Luke 8:4 - 15
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.
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Is this parable talking about salvation? How can this parable be applied to those of us who are saved?
2. v5 - Who is the sower?
3. v5 - What is the path?
4. v6 - What is the rock?
5. v7 - What is the thorny ground?
6. v8 - What does the good soil look like?
7. v10 - What was Jesus mean by the disciples being given the secrets of the kingdom of God and that other's are just given parables? And the part about "seeing that they may not see"? Why?
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2017/05/mark-41-20-again-jesus-began-to-teach.html says:
ReplyDeleteThe spiritual fruit that comes from God’s Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, forgiveness, healing, righteousness, glory, grace, compassion, knowledge and truth.
It is interesting to note that a plant does not “decide” when to bear fruit. It just happens. If anyone remains joined to me, and I to him, he will bear a lot of fruit. You can't do anything without Me.” (John 15:5) We must stay connected to Jesus, because without Him, we cannot bear any fruit!
We aren’t responsible to make the fruit. We are responsible to keep the soil in good condition. Read God’s Word, listen to good teaching, pray, listen to God. We don’t plant things in our heart or mind that are against God - bad TV show, movies, books and video games.
Sadly, there are three kinds of “heart soil” that don’t bear any kind of spiritual fruit. These people don’t share the truth that is deep down in their hearts. Instead of good fruit, their lives are full of worry, fear, greed, and frustration. They think more about themselves than about the Lord. If this sounds like your life, there is only one way to make a change! Jesus says He is the WAY (John 14:6). Confess: Tell the Lord that your heart has not been good soil. Ask Him to plow up the hard places and replace them with a good, soft heart that will be the perfect place for His truth to take root and grow. Listen to God’s promise:
I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. - Ezekiel 36:26
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my 2 cents: I don't think that the good soil is about someone who is saved, but more about a portion of us that is redeemed.
I think that our lives is a large garden with soil in various states. I think that we all have all four types of soil in our lives, and that God is always preparing that soil in our lives, turning it into good soil.
I think that we all have areas in which we are hard, shallow, idolatrous, or surrendered to God. It just doesn't make sense that we are either good soil or one of the others. It also doesn't make sense that by saying the prayer of Salvation, we all of a sudden turn to 100% good soil.
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VP says:
Just a thought - I've always approached this parable as Jesus was telling me (the hearers) to be good soil. But what if we flipped it? Maybe He is telling this to the disciples not to tell them to be good soil (because, really, what can soil do of itself?) but to tell them as farmers to expect different outcomes when they preach the gospel.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2017/05/mark-41-20-again-jesus-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDelete(Something I wrote several years ago. I'm not sure I feel the same way - but it is interesting):
My 2 cents on why Jesus spoke in parables:
I disagree with most of the reasons given so far - especially the oft repeated reason that only good hearted people could understand the parables. The fact that the disciples had no idea what Jesus was talking about flies in the face of that.
I think the reason Jesus spoke in parables is out of mercy for them. The people couldn't handle the truth. They would reject it if they heard it (just like how they all left Him when He told them that they had to eat His body and drink His blood in John 5 or 6). Jesus knew that, so instead of turning them away with the truth, He planted seeds that would plow the soil of their hearts.
When people's soil became plowed enough, they would start questioning the parables and come back for more.
I never thought of it this way before. Given this, I now know why I was/am so bothered by the direct evangelism techniques from the evangelism movement. What I kept seeing is that those who didn't believe would be driven further away, while it seemed to me that the only people who responded were those who already believed.
I am now of the opinion that we should have the same mercy for people that Jesus did. Instead of asking loudly if people are saved and then going into a gospel rant (that will surely turn people off), we need to be used by God to plow people's hearts by getting them to wonder.
"Do you think there is something that started everything or do you think everything appeared spontaneously?" "Hey, what did you think of that lady on the news that said blah blah?" "Do you ever wonder why there are so many churches?" "Hey, I saw this article on comparisons between religions. This guy claimed that Christianity is unique . . ."
I know I opened a can of worms here and welcome thoughts on this.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2017/05/mark-41-20-again-jesus-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteTWO great general principles are conspicuous in the Gospel. The first is that God gives of His Grace to the empty—“He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.” The second principle is that where God has given a measure of Grace He is known to give more—“He gives more Grace.” . . . He gives Grace to those who have none and more Grace to those whom He has already favored. These two principles do not contradict each other, but help to make each more complete.
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My 2 cents on the question of riches dispersal:
v. 12: "Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
We cannot confuse earthly monetary rules with spiritual laws. We cannot take this verse and apply it to physical things. For one thing, there is an unlimited source of God's abundance. We never need to compete with others for it. In fact, we are commanded to team up to multiply this spiritual abundance. With earthly riches, if I share with others, I get less.
Jesus wants us to give our earthly riches away to gain heavenly riches. Earthly riches are to have no hold over us, but we are to cling to heavenly riches. So, if anything, earthly riches and heavenly riches are opposite to each other. If that is true, opposite laws would apply to them.
Is it fair that some people are more heavenly rich than others? Yes. Because, once again, there is unlimited heavenly riches. The only reason people aren't infinitely heavenly rich is because they don't want to be, aren't ready for them, or are hanging on to earthly things and can't "hold" heavenly riches. Even though there is and will be a difference between how heavenly rich people are, anyone can always gain more heavenly riches. No one is holding them back.
