Mark 4 Chapter Study
So far Mark has shown us
Jesus authority and power, but only in a rather general way.
He’s
told us Jesus taught with authority, but he’s not really given us an example.
He’s
told us Jesus healed the multitude, but so far he’s only given a few examples.
In
chs. 4 & 5, Mark gives us examples of both Jesus teaching and miracles.
So far we’ve covered -
Tonight we begin with
1 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great
multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it
on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
Jesus is still in
People
are coming from as far away as a hundred miles, a journey of nearly a week by
foot.
While Jesus’ fame is growing
great among the common people, as we saw Sunday, the authorities had grown
gravely concerned, hoping Jesus would not turn out to be just one more of a
long line of trouble-makers that had prompted the Romans to take an even
harsher line with the Jews.
So
they tried to discredit Jesus with tough questions and challenges to some of
the things He was doing that offended their traditions.
Every
one of these challenges backfired badly, making them look foolish and Jesus
even more amazing.
As we read here in v. 1, the
crowd has grown so large they’re literally pressing into Jesus and He has to
climb into a boat and push off away from the shore.
Jesus
had asked for this very arrangement in 3:9 . . .
So He told His disciples that
a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they
should crush Him.
Get the picture; Jesus is in
the boat, the crowd is at the water’s edge.
If you’ve ever been at a lake
when the water is calm, you know that the surface of a lake acts as a great
sound reflector.
There
are potentially thousands of people in this crowd, yet in the right conditions,
as Jesus stood in that boat and talked back toward the multitude, He could have
been fairly easily heard by them all.
2 Then He taught them many things -- by
parables, and said to them in His teaching: 3 “Listen! Behold, [Look!]
Jesus begins with words which
speak to the senses.
He
arrests their attention with –“Listen!” Then He adds “Look!”
He
doesn’t mean their physical eyes but the eyes of their hearts.
He
wants them to be active listeners, seeking to understand what He’s saying.
He’s
about to tell them a story and He wants them to be fully engaged, listening
diligently & picturing the story with their imagination.
Why all of this is important
is the very purpose of this first parable.
3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by
the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
Got it – See it? A sower is sowing seed in a field.
As
he scatters the seed, some of it falls on the footpath that borders the field.
These
were trails & roads that skirted the border of nearly every field.
They’d
been beaten rock hard by the passage of thousands and thousands of feet for
generations.
No
sooner did the seed fall on these footpaths than birds flew down and snatched
them up.
5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not
have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root
it withered away.
The soil of
But
there’s one problem with the ground – it’s filled with rocks.
Before
a field can be used for crops, much work has to be invested in it to make it
profitable.
After
clearing the trees, it has to be gone through by many hands, pulling out the
rocks. These are then used in making
fences along one of the borders of the field.
But
the process of time & erosion sees more rocks work their way to the surface
and every few years the field needs to be cleaned again.
As the sower makes his way
through the field scattering seed, some of it falls on soil which has no depth;
it’s just a thin covering over a rocky patch.
As
the seed sprouts, the roots go down only a short distance and hit rock.
They
stop and the energy of the plant is re-directed into the stalk and branches and
leaves.
But
on the first hot day, as the sun is beating down on the plant, it burns and
withers because it had no root; nothing to supply the visible growth with water
and food.
7 And some seed fell among thorns; and
the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
In any field, there are some
seeds not planted by the sower. They’re
weeds – and no matter how much you work the soil, it seems the weeds will
always be there.
I’ve
noticed that weeds will sometimes tend to pop up in a specific area.
There’s
one spot in my front yard I’ve had a difficult time getting the chickweed out
of; it’s just one area right in the middle of the lawn!
Jesus said that as the sower
scattered seed, some of it fell into soil containing thornbush-seeds.
Everyone
in
They
were so hardy and determined they blocked the sunlight and stole the water and
food from other plants.
8 But other seed fell on good ground
and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold,
some sixty, and some a hundred.”
Some of the seed the sower
scattered fell on soil that had been well prepared.
It
sprouted and grew to produce a crop; in some places, 30 to 1, in other places
60 to 1, and in the best soil, 100 to 1.
9 And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
This was Jesus’ way of
calling them to look beyond the simple story to its deeper meaning.
And
in His words here in v. 9, we’re given a vital clue about understanding parables.
