Matthew 13:1-23 (Eyes That See, Ears that Hear)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, church. [00:00:03] Speaker B: What a joy to be together today. [00:00:08] Speaker A: We are starting a new kind of. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Miniseries within the gospel of Matthew today. I'm excited for it. But, man, before we jump into it, man, aren't we, aren't we the church, just super blessed with our creative team? The people get up here and make the music and service. [00:00:23] Speaker A: It is such a cool thing. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Thank you guys so much. [00:00:25] Speaker A: And last week, the revive day, I only got like 30 minutes of it because I had to leave, and it. [00:00:31] Speaker B: Was still just so good, so refreshing. Thank you, guys, everyone on the creative and tech team, you serve us so faithfully. You point us to Christ. It is seriously such a gift. [00:00:41] Speaker A: And by the way, church, thank you for giving me the freedom to go and serve this last week. I had to leave early because I went and I got to be one of the presenters at a training the North American Mission board put on at. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Their home base in Atlanta, where they. [00:00:56] Speaker A: Bring in teams of men and women who do consulting for churches that are hurting and dying and figuring out what. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Their next steps might be. [00:01:03] Speaker A: And so a couple of us pastors in St. Louis who've walked through situations similar to this, right, where churches come together and merge or replant or revitalize, we got to come be a part of a team that was doing some. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Training for those people. [00:01:15] Speaker A: And so thank you for giving me the freedom to go do that. I got to spend time with close to 400 men and women who are going around the country and doing similar work for churches that are in need. So it was really, really cool, really. [00:01:28] Speaker B: Refreshing and encouraging time. [00:01:30] Speaker A: Today we're starting this new miniseries in Matthew, and this is actually going to take us, essentially, from now through Easter. And so, if you remember, Matthew is kind of divided up by this series of narrative chunks and discourse chunks, right, where it tells stories about Jesus's ministry. And then we'll transition to zoning in on one of Jesus's sermons. And so we're going to be in Matthew 13, looking at one of Jesus's sermons that's often called the Bay of parables. And here's the thing, guys. It's not that we're, like, stepping out of Matthew, right, or stepping even out of order. This is just where we're at in the text. But Jesus'parables are so uniquely powerful, not just within the scripture, but literally within history. Jesus'use of parables are so remarkable, so intense, that we felt like, man, this just deserves kind of its own special focus as we work our way through Matthew. And the timing just works out perfectly. That this will take us through Lent and lead us right up to Easter Sunday, which is pretty cool. Many people throughout history, and even in the time of Jesus, used parables in their teaching. But literally no one in human history. [00:02:45] Speaker B: Used parables to the effect of Christ. His parables are memorable. [00:02:49] Speaker A: They're understandable. They speak to deep longings of the human heart. So much so that literary scholars will reference Jesus'parables outside the realm of Christianity to talk about effective parables. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Right? [00:03:01] Speaker A: Like, he's good at this. So what is a parable, and how do we engage them? I want to give a little bit of setup before we jump into our text today. Parables are short narrative stories that speak to larger, abstract or spiritual truths. You'll often hear folk in church life say it like this. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meaning. I think that's a simple way to consider it in this regard, they're very similar to what we would call allegories, right? Like, think a lion, the witch in the wardrobe, or a pilgrim's progress. But the main difference is going to be length and specificity. [00:03:38] Speaker B: That is a hard word to say. [00:03:39] Speaker A: And when you're in front of people. [00:03:40] Speaker B: And the pressure is on, I just. [00:03:42] Speaker A: Want to thank you for going through. [00:03:43] Speaker B: That moment with me. [00:03:45] Speaker A: If you read an allegory like pilgrim's progress, which you should, by the way, it's excellent, you'll find that it's long, it's complex, and there is meaning to almost every single detail in the story. There's deeper and deeper layers of symbolism. Parables, by contrast, are short. Some of Jesus's parables are one or two lines, and their layers of meaning are much simpler. Rather than causing you to sit back and consider the 25 layers of the symbolic onion within your story, parables are usually trying to drive home one specific point about a spiritual reality. Sometimes, like in our parable today, there are a couple of different aspects of the parable that teach, but they're always going to point back to one central truth. So to this end, we're going to use a couple specific rules that will help us interpret the parables. But I'm sharing these because these will help you in your personal scripture study when you come across parables, specifically Christ's parables. As we'll see today, guys, Jesus'parables are simple, but they can be cryptic. We can struggle at first to comprehend the deeper meaning, but our text today. