Matthew 13:1-23

In the course of this year, excepting sickness, getaways or providential hindrances, you could be in church 52 Sundays. On those 52 Sundays, if you come at 9:00, you will hear a second lesson, averaging at around 100 sermons or lessons in the year. If you can come on Wednesdays, you will revisit the Sunday sermon. Added to this, you will probably be reading the Bible for yourself, listen to some audio sermons, perhaps read some Christian books that detail the Word. That seems like a lot of Bible.

For all that intake, you certainly want it to have some effect. If the Word of God is not producing its intended effects in your life, then a beautiful venue will not change that. If nothing is growing in a pot plant, spray painting the pot gold won’t change anything. You need to check the quality of the soil itself.

This is the purpose of the parable of the sower, or perhaps better, the parable of the soils. It is a diagnosis of why the Word does what it does in different people. It described what was going on in Israel when Jesus preached, and by extension, it is a description of the act of hearing God’s Word by anyone of anytime. It may be a preacher who is rightly dividing the Word of truth, it may even be a person opening the Bible and reading it for themselves. In those cases, the seed is once again being sown. And once again, it may bring forth results in keeping with its intended message, or it may not, depending on the kind of heart that hears it.

This is a phenomenon you see in churches again and again. You see the person who has been in church for ten years, fifteen years, and he has not changed a bit. He has now heard well over one thousand messages, but for all intents and purposes, he may as well have heard none. He thinks the same way, he speaks the same way, he behaves the same way he did ten years ago. All that Word, but little to no change.

Then you meet the man saved for two years, three years, far outpacing those saved for twenty. In the space of a few years he has devoured Christian books, become saturated in knowledge, has wisdom and insight far beyond his three-year old Christian life. He is growing in leaps and bounds, but he is sitting under the same teaching. The same environment – same building.

What’s going on? This parable gives us the answer. It all has to do with what kind of reception we give the Word. And if Jesus tells us that the hinge on which it all swings is what kind of heart the Word meets when it is heard, then nothing could be more important than making sure we have the right kind of heart and are repenting of having the wrong kind of heart.

I would go so far as to say that this parable is the key to unlocking the rest of Scripture. If we really understand what Jesus is teaching, it can fundamentally change how we spend those 52 Sundays.

Now each of the hearts mentioned in this parable deserve special attention. I’d like to take time with each one over the next few weeks. But before we do that, we need to realise what Jesus is telling us about the event of the Word going out. We need to understand what is going on, and we need to understand what is at stake.

So to begin with, we want to zoom out and take in the whole parable, and consider the actors in this story, and then consider the actions. First, we must understand the three characters of the story, and then consider the events.

I. The Actors in the Parable

Matthew 13:1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow.” (Matt. 13:1-3)

As you know, the three elements of this story are a sower, seed, and soils. So look at the first.

The One Sower

The first thing you should notice is that there was one sower. Jesus does not describe four sowers, each with differing sowing techniques. He doesn’t describe one sower who digs and plants, another who scatters, another who ploughs and plants. No, it is one sower. A sower in those days would not be sowing down a furrow dug by a machine. He would be walking, with a satchel a pouch of seed, slung over his shoulder. And as he walked, he would grab a handful of seed, and throw the seed out in an indiscriminate, random fashion. That’s how seed could land on both a hard pathway and on shallow ground and on good ground.

Seed, sowed by one sower, received by four soils. In this context, Jesus was the sower. Jesus gave this parable at a point in His ministry where His message seemed to fall on deaf ears. He had preached the Sermon on the Mount, He had unveiled what it would be like to have Him as King in the Sermon on the Mount, but the Jews generally weren’t interested in anything more than having a liberator from the Romans. So now He begins to teach in parables, parables which make sense to those who are chosen, and no sense to those who aren’t.

Applying it to us, the sower is whoever preaches or gives out the Word accurately.

What is Jesus illustrating? When it comes to the giving out of the Word, the preacher certainly plays a role, but not a role big enough for Jesus to say that the preacher is the determining factor in how the Word works in your life.

A lot of people think the Word is not working in their lives because of the church, because of its preachers. But if that were true, then Jesus should have changed the whole metaphor to four sowers. One was a dry, monotone, lifeless preacher, so the seed didn’t penetrate. Another was a shallow guy who couldn’t think very deeply. Another was a confusing guy who couldn’t communicate very clearly. And the fourth was a dynamic, lively, gifted speaker with a Colgate smile.

But that isn’t the way the parable is told at all. It is not that the parable undermines the truth that we need sound teaching, men who rightly divide the Word of truth. The point of the parable is that even when you have that, there are still four responses.

