Most of the time in church, the focus is on the speaker and how well they are prepared to present the message. But today we have a parable about the HEARERS and how they receive the word of God.
So listen up because it is all about YOU this morning.
Hearing is an act of responsibility, so ….”Friends, members, visitors….lend me your ears.”
An 80-year-old grandfather went to his daughter’s house for Sunday dinner. When the meal was over, he announced that he was going to take a walk through the neighborhood. "I’ll be back in twenty minutes," he said. But two hours had passed before he finally returned. "Sorry I’m late," he said. "But I stopped to talk to an old friend and he just wouldn’t stop listening."
Today I’ll be finished in a few minutes, but I hope you won’t ever stop listening to what God says to you.
Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
In fact he uses this phrase 15 times:
7 times in the gospels and 8 times in the book of Revelation.
We all have physical ears, but we can choose to pay attention or to let it go in one ear and out the other.
The fate of any spoken word depends upon the hearer.
There used to be a phrase that CB radio folks asked, “Do you have your ears on?”
And in today’s commercials for cellphone reception they say, “Can you hear me now?”
In Mark 8:18 Jesus says, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen.”
God’s truth is not just heard but it is spiritually discerned.
Jesus said he spoke in parables not to conceal the truth but because his followers had the ability to understand spiritual things like “the mysteries of the kingdom.”
Others had refused to be open and had closed their ears and eyes and hearts to him.
Truth is revealed to seekers and concealed from cynics.
Prejudice against an idea or a person prevents you from being able to receive facts and accept them.
Truth was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. But many would not accept Him.
They were closed to receiving Him and certainly closed to anything He had to say.
It is to those who RECEIVE and BELIEVE him who are given the power to become the children of God and understand what their Father says.
The more you listen the more you will understand, and the more you will be given insight.
Conversely, the more you ignore the word, the easier it is to forget what you heard.
This is a law of the universe. We may not like it, but that is the way it works.
Jesus went from teaching in the synagogue to teaching on the seashore because the ones who had heard it all before like the scribes and Pharisees tuned him out and turned him out, but the crowds were eager to hear him.
Everyone loves a good story. It has a way of disarming us rather than putting up an argument that might alienate us.
We actually think in pictures.
No one can understand concepts like “beauty” and “goodness” unless we see an example. That is why the word was made flesh in Jesus.
In a story we see the truth more clearly by being able to picture something familiar and then when we discover the parallel, we have our “aha moment.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear…
Therefore, hear the parable of the sower.”
Then the text mentions four kinds of listeners:
I’ll call this first listener the “pay no mind” listener.
Matt. 13:19 "When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
This is the seed sown along the path."
This listener doesn’t understand because they are on the wrong path.
Satan has them confused and tries to keep them that way.
Even if they hear the truth he diverts their attention quickly so that they don’t absorb it and change directions.
They are not convicted because they just pay it no mind and go on their way as usual.
Sometimes the speaker leads them astray by using language that is difficult to understand.
Some preachers and teachers speak with impressive vocabularies and give pompous platitudes but when they are done we are confused rather than enlightened.
A worker asked for a pay raise and got this note back from his supervisor:
"Because of the fluctuation predisposition of your position’s productive capacity as juxtaposed to standard norms, it would be momentarily injudicious to advocate your requested increment."
The puzzled worker went to the supervisor and said, "If this is about my pay raise, I don’t get it."
"That’s right," said the supervisor. “You don’t get it!”
I am not going to try to impress you with MY words, I am going to give you the true words of Christ, hopefully in a manner that is easily understood.
But you must be attentive to the word and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you.
Pay it some mind.
Ponder the word.
Let the Spirit penetrate your heart and change your mind and behavior.
The second kind of listener has just a passing interest, a superficial acceptance.
Matt. 13:20-21 "The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away."
These listeners are not rooted and grounded in the faith. They embrace any new feel-good doctrine until hard times come along and they no longer feel good.
They have an emotional rather than a heart response to the gospel.
They take it up and run with it but drop it just as quickly.
They have no staying power where their faith would hold them like an anchor in the storms of life.
We have all seen this kind of response in people who start attending church, maybe even get baptized and join in on committees. But then their circumstances change and they quit coming and are never interested again.
The word never took root in their heart. They didn’t endure.
Sadly, to these Jesus will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”
The third type of listener is preoccupied.
Matt. 13:22 "The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful."
This kind of listener has good intentions but so many distractions.
The worries and cares of this life and their wealth and opportunities are calling to them louder than Christ is.
The “good” keeps them from the “best” things in life.
They just don’t have time to listen to God because they have to listen to their stock brokers and financial advisors.
They are too busy to pray and seek God or study the word right now.
Someday they plan to get involved with this church stuff.
They are so worried about this world they haven’t prepared for the next one.
They think you only live once….and they are not planning to live forever.
The fourth type of listener is perceptive and productive.
Matt. 13:23 "But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
This listener is the kind we want to be like.
They listen, they understand, they share what they have heard… and it is so helpful that others share what they have learned from them.
So then over and over the word of God keeps spreading from friend to friend and neighbor to neighbor until it “goes viral” (as they say when something gets a million hits on YouTube!)
Hearing must be translated into doing or it is like knowing a cure for a disease and not taking the cure.
No farmer expects every seed he sows to germinate and produce a crop.
But he is assured if he sows he will reap a harvest of some size anyway.
In the parable the harvest was sometimes 30, sometimes 60 and sometimes a hundred fold.
God’s word does not return to him void.
I talk a lot… (as everyone who knows me will vouch for.)
But I am thrilled when someone says to me, “I will never forget what you said about…”
Then I know that somewhere along the way some of my talking made a difference.
It helped them understand a certain spiritual principle or apply it.
The Holy Spirit brought it back to their remembrance at a time when they needed it.
I don’t want to you to tell me like the man who walked out of church one Sunday morning and said to his preacher,
"That was a good sermon. I couldn’t find myself pointed out even one time."
Is that the way you listen …to vindicate yourself ?
Or do you hope to hear something to prod yourself to do better?
James 1:23-25 "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking after himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does."
My prayer is always, “Lord fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff…and shut it when I’ve said enough!”
I think I’ve said enough this morning.
I’ve tried to sow God’s word in you.
I also think you have listened well.
Don’t let Satan steal it away.
Don’t let it fall by the wayside and seem unimportant.
Don’t let the cares and worries or wealth and fascination of this world distract you from living by it.
There are folks out there who are really hungry to hear the truth of God’s word and you are just the right person to tell them in a way that they understand it, receive it with joy, and then want to share it with others.
So go out there now and be like that grandfather. Go find someone who just won’t stop listening!
God bless you. Amen.
