It's Like a Seed
It's Like a Seed
- Greg Waybright
- Matthew 13:3-9
- Jesus Christ, Storyteller
- 47 mins 10 secs
- Views: 708
Questions from the Pastor
Questions from Pastor Greg 7/31/16
Read Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23
1. In Jesus’ parable, who is the sower? What is the seed?
2. Most leaders try to make change with loud speeches and strong actions. The kingdom Jesus speaks of comes in like a seed. Does that seem like slow change to you? What can happen in a field if the seed takes root? Does that say anything to us about our lives? About the church?
3. All farmers knew (and still know) that valuable seed should not normally be thrown all over the place like the sower in the story was doing it, i.e., onto paths, onto rocky ground, and among thorns. What might we learn about this sower sowing everywhere in the world?
4. What kind of people today might be like the soil on the path? If the seed of the kingdom is to reach them, what steps might first be taken to prepare them?
5. What kinds of people today might be like the rocky soil? Have you witnessed people having a quick emotional response to God’s call and then falling away? Can you see the potential in yourself?
6. What kinds of people today might like the thorny soil? Are you personally susceptible to being like this?
7. How might we be like the good soil? Can we prepare ourselves to receive God’s kingdom call?
Study Notes
It's like a seed
Jesus Christ, Story Teller: Reality Hidden in Plain Sight
It’s Like a Seed…”
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
We look today at the first of three stories in Matthew 13 in which Jesus uses seeds to illustrate how he will accomplish his work in our lives and our world. These three next texts have had an enormous influence in my own walk with God as well as in the way I view being a pastor. I pray they will speak to you as well.
Let me start with this reminder: Jesus did not come into this world only to offer you forgiveness for your sins. He did come to do that. He offers that to all who believe in him today. If that’s all Jesus did, it would be good. What a beautiful thing to have someone say, “I’ll die for you so that you can start over with a clean slate!” But, if that’s all Jesus came to do, then what would your future look like? If, for the rest of eternity, you were just as drawn toward sin and just as susceptible to temptation as you are now, you would have little real hope. You know yourself. You’d go back into your old ways.
Jesus did not come into this world only to offer you forgiveness for your sins… Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God into your life (see Mk 1:14-15). He brings God’s reign into your life and promises to begin to set you free from other kinds of powers – like your temptations toward all sorts of things that are wrong. And what he does in you and me, God promises to do in the lives of all people who follow Jesus by faith.
And you know the ultimate goal of all this, don’t you? The gospel about Jesus will go to all people groups in the world and eventually there will be a people of God from “every tribe, language and nation” with each one of us being complete in Christ. And, we will live in a world in which all things have been made right!
The Gospel and the Kingdom of God
Forgiveness is just the start of God’s work in you. It’s a necessary part. Sin is what messes up our lives and our world. Everyone needs forgiveness. But, that beginning step of receiving Christ’s forgiveness has to lead to a whole new life or you and I will be trapped in our sins again in a moment! Our messed up world has no hope without “the kingdom of God” beginning to operate among us.
That brings me to the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is God’s message, the good news that God loves the world so much that he sent his only Son, Jesus, who died for a perishing world so that whoever believes in him might have eternal life. The heart of the good news is that Jesus, God’s Son, came to rescue the world and to make it completely right again.
The kingdom of God is the power of God to enter into your life when you believe the good news and receive King Jesus as Savior. After you do, you are called to move out entire the world and, through your witness and way of life, be involved in God’s work of healing every kind of brokenness and failure. When the kingdom of God comes its fullness, all things will be made right. Every dimension of a human life: physical, emotional, relational and spiritual will be healed.
So Jesus forgives you and begins to change you when you believe in Jesus. But, that work of King Jesus in you isn’t just an individual thing. It starts with you when you believe. But, more than that, the work that God does in you individually leads to you becoming a part of a church of people committed to Jesus being Lord and king. You become a part of the church of Jesus. We all do! So, we’re in this together. As God does his renewing/healing in us, a church made up of imperfect people like we are at LAC will bring glory to God. The world should see us and know that God is working in us. As Denny Bellesi used to say, “LAC is a piece of work.” Yes, we’re God’s piece of work. He’s promised to make something beautiful out of us.
