Sowing the Word of God in Our Lives
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
August 20, 2006
Introduction
We’re back to our walk-through of the gospel according to Matthew, and as we get into chapter 13, we find a very familiar parable, the parable of the sower.
And parable that we can take home with us to chew on and make real for us.
And in the middle of this chapter, the disciples come to Jesus and ask Him why he speaks in parables. Next week we’re going to look at his answer.
But today, we’re going to look at the parable that starts this chapter off. And not only the parable, but the explanation He gives for it, because that is where the meat of the passage lies.
And because it’s a longer passage than we usually look at, I’m going to ask you to go ahead and turn with me please to Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 (pp. 690-691) –
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear."
18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
Now I’m going to ask you to do something for me: don’t let the familiarity of this parable cause you to shut your mind to what Jesus has to say through this passage of Scripture.
And I want you to notice the crowd in this chapter – they were excited about hearing from Jesus. This wasn’t unique to this chapter; it happened all the time. People were scrambling to hear Jesus.
Are you as excited about hearing the words of Jesus, either here at church or in private? If not, I hope that you will allow the Holy Spirit to make you excited.
Today I want us to look at…
Three main ingredients for a successful “crop” for the Kingdom:
My hope for today is that you will walk out of here with a firm desire and intentional action to become the kind of person Jesus discusses at the end of the passage – the person of good soil.
Now before we get into this very far, I just need to acknowledge something here: about the only thing I am more ignorant about than tools is agriculture.
Man, if Mr. Greenjeans didn’t say something about it on Captain Kangaroo, I didn’t get it. It’s pretty much that simple.
And I know that many, if not most of you here don’t even know who that is. Just suffice to say that Captain Kangaroo was a kids’ show, and Mr. Greenjeans was the kindly farmer who was a regular.
And to be totally frank, I don’t know that he ever said anything of an agricultural nature on the show, so you know I’m in trouble!
Listening to the market reports on the radio is like tuning into a foreign language station to me…
But having said all that, I think that even I can give you what Jesus is trying to communicate in this parable, especially since He took the trouble to explain it.
So let’s go ahead and take a look at these ingredients for a successful crop for the kingdom. The first ingredient is…
1. The Sower.
Who is the sower? Anyone involved in spreading the Word of God.
Verse 19 –
“When anyone hears the message about the kingdom…”
Jesus doesn’t limit the sowing to Himself. Because quite frankly, Jesus was only on earth about 33 years, and billions of people have come and gone since then.
And Jesus has left the job of spreading His words to you and me.
My main job as your pastor is to do all I can to bring the Word of God to bear in your life.
But there are other situations where others can have that function as well. For instance, in discipleship relationships where you are meeting one-on-one with someone who is mentoring you in the faith.
They share the Word of God and help you apply it to your life.
Or it might happen in small-group settings, where you have a leader who brings the Word to you and you discuss it as a group, encouraging one another in what you learn and how you put it into practice.
The point here is that we can all be sowers, if we’re willing.
Let’s look now at the second ingredient for a successful crop for the kingdom of God, and that is…
2. The Seed.
According to Jesus, the seed is the “message about the kingdom,” or Word of God – the Bible.
Some purposes of the Word, according to 2 Timothy 3:15-17 –
…from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
First…
* The Word of God makes a person aware of their need for salvation.
And this is kind of the emphasis of the parable – the “message of the kingdom.”
The reason we take the message of Jesus to as many people as possible is because He wants His kingdom to grow.
He wants it to grow in numbers and He wants it to grow in depth. But for that to happen it needs to go out as much as possible so people can take advantage of it.
It cannot grow in depth in a person until it has been planted in the first place.
In other words, we need to take the news of Jesus to people so they can be made aware of their need for salvation, then we can help them gain some depth in their relationship with Him.
But let me emphasize something. It’s the Word of God that God uses the convince someone of their need for salvation through Jesus.
It doesn’t happen through our persuasive words, although we’re told in the Bible to speak persuasively.
