Opening illustration: Growing up as a teenager, my dad would take me to watch the plowing of the field and planting of wheat and sunflower. The tractor would plow deep into the hard soil of central India usually slicing the big snakes hibernating below the earth. Their mangled bodies were brought to the surface while the plow-shares dug deep into the soil. Their decaying bodies would then make good manure for the crop. After planting the seed the caretakers would keep a close watch on predators and seed destroyers during the night. The greatest enemy was the wild hog (boar) which would be shot dead on sight. They would move in gangs under the cover of darkness – little ones and big ones digging into the soil with their two curved sharp teeth to remove and consume the planted seed. Their carcass made some beautiful meals for many families living in the vicinity. If these predators were not gunned down, there would be an utter crop failure resulting in no flour for the consumers. Therefore it was important for the farmer to plow the field deep and kill the predators in order to reap a bumper harvest.
Let us turn to Matthew 13 in God’s Word and check out the fields the farmer had to sow the seed …
Introduction: This parable is about a farmer who walks around in his plowed field sowing seed. It was springtime and it would not be an uncommon sight to see a farmer sowing seed. The multitude could actually see a farmer throwing seed everywhere. They could see the paths beaten across the fields and the birds coming right behind the farmer picking up the seeds. They could see the rocky ground, the thorns and thistles and the good soil. This parable was designed to teach us about the different responses people would give to Christ and His kingdom in this present age. Whenever the gospel message goes out, we can expect four different responses to the truth that Christ is Savior, Lord and King. These four responses will remain true until the end of this age.
The crux of this parable is found in the condition of the soils into which the seed is dropped. There are four kinds of soil on which the word can fall. The soil, of course, represents the human heart, so the word of God falls on four different types of hearts. It is very important to note that this parable is about salvation and three out of four of the soils represent people who are not genuinely saved. Only the good soil is really a saved person because there flows fruit from the life which is the real evidence of true saving faith. Some Bible teachers try to make the rocky ground hearers and the thorny ground hearers to be carnal Christians but it does not match the context of Biblical teaching.
What are the four kinds of hearts you will encounter when you plant God’s Word?
1. Wayside (Die-Hard Folks) [vs. 3-4; 19]
The wayside hearers are those who are hardened to the truth of Christ. It is quite easy to visualize a farmer who would make paths around or through his field in order to throw the seed on good ground. These paths would be narrow and hardened because of constant walking on them. When the seed fell on this type of ground, the birds would pick it up right away. The wayside hearers have hardened hearts to the truth of Christ. When they hear the message of Christ, it is immediately rejected because they have hearts that are hardened by sin. They have absolutely no spiritual understanding of the truth. This parable is dealing with human responsibility. Every man is held accountable to respond to the truth. The idea is not that they could not understand the truth but they would not understand the truth. They would not because men love darkness rather than light and they love their sins. These wayside hearers are really materialists. They do not think that there is anything beyond the physical and they deny the spiritual dimensions of life and the supernatural. They have a humanistic, liberal and atheistic heart. They will not take time or cannot be bothered to understand the gospel when it is presented to them. They really are not interested in spiritual matters at all.
The message of Christ will penetrate the mind and the heart of the wayside hearers, and for a moment they may be challenged to think about Christ and His claims. Perhaps they will give a fleeting thought as to the reality of Christ and His kingdom. But then they immediately throw these thoughts of their minds because further contemplation would require more thought, more self-evaluation and a changed life. Because they die hardened to their own sin, the thoughts of Christ and His kingdom are repugnant to them. They shrug off any thoughts of Christ as being true and the Devil snatches the truth from their hearts because there was no good soil in which the gospel could take root (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Luke’s account of the Parable of the Sower says that the Devil snatched the truth from the hearts of the wayside hearers that they “may not believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). The Greek has a purpose clause here and it means “in order that they may not believe.” Perhaps this is saying that the Devil so steals the truth out of the wayside hearers’ heart that he may never believe the gospel and be saved. This rejecter of the truth opened his heart to Satan rather than to Christ. Humanly speaking it is possible to repeatedly reject truth until that truth can no longer be received! Apparently they have –
(a) The Unreasonable heart: Cannot be reasoned with. Heart is hard and mind is closed. You can quote Scripture to them by the hour and it only runs off like water off a duck’s back.
(b) The Undiscerning heart (v 19): The Word does not make sense to them (1 Corinthians 2:14). This is where the world is. They do not comprehend God's Word so they turn it aside.
(c) The Uninterested heart: No interest in the Word of God. They are interested in politics, sports, business, and other worldly matters, but not interested in the Bible. The Bible is a dull/boring book to them. They may come to a gospel concert or church supper. But they have little or no interest in attending Sunday school, Bible studies, or a preaching service.
Illustration: Did you know that this teaching on the wayside hearers was the means God used to bring John Bunyan to Christ? Most of us remember John Bunyan for his famous book Pilgrim’s Progress. What most of us don’t know is that Bunyan for thirty years of his life was a blasphemous old tinker in Bedford. He was known as the most godless man in his village and was regarded as so hardhearted and committed to godlessness that no Christian had any hope for him to be saved at all. But he heard this story of the sower and these very words seized upon his heart. He said to himself, “Even the devil knows that if a man believes the word he will be saved!” So John Bunyan believed and he was saved.
