Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, the hosts methodically show how Scripture is one cohesive story. Critical Thinking with a little bit of theology and apologetics and you have what this podcast is about. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity today must address woke, deconstruction, and progressive Christianity, all topics that are addressed if we go purposefully through the Bible. Join Glenn and Steve weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S12 || Teaching Through Parables || Mark 4:21-29 || Session 12 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
What if the secrets of spiritual growth were hidden in plain sight? In this insightful episode, we promise to unravel the profound layers of Jesus' parables as recorded in the Gospel of Mark, beginning with a pivotal shift in his teaching style. We navigate through Mark 4:10-12 to understand how Jesus used parables to communicate deep truths to those willing to listen, while obscuring them from the critics who rejected him. By examining the historical echoes of Isaiah 6:9, we reveal how these stories exposed the hardened hearts of detractors and invited true seekers to pursue deeper understanding. Listeners are encouraged to grasp the importance of context in biblical passages, drawing parallels between Israel's rejection of God's message and the response Jesus faced.
Thank you for listening!! Please give us a five-star rating to help your podcast provider's algorithm spread RTTB among their listeners.
You can find free study and leader resources at the following link - Resource Page - Reasoning Through the Bible
Please prayerfully consider supporting RTTB to help us to continue providing content and free resources. You can do that at this link - Support RTTB - Reasoning Through the Bible
May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We are reasoning our way through the Gospel of Mark. It's a very wonderful gospel and there's a lot of truth here, a lot of gold nuggets that's just laying in our path and we're picking them up and going through them as we get to them. Last time we went through the parable of the sower and the soils in Mark, chapter 4. At the beginning of the chapter, jesus gives the parable of the sower and the soils in Mark, chapter 4. At the beginning of the chapter, jesus gives the parable and the last half was where he explains and interprets it to his inner circle. In between those two pieces there's three verses that we want to go back and pick up and talk about how he's explaining, why he's talking in parables. Steve, can you read Mark, chapter 4, verses 10, 11, and?
Speaker 2:12?. As soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the twelve, began asking him about the parables, and he was saying to them To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand. Otherwise they might return and be forgiven.
Speaker 1:Now, as we said before, he's switched in chapter four to where he's talking in a different tone. He's using a different approach than he did prior. The reason why is in chapter 3, verse 22,. The official delegation from Jerusalem came down and evaluated Jesus and came to the determination that Jesus was Satan-possessed and doing things satanic. So in response to that, he now has determined that those people have officially rejected him. They seem to be irredeemable. Therefore, again, god is divine and all-knowing, so he knows what their hearts are and whether or not they're going to believe or not. That is the context in which he told the whole last parable of the sower and the soils, saying that there's some soils that are just hard and not receptive and other soils that are more meetable and receive the word. So this is the context. When we get to these passages, we always have to look at again who's talking to whom, what is the context and why are they doing what they're doing? What we can't do is go into the Bible and pull out a verse and then try to explain it and build a doctrine around it, without looking at the context that it's in.
Speaker 1:He mentions here in these verses that he is talking in parables because the people who refuse to accept him. That's what he's saying here. Remember, these people had officially declared that they would not accept him. The Jewish leaders said this. Therefore, he taught in parables, and the parables again allow Jesus to communicate on different levels all at the same time, these simple little stories that the thoughtful people could receive and hear and think about and derive great truths from. But the people that were just there to accuse him wouldn't have any reason, wouldn't have any ammunition to turn against him. Therefore, he taught in parables. For this reason, several times in the Old Testament, god criticizes Israel for being blind and not seeing. That's what he's doing here. He's actually quoting Isaiah 6-9 that did the same thing. Isaiah, of course, was sent by God to the nation Israel to give a message, and one of the messages was that they've rejected God. Israel had rejected God and was far away from God. Therefore, isaiah gave this message that Jesus is quoting here.
Speaker 1:Steve, the part that people trip on is this idea that, oh, we're going to not teach them, or else they would believe, since there seems to be that if I would have given them a message, they would have been saved. But I'm just arbitrarily deciding not to. But that's really not the case. What exactly is going on here? The reason I gave all that explanation is so we would have a context for this. What is he actually saying here?
