This first parable, the one we are going to talk about today, underscores one of the most important parts of understanding God’s will—hearing the Savior’s message correctly. In His parable He listed four types of soil, symbolizing the four ways that people receive God’s Word
The don’t bother me; I’ busy crowd
The “hip-hip-hurrah for Jesus” crowd.
The “I love Jesus but love the world more” crowd.
The “I’m willing to grow” crowd.
Listen to an audio recording of the sermon by clicking on the YouTube link at the end of the manuscript.
You can also watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/VS0jqwMTVpA
Scripture
Matthew 13:1-9 NIV That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Introduction
I am starting a new series today. It is “The Master Speaks to the Present through the Parables,” It is a series based on Jesus’ parables that describe the nature of the kingdom of God. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. The parable that we are going to look at today is the first of seven parables delivered “back to back,”. All of the parables deal with the same subject, the kingdom of heaven, but each one approaches it from a different angle. The sermon today is "How Well Do You Hear"
Text:
Matthew 13:9 NIV Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Although this Scripture passage that Jean read is often called the parable of the sower, a more accurate title would be the parable of the four kinds of ground, or the parable of the soils. Jesus began by having the crowd sit as he began to talk to them using parables. Jesus ended this particular parable with a challenge that those who have ears should hear. Hence our text for today.
Matthew 13:9 NIV Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
We need to realize that hearing or better still listening is very important. Often we assume that because a speaker takes the initiative, he or she controls the hearer. Actually, the opposite is true more often. No matter how well a person speaks, unless the person addressed gives his or her attention,hearing and heeding what is said, the best message in the world is delivered in vain.
Now those who heard Jesus that day were a diverse crew. Some came from curiosity, while others were there with self-seeking motives. A large number wanted to make him king and so used him as a rallying point to revolt against the Romans. Some came with quick but shallow enthusiasm. Others, however, came with deep longing, wanting to find the answer to their life needs. Jesus knew that people in the crowd would receive his words differently, just like the various soils of the Galilean hillsides, received the seeds.
He had seen the sower, the farmer, at work. Perhaps the farmer was even sowing seed as he stood in the ship speaking to the crowds.
This first parable, the one we are going to talk about today, underscores one of the most important parts of understanding God’s will—hearing the Savior’s message correctly. In His parable He listed four types of soil, symbolizing the four ways that people receive God’s Word
The don’t bother me; I’ busy crowd
The “hip-hip-hurrah for Jesus” crowd.
The “I love Jesus but love the world more” crowd.
The “I’m willing to grow” crowd.
Let's start by reading the meaning He gave His disciples of the parable.
Matthew 13:18-23 18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Now let’s look at the
"Don’t bother me; I’m busy” crowd.
Matthew 13:4 NIV As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
The narrow paths between the fields were right of way, and anybody could walk up and down them. They became hardened like pavement by the foot traffic. Seed that fell on them might just as well have fallen on a public highway.
Many people today are so hardened to the gospel message that they have no interest in giving it even the slightest consideration. What can anybody talking about the good news that Jesus came that they might have life, do in that situation with someone with that attitude? Absolutely nothing.
It doesn't matter who is talking to them: pastor, teacher, evangelist or anybody. They aren't hearing it.
Even if people with that kind of attitude come to church, their minds are elsewhere. This parable illustrates that people whose insensibility to God’s Word is caused by worldly interests are incapable of receiving any type of spiritual message.
Notice what happens with the seed that lies bare on the pathway. Even a bird can come and take it away. So it is with this type of hearer. The most insignificant matter can take this person’s attention away from any thought about God. Any impression made is quickly rubbed out. Some new thing or some gossip eats up all that has been said about the Lord.
Matthew 13:19 NIV When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
When a person’s mind is set, the truth can’t get through. We sometimes say, “You might as well talk to a brick wall as to him.”
Mental laziness makes people refuse to think; mental arrogance causes them to feel they know everything already. Mental fear causes people to indulge in wishful thinking, and because their lifestyle conflicts with what God wants for them, they retreat into a type of atheism that denies God.
They deny God not because they are intellectually convinced that God does not exist but because they do not want God to exist. They know that if God is real, they must bring their lives into harmony with divine principles or suffer the inevitable consequences.
We had a Bible Study some time ago using a the book "The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as He Doesn't Exist"
That’s the don’t bother me I’m busy crowd then there’s the
The “hip-hip-hurrah for Jesus” crowd.
Matthew 13:5-6 NIV Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
The “rocky places”, or "stony ground " was a thin surface of soil over a shelf or slab of rock. If seeds fell on it, they would sprout quickly, but no roots could get through the rock or find nourishment in it. So the heat of the sun caused the plant to wither quickly and die. The heat of the stone itself may have even accelerated the growth, causing premature and feeble plants. The fierce sun of that area blistered the growth quickly.
