SPEAKER_01: Let me add my welcome to Ben's.
SPEAKER_01: You're very welcome.
SPEAKER_01: I am uh Peter, and uh it's my privilege to um preach this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm so uh so glad to be able to open up this passage with you.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if um you've see if you noticed in the passage uh there it's the crowds um who hear the parallel, but it's only the disciples who come and ask Jesus to help them understand.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're gonna jump into that uh in a bit, but uh we're gonna do the same.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna ask uh God to help us understand now.
SPEAKER_01: So uh let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you've opened our eyes to it.
SPEAKER_01: Um you've caused us to hear and believe.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you'd help us uh to understand what Jesus is saying in uh this parable and in his explanation uh of parables to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that uh your word would sink deep into us and that it would affect our lives in uh in that we live lives of worship.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we live lives where we proclaim the truth of your word.
SPEAKER_01: Um would you shape and fashion us now?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Um any farmers here?
SPEAKER_01: Where's Jenny?
SPEAKER_01: There we go, there's Andrew.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've no sheep, no sheep in the passage this morning.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jenny's into.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Andrew, what are you into?
SPEAKER_01: What are you into?
SPEAKER_01: You into tillage?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so no tillage is where we're at today.
SPEAKER_01: Um I know there's loads of keen gardeners though, and there's lots of uh there's lots of um helpful, helpful imagery here today.
SPEAKER_01: Um I love gardening, um, lots of people know that.
SPEAKER_01: And um so I'm delighted to be looking at a plant-themed parable as we kick off this series uh on parables from now until the start of July, actually.
SPEAKER_01: So this is our first parable, and it's important that it's our first parable.
SPEAKER_01: Um and we'll we'll look at that in a bit.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I've been I got to spend some time preparing this passage this week and also in my garden.
SPEAKER_01: And one big reason I've had to do this and that I haven't just been out like once a week is because of aphids.
SPEAKER_01: And I know I've talked to people about aphids as well, uh, greenfly and other aphids, and there's so many.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, like have you like have you ever tried a lot of you probably have tried to keep plants and uh you've probably tried to grow things, and especially when it comes to um I remember last year, like tomatoes were just a disaster because of the green fly, and my roses just struggling so much because of uh the greenfly.
SPEAKER_01: So I do go and spray them, and I know like I don't want to spray them too much because then everything dies off and the spiders that eat the green fly, and it's just a hole, it's a disaster.
SPEAKER_01: Um so what I've found to be um, I don't know if it's effective.
SPEAKER_01: I it is effective, is I've actually uh literally got green fingers this week because I've gone around inspecting uh like the buds on the roses and I've gone and squished the greenfly.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty disgusting.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's it's guaranteed to work.
SPEAKER_01: Um and as I was thinking about this parable, I was like, Jesus, why didn't you include green fly in this parable?
SPEAKER_01: Um and maybe, maybe there were, maybe there weren't greenfly.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there aren't greenflies in Israel, and aren't they so lucky?
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I guess you could probably, you could probably, I guess the I don't know, like I hope people have have seen what greenflies do to plants and like the leaves they just they just curl up and they're good for nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And the the it they suck the life out of the plant.
SPEAKER_01: Um I was also repotting a couple of plants this week.
SPEAKER_01: One in particular stood out as a learning moment for me as a gardener, but also in relation to this uh parable.
SPEAKER_01: So I had repotted this one plant, it had nice long leaves, it's kind of a palmy kind of plant, I don't know exactly what it was called.
SPEAKER_01: Um my brother gave it to me.
SPEAKER_01: I repotted about three years ago, and then in the new pot it doubled in size.
SPEAKER_01: And so then the next year I repotted it again.
SPEAKER_01: So about two years ago, I had repotted it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the last time I repotted it.
SPEAKER_01: But it hadn't been uh for the last two years, it hasn't been doing so well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh these really nice long leaves, they it's not just like the small tip at the end of been going brown, but the like half the leaf or more had been going brown and parts of the plant had been dying away.
SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't sure.
