THE PARABLE OF THE SOIL

MATTHEW 13:3

A. "BEHOLD A SOWER WENT FORTH TO SOW"
  1. Our Lord the master preacher:
    1. He uses illustrations taken from that which was common knowledge to His hearers to illuminate their minds with the truth He taught
    2. "Behold a sower went forth to sow"
  2. The timing and purpose of this parable:
    1. In Matthew and Mark this parable appears as the first of a great collection of messages spoken on His early Galilean mission
    2. In Luke's gospel it occurs on a little later date rather as the summing up of the experience of a long mission and that is the great point of the parable
B. THE PARABLE OF THE SOILS
  1. Teaches that our Lord was under no illusion about the result of His work:
    1. Three-fourths of it, we might say, seems to have been disappointment
    2. Out of four classes of hearers three produce extremely unsatisfactory results
    3. Jesus is now training the Twelve for their mission and in sending them out among the nations, He gives them this story to illustrate what He had found in His own mission
    4. He tells them that they must expect to meet the same kinds of conditions and fact the same results as they had seen Him meet
  2. A special application of the parable of our text:
    1. If success depended upon the preacher and upon his character, rather than the word, what success ought to have fallen to Jesus Christ
    2. His was truth - John 5:45
    3. No man ever spake as He did - John 7:13
    4. Here was truth for the disciples to keep in mind as they entered their ministry
  3. A crop may fail for three reasons:
    1. The seed may be at fault; it may be bad
    2. The soil may be bad
    3. The sower may not have done his work properly
  4. These are all factors that must not be overlooked by the worker
C. THE FOUR CLASSES OF HEARERS JESUS HAS IN MIND HERE AS DESCRIBED IN THIS METAPHOR
  1. The hearer comparable to the wayside; the beaten track:
    1. On a pathway trodden hard by the feet of men the scattered seed does not get much of a chance
    2. It lies upon the surface and the birds that fly in the wake of the sower pick it up and carry it away
    3. Our Lord knew the roadside hearers; their minds do not take in the word spoken
  2. The hearers comparable to the stony soil:
    1. That soil is not well cleared of the rocks in that they hear and receive the word quickly, but when the heat of temptation comes they wilt away
  3. The third class of hearers that disappointed Jesus were the thorny ground hearers:
    1. People that believe the word but are worried about making a living
    2. People that lose interest in the word when financial posterity comes into their life
  4. Lastly, there was a class that rewarded Jesus:
    1. They were those who heard the word and understood it
    2. They made the word a part of their life
    3. They accepted the truth humble and kept it until it brought forth a rich harvest for the kingdom of God
  5. Thus, we learn from the parable of the soil:
    1. That success or failure of our labors are by enlarge, dependent upon the condition of the people we labor for
    2. That the worker must not become discouraged when the results of his labors are a partial failure
    3. That intensive conditioning of the hearts for success is paramount
    4. That even the great Master worker recognized the sower of the truth has limitations


Design © John Bryant 2011