Parables

Introduction: Do you enjoy learning a secret? It makes you special. An insider. In our study this week Jesus tells His disciples that they have “been given the secret of the kingdom of God.” Mark 4:11. Doesn’t it seem strange that the gospel should be a secret?  Isn’t this an oddity like Jesus telling the leper to be quiet about his healing and the demons to stop revealing that Jesus is God? Let’s dive into our study of Mark to discover the secret about why Jesus describes His messages as a secret!

 

I.   The Farmer

A.   Read Mark 4:1-2. What do you think it means to teach “in parables?” (A parable is a story. Try to remember a sermon you heard in the past. Likely, what you remember is the story illustrating the moral point.)

 

1.   What lesson do you find in Jesus’ approach? (Our sermons and teachings should be anchored in stories. A young man walking with me decided that he would tell me about his memory of my sermons.  To my astonishment, he recalled sermons going back ten years. He remembered the stories.)

 

B.   Read Mark 4:3. Why would Jesus tell a story about a farmer?  If you wanted the people to remember, why not tell about a dare-devil and his near-death experience? (Have you heard of a Memory Palace?  This is a way to remember large amounts of information. Here is how it works. Think about how you enter your home and then the rooms in your home. You place something you want to remember at every point of your journey into and through your home. The familiar place in your home anchors the information in your mind.)

 

C.   Read Mark 4:4-7. What is this part of the parable teaching you?

 

D.   Read Mark 4:8. What is this part of the parable teaching you?

 

E.   Read Mark 4:9. Do you have ears? What have you “heard?”

 

1.   What is this story about? Is it about farming techniques? (Read Mark 4:14. Jesus tells us He is talking about “the word.” The words of God.)

 

2.   If what you heard is, “Don’t sow seed on paths, rocky, or thorny ground,” and, “plant seeds in good soil,” how would you understand this as applied to your gospel outreach? (I have no idea. Which people are paths, rocks, thorns, or good dirt? And how would you know without first getting acquainted?)

 

3.   If the lesson is not the nature of the soil, but something else, what is it? (It is about sowing. We should sow as many seeds as possible and widely as possible.)

 

II.  Parable Principles

A.   Read Mark 4:10-12. How do you explain Jesus’ statement that parables help people to be confused, so they won’t turn from sin and be forgiven?  Isn’t that the opposite of every other thing we read about Jesus in the New Testament?  Did Peter mishear or did Mark make an error in recording it?

 

B.   Read Isaiah 6:9-10. Is Jesus paraphrasing these verses in Isaiah? (Absolutely. Notice that the text in Mark has quotation marks around it.)

 

1.   So, what did God mean when he said this to Isaiah? (This is a prophecy about how the people will receive God’s message conveyed through Isaiah.)

 

C.   Read Isaiah 6:11-12. What will happen to the people? (They will be destroyed.)

 

1.   Is the farmer on a fool’s mission?

 

2.   Is Jesus quoting Isaiah to warn the people? (When you think about it, Jerusalem was destroyed not too long after Jesus brought His message to them.)

 

D.   Read Mark 4:13. What does this reveal about whether Jesus wants His followers to understand the parables? (The clear implication is that He wants them to understand.)

 

E.   Read Mark 4:14-20. What is Jesus teaching by this parable? (He is explaining why many reject the gospel message.)

 

1.   Notice that the explanation is given to the disciples. Why only to them? (The explanation seems pretty simple. The difference between those who cannot understand and those who do is that those who understand are willing to learn and take time to consider the message.)

 

2.   Can you think of another reason why Jesus would teach in parables? (His enemies would not understand because they hated Him and did not want to understand. If His enemies better understood, they would have been better equipped to oppose Him.)

 

F.   Let’s jump ahead with a few verses. Read Mark 4:24-25. What point is Jesus making? (Jesus now explicitly says, “Pay attention” if you want to understand. If you begin to understand, your understanding will continue to grow. If you stop paying attention, you will become even more illiterate about the gospel.)

 

G.   How would you summarize what we have learned so far from Mark 4? (Open your heart! Pay attention!  Concentrate. Consider what Jesus is saying and you will grow in your understanding.)

 

III.     The Lamp

A.   Read Mark 4:21. Doesn’t this statement contradict the parable approach? Only certain people can see. (One of the conclusions you could draw from the farmer story is to avoid sowing seeds in certain areas. This says, consistent with the farmer’s approach, let the light go everywhere.)

 

B.   Read Mark 4:22. Is Jesus telling us that the reason for hiding something, the reason for keeping something secret, is to make it known?  Can you explain that? (Are you anxious to learn a secret?)

 

IV.  Farmer’s Joy

A.   Read Mark 4:26-28. What is the good news for the farmer? (His job is merely to sow the seed, it grows by itself. The farmer does not need to understand how the seed grows for this to work.)

 

1.   Should this guide our evangelistic work?

 

B.   Let’s jump ahead and read Mark 6:10-11. Is this the same as the farmer's message - our duty is to share the gospel, not persist in trying to convert others? (One difference is these people refused from the start to listen.)

 

C.   Read Mark 4:29. Who is the “he,” here? The farmer or God? (The farmer is the one who reaps the crop, but I think this refers to God. The Holy Spirit works on the individual to bring full conviction and full growth of the gospel seed.)

 

D.   Read Mark 4:30-32. How should you view your efforts to spread the gospel? (Do not despise small beginnings!  God can take your small seed and make it a huge tree.)

 

E.   Read Mark 4:33-34. Jesus is not here to explain everything to us. Are we without hope?

 

F.   Read John 14:26. How are the secrets revealed to us today? (God is still explaining them to us. In our day, the Holy Spirit is the One who “explains everything” to us. Praise God!)

 

G.   Friend, God will reveal His truths to you through the Holy Spirit!  Will you seek to become one of the “insiders” who knows the secrets of the kingdom of God? Why not make that decision right now?