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Jesus began to speak to them in parables… (Mark 12:1).
This is only the fourth parable that Mark records, and as the final parable that Jesus uses in this Gospel, it brings His public ministry to a close.
Jesus concludes this parable by quoting from Psalm 118. This psalm is the last of the “Hallel Psalms” to be sung at the conclusion of the Passover celebration—it is the psalm that looks eagerly to the Messiah‘s arrival. It contains the words that the crowds just used on Palm Sunday: “Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Psalm 118:25-26; Mark 11:9-10).
At the conclusion of this parable, the religious leaders “knew He had spoken this parable against them” (Mark 12:12).
This is important for pastors as they prepare their sermons, but it’s also important for every Christian. We face challenges every day. The Holy Spirit can give us the timeliest of words. The Word of God is the inspired message for us. It is just as relevant and applicable today as it was the day the words were penned. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the authors of Scripture is the same Holy Spirit in us today who will illuminate and apply the Word for us (John 14:26).
Let’s not find our “timely word” from the ever-changing attitudes and opinions of culture, but let us continually go back to the unchanging, always-timely, always-relevant Word of God. That is the only place to find the timeliest of words every single time!
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Last week we learned that we have a job to do. If we want to see Jesus come back to take us Home, we need to share the Good News with everyone. Jesus said that we didn’t have to obey Him in this Great Commission by ourselves, but we can go in His authority and with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 24:14; 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).
In Acts 1:8 notice that Jesus said we are “be My witnesses.” This isn’t an action first, but they are actions that spring out of who we are. So we need to ask: How are we to be His witnesses? Answer: By being blessed by God!
God has desired that we know the blessing of His presence since the very beginning. He instructed the priests to bless the people with these words:
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)
The Hebrew word for “peace” in this passage is shalom. One of the most basic definitions for shalom is “nothing missing.” In other words, we are blessed people when we realize there is nothing keeping us back from God’s presence.
If you asked someone in the Old Testament where they thought God’s presence was, they would probably point you to the Tent of Meeting or the Tabernacle in Jerusalem. But that was merely a foreshadowing of what God truly desired for His relationship with us. Jesus promised His followers, “On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). So if Jesus is in the Father, and we are in Him, that means we are also in the Father. In this position, we can experience the nearness to the Father that Jesus knows (see Ephesians 1:3-8).
This nearness is our source of peace: Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you (2 Thessalonians 3:16). In this verse, the Greek word for “peace” is eirene, which means a soul at utter peace with God because it is assured of its eternal Home in God’s presence.
Blessed people are abundance people. Blessed people have all their needs supplied so that they can be a conduit of blessing to others. Our increasing awareness of God’s blessing empowers us to be witnesses for Him.
Let me take you back to the Book of Psalms. In Psalm 67, the psalmist asks for God’s blessing on his life four times in just seven short verses. Why does he desire this blessing? It’s not for himself but for others. Look at just the first two verses of this psalm:
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on usTHAT Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
Recall that Jesus commissioned us to go to all nations and that the Holy Spirit empowers our witness to all peoples. This psalmist is asking for God’s blessing so that he can be a witness to everyone. Nine times he says that he desires that all nations or all peoples will know and worship the Most High God.
God’s blessing on His people is really SO THAT all peoples and nations can see His blessing and turn to Him. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life is to remind us that we are indeed blessed in Jesus, and that we have a mission to fulfill in taking that blessing to others.
The Holy Spirit positions us to be blessed in Christ. This blessing empowers us to be a witness to all peoples so that they can come to God through Jesus.
It is good for us to pray for the Spirit’s blessing on our lives so that we can BE a blessing to all nations and peoples.
If you would like to check out all of the other messages in our series called We Are: Pentecostal, please click here.
Pentecost for over 1500 years was a celebration in Jerusalem that brought in Jews from all over the world. But on the Day of Pentecost which came just ten days after Jesus ascended back into heaven, the meaning of Pentecost was forever changed!
Followers of Jesus—now empowered by an infilling of the Holy Spirit—began to take the good news of Jesus all over the world. These Spirit-filled Christians preached the Gospel and won converts to Christ even among hostile crowds, performed miracles and wonders, stood up to pagan priests and persecuting governmental leaders, and established a whole new way of living as Christ-followers.
