Varying Responses Luke 8:4-15

Worship, Announcements, and the Call to Baptism

Bible Church, it's great to be here with the Lord's people and in his house. For announcements, kind of the usual, we have a prayer meeting this evening at 6, the summer Bible study is continuing, 5 .30 on Friday, going through Hebrews.

You know the missionary of the month, Jim and Joan Hansen. The picnic at Huffam's house on July 16th after the morning service and a planned baptismal on July 23rd. So do be in prayer if you haven't been baptized and would like to consider that, pray about it, talk to us about that, that would be a tremendous blessing.

It's a testimony of your faith and of your trust in Jesus and there's nothing saving in the act of doing it. You are saved if you are being baptized, it's just a proclamation and testimony that you are the Lord's, so think about that.

Okay, I wanted to share, pastor went through Psalm 66 this morning and about giving praise to God and that's what we do, should do, every day of our lives, every moment, but we know reality sets in, our busy lives set in, distractions, family, job, whatever, you name it, insert whatever you want to put in there, but we get distracted and our focus can depart from from the Lord.

But in Psalm 66, it's David talking about giving praise to him and reflecting back on the present and then also on the future and I just wanted to share a few words from a commentary that I'd like to read.

The psalm describes many components of authentic worship. Genuine worship will cause the believer to lose sight of himself in the light of God's glory. This will move the worshiper to sacrifice his life for the glory of God.

The believer should offer his entire being to God as a living sacrifice. Moreover, the authentic worshiper offers God a spotless sacrifice that is without blemish. The worshiper should scrutinize every area of his life to see that it is in line with the holiness of God.

This can be done only as the believer renews his mind in the Word of God so he does not become conformed to the world's system that is steeped in sin. And that's one of our my greatest challenges is not to be conformed to the world because we're bombarded by it every moment of every day practically but we need to be our minds need to be renewed in the Word and that's that's that's our responsibility that's our duty as believers.

Okay well let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our dear Heavenly Father we thank you that you have gathered us together today. Lord we may praise you with a whole heart Father not being distracted by the things around us things that we may have brought with us Father.

We lay them at the cross Father at the foot of the cross that we might find relief and find that place of committing and giving things over to you so that our our burdens might be lightened that you might be glorified in the process Father.

We know you bring us through trials in our lives but we know that they're for our good Father and that there is hope and there is relief in the end Father. So God bless us this morning as we worship you corporately as we raise and lift our voices Father to you.

May each one worship unencumbered Father just in a total acknowledgement of who you are and of how glorious you are that you are the giver of all life and that we should be on our knees before you Father as as we come to you in worship.

So God bless those that are not here today that are traveling and that have other responsibilities. Lord may you watch over them and that may you guide their hearts as they come to you as they worship you wherever that may be Father.

So God be with us now bless pastor as he brings your word to us. Father thank you for the musicians and for their commitment and their dedication in in leading us in song. So God we lift everything up to you or we commit it to you we pray all these.

Sayings in Jesus name amen. Salvation. Deliverance from harm ruin or loss. Deliverance from sin and its consequences. Jesus Christ is Lord in him I put my trust I will never be ashamed. He is God and delivers us in his righteousness.

Let us make a joyful noise unto the Lord. He gives us good things.

And he is our salvation. Today I'm gonna be reading Isaiah 55 6.

Through 11. Again that's Isaiah 55 6 through 11 and that's from NKJV today. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes from goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. And thank the Lord for his word. All right. Let's stand and sing to our.

The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:4-15

Heavenly Father he's turned with me to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8 verse 4.

Through verse 15. Luke chapter 8. Verse 4 through 15. 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 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 hath said these things he cried he who has ears to hear let him hear. Then the 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. The seed is the Word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts lest they hear. Let's let's 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. 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.

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. No one when he has lit a lamp. Oh this is the word of the Lord.

Let us pray father we are thankful that your word bears fruit. And we pray that today for all of us who hear your word that we would bear fruit that we would know what your will for us is and that we would cherish and delight in your word help us to grow in faith this morning in Jesus name.

Amen. So from chapter 7 to the beginning of chapter 8 Luke showed us the importance of faith in Jesus ministry. Right. The centurion servant was healed by Jesus even though he never met Jesus because the centurion himself believed that Jesus had the authority to heal.

