A Different Kind of Kingdom

What tastes better than it smells?

Answer: Your tongue

When is a door no longer a door?

Answer: When it’s ajar

What can you put in a bucket to make it weigh less?

Answer: A hole

What is at the end of a rainbow?

Answer: The letter “w”

So far we have seen the scope of Jesus ministry. Teaching, discipling, healing, casting out demons. And yet, when looking at the same group of events there are incredibly different reactions to them.

Some look at Jesus and listen passively but do nothing with it

some reject it violently

others follow Jesus.

The Kingdom Paradox

What is a paradox

The disciples in Mark 4:10 will ask Jesus about the parables, Jesus will answer that the parables give them “the secret to the kingdom of God.” What we will see in the parables is how the kingdom of God is drastically different than the kingdoms of this world. That the values in the kingdom are different than the values we are often told.

For something to be a paradox means that a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.

-It often is a shock to us, it is meant to sound absurd.

-In fact, it will be so absurd that the disciples are going to be confused by it. They won’t understand the parables until after Jesus has risen from the dead.

Therefore, what I, and Jesus, want you to believe is that the absurd is the true. It isn’t the “easily believed” thing that is often the right thing to believe.

You might think about it like a cartoon. You can read a cartoon because it is funny, often that is why people initially read a cartoon. But others think critically about what the cartoon means, the intended meaning of it. Now you may agree or disagree with the meaning, but you can recognize something behind just the storytelling.

Main point: God has revealed His plan through His Word to those who listen and believe by faith.

It isn’t about those who are close in proximity to Jesus. It is about who is an insider and who is an outsider. It is about hearing, believing, and bearing fruit as Jesus will say in v. 20. To allow the Spirit to open our eyes to the truth and believe it.

The parables Jesus will confirm what was already true in someone’s heart.

Listening to the kingdom

Mark will use the idea of “hearing” many times throughout Mark 4 and in the book. This isn’t just about being able to just listen to the content, but to allow what you are hearing to grab your attention, to listen.

I think this is one of the problems in our world. We don’t “hear”, we just consume content. We know the opinion a person holds, but instead of engaging them we either agree or disagree. We take it as a point of someone in our “Camp” or someone against us that we need to battle. But behind every political opinion, every belief, social media post, is someone asking others to listen to them. The problem is that people are wanting others to listen but all they get is engagement. Jesus LISTENS. Over and over we will see that when the Pharisees talk, when people come for healing, when the disciples ask him a question. He doesn’t just hear and respond, he listens and engages them at the root of what they say. He understands the Pharisees questions not to be about the questions but about who they think He is. People coming for healing but what they really need is salvation. The disciples try and understand the kingdom, but He see’s that they misunderstand the kingdom. So when Jesus asks them to “hear”, it is because Jesus is the greatest hearer.

This is important as we get to the first parable, where the discussion is about how we listen to the truth of the Gospel and respond to it. That’s why the first word that Jesus says is “Listen!”

Jesus describes three seeds that go on various types of difficult soil.

First, is the seed that fell along the path. You can imagine as the sower goes out to sow that he throws seed in a general direction, some of this falls on the path next to the field where it isn’t ploughed.

-Typically, a farmer would plow before he sowed seed

-The sowing that happens seems almost wasteful to us. Why put seed where it most likely won’t grow? Because the harvest of the kingdom can come from unlikely places.

-What is evident is that the Gospel is proclaimed in many settings and to different kinds of listeners. That the Gospel goes to many places.

As Jesus explains the parable to his disciples he will emphasize how the growth is based on who is willing to be discipled. Who is willing to listen and be changed by what they heart.

Others fall into a form of superficial hearing.

They hear but immediately ignore it

Those who hear and receive, but after a while they fall away, they no longer have the urgency of the Gospel they first had.

Those who hear, receive, and even grow. But they allow for all the worries and deceits of the world to choke out their faith.

Revealing the kingdom

We believe and welcome others into the kingdom. There will be many who hear the words of Jesus and will not understand them. It is needs to be revealed, or “enlightened” to them so that they can be changed by it. That anyone who hears can come to Jesus. When we think of the word “revelation” we think of the end times. But it is just a word meaning that someone has been revealed that was once hidden. It is to make clear what once was not understood.

John 8:12 “Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.””

As we “pay attention” to what we hear we are able to understand the kingdom. Those who listen to the words of Jesus and bear fruit will be given more. But those who do not continue to listen and obey will not be given as much.

This is part of the paradox though, because just as Jesus is revealed he is also hidden to those who are there with him. And in some ways Jesus does not share with others who He really is, He keeps it secret, while at the same time His actions make clear who He is.

The next two parables that Jesus shares emphasize the importance of patience in the Christian walk. We are called to grow in our Christian walk, and we don’t know when the Lord will return, nor when He will take us, but the harvest will come.

Also, the kingdom grows in a slow but pervasive way. We don’t always see the impact of the kingdom in peoples lives, or in our world. In fact, the countries that have the largest growth of Christians are countries where they can’t even shared their faith publicl.

The kingdom, revealed - Mark 4:35-5:20

We see the fruit of the kingdom in our lives

Jesus, calms the storm. He does so just by speaking, it is His WORD that calms the storm and calms the chaos. Just like God made order out of the chaos from the very beginning. In fact, this story brings us back to creation, where God ordered all of creation and made Adam and Eve to look over creation. They were supposed to.

-It also reminds us of the story of Jonah where God stills the storm because of his wrath towards Jonah. But we will see later that Jesus is the one who will give His life for those on the boat.

-It shows us also how God does hear us when we have worries and fears, even when God is in control of everything before us.

-Faith and fear can’t co-exist in our hearts. We can’t trust in God but at the same time fear the world. We can’t believe God cares for us while at the same time go through life doing things our own way.

Jesus asks them why they are afraid and if they still have faith. It isn’t that they don’t “know” enough, it is that they doubt Jesus’ mission.

Their fear that Jesus could calm the storm exceeds their original fear of the storm.

Then we have the story of the demon-possess man. He was unable to be subdued, no one could prevent him from creating the chaos.

The region where this man lived was the place where where the Roman soldiers were occupying, where there were unclean pigs that Jews wouldn’t eat, and an unclean spirit in a man living in unclean tombs.

The demons want to stop Jesus from being in this area, they don’t want him to infect their uncleanness with his cleanness.

The demons calls Jesus “son of the most high”. It knows the power that Jesus has.

This man has a name, Legion, there are many demons in this man.

Once Jesus removes the demons the man sat there “in his right mind”. And the people were afraid. Again, people are afraid at the power of Jesus. Even though things have come to “peace”, people don’t know what to do with this peace.

We get used to the chaos, to the craziness around us. In fact, sometimes we love it. We like to hear the gossip at school, we like to know the drama on social media, we argue with others and get angry while at the same time not wanting it to stop.

What we have here is the kingdom, revealed. The peace that comes with the Messiah. Yet sometimes we don’t want the peace that God offers us.

Jesus sends the man to proclaim to others what had happened. He is sent to share the Gospel.