Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 50 – September 1978

 

The Sower Went Out To Sow

 

Sermon by Rev. P. C. Tuit, B.RE., M.Div. on Matthew 13:4-9

Scripture reading: Isaiah 55, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

 

Congregation of Jesus Christ,

Do you sometimes question the power and influence of the gospel in this world? Do you wonder sometimes if the gospel is making any progress at all? For example, can it be said that your community is more Christian today than it was 25 years ago? You are perhaps asking yourself what will come of the church, the kingdom? We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come…”, but do we really see the evidences of the kingdom around us?

Questions such as these are found in the hearts of many people today. However, these questions were also asked during the days when our Lord Jesus walked on this earth. It is with these questions in mind that we must understand the Parable of the Sower, our text for today.

You children have perhaps learned in Sunday School or catechism that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus used the parables to explain to the people the mysteries of His kingdom. It was a very famous teaching method used often by our Lord. Through the use of parables Jesus taught those who had ears to hear about many aspects of His kingdom.

Jesus’ purpose with the Parable of the Sower was to teach the people, and especially to teach His disciples something about the progress of His kingdom. However, we must first understand this parable in its proper historical setting, before we can move on to the meaning and application. Jesus did not tell the people a story, the facts of which bore no resemblance to daily life. Not at all. Jesus’ audience was able to relate to every detail of this story. It would speak to them because it was taken from their everyday experience.

We read then that a sower went out to sow. Many of us will not have much of an idea what this is all about. Usually we get a very romantic and sentimental picture of the sower in our minds. In Israel, however, in the days of Jesus, it was quite something to come to this point. It was very difficult to be a farmer. You had to be a very optimistic person to be a farmer and to entrust your seed to the ground. There were so many odds against the farmer. So many things could go wrong. Especially in Israel a farmer was very much dependent upon the rain. It would often happen that the rains would come at the wrong time. This would cause the whole crop to be scourged by the burning sun. Sometimes the rains would not come at all. Sometimes the tender green plants would be destroyed by the hot, dry wind. At other times the crops would be destroyed by locusts and other insects. Truly it took a lot of optimism to be a farmer in those days.

In our parable we find such a person. He entrusts his seed to the waiting soil. It was the custom there to first sow the seed and then plough the whole land. Not all the seed would fulfil its purpose.. We read that some seed was picked up by the birds before it could sprout up in the ground. Some seed did sprout, but because of the shallow soil the roots could not draw enough water. The result was that the tender plants were scourged in the hot Palestinian sun. Other seed sprouted but weeds and thorns grew in the same place and choked the young plants. A great deal of seed, however, fell into good soil and brought forth a tremendous harvest.

This is important for us to keep in mind, congregation.

According to Palestinian standards the harvest Jesus describes here is a better than average, yes an abundant harvest. A thirty fold return in the harvest would already be considered to be very good. Jesus is speaking here also of a 60 and 100 fold return.

Jesus gives also the explanation of the parable to the disciples. This explanation will help us to answer some of the questions which were raised earlier. What this parable is basically dealing with, congregation, is the working of the Word of God in this world.

Jesus tells us that the seed is the Word of the kingdom. And the Word of the kingdom of course is the Word of God, the Gospel. Just like a farmer sows his seed, so the Word of the kingdom is sown into the field of the world. Jesus does not explain who the sower is. The whole emphasis of the parable is not on the sower, but on the seed, the Word of God. Knowing this, we must keep in mind the beginning and the end of the parable.

When the farmer began to sow, he seemingly had not much of a chance. There were so many things which could go wrong. How could anything substantial come out of this undertaking. Yet, the harvest was bountiful.

This same thought can be applied to the sowing of the Word of the kingdom. Here again we must keep the historical situation in mind. John the Baptist had warned the people of Israel to repent of their sins because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Jesus preached that the kingdom had come in His own person and He now called people to believe in Him to become citizens of His kingdom.

In the last three years He was training His disciples so that they could become sowers of the seed, the Word of the kingdom. However, humanly speaking all the odds were against this small group. Yes, the King of the whole universe had come to dwell with man, but in the form of a servant. He had no form or comeliness, to use the words of Isaiah, that man should look at Him. He had no beauty that man should desire Him. And what about His followers? His group of close friends consisted of uneducated fishermen, a former tax collector. And even after three years of His teachings and miracles, one did betray Him and one denied Him with a curse, while the others fled when He was captured.

Was the kingdom of God to come from this hopeless beginning? Was the Word of salvation to go forth from this insignificant group of men? It was just like a farmer standing by his field just before sowing asking himself would it be worthwhile, would it be worth the risk.

But congregation, the point of this parable is not to dwell on the seemingly hopeless beginnings. Indeed it does give us a picture of very humble beginnings. But it also tells us about a harvest.

And not just a poor or average harvest. No, this parable speaks of a great and abundant harvest, a harvest 30, 60, 100 fold. Just like a farmer sows his seed in the hopeful expectation of a harvest, so the Word of God is sown in the earth also with the expectation of a harvest! It is even better to say that more than an expectation of a good harvest, there is the sure promise of a successful harvest.

