Tag Archives: Soil

Rooted – Sermon on Luke 8:4-15 for Sexagesima Sunday

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.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today, I’m taking a different approach on how I’m preaching this text. We’ll use the parable and explanation as a lens through which we look at what is happening in this text. You’re all smart people, so I think you’ll catch on pretty quickly.

One day Jesus saw massive crowds coming toward Him. So many had come to listen to Him teach that Matthew actually lets us know that Jesus had to teach from a boat while the crowds listened from the beach (Mt. 13:1-9). But Jesus didn’t see this as just another day at the lake. No. He saw fields that were ripe unto seeding. He saw ground that was ready to be planted with God’s Word. So, Christ reached into His bag and started throwing the good Seed of God’s Word as far and wide as He possibly could.

As He taught, Jesus threw some seed on the path. He noticed that some were not paying much attention. They were nodding off or distracted by one thing or another. They could hear His voice, that wasn’t the issue. But He could tell that the Seed of the Word wasn’t sinking in. Christ wasn’t worried about this. Jesus knew He could get a harvest there, but He didn’t want the Seed to be trampled down or eaten by the birds. So, Jesus took out His plow. He called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” But even though the plow broke the soil up, it quickly went back to being impermeable. The seed just stayed on the top. And Jesus watched in grief as the birds came and devoured the precious Seed from the soil of the path.

As Jesus taught, He threw some Seed on the rocks. Christ saw that they were joyfully listening and excited to hear. But Jesus also knew their excitement would die down, their joy would fade, and they would soon face times of testing. The Seed Jesus was spreading grew up quickly, but the roots weren’t digging down because of the rocks underneath. Jesus knew the sun would soon come out with its heat. Plants need the sun and its warmth, but if those plants didn’t have roots that could find moisture, they would wither and die. So, Jesus rolled up His sleeves to pick the rock out of that soil. He called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” But the rocks just kept returning. No matter how many tons of rock Jesus removed, there was always more. And Jesus grieved as the hot sun of those trials beat down on the soil, and the plants withered away before the Word could produce fruit in that rocky soil.

As Jesus taught, He threw some seed among the thorns. Christ saw others who were listening, but those thorns threatened the growth of the precious Seed. Christ knew those listeners would go back to their homes and focus on other things – their jobs, their families, and their houses. Even though Jesus Himself had given those good gifts, He knew that soil loved those thorns more than the Word, and if those thorns weren’t plucked and picked, they would choke out the Seed of the Word. So, again, Jesus rolls up His sleeves to remove those thorns by calling out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” With those words, Jesus carefully and meticulously uprooted the thorns, but they kept coming back. The Seed of God’s Word was there and growing. But Christ mourned as He watched the thorns of the cares, riches, and pleasures of life prevent that soil from producing fruit.

But there was a fourth kind of soil that did produce fruit. In fact, it produced a miraculous harvest of a hundredfold. What made this soil good? Well, we have to remember that there is no soil that is naturally and natively good. No. Jesus, the Sower always tends what He plants with His Word. Everywhere Jesus sows the Word of God will look like an unlikely place to produce fruit, but as He continues to work on the soil, He brings about a harvest by plowing, picking, and plucking the unworthy soil.

Even the twelve disciples were those bad soils. Think of Thomas as the soil of the path. Easter evening, the Gospel Seed was tossed onto Thomas. He heard that Jesus had risen from the dead, but the birds simply devoured that Seed. Thomas refused to be tilled and softened, but Jesus didn’t give up on Thomas. Christ continued to dig His plow into the hard soil of Thomas’ heart. And one week later, Thomas believed and confessed Christ as his Lord and God (Jn. 20:24-28).

Think of Peter as the rocky soil. Peter had been warned about falling into the temptation of denying Jesus three times. Peter needed to produce the fruit of fleeing temptation, but his stone-hard heart didn’t let the roots of Jesus’ warning find the moisture it needed. Peter was withered in the hot sun of that test. Three times Peter denied knowing Jesus (Jn 18:15-18, 25-27). The Seed planted in him got scorched, but Jesus hadn’t given up on Peter either. Christ continued to sow the seed of His Word and remove the rocks from Peter’s heart. Through the labor of Jesus’ sowing and tending the soil of Peter’s heart, Peter was restored and produced great fruit as he later fed, tended, and shepherded Jesus’ lambs (Jn 21:15-19).

Several of the disciples were also the thorny soil. They saw Jesus anointed with expensive ointment shortly before He was arrested and thought it was a complete waste (Mk. 14:3-9). They were choked out by the cares and riches of this life, but Christ didn’t give up on them either. Jesus continued to pull and pluck those thorns by teaching them how that anointing was preparing Him for His burial. The sad reality, though, is that for all of Jesus’ plucking and tending, the soil of Judas Iscariot’s heart still ended up being choked out by the thorns of thirty pieces of silver (Jn. 12:4; Mt. 26:14-16).

