The Four Soils - Matthew 13:1-9

May 2, 2022

Scripture referenced 6 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Psalm 34 quoted at the opening to lead worship: 'taste and see that the Lord is good, oh the joys of those who take refuge in him'

1 I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad.
3 Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
6 This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
11 Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
12 Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
14 Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.
15 Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
16 Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
20 He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall kill the wicked. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.

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James 4

mentioned as the text for the Monday night study, about what causes quarrels and fights and humbling ourselves before God

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

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1 Peter 5:7

cited as the basis for the offering song 'Leave It There': 'give all your worries and cares to God, He cares for you'

7 casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.

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Matthew 13

primary text for the parable of the sower, quoted and expounded throughout the sermon

1 On that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

2 Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.

3 He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

4 As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.

5 Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.

6 When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.

7 Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.

8 Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.

9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10 The disciples came, and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

11 He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

12 For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he has.

13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand.

14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive:

15 for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’

16 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

17 For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.

18 “Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.

19 When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.

20 What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;

21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

22 What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

23 What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit, and produces, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.”

24 He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

25 but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.

26 But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

27 The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’

28 “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’

29 “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

31 He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;

32 which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.”

33 He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.”

34 Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them,

35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”

36 Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”

37 He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

38 the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.

39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

40 As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age.

41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,

42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

44 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls,

46 who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

47 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind,

48 which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw…

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Mark 4

parallel account of the parable of the sower, quoted for the explanation Jesus gives

1 Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea.

2 He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,

3 “Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow,

4 and as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it.

5 Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.

6 When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

8 Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.”

9 He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10 When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

11 He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,

12 that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”

13 He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?

14 The farmer sows the word.

15 The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

16 These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.

17 They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.

18 Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,

19 and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

20 Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”

21 He said to them, “Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand?

22 For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light.

23 If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”

24 He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear.

25 For whoever has, to him will more be given, and he who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”

26 He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,

27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how.

28 For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

30 He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it?

31 It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,

32 yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

34 Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”

36 Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him.

37 A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.

38 He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

39 He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

41 They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

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Luke 8

parallel account of the parable of the sower, referenced alongside Matthew and Mark

1 Soon afterwards, he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of God’s Kingdom. With him were the twelve,

2 and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;

3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others; who served them from their possessions.

4 When a great multitude came together, and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable.

5 “The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it.

6 Other seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture.

7 Other fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it, and choked it.

8 Other fell into the good ground, and grew, and produced one hundred times as much fruit.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

9 Then his disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?”

10 He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest in parables; that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

12 Those along the road are those who hear, then the devil comes, and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved.

13 Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation.

14 That which fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

15 Those in the good ground, these are those who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with perseverance.

16 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a container, or puts it under a bed; but puts it on a stand, that those who enter in may see the light.

17 For nothing is hidden, that will not be revealed; nor anything secret, that will not be known and come to light.

18 Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has.”

19 His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd.

20 Some people told him, “Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you.”

21 But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it.”

22 Now on one of those days, he entered into a boat, himself and his disciples, and he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out.

23 But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water.

24 They came to him, and awoke him, saying, “Master, master, we are dying!” He awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and it was calm.

25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid they marveled, saying to one another, “Who is this then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

26 They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.

27 When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs.

28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!”

29 For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bonds apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.

30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered into him.

31 They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss.

32 Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. He allowed them.

33 The demons came out of the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned.

34 When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country.

35 People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

36 Those who saw it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed.

37 All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. He entered into the boat, and returned.

38 But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,

39 “Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you.” He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

40 When Jesus returned, the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.

41 Behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus’ feet, and begged him to come into his house,

42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But as he went, the multitudes pressed against him.

43 A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,

44 came behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped.

45 Jesus said, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the…

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

The message on May 2 walked through the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, looking at what Jesus himself said about why he taught in parables and what each type of soil represents. The preacher stayed close to Jesus' own explanation rather than adding to it, letting the text carry the weight. Communion followed the sermon, tying the theme of receiving the word of God to the act of receiving the bread and cup.

What was said

The parable appears in all three synoptic gospels in nearly identical form. A sower scatters seed and it lands in four different places: beside the road where birds eat it, on rocky ground where it sprouts fast but scorches for lack of root, among thorns that choke it out, and on good soil where it bears a crop of 30, 60, or a hundred times what was sown. The setting was likely the natural cove south of Capernaum sometimes called Sower's Cove, where the geography would have allowed a large crowd on the beach to hear someone teaching from a boat offshore.

