Hearing the Word
LINK="#000080" VLINK="#800000" DIR="LTR">LUKE 8 - THE WORD OF GOD (1)
Pauline and I watched a film on the TV recently which we found quite funny in some ways. It was called "Guess Who?". It was a reversal of a more famous film of some years ago called "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" The older film was a about a white girl who brought a black man home to have dinner with her parents. The newer film cleverly turned that on its head having a black girl taking a white man home to her prosperous middle class black parents.
Introductions can be a shock especially when you're not quite expecting the man to look like he does. Many a father has felt a sense of shock at the boys his daughter has brought home. Many of the Jews of Jesus' day had a shock when they were introduced to the Messiah. Jesus wasn't what they were waiting for. He didn't fit with their expectations. So, the Gospel writers went to great trouble to introduce the Lord Jesus to us. We have to grasp the reality that the world's Saviour isn't what we might have expected.
Most people expect a man of political and economic power; Jesus was a humble carpenter. Most of us think that deliverance will come by the exercise of fame and celebrity; Jesus came as a nobody. He doesn't tick the boxes of the world's idea of greatness. When he finally entered Jerusalem for the great battle he humbly rode on a donkey and made his way to crucifixion. Not what we might have thought of as a master plan.
So, the Gospel writers, including Luke, take great care to introduce the Lord to us.
In chapter 7 we met the Jesus who could heal a terminally ill man by simply speaking a word from a distance. We met the Lord who could raise a dead young man to life. We met a Messiah who could heal all sorts of diseases. And, we met a man who could forgive even the most immoral people, just like God might.
We begin to move in chapter 8 and we'll be introduced to more elements of the true glory and greatness of Jesus the King of the Kingdom.
1. THE METHOD IS A SEED
On the 10th September the fruit of the work of 10,000 scientists came to reality under the Franco-Swiss border. A circular tunnel's been built 17 miles in circumference. The purpose is to take protons and make them collide with each other at almost the speed of light. It's hoped that as a result of many experiments we will be better able to understand the structure of the universe. The scientists are trying to answer some fundamental questions. A lot of school kids were worried for a few days that they might destroy the world in the process.
The Hedron Collider's quite a method in the battle for a better understanding of the Universe.
Amazingly Luke 8 begins with a particle theory. The secret of the Kingdom of God is a particle. It's something tiny and apparently insignificant. But, when it collides with something in the right environment enormous energy's released. The particle is called a seed. The Lord Jesus says that the coming of His Kingdom, the kingdom which ultimately explains what the universe is for and where it's going is like a seed of wheat.
It looks pretty unimpressive when you see it in the basket on a farmer's hip, or held in his hand for scattering. It's unimpressive enough to be eaten by the birds of the air on the one hand.
On the other hand it's powerful enough to change a man's heart and give him a place in the world to come. Ultimately this tiny seed is powerful enough to establish the kingdom off God in a new creation. This New Creation will last for ever when this present universe will have passed away. v11 - the seed is the word of God (v 11).
The God who made protons and quarks and black holes, has revealed himself in something called the word of God. The Word of God is God's explanation of himself and his purposes for the universe. It's the ultimate secret. But it's not hidden, except to those who are deliberately blind.
The awesome thing about the claims Luke makes for Jesus is that his great weapon for establishing God's kingdom is something as small and apparently insignificant as a grain of wheat. God loves to take weak things in order to do powerful works. He loves to take the unimpressive to demonstrate his impressive glory.
So, Jesus is introduced to us as a farmer (verse 5). He's the Master not of the military conquest but of the harvest. We have to wait until we get to the end of the chapter before we meet Jesus the Holy Warrior. But, for now, letﾒs marvel that God came into the world as a farm labourer to plant a harvest that will never fail.
2. THE SEED NEEDS A SOIL (verses 5-8)
Itﾒs been my conviction for many years that to be a Bible believing Christian requires living with intellectual tensions. Iﾒve expressed it in a number of ways to myself. One is this. You have to learn to hold one truth in one hand, and another truth in the other, even though you canﾒt reconcile them. You hold on to both truths in the conviction that they are perfectly reconciled in the mind of God.
One example of that activity is in how salvation comes to the human heart. In one hand we hold the truth that itﾒs all of God. He provides the seed, He provides the power to make it grow, He alone can give the increase. In the other hand, we hold the truth that you and I have a responsibility to receive the seed into our hearts, to cherish it, nurture it, and encourage itﾒs growth with our sympathetic care of this precious thing.
