Transcription
He says, "You want to know the parable of the sower? I'll tell you. Do you know why I'm going to tell you? Because you're smarter than everyone else? No. Because everyone else has gone home, but you're still here. It's not just the 12, trust me. There's a lot more people there, but you guys didn't leave, and you came and you said, 'We demand to know what you meant when you said that.'"
And so, interestingly, Jesus comes on the scene, and Jesus is going to model for us what a real guide is. Jesus uses a guide. Jesus has a guide. We know when he gets baptized and he comes up out of the water, and the heavens open up, and God says, "This is my son in whom I'm well pleased," and the Holy Spirit descends on him, and it says it guides him, it impels him, it compels him forward, and it tells him where to go. The guide. Jesus has a guide. It's the Spirit of God. Jesus says, "I only do what the Father says. I only say what the Father says. I only do what I see him doing." That's how close he is with his guide. It's in and with and like that.
So we watch Jesus. He has a guide. Who's our, who's the disciples' guide? Jesus. Okay. So we get to watch as observers of this situation. We get to watch Christ, with all the fullness of the Godhead in him, be a guide to humans. And we get to read it. And this is what's so astounding about the scriptures is you get to like watch this like it's a case study in guidance, period. And like, why, why can't I follow that guide? Like, why doesn't it work?
So Jesus starts to teach. And he, in Matthew, in the book of Matthew, where we're going to look at Matthew chapter 13, if you've got a Bible or an app or whatever, if you look at Matthew chapter 13, Jesus is going to start guiding. Matthew has it like in five big sort of discourses or speeches or teachings. Um, but he goes to teach. Verse, this is chapter 13. Matthew 13:1 says, "That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and a great crowd gathered about him. So he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things." He's going to guide them. He's going to speak. He's going to guide them. And he told them many things in parables.
So when Jesus goes to guide, his style of guiding, his, his rhetorical tool that he's going to use is parables. So when he starts into a parable, I'm pretty sure the disciples weren't saying, "Oh, he's going to do a discourse using a parabolic rhetorical technique." I'm pretty sure they didn't say that. They're sitting there, and Jesus just launches into this story, which is a parable, and and they listen. So here's what he says. "He told them many things in parables, saying," and this parable is the parable of parables. This one is like, if you don't get this one, you're not going to get any of them. So this is the most important of the parables. Although parables have lots of meanings at lots of levels, here's what he says: "A sower went out to sow."
Now imagine you don't know who Jesus is, or you kind of know he's a famous rabbi, he's itinerant, he's moving around, he's healing people, things are amazing. Let's go see him. Um, so we go to see him, and there he is, and he stands up, he's going to start teaching. What is he saying? He says, "A sower went out to sow." And you're like, "That's interesting. Kind of an interesting beginning." "A sower went out to sow." And then you form a picture in your mind of a sower going out to sow, like a guy with seeds, a bag of seeds, and he's going out to seeds. And he told, he, a sower went out to sow. And as he seed, so when out, seed or sows, in this parable, here, it's not like he's doing, it's not like if you ever watched a person in a rice field, they're going like, like this, they're putting the little rice like this. A sower does this. He's he's throwing the seed everywhere that it will go. That's important. That's an important idea. It's like a sower went out to sow, and he threw it everywhere. It went everywhere. Hmm.
"And as he sowed, because he's throwing it everywhere, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them." Like, that's unfortunate. Okay. "Other seed fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away." Wow. Okay. "Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."
"He who has ears, let them hear." Thanks for coming. Appreciate your time. Thank you very much. What would you have done if that was the story that he told? What would you do? Because what he's doing when he tells the story is he's throwing seed. That's what he's, he's doing what he's saying. He's just throwing the seed out to a whole crowd of people, and it's going everywhere. So he throws it out, and then he waits to see where the seed goes.
