Sermon Series: Getting to Know Jesus 

Who are you? Do you dare find out? 

Mark 4:1-2; 10-12; 21-25; 33-34

PSBC 1/27/02 AM

In a nutshell: Jesus gives 3 reasons for speaking in parables: He knows His audience and what they need; He knew how parables work in a person's life; and they give bite-sized pieces of God to those that hear them. All this was done to open our eyes to who we are and what we need to become true and effective followers of Jesus Christ.

I. Introduction

A. Bob Hope/Chrysler Gold Tournament

Each year, the pastors go to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic golf tournament for a day. This year we invited the elders to go with us. The purpose for us going is not so much to watch a golf tournament (because few of us are avid golfers), but the purpose is to get away from the office and just be together, with no agenda other than to build camaraderie-to build our team. "Because teamwork", as Pastor Darrin says to our youth, "…is what makes the dream work."

Well, at this year's tournament, we noticed something quite different than in other years. There were a lot more young people at the tournament than we have ever seen. The reason was because the promoters of the tournament had invited celebrities who were popular with young people of a new generation. So members of the Back Street Boys and In-Sync, and the professional wrestler Goldberg were there. That's quite a contrast to guys like Glen Campbell, Andy Williams, and Yogi Berra, who have been there for years.

But let's face it, popular people draw crowds. And the purpose of most public events is to draw crowds of people.

Well, as we are studying the Book of Mark, we are finding that the crowds gathering around Jesus are getting bigger and bigger. In fact, when we studied some of chapter three we saw that the size of the crowds following Jesus were getting so large that Jesus actually feared for His safety, and had to work with His disciples on an escape plan should the crowds get out of control.

B. Popularity Increases Because of Healings

Well, as we start into chapter 4 this week, we will see that Jesus had to make use of that escape plan. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn to chapter 4, where I'll start at the first verse…

Mark 4:1 1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge.

Jesus was popular, and the crowds got so big, for one main reason-look at chapter 3, verse 8…

Mark 3:8 8 When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.

They were interested in what He was doing. What was He doing? He was healing the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the demon possessed, and the lepers. So, His popularity increased-but not because of the teaching He spoke, but because of what He could DO for people! The crowd grew because they wanted something from Him.

C. Greater Mission

But Jesus had a greater mission than just meeting felt needs. Afterall, every person Jesus every healed, still eventually died. And as we studied last week, when a person dies, he or she faces the reality of eternity-either eternity with God, or eternity separated from God. And it was this idea of eternity that Jesus was most concerned about getting across to the crowds. In fact He stated His mission very clearly right at the outset of His public ministry in…

Mark 1:15 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

II. Why Did Jesus Teach in Parables?

So, with that in mind, in chapter 4 we are introduced to a section in Mark's gospel where Jesus begins His teaching ministry about a relationship with God, in earnest. But He chooses an unusual method to do this-teaching in parables. He used stories to get His point across to both His disciples and to the crowds. And what we'll find out this morning is the answer to the question, "WHY?" Why did Jesus choose to teach such important eternal truths in this unusual way? So, let's continue by looking at verse 10 & 11 of chapter 4…

Mark 4:10-11 10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables

The context of this conversation is that Jesus had just told a parable about a farmer who plants his seed. Now, we aren't going to get into that parable this week, but we'll look at it all by itself, next week.

But after the parable is told, the disciples get alone with Jesus, and they basically ask, "Hey, what is this parable stuff all about? We don't understand what you said; and we don't understand why you said it that way. Please give us some help, here."

So Jesus gives three reasons why He uses this unusual teaching method.

A. Two kinds of hearers

First, in verses 10 and 11, He says, "There are two kinds of hearers."

1. Disciples

The first kind of hearer is the minority-these people are the disciples, and others in the crowd who really want to follow Jesus and learn from Him. This group of people listen to Jesus, accept His authority, and are committed to Him. To this group of people is given the "secret of the Kingdom of God", or we might say, "the secret to a relationship with God."

Let's consider what Jesus says here for a moment. The Greek word used in verse 11 for "secret" is the word MUSTERION (moos-tay'-ree-on). It's where we get our English word, MYSTERY, from. Now, this mystery, or secret, is not some vague and difficult-to-understand concept or truth. It is literally something that is hidden from those who do not have a relationship with God.

Illustration: One of my least favorite things to do in life is to put together jigsaw puzzles. One of the things that Diane likes to do more than anything else is to (you guessed it…) put together jigsaw puzzles. So in the past, when we've gone to garage sales together, the things she has looked for are jigsaw puzzles. One summer we went on a family vacation to Oregon. We took along a couple of jigsaw puzzles that we had purchased at garage sales. As we put together one of those puzzles (yes, I did participate, reluctantly!), we discovered that several of the pieces were missing. It was disappointing. Because without them, the puzzle was incomplete.

