First Baptist Church Litchfield
September 28, 2025

      • 1 John 4:7–8ESV

      • 1 John 4:16ESV

  • Hallelujah
  • I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever
  • Love Lifted Me

      • John 3:13–17ESV

      • Romans 8:37–39ESV

  • How Deep The Father's Love For Us
  • You Are My King (Amazing Love)

  • An Invitation and a Warning

    Have you ever noticed that two people can hear the exact same message and walk away with two completely different responses? One hears and believes, the other hears and shrugs. One heart softens, another hardens. The difference is not in the message—it’s in the heart that receives it.
    That’s the tension Jesus addresses in Matthew 13. The disciples ask Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” (v. 10). And Jesus answers with a sobering truth: parables both reveal and conceal. They are windows of grace for those who have eyes to see, and doors shut tight for those whose hearts are hardened. For the one who has, more will be given; for the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away (v. 12). It is both an invitation and a warning.
    The morning the word of God exhorts you to examine your heart, heed the warning, and hear the invitation.

    You who has ears to hear and eyes to see, do not harden your heart, but receive the word of God, repent, and follow Jesus.

    Jesus teaches by the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 13:1-2)

    Matthew tells us, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach” (Matt. 13:1–2).
    These verses set the stage for one of the most important sections of Jesus’ teaching—the parables of the kingdom. Notice the contrast: Jesus, seated in a boat, taking the posture of a teacher; the massive crowd, standing on the shore, leaning in to hear. The sea becomes His pulpit, the shoreline His sanctuary. The picture is simple yet profound: heaven’s King has come down to earth, and the ordinary people of Galilee gather around Him, hungry for His word.
    It reminds us that the kingdom of God does not advance through palaces or politics, but through the preaching of Christ to people humble enough to stand on the shore and listen.
    What does Jesus teach the crowd?

    Jesus teaches the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9)

    In verses 3–9, Jesus begins to teach with a parable: a sower went out to sow seed. Some fell on the path and was snatched away, some on rocky ground and sprang up quickly but withered, some among thorns and was choked, and some on good soil where it produced a harvest—thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold. Then Jesus ended with this piercing call: “He who has ears, let him hear.”
    At first, the disciples may have wondered why Jesus spoke this way. Why not just explain the truth plainly? This sets up the very question the disciples ask in verse 10: “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

    Parables: Windows into God’s Kingdom

    Parables are more than clever stories. They are windows into God’s kingdom—short, simple, but sharp enough to pierce the heart. Jesus uses parables for two reasons. On the one hand, they reveal the mysteries of God’s kingdom to His disciples, to those with ears to hear and hearts humbled by grace. On the other hand, they conceal truth from those hardened in unbelief, to those who had already rejected Him and accused Him of being in league with the devil. In this way, parables were both grace and judgment. They stirred curiosity in the humble while confirming blindness in the proud—just as Isaiah had prophesied, “you will indeed hear but never understand” (Isa. 6:9).
    Think of the Parable of the Sower. The same seed falls on different soils—some rocky, some thorny, some rich. In good soil, the seed takes root and bears fruit. But in hard ground, the seed just bounces off. Jesus knew the crowd was a mixture of soils. His parables invited the ready hearts to receive life, while exposing the resistance of those who would not.
    So the question for you when you hear the parable,

    Is the window of God’s kingdom open for you to see, or are the blinds shut?

    Do you understand what Jesus is saying, or is the word of God a mystery to you? Are you hearing his invitation? Are you heeding his warning?
    One of the main theological themes in the parable of the sower is salvation, particularly God’s sovereign grace and man’s responsibility to respond. So, what truths about salvation is Jesus wanting to share with the crowd with a mixture of heart soils?

    Jesus used the Parable of the Sower to reveal four truths about salvation:

    God’s grace enables hearers to understand the gospel message (Matthew 13:11,16)

