The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23)

Introduction

read Matthew 13:1-9

Matthew 13:1–9 ESV

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 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, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

read Matthew 13:18-23

Matthew 13:18–23 ESV

“Hear then the parable of the sower: 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. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 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. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

The Ways of Disaster

A. The Hard Heart (vv. 4, 19)

The first kind of soil that Jesus describes is the path.

This is the ground that has been walked on and trampled and has become hard and impenetrable by anything. We can think of ground like this.

When we moved into our house on Rocky Rd. it seemed almost like destiny since my wife loves Ice Cream and it made us wonder if the one who named the road loved ice cream as well. But, not long after moving in, Mike and Doc Stanley came over to help me install a fence to keep our dogs in the back yard, and we quickly found out why it might be called Rocky Rd and it wasn’t for love of Ice cream. The ground is as hard as a rock. We managed to get some stakes driven into the ground, but it took a lot of energy and motivation to do so. The ground did not want to open up to accept anything from us.

This is the kind of ground that Jesus is talking about here with the path. It is so hard, it will not accept whatever is thrown upon it. It will simply stay on the surface where the seed will either be blown away by the wind or eaten by the birds.

Jesus says this is the heart that hears the gospel and simply rejects it because it will not even understand or consider the message of the gospel. It wants nothing to do with it?

What makes a heart hard like this? Sin. Sin hardens the heart and makes us rebellious and hostile towards God and His Word. We can ask ourselves, why are so many people so hateful towards the gospel? Because sin has hardened their hearts towards it. They cannot even consider it.

Paul describes this situation in Romans 1:18

Romans 1:18 (ESV)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

People love their sin so much, they don’t care who God is or what He has to say, whether it is true or not. They simply want to suppress and turn away from what they know is right because they will not give up on their sin.

As we share the gospel, we ought to expect to encounter those who outright despise the Gospel and want nothing to do with it. This is the default position of the sinful human heart.

This is the hard heart of the path that Jesus describes.

B. The Shallow Heart (v. 5-6, 20-21)

Next, Jesus describes a shallow type of soil. It is rocky, but it isn’t as hard as the path. The seed can sink down a little into the ground, but because of the rocks, it is very shallow and doesn’t allow for much root for the plant.

This kind of ground might produce a small plant, but after a little while, the heat scorches the plant, because there is no root and stability for the plant.

This is the person who quickly embraces what they hear in the Christian faith, but remains so shallow, they do not truly follow Christ. They will profess Him for a bit, while there seems to be some benefit until the next best thing comes along or until the cost of following Jesus becomes too high.

The sun and the heat in the story refers to tribulation or persecution and when it is no longer easy to follow Christ, they fall away and go somewhere else.

What we must see here is that the sign for salvation is not if someone prayed a prayer, or walked down an aisle, or made some kind of decision. The sign of salvation is if they are daily choosing to take up their cross and following Jesus until the end of their life.

This doesn’t mean that true believers will not stumble and fall along the way. We see that Peter, who longed to follow Jesus, became scared and fell away for a moment when he denied Jesus at the crucifixion. However, when Jesus came to Him to restore him, Peter got back up and got going again. There will be times in which our hearts seem shallow, but true believers, though they might fall, will seek to dig down deeper and continue to follow Christ, even after a time of failure.

The question is are you getting back up after failing or are you completely leaving the faith and what you once proclaimed in Christ?

C. The Strangled Heart (v. 7, 22)

The third kind of dangerous heart is the heart that is so consumed by the world’s concerns and riches, it has no ability to truly trust and love the Lord.

This kind of person might see the beauty of the gospel for a time, but because of other competing treasures, it gives up the relationship with God in order to hold on to its other desires.

This could be riches and wealth that the heart desires.

Maybe one is willing to do whatever it takes to build up one’s savings account, even at the cost of following Christ. This was the case with the Rich Young Ruler. This young man is interested in Christ and sees the beauty of who Jesus is. Thinking that he is good, he questions Jesus as if there’s anything else he needs to do for salvation. Jesus tells him to sell all of his stuff and then to follow Him because Jesus knew he loved his riches and possessions more than he loved Christ. The young man couldn’t do it, because his riches choked out his desire to trust in the Gospel.

Jesus also said this could be cares of the world.

This goes beyond riches to anything else that can consume our desires that choke out our desire for Christ. It could be sports, entertainment, power or prestige, self-image, etc. Anything that causes us to place a higher priority on things above Christ. These things can be the weeds and thorns that choke out our dedication to follow Christ.

Again, this may or may not suggest lack of salvation.

One can truly follow Christ and be distracted for a time by their worldly concerns and riches. There may be times in which, even in the heart of a true believer, weeds and thorns may rise up which harm us for a while, but there will come a time when true believers will recognize and deal with the cares of the world which may draw us away from Christ. Most people will have times or seasons in which they struggle with shallowness of faith or with distractions that pull away from Christ, but true believers will be convicted of these things and fight against things that keep them from following Christ.