Then the disciples, they're like, "Hmm." Came and said to him, "Why do you speak in parables? Why, why? Like, why are you speaking in parables? Why don't you just come out here, just say you're the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, just, just give us a three-point thing, say the whole thing, make it so we don't have any questions, and we'll get home in time to watch the gladiators." Like, well, why, why not just do that? Why this parable thing? What a, what a waste of time. I mean, even today, you know, teachers and pastors and like, they don't want you to think. They're just going to tell you what to believe, and then that's the end of that. And it's kind of what we want. Just tell me what to believe. Tell me the good guys, bad guys are, how do you go to heaven when you die, and that's the end. Thank you very much. He won't. He doesn't do that. He's like throwing seed out.
And so the disciples have a question. "Why do you speak to them in parables?" Which is exactly what he wants them to do. He wants them to come ask him a question. What? And he answered them. What if Jesus said, "Figure it out on your own. I'm busy." He doesn't say that. He answered them. Why did he answer them? Why did he answer them? Because they asked. And he answered them.
"To you it has been given to look at this word, this infinitive, to learn. To you it has been given to learn, to learn, to learn, to learn, not just handed to you and now you know. To learn to know. To, to learn to know, not just to know. To learn to know. If it's just to know, then you're the secret guys, and you have the secret knowledge, and then off you go, and you're better than everyone else, and you're part of the selected group, and not part of the dumb group. No, no, no, no. When the seed goes out, it goes out to everybody. But not everybody comes to find out what it meant. But to you, who you, any of you, to you it has been given to learn to know the secrets, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, what them? What them? Watch. But to them it has not been given." What? Who? What them? That would have been my question, actually. "It has not been given. For the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."
Now, if I was one of the disciples, I'd be like, "I'm lost again. Like, this is your answer? Like, I got, I'm like more confused now than when you were talking about." He's like, "Just stay with me." Why? Because "to you has been given to learn to know this stuff." So, so I'm telling it to you. Just listen.
"Okay, indeed in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled." You're saying, like, this is all connected to the prophecy of Isaiah. And they're like, "Oh." "Um, you, this is what he quotes Isaiah 6. 'You will indeed hear, did they not hear? Oh, they heard, but never understand. You will indeed see, did they all see? Yeah, but they didn't perceive. For your people's hearts has grown dull.'" It wasn't they weren't born dull, they've grown dull. Well, that's super interesting. Huh. Why didn't I get that? Like that? Because you've grown, learned to be dull. But you could grow and learn to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Guess who that's up to? For this, the people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they closed them. God didn't make them blind, they closed their own eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.
"But blessed are you, who you, you, blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, to hear what you hear and did not hear it."
And then he explains the parable. But he wants them to know this. The reason the reason you don't know the mysteries, the reason you don't know you have everything pertaining to life and godliness, the reason you don't know that you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, the reason you don't know that even if you die, you never die, the reason you don't know it is because you've closed your eyes and you've plugged your ears and your hearts have grown dull, and you don't listen to anybody. Actually, you're afraid to listen to anyone that says anything different than you. You can't receive anything. But to you, to who? The ones that come and ask me a question, to them, to them is is the way to learn to know the secrets. Like, that's how simple it is.
All right. He says, "You want to know the parable of the sower? I'll tell you. Do you know why I'm going to tell you? Because you're smarter than everyone else? No. Because everyone else has gone home, but you're still here. It's not just the 12, trust me. There's a lot more people than that. But you guys didn't leave, and you came and you said, 'We demand to know what you meant when you said that.'" And so he will tell you.
Here's the parable of the sower. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it," which is what he just did when he threw, "then the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown in rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, he immediately falls away. As for the one sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for the, as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it and indeed bears fruit and yields it, sometimes a hundred, not every time, not every time, sometimes sixty, sometimes thirty. Doesn't matter what it yields, it yields." That's the parable of the sower.
