SPEAKER_00: There's something about a mystery that captivates us all.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a novel, a crime documentary, or a headline that hints at hidden motives.
SPEAKER_00: We're drawn to the unknown.
SPEAKER_00: We want inside information.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know who done it, why they did it, and how it all fits together.
SPEAKER_00: There's something inside us that longs to uncover what's hidden, to know life's greatest secrets.
SPEAKER_00: This craving for hidden knowledge is nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world, this desire for hidden knowledge gave rise to Gnosticism, a heresy that claims salvation came through secret mystical insight available only to a select few.
SPEAKER_00: Even today, people love to chase conspiracies, secret societies, and encrypted truths, hoping to feel special, to be on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: As we will see in our passage today, the kingdom of God is filled with mysteries of its own.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaks in parables to hide the kingdom from some, but he also graciously reveals the mysteries of the kingdom to those who draw near.
SPEAKER_00: He gives away the secrets of the kingdom, not to the proud or the privileged, but to the receptive.
SPEAKER_00: In this way, the kingdom of God is both hidden and revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Some hear the gospel, yet it leaves no lasting mark.
SPEAKER_00: They remain unchanged, and their lives are no different than the broken, corrupt world around them.
SPEAKER_00: But others hear the gospel, and everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts are transformed, their priorities realigned, and they become instruments in the hands of God for the advancement of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: The reality that some are saved and others are not is a mystery of its own.
SPEAKER_00: After all, only God knows a person's heart and their ultimate destiny.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't mean that we can't know the mysteries of the kingdom, nor does it mean that we can't know how to stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to life everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we open our Bibles today, we are opening these mysteries to be revealed and applied.
SPEAKER_00: So let's open to Mark chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: We will begin by reading verses 1 through 23.
SPEAKER_00: And before we begin reading, let's go before the Lord in prayer, the one who reveals the secrets of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, you gave your son Jesus, who took on flesh, and who came to reveal the secrets of your kingdom to those who had ears to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we pray that as we open up our Bibles today and we look at this account where Jesus speaks in parables and even explains it to his disciples, we pray that you would help us understand your word.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for your Holy Spirit to open our eyes and hearts to understand in ways that only a true insider can.
SPEAKER_00: And he was teaching them many things and parables, and was saying to them in his teaching, listen to this behold, the sower went out to sow, and it happened that as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.
SPEAKER_00: An other seed fell on the rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil, and after the sun rose it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
SPEAKER_00: And an other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
SPEAKER_00: And other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they were yielding a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: And he was saying, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: And when he was alone, his followers, along with the twelve, began asking him about the parables.
SPEAKER_00: And he was saying to them, To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything comes in parables, so that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable?
SPEAKER_00: How will you understand all the parables?
SPEAKER_00: The sower sows the word, and these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown.
SPEAKER_00: When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
SPEAKER_00: And in a similar way, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places, those who, when hearing the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves, but are only temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: And others are those being sown among the thorns.
SPEAKER_00: These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for anything else enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: And those are the ones which were sown on the good soil, they who hear the word and accept it, and are bearing fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: And he was saying to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?
SPEAKER_00: Is it not to be put on the lampstand?
SPEAKER_00: For nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus addresses a very large crowd of people, he begins to teach them, not with straightforward instruction, but in parables.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been following along in Mark's gospel, this won't come as a surprise.
SPEAKER_00: Mark doesn't just give us a glimpse, he gives us the full parable and its explanation.
SPEAKER_00: This is a moment to lean in because Jesus is about to reveal something essential about the kingdom of God and about the condition of our own hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells a story that would have felt familiar to every ear in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: It's a simple story on the surface, but beneath it lies a powerful truth.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is the same in every case.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is in the soil.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you love to garden.
SPEAKER_00: As you know, seeds don't just grow anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how good the seed, it won't produce anything worthwhile in soil that's hard, shallow, or crowded by weeds.
SPEAKER_00: The seed isn't the problem.
SPEAKER_00: It's the soil that determines whether its life takes root.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus uses this simple truth to confront us with a spiritual reality.
SPEAKER_00: The seed of God's word is perfect, powerful, and full of potential.
SPEAKER_00: But the condition of the soil, our hearts, makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus told this parable, it wasn't that people didn't understand what he was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: They knew the ins and outs of agriculture quite well and could follow the details of his parable with little effort.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it was that people knew that this parable was pointing to something more, something deeper in meaning.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't figure out what that deeper meaning was or why Jesus was giving this parable in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: It was frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus essentially leaves the crowd on a cliffhanger.
