Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Start:
Entice: By the time we get to Mark 4 Jesus has been teaching and healing and preaching.
He has gathered disciples and there is the beginning of jealousy and opposition.
Can you smell the fish in the air?
Do you sense the rustle of the crowd?
As we open the scripture today, we find Jesus set the stage for an invigorating and memorable day of teaching .
He has already used comparative speech.
Riddles, simile, metaphor.
Now He tells a larger, more detailed parable.
Engage: Today we listen in as Jesus tells story, a parable,
“Riddle me this.”
It is familiar.
If we were to ask the “man on the street” to name a parable of Jesus, there is a good chance they will name
The Parable of the Sower.
When I preach from Mark it is generally a part of the series.
I use it when I am teaching Kids at camp the plan of salvation.
The way He tells the story, despite the use of abstractions like seed and soil, makes it very personal.
In the middle of telling the story and explaining it Jesus quotes Isaiah to the effect that our eternal destiny like Judah’s before the exile is dependent on a form of listening which is essentially
submissive obedience.
or obedient submission…works both ways.
Expand: This parable is both the beginning and the heart of Jesus teaching in Mark.
Prior to this we’ve been told that He taught to great effect, but we have not had much of a systematic presentation of what He said.
In Mark 4.1-20 He tells this parable which is really a parable about parables and the key to understanding all the parables.
Jesus helps each off us who respond in faith to grasp the mystery of the kingdom.
Excite: The harvest is produced by the alignment of good seed, diligent labor, good soil.
The Church is now the Kingdom agent of sowing.
Explore:
If you respond in faith, you know the secret and are called to share in the work.
Expand: Three phases to disclosing this mystery to us
Body of Sermon: Jesus begins that day by telling.
1 A Story
As familiar as it is I want to review the details of the story.
First detail is of course the
1.1 Sower.
God had sown.
He sent prophets who sowed the seed.
Jesus was sowing even as He told the story.
The Apostles sowed the seed in the infancy of the Church.
The seed has been sown for 21 centuries.
We sowed it in Sunday School.
I’m sowing it now.
I’m a sower and you are or can be a sower.
The next detail is the
1.2 Seed.
The job of the sower is to get it into the ground.
1.3 Soil.
There are many other conditions that impact the harvest but the first is the quality of the soil.
This reminds me a little bit of my first real Job.
Lex Shuler & Company Fencing and Landscaping.
A lot of the time when we planted a new lawn, after yours truly had picked up every rock, stick, nail, stone, clod, and root we would sow the seed broadcast style.
That is the sort of planting Jesus described.
If the wind blows, the seed blows with it.
If there is a shady spot, the seed goes there and does not grow fruitful.
If there is spot of shallow dirt…the grass did not take root.
This is a great story, a successfully told parable because most of us can relate to it.
Next, Jesus instructs His disciples by disclosing
2 A Strategy
What was Jesus’ intent in telling this story?
He had several.
He was not only communicating a basic principle of the Gospel of the Kingdom, but He was also giving instruction about how to understand His parables and the impact they had, either creating faith or creating resistance.
So, His strategy was about
2.1 Recognition.
Seeing the world through the eyes of faith in Christ
2.2 Reception.
Accepting the unfolding mystery of the Kingdom.
2.3 Rejection.
Rejecting faith and becoming hardened to the mystery of the Kingdom.
Last of all Jesus Includes all disciples (yes, even us) by providing
3 A Standard.
What does God expect from us and our labors in His field?
3.1 Indiscriminate Sowing.
3.2 Hopeful Expectation.
3.3 Realistic Harvest.
There are two perspectives on the harvest that we need to focus on before we move on.
First, there is a variety of “good yields”
All yields should be celebrated.
Next,
1/4 of the Dirt produces the “whole crop.”
This is a simplification of course but we need to keep it in mind.
Don’t stop sowing because the harvest may be small
Don’t stop hoping when you think the soil is infertile.
Don’t stop praying when hearts appear heard.
Keep sowing.
Shut Down
In a very real sense, The Parable of the Sower, is not just a story to Jesus.
To Him It is THE story.
Jesus never suggested nor seemed to harbor the hope that everyone would hear and see, understand, and repent.
The “redeemed nation” approach did not work with Israel and won’t work anywhere else.
Interestingly the two largest parables in Mark are this, the Parable of The Sower, which is the first, and The Parable of the Vineyard, which is the last.
Each has an underlying theme of rejection.
Here Jesus reminds us that not all soil is productive, in the Vineyard Parable He reminds us that ultimately, the faithless will reject Him.
The Mystery of the Kingdom is discovered by faith.
Some soils are receptive.
and some are not.
You can cultivate,
and weed,
and fertilize,
and some hearts will still not yield a harvest of redeeming faith.
Yet, we continue to sow knowing that some will respond.
This parable of the Kingdom is both rooted in a particular time and place, and timeless as tomorrow.
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