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But when Jesus used parables, He didn’t start by stating a truth. Instead, the parable was like a doorway. Jesus’ listeners stood at the doorway and heard Him. If they were not interested, they stayed on the outside. But if they were interested, they could walk through the doorway and think about the truth behind the parable and what it meant to their lives.
If you don’t understand the key to the parable, you don’t understand it at all. We can imagine what different people in Jesus’ audience might have thought when He taught this parable with no explanation.
Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them: By quoting this passage from Isaiah 6:9, Jesus explained why He used parables. In teaching by parables, Jesus offered His hearers the opportunity to dig deep and find the truth, or to turn a blind eye to an interesting story. They might therefore avoid a greater condemnation for having rejected a clearly understood truth.
Jesus didn’t use parables to blind people, but because they were blind. “Therefore Jesus used the parabolic method, not in order to blind them, but in order to make them look again; not in order to prevent them from coming to forgiveness, but in order to lure them toward a new attention.”
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2017/05/mark-41-20-again-jesus-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents on what the different things represent:
Surprisingly, I couldn't easily find someone who listed theses. So the questions were: What is the farmer? What is the seed? What is the soil? What is the crop?
The farmer is anyone who sows God's Word (or truth). It could be anyone who is speaking God's truth.
The seed is God's Word (or truth). I have a question as to whether this means specifically concerning the Gospel, or is it any truth concerning God's message to us, or is it any truth (1+1=2)? Depending on the answer to this question, the farmer could be anyone any day, whenever they are telling a truth. Does all general truth belong to God specifically? Or is God just the author of truth, and now general truth is common domain? I have no issue with applying this parable to truths like 1+1=2. But it changes the meaning of the parable in how widely you can apply it.
The soil is our hearts (or our minds). Depending on how our soil has been prepared, it will receive a truth or not. I think that Christians tend to narrowly think of this as the Gospel - either you're saved or not. I think that we can also apply this to everything that God is trying to teach us. If I am right, then our "soil" is multi-faceted. Some truth we will reject and some we will accept - it depends on the seed.
What is the crop? If you have the narrower view, this would be the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, goodness, patience, kindness, self-control, gentleness, etc.). If you take the wider view, the crop is the result that the seed and soil produces. 1+1=2 produces knowledge of mathematics, and more curiosity and concepts of mathematics will follow. If you do take this view, I would suggest that no seed of truth can produce bad fruit (I would suggest that this is attributable to the weeds). God's pure truth (which includes all general truth) only produces good fruit (in good soil).
In conclusion, I think that most people view this parable only as describing salvation - people accepting it or rejecting it. However, I think it's acceptable to expand this view to all general truth - whether we accept or understand it. Note: Jesus is calling this a fundamental parable, which I think means that it is describing how the Kingdom of God works. So His main point is describing the Kingdom of God. But I also think that He may very well be describing a more general principle that the Kingdom of God adheres to.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2017/05/mark-41-20-again-jesus-began-to-teach.html continued:
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents on the soil:
First, I'm going to address whether we are 100% a type of soil. It seems arrogant of us to say that we are good soil, when in so many cases we reject or ignore the truth. It also seems to be untrue that none of us ever contains good soil, for we can see the fruit of God in each other.
Based on that, it only makes sense to me that we are mixed soil. There are parts of our lives that embrace truth, and parts of us that reject truth - usually based on what the truth is. So, I think that the seeds of God's truth enter our lives all the time. Sometimes a seed will find the good soil in our lives and some will find bad soil.
It seems that if we were to apply general truth to this parable, it holds up logically.
Why is this important? I think it is because some of us hold too narrow of interpretations on Bible verses, which cause us to either miss the wider point, or to put our own narrow interpretation on things that aren't actually true.
One final question/point: If we have bad soil in our lives, what can we do about it? The short answer is "nothing by ourselves". The answer is to respond to what God is doing in our lives. God comes along with the hoe to break up the bad soil, or weed the soil. We need to respond to Him by allowing seeds to grow in areas of our lives where they didn't grow before. Additionally, we need to respond to Him by allowing seeds to better grow in areas of our lives that had decent soil, but now has better.
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When I have taught this text before I have spent considerable time attempting to answer the question, “Which of the four types of soil represent those who are saved?” I am now inclined to approach this parable differently. I believe that the first soil represents those who are lost, and that the fourth soil represents those who are saved, but I do not believe that the Lord’s purpose in telling the parable is to distinguish between believers and unbelievers. Someone might argue that a “rocky soil” person or a “thorny soil” person is a true believer, but our Lord would have us understand that they have not reached the goal for which they were saved. We are saved, not only to escape divine wrath and to live forever in heaven, but to attain to the “fullness of the stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13) and to bear fruit (John 15:5).
