[Morning Sermon] He Who Has Ears, Let Him Hear (Luke 8:4-15)

Jesus' parables were more than clever, folksy illustrations. They conveyed deep spiritual truths that could both wound and heal. For those who have ears to hear, they are blessing. For those, they're a curse. In this sermon, Ruling Elder Neil Bortz will challenge us to hear Jesus' words and take them to heart.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

All yours. Thank you. It's fortunate that since I don't do this very often, I get a little extra time, so an extra hour might be helpful for us. If you have a Bible, please turn, or I guess for some of you, scroll to Luke chapter 8. We'll be starting with verse 4. He who has ears, let him hear, is the title of this sermon. This text is rat rather well known. You've likely heard it or read it before and likely heard exquisite sermons on it. If you haven't, then you welcome to this hidden gem that also functions as a double-edged sword. You may have heard what a parable is. There's a common theological definition, which goes something like this: the means of communicating truth through a narrative analogy in order to teach a moral or spiritual lesson. That's a very good Sunday school answer. But we're going to dig in a little bit more under the surface this morning. If you've heard the parables themselves, have you heard why Jesus spoke in parables? And as you will see this morning, it is a little unsettling at times. Our text is often called the parable of the sower, but it might be more apt to call it the parable of soils. And you'll hear why in a minute. Mark and Matthew also contain this parable as well. Last week we ended with Jesus going through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. We now see crowds gathering around Jesus to hear from him. Please rise and hear now from Scripture, Luke 8, starting with verse 4 through 15. And when a great crowd was gathering, and people from town after town came to them, came to him, he said 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. And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil, and grew and yielded a hundredfold. And he said these things he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when the disciples 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 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 time of testing fall away. And as for those, and for what fell on 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. 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Father, we ask that you would illumine this text to us, that we may be changed, and that you would give me the words to say, that we may hear that which you are speaking. In Christ's name we pray, amen. You may be seated. You may have heard this term before. It's in our culture, especially amongst some of the younger generations, deconstruction. Um, it's a thing. In the current moment of the day, the deconstruction of the Christian faith in particular is a real problem. What is it? Well, it's the systematic dismantling of a person's foundational beliefs, which can lead to a mature, rebuilt faith, right? Or incomplete abandonment of Christianity, which is mostly the case. I have to say that those that most who deconstruct don't persevere in the faith. They don't. Some do. As a fad, it is a way of backing out of the faith. I don't discount sincere questions that people have about the Bible or God's word. There's some difficult things in here. But at the same time, this is now a movement. In the old days, we simply called it falling away, or even apostasy or heresy. Now it's a movement that can be, that sometimes and rarely is an honest search in some cases, but often is a veneer to basically walk away. And some are hurt by the church, and church hurt is real. So is the crucified Christ who can understand that pain. In our text this morning, we have many cases that may speak to this deconstruction. Ultimately, it turns out that those who are rejecting God in his word are what's at issue? Deconstructionists do not regard Scripture as being the final authority on morality and the life. They may hold up to it a little bit, but the appeal to other things has more weight. What's the deconstruction have to do with the parable this morning? Everything. If you are in the midst of doubt or have gone down the rabbit hole of deconstruction, or whatever journey you have, or you're being tempted by the world, you're being crushed by it. Know this: this parable brings us back to the basics. Believe what Jesus says. And as Jesus speaks, we must hear and respond in faith. Like a battleground, I want to prep your ears and hearts with a few reminders. As we get into this text, I want to remind you, brothers and sisters, that the word of the Messiah in this passage is not just a cute little story. As the author of Hebrews tells us, in the last days, he, God, has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. This passage follows a path where we can get inside and look at what Jesus is doing and saying. And so he begins with this invitation. And then he espouses this double-edged sword and judgment. And then he finally grants us this assurance. So if you're taking notes, it's the three the three words you want to