The Applied Word of God - Part 28

Matthew 13. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
The farmer is Jesus Himself and in this verse He sets out to sow the seed which is the Word of God. Jesus is also the Word of God. He sowed Himself when He taught the Word to various people in big and small gatherings. He took a break of thirty three and a half years from Heaven to come to earth and especially in His last three and a half years, He sowed the seed of the Word into many hearts. 

4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
A farmer is normally very careful to scatter seeds on a well prepared ground, but here Jesus talks about different kinds of ground/ hearts and their receptivity. 

5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Jesus later explains the meaning of this parable to His disciples in verses 18-23 of the same chapter.
The Kingdom of God functions based on certain principles, one of which is the one seen here which is the agricultural principle: the principle of sowing and reaping, a time for sowing and harvest, fruitfulness of gospel etc.

God is a farmer. The soils represent the condition of various hearts. The seed contains great potential, promises of God, future generations, growth etc. How is the seed sown? Jesus sowed through preaching and teaching. The seeds are also sown in our hearts when we hear, read, study, meditate the Word ourselves. 
The lesson we learn from this parable is, “Fruitfulness of the seed (Word) depends on the goodness of the soil (heart)”. 

The seed and the sower is perfect but the problem is the human heart. When the Word is preached in a meeting, it is scattered on four different kinds of heart: wayside, rocky, thorny, good. 

What kind of heart do we have? 
1.Wayside soil: they are hard packed soil where people normally walk. It is not ploughed and prepared to receive the seed. The seed sown is not cared for and there is no watering. Such seed is exposed and uncovered. The seed was not buried. The seed does not die as it must, to produce life (John 12.24). The birds ate it as it was exposed. The birds indicate satan and all kinds of demonic spirits. Satan’s goal is to steal the Word or to twist the Word in a way that it will not produce fruit.  

19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.        
Although the Word fell on their hearts, there is no water or opportunity for it to grow. It was immediately eaten up. There was no response from the hearer of the Word. They did not understand it at all. Unless a person understands the Word he hears, it is of no use. Only hearing the Word will not produce fruit. The word has no effect on people who have wayside soil (hard heart). It will not transform or change the hearts of people. 
We need to check the kind of soil/ heart we have. How does the Word impact our lives?

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