When the disciples asked Jesus privately what the parable meant, he explained that the seed is the word of God. The roadside represents people whose hearts are so hardened that the word never penetrates at all, and Satan takes it away immediately. The rocky ground represents people who receive the word with joy but have no root, so that when pressure or persecution comes they fall away. The thorny ground represents people who hear the word but let the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things choke it out before it can bear fruit.

Before giving that explanation, Jesus quoted Isaiah's prophecy that the people would keep hearing and not understand, keep looking and not perceive, because the heart of the people had grown dull. He connected that ancient word to the crowd around him, and to the Pharisees who were listening in order to catch him rather than to learn. The point was not that these people were predestined to fail, but that repeated hardening of the heart becomes its own barrier, the way Pharaoh's heart was hardened through his own repeated refusals.

The preacher drew a line from this back to the previous week's message in Amos, where God told his people he had sent famine, plague, and hardship and they still had not returned to him. The pattern is the same in both testaments: at any point, if people would open their eyes and ears and turn back, God says he would heal them. The disciples were counted blessed, not because they were smarter, but because they had been given eyes that actually see and ears that actually hear, something the prophets of Isaiah's and Amos's day longed for and never got to experience in their lifetimes.

A summary from commentator Simon Kistemaker was offered as a one-sentence distillation of the whole parable: the word of God is proclaimed, it causes division among those who hear it, God's people receive it and obediently fulfill it, while others fail to listen because of a hardened heart, a basic superficiality, or a vested interest in riches and possessions. The preacher said that pattern holds every single time a message from God's word is presented, not just in Jesus' day. The remaining parables in Matthew 13 were flagged as building on this one, so understanding the soils is the foundation for understanding what comes next.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

The preacher described four kinds of soil as four different responses to hearing God's word. Which of the four do you find yourself most tempted toward, and why?
Jesus chose to teach the crowds in parables, but then explained the meaning privately to his disciples who asked. What does it tell us about discipleship that the disciples asked rather than just walked away confused?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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Speaker 3Alright. I just got the

Speaker 2thumbs up. Good morning, everybody.

Speaker 3How are doing this morning? Fantastic.

Speaker 2Hey. Can I share just a

Speaker 3good word from Psalm 34 to lead us in worship? And if you would, let's let's stand together. We'll we'll we'll sing it out too. But it's Psalm 34. It says, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him. Start by singing Taste and See.

Speaker 1So the announcements this morning, here we go. Oh, look at here. Famous Carl. First Be All Stars. Yeah.

It used to be. This is Monday nights at First Bee. Monday nights at First Bee. I got tired of that weird looking guy that I didn't know up there, so I thought we'd make make a news slide. First First Bee tomorrow night, 06:00.

Speaker 2We're on tomorrow. We're on tomorrow.

Speaker 306:00. Meal music message, Felix in Guadalupe are are are providing a meal, and we're in James four. It's about what what causes quarrels and fights among you. And then God gives us a remedy for that to humble ourselves.

Speaker 1Amen.

Speaker 3Resist the devil and he will flee from

Speaker 1us.

Speaker 3It's it's just great. And another worship gathering we have, 06:00 on Mondays, and just know that you're invited.

Speaker 1Alright. So that's good. That's happening at the same time as Awana happens, and this starts off in this room anyway, then they spread all over the church. That is such a great program to get scripture into the the heads, into the minds of the kids, and allow it to work its way through. We're gonna talk about in the sermon today, the parable of the sower where the seed is spread out there, and it is a very fertile time of life when kids are are younger to get that seed in there and allow the chance to get deep roots and grow.

That's the same time. 06:00 tomorrow, for Juana. We have a prayer group that meets Wednesday mornings in the church office, 07:30AM. May 15, so this is coming up. It's not right now, but do y'all know it's May?

Did y'all know that? May? Yeah. Wow. I guess the snow two days ago confused me, but it's May.

So May 15, couple of weeks from today, we're having like a French toast fundraiser down the hall in between for Kayleigh McCleighan's mission to Senegal. There's a suggested donation up there. We have more directories if you want them, they're out front, out that way. And I think that's it. Is there anything else?

Do I see other objections or suggestions? Nick? It's it's... Is it six or 06:30? It's 06:30, but it's on the fourth.

