The Son of Man // How Do We Hear? [Luke 8:4-21] (Billy Hanna)

Hi, my name is Billy. Good to have you with us this

morning. Special welcome if you are

visiting. What an exciting morning for us

to rejoice and together would you open with me to Luke chapter

Luke 8 · chapter mention

8 if, if you had a have a Bible with you as we, we come to God's

word this morning and continue our series through the gospel of

Luke this morning, we are going to be looking at versus 4

through 21, but we're especially going to be focusing on versus 4

through 15. So we're going to start by

reading our passage and, and then I'll pray and we'll, we'll

dive in. Luke chapter 8, verse 4.

Luke 8:4

And when the great crowd was gathering, and people from town

after town came to him, he said in a parable, a soar went out to

sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along

the path and was trampled under foot.

And the birds of the year devoured it.

Some fell upon the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away

because it had no moisture. And some fell among the thorns,

and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

Some fell into good soil, and it grew and yielded a hundredfold.

As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to

hear, let him hear. And when its disciples asked him

what the parable meant, he said to you, It has been given to

know the secrets of the Kingdom of God.

But for others they are imparables, 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, and then

the devil comes 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, receive it with joy. But these have no root.

They believe for a while, and in a time of testing fall away.

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 cheers and

riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

As for that in good soil, they are those who, hearing the word,

hold it fast, and are good and honest and good heart, and bear

fruit with patience. No one after lighting a lamp,

covers it with a jar, or puts it under a beard, but puts it on a

stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is

anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

Take care then how you hear, For to the one who has more will be

given, and from the one who has not even what he thinks he has

will be taken away. Then his mother and brothers

came to him, but they couldn't reach him because of the crowd.

And he was told your mother and your brothers are standing

outside desiring to see you. But he answered them.

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God

and do it. What would you pray with me once

we come to the Word, Gracious God?

And can we come to Your Word now?

And we thank you that your word is good, and we pray that we may

be good soil. I pray that we may hear it and

do it. Give our minds clarity with your

Holy Spirit. Speak through me God in Jesus

name, Amen. What about about this time last

year, I was doing some yard work at our house and in the back

corner of our section I came across a part of our yard that

was hugely overgrown. The grass had gotten about this

high up and it was just a bit of an eye sore.

And so I was determined that I'm going to do something about

this. So I got the weed wacker and it

took me like a good few like afternoons going at it slowly

because we've got one of those electric weed wackers that's not

very good, but you kind of got to slowly work it down.

And when I got down to the bottom, I hit something and I

hit some wood and I found out that what was under this grass

that was about this tall, it was actually kind of a wood

barricade for a beautiful veggie garden.

And so Alana and I, we were excited.

We're going, OK, we're gonna get all of the grass out.

We are going to get out all of the bad soil.

We're going to put in some nice good soil.

And we're going to build up this beautiful veggie garden.

And we're going to be self-sustaining.

And so I took a photo yesterday of where our veggie garden is at

a year on right back to where it was.

And I'm not a gardening is frustrating.

I'm not a, a natural gardener. Maybe for some of you, gardening

is your Forte. It's it's certainly not mine.

But that that's one thing I learned very quickly.

Often when you're gardening, what you want to grow doesn't

grow, and what you don't want to grow grows weeds everywhere.

Gardening is frustrating. Gardening is also something that

is, is relatively universal, especially in the time of

Christ. And it's something that Jesus

often uses as an analogy in his time when he's speaking.

And really what we've got here this morning is a parable.

It's a a story that Jesus is telling any and he tells them a

story about gardening and planting.

And all of this is an analogy for what happens when we hear

God's word. What happens when we hear God's

word? Jesus sees just as when we plan

to seed, often there are barriers that stop that seed

from growing as it ought to or as it should.

When we hear the Word of God often there are so many barriers

that stop God's Word from moving from my ears to our hearts.

And Jesus is wanting us to understand here.

What are those barriers you notice in verse 4?

It says he's speaking here to a large crowd.

We shouldn't be surprised at this point in Jesus ministry.

He's built up quite the following.