And, God’s work doesn’t just end with us in a local church like ours. God sends us into a deteriorating and hurting world as salt and light (Mt 5:13-16) to bring the message of Jesus and the power of the kingdom into the world – until God’s work is done and all things are made right (Rev 21-22). Everything, everyone, everywhere will declare what the Maker is like. Jesus called God’s right making mission “the kingdom of God.” Jesus came to make all things right.
How Will God Do This? “It’s like a seed…”
How will God accomplish this huge task? The world is messed up everywhere. Has anything pointed that out as powerfully as what we have observed in our nation and world over the past year?
I’ll tell you, Jesus’ plan to make all things right is different from the way the world in general thinks about how the world changes. Jesus sets forth his way of seeing God’s work through this series of seed-stories he tells in Matthew. The Foundational Principle in the Operation of the Kingdom of God: “The kingdom of God comes not like a bomb but like a seed.”
Powerful leaders in our world usually build their enterprises through coercion of force. For example, in business, when a company has been failing, and a take-over happens, many times the new leadership comes and completely gets rid of those who were involved, changes the brand, moves the organization. It’s like a bomb beign dropped. Think of the difference between the change a bomb makes and a seed makes:
- The bomb changes the ground externally; the seed internally.
- The bomb comes and does its work suddenly and forcefully; the seed slowly and organically.
- The bomb breaks the land; the seek transforms the land into a garden or forest.
- The bomb destroys; the seed draws upon the nutrients already there channeling them into life-giving processes.
One of the main things about a seed that is important in each of Jesus’ three seed stories is that there is life-giving power in a seed. I think we all know that if we plant a bomb in the soil, we can water and fertilize it all we want and it won’t grow. But, in a small seed there is the power to become what it is meant to be – a flower, a vegetable bearing plant, or a fruit-bearing tree.
Jesus is saying that human kingdoms might change our behavior for a short while through establishing new laws and rules and then enforcing them through power. But, God’s kingdom comes by giving us the truth, by entering into our lives, and then by penetrating our inner beings with his Spirit’s very presence. Jesus declares that this is how God will accomplish his work in our lives and in his world.
Do you believe him? Do you really? This is not at all the way the world thinks in general. When we see things that are wrong or unjust, we naturally think, “Who has power? Get him to use it? Get him to speak loud and long!”
Even John the Baptist seemed to wonder about the way Jesus was working so slowly and under the surface of things. In Matthew 11 he sent a messenger to Jesus to ask, “Are you really the one to come? Oh, I know I said along time ago that you were. But why is such a terrible ruler still on the throne? Why are the corrupt local people still in power? Why am I about to get my head cut off?”
Jesus simply told the messenger to go back and tell John the Baptist that the seeds of God’s kingdom are just beginning to take root and grow: “Tell John, the blind are receiving sight, the lame are walking…and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” In other words, evidences of God’s rule are breaking into the world.
So, what does this transforming kingdom work of God look like? Jesus says that God’s kingdom works not like a bomb but like a seed. Knowing this helps me to know what I should do each day as a Christian. I am to receive that seed of God’s Word into my life – and I am to pass it on to you.
How Does God’s Life-Transforming Seed Come into Us?
Both in Mk 4:23-24 and Lk 8:17-18, Jesus said, “God’s kingdom comes by hearing – so consider carefully how you hear…”
Jesus says that listening – listening well, listening deep, listening to understand and to respond – that’s the primary skill of the person who is going to be changed by the Kingdom of God. When you listen, you declare, “I need to hear what that other person is saying.” The good listener has the humility to confess, “I do not have all the truth. I am not complete all by myself. “
If you will let the power of God’s kingdom begin its work in you, you must humbly come to the Lord and say, “I’m listening to you today, Lord. I cannot do what is right myself. How would you have me live?” In other words: You must listen carefully to the Word of God and the message of good news that is found there.
As Tim Keller says, “Leaders on earth, whether in politics, business or any other ream build their kingdoms by getting a hearing. The kingdom of God comes into our lives by giving a hearing.”
Many church people think that hearing the message of the gospel in this way and then passing it on is not enough to change things. But, the Bible insists that it is!
In Mt. 13:19, Jesus’ specifically refers to seeds being the Word of God. That’s what changes us. In saying this, Jesus is drawing on Genesis 1. When God created, he spoke words and all things came into being. Now, Jesus is saying that the word of the gospel has the power to re-create your life. On a personal level, this all starts when you hear the gospel of Jesus and receive it, i.e., you receive Jesus into your life. When you do, Jesus forgives your sins and you move from spiritual death to life. You come alive to God.
