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“Lesson 02 - The Seed”
Lesson Two
The Seed
Matthew 13:1-23
Mark 4:13-20
Luke 8:11-15
As we begin this lesson I want to introduce you to Joe Jack Dement. Joe is an 80 year old wheat farmer in Tennessee. Let’s begin by watching this video entitled “THE SOWER” As you watch, make notes of terms used to describe unique applications of the parable for reference in future classes. Today we will consider the seed at the conclusion of the video.
NOTES:
The Story:
Matthew 13: 3
3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow;
The Purpose:
Matthew 13: 10-11
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.
An Explanation
Mark 4:14
14The sower sows the word.
An Explanation
Luke 8:11
11 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.
Summary
First-century Israel was an agricultural community. A large majority of the population was directly involved in farming, and those who were not were immersed in the agricultural society. The Jewish religious calendar included seven great feasts, two of which reflected God’s blessings on the harvest cycle (the Feasts of First fruits and Weeks).
Just as everyone today is familiar with a grocery store, everyone then was familiar with the wheat farmer: he provided people with their daily bread.
In the film The Sower, Mr. Dement points out that wheat is a winter annual. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is sown in early Autumn, left to develop slowly through the Winter, then in the Spring grows quickly until the harvest in early Summer. The farmer in the parable would have followed this same growing schedule.
During his planting he would have used a canvas bag slung over his shoulder and filled with wheat seed from the prior year’s harvest. He would then have spread the seed by hand as he walked from one side of his field to the other. It is a picture that Jesus’ audience would have seen countless times. It is a simple picture. Yet it is this simplicity of the parable in light of what Jesus is comparing it to that makes it so intriguing and unexpected.
In contradiction of every contemporary expectation, Jesus is saying that the new world-transforming force of His Messianic kingdom will move through the earth just like a sower spreads his seed – and nothing more dramatically than that.
It mystified Jesus’ audience. Wasn’t the Messiah supposed to be a conquering king who, like Alexander the Great, would roll back his enemies with effortless ease? According to this parable, no: the Messiah will spread His Kingdom like a man sowing his seed. To be more specific, Jesus – the one spreading the message of the Kingdom – is comparing Himself to an
ordinary farmer; and His message of the Kingdom is like seed falling on soil. Instead of battles and trumpets, Jesus is saying that the word of God is the most important thing in the Kingdom’s spread.
But what a radical claim! Standing two thousand years after Christ’s inauguration of His Kingdom, we enjoy much of the fruit of the success of His word as it has spread through the nations. Yet even today many people overlook the fact that it is the word of God that is the dynamic force behind
the spread of the Kingdom of God. Not church events, not programs, not exciting music - it is the message of the Kingdom that matters.
Questions:
- What is the seed?
- How important is the seed?
- What is the growth cycle of a winter annual?
- Does that process repeat itself?
- What does it mean to broadcast seed?
- How would you define the message of the Kingdom?
THOUGHT QUESTION:
Some time ago someone sowed a seed that landed in your heart. Who was the “Sower” in your life? What was the message of the Kingdom that touched your heart? How can you in some way immediately become a Sower spreading seed for growth of the Kingdom here at Kettering?
- The_Sower_Lesson_2.doc (79.87 kB)
