Matt Francisco: Our scripture comes from Mark 4 beginning in verse 1. Let us listen carefully for this is God's word. Again, he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he got into the boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, listen.
Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding 30 fold and 60 fold and a 100 fold. And he said, he who has ears to hear, let them hear. This is the word of the lord.
Collin Hansen: Pray with me. Our father, I pray that by the power of your holy spirit that each and every person gathered here this evening would have ears to hear from you. Because your name and your renown, those are the desires of our hearts. Well, the best thing that I could do for these people is offer them advice, and that's not what they need. They need good news.
They need to hear from their father, from Jesus, their brother, from you, the Holy Spirit. And so we come before you, pleading like the disciples did before Jesus, saying, where else would we go, Lord? Because you have the words of eternal life. So we pray that you would speak to us, and that you would give us ears to hear from you, to accept your Word, and to bear fruit in your great name. We pray these things in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen. A couple of months ago, my wife, Erin, and I got into the biggest fight that we've probably had in years, And you might be asking yourself, what did you guys fight about? Did you fight about finances, what you're gonna do for the holidays? Did you fight about how many dates that you're going on or where your kids are gonna end up going to school? No.
But we have fought about all of those things, so those are very good guesses. This was the first time in the entirety of our marriage where I was so angry that I willingly slept on the couch. You know what we fought about? Taylor Swift. More specifically, we fought about what Taylor Swift's greatest talent is.
Isn't this ridiculous? I know that you are probably sick of us talking about Taylor Swift in here, and I assure you that you're not as sick of it as I am of hearing her songs in my house all day every day. Right? There are a legion of followers for whom Taylor Swift can do no wrong, who are probably already angry at me now that I've gotten started. There is a host of otherwise indifferent ordinary people who, maybe they get invited to a concert by a friend and they decide they're gonna go all the way in, listen to all of her music, go and have a party making friendship bracelets, and then suddenly become a follower and live in your house, right?
There are people who get invited to a concert, except it's not really a concert. Right? It's it's at a movie theater. So it's not a concert. It's a brilliant marketing ploy.
And then there are other people who wonder how many times can one person get away with rhyming car with bar. Amen, right? Taylor Swift is a cultural phenomenon. She is she is inescapable as much as I would love to escape her. She has more cultural clout than she has probably ever had, and she is at the height of her popularity.
And what's interesting is there are millions upon me millions of people who are hearing the same songs, who are maybe watching the same interviews, but are having drastically different reactions to Taylor and her music. I'm gonna draw you back in, in case you're already angry at me. At this point in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is at the absolute height of his popularity. As we heard last week, the crowds, they are pressing in against him that they might crush him. Everywhere Jesus goes, he is surrounded.
His popularity and his influence are unbelievable. And Mark has spent the last three chapters of his gospel trying to get you to answer the question, who is this man? What makes him so special? And who does he think that he is? And Mark has gone out of his way to show you and me exactly who he thinks that Jesus is.
Jesus is the Christ. He is the son of God. He is the one who is stronger than the devil, who binds up the devil and then takes whatever he wants from the devil's house. Right? Jesus is the one who has authority to heal sickness.
He is the one who claims to have authority to forgive sins. He walks around like he owns the place, like he is the author of everything. You see, everyone is hearing the same message. Everyone is seeing the same signs and wonders, but there are wildly different reactions to Jesus and his message. The crowd show up, and maybe they are there to see a spectacle, something that they've never seen before, or maybe they want something from Jesus.
The demons, they cry out in fear. His family, as we heard last week, they think that he has lost his mind. The Herodians and the Pharisees, they have begun already to plot to disciples, And the disciples, they've left everything to follow Him. And how do we account for all of these different reactions to Jesus and His message? Well, Jesus climbs into a boat, and He tells a great crowd a series of parables beginning with this one, which is known as the parable of the sower or the parable of the soils.
Now parables, they are stories designed to stir your imagination, to invite you to see what God is doing from a different perspective. And Jesus often used parables to make very bold, explicit truth claims about himself, his message, and his mission, namely that the kingdom of God was at hand, and that he himself had arrived as its king. But that's not the only purpose of the parables. Look with me for a moment at Mark 4, beginning in verse 10, as Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6. And Jesus, when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables.
And he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. In other words, when Jesus gets alone with His disciples, did you catch this? He tells them that He is being confusing and unclear on purpose. He is practicing, in other words, the worst possible evangelism tactics.
