PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE SOWER
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 13:1-23
JUNE 28, 1998
In 1939, John Steinbeck wrote his famous novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” For that novel he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The novel tells the story of the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the United States. The novel tells the story of an environmental disaster called “The Dust Bowl.” It was May of 1934 when the first of the great dust storms swept across the Great Plains of the United States. Farmers were out in their fields and this great dust storm came unexpectedly. Suddenly the sky was dark. Some farmers would die right in the field. Some farmers would die only a few feet from the front door. This great dust storm swept over the Great Plains, depositing dust, covering cattle, burying farm and agricultural equipment, making drifts that literally rose over the top of farm houses.
So powerful was this dust storm in May of 1934 that incredibly it carried 350 million tons of dirt all the way to the East Coast and the nation’s capital. It was only the first of many of those great dust storms that swept across the Great Plains in the 1930s. Parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas and parts of North and South Dakota, parts of Wyoming and Montana were literally made into a dust bowl. The earth could no longer bring forth crops. The farm economy, which had already been devastated by the Great Depression, was literally terminal in the Great Plains. Farmers quit their jobs. They could no longer make a living and they could no longer eat. They were starving. They left the Great Plains in droves. Three hundred and fifty thousand farmers made their way to California, most of them to the San Joaquin Valley looking for jobs, looking for food. There were not enough jobs. These invading farmers were viewed as outcasts and the offscouring of the earth. Many of them lived in temporary buildings with no plumbing and no electricity. There was not enough food. Many of them died. This was the story told in Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”
Today, scientists and agriculturalists examine what caused that environmental disaster called the dust bowl. What caused it? Certainly there was a great drought, the greatest drought in the history of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Also there was poor agricultural and farming techniques. Farmers for years and decades had ceased in the Great Plains to rotate their crops and the land, the soil, was depleted and dirt had literally become dust.
In our parable for today, Jesus Christ talks about soil. He talks about dirt. He talks about dust. He talks about good soil and bad soil but our Lord Jesus Christ is not speaking physically but spiritually and He is speaking of the soil of people’s hearts. He tells us that the gospel is like seed planted in the soil of people’s hearts. Jesus tells us in this parable that there are four types of people in the world and the soil of their hearts has four different characteristics.
First of all, there are hard-soil people, people for whom the soil of their hearts is very hard. They do not receive the seed of the gospel. They have eyes to see and cannot see. They have ears to hear and they cannot hear. They reject the seed of the gospel outright and utterly.
When he was finished speaking, a scientist stood up and he said, “You say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I do not believe that. You say that Jesus Christ died an atoning death. I do not believe that. You say that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I do not believe that. You say that Jesus Christ is going to come again. I do not believe that. I do not believe any of these things because there is not one shred of scientific proof.”
Well, before Moody could respond, a blind man stood up. He turned to the scientist and he said, “You say that there is a river in Glasgow called the Clyde. I don’t believe that. You say that there’s a great multitude gathered here. I don’t believe that. You say there’s a vast ocean to the west of Glasgow. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe any of those things because I have not seen any of those things.” The scientist said, “Well, that’s ridiculous! You’ve not seen any of those things because you are blind.” The blind man said, “That’s right. I am physically blind and I cannot see physical things but you, Sir, are spiritually blind. You cannot see spiritual things.” Is it not true that there are people like that. They just don’t seem to be able to see spiritual truth.
Years ago, mules were lowered into the earth in conjunction with mining operations. These mules were left in the tunnels of the earth to serve the needs of men. They remained down there in those tunnels year after year until they were spent until these mules, these animals, were used up. When they were near death, they were brought above ground. Most of those mules were blind, no longer able to perceive light as they had been so long in the darkness. There are some people in the world like that. No longer able to perceive light because they have been so long in the darkness. When you go out to sow, when you as sowers go into this world to share your faith in Jesus and you share with your neighbors and with people at work, and even as we send the gospel over the earth, there are people like this with eyes to see and cannot see, ears to hear and cannot hear. Hard soiled people and the seed does not penetrate.
We continue to pray for them, that they might find God’s grace to believe. We continue to pray for them and we also take classes like our classes here on apologetics so that we can explain the Christian faith reasonably and logically, but certainly it is true as we go forth in the world, there are hard-soiled people.
Jesus tells us also there are shallow-soiled people. People described as having soil characterized by rocky ground where there’s just a thin layer of soil above the rock. Jesus tells us in His explanation a little later one in the chapter of Matthew 13, Jesus tells us that these are people, upon hearing the seed of the gospel immediately receive it with joy. They receive it with joy but they have no root in themselves and they only endure for awhile. When tribulation and persecution come, on account of their faith, they immediately fall away. There are people in the world like this, who, when they hear the gospel, respond with joy but they do not persevere in the faith. They do not continue.
