A Parable on God's Word :: Luke 8:4-15

The topic today is the power of God’s Word. And it comes to us through a parable on God’s Word. You might know it as the Parable of the Sower, but no matter really ...

BLESSED ARE YOU WHO HEAR THIS WORD OF GOD AND KEEP IT.

That’s our theme ... the bottom line of what our Lord Jesus is telling us today.

I.

Not everyone can hear this Word of God, and believe it. But that doesn’t change the fact that God’s Word is all-powerful (Mt 8:8). God’s Word is living and active (Hb 4:12). It always accomplishes the work it’s sent to do (Is 55:11). Whoever wrestles with it will be blessed (Gen 32:28). God’s Word gives us life and breath and meaning (Acts 17:25, Jn 20:31). It quickens our hearts. It enables us to recognize our sin and our need for THE Savior. It then delivers the forgiveness of sins, and therefore gives us all the reason we need to hear the message of salvation all the more. Blessed are you who hear this word of God and keep it.

We preachers never need a special anointing from the Holy Spirit to preach God’s Word. We don’t need to manipulate your emotions to get you psyched up to receive God’s Word. To use the beautiful Word given through the prophet Isaiah today, God’s Word falls upon us just like the rain and the snow. [God’s Word] waters the earth and causes it to give birth and sprout. It gives seed for sowing and bread for eating (Is 55:10b). This is all to say, when God speaks, he brings things into being. He creates things out of nothing. Thus will be my word as it goes out from my mouth, the Lord declares. It will not return to me empty (Is 55:11a). 

When he said, let there be light ... there was light (Gen 1:2). And in the same way, when he says, let there be faith, there is faith (Heb 12:2). 

And blessed are you who hear this word of God and keep it.

II.

So ... why do some people believe in Jesus but others don’t? Why do some repent, but others refuse? Why are there nearly as many religiously unaffiliated people in America today as Christians? Why does the Word of God bounce off the ears of some people? Why do some people hear the Word of God, love it, rejoice in it, receive it enthusiastically, but as soon as they face temptation, they abandon it, dropping it as if it were a hot iron skillet? Why do some people hear God’s Word, believe God’s Word, grasp on it in sincere faith, but then allow the cares, the riches, and the pleasures of life to suffocate them? Does God’s Word really work?

Jesus gives us the answer to all of these questions in our parable today. 

III.

Before I go too much further, we need to know what this parable is NOT about. This parable is NOT about what you are doing. This is a parable on God’s Word. 

In this parable, Jesus reminds all of us that we are dirt ... Some of us are hardened. Some of us are rocky. Some of us are thorny. And none of us are perfect, but we are all dirt. Because we are all dirt, we can’t do anything but make everything we touch dirty. None of us are good; no, not one (Rm 3:12). We can’t turn ourselves into rich black soil. We can’t fertilize ourselves. We can’t remove all the thorns and thistles from our lives. We can’t dig up the rocks that crush us. We can’t plant cover crops to aerate the ground. We can’t till our hearts. 

God’s Word does that for us.

In this parable, we are waiting for God ... who is the sower of the parable ... to cast his seed upon us. And that is exactly what he’s doing. As God’s Word in 1 Timothy declares, The Lord wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tm 2:4). 

Jesus illustrates that point from the beginning of the parable. As Luke writes immediately before our parable: Now it came to pass ... that Jesus was going through every city and village, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God (8:1). ... When a great crowd was gathering and those from the city were coming to him, he spoke through a parable. [Then he said] The sower went out to sow his seed (vv 1-2a). 

Note first, I did not say, a sower, as if this parable is about what any of us do. No, there is only one sower in this parable, and that would be the Lord. He is the one at work here. He is the one sowing his seed, which Jesus plainly says is his word (v 11). The Lord sows his Word wherever he goes. Some of his seed lands on hard ground, some on gravel, some on amid thorns and thistles, and some on the best farmland ever created (vv 5-8). Only the seed that fell on good soil produced the best fruit. 

Then immediately after telling this parable, Jesus added this. The one having ears to hear, let him hear (v 8). And then to his disciples, he said: To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to (everyone else) [the mysteries] are given in parables, in order that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand (v 9).

IV.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, some people simply don’t believe God’s Word. Their hearts are hard. They don’t care about the Law. They don’t care about the Gospel. They don’t care for what God has to say ... not about sin ... not about salvation. The only thing they care about is themselves. They don’t remember the Sabbath; they despise God’s Word and preaching. They don’t honor their father and mother: They rebel against God-given authority. They don’t think hating someone is the same as murdering them. They think it’s OK to live together outside of marriage: They are concerned only with their pleasure. Meanwhile, we all turn blind eyes to it. When we don’t fear, love, and trust in God above all things, we are idolizing ourselves!

The one having ears to hear, let him hear: These sins and so many more are killing you! 

So repent now. That is, mourn your sin ... confess your sin ... and believe in the Gospel: God does all the work with his Word. It will soften your hearts ... just like the cover crops you plant on your fields. It will break our rock-hard hearts. He will consume the thistles in fire. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tm 3:16). Blessed are those who hear this Word and keep it. 

When our hearts are cut by God’s law and we see our weakness, our spiritual poverty, and rebellion, God’s word will naturally lead us to cry out for help. And he will hear your groans. He longs to forgive those who confess their sins. Then you will go out in joy and be led forth in peace (Is 55:12).

In keeping with his Word, the Holy Spirit nourishes your faith so that you won’t be like rocky soil that embraces the Law but spurns the Gospel ... those who tell themselves baptism doesn’t matter or that you don’t need the Lord’s Supper. The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in particular, refresh us and nourish our faith so that we won’t shrivel up and die with no roots. Blessed are you who hear this Word and keep it. God’s Word delivers the forgiveness of sins through his means of grace!

Those of us who think we can survive on the Word alone, that we don’t need the water of baptism and the body and blood of Christ, are being deceived. Don’t allow Satan to snatch that from you! In our confessions, Luther declares we must never think of the sacrament(s) as something harmful from which we had better flee. (We should think of them) as pure, wholesome, comforting remed(ies) that grant salvation and comfort. (They) will cure you and give you life both in soul and body (LC V 68). And honestly, they will help you overcome the thorns ... all of those the pleasures of life that convince you to put yourselves before God. Blessed are you who hear this Word and keep it. On account of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will enable you to bear the best fruit in keeping with repentance. 

V.

God’s Word has made this possible for you. Our Lord Jesus, the Word made flesh, was cast from heaven and became flesh to break and hinder every evil purpose and plan of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. Remember, he was born without sin and lived without sin. He is the perfect soil of this parable, and the fruit of his word nourishes the world. He gave himself to us in baptism and the Lord’s supper. He then took your curse to the cross, where he was cursed and despised for you. He was nailed to the cross atop the hard rock called Golgotha. He became the one who was choked with a crown of thorns. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the curse of your sin and death died with Jesus on the cross. More than that, he has risen from the dead for your justification, and he has united himself with you in baptism and the supper so that you will have life. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (Hb 4:9).

Since Christ has borne our sins, we can now bear the sins of those with whom we live. Since God is patient with us, we can be patient with our brothers and sisters. Since we are forgiven by God’s grace, we can put the sins of others under the same blood and forgive them. 

And now blessed are you who hear this word of God and keep it ... in Jesus’ name.