In the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 13, we find what is commonly referred to as the Parable of the Sower. The sower, who could also be called a farmer, is sowing or planting seeds in the parable. In Jesus’ time, it would have been rare for anyone not to be familiar with planting seeds. His audience had seen everything he’s telling them, played out in nature.
There are four groups represented in the parable, or four categories. The parable is both descriptive and prescriptive. Jesus is describing the way things are and will be, but there are also applications and lessons to be learned.
From a descriptive point of view, we can look at the world or at the church or ministry we’ve been involved in and see the truth in what Jesus is saying. When the truth of the Gospel is spread into the world, it lands in different places, coming up against different types of people.
Years ago, I wrote an article about the history of the work in Turkey. As you know, there are few protestant Christians there, less than 10,000. Many “seeds” have been scattered there. People have prayed. They’ve shared the Gospel with people. Bibles and New Testaments have been sent out. Over the years, a lot of seed has been spread. Still, less than 10,000 Christians.
Many more than that have said they want to be a Christian. The best guess is somewhere between 25-40,000 people have professed a belief in Christ in the last 40 years. So, why are there less than 10,000 in the churches?
This parable helps explain it. Some of the seeds fell on the path, some on the rocky ground and some among the weeds. But some was sown in the good soil, and that represents those who believe and continue to walk faithfully with Christ to this day.
You might think about friends you know. People who at one time said they were a follower of Christ, but who now seem to be far from Him. Jesus talks about the problem. He explains why this might happen. He also diagnoses the problem.
When we get to verses 18-23, we see Jesus’ own explanation. This gives us the opportunity to think through Jesus’ words in light of our own lives and to ask the question, “Am I good soil?” As Jesus puts it, “This is the one who hears the word and understands it.” That’s what it means to be good soil. To have the Holy Spirit and have your life aligned with God’s Word. That is how we understand it and how we become “good soil.” There are four different landing places for the good seed of the Gospel in the parable and only one that produces growth in righteousness and spiritual fruit.
Before we look at these four categories, I would note that if you are not a follower of Jesus, you are in great spiritual risk. Jesus is offering you eternal life, but also a life on this earth where you have access to His guidance. These are great gifts. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Today can be the first day of your new spiritual journey. You can give your life to Him and start this new path. Don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. Bet your life on the safest bet there is in this world.
As for those of you who have already given your lives to Christ, we can learn a lot by looking at this parable. Jesus gives examples that can serve as warnings to us all. If we want our own life to turn out the way God would have it. To see our lives transformed by the good of the Gospel and the Truth of God’s Word, we would do well to read this parable and Jesus’ interpretation and apply it.
- Be careful about what you’re listening to. There are voices in our lives. We live in a digital world and the people I know have more virtual voices than real voices in their lives. This is one way that living today is much more complicated than the world that these first century followers of Jesus were living in.
In the first example, Jesus says the seed fell on the path. He tells us the people on the path don’t understand the word of God. They receive it, but the evil one comes and snatches away the truth that was sown in their hearts.
So, in this example the truth of God’s Word is falling on a place that isn’t suitable to retain it. The soil of the heart of this person is dry and without the nourishment the plant needs to grow. In the end, because it never really takes root, it is easy for the lies of Satan to overcome it. To replace it.
Why would the heart of the person be like that? Why would some of your hearts be like that? What dries up the soil of your hearts. In today’s world it could be what you consume. What are you putting into your life every day? What kind of information passes in front of your eyes and into your ears?
This makes a big difference in how your heart receives truth. You cannot grow in Christ if the seed of God’s Word is just a tiny little kernel in a sea of garbage. In the world we live in today, we can consume media every waking minute. Music, videos, games, and people talking to us about everything. Not just information, but how to think about such information.
If you cultivate a heart like that, it will become a dry place. An unwelcoming place for God’s Word. By filling your life with every voice, but the truth, we make our heart into the path that is ready for Satan to snatch away whatever remnant of truth that remains.
What are you filling your mind and heart with? Are these things drawing you closer to God or away from Him?
