How To Hear From God: The Deaf Heart - Mark 4:1-15 Series

Mark 4:1 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. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.” 9 Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to listen, let him listen.” 10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” 13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?

14 The sower sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. Immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

Introduction

When I was a teenager, back in the days before email, I remember waiting by the mailbox, hoping the mailman would bring me a letter from a friend. These days people check their voicemail, email, social media—we want to know because communication with the people we love is a huge part of life. And most of us have known the painful loneliness that can result when that mailbox stays empty and no one seems to want to talk to you. What about communication from God? Do you ever find yourself waiting by the mailbox, longing to hear from him?

Hearing from God

Psalm 28:1 …if you remain silent, I shall be like those who have gone down to the pit.

David begins his prayer by saying, “God, if you don’t speak to me, I might as well be dead.” Why? Because communication from God is the source of life and joy. One of the most astonishing and most precious wonders of life is that God Almighty, the Creator and sustainer of all things, actually communicates with us. And if he stopped doing that, or if something gets in the way and cuts off that communication so you’re not receiving it, then you might as well be dead. But on the other hand, when you do receive it, it fills you with life and joy.

Isaiah 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

What is that purpose God?

12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace

If you want life and peace and joy, you have to hear from God. And here’s the amazing thing: God is always willing to speak to us, which means when we are not hearing from God, it’s a listening problem. Listening to God is not an easy thing to do, and so in today’s passage, Jesus is going to teach us what kinds of things hinder our listening, and how to listen the right way so we are able to hear God’s voice in a way that brings us life and joy.

Setting

Verse 1, Mark gives us the setting.

Mark 4:1 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.

This time Jesus uses the boat as a floating pulpit. There is an area near Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee that has become known as the “Bay of Parables.” And if you stand on a boat offshore in that Bay, you can effortlessly speak to several thousand people on shore and be heard. This event may very well have happened in that spot.