A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. [Luke 8:5-10]

“…He that hath ears to hear, let him hear…”

On several occasions, Jesus always spoke to men in parables. While speaking to the multitudes here, He spoke about the parable of the sower. The congregation of Jesus at this time consisted of several classes of people. Among them were those who were His true “disciples”. There were some other casual Jews too in that gathering, who loved to always hear Jesus speak. Even though they do not hate Jesus, yet, they do not absolutely believe that they should commit their whole lives unto Him. They just admired Him and loved to hear His stories and teachings. Lastly, there were also the Pharisees and the religious leaders. These do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for, and they would never accept any of His teachings. These Pharisees congregated along with others as if they flowed with Jesus. Out of all these whole multitudes, only the disciples of Jesus truly believed that He was the Messiah. They were the ones who totally committed their lives unto Him, following Him wherever He went, learning from Him, and obeying His words.

As Jesus taught this great “parable of the sower”, all those classes of listeners were present to listen, the true disciples, the casual admirers and the enemies of Jesus, and they all left with different levels of understanding based on their acceptance of Jesus.

CASUAL ADMIRERS:
At the end of the meeting, Jesus admirers would have left that day very happy and fulfilled that Jesus, the One they admired, had spoken a parable that is wise unto them. They went away with just a mental, academic understanding of the parable. Of course, on the surface, the parable of Jesus was agriculturally biased, and several of these Israelites practiced agriculture either leisurely or vocationally. Many of them will remember when they planted certain grains in their farms in an area of land that had plenty rocks and stones. Their plants after sprouting, survived a bit, but later dried off and died. Some of them would have begun to understand why such certain plights befell them in times past and they lost huge moneys.
Haven now known that the plants dried off due to the rocky ground in which they were planted, they would have made some future resolutions never to plant on rocky/stony part of their farms again. This seemed to be a good lesson for them to learn from the “parable of the sower”. They would have nodded their heads in approval of the great teachings of Jesus. They would have thought it worthwhile to attend the meetings of Jesus regularly in other to gain much more knowledge of the times, and also understand some basic skills. But this completely falls short of the mind of God concerning the true hearers of His word.

THE PHARISEES AND
HATERS OF JESUS:

The Pharisees and the religious leaders on the other hand are haters of Christ. Their motive for coming to Jesus meeting was to be able to catch Him through His words. They were present in every of Jesus meetings to wrest the word, fight the preacher, analyze the passage scholarly, check the grammatical usage or the brilliance in His use of words, but never to obey the word. When Jesus spoke, as sound, heavy and deep as His words were, the Pharisees went about with bullet proofs to reflect or refract those words away from themselves. They would never allow the word to land upon themselves, rather, they would push it to others and excuse themselves. They saw the wrongs in others, but covered and excused their own wrongs when brought under divine scrutiny and cleansing. The words of Jesus did not affect them. They bypassed the wisdom in the words He spoke and explained it away as if to “weaken it”.
Their ears were tuned to how they will get some loopholes in the words of Jesus in which to build heresy upon. They were attentive, but not to be blessed with divine words. Their rapt attention was in order to catch something in the words of Jesus that contradicts their own doctrines, theology and traditions. They would zero in on a few phrases, and use it as their weapon of attack. This wickedness was borne out of their search for evidences they will give in the law court to condemn Jesus.

Even though wisdom was falling all around them from the wealth of Jesus grace, yet, their “wicked” sense of justice did not allow them to pick it up. No wonder the Bible says of them in Luke 7, that they deliberately shut out the plan of God for their lives.
“But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced, we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children.” [Luke 7:30-35]

The Pharisees saw the great revelation of God with their eyes, they heard the word of God with their ears, but they wanted to mutilate those words as evidences in the law court against the same Christ whose words came primarily to transform their lives. Their goal for hearing, was to condemn Christ in His words.

THE DISCIPLES:
The Disciples of Christ however left this meeting with a different state of heart altogether. Their hearts were so properly positioned, that the Holy Spirit could activate an hunger in them to even begin to seek for the more unrevealed depths hidden within Jesus, which were kept away from the public.

By their hunger, they knew that there was more to this teaching than they had received. This was the first dealing of God in their hearts, and they did not sweep this divine dealing under the carpet. They took it further by going straight to Jesus in private to probe further in asking what the seemingly common story meant. They simply obeyed His counsel in verse 8 when He cried “…He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”.

