The Parable of the Sower

This morning, we are going to continue to explore illustrations of discipleship from another important sermon of Jesus’ ministry. Matt. 13 contains a complete sermon by Jesus that is preached entirely in parables. So, over the next six weeks, we are going to study these parables and what they tell us about what it means to be a disciple. So, let’s start by reading the famous parable of the Sower from Matt. 13:1-23. From this passage I want you to see the Boundaries of the Kingdom and the Blessed of the Kingdom.

First, let’s consider the Boundaries of the Kingdom from verses 1-17. To understand Jesus’s sermon, and most importantly, his use of parables, we need to first set this sermon in its context. Notice, in verse 1, it says “that same day Jesus went out of the house”. This statement sets this sermon immediately after the events of chapter 12. So, what happened in Chapter 12? Chapter 12 is a litany of rejections of Jesus ministry. In verses 1-8, the Pharisees take issue with Jesus’ disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. In verses 9-32, the Pharisees get mad because Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, even going so far as to say that his power comes from Satan. In verses 33-45, Jesus twice condemns the present generation of his kinsmen because of their hardness of heart. Then, the chapter ends with even his family questioning him. In verse 46 we read that his mother and brothers come to speak with him, likely to try and rein him in because of the negative environment he was creating for himself and his family.

With all of that in the background, we read in verses 1-3 that a great crowd gathered at the seashore to hear from Jesus. The crowd was so great that Jesus got in a boat to use the acoustics of the water to project this sermon. With this great crowd gathered, you might assume that this is the moment when Jesus will set the record straight. I imagine that his disciples were thinking, “OK, now he's going to tell everyone he is the Messiah. Now he is going to explain what the plan is for raising and army and overthrowing the Romans. Here it comes! Get ready!” Then, Jesus begins to preach, and he just starts telling stories. He tells a stories of farming, of plants and bread, of treasures, and fishing. It’s obvious he’s teaching something through these stories, but he’s not being direct. He’s not “telling it like it is.” This is exactly the concern of the disciples in verse 10. They ask, “why are you doing this?” Just imagine their frustration. They’ve been through thick and thin with Jesus. They’ve seen him do amazing miracles, and they’ve even done a few in his name. They know exactly who he is. So why isn’t he telling anyone?

To this concern, Jesus gives a striking answer, and it goes to my point regarding the boundaries of the kingdom. Jesus answers, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” There are two important truths that I want you to see in this statement. First, we’ve already seen this in the Beatitudes, but it is worth stating again: the kingdom of God is not for everyone. As we saw in the Beatitudes, Jesus didn’t announce, “Blessed is everyone.” He announced specific people on whom the kingdom of God has come. Now, in this statement, we see again that the kingdom of God is not for everyone. The kingdom of God has come for specific people. Some say that all religions are the same, and it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you believe something. Wrong! John 3:18 says that those who do not believe in Jesus stand condemned. Some say that there is no way to know whether Jesus is the true Messiah or not, and therefore, God can’t judge them for it. Wrong! In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.” Some say, yes, Jesus is the true Messiah, but at the end of the day, God is going to save everyone. But Rev. 20:15 says that anyone who’s name is not written in the book of life through faith in Jesus will be thrown into the lake of fire with Satan and his minions. The kingdom of God is not for everyone.

Second, notice again what Jesus says in verse 11, “To you it has been given to know…” Don’t miss the word “given” here. Jesus tells his disciples that the reason they know the secrets of the kingdom is not because they did the right works or read the right books or studied under the right teacher. It’s because God has chosen them to receive it. In verse 13, Jesus says that he speaks in parables so that “seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear.” Their ears are clogged by the cares of this world and their eyes are shielded by Satan. But, by the will of God alone, the disciples have eyes to see and ears to hear.  The kingdom of God is not for everyone, but for those to whom God chooses to give it.

So, the obvious question is, who are those people? How do we know the people to whom God gives the kingdom? That brings me to my second point: the Blessed of the Kingdom, from verses 18-23. In these verses, Jesus explains to his disciples the parable that he just preached. This parable has three actors: the sower, the seed, and the soil. The sower in the parable is God. The seed is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The soils are different types of people who hear and respond to the Gospel. These different types of people help us to narrow down this question of who the people of the kingdom are. Let’s start by understanding who the kingdom is not for.