Speaker 2:Well, as we should always do anytime there's an Old Testament reference, we should always go to the actual text in the Old Testament and look and see what it's saying. And you're exactly right, this is something from Isaiah. And it's at the time in chapter 6, whenever the Lord Yahweh calls and says in verse 8 there of Isaiah 6, says Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said I being Isaiah, here I am, send me. Then verse 9 says he said, he being Yahweh, go and tell this people. Keep on listening but do not perceive. Keep on looking but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and it goes on. The hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and it goes on.
Speaker 2:What the context here of Isaiah is is that God is looking for somebody to go out and tell the Israel people who at that time are not listening to him, not obeying him and doing what he wants them to do they're doing ungodly things to send a messenger out to exactly tell them keep on listening, but you're not hearing. Keep on seeing, but your eyes are dim because you're hard-hearted. So I think this goes to why Jesus is referencing this. That's the case. That's happening here. This delegation came out and, officially, their hearts are hard hearted towards him. They're not accepting him as to who he is. He's saying they're referencing Isaiah. I'm going to talk to them in parables now, because it's going to expose the hardness of their heart. It's going to expose their rejection of me.
Speaker 2:One reason that we can get to that is also when we look at those verses there. In verse 10, it says as soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the 12, began asking him about the parables. The people that were believing in him wanted to know what the understanding of the parables. But the unbelievers, they're not going to want to know about the understanding of the parables. So when people take this, as you pointed out, and try and take it out of context and make it mean something that it's not, what actually Jesus is doing is works in with this whole parable of the conditions of the heart, that people that have hard hearts they're not going to want to understand the parables. People that have receptive hearts, they are going to want to understand the parables and want to understand what it means. I agree with you. I do not think that this is saying here that Jesus is speaking secret things in order for people to not become believers in him, to not be forgiven. It's saying really the exact opposite.
Speaker 1:In Mark 4.12, where he says so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand. Otherwise they may return and be forgiven. Right there he's quoting Isaiah 6-9,. As, steve, you rightfully pointed out and gave the context for it. In both places in the Old Testament Isaiah 6-9, and here in Mark 4.12, the context is people that had already been told the Word of God and repeatedly already been told the Word of God, and had seen the great things of God and had rejected it in both places.
Speaker 1:In that sense, god is perfectly just in saying that these people have rejected me. Therefore, he has the sovereign right to stop drawing them if he wants to. I don't think we have to be ashamed of that. These people had, again in both the New Testament and the Old, had already seen and heard the great things of God and had rejected him, and in that sense we're deserving. A just and good God would be required to then meet up punishment. Therefore, as all people are under God's wrath, god is under no obligation to do our sense of fairness. He can rightfully say these people are deserving of punishment. I'm going to stop drawing them. He has the full right to do so because, again, he knows from an infinite knowledge what people will do under any circumstance, and if he decides he's going to stop using the Holy Spirit to draw them, he is perfectly just to do so. I don't think we have to squeeze God into my little box called fairness. So, again, like you said, steve, it's just not the case that we can go in here and pick out a verse without the context. These people had already been told multiple times in both the Old Testament and the New, and had decided to reject God. That's what the context here is. It's just not the case that people would have believed had they heard, for they had already heard and rejected it.
Speaker 1:One more thing to pull out of this passage if you look at verse 11, he's talking to his followers and he says to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. Now, a mystery in the Bible is something that in the past was not known but has now been revealed. Everywhere the word mystery is used in the New Testament, it's talking about something that has now been made known. Again has been revealed the mystery of the kingdom. What he's telling them is I'm telling you the secrets. These are the secrets to the kingdom, right here in these parables. These are the secrets to the kingdom, right here in these parables. Therefore, the kingdom, whatever it is, was revealed to the apostles, and there seems to be.
Speaker 1:If we approach these passages without trying to read into them what I think the kingdom ought to be, do our best to let the scripture speak for itself. There seems to be a sense of the kingdom in multiple senses, both a present sense of the kingdom now and a future sense of the kingdom someday, and different passages seem to be indicating this. Here, at the very least, he's telling his followers, the true followers, the true believers, I'm revealing to you the secrets, the mysteries of the kingdom. The kingdom was revealed to them and they passed it on to us. Moving on, let's read verse 21. It says this 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? With this, steve, the verse is obviously saying if you have a lamp, where do you put it and why do?
