St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 8 – July 14^th, 2002

18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. ²²The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. ²³But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

A couple of months ago, I decided I was going to try and cover the bare spots around our yard with grass seed. I went to the store and found the right grass seed. I followed the directions on the side of the bag, which included loosening up the soil a little bit to give the seed a better chance to take root. I then took the seed out of the bag with my hand and proceeded to throw the seed evenly and proportionately onto the bare spots I had prepared. I then worked it into the soil and covered it with stuff to help it germinate faster and stay moist. After a week or so the seed began to sprout up. I watered the seed and watched the seed to see how it was coming in. Much to my amazement ¾ of the seed took root, which means about ¼ didn’t take root. ¾ of the bare spots look great and ¼ doesn’t look great at all. Why would the same seed planted in the same area not all grow the same? Sounds like a logical question to me, but I’m just a foolish city boy who doesn’t really know that much about growing seed in the first place.

As we gather around God’s Word today we are going to be led by God’s Word to see how every single one of us is to be planing seed. We are to be sowers which means planters. We are to take the see of God’s saving message the gospel into the world and tell others about our Savior. This is the planting of the seed that Matthew is talking about. We all have the seed of God’s saving message and many times we share this message with others. The question that most people then ask is why don’t all people believe this message. This morning we will look at what it means to be planter of God’s saving grace and how people respond to the seed we plant. Our theme is based on this picture:

We will come to this answer as we look at this parable that Jesus spoke to his followers. Jesus was famous for these parables or stories he used to express the truths of His Word, and this parable about the seed and its varied results is another fine example. Jesus was surrounded by many of his followers and in our text he goes on to explain to them what happens when God's Word is preached. He uses the picture of a sower or someone who plants seed. Most of us being city people do not have a regular occurrence with this type of farming, but it is something we can relate to. For reasons we will never completely understand, God has told us that we are the only planters of the seed of God’s saving grace in the whole world. God has chosen us as his children to be the ones who preach and teach his Word to all people. We do this as we speak about Jesus and what he means to us to a friend. We do this as we live a godly life out of love for God, and our friends see the way we act and ask why we live this way. We spread the seed in many ways. That’s what it means when the sower throws out the seed into his field.

So we have planted the seed. We tossed it around the field, and now we are waiting for the seed to produce a crop. As we look at the seed we tossed out, we see that some of it did not fall onto the good soil. These other places are going to show us some of the different responses to God's Word. Maybe we even know of some people that have responded to the Word in these ways, or maybe we have responded in this way at times. But before we go into this, we need to remember that the Word of God does not work in us or any other person because we are better. God's Word works faith in our hearts because of the gift of the Holy Spirit working through his Word. It is a gift of God. By nature we are all bad soil. By nature we are bad hearers. We do not deserve anything that God has given to us. The work of salvation is all in God's hands. On the other hand if God's Word is rejected, it is entirely the will of man. A person who has rejected God's Word has declared that he doesn't care for God and his way of salvation. We cannot make excuses saying we have rejected because of or upbringing or where we lived or because of social problems. We all have to take responsibility for our own action including the rejection of God's Word.

The first seed we will talk about fell on the path, and the birds ate it up. This seed only rested on the ground. It did not penetrate the surface. The interesting thing about this parable is that Jesus gives us the explanation in the verses following. This first description is describing a person who hears the Word of God but does not understand it. This person may have had some contact with a church or God's Word for whatever reason. This person may have heard about the Savior from someone, but this person is indifferent to God's Word. This person does not understand what Jesus means for him. This person’s heart is closed to the wonderful blessings that come through God's Word. The Word has not yet entered into this person’s hearts. So what happens to them? Satan sees that they have heard about God, and he seeks to destroy this faith as quickly as possible. Satan finds that it is very easy to snatch these people away from God. They never had the Word in their hearts and thus they were robbed of their salvation. That is something for us to remember. We may have spoke God's Word to someone and that person never seemed to understand God's Word. Faith was not worked in that persons heart. We then write them off, but we need to remember that this person truly has been robbed of his salvation. This person will be spending eternity in hell. This person still needs to hear God's Word.

