THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Series: Pursuing Meaning
Most of us remember Aesop’s Fables...
--The wolf in sheep’s clothing teaches us that appearances can be deceiving.
-The town mouse and country mouse teach us that it’s better to eat beans and bacon in safety than cakes and ale in fear.
-The goose that laid the golden egg teaches us that greed often overreaches itself.
Well, fables are just that, they’re made up stories, complete with talking animals engaged in human activity. And each parable ends with a moral truth to remember.
Jesus did not engage in fables, but He did teach using parables...earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.
Today, in "The Root of the Problem," we’ll be looking at the parable of th sower, sometimes called the parable of the soils.
I invite you to open a Bible again to Matthew 13.
--The gospels record some sixty different parables of Jesus, most of which are found in Matthew and Luke, with some also in the book of Mark.
--It has been estimated that at least one-third of Jesus’ recorded teaching is found in parables.
--The word "parable" means "to place one thing beside another with a view to comparison," but parables are best understood to simply be illustrations that help us grasp a deeper spiritual meaning.
THE CONTEXT...
To understand why Jesus taught in parables we must understand the context of what He was facing:
--Mt.13:9 -- "He who has ears, let him hear."
-->The Pharisees and other traditionalists’ idea of the kingdom of God was not about truth and a change on the inside of persons. Instead, their idea of God’s kingdom was about power and making a change of what’s on the outside...overthrowing the Romans, establishing the Messiah’s earthly political rule in Jerusalem.
-->They were so opposed to Jesus Himself that they weren’t willing to even listen to what He was actually saying and teaching.
*ILL> I’m reminded of the man who was walking down a busy New York city sidewalk with a companion. Buses and trucks were roaring by, taxis were hoking, and a jack hammer could be heard off in the distance. But suddenly the man stopped and asked his friend, "Do your hear that cricket?" His friend stared at him in astonishment, then replied, "How could you hear a cricket in all this noise?" The man answered, "Because I listened for it. Let me demonstrate..." With that, he dropped a handful of coins on the sidewalk. Immediately every head within a block swiveled around. "You see," he said, "it depends on what you’re listening for."
-->Jesus repeatedly encouraged the Pharisees and us to listen to what He was saying, using the phrase, "Let him who has ears, hear..."
-->Soon, however, the Pharisees’ opposition to Jesus grew beyond not merely listening, turning to openly and actively hindering others from giving Jesus their attention.
THE INTENT...
Jesus taught using parables for two primary reasons:
1) To reveal truth to those who truly listened and wanted to understand truth.
----Mt.13:16 -- "...blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear."
----This group includes those who are already believers. They would "get it," they’d understand His "kingdom talk."
2) To conceal truth to those who are unwilling to truly seek truth, having dull or hardened hearts.
----Mt.13:13 -- "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."
----These are those on the "outside," those who couldn’t understand because they were resisting the Holy Spirit, they were "closed off," "blinded" to truth.
----But it can also be applied to believers who do not listen nor heed the truths presented to them by the messengers God sends to them.
----It doesn’t have to remain that way. It could, in fact, serve as an enticement to know more, investigate Jesus more.
THE CONTENT...
---The symbolism and meaning of this particular parable...
--a) The Setting.
-----Mt.13:3 -- "And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, ’Behold, the sower went out to sow...’"
-----The crowd was so large Jesus ended up getting into a boat and spoke to the crowd on the shore while He himself was in the boat.
-----It’s quite possible that Jesus based this story on what people could see right then. Standing in the boat, perhaps He saw in the distance a farmer sowing seed.
-----This parable was based on agricultural stuff His hearers new very well:
-------Farmers’ fields in ancient Palestine were long, narrow, often serpentine-type strips that had little footpaths for the farmer to walk on through his field. These strips would became hard as cement with the frequent weight and wear of traffic, the hooves of oxen and the wheels of implements used in farming.
-------The farmer would walk his field with a seed bag tied to his waist, and would rhythmically cast/toss the seed to his right and left as he walked.
