How You Listen Is Everything

Transcript

Well, family, one of the greatest privileges we have is to have a robust partnership with other gospel churches in Portland. Praise God, we have so many good gospel churches in Portland. Portland desperately needs more churches. One of the ways we like to showcase what God is doing, not only in our midst, but in other churches, is to invite pastors from other churches to come and open up God’s Word so that we can be aware of how God is moving in the city of Portland and in the greater Portland area. And so this morning I’ve invited Daniel Schreiner, Pastor Daniel Schreiner at Henson Baptist Church just up the street, to come and open up God’s Word for us. He’s a wonderful man, a man I’ve gotten to know over the last year, and I’m just deeply encouraged every time we connect and do ministry together. So it’s going to be a wonderful privilege for us to sit under his preaching this morning.

So if you would, please help me welcome Daniel as he comes to open up God’s Word for us. Thank you, brother, I’m going to pray for you and then we’ll dive in. Father, we do thank you for Daniel. We thank you for his faithfulness to Henson Church. We thank you for the thousand ways in which you use him to powerfully shape the hearts of those people. And we are thankful that this morning we will get but a glimpse of his powerful ministry as he aims to help shape our hearts through the preaching of your Word. We pray, O Lord, in God, that you would help us to sit under the authority of your Word, that we might be conformed, challenged, and shaped into the image of Jesus. Speak through Daniel this morning, we pray, in Christ’s name, amen. Thank you, brother.

Good morning, Trinity Church. Good morning. And I bring you greetings from Henson Baptist Church. We love our partnership with you guys, as Thomas was just sharing. We’re so thankful to be partnered in the gospel here in our city. We love you guys. We pray for you regularly and for Thomas and your elders. Mark Whitcomb, one of our pastors at Henson, I trust, will be lifting you guys up, this congregation up in prayer in just a few minutes at our service over on the corner of Southeast 20th and Salmon. I’m privileged to open God’s Word with you today. It’s been a joy to worship with you already. Also it’s a joy to be here with my family, Ashley and our three kids, Sam, Iris, and Willa. We’ve been at Henson for 12 years. I’m from Kentucky originally, Minnesota. My wife is from Pennsylvania. I serve as one of the associate pastors at Henson.

Are You Listening?

And we, again, have just been so thankful for our partnership with your congregation. I want to start our time together in God’s Word or get us warmed up to hear from God’s Word by starting with a question. Are you a good listener? Are you a good listener? I’d invite you to get out a pen or something to write with because, kids, I know that school is out for most of you, probably, or maybe you just have a few weeks left. But I have a quiz for you to take, and this is for everyone. So we’re going to go to school for a minute. I’m going to give you eight questions, and I want you to score yourself on these questions, pass or fail. If you can’t find a pen, I forgot to bring one up myself. So I’m going to do left-hand fail, right-hand pass.

You’ll see how I’ll do. Eight questions. When listening, how do you do, first, maintaining eye contact? How do you do maintaining eye contact? How do you do, when listening, noticing nonverbal cues? Number three, when listening, how do you do not interrupting? Number four, without judging or jumping to conclusions when you’re listening. Number five, not thinking of what you’re going to say next when someone else is talking. I’m running out of fingers here on my fail hand. Number six, not thinking of distractions that are going on around you, like maybe your phone, as your phone buzzes and you’re listening to someone. Number seven, remembering follow-up questions. And number eight, remembering names and details. So how did you do on our quiz? Did you have more pass than fail? Normally, we think of ourselves as good listeners. When people are polled on, are you a good listener, I think 96% of people say, yeah,

I’m a good listener. But this is how the Harvard Business Review put it. Chances are, you think you’re a good listener. People’s appraisal of their listening ability is much like their assessment of their driving skills. And that the great bulk of adults think that they’re above averages, above average. Unfortunately, the statistics, the studies don’t return that conclusion. Most studies find that people really listen to about 25% or less of what they hear. So what makes listening so difficult? What makes it so hard to listen? And how can we make progress? Well, we can work on some of those things that we thought about in our quiz, right? We can work, focus on making eye contact, being focused as we’re listening. We can have self-control, like hold our tongue until someone else has finished talking and not interrupt them. In here today, as we’re hearing from God’s word, you can try little things like taking

