Luke 8:4-15 Gardening Tips From Jesus
Good morning! Let’s turn together to Luke chapter eight. This morning we are going to look at verses four through fifteen and that’s on page 865 in the pew Bibles.
This is Luke’s first record of Jesus teaching in parables. A parable is a profound and effective teaching tool that takes a figure from everyday life but applies to it great spiritual truth.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “A parable starts out as a picture that is familiar to the listeners. But as you carefully consider the picture, it becomes a mirror in which you see yourself, and many people don’t like to see themselves.”
I would also add that the picture that becomes a mirror when carefully considered also becomes a window through which we can see the grace of God.
So let’s look at our text and jump in.
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “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. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 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.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 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.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 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. 13 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 time of testing fall away. 14 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 cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 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.
Let’s pray.
It definitely makes life easier for an expository preacher when the Lord Jesus exposits the text Himself. Last week I told you that I wanted an easy text but didn’t get one, this week the Lord has done all the work already!
I’m sure for many of you this parable is familiar though it may not be to others. To the disciples it certainly wasn’t and in fact, on the surface it seems like a completely ineffective marketing approach.
Think of it this way, if your purpose is to reach as many people as possible with your message, would you consider deliberately making your message confusing or easily misunderstood?
Luke is very polite when he records the disciples’ response to this first parable in verse nine. He simply said that they asked Him what it meant. I think it might have sounded a little more like this: What was that!? We’ve got a great big crowd out here to see and hear about the kingdom and that is what you give them? What does that even mean?!
Jesus explains to them not only the meaning of the parable but the purpose of the parables.
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 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 quotes from Isaiah 6:9,10 when He explains why He was using parables. It isn’t that He was speaking in riddles or deliberately trying to trick anyone, but when He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” He simply means that not everybody is going to get this but those who, by the grace of God, have hearts prepared for this message, will understand.
And by the grace of God we have the explanation to the parable right here but I’m afraid still not everyone will understand what Jesus was saying.
The headings call this the Parable of the Sower but it just as easily be called the parable of the Seed and the Soils.
So what do we know? Who is the Sower? Jesus
What is the seed? The Word of God, the Gospel
What are the four different types of soils? The hearts of those who hear the Gospel
So the soils represent the hearts of those who hear the message of the gospel. I’m sure that in the crowd that Jesus was speaking to all four types of hearts were represented and perhaps here today all four types are represented as well.
As I said before, parables are a picture that when carefully considered become a mirror. So let’s carefully consider it and see what we can see.
The first soil is the path.
12 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.
These folks are the indifferent. They hear the message but aren’t really listening. This word from Jesus was nothing more than gardening tips, be careful where you sow your seeds…
It’s also important to note that alongside the indifference of the hearts of these folks is the work of the devil who snatches away the word before it can take root. Make no mistake, our enemy, the devil, doesn’t want the gospel to take root in the hearts of any of his captives and will stop at nothing to snatch that word away to keep people from believing in Jesus and being saved.
The second soil is the rocky soil.
13 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 time of testing fall away.
For gospel preachers these folks are exciting, at least at first. Their response to the gospel is impulsive and emotional but when life gets real, when following Jesus gets hard, or inconvenient, they give up on Jesus because they have no root.
Having worked at camps for years the Thursday night campfire conversions are rarely long lasting. The emotions run high, everybody is exhausted from the week, and their defenses are shot. But that rarely represents the reality of belonging to Jesus. When the emotional high is gone the faith withers.
These folks will tell you, “I tried Christianity, it just didn’t work for me,” or, “I just didn’t feel anything, I didn’t feel different.” I’ve heard this, it’s heart breaking.
The third soil is the thorny soil.
14 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 cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
These folks are distracted, they may well be believers, but they are so preoccupied with the cares and concerns of this life that they are unfruitful.
CS Lewis wrote, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
There is a seemingly infinite stream of voices calling out for our attention. Whether it’s worry over this life’s affairs, or money, or the constant need for entertainment, whatever it is that is distracting people from the Word and the work of the Lord, it is causing them to be ineffective and unfruitful.
Someone once said, “All living things grow.” But that’s only partially true, living things bear fruit.
And that leads us to the fourth soil, the good soil.
15 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.
So obviously this is the soil that wins the prize. Gold star for the good soil. These are the hearts that hear the gospel, respond to Jesus in faith, surrender their lives to Him and go on to tell others about Him.
We say a lot around here that our intention is to make and mature disciples of Jesus together as a family and it is. Our intention is to make and mature disciples that will make and mature more disciples. That’s what bearing fruit looks like.
And in that way we go from being soil to being sowers. The kingdom of God is still a secret that we are all called to reveal by indiscriminately casting the seed of the gospel.
So be good soil. Is that it, is that the only lesson? I don’t think it is.
So this parable starts as a picture, and now that we’ve considered it carefully maybe you have seen yourself reflected in is as one of these types of soils, but if we continue to look into it we can see a window into the grace of God.
Here’s what I mean.
Have any of you ever had a garden?
Did you just throw down seed on your lawn and hope for the best?
I bet you didn’t. Good soil doesn’t happen by accident, good soil is cultivated and maintained.
And who cultivates and maintains the soil? The farmer, the sower.
The parable of the sower is the declaration of the free grace of God as well as His unconditional election of those who will believe.
Matthew Henry wrote, “Happy are we, and forever indebted to free grace, if the same thing that is a parable to others, with which they are only amused, is a plain truth to us, by which we are enlightened and governed, and into the mold of which we are delivered.”
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
1 Peter 1:13-25
Amen.
