1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,759 All right, here we are, Mark for Beginners. This is lesson number three. You could 2 00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:10,290 open your Bibles to Mark chapter two. We'll be covering material starting in 3 00:00:10,290 --> 00:00:16,170 Mark chapter 2. I'll also be throwing the scripture references up on the 4 00:00:16,170 --> 00:00:25,859 screen. The title of this particular lesson is Encounters and Parables. 5 00:00:25,859 --> 00:00:31,740 So far we've seen Mark do several things in the very short space 6 00:00:31,740 --> 00:00:37,530 of one chapter. He has a - first of all, he stated his major objective, right off the 7 00:00:37,530 --> 00:00:43,829 bat in verse 1, that he's going to show Jesus as the Divine Son of God. 8 00:00:43,829 --> 00:00:50,340 Doesn't waste any time, puts that out there right at the beginning. He also establishes the 9 00:00:50,340 --> 00:00:56,070 historical and cultural background of Jesus. He was a Jew, living at the time of 10 00:00:56,070 --> 00:01:01,170 John the Baptist. He was the one who fulfilled the prophecies of the Jewish 11 00:01:01,170 --> 00:01:07,159 scriptures concerning the coming Messiah. And, again, he doesn't take any time in 12 00:01:07,159 --> 00:01:10,950 demonstrating Old Testament Scriptures, because his 13 00:01:10,950 --> 00:01:15,990 audience is not primarily Jews, unlike Matthew, who, as I mentioned before, 14 00:01:15,990 --> 00:01:20,850 Matthew was very careful in laying the groundwork of Old Testament prophecy 15 00:01:20,850 --> 00:01:24,570 to demonstrate that Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies. Mark 16 00:01:24,570 --> 00:01:33,090 simply states it as a fact and moves on. Also, he demonstrates Jesus' power in 17 00:01:33,090 --> 00:01:38,009 proving His claims to be the Son of God. And His power, of course, is 18 00:01:38,009 --> 00:01:41,759 seen in His amazing teaching with confidence and of course the more 19 00:01:41,759 --> 00:01:47,820 amazing miracles that He performs. In the next chapter, as we begin chapter two, 20 00:01:47,820 --> 00:01:52,680 Mark is going to continue reciting the teachings and the miracles of Jesus, but 21 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:58,350 now he's going to describe the reactions of those people who confronted or 22 00:01:58,350 --> 00:02:04,290 opposed Him for various reasons. Some of these may be the, some of these, 23 00:02:04,290 --> 00:02:09,509 actually, were the same people who later on were calling for His 24 00:02:09,509 --> 00:02:13,280 crucifixion. For now, however, Mark describes 25 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:19,730 their first reaction to the ministry and the claims of Jesus. He demonstrates 26 00:02:19,730 --> 00:02:26,260 this by recounting seven different encounters. Seven different 27 00:02:26,260 --> 00:02:31,459 confrontations, encounters, that He has with different individuals. This goes 28 00:02:31,459 --> 00:02:38,810 from chapter 2:1 all the way to chapter 3 verse 35. So these confrontations with 29 00:02:38,810 --> 00:02:43,790 different groups are recorded in a series, as I say, of seven encounters 30 00:02:43,790 --> 00:02:47,450 described in the next couple of chapters. I'm just, I'm not going to read these. 31 00:02:47,450 --> 00:02:51,380 It's too long, we don't have time in this class, but i'll describe some pretty 32 00:02:51,380 --> 00:02:57,140 familiar things that if we've read Mark several times, we're 33 00:02:57,140 --> 00:03:00,980 familiar with the story. We'll just look at it from the encounter 34 00:03:00,980 --> 00:03:07,850 perspective and what was taking place. The first of these is the encounter with 35 00:03:07,850 --> 00:03:12,530 the scribes in chapter 2, beginning in verse 1 all the way to 12. Now the 36 00:03:12,530 --> 00:03:20,480 scribes, who were Jewish lawyers, accused Jesus of blasphemy, because he said that 37 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,739 He could forgive sin and, of course, He could forgive sin. I mean, after all, He 38 00:03:24,739 --> 00:03:30,470 was God. We know the scene, there's a paralytic there, Jesus tells the 39 00:03:30,470 --> 00:03:33,739 paralytic, your sins are forgiven. And the scribes are sitting around saying, well 40 00:03:33,739 --> 00:03:39,019 who can forgive sins but God. They accuse Him of blasphemy. Jesus, to 41 00:03:39,019 --> 00:03:43,190 demonstrate that He had the power or the authority to do one thing, which was to 42 00:03:43,190 --> 00:03:48,470 forgive sin, goes ahead and heals the paralytic to demonstrate the idea that, 43 00:03:48,470 --> 00:03:53,989 if I have the power to heal this man, then I also have the power to forgive 44 00:03:53,989 --> 00:04:00,859 his sin. And the idea is that Jesus, well, He can't blaspheme. He is God. Second 45 00:04:00,859 --> 00:04:06,200 encounter is with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were scribes, but they belonged 46 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:12,170 to a particular party, particular point of view, extremely conservative. And they 47 00:04:12,170 --> 00:04:16,940 accused Him of an immoral lifestyle, because He ate and He was seen with 48 00:04:16,940 --> 00:04:23,180 publicans and with sinners. Of course, Jesus explains to them that His mission 49 00:04:23,180 --> 00:04:27,560 was to heal the spiritually sick and for this work, He needed 50 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:32,300 to be among them. The point was that, He wasn't participating in their 51 00:04:32,300 --> 00:04:38,570 immorality, He was sharing the gospel while being among them. Third encounter 52 00:04:38,570 --> 00:04:46,040 takes place in chapter 2, verse 18 to 22. This time with John's disciples. 53 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:50,900 The disciples of John and the Pharisees wondered about His lack of spirituality, 54 00:04:50,900 --> 00:04:57,680 because he did not encourage His own disciples to fast. The Pharisees and 55 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:03,169 even the disciples of John were encouraged to fast on a regular basis. 