Matthew Parables: The Parable of the Sower

So uh the last few weeks we have been going through the uh book of Titus.

I say the last few weeks I've been kind of in and out through the summer, and we've gone through the book of Titus.

And so I I think for the fall, we're gonna be going through the book of Exodus.

Uh we went through the book of Genesis back uh earlier this year uh in January and and through the spring.

Uh so we're gonna go just go to the next book in the Old Testament, Exodus.

But before we do that, I wanted to spend a few weeks in Matthew chapter 13 and go through Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention Matthew 13 · chapter mention

There's what's called some parables here, and it's Jesus explaining to us what the kingdom of God is like.

And I just want us to spend a few weeks in Matthew 13 learning what is it what does it mean for God to reign in our lives?

What does it mean for God to be in control of our lives?

I first off, I need a volunteer, somebody who likes to listen to music.

Somebody who likes to listen to music.

Heather, would you come?

Thank you.

Okay, so all you're gonna do is you're gonna come over here, and I have a song that you are going to listen to.

And um, you put these in.

And you're gonna write down.

Did you watch them?

I I did.

They're not even mine, so they've been in many people's ears.

I found them in the I found them in the parking lot.

Is that okay?

Okay.

So you're gonna write down uh words that describe the song you're listening to.

Okay?

And then I'll I'll come back to you in a second.

Okay, off you go.

Okay, so in in Matthew 13, like I said, this is a a chapter about parables about the kingdom, and the kingdom is the power of God in heaven entering the world.

So, yes, this is the forgiveness of sins, this is uh the taking away of condemnation and shame, but it's more.

Like I said, it is it's the reign of God.

It's what does it mean for God to be in control of our lives?

What does it mean for God to be in control in this world?

That the kingdom of God, what does it mean for there to be healing emotionally, spiritually, racially, economically?

Well, clearly we're not there, right?

I mean, I mean clearly that we are not completely there, but this is what the kingdom is.

The kingdom speaks into all of these things.

And Matthew 13 is Jesus trying to get us to understand some things about the kingdom and what it is like.

What it is like, it is like words describing something that is incredibly marvelous.

Okay, so let's see how Heather is doing.

You've only written down one word.

Well, it just they just started singing.

Okay.

Alright, I'll just keep teaching and I'll come back to you.

Okay.

Okay.

So when we get to Heather, here's the feeling you're gonna get.

Because you're already having it.

What is this song?

Right?

Like, what is she listening to?

What is this song like?

And this is the feeling we have when we when we listen, when we hear a parable.

You you you you read the parable and you're like, what?

I mean, I mean, it's sort of like this mystery, like Jesus is telling this and you just don't quite get it.

It's like it's like you've read words about a song, but you haven't heard the song, right?

And and so what do you do most of the time with a parable is you just turn the page.

And my hope, what my hope is is in the next few weeks is that as we dig into a parable that sometimes we just skip over because we're not quite getting it, that we could dig into it enough that we could begin to understand what it would mean like, and what it would mean if we understand the reign of God in our lives.

You're you're you're ready.

Okay.

Okay, so let's re- you may sit down.

You feel so uncomfortable, but I'm sure you did a lovely job.

Okay, so here's what she wrote down.

She wrote down pure harmony, strings, beauty, worship, praise, joy, girls' voices, bluegrass-ish.

You hear all of that, but you haven't heard the song, right?

So you've just you've heard the you've heard the words on an index card, but you haven't heard the song.

And this is often the feeling we have when we read a parable.

It's because Jesus is using words to describe something, and yet we have not always experienced something, or we don't completely understand what he is saying.

And so that's the hope is if we dig into these parables that we're not just reading the words, but that we are actually understanding and experience the thing he is talking about.

And these are two different things.

And so it's for us to say, like, if we take away God as belligerent dictator or disappointed parent, what is he like?

What does it mean for God to be in control of my life?

What does it mean for him to reign?

What does it mean for the kingdom of God to be inside of me?

What does it mean for me?

What sort of posture does this place me in in life as I parent or as I befriend or as I love or I study or I work or I exercise or I do dishes?

What does it mean for me?

So let's read the text, Matthew 13, 1 through 9.

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 he 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 out.

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

He who has ears let him hear.

Now Matthew's telling the story to a bunch of people, a bunch of people who know their people's story, and their people's story is a story of being weak, of being pushed around, of having enemies that just dominate them.

