Any Guarantees in an Unsure World?
Any guarantees in an unsure world?
Matthew 13:1-23
If 2020 has taught us anything it’s that there are no guarantees in this world.
Nothing is absolutely guaranteed. Not really.
Nothing in this world is guaranteed, except this: that the kingdom of Jesus is unstoppable.
Do you believe that? It doesn’t always look like it. Can it really be true?
Isn’t there too much unbelief in this world?
Isn’t life just too messy to make such a clear-cut statement?
Wouldn’t it be too costly to say something like that?
They’re some of our questions as we look at some of Jesus’ parables over the next few weeks from Matthew’s Gospel.
The first one that we’ll look at is this parable of the sower, which is an unfortunate title as I hope we’ll come to see.
Jesus tells the parable in v3-9, then in this case he explains the meaning of the parable in v18-23. In between, he tells us a bit about why he speaks in parables.
A parable is a story with a point. The point of this parable is essentially to say that, despite being in a world full of uncertainties, if you belong to Jesus, you’re on the winning side.
The story itself is very simple. A farmer takes some seed, scatters it around. The seed falls into different soils which produces different results. Some seed falls on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, then some in good soil.
The seed is the Word of God. The soils are the various reactions to the Word of God.
The seed along the path, v4, 19.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.
In other words, when our big crowds, standing room only on the beach, Jesus has had to invent the floating pulpit because he’s the hottest ticket in town, and they’re all listening, and here you all are, all excited to be out. Come and see the miracle worker from Nazareth. Come and see this Jesus and you’re listening as I teach you.
It would appear from a distance that everybody was just flocking in obedience to Jesus, and yet the impact of his word is like rain on a tin roof – they are impervious to it.
They find it interesting but it is irrelevant.
You find them saying as they walk away, “Well I liked his stories. I wasn’t so keen on his application. What does he mean ‘sinners to repentance’? Who in the world is he talking about? Clearly not talking about me.”
Behind it all, says Jesus, is the activity of the evil one, who says in our minds, “You don’t’ have to accept this stuff. Why would you listen to this? It’s an ancient book. That boring guy up the front doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Look around, no one’s really paying much attention anyway. You don’t have to listen to this.”
What about the seed that falls on the rocky ground, v5, 20?
As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
Here we have enthusiastic response, followed by short bursts of enthusiasm. Then virtually nothing at all.
If you’ve been in pastoral ministry for any length of time, you’ve seen it.
All the excitement of someone apparently getting a hold of things and then in a relatively short order, they’ve gone off and got a hold of something altogether.
So the word of God comes to them, and then it’s like what one poet said:
“Pleasures are like poppies spread
That’s what it’s like. You tell people about Jesus. There’s apparent response. Someone says, “Oh yes I’m up for that, so sign me up. What do you want me to do?”
“Yes, come to the front. There’s a great crowd coming to the front now. Everybody’s here. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Ten days later, we are looking for them. “Oh no” says someone, “they’ve gone to the front of somewhere else now.”
Instant bloom and instant fade.
The fact that many, most of the crowd welcomed Jesus in the early days doesn’t alter the fact that they failed to stay the course. They ran a few hundred metres then they stopped. They laid down in the grass. The prospect of a marathon had no appeal to them – long obedience in the right direction.
As soon as it began to cut in to where they lived their lives. As soon as the law of God began to confront them, forcing them to either acknowledge their predicament and embrace a saviour, or to contravene and run away by themselves, they decide, “I’ll take the road by myself thank you.”
And other seed was sown among the thorns, v7, 22.
As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
The pressure is not a pressure from outside (like the previous soil), but it is the pressure of divided loyalty (a subject on which Jesus speaks plenty about – you can’t serve two masters, etc.).
Again, we see this too don’t we.
I wonder before we point fingers at others, we first need to see it in our own hearts.
At any given time, I could be any one of these soils.
Which reminds me that fruitfulness is only ever the result or evidence of the life-changing Word of God in those who have been made new.
Not because we are so spectacularly good at anything, but because ultimately, as Luther said, our Christian life lies outside of us. We’re not justified by anything done by us. We’re not justified by anything done in us. We’re justified as a result of something done for us.