- Be careful about where you spend your time. In the next part of the parable, Jesus talks about the rocky places. Jesus gives a warning to the person who receives God’s Word with joy and believes it, but doesn’t take care to continue to build it into their life so it takes root. There’s something there, some belief that is real, but the problem is instead of living in the good soil, it’s surrounded by the rocky places. In the parable, the sun comes out and there is nothing to protect the plant and allow it to survive. If you’ve grown plants, you know that sunshine is essential for most plants. In this scenario, you have a plant that isn’t equipped to deal with the sun.
Why? Because the sun that gives life and light can also burn things up. Jesus specifically mentions trouble and persecution coming. When this trouble comes, the person among the rocky places quickly falls away. They don’t survive the trouble.
This might be illustrated in the person who grew up in a church family or came to church and heard the word and believed it, but then lives their life outside of the family of God. Maybe they still come to the church meetings occasionally, such as once a month or for a special event, but they are not a part of God’s family.
God loved us and gave us His word and He established His church. When we live with God’s Word as a part of our daily life and we remain in the Body, learning from one another and growing together, we are well equipped to survive trouble when it comes. Even grow through it.
The encouragement and support of our fellow believers is often the tangible presence of God’s Love for us during those difficult times. However, when we don’t live connected to the Body of Christ, we make our lives more difficult at all times, but especially in times of trouble. God intends for us to live in Biblical community and when we do, we will grow together through the good and the bad that this world brings.
Where do you spend your time? Is it drawing you closer to God or away from Him?
- Be careful about who you spend time with. The third example is seed scattered among the thorns. In this one it says the thorns choked away the life of the growing plants, making it unfruitful. Jesus says they received the word, but the “worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it.”
These thorns could represent many things, including who you spend your time with. A sociologist said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. If we spend our time with people who are obsessed with money, we will become more obsessed with money. If the people we spend time with are concerned with personal fame, we will soon demonstrate the same traits.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be friends with unbelievers or spend our time reaching out to those who do not yet know Jesus, but who do you spend the majority of your time with? Are they people who love the Lord and are consistently pursuing a growing relationship with Him or are they those who are consumed with the world, the worries of this age? It matters the kind of people we are with every day. Some people speak truth into our lives. They give us God’s Word and their lives are a beautiful illustration of the Word lived out.
When we are surrounded by those who worship the world, then we will slowly change to become more concerned with the things of this world.
Who do you spend your time with? Are these relationships drawing you closer to God, or away from Him?
- The last example is the inverse of all these things. The good soil. We are saved for a purpose. We don’t come into the Kingdom of God to sit and do nothing. The Gospel isn’t about obtaining fire insurance to prevent ourselves from going to Hell. Instead, we are saved to be fruitful. Fruitful = living, growing and bearing fruit. Spiritual fruit. We receive the truth of God’s Word and it grows in our lives and out of that growth, we share fruit.
This could be the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It could be Godly character traits. That doesn’t just happen because we proclaim it. It happens because of good soil.
The fruitfulness also relates to the growth of the Kingdom. As the Gospel is lived out in your life through word and deed, you share a powerful call to a new life. We tell people the Good News of salvation through Christ. We show people the Good News of a transformed life, given over to Him. This is fruitful. It is the fruitful life. A life that can yield a crop 100, 60 or 30 times what was sown. Something that is only possible in Christ.
This is the life God has for you. It is what Jesus was looking ahead and wanting for His disciples and unfortunately, it is the life that many miss out on because they refuse to hear the word of God and understand it.
They refuse to make good decisions about who they spend their time with, where they spend that time and the influences they allow into their lives. All of these things have the potential to derail us from the righteous life that God desires. Every day, you make choices that draw you towards Christ or away from Him. Today, and every day, you have to choose.
So that is the question for us today. If you are a follower of Christ, will you build your life around Him? Will you willingly choose to immerse yourself in truth in a world full of deception? Will you remain faithful to being a part of Church Community, in a world that refuses to commit? Will you build deep, Godly friendships in the Body of Christ, or live out your life among the thorns?
To put it another way, in the words of Joshua, as God’s people prepared to enter into His promise:
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Seeing God 