sf198 - He Who Has Ears To Hear Let Him Hear (Matthew 13 3-9)
Matthew 13:3-9
Introduction
A parable is a handle which Jesus puts into our hands to enable us to pick up a truth and take it home with us. We normally call this story “the parable of the sower,” and this title probably is used mainly as one of convenience (see Matthew 13:18). The parable seems to be told more as an analysis of the soil-types more than an assessment of the sower. So it could easily be called “the parable of the soils.”
Verse nine gives us an excellent key for interpreting the parable. “Who hath ears (there is a person’s capacity to hear) to hear (there is a person’s opportunity to hear), let him hear (there is a person’s responsibility to hear).” This is a parable about hearing. Sixteen times in some eleven verses in the text and context, Jesus referred to hearing (read this sentence again and ponder it carefully).
What people hear when confronted with the truth of God, “the word of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:19), is determined by the spiritual sensitivity of their heart.
The word “kingdom” is a key word in understanding the thirteenth chapter of Matthew and the parables it contains. What distinguishes a kingdom? Is it not the presence and reign of a king? The kingdom of God is an absolute monarchy with a benevolent “despot” (Greek, despotes), King Jesus, on the throne.
This means that all rules are established by Him, and any revolt or disobedience is a serious offence. However, this parable admits that not all listeners in the Realm give full cooperation to the King. It tells us that we set up “rival kingdoms” of self-interest and self-dominion. If you are absorbed with your own kingdom, the truth of the Kingdom of God, the “word of the kingdom,” will be diverted from your heart.
1A. The Sower
1B. The sower represents Christ. (13:37)
The Gospel age was launched when the Son of God “went forth to sow.”
He came from Heaven, carrying the “word of the kingdom,” and He sowed it wholesale on all types of soil.
2B. The sower represents the Christian
Sowing the seed of the Word is our greatest profession
Psalm 126:5-6 Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. 6 He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.
Sowing the seed of the Word is our greatest privilege
Ø Unless we sow there will be no harvest
Ø Each time we sow we become part of a miracle
The seed will either produce life or death; repentance or rebellion.
One of the greatest problems in today’s church is that the average Sunday attender in church features himself only as a supporter instead of a sower.
Clearly, the assignment for all Christians is to sow, but the harvesting process is destroyed in its inception if Christians do not sow Gospel seeds on human hearts.
The entire Gospel enterprise is launched when a sower of Gospel seeds “goes forth to sow.”
The sower represents both Christ and the Gospel-sharing Christian.
2A. The Seed
1B. The seed represents God’s message (13:19)
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
The apparent frailty of God’s Word
Ø Seeds are small and easily crushed.
Ø The Word seems very weak in the face of angry opposition.
The actual force of God’s Word
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Jeremiah 23:29 Is not My word like a fire? says the LORD, And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
The awesome fruitfulness of God’s Word
Ø At 100 fold increase, by the end of 15 years you would have enough corn to make 31,536,188 earth-sized corn balls with enough left over to feed the entire world for 1000 years.
2B. The seed represents God’s people (13:38)
That is why in Acts we are told that God “scatter” the church! (Acts 8:1, 4)
The purpose of a seed
Ø To reproduce the parent plant!
The program of a seed
John 12:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
1 Corinthians 15:36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.
Ø The life of Christ will be manifested through us in exact proportion as the Cross of Christ is operative in us.
The power of a seed
Ø The incredible power of a seed to overcome!
Every homeowner knows that if you allow that tiny maple shoot to continue growing in the crack in the driveway, it will sooner or later heave up the driveway and destroy it.
Dear Christian, I am talking about the power God intends to express through you!
Ø The incredible power of a seed to reproduce!
Take just one watermelon seed.
That relatively small seed will draw up through itself out of the soil a fruit that is 200,000 times its own weight!
The potential of a seed
Ø Anyone can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed
3A. The Soils
1B. Four kinds of hearts
The solid heard – no reception
The shallow heart – no root
The strangled heart – no room
The submissive heart – no resistance
2B. Four kinds of hearing
Surface hearing – inattentive, self-centered
Superficial hearing – impulsive, self-serving
Suffocated hearing – indulgent, self-conscious
Spiritual hearing – inductive, self-sacrificing
3B. Four kinds of results
Stolen seed – the enemy is Satan
Starved seed – the enemy is the flesh or self
Stifled seed – the enemy is world or society
Successful seed – the victor is Christ (Romans 10:17)
Ø Faith starts with the Word of God,
Ø stands on the Word of God,
Ø steps out on the Word of God,
Ø states the Word of God, and
Ø stops with the Word of God
Application
The question is not, “Does God speak?” The question is, “Do men listen?”
One Sunday morning, Alexander Whyte, the great Edinburgh pastor, preached a searching sermon about sin and its consequences. He did not know it, but a mother and her college-age son were seated side by side on a seat in church that morning. The boy was home for college for the weekend.
The next week, Dr. Whyte received two letters on different day. One was from the mother, and in the letter she angrily blasted the pastor for his forthright exposure and renunciation of sin.
A day or so letter, a letter came from the woman’s son, who was back at college, and wrote to tell Dr. Whyte that he had been saved through his message on the past Sunday!
To some listeners, the Gospel produces a progression of “life unto life,” while to others, it leads to “death unto death.” Everything depends on the depth and quality of a person’s listening.
Dear friend, at what level, with what intensity, with what awareness, with what outcome, do you listen to the Lord?
Do you listen openly, submissively, longingly, deeply, productively?
Matthew 13:3-9
1A. The ___________________________________
1B. The sower represents ________________. (13:37)
2B. The sower represents the ____________________
Sowing the seed of the Word is our greatest ________________ (Psalm 126:5-6)
Sowing the seed of the Word is our greatest privilege
2A. The Seed
1B. The seed represents God’s _____________ (13:19; Luke 8:11)
The apparent ____________________ of God’s Word
The actual ______________________ of God’s Word (Hebrews 4:12; Jeremiah 23:29)
The awesome ____________________ of God’s Word
2B. The seed represents God’s _____________ (13:38)
The ____________________________ of a seed
The ____________________________ of a seed (John 12:24; 1 Corinthians 15:36)
The _____________________________ of a seed
The _____________________________ of a seed
3A. The Soils
1B. Four kinds of __________________________
The ____________________ heard – no reception
The shallow heart – no root
The ____________________ heart – no room
The _____________________ heart – no resistance
2B. Four kinds of ____________________________
_______________ hearing – inattentive, self-centered
Superficial hearing – impulsive, self-serving
_______________ hearing – indulgent, self-conscious
Spiritual hearing – inductive, self-sacrificing
3B. Four kinds of ______________________________
_______________________ seed – the enemy is Satan
_______________ seed – the enemy is the flesh or self
______________ seed – the enemy is world or society
Successful seed – the victor is Christ (Romans 10:17)
Ø Faith starts with the Word of God,
Ø ______________________ on the Word of God,
Ø ___________________ out on the Word of God,
Ø _________________________ the Word of God
Ø _____________________ with the Word of God