Parables were Jesus’ way of engaging a diverse audience by using familiar images and ideas to express spiritual truths. Pastor Jack Hibbs takes us on an insightful journey through the parable of the sower, illustrating the importance of seeing the culmination of God’s message across different gospel accounts. Understand why Jesus chose parables as a teaching tool and how they illuminate our path to salvation in a world that remains as hostile as it was in biblical times.
You are a sower. I’m a sower. If you are a giver of the Word of God to your family, to your friends, to your neighborhood, whatever, you are a sower.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. The cross. For a lot of us, it’s just a symbol that we wear around our necks, right? Display in our homes or maybe hang from the rearview mirror. But what if instead of being a decoration or accessory, the cross motivated and shaped the way we live every single day of our lives? What if it wasn’t about hiding or minimizing our sin, but actually crucifying it in order to move forward in the freedom that Christ offers? Born Crucified. It’s a book by Ellie Maxwell. In this book, you’ll discover what it truly means to live in a cross-centered life. This short but very powerful book is a classic for every Christian’s library. It reminds us that the cross isn’t just a symbol. It’s the key to victory over sin and the power to serve God effectively. Now, if you’re ready to experience the freedom and purpose found in a life centered on the cross, this book is one that you should get. Born Crucified. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Sower, Part 1. Now, whenever Jesus spoke to the masses, he often spoke in parables, and this is the first parable that Jesus taught, a biblical truth that requires a response in the minds and hearts of the people. With the parable of the sower, Jesus is setting the stage for teaching this way in the future. It’s a powerful revelation of truth given to us through Jesus in story form. He’s speaking to the masses of a time long ago, but his parables are just as relevant for us today. So, Pastor Jack teaches us that the parable of the sower is about a mission. Jesus is spreading the seed of salvation for our very souls, knowing his people are heading down a dry and desolate path. Now, with his message called Parable of the Sower, Part 1, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 01 :
The parable of the sower, one of the most beloved, if not the most beloved parable of Jesus’ ministry. Those of you who are note takers or in your Bibles, you might wanna write right next to your margin. In Matthew 13, we’ll look at verses one through nine predominantly. But in what is called the harmony of the gospels, Mark chapter four, verses two through nine, cover this same parable. That’s Mark four, two through nine. Luke chapter eight, verses four through eight. Three of the four gospel writers cover this parable. And church, listen, before we dive into this. Whenever the gospels… have an account of something, like in this case, the parable and the teaching of this particular parable. You wanna take the teaching, for example, of Matthew, and you lay it out, okay, before you. Then you take, as it is here, Mark chapter four, and you lay it out on top of Matthew. You guys remember in the old days, remember overhead projectors? Does anybody, the young people are going, is that some new technology that I missed? Yeah, yeah, that’s what it is. If you lay that vellum out and then lay another vellum on top of it, or kind of like if you’re looking at an old biology book and it’s got the skeleton there and then it’s got the muscle system or the cardiovascular system, it’s laid down in these transparent vellum sheets. Okay? Imagine when you come to a teaching of the parables, or for that matter, eschatology in the gospels, the prophecy scriptures, you lay one down, watch, and then you lay the other one down, and then you lay, if it’s another one down, and sometimes in all four gospels, the same account is recorded, you lay that down. Why? Because it’s like a hologram. If you have a hologram of an image and if you have laser light and you shoot it at the hologram, have you ever seen one? I remember years ago in a Bible class, Chuck Missler brought to us from his work at the time at Western Digital, he brought to us in our Bible class a laser with a film and he shot the laser at the film and right suspended in nothing, in air, was this image of And you could pass your hand through it. And then he cut a little bit of the film, and the image was still recognizable, but a little less clear. Then he cut, again, part of it, and you could still recognize it, but it was a little less clear still. Are you with me? The more he cut away, the less clear you could see it, but you could still tell that it was a picture of a man or an image of a man’s face. You could say, that’s a man’s face. But as he added, or as you reverse the process, you’re able to figure out or see clearly when it was completely intact, that was John F. Kennedy’s face. It’s amazing. The gospels are like this. These parables are like this. Matthew says it this way. Mark says it this way. Luke says it this way. And when you lay it on top, not one of them contradicts the other. All of them together gives you crystal clear clarity, yet if you just read one of them, you still got the biblical point. It is awesome. And you got to wonder why God did