The Abyss of Spiritual Unawareness
Luke 8:4-8
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, "A Sower went out to sow his seed..." (read chapter eight in full)
Jesus is giving the crowds an ear full. But is that word getting through to them? Is it penetrating their ears? Do they even have an ear for spiritual awareness?
How often have you tried to get some people to listen to reason, and grasp some spiritual or rational insight, and they just don't seem to get it. Today in our study we have Jesus laying out some deep truths, using the imagery of a farmer scattering seed to reflect how people receive, or fail to receive his spiritual wisdom.
The seed falls on different types of ground: the path, the rocks, among the weeds and thorns, and finally on the good soil. Each represents a different response to his message. Some hear it but allow it to get snatched away by devils and deceitful people. Some receive it with enthusiasm, but it doesn’t take root in their spirit. Others let it get choked out by life’s distractions and pleasures. And a few actually let it sink in and grow so that it can produce a harvest. It’s like Jesus knows that more than half of them are there for the spectacle or maybe the free bread and fishes, not really interested in the soul-shaking insight. This parable is a kind of spiritual filter. Those with spiritually discerning "ears" that are open for spiritual awareness will catch a clue and get the meaning. All the rest that are there just nod and move on.
Fact of the matter is, people hear what they want to hear, or they’re just too distracted, stubborn, and not ready to care enough yet. I’ve seen it plenty, you can lay out the clearest explanations, reason with logic, and it still bounces off like a mustard seed on pavement. It makes you wonder if it’s worth the effort sometimes. But then, this too is a spiritual filter. Filtering out the hardhearted and Pharisaical people who have no mercy and grace. Jesus obviously wants his disciples to be like the sower, to keep on scattering the word of God, hoping some of it lands in the right spot. And trusting that God will not let that word return to him void. They’re sent out for that reason. Teaching the good news and trusting that the word’s got its own power, and that it won’t "return void", a nod to Isaiah 55:11, where God says his word always accomplishes what he intends.
Now this is all well and good, and it seems gentle and kind, pleasant enough, except in those moments when you run into a particularly stubborn hardheaded mean-spirited person who's looking for a fight. But for the most part humanity in this "church age" is free to spread this message around the earth with very little effort and negative consequence. This isn’t to say the church hasn't been persecuted. Because it has and, in many ways, today its being tested worse than ever before. But believe me it could be worse.
And it will be worse.
Here in Luke chapter eight, we're given a glimpse of the real horrific tribulation that is still to come upon the earth.
Luke 8:27
When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons...(v.30-31) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
These demons possessing this man begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss. The Greek word the demon is referring to is "abyssos" (ἄβυσσος), which translates to "bottomless pit" or "abyss". What is this place they fear to go?
"Abyssos" shows up in places like Revelation 9:1-2, where it’s tied to the bottomless pit that’s opened during the end times. And what's coming out of that pit is beyond anyone's imagination. Not even the greatest of Hollywood scifi horror writers can imagine the scene when that gateway to Hades is opened.
Throughout the New Testament it makes mention distinct places tied to the fate of the spirits of the wicked dead people and the disobedient rebellious angels. Based on Scripture, there are four key "abodes" that typically come up in this context.
There’s Hades (Ἅιδης), which shows up in places like Luke 16:23 in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. It’s depicted as a realm of the dead where the wicked face torment after death, a sort of holding place before final judgment. In Hebrew this is referred to as Sheol, grave, hell. It's said to be located in the center of the earth, the heart of the earth. And it's divided into two compartments. According to Peter's letters Jesus desended into that realm after his death on the cross at the time of his resurrection and fullfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 61 where the Messiah sets free the captives held there. And so we also learn about Tartarus (Ταρταρόω), mentioned in 2 Peter 2:4. This compartment is specifically for the fallen angels. Peter says God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into Tartarus, chaining them in darkness for judgment. It’s a term borrowed from Greek mythology but repurposed here for divine punishment, a deep, gloomy lockdown for disobedient spirits.
Somewhere on earth is this hidden shaft where we’ve got the Abyss (ἄβυσσος), like we touched on earlier. Revelation 9:1-11 describes it as a bottomless pit, a prison for some seriously bad actors like the locust creatures or the demons in Luke 8:31 who dread being sent there. This abyss is locked up tight, with a key that's in God’s control. It’s a kind of temporary jail for rebellious spiritual beings held there until the end times. From this pit comes the antichrist ascending to our realm. During the tribulation period an angel unlocks this shaft and releases these horrible creatures who will attack the people of the earth. Hordes of demons beyond anything we've ever imagined. One third of earth's population will be destroyed by them.
