Luke's Gospel

Luke chapter 8, after this, Jesus traveled about from 1 town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of god. The 12 were with him and also some women who had been, cured of evil spirits and diseases. Mary called Magdalen from whom 7 demons had come out. Johanna, the wife of Chooza, the manager of Herrod's household, Susanna, and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this this parable, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along along the path. It was trampled on and all the birds ate it up. Some fell on the rocky ground and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns which grew up with it and choked the plants Still, other seed fell on good soil.

It came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than that than was sown. When he said this, he called out whoever he is, whoever has ears to hear, let him hear His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of god has given has been given to you but to others I speak in parables so that though seeing, they may not see, though hearing, they may not understand This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of god. Those along the path are the ones who hear and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart.

So that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it. But they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.

But the seed on the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who's who hear the word retain it and by persevering produce a crop. No 1 lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, instead they put it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light for there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has has will be given more, whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.

Now, Jesus's mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to see you. He replied, my mother and brothers are those who hear god's word and put it into practice. Thanks, ma'am. I want you if you have 1, to imagine your oldest friend.

I don't mean your friend who is the oldest. But the friend that you have known the longest. I want you to hold them in your mind, the person that you've known the longest. They're very precious friendships like that, aren't they? People who we can be totally at ease with, people who know us, who usually find our jokes funny, who have seen us at our very worst and who have stuck with us, people that we don't have to pretend with, people that we can truly just be ourselves with.

It's very precious. Even if you haven't seen people like that for a long time, you normally can just pick up where you left off with them. It's as if time has stood still. It doesn't matter what you've done or where you've been. You get back together.

And, instantly, it's like you've never left each other's presence. Good, isn't it? For us to have friends that we know so well and who are so comfortable with very precious? And in many ways, I think the parable of the sower is like an old friend. Maybe you'll hear this evening and you would say that you know it very well.

And so when we read it, you weren't unfamiliar with anything. Even if you haven't read it for a long time, it's like you've just picked up where you left off last time you were considering it. Maybe you feel very, very comfortable with this story and its meaning. Maybe you could tell it and retell it over and over again and get all of the details exactly right. And there is something that is very, very wonderful about that.

I mean, don't we want portions of scripture that we are that familiar with. Wouldn't it be good if we were familiar with all of scripture? In the same way that we are familiar with the parable of the sower, it's good for Christians to know intimately god's God's word helps us pray. It helps us use it in our own discipleship and in the discipleship of others. But with it comes a danger.

1 of the things that I've noticed about very old friends is that the very thing that you enjoy about your relationship is also the thing that can be its greatest danger. It's like you just live in the past. You only ever talk about past experiences. You only ever talk about what you were and what you did and you don't spend much time growing with the person and finding out who they're becoming and who they will be. You get over familiar with them if you like.

And the same can be said of this parable. I remember, Phil Cooper, telling a story about this parable once, I think he was either in a home group or leading a home group. And, they came to this parable. And I think 1 of the chaps in the in, in the group when he discovered that they would be looking at the parable of the sower that evening, let out an audible sigh of frustration and couldn't believe that yet again in his Christian life, he was going to have to spend an evening thinking about the parable of the sower. Precious friends, can become over familiar.

But the thing is, and you may have picked this up in the reading, to approach the parable of the sower in that way is to ironically fulfill it. To approach the parable of the sower, thinking that there are no secrets of the kingdom to be disclosed to us here anymore. Thinking that there is nothing to learn about Christ and his word to us here, thinking that the fact that the Holy Spirit has preserved it for us yet again is in some way a mistake is actually to fulfill the cautionary side of this parable. It's to harden ourselves to it to sit in judgment over it and therefore to be unable to hear it. And so As we come to it this evening, let's pray that as we look at this parable again, it would actually be a great delight for us to be with an old friend.

That we would feel happy to be back with this story that we know, but let us equally pray that the lord would give us fresh ears that we might know it and its teller even better than we did before. Let's pray. His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of god has been given to you. Lord, Jesus, we come to you this evening, and we ask you, please, that you would give us the meaning of these things.

We pray that you would give us understanding. We pray that you would give us insight into this very precious friend. We pray that you would help our hearts to be like that good and noble heart that hears the word and retains it and through perseverance produces a great harvest. Lord, we want to have fruitful receptive hearts. And so help us we pray teach us spirit by your word in Jesus' name.

Our men. Oh, man. Now the reason we had these 3 stories read together is because they are triplets. I want you to imagine them as triplets. So, they are identical in some ways, but very different in others.

