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Mark 4:26-34

”Parables of the Seed.”

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, Oh Lord, Our King, Our Strength and Our Redeemer! AMEN.

In the Gospel reading we heard two parables of Jesus which teach us about our future using examples from nature. SEEDS!

Today we have a hard passage to consider prayerfully but we cannot expect that we will only have comfortable scriptures from the Gospels to read and expound.

The first parable tells of the growth of the seed which was synonymous the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God will grow as a seed grows, from the time it is planted in the earth till it is fully formed.

And, do you notice that when the grain is ripe it is harvested. There will come a time when God will harvest the produce of the seeds that He has planted in the earth.

We know from other places, like the parable of the sower, that the seed is the word and it comes with the power to accomplish what God sends it out to do. We though have free will, so we can accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and gain eternal life in heaven or live for worldly desires where God is secondary, and earn eternal life in hell.

The next parable that Jesus gives of the kingdom provides more details of what Jesus saw ahead in the life of the church and it's people.

In this second case the seed is a mustard seed which is one of the smallest seeds and once more we see the growth that the kingdom of God brings to all that it touches.

Here the mustard seed grows to be a large garden plant which is big enough and strong enough and attractive enough for birds to lodge in it.

This second parable illustrates the growth of the church and what you should notice is that Jesus recognises that the growth of the church will attract ne'er-do-wells!

You see, in prophesy, birds are Satan's devotees. Here Jesus tells us that there will be non-Christians camping out in the church and acting as though they belong there! They will be making themselves comfortable in the structure of the church, but Jesus knows who they are!

Babylon for instance is said, in the book of Revelation, to be a haunt of all kinds of unclean birds!

Remember that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. His followers (synonymous with the birds of the air) would try to benefit from the visible church of Christ, but Jesus knew this would happen in advance and warned us of it.

Because Jesus spoke in parables He hid the meanings of many of His sayings from the public. He explained some to His disciples but others were not expanded on. The result is that even today many people are not aware of the insight He had into the people who would join the church.

Those who would join the church, LAND in it's branches. The true followers are called by God and ARE the branches; where Jesus is the central trunk of the tree.

I'm sure you remember John 15, where Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches.

We can see here, with our modern understanding, that Jesus knew the church would have believers and pretenders.

As with the tares and the wheat, they will be separated out when Jesus returns. Believers we know will go into everlasting life; pretenders into everlasting darkness.

Sometimes God wants to remind us that there is a good end and a bad end available to mankind. He does not want us to become complacent on one hand or arrogant on the other.

Those of us in the modern world who have access to God's word will have no excuse at the return of Jesus if we have only paid lip service to the word we received. But we will have a great reward if we accept our responsibilities as Christians and live by the words of Jesus.

And so,.....May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy spirit, be with us and remain with us all, now and forever.

AMEN

Janetta