The Parable of the Sower
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Today, we are continuing through our study, verse by verse, through the Gospel of Luke. And in today’s passage we come to a parable taught by Christ, known as the parable of the sower, or of the four soils. Parables were like riddles. They were creative ways of teaching spiritual principles. Jesus employed parables often. This one is unique in that Jesus not only teaches a parable, but he then teaches the explanation. In this parable, the word “hearing” is used repeatedly. This parable is about how we “hear” God’s Word, and then what we do with what we heard. This teaching of Christ’s vital, because he cuts through what is often called Nominal Christianity, by declaring that no true Christian can hear God’s Word and not respond with action. Today, the question will be, what kind of hearer of God’s Word are you?
Luke 8:4–15 “And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believ…”
Hearing: This parable of Christ’s has multiple layers to it. There is a lot we can take away. However, the larger theme that ties it all together, is hearing. All four soils represent four people who “hear” the word of God and how they respond. The word “hear” comes up seven times in this passage, nine if you include verse 16-21 which are bundled in this section of scripture…
Meaning & Application
Meaning & Application
The Sower is Christ: First, let’s get our bearing straight and understand the imagery. The sower is the one who goes and scatters seeds into a field. This method of sowing seeds is common in Israel, where the sower carries a satchel and takes a handful of seeds at a time and spreads wide as he walks through a field. To be clear, the sower is Christ, He is the Word of God. So any time that you or I share the word of God in a sermon like this, or in a conversation at the office with a coworker, or as a parent guiding their child, ultimately it is God behind you sowing the seeds through you. He is the ultimate sower of his Word.
What is God’s Word: Let us be clear. According to verse 11, the seed is God’s Word. There are two aspects to this, a more broad aspect and a more narrow.
More Broadly: More broadly, the Word of God can be understood as the message of salvation that is preached from this pulpit every week. That is what Christ taught. It is the message that all of us have fallen short of God’s standard, we have all sinned, but Christ came to rescue sinners. He died on the cross as a substitute for you. And he offers sinners like us grace upon grace, free undeserved, unmerited forgiveness through faith. That message is the Word of God. There are many in this room that believe that, and undoubtedly there are some who do not believe that. These four soils today will expose various people’s hearts and how they respond to hearing that message.
More Narrowly: More narrowly, the Word of God is the entirety of Scripture, both old and new testament. These are God’s Words given to us by God to shape all of life. So when God commands us to keep a sabbath once a week, that’s God Word. When God commands us to honor our parents and our authorities, that’s God’s Word. How we hear and respond to all of God’s teachings is represented by these soils as well.
The First Two Soils: The first two soils represent for us those who, when all is said and done, clearly reject God’s Word. Let’s consider them both
I INDIVIDUALS WHO CLEARLY REJECT GOD’S WORD
The Seed on the Path: The first seed falls on the path, where the seed is trampled and eaten by birds. Jesus teaches us that is equivalent to a person who hears the word of God but the devil comes and takes the word away and so they never believe and are not saved. I have seen this occur many times. Isn’t it interesting to know that when you share the word of God, in any way, with another person, you are engaged in spiritual warfare. What you see is a person sitting across a coffee table from you. What you can’t see is the battle for that soul taking place as you speak the very words of God into their life. O how we would pray differently if we properly perceived this. Permit me to lay out some common methods that the Devil uses to accomplish this work.
Immediately: Sometimes you can just watch a person harden up the moment the name of God is brought up in a conversation. Things were great until you mentioned Jesus, then suddenly the conversation goes cold. So much is happening in that moment that you cannot see.
Family & Friends: Sometimes, the Devil will speak through friends. Someone hears the Word of God, they begin to ponder it, but as they mingle with their friends and bring up this idea they have been wrestling with, the friends scoff and dismiss the idea is foolish. I am not simply speaking about rough friends who live in debauchery. CS Lewis describes the types of friends that draw a person away from God. He writes in the Screwtape Letters which is a series of letters from one high ranking demon to a lower ranking demon, of the types of friends the lower ranking demon should surround his target with.
