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The sermon for February 11 was based on Luke 8:4-15.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen.
This parable is among the most important spoken by Jesus. It is one of only
three recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is one of only a few which Jesus
Himself interprets at length. This parable teaches what happens when the Word of
God is preached. Since the parable describes people to whom the Gospel is
preached, it is describing you. Thus, the dangers described in the parable are
dangers that threaten you. The devil, the temptation to surrender the truth, the
cares, riches, and pleasures of life all threaten to tear you away from the Word
of God.
In Jesus' interpretation of the parable, He leaves out one obvious detail: the
identity of the sower. The sower is he who preaches the Word of God. Since Jesus
draws no attention to the sower, every sower must fade in importance. It is not
the sower who is important, but the Seed which he sows. It is not the preacher
who is important, but the Gospel message he preaches. The truth that God has
provided healing for you in the blood of Christ, bringing you life and hope
though the death of His Son, this Gospel truth is what is important. It is not
the men who preach, not Pastor Trouten, not Pastor Varsogea, not even St. Paul,
who awaken you who were dead in trespasses and sins, but the powerful Word of
God. That Word is what's important
Even when the preacher is Jesus Himself, He does not focus your attention on His
person, but on His Gospel message. He does not seek His own glory, but the glory
of Him who sent Him, namely, the Father. For this reason the Son laid aside His
own glory and humbled Himself, even to the point of death by crucifixion. When
Satan tempted Jesus with the glory of His identity as the Son of God, Jesus
responded, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of
God." [Lk 4:4] Jesus is more concerned about the precious Word of God than
His own glory as the Son of God. The importance of the sower depends on the
importance of the Seed.
That Seed is the Word of God. But sinful men are unimpressed by words. You
prefer deeds to creeds. This betrays your low opinion of mere words. In an age
when man can unleash the power of a nuclear bomb or put men on the moon, mere
words seem unimportant. But the sinful tendency to be more impressed by massive
displays of raw, physical power than by words is really nothing new. God even
had to correct the prophet Elijah in this regard. God exposed him to frightening
displays of physical power in wind and earthquake and fire, but the Lord was not
in any of them. He was in the still, small voice. The Lord God is found in the
still, small voice of His Word.
In the Word of the Gospel is the power of almighty God. He does not lash you
with hurricane winds or threaten you with an earthquake or rain down fire upon
you in order to bring you into His kingdom and bear fruit in you. Certainly, God
could unleash such power against you, for He holds all power in heaven and on
earth. But God does not choose to make you Christian by such force. Rather, God
sows the Seed of His Word, by means of unassuming sowers, and in this way brings
you into His kingdom and bears His fruit in you. Powerful miracles may attract
people, but they cannot build the Church. Flashy programs and clever tricks may
attract people, but they cannot build the Church. A winsome smile and a charming
personality may attract people, but they cannot build the Church. Any effort to
build the Church with anything else than the pure preaching of the Gospel and
the proper administration of the Sacraments, any such effort must fail. Any
church built by means other than the Word of God purely preached and properly
administered is not a Christian church.
God's Word alone has the power to create life. God's Word alone has the power to
raise you from spiritual death and forgive your sins. God's Word alone has the
power to create faith in you. God's Word alone has the power to draw you into
union with God Himself. There is no power on earth like the power that is in
those unassuming, apparently weak words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These
seemingly weak words are powerful because they are the very Word of God,
begotten of the Father and bearing the Holy Spirit. As such, the Gospel is so
much more than mere words.
This power of God in His Word bears fruit when it is planted in you. That is why
the devil tries so hard to snatch the Word away. He raises objections to God's
Word through the use of your reason. He replaces God's Word with the more
reasonable teachings of men. Or the devil convinces you that God's Word isn't so
important. But I am here to tell you that God's Word is of the utmost
importance. Not one jot or tittle will pass away before heaven and earth do. Why
do think Pastor Varsogea and I lay so much stress on purity of doctrine? Pure
doctrine is what the Seed of God's Word teaches. Anything else is the devil's
seed.
Once the Seed of God's Word is planted in you, you will come under fierce
attack. The forces of darkness will bring their powers to bear against you. You
will be tempted, not only to sin, but to give up the Seed of God's Word. This
temptation comes with persecution. Those who receive God's Word because it gives
them an emotional high are in particular danger. They have no root. They chase
after revivals and the latest Christian fad. But fads fade. Revivals die out.
Christians who are popular with the world yet shallow with God's Word fall away.
On the other hand, those who cling without compromise to every truth of God's
Word will be unpopular. Those who confess the Word purely will be persecuted.
Nevertheless, the Seed of God's Word is the power to sustain you in times of
trouble.
The Seed of God's Word is the power which sustains you throughout your life. But
life has its way of distracting you from God's Word. Cares and riches and
pleasures lure you away from the Word. That is what happens to those who neglect
or despise preaching and God's Word, instead of gladly hearing and learning it.
Those who neglect these means have the life of God choked out of them. Perhaps
you know someone who once believed God's Word, but since have been choked by the
cares of this world. Maybe you feel the icy grip of cares and troubles
tightening around your throat, threatening to choke out your faith. What hope is
there for those being choked by cares and riches?
There is only one hope. You come to church to hear God's Word. Here God Himself
keeps your faith alive through His appointed means. Here God creates,
strengthens, and sustains your faith, even against the attacks of the devil, the
world, and your own flesh. At this font, God plants the Seed of His Word
connected to life-giving water, and new life germinates within you. Corporately
in this room, or privately through your Pastor, God gives you Absolution, His
forgiving Word which removes the rot of sin and strengthens you against
temptation. From this pulpit the Seed of God's Word is sown, week by week
proclaiming to you God's great gifts, teaching you more and more His tender
mercy toward you, as His Word takes deep root into your heart. At this altar,
Christ feeds you His Word enfleshed in bread and wine, and by these means God
keeps you in the one, true faith, no matter what sins you have committed, no
matter how fiercely you are attacked from without or within. That is the power
of God's Word.
In you who have received the Word with water in Holy Baptism, in you who have
received the Word of Absolution, in you who have had the preached Word planted
into your ears, in you who will have the enfleshed Word planted and poured into
your mouth, in you the Word of God will bear its fruit a hundredfold. In you,
the power of God will grow, as He transforms your will and His Word produces in
you thoughts and words and deeds pleasing to Him. In you, His Word will continue
to yield its fruit in season, week after week and year after year not just here
in time, but hereafter in eternity. That is fruit a hundredfold. That is the
promise of God's Word. That is the power of the Seed. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes . . . |
