Hi, my name is Billy. Good to have you with us this
morning. Special welcome if you are
visiting. What an exciting morning for us
to rejoice and together would you open with me to Luke chapter
8 if, if you had a have a Bible with you as we, we come to God's
word this morning and continue our series through the gospel of
Luke this morning, we are going to be looking at versus 4
through 21, but we're especially going to be focusing on versus 4
through 15. So we're going to start by
reading our passage and, and then I'll pray and we'll, we'll
dive in. Luke chapter 8, verse 4.
And when the great crowd was gathering, and people from town
after town came to him, he said in a parable, a soar went out to
sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along
the path and was trampled under foot.
And the birds of the year devoured it.
Some fell upon the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away
because it had no moisture. And some fell among the thorns,
and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
Some fell into good soil, and it grew and yielded a hundredfold.
As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to
hear, let him hear. And when its disciples asked him
what the parable meant, he said to you, It has been given to
know the secrets of the Kingdom of God.
But for others they are imparables, so that seeing they
may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.
The ones along the path are those who have heard, and then
the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so
that they may not believe and be saved.
And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the
word, receive it with joy. But these have no root.
They believe for a while, and in a time of testing fall away.
And As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear,
but as they go on their way they are choked by the cheers and
riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
As for that in good soil, they are those who, hearing the word,
hold it fast, and are good and honest and good heart, and bear
fruit with patience. No one after lighting a lamp,
covers it with a jar, or puts it under a beard, but puts it on a
stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is
anything secret that will not be known and come to light.
Take care then how you hear, For to the one who has more will be
given, and from the one who has not even what he thinks he has
will be taken away. Then his mother and brothers
came to him, but they couldn't reach him because of the crowd.
And he was told your mother and your brothers are standing
outside desiring to see you. But he answered them.
My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God
and do it. What would you pray with me once
we come to the Word, Gracious God?
And can we come to Your Word now?
And we thank you that your word is good, and we pray that we may
be good soil. I pray that we may hear it and
do it. Give our minds clarity with your
Holy Spirit. Speak through me God in Jesus
name, Amen. What about about this time last
year, I was doing some yard work at our house and in the back
corner of our section I came across a part of our yard that
was hugely overgrown. The grass had gotten about this
high up and it was just a bit of an eye sore.
And so I was determined that I'm going to do something about
this. So I got the weed wacker and it
took me like a good few like afternoons going at it slowly
because we've got one of those electric weed wackers that's not
very good, but you kind of got to slowly work it down.
And when I got down to the bottom, I hit something and I
hit some wood and I found out that what was under this grass
that was about this tall, it was actually kind of a wood
barricade for a beautiful veggie garden.
And so Alana and I, we were excited.
We're going, OK, we're gonna get all of the grass out.
We are going to get out all of the bad soil.
We're going to put in some nice good soil.
And we're going to build up this beautiful veggie garden.
And we're going to be self-sustaining.
And so I took a photo yesterday of where our veggie garden is at
a year on right back to where it was.
And I'm not a gardening is frustrating.
I'm not a, a natural gardener. Maybe for some of you, gardening
is your Forte. It's it's certainly not mine.
But that that's one thing I learned very quickly.
Often when you're gardening, what you want to grow doesn't
grow, and what you don't want to grow grows weeds everywhere.
Gardening is frustrating. Gardening is also something that
is, is relatively universal, especially in the time of
Christ. And it's something that Jesus
often uses as an analogy in his time when he's speaking.
And really what we've got here this morning is a parable.
It's a a story that Jesus is telling any and he tells them a
story about gardening and planting.
And all of this is an analogy for what happens when we hear
God's word. What happens when we hear God's
word? Jesus sees just as when we plan
to seed, often there are barriers that stop that seed
from growing as it ought to or as it should.
When we hear the Word of God often there are so many barriers
that stop God's Word from moving from my ears to our hearts.
And Jesus is wanting us to understand here.
What are those barriers you notice in verse 4?
It says he's speaking here to a large crowd.
We shouldn't be surprised at this point in Jesus ministry.
He's built up quite the following.
