Reading Assignment: Matthew 13:1-23
Key Verse: Matthew 13:16
Truth: Only some hear the word of God with a right heart.
This section is comprised of three parts: parable, blessedness, explanation
1. Parable of the Sower: The sower went out to sow seeds and the seeds fell on four types of soils: roadside, rocky, thorny, and good soil. Depending on the soil, the seeds produced fruit or did not produce fruit.
2. Blessedness: Jesus declares that not everyone receives an explanation or gains an understanding of the word of God. Those who are given such a privilege are very blessed. To see and hear the word of God is the greatest privilege.
3. Explanation: The four soils represent four different types of people. Of all types, only one receives the word of God with a right heart. This is the one that understands and produces what the word of God was meant to produce: faith, repentance, obedience, and transformation of life.
Prayer Suggestions:
1. Explanation: Thank You for teaching me and letting me hear an explanation of Your word.
2. Understanding: Thank You for giving me a heart that embraces Your word as the truth.
3. Fruit: I commit to following through with Your word. Help me and strengthen me to live by what I have heard.
Transcript
Let's pray and we'll begin.
Our Lord, thank You that we can approach You again this morning. You are our Creator. You are the one who sustains our lives. And we thank You that You, the great and awesome God, have sent Your Son to be our Savior. In Jesus, all our sins are washed away; and we enter into a new life devoted to serving You and worshiping You and living by Your word. What a joyful life the Christian life is, because there's such a clear direction for our everyday lives. And we pray that You would guide us during this time and that You would strengthen each one here to know You more and that You would open up Your word to each one all the more and that each one would have a heart that is soft and receptive to all that You have to say. So, bless us now, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The next reading assignment is Matthew 13:1-23. This is the famous parable of the Sower. It's a story that Jesus told about a farmer that went out to sow seeds. In the story, his seeds fell on different soils. The truth found in this story is this: Only some hear the word of God with the right heart. This is to say, not everyone has a heart like this. The key verse is found in verse 16 where Jesus says, “blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.” When Jesus said those words, He was saying that not everyone has eyes to see and ears to hear; but that if God has given you eyes to see and ears to hear spiritual truth, that you are of all people the most blessed. There are three parts to this section. There is first the story (or the parable), and then there is the declaration of blessedness, and then an explanation. The three parts are parable, blessedness, and explanation.
First, the parable. Jesus begins by telling a story. When you begin to read the chapter, you'll notice this setting is quite interesting. There's a crowd gathered on the seashore, and Jesus actually enters into a boat and teaches from the boat. Kind of an unusual scene, but that's how much people had gathered around Him. From a boat in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus tells a story to teach them a lesson about how to hear the word of God. The story goes like this. There are four types of soils. The sower went out to sow seeds, and some seeds fell on the road. And the birds of the air ate up the seeds, and that's the end of the story for those seeds. There's a second type of soil, rocky soil, and the seeds fell on it. The rocky soil probably refers to what we might today call hard pan. It's where maybe on the surface there is a small layer of soft soil, but underneath it's just rock hard. This means there's just no way that a plant can penetrate through the hard pan and grow deep roots. So some seeds fell on rocky soil and they took shallow roots in that thin layer of soil. They sprang up quickly; but because they did not have a rich root system deep into the ground, tapping into the deeper water source, the plant eventually withered away. Then comes the third soil which is thorny. This would be like soil with lots of weeds growing in it. So some seeds fell among the thorns and eventually when they sprang up, they were choked out by the thorns. Then, finally, there's the fourth soil, which is good soil with no problems. So this set of seeds falls on the good soil and the seeds sprout, grow, and mature into healthy and full grown plants. These then produce a crop. Jesus says that these seeds yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty. Regardless of what the number is, they produced a multitude of what they began with. One seed became many kernels of grain. This is how the story ends. This, of course, makes everybody a bit puzzled, because Jesus usually taught lessons, not on agriculture, but on eternal matters and our relationship with God and moral issues in the sight of God, things that really matter for eternity. The disciples were also a bit confounded. And so they asked Jesus, “Why does Jesus speak in these mysterious parables?” Jesus then begins to give an explanation for why He does this, why He doesn't just give very simple, straightforward lessons, but stories which require an explanation. It's because only those people who seek to understand are given an explanation. Well, as Jesus explains this, He shows us that the parable is actually reflexive in its meaning. It's a parable about the parable itself. Those who do not understand the parable are spoken about in the parable. Those who understand rightly are also spoken about in the parable. And everyone in between, those who may intellectually understand but they fail to respond rightly, they are also talked about in the parable. The parable shows that those who are given an explanation and understanding have a great privilege. He tells them that not everyone has been given this great privilege. But even among those who are so privileged, not everyone truly understood the significance of the lesson from Jesus. Clearly we know of at least one person who did not understand its significance, Judas Iscariot. This man never ends up bearing the fruits of Jesus' lessons. He never comes to truly believe and repent and come to obey the Lord.
