So we are in a series in the Gospel of Mark…
- Which is Mark’s biography of Jesus, written around 70AD… and it is his attempt at capturing the story of Jesus life…
- Mark was a companion of Peter – gathered the eye witness accounts…
- And the purpose of this biography is persuading us all that this Jesus is the Messiah.
- Central question… Mark 8:29 where Jesus asks his disciples “who do you say I am?”
And Elise spoke brilliantly last week on a brilliant passage that serves in one sense as a summary of all that Jesus has begun to do in Mark’s gospel…
- Jesus explaining his ministry describes it as (verse 27) “plundering the strong man’s house.”
- He sets up his ministry as one in which he is calling people to join his movement, and in doing so moving people from Satan’s kingdom into his kingdom of light.
- So when Jesus casts out an impure spirit, that person is being plundered from the dominion of darkness into Jesus Kingdom of light…
- When Jesus calls Levi the tax collector to follow him, he is being plundered from dominion of darkness…
- When Jesus heals and forgives the paralytic man lowered through the roof, he is bringing him into the kingdom of light.
OK? So when you became a Christian, or become a Christian (today – haha), Jesus has tied up the strongman and plundered you into his family.
- And what is becoming clear is that there really isn’t a middle ground when it comes to your response to Jesus…
- We may love nuance, creating soft on ramps to faith… but our response to Jesus in the gospel of Mark is much more black and white.
- You either accept or reject the Son of God.
So we are at the beginning of chapter 4… start of a little section in Mark’s gospel where he tells some stories to explain what his ministry is about.
- We call them parables, and gosh they are amazing… I remember one of my bible college lecturers used to say “Jesus was the smartest man to ever live.”
- And you could add to that as a sub heading… Jesus was the best storyteller to ever live.
- I mean think about the parable of the prodigal son… and its redemptive power… (I actually told it quickly to one of the guys at the swim this week).
- Or think about the parable of the good Samaritan and how it has shaped our views and our cultural values around mercy and helping strangers.
- Or think about the parable of the great banquet and its radical invitation to come and be a part of the Kings table!
- They are brilliant, brilliant, subversive stories. And Jesus is a master storyteller…
So Jesus uses parables to explain his ministry and the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Now he didn’t make up this way of teaching. Right? Parables were a known way of making a point for teachers of the law.
- And they often used everyday imagery like a farmer, or a banquet invitation or an everyday image like someone getting beaten up and left on the side of a road…
- Indeed we even see parables used in the Old Testament, once again, to make pointy points about the state of the people of God.
- One of the most profound and pointy ones is in Isaiah 6 where God describes Israel as a vineyard he has planted…
So in the Isaiah one, God is represented by the farmer and it talks about how he has planted and cared for this vineyard… but when he went to harvest….
- All he finds is bad fruit… right, it’s a pretty punchy story! Right? God has cared for his vineyard and all he gets in return is bad fruit…
- And then Isaiah talks about what some of that bad fruit looks like ands mentions how the people of God are calling evil, good and good, evil.
- Right? So parables or these stories are used to help the reader understand a picture of what is going on. The Isaiah one is brilliant…
- They help you understand something God is trying to say…
And here is the thing about Jesus’s parables… they are meant to be listened to, understood and responded to.
- Jesus at the start of the parable of the sower (which we are about to get to) starts by saying “Listen!”
- OK? The tense of the Greek is as an imperative. Behold, pay attention, hearken!
- And at end Jesus will say “he with ears to hear, let him hear!
- So what is he saying in this first parable in the Gospel of Mark?
Show lets watch Jesus tell this story – Chosen clip (and then I will read on the rest of the passage)
So we read on… Mark 4:9-20
9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”
13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
So what is this about?
- Well Jesus is saying the goal of your life following him is incredible fruitfulness! This message of Jesus is meant to spark a movement of people…
- It is meant to establish the Kingdom of heaven on earth!
- But its fruitfulness, will depend on our varying responses to his ministry… to his “message and demonstration” about the Kingdom of God.
