The Parable of the Sower

Talking about broken words, let me try some Hebrew.

Shema Israel.

Adonai Eloheino Adonai echad.

Ve hahafta etudonai elochecha, bechol levavva uvechol mehodecha.

I don't speak Hebrew.

I learned that from a Zionist Jew in Israel.

So that's how it sounds phonetically.

That's a very important prayer, that's the Shema in Hebrew.

The holiest prayer of Israel, it's Deuteronomy 6.4, and it is, many of us know, here, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one.

And you shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

I think it's really noteworthy to observe that the beginning of the greatest prayer of Israel begins with here, Shema, Israel, here.

And in today's passage, the Greek word for here, to here, is used nine times in 20 verses.

Jesus begins his parable really as a fulfilment of the teaching of the Shema, Deuteronomy 6.4, in this great parable of the Sower, he begins with the word in verse three, listen, here, O Israel, if you ask ChatGPT to give you a graphic to describe, to show ears full of soil that are budding fruit, this is what you see.

So it's very unnatural, so let's get rid of that.

But that's the picture of what today is all about.

This idea, this mixing metaphors of ears that hear well are like soil that is good, and out of the soil comes fruit, and 30, 60, 100-fold types of crop from good soil.

Did you know that Mark's gospel, the whole of the gospel is wrapped up in two parables?

Did you know that?

I didn't either.

You discover these things when you study God's word and prepare sermons.

It's the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Tenants.

In those two parables, the whole life and ministry of Jesus is wrapped up.

So if you remember Mark 12, the Parable of the Tenants, Jesus tells a parable and he says that there's an owner of a vineyard and he gives it away to some people to look after and to produce the fruit from the vineyard.

And he goes away and then he sends some hired hands to come and check on how things are going and those people are beaten up by the tenants.

And then he sends some more hired hands to check on things and they kill them.

And then he says, I'll send my son because they're treating everyone else so badly and the owner of the vineyard sends his son and they kill the son.

And so then the owner comes back and judges these tenants and gives the vineyard away to another group of people.

And the story is all about Israel, isn't it?

Israel killed the prophets and then finally Jesus comes as the son of God and they were given the land to produce fruit on for the glory of God, the land of Israel, but they treated the prophets badly and ultimately kill the son.

So that's the second half of the story of Jesus, wrapped up in one parable.

The other part, his life and teaching and ministry is encapsulated in the parable of the sower, not just in his teaching, but everything he did, bringing truth, embodied truth, God in human flesh through the miracles, through his parables, through all of the teaching he gave.

People either heard well or they didn't and he gives four different types of soil that he has seen throughout history, the eternal God has seen.

Some years ago, Leanne and I bought a house in the Sutherland Shire and it was a fixer-upper house.

It was probably the cheapest house in the street at the time for sure.

It was what we could afford and it had about half the front lawn was grass and half was dirt and that was okay for us because it was part of why we got it for a good price, I think.

So we got to know the neighbours across the road and they said, you know what, in the last 20 years, no one has ever made that lawn sing.

No one has ever grown lawn on that front yard.

So we said, challenge accepted.

Challenge accepted.

Some of you know how I love my whipper-snipper and my edges.

So we went and hired an aerating tool and we got the pitchforks out and we dug and we fertilised and we watered and I want to say we sowed seed, but we didn't quite do that.

We turfed it, but we did set up tape and we stopped driving on it and parking on it like everyone else had done over the years.

And in the end, we produced by God's grace, a glorious front yard.

But as I reflect on it, if I was sowing seed, which you could sow grass seed, but we didn't, we did turf, I can't imagine ever preparing everything and then walking along like Mr.

Bean and throwing seed onto the road, onto the bitumen.

I prepared the grass there and the paved driveway was there.

I can't imagine going like this, throwing it everywhere.

But as we come to the parable Jesus told about seed being sown, that's what God does.

It seems like a waste.

Again, Jesus began in verse one to teach by the lake, the crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat, sat in and out on the lake.

We thought, well, all the people were along the shore, the water's edge.

He taught them many things by parables and in his teaching said, listen, hear, O Israel.

A farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path.

This farmer is generous, isn't he?

Almost reckless in the scattering of the seed, which means the word of God.

Isaiah 55, 11 tells us, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God's rain, his word, goes everywhere.

It's what Psalm 19 tells us, isn't it?

The heavens declare the glory of God day after day, night after night.

It's just pouring forth speech.

There is a God who has made everything.

He is the one creator and worthy of all praise.

The rain of that truth goes everywhere.

He wants everyone to have a chance, amen, to hear and comprehend and receive the truth that there is a good God in heaven who loves us.

Jesus said, listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed as he was scattering the seed.

Some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up.

And then if you skip over, which we heard Richard read for us, verse 15, Jesus explains what it means.

So I'd like to just jump back and forth a bit.

Verse 15 tells us some people are like seed along the path, the hodos, where the word is sown.