Just say the word. And last week a notoriously sinful woman comes before Jesus and departs forgiven because of her faith. There is this emphasis on faith in Jesus ministry. Now this section from verses 4 to verse 21.

So going to next week as well this section focuses on the proper response to Jesus. It's that of a total trust. This section calls all who hear his word to respond in faith. In this passage actually deepens the difference between those who are just merely interested like the crowd and those who do respond in faith like the disciples.

There is a division that's coming into the scene between the disciples who do respond in faith and the rest of the crowd. And today's parable answers the question what are different ways people respond to Jesus words.

What are different ways people respond to Jesus words. Oftentimes especially when we first are saved we think that the only obstacle for for others from coming to faith is just that they don't know the sheer ignorance right.

I've gone through that too. And and when when we have that expectation like oh now you've heard the gospel so do you want to believe. And oftentimes it's it's no but and that can be disappointing right.

When I when I in college I lived with a roommate who grew up in a Christian household but he he renounced his faith. He didn't believe. It was clear through his action. But also he verbally said so it wasn't a mystery he wasn't trying to hide it.

And during my sophomore year that's that's when my faith grew the most. I started praying and I started reading the Bible. And I started going out of my way to listen to sermons. And it felt like I was just being impacted by the word preached you know expository sermon.

And I I thought naively if only I can get my roommate to listen to the sermons with me. Either by taking him to the church that's preaching good sermons. Or even just like on podcast. Right. The podcast app has myriads of sermons that are great.

So I would set him down on Friday evenings like hey just listen to this pastor with me. It just changed my life and I I was hoping after the 40 minutes that oh he's gonna return to Christ that he's gonna believe again.

I was wrong. I mean bless his heart that he listened to a lot of sermons with me he went he visited many churches with me. But still what I needed to learn was that there are different responses to hearing the God's Word.

It's not just the sheer ignorance that's keeping them from believing. And today we do see various responses of hearing God's Word. And only one of the four leads to faith that produces fruit. So the first point true disciples of Christ must listen to Jesus parable.

True disciples of Christ must listen to Jesus parable. So the context of this teaching of parable here is shown in verse 4. And when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city he spoke by a parable.

We can see that Jesus ministry is in fact growing in numbers. Right. There is some really a huge amount of growth that it says that people are gathering from every city surrounding city. They're all gathering now.

They're doing this because they're hearing of Jesus miracles what he's doing his acts. The crowd is more than just those who trust him. Right. But there are people in the crowd who don't much about him.

They're curious they want to find out more about him. And often there are those who even misunderstand him. And in this context in this context Jesus tells a parable. A parable is a type of story with metaphors to illustrate and teach a harder concept in this case a spiritual truth.

And it is important to note that a parable is not an allegory allegory. Right. In allegory some every part of an allegory links to something else in reality. However not every part of a parable must link to something in reality.

More importantly we do not get to decide what the characters and things in the parable relate to. In reality when you hear a parable we are restricted to what scripture reveals to us what these things actually connect to in real life.

Or else there would be an infinite amount of meanings to one parable. Now the number has this other. The parable here has four different soils and four different responses to the seeds that fall on these soils.

First 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. In this agricultural culture this would have made a lot of sense.

So I will take some time to explain the agricultural background. See around late fall or early winter a farmer in ancient Israel would go out to plant seeds and the seeds were not planted one by one as you may do in when you're gardening right making sure that each seed is well taken care of.

But rather because there's so much to do the seeds are just freely tossed around the area in which the the farmer would expect the crops to grow. So the reality is that not all would make it to the most favorable soil.

And the first scenario is that the seeds do not even germinate. Right. They don't even sprout as they are trampled by other people on the wayside or devoured by birds. And those seeds do not produce any fruit.

And verse 6 tells us what happens to the seeds fallen in the second type of soil. Some fell on rock and as soon as it sprang up it withered away because it lacked moisture. Here we see a development from the previous case right.

There's actually some growth from the seeds. Yet similar to the previous scenario there is no fruit. When Jesus says rock it does not mean the sower decided to throw his seeds just waste them by throwing at piles of rocks.

Rather the rock here means the there was it's a shallow topsoil. There's a shallow topsoil and underneath it is a solid bedrock and and those are pretty common in Palestine right. The seeds are thrown on top of topsoil so on the top surface it just looks like good soiled.

