I'm gonna get us to open to Matthew 13. We are delving into the New Testament again. I love these sort of in between series moments that we can have together. So we love at Open House working through books of the Bible. Every now and then, we're sort of we have an opportunity or I have an opportunity to pick a passage and just to preach on that, and that is a joy to me.
So last week, we were dealing with Isaiah in the Old Testament of prophecy, and now we do a completely different genre in the New Testament of parable of Jesus, which has a very unique and characteristic flavour to it. And it's been a joy to work through that this week. Before we read that, I just wanna start by telling you that my first ever sermon was preached on this topic of the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-9. My first ever sermon. I was 19 at the time, working as a labourer, a builder's labourer, and at that time also studying IT and business.
And I thought I had a fantastic angle to work with when I was preaching from this. I remember sweeping out a giant factory, so much dust, and remember a whole eight hours of sweeping, just boring ass, and I thought, I'll work out this sermon in my head. And that's what I did. And I thought, man, I've got something beautiful to share here. And the angle of this passage was the question, what type of soil are you? What type of soil are you?
And in my spare time when I got home from this work, spent hours researching different types of soil. Volcanic soil, fertile rocky soil, soil full of clay, dry sandy soil, you name it. And I asked the congregation as I preached this, what type of soil are you? But I also asked what type of soil are you working with? What type of soil are those around you?
And in terms of outreach, this question was asked. In terms of evangelism, what is the church's sphere of influence like? Who are they evangelising to and what's the soil of that person's heart? But this morning, I wanna tell you by the grace of God, I think I missed the whole point. I got it wrong on that day.
Because this highly visual, highly impactful story from Jesus has far more profound meaning than I first thought. And I'm happy to admit that today. Let's read together Matthew 13:1-9. Verse 1 starts, 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 the 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. He who has ears, let him hear. We might just skip to verse 18 where Jesus gives an explanation of this as well. It gives us a little bit of a context.
Jesus said to His disciples, 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 his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 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. 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. 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. 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. So far our reading.
So we see a few things happening here. We see a farmer, we see some seed, and we see a very unique farming method. What is going on in this parable? Now remember again, let's just get the genre and the context right. A parable that Jesus tells has a very unique meaning and perspective to it.
A parable is a story with a meaning, basically put. It is usually a very tangible earthly story with a spiritual heavenly message. It reflects something of eternal significance. Oftentimes, Jesus begins parables by saying this, the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of heaven is like.
Jesus says, the kingdom of God many times is like a farm. Or He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a tree. Or the kingdom of heaven is like yeast in bread. What Jesus is saying about the kingdom of God is often conveyed in this way. Now what is Jesus saying about the kingdom in this parable?
Well, to put it simply, it's about how people enter the kingdom of God. It's about how people come into God's kingdom. And Jesus thankfully gives us the explanation of this parable which is wonderfully intricate and it's thought provoking and it's so visual. He gives us an explanation of this in the verses we read between verses 18 and 23. He says that it's all about understanding.
It's all about receiving. It's all about believing the concept of God and what it means to enter or be in His kingdom. And the parable also shows that some get it and some don't. Now I mentioned my first thoughts, right, of the meaning of this parable concentrated on all the different types of soils, making sure that you had fertile soil so that the message of the gospel would sink in, the message of Christianity would reach your ears and you would gladly receive and gladly accept the gospel message and it would transform your life. My sermon was get your soil ready.
But that was missing the point. And this week, I pray that God may have blocked ears or redeemed those words in some way. Because the parable is not so much concerned about what type of soil you are. Although, I do think that there is some form of reflection that's needed when you listen to this. It's far less concerned about how you understand and far more concerned about the fact that you understand.
What is it that you need to understand? What is it that you need to understand? Well, author and pastor Joshua Ryan Butler in his book, Pursuing God, points out that there's a deeper underlying tone of grace in this passage that we miss. He writes that the people listening to Jesus telling this story would have been an agricultural people, a people of the earth. Now they may not all have been farmers listening to this, but they would have understood very well what it means to plant a garden.