SPEAKER_01: And we had just moved, so I thought, oh, maybe it's the new house, um, and it was doing really well in our old apartment, it's not doing well now.
SPEAKER_01: I moved it from here to there to everywhere around the whole house.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Nicole gets like I had it in Nicole's office, like basically on her desk for a while, um, which was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01: And it didn't work, it didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so as I was repotting some plants this week, I decided to have a look at this one again.
SPEAKER_01: So I took it out, and what I had done was I'd put clay, I think I was probably being cheap.
SPEAKER_01: I'd gotten clay from my parents' garden, they lived down the country, I'd gotten clay from their garden, I'd filled that bottom half of the pot up with clay, and I put the put the plant in, and I I filled the top then with compost.
SPEAKER_01: And the plant, I noticed none of the roots went down into the clay.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was bad quality clay.
SPEAKER_01: It was grey, it had no nutrients, and it didn't drain.
SPEAKER_01: It was really poor draining soil.
SPEAKER_01: So I really hope uh that this week, uh sorry, that this week the the repotting that I did, I gave it good soil.
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's like special stuff you can get for along to go along with compost that I really hope this plant uh will thrive now.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it won't, maybe it's gone too far and it won't come back.
SPEAKER_01: But the condition of the soil is of utmost importance.
SPEAKER_01: That's a very important gardening lesson for me, maybe for you as well, maybe you knew that already.
SPEAKER_01: And as we think about this parable.
SPEAKER_01: I imagine a lot of you have heard this parable before, and I I really don't know when I heard it first.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe when I was definitely I heard it in in primary school.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm very glad I got to study it this week in preparation for today, because I've learned a lot about not only it, but but why Jesus uses parables, why he taught him parables.
SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of when you think about it, it's it makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: We love stories, whether it's a fairy tale or a fable or a film, they grab our attention, and oftentimes we learn something from them, whether it's something moral or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But parables are a bit different uh to these, and they certainly do grab our attention, and there's much to be gleaned, pun intended, from them.
SPEAKER_01: But if we're going to do that, we need to learn why Jesus used them.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Jesus actually begins his teaching in parables.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a good few parables you can glance down and see.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a parable of the weeds, the parable of the mustard seed and leaven, um the hidden treasure, great uh the pearl of great value, and so on.
SPEAKER_01: There's loads there, and he comes back to them again later in Matthew as well.
SPEAKER_01: But he starts with the parable of the sower to tell us why he uses parables.
SPEAKER_01: So this parable itself is about parables and why um why Jesus used uses them.
SPEAKER_01: He uses it to tell his disciples about the different responses to his word and ministry so far.
SPEAKER_01: That's in Matthew 1 to 12.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to be, I'll be referencing um earlier chapters in Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Um and there were so many different uh responses, and Jesus is telling his uh disciples that's to be expected, and then that those varying responses that have been in earlier in the book of Matthew, that they hold true for the rest of the book, and even for us as disciples today, they hold true for us today.
SPEAKER_01: So it's really important um that we know the context in which Jesus tells this parable, why Matthew includes it here.
SPEAKER_01: So, Matthew, um, if you've read it before, you might have noticed, um, but that's okay if you haven't, that that um he's told us that Jesus is the true Messiah promised of old of from of old, that he's declaring the arrival of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He does this through his words, he literally says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: He says, The kingdom is here, the kingdom is coming, I'm bringing in the kingdom, and he calls people to repentance over and over through the first 12 chapters in Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: And he also does it through his actions, through healing, through casting out demons, through giving life.
SPEAKER_01: And so the events of his life, things he says and does, point clearly to the fact that Jesus is this promised Messiah, and Matthew is at pains to make sure we, the readers, know that.
SPEAKER_01: And now in this parable, Jesus tells us that that seed is that word of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So he's been he's been saying, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: In this parable, he tells us that's the seed.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus has been sowing the seed from the moment he began his ministry up to this point.
SPEAKER_01: He's been proclaiming the good news of uh the kingdom, that the kingdom is here, the kingdom of heaven is here, and that people need to turn from their sin and they need to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: And all that that means, I mean, we looked last week at the resurrection, and uh on Good Friday we met and remembered his death.