Speaker 2:you put it there. You have a lamp in order to broadcast light in a very dark room. That's why you have it, so you'll be able to see what's in the room.
Speaker 1:Like he said, if you take the lamp and put it underneath a basket, obviously it's not serving its purpose. Right, the purpose of a lamp is to illuminate where it's dark. But if you put it under a basket, put it under the bed, you won't be able to see. You take the lamp and you put it up high. So fairly obvious illustration here. What's the?
Speaker 2:application for us. The application for us is we have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit with us. For us is we have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit with us, but we should go out, just as the sower was going out sowing seed in the previous parable. We should let our light shine. We should let the Word of God shine through us to other people and to other people in the world.
Speaker 1:The light there is the Word of God, and the word of god illuminates everything else, if you think about it. We don't use light for itself. We use light to throw clarity on other things. If there's no light, then everything else in the room is in the dark and we can't see it and can't understand it. We even use this in our language when we say oh, oh, now I see, or oh, that's when the light came on, which means we understand.
Speaker 1:When you turn on the light, it illuminates everything else in the world. It illuminates all these other things. Now we understand the world. That's what he's saying. When you turn on the light, it makes everything else in the world clear. That's the point here. So if you have light that's going to clarify other things, you put it up high so that it will do that. Let our light shine to everyone around us. We don't hide it. Matthew 5.16 says let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. That's the point here. If we have a light, then we use it to illuminate everything around us. Verses 22 and 23 say this For nothing is hidden except to be revealed. Nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Steve, can we keep a?
Speaker 2:secret from God. No, and this verse is really saying that Secrets are going to be revealed. Whatever's hidden is going to be unhidden. It's going to be exposed. No, we can't keep anything from God, as he knows everything.
Speaker 1:That's what this verse is really saying is the light is the light of God, and it will at some point illuminate all things. God is omniscient, he knows all things. He's going to reveal all truths. There's really no reason to hide things from God, because he knows them anyway and he's going to bring them out to where the world can see the things that are whispered from the ear. He's going to shout from the housetops. That's ultimately what's going to happen According to verse 22,. What is ultimately going to happen to all the dark places in our lives?
Speaker 2:It's all going to be exposed by the light. I think this is partly him talking directly to these scribes that came out and gave this declaration from the official body, the Sanhedrin, that he was doing all of these miracles because he was possessed by Satan and therefore that's why he was doing these miracles. I think this possibly goes directly to them that he, being the light, through his teaching, through the miracles that he had done, has exposed them. Now their hidden secrets are revealed, who they actually are and how they actually feel about him the Son of God, the Son of man, god and the Messiah.
Speaker 1:Would it not make sense to go ahead now and turn on the light and illuminate things now, rather than try to keep them in a dark closet and keep hidden so that later on he's going to bring them out anyway? Wouldn't it be better to go ahead and turn on the light now?
Speaker 2:You always want to turn on the light before you stub your toe on something. So, yes, turn on the light sooner than later.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 1 says that Jesus is the Word of God and is the light of the world. And the darkness did not comprehend it, did not understand the light. John 3.19 says the light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light. Colossians 1.13 says Jesus delivered us from darkness. So we are naturally in the dark and we naturally love the dark. If you think about it, in nature there's creatures of the light and there's creatures of the dark.
Speaker 1:And if you go and turn on the light in dark places, then all the creepy crawlies go running and hiding because they hate the light. They'd rather be in the dark. But if you go out in the woods at night and you turn on the light, some animals are attracted to the light and they come towards the light. My friend, be a creature of the light. Go towards the light. Jesus is the light of the world. Go towards him. Don't run and hide when you see the light. As Christians, we are not to try to hide darkness in our lives. We're not to try to keep a dark closet or a dark corner in our lives. God is ultimately going to shine light on all the dark things that we try to keep secret. Steve, that's going to be a little embarrassing for some people, and so we might as well come clean today and let him shine his light on us now.
