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Date: Sexagesima Text: Luke 8:4-15
Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.
Alone.
And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.
The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the eighth chapter. And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to Jesus, he said to them in a parable, 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, and some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture.
Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it, 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.
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.
Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes along and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.
And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, they receive it with joy, but these have no root. They believe for a while, and in a time of testing, they fall away. 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 the riches and the pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
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. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen. So y 'all, y 'all remember the movie Bug's Life?
That was that second Pixar movie with Flick and Dot and you know, you remember that? Remember when Flick was giving that, that pep speech to Dot because Dot was a, she was a, she was an immature queen aunt in training kind of thing.
And she wasn't really able to fly and do a lot of great things. So what does Flick do? He goes and grabs a rock, okay? And he says, listen, you're just like a seed, you know, and he starts talking about how inside of a seed are all these important things, and then when it matures, it turns into something beautiful, right?
And Dot just doesn't track with it. You know, she kind of looks at him kind of weird and goes, but it's a rock, right? It's kind of cute how the way she does it. So here's the thing. You'll note that in scripture, this seed, plant, fruit metaphor, you know, the scriptures are filled with them.
In fact, let me, let me kind of throw in another metaphor. The scriptures are, watch this, ripe with them. You see, see what I did there?
Okay.
But all of that being said, Jesus is doing the same thing. So the seed that is sown in our parable is the word of God. And if you think about it, the seed of the word of God, as we heard in the prophet Isaiah chapter 55 this morning, it accomplishes the thing for which he sends it.
God's word does stuff. But we have to also, as we look at this parable, note something here. Jesus is engaging is in some pretty heavy law and exposing the sin in our hearts. And worse than that, exposing the fruit of a different word, if you would, if you were to think of the devil's words in the garden of Eden as a seed.
Now let me make something clear. There's this weird heretical doctrine out there called the serpent seed doctrine. That ain't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the actual words of the devil. They were like a seed and they produced in us all kinds of really awful things.
So returning to the scene of the crime, which I do from time to time, let's again hear where the problem comes in and what it is that we naturally, because we are born dead in trespasses and sins, bear the fruit of and where that seed came from.
It says in Genesis three, serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, did God really say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
It's not what God said, by the way, this is slander. And so the woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you should not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden.
Neither shall you touch it lest you die. Now, now I'm going to note here, you know, if, if those of you in my catechism classes, you'll note that the kids, I make the kids memorize the commandments, right?
So if, you know, if I were to ask, you know, all right, let's see here, you know, Lily, what's the third commandment? Lily would just go, oh, the third commandment is remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, right?
And then, and I said, all right, what, what does this mean? And she might go, well, it means to fear and love God so that we keep the Sabbath day holy. She might say something like that if it was really early on, right?
And so you'll note that, you know, she doesn't quite get the catechism memorization thing,.
Right?
But she's in the ballpark. So Eve says, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. I'll take two points off for her memory work.
She needs to hammer that out a little bit better, but the serpent then keeps the attack.
On.
And then he says this, you will not surely die. In other words, God's a liar and I'm telling you the truth. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God's knowing good and evil.
Then there's the temptation. You're going to be like God, right? And what's really interesting is, is in the, in the Subtuagent, this is the Greek translation of the old Testament that was written, you know, long before Christ was born, they actually translated God's, it's a little provocative.
The serpent says, you'll be like God's knowing good and evil. In other words, he's saying to Adam and Eve, you're going to be, you're going to be deities,.
Man.
You're going to be just, you're going to be God's just like God is God. And so what does the woman do? Rather than listen to the seed of the word of God, the word that said, you will not eat of that tree that's in the midst of the garden, well, here's what happens.
She becomes an enthusiast. She goes inside.
All right.
And so, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, feelings, and that it was a delight to the eyes, nothing more than feelings. And that the tree was be desired, desired to make one wise, feelings, whoa, feel this.
And here's who she listening to again. Words from the devil. This is where the devil sows weed seeds. All right. And what does she do? Well, she took of its fruit, she ate it, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.
Well, fast forwarding to the book of Galatians, Paul writing about the fruit of the flesh, which is brought about as a result of our fall into sin. Now the fruit of the flesh, the worst of the flesh, they're evident.
