PARABLES OF JESUS CHRIST
PARABLE OF THE SOWER
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 13:1-23
AUGUST 29, 1982
Well, a few years ago we decided to grow a garden. Barb and I were really excited about it because we’d never planted a garden before. So, we put this zucchini plant in the ground, and we were really excited to watch it grow and it did grow. It began to produce zucchini. We were really excited about that. I remember we took that first zucchini off the plant, went into the kitchen and Barb sliced it up and she fried it in butter, and it tasted great. But the plant continued to grow. We got more zucchini and Barb began to steam zucchini. She baked zucchini. She sliced it up and put it into salads and the plant continued to grow. And so, we began to get a little more creative and Barb got some recipes for some zucchini bread and for zucchini muffins. I think she had a zucchini cake. But the plant continued to grow and so we began to get generous and give zucchini gifts to the neighbors. It was really an amazing thing.
This year, as we moved down here to Littleton, we decided to plant zucchini again. We put two zucchini plants in our backyard, and we waited for them to grow. We waited and waited, and they hardly had grown at all. The one zucchini plant has produced no zucchini and the other plant only one zucchini. Botanists tell us that there are many different types of soil in the world that very much affect the way things grow.
Our Lord Jesus wants us to know there are many different types of people in the world and they do not receive the seed of the gospel in the same way. Our Lord Jesus tells us that there are four different types of people in this world, and He describes them in the Parable of the Sower. First of all, He tells us that there are hard-hearted people, and they are like the hard ground, the hard soil, of the pathway which has received the traffic of the world and it’s become so hard that it can no longer receive the seeds of life. There are people who are like that. They have become so hard of heart that they can no longer receive the seed of the gospel. The gospel cannot penetrate their soul and their spirits, and they are approaching spiritual death. They are becoming spiritually blind. They are hard of heart.
Many years ago, they used to lower mules down into mining shafts. They would leave them down there for years to do work. When the mules got old and were no longer useful, they would pull them out of the mines, and they would find that most of them were blind because they had been too long in the darkness. They could no longer perceive the light. There are people in the world like that. They have been too long in the darkness, and they can no longer perceive the light.
Forty years ago, in the town of Glasgow in Scotland, an evangelist was speaking. It was an outdoor open-air meeting. He presented the gospel clearly. As soon as he was finished, a scientist stood up. The scientist said, “I don’t believe a word you’ve said.” He said, “I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe in Christ, I don’t believe in heaven, I don’t believe in hell, I don’t believe in spiritual or supernatural things. I don’t believe in any of these things because I’ve never seen any of these things.”
Well, a moment later another man stood up and he was wearing dark glasses. He was blind. He turned to the scientist, and he said, “You say that there is a river near here called the River Clyde. I don’t believe it. You say that there’s a great multitude gathered in this place. I don’t believe it. You say that there’s a river, an ocean to the west of Glasgow. I don’t believe it. I don’t believe any of those things because I’ve not seen any of those things.” The scientist responded by saying, “That’s ridiculous! You haven’t seen any of those things because you’re blind.” The man said, “That’s right. I am physically blind, and I cannot see physical things, but you, sir, are spiritually blind and you cannot see spiritual things.”
There are people like that in the world, people who have become spiritually blind. They can no longer perceive spiritual things. They have so often given in to sin. They have so often rejected the Spirit’s voice. They’ve grieved the Spirit. They’ve quenched the Spirit and they are reaching the point of spiritual death, spiritual blindness, hardness of heart.
The Apostle Paul, in the first chapter of the book of Romans describes such people and their destiny. Paul says, “The wrath of God is poured out from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For all that may be made known about God is plain to them because God Himself has revealed it to them for ever since the creation of the worlds, His eternal nature, His invisible nature, His eternal power and deity have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse. For although they knew of God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they have become futile in their thinking. Their senseless minds have been darkened. Claiming to be wise, they have become fools and they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men. Therefore, God gave them up and the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies amongst themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and have worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Unfortunately, there are people like that in the world who prefer the darkness to the light, who are approaching spiritual death, who are attaining hardness of heart.