It doesn’t happen by using our dazzling intellect or charm.
It happens when the Holy Spirit grabs someone’s heart and shows them that the Word of God is true and that they need to act on it by putting their faith in Christ.
But it takes the word of God. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing the word of Christ.
The first purpose of the Word of God is to make people aware of their need for salvation through Christ.
Another purpose of the Word of God is that …
* The Word of God keeps us on the path of righteous living.
- It instructs us about the path;
- It tells us when we’re off the path;
- It brings us pack onto the path; and…
- It strengthens us in the path.
A couple things about paths to keep in mind:
If you get off the path, you can get lost. Right? How many people have been lost for days and weeks in the forest, and some have even perished, because they got off the marked path? Lots. But if they would have stayed on the path, they would have been fine.
I was a Boy Scout for a few years growing up. I won’t say how far I got in rank, because I don’t want to set the bar too low for anyone, especially my kids.
I remember that one year for Christmas, my dad, who was the Scoutmaster gave me a compass.
The kind that you use to get your directions, not the kind where you draw circles. My parents knew better than to give me pointed objects at that age…
And not just any compass. This was an official Boy Scout compass. Had the Boy Scout logo on it and everything. There was no way my little brothers and sister were going to get anywhere NEAR that compass.
Now compasses are cool, because they always point North – or to magnetic north, which is close enough for guys like me.
But did you know that compasses are useful for other things? You can get around a map a whole lot quicker if you’ve got a compass, because you can orient yourself to your real position and the direction you need to go if you can use the compass properly.
But here’s the thing. A compass doesn’t do any good unless you actually take it out and use it.
Even the coolest compass in the whole world won’t do you any good if it stays in your dresser or your shirt pocket.
I think we can equate the Bible to a compass. It gives direction for our spiritual well-being that has an impact on every other area of our life.
But unless we actually take it off the shelf and use it, then it’s as useful as the compass in the drawer. Use the Bible to keep you safely on the path.
Second, the shortest distance between two points is a straight path.
In this case, the path to righteousness is the Word of God – the Bible.
It’s amazing how people will do just about everything else to be a “good person,” but they refuse to use the shortest path – living according to Scripture.
Why? Because it demands accountability to the principles of Scripture and to God. And people as a rule don’t like to be accountable to anything or anyone but themselves.
And so they meander all over the place, trying this, that, or the other thing, but refusing to give God the benefit of the doubt and listen to Him.
Folks, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to stay out of the trap of trying to do it yourself and the life-long frustration that comes with it.
Listen to God and put His words into practice. That’s how it happens.
If you want to live a righteous life, it takes the Word of God. Here’s a third purpose for the Bible, the Word of God:
* The Word of God equips us for use in the Kingdom.
I love what verse 17 says here – that we might be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
A couple things real quickly here:
First of all, God’s Word gives us absolutely everything we need to live lives that please Him and are fulfilling and significant.
That’s cool right there. No one has to worry about being left without the proper tools to live for God.
Second, I think it’s important to note that “every good work” means that no matter what we do, it can be something that reflects God.
This verse isn’t just about ministry. It’s about that and much more. It includes how you do your job, how you treat your family and other people, and so on.
God gives you everything you need to do the good that He expects you to do.
Ephesians 2:8-9 –
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.
But look at verse 10 –
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
You see, God has some good works for you and me to do. In fact, He created you to do them. And He equips you to do them through His Word.
Folks, it’s so important that you let the Word of God become planted in you so that you can be the person God made you to be!
And speaking of planting, it’s important to know the third ingredient for planting a successful “crop” for God, and that is…
3. The Soil.
Four types of soil:
> The hard of heart: the path.
These are the people who are antagonistic to the Word of God and the good news of the Kingdom. They don’t want anything to do with God or His Word.
And that could be for any number of reasons. Maybe they’ve had a rough life and have a hard time believing God is real, or they’ve met too many hypocrites, or maybe someone who calls themselves a Christian may have hurt them.
