Parable Of The Soils Series

The Parable of the Soils

Mark 4:1-20

Chenoa Baptist Church

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

10-16-2022

Are You Listening?

President Franklin Roosevelt became frustrated that no one seemed to really listen to what he said. He decided to do an experiment and at a reception, as each guest arrived, he smiled politely and with a smile said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.”

The guests responded just like FDR thought they would. “That marvelous Mr. President. Keep up the good work! God Bless you, sir!”

It wasn’t until the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador to Bolivia, that the guest actually listened to what he said.

The ambassador leaned over and said, “I’m sure she had it coming, Mr. President”.

I’ve said for years, to my kids and students, that “listening is a skill.” In fact, we had a class in seminary specifically teaching us how to actively listen to people.

Most people don’t listen well because they are distracted or they are thinking of the next thing that they are going to say.

Research suggests that the average person hears between 20,000 and 30,000 words during the course of a 24-hour period. The average number of words you're able to listen to per minute is around 450. Most people usually only remember about 17-25% of the things they listen to.

Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine also suggests that men listen differently than women. Specifically, women appear to use both sides of the brain while men rely more heavily on one when listening.

But women should listen to the advice of one of the wisest philosophers of all time - Winnie the Pooh:

"If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient; it may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear."

Jesus said multiple times that listening was important:

 “Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 11:15)

This morning, we are going to continue our series on the parables of Jesus by exploring a parable that shows us many people’s ability to spiritual hear is impaired and they don’t even know it.

The Point of Parables

Mark’s Gospel is a fast-paced, “Readers Digest” version of Jesus’s life. By the time we get to chapter four, Mark as already skipped more than a year and half of ministry. This the first time that Mark records Jesus’s teaching, and by this time, He’s teaching exclusively in parables.

In Mark four, Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom of God and He uses a parable that we know as “The Parable of the Soils.” If you remember, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly point. Parables attract attention and illustrate truth.

Parables were not new. The Israelites had long understood the power of a parable.

When King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. You could lose your head confronting a king so Nathan told a parable.

“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” (2 Sam 12:1-4)

David was furious and declared that the rich man deserved to die because he had done such a horrible, uncaring thing.

Nathan took a deep breath, extended his finger in the face of the king and said, “You are the man!”

At that moment, the parable exploded in David’s head and he understood that Nathan was talking about him, leading him to a period of deep repentance that you can read about in Psalm 53.

Turn with me to Mark 4.

Prayer.

Picture the Scene

“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. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen!”” (Mark 4:1-3)

Picture the scene…

You and some friends have joined thousands of others on a hill beside the Sea of Galilee. It’s the biggest crowd that Jesus has ever attracted. You have traveled quite a distance to see the teacher named Jesus. You have heard the fantastic stories of healings, demons being driven out, miracles, and hope that He might do something spectacular today.