And now Rome rules their land, and they know from their prophets a day will come, God will send a Messiah, and he will deliver them.

And so they're hearing this.

They're hearing some parables about the kingdom, and they're waiting for the Messiah, and they're wondering if Jesus is the Messiah, and they're going, is God acting on our behalf?

Is this it?

Is this the moment where the boulder will roll out of heaven and will crush our enemies, will push them into the sea?

Is this the moment?

This is what they're thinking, and then Jesus starts to teach about the kingdom, and he doesn't talk about a boulder rolling, he talks about a seed.

Just a seed.

Now I I have a tree in front of my house.

It's this huge oak tree.

I mean, it is massive.

It's scary big.

We're like, you're looking at it, you're going, like, it would just our house, if it ever fell, our house would just be demolished.

That's scary to me, but I've never been intimidated about a seed destroying my house.

In in May, Christy and I, we visited my my cousin in San Francisco for a couple of days.

And our first day out there, we we toured San Francisco, and then we we drove uh across the water to Sasolito, which is this little town on the water, and we looked at boats, and a McLaren pulled up.

Anyone know about a McLaren?

It's a car that cost a million dollars, and they didn't know this, but I saw it pull up.

The doors like this.

You know, some of you know I'm talking about not this, but this.

And and the McLaren pulled up in front of this little hotel, and I'm freaking out because it's a McLaren in real, I can see it, right?

Like right there, and I'm just wondering how this is what's gonna go down with a valet.

What happens?

Does the valet get into a McLaren and drive it?

And it was awesome because the guy gets out, doors up, he gets out, doors down.

The valet does, there's no movement to drive the McLaren.

He just gets construction cones and he just sets them out all around.

And I'm just wondering, like, at what point in the cost of a car does that happen?

Like, what's the what's the money value where the valley doesn't get in?

He's just like putting the cones out.

Like, I'm not not getting in that one.

So we were at South Salito, and then uh we went to John Muir National Forest, which is just just north of there, and it's all these redwoods, no McLaren's in that parking lot, by the way.

Um, and we went into this huge forest, these massive, massive trees, and we hiked up this valley, and there's this creek coming down through this wooded valley, and there's all these boulders in this valley, and these huge redwood trees, massive redwood trees, right?

The largest tree in the world.

And and these trees are just shooting up.

They are intimidatingly big.

That's how big they are.

They are so large.

Now, now the the little creek that came down through the valley with the boulders, it was really pretty.

But nobody crosses the country to see that creek or those boulders.

People come to see the trees.

And there is this section of the hike that you hiked in silence.

And it asked you to hike in silence for the, I don't know, a couple hundred yards.

And it was it was kind of sacred in some way.

Maybe you think I'm weird for saying that, but it was it was I don't know, it was almost emotional because the cre God's creation was so beautiful and you're just being quiet and you're just enjoying what he has created.

I mean, I was hugging trees, you know, that's what you're thinking at this point.

Um but standing under something like that is is is majestic.

Right?

I mean, it's overwhelming.

It can be intimidating.

Now, I'm no farmer, but seeds are not intimidating.

I've never held a seed and been intimidated.

Right?

I mean, so these people are these people are hearing Jesus talk about the kingdom, and they're going, a seed?

Really?

I mean, this is revolutionary?

I mean, this is it?

This is what we've been hoping for.

We've been hoping for a kingdom of seeds.

Wow.

Really monumental.

It just doesn't feel like power.

It just doesn't feel like it when we first hear it or we first see it, but it is incredibly patient.

And what we all know is what seeds become.

It becomes the oak tree in my front yard.

It becomes the redwood, right?

But it's not immediate because it is slow and it goes inside and it goes deep.

And it's not like a boulder that just affects the surface.

See, earthly kingdoms come by coercion and force.

This is how we do things.

It's how we run companies, it's how we become educated, it's how we become fit.

We make things happen in our lives.

But the kingdom, the reign of God in your life, the joy, the love, the peace of God, it will not come in your life by means of your own means.

It will come by means of your own lack of means.

It will become, it comes into your life by means of your own sufficiency.

And when you finally stop all your pretending and performing and saying, I'm not sufficient, and what happens?

Finally, you begin to hear, rather than just talking all the time, you begin to hear.

And what you would hear is you hear the gospel.

You're not perfect, you don't know everything, and though you're imperfect, God's beloved Jesus helped you become his beloved.

And you are valued and you are loved and you are justified, and it's not just a boulder for your issues and for your behaviors.

