The Good News of Jesus Is Worth Hearing based on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

I. Regret from student teaching.

II. Read Matthew 13:3-4 and comment and Matthew 13:19 and comment. Matthew 13:3-4 “And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.”

Matthew 13:19 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.”

III. Read Matthew 13:5-6 and comment Matthew 13:20-21 and comment. Matthew 13:5-6 “Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.”

Matthew 13:20-21 “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”

IV. Read Matthew 13:7 and comment and Matthew 13:22 and comment. Matthew 13:7 “Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.”

Matthew 13:22 “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

V. Read Matthew 13:8-9 and comment and Matthew 13:23 and comment. Matthew 13:8-9 “Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Matthew 13:23 “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

VI. Story of Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen. A Lutheran professor in Australia tells the following story: “One of the greatest Christian missionaries of all time is not as widely known as he should be. He was a German Lutheran named Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen. He came from a small island up near Denmark. He loved the Lord and the Gospel. In 1862, he was dispatched by the Rhenish Mission Society in Barmen, Germany, to Sumatra (Indonesia). He faithfully sowed the seed of the Gospel among the Batak tribes in Sumatra for many decades, in the face of all kinds of opposition and rejection. It was three years before there was any discernable result from his missionary preaching, in the form of a Baptism, and then even more years before much further progress was made in converting the local Batak people. His work was at various points hampered by local political problems with the Batak king and other tribal chiefs who were waging war on the local Dutch occupiers. Yet he was sustained and encouraged in his work, continuing in the face of difficulty over the many remaining years of his life until his death at the age of 84 in 1918. In 1878, after many years of difficult labour, he completed his first translation of the New Testament into the Batak language, enabling people to read the Scriptures themselves. At the time of his death, there were 180,000 Batak Lutherans who were the direct fruit of this one Christian missionary preaching, teaching, and translating over almost fifty years.

The Batak Lutheran Church today is a vital and thriving Asian Lutheran church, from which many postgraduate students have come to study at Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide, Australia. The seed produces grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty (Matthew 13:8).”

VII. Conclusion. Maybe one day you will look back on life and be amazed at the way God’s Word about the good news of Jesus produced a lot of fruit in the lives of people you told about Jesus, too. Amen.