You may remember my mentioning a couple of weeks ago the annual trips our family made when I was a child to visit my GRANDFATHER ADAMS, who was a farmer in Mississippi with a mile-long gravel driveway. Well, when I was a sophomore in college my grandad passed away after a long illness. For some reason I couldn’t attend his funeral but a few months later-in the spring-I left campus and drove to Mississippi to help my uncle do some work on my grandfather’s grave.
The graveyard where my grandad was buried was full of red Mississippi clay…and grass wouldn’t grow there very well so, if you wanted your loved one’s final resting place to look good you had to do a lot of careful gardening. This was okay from our perspective because my uncle was of course raised on a farm and had also worked for the department of agriculture for many years so he knew what he was doing when it came to growing just about anything-anywhere. He even how to make grass grow in red Mississippi clay. When I arrived at my uncle’s house, we hopped in his pick-up truck and drove to the barn on my grandad’s farm. He backed up to the barn door and then told me to take a shovel and fill the bed of the pick-up with the rich, black soil that covered the floor of the animal stalls. My grandad had kept cows and mules in these stalls all his life so, needless to say, the soil was full of the nutrients required for growing things. When I finished we left headed for a garden shop and bought plenty of thick sod. Then, when we arrived at the cemetery I covered Grandad’s grave with a thick layer of that fertile soil and then under my uncle’s watchful eye, carefully laid the sod and gave it a good watering. I remember standing back and looking at the fruit of our labors and seeing that his grave stood out among the rest in that graveyard. With it’s lush green blanket surrounded by red clay, it looked like an island in a red sea. And anytime I went back to pay my respects, it still stood out. Thanks to that special soil, thick green grass always grew there
My uncle told me that for years after my grandfather’s death, people would come to the farm and ask to fill their pick-up trucks with the rich soil from the floor of the stalls in the barn. This is because any gardener worth his tomatoes knows that the most important factor in reaping a good harvest is not the quality of the seed or even the weather conditions. No-the most important element in harvesting a good crop is the condition of the soil. After all, you can have the best seeds and just the right amount of sun and rain but if the soil is poor, your crop will still be nonexistent or poor at best. You can’t have crop GROWTH with seeds planted in POOR soil.
In the parable I want us to study together this morning, Jesus used a story about farming to show us that this same principle applies to SPIRITUAL growth. In His story-which many feel was the first parable He ever told-Jesus compared SEED to the GOSPEL and SOIL to those who HEAR the gospel. Then, He used this word picture to teach us that the key to bearing fruit in the kingdom of God — the main catalyst of spiritual growth — is the CONDITION OF THE HEART of the person receiving or hearing the gospel. This one factor determines our level of spiritual maturity. Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 13 and let’s read this parable together:
1 – That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.
2 – Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.
3 – Then He told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4 – As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 – Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
6 – But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
7 – Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
8 – Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
9 – He who has ears, let him hear.
10 – Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:
11 – When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
12 – The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
13 – But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
14 – The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
15 – But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Now, it will help our understanding of this and all the parables of Jesus that we will look at this summer if we note that the thirteenth chapter of Matthew chronicles a definite turning-point in the ministry of Jesus. At the BEGINNING of His ministry Jesus taught in the synagogues…but Matthew’s gospel records that at this point He left the synagogues and began to teach out in the countryside. And, this shift of teaching locales is significant. You see, Jesus changed His classroom at this point because the official leaders of Jewish orthodoxy had come to be in open opposition to Him. William Barclay writes,
“When Jesus entered a synagogue now, it would not be to find ONLY an eager crowd of listeners. He would also find a bleak-eyed company of Scribes and Pharisees and elders weighing and sifting every word to find a charge against Him and watching every action in order to turn it into a condemnation and an accusation.”
Well because of this Jesus took to the temple of the open air and began instead to teach men and women in the village streets and on the roads and in their homes and by the lake-side as He did when He told this parable.