    Jesus answered His disciples, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11).
    A careful reader feels the tension here. Why do some understand, and others remain blind? Jesus reveals that His disciples had been given the “secrets of the kingdom.” What secret is He speaking about? The Greek word mysterion doesn’t mean something spooky or unsolvable, but rather divine revelation. Daniel used this word when God gave him wisdom to interpret the king’s dream. Paul regularly used the same word to describe God’s unveiling of the gospel. These are not puzzles solved by human wit, but truths disclosed by God Himself.
    So, what are these secrets? They are the revelation of the gospel. When Jesus launched His ministry, He proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). With the arrival of the Messiah, God’s kingdom was advancing on earth through His Son. But not everyone understood Jesus’ mission. Only those with eyes to see could recognize Him, and only those with ears to hear could receive His message.
    And who gave them those eyes and ears? Not themselves. Jesus makes it plain. First he says “to you it was given.” Understanding divine truth is a gift, a blessing. Who gave the blessing? It was the Father. He says in verse 16, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” Blessed—that is, favored by God. What is God’s favor? It is when He opens the eyes of your heart to see Christ and unplugs your ears to hear the good news of Jesus.
    Jesus told Nicodemus this very truth in John 3. Nicodemus wanted to understand Jesus, but Jesus told him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus was confused. How could anyone crawl back into his mother’s womb? Jesus explained: you must be born of the Spirit. This was God’s promise through Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).
    To be born again is to be made alive in Christ by the grace of the Father (Eph. 2:4–5). God gives you a new heart and His Spirit, so you can understand spiritual truths—like the secrets of the kingdom. Paul says natural man cannot accept the things of God; they are folly to him. But the spiritual person has the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:14–16).
    Imagine sitting in a dark room with the blinds drawn tight. Outside the sun is blazing, but inside you cannot see it. You can even deny it’s there. Then someone walks over and pulls back the blinds. Light floods the room, and suddenly you see what was always there but hidden from you. That’s what God does by His Spirit—He pulls back the blinds on your heart so you can see the light of Christ.
    So, brothers and sisters, if your eyes see Jesus and your ears hear His gospel, you are blessed. God’s favor is upon you—not because you were clever enough to figure it out, but because God was gracious enough to reveal it.

    Sinners hardness of heart keeps them from understanding the gospel message (Matthew 13:13-15)

    Jesus continues in Matthew 13:13, “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” What does He mean? He means that these people’s hearts were so hardened against the gospel that they could not see Him as the Messiah, nor could they truly hear the good news of salvation. Therefore, they could not understand their desperate need for a Savior, and they would not repent of their sins to be saved from the wrath of God. Their blindness was not intellectual—it was spiritual, the product of a hard heart.
    This is not a new problem. Moses, standing before Israel on the edge of the Promised Land, warned them of the danger of hard hearts. He told them, “…to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” (Deut. 29:4). Centuries later, Stephen rebuked Israel’s descendants with the same charge: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).
    Jesus Himself likened His generation to Isaiah’s day. He quoted Isaiah’s commission: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (Isa. 6:9–10).
    Yes, they could see the bread multiplied, but they could not see the Living Bread. Yes, they could see miracles, but they could not see the hand of God behind the miracles. Yes, they could see demons cast out, but they could not see the One who is stronger than Satan. Yes, they could see—but they could not see.
    Here is the tragic truth: the more they resisted the gospel, the more God judged their hardened hearts. There is a great tension here—between God’s sovereign grace and man’s responsibility. On the one hand, a dead heart cannot come alive unless God gives it life. On the other hand, man is still responsible to respond in faith. You may wrestle with that tension, and that is okay. R. T. France wisely observed, “People will respond to parables according to their capacity, some with perception and some with dullness, and this is the way God intends it to be.”
    A farmer tills his soil every spring. If he leaves it untended, the sun bakes it hard, the rain runs off it, and seed cannot penetrate. But when he breaks the ground open, life takes root. The heart is like that. Left untouched, it hardens until nothing can grow. But when God breaks up the soil by His Spirit, His Word takes root and brings life.
    So, let me press this home to you: if you sense God stirring your heart, do not resist the Spirit. Do not harden your heart and bring God’s judgment on yourself. Repent and believe in Jesus.
    The writer of Hebrews warns us with Israel’s example: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:12–13).
    So today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Come to Christ. See Him, hear Him, believe Him—and be healed. If you don’t the consequences are severe.

    Those who hear the message and reject it often loose their opportunity to receive it (Matthew 13:12, 19)