They are different stories, but they share the same DNA. They share the same genes, if you like. There is a similar theme which unites them even though they're different. And when you take them together, there are 3 big ideas that Luke wants us to get. 3 big ideas about Jesus and his kingdom and his words.

And here is the first emphasis that Luke, this careful doctor and historian wants us to see, and it's this. Hopefully, these points are going to, come up behind me. The first thing that we learn is that Jesus, the king is a preacher. He's a preacher. And when you take all of these stories together, that is just super clear.

He travels from village to village, to do what in verse 1, to proclaim. He is the farmer who goes from field to field to do what in verse 5. To sow the seed. He is the light of the world who came into the darkness, stood up on a stand, and shone in order to do what verse 16 to let the light of his truth shine. In verse 21, we're told that Jesus is a brother to those who hear his word.

He is a preacher. And what is it that Jesus has come to proclaim? Well, have a look at verse 1. After this brief, Jesus traveled about from 1 town and village to another proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of god, or is the old translations have it proclaiming the glad tidings of the kingdom of god. So Jesus hasn't come just to proclaim good news or good advice rather about how we can earn favor with god.

He's come to proclaim good news about something that god has done. In Jesus Christ, the kingdom of god has arrived, and he is the king. There has been a royal declaration. Jesus is king. And his kingdom has come.

When the, the latest member of the royal family was born, baby, baby Archie or Prince Archie. You noticed that there wasn't a referendum about whether we would like him to be in the royal family or not. There wasn't a referendum about whether he ought to be seventh in line to the throne. It's a royal declaration. It's his by birth.

He is in the royal family. And that is the same here. Jesus has come not so that if you're in the market for a new king, you might wanna consider him. Or if you're thinking about someone to rule your life, he'd be worth investigating. There has been a royal declaration.

The kingdom of god has come in the person of Jesus Christ. And when we flick back to the end of chapter 7 or the story in chapter 7, we discover what sort of king and what sort of kingdom this is. If you were here last week, we were looking at this beautiful story of the sinful woman and Jesus. And in that story, Luke tells us 3 times that the woman was a sinner and he tells us 3 times that Jesus can forgive sin. That is the sort of kingdom that he has come to bring.

A kingdom that offers forgiveness of our sins in him. So these are the glad tidings. This is the royal declaration. This is the good news that he has come to sew and to proclaim and to shine. The kingdom of god has come.

And Jesus is the king. And in chapter 8, Luke wants us to see very simply How incredibly powerful that message is. Just look with me at verses 1 to 3 again. After this, Jesus traveled about from 1 town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of god. The 12 were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases.

Mary called Magdalene, from whom 7 demons had come out. Joanna, the wife of Kusa, the manager of Herrod's household. Susanna, and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. During March in our home groups, we spent a few a few weeks listening to each other's testimonies.

Maybe you're in our home group and you did something similar. And, it was a great delight, wasn't it? Just to go around week by week and to hear 1 or 2 testimonies, and to get to know the stories of god's grace. And, despite the different backgrounds and the different influences upon people's lives, there was 1 thing that was just crystal clear in all of them, and that was that god had been at work. God had been at work to save and to help these people buy the power of his word.

His word had done this. His word has made our home groups. And I think that's important, isn't it? We need to strategize as a church. We need to push forward with new and creative ideas.

But Jesus teaches us that he grows his church and saves his people by his word. And the point of verse 1 to 3 is to say that that sinful woman back in chapter 7 was not the only 1 to have her life changed by god's word. There was loads of others like her. These women who are traveling around with him had experienced the power of his words, and now they are giving their lives to support his ministry. There's been these radical transformations in the group that Jesus is traveling with.

And his word has done it. The word of Christ has done it. The Bible tells us this, have a look, up on the screen, 2 verses You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of god. Psalm 29, the voice of the lord is over the waters. The voice of the lord is powerful.

The voice of the lord is majestic. And for the rest of this chapter, that is gonna be the issue. The words of Jesus Christ can bring judgment, but it can also bring a great harvest. The word of Jesus Christ can shine light into people's lives, but it can also cloud them in darkness. The word of Jesus Christ has the power to soften the heart or to harden the soil.

Jesus is that lord of Psalm 29, and his word has that power. So that is the first thing for us to observe. The seed and the light and the words are all ways of telling us the same thing. Jesus is a preacher, and he's come to preach a powerful message about his kingdom. The second thing that we learn in this section is that that king is sovereign over his word.

He is sovereign over his word. Now as I said last week, and, I would recommend you listening to that, downloading it if you can. We met this sinful woman, but we also met Simon the Faracy. And, you remember that Simon the Faracy was not ignorant of the hospitality customs of the day. He knew what they were.