Well, that's what the mystery of a relationship with God is like. You see, our lives are like a jigsaw puzzle. Down through the centuries human beings have been trying to make sense out of life. We've looked to history to give us some pieces; we've looked to medicine to give us some other pieces; we've looked to psychology for other pieces; and physics and social sciences and family and experience to give us even more pieces. But with all the pieces put in place, the puzzle of a person's life is still missing some pieces. And they happen to be the key pieces. Without them, the puzzle picture doesn't make sense.

Friends, Jesus is declaring here that the missing pieces to life's jigsaw puzzle are pieces that only God can supply. They must be in place for any person to make complete sense out of their life and to understand the big picture of life and eternity. And the secret that reveals all the other mysteries that humans are searching for-all of life's missing pieces-starts with a relationship with Jesus-one where you submit to His authority in your life as the leader of your life. People who submit to this authority are the first group of listeners

2. Those outside

The second group of listeners, Jesus mentions in verse 11, are the people on the outside. Now that sounds pretty exclusionary, doesn't it? What does He mean by those on the "outside"? Well, very simply, those on the outside are people who are not disciples of Jesus. Or we could say, any person who is not open to understanding and obeying the leadership of Jesus in his or her life. To these people, the truth is hidden. To these people, the parables will only be stories without much meaning.

Then in verse 12, Jesus says a very solemn thing…

Mark 4:12 12 so that, "'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"

Quite frankly, this verse has troubled a lot of people in the church, down through the centuries. Because at first reading it seems that Jesus is saying, "I don't want those on the outside to come into the inside. I don't want many people to become my disciples. I've hidden these truths from them so they won't be forgiven." But if you know the true nature of Jesus, then you have to know that there is a better explanation that this first impression.

And there is. You'll understand this statement of Jesus if you understand two important things…

a. One is that this is a highly condensed version of what Jesus said on this day. To get it in its fullest we have to go to the parallel passages of Luke and Matthew to fully understand what He really said. And I'll show that to you in just a moment.

b. Second, we need to know that this is a quote that Jesus is repeating. These words weren't original with Jesus. He is quoting the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. This is a prophesy that Isaiah spoke hundreds of years before, and Jesus is saying, that Isaiah's prophesy is now being fulfilled.

Let me show you the full version from Matthew's gospel…

Matthew 13:14 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

Then, Matthew records Isaiah's explanation of what he said…

Matthew 13:15 15 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes…

Stop there for a moment. Who closed these people's eyes? It wasn't God, was it?! It was the people themselves who closed their own eyes! And why did they close their eyes? Matthew records that in the second half of verse 15…

…Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'

The bottom line is that these people refused a relationship with God and didn't want to be healed from the sickness of sin in their lives. And that's the point. THEY are the ones who closed their eyes and ears to the truth, and so prevent the healing from sin that Jesus wanted to bring them. And this made up the majority of people in the crowd.

So, the crowds came because they wanted physical healing, only. They wanted Jesus to heal their afflictions and cure their diseases and get rid of their pain so they could go on with their lives, just like before they knew Jesus. And knowing this, Jesus says, "You are fulfilling the very words of Isaiah the prophet, in that you are not willing to listen to what I have to say. You only want your bodies healed."

So, to capture their attention, Jesus said, "I'll tell you the truth about real healing through a relationship with God, in story form. That way I'll pique your interest, and you just might listen and follow me as the leader of your life."

You see friends, parables are also designed to get the uninterested, interested in a relationship with God. So, that's the first reason why Jesus used parables-there are two kinds of hearers in every audience, and both need to hear the truth about how a relationship with God works.

B. How Parables Work

The second reason for teaching in parables is found in the work that parables accomplish in a person's mind and heart. And there are three ways they work. Go to verse 22…

1. They hide the truth to make it more visible

Mark 4:21 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.

A parable is a way of hiding the truth. Did you know that hiding something is a way to bring it out in the open? Now, that might seem somewhat paradoxical, but it works.

This technique is used all the time. I remember Johnny Carson talking about an interview he had with Jack Benny years ago. To express his discomfort with being interviewed, Benny said, "I feel like a pair of brown shoes with a tuxedo." In other words, he felt out of place. But instead of coming right out and saying the truth that he felt uncomfortable, Jack Benny hid the truth of his feelings in a word picture. And that word picture conveyed his feelings far more powerfully than if he had come right out and said how he really felt.

So, that's the first way that parables work-they hide the truth in order to make it more visible.

