Sexagesima
Lk
8:4-15
2/8/26
Does the Word of God – the message of the Gospel – really work?
There are times – more than we would like – when it seems like that question
should be answered in the negative. We
speak the Gospel, and it meets with dismissal or even outright rejection. In the same way, it is very disappointing to
see people who have been Christians fall away from the faith. These experiences can undermine our
confidence in God’s Word.
This morning in our text, Jesus explains about the nature of God’s
Word and how it is received. His
teaching gives us some understanding about the things we don’t want to see. It
guides how we need to live in relation to God’s Word. And it provides assurance
that God’s Word will not fail to produce results.
In our text Jesus tells the parable of the sower. We learn that a
man went into his field to sow seed. In an era before machinery this was done
by the simple process of tossing out handfuls of seed. Christ describes how not
all the seed landed in fertile soil. Some fell along the path. Paths had been
worn from many years of people walking along the edge of fields and even
through their midst. Here the seed was trampled underfoot by passersby, and the
birds ate it up.
Some of the seed fell on rocky soil. The seed that landed here did
grow. But because it was very poor soil that did not contain sufficient
moisture, the seedlings withered and died.
Other seed fell among thorns. Here too the seed grew. But the thorns
also grew up along with the seedlings, and in the end the thorns choked them
out. Finally, there was seed that landed on good soil, and this seed yielded a
hundredfold. It produced a great
harvest.
At the end of the parable Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let
him hear.” These words signal that there
is more going on here than may seem at first to be the case. It certainly caught the disciples’ attention.
We learn that they began to ask Jesus what the parable meant.
The word “parable” has a rather broad meaning in the New Testament.
It can be used for a brief saying that illustrates a truth or conveys some meaning.
Here we find it in the form we are most used to as an extended story. This is
the first time in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus has told story like this which is
labeled as a parable. It introduces a continuing use of the this kind of teaching.
The disciples noticed this new form of teaching and asked our Lord what it
meant.
Jesus replied, “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.’” Our Lord began
by saying that the secrets of God’s reign in Christ were being revealed to the
disciples. God had called them to faith and they were being given
understanding. Jesus was about to
explain to them what the parable meant. He was going to reveal the truth
conveyed by the story.
This stood in contrast to others who only received things in the
form of the parable. We learn that
during Jesus’ ministry the parables revealed and concealed at the same time. To
those who believed in Jesus they provided understanding about the kingdom of
God – the reign of God that was present in Jesus. To those who did not believe
in Jesus they remained simply entertaining stories.
In this case, Jesus said the purpose of the parables was so “so that
‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’” These words are drawn from what God said to
Isaiah when he called the prophet. After
Isaish said, “Here I am send me,” Yahweh replied, “Go, and say to this
people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on
seeing, but 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.”
When Isaiah asked how long he was supposed to do this, he learned
that this was to take place until God had brought judgment upon Judah by means
of the Assyrians. God was sending Isaiah
to a people who were sinning and rejecting Yahweh. The word of Isaiah
was going to harden them in their sin as God prepared to bring his judgment.
This background from Isaiah helps us to understand Jesus’ words.
Our Lord was speaking to people who were sinful and were rejecting Jesus’ word
– many refused to believe in Jesus as anything more than a prophet or an
interesting rabbi. The very first time we hear Jesus preach in Luke’s Gospel -
in the synagogue at Nazareth - the people rejected his claim about being the
fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and they tried to throw him off a cliff. In the chapters that precede our text, the
Pharisees have rejected and attacked Jesus.
Jesus’ words lead us to ponder how God saves people, and why some
people aren’t saved. He teaches us that only God can call people to faith and
reveal the mysteries of the kingdom. As we confess in the explanation to the
third article of the Creed, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or
strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit
has called me by the Gospel.”
God wants to save all. That is why
he sent his Son into the world to suffer and die on the cross for the sins of
all. Paul told Timothy that God, “desires all people to be saved and to come
to the knowledge of the truth.” But Scripture also teaches that where
people refuse to repent and reject God, he hardens them in their unbelief
through his word. That is what he expressed to Isaiah. That is what Jesus says
about the nature of the parables. Jesus
will say later in this Gospel, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding
and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your
gracious will.”
We want to understand why there are people who don’t
believe. We know why we believe – it is because God has called us through the
work of the Spirit. We know that it is God’s desire to save all – that is what
his word says. We know that God hardens in unbelief those who reject him. But why is it that some people take this
stance of rejection in the first place?
It is very
tempting to say that God is the cause – after all, he is the cause of those who
are saved. But such a logical conclusion contradicts the fact that God says he
wants to save all. Instead, Scripture locates the cause in the fallen
sinfulness of man himself. It says that
God wants to save all in Christ. It says
that only God can call people to faith. It says that sinful man is responsible
for his rejection of the Gospel. It says that, like Pharoah, God does harden
people in their rejection of his word.
You can’t
make those biblical truths fit together in a neat logical construct. And so we are left confessing what God’s Word
says, even if we can’t explain exactly how things work. But recognize, this is
nothing new. We do the same thing when it comes to the Holy Trinity and
incarnation of the Son of God. We believe God’s word in faith, trusting that
God’s ways go beyond the understanding of fallen man.
After
describing the nature of his parables, Jesus then went on to explain the
parable of the sower. He said, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the
word of God.” This word of God is the Gospel of the kingdom. It is the proclamation that Jesus Christ died
on the cross as he received the punishment against your sin. Through this
sacrifice he has won forgiveness for you. And then in his resurrection from the
dead God demonstrated that he had in fact been at work in Christ. The
resurrection of Christ was the defeat of death. Through faith in Jesus Christ you
have forgiveness, salvation, and resurrection life on the Last Day.