He just chose not to extend them to Jesus. He was really rather a horrible host who wanted Jesus to feel outcasted and separated at his party. And so Jesus tells a story in order to show Simon his guilt. But that story as we get to the end of it leaves us with a big question, doesn't it? Why?

Why do we have a sinful woman who responds with repentance and faith and worship And why do we have a Simon who, as far as we know, remains in unbelief? Same king. Same message, same story that they both heard. Sometimes a sinful woman softened worshiping. Sometimes a pharisee hardened and critical.

Why? Why? Well, that is 1 of, if not, the main point of the parable of the sower to explain why. Have a look at versus 8 to 10. Still other seed fell on good soil.

It came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown. When he had said this, he called out whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of god has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, So that though seeing, they may not see, and though hearing, they may not understand. So as we all probably know, this is a parable about how we hear god's word.

And we're gonna have a think about how we do that best a bit later on. But the biggest challenge of all, I think, is to get to grips with the sort of king who would say something like that. Is to get to grips with a Christ who is this sovereign over his word. Look again at verse 10. Amazing what he says here.

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of god has been given to you, revealed to you disclosed to you, made known to you. That's grace. But to others, I speak in parables, so that, though seeing they may not see, and though hearing they may not understand. Now, that is a quote from Isaiah 6. And if you know the story there, Isaiah the prophet has just had this devastating encounter with the Holy God.

He has seen not only his own sinfulness, but the sinfulness of his nation. He has pronounced a woe upon himself But the lord came with an atoning hot coal to cleanse him from his sin. And then graciously to send him on a message of prophetic proclamation to the people of god. And what we discover is that Isaiah is given the job that very few preachers would want. He is told to go and preach a prophetic word to the people in order to harden them.

So that their hearts may become callous. He says, go and preach to make their hearts callous. That's his job. It's preacher. And actually, when you look at it, the verse, it's even bleaker than Jesus's quoting of it here.

Look on the screen. He said, go and tell this people, be ever hearing but never understanding. Be ever seeing but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous Make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes here with their understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

What a sobering mission that is for a profit? And why is he told to do that? Why? Well, when you look at the first few chapters of Isaiah, you see that god's people have been confronted time and time again with their idolatrous practices. Many times, god had graciously sent prophets to expose their sin and to call them back, but they had refused to repent.

They would not listen to the word of the lord. And so now he says, well, every time they hear it, every time Isaiah you preach to them, then my word will just bake them down harder. It will just callous up their hearts because they will not turn to me. And here's the verse that Christ quotes for his ministry. So it's not that Jesus is standing here playing eeny, meeny, miney moe with people's attorneys.

He's not saying randomly you in you out, you in, you out, Eany, meany, my moe. He's not like that. If he was, he wouldn't shout out Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. There's a sense in which Jesus here longs with every fiber of his being that that whole crowd would burst into life that every single 1 that's gathered to hear him would be like this good and noble soil. That every person there would submit to him that everyone of the crowd would be a sinful woman, not a Simon.

Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. But this is a consistent principle in scripture Those who resist god's word, those who resist god's son but keep coming to sample it or sample the word or sit in judgment over the word will be hardened by that same word. So again, it's not that Jesus is sat there with a daisy picking off the petals He'll love me. He'll love me not. He'll love me.

He'll love me not. She'll love me. She'll love me not. He's not in that business. But in the new testament and the book of Isaiah, when people refuse to repent, the word of god will only bake the soil.

But to those who come to Jesus, and we'll see this in a minute, to those who come to Jesus. The parables don't hide the truth. They make it clear. Warren Wisby, it was a a Bible commentator and preacher who died just in the past week. He said of this very verse, the same sun which melts the ice also bakes the clay.

The same sun that melts the ice also bakes the clay. In other words, wherever the sun is shining, something is happening, God's word never goes out in vain. There is always a purpose as we sit under the word of god. Isaiah 55 says this, we read it a bit later. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater.

So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. So back to our question, at the at the very base level, why do you get a Simon? And a sinful woman after the same sermon. Why do you get seed being trampled and see bursting into life?

Because to 1, Jesus gives ears to hear. He enables them to understand the truths about his kingdom. But to another, he speaks in parables, so that they will not understand. Friends, god is sovereign over his word. God is sovereign over his word, it never goes out in vain.

