Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Next on Light on the Hill, a parable that speaks volumes about fruitfulness related to your willingness to take responsibility for the knowledge you’ve received.

The words that you will hear in Mark chapter 4 make up one of the most consequential parables ever told by Jesus for several reasons. Perhaps the most significant reason is truly eye-opening. Hearing and applying the truth of it will absolutely change your life forever. Understand it now as you join Pastor James Kaddis for Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: Mark chapter 4, let’s get into this and we’re just going to jump right in. This is really beautiful because Jesus is still in the Galilee. As he is in this area, there’s a lot of remarkable things that are happening. By the way, Jesus’s base of ministry is prominently in the Galilee. The most recording that we see in his ministry from the accounts of the gospels happen to be in Jerusalem and in the Galilee, and more so in the Galilee, especially as you get closer to this area of Capernaum and some of these other cities that surround the body of water.

This gets really cool and the picture that’s being drawn here is remarkable because this really shows you how much Jesus was desired of the people. How much people wanted to be around him, how much people wanted to hear from him, how much people wanted to just develop insight and understanding from the things that he said. It’s funny because there’s an aspect of Jesus that I so admire and that I think is just so remarkable, something that there’s a certain part of me that just can’t relate to.

I'll explain this before we get into the text here, but the best way to do this, at the expense of maybe people thinking I’m a really bad guy, let me give you a personal illustration here. When I first started in the ministry over 30 years ago, there was always a part of you that believed that if you had the opportunity to be well-known by people while serving the Lord, that might be a cool thing. You see pastors that have a certain level of notoriety because of their faithfulness to the Lord. We saw lots of those pastors in the Calvary Chapel movement early on. As a younger guy who’s aspiring to be in the ministry, you think in your mind, “Oh, that would be nice. That would be great.”

I was one of those guys that wanted all of that stuff to happen very early on. For me, that was not the case. I was a very fast mover, but in some cases a slow bloomer, for lack of a better term. In other words, I was one of the last guys amongst my circle of peers to start serving in the ministry full-time, even though many of the people in my circle of peers were much older than me. Undoubtedly, I was the youngest. There were a lot of things that just didn’t happen in the same type of timely fashion that things happened with all of the people that were around me.

There was always this thought that went through my head that said, “It might be nice if people knew my name, or if I was one of these guys who just had a little bit more weight to carry.” Not physically speaking, but a little bit more weight to carry in terms of the words that he said. It might be nice for a large crowd to come and listen every now and again. You think that way when you’re younger. I had somebody come to me who I really truly believe was a prophetic man. He really, really loved the Lord and he was very in tune with the Lord and with the Spirit of God. He said something to me that actually bothered me.

He said, “Pastor James, I just want you to understand something.” By the way, there was a pastor who told me this as well, who was a man I really respected and still do, and was very prophetic. He came to me and he said, “Pastor James, you need to take what I’m about to tell you to heart. You need to enjoy what you are calling the days of small things. Because what you are calling the days of small things will be the days that you will wish you could go back to one day. There will come a point in time where the small things will no longer be, and you will experience a new dynamic that you are not going to completely enjoy.” I didn’t like that. That just sounded very like, what am I going to do, become an infamous person where everybody hates me? There’s a lot of ways you could interpret a word like that.

It’s interesting because the longer I was serving the Lord and teaching, especially with the modern technology and all the tools that we have available, that changed quite a bit. It was almost like the switch was off and then all of a sudden the Lord turned on a switch. God exposed me to a whole bunch of people. For whatever reason, I tend to be very polarizing. People either really hate me or they really love me. The people that really hate me, really hate me. The people that really love me, really love me. There’s no in-between. People don’t think that way about me. It’s either a really love you or really hate you kind of feeling.

As time began to grow and God began to grow the ministry, I almost got to the point—and I still have to fight it to this day—where I became somewhat hesitant about even being out in public places. I got to the point where I stopped enjoying being stopped by people anywhere I went. I would sit down and try to have a dinner with my wife before the time that we had children, and there was never a time where we had dinner that I did not get stopped. It even reached the point where people would be so intrusive that they would sit at the table with us and want to talk and have questions answered.

It’s really hard not to grow almost despondent over so many people desiring your attention and wanting your time. Then you find yourself in a place like the place that I’m in today, where my sheer busyness keeps me from being able to spend the kind of time with people that people want me to spend with them. That can be a very difficult thing to have to go through.

In the moments where I just feel like, “You know what? You all tell me I need rest. You all tell me that I need to take a vacation. You all tell me that I need to take a break. Okay, great.” I want to be in a room alone and I don’t want to talk to anybody. I don’t want to see anybody’s faces. I don’t want to have conversations. I just want to be a loner. That’s my idea of a great vacation. I just want to be alone for a while and be able to collect my thoughts. I’m just not a fan of just talking to people, especially when I’m completely tired and I don’t have any energy to do so.

