Luke 8:1-21: How Will You Respond to Jesus?
Notes
Transcript
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/student-eats-maurizio-cattelan-banana-art-south-korea-intl-hnk/index.html - Some people just don’t do what they’re supposed to do.
People don’t always respond well to God’s words either…
We’ve seen in Luke’s Gospel - Some people respond to Jesus, but others don’t. E.g., the religious leaders are the ones who should respond to Jesus - their sacred Scripture pointed to a Messiah, and Jesus embodies what the One the Scriptures pointed to. Why can’t they see it? Eventually, may will walk away from Jesus (John 6).
Luke 10 - Jesus will send out His disciples - they need to be ready for a harvest AND rejection.
Luke 8 - introduced to parables - A story using familiar imagery that contains a spiritual truth. (OR earthly story with a heavenly meaning.)
A couple of parables in Luke 8:1-21 but the most famous one in this passage, The Parable of the Sower, helps us to understand why people don’t respond to the Gospel.
This passage helps you to understand why your family and friends resist Jesus. For you, this passage is also for self-evaluation. Do you resist Jesus? This parable helps you to understand why YOU may be resisting Jesus.
Bottom line - It’s a matter of the heart - what’s going on in your heart determines how you will respond to Jesus.
This morning, what is the condition of your heart? Every person has one of these four heart conditions that will determine how they respond to the words of Jesus. What’s yours?
The Story and Meaning of Parables
The Story and Meaning of Parables
vs. 1-3 - Luke loves to talk about the women that encountered and followed Jesus. Previous story was of a woman who showed Jesus extravagant worship. Now, as Jesus went from town to town, He ministered to women who followed Him.
Jesus was different than other first-century rabbis who would have not allowed women to follow them. Mary Magdalene - he cast out seven demons. Susanna - served in Herod’s house! We’ll see these women again at the resurrection of Jesus! They followed Him to the end.
A large crowd gathers and Jesus tells a story. Jesus knows EVERY person in the crowd, and He knows how every person in the crowd will respond to Him. So, He tells a parable.
When disciples ask about the parable, two purposes: to reveal and to conceal. For those seeking truth, the parables would help them to understand the true identity of Jesus and how His Kingdom was at work in the world. For those not seeking: they would hear the story but be offended by the truth of the story. (Think Good Samaritan or Prodigal Son - both are offensive stories.) The parables are divisive. For the truth seekers - the parables reveal. For the truth rejecters - the parables offend and anger.
Quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 - Isaiah commissioned to go to a people that would not listen. Jesus would preach to people who would not listen - because of refusal to listen, they would not understand the secret of the Kingdom of God - that Jesus was the Messiah. Why? The conditions of their hearts.
Jesus tells a story about a farmer casting seed and the condition of the soil determines if the seed will grow and bear fruit or not. -Just as the condition of the soil determines how the seed will be received and ultimately how the seed will grow, the condition of you heart will determine how you will receive Jesus and IF you will grow in Jesus.
What heart conditions keep people from embracing Jesus and what heart condition embraces Jesus as Lord?
A hard heart that never responds
A hard heart that never responds
Sower = Jesus or anyone who preaches the Word. Seed = the Gospel message. Notice the generosity. Gospel made available to the masses.
Broadcast sowing - A farmer with a bag of seed scattering it on his field. Field has been plowed, but it’s inevitable that all the seed is not going to land in the ideal soil. Some will fall among hardened paths - paths the farmer has worn out over the years as he has walked back and forth through his fields - paths people have trampled on as they’ve made the fields a shortcut.
Hard soil represents hard-hearted people - seed falls but immediately taken away by the enemy. No chance of penetrating.
The enemy is hard at work trying to prevent people from responding to the Gospel. Who does Satan snatch the Gospel away from?
People uninterested in the Gospel - it’s good for other people, but not for me. Christianity is just not for me… I’m too wrapped up in my own world to care.
People who intellectually reject the Gospel - can’t believe the claims of God - not logical. It’s a fairy tale - a myth. There’s not enough proof. The Gospel is for weak-minded people. (Ted Turner) Or, science has disproven Christianity, etc.
People who live in unrepentant sin - You’re so immersed in feeding the desires of your flesh that you can’t see there is a God who loves you who has something better for you.
If you are hard hearted, you’re right where the enemy wants you - in your hard heartedness you allow Satan to snatch the seed away every time.
kayaking - hard oyster beds - damaging - you don’t know how your hard heart is damaging you.
A shallow heart that never endures
A shallow heart that never endures
Rocky soil - familiar sight in Israel - Galilee full of rocks - but, a layer of soil grows over the rocks. Grass shoots up and a seed of wheat or barley might immediately spring up - but no depth for roots. Heat of sun destroys it since no depth for roots.
Some respond to the Gospel but it takes no root. Your response to the Gospel was emotional - and NOT a decision to count the cost and take up your cross (Luke 9:23).
