Luke 9:1-10 - Pastor David Deutsch

Well, good morning, Soli. We return this morning to the gospel of Luke. So please open your Bibles there to Luke Chapter 9 this morning, and we will be in verses 1 through 10. Luke Chapter 9 and verses 1 through 10. Hear the word of God. Our name is our own name. Luke, chapter 9. And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bread, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake the dust off from your feet as a testimony against them. ' And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod, the Tetrarch, heard about all that was happening, and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen.

Herod said, 'John, I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? ' And he sought to see him. On their return, the Apostles told him all that they had done. That's the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our God in heaven, we return to the gospel of Luke, which is something that you are returning us to. Therefore, today, I pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit is saying to this church on this morning, that you would awaken us out of our slumber, that you would raise us from our laziness, and that you would send us out from this place at the end of the service today, full in every way, full of Christ, full of renewal, full of hope, full of life and on mission, and that you would have us go in a cruciform way, bearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and bearing the promise of all things new. And so I pray today that as you lead us into this, that you would lead us out from this. In Jesus name we pray, and Amen. So we are on the cusp in Luke Chapter 9 of the turning point in the gospel of Luke.

That turning point takes place in verse 51 of Chapter 9. That's when we turn a corner from where we We've been in the Galilean area, and now we're going to turn, and when we get to verse 51, verse 51 says this, When the days drew near for Jesus to go on his Exodus, which is what the Greek word is, he set his face to Jerusalem. So when we get to verse 51, the whole of the story is going to turn, and Jesus is going to set his face like Flint to go to Jerusalem because the time of his Exodus is at hand. But But before that, before Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, he sets his face toward his disciples. And as he sets his face toward his disciples, he sets his face towards the training of the twelve. Because you see, up to this point, all the preaching, all the healing, all the exorcisms, all of the Kingdom coming, all of that has been done by Jesus and Jesus alone. The twelve have not been involved in it. They have not been on mission. They have not been a part of what Jesus is doing other than bearing witness to what Jesus is doing.

But now things are going to change. Things are going to change now, and Jesus is going to bring them in and begin to train the twelve for the mission that will be before them. Now, when we come to this passage, you should feel echoes from the Book of Acts, because Luke is the author of both. It's actually a part one and a part two. It's like Dune, part one, and then you get part two at the movies. Luke has the same thing. He has the gospel of Luke, then he has the Book of Acts. It's one big book broken with an intermission in the middle so that you can use the restroom and get a soda. That's what's going on here. We are feeling the Book of Acts already here in our passage. But we have to remember that we are pre-Cross here. We are pre-Assension here, pre-resurrection, pre-Assension, pre-Pentecost here. So though you You can feel what's going on. You can feel what's coming. All of those events yet have not yet transpired, which give us the Book of Acts. And so what we have here is the trailer. What we have here is an advance on what's going to happen with the disciples as they move into their post-Pentecost future.

What they get to do now, they will do in full. After Jesus is raised from the dead, ascends and pours out the spirit on the day of Pentecost. This is the beginning, really, of the focused training of the twelve. Jesus is going to temporarily send them out. They are going there and back again. We know what we call the great commission, right? Where Jesus commissions the church. In Matthew 28, we might call this the small commission, the little commission, the baby commission. These are the baby steps of what is to come for the church in the Book of Acts. This is to prepare the disciples and the Apostles for what's coming their way. I like this little slip by Luke. I think it's a little slip on purpose to hint because he already knows what he's going to do with Luke: Acts. He already knows the story. He's a part of the story of the Book of Acts. If you read the Book of Acts, Luke is a part of it. He writes himself into the story. When he's talking about himself and the apostle Paul, he'll say, We and we and 'we' and 'we'.

And so he's writing this looking back. But notice what he slides in in verse 10. He says, On their return, the apostle. Well, they weren't apostles now in Luke. But they were apostles when he wrote, probably much later on, as he's also living the Book of Acts himself. Because we know that Judas was never a formal apostle, and that they don't receive apostelship until they are sent by the Lord Jesus in the empowering of the spirit. Luke slides this in to let us know, feel the Book of Acts here, feel the what's coming here, and he lets us in on the sly. And so what it is? What is this training of the twelve? The first thing I want you to see is that Jesus is clearly in charge here. This is Jesus initiated. The disciples don't wake up one day and say, Hey, we want to get in on this healing. We want to get in on these exorcisms. We want to get in on this preaching. Don't take that mantle to themselves. Rather, Jesus is clearly the one driving this. Look at the language, verse 9, verse 1, And he called. That's Jesus.

He called them together. He gave them power and authority. He sent them, and he said to them. This is all this mission that Jesus is going to send them out on this temporary mission of there and back again is initiated by, led by and authorized by Jesus himself. The disciples are on the receiving end of what Jesus is sending them to. But I also want you to see that this is a matching mission. Jesus not only initiates it, it actually is a match of what he himself has been doing. Up to this point, he's the only one that's been doing this. But now he's going to give them the power power of the future in the present in order to carry out this small mission that will begin their training. And so look at what verses one and two say. This is an exact extension of what Jesus has already been doing, has already been doing. It says, And he called the twelve together and he gave them power. Watch this. Power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal.

Notice Jesus gives them power. The power comes from him. It's not their power. It's not their enablement, it's not their giftedness. If you want to know what's going on in this chair right here before I get up to preach on Sunday morning, it's I'm begging for this. I'm not saying, Lord, magnify the gifts you've already given me. Lord, take the graces I already walked in here with. Take the bantle I roll in here with my title as a pastor. I'm down here in almost a fetal position saying, Please don't send me up there. If you do, make sure that you match it with the power that I don't have in myself in order to do this, you see? Because you can't do this with your own giftedness and your own power. You and I can't do any part of our Christian lives on our own, simply with our gifts and Our graces. We require the enablement of God in order for us to do anything for God at all. And so Jesus is going to send them out on mission, but he's not going to send them out apart from himself, you see. So he gave them power and authority over the demonic world.

I'm giving you power. You're going to be able to do this because it's my power. But I'm also authorizing you to step into the place that the original Adam had, that he fell from, and that I, the last Adam, now have and I'm enacting, and I am putting you in that place. And as the demons have been listening to me and submitting to me, they will listen and they will submit to you also. It's amazing. It's incredible. But not only that, not only the exorcisms, not only the power, but the curing of diseases and the healing. These testified to who they were representing. These were those testifying works that gave veracity to the message that the Apostles or these sent ones would be proclaiming. That when they proclaim the Kingdom of God, guess what happened? The Kingdom of God came on the spot. How? Because people were cured. People were healed. That's what happened. So when we pray, like we've been praying for healings in our church, and God answers our prayers, and so far, he has answered our prayers. So far, Amen? Amen. I mean, he has answered our prayers. For every time we've anointed with oil, the Lord has answered that prayer in our church.

That is the Kingdom of God, come in our midst. And I'll leave our hairs on end. That God's Kingdom is coming when we actually pray. It's actually happening at this little church right here. This is what God is doing. This is what he's authorized with these men to go out and to preach the Kingdom of God, and then to have that Kingdom enacted in the curing of diseases, in the healing of the sick, and the exorcism of the demons, which, by the way, is also symbolic. These are not only things that are true. There's demonic activity and ind dwelling, and there are diseases and there are sicknesses. But these things are also themselves symbolic of the sickness of Israel and of the sickness of the Roman Empire. These things are both true and they speak of a wider an issue that needs to be dealt with for the Kingdom of God to come. And so Jesus himself then is giving to the disciples here a matching mission. You go out and you do what I do because I'm empowering you, I'm authorizing you, and I'm sending you. And when you go, you proclaim the Kingdom of God.

You preach the good news of me, and then you offer testifying gifts to the the truthfulness and the power that this is real and the Kingdom of God is coming on Earth as it is in heaven. I want you guys to notice that the point of attack is where the demons are. The point of attack is where the darkness is. The point of attack is where the problems are. The sin and the disease and the darkness of the demonic can represent the sinfulness and the uncleanness of everything that's going on and everything that needs to be renewed by the power of God. And so they go out with this proclamation Ministry of preaching and this holistic Ministry of healing. But what I want you guys to see, and what's really important for us this morning, is that this is an all-out assault on enemy territory. This is very important for us to get this morning. Jesus does not tell his disciples, Wait for the enemy to come to you. The church in the Bible is never in the defensive position. We are always on offense. We are always moving out. We have this weird... I don't understand this, But when Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, it's not that the gates of the church will hold against the gates of hell trying to storm it.

That twists the words of Jesus around. It's the gates of hell that are trying to keep the church out, won't be able to keep the church out. Why? Because we're breaking down the gates, you see. We're just rolling in Jesus' tanks, which is the gospel. We're just rolling right over those things, you see. That's what we're involved in here. C. S. Lewis called it the great invasion, that Jesus has launched an invasion of the Earth with his kingdom. We have a tendency to forget that we are always the ones who are to take it to the devil. We are to take it to the world. We are to take it to the darkness. Why? Because we have the light, because we have the word, because we have the spirit, because we are the church, we are the people of God, and We cannot be sitting around bemoaning the fact that things are getting worse. They're getting worse because we're twiddling our thumbs outside the gates. That's why. They're getting worse because we're not being the people that we're supposed to be to be on for the Kingdom of God. We've laid down with a bad eschatology that tells us we're polishing brass on a ship that's going down.

No, we're not. We are a part of the Kingdom of God that is going to advance in history. The commission that we have been given is that we are to disciple the nations because Jesus is the inheritor of the nations. We are and always will be on the offense. Always. We don't wait for the enemy to bring it to us. You see, this was a little commission. We are a part of the great commission. We're post-Pentecost. Okay? So let me say this, and I know Christine Sholey is going to give me an amen, and I know Mr. Springer is going to say it under his breath. I say this with everything in the world, even though there might be a little few disagreements on what this meant and it means in the church. Soli Deo Gloria is a full-on Pentecostal church. There you go. Exactly. We are a church that is embedded in the post-Pentecost foundation that was laid in the Book of Acts and a part of a building that's being built on top of that. That's where we're at in redemptive history. We're in those days. And because we're in those days, we take it to the enemy.

We take it to them. And we take it to them because we have the gospel. We take it to them because we have the good news. We take it to them because we have prayer, you see. We take it to the very points where the darkness is most active. He is not a tame lion, and we cannot be a tame church. We follow a not tame lion, so let's not be a tame church. We are a a sent church, not a sidelined church. We are a commissioned church. In each Lord's day, that's what happens at the end of this service. We are commissioned to go out in the power of God's spirit, uniting us to Jesus Christ, and we are to take that which we alone have, the treasure that we alone have in jars of clay. That will tell you that this is a different warfare. This is a different warfare. Because the treasure that we offer to people is found in a clay jar. It's found in an ordinary pot. It's found in something that easily breaks, you see. Because our service to the world, Our assault on the world is actually under a cross.

It's in a cruciform manner. We go not with the weapons of the world. We go with the weapons of the gospel. We go with the weapons of prayer. We go with the weapons of being willing to pray for people, pray for their salvation, pray for their healing. We go with the proclamation of the gospel. We trust that the gospel is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, and that Jesus is going to get those for whom we are sent to. He is going to get those whom he lays his love upon. And nothing can stop the gospel from getting who Jesus wants to get. Nothing can. There is no one under the sun whose sinfulness is greater than the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to save any and every sinner. There is nothing. And if you believe there is, if you believe there's a sinner that's too great for our savior, you should leave now. But that is not the case, because Jesus is the indestructible one who broke out of death. He walked out on the third day, you And he's the one who's commissioned us with his own very spirit to be his people.

Now, guess what? This means that victory looks different for us. Our victory comes with scars. Our victory comes not with gold medals, because the victory of our savior retained the scars, and the scar, and the scars. And the scar, and the scars. Jesus said this. Look at verse 21 of chapter 9. He strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one. Listen, church, the Son of The Son of Man must suffer many things. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And he said to all, now watch this, this is our part. This is what it means for us to go. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life would lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my 'The words of him, will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of his holy angels.

You see, this is going to cost us everything to follow him. It's going to cost us everything to be on mission. It's going to cost us losing our very lives so they are saved at the end. And so our visions of glory have to change. Our visions of glory have to be cruciform like this. Our visions of glory are a ragged man hanging on a cross on Good Friday, coming out of the tomb on Resurrection Sunday. If that's not the pattern for us in understanding mission, we will forget and we will run from the mission. We will be like, This is not what I signed up for, but it's actually what we signed up for. That's where the power is. The power is in the weakness because the power of God is demonstrated through weakness. You're going to do most of your battling on your knees. I don't mean that just praying. I mean, sometimes just getting from here to there because that's how the Lord himself does it, and that's how he has promised that he's going to do it. We're going to We're sent, and we're sent to suffer. And alongside this suffering is the way the Kingdom of God comes on Earth as it is in heaven.

And we're going to see this as we look in a moment at the shadow of Herod. But let's look and see something interesting here. If we're going to do the Lord's work, we have to do the Lord's work, the Lord's way. It's a famous sermon by Francis Schafer called The Lord's Work, the Lord's Way. Look at verse three and four. And he said to him, 'Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics. ' 'And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. ' You see, Jesus is sending these twelve out on this mission that's short term, the training mission, and he wants to teach them that they are going to be dependent upon him for everything, and they're going to be dependent upon others as well. They're going to be dependent on the hospitality of others, but they're going to be dependent on the Lord going with them, even though he's staying behind. So they're going to be dependent on the Lord's presence, and dependent on the Lord's power, and dependent on the Lord's provision. He's basically, he's telling them, take nothing.

As you go, You could take one coat, but you're not taking your wallet, you're not taking your cell phone, you're not taking anything with you. You're leaving all of that behind. Take nothing for your journey. No walking staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money. And you can take a coat just in case it gets cold. We're entering into the hospitality theme that we've talked about earlier. You're going to depend on the hospitality of others. He says in verse 4, Whatever house you enter, stay there, and then from there depart. The reason why Jesus said that is because there were traveling teachers who would into a town, and they would go into one house, and then they would find out that the bigger house down the street was open to, and so they would leave that house and go to the bigger house down the street. But then they would find that the bigger house down the street from that one, and they would keep going from house to house to house because they were getting in more and more plush situations. Jesus is saying, Don't do that. When you get into a house, just stay there.

Be content. I want you guys to notice the interesting thing here. He is sending them out on mission at a time in which the persecution is low. The persecution is low, so hospitality can be trusted, and the Lord's provision through the hospitality where they go will be enough because the season is pretty even right now. You don't need to worry about provision. It'll be taken care of. These are times of okayness. But watch what Jesus does in chapter 22. Turn to chapter 22. He actually reverses. He says, Remember when I told you to take nothing? I'm not telling you that now. He actually reverses exactly what he says. So turn to chapter 22. We are, of course, on the cusp of the cross here. Okay. The plot to kill Jesus has already been enacted. It's already been done. Jesus has already instituted the Lord's Supper. He foretells Peter's denial. Then look at what he says. Isn't he glad? This is up for all your parents. You could say, when your children tell you, Yeah, but the last time I asked, you said this. And you say, Well, this time I'm saying this. I've given you a for this.