2. Stony (Seasonal/Emotional Christians) [vs. 5-6; 20-21]
The stony rock hearers “endure for a while,” and the Greek word actually means “seasonal.” When it is seasonable and fashionable to believe the gospel they do, but their whims change like the seasons and shift like the winds. They are shallow in heart and understanding. They have a surface kind of Christianity but there is no real desire to evaluate their lives and go deeper into the Christian faith. The stony rock hearers are those who hear the message of Christ and His kingdom and at first get all excited about it; yet later turn away from the truth they have learned.
We might get the idea that this was pure rock but obviously nothing could germinate on rock. The idea here was that there was an inch or two of dirt over a broad shelf of bedrock. This was shallow soil with hard rock underneath. The stony rock hearers are those who have a shallow religious experience that never really takes spiritual root. They initially get all excited about Christ but they never seem to stabilize. They are constantly flitting from one experience to another, never satisfied, never content with anything very long. No matter what their profession of Christ might be, they are restless, searching and groping for reality. These are what we might call Christian faddists or enthusiasts but they have no spiritual root to their profession of faith.
Stony rock hearers “endure for a while” but their profession is only temporary and will pass with time. The stony rock hearers are not saved because Luke in his Gospel says of them, “which for a while believe” (Luke 8:13). There is obviously a faith in Christ that is not saving faith. True saving faith involves right understanding of the gospel with the mind, genuine commitment to the gospel with the will, and a true love of the gospel with the emotions. It is possible to give intellectual assent to the gospel or have an emotional religious experience without being genuinely saved (cf. John 2:23-25). These stony rock hearers had an emotional experience but they in actuality had no reality of Christ, proving themselves to be rejecters of the true gospel of Christ.
Illustration: Many of us have had the experience of being around people who have just made their initial profession of faith in Christ. They are all excited about their new found faith. In fact, they are higher than a kite. This is especially true of young people. It is not uncommon to hear the words, “It’s wonderful, exciting, thrilling, marvelous and beautiful.” Unfortunately, many of these professions are shallow and sham, and after the initial excitement of a new religious experience wears off many turn back and go into the world. They were never saved because they did not have true saving faith and were not touched by the grace of God. What was it that caused these stony soil hearers to stumble or withdraw from following Christ and His kingdom? It was tribulation and persecution from the world because the world hates the word of the kingdom. These thorny soil hearers begin to feel the opposition and pressure that comes when one truly follows Christ. They begin to feel the sting of criticism and the loneliness of rejection and conclude that following Christ is not worth it. They find out that it costs to follow Christ and they are not willing to pay the price of discipleship and being a follower of Christ.
3. Thorny (Soft/Lukewarm Christians) [vs. 7; 22]
"Thorny" ground was any species of useless weed that grew taking up the ground and hindering crop growth. This type of growth takes from the soil that which is needed for the crop to grow and mature on.
• It outgrows the crop and blocks out the life-giving needs.
• Spiritual thorns would be worldly cares, anything which takes the place of Christ in the heart.
• Sin causes a veil to come between a person and Jesus, thus blocking out any love which a person needs, not all at once, but little by little, like weed growth.
• A double minded person is not ignorant for he/she hears the gospel understands with the mind and with feeling, realizes the importance, but there are other "needs" there also. The result is that two "crops" are struggling for growth and the inevitable result is that the good crop (gospel) is outgrown and fails.
• A person tries to do two things at once. He/she wants to follow Jesus but also wants to satisfy his/her worldly desires at the same time. Thus there is little spiritual growth if any.
Illustration: They remain Christians as long as the going is good. The minute it gets tough their faith just fizzles out. The world and its riches lure them into giving up Christ and following the prince of the air and ruler of the world. To begin with, were they really Christians or were just following the crowd to make an impression to be just like one of them?
4. Good (Fruitful/Sold-out Christians) [vs. 8; 23]
"Good" ground was that which was broken (plowed) deep and clean and would bring a good crop and harvest although some areas would produce more than other areas. A person receives the gospel, retains it and has but one desire, he/she is single minded, the kingdom of God comes first, everything else is secondary. A "hundred-fold" is the return of 100 grains for one single seed.
• Some single seeds have produced as many as 1000 grains.
• There are different God-given gifts.
• There are different amounts of time, effort, energy spent by Christians therefore different results are produced.
(a) Prepared heart: Ground must be plowed... rocks and stones removed... and weeds taken out. We must prepare our hearts for the reception of God’s Word before coming to Church or doing our personal devotions.
(b) Perceptive heart: (v. 23"...hears the word, and understands it..."). We need to pray that God will open our eyes to understand His Word. "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18). As Jesus walked with the two Emmaus disciples that first Easter Sunday, the Bible says, "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45).
(c) Productive heart: ("...bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold some sixty, some thirty."). These are productive Christians. Get a church filled with this kind of soil, and the church will thrive. Our problem today, however, is that the church is filled with the other three kinds of soil and has very little good ground soil in its midst.
Application:
• Nothing is wrong with the sower. He is doing his job.
• Nothing is wrong with the seed. God’s Word is perfect.
• The problem is in the soil (the heart of the hearer).
• What is the condition of your heart? Have you hardened yourself to the truth of Christ and His kingdom? Do you feel as though you could never trust Christ and be saved? You cannot soften your own heart but God can soften it.
• Nothing is impossible with God. He can plow up the rough ground of your heart so you will be eager and willing to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. Ask God to soften your heart so you can turn to Christ and acknowledge Him as your Savior and King.
