Christ’s Power Over Every Need The Gospel of Mark Sermon Series “Miracles Part 2: Power Over Sickness and Death” Mark 5:21-43
https://youtu.be/8beTtw9pIg4
Christ’s Power Over Every Need
The Gospel of Mark Sermon Series
Miracles Part 2: Power Over Sickness and Death
Mark 5:21-43
Introduction
“A pastor I know, Stephey Bilynskyj, starts each confirmation class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those estimates, he helps them make another list: Their favorite songs. When the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar. The whole class looks over their guesses, to see which estimate was closest to being right. Bilynskyj then turns to the list of favorite songs. “And which one of these is closest to being right?” he asks. The students protest that there is no “right answer”; a person’s favorite song is purely a matter of taste. Bilynskyj, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame asks, “When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like choosing your favorite song?” Always, Bilynskyj says, from old as well as young, he gets the same answer: Choosing one’s faith is more like choosing a favorite song. When Bilynskyj told me this, it took my breath away. “After they say that, do you confirm them?” I asked him. “Well,” smiled Bilynskyj, “First I try to argue them out of it.”[1]
Prayer
My Little Daughter (vv. 21-24a)
21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.
Having healed the Gerasene Demoniac and sending 2,000 pigs into the sea, Jesus was asked to leave the village across the lake by a crowd, and now they land back on the shore, and crowds once again surround him.
As we know from previous chapters in Mark, Jesus would address the crowds at the seashore, or even in a boat pulled off the shore. This was another great opportunity to teach and preach to the “great crowd gathered about him.” But “one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus” came and fell at his feet, and earnestly asked for help for his little daughter, who is about to die.
“Rulers of the synagogue” were laymen whose responsibility were administrative, not priestly, and included such things as looking after the building and supervising the worship (such as inviting people to speak).
(v. 23) “My little daughter is at the point of death” – Jairus is doing what any desperate parent would do, he falls at Jesus’ feet, he uses the term little daughter to express how important she is to him.
It would seem that Jesus’ ministry impact would be with the great crowd, but he left them to minister to one family.
My Daughter’s Faith (vv. 24b-34)
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
The woman mentioned here had “a discharge of blood for twelve years” and in an effort to be healed she went to many physicians, who had her do all sorts of things that caused her to “suffer[ed] much under” their care. So not only does she suffer under the physicians, she has spent all the money she had, and the issue has grown worse, not better.
She had paid money to receive instructions like, “carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a cloth.”[2] Another instruction given would have been, “Set the woman in a place where. Two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand, and let someone come from behind and frighten her, and say, ‘arise from thy flux.’”[3] So, she hears about Jesus, and thinks “if I can just touch his clothes, then I may be healed.”
In the New Testament there were miracles resulting from having Peter’s shadow pass over you (Acts 5:15-16) or coming into contact with Paul’s handkerchief (Acts 19:12), and later it was a common practice to touch Jesus’ clothes to be healed (Mark 6:56).[4] So almost from the beginning there is a need to clarify the difference between faith and relics (superstition).
Leviticus 15:25 “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. As in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity. And everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. 27 And whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.” Uncleanliness was transferable – the “unclean” were not to touch the “clean (Lev. 5:3).”[5]
(v. 25) This woman has been ceremonially unclean for over twelve years. An outcast, and alone, untouchable, for twelve years. “She was just as much an outcast as the demon-possessed man had been.”[6] She would not be allowed to approach Jesus, to talk to Him was unthinkable.
“Uncleanness in Israel causes Yahweh to turn away his face, and without the saving presence the nation is doomed to exile and destruction (Ezek. 39:24).”[7] So the leaders and the people as a whole think it is very important to keep the law, and to remain “clean.”
“And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” – We have already seen in Mark 4:12 Jesus’ explanation of the different soils and why He taught in parables, “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand,” and here in chapter 5 we see them touching but not receive healing. The disciples are saying “many are pressed up against you,” many have touched him but this woman stands out.