SPEAKER_01: And all that that means in terms of us having life, that's what Jesus is uh ushering in.
SPEAKER_01: But not everyone, as I'm sure you're well aware, not everyone has responded well to what Jesus has said.
SPEAKER_01: They've seen and heard what he said and what he's done, but they've not truly seen.
SPEAKER_01: They've seen without truly seeing, they've heard without truly hearing.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Jesus says in verse 13 that they've um, and and that's why he uses parables, because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear.
SPEAKER_01: They've heard, they've seen Jesus, and they've seen the Messiah, yet they haven't seen him.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, lots of people have been healed and seen many signs, but their shallow understanding of who Jesus is becomes obvious when they fail to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: Earlier in Matthew, people talk about needing to get their lives in order, sorting out business and dealing with family issues before following him.
SPEAKER_01: They don't truly understand that Jesus is the Messiah, and they certainly don't understand what it means for them.
SPEAKER_01: The scribes and the Pharisees, um, in John's Gospel sometimes they're not so bad.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew's gospel, they're nearly always the pantomime villain.
SPEAKER_01: They're they're just always trying to catch Jesus out.
SPEAKER_01: They've been following Jesus since early in his ministry, they've they're keeping a close eye on him, but they ref it's so ironic.
SPEAKER_01: They they they're the ones who probably keep the closest eye on him, yet they don't see.
SPEAKER_01: They refuse to see who he truly is.
SPEAKER_01: They don't repent because they don't think they need to.
SPEAKER_01: They think their knowledge, their works, even their ethnicity, they think that's what saves them.
SPEAKER_01: They fail to see Jesus properly, and some of them even they go as far as saying that his miracles and the things he's doing, casting out demons, that he does that by the power of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Um and they certainly uh don't respond to the properly to the kingdom of to the word of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Even John the Baptist in chapter 11, he wasn't sure if Jesus was truly the Messiah, uh, but John's different.
SPEAKER_01: He inquired of Jesus and got the response he needed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told him that his entire ministry, which is what um what Matthew has been trying to point out, that his words and his actions point to the fact that he was the fulfillment of everything in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: All those things that pointed to the Messiah from the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
SPEAKER_01: All these things pointed to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, some people then did repent, they did believe, and they did follow him, like the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: So it's in the context of those varying responses to his proclamation of the kingdom that Jesus speaks uh this parable that Jesus teaches uh using parables.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when we're looking at this passage, it's really important that we consider uh the two different audiences.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, there's the crowds in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: So crowds had come to hear him, crowds that would have included all those different kinds of people, the disciples whom he had chosen and called to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: It would have included people who thought he was just a prophet or just a good teacher.
SPEAKER_01: Uh would have included people who wanted to see more miraculous signs.
SPEAKER_01: They just wanted the signs, and we saw that in John uh a lot that people were just coming to see Jesus, the sign, uh, do miraculous things.
SPEAKER_01: And then even some Pharisees and scribes.
SPEAKER_01: And not only, like I mentioned, were the Pharisees and scribes saying that Jesus was uh of the things he did were of the devil, um, which Jesus points out to them how ridiculous that is.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you want to go look that up uh in chapter 12, I think 11.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but there's a lot of um but but even in in in verse 14 of the previous chapter, you might even be able to uh flick there.
SPEAKER_01: So in in verse 14 of chapter 12, you see, but the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: So these these people who want to destroy Jesus are trying to pick a way out, figure out a way to destroy him, and we know uh that's what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Uh come Good Friday, come um his betrayal on Easter week.
SPEAKER_01: But at this point um there's there's all these different kinds of people in the crowd, Jesus has them there, and they all think many different things about him, and importantly, they think uh different things about what the Messiah should be like.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's to this crowd uh that Jesus um that Jesus tells this parable, this crowd with many different thoughts, preconceptions, and hard attitudes that he tells uh the parables to.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the first uh the first audience there in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: It's the crowds, the great crowds.
SPEAKER_01: But then in verse 10, we see a change in audience.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at verse 10, who's there?