Maybe you’re banking on an experience you had at youth camp 20 years ago when you prayed the sinner’s prayer but no fruit. You had an experience where the music moved you, or an emotional sermon moved you - all emotional experience. AND… you faith continues to be emotional… You’re always looking for that next emotional high - that next feeling that helps to assure you that God is still there. (THIS is why we have to be careful especially with our children - youth camps, guilting them in to following Jesus, etc…)
When you make a decision to follow Jesus based on emotion - NO ROOT - then when tribulation comes - you fall away - because a foundation of truth wasn’t laid - just emotional experiences. You need something more certain than emotions to get you through the ups and downs of life. If faith based on emotion, when life gets tough, instead of running to God you run from God. When persecution comes - when someone questions your faith or gives you a hard time because of faith you don’t stand.
A defining characteristic of saving faith is ability to endure difficult times with eyes on Jesus. (1 Pet. 1:6-7) The measure of your faith is not how you feel but how you endure.
Questions:
Do you know what you believe? Or, do you simply base your faith on a superficial decision you made years ago?
Is your faith driven by feeling or a longing to know Christ? (I could feel the presence of Christ today vs. I didn’t feel the Spirit today.)
Are you devoted to the church by using your giftedness to further the mission of the church or are you using the church as a place to have religious experiences?
Story of Lulu - Missionary to China from FBC Charleston - endurance - is your faith a story of endurance in the Gospel?
A divided heart that never surrenders.
A divided heart that never surrenders.
Thorny ground - full of weeds that grow up alongside the seed. The weeds choke out the seed and it produces no grain.
For the divided heart - the thorns are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of life. Huge problem in America!
The cares of this world - Everything has your attention but Jesus - your job, your family, your education, your hobbies, etc. If Jesus gets anything from you, He only gets a Sunday here and there because everything else is choking out the work He wants to do in you.
The deceitfulness of riches - Wealth lies to us - wealth says - “I’ll give you security and safety.” That new house will finally make you feel like your at home. Your 401K will assure you of a good retirement. Reality: wealth lies. It doesn’t give you ultimate security because you will not take one penny into eternity. Jesus is our security.
The pleasures of life - You name it - you’re heart is focused on success, vacations, sex, drinking with friends, etc. If that’s your pursuit it will leave you empty.
Some of you are trying to live the life King Solomon lived, and like Solomon in Ecclesiastes you are saying, “Futility! All is futile!”
Surrender to Christ? How can you? Your heart just isn’t into Jesus - it’s into everything else; divided.
A faithful heart that always produces.
A faithful heart that always produces.
Only one type of soil produces a harvest - the shallow heart, the hard heart, and divided heart all represent lost people. The good soil: hears, accepts, and bears fruit. (John 15:5)
For the one who has a soft heart, when the Gospel comes, there’s genuine change. You let go of everything else and embrace the One who gave His all for you.
Thirtyfold and Sixtyfold - It seems like few are responding, but the Word of God does not return void. Many will respond to the Gospel and be changed.
After this parable and it’s explanation, another parable - shorter but to the point: if you’ve been given light you use it. Jesus is giving light to His disciples - He’s illuminating their hearts and minds. How would they respond? Would they hide the light or let it shine in their lives? We’ve been given the light of Jesus. We don’t hide the light and stay in darkness - we let the light of Christ illuminate the way we live. We allow the light to expose our sin and our need to listen carefully to the words of Jesus.
vs. 19-21 - The ones who we expect to listen do not - the Pharisees AND Jesus’ own family! Jesus’ true family are those who respond to Jesus Word in faith!
For the unbeliever:
Be honest about the condition of your own heart.
What is the condition of your heart? Hard like the beaten road? Shallow like soil on the rocky road? Divided like the thorny soil? Has your heart condition kept you from really knowing Christ?
Good news - God is more than able to give you a new heart. He can break up a hardened heart. He can removes the rocks from a shallow heart. He can destroy the thorns in a divided heart. He can cultivate in you a new heart if you will hear this morning. Are you listening to the Spirit? This morning, believe - believe what the scribes and Pharisees failed to believe - believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to bring you into a relationship with the Father by taking your punishment on the cross and rising from the dead. Believe the Good News that your sins can be forgiven and you can be given new life.
For the believer:
Be ready to share the Gospel.
It’s easy to get frustrated when people do not respond to Christ. There’s a mother who’s been praying for her son for years, and he doesn’t respond. There’s a man who’s trying to share the Gospel at work, but no one’s listening. There will be seasons in the life of our church where we faithfully share Christ, and few respond.
Temptation to think that something is wrong with the message or with the messenger - it’s outdated, it’s not relevant, etc. Temptation to change the message - to not preach the hard truth that people are separated from God by sin. That’s not popular!
Expect different responses. People not responding is normal, but Jesus’ Kingdom will prevail. In God’s time and in God’s way, seed will fall on good soil. We’ll see a harvest.
This morning, renew your commitment to the mission of Jesus. Pray that God will give you a heart to sow seed and trust that He will do as He desires in the hearts of people.