A Christmas Harvest: the good soil, a remnant

Introduction/Scripture

Matthew 13:8 NIV

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Matthew 13:23 NIV

But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Pray.

Hook: Luke is playing soccer. I was hesitant about all of this so soon. The other day, I was the only dad there and there is no coach. So I was the guy trying to get these three year olds to play soccer.

Now the fact is most of these kids no how to kick the ball, what goal they are going towards but offense and defense is about getting them in position.

The parable of the soil is about positioning. It is about doing the work to be where we want to be.

A Christmas Harvest

We now come to the fourth week of advent, a time of preparation for the coming Christ event, the beginning of our church calendar that orients our life towards Jesus, the Christ.

During this advent we have ventured through the lens of this parable of the sower. Jesus tells parables to describe the kingdom of God...

Background:

showing the kingdom and now teaching the kingdom

How can people not get it?

The background I have given more in depth in the first week, but here I will offer this. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is in the height of his public ministry…he has been showing them the kingdom of heaven through miracles like telling a storm to be still, healing the blind, sick, lame, and casting out demons, but also calling people away from the world. Now he is teaching on the kingdom of heaven with parables.

The other lingering question as a student of Matthew is…how can people not get it? They have seen these things…and still they doubt.

Some have ears and do not hear. Or in the context of Matthew 13, some hear the word, but do not understand, or better, do not stand under the word. Making it their own and so other influences take away the life before it flourishes.

4 Soils:

hard path and the birds snatch it away, the devil

the rocky path and scorched by the sun, trouble or persecution

among the thorns and life is choked out, worry and wealth

Birds, sun, thorns

Who are the bad guys?

My son, perhaps from too much TV or a young boy who is drawn to adventure, sees things in a interestingly binary way. Good guys and bad guys. Reading the bible, watching a football game, or of course pretending to be darth vader/luke skywalker, or batman or something.

Now, there is another sermon here about we all only see winners and losers, good guys and bad guys, but I will leave you alone on that one today.

I wonder if that is something similar to what the disciples are wondering as they ask Jesus.... what does this all mean? Who are the bad guys?

the birds, the sun, and the thorns

are not material human enemies, at least in my son’s category or the way we usually think.

The devil, the world, and the flesh

This paradigm of attack on our soul has been around for centuries. Used explicitly as early as the 13th century by Thomas Aquinas and found throughout history as an understanding both of what we fight against and what Christ overcomes. This language can be found in scripture as well:

Ephesians 2:1–3 NIV

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

Followed the ways of the world

the ruler of the kingdom of air, or of this world (Jesus says prince of this world)

Living and gratifying of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts

Devil, world, and flesh

John Mark Comer has modernized this paradigm again in his new book Live no Lies, in it he writes:

We laugh at the devil as a premodern myth, akin to Thor’s hammer. We scratch our heads at the New Testament’s language of the flesh in a sensual culture where people equate feeling good with being good. And when we hear the world, we envision a spittle-spewing street preacher with a bullhorn in a public park, railing about the dangers of AC/DC and the impending rapture.

Comer, John Mark. Live No Lies (p. xxii). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The truth is we are tired and peace, joy, love, seems too far to grasp.

Could it be that we believe lies of evil about ourselves and about happiness?

Could it be that we love the things of this world more than the creator of the world?

Could it be that we have believed in narratives of progressivism, postmodern enlightenment, political pursuits that idolize ourselves or our institutions?

Could it be that we love career, success, wealth too deeply?

Could it be that we are wrought with worry?

Could it be that we have given ourselves to these lies that lead to addiction or self-centeredness, self-worship?

Is there any wonder that some hear the word, and do not stand under it?

but some do. and all of this was working towards this soil...

The Good Soil

So Jesus says there is another place that seed falls, and when seed falls in this place it produces a harvest. We will talk about the harvest in a second but I want us to see something interesting in this in comparison to the others....

The soil with least description, with least explanation, is the one that produces a harvest. This is interesting.

This is the one who hears the word and understands it. Remember not just intellectually but stands under it. This is the person that walks in obedience to the Word because they have heard it and been shaped by it. Why does Jesus spend so much time developing each one with analogy and then with this one he just offers a few words?

