SEED BEFORE THE HARVEST

JOHN 12:24

      In the fall of 1621 before the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims received a good harvest from the yellow, blue, and red corn of the Indians. The garden seeds from England did not reproduce well in the New England climate. In the spring of 1623, the Starving Time came upon the Pilgrim colony. According to tradition each of the Pilgrims received only five kernels of parched corn a day.

Lk. 8:11 [HCSB]. This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.

1 Pet. 1:23 [GW]. You have been born again, not from a seed that can be destroyed, but through God’s everlasting word that can’t be destroyed.

  I. Why to plant (work, weep, word, win)

Ps. 126:6 [GW]. The person who goes out weeping, carrying his bag of seed, will come home singing, carrying his bundles of grain.

      Jerry Vines outlined this passage:

•          Task (sow seed; plant not pocket the seed)

•          Tears

•          Treasure (precious seed; apples in an orchard, also orchards in an apple)

•          Triumph (doubtless)

•          Thrill (rejoicing)

•          Trophies (sheaves)

      The seed is not for storing but for sowing.

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,

Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;

Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

(Knowles Shaw, 1874)

Prov. 11:30 [GW]. The fruit of a righteous person is a tree of life, and a winner of souls is wise.

 II. How to plant (tearfully, faithfully–Mt. 17:20, plentifully)

Ps. 126:5 [GW]. Those who cry while they plant will joyfully sing while they harvest.

Mt. 13:31 [HCSB]. He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.”

2 Cor. 9:6 [GNB]. Remember that the person who plants few seeds will have a small crop; the one who plants many seeds will have a large crop.

      William Booth received a message from one Salvation Army captain that the work was so hard he could make no progress. The General sent back a reply of just two words: “Try tears.” Success soon visited the work.

      Spurgeon said, “Winners of souls are first weepers for souls.” Spurgeon explained, “He drops a seed and a tear, a seed and a tear, and so goes on his way.”

III. When to plant (2 Tim. 4:2–in season, out of season)

Prov. 20:4 [HCSB]. The slacker does not plow during planting season; at harvest time he looks, and there is nothing.

Ecc. 3:2 [ESV]. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

 IV. What to plant (good seed)

Dt. 22:9 [HCSB]. Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; otherwise, the entire harvest, both the crop you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled.

Mt. 13:27 [ESV]. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’

      Edersheim noted, “According to ancient Jewish. . . ideas, the Tares were not of different seed, but only a degenerate kind of wheat.”

  V. Who to plant (Mt. 13:3)

Jn. 4:37 [ESV]. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’

1 Cor. 3:6 [GW]. I planted, and Apollos watered, but God made it grow.

 VI. Where to plant

Jer. 4:3 [ESV]. For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”

Hos. 10:12 [ESV]. Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Mt. 13:19 [WNT]. When a man hears the Message concerning the Kingdom and does not understand it, the Evil one comes and catches away what has been sown in his heart. This is he who has received the seed by the road-side.

      Jesus identified four kinds of soils.

•          Deaf (hard; Mt. 13:4; “beaten track;” trampled– Mt. 5:13, 7:6; Heb. 10:29; taken– Lk. 8:12; “lest they believe;” 2 Cor. 4:4; Jesus identified the problem as satanic activity–“the activity of the devil during and after the preaching of the sermon”[Robertson])

•          Depth (shallow; Mt. 13:5-6; rocks–no depth; 1 Cor. 2:10; “spring up” emotionally; no root or moisture; scorched and withered)

•          Divided (double-minded; Mt. 13:7; “upon the thorns;” choked by cares of the age, deceitfulness of riches, lust of other things, pleasures of life).

•          Disciple (obedient; Mt. 13:8-9; “understands;” “growing and increasing;” Jn. 15:8)

VII. Harvest to plant

Is. 30:23 [CEV]. The Lord will send rain to water the seeds you have planted--your fields will produce more crops than you need, and your cattle will graze in open pastures.

Is. 55:10-11 [ESV]. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Jer. 8:20 [GW]. The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we haven’t been saved.

Amos 8:11-12. Behold days are coming and I will send a famine in the land--not a famine of bread and not a thirst for water but to hear the word of Yahweh.

      Billy Sunday once preached, “It is a known law of mind that truth resisted loses its power on the mind that resists it. You hear a truth the first time and reject it. The next time the truth won't seem so strong and will be easier to resist. God throws a truth in your face. You reject it. He throws again; you reject again. Finally God will stop throwing the truth at you and you will have committed the unpardonable sin.”