LISTEN! - part 8
023 LISTEN! – part 8
Mark 4:1-34 (27-34)
March 1, 2026
I realize this morning we sort of had to just stop in the middle of a thought,
But that’s ok, we’ll pick back up with it tonight.
While we are in this greater sermon about listening,
We have realized that the command to listen
Was really given to those with ears to hear.
And the thing the Lord wanted us to listen to
Was His explanation of our responsibility
Regarding the truth we have been given.
To whom much is given, much is required.
If we have been privileged to know the truth
Then we are obligated to share it.
That is what Paul said:
Romans 1:14 “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”
1 Corinthians 9:16 “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.”
The same thing Isaiah said when he saw the glory of God as a man in sin
Is what Paul said when he contemplated being a follower of Christ
Who did not preach the gospel.
This is serious.
In Matthew’s famous 13th chapter
Where 8 miracles regarding the kingdom are given,
Jesus closes that chapter with this instruction.
Matthew 13:51-52 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes.” And Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
Because the disciples now knew the truth about the kingdom,
They were now obligated to be faithful stewards
Who distributed that truth to the rest of their house.
That is the point Jesus has been making.
And we, as privileged hearers of truth are commanded to LISTEN!
At this point, I’m not going to go back through all of those first 4 points again, I hope they are now engrained in your mind.
But we are currently looking at the fifth point of this sermon which is:
#5 THE PROPAGATION OF TRUTH
Mark 4:26-29
It is a parable that once again reveals a farmer sowing seed,
It is parable that explains to us how the kingdom grows.
We have broken this short parable into 3 points.
1) THE FAITHFULNESS OF SOWING (26)
“And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;”
We discussed that the farmer’s job is not complicated.
· He is called simply to scatter the seed.
· He is not to worry so much about the soil on which it lands,
· He is merely called to scatter it.
And we said that above all else this requires faithfulness,
For it is not a job that comes with immediate gratification.
A farmer doesn’t sow and harvest on the same day.
· There is a definite time period in between.
· That seed must go into the soil and the work of germination and growth must take place.
You probably can even see that in your life.
It is doubtful that you believed the gospel the very first time you heard it.
Once that seed is sown there is a work of God
That must take place before the harvest comes.
And that was the second point where we left off this morning.
2) THE WONDER OF GROWING (27-28)
“and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.”
The farmer sows and then he goes to bed.
· He doesn’t even understand what happens next.
· That seed, will germinated, sprout, grow, and bear fruit.
· It is a task that does not involve the farmer at all.
YOU SAY, “I thought sanctification was a synergistic effort, where we work out our salvation while God is at work in us.”
That’s true, sanctification is a synergistic effort.
What Jesus refers to here is not sanctification,
This is regeneration and that is a monergistic effort.
This process involves the work of God and God alone.
· Only He can make what is dead come to life.
· Only He can cause something to grow.
Mankind may study what God does.
Mankind may label the steps of what God does.
Mankind may grasp the process that naturally occurs.
BUT MANKIND HAS NO PART IN IT.
He cannot duplicate it nor understand it.
It is when the Spirit of God takes the seed of the word
And uses it to produce life in heart of the one who hears it.
This is why Peter said:
1 Peter 1:23 “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”
It is the imperishable seed of the gospel
Which God uses to cause one to be born again or regenerated.
This is God’s doing.
This is God’s work.
And it is miraculously marvelous.
WE ENDED THIS MORNING examining that great vision of Ezekiel where God called him to the valley of dry bones.
· Ezekiel was called to prophecy to those dry bones.
· Did Ezekiel make them alive? No
· God did, through the message preached.
And that is what we are understanding here.
The farmer can’t make the seed sprout and grow,
But it will not sprout and grow if he never puts it in the soil.
But when he sows the word, then the power of God takes over.
· Didn’t Paul say that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation”?
1 Thessalonians 1:5 “for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction;”
The gospel arrived with power.
And before we move further this evening,
I just want you to once again understand that power.
I want you to grasp the wonder of regeneration.
I want you to marvel at the fact that God will use you to accomplish it.
MAN IS DEAD IN SIN.
That is ALL MEN, not just the ones that seem obvious to you.
As David said we are conceived in iniquity.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
That is man.
Born fallen with a nature like Adam’s to transgress against the Lord.
And because we are dealing with death we need resurrection.
We don’t need therapy.
We don’t need coercion.
We don’t need assistance.
WE NEED RESURRECTION.
But that is beyond our pay grade.
That is the work of God and God alone.
Think about the famous John 6.
Jesus is preaching and they aren’t getting it.
John 6:41-47 “Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.”
And later when they still don’t get it.
John 6:59-65 “These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
Jesus understood spiritual farming very well.
His job was to sow the word.
His job was to preach.
Bringing that seed to life was the work of God.
Causing that seed to grow was the work of God.
Even take the great Lazarus example.
Jesus raised Lazarus, we are all aware,
But do you remember what He did before He called him out of the tomb?
John 11:41-43 “So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
Jesus paused before calling Lazarus out
To clearly emphasize that raising the dead is a God-sized job.
