This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bibles, let's open up to the Gospel of Luke. Gospel of Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8, we'll be picking up in verse 4. This is the reading of God's word. And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 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. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 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. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, To you, it has been given to know the secrets or the mysteries 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. This is the reading of God's word. You know, sometimes people are simply surprising. Have you ever had an experience where you are talking with someone, you're spending time with someone, you may have known them for years and for years, and then suddenly they do something, or suddenly they share something with you, they say something, and it is a total surprise coming from them. They do this, they say this, whatever it is, some way they grew up, some perspective they have on this or on that, and you find you are looking at them in a light that you have never seen them before. Can you relate to the experience? What's interesting about it is on the one hand, it can be totally surprising. You would never have thought of it. But then on the other, once you have a minute to process, you think, well, that actually makes a lot of sense. you can see them more clearly because of the light that has now been shown upon them. I suspect that this passage in Luke's gospel will show Jesus to many of you in a new light. And I expect that on the one hand, you may find that unsettling. But on the other, if you will hear what the word of God has to say, I think you're going to find that Jesus's ministry makes just a little bit more sense after you've seen him from that new perspective. See, where we start is we start with a parable unexplained. That's verses four through eight. In verse four, I'll read this for you just a bit at a time so I make sure not to lose you on any of the details. Verse four says this, and when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable. So this crowd is gathering and what you're finding about Jesus's ministry is that it's beginning to sort of gain recognition. Day by day, more and more people have heard of him. Day by day, people want to hear from him. They seek him out to hear what he will teach them, what he will show them. And he takes this crowd and he teaches them in a parable. Now, what is a parable? Sometimes we assume that we know what we're talking about when really we're quite fuzzy about the specifics. And a parable is basically illustrating a principle about God using something understood in everyday life. is generally longer than a metaphor or a simile. And it ends up being much more like a story. There's often characters involved in it. And a parable, teaching using parables, this was a popular teaching method. And so Jesus has employed a popular teaching method for when he is teaching these large crowds. And scene by scene, illustration by illustration, he's using things that would have been familiar to people in that society, but we find that the time and the distance, we don't necessarily always understand each picture that he's giving, so we might need a little more explaining. So, verse 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. Jesus starts with seed that falls on a path. The picture here, it's a simple picture. Picture a field where agriculture might be going on, but there's a path cutting through that field. And so, as someone's out there sowing their seed, some inevitably ends up landing, not on the cultivated land, but on that well-worn and packed down path. And there, the seed can't go anywhere, and the seed is exposed. It's exposed to travelers on the path who trample that seed underfoot. It's exposed to the birds of the air who swoop down and eat it. The seed in this case is prevented from being fruitful. And instead of being fruitful, it is destroyed. It is eaten. Verse six, Jesus next describes seed that falls on the rock. And some fell on the rock and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Now here, what's pictured again, not that complicated. You have a field, and we hear rocky soil, and you picture big rocks scattered all across the top, and that's probably not what we're talking about. More likely is you have a field with a thin layer of dirt in certain spots, and underneath those patches of dirt might have been a base of limestone underneath. So from the surface without doing any work, it would be hard to recognize that that area has the rocky soil underneath it. From the surface, it would look like the rest of the field. The result then, you sow a seed there and the seed grows up, but its growth is always going to be inhibited. Its growth is always going to be limited by that rocky soil that lies underneath. Luke points out that the big deficiency here is going to be a lack of moisture in the soil. Matthew and Mark, when they tell this same parable, they focus on the lack of depth of the soil. But in the end, the plant withers away. The seed got further on this type of soil than the seed that was sown on the path, but ultimately, neither was fruitful. Verse seven, the third example. seed sown among thorns. And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. Apparently, I haven't been there, I haven't seen these, but apparently there are these Palestinian weeds that grow up like six feet tall. And that might be what we're talking about here. And even if you've never seen a Palestinian weed, we all know what these weeds are like. Weeds, they grow fast. They're so often hard to kill. And every day that they grow, they are competing for water. They're competing for nutrients in the soil. And you have the more delicate stuff, you know, the stuff that you actually want to grow up. And what happens when the weeds are there? The delicate stuff ends up dying off if you leave it alone with the weeds. And so it is here. The desirable plant, it can't compete. and it ends up being killed off by the weed. Once again, the seed is prevented from being fruitful. You get to verse eight and finally, Finally, the seed falls on good soil. I read the first half of verse 8 for you. And here you have it, when the conditions are right, the seed is fruitful, like