Luke 8:16-21

A lawyer, a doctor, and a preacher decided to go deer hunting. As they were walking, along came a huge buck. All three men shot simultaneously at the buck. Immediately the buck dropped to the ground and all three men rushed up to see how big it actually was. Upon reaching it they couldn’t figure out whose shot had actually killed the deer.

A heated debated ensued, and a few minutes later a game officer came by and asked what the problem was. The doctor told him that they were debating about who actually shot the buck. The officer took a look at the buck and within a few seconds said with great confidence, “The preacher shot the buck!”

They all wondered how he knew that so quickly. The officer said, “Easy. The bullet went in one ear and out the other.”

Although this story makes fun of preachers, it actually illustrates a far more serious challenge that all of us face. How do we hear God’s word (either read or preached)? Does God’s word go in one ear and out the other? Or do we hear God’s word in such a way that we really obey it?

Jesus of course was a master teacher and preacher. He told those who came to hear him about the good news of the kingdom of God.

The gospel tells us that God had created a people for himself. However, all people rebelled against God. They refused to submit to the sovereign kingship of God. They did not obey the moral law of God and they did what was right in their own eyes. However, God is a merciful God. He determined that he would provide a way for rebellious people to be reconciled to himself. So, he sent his Son, Jesus, to seek and to save the lost. Jesus preached a marvelous message about the good news of the kingdom of God. He said that if people did not turn from their sin, then they would suffer the penalty for their rebellion against God. However, if people repented of their sin by turning from it, and if they believed that Jesus was the one who paid the penalty for their sin, then they could receive God’s forgiveness and be reconciled to God. Now that is good news, isn’t it?

Thousands of people came to hear Jesus preach, although some came only to see him perform miracles. However, a growing number of people believed Jesus and became his followers and disciples. Toward the middle of his ministry he told a parable about how people receive the message he preached. That was in our past passage.

Turn to the eighth chapter of Luke. Our passage tonight continues a theme that was started in that last passage. That theme deals with hearing. The last passage we looked at was the parable of the four soils which represented four different ways of receiving the God’s word. Jesus ended the parable stating that whoever had ears – and that’s all of us since we all have ears – should hear. By that Jesus meant that we are to obey and put his teachings into practice in our daily lives. We know that because that is the understanding of the word “hear” throughout the Bible.

If you tell your children to clean their rooms and you come back and they are clean you ask, “Didn’t you hear me?” The assumption is if they heard you they would start cleaning their rooms. To hear doesn’t just mean the sound of your voice entered into their ear drums but that they also obeyed. That is the assumption of the Bible as well. To hear is to obey. And if you don’t obey you didn’t really hear.

It is not enough to just hear the word of God; we must put it into practice. You’ll remember how James instructs us not be hearers only but doers of God’s word. He wrote that those who only hear God’s word and don’t put it into practice deceive themselves. They think it is enough to just hear God’s instructions. It isn’t. We must obey God. It’s possible for us to hear without really listening, to listen without trying to understand, or even to understand and refuse to obey. We must do all four: hear, listen, understand, and obey.

Hearing and obeying was the application of the first passage. In this passage the application is our responsibility to share what we have heard. Once we know God’s truth we are to share it with others.

16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” (Luke 8:16)

This statement seems pretty obvious. Of course a light is meant to shine, otherwise it is pointless. Why bother lighting a lamp if you are just going to hide it. It was a waste of time if you are going to cover it up. Once the lamp is lit of course you place it where it can give the most light.

Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with lamp and candles much anymore. A few months ago I talked about going to Wal-Mart when the power was out for a week. We bought a couple of oil lamps and about a half gallon of oil to burn in them. We needed them that week and we wanted to be prepared for the next time that happened. Well, twenty-five years later we’ve never lit them again. We haven’t needed to. In the last twenty-five years I don’t think we’ve been without power for even as long as an hour. But if we ever are, we’re prepared.

When I was growing up though, it wasn’t uncommon to lose power for an hour or more. As a result, you wanted to have something nearby that could give light whether it was a candle or flashlight. When that is all the light you have you learn quickly what to do so that the candle gives off as much light as possible. You place it on something high or you can put it in front of a mirror.

Jesus isn’t trying to give us practical household tips so what is he saying? The light he’s talking about is knowledge of truth. We talk about someone being in the dark because they don’t know something. Historians would refer to the “Dark Age” because they errantly believed there was no training or education going on at that time. Now they know differently. To be in the light is to be in the know. More specifically, Jesus is talking about the truth of God’s word. Once we have heard the light of God’s truth we have a responsibility to share it with others. Having come into the light of the truth you don’t then hide it. Additionally, there is a responsibility to share it.

Maybe you heard about the two preachers standing by the road with a sign that read:

The end is near. Turn around before it is too late.

As a car approached they frantically pointed to the sign but the driver just yelled about them being religious fanatics. A few seconds later the preachers heard the screeching of the car’s tires and then the sound of the car splashing into the water below. One preacher then turned to the other and said, “Maybe we should have just written, ‘Bridge out.’”

If you have information that could save someone’s life you are obligated to share it. How much more are we obligated to share the gospel?