The disciples reproached Jesus in the boat during the storm, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” and here again, “You see the crowd . . .” Why is Jesus concerned about one person among all these people? Jesus’ response “reveals the glory of the gospel . . . “Behold what manner of love . . . , that we should be called the sons of God (1 John 3:1).”[8]
The disciples are focused on trying to get Jesus to Jairus’ daughter where the real emergency existed, but Jesus is slowing them down by worrying about someone in a dense crowd that touched him. This apparent silly question would only cause a delay. Jesus’ question was not to rebuke her, but to make personal contact with her. “She needed to know that it was not her superstition (touching objects or clothes) that saved her, but her faith that caused God to heal her.”[9]
This woman has tried everything she can possibly do, in her own effort to be healed, and be ceremonially “clean” with God. It was her faith in Jesus that allowed her to be healed, and have the ability to enter into God’s presence. Jesus stops everything to make sure she understands that.
She is anticipating rebuke, chastisement, so she “came in fear and trembling and fell down before him . . .” “She knew Jesus’ power, but she did not yet know His heart.”[10] This all-powerful Son of God, what is He like?
(v. 34) “Daughter[11], your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Jesus is claiming the same special relationship with her that Jairus had with his little daughter.[12] Jairus does not want to lose his daughter to death, Jesus does not want to lose His daughter to her not understanding what truly healed her. No matter the pressures of the crowd/world you stop everything when your kids are hurting.
John 6:37 “. . . whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
“The word translated healed is sesoken (“saved”). Here both physical and theological salvation are in mind. “Go in peace” is a traditional Jewish formula for leaving-taking “shalom” but it is not just peace, as in peace from inward anxiety, but also in the sense of wholeness or completeness that comes from being brought into a right relationship with God.”[13] Go knowing that you are right with God.
Little Girl Arise (vv. 35-43)
35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,”[14] which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age),[15] and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Jairus knows that his daughter is about to die, and he has two options. Stay and be with her when she dies (which is imminent) or go find Jesus – so he has found Jesus, but she dies before they can get back to the bedside.
Jesus overhears the conversation between Jairus and someone from his household, and says, “Do not fear, only believe.” Jairus has a choice of voices to listen to – someone from his household, or Jesus. It is always better to listen to hear what Jesus has to say about our situation, than anyone else.
Also, there is a finality on the friend’s remarks, “Why bother the teacher any further?” as if to say, “there is nothing that Jesus can do, now.” It’s too late. If Jesus decides to lay His hands upon something, then it is never too late. “Do not fear, only believe.”
When they arrive to Jairus’ home there were people, “weeping and wailing loudly.” The word for wailing is an onomatopoetic word, Alala – soldiers would yell this word when entering into battle, it is used for clanging symbols (1 Cor. 13:1), and it is used here to “refer to the sound of the monotonous wail of the hired mourners.”[16]
These are paid mourners, who are yelling out this alala “The lamentations consisted of choral song, or antiphony, accompanied with hand clapping.”[17] And flute and instrument playing, and people tearing their clothes.[18]
The paid mourner’s reaction to Jesus saying, “The child is not dead but sleeping” is to laugh at him. To ridicule Him. Jesus asks the paid mourners to leave and only the parents, Jesus, Peter, James and John are there when she is healed – Why?
Some are entrusted with who Jesus is, the Messiah, the Savior of the World, and others are not. If Jesus knows you are not serious, but only pretending (like the paid mourners) then you will be sent away and will never experience the true miracle. The crowd who was looking on in curiosity were sent away, the paid mourners who lacked the faith that the father showed were sent away, even the other new disciples were sent out (leaving the inner three Peter, James, and John).
All three gospels mention that Jesus took her by the hand. He touches her. The father in v. 23 says, “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” believing that it was his touch, but Jesus says, v. 36 “But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”
(v. 42) “the girl got up and began walking” Walking (aorist tense) here means, she kept on walking around. “She kept on walking about, first possibly to her mother, then to her father, and then finding out what had happened to Jesus who had restored her to life.”[19]
The healed woman with the blood discharge touched Jesus’ clothes. Jesus stops the woman and explains that it was the woman’s faith that saved her. Both of these stories are grounded on the word faith, believe.
Jesus does not care if the unclean touch him (blood issues or death), because He is the source of holiness. With His touch, all that defiles is gone. Nothing unclean can make him unclean by it’s touch. But Jesus can make clean anything that is unclean, “do not fear, only believe.”