Because you can say, Well, at one time Jesus said that, and then Jesus took it all back, and he said this. Why? Because the circumstance has changed. Now we're up the ante here. Now we are in days of vengeance. Now we are in days of persecution. We are near the cross now. The whole place is losing its mind around Jesus now. Everybody's gone nuts now. So a certain protection and provision is required in days of vengeance. They're not required when days are fairly even and okay. Look at what Jesus does, verse 35 of chapter 20. He said to them, When I sent you out with no money bag or a knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? They said nothing. In other words, that provision was enough. Verse 36, he said to them, But now, I'm changing it. But now, let the one who has a money bag take it. Take your wallet this time, and likewise a knapsack, and let the one who has no sword, sell his cloak and buy one. ' Uh-oh, we're arming up. Jason, we're arming up here. All right? And then he says, For I tell you, the description must be fulfilled in me, and he was numbered with the transgressors.

And here we are in Isaiah 53, but I can't go there. 'For what is written about me has its fulfillment. ' And they said, 'Look, Lord, here are two swords. We're double fisting swords, Lord. ' All right? And he says, 'All right, that's enough. ' That's enough. You don't have to overarm. Okay, enough. All right, so don't, don't mistake that it's all about the swords. But you'll notice a change here. There's a change in tactic because there's a change in season. For those Christians who lived over in Europe during the World Wars, the way that they went about things during World War II was different than they went about them before World War II. There's a difference between being underground and not underground. So days of vengeance call for a certain wisdom on mission. Days of evenness call for a certain wisdom on mission. But you'll also notice that this is not simply a mission that yields what the disciples are bringing. Turn back to Luke Chapter 9. And I want to remind you guys of this? Because I think a lot of you, and I'm the same way, and the Psalm 73 is in our Bible for a reason.

It's like, why do all the bad people have all the money and the smiles? And all the righteous people have so little and so much suffering? We ask ourselves that question a lot. I refer you to Dr. Psalm 73 to help you with that, okay? When you're having those times. But here's the thing I think we often forget when we're on mission. The mission always takes. We just have not been instructed well, sadly. Because we think the mission only takes if it's successful according to the way that we define it. But it always takes according to Jesus. Look at what he says. He says, Go there, stay, verse 4, and then depart. But then he says this, Here's the other side of this mission. And whenever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake the dust off from your feet as a testimony against them. In other words, the mission is always bringing either blessing or judgment. But God's mission is never neutral. Don't ever think you're like, Man, but I share the gospel with that person, or I was serving over here, I was helping this person over there, I was trying to pray for healing over here.

Never think that it lands neutrally. Sometimes it lands with a blessing, but sometimes it lands with a judgment, you see. Sometimes it lands with a judgment first, and that gives way to blessing later on. But it never lands and does nothing. And so Jesus is telling the disciples, Look, when you leave, if they don't welcome you, you shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. In other words, judgment instead of blessing, you see. This actually happens, right? This actually happens in the Book of Acts, okay? Luke might have seen this. Acts 13, listen to verses 49 to 52. Says, And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing, and the leading men of the city stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and they drove them out of their district. So So their gospel, the word of the Lord is spreading. It's blessing. We're on mission. There's blessing going on. Then we meet with what? Opposition. The Jews incited the devout women to oppose and to begin to persecute participating in persecuting Paul and Barnabas. And they drove them out of their district.

Here's what Paul and Barnabas did, verse 51. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and they went on down the road to Iconium, and they started preaching again, you see. They left judgment in their wake, and they had left blessing in their wake, but they didn't leave nothing in their wake. And when we are faithful, we don't leave nothing in our wake either. When we are on mission as a church, when we are faithful with the gospel and faithful with our praying and faithful with the opportunities God gives to us as a church to be on mission, it never simply lands. It always lands in blessing, or it always lands in judgment, or it always lands in judgment leading to blessing, you see. So we can be confident that when we're on mission, because of where we're at in the story and because of who we're representing, there is always something taking place. Verse 6, go back to Luke 9. This is a mini success. This little short term mission was a mini success, according to verse 6. And they departed and went through the villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

And then verse 10 says, On their return, the apostle told them all they had done. This whole thing is a success. Okay. The gospel was preached. People were saved. Demons were excised. Healings happened. They come back and they're all excited about it. But guess what? While all this is taking place, the eye of Mordor was watching. The eye of Mordor was watching. Because you see, church, this is something you need to be aware of. The Kingdom of God will always perplex, confuse, and begin to scare the political powers that be. Because it's a kingdom like they've never seen before. They can't grab it, they can't contain it, they can't control it, they can't stamp it out. We've been here since Adam, and we're still here. You see, we're the ones not going away. You see? So this catches Herod's ear. Verse 7. Now, Herod the Tetrarch. So this is the son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the one who tried to destroy Jesus when he was an infant. Now this is his son, Herod the Tetrarch. And verse 7 says, Herod the Tetrarch heard about all that was happening. You see, when Jesus He sent the disciples out on mission, the mission spread from one man to twelve.

So it's gaining traction, and people are talking about it. He heard all that was happening, and he was perplexed. You see, this is where Herod starts. The state starts perplexed. What's going on here? Because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, and he knew that couldn't happen because he had killed John. So we know where he stands, right? He's hearing about something, and we already know where he stands because he's a murderer of John already. Or some that Elijah had appeared or one of the prophets of old. Herod said, John, I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? ' And he sought to see him. Well, the last time John went and saw Herod, he didn't come back. Okay, so we know what Herod's capable of. Now he's curious about this particular situation, but that's all it is. It's a curiosity. Mordor is curious about what's happening in Middle-earth. He's curious about what's going on down there. But things can change from curious, and they do. Look forward with me to chapter 13, and I know I got to bring this to... Oh, my goodness.

Lord have mercy. I'm going to get railed in an elder meeting five years from now. I'm not going to the next five years. But I got to do this. I don't really care at this point in time. I'm already in knee deep. Knee deep in the water somewhere, so I'm going to go on. Here we go. Chapter 13, I want you to notice something. Between chapter 9 and chapter 13, something has significantly changed from Curious. Look at verse 31 of chapter 13. Now, at that very hour, some pharisees came and said to Jesus, 'Get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. ' That's a little bit of a change. From to kill is a little bit of a change. Now, you got to give Jesus some cred because he pops back. I don't know if we're allowed to do this or not. He's the King of the Kings and Lord of Lords, so he can do whatever he wants to do, but he calls him out. Look at what Jesus says. And he said to him, Go tell that fox. You go tell that guy that wants to kill me. Now watch this, church.

Jesus is basically saying, Look, I run the show. You have no shot at me until I give myself up to you. ' Look at what he says. Go tell that fox. Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, on the third day, I finish my course. ' In other words, I'm not subjected to your time frame. You're subjected to my time frame. That's what's happening with the sermon today. You're subjected to my time frame. Verse 33, Nevertheless, I must go on my own. Can you... This is just a poke in the bear. Jesus is poking the bear. He says, Nevertheless, I must go my way today and tomorrow and the day following. I'm just going to roll on. It doesn't matter what you're trying to do, Herod, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. And then he cries over Jerusalem. Jesus's response is like, You want some? All right, fox. Guess what? You can't get me. You can't get to me. Until the time has come, you can't to get to me. But notice the shift. The shift from curious to he wants to kill you. Because the stakes go higher for those in power when the Kingdom of God begins to threaten them.

But the Kingdom of God begins to threaten them, listen, not by directly threatening them, but simply by being the people of God. Who preach, pray, pray for healing, evangelize, raise our children in the nurture and at the mission of Lord, worship only Jesus. As we are a people on mission, That mission eventually becomes an irritant to the powers that be, and then it becomes a threat to the powers that be. Listen, church, we're in between that moment right now in our country. And the question is this, are we willing, with our children, are we willing to lose our lives so that they might be found in Jesus with this thing. You see, one of the reasons that we have the table every week is because we can't be on mission apart from being fed. Our children, as we're raising them, cannot be prepared for this unless they're being fed. So every week, the Lord feeds us, and then he sends us, and we are a part of what's happening here. And I pray that we will remain faithful in the days that are upon us for the honor and glory of the name of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Our God in heaven, take your word and seal it unto us this day. Enliven us, awakeen us, strengthen us, and send us out on mission to be your people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen..

Luke 8:40-56 - Pastor David Deutsch

Good morning. Soli church. Open your bibles to the gospel of Luke and to the 8th chapter, Luke, chapter eight.

And I will read from verses verse 40 through the end the chapter. Hear the word of God. Now. When Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Gyrus, who was a ruler of the synagogue.

And falling at Jesus feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. And she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.

And immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, who was it that touched me when all denied it? Peter said, master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone touch me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed.

And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. And while he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, do not fear, only believe, and she will be well.

And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, child, arise.

And her spirit returned. And she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given to her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. That's the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. Let's pray together.

Our God in heaven. This morning, as we come to Jesus, this is where we belong. We would see Jesus. We would have Jesus. We would come to Jesus like Jairus, and seek out Jesus like this woman.

Just a touch, just a visit, just Jesus, Lord, is enough for us this morning. And so I pray that all of us in this room would look and find and seek and be satisfied with Jesus this morning. And it is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. We are a fearful bunch.

Doesn't take much to get our fears going. We are an anxious bunch, living life with more than anybody has in the history of the world. Saved the pharaohs. We are the most anxious people in the history of the world as well. We are an anxious, fearful people.

And we do face things in our lives regularly, things of desperation, things that are beyond us, moments we cannot answer, things we cannot fix. We find ourselves regularly in desperate situations. And someday we will face the final desperate situation, and that is death. And we do everything we can to sanitize ourselves from death. Billions of dollars are spent on increasing our lives by a day or a year or years, if that could actually happen, if that was actually a reality.

We live for the fountain of youth regularly, and we push death off out of our homes into places where we do not have to see it. And so death is over there so much of the time in our lives, and we try to keep it as much of a distance as we can. And when I understand why, I mean, the Bible is very clear that there's a sinister character to death, and the devil loves death. He is the one who, the Bible says this about Hebrews, chapter two. The Bible says Jesus took on our flesh so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.

That is the devil, that trickster. That's his trump card. His trump card is, you're all going to die. And what happens? Because death is a power, because death is a force, because death is the devil's trump card.

According to the writer of Hebrews, what happens? We, through fear of death, live enslaved to the coming death. We're scared to death of that moment, that moment of desperation that is absolutely beyond all of us. And so not only do we have to face circumstances in our lives that are beyond us, we're all going to face that circumstance in our lives that is beyond us as well. We come with this to Jesus, and we see that the people that we meet in the story today, they find themselves in these predicaments.

We find a woman who finds herself in a desperate situation that is beyond her and beyond the people around her. Look at verse 43, and you have to read this with a little bit of a wry smile on your face, right? Because this is, after all, written by a doctor who had traveled around with the apostle Paul and was the apostle Paul's personal doctor. And so when Luke is writing this, there must be a little bit of a wry smile on his face when this is happening. Verse 43.

There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years. And so this is a woman who's had an ongoing desperate situation. And look at it. Though she had spent all her living on physicians, there's nothing left in the bank account. She's got no money.

She's still in her situation. That's desperate. As we'll see in a little bit, it's beyond her. For twelve years, no one's been able to do anything about it. All the technology has been applied to the situation.

The doctors have brought everything to bear that they can, and yet she's still in the exact same situation that she's in. She's in a desperate situation beyond her ability and beyond the ability of everyone around her to answer it. And then there's the girl. Look at verse 49, the second desperate situation. And while he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead.

Do not trouble the teacher anymore. Your only daughter is dead. Don't trouble the teacher anymore. So for some reason these people believe that maybe Jesus had had the power to heal this girl if she was sick, but he doesn't have the power to raise her from the dead. Go ahead and leave the teacher alone.

The final word is spoken over your daughter. It's now time to mourn. You see, we come to this situation here, and we're facing two desperate situations, two desperate situations in which the answer to these are out of the hands of those who are experiencing these particular situations. I have to be honest with you. There's something here about Jesus that we have to highlight before we move into the passage.

And that is, this struck me as I've been meditating on this passage over the last couple of weeks, that when it comes to this great enemy of humanity, death, when we see Jesus coming to deal with death, he's just never in a hurry. Like, we are an anxious bunch. We're an efficient bunch. We're the rush bunch, right? Our lives are lived at mock speed.

Your friend whom you love, Lazarus, is dying. Yeah. We'll stay on vacation a few more days before we go. No rush. Take some leisure.

I'll get there when I get there. Same thing here. Jesus is on his way to the house, gets interrupted by this woman, and he doesn't push her aside to get to the house. He allows her whole narrative to unfold as an interruption on the way to the house, so much so that the girl moves from sickness to death, and Jesus is just simply leisurely about it. He has a non anxious presence about him as he moves through these stories.

Well, why is that? Why is it that Jesus can take his time and be leisurely about these things? Because, you see, in Jesus we meet the one who always moves on the situation at the time that he chooses. And oftentimes it is the most desperate situation, so that he himself can show that what is beyond us is in no way beyond him. And so we see here not only that, but we also see finally two people who are bearing in their lives the fourth kind of soil we're finally meeting those who here are looking to Jesus, and they are trusting in him.

And they're at polar Opposites of the social society, one an outcast, the other a ruler. But together they form this man and this woman. They form for us what faith looks like. It goes to Jesus, and it trusts that he can, if he will, answer the most desperate of moments, you see? And so we begin in verse 40.

Now, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. They're waiting for him because the last time Jesus was around, he had raised another child from the dead. He had raised the widow's son from the dead, and then he got in the boat and left. Since then, he's still the storm and showed his authority over the creation. And last week, as we saw, he exercised his authority over the demons.

And now we're going to see him exercise his authority over sickness and death. There's nothing that does not come under the authority of Jesus. But Jesus right now has this reputation because of what it is he's doing. And so when he comes back across the lake, now, everybody, there's this crowd, and they're all following him. And in the midst of this crowd, they're waiting for him.

There is a man named Gyrus who is a ruler of the synagogue. And so this is a man who runs the synagogue. He leads the synagogue. He leads the liturgy at the synagogue. He takes care of everything in the jewish synagogue.

He runs that church there. And so he's known in the community. He has a standing in the community. He has respect in the community. He has people that honor him in the community.

But I want you to notice that when he comes to Jesus, there's none of that. There's no playing the card with this man. There's no manipulation. There's no pulling out his business card. There's no inner ring clout that he brings to Jesus.

There's no bargaining. There's no drawing attention to his standing at all. When Gyrus comes to Jesus, he is just like everyone else, he stands in need of what only Jesus can bring, you see? And so he does not come and pull out his card and say, I'm the synagogue leader. I need you to do something for me.

Rather, what we find here is desperation meets humility. Desperation meets humility. Look at what it is that Gyrus does. And there came a man named Gyrus who was ruler of the synagogue and falling at Jesus'feet. This man humbles himself before Jesus.

He gets in the begging position, not in the inner ring position, but in the pleading position. He knows that when it comes to the situation with his daughter, it's beyond him. But here is one who he has heard is already healing the sick and raising the dead. And this is my only hope. This is our only hope.

And so he falls at the feet of Jesus, and he implores him to come to his house. And the implore there in the Greek is repetitive imploring. He didn't drop to his knees and say, will you please come? He dropped to his knees, and begging Jesus, he implored and he begged and he implored over and over and over again, please come to my house. Please come to my house.

