WWUTT 036 Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13)

A parable is a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth or moral lesson.

And it is a form of teaching Jesus, often used, fulfilling prophecy made about him in Psalm 78.

The first parable Jesus ever taught was the parable of the sower, which we're going to look at this week so we might learn who has the message of the kingdom and who doesn't when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. One of my favorite teaching lessons in the

Bible is the parable of the sower. I reference it often. In my sermons, it probably comes up about once a month because it is a parable that Jesus taught that helps us understand who has the message of the kingdom and who does not.

We find the parable recorded in three different places in Scripture, Matthew 13, Mark 4 and in Luke 8.

It is one of a few parables that appear in all three synoptic gospels. It does not appear in the gospel of John because there are no parables in the gospel of John.

That actually has to do with the question that I'm going to answer toward the end of this broadcast, why there are no parables in John's gospel.

But the parable of the sower is what we are going to be studying this week. We just finished up a study of Philippians. Our next big series is going to be going through Colossians, but I'm going to spend a couple of weeks doing some topical things.

This week is going to be a mini series as we study the parable of the sower and our root text is going to be

Matthew 13. We'll draw a little bit from Mark 4 and from Luke 8, but primarily we want to be looking at the text as we read it in Matthew 13.

So if you want to turn in your Bible with me there first before coming to the text, why don't we come to the

Lord in prayer? Our gracious heavenly father, we thank you again for your word. And we know that it is the natural minded man that cannot understand these things according to what

Paul said to the Corinthians. But it is those who are spiritually minded that are able to discern the spiritual things of God.

And as Jesus said to his disciples, it has been given to you to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.

And Lord, if we are your disciples, these things have been written down for our benefit that we might know them.

We have our hope restored in the promise of your kingdom, but also that we can take these things and communicate them to others so that other saints would be realized and come into the flock, looking forward to the kingdom of God.

So Lord teach these things to us in a way that we understand and can help others understand them as well.

And we pray this in Jesus name, amen. Matthew chapter 13, beginning in verse one, that same day,

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea and great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down and the whole crowd stood on the beach.

And he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them.

Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil.

But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain.

Some a hundred fold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him hear.

Then the disciples came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.

But to them, it has not been given for to the one who has more will be given and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand indeed in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says you will indeed hear, but never understand.

And you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears, they can barely hear and their eyes, they have closed less.

They should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn. And I would heal them, but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.

For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it here.

Other than the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

This is what was sown along the path. As for the one, as for what was sown on rocky ground, this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word out and it proves unfruitful.

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.

He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case, a hundred fold in another 60 and in another 30.

This is the parable of the sower and all this week we're going to be studying this parable in our mini series, focusing today primarily on the seed and the soil.

And coming up later on in the week, we'll look at the seed that falls on the path, that which falls into rocky ground, into the thorns and the seed that falls into good soil, producing a harvest.

Let's go back to the beginning here, Matthew chapter 13, starting in verse one. That same day,

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And we do see at the end of chapter 12 that Jesus had been in a house teaching people who came to him and he goes out and even greater crowds come to him as he goes and he sits by the sea.

A great crowd gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down. So they're all kind of cramping there on the beach.

Jesus gets into a boat and there actually is a location there on the sea of Galilee that is referred to as the cove of the parables.

It's kind of a natural amphitheater. There's this cove, this inlet of water that's surrounded by ground, okay?

This horseshoe shape and people would have sat up on the hills listening to Jesus teach from the boat and people who have been there and have studied the location, they've said that Jesus could have spoken and his voice carried for 300 feet up those slopes, about the length of a football field.

So again, it like a natural amphitheater where his voice would have carried clearly to everybody who was sitting there.

And again, it's called the cove of the parables because we have multiple parables that are shared here in Matthew chapter 13, the first place that we see

Jesus teaching in parables. We have the parable of the weeds that comes after the parable of the sower.

We have the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great value, the parable of the net, and the parable of new and old treasures.

So Jesus' first parable was the parable of the sower. And again, one of my favorites,

I actually referenced it in our very first episode of this podcast. If you'll remember back to episode one, before we even started in on our study of the book of Philippians, I said that it was going to be difficult for me to use the word podcast over the word broadcast, partly because I'm an old radio guy.