There is nothing that is too far gone, that finding Jesus and asking Him to help will not make it better. In all three stories (the Gerasene Demoniac – unclean spirit, The woman with the blood discharge – bodily discharges, and the Jairus’ daughter – contact with the dead) all of these people were ceremonially unclean; but Jesus made them clean again, whole again, able to enter God’s presence again.
____________________________
[1] Tim Stafford, Christianity Today, September 14, 1992, p. 36.
[2] Max Anders, General Editor, Holman New Testament Commentary, Mark (Nashville, Tennessee; Holman Reference, 2000) 87.
[3] W. N. Clarke, Commentary on the Gospel of Mark (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; Judson Press, 1950) 77.
[4] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume 1 (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1930) 300.
[5] Unclean could make something unclean, but clean could not make something unclean, clean.
[6] Anders, 87.
[7] L.E. Tombs, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Volume 1 (Nashville, Tennessee; Abingdon Press, 1980) 647.
[8] George Arthur Buttrick, Commentary Editor, The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 7 (Nashville, Tennessee; Abingdon Press, 1980) 723.
[9] Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing House, 1984) 660.
[10] Clarke, 77.
[11] This is the only time Jesus was recorded calling a woman, “daughter.”
[12] Anders, 88.
[13] Gaebelein, 662.
[14] First mention of Jesus speaking Aramaic in the Gospel of Mark.
[15] The woman healed from bleeding and discharge suffered for 12 years, and the little girl raised from the dead was 12 years old. Is there a connection?
[16] Robertson, 302.
[17] Gaebelein, 662.
[18] “A vivid description of the tumult is provided by L. Bauer, Volksleben im Lande der Bibel (Leipzig, 1903), pp. 211 ff. The woman form a circle around the leader of the dance of death, and dance rhythmically from left to right with their hair hanging down, Gradually they increase their mournful lament and the wild movements of hands and feet until their faces become flushed to a high degree and appear especially excited as the time of burial draws near.” William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993) 196.
[19] Herchel H. Hobbs, An Exposition of the Four Gospels, Mark (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1978) 88.
Christ’s Power Over Every Need The Gospel of Mark Sermon Series “If You Have an Ear, Listen To This: Parables” Mark 4:1-34
Christ’s Power Over Every Need
The Gospel of Mark Sermon Series
If You Have an Ear, Listen To This: Parables
Mark 4:1-34
Introduction
Mark Batterson relates how on a January morning in 2007, a world-class violinist played six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most stirring concertos for the solo violin, on a three-hundred-year-old Stadivarius worth $3.5 million. Two nights before, Joshua Bell had performed a sold out concert where patrons gladly paid $200 for nosebleed seats, but this time the performance was free.
Bell ditched his tux and coat tails, donned a Washington Nationals baseball cap, and played incognito outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station [as an experiment]. The experiment was originally conceived by the Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten and filmed by hidden cameras. Of the 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen. The forty-five minute performance ended without applause or acknowledgement. Joshua Bell netted $32.17 in tips, which included a $20 spot from one person who recognized the Grammy Award winning musician.
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the greatest musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, on one of the most beautiful instruments ever made, how many similarly sublime moments do we miss out on during a normal day?[1]
Prayer
Keep Doing What God has Called You To Do (vv. 1-9)
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus has moved from his house and returned once again to teaching by the sea. He has decided to get into a boat because, “a very large crowd gathered about him” In the previous chapter Mark tells us that there was concern of being crushed by people pushing in toward Jesus to be healed (3:9).
Not only did the crowds keep him from being able to eat, rest, etc. but the pressing crowd seems to keep him from teaching as well – so he pushes out from the shore and is “teaching them many things in parables.”
Remember that Mark’s gospel is not written chronologically, but it is divided into main sections to show who Jesus was and why He appeared on the earth. There is a general introduction with John the Baptist and His temptation, then we experience what spending a day with Jesus is like, then there is a series of conflicts with the scribes and religious leaders, then a section on how he had to stay focused on His ministry, and now how Jesus taught in parables.
Parables have been defined as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” Jesus had many enemies and people who just didn’t get what he was saying, so “the parabolic form of teaching was “less open to attack, better as an intellectual and spiritual training for his disciples, better also as a test of character, and therefore as an education for the multitude.”[2] He could tell what kind of person you are, by what you did with the simple parable.
