…and produced a crop…

Series: …AND… | The Movement of God and His People through Mark
Title: Week 8 “…and produced a crop…”
Text: Mark 4:1-20

Transcript

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We are jumping back into Mark. Uh, we are it's a it's a walk, it's a quickened pace. Uh, it's our and series, the movement of God and his people. Okay, we're going to jump right into chapter four, right into verse one. Let me set the stage. Actually, let Mark set the stage. Verse one, again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and he sat in it on the edge of the lake while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. Okay, so last week Matt excellently taught through most of Mark chapter three, and we see that Jesus is utilizing a new teaching method, and that is don't get crushed by the people and sit on a boat and then talk to the people who are on the shore. Now, if we look back in our mind, uh what we saw in Luke is that the common practice at that time is when a rabbi or a teacher of the law, a teacher of the word, um, when they were going to teach, when they were actually going to do their this is what I think about the passage fought, they would sit down. So when a teacher is listed as seated, that means everybody is clued in. Oh, now we need to listen up. Okay. Jesus is sitting on the boat on the lake. Now we're keyed in. We need to pay attention. Verse 2, he taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said, listen. See, there's no better way to tell people that you need to listen than telling them, listen. Okay. So this is pay attention, this is important. A farmer went out to sow his seed. Okay, so where we are in Mark, again, we are walking through this quickly. We see the word immediately happen a lot. We see the word and happen a lot. Jesus is continuing to move this forward. Really, Mark is moving Jesus' story forward and what is happening with the kingdom of God and how it is taking ground and it is moving ahead. This is the first time that we have heard the mention of parables. When I grew up, I heard a pithy saying about parables. Someone would say, What is a parable? Well, it's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Right? It's it's it's close. It's not a bad thing, but I heard it a lot. It kind of still makes sense. Jesus tells these tales, some of which are allegorical. If I were to tell an allegory and I were to utilize a bear, and then at the end of the story about the allegory, I would say, by the way, the bear is Matt. Right? Anytime I mentioned the bear in the story, you'd be like, oh, that he's talking about Matt. So sometimes with parables, Jesus uses an allegory. This time it is very close to that. This is that. So I want you to understand when I say this, this is really what it means. And sometimes there's like one point. Other times Jesus uses these parables to use everyday imagery to talk about significant spiritual themes. And they're a bit broader, all right? Back to our text. Mark isn't concerned about telling all of the parables. Um, he wants to highlight this one first. This parable is really important. Now, it looks simple. We're about to read it. It looks like a simple parable, but it is like just right under the surface, is so absolutely loaded with deep meaning. Right below the surface, okay? So here is our premise that Jesus just set us up for a farmer sows some seed. Now, I don't know if you grew up as a farmer or near farms or near food, where your food actually comes from. Um the goal every time when a farmer plants a seed is to either get food from the seed or sell the crop. It needs to produce something so that you can sell it or you can eat it. That is always the goal. Right? So, or reinvigorating the soil. We'll leave that for another conversation at another time. We don't really need to discuss farming or planting or gardening with every bit of this. But okay. If a farmer knows that they need to plant seed to get a crop, then, well, imagine you're a farmer. What are you going to do to have the opportunity to have the highest yield of your crop? In this story, the highest amount of success means by giving the greatest opportunity for success. I want to plant the most seeds because having the most seed out there is going to give me the opportunity to have the highest yield. All right. And so it says that this farmer casts broadly. Literally imagine somebody with a satchel and they take it, they go, whoo. All right. That they are casting broadly. The word broadcast, it comes from this practice. You literally take a thing and you cast broadly, hoping that the seed is going to get somewhere and grow. Okay. Hold that in mind. Join me back, verse four. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Okay. We are covering a variety of soil situations in this passage. Okay. This soil situation was not ready for the seed. Birds went and birded, right? They want food. There's food. They enjoyed the snack. No crop. Okay? Verse 5. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. So this soil situation really wasn't a lot better than the last soil situation. The seeds did start to grow. So hooray, there's some growth, but no root. And because of that, they suffered the elements, and the result? No crop. Verse 7. The other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. So between soil situation, A, B, and C, this is the best one yet. Right? The plant actually grew. That's progress, right? But remember, what's the goal? The goal isn't the plant. The goal is the crop. The goal is the harvest at the end, right? The thistles, the thorns, they grew up. They choked out the plant. They won. No crop. No crop. So even though all three situations feel the same, the end result is the same. No crop. Verse 8. