Mark 4a (9-3-25)

what's up everybody this is Pastor James welcome back to our midweek Bible study

today we're going to start chapter 4 and begin to take a look at the only

parables that Mark gives the readers of his gospel so let's read together verses

1 through 20 as we talk about the parable of the farmer scattering seed

once again Jesus began teaching by the lakeshore a very large crowd soon

gathered around him so he got into a boat then he sat in the boat while all

the people remained on the shore he taught them by telling many stories in

the form of parables such as this one listen a farmer went out to plant some

seeds as he scattered it across his field some of the seed fell on a footpath and

the birds came and ate it other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock

the seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow but the plant soon

wilted under the hot sun and since it didn't have deep roots it died another

seed fell among the thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plant so

they produced no grain still other seeds fell on fertile soil and they sprouted

and grew and produced a crop that was 30 60 and even a hundred times as much as

had been planted then he said anyone with ears to hear should listen and

understand later when Jesus was along with the twelve disciples and with the

others who were gathered around they asked him what the parables meant he

replied you are permitted to understand the secret of the kingdom of God but I

use parables for everything I say to outsiders so that the scriptures might

be fulfilled when they see what I do they will learn nothing when they hear

what I say they will not understand otherwise they will turn to me and be

forgiven then Jesus said to them if you can't understand the meaning of this

parable how will you understand all the other parables the farmer planted seeds

by taking God's word to others the seed that fell on the footpath

represents those who hear the message only to have Satan come at once and

take it away the seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message

and immediately receive it with joy but since they don't have deep roots they

don't last long they fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted

for believing God's word the seed that fell among the thorns represents others

who hear God's word but all too quickly the message is crowded out by

the worries of this life the lure of wealth and the desire for other things

so no fruit is produced and the seed that fell on good soil represents those

who hear and accept God's word and produce a harvest of 30 60 or even a

hundred times as much as has been planted okay so we see in verses 1 through 2

that Jesus is teaching by the lakeshore which was very common for him you're

gonna see this a lot especially in the Gospel of Mark it was also common that

large crowds would gather and that he would be forced to teach from a boat

because they would press in on him and so he would have to get into a boat

in order to avoid being completely surrounded but be able to keep a

distance close enough to be able to teach everyone everyone to be able to hear him

so you have to see that Jesus main objective was to teach now in the midst

of all this he healed the sick he cast out demons but the need to teach the

people was imminent as people had to choose to follow God and accept Jesus

as the Messiah who was sent from God and this was the important decision that

every person had to make for themselves so the parable that Mark starts off with

is the parable of the farmer scattering seed a lot of people would say however

this is the pair this should be named the parable of the soils or the

parable of hearts as the soils represents the hearts of people who are

receptive to the message of the gospel so the parables that Mark chose to share

with in his gospel are very relatable even to Roman readers you know in

Matthew he shares a ton of parables that were very relatable to Jewish people at

that time but these parables that Mark is sharing are very relatable to even

Roman readers and while many Romans may not have farmed they would have had a

general understanding of the necessity of farming and the importance of being

fed by what a farmer would produce and of the four listed you know three of the

four deal with the concept of seeds or sowing seeds or seeds growing and the

other last one deals with light which is necessity for all people and light is

even necessary for crops to grow and so the parables given in this chapter are

very relatable to anyone anywhere at any time even no matter the culture

that we live in so let's talk about these scattered seeds for a little bit

we're not going to spend a whole lot of time because this is a really familiar

passage of Scripture so in verses 3 through 9 Jesus gives the meat of the

parable probably the only thing to consider in this is the difference in

farming techniques during this time versus today the process of farming today

is much more scientific and expensive than in times past during this day a

farmer would simply plow as much land as he had and then he would go out in

these plowed fields and he would go out and he would cast or scatter seed by hand

across his field in a very non-systematic way there wasn't much

concerned with exactly where the seed landed across his field in this in

this concept there wasn't much concerned with exactly where the seed

landed or even a row necessarily most of the time they just let chance kind

of take care of the process and as a result the farmers usually got varying

results just according to where the seed landed which makes a lot of sense for

this parable and this is why many theologians say that this should be the

parable of the soils as the focus is not really on the farmer or the seed

but rather the condition of the soil as to the harvest that is produced from the

types of soil that it lands on but it is important to remember that even the

good soil produced varying amounts of harvest in the midst of this so each soil

is very unique and what is produced is unique as well so Jesus gives the final

challenge in the teaching that anyone with ears to hear should listen and

understand and there's a clear calling on everyone who hears this teaching

that they need to have a desire to listen and understand and we see in

verse 10 that even the disciples didn't really understand what this story meant as