We think of the world only in terms of those who are saved and those who are not; those who are going to heaven and those who are going to hell. The parable of the soils which Jesus told forces us to think in terms of more than just two categories. It is not enough to have merely escaped hell, and to have our foot wedged in the doorway of heaven. The goal for which we are saved is to persevere, to grow, to reach maturity, and to produce more fruit. To fall short of this goal (even though we may have been saved), is to fail to attain that for which we were called and set apart.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteWe need to keep in mind that although the crowd was large, it was not because Jesus was preaching the Gospel to repent and believe (Mk 1:15) but because Jesus was performing many signs and wonders. Most of the crowds' hearts were not good soil for the seed. Most of them wanted miracles but not the greatest miracle of all which is personal salvation. Mark 4:1 and Matthew 13:1 tell us the location for the crowd coming together was the seaside as the place where Jesus was at the start of the series of parables." "The acoustic setting from the boat would have been ideal for Jesus’ voice to carry to the crowds. Some places in Palestine, such as a cove near Capernaum, have natural acoustics that would allow as many as seven thousand people to hear a person speaking in the center of the cove." (IVP Background Commentary)
W H Griffith-Thomas on parable - A parable is a teaching device in which a principle is concealed and a truth revealed. It gives the hearer first sight and then insight.
The beauty of using the parable as a teaching device is that it draws the listener into the story, elicits an evaluation, and demands a response.
Parables are great because they tell a story that is easy to remember.....Parables are told so that only those who really care will come to know the truth. Not so much because they understand the parable, but because they care enough to ask what it means after the story is finished and hang around long enough to have it explained to them. The others don’t really care and leave.
John MacArthur suggests this specific parable answers an important practical question for all believers - What kind of response should we expect when we give people the gospel? It's really critical for us to know that so that we don't become discouraged when we don't get the kind of response we think we should get, or so that we don't somehow blame the gospel as if it were inadequate to penetrate the heart, or so that we don't blame ourselves as if somehow we were more skilled we might have a greater impact. What this parable tells us is that it's not about the skill of the sower, it's not about the seed, in that there's some good and some bad, it's about the heart. What Jesus did was put a story alongside a spiritual truth to make it better understood. And by comparison and-or contrast He could give a clearer understanding of that spiritual truth. Rabbis used to love to teach in parables. parables are very valuable. (1) they make truth vivid....so much so as to be almost unforgettable. The parables of Jesus, once you've gone through them, you don't forget them....(2) They also make the truth portable because you can take the parable and tell the story somewhere else and in the telling of the story, of course, the meaning comes to mind. (3) They make truth interesting. (4) They make truth clear. (5) They make truth personally discernible. It's a great way to teach.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThis is a major turning point in the ministry of Jesus....From this time on Jesus did not speak to the crowds except in parables(Matthew 13:34) "From this time on He spoke to them only in parables." Why?..The answer is the rest of his ministry the teaching of Jesus was hidden from the unbelievers and revealed only to the believers. This then is a judicial act...a judgment. A judgment falls at this point on Israel, the major turning point. Those who would not believe could not. Those who were fools, who hated knowledge, as Proverbs calls them, could not understand. Without an explanation, a parable can mean anything or nothing. Without an explanation from the one who gave the parable, there is no way to understand it. It is nothing more than a meaningless story, a riddle. So from here on He spoke only in parables so that His teaching would be hidden from the unbelievers and revealed only to those who believed. This is a monumental turning point. Judgment has fallen on Israel and that judgment is seen in the fact that they can no longer understand their own Messiah.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThe corollary is that the skill of the sower or the efficacy of the seed are not the primary determinants of whether a seed will germinate and bear fruit.
The encouragement to His followers is that when we see people respond superficially to the gospel and later fall away, we should not be discouraged in that even Jesus had the same response. The problem was certainly not in His preaching, but in the audience’s hearing. The warning to those who hear the parable, of course, is to take it to heart so that we avoid a superficial faith. Clearly, Jesus was not teaching some sort of fatalism, that the kinds of soils are fixed forever. By God’s grace, a person can change."
And so Broadcast seeding described the method in which the farmer would carry his bag of seed and cast it forth by hand over a relatively large area hoping of course that most would fall in the deeper furrows he had plowed in soil. It is also interesting that with modern technology, we now have precision seeding is a method of seeding that involves placing seed at a precise spacing and depth. This is in contrast to broadcast seeding, where seed is scattered over an area.
The sower is ANYONE who sows the seed of the Gospel and should be EVERYONE who professes to be a follower of Jesus!
This life will soon pass! Are you taking advantage of this one in a lifetime opportunity to sow seeds for Jesus?
Darrell Bock gives us a good reminder - This parable is not about a response to the word at any given moment. It sums up the different ways the word is received over a lifetime of exposure. It takes time to fall away from an initial attraction to the word. Only over time do the pleasures of life erode the seed's effectiveness. The parable calls for reflection. We need to cling to the word in patient faith. If we desire to be fruitful, especially given that the obstacles to fruitfulness are so varied, then we must hold fast to God and his message of hope. We focus either on God's promise or on our circumstances. Which we choose makes a difference: one leads to fruitfulness, the other to barrenness.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteSpurgeon - He it is that comes to his own people secretly, at the roots of their life, so that from him they suck up the life of God, and so they live; but the mere stony-ground convert has not the Holy Ghost. And oh, permit me to say most solemnly to every one here, if we have no more than nature gave us under its best conceivable circumstances, we have no more than the Pharisees, and that landed them in hell. We must have the Spirit of God, and from first to last the religion of our hearts must be wrought of the Spirit, and sustained by the Spirit, and if it be not, the sooner we are rid of such a religion the better, for it will only deceive us.
