This sermon was preached to Grace Church Guildford on 12 March 2023. The audio recording of the sermon can be found below along with the transcript.
If Christianity is such good news, why do people refuse to believe it? Perhaps that’s the question you ask yourself as you look at our nation today, where many are not only cold, but even hostile towards Christianity. Or it might be the question you ask as you look around your dinner table, as you see loved ones, parents, siblings, children, who have heard the good news of Jesus, and yet still will not believe it. Students, perhaps this is the question you ask as you think about the friends and classmates who came to Mission Week with you, and yet turned down an invitation to the follow up event on Thursday, saying they weren’t really interested in Christianity. Well tonight, we will see that this is also the question that readers of Matthew find themselves asking at this point in the book. If Christianity is such good news, why do people refuse to believe it? What keeps us from believing the Gospel?
This evening we begin an new section in the book of Matthew. Remember, Matthew is structured like a cake, with alternate layers not of sponge and cream, but of stories and sermons. So having finished a layer of story in chapters 11-12, we now begin a chapter recording a sermon Jesus preached, a sermon commonly known as The Parables of the Kingdom. In the opening verses, it is clear this sermon is set in the aftermath of what has just happened. In 13:1 we read it was: [READ]. If you remember a few weeks ago, Jesus has been rejected by his generation and forsaken by his family, with his mother and brothers coming to a house he was teaching in to take him away. And yet he refused to leave, declaring at the end of chapter 12 that his true family were to be found inside the house, those who heard his teaching and believed his words. While Matthew 12 ends with Jesus being condemned by the crowds, there are a few faithful followers, a small band of devoted disciples huddled around him in that house.
Our passage begins later that same day, as Jesus emerges from the house, gets into a boat, and starts to teach again. Not privately like in the house, but publicly so a great crowd can come to hear him. And in 13:2 we see they did. The shoreline provided a natural amphitheatre allowing many to gather and hear Jesus as he sat teaching from the boat. The scene is so very similar to the one in Matthew 5-7, where Jesus sat down on a mountainside to teach the Sermon on the Mount. And yet, when he opens his mouth to speak here, we see something has changed, for in 13:3 we read: ’Then he told them many things in parables...’. Up to now in Matthew, Jesus has often taught the crowd, and yet it does it here in a new way. Previously he taught them plainly, now he teaches them in parables. Indeed, we read in 13:34, ‘he did not say anything to them without using a parable.’ The disciples clearly notice, for after Jesus delivers the opening parable in 13:1-9, we read in 13:10: [READ]. Jesus answers their question in 13:11-17, explaining the purpose of this change, before returning in 13:18 to explain the point of his parable. We see then there are three parts to our passage tonight. (1) The Parable (13:1-9); (2) The Purpose (13:10-17). Where Jesus answers the disciples’ question. (3) The Point (13:18-23). Jesus interprets the Parable of the Sower. And we can divide our passage like this, as usual consider each part: (1) The Parable; (2) The Purpose; (3) The Point.
However, rather than doing that tonight, I want to zoom in on the overall point Jesus makes. For though there are three parts, we will see there is one basic point in our passage. There are three sections, but only one main question: Why do people reject Jesus? What keeps the crowds from grasping the Gospel? From Matthew 12, it is clear Jesus is rejected by almost all his generation, only a faithful few follow him. Why is this? Well, Jesus begins to explain, using the Parable of the Sower to illustrate it for his disciples, for this parable is a story about why seed is rejected by three sorts of soil but received by a fourth. And in 13:19, we see the seed represents ‘the message about the kingdom’, that is the message Jesus has been preaching ever since 4:17, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ And in this seed sown on (1) the path, (2) the rocky ground and (3) among the thorns, we have represented to us the different responses Jesus has received to his message, the explanations for why he has been rejected. Why the Pharisees have plotted against him. Why the crowds have condemned him. Why his own family forsake him. And why many still do not believe him today. What keeps us from believing the Gospel? The Parable of the Sower has 3 answers: (1) The Snatching Devil (13:19); (2) The Scorching Difficulties (13:20-21); (3) The Strangling Desires (13:22). And we will see these are the three things to which our whole passage points.
