Soul Soil - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

Last week we talked about the way that Jesus revolutionized relationships and we looked at how Jesus revolutionizes our relationships with others, how He revolutionizes the priority of our relationships and He revolutionizes our relationship with the kingdom of God.

Today’s talk will be quite different. So here goes…..

The kingdom of God is like a man who went to buy his wife a card. He looked at the card rack and saw a beautiful card. The cover had splashes of orange, purple, and red with two intertwined hearts and the message “To the One I love….” and when he opened the card the message was beautiful. It was the perfect card. When the man got home he found that his wife was away running errands and it gave him just enough time to write a quick expression of love in the card and place it next to the gift he had purchased for her. But much to his dismay when he pulled the card out of the bag he saw that the cover words actually said “To the Man I love….” It was too late to get to the store and back for a new card so this man decided the next best thing to do would be to change the word man to say “woman.” The family had a good laugh together after she opened the card and heard the man’s pitiful story.

That’s the message. Let’s pray….

What? Were you expecting more? What was wrong with my talk?

O.k. I’ll level with you there’s more.

After what just happened you have a better idea of what the people felt like after Jesus taught them.

I have heard some people say, in fact I have even thought this myself, that Jesus used parable so that common men and women could understand spiritual truths. But if you read what the Bible actually says you realize that’s not true.

Jesus used the parables as a kind of ‘test’ a pop quiz to determine who was ready to receive the word and enter the kingdom. You might even say that He threw these out to see who would respond and those who responded were the ones who’s hearts Holy Spirit had penetrated to create a hunger for spiritual truth.

Take a look at Mark 4:10-12, and 33-34. To make the point even further let look at a couple of other passages. Mark 7:27-30. A Greek, Syro-Phonecian gentile woman came to Jesus asking Him to because her daughter was possessed by a demon and Jesus tells her a little parable and because she understood it Jesus responds to her faith and delivers her daughter. The point here is that her response showed that the Spirit had prepared Her heart to respond to Jesus.

Then look at Mark 8:13-20 I’ll summarize it Jesus tells the disciples a little parable to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the disciples didn’t get it. They thought He was mad because they forgot to bring bread and Jesus rebukes them because they didn’t get it then after His rebuke they’re still baffled and Jesus doesn’t even tell them what He meant.

Jesus was not what you would call a typical teacher. His method was designed to gauge spiritual receptivity not human wisdom or understanding.

Now let’s read Mark 4:1-34

We’re going to focus on the parable of the sower the rest of the way this morning because it gets literally at the heart of why Jesus used parables.

When the folks left the seashore that day they would have thought they had heard a nice story about farming. The disciples’ response tells us that they didn’t get the deeper meaning. Keep this in mind; Jesus explained it to the disciples because they asked. He revealed the deeper truth to them because their curiosity revealed a desire to know more about the kingdom of God. Here’s the interesting thing to me anyone could have asked what Jesus meant, but only those who asked received more.

What Jesus reveals to them is a diagnostic for the souls of people. Jesus simply states as fact that wherever the Word of God is proclaimed people representing these different ‘soils’ will be there. That’s true even today. Something I noticed is that Jesus doesn’t tell them to go and break up the hard ground, or sow the seed in productive soil. He simply says that some will get it and others won’t and it’s not our job to change them, it’s our job to tell them.

We are called to be sowers not plowers and prepared not passive.

I know how I am when I share with people and they just don’t get it. I want so bad to plow up the hard soil of their heart, as if God needs my help to do that. I used to get really frustrated, but now I share and simply take joy in watching as the Lord begins to do His work. vs. 26-29 get at this. It’s a mystery to me just how God does this but I have to trust that if I share then He will have already begun to prepare their heart, and will do what needs to be done.

I’m going to openly wonder something this today is that o.k.? I wonder if I have been missing the point of why I share the word with you? I sometimes put so much pressure on myself to convince you to believe what I say that I over explain and maybe, just maybe I should say less and let you wrestle more trusting that…

When God prepares your heart you’ll be ready to receive the word and ask for more.

Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Are we ready to ask? Are we ready to seek? Are we ready to knock? Do we really desire to receive the Word and discover more about the mysteries of the kingdom of God?

How’s your soul soil?

Passive and uninterested? Because what I see here in this parable is those who sit by the wayside passing the time never see any growth.

Shallow and self serving? It also say that those who have a shallow ‘religious’ covering may experience a sudden inspiration but will abandon their search as soon difficult times come their way.

Cluttered and preoccupied? Then of course those who find themselves too busy, or preoccupied with the cares of life to seek His kingdom will experience a slow spiritual strangulation cutting them off from the riches of God’s truth.

Ready and receptive? If we are then what would that look like here in our community of faith and in your life at home? Wouldn’t we really want to spend time reading the Scriptures? Won’t we intentionally carve out time to spend with God in prayer and worship? Wouldn’t it be true that we’d find opportunities to share our insights and receive instruction from one another?

If this talk has somehow stirred something within you then now is the time to respond. Share your thoughts....