We, too, can be Pentecostal followers of Jesus Christ today. We can experience an anointing and an empowering in our lives that turns ordinary Christianity into extraordinary Christianity!
Please join me this Sunday at Calvary Assembly of God as we rejoin this series. You can check out what I taught in this series in 2019 by clicking here, the messages from 2020 are here, the messages from 2021 are here, and the messages from 2022 are here.
If you were one of Christ’s disciples, wouldn’t you think it would be time for Jesus to take a victory lap? Maybe He could show up at the next meeting of the Sanhedrin, or in Pontius Pilate’s courtroom, or King Herod Antipas’ throne room. You can almost hear their longing for this when they asked Jesus, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
Jesus answered that question by saying, “Your race is just now beginning!” You see, Christ’s resurrection wasn’t the end of the race, but an important—absolutely indispensable—part of our ongoing race. “I will be raised back to life again” was a bold claim, but it wasn’t the final bold claim. There is one more for us to consider.
The resurrection of Jesus is our assurance that what Jesus says He will do, He will do. One of the things He promised is, “I am going to prepare a place for you and I will come back to get you” (John 14:1-3). The place Jesus has prepared for us is the end of our race—the finish line for which every Christian should be longing.
The disciples asked Jesus how they could know when His return was getting closer. He gave them a lot of things to watch for, but He concluded by saying, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and THEN the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
In order for us to go Home, the whole world—people in all nations—have to hear the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
In one of the boldest claims of all, Jesus says He has ultimate authority, and that He is commissioning us to use His authority for the express purpose of our missionary work to all nations. Notice the “therefore” which indicates what we are to do with His authority—
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go andmake disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. … But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will beMy witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
The apostle Paul appreciated this analogy of running a race. Just before it was time for Paul to go Home, he told his friend Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Earlier in his life, Paul used a running example when he wrote to the Christians at Corinth—
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Paul gives us three don’ts and three dos in this passage:
Don’t fail to train, don’t run aimlessly, don’t get disqualified by focusing on the temporal
Do go into strict training, do stay focused on the eternal, do run for the prize of hearing Jesus say, “Well done!”
Do you want to go Home? Do you want Jesus to come again to take all of His children Home? Then finish the race of telling everyone in the whole world the Good News about Jesus.
The Holy Spirit can speak to us through other people. Be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” —Charles Spurgeon
“It is possible to adopt an outward demeanor of great meekness, while inside our appetite for applause is insatiable. . . . Oh, what a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly, subtle and insinuating enemy is this sin of pride!” —John Stott
“Every word from God comes with the power to make that word happen.” —Kevin Berry
“The question is not, ‘Should we pray for the lost people of our community?’ The question is, ‘Will we?’ Will we pray for our neighbors, our community, our nation, and our world? Will we seek the peace of the world and the wellbeing of all our fellow humans before the Lord in prayer? [Jeremiah 29:7]
“If we will not, then we must face up to the fact that we are disobeying a divine mandate, abandoning our neighbors to their folly, and stoking the fires of indifference—if not outright scorn—for the unbelieving world around. But if we will pray, who knows what God might be willing to do?
“Those prayers may be prayers of anguish and anger at times; but they must also be prayers for God to work in the hard hearts of our unsaved neighbors, just as He has worked in ours, to bring new life, forgiveness, and hope to those who now live apart from God in a world full of rebellion and sin.” —T.M. Moore
Axis is a great resource to help parents communicate effectively with their pre-teen and teenage children. In the wake of the school shooting in Nashville, Axis posted this: “We have created resources to help parents and caring adults have conversations about violence and school shootings. Consider our Conversation Kit on Violence, our Parent’s Guide to School Shootings, our Parent’s Guide to Talking About Violence, and our Parent’s Guide to Anxiety, for starters.”
“Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.” —Hank Aaron
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A couple of weeks ago I shared a recap from my sermon called Eloquent Silence. Jesus serenely remained silent when He was being falsely accused by those who wanted Him out of the way. Yet, His silence was eloquent and convicting.
We would do well to learn this lesson from our Savior.
There is a flip side to this: Sometimes our silence can signal compliance or acceptance of those who are speaking or perpetrating evil.