There’s a second kind of person in this world. Our Lord Jesus describes this person as shallow-hearted. This person may be compared with the soil that resides over a layer of rock. The soil has no depth. It receives the seed, but the seed cannot take root and the seed, the plant, cannot withstand the times of persecution, the beating of the sun, the working of nature. There are people like that, people who are shallow-hearted. They hear the gospel of Christ, and they receive it with joy, but the gospel does not take root in them. There is no real commitment in them. When persecution or tribulation arises, they reject Jesus Christ. They fall away.
Our Lord Jesus wants us to know that as we go forth in the world in His name, we will encounter people like that who are shallow-hearted. I’m sure most of you have been of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Barbara and I were there three years ago and it was beautiful. The Grand Tetons, the beautiful lakes and rivers, the great forests, the meadows. But it’s an amazing thing. For centuries nobody lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The great Indian nations of the northern plains, the Crow, the Bannock, the Shoshone. They all wandered into Jackson Hole, and they marveled at its beauty, but they left. They could not withstand the cold falls and winters and so they sought the more temperate climate of the plains. That was true too of the trappers and the fur traders, the hunters. They came into Jackson Hole, and they marveled at its beauty, but they left. They couldn’t stay.
It was not until the end of the 19th Century that a group of people came into Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They saw its great beauty and they fell in love with it, and they stayed. They rooted themselves there. They stayed spring, summer, fall and winter. Jesus Christ is looking for people like that. People who love Him so much they don’t leave, they don’t fall away when things get tough. They stay through all the seasons of life, faithful to Him, spring, summer, fall and winter. Jesus Christ is looking not for shallow commitment but for total commitment.
One such man who had a total commitment was Robert Moffatt. When he was a teenager, he was in a little church in northern Scotland. A minister had preached a sermon and Moffatt was convicted by the Spirit. After the sermon, they passed an offering plate which they did at the close of the service. When the usher came by Moffatt, Moffatt asked the usher to put the offering plate on the floor. The usher didn’t understand that, but he did it and Robert Moffatt got up and he stood in that offering plate. The usher said, “What in the world are you doing?” Robert Moffatt said, “I give my whole life to Jesus Christ, not just my money but my time, my talents, my very being. My whole life I give to Jesus Christ.”
That was the beginning of a great harvest. Robert Moffatt became the pioneer missionary to Africa. He was the father-in-law of David Livingston, the Christian missionary and explorer. But it was Moffatt who planted the seed of Christ and the gospel in Africa. That seed has grown. Today, the number of Christians in Africa are growing four times faster than the general population. Some people believe that the African continent is soon to become virtually a Christian continent, but it began with a boy, a teenage boy, stepping into an offering plate, saying he didn’t want to have a shallow commitment, but he wanted to give his whole life to Jesus Christ. That’s what Christ is looking for, deep, total, full commitment, that we might be rooted in Him, not shallow. And yet He tells us as we go into the world there will be shallow-hearted people who will seemingly receive the gospel but then fall away when things get tough.
There’s a third type of person in the world and this type of person is the worldly-hearted person. Jesus compares this person to the soil that has been invaded and corrupted by thorns and by weeds and the thorns and weeds grow up and choke the seeds of life. There are people like that, people who receive the gospel of Christ but the thorns and the weeds of materialism and covetousness, what Jesus calls the cares of life and the delight of riches, chokes the power of the gospel in their life.
I think in the scriptures, the greatest example of someone who choked the seed of Christ through earthly material wealth is the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus Christ and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus said to him, “You know the commandments. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy mother and father. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The man said, all of these I have done since my youth.” I’m sure the Lord must have smiled at that. Jesus said, “One thing you lack. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor and come and follow Me. You will have treasures in heaven.” The scriptures say that the man went away exceedingly sorrowful because he was very rich, weeds and thorns choking the seed of the gospel.
