Matthew 18

Parable of the Sower

At this point in the ministry of Jesus we see a shift in the preaching style. Previously all of Christs teachings had been done in a standard sermon style or lecture style where Christ clearly taught either doctrinal or practical application points to all who were around. Starting in chapter thirteen however we see a shift to a parable teaching style. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a point. These parables however, were not as straightforward to everyone as His sermons had been. This makes us ask the question of why did Jesus swap His teaching style? the disciples had the same question after the first parable and Jesus answers them in verse eleven.

Matthew 13:11 “He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”

Jesus is beginning to receive harsh scrutiny from the religious elite of the Jewish community as we saw for the last two chapters the Pharisees have been questioning Him. As Jesus is preparing for His eventual death on the cross He changes up His teaching style to purposefully hide the mysteries of the kingdom from His opposition. In doing this He was able to spend more time focussing on teaching the disciples and the ones whom He chooses to reveal the mysteries to rather than wasting time answering the Pharisees every question. Again while this may sound harsh, God knows the hearts of men and it is not for us to judge who He wills to reveal His mysteries to and who He wills to hide them from. He is righteous in all His actions and we can be assured of that.

So then, the first parable that Jesus teaches us is one of the most famous ones that He ever teaches. It is called the parable of the sower. For this parable I would like for us to read straight through verses three through nine together and hear the parable in its entirety then we will skip down to verse eighteen where Christ begins to explain the parable.

Matthew 13:3–9 “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!””

When speaking in parables Christ often used ordinary actions or objects to represent extraordinary concepts. He did this to give us something to grasp and understand so that we can better understand the deeper concept at hand. For us today it is at first a little more difficult in some parables as we are no longer a farming society. In this time period though everyone would have at least been familiar with farming practices so no explanation of terms was necessary. For our sake allow me to explain the process of farming in this culture. The fields would be tilled by oxen that would have drug a plow through the ground to loosen the soil in long lines. Then the sower would come through holding a bag filled with seeds and lightly toss them into the soft upturned ground. Then the plants would be tended to as they grow until harvest.

So, for this parable we need to start looking at the different pieces of the parable and breaking down what each one is. Our first question is what is the seed? What is being sown here. Look at verse 19

The Seed

Matthew 13:19 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.”

The seed that is being sown is the word of God. It is the message that Christ proclaimed while on earth and the good news that He left for us through scripture. Why is the word of God something as small here as a seed being scattered? Think of what a seed is. To a random person it is nothing more than debris from a flower or fruit, but to a farmer it is life. Within a seed is all that is needed to sprout new life and produce sustanance for many. A seed is a small insignificant thing to the many, but to the few it is life. We are the few. To us believers the word of God contains all that we need to have life abundantly. It is powerful and if nurtured can grow in you and change you.

The Sower

Who then is the one who sows these seeds? We are tempted to say it is us the believers in Christ that sows the seeds, but that is arrogant to believe. It is Christ who truly sows the seeds. We are simply instruments that He may use to sow the word into the world, but it is Christ who does the work through us not the other way around. We are the hands and the tools for Christ but we need to keep in mind who is in control and not believe that it is our own work that is capable of sowing the word.

Now in this parable we focus on the ground that the seed lands on and the four different types of ground. The ground in this parable represents the hearts of men (meaning all of humanity). Our hearts have been compared here to the earth and from that comparison we can understand things about our own hearts so as we break down the types of ground here examine your own heart to see if in any way we can fall into one of these categories.

The first we see is the seed that fell by the wayside.

The Wayside

Matthew 13:19 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.”

As a sower walks some seeds fall along the walking path. This path had not been prepared for a seed and therefore it was left open for birds to swoop in and take those seeds away. This ground represents the person who is totally closed off to God. The person that despite hearing the word of God, still totally refuses to listen and allow it into their lives. While this specifically is refering to lost people who have never know Christ, I believe that we can still slip into these tendancies and halt ourselves from growing closer to God. Sometimes as believers we may hear the word preached, we may go to church on Sunday morning or Wednesday night but because we are upset, we don’t like the style of worship, or we don’t like the guy delivering the word, we close off our hearts and don’t allow His word to work on us. While yes we have already been redeemed we are not growing any because of our closed off unplowed hearts. We have to sit down every time His word is open with open hearts ready to recieve the seed and nurture it in us.

