SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
(Incentives to Pray and Love God)
Weekly Theme: Identifying with the Kingdom of God – 2nd post.

Matthew 13:3-9 ESV
And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

In Matthew 13 Jesus reveals the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven (or the Kingdom of God) in parables. And as we have established, the cause of the Kingdom is to save people from their sins by bearing witness to the truth. Jesus indicates that the parables in this chapter reveal secrets of that truth to those who are receptive to the truth.

In this post we will consider the first one given, the parable of the sower. Here we have the sower sowing the seed representing the word of God or His truth. (Jesus said in His prayer to the Father in John 17 “Your word is truth.) This seed-word is sown in the soil of the heart.

Some of the seed fell on the wayside soil, the hard trodden path along the side of a field. The seed could not sink into the soil and soon the birds carried it away. Later in the chapter Jesus interpreted that the person of this heart-soul “did not understand” the word so the wicked one carried it away. I see this bad heart soil as needing faith. Faith in God gives us discernment and understanding (“by faith we understand” – Hebrews 11:1).

Some of the seed fell on stony places which quickly sprung up but then soon died by the heat of the sun for lack of being able to sink deep roots in the soil because of the stone just below the surface. Jesus interpreted that the person of this heart-soil joyfully received the word but then soon fell away when persecution comes. I see this bad soul-heart as needing love to strengthen its will to remain true to God and remove the stony resistance to God.

Some of the seed fell among thorns, or weeds, and was choked out because there was no room for the seed to grow. Jesus interpreted that the person of this heart-soil had so much focus on the cares of this life and obtaining riches that God’s truth could not penetrate its conscience. I see this bad heart soil as needing hope to program its conscience to place more hope in God than in material things.

The seed-word that fell on good heart-soil was understood, grew and became spiritually productive.

With this picture in mind how can our hearts receive productive faith, love, and hope?

Jesus showed His disciples that they could only get miracle-working faith through prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). We must pray ourselves into such familiarity with our Lord that we spiritually understand Him to be able and willing to do miracles on our behalf. This gives us [faith].

The most important faith-prayer is to ask for the Holy Spirit (see Luke 11:13). And it is the Holy Spirit who pours out godly [love] in our hearts (see Romans 5:5).

Then with strong [faith] we lay hold of the promises of God and cling to them through [love]. Thus we develop more [hope] in God than in material things or anything else. This [hope] powerfully motivates us to go for God because of the great possibilities it shows us we can have in Him.

This process that we described starting with prayer is [faith] prevailing in [hope] through the power of [love] and it is the basic process of God’s kingdom working in us to make us grow fruitful, abundant, productive lives .