that. It’s pretty amazing. I don’t know if you realize this or not, but if you are dwelling in a hostile environment and you’re trying to send information to your troops or maybe your spy or your attaches in the region and you’re trying to get information, you don’t send all your information exactly in one package in case it’s intercepted. You deploy the information through various means, like a puzzle, when the parts arrive, then the agent is able to assemble it, and now he’s got his instructions. Whenever you’re in a hostile environment, you communicate that way. And isn’t it amazing that God has sent us his message, and where are you and I living? In a hostile environment. You and I often don’t think about it, but there’s a war raging in the spiritual realm. More powerful than nuclear weapons. There’s demonic forces and angelic forces, the Bible says, fighting and waging a war to keep us either blinded or to keep us exposed to the light. It is absolutely awesome. And Jesus is gonna give a parabolic teaching regarding the sower and the seed. And if you missed last week’s introduction, then I encourage you to go back and check it out because you need to know why Jesus spoke in parables. And we looked at that in detail. To open the eyes of some and to those who wanted their eyes closed. Then their eyes were closed. It is an extremely powerful way of teaching. Matthew chapter 13, here we go. Verse one. And on the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And a great multitude or multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, and here we go, behold, he said, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away. And some, that is some seed, fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them, that is the seed. But others, verse 8, fell on good ground and yielded a crop. Some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. Verse nine, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so it’s important for us, listen church, mark it down in your notes. Bible students tonight, mark this down. Parables are to illuminate and you are to let the parables speak to you. Church, listen. Whenever the church in the last 2,000 years has gone goofy with Bible teaching, it will often, that is the church and the representatives of it, because of ignorance, because of I don’t know what, they would say, this is what the parable means. The parable means, and it depends on what era you’re talking about. For example, the parable of the sower must mean this. And they take their current day living and impose their view upon the parable. They would say, for example, the parable means this. And they paint some story that is limited to their era and to what they’re going through. Don’t ever do that. Never approach… In fact, remember what Peter says in Scripture. Peter warns us that no… Giving of scripture is for a private interpretation. Did you know that? You can’t read the Bible and say, well, this is what I think it means to me. My friend, you’ll go off the rails and you’ll crash spiritually because you can’t take the Bible and make it your own private interpretation. Well, then what do we do? The Bible interprets itself. It is awesome. If somebody was stranded on a deserted island, if Tom Hanks was on an island… after a plane crash and another plane flew over and a Bible fell out of that plane and landed on his head, if he were to pick it up and read it, he would probably be better off doing that than going to some seminaries or Bible colleges today. Because far too many people try to insert their opinion in to what it is saying. A parable is a profound revelation of truth. And in the Bible itself, the Bible interprets the Bible. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. The greatest example of this is you read the book of Revelation. If you’ve never read the Bible before, you open up the book of Revelation and you read it and you’re gonna scratch your head and say, what on earth is this? Just calm down, go and read the Old Testament. Read Genesis to Malachi. Listen, if you’re Jewish today, tonight, Read Genesis to Malachi, your Old Testament scriptures. And then it’s okay, you won’t melt, you won’t burn up. Skip all of the New Testament and go to the book of Revelation and keep reading. You’ll be shocked because the book of Revelation is a address and answer to everything written in the Old Testament. If you read the Old Testament and then read the book of Revelation, you’ll do perfectly fine. In fact, a lot of Christians today do not understand the book of Revelation because they’ve never read the Old Testament. You’ll never understand the book of Revelation without the Old. So as we look at this tonight, I think we should be and I think we will be excited about what we’re looking at. Mark this down in your notes or put it in your mind. Roughly, when did Jesus give this teaching? Let’s say 2,000 years ago. Okay? Who was he speaking to? Predominantly, of course, you read it, the multitudes. This is a different audience than just the disciples. This is a vast majority of people. In that group are peasants, farmers, fishermen, businessmen, retail people, teachers, scholars, scribes and Pharisees, priests. A vast majority of people with different opinions. Jesus spoke specifically to the crowds in parables. And as he’s given it, church, mark this in your mind’s eye, that as he’s given it, he gave it to his audience 2000 years ago. And as we look at this, we