The Story of the Sower, Part 1 (Matthew 13:3-23)

Jesus told a lot of stories when he taught the people. Some of his stories were called parables because they had a hidden meaning or truth in them. Someone said that “a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,” and I think that is a good definition of the word, parable. One of my favorite parables in the Bible is the Parable of the Sower. Maybe it’s because I have sown a lot of seed during my life, and I can picture the person in this parable taking seed from a bag and throwing it out over the ground with his hands. There are four parts to this parable and four lessons to learn from it; but first, we need to know that the seed in this parable stands for God’s Word or the Bible and that would include Bible Stories. Part 1: Jesus said that some of the seed fell “by the wayside” which probably means on a path or on hard ground. Will it grow? What will happen to it? No, it cannot grow on hard ground. The birds will come and eat it all. And just as that is true, some people may read the Bible or hear a Bible Story, but before it does them any good, the devil comes and takes away that which was sown in their heart. Part 2: Some of the seed fell upon rocky places where there was not much ground. Will it grow? Yes, it will start to grow, but it will soon die for the roots cannot go deep into the ground because of the rocks. And just as that is true, some people start out living for God, but when other people make fun of them or give them a hard time because they believe the Bible, they soon get discouraged and give up. That is sad, sad indeed, because there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God when we really put our trust in Jesus. We are out of time today, but parts 3 & 4 of this parable will continue tomorrow.