Have you heard and believed the Word? Have you received Jesus into your life as your Savior? If not, receive him now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
How Does the Seed Grow?
I started the message by pointing out that Jesus did not come into this world only to forgive our sins. He came to bring about our complete re-making. He’s going to do a complete and beautiful make-over in us and in the entire world that now is so marred by sin. In Mt 13:23, Jesus points out that we who were dead in our sins can become those “who produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” The power of God enters your life when you believe the gospel. And, hearing and receiving the word of the gospel as found in Scripture is the key to your growth in Christ as well.
Let me illustrate this. Jesus made it clear that one of the evidence of the life of the kingdom is that people would see very diverse people loving one another simply because following Jesus produces that kind of love in us. Therefore, when the seed of the gospel is growing in us, the outcome should be that we love one another in a church in such a way that that a divided world will see us and know we are Christians (Jn 13: 33ff; 17:20-22).
But, because God isn’t done with us yet and we’re still a “piece of work”, we still have times when we don’t love one another in spite of the work of God through the gospel in our lives. This is what was happening in the churches in Galatia when Paul wrote his letter. In those churches, the conservative Jewish Christians and progressive Jewish Christians weren’t getting along because the progressives associated with Gentile Christians and the others did not. Even Peter and Paul were at odds over this!
So, Paul confronted Peter about this. When he confronted Peter, Paul didn’t say, “Peter, Jesus gave us new rules against racism.” No, he said in Gal. 2:14 "You are not acting in keeping with the truth of the gospel!” He pointed out that we all are sinners saved not through being born into a certain bloodline or through keeping laws but simply by God’s grace received through faith in Jesus. That, in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, black white or blue, male or female (Gal 3:28). Paul declares that racism is a denial of the grace of God that is central to the gospel. Do you see it? This is how we work the message of Scripture deep into the practical issues of our lives through hearing the Word and allowing it to affect all our decisions.
I was talking this past week with some of our interns about this as they discussed a book they were reading together, Christena Cleveland’s Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart.” They thought I should read it and that I should ask you to read it. But, they said, “Each Christian needs to find another Christian that they disagree with about something so that they can seek God’s wisdom together.”
It may well be that, just like the healing of the walls between Jew and Gentile that existed in the 1st C was bridged by the gospel of Jesus, the same might be possible for us in our world in which we have walls of black and white (and all colors in between) and between black and blue (though those who wear blue are black and white and all colors in between). In the church, we say, through the precious blood of Jesus, God has made us one. We will listen to one and other and pray together until we truly are one! That’s what the gospel demands!
Or, after listening to both political parties’ conventions these past two weeks, I realized again how divided we are over what’s happening in our climate. Does the gospel have anything that gives us guidance about that so that we can live effectively and in unity for the cause of Christ in our world? Yes, it does! God’s 1st command to human beings was to rule over the rest of the world in such a way that his order, beauty and goodness would be sustained. We are God’s caretakers of a world he loves. And, one part of the gospel is that there will be a new heaven and new earth in a garden-like city! God will re-make all of his creation and we get to be a part of it! That basic gospel principle should be enough to have us sit down and say, “That’s what the gospel demands. Now, how can we work through all the world’s political divisions on this and fulfill God’s call upon us?
This is what we must do if we will be what I call a “gospel-shaped” church. We will hear God’s Word when we gather and then ask how that directs us as individuals and a church. In most of our world’s controversies, there are gospel-centered principles in Scripture that we need to allow to go deep into our hearts through Scripture reading, prayer, and life in the church community. This is how Jesus taught us to live.
God’s work won’t happen overnight. But, it will happen. God’s kingdom grows among us like a seed in a garden.
What Kind of Soil Are You?
Today’s parable is the best known of Jesus’ seed parables. It’s about a farmer who went out and threw out seed onto four different kinds of soil. That point alone caused a farmer friend of mine to say, “What kind of farmer is that? Who throws valuable seed out onto a hard path or into a bunch of thorns?” I can only say that the God who loves the people of this world is willing to throw the seed of his good news into all people, even when he knows how hard-hearted or thorn-infested we tend to be. Be encouraged by that.