1. THE SNATCHING DEVIL (13:19)
Of course, in our passage the only question that is explicitly asked is in 13:10: [READ]. I wonder how you would answer it. Why did Jesus use parables? If you are like me, the first answer that comes to mind is that Jesus used simple stories to illustrate his teaching, to help his hearers understand him. And there is truth in this. In our passage tonight, he uses farming imagery to illustrate his point, imagery that was familiar to the crowds who lived in a society that largely lived off the land. The crowds will have seen, perhaps even been, sowers of seed. Who knows, maybe they could even see sowers in the fields that day as they stood on the shore. And throughout Matthew 13, Jesus keeps using agricultural imagery in his parables, thereby making his teaching more accessible to his hearers. And yet, in 13:10-17 we see this is only part of his rationale, for we are told that parables can not only make it easier to understand Jesus, but they can also make it harder. They not only help some to see the truth, but they can also blind others from the truth. They both reveal and conceal. And it is the latter Jesus emphasises in 13:10-17.
Did you notice throughout this section, Jesus constantly refers to two groups? Those who receive Jesus and those who reject him. In 13:11, Jesus speaks of both, explaining the disciples have been given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom, but not the crowds. And so, parables will have different effects on these two different groups. In 13:12, they increase the understanding of disciples but decrease that of the crowds. Jesus will speak again of his disciples in 13:16-17. But he spends most of his time on the crowds, for in 13:13 he answers the question directly: [READ] That’s a short summary of what we read earlier in Isaiah 6. But just in case we miss it, Jesus quotes it at length in 13:14-15: what was said about the ministry of Isaiah, is now seen in the ministry of Jesus. Given the effort Jesus takes to summarise and then quote it, Isaiah 6 is clearly crucial to grasping what he is saying here, which is why we read it earlier. If you remember, Isaiah 6 falls into two halves. First, Isaiah is dramatically called to be a prophet, confronted by the holiness of God and his own sin, and yet saved by an offering on the alter. [...] And then, he is commissioned as a prophet, sent out to speak for God. And yet, we see his ministry will not be a positive one. For from the start, he is told his hearers will not listen, will not learn, will not turn to God for healing. In fact, the point of Isaiah’s ministry was to produce this hardness. For in Isaiah 6:10, the Lord commands: ‘Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.’ Isaiah is not merely told to expect such a response, no, he is told to effect such a response: to close eyes, dull ears and harden hearts. And here, Jesus says that he has done the same. He quotes Isaiah in Matthew 13 and declares that it has been fulfilled, the eyes of his generation have been closed, their ears do not hear, their hearts have become hard. While the crowds are happy to hear Jesus’ teaching, they refuse to believe it, to turn from their sin, and so be healed. Therefore, Jesus begins to teach in parables, to reveal his truth to some, but conceal it from most. If in Matthew 12 Jesus withdrew his miracles, refused to provide yet another sign, here he withdraws his message, refuses to teach anything except in parables. Throughout the rest of the chapter, Jesus will tell the crowd parable after parable, and yet he only interprets them for his disciples, for those are not only willing to hear his message, but actually believe it. For them, the parables will illustrate deep spiritual realities. But for the crowds, they will just remain simple stories.
What does all of this have to do with the Parable of the Sower? Well, here we see that this parable illustrates the purpose behind all of Jesus’ parables. It is a parable about parables. For remember that the three sorts of soil that reject the seed, represent the different reasons why we reject Jesus. You see that connection most clearly here with the first type of soil that Jesus mentions, this seed sown on the path. For having explained the purpose behind parables, Jesus says in 13:18-19: [READ]. In 13:14, Jesus declared that his generation are “ever hearing but never understanding”. And so, he tells a parable about such people, for here in 13:19, we read that the path represents those who hear his message, but do not understand it. This failure to understand is not primarily an intellectual failure, but is a spiritual, moral failure. It is less about the head and more about the heart. For that is where Jesus says the seed has been sown in 13:19: “the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.” It was the same in 13:15 when he was quoting from Isaiah: it is their hearts that become calloused, they fail to understand with their hearts. It is not a slow head, but a hard heart that is the problem here. Like a dirt path that is beaten down by footfall, become harder and harder with every step, Jesus says the reason this group fail to have faith, will not believe, is their hardness of heart. This has been illustrated in Matthew so far through the Pharisees, the religious leaders who refuse to even consider the possibility that Jesus is the Messiah. No matter what they see, or what Jesus says, they will not believe. Their hearts are hard towards him. His words never seem to sink in, never even get beneath the surface. And so, the Devil can come and snatch his words away, as easily as a bird swoops down to snatch a seed sitting on a path. What keeps people from believing the Gospel? First of all, Jesus says that their hard hearts allow the Devil to snatch the good news away before it sinks in, before they believe it.