He makes himself impossible to understand to the crowds and he only explains himself to this small select group. Because the purpose of the parables is not merely to explain Jesus, the King, and the arrival of His kingdom, but the parables are meant to reveal and conceal. They are meant to warn, as well as encourage. Thankfully for me, Jesus makes my job a lot easier this afternoon, because he reveals the meaning of this particular parable to his disciples beginning in verse 13. Let's read together.
And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, 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. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, 30 fold and 60 fold and a hundred fold. See, Jesus uses these soils as an explanation, not only of what is happening, people's various responses right now to Jesus and his message, but also to explain what will happen, both in Jesus' lifetime and throughout history, wherever this word is sown.
And what is this word? This word is the same secret of the kingdom that Jesus describes in verse 11. This is the proclamation of the good news of the gospel, that Jesus, the promised Christ, the son of the living God, the true king over everything, the author of all that is has arrived on the scene. And while his arrival might have been easy to overlook, his kingdom will one day conquer the entire globe and transform absolutely everything and heal every ounce of brokenness everywhere. And this is key.
The secret of the kingdom, it's not some puzzle that we're supposed to figure out. No. What Jesus is saying is that it is something that is hidden that is now being revealed, but it is only being revealed and by those whose soil is ready to receive this good news. In Jesus' parable, there's one soil in which there is no growth at all. That one's pretty easy to understand, so we're not gonna spend a ton of time on it, but these next two soils ought to give us pause, because there is temporary growth.
And in the 4th and final soil, there is flourishing. And what's the difference between these 4 soils? Well, it's not the sower. The sower is exactly the same. It's not the seed either.
The seed has the same life giving power in itself. No. The only difference in the growth and the endurance of these plants is the soil in which they are planted. Jesus tells us that it has to do with the condition of these soils, or to put it in His words, the condition of our ears. So he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
I want to acknowledge that, for a lot of you here tonight, this passage may be pretty familiar. I mean, I I really if I'm being honest, I was a little disappointed when I got assigned to preach it. Right? I mean, Jesus explains it already. What am I supposed to do up here?
But Jesus offers a very clear warning alongside his encouragement. That's what this parable is doing. And so, I want to beg you to listen, not because I have words of eloquent wisdom to give to you, but because everything hangs in the balance for you, whether or not you understand what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is warning his hearers that there are a number of people who receive the word of God, who seem like their lives are changed, who may show up in bible study or join a church or be baptized, who may even serve or give, but who don't actually know Jesus at all. And Jesus is also encouraging his hearers that though they may struggle with doubt or sin, that they are in his perfect hands, that He who began a good work in them will be faithful to bring it to completion.
So, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. May we all be those who hear tonight. Look with me back at verse 14. Jesus describing those sown along the path. He says, the sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown.
When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. If you remember back in Mark chapter 1, when John the Baptist arrived on the scene, we're told that he is baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And then after John gets arrested, Jesus begins his ministry in earnest and he proclaims the good news of the gospel saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. In Mark chapter 2, the paralytic, he gets lowered through the roof at Jesus' feet and do you remember what Jesus says?
The first thing that he says is, son, your sins are forgiven. Much to the horror of the Pharisees and the scribes who think that he's blaspheming. And in response a few verses later, Jesus says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. You see, in Jesus' parable, at this moment, the religious leaders are the ones along the path. They don't have ears to hear.
Why? Because they have reduced the law of God to something that they think that they can keep. Because they don't think that they are sick and in need of a physician. They don't realize that they are sinners and that their sins need to be forgiven. Sinners.
They don't recognize their need for God. And if you are here this evening and you feel like your assurance before God rests on your moral record, that you've done more good than bad, or if you look around and you say, I know that I'm not perfect, but I know that I'm at least better than those people, be warned. Jesus is saying your heart is hard, but that's not the end of the story. If that is you tonight, he is inviting you in, and his arms are open wide. Take heart, not that your sins are not great, but that your savior is greater still.
Amen? And, if you are one of those who have been praying for somebody with a hard heart for a very long time, don't lose heart either. If the Lord your God can overcome the hardness of a heart like the apostle Paul's, what is your heart, or mine, or your friends', or your family members'? There's this great story told about George Mueller, that he prayed for 2 of his friends for 50 years that they would come to faith. And you know what happened?
He died. But, at his funeral, one of those men trusted in Christ, and a couple weeks later, led the second friend. Who knows what the Lord might do? One of my favorite parts in this parable is how absurdly generous and almost reckless this sower seems. Right?