David wrote, “Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men?No, in heart you work wickedness; you weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth” (Psalm 58:1-2 NKJV).
Commenting on this psalm, Charles Spurgeon wrote, “It would be well, if people would sometimes pause and candidly consider this: ‘Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones?’ Some of those who surrounded Saul were passive rather than active persecutors—they held their tongues when the object of royal hate was slandered. In the original, this first sentence appears to be addressed to them, and they are asked to justify their silence. Silence gives consent. People who refrain from defending the right are themselves accomplices in the wrong.”
Silence does have its place. King Solomon wrote, “He who despises his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding keeps silent. He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy conceals a matter” (Proverbs 11:12-13 NASB1995). But to remain silent in the face of evil or falsehood could also be a sin.
Consider a few other wise words:
“No one wants to be thought of as holding to a ‘minority position’ on anything, so, rather than speak up in the face of many who are doing so, most will remain silent. This is where the Christian community finds itself at this time, trapped in a spiral of silence before a blustering but empty secular and unbelieving worldview. So it is very important that believers in Jesus Christ make the best use of every opportunity to talk about what is good and pleasing to God.” —T.M. Moore
“Don’t be a bystander, be on stand by. I will not allow a bully to bully others. I will not laugh at his jokes, I will not remain silent. I will stand up and say ‘Enough is enough.’” —Nick Vujicic
“As Christians we are tempted to make unnecessary concession to those outside the Faith. We give in too much. Now, I don’t mean that we should run the risk of making a nuisance of ourselves by witnessing at improper times, but there comes a time when we must show that we disagree. We must show our Christian colors, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent or concede everything away.” —C.S. Lewis
“Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that really matter.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
When to speak up and when to remain silent is a huge issue for Christians. This is why we need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit telling us when to hold our tongues and when to speak out boldly.
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A well-known passage in Proverbs tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
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…Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke Him (Mark 8:32).
Can you imagine someone rebuking Jesus?!
It’s even harder to comprehend when we realize that just three verses earlier Peter made such a bold declaration about Jesus more explicitly than anyone else ever had: “You are the Messiah!”
This is similar to what happened when Jesus preached His first public sermon in Luke 4:16-30. Luke tells us that the people went from speaking well of Jesus to wanting to kill Him in just a matter of a couple of minutes.
Why? How could this happen so quickly?
In his Gospel, Matthew records Peter’s rebuke this way: “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to You!” (Matthew 16:22). This was Peter’s response to Jesus predicting His cruel mistreatment at the hands of the religious leaders, and His impending crucifixion.
In the sermon in Luke 4, the people wanted their Messiah to only focus on the Jews and let the rest of the world burn. When Jesus said He was on-mission to save all people everywhere, they were furious with Him. They were angry because He wasn’t going to do things their way. “After all,” they probably thought, “our way is the most logical way.”
You and I are also in danger of going from praising to rebuking in just a matter of minutes. It can happen so naturally. By naturally I mean that our sinful nature must not be allowed to get its own way.
After Peter rebuked Jesus, He told him, “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Mark 8:33). Our mind of flesh is hostile to the mind controlled by the Holy Spirit.
There are things that may seem unpleasant or illogical to my natural mind, but I must not be controlled by that mind. I must listen to, and obey, what the Holy Spirit reveals to me. That means I must allow my mind to be transformed to “the concerns of God.”
Our daily prayer must be like the prayer Jesus prayed just moments before His arrest: Father, not My will, but Your will be done. If I continue to do things my way, my natural mind will naturally rebuke Jesus, and I can go from praise to rebuke in a matter of moments. I don’t ever want to be guilty of rebuking Jesus, so I desire to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). I hope you will join me in this prayer.
The first mental health strategy we learned was asking the Holy Spirit to help us see a new path. Instead of thoughtlessly, automatically allowing our minds to go down the well-worn paths they have always gone down before, the Spirit of Truth can help us see a new path. Let me share our second strategy with you.
My wife and I had traveled to a neighboring community and when we got out of our car we saw an unusual sight. First of all, there was dirt and a few weeds where there used to be grass, and then there was this sign in the middle of that dirt field: Keep off the grass. That seemed like really wishful thinking to me! I may not have a green thumb—truthfully I probably have a “black thumb” when it comes to keeping plants alive—but I know enough to say that their grass wasn’t going to grow without a lot of effort.