Because they were stories
Jesus told and the people heard, that’s the way we need to
approach them – not as words to look at and read and then parse to the finest
detail, making every word and phrase mean something deeply spiritual.
The
parables are not allegories in which everything has a symbolic meaning.
They
were stories Jesus told, in a specific setting and for a specific reason to communicate
a specific lesson.
They
always arose out of a context and such is the case here.
The crowd had come mostly
because of the miracles and healings Jesus performed.
Jesus
wanted to keep the focus on His message, His teaching.
He
told this parable of the sower to challenge the multitude with their motives in
seeking Him.
After
listening to Him each person there would be challenged to consider which kind
of soil they were.
10 But when He was alone, those around Him with the
twelve asked Him about the parable.
Mark breaks from the
narrative of Jesus telling parables by the lakeside to add this about the
disciples coming to Jesus later and asking Him to explain the parable of the
sower.
11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, 12 so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, And
hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And
their sins be forgiven them.’”
What Jesus says here is
something we could literally spend the whole night on.
Let me try to be brief. In the Bible, a mystery is a truth which
has been hidden and cannot be known by man through his own investigation or
ingenuity.
It’s
a truth which can only be known by the direct action of the Spirit of Truth.
An example of a mystery is
the Church.
In
the OT, there wasn’t a single hint that one day God would open wide the doors
of salvation to all people regardless of their national origin.
Salvation
came through the Covenant God made with Abraham, so if a Gentile wanted to be
saved, he/she had to become a Jew.
It
took the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ into heaven,
permitting the descent of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of all
those who are born again to make a new humanity that comprises the
Church in which now there is no such thing as Jew or Gentile.
But
these things were hidden from those who lived before Christ.
Jesus is telling the
disciples that because of their unique calling as His official followers,
things will be revealed to them the crowds will not hear.
While
the crowds will be taught only with parables, when Jesus speaks to them alone,
He will speak openly and clearly.
Now, 2 things to see here . .
.
1) This
ought to speak volumes to us about the importance of spending intimate time
with the Lord.
The
Lord speaks plainly to His followers, to those who come close to Him.
Indeed,
the whole idea of intimacy is based on communication, sharing, and the personal
knowledge that flows from it.
If
the extent of the time you spend with the Lord is what you get when you go to
church or Bible study, then really, you’re not much different from the crowd
that stood on the shore that day and heard Jesus speak in parables.
If
you want the goods, if you want the rich treasures of God, then spend some
quiet, private time with Him.
Just
sit down with your Bible, and with a prayerful heart – Listen! Look!
2) Jesus
used parables
with the crowds. But His reason for
doing so is troubling.
11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, 12 so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, And
hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And
their sins be forgiven them.’”
This
makes it look as though Jesus was purposefully hiding things from the
multitudes.
In
fact, this sounds like He wanted them to be left unforgiven!
But
that can’t be – after all, He came to die for the sins of the whole world, as
it says in 1 John 2:2.
So
what’s going on here? Jesus is quoting
from Isaiah 6.
In
that passage, God told Isaiah to speak His words to the people at a crucial
time in the history of
They
stood on a knife edge of decision; either they would ignore his call to
repentance and fall into national judgment, or they would repent and be
delivered.
Isaiah’s
message would serve one of two purposes;
1) to
those who were truly seeking God, they would hear it as the Word of God
and repent. – Or—
2) the
word would provoke their rebellious hearts to even more rebellion and
so judgment.
It’s
the whole analogy of the same sun that softens wax, hardens clay.
If
Isaiah’s day was a critical moment in the history of
As
we saw in our study last week in chs. 2 &3, the authorities have set
themselves in opposition to Jesus.
Matthew
tells us that even some among the common people were at this point beginning to
back away from Jesus.
So
Jesus switched from straight-forward teaching to parables because of this shift
in the way people were responding to Him.
To
those who are genuine seekers after God and His truth, the parables He tells
will illustrate
that truth and show them the path to Life.
But
for those who are hardening against Him the parables will obscure
the truth, and their reaction to the stories He tells will only affirm
and reveal the hardness of their hearts.
When
Jesus says at the end of v. 12
Lest they should
turn, And their sins be forgiven them.’”
He’s
speaking of those who are rejecting Him.
