Those Who Hear God's Word and Do It

Luke 8:16-25, Key Verse: 8:21

"He replied, 'My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.'"

In last week’s passage, we learned that we must accept the word of God with our heart that is like a good soil. When the word of God is planted in the good soil-like heart, it grows and produces much crop; hundred times of what was sown. We learn the importance of our attitude towards the word of God. Today's passages reveal more about how the word works in us to grow and bear the much of the spiritual fruit. When the word grows in us, we grow in Jesus. When we grow in Jesus we feel alive; our hearts and minds are fresh, the world is new and dynamic every day. How many of you feel that you should grow? How many of you are willing and desiring to grow in faith? We have listened to the word of God for a long time. But we must go a step further to practice the word and persevere with it in our lives. In this way, we can finally grow as mature servants of God and disciples of Jesus. Do you want to grow? Let's learn how to grow in Jesus through today’s passage.

I. Consider carefully how you listen (16-18)

Look at verse 16. "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light."

Why does Jesus tell this obvious truth? What kind of foolish would light a lamp and hide in a jar or put under a bed? What is the message that Jesus wants to tell us here? Here, the "lamp" is the word of Jesus and Jesus himself. It is also the good news of the Kingdom of God. What happens when you turn on a light in a dark room? The darkness goes away, and now you can see clearly. Whatever was lost in the darkness is found in the light. Jesus came to this dark world to shine the light so that the power of sin and death can be driven out once and for all. Jesus healed the paralytic and forgave his sins, and revealed that there is no sickness that Jesus cannot heal. Jesus woke the son of a widow from death, and revealed that he can even overcome the power of death. Jesus showed us that the fear, sickness, and even death are not match for him in previous passages. So we must thank Jesus for shining his wonderful light in this dark world.

Where else does Jesus want to shine his light? It is your heart simply because it is so dark. Do you agree? How did it become so dark? It is because of our sins; sins of lust, human love-seeking, pleasure-seeking, arrogance, hatred, judging, and self-glory-seeking. And the list does not stop. All these are the elements of darkness. And as we eagerly pursue and practice them, we become lost in the serious darkness. We need the light, the light that can drive all these away. And that light is Jesus and Jesus alone. So we must put the lamp Jesus on a stand at the center of our hearts that He may shine our dark and gloomy hearts to make them bright and transparent. However, we do not like to do that. We don’t want to open our hearts to anyone, even to our parents and more with Jesus. We want to hide it, and enjoy it secretly. Although we know that if we let Jesus shine our hearts, we will be better off. But we hesitate to do so, and end up in hiding the light in a jar and putting it under the bed like a fool. We are so stubborn to hold on to the things that will perish and even destroy us. Look at verse 17. "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." No matter how professional we become in hiding and being stubborn with our hearts, everything will be revealed in Jesus eventually. The difference is whether you let Jesus inside now or make Jesus reveal everything on a judgment day. We must pray that we may decide to let Jesus shine his merciful and wonderful light in us, so that we can see everything clearly, and live with true peace and joy that comes only through Jesus’ light. Let us stop hiding the light, but put it at the center of our hearts so that Jesus can be the center of our life. And what is next? Jesus wants to shine his light through us to many others around us. So we must not hide the gospel in fear and shame, but stand firm in the power of the gospel we received. We are preparing for the JBF invitation night, which is happening in a few weeks. And we just cannot share the gospel with our hearts darkened and closed. I pray that we may receive Jesus truly for ourselves first, and invite others and share the good news. Amen.

After we let Jesus, the light of the world, inside, what is next? Look at verse 18. "Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him." We must remember, continuing from last week’s message, that the source of our power is Jesus' word. We can have real power when we listen to his word and accept it in our hearts. The victory can be won by the power of the word of Jesus in our hearts. So Jesus taught us to consider carefully how we listen. We are living in such a busy and informative generation, and we gain so much information every day. So, we often pick and choose what to listen. We filter the news that seems not worthy. We tend to move from one thing to the next very quickly. However, this is not the attitude that we must have to listen to the word of God. To listen to the word of God for real requires our sincere devotion and burning passion. We must regard the word as the most important thing to us and allow it to occupy our minds and hearts. Superficial bible study and habitual testimony will not grow us. When our hearts become involved and our strength used, we can truly say that that we listen to the word of God.