He's been performing miracles. He's been saying incredible
things, but I think we get the idea that this crowd is a mix of
people. It's a diverse crowd.
You've got some in the crowd who are likely curious.
They've heard about this Jesus guy.
Like they kind of want to come and see what he's about, but
probably almost viewing him like a circus act.
Like what's this guy about? I just kind of want to see what
he's like. There might be some who are
genuine, but I think on the whole, what you're looking at
here is a crowd that interested but fickle.
And, and, and this sets the scene for the parable that Jesus
is about to say, because it's to these people that Jesus is going
to speak this parable about hearing.
That's what this is about. Look at verse 8.
He says he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
He speaks about four different kinds of people.
Each of them hear the word of God.
Almost a summary verse could be verse 18.
Take care then how you hear. And so really the key question
for us this morning as we come to this is how do we hear?
How do we hear God's word? Not do we hear, but how do we
hear? Because I see as I see it, we're
gonna look at 4 examples of people and each one of them
hears God's word. Hearing isn't the problem.
The problem is what happens between the ears and and the
heart. How do we hear God's Word?
And I think we've got many opinions on the way God's Word
should be preached, as we should.
But do we often stop to consider how we should hear Assumen, how
we should hear God's Word? And what we're going to see is
we look at this parable as is the type of hearing that God
desires is the kind of hearing which bears fruit with patience,
the type of hearing God desires as the hearing that bears fruit
with patience. O, let's look at this parable.
And it's to this big crowd that Jesus tells this parable.
And it's a relatively simple parable.
Look at verse 5. The basis is this, a sewer went
out to sow his seed. Now in Jesus time in Palestine
this is a very common practise. There's no countdown or
Woolworths down the road to go pick up your veggies.
You are planting your own veggies.
Most likely is actually speaking about someone sowing wheat and
that have a big bag of seed over their shoulders and then go out
into their field and they'd literally be walking across
their field sowing the seed across the field.
And the message is this that as a solo ASOS has seed, some of
the seed is going to land on healthy, fruitful soil and which
it will grow and thrive and some of it will not.
And so the first type of soil that the seed lands on is the
path. Now this is a dirt path that
would be going through next to the field.
And so, yes, it would still be dirt, but it would be trampled
down. It would be hard, it would be
firm. And so it's almost as the solar
is sowing, some of the seeds kind of trickle off the edge and
and fall onto the path and they bounce on the hard path.
They have no chance to grow. And before they even can,
they'll be trampled under foot. When he says birds come and and
take it away. So this is not good.
The second is is rocky soil. The rocky soil, much of the soil
in Palestine, you wouldn't actually see it from the top,
but about an inch underneath the surface would just be a layer of
limestone rock. And so the seed lands on the
soil and, and, and it shoots down roots immediately, but the
roots only go down for an inch or so before it hits the rock.
And so you have the sage shoot up, but as soon as the sun hits
it, it's got no moisture, it's got no root, and it Withers
away. So that seed is not fruitful.
The next seed Jesus seers, falls among the thorns.
The idea here is that this is actually good, fruitful soil,
and so that the seed builds roots and the seed shoots up.
But what's shooting up alongside it but thorns and weeds?
The thorns takeover, the thorns steal the nutrients from the
ground, and ultimately the thorns around the seed are
overbearing and the seed dies. And so you've got 3 results here
of where the seed could go. And although two of them shoot
U, all of them Jesus says are unfruitful.
All of them didn't achieve the purpose.
And then lastly, he says, you've got the seed that lands on the
good soil. There are no other competing
distractions. The seed lands and and it grows
and it reaps. He sees a hundredfold.
This is a hugely fruitful crop that will reap more seeds from
its growth. And I guess in in the science,
it's quite a basic illustration for us to understand.
And so are sowing his seed. And different seeds have
different barriers. Different seeds have different
results based off where they land.
But then he finishes his illustration with a strange
comment in verse 8 where he sees this.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
What a strange thing to say. In essence, what Jesus is saying
is he's saying there's two kinds of people, two kinds of people
in the crowd that he's speaking to.
I think there's two kinds of people here as well.