I mean, he sows his seed on the path, on rocky soil, on thorny soil, and on good soil, almost indiscriminately because he is generous and good, and so should we. If we are followers of Jesus, we ought to spread the good news everywhere that we go because we don't know people's hearts. Only God does. And God can change any heart. So let us share and share and share and pray and pray and pray and not lose heart because we don't know the end of the story.
Now these next two soils, they're all the more terrifying and heartbreaking. Jesus tells us in verse 16, the rocky soil, they are the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, 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. These are people, when they hear the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done, they are overwhelmed. They find it unbelievably beautiful and precious.
Maybe they go out, and they tell all of the world and all of their friends how much Jesus has changed their life. They might get involved in a Bible study or serve. They are overwhelmed with their passion and love for Jesus, but then something happens. Right? Following Jesus wasn't what they expected it to be.
It wasn't what they desired. Suffering comes into their life or or persecution, and they begin to recognize that following Jesus entails picking up a cross that they really didn't want to pick up. And maybe they begin to wonder, is this really worth it? Is this what following Jesus is about? Because this doesn't feel like the peace that I was promised or the joy that I was promised.
And they begin to wonder, is this worth it, or is Jesus even there? Until all at once, or slowly but surely, they walk away. They had not truly counted the cost. They fell away because they had no root. They thought, and they looked like they had listened to the word and accepted the word of the kingdom and entered the kingdom of God, but in reality, what had happened, they wanted Jesus to come into their kingdoms.
In the end, they saw Jesus not as a savior, but ultimately as a service provider. As long as Jesus gave them what they wanted, they had joy. But as soon as Jesus was not helping them meet their goals, they had it with them, which only shows that the things that they really worshiped, the things that they truly treasured were the things that they would have lost in following Jesus. Their trust had never truly been transferred from themselves to a savior. They did not really want Jesus as a savior.
They wanted Jesus to alleviate their suffering. And, as 1 John 2/19 says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. What the apostle John is saying is that true followers of Jesus last to the end. And if they don't last to the end, then they were never true followers of Jesus.
So one of my heroes, Frank Barker, used to put it, faith that fails before the finish was false from the first. And, if you've been walking the Christian life for any length of time, the they isn't really an abstract idea for you, right, any more than it is for me. My wife will tell you tell you that this passage jacked me up this week. It jacked me up because I was overwhelmed by the faces and the names of that they, of friends, of mentors, of people who had poured into me, family members, of people I had prayed and prayed and prayed for, and then I had rejoiced when it looked like God had done a miracle in their life only to watch the prodigal son just leave again. This is heartbreaking.
What do you do with that? Praise God. Just like those with a hard heart, we don't know what the end of the story is. We don't know the soil of people's hearts, but we know the one who can take hearts of stone and turn them into hearts of flesh. So let us not lose heart and let us not lose hope, but pray and pray and pray that prodigals may again come home.
Now, this third soil is all the more subtle, which makes it all the more dangerous. Jesus says in Mark 4, beginning in 18, and others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. This warning in particular is a warning for those of you, me, who would show up to church on a Sunday. Maybe you know the moment that Jesus changed your life.
Maybe you've got it written down when you were baptized. Maybe you give. Maybe you serve. Because what Jesus is saying here is that, unlike unlike those sown among rocky soil, who know that they have walked away, those among thorns, they stick around. I mean, Jesus offers these horrifying words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew 7, he says, I I tell you truly, on the last day, there will be many who will say to me, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name? Do we not cast out demons in your name? Do we not do mighty works in your name? And you know what Jesus says to them? He doesn't say, you guys were doing great for a little while and then you kinda fell off, or man, you almost had it, but then you fell off the wagon.
He says, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. You never really had a relationship with me. You never really understood who I am and what I came to do. And if that doesn't scare you, I don't think you're listening.
Everything hangs in the balance of this. I was talking with my great aunt, my godmother, Sarah, yesterday about this, and and she wanted me to encourage you that she was the one in thorny soil for the first 40 years of her life obeying, serving in Sunday school, thinking that she could be good enough until Jesus broke in. So what is the difference between the one sown among thorns and the good soil? Well, the one sown among thorns, they may love the fact that Jesus has authority over the physical world, over the supernatural world. They may actually love the fact that Jesus can forgive their sins because they know that they have some sins.
