The Key to the Kingdom

INTRO

Podcast - Worship Playlist - Scripture Outlines - Reading Prep

Recap - Mark 1-3 (Authority & Power of Jesus - Action) —> Now Chapter 4 (Teaching - His intended purpose)

ILLUSTRATION — Have you ever lost your keys?

“Most of us regularly lose things: keys, wallets, TV remotes, glasses, and phones. Some of us are more prone to misplacing things than others. One study concluded that the average person misplaces nine things a day and spends an average of fifteen minutes looking for lost items.”

Why is a key so important — A tiny little item.

It unlocks our ability — to enter a home, to drive a car, etc.

We will back to a key later, but our passage contains another analogy — a parable — of a sower.

4 soils — the health of the soil directly relates to the harvest that comes… As we study this passage, ask yourself…

TENSION

“Which type of soil am I cultivating?”

TRUTH

Mark 4:10–20 (ESV)

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 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, so that

“ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. 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. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 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. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 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. 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.”

PRAY

CONTEXT is … (KING)

Parables (about the Kingdom of God) — “relatively short narrative with symbolic meaning”

Mark for You (The Parable of the Sower)

“A parable (v 2) is a type of teaching that is something like a riddle. Some inside knowledge is required to crack the code the parable uses to compare physical and spiritual realities. When you know what the symbols in the parable mean, you will know its overall message.” - Jason Meyer

This comes AFTER Jesus’ teaching by the sea…

Mark Sandwich - number 2

Reminder what a sandwich does…

The Parables are related, but the 1st refers to Jesus (receiving the message) where the 2nd (our passage today) - refers to Discipleship — CONSIDER THE AUDIENCE for Each!

PRELIMS:

Considered one Jesus’ “hard sayings” (after the unforgivable sin last week - haha)

Some sermons —> I have to work hard to get enough “material”

THIS IS NOT ONE of THOSE SERMONS — “Beauty of the the Parables” — I think this is the best way to teach & preach this passage for us TODAY…

“A lot to get to, not a lot of time to get there.” - Stay with me.

READ 1ST PARABLE - LISTEN FOR DIFFERENCES

Audience of each Parable…

1st - Jesus, 2nd - Discipleship

Both how we receive the word & how we prepare to receive the word.

Who this person might be & what needs to change — good soil.

Walk Through the Four Soils: (Taking the Passage Backward) - Parts 1 & 3 of the Sandwich (Part 2 helps us understand).

CONTEXT: Agrarian society — would have understood almost immediately

Sower: Jesus or Any “proclaimer of the word” (message of Jesus).

Sow: Proclaiming the word (Preach) - “Repent & Believe” - Kingdom of God is at hand…

Seed: Word - Message of Jesus

What do we learn about how we might hear the word proclaimed…

Hard Path (4,15) — “We can hear with a hard heart.” (Maybe in the Church)

1st Parable (3-8) — “birds devour the seed”

2nd Parable (14-20) — “Satan [snatches] the seed” — Could not grow anyway - too hard.

Path between crops - like concrete - “beaten down by the steps of the world” - commentator

This ‘soil’ needs to be tilled — possibly there is some pain or obstacle that must be worked through to ‘receive the word’

Rocky Ground (5, 16-17) — “We can hear with a shallow heart.” (Some People sitting in the Church)

1st Parable — “Rocky ground”, “immediately sprang up, no depth of soil.”

2nd Parable — “receive it with joy”, “No Root”, “Tribulation & Persecution”

Tribulation & Persecution = Trouble (Not easy) — Trials, difficulties, challenges.

When these things come — “We should press in to the ‘word’, Jesus, the church, our community — This ‘person’ flees…

NOTICE what the CAUSE of T&P are:

“when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word.”

I see some Christians today that seem to be seeking Tribulation & Persecution — Being a JERK — That is NOT the point.

The Gospel is offensive, we shouldn’t be.

“We cannot remove altogether what the New Testament calls the offense of the gospel because the gospel does call people to repentance, and people are threatened by that. But it is important that we not add unnecessarily to the offense that is built into the message of sin and redemption.” - R.C. Sproul (Do Not Add to the Offense of the Gospel).

The ‘soil’ needs to be cleared — the rocks need to be pulverized — God is bigger than the storms of this life (next week) — Let him overcome those things by pressing into HIM!

Among the The Thorns (7, 18-19) — “We can hear with a divided heart.” (Many People in the Church)

1st Parable — “fell among thorns, grew up & choked it” — “Produces nothing”

2nd Parable — “hear the word” — distractions — “cares of the world”, “deceitfulness of riches”, “desires for other things.”

