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My title this evening is The Parable of the Sower. That’s in Luke 8.4-15, and we’ll come to that in minute. But before I go any further, I too, along with all those who have gone before, would like to welcome you, personally, to JPC this evening, particularly if you’re here either for the first time or after a lengthy absence – and not least, of course, if you’re a student at one of the Universities or Colleges on Tyneside.

Can I congratulate you immediately on your good judgement. There is no better place to be than Tyneside. And what is more, there is no better place to be this evening than right here at JPC. I would even say that this is exactly the place God wants you to be this evening. And we hope very much that we’ll see you here on a regularly in the coming months. Please bear with us because we’re far from perfect, as we’re well aware. But we really do want to get to know you, and we hope that this sprawling extended family of a church will become a kind of home from home for you. Above all we hope that you’ll be helped to get to know God better through Jesus Christ, and that you’ll get clearer about his purpose for your life.

That’s really what the Bible passage is all about that I want us to look at this evening. It’s Luke 8.4-15 – where Jesus teaches the Parable of the Sower. It’ll be a great help in following what I want to talk about if you can have that open in front of you. It’s one of our fundamental convictions here at JPC that when one of us stands up to preach we don’t want to waste your time with our own opinions, thoughts, reflections and musings. But we do want to pay attention to what God has to say to us. And we know what that is because the Bible is God’s word.

So my purpose is to help us to listen to what Jesus is saying to us here. I want to do that by asking you questions as we look at Jesus’ teaching. Here are the four key questions I want to ask you. First, Do you know why you’re here? Secondly, Do you have what it takes to understand what Jesus is on about? Thirdly, Do you know why your life matters? And fourthly, What kind of person will you prove to be? My prayer is that you’ll find answers to those questions in this section of the Bible. So let’s think about each of them in turn.

First, DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU’RE HERE?

The clue to the answer to that is in the opening verse of our passage. (Luke 8.4)

“While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable.”

Every now and again some one comes along who electrifies whole populations. Whatever you think of his politics, Barack Obama seems to be such a man. Wherever he goes, he draws large crowds. As one report put it:

Rock star" is not a label normally applied to United States senators. But few senators have ever generated the kind of buzz associated with Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois.

One of Obama’s aids was asked why Obama doesn’t spend more time one-to-one with ordinary people. He replied that the difficulty Obama has is that wherever he goes such large numbers of people want to get near him.

But no one has ever electrified a population like Jesus did when he burst on to the scene and into public ministry. Jesus has always gathered crowds. He did back then. And it’s now continued for more than two thousand years, with no sign of abating. What is it that draws people to Jesus by their hundreds of millions – young and old, all around the planet? It’s surely the combination of his power, his person, his preaching, his courage and (though this still lay in the future for those gathering to him in this incident we’re looking at this evening) his resurrection from the dead. Jesus is totally unique. He changes the weather and raises the dead. He confronts tyrants and shows extraordinary compassion to the needy. His words cut to the heart and generate life. He endured the most extreme suffering out of love for his enemies. And then, alone out of any human life, he was raised bodily from the dead and he lives today at the right hand of his Father in heaven. There never was and never will be anyone else remotely like Jesus. He is utterly unique. That’s what draws people to him.

Why do you think you’re here this evening? There’s any number of superficial reasons that might spring to mind, like the allure of the student supper that’s no doubt already spreading its aroma through the halls, or the hope of seeing or finding a friend. But the fundamental reason why any of us is here this evening is the attraction of Jesus. Without him, we wouldn’t be here (as good as the company and the supper are). Like the large crowd coming to Jesus from town after town in this incident, we have come to Jesus from any number of villages, towns and cities around the UK and across the world.

So you are here because of the attraction of Jesus. But let me ask you this. What is your long-term settled response to Jesus going to be? In fact it’s not really me asking you that. It’s Jesus himself. He’s asking me and you, just as he was questioning everyone who made up that large crowd that day in Galilee. But he tackles the issue indirectly, by telling a story. It’s about the sowing of seed, and the different kinds of ground that the seed can fall on. But of course this is not really about agriculture. This is about us and the people around us. The story is there in the passage. Let me remind you of it. Jesus said to the crowd (Luke 8.5-8)

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

So there are four types of ground – the path, the rock, the thorny and the good. So what? What is Jesus driving at here? Well let me at this point ask you another question. First question: Do you know why you’re here this evening? Whether we know it or not, it’s because of Jesus.

Secondly, DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS IS ON ABOUT?

