The Gospel of Mark Part 16
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Handout
I. The Setting
II. The Sower
III. The Seed
IV. The Soils
The Soils:
A. The Wayside Soil
B. The Stony Soil
C. The Thorny Soil
D. The Good Soil
D. The Good Soil
Mark 4:20 (NKJV)
20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
So, we have been discussing the principle of bearing fruit - becoming fruitful Christians.
Please open your Bible to John 15.
We have seen that unfruitful Christians receive chastisement (John 15:2a) from the Father, who Christ identifies as the father in John 15:1.
Take a look at John 15:2b
<Read John 15:2>
John 15:2 (NKJV)
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Notice now that the fruitful Christian receives from the Father, not chastisement, but pruning.
For the branches on a grapevine, pruning is essential for plant health and for maximum fruitfulness.
Without pruning, the plant will suffer and its fruitfulness will lessen.
The following is an article on pruning grapes from the Better Homes and Gardens website:
"To put it simply, pruning grape vines allows the plants to get enough sun. If you let your vines grow freely, shoots and clusters will overwhelm the plant and create barriers that block the light. It's also important to get rid of older, less healthy canes and old wood to promote new growth and avoid diseases."
If we continue to draw on the vine and branches analogy, we can see that God the Father’s purpose in pruning us is to bring us closer to the light by removing the parts of our life that are keeping us from abiding in Christ.
“The most common mistake home growers make? They don't clear out enough canes, Vos says. If the thought of aggressively chopping back your grape vines causes you slight panic, just remember pruning means prosperity. It might seem contradictory, but the more growth you remove, the healthier your remaining vines will be.”
Pruning means prosperity! (not a prosperity gospel)…but a spiritually mature condition that is required for fruit to grow.
This pruning is actually antithetical to the prosperity gospel!
With any pruning system, at least 85 to 90 percent of the one-year-old wood will be removed during dormant pruning. This will allow the grapevines to maintain their structure (shape), distribute fruit load along the cordons, and enhance fruit quality.
Sometimes this pruning is painful. Sometimes we don’t like how it feels, but God knows we need it so that we can produce even more fruit.
Here is a very comforting quote from Warren Wiersbe:
“Your Heavenly Father is never nearer to you than when He is pruning you.” - Warren Wiersbe
He goes on to say:
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Fifteen: Relationships and Responsibilities (John 15:1–17)
Sometimes He cuts away the dead wood that might cause trouble; but often He cuts off the living tissue that is robbing you of spiritual vigor. Pruning does not simply mean spiritual surgery that removes what is bad. It can also mean cutting away the good and the better so that we might enjoy the best. Yes, pruning hurts, but it also helps. We may not enjoy it, but we need it.
We might have some things in our lives (not necessarily sinful) that are keeping us from being the most fruitful that we can be.
Father, as the Wise Master Vinedresser, removes those things so that we can grow to maturity.
The question is how does God the Father go about pruning us as branches in the Vine?
Father prunes us with the Word of God:
Ephesians 5:26–27 (NKJV)
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
As we read and study our Bibles, the Holy Spirit does His work of teaching and conviction.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NKJV)
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Doctrine: teaching us how to walk in the right direction
Reproof: Telling us when we are going in the wrong direction
Correction: How to start going in the right direction again
Instruction: How to stay going in the right direction
A fruitful branch is a pruned branch, and the Word of God is His pruning knife.
Another way God prunes us is by allowing us to experience the tribulations and trials of life:
Romans 5:3–5 (NKJV)
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
James 1:2–4 (NKJV)
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Trials have purpose - they can prune away the things that are keeping us from producing more fruit.
And this process, Progressive Sanctification, is the process by which we grow in spiritual maturity.
Notice the progression in John 15:2 and 5:
John 15:2, 5(NKJV)
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
So we have this gradual progression from fruit to more fruit to much fruit.
This is repeated in our main passage here in Mark:
Mark 4:20 (NKJV)
20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
Now we see the HARVEST!
Again, we notice the high yield of this harvest!…But we also see the varying degrees of harvest.
Not every believer will bear the same amount of fruit - 30x, 60x, or 100x.
Even among those that bear fruit, there are varying levels of fruit production…meaning that there are varying levels of maturity.
If we go back to John 15 - we see that the way to bear fruit is to abide in Christ.