I think on our announcements, it came out as the sixth, but it's the fourth, May 4. May 4. I'm not going to do it. Alright. 06:30AM.

So, alright. Would you all stand with us and we will carry on in song?

Speaker 2I worship you. I worship you. You are here moving in this place. I worship you. I worship you.

Here's what it is. And you are way maker, worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are.

And you are here touching every heart. I worship you. I worship you. And you are here healing every heart. I worship you.

I worship you. You are here turning lines around. I worship you. I worship you. You are here mending every heart.

I worship you. I worship you. Because you are a way maker, a worker, a promise keeper. Light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are.

We make miracle worker, promise keep light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are.

That is who you are. And even when even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. Never stop. Never stop working.

Never stop. Never stop working. Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop.

You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop working. Even when I don't see that you're working. Even when I don't feel that you're working.

You never stop. And never stop working. You never stop and never stop working. We make miracle work. Promise keep light in the darkness.

My God, that is who you are. We make miracle worker, promise keep light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are.

That is who you are. That is who you are again. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are.

That is who you are. And you are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are.

Speaker 3I thank you for this truth because it is certainly true. And and and just as we sang, we we don't always see it. We don't always feel it, but that doesn't mean that you are not moving. You say in scripture that my father is always at work and and so am I. And that's true then and it's true today.

Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Speaker 2I'll greet the kings on that lay between us. I'll hide on mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the mind. The work is finished. The end is written.

Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine stepped out from glory to wear my sin and bear my high shade. A cross is spoken, I am forgiven. The king of kings calls me his own. Beautiful savior, I'm yours forever.

Jesus Christ, my living lord. Hallelujah. Praise the one who sent me free. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain.

There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living oh. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah.

That has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living. Then came the morning that sealed the promise.

Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared and pray has no thing on me. Jesus shows he's loving Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. Your salvation in your name, Jesus Christ.

There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living world. Jesus Christ, my living world.

Speaker 3You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite the ushers to come on for. We're gonna sing a song called leave it there from first Peter five seven.

Speaker 1It's

Speaker 3give all your worries and cares to God. He cares for you. But first, would you would you pray, Rick?

Speaker 1Would y'all pray with me? God, thank you for for the opportunity to be here this morning. We've got breath in our lungs, Lord, and may every breath we breathe out be in praise to you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for all that you have done, for all that you are doing.

I was thinking a little bit ago that, Lord, there are some who are wandering right now. Would you bring them back? Would you bring them back within the fold? Would you show us, Lord, who that one is wandering, and we step away from the 99 to go bring them back into the fellowship, Lord. And I thought the thought was for kids and for teens, but Lord, the honest truth is there are parents and grandparents who are wandering too.

Would you allow us the grace, Lord, to see them with your eyes of compassion and love and to pursue them with that compassion and love? In Jesus' name, Lord, would you give us your eyes to see what's going on around us? Would you give us ears to hear the message this morning, but also just the messages throughout the week. In Jesus' name, Lord, we wanna advance the word of God. We want to go out like this sower we're gonna talk about today, that we would go forth sowing the seed that is the word of God.

We know that God's word will not return void but will accomplish everything that you meant for it, Lord. May we have it in our minds and in our hearts and may it overflow out of our mouths. In Jesus' name, we ask your blessing on these gifts that people are putting in the plates, Lord. Amen.

Speaker 2Should the world from you be full of its silver and gold and you have a long be good faith. Just remembering God's word, how he feeds those little birds. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Leave it there. Take your burden to your lord and leave there.

If you trust and never doubt, he will surely bring you out.

Speaker 1Amen. Wow. That's fun. It's time for children's church downstairs and that's going to leave some space. If you're in the back and you want to sit down, you got a place.

How are y'all doing? Doing alright. Good. Contemplating Amos all week long. Anybody else?

I am up to in our New Testament study. We're up to the parable of the sower. Now, this is really an intro to several parables of the kingdom. They come in succession in all three of the synoptic gospels and so it starts off with this one and I'm only gonna cover this one today. I'm not gonna go into the rest of them today But it's very, very important that you get this one, and then you start to see what's going on in others.

Now when we split away from this, I think it was a month ago, I said, we're gonna go to we're gonna leave here for a moment. We're gonna go to Palm Sunday and then Easter Sunday, and then we did Amos last week. I said, attempt. Do your best to try to cultivate the soil of your heart during this time, to be... To open yourself up to God teaching you something new, to clearing the weeds out of the way, right, to cultivate in the soil.

