A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 19
Are You Ready To Listen?
Luke 8:1-15
After over twenty years in the ministry there is one thing that I am absolutely convinced of and it is that there variety of listeners in every congregation. You would literally be amazed at what a pastor sees from the pulpit as he looks out over the congregation each week. You have the opportunity to watch as people struggle to stay awake, and some cases not struggle to stay away. Almost every pastor has some funny stories to tell about people falling asleep in the service. Of seeing someone fall asleep and hit there head on the pew in front of them or being elbowed by their mate and standing to their feet and pronouncing the benediction. I find great consolation in the fact that even the Apostle Paul had people in the congregation to fall asleep while he was preaching (Acts 20:9). Perhaps even worse I read that “One Sunday during the sermon, a child settled in with her crayons and children’s bulletin. Seated next to her mother, this four-year-old glanced around at the adults in the pews, played a game of peek-a-boo with the “grandpa” behind her and inspected her elbows. Finally, she noticed the preacher way down in the front, ‘Momma,’ she whispered, ‘Who is that man talking to?”[Lori Carrell. The Great Sermon Survey. (Wheaton;
Illinois: Mainstay Church Resources, 2000) p. 33]
I really have a great deal of sympathy for those who have to fight to keep from falling asleep. Sometimes it is because of too keeping to hectic a schedule so anytime they slow down they fall asleep. Other times it is because of medication or other times, although I do my best to see that it is not, the sermon is just boring.
But falling asleep in the service is not my greatest concern. As I said it can happen for any number of reasons. What does concern me is that numbers of people who sit in a pew each week with their bodies awake but their souls asleep. Some people pay more attention to the commercials on television than they do to the Word of God. This is also a problem that Jesus was faced with.
As Jesus moves from the home of Simon the Pharisee and he continued his ministry in the surrounding region of Galilee, whole towns emptied to see the miracle worker in action and to hear his unique message (v. 1). The parallel account in Mark (4:1) adds that “… There was such a crowd along the shore that he got into a boat and sat down and spoke from there” (NLT). It was an impressive scene, one we might expect Jesus to have been impressed by such a large crowd. Today when we see a large gathering in church we are tempted to conclude that the Lord’s work is being done, but that is not necessarily true.
Any church in our country could be packed if just appealed to only the felt needs of the today’s society. People of the world love the “good news’ as long as it is the good news as they define it. But Jesus knew why that many had come to hear him. Some had merely come to sample it, to see what was going on. In fact some of them had no spiritual interest at all. Perhaps the more frightening of all some of them by their repeated hearing but not believing were become hardened to the gospel. Some people today that sit in church around this country are gospel hardened, because they have heard the truth so many times while doing nothing at all about it. It is to these people that Jesus now explains the truth through a parable. This parable is so important that it is recorded in three of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).
Verse five begins the parable, "A sower went out to
sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. (6) Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. (7) And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. (8) But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."
As Jesus completed the parable in verse eight he called out to the crowd, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
“The word “hear” is used nine times in this section and it means more than just the physical ability to hear. “Hearing” hear means listening with spiritual understanding and receptivity.” [Weirsbe. p. 85] Luke records that Jesus said, “Be careful how you hear.” And Mark records a different emphasis. According to Mark, Jesus said, “Be careful what you hear.” The emphasis is obviously on the receptiveness of the listener. Jesus is revealing that the condition of one’s heart determines whether there is any receptivity to the truth or not.
The disciples later in verses nine ask Jesus, "What does this parable mean?" So beginning in verse eleven, when Jesus is alone with his disciples he graciously explained its meaning. Jesus begins by explaining that, “The seed is the word of God.” The seed is a powerful picture of the word of God; within each seed there is an infinite potential for life. In the parallel account in Matthew (13:38) we learn that he is the sower.
In each case the seed is the same, but the soil into which the seed falls is what makes the difference. In this story four different responses are given, along with four different causes and having four distinct results.
As we consider each of the four kinds of hearts, we will first look at parable and then at Christ interpretation of it.
1. THE HARD UNRECEPTIVE HEART (vv. 5, 12)
The first soil is descriptive of a hard and unreceptive heart, verse five, “… And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it…”
Jesus explain this part of the parable by saying in verse twelve, “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
As the sower casts his seed some falls on the roadside and the birds flutter down and steal it away. Notice with me the characteristic of this ground. The ground was unbroken and hard. Because it landed on the pathways and road between the fields the soil never really received the seed at all. The seed just bounced off the hard surface and lay on top of it, ready to be blown away by the wind or carried away by the bird.
These hard beaten paths are characteristic of the hearts of some people who hear God’s word. Because of the busyness of their lives there much coming and goings and the incessant traffic of their lives has hardened them so that God’s word does not stir them. Some hearts are so callused as to be completely closed to the message of the Gospel. The word is stolen away before it can penetrate the hearts of the listener. Satan comes along and steals the word from their hearts with the reasoning of the world. The hard hearted man or woman dismisses the truth of the Gospel on the basis of their prideful superior intellect. They may not be hostile, but they are often simply uninterested. Their hearts are as hard as nails and dulled of all feeling by the sheer busyness of their lives.
2. THE SHALLOW SUPERIFICIAL HEART (vv. 6, 13)
Now the picture changes and we move from the hard unreceptive heart to the shallow superficial heart.
