Everyone loves a story. Stories are remarkably powerful things. They stir-up our imaginations and excite our affections. They instruct us and inspire us. They intoxicate and influence us. They linger with us, often becoming more precious and poignant and powerful over time.
During His earthly teaching ministry, the Lord Jesus, who was the master teacher and preacher, often used stories and illustrations as He instructed the crowds of people who flocked to hear Him. Many refer to these types of stories as “parables.” There are about fifty different parables of Christ recorded in the Gospels. In fact, about one-third of all of Jesus’ recorded sayings are parables.
Just as marriage is not merely a slip of paper and a big ceremony, the Christian faith is not merely a one-time confession of Christ accompanied by occasional church attendance. Throughout the River Valley, multitudes of people claim various religious experiences. Some have had a religious experience as a young child… others have seen visions and heard voices… and still others give only mental assent to the Bible’s doctrines. So many people claim to have genuine experiences that make them a “Christian” [use air quotes here.] Yet, many people have religious experiences that FADE over time.
What makes Christianity more “sticky” in some? What is the proof that determines if a person truly follows Christ? Or, what makes a Christian a Christian? How can you confidently know if you are a truly follower of Christ?
Today, we continue a sermon series, entitled Digger Deeper. This series is designed to answer, “What is a true follower of Christ look like?” It’s designed to answer questions just below the surface that affect the surface. Throughout the series, we’re digging for bedrock in the words of Jesus Himself. Surely, the founder of Christianity will give us solid answers on what His followers look like.
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.’
‘Hear then the parable of the sower: 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 what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty’” (Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23).
Lukewarm faith is alive and well in churches today. The Barna Group reports that about ten million self-proclaimed born-again Christians have not been in church the last six months. Nearly all of these ten million people say their faith is important to them, but their spiritual life has nothing to do with church. Rodney Stark surveyed members of prominent evangelical mega churches and found:
• Only 46% attend services weekly;
• Only 46% tithe;
• Only 33% read the Bible daily;
• Only 44% witnesses to Non-Christians.
Contemporary Christians report that they are not satisfied with their spiritual health. In recent survey, the same church members who considered themselves “Christ-centered” or “close to Christ” also viewed themselves as “spiritually stalled.” The “spiritually stalled” spend more time showering and talking on the phone than reading their Bible in any given week. The problem of biblical discipleship is a colossal problem for contemporary churches. Members often don’t know where to turn to connect with other believers on a meaningful level. Pastors feel pressurized to preach short, airy sermons aimed at the practical and psychological ‘needs’ of the people. Church members see churches as service-providers where little time is focused on feeding the people the Word of God.
Some of our problems should be expected at some level for even Jesus Himself told us to expect a mixed response to His gospel in this parable. In this parable of the four soils, Jesus offered to us telltale signs of what a believer looks like. He gives us a description of those who truly follow Christ… and He offers characteristics of those who fade away from Christ over time.
Here’s Four “Quick Thoughts” on Whether You Maybe a Counterfeit Christian. These will go fast.
1. Counterfeit Christians will be around until Christ Returns
“…having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:5).
2. Satan has Produced Counterfeit Christians throughout History
Satan works to deceive the disciples of Christ. His plan of attack is to cause him to stop doing what he should be doing (witnessing, Bible reading, charity). Satan stops true believer by causing him to incessantly question his salvation. The disciple who incessantly questions his experience with Christ finds no traction to confidently witness, pray, or study the Bible.
3. Where Counterfeit Christianity is Prevalent, Doubts Will Increase
When counterfeit Christianity is rampant, people are unsure where to place their feet. They look for secure footing. Everyone’s minds are troubled and unsettled because counterfeit Christians are inside the church masquerading as the real deal.
4. No One Can Distinguish Perfectly
A believer can know about his/her own salvation for sure (1 John 5:13). Real believers are to possess a humble confidence as opposed to an arrogant confidence. A humble confidence means that he/she is a believer both now and on the final Day of Judgment. God wants you to have this.
But what about others? Can I confidently determine other people’s salvation? Any Christian who claims they can distinguish perfectly between a true disciple of Christ and a counterfeit Christian is arrogant. God has given us signposts in order to better determine what a true disciple is. But, we never make a full and clear separation in determining whether other people know Christ.
With those four quick observations out of the way, let’s look at Jesus’ story.
Jesus is speaking while sitting from a boat to a crowd of people standing on the shore (Mark 4:1). He tells one of his more famous messages that has been historically called the parable of the sower. Yet, the parable is more about the soil. Jesus’ teaching has transferred everyone from the synagogue to the beach to help them understand. Jesus explains why the Gospel receives a mixed response. He explains why there is unbelief. He pictures for us a farmer scattering seed by hand as walks through the field.
Jesus Himself is the sower in the parable. Notice there is no description of the sower. The focus is on the seed – God’s Word. But anyone who shares the Gospel becomes the sower. Jesus speaks of four types of soil where the scattered seed falls. The soil is your response to the Gospel. The seed is the Gospel itself. And the seed falls into a variety of situations that have varying results.