Like everyone else — “hear the word”

Grow roots — looks like they are going to “stick” like they will produce fruit — but get DISTRACTED.

Cares of the world — The things that are important to “the World”, “secular society”, “culture”.

Deceitfulness of riches — It is appealing - we think it will provide safety & comfort - you can’t take it with you - real safety and security is in Jesus Christ & doing the will of God.

Desires for other things — We recognize the other 2 as bad, right?

Exodus 20:3 ““You shall have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20:14 ““You shall not commit adultery.”

Exodus 20:15 ““You shall not steal.”

Exodus 20:17 ““You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.””

“The human heart is an idol factory” - Calvin

It is in our nature to desire other things — “Keeping up with the Jones’”

Christians who just come for their fire insurance — but their lives look no different before or after…

They need to lay aside the desires for other things & wholly lean into Jesus & the good news — let it change your life

Good Soil (8, 20) — “Hear the word & accept it” (Hopefully MOST People in the Church”

Pretty much identical — grows deep roots without any impediments & BEARS FRUIT.

Comprehensive term — Probably best to connect it with Mark 3:35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.””

Proclaim the Gospel - Make Disciples

Drive out the darkness

Obedience to the Father.

“thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

Sometimes what paralyzes us — “Christian envy” — I can’t do THAT, so I can’t be effective.

A long obedience in the same direction.

It’s not the amount (God gives this growth!) It’ about abiding in Him and being obedient to follow him.

I want to go back to the beginning of this passage to point out a few things…

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 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, so that

“When he was alone” — He explains the Parable.

One commentator notes that Mark 3-4 make the pronounced distinction between Insiders & Outsiders.

Outsiders - hear the first parable without explanation… (Their response to Jesus is mixed)

Insiders - have “been given the secret of the Kingdom” and the parable is explained… (Their response to Jesus is to do the Will of the Father).

Then Jesus uses a quote from Isaiah 6:9–10 “And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.””

“ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”

Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament — B/C of their obstinance — their hardness of heart — God’s judgement on Israel is that they may not “turn and be healed.”

Only those that Jesus comes to, will the secret be given to them, that they may turn & be healed…

The SECRET to the Kingdom, the Key to understanding the parables, is Jesus!

Colossians 2:2–3 Paul is basically praying for churches “to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

“This is not an easy teaching, but it is true to our experience. Most of us spend years “hearing” the Biblical truths without really hearing them. But then at some point, we realized the implications of it all for ourselves. What happened? This text suggest that Jesus “came” to us through the Holy Spirit and opened our eyes to it. This raises some difficult questions. If he comes us, why does He not come to all? But we are not told that. We do learn from this that anyone who stays blind has freely chosen to do so. By nature, we all dislike the truth, and we have willfully closed our hearts.” - Tim Keller

Jesus is 3 Things (expound).

Jesus is the Message

Mark 1:14–15 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

Jesus brings the message b/c he is the message — He is the PROOF that the Kingdom of God is at Hand — we MUST repent & believe the gospel.

Jesus is the Means

Not only does he proclaim, “Repent & believe the gospel” He is the reason we can repent & believe the gospel .

Mark 2:19–20 “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”

Jesus is the Key

Mark 4:11 “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,”

“the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,”

He is what unlocks the Kingdom of God!

This why we pray after we read our passage, “Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear,” — Basically — give us more of You, Jesus.

That we may understand, turn and be forgiven.

CONCLUSION

David Brainerd, the famous missionary to the Native American Indians, proclaimed this truth throughout his ministry. He said, “I never got away from Jesus and Him crucified in my preaching. I found that once these people were gripped by the great evangelical meaning of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, I did not have to give them many instructions about changing their behavior.”

May we never “graduate” from Jesus Christ & Him crucified.

May we remain faithful (He is faithful, even when we are faithless), and obedient to KNOW and DO the will of God!

“The person who looks for quick results in the seed planting of well-doing will be disappointed. If I want potatoes for dinner tomorrow, it will do me little good to plant them in my garden tonight. There are long stretches of darkness and invisibility and silence that separate planting and reaping. During the stretches of waiting, there is cultivating and weeding and nurturing and planting still other seeds.” - Eugene Peterson

RESPONSE

Which type of soil am I cultivating?

Why types of hearts do you see in the people around you?

What does this parable tell you about the work of God in peoples lives?

How dis this encourage you to preserve with sharing the gospel?

PRAY