He's been performing miracles. He's been saying incredible

things, but I think we get the idea that this crowd is a mix of

people. It's a diverse crowd.

You've got some in the crowd who are likely curious.

They've heard about this Jesus guy.

Like they kind of want to come and see what he's about, but

probably almost viewing him like a circus act.

Like what's this guy about? I just kind of want to see what

he's like. There might be some who are

genuine, but I think on the whole, what you're looking at

here is a crowd that interested but fickle.

And, and, and this sets the scene for the parable that Jesus

is about to say, because it's to these people that Jesus is going

to speak this parable about hearing.

That's what this is about. Look at verse 8.

He says he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

He speaks about four different kinds of people.

Each of them hear the word of God.

Almost a summary verse could be verse 18.

Take care then how you hear. And so really the key question

for us this morning as we come to this is how do we hear?

How do we hear God's word? Not do we hear, but how do we

hear? Because I see as I see it, we're

gonna look at 4 examples of people and each one of them

hears God's word. Hearing isn't the problem.

The problem is what happens between the ears and and the

heart. How do we hear God's Word?

And I think we've got many opinions on the way God's Word

should be preached, as we should.

But do we often stop to consider how we should hear Assumen, how

we should hear God's Word? And what we're going to see is

we look at this parable as is the type of hearing that God

desires is the kind of hearing which bears fruit with patience,

the type of hearing God desires as the hearing that bears fruit

with patience. O, let's look at this parable.

And it's to this big crowd that Jesus tells this parable.

And it's a relatively simple parable.

Look at verse 5. The basis is this, a sewer went

out to sow his seed. Now in Jesus time in Palestine

this is a very common practise. There's no countdown or

Woolworths down the road to go pick up your veggies.

You are planting your own veggies.

Most likely is actually speaking about someone sowing wheat and

that have a big bag of seed over their shoulders and then go out

into their field and they'd literally be walking across

their field sowing the seed across the field.

And the message is this that as a solo ASOS has seed, some of

the seed is going to land on healthy, fruitful soil and which

it will grow and thrive and some of it will not.

And so the first type of soil that the seed lands on is the

path. Now this is a dirt path that

would be going through next to the field.

And so, yes, it would still be dirt, but it would be trampled

down. It would be hard, it would be

firm. And so it's almost as the solar

is sowing, some of the seeds kind of trickle off the edge and

and fall onto the path and they bounce on the hard path.

They have no chance to grow. And before they even can,

they'll be trampled under foot. When he says birds come and and

take it away. So this is not good.

The second is is rocky soil. The rocky soil, much of the soil

in Palestine, you wouldn't actually see it from the top,

but about an inch underneath the surface would just be a layer of

limestone rock. And so the seed lands on the

soil and, and, and it shoots down roots immediately, but the

roots only go down for an inch or so before it hits the rock.

And so you have the sage shoot up, but as soon as the sun hits

it, it's got no moisture, it's got no root, and it Withers

away. So that seed is not fruitful.

The next seed Jesus seers, falls among the thorns.

The idea here is that this is actually good, fruitful soil,

and so that the seed builds roots and the seed shoots up.

But what's shooting up alongside it but thorns and weeds?

The thorns takeover, the thorns steal the nutrients from the

ground, and ultimately the thorns around the seed are

overbearing and the seed dies. And so you've got 3 results here

of where the seed could go. And although two of them shoot

U, all of them Jesus says are unfruitful.

All of them didn't achieve the purpose.

And then lastly, he says, you've got the seed that lands on the

good soil. There are no other competing

distractions. The seed lands and and it grows

and it reaps. He sees a hundredfold.

This is a hugely fruitful crop that will reap more seeds from

its growth. And I guess in in the science,

it's quite a basic illustration for us to understand.

And so are sowing his seed. And different seeds have

different barriers. Different seeds have different

results based off where they land.

But then he finishes his illustration with a strange

comment in verse 8 where he sees this.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

What a strange thing to say. In essence, what Jesus is saying

is he's saying there's two kinds of people, two kinds of people

in the crowd that he's speaking to.

