Sower of the Word

In verse 19 we transition from the Lord’s teaching in parables to the action and miracles of the chapter. The Lord’s earthly mother and brothers come to him. They can’t reach him because of the crowds, but they get word to him that they’re standing outside and want to see him (v. 20).

The Lord’s response shocks us even today: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear and do the word of God” (v. 21). These words continue to astound readers who wonder if Jesus sinned against his mother by refusing to see them.

What we read in the Word of God redefines our relationships and our loyalty. The active obedience of the Christian to the Word of God actually creates in the Christian a higher loyalty than our closest earthly relationships. Our Lord is not diminishing or disrespecting parenthood. Instead, the Lord points us to the fact that there is a greater Father to whom we owe the highest loyalty. Our heavenly Father comes before our earthly mothers and brothers. The more we obey God’s Word, the more we have in common with others who obey God’s Word. We find ourselves closer to those who obey God’s Word than we are to our blood relatives who do not believe.

I may never forget the year my wife and I realized that God’s Word had done this in our lives. The girls were very young, and our parents wanted us to come home for Christmas. That meant driving to both ends of North Carolina from the middle. But we made the journey—which also meant we weren’t going to celebrate Christmas with our church family or in a way that fit our understanding of the Bible’s priorities. At one point, while we were itching to get back to our home in Raleigh, one of our mothers said, “You guys love your church friends more than you do your own family.” That rocked me a little. It wasn’t that I loved my family less. It’s that in Christ we now had a new family with whom we tried to live out God’s Word. The Word of God forges new bonds and affections that natural families point to and symbolize.

You know God’s Word is doing its work in your heart when you share a stronger bond with your brothers and sisters in the church than your blood relatives who do not believe. The Word creates family. This is wonderful because many of us don’t have family or don’t have good families. My father left the family when I was thirteen. Some of us have never met our fathers. Some of us grew up in homes where Mom and Dad were always fighting. Or perhaps you mourn the loss of a parent. But the Word of God read and obeyed holds out the promise of a new and better family. We receive brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers one hundred-fold through the Word of God. That’s what the local church is to be—the family of God united by obedience to the Word. I praise God for the way he’s been doing that in our lives already.

I can tell you that a storm on the Sea of Galilee is no joke. As verse 22 says, it’s actually a large lake, but because the lake is below sea level, the winds that come down across it can cause it to act like a sea. That means big waves and storms can come up suddenly. That’s what happened in verse 23. The Lord fell asleep in the boat, and a windstorm swept the lake.

These are professional fishermen. They know these waters, and they’ve likely been out in storms before. But this one is so violent that the boat starts to fill up with water and these grown fishermen start screaming, “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” (v. 24a).

Now see the authority of God’s word: “Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. So they ceased, and there was a calm. They were fearful and amazed, asking one another, ‘Who then is this? He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him!’” ­(24b-25). Winds and water do not have minds. Winds and water do not think. They do not have ears. Winds and water do not make decisions. Yet they obey the Lord at his word. Deaf creation may hear and obey better than smart people.

See the Lord’s authority over creation. He exercises his authority through his word. The written Word, the Bible, is meant to have the same effect in our lives as it does to the winds and the waves. More so when you consider that we are made in God’s image and made for fellowship with him. But since sin has come in the world, we find it difficult to obey God. The winds and the waves put us to shame. We have to look at unthinking things in order to know how we should think about God’s Word and his authority.

This is what we learn in the second miracle story when Jesus heals a man who was possessed by demons for years. This man was in rough shape (v. 27). Can you imagine him? This poor man has been devastated by these demons (v. 29).

When the demons encounter Jesus they shout, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” (v. 28). The demons recognize Jesus, and they recognize who has the real authority. So they beg not to be tormented. There is not the slightest hint of “good vs. evil” in this passage, if you think evil has any chance against good. The demons know the moment they see Jesus that God has just stepped on the scene. They tremble in his presence.

The demons tremble at the Son’s word (v. 29). The Lord controls their fate by his word. The demons can do nothing but submit to whatever Jesus commands. And there are many demons in this man—so many his name is “Legion” (v. 30). So it’s not even a one-on-one battle. It’s Jesus alone against a legion of demons! And they all must bow before the Lord and his command. They beg to go into pigs rather than to be sentenced to the abyss, which is the hell prepared for Satan and his demons.

The word of God controls the natural spiritual realms. The Lord rules things seen and unseen. Everything from demons and devils to waves and winds obey the word of God. By his word our Lord calms our fears, and by his word he sets the captives free.

My friend, this is why we love the Bible. The Bible is the written Word of God, and God rules his world through his Word. And this is why Satan hates the Word. This why our personal reading of the Bible and our listening to biblical sermons become so critical.

How do you respond to God’s Word? What attention do you give to it? What habits do you build around it? When you hear it preached, do you listen?

Luke 8:34-56

Jesus receives various responses as he sows the word. The responses teach us something about how we should respond. They teach us about the nature of faith or belief. I want to make four statements about faith.

No one can believe God’s word or the gospel unless God gives us ears to hear. That’s the point of verse 10, which quotes Isaiah 6:9-10. In Isaiah 6 God calls Isaiah to be a prophet and sends him to preach the word to Israel. But God tells Isaiah from the start that Israel will not believe or perceive. They will not believe because God will not give them faith. God promises to blind their eyes and stop up their ears so they will not believe.

