Entering the Kingdom

We treat the Parable of the Sower like it’s about sorting people, but Jesus uses it to train our attention and show us how the kingdom of God takes root. We connect Mark 4 to everyday life and walk through three doorway practices: curiosity, careful listening, and making space for the Word to grow. 
• parables as an invitation that rewards spiritual curiosity 
• the sower parable as the master key for understanding Jesus’ parables 
• refusing the trap of “I already know it all” 
• staying curious about Jesus the ultimate “parable” with depth beneath the surface 
• listening as the repeated command and the main thrust of Mark 4 
• “with the measure you use” as a promise tied to attention and hearing God’s Word 
• the difference between crowds who hear and disciples who wrestle and ask 
• noticing the kingdom like bird watchers notice a hidden world 
• the three obstacles that choke fruitfulness: hardness, shallowness, crowdedness 
• making emptiness and quiet so the Word can root and bear fruit 

Transcript

Mark 4 Reading And Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This morning it comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapter four, beginning in verse one, the word of God reads this way. And he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a 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 thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve 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. 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 thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And he said to them, Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If any one has ears to hear, let him hear. And he said to them, Pay careful attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is God's word. Thanks be to God, you may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word.

The Secret Mini Ramp Hook

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Once upon a time I was a skateboarder, and I followed a lot of other local skaters on Instagram, and you can learn a lot by doing that. You can especially learn about where all the good skate spots are in town because they don't put them on Google maps. And every now and then something special would pop up, like it would be a winter month when no one can skate because it's cold outside and there's no more indoor skate parks in Cincinnati. And someone would post a video of them skating the secret mini ramp in a warehouse, like a Tony Hawk Pro Skater secret level style mini ramp, and immediately the comment section and the DMs would fill up with, bro, where is this place? How do I get there? How do I gain access to this mini ramp? How can I get inside?

Parables And The Kingdom Secret

SPEAKER_00 4:16

And today we start a new series on the parables of the kingdom, which are found in Mark's Gospel and mainly in Matthew's Gospel and Matthew 13. And they are parables or stories that Jesus told to illustrate what the kingdom of God is, what it is like, how it works. But the first and the most important parable is the one that we've read today. And it's the most important because it teaches us how to understand all the others, and it teaches us how to gain access to the kingdom of God. It teaches us how to enter in, how to get inside this secret kingdom. So, how does a person enter the kingdom of God? That's the question. And Jesus teaches us three things here. And he teaches us that not only in order to enter, but in order to grow, to continue to grow in the kingdom, to enter the kingdom we must be curious. To enter the kingdom, we must carefully listen, and to enter the kingdom, we must make space. So that's what we're going to