notes just to stay engaged. Not that you’re going to like save them to look over later necessarily, but just to stay engaged or maybe predict where we’re going in the message. Working on these listening skills can really help us. But we all know that listening is much more than a skill, right? It’s much more than a skill. Listening is a labor of love. We don’t generally get upset if a family member or a friend is not naturally skilled, say at the game of baseball or public speaking even. But if we feel like someone isn’t listening to us, especially when we’re sharing something that’s personal or important to us, that can be really hurtful if we feel like we’re not being listened to. Listening is one of the most loving things that we do. And whether you’re here this morning and you identify as a Christian or not, I’m sure that

you would agree that we listen to who and what we love. We listen to who and what we love. So how does how we listen or what does how we listen say about us? What is how you listen say about you? Today we’re going to consider one of the largest sections of Jesus’s teaching in the Gospel of Mark, in Mark chapter 4. And my prayer for us is that we would not only hear what God has to say to you and to us in his word, but that you would listen and demonstrate by the way that you listen that you belong to Christ, that you love him, and that you have known his love for you in the Gospel. So I’d invite you to turn to Mark chapter 4, and I’m going to be reading a large section of scripture. Mark chapter 4, verses 1 through 34.

The Parable of the Sower

Again, he, that is Jesus, 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 and parables. And in his teaching, he said to them, listen, 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. Another seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell onto 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

— Mark 4

(ESV)

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 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 are sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold, 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 anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

And he said

to them, pay 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. And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain and the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. And he said

— Mark 4

(ESV)

, with what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of

all the seeds on the earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Would you join me as I lead us again in prayer? Heavenly Father, we praise you as the speaking God, the one who brings life through your word. We know that as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall your word be that goes out from your mouth.

It shall not return to you empty, but it shall accomplish that which you purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which you sent it to do. O Lord, to harden hearts and to bring life to those that listen. Oh, so, Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight. Oh, Lord, our rock and our redeemer, help us to listen now to your word. We pray all this in Christ’s name, amen. Well, I don’t know if you noticed, but in Mark chapter 4, Jesus talks about hearing, listening, paying attention quite a bit, over 10 times in 34 verses, covering five parables. And in Mark, Jesus doesn’t merely call his hearers to develop the skill of listening like we thought about earlier, but he says how you listen, it’s a moral choice. How you listen is everything. So that’s going to be my argument.

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How You Listen Determines Identity

That’s what I think Jesus is saying. How we listen is everything. How you listen is everything. How you listen determines, first, we’re going to consider your identity. How you listen determines your identity, and it also determines your future. How you listen determines your future. So we’re going to consider each point in turn. First, how you listen is everything because it determines your identity. I want you to picture yourself now in the crowd at the Sea of Galilee in the first century. You’ve heard reports of this Jesus who has burst onto the scene with great authority. He’s been healing, casting out demons. The main thing that he seems to want to do is preach. There are thousands likely clamoring to hear this man. Jesus actually has to get into a boat and have the boat pushed out into the sea in order to create some distance to keep the people from swarming him so that they can hear him.

And then Jesus begins to teach. Jesus is going to tell five parables in Mark 4. What’s a parable? A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. An earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And as I’m sure you recognized as I was reading the text, we have a lot going on in these five parables, and we don’t have the time today to delve into the details of each parable. But what we want to do today is see how those parables fit together and what the purpose of the parables are. What was Jesus wanting the people to walk away with when they had heard likely a number of parables? What did he want them to consider as they were walking back to their homes, to their families, to their jobs? And why did he use parables to begin with? Well, Mark records Jesus as telling the crowds right away in verse 3 to listen.

And as I’m sure you’ve heard now, this is a continuing theme for Jesus. In verse 9, at the conclusion of his first parable, he says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. In other words, listen up. If you have ears, use them. Pay attention to what you’re hearing. And he’s going to say something quite similar at the conclusion of the second parable on the lamp in verse 23. Did you see how the first and second parable are bracketed by those calls? If you have ears, use them. Hear what I’m saying. So in verses 3, listen. Verse 9, if you have ears to hear, hear. And verse 23, those are like the framing of what Jesus wants us to hear here in this first point. We’re going to see in these first two parables, and especially in the middle, in Jesus’s private to his disciples that how we respond to Jesus’s word is the most important thing about us.