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up. It grew. It produced a crop. Some multiplying 30, some 60, and some a hundred times. Now imagine you are a farmer. Which soil situation are you deeming successful? Imagine you are a farmer. Which soil success says which soil s situation are you deeming successful? The one that has crops. And not just the one that has crops, the one that has gobs and gobs of crops. There's just crops everywhere. That is the one that we look at and we say, this is a winner. Verse 9. Then Jesus said, Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. You confused? Good. Okay. Jesus wasn't giving a farming lesson. That was not his intent. He was giving an analogy that they would understand or they had higher capacity to understand. There was more to what Jesus was saying. So when he says, those who have ears, whoever has the ears to hear, let them hear, what he's saying is, there is something that you need to understand about what I just said. And once you understand, you need to respond. He is not just giving the parable for a nice lesson. There is a response expected. Okay, let's go to verse 10. When he, Jesus, was alone, the 12 and the others around him asked him about the parables. Now, I want to just slow down half a second. Mark is drawing our attention to the fact that those who were in Jesus' circle weren't just the 12 disciples. Did you catch that? The 12 and the others. All right. So when you play these stories back in your mind's eye, it's not just Jesus and his 12 butts. There is a bigger group of people who are followers of Jesus who are staying with him and continuing to listen to these stories. Okay. So the larger group, not just the 12, the larger group of Jesus followers are confused. Okay, go to 11. He told them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. Okay. The word here, the Greek word for secret, uh, could be also translated mystery. And the reason is the root word is mysterion. All right. That's where we get the word mystery, mysterion. It is translated secret, and what it means is something that can only be revealed or known through divine revelation. All right. This mystery that has been revealed is exactly what we have been saying every week is the key to understanding this book. Mark chapter 1, verse 15. The time has come, Jesus said. This particular group, his followers, they have come around Jesus. They believe that he is Lord. They have placed their faith in him, and they, because they believe that he is Lord, they have the keys to the kingdom. They are kingdom citizens. They have said, okay, the kingdom of God is not just near, it's here. Okay, go back. Verse 11, we'll jump in the second half. But to those on the outside, those who are not in the kingdom, everything is said in parables, so that they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving, never hearing, but never understanding. Otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven. Jesus here quotes Isaiah. So Isaiah chapter 6, verse 9. That's what Jesus is saying. Now, when Isaiah said it, again, chapter 6, verse 9, this is early. This is early in his ministry. This is when Isaiah the prophet was called into ministry. And at that time, when he heard it and got it from the Lord, it was that this is going to be the context that you are to give prophecies, Isaiah. And I'm letting you know it's going to be hard because the Israelites are not going to listen to you. The Israelites are not going to follow you. In fact, they are going to reject you. And so Isaiah hears that, but here's the thing: Isaiah wasn't just hitting the record button during his ministry, and then we're having it also transcribed at the exact same time. Isaiah is not being written at the time that Isaiah is doing ministry. Isaiah is writing the book of Isaiah towards the end of his ministry, where he's bringing these prophecies. So, in a way, when Isaiah is writing it, he's including this phrase to say, and the reason that nobody listened to me is exactly what God said. God told me they would reject me and they wouldn't listen. Look, they did. They looked and looked, they never saw. They listened and listened and they never heard. Stick with me for a second. This is exactly what Mark is trying to convey. Right? So on one hand, Mark is quoting Jesus as saying this to his disciples. So in that moment, with that parable, Mark is saying, this is what Jesus was explaining to his followers, that there are going to be people who are going to come to me. And those people who come to my kingdom, they will receive the keys to the kingdom. That secret will be revealed to them. They will have the mystery and they will have life. But there's also going to be people who are all around listening at the exact same time, and they are going to reject me. They aren't going to get it. They aren't going to see it. And they're going to say no. But at the same time, Mark is saying, again, there's the original audience, the ones that are were there, like you are here with me, right? There's the original audience, the eyeballs that I can see, but there's also the audience by extension. Like those who are going to watch online or listen on the podcast later, they weren't in the room, but they're going to benefit from it. We are the ones that are benefiting from the writing of Mark, and anybody who was not present are also going to benefit from the writing of Mark. And Mark is trying to let everybody know this is the reality is there are going to be people who are not going to receive the good news. They're going to hear it and they're going to reject it. No matter how good it is, no matter how winsome you tell them about it, no matter how great Jesus is, they're still going to reject it. So Mark is allowing Jesus' words to kind of expand, not just to that parable, but to all the parables, and not just to all the parables, but