What it means to sow seed. What it means to be a farmer. They would have understood farming technique at least. And they would have thought, listening to this story about the farmer who throws his seed, what kind of a farmer in their right mind wastes precious seed by throwing it on the road? What kind of farmer scatters it over rocky gravel or plunges it into the thorn bushes?
No one had that amount of seed to just so lavishly waste it. The audience Jesus was speaking to would have understood what was happening was not the right way to go about it. And they would ask what sort of farmer plants a garden in that way. And so we start seeing that this parable, this story isn't simply to do with soil types. It's got a lot to do with the sower.
It's got a lot to do with the farmer. There's an insight of the nature, the character of the farmer as well. Now we have to ask ourselves a question, who is this farmer? Who is this farmer? And we see, I think, a very good indication of what that is.
Jesus tells another parable later in verses 24-30, the parable of the weeds, about another farmer who again sows seed this time, but now he allows the seed to fall amongst weeds. And at some point, the weeds start coming up with the wheat and the servants don't know which ones to pull out, which are weeds and which are wheat. The farmer says, let them mature. Let them grow up and we'll be able to see what is wheat and what is weeds. And then we'll be able to remove the weeds and cast them away and keep and harvest the wheat.
But in this parable in verse 37, Jesus says that the farmer who does the sowing is the Son of Man. And that is a reference to Himself. And so when we ask the question, who is the sower in this parable? I think it's fair to say it's Jesus. But the parable is saying something about Him.
Why is Jesus so extravagantly wasteful by sowing seed that falls on the path that everyone walks on, hard soil, gravel. And the point is, it's not that He's a bad farmer. It's because He's generous. We see Jesus pouring out what He says is the word, which is the gospel. The teaching about what Jesus, His mission, His life and His death is all about.
And we see this farmer, we see Jesus sowing it far and wide, everywhere. He gives it to all who will receive and then even to those who won't, He sows and He sows and He sows. The character of the farmer is being shown here and He is shown to be gracious. He is liberal with His invitation. Come.
Come. Receive. Hear. Understand is the invitation. Come and taste.
Come and receive this word that brings healing. Receive this word that brings life. And Jesus showers His good word all over the place, even upon the rockiest soils, the thorniest ground. We've just celebrated Christmas and in that great famous Christian Christmas hymn, Joy to the World, one of the verses puts it this way, that Christ comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. And this is what's happening here.
As far as the rebellion against God is to be found, He makes His blessings flow. He casts the net wide. He plants the treasure in shallow soil so it may be found. He stands at the door and He knocks. And so, the four soils do not so much represent the state of hearts that need to work to receive.
The soil types are not postures for performing, but are responses for receiving. The gospel message that the farmer sows proclaims that the Lord Jesus is generous, that He is extravagantly generous. And the crux of the parable is not how to make God happy. It is not how to make God happy, but rather how to enter and receive the happiness of God. How to receive the joy of the Lord.
When we start with questions like, what kind of soil are you? It leads to a self defeating moralism. Have I been good enough? Have I tilled my soil well enough? Have I pleased God enough?
We start agonising whether our soil is healthy enough so that by chance, we might receive the single seed that the Lord Jesus throws our way. And if we're not ready, we miss out. By chance, we've missed out if our soil isn't ready and we see it's not the case. The sower is generous. He sows and He sows and He sows even when the soil is hard.
But Jesus says that He is a farmer that doesn't work economically. He throws not simply a single seed. The farmer is scandalously, almost embarrassingly lavish in what He sows and that is the good news. So the parable is a parable about the character of the sower. But then, why refer to the different types of soils?
Why does Jesus even mention them and mention how they react to the seed? Well, again, the parable is not meant to make you ask what type of soil are you, but rather explains what type of soils just exist in the world. And there's a difference. You see, if even as we're speaking today, if you are uncomfortable about Jesus' parable, if you are troubled by the implications of what this may mean even for your own heart, if it makes you look at your heart and it makes you wonder where am I in relation to God and His gospel? If you're asking that question, it probably shows that you are already somehow being prepared for good soil.