How we respond to God’s word, Thomas prayed earlier as he was praising God that God’s word reveals what God is like. At the same time, it would make sense then that how we respond to God’s word says everything about who we are. It tells about what we love, who we love. Our response to Jesus’ teaching reveals who we love and therefore who we are. So as I was reading, were you listening? Were you listening as Jesus told us the parable of the sower in verses 3 through 9? Did you behold the sower? Did you consider him? What did you consider about him? What’s he like? Did you notice how liberal he was? Liberal with the seed? He’s throwing that seed all over the place. You know, we might think that wasn’t a very good method, but that was a normal farming method in that day.

That’s how many people in the ancient Near East scattered seed before plowing. You might think that the sower would be bummed that three out of the four soils failed, basically didn’t produce any fruit. But a good crop in that day was probably something like tenfold. And so when the sower gets a return of 30, 60, 100, he’s knocked that crop out of the park. It’s done quite well. So that’s the earthly story. In verses 3 through 9, Jesus is teaching the crowds and then he withdraws. We have a break in the action in verse 10. He withdraws with his disciples, with his inner circle. You know, you can maybe picture yourself there, maybe under the shade of some olive trees by the Sea of Galilee at dusk. And the disciples are like, Jesus, what’s up with these parables? We don’t get it. What are you trying to say?

I wonder if you can relate to the disciples here. Maybe sometimes you walk away from reading God’s word on your own or even from church and you’re like, yeah, I’m not really sure what this is all about. Well, Jesus answers kind of in a strange way. Maybe not how we would expect him to at first, at least. I mean, he’s going to go on to explain the parable of the sower in verses 14 through 20, kind of give us the cheat codes to that parable. But first, he very much talks some inside baseball to his disciples. He tells his disciples, you guys, and this inner circle, you guys get the secret. I’m going to give you the secret of the kingdom of God. But those on the outside? He basically tells them those on the outside, they can go to hell. Now, isn’t that kind of essentially what Jesus is saying in verses 11 through 12?

I mean, look at it. You know, when I was in college at Western Kentucky University, I had a friend who was from Western Kentucky named Kevin, and he bought a Jeep while we were in college. And I remember him saying to me, I don’t know why I remember this, but he was like, hey, Dan, you know how they say it’s a Jeep thing you won’t understand? I was like, yeah, I guess I’ve seen those bumper stickers. And he’s like, well, it really is. It really is a Jeep thing you won’t understand. I just laughed thinking that was about one of the dorkiest things I had ever heard. But I don’t think anyone was laughing, any of the disciples were laughing at Jesus when he quotes Isaiah 6 here and claims, you are either on the inside with me or you’re on the outside in the darkness and you’re lost.

What’s Jesus doing when he gives this really enigmatic response by quoting Isaiah 6? Well, little context, Isaiah was a prophet in the 8th century BC, and he was sent by God to preach a message that Israel would reject. God sent Isaiah to his insider people, the people of Israel, and Isaiah’s message was essentially a word of judgment. It was kind of like sealing their fate. Your blood be on your own heads because you heard the word of God, but you were too stubborn. You were too proud. You preferred idols and other gods to the one true God. So you’re going off to exile. You’re going to be judged. Strangely, Jesus is saying by quoting Isaiah that he’s come as like Isaiah 2.0. He’s come like a new Isaiah. Most people are going to end up rejecting his message and his earthly ministry. So therefore, success for Jesus as a new prophet, a new Isaiah, is going to eventually mean

rejection and even Jesus’ own crucifixion. And yet, it’s not all gloom and doom. It’s not all judgment. In the midst of this prophecy, in the midst of hard hearts, stopped up ears, blind eyes, Jesus comes and says, but I’m going to give you guys the secret to the kingdom of God. I’m going to make sure you understand. I will explain what I mean when I talk in parables. You guys come with me. You guys come backstage with me. You guys are the VIPs of the kingdom of God, but we’ll see it’s not because of anything they’ve done. It’s not because they’re so special. It’s simply because of who they’re with. So what am I saying here? Am I saying that Christianity is an exclusive religion where God chooses some and doesn’t choose others? Well, I’m just a few minutes here into this message, and I’m a guest preacher here, so