There are three distinct parts of this passage in Matthew 13. First, in verses one through nine we have the parable itself. Second, in verses eighteen through twenty-three Jesus Himself explains the parable to us, making this one of the few parables of which we don’t have to be in any significant doubt about its meaning. Third, in between the parable and its interpretation is where His disciples ask why Jesus speaks in parables, and so in verses ten through seventeen he tells us why. I’ll not be able to cover verses ten through seventeen this morning.
So, What makes a Christian a Christian? Jesus tells us that a Christian has a hunger for the Bible that produces life change.
1. Counterfeit Responses
In the first three responses, the seed does not produce a crop because…
1. The seed falls beside the path where it was eaten by birds (Matthew 13:4);
2. The seed falls on shallow soil where it is chocked by thorns (Matthew 13:5);
3. The seed falls among thorns where the thorns choke them out (Matthew 13:7).
And there is a fourth soil that on fertile ground where it produces various levels of crops. That’s a description of the basic story Jesus told. But Jesus doesn’t just give us the basic story, He also tells us what the story means. Jesus interprets His own parable for us. His explanation begins in verse eighteen. Twice Jesus calls on His disciples to “hear.” The first time He tells us is in verse nine: “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9).
He repeats the need for true followers to hear in verse eighteen: “Hear then the parable of the sower…” (Matthew 13:18).
The word “hear” also means understand. So, hearing is more than simply hearing. It goes deeper – it’s about understanding. It’s “getting it.”
A quick look of the first three soils displays the Gospel wasn’t sticky. The response displayed an initial enthusiasm that eventually waned. The seed beside the path represents a superficial response to the Gospel where Satan thwarts the Gospel. The seed that sprouted in shallow soil and withered in the sun represents a fickle mind. What was enthusiasm to the Gospel quickly turns to indifference or worse. The seed that sprouted and was choked by thorns represents a divided mind. The Gospel was considered and even given a temporary priority in his life. Yet, eventually the Gospel was crowded out by other pursuits.
Notice that it is the same seed in each soil. This seed is the Bible and it doesn’t change. The seed that produced the crop in the fourth soil, doesn’t find traction in the first three soils. The problem isn’t with God’s Word.
Each of these three types of soils successively grew a little more than the soil before it. From the seed that was snatched before it sprouted… to the seed that sprouted but was choked by thorns. Yet, none of the first three responses displayed any fruit. They failed to hear the Gospel. They failed to understand the Gospel. Because they were not hungry for the Gospel. Jesus lists three factors that hinder the reception of Gospel: Satan, Persecution, and Greed.
Satan, Persecution, and Greed satisfied their hunger displacing the Gospel. These three often combine to fill the vacuum your heart has where the Word of God should be. When these three entered in, their hunger for the Gospel evaporated. They filled up on the snacks rather than the meal.
Let’s briefly look at each of these three factors that make the Gospel less sticky in closer detail.
1.1 Satan’s Offensive Attack is Prepared by a Hard Heart.
What is a hard heart? It’s a heart that is not easy to be moved. It is a heart of stone. It’s difficult for this heart to be moved by the Gospel. It’s a heart that sees the sacrifice of the divine Son of God upon the cross, but remains indifferent.
“…the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path” (Matthew 3:19).
Satan is effective in the first soil where the birds come and devour the seed. Satan has room to maneuver in hearts hardened by sin. The Bible repeatedly warns us against a hard heart: “…whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity” (Proverbs 28:14).
The hard heart isn’t hungry for the Gospel. It finds it satisfaction in other foods. This desire, this hunger is the essence of sin. Sin is finding satisfaction in other things at the expense of God Himself.
The opposite of a hard heart is a tender heart. King Josiah of Old Testament Israel showed a tender heart: “because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord” (2 Kings 22:19).
Josiah had a tender heart because what God said easily moved him. A tender heart is moved easily and quickly in response to God. But, the Gospel doesn’t often find traction in a hard heart.
A Closer Look: Satan’s work of Deception
C. S. Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, has a really memorable scene. He describes a man who goes into the British Museum and sits down to read. Something he reads suggests to him a thought about God. But then Screwtape (one of Satan’s demons) manages to divert him with the thought it is time for lunch and that he would be in much better shape to tackle this important subject after he has eaten. Screwtape goes on to say, “Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’ s head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of “real life” was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn’t be true.”
Satan can be effective in producing counterfeit signs to deceive. From the days of the Garden of Eden, Satan has worked to deceive disciples
by causing them to question their salvation. His plan of attack is to cause the disciple of Christ to stop doing what he should be doing (i.e. witnessing, Bible reading, works of charity, and praying). One way Satan stops the true believer is by causing him to incessantly question his salvation. And while the Bible itself calls on you to examine your Christianity: “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling
and election sure…” (2 Peter 1:10). Satan’s work is to produce counterfeit signs to deceive and one of these is to cause Christian to incessantly question the work of God in their lives.
In contrast, Satan doesn’t assault the counterfeit Christian. Satan is happy that a Counterfeit Christian is confident he is saved. He wants the counterfeit Christian to go to his grave with the confidence He is saved. The Pharisee never doubted that they were the true followers of God. They were bold to go to God, and felt confident to come near to Him, and they even thanked God for the great distinction God had made between them and other men (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisees were so confident that were the true followers of that they were perplexed by Jesus questioning their credentials: “one of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind’” (John 9:4)?