2. By searching, you find more than you expect

The second way parables work is found in verse 24…

Mark 4:24 24 "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-and even more.

Simply put, this means that when you search for truth about a relationship with God, you will not only find it, but you will find more than you ever expected.

Let me explain it this way… If you read your Bible as only a book, and not as the source of truth about God and a relationship with Him, it will only be a book. And probably the most dull and boring book you can ever imagine reading.

But if you search the Bible and seek the truth about life's mysteries and look to it for the answers to life's difficulties, then you will find these answers in abundance.

3. Use it or lose it

Then in verse 25 we are given a third way parables work…

Mark 4:25 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

I call this way "use it or lose it." This is a simple fact of growth and life. If you do not use what you have in life, you will lose it.

Illustration: When I was in seminary, I broke my foot playing basketball. I had to have a cast on my foot and leg for 6 weeks. Now, my legs are the strongest part of my body. When I competed in power-lifting, I would always outshine my competition in the lifts that involved my legs. When I was competing I could leg press over 1200 lbs on the machine in the gym. But when my leg was in a cast, and I hobbled around on crutches for a few weeks, the leg in the cast shriveled-up to literally half its original size. In fact it atrophied so much, that at the end of three weeks, the doctor had to cut off the first cast and put on a new one just to keep it from flopping around on my leg.

Well, that's a principle about how parables work, too. If you exercise your spiritual muscles and search for God's truth in the parables, you will increase your spiritual strength. You will become stronger in your faith, stronger in your understanding of your relationship with God, and stronger in your ability to communicate that faith.

But if you slack off. In other words, you don't look for God's truth in the parables of Jesus and you don't work to put that truth into practice in your life… Even the faith you do have is going to atrophy and shrivel up to where your faith in God won't make much of a difference in your life at all.

So, let me recap what we've been taught so far… So far, we've seen that Jesus uses parables because …there are two kinds of people in the world; …and because of the unique way they work in a person's life. But in this chapter, Jesus goes on to say there is a third reason for using parables to teach about a relationship with God…

C. We can only understand so much

Look at verses 33 and 34…

Mark 4:33-34 33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

The third reason is that even the most spiritual among us can only understand so much.

A rule God operates under is that… He only reveals as much to us as we can understand at any given time.

If God would reveal all of who He is to us at one time, it would kill us. Even Moses, when he received the 10 Commandments from God on Mount Sinai was told to shield his eyes as God passed by-otherwise he would see God in all His glory and would die from the exposure. And then, when Moses came down from the mountain, he had to cover his face for a period of time because his face glowed so much from just being in the shadow of Almighty God.

Parables were designed to reveal something about God and a relationship with Him in bit-sized and manageable pieces for us, so we can take them and use them, without being overwhelmed by the truth of the greatness of God.

III. Conclusion

So, why did Jesus teach in parables? -Because there are two kinds of people in this world and they both need a relationship with God. -Because of the unique way they work in a person's life. -Because we can only understand so much about God at any given time.

Author James Houston, in an article in Christianity Today magazine a few years ago wrote the words on the front of your WIG's this morning…

Behind much of the rat-race of modern life is the unexamined assumption that what I do determines who I am. In this way, we define ourselves by what we do, rather than by any quality of what we are inside. It is typical in a party for one stranger to approach another with the question "What do you do?" Maybe that's because we wouldn't have a clue how to reply to the deeper question, "Who are you?" (James Houston in The Transforming Power of Prayer. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 1.)

Do you want to know who you are in relationship to what is really important in life and eternity? The challenge from today's passage is this…Will you dare to find out?

This passage sets each one of us up to be ready to come face to face with the question, "Who are you?"

There is an old gospel song where one verse goes like this…

Open my eyes, that I may see Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me; Place in my hands the wonderful key, That shall unclasp and set me free.

I'm praying that God will open each of our eyes in the coming weeks and months to show us who we really are, through the parables, teachings and conversations of Jesus. -And if we need changing, to give us the willingness to change. -Where we are doing it right, to give us the power and resolve to keep doing it. -And where we need help, to give us the courage to ask Him for it.

I don't do this very often, but I'd like to give you an assignment for this week. Please read through the first 9 verses of chapter 4 before you come to worship next week. It's the parable of the Sower. And I want you to do that because you're mentioned in one of those verses. In fact, everyone of us is mentioned somewhere in those 9 verses. And be honest with yourself and God-according to what you read, which soil represents you right now? And is that who you want to be?

If you have questions about anything having to do with a relationship with Jesus Christ and what it means to follow Him, I invite you to visit our "Tell Me More" table as you leave this morning. 

Amen.