Bible Commentaries

Luke 8:11

Use the Bible.

I. God's Word is a portion of the food He has given to man to live by. It is the spiritual sustenance He has provided to support the spiritual part of us, the soul. For the soul, as well as the body, requires its fitting food. Both must be supported and nourished, if we would have them thrive. Does not all nature cry, from every part of the creation, that everything earthly must be fed? Fire must be fed, water must be fed, even the earth itself, which feeds all things, must be fed, else it will crumble into dust, or harden into a rock. So it is with the soul. That, too, as well as the body, must be fed with food suited to its nature. This is so plain that the heathen themselves knew it. They were fully aware that the soul would never thrive, unless it was nourished with food suitable to it; and to find that food was the great desire of the best and wisest men among them. Now if they did this, they who only knew that their spirits required food, from feeling them crave for it, what will God say to us, if we are less anxious about the nourishment of our souls?

II. For the Bible is not a charm that, keeping it on our shelves or locking it up in a closet, can do us any good. Neither is it a story-book to read for amusement. It is sent to teach us our duty to God and man; to show us from what a height we are fallen by sin, and to what a far more glorious height we may soar, if we will put on the wings of faith and love. This is the use of the Bible, and this use we ought to make of it. If we use the Bible thus, Christ, who is the way of life, will open our eyes to see the way. He will send you the wings I spoke of, and they shall bear you up to heaven. For this must be borne in mind, that God alone giveth the increase. Unless He gives it, no increase shall we receive. Our joy will not be increased; so that the study of God's Book will continue an irksome task. The only way of insuring that our labour shall not be fruitless is by prayer; the only way of drawing down a blessing on our study is to ask for it.

A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 278.

Luke 8:11-12

I. The seed is the Word of God. And thus we are taught (1) That it is not in the hearers themselves. It is no result of their reasoning; it is no creature of their imagination. It comes to them from without. (2) It possesses living, germinating power. The power is its own. It is not taken up into and made part of us, but it takes us up and makes us part of itself. (3) The seed itself does not exert its power spontaneously and independently. There must be the concurrence of three requisites: the deposition of the seed; its entrance into the soil; fitness of the soil for its germination and nurture. Where these do not concur, there is no effectual growth, no eventual bearing of fruit. Wonderful as are the powers of the seed, it is a dependent and conditional agent. Its action is first dependent on one who sows.

II. The seed, then, is scattered everywhere; and some falls by the wayside. A path or road passing through the field, by the side of this, not absolutely on the hard beaten track itself, but still where many footsteps pass and harden the soil, some of the seeds are deposited. Thus situated, the seed is liable to two dangers—"it was trodden down, and the birds of the air devoured it." The class of hearers of God's Word which is here intended is the class that understandeth not. God speaks by His minister, speaks by His revealed words, speaks in judgment, speaks in mercy; and for a moment His word lies on our hearts; for a moment we are in contact with the incorruptible regenerating seed; but our enemy knows it, he knows the import of that moment, he knows the life-giving power of that seed, and he contrives that a frivolous incident should catch the attention, or a worldly thought light down on the same surface, or a trifling companion cross our path; for these there is more desire than for the heavenly seed; they occupy the ground, and we toy with them till the seed is gone.

III. The heart is hardened: (1) By the tread of many footsteps. Much converse with the world, much converse with, the Word itself, habituation of every kind, deadens susceptibility. (2) The heart may be self-hardened by long-continued worldliness of spirit. (3) Another section of our wayside hearers are those who are intellectually preoccupied. (4) Over-fastidiousness has a hardening influence; the heart remains shut to the living seed of the Word because it comes not exactly in the way desired. Take heed how ye hear; for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

H. Alford, Sermons at Cambridge, p. 1.

References: Luke 8:11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 430. Luke 8:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1459.

Luke 8:13

I. As the Lord is evermore speaking to us, and we evermore hearing Him, so must the receiving the Word with joy be extended in its meaning to include all possible receptions of that which He says. And, thus extended, we may interpret the characteristic to mean, as applied to the class before us, that they are such as do not present to the suggestions of Christ's spirit a hard, impenetrable heart; whose surface is not trodden down like the wayside, so that the seed lies on it exposed to the passing depredator, but soft and genial, so that it sinks in at once; whose soil is not the cold unkindly clay, which would keep back the seed, but warm and open, so that it swells and springs up without delay. It is good, doubtless, in a certain sense, to receive the Word with joy; it cannot be for a moment doubted, that among those who receive it with joy are some of the best and the noblest of us, some of the very flower and choice of our society.

