Mark 4 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational honor to be with you tonight and to share a portion of the Word of God with you turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark the second book in the New Testament mark chapter 4 let's pray together Lord what a marvelous truth it is one that we have experienced just now and that is that you Lord God you inhabit the praises of your people you dwell within you live among the praises and the people who render you praise you show up in a very unique manner Lord it's it's my desire that each one of us as we rendered praise to you and do so through the listening of your word and then afterwards even in the closing song that since you inhabit since you dwell within the praises of your people that we would give you the best seat in our hearts you'd have the best seat in the house that you would be the guest of honor that you're dwelling inside of us and among us in our praise Lord would be honoring to you one that would cause you the inhabitant to feel at home in us we welcome you here tonight Lord the songs have been about you not about us the expression has been about you not about us our worship and now the study of your word is deliberately focusing the attention off of us and on to your eternal truths because Lord we confess we need a perspective change we need to see differently and think differently and lived if than we have up till now all of us none of us have arrived all of us are growing moving so Lord even like this the parables that we're about to study entail it's our prayer that the soil of our hearts would be good soil we would break up the fallow ground as the Prophet said allowing the seed of truth of the word to penetrate deeply and bear forth fruit continually in Jesus name Amen I love a good story and I love a good storyteller now one of the problems I have with books and I try to read a bunch of books I get them and then I have good intentions and then I like end up reading 20 at a time because some of them I want to get through because I want to get the information in it but they just don't write well enough to grab my attention and it's not easy in a book especially to keep my attention you got to be a pretty good author for me to stick with the reading of a book but every now and then I come across an author or I hear a person who is very gifted at telling a story and so that even though the subject might be complex or even boring the person has such a knack at conveying the information and telling the story or telling it in story form that I'm hooked I remember when I was going to college and I took a course called radium physics and it was all sub atomic particles especially photon energy and ranking a graphic energy and and I I looked at the book that I bought for the class and I thought oh man I'm gonna hate this course this is not gonna be good it's not going to be fun but I had to take it but lo and behold the teacher that I had made radium physics my favorite subject I like this guy first of all he had like really long hair and he was like a professor but really I mean kind of looked like I did then and he knew the subjects so well and he would use stories analogies to convey complex unknown truths to me so that when I walked away from my afternoon course in Radium physics I thought I get the principal I understand how this works I'm really getting a grasp and I loved the way he conveyed it one of the ways that Jesus conveyed truth was through telling stories the Greek word parable a parable is a word that means to cast alongside of the word is used 48 times in the New Testament parable a to cast something alongside of something else now a parable is more than a story to cast something alongside of something else in story form means that you cast something that is known in front of people so as to convey to them something that is unknown to them up to that point you're going to teach them something that they won't grasp because they don't see it it's invisible it's in concept form the concepts are difficult for the human mind to grasp but if you teach them that unknown truth that hidden truth by casting alongside of that unknown truth something they do readily understand you'll have them nodding and you'll have them enjoying it and so that's how stories or parables in the New Testament were given Jesus wanted to teach the people spiritual things so he did it by showing them physical things visible things agricultural stories that they all understood rich metaphors rich analogies so in saying that the kingdom of God is like this and if they understand this then they'll have a little inkling of what the kingdom of God is if you just speak in theological terms and you speak you know it like a systematic theologian rather than like my teacher when he taught me radium physics you'll have people scratching their heads going I think he knows what he's talking about but he didn't give me anything Jesus spoke often in parables it's estimated that a full 1/3 of Jesus teaching was in parabolic format which I find interesting because I was reading that the ancient rabbis also the good ones taught about a third of the time with parables one famous rabbi by the name of a rabbi meir like Golda Meir Prime Minister one time Prime Minister of Israel Rabbi Meir taught one-third with legal discourses one-third biblical exposition and one-third in a storytelling format or in parables now we can see even without the New Testament just in the Old Testament the power of a story King David was on the throne he grew complacent he sinned and he just sort of went on with his life like nothing is a problem and he probably would go to bed at night saying I know what I did is wrong but you know what I'm gonna work really hard at getting over it and just marginalize his sin and he just kept going until one day he got a visit from Nathan the prophet who told him a story David I've got a problem he said there were two guys that were living in the same town one was very very wealthy and he owned many flocks and herds and one was a very poor man the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb that was