And
what He means is that because of Who He is The Son of God, The Word
of God itself, if He were to use straight reason and logic with His opponents,
His Words could actually FORCE them into acquiescence, and
God will never do that to convert someone.
In
other words, Jesus would not argue anyone into faith.
He
could have, but it would have been a form of force that is not the means or way
of God.
Remember,
He doesn’t take choice form us, He empowers it.
Jesus came to forgive sins –
but they must be sins a person WANTS forgiven.
God
doesn’t force anyone into forgiveness.
13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you
understand all the parables?
This parable of the sower is
the key
for understanding each of the parables.
But
remember, a parable was meant to teach one main lesson, one big idea.
Jesus
is going to explain what the various parts of the parable refer to in a
spiritual sense, but don’t let that obscure the story’s bottom line.
14 The sower sows the word.
So the seed in the parable is
the Word of God.
Who
would that make the sower? In this case,
Jesus, but really, anyone who spreads the word of God.
15 And these are the ones by the wayside where
the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the
word that was sown in their hearts.
In the parable, it was birds
that snatched up the seed – so the birds represent the devil.
The
seed was sown on soil, but here the word is sown where? In hearts.
This
seed fell on soil that was beaten hard by the world. It never took root but was
forgotten as quickly as it was heard
16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony
ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.
Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake,
immediately they stumble.
The shallow rocky soil speaks
of people who have a quick, initial excitement at the Word of God, but never
develop any spiritual depth.
When
trials come, and especially challenges to their faith – since there’s no real
spiritual strength, there’s nothing to sustain them and they fall way.
18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they
are the ones who hear the word, 19
and the cares of this
world, the deceitful-ness of riches, and the desires for other things entering
in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
The thorns represent the
cares & love of this world which rise up to squeeze out the Word that’s
been sown in a person’s heart.
20 But these are the ones sown on good ground,
those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold,
some sixty, and some a hundred.”
The seed sown on good soil is
the word of God that’s actively received by the one who hears it.
It
produces spiritual fruit; in some at one rate, in others at different rates.
It
isn’t the rate of yield that’s so important as the fact that there IS
a return, a result; there must be fruit from the spiritual seed sown.
What’s the bottom line of
this parable? What lesson is it seeking
to impart?
Think
about its context. Where did Jesus say it?
What’s the setting?
He’s
standing in a boat just offshore because the crowd has gotten too pushy in
their desire to get to Him to see the miraculous.
He
challenges them with their motive for being there! Why are they there?
The
whole time they’ve He’s been with them He’s been proclaiming the Word of God to
them!
What
difference, if any, is it making in their lives?
Are
they different today because of what He said yesterday and the day before?
Is
there any real change in their lives for the time they’ve been trying to get to
Him?
Most of the Pharisees were
like the wayside – their hearts were hard.
As soon as Jesus spoke, because they had set themselves to opposed
Jesus, as soon as He spoke the devil came and snatched away the words.
If
you had asked them the next day what Jesus had taught on, they wouldn’t have
remembered or cared.
Many more of the people heard
Jesus and got all excited at the authority with which He spoke – they were
amazed at the seeming novelty with which He taught.
And
they were all abuzz about what He said.
But
because they never really took the time to see how what Jesus was saying spoke
to them personally, about what God was looking for in them, as soon as someone
challenged them on it, they threw up their hands and said they didn’t really
know
For
them, Jesus ended up becoming little more than a fad, another pacing fancy, an
exciting event to occupy their attention and entertain them for a few months.
Some of the people heard
Jesus and realized His words spoke to something deep within them.
They
heard and decided to give attention to what He said – kind of like test driving
a new philosophy, a new way of thinking.
And
as reasonable and appealing as God’s Word from Christ’s lips was, when it came
right down to it, when that Truth came into conflict with their desires for the
things of this world, the world won out.
But there were some there who
heard in Jesus the Voice of heaven.
They
understood His Words were life. They
heard them gladly and sought to live them out faithfully.
The challenge to the crowd
there that days was to consider HOW they were listening to Jesus.
Did
they consider their hearts as they listened?
Did
they realize that they weren’t judging His words – His words were judging them
and that judgment came by what effect the Word had on them.
Friend – how’s your heart
tonight?