Now, having said all these things, Jesus then explains the parable to His disciples. The four soils represent four types of people. The first kind of people are those who do not understand what the word of God means. And without an understanding, the message has no staying power in them. Jesus explains that the devil snatches away the word of God, so that those who never really understood, they become a forgetful hearer. It's kind of a sad situation, but this is what happens to many people. You know, often people come to church, and they might sit in the pews and listen to a sermon, but they don’t really understand. They weren't really paying close attention. So at the end of the service, they might go away thinking, “I'm not sure really what I heard.” And then they go away and they totally forget anything of what they heard. That's the first kind of person. The second kind of person is the rocky soil. This is a person who is shallow in their commitment to Jesus. Like having a thin layer of soil on top of rock, this person has no deep roots that will sustain them over the long haul. These are the kind of people who hear the word of God, they seem to understand it and they receive it with joy. But they were shallow. When difficult times come (or when persecutions come), they quickly fall away from following Jesus. The third soil is the thorny soil, and these are the sort of people who also understand the word of God and they receive it; but as they go on in life, they are distracted and consumed by the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. The gospel of Luke also tells us in a parallel passage (in Luke 8), they are overrun also by the pleasures of life. As a result, the word of God is choked out. Instead of having the central place of influence in their lives, it is marginalized. And Jesus shows that these people also do not produce any fruit. In the same way, plants among weeds just don't get enough sunlight or nutrients from the soil, so these people who are too distracted with other things in life that suffocate the word of God from their lives. Then comes the fourth soil. This is a person who hears and understands the word of God. He believes and follows through with what the word of God says. This person is the man who is saved (as Luke tells us). He receives the kingdom of God, because he has responded to Jesus wholeheartedly with true faith and repentance. This man follows Jesus with all his heart. And what's the outcome? His life bears fruit in the sight of God. This is fruit of repentance, fruit of obedience, fruit of worship, and the fruit of a transformed life. And so this is a person who achieves the end for which God brought the seed of His word to him. This is the seed that has actually matured into a full-grown plant that bears fruit.
So what is it that we can pray about in light of these things? At least three things. If you sense that the Lord has given you the inordinate privilege of understanding the Word of God, you should thank Him for that. I think I would pray something like this: “Jesus, thank You for giving me the privilege of hearing an explanation of Your word. Thank You for giving me knowledge. I may not understand everything, but You've given me a great deal of understanding. And for this I am so grateful, because even as You said, not everyone has eyes to see and ears to hear. But You have given me this great privilege. Thank You for this.”
The second thing to pray about is understanding. This is not only to know intellectually what the Bible says, but actually to see the significance of it. And again, we can pray to the Lord about this. We can say, “Jesus, thank You that I not only have an understanding for my mind but You have graciously touched my heart. I can sense deep inside of me that Your word is the truth, and that Your word is life-giving, and that Your word can truly make me into a person that is right with God, and that Your word has the power to save me from my sins. Thank You for opening my eyes to see these things. I know not everyone sees that which I am able to see. Thank You for this.”
Last thing to pray about is about bearing fruit, about how the word of God should produce a transformed life in me. I think a prayer like this would be appropriate: “Jesus, thank You for Your words. I've read and heard so much of what it means to follow You and what it means to exercise true faith and what it means to repent. In my heart, that is exactly what I want to do. And more than just my heart, I take seriously all that You've said. If there's anything that I must repent of and change, I'm here and ready to do whatever You want me to do. I believe in You. I trust in You. And I'm ready to do as You say. I pray that You would grant me the strength and the focus and the courage to do that which is right in Your eyes. Help me not to be afraid of consequences, of mockery or persecution from those around me. Help me that I would honor Your word as I should. You are God, and I want to live a life that honors You. So I pray for your help so that my life will bear much fruit. Amen.”
There's a lot to pray about here as usual, but that is the lesson on the four kinds of soils. The point that Jesus makes here, as I pointed out earlier, is that those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, they are of all people the most blessed. They are immensely privileged in the sight of God, because not everyone really hears and understands the word of God and responds to the Lord with a hearty yes. If in your heart your response to the Lord is a hearty yes, that is a greatest place to be, and you should be grateful to the Lord that He has given you such a heart. But more than gratitude, you should therefore honor Him and earnestly seek the Lord and pursue living by His word; and the Holy Spirit will help you to do that. So that is the lesson for today and we will end it here. Lord bless you all, and we'll see you on Wednesday. Goodbye.