Mark 4a

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0:00 So we're working our way through Mark and we're supposed to be on Mark 3. I was looking at Mark 3 and then I looked at Mark 4 and Mark 4 has gotten more than one weekend so we're going to sneak into Mark 4 a little bit and do this parable that we just talked to the kids about. The parable of the story. Right at the beginning of Mark 4, if you want to look at what we've been on, Mark 4 starting at verse 1.

0:33 We've been talking about the gospel and the story of Jesus and the way Mark tells his story that he's influenced by Peter, that Mark was around the first time in the first century. They're not one of the first couples of cycles, not one of the first 12. And then to help grow the church or spread the gospel in Jesus in that first century.

1:09 Definitely went on over each one of the Mary Gurney with Paul and then was a tribe and a student of Peter and a lot of scholars think he ended up with Peter in Rome when Peter was on house at us there and that that's where he copied down the gospel. Maybe Peter wanted to get his accounting of the story out before he was martyred and so he had Mark help and write it. And the theme we've been talking about is one of them in Mark's except in Mark's gospel

1:41 I didn't have as immediately, very quickly. The other thing that the Mountian ex-seacher in Mark's gospel is really strong. Jesus was telling everybody to keep quiet but he's losing the battle of giving people to keep quiet. They're coming at him. He's like immediately attracted attention. In chapter 3 that's one time he tells them that the disciples he's teaching and all the people that set up a boat and they trust me because they're coming at him.

2:14 It's all they said. Remember we talked about the guy being let down through the roof of the house because they couldn't even get in and in Mark chapter 4 it goes on in that situation Jesus is like being mobbed by people as he's trying to teach. So Mark chapter 4 verse 1, again he began to teach beside the sea, so he began to see the valley and a very large cloud gathered about him so he got into a boat and sat in

2:44 it on the sea and the whole cloud wakes beside the sea on the land. They were pressing up on him and they didn't have an antecedar or something so he gets on the boat to get a little bit of space and they're all crowding around the shore to hear him talk and just keep. We don't get the whole teaching but we get one piece of it and he is teaching them many things in parables and in his teaching he said to them.

3:17 And the first thing I'm thinking about in this small point but like we're going to get into this parable the slower that I told the kids and he's talking about the way that the gospel works and I was thinking about like how is it using metaphor instead of like technical language. Now, consistently Jesus uses metaphor and parable to communicate meaning and how often he's okay with people asking for the understanding of the metaphor.

3:49 In the account of the teachings Jesus will explain the metaphor for the cloud after the whole cloud of glass but most of the whole cloud and as well with disciples the reason he explains it to them is because they didn't get it and it's so interesting that Jesus is okay with this whole cloud. He clearly wants to know what he has to say not getting it exactly. And we I feel like in this church so often are so enamored with the times and specific

4:32 theological Christians. And the creator God of the universe who imagined the world into existence and in infinite wisdom and omnipotent capability was left itself into the person Jesus of Nazareth for the explicit purpose of accomplishing the salvation of individuals and launching into the world the reign of God again. He comes down, walks into the world after all that effort and gets a chance to teach and

5:08 in his teaching he seems to be okay with misunderstanding and ambiguity. I'm saying. The point of his coming isn't that everyone gets the answer to text and walk right. That's interesting. His most powerful teachings are these kind of operas and leads maybe like the beatitudes

5:39 blessed are the poor in spirit for their their this is the kingdom of God whatever that means. And then nervous like this the parable of the sower which even the left twelve don't understand when they hear it from his own design. So good luck to us. Mark. Now.

6:09 Three. Mark is that he's been teaching for a while so we don't get the whole piece in justice. One you get the feeling that he's actually parables on top of each other. And then this is the punch line of the mall. So he starts out in verse three my translation says the lesson was an ethical and the attention of this one. A soul went out to so and I t so some seed fell along the clock and the birds came into

6:43 value other sea fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it's been up since it had no depths of soil. And when the sun rose it was scorched and since it had no root it littered away. I don't see you fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no grimy. And other fees fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and fifty fold and a hundred fold and it said he who has ears to hear let him hear.