Lazarus had to be made alive if he was going to exit that tomb.
ALL OF THIS IS THE WONDER OF GROWING.
And God does that through your preaching.
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;”
Paul said, we preach, but God does it all.
We sow the seed, but God makes it grow.
Can you fathom being a part of such a miracle?
Can you imagine being used of God to raise the dead?
That’s what evangelism is.
THIS IS HOW THE KINGDOM GROWS.
We concern ourselves with sowing.
God does the work of growing.
And we are not discouraged when we feel ineffective.
Sometimes we sow seed and it doesn’t come up.
Jesus already taught us it could be a bird problem, or a sun problem, or a thorn problem.
We do what we are called to do and cry out to God to work the miracle.
· We are called to sit in awe of what God does.
· We are called to pray to God for the lost.
· We are called to glorify God’s great work by planting the seed.
That is how the kingdom is propagated.
So we see:
The Faithfulness of Sowing
The Wonder of Growing
3) THE URGENCY OF MOWING (29)
“But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Obviously we are speaking here about reaping the harvest.
AS SOWERS OF SEED we are those who take the gospel to the bare fields where no fruit exists and cast the seed upon the soil.
It is a task that requires faithfulness and diligence.
THEN we patiently wait in wonder as God does what only God can do.
But when God’s work of regeneration is done.
When the gospel has taken root, sprang up, and fruit is ready.
What do we do then?
We harvest!
We ask that plant to present its fruit to God in faith and trust.
We ask that plant to surrender itself to God for His glory,
For what He is accomplishing in it.
Listen again to Paul:
Romans 1:13 “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.”
· He was coming to call the Romans to repentance and salvation.
· He was coming to call them to present themselves to God through Christ.
For those whom God has regenerated and granted faith.
Paul calls them to exercise it and present their fruit.
It was perhaps the hallmark of R.C. Sproul’s ministry, but he loved to point out that, “Regeneration Precedes Faith”.
Faith is a gift from God.
· It does not naturally exist in the heart of man.
· God must first awaken the dead and grant him the faith to believe.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Faith there spoken of us a gift.
2 Peter 1:1 “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:”
Faith there spoken of as something received.
REGENERATION PRECEDES FAITH.
But once regeneration occurs we call men to faith in Christ.
That is harvesting, that is reaping, that is mowing.
AND THE KEY TO THIS ONE IS URGENCY.
When we sow the gospel to one who is dead, we often sow the word and walk away.
· We know we can’t argue a dead man into the kingdom.
· We know we can’t manipulate a dead man into the kingdom.
However, there are days when we enter the field
And we find that the person we are talking to has been brought to life.
They are understanding the gospel.
They are understanding their sin and need for a savior.
When we see fruit like that in the head, it is our objective to snatch it!
THERE IS URGENCY THERE.
We don’t wait, we don’t let it linger, we immediately go for the harvest.
Have you not seen Jesus do this also in Mark’s gospel?
Mark 1:16-20 “As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.”
Mark 2:13-14 “And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.”
That is drastically different than the way He had preached to the crowds.
These were men made alive by the word
And Jesus wasted no time calling them to Himself.
There is urgency there.
AND WE SEE THIS URGENCY IN THE APOSTLES.
THINK ABOUT PENTECOST.
Peter stood up to preach to explain the coming of the Holy Spirit.
· He was simply a farmer bent on sowing seed.
· He spoke of the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of the Christ.
What Peter could not have been expecting was
How quickly God took that word and caused it grow and sprout.
For Peter no sooner finished his sermon than he heard this response:
Acts 2:37 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
These people indicated a regenerate heart.
· They had been pierced.
· They had been convicted.
· God had opened their eyes.
It was fast for sure, but it happened.
And then you watch Peter immediately go from sower to reaper.
He had been faithful as a sower,
· Greatly laying out the truth of the gospel,
But when he noticed mature grain ready for harvest,
Peter urgently reaped it.
Acts 2:38-40 “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”
DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
Think about Paul:
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Listen to him tell those same Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 6:2 “for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”
There is urgency there.
There is a desire to reap there.
That is what John the Baptist was doing.
John was out in the wilderness
And men were coming to him to be baptized.
Men don’t do that unless God has already awakened their heart
To their sin and need for forgiveness.
John was merely reading the field
And harvesting it by calling men to repent and believe.
As Rebecca shared testimony last week,
We saw the same with Jesus.
After confronting the woman at the well,
She ran back into town to declare she had found the Messiah.
· And there we find that someone else had already sown that field.
· God had already caused growth.
· They just had to reap.
John 4:35-38 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
Other people have been laboring.
Other people have been sowing.
I simply called you to reap.
And so we understand the process.
There is sowing.
There is growing.
There is mowing.
We are all called to be sowers.
· That is a faithful duty of every believer.
God alone is a grower,
· We trust His saving power for that.
And some get to be mowers.
· Sometimes even reaping what we did not sow.
THIS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOWING AND REAPING?
Sowing is done by your determination.
Reaping is done by opportunity presented.