Curiosity Opens The Parables

SPEAKER_00 5:19

look at. So, first, to enter the kingdom we must be curious. This parable of the sower, I actually prefer Mark's version of it because it just has some incredibly interesting connections that Matthew's version does not have. But this parable of the sower is the first parable both for Matthew and for Mark, and it's clearly a kind of master parable. It's like a master key that opens up every other lock. Jesus says in verse 13, he says, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? So this parable really is the key to understanding all of the others. It opens them all up. A crowd gathered, it says a very large crowd gathered to hear Jesus teach, and he taught them in parables, which is very interesting. And the disciples later, when they're alone, they pull him aside and they ask him a very interesting question. In verse 10, it says, When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And we know from Matthew's gospel specifically that they ask him, Why do you speak to the crowd in parables? And further, in Mark 4, we read in verse 33, it says, With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples, he explained everything. Now, if you if you think about that, we learn here that Jesus had two forms of communication. He had two modes of teaching. To the crowds, he taught in parables, but to his disciples, he explained everything clearly. Even when he was on his way to Jerusalem and he told them that when he got there, that he would be betrayed and that he would be crucified, they thought that he must be speaking in a parable, even though he was speaking clearly. To the crowds, he spoke in parables, but to his disciples, he explained everything clearly. And their question is, why, Jesus? Why do you teach the crowds in parables? Why don't you explain things clearly to them like you do with us? And his answer is also very interesting. In verse 10, he says, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables. And again, here we see two groups. We see the inner circle, the disciples, says, To you has been given the secret, and then those who are outside, everything is in parables, two messages, two, or at least two forms of communication. Why? That was their question. Well, what is a parable? We can clearly see here that a parable, and it's a very simple question, your children could probably answer this question. A parable is a story or a metaphor that has some kind of deeper meaning, but that deeper meaning is not immediately obvious. It's a story or it's a parable, it clearly has some kind of deeper meaning, but it is not immediately obvious. So a parable really is an invitation to the curious. In order to understand the parable, you must think about it. You must spend time with it, you must meditate upon it, you must ask questions, you have to turn it around in your mind until it begins to open itself up to you, until you begin to understand it. It's an invitation for the curious. So for those who are curious about Jesus, who believe that he has something important to say, who believe that there is a deeper reality to this carpenter's son, those people will spend time with the parable. They will think about it, they will ponder it, and they will be rewarded. But for those who already know it all, who are not curious about Jesus, who already have Jesus figured out, they've already put him in into their nice little box that they have for him, they probably will not spend time thinking much about the parable. So the parable itself immediately sifts the curious, the spiritually curious, from those who already know it all. It's an amazing tool, isn't it? That Jesus is such an amazing teacher, such a masterful teacher. What this means is that in order to enter the kingdom and in order to grow in the kingdom, we must be curious. And we must stay curious. We must always be of the mindset that there is more to Jesus than meets the eye. There's far more to Jesus than meets the eye. And if you think about it, Jesus himself is a parable. To some, on the surface, he's the Nazarene. Can anything good come from Nazareth? To others, he's the carpenter's son. Is this not the carpenter's son on the surface? To others, he's a failed revolutionary. But for those who are curious enough to linger at the foot of the cross, they discover, as the centurion does at the end of Mark's gospel, that truly this is the Son of God.

Curiosity In Marriage And Parenting

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Think about how important ongoing curiosity is in all of your relationships. The people around us are constantly growing and changing, and we never have them completely figured out, even if we think that we do. So we have to remain curious about our even our own children. As they grow and develop, we're continuing to get to know them. We need to keep getting to know them and keep being curious about them and spending time with them and asking them questions and asking them about their interests and why they are the way that they are. We have to be curious about our children. And if we do that, then hopefully we really will get to know them, and more importantly, we will develop a vital relationship with them. And the same is true in your marriage and with your spouse. The person that you are married to now is different than the person you married at first. I don't know if you figured that out yet. I'm sure many of you have been married for a long time, so you you all have learned that the person you're married to now is different than the person you married at first, and you are different too. And in order to maintain a healthy marriage, we have to continue to be curious about one another. We have to continue to spend time getting to know one another. We have to get to know one another all over again. We have to ask questions, we have to listen. Jesus Christ does not change. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. So our issue with Jesus is not that he is changing, but you do not have Jesus figured out. You do not fully know him as you think that you do. There is far more to Jesus than you think. Where is your curiosity? So there's a few different places that we could be this morning spiritually, and the parable itself illustrates the different options. Some of us have lost our curiosity. We've been in the church for a long time, we've been around the Lord for a long time. Maybe we don't read the Bible much anymore because we already know everything that's in there. We've already read it. We know what happens in Genesis and in Joshua. We don't spend time with Jesus like we used to because we've already got him figured out. Because there is no curiosity, there's no room for growth. I mean, we could ace a theology exam. We know it all. What do we have to be curious about? That's a sad place to be. Beware. Don't be there. Others of us are beginning to be curious. Some things in life are, we used to think we had life figured out, but now things are breaking down and they're getting frustrating, and life is not working as well as it used to. Or maybe some bitter fruits are beginning to grow up from patterns and habits that we've long maintained, and we are beginning to wonder, we're beginning to suspect whether we took a wrong turn somewhere, and maybe there's something that we missed. Maybe there's something we're missing. If that's you, man, this is an incredible opportunity for growth. What an exciting place to be. But you must latch on to Jesus because the danger is that something else other than Jesus would grab a hold of your now curious attention. So if you're beginning to be curious, latch on to the Lord while you can. Some of us are now very curious. Maybe something has happened, and Jesus now has our full attention. Often this involves some kind of trauma, but it doesn't have to. There are many in the gospel stories who were desperate and who were in need of healing, and they came to Jesus and Jesus healed them. And then he had their full attention. They said, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus deserves our full attention, and when we give it to him, we will find even more than we expected. So let's now turn to