Some of us know the story of Brother Yun from China. He is the author of a famous book, "The Heavenly Man." Brother Yun wanted to know Jesus better through Bible study. But it was impossible to even obtain a Bible in China. Plus, anyone with a Bible would be killed. A pastor advised Brother Yun to kneel down and pray for a Bible. So he prayed every day for a month, kneeling on a stone. But nothing happened. He asked the pastor why. The pastor told him that kneeling down prayer was not enough, and that he needed to fast and weep as he prayed. Brother Yun did this until his family members thought he was crazy. However, shortly after his faithful and eager prayers, two men delivered a Bible to his house. They had not met him before, but God sent them to give him the Bible. Brother Yun suffered many things in his lifetime, but he said that this suffering was the most difficult. He could suffer much because he highly valued the word of Jesus in the Bible. He listened to Jesus' words as the words of life. His personal faith grew deep and strong, and he became a warrior of faith in Chinese Christian history.

What about us? Don’t you hope to possess such attitude and heart towards God’s words? How is your current heart towards God and his words? How are you listening to my humble message right now? Do you still have the heart that is path-like, rocky, or thorny? After learning last week’s passage, I personally thought about my spiritual condition and my heart and attitude towards the word of God. After meditating on God’s word for some time, God helped me to break my heart into many pieces, and let me repent of my wrong and insincere attitude towards his words. I repented that I treated the precious words as nothing more than mere words on a book, and that I was trying to deliver his precious words to my beloved JBF boys and girls with habitual and hypocritical mind, rather than with the heart of repentance and true love. And I prayed for a new heart and new ears so that I can listen to the word of God with all my heart as the word of life and truth. I am struggling with this just like you guys. And now I can say with confidence that I feel how precious and life-giving the word of God really is. Amen. Let us consider carefully how we listen. Let us fix and set our heart to listen to God’s words with eager desires from today. Amen.

II. Hear God's word and put it into practice (19-21)

While listening carefully to God's word is important, it is not enough. In order to grow spiritually, we must put it into practice in our very own lives. In this part, Jesus introduces the spiritual family. One day Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him. But they were not able to get near him because of the crowd (19). Someone told him, "You mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you" (20). They must have expected Jesus to stop what he was doing and pay immediate attention to his family. However, Jesus said, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." Jesus sounds mean and heartless. But, here Jesus teaches us with his clear message.

First, Jesus gave first priority to God's word. Jesus was not trying to say it is okay to ruthlessly abandon your family members. This does not mean that you are free to ignore your parents, and do whatever you feel like to do. Family members are have a specially unity and there must be full of love and care among them. However, Jesus did not stop what he was doing to pay attention to his family because he was preaching the word of God, and the people were struggle to listen and practice his word. To Jesus, there was nothing more important than this. Nothing could have interrupted Jesus even family members. Only when we have this kind of commitment to God's word can we truly taste the depth of a spiritual world. We must not exchange the eternal word of God for what perishes.

Second, Jesus taught about the spiritual family. According to Jesus' word, those who hear and practice God's word become members of Jesus' spiritual family. They enter into a new relationship with Christ and his people. We have a new identity as God's children (2 Cor 5:17). We have a new will, which is to live according to God's purpose for us (Php 2:13). We share God's heart and desires. Our purpose of life fundamentally changes from living for our own glory to living for God's glory. We lose the desire to sin and begin to crave the holiness of God.

The devil often whispers to us that God does not love us and that we don't deserve to be God's children. But the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God's children by grace (Ro 8:16). Not only so, we are heirs of God's everlasting kingdom and are even co-heirs with Christ (Ro 8:17). The devil also whispers to us that no one loves or understands us, and that we are not wanted. That is not true because In Christ, the members of his church are one body. We have a bond of love that is deeper and more powerful than any other. We have uncles and aunts all over us who humbly pray for us, and serve us. We have brothers and sisters who love us dearly and are willing to sacrifice for us in this JBF community. We also have the privilege of practicing God's love for our dear brothers and sisters and sacrificing for them. In this way, we can all grow in the love of God. Amen. God provided this spiritual family for our good. As Jesus set the example, we must honor our spiritual family members. We must love and serve one another with great affection. This gives us great joy and strength and we can win victory over the devil and the dark world.

