among those that you know.
Dennis