SPEAKER_01: Then the disciples came and said to him, and we'll move on with that in a while.
SPEAKER_01: So it's just the disciples in Jesus now.
SPEAKER_01: So he's told the parable to the the crowds.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's just the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They came to Jesus questioning why he was using parables.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the first uh proper um well-developed parable.
SPEAKER_01: There are a couple of others uh earlier on in Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus had been teaching him parables, but he's he's uh this is the first well-developed one.
SPEAKER_01: There's the building your house on the rock in chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but but this is the first well-developed one, and it's at the start of a string of parables.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's um, yeah, Matthew definitely wants us to, he he has this one there uh for a purpose, and Jesus uses this here um for a particular purpose.
SPEAKER_01: So they came to Jesus and they asked, Why do you speak to the crowds in parables?
SPEAKER_01: This parable is also recorded in Mark and Luke, and it's clear in it's it's much clearer in those um in those Gospels that the disciples didn't know what was what the parable was all about.
SPEAKER_01: Uh here they only ask, Why do you use parables?
SPEAKER_01: And um that's what Matthew focuses on.
SPEAKER_01: So they certainly don't understand what's going on, and Jesus does give them the explanation um of what the parable means, but Matthew wants us to focus in on their question why do you speak to them in parables?
SPEAKER_01: So maybe, maybe they're seeing the big crowds and they're like, Jesus, why would you why would you use a parable?
SPEAKER_01: You've got these big, you've got these large crowds.
SPEAKER_01: If you confuse them, they're just they're gonna walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Now's your chance to build on these numbers, we're going really well.
SPEAKER_01: But he uses parables.
SPEAKER_01: And why does he use parables?
SPEAKER_01: And and this is why this question is really important, because Jesus, all the way through from verse 11 through to the end, he answers that question.
SPEAKER_01: I only noticed that this week.
SPEAKER_01: Um, often when I look, I I don't know uh about you, but often when I look at um passages like this, you'll see, okay, there's the parable of the sower, and that the titles are really helpful sometimes, but if we're not very careful, if we're not careful, they can be unhelpful.
SPEAKER_01: So we have the parable of the sower, then we have the purpose of parables, then we have the parable of the sower explained.
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's not this passage is not the parable in the first section, then some random, slightly related uh thing, and then an explanation of the parable.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, it's like with these two audiences, it's in two parts.
SPEAKER_01: So it's distinguished by our two audiences.
SPEAKER_01: So we have that first bit with the parable, and then the rest of it, which in my Bible, the titles are The Purpose of Parables and the Parable of the Sower explained.
SPEAKER_01: That's one long, it is long enough, um, explanation by Jesus of why that of an answer to that question.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you speak to them in parables?
SPEAKER_01: That might all seem a bit unnecessary, but the point is this Jesus uses the parable of the sower itself to explain why he teaches in parables.
SPEAKER_01: So if you look here, it it looks like Jesus only explains to them the purpose of parables from verse uh 11 through to 17.
SPEAKER_01: But he's still answering that question.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you speak to them in parables?
SPEAKER_01: By explaining the parables.
SPEAKER_01: So he's using this parable to explain why he uses parables.
SPEAKER_01: Hope that's clear.
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't I just say that at the start?
SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's really good that Matthew includes this parable here.
SPEAKER_01: It's good that we look at it first in our series on parables, so that we can learn why Jesus used parables.
SPEAKER_01: I hope uh you're convinced that in looking at this parable, we do need to uh we need to do need to look at the context of uh what what has gone on in chapters 1 to 12 of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: And it's also important to note that we're at the start of this string of parables, and we're going to be uh looking at the parables for the next 10 or 11 weeks.
SPEAKER_01: So, why does Jesus teach using these stories that people struggle to find the meaning of and are left confused?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's look again at the context.
SPEAKER_01: Context is so key here.
SPEAKER_01: The context of Matthew chapters 1 to 12.
SPEAKER_01: Remember those religious leaders, they'd been following Jesus, listening to what he had been saying and watching what he had done, what he'd been doing, and they were becoming increasingly hostile towards him.
