Jesus Explains the Parable of the Sower

JESUS WAS EXPLAINING THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 8:11-1511"This is the meaning of the parable:
The seed is the word of God. 12Thosealong the path
are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and
takes away the word from their hearts, so that they
may not believe and be saved. 13Thoseon the rocky
ground are the ones who receivethe word with joy
when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe
for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.
14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those
who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked
by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not
mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those
with a noble and good heart, who hear the word,
retain it, and by perseveringproduce a crop.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Beginning Of Parables

Matthew 13:1-23 (see also Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15)
P.C. Barker
Utilize introduction to dwell on the plain assertions ofvers. 10-17. However
deep their real theologicalmeaning, howevermysterious their significance in
respectof the sovereignconduct of the world and the judgment of mankind,
the statements are plain. The deep, unfathomable fact underlying the
quotation from Isaiah(vers. 14, 15)is not altogetherfree from offering some
analogyto the subjectof the sin againstthe Holy Ghost (see our homily,
supra), "not to be forgiven, in this world nor in the world to come." In the
very pleasantestpaths of the gospelthe inscrutable meets us, and stands right
across ourway; yet not at all to destroy us, but to order knowledge, faith, and
reverence. It is plain, from the express assertionofChrist, that it is to be
regardedby us as some of the highest of our privilege, to have authoritative
revelation of matters that may be calledknowledge in "things present or
things to come," whichmay be nevertheless utterly inscrutable. The
absolutely mysterious in the individual facts of our individual life, and for
which, nevertheless, the current of that life does not stand still, may stand in
some sort of analogyto these greaterphenomena and greaterpronouncements
of Divine knowledge andforeknowledge.The promise is not to be found - it
were an impossible promise to find - that the marvels of Heaven's government
of earth should be all intelligible to us, or should be all of them oven uttered in
revelation. But some are uttered; they are written, and there, deep graven,
they lie from age to age, weatherbeatenenough, yet showing no wear, no
attrition, no obliteration of their hieroglyphic inscription - hieroglyphic not
for their alphabet, but confessedlyfor their construction, and the vindicating
of it. Note also, in introduction, that the sevenparables related in this chapter,
a rich cluster, certainly appear from internal evidence (alike the language of
the evangelist, ver. 3; that of the disciples in their question, ver. 10; and that of
Christ himself, vers. 9, 13) to have been the first formally spokenby Christ.
Of the beginning of parables, therefore, as of the beginning of miracles, we are
for some reasonspecificallyadvised. Notice -
I. THE PERFECT NATURALNESS,FAMILIAR HOMELINESS,
EXQUISITE APTNESS, OF THE MATERIAL OUT OF WHICH THE

STRUCTURE OF THIS PARABLE IS MADE. Seedand soil; Sowerand
sowing;and, to throw moving life into the picture, the touch thrown in of the
sower"going forth" to sow.
II. THE SPECIFIC SUBJECT OF THIS PARABLE - AN ILLUSTRATION
OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, i.e. THE WILL OF GOD "DONE IN
EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." Such an illustration might be given very
variously. The view might be taken from many a point of vantage, and as the
kingdom should be found growing or grownat many a date. This Christ
might have given from all his stores ofknowledge, andhis true gift, true
possession, offoresight. He might have shown it in the early days of martyrs;
be might have shownit when Constantine proclaimed it the kingdom of
Europe, and something beside; he might have shown it as Christendom
projects it now; or he might have shown it even as glimpses - so strange are
they that we are frightened to fix our gaze on them - are flashedbefore our
doubting vision in the wonderful Book of the Revelation. But that which Jesus
did really choose to give was one of a more present, practicalcharacter. It
was, as one might suppose from very first glance, anillustration of sowing
time. The sowing time of God's truth, God's will, God's love and grace, in the
midst of a hard, and unprepared, and shallow, and ill-preoccupied world -
with nevertheless some better, some more promising material, in it.
III. THE ILLUSTRATION ITSELF IN DETAIL. It consists ofthe statement
of the ways in which men would acton the "hearing" of the "Word of God."
Four leading ways are described.
1. That of the man who is said (in Christ's own interpretation of his parable)
"not to understand" the Word spoken;i.e. he has no sympathy with it, he
possesses no instinct for it, finds awakenedwithin him no response whatever.
This is the man whose receptive state amounts to nothing. As the trodden path
(all the more trodden and more hard as it is comparatively narrow) acrossthe

ploughed field is approached againand againby the bountifully flinging hand
of the sower, as he paces the acres, evenit receives ofthe goodseed, but its
callous surface finds no entrance for it, offers it no fertilizing or even fertilized
resting place, and yet others, who at leastbetter know its value, for
whatsoeverreason, see it, seize it, and bear it off.
2. That of the man who "anon with joy receives" the Word. But it is a vapid
and shallow joy. It does not last, it does not grow;its very root withers. The
coating of hardness is not, as in the callous pathway, visible to the eye at first,
for it is just concealedand coveredover by a slightestlayer of earth, just
below which the hardness is not simply like that of "rock,"but it is rock itself.
There is nothing that has such a root wherewithto root itself as the Word of
God, and this needs deep earth. Not the birds of the air, not Satan and his evil
emissaries, take this seedaway, before ever it could show a symptom of its
own vital force, at any rate; this has shownits vitality, and has detected,
discovered, and laid ruinously bare to sight the unsustaining, because itself
unsustained, powerto feedlife, of that other element, that other essentialin
the solemnmatter.
3. That of the man "who hears the Word, but the cares ofthis world, and the
[seductive] deceitfulness ofriches, and the [crowding] desires ofother things,"
i.e. other things than the Word, "choke thatWord, and it becometh
unfruitful," or, if not unfruitful altogether, "itbringeth no fruit to
perfection." It is the seed, still the goodseed, lost, wasted, mockedof its
glorious fruit, because thatsame liberal, scattering, Sower's hand has not
grudged it, to earth, that is all the while attesting its ownrichness, quality,
force, by what is growing out of it, but is untilled, undressed, unweeded -
thorns, briers, brambles, and all most precocious growths sufferedto
tyrannize and usurp its best energies!How often have men moralized, and
justly, that the cleverness ofthe sinner, and his wisdom in his generation, and
his dexterity and resourceswhenpushed to the lastextremities, would have
made the saint, and the eminent saint, had his gifts, instead of being so

prostituted, so miserably misdirected, been turned in the right direction, fixed
on the right objects!But short far of flagrant vice, true it is that the absorbing
things and the seductive things and the crowding competition of desires of
things of this world, have, millions of times untold, chokedthe Word. No
room, no time, no care, no energy, has been left for the things of eternal value,
immortal wealth, presentholiness.
4. That of the man who "heareth, and understandeth, who also beareth fruit;"
or again, "who in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keeps it,
and brings forth fruit with patience." It is the seed, that pricelesslygoodseed,
which now at lasthas found its appropriate earth. It falls not on the hard
pathway; it falls not on the treacherous, deceptive, depthlessness,allradiant
with light and sun though it be; it falls not on the soil bearing at the same time
incontestable evidence of two things - its own power to grow, and its own
doomed state to grow the things "whose end is to be burned." It fails "into the
goodground." We are in the presence ofthe mystery, not of "who made us to
differ," but of how and why he who made us to differ, did so. The practical
part of the question is plain forevery one who has an eye to see. Everyman
must give accountof himself at the last; and every one must now prepare for
that account. What sign of "goodness," whatslightest germ of "goodness,"
what instinct, as it may seem, and power of "goodness,"anyman's heart,
passing thought, life may just suggest -if it be but like a suggestion - must be
reckonedwith now, improved now, solemnly consecratednow, and the
mystery will still for the present be left mystery. But the facts and the results
and the blessedness willspeak for themselves. And the kingdom of heaven be
receiving its fairer and fairestillustration, insteadof its darker and darkest
illustrations. That kingdom will be the more a "coming" kingdom. - B.
Biblical Illustrator
The seedis the Word of God.

Luke 8:11
The seed
A. F. Joscelyne, B. A.
I. THE TRUTH TAUGHT, THE SEED SOWN BY JESUS CHRIST, THE
GREAT SOWER.
1. The necessityof repentance.
2. The forgiving love and power of God.
3. The necessityof holiness;of obedience, submission, trust, unselfishness, and
brotherly love.
4. Christ enjoined fidelity, and warned of judgment to come.
5. Christ taught the necessityof His death for our redemption; proclaimed
Himself the one Mediatorbetween Godand man; declared our dependence
upon Him for all spiritual life and strength; promised His Spirit to lead us
into all truth, and His grace to enable us to endure to the end.
II. THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE SEED
AND THE TRUTH.
1. Both contain the principle of life.

2. The development of the life in eachdepends upon conditions. The seedmust
be sownin congenialsoil, and duly wateredand nurtured; the truth must be
receivedinto an honest and goodheart.
(A. F. Joscelyne, B. A.)
Missionarysermon
J. Hatchard, A. M.
I. WHAT IS THE SEED TO BE SOWN? The Word of God.
II. THE SOIL UPON WHICH THIS SEEN IS TO BE CAST. The field is the
world.
III. THE MANNER OR SPIRIT IN WHICH THE SEED IS TO BE SOWN.
1. With much prayer.
2. In simple faith upon God's promises.
3. In entire dependence upon the influences of the Holy Ghost.
4. In a spirit of love to Christ and the souls of men.
5. Notsparingly, but bountifully.

(J. Hatchard, A. M.)
Use the Bible
A. W. Hare.
Neverwere there so many Bibles in the world. The seedof eternal life is in our
days plenteously sown. Why, then, has the crop failed so shamefully? The
failure of a crop must be owing to one or more of these four causes. Either
(1)the seedmust be bad; or
(2)the seasonmust be bad; or
(3)the land must be bad; or
(4)the tillage must be bad.Now the failure of a crop of holiness cannotbe
owing to the first of these causes, forthe seedis as goodas ever. Nor is the
failure owing to any peculiarly bad season. The influence of the Holy Ghost
still falls, like mild showers, gentlyand plentifully on men's hearts, to soften
and fit them for receiving the Word of God. The Sun of Righteousness still
shines in the heavens, and from His golden throne, when the goodwheathas
sprung up and come to ear, He pours down warmth enoughto ripen it and
bring it to perfection. Nor againis the failure of the seeddue to the badness of
the soil. Bad enough it is, to be sure, naturally; but we know how much the
very worstsoil may be bettered by care and labour. Man's heart is not worse
than it was formerly. The scantiness ofthe crop, then, is owing to nothing but
badness of tillage.
(A. W. Hare.)