Because the sower in this parable is Christ. And if ever there was an expository, doctrinally rich, practical understandable teacher filled with the Spirit, it was Christ. Yet with His preaching, there were still indifferent hearts, impulsive decisions and double-minded followers.

The fact is, teachers do their job when they deliver, like a waiter – what God has prepared, not when they embellish like a chef. And if a teacher is delivering the seed, he is doing his job. When a preacher accurately delivers the Word, in a very real sense, Christ is again sowing. Christ is again preaching, by His Spirit.

Let me talk for a moment about the transaction between preacher and listener. In order to understand what is happening here, we need to make it clear what the responsibility of the one who stands behind this pulpit is, and the responsibility of the listener.

Let me tell you what a preacher must do to be a sower. He must do three things. He must firstly study the Word so as to accurately understand it – that’s what we call exegesis. Once he understands a particular passage, text or topic, he must secondly bring that understanding into a message which is logical, understandable, interesting, possible to apply – that’s what we call exposition. Thirdly, with that message in hand, while yielding totally to the Spirit of God, he must present that message, using the best possible presentation skills to sustain interest, and create understanding – that’s what we call delivery. If a preacher does that, he is standing in the place of a sower. He is simply taking the truth of the Word, and bringing it out.

And if he does that, he is really repeating what Christ did. He is an under-sower. But having done that, the responsibility passes on to the listener. The seed is now in the soil.

Let me tell you what a preacher cannot do: he cannot overcome boredom with the Word itself. Now, if he wants to gain the attention of his hearers at any cost, or by any means, then of course he can do anything he wants. He can gesticulate wildly, he can scream most of his sermon, he can tell twenty different stories in one sermon, he can keep telling jokes, he can act dramatic, he can shorten the sermons and fill them with clichés and chicken-soup for the soul nothings. In so doing, he could fight against a person’s boredom with the Word itself.

But in so doing, he would betray the Word. He would compromise with the flesh that doesn’t care about the Word, and he would let the voice of God Himself take a back-seat. I cannot and will not ever do that.

In other words, if you are bored with the very ideas that God has in His Word, then you have a problem that no faithful preacher can fix. And the only thing that will ever change that is if you decide to become interested in God’s Word itself. Only if you choose to believe that what God says affects you in every way, will you ever become interested in its message.

So certainly, a teacher ought to work very hard to be a good, interesting communicator. But the emphasis in this parable when it comes to the efficacy of the Word is not on how the seed is thrown, or how it falls. It all comes down to where it falls – on what type of ground. The point is exactly this – the same message heard on the same occasion preached by the same preacher by a group of hearers is received in four different ways. But if the Word is preached clearly, how that Word works in your life is not ultimately the fault of the Sower, or the under-sower, if you will.

Consider the second element in this parable.

One kind of seed

Four kinds of soil, one sower, and one kind of seed. Jesus does not say, a sower threw this kind of seed here, and this kind of seed there. He took one kind of seed, and it found four kinds of soil. It is not different messages with different results. It is one message, with four results.

When the Word of God is rightly preached, it is the same Word which is reaching different hearts. That same message is producing repentance in one person, and boredom in another. It is producing hope and faith in one, and unbelief and anger in another. What’s the difference? They aren’t different messages, are they? It is the same Word, being received by very different hearts.

By comparing the Word of God to seed, Jesus has brilliantly captured the nature of the Word. A seed contains within it all that is needed to produce a tree, a wheat stalk, grain – you name it. But apple seeds don’t germinate when placed on a wooden table. Orange seeds don’t grow when placed on a carpet. So the Word contains all that is needed to transform a person into a lover of God, but it will not do it when it meets a hard, unbelieving, shallow or idolatrous heart.

When there is no growth, no faith, no change, the problem is not with the Word. The potential for change is in the Word. But when there is no growth, the problem is not with the Word. God spoke of the power of His Word in His Word:

• Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”
• Psalm 19:7-9 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
• Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The Word is powerful, but the same Word has different results. What makes the difference?

I want you to understand that it is this powerful Word which goes out every time that the Word is rightly divided. So when God wants to bring a man or woman to repentance to love Him, cherish Him, know Him, He does not have to do anything to the seed. It contains all it needs to do that work.

This is why people who think that the answer lies in repackaging the Bible are so wrong. They think the problem is with the seed. So they think they must paraphrase the Bible into street language, or make it so loose and dynamic that it sounds so different to what we thought the Bible sounds like – like certain paraphrase Bibles. Let’s put on the cover Radically Awesome and Totally Sick Teen Bible. Or let’s. If we just repackage it, or add special notes, or features, or a cover, or colours – then it will have its effect. No, the problem is not with the seed.

When the Word is going out, that same sword, hammer, fire, worker is going out.

