Seeing Jesus: The Parable of the Sower - Part 1

Awesome. Well, sorry to cut you short.

You can get your copy. We're continuing on in Matthew 13. We started that last

week, in case you missed it.

And we spent time last week kind of getting ourselves reoriented into the book

of Matthew because we're actually like, the narrative of Matthew is continuing.

But in chapter 13, it's just sort of like a brief interruption as we focus on

Jesus's ministry and his teaching.

And mostly Matthew 13. Can we just pull down the volume a little bit, Justin?

It's a little ringy in my ears. Thank you so much. That's so much better.

Matthew 13 is focusing on Jesus's parables, right? And so there's just a series

of parables. It's funny.

The commentators say there's seven or eight parables, which I really like.

It's like, well, I mean, I feel like we could just count them,

but they kind of count them differently.

But there's several parables here in the book of Matthew. And in my experience

of kind of like reading the Gospels and studying Jesus's words,

I have found in church and just personally that parables are difficult because

they're abstract, right?

They're these word pictures that are not like direct application sort of things.

Like Paul's letters are very direct, very clear, like don't do this,

do do this. Parables are stories.

And since they're indirect, I think we as Christians, particularly with the

way our minds work as kind of modern people, American people,

like we have an easy time of ignoring the parables because they are not very direct.

But as we talked about last week, I think that's a huge mistake.

I think Jesus would say, no, you really can't ignore the parables because,

like he explains, like because the disciples come and ask him,

we talked about this last week, why are you teaching in parables?

And his response is this in Matthew 13, 11.

Because the secrets of the kingdom have been given for you to know,

but it has not been given to them.

So Jesus understood that parables contain these secrets of the kingdom,

these mysteries of the kingdom of God.

And they hide those mysteries from those who aren't willing or who aren't going to hear.

And they reveal those mysteries to those who are wanting to listen,

who are wanting to learn, who are wanting to hear from Jesus.

And we talked about how that works out and how we can be the sorts of people

who are hearing and are willing to listen in terms of parables.

We talked about that last week.

So like, we want to be people who listen.

We want to be people who give the time to these parables because they are the

keys to understanding these dynamics of the kingdom, these mysteries of the kingdom.

So we need to pay attention. And that's the last time I'm gonna say that in this series.

But I really want us to, as we go into these parables, which are a different

type of literature, biblical literature, than we're used to.

I really want us to understand how important they are.

Jesus says these are not to be

missed by his disciples, by people who are actually going to be listening.

So with that in mind, I want us to go into our first parable.

And we actually read through it last week, but we didn't dive into it. We didn't dissect it.

And instead, all I did is I asked you to ponder this parable over the past week.

And what I'm asking you to do throughout the series is to just read ahead to

the next parable and to ponder it, to think through it, to consider it.

To let it just kind of sit in your heart and in your life and to think about it, to do that.

So that's my challenge for you next week is just pick up where we're leaving off today.

Okay, so this is the parable. Jesus gives the parable early on in Matthew 13,

and then a little bit further down, he explains the parable.

So this is the parable without the explanation. Consider the sower who went out to sow.

As he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

And other seed fell on the rocky ground, where it didn't have much soil.

And it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn't deep.

But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

And other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it.

Still other seed fell on the good ground and produced fruit,

some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown.

Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.

So Jesus is painting a picture. That's what this parable is.

It's a picture and it's a scene.

It's a scene of a sower, someone who is literally taking seeds and sowing them,

planting them in the way that you do, this kind of broadcasting of seed.

I used to live on the East Coast and I left because I hate my yard.

I hated my yard on the East Coast. There's leaves falling all the time and then

you clean up the leaves and then more leaves fall and then you clean those leaves

up and then more leaves fall.

That's how it is living on the East Coast. I don't recommend it.

And it's also like, you know, just patches. And this is more relatable to Washington.

There was patches of my yard that were super shaded and very difficult to grow

grass in, right? If you ever, no one's experienced that here, right?

No, I mean, just look out that window and you'll see what I mean, right?

There's sections and areas of my yard where it was hard to grow grass. But you know what I did?