Although I believe that salvation is entirely due to the kindness and power of God, I also believe that if I neglect the Gospel and undermine itﾒs working in my heart I will have to bear the whole responsibility for that neglect. None of us will ever be able to accuse God of failing to provide enough grace and power to bring us to salvation.
So, in this parable, you have different kinds of soil. These pictures are descriptions of the different ways human beings handle the Gospel when itﾒs message is cast upon their minds. All of you are found in this passage. Youﾒre either a person who is hardening your heart to the Word of God so that youﾒre not allowing it any penetration into your affections. Or youﾒve made a superficial response to it. You look like a Christian for the time being, but when the Christian life gets tough, youﾒll give in and the work of the Word will wither in your heart.
Or, youﾒre one of those people in whose life the seed has fallen, but before it can really do a work of deep change in you, itﾒs been overcome by the rubbish youﾒve let grow in your experience. The love of money, the love of comfort and an easy life. Whatever form it takes, the word of God has no deep impact on you because your life is so choked with seed destroying stuff that youﾒve allowed to grow in your heart.
Or, youﾒre one of those people who have cleared the ground, done your spadework, and welcomed the Word of God into your heart and done everything you humanly can to give it a place to take root and grow and bear fruit.
And, I think you know this morning what kind of soil youﾒve become. I think you know where you stand in relationship to the most important thing in the Universe, the Word of the Living God. You know where the Bible fits in your affections. You know what your attitude is to the Word preached by your pastors. You know what your attitude is to Godﾒs desire to cause a harvest of God glorifying fruit to grow in the soil of your mind, affections and behaviour.
Iﾒve just begun to study a book with one of the young men in the church, The Disciplines of a Godly Man. In the first chapter it talks about the NT phrase, train yourself for godliness. The Greek word has connections with the sweat and passion of an athlete determined to get first place in the Games. The author refers to an American football player who watched TV recordings of football moves for hours at a time in order to make himself more effective as a player. A passionate commitment to an excellence desired.
The seed needs a soil. Harvests are never the product of casual neglect.
3. THE SOWING NEEDS SUPPORTERS (verses 1-3)
The opening verses of this chapter are easily skipped over as helpful historical details rather like the small print you agree to when you install a new piece of software on your computer. But, this is an important introduction to the whole theme of the chapter.
The King is at work as a Gospel seed scatterer. Heﾒs building his kingdom by scattering the Gospel across the world, but heﾒs chosen to do it through the instrumentality of ordinary human beings. There are two kinds of people in these opening verses. There are the up-front preachers and teachers and there are the behind the scenes workers.
And the Twelve were with him. This are the guys attending the first Prepared For Service course. Three years with the great teacher equipped them to be the teachers of the Apostolic Gospel upon which the church is founded. The church is founded upon the apostles and prophets, Jesus being the cornerstone. Itﾒs been noted down through the centuries that the Twelve werenﾒt supermen or celebrities. It was said of them that they were uneducated and common men. Agrammmatos kai idiotes. Idiots who never went to grammar school.
These are the supporters of the Gospel Kingdom. These are the Ones God uses. the unimpressive people of this world take out into the world the only message by which the world can be saved.
The second group are even more unlikely. Theyﾒre a bunch of women. Verse 2 - certain women. The previous chapter ended with a needy woman pouring out her love on the Lord Jesus by kissing his feet and anointing them with oil in her gratitude for his mercy. Now, we find another bunch of women who have the same gratitude in their hearts. They had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Three are mentioned but there are many more. They provided for the mission of Jesus and the 12 out of their own means.
The word ﾓprovidedﾔ is the Greek word from which we get the word ﾓdeaconﾔ. They served the Gospel by paying the expenses of Gospel preachers.
Itﾒs an extraordinary picture. The One who made the universe is allowing himself to be supported in his kingdom work by the hard earned cash of a bunch of godly women. Those who had benefited from the Gospel were passionate about supporting the work of the Gospel. Those who are most grateful for the power of the Gospel that has delivered them from Satanﾒs grip, are normally the most generous practical supporters of the Gospel.
If you donﾒt support Gospel work generously itﾒs almost certain you donﾒt have a heart thatﾒs been deeply touched by Gospel mercies.
The harvest field is vast and worldwide. There are those called by God to be among the preachers, and there are those who are called by God to be the money men and women. Together we can cast the seed far and wide for the glory of our Lord Jesus.