I spent a lot of years in radio and broadcasting is just that word that we use to describe what we do. And you're familiar with that word, a message being broadcast into radio and television.

And the word podcast is derived from that. But before there was broadcasting as we know it, there was broadcasting in a field.

It was an agricultural term. A sower would go out to a field and he would scatter seed.

And that way of putting his hand in a seed bag and throwing his arm across his body and scattering his seed into tilled soil, that was a form of sowing referred to as broadcasting.

And it is exactly that form of sowing that we see Jesus sharing here in the parable of the sower.

So it has that biblical connotation to it. That's another one of the reasons why I love the word broadcasting.

So Jesus is teaching them in parables and he says to them, a sower goes out to sow.

And he doesn't say he's a farmer. He says he's a sower. A sower went out to sow because farming in this time involved a lot of people.

I mean, it does today as well. But typically we think of a farmer as a person who sow seed and harvests it.

But we have the sower and we have the harvester. And Jesus delineates between the two many times.

In John chapter four, for example, he says to his disciples, there are others who you're going to harvest what others have sown.

And the reward is the same for both the sower and the harvester. So we have the delineation between that who sows the seed or sows the message of God and those who harvests the hearts that have been transformed by that message and declare

God and become Christians. So Jesus talks about this sower who goes out to sow and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, birds devoured them, seeds fell on rocky ground and they sprung up immediately.

But then the sun scorched them out. There was seed that fell in the thorns and they were choked out by the thorns.

And then there's seed that falls in good soil and produces a great harvest. When Jesus gives his explanation of the parable of the sower, this is in verse 18, he says, hear then the parable of the sower.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

And this is what was sown along the path. So the first explanation that we get in verse 19 is that the seed is the word of the kingdom.

Now Mark says it more specifically in Mark chapter four, he says the seed is the word of God. But we see the word of God more specifically as the word of the kingdom, as Matthew recalls it in Matthew 13, 19.

That's significant. All right. Because what were the first words that Jesus preached in Matthew chapter three?

It says that he preached, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So the words that Jesus taught, everything that we have of him teaching in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is more than just nice lessons.

It's more than just answering questions. It's more than just rebuking those who teach falsely. Okay. Jesus is actually coming with the message of the kingdom.

He is preaching about the kingdom. What does that mean? What is the kingdom?

What is that message? And why do we need to know that? What the kingdom is?

Well, if you'll remember back to our study of Philippians, we talked about how the apostle Paul said to the

Philippians, behave as citizens of the kingdom. Not just as citizens of a

Roman colony, but you are citizens of the kingdom of God. And as we're going to go into Colossians, Paul says this of the

Colossians as well. Colossians 1. 13, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.

And later on in Colossians three, he says that your life is hidden with Christ in God in glory.

All right. So we need to behave as ones whose lives are hidden there with Christ in his kingdom.

Matthew 6. 33. That was a verse that we referenced, I think, sometime last week, where Jesus says, above all, pursue his kingdom and his righteousness, pursuing heavenly things.

And all these other things will be added to you as well. John 18. 36. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.

But I think one of the best descriptors that we have of the kingdom is in Luke chapter 17. This is one of the most convicting passages on the on the kingdom.

Luke 17 verses 20 and 21, where Jesus said, being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,

Jesus answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is or there it is.

For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The kingdom of God is now.

It is here. All who are in Christ Jesus are part of that kingdom.

You don't become part of the kingdom when you die. You don't become part of the kingdom when Jesus comes back. If you are in Christ, you are part of the kingdom now.

And there is a little part of that kingdom inside of you. And as you go and you preach the message of God, when you preach the message that Christ preached, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You are going out with the message of the kingdom. And as you share those things and as other hearts are turned from the wicked ways of this world to the righteous things of God, a citizen of the kingdom has been added.

So we go out with the message of the kingdom so that there are hearts that turn and will come into the kingdom of God by the power of that message, not by anything that we did, not by the power of our method.

OK, not because we're a great speaker. I know I've got a radio voice. I know that I spent a number of years in radio.

I was very rewarded for it. I won awards for that. OK, so I know I've got that radio voice, but a person's ability to come to Christ has nothing to do with my voice.

It has nothing to do with the inflection that I put behind it. It has everything to do with what is written down in the word of God as a faithful servant of God.

I simply want to be faithful to what the word says. I don't want to be faithful to my method or to the things that I have available to me to make my voice sound the best.