II. "These," it is added, "have no root." The seed within them, so quick to germinate, found no depth of soil wherein to strike its roots. Above, all was genial and inviting growth; but beneath, all was hard and impenetrable. (1) Impressibility is liable to be joined with want of depth of character; it is no criterion of genuine religion, no guarantee for endurance; in other words, what are called religious impressions are very far from being religion, and must not be mistaken for it. (2) There is another perilous consideration for the susceptible. Men are not strongly impressed on one subject only. They hear the Word with joy; but it is not the only thing which they thus hear. The world, too, has a voice, the tempter has a voice; all these, it is to be feared, they hear with joy likewise—such, at least, is their tendency. They have no root; nothing with them strikes deep into the individual character. Their joy in the Word is evanescent, their impression fleeting. That love to Christ which sprung up in their hearts, that holy obedience which seemed to be the rule of their lives, having no root, never having come from firm conviction or thorough persuasion, shall pass away, and be as though they had never been.

H. Alford, Sermons at Cambridge, p. 25.

References: Luke 8:13.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 11; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 45.

Luke 8:14

I. With the class of hearers mentioned in this verse all is favourable, and all goes well at first. Hearers of this kind present not to the Word of God the inattentive ear, nor the hardened heart; they rejoice not with easy and shallow susceptibility over that which they have heard. They are, at the sowing-time, such soil as the sower loves. They hear and weigh and understand. And having heard, they go forth into the world again, thoroughly determined to practise that which they have heard. But, alas! they are not men living in habits of diligent self-culture and discipline. The heart which ought to have long ere this cleared for God's Word to grow in, to assimilate, to take up into itself, is filled with rank growths of worldliness, and possessed by the tangled roots of the weeds of passion; and as soon as they have gone forth, these spring up with the Word, and ultimately choke its progress.

II. "The cares of life"—"the deceitfulness of riches." It has been commonly supposed that these two embrace the two conditions of life—the poor and the rich; those who have to care for every day's supply of want, and those who are deceived and forget God, in consequence of its ample supply. But for this there seems no necessity. The two may co-exist in the heart of the same hearer, be he rich or poor. As riches increase cares increase; and, in the very poorest, the deceitfulness of worldly substance, and the love of amassing it, and the danger of trusting to it, may be active or imminent. And as every portion of the parable points to a whole department of Christian duty, to be earnestly taken in hand and attended to, so in this case it is self-discipline which is mainly pointed at—discipline of thought, discipline of affection, discipline of pursuit. Let this be our discipline against the deceitfulness of riches—to think more of Christ's character and of that great work which He has done for us. Let our discipline for care be faith, and for worldliness, obedience; the one teaching us to trust Christ, the other to imitate Him.

H. Alford, Sermons at Cambridge, p. 47.

Luke 8:15

The hearers referred to in the text yield fruit, which none of the others did. In them, all pointed at failure; in these, all point at success. In them, even the bright colours of promise were dashed with sadness; in these, even the weakness of our common humanity is gilded with the coming glory. In them, every apparent success contained the elements of failure; in these, even partial failure is an earnest of final success.

I. Notice how the difficulties are overcome, and the hindrances removed, in an inverse order from that in which they were fatal. The deepest defect, the most deadly hindrance, was in the will; the will undecided, many-purposed, disloyal; the outworks taken, but the citadel still rebellious. Now mark the difference. First, the will is secured. The heart is honest and good; the direction of the will is plain and simple. The expression "an honest and good heart" conveys to us the idea of ingenuousness, nobleness of purpose, united with goodness, properly so called; such a person would be clear and simple in intent, and that intent a good one.

II. "Having heard the Word, they keep it; they hold it with a fulness of conscious and permanent possession; the feelers of the mind, so to speak, clasp round it, and its roots become twined inseparably among them; they take the Word to themselves in the very depth of affection and earnestness, as a father the son in whom he delighteth." In a word, and that word one often heard, but little pondered on, and even less realised, they love God; their hearts are drawn after Him; a new and mighty power has taken possession of them, and is transforming them into the Divine likeness, and making them to bring forth fruit acceptable to God, and that in rich abundance.

III. As in the parable of the talents, so here, every man bears fruit according to his several ability. One plant becomes a great tree, and overshadows a wide space of the forest; another remains, equally healthy and prolific, but of smaller growth, and more limited shade. The seed is received as each man has ears to hear. But let us notice one point common to all three of the degrees of reproduction—the high standard at which all are fixed. Thirty, sixty, and a hundred. Must we not enquire whether the usual measure of our choicest Christian attainments reaches even the lowest of these? Where is the thirty-fold return even from our best soil?