Jesus then
explained, “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.” The sharing of the Gospel does not take place
in a neutral environment. The devil became the lord of all sinful man through
the Fall. In his homicidal lordship he wants to plunge all into the torment of
Hell just as he himself will experience it.
The devil
uses different means to snatch the word away so that it does not even
receive a consideration. Through his influence in the world people reject
anything that is “religious.” They say that Scripture is just a book written by
men. In particular, he uses the materialism of our culture to support a
profound spiritual apathy. People are focused on the things of this world and
just don’t care about spiritual matters at all. They don’t even give the Gospel
a consideration as they go on living their life.
Next Jesus
said, “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.” The seed that fell on the rock did grow, and
Jesus says that this describes people who hear the Gospel and believe for a
awhile. However, believing in Christ and walking in his way will mean taking up
the cross. It will bring trials and testing. In response, some give up on the
faith and walk away.
Our Lord
added, “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.” Once again, Christ
describes people who hear the word and believe. However, over time their faith
is choked out by different challenges of this fallen world.
Worries and
concerns cause people to focus on problems instead of Christ. They begin to
think that the Lord isn’t doing them any good as they struggle with health
problems and financial concerns. The riches of this world suck people in as
money and all the things it can buy becomes the thing that is really their god.
The pleasures of life include all of the forms of sexual immorality present in
our world – sin that is celebrated by our culture as normal and good. These
things choke out faith – they cause faith to die.
In the
explanation of the seed on the rock and the seed among the thorns it must not
escape our attention that Jesus is speaking about people who were Christians.
They had faith in Christ. But it withered and died. It was choked out. There is no such thing as
“once saved, always saved.” Christians can, and do fall away from faith in
Jesus. I have seen this while pastor at Good Shepherd. Members who were active
and involved, drop out of the life of faith. Youth who were taught the faith
and raised to walk in Christ, leave home and just drift away as Jesus no longer
has any role in their life.
Thus far what
Jesus has said is discouraging. We have heard about all of the different ways
that the word does not produce salvation. The Gospel is shared, and in
the end it produces nothing. It is easy to wonder: what’s the point?
But remember
how Jesus described the seed that landed in the good soil. He said it produced a hundredfold. It
produced a bounty. Our Lord explains, “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.”
Jesus’ words about the seed on the good soil raises two
different, and important points. First, the word of the Gospel goes forth and
God promises that it will bring forth a great harvest. We are to sow – we are to share the Gospel -
in this confidence. Jesus expressed this
same truth when he told the parable of the mustard seed. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is
like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is
the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the
garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make
nests in its branches.”
It is easy to focus on the rejection of the Gospel. The
reign of God in our midst looks small and insignificant like the mustard seed.
But Jesus promises that in the end it will produce great results that we will
see on the Last Day. We have this
confidence because Jesus is the Lord who has risen from the dead.
And so the parable of the sower teaches us to sow. It
teaches us to cast the Word of God forth – to speak the Gospel to others. It is
not for us to worry about whether the seed lands on the path, or on rocky soil,
or among thorns. We sow, and God promises that he will produce the growth
according to his will. It will produce a
harvest that we will recognize on the Last Day.
The second point we learn from the parable is how we must
live in the faith. You didn’t create the
faith in Christ that you have. But you can lose it. Jesus says, “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.”
Christ says that we must hold fast to the word. To do
this, you have to continue to receive the word. You must continue to
receive the word in its various forms. You must continue to receive the Means
of Grace.
The starting point for this is what you are doing right
now. The Divine Service on Sunday morning should be the necessary starting
point of each week. Each week the word of God is read and proclaimed to you by
Christ’s called servant. Each week you receive the true body and blood of
Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This is the food
that sustains faith. Faith can only continue as we hold fast to the word.
But that is just the starting point. The next step is
your personal reading of Scripture during the week. Do you take time each day
to read God’s Word? How does the time you devote to reading Scripture compare
to the time you spend looking at social media on your phone, or watching
sports, or doing a hobby?
Our church body has developed a great pattern for reading
Scripture. It is both quite
comprehensive in its scope over the course of a year, and also reasonable in
the amount of Scripture it sets before us to read each day. And I am going to
keep pushing it until the day I am no longer pastor at Good Shepherd. It is in
the Treasury of Daily Prayer and InPrayer app by Concordia Publishing House. It
is in the bulletin insert each week. It is on the church website, complete with
the link for reading those texts online. I email this out to you every
week. Hold fast to the word by using
this to read Scripture.
To remain in the faith you have to hold fast to the word.
And you have to also bear fruit with patience.
This means that we have to commit to living out the faith. It means loving my spouse by putting his or
her needs ahead of my own. It means trusting in God’s continuing love and care,
even when I am experiencing hardships that I do not want. It means turning away
from sin by choosing not to gossip about my neighbor; by not having sex outside
of marriage and looking at pornography; by not speaking when I feel angry. It
means forgiving others. As Paul told the
Ephesians, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
as God in Christ forgave you.”
So what do we take away from all of this? Sow the seed –
speak the Gospel to others, for God promises that it will produce. Hold fast to
the word – receive the Means of Grace and read Scripture each day. Bear fruit
with patience – love your neighbor with action; forgive; turn away from sin.
This is what Jesus teaches us today.
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