“SOWING SEED.. .A POWERFUL AND FAITH-FILLED METAPHOR FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE”
OVERVIEW
Parable of the Sower and the Seed Mattl3:1-9 and 18-23
Review and discuss the parable.
Parable of the Growing Seed Mark 4: 26-29
What does this parable emphasize?
Parable of the Mustard Seed Mark 4: 30-32
What does this parable emphasize?
SEED PROCESS AND SALVATION
1 Peter 1:23 —“ For you have been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.”
lJohn 3:9 — “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, Because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”
Salvation can be described as a result of a new “seed” being planted and taldng root in us that is, in our hearts, minds and spirits The idea of a genetic determinism (Gen 1:11) indicates our Christian growth in Christ-likeness, increasing freedom from sin, and deepening live for God and neighbor is a result of the seed of the “Word” and the seed of the “life” of God that is alive and growing within us.
Please discuss some of the ideas presented in this statement.
What can we do to help or hinder this process?
SEED PROCESS AS DISCIPLESHIP
John 12:24 — “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
This idea is related to the section above, but adds 2 new dynamics. What might they be?
GOD IS AT WORK!
REGAINING OUR FIRST LOVE
1. What is our first love? Matthew 22:37-40 has the answer. "Love the Lord Your God... and your neighbor."
2. So what has gotten in the way of our first love? Idols! Wealth! Anything that takes our daily awareness of our need for God. Revelation 3:17 Without God, we become wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
3. God is well aware of this danger and predicted it in Deuteronomy 8:11-14. The Israelites soon forgot how God had provided their daily needs of manna in the desert. Now they provided their own needs.
4. We lose our first love because we do not fear God any longer and honor his power. We honor our own power in terms of what our money can buy. We accumulate wealth to secure our future. We are secure in this wealth. God may use our fear of loss to bring us back to him. Is that happening now?
5. Here are ways to regain our first love:
a. Delight in God first over any human you hold in high
esteem.
b.Allow your soul to crave pure spiritual milk - read God's
word and pray, do both continually!
c.Keep God in your thoughts during leisure time moments.
d. Do not let the weakness of the flesh dictate how we will
live.
e.Give willingly and cheerfully to God's work and the needs
of others.
f.Treat every Christian as you would the Lord.
g.Realize the commandments of the Lord free us to live as
He desires and do not imprison us into unhappiness.
h.You no longer strive for the acclaim of the world. Now you
seek to please only God.
i.Make the gospel known to others and don't fear rejection
by them.
j.Move away from anything that offends another brother or
sister who may be struggling with that problem.
k.Speak to the world about what dishonors God. Seek not
to become complacent to sinful conditions.
l.Forgive those who offend you. Unforgiveness is a sure sign of losing your first love.
THE JOY OF FIRSTFRUITS
1 Corinthians 15
1. This is a Gentile Church established by Paul. It is within a Greek Culture in which the immortality of the soul was believed but the resurrection of the body was not accepted. The body was the source of weakness and sin. Death brought welcomed freedom from this contaminated container for the soul. Resurrection meant the soul would once again have to descend down into this rotting contaminated container. Paul ran into this skepticism in Acts 17:31,32. Christians have been laughed at concerning resurrection since the beginning of the church (21 centuries). Though Christians in the Corinthian Church accepted Jesus' resurrection, they could not accept their own eventual resurrection. Paul writes to correct and strengthen the doctrine of resurrection.
2. Paul begins by writing about the resurrection of Jesus v v 6-34. About twenty-five years have passed since Jesus rose from the dead and it is not being disputed among Christians. The apostles and over 500 witnesses saw Jesus proving he (1) died on the cross, (2) was buried, (3) rose from the dead, and (4) appeared to many witnesses.
a. Faith grounded in the resurrection of Jesus would be groundless if Jesus had not died and then rose from the dead. Salvation is impossible without these facts. Remember Isaiah 53. Jesus' dead body rose.
b. Paul's witnessing resurrection was like a miscarried birth, unnatural, forced on the Damascus Road. Great was God's grace shown him, once a murderer of Christians. Now that Paul has shown Jesus did rise from the dead, he moves on to prove we too will rise from the dead.
c.Jesus was the firstfruits of resurrection to be followed by us. Review Leviticus 23:9-14. Jesus being the firstfruits of resurrection, is a sample of what's coming for us. v v 20-23.
3. Paul undermines the skepticism by showing Jesus defeated death. There is no death for Christians. This will be shown when Jesus returns and His permanent Kingdom is established under the Father. v v 26-28.
4. How are the dead raised up? v 35. The possiblility is real. Death is the means to resurrection. Remember, Jesus is the sample.
5. With what kind of body will they come? v 36. The answer is found in v v 37-49. It is a reformed body. The body continues v 36, it is identifiable v 38 (yet diverse from the original v v 39-41). Grain preserves its own personal identity when it dies and comes back a new grain. There is no more decay v 42,no more weakness meaning no sin in it v 43, the body will be used spiritually (becoming the organ of the Spirit v 44), it becomes like Christ's resurrected body v v 48-49.
6. What happens to those who do not die? v v 50-57. Flesh and blood do not inherit the Kingdom of God. There must be a transformation.
7. All will be suddenly changed (no partial rapture). The dead and living come before the Lord and Isaiah 25:8 and Genesis 3:15 are reached. Satan and death are defeated and sin is removed as tears are wiped away. By sin death has authority and the law shows that sin gains strength (rebellion against God grows). The Law stirred up sin leading to death. Jesus entered death (by dying) and overcame sin. Thanksgiving be to the God who by initiating and giving us grace, gave us victory over death through His son, Jesus Christ.
8. So what is the joy - "And so we will be with the Lord forever." 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Paul leaves his readers with this thought, that there needs to be less speculating on what it will be like at the end, but more work for the Lord. "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." v 58. This is our present joy to be followed by our future joy in resurrection.
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