AND YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT BECAUSE
Often times people go out with the mindset of reaping,
And then get discouraged when it doesn’t happen.
Go out with the mindset of sowing,
Then you’ll be delighted when an opportunity to reap arises.
GOD USES US ALL IN DIFFERENT WAYS.
Some are pastors, some are teachers, some are preachers,
And yet some He calls evangelists.
For years we watched crowds stream down the aisle
At Billy Graham crusades, and we are thankful.
That is how God chose to use Billy Graham.
Billy Graham very often reaped harvests that he had not sown.
· Some mother and grandmother had shared the gospel for years.
· Some spouse had convinced their husband or wife to attend.
· Some friend had invited them to go with him.
That person had the seed sown long before and many times before,
But on that night God awakened it and used Billy Graham to harvest it.
There’s nothing in the world wrong with that.
The goal is the growth of the kingdom.
SO:
· Be faithful to sow the seed everywhere.
· Pray that God will make it grow.
· When the opportunity arises, urgently reap.
That is how the gospel is propagated.
That is how the kingdom grows.
Now, there is one more parable to look at here in this sermon and the point is easily seen and grasped so I want to cover it as well here tonight.
#6 THE PREEMINANCE OF THE TRUTH
Mark 4:30-32
“And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.”
Here is that famous parable of the mustard seed.
And the analogy is clear.
What begins as the smallest actually becomes the largest.
No, the mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the world.
· But it was the smallest that the Jews of Jesus’ day planted in their garden.
And no, the mustard plant is not the tallest tree in the world,
· But it could grow to around 15’ and that made it the largest garden plant they had.
· In fact, it was big enough that even birds could build a nest in its branches.
And Jesus says that this is how He wanted His followers
To “picture” the kingdom of God.
“How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?”
Jesus says it is like a mustard seed.
Now clearly, and I want you to see this, that Jesus does not leave behind the calling to sow the seed.
(31) “a mustard seed, which, when sown…”
(32) “yet when it is sown…”
There is a consistency here in all the parables.
The seed must be sown.
We are not getting around that.
This kingdom will not grow apart from sowers sowing the word.
That has been the point hasn’t it?
Mark 4:14 “The sower sows the word.”
But we also know that when you sow seed and walk away,
There is a curiosity that emerges.
· How successful will my sowing be?
· How much fruit will my planting produce?
FOR IN JESUS’ DAY
The kingdom of God must have looked very small and insignificant.
· By the time Jesus ascended there were only 120 believers in the upper room and around 500 in Galilee.
That could not have looked like much
After 3 years of Jesus preaching in person.
But what did Jesus say?
John 14:12-17 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
When Jesus said “greater works”
He could not have meant greater in power or wonder.
No one ever surpassed Jesus in miracle ability.
· He raised the dead.
· He walked on water.
· He cast out armies of demons.
Even if His disciples would do the same,
Their works could hardly be categorized as greater.
Jesus meant in scope.
They would be the ones, empowered by the Holy Spirit,
Who would grow this kingdom to a greater glory
Than even Jesus did while on earth.
These ordinary men took the gospel to the world.
They turned it upside down.
And since that day the church has seen millions upon millions of sinners
Forgiven and join the kingdom.
It certainly must have looked small and insignificant in Jesus’ day,
But that is now how it will end up.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 17
We learn here of a failure on the part of Israel back in the days of the Babylonian invasion.
· Men rebelled against God’s plan and they suffered for it.
Here we see what amounted to the physical end of Israel’s kingdom.
They never again had a physical king on a physical throne.
But you see at the end,
Out of this chaos and tragedy there arose a promise.
(READ 22-24)
I hope you recognize that, because Jesus quotes it here in Mark 4.
In Ezekiel’s day, God took a kingdom in shambles
And promised that a great kingdom was coming.
Jesus does something similar.
Though the kingdom may be small now, it’s about to get much bigger.
And in fact one day it will cover the whole earth
And every nation will rest under its branches.
Don’t get discouraged if your field looks small.
Don’t get discouraged if your harvest seems lacking.
I THINK ABOUT THAT HERE.
Spur is not a town on the ascent, at least not at the present time.
It is hard for us that we rarely get to keep our young people.
We pour into them and raise them up and most of them
Go off to serve in other towns and other churches.
It leaves us feeling unsuccessful, but we aren’t.
If you drive by our church it may look small, but it only looks that way.
There is an eternal impact and kingdom growth
Beyond what we currently see with our eyes.
Let that encourage you to keep doing the work.
· Keep sowing
· Keep harvesting
· God is growing His kingdom!
And that is the sermon of Jesus to His followers.
That is what He commanded us to LISTEN! to.
DON’T BE DISCOURAGED, BE FAITHFUL.
And then Mark closes the segment with sort of a postscript.
(33-34) “With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”
Reminding us again that such truths
Are only for those who are able and willing to hear it.
Don’t close your ears to this message.
Don’t ignore Jesus’ call to sow the seed.
It is a privilege to know this.
It is a privilege to share in this.
We are servants of the King!
We are servants of the Kingdom!
And one day we will see just how effective our service has been!