The seedgives life by means of death
T. Guthrie, D. D.
Just so is it with all truth, and superlatively so is it with the Truth. How often
does the discovererreaphis first harvest in derision and loss!How often does
the pioneerof some beneficententerprise lay its foundation in his own wealth,
health, and peace I How often does the patriot pay the penalty of living a
purer and nobler life than his self-seeking contemporaries!Above all, what a
countless army of men, "valiant for the faith and truth upon the earth," have
had to waterthe seedof Christ's gospelby their blood and tears!How often in
this and that land, and in none more than in our own, have those gospel
institutions, which are God's Tree of Life for the world, had to grow up like a
weeping willow and suck their first nutriment from the graves of their
martyr-slain! The blood of Scotland's proto-martyr, the noble Patrick
Hamilton, and the memory of his dying prayer, "How long, O Lord, shall
darkness coverthis realm?" fomented the young Reformationlife overa
comparatively silent germinating period of more than twenty years. Knox,
and with him Scotland, kindled at the pile of George Wishart. Andrew
Melville caught the falling mantle of Knox. And as with the martyrs under
Popery in that century, so with those under the "black prelacy" of the next.
When Richard Cameron fell on Aird's Moss — as if in answerto his own
prayer as the action began, "Lord, spare the greenand take the ripe!" — all
the more strenuously strove Cargill, till he, too, in the year following, sealed
the truth with his blood. And more followed, and yet more, through that last
and worstdecade of the pitiless storm known, as by emphasis, "the killing
time." Through those terrible years Peden draggedout a living death, and, as
he thought of Cameronnow at rest, often exclaimed, "O to be with Richie!"
Young Renwick, too, caughtup the torn flag, nobly saying, "They are but
standard-bearers that have fallen; the Masterlives." Thus one after another,
on blood-drenched scaffoldor on blood-soakedfield, fell the precious seed-
grain to rise in harvests manifold, till just at the darkesthour before the
dawn, Renwick's martyrdom closedthe red roll in 1688, the very year of the
Revolution, and the seedso long "sownin tears" was" "reapedin joy."

Marvel not at this. He who is at once the sowerand the seedhad Himself to
die that we might live.
(T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Vitality of latent seeds
Christian Journal.
Much interesting information has been furnished lately upon the vitality of
buried seeds. It is astonishing how long many of them retain their germinating
powers although lying so deep in the earth as to be beyond the reachof
atmospheric influences. This is so — e.g., with the seeds ofgorse. A piece of
land in Northamptonshire was converted from a furze fox-coverto pasture, a
state in which it remained for thirty years or more; it was then deeply
cultivated, and the following seasona crop of gorse sprung up over the whole
field. A gardener, in order to plant some rhododendrons last spring, turned
over a quantity of peat soil, the bottom portion being brought to the surface.
That bed is now coveredwith a thick crop of seedling foxgloves, the seedof
which must have been lying there in a state of complete dormancy for
probably half a century. In the same manner do seeds oftruth often lie in the
hearts of men. The sowerforgets that he has scatteredthem, or mourns that
they have not sprung up. The harvest may come, however, aftermany years
have rolled away, for the seedcontains the germ of a God-given life. Those
who scatterthe "Word of God" ought never to despair of results.
(Christian Journal.)
Sowing the seedof the Word
Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.
Billy Dawson, that greatnatural orator, had a wonderful sermon on the
"Sowerand the Seed." With every stroke ofthe hand in imitation of the act of
sowing, the speakerwoulddrop some blessedpassageofScripture. The

Methodist chapelin one of the midland counties not being big enough, the use
of the ParticularBaptist Chapel was secured. The minister of the chapelwas
upon the platform. Dawsongave this "sowing speech,"and went along the
platform scattering the seedand giving one passageofScripture after
another: "Godso loved the world;" "Come unto Me, all ye that labour;" then
there came another handful; "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." "There, it's out,"
he said, "and you cando what you like." When remonstratedwith for this
breach of ministerial propriety he said, "I did not think about the chapel, nor
the parson!I thought about the seed."
(Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.)
Parable of the Sower
J. Jowett, M. A.
Luke 8:4-15
And when much people were gatheredtogether, and were come to him out of
every city, he spoke by a parable:…
I. BY THE WAYSIDE.
1. The design intended in God's ordinance of preaching — what is it? We
answer, your salvation.
2. The means of becoming interestedin this salvationare also here declared.
"Lestthey should believe," says the parable, "and be saved."

3. A hindrance, with many, occurs at the very outset. No sooneris the Word of
life spokento them than — "then cometh the devil, and taketh awaythe word
out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."
4. The success orfailure of this hindrance will be owing, not to Satan —
though his power is fearfully great — but to yourselves.
II. UPON A ROCK. A class ofhearers in whom there is some appearance of
believing the gospel. Further, their assentis not a cold and involuntary, but a
warm and lively, approbation — "Theyreceive the Word with joy."
III. AMONG THORNS. A class ofpersons whose consciences appearto be
touched, and, in a certain sense, permanently touched, by the solemnverities
of the gospel. And a change has been wrought upon them, by what they have
felt.
IV. ON GOOD GROUND. The superiority of this class consists in —
1. A difference of the soil. Here is "anhonest and goodheart."
2. difference in the receptiongiven to the seedsown; that is, to the Word of
salvation. The honestand goodheart, "having heard the Word, keeps it."
3. There is a difference in the growthalso, where the seedfalls upon an honest
and goodheart. It germinates, not hastily, as where neither rootnor moisture
are found; not irregularly, and amidst perpetual resistance, as where thorny

cares, deceitfulriches, and ensnaring pleasures choke it; but "with patience"
— progressively, uniformly.
4. A difference in the fruit produced.
(J. Jowett, M. A.)
J. Thomson, D. D.
Luke 8:4-15
And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of
This parable displays profound knowledge ofhuman nature, of human
character, and of human history.
I. THOSE REPRESENTED BYTHE SEED THAT FELL BY THE
WAYSIDE ARE INFIDELS. Having the means and opportunities of knowing
and practising Christianity, yet rejecting it wilfully and obstinately.
II. THOSE REPRESENTED BYSEED SCATTERED ON ROCKYSOIL
ARE THE INDOLENT AND TIMID.

III. THOSE REPRESENTEDBYSEED SPILLED AMONG THORNS ARE
THOSE WHO ARE INFLUENCED BYTHE STRONG AND ACTIVE
PASSIONS.
IV. THOSE REPRESENTEDBYSEED SOWN ON GOOD SOIL ARE
GOOD CHRISTIANS WHOSE IMPRESSIONS OF RELIGION BECOME
DEEPER AND BRIGHTER IN DIFFERENTDEGREES. This class includes
all sincere persevering Christians.
1. There must be a goodand honest heart.
2. A disposition to hear the Word, to receive it without prejudice, and with a
sincere resolutionto profit by it.
3. Constancy. Retaining the knowledge acquired, and constantlymaking
additions to it.
4. Bringing forth fruit with patience. Our motives may be good, so also may be
our intentions and aims; but to give these their full value they must be carried
into action. Actions, followed by habits, complete the character.
5. Fruit in different proportions. Yet the lowestdegree — thirtyfold — is not
small.
(J. Thomson, D. D.)

W. Borrows, M. A.
Luke 8:4-15
I. THE SEED ITSELF. The seedis the Word of God — the word of prophecy;
the word of promise; the word of sound doctrine; the word of strong
exhortation, and solemn warning, and high encouragement, which is given by
inspiration of God.
1. A quickening seed. It brings the dead in sin to spiritual life. It is also
productive of much consolationto those who are quickened thereby.
2. A holy seed.
3. An incorruptible seed.
4. A seedof fruitfulness in every goodword and work to do God's will.
5. An abiding seed.
II. THE DIFFERENT RECEPTIONSOF THIS SEED, AND THE
CONSEQUENT DIFFERENTRESULTS.

III. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.
1. An important caution to all hearers to take heed how they hear, and to
remember their awful responsibility.
2. Much matter of humiliation to the whole Church. There never has been,
and never can or will be, any profitable hearing of the Word, unless the Holy
Spirit change the heart and prepare the soil for the receptionof the Divine
seed.
3. Much matter of encouragementto every weak believer. If the work of the
Holy Spirit is begun on the heart, the Word of truth may be heard with profit;
and it has been heard with profit by all who are separatedfrom the world,
and transformed by the renewing of their mind.
4. Finally, the parable sets forth matter of important instruction to the
individuals on the way to Zion, relative to the subject-matter of preaching that
shall be profitable for them to hear.
(W. Borrows, M. A.)
T. E. Marshall, M. A.

Luke 8:4-15
I. THE HEEDLESS. Bearing without attending. All a matter of form.
II. THE HEARTLESS. Interesteasily enlisted; feelings quickly touched.
Feelings so soonstirred are not likely to be deep, and principles quickly
influenced are no safe guides. "Ruined by adversity" is the epitaph of the
heartless. Theymay be goodfor a time, but they cannot be goodlong.
III. THE BREATHLESS. This is the prevailing phase of modern worldliness.
It is an age of hurry. Many persons would be excellentChristians if only they
were not so many other things besides;if they were not so engrossed in
business, or absorbedin pleasures, orpreoccupiedby cares. This will not do.
If religion is to thrive at all, it must carry on simultaneously two processes;it
must strike root downward and bear fruit upward. These are precisely the
two things which the worldly man's religion can never do.
IV. THE GUILELESS. Of these, if we may say it with reverence, it must have
been a real pleasure to our Lord to speak. Not, indeed, that the goodare all
perfect, or all alike good. No sameness in grace, anymore than in nature. We
expectdifferences, even among guileless hearts. It is characteristic ofthe
guileless that they make no show for a long time; they develop surely, but very
slowly. "Savedby patience" shall be written over them.
(T. E. Marshall, M. A.)

