The Parable of the Sower

Series: Gospel of the Kingdom

Speaker: Lead Pastor Dustin Aguilar

Scriptures: Matthew 13:1-9 | Luke 8

PARABLE OF THE SOWER

• The parable is very well-known. We have a disadvantage in understanding it in its original context because we’ve heard it so many times!

  • Try to imagine that you don’t know the parable and you’re just sitting on the beach listening to Jesus talk about agriculture…

• Jesus ONLY explains the parable to his disciples (we’ll cover why next week).  He doesn’t explain it to the multitudes.

Parable Explanation:

A few different “ground conditions”

• “seed” = Word of God (Luke 8:11)

• “birds” = the evil one

  • There really IS an evil one lurking around trying to steal the good news from people. BUT the devil isn’t able to just run up on anyone and snatch the word from their hearts. The Bible says it’s only snatched from those “who don’t understand.”

  • Question that spawns from this: “What’s the minimum amount of understanding required to be safe from Satan snatching it away?”

    • But other passages in Scripture make it clear that we can receive it “like a child” — we don’t need to understand all the intricacies. We don’t need deep knowledge.

    • It doesn’t take a complete understanding to believe the basics of Jesus dying on the cross.

    • The struggle comes when there are competing understandings about Jesus (e.g., Mormonism, New Age, Secular Humanism, etc.) — The evil one snatches the word from those who don’t understand, and the misinformation is behind the misunderstanding to begin with

  • Satan creates misunderstanding and snatches the word from those who do not understand (because of that misunderstanding he created!)

• “stony ground”

  • Some churches actually set people up to be “stony ground people” by teaching that “if you have enough faith, you won’t have difficulty”

    • When hearing this message, people begin to believe that something must be “wrong” every time they face difficulty…

    • But the promise of Jesus isn’t that you will never face hardship, but that Jesus will be with you in it!

  • Stony ground people still “receive the word with joy” — So how do we know if someone is stony ground or good ground?

    • We can celebrate ANY encounter with God. (Hearing/feeling the goodness of our Father in heaven.) We can’t know for sure if they are good soil.

    • When doing the work of an evangelist, you don’t know what’s happening in the heart of a person.

  • We are not responsible for the harvest. We are merely responsible for planting the seeds (share the Gospel). — and water/cultivate the seeds

• “thorny ground” = those being choked out by cares of the world —

  • devotion being poured onto other things, eclipsing passion for the Lord

  • This doesn’t always feel like a “choking”; sometimes it’s just the “things you’d rather do” that dull the spirit.

    • The world offers endless cares and distractions

    • Even a simple hobby, misplaced, can dull a person spiritually… when those things become time-wasters, gobbling up your time. (Or alternatively, if not a hobby, hustling focused on money/work)

    • Question: What worries are stealing your desire/devotion for the kingdom?

      • Step 1: Acknowledge it. Step 2: Then say something about it to somebody.

• “Good soil” = those who hear the Word, understand it, and bear fruit.

  • Jesus shared the parable publicly because there are always “good ground people” present.

  • But Jesus explained it privately with His disciples so they’d know what they are up against.

Takeaways:

• Two Applications:

  1 ) Ask/Reflect “What kind of ground am I?”

  2) This story shows us how we will be received when spreading the good news

• We DO NOT KNOW what kind of soil people are when we share the gospel. Even if they receive the word with joy, we can’t know if they are truly good ground. But we don’t need to know…we need to sow seeds.

• We can cultivate ourselves as “good ground” to bear fruit by spending time in the Word and remaining devoted during hardship.