You know, the scriptures do not condemn money or wealth in and of itself. There are materially affluent Christians and there are Christians who are not so affluent, but God wants us to know that He is far more concerned with spiritual affluence in our life. He’s far more concerned with spiritual wealth in our lives. Someone has said that money can’t buy happiness, but it sure helps us look for it in a lot more interesting place. Now, I suppose that that’s true but there’s certain danger to wealth. That’s why Jesus said that “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to inherit the kingdom of heaven” because in the midst of materialism and wealth we’re tempted, tempted to live for material things rather than spiritual things. There’s this warning that if we become preoccupied with the material things, spiritual life becomes choked.
Some of you may have read years ago about a woman named Emma Dahart. Emma Dahart died of starvation in a small flat in New York City, but the amazing thing was that they found she had $200,000 in a bank account. They found $274,000 hidden under mattresses and cabinets in her house. They found gold and silver. They found precious jewels. They found stocks and certificates. She accumulated wealth. She was preoccupied with it. The papers commented that perhaps her covetousness had distorted her perspective in life. I should say so. But, you know, we look at a woman like Emma Dahart and we kind of feel relatively good. Totally preoccupied with the accumulation of wealth, she neglected her physical needs. And yet there’s a sense in which we all do that. We sometimes can be so preoccupied with material things that we neglect the more important things in life.
There are Christians in this world, in this country, in this community who literally live for their houses. They have a dream house. Maybe it cost $80,000. Maybe it cost $1 million, but in order to keep it, both mom and dad have to work, and dad works 80 hours a week. He’s got no time for the family, no time for kids, no time for the church, no time for the body of Christ. They never stop to ask themselves what in the world they’re living for. They’re living for their house. There’s nothing wrong with a million-dollar house. In fact, if you’ve ever seen one, I’m sure you’d agree there’s a lot right with it. But if, in order to live in it, you have to live for it, something is wrong. Material wealth, when we live for it, chokes spiritual life.
You know there’s a strange little tribe in Africa. This is true. Every seven years they elect a king, and they treat that king with royalty. They give him the best food, the rich foods. They give him the best living accommodations. They serve him hand and foot. They treat him royally. After seven years, they kill him. Then they ask for volunteers for another 7-year reign and out of those volunteers, they elect another king. Now you might say somebody would have to be crazy to take seven years of affluence at the cost of their life but there’s a sense in which, throughout this world, people are doing a similar thing. Jesus said, “Beware of all covetousness for a man’s life does not consist in the sum of his possessions. What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
Jesus tells us, as we go forth into the world, we will encounter people who are worldly-hearted. The thorns and the weeds of materialism and covetousness choke the seed of the gospel. But He tells us that there’s a fourth type of person in this world and this person is goodhearted. This person is like the soil that receives the seed, and it brings forth much fruit. This person hungers and thirsts after righteousness and when the gospel comes, this person receives it, and it bears fruit in their life.
Dr. Arthur Glasser of the Fuller Seminary School of World Mission told me of a missionary in Africa who had the privilege of going to a remote section of Africa that had never ever before heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was a great privilege. He learned the language and he learned the dialect before he went over there. When he got there he was excited, excited to be able to share Christ with people who had never, ever heard His name.
There was an idol maker in that tribe, a person who was a woodcarver. He carved the images on the idols. He did something very bold someday. In kind of a creative mood, he decided to carve a different face on the image of the idol. He put the idol out in front of the people, and they still worshipped it. He thought, “This is strange.” And so, he decided that they weren’t really worshipping the idols. He decided they were worshipping his hands because it was his hands that made those various images, kind of a strange conclusion. But he was hungering and thirsting after truth. As time passed, he came to a deeper conclusion. He decided, “No, it’s not really my hands that they are worshipping but it’s the God who made my hands.” He longed within his heart to know that God. He longed to know the God who made his hands.