I think there's two kinds of people here as well.

There are the people who who who actually desire to understand

the truth that Jesus is saying. And there are people who just

want to say, I just want to see who this Jesus guy is and hear

an interesting story. There's two kinds of people, the

people who wanna hear and the people who want to know.

In this nine his disciples came to him, and they asked him what

this parable meant. This thing 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.

Jesus is explaining here why he so often speaks in parables,

especially as we go through Luke.

We're going to see, especially from this point on, many

parables and he's saying I speak in parables because those who

truly want to know what I'm saying, they will seek it out.

But to those who are superficial and they just want to hear but

they don't want to know, it will be hidden from them.

It's a form of judgement for those who don't truly want to

know what Jesus has to say. That's why he he's speaking in

parables. But the disciples have come to

him and they said, well, well, we wanna know.

We want, we, we don't want to just hear an interesting story.

We want to know what you actually mean.

And I pray that that's true for you this morning as we dig into

what Jesus has to tell us about this parable.

I pray that you are not just left this morning with an

interesting story about soils, but what Jesus has to say.

And so it's on that basis that Jesus tells us the meaning of

this parable. So let's look at this meaning.

He starts with this. He sees.

Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.

Let's stop there for a second. He sees the seed is the word of

God. This is common biblical imagery

that that the word of God can be represented as a seed which has

a life of its own and it grows and grows and grows.

But we need to think about this. What is it that brings growth?

What is it that brings growth? It's not charisma, it's not

humour, it's not eloquence. It's the word of God.

The word of God is what is going to bring growth.

God sees an Isaiah 5511 at my word.

When it goes out, it's not going to return to me void.

Now we need to understand this. When you are speaking the gospel

to your neighbor over the fence and you're speaking the Word of

God, it is not you putting the words together in a clever way

that brings growth. It's not if you can say

everything without stumbling or even if you're sweating and all

nervous. It's the Word of God that brings

growth. We need to understand this.

God works through imperfect means to achieve His purposes.

Because it is the word of God that brings growth.

Although I know as I preach, I'm going to make mistakes.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna stumble over words.

I'm gonna expand where I shouldn't.

I'm gonna say silly things. The word of God brings growth.

We need to understand this. The seed is the Word of God, and

now we're going to look at the different results to God's Word

going out. There are four different

results. We're going to see three of

them. Jesus is going to highlight

three different barriers to true hearing, three different

barriers from the word of God moving to our ears, to our

hearts, and then he's going to contrast it with the good soil,

the intended result. So let's look at 3 barriers to

true hearing. The first verse 12 is a hardened

heart. He sees this.

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.

Now the picture here is a person who hears but straight away is

not at all interested in what Jesus has to say, not at all

interested in the word of God. They they are like this.

This trodden down path of the sea bounces off completely

closed off to the gospel. You can imagine in Jesus time,

he could be referring to the Pharisees, these religious

leaders who had heard Jesus's message of the gospel over and

over and over, and yet their hearts were hard to the truth of

the gospel. And he's he's saying that

there's actually a dual responsibility.

We hold responsibility because we have allowed our hearts to be

hardened. But he also says the devil is

playing a role in this. Look with me in verse 12, he

says. Then the devil comes and takes

away the word from their hearts. We need to understand that the

devil is real and the devil hates God's word going out.

The devil hates the reality that God's word is going out to

people and he will do whatever he can do to stop it.

Man, Satan just loves the thought of people sitting in

church replaying the highlights from last night's rugby game in

their head while the sermon is going on.

Yeah, we we must resist him. We do have a responsibility we

are told in scripture. Resist him and and he will

resist you. We should not give the devil a

foothold in in our life lest our hearts become hardened.

Paul describes this and an Ephesians that when we continue

to dwell and sin, he sees we become callous.

What used to bother us and convict us doesn't bother us

anymore. Are we leading?

Our hearts get hard? I wonder this morning, even as

I'm reading God's Word and and preaching, that you're sitting

there and you've got a hard heart.

It took some convincing to get you to church this morning and

you feel like you've already closed yourself off to spiritual

things, that the things of God. I ask you this morning to soften

your heart. I ask you to consider and take

heed to what Jesus is saying here.