it's meant to be. It prospers. It grows so it can bear even more seed, a hundredfold. A hundredfold would have been a very good result for a single seed. But then in the second half of verse eight, Jesus concludes his message to the crowds. I want you to hear this. As he said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus will talk like this, if you have ears to hear. And the point, it is a challenge. It is a challenge to everyone who has heard Jesus speak to respond correctly. Jesus is saying, think seriously about what I just said. Leon Morris, he says this in this way. He says, it's like, if you have ears, use them. How often do we not do justice to what we are told, to what we are taught? We hear sermons friends and brothers and sisters, they give us good counsel from the word. We spend time in the word ourselves, and when we do so, we're receiving these truths, and not just like little bitty truths, but the most important kinds of truths out there. When we are in the word, we're receiving the truth from God, and he tells us what reality is really like. We hear these truths from God and we receive the truth of the gospel and we're shown how it is we're supposed to live in light of the most glorious good news in all of creation. And often we hear these words, we read these words, and they are compelling us to change. They're saying, you're not living right. You are not living in light of what you have just been told, of the truth that you say you believe in. And then, We'll take those words, you almost imagine we're looking them over, we're thinking about them, we're mulling them, and we'll feel them. We'll feel how sharp they are, what a deep cut they could deliver. We'll look them over for just a little bit, and then we'll put them down and walk away. We'll be able to sense how important that truth is, how much we need that truth in our life, whether it's conviction or encouragement. We look it over and we say, I'll think about that later. Have you ever heard a sermon? Thought that was a good sermon. That was a faithful sermon. I really appreciate the words of truth that I just heard. And then gone and promptly forgotten it. Not the only one. Have you ever told someone, hey, would you pray for me? Man, I'm really struggling with this. I'm really working on this. And then that person has the nerve the next week, ask you how it's been going. That thing that you said was so important and it turns out you haven't thought about it all week. Wow, that's so important. I just can't remember to think about it over the week. Have you ever found conviction just slipping away like sand through your fingers? Jesus would say to you, do justice to what you have heard. Take the words of life and consider them. Reflect on them. Be blessed by them. Live them out. Let no one be able to say of you that you ever wasted a word of God. Let no one be able to say of you that you did not embrace every single gift that the Lord had for you. The Lord would rain down blessing upon you if you would just have it. Hear. Believe. Receive the blessings of the Lord. You come back to this original crowd, and I'm going to ask you to do something that's near impossible, but I want you to try and put yourself in their shoes. This is a famous parable. I remember learning as a little kid. I had a song taught to me. I remember parts of the song still. It's a famous parable that we have a hard time getting distance from because to us it's always been familiar. But I want you to imagine that you have never had this explained to you. No one has ever used this picture to teach you. You never had a Sunday school class where they explained it to you. Picture you're in that original crowd and you hear this rabbi painting a picture that's really rather ordinary. If all it is is seeds on soils, every single part of it is like, well, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. But then the rabbi concludes his parable by saying, and you better act accordingly. Remember, there is no command. He gave no command in that parable. There's no point where he explains that parable to everyone. There's no point where he applied that parable to everyone. All there is, is illustration. All there is is illustration. And have you ever been in a conversation where someone's explaining something, you're like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then they pause and they say something like, you see what I mean? And the problem is you have no idea what they mean. Have you ever been there? Are you feeling that right now? You see what I mean? And you don't know what they're talking about. They're sitting there with this look like, it's obvious, right? The conclusion's obvious. Do you see what I mean? And you're just not following. It can be an uncomfortable moment because sometimes it just means you were spacing out while they were talking and that's uncomfortable to have to admit. But here, Jesus concludes a rather normal illustration. about what happens when you sow seed on different kinds of soils. And then he gives this exhortation to do justice to what they've heard. Do you feel the disconnect there? What do you mean do justice to this? I bet they were confused. I bet those crowds were confused and actually I am positive they were confused because his disciples come to him later and they say, we don't know what that meant. Will you tell us what that meant? The speakers are going to attack me if you could do something about that. So this leads us to an important question. Why did Jesus use parables? See, there's a common answer and that turns out to be just far too simple. The common answer says Jesus used parables because he was trying to be clear and memorable. Well, that's not quite right. There's the common answer and then there's the true answer. And the true answer to why he used parables depends on who the listener was. in relation to Jesus. Were they believing in Jesus or were they rejecting Jesus? I want you to see what Jesus says in verses nine and 10. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, to you it has been given to know the mysteries 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. That is a weird statement to make if Jesus is simply trying to be clear and memorable. See, there's parables, for disciples of Jesus, and there are parables for those who have rejected Jesus. We start with parables for disciples, parables for those who have accepted Jesus, who are following Jesus. You know, before we get too far into that point, I just want to point out, I just want you to notice that the disciples were confused. And so what did they do? They went to ask God. That right there, great model for life. And let's never underestimate the need and the privilege of being able to take our confusion to God and seek his wisdom. Part of them having ears to hear is that they didn't wallow in their uncertainty. They went to Jesus. The disciples sought Jesus and Jesus helped them. And Jesus taught them. The disciples enjoyed a special privilege from Jesus. And this privilege is what Jesus is talking about. Jesus says to disciples, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Let's break that down just a bit at a time. You start with the reminder that we actually need, in the full sense of that word, we need God to reveal things to us. When it comes to the nature of God, when it comes to the nature of the gospel, we cannot just figure these things out. God must show us. This is why Christians over time have so zealously prized and guarded the Bible like we do. It is God's revelation to us. It is how we know him. It is how we know salvation. And this is the same situation here with the parables and with these disciples. The disciples are not simply going to figure things out. Jesus must help them or they will be just as confused as the crowds. The disciples have been given the privilege to know mysteries. These mysteries, it's a word we talk about in Paul's writings as well. It's generally describing something that's been hidden that God must reveal for us to understand it. The disciples, by grace and by revelation, they get to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. They get clarity where the rest of the world only has confusion. We should never get over that. We should never get over the wonder of all that has been given to us. You see, not only is there the wonder that any given passage contains, I just pulled one from random. There's so many good ones. Psalm 103, 11 and 12. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgression from us. You see, you read that and it's beautiful and it's wonderful all on its own. But then, but then there is the wonder of realizing that we would never have known it otherwise. We would never have known it if God had not shown it to us. How could we know of the boundless love of God, the boundless forgiveness of our God, if it weren't revealed to us? You don't figure that out by going up to Lake Tahoe and sitting on the beach. We would not know these things if God had not shown us. So thank God for a Bible that contains a million truths that you would never have known about otherwise. Thank God for the conviction. Thank God for the encouragement. Thank God for the hope. Thank God for the joy. Jesus is reminding the disciples of the precious privileges that they enjoy. They come to him with questions and he actually gives them answers. They come with confusion and he gives them understanding. But that is not the way it was for everyone. See, parables, that was how they were used for disciples. Parables had a different use for non-disciples, for those who had rejected Jesus. The second half of verse 10 says this, but for others, they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Jesus says, get your minds around this, Jesus says that he uses parables so that some people won't understand him. Do you see that in the text? He uses parables so that some people won't understand him. And this is the point where I expect that this is unexpected for some of us. we usually assume that Jesus used parables to help people understand him. And that's only partly true, because for disciples who had the meaning explained to them, well then the parable does become a helpful illustration. I'm sure that you are a lot like me, that those descriptions of all the soil, the path, the rocky soil, the thorns, the good soil, I bet you that helps you to remember God's teachings. It helps me. The parables are a blessing to the disciples of Jesus because he explains them, but they are not a blessing to those who are not his disciples, to those who have rejected him. They're not a blessing when they're not explained. So the question is, what are they? What are parables to those who have rejected Jesus? The answer is judgment. Parables are a form of judgment with non-disciples. That sounds really disruptive. Please hear me out. We often have an overly simplified understanding of God and Jesus's ministry is no exception because we can draw on truths of scripture to say Jesus brought grace and truth. And so we go on to say that Jesus only brought grace and truth. But the Bible has more to say than that. The gospels are clear. Jesus brought more than blessing. I remind you of what we've already covered in the gospel thus far. The very beginning of the gospel, Simeon prophesied of Jesus. And he said that Jesus was appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. If you read that text, like I'm tempted to read that text, we're tempted to skip right over the word fall and get right to the idea of rising. We like to get right to the blessing, right to the hope. But Jesus's ministry was also intended to bring about the fall of many. In other words, the judgment of many, the condemnation of many. We don't see this in just one spot. We saw this theme of judgment in John the Baptist as well. We talked about this in Luke chapter seven. John's ministry and Jesus's ministry, they brought judgment. They were fulfilling Malachi's prophecy when God promised to answer his people's unbelief with a messenger of judgment. Malachi foretold a refining fire that would be brought by the true judge before whom no one could stand. John the Baptist was the introduction to judgment, and Jesus was and will be the fulfillment to judgment. So you might ask, how does Jesus bring grace and truth on the one hand and judgment on the other? I'll let the gospel of John explain that one. John 3, 16. which turns out to be followed by several other verses. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. And we want to say dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. As if there's nothing else after you say, Jason, seek no condemnation, but you keep going. But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Yes, Jesus brought grace and truth. He brought the grace and truth of salvation into a world that desperately needed it. But it turned out he brought grace and truth and people rejected it. People rejected the grace and truth of the son of God. So for those who have rejected salvation, they will have judgment. So Jesus' primary mission, it was not condemnation, but for those who rejected salvation, they will indeed be condemned. Rejecting the grace of God is not without consequences. When people reject God's grace, they are choosing God's judgment instead. So when you accept that Jesus's ministry also included judgment, then you can now understand how he was using parables. For many of you, I'll bet you can now better understand Jesus because you have seen him in a new light. For those who trusted him and followed him, he gave insight and blessing using parables. Those who came in faith, they found blessing. But for those who did not come in faith, for those who rejected him, for those who were not disciples, as we're all called to be, parables brought judgment. When Jesus says this part about seeing they may not see, hearing they may not understand, he's actually quoting a text from the Old Testament. He's quoting from Isaiah chapter six, verses nine and 10. This is what it says in Isaiah. And he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. This is what we talked about at Bible study. And I'll give you the summary in case you weren't there. God is long-suffering, and he is patient with his people. He gives them chance after chance after chance. And that's all in his mercy. But at some point, he stops showing mercy and he gives justice instead. At some point in judgment, he lets his people go their hell bound way. He lets them go and then he even hardens their heart so that they can't hear or receive the truth that would heal them. It's terrifying. Daryl Bach said it like this, God in judgment removes the benefit of revelation. This is how Jesus is using parables. parables were making clear that there were already two kinds of people, disciples and non-disciples. Those who accepted Jesus and those who rejected Jesus. For a rejecting non-disciple, a parable heaped condemnation upon their heads for their unbelief. There they were so close to Jesus, so close to his blessing, and yet they didn't have the hearts that wanted that blessing. They saw the light of Jesus and they chose darkness instead. They chose the darkness of their evil over the goodness of Christ. Their hearts were far from God. And so they were far from blessing and near to condemnation. When Jesus spoke a parable to someone who rejected him, he was purposefully bringing condemnation upon them. He gave them spiritual truth that because of their hard-hearted rejection, they could not see, hear, or understand. And so their condemnation grew. To summarize, why did Jesus use parables? Well, parables were both blessing and judgment. at the same time. And it all depended upon whether you had accepted or rejected Jesus. Parables were insight and they were blessing for disciples and they were judgment for everyone else. The judgment of Jesus' ministry, it brings a sobering urgency to all of us. If you have a heart to believe in Jesus, rejoice in that. If you have a heart to follow him and to obey him, rejoice in that, but also do justice to that. When he says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He is not saying do justice to my teaching when you feel like it. There is nothing casual about this command. Jesus' command demands a sort of trembling urgency. Because if you keep casually ignoring the Lord's will for you, at some point, your lack of acceptance, your lack of faith, your lack of submission, they might put you in the camp of those who saw the light and yet chose darkness. It might be you who could be described as one of those who perpetually rejected Christ. It might be you who loses the ability to seek the Lord and actually find him. It might be you who one day can no longer be healed. Now, don't take this fatalistically. Do not take this fatalistically because some of you, some of you hear about this kind of judgment and I know you, you fear that perhaps God has already pronounced you eternally judged. And so you will be tempted to fear that there's just no hope for you. I'm not God, I'm not a prophet, I can't see your heart, but I want to encourage you here. For the one who actually fears the condemnation of God, for the one who actually longs to be right with God, I actually have every hope that you are nearer to God than you think. In your case, the sobering threat of God's judgment is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It is spurring you along to repentance, to faith, and to salvation. Be encouraged. You still have the promise before you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. For all of you who can hear and believe that promise, the gospel is still being held out to you. So don't mess around. Don't delay. Embrace the God who will still save you, who will still heal you. Now you may have noticed that we just spent all our time And we never got to the meaning of the parable. Well, the original disciples, they actually heard the parable unexplained at first too. And what did they do? Did they go away, resigned to be confused? No, they sought the Lord and they found his blessing. So in our own parallel, If you want to hear the parable explained, if you want to receive its blessings, if you want to hear Jesus explain the mysteries of the kingdom of God, you're going to have to come back after lunch. Let's pray. Our father, sober us. with the severity of judgment that exists. Father, forgive us that we have dealt lightly with you. Forgive us that we have dealt casually with you. Forgive us that we have been so easily turned away from seeking out your truth and your blessing. We get inconvenienced and we think it's too big an obstacle to seeking out your truth. Father, forgive us. And we pray that you would spur us on. Lord, I beg, let not a single hard heart exist in this room. Let not a single one of us be those who saw the light and chose the darkness. Father, save. Save us from our sin. Save us from an evil world. Save us from ourselves. Lord, we need you. We thank you for the word of God. We thank you that we have the privilege of hearing what these parables meant. May we rejoice in that always. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.