KASUMIGAOKA
2018/01/14
SERMON: “The Word of God and Abundant Life” 「神の御ことばと豊かないのち」
TEXT: Matthew 13:1-23
I. INTRODUCTION
Jesus explained why He came into this world in the following words: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus came to give a new quality and richness of life to people who trust and follow Him. For three weeks we have been thinking about the “abundant life” that Jesus gives. We have learned that an abundant life is a “fruitful life”; that is, it is a life that serves God and bears fruit for others, and not just for ourselves. In order to bear much fruit, Jesus said, we must “abide in Him, and He in us.” Jesus used the metaphor of a grape vine to explain this. He said that we Christians can bear good spiritual fruit only when we are united to Christ, just as branches must be attached to a living vine in order to produce grapes. So Jesus said, “apart from Me you can do nothing.” Last week we thought about “what kind of fruit” we will bear as branches of Jesus the “True Vine.” When we abide in Jesus Christ by faith, His Spirit causes us to bear the “fruit of the Spirit,” which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23a). Jesus came into the world so that we who believe and follow Him will have a life filled with these qualities. Do you see all of this spiritual fruit in yourself?
Today I want to look at one more passage that teaches us how to bear such “fruit,” and how to experience the abundant life that Christ offers. It is the well-known parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. What does Jesus teach us about bearing fruit in this parable? In the passage we studied last week, we saw that the work of Christ’s Spirit in us is essential in order to produce spiritual fruit in our lives. In the parable of the Sower, Jesus emphasizes the necessity of receiving the word that He is preaching. Unless we hear and understand Christ’s words, and unless His word is rooted firmly within us, we will not bear fruit. This parable is addressed to a great crowd of people who had gathered about Jesus, because they had seen His miracles of healing and casting out demons. Jesus had attracted their attention by His powerful works, but what these people most needed was the truth—that is, the words–that Jesus was preaching. How important is the word of the Lord? Peter writes in his first letter, “you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23). Our human lives soon pass away, he writes, “but the word of the Lord remains forever.” “And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” The words Jesus was proclaiming can give us a new life. His word can cause us to bear rich spiritual fruit. But, without the word of Christ, we are like barren fields. Both the work of God’s Spirit and the word of Christ firmly planted in our hearts are necessary. Without both the Spirit and the Word, it is impossible for any of us to become “fruitful” Christians. Let’s look more closely at this parable of the Sower.
II. THE PARABLE AND ITS PURPOSE
This passage is composed of three parts. In the first part (vv. 1-9) Matthew describes Jesus’ audience and records the contents of the parable itself. In the second part (vv. 10-17) Jesus answers His disciples’ question about why He has chosen to use a parable, instead of teaching the crowd more plainly. In the third part (vv. 18-23) Jesus explains the meaning of the parable to His chosen disciples.
The parable itself is a simple description of the way seed was scattered by the hand of the farmer. Because of the great crowd gathered around Him, Jesus got into a boat and began to speak to the crowd standing on the shore. The hills of Galilee rose up behind the crowd. If the autumn rains had already begun, it is possible that Jesus could see some farmers on those hillside fields already planting their fields for the winter. Most grains were planted in the fall, because winter was the only season with enough rain to grow wheat and barley. It is likely that Jesus spoke this parable of the sower and the soils because of the scene He saw before Him on the hilltops. There were many different types of people in the crowd standing on the shore before Jesus, and there were many different types of soil in the fields being planted with seed. So, when Jesus started to teach the crowd, He began with a parable about sowing seed.
“A sower went out to sow,” Jesus said, and then He described four different results of that planting process. Some seeds fell on the path at the edge of the plowed field. The soil was hard, and birds quickly came and ate those seeds. Other seeds fell on rocky ground—that is, on a thin layer of soil that covered hard rock. That seed quickly germinated and began to grow, but the hot sun scorched the young plants with insufficient roots, so they withered. Other seeds fell among thorns. The seeds sprouted, but were soon “choked” by the thorns and withered, just as the seed on rocky soil had done. But other seeds fell on good, deep soil, with few thorns or weeds. Those seeds sprouted, grew rapidly, and produced abundant fruit. After describing this scene with its various results, Jesus said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” That was all Jesus told the crowd concerning the parable. He asked His hearers to think about the parable, but He Himself did not explain the significance of the Sower, the seeds, or the different results that came from the sowing.
