In this message that Jesus shared with the crowd and His
disciples in Luke 8, He gave the parable of the Sower, the Seed, and the Soil. So
far, we have learned that Jesus was emphasizing that it is important how we
hear and receive the Word of God (vv. 4-15), and how we hear and share the Word
(vv. 16-18). When we share the Word of God is like turning on a light in a dark
room (v. 16). I was telling a neighbor yesterday that we don’t have to fight
the darkness of evil around us, we simply turn on the Light of Truth, and the
darkness must flee.
Maybe that was what Jesus was talking about in Matthew
16:18 when He said that the “gates of hell cannot prevail against the church”.
Hell, and all its evil forces are no match for the believers that love Jesus, obey
Jesus, and live out Jesus with His light, love, and grace.
Now in verses 19-21, Jesus is teaching us that if we want
to have a personal, intimate relationship with Him, we must not only hear the
Word of God, but we must also obey it. Our Lord's mother, Mary, and His half
brothers (Matt. 13:55-56; Acts 1:14) were worried about Jesus and wanted to
talk with Him. Some of His friends had already said that He was out of His mind
(Mark 3:21), and perhaps some members of His family, (His half-brothers),
agreed with them. Jesus took this as an opportunity to teach another spiritual
lesson: being a part of His spiritual family is much more important than any
human relationship and is based on obedience to the Word of God. It is not
enough to "hear" the Word of God; we must also "keep it"
(Luke 8:15).
For years I have been teaching that there are five things
we can do with the Word of God. (1) We can listen to it. (2) We can read it. (3)
We can study it. (4) We can memorize it. And (5) We can meditate on it. But I now
realize I should have also been emphasizing a sixth thing, and that is, We
should obey the Word of God!
Matthew 13:55-56 gives us the names of Jesus half-brothers:
James, Joses’ or Joseph, Simon, and Judas or better known as Jude. Jude later
wrote the New Testament book of Jude. It is interesting that James, who didn’t
become a believer and follower of Jesus until after His resurrection, wrote the
book of James. He also realized the importance of obeying the Word in James
1:22-25 where he wrote: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he
is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself,
goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks
into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful
hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
Between now and the end of the year, I want to encourage
you to plan on faithfully and systematically read through your Bible at least
one time in 2025. The only way for you to accomplish this, is to determine to
do it by the grace of God, and to have a plan. Every month I post on my Pastor
Mike Impact Ministries website two plans to assist you to do this.
Plan A. will take you through the Old Testament once, the
New Testament twice, the Psalms twice, and the Proverbs every month. This plan
will only take about 15 or so minutes a day of your time.
Plan B, will take you through the Old and New Testament
once, and the Psalms twice. This plan will only take 10 minutes or less each
day.
You can find both of these plans posted every month at: https://www.pmiministries.org/
At the top of the main page, they are under the button “More”.
At the bottom of the main page, they both have their own
button.
Both plans are post every month in advanced and can be
downloaded as a pdf.
Please take the time to do this and share it with as many
people as possible. This is the way we can turn on the Light of Truth in the
world around us! And it will also be evidence that we are related to Jesus!
God bless!
