Guaranteed Return – 30, 60, 100 Times
Matthew 13:1-9
There are approximately 60 parables in the New Testament. Jesus told common life stories with word pictures to connect with the people and teach Biblical truths. Most of the parables had a deeper meaning. Jesus used word pictures to capture the attention of his listeners and drive truths home.
Matthew 13:1-9 is a parable about a farmer going out to sow grain in a field. As the farmer scattered the grain the seed fell on four different kinds of soil. The parable is about how people respond to the good news of the Gospel. Some of the parables Jesus told He did not interpret, but Jesus gives the interpretation of this parable.
I. Footpath Soil – Represents hardened hearts
As the farmer scattered seeds some fell on footpath soil and the birds came and ate the seeds. The soil was so hard the seeds had no chance of breaking through the soil and taking root. (13:4) Footpath soil is hardened by the traffic of life.
Jesus said the seed represents the Good News of the Gospel about Jesus and His Kingdom. The hard path soil represents the people who don’t understand the message and the devil, the evil one snatches the seed away from the hearts of the hearers.
Hard hearts have been calloused and hardened by the listener constantly turning a deaf ear to the teachings of scripture. Hard hearts are hardened by the free will of a person making choices to repeatedly say no to the love and grace of God. Satan uses all his tricks, deceptions and lies to keep the hearts of people from softening. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah to describe people with hard hearts.
“For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes, so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to Me and let Me heal them.” (Matthew 13:15)
#I remember a young man I talked to in his home about having faith in Jesus. His wife and small child attended the Aldersgate FMC in Kansas City, KS where I served as pastor for five years. He told me that he had no need for God. He told me I shouldn’t waste my time talking to him about the teachings of the Bible.
Several months later I visited the same young man in the hospital. He was there suffering with bleeding ulcers and in very bad health. I again asked him if he would like for me to pray for him and he said, “I told you before that I don’t need God and even through I’m sick and in the hospital, I still don’t need God.” By his choices he chose to allow Satan to harden his heart to spiritual truths.
Paul told Timothy God wants all people to know the truth, “and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
When a person becomes hardened again the truths of God that person becomes captive to Satan and compelled to go the way of the Evil One.
God has gifted each of us with the freedom to choose the kind of response we have to the Good News of the Gospel. What God does in our life depends on our response to Him. People by their choice can become hardened against God. They ignore the quiet voice of God and deny their need for God and choose to continue in their sinful behavior. When the seed of good news comes their way they trample on it and continue to go their self-centered way. When they have opportunity to respond to God’s grace and love they turn away and the seed is not allowed to take root.
There may have been a time in your life that the soil in your life was hard, but you received the grace of God and you allowed God to soften your heart. You offered your life as a place where the seed-God’s Word could start something new. The Apostle Peter summarizes what happened to you in I Peter 1:23, “You were born again, not of perishable seed, but imperishable, through the living Word of God.” There is no heart so hard that Jesus cannot soften it if the person begins to seek the Lord and is open to His truth. The Prophet Jeremiah said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
II. Rocky Soil – Shallow Commitment to Jesus
The second kind of soil is rocky soil. The seed fell on soil with a layer of rock under the soil. The plants spring up quickly, but wilt beneath the hot sun and die because the roots are not able to go deep into the soil and get nourishment.
Rocky soil represents people who become Christ followers as a fad or because it is the popular thing to do. The rocky soil person makes a snap decision, but it is purely emotional, no pondering, no weighing the cost of following Jesus, no true repentance. There is no depth that comes from a sincere commitment of the will.
When I was 15 I made a commitment to follow Jesus and was baptized in the Sterling, Kansas Missionary Church. I started out well. I memorized scripture and got active in a church youth group. During the summer I would get with old school friends in Gypsum, KS. I was like a chameleon. When I was with Christians I acted Christian. When I was with non-Christians I went along with the crowd. My roller-coaster life lasted through High School. I was fortunate to attend a Christian College and during those four years I became grounded in the Word and developed a firm foundation.
Your commitment to follow Jesus is not based on emotion. Emotions of peace, joy and celebration are okay, but our salvation is not based on emotions. Our salvation is based on the fact of God’s Word and faith in the person of Jesus Christ.
This truth can be illustrated by the old time train. The train has an engine, a coal car and a caboose. The engine represents the fact of God’s Word, the coal car represents faith, and the caboose represents feeling. The caboose has no power to pull the train. It is our FAITH in God and His Word (Forsaking All I Trust Him) that gives us the assurance of our sins forgiven and salvation. By faith we commit to God what He wants us to be. Emotions like the caboose come and go depending on the engine. God and His Word by faith are the constants in our life.
The hard path soil represents harded heart hearers; rocky soil represents shallow commitments to Jesus. The third soil is thorny ground soil.
III. Thorny Ground – hearers compromise their Faith
The third soil is soil that has seed fallen on the soil and has taken root, but thorns shoot up and crowded out the tender blades of the plant.