Listen Closely And More Is Added

SPEAKER_00 15:05

consider that. Point two, we must carefully listen. To enter the kingdom, we must carefully listen. I want you to notice how important listening is in this passage. In verse 3, Jesus says, Listen. Behold, a sower went out to sow. And in verse 9, he says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In verse 24, he says, Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. It's full of, I mean, that should it's the obvious takeaway from this passage is that we should listen. We should listen closely. So slow down for a moment and consider this question. What is the purpose of the passage? What is the thrust of the passage? What are we supposed to take away from it? From a reformed perspective, we're used to interpreting this passage as talking about four different kinds of people that sort of have a fixed static identity. The hard soil, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil. And because we're good Presbyterians, we read it and we think, well, I sure am glad that I'm the good soil. And we think about all the people that we know that meet the description for the other soils. But this is clearly not the purpose of the passage. The clear thrust of the passage is to admonish all of us to listen, to pay attention, to pay careful attention to what you hear. The reason I like Mark's gospel is because he adds to this parable the words, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. Other places and other gospels, that is attached to the idea of judging others, but here it is attached to the idea of listening. He says, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And still more will be added. Well, what does that mean? But such a wonderful promise. Jesus promises here that if we give our attention to him with the measure that we use, if we give our attention to him, then we will be rewarded. And with the measure that we use, it will be measured to us, and even more will be added, just to encourage us to keep listening. The more attentively we listen, the more we turn our eyes and our ears to him, the more we discover, and even more than we deserve. Because Jesus adds just a little bit extra, an extra portion, even more will be added to you. In Jeremiah 29, 12 through 14, the Lord says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. The Lord desires to be found. He desires that we would seek him. In order to enter the kingdom and to grow in the kingdom, we must carefully listen to the words of God. We must regularly sit at Jesus' feet and give him our attention. But our Lord is so gracious because we give him so much less attention than we should. We give him half-hearted attention. And even with that half-hearted attention, he always gives us a little bit more than we put in. Is not that kind of our Lord? The kingdom belongs to listeners, not simply those who attend church or those who own Bibles. I'm glad you own a Bible or several Bibles, but the kingdom belongs to listeners, and this is what separates the crowds from the disciples. The crowds attend. They're happy to attend. The crowds hear. They don't really understand, but they hear. But the disciples could not get the words of Jesus out of their heads. They could not shake. It got stuck in their crawl, and they wrestled with them, and they asked Jesus questions, and they were curious. And the more they did that, the more was added to them. And that's why he says, To those who have more will be given, but to those who have not even what they have will be taken away.

