A Call to Faith

I grew up on churches that were similar in size and wealth to FHCC so we didn’t have any fancy stained glass. This made it very impressive to me when I went off to college and found this piece of art in the lobby of the administration building at Moody Bible Institute. Right behind the front desk this piece, called the Sower, reminded all students, employees and guests that D.L. Moody was primarily an evangelist.

Each year on the week that included February 5, D.L.’s birthday, all classes would be cancelled and a Bible Conference was held with some of the most popular preachers alive. I heard people like Josh McDowell, Tony Evans, Charles Swindoll and Billy Graham. One year I had to opportunity to hear Dr. John MacArthur speak on the parable in today’s Scripture.

I recall that he said, “although the heading in your Bible probably reads ‘The Parable of the Sower’ this text is not primarily about the sower. It is about the soils.” In this story Jesus describes 4 ways that people respond to the seed which is the Word of God. Verses 16-18 are all about response to the Light. And the verses conclude with distinction being given to those who hear and obey the word of God.

I have titled this sermon A Call to Faith, because all 3 of today’s illustrations point to our reaction to Jesus’ words.

Transition: Jesus begins by describing 3 wrong responses and 1 right response to the Word of God. The right response is that…

Disciples Produce Results (vv. 4-15)

Three Acts to this Play

1. The Parable Itself (vv.4-8)– With only slight variations, this is the same parable as we find in Mt 13 and Mark 4.

2. The Purpose of the Parable (vv.9-10) – divine revelation

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV:2016

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

a. Paul declares that some things can only be understood if revealed by the Holy Spirit

b. Daniel is a good example of God revealing what others can’t figure out. In Daniel 2 God reveals both Nebechadnezzar’s dream AND its interpretation. In Daniel 4 (having proved that Daniel has no extra measure of cleverness) God gives Daniel the interpretation to a 2nd dream by King Nebuchadnezzar.

c. Notice the wording at the beginning of v.10, “to you it has been given to know.”

d. In the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 Jesus warns about giving holy things to dogs or pearls to pigs. Parables are memorable stories that teach important truths to disciples.

3. The Meaning of the Parable (vv.11-15) – the emphasis is not in the quality of the seed, or any special abilities of the farmer. The same seed is spread onto all 4 soils.

a. I mentioned back in Luke 5 how when we think of fishing we think of one line with bait and a hook, but that Jesus’ world of fishing was about nets that caught many fish.

b. Similarly, our modern methods of commercial sowing are focused upon spacing, depth and fertilization of each individual seed. But sowing in Jesus day was more like broadcast spreading of grass seed.

c. The main thing I remember from Dr. MacArthur’s message at Founder’s Week is that our responsibility is to spread seed.

· We don’t need to develop new creative ways of retelling the Gospel

· We don’t need to obsess about how the person may respond to the Gospel.

· Our responsibility is to spread the Gospel and trust the Holy Spirit to prepare hearts, cause the truth to germinate and to bring the increase.

Three Obstacles to Faith (vv.12-14)

1. Enemy (v.12) – When grace falls on hardened and trodden lives, Satan convinces the unbeliever to disregard the hope of the Gospel. Some lives have been hardened by hurt or disappointment so that they disbelieve when the gospel of grace announces that they are loved and offered a free gift.

2. Emotion (v.13) – Everyone in the Flint Hills knows how rock that is barely under a thin layer of topsoil can influence agriculture. Plants that begin well, soon find that the shallow soil does not contain enough moisture to bring the plant to maturity. Shallow soil reminds me of people who are driven by emotion—the smallest thing can redirect their whole life. These are the people who respond on Easter or Christmas or at a revival meeting, but the first or second time things don’t go as they expect, they give up and slide back into their old patterns.

3. Everything (v.14) – Some people seriously consider the cost of following Christ, their human knowledge answers their questions, their feelings align with their thoughts and they make a willful decision to follow. Jesus says in John 15 that the key to maturity and producing faith is abiding in Him (the vine). When everything else becomes more important than our prayer life, our Scripture reading and our witness, then we do not mature and immaturity leads to doubt.

Stay in Your Lane

1. The response of other people to the Gospel is not the point of this parable. Our responsibility toward others is to spread the seed by speaking the truth in love.

2. Our responsibility toward God is to respond as good soil (v.15).

3. We respond by giving attention to the hearing of the Word.

4. We respond by holding fast to the truth of the Word

5. We respond by obeying the commands and examples of the world so that the fruit of the Spirit is produced in us.

Transition: By cultivating a teachable and tender heart, the Fruit of the Spirit will be produced in us.

Disciples Project into Darkness (vv.16-18)

Not a lampstand (as in the Temple) or a Menorah

1. This would have been a small clay pot filled with olive oil and a flax wick in the spout.

2. Brendan brought back a beautiful archeologic example of this type of lamp.

3. When I read “lampstand” I default to thinking of the temple or a Menorah that modern Jews would use for Channukah to light the whole room.

Here in ranching country most homes in the country have at least 1 yard light. In town we have rows of street lights. These lights are bright and illuminate a large area.

The lamp here is pictured in Psalm 119:105 as a lamp to my feed and a light to my path. It is human for us to want to see the big picture. We want to look down the path so we can prepare for (or worry about) what we can expect

2020 has taught us all that we are foolish to presume to know what will happen

This lamp is a reminder that often we only have enough light to know the next step.

Little Lights make Big Difference

The older I get, the more I have trouble reading menus in dimly lit restaurants. There are 2 establishments in Chase County that force me to pull out my phone and turn on the camera flash for me to be able to make sense out of their options.

The other place where I have seen a little light make a big difference is in the Doctor’s office. A dim pinlight is enough to cause pupils to dilate and contract. How bright is the light that the Doctor uses to look in your ears, nose or throat?

· That little amount of light is all that is necessary to reveal the infection in the throat, the tear of a retina, or the rupture of an eardrum.

The Light of God’s Word

1. Should not be obscured, but positioned in prominence.

2. Discloses what is hidden, and

3. Brings into the open things that we try to conceal.

4. If the point of the parable was that we should be obedient, the purpose of this illustration is that it is futile to try to conceal what the Word reveals.

5. It is futile to attempt to conceal because the Word is effective and powerful.

Isaiah 55:11 ESV:2016

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV:2016

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

6. As Disciples of Jesus our proper response is to take the Light of the Word into dark places.

Transition: Not only do we respond to the Gospel by allowing it to work in us and by taking it into dark places, but…

Disciples Put into Practice (vv.19-21)

1. This should not be read as disparaging or disrespectful to Jesus’ biological family.

2. I see this as an example of the thorns in v.14. Jesus is teaching and gets down to the final application when someone interrupts by mentioning his family outside. Jesus drives home the importance of not just hearing what he just finished preaching, but in actually doing it—allowing the truth to penetrate and transform them.

During the stay-at-home orders, I’ve noticed that our Television is on a lot more than usual and I’ve identified 4 channels that are more deceptive than many others. (I’m not targeting the mainstream media, although they may fit that description.)

I’m thinking of HGTV, DIY, Food Network, and the Cooking Channel. I’m picking them because minute for minute I can’t think of any other broadcasts that demonstrates ideas that never get acted upon.

Those 4 channels have demonstrated more projects and recipes that I could do that I never will do than any other programming.

Conclusion:

Jesus started with a parable that teaches we must allow the Word to penetrate and transform us. Then He gave an illustration of how we are to distribute it. And finally He drives it home by saying that we are to not only know hear and tell, but we are to obey the Word.