And I think we see something of this happening in the context again of our passage. Right after Jesus tells this parable, He is confronted or asked by His disciples, why do you speak in parables? They ask Him. In verse 10, the disciples came and asked, why do you speak to the people in parables? And Jesus replies, because God's people, Paul would like to call them the elect, will understand and others won't.
Some, He says, will be ever hearing, but never understanding. Then He says, but blessed are your eyes because they see. Blessed are your ears because they hear. And then He goes on and He explains the parable to them. Now ask yourself this question, why did Jesus explain the parable to the disciples if they understood the parable?
If they had ears to hear and understand? Why did Jesus have to explain the parable? Well, the answer is simple. They didn't understand. They didn't understand.
And we see that many times in the New Testament that the disciples showed just how little they understood about Jesus and the parable stories. So is Jesus saying then that the disciples had hearts like the rocky soil or the soil of the pathway? No. Jesus indicates that the disciples were part of the group that would understand. But here is the clincher.
Not that the disciples understood everything and they were, therefore, saved. It's that the disciples went to Jesus to ask. Do you understand? The disciples knew that they didn't understand. The disciples knew that they had to go to Jesus to receive understanding.
The indicator of the state of their hearts was that they knew they needed more. They needed to go to the source of understanding and simply with such a small, simple trust went to Jesus Himself for the answers. Explain to us, please, Lord, they asked. That is the type of soil that Jesus was looking for. The application of this parable isn't what type of soil am I and how do I get there?
How do I become fertile soil? The question is, do I have ears to hear the God who beckons me in love? Am I willing? Am I willing to be embraced by the big hearted saviour who has shown that He pursues me in distant lands even? Do I sense my heart being drawn towards the goodness of Jesus?
And so, the four types of soil don't indicate anything about how you prepare yourself. It is the state of your heart right now. As you sit here this morning, friends, it is not four states you can work yourself into or out of. It is four responses to the generous sowing of the farmer. Let's have a quick look at these responses.
Firstly, the soil along the path. It pictures a person distracted by other things, many things, Jesus says. The seed falls, but it doesn't penetrate at all into the hardened compacted road, soil of the road. Like one whose heart is calloused against God, they are infatuated with the idol of what other people think. They are absorbed in everything but the existence of God.
They are dead and numb to the message of Jesus Christ. This is the individual that never, not once, let the kingdom of God invade their soul. The seed simply sits on the street, stone cold, dead and dormant. And then because it's there, not being applied or used, Satan comes and he removes it. Like birds sucking up the seeds on the path, they just go back to pursuing the idols of the heart which again distracts them from the creator God who pursues them and who still pours the good news seed on them.
The second type of soil is the rocky soil. And these represent the people who gladly receive God initially. They get excited. They jump up and down. They declare that God is good, but only for a while because God's grace doesn't sink in.
It doesn't take root in their soul. And Jesus says, since it has no root, in verse 21, he only lasts a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of this word, because of this very seed that has been sown, he quickly falls away. And unfortunately, I see this happen so much as a pastor and talk to any pastor that's been around the traps and I'll tell you this. Those who are most enthusiastic about God, who are most verbose about God in the short term can be the least reliable in the long term.
The fireworks fizzle out. But keep an eye on the unassuming Christians. Keep an eye on the ones who are humbled deeply by His grace. The quiet converts who don't press for a position or a spotlight, whose process of transformation is slow but steady. They will speak to you and they will tell you often that I have not arrived.
Oh, I am so far from what God wants. I'm not there yet. They'll tell you that they have areas that God must work on, and here, you often see the goodness of God sinking in, taking root, and establishing. We move on to the thorny ground, and we see that the seed that falls among the thorns is someone who sticks around but has very little transformation. Such a person can attend church, they can attend Bible study, and they identify themselves publicly as the people of God.
This type of seed sinks deeper beneath the surface than the seed of the other two types of soil. We see it does have more of a root system, but ultimately, Jesus says in verse 22, the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, choke it and make it unfruitful. Christian. I do believe that this is someone who is part of God's people. But we find a heart here who understands and who does receive the gospel, but it is a limited and a fragile faith.
