Sermon Tone Analysis

Three times a year, as I make my way through my Bible reading plan, I come across the same parable.

(A parable is a story that tells a moral truth.)

This particular parable is found in , in , and in today’s passage, at the beginning of .

Three times a year I know it’s coming; three times a year I think I know what to expect; and three times a year it knocks me on my tail.

It knocks me on my tail because it describes me, in painfully accurate detail, at various points in my life.

It describes me as I see myself, and it describes me as I want to be.

It’s painful, and it’s wonderful, every time.

As we read before, Jesus is traveling from town to town preaching the good news.

And at an undisclosed place, a crowd gathers around him and he tells them a parable about a sower.

The sower goes out to sow seed, and he throws it on four different types of ground:

It’s not just a matter of the head, of what we know; it’s a matter of the heart, of our response to what we know.

IS THAT IMPORTANT?

Four Places to Sow

So that being said, let’s go to chapter 8. Jesus is traveling through cities and villages, p

All that being said, let’s start.

As we read before, Jesus is traveling from town to town preaching the good news.

And at an undisclosed place, a crowd gathers around him and he tells them a parable about a sower.

The sower goes out to sow seed, and he throws it on four different types of ground:

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1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.

And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

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.”

Now this isn’t the point of this message, but it’d be a shame not to notice this little aside Luke gives; he’s simply moving the story along by giving us some more context.

But when he does so, he wants us to notice something incredible: among Jesus’s disciples, who traveled with him, there were also women travelling with him.

The fact that Luke takes the time to mention these women is significant.

Women were included among the noteworthy additions to Jesus’s entourage; they were there serving Jesus and the disciples, and out of all of the people following Jesus around, other than his disciples, the only ones Luke mentions by name are these women: Mary, Susanna, and Joanna.

This is very interesting coming from a book which is supposedly hostile to women.

End parenthesis.

Let’s keep going.

V. 4:

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.”

Now we’ll come back to the details of the parable in a minute—Jesus himself is about to explain it.

But first it’s important to point out what the point of the parables were.

Often we talk about parables like allegories—they are, like I said before, stories to illustrate a moral or spiritual truth.

We say that Jesus spoke in parables to help his listeners understand what he was saying.

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Note on women (v. 2)

Note on parables (v.

4)

Quatre terres

He has told parables in this gospel before (3 in , last week in ); but this is the first time Jesus goes further with the function of parables.

Parable = a story that tells a moral truth

MAIN POINTS: The Four Grounds

Luc 8.1-15

Sometimes this is the case: in last week’s passage that’s exactly what happened: he told a story, to help Simon understand what he was saying.

And that is nearly always the case for his disciples.

We’ll often see Jesus tell a parable to a crowd, and then go explain the parable to his disciples, like he does here.

But think of it from the crowd’s point of view.

Jesus tells this story, and he gives them no context for the story.

He gives them no explanation.

Normally if you want an allegory to be effective, your audience needs to know what images correspond to what realities—C.

S. Lewis’s Narnia books work so well because everyone knows that Aslan is a picture of Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t ever clarify his parable for the crowd.

Why is that?

Jesus actually tells us why, and his answer will leave us spinning.

v. 9:

The parable (v.

4-8)

Trois fois par an, alors que je fais mon plan de lecture de la Bible, je rencontre la même parabole.

(Une parabole est une histoire qui illustre une vérité morale.)

Cette parabole particulière se trouve dans Matthieu 13, dans Marc 4, et dans notre passage au début de Luc 8. Trois fois par an je sais qu’elle arrive ; trois fois par an je pense que je suis prêt ; et trois fois par an elle me donne une énorme claque.

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.’”

Parable = a story that tells a moral truth

Now if you look closely, v. 10 is a mind-numbing statement: by teaching in parables, Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy which says that the Messiah will speak in ways that only God’s children will be able to understand.

There’s a lot more we could say about that, but you know what I’m going to say: as enticing as it may be to rush down that rabbit hole, it’s not the point of this text.

The point is the parable itself and what it means.

This is one of the hardest truths in the Bible, and it honestly still baffles me: Jesus sovereignly chooses who will understand his parables and who won’t.

He speaks in parables because to some it has been given to know the

The confused disciples and the point of parables (v.

9-10)

Jesus has set up the parable speaking about a sower, who goes out to sow seed, and he throws it on four different types of ground:

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

He has told parables in this gospel before (3 in , last week in ); but this is the first time Jesus goes further with the function of parables.

, and he throws it on four different types of ground:

ground along a path, where there are lots of birds;

a rock, which has no soil the seed can grab on to;

soil filled with thorns, which chokes the fruit;

and “good soil.”

So he begins to explain his parable, and that’s where we’ll be our whole time today.

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Simple enough.

But then he goes on to say that each kind of soil corresponds to a different type of person, and the way they receive the Word of God that they hear.

So that’s what we’ll be looking at today.

(I’ll read the verse from the parable first, then I’ll read the corresponding explanation Jesus gives to his disciples.)

So this is where we’ll be the whole time: these four different types of people, and the way they receive the Word of God they hear.

(I’ll read the verse from the parable first, then I’ll read the corresponding explanation Jesus gives to his disciples.)

On the Path (v. 5, 11-12)

V. 5:

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… 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.

So that’s the image: there are people who hear the Word, but it has no impact at all.

It barely has time to get in their ears before the devil comes and plucks it out.