What we see here in Jesus’ parable, however, are those who claim or profess a faith decision, but fall away from Christ because there are things more important to them than Christ.

Remember, we are not looking for people to simply make a decision. Decisions do not save! Only true faith in Christ that leads to repentance saves. We want to make disciples who will learn and grow to love Christ with all of their hearts, minds, souls, and strength and to see that following Him is worth whatever cost may come.

The Way of Salvation (v. 8, 23)

This brings us to the fourth kind of soil, and this is the good soil, where the fruit of salvation is produced. What kind of heart produces this kind of soil?

A. Hearing and Embracing the Gospel

First, we see this heart is the kind of heart that hears and embraces the gospel because

it can truly see that the Gospel is more beautiful and pleasing than sin,

that it is far more valuable than anything in this world,

and that it is worth embracing, regardless of the cost incurred from following Christ.

This kind of heart not only makes a decision to claim Christ, but truly lives out his love for Christ.

Salvation isn’t about how you start, it’s about how you finish!

2 Timothy 4:7 (ESV)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

What we see here from Paul is that faith is not a one time decision you make, but a life time commitment to follow hard after Christ. Will we mess up from time to time? yes. Even Paul did not get it right all the time, but even when he messed up, he got back up and kept going.

If there is ever a time when someone who at one time professed faith, but has willingly given it up to pursue something else, with no desire to come back and return, it might be a sign they never truly received or understood the gospel to begin with.

B. Bearing the Fruit of the Gospel

The second sign of good soil is that not only will it hear and embrace the gospel, but that when they do, it will produce fruit in their lives.

It’s easy to look at this and see that maybe some people will produce a little fruit, others a little more, and then others a whole lot. However, what we need to keep in mind is that during harvest time in this region of the world known as Palestine, a really good harvest would be to reap about 6-8 times the amount of seed that was originally sown. A tenfold harvest would have been an amazing yield.

When Jesus is speaking of the good soil of the heart bearing thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold fruit, this would have been unthinkable. Jesus is saying that the sign of true salvation and repentance is bearing fruit. Hearts with good soil, which embrace the gospel wholeheartedly will produce lots of fruit!

What kind of fruit?

Well Paul lines out what kind of fruit we should be bearing if the seed of the gospel has been embraced and we are living according to the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22–24 (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The fruit that we are bearing is the fruit of the Spirit. Yes, we want people to make a decision to trust in Christ and to follow Him. But the true sign of salvation and that someone is trusting Christ is not simply a decision, but rather are they bearing fruit?

are they bearing the fruit of love for God and others, can they exhibit joy in the midst of trying circumstances, are they filled with peace, kindness and goodness towards others?

Are you bearing fruit? If fruit is not coming out, are we concerned? The sign of good soil is bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.

Trusting the Work of the Spirit

This kind of heart not only makes a decision to claim Christ, but truly lives out his love for Christ. Again, this doesn’t mean that along the way there won’t be times of rocky shallowness or weeds and thorns that come up to try and distract them from following Christ. We see in the lives of God’s people, they do not always get it right.

Just like soil needs to be maintained and cared for, so our hearts must constantly be maintained and fight against the things that distract us from Christ. Peter lost his way for a moment, but there was a deep sorrow and grief by Peter when he realized that he allowed the persecution of others to draw him away from Christ.

First, as we look to share the Gospel with those around us, we must pray that God will prepare the hearts of those we wish to share the Gospel with. We must also know that they may not immediately accept the Gospel that we preach. Sin has either hardened our hearts or has created rocks and thorns that keep the gospel message from taking root in their hearts. But just because someone does not accept our message, does not mean that all hope is lost. Just because someone is hardened and aggressively hostile to God’s grace right now does not mean that God’s grace cannot break through. Keep praying for them. Keep loving them and demonstrating to them God’s grace. Breaking up hard ground or clearing out the weeds and rocks from a field can be long and tiresome work. It will take a long time of loving and praying for a person as God works in His own time.

Second, we must always examine ourselves and see if we are where we need to be in our relationship with Christ. Are there weeds in our lives that may be choking out our love for Christ? Is there any hardness of sin that is keeping us from truly following Him or some shallowness of faith that is tempting us to leave because things are getting hard? The fight of faith is not simply relying on a past decision, but a daily decision to do what it takes to follow Christ.

This is why Christ tells us that if anyone wants to be His disciple, he must take up his cross daily to follow Him.

Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Daily we must examine our hearts and see what needs to be dealt with. But how do we deal with hardness of heart or weeds or shallowness? You and I cannot do it on our own. We need the work of the Spirit in our lives to work on our hearts. This is where we need to spend time daily in prayer and listening to the voice of God through His Word. As we submit ourselves to the Word of God through faith and repentance, the Holy Spirit does the hard work of breaking up any hard ground in our lives and removing the thorns that destroy.

God even gave this promise to Ezekiel. Ezekiel 36:26-27

Ezekiel 36:26–27 (ESV)

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Conclusion