I love it when I lead an inductive Bible study and I ask a fairly open question and people come out with answers that are far better than what I was hoping for – they’ve seen things clearer than I did in my preparation. It’s really exciting. God is speaking to me there and then.
We were having our induction workshop for the new apprentices earlier this month, having a session on The Priority of Preaching and particularly looking together at Matthew 13:1-23. As you might have picked up if you follow this blog closely I’ve been a big fan of that passage for several months and preached it or used it in various ways on several occasions. This time it was group Bible study. We looked at the sower, and the seed, and why not everyone receives the seed well, and what the effect the seed has when it does go in. Then we got to this question:
So what does this all tell us about how the kingdom is going to be established? What is vital in mission? What is necessary for true growth and fruit?
I’m expecting to hear – preaching the Word. And we got that answer – mission and gospel ministry must involve actually sowing the Word of God – but there were two other answers that were given first that I’d not thought of but are absolutely brilliant:
- Jesus. Brilliant answer! The group had seen that it’s the parable of THE SOWER (v18). It’s all about Him. If he doesn’t turn up there’s no sowing, no life, nothing. The Son needs to come from heaven to earth and die for us and be united to us and be our life. If there’s no Jesus we might as well all go home and give up. Our salvation is Jesus. This was a wonderful reminder to me of what/who is absolutely everything. When I say ‘the Word does the work’ I’ve got to be careful that I know and those I’m talking to know that it’s the Word of Christ. The Word is all about him; the Word leads us beyond itself to life in him; he is the one who does the work, through his Word.
- The Spirit. Brilliant again! The group had got the point that the hinge of the passage – verses 10-16 – is all about revelation. Some people have their eyes and ears opened, some don’t. To some the secrets of the kingdom are given, but some are hardened in their hardness. The natural man cannot receive these things, only the one who by sovereign grace is made a new man. The hearts of rock needs to be reborn as good soil. I was reminded of the Spurgeon quote:
We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.” (quoted in Stott, I Believe in Preaching, 335)
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The Sower (Jesus) does begin the mission of spreading his word about his new kingdom. The crowds hear this word and begin to spread it, but opposition (“birds,” like Satan’s brood of “vipers”) and persecution and thorns (the desire for wealth and status) silence the word and it does not bear fruit (more seeds/words). Only true disciples are good soil that (through the Spirit) receives the word and bears the fruit of spreading the word, thus producing more seeds/words, some thirty times as much, some sixty, some a hundred more seeds/words. These seeds/words are the fruit of the seed/word of the Sower. What is vital to mission is that we be good soil, (re)producing the original seed, faithfully and patiently spreading the seed/word of Jesus and his kingdom–through the power of his Spirit.
Thanks very much for this Lucas. I’ve just downloaded your ebook on Matthew and find the thesis of kingdom of heaven contrasted with kingdoms of the world (similar to John 18:36) really interesting. I’ve also been really helped by your observation of the vipers theme and the thought that fruitfulness in Matt. 13 probably mainly means bearing more seed i.e. reproducing/passing on the Word. I think I’d be a little cautious to make the application of the parable ‘be good soil’ since the emphasis in Matthew on God’s sovereign grace (e.g. Matt. 3:9; 11:25-27) is so strong. We are born dead stones powerless to change our nature. Those who have an ear let them hear… but you have to have an ear! In terms of application of Matt. 13 it seems to me Matthew is including us with the disciples – the original crowd would not have heard verse 10 onwards but we do get to hear the inside track. In particular we are supposed to 1) understand that Jesus is the one the prophets and kinds have been longing for, the second Adam, 2) understand why Jesus was/is rejected, 3) rejoice in God’s massive grace to us in opening our ears and eyes (and presumably pray that the Spirit would open our eyes wider and wider, that ‘more would be given’) 4) understand what mission is all about – Jesus, Spirit, Word, Rejection and Fruit/Replication. What do you think?
Thank you so much Andy for your informative blogs. I love your articles and everyday i look forward to be challenged and encouraged by them.I particularly love the way Jesus has been made central and couldn’t agree more on the struggle of direct application sometimes used with the emphasis of us being careful to be good soils that produces fruits;this is because it directly points to our own efforts to be good but as you pointed out,it is the Spirit of Christ that changes the heart of men and transforms the hearts of stone to a heart of flesh. Indeed Christ is the main thing even in our witnessing and sowing coz without him,there aint no seed to be sown because He is that seed(Word) that John reminds us of “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God”
I mentioned “be good soil” as being vital to mission; you are right that it would be lacking as a summary or simple application of the parable. Indeed, in both of my sentences about good soil I connected it with the power of the Spirit. And I connected the fruit of the soil with the original word of the Sower (Jesus). Jesus does interpret the seed as the word of the kingdom, which of course includes him as the king; but the word of the kingdom also includes much else, like the presence of rejection and temptation, which can silence the word in some.
Certainly divine power and sovereignty are emphasized with the coming of this new king (Jesus) and his kingdom. Yet this comes quickly to include commands from the king. Of interest with Jesus’ parable in Mt. 13 are his commands in 12:33-37 (“make the tree good, and its fruit good,” in contrast to the brood of vipers that cannot, are unable, to speak good, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; but the good person out of their good treasure brings forth good). The bad fruit here is especially the Pharisees’ blasphemy against the Spirit in 12:24,31-32. Jesus’ own good treasure is the Spirit, for by the Spirit the kingdom of God comes anew (12:28).
Thanks Lucas. That’s really helpful. I like the stuff about tree, fruit and treasure and the context in Matthew. I think we’re basically saying the same thing – only by a miracle of God can the tree become good and then bring forth good fruit. On the other hand you are very right to point out that the King makes commands. I guess I could so emphasise divine sovereignty that I give the impression that there is no human responsibility and nothing we are commanded to do – when obviously, as you note, there are commands all through Matthew and it closes with the command to teach everything Jesus has commanded! I love the way very often Jesus has this way of commanding humanly impossible things and yet as his word goes out he sends a power with it to fulfil that command – isn’t this how his miracles often work? “Rise up and walk” Impossible! The very thing the man can’t do. And yet as the word goes out the miracle happens and he rises and walks. “Come to me”, “Hear me”, “Love your enemies”, “Forgive” All humanly impossible! And yet with the Word comes the divine breath and the possible becomes possible.
Yes, Jesus’ miracles are also parables, in that they reveal the divine power that makes possible what is humanly impossible–including our obedience (to the king) as well as our healing (from the king).