It's a seed that goes into your heart.

And it's gentle and it's patient, and it can be a forest in time.

So the disciples pick back up in verse 10, and they have a question.

They said, Then the disciples came and they said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables?

All these people, they're not going to understand, is what the disciples are saying.

And Jesus answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For to the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Some of this is about God's sovereignty over salvation.

And at this point, a lot in me says, Well, help them understand.

Like I'm just reading this going, that's a simple.

Help them understand.

But that's almost the point, is that they don't understand.

And in Jesus, in this in this dialogue, he's starting to lament that they don't understand.

He is saddened that they don't get it, and they don't get him.

And so that he quotes Isaiah in verse 14, you will indeed hear, but never understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive.

See, he says that their hearts have grown dull, they can barely hear, they have closed eyes, and they don't get it.

They don't get him, but if they saw him and they heard him, he would heal them.

He's lamenting.

He is saddened that it's not a threat.

He's not threatening them.

He's actually, he's saddened that they don't get it.

And then he goes into these different soils.

And so a lot of us, maybe if you've grown up in the church, you've heard lots of sermons about the soils.

Here are the three soils, which soil you don't become that soil, don't be that soil, here's what to do, not to be that soil.

Okay?

So before we get into the soils, let me first make one overarching point, and then we'll look at the soils, and we'll come back to that point.

Here's the point the whole of the parable helps us not remain the dangerous parts of a part of the parable.

The whole of the parable helps us not remain one of the dangerous parts of the parable.

See, the parable keeps putting us back in our place.

That we're not in control.

Hearing.

Hearing is not a position of control.

Now let's look at these parts and we'll come back and see what that what that means.

Verse 18, uh, Jesus starts to explain the parable.

Here 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 has 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, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution 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, another sixty, and another thirty.

And I like that ending there because it says to me there's some room here for how fruitful we are, and I need that.

So here's the deal.

These three different soils you don't want to be, right?

The first one is beware of listening with a hard heart.

So this is the seed that lands on apathy, on pride of intellect.

Right?

It's just like that.

You you know it all, like you've got it figured out.

There's nothing else that you could possibly learn.

Like you just, you know it, you got it.

You're in control, you got it.

This could be the pride of uh, it could be a religious pride, and the seed actually just feeds your own self, righteous, religious ambitions.

And the seed never goes into the core of your being.

Because your heart is hardened.

And so the seed's never creating a new heart, a new identity, a new person, and giving you a righteousness that's formed on the inside and comes out.

So that's the first soil.

The second, beware of listening with a shallow heart.

So that these people, according to Jesus, he's saying, hey, these are people who they they receive the gospel.

They receive it with joy and they're emotional and they're exciting, and we make a testimony video, right, on Sunday morning because they had this incredible transformation, and we put the testimony video up, and then some suffering comes in their life six months later, and they're gone.

They're gone.

Jesus was just a helper.

He was never a savior into the core of their being.

He just helps some issues.

And then thirdly, beware of listening with a divided heart.

And these folks stick around.

They stick around, but always anxious, always lacking a little peace because they're being choked.

They can't quite breathe.

And maybe Jesus is savior for them.

But man, they have some other saviors in their life that play dominant roles in just choking the life out of them.

They can barely breathe.

And so they never experience God's power in their life because God's grace has always been an option, not the option.

So here's how it all comes together.

Like I said, the whole of the parable helps us not become the dangerous parts of the parable.

So the whole, you're not in control, helps you not become the parts, the hard soil, the shallow soil, or the weeds.

See, your behavior will not be the solution out of your problem of insecurity or depravity or anxiety or feel fear because the problem, your problem, my problem, is not on the surface.

It's not a behavioral problem.

It's inside of us.

That's why it has to be a seed.

That's why the kingdom has to be a seed.

It has to go inside of it, and it has to be slow and gentle and patient because that's what we need.

Will we finally stop and listen?

Will we stop all of our effort forward and all of our own effort and our striving?

Do we stop long enough to hear?

Stop thinking that the world has enough for us.

Stop thinking that we have enough for ourselves.

See, and hearing is not the metaphor or springboard for me to give you ten spiritual disciplines of how not to be the other soils.

Spiritual disciplines have place.

That's just not this passage.

This passage is about you and I being paupers, having nothing.

And our only position being that we would hear an outside word that is spoken to us, and the work was done outside, and it's given to us.

You know what you'll hear?

I've been waiting for you to stop.

