I preached through Mark 4:1-32 this past weekend at my church.  This passage records several familiar parables taught by Jesus.  The most notable among them is the parable of the sower.

For any that may not be entirely confident as to what a parable is, Wikipedia defines it as “a brief, succinct story…that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.”

Jesus Taught in Parables:

After Jesus told the story of the sower he shared with his disciples why he taught in parables.  Mark 4:11-12 records this:

“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.”

We learn from these verses that part of the reason Jesus used parables was in order to maintain a distinction between two groups of people: those who ‘had been given the secret of the kingdom of God’ and those who had not.

Judgment for Sin:

But why maintain this distinction?  Why not let everyone in on the secret?  The answer is as simple as it is sobering: judgment for sin.

God often judges the present hardness of our hearts by  disabling our ability to make them soft again in the future.  The callousness, blindness, and deafness of our spiritual organs is often the product of our own lack of response to the spiritual stimuli God’s grace has been pulsating our way for years.

Over and over again in the Scriptures people who are consistently rebellious, unfaithful, and unbelieving toward God, even despite their having been given ample instruction and evidence of His power and favor, are described in terms of having deficient spiritual senses (Scripture references). This lack of ability to sense and believe God’s revealed truth is God’s present judgment for sin in their lives.

Apart from God’s gracious and miraculous healing of spiritual senses in the lives of those He’s redeemed, no one would be able to see the kingdom revealed through Jesus’ parables.

Back to Mark 4:

The problem in this passage comes when we read into it a view that the people who were kept ‘outside’ of the secret of the kingdom were good, innocent people desirous of the truth of God and the revelation of his kingdom.  This is not the case.

In fact, we know from Mark’s previous chapter that these same people had begun to attribute Jesus’ ministry of miracles to the power of Satan.  That’s pretty bad—so bad, in fact, that its referred to there in Mark 3:28-30 as the unforgivable sin.

Two Final Maxims:

This passage of Scripture and the questions that surface from it center upon the realization that some people undeservedly experience God’s salvation while others deservedly do not.  This is not a pleasant or easy subject to consider.  Here are two parting words of wisdom.  These two truths will help to guide our thoughts within this sensitive realm of discussion:

1. God’s judgment of sin is always just.
2. God’s forgiveness of sin is always a miracle.

Now It’s Your Turn:

How would you respond to someone if they read Mark 4’s account of Jesus’ reason for speaking in parables and asked you why it is that God saves some people and doesn’t save others?

I’ve been preaching through 1st Timothy with my church for a few months now.  Recently I’ve been sensing a weariness with the series—both on my part as well as on the part of my parishioners.

Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

1. An Introduction to 1st Timothy (Various passages)
2. The Test of Sound Doctrine—Part 1 (I Tim. 1:1-11)
3. The Test of Sound Doctrine—Part 2 (I Tim. 1:3-11)
4. Paul’s Personal Testimony (I Tim. 1:12-17)
5. Holding Faith and a Good Conscience (I Tim. 1:18-20)
6. Evangelistic Prayer in the Church (I Tim. 2:1-7)
7. How to Behave in the House of God (I Tim. 2:8-15)
8. The Man and the Ministry—Part 1 (I Tim. 3:1-7)
9. The Man and the Ministry—Part 2 (I Tim. 3:1-7)
10. The Man and the Ministry—Part 3 (I Tim. 3:1-7)
11. The Ministry of Deacons—Part 1 (I Tim. 3:8-13)
12. The Ministry of Deacons—Part 2 (I Tim. 3:8-13)
13. Paul’s Reminder to Timothy (I Tim. 3:14-16)

You can see from the references that we’ve just finished chapter 3.  That’s exactly halfway through the letter.  Because we’re halfway (and b/c of the weariness I mentioned), we’re going to take a brief halftime.

This past Lord’s Day I began what should be a three week hiatus from our series.  I plan on resuming and diving head first into I Tim. 4 on May 16th, the Sunday after Mother’s Day.

In the meantime we’re going to do a few different things with our sermons.  Yesterday we preached through Jesus’ series of teachings that centered upon the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-32.

Here’s the audio for those two messages:

• The Parable of the Sower—Part 1 (Mark 4:1-20)
  (download link)

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• The Parable of the Sower—Part 2 (Mark 4:21-32)
  (download link)

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(Screenshot from esvstudybible.org)

I’m currently reading through the Gospel of Mark.  Mark, not unlike the other gospel writers, emphasizes that Jesus was always teaching people (Mark 10:1).  Jesus would use any and every circumstance possible as an opportunity to teach his followers the ways of his kingdom.

In Mark 11:20-25 Jesus uses the occasion of a cursed, fruitless fig tree to teach his disciples about prayer.  Among other things in this passage, he explains in vs. 24 (highlighted above) that whatever we ask for in prayer, so long as we believe that we’ll receive it, we’ll get it.

This is puzzling to me.  I understand that we’re to pray by faith—that is, by believing that God is real, that he’s powerful, that he hears us when we pray, that he’s concerned about our lives, etc.  I get that.  What I don’t get is how this verse squares with all the things that I’ve prayed for that have not come to pass.  I’ve prayed for them believing.  Yet many prayers were not answered when and how I had hoped and even ‘believed’ that they would be.

When we’re puzzled like this by something we read in the Scriptures the best place to look for help is in other Scriptures.  That’s exactly what I did and here’s what I’ve learned.

When praying we most definitely should pray believing.  Our belief can be said to be blind (II Cor. 5:7), but it shouldn’t be said that our belief is dumb, uninformed, or ignorant of God’s truth—not when we’ve go the Bible to go by.  So when you pray make sure to put the following three things into practice.

1. Check Your Motives (James 4:3)

We’re not to pray for things simply because we want them.  In fact, James 4:3 explains that sometimes we don’t get what we pray for specifically because we want them for the wrong reasons.  So check your motives when you pray.  Make sure that your ultimate aim is as Jesus’ when he prayed to the Father, “Not my will, by yours” (Luke 22:42).

2. Know the Word (I John 5:14-15)

If we pray for what we know God already wants how can we go wrong?  We can’t!  So pray God’s will.  How do we know what his will is?  Well, thankfully he’s written it down for us in something called the Bible.  So READ IT, and by it know God’s will, and then pray for that.

3. Remember the Spirit (Rom. 8:26)

Don’t lose heart!  Don’t be discouraged in your prayer life.  Remember that Rom. 8:26 teaches that God actually helps us pray as we’re praying.  Now that’s reassuring!  So when you pray, rely on that help.  Ask for it.  Look for it.  Pray with it and by it…in faith.

Let me ask you:

What other truths from God’s Word can you think of to shed light on the subject of prayer?  I’ve only listed three.  There are many more.  Help me out.  Click here to leave a comment.