This sermon was written and given by the leader of Mendingnets.org ministries on Sunday July 28, 2021 at The Center.
Let me start off by saying I’m the type of person who tells it like it is, so
parables drive me crazy!! Just speak in a straight line, Jesus. Cut to the
chase and get to the point! Ugh.
Needless to say, parables are not my favorite part of the bible. (So, this
should be an interesting teaching LOL) They make me think too hard and I
don’t want to deal with it. But what I have learned in my walk with God is:
First, the Bible is not about what I like or don’t like. Second, what makes
you “think too hard and not want to deal” is a red, hot, flaming sign that one
is to lean into the discomfort and dig a little deeper. Mathew 13 is about
a farmer sowing seed in his field. It’s a story that illustrates profound truths
about the condition of our hearts and our responsibility to share the gospel.
So, get your shovels out and let's get digging.
Why Does Jesus Talk In Parables?
I can image some of the disciples like Luke who are deep in thought but
short on words asking Jesus why He speaks in parables:
"He replied, 'Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given
more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even
what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in
parables:
"'Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand'" (Matthew 13:11–13
NIV)
Parables make the conceptual a little more
concretehttps://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/parable-of-sower.html
Jesus’s ministry brought him to rural areas with mostly uneducated people
sharing truths about God’s kingdom. He wasn’t speaking to people who had
any interest in sitting around a coffee shop all day discussing doctoral
concepts—let alone the luxury of doing so.
By teaching with parables, Jesus was able to explain abstract ideas in a
way that people throughout Judea could relate to. Not only did this help
them make a connection between their everyday lives and spiritual truth,
but it also gave these truths sticking power. You know that they thought
about the parable of the sower during every planting season.
What does everything represent?
I sat down with a mentor to talk about the passage. I said, “I can’t relate to
this passage because once I heard the word I was full steam ahead for
Team Jesus with a double dose of the Holy Ghost!!!!
But as I began to do research on this parable and look into different
commentaries, I wasn’t cultivating seeds but eating humble pie. In Christ
Jesus making me new I forgot about my time BC. Before Christ was first in
my life. Forgot about my days wandering around the desert without fertile
land in sight.
When we're interpreting Jesus’ parables, it's easy to attach too much
meaning to every component of the story. The story itself is a metaphor, so
everything within it must be a symbol for something, right? That’s a surefire
recipe for getting off track and ending up getting off base. We want to make
sure that we’re getting Jesus’ point and not overdoing it.
Thankfully, Jesus interprets the parable of the sower for us. Some elements
He explains explicitly, and others are implied. Let's look at them:
What is the seed?
For a farmer, life is found in a little kernel of seed. Each seed contained the
raw materials for a transformational miracle. From a tiny seed, a life
sustaining plant, fruit bearing bush, or a giant tree can grow.
But as we see in this parable (and as every farmer understood), many
environmental factors determine how well a seed will thrive. If a seed is
unable to make its way into the healthy soil, it cannot flourish.
In this parable, the seed is the "message of the kingdom." And like all seed,
it cannot do its transformational work in the wrong environment. If the
gospel seed falls on the bad soil (or is snatched up before it can find
purchase), it just won’t sprout.
What is the soil?
Jesus makes it clear that the receptiveness of a human heart is
represented by the parable's various soils. The effectiveness of the
gospel's seed depends entirely on the soil where it lands, and the parable
of the sower is ultimately about how various people respond to the gospel.
1. The bird-pecked soil
When we think about planting seeds, we envision a farmer plowing up the
soil and then using a tool to insert the seed deep into the earth. While
plowing did happen in the first century, it wasn't the standard. Typically a
farmer carried a satchel of seed and scattered it around his land, and that’s
the image that Jesus invokes in this parable. That's why we see some seed
falling on the path and soil in various stages of readiness.
Birds represented one of the biggest liabilities for farmers scattering their
seed. To birds, planting season was an incredible buffet. That's why
farmers needed to be incredibly liberal when throwing out their seed. They
needed to ensure there was enough to take root.
The first hearts Jesus addresses are those that are never able to
internalize the gospel because it's snatched away by the evil one. These
are people who never have the opportunity to make a decision about the
good news. Their hearts are never softened through reflection, conviction,
or repentance.
So when the gospel is presented to them, they're too focused on life's
material aspects—what they can see, touch, smell, and taste. They’re so
consumed with the world's entertainments and baubles that the kingdom
message has no way to have any significant influence.
2. The rocky soil
Plowing allows a farmer to turn over the soil and remove all the rocks. But
even if they can pull out a lot of the stones, they can’t account for soil that's
just too hard-packed for seeds to make any headway. If the ground is too
rocky, there’s no way for the plant's root to sink into the ground for the
nourishment it needs.
These are the people who hear the gospel and rush down to the altar to
respond. They're completely sincere, but the gospel meets resistance as it
works its roots into their heart.
Jesus promises us that "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I
have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
These people fall away when they start experiencing pain and resistance.
Maybe it's because they believe that following Jesus should put them
above opposition and unrest, or perhaps it's because they just don’t know
how to place their trust in Him. Either way, they’re unable to develop the
root system they need to sustain them when life gets complicated.
3. The thorny soil
Soil is incredibly deceptive. Even when a farmer does his best to prepare it
and remove all the impurities, there are imperceptible fibrous roots of
weeds waiting for an opportunity to spring to life and take over. These
weeds grow up and suck the moisture and nutrients from the intended
crop—eventually choking them out.
What's terrible about weeds is that you’re never finished dealing with them.
You don't weed once and remove them; they’re always there!
The heart of the thorny soil is enthusiastic about the gospel, but it's too
easily distracted by the what the world has to offer. They're so busy
grasping at everything that they forget what they should hold onto. It’s not
that any of these distractions are wrong in themselves, it’s that they divert
the heart's attention. It’s like Paul explains to the Corinthian church:
"'I have the right to do anything,' you say—but not everything is beneficial. 'I
have the right to do anything'—but not everything is constructive" (1
Corinthians 10:23).
When the heart can’t differentiate between what is beneficial and what's
destructive, the destructive forces eventually crowd everything else out.
What's difficult is that re-establishing your priorities isn't a one-time job. Like
a weed, once you pull out one misplaced priority, there are thousands of
concerns waiting to take its place. Developing single-mindedness is a must
for disciples.
4. The good soil
Sometimes the seed falls on soil with just the right nutrients and pH
balance, and everything works like it's supposed to. It sends out a root that
takes hold, a beautiful plant grows, and it produces fruit. As Jesus says, it
produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.
It's probably wise to point out that, just like we see in flora, the seed is in
the fruit. As the Christian heart develops, it produces healthy fruit: love, joy,
peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). The more fruit a healthy heart produces,
the more it impacts the environment around it. When people see that fruit in
people’s lives, the more receptive they are to the seed of the gospel.
This is how we produce such a bountiful crop.
The sower's twofold message
In the end, the parable of the sower leaves us with two responsibilities. We
need to:
1. Get busy growing
2. Get busy sowing
We are God's field, and He is looking for us to produce fruit. And we are
also God’s farmers, and He's looking to expand the size of His crop. Let's
get busy!