56 00:05:03,169 --> 00:05:09,380 Jesus responds, teaches them that spiritual people know when to 57 00:05:09,380 --> 00:05:15,139 fast and when to feast. The point He makes is that He is among them, 58 00:05:15,139 --> 00:05:19,370 the Lord, the Messiah, He's among them and this is a cause for feasting, 59 00:05:19,370 --> 00:05:28,729 not fasting. He intimates the idea that because His disciples are actually 60 00:05:28,729 --> 00:05:32,840 feasting, they're eating, they're drinking while they're with Him, this demonstrates 61 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:39,190 not a lack of spirituality, but it demonstrates a spiritual discernment; 62 00:05:39,190 --> 00:05:47,080 because they knew when to feast and when to fast. His answer is: no, my 63 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:51,229 disciples are actually very spiritual, because they can 64 00:05:51,229 --> 00:05:59,600 discern the times when to feast, when to fast. In this passage we have where 65 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:03,919 Jesus talks about, you can't put a new patch on an old cloth, or you 66 00:06:03,919 --> 00:06:09,590 can't put new wine in old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins will burst or the 67 00:06:09,590 --> 00:06:14,450 cloth will rip. This is where this appears. He's really 68 00:06:14,450 --> 00:06:20,690 talking about a comparison between Judaism and Christianity, which 69 00:06:20,690 --> 00:06:25,940 has not flowered yet, but will come about, As He goes 70 00:06:25,940 --> 00:06:30,200 through His ministry, His death, burial, and resurrection, the Apostles 71 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:35,870 begin preaching the gospel, Christianity begins to take on momentum, 72 00:06:35,870 --> 00:06:40,020 actually surpassing Judaism, but He's making an illusion 73 00:06:40,020 --> 00:06:46,199 to this change. When He's talking about the new patch on the old cloth; and 74 00:06:46,199 --> 00:06:51,800 the idea is, you can't repair Judaism, the old cloth, by patching on 75 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:58,500 Christianity to it. You have to remove the old and take all of new cloth, all 76 00:06:58,500 --> 00:07:04,770 right. He makes the same point using different imagery, this time using a 77 00:07:04,770 --> 00:07:11,280 wineskin. An old wineskin. The Jews kept wine, for traveling purposes, 78 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:17,449 in wineskins made from animal skins. His point is, you can't preserve 79 00:07:17,449 --> 00:07:24,569 Christianity, the new wine, by putting it within the confines of Judaism, the old 80 00:07:24,569 --> 00:07:31,590 wine skin; because Christianity will grow out of these confines and a rupture will 81 00:07:31,590 --> 00:07:37,349 occur, and a rupture did occur, didn't it? Christianity needed to be 82 00:07:37,349 --> 00:07:42,599 independent from Judaism, because it was a growing thing and Judaism was not a 83 00:07:42,599 --> 00:07:48,409 growing thing. Judaism had reached its peak, had reached its level of 84 00:07:48,409 --> 00:07:53,729 fulfillment. The whole purpose for Judaism was to prepare the world for 85 00:07:53,729 --> 00:07:57,630 the coming of the Messiah. Well the Messiah was here. Had they accepted the 86 00:07:57,630 --> 00:08:01,650 Messiah then, they would be the vehicle to bring the Messiah to the entire world. 87 00:08:01,650 --> 00:08:09,419 That was the point. But they aborted that, they destroyed that idea by 88 00:08:09,419 --> 00:08:15,630 rejecting their own Messiah. There was no purpose left for Judaism, other than 89 00:08:15,630 --> 00:08:22,279 being an example. And it has been an example since that time. 90 00:08:22,279 --> 00:08:33,000 Another encounter, this time the Pharisees again. The Pharisees in chapter 91 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,740 2:23-28, they accuse not Jesus, but this time they accused Jesus' disciples 92 00:08:37,740 --> 00:08:42,930 of disobeying the law by picking grain on the Sabbath. I don't mean harvesting, I 93 00:08:42,930 --> 00:08:45,570 mean, you're walking through and you're munching. It's like you're 94 00:08:45,570 --> 00:08:49,050 walking through an orchard, you pick an apple, and you're just going on 95 00:08:49,050 --> 00:08:55,110 through. And the Pharisees said, well they're breaking the 96 00:08:55,110 --> 00:09:00,030 law. You can't work on the Sabbath. And so the Pharisees had created 97 00:09:00,030 --> 00:09:06,540 all kinds of definitions as to what work was. Even picking corn or grain in that 98 00:09:06,540 --> 00:09:14,100 way was defined as work and forbidden. Jesus uses the example of David - 99 00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:20,280 David and Goliath. That David, the Psalmist, an episode where David and his 100 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:27,540 men are hungry and they come to a place, and they see the priest, visit with 101 00:09:27,540 --> 00:09:32,490 the priest, and the priest - there's the showbread. Showbread was bread that was 102 00:09:32,490 --> 00:09:38,400 made every day as part of the daily ritual and the leftover showbread 103 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:41,070 was eaten by the priests. Only the priests were allowed to eat, but this 104 00:09:41,070 --> 00:09:44,220 time, David comes with his men, they're hungry, there's no other food, and 105 00:09:44,220 --> 00:09:52,830 so they eat that particular bread. In this story Jesus suggests, with this 106 00:09:52,830 --> 00:09:58,860 episode, that David did this, but he didn't sin. And the principle is that 107 00:09:58,860 --> 00:10:07,800 human need outweighs ceremonial law. Jesus explains in this passage that the 108 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:13,800 Sabbath was created because man needed rest and he needed spiritual renewal and 109 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:18,030 not the other way around. Man was not created to be a slave of religious 110 00:10:18,030 --> 00:10:21,720 ceremony. God didn't create religious ceremony and then created man and said, 111 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:26,130 now I'm watching how you obey all the rules. That's 112 00:10:26,130 --> 00:10:33,120 not why He created that. Jesus was lord of the Sabbath, in that, as son of God He 113 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:39,570 