you can ask your elders about that. But I’m just going to say what this text says. We see here in this text that those who are able to listen, those who are on the inside are chosen by God. They’re close to Jesus. They’re entrusted with a secret. They’re listening to the one that they love. Now I’m not saying that God’s chosen people are robots. Jesus calls everyone to listen, says it a number of times. And today, he doesn’t call you to worry or try to discern whether you’re chosen or not. He calls you to listen. He calls you to draw near through his word and come and grow in understanding. He calls you to come. You know, I think it should encourage us how clueless the disciples are. These are the chosen ones, right? They’re the ones who are doing the will of God, or at least that’s what they’re called

to. We see at the end of Mark 3 that Jesus calls them, this is my real family, those who do the will of God, the ones who are here with me. But they don’t fully understand yet. And they’re going to do God’s will, follow Jesus very imperfectly, as you can read on in the Gospel of Mark. So because of their lack of understanding, Jesus is going to go on and explain the parable of the sower in verses 14 through 20. And it’s here in verses 14 through 20 that we find the heavenly meaning to the earthly story of our sower that we considered in verses 3 through 9. So what do we learn? What does this parable say? Well, Jesus sows the word. Jesus is the sower. The seed is the word. The word gets various responses, as you saw in verses 14 through 20.

But there’s only one good response in the end, right? Verse 20, those who hear it, accept it, bear fruit. And I want you to look at verse 20 there. Those verbs of how they receive the word, they have an ongoing aspect to them. An ongoing hearing, accepting, or even welcoming the word and bearing fruit. So let me talk to Trinity Church for a minute. Trinity, this is the kind of sower you want to be. This is who you want to be. You want to be a people that are defined by not just hearing the word, but listening to it, considering it, repenting in light of it, believing it, bearing fruit for the kingdom. You want to be inside with Jesus. You want to be characterized as good listeners to the word of God, sown in your hearts by Christ. Guys, this is what must define us as Christians.

We listen when God speaks his word to our hearts, and we welcome it. You know, as Thomas, as you know, if you’re a part of this church, Thomas is going on a well-deserved sabbatical this summer. You’re going to have a number of different brothers coming and bringing God’s word. It’s not about the man and the personality or the style of the message. It’s not whether you kind of like that style or like that approach or what you think of that guy’s personality or stories or whatever. It’s about the word. That’s why we’re here. The word has to do the work, and we’re going to continue considering that. I think we got to ask the question, though, after verse 20, what is this word? What is this word that we’re to be listening to that is to define us, that we’re to welcome and bear fruit?

Well, let’s turn to the second parable to answer that question or to begin to answer that question, the parable of the lamp in verses 21 through 23. You know, unfortunately, with this parable, we don’t get the cheat codes, the cliff notes like we got for the sower, but it’s pretty clear the way that Mark talks about the lamp. The lamp is Christ. He is the one who has come into the world. It’s clear that Jesus is the sower, Jesus is the lamp, and it’s his word about the kingdom of God that shines, that has burst onto the scene and lit everything up. It’s the word of Christ, as we continue to see, that exposes who we are by how we respond to that light. Are we drawn to the light? Does the light attract us, or do we end up opposing the light like vampires or zombies?

You might say, well, you gave just two options there, preacher man, opposition or welcoming, but just back in the parable that Jesus just told us, there was four responses to the word, right? If you said that, well, good job on listening. I’d say to that, at the end of the day, though, aren’t there really just two responses? At the end of the day, because those first three soils, they were failed crops, no fruit. It was only that last soil that welcomed the word and ended up bearing fruit. So what we’re seeing is that there are two responses to God’s word. You listen to it, or you’re hardened by it. Jesus defines us by how we respond to the word. We are either on the outside, looking in, or in the inside with Christ, being given that secret of the kingdom and asking for understanding. Let me illustrate it this way.

Have you ever taken a test, a quiz, or done some job where you thought you just really killed it? You felt really good about how you did, and then you got the results back. You got the grade back, or you got your assessment, and you’re like, what? I thought I did awesome. But turns out, maybe you didn’t read the instructions at the beginning. You didn’t do that well after all. Turns out that when the light is turned on and reveals that while you were maybe very confident, you weren’t very competent. I think we can often be confident when it comes to things of the Lord, but not competent in listening. Because as church people, so if you’re a church person, if you’re a member here at Trinity, we tend to like, and it’s a good thing, we tend to like Christian things. We enjoy a good sermon.