Please come to my house. And here's why. Verse 42, what his situation is, what his desperation is, that leads him to the feet of Jesus. Verse 42 says, for he had an only daughter. Now in the Greek, again, the translation here should be different.

The Greek here is monogeneous. It's the word for only begotten. The same word that's used of Jesus, which means this is his only child. This is not like, I got a daughter, then I got nine sons. So if she goes, I'm okay.

No, this is my only child. This is all we have. I have my daughter, and she's the only one. And she's about twelve years of age. You'll notice that she's on the precipice of her future.

If you were a jewish girl, you were on the precipice of your future, right? Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was probably 13 or 14 years old when the Holy Spirit came to visit her. So this girl is right on the edge of the future that they had prayed for and planned for their only daughter. But I want you to notice the number twelve here, because this is important.

This girl is twelve years old, and this woman has had a hemorrhage of blood for twelve years. Okay? So there's also a little bit of a backstory going on here as well, in which the writer is communicating Luke is communicating, and Jesus wants us to understand that the condition that this girl is in, the condition that this woman is in, is the condition that Israel is in at the time. They are an impure people who think they're pure, and they are a dead people who think they're alive. And the twelve s point arc out in that direction.

To tell us what happens with these two needs to happen with the whole of Israel. And that's what Jesus is doing. He is creating a new Israel around himself, and he's going to bring in this woman and this man into this story with him. And so there's a little bit of that going on here as well. And I want you guys to notice something as well.

So it says, for he, this is my only begotten daughter. She's twelve years old and she's dying, okay? So he implores Jesus, he begs Jesus, he sets the situation for Jesus, and this is my daughter's dying. This is beyond us. Can you do something?

I know you can do something, Jesus. And as he went, verse 42 says the people pressed around him. That word for pressed is only used one other time in Luke, and it's earlier in the parable of the soils for choking out the word. It's interesting. The people are pressing in on Jesus, almost to choke out the moment that seems like it's going to happen.

And it appears that that is going to happen, because we know the story. The girl dies, and it appears that the choking happened. But Jesus is greater than that. You see, we're dealing with someone who is greater than all of this situation here. But then in verse 43, something happens.

We're like, okay, we're on the move with gyrus. Jesus is coming to his house. We're all excited, and then all of a sudden, this interruption happens. How good are you with interruptions?

If you want to see the wrong side of me, it's interruptions, right? I have my imagination about how I want my days to go. Thou shalt not mess them up, right? But Jesus, I just gave her along to a book I'm reading called. It's a book on leadership called a non anxious presence.

I don't have that. So I'm reading the book, hoping some of it will rub off on me, right? But Jesus has got this non anxious presence about him because he knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. And so all of a sudden, out of nowhere, verse 43, this woman steps into the store.

What are you doing here? How did you get here? We're on our way somewhere, we got business with Jesus. I don't have time for this interruption, but here she comes. Verse 43.

And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all of her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. So you have to understand something about this woman having a hemorrhage of blood for twelve years. If you go back to Leviticus, chapter 15, verses 25 and following the law states what condition this woman would be in if she had her post period continued on with blood, okay, what condition she would be in. As long as she is hemorrhaging this kind of blood, she would be in a state of absolute uncleanness. So she would be in every way impure and unclean, so physically impure and unclean, socially impure and unclean, ritually impure and unclean, domestically impure and unclean.

She would, in a sense, during that time, she would be the living dead. Anything that she touched, she would transmit her impurity to that thing. But normally the cycle happens and you get another baptism and you're restored and you're clean and you can go to church and your husband can touch you and you can hold your kids. That's normally what happens for a normal woman. But for this woman, no, this woman has been unclean and isolated from the totality of whatever life she had.

She has been living in a state of isolation for twelve long years. She spent everything she had to get it fixed so that she can be restored to family life, restored to church life, restored to any kind of life whatsoever. Instead, she has been living outside the bounds of all community in loneliness and isolation for twelve years, and no one has been able to help her. She is cut off in every way. And twelve years, my friends, is a long time.

Just look at any twelve year old in the room and think of the totality of that child's life. That's how long this woman has been cut off from everything. But she's heard, she's heard about this one who heals the sick.

There's something about him that changes lives. And so the Bible tells us. And by the way, if you don't catch the, you got to catch the irony of this, okay? This is like an explosive, ironic moment to where we are supposed to look at this and simultaneously we're supposed to howl with laughter and be absolutely just mesmerized by the grace of God, right? So she comes up behind Jesus, like, if I can just touch him, he will heal me of this.

She trusts that. But you'll notice what ends up happening. Look at verse 44. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. So what happens?

She comes up, she touches the fringe of Jesus's garment, and when she does, boom, she's healed automatically. Twelve year flow of blood is gone. It ceases, and she's healed. But you want to know what the word is for fringe of the garment? It is the word tassel.

And you want to know what the tassel was on a hebrew man. A hebrew man had tassels on his garment. And those tassels, we are told in the book of numbers, are there to remind everybody of the law.

Are you picking this up? She touches the part of the garment of Jesus that tells her that she shouldn't be touching anybody. She's touching the part of the garment of Jesus that reminds her that she's impure. You shouldn't be here. The law is against you.

And yet that's the part of she grabs on to the law tassel. And guess what happens? Something reversed happens. The whole thing goes the other way. Right?

And instead of that reaching that Tassel, condemning her to further isolation because of who the tassel is connected to, it actually heals her and restores her immediately. It's absolutely amazing. And you got to have a little smirk on your face. Out of all the places she could have touched Jesus, it's the one thing that reminded everybody she shouldn't be touching anybody. It's incredible.

And then Jesus verse 45, says, who touched me? Of course, everybody denies it. And Peter said, master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone touched me. For I perceive that power has gone out from me.

Jesus knows that someone has come up and touched his garment in a particular way. I'm sure with the choking, other people had bumped into him. Okay. But this was different, because this was the reach of faith. This was the reach of trust.

This was the reach that all I have to do is touch this one, and I will be healed, and everything will change. But why does Jesus do this? Why doesn't Jesus just let this poor woman receive the healing, go show herself to the priests and get back involved in her life and get on with it to Jairus'house, who's probably going, can we get right? But Jesus actually stops in the middle of, on his way to Gyrus's house. He stops with this non anxious presence because of who he is.

And he's going to make sure that this woman's full story is told that her full salvation is told, that her full healing is told. Jesus will not let it be hidden. I want you to follow this with me. Someone touch me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me. Look at verse 47.

And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, falling down before him, and declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. When the woman saw that she was not hidden. See, we've already been told this. If you look back to chapter eight, I love this chapter eight and verse 17. Listen to this.

Pastor Jeremy preached on this chapter eight, verse 17. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. And here it is, this woman's shining moment. Like I'm a march madness fanatic. Like I will stop the world for March Madness, right?

And I love March madness. And one of the things I love most about March Madness is on the Monday night. Even my wife gets into this with me. But every time that Monday night game plays, the championship game, doesn't matter how good the game is or how bad the game is, when the championship NCAA basketball game is over and they do the end. I don't know if you're a fan like I am, but there's always this one moment that I can't wait for.

And it's a song that's called one shining moment. I cry like a baby every single time they play it. Because they go back through the tournament. They show all the last second shots that are there. They show all the upsets that are there.

They bring you all the way through, and they're seeing one shiny moment. It's magnificent. You got one shot, maybe, to be in this championship game, and it might be your one shining moment. Well, for this woman, this is her shining moment. Jesus is not going to allow her story to be untold because he's in a hurry, you see?

He's going to allow the fullness of her story to be told in the middle of this other story that's being told, because he's going to bring her story to light because he wants everybody to know that she is healed and that he's even doing something more for her. He's bringing her to light. She does what Gyrus does. She falls down before him, and she tells everybody what had happened and then her stories in the light, you see, Jesus brings it out for everybody to see. And then Jesus does something in verse 48.

Listen. Jesus does something in verse 48 that he never does anywhere else in the gospel, not just this gospel, Jesus does in verse 48 what he never does anywhere in any gospel at all. Verse 48 he says, and he said to her daughter, she's the only woman in all of the gospels that Jesus calls daughter, you are mine, you are my child, you are my daughter. You see there's something going on here that's more than just a woman being healed. It's a woman being brought home because home is Jesus.

It's a woman who's been without family being brought into the greater family. You see if, remember in Pastor Jeremy's text as well, there was this new family that Jesus was creating right around people who trusted Jesus and obeyed Jesus. Those are my mothers and my brothers and my sisters. And here in this woman, Jesus is saying, see, a daughter has come home. My family is being expanded and this woman is now a part of my family.

And then Jesus goes on to say, your faith has made you well. And the greek word for well, there's not well, it's the word for salvation. So not only does she get healed, she has a deeper healing that takes place. Jesus not only saves her from the hemorrhage, he saves her from her sins. And then he calls her daughter and she's made a part of the family.

And then Jesus gives to her what this woman had not known for twelve years. What you and I are going to extend to one another in just a few moments. He says to her, go in peace. You're now a daughter. You're doubly saved.

Healed and saved, you're restored. Now go in peace because your faith has made you well. You trusted me. You trusted me. You believed that I could do this.

And because you trusted me, go in peace. I've gone beyond what your faith trusted for your faith, trusted for a healing. What you got was a salvation. Your faith trusted so you could be restored to your family. But I'm going to bring you into my family.

You see, Jesus extends it and even gives it more. Can you imagine Gyrus at this time? Hey brother, can we get onto my house? Like can we get home? Right?

And so verse 49 says, while he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. It's beyond him. It's out of his hands now. It's out of your hands.

It's out of everybody's hands. Maybe there was a shot while she was sick like this woman who had the hemorrhage, but now it's done, she's dead. And you can no longer bother the teacher. But Jesus, verse 50 says, but Jesus on hearing this answered him, and here we go. Do not fear.

See, we don't have to fear death. Gyrus doesn't have to fear the death of his daughter. The daughter doesn't have to fear her death. You don't have to fear death. I don't have to fear death.

The fear and the force of death that the devil had as his trump card. He's been trumped. You want to know how he's been trumped? Because of the death of death in the death of Christ. That's why jesus looked death square in the face and he said, bring it.

He said, bring everything you've got. And he went into the darkness for 3 hours on that Friday when the sun went out, and he faced down the dragon of death, and he took it on, and he absorbed it into his person, and he took it into the grave with him. And on the third day, Jesus walked out of the grave on the first day of the week, the day of new creation, and he took the death that was ours and took the death that this girl experienced, and he faced it down and he overcame it, and he is the resurrection and he is the life. And because Jesus is raised from the dead, death no longer is something we have to fear. Amen.

Have to worry about it. It's been answered. And jesus shows this proleptically here, he rolls it back here, he shows in advance of what's coming, you see? And so he gets to the house. All you got to do is trust me.

I got this. I got death too. I got twelve years of sickness. I got death as well. I got them both.

Only believe and she will be well. And the word well there is saved. We're doing more here than just raising a girl back to a life, that she's going to die again. We're going to save her too, and give her a new future. That's going to be my future, you see?

And they were all weep. And then when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him but Peter, James and John. That's two or three witnesses to verify. And just the mother and father and all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping.

And they laughed at Jesus knowing that she was dead.

See, this is a group that people paid for. This was actually a vocation. There were professional mourners, and you would pay them money and they would come to your house during sickness and death. And they were just professional mourners. They cried over your situation for you.

And so these are the people that Jesus is dealing with here. They're just doing what they're paid to do. They don't know what's going on here. They don't know anything at all, but they're doing their job. But then we get into the room and verse 54 happens.

And again, you have to watch this.

Under the old covenant, the unclean makes the clean unclean, but never does the clean make the unclean clean. Can you remember that? Under the old covenant, the unclean makes the clean unclean. The clean never makes the unclean clean. So when this woman touches Jesus, the reverse happened.

What should have happened is Jesus should have become unclean and her blood should have remained. But the opposite happened, right? She touches Jesus, and instead, the clean makes the unclean clean. In the new covenant, guess what happens here? Jesus touches a corpse.

Guess what happens when you touch a corpse. You are unclean for seven days and you have to be baptized again. But notice what happens here goes the other way, because it's Jesus, and we're in the new covenant. And so now the clean makes the unclean clean. And so Jesus, taking her by the hand, called, saying, child, arise.

Love this. Look at verse 55 and think of Genesis two seven. And her spirit returned. They have Adam, that lump of clay. And God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became a living soul.

This tells us that the girl was dead. Her spirit and body had separated from one another. And when Jesus tells her to rise, her spirit returns to her body and she gets up at once. And he directed that something should be given to her to eat immediately. To confirm this, what Jesus has done, bringing her back from the dead immediately fed, giving her something to eat, which if you feel the gospel of Luke, you feel Jesus'resurrection.

Right? Because what did jesus do every time he showed up in a post resurrection appearance in Luke? He ate. He's always eaten, right? He's eating every single time to confirm that he's truly raised from the dead.

So this girl eats, and her parents were amazed, and Jesus charged him to tell no one what had happened. He doesn't want this to get out yet because he's not ready to make the move that he's going to make in chapter nine. You see? But church, listen to me. Jesus is the one who moves into the desperate situations in a way that is non anxious from his side, but is according to his own sovereign timing.

And he moves into those situations. And he answers those situations because he's the only one who can. He's the only one who is able to answer those desperate situations that are beyond us. And there is nothing that Jesus, if it is his purpose, cannot answer. Desperation is not stronger than Jesus, and death is not stronger than Jesus, because Jesus has met them both, and Jesus has overcome.

And just like this girl, Jesus, too, has provided something for us to eat. And that is the table before us as we come looking to him, who is the answer to every desperate situation, even the answer to our death. Amen. Our God in heaven. I pray that we would have seen Jesus today, and he would be enough that we would find in him our all and all that as we come to the table, simply more of Jesus, this table being a down payment on our own resurrection because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Allow us to see the irony of things. Allow us to see the tragic comedy of things in our own lives and lives of others. Lord, help us to understand, as your people, that nothing can be ultimately tragic because Jesus has been raised from the dead. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

Luke 8:26-39 - Pastor Jon Meenk

Well, good morning. Would you remain standing? We're going to continue our study through the gospel of Luke. And we are in Luke eight, starting in verse 26. If you can turn there for me, and I'll read through 39.

Then they sailed to the country of the garrisones, which is opposite gal. When jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house, but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have you to do with me? Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg you, do not torment me.

For he had commanded the unclean spirits to come out of the man for many a time. It had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles. But he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, what is your name?

And he said, legion. For many demons had entered him, and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon possessed man had been healed.

Then all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisones asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him. But jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for gathering us today. Lord Jesus, your bride, that you gather today, that we would be encouraged as we read your word this morning. And as we study your word this morning.

And as we sing songs that declare truth this morning. And as we come to the table this morning, Lord, I ask today that we would find rest and that we would be reminded of the great news that we can't save ourselves. And Lord Jesus, our eyes would be turned to you, Lord. Help me in my speaking. Help all of us in our hearing.

We pray for your glory. In Jesus'name. Amen. You guys can have a seat standing for a little while.

All right, settle in. It's nice, cozy weather. We're in church together. Let's have some fun. This is a crazy passage.