There was a deeper meaning to what Christ taught in parables, but only hungry disciples could dig it out. They sought for deeper explanations and revelations, and the response of Jesus to them was: “…Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables”

Jesus, in His delight with the disciples, declared gladly the underlying purpose of using parables, which was fulfilled here:
** Parables were to filter the correct hungry men from the unserious ones.
** Parables were to hide the truth from those who do not seek it, and reveal its depth unto those who hungrily long for it.
** Parables were to secure the treasures in Gods word from being handled and trampled upon by mere casual observers who never appreciate its worth. Jesus said, It had been given to the disciples, TO KNOW THE SECRET THINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, which were totally concealed from the unserious.
** Parables were meant to preserve the sacredness of deep truths from being trodden upon by mere church goers and those who sought only for peripherals.
** Parables kept divinely secret things to be actually secret, until the true disciples would seek them out.
There is a revelation hidden behind the stories and parables that Jesus taught, but it is a pity, those revelations are only available unto those who will come into the closet with Jesus alone in deep hunger to search deeply what Jesus has hidden from the multitudes. Hidden secrets are not available at the public platforms of general meetings, only the hungry hearts are fed sumptuously while in secret with Jesus alone after the general meetings.

Divine revelations will only be given and released to an enquirer (the true disciple), who has been able to catch an understanding that there is more to the story being told, and he has cried to be brought into this deep insight and wisdom at the bosom of Jesus. If you’re not thirsty for the fresh living bread, sorry you cannot receive divine truths, it will be hidden away from you. If you are satisfied with whatever you collect from the platform of pulpit preaching, and would never come apart to be with Jesus alone, seeking richer treasures, you will remain in the congregation of the general admirers, lacking depth. The best you will ever get is ONLY parables…

What will Jesus do to those enquirers and disciples of His, seeking divine treasures?

“…Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear, then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. ” [Luke 8:11-15]

Jesus in these verses, opened up hidden secrets that human minds cannot decipher ordinarily. He opened the windows of heaven for divine riches to flow down for human consumption and for strength. He explained in details the meaning of the parable of the sower, and revealed the possibilities that happen when the word of God is preached or ministered.

From the picture of the kind of ground that brought forth unto fruitfulness, the disciples were able to discern the kind of heart the Father loves, which is capable of receiving and retaining the word of God, and also capable of bringing forth fruits unto the kingdom of God.
Deep truths and treasures of the Kingdom of God are powerful and effective, but they will be far from all those who are mere admirers of Jesus and His sermons. Treasures will never be at the grasps of those who hate Jesus, who are like the Pharisees and religious leaders. Such classes of people will never enter into living in kingdom realities. What a pity!!!

“… that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand…”

Indeed, unto you, o disciple, it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others, it is not given. The best others can get, is mere parables, regardless of even how prayerful and religious they may be. Those who settle for mere parable crumbs will hear, but they will never understand, and they will observe, but will never see, so that the secret of God may ONLY COME UNTO THOSE WHO MERIT IT without being contaminated by those who are not passionate for it.

Are you just an admirer of Jesus, who only skims things on the surface without allowing the word to do a transforming work in your life? Are you an admirer of sermons, but the word never gets into you? Are you a lover of great men of God and would love to attend several meetings and crusades, yet, you have never submitted your life to the moulding hands of Gods word? Do you only go to church because “it is very good to be in church on Sundays”, but the word of God has never affected you and broken you down?
Are you so strong in yourself and never tremble at the word of God sent to you to change your character from inside? Do you actually seek Gods word to obey it, or you only read it religiously to silence your probing conscience? Or you are a Pharisee who only seek the word for the sake of criticisms? You are interested in zeroing in on where something in the word contradicts your view and you would build attacks from there, instead of submitting your pride unto the hammer of Gods word to break you down?
Do you ever plan to obey Gods word with all resolute determination before you begin to hear it, or you have several excuses why your life is totally parallel to the word of God you hear? God will hide the truth from you like that.

GOD IS VERY CAREFUL AND JEALOUS OVER WHAT HE RELEASES UNTO MEN. He would never want His riches to reach those who trivialize it, hence, He safeguards it to make sure it only reaches those who need it the true disciples.

ARE YOU A DISCIPLE?