Jesus said that thorny soil represents the people who hear and accept the Good News but quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life, the lure of wealth, and so no crop is produced.
The devil is the primary enemy number one of the seed – God’s Word. Satan does all he can to keep the seed from going deep into the soil. Satan brings all kinds of temptations to get a person side-tracked and cause the person to wilt under the pressures of this world. That’s why we talk about spiritual warfare. The Christian life is a battle against the wiles and tricks of the devil.
Satan would have us make all kinds of excuses for not becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus. Satan is the master deceiver. He suggests all kinds of compromises and delays to keep us following Jesus. He speaks in subtle ways, “You’re not ready. You need more time. You need to wait for a more convenient time.”
Rocky soil represents the person who starts out as a Christian, but is tempted and yields by turning back to his/her old ways of living.
# Carollyn had a former uncle, he is no longer living. He was a Godly person. He was an ordained pastor and a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary. When I was a student at Central College he served as a week-long evangelist. During the meetings I went forward to draw closer to the Lord. After serving as a pastor he became the director of development for one of our Christian colleges. From there he became a Vice President at multi-million religious foundation. He made big money and went back on his faith. He compromised his faith on the altar of wealth and riches. He eventually left his wife and married another woman. He traveled the world and got involved in strange religions.
Whatever temptation Satan throws your way God is able to help you over come it. Here is your promise, I Corinthians 10:13, you can claim this promise: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
When you sense temptations God gives you the ability to immediately respond and take action to avoid and conquer the temptation. All of us face different thorns and weeds that come along the pathways of life and they try to squeeze us out of our faith. In the power of the Holy Spirit we can pray specifically against each weed or thorn and gain victory. God gives us many tools to keep our garden of faith alive and growing.
We have the tool of prayer – in prayer we touch the
Almighty hand of God.
We have the tool of God’s Word – the Bible is our manual on living.
We have the tool of the Family of God – the church – corporate worship (where 2 or 3 gather in the name of Jesus – Jesus says He is present.)
IV. Good Soil - All Good Soil Produces
There’s one thing we know about good soil. All good soil produces, some 30, some 60 and some 100 times. Good soil is guaranteed to produce – 30 times or 900%, 60 times or 3,600% or 100 times 10,000%. Wow! That’s incredible growth.
Jesus says that seed that falls on good soil sinks into the ground takes root and produces abundant grain or fruit.
As one who has been receptive to the risen Lord and His Word you are bearing fruit. Jesus gives this assurance in John 15:5, 8: “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. (NLT)
Planted seed in good soil grows into new healthy and positive attitudes with new desires and new behaviors. As a fully devoted disciple you are eager to tell others how God is blessing you and your family. The more you tell others about your faith in Jesus and His love the stronger you become.
What you sow in your life, you reap. How you spend your time and what you focus on does have an effect on your life. If you sow negative garbage and allow evil thoughts to linger in your mind that’s what you will reap.
If a farmer sows and plants corn he can expect to grow corn. If the father plants wheat then wheat will grow. If he plants oats then oats will grow.
It is the foolish farmer who plows his field, works the field, disks the field and harrows the field and then expects to get a crop. He will wait forever to get a crop. He may get weeds and that’s all because he forgot to plant seeds.
There’s a principle here also for the church. As a church and as individuals we will not reap a harvest unless we keep sowing and sow widely and often. When there’s no sowing there is no fruit. We do a lot of advertising and promotion on our web site and in mailings, but the best advertising is contagious Christians constantly sowing the good news about Jesus and inviting people to church or a Bible study.
The crucial thing about farming is planting good seed. The wrong kind of seed or diseased seed produces poor results.
Jesus is talking about planting good seed – God’s Word. The seed we are to plant is the true Word of God. Not the watered down or compromised Word, but the True Word of God. Not selected verses that confirm our biases, but the total Word of God. Paul instructed Timothy and all of us in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (KJV)
It takes more than a verse a day to keep the devil away. Our task is to study and know God’s word and apply it to our lives.
All good soil produces. Good soil hears the truth, receives the truth and acts according to it. You are good soil and put down deep roots. You put down deep roots by using several tools that are available to everyone:
Regular Worship
Bible Study
Prayer
Witness and sharing the Seed-God’s Word with others
I challenge you today to allow the Holy Spirit to examine your heart. What kind of hearer are you today. Are you hard path soil, shallow soil, thorny soil or good soil?
Have you allowed Satan to harden your heart?
Have you made an emotional decision without counting the cost?
Are you thorny soil that started out okay but allowed the cares of this world and the lure of wealth and riches to crowd out your faith?
Are you good soil? You have heard the true Word of God and have applied it to your heart, you have said yes to Jesus and are producing good fruit some 30 some 60 and some 100 times.
As you partake of communion this morning you are affirming your faith in the risen Savior. The risen Savior has promised that as you abide in Him He abides in you and you become a fruitful, victorious and productive Christian.
Let us pray
Communion