That might seem an odd question, possibly even rather rude, as if I’m questioning your intelligence. I certainly have no wish to do that. But I ask it because Jesus makes it clear that not everyone will be able to get what he’s on about. Look at what he says (Luke 8. 8-10):

“When he has said this [that is, told them the parable of the sower], he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

His disciples asked him what this parable meant [so you can see that they didn’t get it to start with]. He said,

“The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’”

That last quote is from the prophet Isaiah. And the point is this. You will only get what Jesus is on about if you fulfil certain conditions. Not everyone gets him. And we know that, of course. We’re surrounded by people who are basically oblivious to Jesus. He means nothing to them. They’re not scared of him as they should be and as they would be if they realised who he is. They don’t love him as they should. They don’t throw themselves on his mercy as they need to do. So what are the conditions you need to fulfil if you’re going to understand what Jesus is on about?

Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” You have to want to know. If you don’t want to know what Jesus means to you, then you won’t. But if that’s you, then I’d be letting you down badly if I didn’t say to you, “Please think again.” You can’t afford to ignore Jesus. In fact he says, (Luke 9.26):

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man [that’s Jesus] will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory…”

There is a day of judgement up ahead when every one of us will stand face to face with Jesus the judge. And we’ll have to account for how we’ve lived and how we responded to him. We reject him, he rejects us. That’s both fair and frightening if you find yourself on the wrong side of him. So if you don’t want to know, you can’t complain that you don’t understand – but please think again.

You have to want to know. What is more, you need to have the ears to hear with. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Now this is not about sound waves. This is not physical hearing. This is spiritual hearing. If you’re going to pick up sound waves, you have to have the physical capacity to do so – the properly functioning ears. If we’re going to get what Jesus is all about, we have to have the spiritual capacity – a properly functioning spirit.

A few weeks ago, when I returned from my summer holiday, I had my ears syringed. I hope this isn’t too much information for you if you’re squeamish. Before that was done, I could hardly hold a proper conversation. I was half deaf. But I went to the doctor and had this pulsating water blasted into my ears. And it felt like a little miracle. Do you have any idea how much noise a dry leaf makes when you tread on it? Whole realms of high frequency sound that I’d forgotten even existed burst on to my hearing.

If you’re going to understand Jesus then you have to have the spiritual ears to hear. And the spiritual equivalent of that blast of pulsating water that cleared my ears out is the work of the Spirit of God in our minds and hearts. Without the Holy Spirit, we’re spiritually deaf. But when God gives us his Spirit, like a torrent of living water, then all the stuff that we just couldn’t get before becomes crystal clear.

How, then, do we get the Holy Spirit to work in us? It’s up to him. We can’t control God. He’ll open our spiritual ears when he wants to. But he tells us that he wants to when we ask. Three pages on from this, Jesus makes this promise (Luke 11.13):

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

If you don’t want God’s Spirit and therefore you don’t ask, don’t complain when you don’t get. But the promise is there: if you do ask, you will get. And the Holy Spirit will give you the power to understand what Jesus is on about.

You’ll need to listen, and listen hard. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The truth about Jesus is plain as day, but you won’t hear it if you’re blocking your ears. Do you have what it takes to understand what Jesus is on about? That’s my second question. Ask God, and he’ll give you the ears to hear.

Thirdly, DO YOU KNOW WHY YOUR LIFE MATTERS?

If your life is like the ground (which is the analogy Jesus is using), then what is the crop that God is looking for in your life? And how is he going to grow it?

The crop is salvation through faith. And God is going to grow it by planting a seed in you, which is his Word. This book, the Bible, is one big spiritual seed packet. And Jesus is planting the seed of his Word in your life because he wants you to experience salvation through faith. That’s what Jesus says as he unpacks the meaning of his story to his followers. (Luke 8:11-12):

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

Saved from what? Saved from the consequences of God’s anger against sin. We experience those consequences now in part, though God restrains the full expression of his anger now. But those consequences are experienced fully on the day of judgement through just condemnation to eternal death and hell. That’s bluntly put, but on life and death issues beating about the bush is no help to anyone. That’s what Jesus wants us to be rescued from.

Saved for what? For eternal life. For love, joy and peace – even if it is with hardships. For a life with lasting and satisfying purpose. For a challenging and crucially important mission. For a deep friendship with Christ, your Lord and Saviour.

So what are we to believe? We are to believe in Jesus and to trust his word. And this is not only intellectual assent to who he is and what he’s done. This faith is a personal issue between you and him. It’s by our faith that we relate to Jesus. Our faith defines how we respond to him. To have faith in Christ is to leave our old life and follow him, depending on his mercy and his power for living.

Do you know why your life matters? Jesus is keeping a close eye on your life and on mine, like a farmer keeps a close eye on his fields. He’s looking for a crop, a harvest. He’s looking for faith that leads to salvation. That’s why your life matters. And that brings me to my fourth and final question, so:

Fourthly, WHAT KIND OF PERSON WILL YOU PROVE TO BE?

This is where we get to the nub of the issue. In the long run, what kind of person will you prove to be? What’s going to happen to the word of God planted in your life? Will it be heard and heeded? Or will it come to nothing? Jesus is interested in the long term, not just our short term, knee-jerk reaction. He’s looking out for what’s going to be the settled direction of your life. So what’s it to be? There are four possibilities that are outlined by Jesus here. We could call them Failed Faith, Fair-weather Faith, Faltering Faith and Fruitful Faith. Let’s just think about each in turn.

