MARK 4:1-25 Lesson 7
DELAYED ANSWERS STICK LONGER
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction:
Note: If you are like me I have often had some questions that I wish God would answer. The Bible says things, or God does things or allows things that puzzle me. There are times when I have been frustrated with God because of something that I believe He allowed to happen. I have often been puzzled by what I have read in Scripture.
Q Have you had similar thoughts? If so raise your hand.
Q Have you had questions of God that have been answered? Would anyone like to share?
Note: We are going to look at an aspect of Jesus’ teaching technique that may help you understand how God answers some questions. It will center on two things: “delay” and His demand that we must “be involved” in getting answers. The keywords are “delay” and our “seeing”.
III. Jesus’ First Long Recorded Teaching: Mark 4:1-20
Note: This is Jesus’ first major teaching that Mark records.
Q If you were writing the book of Mark what would you first report that Jesus taught?
An = Let someone from the audience write down a list of what they propose. Give no answer, but have someone read the list out loud after a couple of minutes.
Now let’s see what Mark chose to do….
>>> Have someone read Mark 4:1-2.
Q How did Jesus speak to large crowds according to these verses?
An = Jesus spoke in parables.
Q What is a parable?
An = Let them answer, and you might add that they are stories, or metaphors, extended metaphors. A metaphor is when one thing represents something else. For example the phrase “he is as strong as a bull” is using one thing, a strong animal, to represent a concept, physical strength that could apply to humans or some other creature.
A. The Parable of the Sower.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 4:3-8.
Note: Verse three let’s us know that this parable is going to be an agricultural one. Jesus used something that all of them could relate to because it was an agricultural community. We who have been raised most of our lives in cities might need a little help in understanding what was very obvious to those listening to Jesus that day.
Q If you throw seeds on a hard compacted piece of soil will the seed sprout?
An = obviously not, the soil needs to be aerated or oxygenated.
Q What does verse 4 mean? What does seed on a road that the birds ate mean?
An = Hard soil does not work. In the parable, the hardness of the road did not allow the seed to work its way into the soil, and so it was left exposed and thus vulnerable to the birds. The seed cannot get into packed, hard soil. That is why a farmer is usually pictured plowing (In the old pictures with a horse drawn plow or today with a tractor).
Q Can you give an example from your experience of the truth of hard soil?
Q Now what does verse 5 mean? What does seed that is placed in rocky soil mean?
An = Rocky soil means there is not enough depth of soil for the root system to develop. Soil that is not deep enough does not allow the root system to become large enough to support the plant. When harsh weather comes, especially the warm sun of summer, the root system must be developed or the plant will wilt and not produce anything of value.
Q Has this happened to you spiritually? Have you not had enough preparation spiritually or depth to your relationship with Christ and you failed or wilted when opposition came?
An = I have. (You might want to give a short example).
Note: The third type of soil concerns weeds. Farming is intensely involved with weed control. If the weeds do not get removed the soil’s nutrients go into the weeds and not into the plants. Usually weeds grow fast, and so if weeds are already established, they can choke out your seed or shade it out so it is stunted and does not produce as much.
Q What is needed to produces a good crop?
Q How do we become good soil?
B. Key to Interpreting the Parables of Jesus.
>>> Have someone read Mark 4:9
Note: Shema, the Hebrew word for “hear” has a double meaning in Hebrew. It means to “hear” but also to “obey”. In other words, to hear the truth intellectually is not enough, but one must obey it as well.
Q What was Jesus telling his audience with this phrase as far as understanding parables go?
An = He seemed to be saying that they must be active listeners or they would not truly “know” God’s truth.
C. Those Who Will Not Understand.
>>> Have someone read Mark 4:10-12
Note: They asked a question (just like we have questions about things God says in the Bible) and He partially but not fully answered them. However, before He gave a partial answer He said something very disturbing in 4:11-12
>>>> Have someone read Mark 4:11-12 again.
Q Is it fair the way Jesus used parables? Was he deliberately leaving people without understanding and therefore without the knowledge of how to be saved?
An = Jesus could have been deliberately showing favoritism or He could have been deliberately choosing to remain vague. However, even vague parables produce pictures in our minds or a story in our minds.
Q After a sermon or a lecture, what do you remember best: a story or illustration or statements or concepts?
An = Usually, we remember the illustration because it was a story that we could picture in our mind.
D. Explanation of the Parable.
>>> Have someone read Mark 4:13-20
1. After the reading, ask them to break into groups of two (three at the most, but preferably two).
2. >>>> You Re-read 4:18-19 out-loud to the entire group.
3. Have them turn to their partner and share names (if they do not know one another) and then discuss what 4:18-19 means to them. Q What has or could hold you back?
4. Stay in groups
>>> Have someone re-read 4:20 to the entire group.
5. In their groups, ask them to answer the question: Q What goals for helping others do they have? And Q What are their goals spiritually?
Note: Pull the whole group back together and ask:
Q It seemed that the parable was stressing being good soil, did it show us how that is done? What are we to obey or listen to so the kingdom of God can come alive in our lives?
An = Let them answer, make no comment, just end with saying, let us read on and see if Jesus answers this question.
IV. Further teaching with more parables or metaphors: Lamps and Growing: 4:21-29.
A. The Parable of the Lamp.
>>> Have someone read Mark 4:21-23.
Q What or who is the Lamp?
An = It is the truth about Jesus Christ or it is Jesus Christ Himself.
Q What do you think that meant for the disciples of that day? Why did Jesus come?
An = Let them answer and then if needed add: the light is not to be hidden (21 a), but to be displayed (21 b), to be revealed (22 a), and to come to light (22 b).
Q To use Jesus’ metaphor, how are we to be the light to the world?
An = We cannot hide the truth or light that God has given us. It is to be manifested.
>>> Have someone read Mark 4:24-25
Q What does the phrase mean, “How much we measure”?
An = How much of the Word do we appropriate. How much do we take on and make our own? This text promises that if we take a lot on we will be given more. It says if we do not appropriate much what lights we have will be taken away.
Note: Many times in my own life it became apparent I had a weak testimony among friends or relatives because my own belief and walk were so weak. I was not willing to share the light because I did not think I had much light in me. My life with Him seemed so small.
I wished I was “good soil”, but did not seem to be because I did not produce much fruit.
Q So how do we become good soil? What will help us to reveal the light?
RQ (rhetorical question) How do you break up hard ground, get rid of weeds, and discover rocks so you can remove them?
An = Getting rid of hard soil, weeds, and rocks have one thing in common; plowing or turning the ground upside down. So to get good soil, the soil must be disturbed.
Q What does the metaphor “turn the soil upside down” mean?
An = Let them answer and then end with one final question.
Q Has God been plowing your lives with the sorrow He has allowed in our lives?[:]