Sermon Tone Analysis

A seed is planted into the ground as a very small seed and remaineth alone until it begins to die and then, in turn, producing many others, a bountiful harvest occurs due to this process.

Christ was that seed that was planted so many years ago, that ultimately gave or allowed us access to eternal life through his death on the cross, that set us free from sins grip.

not just freedom to us, but to as many as the lord our God shall call.

as Christ was our ultimate example that we should follow, so must this body of flesh die out as well, to make room for a new man, a new temple, to be reborn as a vessel pliable in the masters hand.

a dwelling place for the spirit of God to dwell.

not only for us to attain eternal life, but that we spread the gospel to the entire world.

this was a time when Jesus was making his final journey into jerusalem where he would face the cross.

he was approaching his final days on earth.

as he talked to those around him, he began explaining and making reference to the necessity of his death and resurrection that was to come.

i must go away he said, for if i go away, there ye may be also.

He also made mention of man kind.

“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Christ was not referring to a man actually hating himself, but rather, He was referring to the importance of our eternal salvation over this life.

He spoke this in reference to the dying out process that man must go through in order to be, in the end, where Christ is. that Christ must be first

our priorities must be toward eternity and not merely in this life.

all things shall pass away eventually and we will all face judgement at the end of this life.

The analogy of a kernel of wheat “dying” in the ground and producing many seeds teaches that death is necessary for a harvest.

If a seed was to fall into the ground and not die, it would remain alone and unable to produce other seeds or a bountiful harvest.

it would be worthless and unable to replicate itself.

we see an example of this in the story of the talents as well:

this story was given as a likeness of what is expected of us as a child of God. both in winning other to the kingdom as well as building upon all things God has given us.

not becoming as a slothful servant.

the bible definitely looks on slothfulness as unacceptable.

this is a good example of a man that did plant seed and grew a field that was, at one time, growing as it was suppose to.

but because the man was slothful, his field became grown over by weeds and nettles so that, undoubtedly, it became choked out and useless. he didn’t consider his field as a priority and didn’t take care of it once he started it.

i believe, when the bible talks about, dying out, it has many different applications.

dying a spiritual death that we may be reborn.

When the bible says we must be born again, it is saying the old man must die in order for the new man to be born a new.

dying out to our will so that God’s will can be accomplished in us.

dying out to sin has to be an ongoing thing.

unlike the slothful man, we have to continually tend to our spiritual life and set spiritual things as a priority.

We must remember, spiritually, we are that building that continually needs upkeep and repairs.

things that have been planted, need to be maintained.

The wheat analogy (v.

24) illustrates a general paradoxical principle: death is the way to life.

In Jesus’ case, His death led to glory and life not only for Himself but also for others.

In the case of a disciple of Jesus, the principle is similar.

A disciple must hate his life in this world.

To “hate his life” means to be so committed to Christ that he has no self-centeredness, no concern for himself.

The word paradox means: a situation or statement that seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics: two things that seem to contradict one another.

The idea of something dying in order to live or produce somethings seems absurd on the surface until we understand the process.

Anatomy of a Seed

The anatomy of a seed is made up of an inner embryo and an outer starch part called endosperm.

The embryo is what is to become the germinating shoot (plumule) and the root (radicle).

The entire genetic information of the plant, such as height, vigor, color pattern, age, etc. is contained in the embryo.

The genetic information in the embryo is translated into everything the plant will eventually be during germination.

The embryo and the endosperm are the product of pollination and fertilization.

A single microspore (male gamete) fertilized a single megaspore (egg) to give rise to the embryo to maintain the genetic continuity of the plant.

On the other hand, a single microspore fertilized two eggs to rise to the endosperm.

The later process is referred to as double fertilization.

Generally, the embryo is diploid and the endosperm is triploid in their genetic make up.

This unique development process of the embryo and the endosperm has intrigued many scientists with numerous articles having been written on it.

A certain gene dosage (2:1) combination between the female and male must be maintained in the endosperm for it to be a viable biological product for many plant species (Johnston et al., 1980).

Since the function of the endosperm is to protect and provide nutrition to the embryo it must be biologically viable.

The seed imbibes water to swell as the process of germination begins.

The special relationship between the embryo and the endosperm during germination is worth noting.

As the embryo begins to grow, branching as plumule (shoot) and radicle (root), there is an acute need for energy and food.

The endosperm plays a vital role in meeting these needs.

The complex sugar such as starch stored within the endosperm is broken down to a simpler sugar such as glucose.

Glucose is the source of both energy and food for the germinating embryo.

Endosperm gives up its content to support the germinating seed.

This, in other words, can be interpreted as the process of dying for the endosperm.

Jesus when he spoke in John 12:24 “ …except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”

However, the scientific implication of the statement in John 12:24 is far reaching in modern science as scientific truth is revealed in this passage as well.

Let us go back to our previous discussion on the relationship between the embryo and the endosperm.

There is a delicate relationship between the embryo and the endosperm.

The endosperm must die and give up its contents in order to support life in order to regenerate the dying seed.

The dying process of the endosperm and the regeneration of the new life of the embryo were very much in his mind when he spoke of a grain of wheat.

New life can’t begin to develop unless the dying process in the old life precedes the new life.

The work of the flesh and the old nature was nailed to the cross when Jesus died.

PCD, or Programmed cell death, occurs via vacuolation, a conserved process by which multiple vacuoles fuse to form a single large lytic vacuole (Bethke et al. 1999, Bethke et al. 2007,Bolte et al. 2011).

This compromises the integrity of the plasma membrane, causing the collapse and subsequent death of the cell

So in essence, something has to die in order for a seed to become a full grown plant and to produce other seeds.

when we die out to ourselves, we submit to the spirit of God. with out that, we abide alone, and cannot grow and thrive and reproduce spiritually.

there is, at that point, no spiritual rebirth

The Death of Christ

The principle of the seed was signifying the importance and necessity of the death of Christ in order for us to have redemption and deliverance from sin. in this, standing in the gap for all.

It was necessary for Christ to die so that we could be free from the law of sin.

He had to be transformed from flesh to his glorified state.

that we could again have a real relationship with God as he desired from the beginning of time.

If Christ would not have paid this price, we would then have had no forgiveness of sin and redemption would not have even been possible.

this scripture is referring to a testament meaning: a covenant that declares a persons wishes after death.

and the testator being the person that wrote, decreed or proclaimed the will and its contents upon death.

therefor, if the person never dies then the will would be invalid because the person is still alive.

a testament is only valid and applied upon a persons death.

this testament would cancel anything that was previously set up or put in place.

this will would take precedent over anything previous according to the testators will.

Christ was that promise, the seed that was planted in Mary was to become our deliverance.

for this purpose came he into this world.

we are the offspring of Christ, as a result of the seed that was planted. he is the vine and we are the branches.

because of the sacrifice of Christ and the death on the cross, we have become partakers of his divine nature.

a price was paid on Calvary, that we neither deserved nor paid for that has allowed us to become beneficiaries through his blood and salvation plan set forth for us.

we are his children and as such, have become heirs to the kingdom.

we are his adopted children.

there is a saying that goes like this: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

meaning that the fruit of the original seed is going to have the same attributes as that seed.

in like manner, we are the offspring of Christ, the fruit of his vine.

we are, therefor, to bear the same attributes as the original vine.

this, being the reason the bible says:

though we where once in sin and iniquity did abound in us, now we have been transformed, being delivered from the bondage of sin, we are to live in holiness before God and in the end, everlasting life.