Right top soil is where the nutrients are for the plants to grow. However the topsoil happens to be through too thin so the thin topsoil allows for the seed to germinate and grow for a little while. However because the because of the shallow soil level the plant cannot deeply root.

So without the deep roots the plants are not able to absorb enough water to survive the scorching heat in the Middle East. So the plant withers away despite the promising start. And again these seeds also do not produce any fruit.

The Gospels are met according to Matthew and Mark actually show that they're not deeply rooted while Luke shows that the plants don't get enough moisture. But they're basically the same saying the same thing because plants get their moisture from their roots.

And if the root cannot get moisture from a bedrock and a it's not deeply rooted and be it will die because it's not getting enough moisture. The third group of seeds land among thorns and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

These seeds actually land on good ground and there's there's a chance to root deeply. So there is some development here. It does not have to wither away like the last soil. Now however there are thorns among the seeds and in Palestine weeds can grow up to six feet tall and that would overshadow any surrounding plants.

After all most crops don't grow to that height. And not only that because the weeds grow fast they would be using the nourishment in the soil that would be necessary for the seeds to grow in a manner to be fruitful.

So because it would be difficult for the seeds to grow competing against the thorns and thistles the the plants did not produce fruit. And of course the sowers did not go out of his way to look for thorns and thistles to throw his seeds there.

It's just that the thorns and thistles you do they just sprang up with the seeds. You sometimes don't know that the thorns are gonna grow here. They just happen to grow and they grow fast. And the last group of seeds and others fell on good ground and sprang up and yielded a crop a hundred fold.

So unlike all the previous grounds the seeds that fall on the good soil all yields fruit. There are fruits being produced. And the fruit production is not just average. Right. On average you might get 35 to 60 little seeds per stock.

But here we get an exorbitant amount as we get a hundredfold. Right. And and that's that's the thing about a parable. It's it's intentionally there to mean something. It might not relate 100 to what you would expect in real life.

It's to prove a point. Now after telling this cryptic parable Jesus loudly commands he who has ears to hear let him hear. It's a command. Listen to this parable. Now what could this parable mean. First not all soils produce fruits.

Some are eliminated before germination. And there are various ways all these seeds are in fact prevented from growing to bear fruit. The goal here really the end goal here is not just sprouting. The end goal here is that there's fruiting there there.

Thus all the seeds actually bear fruits. Now some actually do produce fruit. And as much as we would like to know what could this this mean we must listen further on to understand what it means. We don't get to choose.

Oh I think the seeds mean this. Oh I think all the grounds mean this at first if we don't read on it's tempting to just say all the seeds mean faith. After all faith grows. We see that in the Bible. But we got to read on because we don't get to decide what the spiritual truth behind this parable is only the author of the parable decides.

And that's Jesus. Now before that what is the purpose of the parable. Right. Why is Jesus speaking to a big crowd in such a cryptic way. While the parable conceals God's revelation from the unbelievers who have hardened their hearts against Christ it reveals God's plan to his disciples.

So while the parable conceals God's revelation from the unbelievers who have hardened their hearts against Christ the parable itself actually reveals God's plan to his disciples. So unsurprisingly after hearing the parable Jesus disciples not the crowd Jesus disciples approach Jesus and ask him what does this mean.

What does this parable mean. And this is important because the key to understanding the parable has to come from the source of the parable. The readers and listeners do not have the authority to plug in what they think.

The meaning of the parable is this is extremely important. The meaning comes from the authorial intent. The meaning comes from the intention of the author. In fact this is how we ought to treat any speech any text.

If we're confused about the meaning we have to go to the author. And we naturally do that. When we receive a confusing email or text message from someone we don't try to interpret that. We actually say what do you mean by that.

Because the meaning comes from the author. This is pretty sad. Because we live in a culture I would save in the for the first time in human history where they try to find meaning from the readers. What does it mean to you.

Well for me this means for me there are 350 genders. For me the Bible is telling me just go get that job. For me Goliath represents the hard co-worker or the boss who's just so so formidable. There's always a going against me.

That's not how we read a parable. And that's also not how we read the Bible. It's illogical and it's unbiblical. Now before answering their question Jesus shares the purpose of the parable 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 might not understand. And by telling parables Jesus accomplishes two things. Two purposes. First the parable separate the disciples from the rest.

His disciples are actually given the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The passive verb they are given implies that God is the implicit subject. The mysteries actually come from God. The mysteries do not come from the elite Christians.