SPEAKER_01: They saw him heal on the Sabbath, and they said it was unlawful and conspired to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: And we've seen that in uh John's Gospel too.
SPEAKER_01: They saw him cast out demons, and they said he could only do that if he was of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus says things in parable so that closed-minded people, like the Pharisees, like the scribes, won't really understand what he's saying because they have their minds made up.
SPEAKER_01: And they're trying to pick out things so that they could try and kill him sooner than was planned.
SPEAKER_01: As we've been looking through John, it's been clear uh John John uses the language of his hour had not yet come, and that's kind of the same as what Matthew is doing here.
SPEAKER_01: He just doesn't lay it out, uh he just doesn't use the same language as John does.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus perfectly orchestrates the timings and events of his life.
SPEAKER_01: Earlier on in his ministry, he says to some of the people that he's healed that they shouldn't say anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same idea.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is he's sort of controlling how much he stokes the fire of the Pharisees' hatred towards him.
SPEAKER_01: And once uh sorry, and one way he does this is by speaking to the crowds in parables.
SPEAKER_01: We know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: We know what happened uh as we remember the last week, especially last Friday.
SPEAKER_01: You might think uh that this is unfair though, especially on people who aren't the hypocritical Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: But looking at the context again, we see that time and again from the beginning of his ministry, Jesus has been calling people to turn back to God, to turn away from their sin and to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: He's done that, like I said, through his words and his actions.
SPEAKER_01: They've seen him give life, they've seen him heal.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like they haven't heard they haven't seen the truth clearly already.
SPEAKER_01: They've seen many, many things point to him being the true Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Many of them have heard without truly hearing, and they've seen without truly seeing.
SPEAKER_01: They've seen the miracles, but they don't see that it's that it means Jesus is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They've heard his authoritative teaching, but they fail to truly hear and believe him.
SPEAKER_01: Even if they might recognize that Jesus could be the Messiah, they have false ideas of what the Messiah should be and what the Messiah should do.
SPEAKER_01: Think the Messiah will come with military might and restore the nation of Israel to its former glory, kicking out the Romans.
SPEAKER_01: They don't see that Jesus has come to save them from their sin.
SPEAKER_01: That more than just being physically healed, as they've seen time and again, Jesus has come to heal their hearts and to give them life, life eternal.
SPEAKER_01: And these people, the ones we've seen from the beginning of Matthew's gospel, are who Jesus is talking about in this parable here, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01: The four different soils describe the condition of the hearts of those who've been hearing the word of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: There are those who don't understand.
SPEAKER_01: They've heard Jesus calling them to turn from their sin and they don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout the ministry of Jesus so far, there have been many of these, and it's it's not that they struggle to understand cognitively or that they don't understand his words.
SPEAKER_01: These people have rejected Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They've put earplugs in and they just stop up their ears and they close their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: They close their eyes to the truth, and the devil snatches that seed away.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's those who who seem to understand and they enthusiastically follow them, but they'll show that they never truly believed.
SPEAKER_01: That their understanding was shallow, only surface level.
SPEAKER_01: Has anyone ever seen, have you seen plants like this?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen uh too much in Ireland uh where the soil underneath is shallow and the roots can't go down far enough.
SPEAKER_01: It does happen uh in Ireland, the land of rain.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the sun stays out for a while in the summer and the rain stays away.
SPEAKER_01: And if it happens long enough, um I know I've noticed in some places, maybe on a lawn, where you've got this stretch of brown uh grass across the lawn.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's there's there's probably a pipe that's underneath there.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a pipe put down um maybe years ago, maybe decades ago, and it could just be 15 or 20 centimetres below, and so you've only got this shallow bit of soil, and so in the in the middle of the summer, if it hasn't rained for a while, the depth of soil there is isn't it's not deep enough, and the roots can't go deep enough down, and so the grass turns from green to yellow to brown, and it dies, it's scorched by the sun because it has shallow roots.
SPEAKER_01: That's how it is for some people.
SPEAKER_01: When seasons of difficulty come when they encounter tribulation and persecution, as Jesus explains, on account of the word they don't endure.
