Parable of the Sower
Notes
Transcript
Part 1
Part 1
We are going to kick off our new series this morning by looking into parables.
Before we get too far we first need to define what is a parable. I’m guessing many of us have heard that word but have we ever stopped to wonder what it means?
What is a parable?
So first lets go to Google. What is a parable?
a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.
Interesting that Google acknowledges Jesus and the Gospels but here you have a moral or spiritual lesson.
They asked Jesus why he spoke in parables and he responded:
13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
He would go on to say:
17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
So not the most clear response but we know, not all that hear will understand. Actually many prophets and righteous people, leaders, will long to know what the disciples knew.
This is true in America. Thousands of people are obsessed with wanting to know and understand this Jesus guy. They dedicate so much time and effort into finding these hidden meanings or the secret revelation or to know the meaning of scripture and yet sad to say they never actually know Jesus and they don’t care about what Jesus actually said.
They are so consumed with finding these hidden meanings they ignore the bold truths of the will of God or how to be made right with God.
Jesus spoke in parables actually to help us understand.
Look around at the world around you and better understand what I have to say.
Sometimes its helpful to look at the original word and even how else it is translated in order to help understand what it means.
The original word is parabole and is used 50 times in the New Testament
45 times it is translated parable (all of them in the gospels)
2 times it is translated lesson (Matthew 24 and Mark 13) both in the story of the fig tree.
1 time it is translated proverb (Luke 4)
In Hebrews it is translated symbolic and figuratively
Parabole: parable, lesson, proverb, symbolic, figuratively.
This past Wednesday as we talked about the empty tomb, Paul had us work in groups and walk through each of the gospels covering the same story. As we cover the parables of Jesus we will find that they too are often covered in different books on the same account.
Quickly I want to do a brief object lesson to help us wrap our minds around this. I need 4 volunteers—one has to be a leader or adult.
I am going to give you four questions that you will fill out on these cards and give back to me—write nice. There is no wrong answers so don’t worry about that.
The rest of you can play along and write the answers on your outline.
What is Night of Nights?
What did we do at Night of Nights?
Describe the food at Night of Nights?
Describe the mood of Night of Nights?
Let me have those cards—lets compare answers.
What was different among the four cards? Why was that?
Was the event they went to the same event? Did they see the same things happen? Did they eat the same food more or less?
Yet despite all the similarities, they have different descriptions and accounts. Length, detail, perspective, background can all influence the account of the same event. That doesn’t mean they are not covering the same thing or seeing or hearing the same thing it just means the recall or describe it differently.
As we cover the parables and with all the accounts of the gospels, you are going to have different details or perspectives on stories from Jesus and that doesn’t make one right or wrong, it just means they witnessed, emphasized or remembered different parts of it at different importances.
Going back to Night of Nights—if you were a member of the Gragg family you probably remember or focus on different things that someone from our church who came just to come.
With all tha tin mind—we are going to work through our first parable today, we will do part of it today and then finish it next week. We are going to bounce around between Matthew, Mark & Luke in looking at the Parable of the Sower.
First lets look at the setting for this story.
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,
If we take these three accounts and harmonize them we get this:
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. A very large crowd from town after town gathered around him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. The whole crowd stood on the beach. He began to teach them in parables, saying:
So we see Jesus had been traveling, he had gone through a lot in the last couple days but we don’t have time to cover that so he comes to the Sea of Galilee and he is so overwhelmed with people he has to get into a boat so be able to teach.
Some believe this could have been one of the largest crowds he ever spoke to. They came from all the surrounding towns to hear him speak. Its not lost on me that in this story we are going to read about different responses in ones heart and amongst this crowd, perhaps in the thousands, you certainly would have all these responses.
Lets read the passage and identify the characters involved. For the sake of time we will read the account from Luke.
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Alright lets begin to define the characters or items in this story. There are six main components in this story, what are they?
Sower
Seed
Path
Rocky Soil
Thorny Soil
Good Soil
First we have the sower. Any guesses who/what the sower is?
We are going to read in all three accounts to desciptions or meanings of the characters but it actually never tells us who the Sower is. We can make some pretty strong deductions and I can argue pretty strongly that it is for sure one of two people, and I would say both, but Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly and that is for a reason.
The sower is the no the main point of the story.
The sower is Jesus and the preaching & teaching of the word of God. And this anyone and everyone who is a follower of Christ and has shared the gospel. It is not limited to those who are pastors or preachers.
Jesus so often used imagery that would be known and make sense to those he was speaking too. It was very common for those hearing this to walk by farms and see the farmer planting seed.
The farm would be a plot of land that was tended too and had a path going around it that people would walk on. Along the edges of that path was rocky, unkept ground followed by weeds and then the actual farm land.
When we were in Uganda we saw this, as we walk along side the road which was very hard and compressed from people and animals and cars, you could see the farmland, there was lots of different vegtables they would grow and you could walk right along and see. But between the road and the plants was a valley of trash, rocks and weeds of unkept ground.
Back to our story, what would happen is the farmer would tie a bag of seed to his belt and he would walk around the field, grab a handful of seed and throw it across the field. There wasnt much care where all the seed went, the goal was to try and cover as much ground as you can. Obviously you are trying to keep it within the farm land but in doing so you inevitably get some on the surrounding area.
So what is the seed?
The word of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Notice the seed is the same and it is cast out to all in the same way.