Jesus was saying it now if you've heard this story before obviously you have an

understanding of it that is an advantage compared to the disciples and the other

people so they were kind of confused as to what Jesus exactly what Jesus was

trying to say and so this really should be encouraging to us as we read

this and even the disciples didn't understand because many times it's very

difficult for us to understand what the Lord is saying or trying to communicate

to us because sometimes we just don't get it and that's okay and and I think

that as we grow and mature in our faith that we have to be really careful not

to put those expectations on other people because then even in the midst

of that we can have unfair expectations on young immature Christians to

understand things that really like they shouldn't understand because they they

just don't know and we still don't understand everything God tries to

communicate to us so so this should be an encouraging passage but we need to

have the hearts and desire to approach the Lord and ask him to clarify or

reveal what it is that he's trying to say and that's the difference between the

disciples and the people following Jesus and the religious leaders and the other

people who didn't understand so Jesus reveals in verses 11 through 12 why he

teaches in these parables that can be seen as confusing and you got to notice

that they are directed towards outsiders they're directed towards people who do

not have the heart to pursue and humble themselves before God he's not

referring to Gentiles okay Jesus is not referring to non-jewish people but

rather he is referring to people with hard hearts who have no intention of

following God or seeking truth and so it takes when he speaks in parables it

takes an extra effort from an individual to understand the parable rather than

having something simple so clearly explained and we got to come to the one

giving the parable in order to understand the meaning of the parable

and those with hard hearts mainly the religious leaders of the day they had no

desire to come to Jesus and ask him to explain what he meant by this so that

they could have a better understanding they had already made up their minds

against Jesus they weren't gonna pursue him and ask for the understanding of

this they had already rejected it but if they did happen to come to Jesus and

seek the truth they would be forgiven this is why Jesus says hey if they did

understand if they did see it then they would they would seek repentance they

would seek to you know turn away from their sins and verse 13 reveals that

while there is a sort of riddle to the parable there is still a simplicity to

it Jesus graciously reveals the meaning to the disciples who come and simply

ask what it means like Lord what did you mean by this and Jesus willingly

tells them so it's not a big secret it's just this understanding that you

need to have a desire to come to Christ and he'll reveal it to you so the farmer

represents Christ in this passage in this parable or anyone else who takes the

word of God out to others so so theoretically if you are a Christian and

you're presenting the message of the gospel to people there's a reminder in

this that the seed is the message of the gospel and you know as we have the

opportunity to scatter that seed and present the message to other people that

Christ can work and move in the midst of that and the different soils represent

the condition of the hearts of people who receive the gospel and there are

many things in this world to distract us to hinder to take away to choke out

what God has always intended for us to have but we must be very intentional

about allowing God's Word to take root in our hearts and produce a harvest that

keeps producing more and more and more as time goes on and so I'm just

challenging as we read this today to really consider what your heart looks like

what is going on in your heart what kind of soil is my heart that's the

question we should be asking and we should be praying and crying out to Lord

please make my heart the good fertile soil where it will receive the message of

the gospel and it will produce a harvest 10 20 50 even a hundred times greater

than what fell on me that even more would be done in me and through me and

that's the kind of heart that we should have and only the people with

those hearts will be able to receive the message and produce a fruit so

that's what Jesus is saying all right let's read the parable of the lamp

verses 21 to 25 then Jesus asked them would anyone light a lamp and then put

it under a basket or under a bed of course not a lamp is placed on a stand

where its light will shine for everything that is hidden will

eventually be brought into the open and every secret will be brought to light

anyone with the ears to hear should listen and understand then he added pay

close attention to what you hear the closer you listen the more

understanding you will be given and you will receive even more to those who

listen to my teaching more understanding will be given but for those who are not

listening even what little understanding they have will be taken from them all

right so again very simple parable that Jesus is gives to all of us candles oil

lamps would have been a good bit more expensive to use in Jesus day than they

are now and it would have been crazy for people to like these things and then not

use that light for something beneficial you would literally be throwing away

money it's not just like leaving the light on in your home as electricity

although the cost is getting more expensive it's still leaving a light on

is not going to burn through hundreds of dollars of our money but in this day

to burn something and then not use the light from it would have been an extreme

waste and in the same way followers of Christ are expected to be the light of

the world and to let our light shine before all men the message of the

gospel is the most valuable thing in existence and for us to take the most

valuable thing that exists and to hide it and keep it to ourselves would be

crazy we need to be willing to share that with the world and so Jesus goes into

another area where things that are hidden will be revealed eventually so he's

talking about this aspect of listen there's nothing that's going to be hit

God's goal his primary purpose is to bring all things to lot to expose all

truths and as people sometimes one of our greatest temptations is to hide

things and it can be wrong to hide our love and devotion to God we should let it

shine on the other side of the coin it's wrong to hide things that we're

ashamed of like sins or shortcomings rebellion or hard-heartedness will be

tempted to hide those things because we know they're wrong and we don't want

people to see that but we need to deal with those things and be

transparent we need to repent of them and truly we should never be ashamed of

who we are because God has created us who we are and God will deal with all

things no matter how hard we try to hide them so we need to deal with

them openly as much as we possibly can now in verse 23 this gives us that same

encouragement that if we have ears we should listen and understand it shows

that everything Jesus is speaking of in this parable is able to be grasped and

understood verse 24 continues on with this encouragement as Jesus says that we

can understand and the more we understand the more understanding will be given and

that seems to be a common theme for people who follow Christ that the more

faithful we are in something that Jesus will give us more responsibility in it

he will entrust more to us he will give us more responsibilities and that

includes understanding so the more knowledge and understanding wisdom you

have and the more faithful you are in it the more God will give to you so

likewise in verse 25 this reveals that if we are not listening to the Lord then

what little bit of understanding we have will be taken away we will inevitably be

more foolish as a result of our stubbornness to rebel and not

understand and not listen and so we're gonna stop right there for today there's

our first two parables the next week we'll cover the next two so let's pray

together and I'll let you guys go father in heaven thank you so much for this

opportunity to be together thank you for your love and mercy I pray that you

speaking to our hearts and Lord as you said with those who have ears to hear

should listen and understand and what understanding we have even more will

be given but if we fail to understand and listen then what little we have

will be taken away Lord you bless us according to our heart our willingness

to submit to you and our willingness to to be obedient and so Lord I pray that

we would be obedient in a way that you would be able to trust us with much much

more understanding and wisdom and love and mercy and all kinds of other

blessings Lord they're there and you want to give them out and you want to

use them to bless other people with but Lord we need to prove ourselves

faithful and I pray that you would help us to do that today Lord we love you

we ask all us in Jesus name amen alright guys thanks for tuning in for

another week thank you for being a part of the Graham Chapel family as always if

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podcast we love you we're praying for you hope you have a great week