Sowing Seeds

Sowing Seeds John 12:20-33 New King James Version (NKJV) 20 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. 21 Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. 22 Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. 23 But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. 27 Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. 29 Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to Him. 30 Jesus answered and said, This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die. Let us pray Holy Father, you who layed the foundations of the universe with a Word. Lord we thank you for never forsaking us and showing us the love only a Father can show. We ask that you be with us and bless us with Your Word here again today. May Your will be done here amongst us this day. We ask these things in the name above all names, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....Amen. Every minister is just a human being just like everybody else. We all have our own struggles, our own sins, our own successes, our own failings, our own sorrows, our own joys, and our own views. Having our own views can be dangerous when it comes to our ministering the word of God. When we are preaching on God's Word, we are 'feeding His sheep' as Jesus told Peter to do in John chapter twenty-one, verses fifteen through eighteen. We as ministers of the Word, must be careful not to put too much of 'us' and our views into tne message we are delivering on God's behalf. We must pray to our Father, through His Son, that the Holy Spirit will move through us to carry out His will, not ours. We cannot let our own view, our own pride, or our own agenda, skew the message we are sharing with our brothers and sisters in Christ or with the lost, whom we are witnessing to and hoping to bring into our adopted family of Christians. So, why do I open a sermon with these words? Well, bear with my for a while and when the ride is over, you'll see what point I'm trying to get at. The scriptures of the Holy Bible are so plentiful with meaning and intent, that you could discuss them for a lifetime and never uncover the meaning of them all. I chose the scriptures for today from the United Methodist Common Lectionary. I choose from the Lectionary so that I don't always write about scriptures that have a special meaning to me that may not carry the same weight with whomever I'm ministering to. Today's scripture selection contains fourteen verses. There are countless discussions we could get out of these verses as a whole. We actually could be here for hours, maybe even days if we covered every aspect of them. So, let's break it down a bit. There's so much that we could talk about in these scriptures, that today I just want us to focus on verse twenty-four. It reads like this: 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.' We all know how small a grain of wheat is. We also know that that grain of wheat is a seed meant to grow more wheat. It can also be ground into flour and used to make bread. Already the little grain of wheat referenced in the scripture is giving us more paths to follow. We could get into making bread, Jesus being the bread of life, God raining the Manna bread down from heaven, and God giving us this day our daily bread while remaining in the context of the grain of wheat, but lets get back to growing more wheat. When we minister to people we meet, either while preaching God's Word from the pulpit or by simply telling someone of all the things that faith in God has done in our lives, we are planting seeds. In Jesus time living in the flesh of man, walking among His people here on earth, He ministered to several thousand people and thus planted many seeds. By reading the scriptures, we can easily confirm this. We hear of Him first teaching in the temple in Jesrusalem at twelve years old during a pilgrimage He had made there with Joseph, Mary, and the rest of His family in the flesh. Luke 2:41-50 New King James Version (NKJV) 41 His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. 43 When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; 44 but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a days journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45 So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. 46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. 48 So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously. 49 And He said to them, Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Fathers business? 50 But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them. At age twelve, Jesus was already going about His Father's business, planting seeds in the hearts and minds of those He met. The is one of the few things, the bible tells us of Jesus youth. After this scripture, it fast forwards to Jesus at the abe of around thirty years old as He is starting His ministry and assembling His disciples. As an adult, Jesus travels the area around Lake Galilee preaching the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament, teaching people how to pray, healing the sick and afflicted, and in doing so, planting many seeds. Yes, Jesus reached several thousand people in doing this, but we must look back at what Jesus told us back in verse twenty-four. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. Lets keep this verse in mind I we read other scriptures. The book of Mark, Chapter eight, verse thirty-one: (NKJV) 31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. The book of Luke, chapter twenty-three, verese forty five through fifty-six (NKJV) 45 Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit. Having said this, He breathed His last. 47 So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous Man! 48 And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. 49 But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. 50 Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. 51 He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. 54 That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. 55 And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Let's look at just one more scripture now from the book of John, chapter 20, verses one through eight: (NKJV 01 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. 3 Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5 And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. Jesus was the lone grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. He was scourged, crucified, bore the wait of all of our sins, pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, gave Himself as a sacrifice for us all on the cross, and was buried in the tomb hewn from the rock in the ground. He, like the grain of wheat that is reborn after it dies and turns into a stalk bearing much more wheat, was resurrected to life. Through this resurrection, He has produced much wheat. He produced at church drawn together in His body. By falling to the earth, dieing, and being resurrected, He has produces hundreds of millions of followers, christians, us, all over the earth in the centuries since His walking among us. The lone grain of wheat has produced very much. He also calls us, His believers to produce mcuh wheat. He calls us to plant seeds for Him to nourish and harvest. He calls us to witness to the lost. In other words, He calls on us to share His gospel, His 'good news' to those that we meet in our lives here on earth. Jesus expects us to bring more sheep into His flock, to bring more adopted brothers and sisters into our family of believers. Like, I've said before, this doesn't mean that all of us will be called to stand on the pulpit and preach the Word to a congregation, it quite simply means that we are to share what The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit mean to us in our everyday lives. When we do this, we are fulfilling our call from our Lord to be His ministers here on earth. Remember, that all of us are called to be ministers. Look at what the apostle Peter tells us; 1 Peter 2:9-10 New King James Version (NKJV) 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. So, we are a royal priesthood and a chosen people. You see, when we are baptised, the water isn't just to was away our sin in symbolizing the blood of the lamb, it's also annointing us into Jesus' priesthood. We're ordained by God to spread His message of salvation at the same time that we are adopted into the Christian family. Also, just as it took faith to become part of the family, it will take more faith when we are ministering to the lost. I say it takes more faith, because when we are sowing seeds, we won't always be successful, and sometimes when we are successful, we get to see it for ourselves. Remember this parable that Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 13? He told the disciples in verses one through nine: Matthew 13:1-9 1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Then, in verses eighteen through twenty-three, He explains the parable. Matthew 13:18-23 18 Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Just as Jesus told us, some of the seeds we sow will not grow, some will sprout up for a short time and fail, while others will spring forth and flourish. Not everyone will accept what we tell them and will continue to live without God in their life. Some will listen for a time, but when they face trials in their life, their faith will prove to be superficial and crack under the least amount of pressure. Take heart though, because some will actually 'get it'. They will hear the gospel message through the seeds you have sown and will develop a relationship with God throughout the rest of their life. I know I've thrown a lot of scripture at you, but I feel the need to give you one more to remember when you are 'sowing seeds' for God's kingdom. Let's look at what the apostle Paul has to say to us in First Corinthians; 1 Corinthians 3:5-10 New King James Version (NKJV) 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are Gods fellow workers; you are Gods field, you are Gods building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. Though we are serving the Lord as we are called to do by witnessing the gospel of Christ to the lost, we are to remember that it is not about anything that 'we' do. We simply plant the seeds in the hearts of those we meet. It is God working in and on their hearts that makes the real change and leads them to salvation. Remember, that we as human beings whether we're flipping burgers at a restaurant, pushing papers as an office clerk, or even leading a large congregation as a pastor or bishop, cannot give the gift of salvation to a single soul. Only God can do that. What we can do, is put that little spark inside of them that makes them want to know more about living life as a follower of Christ in the household of God! Please continue 'sowing seeds' my friends. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.....Amen. God bless you everyone, Bishop Norman L. 'Pete' Morrison, New Disciples Ministry