“Being a fruitful Christian is not complicated.”

Is following Christ difficult? Yes it is. The cost is great. This is swimming upstream. Jesus says this way of life will divide families....

Luke 12:53 NIV

They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

he tells us to leave everything like the rich young ruler....

he tells us to count the cost:

Luke 14:28–30 NIV

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

it is costly for sure. But it is not complicated. Matthew 13 and the parable of the soil tells us to walk with Christ is to

hear

understand

do

Matthew has shown this all along:

Sermon on the mount (5-7)

get away from me I never knew you

those who will love and pursue holiness

Mission commission of chapter 10: he sends them out to proclaim the kingdom and heal the sick, cast out evil

Matthew 11, he says to come to him and take his yoke

Matthew 12, he references Isaiah prophecy of himself but we are invited into it.... “I will put my spirit on him and he will proclaim justice to the nations.”

And you might hear this and go....I dont know how to do any of this. That sounds complicated JW. Healing and holiness and all of that.

Doing begins in standing under him.

Notice that the good soil is not magically free from the threat of the birds, the sun, and thorns...

This person is not perfectly free from the remains of sin, the world, and the devil; but happily free from the reign of it.

Power of Jesus has broken the power of self, the world, and evil.

And the truth is very few of us claim that freedom and walk in it.

Remnant Harvest

You look at Matthew 13 and it can be a little disheartening. 3/4 hear the word. The message of the kingdom and fall away. And when we look at the church throughout history we see this truth. We see all kinds of things happen in the name of Jesus that is jacked up:

No doubt. Bible believers enslaved people. Christians were idle or enabling in nazi Germany, see Ditrich Bonhoeffer. Christians today put their political stance over the throne of Jesus.

Frederick Bruner:

Jesus knew this problem personally - he experienced it himself with God's own people. Jesus teaches disciples that not all who receive the Word hold it. As the English proverb has it, "Not all who go to church say their prayers." Only one of the four who hears the Word stands under it, yields to its authority, obeys it. Armed with this "three-out-of-four" truth, the scandal of un-Christian Christians can be overcome, for we now know that this scandal is not proof against Jesus - he predicted it. -Frederick Bruner

The truth is God has always worked in the few to reach the many. Throughout scripture you see this truth:

Abraham, one man

Israel, one people

Prophets to be a singular mouthpiece of reform

Jesus says the kingdom is like a small seed, like the leven that makes the bread rise.

Throughout history, revival happens when a few people will contend for the presence of God and the movement of God.

Revival of the Hebrides, 1949

Scotland.

Two old women, one of them 84 years of age and the other 82 - one of them stone blind, were greatly burdened because of the appalling state of their own parish. It was true that not a single young person attended public worship. Not a single young man or young woman went to the church. And those two women were greatly concerned and they made it a special matter of prayer.

A verse gripped them: "I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." They were so burdened that both of them decided to spend so much time in prayer twice a week. On Tuesday they got on their knees at 10 o'clock in the evening and remained on their knees until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning - two old women in a very humble cottage.

After a couple of days they went and got their minister. After a month and half of this God moved mightily over them. Over the entire community. When they brought someone in to teach because of what God was doing people began to go to the church without knowing why. The power was so palpable that some report not even being able to cross the threshhold of the door. As they were worshipping that night they heard about hundreds of people gathered at the police station. Mostly young people and when they went to investigate they realized the barn the women were praying in was right next door.

The revival went on three years and shaped the country and sent out a ripple around the world.

Yes, there is threefold unfruitful soil, but there is threefold harvest from the one.

What if God is once again looking for the few who will contend for him. Who will want nothing more than to follow him and to abide with him?

Talking to my colleagues and listening to what is going on in the church around the country.

Thirds:

1/3 have left the church, found a new church, or more than likely disappeared

1/3 are very marginally connected

1/3 are more committed than they ever have been

Cultural Christians are leaving. Mark Sayers has this great analogy: cricket. It is about the 11 on the field

Christmas Harvest is not really about Christmas. It is about the Kingdom of God breaking in with Jesus. And it is the invitation to find the reality of the kingdom in your life.