However, we must remember that this great blessing is given only to those who hear God's word and put it into practice. Our father Abraham was told to leave his country and people and father's household when he was an old man. Although it was painful to him, he obeyed God. His act of obedience made him the eternal blessing, and he became the spiritual father of all who believe in Christ (Ro 4:17). Again, listening to the word of God comes first, and is very important. But the transformation and spiritual growth only happens when we are willing, and actually take the action of faith. How many of us remember our 2009 Key verse at this moment? How many of us are actually being reminded of the word, and struggle daily to obey and practice the word? This tells us clearly where our spiritual life is and where our hearts are before God. Jesus said, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.” In other words, we are not Jesus’ family members if we fail to practice the word of God. Then Jesus, at the end, will say to us, “Who are you? I don’t know you.” That should NOT happen although it CAN happen.

Jesus blesses those who hear and practice God's word, and makes us members of his glorious spiritual family. When we act on that faith, we experience spiritual fellowship in the body of Christ, and we can grow as mature servants of God.

III. Faith that overcomes the storms (22-25)

The event recorded in verses 22-25 illustrates how God uses the storms of life to help us mature in faith. One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. It is important to note that they entered the boat at Jesus' invitation. They were doing exactly what Jesus told them to do. Then, as they sailed, Jesus fell asleep. Jesus was tired after hard work and he slept deeply. Suddenly, a squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. Some of the disciples had been fishermen, who were used to sailing in the Sea of Galilee. However, this storm was so sudden and strong that they could not control the boat. Despite their best efforts the boat was sinking. In a panic, they woke Jesus, saying, "Master, master, we're going to drown!" Jesus was suddenly awakened from deep sleep by fearful disciples in the midst of a serious storm. What did he do? Look at verse 24b. "He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm." With one word of his mouth, Jesus rebuked the wind and the waters and they immediately became calm. Jesus is the Creator God who has the power to rule the nature. Jesus has the power to calm any kind of storm of life with one word of his mouth. We face storms of life every day, big and small. We face the storms of painful relationship problems, health problems, grade and school study problems, SAT problems, family problems, and financial problems. We feel overwhelmed by them, and we become so afraid when we forget about Jesus is the almighty God. No matter what the problem is, Jesus can calm our storm of life with one word of his mouth. Just believe in Jesus, and ask him. Jesus brings us peace and victory.

After calming the storm, Jesus asked his disciples, "Where is your faith?" Jesus was most concerned about their faith. Jesus wanted them to trust in him during the storm. But they had spoken out in fear, fear that they would drown. In truth, all people suffer from every kind of fear. Satan torments people with fear until they become powerless. During ordinary times, it is not so difficult to talk about faith. But when the life-threatening storms come, our deep hearts are revealed. Jesus wants us to trust him absolutely in the midst of the storms because he is always here and there wherever we go. This faith pleases Jesus. Jesus wants us to let go everything and just hold on to him. When Jesus rules our hearts, we can have true life and peace. So, we must remember Jesus' words and his presence with us during life's storms and depend on him. Through exercising our faith, it becomes strong, and we become powerful children of God.

Jesus' disciples were amazed. They completely forgot about the storm and were filled with awe for Jesus. They said, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him." The storm became the opportunity for Jesus to display his glory as the Son of God and for the disciples to learn deep trust in Jesus. When we follow Jesus, he sometimes leads us through storms. But he uses these storms to help us grow in faith and to take deeper root in our relationship with him.

In this passage we have learned how to grow truly as Jesus' disciples. We must consider carefully how we hear the word of God. We must put what we hear into practice and live in community with God's family members. We must go through storms of life by looking at Jesus all the time. Then we will grow strong, firm and steadfast in the reality of the kingdom. May God bless us all to grow in Christ.