Then I look at passages like this and I read what Christ was and what he did, and I just think in my heart, what an extraordinary example for me. What is wrong with my heart, if I’m a man who’s filled with the Spirit of God, that I detest people intruding in my own personal space when indeed the reason why they’re doing so is because they’re hungry for something that has nothing to do with me? They’re hungry for the Lord. That’s what they want. They don’t want me; they want the Lord.

If they see somebody that can provide a gateway for them to experience God, of course they’re going to seek to want to be close to that person. When I get resentful when things like that happen and I get stopped at every corner, everybody wants to talk to me. They give me their business cards and ask, “Will you call me?” and “Can we do this?” and “Can you come over here?” I get that all the time. It’s easy to get frustrated, and then you read a passage like this.

By the way, the point that I’m making right now really truly isn’t the main point of the study that we’re getting into, but it feeds into the main point. You’re not going to appreciate what the main point of all of this is if you don’t understand the heart in which this is coming. I think that’s why this is very important.

Look at this in verse 1 of chapter 4. It says, “And he began again to teach by the seaside.” Notice this. “And there were gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.” Think about that for a second. He gets to the shore of the Galilee. That’s what he’s talking about. This isn’t the Mediterranean we’re talking about here. He’s at the shore of the Galilee. As he plants himself there, people are literally just hoarding him. They want to be by him. They want to hear what he has to say. They’re very interested in him. They basically come up right at the edge. Jesus has no place to go. He literally doesn’t have a place to go. He is forced in essence to give them the speech that they’re wanting.

He could do something that I would do. He could get in the very boat that he got into and take off. That’s what I would have done. I would have gotten that boat and I would have said, “Bye, guys. God bless you. I love you,” and then I would have just taken off. I would have gone to the other side and then I would have made a plan to anticipate the thousands of people that might be waiting on the other side and go hide somewhere.

I might park myself in the middle of the sea, especially if it’s very glassy, and just take a nap in the boat. That might actually be a very relaxing, cathartic experience. Matter of fact, I have done that. I have fallen asleep in a boat in the Galilee before, and it’s a very beautiful experience, especially when the sea is literally like glass. There’s nothing like it. There’s just a beautiful breeze, the smell is just so fresh, you can hear the birds, and you can hear people talking from on top of the area that people would oftentimes refer to as the space that Jesus spoke to when he gave his Sermon on the Mount. It’s such a remarkable thing. But that’s what I would do. Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus gets in the boat and he backs up in a way that he can still address everybody that’s standing on the sea, and then he shares his heart with them.

I can learn a lot from that. I can be convicted by the love that God has for his creation. I can be convicted by the love that God has for the people. I can be convicted by the level of self-denial that Jesus exemplifies in what he does. I can be convicted by the fact that God is genuinely concerned about seeing the people be loved on and ministered to. It really checks my heart. It really makes me think, where is my heart and where is my mind when I get that way? What’s wrong with me? What is it in my heart and in my mind in that moment that just makes me want to avoid people? The Lord makes it very clear. We’re supposed to have a loving heart and a loving mind. Jesus had all of that.

Look what it says in verse 2: “And he taught them many things by parables and said unto them in his doctrine.” By the way, this is interesting. I used to get people that would come to me on a regular basis and say that I am watering down the gospel and I’m watering down the Bible when I teach by using illustrations, and while I teach by sharing things that might not be directly found in the Bible but rather things coming from life experiences or life circumstances.

It’s funny because my answer has always been the same, and that is: somebody that I admire and worship did the exact same thing, so I’m fine with doing it. Jesus was always good at communicating very important, very deep, very powerful principles using parables because parables were tools that would oftentimes be able to help people make connections in their mind’s eye about something so critical. If you were to sit down and have a deep, involved conversation about psychoanalyzing somebody who makes a commitment to the Lord and doesn’t do so well, versus somebody who makes a commitment to the Lord and does fantastic, that could be a very boring conversation and in many aspects, it might be something that will go straight over a person’s head.

Jesus chooses to use very simple terms to describe a principle here, or a series of principles that are radically impacting and life-changing. One of the things that I would encourage you to do anytime you learn about a parable, or you’re reading a parable, or you’re hearing something that Jesus is saying where he’s seeking to demonstrate a matter by illustrating it for you and helping you to better relate to the concept, is to study it deeply.

I would recommend that you spend a lot of time analyzing the story that he’s telling you—not reading into it, but analyzing the story that he’s telling you—because if Jesus saw it fit to bring it to its most simple terms so that you can understand a very complex situation, the reality of it is you have to be dedicated to understanding it. You should master it. You should get to the point where you recognize how that works.