like a pet to the family in fact that little lamb drank from the guys cup ate from his own food and slept at night on his bosom just put it little head on that man's bosom and it was like a daughter to him a family pet well the rich guy was having a friend blow through town one day and he thought I'd love to give my friend some lamb chops but David you know what he did instead of reaching into his many flocks and herds and killing his own lamb he stole the poor man single family pet and killed it and made lamb chops for his buddy David's face got so red and he stood up from his throne he goes that man shall surely die and Nathan waited with a pregnant pause lifted up his finger and said you are that man and then he applied it the Lord God has given you your masters Kingdom the Lord God has given you the kingdom of Judah the Kingdom of Israel and if that would have been not enough the Lord would give you even much more but you have sinned and taken a wife to yourself that belonged to another man Bathsheba and you killed Bathsheba's husband Uriah the Hittite you're that guy and you didn't kill a little lamb you killed a human being made in the image of God so while David pointed his finger at the Prophet he had three of his own fingers pointing back at him and that parable busted him laid him bare drove the truth home in a very poignant manner so in chapter 4 in verse 1 and again he began to teach by the sea that's the Sea of Galilee that Lake we've told you about Sea of Galilee seven seven and a half miles wide thirteen miles long and a great multitude was gathered to him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea it had been a very strenuous and probably emotional day so far for our Lord first of all his own family came from Nazareth and tried to take him away and bring him back to Nazareth because he was saying that he could forgive sins and he was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and all of these claims that his own brothers especially Step Brothers were sure made Jesus nuts crazy he'd been working too hard this is gonna get him into political trouble we got to take him home number two he was attacked by the scribes that day by saying the miraculous power that Jesus did he did by being in league with Bills above the Prince of demons and then third as the afternoon started wearing away when they said your family is now here to get you and to speak to you Jesus said well who who really is my family who is my mother who are my brothers and he pointed to them whoever hears the Word of God and does that that's my family now the afternoon continues to wear on Jesus leaves Capernaum proper goes outside of that village wall toward the Sea of Galilee gets into a boat and as the crowds pressed him they could only press him so far because he's now on the water sitting in a boat sitting because rabbis would sit while their pupils would stand we have it totally backwards we're all sitting but if this were rabbinic you would be standing because it which and I'm not going to ask you to do it don't worry about it it would show a reverence for the teaching a reverence for the word so the shoreline because it rises from lake level and goes upward toward Capernaum just like the ocean does it's a perfect setting for teaching I always thought that if I could plan architectural II plan the perfect church sanctuary there wouldn't be a raised platform in a flat floor we did this because this was a soccer field at one time and we just cheapest ways just to build a platform and keep it this way but if I could plan it the stage would be at ground level and all y'all would be rising up so you'd all have good seats and it would all be in around and you wouldn't have to look up I would have to look up so that's the idea Jesus is in the boat he's looking up as the shoreline rises to the crowd that's all around him and the Lord knew something about this crowd like every single crowd including tonight this crowd not everybody in the crowd is listening the same way to the truth not every heart in that crowd is receiving what is being spoken the same manner some are open hearted some are hard-hearted some are closed-minded some as soon as they hear a truth they marginalize that they go on a know if that's true or not or they think about somebody else this applies to or they get distracted by thoughts of their own day and things they have to plan but they don't really enter into it so that the truth really penetrates them and so he brings a story in to play something that they would all relate to an agricultural story a picture that they all knew very well of a man carrying a bag of seed and he would reach into the seed bag with a hand and he would walk out into the fields and scatter the seed and some of it would fall on the footpath that was hardened because of foot traffic part of that seed would fall in soil where there was other plants other weeds that would choke up the life some of that seed would fall into the soil that looked good but it was only top soil underneath was bedrock or a shelving of rocks so the roots wouldn't go down very deep but some of that seed would fall into tilled readied dark soil and would yield quite a harvest so knowing the they all knew that familiar scene he wants to talk to them about spiritual truth so he lays alongside of that's parable parable a lays alongside of a heavenly truth something that they could grasp by giving them an earthly picture or a parable verse two then he taught many things by parables and said to them in his teaching listen behold or check this out a sower that is the guy with the seed bag the guy throwing seed out a sower went out to sow to throw seed and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside the wayside is the footpath if this sanctuary were a field the center aisle is the wayside the aisles up here in the front is the wayside the the aisles on the side that's the wayside you would be sitting out in the field so where the foot traffic goes that's the wayside it's trodden down by feet nothing can really penetrate it till it's broken up and cultivated that's the wayside some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it