Luke 8:16-21: Fruitful Hearing

Famous Reformed Baptist pastor Al Martin preached a 16 part series on Luke 8:18, the series is called Take Heed How You Hear. 16 sermons on how to listen to the word of God! He deals with how we should prepare to listen before the sermon, how we should listen during the sermon, and what we should do after the sermon. Many might think that this is overkill, but Jesus Himself in the portion before us continues to talk about how we hear God’s word. The state of your heart, whether you are willing to listen, the consequences of not listening, what will happen if you listen well, what should follow listening; all these things are spoken of by Christ Himself. We have just finished the parable of the Sower which is all about how we listen to God’s word. Jesus described the four different hearts accounting for the four different types of responses to Jesus. The portion we are looking at today, Luke 8:16-21 is directly linked to it.

¹⁶ “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ¹⁷ For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. ¹⁸ Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

¹⁹ Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. ²⁰ And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” ²¹ But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Jesus has levelled that challenge about how we listen, now He challenges us with this question: What will you do with the word you have heard? These verses divide naturally into our two points, we will be looking at how Jesus calls us to shine the light, and secondly to be hearers and doers of the Word.