Only one of the soils allowed the seed to take root and become productive. In the three other soils, the seed failed to take to go in, take root and thrive. The problem was a depth problem:
- The Hard Heart (13:19) -- In the 1st, the seeds didn’t get into the soil at all so that enemies devour them. The main problem with hard soil is usually intellectual. People already have their minds made up. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were often like this. They already thought they knew so much that they insisted on being the teachers and never the learners. How about you? Do you ever have times when you simply say, “God, I need to understand more than I do now. I need you to speak to me.” Usually the hard heart really is the sign of a hard head
- The Shallow Heart (13:20-21) -- In the 2nd, the seeds didn’t go in deep enough to take root. Oh, at first there may be great enthusiasm. When Jesus did miracles, people were always amazed but they didn’t allow their amazement to change their lives. I’ve seen this so often – one day, so much excitement but the next day, on to something else. Usually, this happens when a person wants Jesus to bless them, not to save them. To thrill them – not to change them.
- The Divided Heart (13:22) -- In the 3rd, the seeds go in at the same level as other weeds and thorns. It’s like Jesus is added alongside other loves in people’s lives. Jesus doesn’t become the Lord – but just another good add-on. Be warned: These people look like real Christians to most onlookers. But, they have a 1st Commandment problem: They believe in God but others things are just as important as God in their daily lives. You’ll know this person because, when difficulties come or some of the things they wanted are taken away, they are miserable. There is no one as unhappy as a person who thinks he’s a Christian but is really living for something else.
But, in the 4th soil, the receptive heart, there is a big difference. The seed goes deep and begins to grow. We can’t see it in our English translations very well, but when Jesus spoke, he changed his verb tense to one that calls for ongoing action. That means that Jesus didn’t just speak about this 4th soil receiving his word once – but over and over again. If this soil is you, you will long to hear a word from God again and again. You’ll seek to hear what God says, accept it, meditate on it and allow it to go deep. It will begin to change you from the inside to the out. See 13:23.
How do we let the word go deep so that we grow and produce? How does this word planted deep take us from where we are (in our addictions, anxiety, and other imperfections) to where God will take us – to being complete in Christ? Jesus just says, “It’s like a seed that you receive deeply and regularly.” Maybe I should just leave it at that and let God speak to you. But I’ll ask you to do this: Make sure you are open to whatever God would say to you. God’s kingdom comes like a seed – so take heed how you listen.