You know, I'm not talking into a recorder. I have a professional mic and a good setup that's set up around me here. But those things are me using what

I have available to me to the best of my abilities, being faithful with that which God has given to me.

But what transforms a person has nothing to do with the way that I do this. It has everything to do with the message of God that gets out to a person that reaches their heart, that turns their heart from stone to flesh, that washes them with water by the cleansing of the word.

And the Holy Spirit works in that person a transformation. They listen to the message of the kingdom and are convicted by it and will come into the kingdom of God by way of Jesus Christ, the narrow gate, the door to the sheep.

We see in Matthew chapter 25, Jesus talk about the final judgment.

He says this in verse 31, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father.

OK, this is the king. Of course, it's Christ talking about himself, the king, the king of the kingdom.

The king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothed you?

And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them.

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.

So these nice things that we do are not the things that we do to the poor or those who are destitute.

Any and all poor are not the least of these. We do have an obligation to go out and reach those who are poor, who are destitute, who have been treated unjustly, who have no voice, who cannot speak up for themselves.

We do need to minister to them and reach out to them. Absolutely. Always taking the gospel with us as we go.

But who Jesus is primarily talking about here are his brothers, his brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God, those who are in Christ Jesus.

And if we've been transformed by the message of the kingdom, then what will be displayed in us are the works of the kingdom and those works that we did for the least of these brothers and sisters of Christ.

We did also unto him. Then Jesus will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

So the kingdom is prepared from the foundation of the world for those who are blessed by my father, those who were destined to inherit the kingdom.

But those who are cursed, they're sent into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

Then also they will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

And then he will answer them saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Jesus said in the

Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven, there are many who are going to come to me and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do these great things in your name?

And I'm going to say, depart from me. I never knew you. So there are those who are going to claim that they heard the message of the kingdom, but in their lives, they showed no transformation because they heard that message and therefore they will be cursed.

They will be sent into eternal fire, into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

So if you have heard and received the message of the kingdom, be transformed by that and show that you are a citizen of the kingdom of God by the way that you behave.

Let me read you something from Deuteronomy chapter four in our, in our, at our church, in our Wednesday night

Bible study, we're studying through the book of Deuteronomy right now. And last week had just gone through Deuteronomy chapter four.

And here's what Moses says to the people of God before they are going in to take the promised land.

Okay. He says, see, I have taught you statutes and rules as the Lord, my

God commanded me that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Keep them and do them for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who, when they hear all these statutes will say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what great nation is there that has a

God so near to it as the Lord, our God is to us whenever we call upon him.

And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today.

So why is it that we obey the commands of Christ? Because we have been transformed by the message of the kingdom.

And then we show that we are citizens of that kingdom by obeying that kingdom's laws.

And there are people who are going to see us following in the commands of Christ and say, what a great nation, what a great people that they have these commands that keep them together in purity and unity, according to the

God that is called them. We are not a people that is any more defined by our borders or the land that we occupy.

In fact, Peter refers to us as exiles. James does as well at the beginning of his letter, as he talks about writing to the exiles.

He's talking about those who are Christians scattered throughout the world. So we are exiles in a foreign land and what we are looking forward to is a heavenly kingdom.

But here on this earth, we behave as citizens of the kingdom haven't already received that citizenship that we have not yet received that that perfect kingdom.

We've not yet walked through its gates, but we're citizens even now in Christ Jesus.

So as you have heard the message of the kingdom of God, if you've been convicted of sin, you've heard the call of Christ to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, then turn from those sinful, worldly, wicked ways and behave as a citizen of the kingdom.

That's the seed. And if that seed has been planted in good soil in your heart, it will produce a good harvest.

We'll talk about these things even more as we continue our study of the parable of the sower tomorrow.

Lord, we thank you for this word, write it upon our hearts and keep us faithful to it as we study it over and over and over again.

Being constantly reminded of these things that we are citizens of your kingdom. If we are in Christ Jesus, restore our hope in that promise.

We pray this in Jesus name, amen. Is it true that the four gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John contradict one another in the details about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Nope.