How we hear matters. So that's the first barrier, hot

and hot the second, the rocky soil is suffering.

Barrier to true hearing is suffering.

Let's read verse 13. He sees in 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

then in time of testing fall away.

So what's the barrier here? Well, there's no route.

The route is shot down and hit the rock.

So when the sun of persecution and testing comes along, the

seed and the plant falls away. I I wonder how many people have

accepted the gospel, have followed Jesus with an

underlying assumption that it is Jesus job to make our life

easier, that it's Jesus job to make our life better.

I'll be a good Christian. I'll say my prayers, I'll read

my Bible, I'll come to church and and on the other side, God

will give me a good life and he will keep me from cancer.

You'll keep my kids healthy. He let me retire with enough

savings that it would be comfortable.

But what's the problem with that?

The problem is when our prayers go unanswered, when cancer

comes, when our life doesn't turn out how we want, then what

becomes of our faith? If the foundation of our faith

is that Jesus will return an easy life to us, well, in a time

of testing, our faith shrivels. We get the idea in the Matthews

version of this parable, he says, when a time of testing

comes on account of their faith and meaning, when we realise

that actually the Christian life, although we are saved by

grace, the Christian life is going to ask a few things of us.

It's going to ask us to sacrifice.

It's going to ask us to make decisions that we don't want to

make. It's going to ask us to turn

away from sin. Or when we find out that life

isn't panning out how we want, how are we going to respond?

Even just the day-to-day of a Christian life, the awkward

conversations that come up at work when people find out that

we're a Christian. Really.

You believe? You believe that there's a God?

Ohh OK alright, how are we gonna respond when the Christian life

is not easy? So often we can be like a child

who desperately wants a puppy, but then a few weeks, then to us

having a puppy, once they've weed on the carpet for the fifth

time that day, we go. I'm not too sure I want that

responsibility anymore and I want to encourage a Pharaoh and

Jessica man, It's an awesome decision you guys have made

today. But often after we're baptised,

that is when the tough times can come.

It's true for all of us. I'd ask you, how are we going to

respond when the Christian life gets hard?

My prayer is that your roots may go deep and your joy may go

deeper than your circumstances. Suffering can be such a barrier

to true hearing. What's the third barrier?

Let's read verse 14, he says. 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 killers and riches and pleasures of

life, and their fruit does not mature.

So here the barrier is not so much suffering.

In fact, on the other end, the barrier is comfort.

Read it sees as they go on their way.

What are they choked by? Killers and riches and pleasures

of life. I think the idea here is someone

who so to say they're going through the supermarket with

their trolley and they find Jesus on the shelf and they go,

OK, well, I'll throw him in with everything else that I've got

going on here. And it sees they go on their

way. So I'm going to keep going in

the direction that I'm I'm going and I'm looking for ease.

I'm looking for comfort, but the problem is at the same time

you're walking through the supermarket and you're putting

other things in the trolley. Little bit of Jesus, a little

bit of sports, a little bit of relationships, a little bit of

career, whatever it is, this and this, and it's all mixed

together and you've got so many things that your goal is, how

can this make me as happy and satisfied as I can be?

And the illustration here is that the different thorns, the

different distractions endu choking out the one true thing

that was supposed to grow. There are so many distractions

that are at war for our heart. There are so many distractions

that are at war for our worship. And many of these, like I say,

are good things, whether it be sports, money, jobs,

relationships. But the problem is here is he

saying these things have taken precedent?

These things are in a place where they shouldn't be, and

they're choking out our devotion to Christ.

See, it's Lewis. See this?

He said. Prosperity knits a man to the

world. He feels that he's finding his

place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.

And I think the picture here is that this is not a person who

has heard the gospel and turned completely in full devotion to

Jesus Christ. This is someone who heard the

gospel and said, I'll add this to my trolley.

I'll add a little bit of this to my life.

And I think that for many of us, we could look at it, soil number

one, and say that's not me. We can look at soil #2 and say,

that's not me. But for me, I get to sort of

number 33 and I, I need to stop and think.

