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2010-08-01 (am) Mark 4:21-25 Being Jesus’ Family—By Spreading the Word
Two weeks ago, we looked at the parable of the sower.
We saw then that Jesus is the sower of the word.
The four soils represent the four different ways that people respond to Jesus.
We were encouraged to look at ourselves, to examine the kind of soil we are, and to see what kind of harvest we’re producing.
With the Parable of the Sower, Mark also made a contrast between Jesus’ teaching and the Pharisees teaching.
When Jesus said, “I use parables because I don’t want them to repent and be saved.”
He was indicating the false teachers of Israel.
Those teachers thought they knew everything.
They thought they had the true revelation of God, but when God came to them in the flesh, they didn’t receive him, recognise him or believe in him.
He spoke in parables so that only those who are made spiritually alive will understand and respond.
In our passage, Mark makes another contrast.
Jesus is the light of the world, and he must be given prominent place.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, were hiding the truth.
They were, as it were, taking the light and hiding it.
They were putting the truth under a bushel.
Make no mistake.
We can come down hard on the Pharisees, but if we do, we must do some soul searching.
Their failing is not limited to them.
You know that, I know that.
But we do need to be aware of what they failed to do, so that we can work hard to avoid their mistakes.
True teaching reveals God.
False teaching places all the emphasis on human activity.
This is why Paul says, in Colossians, “Do not handle!
Do not taste!
Do not touch!”? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
This is why we preach Jesus Christ crucified.
He is the one who lived a perfectly righteous life.
He’s the one whom we look to for righteousness.
We cannot get righteousness by striving to live perfectly.
It cannot happen.
We fail every time.
That didn’t stop the Pharisees though.
They put all kinds of rules and regulations on the people in order to try to legislate righteousness.
Instead, it merely oppressed the people and worse, hid the truth from everyone.
So there were all kinds of people styling themselves as righteous, religious people.
They were the connected ones.
They had the line to God.
They were in the know.
But their hearts were evil.
They had their own reasons for doing what they were doing, and they were not noble ones.
They were drawing attention to themselves.
They dressed the right way, the worshipped the proper way, with the proper music and lyrics.
They knew their Bibles by heart.
They tithed, they gave even from their spice rack.
But they were spiritually dead!
Jesus called them whitewashed tombs.
Paul, after his conversion to Christianity considered his former life, his life as a Pharisee as total rubbish!
Make no mistake.
Consider your heart!
Look deep within yourself.
What is hidden will be make known.
The darkness will be banished by the light.
Are you ready?
Could you be totally honest?
When Jesus returns, everyone will be called to give an account.
Everyone.
All the things that we have done in secret, that we think we got away with, that we think no one knows about, all those things will be made known.
We will be judged according to what we’ve done with the truth.
Not judged unto salvation, if our hope is in Christ, then we’re sealed!
But we will be judged as to what we’ve done and not done.
Paul says that we’re to run in this life.
But we don’t just run aimlessly!
We run to win.
Can you imagine a runner in a marathon that doesn’t stay on course?
Or what about a runner who signs up, gets the t-shirt and then after 20 minutes of running goes to Starbucks.
People look at him and say, “Hey are you a marathoner?
Yes, I am he says.
But I’m pretty sure the marathon doesn’t end for another two hours!
Yeah, well I wanted the T-shirt.
As Christians we’re running to get the prize.
We’re running to win! Yeah, we get tired, yeah we can get distracted by the stuff of life, the other runners, but Christ encourages us, he gives us his eternal Spirit to press on!
To run like crazy!
To push ourselves and to push others!
Don’t lose sight of the prize!
Don’t give up! Keep in mind that we’ll all be giving an account for the faith that we’ve received.
How well are we running the race?
How well are we shining Christ’s light on those around us? Do people know we’re Christians?
You can ask me, do people know I’m a pastor.
Do the cashiers know?
Does your dentist know?
Are you shining the light or smothering it?
What might be holding us back?
For some it might be a lack of confidence.
Perhaps you feel you don’t know your Bible well enough to engage in conversation about your faith.
Or perhaps you’re worried that they’ll come back with something that stumps you.
Or perhaps you’re worried that there’s a better faith out there and you’ll be swayed away.
Perhaps you’re just shy.
You can talk about all kinds of things, how dentists can understand what you’re saying when they have both hands shoved in your mouth is some kind of miracle.
Maybe you’re not sure about the formula of what to say.
Well there’s no such thing as a sure-fire formula.
There are some basic things creation, fall, redemption and restoration.
And people being people you can talk and find some sort of connection.
If we look at Jesus we see that he did this all the time.
Jesus was waiting at Jacob’s well when a Samaritan woman came up to him.
So what did Jesus do?
He said to her, “Hi, I want to talk to you today about the four spiritual laws, or about creation, fall, redemption and restoration.”
Na, he didn’t do that, he simply asked her for a glass of water.
And that opened the door for a very deep conversation.
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