It is doing something here tonight as we listen to it. And so as we come to apply this point, firstly, we ought to be humble. 1 of the reasons I think we shrug away from this kind of Jesus is because by nature, we want a god that we can control. 1 that we are sovereign over, a sort of puppet god or an application god that we can get out and use and play with when we want That's the sort of god we like. It's interesting that whenever people try to recreate god in their own image, the god might look different, but the 1 thing the same as that we're sovereign over it.

It submits to our will. It bows to our word, but friends, that is not the god of the Bible. The proverb says that even the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the lord. And he turns it wherever he will. In my own preparation for this, this has been this has been the most striking thing for me.

To see that this parable is actually 1 of the most unsettling stories that Jesus tells because it confronts us with a Christ who is suffering over his word. Secondly, we should be grateful. If you're a believer here, what is the ultimate reason for that? God is the ultimate reason for that? God has softened your heart, and he has enabled you to come.

Left to ourselves We would bake us we would bake ourselves hard, and we would turn from him. But he has enabled us to come and to know the truth of the kingdom he has operated on our hearts to make that possible, we should be very grateful. That this is true. Thirdly, we should be confident in sowing the seed. Now that sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it?

And there's a temptation to throw up our hands and say, are you saying my are you saying my colleague is doomed? Are you saying my loved 1 is doomed? Are you saying that Jesus is gonna harden their hearts? But the opposite application is the 1 we should take. This should give us confidence in sowing because we can come and say lord Christ.

You have the key to every human heart. Your words can open the heart. Even if this soil has been baked dry for decades, You can open it lord. You lord can make it live. We see this in Isaiah 6.

It is wonderful. It begins with judgment, but then look at the end of Isaiah 6. Look at this verse right at the end. As the terabinth and oak leaves a stump when they are cut down. So the holy seed will be the stump in the land.

So you see what Jesus is doing here. When he quotes this chapter, he knows what he's doing. And what he's saying here is that there is a possibility for some. Some who are at the moment baked hard by the word. That they will be opened, and they will be softened.

You see, if the results were left up to us, it would be crippling, wouldn't it? If it was down to us to persuade people into the kingdom of god, it would be a burden too heavy to bear. But with this sovereign Christ, we can sow this word gladly and with hope. Fourthly, it should cause us to listen carefully. Now again, what's the point in doing that?

Because if Christ is sovereign, then he'll decide whether I listen carefully or not. Won't he? He'll he'll decide whether we listen carefully. But just look how Jesus weaves together his sovereignty and our responsibility in this section. Look how these things go together.

So here's the third point. We've had the king is a preacher. We've had the king is sovereign over his words. Thirdly, the king's people must respond. The king's people must respond, look at how we should respond in verse 9.

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. What is the difference between the crowds in verse 4 and the disciples in verse 9. What is the big difference between them? The disciples come to Jesus and the crowds, we guess, go home. You see, if we just come to sample the word, to see what it might do for us.

To try to sit in judgment over it. We will turn into concrete pavements. But if we come ready to meet the savior, saying lord, give me the meaning. Lord, I'm gonna come and sit under your word tonight and I ask you, please, to give me the secrets. Make known your word to me.

Give me ears to hear. If we approach like they did in verse 9. Then graciously, we can expect to see the kingdom truth. We are responsible for coming to Jesus and cultivating this sort of receptive heart. And so as you think about your listening, I want to ask, are you taking responsibility for it?

Are you coming to sample like the crowds or to search like the disciples? Are you a sampler, or are you a searcher? Softwarety, responsibility, or look again at verse 15. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word retain it and by persevering, produce a crop. Now that doesn't mean that some people naturally have good hearts.

Doesn't mean that there are some of us who are born with noble hearts. Jesus is saying that these hearts are good in comparison to the others. They hear, they retain, and by persevering, they produce a crop. That's what makes them good. Now interestingly, Luke is the only 1 who brings perseverance into this parable.

He brings in the idea that it's only through perseverance that we produce fruit in the Christian life. And so what is clear is that being excited for a while and then giving up on Jesus is not a very fruitful life. The fruitful 1 according to Jesus is not only the 1 who hears well, but the 1 who holds on tightly. They hear, and they hold and they persevere through the difficulties, through the worries, through the preoccupations of life, and in their persevering with Christ, They produce fruit. It's not always obvious, is it with people?

Whether there will be fruit, and the point here is that good abundant harvests take time to grow. And so that is the challenge from these soils. 1 that we're familiar with, but 1 we need to revisit. Are there things in your life right now that you can think of? Preoccupations with the world, worries of this life, whatever it is, things, things in life.

