Soldier of Christ Disciple Training Ministries
A ministry of Acts III Global Ministries – USA & Malawi – www.God.mw
Lesson 108 – The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven – Part
8
Parable of the Sower - Category 3 – Seed Among Thorns
Jesus’ Explains: The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard the word, but as they go on their way the word is choked with worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and pleasures of this life, and the word becomes unfruitful and brings no fruit to maturity.
More Thoughts: This person is the one that tries to throw seed in a garden that is covered in weeds and thorns. They have not prepared the soil and cleared it of these things to give the good ground completely the Word of God.
To begin this study, let us turn back to Genesis 3:17-18 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;”
You see, because our sin, the ground is cursed. The ground, says the Lord, will grow thorns and thistles on its own. There is no work required…thorns and thistles take care of themselves. Think about the care that goes into a professional sports field…maybe like a golf course. The grass is beautiful. But it does not get that way all by itself. Many people labor many hours every day to water, fertilize, pull weeds, spray insecticide and much more just to maintain it. On the other hand, go to an abandon piece of land. You will find it full of weeds and thorns and thistles that got there with no ones help.
God’s Words always have a physical and a spiritual meaning. Here God was telling man the curse that was upon the ground of the earth, but He was also telling him about the curse upon the ground of his heart. We know Scripture teaches that we are born into sin. As such, the soil of our heart is cursed with weeds, and thorns and thistles that grow all by themselves. There is no maintenance required on our part…they grow without any thought or effort on our part.
So what does this mean spiritually? Simply put, Jesus—His Gospel—the Word, is not a seed that you can simply scatter in an abandon lot that is full of thorns and thistles. It will be not be fruitful. The thorns of our vacant lot heart have been there since birth, so their rot system is well established and they very likely have most of not all of the ground covered.
Jesus also taught a parable, that if we use this current parable as a key, we should be able to unlock its message. Here is the parable as found in Luke 5:36-36:
“And He was also telling them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’ ”
The basic idea of the parable is not to mix the old and the new. Let us break the parable into three parts and decipher each using the Key Parable.
><> “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.”
The relative point of this portion is that you cannot take something new—the Word—and try and add it to your current garden of thorns and thistles. This person likes his current lifestyle—his garden of thorns and thistles—because there is no work involved. So instead of removing the thorns to plant a new garden, he only tears off a piece of the word and tries to plant it among his thorns. He does not want the entire word just what is convenient. Nothing good can come of it mixing the two together. Jesus says they do not match up. This means they cannot live together in the same place. Your garden must have thorns or it must have the Word. If you sow the Word in a thorn and thistle infested garden, it will be choked out.
><> “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.”
Here again that we see, if you try mixing the old and new, both will be ruined. Jesus taught the truth that you cannot serve God and money. Here He is teaching two parables in a row to emphasize the same thing. You cannot have the Word grow to fruitful maturity if you do not first remove the thorns and thistles from the garden of your heart. The Word must be planted in a new heart with thorns removed and the soil worked and tilled.
><> “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’ ”
Here the point is that if a person is trying to hold onto both the sinful nature-the thorns and the righteous nature-the Word, the sinful ways are easier and will choke out the Word. Jesus is not an ingredient and if the Gospel is preached this way, the thorns will make it null and void and there will be fruit and no harvest.
Here is an Old Testament account that foreshadows this same idea. It comes from Numbers 33:51-53. In it you will see that the Lord is giving instructions and promises.
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places; and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.”
God has given the Promise Land to His people. But before they can possess it and make it their own, they must drive out everyone there, and destroy all of their evil abominations that are there. God knew if they did not, they would cause them to stumble and fall. The same applies to our heart. We must prepare the soil of our heart by ridding it of all of the thorns and thistles…all of the idols and thoughts of money and cares of the World.
If we do not, look at what the Lord says in Numbers 33:55-56 in a warning to His people. “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. ‘And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.”
Just as God separated light and darkness in the beginning because they cannot be together, so cannot the Word and the love of the flesh dwell in the same heart. A house divided cannot stand. The weeds, the worries of this world, concern for riches and thorns of the flesh, must be removed before the Word take root and bring forth fruit unto maturity.
Hebrews 12:1-3 is a perfect Word for these people, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”