It was also at this changing point in His ministry that Jesus began to use mostly PARABLES in His teaching. When He BEGAN His teaching ministry, Jesus spoke to the people very clearly and forthrightly, making tremendous declarations about humanity and the Kingdom of God. During this initial teaching period He gave the message we call the Sermon on the Mount, undoubtedly the greatest message ever delivered in the presence of men. Well, Jesus longed to open their eyes and minds and hearts even more fully. But a change had taken place. Oh…crowds were still pressing upon Him-but not to hear the Word. Instead they came to be healed of their diseases. More and more, healing was becoming the thing that attracted people to Jesus. People had mostly shut their minds-turned off their ears-to the WORDS Jesus spoke and were intent only upon the DEEDS He performed. So Jesus began to speak in PARABLES.
Now, why do this? Why use PARABLES as a teaching method? (Well one reason is that a parable is basically a good story….and good stories naturally compel interest.Everyone loves stories and will listen to them. Narratives have a way of awakening our curiosity. So, by using stories Jesus was able to take the people’s minds off His deeds and get them focused on what He had to say. With this new tactic He was able to motivate them to learn the truths of the Kingdom of God.
Another reason to use parables is that they help to make truth concrete.Few of us can grasp and understand abstract ideas. Most people think in precise pictures. For example, it would take me a long time to try and explain what BEAUTY is. But I could quickly point at a beautiful PERSON or a beautiful FLOWER or a beautiful PICTURE and say: That is ‘beauty.’ It would be difficult for me to define GOODNESS but I could easily convey its meaning by pointing to a good DEED or a good PERSON. One great quality of a parable then, is that it makes truth into a picture which all men can see and understand. It takes something familiar and uses it explain something unfamiliar.
Another advantage to using parables is that it is a way to make truth more palatable.Our sinful minds usually find PURE TRUTH to be kind of hard to take. I’m reminded of Jack Nicolson’s quote from the movie, A Few Good Men because most people just, CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! They resist pure truth like kids often resist vegetables. I remember that the only way we could get Daniel to eat his veggies when he was a baby was to mix them with bananas. And using parables is a way of wrapping truth with the enticing flavor of a good story.
Another great thing about a parable is that it enables a man to discover truth for himself.And this is really the best teaching method. People internalize truth far better if they discover it than if they are simply told it. This is why we used to tell our youth teachers that they should never TELL a teen something that they could guide them to safely DISCOVER for themselves.
But the main reason I think Jesus resorted to using parables is that they have a way of CONCEALING truth from those who DON’T want to see the truth…while at the same time REVEALING truth to those who DO want to see it.By using parables, Jesus was REWARDING the curiosity of the concerned, those who really wanted to know the truth. But He was also HIDING the truth from the rebellious….prideful people…who were only listening to Him to find an excuse to arrest Him. He referred to this teaching principle in Matthew 7:6 when he said, Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. I think this is also what Jesus was pointing to in His prayer in Matthew 11:25 when He said: I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have HIDDEN these things from the wise and learned, and REVEALED them to little children.
Now, as Jesus began to speak from His floating lectern that afternoon He no doubt gestured to a farmer actually sowing seed in a field nearby and He took this familiar image of the various types of soils in that field and used it as a platform from which to teach vital truth about four ways people respond to the Gospel. Jesus told THIS parable to compel His listeners to examine their own soil condition — their own level or receptivity to spiritual truth. And this morning I want us to use our study of this text for the same purpose. Let’s look closely at this parable to evaluate the condition of OUR HEARTS so that we can gauge our current potential for spiritual growth.
1. The first soil JESUS talked about was the hard-packed soil.
Now, in Palestine the fields were arranged in long narrow strips; and the ground between each strip was always a right of way. So, it was used as a common path and therefore it was beaten as hard as pavement by the feet of countless passers-by. That is what Jesus meant when He said that some, fell along the path. If seed fell there (and it often did) there was no more chance of its penetrating into the earth than if it had fallen on the road. This seed really became nothing more than bird feed because the sparrows and crows could easily get to it. Jesus compared this soil to people who have HARD HEARTS. That is to say their minds are shut-calloused-when it comes to the things of God. These are people in whose minds GOD’S TRUTH has no more chance of gaining an entry than the seed had of settling into the ground that has been beaten hard by many feet. They do not understand the things of the kingdom of God because they have become insensitive to Him. So talking to them about spiritual things is like talking to a brick wall.