Speaker 2:One way that the light is going to be shined is that for believers, there's the Bema Seat judgment, and it says at that point that everything is going to be exposed, everything that we did, whether good or bad. Now that judgment isn't for salvation. Everything that we did, whether good or bad, now that judgment isn't for salvation. We've already been justified. That judgment is for our rewards, but our good and bad deeds are going to be both exposed, at least at that particular judgment.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the themes in the Bible is that people try to judge God on whether they think he's fair, and we already saw one of those today. We're going to read another one now, the next couple of verses. Some people might not think is God's fair, but let's look and see. Mark 4.24 says this. He was saying to them take care of what you listen to. By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you and more will be given you besides, for whoever has to him, more shall be given, and whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him. So, steve, we live in a world where some people are communist and Marxist and they want to just kind of even everything out to where everybody all has the same amount. Jesus seems to be saying no, the one that has are going to get more, and the one that doesn't have even what he does have is going to be taken away. What's he talking about here?
Speaker 2:He's given the practicality of God. God is not a respecter of any man. We see that throughout Scripture that the first will be last and the last will be first, that there is no rich or poor, Greek or Jew. We're all one in the body of Christ, for those who believe in Jesus Christ. I think this is a continuation of that type of a theme that we see in Scripture.
Speaker 1:Of course, he's not talking about money or status or power or any of those kind of things. He's talking about spiritual truths. What he's saying here is the people that are rich in spiritual truth are going to continue to get more of that, and the people that are poor in spiritual truth, that don't really go and learn from and stay in the light Remember there's creatures of the dark and creatures of the light. You turn on the light. What are the creatures of the night? They go run and hide. What little bit of light they do have they're going to go run and try to get rid of it anyway.
Speaker 1:People that are drawn towards the Word of God the light is the Word of God People that are drawn towards that even what they have, they're going to get more. People that are drawn towards that, even what they have, they're going to get more. The people that have hatred for the Word of God even what little bit of truth they do have, they're going to lose simply because they're not interested in learning more from God. He's not talking about earthly things, he's talking about heavenly things. And people that lean towards God and go towards God will get more and more. And the people that shy away from God?
Speaker 2:will get less and less. You know, glenn, there, in verse 24, there is a warning for us. It says take care what you listen to. I would even say, take care of who you listen to. That's a warning for us is that we should be aware of what is being placed in our heart, who is doing the talking and who we're listening to. We don't want to be deceived. We want to make sure that we're listening to the true and accurate things and teachings of jesus christ.
Speaker 1:Listening is a major theme in this chapter listening and hearing. Verse 3, listen Verse 9, he who has ears to hear, let him hear this verse 24, says be careful who you're listening to. He's telling us to be quite careful. Who are you paying attention to? Be very focused, to listen to the truth. He also says in this verse by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you If we sow seeds liberally remember he just got through talking about the parable of sowing the seeds If we sow seeds liberally, what are we going to get?
Speaker 1:We're going to get a big crop. If we sow seeds sparingly, we're going to get a small crop. Sow the seeds of the word of God out into the world by your measure. It's what you'll get back. You do a little bit of ministry work, you're going to get a little bit of fruit and a little bit of joy in your life. If you do a whole lot of ministry work, if you do a whole lot of Bible study, if you spend a lot of time studying spiritual things, you're going to get a lot of joy. You studying spiritual things, you're going to get a lot of joy. You're going to see a lot of fruit. Am I right, steve? I think you're exactly right.
Speaker 2:The more Word of God that you sow, the more you're going to be able to reap the benefits from sowing that Word of God.
Speaker 1:Next we have another parable. This next parable is only found in the Gospel of Mark. This is the parable of growing seed. Steve, can you read from verses 26 to 29?
Speaker 2:And he was saying the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day and the seed sprouts and grows how he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.
Speaker 1:In this little short parable. What does this man do? What is the actions done by the man?
Speaker 2:He's out sowing seed again, and the seed is the Word of God. He is out there spreading the Word of God amongst the different soils and the soils of the heart.
Speaker 1:Not only that, he sows seed, but then notice what he does next he goes to bed. So when does the growing happen? What is the man doing while the plants are growing.
Speaker 2:The man is snoring. Most likely he's not really doing anything.
Speaker 1:There's a spiritual point here, right? It's not the sower, it's not us sowing the seed. All we do is sow the seed, go to bed, take a rest, take a nap. God's going to cause the growth. That's what he's saying here, right? It's not the man that's out there forcing the seeds to sprout and forcing the roots to grow and forcing the leaves to come out. God does that. All we do is sow the seed and then go to bed, take a nap, take a rest. That's really what he's saying.