- The seed we are told in verse 14 is the word! Jesus is a preacher after all. He had a message…
- Mark 1:14 Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
- And while all kingdoms or revolutions in one sense start with communication of ideas, Jesus kingdom is a bit unexpected…
You see one of the questions his followers and indeed the crowds have, is, Jesus, if you are ushering in the kingdom of heaven, is this it?
- Right, because they were kind of expecting… yes healing and preaching… but also the overthrow of the Roman oppressors and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel.
- Right? King and Kingdom come… time for a full restoration!
- Right? I mean even Jesus cousin, John the Baptist sends a message to him at one stage asking is this it? Are you the one to come?
- At the start of the Book of Acts, the disciples ask, post Jesus resurrection, will you now restore the Kingdom of Israel?
But what we are going to learn, is that Jesus kingdom is not one of military power or coercion, but of seeking and saving the lost…
- Jesus is going to win people to his cause by winning their hearts
- It is why I would say you can never force someone to believe in Jesus. One… you just cant… but even if you could coerce someone, it is not going to last.
- We need to be captured by the brilliance and beauty and truth of Jesus and be convinced of who he is…
- And this revolution, or kingdom happens, one response to the message of his kingdom at a time…
- But it needs good soil.
You see what Jesus is saying, is that this kingdom where God rules and restores, redeems and reconciles…
- Will be less like a military power establishing an empire by force… and more like a farmer sowing seed in people’s hearts!
- That’s cool…
- The kingdom of God will look more like a movement of willing souls ready to respond to Jesus and take on his ways and words and works…
You see sowing seeds can seem weak, unimpressive and vulnerable…
- Right? A little seed can be snatched away, or choked out or never put down proper roots…
- But sowing seeds that find good soil has great potential and power to bring forth life.
- Say again…
- While every other revolution or Kingdom has fallen, faded or been overthrown…
- Right, how is the Babylonian Kingdom going? Or the Ottoman Empire? Or the third Reich?
- Jesus seemingly unimpressive kingdom, like a seed in good soil can bring a harvest way beyond that initial seed… it can produce a crop 30, 60, 100 fold.
- But it will all rise or fall on our response to the word! Are you good soil?
OK, lets dig into this parable… because it is brilliant… and let’s look at what in one sense is a warning from Jesus about why we may not stick.
- Or at the very least, not see his message produce an incredible harvest of life and fruitfulness within and through us!
- I don’t know about you, but I don’t wasn’t to be that person whom the word is snatched away from or has no depth and withers or is choked out by weeds…
- I want to be the good soil that receives the message of Jesus and his kingdom and that leads to an explosion of life in and through me!
- And remember, this parable isn’t a stand alone, mysterious story…
- It relates to what we have seen in Mark’s gospel so far with people either rejecting Jesus or receiving him.
So the Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer, throwing out seed to grow a crop and firstly you have the seed that falls on the path…
Verse 15 “Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”
- Now we know this group right?
- This is your angry atheist friend or hedonistic cousins…
- Or this could be the colleague at work who belongs to a cult or another religion…
- The good news about Jesus has about as much chance of going deep in their hearts as a seed on a hard path has of getting into the soil, germinating and growing life!
- It is snatched away.
Just a side note on this group… this is often the people we think we should be doing evangelism with. Nah… I mean miracles do happen…
- There are just people out there who want nothing to do with the good news about Jesus
- Guy at the swim… awful… negative, attacks, mocks…
- Once told me… (Christian girls and leading them astray)…
- But I want to suggest there is so much good soil out there… people who are not like hard paths that have no chance of receiving the good news about Jesus and his kingdom.
- Find them…
Secondly you have the rocky soil…
Verse 16-17 “Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”
- OK again… maybe Jesus is referring here to the crowds who have been flocking to hear him and get their miracle from him
- But as I mentioned 2 weeks ago, the crowds are fickle. The same crowd that joyfully welcome Jesus into Jerusalem as King are the same crowd baying for his death a week later…
- So the question Jesus is posing with the rocky places, is has the good news of his kingdom gone deep enough, or is your faith shallow and fickle…
- If trouble or persecution comes, will you fall away?