Weeds grow by apathy, they are removed with continual effort. Fruit-bearing plants grow by careful attention, fertilization, and pruning. So if we don’t put in any effort at all, it’s the same thing as fertilizing the weeds.
Solomon made this observation: I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds and the stone wall was in ruins (Proverbs 24:30-31).
Without effort on our part, weeds take over, sap the nutrients, and take up the space that could be used for fruit-bearing plants.
A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matthew 13:3-8)
When Jesus says that the thorns grew up and choked the plants, He uses a Greek word that means overwhelmed or suffocated. It’s the same word that is translated as drowning (see Luke 8:33). What weeds do to our gardens, weed thoughts do to our minds.
We all know that when we see a weed pop up above the ground, there is a root below the ground that is supporting it. The sooner we pull that weed, the more likely we are to remove the troublesome root as well.
What about our minds? What are the roots? Jesus identified the roots this way: For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander (Matthew 15:19). Jesus taught that we murder, commit adultery, lust, and slander in our hearts long before it ever happens in our words or physical actions.
So when a “weed word” pops out, what do we do? If we do nothing, we fertilize that weed. If we ignore it, we allow that weed to strengthen its hold and begin to choke out the fruitful plants. If we simply say, “Oops, that was a slip of the tongue; I’ll do better to control it next time,” we haven’t pulled the weed, but we’ve fertilized it.
Remember that weeds flourish by apathy, but fruitfulness requires effort.
Back in the parable of the sower, what is the difference between the seed among weeds and the seed in fertile soil? It’s simply the presence of weeds or thorns! If we allow the Holy Spirit to help us pull the weeds, we’ve increased the amount of ground that can be fruitful and produce a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Jesus concludes by reminding us that our ears need to hear—we need to hear His words, and we need to hear our own weed words that don’t align with His words. Then we have a choice: apathetically let the weeds remain, or allow them to be pulled up.
Allow me to share my paraphrase of a passage in Hebrews 12—
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s pruning, and do not lose heart when He weeds your mind, because the Lord prunes the one He loves, and He weeds the garden of everyone He accepts as His son so they can be more fruitful. (my paraphrase of Hebrews 12:5-6)
Our mental health matures when we acknowledge the word weeds we are shown, and then quickly allow the Father to prune those. The Holy Spirit can continue to help us weed the soil of our minds so that it remains a fertile growing place for the seed of God’s Word. By doing this, we will grow in God-pleasing fruitfulness.
If you would like to download the graphic of this reminder for your phone, simply leave me a comment with the model of the phone, and I’ll get the right-sized graphic right out to you. And if you missed the first message in this series, you can review that lesson by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The disciples of Jesus heard His story and asked Him to explain to them what the parable meant. He said, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” (Luke 8:9; Mark 4:13).
The parable in question was the one we refer to as the parable of the sower. According to Christ’s own words, this is the most basic and understandable of all of His parables. If this was a college class, this would be Parables 101.
The kingdom of heaven is so otherworldly, infinite, and utterly beyond a succinct description that even Jesus asked out loud, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?” (Mark 4:30). Then time and time again, Jesus continued to reveal His kingdom with the phrase, “The kingdom of God is like….”
Before we move on to Parables 201 or Parables 301, let’s make sure we know this most basic parable intimately. According to Jesus, this parable is the key to unlocking the meaning of all of His other parables. Approach this one again as you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal something new to your heart.
For instance, as I read through this parable again this week I was captivated by those whom Jesus said had shallow roots. It reminded me that I need to temper my teaching with gentleness. If I’m too aggressive or too theologically deep, I may do damage these tender plants. On the other hand, if I’m too timid, I may leave these plants vulnerable to the ravages of disease or the scorching of the sun. Here again, I must rely on the Holy Spirit’s help. The message may be the same, but perhaps my delivery needs to be more appropriate to my audience.
Let me leave you with this challenge: When was the last time you saw something for the first time in this simplest of parables? If it’s been a while, it may be time for a quick refresher in Parables 101, then you will have the key to go deeper into the other parables. Try it and let me know how it works for you.
Jesus began to speak to them in parables… (Mark 12:1). 
Craig T. Owens 