all the teaching and the presentation and the good news and the gospel of Jesus. And there are going to be people who just don't get it. That's the reality. We're going to come back to that. Let's go to verse 13. Then Jesus said to them, Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? It's a good question. I read it with some sass. So let's pull some of the sass from it. Said positively, huh? Positive, Jesus. If you understand what this parable is, you understand that I am the Lord that brings the kingdom, then all of the parables are going to make sense. Why? Because you have the keys to understanding these parables. This mystery has been revealed to you. Okay. All right. Imagine you're a farmer. Verse 14, the farmer sows the word. All right. This small phrase actually meant a lot to that original audience. By making the seed that has been sown cast broadly, by making that the word, they hear, oh, there's the farmer sowing the word. It actually ties back for them to the exile of Israel and their future. So not just Isaiah chapter 6, verse 9, but elsewhere in Isaiah, we see chapter 40, verse 8. Maybe these are familiar verses to you. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God stands forever. There are these things happening out in nature that are very natural things. These things come and they go, but the word of God stands forever. Chapter 55, verses 10 and 11. I did some editing, jumping through, missing some words here and there, but general feeling. So my word, so is my word that will accomplish what I desire. God is going to continue to do the natural things that happen with seeds and with rain and with life there. But my word, just like I want those plants to come and give life, my word will also accomplish what it has been intended to do. So the word here, okay, so it says the farmer sows the word. The word actually is lagos or logos. Um it means word. The word means word. But this is also the same word that John in John chapter 1, he says the word Lagos is Jesus. So is the word here Jesus? Is is the word here the word about Jesus? Is the word here the good news about the kingdom of God? Can we cheat and say yes? It's like all of it. Okay, it's all it's all combined, it's all together. The farmer sows this, the good news about Jesus, that he is king and his kingdom has come. That is all boiled down into the word. Okay, that's what this farmer is sowing. Okay. The mystery that has been revealed by Jesus to his followers, that he is the Messiah. He has come to make all things new. That is what this farmer is sowing. So the people at the time are now understanding that when the farmer sows the word, this is the invitation, this is the good news about Jesus, opportunity to come into that kingdom and follow him as king. That's what he is sowing. Right. Let's go back through the parable as Jesus goes back through the parable. Remember, we've got four soil situations. Three of them failed. Three of them failed. So why? This is like one of my favorite parables because Jesus gives us the roadmap. Right? So you're confused in the first part, and it's okay, because we were all confused. We were the followers who are like, Jesus, what does that mean? Jesus says, Great, I'll tell you. Verse 15, some people are like the seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. So in our first soil situation, the good news is given to a hard heart. It doesn't take at all. It just sits there, rejected, and Satan, yink, he takes away. He takes it completely away. So we need to remember when the good news is received, it always produces fruit. In this example, no fruit. Okay, verse 16. Others, like seeds sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Our second soil sitcher, or our second person, is immediately excited, joyous, in on the kingdom. I love it. This is great. Until reality sets in. Following Jesus in all of life is hard. Can I get an amen? Not everyone will be a fan of Jesus as Lord. I talked to somebody this past week who was verbally attacked, cursed out, and mocked here in Victoria because they followed Jesus. Now, what they experienced might not reach the definition of persecution, but they definitely had some trouble just because they believed in Christ. And that sort of thing is going to happen to people who follow Jesus. Our second soil situation did not feel that the promise of Jesus was worth the trouble. And they walked away. When the good news is received, it always produces fruit. And in this example, no fruit. Okay. Verse 18, still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the word. But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. This soil situation to me is like the description of the Western experience. Tell me if this sounds familiar. A person hears the news about the kingdom. It sounds great, and they start going. To a church gathering. They join a missional community. They start serving on a Sunday serving team. On the outside, this plant is growing. Right? Get excited. But life gets complicated. They keep attending the gathering, but they are consumed with worry about the day-to-day. They show weekly at MC, hooray, woo-hoo. But then they spend their time bragging about all the new toys that they've purchased, the latest financial windfall that has given them the ease they've always wanted. Maybe they even lead on a Sunday serving team. But when you talk to them, they keep talking about when they're going to get that next thing. And then once that next thing comes by, then they will really be happy. If you looked at this person, would you believe that their presence on Sundays, financial means, and leadership status is fruit? Is it fruit? Jesus looks at this mirage, he calls it what it is unfruitful. When the good news is received, it always produces fruit. And then in this example, no fruit.

