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The Parable of the Sower
Matthew 13:1-23
Sunday, 8th April, 2016

 

2. I like runner beans. So I bought a packet of seed so that I could grow some. When I got home, I read what it said on the packet.

3. READ PACKET

Phew! This sounds like a lot of work. So the first year I just left them on the workbench. And guess what, there were no beans for me that year. The next year I decided to get serious

 and planted the seeds.

I watered it freely as it said on the packet and waited. Three days later it looked like this!

Show example. Only the weeds have grown!

 

Well, I persisted, and slowly the plants grew. April became May and June and now I had to plant them out in the garden. Well, I hadn’t dug over the ground in the autumn and put in any manure, it didn’t seem important. That year we went on holiday and it was hot and the sun shone all day. When we came home the beans had all died for lack of water.

 

I had to buy some more seed.

That autumn, I dug the vegetable patch. I made a trench full of smelly compost, filled in and left it until the spring, when I planted the seedlings and watered them. I made sure they had lots of water every day. Soon there were lots and lots of weeds growing as well as the beans. They looked nice, marigolds, blue Borage, dandelions and so on. They were really colourful so I let them flower along with the beans. But the beans grew all sad looking and skinny, the leaves looked bad and when the greenfly arrived…. Well, that autumn, we got some beans but not much.

I read the instructions again. The next year I did the lot. In the autumn I dug in manure, after planting in the spring, I watered every day, I pulled up weeds until they gave up growing. I killed every slug and snail that got within a yard of them! And the beans, we picked them and ate sliced and boiled. We sliced them and boiled them, we gave them away. As long as we kept picking them, they produced more fruit. In the end I let some mature on the plants and dry out as seed for next year.

 

Now that wasn’t what you invited me to speak about. But my guess is that none of you are farmers, which is the audience Jesus was addressing.

Some of you will grow flowers and plants in the garden. 

So let’s read what Jesus actually said.

 

4. READ Matthew 13:1-23

 

The point of my tale of gardening is that Jesus set his teaching in a context his audience understood. But clearly, first time round, the parable did not make sense to the disciples.  And that is an important issue in regards to God’s word. It does not necessarily make sense to a reader. Remarkably many who have picked it up and read it have been transformed by it. That is because the Holy Spirit makes sense of it. And in the case of this parable Jesus provides us with a commentary.

 

5. The seed is the word of God. That is explicit in Luke 8.  This parable appears in all three of the synoptic gospels – Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. They are very similar but each gospel has variations that reflect the purpose of the gospel. Matthew is writing a manual for life, so it is part of a collection of 7 parables on the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

6. The bean seed is the Word of God. So this evening, I am going to give you all a bean seed. With it is a verse of scripture. The challenge of this parable is what you do with the bean seed and what you do with God’s word.

 

7. Give out Bean Seeds.

 

This parable is quite open ended. It is not clear that Jesus is speaking to the crowds or his followers or his disciples. Probably all three. So we must not narrow it done to what happens when we preach the gospel. Or even to when we talk about Jesus to our friends. It applies to us. How we respond to the Word of God.

We believe the Bible is God’s word.

8. The question is what sort of soil are we? What sort of response do we have to God’s word? There is a real case for checking each day that your reading in the morning has made a difference in the day. It will be a bit depressing sometimes, because you may have forgotten it, or been too busy to think about it. But if we believe God has spoken, is it not vital for our spiritual life to respond to his word?

 

The beans of the workbench is a bit  like never opening the Bible or never listening to its stories or teaching. Well you are here and listening, so  

9. Jesus starts very  positively  because he is the Sower and he is not going to leave the seed on the workbench. He is going to broadcast it. Now there’s a word that has changed its meaning, partly because of this parable. The BBC broadcasts news not seeds. Jesus broadcasts himself, the word.  The question is who is listening?

 

Some seed falls on the path.

 

Some of the beans will stay in your pocket, handbag or even be left on the seat before you leave.

Did you do that this morning? If you were here did you listen to God’s word and then leave it on the chair and walk away?  Now I don’t mean did you spend all day thinking of nothing else, but does God’s word actually impinge on your life at all? Do you walk the word? Do you live what God says? Or is your private life and your business life untouched by the work of the Holy Spirit? Does God’s word ever get under your skin?

