Message from Mark 4:21-34
Just a bit of review from the last post on the book of Mark and that post was from Mark 4:1-20 talking about the parable of the soils. We remember that the reason that Jesus began to teach in parables in Mark chapter four was because the Scribes and the Pharisees from that part of Israel were accusing Jesus of doing His miracles in the power of Satan and so it was at the time the Jesus told them that they had committed the unpardonable sin, the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God.
Jesus started His parable teaching with an evangelist parable about different soils or hearts to which the message of the gospel would affect. There was only one type of soil or heart that would produce fruit and that is the good soil to which an increase would be between 30 to 100% would be produced. Jesus then went on to teach with another parable.
The Lamp (vv. 21-25): “21 ¶ And He was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? 22 "For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. 23 "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 24 And He was saying to them, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. 25 "For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.’”
I believe that we can concur that when we see the words “saying to them” that Jesus is still speaking to His apostles and disciples. Also the phrase “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” is found eight other times in the Scriptures, as Jesus would repeat this statement to all of the seven churches in the book of Revelations and then again later on in the book of Revelations it will be seen again. When used in the book of Revelations we will see “to what the Spirit says to the Churches” added to the seven churches, but not added in Revelations 13:9.
Warren Wiersbe gives this description of the “lamp” as used during the time of this parable: “In this parable, our Lord used a common object (a lamp) in a familiar scene (a home). The lamp was a clay dish filled with oil, with a wick put into the oil. In order to give light, the lamp had to ‘use itself up’; and the oil had to be replenished. If the lamp was not lit, or it was covered up, it did the home no good.” Now as we look at this description of how this lamp was used we can see how this parable would apply to the work of evangelism. We can see the apostles as being like the lamps for they were the ones called by God to shed His light and to reveal His truth. The way that they could give out this light was by listening to the Lord as he taught them, which represents the oil and they needed to continue to listen to His teaching to replenish His teachings so that they could continue to give out light. In Romans 10 the Apostle Paul says that “faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” Believers today have to stay in the Word of God so that they can be ready to shed the light of Jesus to those that the Holy Spirit brings into their life. Dr. Wiersbe write of an of the admonition in verses 24 and 25: “The moment we think that we know it all, what we think we know will be taken from us. We must take heed what we hear (Mark 4:24) as well as take heed how we hear (Luke 8:18). Our spiritual hearing determines how much we have to give to others. There is no sense trying to ‘cover things up’ because God will one day reveal all things.” Luke 8:18 is a parallel passage to this section in Mark: “"So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him."
The Seed Growing (vv. 26-34): “26 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows-how, he himself does not know. 28 "The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 "But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." 30 And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 "It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE." 33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; 34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”
There are actually two parables in this section and we will take them one a time. The first parable is called “The Parable of the Growing Seed.”
In John MacArthur’s message on this section from Marks Gospel called “How to Listen to the Lord” he says this about the seed: “It’s so paradoxical. A seed goes into the ground and dies and as it dies, out of it comes life. How does that happen? Nobody knows that . The farmer doesn’t know that. The farmer can’t make that happen. Nobody can make that happen. The best horticulturists in the world don’t know how that happens. They know it happens but they can’t define how it happens or why it happens. Out of this dying seed comes life, a huge crop…that’s the wonder of the gospel hidden in those simple gospel truths is the power of life and it breaks out while we sleep.”
When we looked at the first parable in Mark’s Gospel we saw that the seed was the Word of God and we as believer’s are the ones sowing the “seed” to the world as the great commission commands us to do. When we tell others the truth of the gospel sometimes the seed falls on a soil that is one of the unproductive soils described in the first parable and sometimes the seed takes root in the good soil and new life is born from above. It is one of the mysteries that is found in the Word of God as to how the seed takes root. Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter three that the wind blows where it wants but we cannot see the wind only the effects of the wind. Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit giving life to who He calls.
Now let us look at the last parable “The Parable of the Mustard Seed.” In The John MacArthur Study Bible we find these words on verses 30-32: “This parable of the mustard seed pictures the kingdom of God beginning with a small influence and then becoming worldwide in its scope.”
When Jesus spoke the first parable the disciples may have become discouraged for they may have been thinking that not many would be saved, in fact they may have thought that no one but the disciples would come to understand the truth of the Gospel, but in this parable they had to have become more encouraged.
We see in this parable that the mustard seed is called the smallest seed but in reality it is not but probably the smallest seed that the Jewish people would sow in their gardens. Dr. Wiersbe writes “It was a traditional symbol of that which is tiny. Our Lord began with 12 Apostles. Later, there were as many as 500 believers (1Cor. 15:6). Peter won 3,000 at Pentecost; and throughout the Book of Acts, that number steadily increased (Acts 4:4; 5:14; 6:1, 7). In spite of the sins and weaknesses of the church, the message has been carried to other nations; and one day, saints from every nation shall worship before His throne (Rev. 5:9)” This is what the parable of the Mustard Seed is all about and we as believers need to sow the seed, prays for those to whom we are able to tell the truth of the Gospel and when we find that the Holy Spirit has given them the faith to believe and they become born from above we are then to disciple them through the Word of God so that they can go out and begin sowing the seed.
No comments:
Post a Comment