There are the people who who who actually desire to understand
the truth that Jesus is saying. And there are people who just
want to say, I just want to see who this Jesus guy is and hear
an interesting story. There's two kinds of people, the
people who wanna hear and the people who want to know.
In this nine his disciples came to him, and they asked him what
this parable meant. This thing he said to you, it
has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God.
But for others, they are in parables so that seeing they may
not see and hearing they may not understand.
Jesus is explaining here why he so often speaks in parables,
especially as we go through Luke.
We're going to see, especially from this point on, many
parables and he's saying I speak in parables because those who
truly want to know what I'm saying, they will seek it out.
But to those who are superficial and they just want to hear but
they don't want to know, it will be hidden from them.
It's a form of judgement for those who don't truly want to
know what Jesus has to say. That's why he he's speaking in
parables. But the disciples have come to
him and they said, well, well, we wanna know.
We want, we, we don't want to just hear an interesting story.
We want to know what you actually mean.
And I pray that that's true for you this morning as we dig into
what Jesus has to tell us about this parable.
I pray that you are not just left this morning with an
interesting story about soils, but what Jesus has to say.
And so it's on that basis that Jesus tells us the meaning of
this parable. So let's look at this meaning.
He starts with this. He sees.
Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.
Let's stop there for a second. He sees the seed is the word of
God. This is common biblical imagery
that that the word of God can be represented as a seed which has
a life of its own and it grows and grows and grows.
But we need to think about this. What is it that brings growth?
It's not charisma, it's not
humour, it's not eloquence. It's the word of God.
The word of God is what is going to bring growth.
God sees an Isaiah 5511 at my word.
When it goes out, it's not going to return to me void.
Now we need to understand this. When you are speaking the gospel
to your neighbor over the fence and you're speaking the Word of
God, it is not you putting the words together in a clever way
that brings growth. It's not if you can say
everything without stumbling or even if you're sweating and all
nervous. It's the Word of God that brings
growth. We need to understand this.
God works through imperfect means to achieve His purposes.
Because it is the word of God that brings growth.
Although I know as I preach, I'm going to make mistakes.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna stumble over words.
I'm gonna expand where I shouldn't.
I'm gonna say silly things. The word of God brings growth.
We need to understand this. The seed is the Word of God, and
now we're going to look at the different results to God's Word
going out. There are four different
results. We're going to see three of
them. Jesus is going to highlight
three different barriers to true hearing, three different
barriers from the word of God moving to our ears, to our
hearts, and then he's going to contrast it with the good soil,
the intended result. So let's look at 3 barriers to
true hearing. The first verse 12 is a hardened
heart. He sees this.
The ones along the path are those who have heard.
Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
so that they may not believe and be saved.
Now the picture here is a person who hears but straight away is
not at all interested in what Jesus has to say, not at all
interested in the word of God. They they are like this.
This trodden down path of the sea bounces off completely
closed off to the gospel. You can imagine in Jesus time,
he could be referring to the Pharisees, these religious
leaders who had heard Jesus's message of the gospel over and
over and over, and yet their hearts were hard to the truth of
the gospel. And he's he's saying that
there's actually a dual responsibility.
We hold responsibility because we have allowed our hearts to be
hardened. But he also says the devil is
playing a role in this. Look with me in verse 12, he
says. Then the devil comes and takes
away the word from their hearts. We need to understand that the
devil is real and the devil hates God's word going out.
The devil hates the reality that God's word is going out to
people and he will do whatever he can do to stop it.
Man, Satan just loves the thought of people sitting in
church replaying the highlights from last night's rugby game in
their head while the sermon is going on.
Yeah, we we must resist him. We do have a responsibility we
are told in scripture. Resist him and and he will
resist you. We should not give the devil a
foothold in in our life lest our hearts become hardened.
Paul describes this and an Ephesians that when we continue
to dwell and sin, he sees we become callous.
What used to bother us and convict us doesn't bother us
anymore. Are we leading?
Our hearts get hard? I wonder this morning, even as
I'm reading God's Word and and preaching, that you're sitting
there and you've got a hard heart.