"Palestinian weeds like these thorns could grow up to six feet in height and have a major root system." (NET) The point is that the weeds would use all of the water and the nutrients in the soil! And this in part explains how they "choke" the good seed.
It's a deceptive soil. It looks good on the surface, but there is other life there, noxious weeds alive already in that soil growing faster and killing the good plant. Weeds win in that environment, squeezing out the good plant.
MacArthur on the fourth soil, the good soil - The farmers in Israel would say at that time that if you had a ten-fold crop that was a great crop. If you had a seven-point-five-fold crop that was an average crop. But a hundred fold was staggering. Jesus wants to stagger the people. He wants to talk about a seed that falls in, that produces an unimaginable fruitfulness. Now as the story is told, several things become clear. Nothing is said about the sower and his skill. There's only one sower. And nothing is said to distinguish the seed. It's not the problem that there was a different sower in each case or that there was different seed. It becomes clear that the sower is not the issue. The seed is not the issue. The issue is what? The soil. Nobody would misunderstand this story. But having told the story doesn't mean you understand what it refers to. Just on the surface it could be about anything. It could be applied in 100 ways. So it has to be explained.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteDuring the telling of the story, He would say, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." What He is saying as He goes along is, "For those of you who know what I'm talking about, listen to what I say." And he distinguishes the crowd between those who have ears to hear, and those who don't. Jesus was saying, "If you can understand, then listen to Me." Sort of saying, "How many of you want to know more about this? How many of you care to know the meaning of this?" And in Lk 8:9 only the disciples responded and began questioning Him as to what this parable might be. And there you have the clear indication of who had the ears to hear. It was those who followed Jesus, those who believed in Jesus. They were the ones who could understand. They had the ears to hear. And so they come back and they say, "What does it mean? We want to know.
The verb akouo, hear, occurs 8 times in Luke 8 (Lk 8:8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 50) and thus is clearly a key word in this chapter! It is critical that we listen when Jesus speaks! The idea of hear is not just to "hear sounds" but to listen to what is spoken with spiritual ears and spiritual understanding, receiving (rather than rejecting) what is heard. And when Jesus speaks this is especially important because "faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ." (Ro 10:17+) So to those who truly hear His Word, this is hearing forms the "seedbed" of faith and "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Heb 11:6+) and faith opens the door to eternal life, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9+).
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteOnly the Lord used this expression let him hear, and He used it on seven different occasions (Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:12; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35) while on earth and eight times after His resurrection (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:9).
the principle still applies that for one to "hearken" to Jesus' command calling for a supernatural response, he or she can only do so by (1) jettisoning self-reliance and (2) relying wholly on the Holy Spirit to provide the enabling power! John alludes to this in John 3:3-8+, especially verse 8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Notice James' parallel passage where he commands us to be "doers." This begs the question "Can we do anything supernatural in our own power?" Not really! Jesus amplifies this important principle declaring "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me (AND TODAY THAT MEANS APART FROM RELYING ON THE ONE HE SENT TO BE OUR "HELPER" OR "ENABLER," THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST!) you can do (ABSOLUTELY) nothing (OF ETERNAL VALUE OR SPIRITUAL FRUIT THAT "REMAINS" - Jn 15:16)." (Jn 15:5) .
From Mark's version, the disciple's questioning occurs after the crowds have dispersed, for only Mark records the detail "as soon as He was alone." Mark also has the unique phrase "His followers, along with the twelve which indicates that at this time the inner circle of followers consisted of more than just the twelve disciples. Mark 4:34 adds that "He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples."
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 8:10 And He said, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND.
Notice that it is disciples who had been granted this privilege. Amazing grace indeed! Disciples is not a special class of believers as some have proposed. In fact the most common designation of the believers in the book of Acts is "disciples." All true believers are disciples!
Since they would not hear, they shall not; who shall say that this is not a very just and natural way of allowing sin to punish itself? Brethren and sisters, if you and I understand heavenly mysteries let us not be proud that it is so, but let us hear our Saviour saying to us, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” This is the gift of the free grace of God. Be very thankful for it, but give God all the glory of it. For if thou beginest to say to thyself, “I am a man of great understanding,” and if thou shalt take to thyself a high place, God may leave thee to thy natural blindness; and, then, where wilt thou be?
Jesus says it is a sad day today in Israel, splitting the people here. I'm separating those who know the truth from those who don't. Those who know the truth are those who believe in Me. Those who don't believe in Me don't know the truth. I'm going to start explaining parables only to those who believe so that they are parables of revelation to them. But to those who don't believe, I will not explain and they become parables of concealment. And so He says, "Whoever has, you already know the truth. I'm going to give you more truth. You're going to have an abundance of truth." And I know we feel that way, don't we, who know the Word of God?
