Wednesday, March 17, 2021 PM

And we are going to read the parable of the sower, verses 4 through 15. Before we do that, let's pray. Father, I thank you for gathering us together on this cold and blustery night. We thank you for the food.

We thank you for your provision in our lives. Thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, with whom you are well pleased, and how you have given him to us and given us to him. We thank you that he is now at your right hand.

And that he is reigning, and that we can trust him, and that you have sent forth your Holy Spirit to indwell us as your temple. And I pray today that as we look at your word, that you would make it clear to us, and that we would rejoice in it.

We pray these things for Christ's sake.

Amen.

The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8

Luke chapter 8, beginning in verse 4. And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to him from every city, he spoke by a 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.

Some fell on a rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.

When he had said these things, he cried, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Then his disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean? And he said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

Now the parable is this. 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. 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.

And 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. 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.

Why the Parable Explains the Kingdom's Advance

Now the parable of the sower stands as one of the lengthier parables that Jesus has told. In fact, in the other gospels, Mark and Matthew, Jesus even makes the statement, if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand all the rest?

Which means that this parable in some ways is a model for interpreting all the rest. Usually in the parables, Jesus might give some explanation about what the parable means, but sometimes he doesn't. And in this case, we have a most thorough explanation about his parable, and this gives us an idea of the way in which we should read the others.

Now notice the context that we have here. In the beginning of chapter 8, we looked at that for a couple of weeks, but clearly he's going through every city we read, and he is preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom.

So he has been going through every city and doing this, and now we read that people from every city have come out in a great multitude to hear him say more of these glad tidings about the kingdom. He even says so in the middle portion.

It has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, because they come and ask him and he's going to spell it out for them. That's the theme. That's what he's talking about here in this parable.

Sometimes this is called the parable of the sower, but others have said, well, it's really a parable about the seed. And then others have said, no, it's a parable about the soils. I don't know who's right.

But if we are going to stick with our way of reading the Bible, then I would say it's the parable of the sower, because Jesus is talking about himself as he talks about the sower. Now let's look at this, the story in and of itself, and see if we can understand what it means.

We don't as immediately understand the picture Jesus paints here as his original audience did. Let's read it again. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, some fell on a rock, some fell among thorns, and others fell on good ground.

Now, what is the man doing? I don't know how you sow seed, but if you're planting in a garden, sometimes you get down on both knees and you bend over, and you take this tiny little thing and you drop it in your little divot or in your little trench.

And then if you have OCD, you get out your ruler, and the packet says every three inches, so then you measure and you drop the next one. And then other times, you say, well, forget that, half my seeds don't come up anyway.

And you grab them and you try to sprinkle them like this, and then the wind catches it and blows it all the way over to the neighbor's yard. That's not what this man is doing. This man, a satchel of seed, he's carrying around his neck, and he's reaching in, and he's walking along, and he's broadcasting the seed like this.

And it's just a move like this. And you just see this stream of seed being thrown over a field. Curious. But no mention as to why the ground has not been plowed. There's no furrows. What about the plowing?

Well, it was a common custom day to plow after you had thrown your seed. You know where your field is, and for however long it's laying there a little bit, and the kids have been running through it on the old footpath, and people have been walking around it, and you've got some hard paths around it, and probably one right through the middle of it.

But you're planning to plow it all up anyway. And you're just walking around, and you're just throwing your seed out there wherever you walk. You're not stopping to consider as whether or not there's a rock just below the surface, some limestone with just maybe an inch of soil on top.

You're not thinking about that. You're not trying to figure out, you know, where the, you know, which area is going to have the worst thorns and weeds, and you're just throwing your seed. On the entirety of the field, throwing the seed everywhere, and your plan is then to plow it in.

The thorns will get uprooted, and so on and so forth. Some of the thorns will survive. As you're plowing things through, you might uproot a rock and toss it out, or you may miss the rock, and it may stay there.

While you're throwing the seeds out, I don't know if you ever had this experience in gardening, but if there's seed on the ground, birds are going to show up pretty fast. So this sower is walking around his field.

He's throwing the seed out. There's a footpath in the middle of it, probably. There's a footpath around it, definitely, and he's throwing his seed, and some of that seed falls on that path as he's walking around, gets stepped on, so on.

And before he's done, and before he's ready to plow it all under, the birds come and eat the seed. Well, there goes that seed. And then some of the seed, of course, is thrown on top of where the limestone is.