As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

This Greek word hodos means path or road.

The soil in some hearing hearts is like road base.

That's confronting, isn't it?

It's so hard.

It's just truth, gracious words of hope from God.

They hit certain hearts and they just bounce off.

It's like it's so hard, it's impenetrable.

But more than that, sometimes the seed lands, but there's an enemy, a spiritual enemy that comes and takes the truth away.

And so the people are left in darkness.

And this is happening, this is so important to realise.

It's happening present tense in the first century.

And he's teaching about hearing, he's speaking truth over them about how their ears are working.

And there are teachers of the law who are hearing his words, and they have hearts like road base.

Their hearts are hodos.

Surprisingly, some of Jesus' nearest relatives have hodos hearts, don't they?

They're out there thinking that he has a demon, the chapter before.

There are hodos hearts.

Even the disciples were like this at times.

Jesus says there are also petrodes hearts, that is, peter, petra, the rock, like peter, petrodes hearts.

That is shallow, naive, rock-like heart soil.

Verse five, Jesus says some of this truth, this seed, fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil.

It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root.

We sometimes get thick mist in summer.

Do you remember those days?

I remember playing cricket a few years ago in the afternoon and you'd wake up and there'd be this thick, we live at Mount Cole, this thick fog.

But you'd know the day is meant to be 38 degrees and you'd know that that sun's gonna come up and it's gonna burn up that mist.

It'll be there for a few hours, but it doesn't stay, it gets burnt up.

And I think that's a great image of what Jesus is talking about.

He says some people have petrode soil in their hearts.

They respond quickly.

And I don't know if you've ever seen this, but I find it somewhat concerning when I see a brand new Christian get too super spiritual, too quick, too hyper religious and maybe a little bit dogmatic.

They go off like flares, and if you've been around for a while, you notice the flare goes out a bit later on.

They're nowhere to be seen.

This is reality.

Jesus has lived forever.

It's the word of God.

When he speaks this parable, he's talking about the way it is.

It's just the way it is.

There are hearts that are exactly like that, and they quickly fall away.

Peter, that's Peter, isn't it?

He has this pithrode's heart.

He becomes a coward very quickly.

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, Jesus says, so that they did not bear fruit.

The thorny ground is called arcantha.

He says in verse 18, Seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for things, come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

Of course, this is happening in the first century, isn't it?

Who's an example of a arcantha heart?

What about the rich young ruler?

He's so interested, but the deceitfulness of wealth, what wealth gives him, the security, the power, the control, perceived control, it's too much for him, and he goes away sad when Jesus says, sell everything you have and come follow me.

And then there is the gay agathoth, the soil which is good, verse eight, still other seed fell on good soil, it came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, some 100 times.

Then Jesus said, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

He's saying there are some people that receive the truth of God's word, it finds a good home in their heart, they're receptive and God uses that, that openness to do amazing things in and through them, 30, 60, 100-fold blessing.

And then in between, there's this really odd part that is confusing between the parable and the interpretation.

Let me read from verse 10.

Jesus says, when he was alone, the 12 and the others around him asked him about the parables and he said, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding.

Otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven.

Why would Jesus talk about outsiders?

Because if there are outsiders, there are insiders.

There are some who are outsiders of the truth.

And then there are others who are insiders.

And we can get wrapped up, there's a lot of words that have been written about what to do with that awkward part of this parable.

I think a lot of the answer, I'm not trying to be overly simplistic about it, but a lot of the answer is found in the chapter before, chapter three.

There's a crowded house and there are some on the inside that are close to Jesus.

They're still grappling with the challenge of his words, but there are some on the outside like his mom and his brothers.

They're not in there sitting at his feet like Mary did.

That's what makes an insider, isn't it?

It's not that you're better than an outsider, it's just that you've decided to sit at his feet, amen?

That is what is an outsider, an insider.

An outsider, in contrast, is one who says it's okay.

I'm not going to lean in to the source of the answers I need in life.

I'm not going to lean in to the God who made me.

I'm not going to lean in to the word of God.

I'm going to allow myself to be an outsider.

I think it's just a wonderful truth of scripture that if you want to be an insider, you can.

He's willing that none should perish.

Lean in, push in, like the friends of the paralysed man, they let him down through the roof.

Lean in, you can be an insider.

They're a hard-hearted soil, Hodos, shallow-hearted soil, Petrodes, compromised soil, Akantha, and good soil, Gaiagathos.

What I find really helpful to identify is, it seems to me that the disciples moved in and out of these soils.

What do you think?

Think of the example we see in the Gospels and then in Acts and the rest of the New Testament, what we understand, even after Pentecost.

Seems to me they move in and out of the soils.

The receptivity of their hearts changed over time.

I preached on Easter Sunday about gloriously incomplete.

And I was making the point that, you know, Jesus rose again from the grave and it's the biggest, most incredible, the most extraordinary thing that could ever happen in history, in this universe.