We enjoy reading our Bibles. We enjoy maybe reading a good Christian book with some friends. But friends, the word of Christ didn’t come to make us feel good about ourselves or to give us something to do with our time. It came, the word of God comes to turn on the light and expose our hearts, to expose us for who we really are. I’m a pastor. I’ve been serving as a pastor at Hinson for 12 years, as I think I said. I’m around Christian things all the time, and it makes me feel good to read a good Christian book with a church member, to discuss God’s word. I can feel good, you know, if I feel like I gave a sermon that was helpful and that I enjoyed giving. I feel like, you know, I could say self-assessment back to the quiz, like, okay, I’m above average

in understanding God’s word and maybe teaching it, applying it. I guess you guys can be the judge of that. But that can be a dangerous position to be in, to enjoy the things of Christianity, to, you know, enjoy getting out my Leuchtturm 1917 notebook and having my quiet time in the morning with my coffee and, you know, feeling good about the scripture reference that I wrote down for that day. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day were good at all that stuff too. They were good at stuff related to the law of the Lord. But when the light was turned on, when Jesus, the speaker of the word, showed up, it turns out that they were in darkness. Turns out that they were out in the cold because Jesus’s word exposed their pride, undermined their ministry, and challenged them in a way that they didn’t appreciate.

Friends, we’re defined by our ears. People who have ears to hear are humble. They have turned from their pride of self-reliance. They’ve submitted themselves to God’s word. They’re hungry and thirsty to receive God’s word because they know that it’s only through the word that God brings life. They don’t listen to the word like it’s interesting religious information. Like, oh, now I have way more knowledge of the Bible. This is great. No, people who love the Lord, who are on the inside with Jesus, listen to the word like it’s life-saving instructions. It’s only through the word of Christ that our heart motivations are exposed. It’s only through the word of Christ that we are given the new birth as the word is implanted in our hearts and the spirit comes and makes us new creations and we’re no longer delighting in our sin and our rebellion against God, but instead we’re drawing near to him,

seeking greater understanding like the disciples, that we might walk in his ways and not just be hearers but doers of the word and be included in the kingdom of God. So Trinity, train your ears to hear from God’s word. Train your ears to hear from God’s word. Ask him for help. There are so many other words and voices out there that will drown out the word of Christ. We consider that in the parable of the soils, right? Entertainment, money. Even at times our emotions can be short-lived and then when those emotional highs go away, we tend to wander and look for the next emotional high. Even good things in ministry, in Christianity can be distraction from hearing the pure and holy word of Christ. So we can get excited about theology, eschatology, ecclesiology, apologetics, all those things, but the word of Christ bringing transformation, bringing conviction by the Holy Spirit can

be set aside. Let’s remember that you only listen to the word of Christ if you love Christ, the speaker of the word. Just consider for a moment how Christ loves us. Do you do this daily? Do you regularly remember how merciful and kind and patient and faithful our father is

to speak the word of Christ to us while we were still sinners? Christ drew near to us. We were going the other way and he drew us close. Consider the lengths at which Christ went to redeem us for himself. Consider his death and resurrection so that you might have life. Consider his ongoing ministry, praying for you, interceding for you when we are so prone to wander. This is the God that we get to draw near as he draws near to us. Consider Trinity, draw near to Christ through his word because we listen to who we love. Our loves define us and therefore our listening defines us. Jesus’ disciples may have had a hard time understanding Jesus’ parables, but they loved him. They loved him. They drew near to him because they recognized in Jesus someone who had loved them first, someone who called them and trusted the secret of the kingdom to them and showed them the

How You Listen Determines Future

way of life. So our relationships define us, define who we are and where we are. So where are you with Jesus this morning? Well how we listen doesn’t only define us, it determines our future and this is our second and final point. This is what we see in the final three parables in Mark 4. How we listen determines our future. We see this in verses 24 through 34 of chapter 4. I want us to observe here in these final three parables that big things come in small packages. I want us to see how we respond today is key to whether we will enjoy a great harvest party in the future. So remember in our first two parables, verses 1 through 23, Jesus said if anyone has ears to hear, let them hear or listen up. Verse 24, Jesus tells us not just to use our ears for listening but pay attention.