The mysteries do not come from pastors. The mysteries do not come from the Pope or the traditions of men. The mysteries come from God and that's revealed by God. And they will understand because God himself will reveal to them the mystery of the kingdom.

Second the concealment is a judgment against the rest. Even though the disciples will understand Jesus message through the parable the rest will only hear it as parables. The rest will hear it as a cryptic message.

Obviously Jesus is not giving an agricultural advice of how you ought to farm better. The meaning will be lost to the hearers who are not followers of Christ. The quotation seeing they may not see and hearing they might not understand is from Isaiah chapter 6 verse 9.

It's it's part of that quote. It's part of that verse. In the context of Isaiah the Lord commissions Isaiah to speak the Word of God to the hardened heart Israel. Israel that has been ignoring God and has been going according to their own path in worshiping false gods.

They've already hardened their hearts against Israel. Now the judgment against them is that even though they hear the warnings from God through the Prophet Isaiah their continued hardened heart will prevent them from understanding the warning from God.

So even if they hear it they will not be able to follow the warning do anything about the warning because they will not understand it. And in fact the judgment. This type of judgment is all too prevalent in the modern church today in denominations and local churches that have strayed from the Bible and have accepted the teachings of man what's culturally relevant and popular based on regarding sexuality gender you name it how to spend wealth all sorts of things just veer from what the Bible says when you listen to their sermons.

Or if there are sermons anymore even if they read from the Bible the sermon itself is so out of context it's so misunderstood. Even a new Christian who believes in the Bible would be able to point out there's something wrong here right.

And some of you might have left those gatherings on purpose because of that. You're you're getting you're you're hearing the word read out loud. Yet the message from the word does not relate whatsoever.

And what. And that's that's the current relevance application of what Jesus is saying. For those who have hardened their hearts already it's not that they're gonna misunderstand what they particularly specifically chose to ignore but rather they're not gonna understand all of it.

It's they're gonna hear it. But they're not gonna understand it. That's a judgment in itself and in Jesus ministry. This Isaiah passage applies because despite Jesus miracles and some teaching he has been teaching already.

Right. Many in Israel Israel resisted Jesus and his word like the Pharisees they will not be. They will not admit that Jesus is from God. They will not admit that John the Baptist is from God. They but they've seen the signs they've seen how which scripture have been fulfilled by their coming.

But they resist that. So what it's saying is as a judgment. God will prevent them from receiving and understanding Jesus message. And Jesus will still teach and proclaim his word to them. But their heart and hearts will prevent them from receiving the blessing of God's revelation and the parable functions in that context.

They'll hear the parable. They will hear every word of the parable but they will not know what it means. Their darkened minds will prevent them from faithfully responding to God's invitation to repent.

And that's what we will see until the end. How the Pharisees respond. They've. It's not that they haven't seen the signs. They've seen the signs. It's not that they haven't heard Jesus teaching. They've heard it.

Yet they will still resist it and not understand it now. This is important because the reality is that not everyone will understand the secrets of God's kingdom. No matter how much they listen it will just be a parable to them.

And there are non-believers who have read the Bible and heard the gospel numerous times yet cannot see Jesus as the Lord and Savior. They grew up in the church. In fact they might still attend church.

That's the sad part. Yet they don't understand. For example the Catholics read the New Testament yet find Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross insufficient that they have to rely on their own works.

Although the Bible over and over again talks about how it's their faith alone and by God's grace alone. Grace by definition means it's not earned. It's freely given. But because they place the tradition of men on the equal ground as the Word of God that's how they've hardened their hearts.

Many are prevented from seeing and understanding the gospel message that it's freely received. You don't have to do a thing. You just trust that Jesus died for your sin. And that is all you don't. You're not saved from baptism.

That's what they believe. You have to be baptized. You're not saved from. You're not saved from even adding your works. Indulgences still do exist in the Catholic Church. We think that's soft. They just can't sell it.

They give it away. If you visit a famous Catholic Cathedral they will give out indulgences. And those indulgences will shave time off of your purgatory. Because unless you're really really really good there's some sin that needs to be paid off.

Second Mormons find the Word of God insufficient to rely on their own heretical book to understand the Bible. If you talk to Mormon missionaries and you share the gospel with them they will try to connect it and read it in that with the lens of their book the Book of Mormon.

