Tonight we move from Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the sower into three more parables of the same nature, illustrations from daily life that reveal the true character of the Kingdom of God and that reveal Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. If we look closely, we see that the parable of the sower was given in its full form to the crowd, but it’s explanation was given to the apostles and those that followed Jesus closely. I believe that the parables we see tonight are actually explanations given to this small group of people rather than the parables themselves. In the parable of the sower Jesus gave no mention of the Kingdom of God, of the Word of God or of the fact that He was revealing something great. In these three parables tonight we find a great sense of urgency to each story, in two of the three He makes it plain that He is teaching about the Kingdom of God itself and in the first one He reveals that He is speaking of Himself as the Light of the world. The beauty of God’s Word is that it has great depth; it is never fully grasped, not because it is vague but because it is alive. I don’t mean that it is never fully understood, I mean that it is never finished speaking, it is never finished being applied to our hearts, our minds and our lives. I believe Jesus is teaching this concept to His followers in these parables and explanations . . . “don’t settle for what you quickly understand, keep listening, keep searching, keep applying”; not only does the Word of God never return void, I don’t believe it ever stops growing, it is a crop that can never be fully harvested because it never finishes bearing fruit.