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Affirms that for those who seek the. [00:05:02] Speaker A: Kingdom, the spirit of God will guide. [00:05:04] Speaker B: Us to the meaning. Parables can be understood and so using. [00:05:08] Speaker A: Tools to engage them is helpful. So two tools. First one is this. Look at the story and consider this. What would have been normal for the original hearers and what would have been. [00:05:19] Speaker B: Strange or striking for the original audience. [00:05:22] Speaker A: It's usually at the intersection of the expected and the unexpected that Christ makes. [00:05:28] Speaker B: His main point within the parable. [00:05:30] Speaker A: He'll tell a story that's 90% normal, and one detail is very, very strange, and it's usually in that intersection that he's proving a point. Second, when you're talking about Jesus's parables, it's really helpful to start by asking, how is this parable about Jesus? What would this parable mean if Jesus were the main character? Now, by the way, both of these rules are not going to apply to 100% of Jesus's parables. He will break these rules sometimes, but these are general guidelines that will help. [00:06:02] Speaker B: You engage his parables excellently. [00:06:04] Speaker A: If you start by saying, how is. [00:06:06] Speaker B: This parable about Christ? [00:06:08] Speaker A: And then taking a second step in saying, what would this parable mean if. [00:06:12] Speaker B: It were about the church? [00:06:14] Speaker A: You'll oftentimes be connected to the larger. [00:06:16] Speaker B: Spiritual truth going on. [00:06:17] Speaker A: That's usually how his parables go. It teaches something about how he engages the world, and then it will show us something about how his church engages the world. So there's our two rules. First one is what would be expected, what would be unexpected. The second one is, what would this mean if it were about Jesus first? And then what would it mean if. [00:06:34] Speaker B: We'Re about the church second? [00:06:36] Speaker A: Okay, so, again, this is where we're going to be from now till Easter. And, guys, I just think God has. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Something cool for us in this. I love Christ's parables. They connect to my soul in a deep level. And I think God is going to connect with all of us through this. [00:06:52] Speaker A: We're going to open today with one of Jesus's most famous parables and one of the only ones where Jesus'explanation is preserved. The gospels tell us that Jesus would often explain his thoughts behind the parables to his disciples in private, but this is rarely actually recorded in the actual gospels. Our text today is one of the. [00:07:15] Speaker B: Few examples where that happens. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Even though Jesus sat down and he gave this larger series of parables to a huge crowd in an open air bay, our text opens with kind of this, almost like a flash forward, like Jesus shares the parable, and then it gives us kind of this flash forward to later on when his disciples are questioning him about this specific parable. And I think Matthew does that for us on purpose, because it explains, first, why Jesus used parables, and then second, it gives this meaning of the first parable Jesus teaches, and it just kind of gives you an interpretive lens as. [00:07:50] Speaker B: You walk through the rest of the teaching. [00:07:52] Speaker A: So that's a lot of introduction. [00:07:55] Speaker B: Sorry about that. [00:07:55] Speaker A: But we're there. We're going to be in Matthew 13 today. If you want to go ahead and open your bibles to Matthew 13. If you don't have a bible with you, we want to strongly encourage you. Grab one of the pew bibles. They're underneath the chairs in front of you. We really believe in the importance of. [00:08:09] Speaker B: Access to God's word here at Emmanuel. [00:08:11] Speaker A: I would tell you guys, I say this every week. If you're here today and you don't. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Own a physical copy of God's word, please just take one. [00:08:17] Speaker A: You can take one of the ones under the chairs, or we have nicer. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Ones at the welcome table. [00:08:21] Speaker A: We would love for you to have. [00:08:22] Speaker B: A physical copy of God's word. [00:08:24] Speaker A: So we're stepping into Matthew 13 today, and in this parable, we're going to see this really simple and I think, beautiful kingdom truth. We're going to see that God is. [00:08:35] Speaker B: Radically generous with his gospel. [00:08:39] Speaker A: He's radically generous in how he freely and generously gives the good news of. [00:08:44] Speaker B: The kingdom to all, even though most. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Will reject it or not seek it fully. And I think what we'll see is that this means that those of us who are included by Jesus, who were drawn into his kingdom, can and should be just as radically generous that we are invited to join Jesus in the work of freely giving kingdom love. [00:09:10] Speaker B: Kingdom truth, kingdom challenge, as we've been freely given kingdom love by Christ. [00:09:16] Speaker A: And by the way, we can expect. [00:09:18] Speaker B: To see responses similar to Jesus'own experience. Right? [00:09:21] Speaker A: Okay, so with that, let's pray. We got kind of three chunks to our text, so we're going to read a chunk, talk about it. [00:09:27] Speaker B: Read a chunk, talk about it. [00:09:29] Speaker A: Pray with me, church Jesus, we ask. [00:09:31] Speaker B: This morning that you would be with us. Holy Spirit, you are our discipler. You are the one who wrote and preserved this word. You are the one who interprets it to us. And so we ask today that you would be in our midst. Let us, Lord, be the ones who have open eyes and open ears to hear and to see God. We don't want to have hard hearts and miss what you have for us today. Lord, we want to turn to you today and repent and be healed and find intimacy and connection with you. Spirit, we need you to do this work. So we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. [00:10:05] Speaker A: Okay, we're going to start in verse one and read through verse nine. [00:10:08] Speaker B: It says this. [00:10:10] Speaker A: On that day, Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down while the whole crowd stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying, consider the sower who went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn't have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn't deep, but when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell out among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit, some 100, some 60, and some 30 times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen. Our text opens before we get to. [00:11:05] Speaker B: The actual parable with this little bit of narrative setup. [00:11:08] Speaker A: So remember where we are in Jesus'ministry. Jesus has been traveling around Galilee, this northern part of the region, up north, away from Jerusalem, close to the city of Capernaum, and he's been preaching and performing miracles. And even as Jesus further proved his holy spirit authority through his teaching, through his understanding of the word, through his miraculous healing ministry, he's facing more extreme challenges from the local religious leaders. It seems like nothing Jesus does is good enough for them. But at the same time as this tension and this conflict is growing with the religious leaders, Jesus begins to describe some really extreme, and I would say intimate relationship with his followers. According to Christ, his followers are his family. That has created this strange shift in Jesus'ministry. More and more, he'll be doing this kind of open air preaching and teaching, where folk just gather around him versus. [00:12:06] Speaker B: Coming to hear him in the synagogues. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Our text opens on one such occasion. Jesus has kind of set up his ministry home base in the city of Capernaum. This is where Peter's fishing business was based also. And one day, Jesus sits on the beach to teach. Now, by the way, sitting to teach was the common practice for rabbis. [00:12:27] Speaker B: They'd find somewhere comfy and sit down. [00:12:29] Speaker A: And teach, and people would sit down around them, but the crowd gets so large that it's not working. So Jesus actually has to sit on Peter's boat and push back a little. [00:12:39] Speaker B: Bit into the water so folk can hear him. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Now, some of you guys who like vacation at the beach. You're already going. This actually sounds a little outlandish, right? Like, I'm pretty sure the beach is loud. There's wind, there's waves. That doesn't seem like a good spot for a public address with no sound system. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:57] Speaker A: But there's actually an interesting piece here, and I want to show you guys. [00:13:00] Speaker B: This a little bit. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Not because we know this for certain, but because this speaks to what we're talking about. There's this small, natural bay just outside of ancient capernaum that is often called the Bay of the sower because of our text today. [00:13:14] Speaker B: Here's a picture of it. [00:13:15] Speaker A: You can see capernaum up there at the top. You can see the co over bay of the sower down here at the bottom. By the way, that stripe on the. [00:13:21] Speaker B: Side is a road, which I think. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Is hilarious when you remember that people. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Live in the holy land and there are roads. [00:13:27] Speaker A: But anyway, this natural amphitheater that's formed by that carries sound in a weirdly unbelievable way. We don't know that this is the exact spot where Jesus preached this sermon, although there is, like some likelihood that it was either right there or something. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Somewhere very similar to there. [00:13:47] Speaker A: This is within easy walking distance of capernaum. There's evidence of ancient finnish fishing industry. [00:13:53] Speaker B: In that exact bay. [00:13:54] Speaker A: And what's interesting about it is the way it's shaped. If there's not a windy day, sound carries in ridiculous ways. I'm not going to slow us down too much here today, but I would encourage you, like, go home and YouTube this because it's a pretty common tourist thing to have someone stand down at. [00:14:10] Speaker B: The bottom of the beach and have. [00:14:11] Speaker A: People stand all the way up back at the road and then talk at. [00:14:15] Speaker B: Like, a normal volume. And it's nuts how clearly you can hear each other in that exact space pictured here. [00:14:22] Speaker A: So it's just a reminder, right, that Jesus was living and ministering in the real world. So this is the image. We get people gathered up around the beach in this bay, Jesus sitting on the boat, and he's teaching. And the text tells us that he's teaching a series of parables. Matthew records the first as the parable of the sower. And it's probably a pretty familiar one, right? Like, if you've spent time in church, you've probably heard all or most of this language, but let's do the work of walking through it really quickly to kind of get this fresh in our mind. So Jesus tells the story of a farmer who goes out and sows seed into his field. This was immediately a relatable image because most folk in the region of Galilee were substance farmers. Sowing one's field was an incredibly common image. Now there were and still are, btw, two main philosophies of sowing your field in this region with this type of. [00:15:21] Speaker B: Soil and this type of land. [00:15:23] Speaker A: The first is the one that would be a little more familiar to us, which is to plow your field first, churn up the soil, tear out any thorns or weeds, and once the rows. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Are plowed, then you go out and. [00:15:34] Speaker A: You walk the field and you sow it. This method was the most common method for folk in that day. Not because it was more effective, because. [00:15:42] Speaker B: It preserved your seed better. [00:15:44] Speaker A: And we're talking about people who were. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Living under pretty intense financial oppression, right? [00:15:49] Speaker A: So this was the smartest way to make the most out of the seed. [00:15:53] Speaker B: You had to actually sow. [00:15:55] Speaker A: But there was a second method for folk who had more resources, and this was to sow the wild field first and then plow it and then sow it a second time. This way, as the soil was turned, the fresh seed would be turned into the soil. And generally speaking, this method actually produced. [00:16:15] Speaker B: More fruit at the end of the harvest. [00:16:18] Speaker A: But it costs a lot more. It used up a lot more seed. Jesus'sower, however, does neither. This part is where we get to the what's normal? [00:16:29] Speaker B: What's strange in the text, this farmer. [00:16:32] Speaker A: In Jesus'story goes out and sows his wild field and then just waits to see what happens. He doesn't do either normal way of doing it. And this is a strange decision. This is pretty much the worst way you could sow your field, the least efficient way to do it. This is a farmer who seems to be foolish, who seems to have more seed than sense, right? Anyone listening to this story who lived in that area could guess what would happen if this was your method of sowing your field. What would happen is most of the seed would be wasted, which is exactly what happens in Jesus'story. Some of it falls on the hard walking path that's set in and around the fields and it's wasted. It becomes food for the birds. Some would fall on the shallow, rocky soil. There's a whole lot of bedrock in this region and some good chunks of fields may literally only have ten inches of soil and gravely soil at that, above the solid bedrock. Any farmer worth his salt would know where these chunks of property were on his field and avoid them because it's a waste of time and resources. This farmer doesn't. And although the plants sprout up quickly because the soil is shallow, it gets warm quickly. They can't develop any sort of root system. So as soon as the sun gets. [00:17:52] Speaker B: Hot, they wither up and die. [00:17:54] Speaker A: Some of it falls on this wild, weedy soil. Remember, fields don't get harvested every year. They rest some years, and after a rest period, natural weeds, and specifically thorn bushes, would grow up and start to take over. Some of these species were so hardy that even animal driven plowing wouldn't get rid of them. It wouldn't kill them. You'd have to manually go down and dig out the root systems. One by one. This farmer just throws the seed out among them. The wheat grows up, but it's constantly competing for resources with these already established plants. And so it ends up choked. It grows, but it bears no fruit. [00:18:35] Speaker B: Again, wasted. [00:18:37] Speaker A: But then some of the seed falls on good soil, the rich, clear soil left from last year's harvest. And it grows, and it bears a. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Rich harvest depending on where it grows, sometimes 30, sometimes 70, sometimes 100. It's an interesting parable. [00:18:54] Speaker A: Most folk, I think even folk without much church life experience, have heard most of these images. These images are so worked into christian theology and christian culture that I think most of us hear this and we're already jumping ahead to how to best apply this teaching. But I think it's worth pointing something out here. It wasn't always like that, right? Jesus wasn't always the most famous human being in all of human history, and his teaching wasn't always wormed into all of culture. Most of Jesus's audience had no idea. [00:19:29] Speaker B: Initially what this story meant. [00:19:31] Speaker A: They hear it and they go, guy. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Sounds like a dumb, dumb. [00:19:34] Speaker A: I don't know why he did that. [00:19:36] Speaker B: What are we talking about? [00:19:37] Speaker A: This is why Matthew gives us this little flash forward. This is why we get verses ten through 17. These show us this conversation that Jesus had with his followers, seemingly later on in the day. After this time of teaching was up, folk initially had a really hard time interpreting these parables, and his followers don't get why he's using them. This seems like it will limit and hinder Jesus's ministry. Read with me starting in verse ten. Then the disciples came up and asked him, why are you speaking to them in parables? He answered, because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given to you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has more will be given to him and to he, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have. Even what he has will be taken away from him. That is why I speak to them in parables. Because looking, they do not see, hearing. They do not listen or understand. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says, you will listen and listen, but never understand. You will look and look, but never perceive. For this, people's heart has grown callous. Their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn back and I would heal them. Bless are your eyes because they do. [00:20:54] Speaker B: See, and your ears because they do hear. [00:20:57] Speaker A: For truly, I tell you, many prophets and righteous people long to see the things you see but did not see them. To hear the things you hear but. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Did not hear them. Woof. There's a lot to this section, guys. [00:21:12] Speaker A: But for the sake of time today. [00:21:14] Speaker B: I want to point out just a. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Couple quick things that help us wrap. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Up this whole text. [00:21:19] Speaker A: First, this small chunk reminds us that before the cross, a lot of Jesus'teaching. [00:21:26] Speaker B: And especially his parables, weren't readily understood or embraced. [00:21:31] Speaker A: They were memorable. People held on to them. But it took some baking in the old noodle to figure out the meaning of these parables. For a lot of folk, if you ever find yourself reading the Bible, or maybe even reading the teaching of Jesus, like getting going through the sermon on the mount or something, and finding yourself a little confused, take heart. [00:21:52] Speaker B: You are in good company. Right? [00:21:54] Speaker A: Like, it's a pretty normal experience to. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Engage the teaching of the kingdom and. Huh. [00:22:00] Speaker A: I think what this reminds us, guys, is that some of the truths of. [00:22:03] Speaker B: The kingdom of God are so counterintuitive to us because we've been so affected by the curse. [00:22:09] Speaker A: It's the air we breathe, it's the world we live in, that some of. [00:22:12] Speaker B: The actual truths of how God designed. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Us have become so counterintuitive that it takes some sort of catalyst to help. [00:22:20] Speaker B: Us fully understand them. They don't come to our minds naturally. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Second, in this text, we see that Jesus knew this and that he saw it as a purposeful part of his ministry. Not everyone would understand, because not everyone wanted to understand. [00:22:39] Speaker B: You see this piece? [00:22:41] Speaker A: Note the text that Jesus quotes here. He's quoting Isaiah six. This is this famous passage where Isaiah receives his call to ministry, right? This is the one where Isaiah had the vision and he found himself in the throne room of God, and God directly called him to this prophetic teaching ministry. And we kind of pull that text out by itself a lot because it's really pretty. But can we remember the ministry of Isaiah really quick? He ministered to the kings of Judah as well as the northern kings of Israel, at a time when both nations were in a pretty significant spiritual spiral downward. And God told him that. He said, I am calling you to this ministry to preach faithfully to my people. And they're not going to listen to. [00:23:23] Speaker B: You because they don't care, and you're. [00:23:25] Speaker A: Going to do it anyway. That's what I'm looking for. [00:23:28] Speaker B: That's the assignment I put out there. [00:23:30] Speaker A: When Isaiah says his famous line, right here am I. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Send me. [00:23:33] Speaker A: This is what God is sending him. [00:23:35] Speaker B: To, to go fail at ministry, right? And actually, we see how it ends. [00:23:40] Speaker A: For Isaiah is pretty bad. [00:23:42] Speaker B: He gets killed and saw it in half, right? [00:23:44] Speaker A: Like, not the retirement plan most of. [00:23:47] Speaker B: Us think of, when we think of giving God our radical yes for ministry, right? [00:23:51] Speaker A: What Jesus is saying here is that. [00:23:56] Speaker B: He stands firmly in this same prophetic tradition. [00:24:01] Speaker A: When he says this quote, he's saying, these people would understand my parables if they wanted to. [00:24:08] Speaker B: If they wanted to, they would. [00:24:11] Speaker A: They would know kingdom truth if they wanted. [00:24:13] Speaker B: If they don't want it, well, then. [00:24:15] Speaker A: Just like the Pharisees demanding a sign, because all the miracles and all the healing and all the teaching weren't good. [00:24:20] Speaker B: Enough for them, Jesus just says, no, no. [00:24:26] Speaker A: Here also, Jesus is saying, guys, those. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Who want the kingdom will pay attention. They'll seek it. They'll ponder, they'll draw close to Christ, and the spirit will illuminate the parables. [00:24:40] Speaker A: This is what the disciples are doing in this moment. [00:24:42] Speaker B: They come to Christ and say, I didn't get that. [00:24:45] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure it's important because you. [00:24:47] Speaker B: Said it, but I don't get it. They wanted to know the truth of the kingdom, and so Christ gives it to them freely. [00:24:55] Speaker A: But to those who have hardened their. [00:24:56] Speaker B: Hearts to Christ, to those who aren't there for the kingdom, well, they wouldn't. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Be satisfied even if Jesus spoke plainly. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Without parables, just like they weren't satisfied with his miracles. Are their eyes opened or not? Lastly, this text. Christ tells his followers how blessed they are. [00:25:16] Speaker A: I think it's important for us to. [00:25:17] Speaker B: Not move past this piece. Prophets long to see the kingdom of God come to earth, and these fishermen get to see it happen. [00:25:26] Speaker A: I mean, read hebrews eleven about the. [00:25:28] Speaker B: Generations of faith awaiting Christ's move, but not seeing it fulfilled. [00:25:33] Speaker A: These fishermen get to see it. They get to walk with Jesus and beloved, if they were blessed to see. [00:25:39] Speaker B: The kingdom of God come in the ministry of Jesus. How blessed are we to live in the age of grace and salvation, where the gospel has been made known, where we have access to the very thoughts and words and heart of God. [00:25:54] Speaker A: What an embarrassment of riches that we live within. [00:25:57] Speaker B: Amen. It's important to remember that, right? We're so blessed in the time within which we live and the way that God has provided for us. [00:26:08] Speaker A: And by the way, with this point, he reminds them how blessed they are. And then Jesus just says, okay, cool. [00:26:13] Speaker B: Here's what the parable means, which is. [00:26:14] Speaker A: Really helpful for people like me. Verse 18 says this. So listen to the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path and the one sown on rocky ground. This is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short lived. When distress or persecution comes because of. [00:26:41] Speaker B: The word, immediately he falls away. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Now, the one sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the worries of this age and. [00:26:49] Speaker B: The deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. [00:26:54] Speaker A: But the one sown on the good. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Ground, this is the one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields some hundred, some 60, some 30 times what was sown. The sower is the preacher of the kingdom. Right? [00:27:10] Speaker A: Seed being thrown is the preaching of the kingdom. It's the word of God. [00:27:15] Speaker B: It is the gospel truth, the gospel story. And each type of soil shows us. [00:27:20] Speaker A: Some of the different ways folk receive. [00:27:23] Speaker B: The amazing gospel message of the kingdom of God. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Some are exactly the people Jesus has been describing. Their hearts are so hard that they completely miss the kingdom. It isn't a matter of them misunderstanding. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Or the parables being too complex. This is a matter of hearts that are closed off to God's work. [00:27:46] Speaker A: The gospel bounces off their hard hearts. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Like seed off of packed soil, and Satan snatches it away. It is a sorrowful picture of a heart that has been hardened to God completely misses the grace of the kingdom. [00:28:02] Speaker A: But then Jesus speaks of those who. [00:28:04] Speaker B: Actually do long for the kingdom and do engage the teaching. [00:28:09] Speaker A: Even those who are actively seeking Christ. [00:28:12] Speaker B: We see, have different reactions to the gospel. [00:28:15] Speaker A: First, we hear about the rocky soil. [00:28:17] Speaker B: Right? [00:28:18] Speaker A: Like this is someone who receives the gospel, the good news with joy. They long for the kingdom. They delight in Christ's free gift of life and freedom. But the bedrock prevents a deep root growth. This follower of Christ, for whatever reason, has a shallow faith, right? I see this in our day. We see this in our day in lots of ways. [00:28:44] Speaker B: I think the most common are when. [00:28:46] Speaker A: We turn to Christ. [00:28:47] Speaker B: We consider our faith only when life is difficult, right? For those of us where faith is. [00:28:53] Speaker A: A method by which we deal with. [00:28:54] Speaker B: Hurt and nothing else, or for those. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Who grew up in the church and it was our family culture. And so we accepted a christian life. [00:29:03] Speaker B: Blindly without considering the real call and cost of the gospel. [00:29:09] Speaker A: Or maybe those who really love the. [00:29:11] Speaker B: Idea of Jesus as a savior, but scoff at the idea of actually submitting to him as lord and obeying him and wrapping your life and your choices and your ethics around the word of God. All these mentalities are the sorts of mentalities. There are others we could list, but these are the kind of mentalities that leave a shallow faith. And guys, Jesus says it to us here in no uncertain terms. [00:29:37] Speaker A: A shallow faith cannot withstand trials and suffering can't. Following Jesus is hard. It's difficult. There is cost. And Jesus says that if your faith is not deeply rooted, it will wither under the heat of suffering. Most of us have seen this bear. [00:30:03] Speaker B: Out in the truth of our experience. The gospel is great until life gets hard, until your marriage is struggling, until. [00:30:12] Speaker A: Your schedule gets busy, until your kids. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Have difficult needs, until someone you love dies. These sorts of things drive some folk into the arms of Christ. They drive some of us into deeper dependence, deeper need, deeper connection. But for many, these things drive them away from Christ, and they end up with this deconstructed story of bitterness, of how Christ didn't show up when they needed it. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Beyond the shallow, we learn of the conflicted. Jesus says that the seed sown amongst the weeds are those who receive the. [00:30:47] Speaker B: Message, but their hearts are torn. [00:30:50] Speaker A: They are worried about the things of this world. [00:30:53] Speaker B: They are deceived by wealth, and the result is that their faith bears no fruit. Beloved, a faith that is in love with the world will not bear fruit. [00:31:05] Speaker A: This image is similar to that described. [00:31:07] Speaker B: By Paul, where he talked about those. [00:31:09] Speaker A: Who enter into the kingdom of God as one escaping a house on fire by the skin of their teeth with nothing to show for it. Their faith bears no fruit. It has been choked out by this world. How many of us have seen and even experienced this? Yes, it could be wealth and worry, as Christ explains. But man, how many times do christians just become ineffective? Do christians just become honestly, like, just. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Worthless for the sake of the kingdom because they love the world more than the kingdom. [00:31:45] Speaker A: How many times have you seen this? When politics, careers, sex, pleasure, comfort, conformity, they just seem so important in the moment, they seem so weighty in the moment that they outweigh the things of the kingdom. But when you trade the kingdom of. [00:32:02] Speaker B: God for the things of this earth, it will never satisfy you. And on top of that, it will leave you totally ineffectual for eternity. What a sorrowful outcome. [00:32:14] Speaker A: And these two, the shallow and the. [00:32:16] Speaker B: Conflicted, are contrasted by the good soil. This is a heart hungry for the kingdom and completely sold in the work of Jesus. This faith thrives. [00:32:26] Speaker A: It flourishes, it bears fruit, it raises. [00:32:29] Speaker B: Up new generations of faith after it. Can we talk about that for a second? That's one of the ways Christ defines a flourishing faith, is that it