 

10. Then there is the rocks.

 

Sometimes the soil is not properly prepared. In the autumn we haven’t put in the compost and digging and in the summer the watering they need. In the middle east rocks had to be removed just as in the hill farming. Dry-stone walling is what you do with the rocks you pick up from the field. Some hill country is just a patchwork of small fields because there is so much stone to remove. In rocky ground the plants die for lack of water and nutrition. Just as your indoor plants need constant attention.

 

Once a week watering might keep you alive but to develop you need a constant stream of  loving care and attention from the Holy Spirit of God . And that is precisely what he wants to give you, if you respond to him. Now let as get this straight. Jesus is the gardener not us. We are the soil. He deals with the stones and feeds the soil.  But, unlike soil, you have an active part to play in allowing God to work.  Are you hanging on to stones that God wants to remove? Stones like security in your home, pension fund, health plan, and I wonder what else we prefer to have or rather are persuaded to have instead of being good soil for the master’s word?

 

11. But then I let the weeds crowd out the bean plants. It is very easy to find other attractive things, good in themselves that crowd out finding what God has said and what he is doing.  12. This appeared on my Facebook last week.

Devil (33K)

We live in a materialistic society with an obsession with happiness. We fill our lives accumulating wealth, enjoying all sorts of leisure activities and we set aside an hour or two on a Sunday and a few minutes each day  with Jesus and reckon we are healthy. We are watching TV instead of going to the prayer meeting. Playing Minecraft instead of meditating on God’s word.  Enjoying ourselves while others are lonely and hungry and sick and we do not visit or phone or spend the time being Jesus imitators.

 

 

13. But going back to beans: It started with digging in the last autumn, planting now Ok I am a little late but the plants will catch up, watering in the summer and around July and on to September, you can expect a rich harvest, even enough to share with others and to plant another year. In fact last year I planted 32 beans, eat beans throughout July to September and frozen beans through to January AND I have 100 beans waiting  for me to plant this year. (I know I only need 32!)

 

14. This is important. Growing takes time. I plant in March/April but have nothing to eat until July. God is not a short-term investor in you. He loves you and wants to create in you a beautiful reflection of his character. And he will work on you for years.  Too often we are sucked into thinking in quick-return mentality. It has wreaked our school system which has a 13 year programme. So the children who entered Reception in 2003 will leave school this summer. How many different schemes have happened while they developed?  Churches have been too quick to expect results. The evidence of committed community engagement and evangelism sometimes will take 7 years to show growth.

15. The final key to this parable is the question of fruit. What fruit?  Beans grow beans, wheat seeds produce wheat grains. I once planted a peach stone and a tree grew so my mum and I nurtured it. 5 years later it produced its first fruit. An apple!  We were very disappointed. Clearly the peach had not germinated, an apple seed had in the very place we planted the peach!  So what fruit is Jesus looking for?   The seed is the word of God. So the fruit are more words of God. That is the key. God is working in your life to produce words. His objective is that your life says what the Bible says.  Your life is intended by God to be a textbook of how to live the Christian life. We should be able to share what God is doing. Good soil produces an abundance of wheat when wheat is planted. Your life should produce an abundance of examples of godliness in every aspect of your life.  16. J. John tweeted this week a quote from  Irenaeus writing in  AD 202 'The glory of God is a human fully redeemed'. Think about it. God’s greatest pleasure is you transformed by his Spirit into a Christ-like you.

 

 If that were to happen, there are two things to note. One, people will be added to the church. What wins people for Christ is lives transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

 

Secondly, those who reject your Saviour will reject you.  The NHS sacked a Christian this week for offering a book about the changing power of God, inviting a colleague to church and offering to pray for her.  Get real, Christians are going to be picked off and attacked. They always are. Persecution is part of being a Christian. But it is both a risk worth taking and part of the growing process. But that is another parable!

The Challenge of the bean, is what will you do with it? But more significantly, what will you do with Jesus? You have heard his word, has it landed on good soil, or left on the bench, or not properly prepared soil or are the weeds taking over. God wants the best for you, he is planting seed so that he can reap a harvest. He wants to enjoy your spiritual growth, see Jesus re-created in you.

 

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