Jesus’ message was designed for religious outsiders. There’s something beautiful in the way those on the outside react when they first hear the gospel. One person when he recently began to comprehend the message of Jesus, recently asked me: “Do you mean to tell me that Adolf Hitler could receive forgiveness?” We can expect to see a wide variety of responses to the gospel. In some people the gospel sticks. Yet in other people, the gospel slides right off of them like you’ve sprayed them with Teflon.
Today, we’ll examine a very important parable as you’ll find this same parable in Matthew, Luke, and Mark. It’s one of the best-known parables Jesus told and it is often called The Parable of the Sower.
“Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 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.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 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. 13 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 time of testing fall away. 14 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 cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:1-15)
Everyone loves a story. Stories are remarkably powerful things. They stir up our imaginations and excite our affections. They instruct us and inspire us. They intoxicate and influence us. They linger with us, often becoming more precious and poignant and powerful over time. During His earthly teaching ministry, the Lord Jesus, who was the master teacher and preacher, often used stories and illustrations as He instructed the crowds of people who flocked to hear Him. Many refer to these types of stories as “parables.” There are about fifty different parables of Christ recorded in the Gospels. In fact, about one-third of all of Jesus’ recorded sayings are parables. This is the first parable we have encountered as we have journeyed through Luke together. This isn’t Luke’s first parable as we have skipped over several (we’ll come back to them in the days to come). We know this parable is important because it’s found in three of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is also placed near the front of Jesus’ parables in each of these three gospels telling us of its importance. It is a rare thing when Jesus gives an explanation for the parable.
Because Jesus also gives us a rare interpretation of His story, the parable is seen as a parable about parables. You’ll see what I mean in a few moments. At first glance, you may think Jesus’ story is mainly focused on a farmer: “A sower went out to sow his seed” (Luke 8:5) It was a familiar scene to the people listening in Jesus’ day: a farmer with a big bag of grain slung over his shoulder.
Perhaps the people were even watching a farmer move his arm back and forth, casting seed on the ground in rhythm just as Jesus spoke. But Jesus’ focus isn’t on the farmer. Instead, Jesus wants you to focus your attention on the soil. Jesus wants you to pay attention to dirt.
1. The Parable is About Hearing God’s Word
Normally we don’t think too much about the ground under our feet. Yet, anyone who has dug into the ground and found good, rich, fresh earth, can feel the life in it. As good soil crumbles in your hands and slides off your shovel, it is much more than dirt. Jesus tells a story about dirt, the most basic of things in our world. Dirt is something we try to keep out of sight. We especially try to keep it outside of our homes. But Jesus is telling us much more than a story about dirt. He’s telling us a story where dirt symbolizes how we listen to God.
A clue to this end is how Jesus finishes telling His story about dirt with these words: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:8b).
Jesus offers four kinds of soil to call our attention to the importance of hearing. There are four kinds of responses to Jesus’ words:
“And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it” (Luke 8:5b)
And in verse twelve Jesus tells us: “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” (Luke 8:12).
This is the first kind of hearing. The second typical response to Jesus’ words is found in verse six:
“And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture” (Luke 8:6)
And in verse thirteen Jesus tells us: “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 time of testing fall away” (Luke 8:13)
“And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it” (Luke 8:7).
This is a second kind of hearing.
And in verse fourteen Jesus interprets: “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 cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Luke 8:14).
This is a third kind of hearing.
Lastly, we learn this is a fourth response to Jesus’ message in verse eight:
“And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold” (Luke 8:8).
“As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
This is a fourth kind of hearing.
Again, Jesus wants you to pay attention to dirt. Again, Jesus calls our attention to hearing by summing up His parable with these words: As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:8b). When Jesus spoke about ears, He didn’t mean the kind of ears that are just beyond our hairlines. Instead, He is speaking about an inner ear … an ear to the heart. An ear that hears the beauty and truth of Jesus’ words. An ear that knows Jesus’ words are compelling and transforming. And Jesus uses dirt to symbolize the various responses people have to His message.
Today, less than 1 percent of the US population works the soil in order to feed the rest of us. But you don’t have to be an expert in dirt to get the meaning of Jesus’ message. Listen carefully to Jesus’ words with your inner ear. Listen for the beauty and the truth of His words. Listen as His word is compelling and transforming.