In God’s beginning, a glorious end is already implicit.

In spite of every human failure and opposition, God brings from hopeless beginnings the glorious end that He has promised. This parable teaches us of what Isaiah told us in Chapter 55 that the Word of God will not return to Him empty but it shall accomplish that which he purposed and shall prosper in the thing for which God sent it.

And this is why also today in the midst of much opposition, carelessnesses, hostility and indifference, the Word of God may and must be sown. It must be spread in a joyous confidence in the spirit of Isaiah 55:12 where we read: “For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Here in symbolic terms we have a picture of the optimism which the church, the children of God, may have as it works for the advancement of God’s kingdom.

Brothers and sisters, what we may learn first of all from this parable is that a pessimistic and defeatist attitude does not belong to the church and to the child of God. Just as the sower went out to sow; so the church, so God’s people, in joyous confidence, knowing that God has promised them the victory, may move out into the world sowing the seed of the kingdom.

Here we must remember, congregation, that it is not only the preacher who must sow the seed of the Word. No, upon every Christian’s shoulder lies the task of spreading that seed. You do this as you work in this world day by day. And this must be done in every area of life: in the church as well as the family; in the economic as well as the political sphere of life; in the realm of education as well as that of recreation. In all these areas, the Word of the kingdom must be heard. In all these areas, people must be challenged to live according to the commandments of King Jesus.

Congregation, the odds also here in Australia seem to be against us, there are so many obstacles. Yet God has promised us the victory. A glorious harvest was already implicit in that small group of uneducated fishermen who would turn the world up-side- down. A glorious harvest is also implicit in our beginnings.

It is true that we perhaps see so little of it, especially in our Australian situation. Or we ask: But how does this apply to my teenage son or daughter who seemingly does not care for the things of Christ and His church? How does this apply to the lack of spiritual growth in many churches? These are honest and sincere questions; these are also very difficult questions.

However, the truth is that Christ’s kingdom is coming, Christ is establishing His church. Not by might, nor by power, but by the working of the Holy Spirit. Often times we do not see and realize the growth of Christ’s kingdom. The parables tell us that in many ways this growth is like the maturing of a little seed to a plant. Nothing really spectacular or extraordinary as we see it, but quietly in its own time, in its own pace Christ brings in His kingdom.

The growth of Christ’s kingdom, however, does not go without any opposition. Our parable makes this very clear. It shows that there are powers in the field of the world which do hinder the work of the Gospel, which do hinder the growth of the kingdom. Some people hear the Word of the kingdom but right away the devil, the evil one, snatches it away. Others receive the Word with great exuberance and joy. However, their faith is really only skin deep, and when it comes to be counted for your faith and perhaps even be persecuted for it, there is no faith left. Then there are people who hear the Word. They receive it but then they are, and remain so entrenched by the ways, the cares and the riches of the world, that the seed of the Gospel is not able to grow up into a fruitful plant.

The Gospel does face opposition and many obstacles. The Bible is very clear on this at other places also. The kingdom of God is always in conflict with the kingdom of darkness. The enmity which the Lord has placed between His and Satan’s disciples will remain until the end of the earth. Again this raises many questions in our minds. Does this mean that in certain cases Satan is more powerful than God? Does this mean that in certain cases the influence of the Gospel must give way before the attack of the cohorts of Satan?

Jesus is teaching here, congregation, man’s responsibility as he is faced with the Word of the kingdom. The sovereign and almighty power of God in bringing His kingdom rings through very clearly in this parable.

At the same time, man, when he is confronted with the Word of the kingdom, the Gospel, is faced with his responsibility, he is faced with a very important decision to be for or against Christ; to believe in Him as Saviour and Lord, or to reject Him.

And we do see this around us. We do see how the Gospel is being ridiculed. We do see how some of our children turn their backs to the Word of the kingdom even though they have been exposed to it for so long. This causes pain and anguish, this raises many questions. Yet, the Gospel confronts each one of us with that important decision: “What is your relationship to the King of the kingdom, to the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Brothers and sisters, may the teaching of this parable cause us to look into our own hearts. And may we ask ourselves the question: How do I stand in relation to Christ? Do the words of the Gospel just fall off your heart without responding to it? Or do the things and cares of this world choke and kill the Word of the kingdom within you?

Remember, this is how God’s kingdom comes, by people responding with believing and obedient hearts to the Gospel. Also, let us not lose heart. We are still in the time of the sower. The reaper has not yet come. The sower is still going forth to sow. There is still the assurance of a bountiful harvest, the harvest of the kingdom which will be 30, 60 and One Hundred fold.

In the midst of unbelief, ridicule, disobedience and rejection, Christ, through His Word, is bringing in His kingdom also today. We must not and do not have to lose heart, Christ has the victory and He will have the final victory.

AMEN.