And they're like, "Ah." So here, here, here, here it is. The sower throws out seed, and the seed falls. And I want you to get this. The seed is falling. The, the seed is falling all the time. God is throwing out seed all the time in your life, in my life, in the whole world, all the time, all the time, all the time. New ideas come into your head. New feelings come into your heart. You know what we could do? You know what I've always wanted to do? There's the seed. Here it comes. It's every creative thing that ever happens inside of you. It's every act of love you've ever felt. It's just driving on the road like, "Wow, I just feel so joyful today." Boom, there it is. When I, you know, when I'm driving down the road and I just, it's occasionally you get this feeling of like, "Wow, this is like really worth it." Every time that happens, I say to God, "I want that feeling right there, right there, right there, all the time, all the time." And it's gone. But I want that.
And when the depression and the negative and the anger, like, "I don't want this at all. I don't ever want this. I don't ever want this." But when, but we hold on to the anger and the depression. And the joy is just like, [Music] Bing. Like, you know, "We could really love your enemies." Ha. Bing. "We could really be at peace in this whole thing." Here's what we need to do. We need to serve each other and sacrifice on behalf of the other. Bing, bing. That's the seed. It's just bouncing off. "That's a dumb idea. I could never do that. That would take too long. I don't feel like doing that." Bing, bing. All kinds of ideas. You know, you're, you're, you're, you know, you're watching something, you see a commercial for something, you're like, "In 1979, I had that idea." You ever said that? "I thought of that before those guys in Cleveland thought." Like, that's. And and you know your spouse, if she, like, "Don's like, well, what happened?" Bing. That's what happened. You did have an idea. You've had a zillion ideas. You've had, "You know how we could stop this?" "Yes, you could." Bing. And it bounces. That's what Jesus is saying. It's not all about like, "I got to plow up my heart so it's fertile." You have a heart. It can receive. You can receive. But it's grown dull. You stopped believing that anything really could happen. Nothing is going to change. It's not going to change. Bing, bing. All the seed is just bouncing right off our closed eyes and our closed ears. That's what he's talking about.
But sometimes it sticks. It's like, "Well, hmm. You know what we could do? We could go over there and we could start this thing." And you're like, you're like, "Yeah, that could be really cool. I wonder how long that'll take." Cuz if it's going to take more than two hours, I'm out. Like, I need it like right now, Lord. Like, if you want to do something, like I need it right now. I'm busy. I got things to do. Bing. It sticks a little bit. And no. Which ideas? All kinds of ideas. "Oh, maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll stop doing that. Nah, nah." That's second, third. "No, wait. I could. We could do that. We could do that. Let's start. Let's do this in the community. Let's go overseas and do that. Let's, let's do this in my life. Let's, yeah, let's get the family together and let's do this." And you start, and you start. And then after like a year, you're like, "Gosh, Lord, this is not making a lot of money. Like, I'll be in this if this has like, you know, a big return. But I'm, I'm not seeing any big return. This is not going the way I hoped it would go." So it starts to get choked. It's like, "Wow, this has taken five years and we haven't really done anything, and things aren't better." And so choked out.
But some goes in there. It's like, "You know what we could do? It's probably going to take us, I don't know. It doesn't matter how long it takes us. It's not about the outcome. It's about like, let's get on the journey of this thing." Like, one thing we're talking about here in our area at Christ Fellowship is like, "Let's do something with with 20s and 30s. Let's do something. Let's, let's, let's take over the world with 20 and 30-year-olds." Like, that's a thing. That's an idea that fell to us. We're going to plant that thing. How long will it take? Who? I don't know. I don't know. Probably faster than hiking across a glacier. Like, it'll, it may take years. So what? That's not the point. It's the, it's the joyful relationship involved. It's the fruit that comes into your life. It's the love and the joy and the peace and the patience. And it'll impact. It will, because it has to, because it works, because we have everything pertaining to life and godliness, and we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and and and with God, we can do all things. All things are possible. And we'll never die. So let's do it. And we just say, "Okay." And I'm 63, and if 93, it's still trying to get going, it's all right. There's other people. There's lots of other people. It's okay. Let's go. Let's do it. And that one grows. And it, but it doesn't, it's not guaranteed 100-fold. And there's, and every seed has to go through the scorching sun and the, all of them have to go through all of these examples. But some of them stay. This passage is not about the heart. It's about endurance. It's about perseverance. It's about timing. Stay in. Don't quit.