Mt 13:13, Jesus says explicitly, "I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." I speak this way to conceal it. I don't want to cast my pearls before swine. I don't want to give spiritual truth to people who have no ability to grasp it. Rather I will put them in a deeper darkness as an act of judgment. And it's just like Mt 13:14 says. "It's just like in the days of Isaiah." You remember that Isaiah was called as a minister, as I mentioned earlier, and He says in Mt 13:14, "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled which says you will keep on hearing but will not understand, you will keep on seeing, will not perceive, for the heart of this people has become dull, their ears...with their ears they scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and I should heal them." God says I don't want to heal them, I don't want them to return so I'm judicially confirming them in deafness and blindness and lack of understanding. What a serious judgment! You will not believe so you cannot believe!
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteJon Courson - Why would Jesus teach in such a way that truth would be concealed? Simply because He will honor the wishes of every person. Therefore, if a person does not want to see, the Lord won't force His way upon him. You see, Jesus could have spoken so persuasively and argued so powerfully that people who didn't want to be converted would be converted even against their own will. But Jesus is not after conversion by force. Because He honors man's free choice, He says, "If you don't want to know the truth, I will conceal truth from you. If you don't want to know Me, I won't force Myself upon you." Teaching through parables provided a way that those who wanted to know truth could receive it, while those who didn't want to know would be unable to receive it.At whatever point you say, "My mind is made up. I don't want to know what the Word says or how the Lord might feel about any given situation," you will be cut off from revelation. It is a dangerous place to be. But eventually, you'll get so banged up trying to blindly walk in your own darkness that you'll finally say, "I'm tired of arguing my case or trying to prove my point. Show me Your heart, Lord." And He will—when you're ready.
SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND - This is divine judgment for failing to receive and believe. We see a similar dynamic in 2 Th 2:10-12
And with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary has an interesting comment - Jesus' speaking in parables was actually an act of grace to those listening to Him. If they refused to acknowledge Him as Messiah, their judgment would be less severe than if they had understood more (cf. Luke 10:13-15).
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 8:11 "Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.
Luke alone says directly "the seed is the Word of God." Neither parallel passage has the phrase "Word of God."
MacArthur - Seed being the Word of God simply means the gospel, the gospel, the Word from God about salvation, about how to enter the kingdom, the Word from God about forgiveness and reconciliation and justification, sanctification, glorification. That is the seed. People sometimes will say, "If I go out to evangelize, what should I say?" The gospel. "Well, I'm not...I'm not sure I'm really good at presenting it." Are you a Christian? "Yes." You have confirmation that you're really a true Christian? "Yes." Then you knew enough to get saved, so you know enough to tell somebody else how to get saved. It's not any more complicated than that....People think that somehow seed doesn't work or it's offensive. Look, if you're trying to get everybody that you present the gospel to saved, you better go back and study this parable again. It's not going to happen. So know this, that there's no artificial way to overcome the fact that it's going to be a few. It's going to be a minority. There's no artificial way for you to create a synthetic seed that's going to make everybody embrace it. That will be false conversion. The seed is the gospel, the seed is the Word of God, that's the seed and that's what you give, that's what you proclaim, whether you're preaching like I do, or whether you're witnessing one on one, seed is the Word of God, not your thoughts, ideas, insights, the Word of God. We are utterly dependent on divine truth revealed in Scripture....So don't beat yourself up if you don't seem to be effective. First of all, throw some more seed. You're more likely to hit some good soil. But in the end, it's the heart.
Steven Cole - Jesus’ words and the quote from Isaiah plunge us into one of the deep mysteries that we cannot fully grasp, the fact that God sovereignly grants salvation to His elect, but that sinners are fully responsible for their persistence in sin and their ultimate condemnation. Even so, when the Word of God blinds the reprobate, it is not the fault of the Word, but of the person’s own depravity. Thus by speaking in parables, Jesus was seeking to foster a genuine response from His elect who would apply the truth to their hearts. But He was also concealing the gospel from those who were merely curious but who were not willing to apply it to their hearts. They would continue in their spiritual blindness.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeletePARABLE OF THE SOILS: THE CALLOUS SOIL
Callous means made insensitive, having feelings or morals deadened, describing one who is emotionally hardened, insensitive; indifferent; unsympathetic. One might be discouraged by this soil, but remember this is a parable and it does not state that the soil cannot be altered by plowing, etc.
Jesus is not saying 1/4 of the people who receive the Gospel seed will respond this way. He is giving 4 general reactions people will manifest when we speak the Gospel to them. And just as it takes time for seed to germinate, it may take a considerable time for the response to be seen to the seed of the Word. In this person's heart (soil) there is utterly no response to this presentation of the Gospel.
C S. Lewis, in his Screwtape Letters, describes a man who goes into a library to read and meditate. His mind is suddenly opened to deep thoughts of God. Confronted with his own standing before God, he starts thinking in terms of his eternal welfare. Then, Lewis says, the demons that are assigned to keep him from discovering truth call his attention to the sounds on the street, to the newsboy calling out the latest news, and to the fact that he is hungry, ready for lunch. And that is all it takes. All thoughts of God disappear, and he is involved in the mundane affairs of life. And, from the point of view of the satanic emissaries, he is delivered from this danger of thinking about God. That is what happens to the callous mind and heart.
So there are really three strategies (at least!) by which Satan takes away the Word. Let's look at each briefly.
1. Immediately—with Inattention, Ill-Will, or Ignorance
2. Eventually—with Shallow Soil and Persecution
3. Eventually—with Prosperity
If persecution doesn't look like it will work, Satan will try prosperity.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteLuke 8:13 "Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.