7:18 Right. I mean you know if we were like if we had friends who grew up this way I did just a little bit of these birds and it's they would sow the seed before they plow I guess. Throw it out there and then run the ground up and then put water on it instead of doing one of the things. That's not how they did it right. They were casted out.

7:48 And they have a sense of you know if they if the landowner were being wasteful it would bother them if it were one of them they would be if they would be frustrated at the age but not know another way to do it but it's not an atypical process you're describing. It's not that it would make sense to them. It's sort of very angling says the one that falls on good soil produces thirty, sixty or a hundred fold and the stuff I read I feel those things to date whether this is an astounding

8:20 yield or a miraculous yield but it's in that category. It's either like phenomenal or morality. There's no way you can get it and they did great. It took these to sit the nominal yields but it could be also a miraculous yield. Either way by the time you get to that it appears that I'm looking like this it works out. You get three quarters of it and it's wasted and a quarter makes up for the difference. This is what he really wanted them to hear.

8:53 He said he doesn't even say the kingdom of God is such. That's the beginning of this one. If the glycerin pays attention a slower business than right into it. The way people remember this. No wonder it's confusing. He goes to the circle of the apple and he goes and they're like get what man? How these work? Yes, we get them. Right? That it's better if you get it to get down into the ground.

9:24 And so Jesus admitted it was a wrong and those around him at what's the twelve awesome about the parable and he said to them to you and I've been giving the secrets of the kingdom of God but for those outside everything is imperable so that they may indeed see but not perceive and may be indeed here but not understand lest they should turn and be forgiven.

9:54 This is a toughie. Right? I mean I think that we would, it could be just a timing thing. This could be part of Jesus' Mexican secret. My interpretations of this is Jesus' life. I don't need all these brokers figuring it out right now because I'm on a mission that involves the salvation of the whole world which walks through the cross.

10:32 So all I know is I'm supposed to plant these seeds right now that for those who hear it will sit in the ground and germinate. By the time the fruit of faith has come up I've accomplished my purpose. If I make it too clear the fruit of faith comes up quickly and it messes up the Mexican secret. I've got to get through my God here and then faith can bloom. The other is a little bit less comfortable because it runs up against the idea that Jesus' life's God, the Father, and the Old Testament has a place in the heart for judgment.

11:12 And that these brokers have crossed over the line and he's interested in coming in order to announce judgment on them. I told you and you didn't listen. You couldn't get it. You can pick which one of those disciples because I'm okay with ambiguity for them. Okay. Verse 13 and he said to them, do you not understand this parable?

11:42 How then will you understand all the parables? And then he explains it. The so-or-so's of words. And these are the ones along the path where the word is found. The first thing to think about here, which is how the who thought through the parable before are listening to something through this parable before. Most of the people in the room. So we've heard him focus on all sorts of things, right?

12:13 Which is fine. But what I'm interested in this morning is trying to focus on the things Jesus focused on when Jesus explained it to the disciples. And he said, I've heard a lot of talk about getting out there and so to see. And I don't think that that's probably true. But I think that's what he's talking about here, that he's serving. He doesn't spend any time talking about the so-or in the city. Is this?

12:43 It's a good strike, it's like, look, it's so good to have those so-or-so's. You know how that works? I cast it and it just throws it out there. Right? So let me move on. So the point here is to think about these four kinds of stories that we're talking about. Okay. The so-or-so's the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sewn when they hear, say to me to the tongue, and take the word that is sewn in them. I mean, it would be nice if Jesus didn't mention, like, a spiritual down down.

13:20 Set on devouring people and him. But consistently he does. Like, there's something about the worldview of the story of the Christian that says there is an enemy of humanity and God. Set against the works and the will of God in the world. And the willing to interact with him in order to distract, detain, deter, move aside from the things that they face.

