Have you really heard Jesus?

How many times have you heard that phrase? In relationships. In families. In the office. “you’re not listening to me!” It’s a common complaint, right?

Think of the harassed parent, shouting to a child “you’re not going out dressed like that!” - are they listening?The only way to really tell is whether there’s a different outfit in a few minutes - or whether they just walk out of the door.

Whichever side you’re on in this interminable brexit debate, I imagine you have to be asking the question of whether anyone’s really listening to you. If you want to leave, is anyone really listening to your voice, your vote? If you want to turn things around, is anyone paying attention, is anyone really listening to your opinion?

It’s easy to feel like we’re just making lots of noise, banging lots of drums - but they’re going to do whatever they want anyway - no-one’s really listening.

Well, Jesus knows what it’s like to have that feeling, that question, of whether people are really listening. And today as we continue our journey through Luke’s gospel - Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus - he has some serious things to say about what it means to really listen to him. It’s just a short section we’re going to read today, but it’s pretty dense - so find Luke chapter 8 with me, the chapters are the big numbers. Luke chapter 8 is on page _________ and we’re going to read from verse 16. The verses are the small numbers there - so chapter 8, big 8, verse 16, small 16. Page ________. Sam’s going to come and read for us today.

Reading: Lk 8:16-21

Luke 8:16–21 NIV

“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. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 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.” Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

Jesus is seen and heard by crowds - crowds so large his own family can’t get in to speak to him. But for all the crowds hearing him, so many fail to grasp his message.

If you were with us last year, the last section we looked at was a very famous story Jesus told called the parable of sower; it pictures sharing the message of Jesus as planting a seed - and shows us people respond so differently; only sometimes does his message flourish even though it’s heard by many.

As Jesus is explaining that story to his closest disciples, he tells them why he uses these stories - called parables: look back up to verse 10: he says “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.’”. Jesus is using these stories not because they make things clearer, but because they actually hide things; they result in people seeing but not seeing. hearing but not understanding. That sounds confusing - and perhaps not even very ok; why would Jesus hide his message from people?

Well, stick with me - because I think what we’ve read today can help us understand what he means. People fail to grasp Jesus’ message, they fail to understand his parables, because they’re not really listening.

Let me show you that.

No-one covers a lamp v16

So in v16, Jesus gives us another picture to consider: “no one lights a lamp and hides it [literally, just covers it] in a clay jar or puts it under a bed [health and safety! a naked flame under a straw bed?!] instead they put it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light.” Jesus is using a totally ordinary household object, an old fashioned oil lamp, to tell us something.

His point is that his message, and the message of his parables, is on display, not covered. It would make no sense at all for someone to take something meant to give light to a room and to cover it up. In the same way it would make no sense at all to take Jesus - called the light of the world - and cover him up. It would make no sense to take insight into God’s kingdom and God’s ways, insight that Jesus’ parables give us, and cover that up.

Let me show you some examples where this is played out. This is John 10: Jn 10:24-25

John 10:24–25 NIV

The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me,

Is Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, that is the long-promised rescuer, a secret? Is it covered up and hidden? No - Jesus told them straight up. Jesus’ works showed them it was the case straight up. They just didn’t believe it. We saw the same thing in Luke’s gospel if you were with us back when Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth: he was completely clear about who he is: the long-promised deliverer described by the prophet Isaiah. They just didn’t believe him.

The same is true of Jesus’ parables: they’re not incomprehensible to people; Jesus tells a parable called the parable of the tenants, all about how God is not pleased with the religious leaders of the day because they are rejecting him - and the Pharisees are enraged, we’re told in Matthew 21:45, because “they knew he was talking about them.”

It’s not that Jesus’ identity, Jesus’ message is hidden. That would make no sense. It’s like a lamp on plain display - but notice there in v16 that the lamp gives light not to everyone, but to “those who come in”

So how come people don’t see the light?

it’s all in how you listen v18:

Jesus challenges us to be careful how we listen - and then he lays out two paths, two ways in which things can go for us as a result, in verse 18:

Those who have get given more, and those who don’t, end up with nothing. Now this isn’t Jesus lecturing on the evils of capitalism - you know, the rich, the haves, they just get more and more, where the have-nots, well, they’ll end up with nothing.

Jesus is talking about understanding here - that’s what the light is picturing that he started with, that’s what the hidden and revealed are about in v17. Jesus is talking about insight - or if we wanted to use a theological word, we might say revelation. Those who get things, who truly listen and understand, will grasp more and more as time goes on. Those who don’t get things will find what they thought they knew turns out to be nothing in the end.

And Jesus says it is how we listen that determines which path we’re on; how we listen determines whether we’ll really begin to grasp things, and then grow and grow in our understanding, in the revelation we have — or whether we’ll just find ourselves grasping the wind, and what we thought we had gotten our arms around just turns out to be nothing in the end. The things we think will satisfy all turn to dust in our mouth in the end..

People end up on this path to nothing, this path to nowhere, because they don’t listen well - not because the other path is hidden. “Therefore consider carefully how you listen,” says Jesus. So how should we listen?

listening = practising v21

Well, Jesus’ family visit gives him an opportunity to show what it means to truly listen.

We don’t know much at all about Jesus’ home life, what it was like; his first thirty years hardly get a mention in the Bible - but for sure you can bet Jesus’ family had heard plenty from him while he was growing up. Did they truly listen? Listen in the way he is challenging us to today?

Well, his brothers aren’t among his disciples at this stage. They’re not following him as he travels around sharing his message along with his 12 specially selected apostles - because here in v19 it tells us his brothers came to see him. They will end up being a key part of things - elsewhere in the bible, in Acts 1:14, we see Jesus’ mother and brothers in the heart of the nascent church community following Jesus’ death and resurrection. But at this stage it seems they’re really just leaving Jesus to go and do his thing, brother or not.