You quote something about like Romans 5 that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. That shouts grace. I don't know about you. I didn't earn it. I am a sinner and he had yet still he died for me.

I wasn't good enough and he died for me. And then they would say well that is that concept is found in the Book of Mormon. And they will open to the page. That's the hardened heart against the Word of God.

Jews have there's the same Old Testament as ours. That's that's actually how we have the Old Testament canon. It's what the Jews found to be scripture. That's why we don't have Apocrypha like the Catholics do.

We're going with the Jewish tradition. Every book in the Old Testament for the Bible that we have here is found and held war. And those books were held as scripture by the Jewish Saints in the Old Testament.

Right. We're following the tradition here of true faith. Now they have the Old Testament. They can read about the messianic prophecies. He was pierced for our transgressions wounded for our sins. But they don't want to see Christ as their Messiah.

Their hardened heart will prevent them from seeing the myriads of messianic prophecies about Christ that fit really word-for-word. And it remains unclear to those who have hardened their hearts against Jesus.

Now however to those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior God reveals the secrets of his kingdom to you. God through the Holy Spirit will help you understand his word the Bible. Not only that the confusing parts of the Bible can be understood and interpreted through the clearer texts of the Bible.

Scripture interprets scripture. The harder parts are interpreted by the clearer parts. You do not need the church's authority. You do not need my confirmation. God reveals to you his word through his spirit.

And I'm always surprised by how a new believer understands the core of the gospel much better than an unsaved theologian who has devoted decades of his life studying the text in the original languages yet relying on his own understanding rather than Christ.

There was a one German theologian liberal theologian. He didn't believe Christ was divine. Was God. Right. He had the whole New Testament memorized in Greek. I can't say that about myself. Yet. When when one missionary sitting in his class asked the question professor von Harnick who was Jesus Christ.

The farthest he would go was Jesus. Jesus was the greatest man who's ever lived. And when he pushed more to get him to say he is divine he's God. He's God incarnate. He wouldn't budge. Knowing all of the New Testament in Greek was not sufficient because it was hidden from him because he refused to see that Christ was God.

Hearing the Word and Responding in Faith

Now what does this parable mean. Jesus reveals that there are different responses to hearing God's Word but only those who listen and trust his word produce fruits. Jesus reveals that there are different responses to hearing God's Word but only those who listen and trust his word produce fruits.

Here if you go back and read the parable itself every single one will actually receive God's Word. And when we look at Jesus interpretation from verses 11 through 15 every single response contains listening.

Hearing when he heard or after hearing. When hearing it's not like they're. They can plead this ignorance. They've all heard it. But only one bears fruit because that type of response that person trusted the word.

Now after disclosing the purpose of the parable Jesus interprets the parable now parent. Now the parable is this. The seed is the Word of God. This is crucial. We do not get to hijack and and claim that the seed is something else.

And you will hear teachers and preachers do this. They might say oh the seed is the potential believer. Or the seed is the faith of the believer or the seed is the kingdom of God. Not here. The seed is the Word of God and the Word of God is being spread everywhere.

And we will see different ways in which God's Word affects various people. Another thing to consider is that this parables purpose is not to show the manner of growth in faith. As in you start with the first type of soil where the words are eaten up by the devil.

And then you grow to the rocky soil and you do spring up the temptations and trials they they get you and you wither away. But you grow mature in faith. And then now you get planted among the thorns and you grow more but you know the cares of the world.

You get distracted. Finally you're a mature elite Christian. Now you're planted in the good soil. It's not that there is no transplantation here. It's not a chronological view of someone's growth in faith.

These are four different responses to the Word of God. Right. Not to say that someone who initially rejects the Word of God will never be a believer. But that's not the point of the parable. The parable is to show that there are many different ways people respond to the Word of God.

It's not always belief and that actually fits the context. Well because there are people who hear Jesus Word and won't respond the way that a person of the good soil would. It's an explanation of the reality of God's kingdom.

Now first 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 say be saved. The different soils represent different types of people and their responses.

And this is the first type of people who respond to God's Word. In the first scenario these are the seeds that get trampled by on the wayside and eaten up by the birds from verse 5. Now the Word of God you can see that is actually heavily misused and rejected.

It is not just the people who abuse God's Word and we we see this all too commonly. But Satan himself. You might have experienced this. Have you ever explained the gospel to an unbelieving family member or friend.