Friday, September 11, 2020

2020.09.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 8:4–18

Read Luke 8:4–18

Questions from the Scripture text: Who had gathered in Luke 8:4? From where had they come? How did Jesus speak? Who went out to do what in Luke 8:5? Where did some fall? What two things happened to it? Where did some seed fall in Luke 8:6? What happens as soon as it springs up? Why? Where did some seed fall in Luke 8:7? What sprang up with the seed? What did the thorns do to the seed? Where did some seed fall in Luke 8:8? What did it do? What did it yield? What does Jesus cry out after saying these things? Who ask Him what in Luke 8:9? What does He say has been given to them (Luke 8:10)? But what do others hear? For what purpose? What does Jesus begin to explain in Luke 8:11? What is the seed? Who comes to the hearers who are the “wayside” soil (Luke 8:12)? What does he do? What does this prevent? How do the “rock” hearers receive the Word (Luke 8:13)? But what do they not have? What do they do (superficially) for a time? But what happens in time of testing/temptation? What three choking things keep the “thorny soil” hearers from bearing fruit (Luke 8:14)? In what way do the “good ground” hearers hear the Word (Luke 8:15)? What do they do with the Word? What do they bear? With what? What does Jesus then say that we would not do with light (Luke 8:16)? What would we do with it instead? What, ultimately, comes to light (Luke 8:17)? Therefore, to what are to take heed (Luke 8:18)? What happens to “whomever has”? What happens to whomever does not have?

We tend to think of the instruction “not to hide the light” exclusively in Matthew 5:16 terms of letting our light shine before men. But here, and in Luke 11:29–36 and Mark 4:21–25, the instruction is actually about making Scripture’s light to shine upon our own hearts. 

The command in Luke 8:18 indicates that the Lord Jesus is still teaching the same lesson as in the parable of the soils: “Take heed how you hear.”

That is the lesson of the soils: we need to be those who “hear the Word with a noble and good heart” (Luke 8:15). What is that heart? A heart that intends to keep the Word. A heart that desires to bear fruit. A heart that exercises patience in keeping the Word and bearing fruit.

But also a heart that seeks to have itself exposed by the Word (Luke 8:16, cf. Hebrews 4:12). A heart that knows that all things will be exposed eventually, and so is not afraid but rather eager to have the light of God’s Word to shine upon itself and expose it (Luke 8:16-17).

What is at stake here? A heart that has this attitude toward the Word of God is one “that has” what the Spirit has given to it, and therefore “more will be given” to it. But, the heart that resists being exposed by the Word of God is a heart that doesn’t actually have spiritual life, so even what it thinks it has will be taken away from it!

Oh, dear reader, do not hide the light of the Word from exposing your heart! Listen with a good and noble heart, to internalize the Word and be changed by it. Look for life from Christ in it, and look for it to make you more like Him who is your life!

When do you receive the Word? In each case, how can you improve how you receive it?

Suggested songs: ARP95B “Today, If You Will Hear His Voice” or TPH119W “Lord, Let My Cry before You Come”


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