Years ago Barb and I were blessed to be able to go on vacation up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We took the kids and went with friends. We were amazed when we got to Jackson Hole, how beautiful it is, how beautiful the Grand Tetons are, how beautiful the lakes and rivers are there, how beautiful the dense forests and alpine meadows are. Jackson Hole is just a beautiful place. It’s amazing, it’s absolutely amazing that nobody lived in Jackson Hole for centuries. Nobody lived there. Even the great Native American Nations that were indigenous to that region did not live in Jackson Hole. The Crow, the Bannock, the Shoshone. They would go into Jackson Hole in the summertime, and they would see its incredible beauty and they would marvel but they would leave, seeking the more temperate climate of the plains.
This was also true of the trappers and the hunters. They also went to Jackson Hole and they would marvel and stand in awe of its majesty and beauty but they could not endure the hard winters and they would leave. It was not until the 19th century, incredibly, not until the 19th century that a group of people moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and stayed there. They saw it, they fell in love with it, and they stayed there. Spring, summer, fall and winter. They never left. Christ, you see, is looking for people like that who see Him and love Him and never walk away, and through all the seasons of life, stay with Him. That is what Christ is looking for from us.
As Christians living in this nation, our persecution is perhaps slight when compared to the persecution that Christians receive in other parts of the world. There are places in this world where, if you embrace the seed of the gospel, you are in for trouble. This past week in conjunction with the 18th General Assembly, we were privileged to have the Baroness Lady Caroline Cox speak to 400 women at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center. She works with Christian Solidarity International and she works with the persecuted church around the world, going oftentimes into remote and dangerous parts of the world, placing her own life in danger, seeking to help the persecuted church.
The persecution of Christians around the world has been acknowledged by Amnesty International and by Freedom House and even by the United States Senate and the United States House, both of which have passed resolutions expressing their outrage at the civil rights violations being perpetrated against Christians in other nations, in Muslim nations, in nations of the former Soviet Union, and of course also in the remaining Communist nations such as Cuba and China. There are Christians in this world who simply, because of their faith, are being sold into slavery. Christians who are literally being crucified. Christians who are being incarcerated for their faith. Christians who are beaten or flogged or deprived socially or economically simply because they’ve received the seed of the gospel and they’ve embraced Jesus Christ. In the midst of that persecution, they have been called to persevere. They’ve been called to persevere.
The Baroness Cox told her audience that in Burma there are Christians who are literally having their heads sawed off and their bodies sawed in two. Is that incomprehensible? She saw one woman in Burma not long ago who, that very day had had four children whose heads had been sawed off. And yet she had a peace that passed understanding because of her faith in Jesus Christ. There was no doubt she was going to persevere in the faith. And yes, in this country, for our faith in Jesus Christ, we might experience subtle persecution. Certainly institutions of higher learning have declared Christianity fair game. Certainly there is some prejudice against Christianity in the media, both the video and print media. And certainly there is some persecution of Christians in this country, but do you know, our call to persevere is relatively easy here.
Have you ever noticed the statements of the Apostle Paul and particularly that one well known passage in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, where Paul describes his life as an evangelist. He said, “Is anyone a servant of Jesus Christ? Well, I serve Him more. I am speaking like a fool, but I’ve had far greater labors with far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received at the hand of the Jews, the forty lashes less one. Three times I’ve been beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I’ve been shipwrecked, a day and a night adrift at sea. Frequent journeys, danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren and toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in cold and exposure, oftentimes without food and hunger and thirst. In addition to all this, I had the daily pressures of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I don’t feel their weaknesses? Who is made to fall and I am not enraged?”
And yet, you see, at the end of his life, the Apostle Paul said, “I have fought the good fight. I’ve kept the faith. I’ve finished the race and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but to all who have loved His appearing.”
Do you love His appearing? Do you love the one who came into our world and do you long to see Him when He comes again or when you see Him face-to-face? Are you willing to persevere? There are shallow-soiled people who do not persevere in the faith. It’s oftentimes asked, “Well, if they once received the seed with joy and then turned away, are they saved?” Personally I do believe in eternal security. I do believe in the perseverance of the saints but, you see, it seems to me if someone really believes, they persevere. They may stumble and fall but they get back up. They may wander from the path here and there but they repent and they come back. If they really believe, they persevere.
There’s a third type of soil that Jesus refers to in this parable. He refers to what we might call thorny-soil people. Jesus spoke of the seed of the word which fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked the seed so that it did not bear fruit. Jesus said, “These were people who received the seed but the cares of the world and the delight of money, the delight of riches choked the seed.” These were, what we might call compromised Christians.
Throughout history there are many examples of compromised Christians. I mean Hernando Cortez and the Spanish explorers who led their conquistadors against the Aztec and Inca Empires. They came for three reasons. They came to cease land. They came to capture gold and they came to save souls. They wound up slaughtering thousands and thousands of innocent people and bringing two cultures to virtually annihilation because they were compromised Christians. They didn’t simply serve the gospel. They sought power and they sought wealth and they served the god mammon. Their faith was improperly mixed.
This really has been true of most of the Christian atrocities through history. The whole episode of the Crusades from 1096 to 1291. They never would have taken place were it not for compromised Christianity. The tragic episode of the Inquisition in the 12th and 13 centuries never would have taken place if it were not for compromised Christianity.
