Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Holocaust theology wikipedia , lookup
God in Sikhism wikipedia , lookup
God in Christianity wikipedia , lookup
Christian deism wikipedia , lookup
Binitarianism wikipedia , lookup
Render unto Caesar wikipedia , lookup
God the Father in Western art wikipedia , lookup
God the Father wikipedia , lookup
Christian pacifism wikipedia , lookup
Religious images in Christian theology wikipedia , lookup
State (theology) wikipedia , lookup
Page |1 The Parable of the Sower – Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Over the next few weeks we are going to look at some of Jesus’ most famous parables. These are the parables that are recorded in more than one gospel. Later on in the year we are going to look at some of the parables recorded in only one gospel. These are important stories because these are the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps repeated in different locations on different occasions they became the core of what Jesus’ teaching ministry was about. We want to begin with one of the best known parables of all – the parable of the sower. Except – it is not about the sower, it is about the soil. A man was very busy. As usual he had overstretched himself and was running from one appointment to the next. He would dash home, wolf his food down and then dash out again. When he was home he was tense, his mind always racing to the next commitment or two and as a consequence irritable and snappy with his family. His young daughter came to him one day, something very exciting had happened at school but she knew her father did not have much time. “Dad, I want to tell you something but I will tell it to you really quickly!” It was in that moment he realised that he needed to slow down. He replied, “You don’t have to tell me quickly, you can tell me as slowly as you want!” His daughter replied, “Then, will you listen slowly?” perhaps we have lost the art of listening. Evenings of families telling one another stories, listening to the radio and your mind painting pictures as the story was told, has been supplanted by images on the TV screen that have already been imagined for us because we have become so busy we are too tired to imagine for ourselves. Jesus was talking about four kinds of listeners and the challenge is as relevant to us today as it was in Jesus’ time. Let’s look at the parable and ask ourselves what kind of listener are we? A hardened listener Page |2 The first type of listener is the hardened listener. Jesus likens this listener to a path. It is well trodden and has become compacted. The seed lands on it but it is easily snatched away. There is no time for it to become established and take root. A man loved his father and father-in-law. Both, tragically, contracted cancer at the same time and the specialist gave them little time to live. The man wanted to tell them both about the love of God. His father had never shown any interest in God. It was as if someone had run over his life with a pneumatic compactor. As the disease took hold he became harder, more bitter and less and less receptive to what his son said. His words fell on deaf ears. His father-in-law had gone to church as a boy. As his son-in-law began to talk about the love of God the seeds that had been sown all those years ago began to take hold. He became more and more receptive until, just before he died, he entrusted his life to Jesus as his Lord and saviour. Jesus warned, that our enemy the devil, prowls around waiting to snatch the good seed that is sown. There are many in our lives that we have sown good seed into and experienced the frustration of it bouncing on pneumatically compacted hearts. Nothing seems to take hold and whatever good that is done is soon snatched away. How we have longed for a pneumatic drill to break up the hardness so that there is greater receptivity. How we need to pray that the Holy Spirit would come along as a pneumatic drill to make hard hearts receptive. Yet there can be a hardness to our own listening. We carry offense in our hearts against someone. They have trespassed on our territory and though we have forgiven them we still feel the pain of what they did. When they stand up in church to read or pray or even preach, they may say something that is deeply anointed by God but we cannot receive it because we carry offence in our hearts. Or we could be a hindrance to people. We see someone crying in church and immediately we go over to comfort them. We feel this is the loving thing to do but we have failed to be Page |3 discerning. God is ministering to them and as we put our arm round them we interrupt what God is doing and snatch away the blessing God has for that person. How can we address the hardness in our heart? It is good to praise God, it is good to worship God, it is good to tell of his goodness and testify to his unfailing love. All these things can help break any hardness that has occurred during the week that has impacted our hearts so that when the Word is read and preached we are receptive and do not find the seed snatched away. When there is hardness in our hearts the power of worship can act like a pneumatic drill and make our hearts receptive. A shallow listener The second type of listener is the shallow listener. Jesus likens this listener to rocky ground. The seeds lands on it but it is short lived. The sermon is received with joy, it’s a good Word, but it is soon lost and forgotten. Procrastination MPEG Jesus warned, tribulation and persecution occurs, life gets tough, and the word dies. We can find programming on the BBC more hostile, comedians being savage with their humour and work colleagues being derisory about faith. That initial enthusiasm with which people came to faith can be discouragingly