I became an expert in the very intricate art of sowing grass seed.

And I was thinking about having some grass seed here and just throwing it at

you like this, right? So I would just go and we throw it out.

And I say, well, this is a part that needs grass. And I just take the seed and

you just throw it out. You got your big bag, you throw it out.

Maybe if you're really fancy, you use one of those things that just you spin

the little thing and it spits it out, right?

So I did the really difficult exacting work of dumping grass seed everywhere.

That's what sowing is in that context. And in the context of planting in the Old Testament.

You're just taking seed and you're throwing it. You're throwing it rather indiscriminately.

And you're doing so knowing that maybe 25% of that seed is going to take root.

And that's okay. Because you're throwing it. Some of it's going to go into the

woods. Some of it you're just feeding the squirrels.

You're throwing some of it and you're like, that's no way that grass is ever

going to take into this kind of soil.

But it's Okay, because you're confident that as you scatter the seed, some of it will take...

And then you'll go back the week after when you found out what we'll take.

You'll water it. You'll spread some more. And then some more we'll take.

Now, I'm not saying I'm the best at this. There might be a better method.

There probably is, right?

I can tend the soil. I can do what I want. But in the end, the art of sowing is rather imprecise.

It is just saturation is the goal with grass seed.

Some of your seed is going to take root and grow. And I think what Jesus is

showing us is this picture of the sower. It's indicating, it's showing us a

lot of things about how the kingdom works.

And the great thing about the parable of the sower, as I said,

is that not only do we have the parable, but we have the interpretation of the

parable, which we don't have really for many of Jesus' parables.

But we do have him explaining what this one means, starting out in verse 18.

So we're skipping ahead and we've covered that other ground in between last week.

So this is what Jesus says. This is his explanation of the parable when he's

asked. It says, so, listen to the parable of the sower.

When anyone hears the word about the kingdom, and we're just going to stop there,

mid-sentence, because if we're wondering to ourselves, well,

like, who's the sower and what's the seed, right?

Because this is obviously imagery that's meant to mean something to us as disciples.

So if we're wondering about this, we have an indication of both of those things right here.

What is the seed being sown? Well, Jesus says very clearly, it is the word about the kingdom.

That's what's going out and being planted into these various soils and giving

us a picture of how the kingdom of God works.

Some translation will take that little word, word, as the gospel of the kingdom.

I mean, it does not take us long to figure out what Jesus is saying.

He's saying the proclamation, the message about the coming of the kingdom,

the salvation of people,

life everlasting to those who would repent and turn to Jesus and let him take

on their sin and give in exchange his righteousness to them.

This is the word of the kingdom.

It's what's going out. This gospel is going out.

The sower is the one who is proclaiming this message into the world.

This good news that in and through Jesus Christ, the kingdom has come and that

there is life to those who would step in and receive that by faith.

And who in Jesus' day, this does not take much thinking, who in Jesus' day was

going around preaching that message?

Jesus. It's the Sunday school answer. It's Jesus. Yes, we know.

Jesus was going around preaching that message. He is the sower.

He is the one preaching that message.

Jesus did it. He is scattering the word of the kingdom for anyone who would hear.

And so this parable that is centered on Jesus's action in the world through

speaking and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and it begins with him and his word.

But I do think it's worth noting, because this was 2,000 years ago,

but Jesus had a plan after his death, resurrection, and ascension to continue that work of sowing.

And that work of sowing is happening now as his disciples, people who call in

his name, are also proclaiming that same word to people in the same way that Jesus did.

Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 5, and actually we're going to find that

there's so much thematic overlap between 2 Corinthians 4 and 5 and the parable of the sower.

We're going to go back to 2 Corinthians a lot, so if you want to keep a finger

there in your Bible, you can flip back and forth.

But Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 5. He says this, God has given us

this task of reconciling people to him.

For God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting

people's sins against them.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation so that we are Christ's ambassadors.

God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God.

So Jesus is the sower, but we have to understand because of what Jesus set up

with the church, sending out his disciples, we also, through Christ,

through his work, We are his mouthpiece and we are sewers.