Phillips comments that "High pressure evangelism often produces this kind of shallow "conversion." Professions of faith are unsubstantial and worthless. People who respond to the gospel on this level have awakened souls, but they are not regenerated in spirit."
What a tragic description "receive the word with joy". They are emotional about hearing the good news, which is clearly a good thing, but only if it continues. Sadly the joy is only transient and soon falters. I thought "Could I have done better? Should I have tried to disciple them sooner?, etc, etc." Jesus' parable teaches us the "soil" of their heart was simply too shallow to continue to keep the plant alive, so to speak. Conversely, we need to be aware that absence of an emotional reaction (joy, etc), does not mean someone's conversion is not authentic.
Others don’t fall away altogether, but their early enthusiasm wanes. They settle into a routine that includes going to church as long as there isn’t something “better” to do for the weekend. But God is not central in their lives. They are more focused on their things and on having a good time in life. They profess to be Christians, but they have no burden for the lost and no desire to serve God. They are living basically for self and for pleasure. But they are not living in light of eternity.
You never want to present the gospel that Jesus wants to make you happy and if you come to Jesus you'll be happy. You don't have that kind of promise. There's a deep, abiding joy, but that deep, abiding joy doesn't translate into all the problems going away."
They believe for a while (see above believe = pisteuo) - This is a crucial statement. The key phrase is "for a while." No true believer believes just "for a while." To be sure, the faith of most believers (yours truly included) will wax and wane over time. There are times in my Christian walk where I honestly would asked "Am I even saved?" Perhaps you can identify with those low times. But our faith never drops to zero. It never completely fails, even though it may feel like it has failed during those "low times." So what is the upshot of this phrase believe for a while? What Jesus is describing a quality of belief which falls short of saving belief.
The writer of Hebrews 12:11-note says "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." MacArthur asks "You know what happens to a false believer? Trials produce unrighteousness. To a true believer, trials produce righteousness. To a false believer, it drives them back toward sin. To a true believer, it drives them to an increasing holiness (cf Heb 12:10). The more trials that come into your life the stronger the drive toward God, if you're the real thing."
Matthew talks about when they were going through tribulation and persecution for the Word, because of the gospel. Wasn't everything supposed to be better? Everything got worse and now I've got a new thing in my life I never had before; I have people who used to love me who now hate me (Ed: Just as Jesus warned in Jn 15:18, 19). I have people I used to hang around and we got along fine, and now because I claim to be a Christian, they resent everything about me, want nothing to do with me. Now I have a whole new group of enemies who used to be my friends (Ed: cf 1 Pe 4:3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). And when I, you know, ran to them and told them what had happened to me, they...they shut me out of their lives.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteRay Stedman says these "are the impulsive hearts. The seed falls upon them and they immediately respond with joy. The seed takes root and grows up quickly. The trouble is, they respond like this to everything -- food fads, new books, political leaders, whatever popular movement happens to be abroad at the time. As a result, their lives are so shallow that the seed of the life-giving Word cannot take deep root and change them. Consequently, the life which apparently is there withers away and dies. Jesus says that this kind of life is shallow; it cannot stand the heat. When persecution and tribulation come, immediately it is withered. They turn away and lose interest, and cannot abide."
The discerning reader needs to be aware of a teaching among some evangelicals that says only the first soil represents lost souls and the other three represent saved souls, a teaching with which I strongly disagree, but present so that you are not caught off guard. They teach that...
The carnal, barren believer is represented by the rocky ground and the thorny ground. The rocky ground represents a saved person who believes at first but then falls away from the faith. The thorny ground represents a saved but carnal person who is given over to the things of the world and thus is fruitless.
This interpretation contradicts our Lord’s clear teaching in Matthew 7:16-20 where we are told that "every good tree brings forth good fruit." Since there is no good fruit connected with the rocky soil and the thorny soil, how can there be a good tree? The root is corrupt!
It is correct to understand all of the saved as represented by the "good ground." Matthew 13:23 teaches two important principles: 1) All those who are truly saved are fruitful at least to some extent (see Matt. 3:8-10; 7:16-20); 2) Some believers are much more fruitful than others.
EXCERPT - The key thing to understand is that while a Christian can be, for a time, carnal, a true Christian will not remain carnal for a lifetime. Some have abused the idea of a “carnal Christian” by saying that it is possible for people to come to faith in Christ and then proceed to live the rest of their lives in a completely carnal manner, with no evidence of being born again or a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17+). Such a concept is completely unbiblical. James 2+ makes it abundantly clear that genuine faith will always result in good works. Ephesians 2:8-10+ declares that while we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, that salvation will result in works. Can a Christian, in a time of failure and/or rebellion, appear to be carnal? Yes. Will a true Christian remain carnal? No.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeletePARABLE OF THE SOILS: THE CROWDED HEART
This heart could be called the divided heart or the preoccupied heart.
Pleasures translates a Greek word from which our term "hedonism" is derived. Clearly, wrong priorities can kill off the seed of the word.