Is God saying anything to you right now? Is there a decision that you know he would have you make? A person you should help? A sin you should confess? Receive his word – respond to it even now.
Don’t give up when God’s work seems to be happening slowly in your life, in your family, in your church or in our world. God’s kingdom is like a seed. He makes beautiful things out of the dust.
To His glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
Chinese Translation
It's like a seed - Chinese Translation
耶稣基督,讲故事的人:“就像一粒种子。。。”
太13:1-9, 18-23
今天我们首先来看看马太福音13章中的三个故事。耶稣借用种子说明他将如何完成他在世界和我们生命中的工作。接下来的这三段经文对我自己与主同行以及如何看待做牧师方面影响颇深。我祷告这些经文也对你们讲话。
让我以这样一个提醒作为开始:耶稣来到这个世界不只是要赦免你的罪。他来确实为此。今天凡信他的都可以罪得赦免。如果耶稣只做这些就好了。如果有人说“我会为你死,好叫你从头开始,”听起来是多么美妙啊。 然而,如果耶稣来的目的仅此而已,你的未来将会怎样?如果从此以后你对罪还像今天这样痴迷,面对试探还是如此不堪一击,你其实没有什么真正的盼望。你了解自己。你会重返老路的。
耶稣来不只是赦免你的罪。。。耶稣来要将天国带进你的生命(参可1:14-15)。他将神的治理带进你的生命并应许释放你脱离其他一切权势—比如试探你的那些错误。上帝在你我生命中做的,也是他应许要在一切因信跟随他的人的生命中所做的。
你知道这件事的终极目标,对吗?耶稣的福音将传到世界各族各民直到“万族万邦万民”与我们一同被成全在基督里。并且,我们要生活在一切都被更新的世界中。
福音与神的国
赦罪只是上帝工作的一个开始,也是必不可少的一部分。罪破坏了我们的生命和我们的世界。人人需要被赦免。然而,接受基督赦罪之恩的开端必然引向一个全新的生命,否则你我将会立即重蹈覆辙!被破坏了的世界没有“天国”在我们中间开始运行将是毫无指望的。
这使我来到福音面前。福音是什么?福音是上帝的信息,上帝爱世界甚至差他的独生子耶稣为一个将亡的世界死,叫一切信他的可以有永生。福音的核心是耶稣,神的儿子,来拯救世界使之完全的消息。
神国是神的大能,在你信福音并接受君王耶稣做救主时进入你的生命。之后,透过你的见证和生活方式并经历上帝对各种破碎和失败的医治,你被召脱离世界。人生的每个层面:物质的,情感的,关系的和灵性的层面都将得到医治。
因此当你信耶稣时,耶稣赦免你并改变你。然而,君王耶稣在你里面的工作不只是个体事件。这工作始于信。但是,接下来,上帝在你个体里面的工作将成为委身耶稣做主做王的整个教会的一部分。你成为耶稣的教会的一份子。我们都是如此。所以,我们如今聚集一堂。上帝在我们里面的更新/医治的工作,通过我们这些不完美的人组成的教会荣耀他。世界将看到上帝在我们里面的工作。正如Denny Bellesi曾说,“LAC是一件作品。”是的,我们是上帝的一件作品。他应许要把我们做成一件美好的作品。
并且,上帝在我们身上的工作不是止于一间地方教会。上帝还要差我们进入这个每况愈下,伤痕累累的世界作盐作光(马太5:13-16),将耶稣的消息和天国的能力带进世界—直至上帝的工作完成,一切被更新(启21-22)。每个人, 每件事,每个地方都将宣扬造物主的奇妙。耶稣将上帝的更新工作称作“天国。”耶稣来就是要将一切更新。
上帝如何成就?“就像一粒种子。。。”
上帝如何成就如此浩大的工程?世界一片混乱。过去几年间在我们的国家和世界中观察到的事还不够说明这一点吗?
我要告诉大家,耶稣的更新大计与世人普遍认识的改变世界的方式大相径庭。耶稣以马太福音记载的一系列种子的故事将之呈现出来。天国运作的基本原则:“天国到来不像炸弹而像种子。”
今日世界中的强权领袖们通常会使用高压手段建立他们的企业。比如,在商场中,当一间公司行将倒闭就会有人收买,许多时候新的领导班子上任会撤销前任,更换牌子,变更组织。一切就像被炸弹夷为平地一样。请思想一下炸弹带来的变化和种子的变化之间的区别吧:
- 炸弹改变外表;种子改变内在。
- 炸弹的效果是瞬间且强烈的;种子的效果缓慢且有机。
- 炸弹破坏土壤;种子将土壤变成花园或森林。
- 炸弹要毁坏;种子将内在的养分传送使生命成长。
耶稣讲了三个关于种子的故事,要点之一就是种子具有生命力。我想我们都知道如果种下一枚炸弹,浇水施肥之后它还是不会成长。但是,一粒小小种子里却蕴含着使它成长的能力—成长为一朵花,一棵蔬菜或是结果子的树木。
耶稣所表达的是,建立人的国是通过立法改制强制实行的,它可能会改变我们的行为一段时间。然而,天国却是通过赐给我们真理,进入我们的生命,并因着他圣灵的同在刺透我们的内在生命降临在我们中间。耶稣宣告上帝将如此在我们的生命中和世界中完成他的大工。
你相信他吗?你真相信他吗?这与世人所做的完全不同。当我们看到不公不对的事情时,我们自然会想,“谁有权势?让他来处理,让他来大声疾呼吧!”
即使是施洗约翰也曾困惑于耶稣工作的缓慢和低调。马太福音11章中记载他曾派一位使者去问耶稣,“那将要来的是你吗?噢,很久以前我是说过你就是那一位,但现在为什么这个可怕的独裁者还在位?为什么腐败者们还掌握权势?为什么我还是马上要被砍头了?”
耶稣吩咐使者回去告诉施洗约翰,天国的种子才开始生根成长:“你们去,把所听见、所看见的事告诉约翰。就是瞎子看见,瘸子行走,穷人有福音传给他们。”也就是说,天国掌权的迹象已经显明于世。
因此,天国改变人的工作像什么呢?耶稣说天国的工作不像炸弹像种子。认识到这一点有助于我作为基督徒每天当如何行事为人。我要接受天国的种子进入我的生命中—并且传递给你。
天国改变生命的种子如何进入我们里面?