some seed fell on stony ground where it did not have much earth and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth but when the Sun was up it was scorched because it had no root it withered away some seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no crop but other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up increased and produced some thirtyfold some 60 fold and some 100 and then he said to them he who has ears to hear let him hear or if you will if you're listening and you can figure out what I'm saying great take it to heart if you're tuned in to the spiritual message behind this story good listen and take it to heart he was ears to hear let him hear but when he was alone those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable don't you love these guys they didn't like say excuse me rabbi as the crowds around we don't we don't get it you're a spiritual teacher talking about farming we don't get it they waited till the crowd went away and probably while he was telling the story there's like shaking their heads like non-going yeah amen yeah that's good maybe even rubbing their little fisherman beards and like yeah they're in the know this is so good and then afterwards they went huh so they want to know what it is he said to them to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but to those who are outside all things come in parables little stories so that now he's gonna quote a very famous text they would all understand and if you've read the book of Isaiah especially chapter 6 you know it as well when God told the prophet Isaiah to go speak to the people of Israel and the nation's this verse was found God spoke these words so he's pulling out of Isaiah 6 so that seeing they may see and not perceived and hearing they may hear and not understand lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them these parables served two purposes number one they revealed truth number two they concealed the truth and it all depended on who you were and what kind of a heart you had and listening some people were curious about spiritual truths I don't know what it was like for you but I remember as soon as I was a saved young man I was so spiritually hungry I wanted to know what every single verse in the Bible met couldn't get enough Bible study in those days there were cassette tapes you remember those they're now in museums little cassette tapes and we used to go to the tape lending library and get our pastor's cassette tapes and he would go through the whole Bible I listened him I went through the Bible several times because I had listened and then I forget what was said the second time around and the third time around and the fourth time around but I was just so curious I was just so hungry so these stories for those who already have a spiritual understanding these stories will serve to deepen one's understanding as something familiar is compared to something that is unfamiliar parables are sort of like windows and mirrors windows that show you God more clearly mirrors that show yourself more clearly as you read it you understand truth as God reveals it but you also see yourself in light of that truth and sometimes it's well you like what you see and sometimes you don't so they're like windows and they're like mirrors but parables also concealed the truth there were some people who were hard-hearted or they marginalized every sermon they heard or every truth that came from the rabbi's mouth or every text of Scripture that was given well I don't know if that's true I don't know if that's inspired it doesn't mean that and and there's some people there self-talk is so loud they don't get it and they don't want to get it they're never moved they're never stirred by the truth never penetrates so they're just going to hear a story and go I don't know the preacher talked about farming today it's funny when I give a sermon many times I use illustrations I love them for this very reason and sometimes they're humorous illustrations sometimes they're serious sometimes they're from magazines or newspapers that I collect but invariably somebody will come up to me and they'll remember a sermon that I preached months ago they won't remember any spiritual truth out of it the go I like that one that is about what a joke you told about such-and-such or that story that's the one thing they grab ahold of so it's like well okay at least I there's entertaining value in it that's all they remember they really didn't get anything of depth out of it and that's what it would be it would conceal the truth from those whose hearts don't want to receive it and it would deepen the truth reveal the truth in a deeper way to those who wanted to the same truth that awakens one blinds another just like the same Sun that melts the ice hardens the clay the same rain the waters the field floods the rivers the same truth opens up a person's eyes and it blinds another person's eyes they don't quite get it so let me lace up manya listening to truth can be dangerous let me state it another way and I don't want to scare you off listening to truth from the Word of God can be hazardous to your health if it doesn't go deeper than just entertainment value or knowledge value unless it's deepening your walk with the Lord it could actually be serving to put a callus over your heart so listening is dangerous and he said to them and I said to his disciples they can't move so so tell me about these stories again well that's what's up with that he said to them do you not understand this parable how then will you understand all the parables now that's an important verse and it shows us that this parable is is like the key remember in school you would have like the key that unlocked the mystery or the key that unlocked the Atlas the key kind of told you the answers in textual form and so there's three main elements to the truth of these parables the seed the sower the soil notice what he says in verse 14 the sower shows the word so the seed is the word of God the seed is the truth of God now that's a great analogy truth and a seed are very similar there's great potential for life