There's other life there that's much more advanced, much stronger and natural to that soil, whereas the seed which is the Word of God is unnatural. It is the foreigner to the already established weeds and thorns. The good seed can't survive in this double-minded man. Jesus put it this way. You cannot serve God and riches (Mt 6:24-note). 1 John 2:15 (note), "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
Courson - Cares (Worries) affect those who live in poverty. Riches affect those who live in prosperity. Pleasure affects everyone. When you find yourself no longer studying the Scripture, the reason can be found in one of these three areas.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeletePARABLE OF THE SOILS: THE GOOD SOIL
Jesus explains that the good soil is an honest and good heart. Matthew's version adds "this is the man who hears the word and understands it."
THOUGHT: The preceding comment begs a simple question - Are you allowing the Word to mold you or is the world molding you? (Ro 12:2+) You can't have it both ways (cf Mt 6:24+, 1 Ki 18:21, James 1:8+). Either you are growing more Christ-like or more worldly-minded!
Perseverance - hupomone - The root idea of hupomone is to remain under some discipline, subjecting one’s self to something which demands the submission of one's will to something against which one naturally would rebel.
Alan Carr asks "So, what kind of fruit does good soil produce?"
Good works – Col. 1:10+, cf Col 1:6+
Holiness and righteousness – Ro 6:22+; Phil. 1:11+
Genuine spirituality – Gal. 5:22-23+
A burden for souls – Ro 1:13+
Praise and thanksgiving – Heb. 13:15+
Sharing material goods – Ro 15:27-28+
Steven Cole - The fact that Jesus calls this heart “honest and good” does not mean that He believed in the inherent goodness of some people. Jesus certainly agreed with the Hebrew Scriptures which repeatedly affirm the sinfulness of every human heart (Ge 6:5; Ge 8:21; Ps 14:3; Je 17:9). Jesus Himself taught that the human heart is the source of all sorts of wickedness (Mk 7:21-23). He told even His disciples that they were evil (Lu 11:13) and He told the rich young ruler that none is good except God alone (Lu 18:19).Any good heart is good because God graciously has wrought the miracle of regeneration in that heart. In response to God’s grace, this person hears the Word, holds it fast, and bears fruit over the long haul with perseverance. Fruit is that which the life of God produces in and through a believer. It includes Christlike character, conduct, and converts. The fruitful Christian is not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer of it. He feeds on it continually so that it confronts his sin, it challenges his wrong attitudes, and it shows him how to live in a manner pleasing to God. He is not being conformed to this world, but is being transformed by the renewing of his mind (Ro 12:2).
MacArthur discusses the nature of the fruit - There's two kinds of fruit: attitude fruit and action fruit. You see it in their love for God, love for Christ, love for others. You see it in the joy and trials, peace in tribulation. The fruit of attitude is manifest. You get to know a person and you know whether you're seeing evidence of transformed life in how they deal with all the stuff that comes in life. Are you compelled by the love that you have for Christ? Are you compelled by the love for God? Is it the heart cry to worship God, to honor God, to serve God, to love others? Do you find your heart is filled with hope? Do you find yourself at peace in the midst of disappointment? Is there a constant undergirding of incessant joy because everything in the end is controlled by the sovereign purpose of God for your well-being and His glory? That's evidence of transformation. Action fruit is what you say, what you do. John says, 1 John 3:9, 10 "If you're born of God you don't continue in sin." Oh there will be sin there but it won't be that unbroken pattern of sin that's characterized in an unregenerate life. You look at your life and you see righteous deeds.
So action fruit without attitude fruit is damning legalism. Action fruit as a result of attitude fruit is true spirituality.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThe four kinds of hearts it describes are to be found in every assembly which hears the word. These circumstances should make us always read the parable with a deep sense of its importance. We should say to ourselves, as we read it: “This concerns me. My heart is to be seen in this parable. I, too, am here.” The parable is preeminently a parable of caution, and caution about a most important subject,—the way of hearing the word of God. It was meant to be a warning to the apostles, not to expect too much from hearers. It was meant to be a warning to all ministers of the Gospel, not to look for too great results from sermons. It was meant, not least, to be a warning to hearers, to take heed how they hear.
The first caution that we learn from the parable of the sower, is to beware of the devil when we hear the word. But nowhere perhaps is the devil so active as in a congregation of Gospel-hearers. From him come wandering thoughts and roving imaginations,—listless minds and dull memories,—sleepy eyes and fidgetty nerves, weary ears and distracted attention. In all these things Satan has a great hand. People wonder where they come from, and marvel how it is that they find sermons so dull, and remember them so badly! They forget the parable of the sower. They forget the devil. Let us take heed that we are not way-side hearers.