Several years ago there was a survey that interviewed people who had been formerly in church but had left and hadn’t been back for some time. They found:

62% of formerly churched people are open to attending church regularly again, but not actively looking

58% simply feel it’s time to return to the church

41% say they’d go if a friend or acquaintance invited them

35% would return if they knew there were people there like them

31% feel God is calling them to attend church

25% would resume if their children asked them to go with them

What’s interesting is these numbers are pretty similar for those who have never been to church. That means that all we have to do is try and we have at least a 1 in 4 chance of getting someone to come to church. We need to share the truth that has been shared with us.

If we truly believe the gospel and are living it our light cannot be hidden. People will know.

17 “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” (Luke 8:17)

Earlier, when Jesus finished telling the parable of the soils, the disciples asked Jesus about its meaning. Before giving the explanation, Jesus had said in verse 10:

“The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ ” (Luke 8:10)

Jesus told the parables so that those who weren’t really interested in knowing the truth could know it. To them it was just an interesting story. But now Jesus says that the time will come when all will be revealed. In fact, it cannot remain hidden.

One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, “Mom, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand.” The mother said, “Oh? What is it?” The little girl replied, “Well, the preacher said God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that he could hold the whole world in his hand. Is that true?” The mother replied, “Yes, that’s true, Honey.”

“Mom, he also said God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?” Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, “If God is bigger than us and he lives in us, wouldn’t he show through?”

As believers, we cannot keep the light of God’s truth from showing. If we are living the truth people will see it.

In Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also talked about lighted lamps being hidden. He said:

14 “You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

I’ve seen movies as I’m sure you have about London during WWII and how those living there were required to put out or conceal all lights at night. Guards would patrol the streets making sure no light could be seen from the outside. They didn’t want to give the German bombers any help locating targets in the dark sky. I’m told that a match the moment it’s lit can be seen from the sky for twenty miles. If that’s true of a match, how much more is it true of a city? You can’t hide a city on a dark night.

However, not everyone will want to know about the light of God’s truth. We read in John 3:

18 There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. (John 3:18-21)

Paul warned that people would not want to hear the truth. He wrote to Timothy saying:

3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

They make up their minds about what they want to hear and stick with that. And then, they go find someone who will validate what they already believe and want to hear. Some people may not want to hear the truth but we are obligated to share it. And in fact we cannot contain it.

18 “Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” (Luke 8:18)

There’s another very practical reason for obeying and sharing God’s truth. If you hide it you are in danger of losing it.

Maybe one of your teachers performed this experiment when you were in school. You light a candle and then put it under a piece of glass. What will happen? In due time, the candle’s flame will go out. Once it has burned up all the oxygen under the glass it is extinguished. The candle can’t burn for very long when it’s covered. You can’t keep the truth to yourself without risking losing it.

God’s word is meant to be shared. And if we don’t share it, if we don’t do anything with it, even what we have will be taken. We will be held responsible for what we have been given. We are either growing as Christians or shrinking. We either mature and go forward or go backward. It is impossible to stay in the same place. If we have ears we need to listen, obey, and share the truth God has given us.

While Jesus was teaching his family came to see him. They didn’t come to hear him and learn any more than the scribes and Pharisees did. Matthew tells us that his brothers thought he was crazy. It was not until after his resurrection that they came to place their faith in him. So on this day they came to take him back home for safe keeping. They were going to save him from himself.

19 Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. (Luke 8:19)

It was worse than they thought. Jesus had attracted so many people that they couldn’t even get to him. So, they had to send a message to him.

20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” (Luke 8:20)

Now we might expect Jesus to drop everything and go out to see his mother. Isn’t that what a son does that is showing honor to his mother? But that’s not what he does. He stays inside and makes an extraordinary comment.

21 He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” (Luke 8:21)

Who are the members of his family? It’s not his brothers and sisters that he grew up with. Instead, it’s those who hear God’s word and obey it. This puts an even greater emphasis on what Jesus said earlier about having ears and hearing. Interestingly, it was one of his brothers, James, who wrote the epistle of James and said that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. We want to be a party of Jesus’ family. Jesus tells us that we must hear and obey God’s word.

Dave Stone, who used to preach at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, shared a story of the time that his family was in the Dominican Republic on a short-term mission trip. Driving in a developing country can be tricky and the traffic dangerous. The people fly down the narrow roads and if there are any traffic laws the people ignore them. Cars fly past, coming within just a few feet of children playing close to the road.

One night, Dave’s son Sam was playing a game in his own little world, in which he would zig and zag, back and forth from sidewalk onto the narrow street and back. It wasn’t a heavily travelled road, but there was always loud music blaring, and it was pitch dark.

From about 10 feet away, Dave suddenly shouted, “Samuel, don’t move!” Immediately Sam froze. About a second later a Moped zipped past him, going thirty mph with no lights on – right where Sam was about to step. Dave’s six-year-old son didn’t ignore him, argue with him, or blatantly disobey. Dave said freeze, and Sam froze. That obedience probably saved Sam’s life.

How do we hear God’s word? Does God’s word go in one ear and out the other? Or do we hear God’s word in such a way that we really obey it?