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“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” — ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13:3-9‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Here, in the United States of America, traditional farming is quickly becoming a thing of the past. So, those who don’t know the intricacies of traditional farming are lost, for they don’t know what you’re supposed to do. This current generation, by and large, doesn’t know traditional farming. One goes to the grocery store to get what one needs; that is as close to farming that you can get. However, one has to wait for the harvest. The harvest that comes at the end of a few months of hard work; however, various factors, such as blight, can ruin the end goal of the harvest.

No, this isn’t a post to tell you the secret of getting rid of blight. For this is a post to explain the parable of the seeds. It is my hope that you take and glean something from this post. Let’s move on, then.

Sadly, the past few generations of people have lost that ability to wait. With the advancing internet, information is readily available: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Smartphones, tablets, and laptops becoming a need instead of a want, it’s a wonder how we need this information instantaneously. And on the social matters, you are looked at as odd, to say the least, if you don’t know what Kim Kardashian wore to the Golden Globes or the Oscar’s the moment that she steps on to the red carpet, or what famous actor or actress died last night due to an illness that they had, or what Elon Musk plans to do with buying Twitter, or what he plans to do with Tesla (purely electric cars) or Space X — Elon Musk’s version of NASA. Yes, we’re solely in the IT (Information Technology) age, and it’s creeping into farming. This is going to cause our downfall.

But the church has been the worst offender in one way. Both the Apostles Peter, Andrew, John and James were out in a boat fishing all night. But they didn’t catch a thing. However, Jesus Christ, who wasn’t a fisherman but a carpenter, told them to throw the nets on the other side. With great reluctance, Peter did so. You’ll guess what they found when they started to draw back in the nets. Too much fish for them to carry in just one boat. That is when Peter recognized that this wasn’t any carpenter pretending to be a fisherman. That is when Jesus seized the opportunity and used what just happened to call, what shortly would be His disciples, to a life of going out into all the world being fisher’s of men (click on: Luke 5:1-11).

The Lord Jesus Christ was the master of all masters including His tongue. He applied what is simply known as ”good communication skills” in calling Peter, Andrew, John, and James, who had been fishing all night since they were fishermen. Nothing happens by happen-chance. Jesus Christ was right there when Peter, Andrew, John, and James were tired after an all-nighter going fishless. The Lord was able to use that, and what turned out from all that — fishers of men. What I mean by saying the church is partly at fault is the church, by and large, has a tight grip on making all believers “fishers of men,” when some believers are foreign to that way of life.

Yet, Jesus Christ used the same kind of illustration when He saw the opportunity to teach a parable of a different sort. Take a look at (click on) Luke 8:4-15:

“And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”

Click on: Recipients of the Gospel of Matthew . From this, then, we know that the Jews were the recipients of what the book of Matthew has to say, thus writing for those Jews to hopefully see with their spiritual eyes. Furthermore, I think that the crowd of who he’s writing to makes a difference. The author of Matthew (which I believe that it was Matthew, himself) writes to the Jews that were present at the time, and I strongly believe that he didn’t have to waste time going over the rigmaroles that Jewish people were required to keep. Further, I believe that this is why this passage of Scripture is shorter than the one given in the Gospel of Luke.

In the beginning of the book of Luke, Luke dedicates this book to a person named Theophilus. one of two books dedicated to Theophilus. — the books of Luke and Acts. Click on this link: Theophilus -real person, high official, or a lover of God? Which ever it is, for those that love God it has application to our individual lives. Maybe that is why Luke takes on a slightly different form since it is written to an individual not a group of people like the Jews. Whatever you align yourself with, I am going to be using the passage from Luke.

Luke says “when they were gathered together and were come to Him (Jesus) out of every city’s “ meaning that Jesus must have been pretty famous in those cities since He did miraculous signs. You know when a famous band comes into your area, depending on who it is, then you are willing to do just about anything to see them live, in a concert. Well, I think that it was similar here, except you didn’t have to pay anything. In fact, if you hung around Him enough and if you had a physical ailment, you might be healed. That would certainly draw me to go out and see Him.

The next phrase, “he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down,” Jesus responds when His disciples ask Him to explain, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

This is commonplace even among the current population where, here in America, people have an apathy toward the Gospel being preached. Or worse yet, the American people, by and large, won’t listen since you don’t have a reverend in front of your name. And say you do have a reverend in front of your name, the unsaved won’t listen to you because you have received some divine appointment. How unfortunate that it seems that how well the Gospel is preached, the devil comes in and before the word has a chance to settle in the unbelieving persons heart. But, Jesus said that this would happen some two thousand years ago and, it has been happening ever since.

“They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.” I have seen this up close and personal to my chagrin.

This happened within the past five or six years at our former church; Brandon had just started coming to our church on the invitation of the pastor’s father-in-law. The pastor’s father-in-law led him to Christ, and he was so excited to share Jesus. In that initial period of time when the newness of salvation overtakes you, he went down to Florida for vacation in which God used him to lead someone to the Lord. Brandon was set as the example of what a true believer in the Lord should do, as the Holy Spirit got the praise in our church. But, once the initial excitement wore off, he and his newly found wife began to miss church because of their family. They would go to school sports games that their son and daughter were playing in instead of church. That was just the beginning. Then he got ill followed by her. During that whole process, they were in church three or four time at the maximum within a year. When we left, their attendance dropped even further. For doesn’t it cry aloud in (click on) Hebrews 19:24-25 that “let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

When we left the church, he and his wife were provided, I think, a false sense of security in his salvation in that his life was evident of springing up good but eventually having no root. I can’t say for sure if we will see him when we meet God, but it is definite tragedy — tragedy in that he had so much promise as a new believer, but cares of his family proved him useless for the kingdom of God.

Now, I don’t want to get into the topic of losing your salvation. I sure hope Brandon and his family are saved, but I can’t be for sure. When I last saw them, I didn’t see any evidence of it. However, let’s hope that (click on) Luke 13:6-9 applies here. Let us get back to the final portion of this parable of the seeds.

“And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.” I have another real life example, for this one family and ours grew up together in our former church. It was slightly over eighteen years of knowing this family when, in fact, we left over a different issue. It was the mom of this family that I will be talking about, and eighteen years, I think, is enough to change even a slight bit but she didn’t. Let’s name her Sue.

See, Sue is concerned about the worries in life, so much so that she lets it impede her spiritual progress. She was so filled with fret that nothing could cure her; it was like a train wreck waiting to happen, every time. I remember that she needed her roof replaced. And she fretted about it for a good long time, until a roofer (that attended our church for a time) came out and said to the elders of the church that he and his crew would be willing to donate some of their time to install the new roof. The church elders decided that the church volunteers and the roof installer and his crew would install this roof taking money from our church budget.

However, when another crisis came up, Sue began to worry again, instead of leaning on the Lord. Now, I know that what I’ve just described here, is common, even for Christians. Sue shows it to everyone around her by her actions and appearance. However, Jesus Christ taught on such issues; (click on) Matthew 6:24-34, and you will see here to take “no thought for your life.” Yet, she continues to battle with worry — worry that the Lord is not going to keep His promise to her.

“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” This is speaking to the True Life Christian everywhere which has been made honest and good by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ — because only God is honest and good. Click on, Luke 18:18-30, and you will see that God needs His agents to bring forth fruit with patience. So, it doesn’t happen within an instant but with patience — just like the hard work to produce a harvest.

This is a simple little video to further explain it all; it’s so simple that even a child could understand it:

😇 ~ Darren L Beattie, The Soul Blogger of TrueLifeChristianity.com ~ 😇