A Heart for the Kingdom

Main Idea: The secrets of the kingdom are not received by everyone.

Message Goal: Prepare the heart to receive the secrets of the kingdom of God.

Introduction: Crowds That Will Hear

The iconic day written in the history books of Billy Graham’s ministry is July 20, 1957.

Taken from Billy Graham’s blog: In 1957, Billy Graham preached to his longest set of meetings. The New York Crusade went on for a record 16-weeks, concluding on Sept. 1, 1957. More than 2.3 million people attended the meetings with more than 61,000 indicating a decision for Christ, and an estimated 96 million more had seen at least one of the meetings that were televised.

The Crusade initially had been scheduled to end on June 20, but with the meetings running at capacity (or beyond) almost every night, the Crusade committee quickly decided to extend it by three weeks, with a closing rally planned for Yankee Stadium on July 20. From my standpoint, the decision to extend wasn’t so easy; by the end of those first six weeks, I was already physically depleted.

I also had run out of sermons and was having to prepare a new one every day. Some nights during those later weeks, I sat on the platform and prayed silently, “O God, You have to do it. I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.” And yet when I stood up, all of a sudden the words would begin to come—God giving me strength and spiritual power in a way that could not be explained in human terms.

The final service in Yankee Stadium on July 20 was truly unforgettable. The stadium was jammed with a record crowd of 100,000 people, with another 20,000 outside who could not get in. The heat was fierce—93 degrees outside and 105 degrees on the platform—and how anyone (including me) managed to concentrate is still beyond my imagination. </end>

This entire account is extremely interesting and historical. If you can think about it, we have witnessed one of the most iconic preachers in history. Billy Graham was one of the most powerful preachers this world has ever seen.

However, the point that is most interesting to me was the conversion percentage of those who converted. During this monumental revival, 2.6% of the attendees actually made a decision for Christ over this 16-week period. Over 97% of people who came to Billy Graham’s event left and did not make a decision for Christ. Granted, this statistic not convey the long-term impact of Billy Graham’s ministry, and neither is it intended to do so. I am very aware that individuals may have left and made a decision for Christ. However, I want to draw attention to the amount of people that come to hear a sermon or a speaker as spectacular as Billy Graham, but do not take a concentrated action to make a decision to use those teachings for the benefit of gaining a better life. For many, hearing the word is good enough. Howard E. Buttm said,

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 7458 Sermon-Listening

Too many churchgoers tend to regard sermon-listening as an end in itself, says lay evangelist Howard E. Butt, Jr., so much so that sermon-listening may actually be one of America’s greatest sins.

At historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., Butt rebuked sermon-listening as an “escape.” “God wants transformation from listening into living,” he affirmed.

This is the context we find in Mark 4:1-20.

Jesus’s Teaching Ministry

Jesus was an open-air preacher, attracting people from everywhere. In our text, Mark 4:1-2, we find a clear example of such people being drawn to Jesus. However, this passage shows Jesus’s ministry in a peculiar way. Often we hear of Jesus drawing people, because of the miracles He performed. However, this passage demonstrates individuals being drawn by Jesus’s teachings, not His miracles. And one of His famous trademarks was the use of parables.

Jesus spoke in parables, but He was not the only one to use parables. Parables were commonly used in the Old Testament by the prophets. Parables take all sorts of shapes. They can be expressed through a taunt (Isaiah 14:4), a riddle (Psalm 49:4), allegory (Ezekiel 17:2-10), or proverb (Deuteronomy 28:37). Parables are simply short moral stories with a symbolic meaning.

Simply put, Jesus was a story-teller. However, Jesus’s parabolic teaching was not the only distinguishing factor. It was also the level of compassion, awareness, clarity, and power He taught with. It was also the mobility of Jesus’s teaching ministry that allowed him to be effective. He taught everywhere He could find people that would hear. Furthermore, He would teach anyone while the rabbis would only teach their students. Jesus’s teaching was a “correlation of words and actions.” (Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J., Longman, T., Duriez, C., Penney, D., & Reid, D. G. (2000). In Dictionary of biblical imagery (electronic ed., p. 843). InterVarsity Press.). Think about that! Jesus did things and taught things; everything He taught was matched by a demonstration of actions that complimented each other. Lastly, Jesus was a moral teacher and a moral being. He lived what He preached.