instituted the Sabbath. He was with God at the creation, right? John chapter 1, "In 114 00:10:39,570 --> 00:10:45,540 the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God." As the 115 00:10:45,540 --> 00:10:50,940 Messiah, He was to fulfill all the requirements of the Sabbath, but not the 116 00:10:50,940 --> 00:10:55,320 requirements that were added by men. All these little laws about what you could 117 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:58,920 and you couldn't do on the Sabbath. He's Lord of the Sabbath because He 118 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:04,080 initiated it at the beginning. And now He's about to fulfill it at the end. So 119 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:09,030 Jesus cannot break the sabbath, He instituted the Sabbath. He understands 120 00:11:09,030 --> 00:11:15,150 what the Sabbath is and what it is for. And, actually, it's 121 00:11:15,150 --> 00:11:22,170 about Him, right? It's about Him. Fifth encounter, the Pharisees again. This time 122 00:11:22,170 --> 00:11:26,460 the Pharisees accused Jesus, not His disciples, but they accuse Him of 123 00:11:26,460 --> 00:11:34,230 breaking the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath day. So you see, the previous 124 00:11:34,230 --> 00:11:37,800 encounter, they accuse His disciples of breaking the Sabbath because 125 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:41,580 they worked. Now they accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath because He heals 126 00:11:41,580 --> 00:11:47,430 someone on that day. Jesus responds by, again, reinforcing the principle, is 127 00:11:47,430 --> 00:11:54,780 that it is never wrong to do good. The true law concerning the Sabbath had 128 00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:59,280 no regulation about healing on the Sabbath, this is what the Pharisees and 129 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:04,410 the scribes had initiated themselves. They had invented this. And notice how He 130 00:12:04,410 --> 00:12:10,650 heals the man in this particular episode, just a single word and the man is healed. 131 00:12:10,650 --> 00:12:18,270 Jesus shows that it is always good to do good, even on the Sabbath. You 132 00:12:18,270 --> 00:12:23,970 notice in the following verses, in verses 7 to 12, Jesus does a series of 133 00:12:23,970 --> 00:12:32,550 miracles and He - just the presence of Jesus, the demons would flee. 134 00:12:32,550 --> 00:12:36,150 He didn't have to go through a big long rigamarol. Just 135 00:12:36,150 --> 00:12:43,590 His very presence scattered them. In verses 13 to 19, in 136 00:12:43,590 --> 00:12:49,860 this passage here, Mark talks about the selection of Jesus' 12 closest 137 00:12:49,860 --> 00:12:59,070 disciples, to become the apostles. Then the sixth encounter, the scribes, the 138 00:12:59,070 --> 00:13:04,170 family of Jesus, begins to believe that He's not well, He's crazy, actually. And 139 00:13:04,170 --> 00:13:09,990 part of this is the accusation by the scribes of being possessed by a demon, by 140 00:13:09,990 --> 00:13:16,050 Beelzebub, a name for the devil. Also, they accuse Him of doing the work of the 141 00:13:16,050 --> 00:13:20,100 devil, in cooperation and with, under the power of Satan. 142 00:13:20,100 --> 00:13:25,270 Basically, the scribes are saying, look this guy's possessed. And yes, He is 143 00:13:25,270 --> 00:13:28,330 doing - they can't deny the great things that He's doing, but the things that 144 00:13:28,330 --> 00:13:31,510 He's doing, He's doing them under the power of Satan, because He's possessed. 145 00:13:31,510 --> 00:13:37,690 Jesus, of course, shows how illogical their thinking is, if Satan is 146 00:13:37,690 --> 00:13:43,480 destroying demons, he's then destroying himself. Demons were being 147 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:48,640 destroyed, but Jesus shows that it wasn't Satan that was doing it. Jesus was not 148 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:54,940 doing Satan's work. He was actually destroying Satan's work. It's in this 149 00:13:54,940 --> 00:14:00,310 passage also, that Mark talks about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And in 150 00:14:00,310 --> 00:14:06,130 context, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to attribute to the devil the work of 151 00:14:06,130 --> 00:14:09,520 God through the Holy Spirit. In other words, you're watching the Spirit of God 152 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:16,270 at work and you're saying, oh that's the devil, that's the devil's work. 153 00:14:16,270 --> 00:14:21,250 Someone says, why is that unforgivable? Is it that we get God so angry? I'm so 154 00:14:21,250 --> 00:14:25,750 angry I'll never forgive. Is it that thing that's 155 00:14:25,750 --> 00:14:31,900 happening? Is God like that? I don't believe so I think it's unpardonable 156 00:14:31,900 --> 00:14:37,480 because it's the Spirit of God that works repentance in one's heart, it's the 157 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:42,670 Spirit of God that brings a person, the Word of God, right, that brings you face 158 00:14:42,670 --> 00:14:50,620 to face with the gospel. So to designate the Spirit of God as being a 159 00:14:50,620 --> 00:14:56,290 devil, is to put ourselves beyond repentance. I think of it for a second, if 160 00:14:56,290 --> 00:15:01,650 you're thinking the Holy Spirit's work, which is to bring the gospel to 161 00:15:01,650 --> 00:15:08,140 people. And that the gospel itself, if you're thinking that that is the work of 162 00:15:08,140 --> 00:15:13,390 the devil, as the scribes were saying, well there's nowhere for you to go, to be 163 00:15:13,390 --> 00:15:18,190 forgiven. If you've rejected that and if you've said, if you've 164 00:15:18,190 --> 00:15:25,180 relegated all of that to Satan, where do you go for forgiveness? There's nowhere 165 00:15:25,180 --> 00:15:29,580 to go for forgiveness. So it's unpardonable because you have simply 166 00:15:29,580 --> 00:15:36,339 destroyed the bridge that takes you to safety. If there were four or five 167 00:15:36,339 --> 00:15:40,569 different ways to be saved, by four or five different deities, 168 00:15:40,569 --> 00:15:46,600 well, if you don't get one, you get another, but