The gospels were in full agreement that Jesus's last supper with his disciples was on Thursday night that they went to the

Mount of Olives to pray that Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot for money and arrested that he appeared before the high priest and that Jesus claimed to be

God. Yes, in all four gospels. Jesus was denied by Peter three times, Friday morning he appeared before Pontius Pilate, he was beaten, the prisoner

Barabbas was set free in exchange, Jesus was crucified at a place called the Skull, he hung on his cross between two other criminals, and he died and was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

On Sunday at dawn, Jesus rose from the dead. The empty tomb was first found by the women, one of whom was Mary Magdalene, and then they went and told the disciples.

But wait, the doubter says, Mark is supposed to end with verse 8 where it says that the women were terrified by what they had seen and told no one.

Well, obviously they told someone, genius, or Mark wouldn't have written about it. The angel told the women to go and tell the disciples, and it is understood that's exactly what they did.

It's true that the gospels differ on other specifics, but these details do not contradict one another and in no way negate the gospel truth.

That Jesus Christ died on a cross, was buried in a tomb, and came back from the dead is historical fact.

You can be more certain of that truth than you can be that you'll see the sunrise tomorrow. Jesus said,

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

That's a truth you can know and place your hope in when we understand the text.

Our question today comes from Matthew in Arizona. He says, Dear Watch, I love your videos and was wondering if you could do a few more about Jesus's parables.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out why there aren't any parables in the book of John. I found a variety of explanations, some saying that as the gospel spread to a more

Greco -Roman audience, they didn't learn as well through parables, and so John stopped using them.

I saw another one say that it's based on a premillennial or amillennial perspective, which was pretty confusing, and I still don't understand it.

I'm still trying to figure these things out, but would be interested in your take as well as a couple more videos about parables.

Hint hint. Thank you for your ministry, Matthew. Thank you for your email. One of the reasons why I don't like that first explanation that you gave, you said that you read from somebody who said that as the gospel spread to a more

Greco -Roman audience, they didn't learn as well through parables, and so John stopped using them. One of the reasons why

I don't like that explanation is it makes it sound like John's motivation for preaching about the kingdom of heaven was different than Jesus's motivation, because in Matthew 13, we just read

Jesus saying to his disciples, for you, it's been revealed the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but not to them. It's been hidden from them.

And so it's as if John is coming along going, well, Jesus's method using parables wasn't good enough to help people understand it, so I need to get people to understand, so I'm going to stop using parables, and I really do not think that was

John's motivation at all. Rather, I love something that was said by A .W.

Pink. He talks about the differences between the synoptic gospels and John's gospel, and he lists something like a dozen different omissions from John's gospel.

For example, in John's gospel, there's no genealogy, so we read about the genealogy of Christ, particularly in Matthew and Luke is where the two big ones are, but we don't see that in John.

We also have no description of Jesus' baptism. His baptism is mentioned, but there's no narrative about his baptism, unlike the other three gospels.

John says nothing about the temptation of Christ. There's also no account of his transfiguration.

There's no appointing of the apostles. Jesus prays different in the book of John than he does in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

We never read in John's gospel the statement, the coming of the son of man, and I'd like to add in here, we don't see an

Olivet discourse in John's gospel. That really becomes the book of Revelation, but anyway, that's beside the point. We also see that we never see the words repent or forgive in John's gospel, and when it comes to the parables,

A .W. Pink says this, no parables are found in John's gospel. This is a very notable omission.

The key to it is found in Matthew 13, and the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables?

And he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Here we learn why Christ, in the later stages of his ministry, taught in parables.

It was to conceal from those who had rejected him what was comprehensible only to those who had spiritual discernment.

In the book of John, Christ is not concealing, but revealing.

He is revealing God. It is to be deplored that the rationale of our

Lord's parabolic form of teaching should be known to so few. The popular definition of Christ's parables is that they were earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.

How man gets things turned upside down. The truth is that his parables were heavenly stories with an earthly meaning, having to do with his earthly people in earthly connections.

So there you go. That's A .W. Pink from his work entitled, Why Four Gospels? He goes on to say that John's gospel doesn't make any mention of demons, and there's also no account of Christ's ascension in John's gospel.

So that's the 12 differences between John's gospel and the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Thank you again, Matthew, for your question. If you want to submit a question, go to www .utt .com.

Lord, we thank you again for this study as we continue to go through the parable of the sower.

Write these things upon our hearts and keep us steadfast as we go throughout our week. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of the church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your

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