A few caveats before we jump into this. If you guys remember my sermon on why we sing. I told you how sensitive my kids are to like spooky things. And so maybe this caveat, first one is just for my kids, but I feel compelled to say it. Young ones that are in here this morning, as you just heard me read and as you hear me preach through this passage this morning, we're talking about a man who's crazy and who has demons, many, many demons in him.

And I just know as a kid, that would kind of freak me out. So, little ones, don't be freaked out, because if you checked out right after you heard demons, or like my son does, where he closes his ears, you miss the rest of the story, that Jesus conquers this. It's not a match at all. These are not a battle of two equals in any sense of the word, okay? Jesus wins, and that's who loves you, okay?

So don't be scared. That's my first caveat. My second one is for people that are like my wife, who have an unhealthy love of animals, and there's nothing I have for you this morning. These pigs die.

They die a gruesome, awful death. So if that hurts your heart, you got to buckle up.

As we've been working through the gospel of Luke, we've been seeing Jesus move in power, move in authority. And then just last week, we heard Pastor John preach on. They're on the sea of Galilee, and the storm comes, and they're afraid, right? And then we're left with this hanging question at the very end of the passage that we ended with last week, where the disciples say, who then is this? That he commands even winds and water, and they obey him.

So there's this big question laying out there, right? And this can be lost on us. I think I say this probably every time I preach, but I like to dive into these things and read them slower and not just read past stuff that we've read a thousand times, right? We know who Jesus is. But still, at this time, these guys are asking, who is this?

Who is this guy? Right? And it's this big hanging question. What's so cool about this passage is we're going to hear this question answered today and it's going to come from the least expected person in the least expected place. It's just so beautiful.

The poetry of scripture. And speaking of the poetry of scripture, my wife and I really like movies. We like documentaries, but we really like movies that are, it either begins or ends with based on a true story. So it just makes it that much cooler that like, oh, this really happened. But those are always, always embellished, right?

To make them more entertaining, to make them more to follow, like a storyline. It's not like exactly how it happened. And so as we read this story today, and maybe this was happening in your mind as I was even just reading it, Dave Dawson, our filmmaker, over here, as I was reading through this, or maybe this is already happening in your mind where you just kind of lean towards, not that this isn't a historical account, but this is like a fairy tale. And I want to remind us all, and this is stating the obvious, I know, but I just want to remind us all as I read through this and we see the poetry that's in scripture and we see how it points to this and points to that and tells us so much more than even the story, remember that this is an historical account written by Luke, that this really happened, that this is true. And this is just the beauty that we get when the author of the story is also the author of Life itself that God gets to use through the power of his spirit, inspiring these words written on paper and also has written history, that he's the great author that gets to tile this together.

And it's so beautiful seeing this poetry. So enough intro. Let's get into it. Verse 26 says, then they sailed to the country of the garrisones, which is opposite Galilee. We can read right past that, but this is really important.

Jesus has had interactions at this point with gentiles. But Luke makes sure to highlight by saying opposite of Galilee. That this is Jesus'first trip into predominantly gentile territory. He's gone opposite galilee. Right.

And if you're not convinced with that piece of evidence, now watch the descriptions that come after this. First thing he encounters as he steps onto this land is a man possessed by demons, right? Unclean. And where is this man living? In tombs among the dead.

Unclean. And what are we going to find also roaming around on the hillside near them? Pigs. Unclean, unclean, unclean. Jesus is stepping into the taboo right here.

Jesus is stepping into a place where the ritualistic, righteous dare not go. Jesus stepping into darkness. And we're going to see what he does. And immediately he finds this dehumanized man, right? This man that's possessed by demons and he's naked and he's wild and he's living among the tombs.

And later we're going to find out that the townspeople, the people in the city would even try to control him by chaining him up. And he would break the chains and just go wild and run around again some more.

As I was studying for this passage, I was just reading these description of this man. And we had eaten dinner at my house and everybody had finished and everybody kind of had gotten up and was doing their things for the night. And I just was still sitting at the table having this verse in my head, knowing this, I was going to preach a sermon coming up and just thinking about it and trying to wrap my head around this guy and his existence and what it was like. This wild guy, naked, possessed by demons, running around. And I kid you not, I hear, like yelling and then coming running down the hallway is my youngest boy breaker, totally naked, screaming and running circles around the dinner table that I'm studying at.

So it's like, oh, man, he's not like that guy. He's not demon possessed. He's a good dude. Yeah, I think he finds a herd of pigs somewhere. But my son, he's no example of this guy, right?

As you think about it, and if you sit like I did and contemplate it, think of this guy's existence. Just torment, pain, shame. It's absolutely unimaginable. And I wonder how much he's present and how much he's aware of because this dialog that Jesus has with him, right? You hear the demon answering, what is your name?

Legion. And I just had this thought that this guy probably, in whatever capacity he's aware of the situation, is probably begging when they would chain him up. He's probably begging for the chains to hold. He's probably begging that they would get him under control because of just this absolute torment hell on earth that he's going through. And it's hopeless.

And he's utterly hopeless because it's nothing that he has the power in himself to conquer, and it's actually nothing. There's more than just human intervention that he needs to conquer it. And so he's truly hopeless that he can't conquer this thing and just the power of other people around him can't conquer it.

And so as we read through this next section, let me help us out in that. As you read through it, you may notice that it kind of jumps around. Luke actually doesn't, as he writes this, he doesn't record it in chronological order. And that's not to change the story, but that's a storytelling trick skill of highlighting certain parts that he wants us to see, right? So he strategically moved things around to highlight certain things and to bring to the front some other things.

So he waits to give us the backstory of the demon possessed man. And he even waits to give us the dialog between Jesus and this demon possessed man. And he brings to the very front that when Jesus steps on land, that they have this statement of answering the question of who then is this that we remember is hanging there by the disciples? And Luke puts in the very front from this least expected guy in this least expected place, this question that the disciples who have seen miracle after miracle don't get from the mouth of demons. This guy says the first line that we see in Luke's account, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God.

Everybody's scratching their heads. Everybody's wondering, who is this guy? Who is this guy? And they go opposite Galilee. He steps on land of unclean, unclean, unclean.

And the least likely guy in that whole country who is possessed by demons comes up to him and answers that question and names who he is. Isn't that awesome? So crazy. Luke then goes on to describe Jesus's interaction with this man. And Jesus displays his authority over this man by asking his name, getting him to tell his name, which is legion, which then means there's more than one demon.

There's actually a lot of demons in this man. And so Jesus tells this army of demons that he tells them to leave this man. And they ask, like, they know that Jesus has the power to cast them to the abyss right then and there. And so they beg, Jesus, let us go into these pigs. And Jesus grants them permission to enter the pigs.

And because of their hatred of God, because of their hatred of God's creation, they go into these pigs. And the pigs run down the hillside. They run into the lake, and they sink, sink, sink down to the bottom of the lake. They drown and die.

Now, Luke records the herdsmen who are obviously taking care of these pigs are nearby. So they witness this whole thing that happens right in front of them. So they run and they tell everybody in the city, they tell everybody in the country, and everybody comes to see for themselves what's happened. And what they come upon is so beautiful. Remember the torment, if we can lean into, the torment that this guy saw, if we can lean into.

And remember living among the tombs, wild, just looking for relief. They come back and they see this man, and he was a man who had demons, and now he's a man whom demons have left. He was a man naked, and now he is a man clothed. He was a wild man shouting at Jesus, and now he's a man sitting at Jesus'feet. He was a man out of control, and now he's a man in his right mind.

It says he was a man living among the tombs, living among the dead, and soon is going to be told to go back and live in your home. He was a man completely dehumanized, and now he is a man completely restored the power of Christ, interacting with this man and the authority of Christ. What he could not do on his own and what no human in his town could do for him, Christ has done for this man. And it's a complete and final and total reversal of this man's situation. And if.

I think if we stopped right there, we would just assume, I'm almost positive that everyone in here would just assume that the townspeople would be thrilled. And even if they weren't thrilled for this man, I'm sure they could not stand this man. But even selfishly, you would think they'd be thrilled, like, we're finally rid of this guy who's a maniac, running through our town, wreaking havoc, no clothes on, like, he's a headache. This guy's a handful. And, you know, there's a case to be made that the townspeople were frustrated because of the amount of money that was lost in these pigs dying.

But Luke doesn't make any mention of that here. But what he does make very clear is they asked Jesus to leave because they were seized with great fear. And we've heard, even just going through Luke, we've heard other crowds and other people be full of fear, and we got to dive into that a little bit more. This isn't the kind of fear of reverence, the fear of awe and wonder, of the fear of encountering something that's greater than I, the fear of recognizing the authority. This is just a fear, absolute terror.

This guy is something other, and I don't get it. And please leave us. Please get out of here. Even though Jesus has just relieved them of this nightmare of this man, they asked Jesus to leave. We want nothing to do with you.

And this actually reminds me of the passage that Pastor David preached not too long ago about sowing our seed indiscriminately.

I think it's fair to say that if you and I were to have the mission of going to the country of the garrisones and we were to witness to the people, and we were to put down, make a list on a piece of paper in order of who's the most likely to receive the good news of Jesus and who's the least likely. I bet this guy is at the bottom of all of our lists.

And who rejects Jesus? The entire town, the entire city. And who accepts Jesus and knows who Jesus is? The least likely guy in the least likely place. A guy whose name we don't even know.

You have friends. We have no idea what's been stirring in the hearts of people, what seeds have been planted by other believers who have gone before us, how that seed has been watered by other brothers and sisters who have had conversations we don't know. And so it's not our place to hold seed in, to keep it thinking. I can just tell by looking at that guy that he's bad soil. It's not our place.

Sow that seed indiscriminately. Where you are in your workplace, where you are in your neighborhood, where you are with sports teams, where you are with what you do and where you go in life. Take that seed and cast it out. God is in the business of turning everything on its head. God is in the business of taking the least likely person and using that person to confound the wise, to confound the powerful, to confound the influencers.

So reach out and sow that seed indiscriminately.

Luke then goes on, and he changes the order again here on purpose to highlight some stuff for us. It says that Jesus gets in the boat as the townspeople asked Jesus to leave, and he gets in the boat and he leaves. And what Luke has done here is he's cleared the scene. So he goes on and says, hey, the townspeople want Jesus to leave. Jesus gets in the boat and he leaves.

And now it's like blackout. And now let's focus on one conversation, one last conversation. So the only two characters left in our scene is Jesus and this man. And as we look at this dialog between Jesus and this man, I think we can agree that his request is a good request. His request is an honorable and noble request.

Right. And it makes a lot of sense. Jesus, I want to go with you.

I want to follow you. And Jesus tells him, no.

You know, that had to be a hard no to receive from that guy, because you think about it. He has to go back and live in that town.

It actually sounds way more fun. This guy set me free. I'm going to get on this boat with this guy and the guys that he came with, and I'm just going to put my past in my past and just get out here and start new. And Jesus is saying, no, you're going to be my beachhead here.

And you guys, imagine the embarrassment of that. Like, I really can't.

I mean, seriously, you are wild and crazy running around naked in your town. Like, I live here in Newbury park. Holy cow. Like, yeah, the news that that was, man, that's got to be so crazy hard. But you know what?

It also, we can learn from it, as we can learn from everything in scripture. So often we're told to bring our request requests before the Lord, right?

But we never know. We never know what the Lord is really, really doing. The story that he's weaving together, and especially in the moment, in the moment of life when we're just trying to figure out that moment, this guy's whole world has just changed for the better, but still, it's his whole world has just changed. And figuring out what the Lord is doing in that moment is so beyond us. And I even think sometimes, even when we put time between us in those moments, it's still even hard to see what the Lord is doing.

Maybe we get glimpse of it, like, oh, I can now see, like, now, five years removed, I can see the good that the Lord was weaving together, right? But in the moment, it's so hard to see. But this takes us back to. It's what Pastor Noyes'point was last week, is that Jesus is trustworthy, and we just have to understand that God is writing history, and then he holds us in his hand and that we can trust him. And though the road in front of us may look terrifying and humiliating and scary and everything else that you can think of, the Lord has put us on that path so we can walk in it in confidence, not because we're the best thing ever, but because he is and we can trust him.

Jesus commissions this man, go back and live in this town. Go back and live in your home and go tell everyone what God has done for you. And here. If you didn't believe the statement of the demon possessed man answering that question here, Luke bookends that answer with Jesus himself saying, tell everyone what God has done for you. Giving us further proof.

Jesus declaring that, this isn't me, this is God moving. I am the son of God. God among us. If there's any question on who was calming the wind and the waves in that boat, it has been answered by the demon possessed man and by Jesus himself, God incarnate, Jesus on earth. So as Jesus moves towards this man and steps into his darkness and steps into his life, God has moved towards this man and stepped into his darkness and stepped into his life.

And so, as I've been preaching through this, I hope you guys are making these connections all on your own. As we've been going through this, like this man, you and I have no power in and of ourselves to conquer this thing that enslaves us. We are utterly hopeless in our sin. And even outside of us, there is no amount of human coaching, no amount of human wisdom, no amount of human discipline that can ever free us from the thing that enslaved us. It is only through the power of Christ that we who are once slaves and hopeless can be restored completely.

It's only through Jesus that we who were once dead and living among the dead are now raised to life. It's only through Jesus we who were once naked, exposed, have now been clothed in righteousness. It's only through Jesus that we who are once outcasts, living in the wilderness have been adopted by the king. It's only through Jesus that we who are once restless, out of our minds, running from idol to idol to idol, looking for relief. It's only in Jesus that we find rest and we can sit at his feet like this man.

Jesus has done this all for you, Christian. A complete restoration, a complete reversal. Not by your power, not by the wisdom of anyone else, but by God stepping into your life, stepping into our world and doing what we could never do for ourselves.

I wonder if this guy, probably not right away, but I wonder if, as years went on, if this guy had a sense of humor, if he just began to own like, this is me, this is what I'm doing. I know what Jesus did for me, and I'm just going to own it. The entire town knows his story. I'm sure he's getting weird looks all the time. I'm sure that as he's walking down the street, people are crossing the street before they get to him.

I'm sure people are still angry with him and that they're hurling insults at him.

I wonder if he ever say he's in the market because I'm sure people are bringing up his past, right? People are reminding him of the crazy man who is out of his mind, people putting in front of his face his humiliation, his life possessed by demons, living among the tombs, humiliating stuff. And I just wonder if he ever, in the marketplace, buying bread one day from some lady, just goes like. And pretends that he's, like, the demon's back. It would be a killer icebreaker to start witnessing to somebody.

I hope he had a sense of humor. I hope he enjoyed it.

But in all seriousness, I think of that, and I think how we can learn from that as well. Right? We constantly, by the accuser, have our sins and our past and our chains, our enslavement, our hopelessness in our face.

You may by tomorrow morning, already be struggling with remembering and doubting the restoration that you've received. And the hope that we have is the same hope that this guy had. And I hope he thought this, that as people would hurl this in front of him when he would get down on himself and fester on his own shortcomings and fester on his own failures, that he remember those little piggies running down the hillside, going into the lake, sinking to the bottom and drowning. And he would remember that the thing that enslaved him is buried at the bottom of that sea.

And Christian, Micah 719 tells us he will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Brothers and sisters, my friends, Christ has stepped into our dark world, and he's stepped into your dark life, and he's displayed his power in who he is as the son of God. And in doing so, he has set you free. He has set the captives free.