It took some convincing to get you to church this morning and
you feel like you've already closed yourself off to spiritual
things, that the things of God. I ask you this morning to soften
your heart. I ask you to consider and take
heed to what Jesus is saying here.
How we hear matters. So that's the first barrier, hot
and hot the second, the rocky soil is suffering.
Barrier to true hearing is suffering.
Let's read verse 13. He sees in the ones on the rock
are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy.
But these have no root. They believe for a while and
then in time of testing fall away.
So what's the barrier here? Well, there's no route.
The route is shot down and hit the rock.
So when the sun of persecution and testing comes along, the
seed and the plant falls away. I I wonder how many people have
accepted the gospel, have followed Jesus with an
underlying assumption that it is Jesus job to make our life
easier, that it's Jesus job to make our life better.
I'll be a good Christian. I'll say my prayers, I'll read
my Bible, I'll come to church and and on the other side, God
will give me a good life and he will keep me from cancer.
You'll keep my kids healthy. He let me retire with enough
savings that it would be comfortable.
But what's the problem with that?
The problem is when our prayers go unanswered, when cancer
comes, when our life doesn't turn out how we want, then what
becomes of our faith? If the foundation of our faith
is that Jesus will return an easy life to us, well, in a time
of testing, our faith shrivels. We get the idea in the Matthews
version of this parable, he says, when a time of testing
comes on account of their faith and meaning, when we realise
that actually the Christian life, although we are saved by
grace, the Christian life is going to ask a few things of us.
It's going to ask us to sacrifice.
It's going to ask us to make decisions that we don't want to
make. It's going to ask us to turn
away from sin. Or when we find out that life
isn't panning out how we want, how are we going to respond?
Even just the day-to-day of a Christian life, the awkward
conversations that come up at work when people find out that
we're a Christian. Really.
You believe? You believe that there's a God?
Ohh OK alright, how are we gonna respond when the Christian life
is not easy? So often we can be like a child
who desperately wants a puppy, but then a few weeks, then to us
having a puppy, once they've weed on the carpet for the fifth
time that day, we go. I'm not too sure I want that
responsibility anymore and I want to encourage a Pharaoh and
Jessica man, It's an awesome decision you guys have made
today. But often after we're baptised,
that is when the tough times can come.
It's true for all of us. I'd ask you, how are we going to
respond when the Christian life gets hard?
My prayer is that your roots may go deep and your joy may go
deeper than your circumstances. Suffering can be such a barrier
to true hearing. What's the third barrier?
Let's read verse 14, he says. And As for what fell among the
thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way,
they are choked by the killers and riches and pleasures of
life, and their fruit does not mature.
So here the barrier is not so much suffering.
In fact, on the other end, the barrier is comfort.
Read it sees as they go on their way.
What are they choked by? Killers and riches and pleasures
of life. I think the idea here is someone
who so to say they're going through the supermarket with
their trolley and they find Jesus on the shelf and they go,
OK, well, I'll throw him in with everything else that I've got
going on here. And it sees they go on their
way. So I'm going to keep going in
the direction that I'm I'm going and I'm looking for ease.
I'm looking for comfort, but the problem is at the same time
you're walking through the supermarket and you're putting
other things in the trolley. Little bit of Jesus, a little
bit of sports, a little bit of relationships, a little bit of
career, whatever it is, this and this, and it's all mixed
together and you've got so many things that your goal is, how
can this make me as happy and satisfied as I can be?
And the illustration here is that the different thorns, the
different distractions endu choking out the one true thing
that was supposed to grow. There are so many distractions
that are at war for our heart. There are so many distractions
that are at war for our worship. And many of these, like I say,
are good things, whether it be sports, money, jobs,
relationships. But the problem is here is he
saying these things have taken precedent?
These things are in a place where they shouldn't be, and
they're choking out our devotion to Christ.
See, it's Lewis. See this?
He said. Prosperity knits a man to the
world. He feels that he's finding his
place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.
And I think the picture here is that this is not a person who
has heard the gospel and turned completely in full devotion to
Jesus Christ. This is someone who heard the
gospel and said, I'll add this to my trolley.
I'll add a little bit of this to my life.
