Christmas Sermon 2022: Matthew 13.44-46

 * I was able to preach on Christmas Day!  Here is the video of my sermon from Matthew 13.44-46.

Sermon: Matthew 7.24-29--The Challenge of the Teacher and His Teaching

 * A sermon I preached on May 29, 2022 at Pella Communities.

Mark Meditations: Mark 4.21-25

Mark 4.21-25

And he was saying to them, 

"A lamp is not brought tobe put under a basket,

 is it, or under a bed?  Is it not

brought to be put on the lampstand?

For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; 

nor has anything been secret, but that it would

come to light.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."

And he was saying to them, 

"Take care what you listen to.  By your standard

of measure it will be measured to you;

and more will be given you besides.

For whoever has, to him more shall be given; 

and whoever does not have, even what he has

shall be taken away from him."

Mark 4.21-25

* Question: Two separate parables or are they connected?

* Jesus is speaking of hidden things being revealed.

-Perhaps, the parables and their truths being more fully understood

* Jesus is urging: "Take care what you listen to."

* Seems to connect with Mark 4.13-20--each of the four soils has "heard" the word (vv. 15, 16, 18, 20).

* Whereas Mark 4.13-20 the focus is on the results--these kinds of soils and conditions produce this result.  The focus in Mark 4.24-25 is a challenge to the hearers of the word to respond rightly.

-With the soils there is almost a passivity--these conditions produce these effects.

-The charge to "Take care what you listen to" focuses on the person's active response that will determine what kind of soil they will be. 

* v. 24: "more" 

-Correspond to v. 20 "bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold"

* v. 24 "By your standard of measure it will be measured to you..."

-How do you measure or consider the word of the Kingdom that Jesus brings?  Is it the word of life from the Son of God?  If so, and you respond to it as such you will experience the measured more in your life.

* v. 25 "... and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him."

-cf. Mark 4.15 "... and when they hear immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." 

* Challenge: Will you accept the word of Jesus as that which is worth enduring affliction for (v. 17) and worth forsaking all other things for (v. 19)?  If so, then you will bear fruit in abundance and even more will be given to you.

John Frame on the Comprehensiveness of Scripture

"Jesus anticipates a kingdom covering the earth, in which people love God and their neighbors from the heart.  The gospel that we preach throughout  the world is the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand (Matt. 3:2; 4:17, 23; 5:3; Acts 1:3; 8:12; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31).  In the fundamental prayer of God's people (Matt. 6:10), we ask that God's kingdom come.  That kingdom will inevitably change human institutions as well.  When people are converted to believe in Christ, they bring their new faith and love into their daily work.  They ask how Christ bears upon their work as historians, scientists, musicians, how this new passion of theirs affects art, entertainment, medicine, the care for the poor and sick, the justice of courts, the punishment of convicts, relations between nations.  All of life is different because of grace.  And indeed, Christians have influenced their societies in profound ways through the centuries: adopting babies left to die, building hospitals and orphanages, working to abolish slavery."  

--John Frame The Doctrine of the Word of God, page 218