And one day, like this man, one day we will be with Jesus face to face. But until then, like this man, Jesus commissions us and he says, go into your town and declare everything that God has done for you. And so your commission today, Christian, my commission today is to take the good news that you have received as we come to the table here shortly. The good news that you have received, that you are welcome at the table. Not because your own works this last week, not because you lived a perfect life this last week, because I know you didn't.

I didn't. But because Christ did. And he lived that perfect life for me and for you, and he died for me and for you, that he would give us his life, and he would give us not only take away our sins and our awful deeds, but he would give us his good deeds. Your sins aren't just wiped away. And now you're a blank slate.

And hopefully you fill that blank slate with good things. That's not how it works. Jesus has destroyed your sins and buried them in the ocean and taken his good works and filled your ledger with what he's done. God sees you, and he sees perfect. And he sees all the works of Christ in you.

Christian, take that good news and go to your workplaces, your sports teams, your schools and your neighborhoods and declare everything that God has done for you. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven seal this word upon our hearts. Lord, empower us to let it actually affect our lives.

Through the power of your spirit, we pray for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.

Luke 8:22-25 - Pastor Jon Noyes

Thought maybe he wanted to preach, we'd have a preach off. We could have a preacher, like. Like a dance off, but a preach off.

Let's continue reading God's word out of Luke eight. Our passage this morning picks up in verse 22. It's just three short verses through 25. So Luke 8, 22 through 25. We'll read it, pray, and then see what happens.

One day, he's talking about Jesus here. One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out, and as they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came on the lake, and they were filled with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, master, master, we're perishing.

And he woke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased and there was calm. He said to them, where's your faith? They were afraid. And they marveled, saying to one another, who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.

Lord of mercy, we come before you this morning in full knowledge and understanding of our desperate need for more of you. So it's that which we ask of you right now. Just give us more of you this morning. God, continue the work that you've started in each and every one of us. Don't allow any of us to leave this place unchanged.

So that when we lay our heads down tonight. When we lay our heads down tonight, we look just a little bit more like your son. Christ, we thank you for the life that you've given us. We thank you for our time today. Would you use me as your instrument?

And most of all, we thank you for Jesus, our Lord and savior. In Christ's name, amen. Please have a seat. It's really good to be back. I feel like I've been gone for months and months and months.

I don't normally do this, but my passage this morning is like the shortest I've ever written. So why not use some time?

I was in Santa Cruz two Sundays ago, preaching to about a hundred high school students on the exclusivity of Christ. And then this last Sunday, I was just in Laredo, Texas, which was really fun. Spoke seven times in two days, and I had a ball. But I missed you guys terribly. But I am listening to the sermons, and you've had a couple really good ones.

If you haven't, you should actually go to our podcast, I think. Is it a podcast we have? Go to the podcast and listen, because they're in YouTube and YouTube, whatever that is, and catch up. Because what my fear is this morning, as we get going, I don't want the echoes of, especially the previous two parables to go unheard on us, because they actually weigh in, not just on our message this morning, not just Jesus calming the storm, but for what's to come over the next couple of weeks as we lead into Easter as well. In the background of this aquatic journey we're going to go on this morning is the idea that the kingdom of God is even more important than family bonds.

We just heard this, and that might not mean much to you this morning. I don't know where you're at, most of you looking out, and the ones I know you come from, what I understand, fairly decent families, but there's drama. I come from a fair amount of dysfunction, which explains kind of how I am, why I am the way I am, and then Rihanna comes from even more dysfunction. So we're just two people trying to figure it out. That's why our family is sometimes a mess.

We're just trying to figure it out without much help. But for some of you, family is everything.

For some of you, you are a tight. I think of the Lasalles. I love your family, and I love the way that you guys love each other. The Deutsches. I mean, you couldn't shake the Deutsche off of you if you tried.

But I think in order to understand kind of what we've been going through the last couple of weeks, we have to understand. Actually, even the first century jewish family was central to who they are. Their identity was in their family. And Jesus here is blowing this up. He's saying that, yes, maybe the family is important, but the kingdom of God is more.

You see, friends, church, hearing and doing the words of God is even more important than your family. And does this mean we abandon our family? Of course not. But if you find yourself here today, as a Christian, it's important to understand, as we lead into this passage this morning, that God has ultimate claim on your life. He is the authority and he is absolute.

And this is something that actually, if I'm surveying my family, who are all filled with non believers, atheists, they just don't get that about me. Unless God grants them the grace that he's granted many of us here today, they'll never get that. That the family of God is more important than blood and dna.

And this is the same for Jesus's family. Even we saw it in the previous passage when he put his family, earthly family, here, on hold. His mother and James. And there's a tension in all of this, a tension between the old ways of an old world and the new world of the gospel. And in order for us to understand this morning's passage, we have to first understand that the heart of the last three or four messages from Luke's gospel is that God's doing something new, and that new thing cannot and should not be kept a secret, which is something Pastor David spoke to and Jeremy last week.

In fact, something the followers of Jesus are learning is that it's impossible to keep this news a secret. The time is coming when secrets will be published. Dark will become light, and God's kingdom will be unveiled in all its glory for all to see and all that was once hidden, once veiled from the public eye, public consumption will be seen. You see, Luke is a real person writing to a real person in a real time, right? He's writing the Theophilus, and he has purpose in this, and he's writing in a historical context.

And he has certain things, and this is one of them. In his sight, he has the cross and the resurrection. He has the fall of Jerusalem in his mind as he writes this orderly account. But as the disciples step into this particular boat on this particular day, on this particular lake, they don't have these things in mind yet, but they're about to. It's a very short journey to the cross for us.

So Jesus and his group of people, they get into a boat and notice a few things. First, Jesus trusts these guys because for the most part, they are accomplished fishermen. They are doing the ordinary at this time. In fact, Jesus, he trusts them so much that he lays down and takes a nap. So they set out, and as they sailed, Jesus, he fell asleep, is what Luke tells us.

You see, Jesus, he knows how to rest. And then, guys, honestly, when I'm going through this, what's more restful for me, at least some of you are not going to agree with this, but what's more restful than taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon on a boat? If you have a boat, feel free to invite me on a Sunday afternoon, but do not expect much other than sleep. But this is Jesus, right? Except, of course, for the windstorm that became so fierce that water is coming up into the boat.

And these seasoned fishermen, they feared for their lives, and so much so that they wake Jesus up. Master. Master, we're perishing. Jesus. Jesus, wake up.

We're going to die. We're dying. And then there's a lot here for us. There's a lot here. First, as we survey this passage, if we recall previous passages and accounts, the sea was the setting for the display of Jesus's authoritative teaching and power.

For example, remember Luke five? When the crowd is pressing in on Jesus, what's he do? He gets on a boat. It's on that boat where he calls his first disciples. He calls them to himself.

And then after finishing the calling, what happens? He instructs them to go fishing in a lake that they've been fishing on all night and didn't catch anything. Only this time, when they go fishing, Jesus, he puts on display his power over natural things by causing them to catch so much fish that they nearly capsize. But there's more. You see Luke's audience being first century jews.

Here, they would have understood the appearance of a raging sea is more than simply bad weather. It's more than a meteorological phenomena. They would have attributed it to primeval powers of chaos that God subdued. In the creation account, if you remember Genesis one, the earth was formless and void, right? And darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. But there's even more still, Luke says, and he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased. And there was a calm. And psalm 74 would have come to mind in the disciples lives right now. And the early readers, they would have recalled psalm 74, yet God is my king of old, who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth.

You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. Or how about Isaiah? Isaiah would have rushed back to them.

Isaiah 51 ten to eleven. Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed, the crossover. So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting. Zion and everlasting joy will be on their heads. See?

No wonder the disciples were afraid. No wonder they marveled. All of this stuff is in their background. No wonder they asked, who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, that they obey him.

I think they knew who he was, but they were just scared.

I think a lot of people know who God is, but they're just scared.

After all, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, right?

And here we see why. This Jesus isn't just a man from Nazareth. He's the God man who has authority and dominion over the chaotic, uncontrollable creation. Creation.

After all, he's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. I think sometimes we lose sight of what it actually is to come into the presence of God.

If I look back at my own life, just for example, when I was becoming a Christian, going from atheism to Christianity, I was scared. If I'm honest, I was scared because God is powerful. I mean, there's a reason why when people are confronted by just angels, they respond in fear. Never mind being confronted by God. I mean, this is the God who, when asked to show his face by Moses, what'd he do?

He placed Moses in the cleft of a rock, right? He placed Moses in the cleft of a rock and says, I can't show you who I am. Why? Because he's going to die if he does that. And instead, what he does is he covers Moses'face and then allows him to view his train.

And the translations say it's his shadow. So God allows Moses to just see his shadow. And then what happens to Moses? He starts to shine. His face is, like, glowing in the dark.

This isn't because he's suffering from some phosphoroluminescent material rubbed on him. He's come to encounter just the shadow of the living God. This is scary stuff. This is scary stuff.

But God's in control, and he's all powerful, and he uses these things to build us, I think, a practical outworking of the passage that we have before us. And stick with me, guys, because some of you are going to be like, I can't believe he's saying this right now, but hear me. A practical outworking of all of this that we've been talking about for the last 15 minutes or so in our own lives is trust. The fear of God drives us to trust the grace of God. The fear of God drives us to trust the mercy of God.

And we come to the end of our own resources. We discover the haunting and beautiful truth that we find everything we need in Jesus, because there's no one and nothing else that can help us. And this is scary for somebody who doesn't have God yet. This is scary from somebody who's coming from a worldview that teaches them that they are the end of themselves.

This is a scary thing. I'm not in control. Thank God.

The choice of faith, though. The choice of faith is absolute. You see, on the christian worldview either we trust him or we're left at the mercy of the storm. And I love this. I'm going to read a short poem by this hymnist, Annie Johnson Flint.

She knew this perhaps better than most. This is a woman who was orphaned by the time she was eight. Both her parents died, and then she suffered a life of illness that I can't even describe here. And during the most immense parts of her suffering, she wrote these words. He giveth more grace when the burdens go greater.

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase to added affliction. He addeth his mercy to multiplied trials, his multiplied peace. When we've exhausted our store of endurance, when the strength has failed, the other day is half done. When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our father's forgiving has only begun. Fear not that thy need shall exceed his provision.

Our God ever earns his resources to share. Lean hard on the arm, everlasting availing the father both thee and thy loader will upbear. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure, his power, no boundary known unto men. For out of his riches, out of his riches in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again.

Jesus is worthy of trust. Friends.

And listen, guys, this passage is not about Jesus calming the storms of your life. That's not what this is about. That's not what I'm saying. It is, however, about the supremacy of Jesus in all things, including the storms of your life church. Jesus is so much more in control that he sleeps while other people freak out, not because he's ignoring the troubles that we're in.

You see, in the Old Testament context, again, the sleep is a symbol of divine rule. And Luke's readers would have understood Jesus sleeping as a sign of divine sovereignty. Jesus is in control. And also, the story is not about his absence in times of stress. It's about his divine power to rescue the perishing, which is why we need to spread the good news, which is why we can't keep it under a ja jar jar.

Sorry. I'm tired. Tired. Notice here, guys, that Jesus doesn't pray to God to deliver his disciples either from the wind and the waves. If jesus doesn't pray to God, no, Jesus does what God alone can do.

He calms the sea, and he does it with a word. The psalmist says, you rule the swelling of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them talking about God. You notice the disciples call Jesus master, master. But he's more than just a leader among men.

And this event demonstrates that Jesus is Lord, Lord of all. Jesus is lord of everything. And then the Lord of all asked the disciples, where's your Jesus? It's an interesting reading here. Jesus doesn't scold the disciples for being afraid and having no faith.

After all, they went to Jesus and these veteran fishermen who have no doubtedly faced similar circumstances that they find themselves in at this moment. They woke Jesus at least with the expectation, I think with at least the expectation that maybe he could offer them some type of help, even if it's just comfort. Or maybe they're just waking him to tell him that he's going to die. I don't know, but I don't think it's that. I think that they see something in Jesus and they have some semblance of trust in Jesus so they're waking him for help.

So there's a trust there, but not maybe what Jesus wants mean. Either way, Jesus is asking them why they aren't trusting him as having divine authority over everything, Lord of all. After all, Jesus has already demonstrated this over and over and over again. When the disciples are in the presence of Jesus, they shouldn't fear. Know the psalmist says that God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear. Though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the hearts of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountain quakes at its swelling pride. You see, these folks that were with Jesus on this boat that day have had the greatest opportunity to see and hear Jesus. But they're filled with doubt and fear in times of danger. And when Jesus says, hey, let's go to the other side of the lake, what the disciples should have trusted Jesus is saying, hey, let's go to the other side of the lake, the disciples, they should have trusted that Jesus is going to get them to the other side of the lake.

No matter what. It doesn't matter what's in their way, Jesus is going to get them there. Because Jesus doesn't break his promises. You can trust who Jesus is and he's demonstrated this and he's going to demonstrate it again. They should have trusted Jesus is going to get them to that other side regardless of wind, rain.

And I have to mention this, the faith here, the faith that Jesus is talking about, because I'm an apologist, the faith here, it's not blind faith that Jesus is talking about. It's not a leap in the dark. It's a calculated trust based on evidence of the events that these disciples have witnessed with their own eyes. Remember Luke one. Luke is writing this as an orderly account.

Most excellent, Theophilus. So that you would believe with certainty the events that happened. He's basing these things on eyewitness accounts. This is stuff that happened in real space time. It happened in history, and these disciples experienced it.

So their faith and distrust of Jesus is based in actual events. The distrust of Jesus isn't a blind allegiance to something, but he's proven himself worthy, and he's done it again. And he's asking for an allegiance grounded in the demonstration of who he is. According to his teaching, fulfilled prophecy and acts like raising the dead, casting out demons, and calming storms, all of which Jesus does. In the next two weeks, we're going to see Jesus has authority and dominion over creation right here, over the demonic.

Next week, and even over death. Jesus is lord of all. And when things are out of control, when things are out of our control, they're not out of his control, which is why we do well to trust him. When the things of life come against know, Pastor David and I and all the pastors, actually, we kind of throw ideas around via text most of the time, at least, I do it mostly via text. And we're talking about this passage and just kind of comparing ideas.

And this is an important note. I think, that we both agree that the faith issue here comes out of the parable of the soils. We're seeing it played out before us. It's the issue of faith that unites this entire section of scripture, maybe this whole chapter together. And then the disciples here, the disciples are portrayed as people who have heard the word, but whose faith has not yet proven itself through testing.

And later, in two weeks, we're going to hear about some people who are in that third category, where their faith is tested and shown to be reliable. When we talk about was Gyrus and the woman right?

After seeing all of this and after Jesus confronts his disciples, they ask him this question. And this, for me, is really the crux of this passage. Who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him, actually. I mean, guys, this right here is the most important question any of us are ever going to ask.

Who's Jesus? Our students, our kids. Guys, you're going to go on a lot of journeys, and you're going to be filled with amazing adventures. Your life is. And you're going to be wrestling with a lot of different ideas.

But the most important idea that you will ever wrestle with is, who is Jesus? Because our eternity literally hangs on that you see, when we get before Jesus, when we get before the judgment throne, God's not going to ask us what's your view of baptism? He's not, he's not going to ask us is it trans substantiation, consubstantiation or something altogether different? He's not, he's not going to ask you age of the earth.