as Peter 169 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:51,040 says in Acts chapter 4, "There is no other name under heaven by 170 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:57,879 which we can be saved." If we, as I say, relegate the saving work of 171 00:15:57,879 --> 00:16:01,689 Christ, the preaching of the gospel, the work of the Holy Spirit, if we relegate 172 00:16:01,689 --> 00:16:07,480 that to Satan, well there's no other place that we can go to be saved. So 173 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:14,800 it's unpardonable in that way. And then another encounter, number seven, His own 174 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:19,449 family, the scribes, are saying, this guy He's crazy, something wrong with 175 00:16:19,449 --> 00:16:24,490 Him. So the family, they come and they want to take custody of Him because they 176 00:16:24,490 --> 00:16:28,360 believed Him to be mad. They want Him to rest. I don't think it was a - 177 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:33,430 like a bad thing or anything, it's just, boy our 178 00:16:33,430 --> 00:16:38,170 son is in trouble, our brothers is in trouble. People are accusing Him of being 179 00:16:38,170 --> 00:16:41,800 crazy. We need to go get Him and bring Him home. 180 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:46,839 You need to calm down a little bit, get some rest. You 181 00:16:46,839 --> 00:16:52,240 can always go back later, that type of thing. Here Jesus talks about 182 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:59,079 ties that bind you. He says His earthly family believes that it's 183 00:16:59,079 --> 00:17:04,209 blood ties give them the right to, kind of, advance on Him and tell Him 184 00:17:04,209 --> 00:17:09,909 what is right and tell Him what to do. Jesus doesn't defend His sanity. He 185 00:17:09,909 --> 00:17:13,839 doesn't say, hey, no I'm not really crazy and listen, what I'm teaching is 186 00:17:13,839 --> 00:17:18,970 true. He doesn't even make any defense of that. He explains who His real 187 00:17:18,970 --> 00:17:24,939 family is, those who do the will of God, those are the ones who are related to 188 00:17:24,939 --> 00:17:31,990 Him and related to each other in the way that it counts, because those people are 189 00:17:31,990 --> 00:17:38,169 related to each other eternally. Let's read a passage of scripture here 190 00:17:38,169 --> 00:17:44,860 from First John chapter 3, verse 21 to 24. John writes, "Beloved, if our heart does 191 00:17:44,860 --> 00:17:48,290 not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive 192 00:17:48,290 --> 00:17:52,430 from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are 193 00:17:52,430 --> 00:17:56,690 pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name 194 00:17:56,690 --> 00:18:01,850 of His son Jesus Christ and love one another just as He commanded us. The one 195 00:18:01,850 --> 00:18:07,610 who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in Him. We know by this that He 196 00:18:07,610 --> 00:18:15,590 abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given to us." Who keeps 197 00:18:15,590 --> 00:18:19,370 the commandment, Jesus says, who's my family, the ones that obey 198 00:18:19,370 --> 00:18:23,990 God, keep the commandments of God. Who are those people? What are those 199 00:18:23,990 --> 00:18:29,960 Commandments? Well, John says, that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's 200 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,950 one commandment, and that we love one another, that's the other commandment. 201 00:18:33,950 --> 00:18:39,950 So who is Jesus' family? The ones who believe who He is, who He claims to be 202 00:18:39,950 --> 00:18:46,610 and the ones who demonstrate that faith by doing what He asks them to do, which 203 00:18:46,610 --> 00:18:51,620 is to love one another. Let's just summarize this section here 204 00:18:51,620 --> 00:18:59,090 before we move on. We have confrontations that Mark describes, with 205 00:18:59,090 --> 00:19:05,750 religious traditions, leaders, family. He's accused of blasphemy, 206 00:19:05,750 --> 00:19:11,330 disrespect for God, but that can't be because He is God. He's accused of 207 00:19:11,330 --> 00:19:20,360 immoral and unfriendly behavior, but He loves sinners, that's why He was among 208 00:19:20,360 --> 00:19:26,990 them. He loved their souls. He's accused of being unspiritual, He didn't keep the 209 00:19:26,990 --> 00:19:31,250 feasts or the law, not the feast, but the particular laws that the Pharisees 210 00:19:31,250 --> 00:19:38,600 had developed. And he's saying, well, My disciples know how to 211 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:44,780 discern when to fast, when not to fast. He is 212 00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:50,720 accused of disobeying the laws of, well, of that time, the church, or the temple, or 213 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:57,950 the Jews. And His answer is well, I obey God's law, not men's laws. He's 214 00:19:57,950 --> 00:20:01,850 accused of this several times. He's also accused of being crazy because 215 00:20:01,850 --> 00:20:08,840 of His religion. His answer is, well, if loving God with My whole heart, My 216 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:12,710 whole soul, My whole strength, if that's being crazy, then so be it - 217 00:20:12,710 --> 00:20:20,540 I'm crazy. I'm crazy because I am committed to obeying God. And the 218 00:20:20,540 --> 00:20:24,470 same accusations made towards Christians, you people are crazy, religious zealots - 219 00:20:24,470 --> 00:20:29,090 Well, if religious zealot means I love the Lord, I want to do what He 220 00:20:29,090 --> 00:20:33,740 wants me to do. And if that puts me in conflict with the world, 221 00:20:33,740 --> 00:20:38,630 then so be it. And then, of course, He's told He's not loyal to his family 222 00:20:38,630 --> 00:20:44,480 because of His work in the gospel. His answer, of course, is, those 223 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:49,160 who seek the kingdom first, those who seek to know God, to please God, they're 224 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:54,230 the ones that belong to the family of God. So as I say, that is kind of 225 00:20:54,230 --> 00:20:59,660 familiar. Doesn't the Christian in every generation go against his or her 226 00:20:59,660 --> 00:21:05,270 own religious tradition in many cases, whatever they are, don't many of us have 227 00:21:05,270 --> 00:21:10,250 problems with our family, because of our faith. Problems with society. Aren't these 228 00:21:10,250 --> 00:21:16,550 same types of accusations made over and over again, every generation. In Mark 229 00:21:16,550 --> 00:21:20,930 chapter 3, verse 35, he says, "Answering them, Jesus said, "Who are My mother and My 230 00:21:20,930 --> 00:21:25,130 brothers? Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, "Behold My 231 00:21:25,130 --> 00:21:30,230 mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and 232 00:21:30,230 --> 00:21:38,210 sister and mother." This passage speaks to all those who have 233 00:21:38,210 --> 00:21:45,650 faced criticism or ridicule or resentment or anger or division, because 234 00:21:45,650 --> 00:21:52,640 of their faith, because their faith is making them act and talk in a way that 235 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:58,220 makes them go against the grain of society, against the grain of, perhaps, 236 00:21:58,220 --> 00:22:02,050 their unbelieving family. I find this very very 237 00:22:02,050 --> 00:22:09,200 encouraging. We move on now to chapter 4, where Jesus is going to 238 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:13,920 switch gears, going to be talking through parables. The miracles and the teachings 239 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:20,760 that provoke a series of confrontations are over and Jesus now shifts His style 240 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:25,890 of teaching, in order to avoid these confrontations. He's got 241 00:22:25,890 --> 00:22:30,180 work to do, He can't spend all this time debating with those 242 00:22:30,180 --> 00:22:35,430 who are confronting Him. He continues to teach, but now He's going to do it in 243 00:22:35,430 --> 00:22:42,690 parable form. Only his disciples and apostles will discern and not His 244 00:22:42,690 --> 00:22:51,030 enemies, nor unbelievers. Let's read chapter 4, here, 11 and 12. It says, "And He 245 00:22:51,030 --> 00:22:54,930 was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but 246 00:22:54,930 --> 00:22:59,850 those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may 247 00:22:59,850 --> 00:23:03,900 see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, 248 00:23:03,900 --> 00:23:12,440 otherwise they might return and be forgiven." This chapter, therefore, 249 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:17,910 contains a series of teachings, but now in parable forms. I just want to 250 00:23:17,910 --> 00:23:22,170 show you the flow of action. He's introduced, He does miracles, 251 00:23:22,170 --> 00:23:26,400 He does dynamic teachings, declares who He is, 252 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:31,320 and then confrontations, we've noted seven of them, with different 253 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:36,420 people in that society. Now in chapter 4 we see Jesus again, going back to 254 00:23:36,420 --> 00:23:44,400 teaching, but now in a different format. So that He will avoid the confrontations 255 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:49,980 that have plagued Him to this part. Let's talk about parables very 256 00:23:49,980 --> 00:23:56,730 briefly. The word "parable" means "to lay beside" or "to compare". 257 00:23:56,730 --> 00:24:00,840 You have something over here and you take something, and you lay it next to it, to 258 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:08,160 be able to compare one thing to another. It's putting two things side by side 259 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:13,710 in order to draw a lesson or an understanding. What Jesus does, is He 260 00:24:13,710 --> 00:24:19,590 tells stories and He puts physical examples down, in order 261 00:24:19,590 --> 00:24:24,050 to allow His listeners to understand spiritual examples. 262 00:24:24,050 --> 00:24:28,820 He uses stories that describe relationships, 263 00:24:28,820 --> 00:24:35,900 that you can see and understand, in order to explain how things work in the world 264 00:24:35,900 --> 00:24:40,580 that they cannot see, in the kingdom, in the spiritual Kingdom. 265 00:24:40,580 --> 00:24:46,790 That's why He used parables. In order to be of value, the hearer had to understand 266 00:24:46,790 --> 00:24:55,220 the analogy. In most parables, Jesus was using everyday physical and human 267 00:24:55,220 --> 00:25:02,090 situations to explain the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom 268 00:25:02,090 --> 00:25:08,390 is like, many times, He'd say that, it was His way of teaching 269 00:25:08,390 --> 00:25:15,530 what the kingdom was, or who was in the kingdom, or how did the kingdom of heaven, 270 00:25:15,530 --> 00:25:22,280 how did it operate, and how does one function within the kingdom. 271 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:30,980 The kingdom was the sum of God and His people and it existed in heaven and 272 00:25:30,980 --> 00:25:36,710 for a time honor at the kingdom of heaven on earth for a time Jesus was 273 00:25:36,710 --> 00:25:42,260 calling people to join Him in the kingdom. And this He did, by preaching the 274 00:25:42,260 --> 00:25:48,230 gospel. Jesus also explained the nature of the kingdom and the lifestyle of 275 00:25:48,230 --> 00:25:54,950 those within the kingdom. And this He did using parables. When we put all the 276 00:25:54,950 --> 00:26:02,420 parables together, we see that, first of all, the kingdom on earth is the church. 277 00:26:02,420 --> 00:26:08,240 All those who have obeyed the gospel and follow Christ faithfully in this fallen 278 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:13,610 world of temptation, unbelief, sin, and death, all the people that come out of 279 00:26:13,610 --> 00:26:17,840 that, into the church, have actually come out of the darkness into the light, have 280 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,640 come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, kingdom of God, 281 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,770 kingdom of Christ, kingdom of heaven. All different ways of describing the kingdom. 