    Matthew 13:12 used to puzzle me. Jesus says, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” At first glance, it almost sounds unfair. Didn’t Jesus tell us to share, to give to the one who has nothing? Wasn’t He always on the side of the poor and needy?
    But here’s the problem—I was reading the verse out of context. Jesus isn’t talking about economics. He is talking about salvation.
    The one who “has” is the one who has been given eyes to see and ears to hear. He hears the gospel. He sees his sin for what it is and his desperate need for salvation. He sees Jesus as the only sufficient, substitutionary sacrifice who can atone for his guilt. By grace, he repents and trusts in Christ. And what he has cannot be taken from him. In fact, Jesus promises that he will have more—life, and life abundant; grace upon grace; joy overflowing; eternal life in the presence of God. For those who receive the gospel, more revelation, more assurance, more life will be given.
    But to the one who does not have—to the one who does not see his need, who refuses to hear the truth of Christ, who will not repent—even what he thinks he has will be taken away. Jesus explains in verse 19: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.”
    Do you hear the warning? If you continuously reject the gospel, God’s judgment is to hand you over. He allows the evil one to pluck seed after seed from your heart until the soil is bare. R. T. France put it well: “Once you have started on the road of spiritual enlightenment, the blessings multiply, but those who do not accept the ‘message of the kingdom’ will lose everything.”
    That is why this verse is as terrifying as Matthew 7:21–23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven… And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
    How many sit in churches every Sunday hearing the gospel, yet rejecting it again and again? You think it’s harmless. You think you can keep pushing it aside until later. But Jesus says every rejection is not neutral—it heaps judgment on your soul. How frightening to sit under the sowing of God’s Word while Satan crouches at the door of your heart, plucking out the seed one by one.
    Satan’s like a crow circling a freshly planted field. The farmer has just sown his seed, but before it can sink into the soil, the bird swoops down and carries it off. Day after day, seed after seed disappears. Before long, the ground is bare, and no harvest will ever come. That’s what Satan does when the Word is heard but not received. He steals it before it can take root.
    Beloved, don’t let the enemy steal the Word from you. Don’t harden your heart. Today, if you hear His voice, repent and believe. What you have in Christ cannot be taken from you; but if you continue to reject Him, even what you think you have will be lost forever.

    Hearing the gospel and seeing Jesus’ ministry was something the prophets longed to see (Matthew 13:17)

    Jesus underlines this section with a staggering reminder of privilege. He says, “For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:17).
    The word longed (ἐπεθύμησαν) carries the idea of a deep yearning, an aching desire. The prophets of old peered forward through the fog of history, longing for the day Messiah would come. They proclaimed His promises, yet never saw His face. They heard the whisper of His coming, yet never heard His voice. They spoke of the Servant who would bear our iniquities, but they never got to walk alongside Him on dusty Galilean roads.
    In Luke’s account, Jesus puts it even more personally: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” (Luke 10:23–24). Blessed—favored by God—are the disciples. Why? Because they got to behold the Son of God with their own eyes. The Seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The prophets could only dream of Him; the disciples got to dine with Him. The righteous could only hope for Him; the disciples got to rejoice in Him.
    Jesus is drawing a contrast between longing and fulfillment, between promise and presence. What the prophets announced, what the righteous anticipated, the disciples experienced. They saw the kingdom advancing not in shadow, but in substance—in the person of Christ Himself.
    Imagine being an infant child whose parents are away at war. As you grow, you receive their letters, you see their pictures, you listen to stories about them. You love them deeply, but you have never hugged them. Then one day, the door opens, and there they stand. The waiting is over. What once was longed for in words and promises is now present in flesh and blood. That’s what it meant for the disciples to walk with Jesus. The longing of the prophets was fulfilled in their very presence.
    Brothers and sisters, do you see the privilege we share? Though we do not walk beside Jesus physically as the disciples did, on this side of the cross, we share in something even greater: the full testimony of His life, death, resurrection, and ascension recorded in Scripture, and His Spirit dwelling within us. The prophets longed to see Him; the disciples saw Him face-to-face; and now, by the Holy Spirit, we see Him by faith, know Him as Lord, and commune with Him as our comforter.
    Beloved, embrace the privilege you have been given to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Do you realize that prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, but did not see it; to hear what you hear, but did not hear it (Matt. 13:17)? Yet here you sit, Sunday after Sunday, with the full counsel of God opened before you, the mysteries of the kingdom exposited for your soul to feast upon. That is not common grace—it is a peculiar mercy.
    Embrace the Word of God. It is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and every Lord’s Day it is placed in your hands and pressed into your heart. Embrace the Spirit of God who dwells in you, revealing Christ to you each time you open the Scriptures. Do not take lightly what heaven counts as privilege. Think of it: the Father ordaining your salvation, the Son accomplishing your redemption, and the Spirit applying it to your weary soul.
    It is grace—lavish, undeserved, particular grace—that you should know the Lord. Many stumble through this world enslaved to fear, shackled by doubt, or crushed by striving. But you have been given rest in Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, the gentle and lowly Savior who bids you come and find peace for your soul.
    So, embrace Him. Not reluctantly, not occasionally, but fully. Feast on His Word. Treasure His Spirit. Rest in His Son. For to know the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest privilege heaven could give to man on earth.

    Invitation. Warning. Privilege.

    Therefore, do not take this lightly. Blessed are your eyes if they see Jesus. Blessed are your ears if they hear His gospel. This is not just history—it is your invitation. Heed the warning. Don’t squander the privilege. Treasure it. Rejoice in it. And let it move you to live for Him who has graciously revealed Himself to you. Let it inspire you to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of the Jesus in the church, community, and home.
  • Jesus Thank You
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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