Hear, Hear

Jesus’ parable of the sower is a story about hearing. It depicts four responses to the gospel. One man hears, but his heart is so hard the message does not sink in. He goes on his way unchanged. Another man hears and obeys, but his convictions are shallow. When opposition arrives, his commitment departs. Another man hears and, taking the truth to heart, obeys, but the gospel is not all that is in his heart. It is full of other things; eventually, they take over. A fourth man, one with a good heart, hears and brings forth fruit (Mt. 13:1-23 ).

In addition to this basic fourfold division, consider some other New Testament descriptions of hearers.

  • “Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21 ). Old truths had no appeal to this crowd. They were obsessed with novelty. And their spirit lives on. Suggest a Bible study and these folks will yawn. Yet they intensely follow every detail of stories about the so-called “lost books of the Bible” or the Bible Code or the Gospel of Judas or the Da Vinci Code or any other “new” thing (which is really old infidelity). Not surprisingly, Paul had little success at Athens. Fascination with the bizarre does not lend itself to acceptance of plain preaching.
  • “. . . always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7 ). Perhaps these were also enamored with new ideas. The context suggests two other problems. One is that they were learning from wrong sources: slick-talking teachers whose hearts were not wholly devoted to God. You cannot learn truth by listening to error. (Contrast that with the instruction of vv. 14-17: Timothy was to continue in the Scriptures, which he had learned from a godly mother.) The other problem was these hearers’ hearts. They were “gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts” (v. 6, NKJV). As Matthew Henry observed, “A foolish head and a filthy heart make persons . . . an easy prey to seducers.”
  • “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4 ). Truth hurts, at least sometimes. Yet it is the truth that makes us free (Jn. 8:32 ). Error keeps us in bondage to sin. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of people who prefer entertainment, feel-good stories, and pats on the back to solid gospel preaching, and no shortage of speakers anxious to provide whatever the audience wants.

Compare these to Luke’s description of the Bereans: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11 ). What kind of hearer are you?

Sunday, September 16th, 2007 Manslick Road Speaker Trackback