Why? Because although so many people don’t think that this parable makes any sense to them or doesn’t apply to them—that’s probably the better term, doesn’t apply to them—because they say, “I’m a committed Christian and I’ve been committed to the Lord for a long time,” this parable might be one of the most critical parables that you’ve ever learned. It may very well be one of the most critical parables that you have ever chosen to commit to understanding, because if you understand it the way God intended for you to understand it, then it will serve as a remarkable tool to keep you not only accountable, but a remarkable tool to keep you moving in the direction God intended for you to move.

It’s going to help you be able to identify the distractions that would keep you from seeking God, the distractions that would keep you from knowing God, and it’s also going to help you to be able to identify those distractions in other people. It’s a pretty useful tool, and it’s something that we could stop for a moment and meditate on and contemplate, and then really bring as a significant application to our own lives.

By the way, it’s interesting because as you begin to read this story or this parable that Jesus tells, you’ll realize that even the most committed of his followers didn’t completely understand what it meant. They had to go to Jesus and say, “What’s up with this?” and then Jesus explained it. You have to stop for a moment, contemplate what’s being said, and then understand where the practical application of it really comes into play.

I’m telling you, next week as we get into why this really applies to us—we’re going to get into a little bit of that today—it will completely change how you look at things. Because this is the way people look at Christianity oftentimes. They look at Christianity as a very passive thing. You come, you receive insight, maybe you read your Bible, and you expect something to happen to you. But what you don’t recognize is the responsibility that is bestowed upon you as you learn these things to act on what you learn.

It is the responsibility bestowed upon you to do the things that you’ve learned well and not allow any slipping to take place. It’s this thing of when you learn something, when you are aware, you are given more responsibility. To whom much is given, much is obviously going to be required. The reality of it is, when God begins to give us deep-rooted insights that are significant and powerful, God doesn’t want us to take those things and throw them away and bury them like that foolish servant did. He wants us to take it and multiply it, not only in our lives but in the lives of other people.

This parable specifically speaks about that. This parable speaks about fruitfulness directly related to your willingness to take responsibility for the knowledge you’ve received. That’s a very important lesson to learn here. Look what he says here. We’ll start in verse 3: “Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow.”

By the way, there is one thing that I do want you to pay attention to, and that is the end of verse 2. Notice a descriptor that Mark throws out here, and it’s really important. It says, “He said unto them,” notice this, “in his doctrine.” I think doctrine is a more appropriate word to be used here. Some of your translations may say “teaching.” But doctrine is a very appropriate term. In other words, he is explaining something to these people because he wants their way of thinking to be adapted or conformed to the way that God thinks. That’s what he’s doing here. It’s all about a lifestyle. It’s all about a methodology. It’s all about a process by which we go through in order to seek out what God has given us.

Look what it says: “Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth.”

If you are a farmer and you’re listening to this right now—which this was on many levels a very agrarian culture—these people would not have a hard time listening to this. They would not have a hard time understanding it. As a matter of fact, most people listening to this right now would be like, “Jesus, okay, you’re talking about something really basic. We all know what happens when seed falls in different places.” Even us as kids, when we conducted these science experiments as kids, we watched. Some of you did this. I know we did when we were younger. Maybe in the newer days today they’re not doing it because of lack of funding, but we would be given this seed to plant and then we would be told to plant them in extreme circumstances.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark’s Gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It’s entitled *The Last Book*. He points out that Revelation isn’t a book of fear, but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

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James Kaddis: Just recently, in anticipation of the Christmas season, we planted a bunch of poinsettias in front of our house, which I have grown quite concerned over in the last few days because they are going past their life cycle. I made them last a lot longer than they said they would be able to last, but because of the season that we’re in, all those leaves are going to fall off and they’re going to look ugly.

The point is, when you put seed on stone, that’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to spring up and it’s going to look, “Wow, this is cool,” and then it’s just going to die because the sun is going to just destroy it. That’s something that you should expect. By the way, it is funny how God works these things out. It’s such a remarkable thing how God designed our plants and how it all works out. Because when these seeds grow in the soil, the soil also serves as not only a protector from the damaging effects of the sun, but the soil soaks up many of the vitamins that the sun provides that is able to transfer into the plant that’s growing. It’s pretty remarkable stuff. You’d be surprised with how much you could get carried away with learning about this stuff in preparation for a Bible study like this. There’s some interesting, really cool lectures on this and how it all works.

There’s one guy who lectures on this who uses the biblical model to be able to show people scientifically what happens to a seed at every stage. He goes so far as to tell us what seed Jesus may be talking about and how it characteristically behaved at that time versus how it behaves now, and how it would behave on a dirt road that the Romans had built versus a tar road or a concrete road that we would build. Very interesting stuff. Really cool stuff. Nerdy stuff, but interesting nonetheless.