Parable of the Sower

[Introduction Illustration] Last weekend myself and the Young Adult Ministry I lead went to a small community Easter fund raiser put on by a local realtor company. The YAM’s and I were one of the venders, we had a little tent set up, we had our church sign /The Lakes Community Church/ set up in the front of the tent to show the people who we are and what we represent. What we were doing was we had face painting on one side of the table for young kids and on the other side a craft called the gospel in a bag which explained the gospel through different candies such as we used pretzels as the cross, black liquorish as the sin, a marsh mellow because its white and since Jesus died for our sins he washed us clean as snow, and a few other candies to symbolize stuff. Well, we had quite a few adults with their young kids come through, every time we had adults there myself or another one of the young adults would go and ask the adult if they’d be okay if their child did the craft. At first, we had this young boy probably no older than 3, asked if he wanted to do a craft and get his face painted, the kid just starts crying and screaming, wanted nothing to do with us. He might’ve been scared of the teenage girls which is understandable. Next, we had a few young ladies comes through and did the craft, you could see that they were excited to be a part of the craft and after they got done with the craft they eat all the candy in less than a minute just Marshawn Lynch with skittles and beast mode ate that bag of candy immediately. There was another young lady that came through that heard the gospel, from there she was asking questions about why Jesus would do these things and we sat down and explained who God is and why we need to believe in Jesus Christ. You see each of these young kids possessed the ability to hear what we had to say about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and there were different reactions from each kid or groups of kids.

[Setting] Jesus and the disciples went through the same kind of experience with sharing the news that the Messiah is here to save us all with people in the first century. Jesus gives a captivating parable and description of these sort of experiences in Mathew 13, the parable of the sower. The setting for Jesus’ third discourse is similar to that of the first (5:1); in both cases Jesus is surrounded by crowds. Close your eyes for a minute and think of being on the shore of the ocean so like a beach surrounded by a hundred people, you got that? The ocean is still, its calm. And there’s off about 50 yards a boat floating in the ocean, and on the boat is a man named Jesus who you’ve heard about and he’s telling a story, that’s the setting of parable of the sower in Mathew 13.

Jesus was speaking to people of the first century he was familiar with. As many public speakers would say, the number one rule in public speaking is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Which is why when Jesus launched into one of his parables with colorful language that was familiar to the audience he was talking to Jesus would start with the common and move to the uncommon, he would start with something simple and move to something complex. That’s exactly what Jesus does here in our parable we are going to dive into today. Jesus uses something that is familiar with the audience, he uses something that is common to them and that is seeds and sowing which is understandable because back in the first century AD, what you would grow you would eat so these concepts would be very familiar for you. Jesus is going to use the concept of seeds and sowing to relate one overarching truth and that truth is,

[Sermon Theme] The kingdom of God will come to those who hear, therefore be very careful how you communicate the Gospel.

The disciples in the first century were becoming confused as to why people were not coming to believe in Jesus Christ. Asking themselves, is there a problem with Jesus? Is there a problem with the message? Jesus’ parables was simply like nawwww there’s nothing wrong with the farmer (Messiah), or the seed (Gospel), but the problem is with the soil (the people hearing, the people hear with what? [their hearts])

There are two main things we are going to look at today.

[Sermon Points]

1. How people reaction towards the Gospel.

2. How we can till the soil for a better reaction towards the Gospel.

[Passage] 1 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow;

4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.

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 the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

[Application] These are the hearts of people who when they hear the word Christian or hear that you or I are a Christian and you do your best to tell them the good news, they immediately even without you finishing your sentence cut you off and will start calling you names such as homophobic, Islamophobic, say that Christianity is untrue because so many people have rewritten the bible. These are the people that they don’t even try to understand the bible, they’ve grown up in a culture and world view that tells them that Christians are bad, Christians are hypocrites.

[Question] As a Christian how do we respond to that, how can we till the soil, how can we stir in these peoples heart an understanding of the Gospel for them to one day transform their lives?

[Application] Well first I believe that we as Christians should admit that yes, we can be hypocrites but more than that we need to let these kinds of people know that because Jesus died for our sins and when we ask for forgiveness we don’t have to worry about the hypocritical thing we did, we are forgiven we are free from our past. In order to change the soil of these people, we must never stop trying to till the soil no matter how far off the path of God a person is.

And for the seeds that fall maybe not off the path presa but in a rocky place, this is what Jesus said about them,

[Passage] 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.

You know, we here in America are very blessed because we don’t see the persecution of Christians like if you went over to China, Africa, Middle East. We are in a safe bubble that keeps us from those things but I believe that affliction and persecution is what tests our faith in God and shows us who is a true believer.

[Illustration] Think of it this way, going to take it way back to when you first started driving a car. Can you remember how excited you were when you realized that yesssssss I get to drive a car by myself now, I am an adult, I can take control and go do stuff instead f having to ride my bike around everywhere. Well you get in the car and you turn the key, car starts, pull out of the drive way and the drive starts off very good, you’re just so excited to be driving a car. You’re on the highway driving through the country sort of and all the sudden a deer jumps out of nowhere, you swerve trying to miss the deer but you clip the deer and spin out and end up in the ditch with minor injuries but that car accident scared you half to death, you almost had a heart attack. After that incident, you never got back in a car and you never wanted to drive a car again because of that one car accident. Verse 20-21, “immediately received it with joy; but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.”

[Application] These people get attacked because they are Christian and because of that they don’t want to follow Jesus anymore. What we as Christians need to do for these people who want to believe in Jesus Christ but got scared of how the world reacts to us, we must encourage these folks and nurture them so they can understand that yes this is going to happen but look beyond the affliction and persecution and look at eternity with God in His kingdom. This seed that Jesus Christ presents to us which is the good news needs to be nurtured so that things like this does not happen.

Scenario #3 Jesus gives another hearing problem in verse 7 and explanation in verse 22.

[Passage] 7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.

22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

How many people do we see coming to church almost every Sunday that are the thorny soil?

[Illustration] “The worry of the world”, this reminds me of a man, a man who grew up in church, a man who went through Seminary and became a preacher, this man decided because he could not reconcile a good God would allow such evil in this world he became an atheist and dropped away from the faith. This man is one of the leading NT scholars we have today, his name is Bart Herman. He worried that because the world was so corrupt that a good God could not have made it so and he’s made his mission to discredit the NT even though he’s a professor of NT books at UNC.

Equally as disheartening are the people who say they believe in Jesus Christ yet allows the greeeeed of money to overpower their desire for God. They say they want to follow Jesus but mannnnn I really want to buy that brand new BMW, I really don’t have money to give to the church this month but mannnnnn I really think I’m going to buy a four-wheeler this week because I really want to go with my buddies down to Brunswick beach and go four wheeling with them.

[Application] The deceit of the world and the corruption of lusting for materialistic things can burden a person to the point of walking away from the faith or just simply not walking in their faith as strong as they need to and we all know people who have done both. But for those who have gone through the skeptisizing Christianity, the temptation, the persecution and affliction, for those who have gave when they have not had much and looked towards the eternity and not what is just right here, we have scenario 4 of those who hear about the kingdom of God. Jesus says

[Passage] 8 And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

Sevenfold is a lot of production for a seed but what it will look like is this.

[Illustration] [Picture of Redwood tree seed] You see this seed here, its extremely small but when put in the right climate, nurtured, watered, given the right nutrients this very small seed can grow into this

[Picture of Redwood Tree] This is what that seed turns into, a Redwood Tree. One of the biggest trees in northern America.

- 5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.