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Before your head hits the pillow

The Parable of the Sower

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…Before your head hits the pillow…

The Parable of the Sower

So what is a parable and who uses them? When I was a child, I was told that a parable was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Now that I am older I think I would view them as extended metaphors. The story (parable) is a doorway to a greater truth, a larger reality. These parables were also understood by those with discernment, those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. (Matthew 13:10-17).

Parables or allegories were told in both the Old and New Testament. You will find parables in the Psalms, in Proverbs, and even in Ezekiel. Jesus told more than 30 parables during His lifetime. He told parables about the Kingdom of God, about service and obedience, about prayer, about neighbors, about humility, about wealth, about God’s love, about thankfulness, about Christ’s return, and about God’s values.

Tonight let’s talk about the Parable of the Sower. You can read this parable in Matthew 13:1-8 and in Luke 8:4-8. The Luke passage says, “While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told this parable, ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.’”

The seed in this parable represents the word of God. You and I might consider ourselves the sowers. As Christians we are called to go into the world and make disciples. We don’t know where we will find these disciples, and whether the seeds we plant grow into productive crop is not up to us, that is in the Lord’s hands. It is our duty to plant seeds wherever we can. We may plant some seeds on the by-ways and some in the rocks and some may be sown where they can be choked out. But if we plant enough seeds some will be planted in fertile soil. C.H. Spurgeon once stated, “Our duty is not measured by the character of our hearers, but by the command of our God. We are bound to preach the gospel, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. It is ours to sow beside all waters.”

The seed that was sown by the way-side is like the Word that is spread to men with hardened hearts. God’s Word sits on the outside of this person’s heart but never penetrates it. It never sinks in so cannot grow.

The next seeds fall among rocks. The seed sprouts but because of lack of moisture it soon dies. The people who are like these seeds hear the Word, they may even become emotional about what they hear, but their professions are not true. It is based on emotion not on deep-seeded faith. These individuals never really accept the truth or act on its commands so they also die.

Then there were the seeds that were sown among thorns. These seeds are those individuals who hear the Word, they listen, they take the words home with them and may even make a profession of religion. They worship with believers; they may attend your services, and appear to be growing. But they have allowed the things of this world to grow side by side with the Word of God. They have chosen not to die to self. They don’t want to put aside the things of the world, and eventually those very things choke out the Words that they heard so that it never takes root. They never make a complete profession of their faith.

The last is the seed that falls on fertile soil. This seed represents the true Christian. This seed represents the Christian who gives his/her life totally to the Lord, grows in truth and knowledge, and then becomes capable of planting seeds themselves!

It is our responsibility to plant seeds. We must sow them everywhere! Some will fall on non-fertile land but some will fall on fertile soil. Others may come and water your seeds. Another believer may bring in the fertilizer. But that fertile soil plant would not have spouted had you not planted the seed. What a blessing it will be when one day the seeds that you sowed begin sowing seeds of their own!

Before your head hits the pillow

Tricking Jesus

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…Before your head hits the pillow…

Tricking Jesus

The Pharisees and Sadducees were constantly trying to trick and trap Jesus. The Pharisees were primarily business class individuals and were viewed in high esteem by the Jewish people. They believed that the Old Testament was the inspired word of God but they also ascribed to many other more traditional laws which were written in the Mishnah as passed on orally from one generation to the next.

The Sadducees were wealthy and more distant from the people. They believed that the Old Testament was inspired and did not believe that oral tradition had equal authority to scripture. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the spiritual realm of angels and demons or an afterlife but the Pharisees did.

But both groups saw Jesus as a threat to their authority and spent much time trying to determine a way to get rid of Him.

In Mark 12 the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus when they asked Him if it was all right to pay taxes to Rome. They believed that if He said no, the Roman government would arrest Him. If He merely said yes it would appear that He was a Roman sympathizer and the people would turn against Him. But Jesus was and is wise. What He told them was to look at the coin. The coin had on it the image of Caesar. He told them to pay to Caesar that which was Caesars and to God that which was Gods.

Later in the same chapter the Sadducees took their turn at trying to trick Jesus. They asked him a really ridiculous question considering they did not believe in the afterlife. They asked Him about a woman who was widowed 7 times. When she got to heaven, whose wife would she be? Jesus was again just too wise for them. He told them that she would be no man’s wife for there is no marriage in heaven. But He didn’t stop there. He then quoted Exodus 3:6 the scripture referencing the burning bush. It states, “I am the God of your ancestors – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jesus told them that He wasn’t the God of the dead but the God of the living so Abraham, Isaac and Jacob MUST be alive for God to be their God AFTER they had died.

In John 10 the Pharisees were up to their trickery as well. Divorce was a tricky subject and Moses had given the people of Israel an out. They wanted to see if Jesus too would readily condone divorce. But Jesus in His wisdom schooled them once again. He let them know that Moses had written his instructions about divorce only to please the hard hearted wickedness of the people, but God ordained that marriage should be forever.

We have a very wise and powerful God. Jesus knows all and understands all. He knew when the Pharisees and Sadducees were trying to trick Him and he knows when we are trying to evade Him or control our own lives.

When we try to trick Jesus by bargaining with Him, he knows our hearts. When we bargain with Jesus saying, “If you will do this, then I will do this,” Jesus sees into our hearts and knows that with that bargain our hearts are not completely surrendered to Him.

Just as the Pharisees could not trick Jesus, we will never be able to trick God either. If we are living a life of faulty service and worship, He knows. If we attend church and go through all of the ritualistic motions of being a Christian but have never really accepted Him as our Savior and Lord, He knows.

If we have deep hidden sins, we must know they are not hidden from Him for He knows our hearts. There is nowhere that we can go to hide from God. There is nothing we can do to trick Him into believing that we are something that we are not.

Jeremiah 23:24 says, “Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.” And Psalm 139:7 tells us, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” And again in Hebrews 4:13 we read, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

God is all knowing and all powerful. The Sadducees and Pharisees couldn’t put one over on Jesus and neither can we. So if today we have unconfessed sins, let’s go before the Lord and confess them. If we have been living a spiritual life riddled with ritual but not filled with the Spirit of God, Let’s fall on our knees and confess Him as Lord. Let’s ask Him to mold us and make us into a new creature, one created to worship and glorify Him! No more hiding, no more bargaining, no more trickery, just sincere worship. That’s what God wants. Let’s give it to Him!