Do you see that in verse 24? I’ve had the joy of coaching my son’s baseball and basketball teams over the years and I basically find myself saying the same thing over and over again. Keep your eye, kids, keep your eye on the ball. Get back on defense. These are the kinds of things that parents and coaches say. But the reason we keep saying those things is all too often kids don’t pay attention. They forget to do these things and I mean, we should give the kids a break, right? There’s a lot going on in sports. It’s a lot harder to hit a baseball than it looks. It’s easy to lose focus but when it comes to the kingdom of God, when it comes to paying attention to the word of Christ, it’s not just difficult, it’s impossible. We’re called to listen, pay attention for our eternal future but naturally in our own

strength, we’re just focused on the here and now. We’re trying to live our best life today and in light of that, let’s consider parable number three, the parable of the measures or I like to call this one like the kingdom economy in verses 24 and 25. Again, it’s a little mysterious. It’s like this doesn’t seem fair, Jesus. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What’s up with this economy? But what Jesus is saying is in the future, it’s those who paid attention and listened who will be rich. It’s those who recognized their need to invest in the kingdom today who will know the blessings of the kingdom tomorrow. So who pays attention like this? Isn’t it those who know they’re desperate? Like Simon Peter said, Lord, where else can we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. It’s those who recognize that in the words of Christ, that’s all we’ve got.

That’s the only foundation that we have to stand on, who again listens to sermons in God’s word, not just to like them or critique them or for more knowledge, but as life. Those who invest in paying attention today understand that things will not always go on as they have before. There’s going to be a reckoning. There will be a time when each of us will stand before our creator, God, and that creator will demand an account for our lives. I think this parable here in verses 24 and 25 is saying, are you prepared for that day? What are you investing in? Investing in the kingdom of God is the only safe and sure investment for our eternal future. We invest by paying attention to the word of Christ today. Well, the kingdom of God is not like the kingdom of this world. That’s what we’re going to see in our final two parables.

The parable of the ignorant farmer is what I like to call it in verses 26 through 29. We see another man scattering seed, but he has no idea how the seed sprouts and grows. This is not the parable of the idiot farmer. It’s not like he’s just a dummy and he’s like, I don’t know how germination and science works, but I’ll just throw these out here. No. The point I think that Jesus is making is that the power is in the seed, not the farmer. It’s not about finally what the farmer is doing. It’s what God is doing in the seed.

I wonder if you believe that at Trinity. Do you trust the word to do the work in a world gone awry? Do we trust God’s word working through his spirit? Or are we often trying to come up with like following the new fad? What seems to be working in the big churches? What seems to be connecting with people? Those are not bad things to consider. But so often we’re going after different techniques, different methods, different fads. When Christ builds his kingdom through his word. As Martin Luther, the great German reformer said, the word did it all. I was just having a beer with my buddy, but the word did it all. So let’s as gospel churches, as churches that are seeking to build our churches on the word, let’s go all in on the word. Praying the word, singing the word, reading the word, preaching the word,

seeing the word in the ordinances. It’s a gift to the church when the Lord gives us gifted pastors and teachers and speakers of the word. But let’s remember that it’s not finally in our gifts or our abilities. We’re like the farmer. We go to sleep and the Lord is at work. This is how God grows his kingdom. It’s his spirit through the word. And we just need to be faithful. We are just delivering the word so that God’s people may grow. And that’s a beautiful thing. We invest in listening because that’s what bears fruit today and tomorrow. And that’s what’s going to reap a harvest for eternity. One more parable. Parable of the mustard seed. Verses 30 through 32. Here we see, again, kingdom growth and that the end is not like the beginning. A large tree comes from a very small seed. That’s how the kingdom of God is.

It was an ‘already, but not yet’ arrival in the coming of Jesus. When Jesus showed up on the scene, you know, yes, he came with great authority. He was drawing crowds. But Galilee is a small area. He was not healing everybody. Many had never heard of this man. And the kingdom of God comes in a small and inconspicuous form. But when it grows in the future, in the not yet, it takes over. And it provides shade for all the peoples of the earth who listened, who believed. Even when that seed was underground. And they didn’t have anything that they could like count on with their physical eyes. But it’s like they heard. They heard that the seed was coming. It was growing and it was going to produce a large crop.