need to look at this through the lens, through the vellum of a first century hearer. Us today, Now, California’s a little bit different because we have so many crops and all, thank God for that, but this was a very agricultural economy that Jesus was speaking to. And you could read the parables in Israel today, and it’s just like reading them 2,000 years ago. Why? Because they are still such an agricultural powerhouse in the Middle East, and for that matter, they supply much of Europe. So mark this, reading through, looking at, hearing this, through Middle Eastern eyes. It’s exciting. So parable, the parable of the sower. Number one, mark it down, here we go. It’s in verses one to three, is that there’s the mission. I want you to make note of that. The parable of the sower, number one, the mission. Verses one to three of chapter 13. On the same day as we just read a moment ago, he went out of the house and sat by the sea. He’s now gone private to public in what he’s about to teach. And a great multitudes said, Some scholars estimate up to 60, 70, 80,000 people are now following Jesus at this time. They gathered together to him so that, and obviously the crowd is so big, he has to get into a boat. And the whole multitude stood on the shore. And then he spoke many things to them in parables saying, watch, behold, a sower went out to sow. I want you to mark this down as the mission. The mission of God through Jesus Christ is salvation. As this parable is being revealed to the audience, the issue or mission is salvation. God wants people saved. Saved from what? What do you mean saved? God wants people to have their lives changed because the course that they’re on is absolute destruction. that they will be born, they will live, and they will die, and when their body dies, they will enter eternity, fully awake, fully alive, forever. And God has come in the person of Jesus Christ, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, Christ has come, God incarnate, to be the salvation of mankind. The mission in the parables are always salvation. You need to remember that.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 01 :
Why did Jesus employ these things? Number one, salvation. When he says, behold, a sower went out to sow, you’ll see in a moment he’s talking about, first of all, himself. but all who share the word of God. This is exciting to me. And those of you who are involved in the evangelistic outreaches, those of you who have been involved in missions, and you don’t have to be involved in any of those things to be a missionary at your job, right? For those of you who have shared Christ, you are a sower. I’m a sower. If you are a giver of the word of God, to your family, to your friends, to your neighborhood, whatever, you are a sower. What is a sower? A sower is one who casts seed. We’ll find out in a moment. It’s seed he’s talking about. Not exactly, but in the parable, he’s talking about throwing out seed. You’ll see that it’s not seed he’s interested in. He’s gonna use it as a profound picture that everybody can relate to. The sower went out to sow seed. And a sower does something interesting. When he sows, in a great degree, the seed is placed strategically, to a great degree. Not perfectly, because it’s being, the term is broadcast. You throw it, it’s called broadcasting. I gotta tell you, I used to be really good at that. Not for throwing seed, but when I was in high school, I worked for a construction company, and we built special decodings for decks. and hotels and businesses and stuff. And part of it was to do these elastomeric coatings, waterproof stuff. And then you throw either beautiful stone into this wet stuff or sand. And it was after about a summer of doing stuff, you could place sand. It was amazing how you could reach in and grab sand and you could place it. And how you threw it, you could lay it down and then straight like that. You could throw it out and have it land incredibly. And it’s just an amazing thing. And so when I read this, I just go, oh my goodness. What’s the point? Is that it is very liberally spread. You can cover everything. And if you’re good at it, and those sowers, you can bet they were good at it, they could reach over there to an area where they don’t see any seed and they could just plop it by technique right down and the seed is laid down there. Know this, the sower is desiring to cover as much ground as possible, why? Because he has absolute hope of getting a return on every bit of that seed that’s laid out there. If you’re a farmer, you wanna get as much seed down as possible. Okay. Are you guys awake? Okay, good. I couldn’t tell. The farmer, the sower, does this with expectancy, with expectation, with hope. He is committed to this and works hard at it. The entire mission of Jesus Christ is one of hope, just like a farmer is. And then it says that, behold, he, the sower, went out to sow. And this is kind of by way of background, but watch how it applies. Everybody lived in villages. The farmers lived in villages. Everybody had a village communal life. When they went out to the fields, there were specific, by the way, it’s the same today. They had specific paths that they walked on. Historians tell us they were no wider than three feet. because the ground was precious. And they had these angles of a thoroughfare or the way they called it. It was a path from one location to the other through the fields. This is key. What was Christianity