lost. Many who face persecution suggest that our greatest challenge in the West is our freedom. It is harder to make the right choices and the advances we should when there are so many options to entice our commitment away from God. There can be a shallowness to our listening. We are not prepared to make the effort to enable the Word to take root. With a little bit of discipline we could more effectively remember what we believe God has been teaching us. Or perhaps we are driven by experience rather than good theology. We have prayed for people to recover but they have not, perhaps they have even Page |4 died on us, so we are not receptive to teaching on healing. We cannot deny that God’s Word says, he heals all our diseases.” But to protect ourselves from further disappointment we are not going to pursue something with any great commitment. To justify our position we develop a theology of justify failure. We will not listen to what the Word or others have to say. How can we address the shallowness of our hearts? As God speaks to us it is good to write things down. We highlighted this when we used Habbakuk 2:1-2 as our verse for the year. If we wrote one thing down that God says to us during the service, then prayed for the rest of the week during our Quiet Time, then we would give God’s Word chance to take root in our lives. A distracted listener The third type of listener is the distracted listener. Jesus likens this listener to the person who receives the Word but it takes root amongst thorns. As it grows it gets choked. So often we cannot see what is happening. A man was out shopping one day for a new suit. He found a nice one hanging on a bargain rail. The label read, “SLIGHTLY SOILED -- GREATLY REDUCED IN PRICE.“ He felt the Holy Spirit nudge him, “That’s what happens when we get soiled by gazing at a vulgar picture or inappropriate film, reading a course book, or allowing ourselves a little indulgence in dishonest or lustful thoughts. When the time comes for our character to be appraised, we are greatly reduced in value. Our purity, our strength is gone. We are just part and parcel of the general, shopworn stock of the world." Jesus warned that the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches can distract us and choke God’s word in us. The world we live in is full of many good things that God has granted our enjoyment of. Yet it is easy for them to take on a disproportionate place in our lives. We listen to the voices that they speak with rather than being determined to hear what God has to say. Page |5 We can become distracted listeners. The thing Jesus highlights is the pressure of a comfortable life. God wants to bless us with success, it does him no glory if we are pitiful and poor, yet success can be so hard to handle. It can lead to a greater sense of comfort and complacency in our lives that we fail to push on with God. We become content with what we have and preserving things as they are rather than taking risks because God might have more in store for us than we could imagine. We become lethargic and morose in our Christian life rather than the finely trained athlete Paul spoke of. Perhaps we entertain some sin and before we know it we cannot believe where we are. We know Christians should not be unequally yoked, but we think there is no harm in a non-Christian girlfriend. Then we end up engaged, married and soon the fire we once felt for God is barely glowing. How can we address the distracted listener in all of us? It is important that we talk through what God is saying to us. How many of us have felt that they are just too tired to make Small Group? Yet when they have gone they have experienced what a blessing it is. Yet the next week they give in to the feeling of tired and that Word for that week gets choked. Even if it is not to bless us we can bless others through going. It is easy to get distracted. A receptive listener The fourth type of listener is the receptive listener. Jesus likens this soil to fertile ground. As it grows it produces an abundant harvest. I love what BMS are doing in some of the poorest communities around the world. Recognising that they need better nutrition but have not got farmlands to grow produce they are introducing innovative ways of growing things. They grow crops up the sides of buildings. The house may have a square foot of ground but produces a rich harvest for the household. Jesus says he expects fruitfulness. I want you to pay particular attention to the order Jesus gives. In Mark’s gospel it is 30, 60 and 100 which I think is the way most people think. Here in Matthew’s Page |6 gospel it is 100, 60, 30, our expectation is first drawn to 100 fold. In Luke’s gospel he gets rid of the 30 and 60 and just has the 100 fold. Matthew and Luke have carefully retold the story in a way that encourages their readers to think of maximum fruitfulness. Don’t expect or aim for 30 fold, expect greater things of God because the seed is good and God is gracious. I was hoping that as we passed the toilet round last week we might get thirty pounds to encourage the young people so they could twin each toilet downstairs. Actually, you were so generous that we got £140 so we can twin every cubicle. Expect fruitfulness. I love praying for people as they go to work. A number of you email me to tell me what has happened as a result of praying. People pray, others receive that prayer in faith, and God brings great fruitfulness. God loves to surprise his people with good things. How can we be fruitful people? Begin by being ambitious – our life will produce a hundred-fold harvest. Be ambitious – that we will be found faithful so we can host more of the presence of God. Be prepared to be ambitious encourage one another to be adventurous in of our faith.