Are you ready? Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like.
These.
I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom.
Of God.
So you'll note that the fruit of that seed, the word of the serpent has borne death in us and has brought us into much shame, vice, and just horrible, horrible, horrible sin. It's, well, stripped us of our godly dignity and made us like the devil.
So when Christ talks about in our parable then that the word of God is like a seed, all right, he's going on about something that we need to pay close attention to. And that is, is that there are a few commandments that are in play here and we need to listen carefully to the law in Christ's parable because it's going to identify, well, ways in which we need to repent, ways in which we need to be forgiven, ways in which we need to cry out to God, the Holy Spirit to help us.
So first commandment in play is that third commandment and what is the third commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
Now, when we hear Jesus's explanation of this parable, the parable of these different soils, all right, Jesus is making it clear to his disciples, to them has been given that them to know the secrets of the kingdom, but for others, he's speaking in parables so that seeing, they do not see, hearing, they do not hear and do not understand.
And so, the parable then is this, the seed is the word of God, the ones along the path of those who've heard, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.
Now, what's really interesting for many years, I have always kind of just assumed that this first bit about them hearing the word and then not believing, that this will be like what happens to people who are out there, you know, out preaching the gospel on the streets.
I think of my friend in the UK, Pastor Gervase Nicholas Edward Charmley. There's a video of him. From time to time, he goes out on the streets of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. What a cool name for a town by the name, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
That's an awesome name. But he goes out and he has a little soapbox that he's created, legitimately, it's a soapbox. And he goes out there and he proclaims Christ and him crucified for our sins. And he's proclaiming the need for people to repent, to turn from their wickedness and trust in Jesus so that they can be forgiven.
And so, when I think about the devil coming along and snatching the word up, I always kind of think about it in the context of street preachers. But then this week, you know, for the first time ever, I actually read Luther's sermon.
On this.
And you know what Luther thought it was about? And he may be right. He's actually kind of describing what's going on in the church, because the church is a place where the word of God is preached all the time.
Now, all of a sudden you sit there and go, whoa, what if that's true? Then this first bit might actually apply to me. Hold on a second here. Have you ever had this experience? Maybe it's just me. You wake up in the morning, you grab your very large cup of coffee.
And I fill this up a couple of times during the morning. And there you are, you kind of sit down at your laptop, or maybe you pull out one of those analog Bibles. You guys remember those things, analog Bibles?
They have things called pages in them. But anyway, you open up your Bible and you're going to do your morning devotion, right? So, you open up the word and no joke, you read like five, six paragraphs.
And none of it has sunk in, not a bit. And all of a sudden you realize like five minutes later, you go, oh, I'm reading. And you don't know a thing that you were reading. Have you ever had that happen to you?
It happens to me. And so, you're going to note that we have this amazing ability to be 100 inattentive to God's word, to not hear it, to not care about anything. In fact, I would even say that within the church, there are fellows who, when a pastor preached the word, they get annoyed, all right?
They're looking at their watches, they're checking their Instagram feed to see if they got another like on that photo they posted yesterday. They're checking to see who's checked in on Snapchat or Facebook or whatever.
I don't really know that much about some of the other social media platforms. You get what I'm saying though, right? And so, the idea here is that, well, the devil's kind of like a bird of prey. He's Johnny on the spot.
As soon as the word is sown, as soon as it gets out there, you can almost hear the, and it comes swooping in and grabs that word right up so that it doesn't have any opportunity to get watered, let alone, you get the idea.
And this is what happens, by the way, in heretical churches too. I mean, boy, the one thing I am absolutely convinced of nowadays is that heretics are absolutely counting on and banking on, pun intended, that people are completely ignorant about what the scriptures say.
And you know what? People who attend churches year after year, week after week, they are legitimately illiterate when it comes to the word of God. And you sit there and go, there's something seriously wrong here.
And then you think about the fact that the soil that's being described here is like a beaten path. Didn't Jesus say broad is the road that leads to destruction, right? So, that beaten path kind of hints at something here, that this is the way that everybody.
Goes.
