Mark Chapter 4 Verses 30 – 32

• Most Bible commentators take a negative approach to this scripture set. Why? Because no mustard seed anywhere on earth, in any recorded history, has ever grown large enough and strong enough to support birds and their nests. And so they say that this is a warning from Jesus. A description of an abnormality…that the church can and has become something that it should not have…
• Hierarchy has swallowed up liberty…complexity and greed has led to elitism and non-biblical customs and traditions…ungodliness…and you know, they’re right. They say that this abnormality, this abomination, this departure from what Christianity is…which is simply broken people, lost lives being saved through a personal relationship, an individual connection to God through the Person of Jesus Christ, repentance from sin and surrender to truth…this man-made departure from the transparent and uncomplicated Word of God has invited birds into the church…the Biblical symbol of evil…and you know what, that’s true…
• But I tend to approach this scripture set in context with the previous verses, and in context with the scene. Jesus has been teaching on what? Yes, the Word of God being received or being planted as a seed in the hearts of you and me. He just said that those who actually hear, those that actually believe, those that actually respond…they will produce supernaturally! Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred fold!
• And Jesus just described to them how that growth, that producing of fruit will flow forth and it will be in such a way that the person will say how is this that this is happening? Growth just happens like a hotel mirror! You know what I’m talking about? You shaving or something and its all normal but flip it over, WHOA! All up in my pores! Ain’t nobody wanna see that! Just like that, flip open this book, let it take root, let it grow up…fruit just comes forth!
• It’s so powerful, it’s so wonderful, it’s so purposeful…so real…so much so that I don’t understand it! It looks like it’s only a book. It feels as if it’s just wisdom on paper…but as you take it in, as you plant it into your heart, install it into your life…it will surprise you!
• It will do in you what it has never done in anyone else…what? New truth? No! New Person! There will only ever be one you! Don’t you know that? Don’t you know how special you are? How unique you are? And so as you plant this seemingly small truth and that seemingly small truth…all of the sudden…whaaaaaaa? Something totally fresh, totally new happens in you…so much so that the birds can’t even fly around you…they have to settle down and observe…know what I mean?
• I think either interpretation is acceptable, I just know what God has done in my life…in my heart. I used to want to be more like this pastor, more like this sister, more like this brother…now I just want to be closer to Jesus and to allow Him to do something ultimately fresh in my heart because what He and I have…no one else does…same with you friend…

Mark Chapter 4 Verses 33 – 34

• The key. The mystery. That personal intimacy with God is vital to understanding. Not personal time with a pastor…not sitting in a box and talking through a screen…not Google, not seminary, not Bible College…classes and courses can explain a few things but Mark tells us a wonderful truth here…that personal closeness with the Lord, your own individual relationship with Jesus, spending time with Him when no one else is around, when you could be doing a thousand other things…Mark says its then that ALL things are explained…the big picture man…
• Hold that thought, we’re coming back to that one a little later…

Mark Chapter 4 Verse 35

• I want to explain to you all things child, Jesus says…not just enough for you to feel good about your Christian progress…but I want to show you the truth of it all…I want to show you THE way, THE truth and THE life…truth about who you are…who I am…what happened that day in the Garden…in the beginning…what happened that day at the cross…what happened that day as I left the tomb…what happened that day in heaven as I ascended to the Father…I want you to know and understand it all…
• Time to come out of the wilderness and into the land that I have promised…let’s cross over…to the other side…we’re coming back to that in just a second…
• But here, this moment in scripture, notice, He gives them a commandment and a promise. Jesus says to them, “let us cross over to the other side.” Other side of what? The Sea of Galilee…Its only three words in the Greek, what Mark records Jesus actually said, just three words and taken literally they are…Come with me (second aorist active subjunctive)…forward…we’ll make it…
• But notice what happens…

Mark Chapter 4 Verses 36 – 38

• Jesus had just taught them about His Word and now He gives His word to the disciples…that they would make it to the other side…but, whether regarding a promise Jesus gives to His disciples here or to you today, after teaching comes testing…always! Why? Because them birds want to sweep in and take it away quickly before it can do anything in your heart!
• He’s said, “I’ll take care of your marriage, follow Me.” He’s said, “I’ll take care of what they did to you, vengeance is Mine I will repay, follow Me.” He’s said, “I’ll provide all that you need, follow Me.” He’s said, “I will give you life, I will show you the way, I will teach you truth, follow Me.” But what do we do? We take things into our own hands…and we battle with our wives, we go to war in our own homes man…we hold grudges against those that have wronged us, we look for life in ungodly things like smutty sitcoms and carnal music…why? Because we lack faith…we simply don’t believe Him!
• Heavy I know but these here were given a command and a promise by Jesus…they need no further orders…if the boat sinks they’ll walk upon the water…the mustard seed will explode into a mighty tree! Impossible, yes, with man…ah but Jesus looked at them and said in Matthew 19:26, with God, nothing will be labeled impossible! Follow Me…He says, I’ll show you…

Mark Chapter 4 Verses 39 – 41

• Who can this be? Simple. He is God…He is truth…He is the One, the promised Savior, the Messiah, the Almighty, He is the explanation of ALL things…sent from heaven to restore ALL that what was lost. All that was lost?
• Yes…God unrolled in my heart and mind this week…an explanation…like a scroll…something that has utterly rocked me and taken me deeper with Him…

He showed me something…He let me in on something. Something that is there, throughout the Bible, nothing new, no new revelation, no personal interpretation, none of that…just a different way to see the same truth…that He saved us…

Saved us from what? From being lost! You see He explained something to me on a level that I could grasp it and hold on…at ground level…(where I understand the best)…and He said to me, He showed me…heaven was not made for man. And I said, “but Lord, isn’t that what You saved us to?” Precisely, but it was not made for you, Matt, my son…my creation…earth was.

Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth…!”

And finally Genesis 1:31, “Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good…” And so earth created in it’s perfect and wonderful form…then man created, in perfect and wonderful form, in the very likeness of God and the perfect earth was given to perfect man for a perfect dwelling place…for all of eternity…

Remnants of this truth we can see even today. What happens when you get a cut on your arm? You heal! You see you were made in such a way to continuously live…in a perfect earthly physical wonderful form…a perfect body made for a perfect earth…in complete harmony with the spirit realm…God present spysically (spiritually and physically) alongside of man walking in the Garden in the cool of the day it says there in Genesis 3:8, bringing the animals to man for them to name them it says there in Genesis 2:20…but then something happened…

God and the heavenly host with their eternal primary dominion and domain being heaven, man with his eternal dominion being earth, as the Bible says clearly that He has made man a little lower than the angels in Psalm 8:5 and Hebrews 2:7…a different dominion but these two…the heavenly host, God Himself…and Man, His own creation…became enemies…why?   Sin man! Just as soon as God created man and gave man dominion over the earth, man kicked Him out! Man invited sin in through disobedience and lust…and all of a sudden, man has a problem! Eternal life on earth…lost! No place any longer…Now man, you and I, Adam and Eve have a problem…now…we die!

First time in all of eternity this problem arises. And now we’re what? Orphans. 40 times, the Biblical number of completion, 40 times in the Bible the “fatherless” are mentioned. Orphans…nowhere to go, nowhere to live forever…heaven locked to humans, earth fallen…hell is the only option…that place created for the eternal banishment and condemnation of all that are evil…and so humans enter the swirling funnel made for Satan and his demons tail-spinning on the wide path to eternal damnation…But John 14:18, Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans!”

Heaven is locked to man. Not-for-man! And we hear the voice of God cry out…But I will not allow you to die fatherless, you mean too much to Me…you mean everything to Me…and so God unlocked heaven to man…how? By becoming one! AH, it’s so clear! So simple! Heaven was not made for man and so God looked down on you and me and loved us so much that He said THEN ITS NOT MADE FOR ME EITHER!!

You see you don’t deserve heaven. You’re not even allowed to go there. It’s not for you. It’s completely locked to men…unless, you go by the way of the God/Man…the Son of God…Jesus Christ…THIS is why the Bible says that He has begotten us again…that He has adopted us into His inheritance…This is why the Bible says that Jesus is the door, THIS is why the prodigal son upon his return had to have the father’s signet ring. This is why the Bible says that Jesus when He crushed the work of Satan that He led captivity captive!

This is why in John 17 Jesus prayed to the Father “Father I desire that they also whom You have gave Me may be with Me where I am…” Where did He come from? Heaven! No man went to heaven, was allowed into heaven until Jesus, the God/Man gave His blood for us, washed away our sins, removed the enmity between God and man…wiped out sin! This is why the veil was torn from top to bottom the moment Jesus died on the cross…the separation was removed…not that God could now come back to earth…earth is fallen! But that we could now go to Him in His house.

This is why Jesus said in John 14, “get pumped, cheer up, in My Father’s house are many mansions, I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU.” The implication? NO place is yet prepared! BOOM! It makes so much practical sense…

This is why religion DOES NOT WORK. The math simply does not work. Man cannot be made right by himself. We cannot follow rules to the point of unlocked-locked heaven to our sinful state…doesn’t work. Only God Himself has that authority because heaven is HIS! Get it? This is why Mormonism doesn’t work. Because the angel-brother of Lucifer does not have the authority. This is why 7^th day Adventism and Jehovah’s Witness’ doctrine does not work because Michael the angel does not have the authority…

This is why Islam does not work because there is no removal of sin…this is why Judasim does not work…simply does not work…only biblical born again Christianity works…Jesus said no one come to the Father except through Me! The door, the veil, the signet ring , the one way, the one truth, the one life, the God Man!

Think for a moment about Jericho…what was Jericho a picture of? The world most say…the flesh most say…I say it is a type of heaven…and the walls were high…so high that no one could get through…Jesus said if you try to get in by climbing the wall, you will be cast out…you must come in by the door…read John Chapter 10! And so the children of Israel, a picture, a representative of all mankind…marches around for 7 days…silently and then shouts and the walls fall…

Jesus, the number 7 in a person, said nothing as they condemned Him. Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.”

And when He yelled out Father Father why have You forsaken Me…that shout tore down the walls of heaven to men!

You see it is so very clear! We must we must we must call upon the name of Jesus because we cannot stay here! No one does! And yet we remain eternal creation…the breath of life from God breathed into our very hearts…and so heaven or hell…your choice…but the choice of the truth? There’s none to be made…it is not Muhammad, it is not Budda or Mary Baker Eddy, it is not Joseph Smith, it is not L. Ron Hubbard, it is not Charles Taze Russell, Ellen G. White, or whoever is being worshipped as Pope, it’s not Michael, it’s not Gabriel, it’s not you!!!!

There is no authority over heaven there! Do you see it?   The truth is Jesus Christ and Him alone…so the only choice you need to make this morning…heaven or hell…homelessness, hopelessness or home and hope…your choice…This is why deep down we all feel as orphans…something missing…that we try to fill with all kinds of things…this is why! Because we are…but God has given us a home. So what about you? What’s your choice?