Is
it hard
because it’s been a footpath for the world?
Do
you give so much attention to the world, to its values, ideas, & ways that
your heart is like a highway the world travels along 24 hours a day?
I
know that there are lots of people who come in here and sit among us who
physically hear the word, but never let it into their hearts.
Their
body is here but their minds are somewhere else; at the club, at work, at home
watching the tube, off in some dark corner doing who knows what.
How’s your heart tonight?
Is
it shallow? Do you come and listen and say, “Jesus is
cool! I like Jesus; He’s an amazing
guy! And wow, I didn’t know this old
book could be so relevant and interesting.”
You
get emotional while you’re hear and think, “This is great.”
But
as soon as you walk out the door, and the trails of daily life return, you look
at Church, and Bible study, and that whole Jesus thing as just a diversion,
like going to the movie, only more wholesome?
Friend – how’s your heart
tonight?
Is
it strangled? Do you recognize the truth of God’s Word and
vainly wish you could be a stronger believer, but when it comes right down to
it, whenever it’s a choice between the world and God, the world wins and the
Word goes out the window?
The good soil that produced a
harvest was soil that had been prepared.
It
had been broken up, cleared of stones, cultivated, weeded, watered, and fed.
When
Jesus ends the parable with the words in v. 9 –
“He who has ears to hear, let
him hear!”
He
means precisely that we cannot be passive hearers with the Word
of God.
We
must be active hearers – one’s who prepare their hearts by repenting of
sin and renouncing the things that would oppose and choke out the Word.
Mark now returns to the
narrative of Jesus speaking to the crown on the shore.
In
vs. 21-25, Mark gives a rapid-fire burst of some of Jesus’ sayings.
The
way they’re given here it seems they all go together, but comparing Mark’s to
Matthew’s gospel shows these things were all said as single lessons.
21 Also He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?
Is it not to be set on a lampstand?
No one lights a lamp and then
puts it in hiding.
It’s
put in the place where it can light the most area.
It’s
light’s very nature to expose, illuminate, reveal.
What’s
true of light is true of truth.
God sent the Son into the
world to bear witness of the truth and He was not going to allow Him to be
denied or hidden away by His opponents.
22 For there is nothing hidden which will not
be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to
light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
God is the great searcher of
men’s hearts and in he final judgment, all motives and secrets will be
revealed.
All
that is except those of the saints. For
what God forgives in Christ, He forgets.
24 Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it
will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.
Jesus pulls an illustration
from the marketplace here.
Many
of the goods sold in the stalls of the market were weighed out by a set of
scales.
Some
merchants had three sets of weights; one lighter when selling, one heavier when
buying, and one accurate set when being investigated.
Jesus
is saying, the standard we use in dealing with others will be the one used on
us.
And if we are diligent in
attending to the Lord, we’ll find that He opens His words to us in increasing
measure.
25 For whoever has, to him more will be given;
but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Those who receive truth in
the Person and teaching of Jesus, and act on it, will receive more.
But
those who reject that truth will ultimately lose what little sense of
what is right and true they do have.
26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the
ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day,
and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the
head, after that the full grain in the head.
29 But when the grain
ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
[Sunday]
30 Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable
shall we picture it? 31 It is like a mustard seed which, when it is
sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; 32 but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs,
and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its
shade.”
The mustard seed is not
the smallest of all the seeds; it wasn’t then & isn’t now, & Jesus knew
it.
What
He refers to here is a mustard seed which is itself tiny compared to other
mustard seeds.
The
word “tiny” carried the connotation of something which was insignificant, and that’s
the point – this seed has nothing within it which would cause the world to give
it any attention; it’s a thing despised.
But
it’s planted, and ends up growing into this massive tree that towers above all
other plants.
Again,
this isn’t the normal nature of the mustard plant, which is normally just a
shrub and no tree at all.
So
Jesus tells a story about a seed which begins as something the world considers nothing,
and it grows into something so big it can’t be missed.
If
the world likes big, then this tree is adored – and perching in its
branches are birds who make their home there.
Now,
in the parable of the sower, what did birds represent? The devil.
This parable is meant to
illustrate that the earthly manifestation of the Kingdom of God will begin as
something the world despises, but over time, it will grow into something it was
never meant or designed to be, and it will end up being the habitation of evil.
