Good Seed, Bad Soil | Sunday, January 25, 2026

And when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city, Jesus spoke by parable. And he said, "A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down. The birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock... and it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked it out. But others fell on good ground. It sprang up. It yielded a crop a hundredfold." ... "Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God..."

The Parable of the Sower is really the parable of the soils—and you have a bigger part to play in the harvest than you think.

A Conversation That Pointed to the Parable

This last week, I was having coffee with a truly exceptional young man who is just starting out in life, making that transition into adulthood. He recently graduated from high school, and he shared his desire to make wise and right decisions as the world opens up to him. As a pastor, hearing that means a lot to me. He genuinely wants to honor God, to serve Him, to help others come to know the Lord.

He also said he wanted to be an effective evangelist, but he confessed that he sometimes doesn't feel very good at that role. That's not unique to him. A lot of people feel that way, and I certainly have, many times. There's a desire to share the good news with a stranger, and even more with a friend or coworker, and yet we feel inadequately prepared.

As he spoke, he used words like sowing seed and reaping the harvest. I told him, "It's interesting you bring that up, because this Sunday we're going to be in Luke chapter 8, the parable of the sower—which is exactly where those ideas come from." It still amazes me how often the things I'm preparing to teach show up in my conversations through the week. It's God's grace, preparing the message and preparing me for the message.

What Is a Parable?

We are in the parable section of Luke. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they give a brief synopsis of much of the same material from the life and ministry of Jesus, and each has a section focused on His parables—Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. The parable of the sower is perhaps the most famous of Jesus' stories. It comes first in each of these sections, and many Bible teachers consider it a key to understanding the rest of the parables, because Jesus not only tells it, He also explains it.

But before we consider the parable itself, we should ask what a parable is. It's not really a word we use much apart from study of the Bible. A parable is a simple story intended to illustrate a deeper truth—to bring a spiritual meaning or moral lesson to the surface. Jesus frequently used parables, especially when speaking to the multitudes. The Gospel of Matthew tells us He would not speak to the crowds except in parables.

The disciples came to him and said, "Why do you speak to the multitudes in parables?" And he answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given... Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." (Matthew 13:10–13)

My friend David Guzik puts it well: parables are "earthly stories with a heavenly meaning." They are meant to provoke thought—to stir your mind to sense that there's more beneath the surface. The surface is not the whole story. They also veil a deeper meaning, so that the casual hearer finds something, but the one who goes deeper finds much more.

Disciples Want More Than a Good Story

Some people heard Jesus and thought, "Here he goes with another story." But others realized the story had a deeper meaning, and they came to Him afterward to ask what it meant. To them Jesus said, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God" (Mark 4:11).

I assume most of you would like to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God—that may be part of why you're here. If so, you should become a student of Jesus' parables, because deep truths are hidden in them.

Let's read the passage. Last week we looked at the first three verses of Luke 8; today we pick it up in verse 4.

A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down... Some fell on rock... and it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns... But others fell on good ground... and yielded a crop a hundredfold. (Luke 8:5–8)

The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved... But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:11–15)

The Simple Story and Its Four Soils

This is the most famous of Jesus' parables, and the general story is simple. Even the youngest child in our children's ministry can understand it. A sower goes out and scatters seed, and it falls in different places.

Some fell by the wayside—the footpath around the field where people walk routinely. The ground gets hard-packed and dry, so the seed is trampled and the birds come and snatch it away. Some fell on stony ground. This made sense to Jesus' hearers, because Galilee and Judea are rocky lands. Before you plant, you have to remove the stones. Seed that fell where there was little dirt sprang up quickly, but withered when the heat of the sun came because there was no moisture. Some fell among thorns—the product of the curse—which grow so quickly that they choke out the seed before it can mature. And finally, some fell on good ground, fertile soil that had been prepared and watered, and it produced a hundredfold.