He's going to ask you who is my son?

If you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you confess with your mouth, if you believe in your heart that Jesus has been raised and confess with your mouth that he is Lord, you will be saved is what Paul says.

This is the most important question that any of us will wrestle with. And the answer to this question is going to find its first real answer in the next chapter when Jesus is with his disciples. If you remember it in chapter nine, he feeds the 5000 with just a couple of fish and a few loaves. And I love this story because the Jesus asks his guys, he's going to ask his guys who do the people say that I am? And then the disciples are going to say John the Baptist.

And others say Elijah and others, they're one of the prophets of old who's risen again. But then Jesus, he stops them and he asks his disciples, who do you say that you know? The disciples are wrestling with the question who's Jesus? And we said it three or four times. Now Jesus is Lord over all.

That means he's lord over the sea and its diabolical forces. And Jesus will require the disciples to give an answer to the question they now ask. And Jesus, he requires us to answer the same question. Who do you say Jesus is this morning? Who do you say Jesus is?

Yes, Christine, praise God. I love my charismatic friends. I love know. I love Lewis too. C.

S. Lewis. I'm sure you guys have read him at least the Narnia stuff. You should read mere christianity in it he says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. He's talking about Jesus, about Jesus.

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That's the one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He's not left that open to us.

He did not intend to. You see, Peter, he's going to eventually step up to the plate and take a swing, and he knocks it out of the pack. Who do you say that I am? Peter's going to say, you're the Christ of God. Home run, Peter.

Praise God. You know, I mean, way better than here, where they're crying out to him, not sure who he is. And then Jesus tells them, after they answer who he is in the next chapter, he's going to tell him not to tell anybody because he has to go suffer and die to be raised again. And he tells Peter eventually that he's going to deny him three times. I can't even imagine that.

You see, none of us will give the right answer to the question of who Jesus is until we realize what it means to commit so incredibly and totally to him, to trust him, to obey him. And we do so because he's the only one deserving of our trust and obedience. He's the only one who showed himself worthy. And the disciples, they had their first real test here in our passage this morning. And, I mean, they didn't do all that well.

Fortunately for us, the story is not over. The story is not over. But we, like Luke as he wrote this, we live in a time and a vantage point where we have the full picture in our sight. Two Corinthians 520 says that we should be begging, begging the world on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God as we seek to transition our focus at solely to be looking out into the communities around us. I want to encourage you guys.

This is a message that everybody needs to hear. And we come at it from a place that we have full understanding. At least we have the opportunity to full understanding because we have the scriptures before us. We have the history of Jesus, the life of Jesus, right here in Luke.

The question is, who do you say Jesus is? And when you come to the conclusion that he's lord of all, I feel like we should be moved to sharing that with the people that we love most of all. I don't come from a christian family. I don't. I don't know if you guys have non christians in your life.

I hope you do. And more than that, I hope that you're sharing this amazing news with them. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be in your grace today. I thank you for the words that you've given us this morning and the opportunity to serve you in every capacity.

Lord, help us move into the places that need you most. Even if they're our neighbors houses, the cubicle next to us, our boss's office, whatever it might be. Lord, help us be bold. For your name's sake, Lord. And as always, just help us love you more and each other better.

In Christ's name, amen.

Luke 8:16-21 - Pastor Jeremy Haynes

Please remain standing. We'll be reading from Luke, chapter eight. I'm going to start in verse nine.

And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 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. Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. And 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. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. And they believe for a while. And in time of testing, they fall away.

And as for the ones who fell on 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. As for that, in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast and honest and a good heart. And they bear fruit with patience. Now, no one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be made known and come to light. Take care, then, how you hear. For to the one who has, more will be given, and for the one who has not even what he thinks he has will be taken away. Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And when he was.

And he was told, your mother and brother are standing outside, desiring to see you. But he answered them. He said, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Take your seats.

Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for this morning, for the rain, for our city, and for this time where we get to hear from you. I pray that everything I have to say this morning would be in line with what you would have me say in accordance with your spirit, in accordance with your word, that it would be building in the hearts and minds of those who listen today. We need you, Lord. We seek you.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. The year was about 2005, and I was about five years removed from my parents home. And it was like, year after year, I was losing my way as a Christian. And as I began to kind of lose my way, I picked up this desire to lift weights.

And the Lord used those weights to challenge me to find a workout partner. And I found a workout partner, a guy named Bryce Eddie. Bryce Eddie was a guy who loved his wife, loved his daughters, loved the Lord, served in his church, worked hard every day. He was everything I wanted to be as a man. He challenged me to consider my walk with God.

He challenged me by sharing God's word. And I could hear God almost calling me through Bryce and our friendship. But it wasn't really only Bryce. But I feel like God used Bryce to cultivate in me a heart of openness to turning my heart to God again. So I joined a men's group.

And in that men's group, we had to read the Bible really every day together. And we would talk about it on Friday mornings. And there was one day where I was sitting in my car. I got to the Bible study a little bit early. And I was listening with my earphones in and reading the Bible.

And I used to love doing that. And I don't know where it was, but it was in the book of Matthew. And on this day, I heard God's word in a way I'd never heard it before. It was like I knew it was true. I knew it had something for me.

And from that moment forward, I began to cultivate. Or God began to cultivate in me a desire to hear his word. And I took it into my heart.

This is the type of experience I believe a lot of people were going through when they were hearing Jesus preach in Luke eight. We have gentiles, we have Jews. We have gentiles who are irreligious gentiles. We have Jews who grew up in the rabbinic homes and synagogues. We have all different types of people who are hearing jesus speak.

And they are realizing the truthfulness of what he's saying. The word of God is coming through Jesus and is changing lives, changing minds, changing hearts. He is speaking and people are listening. He is speaking and people are changing. He is speaking and people are responding.

All of what they are, all of what they want is being reformed through his preaching. This is all happening in Luke. And as we've been going through the book, we've seen him call people out of the world of darkness, the kingdom of man, into this kingdom of God. And he says, blessed are you who come to this kingdom. I have creating.

And woe to those of you who are serving the other kingdom. He's preaching these things in this passage we're looking at today. The heart of the issue in this passage is right in verse 18. Take a look there. It says this, take care, then how you hear.

Take care, then how you hear.

Take care, then how you hear. This is the heart of the issue. Jesus is driving very hard at how you hear. This morning we're going to have two questions that we're going to deal with in this sermon. The first one is, what does jesus mean when he says, be careful or take care how you hear?

What does this mean? Second question is, how does he hope? Or what does he expect? Or how does he hope the disciples would respond to this teaching? First is, what does he mean by this teaching?

Take care how you listen. And then how does he expect the disciples to respond to this teaching?

You'll notice in these surrounding passages that the word hear is said nine times. Nine times. How you hear. He starts off with this parable that he's explaining, and we'll notice there are four types of environments. First, you have the path where this sower is sowing seed and the sowing of the seed.

The Bible says in verse eleven that the seed the person is sowing is the word of God. Now, the word of God that's being sown falls on first this path. And this path is like any path. If seed falls on it, it'll be trampled underfoot. And that's what Jesus says when it's trampled underfoot.

This is like those who hear the word of God. They hear it, but they do not understand. The second group that the seed falls on are those in the rocky soil. And these are those who hear the word. They respond quickly, with joy.

But then the trials draw away the word of God in their life. They hear, but they don't hold on. Then there's a third group where they hear the word of God. It says, and this seed falls in the thorns. And then when the word of God is growing up, the thorns choke out the word, and they choke out the word through the pleasures of life and the riches of life and the cares of the world choke out the fruit of this vine, this word that's growing.

And this word never matures. Neither those who hear it, but the world takes it from them and never mature. Then there's another group, and it's those who hear the word, and they hold fast to it, and they take it in their heart with a sense of honesty before God. And it even says there's a patience in how they're bearing fruit with this word of God in their life. So Jesus is teaching this and what he's meaning here.

Is he's trying to show them what it looks like when you take care of how you listen. These different groups are characterized by how they hear. He also, and Pastor David talked about this last week. He's not only teaching them about how they hear, but he's also showing them the nature of the kingdom of God. He's been preaching.

And some people respond and some do not. Some respond with joy. And they go all in to hear from their heart, a good heart and patience. And they follow the word of God, and others walk away. He's teaching them this.

That's what it means. He's also showing them a process. The process. See, now he not only is talking about how they hear, but then he goes on to verse 16. He says, now it's almost looking at disciples, that no one who has heard the word of God and takes it in their heart would hide that they're like a lamp.

No one would cover a lamp, but they would put the lamp on a stand so that all people could see the word of God birthing and moving from their life. No one would cover a lamp. They would share it. They would show it. They would demonstrate it so that people could see the light as it says.

Another thing he teaches in this is that the nature of the kingdom and the nature of the world and the nature of the word of God is it. The word of God seems to cut through secrets. The word of God seems to cut through hiddenness. It says, for nothing is hidden. Verse 17.

That will not be made known, no secret will not come to light.

See, Jesus is not only teaching about the fact that the word of God is out there in the world and helping people to respond to him, but he's also calling people to this idea that the word of God is piercing to the heart of man. Everything that it touches, it uncovers. Everything it touches, it reveals before God.

And the last thing he says here, that he wants them to understand about taking care how they listen or how they hear. When he says this, he says, take care then how you hear. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. This is not a the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is not about material things.

This is about the revelation of God going into the heart of a person and them longing and wanting more and getting more. And then it's the person who thinks they have it, having it taken away.

All of what Jesus is teaching here is about how they hear. And in how they hear. He knows the stakes are high. How you hear is about your life. How you hear is about your eternity.

How you hear is about your soul. Everything goes down to how you hear. And he knows this. So when he's teaching this and saying this, he's driving to what matters most.

How do we know this? John 525 says this. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here. When the dead will hear the voice of the son of God, and those who hear will live.

Hearing is living. Hearing is faith. When jesus says, take care how you listen, he's talking about their faith. He's talking about their obedience. He's talking about their life.

He's talking about their walk with God. He's talking about knowing who God is calling them to be and walking with the God who created them. It all starts with their hearing.

The stakes are high. And this is what he means when he says, take care how you listen.

When I started hearing God's word in that way in the car that day, I wanted to obey God more, but I still fell short. I wanted to hear it that day and then be able to live his will out perfectly after that. But that wasn't the case. I think even now, as I look back on those times, I think about how many times I heard and I ignored God. How many times I heard God, and then I changed what he said to hold on to my sin.

How many times I heard God and disobeyed God. How many times I heard God, and I didn't want to hear what God had to say. I thought about all those things and all those moments, and it seemed that I spent my entire life hearing God and never responding faithfully. That's how I felt.

But then, as I look at the scriptures now, and I'm now 42, and this is a long time ago, but I look back and I realize that in my sin and my struggle, that when I came to faith in Christ and I put my trust in him, those times I wasn't hearing. In some ways, he was hearing on my behalf, and he was obeying on my behalf. When I wasn't hearing, he was hearing and obeying. Give me an amen. If you believe that Christ lived the perfect life, you could not live.

Amen. Okay. So then, therefore, Christ heard in a way you could not hear. Amen. Amen.

So, in many ways, when I wasn't hearing God and wasn't responding to God, now that I have faith in God, he's heard for me in a way I could never have heard in my past, and he's going to hear for me in my future in a way that I maybe could not hear, that he, in some ways, and always in every way, is covering my lack of hearing. He's heard for me, he's obeyed for me. So when I look back on those days when I hearing God's word, I can rejoice. And now I look forward to. Now I go, man, this is what he planned all along, that I would hear him and rejoice in the message of him.

It's obeying, yes. It's hearing, yes. And it's his glory. Yes. It's all wrapped in one, that I must hear his voice, I must respond to his voice.

All of this is happening inside of me. All this is happening in the people that Jesus is preaching to, and he wants them to take care how they hear, because the stakes are high.

I love how he puts this word in there, in the passage, if you notice. Look with me to verse 15, just to drive home this point about him hearing in your place and obeying in your place and still calling you to hear and obey. He says that there's that last soil. It says, as for that, in the good soil, they are those hearing the word hold fast in an honest and good heart. And here it is.

Bear fruit with patience.

Okay? So just stay with me. They bear fruit with patience because when they heard, they didn't have it all that day, they had to be patient. As God was working and working, and patience was coming out, faithfulness was coming out, joy was coming out, hope was coming out, steadfastness was coming out, strength was coming out, suffering. All the things were coming out over the years of God's patience just working in their lives.

And that's the vision he had for them. Even there. He was building it even there. The fact that they would hear, they would listen, they would fall down, they would get back up, they would hear, they would listen, they would fall down, they would get back up. He knew that patience was required in the hearing and the living out of the fruitfulness of God.

It's all there. This is what he meant when he said, take care how you listen. Take care how you hear. Now the second question, how did Jesus hope the disciples would respond to this teaching? I kind of pulled out a few things starting in verse 16.

I think we kind of dealt with the first one. He expected and was hoping that these disciples would take the word into their hearts with a sense of this patience and this desire to see the fruit bear in their lives. And they would have this good, honest heart before God, that they would take this on, this idea. And as he's teaching these disciples, and he even tells them that you, disciples, you've been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God or the mysteries of God, he knew that they had the ability to take it in.

So he hoped that they would take it in, into their hearts, not just obedience, but heart and obedience. And then it also says in verse 16, no one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but they put it on a stand.

He knew that he was preaching. Some were listening, some were not. He knew that when they went out, some would listen, some would not. But in every case, they were to be the light to the world. They were to let the word of God grow in their life, the fruit of God, birth in their life.

He wanted these disciples to see this as he's teaching them. I think also with these disciples, it's almost a process of discipleship built into these verses. It's like you just see it where he's wanting them to take in the word by faith, and he's wanting them to grow and desire to grow and desire to be light. And then recognizing in that, this contrast, he does this contrast, you'll see in verse 1617 and 18, it's light and dark. You don't cover the light that's dark.

You let it out. Let it be light. You have this hidden and then manifest. You have this secret that's made known. So it's almost as though these disciples are being called to recognize the nature of their hearts before a holy God, so that they could stand before God.

All of their hiddenness, all of their secrets, all of their sins that are going to be made known one day can be made known now before God.

You see, if you're on the wrong side of this, you live your whole life trying to hide your sin from God, and one day you have to face him anyway. But if you're on the good side of this with the disciples, you know that you ought to face God one day. So you make it right now, all of your secrets, all of your hiddenness, you just let it out. That's why every week, I mean, Pastor David just said this. We're trying to look away and look toward Christ.

This is what he's teaching. All the hidden things will be revealed. He wants them to know that. He wants them to have this search me, God. Know me, renew me, spirit, as he looks at his disciples.

And then he goes into this next section, I've said this already. I'm going to say it again.

He says, for more will be given, and for the one who has not even what he thinks he has will be taken away. Jesus wanted the disciples to trust the promise. The promise is that if the word of God takes root in your life, more will be given to you that you can trust that God is going to keep delivering on, teaching you and leading you and loving you and directing you, building wisdom into you. And he wanted them to know that promise. And the warning, and the warning is to those who think they have it, but do not.

And then there's a final thing. I think Jesus wanted the disciples to learn as he was teaching him in this one scene here about hearing. It's a few verses down, verse 19. Look with me, it says, then his mother and his brother came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you.