Speaker 2:This parable is so great for so many people, and it was great to me when I first heard and read it and learned about it, because, whenever you become a Christian, you want to automatically have your friends and family become Christians as well. You want them to become believers. Why? Because you want to spend eternity with them, and as you go out and tell your friends and family and others some are going to believe, some are not and then you have a burden, sometimes that's put on you, of saying am I doing enough? Is there something that I'm saying, is it the way that I'm saying it that's turning them off? Am I not telling them correctly? For them not to understand what I'm saying, and then you start worrying about what you are doing is not causing them to become believers. This parable, as you just pointed out, glenn, says the exact opposite. It's not our responsibility for them to become believers. It's God's responsibility. Our responsibility, though, is to go out, sow the Word of God. That's what our responsibility is.
Speaker 1:In all these parables. The soil is the human heart and whether the soil receives it. We saw that in the previous parable, whether the soil was hard or whether the soil had a lot of weeds in it or whether the soil was receptive. Well, here, look at verse 28. It says the soil was receptive. Well, here, look at verse 28. It says the soil produces crops by itself. That, I think, is one of the keys to interpreting this little parable.
Speaker 1:The man goes to bed, the soil produces crops by itself. The soil will not produce the crop unless you sow the seed. The seed has to be there, but that's all we do. We don't get out there and force the seed to sprout. No, the soil does it all by itself. That's our job is to sow the seed and then God causes the growth. You know, even now we can get into all sorts of chemistry and chlorophyll and cell dynamics and plant hormones and all these things. Ultimately, you can describe how the mechanism of the plant works, but you can't really describe why it does. God causes the growth. That's really part of the message here is that we sow the seed and it's up to the soil and the ultimate grower, god, in order to cause the growth. That's the message. That's the message.
Speaker 1:What does this parable tell us about God's Word growing in individuals' lives and how much concern we should have about whether the Word of God will grow or not? Steve, I think you said it quite well. We should not worry. Yes, we want to see the people around us come to Christ, but it really has to do with their heart, whether their hearts are hard and whether God's out there tilling the soil. All we can do is what he told has to do with their heart whether their hearts are hard and whether God's out there tilling the soil. All we can do is what he told us to do, which is sow the seed and go to bed At the very end of that.
Speaker 2:It then says, though, when the crop permits whenever the crop comes in, though, to go out and harvest it. That's the last part. That we should not put away is that, even though we're sowing the Word of God and the people are rejecting it, we should have an expectation that maybe that person is going to become a believer, and when they do, we then need to continue and approach them and say will you become a believer? Do you want to become a believer? That's the harvest time of seeing that. Glenn, I know you tell a story of multiple stories, but one of a story of a family member, and you sense that the Holy Spirit was tugging on your heart to go talk to that family member, and the long story, short, is, you did that. That family member became a believer in Jesus Christ. In that story you always make the point if the Holy Spirit is touching you, make sure that you heed it and go do what the Holy Spirit is doing as far as drawing you, maybe, to somebody that needs Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:We always need to do that, to be aware of the people around us. When we encounter someone who is receptive to hearing more about godly things, then we really need to stop what we're doing. All the busyness of life will distract us from recognizing. Hey, here's somebody over here that's ready for harvest. Notice in verse 29, when the crop permits, he immediately puts in a sickle and harvests it.
Speaker 1:I can guarantee you permits, he immediately puts in a sickle and harvests it. I can guarantee you, my friend, you'll be going down through life just having things to do and your daily activities and suddenly you're going to bump into somebody that's ready to talk about the Lord and it's going to interrupt your whole day. But you need to put your whole day on pause and deal with the person, because now is the time for harvest, Now is the time for putting in the sickle. That's the message here is that, yes, sow a lot of seed, not just a little, and then take a rest and just keep watching, and someday the crop will be ripe and you need to stop what you're doing at that point and do the harvest. Isn't it great, Steve?
Speaker 2:It is great, and whenever that happens it gives you great joy because another family member, friend or maybe somebody that you don't really know they become a believer. It makes you happy whenever somebody becomes a believer in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:And there's still more parables to do. Next time we'll get to the parable of the mustard seed and the birds in the mustard tree. Parable of the mustard seed and the birds in the mustard tree. That's one of the most misunderstood parables that we'll see is how the kingdom works. What is it about the kingdom? And we'll see that next time. On Reasoning Through the Bible.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