So we need to be people who proclaim. We proclaim the word of God,

the word that Jesus spoke, the good news of the kingdom. We're sent out with that good news.

It's his word. He started it. We're just like repeating the signal onto eternity until he returns.

So that is the seed. It's going out. And I think in order to step into this

kind of kingdom invitation, we have to understand that we are proclaimers.

A great band. I would walk 500. You all know. I put that in your head.

You're never going to be able to forget it.

We are people who are proclaiming the word of the kingdom.

And this is the word that Jesus, like he went out preaching. We get to share it now.

Because again, I don't want to lose sight of the fact that it's Jesus and his

word, but I want us to understand where do we sit in the midst of all of this?

We have something to tell people. We have good news to tell people.

We are proclaiming the reconciliation of God, the free gift of forgiveness,

life, peace, joy in the kingdom, the free gift for people to walk by faith and

to find that that kind of attitude and that approach to their life actually

completes them and brings them purpose.

It is a good word that we are sent out to proclaim. So let's keep going.

So going back so that we don't pick up mid-sentence, this is what Jesus said.

He said, listen to the parable of the sower.

When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn't understand it,

the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

And this is the one sown along the path. So Jesus is trying to explain what's

going on in this kingdom dynamic as the word goes out, the word that we can

proclaim, that he proclaimed goes out.

What is in the way of it being received?

And what are the things and what are the characteristics of when it is successfully received.

And Jesus makes it clear that some seed,

sometimes the gospel, when it goes out, it will be scattered along what he says

is the path, the road, like the parts of the soil that are beaten down and packed

hard and in which nothing can take root.

And Jesus says that when that happens, when someone hears about Jesus but doesn't

understand that what happens is that the enemy, Satan,

comes along and he eats that, like a little bird that comes along the path and

says, oh, so nice that this little meal is here for me to eat.

And the word gets taken away and people do not understand.

So, I mean, again, trying to think about our own selves and what does this mean

for us? What do we do with that?

I would say two things. I would say that as far as our own lives are concerned,

we need to hold onto what we hear from the Lord.

His word spoken to us, what we have in scripture, which is God's revelation

of his plan and his hope and the good invitations of the kingdom,

like what it looks like to be a saved person and a transformed person and a

person who's walking in fullness of the spirit.

We're called to take that and treasure it. And we talked about last week,

we're called to really hold onto it and ponder it, to think through it,

to let the Word kind of wash over us and get deep in our hearts and make sense

to us, and to let the Holy Spirit use His Word to minister to us.

I mean, I can't emphasize this enough. I know I made this point last week that

we need to be people who ponder, but it's really important.

We need to sit with God. We need to slow down.

We need to let the Word come into our hearts and treasure it.

I wanted to say we make it precious, but that was just too weird, right?

But like, you know how Gollum was in the Lord of the Rings.

I'm a nerd. We all knew that.

But like we take what he speaks to us and we hold it tight.

And it doesn't always make sense to us. I'm not saying we hold it tight because

we super understand it and we're Bible experts.

I'm not saying when God says something to us and he wants to bless us and encourage

us, we should hold onto it even when we don't understand it and let him explain it to us.

Like if you don't understand the parable of the sower. If this makes you feel condemnation, I get it.

I don't think this is a word of condemnation. I think this is good news,

pure, unmitigated good news, and we can hold onto it and ponder it.

We need to hold onto the word and ponder it, not just because we're easily distracted

like I am, like I can forget the things I know, I can just get so consumed with busyness of life.

But not only because of that, we also need to hold onto and ponder the word

and hide it in our heart because we have an enemy, like Jesus is explaining,

whose aim is for us not to hear.

It is Satan's intention that we would not ponder, that we would not hear,

that we would not listen, and that we would not have life and salvation.

That is Satan's goal. And again, Paul explains that in 2 Corinthians a little

bit earlier in chapter 4.

It says this, therefore, this is Paul's explanation, therefore,

since God in his mercy has given us this new way, We never give up.

