Day 5: Jesus, You, and Hearing God’s Word

Welcome back to our study of the Gospel of Mark, and I think you're going to love this one, especially if you have any struggle with God's will. You know, I pastored almost too long to tell you, but over three decades. And of all the questions that come up, I would say the most common question in terms of a counseling with someone that you know who thinks somehow that you might know a little bit more than them. It's, how do I know God's will?

And it's usually about things like, should I take this job or that job? Should I marry her or not marry him? Should we relocate from this place to that place? How do I know the will of God? And certainly, there's lots of good teaching about God's Word and wise counsel. Be willing to do whatever God wants you to do. But one of the big things that have helped me the most is obeying the known will of God is the prerequisite for knowing the unknown will of God.

The fact of the matter is you, you have a Father, you have a Father who loves you, knows everything about you, all the hairs of your head. He wants to lead you, wants to lead me, wants to guide you. But if we're not obeying the things He's already shown us, why would He show us more things or new things?

And so, part of that time where we don't know what to do is also a time where God is whispering, Get into My Word, get engaged, let's walk together. I want you to obey what I've made crystal clear, which is a lot. And as you respond to the light that I've already given you, then I'll give you clarity and more light about some other things. And that's what we're going to talk about today.

We're in Mark chapter 4. Uh, Jesus has just come through a pretty challenging time, where He's been accused of all of His work is done by the Devil. And then Your mom's outside because she thinks, along with Your brothers, that maybe You've gone insane or lost Your mind.

And Jesus makes this shift, and I want you to get the context, this is important. The very end of chapter 3 is critical to understanding chapter 4. At the end of chapter 3, after His mother shows up with His family and they want to see Him, He asks this question, Who are My mother and brothers? Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him, these are His disciples, His followers. Here are My mother and My brothers. Prerequisite for family: whoever does God's will is My brother and sister and mother.

Well, then it raises the question, how do you know God's will? Now, I'm reading out of the NIV and it has great strengths, but sometimes to make it flow better, it opens up in chapter four, On another occasion – Actually, literally, it's and. Mark wants us to know that that story about His mother, and how do you know the will of God? And He goes right into it.

It says, On another occasion, or, And, 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 on it, out into the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables in His teaching.

Listen, here's a parable. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it didn't 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. Other seeds fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so they did not bear grain. Still, other seeds fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, multiplying 30, 60, or even 100 times. Then Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And that's it. Okay. The great teacher, the miracle worker, the guy that casts out demons, He's teaching. And He tells this parable. Now, a parable, the word, para means to come alongside.

Parables are, in our words, it's more like a metaphor or a story that has a point to help you see or understand something spiritual and deeper. But here's sort of a popular story that if you understand the implications, it has great spiritual significance. And when Jesus says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear, He's basically saying, if you have spiritual receptivity, if you are searching and leaning in, you're going to figure out what I'm talking about.

By this time, people know He's claimed to be the Messiah. By this time, He has followers that are official. By this time, the religious community has targeted Him as, enemy number one. And now He says, family relationship with Me, family relationship with God the Father, isn't about blood. Blood's important. Relatives are important. Family's important. But they don't take priority of your relationship with God. And that comes through Me, and it's those who do the will of God. And if you want to know the will of God, here's a story about this farmer. And so, if you have ears to hear, let him hear.

Now, we're going to learn a little bit later when He explains it. I'm going to jump ahead just a little, makes it, maybe make a little bit more sense. The reason He's going to use parables is for two points. One is to reveal the truth. But also to conceal the truth.

You might jot down if you happen to be with an open Bible and have a place to write things down Proverbs chapter 2, 1 through 5. It’s a picture of the person that God reveals Himself to. God doesn't throw truth out on the top of the ground. He wants us to search and to dig and to be sincere and have intentionality.

Now let's pick up the explanation. When He was alone, the twelve and the others around Him asked him about the parables. He told them, underline this next line, it is so profound. The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything is said in parables, so that they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving, and ever hearing, but never understanding, otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.

He's been rejected by the religious leaders. He's rejected by His family. He's told them there's going to be new wine and new wineskins. He's saying it's a new day. The Kingdom has come. I'm the King. I'm now teaching you secrets of the kingdom. Basically, He's saying, and a little bit later, that kings and prophets have longed to look into and understand the things I'm sharing with you. And this parable is the most important parable.

