Jesus: Seed, Sower, the Tree of Life.Part 4 – Jesus Is the Seed

Jan 18

In the previous post, I discussed the meaning of ‘the word’ and ‘word of God’ in the parable of the Sower. In this post I share Scripture that demonstrates Jesus is the seed. When the parable says that Jesus sows the word and Jesus sows seed, I believe He is telling us by His words Jesus sows Himself into the heart prepared to receive and accept Him. What follows are verses from the Old and New Testament, that call Jesus ‘the Seed’.

In the Old Testament, Jesus is the three-fold seed.

Jesus is the seed of the woman. Speaking to the serpent, God says:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise (crush) your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3: 15 NKJV).

Jesus is the seed of Abraham:

“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22: 18 NKJV).

Paul affirms this in Galatians, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds”, as many, but as of one, “And to your seed”, who is Christ” (Galatians 3: 16 NKJV).

Jesus is the seed of David. God spoke to David saying, referring to both Solomon and the kingdom of Israel; and the Messiah and the Kingdom of God, which “shall be established forever”:

“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, “I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom . . . And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you” (2 Samuel 7: 12, 16 NKJV).

Jesus, of course, is from the spiritual lineage of David.

As the seed of the woman, Jesus bruises (crushes) satan, saves us from sin and death, and defeats the power of evil. As the seed of Abraham, He imparts power so we can carry the Kingdom of God to every tribe, tongue, and nation. As the seed of David, Jesus builds the tabernacle in our hearts; He makes us “to be a Kingdom and priests to serve our God, and reign on the earth” (Revelation 5: 10 NIV), and through us, builds God’s Church, His new home among His people.

Isaiah describes the Messiah, who is Jesus, using metaphors of seed, stump, tender shoot, branch, and root:

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him . . . “(In Luke 4 Jesus read in the Synagogue from Isaiah 61:1, 2, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me”). “In that day the Root of Jesse (a Messianic term) will stand as a banner for the peoples” (Isaiah 11: 10 NIV). “He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground” (Isaiah 53: 2 NIV). “But as the tenebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land” (Isaiah 6: 13 NIV).

The ‘stump of Jessie’ is code for Messiah. Isaiah calls the stump the holy seed. The holy seed is Jesus.

The book of Zechariah is filled with Messianic prophesies. In Zechariah, in what I believe is foretelling of the coming of Jesus, Zechariah refers to Jesus as “The seed”, also called “The seed of peace” (ASV). Here is the Scripture from the NIV:

“The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people . . . I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong” (Zechariah 8: 12, 13 NIV).

Jesus is our peace. Jesus is the vine; if we remain in Him, connected to the vine, we will bear much fruit (John 15: 1 – 8 NIV). The seed (Jesus) will grow into the vine (Jesus) and it will yield its fruit – His followers and the fruit of the Spirit they produce, for the remnant of His people. After the seed is in the ground, heaven will provide the water – the Holy Spirit, the Living Water Jesus preaches about.

Jesus refers to Himself as a seed. In the passage where Jesus predicts His death, He says:

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel (Kokkos in Greek meaning “grain, seed, or kernel”) of wheat falls to the ground (“falls into the ground”, NKJV) and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12: 23 – 25 NIV).

Jesus is making 2 points: 1) He must die and be buried before His life can be replicated and multiplied in those who believe in Him; and 2) We must die to ourselves so that He can live in us. In this way, we will have eternal life and become a seed sower, just like Jesus.

Gene Edwards, in his beautiful book, ‘The Divine Romance’ writes this about Jesus being placed in the garden tomb:

“The servants surrounded the body of the Nazarene and carefully placed Him in the ground . . . as one might plant a lonely, solitary seed. With that the two men departed the garden, leaving the leaderless angel to contemplate the scene before him. “An open side. A singular species . . . one who dies without ever knowing a counterpart . . . now cold and still. This lonely one who abode for so long . . . has ceased to exist. And now . . . now he is planted in the soil . . . as a seed? The earth has become a grave for the Seed of all seeds” (pg. 148).

Peter writes, “For through the eternal and living Word of God you have been born again. And this “seed” that He planted within you can never be destroyed but will live and grow inside you forever” (1 Peter 1: 23 TPT). Jesus tells us that we are born again of “water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3: 5, 6 NIV). The “eternal and living Word of God” by which you have been born again Peter is writing about is the Holy Spirit, the “seed” that is Jesus. The written word of God (NT) did not exist until the 4th century.

John writes about God’s seed, Jesus, “Everyone who is truly God’s child will refuse to keep on sinning because God’s seed remains within him, and he is unable to continue sinning because he has been fathered by God Himself” (1 John 3: 9 TPT). God’s seed, Jesus, brings about new birth.

As these passages from the Old and New Testament show Jesus was the seed, He is the seed, He will be the seed.