We reject all the shameful deeds and the underhanded methods,

and we don't try to trick anyone or distort the word of God.

We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.

If the good news we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe.

They're unable to see the glorious light of the good news. They don't understand

this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

See, Paul is explaining the condition of people and those who hear the gospel

but don't believe. And there's two things going on here, I think,

that are important in this passage.

First, Paul, I inserted this first paragraph because Paul recognizes in the

second paragraph the problem, but he offers kind of the way of managing the

problem in the first paragraph.

And that's that we're just going to faithfully, continually,

without manipulation, keep proclaiming the word.

We're not going to try to come up with new methods or new ways to fancy it up.

We're just going to tell people about what Jesus has done.

The fact that in Jesus, God is reconciling the world to himself.

He's saying we just need to just honestly hold this truth up and hold it up

to people. And we're going to continue to do that.

And I know this is obvious, but I think we need to think through this as we're

trying to put ourselves in this position of thinking about the parable of the

sower. I think this is worth saying.

I think many of us are nervous about talking about Jesus because we don't know how it will be received.

Paul understood this dynamic. He fully admits that there is difficulty in the

reception of the word, but he says, but the solution is not to be sparing with your seed,

with your proclamation, with sharing Jesus, but to do it all the more,

to be all the more open and all the more honest.

And who knows how it will result.

Paul is not saying that you need to own the results. Paul is saying,

well, I'm just going to be upfront about the word. I'm going to tell people about Jesus.

I don't know if they will respond.

So like the pressure can be off of us from thinking that, well,

I just want to do it the right way.

It's there's the right way is like, like the way I do the grass,

you know, just, just keep it going. You want to like make an inch thick.

That's probably an inch thick of seed is probably too much. Okay.

So, but maybe there is a limiting to this in the, in the parable, but you know what?

Like, like we just need to spread and continue.

We don't know what's going to take root, but beyond that, Paul makes clear that

there is also a spiritual battle going on.

There's a spiritual battle going on. So we need to proclaim,

but we also need to understand that we have an enemy, Satan,

who wants to trample the gospel. He wants to blind people's hearts.

And we need to know that we can't control the outcome of that.

But one thing we can do is that we can pray.

As we proclaim the gospel, the only thing we can do to counter our enemy is pray.

We can pray that the Lord would overwhelm the stuff that Satan wants to do,

the blindness that he wants to bring about, and that God would overcome that.

I really think we need to understand, and I think Jesus is making it clear,

that as the word goes out, there is a spiritual battle going on.

Satan wants to blind people's eyes. And so you think about the people you know

and who you're just like, man, they really need the gospel.

And so So your role is to faithfully proclaim, but also to pray that the blinders would fall off.

Proclaim and pray. This is how we deal with that condition of soil.

Jesus goes on. He says, one sown on rocky ground.

This is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,

but he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution come because

of the word, immediately he falls away.

So not only can this word, this seed, be snatched away by the enemy before it

has a chance to take root, but each of us, and I know this very well,

each of us deals with our own worst enemy, which is this guy right here, right?

No, I mean, or you, right? I hope I'm not your worst enemy, right?

Each of us is dealing with our own character.

Each of us is dealing with our own shallowness. Each of us is dealing with our

own lack of follow through and commitment.

Each of us is dealing with our own stuff.

We oftentimes come, we've heard the word of God, we read the word of God,

we get fired up or we go and we hear a sermon and it gets us excited or we listen

to worship music and we're in this awesome place and we're just like,

Jesus, I want to give you everything.

I'm going to live my life for you 100%.

And then what happens is, well, Paul says here, difficulty comes,

persecution comes, you're sad, you're depressed, you're hurt, your feelings get hurt.

People don't treat you the way you want to be treated. You think that if you

trust God, like life is going to turn around and be different and that doesn't

happen. And how do you explain that?

Like this is, I've done this so many times, you know, where I'm just saying

like, oh, yes, I'm going to receive the word with gladness, and yet my own shallowness,

my own stuff gets in the way, and difficulty comes.

And I say, this is not what I signed up for.