The Divine Sowerand His Seed
C. S. Turner, M. A.
Luke 8:4-15
Two things are clearat starting.
1. The seedis all of one kind — not a mixture, but the same throughout; many
grains, but one, and only one quality.
2. It is absolutely and perfectly good;not only the same quality throughout,
but that quality perfect, and so eachand every grain complete in itself in all
that constitutes the perfection of seed.
I. THE SEED. Seedis a living reality; seedis the germ or origin from which
the plant in its strength and beauty springs. Yet withal seed, living as it is,
quick with life which should propagate itselfto a thousand generations, is
dependent for its germination and its fruitfulness on the soilwhich receives it
when sowed. Now our Lord teaches us that seed, possessing,as we know it
does, these qualities, is an apt emblem of the Word of God.
II. THE SOWER. JesusChrist Himself. As men do not always scattertheir
seedliterally with their own hands, but use machinery, and yet it is in truth
not the machine, but the man who sows it, by whom the seedis sowed, so,

wheneverHis seedis sowed, He is the Sower, using the hands and mouths of
men as His instruments, not giving up His office and work to them to
discharge for Him, but Himself discharging His office and work by and
through them. It is only a partial accountof the ministry of His Church to say
that He works upon men's souls by means of it; it is He in it who thus works,
and works effectually. He it is, then, who went out as the Sower;He went out,
and He has never turned back;He has never ceasedofHis sowing. But when
did He go out? It has been well written "He is said to go out by the actof
taking flesh, clothed wherewith He went forth as a husbandman, putting on a
garment suitable for rain, sun, and cold, albeit He was a King." And yet we
cannot limit His going out to sow to the actualperiod of the world's history at
which it pleasedHim to put on that garment visibly before the eyes of men;
for as it was His purpose from eternity to become Incarnate, so the power and
virtue of His Incarnation reaches back as wellas forward.
III. SEED AND SOWER ARE ONE. Christ is the Sower, Christ is also the
Seed;for He is the Word of God. He sows Himself. And He is the Life; He
hath life in Himself; He quickeneth whom He will.
(C. S. Turner, M. A.)
The Parable of the Sower
Canon G. E. Jelft
Luke 8:4-15

1. Are you a carelesshearer?
2. Are you an unsteadfastbearer?
3. Are you a worldly-minded hearer?
4. Are you a faithful hearer?
(1) Faithful hearers present to the soweran honestand goodheart.
(2) They hear and understand: they go along with the love of the Lord as He
instructs them, even if they cannot comprehend all mysteries, or gainall
knowledge.
(3) They keepthe Word: they think of it, meditate upon it.
(4) Whoever has been the human sower, they regardthe seedas what it is in
truth, the Word of God which effectually workethin him that believeth —
they are very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts — watchful that no one speak
lightly or jestingly of it — most watchful, in being very reverent towards it
themselves.
(5) And they are patient also, in the possessionof the Word — patient in trials,
because they have such a pledge of God's goodwilltowards them — patient
with others, as taught here in God's exceeding greatpatience towards them —

patient in darkness, knowing and feeling that that Word is still, and will
always be, a lantern unto their feet and a light unto their paths.
(6) And finally, in this patience they bring forth fruit — eachman according
to his severalability — "some thirty-fold," etc. They are assuredthat God
asks them, not merely for attention, but for fruit: not only for a deep root, but
for much fruit: not for an unworldly heart, alone, but for that glorious fruit of
the Spirit which proves that the inner life of their souls has been begun,
continued, and ended in God.
(Canon G. E. Jelft)
The SowerSowing His Seed
Thomas Taylor, D. D.
Luke 8:4-15
every city, he spoke by a parable:
I. THE SOWER IS CHRIST HIMSELF. He that sows the goodseedis the Son
of man. Are not ministers sowers?
1. Christ sows His own field, which He hath dearly purchasedwith His
precious blood: they sow not their own fields, but His, not being "lords of the
heritage of God" (1 Peter5:3).

2. He sows His own seed:so in the text. The sowersowedHis seed. Theyhave
no seedof their own, but fetched out of His garner.
3. They differ in the manner of sowing. He was the most skilful Sowerthat
ever was. He knew exactly what grain every ground was fitted for. With Him
were treasures of wisdom. We that have but drops from His fulness, are
unskilful in comparison. He could speak to men's private and personal sins, as
the womanat the well. He could answerto men's thoughts and reasonings;we
not so.
4. We differ in efficacy. We may sow and plant, and this is all. Suppose it be
Paul, or Apollos himself, we can give no increase, normake anything to grow.
But He can sow, and give increase atHis pleasure. He can warm it with the
beams of grace, streaming from His own brightness (Malachi 4:2). He is the
Sun of Righteousness. He can blow upon His field with the prosperous winds
of His gracious and quickening spirit (Isaiah 3:8; Song of Solomon4:16).
II. THE ACTION. This Sowergoethforth. Christ goethforth to sow three
ways.
1. In spirit, by inward inspirations and heavenly motions. And thus He sowed
in the hearts of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and the prophets; who were, with
other holy men, immediately inspired and actedby the Holy Ghost(1 Peter
1:21). So with the penmen of Scripture, and the apostles.
2. In person, according to His humanity He comethout from the bosomof His
Father, and comes into the field of the world by His happy Incarnation.

3. In the ministry of His servants He goethforth, both the prophets and
teachers before Him.
III. THE INTENTION IS, TO SOW HIS SEED.
1. As seedis a small and contemptible thing, altogetherunlikely to bring such
a return and increase;so the Word preachedseems a weak and contemptible
thing (1 Corinthians 1:23).
2. As the seedin the barn or garnerfructifies not, unless it be castinto the
earth; so the Word, unless castinto the ears and hearts of men, is fruitless,
regeneratethnot, produceth no fruits of faith.
3. As the sowerpricks not in his seed, nor sets it, but casts it all abroad, and
knows not which of his seedwill come up to increase, andwhich will rot and
die under the clods;so the minister (God's seedsman)speaks notto one or
two, but casts his seedabroadto all in general;neither knows he which and
where the Word shall thrive to increase, andwhere not, but, where it doth
increase, it riseth with greatbeauty and glory, as the grain of mustard seed
becomes a tree in which the birds of heaven may build their nests.
4. As seedhath a natural heat, life, and virtue in it, by which it increasethand
begettethmore seeds like unto itself; so the Word castinto the goodground
hath a supernatural heat in it, being as fire (Jeremiah5:14), and a lively
powerto frame men like itself, to make them, of fleshly, spiritual; of blind,
quick-sighted; of dead in sin, alive in grace. And as one grain quickened,
brings sundry tillows, and many grains in each;so one Christian converted,
and receiving this powerin himself, gaineth many unto God, desiring that
every one were as he is, except his bonds and sins.

5. As seedcastinto the ground lives not, unless it die first; so the Word
preachedbrings no fruit or life, unless it kill first and work mortification; yea,
and by continual sense offrailty and acquaintance with the cross, it keeps
under such natural pride and corrupt as resist the work of
6. As seedcastnever so skilfully into the earth is not fruitful, unless Godgive
it a body (1 Corinthians 15:38);so neither is the Word, unless God add His
blessing (1 Corinthians 3:6).
(Thomas Taylor, D. D.)
The Word of God as Seed
H. Macmillan, D. D.
Luke 8:4-15
every city, he spoke by a parable:
God. does not establishfull-formed things. He plants seeds which grow. This is
the uniform method of His procedure in every department, natural and
spiritual. A seedis the most wonderful thing in the world. There is nothing
else that contains so much in so little bulk. There is nothing else that
concentrates within it such capacities andpossibilities. It is the origin and end
of organic life. It forms the bridge of transition from the grain of sand to the
living cell. By means of it the naked rock is coveredwith verdure, and the

desolate wilderness transformedinto a garden. The analogybetweenthe
Word of God and a seedis remarkably close and striking. There are
innumerable points of resemblance betweenthem; but in this exposition I can
only point out a few of the more obvious and impressive.
1. The first point of comparisonis found in the life which they both possess. A
seedis a living thing. And in this respectis it not a striking emblem of the
Word of God? That Word is a living Word. "The words that I speak unto
you," says Jesus, "theyare spirit and they are life." It is not truth merely in a
spokenor a written form. It is more than knowledge. It is a living power; it
does not work mechanically, but vitally. The words of Christ were the
concentrationand embodiment of His ownlife, just as truly as the seedis the
concentrationand embodiment of the life of the plant. It is the highestof all
life. And just as in nature it has been proved that dead matter cannot
originate life under any circumstances whatever, exceptby the introduction
into it of a living seed, so without the instrumentality of the Word of God
there can be no spiritual life. The Spirit takes ofthe recordedthings of Christ,
and shows them to us. Without the Word there would be nothing to know, or
obey, or love; without the Spirit there would be no saving knowledge,no
obedience, no love. The Spirit operating upon the heart apart from the Word
would be only to give a vague inclination without an object as its end and
purpose. And therefore all religion that does not spring from the seedof God's
Word is a dim abstractionof an unreal sentimentality. It is aimless and
powerless,the continual ploughing and harrowing of a field without putting
any seedinto it.
2. Another point of resemblance betweenthe seedand the Word is the twofold
nature of both. A seedconsists oftwo parts: the embryo, or germ, which is the
essentialprinciple of life, and the materials of nourishment by which, when
the seedgerminates, the young life may grow. The seedis not all a living
principle; its inner essentiallife reposes in a shrine so small that it canbarely
be seen. You take awayfold after fold of the minute seed, part after part of its

structure, and, after all, you have removed only food and clothing. The vital
germ has eluded you; and even when you have come to the last microscopic
cell, you know not how much of this cell itself is living principle, and how
much mere provision for its wants. There is the same dual combination in
every spokenand written word of thought and form, of sound and sense. As it
was necessarythat the Divine should appearin human nature in Christ, so it
is necessarythat we should have the Divine thought, the Divine life, in the
literary form in which it is embodied in Scripture. We could not apprehend it
otherwise. The living principle in the seedwould not grow without its
wrapping of nourishment and clothing; and the mind of God could not affect
us unless it were revealedto us in our own human language, in the flowing
images of time and sense with which we are familiar. When it is said that we
are born againof incorruptible seed, ofthe Word of Godthat liveth and
endureth for ever, it is not meant to be implied that the Word of God is itself
the begetting principle. It is only the mode in which the principle works, the
vehicle by which the mysterious powerembodied in it operates. It is not the
human language orthought, but the Divine life within it, that creates us -new.
And when it is further said that this living Word endureth for ever, we are
taught thereby that while it is only the vehicle of God's begetting principle, it
is no mere transient chaff, or husk, or nourishing material, like the perisperm
of the natural seed, which has only a temporary purpose to serve, and then
decays and passes awaywhenit has servedthat purpose. It is " no mere
sacramentalsymbol lost in the using," but it lives by and with the Divine
principle which it reveals and employs, and endures for ever. And just as we
see in the natural seed, owing to its twofold nature, an unbroken continuity of
life, pausing here and unfolding itself there, casting off the chaff and the husks
that have servedtheir purpose that it may expand freely, the perisperm dying
that the embryo may grow; so we see in the Word of God the same principle
of identity running through the successive stagesofits development — the
same vital truth of redemption passing through various dispensations that
have become old and are ready to perish, growing to more and more, casting
off effete forms, and unfolding itself more clearly and fully in new forms
better suited to the new needs. We see the germ that was planted in the first
promise of the seedof the woman growing successivelyinto the patriarchal
and legaldispensations, and, when the leafage and fruitage of these