There is constantly creeping doubt. There is bitterness and anger that cannot be gotten rid of. There is selfishness and greed that just lingers. This is a heart that has so many hang ups, so many concerns. There are still several big idols in their life.
Even though they have accepted the gospel, even though they understand it. We see that the grace of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ has not released them from sin, and they still struggle to find joy in God. And I think some of us may be here. Many of us here are Christians and have been for a long time, but we need to hear this morning that God wants more for us than simply going through the motions. He wants to remind us this morning that His love revolutionises our lives.
It will. It takes a lot of courage to pursue that. It takes a lot of courage to believe that, but it does. The grace of Jesus propels us by its very nature into a life focused more and more and more on Him and less and less and less on me. And so I wanna encourage us, friends, keep praying for transformation.
Keep asking for that. Keep going to Christ like the disciples did. Go to the source of this life. Go there again and again and again. And then I promise you, you will find transformation.
You will. And then lastly, the good soil. The good soil is someone who receives a kingdom whose life is transformed. Jesus says this soil gives rise to a crop that yields a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown. When this heart has been tilled by the work of God Himself, they receive the gospel and then the empty hands that receive this, and this is all we need, empty hands that receive this, is so filled to overflowing, it cannot help but flow onto others.
It cannot help but transform. They cannot help but give. They cannot help but love. They cannot help but serve. And this is the return on this seed is that it sprouts other seeds.
It's yield is far greater than the initial seed that was thrown to it. This fruit, this wheat, this crop that is produced produces other crops. When the divine goodness of God digs deep into our lives, it bears fruit from the inside out, Jesus says. And so God's generosity, the sower's generosity will make us generous. And so this morning, I wanna tell you that the parable of the sower of the seed is not a story so much of how you understand or how much you understand.
It's about that you understand. This morning, may you understand that you are unfruitful and in need of transformation. Friend, that is a good place to be. That is understanding. You may understand that the joy of the gospel and its power has not infiltrated every part of your life.
That is a good place. Go to the Lord Jesus. Go to Him with that. With an honest and a sincere heart, ask Him to help, seek Him for renewal, and then make necessary changes. If you know friends who are those stone cold pavements of the hard path, don't give up for them.
Keep praying for the sower to sow the seed. Help in sowing that seed, but finally, finally, I wanna comfort all of us. The parable is not how much you understand, but that you understand. And so this morning, if you feel the hot warmth of the Holy Spirit working in your heart, the prick of your conscience, the laying open of some things in your heart, even some old wounds, thank God for that. Thank God for that because there is soil He is preparing, friend.
There is seed that now has work to do in you, and the farmer and that seed will do it. Amen. Let's pray. So much depth thought, so much grace, so much love. O God, it just blows our minds.
We so often come to the point where we think we need to get things under control and get it right. That we need to work harder, work smarter, be more efficient, that we need to get things in order. But Lord Jesus, we see the power really lies, not in us, but in Your grace. Lord, we may look back on our lives and we may see that there were times where we were rock hard soil. And friends and colleagues and family members shared and shared and shared this good news with us and we did not hear it.
We did not receive it. But then in a flash, before we realised something took root. Your grace took a hold of us, and we couldn't let it go. Whether we grew up in church or grew up outside of church, Lord, this has happened to all of us. This will happen to some of us.
Father, I pray for every single person here in this church. Wherever they may see themselves, wherever they may see others in their lives. Lord Jesus, do not stop sowing, please. Do not give up, Lord. Pour out Your grace, the good news of Jesus Christ, the risen victorious saviour.
And father, help us to resist weeds and things, the deceitfulness of wealth that may come and choke, that may want to cover the issues of bitterness and pride, Lord, that may so easily entangle and ensnare. Father God, will You please remove them? And Holy Spirit, continue to cultivate in our lives, in our souls, in our minds and hearts, fertile soil that may produce wonderful crops for the glory of our God. Lord, we commit our hearts, our minds, our souls to You again. Do with it what You see fit.
Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.