So that's what we're gonna talk about today. I think this is the simplest of the parables that we're going to discuss in the next few weeks and I think that because Jesus explains this one. So, I'm not going to add anything much to what he has already explained but we'll let that happen. Here it goes. So, this is the setting to start off with Matthew 13, Mark four, and Luke eight, cover the same set of parables of the kingdom and they all start off with this one.

It says on that day, Jesus had gone out of the house and was sitting by the sea, the house there, most likely Capernaum, and large crowds gathered to him, so he got into a boat and sat down, the whole crowd was standing on the beach. That's Matthew's verse. Mark's is almost just like it. Again, he began to teach by the sea, And such a very large crowd gathered to him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. Same thing exactly as Matthew.

Luke just says a large crowd was coming together and those from various cities were journeying to him. And so if we're looking, several of y'all... I have a I have a retraction to make. I don't do this very often. I hope that I catch him when I say something.

I said I've never been to the Red Sea. A few weeks ago, I have been to the Red Sea. I have swum in the Red Sea. I've gotten in a little like visual little fish tank thing under the Red Sea and looked out for, you know, pharaoh's chariots and stuff. I've been there before and forgot all about it.

So strange, but Nick up in the booth was going, I was with you. You were there. Okay. This is not the Red Sea. I just wanted to...

Sorry about that. I blew that. I got it right in the second service. Anyway, a lot is near there. This this is not.

This is up on the Northern side of the Sea Of Galilee, and this little cove right here is often referred to as Sower's Cove. You see it? This little section right here, it's kind of a natural amphitheater. Now it doesn't have to be. A lot can change in two thousand years.

A lot of the geography of a place, but that's called Sowers Cove. And you see there's a road and there's a little area for growing stuff, and there's a beach. There's a lot of different places there, but that's what it looks like. Sowers Cove is what that's called. It's just South of Capernaum.

And there was a guy in the seventies that kind of became obsessed with how is it that so many people could hear this message, and he tested it. He tested it out. So this is one of his schematics from one of his books that was presented in the biblical archaeology journal. And he said, you get out there on a boat, everybody within this range can hear you. No problem.

Plenty of space for five to 7,000 people. So, anyway, I'm not that interested in it. I think the text is enough, but it's kinda cool. So it says in all three of them, and he told them many things in parables. This is just the beginning of a series of them.

And he was teaching them many things in parables and was saying to them in his teaching, and he spoke by way of a parable in Luke, starting off. So this is the parable. I'm gonna use Matthew because this is... You know, as the synoptic gospels, we always talk about how there's a different... Slightly different point of view from each of the guys.

As far as this story goes, this is the closest one where they tell it just about exactly the same. There may be an order of telling it that's slightly different, but they're the same. So we're gonna let Matthew 13 be representative of this one. And he told them many things in parables saying, behold, the sower went out to sow. Now, as he's out in that boat sitting there, wherever it was, whether it was right there where we sat or not, it's it's very likely that there was somebody that was out there sowing seed right then.

This is something they would have been accustomed to. It's like riding from here to Idaho Falls, you're going to see potatoes in some form. Right? It's just normal. That's normal.

Behold, the sower went out to sow and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road and the birds came and ate them up. Well, you think, oh, man, that's sad. Well, not for the birds, it's not. But as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road and the birds came up and they ate them and others fell on the rocky places where they didn't have much soil. And they sprang up immediately.

They're the closest to the light. They're the closest... Well, let's don't go into it. Jesus explains this one. But they spring up immediately, it says.

But they sprang up immediately because they didn't have any depth of soil. But after the sun rose, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away. An other seed fell among the thorns and thorns came up and choked them out. This looks a whole lot like the next parable that's gonna teach, not be taught by Jesus, but some other fell among thorns. Thorns came up and choked them out, but others fell on the good soil, and it yielded a crop.

Some a 100, some 60, and some 30 times as much. And like I said, in Mark and in Luke, you might see a a change of how many of those. It might be in a different order, but it's the same figures. Yield of the crop, some a 100, some 60, some 30 times as much. The one who has ears, let him hear.