called in the book of Acts before it was called Christianity? The way to take you from one point to the other in the field. The field in what is called expositional constancy, which is a law of hermeneutics. When you teach the Bible, the field is always a picture of the world. There’s a path through the world that takes you from point A to point B. It is, what do you know about it? It is narrow, Jesus said, and you need to stay on it. Why? Because if you go off of it, you get into trouble. Every person in the audience understood what he was saying. And Jesus, in a moment, is going to reveal a truth that is going to bring all of them to a point of having to make a decision. Why? Because the mission is ultimately salvation. And so Jesus says, behold, a sower, we know about them, went out, that is, they went on the path to his field. He might have had to even traverse other farmers’ fields to get to his own. but he would have gone down this path. So he went out and that’s significant. He stayed on this straight and narrow path to get to his field. He’s got business to do. So what effect Does this sowing have? And what is the purpose of it? We understand in the spiritual context, Jesus is gonna really tell us that it’s all about preaching or delivering the word of God with this motive, with this hope that people would come to know Christ. Hosea chapter 10, verse 12, Old Testament. Hosea 10, 12 says, sow for yourselves righteousness. And they all knew this passage, by the way. Reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground. for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and rains righteousness on you. In their minds, when Jesus said a sower went out to sow seed, they would have thought immediately, yeah, we see that all the time, farmer’s farm, but we’re Jewish. We live in the Holy Land, Bible land. We understand that our Old Testament prophets told us That sowing has spiritual connection, and we need to be careful about our hearts. There’s a promise, Isaiah 52, verse seven says, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, preaching the evangel, the gospel, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation. Do you see that? That’s awesome. And then there’s the fulfillment. Luke chapter four. When did Jesus begin his ministry of casting seed or being a sower? You can write down in your notes, Luke chapter four, verse 17. Jesus was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah when he was in the synagogue. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord. Now Jesus is reading. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This is amazing because everybody in the synagogue could have been like this. Oh, this is great. Today, Jesus, as it does every man on every Friday, the reading of the… Scriptures falls upon this guy this Sunday or this Saturday or Friday, okay? And it happened to have been Jesus that day. This is amazing. Every synagogue all around the world on that day that Jesus read this, they all read all around the world still to this day the exact same scripture. It’s like them having their one-year Bible, daily Bible. The Jews have always done this, from Old Testament times to today. Isn’t that cool? That’s how they kept their culture together. Jesus opens up the book of Isaiah, turns to where he’s supposed to be that day, and reads, and guess what passage it is? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Can you imagine? They’re like, oh, okay, well, this is normal. And then Jesus goes, the Spirit of the Lord, and who knows what he did? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Did he do that? I don’t know. I wanna believe he did. Because watch what happens. Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery the sight of the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. There’s a comma right there and Jesus stopped reading. He was supposed to keep reading. He stopped reading at a comma. Why? Because the next statement says, the execution or the delivery of God’s wrath and judgment upon earth. Well, that comma has held back in these last 2000 years, the wrath and judgment of God that’s coming.
SPEAKER 02 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Sower, Part One. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering here on earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. are you looking for answers in a rapidly changing world are you ready to engage in some meaningful conversation about the issues that face our nation and face our faith you can join pastor jack hibbs and his special guest charlie kirk for the next happening now that’s coming up wednesday march 26 that’s 7 p.m pacific now this dynamic event is held live at calvary chapel chino hills and it’s streamed online too by the way and that’s on the real life network Pastor Jack and Charlie offer some timely discussion on current issues from a biblical perspective. You’re going to be equipped, encouraged, and challenged to live out your faith in an ever-shifting culture. Call your friends, bring your questions, and get ready to discover what God’s Word says about the issues that shape our world today. If you’d like more details, go to jackhibbs.com. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to stay informed, inspired, and engaged. Join us for Happening Now and become a part of the conversation. One more time, get all the info you need at jackhibbs.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