This is not what I thought this was going to be like, Lord. I thought I was

going to follow you, and things were going to get easier.

But Jesus is making it clear here, like if we're going to be the sort of people

who are not just like unrooted and unmoored and unfruitful, we need to be people who persevere.

We're called to perseverance.

So we proclaim, we pray, we persevere. And that's, again, we're going back to 2 Corinthians 4.

Paul tells us this is something that we need to do because the kind of perseverance

that we're called to, it's not what we think it is.

It's not white knuckling our way through, but actually the way to receive the

word of God, like as we receive it, like there's a perseverance in it because

the type of victory that comes about in the kingdom of God,

the type of transformation that happens is really surprising to us.

Paul explains it this way. He says, we have this light shining in our hearts,

like the word of God spoken to us, shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are

like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our power is from God, not from ourselves.

And here he describes the condition of difficulty. We are pressed on every side

by troubles, but we're not crushed.

We are perplexed, but we're not driven to despair.

We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down,

but we are not destroyed.

Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

There is a mystery in the kingdom of God that as the word goes out,

as the word of promise and hope and grace and forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ goes out,

it is transforming us from the inside even though our outward person.

As Paul says, our outward man is perishing day by day, Like even though we face

difficulty and persecution, what we find is that there is a contradiction.

When I trust Jesus, my problems don't go away.

They do not. Sometimes they get worse.

Sometimes my financial problems or maybe my marriage problems or my kid problems

or my job problems or whatever the type of problem that you have.

Some of those things will get worse as you trust Jesus. And Paul does not understand

the mystery of faith working its way out on the exterior.

He actually says it starts inside out as the light of the gospel,

the hope and peace and forgiveness and assurance that Jesus loves you and he cares for you.

And he's going to stay with you in the midst of all of that.

As that becomes more sure, what we find is that there's this contradiction that

we can go through suffering and difficulty and yet be steady and hopeful.

And this is a difficult thing. This is a maturing thing that each of us needs to go through.

We need to learn to persevere in the midst of difficulty. Because in my natural

self, in my flesh, in my normal course of life,

when things get hard in the exterior circumstances, when my life's circumstances

get hard, I get discouraged inwardly.

What Paul is saying, the mystery of the kingdom is this,

is that Christians who receive the word and let it do its work will over time

as they mature find that whereas it used to be that my circumstances and my

attitude tracked all along,

what I find is that as my circumstances get worse, my attitude and my hope can get better.

Doesn't mean my outward circumstances will change. They may,

they may not, but I have hope still.

This is what we're promised. And we persevere unto this kind of hope.

And it might take a long, long time to see that working out in your life,

but it is something we are called to.

Paul goes on, he says, to encourage us and to rile us up and to get our eyes

fixed on this kind of contradictory nature, how we can have joy even as we have

difficulty. He says, this is why we never give up.

Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

For our present troubles are small and won't last very long,

yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever.

We don't look at the troubles that we can see now, rather we fix our gaze on

things that cannot be seen.

For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

And I just have to be honest, this is the confession of a mature a Christian.

And if you're sitting in this place and you're saying, well,

I'm not that way. And when I've had the gospel, like I believe the gospel.

I thought I believed the gospel. I was excited about it. I was doing things.

But I'm wilting in the midst of all the pressure.

Can I just tell you, this is like good news.

The parable of the sower is good news, pointing out this condition,

because here's the thing.

I'm not good at growing grass. I'm not an expert though. I was successful at doing it over time.

Why because I did it once I spread the seed all around And then I found that

only a little bit of it grew and you know what I did after that I came back the next week,

And I did more. And I watered that again. And I came back, probably not the

next week because I don't like the yard.

But I came back maybe later in the summer and I said, you know what?

Let's give it another go.

Maybe some of it's going to take root now. Like, as a sower, I was faithful-ish.

But Jesus is so much more faithful than I'll ever be.

And so if you're saying, well, I just feel like I've heard the word and it didn't

do the thing, it didn't yield this kind of greater, mysterious,

outworking weight of glory, great.

There will be a season and the seed will come again. And Jesus is the sower.