And anything that runs contrary to like the status quo, the agreed upon understanding of how religion and spirituality works, that ain't going to fly. But here's the thing. This impacts us all. Because even within my own soul, in my own daily reading of scriptures, I can be 100 inattentive to it.
Or just go through the motions. Yeah, I read my Bible today.
Well, whoop-dee-doo, right?
And so, note then, the law portion of this convicts us all. How many of us can say we are absolutely innocent when it comes to being inattentive to God's word and not breaking the third commandment? Unfortunately, I've broken it and so have you.
But here's where we have to point something out then. So, if you are found guilty as a result of what Christ has said in this parable, what's the solution? Is the solution that you try harder? Commit yourself to doing gooder.
I'm going to make a New Year's resolution that I'm going to... No, okay? That's not the solution. The solution is this, repent. See your sin for what it is. See that you have really actually, rather than shoo off the devil, this bird of prey, and be attentive to God's word, that many times you are guilty of just completely being inattentive, ignoring it, not taking it to heart, not listening to it.
You get the whole point. And so, as a result of it, you have broken one of God's commands. And you deserve his righteous wrath. But Christ, he has bled and died for that sin, all of your breakings of the third commandment.
He took your sin upon himself, bled and died. And so, cry out to him for forgiveness and mercy. And you know what? He'll forgive. And then ask God, the Holy Spirit, to take you off that path, that broad highway that's well paved, that seeds don't actually penetrate, and till up the soil of your heart so that his word may bear fruit.
Next one.
Okay?
So, all right, maybe you're not going the way of like, you know, the popular spirituality of the day, and you're not on that path. Or, and the birds, you know, they've been shooed off and, well, the word reaches your heart.
And well, the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, they receive it with.
Joy.
Oh, that was such a good word.
But they have no root. They believe for a while, and then in a time of testing, they fall away. Here's the next bit of it. So, this runs us straight into the sin of idolatry. You will have no other gods, the commandment says.
What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. But here's the thing. You believe in Jesus?
Well, the devil's making note of that. And we learn from Job that the devil might want to make your life a living hell. He might put you through all kinds of suffering, pain, and affliction. Your health might go kaput.
That's an official theological term, by the way.
Kaput.
Or even worse, maybe your confession of faith in Jesus will draw the attention of those who hate Jesus, and they will bear you a grudge and make sure that you suffer and are persecuted, well, tremendously.
So, you'll find the word will take root. You receive it with joy. But all the rocks of persecution and suffering are in place designed to make you fall away. In fact, we need to pay close attention to this.
Jesus warns that in the last days, which I kind of think we're in, you know, and we have been for a while. And have you noticed that things are really getting crazier by the day? You know, that in the last days, he says, because of the increase of lawlessness, of wickedness, the love of many would grow cold.
And he says many will fall away, you know, family members betraying each other and stuff. This is what's being talked about here. And so, you'll note, what's the problem? Well, I want a religion. I want a spirituality that's going to make me important, that's going to make me successful, that's going to make my life better.
What's the point of having a religion if I can't be the head and not the tail, if I can't have prosperity, health, and divine whatever? You get the point, right? So people, they don't sign up for Christianity in order to be persecuted or to suffer.
They want to have a word we used a few weeks ago, glory, self-glory, right? And when they don't get the self-glory, well, you know, they just totally fall away. But here's the thing. Each and every one of us is guilty of loving ourselves, our own skin more than loving God and making ourselves into an idol.
Many of us are guilty of having these stones in our soil. So what do we do? Repent, repent. Christ has bled and died even for this self-idolatry, this desire to save your own skin, the desire for you to be the head and not the tail.
I mean, isn't this what Jesus was tempted with when the devil said, oh, listen, all the kingdoms of the earth, I'll give them to you if you just bow down and worship me, right? You get the point. But we want to be in charge and we don't want suffering.
We don't want persecution. So we need to repent, confess this sin to Christ and be forgiven because of his great mercy and the redemption, the price that he paid so that you and I can be forgiven. Well, if the devil's not going to get us through persecution and suffering, well, he can take things all the way to the opposite side of the pendulum.
Next side of the pendulum. Check this one out.
