Four Kinds of Hearers Part 2 | Matthew 13:18-23

Scripture

• Matthew 13:18–23

About this sermon

Introduction: During the time when the citizens of the kingdom are being gathered in, when the family of God is formed, what kind of response to the Word of God will we see? How will the word of the kingdom be received? What kind of hearers will we meet with? Our Lord tells us. He gives a parable to the crowds that He explains to His disciples. In that explanation we receive a description of how that word was being received in Christ’s earthly ministry, and how that word will be received until Jesus comes again. By this we examine our own spiritual condition. By this we inform our ministry expectations. Review: • THE HEARER WHO DOES NOT UNDERSTAND — A CARELESS HEARER • THE HEARER WHO DOES NOT ENDURE — A SUPERFICIAL HEARER Lesson: Tonight, we begin with a 3rd. • THE HEARER WHO HAS NOT BEEN RELOCATED — A WORLDLY HEARER What I mean by the way I describe this 3rd kind of hearer, is that while he or she hears the word of God and might even seem to receive the word of God, their citizenship remains the same. The spiritual domain in which they live their lives has never changed. Philippians 3:18-20 describes the difference between the realms to which the believer and unbeliever belong. ESV Philippians 3:18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, When the word of the kingdom is received it results in a new citizenship. ESV Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Where that citizenship exists, there are new desires, new ambitions, a new course. It results in a new MIND. ESV Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Well, the kind of hearer that Jesus is describing has never experienced that relocation. There has never been a transference. ESV Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, The result is that their exposure to the word of God does not produce fruit. Using the analogy that our Lord uses; the soil is not good soil. THE SOWER IS GOOD (JESUS AND THOSE WHOM HE USES) THE SEED IS GOOD (THE WORD OF GOD) BUT THE SOIL IS NOT GOOD This person’s life represents soil full of the thorns that choke out what the word of God would produce in good soil. Jesus specifies what the thorns represent. He mentions two things. • A HEARER WHO LIVES ACCORDING TO THE WORLD’S PRIORITIES The cares or troubles of the world. NASB and LSB have “worry” μέριμνα, ης, ἡ (Hes.; Vett. Val. 131, 3; 6; 271, 3; PGiss 19, 8; 22, 11; EpArist 271; LXX.—In LXX the pl. only Da 11:26, as Hes., Op. 178 al.; PRyl 28, 219) anxiety, worry, care OUR LORD IS DESCRIBING WHAT: The world concerns itself with. The world is anxious about. The world counts to be of MOST IMPORTANCE. IT IS A KIND OF HEARER WHO TAKES WHAT CAN BE LEGITIMATE CONCERNS, AND LEGITIMATE MATTERS FOR FOCUS, AND EXALTS THEM TO THE PLACE OF ILLEGITIMATE IMPORTANCE AND ILLEGITIMATE FOCUS. He takes temporal concerns and treats them as if they represent what is permanent. This is a person who is fruitless in the spiritual realm because they are consumed by the temporal realm. The CHOKING element is appropriate because what these concerns represent is something that COMPETES with eternal focus. R.T. France — “A concern with possessions betrays a focus on “this world” which is in tension with commitment to the kingdom of heaven; cf. 6:19–21, 24 on where the heart should be. That tension is symbolized in the “choking” of the grain, there is not room for both God and Mammon to take priority in a person’s allegiance.” AND THIS CAN MANIFEST ITSELF — AND DOES — IN A WORLD OF DIFFERENT WAYS. There is a way that pursues temporal provisions as if God doesn’t take care of us. There is a way of pursuing family life that is temporally focused. There is a way of pursuing earthly pleasures that ignores eternally important priorities. There is a way of investing time and resources that ignores how to make eternal friends with unrighteous mammon.