SPEAKER_00: It would be like watching most of a murder mystery only to have it end abruptly without disclosing the key details that solved the case and brought resolution.
SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus' own disciples were left feeling confused and frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: They had to ask him for an explanation once they were in a more private setting.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine the look on their faces as Jesus rebukes them for not already understanding the parable.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus says in verse 13, do you not understand this parable?
SPEAKER_00: How will you understand all the parables?
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, there were expectations that came with being an insider.
SPEAKER_00: And failing to understand this parable meant failing to understand all the mysteries of God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: This insider-outsider distinction continues to be a theme as we work through Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus responds to his disciples, turning from the parable to its meaning, he begins by saying something that is profound.
SPEAKER_00: To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything comes in parables, so that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: The word translated as mystery is equivalent to how we would understand the word secret, meaning something that is hidden, not that it can't be understood.
SPEAKER_00: We often think of God as being unknowable, considering that his ways are vastly higher than our ways, and that his thoughts are equally higher than our thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we know that God is knowable because he chose to reveal himself to us through creation, his word, and his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The subject of this mystery is the kingdom of God, which Jesus communicates in the form of parables.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus quotes the prophets of the Old Testament to describe the spiritual condition of those who were coming to him for all the wrong reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Though they saw his miracles, they didn't see him as the Son of God or understand the coming of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Though they heard him teach with authority, they failed to truly understand his teachings and follow him as his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And so they remain on the outside looking in, as Jesus uses parables to keep the kingdom of God hidden to them.
SPEAKER_00: As we see later on in verses 33 and 34, and with many such parables he was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear it, and he was not speaking to them without a parable, but he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples.
SPEAKER_00: One of the first mysteries Jesus reveals to his disciples is that they are the recipients of his revelation for all the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: This revelation is intentionally and freely given to those who are inside and truly with him.
SPEAKER_00: But to those who remain on the outside, his parables are intentionally designed to keep the kingdom of God hidden to those whose hearts are hardened.
SPEAKER_00: God is the keeper of the great mysteries of the kingdom, and he's the one who gets to decide its recipients.
SPEAKER_00: This revealed mystery is like a divulged secret.
SPEAKER_00: It can be made known and understood.
SPEAKER_00: To the disciples, Jesus' teaching is intended to be revealed and made known.
SPEAKER_00: This is quite different from esoteric belief systems like Gnosticism or secret societies like Freemasonry, which teaches that in order to obtain hidden knowledge, one must seek them through the world of the occult, drawn from ancient mystery religions, like Kabbalah, Gnosticism.
SPEAKER_00: In this type of worldview, truth is for the few who earn it through advancement, not the many who humbly receive it.
SPEAKER_00: This stands in direct contrast to the biblical doctrine of mystery.
SPEAKER_00: In Scripture, a mystery is something once hidden, but now revealed by God's grace to his people.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not veiled in layers of elitism or esoteric rituals, it's proclaimed openly and received by those with humble, receptive hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike Gnosticism or Freemasonry, which promotes secrecy and spiritual hierarchy, Jesus reveals the mysteries of the kingdom to the lowly, not the elite, and that makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to his disciples, To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: While it is declarative, it is also indicative of those who are already insiders.
SPEAKER_00: As one commentator notes, the parables, like Jesus' healing and preaching ministry in general, do not force people outside or pull people inside, they simply reveal the type of ground already present.
SPEAKER_00: As we see in verses 14 through 20, Jesus reveals the mystery of this parable to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: As we read Jesus' explanation of the parable of the sower, we should read it through the lens that it was also intended for us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read those verses again, verses 14 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: The sower sows the word, and these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown.
SPEAKER_00: When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
SPEAKER_00: And in a similar way, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places, those who, when hearing the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves, but are only temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: And others are those being sown among the thorns.
SPEAKER_00: These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for anything else enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: And those are the ones which were sown on the good soil, they who hear the word and accept it, and are bearing fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: While this parable has a lot to say about salvation, it also has a great deal to say about sanctification in our daily walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation has to do with whether or not we are saved.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification has to do with God's will for us to become more like Christ as we grow in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let's consider the first kind of soil, the one where the seed is sown beside the hard road, never getting planted, and immediately snatched away by Satan.