We already know that His teaching and preaching was very important to Him, and that he was unique, Mark 1:22 “And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” And in Mark 4 we see the word parables used for the second time (Mark 3:23, “And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?”) He has also given previous smaller parables in his discussion with the religious leaders (patching a preshrunk cloth, new wine in old wineskins, fasting at a wedding).
Here in Mark’s discussion about Jesus using parables he gives four examples, Matthew gives eight, and in both gospels they say, (v. 33) “With many such parables he spoke the word to them,” meaning that this was a sampling of many that Jesus taught the crowds. So we ask, “of all the parables Jesus taught, why did Mark choose these four?”
Jesus begins in v. 3 with the word, “Listen,” and he ends the first parable with ““He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” “It is well known that the man who teaches has much responsibility, but Jesus is saying here that the man who hears also has responsibility. Hearing is a serious matter. It is not to be taken lightly. Watch out how you hear is the key-note to the parable.”[3] Jesus describes four different types of soil in which the seed fell. Each describes a different type of listener or how people receive the word (i.e. seed).
Jesus “knew the stony soil of the minds of the scribes and Pharisees; he had met the shallow and unstable enthusiasm of the crowd.”[4] He experienced the disciples readily accepting his call to “come and follow me.” Jesus gives three types of soil that are bad, and one that is good. The sower is casting seed to all of them – but only 50% seems to have a response, and only 25% have a genuine response.
This first parable is for those that teach a sow God’s Word. Even though much seed lands on the types of soil that ultimately do not lead to a harvest – there will be some seed that falls on good ground. 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Don’t Put off What Needs to Be Taken Care of Today (vv. 10-20)
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”
“By this method of teaching in parables Jesus not only invited audiences to penetrate below the surface and find the real meaning; at the same time he allowed them the opportunity – which many of them took – of turning a blind eye to the real point at issue”
(v. 12) When Jesus pulls the disciples close, He quotes Isaiah 6:9, and “what is certain is that the use of parables on this occasion was a penalty for judicial blindness on those who will not see.”[5]
Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9, “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand,” In Isaiah’s day he was to preach the Word of God, and to faithfully teach them. But they would not take what was given to them, in fact they would show up to hear what was said, but there would be no change in their hearts and no actions. Every time they would hear a message from Isaiah and then go home and do nothing with that message their hearts would grow harder.
God warns Isaiah “that there will be no positive results in the hearts of many who listen to what he says. Instead of bringing conviction, humility, and confession of sins, Isaiah’s divine message will have the primary effect of hardening people or confirming their hardened unwillingness to respond positively to God.”[6]
For those that have hardened hearts, listen – The day of salvation is today, it may be your unwillingness to change that God will use this message to seal your ears, and harden your heart so that you will never make a decision for Christ.
Those in Jesus’ audience are being condemned for their willful blindness and rejection such as the Pharisees and their blasphemous accusation against Jesus (that he casts out demons by the power of Satan).
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Do Something With What You Have Already Received (VV. 21-25)
21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
(v. 21) is directed to the disciples, not to the crowds. They have received the truth of various parables, but it is not Jesus’ intention that they keep the secret of the kingdom of God to themselves, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? No, the lamp is meant to be held high, the Word of God is meant to shine forth to the lost world.
(v. 24) “The disciple grows in understanding and knowledge only as he attends carefully and responsively to what he has already received.”[7] As a student of God’s Word take what you have received and apply it, use it, be changed by it – but never ignore it, do nothing with it, or say, “I already know what this means.”
“and parables are a means at once of revealing and of concealing truth – of revealing it to those who ‘have ears to hear,’ and of concealing it from those who have not . . . This separation was not an accidental but a necessary, and therefore an intended, result of his ministry and the choice of the parabolic form was one of the steps by which the inevitable separation must be accomplished.”
All the students in the classroom hear the same teacher and the same lesson. Some will ask questions, clarify, review at home, search for more information in books or the internet, and some students will be distracted during class, not take notes, forget the lesson, and when they leave the classroom – one is not smarter than the other, it is just what you do with the information.
One of my biggest frustrations with math has always been that one principle builds upon the next. If you have A and then B and then C – but you don’t get B, you will never understand C. Spiritual growth and concepts can be like this – people want to lead the church, but they have missed lessons on submission, humbleness, compassion, loving my fellow brother in Christ.
Know How The Kingdom Works (vv. 26-32)
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come[8].”