And so he says, v23, As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
When God’s Word is received in this way it has a lasting impact. It prospers, even in the face of difficulties. It stands up to the deceitful insinuations. It holds up in the trials and temptations. It endures setbacks.
It holds fast to the end, as the writer to the Hebrews says. We’re not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but who continue saved.
Isn’t it a miracle we’re still here?
Don’t you find yourself saying, “What a mystery this is!”
Being saved takes supernatural, sovereign, saving grace. Staying saved takes supernatural, sovereign, saving grace.
What an amazing mystery that I am still in this race, that I haven’t given up and stopped. That despite all the things in this world that might alarm me or charm out of the kingdom me I’m still here.
It is because the Word got planted in a small pot of good soil, over which I had no control.
Which is very humbling, or it’s supposed to be very humbling anyway.
This isn’t a story about the ability of the sower. Doubtless it’s preached that way by some.
This isn’t a story about how good farmer Phil was. He was very good at figuring out how to sow. So he got more of it in the good soil than farmer Bob did because he wasn’t so good at it, and it becomes very focussed on the sower.
It’s not about the sower, it’s about the seed.
If you think about it, what does a sower do? Sows!
How hard is that?
You’ve got a big bag, you’ve got a big field, you’ve got two hands…
Whoa, look at that guy! Look at what he’s doing. That’s amazing. Did you see how he’s throwing…?
Wow, look at the sower!
No, look at this seed. This incredible seed that produces not only thirty-fold, not only 60 fold, but 100 fold.
What seed on earth does that!? If you get a crop that produces ten-fold, you’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Well this blows that out of the paddock.
The numbers themselves are not significant other than to say, it’s big, it’s best. This seed, the Word of God, is like nothing else.
Martin Luther, reflecting on the sweeping changes of the Reformation, wrote, “All I have done is to put forth, preach and write the word of God, and apart from this I have done nothing. While I have been sleeping, or drinking Wittenberg beer with my friends, it is the word that has done great things… I have done nothing; the word has done and achieved everything.”
Or as someone else has said, “In Acts, they preached and awe came down. You can’t put that in your worship order. 10am: awe comes down.”
It’s the result of God speaking – my word … shall not return to me empty, says God in Isaiah 55. It shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
#1. Have realistic expectations
There are going to be times when people look interested.
They come to church, they seem keen, they might want to meet up and read the Bible, they sign up to be involved in different things.
Then after some time, they’re not as keen or interested or involved and they’re gone.
It might be after several weeks (We’ve experienced that already in this building. We’ve had people turn up once and that’s it.)
Or several months, or even several years.
When that happens it’s sad, and it can be very difficult. As an elder it can be one of the more difficult things about the role. You invest time and effort into people. There’s a promising response. Then they walk away.
I suspect that’s not unique to eldership either. You might have experienced that too. A friend or family member or work colleague or neighbour with whom you’ve really invested yourself, they’ve shown all the signs of really getting it. Then thanks but no thanks.
Jesus, in his kindness, warns us that that’s what it’s like.
When that happens, it’s difficult, but it doesn’t mean we need to despair.
It doesn’t mean we’ve necessarily done anything wrong.
Now it might be that there are some things we can do differently or better, of course. It’s always good to ask those questions, always remembering that this is what Jesus said to expect.
When you forget that, the temptation will be to blame ourselves when we’re not to blame.
The temptation will be to be constantly changing things that shouldn’t be changed.
“Maybe we need to water down the message. Maybe we need to make things more palatable.”
We don’t need to do that or think that because Jesus said this is what it’s going to be like.
We just need to trust in the sovereign purposes of God. That even unbelief is not outside the plans and purposes of Jesus.
That’s Jesus’ point in that middle section. His disciples ask him (v10), “Why do you speak … in parables?”
He essentially says, “I speak in parables so you get it, but they don’t.”
V11, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
I’m in control of belief and I’m in control of unbelief.
#2. Have (big) realistic expectations
There is something that is just as real as the fact that in this life we will see people come and go.
That is at the end of the day there is going to be a massive, immeasurable crop.
Realistic expectations expect this and nothing less, because that’s what Jesus said would happen.
Is that what you’re always conscience of, praying for, expecting? That if you belong to Jesus, you’re on the winning side?
If not, you’re not being realistic.
That doesn’t mean Trinity Church Tamworth will continue to get bigger and bigger.