If you never question your salvation it is not godliness, that’s arrogance.
The first soil represents the most popular response. It’s close to the well-worn path that people travel (Matthew 13:4). This first response doesn’t work because Satan removes the stickiness of the Gospel in hard hearts.
1.2. Persecution Can Evaporate God’s Word
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it
with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21).
Jesus describes this second soil as where the bedrock came close to the surface. Consequently, there was no depth of soil. In addition to having little depth of soil, the sun-scorched the plants and they withered away after a good start.
Persecution can mute your hunger for God’s Word when you receive the Gospel with immediate joy, but you lack a foundational root. Where there is no root, the Gospel doesn’t likely stick. The seed that sprouted in shallow soil and withered in the sun represents a fickle mind. What was at first, enthusiasm for the Gospel quickly turns to indifference or worse. The Gospel runs into problems and Gospel doesn’t stick. Every believer will face trouble: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:3).
Yet, persecution doesn’t have to make Christianity evaporate in a person. Unlike Satan and greed (the third response), persecution can have both a positive and negative impact upon a person. Persecution can make Christ & the Gospel even more sticky in the life of a believer:
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:6-9).
The Gospel rarely appears so lovely, as when it is most oppressed. God’s work is never on such perfect display as it when it is under the greatest trials. It’s here that true faith appears much more precious than gold. Yet, persecution doesn’t refine here. Instead, persecution causes this person to stumble. This person says that if the word means persecution, he wants nothing to do with the Gospel. This person has no staying power.
Notice verse twenty again: “this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy” (Matthew 13:20).
Their faith is largely driven by emotion and experience, and the enthusiasm doesn’t translate into life change. Please understand that the point here is not that emotions and enthusiasm are out of place, but rather that they can’t sustain spiritual growth by themselves. They don’t get into serious Bible study. They don’t develop a regular prayer life. They don’t become accountable to anyone.
1.3 Greed Chokes Godliness
“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).
Jesus says the “the cares of the world” and “the deceitfulness of riches” choke the word. Jesus says that it is possible to be taken up with the opportunities life presents that the Gospel doesn’t get sufficient attention. Now some of the worries of this life are things we can’t avoid – we all must cope with them every day: work, bills, traffic, food preparation, who are we dating, and raising children. The battle we all face is how to deal with these things without allowing them to consume us. The “the cares of the world” and “the deceitfulness of riches” squeeze the Word out of its rightful place. But other worries are unnecessary and can be debilitating: like enrolling our kids in three or four sports and then feeling guilty if we’re not at every game, becoming consumed by collections or hobbies of various kinds, or working beaucoup hours in order to get ahead.
The demands of being Christ’s disciple confront a materialistic lifestyle and the lifestyle wins. Notice the phrase in verse twenty-two: “the deceitfulness of riches.” What’s deceitful about riches? Simply the notion that they alone will satisfy. It’s the notion that if we have enough our worries will be over, that the more we have the less we’ll want.
2. A Real Disciple
It’s only the fourth response that produced fruit. It’s only the fourth response that signifies genuine discipleship. And it’s only the fourth response that was understood (Matthew 13:23).
Jesus is drawing a connection between verse eighteen and verse twenty-three: “Hear then the parable of the sower… 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:18, 23).
The hard heart forces us to reevaluate what Jesus meant by listening and understanding in verses eighteen and twenty-three. Hearing and understanding are more than just your mind comprehending what Christ is saying. Certainly, a disciple of Christ must understand Christ’s message. But hearing and understanding are more than hearing and understanding. To hear and to understand is to desire Christ. To hear and to understand
is to experience Christ. It’s to desire more of Him.
To hear and understand the Gospel is to develop an appetite for the Gospel that grows through your lifetime. Hearing and understanding are fundamentally tied up with your response to Jesus Himself. If the great things of the Gospel are understood, they will
affect the heart.
This response is different from the other three in two important ways.
2.1 This Is a Pure Response
It accepts the Gospel with an undivided heart. After he hears God’s Word he understands it. I suspect this means he holds on to it,
meditates on it, applies it, and perseveres in it. It doesn’t mean he never has doubts or asks questions, but he presses on, seeking to integrate God’s Word into his life whatever the cost.
2.2 This Response has Different Results
God’s Word produces a changed life in the end. Life-change occurs, spiritual growth happens in a significant way. And
really this is the only way to see the difference between a real disciple and a counterfeit disciple. It’s the difference over time. For many of those who end up wasting their lives, hear the Gospel and temporarily respond to the Gospel. It’s those who continue with the Gospel that is essentially different. Again, you will not see the difference except over time.
It is interesting to me that Jesus does not standardize the crop. He doesn’t tell us that the responsive heart will memorize 500 verses, win X number of converts, attend X number of Bible studies. In fact, he says the crop will look different for every person, because the circumstances are different. Some will yield a bumper crop, some less, but in every case, the Word produces a significant increase of spiritual fruit.