In parable in verse six Jesus says, “Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture….”
In His explanation in verse thirteen Jesus tells the disciples, “But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.”
The stony ground is not just ground with rocks in it, but rather it describes ground that is only a few inches thick with bedrock underneath. So when the seed is sown it quickly germinates but is unable to put down any real roots. When the sun comes out it rapidly scorches the plant which came up quickly, but because it is without roots it cannot get the water it needs to survive.
These listeners respond enthusiastically to the presentation of the gospel, but only because they do not have an inadequate grasp of its implications. The problem with the shallow superficial heart is that it always ready to follow whatever seems to offer the greatest reward. Many of this caliber turn back because they believe in a gospel that says, “One should never have to struggle or suffer if they are walking in the will of God.” They had their emotions stirred but they made no real commitment of their lives to Christ. They will follow Jesus only so far as it makes things better for them, make things happier and more prosperous.
The truth is that God has promised to be with us on the mountaintops and in the valleys. He will be us in the good times and in the bad. He has promised that he will never leave nor forsake us. He did not promise us a easy time, he promised that we would never be alone.
Those with a shallow superficial experience when the hard times come they are immediately offended. In other words, they quit. The demonstration of Salvation is not seen in those who endure for a while.
The German theologian Helmut Thielicke, once commented, “There is nothing more cheering than transformed Christian people and there is nothing more disheartening [disintegrating] than people who have merely “brushed” by Christianity, people who have been sown a thousand seeds but in whose lives there is not depth or rootage. Therefore, they fall when the first whirlwind [of adversity] comes along. It is the half-Christians who always flop in the face of the first catastrophe that happens, because their dry intellectualism and their superficial emotionalism do not stand the test. So even that which they think that they have is taken away from them. This is the wood from which the anti-Christian too are cut. They are almost always former half-Christians. A person who lets Jesus only halfway into his heart is far poorer than a one hundred percent worldling.” [as quoted by R. Kent Hughes. Luke: That You May Know the Truth. Vol. 1 (Wheaton: Illinois, Crossway Books, 1998) p. 290.]
3. THE BUSY CROWDED HEART (vv. 7, 14)
We move now from the hard unreceptive heart and the shallow superficial heart to the busy and crowded heart. In verse seven we are told, “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
Later Jesus explained in verse fourteen, “ Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
This type of ground is clear on the surface but underneath where no one can see there are all manner of weeds just waiting to spring up. In this life the word is choked to death. The thorns, Jesus explained represented life’s worries, riches and pleasures.” These three things choke out the word. There are the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of life. These pleasures can be entertainment, which pushes God out or sports or hobbies that come before the services of the church.
There are many who begin well and it looks like they are believers, but the love of this world and the concern for the things of this world and the pleasures of life strangle even the vestiges of life from their souls.
Based on the examination of the shallow superficial heart and the busy crowded heart we face the question, “Where these people saved, but then lost their salvation?” Is it possible for born again believers to become so tempted by sin or overwhelmed by affliction or choked with the worries of this world or the pleasures of life, that they lose their eternal reward? The answer is unequivocally no. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that once a person is “born of the spirit” he shall never perish. The question is not whether one can lose their salvation, but whether or not one has ever been truly saved.
4. THE RECEPTIVE PRODUCTIVE HEART (vv. 8, 15)
Finally the Lord outlines in verse eight, the receptive and productive heart, “But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."
Jesus goes on to explain in verse fifteen, “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
First of all notice that the ground is prepared. Jeremiah 4:3, “This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: "Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns” (NLT). Hosea 10:12 says, “`Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you’ (NLT).
In 2 Chronicles 12:14 it says of King Rehoboam that “he was an evil king, for he did not seek the LORD with all his heart” (NLT). Later in 19:33 it says that says of the people of Jehoshephat’s reign that “for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.” We have a responsibility to actively seek the Lord and to do all we can to avoid those things that cause the word to be unfruitful in our lives, then and only then will we be productive for the Kingdom of God. Rather than grieve for the seed that does not come up, we should be thankful for the seed that does produce.
The three characteristics given of “good ground” is that they hear “with a noble and good heart.” Secondly that they “keep it” or hold fast the word. The result is the third characteristic that they “bear fruit with patience.” The kind of listener that pleases God is not the one that makes a dramatic start and then quits or the one whose commitment is slowly choked out by worldly concerns, but rather the one who thoughtfully hears the gospel, understands it implications, and then consistently grows and matures and as a result bears fruit.
Conclusion
The condition of our heart determines whether we receive the word. Let me ask you; “What is the condition of your heart today?”
The abiding principle in hearing God’s word then is “Use or lose It.” Or even more appropriate, “Do it or lose It.”
Hearing is absolutely worthless if it does not result in doing. If we do not put in to practice the truth we have heard it will fade.
Has God impressed upon you someone you should forgive? Then do it.
Has God impressed on you that there is someone you should apologize to? The do it.
Has God impressed on your heart someone that you should share the truth with? Then do it.
Has God impressed on you that there is a practice that you are to stop? Then stop thinking about it and do it.
Has God impressed on you to send a note of thank you to someone? Then sit aside the time and do it.
Had God impressed on you that he are to stop what you are doing and serve him? Then stop rationalizing and looking for signs and do it.