When that missionary arrived at that tribe, he stood before the people, and he began to speak. He was anointed by the Spirit, and he began his talk in a way he had never ever begun a talk before. He began by saying, “I come to you in the name of the very God who made your hands.” This idol maker, sitting at the back of the tribe, stood up and threw his hands into the air and that very day he accepted Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior. Today, that man is a minister in that section of Africa. His heart was ready. He was longing for the truth. The seed was planted, and it bore fruit in his life.
And so, Christ wants us to know that in the world there are four types of people. There are the hard-hearted and will not receive the seed. They are approaching spiritual death and they have become spiritually blind. There are the shallow-hearted people, those who receive the seed with joy, but it does not take root and there’s no true commitment. When tribulation or persecution arises, they walk away from Christ. Then there are the worldly-hearted people who have thorns and thistles in their life that choke the word. But then, too, there are the good-hearted people. There’s a message here to the soil, a message here to people, that we don’t have to be hard-hearted. We don’t have to be shallow-hearted. We don’t have to be shallow-hearted. We don’t have to be worldly-hearted, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, our hearts can be changed if we would willingly relinquish ourselves to Jesus Christ.
And there’s a message here for the Sower, that we wouldn’t be discouraged as we go forth into the world because, you see, the gospel, the seed, has power and it will always bear fruit so that when you share Christ in your neighborhood, in your home with your children, with a loved one, with a friend, with someone at work, you don’t need to be discouraged because this promise is given that there will be good soil and there will be fruit.
You know, there’s a plant in Jamaica called the life plant and they call it the life plant because it’s almost impossible to kill it. If you cut off one of its leaves and you hang it from a string, that leaf with absorb moisture from the air and it will begin to grow and produce beautiful new leaves. It’s almost impossible to kill and the gospel is like that. It is alive and it endures forever.
Peter says, “You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. All flesh is like grass and all of its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls but the word of the Lord abides forever, and that word is the good news that was preached to you.” And so, this good news, this word of the gospel, this seed of the gospel has power. As you go forth, you feel perhaps inadequate and yet God is not inadequate, and He can use you to bear fruit.
I love the story of Charles Goft and with this we’ll conclude. Dr. Goft accepted Christ when he was young. He went to college. He went to seminary. After seminary he was ordained in the Methodist church, and he became a minister. His first opportunity to minister to people was at a YMCA conference. He was invited to come and be the speaker at that conference for a week and so he went. He was afraid. When he got there, he began to share in the morning and in the evening. This went on all week. He felt horrible. He felt like it was a total disaster. He felt like he had failed. He felt like he had bored everybody to death. He felt like he had failed Christ and he was sure that there was no fruit. He left that YMCA conference feeling depressed.
The years passed. It was years later and Dr. Goft was Minister of the Methodist Temple in downtown Chicago. He wanted someone to come and paint a mural in his church. He didn’t think anyone was worthy to paint that mural other than Warner Salman. You may not have heard of Warner Salman but he’s the one who painted the head of Christ, that famous traditional painting of Jesus Christ. Eighty-five million copies of that painting are in circulation.
And so it was that Dr. Goft wanted Warner Salman to come and paint the mural in his church. He called Warner Salman, but he was just sure that he wouldn’t be willing to come and paint that mural but was he ever surprised. When he talked to Warner Salman, Mr. Salman said, “Sure. I would be honored to come. In fact, there is nothing I would rather do because I owe you an eternal debt. You see, many years ago, I was at a YMCA conference, and you spoke. As you spoke, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and I gave my life to Jesus Christ. One of the nights while I was at that conference and I went back to the cabin, I had a vision of Christ and from that vision I painted that picture.”
The reason I love that story is because, you see, Charles Goft felt totally inadequate. He felt worthless. He felt unused. But, you see, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. I never have a time when I speak or when I preach or when I do anything when I’m not nervous. I’m always nervous and I always feel somewhat inadequate. Oftentimes when I’m done, I feel like I failed but this promise is given, that there will be fruit, that the true Sower of the gospel, Jesus Christ Himself, is faithful. He will find good soil in which to plant the seed and He will bring forth fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold. Shall we pray?