dispensations waxedold and perished, taking a grander form in the gospel
dispensation, and blossoming and fruiting with a new and Divine life in a new
and regeneratedworld.
3. A third point of resemblance betweenthe Word of God and a seedmay be
found in the small compass within which the living principle is enshrined in
both. Nothing, as I have said, holds so much in so little bulk as a seed. It is the
little ark that swims above a drowned world, with all the life of the world
hidden within it. It is a miniature orb, embracing the whole mystery of
animated nature. An atom, often not so large as a grain of sand, contains
within it all the concentratedvitality of the largestforesttrees. It is a most
remarkable example of nature's packing; for a seedconsists-ofa single or a
double leaf, folded in such a way as to take up the smallestpossible room. And
in this respectthe Word of God may be compared to a seed. It is truth in its
seed-form. We have in the Scriptures the most concentratedform of heavenly
teaching. Nothing is omitted; nothing is superfluous. It contains all that is
necessaryfor the salvationof man. Nothing canbe added to it or takenaway
from it. It is rounded and finished off — full-orbed and complete, as every
seedmust be. All is containedwithin the smallestcompass, so as to be easiest
of comprehension, easiestofbeing carried in the memory, and easiestofbeing
reduced to practice. And the Word of God is so compactedin the seed-form,
because it needs to be unfolded in the teaching and life of man. The soil was
made for the revelation of the seed;and the seedwas made to be revealedby
the soil. As the seedcannotdisclose whatis in it unless it fall into appropriate
soil, and be stimulated to growth by suitable conditions, so the Word of God
cannot disclose allthat it contains unless it grow in an understanding mind
and in a loving heart; unless by meditation and prayer it can expand from the
seed-form to the blade, and the ear, and the full corn in the ear. As wonderful
as the unfolding of a beautiful flowerfrom an almostinvisible seedis the
unfolding of the depth and fulness of meaning that is in the smallestprecept of
Scripture. For every new generation, the Word of God has new revelations
and adaptations. The seedin the new soil and circumstances reveals new
aspects oftruth. The Word of God, like the greatword of nature which is the
illustration of it, holds in reserve for every succeeding age some new

perception, some new disclosure of the Divine order and economy, revealing
to no man, howeverstudious and zealous, more than a part, and ever opening
new vistas to reverent love and intelligence.
4. A fourth point of resemblance betweenthe Word of God and a seedis the
variety and beauty that may be recognizedin both. Have you ever examined a
seedunder a magnifying glass? It is often seento be very curiously formed,
even by the nakedeye; but the microscope reveals new beauties and marvels
of constructionin it. The other day, in my garden, I took up the withered head
of a poppy, and poured out into the palm of my hand the contents of its
curious seed-vessel. There was a little heap of very small round seeds that
would take a long time to count. I lookedat the handful with the aid of my
pocketlens, and I saw, to my delight, that eachwas beautifully chasedand
embossedon the outside.. For the shapes of beauty often displayed by seeds
language has no terms. A whole volume might be filled with an accountof
them. Some have curious wing-like appendages, onwhich they float awayin
the air in searchof a suitable growing-place;some are coveredwith silky
down, and some with lace-like tunics, while many kinds have hard enamelled
or embroidered surfaces;and their colouring is as varied and beautiful as
their forms. In this, the minutest of God's works, this smallestand inmost
shrine of life, His attention is acuminated, and His skill, as it were,
concentrated;so that, above all others, these little things assure us that we are
not living in a world left to itself, but in one that reveals at every stepthe
"besetting God." And in this respectof beauty and variety, does not the Word
of God compare with the seed? How wonderfully is the Bible constructed!It is
fashionedin human imagery. Every kind of literary style is found in it. The
same truth is conveyed in many forms, and always in the most appropriate
dress. Proverb and allegoryand parable, history, psalm and prophecy, song
and incident, everything that can charm the imagination and quicken the
intellect and satisfythe heart, is employed to make its doctrines and precepts
interesting and impressive.

5. A fifth point of resemblance betweenthe Word of Godand a seedmay be
seenin the wonderful effects which they both produce. There is something
almost creative in a seed. You take a seedto a desert, sow it there, and you
change the barren sand, by its growth, into a fruitful field. That seedalters the
whole characterof a place, makes the climate more genialand the soilmore
fertile, and the very heavens more accommodating. The flow of streams, the
nature of the winds, the sunshine, the dew, and the rainfall, the verdure of
forestand field, all depend upon the effects whicha little seedproduces. Man
himself has his well-being affectedby the growth of a seed. The sowing of seed
must ever be the first process towards a higher state of things. Man's natural
life hangs upon the sowing of corn. His whole civilization springs from it. His
capacityof improvement and capability of receiving spiritual instruction, and
consequentlyall the revelations and experiences ofthe kingdom of heaven, are
connectedwith the sowing of the seedof the meat that perisheth. And in all
these respects, do not the effects produced by the Word of God resemble those
of the natural seed? The Word of God is quick and powerful. It awakens an
instinctive reverence whichno other word inspires. When it enters the soul, it
stirs up feelings that are peculiar to itself. It does not lie dormant in the
intellect, but quickens the conscience. It does not affectour opinions or
speculations merely, it affects our heart and life. We regulate our conduct and
thought by scientific or literary truth, but such truth does not lord it supreme
over our being: it is subordinate to us — it is our servant, and we use it for
our own purposes. But the Word of God dominates our whole nature, and we
must submit to it for its own sake. We cannotuse or subordinate it to
ourselves;we feel that it must use us, and that we must obey it. It has the
powerof transmutation in it. It has a spiritual quickening energy. It is the
source of saving life to souls dead in trespassesand sins. It has takenits place
in the heart of human culture. Nothing else has wrought such a mighty
revolution in human ideas. It is a Divine seedwhich came from heaven, and
has brought the kingdom of heavendown to men — made the desertto rejoice
and blossomas the rose. The harvest which has sprung from it is everywhere
visible in the Church and the world. It is increasing in beauty and fruitfulness
every day. We are sent into the world to sow, and not to destroy — to sow the
seedof heaven, and thus raise in it a heavenly produce foreign to it, impart to
it a principle of spiritual life which, by its growth, will choke out old evils, and

make all things new. And let us remember that we must give our own life in
the sowing, as the plant gives its life in the seed.
(H. Macmillan, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(4) And when much people were gathered . . .—The narrative is less precise
than that in St. Matthew. It is possible that the parable may have been
repeatedmore than once.
MacLaren's Expositions
Luke
ONE SEED AND DIVERSE SOILS
Luke 8:4 - Luke 8:16.
Luke is particular in dating this parable as spokenat a time when crowds
resortedto Jesus, and the cities of Galilee seemedemptied out to hear Him.
No illusions as to the depth or worth of this excitementbesetHim. Sadly He
lookedon the eagermultitudes, because He lookedthrough them, and saw
how few of them were bringing ‘an honestand goodheart’ for the soilof His
word. Just because He saw the shallowness ofthe momentary enthusiasm, He
spoke this pregnant parable from a heavy heart, and as He tells us in His

explanation of it to the disciples {ver. 10}, uses the parabolic garb as a means
of hiding the truth from the unsusceptible, and of bringing it home to those
who were prepared to receive it. Every parable has that double purpose of
obscuring and revealing. The obscuring is punitive, but the punishment is
meant to be remedial. God never cheats men by a revelationthat does not
reveal, and the very hiding is meant to stimulate to a searchwhich cannot be
vain.
The broad outstanding fact of the parable is tragic. Three failures and one
success!It may be somewhatlightened by observing that the proportion which
each‘some’ bears to the whole seed-basketfulis not told; but with all
alleviation, it is sadenough. What a lessonfor all eagerreformers and apostles
of any truth, who imagine that they have but to open their mouths and the
world will listen! What a warning for any who are carriedoff their feet by
their apparent ‘popularity’! What a solemn appealto all hearers of God’s
message!
I. Commentators have pointed out that all four kinds of soilmight have been
found close togetherby the lake, and that there may have been a sowerat
work within sight.
But the occasionof the parable lay deeperthan the accidentof local
surroundings. A path through a cornfield is a prosaic enoughthing, but one
who habitually holds converse with the unseen, and eversees it shining
through the seen, beholds all things ‘apparelled in celestiallight,’ and finds
deep truths in commonplace objects. The sowerwouldnot intentionally throw
seedon the path, but some would find its resting-place there. It would lie bare
on the surface of the hard ground, and would not be there long enough to
have a chance of germinating, but as soonas the sower’s back was turned to
go up the next furrow, down would come the flock of thievish birds that
fluttered behind him, and bear awaythe grains. The soilmight be good

enough, but it was so hard that the seeddid not getin, but only lay on it. The
path was of the same soilas the rest of the field, only it had been trodden
down by the feet of passengers, perhaps for many years.
A heart across whichall manner of other thoughts have right of way will
remain unaffectedby the voice of Jesus, if He spoke His sweetest, divinest
tones, still more when He speaks but through some feeble man. The listener
hears the words, but they never getfarther than the drum of his ear. They lie
on the surface of his soul, which is beaten hard, and is non-receptive. How
many there are who have been listening to the preaching of the Gospel, which
is in a true sense the sowing of the seed, all their lives, and have never really
been in contactwith it! Tramp, tramp, go the feetacross the path, heavy drays
of business, light carriages ofpleasure, a never-ending streamof traffic and
noise like that which pours day and night through the streets ofa great city,
and the result is complete insensibility to Christ’s voice.
If one could uncover the hearts of a congregation, how many of them would be
seento be occupied with business or pleasures, orsome favourite pursuit, even
while they sit decorouslyin their pews!How many of them hear the
preacher’s voice without one answering thought or emotion! How many could
not for their lives tell what his last sentence was!No marvel, then, that, as
soonas its lastsound has ceased, downpounce a whole coveyof light-winged
fancies and occupations, and carry off the poor fragments of what had been so
imperfectly heard. One wonders what percentage ofremembrances of a
sermon is driven out of the hearers’heads in the first five minutes of their
walk home, by the purely secularconversationinto which they plunge so
eagerly.
II. The next class ofhearers is representedby seedwhich has had somewhat
better fate, inasmuch as it has sunk some way in, and begun to sprout.

The field, like many a one in hilly country, had places where the hard pan of
underlying rock had only a thin skin of earth over it. Its very thinness helped
quick germination, for the rock was near enough to the surface to getheated
by the sun. So, with undesirable rapidity, growth began, and shoots appeared
above ground before there was rootenough made below to nourish them.
There was only one possible end for such premature growth-namely,
withering in the heat. No moisture was to be drawn from the shelf of rock, and
the sun was beating fiercely down, so the feeble greenstem drooped and was
wilted.
It is the type of emotionalhearers, who are superficially touched by the
Gospel, and too easilyreceive it, without understanding what is involved.
They take it for theirs ‘with joy,’ but are strangers to the deep exercisesof
penitence and sorrow which should precede the joy. ‘Lightly come, lightly go,’
is true in Christian life as elsewhere. Converts swiftlymade are quickly lost.
True, the most thorough and permanent change may be a matter of a
moment; but, if so, into that moment emotions will be compressedlike a great
river forced through a mountain gorge, whichwill do the work of years.
Such surface converts fringe all religious revivals. The crowd listening to our
Lord was largely made up of them. These were they who, when a ground of
offence arose, ‘wentback, and walkedno more with Him.’ They have had
their successors in all subsequent times of religious movement. Light things
are caughtup by the wind of a passing train, but they soondrop to the ground
again. Emotion is good, if there are roots to it. But ‘these have no root.’ The
Gospelhas not really touched the depths of their natures, their wills, their
reason, and so they shrivel up when they have to face the toil and self-sacrifice
inherent in a Christian life.
III. The third parcel of seedadvancedstill farther.