Now, I think we need to be careful in Sydney, Australia that we don’t fall into a persecution complex…
- We have incredible religious freedom to meet and share and follow Jesus…
- But the reality is, we do at times cop a good mocking from the surrounding culture…
- I was even speaking to one of our young dads here at Manly Life and he is the only Christian in his family and he particularly faced and still faces ridicule and questioning from his family…
- So Jesus is warning us here about the rocks in our soil that will mean we don’t get deep roots and our faith can only last a short time…
- Initial joy, but it gets a bit tough, and you give it all up.
Thirdly you have the weeds… choked out by worldly distractions…
Verse 18-19 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
- OK, so we come to the third soil type… or as I call it Manly Life Church.
- Haha – Ouch… and I include myself in this soil type… this one is I think Jesus’ starkest warning to people like you and me.
- The weeds choking out the potential for a thriving, life giving, multiplying faith… or as Jesus puts it, the weeds “making it unfruitful…”
- So the seed does grow… but it never realises its potential…
- Why? Worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.
- Ouch! Christianity on the Northern Beaches!
Can we just own this Manly Life Church? The biggest risk to fruitfulness in your life, and our church are these exact things…
- We are such products of the culture that we live in and the stresses and temptations around us, that we get so distracted from the Kingdom of God.
- I told you Jesus was the smartest man to ever live… and I told you he was the greatest storyteller to ever live.
- And he is also the biggest teller of truth… he makes pointy points… and no matter how uncomfortable you and I may be with this…
- We need to hearken! We need to listen in real close…
You see how do you seek first the Kingdom of God? How do you wholeheartedly follow Jesus? How do you respond to the kind invitation of Jesus…
- If you are distracted by and worried about your position or station in life?
- If you are distracted by the deceitfulness of wealth and always having to have more, more, more.
- If you are distracted by the desire for other things like the perfect body, eternal youth, the latest fads and clothes, holidays, better cars, bigger homes, fuller lashes and plumper lips, rock hard abs, a fifth surf board, better homes and gardens, your child’s school, your child’s sports teams, your child becoming prefect, the stock market, your super fund, your property portfolio, your dog, your cat, your wardrobe, shoes… I love shoes, fitness, hobbies, being popular, being right, being powerful, travelling business class, a boat, a dirodi bike…
Now not one of those things I mentioned are bad within themselves… Jesus had a boat!
- But if they consume you, distract you, choke out the Kingdom… any chance of fruitfulness will go with them…
- Because these weeds are just competing forces…
- And when I am gardening… I am always looking to pull out weeds because they take over!
See, what time have you really got for Jesus and the good news of the kingdom if these are the weeds choking out any possibility of true fruitfulness in your life.
- But seek first the kingdom, with your time, with your finances, with your heart, with your thoughts, with your actions…
- And oh my…
- Share the gospel, pray for the sick, open up your home, have a stranger for dinner, welcome someone not like you into friendship, forgive people when they hurt you, cook a meal for someone sick, read your bible, commit to church (like in your diaries in pen, not in pencil), serve the next generation, have a heart for the poor, serve them, stop for people on the side of the road, seek purity and righteousness, travel the narrow path, fight greed with generosity, be faithful in your relationships, prioritise time with your family, speak kindly and truthfully, have joy and abundance in your friendships, listen to people, fast, pray, honour leaders, be a good colleague and worker, did I mention share the gospel?
See here is the good news… Fourthly you have the good soil…
Verse 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
- That list is so accessible to all of us.
- It’s not just the life of the medical missionary in the Congo…
- It can be the deep, profound life of the Christ follower here on the Northern Beaches of Sydney… who hears about Jesus…
- Who accepts that he is Lord and worth following
- And who produces a crop of abundance and multiplication and fruitfulness…
- Come on.
Well never has there been a movement or a Kingdom like Jesus’.
Lets respond, lets pray, lets seek first the Kingdom of Heaven!
This seed is so incredible to bring forth life.
I think we are in a season, here in the West where we are seeing the start of an amazing move of God…
But will it find good soil?