in the gospel there's great potential for life in a seed you throw seed in the ground it can produce life you throw the gospel in somebody's ears and into their heart a compare Deus life doesn't automatically do it but it has that potential so he says the sower shows the word now Peters listening to this pact Peters probably the guy who opened his mouth on behalf of the disciples and said so tell us about these parables again now the explanation Jesus gave made an impression upon Peter and he's gonna write a book many years after this called first Peter very original title first epistle general epistle of Peter in it he says having been born again not of corruptible seed but of the incorruptible seed the Word of God which lives and abides forever he remembered the explanation that Jesus gave now notice it says the sower sews the word probably in its original context the sower refers to Jesus Christ he is the one sitting in the boat speaking to the crowd has been will be for the next few years he's the one giving out the gospel truth but he's going to Commission his disciples to go into all the world so the sower is the person who dispenses the gospel throws out the gospel the person that led you to Christ or the people many people perhaps maybe you read a book or you heard a sermon followed up by an evangelist who gave an altar call or a friend led you to faith in Christ there was somebody who sowed the word the truth into your hearts when you came to Christ in effect tonight I'm sowing truth I'm a sower and not only are you the soil but I am the soil to see the teacher is responsible not only not only for speaking but for listening to what is being spoken the danger with sowing seed the danger with preaching the gospel now just as I said it's dangerous for you to listen and you better listen well the person who speaks the Word of God remember that little phrase in the Book of Leviticus the warning where God says don't so mixed seed in your field that's a good truth for every preacher don't so mixed seed preacher don't so gospel and psychology gospel and this gospel and that a lot of times people want to mix philosophy and tradition and psychology in with the scripture and where the scripture doesn't fit they will often throw out the scripture and take a more modern approach so the sower in this case Jesus primarily but then his disciples and then eventually you and I we sow the word now we're gonna look at the soils in the next few verses and the soil is the heart the soil has great potential if the soil is ready and it's fertile it can produce but if the soil is left to itself nothing will grow or weeds will grow and it amazing how weeds grow you don't even plant them I never go and say hmm I'd like to put some weeds here maybe if you over here by the house they just decide they want to go there I never invited them a heart a human heart left to itself will become barren the human heart your heart my heart left to itself becomes barren if you're not working with it bringing it before the Lord breaking up the fallow ground as the Prophet said eventually it can go barren the Prophet said the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked keep your heart Solomon said with all diligence out of it proceed the issues of life so he says the sower shows the word and these are the ones by the wayside the footpath where the word is sown when they hear Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts this is the callous heart it's that trail that I was talking about that divides the fields up and prevents the seed from penetrating because it's so hard it's not gonna dig down now can you picture the guy with the seed bag going out into a Middle Eastern field throwing out the seed behind him were a flock of birds it's always the case just like pigeons in an open square or Birds at the zoo that's sort of the Ducks that follow you around they know you're gonna drop something and they're just sort of waiting for that to happen wherever there was a sower there were birds that would follow so that whenever that seed would fall on the hardened footpath the birds would come in and rip it off so Satan comes immediately and takes the word that was sown in their hearts this is the person who is just not open to spiritual truth and you can sit that person in a church and you can put a powerful teacher or evangelist in front of them and unless the Spirit of God unlocks that heart unless there's an openness to receive it's gonna just bounce right off not going to penetrate not going to produce fruit the Old Testament word for such a person was stiff necked remember that word God said to his people you are a stiff-necked people they just wouldn't listen he wouldn't penetrate do you know people like that sure you do you go do I knows I'm married to a person like that or I have a few kids like that or I parents like that or I I know a friend like that you have shared with them you prayed for them you've exposed them to Christian concerts and outreaches and you've done everything they're just hardened now the danger comes when you start wanting to give up on that person they're hopeless they're useless I remember thinking about that so many of my when I came to Christ so many of my high school buddies I thought there's just no way one was like mr. popular the jock and the football team saw him at my high school reunion a few years later smile on his face John booth the jock the football hero was a born-again Christian and then Eric the avowed Mormon fallen Mormon drug addict who went back to Mormonism also came to faith in Christ and honestly these were people I just say ride him off they're just so hard and they'd always argue the guy that I met in Israel when I was working out in the fields that's why this these truths are very very poignant to me Cambridge scholar studied botany understood the theory of evolution disavowed any ideas of special creation would love to find me at in the afternoon and pick a fight in an argument because he could scientifically he could win every one of them he gave me a phone call one day was visiting California where I who was born and reared and on the other