This brings us to the third element in this story.

Four kinds of soil

One seed, one sower, four soils.

“And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matt. 13:4-8)

The seed lands in four very different areas very common to the landscape of Israel of the time. The first was the hardened pathway. These were the paths that actually criss-crossed and dissected the fields of Israel. It’s where people would walk, and the footfalls of thousands of feet compacted the soil down into a solid kind of ground. The first has the problem of hardness.

The second was a thin layer of topsoil that covered a layer of limestone just under the surface. There was just enough soil for a seed to take root, but once the root got down more than a centimetre or two, it would hit into hard limestone. It would cause quick growth, but not growth that could survive the hot Mediterranean sun. The second has the problem of shallowness.

The third was soil had enough depth for roots to go down, but it was too close to existing weeds and thorns. Soon these parasite plants choke out any good growth. The third has the problem of crowdedness.

The fourth soil had all the qualities the others didn’t have: softness for the seed to penetrate, depth for the roots to go down, and uncluttered room for growth. And even on the good ground, there was difference in growth, some places brought forth thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundred.

The soils reflect kinds of hearts. That’s another way of saying the soil pictures the way people respond to God’s Word. The texture of the soil mirrors attitudes and thoughts and desires in people.

Jesus explains the parable later and explains that some hearts are hard and lack all understanding, some hearts are superficial and it does not go deep enough, some hearts are infested with other cares and leave no room for the Word, and only the last soil gives the Word the depth, the space, the room it needs to grow.

The under-sower is just a tool God uses to get the seed to you. The Word itself contains all that is needed to change your life. From there, the type of heart is going to determine what happens next. Jesus wants us to know that the power of the Word is not a one-sided matter. We are to respond in a way which allows the Word to penetrate.

But let’s tie this all together now by summarising the actions we see in this parable.

II. The Action

This parable has five actions: intention, rejection, dehydration, strangulation and reception.

From the Sower: Intention.

The sower goes out to sow not aimlessly, not because he doesn’t care, not because he has nothing better to do. He sows because he desires food. He is not interested in feeding the birds that eat it up. He is not interested in green shoots and pretty leaves. He wants plants that grow all the way to full-grown grains, to be harvested and turned into food.

So it is every time God declares His Word.

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isa. 55:10-11)

He does not speak aimlessly. What did God expect every time He spoke to men in the Bible? He expected their attention. He expected them to believe and trust that what He was saying was true. He expected them to respond to that truth in the most appropriate way.

Hebrews 12:25-26 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,

We face a real danger today of information glut, and information overload. Such an abundance of information now bombards us through the Internet, that we cannot hope to know but a fraction of it. So we become skilled at scanning, skimming, speed-reading, scrolling. The problem is, most of it is useless, so we treat it with that kind of attention.

When God’s Word comes, we can be in danger of treating it like another encounter with impersonal information.

But it is different. God is not sending a Facebook update, a Snapchat selfie. God is communicating with men and women about their souls. And if you can’t take that seriously, Satan may have damaged you beyond repair.

The four responses are rejection, dehydration, strangulation and reception.

The first ground rejects the seed altogether. Some hearts utterly reject the Word, indifferent to what God says.

The second ground receives it superficially, but the sun dehydrates the plant. Some hearts receive the Word on the surface of their emotions, but do not truly count the cost, do not really die with Christ and rise with Him, and trials dry up that surface-level faith.

The third ground receives it, but it already has things growing in it which are not rooted out. This is the heart that receives the Word more thoughtfully, but not wholeheartedly. Any growth is soon strangled out by competition. The world is never forsaken, no real repentance ever clears the ground, and soon it is clear that Christ was never embraced as Lord.

The fourth ground receives it, and keeps it. Nothing really special about this except that the heart is soft enough, thoughtful enough, and single-minded enough to receive the Word and let it grow.

If God wants a change in someone, what does He change? The soil. Do you have a responsibility in this? Absolutely. You cannot change your own heart by yourself, but you can ask for a changed heart, you can fight for a changed heart, you can turn away from the wrong kind of heart.

Your progress in the Word can be explained by what quality of heart the Word finds when it reaches you. This morning, you are predominantly one of these four. At the same time, you can have qualities of all four. You can be inconsistent, and sometimes be more like one than the other.

Your heart is not static. While listening to the Word, you can choose to respond in a way that makes your heart harder, or makes it softer. The result is, the next time you hear the truth, you are either in a better place to hear more, or in a worse place.

“For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Matt. 13:12)

A different setting to hear the Word is wonderful. But what makes all the difference is how that Word is received. Take a checkpoint this morning, and say, how will another 52 Sundays have shaped me?