2.5.10 1.29.2023 Mark 4.1-20 Beginning of the Harvest.

Start:

Entice: By the time we get to Mark 4 Jesus has been teaching and healing and preaching. He has gathered disciples and there is the beginning of jealousy and opposition.

Can you smell the fish in the air? Do you sense the rustle of the crowd? As we open the scripture today, we find Jesus set the stage for an invigorating and memorable day of teaching .

Mark 4:1–2 ESV

1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:

He has already used comparative speech. Riddles, simile, metaphor. Now He tells a larger, more detailed parable.

Engage: Today we listen in as Jesus tells story, a parable,

“Riddle me this.”

It is familiar. If we were to ask the “man on the street” to name a parable of Jesus, there is a good chance they will name

The Parable of the Sower.

When I preach from Mark it is generally a part of the series. I use it when I am teaching Kids at camp the plan of salvation. The way He tells the story, despite the use of abstractions like seed and soil, makes it very personal. In the middle of telling the story and explaining it Jesus quotes Isaiah to the effect that our eternal destiny like Judah’s before the exile is dependent on a form of listening which is essentially

submissive obedience.

or obedient submission…works both ways.

Expand: This parable is both the beginning and the heart of Jesus teaching in Mark. Prior to this we’ve been told that He taught to great effect, but we have not had much of a systematic presentation of what He said. In Mark 4.1-20 He tells this parable which is really a parable about parables and the key to understanding all the parables. Jesus helps each off us who respond in faith to grasp the mystery of the kingdom.

Excite: The harvest is produced by the alignment of good seed, diligent labor, good soil. The Church is now the Kingdom agent of sowing.

Explore:

If you respond in faith, you know the secret and are called to share in the work.

Expand: Three phases to disclosing this mystery to us

Body of Sermon: Jesus begins that day by telling.

1 A Story

Mark 4:3–9 ESV

3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

As familiar as it is I want to review the details of the story.

First detail is of course the

1.1 Sower.

God had sown.

He sent prophets who sowed the seed.

Jesus was sowing even as He told the story.

The Apostles sowed the seed in the infancy of the Church.

The seed has been sown for 21 centuries.

We sowed it in Sunday School.

I’m sowing it now.

I’m a sower and you are or can be a sower.

The next detail is the

1.2 Seed.

The job of the sower is to get it into the ground.

1.3 Soil.

There are many other conditions that impact the harvest but the first is the quality of the soil.

This reminds me a little bit of my first real Job. Lex Shuler & Company Fencing and Landscaping. A lot of the time when we planted a new lawn, after yours truly had picked up every rock, stick, nail, stone, clod, and root we would sow the seed broadcast style. That is the sort of planting Jesus described. If the wind blows, the seed blows with it. If there is a shady spot, the seed goes there and does not grow fruitful. If there is spot of shallow dirt…the grass did not take root. This is a great story, a successfully told parable because most of us can relate to it.

Next, Jesus instructs His disciples by disclosing

2 A Strategy

Mark 4:10–12 ESV

10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”

What was Jesus’ intent in telling this story? He had several. He was not only communicating a basic principle of the Gospel of the Kingdom, but He was also giving instruction about how to understand His parables and the impact they had, either creating faith or creating resistance.

So, His strategy was about

2.1 Recognition.

Seeing the world through the eyes of faith in Christ

2.2 Reception.

Accepting the unfolding mystery of the Kingdom.

2.3 Rejection.

Rejecting faith and becoming hardened to the mystery of the Kingdom.

Last of all Jesus Includes all disciples (yes, even us) by providing

3 A Standard.

Mark 4:13–20 ESV

13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

What does God expect from us and our labors in His field?

3.1 Indiscriminate Sowing.

3.2 Hopeful Expectation.

3.3 Realistic Harvest.

There are two perspectives on the harvest that we need to focus on before we move on.

First, there is a variety of “good yields”

All yields should be celebrated.

Next,

1/4 of the Dirt produces the “whole crop.”

This is a simplification of course but we need to keep it in mind.

Don’t stop sowing because the harvest may be small

Don’t stop hoping when you think the soil is infertile.

Don’t stop praying when hearts appear heard.

Keep sowing.

Shut Down

In a very real sense, The Parable of the Sower, is not just a story to Jesus. To Him It is THE story. Jesus never suggested nor seemed to harbor the hope that everyone would hear and see, understand, and repent. The “redeemed nation” approach did not work with Israel and won’t work anywhere else. Interestingly the two largest parables in Mark are this, the Parable of The Sower, which is the first, and The Parable of the Vineyard, which is the last. Each has an underlying theme of rejection. Here Jesus reminds us that not all soil is productive, in the Vineyard Parable He reminds us that ultimately, the faithless will reject Him.

The Mystery of the Kingdom is discovered by faith.

Some soils are receptive.

and some are not.

You can cultivate,

and weed,

and fertilize,

and some hearts will still not yield a harvest of redeeming faith.

Yet, we continue to sow knowing that some will respond. This parable of the Kingdom is both rooted in a particular time and place, and timeless as tomorrow.

Sow the seed,

know the secret,

harvest what grows.