Heavenly Prize

“For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
1 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIVUK

Paul planted the seed of the Gospel, the Message about Christ, in the hearts of the Corinthians believers. But not just in Corinth. Paul journeyed around the Middle East planting seeds in places like Ephesus, Galatia, Malta, Pamphylia, Antioch, and others, and in the process, Christianity spread eventually around the whole world, propagated by missionaries and ordinary people telling others about Jesus, many sent out by churches established by Paul. The heart of the Gospel is in the first two letters – “Go” – just as Jesus commanded in His last words on this earth in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. We pilgrims, too, tell people about Jesus, people in our generation who are heading for a lost eternity. The Gospel is unstoppable, just as God’s love and grace are unstoppable. And of course, we remember that although the “seed” that we plant in people’s hearts is precious, it is not in short supply. The Gospel will never be rationed, but one day it will produce its final harvest when Jesus returns.

Jesus told a well-known parable about seed, and Bible translators call it the Parable of the Sower, but perhaps it should really be called the Parable of the Soils. This was a parable where Jesus helpfully explained what it meant to His disciples. The gist of the story is that the Farmer broadcast his seeds at random, leading to different results according to the ground where the seeds fell. The seed fell on the footpath, rocky soil, amongst weeds, and finally good soil. The seed that fell on the footpath failed to germinate, indicating that those who heard the message failed to understand what it meant, and the seed soon disappeared, snatched away by the devil. The seed that found itself amongst poor quality soil soon sprang up, but the soil was unable to sustain it because the roots could not grow. The problems of being a believer soon ensured that no fruit resulted because, although the person accepted and even believed the Message, their roots in the faith were insufficient to see them through. They started the journey on the narrow way, but soon decided that this wasn’t for them. The seed that found itself amongst the weeds and thorns found that although they were growing roots, the worldliness around them became a greater lure, and they too abandoned the narrow way that leads to Glory, and instead returned to their old ways. The Covid lockdown exposed many believers who found other things to do on a Sunday, and they ended up abandoning their faith, the golf course proving to be a better lure for a Sunday than a pew in their local church. The final type of soil was called good soil, and Jesus said, “The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” (Matthew 19:23).  

So Paul planted the seed of the Gospel in the hearts of the Corinthian believers, but before it could produce any fruit, it had to grow. How does that happen? In a natural environment, a seed grows using nutrients coming from the soil and the environment around it, always assisted by water, and it grows to produce fruit, such as wheat or barley. The analogy continues into the spiritual world, because the seed must grow to produce fruit in the lives of believers. Although it is possible for a believer to find their own source of sustenance, reading the Word and praying, it is always helpful to receive the nutrition of the preaching of the Word and the fellowship with other Christians. And that is what Apollos did. We know that he was an eloquent preacher from Acts 18:24-25a, “Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. … “. In other words, Apollos was good at spiritual husbandry, and “watered” the church in Corinth with his preaching of the Word “to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word”, (Ephesians 5:26). 

But we note that neither Paul nor Apollos were able to produce growth in the Corinthian Christians. Only God could do that. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”. Of course, if the seed remained a seed, then there would be no fruit. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives” ( John 12:24). I once knew a man who accepted the Gospel and prayed the sinner’s prayer. But he thought that now he was a Christian, he needed to do no more, and he continued his life as it always had been. That is not God’s way, because He wants us to become more like Jesus. 

So we pilgrims are like seeds planted in good soil. The growth process may be slow. We may get discouraged and despondent sometimes, because the going can be tough. But nevertheless, we allow the Holy Spirit to grow us, step by step. We remember what Jesus said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). James wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (James 1:2-4). And like Paul, each of us says, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”  (Philippians 3:12-14). Three Scriptures that remind us that life for a believer will be hard sometimes, but we look ahead, allowing God to “water” us day by day, with deep thanks that we were a “seed” once but now growing up and producing the fruit of our salvation.

Dear Father God. You and You alone are the One we worship, and we thank You for caring so much about us as we walk on towards the goal of receiving the Heavenly prize to which we have been called. Amen.