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Sermon Notes

Mark: The Right Now Gospel
Pt. 7
“Parables of the Kingdom 2”

Mark 4:10-12 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. 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.’ ”

Now, Jesus delivers these words right after the parable of the sower. He explains to his disciples why he spoke in parables to the masses, then would interpret them to the disciples privately. He quotes from the Prophet Isaiah who, in chapter 6, has just experienced his divine calling as a prophet from God. The very first thing God tells Isaiah to speak is found in vs 9-10:

“And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.”

In other words, “Isaiah, I’m sending you to my people but they’re not going to hear you. They’re past the point of no return.”

So what we have here is one of the ways God deals with those that reject both Him and His truth. When a person rejects the word of God, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the call of God to repentance, God may give them over to what is called ‘judicial blindness.’

Judicial blindness refers to a spiritual condition where individuals or groups are divinely permitted to remain in a state of spiritual ignorance or insensitivity as a consequence of persistent unbelief or disobedience.

Examples of judicial blindness are all throughout the Word. One example is:

Romans 1:28 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those thing which are not fitting.”

A ‘debased mind’ (adokimos) means rejected, worthless, reprobate.

One commentator writes, “When humanity spurned the knowledge of God, ‘He gave them over to a depraved mind’—a mind stamped “adokimos.” Moral inversion, therefore, is not merely human failure but a divine verdict.”

So–Rejection of the truth regarding Christ can ultimately lead to judicial blindness where they are turned over to their darkness to remain there.

This is what Jesus was referring to when he said, “For whoever has [a teachable heart], to him more [understanding] will be given; and whoever does not have [a yearning for truth], even what he has will be taken away from him.”–Mark 4:25

So the parables of Jesus were double pronged with a double purpose. They revealed those whose hearts were genuinely seeking Jesus and the truth, and were intentionally vague toward those that had rejected Christ Jesus. Hence, Jesus ended often ended them with the admonition “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
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That said, Jesus launches into another parable of the Growing Seed:

4: 26-29 “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.”

So we have first the SOWER–who is Jesus and us working with him to sow the seed.

The SEED is the word of God, just as it was in the parable of the sower.

As the parable of the Sower reveals four different outcomes of the seed sown, the Parable of the Growing seed reveals:

–Our part as the SOWERS
–God’s part as the GROWER

We first see a man, the sower, scattering seed on the ground. This pictures the church spreading the gospel seed in the field of the world. This is our task and calling. The church of Jesus Christ both collectively and individually are called to be sowers of the good news! As Jesus said in the great commission, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”–Mark 16:15

Then we see the growth of the seed. It is a mystery to the sower in the parable how the growth happens. “…and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.”

The sower is amazed at the power of the seed he has sown. He patiently watches it’s growth progress from the blade, to the head, and finally to maturity with full grain in the head and it is a marvel to him.

And so are we who sow the gospel constantly amazed at its power to change a life! Bottom line, we do the sowing, God does the growing. As Paul wrote,

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”–1 Cor 3:4
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Then Jesus goes straight into the next parable of the Mustard Seed:

4: 30-32 “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.”

Whereas the parable of the sower is about 4 OUTCOMES of the sown seed.

And the parable of the growing seed is about US as the SOWER and GOD as the GROWER.

The parable of the mustard seed is about SMALL beginnings with BIG endings.

There is no sower as the focus in this parable, only the smallness of the seed sown.

The Mustard Seed was a tiny little seed with incredible potential.

That’s the idea. Sometimes (most of the time) the kingdom of God starts inconspicuously, under the radar, seemingly insignificant–then goes on to become a huge tree of life and outreach where “the birds of the air” (the lost and needy) find refuge in its branches.

I believe Jesus had in mind His soon to be born church. It began with 12 ragtag, unknown, mainly blue collar working men.
Then grew to 70.
Then to 120 in the upper room.
Following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit it quickly grew to over 3,000 new converts in Acts 2.
Then to 5,000 more in Acts 4. Finally spreading throughout the whole known world of that day!

This parable also teaches that even a tiny mustard seed of faith can bring about powerful results!

Matt 17:20 “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

So “Do not despise these small beginnings,”–Zech. 4:10
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4:33-34 “With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.”

Following this feast of parables about the kingdom of God, Jesus leads the disciples straight into a storm:

4:35-41 “35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 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. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 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?” 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. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

Now, there was a purpose in the storm. Jesus knew that it was coming. It did not take him by surprise. So why didn’t he wait for it to come and go before taking his disciples across the sea? Because the storm was for their benefit and his glory.

FIRST, the storm revealed their lack of faith in Him. After calming the storm, Jesus had asked them, “How is it that you have no faith?”

Because during the storm they had cried out, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?” That question revealed shaky faith that needed to be strengthened.

So the storm revealed weaknesses that needed to be strengthened.

Then SECONDLY, the storm revealed who exactly Jesus was!

Vs. 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.”

On seeing this, the disciples asked the question the Lord had wanted them to ask: “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”–vs 41

The answer of course is that he had to be God. What other mortal man on all the earth could command the wind to stop BLOWING and waves to stop ROLLING? Nature responds only to the One that created it!

God never wastes a pain, and he never wastes a storm. He’ll make both work for our good.

So–The storm was a great REVEALER. It revealed the disciple’s need for stronger faith, and it brought revelation to them on the God-hood of Jesus. All at once a whole new awareness of who they were following washed over the twelve!

NEXT TIME: Three Mighty Miracles in Three Tragic Lives