I believe the great sin of this nation is compromised Christianity. Compromised Christianity. I think if you look at the letters to the seven churches, the message of Christ to the church at Laodicea would be His message to us. Where Jesus said, “Unto the angel of the church of Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God’s creation. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am sick to my stomach. But you say, ‘I am rich!’, ‘I have prospered!’, ‘I need nothing,’ not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Therefore, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you might be rich; white robes to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; salve to anoint your eyes that you might see. Those whom I love I reprove and chasen so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit down with Me on My throne even as I conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
What does the Spirit say to the church of Jesus Christ in America? Surely the Spirit says, “Repent, repent of compromised Christianity.” I mean there are so many nominal Christians in this nation who are so busy eating out at restaurants, going to movies, watching television, participating in entertainment sports that they just don’t have any time to teach Sunday School. They don’t have any time to reach out in acts of compassion. They don’t even have time for a faithful prayer and devotional life or they are so busy working extra hours, trying to get rich, trying to attain a lifestyle they were never meant to have, that they just don’t have time to sow the seed, to do the work of an evangelist, to serve the eternal kingdom of Christ. Thorny-soiled people.
But there is a fourth type of soil and a fourth type of person and this is good-soil people. Our Lord Jesus Christ describes how the seed of the word, the seed of the gospel, falls upon good soil and it is received and understood and it brings forth fruit. It brings forth fruit, sometimes a hundredfold, sometimes sixtyfold, sometimes thirtyfold. Isn’t that the kind of person you want to be.
As we go forth and share Jesus with people in our neighborhoods and our communities, God wants us to know that there’s going to be good-soil people out there, not just hard-soil, not just rocky-soil, not just thorny-soil but good-soil people. There’s going to come a harvest and He wants us to know that.
I love the story of George Smith. I first read his story in a little book called “Daily Power Thoughts” by Robert Schuller but through the years I’ve read about George Smith in many different sources. He was a Moravian missionary. He was a pioneer missionary to Africa. He went to a region of Africa to which no European had ever gone and in a portion of Africa where the gospel had never been taken. He studied so hard learning the African languages and dialects that were peculiar to that region and then he went. He went, after he had been prayed for by Moravian brothers and sisters, he went anointed with the Holy Spirit. He went into this remote part of Africa and he began to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. He began to sow the seed and the soil was hard and it was rocky and it was thorny. He had been there only a few months and the government forced him to leave. The local leaders forced him to leave. He had only had one convert, an elderly African woman, one convert.
And so he left Africa, left his life’s work and his life’s dream and he became ill from a disease he had acquired there. George Smith, the Moravian missionary, died on his knees praying for that portion of Africa. It is true that a hundred years later, missionaries went back into that part of Africa and amazingly found 13,000 Christians, all of which had come from that one elderly African woman. She was indeed good soil.
You see, Christ wants you to know that. It’s not the power of the sower. It’s the power of the seed. As you go forth and sow, you might feel inept but there’s power in the seed and the seed will find good soil and you’ll have the joy of that, if not in this life, then in heaven.
You know I also love the story of Dr. Charles Goft. Dr. Charles Goft accepted Christ when he was very young. He went to college and was an excellent student. He went to theology school and he was ordained in the Methodist church. Dr. Charles Goft had his first ministry assignment at a YMCA conference. He was invited to be the speaker for an entire week. He was young and he was energetic and he was excited. He was to speak every morning and every evening at this conference. He soon discovered that maybe his gifts weren’t as strong as he wished. He soon began to feel like a failure. He could tell that people were bored as he spoke at that conference. He noticed that the crowds were just dwindling every morning and every night as the week continued.
At the end of that conference, he felt beaten down and defeated. He felt like such a failure. He left that YMCA conference feeling like a failure. Years later Dr. Charles Goft was the Senior Pastor of the Methodist Tabernacle in downtown Chicago. He wanted a mural to be painted on one of the great walls of the church. He wanted it to be a very special mural. He wanted Warner Sallman, the famous artist who painted that famous picture of the head of Christ. Many of you have seen it. Warner Sallman’ s picture has sold a hundred million copies.
He asked Warner Sallman if he would come to his church and paint the mural. He didn’t believe for a second that Warner Sallman would come but Warner Sallman agreed to do this. He came and he painted the most beautiful, wonderful mural at the Methodist Tabernacle in Chicago. When he was finished, Dr. Charles Goft said, “Thank you, thank you so much.” Warner Sallman said, “You know, the moment you asked me, I wanted to come because I would have done anything for you.” Dr. Charles Goft said, “What do you mean?” He said, “I mean that years ago I was at a YMCA conference, and you were the speaker. It was there that I fell in love with Christ and it was there and through your messages that I gave my heart to Christ. It was that same week as I was going back to my cabin that I had a vision of Christ that became the painting that has sold so many copies.
You know, I think the reason I love that story so much is because Dr. Charles Goft felt like a failure. He felt impotent. He felt powerless and yet there’s power in the seed. It found good soil and that’s the confidence with which Christ sends us into the world in His name. We have classes here to train you on how to share your faith. I hope, I pray that you will avail yourselves of these opportunities. What a privilege it is to be a sower. That’s what we’ve been called to do in the name of Christ and for the sake of His church. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.