The Parable of the Sower Explained | A Deeper Meaning (DCLC 1984)

The passage of scripture that I want to read, I think we’re going to find around page 50 (The Life of Christ in Stereo: The Four Gospels Combined as One by Johnston M. Cheney). We’re on page 54. In the middle, it says, “Lessons of the four kinds of soil.” The Sower went forth to sow his seed, and it came to pass as he sowed that some fell upon the roadside, and the seed was trampled. The birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on rocky places where it had not much earth, and it sprouted up at once, as it had no depth of earth. But when the sun rose, it was scorched, and because it had no roots and lacked moisture, it withered away. And some fell into the midst of the thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it, and it produced no returns. But some fell into good soil, and growing up, and increasing, it brought forth results, some 30, some 60, and some 100-fold. And when He had said these things, He exclaimed to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now, we’re going to stop there. There is more to this parable. In a way, this is the beginning of the Lord’s parables. This parable is interesting because the Lord doesn’t start by saying, “The kingdom of the heavens is likened to,” or “The kingdom of God is like unto.” He simply says, “A Sower went forth to sow.” Later, He says that some cannot understand or grasp the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens. So we know that this parable has something to do with the heavenly things. He later interprets this parable privately to His disciples. This makes me feel it must have been one of His first parables, and it’s listed as such here.

The provocation of this parable has to do with hearing, and that immediately makes this parable extremely central for this reason. As we look at an indwelling Father, a Father who lives within the Lord Jesus Christ, we are just now beginning, barely, on the outer edge during this conference, to see that relationship established, illustrated, and at work. We are only beginning to understand that relationship.

One thing is clear: the Lord Jesus Christ believes He is hearing someone speak deep within Him. That is an undeniable fact and point. He speaks often of the witness. He speaks of hearing and of seeing. I am telling you what I see, not what I have seen, but what I see. I’m speaking to you about what I have heard. I speak to you about what I have seen and heard. You will never understand…I will never understand the Lord, nor His ways, nor His parables, nor His teachings, if we do not have a sense almost of His being homesick, of His sense of the other realm, of the sense that He lived there so long. He’s here for just a short while, and He is there recognizing the fact that no one else has this realm within Him, but that they soon will. Some soon will, and He’s showing them a relationship to that realm within; to that kingdom within.

Let’s not use the word kingdom. Let’s use the word realm. There’s a realm within Him, and He is telling them it’s drawing near. He’ll tell them shortly after that the kingdom, or realm, is within you, but for now that realm is within Him, and He once lived wholly in that realm. Now He’s having to divide His attention; may I use that term without establishing any theological concepts? He is in the material realm. He is dealing with people who unanimously know nothing of this realm, know nothing of what He’s talking about, and have no imagination or concept of what He means by His reference to a habitat He has known so terribly, very, very long.

He’s trying to prepare them, and He’s establishing with them the fact that when that realm is within them, there is hearing and there is seeing, there is hearing, and there is seeing, and I want to say that to you, within that realm, within you, the believer, there is hearing, and there is seeing. I hope you will exercise what little you may have learned this week in hearing and seeing that realm, remembering, please, that that realm is mostly exactly what it was to Christ. It’s the Lord. It’s God. It’s the Father. It’s whoever God is. For Him, the Father’s domination was present. For you, the believer, perhaps the Son’s domination is present. I’m not going to make an issue of that, but in that realm, for Him, it was mostly a place awash with God. Do you have that term? Am I too southern when I use the term “awash”? Does that make any sense to a New Zealander? Okay, a place that was awash, or is awash, with God.

He sees two things: saturated with, soaked with, like a ship sinking is awash; that’s right, a ship is sinking. It’s awash. It’s absolutely inundated; flooded with; it’s absolutely dominated by God. Remember, He has lived within that God; that’s where He’s been. To put it another way, to the Lord Jesus Christ, heavenly places are the bosom, the center of God. Alright? He is preparing people to understand they can be there, and there’s a lot of hearing, and there’s a lot of seeing.

Now then, the parable itself has always been used on us. You’ve heard it, have you not? You can’t hear, and you can’t see. Are you a piece of hard dirt? (laughter) I’m not denying that, or any part of it, but that’s not where this parable began. That parable began in the positive sign of this picture, not the negative. We may look at the negative, but there was a positive. Someone, speaking in His own wisdom, shares how to hear and see other realms, because He Himself hears and sees. He is not trying to load us down with the hard soil or the shallow soil or the rocky soil. He shows us what’s going on inside Him with His Father, and that He can hear and see. He will soon say, when this realm comes within you, here are ways you might hear and see.

So, as you listen to me tell this story, keep in mind that the Lord was only sharing how He hears and sees other places, invisible realms. Let’s not dwell on the negative; let us look at the relationship of the Father to the Son. I can’t help but believe that, years earlier, the Lord was walking through the countryside in Galilee. I’m so glad that He grew up in the country. If the Lord Jesus Christ were born today in New York City and grew up there, it would really be rough having to live with His parables, wouldn’t it? Oh, that would be hard. Aren’t you glad He was a country boy? Honestly, there’s something so light and refreshing there.

He’s seen the men go out to the freshly tilled land, grab the seed, and throw it without sense. They just threw it everywhere, and He watched it fall; He watched it fall on the good ground. And because He created that ground, and because He created the seed, and He created the birds that flew over, and He created the rocks, all of these things spoke more clearly to Him because He has been in a realm where the “real” is, and all those are simply symbols and pictures of the real.

As He walked along in fellowship with His Father, perhaps the Father said to Him, “You understand why it is now as you’re growing up. You’re beginning to be able to hear Me. You’re beginning to remember from which You came and where You were so long. You’re beginning to see You are like that seed. What did the Father tell the Son? Just listen to what the Father told the Son. Isn’t this a lot more exciting to come this way? How gloriously positive this is. How non-burdensome this is. Just look. Just behold. You will be more transformed by beholding Him than by all the dumb sermons you will ever hear. Just behold Him now.