In the first parable Mark highlights the Word of God, and in this parable we are told what Jesus is talking about, “The kingdom of God is . . .” at hand (Mark 1:15).
Man has the responsibility to scatter the seed (the word of God). He does not have to understand how spiritual things work, any more than the farmer has to understand how a seed works. He has a role to play in the planting process, believers have a role to play in the harvesting of souls. Also, the farmer sleeps, and goes about his day – and the seed keeps on growing, keeps on maturing. The believer does not have to make the gospel work, it does the work on its’ own.
(v. 28) It works automatically. “The secret of growth is in the seed, not in the soil nor in the weather nor in the cultivating. These all help, but the seed spontaneously works according to its own nature.”[9]
(v. 29) When the harvest is ripe, the reaper comes to gather the harvest. Mark says the farmer, “he puts in (apostellei) the sickle” – this is where we get the word apostle John 4:38 says, “I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
So from these verses we learn several principles about the Kingdom of God:
- The growth of the kingdom is gradual, “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear” – Christian growth is gradual. We want to make giant leaps, but we forget nature’s lesson, the necessity of gradual growth. No musician is made in a day, there are thousands of hours of practicing. No scientist is made over night, there are hundreds of hours of classwork. Men must be taught the way of Christ, and no one is a mature Christian after one sermon. Mature congregations of the church of the Lord likewise do not spring up overnight. They must be planted, nurtured, and developed.
But also, the disciples wanted the kingdom to grow their work to be finished quickly – little did they know that they would begin a work that still continues to this day. We are still to be about kingdom work.
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and he said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus knows He has to endure the cross and the judgement of the Father, and He is saying, “is there is any other way?” In ministry there will always be the temptation to take a short cut, or the easy way out. Rarely is there an easy way, a quick way, or a way that doesn’t cost us something.
- The growth of the kingdom is orderly, The growth of the plant is marked by an orderly development. It is the way of the tree: first the bud, then the blossom, and finally the fruit. It’s hard to mark when one stage ends and another begins, yet different stages of growth can be clearly recognized.
- The growth of the kingdom is from God. The farmer can plow the ground, put out fertilizer, plant the seed under the soil, and water – but he cannot make the seed grow. The seed grows on its own. There are some things that God alone can do. 1 Corinthians 3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” This parable helps us to realize that as Christ followers there are some things that we can do, but it is God who has to move in order for anything to really happen.
30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
(v. 30) Again, Jesus clues us in to what He is talking about, “compare the kingdom of God,” and in Palestinian culture the mustard seed was used proverbially to stand for anything infinitesimally small.[10] But because of the eventual size of the plant was not planted in the garden but out in a field. It was not unusual for it to grow as high as ten or twelve feet. Such a shrub would attract many birds.
- The growth of the kingdom usually starts small. Jesus is emphasizing the importance of little things. The little mustard seed by itself does not look very important, but experience tells us that it will grow to play a very important role. Jesus is saying that we must pay attention to the little things in life – a cup of water, a visit with the sick, welcoming a stranger, etc.
- Small beginnings are important. A thing may begin very small, almost without hope, and still in the end succeed because God is behind it.
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
_______________________
[1] Mark Batterson, The Grave Robber (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books, 2014) 15.
[2] W. N. Clarke, An American Commentary on the New Testament, Volume 2, of the Gospel of Mark and Luke (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; Judson Press, 1950) 57.
[3] Neil R. Lightfoot, Lessons From The Parables (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Book House, 1965) 21.
[4] George Arthur Buttrick, Commentary Editor, The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 7 (Nashville, Tennessee; Abingdon Press, 1980) 696.
[5] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume 1 (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1930) 287.
[6] Gary V. Smith, The New American Commentary, Isaiah 1-39 (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Publishing, 2007) 194.
[7] Buttrick, 703.
[8] This parable is only found in Mark. Lightfoot, 27.
[9] Robertson, 289.
[10] There are seeds smaller than the mustard seed, but it was common in that culture to use the mustard seed to refer to the smallest of things. Lightfoot, 33.
“If You Have an Ear, Listen To This: Parables” Mark 4:1-34
Mark 3:7-35 Sermon “The Society for the Promotion of Madness Among the Respectable Classes”
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- …
- 18
- Next Page »