So we have four kinds of hearers. The first is the hard heart—the person who, after years of pushing the truth down, hears the word and says, "There's no value in this two- or three-thousand-year-old book." The word is good, but the enemy snatches the seed away. The second is the rocky ground, which springs up quickly but withers when the sun of trials and difficulty comes, because there was no root. The third is the thorn-choked heart—the hearer so concerned with the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life that they have no time for the kingdom of God, because their focus is on their own kingdom, here and now. And the fourth is the good ground—the well-prepared heart where the seed takes root and produces a hundredfold.

What a Disciple Is, and How You Become One

Just the fact that the disciples came and asked, "What does this parable mean?" teaches us something valuable. A disciple wants more from Jesus than just a good story. Many people regard Jesus as a good storyteller, a good moral teacher, an insightful person—but they never seek anything beyond that surface. Disciples are the inquisitive ones who draw near after the sermon and say, "Lord, what does that mean? Give us understanding." That is what sets a disciple apart.

One challenge is the word disciple itself. We picture someone in a robe and sandals who followed Jesus thousands of years ago and did mighty works, and we think, "That's the high class of Christians; I don't know if I'll ever attain that." But one way to translate the word is apprentice. Some of you came into your career through an apprenticeship—you spent time with a master builder, watched what they did, and learned the trade by being with them. That changes everything. The Greek word can be translated learner, pupil, student, or apprentice.

Built into that word is the idea of math—and math is a building-block thing. You start with the basics and build up, and if you miss the basics, you have real problems. Learning the way of Christ is the same. So how do you become a disciple? It's simple: if you want more than the stories and the sermons of Jesus, and you find yourself in prayer asking, "Lord, help me understand," you have already become a pupil, a learner, an apprentice.

Jesus Reveals His Secrets to His Disciples

Jesus reveals His secrets to His disciples. How many of you want to know the secrets of Jesus? All you have to do is ask. "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God" (Luke 8:10). So I have to ask: have you ever genuinely asked in prayer, "God, help me to understand"?

We teach that this book is inspired by God—an audacious claim. But if it truly is inspired by God, is it not possible that God, by His Spirit, could also help us understand it? That petition is an ancient prayer. King David prayed it 3,000 years ago:

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your law. (Psalm 119:18)

Make me understand the way of your precepts. (Psalm 119:27)

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes... Turn away my eyes from looking on worthless things—like Twitter—and revive my heart in your way. (Psalm 119:33–39)

That last one was for me, not you. This is an ancient prayer you should probably pray this week, because I guarantee you one thing: God loves to answer it. He loves open ears and an open heart. "He who has an ear, let him hear." It didn't take a lot of prying to get the answer from Jesus—He was looking for questioners to come and ask.

The Strangeness Is the Point

The meaning here is clear. The sower is not a farmer; he is an evangelist, scattering the word of God. The seed is the Scriptures. The soils are the ears and hearts of the hearers.

But surely, as you look at this story, you sense there's something deeper than an anecdote about an inefficient farmer. Imagine a first-century farmer hearing this—and there were a lot of first-century farmers hearing Jesus. He might think, "This preacher doesn't know anything about farming. No farmer would be so careless. Seed is precious. Three-quarters of it is wasted." Imagine if a hundred percent of the seed had fallen on good soil, when even the 25 percent that did produced a hundredfold.

Jesus' stories are meant to strike you as strange. When you read them, something should say to you, "There's more here; this doesn't quite make sense." They are designed to make you ask, "Wait, what?" The weirdness is the point. Many of you have come across this story a dozen or fifty times and never noticed how odd it is that a farmer would so thoughtlessly waste valuable seed. That strangeness is meant to inspire questions—and questioners become disciples. If you have questions, Jesus has answers, and He wants you to bring them.

The Sower Is an Evangelist—But So Are You

So what's the point of the story? It has something to do with sowing—with evangelism, the scattering of the word of God. I'm not the only one to think so. John Gill, Matthew Henry, John Calvin, Martin Luther, C. H. Spurgeon—the great interpreters all talk about evangelism when they come to this parable. It's exactly what the young man I had coffee with was thinking about when he spoke of sowing seed and reaping souls.