As Jesus said in verse 13, They have ears but hear not and eyes but see not. I remember trying to learn to play the guitar and in the first week or so my finger tips would hurt from constantly pressing them on the strings to form chords but after a while callouses would form-hard places on the tips of each finger and when they did I was no longer be able to feel or sense pain. Well, like fingertips, hearts can become calloused so that it is next to impossible for us to feel the presence of God or sense His voice.
Now,what causes this problem? Well, some people allow their hearts to be hardened by bitter disappointment…or by prayers that aren’t answered in the way they want. Other people’s hearts are hardened by their repeated refusal to invite God into their lives. Felix, the ruler in Caesarea provides a great example of this. Remember Paul shared the Gospel with Felix but he put him off, saying in Acts 24:25, That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you. Well, the problem is that the more we say no to God like Felix did the easier it is to do so our hearts become hardened…calloused…insensitive to God’s prompting. But you know the most COMMON cause of hardheartedness is SIN. Romans chapter one refers to people like this who have sinned so much — rebelled against God so often — that as verse 21 says, their hearts were darkened. to the light of God’s truth….or, as verse 28 puts it, their minds have become depraved so that they can no longer comprehend purity. And, God warns us of THIS particular heart condition repeatedly in scripture. In Psalm 95:8-10 God says, Do not harden your hearts…do not be a people whose hearts go astray. In Hebrews 3:15 it says, Today, if you hear [God’s] voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion. In Isaiah 6 God warned the prophet that he would be speaking to a sinful people whose, hearts were calloused and ears dull. God has issued these warnings because when our hearts are hardened….it makes it very easy for the devil to keep us from responding to spiritual truth. In this condition we are fully exposed and vulnerable to his attacks.
In his book, SCREWTAPE LETTERS, C. S. Lewis describes a man who goes into a library to read and think. As he does his mind is suddenly opened to deep thoughts of God. Confronted with his own standing before God, he starts thinking in terms of his eternal welfare. Then, Lewis says, the demons that are assigned to keep him from discovering truth call his attention to the sounds on the street, to the newsboy calling out the latest news, and to the fact that he is hungry, ready for lunch. And-thanks to his hard-heartedness-that’s all it takes. All thoughts of God disappear, and he is again involved in the mundane affairs of life. From the point of view of the satanic emissaries, he is delivered from the danger of thinking about God.
Now, this is not to say that we should give up on witnessing to people who are insensitive to spiritual things. Even calloused people can be won to God. In St. Paul’s Cathedral, there is a tablet in honor of Samuel A. Barnett, who preached to the rebellious, sinful people of East London for a half-century….a very difficult mission field! The tablet portrays an engraved figure of the sower, with these words: Fear not to sow on account of the birds. You see, Barnett learned that sowing with this kind of people is NOT just for the birds. Even hard, calloused people can be led to the Lord. In fact this particular parable was used to reach John Bunyan and lead him to Christ. That blasphemous old tinker of Bedford was known as the most godless man in his village and was regarded as so hardhearted and committed to godlessness that no Christian had any hope for him at all. But Bunyan heard this story of the sower and these very words seized upon his heart. And he said to himself, Even the devil knows that if a man believes the word he’ll be saved. So he believed it and was saved. He became the author of Pilgrim’s Progress and a tremendous testimony for God in his age. Like a Potter working with hard clay, if we let Him, God can break us even when we are hard-hearted, and make us soft and pliable again….receptive to His leading.
2. The second soil Jesus talked about was soil that was shallow.
This was ground that was actually a thin layer of earth on the top of an underlying shelf of limestone rock. On such ground the seed would germinate quickly, because such ground easily grew warm with the heat of the sun-but there was no depth of earth and when the plant sent down its roots in search of nourishment and moisture, it would meet only the rock and would be starved to death. It’s roots would become weak — unable to stand when storm or drought came. And this too would be a soil that was familiar to Jesus’ listeners for Israel is a very rocky place. Shallow soil is common there. There’s an old Arabic story that says that when God was creating the world, He entrusted all the stones to two angels, each with one full bag. As they flew over Palestine one of the bags broke spilling half the stones intended for the whole world. There must be some truth to this story because I remember looking out the window of the plane as we circled for a landing at Tel Aviv when I went to the Holy Land a few years ago I saw rocks poking out everywhere. Much of Israel is indeed very rocky and because of this it can be a tough place to farm.