And yet, we are left to live it out as followers of this risen Jesus in a broken world, in a broken tabernacle.

And there is an ongoing challenge we face.

It's glorious, ultimately, in heaven and the new earth.

And it is glorious now.

There is a glorious joy we can experience, yet he talks, as we're going to look, Lord willing, tonight, at the seed and the mustard seed.

The mustard seed doesn't end up that glorious.

There's something about the kingdom that's hidden.

It's like, if you were American, you'd understand it more, I think, following Jesus sends us curve balls.

Following Jesus is sometimes really confusing and challenging.

And I don't know if you've experienced this or not, but I certainly have.

I have known really close Christian friends whose hearts, I know, I know, I know, I know.

I can't know everything and I don't know their hearts, but it feels like I know that their hearts were gay agathos.

Do you know what I mean?

They were fruitful, God-loving hearts in those people, but they moved, they moved through Arkantha, where the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and stuff that didn't make sense, messed them up and they got really hurt and they got hard hearts because they were ticked off, that God would allow things, certain things to happen to them or their wife, and then they stayed there.

They stayed there, they stayed with hot-oss hearts.

And I've always found that confusing.

I'm like, were they not real Christians?

But I think they were.

I read this parable and I think, you know, I think we change sometimes.

I think we can move in the soil of our hearts.

This parable is like an X-ray machine.

Doesn't matter in the last 2,000 years.

Who listens to it?

You and I listen to it as it was read over us.

And it speaks at us and in us and through us like an X-ray, don't you agree?

Because our hearts are on display, not to the rest of us in the room, but to God.

They are on display.

Where is it moving?

Is your heart good soil?

Are you an insider?

An insider, an insider with lots of questions, but you're in that house.

That's what I think we want to aim for.

We're not going to have all the answers for life.

No way in the world, but we can make a decision.

I'm going to be in that house where Jesus is.

I'm going to be pressing in to keep asking him the questions I need to ask.

Hodos petrodes acantha, the worries of this world, they won't go away.

There's always going to be something that Jesus says will potentially start to choke out the truth, choke out the fruit, the plant that's growing.

There's always going to be worries.

It is a profound thing to learn to cast them at the feet of Jesus.

Cast all your cares upon me because I care for you.

Give me your anxieties and your worries.

And I know that sounds so easy to throw out for those of us who really live with anxiety, but it's something that we're told in Scripture that we can hand over the worries of this world and certainly the deceitfulness of wealth.

How easy is it to just think, if I could just get that next stage of security, then I would be secure.

Wealth would give me that control that I need.

And I read the desire for things and I think, wow, how profoundly all-encompassing that is.

It talks about good things that become God things, doesn't it?

Anyone got any desire for things?

Doesn't matter what the thing is, the thing is it can become a God thing, but it's only a good thing.

They're not meant to become our gods.

Gayagathos, the good soil.

What is that like?

What does it look like, the good soil?

Humble, teachable, ears open, devoted.

Are you familiar with the Hosea 10-12, anybody?

Any memory verse locked in Hosea 10-12?

I'll give you a head start.

Break up your...

Hey?

Oh, well done.

You are the helper of the people, Neville.

That's great.

That's a great passage.

It used to be the old version, break up the fellow ground.

Break up your fellow ground.

If your heart is consistently not bearing fruit, you're not seeing the fruit you want to see to give glory to God.

The fruit of the grace of God in your life.

It might be because it looks like the front lawn of Three Gorgle Road, Bangor.

It hasn't been broken up for years.

And it doesn't have to stay like that.

Amen.

By God's grace, starts with R rhymes with repentance.

That's what breaking up unplowed ground is about.

Repentance.

Repentance.

Turning away.

Confessing where there is sin.

Confessing where I have followed after other gods.

I've allowed certain desires that were okay to become ultimate desires.

That's what idolatry is all about.

We can, by God's grace, repent, ask Him to bring in that aerating tool of His grace and break up the hard ground so that the soil of our hearts could be ready, the soil of our families could be ready for Him to sow new seed.

Do you feel like an outsider or an insider?

Hear, O Israel.

This is the prayer.

Yahweh is our God.

Remember, hear, Shema, hear, listen, now, today, in this room, in the 21st century.

Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God.

Yahweh is one and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And Jesus was the only one who fulfilled that completely.

He is worth listening to.

Amen?

Lord, you are, you are worth listening to, so I pray, Lord Holy Spirit, that you would do a work in our hearts now.

We invite you to speak, to direct us to Scripture, to arrange the circumstances of our life that we run into the right people that would challenge us and encourage us.

Lord God, we want to be people who are fruitful.

We want to be a church who is fruitful.

We confess we don't get to choose the timing of what that fruit will, when it will come, what it will look like, but we're believing that we can be by your grace good soil and that you might bless the Gospel 30 times, 60 times, 100-fold blessing.

The nations might know there is one God who has loved them in Jesus and will return to judge the living and the dead.

Help us to be part of this great Gospel going forth in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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