They may say that they trust in Jesus' righteousness to cover over them, but all the while, they're holding on to their own righteousness as well. You see, they love Jesus and the world. And when push comes to shove, who ultimately rules their hearts? It's not Jesus. It's the deceitfulness of riches or maybe a relationship or maybe you know that your priorities are out of whack at work or or that you're spending so much time invested in what your kids are doing that you don't have time for your own spiritual life.
Be warned, not that these things cannot be good, but who rules your heart. See, far too often, those in the 3rd soil, much like those in the first, end up fabricating a fake Jesus, a Jesus who doesn't really ever step on their toes, a Jesus who doesn't seem to ever really contradict their desires, a fake Christianity they can follow because they're not really following Jesus, they're actually only following themselves. And in contrast, Jesus says in verse 20, but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit. Jesus tells us that those in the good soil, they have ears to hear the word, the good news, the secret of the kingdom, and accept it. They recognize that they are sinners in need of salvation, in need of their sins being forgiven.
And, as a result, they bear fruit. If you're anything like me, it's that last little bit that maybe trips you up. I mean, there is so much junk and hypocrisy in my life. Right? There is so much sin that still remains.
How do I know if I'm bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? This morning, I was not ready to preach, if I'm being totally honest. It was like 7:40, and I realized I had not edited the last three pages. I had a t shirt on. I hadn't gotten a microphone.
You don't care about any of this. Anyway, I'm starting to pray like, lord, I don't even know what I'm gonna say. But, I pray that whatever I say would be honoring and glorifying to you. And, you know, it's like I heard this voice in the back of my head saying, is that what you think you want? Is that it?
Or are you just fooling yourself? Because what I think you really want is for all of those people out there to tell you what great of a job you did and how much it seems like you really know and love Jesus. And it struck me in my heart, and then I started praying, and I said, Lord, I don't know. Right? I know there's conflicting desires in my heart, but I want to want to honor and glorify You.
So, will you please answer that prayer? You see, the real question between good soil and thorny soil or rocky soil is, is Jesus precious to you? Is he beautiful to you, or is he merely useful? In your heart of hearts, when push comes to shove, if Jesus says it will cost you x to follow me, do you say I consider all things a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. I know it's not gonna be easy.
I know it's gonna be hard. I know that I may not always be satisfied. I may I know I may walk around like the Israelites through the desert complaining, but in my heart of hearts, Lord, I know that you are worth it. God, what I want to want to say is that I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in tents of wickedness. It is better for me to spend one day in your courts, Lord, than a 1,000 elsewhere.
Is Jesus beautiful to you, or is he merely useful? And if you've been wrestling through this passage and you are wondering to some degree what soil you're in, I want you to know that that is reason for hope, Because how in the world would you even care if that wasn't the Spirit already at work in you? As Joel said last week, Jesus is not a stop sign, but He is a fork in the road. But it means that you have to choose. Is Jesus going to be the king over everything?
Is he going to be the lord of your life? Because Jesus is either lord of all or he is not lord at all. He takes second place to no one. But hear this. These words were of great encouragement to me this week.
This comes from Isaiah 42. God said, A bruised reed He will not break, A faintly burning wick he will not quench. As the great Puritan pastor Thomas Sibbes said, praise God, a spark of fire is still fire. A bruised reed is still a living reed. That even if you are struggling with sin or doubt in this place, You're in good company.
All of us are this side of eternity. Jesus says to you like he says to me, like he said to the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8, neither will I condemn you. Now, go and sin no more. The remarkably good news in this story is that our generous sower, he is also the incredibly patient gardener. Jesus is not only our savior, he is our sanctifier.
I mean, this was amazing to me. Jesus, when he gets alone with his disciples, what does he say to them? He says, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all of these parables? Now in Matthew's version of the story and in Luke's version of the story, Jesus tells them after this, He says, blessed are your eyes because you see.
Blessed are your ears because you hear. But he doesn't say that in Mark. Isn't that wild? Why? Because Mark is trying to prove a point.
He's trying to show us something. Yes. These disciples, they've been they've been given the secret of the kingdom. They have ears to hear, but only just a little bit. There is so much that they don't yet understand about who Jesus actually is and what he came to do and what the kingdom of God is really like.
And yet notice his patience with them. He explains. So what's the difference in the end between Jesus' disciples, His followers, and the rest of the crowd? They go and ask Jesus, and Jesus tells them. This means that the secret of the Kingdom of God isn't some restricted area where it's like you need VIP access to get into.
It is open to all, whether hard soil or rocky soil or thorny soil. Because let's be honest. None of us are good soil on our own. Right? Who has ears to hear?