It rooted and grew. But the soilhad other occupants. It was full of seeds of
weeds and thorns {not thorn bushes}. So the two crops ran a race, and as ill
weeds grow apace, the worse beat, and stifled the greenblades of the
springing corn, which, hemmed in and shut out from light and air, came to
nothing.
The man representedhas not made cleanwork of his religion. He has received
the goodseed, but has forgottenthat something has to be grubbed up and cast
out, as wellas something to be takenin, if he would grow the fair fruits of
Christian character. He probably has cut down the thorns, but has left their
roots or seeds where they were. He has fruit of a sort, but it is scanty, crude,
and green. Why? Becausehe has not turned the world out of his heart. He is
trying to unite incompatibles, one of which is sure to kill the other. His
‘thorns’ are threefold, as Luke carefully distinguishes them into ‘cares and
riches and pleasures,’but they are one in essence,forthey are all ‘of this life.’
If he is poor, he is absorbedin cares;if rich, he is yet more absorbed in
wealth, and his desires go after worldly pleasures, which he has not been
taught, by experience of the supreme pleasure of communion with God, to
despise.
Mark that this man does not ‘fall away.’He keeps up his Christian name to
the end. Probably he is a very influential member of the church, universally
respectedfor his wealth and liberality, but his religion has been suffocatedby
the other growth. He has fruit, but it is not to ‘perfection.’If Jesus Christ
came to Manchester, one wonders how many such Christians He would
discoverin the chief seats in the synagogues.
IV. The last class avoids the defects of the three preceding.

The soilis soft, deep, and clean. The seedsinks, roots, germinates, has light
and air, and brings forth ripened grain. The ‘honest and good heart’ in which
it lodges has been well characterisedas one ‘whose aim is noble, and who is
generouslydevoted to his aim’ {Bruce, The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p.
33}. Such a soul Christ recognisesas possible, prior to the entrance into it of
the word. There are dispositions which prepare for the receptionof the truth.
But not only the previous disposition, but the subsequent attitude to the word
spoken, is emphasisedby our Lord. ‘They having heard the word, hold it fast.’
Docilelyreceived, it is steadily retained, or held with a firm grip, whoeverand
whatevermay seek to pluck it from mind or heart.
Further, not only tenacity of grasp, but patient perseveranceofeffort after the
fruit of Christian character, is needed. There must be perseverance in the face
of obstacles within and without, if there is to be fruitfulness. The emblem of
growth does not suffice to describe the process ofChristian progress. The
blade becomes the ear, and the earthe full corn, without effort. But the
Christian disciple has to fight and resist, and doggedlyto keepon in a course
from which many things would withdraw him. The nobler the result, the sorer
the process.Corngrows;characteris built up as the result, first of worthily
receiving the goodseed, and then of patient labour and much self-suppression.
These different types of characterare capable of being changed. The path
may be broken up, the rock blastedand removed, the thorns stubbed up. We
make ourselves fit or unfit to receive the seedand bear fruit. Christ would not
have spokenthe parable if He had not hoped thereby to make some of His
hearers who belongedto the three defective classesinto members of the
fourth. No natural, unalterable incapacity bars any from welcoming the word,
housing it in his heart, and bringing forth fruit with patience.
BensonCommentary

Luke 8:4-15. And when much people were gathered together — To be
instructed by his discourse, as well as to see, or be healed by, his miracles;and
were come to him — In crowds;out of every city — In that part of the
country; he spake by a parable — Having first, for greaterconveniencyof
being better heard and less incommoded by them, entered into a ship, where
he sat, and from thence taught them. A sowerwent out to sow, &c. — See this
parable explained at large in the notes on Matthew 13:3-23;and Mark 4:3-20.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
8:4-21 There are many very needful and excellentrules and cautions for
hearing the word, in the parable of the sower, and the application of it. Happy
are we, and for ever indebted to free grace, if the same thing that is a parable
to others, with which they are only amused, is a plain truth to us, by which we
are taught and governed. We ought to take heed of the things that will hinder
our profiting by the word we hear; to take heed lestwe hear carelesslyand
slightly, lest we entertain prejudices againstthe word we hear; and to take
heed to our spirits after we have heard the word, lestwe lose what we have
gained. The gifts we have, will be continued to us or not, as we use them for
the glory of God, and the goodof our brethren. Nor is it enough not to hold
the truth in unrighteousness;we should desire to hold forth the word of life,
and to shine, giving light to all around. Great encouragementis given to those
who prove themselves faithful hearers of the word, by being doers of the
work. Christ owns them as his relations.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
See the parable of the sowerexplained in the notes at Matthew 13:1-23.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
Lu 8:4-18. Parable of the Sower.
(See on [1596]Mr4:3-9, [1597]Mr4:14-20.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary
Ver. 4-15. We have had this parable, See Poole on"Matthew 13:1", See Poole
on "Mark 4:1". See the notes on both these chapters.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And when much people were gatheredtogether,.... To Jesus,as he was by the
sea side, the sea ofGalilee, or Tiberias:
and were come to him out of every city; of Galilee, to hear him preach, and
see miracles:
he spake by a parable; the following things.
Geneva Study Bible
{1} And when much people were gatheredtogether, and were come to him out
of every city, he spake by a parable:
(1) The same gospelis sowneverywhere, but does not everywhere yield the
same fruit, and this is only due to the fault of men themselves.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
Luke 8:4-15. See on Matthew 13:1-23;Mark 4:1-20. The sequence ofevents
betweenthe messageofthe Baptist and this parabolic discourse is in Matthew
wholly different.

συνίοντος δέ] whilst, however, a greatcrowdof people came together, also of
those who, city by city, drew near to Him. τῶν κ.τ.λ. depends on ὄχλου
πολλοῦ, and καί, also, shows that this ὄχλος πολύς, besides others (such,
namely, as were dwelling there), consistedalso ofthose who, city by city, i.e.
by cities, etc. “Ex quavis urbe erat cohors aliqua,” Bengel.
ἐπιπορεύεσθαι, not: to journey after (Rettig in the Stud. u. Krit. 1838, p. 486),
but to journey thither, to draw towards. Comp. Bar 6:62; Polyb. iv. 9. 2.
Nowhere else in the New Testament;in the Greek writers it is usually found
with an accusative ofplace, in the sense ofperagrare terram, and the like.
διὰ παραβ.]by means of a parable. Luke has the parable itself as brief and as
little of the pictorial as possible (see especiallyLuke 8:6; Luke 8:8); the
original representationof the Logia (which Weiss finds in Luke) has already
faded away.
Luke 8:5. The collocationὁ σπείρων τοῦ σπεῖραι τὸν σπόρον has somewhatof
simple solemnity and earnestness.
μέν] καί follows in Luke 8:6. See on Mark 9:12.
καὶ κατεπατ.]not inappropriate, since the discourse is certainly of the
footpath (in oppositionto de Wette), but an incidental detail not intended for
exposition (Luke 8:12).
Luke 8:7. ἐν μέσῳ] The result of the ἔπεσεν. See on Matthew 10:16;and
Krüger, ad Dion. Hal. Hist. p. 302.

συμφυεῖσαι]“una cum herba segetis,”Erasmus.
Luke 8:9-11. τίς … αὕτη]namely, κατὰ τὴν ἑρμηνειαν, Euthymius Zigabenus.
τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἐν παραβ.]but to the restthe mysteries of the kingdom of God
are given in parables, that they, etc. What follows, viz. ἵνα βλέποντες μὴ
βλέπωσι κ.τ.λ., is the contrastto γυῶναι.
ἔστι δὲ αὕτη ἡ παραβολή]but what follows is the parable (according to its
meaning).
οἱ δὲ παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν] to complete this expressionunderstand σπαρέντες, which
is to be borrowedfrom the foregoing ὁ σπόρος. But since, according to Luke
8:11, the seedis the Gospel, a quite fitting form into which to put the
exposition would perhaps have been τὸ δὲ παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸντούτωνἐστίν, οἳ
κ.τ.λ. Luke 8:14-15 come nearer to such a logicallyexactmode of expression.
Luke 8:13. Those, however, (sown)upon the rock are they who, when they
shall have heard, receive the word with joy; and these, indeed, have no root,
who for a while believe, etc.
Luke 8:14. But that which fell among the thorns, these are they who have
heard, and, going awayamong cares, etc.,they are choked. The οὗτοι (instead
of τοῦτο)is attractedfrom what follows (Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 2. 42), as
also at Luke 8:15.

ὑπὸ μεριμνῶν κ.τ.λ.]a modal limitation to πορευόμενοι, so that ὑπό marks the
accompanying relations, in this case the impulse, under which their
πορεύεσθαι, that is, their movement therefrom (that is, their further life-
guidance), proceeds, Bornemannin loc.; Bernhardy, p. 268;Ellendt, Lex.
Soph. II. p. 881. The connecting of these words with συμπνίγ. (Theophylact,
Castalio, Beza, Elsner, Zeger, Bengel, Kuinoel, de Wette, Ewald, Schegg, and
others) has againstit the factthat without some qualifying phrase
πορευόμενοι, wouldnot be a picturesque (de Wette), but an unmeaning
addition, into which the interpreters were the first to introduce anything
characteristic, as Beza, Eisner, Wolf, Valckenaer:digressiab audito verbo,
and Majus, Wetstein, Kuinoel, and others: sensim ac paulatim (following the
supposedmeaning of ,‫,ְך‬ 2 Samuel 3:1, and elsewhere). Comp. Ewald, “more
and more.”
τοῦ βίου] belongs to all the three particulars mentioned. Temporal cares (not
merely with reference to the poor, but in general), temporal riches, and
temporal pleasures are the conditioning circumstances to which their interest
is enchained, and among which their πορεύεσθαι proceeds.
συμπνίγονται]the same which at Luke 8:7 was expressedactively:αἱ ἄκανθαι
ἀνέπνιξαν αὐτό. Hence συμπνίγονται is passive;not: they choke (what was
heard), but: they are choked. Thatwhich holds goodof the seedas a type of
the teaching is assertedofthe men in whose hearts the efficacyof the teaching
amounts to nothing. This want of precision is the result of the fact that the
hearers referred to were themselves marked out as the seedamong the thorns.
κ. οὐ τελεσφ consequenceofthe συμπνίγ., they do not bring to maturity, there
occurs in their case no bringing to maturity. Examples in Wetsteinand
Kypke.