Seed (sperma in Greek) is the essence of all life. Almost everything that is alive comes from a seed. Life has built into itself the capacity to replicate and multiply abundantly – “30, 60, or even 100 times what was sown” (Mark 4: 20 NIV). This has always been part of God’s Kingdom plan for creation. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10: 10). This word ‘abundantly’ in Greek is perissos, and it means “superabundance, excessive, overflowing, surplus, over and above, more than enough, profuse, extraordinary, above the ordinary, and more than sufficient” (Strong’s # 4053). This is the abundant life God planned for His believers from before the beginning of time. It grows in us and multiplies when the seed, Jesus, is sown by the Sower into the heart that receives Him, growing up into a Tree of Life. Part of our Kingdom mission is, in turn, to sow these seeds into hearts around us. In this way, Kingdom life is replicated and multiplied.

A seed contains all the DNA to replicate the life of the organism from which the seed came. If the soil is good, one kernel of corn planted in the ground will produce a stalk of corn with 2 or 3 ears, each containing potentially 100s of seeds One sunflower seed will produce a sunflower, with 1000 to 1400 seeds. One acorn, when planted in good soil, will produce an oak tree, which, over its lifetime, can produce 10 million seeds or acorns. But an acorn will not grow up into a sunflower. The same is true for Jesus when His seed is sown into the noble and good ‘soil’ of a human heart – a heart of humility and repentance. The seed of Jesus planted in that heart carries all the DNA of Jesus, replicating Him in that person’s life. Residing in the heart of that person will be all the joy, peace, faith, hope, grace, and power of Jesus. As Paul says, we will even “have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2: 16 NIV) when His life grows in us.

That single seed, over our lifetime, will grow into the Tree of Life – the same Tree of Life God told Adam and Eve would supply their needs in the Garden. Same with us. But we also need to nourish that Tree so it can grow, be healthy, and produce an abundant crop of fruit with seeds. Some of the ways we nourish the Tree of Life are daily reading and studying God’s word, praying; obeying, confessing, and repenting; acts of kindness and service, using our spiritual gifts; and perhaps most importantly, by resting and remaining in His presence – by staying connected to the Vine.

Like every tree in the Garden (Genesis 1: 11, 12), the Tree of Life within us will produce many seeds. We are called to sow these seeds in other’s hearts. That is God’s plan for replication, multiplication, and the advance of His Kingdom. Jesus is the seed of life; Jesus grows into the tree of life in each of us – “An oak of righteousness, a planting for the display of His glory”, created to sow millions (maybe not millions, but at least hundreds) of seeds. We sow these seeds by preaching and teaching, loving, sharing Scripture and the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, acts of kindness and service; and praying for healing, deliverance, encouragement, and for others to receive the Father’s love. This is seed sowing.

As we sow the seed into the world around us, we are, at the same time, nurturing and nourishing the seed within us. The more we sow, the bigger the Tree of Life grows, and the more we have to sow. But the converse is also true. The less we sow, the more stunted the Tree of Life within us becomes.

I am the seed bearer. I have been given the enormous privilege and responsibility of sowing the Seed of Life.

“We must be clear about why we are seed. It is not because of the life intrinsic in ourselves (our work, intellect, experiences). It is rather due to our ability to carry the true Seed. We become “people of the Kingdom” only when the King moves into the castle of our life (our heart). Multiplication DNA is not resident in our talents, gifts, intellect, strength, skills, or sparkling personalities. It is only in the true Seed” sown into us (Larry Walkenmeyer, ‘Jesus is the True Seed of Multiplication’, Light and Life Magazine).

Perhaps we could call ourselves “People of the Seed”.

As I wrote in the previous post, the written word of God carries the seed. But the written word of God is not the seed. Without the seed in our hearts there is no DNA, there is nothing to replicate. It is possible to know the word of God, but not have the seed planted in our heart. The word of God without the seed is what I call religion.

God knows how our minds and hearts work. If the ‘word’ or ‘word of God’ in the parable is only the written word, if filling our hearts with God’s written word is all it takes to produce Kingdom fruit, humans would be able to say, “Look what I have done by my own efforts. I read the Bible every day and look how much (or how ‘little’?) fruit I produce”, like Matthew 7: 21 – 23. But, if the seed, who is Jesus, is required to produce fruit, then humans can only point to Jesus and say, “Look what Jesus has done. All of this is for God’s glory”. Big difference – the difference between a covenant and a contract; or between the Tree of Life living in our spirit, or the Tree of the Knowledge living in our soul.

“All of our service must be initiated by Him as the source, must be through Him as the means and the power, and must be to Him for His glory” (Witness Lee, The Practical Expression of the Church).

Jesus is the seed of the Tree of Life. In the heart that receives this seed and nurtures it, this seed will grow up into a Tree of Life. Witness Lee writes:

“Jesus is the reality of the Tree of Life sown as the seed of divine life into the believers for the growth of this life within them, that they may experience the transformation of life to make them treasures of life for God’s building of life”.