SPEAKER_00: A hardened heart is a lot like this hardened road.
SPEAKER_00: No seed of the gospel can take root.
SPEAKER_00: It's an easy target for Satan because he has to do the least amount of work.
SPEAKER_00: Even for a Christian, a heart that begins to harden becomes an easy target for the enemy, to draw us away from the truth, and to deflect correction and resist repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's consider the rocky soil, the one where the seed is unable to develop strong roots and withers away under the heat.
SPEAKER_00: At first, it looks promising, like a person who, upon hearing the word, seems to respond favorably.
SPEAKER_00: But when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, their faith fails and they fall away because they didn't have deep roots.
SPEAKER_00: This happens a lot with people who had an emotional experience with God, but never took the time to root themselves in his word, never joined a healthy church, and had faith that was shallow and weak.
SPEAKER_00: The moment that their faith was genuinely tested, it failed and they inevitably fell away.
SPEAKER_00: Not because Christ or the gospel is insufficient, but because their faith wasn't authentic and true.
SPEAKER_00: It was a knockoff representation of the real thing.
SPEAKER_00: And for the Christian, we are tempted to abandon our faith when it could cost us something significant a job, a relationship, or in some cases, our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it doesn't cost us our salvation, but compromising on things that God causes us, calls us to stand firm, can seriously stunt our spiritual growth and put us at risk of slipping further into sin.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's the thorny soil, the one where the seed is choked out, unable to bear any good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: These are the people who hear the gospel, but the cares of this world and deceitfulness of what it has to offer get in the way from living a life that is completely devoted to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: People would rather live a carnal life expressing their fleshly desires than to sacrifice and submit to the authority of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Such people say things like, I would become a Christian, but or maybe I'll confess my sins and follow Jesus before I die, but I'm just not ready yet.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We are to turn to God and receive forgiveness and Jesus Christ turning away from our sins, we are to do it now.
SPEAKER_00: Later, now, while today is still today, and our fate is not yet sealed.
SPEAKER_00: Even for the Christian, anything that hinders us from being fully devoted to Christ is choking out our faith and hurting us.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's love of money, seeking status, addiction, you name it, all these things are thorns that are stealing our time, effort, and energy away from pursuing things that are actually valuable to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Our pet sins may very well be keeping us out of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So let us be warned this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, there is the good soil.
SPEAKER_00: We heard a lot about bad news, but thank God there's also good news.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Finally, there is the good soil, the one that yields fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: These are the people who hear the gospel and respond in genuine faith and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Believers, in contrast to unbelievers, hear God's word because he allows them to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: They accept it, understand it, and obey it on a daily basis because God opens their mind and heart and transforms their lives.
SPEAKER_00: The result is that they produce spiritual fruit in exponential numbers.
SPEAKER_00: It would be like investing a dollar and getting back thirty dollars or sixty dollars or even a hundred dollars.
SPEAKER_00: That's the type of return on investment that Jesus is talking about when he says 30, 60, or 100fold.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the power of the gospel when paired with the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of people.
SPEAKER_00: God only needs a little to accomplish much.
SPEAKER_00: For the Christian, this is also the expectation.
SPEAKER_00: Now that we are saved, our lives should reflect a spiritual harvest as bountiful and generous as our God.
SPEAKER_00: If not, we need to ask ourselves why we're not producing this kind of spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And let me remind you what that spiritual fruit looks like in the life of a believer.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 through 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Against such things there is no law.
SPEAKER_00: We were made as Christians to bear fruit by living lives that are characterized by these things.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is the word, the gospel, unchanging and powerful.
SPEAKER_00: The variable is the soil, which is the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: The fruitful heart hears, accepts, and bears good fruit, holiness, perseverance, and obedient service in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus continues to express the mysteries of the kingdom of God through two more short parables.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at verses twenty-six through thirty-two.
SPEAKER_00: And he was saying, The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil, and he sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: He himself does not know.
SPEAKER_00: The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.
SPEAKER_00: But when the grain is ripe, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.
SPEAKER_00: And he was saying, How shall we compare the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_00: Or by what parable shall we present it?
SPEAKER_00: It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the soil, though it is smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes largest of all the garden plants, and forms large branches, so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.
SPEAKER_00: While there is certainly human responsibility for whether or not a seed takes root and grows, Jesus reveals in these parables that God operates in ways that go beyond our understanding, giving growth in ways that do not depend on human hands.