Brothers and sisters, I wonder whether this all sounds too familiar. Do you have loved ones who are like this soil? Their hearts are hard to Jesus. Like wellworn paths, they have heard the Gospel again and again, but have only become harder and harder. So much so, it seems to just bounce off them now. They are immune to its implications. Dead to its demands. Perhaps you bring them along to church services, but what they hear never seems to sink in. By the time they leave, what went in one ear has gone out the other. They have heard, but have not understood, have not held onto it in their heart. It is the same when you share the Gospel with them personally, when you talk to them there is no impact, it doesn’t seem to sink in. No matter what you do or say, their heart is closed to Christ. If so, see that Jesus said this would be the case. Indeed, this was what he himself experienced in his own ministry. Some hearts are so hard against the Gospel, it never sinks in and Satan snatches it, removes the message from their minds. If you are facing such a situation tonight. If you no longer know what to do or say. If their hard heart, is breaking your heart. Then there is only one option left open to you, only one avenue down which you can still advance, and that is to pray about it. For you see, this is a problem that we do not have the power to solve. The human heart is a door, for which we have no key. We cannot change the hearts of others, even the hearts of those we love. If they are hardened to the Gospel, we cannot soften them. And yet no matter how hard their heart is, it is in the hand of the Lord. Just as he sent Isaiah to harden hearts, he can send his Spirit to soften hearts. And so, we must pray. We need to plead with him to change them, even more than we need to plead with them to come to him. What’s more, we must pray for the Lord to deliver them from the Evil One, keep them from the clutches of he who snatches the seed away, the bird that removes the message from their hearts. Christian, you and I are not able to soften hard hearts. You and I are not able to drive off the Devil. And so, we must pray to the one who is. The one who is able to soften the hardest heart, so that the seed sinks in and bears much fruit. The one who is able to scare off Satan as easily as a farmer scares away a bird. [...]
2. THE SCORCHING DIFFICULTIES (13:20-21)
For over 125 years, the marathon has appeared in every Olympics and remains one of the most prestigious events. It’s based on the Greek legend of a messenger who ran to Athens after the Battle of Marathon to deliver the news of victory. And today it remains an aspiration for many amateur runners and sportspeople to run the same distance. When someone says they ran a marathon, we know what that means: months of training and then a gruelling race around a course that is exactly 26.2 miles long. And to be able to say you have run a marathon, you need to run all 26.2 miles. Turning up at the start line won’t do it, running the first 5k isn’t enough. Even if you complete 26 miles, but don’t do the last 0.2, you can’t say you ran a marathon. Everything short of finishing the race is failure. And we will see the same is true in the Parable of the Sower. When a seed lands on the first soil, the path, it sits on the surface and is quickly snatched away by the birds. It doesn’t even get off the start line as it were. But the second soil is different. We read in 13:5-6: [READ]. There is an improvement on the first soil, for the seed sinks in and starts to grow. Yet, it soon withers in the scorching sun. Like a runner who pulls out after 5k, it doesn’t last long. We shall soon see the seed that lands on the third soil manages to go a little further. It grows into a plant before being strangled. And yet, it is only in the fourth and final soil that the seed grows and produces fruit. Only the final soil completes the course, the other three all fall short, all fail to produce fruit. And so, like runners who give up at the start line, or after 5k, or even after 26 miles, there is no prize. For they all fail to accomplish what they set out achieve. And they all represent people who fail to believe in Jesus. Some may come closer than others, but they all ultimately hear with their ears but fail to understand in their hearts. It is only the final group, that we read of in 13:23, who hear with their ears and understand in their hearts, not only hear the Gospel, but believe it.
However, while the ultimate result for the first three sorts of soul is the same, the presenting problem is different. They all fail to believe in Jesus, but do so for different reasons. Again, this is just like runners in a race: some pull a muscle, others give up mentally, others collapse with exhaustion. They all drop out, but for different reasons. And just as there is more than one reason to drop out of a marathon, we see there is more than one reason to reject Jesus, more than one obstacle that can keep you from believing the Gospel. In this second group, we are told it is the Scorching Difficulties that they face, for we read in 13:20-21: [READ] Back in 13:5, we read the sun rises and scorches the seed which has no roots. And here Jesus says that scorching sun is the trouble and persecution we face because of him, which causes many to turn back. Like runners who start the race by streaking off into the distance, filled with excitement and energy, they are passed by everyone else a few miles down the road as they begin to flag, flounder and eventually fail. They came prepared for a sprint, not a marathon. They could not endure, suffer, persevere through persecution. Of all the soils, this is the one that Jesus spends the most time explaining, perhaps because it summarises so many in his generation. They were quick to come and hear Jesus teaching. That very day, they flocked to the shoreline to stand and listen to his words. And yet, though they heard him, they did not understand him. Though they gather round him in Galilee, they will not endure to Jerusalem. By the time he gets there, they have all withered away. Oh yes, they are happy to listen to Jesus, but they will not suffer for him.