And that's the end of the parable. By the way, since that's the end of the parable, we're gonna look at this. Peter Bruegel, the elder. He's a Flemish or Danish Renaissance painter, and this is his landscape with Parable of the Sower, and he loved landscape paintings. And he went from his home and he crossed the Alps, and he went crossing the Alps to Italy and he learned some things from the Renaissance Italian Renaissance guys.

It's interesting that when he did, you can see his travels in his paintings and almost all of them. Peter Brugel the Elder. This one's 1557, and you can see mountains like the Alps. It's a varied background. You can see the sky, and almost always in his skies, there's a there's a goose or a big bird, looks like a goose or a swan.

You can see it right there. This is probably his most famous painting to Americans, Peter Brugel, Elder, Hunters in the Snow, and you see the same kind of bird right up there. If you're looking kind of in the bottom right of the painting, there's a stump. Somebody's kinda prepared this place to get it to not be quite so shady so it would get some sunshine and you can see that someone has come along and cultivated a little bit. There's green grass and stuff, but there's also a field that's more or less been prepared there.

And you can see a sower who is going out to sow. Honestly, his paintings often are... They're landscapes with a little bit of something else thrown in. But he's sowing and you can see in this corner right here brambles and briars and thorns right here. There's a stump over here.

He's not too far from home. Look in the background, there's a church down the hill. It's fairly quaint, but it's got land and sea and mountains and air, and it's just normal life. So that's the whole painting right there. And the sower goes forth to sow.

This is a fairly common theme in Renaissance painting because they spent so much time paying attention to the Bible. So the disciples immediately have a request after having seen this or heard this parable, and I'm sure they're sitting there. Jesus is teaching in the boat. They're probably some of them holding the boat steady and listening, and they're thinking, wow. That's deep.

That's really good. I wish I knew what it meant. Now his disciples began asking him what this parable meant. And he said, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to the rest, they're told in parables so that while seeing, they may not see, and while hearing, they may not understand.

Mark says, as soon as he was alone, his followers along with the 12 disciples began asking him about the parables. So they heard all of them at one shot, but then afterwards, they go back to him and they were saying to him... He began asking them about his parables and he was saying to them, to you, disciples, it has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside, everything comes in parables. So that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, And while hearing, they may hear and not understand. Otherwise, they might return and it would be forgiven them.

There are folks that would hear this and not get it. Now, he goes on further in a moment to explain it further. But this is his... This is why I do it in parables. He says, and the disciples in Matthew 13, it's longer in Matthew, so we'll spend a little time on And the disciples came up and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables?

And Jesus said, to you, it has been granted. Now this is interesting. Why do you speak to them in parables? He was speaking to all of them. Right?

He wasn't just speaking to them. He's speaking to us. Why do you speak to them in parables? And Jesus answered, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it has not been granted.

For whoever has, to him more shall be given and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has should be taken away. Therefore, I speak to them in parables because while seeing, they do not see. And while hearing, they do not hear nor do they understand. This seems willful.

It seems willful. They're listening to what he's saying, but they're not listening with ears of faith. They're listening to what he's saying. Oftentimes, you see the pharisees, poor pharisees. My goodness.

You see the pharisees and seeking to trick him. They ask him a question. You know? They're asking for the wrong reasons. This is right after he's kinda refused to give them a sign, and now he's speaking to them in parables.

And in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah was... Is being fulfilled. Seven hundred and something years before, same time as Amos actually. You shall keep on listening but shall not understand. And you shall keep on looking but shall not perceive.

For the heart of this people has become dull. That's a plural. This is a collective. The heart of this people. The heart of this people.

In Isaiah's time, it was a rough time. Amos told us all about that time last week. In our time, it's a pretty rough time. Some of the exact same stuff was going on. In the heart of the people, the collective, has become dull.

With their ears, they scarcely hear. It's not for a lack of messaging. There are plenty of messages out there. With their ears, they scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return.

And I would heal them. At any point, people, if they would open their eyes and open their ears and return, God would heal them. In Amos last week, he says, I sent you a famine and you did not return to me. I sent you... And it's all bad stuff.

Right? I sent you a plague, and you did not return to me. At any point, good stuff, bad stuff, we're hardly ever likely to change much when things are going well. But when things are not going well, if we return to God, he'll heal us. He'll take care of us.

That's Isaiah quoted in Matthew. And then closes off this response to the disciples' request there as... But blessed are your eyes because they see, and blessed are your ears because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and they did not see it in their lifetime. And to hear what you hear, and they did not hear it, there was an amazing amount of faith necessary for Amos or for Isaiah, For those guys to be able to forecast and to foretell...