So, because the goal here, we don't want that word of God to go deep for those roots to go down and for that fruit to mature because you know what happens with mature Christians? They tell other people about Jesus and those people hearing the gospel are brought to penitent faith in Christ and then they go and they tell people about Jesus.
So, all right. So some fell among the thorns and they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they're choked by the cares, the riches and the pleasures of life and their fruit doesn't mature.
So the devil sits there and goes, fine.
You're going to bear up under suffering. You're going to trust Jesus in the midst of it. And there's no rocks there like that. I'm just going to pour the riches of earth into your lap and see what you do with that.
Okay. And you'll note that that's always a big temptation too. And who of us have not been guilty of, well, you know, thinking about, you know, working on planning our next vacation during the divine service, you know, of thinking about the, you know, the places that we can go and the things that we can see and the things that we experience.
I always think about my great need to do some pastoral ministry in Barbados, you know, cause it's so warm there right now. We're in the middle of a blizzard, right? But that's kind of the idea. Life offers so many interesting pleasures.
Note here that like food and drink, they're not a sin in and of themselves, but we have amazing ability to take these gifts that God has given us and turn them into idols. Money itself becoming an idol.
And when, when your obsession and your focus is on the pleasures and the riches and the things of this life, what does it say? The fruit doesn't mature. I mean, have you ever noticed that the people who attend like Ken Copeland's church, they're not really known for their evangelism.
They're known for their greed, right? And there's a reason for that. A reason for that. When you sit there and go, Ooh, you know, um, there's, there's, there's some, there's some weeds and thorns in my soil.
And, uh, and Christ's parable here has really kind of pointed that out.
What do I do?
Repent, repent, trust Christ. He's even bled and died for this idolatry. He's bled and died for all the ways where you've taken the good gifts that he's given us in this life and turn them into the things that you look to in order to give you good.
But then we have this last soil and here's where we have to start with this one. Listen, 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.
And here's where we have to start with this one. Was it not Jesus who was the one, the only one among us who literally had a honest and good heart, whose soil was perfect, that he kept God's word perfectly.
Scripture is so clear. He was tempted in every way that you and I are tempted yet is without sin. Christ at no time in his life was ever inattentive to God's word. Christ at no time did he ever yield to the temptation of like putting God's word aside because of the persecution and suffering he was made to go through.
In fact, it was God's will to crush him. The scripture says, and Jesus, he laid down his life willingly, not only being persecuted, but being murdered by you and I so that he could bear our sin and our grief and our guilt and our shame so that we could be forgiven.
And so you'll know at no point was Jesus, did Jesus ever yield to that temptation? And when tempted regarding the things of this earth, Jesus basically said to the devil, it is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve.
Christ is the good soil. And here's the best bit. He calls us to repent and to be forgiven. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ will till up the soil. He will take that hard path and make it into good soil.
He'll remove the rocks. He'll pull the weeds. He'll send even more of his word so that it bears fruit. And he does this all out of his good and gracious and kindness and will and mercy. And so note then scripture also describes Christians as those who have had their heart of stone taken out and replaced with a heart of flesh.
So by faith, then trusting in the one who is the good soil, Jesus, we hear the word and we hold it fast and we cling to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins with the honest and good heart that he has given us by grace through faith.
And then here's the thing. We do bear fruit. Passively, the fruit of the spirit. And rather than that list, that horrible list that we heard Paul say regarding the fruit of the flesh, sexual immorality and purity and sensuality and idolatry and sorcery.
Instead, now Jesus through his word produces in us love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are all the fruit that Jesus bears within us by his mighty power through his Holy Spirit.
So this calls us again as we get closer and closer to that season of Lent to look a little closer inside of our heart and see the rocks and the weeds and the hard stony places and confess to Christ that we still are under the influence of the original seed that was sown in us by the devil and that we need to be forgiven by him and ask and plead with him to remove all these things so that his word may have its way with us, that we may experience the joys of salvation, the well, the honor of being persecuted for his name's sake and forsaking everything in this life.
And well, humbling ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus to the new world that is coming, which he gives us as a gift. This is a great parable, but it takes a little bit of time to kind of sort out how the soils work and how our sin is involved.
But when we do, we find our Savior there to forgive us, to renew us and strengthen us through his word. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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