Parable Of The Soils Supplementary Notes - Mark 4:1-25 Series

Mark 4:14 The sower sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. Immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it become unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” 21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to listen, let him listen.” 24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

Jesus has been preaching the kingdom of God since ch.1, but the word “kingdom” has not been mentioned since then. This is the first time we get a taste of what the content of Jesus’ preaching was like.

Matthew’s parallel account says Kingdom of heaven (Mt.13:11). The terms are interchangeable. Matthew, who wrote to Jews, tended to accommodate Jewish sensitivities and used euphemisms in place of the word “God.”

The Mystery

The Mystery of the Kingdom: Overlapping Ages

Mark 4:11 He told them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables.”

When you see the word mystery in Scripture, it refers to something that has never been revealed before, and that can only be known through divine revelation. So what is the mystery of the kingdom?

Sometimes when you read the parables they seem to kind of state the obvious. There will be wheat and tares. Some will believe, others won’t. Many will reject Christ. That seems so obvious to us, but that was actually brand new revelation—the fact that those things would be allowed to happen in the Messiah’s kingdom.

The fact that the Messiah was going to come and establish the kingdom of God on earth was no mystery. That was revealed clearly throughout the OT. The people understood that the Messiah to arrive and bring an end to this present, evil age and usher in the glorious kingdom of God in the age to come. And the people also understood that all that would come to pass through a new covenant God would make with his people in which he would put his word inside the hearts of his people so they would really know him.

Jeremiah 33:33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 … they will all know me…”

All of that had been revealed before. Then Jesus shows up and says, “Let me tell you some things about that kingdom that have never been revealed.” Here’s what had never been revealed before: When that happens, it’s not going to happen all at once. It’s not going to be just a simple act where Jesus snaps his fingers and the word is suddenly inside everyone’s heart. In the parables, Jesus revealed, for the very first time, that the kingdom of God would come in stages. It’s not like this present evil age would end one day and the next day it would be the glorious age to come. No, the mystery—the new information, was that the Messiah would come twice: the first time in humility and weakness to die, and the second time in power and great glory to bring final salvation. And in that period between his first coming and his second coming there would be an overlap of this present evil age and the glorious age to come. During that time between Jesus’ first coming and second coming, the glorious age to come would be breaking in to this present, evil age—kind of like those days when there are scattered rain storms. It’s pouring rain a few blocks that way, and raining a few blocks the other way, and blue skies and sunshine right here. Is it rainy or is it sunny? They are mixed together. That’s how this period of overlap will be. There will be the beginnings of many of the glories of the age to come, but right alongside that the evils of this present age would continue.