I mean, foretell what God had said to these people and not see the completion of it. Think about Joel. Oh, in this day, you know, the prophet Joel. Jeremiah's forty years, the weeping prophet of just putting out the word out there and having people reject it out of hand. They did not get to see what was happening in front of these people's literal eyes.

Many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see. They didn't see it and they didn't hear what you hear. So then he goes further than that and he gives an explanation. I want I want you to think about this. A disciple of God, a disciple of Jesus when he doesn't understand something asks questions.

When you don't understand what's going on, hey, help me with this. Help me to understand, Lord. Help me understand how this can be. I've hit something in Matthew already that's got some of your head spinning because it's saying, it doesn't seem right. It seems like they're predestined to failure because seeing they will not see.

Jesus in this explanation is gonna describe how that gets to be. You know, pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. God hardened his heart. Wait a minute.

God, you can't do that. Wait a second. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Three times it mentions that. And then it says, hardened his heart.

There is an end to... From Amos last week. Right? For three sins and for four. You've gone beyond.

You've gone beyond that place. It's a it's a great difficulty to to say that you can go so far that you won't come back. That's not to say that you're irredeemable by God. You are redeemable. But if you harden your heart and you harden your heart and you harden your heart, that's a dangerous game you're playing.

So the explanation is given in all three. They're very much the same. So we'll go from Mark because it was the longest one this time. Mark, and he said to this, do you not understand this parable? Do you all not get this?

This is the very first one. I think it's the easiest one to understand too. But if you look at it from outside, you don't have Jesus' explanation and you hadn't heard it in Sunday school your whole life. You might go, what is the soil? What is that?

What's the seed? What is this... What do these things mean? What... What's the rocky?

What's the... What is it? So Jesus flatly explains it to them. Do you not understand this parable? How are you understanding all of these parables?

These all hinge on this. The sower sows the word. It is the message of God. Now Jesus himself, John describes him as the word, the logos, the the content of what God was expressing to people. Jesus is saying, the sower sows the seed of God's word.

These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown. And when they hear, the sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown. And when they hear, immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. So this is the road, is what Matthew calls it, on the road.

It's just hard. It's packed down. Nothing is going to penetrate that, and it just gets carried away. And in a similar way, these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places. And when they hear the word, they immediately receive it.

Yeah, man, that sounds good. With joy. Finally, all my life long, I've waited for something like this. And yet, they have no firm root in themselves. And if you don't pay attention to the word, if you don't keep on taking care of it.

Hold fast to it and have no firm root in themselves. They're only temporary. Then when affliction or persecution because of the word, immediately they fall away. That's sad. That's a hard one.

They get it. They're on the right track, but then it seems they fall back into an old pattern, and it just kind of evaporates and scorches up under scrutiny and persecution. And others, others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth specifically, and the desires for other things enter and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful. This one sounds a lot like that next parable.

Like I said, it's gonna be the wheat and the tares. We'll cover that next week. The worries of the world and the deceitfulness specifically of wealth and the desires for other things enter and they choke out the word and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones that are sown with seed on the good soil, and they hear the word and they accept it and they bear fruit. 30, 60, and a 100 times as much.

So of the four types of soil, there's one that is really good soil. And others are it's lamentable. That's the last slide I've got. I guess that's the last one. The very last there's one more slide up there, and it's actually Simon Kistemacher's.

If you don't have it, I'll run to my office and get it. There's one more slide and I'll run and get it. You all talk amongst yourselves. Back. I'm back.

I'm back. So I just thought that this was it's succinct. It's one run on sentence, but it's really, really, really good. And I think it boils this... There it is.

Hey, look at there. And and I think this is true every single time. So every single time that a message is presented to you from the word of God, the word of God is proclaimed and it causes division among those who hear. God's people receive the word, they understand it, and obediently fulfill it. I I could ask that they also, if they don't understand it, they question it until they understand it.

Okay? They persist. The word of God is proclaimed. It causes division among those who hear it. God's people receive the word, understand it, and obediently fulfill it.

Thank you, Lord, for using human agency to accomplish your purposes on earth. Amen. Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart. Boy, isn't that hard? Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart.

Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Although the word of the God was... Word of God for him was, let my people go.