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Verse 20.

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Others, like seeds sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop. Some 30, some 60, and some a hundred times what was sown. Our final soil situation is our only fruit-bearing option. It is the only one. And when the good news is received, it always produces fruit. When the good news is received, it always produces fruit. And in this example, a massive harvest, a major crop. It is produce everywhere. This is what this is what we want. This is what we want in our own life. This is what we want to see in all of the people we love. So why does Jesus tell this parable? We're going to, like we've already done a little bit, we're going to do one lens for the people who were there, the original audience. All right. So we can understand why why Jesus said this thing to them. But we're going to pull that lens and then we're going to go to ourselves, the current audience. There's much to be pulled from this. So one, our original audience, as we've talked about, okay, so you've got the religious leaders, you have the crowd, and then you have the followers. His original audience needed to hear that one, his kingdom was coming, and in fact, it was there, and that there were going to be people who were not part of it. His kingdom wasn't coming with pomp and power, sweeping away the enemies. In fact, the kingdom was going to advance mightily only in sum. And when it did advance, it might actually go slowly, like a seed growing, working towards the fruit that they want to see. Okay, the second thing for that original audience, Jesus was the bringer of the promised kingdom. And the only way, the only way for everyone to be fruitful, to have the life that they wanted, to have, to experience the promises that were supposed to come through the covenant, the only way to experience them was in Jesus. That was it. He was it. The kingdom that the Jews had been pining for and waiting on, that they knew the Messiah was going to come and bring the kingdom. Jesus was saying, I'm the Messiah. If you want the kingdom, it's through me. If you want the kingdom apart from me, you will not get it. And this was against everything that the Jews at that time expected. They wanted the pomp, they wanted the power, they wanted him to sweep in. And Jesus is telling them this story to say, it's not happening that way.

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It's me. I'm who you want.

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To us, the not original audience. I think that Mark tailored this message that we have the opportunity to tease some things out. Please hear me when I say that we are going to tease some things out that are perhaps helpful for us. I am not saying that everybody who is reading this text should see exactly what I'm about to say. But I'm hoping that we can see that nah, maybe this is for us. So first, the good news, the gospel, it actually is like a seed. So a seed carries within it the DNA, the code, if you will, the plan to make more seeds that were going to produce fruit. It's built into the seed. You and I, if we were to do farming, would not have to sit down and really coach up the seed to do its thing. It's built in. Okay. When we believe the good news about Jesus and the eternal kingdom that he brings, it always produces fruit. Just like God promised in Isaiah, his word will stand forever and accomplish exactly what God desires. So if we have come to Christ, if we follow him, here's the promise: we will produce fruit. Brothers and sisters, if you have come to Christ, you will produce fruit. Because it is Christ's work in you. It is him making us more into his likeness. That means we will bear fruit.

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So what's the fruit? What's the fruit?

