Mark Sermon Manu Week 11

reach the nations!

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Open your Bibles to Mark 4:21-34

Name, Welcome

Continuing Mark

This week continuation of last week

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Pray

Pray for kingdom fulfillment through kingdom fruitfulness

Intro/Welcome

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Good Soil — Good Fruit

Mark 4:21 (CSB)

21 He also said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand?

What is Jesus talking about?

We must connect this to the previous section.

He has just taught us about the 4 soils

specifically the last soil:

Mark 4:20 (CSB)

20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”

Lights were meant to shine

What he is saying is that:

just as lights are meant to shine into the darkness

good soil is meant to bear good fruit

You wouldn’t put a shade over a light?

That would be inconceivable (princess bride)

That would contradict the very nature and purpose of the light.

Imagine: Covered Lights

You walk into someone’s house

and every light they have has a industrial strength black trash bag over it

so that there was no light in the house, but it was dark

That would be absurd

Jesus says, it is just as absurd for his disciples to not be fruit-bearing disciples as it is to cover lamp

it negates its very purpose.

His disciples where the good soil, and they would bear 30x, 60x and 100x fruit

You and I, if we have followed Jesus with our lives, are by definition disciples

and therefore are the ‘good soil’

In fact you can’t be true disciple of Jesus unless you are the good soil, unless the seed of the word of God takes root and it bearing fruit

we call that the New Birth — New Creation

So that begs the question:

If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, What does fruit bearing look like in your life?

Why it is important?

This is what Jesus is asking us.

Why is this so important?

Mark 4:22 (CSB)

22 For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.

What is he saying?

There is coming a time when all things will be revealed.

Everything concealed will be revealed — EVERYTHING

That means — which ever soil you are — on that day will be revealed.

Jesus doesn’t want us thinking we are the good soil, when in actuality we are not

that would be a form of self deception

In fact, this is exactly what Satan would want:

a bunch of people who think they are sons and daughters of God, followers of Jesus

but in actuality they are not.

How can you tell?

Where is the Fruit?

Jesus says it this way in Luke 6:43-44

Luke 6:43–44 (CSB)

43 “A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. 44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush.

Jesus wants us to ask ourselves some hard questions.

This isn’t to condemn us, but rather to disciple

His most serious indictments are against those who think they are religious but inwardly are dead— The Pharisess

This is why he says what he says next:

Mark 4:23–25 (CSB)

23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen.”

Matthew 13:10–17 (CSB)

10 Then the disciples came up and asked him, “Why are you speaking to them in parables?”...

14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

You will listen and listen,

but never understand;

you will look and look,

but never perceive.

15 For this people’s heart has grown callous;

their ears are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes;

otherwise they might see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears, and

understand with their hearts,

and turn back—

and I would heal them.

16 “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.

Some have been given ears to hear.

Mark 4:24-25 (CSB)

24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear.

[Therefore take care how you listen (Luke 8:18)]

By the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and more will be added to you.

25 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

Jesus is saying pay attention to how you listen to me.

don’t be someone who listens but then doesn’t apply what I say.

Jesus little brother James says it this way:

James 1:22–24 (CSB)

22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

Jesus ends his greatest sermon like this:

Matthew 7:24–25 CSB

24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

We must pay attention to What we hear AND How we hear it

That is what we do with it.

Jesus is saying to us:

good soil bears fruit

trees are known by their fruit

lamps are meant to shine

What’s at stake? Try God

But notice what he says

Mark 4:24–25 (CSB)

24 ...By the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and more will be added to you.

25 FOR whoever has, more will be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

By the measure you use it will be measured to you.

What does he mean?

He is saying step out in faith and trust me

I am your measure — depend on me not on yourself!

If you trust in me to do it, if you call up on me — even more of me will be given to you

there is an unlimited supply of power and grace

He is saying call upon me

Where people go wrong is in depending on their own power and ability to be fruitful!

that is not the gospel, that is satanic.

Satan calls us to depend on ourselves, our own understanding, our own power — to cast God off

Here’s what Jesus says:

I have given you abilities, skills, personalties and opportunities

I have give you life, a soul, a heart, a body

And i’ve given you my holy Spirit

if you do not use the measure of the Holy Spirit

that is if you continue down the path of self dependence

in the end you will lose everything.

“even what you have will be taken”

common grace

But if you use the measure of grace that I have provided

even more will be added

in fact, unlimited grace and favor are available to you.