Bird Watchers And Hidden Kingdom Growth

SPEAKER_00 19:26

I've always been fascinated by bird watchers. To me, it's like the epitome. It's like the biggest nerds in the world are bird watchers. It seems to me to be the nerdiest hobby that a person could possibly have. Maybe my hobbies are nerdy. I don't know. What do I know? What would motivate someone to go and sit still in silent in a quiet place and watch birds? I'll tell you what would motivate them. When people get into bird watching, they realize that there is this whole world going on around them that they were never even aware of. We went out to the Red River Gorge this past weekend. It was so awesome. And we're going to go back next year. And for those of you that were not able to attend, there will be more opportunities. But we were talking about alpha waves and beta waves in your brain, and I don't even know what I'm talking about, but but the people that told me about it told me that when we're in the city and we're surrounded by the screens and the buildings and the traffic, our brain waves are just going like this. Is that the beta waves? It's the beta waves. But when you get out in nature for long enough, your brain shifts into these long alpha waves. And that's what these bird watchers discover. See, you and I, when we go out to parks, or when I go out to a park, I see dirt and trees, and I'm just eager to get on my phone and watch something that's really exciting. But bird watchers have discovered something. They've discovered that there is a whole universe of beautiful and fascinating creatures that are conducting business and running errands and building a world right under our noses. They have learned how to pay attention to this world that's right there in front of us all along, but most of us have just never attended to it. And the same is true with the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is aggressively growing here and now. Ever since Jesus appeared, the kingdom appeared. And it has been growing ever since. And it's right under our noses. God is at work building his eternal kingdom right under our noses, and most people don't even notice it because unless a man is born again, he cannot even see the kingdom of God. So we must become little bird watchers of the kingdom. We must give our full attention to Jesus. We must carefully listen to his word. And this simply means Means we must attend to the Word of God. I know you've read some of it. You should read it again. And then you should read it again. Maybe you've committed something to memory, some part of it to memory. That's a wonderful practice because it forces you to focus on every word. You have to give a lot of attention to memorize even one short verse. Memorize another one. Memorize more. Think about those words. I know you've thought about it a little bit. Even if you thought about it for years, even if you have a master's degree like I do, I've thought about it a little bit. Keep thinking about it. Keep meditating on it. Keep dropping your bucket in that well. I promise you that you have not found the bottom. There is so much more. The only hope for anyone to enter the kingdom of God or to grow in the kingdom is through the word, because faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So let us do what Jesus says to do and let us pay careful attention to what we hear.

Make Space For The Word

SPEAKER_00 23:01

And then point three, we must make space. To enter the kingdom, we must make space. The four soils is not so much about four different kinds of people. As we listen to this parable, we are not supposed to think, which soil am I? The parable really is about the power of the word, and it's about the things that are able to make the word unfruitful. So what do we see? I'll just quickly review these. You know them all. It's the easiest part of the parable to understand. There's the hardness of heart. Of course, the seed on the path represents a hardness of heart. In 14, Jesus says, when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. So these are the people who already know it all. The word cannot penetrate into their hearts and minds, and they quickly forget it because Satan snatches it away. And upon hearing this, we should not think, Man, I'm glad I'm not that soil. Rather, we should think, I had better not imagine that I know it all. I had better stay curious, and I had better remain open to what Jesus has to say. The seeds that fall on rocky soil represent a shallow understanding. Verses 16 and 17, Jesus says, 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 receive the word too quickly. It is possible to receive the word too quickly. They have not understood Jesus very well. In fact, they have actually misunderstood Jesus, perhaps believing that he will only make their lives easier and better. Even Judas, who was one of the twelve, who was with Jesus for a long time, misunderstood Jesus and so betrayed him. But when it becomes clear that the way of Jesus includes much difficulty, they fall away because they didn't sign up for this. When we hear this, we should not think, God, thank you that I have a deep understanding. Rather, we should think, I had better think more deeply about this. I had better count the cost. I had better slow down, because it is dangerous to have a shallow understanding of God's word. The seed that falls on the thorny soil represents a crowded life, crowdedness of life. Verses 18 through 19 says, 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. These would bear fruit, but their lives are too crowded. There's too much going on. They're too in love with the world. Their hearts are very divided. They're too busy chasing wealth or romance or success or whatever it might be. They're committed to too many other things. There are other things that they want that compete with Jesus. And when we hear this, we should not think, God, thank you that I have no thorns in my life. Rather, we should think, I had better be careful not to make my life too crowded. I had better be careful that nothing in my life competes with Jesus. See, these are not so much three different kinds of people. These are three things that can make the word unfruitful, and we must beware of them all. Only God can prepare our hearts to receive his word and to make us into good soil. But this parable is given so that we might recognize why God's word is not bearing fruit in our lives, and so that we might seek God and seek repentance. And what is it about the good soil that makes it good? The good soil is simply empty. It is tilled up, and there are no rocks, there are no thorns. It's empty. It's ready for something to happen. It's ready to receive. So in order to enter the kingdom and in order to grow in the kingdom, we likewise must become empty. We must make space in our lives for God to work. What the three bad soils have in common is that there is no room for God's word to take root and to grow. And so space must be made. Emptiness must happen before there can be fullness.