bears. [00:32:38] Speaker A: More seed that might be sown into. [00:32:40] Speaker B: More fields, that it raises up new generations. I've heard it said before that you've not successfully discipled until your disciple makes a disciple, which is complex way of. [00:32:49] Speaker A: Saying it, but you get what I'm saying. [00:32:51] Speaker B: A faith that flourishes, invites more into the kingdom. It's a beautiful text, I think, and a beautiful parable. [00:32:59] Speaker A: So how is this parable about Christ? When you consider Christ's role in the parable, I think it's really encouraging. He, of course, initially, he is this radically generous sower, right? Christ himself, he gives himself freely to us, full well, knowing all the while that most will reject him. He's strangely generous with his gospel and his very life. I mean, this is the gospel in essence, is it not, that Christ gives himself radically to a world which mostly rejects him. [00:33:34] Speaker B: Knowing this outcome, Christ still delights to. [00:33:37] Speaker A: Serve and give, that God may be. [00:33:39] Speaker B: Glorified and his own may come to him. What a radically generous sower Christ is. [00:33:47] Speaker A: This is our testimony, this is your story. [00:33:50] Speaker B: I'm confident that Christ was radically generous to you, that he sought you out and called you out, that you may come to him. But this does lead us to consider, if Christ is the sower and he has sown the seed of the gospel in us, this should lead us to consider the soil of our own hearts, right? Jesus was radically generous to offer his kingdom to you. Jesus was radical and kind and lavishing his love and service upon you. So how do you respond? [00:34:22] Speaker A: Likely you didn't reject him outright, or. [00:34:24] Speaker B: You probably wouldn't be here listening to the sermon, right? Maybe, but probably not. But I'm guessing many of us relate to the idea of a shallow or conflicted faith. Amen. I mean, the room got kind of quiet. When we were going through that part. [00:34:40] Speaker A: I think it's because we were all. [00:34:41] Speaker B: Kind of doing a little bit of a self diagnostic, going, oh, shoot, if. [00:34:47] Speaker A: This is the four square quadrant, I. [00:34:48] Speaker B: Don'T like the one I'm finding myself in. [00:34:51] Speaker A: How many times do you drift toward shallowness? [00:34:55] Speaker B: How often does the hardship of life and faith push you towards Christ or away from him? What a great personal diagnostic question to consider the state of your own heart. [00:35:08] Speaker A: What about conflictedness? Who among us does not, at least. [00:35:13] Speaker B: At times, love the world, right? [00:35:18] Speaker A: What pet sins? What pet ideologies do you love? [00:35:23] Speaker B: And what if following Christ fully meant forsaking that this is a hypothetical, right? But what if to follow Christ, you had to give up your political allegiance or your job or that relationship or that sin pattern, you know, the one I'm talking about, or your comforts? Would you pause? Would that be a difficult decision to wrestle through depending on specifically what was asked of us? I think most of us would pause. I think there are things in our life that we will go. I don't know if I want to give that one up. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Sure. That's what's on the table. Christ, right? It's important to remember, guys, that this parable isn't speaking about a static experience alone. You see, true enough, when the gospel was initially shared with you, at some point you were open to receive it. [00:36:16] Speaker B: And let it bear fruit. This is your salvation story if you are in Christ. [00:36:21] Speaker A: But this also, this parable speaks to. [00:36:23] Speaker B: The truth, that the spirit preaches the gospel to us continually. Continually. [00:36:30] Speaker A: You do not graduate past the gospel. You still need it. And the Holy Spirit, in his grace, still preaches the word to you, even today. I don't care if you've been following Jesus for minutes or decades. The Holy Spirit is preaching the gospel to you today. Every time you pray, every time you read the Bible, every time you do the hard work and you show up for community, every time you come to church on Sunday, the spirit is generously sowing the gospel into your hearts, and we engage it with the hearts that we find when ourselves in the moment. Yes. Every time the gospel is sown in. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Our hearts afresh, we look at our heart afresh and consider, how are we receiving that today? Because let's be honest, there's no reason to lie in a space like this. Sometimes your heart is hard, and sometimes the Holy Spirit reminds you of the gospel call in your life and you go, not today, Christ. And you push it away. Sometimes we receive hard challenges, hard conviction, and we just go. I'm just not doing that one. I'm not going there with you, Jesus. I don't want to hear that today. And we let the gospel bounce off the calluses of our hearts. Isn't sometimes, let's be honest, sometimes we are weak and shallow. Sometimes we don't want to experience the hardship and pay the cost of discipleship. And sometimes we want the easy way out and go, God, I really liked this when it was fun, but now it's painful. I don't want this today. And sometimes we are incredibly conflicted. Sometimes we think about the things we love and we know in our heart of hearts exactly how in opposition to the kingdom they are, and we just go. [00:38:26] Speaker A: But I really just do want both today. [00:38:29] Speaker B: I hear you, Lord. I love you. [00:38:30] Speaker A: I'm all in on the kingdom. I mean, like, I'm 98% in on. [00:38:34] Speaker B: The kingdom, because today I do need this peace. And we allow ourselves to be choked by the world, but then by the grace of God. [00:38:44] Speaker A: Sometimes we are satisfied in the goodness. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Of Christ, and our life bears amazing fruit. Amen. This is our journey of sanctification, is it not? This is what it means to live your life. Following after Christ is to continually by his grace, have the gospel preached to us afresh, over and over and over in the times our heart readily receives it, and it bears all different kinds of fruit. 30 7100 different times at different seasons with different people. But sometimes, oftentimes, we don't receive it well. We don't want to hear it. We're conflicted, we're weak, we're callous. One more thought as we kind of land this out. Guys, after considering how this parable is. [00:39:33] Speaker A: About Jesus, it is beneficial to consider. [00:39:34] Speaker B: How it might be about the church and not just, like, pointed at us, right? [00:39:39] Speaker A: But there's a way this parable is. [00:39:40] Speaker B: About you more than just how your heart is the soil. See, we are invited as those within Christ to join Jesus in the work and to sow generously to the world around us as Christ sowed to us. This, too, is our testimony. If you think about it for a. [00:39:57] Speaker A: Minute, I'm pretty confident, like, I don't know this 100%, but I'm pretty confident. [00:40:01] Speaker B: That everyone here became a Christian because at some point someone preached the gospel to you, right? [00:40:06] Speaker A: Like, I don't think anyone here had. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Like, a supernatural vision where you fell off, like, you fell off of a donkey, and Christ appeared to you and. [00:40:12] Speaker A: Said, why are you kicking against the. Like? I don't think that was any of us. I think someone preached the gospel to. [00:40:18] Speaker B: Us and our heart was open and we received it because someone else said yes to the call to go and sow generously of the kingdom. And it hit our hearts at a time when the soil was good. By the grace of God, we were drawn into the kingdom. Beloved, you are invited to take the gospel with you every time you leave your house. You are invited to take that seed and be a foolish farmer who sows radically, who just throws it everywhere. [00:40:51] Speaker A: You get to be wildly generous with. [00:40:53] Speaker B: The amount of gospel you give out to those around you. And by the way, like Jesus, much of that seed will seem wasted when you hang out with your kids, your friends, your spouse, your grandkids, your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates, and you continually encourage them in Christ. And you get those eye rolls and those moments of just, I don't care about this. And you see that seed bounce off of calloused hearts, and you see people. [00:41:18] Speaker A: Respond in joy and then fall away. [00:41:19] Speaker B: As soon as life gets hard. [00:41:21] Speaker A: And you see people say, that sounds good, but they also love their sin. And you see all those different responses, it can be discouraging. [00:41:27] Speaker B: But I promise you guys, you're invited to be just as generous, to trust God with the results, to keep sowing the seed over and over and over again, knowing that just like your heart took more than once to receive the gospel, Christ is faithful. There's might as well. Who the heck knows? That heart may be a hard packed path today, but what about next week? What about a month from now? What about a year from now? What about two decades from now? What about after you're long dead in the grave and some other faithful saint comes along and sows? You don't know. You don't know. So, so generously throw it out there, trust God to use it as you get to be a part of this. Such a privilege. [00:42:22] Speaker A: And by the way, I think that. [00:42:24] Speaker B: Privilege should push us straight back to our own hearts. Band if you want to come back up. What a wonderful work we are invited into. I think the question we should let that push us to is this. Are you ready to do it? Is your heart able to join in that work today? Are you open to joining with Christ to go and sow the seeds of the gospel in the world around you and even in your own heart? What might you need to cast aside today? That your heart might be fertile soil for the gospel to thrive not just in you, although I hope it thrives in you, but in those around you? What might change in the world around you if your heart was fertile soil and all of a sudden you start bearing fruit. 30 fold. 60 fold. 100 fold. Think about those people in your life. Your spouse, your family, your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, your grandkids. Think about that harvest. 30 fold. 60 fold. 100 fold. Beloved, we are invited to partake in this. To be in this work. Let us not miss it today. [00:43:46] Speaker A: This afternoon, our church is getting together. [00:43:49] Speaker B: To walk around and pray for God to move in our community. [00:43:51] Speaker A: That's happening in like 4 hours. [00:43:54] Speaker B: You are invited to join in this work. You're invited to join in this work. Let's not miss it. [00:44:02] Speaker A: Let's do this. Let's take a few minutes and I. [00:44:05] Speaker B: Want to encourage you to find a way for you to connect with Christ. [00:44:09] Speaker A: If you can do that sitting in. [00:44:10] Speaker B: Your chair, that's awesome. Go right ahead. If you want to get up and move in the room somewhere, if you want to get on your knees, if you want to come up front and pray at the altar, if you want to grab one of our deacons or one of our pastors, have someone pray with you, we would delight to do that. If you need to write down a prayer request or fill out a connect card and connect with someone later when you can clear your thoughts out and talk through it more, or ask our prayer team to pray for you. All that is available. But I just want to encourage you church like, don't miss the invitation today to look at yourself afresh. There's gospel for you right now. Love of Christ is available for you right now. How is your heart right now? What might need to change in your heart right now for you to be fertile soil? Take a few minutes to engage that with Christ and then we'll continue our response through communion.