The Parable of the Sower for Christians

17^th January 2020

Matthew 13v3b-9
"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."

The Parable of the sower is very well-known, but many make the mistake of thinking it's only about the Gospel, when really it's about the whole Bible. Jesus explains it:

Matthew 13v18-19
"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 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."

Jesus isn't just talking about the Gospel. He's talking about what He calls "the message about the kingdom". The kingdom of God is more than the Gospel. It's everything that God rules over, which is everything. That includes your heart, your life, your decisions, your family, your future, your finances, your preferences and your leisure time. The message of the kingdom is that God is King – Ruler of everything - and how we should respond to His rule.

Ground becomes a path because people walk on it. When it's been trampled over and over again it becomes hard. So do hearts. Seed bounces off paths, and God's word bounces off hard hearts. Some people's lives have been so wretched or so disappointing they blame God for their pain, and so they're not open to His word of peace, reconciliation and forgiveness. They're angry with Him. Their hearts are hard. They will not let his word in.

Other people just don't want to know. They're far too busy making money or having fun. But in truth, Christians have much more fun than anybody else. But many people don't believe that, and they won't see it until they try it. In truth, being a child of God is the most fun there is on this earth. Everything is more fun if you have the peace of God in your heart. Good clean fun is infinitely more fun that the other sort. The joy of the Lord is more wonderful than any fun anybody will ever have. Christians have tremendous fun – good clean fun, and it's wonderful to have fellowship with God and with each other.

The message of the kingdom - of King Jesus's rule over the universe and how we should respond - can bounce off Christian hearts too. You can be a Christian. You can be open to the Gospel and to some aspects of Biblical teaching. You can go to church and listen to preaching week after week. But it's up to you how much your heart causes the word of God to bounce off, and how much it receives.

There may be some areas of your life where you're very open to the word of God, you receive it, and it does you good. And there may be other areas of your life where you're not open to the word of God at all, and it bounces off.

If you're a Christian, you've believed the Gospel. You're born again, a child of God, forgiven, washed clean, filled, and destined for glory. But the word of God will bear fruit in those parts of your heart that let it in, and not in parts that don't.

Is there any area of Biblical teaching that your heart is not willing to receive? Finances? Forgiveness? Spiritual gifts? Commitment to church? Family life? Honesty? patience? There must be a long of areas where God might be speaking to you, and you might not be letting His word in. In that case, it will not bear fruit in that part of your life. This will mar your future to some extent.

Matthew 13v20-21
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. 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.

In some parts of Hampshire, where I live, the bedrock is chalk. There's a layer of earth and grass about half an inch thick above the chalk. Nothing can go into the chalk, it just sits in that half an inch of earth and grass. In other parts of the world there's granite bedrock, with just a tiny sliver of soil above it. Sowing wheat in such areas tends not to work, because it can't go down; it can only go up. If you sow wheat in very thin layers of soil, for the first few weeks it might look marvellous, "Look how fast it's growing!" but then it dies because it has no root.

In the same way, we all know people who've come to church, heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, prayed a prayer of commitment to God, expressed tremendous joy at their salvation, appeared to amend their lives in some particulars, perhaps got baptised. But they're not here now. And they're not in another church. The seed was received with great joy, but it didn't go deep, and they fell away.

At evangelistic meetings, many people can stand up and confess Jesus Christ as Lord, but many of them will not be in church the following Sunday. They were just caught up in the emotion of the moment. They received the message of the kingdom with great joy, but no root was able to grow. How sad that is.

But again, as a Christian, you can hear a word about any aspect of Christian life. You might speak to the preacher, and say "Great preach, pastor, thank you very much". But by about Tuesday you've forgotten all about it. It sounded good, it felt good, it seemed true, but in the busyness of life you just forgot about it. You didn't allow it to go down deep.

An obvious example is what you might call the word about the word. Your church probably teaches on the importance of Bible study. No Christian that I know would ever say that we don't need to read the Bible. But some of us don't it very much. We believe it's important. We believe it's good. We believe we're called to read it, but we don't actually read it very much.

And when we do read the Bible, do we think, "There's a TV programme on in a few minutes. I'll just read my half a dozen verses and then go downstairs and watch a soap opera, or a football match"? That's not letting the word go down deep. We need to meditate on the word of God, and not only read it.

Colossians 3v16a
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

It will do you good. You will be a happier, more fulfilled, more peaceful, more joyful, more righteous human, if you let the word go down deep.

Jesus talks about when trouble or persecution comes. Christians in some places can avoid persecution for long periods, but there's usually trouble. And when there's trouble, it's so easy to think, "I'll read the Bible tomorrow" or, "I'll read it today, but I'll think about it tomorrow". But if you won't read it today, you probably won't read it tomorrow. And if you don't take time to meditate on it, it won't do you any good.

Matthew 13v22
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.

When you sit down to pray and to study the Scriptures, your mind might turn to what might go wrong tomorrow. This stops you studying. You might be reading the words but you're not thinking about what you're reading; you're too worried about what might happen tomorrow.

Or on the other side of the coin, perhaps you're excited about what might happen tomorrow. You might make some more money tomorrow. Jesus warns us about the deceitfulness of wealth. We can be fooled into thinking "I'd be happy if I had a newer car, or a bigger house, or some new clothes." It doesn't work. There was a study which demonstrated statistically that retail therapy – buying something to cheer yourself up - works, but only for an average of 20 minutes. But the joy of knowing Jesus lasts for eternity.

So let's take time to read and pray. Let's not be distracted by worries about what might go wrong. Worrying isn't going to fix anything. And let's not be distracted either by the false idea that if only I had more money to spend on making myself happy with stuff, I'd be happy. You won't. But:

1 Timothy 6:6
Godliness with contentment is great gain.

If we choose godliness and contentment, we'll take time to read the Bible and study it. This will make us more godly, more peaceful, more useful in God's hand, and more content.

Matthew 13v23
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."

If you read your Bible, if you stop to meditate, if you go to church, God will speak to you. The message of the kingdom will come to your heart. If you will receive it, and allow it to go down deep, and if you will turn away from worrying and from lusting after more and more stuff, the word of God will bear fruit in you. You will experience genuine love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. You'll be a radically different Christian person, because the word of Christ is dwelling in you richly.

And the word in you will result in other people receiving the word, too. You will bring people to faith, without trying very hard, because you can't do it by your own effort. They will find Jesus because you have allowed the word of Christ to dwell in you richly. Faith in God is contagious, not like a disease, but as the most beautiful, wonderful gift.

If you will walk closely with Jesus, and if His word dwells deeply in your heart by faith, then other people will be born again into God's wonderful kingdom.