Brothers and sisters, what was true in the time of Jesus, will also be true today. Not everyone who starts a marathon finishes the race. And the same is true when it comes to the Gospel. Not everyone who receives it joyfully at the start, will still think it is good news a month or year later. Indeed, even in this last year, we have had people come along here to Grace Church, hear the Gospel, seem to be responding positively to it, and then wither away. The difficulty Christianity causes with their family and friends, or the disdain of the world about what the Bible says, can cause someone to drop their new faith and quickly as they found it. And here Jesus tells us to expect this. Indeed, as we continue in Matthew’s Gospel, we shall see that he told his disciples to expect that there will be some among their number, some who become members of their churches, who prove to be like this second soil. In Matthew 18, he teaches his disciples about what is commonly known as church discipline. Jesus will tell them that when a member of a church falls into sin, and refuses to repent of this sin when confronted by their brothers and sisters, then they are suggesting that they are like this second soil, or like the third soil we are about to consider. That even if they have started strong, they have since went wrong, and are demonstrating that they do not really understand the Gospel, do not truly believe it. And so, Jesus says in Matthew 18 they must be removed from the church, warned they are not behaving like a Christian should, bearing the fruit that is evidence of being good soil.
Brothers and sisters, given Jesus saw this happen in his own ministry, warned the disciples it would happen in the future, we should not be surprised, even if we are saddened, when we see it among us here at Grace Church. When those who seem to start the Christian race strongly, end up pulling out before the end. They stop gathering with us at services, they start to believe something different to what the Bible says, they give themselves over to sinful desires and refuse to repent. Such things will happen among us here, and so we must be on the lookout. We need to keep watch over ourselves, remembering only those who finish the race get the prize. And so, we must push through pain, persevere under persecution. And we need to look out for each other. Like those who run a marathon together so they can keep pace, share drinks and snacks, encourage one another when the going is tough, we must care for each other, help each other endure difficulties. And yes, if necessary, warn each other by church discipline, as Jesus told his disciples to do. For it’s not how someone starts the race that matters, but how they finish it. [...]
3. THE STRANGLING DESIRES (13:22)
Once again, seed is scattered from the sower’s hand, this time falling among the thorns. Like the second soil, here the seed starts well, even maturing into a plant. And yet, the thorns also grow and end up strangling the seed. And so, in 13:22, Jesus explains: [READ]. Earlier we said the second soil, the rocky ground and its shallow reception of the Word, perhaps represents most of those around Jesus, that generation which was happy to be hearers and yet would not be believers. However, when we come to this third soil, I think we likely find the soil we here at Grace Church are most in danger of becoming. If you regularly come along to our services, it is less likely that you are the first type of soil, those refusing to even give Jesus a thought, even consider his claims to be the Christ. And though the world around us is becoming more and more hostile to Christianity, we do not yet suffer the level of difficulties and persecution that many of our brothers and sisters throughout history, and across the world today, must suffer for Jesus’ sake, the situation of the second soil. However, when we come to the third soil, the strangling and choking thorns of the worries of life and deceitfulness of riches, we come face to face with what surrounds us every day here in Guildford, Surrey. It is not persecution that is our greatest threat, but it is prosperity. Which is just, if not even more, as deadly a danger. As the puritan Matthew Henry comments,‘Prosperity destroys the word in the heart as much as persecution does; and [even] more dangerously, because [it destroys it] more silently.’
Here we see that the strangling desires of our hearts can keep us from believing the Gospel. And it is important for us to emphasise the heart aspect of this, for our ultimate problem is not from without, but from within. It is not wealth itself but being deceived by wealth that is the issue. What we have in our bank accounts is not the problem, it is what we have in our hearts that ultimately matters. And yet, given that our hearts are prone to sin, be so easily drawn away by sinful desires, the Bible repeatedly warns us about the danger of wealth, the additional responsibility and temptation it brings. I’ve never previously quoted the American gangster rapper The Notorious B.I.G, and I am fairly confident that I will never do so again. However, he does summarise the point well in his 2020 hit entitled, ‘Mo Money, Mo Problems’. Or as Jesus alludes to here: more wealth, more worries. The more we have, the more our sinful hearts have to worry about, be deceived by. And yet, we cannot simply solve this problem by emptying our wallets. No, we must undergo the much harder task of emptying our hearts. I think this is driven home by the fact Jesus here not only warns about the deceitfulness of wealth, but also the general worries of life. Worries that surely include those that Jesus mentions back in Matthew 6, where he warns us not only about storing up treasure, but also worrying over everyday essentials: what we will eat or drink, what we will wear. No matter where we are on the spectrum of wealth, whether we worry about how to invest in more properties, or how to pay for the groceries or utilities next week, our hearts can be distracted and drawn away from the one thing that really matters, hearing and understanding God’s Word, by the things of this life and the worries of this world.
