Be Careful How You Hear (2)
How to Understand the Message
Introduction: Last week we looked at the emphasis Jesus placed on hearing. He accused the multitudes of having the same dullness and hard heart as their forefathers in Isaiah’s time. However, it is a peculiar rebuke considering the sermon was merely 5 stories without any mention of explanations or applications.
Therefore, in this lesson we will explore the method of of the Master Teacher. Jesus used a method that is uncommon today but was common in the first century.
Consider Luke 2:46-47 when Jesus at age 12 was in the temple. “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” The text reflects the method of teaching and learning. The scribes are questioning Jesus; they are not simply giving him information. It is not a one-way street. Jesus is listening and asking, but the teachers are also asking Jesus questions. They are testing his knowledge and his desire to learn. Why continue a conversation if he loses interest?
Therefore, to understand Jesus and the biblical message, we must understand Jesus’ method of teaching, a method that is usually unfamiliar to the modern reader.
- Understanding Begins with How Jesus Taught
- There are many messages in the Parable of the Sower. One of those messages is how aggressive our minds must be in order to learn. Television and other types of media have caused us to be lazy listeners. It is noteworthy that Jesus refers to the secrets/mysteries of the kingdom. When we read a mystery book or watch a mystery movie, what happens? The joy of the mystery is trying to see the clues given in the story in order to find the answer to the mystery. That is what Jesus has done in telling parables, not just the Sower, but 9 parables, five to the multitudes and four more to those who came in the house wanting answers. Add the parables up, meditate on them, and we come to a very good picture of what Jesus has planned for his kingdom.
- Therefore, this sermon of parables was used by Jesus to engage dull minds in discovering a secret. Isn’t that in many ways the whole method in scripture? There are always embedded messages. Why did God rest on the seventh day? What is marriage about? Why do we read an elaborate story of the Exodus? Mysteries and secrets are echoed time and again and God is urging us to work at discovering the answer. We should say to ourselves, “Wow! How exciting! The God and Creator of the universe is bringing us into an eternal reality show. Want to play?
- Consider Mark 4:13, “And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?’” Obviously, it was not impossible to understand the parable without Jesus giving an explanation. Challenging, yes, but not impossible.
- Jesus gave them clues: this is a parable about the coming kingdom (of which the Jews had the wrong belief) and it is a parable about “hearing.” The only other ingredient needed was a knowledge of farming—seed responds differently to different soils and that’s the way the kingdom of God is! That’s not rocket science, but it does need careful meditation.
- The point is, the possibility of understanding was present in the parable. One of the themes of Mark’s account is the dullness of the apostles and the Jews in general. However, though Jesus gives a mild rebuke to the disciples in the house, he commends them for asking in order to learn and condemns the multitude for not pursuing an answer.
- With the above knowledge, “why did Jesus speak to them in parables?” Did he expect the multitude to understand? No way! Not even the apostles understood. In fact, at the moment Jesus does not intend for the multitude to understand: “but for those outside everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, hear but not understand…” (Mark 4:11-12). He is looking for people who desire to know and learn; people who will come and ask and pursue the greatest offer made to mankind, the Kingdom!—“to you it is given to know, but to those outside it is not given!”
- Therefore, Jesus purposely does not make everything perfectly understandable to every person on every point. Does that surprise you? We would be appalled if a preacher today gave a sermon of five parables without explanation! The expectation was and is that each person would bring their brain to the study and go into discovery mode and draw conclusions from what they heard and then ask questions and seek answers. Jesus was testing their hearts, testing their desire for the Kingdom of God!
- Consider some examples;
- Example: Exodus 3:6 “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jesus strongly rebuked the Sadducees for not understanding the resurrection based on this verse. Listen to his words, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mark 12:24). And in Matthew’s account, “Have you not read what was said to you by God?” (22:31).
- Example: Matthew 22:41-46 Jesus asked the Jews a question they could not answer. Why didn’t the Master Teacher go beyond the question and give them the answer? We would never have left the conversation at that point! When Jesus went away after the question, there would have been two kinds of soil left behind. Some would have been so predisposed to the Messiah being a mere human, they wouldn’t have cared. They had already made up their minds. But others would not have been able to get the question off their minds and they would have gone to the scriptures to find the answer. It is these latter people who would be saved and who Jesus was interested in saving.
- Therefore, the message for us is critical—we need to learn aggressive listening, not simply with a sermon, but primarily with our own personal study.