The second part of this passage consists of the dialogue between Jesus and His disciples. They asked Jesus why He taught using parables that were so difficult to interpret. Jesus replied that His parable was not intended to give understanding to everyone. Instead, the purpose of this parable was to show how spiritually blind, deaf, and dull the hearts of this people had become. The parable was intended to show the true spiritual condition of most of the people who had gathered around Jesus. As Jesus says in v. 14, “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.” In that condition, the people could not listen to Christ’s words with understanding. They could not apply His words to themselves and respond appropriately. They desperately needed to hear and understand what Jesus was preaching. Above all, they needed to hear about God’s kingdom and the Savior God had sent into the world. They needed to repent of their resistance to God’s word. If they rightly understood their own miserable and helpless condition, they would call upon the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness. If they did that, that is, if “they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn,” Jesus says at the end of v. 15, “I would heal them.” But they did not understand their true spiritual condition. They came to Jesus because of curiosity, or because they had seen His miracles and were impressed, or because they hoped that He would lead a new Jewish uprising against the Roman oppressors. But they did not come to Jesus to seek healing for their souls. Their most basic and grave need they did not even recognize. The human race has not changed much in 2000 years. In our day also few people will admit their own spiritual deadness and need of salvation.
However, there were some in that crowd whom Jesus had prepared to hear and to understand His message. Those people were His own disciples. So Jesus says in v. 16, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” What did Jesus’ disciples see and hear that others in the crowd did not? Jesus says in v. 17 that “many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Those righteous ones were not prevented from seeing and hearing by the hardness of their hearts, but rather by the purpose of God to fulfill His ancient prophecies at the time God had appointed. What Jesus is saying here is that in His day, the ancient promises of God at last are being fulfilled. Jesus’ disciples were actually witnessing the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies. Jesus has quoted the prophet Isaiah in vv. 14-15. The greatest of Isaiah’s prophecies were not the ones promising God’s righteous judgments on Israel, Judah, and the surrounding unbelieving nations. Isaiah’s greatest prophecies concerned the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah prophesied in 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Again in 9:1-2, he prophesied that in the latter days, in the land of Galilee, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (9:6-7). For 700 years those who believed in God’s promises had waited for their fulfillment. Now, at last, Jesus tells His disciples, those prophecies are being fulfilled. “How blessed are your eyes and your ears,” Jesus tells them, “because the kingdom of God has come, and the Prince of Peace is standing right in front of you!”
For that reason, Jesus said to His disciples in v. 11, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” By God’s grace alone, the disciples had been chosen to follow Jesus and to learn from Him. And in addition, the disciples’ evangelistic mission is also hinted at here. Christ Jesus the King will also send them out into the world to spread the message that the Savior has come. They will carry the “light” of the gospel into the darkness around them, and just like Isaiah, they will meet people whose hearts are hard and whose ears are deaf, and whose eyes are blind. But they should not be discouraged! Because God who gave them eyes to see and ears to hear will also prepare the hearts of others to receive the disciples’ message. As Isaiah had prophesied long ago, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11). When the apostles of Jesus faithfully preached the gospel, not everyone believed; but some did. Today, too, when the good news of Jesus Christ is faithfully proclaimed, it will sometimes fall on deaf ears. But it will also reach the hearts of some who have ears to hear and eyes to see. Those who hear and understand the good news will turn from their sins and find forgiveness and redemption with Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
This brings us to the third part of today’s passage. In vv. 18-23 Jesus explains to His disciples the meaning of His parable. The “seed” sown by the farmer is the “word of the kingdom”—that is the news that God has sent His Son, the Prince of Peace, into our world. Some people will hear this good news, but not think about it at all. They dismiss it from their minds as if it were totally irrelevant nonsense. Like the seed eaten up by the birds, the gospel seed will make no impression on such people. Others will hear the good news and respond eagerly at first; but when their faith is challenged, and when they begin to face opposition from family and friends, or even persecution, they soon give it up and return to their old ways. They are like good seed sown on shallow, rocky soil. And there are others who hear the news of salvation through Christ and they consider it for a time. But when faced with a choice—that is, a choice to obey Christ and follow Him, or to seek the pleasures of this world– they choose a life of ease and the pursuit of worldly wealth. None of these people will receive the “seed” of God’s word and grow to a mature and fruitful faith. But Jesus says there is one more type of person. This is one who will hear the word, think about it carefully, and embrace it with joy! This one will understand the wonderful news of God’s gracious gift of Jesus Christ and treasure it in his heart. And he will continue to grow in faith and in righteousness as he experiences the daily outpouring of God’s grace in his life. This is the one who will bear much fruit.
III. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we should remember that no one is really fruitful until the word of Christ is firmly planted in his heart. It is the word of God that will cause you to grow and bear much fruit. So make it your goal—now, at the beginning of this year—to read the Bible daily, to store up God’s word in your heart, and to follow its wise advice. If you will not receive the Bible as God’s word and submit to its authority, you will not be a fruitful Christian. Not even the “good soil” in Jesus’ parable could produce any fruit until the seed of God’s word was planted in it! And when you begin to see the fruit of God’s Spirit and word in your life, give thanks and praise to God. For He did not abandon you to an empty and barren life, but in His grace gave you ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to understand the wonderful news of salvation through Jesus Christ.
And finally, do not be discouraged if, when you scatter a few “seeds” of the gospel, you face indifference or resistance. Just keep on sowing the seed! God’s word will do exactly what God intends it to do. We just sow the seed; God will cause it to bear fruit!