And I think for a lot of us, this is actually a call for us

to do a good amount of weeding. We need to be in control of the

competing ideals. For me, as I look inwards, I can

just see a selfish heart that is fostering so often, so many

different forms to grow and be in a place where they shouldn't,

and the soil of my heart, things that are competing for my

devotion to God, even simple things.

Hobbies. For me, golf, running, reading,

those things, you be like, those are fine things when they're in

the wrong place. Men.

How quickly do they become thorns?

They've taken away our devotion to God.

Jesus said that simply in Matthew 624.

He says you cannot serve 2 masters either.

You'll be completely devoted to 1 and you'll you'll you'll

despise the other he sees and in this context is saying you can't

serve both God and money. But you could put God and

anything else in that category. The thorny soil is is trying to

have more than one master. In its contrast, all of these

barriers are hardened hearts suffering comfort to the

fruitful hero in verse 15, The good soil.

Jesus sees this. As for that and the good soil,

they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest

and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

I want you to notice this good soil, how it contrasts with the

other three receptions to God's Word that we just saw.

He says firstly, the person and the good story lay here God's

word and they hold it fast. They are are grasping onto it.

This contrasts what what we just spoke about with the forms when

there's countless idols competing for devotion.

No, no, the person in the good soil says yes, this is it.

Jesus is the one that I will devote my life around.

I wanna hear it. I wanna embrace it.

I'm not just gonna add him to the shopping trolley.

You holding Christ fast? And then this is with a good and

honest heart, in contrast to the one on the path with a hardened

heart that is not receptive to the message of the gospel.

The good soil has a good and honest heart.

This is someone who's eager not just to listen, but but to

listen and be changed. And finally, he sees the

fruitful hearer bears fruit. With patience.

It's 2 prongs there. Firstly, he bears fruit.

Notice that this is the only one of the four seeds that actually

bears lasting fruit. He He is God's words and then he

acts on it. And I think this is the point

Jesus is getting at. True hearing doesn't just hear,

but it hears and it responds and it acts and it bears fruit.

Jesus kind of makes this illustration and and we won't be

able to get to it, but in versus 19 through 21, we read it

earlier at one point while his teaching his mother Miri and his

brothers come and they can't get to him because of the crowds.

And so that people say, hey, your mother and brothers are

here and Jesus wants to make a point and he says, who is my

mother and my brothers meaning who is my family?

Who are those who are net to me? He says in verse 21 it's those

who hear the word of God and do it to those who hear God's word

and bear fruit. But notice as well.

He season verse 15. These are people who bear fruit

with patience, overtime with patience and endurance.

This is picturing someone who has faced suffering, who has

faced the temptation of competing devotions, competing

distractions to loyalty to Christ, and yet they bear fruit

with patience. They realise often in the

Christian life it is a slog. There are seasons when it seems

like we are fighting with the same sin over and over and over,

and there are other things around us that are competing.

And yet this person and the good soil beers fruit with patience

and the promises that this person will will reap a

hundredfold meaning from them being patient and bearing fruit.

Jesus is making the point. Countless other people come to

know Christ good soil when they hear the word through this

person. This is a good soil that reap

the harvest, so we ought to pay attention to this and we ought

to have paid attention to Jesus Warning says in verse 18.

Take care then, how you hear? How do we hear the word of God

when she'd ask, What kind of soil do you have?

Are you the hard soil of the path?

Are you the rocky soil that that takes delight in the Word and

quickly falls away when tough times come?

He's a thorny soil. It's easiest.

I'll add Jesus to it, but there's a lot of other things

going on as well. My prayer is that we may be good

soil. We may have to do some weeding

to see that we may be good soil. That he is an ex.

I've got two things to say before I close and then we're

going to move into communion. I'll say this firstly, we need

to be reminded that we are called as Christians not only to

hear, but to. So we are not only the soil, we

are called to be the ones sowing God's word in this and for us as

so is this parable should do a couple of things I think.