The Stoney Places

Matthew 13:20–21 “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”

The stoney ground is the person who hears the word of God and loves the sound of it, but never allows it in to make a change. I see this in our modern churches across the nation. People like the parts of scripture regarding love and kindness and serving others, but they hate the parts that say you need to make a change in your lives. These people may initially look like Christians, but when trials come, here represented as the sun, they will be burned up. They will have no real root in Christ since they never allowed Him in and they will crumble away underneath the weight of the world. Matthew Henry makes an interesting observation here that the very same sun however that scorches the plant in stoney places would have helped to nourish the plant in good soil. Trials and hardships tear down and break non-believers, but to the believer a trial is something that God is using to make you even better and to help you to grow so take comfort in the struggle knowing that God is nourishing you.

Now then, how can we as believers still be like the people with hearts of stoney places? We come every week and hear the word and tell people that we are a follower of Christ, but are you letting His word sink in? Are you applying it to your life or are you simply letting it roll over you without thinking of how it applies to you? We can get into a habit as Christian to come to church hear a sermon and think that is a great message for the guy sitting beside me. No that is a great message for you. Allow His word to take a firmer root within your heart and change you instead of being content in a stagnant state.

The Thorns

Matthew 13:22 “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.”

The heart surrounded by thorns can be thought of as a distracted heart or even a heart at war with itself. The people with this heart hear the word of God and want to let it take root in them, they want to let it change them, but the world around them is so enticing. The world around them is a constant distraction keeping them from committing to the word. Either they are to concerned with the cares of the world which is what people think and what the world is concerned with, or they are to blinded by the decietfulness of riches meaning that the appeal of luxury and wealth has decieved them into thinking they can find support and identity in those things. These hearts are at war between serving God and serving the world and as we have discussed previously in Matthew you cannot serve both. God will not tolerate riding the fence. Either you are for Him or you are against Him and their is no room for a middle ground. So, how can we be like this at times? What did you bring into this service tonight? What is on your mind right now that has kept you from paying attention to this message? What is it that keeps popping up into your mind? Maybe it’s a relationship, a sport, a club, a conversation you had earlier, or even just what you are going to eat later. When we sit down to open Gods word we are called to leave our distractions at the door. We need to be focused on the word of God so that the world around us does not choke out what He plans to teach us through His word.

The Good Ground

Matthew 13:23 “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.””

Lastly is the heart of good ground. This ground has been tilled and the soil is loose and ready to receive the seed, it is soft and cleared of any stones, and it is well tended to keep the weeds and thorns from overtaking the seed. This is the heart that is prepared to take in the word. Now I want to be clear here that it is not the ground that prepares the ground. You cannot prepare your own heart for the initial receiving of the word of God that changes a man from death to life. It is only God who can prepare the heart for the initial planting of the word within your heart that leads to salvation. Once this seed is planted into the ground that God prepared then God can give it the growth to bear fruit. Take notice here of the variety of results from the seed that is planted in the good ground. Some plants produce an abundance and some produce a little, but notice that Christ did not make any distinction between them. They are all plants in the good ground that have produced fruit. We try to compare our walks with Christ to the people around us and either get discouraged because we aren’t as far along as some or we get arrogant because we are farther than others, but to God we are all equal, we are all producing fruit for the kingdom and it does not matter at what level we are producing so long as we are giving it our best and producing the most that we can.

What Now?

Now, how does this relate to our week in week out Bible study that we have been discussing. Each week we are called to come into worship with the good ground that God has given us well tended. We are called to maintain this soil and ensure that each week we come that it is prepared to receive the word of God. We are number one, willing to receive His word. We are not closing ourselves off to Him unwilling to let Him change us. Number two, we are willing to not only receive His word, but willing to take it home with us and apply it into our lives. We aren’t just walking out of the church and leaving what we learned in the building, but we are actively looking for how we can apply it to our own lives. And lastly, we are cutting out all distractions that are in our lives. We are putting our phones down and not focusing on the day we just had or the week we have coming up, but we are totally focused on God and what He has for us in these moments. When we do this and walk into the church with this kind of mindset then we have rightly prepared our hearts to revcieve the word of God and allow Him to grow us into plants that produce fruit more and more abundantly.