Luke 8:15. τὸ δὲ ἐν τ. κ. γῇ] sc. πεσόν, Luke 8:14.
ἐν καρδίᾳ κ.τ.λ.]belongs to κατέχουσι (keepfast, see on 1 Corinthians 11:2),
and ἀκούσαντες τὸνλόγ. is a qualifying clause insertedparenthetically.
καλῇ κ. ἁγαθῇ]in the truly moral meaning (comp. Matthew 7:17), not
according to the Greek idea of εὐγένεια denoted by καλὸς κἀγαθός (Welcker,
Theogn. Proleg. p. xxiv. ff.; Maetzner, ad Antiph. p. 137;Stallbaum, ad Plat.
Rep. 8, p. 569 A). But the heart is morally beautiful and goodjust by means of
the purifying efficacyof the word that is heard, John 15:3.
ἐν ὑπομονῇ]perseveringly. Comp. Romans 2:7. A contrastis found in
ἀφίστανται, Luke 8:13. Bengelwell says:“estrobur animi spe bona
sustentatum,” and that therein lies the “summa Christianismi.”
Expositor's Greek Testament
Luke 8:4-8. Parable of the sower(Matthew 13:1-9, Mark 4:1-9).
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
4-15. The Parable of the Sower.
4. when much people were gatheredtogether]Rather, were coming together.
Our Lord, though ready at all times to utter the most priceless truths even to
one lonely and despisedlistener, yet wiselyapportioned ends to means, and
chose the assembling of a large multitude for the occasionofa new departure
in His style of teaching.

and were come to him out of every city] Rather, and (a multitude) of those
throughout every city resorting to Him. A comparisonof this Parable and the
details respecting its delivery, as preserved in eachof the Synoptists (Matthew
13:2-13;Mark 4:1-20), ought alone to be decisive as to the factthat the three
Evangelists did not use eachother’s narratives, and did not draw from the
same written source suchas the supposed Proto-Marcus ofGerman theorists.
The oral or written sources whichthey consultedseemto have been most
closelyfaithful in all essentials,but they differed in minute details and
expressions as all narratives do. From St Matthew (Matthew 13:1) we learn
that Jesus had just left “the house,” perhaps that of Peter at Capernaum; and
therefore the place which He chose for H is first Parable was probably the
strip of bright hard sand on the shore of the Lake at Bethsaida. BothSt
Matthew and St Mark tell us that (doubtless, as on other occasions, to avoid
the pressure of the crowd) He goton one of the boats by the lake-side and
preachedfrom thence.
by a parable] St Luke here only reports the Parable of the Sowerand its
interpretation. St Mark adds that of the seedgrowing secretly(Mark 4:26-29),
and that of the grain of mustard seed (30-32;Luke 13:18-21). StMatthew
(Matthew 13:24-53)gives his memorable group of sevenParables:the Sower,
the Tares, the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Hid Treasure, the Pearl, the
Drag-net. This is no doubt due to subjective grouping. Our Lord would not
bewilder and distract by mere multiplicity of teachings, but taught “as they
were able to hear it” (Mark 4:33). ‘Parable’is derived from paraballo ‘I place
beside’ in order to compare.
A Parable is a pictorial or narrative exhibition of some spiritual or moral
truth, by means of actualand not fanciful elements of comparison.
It differs from a fable by moving solelywithin the bounds of the possible and
by aiming at the illustration of deeper truths; from a simile in its completer

and often dramatic development, as also in its object;from an allegoryin not
being identical with the truth illustrated. The moral objects which our Lord
had in view are explained below (Luke 8:10), but we may notice here the
unapproachable superiority of our Lord’s Parables to those of all other
teachers. Parablesare found scatteredthroughout the literature of the world.
They abound in the poems and sacredbooks oflater religions (Sir 1:25,
“Parables ofknowledge are in the treasures ofwisdom,”) and they have been
frequently adopted in later days. But “never man spake like this Man,” and
no Parables have evertouched the heart and conscienceofmankind in all ages
and countries like those of Christ. “He taught them by Parables under which
were hid mysterious senses, whichshined through their veil, like a bright sun
through an eye closedwith a thin eyelid.” Jer. Taylor. For Old Testament
parables see 2 Samuel12:1-7; Ecclesiastes 9:14-16;Isaiah 28:23-29. StLuke is
especiallyrich in Parables. The word ‘parable’ sometimes stands for the
Hebrew mashal ‘a proverb’ (Luke 4:23; 1 Samuel10:12; 1 Samuel 24:13);
sometimes for a rhythmic prophecy (Numbers 23:7) or dark saying (Psalm
78:2; Proverbs 1:6); and sometimes for a comparison(Mark 13:28).
Bengel's Gnomen
Luke 8:4. Τῶν κατὰ πόλιν) out of every city there was some body of men.—
ἐπιπορευομένων)Ἐπὶ is to be referred to the multitude of the people.
Pulpit Commentary
Verses 4-15. - The parable of the sower, and the Lord's interpretation of it.
Verse 4. - And when much people were gatheredtogether, and were come to
him out of every city, he spake by a parable. A greatchange, it is clear, took
place in our Lord's way of working at this period. We have already (in the
note on ver. 1) remarkedthat from henceforth he dwelt no longerin one
centre, his owncity Capernaum, but moved about from place to place. A new
way of teaching was now adopted - that of the "parable." It was from this
time onward that, when he taught, he seems generallyto have spokenin those

famous parables, or stories, in which so much of his recordedteaching is
shrined. Hitherto in his preaching he had occasionallymade use of similes or
comparisons, as in Luke 5:6 and Luke 6:29, 48;but he only began the formal
use of the parable at this period, and the parable of the sowerseems to have
been the earliestspoken. Perhaps becauseit was the first, perhaps on account
of the far-reaching nature of its contents, the story of "the sower" evidently
impressed itself with singular force upon the minds of the disciples. It
evidently formed a favourite "memory" among the first heralds of the new
faith. It is the only one, with the exception of the vine-dressers, one of the
latestspoken, which has been preservedby the three - Matthew, Mark, and
Luke. It is identical in structure and in teaching in all the three, which shows
that they were relating the same story. It differs, however, in detail; we thus
gather that the three did not copy from one primitive document, but that
these "memories" were derived either from their ownrecollections orat least
from different sources. Now, whatinduced the Masterthus deliberately to
change the manner of his teaching? In other words, why, from this time
forward, does he veil so much of his deep Divine thought in parables? Let us
considerthe attitude of the crowds who till now had been listening to him.
What may be termed the Galilaeanrevival had well-nigh come to an end. The
enthusiasm he had evokedby his burning words, his true wisdom, his novel
exposition of what belongedto human life and duty, was, when he left
Capernaum and beganhis preaching in every little village (ver. 1), at its
height. But the great Heart-readerknew well that the hour of reactionwas at
hand. Then the pressure of the crowds which thronged him was so greatthat,
to speak this first parable, he had to get into a boat and address the multitude
standing on the shore (Matthew 13:2); but the moment was at hand which St.
John (John 6:66) refers to in his sad words, "Fromthat time many of his
disciples went back, and walkedno more with him." It was in view of that
moment that Jesus commencedhis parable-teaching with "the sower." As
regards the great mass of the people who had crowdedto hear his words and
look on his miracles, the Lord knew that his work had practically failed. At
the first he spoke to the people plainly. The sermonon the mount, for
instance, contains little, if anything, of the parable form; but they understood
him not, forming altogetherfalse views of the kingdom he described to them.
He now changes his method of teaching, veiling his thoughts in parables, in

order that his own, to whom privately he gave the key to the right
understanding of the parables, should see more clearly, and that those who
deliberately misunderstood him - the hostile Pharisee and Sadducee, for
instance - should be simply mystified and perplexed as to the Teacher's
meaning; while the merely thoughtless might possibly be fascinatedand
attractedby this new manner of teaching, which evidently veiled some hidden
meaning. These lastwould probably be induced to inquire further as to the
meaning of these strange parable-stories. ProfessorBruce, who has very ably
discussedthe reasons whichinduced Christ at this period of his ministry to
speak in parables, says there is a mood which leads a man to presenthis
thoughts in this form. "It is the mood of one whose heart is chilled, and whose
spirit is saddened by a sense of loneliness, andwho, retiring within himself by
a process ofreflection, frames for his thoughts forms which half conceal, half
revealthem - reveal them more perfectly to those who understand, hide them
from those who do not (and will not) - forms beautiful, but also melancholy, as
the hues of forestin late autumn. It' this view be correct, we should expect the
teaching in parables would not form a feature of the initial stage ofChrist's
ministry. And such accordinglywas the fact." As regarded the men of his own
generation, did he use the parable way of teaching almostas a fan to separate
the wheatfrom the chaff? "Thathe had to speak in parables was one of the
burdens of the Son of man, to be placed side by side with the fact that he had
not where to lay his head" (ProfessorBruce, 'Parabolic Teaching of Christ,'
book 1. ch. 1.). And when much people were gathered together, and were
come to him out of every city. The impression of the witness who told the story
to Luke and Paul evidently was that at this period of the Lord's ministry vast
crowds flockedto listen or to see.. St. Matthew expresses the same conviction
in a different but in an equally forcible manner. Only the Lord knew how
hollow all this seeming popularity was, and how soonthe crowds would melt
away. He spake by a parable. Roughly to distinguish betweenthe parable and
the fable: The fable would tell its moral truth, but its imagery might be purely
fanciful; for instance, animals, or even trees, might be representedas
reasoning and speaking. The parable, on the contrary, never violated
probability, but told its solemn lesson, oftencertainly in a dramatic form, but
its imagery was never fanciful or impossible. Luke 8:4

PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Luke 8:11 "Now the parable is this: the seedis the word of God.
KJV Now the parable is this: The seedis the word of God.
The seedIsaiah8:20; Matthew 13:19;Mark 4:14-20;1 Corinthians 3:6,7,9-12;
James 1:21; 1 Peter1:23-25
Luke 8:4-15 Receptivity to the Gospel, Part 1 - John MacArthur
Luke 8:4-15 - StevenCole
Luke 8 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Parallelpassages - Luke alone says directly "the seedis the Word of God."
Neither parallel passagehas the phrase "Word of God."
Mt 13:19+ “Whenanyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not
understand (“while everyone is listening and not comprehending” “not
putting together” “notgrasping.”)it, the evil one comes and snatches away
what has been sownin his heart. This is the one on whom seedwas sown
beside the road.