Dear saints, all of this is to say that Jesus, the Sower, doesn’t merely scatter the Seed of His Word, walk away, and only come back periodically to see what’s happened with His precious Seed. No! He is the constant gardener. He continually scatters the Seed of His Word which guides, teaches, forgives, feeds, and strengthens you. He also digs and plows to break up the hard soil. He clears the soil of rocks and thorns. Through His Word, He corrects, exhorts, and rebukes. Some of what He does is gentle. He consoles, comforts, and encourages by declaring His love, mercy, and forgiveness. And Jesus constantly guards His field to protect what He has planted (Is. 5:1-7). He does all of this, the planting, the tending, the weeding, and the guarding so that the Seed of His Word gets well-rooted to produce abundant fruit in and through you.

Dear saints, you are God’s children. Through His Word, He gives you an honest and good heart. Yes, you are attacked by the devil, threatened by temptation, and seduced by the cares and riches of this world. But by God’s grace, He will sustain you as He continues to work on you through that same holy and precious Word. May that Word be deeply rooted in each of us today and always. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Seed – Sermon on Luke 8:4-15 for Sexagesima Sunday

Listen here.

Luke 8:4-15

1 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.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This is Jesus’ first parable, so a quick note about parables is important here at the outset. We get some insight as to the reason Jesus teaches in parables when the disciples ask Jesus what the parable means. Jesus tells them, “I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand.” In short, parables are not intended to make things clearer. The parables, according to Jesus, are meant to obscure things. And here’s why:

The crowds had begun to reject Jesus’ teaching. Basically, what Jesus says He is doing is teaching these know-it-alls in riddles, so they realize just how dumb they really are (see esp. Mt. 13:10-17). You know how it is when you are around a group of people and there is a joke that you aren’t in on. You get curious and want to be ‘in.’ So you ask questions and dig deeper to be part of the ‘in’ crowd.

God be praised, the disciples fall for the bait and do exactly that. Please notice, that. These guys who have been called by Jesus to be fishers of men, even they have to ask Jesus what the parable means. When the disciples ask Jesus what He means by this parable, they are exercising and growing in their faith. They go to the right place with their misunderstanding; they go straight to Jesus. “Dude, what are you talking about?” Whenever you have doubts or questions or feel like outsiders, you do well to follow the disciples’ example here. Let’s all go to Jesus, the Word made flesh, and get things cleared up.

Honestly, this particular parable really is quite simple. And to make it idiot-proof and so we don’t get it wrong, Jesus gives us the cheat sheet. We can thank the Holy Spirit for inspiring the Gospel writers to help us dense folk today. So, since you have ears, hear what God desires you to hear.

In the parable, the seed is the Word of God. The different places where the seed falls – the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the good soil – are the various conditions of the heart. While we might be tempted to ask, “What kind of soil am I?” it is probably better to recognize that you and I are each of these types of soil at different times. And even though Jesus doesn’t explicitly say this, I think the types of soil that are presented in the parable are in a particular order. Jesus starts with what is easiest for the devil to attack and prevent fruit from being produced and moves to the types of hearts that are more difficult. So, let’s go through each of them.

First, the path, and listen most closely right now. Open your ears here for two minutes. If you don’t listen to any other part of this sermon, listen to this. The path represents those who hear the Word of God, but then, the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts. Look again at the end of v. 12. Our translation, the ESV, has Jesus explaining what happens to the seed on the path by saying, “so they may not believe and be saved.” Now, the ESV is a faithful translation (I wouldn’t be using it for our services if I didn’t think so), but I think the translators unintentionally mislead us a little bit here (and to be fair to the ESV, other translations do the same thing). They make it sound like there are two verbs there – ‘not believe’ and ‘not be saved.’ But, actually, there is only one verb. ‘Not believe’ is a participle and ‘not be saved’ is the verb. In other words, more literally, Jesus says, “so that having believed they may not be saved.” In other words, these people hear God’s Word, and they believe it. But before that Word can begin to grow and sprout, the devil simply snatches it away. This is the devil’s easiest attack on the Word of God. And I think we’ve all experienced this.

To my great shame, I will admit that there are times when I hear God’s Word and it goes right in one ear and out the other. For example, after I drop my kids off for school, I will listen as my phone plays one of my daily Bible readings while I drive here to work. And there are days when I get distracted by something – thinking about my day, or another driver who doesn’t come to a complete stop or use their turn signal or whatever. The reading ends, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what I heard. Other times, I’ve listened to sermons – good, solid, biblical sermons – but once the sermon is over, I couldn’t tell you what the sermon was about. Again, this is the easiest way for the devil to attack the powerful, effective Word of God. He simply snatches it away because it falls on the hard, concrete path.