--b) The Symbolism.
----Each parable had characters and ideas that were symbolic for persons or ideas.
----1) The Sower.
------Mt.13:3 -- "...Behold, the sower went out to sow;"
------Usually the village farmers worked together and plowed the entire field around their homes.
------So...the sower represents anyone presenting the truths of the gospel, the message of the kingdom.
------Certainly Jesus Himself was the primary sower as He was teaching the multitude that day.
------However, the sower represents preachers, teachers, witnesses giving testimony, etc.
-----2) The Seed.
-------Mt.13:19 -- "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom..."
-------Lk.8:11 -- "The seed is the word of God."
------The seed is the message of the gospel, the message of how the kingdom really is...how it exists in our hearts and it changes and affects our lives.
-----3) The Soil.
-------Mt.13:20 -- "...this is the man who hears the word;"
-------Mt.13:22 -- "...this is the man who hears the word;"
-------The soils in the parable are synonymous with the level of receptivity of people’s hearts.
-------The fields where the farmers sowed the seeds included some hard ground where the footpaths were, some shallow soil near those paths where only an inch or two of soil was above hard rock below, some places where thorn bushes had established themslves, and some good soil.
-------The fields had been plowed before seed was planted and the sowers sowed indiscriminantly as they would walk through the paths.
-----4) The Harvest.
-------Mt.13:19 -- "...bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."
-------The harvest represents fruitfulness in our lives, it represents changed lives and obedience to God’s principles.
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF SOILS / FOUR TYPES OF HEARTS WITHIN PEOPLE DESCRIBED...
Notice: 75% of the soils/people in the story were unfruitful, unsuccessful, didn’t produce a harvest.
Why?
<>Well, it isn’t the fault of the sower.
--In this case, the primary sower was Jesus Himself. He was explaining to His disciples and the crowd why so many weren’t understanding or accepting what He was saying. And certainly the unfruitfulness of the soils wasn’t Jesus’ fault.
--The sower in the story was merely doing what sowers do...spreading seed with every step he took.
--It’s a convenient and oft-used excuse some offer for why they don’t believe or won’t accept Jesus: "Oh, those preachers, those Christians, they’re just a bunch of hypocrites! Jim Bakker stole innocent people’s money, Jimmy Swaggart messed around with prostitutes, Ted Haggard turned out to be dabbling in homosexuality while he railed against it publicly."
----Well, all that’s true, but it’s NOT the real reason why people reject the gospel or refuse to respond/"hear" the truth.
----The real reason is not about the preacher, messenger, seed-planter.
----The real reason is based on the receptivity of the hearers’ hearts and minds.
<>It isn’t the fault of the seed either.
----*Heb.4:12 -- "For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sowrd...able to reveal the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
----*1Pet.1:23 -- "For you have been born again not of seed which is imperishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God."
----The seed, God’s word, is infallible, inerrant, Divinely-inspired, pure, always true, and ever potent and powerful.
<>What determines fruitfulness or no fruitfulness (can’t you just see the game show inspired out of this one?--Open up the briefcase, Howie! Fruitfulness or NO Fruitfulness?) is the condition of the soil, the receptivity of the heart.
----*ILL> A teenager once described his dad as being an avid reader. "I remember many times when I was a child that I’d see him in the living room with a book. Mom would come up and ask him to do something. No response. Later she would ask him again. No response. Finally, she’d yell out, ’Lester!’ He would look up from his book with a look of bewilderment on his face as if to say, ’What did I do to deserve getting yelled at?’"
-------You see, it’s very possible to have good hearing but be hard of listening.
-------It’s possible to never let what we hear "sink in" and take root.
JESUS USES FOUR TYPES OF SOILS TO DESCRIBE THE FOUR TYPES OF SOILS TO DESCRIBE THE DEGREES OF RECEPTIVITY OF PEOPLE’S HEARTS...
1) Off the path.
----Mt.13:3-4 -- "Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some feeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up."
----Mt.13:19 -- "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom was sown beside the road."