key on are invitation, judgment, and assurance. I tried some alliteration, but uh it didn't take. In verse four, there's an invitation. The context of our text here, um, I want to make a few observations before we dive into it, and we're gonna dive into it a little bit more when he explains it. Um there's crowds that have responded. This is by grace. See, Jesus comes in, he's doing the kingdom, he's building the kingdom. People are coming to him. There's people who are being healed, there are people who are being changed. And it's gracious, God's grace has come in the person of Christ. So this invitation here is for all of us. The crowds have responded. Some just want to listen. Some are just trying to figure out who he is. And there are no doubt those who believe in him. And this text doesn't specify exactly where they are. Could be Galilee, probably is, but we don't know. In the parable, in in I want to tell you a little bit about this kind of weird thing about seed being thrown on the ground. In agriculture, there were different soils in the area. You did have uh the path that people trod on. Well, you know, those those areas aren't gonna get uh very well, they're not gonna grow anything on those paths. Um you also had rock. And in in the ancient world here, in this particular location, you did have a thin layer of soil at times, and then some rock underneath. And nothing is going to grow there. And when it describes thorns, these aren't the little thorns that, you know, in Tennessee. These are big, long, six-foot-long thorns that choke anything. Actually, kind of the description was quite scary. Um and then there's the good soil, and the good soil yields fruit. And so Jesus, here in this passage, he finishes the parable. As he finished the parable, he issues a call to respond. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Is this just yelling into the wind? The text here is not, he didn't whisper this. When he says he calls out, there's really some volume there. Kind of like a prophet, but he's speaking directly to people, not just some empty desert. He's speaking, he who has ears, let him hear. It's not a rhetorical rant. He's calling them, he's inviting them, and he wants them to respond. And so the call here has several aspects I want to dive into a little bit. The call to hear God is not new in Scripture and continues after the ministry of Jesus is done as well. It's ingrained in our belief. The call. It is a command of God that he gives to his people. You probably know Deuteronomy 6, 4, the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Listen, Israel, listen. And of course, that's something that I memorized as a kid. Biblical hearing isn't just hearing the words, biblical hearing is biblical doing. And so Jesus isn't calling people to just listen to a nice, nice little speech. He wants to see action. And biblical hearing is biblical doing, and of course, there's more. In Revelation 2 and 3, we have this ongoing refrain. As Jesus speaks to his people in the seven churches, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit has says to the churches. At the baptism of Jesus, you hear the voice. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Now, Jesus is talking to those who have ears. We all have ears. Who are those who have ears? Is that not everyone? Not in a biblical sense, as we will see in a minute. It is not everyone. But if you have ears to hear the words of Jesus, then take heed now. You don't want to miss this. Ears that hear in this scene are ears that act and repent and believe the words of Jesus. There's a lot of bystanders there. There's a lot of bystanders in our world. There's a lot of bystanders, there could be bystanders in this church. But biblical hearing is action. If you read the word of God or listen, yet remain unmoved and unchanged, uninterested, or it's glossed over, or you go back to your email and phone and to-do list and it makes not an impact, then, brothers and sisters, I want you to reevaluate what it means to hear God and listen to Him. The Word of God will confound us and encourage us and enlighten us and cause you to grow spiritually and grasp it and live through it. This is an invitation, brothers and sisters. It's a call to you and do you hear it? Because the next section of our passage puts Jesus puts us on the crosshairs. And that kind of gives us to our second point on judgment. Follow me here. The invitation has been made, and now the disciples approach Jesus with a question. And his disciples asked him, what this parable meant. Now, they ask in a very polite way, as one who would say, Hey, Rabbi, what does this mean? They're asking in a very courteous way. They're not just saying, they're not scoffing, they're really asking. And they don't want to miss it. They want to know. They don't want to be a part of the cohort who doesn't believe, who doesn't hear. And Jesus responds. Now he responds like we would probably feel fine with him responding. Thank you, Lord. To you, y'all, it's a it's it's we're in Tennessee. Y'all, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Now that's a huge statement. To you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Jesus isn't speaking to just you individually, he's speaking