But he answered them. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

Depending on what kind of preacher you are, you can emphasize certain things here. I can emphasize the fact that he's saying do it, or I can emphasize the fact that he says, you're my brothers.

I want to emphasize the latter. I think this is actually a moment of privilege that he goes, I know my mom's out there trying to get in, but the crowd, she can't get in. I know my brother's out there with her. But you disciples, all of you who hear my word, all of you who do my word, you are my family. Can you imagine Jesus looking to you saying, if you believe me, essentially by hearing me, you are my brothers, you are my sisters, you are my family.

We get to do this together. We get to honor God together. We get to hear God together. As the disciples are hearing this, without getting too much in the experience of the moment, because we weren't there, I just want you to recognize that he's teaching, looking them in their eyes, telling them the certain soil, this good soil, has a heart for God. It's like a light on a stand.

Everything that's hidden will be revealed and so reveal your heart. And my brothers and sisters are those who hear my word, and they do it, do likewise, disciples, this would be a foundation teaching. They would take with them the rest of their apostolic ministries. This would be the foundation for them understanding discipleship, hearing and doing in community with brothers and sisters who are following Christ.

This is what he wanted for them. He wanted these disciples to strive. And we know, just like I said in my first point today, these disciples struggled. They went up and down. They fell short.

You're going to see all through Luke. All through Luke. It was up and down, and they listened, and they didn't listen. They doubted, and it was all over the place. And it's like looking in the mirror for all of us.

When we think about the disciples, there seems to be this process that God is using of the word of God. People responding in faith by hearing it, going through a process of revealing their sins before holy God, and then moving in to listening and obeying this God with the brothers and sisters he's called them to. This is the pattern that he puts before the disciples.

I don't think this message is too theoretical, but oftentimes I think about our children in our service. And today, I wanted to consider the children today. The hux and the Hendrixes and the mink kids, and I know all their names. And Rowan, the boy Rowan, not the girl Rowan. I wanted to think about the Burke boys and girls.

You're kind of older than I'm talking about, but you still count. I want to think about the little kids and the bigger kids and all the kids. And I wanted this to land home for all of us. And I want to close with this. It's a story.

It's a story that I think a lot of us know that I hope will illustrate the point of this message. Take care how you listen. Take care how you hear. It's about a guy that a lot of us know. And so I'm talking to you, children.

I'm going to ask you some questions, so get ready. It's a story about a guy who. He had a heart for God. He wrote psalms for God. He had a heart for God.

He knew God. He does know God. But he went through a season where he stopped hearing from God and the pleasures of life and the riches of life started to choke out his wisdom and the word of God in his life. And there came a time where a man who walked with God needed to come to him, to speak the word of God to him, to get him back on the right track.

This man's name is King David. Children, do you know the name King David? Yeah. Let me ask you a question, children.

Who did King David kill with a slingshot?

Goliath. Okay, so this is the guy that killed Goliath. This is after Goliath. So this is a faithful guy who loves God. Well, let me tell you what happened one day he saw a woman that he liked that wasn't his wife, and he decided to take that woman as his own.

And he decided to send that woman's husband to the front lines of a battlefield to die. He took a man's wife. He murdered a man. And he tried to do it in secrecy. He wanted really no one to find out.

And so one day, his really good friend Nathan, a prophet, comes to him to talk to him, to speak to him. And now we know David has sinned greatly. We know David has heard from God in the past, but he's at a low moment in his life. This is what Nathan tells David, a parable about his hidden sin and stealing that woman and killing that man. Here's the parable.

There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds. Children, are you listening? Very many flocks and herds. And he brought up that Ew lamb.

And he took the eulam and he grew it up and he grew it up with his children. And he used to eat with the EW lamb and morsels off his table, and he would drink with it from his cup. And he would lie with this ew lamb in his arms. And he cared for this lamb like a daughter. Now, there came a traveler to a rich man, and this rich man was unwilling to take one of his own flock and prepare it for the traveler.

So he went and he took the poor man's lamb and he prepared it, and he gave it away to the traveler. Do you guys see that? Students, children. He stole from another man. How's David going to respond to this story?

Well, this is what David says. David's anger kindled greatly against the man. And he said, nathan, nathan, as long as the Lord lives, this man who has done these things deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he has done this thing. He had no pity.

Now, Nathan, his friend, who used this parable to teach David a lesson about his secret sin and about how he stopped hearing from God. Now is his opportunity. Is he going to hear from God? What do you think, students? Is David going to hear from God now?

What do you think, Hendrix? What do you think? Is he going to listen? Okay, here we go. Here's what happens.

Nathan says to him. Nathan looks at David and says, you are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel, and I have delivered you out of the hand of Saul. Essentially, Nathan is saying, you were a faithful man called by God.

And you have stopped being faithful. And now God is here now, speaking through me to tell you to turn from your sin. This is what David says. David said, nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

I've sinned against the Lord. So, students, children, do you think God's gonna forgive David?

How about Rowan, the boy? What do you think? Yes. Okay, good. All right.

Yeah. God does forgive David. God does restore David. David heard. David fell.

David got back up, and he was used by God. I tell you this story, children, students, adults, because this is the reality of humanity, as Jesus is teaching the book of Luke. And through this chapter, he's talking to people who are going to seek to hear him, are going to seek to obey him, and they're going to go through the ups and downs, and they're still called to by faith, trust him and have him carry them along the way as they, with patience, bear fruit. That's the path. Jesus taught these things is what he desires.

And so now, this morning, we can stand here hearing the word of God, singing the word of God and remembering his grace that he gets to call us, to take it into our hearts, to remove our sin and look away from it, and then to renew us, to be a lamp so the world can see. And then to call us to a time where brothers and sisters can remember the words that Jesus said, and we can hear them when he says, this is my body broken for you. Take and eat. This is my blood shed for you. Take and drink.

The message that's always saved is a message we must always remember. We must always hear and respond. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for this day. Pray that you would use this word today to be an encouragement to us, that we would hear and trust, and we would hear and obey.

We would hear and all the things that we can do in response to you. I pray that your grace, through Christ, that leads us and builds us and strengthens us. We thank you for stories that you use throughout the Bible, that all these stories would be examples to us, not only to know the history of your people, but also stories to show us how your grace has covered the sins of others and how you call us forward and teach us and show us how we, too, can walk like your disciples walked. Now we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Luke 8:4-15 - Pastor David Deutsch

Luke chapter eight, beginning in verse four, hear the word of God. 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, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew 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 of the kingdom of God. But for others, they are imperables, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now, the parable is this.

The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. And then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they heard the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root.

They believe for a while, and in the time of testing, fall away. And as for those who 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. 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. That's the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. Let's pray together. Our God in heaven, we come to this word appropriately at the beginning of a new year, appropriate a time where we take stock and we renew vows and commitments. And here at solely church, Lord, we desire for 2024 to be a year in which we look out from ourselves, a year in which we look away and look out onto the world. And as we do that with an outward look, Lord, that we sow the word this year, that we sow the word outside the confines of worship, outside the confines of the church gathered, that this very parable, Lord, would be a parable for our church for the year.

That all of us would be given a heart to turn to those in the circumstances of our lives and to sow the seed of the word indiscriminately and sparingly and faithfully and unashamedly. So I pray that we would draw encouragement and help and guidance today from you in this passage for the very mission of the church. Give us understanding as to the mystery of the kingdom that Jesus is talking about here. May we be those who have understanding. May we be those who are faithful to the mission that you called us to.

We pray all this in Jesus name and amen. In order for us to really get the lay of the land in terms of this parable, we need to back up to Luke chapter two. And so back up in your bibles to Luke chapter two. There is a prophecy that comes from Simeon when Jesus was being presented at the temple. That really sets the stage for the next thousand or 2000 or 3000 or 4000 years of church history.

Certainly set the stage for the time of the life of Christ, certainly set the stage for the book of acts, and certainly continues to set the stage for the days in which we are living in what our expectations can be because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Simeon said this in Luke chapter two, verses 34 and 35. He said this, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. And for a sign that is opposed and a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearers may be revealed. Jesus has come into the world.

And his presence in the world and his life in the world and his preaching in the world and his kingdom in the world will mean the rising up of some and the falling down of others. But it will mean opposition. It will mean a division in humanity. And as we move our way through the gospel of Luke, we have already seen the falling and opposition of some. We have seen Herod already in his opposition to Jesus and the kingdom of God.

We have seen the hometown of Jesus, reject him as he reads the scriptures in the synagogue and says, today this is fulfilled in your hearing. And they seek to kill one of their own. And then we see it among the Pharisees already scheming and plotting behind the scenes. You see, Jesus has come and his kingdom is being preached, and it is creating opposition, and it is creating the fall of those who will not submit to and who will not follow Jesus. On the other hand, the presence of Jesus and the preaching of the kingdom is bringing about the rising of many as well.

We see the rising of the paralytic. Get up. Take your bed and go home. Your sins are forgiven you. We see the gentile centurion.

We see Levi, the tax collector. We see the unnamed, scandalous woman. We see the eleven who are going to bear mature fruits. And Judas will be one of these other soils, as we will see. And then we see the women that Pastor Jeremy preached on in the last sermon, Joanna and Mary and others who were followers of Jesus.

We are already witnessing in the ministry of Jesus, the fall of some in opposition and the rising of some to salvation. You see, this is the way the kingdom moves throughout history. Some rebel against it and oppose it, and some get in on it and become a part of it. And as we come to the parable, go back to Luke chapter eight. As we come to the parable in verse four, we need to understand that Jesus is preparing his disciples for a few things.

Number one, Jesus is preparing his discipleship that not all church growth is true growth. Just because things are always growing and exploding does not necessarily mean that the soils are good and that these things are bearing fruit in the way that we think. Look at verse four. Says when a great crowd was gathering, and people from town after town came to him, like this thing's like, moving, like this is the ministry you want to be a part of. Twice in verse four, it says, the great crowd was gathering, and people from town to town were flocking to Jesus.

And so to the disciples, it looks like we're on the cusp of something great. We're on the cusp of a move forward. But this is not all going to stick the way the disciples think it's going to stick. And so Jesus needs to give them an explanation that just because of this explosiveness, there's a fickleness here, this is not always going to be the way that it's going to be. But Jesus is also preparing them for a mission he's about to send them out on.

This parable is going to help them understand not only what's happening around him right now, the rising of some and the falling of some, the opposition of some, and the submission and getting in on the kingdom of some. But they themselves are about to be sent out, and they need to understand what they're going to face as Jesus sends them out. That they're going to face this opposition, they're going to face the persecution, they're going to face rejection. Not everyone is going to receive the word of the kingdom, but some will. And when they do, they need to understand the miracle that it is.

And so, in chapter nine and verse one, after he had given them this parable, it says, and he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God. And he sent them out recognizing that not everyone was going to listen to them, not everyone was going to hear them, not everyone was going to say yes to their preaching. Some will and some won't. To some, it'll just roll off. To others, it will create opposition.

Others will get in on it. And how are they to understand that? And how are we to understand that? And so, listen, church, even though Jesus is speaking into a specific historical situation at this time, that is especially hinging on some judgment coming in ad 70, as we're going to look at in a moment, the fact of the matter is that this plays itself out all throughout the book of acts. We remember that Luke and acts go together, right?

Part one is Luke. Part two is the book of acts. They go together. It's one movie, right? With an intermission.

Dave, you got movies on my mind these days. So it's got an intermission in the middle. And Luke is part acts, is part two of that. And what happens in the book of acts? Well, the same thing, right?

The apostles preach, they sow the word. And what happens? Some fall, some oppose, and some get in on the kingdom. The whole book of acts is an unfolding of the parable, of the soils, and so is the rest of church history, and so are the days in which we are living in today. And I think, church, I want to just hear you.

We sometimes forget this parable, and we get discouraged because we want to know, if the kingdom of God is arriving, why is it not grabbing everybody? Right? If the kingdom of God is arriving, why is it not grabbing everybody? And then even take a step back from that, you ask yourself the question, why is it grabbing who it's grabbing? Like, I wouldn't have expected that one to get in, and I wouldn't expected that one to come in.

And why is it not grabbing those I thought it should be grabbing? All of our expectations are turned around by the parable of the soils and by the way that it manifests itself in history and in our own very lives. But what I want you to understand, and what Jesus wants his disciples to understand, is that when the church is appropriately outward looking, when we receive the commission at the end of the service to go out from this place today, it is not the responsibility of the sower to close the deal. Many of you live under a false guilt, that you have a responsibility to close the deal when it comes to sowing the word, and that you're a failure if you share the gospel of the kingdom. With people, and they don't come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

You feel like, well, I'm just a failure. And if you do it a few times, you're like, well, everybody is rejecting the message, so it must be me. Well, the parable of the soils is here to tell you that it's not you, okay? You don't know the condition of the soil that you're sowing the word in. And your responsibility is not to close the deal.

Jesus will close the deal. Your responsibility is simply to indiscriminately sow the word. That's it. Indiscriminately. Not concerned about the condition of the soil.

Because guess what? You don't know the condition of the soil. God has not revealed that to you. He's not telling you this is hard ground. He's not telling you that this one's only going to grow for a little while and then bail because of trial and temptation.

That's not what he tells the disciples here. And that's not what he's telling us. He's telling us that we are simply to sow the word. But in addition to telling us that, that not all who hear are going to jump on board, not all who begin are going to remain, and not all who stay for a long while are going to stay the long haul. And I know that hurts us because we love those many times who we share the word of God with, and they reject it.

Or we get excited about the fact that someone received the word with great joy. And then a month later, we don't know where they are. Or that we share the word of God with something. We sow the word, and that person seems to get on with the kingdom. And they last like a Judas for three and a half years.

And it looks like he's one of the twelve. And then all of a sudden, in the most backstabbing of ways, we find that all along was never going to last. That hurts. It is painful. It is hard.

But Jesus tells us this parable so that we will be ready. That we will be ready for these things to actually happen when we sow the word. But we'll also be ready for the miracles. We'll also be ready for when the kingdom power takes root in someone's life, and it produces a hundredfold. And we are in awe of what Jesus is doing.

And so that's why he gives the parable of the sower. And he begins this way. Look at verses four through eight again. This is just a normal, ordinary agricultural parable. That would have been common in this culture with no apparent meaning.

So if you read this, there's no apparent meaning to what Jesus is saying or why he's saying this on the surface, okay? And so he says, here's a parable. A sower goes out to sow. He sows on four different kinds of soil. There's reaction in various ways.

One, the birds come and take away because it's just hard ground. The other, there's a limestone underneath the dust. It takes, root hits the limestone, no moisture, it dies. The next one grows along with the thorns, and the thorns eventually choke it out. Then the last one falls on good soil.

And it's amazing because it yields far beyond what any soil should yield, a hundredfold for the seeds. Okay? So Jesus tells this parable, which would have been a common, ordinary way of doing agriculture in the day in which Jesus himself lives, in the way in which they live. But Jesus doesn't attach any meaning to it. He just tells the parable, okay?

That's all he does. He doesn't say anything that it means. He just tells them the parable. And then he does this. This is what is different.

Jesus says this at the end of verse eight, after he tells a parable with no explanation, he tells a parable that they all understand the agricultural part of it. They don't understand the spiritual part of it because he hasn't said anything yet. Jesus yells. Jesus actually screams out. The greek is very clear.