This soil represents people who are easily stirred emotionally, people who get excited quickly, whose feelings lie on the surface. A message gets to them quickly, skipping the understanding or the conscience and goes directly to the emotions. These people get “religion” the same way a person gets sickness during an epidemic. Just like many got COVID by being exposed for a short time. They have sentimental intense and passionate feelings and therefore an instant response, but their enthusiasm soon disappears. Their initial enthusiasm is often more enthusiastic than Christians whose Christian experience is deep and genuine. Their response is based on emotion only without any real knowledge, understanding, or spiritual connection. Then when problems come they have nothing to hold to.
Matthew 13:20-21 NIV The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
Religious movements of this type have produced many converts but few stable Christians, many blossoms but many never mature. I've know many people, and I bet you have too, that get saved come to church every time the doors open, then they get sick, lose their job, their spouse leaves them, or a loved one dies, and you never see them again. If you do happen to see them they tell you don't talk to me about any of that Jesus stuff ".
III. Then there’s the “I love Jesus but love the world more” crowd.
Matthew 13:7 NIV Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
Picture a field, or a part of it, where once there had been weeds. The farmer had cut them down but had not dug up the seed or the root. The latent “weed-seed” could not be seen when the crop was sown. At the time the ground looked good because it is easy to make a garden look clean by simply turning over the soil.
He planted a crop, and the two grew together. If you have ever had a garden or lawn and worked to pull the weeds , you know that if you just pull the weeds and don't dig up the roots the weeds are coming back.
The weeds or thorns were still there, and they always grow more readily than the good seed! Then the inevitable happens. The bad seed chokes the life out of the good seed.
Jesus pointed out clearly two things that he regarded as thorns—anxiety and wealth.
Matthew 13:22 NIV The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
I want to back up just a minute, notice in this parable that there is a gradual increase in quality as Jesus listed the three types of hearers.
The first one was unreachable, the second one was shallow, but the third had possibilities of a good harvest.
The problem was, however, that the person pictured by the “thorny places” lacked the ability to be completely loyal. They tried to serve both God and material things. Too much anxiety about worldly things is as bad, and sometimes can be worse, than thinking that material things bring security.
The person who is burdened with the cares of poverty, and the person who is deceived by the false promises of wealth, are basically the same person. We make money our god, whether we worship it by saying ‘I’m desolate without it or by thinking that we are secure with it.”
Matthew 6:24 NIV “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
You have to make a choice.
Finally
IV. The “I’m willing to grow” crowd.
Matthew 13:8 NIV Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
The parable does not tell us what percentage of people fit each category. Jesus never stressed statistics nor emphasized the proportion of success or failure. Rather, He wanted to reveal to people the importance of attitudes.
The constant and consistent teaching of the New Testament is that Christians grow because a supernatural seed has been planted in them. The fruit they bear comes from the seed that has been implanted.
Galatians 2:20 NIV I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The degree of fruitfulness varies because each of us is different. The Lord does not demand that our fertility be uniform. He doesn't require each of us to produce the same amount of fruit. He even listed the percentage of productivity in descending order
Matthew 13:23 NIV But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
The NLT lists the percentage of productivity in ascending order but the point is the same. God recognizes and acknowledges even the smallest amount of fruit. He even promised that He would work with the smallest so that even it would produce more fruit.
John 15:1-2 NIV “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Sowing seed is not glamorous. The one who sows is most often alone. There's no band or cheerleaders to encourage them with their enthusiasm. Thank God for the slow and steady growth that characterizes the true Christian. The growth process, like that of the sewing experience, can be lonely and discouraging, but its end result is a fruitful contribution to God’s kingdom. The harvest, on the other hand, is quite the opposite where there is enthusiasm, cooperation and delight gathering the results of the work of the lonely sower.
Conclusion
No one parable teaches us everything. Analogy is not proof, and neither can a figure of speech or a story cover every detailed point. We find a great difference in the soil of life and the soil of the earth. No matter how hard we work, some soil cannot be cultivated. There are ice fields in the Arctic and sand in the desert. Also, soil cannot change the climate.
The human soul, or soil, however, can work at creating its own environment. A person can plow up the paths and pluck out the thorns. He or she can blast away the rocks or remove other problems that exist to defy and defeat cultivation.
Jesus reminded us of our responsibility with his concluding, pungent remark, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9).
Let's Pray,
Jesus, you sow yourself. You sow
The Word of Truth, generously. You sow
The Word of Life, graciously
Protect us from Satan, and his charts who seek to snatch the joy of Your word and the joy of salvation from us.
Strengthen us for hard times That we may endure patiently
Deliver us from distraction From worldly desires and
All that would lure us and choke us with false promises
Enrich us with every blessing of your Spirit
That we may be good, good soil
Forever faithful and fruitful for you
Amen
Sermon Audio
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