<read John 15:4>
Again, the branch cannot bear fruit if it is not ABIDING in the vine…so we cannot bear fruit if we are not ABIDING in Christ.
This speaks of a healthy connection between the vine and the branch. Jesus is not telling the 11 disciples to believe in Him, for they do believe and are “clean”. (cf. John 13:10-11 and John 15:3)
Jesus is telling them (and all believers including us) that the key to a fruitful Christian life is to ABIDE in Him.
“abide”: μένω menō = to be in close and settled union
Jesus’ command here is for us to remain close to Him - to remain in constant union with Him…that is how we are fruitful.
Without abiding in Jesus, we can bear no fruit, and to the degree that we abide with Him, is the degree that we will bear fruit.
<Read John 15.5>
Two observations as we consider how to abide in Christ - how to keep the soil of our hearts fertile for spiritual growth:
How to Abide in Christ:
Abide in the Word of God (John 15:7-8)
To the degree that the Word abides (to be in close and settled union) in us and to the degree that we walk in obedience is the degree that we will abide in Christ and to the degree that we abide in Christ is the degree of our fruitfulness.
Read John 15:3 - Here, Jesus once again declares them clean. This word for “clean” is the adjective form of the word “prunes” in John 15:2.
So what is Jesus saying?…He is telling the disciples and us that the way we are pruned, the way that we abide in Christ, the way that we produce fruit is by the Word of God.
We cannot produce fruit without abiding in Christ, and we cannot abide in Christ without abiding in His Word.
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
The sanctification process is, many times, a pruning process, and the Word of God is the tool that does the pruning/sanctifying.
As we are living our lives, we have daily choices to accept or to reject God’s authority.
When we submit to Him, He does amazing work in our lives, including (but not limited to) pruning.
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
Notice that the knowledge of God is the pathway to the wisdom we need for life and godliness.
And where do we find this knowledge of God?…it is ONLY in His Word!
Finally, let’s go back to John, this time to chapter eight, verse thirty-one:
John 8:31–32 (NKJV)
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Notice that this is a conditional promise.
And it is made to those that “believed Him” - these were people who had placed their faith in Jesus. (cf. John 8:30)
“IF” you abide in the Word, “THEN” you have the following benefits:
Discipleship - that close fellowship with Jesus that helps us grow and produces fruit.
Truth - All truth is God’s truth, and we need to know the truth in order to make informed decisions and to be fruitful.
Freedom - out of a knowledge of the truth, we will gain freedom to make the right choices. We are no longer slaves to sin.
All three of these blessings are dependent on whether or not we abide in the Word.
Let’s look at another evidence that abiding in the Word of God is how we abide in Christ:
1 John 2:14 (NKJV)
14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.
Abiding in God’s Word helps us overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:26 (NKJV)
26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.
The way that bank employees and others are trained to spot counterfeit money is by studying genuine money bills to become so familiar with the real thing that they can immediately identify a fake bill when they see it.
God wants us to become so familiar with His word that we can spot a false teacher as soon as we hear them speak.
God is asking us to abide in His word so that we can be protected from being deceived.
How to Abide in Christ:
Abide in the Word of God (John 15:7)
Walk in Obedience (John 15.10)
Keeping Jesus’ commands is another way to abide in Him.
Jesus had already told them that the way to show love to Him was through obedience to Him in John 14:15.
Later, in John 14:23, Jesus explains a blessing given to those that obey His commands: close fellowship with both the Father and the Son.
And as we have close fellowship with God like this, we will be fruit-producing Christians!
The apostle John also encouraged obedience in 1 John 2.17
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
This is not about receiving the gift of eternal life…it was written to believers!
This is about the blessing of close fellowship to those that walk in obedience.
Jesus didn’t ask us to obey when He was not willing to do so.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
Jesus OBEYED the Father, and now He is asking us to follow His example.
This obedience will result in abiding in Christ, which will result in fruitfulness in our lives.
“What kind of heart (or mind) do I have?”… “How do I respond to the seed?” … “What fruit am I producing?”… “Are other people enjoying the fruit of my life?”
Remember, the branches don’t eat the fruit they produce, others do.
We aren’t producing fruit to please ourselves, but to serve other people and to bring the goodness of God into other people’s lives…How does our fruit taste?