He's not being quiet. Okay? So all of a sudden, at the end of this parable, with no explanation, Jesus, he called out. He cried out, he who has ears to hear, let him.

Okay? They don't know why. They don't know the significance of what jesus is saying. So if you look at verse nine, the disciples say, can you tell us what this means? If this is so important that he who has ears to hear should hear, and that, Jesus, you should raise your voice.

And I come from a home where we don't raise our voices. Not a deutsche home, of course, but some of your homes are that way, right? You're really getting loud here, Jesus, about hearing this. What is so important about this? And then jesus gives us verse ten.

And church, verse ten is extremely important for us to understand and for you to understand, because this is the theological reason for the parable, okay? Everything that Jesus says after this comes out of a proper understanding of verse ten. So look at it with me. He said to you, it has been given to know. And the ESV doesn't do the best job here.

The secrets of the kingdom. It's like we've got this secret crypt and we, no, it's mystery, okay? It's mystery to you. It has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But for others, they are imparables.

So that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Jesus himself really reiterates. Simeon, here I have come, the king has come, the kingdom is coming, and it will be for the falling and rising of many in Israel. And now pretty much Jesus says the same thing now himself. The kingdom is coming.

And some, it will be granted to them to get in on it, and others, the kingdom will mean judgment for them. But listen, it means something for all. It doesn't leave anybody out. It's either blessing and engrafting and salvation or it's judgment, okay? This is what's important.

And you'll notice the way this is phrased is that Jesus phrases this to those who are brought into the mysteries of the kingdom of God. By the way, including, it includes what this parable means. Part of the mystery is understanding this parable. Part of the mystery is being made a part of and a participant in the kingdom of God. Part of that mystery is being swept up and becoming like the paralytic and becoming like the centurion and becoming like the eleven, becoming a part of that which has already been happening.

Jesus, you'll notice, uses a divine passive, a divine passive. He does not say, you woke up one day and you made the choice to get in on the secrets of the kingdom. We don't have that ability because apart from the kingdom, we're in another kingdom. That's a kingdom of darkness. And we don't just move from darkness to light on our own.

And he uses a divine passenger because God must do something to us, to you, it has been granted. This did not come from you. Your involvement in the mysteries of the kingdom, your participation in the kingdom, your grafting into the kingdom, the salvation that comes with the kingdom, it has been granted to you. And the assumption here in the divine passive is that it's been granted to you from above. It's been granted to you from heaven.

So there are those who will come into the kingdom, who will come into the mysteries of the kingdom, who will come to participate in the kingdom. And when they do, it will be because of God's grace and kindness alone, with nothing of themselves, it will have been granted to them. But then there's another side, and the other side is the judgment part of the kingdom come into the world and Jesus says in verse ten, but for the others, they are imparables. Now, this is not the only reason for parables, but this is the reason for this parable. Okay?

So that, which is the purpose clause, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. In other words, judgment. You see, this is a quotation. Jesus is borrowing from Isaiah, chapter six. And if you remember Isaiah, chapter six is one of the most powerful chapters in all of the Bible.

In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord. Isaiah said, and when I saw the Lord, I saw the angels and the holy, holy, holy. And immediately I was confronted. Isaiah says, with my sinfulness, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, right? I am Isaiah, the preacher.

And I am Isaiah, the dirty mouth man. Right? Isn't it normally true that our gifts are also our problems? Right? The things we're good at are the things we get in trouble with.

My mouth has been used for many a good throughout my entire life. And my mouth got me put on restriction for an entire summer between my junior and senior years because I mouthed my mom. All right? So I'm just telling you, my mouth has been simultaneously used for good and evil. Its entire.

I get. I get what Isaiah is saying here, all right? And then what happens? What does the scriptures tell us? One of those angels flew over to the altar.

I want you to watch this. And with a tongue, he took a coal. Do you get that? With a tongue. He's going to put that on Isaiah's lips, but it's too hot for him to handle.

So he uses a tongue. I want you to get the power of that, right? If this was like all fake, the angel would go over and just grab it with his wing and wing it over to his mouth. But it's too hot for him to handle. But it's not too hot for Isaiah's lips.

So God, that tongue, is taken over and burns the very lips of Isaiah. And God deals with the sin of Isaiah's mouth. And then God says to Isaiah, who will go for us? Who will go and take the word to this people? And Isaiah, after seeing the vision of the Lord, after acknowledging his sin, after having his sin forgiven, are you feeling the liturgy here?

Are you feeling our liturgy here on a Sunday morning? All right, at the end he said, who will go? Who will be commissioned? Isaiah says, I will go, right? And then God says this great.

No one's going to listen to you. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to send you to preach to the people of God and no one is going to hear you with faith. They're all going to reject your mess. The word you bring, how's that for a job title?

Come work for us and be unsuccessful, right? That's what God told Isaiah. You will be totally unsuccessful in the proclamation of the word. Listen, not because the word will be unsuccessful, but because the word you've been called to bring is a word of judgment. Right?

Now, you've been called to bring a word of judgment. And so what Jesus is saying here, and this is important for us to understand, is that the understanding of the parable of the soils is that God's word never returns void. It either brings salvation or it brings judgment, but never neutrality, never nothing. And Jesus is saying that the same parable that the disciples are going to understand are the parables that the people are not going to understand, because there's a division in humanity. And when the word goes out, it either brings salvation or it brings condemnation, it brings kingdom or it brings anti kingdom, you see?

But the word never returns void. And so we have been given as a church along with the kingdom of God, along with Isaiah, along with the disciples and the apostles, we have been given a call to sow the word, to sow the word, recognizing that if that word is accepted, it is because it has been granted to that person to receive that word. But if that word is rejected, not rejecting you, don't be thin skinned about it has nothing to do with you. They are rejecting the king. And in rejecting the king, it's an act of judgment coming upon them as they reject the king.

Judgment's coming on them, you see, seeing they do not see, hearing they do not understand. So God's word will never return void when you sow it, because it's always a word of salvation and judgment simultaneously. You see, it's always going to accomplish the reason why God is sending it out. And for some it might be judgment, for others it may be salvation. But those are unfolded into God's eternal decrees, and they're not for us to worry about.

What is for us to worry about is the stewardship of the sowing of the word of God and leave, whether or not it's a word of judgment or salvation to God himself. You see? And so this is what it is that Jesus wanted his disciples to understand. And there's a little bit of a veiled issue here regarding judgment that is particularly focused here on the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. On the Jews who were rejecting Jesus.

There's a play on words here. If you look at verse five, it says, and the sower went out to sow his seed, and he sowed, and some fell along the path, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. Those exact words, trampled underfoot. In other words, here is a soil that is receiving the word of God, but it's unto judgment. Turn forward to Luke chapter 21.

And in Luke, chapter 21, this is exactly what Jesus says is going to happen to an apostate Israel. And Jerusalem, as the word of God, has come against them, and they have rejected it, just like Assyria was going to come against Israel in the days of Isaiah. So the roman empire is going to come against Israel in these days. And the judgment that they were facing was actually very imminent. Luke 21 and verse 24, Jesus is speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

He says, they will fall by the edge of the sword that's of the Romans, and be led captive among all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And so this finds an immediate fulfillment in this destruction, but obviously it finds a greater fulfillment as we move forward into historic judgments, into the lives of people that we don't often talk about, ultimately leading to the final judgment on Judgment Day. And so, turn with me and look back. We'll go through the parable a little bit and bring this to a close.

Verse eleven. Jesus tells us what the parable is. He gives his disciples the mystery of the kingdom, the mystery of the parable. He says this. Now, the parable is this.

The seed is the word of God. It's just that simple. The seed is the word of God, and we sow the word of God. And when we sow the word of God, that word is going to land on different kinds of soils, as we do. But as it lands on different kinds of soils, we need to remember that it's either bringing salvation or judgment to those soils.

And it doesn't mean that we're going to be able to tell what that is right away, either.

We love in our day to make these snap rushes to judgment. Well, that must have fallen on that soil. Listen, let me just tell you right now, there's not one of you in this room, including myself, that when it comes to this parable, is a soil expert, because you didn't think the word of God was responded to in the way that you wanted to be responded to. Then it must be dot, dot, dot.

These are not the droids you're looking for, all right? Wash yourself of that nonsense. All right? Clear that out of your mind. You don't know and I don't know.

We just know that these soils exist, and Jesus knows the soils. He's not asking us to read the soils. He's asking us to sow the word, and the soils will manifest themselves. It's just that, okay? And so, one, the soil goes out, it hits hard ground, the devil comes and plucks it away.

That's devil opposition. The devil's opposed to the kingdom. Of course he's going to get in on it. It's a spiritual battle when you sow the word, and some are going to hear it, and they're just going to slough it off. And guess what?

That's part of being a sower. Jesus is telling you, the disciples, just so they won't get discouraged, so they'll understand this is part of what it means to be his kingdom, is to sow the word. And some people, it's just going to roll away. It's going to roll off, going to be done with it. Next, there will be people who believe for a time.

Okay? Verse 13. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, they receive it with joy. There will be people who hear what you say, and they will respond, and with some type of conversion experience that's pretty explosive in nature, and we might be led to conclude automatically, that's a done deal. That's a done deal, but not necessarily.

Jesus tells us that those who, the ones on the rock, they receive it with joy, but they have no root. And listen this, they believe for a while, and then the crushing comes, the testing comes, the squeezing comes, and the reason they got in on it, it's no longer a reason to stay. That's what we see a lot of times with people who want to get in on this thing. They want to get on the relief of the christian faith. They want to get in on the benefit of the christian faith.

But when the cross comes home, when the cruciform character of being a Follower of Jesus Christ comes home, oh, you mean to follow Jesus? I have to take up my cross daily and follow him. You mean following Jesus doesn't mean my life is going to get better, my bank account's going to grow. I'm going to get more houses. Things are just going to go easier.

No, actually, following Jesus is probably going to mean that your life's going to be more complicated. More challenging, more difficult with more suffering. Well, that's not what I signed up for. I'm out. That's discouraging for us.

But Jesus says, it's a response. It hurts our hearts, but it's a response to the word. The other ones are a little bit more challenging in some way. If you look in verse 14, it says, as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way. So this is one who stretches a little bit further.

Okay. And there might be some of you in this room. That might think that verse 14 is talking about true converts. We had this discussion at our pastor's meeting the other night. That maybe this might be someone who just never grows very far.

I'm not willing to accept that. I think the three soils are referring to those who ultimately do not believe. And let's. Let me give you one reason why that is the case. Why I believe that's the case here in this particular situation is because in verse seven, it says, and some fell among the thorns.

And the thorns grew up with it and choked. It seems to be phoenix. Okay? And a fruit brought to maturity is not a fruit. That's ultimately fruit that could be brought to your table or sold for $25 at Whole Foods.

You throw it away, it can't be used. So I don't think this is genuine, but I think this is Judas. I think this makes it. Here's someone who's. For three and a half years, followed Jesus.

Nobody looked at him at year two and said, wondering about this cat. Wondering about the soil on this cat. No one did that until the very end when Jesus exposed it. But no one else along the way was like, I've always had my eye on that guy. That makes perfect sense to me that it was Judas.

I felt he was a little hinky all along. We don't get any of that. Okay? Judas is trucking right along with the disciples. But along the way, what does the Bible tell us?

Judas is being choked by the love of money. He had the purse. Judas is being choked by the pleasures of this world. They have one in their midst that manifests probably what looked like fruit, but ultimately never matured. It was the influence of being around Jesus, but it wasn't actually being a part of the kingdom of God.

And so there will be those who stick around for a long time. And they will track for a long time. But slowly the thorns of the pleasures and cares and mammon of this world begin. Just to keep it in a spot. And it never ultimately goes.

But then there's the amazing grace, the amazing grace of a soil that God himself prepares in verse 15. And as for the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, bear fruit with patience. And of course, the backstory to that is some fell into the good soil and grew and yielded 100 fold. We're dealing with a miraculous harvest here on a seed sown. This is something that only God can do.

Only God can do this. Only God can bring about 100 fold from a seed. Only God himself can create good soil. Only God himself can create an honest heart. Only God himself can create a good heart.

And only the holy spirit residing inside a person can bear fruit with patience. You see, but when you see it, it's a miracle. When you see it, it's wonderful. When you see it, God alone gets the glory. Amen.

So, let me close with this. Your pastors have been praying, and this year, we are hoping that our focus for 2024 is an outward focus. So this parable fits perfectly with what we are concerned about this year, that you and I and all of us will. Every Lord's day, when we receive the benediction, will understand that we're being commissioned. We're being commissioned to go out, and we're being commissioned to go out, and we're being commissioned to sow the word.

Wherever the Lord places us, we're being commissioned to go out and indiscriminately sow the word without concern for where it lands. Just that we sow it. That we take the good that we have here, that we receive on Sunday mornings together. We receive it. We turn around, we go, and we take it out, and we simply sow it indiscriminately.

And we let jesus close the deal. Let me give you a few directions here. Number one, don't expect the darkness to understand the light all the time. Okay? Don't expect that.

Don't expect everybody that you sow to to get it. This is what the parable of the soils is telling us. But it shouldn't hold us back. It didn't hold the disciples back from preaching the word. It didn't hold Jesus back from administering the word.

It didn't hold any of them back from sowing the whole book of acts. It didn't hold them back. Just because they knew the darkness was going to push back did not keep them from sowing. Secondly, let us recognize that the rejection of the word is judgment. The word does not return void.

It's either going to get its person or it's going to judge that person, but it's not going to return void. We never have to worry about God's word returning void when we sow it. Thirdly, we're going to face the same things that Jesus faced. We're going to face the same things as the apostles faced. And so we should be ready for that.

We should be prepared for that. It shouldn't be awkward for us to participate in the same responses that the church has always had when it has sowed the word. It is not for you to worry about the return. It is not for me to worry about the return, but it is for us to rejoice in the miracles. It is for us to welcome the miracles.

And you want to know what? You're one of them. You're one of those hundredfold miracles. You see, one of the encouragements of coming to church on the Lord's day is knowing that you're surrounded by many who are a part of that kingdom harvest, and so you should not be discouraged. Let us not be discouraged, you see, because you're surrounded by people to whom the work of God is working in.

And those who have been ordained to eternal life have believed and it has been granted to them. And so we have this great opportunity this morning and every Lord's day, and I want you to see how this works. We come to the table faced in, we don't face out. We come to the table as a church and we face into one another. And as we face into one another, we're looking together at the miracles of God's grace that say, yes, God is still saving people.

He is still blessing his word and his kingdom. And we come together and we receive that together as we pass the peace with one another. And we receive the bread and we receive the wine, and together we behold and we participate in the mystery and wonder of the kingdom of God. As we share at this table. Together we receive the gifts of God for the people of God.

And then after we've received the gifts of God for the people of God, we turn out and we take the gifts of God for the people of God that we've been given. And we go out into the places where God has put us, the circumstances that God has established for us, the world that God has put us in. And we simply, unsparingly, indiscriminately sow that word faithfully. And we let God be God, knowing his word will not return void. And when God calls someone to himself, we rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory.

Amen. Let's pray. Our God in heaven seal your word unto us today. For the glory and honor of your name we pray. Lead us out today as sowers of the seed accomplish your divine purpose.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.