end he sounded so humble not his arrogant cocky self any longer he said skip can I see you I said is this Tony because he had big thick British hello skip can I come see you I said yeah what's up he goes I'm in California and I'll become a Bullock in and I just didn't I didn't know what to say no but is this Tony well the Bible says the Word of God is a hammer that breaks the rocks and pieces do you know somebody who's hard-hearted God's Word is still the hammer that breaks the rocks and pieces don't stop sharing with them continue to share these likewise are the ones on sown on stony ground verse 16 who when they hear the word immediately receive it with gladness so there's an emotional response and they have no root in themselves and so endure only for a time afterward when tribulation or persecution arises for the words sake immediately they stumble let me tell you agricultural II what Jesus is referring to in Israel there are rocks everywhere you have to go there to really appreciate some of the scriptures that we read I mean everywhere and once I went to Israel and I stood on the Mount of Olives which is this all like limestone rock shelf the topography is it's a hard place so when you buy a field the first thing a farmer does is clear it from the rocks and Terrace the hillsides and given enough earth without rocks so that they can develop a root system for their plants because otherwise you'll you'll so your seed in the earth but just under Lee or just after the topsoil just down a couple of inches is a shelf of rock so it won't develop a root system it'll grow it'll grow quickly because it's heated up from the Sun and there's enough nutrients to give it a quick start but not enough to sustain it and no place for the roots to go so it's all top growth and so when the Sun comes out burns it away doesn't last so when I went to Israel and I saw the rocks everywhere it's basically it's a rock country and then I recalled what Jesus said it made sense he said on the Mount of Olives coming down with his disciples when the Pharisees said rebuke your disciples because they said Hosanna like we sang blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord I tell your disciples not to say that tell him to hold their peace jesus said I tell you the truth if these hold their peace the very rocks will cry out and when I looked around and I saw man this whole place is well if that were to happen literally it would be like a rock concert I mean literally there are rocks everywhere it would be a loud anthem it wasn't just like one little rock here one little rock there so the whole thing's a rock be like whoa okay but notice they receive it with gladness but they have no root in themselves so they endure only for a while this is the emotional hero he's so glad she's so glad they hear the gospel they hear truth yes yes amen hallelujah they're into it but that's about as far as it goes they're shallow little response that evening that day they get excited about the gospel the problem is they get excited about anything everything every fad they're excited about it any new doctrine they're excited about that any cause I'm excited so there there's no depth so when they get challenged in their faith when there's hardship in their life when they're suffering in their life how could God of logos I'm not gonna believe anymore no depth I believe that the enemies of the Christian faith come from this camp the most ardent outspoken writers haters of the gospel were people who had some at first emotional response but God didn't deliver what they thought God should give them so they turned they become bitter they become sour and then they attack eventually the truth doesn't penetrate the will in the mind now these are the ones sown among thorns verse 18 they are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world there's a lot of those right the deceitfulness of riches the desire for other things just notice those three categories entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful this is the crowded heart sieve goes in but there's weeds all around it root system of the weeds take up any nutrients left in that soil for the real plant that the farmer has sown no weeds grow naturally I went out of my backyard this year and looked out and I had the biggest crop of dandelions I had ever seen I liked flowers I hate dandelion flowers so those had to be taken care of I planted the grass or had the grass planted I didn't plant those dandelions but they came up and they became up with the fervor and they're competing with the roots there are believers who never really make a break with the world and so there's always competition going on cares of this world competing I'm so busy and doing this and there's this and there's that their whole life there they're so busy making a living that they have no time to have a life especially a spiritual life if you're too busy for God you know the answer you're just too busy or there's the lure the deceit of Allah I could get rich if I only did this and that and they pursue they get garnishing and gathering of riches and the desire just sort of a general category for other things enter in chalk the word and it becomes unfruitful so here's a person struggling between two kingdoms the kingdom of God in the kingdom of this old people they hang out with music they listen to movies they watched and they get this value system that competes with truth and so they're caught between two kingdoms they're miserable people miserable people they stay close enough to the world to be miserable as a Christian but they have enough of Jesus Christ in them to be miserable full-blown in the world better off that they just totally got into the world or totally got into Jesus Christ I would that you were cold or hot Jesus said to the church in Revelation because you're lukewarm I'll spit you out of my mouth miserable people like like the farmer who had a tree several of them but he had one particular tree on the edge of his property and he would always say that it tree is the most beat-up tree I own because I beat it by day to get the fruit down thieves come in at night at the edge