Which prevents the word taking root in this way. Perhaps you can look back on a time when you jumped for joy when you heard the word of god, you actually could measurably see the word of god changing your life concretely week by week, but now perhaps it's become more of a sampling exercise. Than a searching exercise. Jesus says those who are most fruitful will be those who persevere. Sovereign, responsibility.

Take heat. Or how about verse 16? Nobody lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand. So that those who come in can see the light.

This is 1 of those excellent illustrations that needs no elaboration. I mean, the idea of doing the opposite is ridiculous, isn't it? You imagine yourself searching your bedroom at night. It's pitch black. You're trying to find something.

Great. You discover the lamp switch. You turn it on. And then as soon as the room floods with light, you jam your pillow over it and suppress it and put blackout curtains around it and stop it shining after celebrating the fact that it was there, you then shut it up. Who'd who does that?

Who has blackout curtains to spare? Anyway, nobody. The same is true of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the best news that anybody could ever know, and it is here to be proclaimed. To hide it away, is to contradict its very essence.

Its essence is glad tidings. That's what it is. And glad tidings are only glad tidings if people are made glad by the tidings. It's there to be proclaimed, and so to cover it up is to contradict its very nature. And so the link between the 2 parables is this.

1 of the ways that we can assess how fruitful we are is how committed we are to shining this light. 1 of the ways we can assess how good and noble our heart are is how keen we are to share the message, which has changed us. A fruitful heart will persevere in listening, but it will also persevere in sharing. Software? Responsibility, let the light shine.

Or verse 18, very clear again. Therefore, consider carefully how you listen. Take responsibility and listen carefully. Whoever has will be given more, whoever does not have, even what they think they have, will be taken from them. You see the relationship there?

If we don't come to Jesus and ask for the meaning, If we don't listen carefully, then even what we have heard will be taken away from us in the end. If we do not combine what we are hearing with faith and repentance and worship, it'll in the end serve to judge us. More severely. But if we do listen carefully to Jesus, if we do persevere with that, the harvest will multiply year upon year upon year. The fruit will keep coming.

The harvest will keep growing. There will be more and more and more fruit. In other words, Jesus is saying cultivate a life of careful listening, and there will be a hundred times what was originally sown. In your life, sovereignty, responsibility, or finally verse 21, Jesus replied to those who are coming to find him, my mother and brothers. Are those who hear god's word and put it into practice.

Isn't that just amazing? What kind of people will Jesus call his mother and brother? What does that kind of intimate fellowship with Christ look like? Praying, reading the Bible. Jesus says those who hear and do.

Are my brothers and my sisters and my mothers. Hours of listening to sermons and reading the Bible, is is no bad thing at all. But if it isn't combined with faith and action, It's a recipe for disaster. Jesus says verse 21, have a look. My mother and brothers are those who hear god's word, but he doesn't leave it there, who hear god's word and put it into practice.

So do you see? Luke makes no apology putting these kinds of statements side by side. Incredible words, humbling, unsettling words about the sovereignty of Christ over his word. And real encouragement to take responsibility for our listening. At the beginning, I talked about this parable as an old friend, and it should be a very old and close friend.

1 we know very well, but not the sort of friend we can shrug off. Listening to the word of god is a solemn business. There are some people in this room who god has called to teach the word of god. But every 1 of us has the great calling. Of being good listeners to the word of god.

All of us have that calling. And if we want to be verse 15 soil, good soil, retaining soil, persevering soil, fruitful soil. If we like that description of our Christian lives, then we need to persevere with verse 9. Lord Jesus. Tell us what these things mean.

Let's pray together. Father god, we thank you that your Holy Spirit has revealed the lord Jesus to us again this evening. And we want to thank you that he is the king of your kingdom. We want to thank you that there is a kingdom that offers forgiveness of sin that we can come and be born again, that we can come and have our guilt and are wrongs washed away that we can come and fall at your feet and worship you and adore you. And yet, lord, we thank you that that same Jesus, the forgiver of sin is also sovereign over his word.

And lord, we humble ourselves before you recognizing that you are god and we are not. You are in heaven and you do as you please. And so lord, we come to you and we ask you please that, for as long as we are here on this earth to hear your word, that we would be like these disciples in verse 9, that we would keep coming to you hungry saying lord Jesus give us the meaning. Make the secrets known to us, we wanna be fruitful. We want to bear fruit for your glory.

We want to persevere. We want to shine out this light. Help us with pray not to bake our hearts, to harden our hearts to you. Help us not to be like this crowd. Who comes to sample rather than to search for the kingdom.

Laura, if there's 1 thing that we can take away from this evening. It's that we need your help and your grace if we are to be like this. So help us we pray in Jesus' name. Oh, man. Home man.