282 00:26:27,770 --> 00:26:33,500 Here on earth, the kingdom is the church, obviously, not the building, 283 00:26:33,500 --> 00:26:41,299 but the people of God who do His will in the name of Christ. Also, the kingdom 284 00:26:41,299 --> 00:26:46,700 in heaven, as John describes it in the book of Revelation, is the circle of God 285 00:26:46,700 --> 00:26:53,600 and His angels and the church living in a new heaven, without sin, without sorrow, 286 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:59,750 without death, separated from sinners and unbelievers. That'll be the kingdom of 287 00:26:59,750 --> 00:27:05,390 God in heaven. For a time, that Kingdom exists here on earth, for a time. 288 00:27:05,390 --> 00:27:10,970 Through His parables, Jesus explained these things two disciples who were 289 00:27:10,970 --> 00:27:17,720 living in one, the kingdom of heaven on earth, and hoping to go to the other, the 290 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:25,159 kingdom of heaven in heaven. In chapter 4, He gives four parables 291 00:27:25,159 --> 00:27:30,650 that help describe this kingdom. We begin with the parable of the sower and 292 00:27:30,650 --> 00:27:36,140 the seed, very familiar. I'm not going to read verses 1 to 20, we know what it is. 293 00:27:36,140 --> 00:27:42,260 The sower goes out to sow seed and some falls on the road, some 294 00:27:42,260 --> 00:27:48,919 falls on ground that is full of weeds, and rocky soil, then 295 00:27:48,919 --> 00:27:52,760 weeds, and then on good earth. We know that 296 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:58,730 parable, the idea of it is, the parable describes how a 297 00:27:58,730 --> 00:28:05,419 person will or will not develop in the kingdom. And He gives both the parable 298 00:28:05,419 --> 00:28:11,630 and its explanation, because it's a very basic one, to others. Entry and 299 00:28:11,630 --> 00:28:16,610 growth into the kingdom is based on how well you react to God's Word, that's 300 00:28:16,610 --> 00:28:23,059 one of the basic lessons. Those who do not enter or do not do well are those 301 00:28:23,059 --> 00:28:29,090 who first of all have a hard heart or don't hear the word at all. They have a 302 00:28:29,090 --> 00:28:33,049 sinful life, they're disbelieving. He compares them to a road, 303 00:28:33,049 --> 00:28:37,730 the hard, rocky road, they're just the seed, don't penetrate, they're 304 00:28:37,730 --> 00:28:45,409 washed away, the birds come and they eat them. The people who don't do well, also, 305 00:28:45,409 --> 00:28:50,070 are people who have no conviction. They don't persevere in the Word. 306 00:28:50,070 --> 00:28:54,060 That's the rocky soil. Little, thin layer of soil. The seed penetrates a 307 00:28:54,060 --> 00:28:59,610 little bit, it goes down, the plant comes up a bit. The minute the Sun shines, it 308 00:28:59,610 --> 00:29:03,180 dries out. right. There's no conviction. Those people, they don't do well either. 309 00:29:03,180 --> 00:29:09,180 And then He talks about people who have way too much involvement in the world 310 00:29:09,180 --> 00:29:14,130 and they forget or they ignore the Word of God. That's the soil 311 00:29:14,130 --> 00:29:18,330 that's got a lot of weeds in it. The seed 312 00:29:18,330 --> 00:29:22,560 goes down and it comes up and it's growing, but there's so many other plants 313 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:27,180 there that eventually they choke that plant. That's the analogy that He 314 00:29:27,180 --> 00:29:32,160 makes. And He's saying that people who are so worldly, so busy in the world, 315 00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,220 they just don't have time for the Word, they don't have time for 316 00:29:35,220 --> 00:29:38,790 spiritual things, they're not "bad people", they just don't have 317 00:29:38,790 --> 00:29:43,530 time. They're too busy chasing the buck or too busy building their 318 00:29:43,530 --> 00:29:47,160 thing or whatever it is, they ignore the word. And he says, eventually it just 319 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:53,550 chokes the word and it has no fruit. It eventually dies. Now, he says, there are 320 00:29:53,550 --> 00:30:00,390 others who enter and are successful in the kingdom and those are the ones who 321 00:30:00,390 --> 00:30:05,520 hear the word and they respond properly to the word. They understand, they believe, 322 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:09,000 they respond in obedience to the word. That's the good earth, 323 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:14,130 planted down deep. It grows, it's watered to the degree that 324 00:30:14,130 --> 00:30:20,160 they respond in faith and obedience. He says, about this fourth kind of seed 325 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:25,730 there, these people are productive at various rates: 30-fold, 60-fold, 326 00:30:25,730 --> 00:30:32,640 100-fold, based on the level of obedience and experience. We have Christians 327 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:37,640 that are fruitful at a 30-fold level, some Christians are faithful and 328 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:43,110 productive at a 60-fold, others 100-fold. Just like in other 329 00:30:43,110 --> 00:30:47,370 parables, one talent, two talents, five talents. We have Christians, 330 00:30:47,370 --> 00:30:52,710 depending on their understanding, their obedience, their commitment, 331 00:30:52,710 --> 00:30:56,730 they produce fruit at different rates. It doesn't mean that the 332 00:30:56,730 --> 00:31:02,890 30-fold is rejected, it just means that you're producing at a different rate. 333 00:31:02,890 --> 00:31:08,860 There's the sower and the seed parable, describing how one 334 00:31:08,860 --> 00:31:12,610 enters into the kingdom and how one grows in the kingdom and what limits 335 00:31:12,610 --> 00:31:17,200 growth in the kingdom. Then He has another parable, and this is the 336 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,890 parable of the lamp. It's not very long so we'll read this when it says, "And he 337 00:31:20,890 --> 00:31:25,420 was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under 338 00:31:25,420 --> 00:31:30,460 a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except 339 00:31:30,460 --> 00:31:34,450 to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light." 