Illustration: A full cupbard

It’s like having a closet full of cash, like millions of dollars

but not using it, not activating it, not spending it

money is meant to be spent — to not do so is inconceivable.

Jesus is saying, I have already given you everything

and there is even more to give!

The parable of the measure refers to the ways people respond to the light. The economic axiom that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer also holds true for the spiritual life.

If you have money, you can make money

the same is true of God the Holy Spirit

Barriers to Fruit Bearing

Parable of the talents — I was afraid

Matthew 25:24–30 (CSB)

24 “The man who had received one talent also approached and said, ‘Master, I know you.

You’re a harsh man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed.

25 So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’

26 “His master replied to him, ‘You evil, lazy servant! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered, 27 then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and I would have received my money back with interest when I returned. 28 “ ‘So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 30 And throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

If this is true, if we are good soil, if we are a good tree — then why don’t we bear fruit???

What are the barriers to bearing fruit (fruit bearing)

Answers:

Fear, fiend, false expectations — all fallenness.

Now Jesus is going to teach them (and us) about the nature of the Kingdom to dispel these barriers to bearing fruit.

Fear

This first is fear.

We are afraid

Afraid of failing

Afraid of Failing God, of failing ourselves

We are afraid b/c somehow we think it is all up to us.

Galatians 3:3 (CSB)

3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?

It is important to get clear on roles and responsibilities.

What is our part and what is God’s part?

Listen to what Jesus says:

The Parable of the Growing Seed

Mark 4:26–29 (CSB)

26 “The kingdom of God is like this,” he said. “A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day; the seed sprouts and grows, although he doesn’t know how. 28 The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the head, and then the full grain on the head. 29 As soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

What is he saying here?

What is the role of the sower?

to simply scatter the seed.

Does the sower make the seed grow? Does he water it? Does he produce light for it?

No, he doesn’t do any of these things.

God does all that

In fact it says “he doesn’t know how it grows”

literally it says “while he is unknowing”

You see that?

God gives the growth.

God does everything

The sower simply sows the seed

The seed of course is the Word of God

the gospel message.

The Power for growth is in the seed itself! Written into its DNA just like we see in nature

what is our role?

to sow the seed — to share the word of God — the gospel message

What is God’s role?

he makes it grow

In fact, when the crop is ready

he (the man) sends for the sickle — the harvest!

implying that the man doesn’t even harvest it but calls upon the harvester

Or it could mean ,harkening back to the previous section, that on that day, the last day, the harvest will come

The point is, we don’t ultimately do the work, God does!

God gives the growth.

Paul says essentially the same thing in 1 Cor 3:6-9

1 Corinthians 3:6–9 (CSB)

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Faith

The point is that we fear becuase we put our faith in ourselves

but Kingdom fulfillment comes from faith-filled fruit bearing

It means not putting faith in ourselves, but putting our faith in God

God’s power, God’s plan, God’s promises

We call that repentance.

We shift from faith, trust confidence in ourselves to GOD

So we can overcome our fears of failure, fears of rejection, fears of being a fraud by placing our Faith in God working in and through us as we grow in dependance on him.

This is what Peter teaches us:

2 Peter 1:3–11 (CSB)

3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.

11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

The Fiend

The second problem is we have a fiend — an enemy

In Matthew’s version of the Kingdom Parables he includes one that teaches

that an enemy comes in the night and sows seeds of weeds amongst the seeds of wheat

They ask if they should pull the weeds and he says no

they must remain until the harvest

and then they will be sorted out

What this means is:

We will live in a confusing time

what appears to be wheat will really be weeds

and so this complicates the world we live in

it’s not so black in white it is very gray

Basically this is just wisdom for us to know what to expect

that there will be false fruit, false prophets, false ministries and we may not be able to discern

but God does and God will

an in the end we will all know

everything that is concealed will be revealed!

Matthew tells a few more parable to solidify this:

the parable of the fishing net (Matt 13:47-50)

This really leads into our last barrier to fruit bearing:

false expectations.

In other words, how the kingdom grows, will not be as we expect, at least it wont’ be as the world expects and promotes.

False Expectations - The Muster Seed

Mark 4:30–32 (CSB)

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it? 31 It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown upon the soil, is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground. 32 And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

Jesus says that the Kingdom of God will not come in a way that you would expect it.