- Jesus’ Expectation of Aggressive Listening, Mark 4:21-25
- This is Jesus’ immediate followup to the interpretation of the parable of the Sower. Do you understand verses 21-23? This is such an interesting few verses because we easily skip them in favor of the simplicity of Jesus’ explanation of the parable in the previous verses. But is Jesus finished with his explanation? Obviously not. He is giving the final explanation point on the message of the parables.
- The purpose of the parable is to bring everything that is hidden to light. In the Lord’s Kingdom everything that is secret must be revealed. Nothing will be hidden any longer. Therefore, in the parable what is hidden that is being brought to light? It is the hearts of men and women! When Jesus preached his word throughout the entirety of scripture, it became a lamp. And the purpose of a lamp is to reveal and expose all that is in the room.
- When Jesus again repeats the words, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” we are able to get the primary message of the parable. The parable illustrates exactly what happened after Jesus preached it. Some went away without a thought of what Jesus said (wayside ground). Some had a measure of belief, but never pursued any further so that they became “rooted” in Jesus’ teachings (stoney ground). Others believed, but allowed the other desires and cares in their life to take precedence over the pursuit of the kingdom (thorny ground). And those who came into the house and asked for more and put following Jesus and bearing fruit the priority in their lives are the good ground.
- Do you see it? Jesus has exposed hearts—all of our hearts. And of the four types of soil/hearts only one is good. With this we can conclude that Jesus’ is not trying to keep people from being saved by giving the parables, he is weeding out people who do not have the heart he desires.
- Therefore, consider what Jesus is doing—and I would say is always doing in his preaching and in the biblical text—he is testing us as hearers and revealing our hearts! Just think how much God has revealed in his word. But how often have we looked briefly just like the multitudes and just shrugged it off because it did not immediately peak our interest or we did not immediately understand. There are eternal consequences to dismissing biblical truths that do not interest us or we do not understand.
- Verse 24 “Pay attention to what you hear.” Jesus is the teacher and the Holy Spirit revealed everything in our Bibles. Pay attention to what you hear! If we don’t, we have failed the test, and even what we have will be taken away from us.
- Jesus Destroys Our Excuses, Luke 11:5-13
- The context is Jesus teaching the apostles how to pray. We read it easily; we read it simply, but we miss the point!
- The parable: God is not like a friend who does not want to be bothered by another friend seeking bread at midnight. The friend gives the bread, but only because his neighbor won’t stop banging on the door!
- God is different. He loves people who ask, seek, and knock. And to those who do, it will be given, they will find, and the door will be opened. What kind of Father do you think God is! He is ready to give! Oh goody, we say. I can ask God for “things,” the things I’ve always wanted. That’s not what Jesus is talking about.
- Verse 13 “…how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Jesus just took away all our excuses. “It’s too hard! It’s too deep! I’m not a scholar!” Sorry, that doesn’t work. Jesus just gave us two keys to understand even the most obscure of his teachings.
- The best Bible student always asks questions while reading. Don’t just read and don’t just listen. Ask questions—that’s what a seeker does. If you are not asking questions and desiring a fuller understanding, then you are not seeking. God rewards seekers—that is the promise Jesus gives in his application of the parable.
- Most importantly, when you have the desire of a seeker, nothing in scripture becomes too “deep” or too hard for you. Two reasons:
- Jesus just made a promise to us that if we ask, seek, and knock, he will give abundantly to us. Therefore, the seeker is not trusting his or her own mental intelligence, but trusting God.
- Further, to convince ourselves that there are parts of scripture “too hard” for us, is to indict God. We are accusing God of not delivering his word in an understandable way. Is this not the the main point of the parable? There is nothing wrong with the seed! It is the ground that is the problem! We simply cannot buy into the idea that there are books of the Bible that are just too deep, too hard to understand.
[Harrison is a new Christian, but nothing is too deep for Harrison. David and I can teach him anything and everything that is in a text. Harrison doesn’t know that something in the Bible is too hard—and so he asks, seeks, and knocks, and the result is he always understands. And when he understands, he asks for more.
- A hungry person eats differently than a person who has filled themselves with cake, pie, and deserts.
Conclusion: The Bereans (Acts 17:11) are the perfect example of proper connection between teacher and listener. Paul preached a message to them that they had never heard before in spite of their knowledge of the scriptures. Their response is what made them more noble than the Jews in Thessalonica. Those Jews immediately rejected preaching that was new and different. But the Bereans searched the scripture. That is what Luke is commending and that is what God is commending when he inspired Luke to record those words.
Berry Kercheville
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