Firstly, this should humble us that as we go out and we we

speak God's word, as we share the gospel, we speak God's word

to one another. I mean, the statistics are not

promising here, are they? Many are going to reject God's

Word. We need to be realistic.

Many people will reject God's Word.

Many people rejected the word straight out of Jesus's mouth.

And so it's true, when we speak God's word, we need to expect

turbulence. And yet at the same time, this,

this, this parable, it should fill us with resolve because

firstly, we don't know who was good soil and who was bad soil.

Oftentimes the ones that we assume are are firm as the path.

No chance. They are the ones who end up

turning from their sin and truly accepting Christ, and often the

ones that we assume are good soil.

There were thorns in their rocks.

But the hope is that if we continue to sow the seed of

God's word for those who do know, for those who do turn from

this and and accept the gospel, they're gonna reap a harvest.

Who shared the gospel with you? If you're saved, who shared the

gospel with you? Someone made that choice to

share the gospel. Maybe it was your appearance.

Maybe it was a stranger, a workmate.

Someone shared the gospel with you.

And praise God there was good soil and from that I prayed that

it has reaped the harvest. So we need to be faithful and in

sewing and trust in God for the harvest.

And I'll close with this as as we turn now to communion, which

we're going to jump into after this, and we consider the

barriers that get in the way between our ears and our heart,

I want to consider the cross of Jesus Christ.

As Christians, the the cross is the central event that the Bible

speaks about, where our Lord Jesus Christ came down to earth

fully God and fully man, living a perfect life.

And yet he went to the cross. And on that cross he suffered

and he blared and He died not for his own sins, but for our

sins that should we put our trust in Him, hearing his words

and bearing fruit and putting trust in him, our sins may be

wiped clean and we may be, as Jesus said, his mother, his

brothers, his family. We would have the hope of

eternal life with him. That's the essence of the

Christian message. He carries our sin and we carry

his perfect life. And to those who maybe you're

burier this morning is suffering the rocky soil, I just want to

point you to Jesus Christ as the ultimate righteous sufferer.

God doesn't not care about our suffering.

In fact, God himself and the person of Jesus Christ walked

directly into suffering. He entered into the greatest act

of suffering mankind has ever seen.

He bore the wrath of God. On that cross.

We have a God who suffered, and it promises us a few things.

It promises us through the cross and through the suffering of

Christ. One day all suffering will

ultimately come to an end. For those who have put their

trust in Jesus Christ, we have the hope of eternal life where

every tear will be wiped away, everything will be made new,

everything will be made right through the sacrifice and the

suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross and the suffering of

Christ. It also promises us that our

suffering, the suffering of anyone who is in Christ, is

never without purpose. The cross is the ultimate

example of of a grievous sin, but yet God used it.

God planned it, God worked it for His glory.

We have the hope and we have the promise that although we will

suffer, we have a God who is at work in and through suffering.

Suffering is never for nothing. Into the thorny soil I'd point

you to the cross and show you that as Jesus hung on that

cross, he showed us that He is worthy of our full devotion.

As the Him says, love, so amazing, so divine, demands my

soul, my life, my all. Jesus died on the cross that we

may be fully and completely devoted to Him, the Heidelberg

Catechism says. On that cross Jesus purchased

us. He says we are not our own but

we belong to God. And I pray today, whatever kind

of soil you find yourself in, that you might consider the

cross of Christ, you may consider the message of the

gospel, and see the love that God has for broken sinners like

us. So we're going to go to the

table now and take the bread in the car in which we remember

that event where Jesus died in our place that all may believe.

If we may, if we believe, we may be forgiven.

And so let's pray. Almighty God, we thank you for

your word. We thank you that your word is

powerful. We thank you for Christ and what

He's done for us. I pray, Lord, that as we have

been confronted by Your word, that you may be at work in our

hearts, that we may be good soil.

Pray for those Lord who do not know You today that they may see

the beauty of the cross and the beauty of the gospel and you may

tell U good fertile soil in their hearts that they may hear

and respond. Thank you for what Jesus has

done for us and we pray right now that you may be magnified

through us as a church, that we may respond to you in faith and

love, in Jesus name I mean.