340 00:31:34,450 --> 00:31:39,880 Here Jesus picks up from the idea fruitfulness, but He changes the figure 341 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:44,670 to make another point. Before, in the parable of the sower and the seed, 342 00:31:44,670 --> 00:31:50,680 obedience equaled fruitfulness. If you're obedient, faithful, that's what 343 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:58,000 had bearing on how much fruitfulness that you had as a Christian. 344 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:04,980 In this particular parable, fruitfulness is equal to a witness, a 345 00:32:04,980 --> 00:32:11,650 lamp, something can be seen. He switches the imagery to lamps in order 346 00:32:11,650 --> 00:32:16,600 to explain that your fruitfulness in the kingdom will produce the light that is 347 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:23,200 necessary to light up a dark place. The kingdom is a kingdom of light and 348 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:30,190 your fruitfulness is what produces that light. So in the parable of the sower and 349 00:32:30,190 --> 00:32:35,110 the seed your fruitfulness is 30, 60, 100. In the parable of the lamp, 350 00:32:35,110 --> 00:32:39,220 the brightness of the lamp is how fruitful you are. 351 00:32:39,220 --> 00:32:44,110 If you're 30-fold, you're here, a 25 watt bulb; 60-fold, you're a 75 watt bulb; 352 00:32:44,110 --> 00:32:49,120 100-fold, you're a 200 watt light bulb. 353 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:55,300 Making a little comparison there. So, your light has a purpose and its purpose is 354 00:32:55,300 --> 00:32:59,980 to give off light, which is the purpose of a lamp in the first place. He 355 00:32:59,980 --> 00:33:03,370 says, you don't have a light, a lamp, and then stick it underneath the 356 00:33:03,370 --> 00:33:08,800 bed, do you? You don't do that. You don't light it, to hide it. Produce 357 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:13,389 light for no reason. Therefore, the light of the kingdom 358 00:33:13,389 --> 00:33:19,629 is the fruitfulness of its members and that light draws men to the kingdom. It 359 00:33:19,629 --> 00:33:24,609 helps man, men and women, it helps them find the kingdom and enter 360 00:33:24,609 --> 00:33:30,279 into the kingdom. In verse 22 Jesus warns that nothing remains a secret forever. 361 00:33:30,279 --> 00:33:36,759 All you do, whether it's good or bad, will come out, it'll come out now or later, at 362 00:33:36,759 --> 00:33:42,609 judgment. And, of course, the light of the gospel, the light of their deeds provides 363 00:33:42,609 --> 00:33:49,419 the light now, but when Jesus comes He will search each of us 364 00:33:49,419 --> 00:33:55,329 with the life of truth. All right, a little commentary by Jesus on this 365 00:33:55,329 --> 00:34:02,259 particular parable, it says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. And He was 366 00:34:02,259 --> 00:34:05,799 saying to them, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will 367 00:34:05,799 --> 00:34:10,450 be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him 368 00:34:10,450 --> 00:34:15,579 more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has 369 00:34:15,579 --> 00:34:24,190 shall be taken away from him." Between the parables Jesus issues a warning to 370 00:34:24,190 --> 00:34:28,869 those who are listening to Him, if you hear, if you perceive, if you understand, 371 00:34:28,869 --> 00:34:34,450 then to the degree that you obey, you will be rewarded. If you respond with 372 00:34:34,450 --> 00:34:42,849 sincere obedience and substance abuse that 30 60 hundred you're one of 373 00:34:42,849 --> 00:34:47,319 those people who are going to give off light. If you hear and understand and 374 00:34:47,319 --> 00:34:52,240 perceive, but rejected or don't act on it, you'll lose whatever 375 00:34:52,240 --> 00:34:58,059 understanding or perception you once had. The less you have as a base of 376 00:34:58,059 --> 00:35:03,190 understanding, the less, therefore, you will be able to receive. Think of it as a 377 00:35:03,190 --> 00:35:07,390 bucket. If you have a - which one would you rather have 378 00:35:07,390 --> 00:35:12,220 on a hot, 105 degree day? You're outside mowing the 379 00:35:12,220 --> 00:35:15,910 lawn, you've been out there a couple hours, you come back in, do 380 00:35:15,910 --> 00:35:23,109 you want a thimble full of water or do you want a 15 to 20 381 00:35:23,109 --> 00:35:26,680 ounce glass of water? The container 382 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:31,330 matters. Jesus says, the smaller your container, the smaller you 383 00:35:31,330 --> 00:35:35,200 receive. And if you don't receive anything, eventually your container won't 384 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:41,320 be big enough to carry anything at all. Understanding, as I say, is like 385 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:46,000 a bucket, if you don't fill it up and use it, God just replaces it with a smaller 386 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:52,570 and smaller bucket, until you can contain very little or nothing at all. We 387 00:35:52,570 --> 00:35:58,900 move on to the third parable, the parable of normal growth, verse 26 to 29. Again, 388 00:35:58,900 --> 00:36:02,830 not a very long one, we can read it, it says, "And he was saying, "The kingdom of 389 00:36:02,830 --> 00:36:08,770 God is like," He's talking about the kingdom of God, "he is like a man who casts 390 00:36:08,770 --> 00:36:12,400 seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed 391 00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:17,410 sprouts and grows-how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by 392 00:36:17,410 --> 00:36:21,610 itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But 393 00:36:21,610 --> 00:36:26,530 when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest 394 00:36:26,530 --> 00:36:33,760 has come." The previous parable was about the different kinds of soils, this 395 