But how do we know which way to go? Because this isn't going to go the way we think. Ask for wisdom. Ask for wisdom. We don't understand what you just said. Ask me what I just said. And the disciples are like, "Wow." And then this amazing thing. Jesus does this amazing thing. We'll wrap it up here. Same chapter, Matthew 13. The disciples are like, "Ah, we, we're the ones. Wow. We're the ones that know the secret." And the next three parables, you're like, "I don't know what the heck he just said in those three parables." The ones that know the secret don't.
And but then this other lady comes, this Canaanite woman. A Canaanite woman is so far outside the group that knows. She's so far outside the group that's on the end. The, the people who really know Jesus, are really tight with Jesus, we really understand. And this lady, this Canaanite, Canaanites are the worst you can get. They're like, they're like awful. Like the, like we consider them dogs in the world. And this Canaanite woman comes in Matthew 13. "And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.' But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples, the ones that get all the secrets, those guys, and his disciples, and his disciples came and begged him, saying, 'Send her away. They,' that's one of their favorite phrases. What do you want to do with these people? Send them away. Took a, a look, took a long time for them to learn that God doesn't send people away because that's what we do. Are they an annoyance to you? Yeah. What do you do? Send them away. No, that. Welcome her. Bing. Idea. Send her away. Send her away, for she is crying out after us."
He answered her, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." He's saying to her what he knows the disciples are thinking. So brilliant how he does this. Jesus is teaching him. I'm going to say to her what you guys are thinking. "I'm only, we're only here for the House of Israel. Sorry, God only came for one group of people. Sorry, you're not one of them." That's what they think. "I was only sent to the, to the lost sheep of the House of Israel."
But she, oh, that's not, oh no. She's not going to let it go. She's not going to let that soil, that seed bounce. No way. It's in there. She's going to, she's going to keep that thing in there. And she says, "But she came and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, help me.'" And he answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." He's saying exactly like a racist person of that day would say to a Canaanite woman. He's saying exactly what's in their mind. It's like, "Wow." And what does she do with it? She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." She, "I am not accepting that." She says, "That is not true, especially of the, at the Lord's table."
And Jesus answered, "Oh, woman, great is your faith." And he's looking at his disciples. "You see this woman? You see her? Great is her faith." Look at you. "Send her away. We don't get what's going on. Send her away. She's a Canaanite." "Great is her faith because no matter what happens, she's going to grab hold of me and she is going to do." What is the secret to learning to know the mysteries of God? It's Matthew 7:7 through 11. Matthew 7 says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
"Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who do what? Ask." There's the secret. You have not. James says, "Because you don't ask." And even when you try and ask, you just ask out of your own selfishness. Ask. Knock. Seek. This is the secret to learning the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
Let's stand up. Let's stand up. Here's what I want you to do. Let's ask God a question. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus. Jesus is the way to access to you. God, we come to you in the name of Jesus. I want you to ask God this question: God, what is a question that you want me to ask you? What is a question that you want me to ask you? And the question will be something like, "God, I want to know, why do I always feel like a disappointment?" God's always wanted me, Jamie, to ask him that question instead of just living in it. He wanted me to come to him and say, "Ask me why you think you're a disappointment," so that I can tell you, and we can get free of this thing. Ask God right now, what is the question that you want me to ask? [Music] You. What is the question God wants you to ask him?
26 times in the Gospels it says that the disciples didn't ask Jesus a question because they were either afraid or ashamed. 26 instances. They didn't know what was happening, but they wouldn't ask Jesus because they were either afraid to ask him or ashamed to ask him. What are you afraid or ashamed to ask God? God, what do you want me to ask you? And then when he tells you what he wants you to ask him, ask him. And keep asking, and keep knocking, and keep seeking, for surely he will answer. In Jesus name, amen.