The promise here is not about individual churches, but the kingdom of Jesus as a whole.
At the end of the day there’s going to be a great crop – 30, 60, 100 fold!
It doesn’t mean that everybody who you might like to be in that crop will be there. Jesus wasn’t saying that and I’m not saying that.
Jesus is saying to his disciples, “Look guys, it’s going to get hard. It’s going to look like things are out of control and I’m going to be gone. It’s going to look like unbelief is winning. There are going to be doubts and fears and threats. Most of you are going to be killed because of this, but guess what? There’s going to be a magnificent crop – 30, 60, 100 fold!”
A multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation – that no one can count.
Not much is guaranteed in this world – except this. The kingdom of Jesus is unstoppable.
It may not pan out the way we think, or currently hope. There’ll be ups and downs along the way.
At the end of the day, we’ll look at each other and say, “What were we worried about? Why did we doubt? We did we spend our time and talents and treasures on these other things?”
Let’s keep our heads up, and let’s keep going.
The kingdom of Jesus won’t lose. Never.
No soil too rocky, no soil too thorny, no evil one too snatchy.
Not one sheep of the good shepherd will be lost.
#3. Use the right means
How do we keep going?
We all want the flourishing of v8, 23.
How does that happen?
Let me make the most obvious statement this century: crops don’t grow if seeds aren’t sown.
We need the Word to flourish.
It is by the sowing of the seed of the Word of God that the kingdom of heaven advances and nothing else, ultimately.
The high points in church history have always been when churches have got this right, always when they’ve got this right.
The low points are when they got this wrong.
The sad news is, it’s been removed from so many pulpits around the world now for so long. Little wonder there’s falling away and unfruitfulness.
Christopher Ash, Hearing the Spirit:
The church that holds tenaciously to the Bible will be the church set apart by the Father for the mission of Jesus. The church that sits light to the Bible, that thinks the Bible is just one of a number of parallel sources of revelation, will gradually but surely be absorbed into the surrounding culture.
This is what happens when the church begins to take the Bible for granted. They do not immediately switch from confident preaching of the Bible to the denial of the Bible. First they begin to “move on”, and to take the Bible for granted. “Of course we believe the Bible” we say. “It’s just that we find we need something more.”
When the Bible is taken for granted in one generation, a church will stop actually teaching and preaching the Bible, and so it will be sidelined in that generation and denied in the next.
The church’s message gradually blurs. The places where its message jars with the surrounding culture will be the places where the Bible is gradually ignored.
Even so, who’s in charge of marriage, who has the freedom to re-engineer marriage? No one does.
Who can re-engineer human sexuality, that is there as a gift of the Creator? No one can.
When the battle is lost there, then it will be lost here and here and here.
So that the terrible doctrine of judgment will be sidelined for e.g., and the wrath of God will be replaced by a therapeutic gospel, which is there simply to meet my needs and make me feel better. Before long, that church will cease to be set apart for the mission of Jesus and indistinguishable from the world around it.
What about Trinity Church in 2021? Committed again for another year to this [Bible], doing whatever we can, whatever it takes to sow the word of God?
I hope so, because we can’t lose.
Now is not the time to be wistfully thinking, “Remember those times when Christians were seen to be the good people in society, when we weren’t afraid of censorship, or being booed out of town. Those were the days. Oh, but today it’s so difficult, it’s so hard, it’s so… whatever.”
Let’s not ourselves fall prey to this pervasive victimhood mentality that we often speak against.
Let’s not fall to the temptation to say to ourselves, “We’ll be shuffling off this mortal coil, so shake the dust off my feet, have a good life.”
Instead we say, no, God, you stirred up pulpits before, you’ve revived your church in the midst of trials before, do it again, do it again.
If you’re wondering what you might pray in 2021, maybe it can be this…
Raise up young men and women who will sow the seed bravely, imaginatively, unequivocally. Give us Lord the sowers for our generation.
We pray first that all of us here, whether young or old, will be found, by your sovereign grace, to be among the good soil. Open our blind eyes to the wonder of Jesus and then open our lips that we might declare his praises. Help us to open our Bibles that we might be men and women of your Word and flourish accordingly to the glory of Jesus.
You seize the flower, it’s bloom is shed
And like a snowflake in the river
One moment here and then gone forever.”