Intro- Happy to Be Here, but I Ask You Forgiveness- Teaching Is Not My Thing

Sunday Morning Class- September 23

Mark 4:1-34: Will we listen?

Intro- Happy to be here, but I ask you forgiveness- teaching is not my thing

What has been going on in Mark recently? What happened last week? - Jesus’ ministry beginning- he’s surprising people with the way he is acting. - He’s healing the sick and paralyzed, throwing out demons, drawing a crowd, appointing 12 disciples, disowning his family - He’s pushing the cultural norms; he’s pushing the boundaries and pissing off the leaders So that brings us up to Mark 4

Read Mark 4:1 He has such a large crowd that he can’t even stay on the land. What??

Read Mark 4:2-9 Y’all have probably heard this story before, but- What strikes you? What jumps out at you? -The ‘listen’ phrase -Does anyone here like riddles? -Story of Ty Riddles are like parables What is a parable? -Earthly story with a heavenly meaning, riddle, dream, political cartoon So who or what are the symbols here? Who’s the farmer? Who is the soil? Who is the bird? What are the thorns? What is the rocky soil? - The 4 different types of soil - The path, the rocky soil, among the thorns, and good soil - The failure of the first three types of soil - The huge return - Tenfold is a great return. I would love to make a tenfold return every time I planted something. (Story of tree in fourth grade). Thirty, sixty or a hundred fold is a fantastic return. - Closes off the parable with listen again

- It is almost like Jesus throws this parable out there, the first one in the book of Mark, to say, “Hey this is how it’s going to be. Christianity is hard- most will fail. Are you sure that you’re in?” -It’s like in Moby Dick where in the 3 chapter, the main character named Ishmael has to share a bed with a savage cannibal named Queequeq. The author is pretty much saying, “Hey, this is how it’s going to be. Are you sure you’re on bored and want to continue reading this? Read Mark 4:10-20 So in case we got anything wrong a second ago, Jesus decides to explain everything for us here. When Wade asked me to teach over this, I was like, “Great, what else am I going to talk about? Jesus tells a parable, then explains it. Could I really add to Jesus?”

Nonetheless, what’s going here? What jumps out to you? - The insider group- the ones around him and the disciples - Jesus is being secretive- mystery -Verse 12- so that they don’t perceive and do not understand -He is quoting Isaiah here -God says this to Isaiah talking about the word - WHAT?? Why would Jesus be excluding people? (Discuss in table groups) - Mystery not as something which is hard to understand, and can be figured out, but as secret- something that is not told, but once known, is not hard to figure out. - Those who are on the inside, those who know, are those who accept, believe and trust Jesus’ teaching - This group is listening and digging deeper- wanting to understand the meaning rather than just accepting it at face value -The message of Jesus’ parables are going to be met with opposition, distrust, unbelief, even slander. (They already have…) - Listen imagery again- the inside group is listening - Jesus seemingly assumes his disciples understand and then looks around and realizes that they actually do not - The parable above is the key to all other parables - Explanation of the symbols and players in the parable

Read Mark 4:21-25 What is going on here? What sticks out to you? - The lamp is not kept hidden- things that are hidden are to be disclosed; things that are secret are to be brought to light. - Those who the mystery of the kingdom of God has been revealed to are supposed to share it with others. - Another listen phrase - Another listen phrase - Verse 25- - What is this saying? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer? -Those who dig deeper, (those who listen- who have ears and hear), into the meaning and message of the parable will get more out of it- they are the good soil; those who don’t have an interest in going deeper are like the bad soils- they will be distracted, choked or rootless Read Mark 4:26-29 - What’s going on in this passage? What jumps out to you? - The sower, the man, does nothing to help it grow - The kingdom of God will come, is coming, but only in God’s time and in God’s way - The kingdom of God is advancing and is growing

Read Mark 4:30-32 - What jumps out to you here? - Smallest of all seeds but grows up to be one of the biggest trees, so that birds nest in it. - Shows that God is still in control - Inclusion of Gentiles and other nations - Again, the kingdom of God is growing- beginning very small, ending very large.

Read Mark 4:33-34 - What stands out here? Is Mark repeating himself?? - Again Mark says why Jesus used parables. - Also again, Mark uses ‘hear’ or ‘listen’ language

So what do we do with all of this? What is the take-away? - It seems to me that the main lesson here is to really listen to the stories, teachings and parables of Jesus - We need to dig deep and look for the meaning and interpretation - We need to know all the characters in the stories and study up on it - Also, it seems that another point is that we need to share “the mystery of the kingdom of God” with others.