One of the first hearers of this story was Peter. Decades later he wrote, "You have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God" (1 Peter 1). Where did he get the idea that the word of God is seed? From Jesus. Paul, too, in 1 Corinthians 3, likened preaching the gospel to planting seed. We sow the seed of the word through preaching, and we reap souls as people come to faith.

But here's the challenge. Like the word disciple, the word evangelist brings an image to mind—Greg Laurie, Billy Graham, Whitefield, Wesley, Billy Sunday, D. L. Moody. We picture a person on a platform calling people forward to an altar call. The problem is that's not 99.99 percent of Christians. So we think, "I guess I'm not an evangelist. This message isn't for me." Some of us are relieved—we were looking for an exemption.

The Parable of the Soils

But notice: in some Bibles and commentaries, this is titled not "the parable of the sower" but "the parable of the soils." That's an important key. Evangelism isn't only about sowing seed and harvesting souls. That's the part that gets the most notoriety—the part associated with Billy Sunday and Greg Laurie. But that's not the whole story.

When Paul told Timothy, "Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry," countless Christians have read it and thought, "That's not me; I'm not Billy Graham." We read it and excuse ourselves. But just as farming involves more than sowing and reaping, evangelism is much more than preaching and calling people to repentance.

When I was about 13, I wanted money, so I got a job at Fran's Farm Stand, run by a lovely old lady named Fran Hillebrecht and her family here in Escondido. Their daughter Laura told me, "Here's your job—you're going to be a farmer." And you know what I learned? Farming is a lot of work, and a lot more than planting and reaping. Before you plant, you have to prepare the ground—remove the rocks, plow the soil. And you don't plant one day and reap the next. Jesus alluded to this in John 4: "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'?" During that time you water, you weed, you chase away birds, you shade what needs shade. There is a lot of work.

Your Work Is Not in Vain

Good evangelism isn't only about the sower, the seed, and the harvest—it's also about the soil. You may never stand on a platform and preach; for many of you that would be the most fearful thing imaginable, and God will likely never call you to it. But He has not given you an exemption from the work of an evangelist. You can be part of the prayerful, patient work—and notice that the last word of our passage in Luke 8 is patience.

Your name may never appear on a sign for a big evangelistic event. People here may never know who you are. But if you do the patient work of preparing soil, watering, tending, weeding, and chasing away birds, your name will be known in heaven, and great will be your reward. My haphazard scattering of seed will be far more effective if you help do the work of preparing the soil.

Paul sums it up beautifully:

So then neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:7–9)

If Greg Laurie brought in the harvest of a soul, he will by no means receive a greater reward in heaven than the one who prayed for that soul and invited that person to come in the first place. How shall they hear without a preacher? But how shall the preacher have an audience without those who invite people to come? Your work of plowing and preparing hearts is just as important, if not more so.

So when Paul says, "Be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry," he is talking to you. And one final word: "Do not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap if you do not faint." Some seeds take a very long time to germinate. Many will not break forth with even a tiny root until the moments before someone enters eternity—but those seeds were watered and prepared by dozens, even hundreds, of faithful farmers, year after year. Your work is not in vain. Amen.

Closing Prayer

God, thank You for the encouragement of Your word. I have a feeling there was something here today that even those familiar with this passage never saw before. I pray that You would help us not only to know these things in our minds and hearts, but to go out practically in the power of this word, recognizing that You have called us to this farmland here in North County, San Diego—set here for such a time as this, to prepare, to plow, to plant, to water, to weed, to chase away birds, whatever it may be. You will by no means overlook the reward in eternity, and we rejoice in that. Empower us to recognize that You have called us to fulfill our work as evangelists, and help us by the enabling power of Your Spirit to do so. For we ask it in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, amen.