to a larger group, mostly the disciples, but there's other people who are in earshot. Anyone who was listening. He didn't take them off to the side, like sometimes in some texts, some passages and other scenes. He didn't take them to the side and say, all right, now I'm going to give you the real scoop. This isn't Caesarea Philippi. This is on the plane in front of everybody. To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, and he's telling them if you have ears to hear. And as at this point, Jesus zeroes in on the crux of the matter. You are to know the secrets or mysteries of the kingdom of God. Now that's a huge thing. He's letting you in on it. This isn't some backroom smoke-filled thing where you come out with some strategy. He's being very plain and open. And that's just how Jesus is. Plain and open. And what is he saying? That God has revealed these things to you. Paul echoes this kind of language in several places. One in particular is found in Colossians 1, 26 and 27, where Paul describes his profound duty, his profound calling as a minister, and the profound mystery where he describes the ministry of the Word of God to make it fully known. And he then he says, the mystery, Colossians 1.26, hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to the saints. Paul knew what this mystery was. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you. The hope of glory. Such things confound the world even today. The world thinks the Christian faith is a set of rules or ideas or precepts to follow, or even a healthy worldview. Not knocking those things. Those things are fine. But it falls short. If you're a Christian, you are united to Jesus. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. And the world does not understand that. Jesus lets them in on the secrets to know what the parables mean, and they have ears to hear. They get this understanding and he explains it to them. You know, when I think about parables and having it explained, sometimes I live in this world with Gen Z. And you know, sometimes they speak in such language that I don't understand. You know, like if you have um, I'm low-key, cooked, and I hope to leave no crumbs after the sermon. And I'm thinking to myself, what are you talking about? You're speaking a different language. It's almost like a parable. Fortunately, I have young people in my house who can be translators to those to that interpret that tongue. There is a flip side of this coin, though. It's judgment. He says, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables. That's fine. But then if you read a little bit on, it gets uncomfortable. So that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Jesus, don't you want them to know? Why the hidden truths? Why not, everybody? And it's following, of course, from Isaiah chapter six, verses nine, where the prophet, this is that scene where he falls down, the coal to the and he gets, you know, the coal to his lips, and he realizes he's woe to him, and then he gets a call. Who am I gonna send? Here I am, Lord, send me. Send us. But then when he gets to the actual thing of what to say, Isaiah gets this. Go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing and do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. Now that's a tough message. And Jesus is quoting that here. Why are is there a blindness? Why are they not hearing? Why can't they hear? If you feel a little discomfort here, that's okay. This might be a little troubling. But you have to understand something. The hardness of heart does not allow to be heard, to hear God's word. The hardness of heart. Are you doing anything in your life that increases the hardness of your own heart? Because if you are, it would not be a surprise if you had not heard or understand what God is telling you. Parables prevent this understanding, and it's a joy to those who do understand and who have hearts. Now, basically, Jesus, for those folks who don't understand, he's saying that the truth is going right over their heads. And that's troubling. But brothers and sisters, I want you to turn our attention to verse 11 and on. As he teaches us what this parable means. It's the explanation. And by this, you will increase in your assurance of faith. The explanation is that Jesus now explains it what the soils are. It's kind of funny, a little ironic, I suppose, that the sower, who's the word, the Lord, he it doesn't really concentrate on him, even though he's the main mover in this parable. The explanation really centers around the human hearts, the soils. Now, I do want to say at the outset here that every one of the obstacles that are in these four soils, you and I face. Because just because you feel or know one of them doesn't mean that's your lot in life here. That doesn't mean that's the condition of your heart. It could be, but you we all face these obstacles to our faith. The first soil, the seed falls on the path where people tread on it, and the birds. Come and pluck it away. And Jesus, of course, says the ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts. The adversary steals it. We don't always know who's been given the word and it's been stolen. But I want to let you know that the spiritual warfare that's going on in our world