H. Alford, Sermons at Cambridge, p. 71.

References: Luke 8:15.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 252; H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p. 150; J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons, p. 359; F. Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 180. Luke 8:16.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 353.

Luke 8:18

Notwithstanding the importance here attached to preaching, many who listen to sermons are really no better for it. Indeed, our Saviour more than intimates in the text that such may be the case, and hence His emphatic warning, "Take heed, therefore, how ye hear." Several classes of persons, to be met with in every congregation, should attend to this caution.

I. In the first rank of these may be placed the indifferent hearer.

II. Another class who should give heed to the warnings of the text are represented by the critical hearer.

III. A third class of church-goers who derive little benefit from preaching may be described as captious hearers. Note three simple rules in regard to hearing sermons: (1) Endeavour always to listen to the preaching of the Gospel with a mind free from prejudice. (2) Sermons should be heard with a desire to profit by them. (3) Sermons should be heard with humble dependence on God's Holy Spirit, to open the understanding and to touch the heart.

J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 334.

References: Luke 8:18.—Preacher's Monthly, p. 213; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vi., p. 503; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. i., p. 87; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical, p. 157; J. Kelly, Christian World, Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 51. Luke 8:22-25.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii., p. 249. Luke 8:23.—Ibid., vol. ii., p. 253.

Luke 8:24

I. There is much in that expression that "Christ rebuked the wind and the waves." You will miss a great part of the intention of the incident if you merely look upon it as a miracle of stilling a tempest. Why did Christ rebuke the elements? The word appears the language of one who either sees moral guilt, or who, in his affection, is indignant at something which is hurting those he loves. The elements, in themselves, cannot, of course, do a moral wrong. But is it possible that the prince of the power of the air had anything to do with that storm? Was there some latent fiendish malice in that sudden outbreak of nature upon Christ and His Church? And was Christ indeed ejecting an evil spirit when He did just what He always did, and said just what He always said, when He was dealing with those who were possessed with devils? "He rebuked them." But, however this may be, there is another aspect in which we ought to see it. We know that to the Second Adam was given what the first Adam forfeited—perfect dominion over all creation. In this light the present hurricane was like a rebellion, and Christ treated it as such, that He might show His mastership. Hence that royal word, "He rebuked them," and hence the instant submission.

II. The winds were the emblem of the external influences which affect and harass; the waves, of the inward heavings and distresses which those external influences produce upon the mind: the winds, the active, evil agencies of life; the waves, the consequence of the trials, when they fall upon you; because, as the wave answers to the wind, rising or falling with its swell or subsidence, so do our weak hearts beat or be still, and respond sensibly to the ills about us. Do not wish exemption from evil, neither from sorrow, nor yet from temptation. Immunity from grief is not half as great as God's consolation under it. Exemption is not the true peace, but deliverance, victory; the peace which Christ makes out of the materials of our troubles; the silenced fear, the subdued restlessness, the sealed pardon, the interposing grace, the triumph of an omnipotent love.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 309.

Luke 8:25

The question before us has in it a wild sublimity. The waves had just found their resting-place; the wind was gone back into its treasure-house; and our Saviour stood upon the calm, and seemed to say, "The fierce enemies have been and gone, but where is your faith?"

I. Everybody has faith. To have a trust in something is so natural, that I could almost say it is indispensable to human nature. There are faculties and principles of the human heart which must cling. Every man, however independent he thinks himself, is constituted to have some feeling in him which goes forth—which is as the creeper that creeps over your door, or as the vine which is wedded to the air. Those feelings made to twine may trail in the dust; those affections made to mount may often trail down like withered, disappointed things; they may grasp that which will never bear, or drive to that which sends back poison and death where we had looked for sustenance. Is our faith in the First Great Source? or is it in second causes?

II. Trusting to second causes is sheer idolatry. It is the essential of God that He is final; what is final is made God. There is many an idolater in heathenism who never looks upon his wretched idol, but his thoughts are led to that invisible being that the idol represents. Those who look at second causes and do not look at the First Cause are greater idolaters than the heathen. Look at our marts of commerce, look at our great assemblies, look at our great entertainments, look at our churches, and say is it not so. Are not instruments being looked at as if they were all-effective causes? What remains for a jealous God but to scatter second causes which have been elevated into a supremacy which belongs only to Him? The winds that came down upon the Sea of Galilee were but as strings in the hands of God, causing the waves to become tempestuous; and you who go up and down trusting to that which is wise in man and beautiful in nature, beware! lest presently your bright prospect gets beclouded, and a more fearful storm than that which swept over the angry sea come into your heart, to teach you to have no confidence anywhere but in God, and to look up from the dangers of this disappointing world to Him who only sits at the helm of all, and cry to Him, "Master, Master, we perish!"