The next response is that of the seed that fell on rocky soil. This seed progressed one step farther than that on the path. The seed went into the ground. It did sprout roots, but the hot sun soon scorched it. These are what we call temporary Christians. They hear the word and receive it with great joy. The roots shoot our quickly, but not very deep Their faith may be genuine and sincere, but the problems is that their roots are not very firmly established. The roots in God's Word are few and very shallow. The problem occurs when their faith is tested. When persecution and trouble come because they follow Christ, they fall away. They want to wear the crown of Christ, but they do not want to take up the cross of Christ. They are superficial in their faith. This is a reminder to us that we need a regular diet of God's Word and his sacraments so that we are able to withstand with God's help the troubles that may come our way. We do not want to be swayed or scorched by every little test that comes our way.

The third response is that of the seed that fell among the thorns. These seeds went into the ground and sprouted up but never produced fruit. Picture a garden. We know that we have to keep any eye on the garden so that weeds and thorns do not overrun our plants. Weeds have this way of overrunning everything, if not taken care of. This is the same thing with the seed that fell among the weeds. These are immature Christians. They hold on to what God has told them, and they follow Christ. But they are often trying to serve two masters. They are like the rich young ruler who wanted his money and God and wasn't willing to demote money to the second position. These are the people who find that it is much more fun to do the things of the world than to serve God completely. These are the people who go to church, when they do not have something else to do. These people are not cleared of their lust for the things of this earth. The desire is still there to live in this world and enjoy the things of this world, but don't make me put God first. They try as best possible to retain worldly and spiritual things at the same time. They try to toe the line without giving in too much to God. In no way does this mean as we have said many times before that God doesn't want us to have wealth or to enjoy the things of this world. It all boils down to priorities. Satan can have a field day with those who have misplaced priorities. From an earthly standpoint it is much more fun to go to the beach than to go to God's house to hear his Word. From the world's standpoint it is much more exciting to enjoy life than to always be tied down to God's rules and laws. Satan then gets his foot in the door and that is all she wrote.

The fourth seed fell on the good soil. As we said before this pictures those people who have had faith worked in their hearts as the Holy Spirit worked in them through the hearing of God's Word. It has nothing to do with the person or his life or his actions. It was God's gift to them. Through faith they understand what is in God's Word and what it means for them as sinners. We realize through God's Law that we have sinned. We have learned we are not perfect in our love for God. We learned that our faith is weak at times, but we know that God has freed us from our sins. He has wiped our slate clean. The Law and the Gospel of God's Word worked in our hearts to bring salvation to us. God’s Law cleared the weeds and all the things of this world. Our hearts were open for the Gospel message and the love that God has promised to us. The seed not only produced roots but also sprouted up and produced fruit. Our text tell us that it produced 30, 60 and 100 fold. This is the fruit, which we as Christians do as live on this earth. These are the gifts which each of us have as the Holy Spirit works in us. As you can see not all of us have been blessed the same spiritually. To some of us we have been blessed greatly, and God expects us to use these blessings to out fullest potential. This does not mean that we are better than someone else with less gifts. It means God expects more from us. We have all received some gifts from God, and we are to use these gifts to better God's kingdom on this earth.

As we look at these words from this parable there are a number of key things for us to remember. First of all God expects all of us to sow the seed of God's Word. That is what we are here for. But God has also showed us in this parable that not all people will accept the word that we preach. Some of it will fall on bad soil and it will die. The seed of God's Word will never lose its power. It will always have the power to work faith in the hearts of people. We are not to become discouraged and give up just because some one has rejected it. It is a privilege that God has bestowed on us to go and share God's Word with people. He uses us to be his mouthpieces. What a wonderful blessing! Also we are to plant the only seed of God's Word. We are not to use tradition or man's reason. We are not to make up things that people want to hear. We are to use God's Word in its truth and purity. By nature we do not want to listen to God's Word, but he has worked faith in our hearts. Also as we look at this parable there are a number of warning sign that we can look at as we lead our lives on this earth. We can see some of the ways that Satan can and does work to tear down God's Word We can see how he tries to lead people away from God. We see how the world around us works against God's Word. We can see how it is difficult at times for us to remain strong in Gods Word with all the temptations around us. But we also see that through the Holy Spirit our faith is firmly rooted in God's Word and that we are daily strengthen by God's Word so that we can withstand the many things that come our way while on this earth, and produce fruits of faith to serve God's Kingdom on this earth. Amen