And I think that for many of us, we could look at it, soil number
one, and say that's not me. We can look at soil #2 and say,
that's not me. But for me, I get to sort of
number 33 and I, I need to stop and think.
And I think for a lot of us, this is actually a call for us
to do a good amount of weeding. We need to be in control of the
competing ideals. For me, as I look inwards, I can
just see a selfish heart that is fostering so often, so many
different forms to grow and be in a place where they shouldn't,
and the soil of my heart, things that are competing for my
devotion to God, even simple things.
Hobbies. For me, golf, running, reading,
those things, you be like, those are fine things when they're in
the wrong place. Men.
How quickly do they become thorns?
They've taken away our devotion to God.
Jesus said that simply in Matthew 624.
He says you cannot serve 2 masters either.
You'll be completely devoted to 1 and you'll you'll you'll
despise the other he sees and in this context is saying you can't
serve both God and money. But you could put God and
anything else in that category. The thorny soil is is trying to
have more than one master. In its contrast, all of these
barriers are hardened hearts suffering comfort to the
fruitful hero in verse 15, The good soil.
Jesus sees this. As for that and the good soil,
they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest
and good heart and bear fruit with patience.
I want you to notice this good soil, how it contrasts with the
other three receptions to God's Word that we just saw.
He says firstly, the person and the good story lay here God's
word and they hold it fast. They are are grasping onto it.
This contrasts what what we just spoke about with the forms when
there's countless idols competing for devotion.
No, no, the person in the good soil says yes, this is it.
Jesus is the one that I will devote my life around.
I wanna hear it. I wanna embrace it.
I'm not just gonna add him to the shopping trolley.
You holding Christ fast? And then this is with a good and
honest heart, in contrast to the one on the path with a hardened
heart that is not receptive to the message of the gospel.
The good soil has a good and honest heart.
This is someone who's eager not just to listen, but but to
listen and be changed. And finally, he sees the
fruitful hearer bears fruit. With patience.
It's 2 prongs there. Firstly, he bears fruit.
Notice that this is the only one of the four seeds that actually
bears lasting fruit. He He is God's words and then he
acts on it. And I think this is the point
Jesus is getting at. True hearing doesn't just hear,
but it hears and it responds and it acts and it bears fruit.
Jesus kind of makes this illustration and and we won't be
able to get to it, but in versus 19 through 21, we read it
earlier at one point while his teaching his mother Miri and his
brothers come and they can't get to him because of the crowds.
And so that people say, hey, your mother and brothers are
here and Jesus wants to make a point and he says, who is my
mother and my brothers meaning who is my family?
Who are those who are net to me? He says in verse 21 it's those
who hear the word of God and do it to those who hear God's word
and bear fruit. But notice as well.
He season verse 15. These are people who bear fruit
with patience, overtime with patience and endurance.
This is picturing someone who has faced suffering, who has
faced the temptation of competing devotions, competing
distractions to loyalty to Christ, and yet they bear fruit
with patience. They realise often in the
Christian life it is a slog. There are seasons when it seems
like we are fighting with the same sin over and over and over,
and there are other things around us that are competing.
And yet this person and the good soil beers fruit with patience
and the promises that this person will will reap a
hundredfold meaning from them being patient and bearing fruit.
Jesus is making the point. Countless other people come to
know Christ good soil when they hear the word through this
person. This is a good soil that reap
the harvest, so we ought to pay attention to this and we ought
to have paid attention to Jesus Warning says in verse 18.
Take care then, how you hear? How do we hear the word of God
when she'd ask, What kind of soil do you have?
Are you the hard soil of the path?
Are you the rocky soil that that takes delight in the Word and
quickly falls away when tough times come?
He's a thorny soil. It's easiest.
I'll add Jesus to it, but there's a lot of other things
going on as well. My prayer is that we may be good
soil. We may have to do some weeding
to see that we may be good soil. That he is an ex.
I've got two things to say before I close and then we're
going to move into communion. I'll say this firstly, we need
to be reminded that we are called as Christians not only to
hear, but to. So we are not only the soil, we
are called to be the ones sowing God's word in this and for us as
so is this parable should do a couple of things I think.