The second caution that we learn from the parable of the sower, is to beware of resting on mere temporary impressions when we have heard the word. Our Lord tells us that the hearts of some hearers are like rocky ground. It is quite possible to feel great pleasure, or deep alarm, under the preaching of the Gospel, and yet to be utterly destitute of the grace of God. The tears of some hearers of sermons, and the extravagant delight of others, are no certain marks of conversion. We may be warm admirers of favorite preachers, and yet remain nothing better than stony-ground hearers. Nothing should content us but a deep, humbling, self-mortifying work of the Holy Ghost, and a heart-union with Christ.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThe third caution contained in the parable of the sower is to beware of the cares of this world. Our Lord tells us that the hearts of many hearers of the word are like thorny ground. The seed of the word, when sown upon them, is choked by the multitude of other things, by which their affections are occupied. They have no objection to the doctrines and requirements of the Gospel. They even wish to believe and obey them. But they allow the things of earth to get such hold upon their minds, that they leave no room for the word of God to do its work. And hence it follows that however many sermons they hear, they seem nothing bettered by them. A weekly process of truth-stifling goes on within. They bring no fruit to perfection. The things of this life form one of the greatest dangers which beset a Christian’s path. The money, the pleasures, the daily business of the world, are so many traps to catch souls. Thousands of things, which in themselves are innocent, become, when followed to excess, little better than soul-poisons, and helps to hell. Open sin is not the only thing that ruins souls. In the midst of our families, and in the pursuit of our lawful callings, we have need to be on our guard. Except we watch and pray, these temporal things may rob us of heaven, and smother every sermon we hear. We may live and die thorny-ground hearers.
The last caution contained in the parable of the sower, is to beware of being content with any religion which does not bear fruit in our lives. Our Lord tells us that the hearts of those who hear the word aright, are like good ground. The seed of the Gospel sinks down deeply into their wills, and produces practical results in their faith and practice. They not only hear with pleasure, but act with decision. They repent. They believe. They obey. Forever let us bear in mind that this is the only religion that saves souls. There must be fruits of the Spirit in our hearts and lives, or else the Gospel is preached to us in vain.
How about our hearts? Are they prepared to receive the seed of God’s Word? Or are there hindrances that keep it from growing and bearing fruit? Jesus identified three kinds of thorns that spring up and choke out the seed—”the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things” (Mk. 4:19).
If you’ve grown cold toward God’s Word, if it’s not firmly established in your life and producing fruit, it may be that you’re too concerned about this world with its riches and distractions.
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Is this parable talking about salvation? How can this parable be applied to those of us who are saved?
I believe that this parable is multifaceted. Primarily, this parable is directed at the disciples (and Gospel spreaders in general) to explain the various responses when they spread the Gospel - and why. It's not the message or the messenger that reception depends on, but the condition of the soil.
A secondary, and I believe important message of this parable is for us to examine our own soil. I believe the garden of our hearts is composed of different kinds of soil. Throughout our lives, Christ plows different parts of our hearts. When we respond to the Gospel, it's because Jesus has plowed enough of our heart to be able to respond. However, we still have a fallen nature, so our hearts constantly need to be plowed and tended.
If there's any doubt about whether we are not good soil, take the example of the Sunday sermon. How many sermons have we not really listened to? How many sermons did we hear and initially respond, but walked away and didn't apply it? How many sermons did we hear, but the worries of this life choke out the fruit of that word? For me, only a very few sermons have stuck - and that shows the condition of my heart. It's not all good soil.
2. v5 - Who is the sower?
Anyone who teaches or preaches the Gospel of Jesus. It's possible that this could be applied to anyone who states a universal truth.
3. v5 - What is the path?
Someone who hears the Gospel (truth) and doesn't bother to let it spur them to apply it.
4. v6 - What is the rock?
Someone who hears the Gospel (truth), starts to apply the truth, but lets the difficulties that it entails discourage them.
5. v7 - What is the thorny ground?
Someone who hears the Gospel (truth), starts to apply it, but gets distracted by this world.
6. v8 - What does the good soil look like?
Someone who hears the Gospel (truth) and applies it in their life. All who are saved has done that for the Gospel truth (at least enough of the Gospel so that we desire God's Lordship in our lives). More generally, all of us are receptive to some truths and not receptive to others. For example, most of us know what it looks like to eat healthy. Only a very few of us actually eat healthy.
7. v10 - What did Jesus mean by the disciples being given the secrets of the kingdom of God and that others are just given parables? And the part about "seeing that they may not see"? Why?
To be continued . . .
Questions and findings continued:
ReplyDelete7. v10 - What did Jesus mean by the disciples being given the secrets of the kingdom of God and that others are just given parables? And the part about "seeing that they may not see"? Why?
The full verse is “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.’
The one thing that social media has taught me these past few years is that many people don't want to hear the truth, they only want to hear what they already believe. For most people, the truth not only does them no good, it only drives them further into their own false beliefs.
I believe that Jesus was being merciful to people. He was planting seeds that would have a chance of bearing fruit. I think if Jesus would have just told the plain truth (like He did in John 6, where He said that He was the bread of life and everybody left Him), people would have stopped listening to Him. So, Jesus used parables to teach those who already believed and intrigue people who did not.
If I am right about this, it brings up interesting considerations when sharing the gospel. Should we use more parables? How do we be merciful as Jesus was merciful? It requires the Holy Spirit in us to guide us. We should be a sower of God's word, and we should be sowing God's word all the time. To other Christ followers, we can speak the most direct illuminating truth. To non-believers, we need to sow a seed that they won't immediately reject (though different people will be ready for various levels of illumination).
To veil the truth will seem like dishonesty to some of us (or at least not being sincere with people), but it seems like Jesus did just this. What's the alternative? "Your hair looks awful!". "You are getting fat man. Do something about it!". "You are an ugly sinner, and Jesus is the only hope for your sorry state!" Even non-believers are merciful to each other by not telling them the plain naked truth.