In fact, He will say, If you don't understand this parable, you can't understand any of the other parables. And let me cut to the chase and then I'll explain it. He's actually going to say My words, My actual words, and your response to My actual words is how the Kingdom comes into reality. In fact, John will later say He was the Word, He is the Logos.

And so, He's going to explain, first of all, why do I use parables? Well, it's to reveal truth, and then here, it's to conceal truth. Some people will just manipulate truth. They'll just use truth. Um, they won't respond. They're not honest. They're not sincere. They might be curious.

And He says, for those, I don't want the truth. If they have that attitude and respond to that truth in that way, it will bring more and more condemnation on them. So, I'm going to conceal it.

Now, He goes on, Then Jesus said to them, Don't you understand this parable? It's kind of like, Hey guys, those hard-hearted, dull people, but don't you guys get it? How then will you understand, or can you understand, is the idea, any parable. Then He explains it.

The farmer sows the Word. 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. Others, like the seed sown on the rocky places, hear the Word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they only last for a short time. When trouble or persecution comes they quickly fall away. Still others are like seeds sown among the thorns. And they 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. Others, like seed on good soil, hear the Word, accept it, and produce a crop thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown.

So, here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, It has been revealed to you the secrets, the word is mystery, not mysterious, it's a mystery as in prophets of old, kings who were exploring and wanting to know, even the Solomons of the world, what I'm sharing with you, these things haven't been revealed until now.

This is how God's Kingdom comes into existence, and I am the King. And then He explains, The Son of Man is the sower. Me, the Messiah. What I sow is My words. God's Words. That's why I brought them. They bring life. That Word falls on different human hearts. The soils. It falls on some that are hard hearts.
they're not responsive.

It falls on shallow hearts. The soil is really shallow because it's on top of limestone, solid rock, and so the plant can't go deep. So, it would pop up, but as soon as there was heat or difficulty or tribulation, you know, it wouldn't grow. So, He says there's, there's hard hearts, people that Satan has blinded. There are shallow hearts and people who respond, Yeah, yeah, this is great, this is great. Don't we all know some people like that? You know, they prayed a prayer and said, Oh, I love Jesus, this is great.

And then, Wow, it didn't go well with my family; or, Boy, I'm having trouble at work; or I had no idea this was going to be this hard. And pretty soon, they're not in God's Word, and they don't want to come to church, and they had an experience, but I doubt they ever came to a saving faith.

And then there's the kind where the Word of God comes and, and there's lots of growth, by the way, right? Thorns have to grow up, there's lots of growth, there's lots of activity.

But there's not fruit. And the fruit here is very, very important. There are two kinds of fruit in Scripture, right? One kind of fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. When you follow Jesus and you receive His Word and you put it into practice, little by little by little, you become more loving. You become more kind. You have more joy. You become faithful. There's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, that's the fruit of the Spirit from, Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. It doesn't happen all at once, but there's a transformation from the inside out.

But there's another kind of fruit that has to do with, with ministry fruit. It's a John 15 kind of fruit where Jesus. Before He leaves is talking to the disciples and you know if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you ask whatever you want and you'll bear much fruit. And He tells them I want you to have fruit that lasts and, and then later on He's gonna say I'm gonna lay down my life. And I don't call you slaves anymore, you're My friends. I'm gonna make all things clear to you and you're gonna have a testimony of Me and His expectation was they would do, after He left by the power of the Holy Spirit, everything He did.

So, they were going to lead people to Christ. They were going to disciple other people. So, there's fruit of ministry that's external, of your life having impact on others, and there's fruit that's internal, where Jesus is changing your life to make your character more and more like His. And in both cases, what He says is, our response to the truth of God's Word determines whether that happens, and the varying factor is the condition of our heart.

This good seed in good soil produces fruit 100 percent of the time. Let, let me say that again. Good seed in good soil. God's Word in an open, receptive heart that takes the Word and puts it into practice. All three of the, what's called the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Luke, and Mark, all have this story. And it's all a pivotal, critical story of everything Jesus does.

But only Luke tells us what a good heart looks like. He says, Those with a good heart who are noble, who receive the Word - idea, put it into practice - who endure even persecutions, and they bear much fruit with joy.

And so, Jesus is saying is that you can have a lot of activity. You can be really busy. You can have Bible knowledge. But He says, and I think this is probably the biggest challenge with American Christians, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things. Guess what? Other things aren't bad. They just can't be as important.