When Sarah and I got married and first moved to London in 2015, we became members of a small church that had a little garden out the back of the building. In a part of London where most of us lived in flats, it was great to have this space! The only problem was, the garden hadn’t been looked after for about 15 years. It had become so overgrown, that when you opened the fire door at the back of the building, you were met by a wall of thorns. You couldn’t see anything or go outside. It was so bad, that even the longest serving members of the church, couldn’t remember what was beyond the thorns! To do be able to use the space, we had to cut it all back and down. Before anything else could come and live there, we had to make some room. It would have been insane to simply buy seeds from B&Q and sow them into the jungle of thorns! They wouldn’t have stood a chance!
Brothers and sisters, do you see that Jesus says the same is true of our hearts? If our hearts are filled with the worries of life, consumed by the concerns of wealth, there will be no room for God’s Word. There is not enough room for both the Word and the world in the garden of your heart. And so, if the seed of the Word is to grow and flourish, you must cut back the concerns of this world. See here, we must all become good gardeners of our hearts. We must regularly, continually, weed and uproot the sins that seek to strangle our spiritual life. We should aim to have hearts that resemble the RHS Gardens at Wisley, rather than an overgrown garden of thorns. To have hearts that not only hear God’s Word, but understand it, receive it, and allow it to sink in and bear good fruit in our lives.
And we should aim to see the same happen in the lives of those around us, to help each other to do some gardening, to uproot the sinful desires of our hearts together. We heard earlier about the prayer diary we have as a church. As you look through it day by day, these are the kinds of things we should be praying for each other. When you come across names of the children of members, pray that their hearts would not be hard to the Gospel, that they would not be like the first soil of the path. When we come across members who we know are facing difficulties, suffering at home or at work for their faith, pray they would persevere, their spiritual life would not be scorched like the seed in the second soil. When we read the names of others, we should pray that the worries of life, whether they are the worries that come from having much or having little, pray that these things would not strangle the growth of God’s Word in their heart. Even if you do not yet know the person you are praying for, these are the kinds of this you can pray for anyone. Every week the same seed is sown in each of our lives, for we all hear the same sermons Sunday by Sunday. And so, during the week, pray that what you heard on Sunday would be true in that person’s life. Pray that God’s Word would fall on good soil in their heart, and bear much fruit for him.
CONCLUSION (13:23)
What keeps us from believing the Gospel? Tonight, we’ve heard about the Snatching Devil, Scorching Difficulties and Strangling Desires that can do it. And yet, as we close, Praise God that there is a fourth sort of soil! We have heard much about how the World, the Flesh and the Devil can all stifle God’s Word. But in 13:23, we finally read: [READ]. Though the other parts of this farmer’s field rejected the seed, this good soil gladly received it. And this is always the case, in every generation, in every location, in every nation. Even when many, if not most, reject the Gospel, there will be some who receive it, who turn from their sin and trust in Jesus. We saw that a few weeks ago in Matthew 12, for while Jesus was rejected by his generation, there was a house full of faithful followers. Though most who heard his words, did not understand them, did believe in him. As we read in 13:11, there are some who are graciously given the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. Who are not only hearers, but are also believers. The description we have here of this good soil is a beautifully simple way of describing a Christian. What is a Christian? It is someone who listens to what God says, believes it in their heart, and allows it to bear good fruit in their life.
If you are here this evening, then like the crowds on the shore that day, you are a hearer. You have heard through our songs, and readings, prayers, and now in our sermon, the good news of Jesus Christ. How God is Holy, and like Isaiah, we have sinned against him. And yet, in love he sent his Son to suffer the punishment for sin for all who will repent and trust in him. Who will follow him as their Lord and Saviour. Tonight you are a hearer, will you also be a believer? You have heard with your ears, will you understand with your heart?
ALEXANDER ARRELL