“[They are] thoroughly reliable people; steady, consistent scoffers and worldlings who without any spectacular crimes are progressing quietly and comfortably towards Our Father’s [the Devil’s] house.”
So What, Pray Daily: For the Christian, this means you must pray daily. If you want to be an effective ambassador for christ, pray fervently. Keep a list of people that you are praying for, and pray for them regularly. Your prayers are effective breaking down walls and defeating the enemies plans. Pray fervently.
“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
The Rocky Soil: The second type of heart that hears the word of God but does not respond to it in a saving way is the seed that lands on the rocky soil. This seed looks as though it has taken root, because it quickly sprouts, but because it has no roots due to the rocks, it quickly fades.
They Believe For a While: Notice with this soil that Jesus specifically says, “They believe for a while, and in a time of testing they fall away.” Here’s what this means. Some people appear to have truly believed in Jesus. Perhaps they prayed a prayer, or intellectually agreed in a moment. They might join a church, become a part of small group, begin to learn about the Bible. All of those steps are like the shoot growing up out of the soil. It appears like a healthy shoot for a while, but then comes “a time of testing.” Trial reveals where our faith is. Trial is God’s gift that encourages the believer by causing him to cling to Christ and His Word, and reveals the hypocrisy of those on rocky soil when they abandon Christ and His Word.
Illustration: Genesis 22: If you, as a Christian, understand this, it will change how you approach difficult, hardship, and trial. Consider the story of Abraham. We’re told in Genesis 22:1
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Of course, we know the test, it was the most difficult test I believe any human has ever been put through by God, to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac on an altar. If you know the story, God didn’t make Abraham go through with it, he stopped him at the last moment. But why did he test him? Was to for God to find out if he had real faith or not? No, God is sovereign, he knows our hearts. It was to reveal the metal of his faith to Abraham. This is what tests accomplish. They strengthen our resolve!
Illustration - Covid: We saw this play out in real time with Covid19. The American Church as a whole has documented now a major phenomenon that occurred during Covid. Many people, who were previously deeply plugged into Churches, experienced the testing of the isolation and the hardships of Covid, and when Covid was over, they never returned. When these people were checked in on by their pastors (me), their faith was different, if present at all. They weren’t coming back to Church. They were cold towards Christ. But they also weren’t reading their Bible. They weren’t praying. They were drinking more. I don’t know their soul’s condition, but to me it seems a lot like the rocky ground.
Take Action: Do not be deceived church. Better to hear it from me now, than to hear it from Christ on your judgment day later. Examine yourself, what do you do in times of testing? Do you push into Christ?
II THORNY SOIL, SOME GROWTH BUT NO FRUIT
The third type of soil is different from the first two. The thorny soil is much debated among commentators as to whether or not the seed on the thorny soil is actually a Christian or not.
And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
They’re producing a fruit, it’s just not mature fruit. This is the kind of person that many pews in American churches are filled with. Christian by title, attenders of Church, the kind of person you probably would call to babysit your kids. Yet two things are true of this person. Their love of wealth and the things of this world are choking out any real spiritual fruit in their life. Wealth is such an idol. Money is not an evil in and of itself, in fact it is a very wonderful too that God places in our hands for us to steward faithfully. But how many would-be saints have been numbed, and ruined because a hunger for wealth, chokes their hunger for God. A prayer I began praying years ago was “God, may I not have one more penny to my name than I can be faithful to you with.” Why? Because I know that my weak sin filled heart, is capable of this.
Discerning Between the Two: Now, we must note that we walking on very important and yet very dangerous grounds for Christians. Because this text tells us, that by examining the fruit of a person’s life, you can tell if they are a true believer or not. It says that a person’s actions, their deeds, their works, prove the validity of their faith. This is why you will regularly hear me instruct us to examine ourselves, to see if this is true of us from the text. Spurgeon said it this way:
“And here let me appeal to each person now present. Do not tell me that you are an old church member. I am glad to hear it, but still, I beseech you, examine yourself, for a man may be a professor of religion thirty or forty years, and yet there may come a trial-day when his religion shall snap after all and prove to be a rotten branch of the forest. Tell me not you are a deacon, that you may be, and yet you may be damnably deceived.”
