Mark 4 Part 1 (1-13,
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The Text
The Text
1 Again He began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around Him. So He got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was on the shore facing the sea. 2 He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said to them: 3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, this occurred: Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it sprang up right away, since it didn’t have deep soil. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it didn’t have a root, it withered. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce a crop. 8 Still others fell on good ground and produced a crop that increased 30, 60, and 100 times what was sown.” 9 Then He said, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!” 10 When He was alone with the Twelve, those who were around Him asked Him about the parables. 11 He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables 12 so that they may look and look, yet not perceive; they may listen and listen, yet not understand; otherwise, they might turn back— and be forgiven.” 13 Then He said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any of the parables?
Jesus using parables
Jesus using parables
Mark 4:1–2 (HCSB)
1 Again He began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around Him. So He got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was on the shore facing the sea. 2 He taught them many things in parables
Have you ever had a favorite teacher?
What made them your favorite teacher?
Do you remember anything they taught you?
Do you remember the day that someone taught you that 5x5 is 25?
Probably not.
My favorite teachers bar none have been the ones who knew how to tell a good story.
I think a big reason why this is so is that teaching is at the end of the day a form of discipleship.
When we learn as children, we usually don’t get to pick our teachers, but we learn to admire some of them and if you ever had a really good teacher you probably patterned yourself after them in some way.
It’s even more this way as an adult. If you pursue higher education, you get the chance to select who you learn under to an extent.
If you’re a reader, you know that the people that you read form you, and there are some authors who you can trust implicitly.
For me that’s basically C.S. Lewis and Charles Spurgeon.
So what makes you want to follow people like this?
What makes you want to be formed in their school?
The character of their life.
And stories animate people to us in a way that sticks in our memory.
Today we are going to spend some time pondering one reason why Jesus used parables in His teaching,
but for now we can say that He used parables because it was a tried and true method of teaching going all the way back in time.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke D. Parables about the Kingdom of God (4:1–34)
Parables are the most striking feature in the teaching of Jesus. Although he did not invent this form of teaching (parables are found both in the OT and in the writings of the rabbis), he used it in a way and to a degree unmatched before his time or since.
The Sunday school definition of a parable—“an earthly story with a heavenly meaning”—is good as far as it goes. Many parables are stories taken out of ordinary life, used to drive home a spiritual or moral truth. But they are not always stories. Sometimes they are brief similes, comparisons, analogies, or even proverbial sayings. The Greek word parabolē (lit., “something placed along side”) includes all these meanings. The word most often used in the OT is māšal. This can include anything from a simple metaphor to an elaborate story.
It makes perfect sense that the same God who orchestrates the Grand Story, would be a really good teller of story while He’s with us on earth.
Many of Jesus’ parables are part of our public consciousness now.
Pearls before swine
Squeezing a camel through the eye of a needle.
Stories with a memorable hook tend to stick in our minds.
Penrod’s poop brownie story.
So this is the way Jesus teaches:
2 And he began to teach them many things in parables, and was saying to them in his teaching, 3 “Listen! Behold, the sower went out to sow. 4 And it happened that while he was sowing, some seed fell on the side of the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up at once, because it did not have any depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose it was scorched, and because it did not have enough root, it withered. 7 And other seed fell among the thorn plants, and the thorn plants came up and choked it, and it did not produce grain. 8 And other seed fell on the good soil, and produced grain, coming up and increasing, and it bore a crop—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.
And then He said:
9 Then He said, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!”
This is going to be a really key note for understanding what’s coming next.
Obviously Jesus is not speaking to a generation of ear-less Israelites.
He’s talking about their hearts, and whether or not they are faithful hearts.
Why Parables?
Why Parables?
10 When He was alone with the Twelve, those who were around Him asked Him about the parables. 11 He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables 12 so that they may look and look, yet not perceive; they may listen and listen, yet not understand; otherwise, they might turn back— and be forgiven.”
This is arguably the hardest verse in the entire gospel of Mark to unpack.
It looks like Jesus is actively trying to prevent people from being saved.
Is that true?
We must always interpret scripture with scripture.
9 The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
and
4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” This is the declaration of the Lord God. “Instead, don’t I take pleasure when he turns from his ways and lives?
32 For I take no pleasure in anyone’s death.” This is the declaration of the Lord God. “So repent and live!
It is God’s desire for all people to be saved.
Simultaneously, He is a just judge that will punish evil.
When you go to vote, you have sometimes have the option to vote on whether or not to retain a judge.
If you knew a judge was a maniac who took great pleasure in slamming the gavel of punishment down on anyone who walked into his courtroom you would say
“That’s a bad judge.”