He says, What chokes out the word is the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other things, and the worries of this life. I mean, you have that and I have that, right? We would all have more Christ-like character. We would all have a great impact in people's lives if, literally, the deceitfulness of wealth, the desires for other things, our lives are going crazy, our phones are dominating our mind, we got all this research about screen time, our kids are playing so many sports, they don't even have time to come up for air.

We are busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, and I hear all the time, Chip, I really would like to be in God's Word, but I'm just too busy. At the end of the day, I'm too exhausted, and if you knew the demands of my life and what I have to do at my job - And all I want to say is, there are 168 hours in every week. There are 24 hours in every day. We all have exactly the same amount of time.

What differentiates those who follow Jesus and those who know about Him, a person who is a fan to a follower is someone whose priorities say: God's Word, since it's the secret of the Kingdom, since it's the power that the Spirit uses to change me, since it's the key to the Kingdom of knowing the King, since it is what Jesus has said allows life to come from the Father into us and through us to others, followers make the priority of His Word vital in their life.

They still have other things. They still struggle with worries of the world. There are times and seasons where they're still deceived by riches. But the Word gets choked out by busyness. The Word gets choked out by money. And the Word gets choked out by just hobbies and stuff that aren't bad, but they're secondary. And if that isn't convicting for us, especially as Western Christians, I don't know anything that is. In fact, what He's going to say when He summarizes all of this is that your response to God's Word will determine your relationship to the Lord, period.

Huge problems? No time in God's Word. People in God's Word? Dealing with their problems in appropriate ways. There is no power in your life if you're not in God's Word on a regular basis. In fact, it's not just being in it.

Notice, He's going to give now a couple pictures that are going to be so important about the priority of not just knowing it or being aware of it or hearing it.

He says, Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Verse 21. Instead, don't you put it on a stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Carefully consider what you hear, He continues, with the measure that you use it will be measured to you. And even more, whoever has will be given more, whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away.

So, what He's saying here, He goes, to these disciples, He goes, when you hear the truth. First of all, the truth isn't meant to be this private little relationship. Truth is so that everyone hears. It's like, you don't take a light and bring it into a room and put a bowl on top of it. It's illogical. The light is here, what's it do? It illuminates and it exposes.

And then He says “measure.” That would be a little, you know, like a scoop. Or a measure in some big scoop or small scoop. In other words, however you respond to the truth, whatever measure, that's the measure that receive.

And then He gives this axiomatic principle that it has changed my life and I pray it'll change yours. If you respond to the truth that God gives you, you get more. If you don't respond to the truth that God gives you, little by little, you'll get less. And here was another insight, even in the last few years. This certainly is a story about people's salvation and response to the truth. But I believe this can be the story also of all of us at times.

And I would just encourage you to evaluate where is your heart in response to God's Word. Because He says, the lamp is on the stand, and then later He talks about, there's a process, the parable of a growing seed.

He says, this is what the Kingdom of God is like, a man's scattered seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself, the soil produces grain. First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel. In the head, as soon as it's ripe. He puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

And His point is, first the Word needs to be received and acted on. And then, it's a process. Just like a seed goes into the ground, it doesn't happen all at once. So, don't get discouraged.

And then, finally, He talks about a mustard seed. Because so often, there's such small beginnings, you think, oh, this will never amount to anything.

He says, again, He said, what shall I say the Kingdom of God is like? What parable shall I use to describe it? It's like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you can plant in the ground. Yet, when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade. With many similar parables, Jesus spoke the Word to them as much as they could understand, and He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything.

The mustard seed was to remind them that God's work in us and God's work through us starts very small. But as we're faithful, what happens is God grows us, and then He impacts others.

And you know, this little group of twelve that started, here we are a couple thousand years later, and I think the last statistics were something like well over a third of all the people on the planet have some kind of relationship that are called Christians.

Is everyone born again? I doubt that. But it has been the most massive, amazing thing that has ever happened in all time and all history. And if you look at the impact of whether it's education, or hospitals, or orphanages, or laws, this Jesus who came with these twelve who are willing not to just agree with Him, not be a fan, but be a follower, have changed the course.

So, let me encourage you. You want to know God's will, right? Remember how we started? About the job about this girlfriend, about where to invest your money. Obey the known will of God, and God will show you the parts you don't know, because He's your Father. And Jesus is your friend, and He loves you, and He wants to show you His will even more than you want to know it.