Just below the surface. It'll get plowed under, and then the stone's going to heat up faster than the surrounding soil, and that's going to make that seed germinate faster than the other seeds. They spring up first.

A little patch of wheat seed right where that limestone is, but they have no depth, and there's no moisture that can stay there with that extra heat, and so all that gets scorched and burned away by the sun.

Some of the other seeds, of course, land in where there's some thorns, and these thorns grow up along with the seed, and you always know the stuff you don't want grows faster than the stuff you do, and it gets choked out, and it's no good.

But then we also read that he was, but some of it fell on good ground. It was good ground, and when it's all plowed under, it's going to yield a crop. Now, Jesus says yield a crop a hundredfold. What does that mean?

That means one seed is planted, creates a stock of grain upon which is a hundred seeds. A hundredfold. Now, that's pretty impressive. You ever heard of that before? A hundredfold harvest? That's pretty impressive.

Have we ever heard of such a thing? Anybody here ever have a hundredfold crop? I usually put like a hundred seeds out. And I'm lucky if I get, you know, 10 of it to grow. I'm usually taking a loss. Hundredfold.

Who in the Bible? Here's trivia time. I'll award 15 points for the answer. Who in the Bible sowed himself a crop and got a hundredfold? No, it was not Job. He had the opposite effect. It was the seed of Abraham.

Isaac.

That's a trick question. Genesis 26, 12. Isaac sowed a crop and got a hundredfold harvest. I wonder if that's in the mind of Christ when he tells this story. A hundredfold. Now, he says these things. And again, they came out from all the cities.

He's been preaching about the glad tidings.

The good.

About to hear more. And he tells him this parable. And he says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now, let's not be confused about this. This is glad tidings. Some people read this and get all depressed.

I mean, we can manage to get depressed about the Bible. But this is really. They read it and they say, you see, there's four types of soil. And only one fourth of the types of soil gave a crop. And this means that we're doomed to 75 failure.

Well, that's not the story Jesus told. The man is not going around and picking out a seed. And he's like, I'm going to drop this on the hard path. And now I've got to go find a rock and drop that on the rock.

And I've got to find a briar patch and throw a seed in there. And then I'll put one over here on the good soil. That's not the story he told. This is just a normal story.

Everybody.

This is probably pretty boring for the people listening. They're like, yeah, so what? We saw that on the way down here. We saw that on the way here. We saw guys doing that everywhere. He just tells that story.

Who's interested? Who wants to know what it means? Well, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. So some of them come around him. His disciples ask him saying, what does this parable mean? They want to know.

And because they come to Christ to ask what, you know, what does this mean? He says to you, it has been granted, has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. A mystery is something that God has to show someone.

And it's been given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The rest is given in parables that say they may not see and hearing. They may not understand. He says now at this point, he's, he's chapter six.

So we've got to go back there and try to understand his point as he's talking to them. Now he's been bringing glad tidings of the kingdom. And he's told this story in which we're to understand that.

Yeah.

Some of the seed goes to waste. Some of the seed is doesn't work out, but the seed that does land in the good ground gives a hundred fold, which anybody listening to that would have said, wow, what a harvest.

That's the most interesting thing. It's how much harvest there is. So who wants to know more? Well, they come, disciples come around them and they ask, and then Jesus quotes from Isaiah chapter six and well, verses, let's see, verses eight, nine and following.

Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? He will go for us. Then I said, here I am, or here am I send me. And he said, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes. Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed.

And then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant. Land is utterly desolate. The Lord, taking places are many in the midst of the land. Yet a 10th will be in it and will return and be for consuming as a terebinth tree or as an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down.

So the Holy seed shall be its stump. Well, the stump has showed up. Christ has arrived and out of the remnant of Israel that had been judged, having been destroyed by Babylon. And of course, after the exile, they came back to the land, back to the city and what remained.

And for some, it steals from them the truth. But then it is mysteries. And he's going to all the cities, as we talked about previously. All of these cities are in grave danger within 40 years and are going to be destroyed.

Instructed by him how to survive. And so he's preaching this. Give this parable. And some of them hear it. They don't actually hear it. They see the picture he gave them in their mind. What it is that he said who came to him is granted for them to understand.

And then he begins to explain. The issue really is why isn't everyone agreeing with Jesus about this good news? The glad tidings of the kingdom.

Why?