在马可福音4:23-24节和路加福音8:17-18节中,耶稣都说到,“天国来到能听到—所以要仔细倾听。。。”
耶稣说倾听—仔细倾听,深深地倾听,用心倾听并回应—是将被天国改变之人的首要必备技巧。当你倾听时,你会宣告说,“我需要听别人怎么说.”好的倾听者会谦卑承认, “我没有掌握全部真理。我不能独善己身。”
如果你愿意天国的能力在你身上动工,你就要谦卑来到主前说,“主啊,我今天愿意听你的话。我靠自己不能行善。你要我怎样生活?”话句话说:你必须仔细倾听神的话和他的福音。
正如提姆凯勒所说,“世上的领袖,无论是政治的,商界的或其他领域的,建立他们的帝国时都需要听取意见。天国进入我们的生命却是要我们倾听。”
许多教会的人认为这样听福音和传福音不足以改变事物,然而,圣经却一再强调正是如此!
在马太福音13:19节中,耶稣明确指出种子就是神的道,就是改变我们的。耶稣在这里将我们带到创世纪1章面前。神创造之初,他一说话,万物便造成。如今,耶稣说福音之道有能力再造你的生命。就个人层面讲,一切始于听信耶稣的福音,即,你接受耶稣进入生命,你便在上帝里面活过来。
你听信神的道了吗?你接受耶稣进入你的生命做救主了吗?如果还没有,请先接受他。信靠主耶稣基督你就必得救。
种子如何成长?
我开始这篇讲道时指出,耶稣来到这个世界不只是要赦免我们的罪。他来是带给我们完全的更新重建。他来是要在我们里面和世界中那些被罪彻底破坏的地方做成完全美好的再造之工。在马太福音13:23节,耶稣指出我们这些在罪中死了的人能成为“后来结实,有一百倍的,有六十倍的,有三十倍的。”神的大能在你听信福音时便进入你的生命。并且,听信圣经中的福音之道也是你在基督里成长的关键。
请让我说明这一点。耶稣清楚说到天国的迹象之一就是人们会看到仅仅因为跟从耶稣就会在我们里面产生使背景不同的人彼此相爱的大爱。因此,当福音的种子在我们里面成长,结果就是在教会里众人彼此相爱以至世人看到就认出我们是基督徒(约13:33ff;17:20-22)。
然而,因上帝在我们身上的工作尚未完成,我们还只是“一件作品”,当我们还不能彼此相爱时,尽管上帝借着福音在我们里面工作,我们这件作品仍有待完善。这也是保罗写信给加拉太各教会时的情形。当时的各教会,保守的犹太基督徒和进步犹太基督徒很难相处,因为进步分子与外邦基督徒来往。 甚至彼得和保罗也曾为此有过嫌隙!
因此,保罗为此挑战彼得。当他与彼得对质时,保罗没有说,“彼得,耶稣给反对种族主义立了新规矩的。”不是的,他在加拉太2:14 节说的是“与福音的真理不合。”他指出,我们都是因信耶稣,而不是通过进入某一血统或遵守法律而被上帝的恩典接纳的罪人。在基督里没有所谓的犹太人或外邦人,穷人或富人,黑人白人或蓝人,男人或女人(加3:28)。保罗声明种族主义是弃绝了作为福音核心的神的恩典造成的。你看到了吗?这就是我们如何通过听信福音并让它影响我们的所有决定,将圣经的信息深入应用在我们的日常生活中的。
我上周和教会的几位实习生还在讨论他们正在读的一本书,Christena Cleveland的“基督里的不和:找出使我们分歧的隐藏力量。”他们建议我阅读这本书并且请我推荐这本书给你们读。但他们说,“每个基督徒都需要找到与他们在某些事上有分歧的信徒好叫他们有机会共同寻求主的智慧。”
这样也许很好,就像一世纪隔离外邦人和犹太人的墙被耶稣的福音拆毁,同样的事也会发生在今日世界的我们中间,在黑人白人(以及各有色人种)和黑人蓝人(尽管穿蓝色的可能是白人和黑人和其他有色人种)中间。在教会中我们说通过耶稣的宝血神使我们合一。我们要彼此倾听共同祷告直至合一!这是福音的要求。
或者,在过去两周听了两方政见的各种言论后,我意识到人们对事物的看法分歧是何等大。福音是否给了我们指导让我们能在这个世界为基督的缘故有效而合一地生活?是的,确实如此!上帝给人类的第一条吩咐就是治理这个世界使上帝的秩序,美和良善得以彰显。我们是上帝所爱的这个世界的管家。进一步说,福音的一部分还包括花园般的新天新地!上帝要更新他的创造,我们要成为其中的一部分!这最基本的福音原则足以让我们坐下来说,“这就是福音的要求。现在,我们该如何直面世界对这一问题的各种政治歧异而完成神在我们身上的呼召呢?