The Parable is About Hearing God’s Word
2. Expect Counterfeit Responses
“And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.” (Luke 8:5b-7)
Experts suggest that even the hardest of rocks will eventually succumb to the elements of weather, sun, rain, and wind, in time. Whether its sand particles that can be as small as .05 mm or clay particles that are but .002 mm in diameter, experts estimate that the hardest of rocks will form one inch of soil somewhere between 500 and 1000 years. Yet, in place of pointing out the science of soil, Jesus points to different conditions of the field as examples of counterfeit ways to hear His message.
Jesus Himself is the sower in the parable. Notice there is no description of the sower. The focus is on the seed – God’s Word – and the soil – the gospel’s reception into hearts. Anyone who shares the Gospel becomes the sower. Jesus speaks of four types of soil where the scattered seed falls. Again, the soil is your response to the Gospel where the seed is the Gospel itself.
Only one of the four soils produces. Three of the four soils reject the seed. The problem isn’t with the seed but the soil. It’s the same seed that produces a great crop in the fourth soil that goes away in the first three soils. The first three receptions of the gospel are what is known as extrinsic faith. The last soil pictures the intrinsic faith. Extrinsic faith is following God for what it gets you. It’s serving God for what He gets you. But intrinsic faith is serving God for God. It’s only this fourth group that breaks through.
Notice it’s only this fourth group comes back to ask, “What’s the parable mean?” (Luke 8:9)
Jesus tells this parable to explain why people have reacted to His message in polar opposite ways. We’ve been seeing these reactions to Jesus’ message as we’ve walked through Luke’s message together. We’re reminded of the people at the synagogue in Nazareth.
“When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.” (Luke 4:28-29)
Here are the conservative, church-going people with their well-behaved families and their white-picket fences. They are the religious insiders that are often mistaken as followers of Christ. Yet, they stand in the way of the religious outsiders getting to Christ. Jesus experienced a dinner where sinful woman anointed His feet with ointment in the home of a Pharisee (Luke 7:36-40). The leader of the religious insider said to himself: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39).
Jesus immediately tells a story about the religious insiders and the religious outsiders:
“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:41-48)
Yet, here are examples of the kind of counterfeit responses that Jesus mentions in this parable. The religious insiders stand in the way of the religious outsiders to prevent them from seeing Jesus. As we began reading this passage, we read of several women. These women are examples of the fourth kind of hearing:
“and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means” (Luke 8:2-3)
Here are outsiders who hear Jesus with their inner ear. They sense the beauty of His words. It is interesting to me that Jesus does not standardize the crop in the other gospels. Where Luke tells us the good soil will produce a hundredfold crop, Matthew and Mark tell us:
“And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:8)
He doesn’t tell us that the responsive heart will memorize 500 verses, win X number of converts, attend X number of Bible studies. In fact, he says the crop will look different for every person, because the circumstances are different. Some will yield a bumper crop, some less, but in every case, the Word produces a significant increase of spiritual fruit. And in every case of the first three soils, it’s a depth problem.
In the first soil, the seed laid on top of the soil (Luke 8:5). In the second soil, the seed went just beyond the surface of the soil (Luke 8:6). And in the third soil, the seed goes no deeper of the thorns in the soil (Luke 8:7). In each case, the seed lacks the depth it needs to readily grow. Some of the seed falls on hard ground, and it never penetrates. A seed can’t germinate unless it goes deep.
Some of you are listening to the gospel with only your intellect. You haven’t listened to the gospel, really listened to the gospel with your inner ear. The gospel has to go down so deep that it bubbles up as instincts. The gospel, when it’s really in you, works at the level of your instincts. You are not forced to love, but you love at your core. You are not forced to be patient, but you are patient to your core. The gospel, when it’s really in you, works at the level of your instincts. Have you worked the gospel message to the level of your instincts? Have you worked it to your roots?