People of God, when you hear God’s Word, when you read the Bible, when you sit in those chairs and hear the preaching, listen up. Do whatever it takes to pay attention. Get enough sleep on Saturday. Have some caffeine before you come. Don’t let your heart be a paved, hardened path where the devil can simply come and snatch God’s Word from you.

Now, that you’ve heard that, I hope I have your attention and you keep listening.

The second place the seed of God’s Word falls is the rock. This ground is a little more difficult for Satan. This is when we hear God’s Word and receive it with joy. But then those promises get scorched by the heat of trials. We believe the Word for a while, but when times of trouble and testing come, we abandon those promises and fall away.

How many times does God promise to be with you always, but then, when hot trials come, we think God is angry with us and has abandoned us? Trials, tribulations, and troubles are not the time to doubt God’s promises! Think about it the terms of this parable. The heat from the sun represents the trials. But it isn’t the hot sun that kills plants. If plants have good, deep roots that reach down to where the moisture is, the heat from the sun is what causes plants to grow and bear fruit.

Think of when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced death – they faced the hottest trial that anyone can encounter, literally! But they refused to let that trial wither their faith. They had roots that went down to the moisture and their faith prevailed and even flourished when Jesus walked with them in the burning fiery furnace. If you know even a little bit of church history, you know that the church typically grows when it is persecuted. Dear saints, when trials and tribulations come, that is not the time to abandon God’s promises. That is the time to sink your roots deep into them and find the moisture you need. Those trials will in fact cause you to grow and not wither away.

The third place the Word of God falls is among the thorns. The thorns are the cares and riches of this life. Jesus here is warning us that trials and tribulations aren’t the only enemy to our faith. Good gifts that God gives can also be bad for our faith. We are tempted to think that when we are comfortable and not facing trials that we will be left alone, but that isn’t the case. We cannot let our guard down when things are going well. The devil will still attack us, but this is also where he has the hardest time. Satan hasn’t been able to simply snath the promises of God away, and he hasn’t succeeded with his fiery trials. So, the devil has no other choice but to try and choke out God’s Word. But this attack takes the longest and is the hardest for him to accomplish. Here, the devil has to try to slowly introduce weeds to choke out God’s Word. He can’t do it all at once, otherwise we would recognize the attack and be on guard against it. So, he works slowly to choke out God’s Word from your heart.

This is just a reminder. Those weeds – the riches, pleasures, and cares of this life – will always be a threat and nuisance to you. Christian, there will be times where you will need to go out and pick weeds from your life. You can’t simply trim weeds. You have to pull them up by the root. Dear saints, ask yourself, “What has gotten in the way of the Word of God? What things keep me from hearing the blessings God would give me through His Word?” When Jesus talks here about the cares and riches of this life, He doesn’t get specific. Instead, He wants us to constantly assess ourselves and see what is hindering us from rejoicing in God’s Word and being participants in God’s family.

Now, we are ten days away from the beginning of Lent. Today is February 7th and Lent begins February 17th. Scripture doesn’t give specifics for each of us as to what chokes out our faith; instead, God’s Word gives us wisdom to discern what might be slowly strangling us. I am calling on you now to use that wisdom.

Lent is typically a time to remove particular hinderances to our devotion to God’s Word. The Scriptures call it fasting. Fasting is not commanded, but Jesus does assume that His disciples will fast at times (see. Mt. 6:16-18). Fasting is not a way to make God more pleased with you. God couldn’t be more pleased with you who believe that Jesus has forgiven you of all your sins. Instead, fasting is a way to uproot the thorns that the devil would use to choke out your faith. Fasting curbs your sinful, fleshly desires. Fasting, basically, tells your flesh, “You are not in charge of me.”

Lent is a time to pull out those weeds and thorns that would choke out your faith. You have ten days to consider what you might remove from your life for the forty days of Lent. Maybe, there is something that would be beneficial for you to give up in order to discipline your flesh and give extra attention to God’s Word. Again, God doesn’t command this. It’s not something you have to do, but it is a good practice. Don’t think that God will be more pleased with you if you fast. Instead, know that it is a good and beneficial discipline to deny yourself something so that thing, whatever it is, doesn’t become a choking, strangling thorn in your life of faith. Lent is a good time to pick weeds from your spiritual life.

Finally, the Word falls on good soil. Just as you, sinner, are the soil of the path, the rocks, and the thorns, you, Christian, are also the good soil. You are both and all at the same time. God’s Word comes and produces an abundance of fruit that yields a hundred-fold and provides for others.

When we hear this parable, one of the most shocking things is how the recklessly the sower throws around the seed. He throws it around willy-nilly and it lands all over the place. Well, right here at this altar, the sower is about to carefully plant the Seed of His Word deeply into you. You are about to come and receive Christ, the Word made flesh, His very Body and Blood. Let this careful, deliberate planting of God’s Word and the deliverance of God’s forgiveness of all your sins bear, let it bear the fruit of joy and love. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.