Belief isn’t something we work up or create on our own. Faith is a gift of grace (Eph 2:8-9). Knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom is given to some. Who does the giving? God does. Jesus prays in Matthew 11:25-27,

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.

Knowing the secrets of the kingdom, or knowing God the Father and God the Son, is a gift of God’s gracious will. He makes it known to “infants.” In other words, according to Jesus, God is in control even over who believes. If you have come to know Christ, it is because God has already changed your heart with the gift of faith.

That’s implied in verse 25 when the Lord asks the disciples during the storm, “Where is your faith?” We cannot create faith, but Jesus expects us to have faith. God expects us to trust him and believe in him. We cannot believe apart from God giving us the gift of faith, yet it’s sin not to believe. Romans 14:23 says, “Everything that is not from faith is sin.”

So even our unbelief makes us guilty before God. So you may say, “Well, what should we do if we can’t believe on our own, and we are guilty for not believing?” Good question.

You should call on God to give you the gift of faith. Pray with the sinner, “Lord, help my unbelief.” Ask God to give you eyes to see and ears to hear. Ask him for an honest and good heart that patiently bears fruit in faith. What we can do is call on the name of the Lord with the promise of Romans 10:13 in mind: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13). We should appeal to God’s mercy, asking him to do even concerning faith what we cannot do for ourselves.

That really is the message of the gospel. Through Jesus Christ, God does everything we cannot do for ourselves. God provides righteousness for us through Jesus’s perfect obedience. God provides payment for our sin through Jesus’s death on the cross. God provides for us eternal life through raising Jesus from the grave three days later. Everything we need—from righteousness, to atonement, to new life—God provides through his Son; faith is no exception. By God’s grace we come to believe. So what must we do? Simply ask, “Lord, give me this gift. Show me your mercy.”

The Lord will give faith to those who are like little infants who receive his word with an honest and good heart (v. 15). Even if you don’t understand it all, receive it. At the very least trust that it’s God’s word and then commit to growing in understanding.

Whatever you do, do not reject God’s word. That’s what the people do after Jesus heals the man with the many demons. Do you remember that in verses 34-39? They see the miracle. They see the man clothed and sane after he’d been running around naked and crazed for years. They hear how it had been done (v. 36). But they do not receive Christ or his word. Instead, they “asked him to leave” (v. 37).

Many people are like the people of the Gerasenes. When they visit a church, they see a room full of former sinners and reprobates. And they see how Christ has cleaned us up, has clothed us in our right mind, and has begun to renew our lives. They hear the explanation: “God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). They will hear people tell them that new and eternal life can be theirs through Jesus Christ. And do you know what they do? They effectively ask Jesus to leave. Or they themselves leave offended or afraid. They reject eternal life and the Savior.

This story is here to show us ourselves. The lesson is, do not refuse Jesus. Believe in him, and you will be saved from God’s condemnation; he will clothe you in his righteousness and renew your mind. Look at how Jesus gives purpose to that formerly crazy man (vv. 38-39). Jesus made this man an evangelist and a preacher.

The demons begged to depart from Jesus. The man, when free of the demons, begged to go with Jesus. Don’t let your response to Jesus be like the demons. Let it be like this man who became known throughout his town for praising God and telling others how much Jesus had done for him. You begin that new life by believing that Jesus died to pay for your sins, that he rose so you might live forever in his righteousness, and he is coming again to receive all those who believe in him.

My plea to you if you’re not a Christian is that you not respond like the demons. Respond like this man. Confess your sins. Beg to go with Christ. Beg that Christ would be to you a Savior and Lord. Beg that all Christ has done to turn away God’s wrath against you and to reconcile you to God would be yours through faith.

You may be wondering if believing in Jesus this way is worth it. What will you give up, and what will you gain? The last two miracles answer that question—if you have ears to hear.

In verses 41-42 a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came to Jesus to heal his twelve-year-old daughter. I can tell you, a father of a twelve-year-old daughter will do almost anything to save his sick daughter’s life. He’ll go all John Q to save her. This man comes to Jesus.

As Jesus is going to see the daughter, a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years presses through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment. Verse 43 says she’s spent all she had on doctors but couldn’t be healed. A private medical savings account wasn’t enough. Insurance wasn’t enough. But she reasoned that just a touch of the Lord’s garment would be enough. That’s faith. Just as the father coming to Jesus was an act of faith.

She manages to press through the crowd and touch the Lord’s garment, and power went out from the Lord (v. 46). When Jesus finds out she had touched him, the Lord said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (v. 48).

He says a very similar thing when he arrives at Jairus’s house. The people say the girl is dead; don’t bother the teacher any more. They’ve given up and already begun their mourning. They crowd is more committed to the girl’s death than the father is to the girl’s life. But Jesus goes into Jairus’s house with Peter, John, James, and her parents. He closes the door with everyone inside weeping and crying. The crowd laughs at him when he says the girl is not dead (v. 53). That’s when Jesus does the miracle (vv. 54-55). In that moment Jairus’s daughter becomes a foretaste of the resurrection and the life to come.

Did you notice how Jesus spoke to the woman and to Jairus? “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (v. 48). “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved” (v. 50). From this we learn that faith in Christ makes the sin-sick sinner well. Faith in Christ raises the person dead in sin to newness of life.

Is faith worth it? Is living well and living forever worth it?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (see Rom 10:17). Salvation comes through our ears. Let us hear the word of God and believe. Christ is the sower of God’s word. May the seed of the word find fertile soil in our hearts.