Mark 4:10-35

[snapstur]

@Shield> let's go to Scripture.

@Shield> the Gospel of Mark

@Shield> chapter 4

@Shield> I invite you to open your Bibles or Bible software to that text

@Shield> Last week we went on a group scavenger hunt in chapter four

@Shield> we discovered that Jesus shared a parable and later explained it to his disciples.

@Shield> it was an agrarian parable, speaking of seeds and their ability to grow in various types of soil and terrain.

@Shield> Jesus explained the parable this way...

@Shield> He said, 14 The farmer sows the word.

@Shield> 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

@Shield> 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.

@Shield> 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

@Shield> 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;

@Shield> 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

@Shield> 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-- thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."

@Shield> We left off at verse 20 last week in our exploration of the text...

@Shield> tonight we press on

@Shield> 21 He said to them, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand?

@Shield> 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.

@Shield> 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."

@Shield> 24 "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-- and even more.

@Shield> Consider carefully....

@Shield> This set of parables is often misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused

@Shield> often by well meaning folks who were taught from worldviews, rather from the context of the Scripture

@Shield> I realize that is a provocative statement

@Shield> but I want to set us on our guard, after the lead of Jesus, who himself said we should consider carefully

@Shield> remember

@Shield> this text is part of the larger narrative of the entire chapter four of Mark

@Shield> it flows out of the parable of seed and various kinds of soil

@Shield> we are reminded that the various kinds of soil yielded different results

@Shield> some seed fell by the wayside

@Shield> some seed was choked off

@Shield> some seed took root deeply

@Shield> and so on

@Shield> Jesus had this in mind as he continued with his teaching, with his parables

@Shield> Indeed, what is hidden is meant to be disclosed...

@Shield> Indeed what is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open...

@Shield> One way to read those verses is simply to recognize is that is the point of parables.

@Shield> Parables, which Jesus used with the Pharisees and religious leaders, often mystified people

@Shield> Jesus spoke the explanations clearly to the disciples later on.

@Shield> The reason people remained mystified is because, like the weeds that choked the seed, they were not ready soil in their hearts.

@Shield> The Pharisees were prime examples of this.

@Shield> Jesus said, with what measure you use, it will be measured to you--and even more.

@Shield> remember the parable of the various kinds of soil...

@Shield> 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

@Shield> on the face of it, taken alone, that seems unjust.

@Shield> But Jesus, who is our Judge, surely is just.

@Shield> So how do we reconcile this difficult passage?

@Shield> 26 He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.

@Shield> back to our agrarian parable...

@Shield> 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

@Shield> 28 All by itself the soil produces grain-- first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

@Shield> 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

@Shield> 30 Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?

@Shield> remember, the tension of the apparent unjust statement continues to hold in the balance...

@Shield> 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground.

@Shield> 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

@Shield>3 3 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.

@Shield> 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

@Shield> tito, you had a comment?

tito> yes

tito> I compare the parable in verse 24

tito> to the parable in matt chap 25

tito> when numerous servants were given different number of talents

tito> they each had an obligation

tito> he that did not multiply

tito> lost the talent

@Shield> thank you for sharing tito

@Shield> Here is the tension, in my view, which I would like to bring to your attention

@Shield> I think there is much emphasis on some surface notions, or even cultural notions of faith which are applied to this series of parables.

@Shield> I think sometimes we are at risk of missing the deeper point

@Shield> remember,

@Shield> context, context, context

@Shield> the Pharisees were out to get Jesus

@Shield> they were watching him to trip him up

@Shield> the religious leaders as well

@Shield> they laid in wait, literally, as he moved about sharing with the masses.

@Shield> He knew this.

@Shield> His word cut to the heart of the matter.

@Shield> and I do mean heart

@Shield> that core of who we are, that center of our being which chooses, our will,

@Shield> It is fair to say, that the Pharisees had become very barren soil, for all their knowledge of the Hebrew Bible.

@Shield> or soil which was rife with thorns.

@Shield> choking the very word which they revered from their cultural point of view

@Shield> Jesus confronted their hardness of heart quite pointedly

@Shield> and also the hardness of those folks who were influenced by the religious leaders

@Shield> It causes me to ask some pointed questions

@Shield> We are learning, in this series on Mark, to ask who, what, where, when, and so on

@Shield> and also why

@Shield> It is also important to ask, what does this imply?

@Shield> Next week we will visit the disciples on the boat as the storm kicks up and they become aggravated at Jesus’ apparent lack of concern for their welfare.

@Shield> And he will ask them a pointed question which brings to mind all we have explored in chapter four.

@Shield> He will ask them a question of implication.

@Shield> Or said another way, what does this imply?

@Shield> I will let you read it for yourselves and invite you to return next week, but before we go, I ask each of us to consider this

@Shield> Given that we are just as susceptible to varying states of readiness to hear the word....

@Shield> whether it be barren

@Shield> or choked off by weeds

@Shield> what implications does the parable have for us, right where we are at?

@Shield> as individuals

@Shield> as a community

@Shield> as families

@Shield> is the soil of our hearts tilled so that as we hear God's word, we are ready to bear fruit which multiplies like the seed of a mustard tree?

@Shield> or

@Shield> do we already know it all

@Shield> do we think this stuff really doesn’t apply to us

@Shield> I don't know where you are at in your journey with the Lord God through Jesus Christ

@Shield> only you and God know that.

@Shield> but I invite you to consider these questions soberly this evening.

@Shield> let's pray

@Shield> Receive our thanks, Lord, for your wonderful work in our hearts.

@Shield> May we continue to press in to your word

@Shield> may we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, Jesus Christ

@Shield> amen.

tito> amen

Snapstur> Amen

carol> amen

GentleDove> amen

Deacon> Amen

@Shield> next week...