Mark 4:14-15+ “The sowersows the word. These are the ones who are beside
the road where the word is sown;and when they hear, immediately Satan
comes and takes awaythe word which has been sown in them.
JESUS EXPLAINS THE
PARABLE OF THE SOILS
Now the parable is this - Jesus gives us the interpretation.
The parable (see discussionabove)
The seed(see discussionabove)
Spurgeonon the word of God - Notthe word of man. Have we a word of God
at all? Brethren, that is a question which we have to answernowadays. Our
fathers never questioned it, they believed in the infallibility of the Bible, as we
do. But, now, all our wise men do not think so. They set to work to mend the
Scriptures, to pick out of the Bible that which they imagine to be inspired (Ed:
cf Jefferson's Bible - he cut out all the parts having to do with the
supernatural!). Let us not do so, my brethren.
Darrell Bock - The picture of the word as seedis important. Often we think of
evangelismand preaching as something that happens in an instant. But the
picture of a seedmakes us think of a farmer who prepares the ground, sows
seed, waters and then must wait for the crop. Producing a crop is a process
over time. Often the message ofthe word, too, takes time to bear fruit....Of the
various options, only one type of soil yields fruit; every other type proves

inhospitable to the precious seed. (Luke 8:4-9:17 Call to Faith and
Christology)
The seedis the word of God - Matthew says the seedis the word of the
kingdom. In Mk 1:15+ Jesus said "“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” In Mt 4:23+ we read that
"Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagoguesand
proclaiming the Gospelof the kingdom." And so the seedis the word of God
which in turn is the Gospelof God,, the goodnews of how one gains entrance
into the Kingdom of God. There is no mention of the sowerfor this can be
anyone who sows the Word of God. What is criticalis that it is the Word that
is sown, not who sows it. In factin Philippians 1:15 "Some, to be sure, are
preaching Christ even from envy and strife." These individuals also sinful are
sowers!In explaining the parable of the tares Jesus said"the one who sows
the goodseedis the Son of Man," but the contextis entirely different from the
parable of the soils.
Word (3056)(logos from légō = to speak with words; English= logic, logical)
means something said and describes a communication whereby the mind finds
expressionin words. Although Lógos is most often translated word which
Websterdefines as "something that is said, a statement, an utterance", the
Greek understanding of lógos is somewhatmore complex. In this context the
Word of God is the word of the Kingdom of God, the Gospel(Lk 8:10, cf Lk
9:2, 6)
Word of God - 47x in 46v - 1 Sam. 9:27; 2 Sam. 16:23; 1 Ki. 12:22;1 Chr.
17:3; Prov. 30:5; Matt. 15:6; Mk. 7:13; Lk. 3:2; Lk. 5:1; Lk. 8:11; Lk. 8:21;
Lk. 11:28; Jn. 10:35;Acts 4:31; Acts 6:2; Acts 6:7; Acts 8:14; Acts 11:1; Acts
13:5; Acts 13:7; Acts 13:46; Acts 17:13; Acts 18:11;Rom. 9:6; 1 Co. 14:36;2
Co. 2:17; 2 Co. 4:2; Eph. 6:17; Phil. 1:14; Col. 1:25; 1 Thess. 2:13;1 Tim. 4:5;
2 Tim. 2:9; Tit. 2:5; Heb. 4:12; Heb. 6:5; Heb. 11:3; Heb. 13:7; 1 Pet. 1:23; 2
Pet. 3:5; 1 Jn. 2:14; Rev. 1:2; Rev. 1:9; Rev. 6:9; Rev. 19:13; Rev. 20:4

Paul explains the believer's role (using his example - cf 1 Cor 11:1) in sowing
the seed, the Word, the Gospel
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither
the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes
the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but eachwill
receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow
workers;you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to the grace of
God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and
another is building on it. But eachman must be careful how he builds on it. (1
Cor 3:6-10)
Peteruses the same picture showing the power of the seed, the Word, the
Gospel, to "germinate" the new birth in Christ...
for you have been born again not of seedwhich is perishable but
imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE
FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER
FALLS OFF, 25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.”
And this is the word which was preachedto you. (1 Peter1:23-25+)
James also picks up the picture of the Gospelas a seed...
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in
humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. (James
1:21+)

MacArthur - Seedbeing the Word of God simply means the gospel, the gospel,
the Word from God about salvation, about how to enter the kingdom, the
Word from God about forgiveness andreconciliationand justification,
sanctification, glorification. Thatis the seed. People sometimes will say, "If I
go out to evangelize, what should I say?" The gospel. "Well, I'm not...I'm not
sure I'm really goodat presenting it." Are you a Christian? "Yes." You
have confirmation that you're really a true Christian? "Yes." Thenyou
knew enough to get saved, so you know enough to tell somebodyelse how to
get saved. It's not any more complicatedthan that....People think that
somehow seeddoesn'twork or it's offensive. Look, if you're trying to get
everybody that you present the gospelto saved, you better go back and study
this parable again. It's not going to happen. So know this, that there's no
artificial way to overcome the fact that it's going to be a few. It's going to be a
minority. There's no artificial way for you to create a synthetic seedthat's
going to make everybody embrace it. That will be false conversion. The seed
is the gospel, the seedis the Word of God, that's the seedand that's what you
give, that's what you proclaim, whether you're preaching like I do, or whether
you're witnessing one on one, seedis the Word of God, not your thoughts,
ideas, insights, the Word of God. We are utterly dependent on divine truth
revealedin Scripture....So don't beat yourself up if you don't seemto be
effective. First of all, throw some more seed. You're more likely to hit some
goodsoil. But in the end, it's the heart. (Receptivity to the Gospel)
In another sermon MacArthur emphasizes that "If you know the gospelwell
enough to be saved by it, you know it well enoughto present it to somebody
else. And the messageofthe gospelis what it is and it isn't anything else and
it doesn't need to be altered. And as we're learning in the story, it's not a
matter of the sowerand it's not a matter of the seed, it's a matter of what?
The soil. Responsesto the proclamationof the gospelare determined not by
the skillof the sowerand not by the state of the seed, but by the soil. It's
really important to know that because that helps us to understand what to do

in evangelism, what to expect and what not to expect." (Receptivity to the
Gospel- Part3)
Steven Cole - Jesus’words and the quote from Isaiahplunge us into one of the
deep mysteries that we cannotfully grasp, the fact that God sovereignly
grants salvationto His elect, but that sinners are fully responsible for their
persistence in sin and their ultimate condemnation. For the disciples, God
sovereignlygranted that they know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Lu
8:10). No one can boastthat he discoveredthese mysteries by his own
reasoning or investigation. Only God can revealthem and He does not reveal
them to everyone. Is God then unfair? Not at all, because men are responsible
for their selfishness,stubbornness, and sin. They have no one but themselves
to blame for their own hardness of heart. John Calvin (Commentary on a
Harmony of the Evangelists [Baker], 2:108)uses the illustration of the effects
of the sun on a person with weak eyes. When such a personsteps out into
bright sunlight, his eyes become dimmer than before, but the fault lies not
with the sun but with the person’s weak eyes. Evenso, when the Word of God
blinds the reprobate, it is not the fault of the Word, but of the person’s own
depravity. Thus by speaking in parables, Jesus was seeking to fostera genuine
response from His electwho would apply the truth to their hearts. But He was
also concealing the gospelfrom those who were merely curious but who were
not willing to apply it to their hearts. They would continue in their spiritual
blindness. But they would not thwart the sovereignpurpose of God’s
kingdom. (Luke 8:4-15 Superficial and Genuine Believers)
Cole adds on the seedis the word of God - Of His own ministry, Jesus said,
“ForI did not speak on My owninitiative, but the FatherHimself who sent
Me has given Me commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know
that His commandment is eternallife; therefore the things I speak, I speak
just as the Fatherhas told Me” (Jn 12:49-50). Also, as Paul stated, “All
Scripture is God-breathed” (2Ti3:16, literal translation). In other words,
Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles were notreligious geniuses who gave us
their best ideas about God and man. Rather, they were inspired and moved by
the Holy Spirit to record what God chose to reveal to us in His written Word

(2Pe 1:21). God uses that word implanted to save our souls (Jas 1:18, Jas
1:21). Just as a seedhas life in it, so the Word of God is alive and can impart
life to those who are spiritually dead. Just as a seedhas greatpowerin it, so
that it can sprout and grow to the point that eventually it cracksthe
foundation of a house, so the Word of Godcan germinate in the human heart
and do a mighty work of transformation. Just as a seedcan produce a tree
that bears much fruit which gives nourishment, sustains life, and in turn
produces more seeds to produce more trees and fruit, so the Word of God can
bear fruit in human lives. This means that when we talk to people about Jesus
Christ, we must share the contentof the gospelfrom God’s Word. So often in
our day Jesus is presentedas an emotionalexperience:“Believe in Jesus and
you’ll feel better and your problems will be solved.” But many people know
nothing of the Jesus in whom they are being encouragedto believe. To
encourage a personwho does not know what the Bible says about Christ to
believe in Him is to encourage him to believe in a figment of his own
imagination. Before you encourage sucha personto make a decisionfor
Christ, encourage him to read the Bible, especiallythe Gospels. He needs to
know something about who God is, who man is, and who Jesus is as revealed
in the Word before he can intelligently repent of his sin and believe in Jesus
Christ.....One reasonthatI have devoted hours every week for almost22 years
now to preparing biblical sermons is that I believe that God’s Word will not
return to Him empty without accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it
forth (Is 55:10-11). So whetheryou give people tapes or printed copies of
biblical sermons or tracts or Gospels ofJohn or New Testaments, scatterthe
seedof God’s Word. In due time you will reap fruit for eternity. By the way,
are you sowing, watering, and nourishing the seedof God’s Word in your own
life? I sometimes wonderwhat would happen if Christians would spend as
much time eachweek reading the Bible as they spend reading the newspaper
and watching TV. If you feed your mind on the world, you won’t grow in the
things of God. If you sow God’s Word in your heart repeatedly, some of it will
sprout and bear fruit if you’ve gotgood soil.(Luke 8:4-15 Superficial and
Genuine Believers)

Jon Courson- We are born againnot of corruptible seed, Peterdeclared, but
of incorruptible—the Word of God (1 Peter1:23). Do you want to be more
like the Lord, to experience blessing and joy, to radiate love and peace?The
way to do so is not by mustering your efforts to be more Christlike. The seed
is the Word. You will be more Christlike if you allow the Word of Godto
continually and consistentlypenetrate your inner person (Ed: cf Jesus'prayer
for sanctification- John 17:17). That is how you were born againinitially.
And that is how more of Jesus will be birthed through you continually.
There's just no other way. The seedis the Word of God. (Jon Courson's
Application Commentary New Testament)
Beautiful Fruit
The seedis the word of God. Luke 8:11
Today's Scripture & Insight: Luke 8:4–8, 11–15
“Kids should be able to throw a seedanywhere they want [in the garden] and
see what pops up,” suggestsRebecca Lemos-Otero, founderof City Blossoms.
While this is not a model for carefulgardening, it reflects the reality that each
seedhas the potential to burst forth with life. Since 2004, City Blossoms has
createdgardens for schools and neighborhoods in low-income areas. The kids
are learning about nutrition and gaining job skills through gardening.
Rebeccasays, “Having a lively greenspace in an urban area . . . creates a way
for kids to be outside doing something productive and beautiful.”
Jesus told a story about the scattering of seedthat had the potential of
producing “a hundred times more than was sown” (Luke 8:8). That seedwas
God’s goodnews planted on “goodsoil,” whichHe explained is “honest, good-
hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge
harvest” (v. 15 nlt).