这是我所谓的被“福音塑形”的教会必须要做的事。当我们作为个人和教会聚集并寻求神引导时,必然会听到神的话。面对世界大多数的争端,我们需要透过读经,祷告,教会的共同体生活让圣经中福音中心的原则深入人心。这也是耶稣教导我们的生活。
神的工作不会一夜间发生。然而,它一定会发生的。天国在我们中间如同种子在园中。
你是哪种土地?
今天的比喻是耶稣种子比喻中最著名的一个。说的是一位农夫出去在四种土地上撒种。单这一点就让我的农民朋友说,“这算什么农夫呀?谁会把挺贵的种子撒在石头地或荆棘中呢?”我只能说爱世人的神甘愿将他好消息的种子撒给所有人,即使他知道我们是多硬或多荆棘的心田。得到激励了吧。
只有一种土地能让种子生根结果。在其他三种土地上,种子都未能种进去,生根成长。问题是个深刻的问题:
- 刚硬的心(13:19)--第一种情况,种子根本不能进入土壤,所以被仇敌叼走了。坚硬的土地通常指理性的问题。人们心中已经定了意。耶稣时代的法利赛人通常是如此。他们认为自己已经知道得太多了,坚持只能做教师不能做学生。你又如何呢?是不是也应该说,“上帝啊,我需要知道更多。我需要你对我说话。”通常刚硬的心是刚硬的理性的结果。
- 肤浅的心(13:20-21)--第二种情况,种子不能深入生根。哦,当初是多么热心啊。当耶稣行神迹的时候,人们感到何等奇妙,却未能让这奇妙改变他们的生命。我经常见到这种景象—一天是那样兴奋,第二天就转从别的事去了。通常这情形发生在想要耶稣的祝福而不是拯救的人们中。要震撼—而非改变。
- 分裂的心(13:22)--第三种情况,种子进到与稗子荆棘同样的深度。好像耶稣被加在人们的其他爱好中一样。要警醒:对旁观者而言,这种人貌似真信徒。然而,他们的问题是关于第一诫命的问题:他们相信上帝,但其他事物与上帝在生活中同等重要。你会认出这种人,因为当困难来临或他们想要的事物被拿走时,他们就黯然神伤。没有谁比自认为是基督徒却为其他事物而活的人更不快乐的了。
然而,第四种土地是接受的心,情形完全不同。种子深入土壤并开始成长。英文版本还不太能看得出来,但耶稣讲这段话时,他将动词变成了正在进行时。也就是说耶稣不仅是在讲第四种土地立即接受了他的话—而且是一遍又一遍地接受。如果你是这片土地,你会如饥似渴地想要反复听到神的话。你会寻找机会听神的话,接受它,思想它,并让它深植你里面。它会从里到外地改变你。参13:23。
如何让神的话深入我们里面并成长结果呢?如何深植神的话帮助我们从当前的光景(成瘾问题,焦虑和其他的不完全)进到他要我们达到的—在基督里完全的境地呢?耶稣只是说,“就像一粒种子深深地并不断地生根。”我也许应该停在这里让主对你们继续说话。但我要邀请你们做一件事:确保你们向神的话敞开心扉。天国来到好像一粒种子—所以要仔细倾听。
上帝此时在对你讲话吗?有没有什么决定你知道是他要你做的?一位你需要帮助的人?一件需要承认的罪?接受他的话—请现在就回应他吧。
当神的话在你生命中,在你家庭中,在你教会中和世界中似乎工作缓慢时不要灰心。天国就像一粒种子。他会从尘土中造出美物。
祂的荣耀,
格雷格Waybright博士
主任牧師