Well, this second type of shallow SOIL over a rocky layer represents people who have a SHALLOW HEART….individuals who are drawn to the blessings of salvation but repelled by the costs of following Jesus, like the people who flocked to hear Jesus but left when the going was hard, as did the teacher of the law who went away when Jesus told him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. (Matthew 8:20 ) And many of us fit this description. We are attracted to the joy and excitement of a church where much is happening. We enjoy the SPIRITUAL HIGHS but we don’t sink deep roots. We don’t mature so when tough times come just as Paul warned in Ephesians 4, we are: tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men… You see every Christian will face crisis situations that test our roots in God. We live and minister in a fallen world, so difficult, trial-filled times, are inevitable. Because of this we need deep roots to be able to withstand these storms of life.
When I was a kid I used to enjoy watching TARZAN movies on TV and if you’ve ever seen one then you know that in those Johnny Weismuller flicks Tarzan always seemed to have a vine handy that swung in the right direction-no matter which way the bad guys went. Well I wondered about this especially when I noticed that the forest behind my house had no vines. And I remember speculating about what Tarzan would do if he ever came to forest like that or a clearing in the jungle. Well, this part of the parable should remind us that we should guard against a spiritual mentality that Duffy Robbins refers to as THE TARZAN SYNDROME. This syndrome is evidenced by swinging from one spiritual high to the next: from a revival to a Promise Keepers rally or a Women of Faith Conference to a Lay Renewal Weekend. People with this syndrome think of the Christian life as a series of VINES — one spiritual high after another. And this is a very dangerous thing simply because there are a lot of clearings in life times when there are more troubles and trials than there are trees. IN fact, there are times when life seems like a forest with no vines at all. Life swings along much more evenly when we develop a minute-by-minute, intimate, ever deepening relationship with the TRUE vine, Jesus Christ. That way we’re ready…no matter what kind of topography shapes our life journey. When it comes to spiritual growth, shallow soil just won’t do! We need deep roots!
3. The third soil condition Jesus talked about in this parable was soil that was filled with weeds.
Now, every gardener knows that the weeds grow with a speed and a strength that few good seeds can equal. The result is that weeds are so strong that they throttle the life out of the seed, and it dies, while the weeds flourish. And, this would represent THE OVER-INVOLVED HEART which belongs to the hearer who has so many interests in life that certain things (and often the most important things) get crowded out. Many of us are like this in that we tend to give first-rate loyalties to too many second-rate causes. Luke 10 records the time when Jesus visited in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It was apparently lunch time when He arrived and Martha scurried off to the kitchen to prepare a meal. But her sister, Mary, sat down at the feet of Jesus and listened with eagerness and joy as Jesus talked of spiritual things. Remember, it was not long before Martha-busy in the kitchen-became frustrated because Mary was in the living room, enjoying herself, while she was doing all the work preparing the meal. Finally she decided that she had had it with Mary and stomped into the living room and said, Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to You that my sister just sits there while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me!
