Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:3, 19, 24, 37; John 12:24-26
Of the seven parables in Matthew 13, the first two are the parable of the sower and the parable of the good seed and the tares. In the first parable, the Lord told the disciples that the seed sown by the sower is the word of God, which is the word of the kingdom. In the second parable, He told the disciples that the sower is the Son of Man, and the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. In the first parable, the seed is the word of the kingdom, which is the word of God. In the second parable, the seeds are the sons of the kingdom, who are the ones begotten of God. When the Lord sowed the seed, He was sowing not only the word but also men. When the Lord came to the earth, He did not just preach the word, He also sought a group of people and sowed this group of people as seeds. What He sowed was people.
In the Bible, the words that come out of God's mouth are called God's word, but the Son sent by God is also called God's Word. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We know that this refers to the Lord Jesus. The word of God as revealed in the Bible sometimes refers to the words which God has spoken and sometimes to the Word whom God has begotten, that is, the Son of God. He is the Word, the living Word, the Word of life. When you hear Him, you hear the Word. When you see Him, you see the Word. When you touch Him, you touch the Word. This is what 1 John 1:1 tells us.
Our Lord Jesus is the Word of God. He is also the seed of God. John 12:24 says, "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." This refers to the Lord Jesus. He is the one grain of wheat, and from this grain, many grains have been produced. First Peter 1:23 says, "Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God." The Lord Jesus is the Word, and He is also the seed.
We have to praise Him because He is not just the Word but also the seed. Our God sent His Son to the earth and sowed Him as a seed. The Lord Jesus did not come to preach but to be the Word. The Lord was not just the One speaking the word; He was the Word itself. The Lord was not just the sower; He was the very seed. God did not just sow a few words; He sowed a man. The Lord Jesus was truly the seed, the real seed.
Suppose someone comes from a far country and invites us to go to preach the gospel. If we have zeal and are for the gospel, we would surely be very willing to go. But we have to realize that it is not enough just to have someone speak the word and preach the gospel. God has to sow us, the person, as a seed among them. Do we see this? God is sowing us; we are the seed that is being sown. God works through His own words within man. When we preach the word to others, we are sowing the word of God into them, and we expect to have a harvest. But if we only see the seed as the words of God, and not as people, we cannot work for God. If we only care for the words we preach and if we presume that as long as we are right in our fundamental belief and pure in our biblical exegesis, we can go forth to sow, we are wrong. God's work often suffers loss because the seed in our hand is merely objective truths. These truths have not brought about a subjective change in our being yet; they have not made us sons of the kingdom yet. The great question is what kind of person are we? God's seed is not just words but also us as people. The good seed is not just the word of the kingdom; it is people, that is, the sons of the kingdom. I would like to ask how many of us can be God's seed? What a pity that most of our seeds are objective; we lack subjective seeds! Brothers and sisters, whether or not we can be seeds of God is a big question. The Lord has no intention of sending out a group of evangelists or a group of people to teach the Bible. His intention is that some become seeds. The Lord wants to sow those who are His as seeds. If the Lord sows us as seeds, what will be the result of this sowing? Whatever a man sows, he will reap. Those to whom we render some help often become like us. Putting it the other way around, our reaping proves what we sow; it proves the kind of people we are.
Therefore, we should never bemoan the fact that no one has listened to our preaching or say that we cannot do anything just because others' ears are dull of hearing God's pure word. The question is: Who are we? The good seed is not only the word of the kingdom but also the sons of the kingdom. God is sowing us, but what will come out? Do we preach something that is far away from us in another world, or is it a fact that is present in us? Do we speak directly from a passage of the Scripture, or do we first touch a spiritual reality and then confirm it with a passage from the Scripture? We have to realize that there is a great difference between these two things. Many words are only opinions. Only the words of those who know God are seeds. It is not a matter of coming up with all kinds of things and doctrines through our own wisdom and then telling others about them. When we know something and see something before the Lord, we sow it into others with our words. In conveying God's word, it is not a question of how much we can say with our mouth but how much constitution is in our life. Are we merely preaching an objective doctrine, or are we speaking something because we have first acquired the subjective experience of it? Many people can only preach objective doctrines; however, objective doctrines will not produce any effect in others. If, in addition to speaking God's word, we have become the very word ourselves, others will receive help from us. It is not enough just to understand God's word with our mind. If it were just a question of understanding doctrine, wise Christians would have an advantage over foolish ones, and wise ones would be better Christians, while foolish ones would not be such good Christians. But God does not classify men according to whether they are wise or foolish. When God's word comes to us, it must be tested. When a potter paints a picture on porcelain-ware, it must pass through fire before the picture becomes non-erasable by hand. The porcelain must pass through fire before it will withstand any washing by water. Many have doctrines that are erasable by hand. But if God is gracious to us and if He works in us and does some burning work in us through the environment and through revelation, the result will be something firm and permanent. God may do this once, ten times, dozens of times, and even a few hundred times. One day the words will become words that have passed through the fire; they will be wrought into us. Then our person will become the word. The discipline and revelation of the Holy Spirit will sear a word into a person one, ten, or even a hundred times. In the end, the person will become the word. When others see him, they will not say that this person is capable of speaking the word; they will say that this person is the word itself. He will become the seed of God, and God will be able to propagate such a word. Otherwise, the word will merely be passed on from head to head, and the church will become more and more superficial, lifeless, and void of spiritual reality. The question then is whether or not we can be the seed of God. Which part in us can be the seed of God? If God sows us, what will grow up? Whatever a man sows, he will reap. There can be no exception to this. If the only fruit we bear for others is a greater understanding of doctrine, without any touch of the Lord's life, what we have will be very poor.