of the property and beat it by night it's the most beat-up tree I have because it's on the edge living so close to the edge most beat-up tree I own or like the young girl that had a divided heart and a young man was wooing her and loved her and proposed marriage to her and he said I may not have a yacht like Johnny Brown I may not have a mansion like Johnny Brown but I love you and she said I love you too but tell me more about Johnny Brown that young girl had a divided heart well I love you you're showing me lots of affection but you you've just described somebody I may be interested in but verse 20 there are the ones sown on good ground who hear the word accept it and bear fruit some thirtyfold 60 and some 100 is the fruitful heart it's receptive their hearts open their hearts always fertile doesn't have to be broken up you don't have to beat it and penetrate it or break up the father says open SOI else good they have discernment but they're just open to truth they're open to God changing them don't you love Psalm 1 blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord in his law he meditates day and night he shall be like the tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season it's leaf also does not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper it's a good heart now he mentions here notice 30 fold 60 and 100 fold that's a three thousand six thousand and ten thousand percent return on one's investment invest your life into spiritual things you'll never out give God the rewards eternally the joy that you get now even temporarily spiritually you can't get anywhere else something else I just want to pass along before we move along and that is as you read this parable you discover something sad twenty-five percent there's no growth at all just complete rejection 50 percent the growth is minimal and only temporary and only 25 percent is real spiritual growth 75 percent gone this is one of the reasons many pastors leave the ministry when I read about who is relatively famous recently who has left the ministry he just thought he was young but he was working really hard working really hard became pretty well known pretty famous but the thought of him preaching to a congregation truth knowing he said knowing that many of them most of them won't change at all because I don't want to sign up for that for the next 30 years but you see you gotta live for the 25 percent the 25 percent man will give you the joy to keep going forward I have no greater joy said John than to know that my children walk in the truth and if you can just look at and cultivate and get around and help motivate that 25 percent it's worth it because the return on the investment is incredible also he said to them is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed is it not to be set on a lamp stand for there's nothing hidden which will not be revealed nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light if anyone has ears to hear let him hear now a lamp didn't have a switch that was plugged into a wall you understand that of course a lamp in those days was a shallow dish made out of clay about that big just about 3-4 inches in diameter it had a shallow little lip on one side spout so that a wick could be laid across it laid in it with a few ounces of oil I was a lamp an oil lamp a little clay oil lamp I've seen them many times in the middle I picked up a few over the years some that are fake some that are real from antiquity and then a lampstand was nothing more than a little shelf in most common homes simple homes just a little shelf that protruded out of one of the walls and you'd sent the lamp on it if it was a wealthier home there were separate sometimes very ornate lamp stands that you'd set that little oil lamp on the higher you put it the more light can be dispersed so the idea here is a parable on the truth the gospel was never intended to be kept hidden to be kept secret the gospel truth the Word of God was never to be enjoyed just as a private little light but to be given out to everyone our responsibility is to communicate the light of the gospel to the world I'll never forget preaching at a church in California and I did a few weeks in a row and every week I call people forward to faith in Christ and the next week it was crowds a little bit bigger and more people came to the athan exquis a little bit bigger and and more people came to faith and after the third that third week I overheard one of the ladies saying to her friend he's ruining our church what she meant is we had a nice quiet little gathering where we lit our little candles and kind of held them close and vast in the warmth and the light of our little candle but there's these unbelievers coming in and filling the front at this altar call thing and it's like ruining our little status quo ruining our church and it broke my heart but I thought oh that God would ruin more churches like that more of our churches need to be ruined if that's what ruining is we're unbelievers come and hear the truth the nominal believers get serious and get deep and get real and get on fire if anyone has ears to hear here it is again hearing carries responsibility let him hear and he said to them take heed what you hear with the same measure you use it will be measured to you and to you who hear more will be given for whoever has to him more will be given whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him if you learn spiritual truth and you apply that truth more truth will be given to you for you to apply to your heart this is why some people get bored with Bible study because they never apply the truth to their hearts to their lives it never penetrates just a little yeah I kind of understand it okay that's sort of an interesting fact and figure they never asked God for that truth to transform the way they do business treat their wives love their husbands speak to the world at large and eventually to be exposed to Bible truth without really making that kind of application you'll get bored with it you'll lose what you have it won't make sense to you God won't reveal anything to you unless you put into practice what he already