And it is then that the Lord stood and gently put His arms around Martha’s shoulders and said, Martha, Martha…you are worried and upset about MANY things but only ONE thing is needed and Mary has chosen it. In other words He said, Martha, You have let your life get so mixed up that you are putting the emphasis on the wrong things. If you are not careful you will spend your life so busy doing trivial things that you will miss what is really important….the weeds will strangle the good crop in your life! In his book, The Tyranny of the Urgent, Charles Hummel writes,
“Don’t let the URGENT take the place of the IMPORTANT in your life. Oh the URGENT will really fight, claw, and scream for attention. It will plead for our time and even make us think we’ve done the right thing by calming its nerves. But the tragedy of it all is this: While you and I were putting out the fires of the URGENT….an everyday affair….the IMPORTANT was again left in a holding pattern. And interestingly, the IMPORTANT is neither noisy nor demanding. Unlike the URGENT, it patiently and quietly waits for us to realize its significance. “
In this part of the parable, Jesus is teaching here that it is possible to major on the wrong things in life…to feed the wrong things to the extent that the right things wither and die. Charles Swindoll tells a humorous story about a salesman for a major manufacturer named GOOCH and his supervisor, JIM. Jim was not sure why he hired GOOCH as a salesman. He didn’t seem to have the qualifications. In fact, if murdering the English language were a crime, GOOCH would be on death row. But GOOCH had a uniqueness about him that motivated JIM to give him a chance and what a wise decision that turned out to be! At the end of GOOCH’S first week in the field, he send JIM this note:
“Dere Bos, I seen this outfit which they ain’t never bot a dimes worth of nuthin from us, and I sole thim a cuple of hundred thousand dolars wuth of guds. Now I’m goin to Chawgo. “
The letter was signed, GOOCH. Two days later, a second letter arrived at the home office from the field. It read:
“Dere Bos, i com hear and sole them half a milyon. “
The letter was again signed, Gooch. The next day the boss posted both letters on the bulletin board with a note which read:
“We ben spendin’ to much time hear tryin to spel insteed of tryin to sel. Let’s watch these leters from GOOCH who is on the rode doing a grate job for us. Go out and do like he dun. “
It was signed, Bos
Now, I am not advocating that all of you go out and forget spelling and grammar but I do think that this story reminds us that there are times in life, especially in Montgomery County, when we focus on the wrong things. In a sense we spend too much time trying to spell instead of trying to sell. We choose the secondary instead of the primary. We focus on the temporary things of this world instead of upon the eternal things of the Kingdom of God. We major on the minor and minor on the major.
You’ve heard the expression, I’ve got too many irons in the fire. The real problem is that many times we have too many fires going and not enough irons to go around. We need to listen this part of Jesus’ parable…and let Him use it to teach us what is really important in life…that it is absolutely vital that we give priority to the things of God. We must learn to pray with the Psalmist, Teach me Your way, O Lord…give me an undivided heart. (Psalm 86:10 ) We need follow the guidance of Colossians 3:1 and, set our hearts on things above….not on earthly things.
4. And the last soil Jesus spoke of was the good soil….the fertile soil.
The good ground was deep and clean and soft; the seed could gain entry; it could find nourishment; It could grow unchecked; and in this good ground it brought forth an abundant harvest. And this reminds us that there are times when we are like the good ground, prepared to hear, never to proud or busy to listen. This is the soil of the OPEN HEART.
These are the people who are receptive to God’s truth. They hunger for it…they grow and mature and bear fruit for His kingdom. Jesus said, they, produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown, which would have astounded these people who knew that the average crop yield in those days was less than 8 to one. As Hebrews says, these believers grow and produce fruit. They, leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity.(6:1) They are like the young man described in Psalm 1 who is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither.
Now, I want you to be sure and note something about this parable: ALL OF THE FOUR SOILS WERE FROM THE SAME FIELD. In other words, Jesus was saying that this does not necessarily represent four different types of people but four different responses in the same person. And when you think about it, all of us have times in our lives when our hearts are HARD or SHALLOW or OVER-INVOLVED or even OPEN. Our lives are a blend of many responses to God at times callous to His voice. At other times we settle for a shallow, artificial faith. At other times we are overly-concerned with things that don’t really matter ultimately and there are those rare times when we are like the warm and fertile soil — productive responsive to His bidding. In times like this, we grow in His likeness and bear much fruit in His kingdom. Now which soil are you most like this morning?
You know, I get an add about every spring from companies offering to do a free SOIL test….to evaluate the condition of the dirt in my yard. They do this in the hopes that I will be convinced to pay them to add the nutrients to make my soil healthy and productive. Today I think we all should ask God to perform a test on the soil of our hearts. We need to use King David’s words in Psalm 139 and say Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
I pray every week that worship will provide us with a time of self-examination a time to evaluate our walk with God — to allow Him to search us and guide us to respond to His sowing! Perhaps this week worship has shown you of a specific way you need to respond to God. You may feel led to join this church or commit to do all you can to deepen your walk with Him. There may be some here this morning who are not Christians and our time together has shown you that you are ready. Like the good soil upon which the word has fallen you are ready to receive Jesus into your heart and life. If you have a decision to make public I invite you to do so by walking the aisle as we stand now and sing.