In our text today, Jesus’s ministry was so spectacular that He is preaching from a boat. (Imagine that! This would have been so unorthodox from the practices used during Jesus’s day.) It is interesting that this method is used. One might ask, “Why is Jesus preaching from a boat?” Well, He started preaching from the boat because that’s where the people met Him. The point is—Jesus taught everywhere He went and in everything He did.

Somehow, we must preach and teach people where we meet them. What would it be like if we taught the people where we meet them, rather than inviting them to a space that is designed for the purpose. Jesus won so many people, because He had a teaching ministry that reached people where they were.

The Parable of the Farmer

Mark 4 contains four parables, and these parables make up most of the chapter. We should understand from the very beginning that these parables are all about the kingdom of God. In fact, all of Jesus’s parables were about the kingdom of God. Jesus was a teacher of the kingdom. His entire message concentrated on inviting individuals to the kingdom and explaining what it was like to be a part of the kingdom of God.

It is obvious the kingdom’s agenda was completely outside of the people’s mind. Accordingly Jesus had to extend invitations to individuals who did not know they could inherit the kingdom and then teach individuals how to live in such a kingdom. The startling part about the world that Jesus entered was the ignorance that existed towards the kingdom of God. They knew a lot about the kingdom they had in mind, but did not know much about the kingdom that God was inaugurating on earth as it is in heaven. Yet, this was not given to everyone to know. Mark 4:11 “11 He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables”

What a wonderful opportunity given to Jesus’s disciples! The truth is that not everyone will receive the mysteries of the kingdom. Jesus gives some the permission to have the secrets of the kingdom. Now this leads to two questions: 1) How does Jesus go about sharing the message of the kingdom? 2) How does one qualify to receive permission to possess the secrets?

Jesus teaches that sharing the teachings of the kingdom is related to the work of a farmer. During the days of Jesus, agriculture was the backbone of the economy. Most people were involved in agriculture during the times of Jesus. Farming was a seasonal, but an extremely tedious job. This task would have been a very common task for all of Jesus’s hearers.

The interesting thing in this text is the role the farmer takes. When we think of a farmer sowing seed, we normally think of a farmer who tills and prepares the ground for seed and then plants. However, this was not how they planted in first century Galilee. The word for “sow” in Mark 4 is actually “scatter.” So, the farmer would scatter the seed, allowing it to fall wherever it may. Interestingly, the farmer in Jesus’s parable does not cultivate the ground as a farmer would do during this time.

This leads us to the next question…how does one qualify to be trusted with the secrets of the kingdom?

The short answer is the ground must be prepared correctly. However, the answer is actually much more technical than this. Jesus’s teachings demonstrate that the heart must be cultivated by the person receiving the word for the purpose of receiving seed. Therefore, it is not that the seed is not given, but rather it is not receivable unless the ground is properly prepared. There are 4 manners in which one’s heart may exist:

Footpath (highly traveled heart)- the devil robs them of the word.

Stony ground (the shallow/ deep-less heart)- burdened by persecution.

Thorns (distracted heart)- troubled by anxiety.

Good Ground (the cultivated and prepared heart)- produces fruit in the midst of the all these conditions.

See Luke 8:15 and the difference between: καλός and ἀγαθός

καλός defines the part of heart that can be perceived and is represented by one’s actions. It is the social and beauty of the heart that is moral and discernable by others in a social space (honest). This is the aesthetic beauty one is known by.

ἀγαθός defines the disposition of one’s heart. It is the part of your heart no one can see (good).

Things people with a good heart do:

ask questions and learn.

Conclusion

What are you doing with your heart so it can receive the secrets of the kingdom?