When Jesus' question about marriage and seeking to trick him, they ask him a question. It's a hot potato. There's no good way to answer this question. We know it. We've been arguing over it for years.

What do you say about divorce? Jesus says, what's your reading of it? I wanna know what you're thinking. When they tell him, he says, yep. That is what the law says.

The reason for it though is because of the hardness of heart. You can't do anything about it. If you're in a marriage and there is a softness to your heart and there's a hardness to the other person's heart, the best you can do is to serve the quiet witness of a loving spouse. But you still can't change a hard heart. Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart, that's the road side.

See, just does not enter in at all because it's just met with a barrier. A basic superficiality. A basic superficiality, it does not go deep and it's choked out by the concerns of this world. Are we supposed to live by faith or by sight? By faith.

But if you're paying attention to everything that's going on around you all the time, everything becomes equally important, then that's what's gonna win. Everything else. If if you're... If you don't go deeper into the soil of your heart with God's word, it'll just be surface. Or a vested interest in riches and possessions.

I just thought that he nailed that. One sentence, Jesus did a great job of explaining it. If you didn't get it from this short sermon, go back and read it. Matthew 13, Mark four, or Luke eight. The word of God is proclaimed and causes division among those who hear it.

God's people receive the word, understand it, and obediently fulfill it in humility. Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart, a basic superficiality, or a vested interest in riches or possessions. Now the rest of these parables are gonna build off of this one, and I think that each one of them will show an element of this one in it. That is it. I promised you last week when I went long, I'd go short this week, but we do have communion right now.

So I'm gonna ask the elders if they come forward. And I pray that over the last month, considering the the the triumphal entry and the resurrection of Jesus and the hard message from Amos about not oppressing specifically the poor, but the downtrodden, and about allowing God to hold up a plumb line to us as a people and show us where we're off. God almighty, I pray that, this is not only a religious exercise, that it's not a religious exercise, but it is an act of devotion to you. It is a willingness to take in anything that you offer, Lord, your body and your blood. It's a willingness to take that in and allow it to permeate.

Lord, for those here today who are wavering in their faith, I pray that you would draw them back into communion, that they would commune with you. I pray, Lord, that as a community, we would be the body of Christ that continues in this world, that we would answer things in humility with the word of God. That some of those... The development, the 30, the 60, the hundredfold, Lord, would be that we have the word of God in our mouth and we are sowers going forth to sow, and then it would find a place on fertile soil. Lord, we're asking that you'd make the conditions favorable right now by removing from us all of our own personal distractions and forgiving our sins.

We lay it before you, Lord. In Jesus' name, we ask you to bless this little plastic cup of grape juice and a wafer on the top, Lord. Representative of your body, which was broken for us, and your blood, which was shed for us. In Jesus' name, we ask your blessing on this time of communion. Amen.

That Jesus was betrayed. He took bread after supper and after he'd given thanks, he broke it. And he said to his disciples there and his words echo to his disciples, here. He said, this is my body which is broken for you. Take this and eat of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me.

In the same way that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup and he said to his disciples there, this is the new covenant in my blood. This is the new covenant in my blood. I'm taking it upon me. Take this, drink of it, and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen.

Would you stand with us? And we'll invite Carl back up here to the front, and we're gonna sing one more song. It's kind of a creedal statement, really, about what it is that we believe. If you are struggling, would you let us know? Would you call and let us know?

We wanna we wanna help walk you through whatever it is. If you're having questions about something that God is doing and you just don't know what's going on, there's a community of people here who want to help. So if you would, let us know.

Speaker 2The old creating one, God almighty. And through your Holy Spirit, conceiving Christ the son, Jesus our savior. I believe in God our father. I believe in Christ the son. I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Our God is three in one. I believe in resurrection Our judge and our defender suffered and crucified. Forgiveness is in you. Descended into darkness, you rose in glorious light. Ever seated eye.

I believe in God our father. I believe in Christ the son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection that we will rise again.

For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in life eternal. I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the saints communion and in your holy church. I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again.

Speaker 1Amen. Would you just receive this blessing? May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Lord God, may we be carriers of that peace. In Jesus' name, I pray that you would settle your word deep in our hearts, that you would nourish and nurture it, and it would grow up, and we, Lord, would have seed to sow ourselves for the world all around us.

In Jesus' name, Lord, may we be spreading the word of God. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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Hard Heart Hearing God'S Word Parable Of The Sower Types Of Soil Wealth And Faith

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