is heavy. It's real, and there are casualties to it. And those who have fallen, have had the word stolen from us. And I can also think of a form of stealing here that's also taking the word and adding a little bit of untruth to it so that people are confused. That's stealing the word too. When you add or take away from the word, that's stealing. For example, if you think about the way in which we disciple, or sometimes, not necessarily this church, because I think we do a really good job of that. But one thing we want sometimes is we want Christians to look the part. We want them to turn, we turn our discipleship into behavioral conformity without repentance and faith. See, this is behavioral conformity, it's fine. I mean, little Johnny does what little Johnny's supposed to do. Great. But does little Johnny have faith? Does little Johnny have repentance? When little Johnny messes up, sorry if anybody's named Johnny. When little Johnny messes up, do we rejoice in the repentance? And we can do that with adults too, by the way. Look the part, don't attract attention. But underneath, there could be a storm of unbelief. Anyone can go at it for a while, go along the play along, just behave. But see, that's a form of stealing. When we do not adopt the word of God, and we add to it, or take out the guts of it, saying, I just want you to be good. I don't care how you're how you're good. And there's other things. When I was thinking about this, I started going down my own little rabbit holes about false teaching. That's another form of where the word of God is stolen or conf or or or messed up. It's rampant, especially on social media. I do worry, brothers and sisters, that in the broader evangelical church at large, there are several layers of false teaching that we have to confound today. I can go into all of them. But for sake of time, I won't. I could just label a few. Politicize Christianity. As I thought about this, sometimes the issues of the day are more important than what Jesus says. They capture us. We don't necessarily believe them, but we we spend more time with them. Jesus is no longer center stage. Sometimes there's a disdain for organized religion because they find it oppressive in some way. Churches sometimes are emptying. Our church, the PCA, is growing. Thanks be to God. But I can't say that for the evangelical church at large sometimes. Some churches are bottoming out. Because the culture, the zeitgeist, the current uh views of the day have captured people, that the church, its organized religion, is oppressive. And there are others. But I want to get to the second soil. They receive this the word with joy. And you're thinking, all right, joy. And it falls on the rock, but it doesn't grow. Doesn't grow into the rock because there's no moisture. The heat will destroy it. It ceases to grow and withers. The roots are not able to go down. Now, I, you know, I was walking in the desert once and I did see a tree growing out of a rock, and it was kind of interesting. And my parents, I was like six years old. I thought that was pretty cool. But that's not the norm. In this situation, these roots don't grow. Have you ever met someone like that? They receive the word, they receive it with joy, and then a month later, two months later, it didn't take. Sometimes, though, it's they embrace the Christian life and then fall away due to, as Jesus says here, a testing of faith. Jesus, I know you want me to change in this area, but I don't want to. I'm holding on to this sin. I don't want to change. I'll do all the other things, but don't ask me to do this. Sometimes it's persecution. It's too heavy to be persecuted. In the early church, when there were people who fell away when a new government issued, you know, sometimes in a Roman province, they would go after the Christians. And the faithful ones stayed. And the ones who fell away, when that emperor or that pro-consul left, all these other ones who fell away wanted to come back in. And the church developed some very, very strict protocols on who they're going to let back in after that. But they fall away. There is no root here. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. He is the root of David, and nothing will grow without a root. If you're holding on to sin and you do not want God to change you, you are in danger, falling away. The third soil. The cares of the world choke us out of faith. You are neck deep in the world and you feel choked by it. We've been there. I know we have. Some of our schedules are really big, like so complicated. You ever see somebody's schedule where they have to color code it all the time? Because it's so complex. Choked. I'm not saying that work isn't good, but let us not take these things of this earth as priority over Jesus. We hear the word, but the cares of the world choke it out. And it's not just work, because work isn't really mentioned here that much. It's the other stuff. Pleasures. Riches. This is affecting our churches. We have to make decisions what to do with our money. I could rail on that a minute, but I actually want to turn the screws here on our own private hearts about not what's going on in the outside church, but what's going on in our own hearts. What gives you comfort? What