What is the gospel?
Should a gospel presentation be the same at all times? Yes & no.
I tried to think of lots of terms to help identify this but it comes down to this: style vs substance.
Style—this has great variation depending on the situation, the person, the background. Big Christianese words should be avoided (usually) but especially when dealing with children and those unfamiliar with the bible.
Your tone and urgency will be catered to the situation and needs. Sometimes you need to get the entire gospel in very quickly, perhaps in a quick conversation. But sometimes it can be a long drawn out conversation perhaps even over a couple days—when your comforting someone that suddenly lost someone.
Style may be different. But substance will not change.
The gospel of Jesus Christ who came for sinful man, (men are by nature sinful and the result of sin is death) suffered and died on my account, was buried and rose again in three days conquering death and defeating sin and if you want to enter into personal relationship with this king Jesus you must repent and believe. Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that he has risen from the dead.
That is the gospel and that should never be altered or changed.
The seed of the gospel is cast out to all hearts and is received in different ways but the preacher, the teacher, you, throw the seed out not knowing that soil it is going to land on.
Lets look at the soils and what they mean. We will look at some today and some next week.
What is the first type of soil? The path.
4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Luke provides a little more detail but what happens to the seed? It is trampled on underfoot and then the birds of the air devoured it.
Remember the path surrounds the field and would have been compacted by foot traffic, animals and wheels from carts. You would never intentionally scatter the seed on the path but as you are walking the perimeter of the field you would throw a handful and some would go onto the path.
Each of these soils is a picture of something which is what—the heart.
What do you think the path represents?
Jesus actually tells us.
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.
15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.
12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
These people never actually had seed take root. Because of the work of Satan it goes on deaf hears and is ignored. They are not able to believe and be saved because the word is taken from their hearts.
I would label this (which I have taken from something I read) the path would be the hard heart.
These are the people you share and share and share and share and they just don’t listen. They never bite so to speak and just ignore your pleas. They may even be hostile and angry toward you for sharing. They don’t want what you have and don’t want to hear any of it.
In many ways these are the easiest to deal with because you know you have to keep trying. They don’t know Jesus and until that wall comes down they don’t know just how lost they are.
We move on to the next type of soil.
5 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, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.
5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
This seed is cast and lands on the ground boardering the path. It is not nearly as hard as the path but under the top layer of soil it is rocky and solid. Oftentimes they would have layers of stone and rock that were covered with a thin layer of dirt that was blown and kicked from the path and the field. It would be uneasy and loose to walk on but if you tried to dig it would be solid and you wouldn’t get through.
Have you ever tried to dig something and all you do is keep hitting more and more rocks? I have had this several times and its very frustrating. Two quick stories years ago we were in Mexico and we were prepping a foundation for a house and when I say house I mean shack—it was probably 10 ft x 15 ft. It was on the side of the mountain and every house around it was constucted with whatever they could find so old tires, misc wood and siding and sheet metal. Some had tarps for roofs and this all matters.
We worked and worked to level the ground but just under the dirt is was filled with big rocks and stone. I don’t remember who all was helping but we would dig one out and then carry the rock up the side of the mountain and into the truck. We came across a really big one and we could not get it free. We dug all around it and was pounding it with a spud bar and finally we broke it free.
There was a couple of us trying to pry it out and when we did it took off and began rolling down the mountain. We all looked in terror as it began barreling toward houses. Just like in the cartoons it hit another rock and split in two and proceeded to go on both sides of a house before crashing into some tires and no causing any damage.
A couple years ago Mike and I were digging to put that basketball hoop in and we couldn’t get any deeper with the shovel and come to find it the ground was filled with broken bricks.
The point is this—that group is no useful for any sort of meaningful crop. The roots may took root shortly but what happens? When the sun comes it dies.
So what heart is this?
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 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.
16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
This one hits a little closer to home. This is the neighbor, the friend, the coworker, the family member who hear the gospel and receive it with joy. They are so excited about this life changing message they have received.
You may even know someone in your life who received the gospel and repented and is on fire for the Lord. They come out of a camp or a conference or a study or even just a conversation and they are so excited about the good news of Jesus Christ.
And yet what happens?
When trials and persecution comes, they fall away. We know that life will have trials and difficulties.
I know at your age you have rose colored glasses and think or hope you never have to deal with anything hard but you will at some point.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
This may be big things. The loss of a parent, a sibling, a friend. Divorce, infidelity, loss of a job, etc.
But sometimes they are not the really big things. The rejection of a friend. A breakup. Not getting an interview or a job. A family member you lose touch with. In the big picture you know its not the end of the world but it hurts, and it makes you sad and makes you question things.
I have people I grew up with or knew that have fallen away. Sometimes there was divorce, death, church hurt, job loss, etc. But just as often its hurt feelings, lack of promotion, difficult children, constant sickness. Its little things that attack us again and again and wither away at the faith that they had.
This is the superficial heart. It appears to have all it needs but in reality there is no root and its just a matter of time that it goes away.
You can grow grass really easy. You throw seed down and you water it and some grows very quickly. But if you don’t allow it to take root and keep the ground filled with moisture the sun will come and scorch it and its useless.
Sometimes these people are int he church. Sometimes they are your friends and your family.
Next week we are going to cover the other two types of soil as well as some application and wrap up.
Lets pray.