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 189.

References: Luke 8:25.—F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 253. Luke 8:28.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 778. Luke 8:34.—R. Heber, Parish Sermons, vol. i., p. 160.

Luke 8:35

I. Consider this Story of the Demoniac. A man who was wild and furious becomes calm and orderly. He sits at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. What has wrought this mighty change? Is it the announcement to him of some law which God has laid down for His creatures? Is it anything whatever which we comprehend under the ordinary notion of moral discipline? All these regulations were desirable, doubtless, for a man in the condition of the maniac. But common sense pronounced them ridiculous. It was obvious that they could take no effect; they must be wasted. Far more direct and simple methods were resorted to. He was chained. But that was as ineffectual a scheme of regulation as the other. The fetters were burst asunder, the chains were broken. It is just when all mere regulations, human and Divine, are found absolutely vain to restrain him from being the curse and plague of his fellowmen, that Christ is said to have met the man Himself, to have entered into colloquy with that which could hear no laws, could be restrained by no force, and to have emancipated and reformed that. And here is the result: Not a new excitement substituted for the old, not religious paroxysms taking the place of other paroxysms; but quietness and order: he is in his right mind.

II. It is not true of the Gospel of Christ, that if you take from it its original character, if you strip it of those claims which apostles and martyrs put forth on its behalf, it may challenge respect on a lower ground, it may claim a sort of useful and recognised position for itself among the other agents of civilisation. I know such an opinion prevails in many minds. They say that "'Reft of a crown, it still may share the feast." You will find it is not so. You will find that if we dare not proclaim Christ as the Deliverer of the spirit of man from its bondage, if we dare not say that He has come actually to reveal God's righteousness to men, we had better cease to speak of Him at all. For it is such a one that men want; it is for such a one that in their inmost hearts, even when their language against the Son of Man is loudest, they are crying. It was so in former ages; so it is now. It was so among the most miserable and the most respectable; it is so still. If preachers of the Gospel do not answer the cry—if they only represent it as one of the regulative forces that are at work in society—it will be felt to be the feeblest of all these processes; the chain and the prison-house will be found stronger.

F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v., p. 145.

References: Luke 8:35.—A. Ramsay, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 321; T. R. Stevenson, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 139: E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. i., p. 360; (Clerical Library) Expository Sermons on the New Testament, p. 80.

Luke 8:38

The Religious Use of Excited Feelings.

I. All the passionate emotion, or fine sensibility, which ever man displayed, will never by itself make us change our ways, and do our duty. Impassioned thoughts, sublime imaginings, have no strength in them. They can no more make a man obey consistently than they can move mountains. If any man truly repent, it must be in consequence—not of these, but of a settled conviction of his guilt, and a deliberate resolution to leave his sins and serve God. Conscience, and reason in subjection to conscience: these are those powerful instruments, under grace, which change a man. But you will observe, that though conscience and reason lead us to resolve on and to attempt a new life, they cannot at once make us love it. It is long practice and habit which make us love religion; and in the beginning, obedience, doubtless, is very grievous to habitual sinners. Here, then, is the use of those ardent, excited feelings which attend on the first exercise of conscience and reason, and to take away from the beginning of obedience its grievous-ness, to give us an impulse which may carry us over the first obstacles, and send us on our way rejoicing. Not as if all this excitement of mind were to last (which cannot be), but it will do its office in thus setting us off; and then will leave us to the more sober and higher comfort resulting from that real love for religion, which obedience itself will have by that time begun to form in us, and will gradually go on to perfect.

II. To those who feel any accidental remorse for their sins violently exerting itself in their hearts, I say: Do not loiter; go home to your friends, and repent in deeds of righteousness and love; hasten to commit yourselves to certain difficult acts of obedience. Follow on to know the Lord; and to secure His favour by acting upon these impulses; by them He pleads with you as well as by your conscience; they are the instruments of His Spirit, stirring you up to seek your true peace. Still, be quite sure that resolute consistent obedience, though unattended with high transport and warm emotion, is far more acceptable to Him than all those passionate longings to live in His sight, which look like religion to the uninstructed. At the very best, these latter are but the graceful beginnings of obedience, graceful and becoming in children, but in grown spiritual men indecorous as the sports of boyhood would seem in advanced years. Learn to live by faith—which is a calm, deliberate, rational principle, full of peace and comfort, and sees Christ, and rejoices in Him, though sent away from His Presence to labour in the world. You will have your reward. He will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 112.