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Um, I like that sometimes scripture spells it out really plainly. Uh Galatians chapter 5, 22 and 23, it tells us that this fruit is the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These sort of things, if we are in Christ, these will be growing. As the Spirit is at work in us, this will be the fruit that people are able to see. We are going to look and sound more like Jesus. Not by speaking Aramaic or anything, but like we are going to have the love of Christ pour out of us, and people are going to say something's different about them. It's because he's working in us. But what else? Okay, let's look at the passage. Jesus people will not wilt from trouble or persecution. Jesus' people will not be overcome by daily worries. I'm not saying not bothered by. We will not be overcome. Jesus' people will be changed by the Holy Spirit to look more and more like the King. So if you, brothers and sisters, our Jesus people, if we have believed, if we have placed our hope in Jesus, the good news is that he will develop the fruit in us. It is not on your strength. It is not about the amount of your faith. It is the aim of your faith. It's Jesus. He's going to do that. He will not fail, and we can trust him. Second thing. I kind of tried to sprinkle it in, sew it in through the message. There we go. Little joke. And say, imagine that you're a farmer. I believe that a bonus point from Jesus is that if we are fruitful, if we are fruitful plants, we are invited to become farmers. Okay, I'm mixing metaphors, but just go with me. Okay, I'm mixing metaphors because technically we can go back to the fact that any healthy seed that grows and produces a ton of crop is actually going to produce a ton of crop that is going to make a whole lot of other things grow. And I could do that, except we are not seeds, we are people. Okay. And so as people, we have been invited in to this multiplication involvement. All right. So yes, I understand that the farmer in this situation is Jesus, but he is called us to be like him and do what he does. We are called to share this good news. The big churchy word is evangelize. We are actually called to, as followers of Jesus, as part of the people who received that seed that said, This is how you are to follow me. This is part of accepting the good news, is we are going to tell other people about this good news. And we are going to do so, as we see in the passage, we are invited to do so broadly. We should share the good news often in all environments with all people. We don't judge what type of soil situation we think they are. That's not for us. Jesus is the one who makes the thing grow. Our role is to share that good news. And to share it broadly. Jesus has called us to be farmers just like him. Last thing, which is kind of an extension of the previous one. I'm not cheating. Farmers need other farmers. If we believe that we are kingdom citizens, we are a part of a family of citizens. And as such, we each play our part in sharing the good news. And it won't be the same as everybody else. Some of us have been going through this book, Total Church, we talked about it this morning. In this chapter on evangelism, this is what they said. By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. Everyone has a part to play. The new Christian, the introvert, the extrovert, the eloquent, the stuttering, the intelligent, the awkward. I may be the one who has begun to build a relationship with my neighbor, but introducing him to community, it's somebody else who gets to share the gospel with him. That's not only legitimate, it is positively thrilling. This is how it is meant to go. Evangelism, telling people about Jesus, sharing the good news. It is not an individual game. We are called to as individual, but we will see its success by doing so together. We are not just a bunch of individuals sitting in individual consumer seats on a Sunday. We are gathered as a body of Christ together, kingdom citizens sent out to bear the kingdom news. Okay, I need to land the plane because my excitement will take us way too late. This passage is invitational for everyone. So, one, to those who have never come to Christ, your invitation is to come to Jesus as Lord. He invites you to repent and follow him for a fruitful life that you have always wanted. If you've never come to follow Jesus as Lord, we will have prayer partners here on the sides after we kind of walk through some of the communion stuff. Please come and pray with them. Please accept this good news. Come and hear the mystery. To those who have come to Jesus as Lord before, Jesus still invites you to trust him completely to do what he promised he would do in and through you. And if you felt at any point you were listening to these soil situations and you're going, okay, I know the one says that Jesus is going to make me like fruitful and produce a lot. And I'm feeling really, really resonant with one of the first three. It's okay. He is faithful. And so I invite you to turn to him and trust. Turn to him and trust. To those of you who say, Yes, I trust you, Lord, that's great. Join the broadcast effort. Join the effort to share the good news of Jesus far and wide. If you say I'm not good at it, don't worry. You're not off the hook. You have been invited to share with everyone, everywhere, in any circumstance. And lastly, to those who believe all of this, Jesus invites you to collaborate with others gifted by the Holy Spirit to see more people blessed by the kingdom of God. We get to do this together. It is a joy. Okay, as the band makes their way up to the front, I want you to ask yourself Of these invitations, which one do you need to lean into today? One, do I need to receive this good news about Jesus and his kingdom that I've heard? Two, where do I need to trust him more? Where do I need to trust him more? Three, where and with whom can I share this good news about Jesus? Somebody's name probably popped into your mind. There was a face that you saw when I talked about telling others the good news, I trust that's the Holy Spirit working in you. If that happened, you get to go and talk to Jesus about them. To pray for this wonderful opportunity to share the good news with them. Lastly, who in my community, whether missional community, West Village Church community, or the Big C church at large, can I collaborate with for discipling others in the good news? It is not an individual game, it is a collective game. Why don't we go together to God in prayer to respond to some of these things? Let me pray for us, and then there's going to be a bit of silence for us to actually do the praying. Lord, thank you so much that we had this opportunity to talk about you, talk to you, or listen from you. Jesus, please move in our hearts right now. Show us which of these we need to respond to. Speak to us in these moments and let us call to you. Jesus, we thank you that you were here and that you were moving. And even though it might feel like we're interrupting a good prayer, Lord, continue to speak. Continue to speak. Let us hear your voice. Move in us so we respond to you and follow hard. Give us the strength to follow. Let us produce fruit. Your name we pray, Amen.