It will seem small and seemingly insignificant

Doesn’t it seem this way in parts of the world? and increasing in the US

the kingdom is small, insignificant, powerless

but over time and indeed at the end of time it will be full of life and the largest of all garden plants

enough to house birds and nexts

Matthew 13 adds the parable to the leaven to teach that the kingdom will spread through the entire amount of flour

Matthew 13:33 (CSB)

33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

50 lbs of Flour! that’s a lot

but a little leaven will leaven the entire amount

In some ways this is a call to take the gospel to every tribe, tongue, nation and people.

Humility not Pomp

The kingdom has not come in pomp but in humility — in meekness

defined as great power under restraint

Jesus own life models this reality.

Jesus the King of Glory, the 2nd Person of the Trinity

didn’t come to judge the world in righteousness and power

but rather to be judged in place of the world

Phil 2:5-11 says that Jesus did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited, utilized when he came as a man.

It is the wonder of the incarnation

great power under restraint

Jesus could draw crowds by the thousands, but relatively few followed him in the cost of discipleship

most turned away from him (see John 6-8)

Jesus life an ministry are a demonstration of the kingdom at work

The great became granular

he lived a seemingly insignificant life, from insignificant town from an insignificant people in the eyes of the romans

yet today, a few billion people claim to follow Jesus.

That is the kingdom at work.

This means that in our lives, in our fruit bearing

we should expect it to look a lot like Jesus’s ministry

It’s not about the pomp, it’s not about the crowds

it’s about those who will be good soil and will bear kingdom fruit at seeming great cost to themselves.

What will this require?

well, to put it simply, death.

The Death of Pride

Again, we follow our Lord and Savior

what is the key to fruit-bearing? — death.

In John 12:24 he says death the key to true kingdom fulfillment through faith-filled fruit baring

John 12:23–26 (CSB)

23 Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

24 Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.

25 The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

We are called to die, perhaps physically, but more so we are to

die to ourselves

it is the death of pride — the death of independence, the death of desire for success and significance outside of Jesus Christ

Many of us, in our pride, we have substituted sin for the Glory of the King

but in the greatest reversal in human history

Jesus, the King of Glory, substituted himself for sin

The answer to how we bear fruit

how we bring about true kingdom fulfillment through faith-filled fruit bearing

is that we must die to ourselves, just like Jesus died

and by dying, we can bear fruit

this is why Jesus ends the way he does.

humility is the death of pride

pride is the greatest barrier to kingdom fruitfulness

Humility and Pride

Mark 4:33–34 (CSB)

33 He was speaking the word to them with many parables like these, as they were able to understand. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable. Privately, however, he explained everything to his own disciples.

Why does Jesus speak in parables?

We saw it last week, but lets look at Matthews Version

Matthew 13:10–17 (CSB)

10 Then the disciples came up and asked him, “Why are you speaking to them in parables?” 11 He answered, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. 12 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. 14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You will listen and listen, but never understand; you will look and look, but never perceive. 15 For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back— and I would heal them. 16 “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.

Matthew ties it all together for us

What does it take to understand a parable?

you have to admit that you don’t understand.

Parables are meant to bring us to the end of ourselves

to not lean on your own understanding but to trust in God.

Mark Conclusion (4:33–34)

To understand them requires more than intellectual comprehension; it requires submitting to the word in one’s heart. Jesus uses parables to plumb the spiritual perception of the audience, because he knows that a Messiah who dies can only be perceived through a rare spiritual discernment. The message that Christ crucified conquers the world remains a scandalous and foolish riddle to those who are unable to hear the word with understanding and refuse to gather around Jesus as a disciple.

so that thinking we see, but not seeing (as evidenced by lack of fruit and knowledge of him)

we might humble ourselves (bc God gives grace to the humble)

and admit that we don’t know

that we don’t understand

that we can’t do it

that we need Jesus.

And Jesus will open our eyes

open our hears

allow us to see the kingdom of God.

b/c he removed the barrier of sin and reconciles us to the Father through the Holy Spirit

Notice, that those who followed Jesus

his disciples

to them he would explain everything.

What does this mean?

It means Jesus is willing, able and desires to teach you the secrets of the kingdom

What is required?

simply that we come to him

and Jesus to, through the Holy Spirit, privately explain everything to us.

We can meet with Jesus privately now, did you now that?

each and every day we can meet with him

with His Holy Spirit, in His word, and with God’s people

and he will teach us

he will change us.

and he will bear fruit through us.

Conclusion

True Kingdom fulfillment comes through faith-filled fruit bearing.

Where are you afraid?

Where do your expectations need to change

where do you need to place confidence in Jesus not yourself.