Firstly there are those whose lives demonstrate Failed Faith. (Luke 8.12 ):

“Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

These are the people with blocked ears who just can’t take on board what Jesus is telling them. Or to put it another way, these are the in-one-ear-and-out-the-other people. Whether they realise or not, they are well and truly under the thumb of Satan (and of course they don’t realise it, but Jesus is clear that’s the unseen reality). Satan hates Jesus. Satan hates people. He lies continuously and very plausibly. Like the evil flock of birds so graphically portrayed in the classic film by Alfred Hitchcock, he swoops down and snatches the life-giving Word of God out of people’s minds, because he wants them dead for all eternity.

So much rejection of Jesus in our society is cloaked with politeness and tolerance. But according to Jesus, underneath that pleasant front lies the influence of supernatural evil. We mustn’t be under any illusions. These are the people who say “No” to Jesus. They have failed faith. Will you prove to be like that? I hope and pray not.

Secondly, there are those who have Fair-weather Faith. They make a noisy start to their Christian lives, but it fizzles out. (Luke 8.13)

“Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.”

Because there will be times of testing. It isn’t easy being a Christian. Or, more accurately, sometimes it’s easy, but there are always times in our lives when it decidedly is not. And when you come under pressure because of your faith, there’s one sure fire way of relieving that pressure. Give up your faith.

People who react like that have no root, no depth to their repentance and faith. Their allegiance to Christ is a kind of marriage of convenience – their convenience. But the time comes when Jesus makes demands of them; or they have to stand up for their faith and stand out from the crowd; or obedience to Christ means doing something they don’t want to do, or not doing something they do want to do; or they have to choose between being in with the crowd or being just a little bit despised. When these times come, they can’t take the heat. They have only Fair-weather Faith. Will you prove to be like that? I hope and pray not.

Thirdly, there’s another kind of person, who has Faltering Faith. Their faith is real enough, but it doesn’t have real bite in their lives. It never really gets going. Christ is always on the sidelines, always somewhere on the edge, never at the centre where he belongs. So their faith splutters and coughs its way along. It gets crowded out by other concerns – almost any other concern can do it. Jesus speaks of three. He spells it out (Luke 8.14):

“The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.”

And that’s ultimately useless. A crop that never comes to maturity never produces a harvest. It’s no good for anything. So we mustn’t think that being in this category will do. It won’t. God is looking for developing maturity in our faith, not stunted immaturity.

Now of course we all have worries – things that we’re concerned about that are causing us grief in one way or another. And money matters to us all, and we have to pay attention to it, whether we have a lot of it or a little. And God gives all good things for us to enjoy. He invented pleasure. Godly pleasures are part of his delightful plan for our lives. But when any of these things take centre stage in our thinking in place of trusting and obeying Jesus, then our faith is being choked.

So are you wrongly afraid? Are you wrongly ambitious? Are you wrongly pleasure-seeking? Do you look for comfort, success or pleasure in the wrong place? Because lasting comfort, success and pleasure can only in the end be found through trusting and obeying Christ. Too many of us have Faltering Faith. Will you prove to be like that? I hope and pray not.

Some have Failed Faith, some Fair-weather Faith, some Faltering Faith. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Jesus is looking for a different kind of life entirely – the fourth kind. He is looking for those with Fruitful Faith.(Luke 8.15)

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

A crop, that is, of salvation. Salvation for the fruitful themselves, and salvation for many whose lives are touched by the lives of the fruitful. (Luke 8.8)

“[The seed] came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown.”

Will you show yourself to have a noble and good heart? That’s probably not the first ambition of most new students as they embark on their university or college career. But will it be yours?

Being noble and good of heart in the kingdom of God doesn’t mean being strong and sin-free. Being noble of heart in the kingdom of God means being humble enough to admit our weakness and our need of power from God to live his way. Being good of heart means being honest enough to admit our sinfulness and our need of forgiveness and power to change. For such people faith in Christ is not a curious if interesting mental aberration, slightly to be pitied. Nor is faith in Christ a passing phase that’ll be consigned to the fading photos of the family album, fondly remembered maybe, but no longer there, like an old uni friend who you somehow still think of as a friend, but who you havn’t been in touch with for years. No, for people who are good soil, faith in Christ is life and health and peace. It is everything. Jesus is in the driving seat of their lives.

What are the marks of such a person according to Jesus? They hear the word of God (theirs is not a Failed Faith). They retain the word of God (theirs is not Fair-weather Faith). They persevere in trusting and obeying the word of God (theirs is not Faltering Faith). They have Fruitful Faith. What kind of person will you prove to be?

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, for God’s sake, and for our sake, and for the sake of a needy world, I pray that we will be people of Fruitful Faith. Amen.