Begin to Believe Works Not Grace: Oh such a caution is needed here, such pastoral guidance is needed here. Let me explain. With so much “self-examination” there is a grave error that can be made. We begin to self examine ourselves regularly, and we keep finding areas where we’re not doing enough. There’s not enough fruit. It’s not strong enough fruit. Now let me say up front, that is the life of a believer. The more we grow as a Christian, we see real fruit, but we also discover mountains of sin in our hearts. Depth with Christ is truly measured by our understanding of deep the Father’s love is for sinner’s like us. And then two risks become apparent.
Authentic Christians are Discouraged: First, authentic Christians are discouraged because they begin pealing back the layers of their life, seeing all their weaknesses and sins, and they can begin to doubt if they’re even saved at all. This can be especially true for authentic Christians who are in a season of backsliding, or who are going through something very difficult.
Works Not Grace: Or worse, we can begin to believe the lie that we are somehow saved by works, not by grace. We begin to feel that we’re not doing enough, and so we start trying to do more, to make more fruit… And then that slowly builds into this ideology in our mind that Christ is more pleased with us based on how much fruit we’re producing. No! Oh my heart breaks. The Gospel says that if you are in Christ, then you are fully loved on your worst day just as you are on your greatest day. And if you leave here today and level up five levels and start producing fruit in the kingdom like you have never known you could produce, Christ will love you no more. His love is infinite poured out on you, the moment you received his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sin. Somehow, we need to be able to test ourselves, to lay ourselves bare before the text, and let God have his way with us as authentic Christians, without slipping into despair or false ideas about the gospel!
An Equal Risk, Comforting the Afflicted: And so as a pastor I often want to take my foot of the pedal of self-examination and just comfort you with the love of the gospel. But, dear Church, this passage teaches us that there is another risk, an equal risk, that keeps me awake at night. That is the risk that I mistakenly comfort hypocrites with promises of the Gospel that are not theres to hold. It is the risk that we do not do the difficult work of self-examination, and a whole host of sleepy Americans die believing their saved, only to wake up on the other side of death and hear Christ say, “I never knew you.”
Two Tests: And so I want to offer what I believe to be a baseline. A simple tool that will serve to minister to both groups. This tool has been preached by thousands of faithful preachers over the centuries. Do you want to know if you are an authentic Christian. Only Christ truly knows, but there are two tests that you ask of yourself.
Lamenting Over Sin: The first sign of a real believer as distinguished from a hypocrite, is that a real believer will deeply lament and grieve sin in their life, as it is an affront to Jesus Christ. If the gospel of Jesus Christ has been deposited in truth in your soul, if you are now in Christ, and desire Christ more than comfort and prosperity, then when you are confronted with real sin, you will grieve its presence, not because of the shame it brings you, but because the affront that it is to your Savior. I’m not asking if you intellectually agree with this. The thorny ground and the rocky ground likely intellectually agree with this. Your real life ought to prove it. This is why I say regularly if you are content to continue sinning after you have learned an area of your life is sin (whether its drinking, or pornography, or anger, or not keeping a sabbath, using the Lord’s name in vain), that is when I’m most troubled. I know many Christians who are not troubled in the least by discovering sin in their life.
Running to Prayer: The second sign of a real believer as distinguished from a hypocrite, is that the real believer in some degree delights in running to Christ in prayer. Maybe not to the degree you wish you did. Maybe your still growing in it. But that desire is there, and the practice is there. Do they have a desire in their heart to please Christ, to enjoy Christ, to experience Christ? Is he very precious to them? Or are they content to live the vast majority of their life with Christ at an arm’s length.
Illustration: Psalm 88: My staff and I watched a wonderful sermon by Tim Keller on Psalm 88. Psalm 88 is one of only two psalms out of 150 that is a psalm of lament that has no silver lining. The whole psalm is agonizing over the pain of the trial that they are enduring.
Psalm 88:14 “O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?”