Those who will go to the author, the word of life for answers themselves. And if tonight, if if you have never before seen the goodness and the kindness of Jesus the King or if you've been pricked in your heart with an awareness of the competing loves that you've got, if you are sitting in your pew painfully aware of some secret sin, Got good news for you. The answer is the same. If you are here and you feel that you are sick and in need of a physician, if you recognize that you are a sinner in need of God's grace, Recognize that if you tarry until you're better, you will never come at all. But Jesus stands ready to save you with arms open wide.
He says, repent. Turn from all of your foolish ways of trying to save yourself. Repent, turn from every other way that you look for life and meaning and purpose in places that could never give it to you, And come to me. Drink of the living water. Eat of the bread that will satisfy.
Arise and go to Jesus. Or as Richard Sibbes says once again, he requires no more than he gives, but he gives what he requires and accepts what he gives. Hear and accept the good news. Jesus, your king, has done everything for you and he welcomes you into his kingdom with arms stretched wide. Believe the good news of the gospel, the secret of the kingdom, Because the ultimate secret of the kingdom was that Jesus, the King, unlike anything that anyone expected, was not headed to a throne, but was headed to a cross, That his body might be broken for you.
That his blood might be shed for you. That by his blood, he might purchase men and women from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation, So that if you and I would merely repent and believe what he has done, you could hear his tender words to you, son, daughter, your sins are forgiven. I, the king, welcome you into my kingdom. And as that truth, as that unimaginable truth makes its way into your heart, your root will go down deeper and deeper. And then we can remember and rejoice that it's not the soil's job to remove the rocks.
Right? A soil can't pick out its own thorns. Right? That's the gardener's job, And nothing would bring your father, Jesus, your brother, and the holy spirit more pleasure than you asking him to do just that. And he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion.
He will tend to you with such patience and kindness, and under his watchful care, you won't be able but to help grow and bear a crop 30 fold, 60 fold, or a 100 fold. But you won't grow all at once. You won't grow in ways that you can measure day by day, but like a child growing up, or better yet, like the very kingdom of God. One day, that kingdom that we'll see next week started as small as a mustard seed will spread to cover the entire globe in the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, transforming every square inch of the universe, and healing every ounce of brokenness in your heart and in mine. And we know that this promise is sure because Jesus paid for it with his blood.
Because on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it. He said, this is my body, which is given for you. In the same way, he took the cup. He said, this cup is the new covenant of my blood, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. The apostle Paul would later tell us that it's often as we eat of this bread and drink from this cup, we proclaim the lord's death until he comes again, and he will surely come again.
Now, this table is open to every single one of us who cry out, God, have mercy on me, a sinner, who recognize that we have no righteousness of our own that we can offer before God. But, if we look in faith to what Jesus has done, God marks our account paid in full. And this table is a great leveling field, right, because it's not the beautiful who are in or the ugly are out, the powerful who are in while the weak are out. It is not those who are esteemed in the eyes of the world who are in and those who are forgotten who are out. It is only those who have the humility to throw themselves at Jesus' feet and plead for mercy, and find that he offers you love unimaginable.
Here's how we're gonna celebrate communion together tonight. You're gonna come down these 2 center aisles, pinch off a piece of bread, and dip it in the wine, and you'll hear these words. This is the body of Christ, which is given for you, and his blood, which is shed for you. The wine is nonalcoholic wine. And if you need gluten free bread, those are available on these tables.
But please pause so that you may hear those blessed words before you return to your seats. You return to your seats, going down these outer aisles. We'll start with those in the balcony. If you guys would make your way down to the west and then come down and then go back up the east, that would be great. And then we'll go from the back all the way up to the front.
I'm gonna pray for us. And then after I pray for us, Jess and Aria will come and lead us in a few more songs and if our servers could come forward. Jesus, I pray for everyone in this room. They would hear and believe the words that we are about to sing. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus already stands to save you.
If there is anyone here who does not know you, I pray that they would throw themselves upon your mercy and see you as beautiful because you are, Jesus. I pray for my brothers and sisters here whose priorities are all out of joint or who are troubled by some sin. I pray that they too would lay those things down at your feet, Jesus, that they would trust that their salvation doesn't rest in how strongly they can believe and how strong their faith is, but in the fact that your character never changes and that your work, Jesus, is finished. That you are great high priest. Jesus, you stand in heaven and our names are graven on your hands and written on your heart.
And that is impossibly good news. We love you, Lord. We love you because you first loved us. We pray these things in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.