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Jesus Shares the Parable of the Farmer�s Seeds

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Wednesday July 10, 2024}

Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-18

Father, I want the gospel to transform my life. I want the gospel to not only save my soul from eternal damnation, but I also want the gospel to equip me for usefulness for the building of Your Kingdom. I want the gospel to become deeply rooted in my life, so rooted that my sinful nature and the efforts of Satan cannot tear me away from the ground of faith. Father, I want to become a giant tree of faith, a tree that gives shade to many who are suffering in life. Please tend to the seed that is my faith and make sure it becomes deeply rooted. Amen.

Father, the text tells us that Jesus left the “house” and went to the lake (Sea of Galilee). Large crowds of people continued to follow Him wherever He went. The crowds were so large that Jesus had to, once more, escape from them by getting into a boat and teaching them truths through the use of many parables as they gathered on the beach.

The question must have arisen, “Why do some people reject the transforming work of the gospel of Jesus Christ?” Jesus gives us several reasons. He uses the parable of a farmer planting seed to illustrate these reasons.

People reject the power of the gospel because the devil blocks their coming to faith. This is like the seed (the message of the gospel) that falls on the path, but the birds (the devil) came and ate it up. Satan prevents many people from coming to faith because he, and not You, prevents them from hearing and understanding the gospel.
People reject the power of the gospel because their faith never matured. They came to faith believing their life would become nothing but a party from this point forward. Knowing Jesus would mean all of their dreams would come true. They wouldn’t have to work anymore. They would have no more pain or suffering. Faith in Jesus would be a literal heaven on earth. However, the reality about Christian faith is that Jesus wants us to grow and have our characters transformed. How does growth occur? Through trouble and persecution. It is in times of hardship that we grow in our faith. The “believer” who encounters such hard times “discovers” that Christianity isn’t what they thought it would be. They reject it. This is like the seed that grew into a tiny plant. However, it wasn’t rooted in the soil where it could receive water (the Holy Spirit). When the sun came up (troubles in life), the heat withered the small seedling, and it died (turned away from the faith).
People reject the power of the gospel because of distractions in their lives. They have problems to worry about that take their minds off of the transforming work of the gospel. They have worldly pleasures that satisfy deep desires, and they indulge in them. They have successes which feed their rebellious hearts that seek personal glory. As a result, the people become unfruitful for the Kingdom of God. This is like weeds growing up and choking the plants that sprout from the seeds.

The text tells us that Jesus was asked by one of the disciples why He teaches in parables. Jesus then leads us to the fourth reason why people reject the transforming power of the gospel.

People have already decided in their hearts to reject You. They have intentionally closed their eyes and their ears to the message of the gospel. They want nothing to do with Jesus or His message of the forgiveness of sins and repentance through Him. You will not force those ears or eyes open. The man who decisively rejects the gospel will never be forced to accept it (eyes seeing, ears hearing). You reveal the secrets of heaven in abundance only to those who want to know Your ways. The ultimate knowledge of the secrets of heaven is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which is exactly what the disciples were enjoying. Jesus pointed out that many prophets and righteous people in the past longed to experience Jesus face-to-face just like the disciples are experiencing in reality.

This passage ends with good news. People do receive and accept the transforming work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are like the seed that falls on good soil. The seed (gospel message) develops deep roots (becomes rooted in the person’s heart so that it can withstand the storms of trouble and persecution) and grows into a healthy plant that bears fruit (and transforms them into useful instruments for building the Kingdom of God). Because of their commitment to Jesus Christ, they produce a crop, sometimes 30, 60, or 100 times the size of what was sown (You use our hearts committed to the spread of the gospel to transform lives in a multitude of ways we couldn’t have imagined). Amen.

Keep in mind that both John the Baptist and Jesus broke established protocol. Where did one go to be taught in that time period? The local synagogue. However, both John the Baptist and Jesus preached out in the open. In this case, Jesus preached on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This fact must have infuriated the synagogue leaders who, owning and securing all the Old Testament scrolls, claimed exclusive control over all teaching about the Scriptures.

It appears there was a private discussion at one point between Jesus and the disciples while the crowd waited for more teaching.

The text in fact tells us that whatever they did understand about the gospel will be taken away from them once they reject the gospel altogether. Those old Sunday School lessons will no longer make any sense to them.

Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:8-10. The passage in Isaiah informs us that there are those who will hear the gospel preached, and see the gospel at work, but they will never understand it. Why? Because the people’s hearts have become calloused (Hebrew ?????? for “fat”, a heart covered in “fat”; Greek ?????? for “fat”, “stupid”). This implies a heart that is covered with insulation protecting it from receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. It becomes impossible to hear the gospel or to see the gospel at work. If they hadn’t covered their hearts with the rejection of the gospel, they might hear it, and see it at work, and understand it and be saved. This is not a message so much of God closing anybody’s eyes and ears to the gospel as it is a message of people doing it to themselves. However, those who believe the Bible clearly teaches predestination may suggest that it is God who closes the ears and shuts the eyes to prevent those who have not been chosen from understanding the gospel.

It is sudden death to touch an electrical transmission line that runs between cities. These lines have voltages of nearly 800 KV. It is just as deadly to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, thinking you might consider it again in the future. 1) You may die before another opportunity to accept the gospel comes along. 2) You thicken the insulation protecting your heart from the gospel message each time you reject the gospel. Once you reject the gospel, it will now become more difficult for you to accept it if you are blessed enough to have another opportunity. If you reject the gospel over and over, it literally becomes impossible for you to accept Christ at some later date because the “fat” insulator to protect you from the gospel that surrounds your heart will prevent you from ever understanding it.