As some of the other ones are. Why can't they all be like Simeon and Anna? Rejoicing in the glad tidings. Why are they not like the disciples? Why are some like the Pharisees and the scribes who want to kill him?

Or his hometown crowd in the synagogue who wanted to push him off a cliff. Why are they not all responding the same way? And then later on, there's going to be a variety of responses as well. So what makes the difference?

Well, Jesus explains how it is that the kingdom advances. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. And in all the cities, he's sowing the glad tidings of the kingdom. He's preaching the word of God.

So he's broadcasting the seed. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. Out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Now, who are these folks? Who have been given the word and given the word and given the word.

But then the devil comes and takes it away. Who are those who have been receiving the word? Yeah, religious people, right? All of these Pharisees and Sadducees, the scribes, the priests and so on, who have had from their youth the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise into salvation.

But Jesus says, you don't have the word abiding in you because they reject Christ. And so there are many who are like that in Jesus's audience. Those who when they hear receive the word with joy, and these have no root.

They believe for a while and in time of temptation, fall away. Now, who are the really excited bunch? Yeah, the feeding of the 4 ,000 and the 5 ,000 and the massive multitudes who, you know, he's healing and delivering them from demons.

More, more, more, until he starts, you know, talking, you know, eat my flesh and drink my blood. And they're like, see you, you know, so they have no root. They're really excited. And, you know, oh, yeah, glad tidings.

And then they all just kind of disappear under certain circumstances. Now, the ones who fell among thorns are those who out and are choked with cares, riches and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

Think of any examples of that kind of person? The rich ruler. Yeah, the rich ruler is a great example. Yeah, Judas Iscariot comes to mind. Somebody who chose riches, cares of this life over the gospel, the glad tidings of the kingdom.

So those are examples. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who having. Now, when we when we read that, we're not to then say, well, obviously, I had a good and noble heart, which is why it works so well with me.

If we read the rest of the story, that's not that's not Jesus's point at all. Clearly, having a noble and good heart, Jesus has already said in other places, and we'll say say it again, that this is the grace of God.

This is the grace of God that anybody would have a noble and a good heart. There is there is none good. No, not one. So it has to be you must be born again and so on. So that's how we understand, understand this.

And now when they hear the word, they what what's what's the what's what's the response? Having been gifted with faith in the new birth, well, the life that they have manifests in that they keep the word.

So it it turned it turns out to be obvious over time. There's a changed heart and so on. And so Jesus is explaining, okay, how does the kingdom? He says, here's a glad tidings of the kingdom.

How does it?

How does it spread? Well, it spreads by the word of God. Spreads by the word of God. So in the word of God, why do some reject it? Why do some receive it? He explains that. Usually, it is the it is seen to be proper that then go through each one of the different soils and say, you know, here's how you fix yourself.

That's not Jesus's story, right? That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the kingdom spreads by the word and the word sifts. He's telling these parables and the parables sift. And there are some who, by the grace of God, are full of life and they receive the word and produce fruit and they bear forth a hundredfold.

Well, what's that mean? Well, then that's more seed for more spreading. Okay, so that's the whole idea. That's the whole agricultural cycle that these farmers would have. If you had a hundredfold crop, that means you would have enough to eat.

But then you also have enough to re-sow. But then others would hear the word, but it's the word that sifts. But it's also the word that sows. And it's the word that spreads and the kingdom prospers by the sowing of the word.

So everything is on the word of God. It's on the word of God, the preaching of the word of God, the teaching of the word of God, the spreading of the word of God. That is at the heart. That's what matters of the sower.

Now, he is in the process, remember, of making disciples and showing them what they're supposed.

To do.

The Word of God, the New Birth, and Fruitful Discipleship

So he puts the primacy of the preaching and spreading of the word of God to them. And then we see that commitment pan out over the next questions, observations, or thoughts about the event.

You're talking about that third group?

Mm-hmm.

When he was in Jerusalem, when he stayed, many believed in when they saw the miracle. I call these unsafe believers.

Yeah, well, you have professors who profess under certain circumstances, right? Well, that's the thing. If you can convince somebody by evidences, and they say, well, I believe because of the evidence.

And if that really is truly the only reason why they believe, then they can be unconvinced by other evidence. If they only believe because of an experience they had, well, then another experience can totally undo that.

That's why it has to be the grace of God. It has to be the word of God and the grace of God. All right, well, let's…. Well….