13:56 And so Jesus and Nazus explain to the 12 in order that they don't miss it. So there are times where the word of God goes out there, hits people, and the enemy does something to get it out of their way. So they don't, doesn't take root in them at all. Okay. Then he goes on. Verse 16. And there are those, and these are the ones sewn on the rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately, receive it with glory.

14:35 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. So the word is intended to be, the gospel is intended to be something that endures in you despite persecution or tribulation.

15:14 And he seems to assume deep into a fun to those who are open to faith or who have been exposed to the word. So this means the truth of the gospel is not intended on the theme of your life. If your life is hard, it does not mean the gospel is not true.

15:46 If the code likes it hard for us, people are set against it, relationships fall apart, money does not work out for years being famous, hope is fleeting. That does not mean that the gospel is not true and still for you. If we cling to the gospel because it seems to make everything worthy, everybody looks like us, feels like us. We are firms that we are right and correct at all corners and in all moments.

16:21 We are not challenged or uncomfortable. No one hates us as a one life step. And when the things go wrong, we must have it wrong. Let's get back. Let's pick something else that gives what's in place. This is what is described. People for whom faith or the word or the gospel is something that allows everything to go the way they want in their life. And when it doesn't, they find something else that can do that for them. They claim, automation,

16:52 money works really well for this, if you can get your hands on enough of it. And to change, like excursion after excursion does as well, you can pull that off. Other people's problems do that well too. If you can absorb yourself out of people's problems and always be the comforter and run for one problem to an extra, you can actually play new and love you. There are a lot of things that you can put in place of faith in the gospel.

17:23 If all we're looking for is something that makes us feel right and like being to go well. Jesus says that's not what the word does. When the word hits you, if that's what you're looking for, you'll abandon it quickly. Interesting. Okay. And let's see. Verse 18. And I think that the one strong among the ones.

17:57 There goes the huge word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and desires for other things. Enter in and touch the word and it proves un fruitful. I didn't realize this until this time that there's one of these forest oils where the word takes root, grows in following the metaphor, the growth of the plants in the space, but the faith produces no fruit.

18:35 It doesn't die. It still stays there. When I was in the house I grew up in, I had a nice little backyard that later became the pain because I had to mow it. It would take me like an hour and a half, two hours to mow it. But out in the corner, there was this like, sad, worn tree.

19:07 I mean, just pitiful. I mean, it had been here for a long time when we left. When I was in the eighth grade, it was the same size. Like, just figure out, you know, like this tall. Just, and one of the first ones in church was just like this size, or a tribal. A little longer. But he, at the time when I was a kid, knew to kiss his man, he grew all kinds of to kiss his in his backyard and came over once. Was it my dad trying to get it to produce some oranges down his leg?

19:39 Like, when Florida got an orange tree, it took out some oranges, they were terrible. The worst oranges ever, right? I mean, there wasn't orange there, but it might as well have been an orange tree. Or it was not worth it. The point of the gospel is not that you nearly have a bug to belong to, right?

20:12 Or have a sense of feeling right sometimes. Or even just that you know and successfully what is true. The point of the gospel is that you might experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, judgment, and self-control, that you might be a force for the spirit of God in the world where you live, most of the people you interact with, that you might move in the world with love, joy, peace, patience.

20:50 Jesus tells the 12th, whom he's trying to help them move beyond ambiguity, and say, there will be people in the world who hear the gospel, receive it, and then to find out they don't have any of the benefits of it. Just because this is easier to find time, energy, mind, head, space, emotion on other hands.

21:29 Just being? This is interesting, right? Man, just kidding. Jesus. Again, we're 20, but those that were shown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it, and bear fruit, 34 and 50 fold, and a hundred fold.

22:02 We're five, seven, three, yes. And it's like an unreasonable, disproportionate abundance, meaning you could be able to do that. Meaning you could be able to do more than a drinkable.