The only way we can be fruitful, Jesus said, is to stayconnectedto Him (John
15:4-5). As we’re taught by Christ and cling to Him, the Spirit produces in us
His fruit of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness andself-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).He uses the fruit He
produces in us to touch the lives of others, who are then changedand grow
fruit from their own lives. This makes for a beautiful life. By: Anne Cetas
(Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. —
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
How are you staying connectedto Jesus? Whatfruit do you want Him to
produce in you?
I want a beautiful life, Father. Please produce Your fruit in me that I might
live a life that points others to You.
Luke 8:12 "Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil
comes and takes awaythe word from their heart, so that they will not believe
and be saved.
KJV Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and
taketh awaythe word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be
saved.
beside Lk 8:5; Proverbs 1:24-26,29;Matthew 13:19;Mark 4:15; James
1:23,24
then Proverbs 4:5; Isaiah65:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-14;Revelation12:9
Luke 8:4-15 Receptivity to the Gospel, Part 1 - John MacArthur

Luke 8:4-15 - StevenCole
Luke 8 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
ParallelPassages:
Matthew 13:19+ “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not
understand it, the evil one comes and snatches awaywhathas been sownin his
heart. This is the one on whom seedwas sownbeside the road.
Mark 4:15+ “These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is
sown;and when they hear, immediately Satancomes and takes awaythe word
which has been sownin them.
PARABLE OF THE SOILS:
THE CALLOUS SOIL
Callous means made insensitive, having feelings or morals deadened,
describing one who is emotionally hardened, insensitive; indifferent;
unsympathetic. One might be discouragedby this soil, but remember this is a
parable and it does not state that the soilcannot be altered by plowing, etc.
THOUGHT - Many (most?) of us were "hard soil" until God got our attention
and plowed our heart with adversity or affliction (as was the case in my late
conversionat age 39). God is the ultimate Husbandman and He knows how to
cultivate the conditions of the soil of His electin order that they receive the
Word implanted which is able to save their soul! And not only that but in
Jeremiah, God reminds us about the power of His Word asking "Is not My
Word like fire? And like a hammer which breaks the rock?" (Jer23:29). So
dear sowerwho has been frustrated by failure of results in a dear friend or

loved one whose "soil" seemsso hard for so long, for God is able to break the
soil of their heart and penetrate it with His Gospelwhich has His inherent
power(dunamis) (Ro 1:16+). So keeppraying for the soilof their souland
keepsowing the Gospelseedas God's Spirit gives you opportunity to do so.
My father prayed for me literally for 20 years before God's adversity plowed
deep furrows in my heart for His Gospelseed(My Testimonyto God's Grace).
And then I prayed 20 years for my youngestson who was ensnaredin opioid
addiction almost to the point of death and God's Gospelpenetratedhis hard
heart and savedhim from addiction and gave him a new life in Christ. As
Paul writes in Galatians "Letus not lose heart in doing good, for in due time
we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let
us do goodto all people, and especiallyto those who are of the household of
the faith." (Gal 6:9-10+) So pray and sow, pray and sow, pray and sow!
Sow with a view to righteousness,
Reapin accordance withkindness;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the LORD
Until He comes to rain righteousness onyou.
Hosea 10:12
Jesus is not saying 1/4 of the people who receive the Gospelseedwill respond
this way. He is giving 4 generalreactions people will manifest when we speak
the Gospelto them. And just as it takes time for seedto germinate, it may take
a considerable time for the response to be seento the seedof the Word. In this
person's heart (soil) there is utterly no response to this presentationof the
Gospel.

Those beside the road are those who have heard - The Old Testamentwould
call them the hard-hearted and the stiff-necked. They are resolute and rigid
in their indifference, disinterest and love of sin. This is the condition of the
heart which corresponds to the hardness of that footpath around the field.
The heart of this kind of person is a thoroughfare, crossedby the mixed
multitude of iniquities that traverse it day after day after day after day. And
it's not fenced so it lies exposedto all the evil stompings of everything that
comes along. It's never broken up. It's never plowed by conviction. It's
never plowed by self-searching, self-examination, contrition, honest
assessmentofguilt, repentance. The heart is callous. It's callous to the sweet
reasonings ofgrace and it's callous to the fearful terrors of judgment. Nothing
wrong with the seed. Nothing wrong with the sower. Something terribly
wrong with his hard, impenitent heart. (MacArthur)
This soil reminds me of severalmen in the NT -
King Herod - Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and
holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very
perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him. (ED: AND WE KNOW HE
PREACHED THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM!) (Mark 6:20+)
Felix - And as he (PAUL) was discussing righteousness,self-controland the
judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, "Go awayfor the
present, and when I find time, I will summon you." (Acts 24:25+)
King Agrippa - And Agrippa replied to Paul, "In a short time you will
persuade me to become a Christian." And Paul said, "I would to God, that
whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this
day, might become such as I am, except for these chains." (Acts 26:28-29+)

We see this same principle in the last days when Antichrist is given powerto
rule during the tribulation
Then that lawless one (ANTICHRIST)will be revealed(IN THE LAST 3.5
YEARS OF THE TRIBULATION)whom the Lord will slay with the breath
of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance ofHis coming (Rev
19:20+);9 that is, the one (ANTICHRIST) whose coming is in accordwith the
activity of Satan(Rev 13:2-6+), with all powerand signs and false wonders, 10
and with all the deceptionof wickedness forthose who perish, because
(EXPLAINS WHY THEY PERISH) they did not receive (THEY MADE A
PERSONALCHOICE TO REJECT)the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11
For this reason(AGAIN SEE THE PRINCIPLE OF Mt 13:12b) Godwill
send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false
(THEY BELIEVE THE LIES OF THE ANTICHRIST - THESE ARE THE
EARTH DWELLERS IN REVELATION THOSE WHO ABSOLUTELY
CANNOT BE SAVED BECAUSE OF THEIR PERSONALCHOICE TO
REJECT TRUTH), 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not
believe the truth (THEIR INABILITY TO EVEN NOW BELIEVE TRUTH
IS JUDICIAL HARDENING OF THEIR HEARTS!), but took pleasure in
wickedness. (2 Th 2:8-12)
Then - This expressionof time describes succession. Seedis sown. The Devil
sweeps in to remove it.
Takes awaythe word from their heart - The heart of this parable is the heart.
The heart is the key, for it is the soil. There are four types of hearts according
to this parable. Mt 13:19+ has "snatchesaway(harpazo = same word used to
rapture saints!) what has been sownin his heart." In contextclearly their
heart is the soil in which the seedwas sown.

Robertson- The birds pick up the seeds while the sowersows. The devil is
busy with his job of snatching or seizing like a bandit or rogue the word of the
kingdom before it has time even to sprout. How quickly after the sermon the
impression is gone.
MacArthur explains "the parable is about heart condition. It's not about the
skill of the sower, it's not about the seed. The seedis fixed eternally. It is the
Word of God that is the only seed. The soweris anybody who presents the
gospelin its simple and magnificent truth. The issue about response has not
to do with the seed. You can't fix the seedto make it more palatable. It has
not to do with some methodology on the part of the sower. It's all about the
condition of the heart. The basic truth of the parable is the result of the
hearing of the gospelalways depends on the condition of the heart. It's so
important to know that. I don't know how many people in the world today in
evangelicalismthink that people's response to the gospeldepends on the skill
of the sower, orit depends on the nature of the seed, and so they want to work
on the methodologyof the sower, orthey want to work on a more palatable
seed. The issue is the heart. That's what Jesus is saying. The characterof the
heart of the hearer determines the response." (Receptivity to the Gospel)
Steven Cole writes that "Satanhardens people’s hearts by the traffic of
worldly philosophies. People engagein worldly, man-centeredthinking so
often that their hearts grow callusedto the truth of God. For example, many
in our culture are so steepedin the postmodern ideas that spiritual truth is
relative and that it doesn’t matter what you believe that they automatically
rejectthe exclusive claims of the Gospelbecause it runs counter to the ideas
they have traffickedin for all their lives. It is ironic that these are people who
would scoffat the idea of a personal devil, and yet that very devil is the one
who snatches awaythe seedof the Gospelfrom them! (ED: WAS THIS NOT
THE STRATEGYPAR EXCELLENCE IN "SCREWTAPELETTERS"=
THERE IS NO DEVIL!) In their hardness of heart, they feel no need for God.
We need to pray that God will break up the hard ground of their hearts with

the plow of trials so that they will be open to receive the truth of the Gospel."
(Luke 8:4-15)
Darrell Bock gives allof us a goodword to remember wheneverwe speak
forth the Word of God, the Gospel - When God seeks to speak to humanity
(Ed: Through His ambassadors = US!), a cosmic battle breaks out. (Luke 8:4-
9:17 Call to Faith and Christology)We should not fear the inevitable spiritual
war, but we must not be ignorant of it either lest we be caughtunaware with
our guard down and become as it were a "wounded soldier." Many saints
simply do not graspthe gravity and certainty of this titanic invisible war for
human souls!To be forewarnedis to be forearmed!
Spurgeonon devil - He does not mind their merely hearing. What he is afraid
of is their believing, for he knows that in believing lies the secretof their
salvation.
Devil (Mk 4:15+ = Satan, Mt 13:19+ = evil one)(1228)(diabolos fromdiá =
through, between+ ballo = to cast, throw) means a false accuser, slanderer
(one who utters false charges ormisrepresentations which defame and
damage another’s reputation), backbiting (malicious comment about one not
present), one given to malicious gossipor a calumniator (one who utters
maliciously false statements, charges, orimputations about, this term imputes
malice to the speakerand falsity to the assertions).
Takes away(142)(airo)literally means to lift up something (Mt 17:27) and to
carry it (Lxx - Ge 44:1, Ex 25:28 = the Ark).
Heart (2588)(kardia)does not refer to the physical organbut is always used
figuratively in Scripture to refer to the seatand center of human life. The
heart is the centerof the personality, and it controls the intellect, emotions,
and will. No outward obedience is of the slightestvalue unless the heart turns
to God. Our "controlcenter" (to make a play on the "air traffic control

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Sower

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