Day 22, God’s Secret, Luke 8:1-21

Jesus explains to His disciples the purpose of parables.  It is a means of revealing the mysteries (secrets) of the kingdom of God to His disciples while hiding these things from the rest.  To understand this you will see that there are three issues: the heart, the hearing, and the application.

·        8:1-3: Jesus is on a missions trip, preaching (announcing) and evangelizing (preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom).  The Twelve are with Him and so are some women, touched by His ministry, who support Jesus’ ministry financially.  Note: the strange ideas that Jesus was married or had girlfriends or any of that which fills empty minds has NO Biblical basis.  He never succumbed to the temptations that sadly destroy some ministries in our day.

·        8:4-8: One of the sermons Jesus was preaching was what my Bible calls The Parable of the Sower but which should be called The Parable of the Soils.  

·        8:9-10: His disciples ask for an explanation.  First He explains the reason He is using parables, as we noted, for both revealing and hiding truth.  Jesus quotes Isa. 6:9, a passage that dealt with Isaiah.  God called him to preach, telling him that the people would not receive his message and that their hearts would be made dull.  That was 700 years before Christ, but this deafness and blindness was still in effect, and would remain among most of Israel until they not only rejected Christ but throughout the age of the Church (Rom. 11:25).  Why would God use this method that intentionally blinds people?

·        8:11-15: The problem with those who are blinded is that their hearts are not receptive to the word of God.  Jesus’ ministry bore this out: some heard but made no attempt to follow Christ; others seemed to receive Him only to turn away because of trials or distractions; some, like His disciples, received His message (the word of God) with a good heart, and it changed their lives.

·        8:16-18: In a second parable Jesus says that this revealing of new truth is going to continue and grow.  The need for any who would hear is to take heed how you hear.  The one who hears with a receptive heart will receive and then will be given more; those with hard hearts will lose even the little they have.

·        8:19-21: Finally we learn that hearing involves obedience.  Those with good hearts who have received His message are those who hear the word of God and do it.  It is not enough just to have good theology; hearing and knowing requires obedience!  It is evidence that we belong to His family.

This passage clearly speaks to us.  Take heed how you hear!  Be receptive to the word of God.  Come with a good heart.  Listen carefully when it is preached.  Be careful of situations in life that might turn us from things we have heard that need further thought and application.  Seek God that by His Spirit He will help put the message to work in your life.  Remember, evidence that we have received the word of God with a good heart is the changed life of one that bears fruit.