But the point here is that when they come into contact with the Word of God, it simply doesn’t take. The evil enemy of their souls snatches it away before it can take hold in their life.
The second type of soil is…
> The shallow in faith: the rocky places.
Jesus says that these are people who actually receive the Word – the seed sprouts in their lives and they’re excited about the Word for awhile.
But then the heat comes, and they wither away and lose their excitement for the things of God.
Maybe it’s their friends and family making fun of them because they’ve decided to follow Jesus. Or they’re making decisions that are biblical but might cause them to make less money or whatever.
They’ve never really taken root because underneath that layer of topsoil bedrock. Not just loose rocks laying around down there – solid rock that can’t be penetrated.
And so when the hard times come, they simply die away.
The third type of soil is…
> The worried and distracted: the thorn patch.
Again, these are people who had actually received the Word into their lives, and they began actually living fruitful and fulfilling lives – at first.
But then two things crop up, according to Jesus, in verse 22: the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.
Now, we all have worries at times, right? That’s part of living in a fallen world. And we’d all like to have more money, right? That’s just natural.
The problem comes when we let these things become obsessions in our lives. When we’re constantly worrying over all the bad stuff or how to become rich, then it gets in the way of experiencing the joy that God wants us to have as we follow Him and His Word.
And it can literally choke the life out of your walk with God.
I know because I’ve been there – more often than I care to admit!
Sometimes in my desperation to support my family, I’d fantasize about how to make a ton of money. And one time or two I pursued it to the point of obsessing with it, causing me even more money and a few friends.
Folks, I’m not proud about that. And the worst part was that my walk with God got kicked to the gutter for a while.
My motive was to provide for my family, but I left no room for God. Here’s the last type of soil Jesus mentions:
> The ready, willing, and able: the good soil.
The kind of person who says, “Okay, Jesus. I’m ready. Take me and make me more like you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and your Word so that I can be the kind of person who brings a crop that will not only benefit me, but all those around me.”
I think it’s pretty obvious that this is the type of soil Jesus wants us to be. Wouldn’t you agree?
Good soil produces a crop that goes beyond the single person.
If I were to hold up an apple and ask you how many seeds were in it, you could probably guess real closely, and we could cut it up and find out for sure.
But if I were to ask you how many apples were in the seed, you couldn’t tell me. Because we don’t know how many apples will be born out of a single seed being planted.
When you’re good soil, God’s Word produces fruit that spills over and beyond just you. And folks, that is very good news.
I need you to notice something very important: the seed is the same in every place it is sown. The difference is in the soil, not the seed.
And there’s something else very important, and this is where you fill in the last blank in your note-taking guide. All soil can be made good!
You might be sitting here thinking that there’s no hope for you – that you’re not good soil and there’s no changing that.
Well that’s simply not true! God is in the business of making something great out of something that didn’t seem to have any future.
The Bible is full of examples and teaching about God changing and transforming lives. He’s very good at it, and He loves doing it!
So let Him do it through His Word. Allow the Holy Spirit to take the Word of God and make it real in your life.
Take time to read it, pray about it, and obey what you read. That’s how the Holy Spirit makes us into good soil.
Don’t worry about understanding everything right away. Apply what you do understand, and Jesus says that as you do that, you’ll understand more and more, because your heart will be ready for more understanding.
Conclusion
I want to wrap this up this morning by looking at one other thing Jesus says in this passage of Scripture:
“He who has ears, let him hear."
What’s that supposed to mean? It’s simply a challenge for listeners to understand His message and apply it to themselves.
I think I’ve made it very plain over the years that it’s not good enough to just hear the words of Jesus or even to read, study, or memorize them.
He wants you to apply His words – make them part of your life and let them impact every area of your being. This gives you spiritual “ears” to hear and understand, and it paves the way to life-change at the deepest and most significant levels.
So let me just challenge you to take the words of Jesus seriously and do something about them.
Let’s pray.