A few moments ago, I said this is a parable about parables. I say this because this parable is included at the beginning of nearly all of Jesus’ parables in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It’s like the gospel writers want to place this parable first, so we can understand something fundamental about all the parables we’ll hear in the remainder of the gospels. In between Jesus’ telling the story and His interpretation is a commentary on why He uses parables:
“And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 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.’” (Luke 8:9-10)
These words are Jesus’ summary of the words of an Old Testament prophet named Isaiah and are found in Isaiah 6:9-10. Just like any secret, Jesus’ words conceal as well as reveal. Some of you have a gift to hear God’s words. What separates the counterfeits from the real followers of Christ? Some hear with their inner ear and the gospel works its way to their instincts.
The Parable is About Hearing God’s Word
Expect Counterfeit Responses
3. The Gospel is More than Information
More than anything, I want to leave you Christ-followers with confidence in God. I want many of you to become sowers of God’s Word. To convince and inspire you, you must become confident in God and His Word. Look carefully at the growth in verse eight:
“And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” (Luke 8:8a)
We think of the gospel as information. We think of it as data like the binary data that passes back and forth over the internet. But it’s more than information. Again, Jesus likens the gospel to a seed. If you place metal or glass in the ground and water it, it won’t grow. Don’t bother with this as neither glass nor metal has no life in it. The seed is living. The seed is powerful. The gospel has power.
“since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23)
“receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21b)
The seed grows by itself. It’s organic growth. It’s growth from the inside out. It’s the vine growing a rose. When the seed of the gospel is in you, it grows. When the seed of the gospel grows in you, it produces a change in you. You know you are growing from the inside out, when you are growing wiser, richer, and deeper. You’re growing more confident and more humble at the same time. You witness your love for others grow. You sense your patience for others growing. This is a sign of the power of the seed – the power of God.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16) (Place this verse on screen)
The gospel is the power of God in verbal form. When you think of planting seed, it’s one of the most natural and easy things you’ll see. Planting seeds doesn’t require a pickaxe or a shovel. To plant the seed, you simply slide the seed under the soil. And the way your life is totally reoriented is just as easy and natural.
Look at verse fifteen: “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15)
Here you are called to listen, to understand, and to hold on to the words you’ve listened. Just like planting a seed, it’s so natural and easy. To have your life upended by the power of the gospel, you need to listen, to understand, and to hold on. Listening well, listening deep, listening in understanding is the primary skill of the kingdom of God. Without it, you can’t enter it. The power of the kingdom can’t come into your life. Without it, you can’t proceed. Without it, the kingdom power can’t flow out through other people. Your ability to sit down and listen, your ability to take in what somebody else is saying, your ability to truly listen and hear is the most important ability. Yet, it’s telling that grows the kingdom of God. This isn’t just a parable about listening but it’s also a parable about telling, about sowing. Anyone who shares the Gospel becomes the sower. For potential Christ-followers to hear, Christ-followers must tell the gospel.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day.
Patrick also is credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland, but this unlikely tale originated at a later time. Unfortunately, much of the popular lore about Patrick is largely untrue. Patrick's grandfather was a pastor and his father was a deacon, Patrick said that nonetheless in his youth he “did not know the true God.” At age sixteen, Patrick and several other Britons were carried away from Britain by a group of marauding warriors that raided his community. They were sold into slavery across the sea in Ireland, where Patrick labored for six years as a shepherd. Although he was isolated from any church or pastor, Patrick accepted Christ as his personal Savior. Patrick wrote, “There the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might, at last, remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God.”
Shortly after his salvation, Patrick said he received a vision from the Lord, warning him to flee Ireland and informing him a ship had been prepared for his escape. Patrick eventually made it back home to Britain, where he rejoined his family and later was ordained as a deacon. Nevertheless, Patrick was not destined to remain in Britain. He said he received another vision, in which an Irishman brought him numerous letters that implored him to return to Ireland. One of the letters read, “We ask you, boy, come and walk among us once more.”
Patrick submitted to God’s call to return to Ireland. Patrick understood his primary mission was to “preach the Gospel to the people of Ireland,” and he performed his mission well. His time in Ireland led to the conversion of thousands of the Irish to saving faith in Christ. Patrick is a remarkable role model for all of us. As Patrick himself proclaimed, “I share in the work of those whom He called and predestinated to preach the Gospel among grave persecutions to the end of the earth.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