God sows with the purpose of reaping a harvest. Let us now consider the principle of God's harvesting.
John 12:24 says, "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." This word refers to the Lord dying for us and dispensing His life into us. The pathway to a harvest is through death. One must pass through the cross. God sows with the goal of gaining some fruit; His goal is for the one grain of wheat to bear many grains. God did not send one prophet or many prophets to men to expound the word clearly. In sending His Son, God made Him the one grain. Only when this one grain fell into the ground did many grains come forth. Fruit-bearing does not come through a clear exposition of the word or through the hard memorization of the Scriptures. When the seed falls into the ground many grains are brought forth. This is the work of the cross.
The cross is a fact; it is not a doctrine. If there is indeed death, there will indeed be fruit. If there is no death, there will be no fruit. The measure of death determines the measure of life. The number of blows one suffers determines the measure of the outflow of life.
No doubt verse 24 refers to the Lord Himself. But in verse 25, He gives us a word of explanation. His word speaks of a principle that not only applies to Himself but also applies in general. "He who loves his soul-life loses it; and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life." This word is for everyone. Verse 26 says, "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me." This makes it more clear; everyone who serves Him has to go through the same experience. The falling of the grain into the ground to die does not refer to redemption (in which we can never have a part) but to the removal of the self-life. The principle is that death brings in life. This is what Paul meant when he said that death operated in him and life in others (2 Cor. 4:12).
Hence, it is not enough for us to be a seed; we must know the way to bear fruit. The way to bear fruit is not by preaching or teaching; the way to bear fruit is by sowing. God did not send His Son to the earth to preach the word; He sowed His Son as a seed into the ground. Today He is also sowing us here and there as seeds.
A seed must fall into the ground to die before it can bear much fruit. Before a grain of wheat falls into the ground, it has an outward shell. This shell protects the grain from any harm, yet it also frustrates it from bringing forth many grains. If the outward shell is not broken, the life within will not be released. When the grain is put into the ground and the water and the soil act on it organically, the shell soon breaks and decays, and the life within is released. The Lord is the one grain that fell into the ground and died. When this grain died, it brought forth many grains. From death unto life — this is the way with the Lord, and this is the way with us. Fruit-bearing through death — this is the way with the Lord, and this is the way with us. Hence, the principle of fruit-bearing is not preaching but death. Once we touch a person, we immediately know whether or not he has fallen into the ground to die. In order to know whether or not a person has died, we only have to find out whether the shell still remains. Much of our hardness is natural hardness, and much of our softness is natural softness. Whether it is hard or soft, as long as it is a shell, it frustrates the outflow of life and prevents men from touching the life within. Only the work of the cross will remove the outer shell from us. It is very difficult to touch a person who has not been broken. After one speaks to such a person for an hour, he still feels that there is a great distance between them. With him, there is a shell. But a person who has been smitten, stricken, and broken by God will have his natural and soulish elements shattered. When others touch him, they will touch life. Only those who have fallen into the ground and died will bear fruit! Only those who have passed through death will bear fruit before the Lord. Without passing through death, there cannot be fruit. There may be hundreds and thousands of people following you, but you may still have no fruit before the Lord. The principle of fruit-bearing is to die and then to bring forth many grains. If one does not die, he remains one grain. If a grain of seed has not passed through death, it will not bring forth any fruit.
May the Lord be merciful to us so that we can become the seed of God and fall into the ground and die, and so that He can gain fruit in us.
