Mark Sermon 1 Week 11

Read Text:

Open your Bibles to Mark 4:21-34

Name, Welcome

Continuing Mark

This week continuation of last week

READ TEXT

Pray

Pray for kingdom fulfillment through kingdom fruitfulness

Intro/Welcome

This is really the second part of last weeks sermon

Jesus told the parable of the four soils

and he ends on the good 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.”

Now maybe you read that and you ask:

Yea, but what does that actually look like to produce 100x fruitfulness?

Where do we get the power to bear that kind of fruit?

This is what Jesus is going to teach us today.

In regards to Kingdom Fruit, God grows what we faithfully sow.

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?

As I’ve said, we have to connect to what has just been said.

He was talking about the good soil

Now he talks about light.

Why? — Jesus is a good teacher he’s using an illustration to make his point.

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 bear fruit 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 cannot 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

Why it is important?.

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.

So that begs the question:

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

Where is the fruit in your life?

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 Pharisees

This is why he says what he says next:

Mark 4:23(CSB)

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

This means you can have ears, but not really hear Jesus, not really listen.

This what he said when his disciples asked him “why do you speak in parables?”

He quotes Isa 6:9-10

Isaiah 6:9–10 (CSB)

9 And he replied: Go! Say to these people:

Keep listening, but do not understand;

keep looking, but do not perceive.

10 Make the minds of these people dull;

deafen their ears and blind their eyes;

otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed.

so he says next:

Mark 4:24 (CSB)

24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear… [Therefore take care how you listen (Luke 8:18)]

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

it means it matters what we do with what he hear.

Anxious?

Now maybe some of you are feeling uncomfortable

anxiety is rising up b/c you don’t know how you’d answer that question.

Jesus isn’t condemning us, he is discipling us.

There are three barriers to bearing kingdom fruit:

Our Fear

Our False expectations

Our Focus (pride)

Fear

Many of us fail to bear fruit because we are afraid.

Afraid of failing

Failing God

Failing ourselves

Afraid of rejection

But the reason we fear is that we have put our confidence in ourselves rather than God.

We somehow think it is all up to us to bear fruit.

But that is a lie from the enemy.

Jesus was very clear in John 15:4

John 15:4–5 (ESV)

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Or on the other end, perhaps we have been fruitful but we give glory to ourself rather than God.

It is important then to distinguish what is our role and what is God’s role.

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.

The first point is THAT we actually do something

The second point is about HOW we go about doing it.

Jesus is going to teach us by just saying it and then illustrating it with parable.

Jesus isn’t saying this to condemn us rather he is saying this us to confirm our calling.

much the same way Peter does in 2nd Peter 1:3-12

2 Peter 1:3–12 (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.

The Fruit of the Spirit

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.

This is perhaps the #1 barrier to fruitfulness:

We put our confidence in our own abilities rather than God’s abilities.

it is a form of Pride.

He’s going to teach this, then illustrate it.

Mark 4:24–25 CSB

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