Urgency pt4

Urgency pt4

Mark 4:1-20

Parables. Stories. Earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.

Jesus was a master story teller. He used the every day facts and realities of his contemporaries lives to make the point of His life and ministry to come alive.

In Jesus’ day, that meant a lot of agrarian stories. About seeds and fields and plants and animals and harvests. But most of all, about Who made all of those things possible.

If Jesus had chosen to come in our times, the stories would have been different, because the times are different. But the message would remain unchanged. And the message would remain unchanged because the essentials of the message transcend time and space- God is sowing truth and the condition of our hearts determines the results.

Jesus is teaching to a massive crowd. And He tells them a story about a seed sower. And in the story the fate of each seed is different depending on where it falls. Then later, privately, He explains the story to the disciples. (We will get to why just the disciples later) So let’s look, this morning at the story in parallel, with Jesus’ words to the crowd and His explanation to the disciples.

Jesus starts with the admonition to Listen- this is a command…and it is paired later with the phrase “he who has ears let him hear...” The expectation that Jesus has is for people to pay attention to what He is saying. That’s a challenge then and in our day and time. We often want to talk, we compose our rebuttals while someone else is talking…but the expectation from Jesus is for us to LISTEN!

The Gospel according to Mark The Parable of the Sower and the Mystery of the Kingdom (4:1–20)

Discipleship is not what we can make of ourselves, but allowing both the Sower and the seed to produce a harvest of which we alone are incapable

And one other note- the sower sows unsparingly. He covers every inch of ground seeking to see as much harvest as possible. This is a big deal. It should give us some idea of the expectations of Jesus for us when it comes to sharing the Gospel. We sow EVERYWHERE! You never know who is going to be saved…good soil can be hiding anywhere!

He starts with seed on the path (v3-4, 15)

These are the people who hear the Word and immediately pay it no mind. They barely notice it has even arrived. The birds take it and fly away. It is as if it has never even been there. It leaves no mark.

When the Enemy has someone so deceived, this is what happens. Some of you may have experienced this before when you try to share the Gospel. It is shrugged off. Ignored. Maybe even laughed at. And then if you reapproached the same person, they don’t even recall that you have ever mentioned the Gospel before.

That can be really frustrating and disheartening. But Jesus faced this as well. Think about all of the people who heard Him preach and teach who never even registered that they were hearing from God.

Then comes a more hopeful picture- initially- in verse 5-6, 16-17

The rocky ground initially appears pretty good. It starts to produce a crop. But then something happens. Hardships hit. Failures creep in. Persecution arises. And then it all starts to go bad. And their initial joy in hearing about Jesus, turns to something else that tears away the roots that have never really grabbed hold of the truth. Their initial enthusiasm fades and they return to what they were.

Why does this happen? Because the Gospel is ultimately about a different way of life. It is an invitation from God to allow Him to make something of your life that you could never do yourself. And that requires depth…for Jesus to penetrate to the heart of a person’s life. And when that can’t happen, at the first sign of difficulty- the roots are ripped up. There is nothing of substance to the decision.

Then there is the thorny soil- v7, 18-19

The thorny soil is good soil, it is a person who is ready for the Gospel and has the ability to understand it and grow, but their life is filled with other things that are also growing. They are not pruned away. They become add ons to the Gospel and eventually they choke them out and kill what the Gospel is trying to produce.

We spoke some about this last week. When we try to add on to the Gospel, we lose the Gospel. And these thorns they want to grab on and they stunt the good growth. They are COMPETING for resources. Do you think the God of the universe wants to compete?

Finally, there is good oil v 8-9, 20

This is soil that is ready and the Gospel takes root and explodes. It has been worked and cleared and is waiting in expectation for what God will do, so that when the Gospel arrives, life springs forth!

Mark The Parable of the Soils Explained (4:13–20)

The Greek word translated “accept” (4:20) is an intensive verb that can also mean “acknowledge as true” or even “love.” This is a parable about hearing, and out of the large crowd that came to listen, one smaller group can be distinguished from the rest. It was composed of those who accepted what they had heard and acknowledged that they did not understand it

Mark The Parable of the Soils Explained (4:13–20)

Finally, the productivity of the good soil is connected to perseverance. None of the other soils persevere. The rocky soil produces only a brief spurt of growth, while the soil with thorns produces growth that is eventually choked out. Nothing, though, prevents the growth of the seed in good soil. If the kingdom of God has come in an unexpected way, then those who receive it must accept a word that contradicts their hopes, act on this word in some manner and persevere in embracing the word when other avenues of fulfillment open to them. Believing and repenting were the responses Jesus expected. So acting on the word might also be called the secret of the kingdom of God.

Look not just at the growth, but at the EXPLOSION of life. 60 fold? a hundred fold? The Gospel produces a crop of righteousness! And that crop feeds even more people and plants even more fields. The Gospel always reproduces!

In verse 11-12, Jesus gives them an explanation about why He uses parables with the crowds, and speaks plainly to them. It is because they know Jesus. They have the “secret of the Kingdom” which is the Presence of God right before them. In order to understand, God has to reveal.

Mark (1) The Parable of the Soils and Its Interpretation (4:1–9, 13–20)

The parable of the soils itself illustrates, first, God’s lavish offer of salvation and, second, the mixed reception of that offer

Mark (2) The Purpose of Parables (4:10–12, 21–25)

Jesus did not speak in parables for the purpose of withholding truth from anyone; but the result of his parables, the rest of his teaching, and even his miracles was that most did not understand and respond positively. He did speak in parables to provoke thought and invite commitment. Therefore parables are more than mere illustrations. They constitute spiritual tests that separate those who understand and believe from those who do not.

The Gospel according to Mark The Parable of the Sower and the Mystery of the Kingdom (4:1–20)

The center of the sandwich in vv. 10–13 is the key to understanding the whole, that only in fellowship with Jesus do parables disclose the meaning of the kingdom of God

The Gospel according to Mark The Parable of the Sower and the Mystery of the Kingdom (4:1–20)

Mark does not regard insiders and outsiders as immutable distinctions, however. Their status is determined solely by their hearing and believing that, as the Sower, Jesus brings the fruitful gospel of God (1:14). Some outsiders will become insiders

What produces the harvest? God does!!!

The Gospel according to Mark The Parable of the Sower and the Mystery of the Kingdom (4:1–20)

The parable represents the historical inbreaking of God’s kingdom in Jesus, the sower of the gospel. The astounding harvest in v. 8 is an important clue that the growth is not owing to human activity but to God’s providential power. God is at work—hidden and unobserved—in Jesus and the gospel to produce a yield wholly disproportionate to human prospects and merit