gives you ease? What gives you a sense of shalom, peace? As you answer that, recognize that whatever those things are, that's what you are prone to worship in place of Jesus. James, of course, in the book of James, he's kind of blunt. He has an antidote to worldliness. Basically, it's weep, mourn, and wail. Humble yourselves in the sight of God. The fourth soil is, of course, the most encouraging. They hold it fast. The word here for holding it fast is really, it's an intense holding. They secure it, they keep possession of it, they passionately cling to it. Do you hold on to your faith that way? If you are drowning, someone throws you a flotation device, you are going to grasp that with everything. That's the kind of holding on to Christ that we have to have. And then he explains it in an honest and good heart. This phrase is very important. It's important because it's honest. It's important for us to be honest before the Lord. Every week when we have confession, that's one of your chances. But of course, the other six days, we're supposed to be honest before the Lord too. Being honest with others is a no-brainer after we've been honest with our before the Lord and honest with yourself. Our confession to God needs this kind of honesty. Confession actually means agreeing with God that the gravity or depravity or the wickedness of your sin is how God views it. You have the same view of your sin that God has. And so that's an important way as a barometer. Oh, we're not going to just gloss over it. We are going to own it in the way that God owns it and died for it. This is a beautiful picture of the changed life, though. The one that is being changed by God. The fruit is produced. And you can see a hundredfold, I think it's it says it in the other ones, the other, the earlier of the passage. It's producing a lot of fruit. The fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, gentleness, and gentleness and self-control. Is that fruit in your life? Or are you void of it? If you don't know, ask someone. Ask someone who knows you. Go that trail. Be honest with the Lord. Now, by way of application, there's some things I've already said here, but there's three questions I want to ask you for application. Number one, do you hear the word of God at all? I'm not talking about just hearing the word as a sound. But are you embracing it in your life? Are you taking action from what Jesus actually says? You may want to cut the noise in your life, though. And what does that mean? Well, if your free time is only used for mindless scrolling on YouTube, you might want to choose a different activity. There's a lot of noise. Advertisers, calls for action, post social media posts from a friend, the meme that gets all the attention. We're saturated with a 24-hour news cycle. Turn it off. Sometimes we just need to turn it off so that we can hear and read God's word before you begin your day or at the close of the day. Or whenever you want to do that, but do it. Do you hear the word of God at all? Second question I want to ask you is what's your soil? I'm sure you have phases where you've been battling spiritually and God has said things and the devil is trying to work you over. But what's the main one? What prevents, what obstacle prevents you from embracing the word? Are you getting smothered and entangled by thorns? Do your goals align with the kingdom of God? Are your aims and focus in your life a building enterprise of the kingdom or of self? Are you more interested in IRAs, credentialing status, and accumulation of things rather than the kingdom? I'm guilty as charged. I stand before you as guilty and charged of that. Are you engrossed in politics that you get distracted from the gospel? Are you withering without moisture? Have you been persuaded by false teaching? Are you bearing fruit? What's your soil? Spend some time this week to really look at it. Put the microscope, magnifying glass, one of those things. To your heart. Let God do that. Because He will. He's very good at that. We do have a real enemy, though, that prevents us from impact, that uh prevents the word from making an impact. Pray, brothers and sisters. Thirdly, what is your main obstacle? Take that inventory this week. Jesus described these pitballs before us. What is that that preoccupies you more than anything else? Because that is the place that gets attacked. God knows what it is, fortunately. He tells us what to do in Isaiah 55. Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. Seek the Lord while he may be found. He who has ears, let him hear. Above the noise of the world, above the din of battle, above the circumstances that life brings you, trial, temptation, or snare. You have ear who have ears, hear the Savior calling you. Hear him and respond in faith. Let's pray. Father, we come before you and thank you that you sent your son to speak to us in these ways. We ask that you would turn our hearts to you, that we may have hearts that yield abundant fruit in this life, that we may get our heads straight and our hearts turn to you to build your kingdom, to be used by you to share your gospel. Be with us now as we go in this week with the gospel on our lips, so that others may hear the word. Christ's name we pray. Amen.