They’re not the picture for us of what it means to truly listen, to listen well - even though they’re bound to have heard lots of what Jesus has said, particularly as his years of ministry begin around Nazareth, their hometown. They’ve heard but they haven’t really listened.

Jesus tells us in v21 who it is that has truly listened: “those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

There are many who hear Jesus’ words but ignore them - like his brothers who, it seems, heard but didn’t do anything about it. There are also many who hear Jesus’ words but reject them - they hear, the information gets through, they get what Jesus is saying - but they straight up reject it. Remember those Pharisees who had grasped that Jesus was speaking about them - they just didn’t want to accept what he was saying.

But it’s those who hear God’s word and put it into practice who have truly listened - it’s those who hear God’s word and put it into practice that Jesus gives the amazing privilege of being called his family - brothers, mothers to the Lord himself! What a thing!

Think back to where we started today for a moment: has someone really listened just because they’ve heard the words spoken? “You’re not going out like that” definitely arrived at the teenagers’ ears. But did they listen? Truly listening means taking things on board. It means responding to them.

Truly listening, taking on board what Jesus is saying, is like coming into the room so you can see the light. Truly grasping something is responding to it: do you grasp something of what God has revealed about who he is, who we are, and what he’s done about it? Only truly if you respond to that.

And Jesus says we’ll find, as we begin to take these things on board, that we’re given more which will start to fall into place. And Jesus says as we begin to take these things on board, to hear and put into practice these truths, we’ll find the wonderful truth that we have been adopted into God’s own family.

So what?

Are you coming in?

The first question I have to ask you is whether you’re going to come in or not. Remember that first picture with the lamp - it gives light to all who come in. Are you going to be one of them?

You see, Jesus and his message is on display, not hidden: it’s like a lamp on a stand.

it’s on display in the Bible. Why not take a Bible away with you today so you can explore his message for yourself? Take one of these blue ones - our gift to you for free - or if a book this size just feels overwhelming, we have ones just with this book of Luke in them on the book stand outside; take one of them away. Read it. Ask someone here to read it with you so you can talk about what you’re reading. Why not stick with us as we work through this book of Luke in the weeks to come, following Jesus’ life, listening to his words and his message, seeing what it will cost him - and ultimately how it will end. See the light!

But Jesus’ message isn’t just on display in the Bible - it’s on display in the church community too - even in this church community. People all around you could tell you their story of stepping into the light, could tell you how Jesus’ message became clear to them and how they have responded. In fact, if you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian today, why not take a minute after our gathering to ask someone around you about their story, about the message they are living for, about how they have responded to it.

Jesus’ message is on display - like a lamp on a stand. There are lots of ways for you to encounter that today and in the weeks to come. But I guess the key question is still going to be whether you are going to come in or not.

Joining Jesus’ family, like he tells us we can here, is something open to everyone. But it requires a step of faith, not just hearing. You could listen and listen by reading the bible. You could listen and listen by being among us week after week. You could listen and listen to your friends speak about their experience of Jesus. But ultimately coming into the light isn’t just a question of hearing - it’s about putting it into practice. It’s about truly listening: listening that actually takes on board what you’re hearing, that engages with it and responds to it. Not just letting the message wash over you any more.

What does it look like to take this message on board? To respond to it? The apostle Paul, one of Jesus’ first followers, puts it this way: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9) Jesus died in our place, for the wrong things we have done which are not acceptable to God. Are you ready to take that on board, that we’re not ok with God? But that Jesus has died to restore us? And then God raised him from the dead, declaring him to be Lord - boss, master, ruler over everything. Are you ready to take that on board too? To say and mean those words: that Jesus is Lord? Because they will surely change your life if you mean them.

That’s what it is to come in to the light, to take a first step of truly listening to what Jesus is saying - by responding to it. Are you ready to do that today? Let’s talk. I’ll be here afterwards.

Are you continuing the journey?

And if you’d call yourself a Christian here today, if you’ve already taken that first step into the light, not just hearing Jesus, but truly listening to his message, starting to put it into practice, then this passage wonderfully tells us we’re added into his family.

It also tells us “whoever has” - that is, whoever has truly listened, whoever has heard and practised God’s words - “whoever has will be given more”. It tells us there that though this journey starts with a single step into the light, there’s always more that we’re going to be given. More that we’ll hear week by week of God’s words. More that we will be given the opportunity not just to hear, but to truly listen to - that is, to put into practice.

As we have - as we truly take hold of things, putting them into practice - we’re given more. The way I like to think about this is that “faith grows when you step on it”. If you feel like your Christian life has been going nowhere, if you feel like you’re stuck in a rut, like you’re making little progress, like nothing is changing, a surefire recipe for some advance is to take another step of faith; to take hold of something you’ve heard from God, from His word, and turn it from just something you’ve heard into something you’ve truly listened to - something you’ve actually put into practice, like Jesus says here.

Faith grows when you step on it. But so often we just want to hear more and more, not actually listen. So often we just enjoy the comfort of where our feet already are, ignoring the potential for where they might be if we were willing to step forward again, out onto the next words God has for us.

Because the Christian life is a journey on and on towards Jesus, on and on becoming more like him, having our lives more and more swallowed up in him and his mission. When’s the last time it was truly a journey for you rather than just a standstill? When’s the last time you knew you’d taken a decisive step forward in putting into practice what God has been saying?

Faith grows when you step on it - so choose today to continue that journey. Don’t just hear Jesus. Really listen - put it into practice.

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