Finally, there’s the Lake of Fire (λίμνη τοῦ πυρός), the big one in Revelation 20:14-15. This is the ultimate destination, post-judgment, where death, Hades, and anyone not in the Book of Life get tossed. It’s eternal, fiery, and final. Satan, his angels, and the wicked all end up there, with no parole.
So...back to our study in Luke. The legion of demons begs Jesus to not send them into this abyss. And they ultimately along with the Beast and the false prophet and the antichrist end up in the outer darkness. That phrase "outer darkness" pops up in Matthew (8:12, 22:13, 25:30), and its tied to weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of exclusion from God’s presence. In Revelation 20:10, the Beast, the False Prophet, and Satan himself get the Lake of Fire treatment tormented day and night forever. The "outer darkness" might be a poetic overlap with that eternal punishment, a vivid way to describe being cut off from the light. The light they rejected. Which brings my thinking back around to those people who have no spiritual awareness.
Today I'm seeing a correlation between the spiritually unaware humans and the demons’ rejection of light. Looking back to the folks in the Parable of the Sower who just don’t get it. In Luke 8, the demons know exactly who Jesus is, "Son of the Most High God", and they still resist him, begging to avoid the horrors of the abyss. They’ve seen the light, been in its presence, and outright rejected it. That’s a deliberate, eyes-wide-open choice, and it seals their fate. Then you’ve got the crowd hearing the parable earlier in the chapter. Jesus is scattering that same light, the truth, the word of God, and it’s bouncing off some of them like seed on the rocky path. They don’t have the "ears to hear" (Luke 8:8).
It’s chilling to think about, both end up in the dark, one by rebellion, the other by apathy. And this should break our hearts and enliven our witness. It’s a gut punch that should light a fire under us. Seeing people miss out on that light, whether they’re outright rejecting it like the demons or just letting it slip by like the spiritually deaf crowds, it is truly heartbreaking.
That ache ought to stir something up in us, push us to keep on sharing Jesus' word, keep on sowing it, even when it feels like the seeds are hitting stone.
But the reality is, people often times respond out of fear, distrust, unbelief, and anger. Take a look at the people in the city and country nearby where Jesus cast out the legion of demons.
Luke 8:37
Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.
The locals don’t throw a party or beg him to stay and do more. Nope, they’re gripped by "great fear" and ask him to leave. Their response makes sense. Fear kicks in because this is power they can’t control or explain. And it rocks their economic boat. And the same goes for the religious people who aren't fully aligned with Jesus. Think of the Pharisees later on, they’re rattled too, but for different reasons. Jesus doesn’t fit their socio-religious system; he challenges their authority, their rules, their tidy way of running things. His power isn’t just unexplained, it’s unboxed, and that scares them.
Final thought:
People often respond to the truth of God's word with distrust, mistrust, and fear. And it's ironic because that same word of God paints a futuristic picture of horror and tribulations beyond anything they've ever experienced. People hear the word of God, whether it’s Jesus casting out demons or the parable hitting their plugged-up ears, and they pull back with distrust, fear, even anger, like the Gerasenes did. They’re spooked by the truth because it’s big, it’s disruptive, and it demands something of them. Yet, that same word lays out what’s coming in the book of Revelation chaos, and tribulation, the Lake of Fire, and it’s a nightmare that dwarfs anything they’re clutching onto now. They take their idols and pull them up over their heads like a child in bed pulls the blanket up over his head because he's afraid of the dark. It's ironic because in their fear of the dark they hide from the light. People instead cling to their religious idols; their money, control, comforts, whatever pleases them. They're like kids yanking a blanket over their heads to block out the dark. They’re scared of the unknown, the shaking-up that God’s truth brings, so they double down on what feels safe. But in doing that, they’re not just hiding from the dark, they’re shutting out the light that could actually save them. It’s a heartbreaking twist. The very thing they’re afraid of losing blinds them to the rescue right in front of them.
We need to always be in prayer for them and us. That we all will hear the word of God and grow in our faith bearing fruit for Christ's kingdom.