References: Luke 8:38.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 242. Luke 8:38, Luke 8:39.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 282. Luke 8:40.—Ibid., vol. vi., p. 226; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 96. Luke 8:42.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 217; T. Birkett Dover, The Ministry of Mercy, p. 79. Luke 8:43-47.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 150.

Luke 8:45-46

Faith's Touch.

Notice:—

I. What this woman did. "Jesus said, Who touched Me?" That more is meant here than the mere manual or external touch is evident, not only from the whole circumstances of the narrative, but from the explicit and emphatic testimony of our Lord Himself. He expressly distinguishes between her touch and that of the unthinking crowd around as a thing totally and essentially different; and then, in His closing words, He declares plainly what that thing was. "Daughter: thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." That is, it was not the mere bodily contact that constituted the saving touch, but that living faith of the heart, of which it was but the instinctive and touching expression. Hers was (1) secret faith, (2) trembling faith, (3) an imperfect faith, (4) a strong faith, (5) an earnest and resolute faith.

II. What the multitude did. Note the difference between the attitude of this woman and that of the multitude around her. Theirs was the mere contact of the body, hers of the heart and soul; theirs a mere external and unmeaning pressure; hers a living act of trust and love. The human eye, indeed, could detect no difference. To a mere spectator, all stood in the same relation to Him. Surely it were vain amid such a crowd, all of whom are pressing on Him, and thronging His path, to single out any one to whom more than another the charge may be applied. But no; while thousands throng the Saviour, one alone toucheth Him. Jesus answered, "Somebody hath touched Me."

III. The test to distinguish between the one touch and the other. "Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue hath gone out of Me." This, then, was the test; the sacred touch was proved by the outflowing of the healing virtue. There is no healing influence without faith—no true faith without healing influence. Therefore, the fact so well known to Him who is the one Source and Dispenser of grace, that such influence had gone forth from Him to this woman, was the decisive and infallible proof that she had touched Him in a way that none of the throng around her had. Thus alone can we surely know that we have truly believed in Jesus to the saving of our souls; when it has become manifest to all men and ourselves that a saving virtue has come from Him to us, and that through that mighty virtue old things are passed away, and all things are made new.

I. Burns, Select Remains, p. 46.

I. In the case of this woman, we perceive that two things went together—an inward act of faith, and recourse to something external; both the internal and the external bearing upon Christ. She touched the hem of His garment. Our Lord in all His miracles required a susceptibility on the part of the applicant for His mercy, and an outward action as regarded Himself. He required faith on the part of the person seeking His aid; and then He touched that person, or spake certain words to him, or anointed his eyes with clay, or bade him have recourse to some action insignificant in itself. The two acts were combined, the inward and the outward; one suffered not without the other, but both went together.

II. It is not superstition, then, for faithful men to use and rely upon the ordinances of the Christian religion; there is no superstition in having recourse to actions, between which and their results there exists no discernible connection, if only those actions be either enjoined or sanctioned by God. It would not be superstitious for a man, sick of the palsy, to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in expectation of a cure, if the Lord God had commanded him to do so, and had promised restoration to health as the reward of his obedience; but to do this, or any similar thing, without a promise, this would be superstitious. The superstitious property in an act consists not in having recourse to means, apparently inefficacious, but in having recourse to them without a sufficient warrant from reason or from revelation. It is through things external that many of the gifts and graces which we expect to realise in the Church are to pass from Christ, from whom alone the virtue emanates, to our souls. Love Christ and prove your love by keeping His commandments. But having done all, remember that, notwithstanding your love, the disease of sin is upon you, and touch the hem of His garment. Rely on Christ only for salvation, and prove that you do so, not by pleading your faith, as if faith were anything meritorious, but by permitting your faith to lead you to Christ, that you may touch the hem of His garment.

W. F. Hook, Sermons on the Miracles, vol. i., p. 242.

We have here (1) a touch incited by past failure; (2) a touch effective through faith; (3) a touch publicly acknowledged.

E. Mellor, The Hem of Christ's Garment, p. 1.

References: Luke 8:45.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 251; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 281. Luke 8:46.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 227. Luke 8:47.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 45. Luke 8:48.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 283. Luke 8:49.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 31; Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 184. Luke 8:52.—T. Gasquoine, Ibid., vol. viii., p. 58. Luke 9:1-6.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii., p. 253. Luke 9:1-11.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 99. Luke 9:1-48.—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, p. 150. Luke 9:10-17.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii., p. 291. Luke 9:11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1624. Luke 9:12-17.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 120.