Emptiness Before Renovation And Pruning

SPEAKER_00 28:00

It's true in home renovations. I'm not a gardener, but I sometimes do home renovations. Before you can build the kitchen of your dreams, you have to rip out the old one, you have to get it down to the studs, you have to create an empty space. You must start with emptiness before the master carpenter can do his work. I haven't done this in too long, but once I had a habit of taking prayer retreats, once a quarter I would uh disappear into the woods for about eight hours, and I would just walk and I would think and I would pray. I would not look watch birds. I was watching for the Lord. But it's remarkable how your thinking and how your perspective can change if you just remove the distractions, if you get into a quiet and a still space, and if you just try to attend to the Lord, emptiness is very important. We can empty ourselves, or the Lord, in his mercy, can empty us. For some of us, there will be seasons of life in which it feels like the Lord is ripping out all the things that we think are important until we are left with nothing. And these are obviously painful seasons of life, but what an opportunity it is for the Lord to plant something that cannot be uprooted, something eternal. Whether we are willing participants or reluctant objects of God's pruning mercy, we cannot enter the kingdom nor grow in the kingdom unless space is made.

Backpacking Parables And The Reward

SPEAKER_00 29:32

As we continue through this sermon series, Jesus is going to give us parables. He's going to give us these parables, and they're invitations for the curious. He is intentionally frustrating us. He's giving us something difficult that we have to think about and to chew on. Again, I can't help but think of this past weekend when we went to the gorge. I've never been backpacking before. I've been camping, and camping is very easy. You roll up in a car, you've got all your food and all your comforts, and you can, if your cell phone dies, you can plug it in in the car. You're very safe. We're going to do some of that later this year, and it's going to be fun. But the thing about the gorge that was cool, the backpacking, you have to put it all on your back, and then you have to hike in an hour. You have to bring all your water and all your power and everything with you. It's kind of hard. It's kind of hard to get to it. It's a little bit inaccessible. That's probably why it was not super well attended, but the people that did attend it was an amazing group. It was a small group. Because it's hard. But if you're willing to do that, if you're willing to wrestle with it, man, the reward is amazing. The vistas that you get to see, the experience that you have, God put these mountains up there, and you can get to them. You just have to do a little bit of work, but the reward is so amazing. These parables that He's going to give us, they're an invitation to climb that mountain, to wrestle, to think, to listen, to attend until God will show us something beautiful. Jesus says that for those who are outside, everything is in parables. You know, your life is kind of like a parable. It's a story unfolding. You feel like maybe there's some deeper meaning, but you're not quite sure what it is. You're not quite sure what it's all leading to or what it all means. Well, understanding the kingdom of God is the key that's going to unlock all of it. It's the key that's going to unlock the whole thing. And Jesus himself is the ultimate parable because the world sees the carpenter, the Nazarene, the failed revolutionary. But for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, to those who will attend, the disciples see something far greater beneath the surface. The world sees the old rugged bloody cross. But the disciples see the profound love of God who would suffer the cross in order to save sinners.

Final Charge And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Pay attention to what you hear. Give God your attention. Stay curious because you do not have Jesus figured out. Listen carefully, because faith comes through hearing. And make space. Give God's word room to grow and to bear fruit. And to these ends, let us pray. Lord, you are such a marvelous teacher. It's really astounding. In these parables, you give us something so profound, and yet it's slightly frustrating. You don't make it easy for us all the time. You want us to think and to seek. You want us to humble ourselves. You want us to trust you, to trust that there's something more that you have for us. And so to devote ourselves to you. What an amazing teacher you are. Lord, as we go throughout this week, we thank you that because we have the Holy Spirit, you can teach us wherever we are. We can open up the scriptures and you can speak to us and you can teach us. Even if we've had a frustrating time trying to understand it on our own, you're the only teacher that we need, ultimately. Of course, you give us help and teachers and books, and all of those are all of those are helpful. But we have your Holy Spirit, which is such a marvelous gift. Thank you, God. Thank you for being our teacher and our savior. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for us. We pray, God, that you would make space in our lives, that you would ignite our curiosity, that you would open up our ears, and that finally that you would have our attention. We attend to you now, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us stand in worship.