1 Again 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.

• A very large crowd

• • Paint the picture
  • Ch. 1 preaching and commands unclean spirits
    • V33 whole city gathered at his door step
    • V45 cleanses leprosy and had to hide because “people were coming to Him from every quarter
  • Ch.2 paralyzed man healed and forgiven
    • Vs 16 He hangs out with tax collectors and sinners and says “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” 
  • Ch 3 heals the withered hand on the sabbath day
    • Vs 7 says a great crowd followed from Gaililee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond Jordan, Tyre and Sidon
      • use the georaphical area you live in for this picture
  • Look around the crowd, see the believers, skeptics, unbelievers, pharisees and religous leaders of Judiasm, tax collectors, sinners, curious, and those who needed something from Jesus (since he had been healing everybody)
  • Imagine a crowd like that today, church folk from every tribe, kanye and his sunday service people, drug dealers, business people, the smell of weed in the air, the smell of alcohol, those in wheel chairs and blind and cancer patients, and dialysis patients, all gathered to see Jesus
• Stage is set, thousands are gathered, now what is Jesus going to teach about?
  • Read verses 2-9

 

Mark 4:1-14

1 Again 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. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 Listen!  Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 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. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. 9 And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 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,  12 so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. 13 And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable?  How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word.

 

“He that has an ear, let him hear”

 

 

9 And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

 

*What does Jesus mean by this?  He who has ears to hear, let him hear*

 

Matthew 13:13-16 

 

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears , for they hear.

• So Jesus is saying, everyone in the crowd heard, but He that has an ear to hear let him hear, He that has been vs 16, blessed, to hear the words of the Christ and believe, let him hear
• He that has been blessed to have eyes that see, let him see the son of God and bow down
• He that has been blessed with a ready heart, let him or her turn and be healed!
• But in that crowd the text is showing us in verse 15  that, only some were going to hear, many weren’t going to understand, many weren’t going to perceive, many had a dull heart, bad ears, and closed eyes

 

2nd question, why couldn’t they hear, why couldn’t they see, why couldn’t their heart believe? This same question can be raised today, perhaps in this room, why do some some not have ears to hear?

 

1. Satan has blinded them

 

Read 2nd Corinthians 4:3-6

4 the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ

• • How has Satan blinded them?
    • In this age, I believe he has blinded us from the gospel the most by using a mirror
      • We are our own god
      • Its all about us, we almost don’t have any time to think about God
      • My well being, my social media, my life, my money, my status, me, me,me,me, me.
    • Intellect- show me scientific proof of God

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-24

18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preachb to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God

• • • Love of sin and sinful lifestyles- I enjoy my life and I enjoy living it how I see fit.  
    • Heart of rebellion- I won’t bow down to anyone or anything

 

4 the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ

• Light of the gospel

• Verse 6 says for God who said let light shine out of the darkness, has shone in our hearts
• What is this light?  This light is that we were in the darkness of sin
  • The darkness of having no relationship with God except for as a recipient of the wrath of God, both in this life and for eternity, but God
  • Rich in mercy has brought us from death to life, by taking that wrath from us and pouring it on His Son as a sacrifice for my and our sins!
  • The gospel is that if we believe this and repent from our sins, and follow Him, then we have moved from death to life, dark to life, from blind to seeing, from deaf to hearing
• Satan wants to keep people from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ
  • What is this glory of Christ?
  • He wanted those in crowd and us now to miss out on who Jesus is
  • Philippians 2:6 says 

Christ Jesus,a 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,b 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,c being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

1. They couldn’t hear because the Lord hadn’t opened their ears or eyes

 

Deuteronomy 29:1-6

4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

• Even seeing miracles, even eating mana, even have shoe-grace, even hearing Jesus the promised messiah, the god man, god in the flesh won’t make you believe
• God has to give you a heart to believe
• Only God can bring a man or woman from death to life
• John 6:44 no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them.  And I will raise him up at the last day

 

**if people are blinded and God hasn’t opened their eyes, what are we to do?

 

• • We must pray and proclaim, we must sow seeds and pray to the God of harvest
  • Pray! Because no matter what we say or do, God has to open eyes
    • Ie the wilderness
  • We must sow seeds and water seeds

• 1 corinthians 3:6-8

6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

• Plant, water and pray for your family, 
• Repeat, friends, co workers, neighbors, everyone that was in that cowd

 

Back to main text, Mark 4:13

 

Scene two, he preached to thousands,he got off the boat, now its just him and the 12 

• I would imagine they had some fish, since most of them were fisherman and they were by the sea
  • Maybe red lobster, but Jesus was from Nazareth, so he probably had some sharks with lemon pepper
  • Jesus debriefs with them

 

13 And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable?  How then will you understand all the parables?

• This parable lays the foundation for the next two parables: the parable of the seed growing and the parable of the mustard seed
• Jesus is about to explain the parable
  • This week we are only going to look at the first verse of the parable and draw some application, next week, we will look closely at the rest of the parable

 

14 The sower sows the word.

• • Jesus has been sowing the word of the good news or the gospel of the kingdom
  • God has commanded all of us in the room to be sowers of the gospel
  • God has commanded you ___________ to be a sower of His word, God has commanded you ____________ to be a sower of the His word, God has commanded you ______________ to be a sower of His word!

• 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 

19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• The end of the gospel of Mark ends the same way the rest of the gospels end and the way acts begins, with Jesus giving us a final command during His earthly ministry
  • Mark 16:15 Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned
  • This message has proclaimed and God has been opening ears to hear it, eyes to see it and hearts to believe it for over 2000 years
  • It traveled and traveled until it reached Briana
    • Talk about baptism
  • Give a simple gospel presentation
  • Pray that someone’s heart will be opened

 

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