00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:39,910 parable is about the seed, itself, and how it is grown and how it is sown. Jesus 396 00:36:39,910 --> 00:36:44,890 simply explains that once the seed is sown, man has no power over its growth, 397 00:36:44,890 --> 00:36:52,060 the growth is done apart from man's effort. Man harvests the result of the 398 00:36:52,060 --> 00:36:58,480 seed's growth. The Sun, the rain, the weeding helps the 399 00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:04,240 growth, but the life is actually in the seed. The parallel here, is that 400 00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:10,390 the Word of God is the seed and once it is planted by faith in one's heart 401 00:37:10,390 --> 00:37:17,020 and watered by perseverance, it grows within man to produce fruit in man's 402 00:37:17,020 --> 00:37:23,620 heart. The seed or the word, has the life that produces the fruit. Man 403 00:37:23,620 --> 00:37:29,620 harvests it, he exhibits it, he uses it, he does not produce it through self will or 404 00:37:29,620 --> 00:37:35,410 through self exercise. And then, the fourth parable is the parable of the 405 00:37:35,410 --> 00:37:40,220 mustard seed. Again, a very short one. And he said, "How shall we picture the 406 00:37:40,220 --> 00:37:46,250 kingdom," again, He prefaces His parable by saying, I'm going to tell you 407 00:37:46,250 --> 00:37:50,030 what the kingdom is like. He says, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or 408 00:37:50,030 --> 00:37:54,650 by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown 409 00:37:54,650 --> 00:37:58,760 upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet 410 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:03,560 when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and 411 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:10,640 forms large branches, so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade." 412 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:16,370 Jesus explained the good soil, believing heart and the power of the 413 00:38:16,370 --> 00:38:23,510 seed, it produces the fruit, not man. Now He explains the potential of the seed 414 00:38:23,510 --> 00:38:30,040 that He plants, that God plants, in comparison to the plant it produces, 415 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:36,200 excuse me, in comparison to the plant it produces. The seed of the plant is tiny, 416 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:43,610 but the plant, itself, when it grows, is large and it is useful. The analogy 417 00:38:43,610 --> 00:38:51,230 here is, the word of God may seem small, our reading, and our small efforts that 418 00:38:51,230 --> 00:38:56,930 complying with it, may seem humble at times, but look at the results throughout 419 00:38:56,930 --> 00:39:02,000 history, as this seed has produced a kingdom that has surpassed all others 420 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:08,330 and is still going strong throughout the world. In verse 33 and 421 00:39:08,330 --> 00:39:13,760 34 he gives a summary, he says, or Mark does, he says, "With many such parables He 422 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:18,080 was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not 423 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:22,760 speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to 424 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:27,350 His own disciples." Once again, Mark repeats why the teaching has taken this 425 00:39:27,350 --> 00:39:32,570 form. For now Jesus is specifically talking to his disciples, to believers, 426 00:39:32,570 --> 00:39:37,790 those who disbelieve, those who were searching for an opening to attack, could 427 00:39:37,790 --> 00:39:41,590 hear what He was saying, but they couldn't understand, so they were 428 00:39:41,590 --> 00:39:47,300 neutralized. His public speaking in parables, in private the disciples would 429 00:39:47,300 --> 00:39:50,990 want to know, what does this mean and what does that mean. In private He 430 00:39:50,990 --> 00:39:54,609 would explain the details. So through the parables, Jesus 431 00:39:54,609 --> 00:40:02,359 explains that the kingdom of God, here on earth, the church first of all, begins 432 00:40:02,359 --> 00:40:08,510 with the preaching of the word, the seed. It's established through belief and 433 00:40:08,510 --> 00:40:15,560 obedience to the word. It grows according to the word as men persevere in it and 434 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:21,109 the kingdom has tremendous potential, more than they can even imagine. Do you 435 00:40:21,109 --> 00:40:26,420 think the Apostles could even imagine how big, how powerful the effects of 436 00:40:26,420 --> 00:40:30,290 Christianity would be throughout history. You think they could 437 00:40:30,290 --> 00:40:38,030 imagine that? So the news of a growing kingdom, given in parables to 438 00:40:38,030 --> 00:40:43,010 sift out unbelievers and also not to raise suspicions of religious leaders, 439 00:40:43,010 --> 00:40:47,000 who would not appreciate this talk of a growing kingdom you, because it 440 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:52,700 threatened their kingdom. No wonder Jesus is talking in parables. 441 00:40:52,700 --> 00:40:58,550 I don't think neither the Roman rulers nor the Jewish, religious 442 00:40:58,550 --> 00:41:05,540 leaders would take very kindly to someone drawing very large crowds 443 00:41:05,540 --> 00:41:11,089 talking about a coming kingdom, that is going to grow and be bigger 444 00:41:11,089 --> 00:41:14,660 than the existing kingdoms. They weren't going to like that 445 00:41:14,660 --> 00:41:17,839 very much. He continued speaking in parables. We're going to stop right 446 00:41:17,839 --> 00:41:24,349 here. Next time Mark is going to describe more reactions to Jesus' ministry, this 447 00:41:24,349 --> 00:41:29,089 time from other sources. I always encourage you, read ahead. 448 00:41:29,089 --> 00:41:33,859 I don't always have time to read all of the texts, so it's a very good idea, if you're 449 00:41:33,859 --> 00:41:37,700 familiar with, at least, the material that we're covering. Thanks for your 450 00:41:37,700 --> 00:41:40,630 attention. We'll see you next time.