First, the kingdom of God is not for those who deny it. In verse 19, Jesus says that the seed that falls along the path represents the person who is deceived by the evil one into rejecting the Gospel before it can ever take root in their hearts. Satan deceives people in numerous ways. He deceives people through false religions like paganism, Hinduism, and Islam. He deceives people by distorting the true religion through cults like Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, and the Health and Wealth televangelists. He deceives people through secularism, convincing them that the material world is all that there is, and there is no need to be concerned with anything else. He deceives people with apathy and leisure and pleasure, convincing them that partying and sex and the good life is all that matters. The kingdom of God has not come for these, and they will be judged and thrown in the lake of fire.

Second, the kingdom of God is not for those who had an emotional, spiritual experience, but have not changed as a result. In verse 20, Jesus says that the seed that fell on rocky ground represents people who hear the Gospel and “receive it with joy”. Catch what Jesus is saying: a positive emotional response to the Gospel does not equal saving faith. Your tear-filled walk down the aisle at a revival service doesn’t mean a hill of beans if all that resulted from it was you getting wet! If you came crying down this aisle and nothing changed beyond the fact that you generally have good feelings about Jesus, then you are not saved! You can be mad with me all you want for saying it, but I say it with the full authority of Scripture. Your emotions will not save you. Your affections towards this church will not save you. Your love for preachers and Sunday school teachers and music leaders of the past will not save you. People who have an emotional response to the Gospel but do not grow and change in that Gospel will be thrown into the lake of fire.

Third, the kingdom of God is not for those who put other things ahead of their love for Christ. In verse 22, Jesus says that the seed sown in the thorns represents people who hear and receive the Gospel but allow the cares of this world to overshadow the call of the Gospel. Notice here that Jesus uses an important phrase, “proves unfruitful.” Remember, Jesus compares the Gospel to a seed in this story. By their very nature, seeds grow and produce something. So, the Gospel, if it is well planted in a believing heart, will produce fruit. Yet, this seed lands in thorns where it cannot produce fruit. If you are more concerned for gaining riches than you are for growing in Christ, you are a fruitless unbeliever. If you allow any and every activity to keep you from the fellowship of God’s people and discipleship in his Church, then you are a fruitless unbeliever. If you sit at home, arms crossed, angry for years over something “that church up there” did, you are a fruitless unbeliever. People who allow the cares of the world to overshadow their devotion to Christ will be judged and thrown into the lake of fire.

Finally, now that we understand who the kingdom of God is not for, let’s consider in the last soil of the parable who the kingdom of God is for. Jesus gives us two characteristics of the good soil that represents the people of the kingdom: preparation and production. First, notice that the seed grows in this last soil because it is prepared. This is important, lest you think I am saying that the way of salvation is in preparing yourself and doing good works. I mean quite the opposite. Only the heart that has been prepared by the work of the Holy Spirit is ready to receive the Gospel and be fruitful because of it. As Jesus has already told us, the kingdom of God is not taken, it is given. So, the good soil is not good because it plowed and fertilized itself, but because the farmer has already prepared it. In the same way, the heart that would receive the Gospel must be prepared by God. The ears must be unstopped and the vail must be pulled away from the eyes.

Second, the seed doesn’t just grow a plant (this is no ornamental flower), but it produces an abundant crop. In Jesus’ day, the best a farmer could hope for out of his crop was a 20-fold increase. But Jesus exaggerates the yield of this seed to make a point. Even the worst producing seed yields 10 times more than what we’d expect. So, those who have true saving faith will produce fruit. And, they won’t just produce it some of the time. They won’t just produce it when the preacher fusses about producing fruit. But they will live for Jesus every day of their lives. They will not resist the call to baptism or neglect the call to faithful worship. They will instinctively love the Lord and their neighbor. They will plan for their family with a first concern for how Jesus would have them to disciple their children. They will connect with their church, with the primary concerns of growing in Christ and caring for their fellow believers. Because the seed of the Gospel has taken root in the prepared soil of their believing heart, they will desire the things of God above all else, and their lives will change because of it. Saving faith is a faith that bears fruit. These are the people for whom the kingdom of God has come. These are the people whose names have been written in the book of life. These are the true disciples.