revealed to you why should he tell you any more of his secrets so whoever has to him more will be given but whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away and he said the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground and should sleep by night and rise by day and the seed should sprout and grow he himself does not know how for the earth yields crops by itself first the blade then the head and after that the full grain in the head but when the grain ripens immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come that's how the gospel works you share the word you share the truth you share the gospel with somebody they listen to it now you can't see what's going on inside that person's mental processes you don't know what's going on inside that person's heart but God may be working in the individual life and pretty soon there's signs of life there's a little Boop leaf that's sticking out of the ground you go listen look at that he's sort of interested in spiritual things then pretty soon more the plan comes out and in the full head of grain and eventually notice it says he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come that is God reaps at the right time that individual into the kingdom of God that that person eventually comes to know Christ a farmer can't make a seed grow and a farmer once planting the seed doesn't know what stage is going on until he sees it just sort of come up out of the ground and so you and I we share we don't know what effect it's going to have but life may be happening around you the more seeds that you share and again you might have those wonderful surprises like I've had with some of the people that I've mentioned from my past you got saved how did that happen would it be cool for you to get to heaven and run into people they come up to you give you a big hug you go ah so what's all that about of course you probably wouldn't say that in heaven but I'm sort of surprised you're giving me a big hug do I know you oh yes well you should know me or they say no you don't know me but at work I overheard the conversation you gave that day to your coworker I was in the next booth and I was there when she laughed at what you said and I was there when she cussed you out but you kept talking and kept praying for and kept sharing and I was overhearing that and I gave my life to Christ and you don't know it till later on and then he said to what shall we like in the kingdom of God or what parable shall we picture it it's like a mustard seed when it is sown on the ground it is smaller than the than all the seeds on the earth but when it is sown it grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade now when it says it's the smallest seed it doesn't mean it's the smallest seed in existence in the entire planetary system known as earth but in the earth of Israel in the local herb gardens which were quite small and especially in Israel and Palestine at that time it was known as the smallest seed in the herb garden but this mustard plant is an unusual one most scholars call this the car dal mustard a plant that a mustard plant that can grow 15 feet high in some cases and its branches are firm enough to withstand birds coming in and building their little homes in it their nests now some people read this and they think that this is a parable of the growth of the church upon the earth that it's an unusual growth that will take over the whole earth and bless the whole world eventually the whole world will be able to nestle in its branches and enjoy its fruit in its shade perhaps but I don't think that's the primary meaning and here's why Jesus doesn't explain this parable here or in the other synoptic Gospels so he doesn't tell us what it means so we have to look at the parables where Jesus did explain them to take and apply them so if you go back to the parable where he says you don't understand this parable how are you going to not understand the rest of the parables of the sower and the seed we understand that birds are not a good thing seed has sown the birds of the air come in and rip it off Satan he says are like those birds that comes in and steals the seed so if you have in a known parable a metaphor explained in this case birds being evil when you have birds in the branches of the mustard seed using the first parable as the key you infer that evil is apt to go on so I don't think the price Mary idea is that it's gonna grow and bless the world and everybody's gonna be converted to it that's how some people actually translate this parable is that the world will eventually be converted I think what it means is it's gonna grow it's gonna make an impact but it's gonna get so big so institutional that it is prone to even have evil lurking within its branches and that has happened throughout church history with false prophets false teaching one of the problems my shoes untied let me just tuck because I know you're looking at these little things dangling ago - his shoes untied I wonder if he knows it yeah I know it but I'm not gonna be rude and like just tie a knot in front of you so I'll just like tuck it in and do it later of course by now I could have had a time but great spiritual analogy let me tell you this parable here of the shoe and the shoelace okay when you and I speak of a Christian we know what we mean when you tell the world a Christian they don't know what you mean to the world a Christian is somebody under the umbrella of Christendom a Christian is Protestant Catholic Mormon Jehovah Witness anything that could fit with a church liberal conservative anything the Metropolitan church which is a gay driven Church all of it it's all Christian to them it's just the opposite of Muslim or not a Hindu it's a Christian it's the West now you and I know that that's not true Christianity is not the same thing as Chris and um and in the branches of Christendom are all sorts of birds like the World Council of Churches whether it sounds like a great group doesn't it World Council of Churches oh that sounds good well the World Council of Churches tells Christians that they shouldn't begin to think that they have the truth and they