SPEAKER_00: This balances our understanding of human responsibility in salvation and sanctification under the complete sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_00: We learn that like a seed that grows while the sower sleeps, the kingdom continues to grow beyond our comprehension.
SPEAKER_00: Outside of the initial sowing and the final harvesting, the sower does nothing but wait.
SPEAKER_00: The disciple is responsible to sow, God is responsible to produce.
SPEAKER_00: As with the mustard seed, even the smallest acts have great significance for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: God transforms the humblest offering from the disciple into something of eternal value in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe me, think back to how you became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the person or people who were most instrumental in your life during this time.
SPEAKER_00: Every conversation, every event that occurred, every detail in the process was meticulously and sovereignly ordained by God to bring about your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And the same is true for those who are part of your testimony.
SPEAKER_00: If all it took was one man and a boat full of disciples to change the world forever, imagine what God will continue to do as his gospel continues to go out and his church grows.
SPEAKER_00: We can take heart, knowing that God's sovereign design and purpose is for his people to be abundantly fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: Don't measure your impact by size or visibility.
SPEAKER_00: Trust that God is using your obedience to advance his kingdom, even through quiet faithfulness in small congregations like this one.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, let's take a look at the warning Jesus gives about those who reject his word and bear no fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Verses twenty-four and twenty-five.
SPEAKER_00: And he was saying to them, Beware what you listen to.
SPEAKER_00: By your standard of measure it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever has to him more shall be given, and whoever does not have, even what he has, shall be taken away from him.
SPEAKER_00: For those who were unreceptive to God's revealed and open word, the visible lamp, Jesus spoke about back in verse 21, there were real consequences for their rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Where those who receive truth will receive more, those who reject truth will lose even what they had.
SPEAKER_00: In a very real sense, a person reaps what they sow.
SPEAKER_00: Fruitfulness and fruitlessness are reflective of whether or not a person receives or rejects the truth of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some people don't look at fruitlessness with the same severity that the Bible treats it.
SPEAKER_00: If a person isn't bearing fruit, it's a sign of spiritual decline, decay, and divine judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Apathy, distraction, and compromise lead to spiritual hardening.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we must repent of dull hearing and pursue fruitfulness with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment to examine your receptivity this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Are you bearing fruit in word, character, and witness?
SPEAKER_00: Is your heart soft toward correction and truth?
SPEAKER_00: Does your life reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
SPEAKER_00: If not, or if you're unsure, I urge you to talk about it with somebody today.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to me, talk to the person you came to church with today, whoever it is, just make sure to address it while today is still today.
SPEAKER_00: We began today by talking about mystery, that human hunger to possess secret knowledge, to be on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that longing isn't entirely wrong, but it can be misplaced.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus offers us a better mystery, not the kind that flatters the ego or feeds conspiracy, but a revealed mystery, a holy secret made known to those who are simply willing to listen, receive, and obey.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to anyone who truly follows him, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, not because you're clever, but because he is gracious.
SPEAKER_00: But remember this: to receive the word is to be changed by it.
SPEAKER_00: To truly hear Jesus is to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the calling of every disciple, not just to believe, but to produce.
SPEAKER_00: And though we labor and sow, striving to obey, the true growth, the lasting, kingdom-advancing, mustard seed miracle kind of growth is God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: You are not alone in your discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who calls you to fruitfulness is the God who causes the seed to grow even when you sleep.
SPEAKER_00: May we as a congregation be known not for big numbers or flashy events, but for soft hearts, deep roots, and lasting fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be the good soil in whom the mystery of the kingdom is not only heard, but made visible.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious Father in Heaven, your will for us is our sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to take inventory of our hearts and be reminded of sin that is still present.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are sins that we've been battling for years.
SPEAKER_00: But God, you have the power to not only deliver us from these sins, but to use your people, though flawed, to carry out your mission through the power of your gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, as your people, that we would pursue Christ-likeness daily.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do this on our own.
SPEAKER_00: We need your Holy Spirit's help.
SPEAKER_00: And so would you help us give us the courage to even confess sin in our life to somebody who will come alongside us and pray for us daily?
SPEAKER_00: And the goal is not to try and be this perfect person.
SPEAKER_00: We're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: We need your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, you died so that our sins would be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: You died once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can come at the foot of your cross, knowing that though we are sinners, you are a God of grace who forgives us and who makes us into something new, something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: God, we give you praise, we give you all the glory, and it's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.