The last word in the psalm is “darkness.” No silver lining. No “but I know that you are God and you will deliver.” Nope, this is trial of trials. And Tim Keller asks the question, “Why is this psalm in our psalter?” The answer is that there are times in the life of a believer when the trial is so difficult, the pain is so real, that you cannot see God’s potential light at the end of tunnel. But notice, the psalmist is speaking to God. All he can see is darkness. He’s forgotten so many of the promises of God. But in his hardship, he speaking to God.
Close Out: Oh Christian, take comfort. We may be weak, and in a season of ineffectiveness, but the proof of your faith, is in your continual turning to Christ in prayer, that is your fruit. To those who
IV THE GOOD SOIL
Now, look to the final soil. This soil is good and healthy, and it produces a hundredfold crop. Jesus says that the good soil are those that “hear the word,” and “hold fast to the word,” and “bear fruit with patience.” The Christian faith is not a sprint, it is a marathon, that’s why “patience” is said. It is the slow, steady, faithful day in day out pursuit of Christ. But it is also a holding fast! This means cherishing, gripping, clinging to. Christians cannot hold Christ loosely and expect to live a mature life in Christ. From a place of joy, we are to hold onto Christ like a man in a storm at sea who grips onto the rails of the boat.
Getting Very Practical: How do we do that? This passage is ultimately about how to hear the Word of God effectively. I want to leave with Here are six simple applications that if you put into practice, will deeply shape your life to be consistent hearers and fruit producers.
First, prepare your heart for Sunday through prayer both the evening before, and morning of the Sunday gathering. You might feel that this is an unnecessary step, that you can simply come to church and listen and that ought to be enough. I’m telling you, if you want to see great fruit produced in your faith, you will learn to pray fervently the night before and the morning a Sunday gathering. Pray like this, “Oh God, open my heart to receive life transforming wisdom from your word tomorrow. May I not be as one who looks in a mirror and does see the blemishes. May I have truth revealed tomorrow.”
Second, let your posture towards the preached word, not be one simply of curiosity, but one rather of duty. Curiosity will only get you so far in the Christian faith. Curiosity primarily feeds the head. If you come here simply because you want me to say something that stretches your thinking, you can be easily deceived that you have engaged with the message. No, every sermon must cause action. When you leave a sermon on a Sunday, you must not say to yourself, “I like how the preacher said this or that.” Rather you ought to say, “What area in my life needs renewal, transformation.”
Third, arrive to the Sunday Gathering on time. When you have tickets to the theatre, you plan your night accordingly. You arrive with plenty of time to park your car and walk into the building. You are not rushed. And so when the theatre begins, you are fully prepared to receive every part of the show. How much more so ought it to be with the Sunday gathering. A sunday worship begins with a Call to Worship. That moment is a critical part of the overall experience.
Fourth, avoid common distractions on your Sabbath. I had a season a few years back where I started to spend five minutes browsing social media first thing in the morning before engaging the word. And I slowly realized that while I was still getting into the word, my time was distracted. Why? Well, I had just plowed my brain with ridiculous things, and I was assuming I could simply and easily transition into meaningful time in the word. No. In the same way, our sabbaths must be guarded. Turn your social media off, I have learned to do this on my Sabbath. If the Sunday gathering is to hear and do God’s Word, then you need to create the space where you are most susceptible to being able to truly hear and do.
Fifth, pray for me, the minister, to preach boldly, and effectively the Word of God. I have the privelege of ministering to you week in and week out by preaching faithfully God’s Word. I do so fearfully, knowing that teachers will be judged more harshly. Every week I am forced, because of time, to leave out so much of what I want to say. Pray for me, that God would speak through me. That my voice would be used as a vessel of the Word of God.
Sixth, Commit to the dilligent work of self reflection. When you leave a sermon, you must ask yourself how the Word of God is changing you today. You may have disliked the sermon, and disliked the preacher. But remember, it wasn’t the preacher who gave the Word, it was Christ. And Christ intends the preached word to mold us over the course of our life. If we’re not changing, and discovering new areas to grow in, to become more like Christ in, something’s wrong.
Doing this Daily: I have equipped with six simple ways to approach a sermon for the rest of your life. Now let me give you a trick of Christianity, that will change everything for you. If you approach the word of God daily, using those same tools, you will find that you begin to bear fruit a hundredfold.