Firstly, this should humble us that as we go out and we we
speak God's word, as we share the gospel, we speak God's word
to one another. I mean, the statistics are not
promising here, are they? Many are going to reject God's
Word. We need to be realistic.
Many people will reject God's Word.
Many people rejected the word straight out of Jesus's mouth.
And so it's true, when we speak God's word, we need to expect
turbulence. And yet at the same time, this,
this, this parable, it should fill us with resolve because
firstly, we don't know who was good soil and who was bad soil.
Oftentimes the ones that we assume are are firm as the path.
No chance. They are the ones who end up
turning from their sin and truly accepting Christ, and often the
ones that we assume are good soil.
There were thorns in their rocks.
But the hope is that if we continue to sow the seed of
God's word for those who do know, for those who do turn from
this and and accept the gospel, they're gonna reap a harvest.
Who shared the gospel with you? If you're saved, who shared the
gospel with you? Someone made that choice to
share the gospel. Maybe it was your appearance.
Maybe it was a stranger, a workmate.
Someone shared the gospel with you.
And praise God there was good soil and from that I prayed that
it has reaped the harvest. So we need to be faithful and in
sewing and trust in God for the harvest.
And I'll close with this as as we turn now to communion, which
we're going to jump into after this, and we consider the
barriers that get in the way between our ears and our heart,
I want to consider the cross of Jesus Christ.
As Christians, the the cross is the central event that the Bible
speaks about, where our Lord Jesus Christ came down to earth
fully God and fully man, living a perfect life.
And yet he went to the cross. And on that cross he suffered
and he blared and He died not for his own sins, but for our
sins that should we put our trust in Him, hearing his words
and bearing fruit and putting trust in him, our sins may be
wiped clean and we may be, as Jesus said, his mother, his
brothers, his family. We would have the hope of
eternal life with him. That's the essence of the
Christian message. He carries our sin and we carry
his perfect life. And to those who maybe you're
burier this morning is suffering the rocky soil, I just want to
point you to Jesus Christ as the ultimate righteous sufferer.
God doesn't not care about our suffering.
In fact, God himself and the person of Jesus Christ walked
directly into suffering. He entered into the greatest act
of suffering mankind has ever seen.
He bore the wrath of God. On that cross.
We have a God who suffered, and it promises us a few things.
It promises us through the cross and through the suffering of
Christ. One day all suffering will
ultimately come to an end. For those who have put their
trust in Jesus Christ, we have the hope of eternal life where
every tear will be wiped away, everything will be made new,
everything will be made right through the sacrifice and the
suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross and the suffering of
Christ. It also promises us that our
suffering, the suffering of anyone who is in Christ, is
never without purpose. The cross is the ultimate
example of of a grievous sin, but yet God used it.
God planned it, God worked it for His glory.
We have the hope and we have the promise that although we will
suffer, we have a God who is at work in and through suffering.
Suffering is never for nothing. Into the thorny soil I'd point
you to the cross and show you that as Jesus hung on that
cross, he showed us that He is worthy of our full devotion.
As the Him says, love, so amazing, so divine, demands my
soul, my life, my all. Jesus died on the cross that we
may be fully and completely devoted to Him, the Heidelberg
Catechism says. On that cross Jesus purchased
us. He says we are not our own but
we belong to God. And I pray today, whatever kind
of soil you find yourself in, that you might consider the
cross of Christ, you may consider the message of the
gospel, and see the love that God has for broken sinners like
us. So we're going to go to the
table now and take the bread in the car in which we remember
that event where Jesus died in our place that all may believe.
If we may, if we believe, we may be forgiven.
And so let's pray. Almighty God, we thank you for
your word. We thank you that your word is
powerful. We thank you for Christ and what
He's done for us. I pray, Lord, that as we have
been confronted by Your word, that you may be at work in our
hearts, that we may be good soil.
Pray for those Lord who do not know You today that they may see
the beauty of the cross and the beauty of the gospel and you may
tell U good fertile soil in their hearts that they may hear
and respond. Thank you for what Jesus has
done for us and we pray right now that you may be magnified
through us as a church, that we may respond to you in faith and
love, in Jesus name I mean.