A
perfect review of Church history from the death and burial of Christ right up through
the End Times Apostate Church.
33 And with many such parables He spoke the word to them
as they were able to hear it. 34 But without a parable He did
not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His
disciples.
Now Mark is going to give us
3 examples of Jesus’ power.
First
we have an example of His power of nature.
Second,
His power over the spiritual realm.
Third,
His power over death.
35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to
them, “Let us cross over to the
other side.”
It’s been a long day of
controversy with the scribes from Jerusalem, with His own family who’d come and
tried to convince Him to return with them to Nazareth.
The
crowd’s been pressing Him hard all day and so after a lengthy time of teaching
them Jesus knows He needs rest/
He’s
not going to get it in Capernaum where all the crowds are, so he tells the disciples
to take Him to the other side of the lake.
36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him
along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.
The other boats might be some
of the crowd who strung along, or they may have carried the rest of the
disciples.
These
boats weren’t that big and 13 guys in one would have been pushing it badly, so
the other boats were most likely just the other disciples.
Remember
that Peter, Andrew, James and John had all been commercial fishermen and had
boats docked there at Capernaum.
37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into
the boat, so that it was already filling.
Galilee lies about 630 ft.
below sea level and is hemmed in by a circle of hills cut by deep ravines.
During
the early evening, as the surrounding elevations are cooling off, the hot air
in the lake depression continues to rise.
This
creates a vacuum over the lake that the cooler air from the heights rushes in
to fill.
Within
a matter of minutes the Galilee can go from placid and serene to a raging
torrent. And that’s what happened here.
The
waves were so tall they were continually rolling over the sides of the boat.
38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they
awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Jesus was exhausted from the
day’s labors, and even though the situation appeared desperate, Jesus was sound
asleep in the back of the boat.
They
waited till the boat was in danger of sinking, then they frantically woke Him
and cried out a word of accusation toward Him – “Don’t you care that we’re
gonna’ die?!?!”
39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the
sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Marks makes it clear, the
change was immediate!
Even
more suddenly that the storm came up, it ended.
40 But He said to them,
Again, the way Mark writes
makes it clear that as soon as Jesus spoke to the sea, He turned to the
disciples and spoke to them -
“Why are you so
fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
Faith and fear are mutually
exclusive.
Jesus
poses them a simple question – how is it that they lack the faith that would
conquer their fear in the midst of the storm?
Was
a fear of dying in that storm a reasonable fear?
The
answer is, in that moment, with Jesus there in their boat – no.
The
trip had begun with Jesus telling them to take Him across the lake; that
implies they’ll make it to the other side.
Also,
He’d given them more than abundant evidence He was the Messiah, and it wasn’t
likely The Father was going to let the Messiah’s mission be lost to an
accidental drowning.
41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another,
“Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
If they’d been afraid of
dying in the storm, the calm that came at Jesus’ command terrified them even
more!
To me, this is one of both
the funniest and comforting stories in the Bible.
I
can’t help but find the reaction of the disciples to Jesus after He calmed the
storm hilarious!
I
mean, it’s so classic – He rebukes their fear by saying they ought to believe
in Him, and that that faith would preserve them.
But
then they become even more terrified AT Him when He reveals His power
over nature.
Their
reaction ought to have been – not terror, but the utmost confidence &
peace.
Just as Jesus told the
disciples to take Him across the lake, He tells us to take Him with us as we
live our daily lives. Each day is one
more lake we are called to cross.
And
just as they ran into a squall, a storm that threatened their lives, so we’ll
run into all kinds of storms and trials in this life.
God
never promised us smooth sailing.
Being
a Christian is not the guarantee of a trouble free life – on the contrary,
Jesus said that in this life we’d have tribulation.
But
He said we could be joyous in the midst of those trials, confident that His
victory over sin and death would be ours as well!
The fact of the matter is
folks, if that storm hadn’t come down on them that night they would have missed
out on the greater revelation of Jesus as Lord of Nature.
You
and I can only experience Jesus as the Lord of our circumstances when those
circumstances rise against us and He comes to rescue us.
We
can only discover Him to be the Faithful Friend when we need Him to come through
for us.
So
He’ll let the storms come, the trials happen – all so that we can come out the
other side with a greater faith in Him as a loving, faithful God.