What makes a good judge?
One who executes justice impartially, and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
What we are dealing with in this text is Jesus, Yahweh of old, walking amongst His chosen people, and they are rejecting Him.
They have always rejected Him.
Which is no wonder he employs language from Isaiah at a time when He, the same Yahweh of old, was gearing up to discipline an apostate Israel from a different generation.
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “I am here! Send me!” 9 And he said, “Go and say to this people, ‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend! And keep on looking and do not understand!’ 10 Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend with its mind and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
Here is a reality that we must wrestle with from scripture.
At times, when men are hardened in their hearts towards God, Yahweh, being sovereign and knowing all, will harden their hearts even more as a means of bringing about justice.
My Papa was famous for letting people experience the consequences of their own actions.
Electric Fence.
Head beating.
This is also something a good judge will do.
A good judge can cause a hardened criminal to display their true colors before a jury.
This is what he does with Pharoah.
Exodus famously lays a out a scenario where we are told that both Pharoah and God hardened Pharoah’s heart.
We are the jury, and God the judge is displaying the evidence.
Jesus is talking to all Israelites here.
Here’s what we learn when Jesus says to His disciples:
11 He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables
There are those who are Israelites who will be considered “outside”.
Belonging to the covenant is not enough to be saved.
Going to church will not save you.
Your grandma being a dear old christian will not save you.
Praying will not save you.
Believing that God exists will not save you.
Having faith in Jesus Christ as your only hope in life and death will.
And here is where reading this passage in context brings it all into view.
Parable of the Sower Explained
Parable of the Sower Explained
Don’t you understand this parable?
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke 3. Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower (4:13–20)
“The blindness of men is so universal that even the disciples are not exempt from it”
- Charles Cranfield
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones beside the path where the word is sown, and whenever they hear it, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 And these are like the ones sown on the rocky ground, who whenever they hear the word immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but are temporary. Then when affliction or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among the thorn plants—these are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word and it becomes unproductive. 20 And those are the ones sown on the good soil, who hear the word and receive it and bear fruit—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.”
We could walk through each of these and think of examples for each of them.
But Jesus already did.
The longer you walk with Jesus the more you will see examples of all of these.
But when we look at the big picture message of the parable, there are two different ways of looking at it.
We can be pessimists with no faith and say, “Look how God is thwarted by all sorts of stuff”
Or we can say
“Look at how God sows His Word freely and liberally all over the earth.”
I am comforted by the fact that God is not thwarted by Satan, or anything that stands against God, but freely offers His word to all that would hear it all the same.
NEXT WEEK: So how do we make sure we are people who are rooted.
Draw near to the master.
Calming the sea.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
2. Protect each other.
Parenting analogy.
You aren’t meant to weather every storm by yourself.
But for now, let’s try and unify the message of this chapter.
The message is a message of hope for God’s people.
In that same passage that Jesus is quoting from Isaiah it seems like things are getting worse, and then they get better.
11 Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And He replied: Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate, 12 and the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land. 13 Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again. Like the terebinth or the oak that leaves a stump when felled, the holy seed is the stump.
In the midst of adversity, punishment, plague, and death, there is a remnant of God’s people.
10 For just as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and they do not return there except they have watered the earth thoroughly and cause it to bring forth and sprout, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall be my word that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me without success, but shall accomplish what I desire and be successful in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in joy, and you shall be led in peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you, rejoicing and all the trees of the field shall clap hands. 13 Instead of the thorn bush, the juniper shall go up; instead of the brier, the myrtle shall go up, and it shall serve as a memorial to Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
God’s Word WORKS
And what’s the result?
Not a thornbush.
Not a passing sign of the cursed ground that can burn up...
The result of God’s Word is like a cypress tree.
Cypress trees can be 1000 years old.
This is the image at the end of the story,
Tree of Life
Healing the Nations
What tree do we point to as an everlasting sign in this age?
The cross.
The cross isn’t just about the defeat of sin and satan, it’s about the crowning of a king.
6 For a child has been born for us; a son has been given to us. And the dominion will be on his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His dominion will grow continually, and to peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and sustain it with justice and righteousness now and forever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.
The parables that will follow in this chapter are going to speak to the continual growth of the kingdom.
The message for us is that if you feel like the spiritual equivalent of a stump, then you are in good company. Because you are in the company of the remnant people of God.
Gravestone analogy.
Our faith starts in a grave.
But it doesn’t stay there.
It gets grafted into this 1000 year old cypress tree we call Christ.
Your faith may be rooted in a gravestone, but God will graft you in to His people.
The fertile soil for the growing of your faith is in His own body.
It’s in the church.
