THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
(Hard Soil / Hard Hearts - January 22, 2023)
Series Big Idea: "Receiving God's truth and following Christ will produce kingdom fruit"
Sermon Big Idea: “Jesus compares receiving the good news to planting seeds on hard soil"
Key Scripture (Matthew 13:18-23)
Jesus often spoke to the crowds that followed Him in parables. My theology professor in college explained the idea of a parable as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Most of the time Jesus would tell stories to make what He was saying clearer to the hearer. But this was not always the case. A specific occurrence can be found in the Book of Matthew 13. This “parable” is known to us as the Parable of the Sower.
In verses 1-9, the Bible says on a certain day multitudes were following Jesus. He found him a place to sit down by the sea. He got into a boat and sat down while the people stood on the shore. He began to tell them many things speaking in parables. He would eventually tell several parables. The first one we know as the Parable of the Sower. It goes like this.
He told the people to picture a sower who went out to sow. As this man was sowing, some of the seed he was spreading was falling on the path and the birds would come and eat it up. Some of the other seeds fell on rocky ground where there was not much soil, and they grew quickly because the ground wasn't deep. But as this plant began to grow the sun would scorch it and it would wither and die. Others of the seed fell among the thorns. The thorns choked them out. And finally, some seeds fell on good ground and produced a bumper crop. Some 100, some 60, and some 30 times. Then Jesus said, “anyone who has ears to hear should listen.”
The disciples wanted to know why He was speaking to these people in parables. Jesus explained that the things of the kingdom of heaven had not been given to those people to know because they look and don’t see and hear and don’t understand. Then Jesus explains to His disciples what He meant by the parable.
(Matthew 13:18-23)
“You, then, listen to the parable of the sower: 19 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. This is the one sown along the path. 20 And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 Yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does bear fruit and yields: some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown.”
There is a spiritual heart condition in every person that is like the smoothness and hardness of a well-used path that goes around or through a plowed field. Every day a jumbled variety of this world's concerns pass through it. Self-searching never softens the earth, which is compacted by everyone. Because it is so hard, the seed never gets inside.
Think about the kind of person who is shown here by the image of the beaten path. It is a heart that has been crushed by the feet that have walked over it, and because it has been crushed, it can't take in the seed that has been sown. The seed doesn't fall in but is on top of it. I want us to unpack this first type of soil Jesus talked about. Let's look at three ways the heart can be trodden down.
1. The heart is beaten down by Routine and Habit
There is a process going on in the individual that makes certain that the more you get ahead in life, the less even the most divine truths of God's Word will be able to change you. In other words, the more content and comfortable a person gets living in the world the more calloused their life becomes and the more difficult it becomes for the gospel to change them. That’s not to say people can’t change. God is in control of that. But it is more difficult for the person to hear and receive because he has one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the world.
2. The heart is beaten down by Sin
Sin has consequences. These consequences work to convince people that they will never be accepted by God. The more that sin takes over in a person's life the less loved they feel by God. The less loved they feel by God the less they want to be around the things of God and the people of God.
3. The heart is beaten down by repeatedly Rejecting the Gospel
When an ungodly person hears a sermon that leaves him ungodly, it doesn't leave him the same way it found him. Instead, it makes him more ungodly by making him hear the Word again and reject God's grace again. People who consistently reject the Gospel are continually rejecting God.
Conclusion:
Some people in the crowd on the day Jesus was teaching didn’t want to hear what Jesus had to say. Because of this, the seed of the gospel can't grow in their hearts, and they can't understand its truth. It leaves them open to being taken by Satan, the "evil one." In other words, this person was not affected by the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. They are like the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, who were against Jesus from the beginning.
What kind of soil would you say you are at this point in your life? Do you tune out the Gospel in your life? Why don’t you allow the soil to be tilled in your life and let the seed of the Gospel begin to grow?
Pastor Beaver's thoughts and ideas are inspired by:
Holman Christian Standard Bible
English Standard Version Bible
King James Version Bible
Christian Standard Bible
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