suggest that Muslims and Hindus and people of other faiths should be a point two prominent positions and chairs within Christian universities and colleges because nobody has a corner on the truth now the world would love that kind of advice we reject it that's bird talk birds are in the branches and with many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it but without a parable he did not speak to them and when they were alone he explained all things to his disciples on that same day when evening had come he said to them let us cross over to the other side you know we've been talking about how important hearing is tonight how important is to listen and here we have in front of us as we close a great example notice he says then let us cross over to the other side how important it is to listen to the Lord carefully if only the disciples would have really listened to this let's cross over to the other side they would know because they're about to go into a storm that they're gonna make it to the other side if Jesus says let's go over you're not gonna go under but they forgot what he said if they would have just said no wait a minute women I heard explicitly that he said we're going over but the storm was so violent they thought we're going under that's why we need to listen to the Lord and listen to his promises very carefully let us cross over to the other side and when they had left the multitude they took him along in the boat as he was and the other little boats were also with him and a great wind storm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling but he was in the stern asleep on a pillow and they woke him and said to him teacher do you not care that we are perishing never said that to the Lord don't you care and he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace be still one translation says shut up kind of like that one and the wind ceased and there was a great calm but he said then why are you so fearful how is it that you have no faith and they feared exceedingly now they were afraid before the storm once the storms come now they're like really afraid fish seasoned fishermen they've seen storms before they're very common in the Sea of Galilee I've been out there where it's calm and within 20 minutes a gale comes up because the Sea of Galilee is situated 620 feet below sea level and these warm thermals come off the lake and you've got these steep canyons around it and the Mediterranean Sea brings cool air in from the West funnels it down and with these warm thermals create this reaction that causes that Lake to just churn up like crazy but it says they feared exceedingly and said to one another who can this be that the wind and the sea obey Him if you have ever been in a storm at sea and if you have I sympathize with you because I have been if the wind does suddenly stop the water is still moving takes a while for that water now turned up to subside so the fact that the winds stopped because Jesus had shut up and the sea stopped it was still is not one miracle but two miracles that's why they feared exceedingly not only could he control the wind but okay the wind stopped but usually the sea is still bouncing us around it's perfectly glass I said who can this be let's close with this thought because you and I go through storms in life metaphorically speaking or literally this was literal storm but there would be many trials and tribulations you go through them when you go through a storm a trial heartache pain watch your attitude in the storm why would God allow you to go through a storm because he wants depth out of our lives if there's no pain we are gonna be the most shallow people imaginable if we don't go through trials that caused the roots to go down deep we're not gonna be worth much so here's here's the deal we listen to the truth we're open to the truth we ask God to make it deep in our hearts and our minds and we help the Lord help me by your spirit to put this into practice and see some transformation in all my relationships etc and Lord when the trials come I'm gonna say Lord as hard as it is I bless you I thank you that you don't want me to live a shallow life but you want depth to come to me that you would allow this kind of storm and I'm gonna lean hard on you and be amazed and be fearful in a wonderful way instead of a hard-hearted way why would God allow this why wouldn't God allow this whom the Lord loves he chastens that's another word for spanks I've gotten spanked by God oh he knows how to spank let me tell you he's a great father and he knows how to give it to you in measured response so that the result is fruit so take heart like it says in Hebrews take heart those knees and those hands that are bowed down bring them up get a straight back and if you're suffering tonight by the will of God dare to rejoice and don't say Lord how can I get out of this say Lord what can I get out of this so that you can learn and pass it on pass it on to me I want to learn father we thank you that you give us stories that we can relate to that revealed deep heavenly truths mysteries of the kingdom mysterious heavenly truths that can be seen by earthly examples that we would be familiar with that the simplest people would be familiar with and thank you for your chastening hand thank you for bringing us into storms by your will and I pray Lord we'd walk away with that picture of Jesus and the boat sleeping resting it's all under control so much so that in a storm he's getting a great sleep and I pray we would take our cues from him that if he said we're going over we're not going under I pray we would cling to you we would cling to your promises and bring us the kind of joy that transcends the storms in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 8,436

Rating: 4.8769231 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Church, Skip Heitzig, Mark, John the Baptist, John Mark, synagogue, missionary, New Testament, clergy, baptism, satan, devil, King of the Jews, kosher, law, disciples, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John

Id: ztbRzB8JoXA

Length: 64min 32sec (3872 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018