Well, in verse 33, we learned Jesus spoke the word to them as they were able to hear. In verse 34, we see that Jesus explained his parables to his disciples privately. Like we saw him do earlier in verses 10 through 14. And again, just consider the mercy of the Lord to patiently explain what he’s talking about. To take some aside who are hard of hearing, who keep missing it. He’s not a harsh taskmaster. I gave a quiz earlier, but Jesus is not the kind of guy who’s going to be like, you know, well, let’s see how your report card was this week. And then we’ll see how much I love you. That’s not how Christ is. Even though we are slow to listen and understand, the Lord patiently draws near and explains the kingdom economy to those who continue to draw near to him.

Let me speak to your church once again. For those of you who consider yourself believers, as insiders in the kingdom of God, we need to be humble and confess that we’re often confused at what Jesus is saying. What I read earlier in Mark 4, 10, 11, and 12, that’s hard stuff. It’s hard. And the disciples themselves, they may be recognized. They were beginning to recognize who Jesus was, but they were going to reject his mission in his earthly ministry. Peter would rebuke him, rebuke Jesus. They would abandon Jesus when he was arrested because the disciples were like, you’ve been talking about the kingdom of God, but surely this isn’t the way of the kingdom. Surely the way of the kingdom couldn’t mean suffering and death. Isn’t the kingdom about victory, triumph, honor? The disciples were like, we’re going to be honored in the kingdom, right?

We’ll be at your right hand and left hand in the kingdom, right, Jesus? So they were a little bit, they continued to be miffed when Jesus was speaking about mustard seeds and sowers scattering seed. And then Jesus would talk plainly to them and be like, I’m going to be crucified. And then rise again. They’re like, they still didn’t get it. Even when he spoke plainly to them. So the disciples were confused and afraid when they thought the kingdom was coming. And instead, a mob is coming with clubs and swords to put their teacher to death.

But friends, God was preparing them and us for the crowning of his king on a lonely hill outside of Jerusalem. To most, it would look like the ultimate defeat of this man who came proclaiming the kingdom of God drawn near. Scattered seed, a mustard seed thrown down into the ground to die. To most, the cross was a symbol of death, shame, and the end of an era. But the blood that fell from that tree would bring about a harvest that the disciples could have never imagined that 2,000 years later, we would be hearing this message at the ends of the earth in Portland, Oregon, and rejoicing that the cross gave birth to a kingdom that would sprout branches so that all the peoples of the earth could come and rest in its shade.

If you’re here today and you’re someone who maybe you’ve heard this message, maybe you even grew up in the church and you’ve heard this message 100 times, maybe this is new to you, wherever you are today, I’d invite you to not just hear, not just be like, oh, that was interesting, or oh, I kind of like that. I’d invite you to draw near to Jesus today. Talk to someone, maybe that you came with. Talk to somebody who you saw on stage. I’d love to talk to you. We draw near to Christ. One of the ways that we draw near to Christ today and listen, like the disciples did, is we draw near to Christ’s body, the church. We would love to talk to you about what it would mean for you not just to hear, but to listen, to welcome the word, to bear fruit and obey by coming into Christ’s spiritual family.

It’s only those who turn from their pride and recognize their spiritual bankruptcy and put their trust in Christ alone who will enjoy the fruit, the shade, the eternal rest of the kingdom and know the love of Christ in the gospel. Friends, today we’ve considered how we listen is everything. It determines our identity and our future. Those who listen are friends of Jesus. They’re called sons of God. They are invited to enjoy all the rights and privileges of the son himself in the kingdom.

Draw Near and Listen

God speaks a word of life through his son. He’s revealed himself through his word today. So will you draw near and listen? So will you draw near and listen now and this week, every day that the Lord gives us until the coming of the kingdom in full? And remember, we listen to who we love.

So is Jesus who you’re listening to today? Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we confess that on our own, we go our own way. We live life on our own terms. We live by sight, by feel. Lord, we see so many things around us and we think those things that are of the kingdom of this world will make us happy. And we pursue those, even though time and time again, we have found those things to be empty, temporary. Father, we pray that you would give us ears to hear and hearts that love the kingdom of your son. Lord, I pray for Trinity Church, even this summer, that they would be drawing near to you through your word. Give them creativity, give them wisdom, and how to do that well together, that this would be a time of joy. That this would be a church that is continued to be built upon your word.

So Lord, help us to be good listeners, not just as a skill, but because we have heard the word that brings life. We know your son, the word, who has made flesh for us and who died might know life. So Lord, may your blessing be upon this congregation. And we pray in all these things, confident that you will continue to work through your word. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.