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Introduction
We are walking through a series this summer called The Gospel in the Gospels
We began this series by looking at a handful of interactions Jesus had with the people around him.
How Jesus presented the Gospel is very different than how we present the Gospel in our world.
Some of this is because He was God in the flesh.
Certainly that is not something we can duplicate.
However, in His presentation of the Gospel, we see a few realities that we must consider in our own understanding of the Gospel.
The Gospel calls for Lordship
Kurios vs Doulos
If a person would not submit to Jesus as Lord, they were not a follower.
We often encourage people to make Jesus the Lord of their lives.
This is partially true, but also misleading.
Jesus is Lord.
There is no making Him anything.
There is only our recognition of His Lordship and submission to that truth.
Submitting to Jesus as Lord requires a substantial amount of faith
If Jesus is Lord:
He determines your path, you don’t
He determines your identity, you don’t
He determines your value, you don’t
Our lives are not our own.
They are now His and are to be submitted to Him for His glory, not ours.
Also, the person must recognize their need for a savior
This comes in two parts
First, I am a sinner
Second, He is the Savior
If a person cannot or will not acknowledge their sin, they walked away from Jesus unchanged.
They may be good people, righteous people (in the eyes of others), they may be religious people.
But they all walked away from the Gospel.
One might think we are presenting a Gospel that sounds a lot like work
But I believe what the Bible says in Ephesians
But I also believe the verse immediately following this one
He created us to do good works.
Good as defined by God, not us.
This implies submission and Lordship
We often separate Faith and Works on opposite sides of the spectrum
They ought not be separated
Faith and Works work hand in hand
Faith initiates works.
This is all very important as we look at today’s passage.
Read Matthew 13:1-23
Pray
Main Topic
This is a really interesting passage
Usually when this passage is preached, it is done by skipping that uncomfortable middle section.
We read verses 1-10, then skip to verse 18 and finish the passage.
We are not going to do that today.
That middle passage presents a very important and very hard lesson about the Gospel that we need to hear.
I want to talk through this parable
The first part, then the last part.
Jesus presents us with some very important truths about the Gospel that we need to consider.
When we conclude, we will take those truths and apply them to the middle portion, as well as to the interactions Jesus had with the people in our last few weeks.
Before we dive into this passage, I want to talk about a parable
A parable is a story Jesus would tell, using everyday examples of life, then tying Spiritual truth to the story.
For us, it is great because we can see the Spiritual truth in action and it becomes visual, not just academic.
However, we must be warned that a parable has limits.
It is easy to take a parable and stretch it into conclusions the parable didn’t conclude
For example, if we were to look at today’s parable and started defining the types of fruit the plants produce and stretch into the planting methods of the farmer, we are going beyond what the parable says.
We must look at the intended purpose of the parable and play within the boundaries of truth that it shares.
The context of this parable is interesting and important
In Matthew 12, Jesus is presented with a man who is possessed by a demon.
Jesus casts the demon out and the Pharisees say, “You cast the demon out with the power of Satan”
Jesus says, “Why would Satan cast out a demon?
That makes no sense.
It would be undoing the work he is trying to do.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Then they said, “Well show us a sign that proves that you are of God and not of Satan.”
Jesus said, “I will only show you the sign of Jonah.”
Jonah was a prophet sent by God to a bunch of sinners.
Jonah had a really bad attitude.
As you know, he was even swallowed by a big fish.
Eventually, Jonah did the bare minimum of what God asked, and he did it with a really poor attitude.
Then all of these sinners repented and restored a relationship with God.
Jonah was angry with them and with God because these people were sinners.
But what have we learned about the Gospel?
This part of the Gospel is the heart of God.
He responds to sinners who recognize their sin and wish to repent.
Jesus told the Pharisees that they would see sinners entering the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of them.
That was the sign of Jonah.
It was a condemnation that they knew exactly what He was saying.
Jesus then goes on to tell this story.
A story about the heart of people who are presented with the truth.
The Parable
Jesus tells this story.
Everyone had to be looking at each other wondering, “Why is He saying this?”
It seems pretty clear from reading the text that not many people were understanding what Jesus was communicating in the parable.
They would have been familiar with the sowing of seeds in the fields.
There were many fields around Israel.
The picture is vivid
A sower was throwing seed in his field
The sower would have a pouch slung over his shoulder and he would broadcast the seed over a range of ground.
Why would a sower throw seed on the ground
The audience would be very familiar with this idea
You plant seed in order to harvest a crop
Some of the seed lands on the path
The path was likely a compressed, packed path of dirt.
They didn’t have nice concrete roads in their fields.
It was all different variations of dirt.
The seed that landed on the path didn’t penetrate into the soil.
It sat on top.
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