Are you on Jesus’ team or is Jesus on your team? Is there any difference in the question?
In Luke 8:4-15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower as he challenges people to respond to the word of God not by focusing their attention on who they are and what they do, but rather on the word of God preached by the prophets, on the story of God’s kingdom shared by Jesus who came to earth to call his people to be on his team.
The Parable of the Sower is about the hearing and doing the gospel.
Three unfruitful soils or responses result from having Jesus on your team, which is focused on this world: an empire as in the Roman emperor Constantine, a kingdom, a nation, a denomination, a tribe, or a suburban home.
A fruitful soil or response results from holding fast to the word of God in an honest and good heart bearing much fruit.
What does holding fast onto the word of God with an honest and good heart bearing much fruit look like? I hope and pray that we would respond to God’s word in faith and repentance as we receive the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of Christ, and the power in the gospel of Jesus.
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Quotation information.
Samuel Choi
Luke 8:4–15
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June 06, 2010
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