He's not going to stop sowing. His word is going out.

People are going to encourage you. They're going to tell you,

you're going to be saturated yet again.

And there will be more opportunities for roots to take hold and to dig deep.

And so if you say, oh, I just failed the first try. Yeah, that's the way it works.

But Jesus, I think this is the whole point of the parable. Jesus is going to

make the soil productive.

He's going to do everything he can. He's going to keep spreading the seed.

And so if you've heard the word and you were excited and you're like, why not? Why not?

The call is not to give up. The call is to persevere. We are not promised ease,

but we are promised peace and hope as we persevere.

Look what Jesus tells his disciples immediately before his crucifixion.

John 16, 33, he says, and the worship team can come up as we're just wrapping up.

We are not gonna get through the whole parable today. I'm sorry,

I tried, but I knew it was gonna be too long.

So he says this, he says, I've told you these things so that you may have peace.

Good, yes, wonderful, we want that. But then he goes on, he says,

you will have suffering in this world.

But be courageous because I've conquered the world.

Look, if you look at the story of the disciples right after hearing this word

from Jesus, they said, yeah, Jesus has conquered the world. Isn't this great?

He's giving us his peace. Isn't this grace? And then what did they do?

And then Jesus was crucified. And then all of them scattered.

And they were discouraged. And they were distressed. And they doubted. And what did Jesus do?

He came back to them. He said, I knew you guys were going to be like that.

That's why I had plans to come back. And can I just say, all those things that

I promised before my death and my resurrection, they're still on offer now.

And in fact, I'm going to send my Holy Spirit upon you and it's going to be even more effective.

Like the Holy Spirit is going to come into your life and he's going to begin

to do the inner work of transforming your shallowness and your character.

And so like, look, this is not the parable of the soils.

This is the parable of the sower. So we can recognize ourselves and our own

issues, but that's not condemnation because all of this is in the context of the sower.

Jesus' word is going out. His hope, the gospel is going out and he's going to

do something in your life with it.

If you are discouraged, if you feel like you're not pushing through to maturity,

You can expect God to

continue to work in your life The word

will continue to do its work You aren't

where you want to be Welcome to the club Hear the word yet again Ponder it in

your heart Let him do the work in this new season Whatever is going to come

Don't let it think that you're disqualified You are not disqualified Any more

than my grass is disqualified from growing Eventually I'm going to make it grow Well.

So we're not going to finish up today, the parable. We're going to continue on next week.

But again, I want to ask you to continue to ponder, continue to ponder this

and really ask this question of the Lord.

Ask this question, Jesus, what are you speaking to me?

Like, how is your word meeting my need?

How is your word and your promise going to meet me as I am struggling?

Either I'm joyful or maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm having difficulty.

Maybe things are great. Maybe I just feel like I don't understand.

What is the word spoken to me in the midst of this?

Go to God with that question. He's faithful. He is sending his word out.

He wants to do good things in your life.

So I'm just going to pray for us, and then we're going to take some time to worship.

So Lord Jesus, we come before you with our hearts as they are,

Lord, not as we want them to be.

And we say, Lord, we don't know the condition.

Lord, if we're the type who fall into self-condemnation, Lord,

we ask you to speak the truth.

Lord, if we're the type who think we're doing better than when we actually are,

Lord, would you convict and would you reveal us the things that we are just not giving to you?

But God, we do all of that in anticipation of your faithful love.

Lord, it's your character. Lord, we know you're a good father,

and so we don't turn to you and expect bad things. You love us,

and like a good father, you don't give us a snake when we ask for bread.

So Lord, we come before you, and we say, Holy Spirit, would you come into our

lives this week and even in this moment?

Lord, would you be present with us? Lord, would you minister your gospel, Lord?

Would you speak the word in such a way that we might have open eyes and open

hearts, that it might go deeper and deeper than it has before?

Lord Jesus, we want more of your word, Lord. Would you speak?

Would you encourage us? Would you build us up?

And would you get our eyes fixed upon you and what you're doing?

We pray all that in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, hey, why don't we just stand up? We'll worship the Lord together.