SPEAKER_01: So we've had those people who have the seeds snatched away because they've closed their eyes, they've stopped up their ears, and there's people who have those shallow roots, and when anything difficult comes on account of the word, they're scorched by the sun.
SPEAKER_01: We've also seen in Matthew's gospel up to this point in chapters 1 to 12, that there's also been those who sprout up, they call Jesus teacher, they call him Lord, but their hearts are set on other things.
SPEAKER_01: People literally come up and say, like in in chapter 8, they literally come up and they say, Teacher, they say, Lord, I want to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Well, what's getting in the way?
SPEAKER_01: Sort of thing.
SPEAKER_01: You can go back and look at that in chapter 8, and then forward in chapter 19 as well.
SPEAKER_01: The things that get in the way of people they have other priorities like their comfort, their security, and even their families, they prior they prioritize these things above following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They let those things get in the way of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can read about some of those things in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Then in chapter 19, later on, there's a rich man who's very famous for coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus tells him to don't let your wealth get in the way of following me.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes away sad.
SPEAKER_01: There's many, many people who've been choked by these things, and there's many people who are being choked by these those things, even to this day.
SPEAKER_01: Again, looking at plants, when you think of weeds growing up and choking other plants, I I certainly first jump to thinking of briars or brambles or thornbushes or whatever you call them.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've seen that, you know how devastating and even fatal it can be for that other plant.
SPEAKER_01: They they grow up so quickly, but the brambles, the briars, they don't have much strength in themselves.
SPEAKER_01: So they latch onto these the branches, the leaves, uh, the trunk of this other plant, and they weigh it down.
SPEAKER_01: They block the light from getting to the leaves.
SPEAKER_01: And underground, they take all the water from the other plant.
SPEAKER_01: And that plant will never, ever.
SPEAKER_01: It won't be able to produce fruit, even if it survives.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, for the one who hears the word of the kingdom, they get it.
SPEAKER_01: They know what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_01: But they're more concerned for their comfort, their status, how much money they have, what people think of them, their career, or the image they put out there, they're gonna be choked.
SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna bear fruit, they're gonna be like those plants.
SPEAKER_01: Rubber certainly hits the road here for many of us for a couple of reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, I was thinking about this, thinking about myself, how easily the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.
SPEAKER_01: But I wonder, have you seen this in others around you as well?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe friends or family or those that you've known or maybe that you know now in church, who go after these vain things that promise so much but deliver so little.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but they choke the word and it proves unfruitful.
SPEAKER_01: Even now, I urge you to, for those you're thinking of, to pray for them and pray that God would have mercy on them.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, there's that good soil, the one who hears and understands, whose heart is ready to receive the word, where it grows to maturity and it produces fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And for these people, there's much to learn from what Jesus teaches through parables because those people have ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: They listen to what Jesus says, they believe it, and they put it into practice.
SPEAKER_01: They turn away from their sin, they repent and they follow Him.
SPEAKER_01: Those who have ears to hear are like the disciples coming to Jesus, asking him to help them understand.
SPEAKER_01: And those people whom God has caused to understand the mysteries or the secrets of the kingdom will gain more understanding, like through the parables.
SPEAKER_01: They've understood and believed what Jesus says about the kingdom, what he says about himself, unlike those others who've rejected Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So those who have understood and believed what Jesus says, they've grown more and more in their faith.
SPEAKER_01: Those others have rejected Jesus, being scorched by the sun, or being choked by the cares of the world, or they've they've had their they've had the seed snatched away.
SPEAKER_01: They'll have nothing in the end.
SPEAKER_01: That's the thing about these things, again, that people go after money, relationship, status, they go after them with all their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: They lead to an empty end.
SPEAKER_01: But for the Christian, for those who believe, there is an abundance both now and into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to us to the disciples who have heard, who have seen, who've believed, whose hearts are the good soil, he says that they are blessed because they truly they've truly seen and they've truly heard.
SPEAKER_01: They've heard the proclamation of the kingdom of God and they've seen Jesus ushering it in.
SPEAKER_01: And what about us?