I've been waiting for you to stop all that pride.

I've been waiting for you to stop to replying that mistake.

Been waiting for you to stop that self-righteous project.

I've been waiting for you to stop all of that.

And I love you.

And I love you stripped of your self-righteousness.

I love you stripped of your pretending.

I love you, stripped of all of that pride.

I love you before all that other stuff you do.

You know what we'll do?

We'll start to explain ourselves.

That's what we do.

And Jesus just says, it's been taken care of.

I took care of it.

And there is a kingdom waiting to reign in you.

But you have to stop and hear.

I've never had a vegetable garden.

Me.

This is me speaking now, not Jesus.

Sorry, bad transition.

I think I planted one tree.

I think I planted a dogwood in our yard at Shannon Way when I was little.

I think that's the only tree I've ever planted.

But I walked in the woods this week and I looked down a lot at the dirt.

I was doing some research, soil research, okay.

Dirt just doesn't do a lot.

It's pretty passive.

It's a pretty passive material.

It's slow.

I'm just saying it's easy to think I've got to change myself.

I've got to change myself to be the other soil, and it's got to be today.

And perhaps you've tried to do this.

I have.

And you know what it's like?

It's like reading the index card over and over and over again, but never hearing the song.

That's what it's like.

And there is a song, and it is a marvelous song, and we sing it.

We sing it in many different ways.

We sing Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.

We sing Your Love is Deep.

We sing Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound.

We sing, Oh, love that will never let me go.

See, the lesson is not that you change yourself.

It is for you and I to become incredibly passive.

To be the pauper.

To be done.

To hear a word, a seed sown to you.

And now you're in the position for something to grow inside your heart.

And for me, this is always wonderful and it is horrible.

Right?

I mean, some of you know what I'm talking about because it's horrible because you have to see yourself.

You have to see that you have some hardness.

You have to see that you believe in some things in the world, that they're not gonna, they're choking life out of you, but you keep going back to them.

You have to see that you're very shallow in some areas.

You have to see all of that, and it's horrible to see all of it, to see that that is me.

But that's the very thing that helps you become the good soil.

And so it's horrible, but it's wonderful because then you can hear at that point, and you can receive at that point, and then the reign of God can be in your life.

Perhaps your faith is really just in yourself.

You're here, and really, if we really bewilder not, faith is in yourself, maybe religious or secular, but at the end, your faith is in yourself, is not in the work of Jesus.

And you've been trying to manufacture life out of yourself and it isn't working.

Or perhaps you'll hear this marvelous song of the gospel, and you'll start to find that the reign of God will start to find its way in all different areas of your life.

Areas of your life maybe you've tried to change before.

But the only way it's going to change is when you became the pauper.

See, it comes by our humility and his grace.

Ran into this quote, long quote this week.

You can follow along in your bulletin, but it's worth me reading as I close.

It's by the great British preacher Martin Lord Jones.

It is quite simple.

I won't do the accent, by the way.

It is quite simple.

Do the opposite of what Isaiah said that these people had done.

Instead of shutting your eyes in blind prejudice, open them and pay attention to the message.

Come as a little child, as a pauper.

Come as you are, not to criticize, not to be clever, not to justify yourself.

Come and acknowledge that you have nothing.

Except yet be converted, says our Lord, and become as little children, yet shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

You need the simplicity of a little child.

You need, in other words, an acknowledgement of your sin, of your utter failure, an acknowledgement that your great brain is of no value at all here.

Indeed, that it has been your greatest hindrance.

You have got to come saying, I am nothing, I have nothing.

God have mercy upon me, a sinner.

At that moment you say that, you are announcing that you have this humility, this repentance, which is essential to receiving the blessing of God and salvation and entry into the eternal kingdom of God.

Let's pray together.

God, we come before you to receive this parable.

Help us to hear.

We are busy people with busy hearts that love to do.

And we need to be passive and we need to hear.

And we need to hear your gospel.

And we need to slow down.

And we need to have open hands, and we need to have an open heart, and we need to see ourselves.

Would you help us to hear the simplicity yet the depth?

That we are sinners in need of a savior.

God, would we be receivers before you, not just this morning, but tomorrow and later this week?

Would we live in a position, a posture of hearing, of receiving, that seeds might actually make their way past the surface of all of our activity, and that we would hear a song that is so marvelous that it changes us from the inside out.

The work of Jesus is enough.

And you love us.

In his work, in his name we pray.

Amen.