How would life be different if you couldn’t hear? For some people, that is a reality. Think about how many opportunities you’d never hear about, or how many warnings you’d miss, or how many other beautiful and wonderful sounds you wouldn’t get to experience.
Just consider that Jesus came to earth so that we could hear, “Well done good and faithful servant, welcome to the joys of heaven!” (Matthew 25:21, 23). This is the good news that every living person would love to hear. But before you hear “Well done,” you have to hear about how He made that possible and what that requires of you.
The good news message of redemption and salvation Jesus shared was what the Apostles were called to witness, and that’s what they shared with the world. 1 John 1:1-4, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.”
They spread the gospel like seed on soil—all kinds of soil eventually. In fact, Jesus told a parable in Mark 4:1-20 that compared seed to the Word of God. Just like wheat seed, or grass seed, not all of it sprouts just because it’s been spread. But the job of the sower is to sow seed, not make it grow. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.”
What makes one soil closed to “hearing” the good news in the message, while others respond and grow? It has a lot to do with seeking God’s will over our own will (Matthew 7:21, Mark 3:35, even Philippians 2:3-4). But until we understand God’s will, it may not make a lot of sense to us. However, Jesus said that it is understandable, which is why He told us to “seek, knock, and ask” (Matthew 7:7-12). Just think about the story He told of the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24-27); and what Paul says in Ephesians 5:17, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
When we talk about the “plan of salvation,” it always begins with hear, because without the desire to know God and His will, there isn’t any chance we’ll trust the message enough to go deeper.
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