SPEAKER_01: We're even more blessed than the disciples here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to them, even before the cross, even before uh the resurrection, that they're blessed because of what they've seen and what they've heard.
SPEAKER_01: But we're blessed beyond measure to have this book, to have the gospels of what we're reading now.
SPEAKER_01: And that within it, we not only see what Jesus has done, him ushering in the kingdom, like we've like we've looked at, um showing that he's the Messiah, but we have, like we celebrated last week, we have and we see his substitutionary death for us and his victorious resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: These are things that faithful people throughout the Old Testament longed to see and hear.
SPEAKER_01: They knew that God's promised Messiah was to come, they knew that God would rescue his people, they knew God would save them, and that they they would have loved to have seen it.
SPEAKER_01: They longed to see it, is what Jesus said here.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the wonderful gospel was revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: How precious and wonderful this book is.
SPEAKER_01: I've been challenged, and I hope you're challenged to see it for what it is and to treasure it.
SPEAKER_01: Um what should those who've responded in res in repentance and faith to the word of the kingdom, to the gospel, what should they do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, fruit should be produced.
SPEAKER_01: And especially in this case, what's that fruit?
SPEAKER_01: It's that grain, it's that seed.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to be proclaiming the word of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to be proclaiming the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And this leads us on to another uh important part of the context of Matthew's gospel, in that Jesus has already, he already sent the disciples out, actually, um, in the last chapter.
SPEAKER_01: He pro he sent them out and he said, proclaim that the kingdom of God is hand.
SPEAKER_01: And they had watched Jesus do this, they'd watch him um proclaim the kingdom himself, and of course, they responded to it in faith, and he had invited them to do the same.
SPEAKER_01: But in seeing him do it, he they had seen him, they'd seen people reject the word.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus is telling them in this parable that that's to be expected.
SPEAKER_01: What's what they've seen in in Jesus in in people responding to the word and rejecting the word is what they should expect as they proclaim the news of the kingdom, as they proclaim the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not so it's not dependent on us.
SPEAKER_01: From this parable, we see it's dependent, the response is dependent on the heart and the heart condition of the people themselves.
SPEAKER_01: It's not up to us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not how well or cleverly the disciples or we communicate it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, it's really important that we do clearly proclaim the gospel and that we do actually do it, but how others respond is not up to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray that God would prepare the hearts of those around us who don't know Him to hear the Word, to truly understand it, and to produce a yield of a hundredfold or sixty or thirty.
SPEAKER_01: And we faithfully proclaim the word.
SPEAKER_01: We tell them the good news of the gospel, the good news that Jesus, Son of God, came to die in our place for our sin, to take the punishment for our sin, that he was raised to life, showing that he had beaten death, showing that he was victorious.
SPEAKER_01: So where does this land for us?
SPEAKER_01: Well, certainly it leads us to gratitude and worship.
SPEAKER_01: God has been so gracious to cause us to come to faith, to produce that good soil in us, to produce that faith in us.
SPEAKER_01: It's only by grace that the condition of my heart is like the good soil, and I praise him for that.
SPEAKER_01: We should also be we should be thankful uh for the perspective we have and being able to look back at the cross in the word that he's given us the word and we can look back at the cross and the resurrection and look forward to his return.
SPEAKER_01: We should hold this book in the highest regard and we should treat it accordingly.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps practically this week, uh in holding this in high regard and treating it accordingly, perhaps um you might read some of or all of Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I've been referring to it loads, and uh the parables that that that Jesus um that we're gonna look at over the next few weeks, it's gonna be really good to have looked at Matthew uh chapters 1 to 12.
SPEAKER_01: So that might be something you can do this week.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, we need to proclaim the word, not fearing the response of others.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus commands his disciples to spread the word of the kingdom as he has done.
SPEAKER_01: And as we do that, we rest that the salvation of others is not up to us.
SPEAKER_01: It's the work that God does in their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that he does it in his timing too.
SPEAKER_01: So we faithfully, even for years and years, no matter what the response, we faithfully point people to Jesus and proclaim the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater thing.
SPEAKER_00: If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, please visit our website found in the link below.