The Seed and the Soil

In one paragraph

Peter Lucaccio, a missionary serving in Romania, brought the message this Sunday. Preaching from Mark 4, he walked through the parable of the sower and let decades of firsthand experience with Communist-era persecution fill in what the different kinds of soil actually look like. The thread running through everything was that no power has ever managed to stop the word of God from reaching good...

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 Read aloud by Nancy during announcements about the Christmas play, on the diversity of gifts, ministries, and activities given by the same Spirit
2. Luke 4 Quoted during the pastoral prayer: the Spirit of the Lord anointing Jesus to bring good news to the poor, release captives, give sight to the blind, and free the oppressed
3. Mark 4 The parable of the sower, read aloud from the screens before Peter Lukaccio preached on it
4. John 15 Referenced by Lukaccio when describing the vine and branches in his father-in-law's courtyard: 'I am the vine and you are the branches'
5. Luke 10:2 Referenced by Lukaccio: the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers

Talk about it

1. Peter described teachers in communist Romania being required to tell students that only uneducated or illiterate people believe in God, yet one of those teachers came to faith through his preaching. What does that tell you about the way God's word works even in ground that looks completely closed off?
2. Peter talked about Bibles being confiscated and turned into toilet paper, and people being jailed or killed for smuggling them in. How does hearing that change the way you think about having a Bible sitting on your shelf?
3. Peter pointed out that Jesus wept over Jerusalem, a city that rejected him, and then at Pentecost people from all over the known world came to that same city and the church was born there. What does that pattern say about how God responds to what looks like total rejection of the gospel?
4. The girls from Casa Joseph sang and shared their testimonies, and Peter watched that message reach over 70 countries in 21 days. He connected that back to Jesus teaching from a boat, saying, how can Jesus teach from our boat, from an orphanage? What unlikely boats, places or people, have you seen God use to spread his word?
5. Peter closed by noting that the young Romanian Christians who left to find work in Western Europe ended up planting churches in Spain, France, Germany, Italy and other countries. What does that say about how God can use hardship and scattering to advance the gospel rather than slow it down?