22:35 You ought to be able to be more kind than people understand. The spirit of God means you have patience that doesn't make a lot of sense. The substance say that we have a peace that transcends and understands, that sounds the understanding of the world. We have a joy that's disproportionate to the circumstances in which we find our science. This is the problem, the risk, the outgrowth of the gospel taking root in the people of good soil.

23:19 And thinking about this terrible, a lot, the actual, part of the reason I was attracted to it for us to tweak is because I had the thinking about it, and then I saw that it was there, and it's got before, but I can't wait, man, I'm not going to keep showing this, it's got the three steps we're going to do. Because I've been trying to think about, kind of like, the first time I sometimes, when you are thinking about pastoring, people will use this terrible to tell you what's acceptable.

23:55 A quarter of the people who come around you will produce fruit. Spend your time on that quarter, don't spend your time on the subject. But lately, I've been feeling like not this thing. You guys have the quarter. But if I think about Orlando as the field where I want to be out there with the word of God, I can't believe a quarter of Orlando is good soil.

24:33 I feel like we, the church, corporately, has been like, taving over, I don't know, misrepresenting mist and strewn. Running in is precisely dogma only as it's decision and accuracy in dogma were the point. So much that we've returned this soil, if not good, that as the church, we need people, this is what I've been thinking.

25:13 We need to be finding ways for cultivate the soil, to turn it over and give it air. We need to have, we need to awaken people's imagination again about what it might look like to live under the grain of God. That they could see what the fruit actually is. That the fruit isn't self-righteousness, or that the fruit isn't uniformity in behavior,

25:48 but that the fruit is love, voice, peace, faith, everybody wants that. I've been thinking about that, and then I was wondering, am I manipulating the terrible and that's not really what it's about? That you're the soil is the soil, and you can't change it. There's part of me that thought, maybe he's trying to say, people that are one of these four, would not pay attention. But reading through it again today, I think, no, he's trying to awaken.

26:26 Can you believe the generosity of the God of creation in life, the God of Abraham, I didn't think of the God of Christ in the church? He made you, though he had no need of you. Those who are into a world, as a gift for you, and in some divine, broke, abutant, figured out how to rescue you from yourself,

26:59 and if that is not enough, while you see it, he's rotted little metaphors that are just ambiguous enough that they persist, though the church has misunderstood and misrepresented Christ for so long, they keep telling these little stories. An embedded in the metaphor is a deep truth that you will need. That the gospel comes to you over and over again, like some generous seed sower, he throws it out at you, over and over again,

27:33 and that the way you respond is experienced by the things around you, by the position of your head and your heart, by what you're looking for. And Jesus drops this metaphor so that you can see only if I actually have no fruit, what might it be? Oh, there are all these instructions. When life gets hard, I assume I've got the wrong thing. Oh, I need the deeper root of perseverance and perseverance for his character, and character for his his coach, and hope him in the Lord does not disappoint.

28:07 That's right. He gives you the guidebook to look at the outro of the word, the gospel, and you, and do some self-attentance. And then, I mean, how generous that he would do that, just for you, and then lay out this hope of 30, 60, 100 souls, that you would root out the rock, rip up the weeds, not because you have to, but because when you do 30, 60, 100 souls is yours.

28:43 Land, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. This is a helpful tool for me because I would like to have that referred to the Spirit, but also because, by God's grace, I'll find that I care about the people around me.

29:13 And I would like for them to have the fruit as well. And I realized that I can do more than yell at them about the person of Christ. I can find the rocks and the weeds, and turn over the dirt, and then give them the gospel as well. This parable, I feel like, is really appropriate for us today in Orlando, where we are.

29:50 It can be very practical for our lives, and for the work we might be about in our city, in our neighborhoods, and our families. Let me pray that you could take it out. Hey Lord, thank you for this story, the deepest truth that we need for life. Give us faith today to redeem your word into good soil, and help give us eyes to see how we might help neighbors and friends cultivate good soil as well.

30:31 In Jesus name we pray. Amen.