----Sometimes the seed was swept away by the wind and swallowed up by birds before ever having the opportunity to develop and produce.
----Some people are like this wayside or off-the-path soil...their hearts are hardened and will not allow the word of God to take root.
----They’re off the path, trying to go their own way, chart their own course, and don’t want to hear God or His messenger He’s sent their way.
2) Rocky, shallow ground.
----Mt.13:20-21 -- "The one on whom seed was sown onthe rock places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has not firm root...and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away."
----In Palestine, much of the land is a thin two or three inch veneer of soil over a limestone bedrock.
----So sometimes the seed would fall in this shallow soil and grow quickly, but with no real depth.
----Consequently, the seed never grow beyond the initial spurt, and when the going gets tough they wither away.
----Some people are like this shallow or rocky soil.
------They’re the "emotional hearer" who joyfully accepts God’s word but either don’t know the price that must be paid to mature as a Christian, or after the "newness" rubs off and they start encountering persecution, their enthusiasm wanes and they’re unwilling to continue growing...and they give up, they leave...many times blaming the preacher or the other church members for their refusal to grow.
3) Thorny ground.
----Mt.13:22 -- "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns...is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."
----This soil in Palestine held a hidden weakness, the thorn bushes in Palestine were far-reaching.
----The thorn bushes would reach-out and begin to choke out any other roots of productive plants around it.
----It took a long time for the thorns to ever be seen, but the unseen thorn bush roots stopped the "good" soil from further growth, literally choking the life out of them, stopping their productivity.
----This person is the believer who starts well, grows for awhile, but then gets distracted by the world’s values.
-----He/she begins to lean toward the world, away from God.
-----He/she begins to compromise and distance himself/herself.
-----He does not believe the word when it tells us that we cannot love both God and money, love both God and the world’s carnal values at the same time.
-----This is the guy like the rich young ruler who went away sad because he placed wealth ahead of serving the Lord.
4) Good soil.
----Mt.13:23 -- "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."
----This person is listening, heeding, applying what God’s word instructs him to do.
----He’s committed and not distracted nor deterred by the world’s influence and opposition.
----And, there is clearly fruit being produced...as a result of allowing the seed to reproduce in his life.
----His life reflects His commitment to the Lord...he’s obedient, he’s growing, he’s reflecting Jesus to others.
----The roots go deep, his determination is to pursue God’s pleasure.
THE APPLICATIONS…
--1) The sower isn’t responsible for the yield, but for spreading the seed.
-----It’s the Word of God that is powerful, cpnvincing, revealing, and will draw the person to Jesus.
-----Our job is to be planters of seed...and leave the harvest to the Lord.
-----*APP>Desert Springs, if we don’t go planting as we go, there won’t be a harvest. If we do, there will be.
--2) Good soil always produces fruit.
-----The focus of this parable is not to be on whether it’s a thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or hundredfold harvest...that’s up to the Lord.
-----Our focus needs to be on being fruitful, being "good soil" for Him to work through, produce fruit.
BRINGING IT HOME…
Here are some questions to ask yourself today:
1) What type of soil are you?
2) Are you a sower?
----Are you telling others the good news, planting seeds?
----*ILL>A girl returning home from Sunday School expressed disappointment with the class’s reaction to the lesson. We are taught to go into all the world and make discples...but we just sat.
----*QUOTE> Adrian Rogers said, "There are two types of Christians: soul winners and backsliders."
----*QUOTE> Bailey Smith said, "We on the inside of the church need to endure some inconvenience in order that those on the outside can hear the gospel."
----*ILL> A Mercedes Benz t.v. commercial showed their car colliding with a cement wall during a safety test. Someone then asked the co-spokesman why they didn’t enforce their patent on their energy-absorbing car body, a design evidently copied by other companies because of its success. He replies to the questioner, saying, "Because some things in life are too important not to share."
---->That’s how the gospel is...much too important to keep to ourselves.
3) Seed has been scattered here today.
----Have you heard it?
----What will you do about it in your life?
