We are worshiping God and learning from the Gospel of Mark. Please open your Bibles to Mark 4… Our Scripture of the Week, Mark 4:11a, states that Jesus told His disciples “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.” What do you think Jesus meant by that??
Jesus was simply saying that there was a mystery that is now being revealed through Him!
Remember in the beginning when the first man and woman sinned against God with the encouragement by the devil in Genesis 3? God said to the devil in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” How was the devil to be defeated? – that was a mystery! And over and over in the Old Testament Scriptures, A Savior Messiah was promised to defeat sin once and for all; that was a mystery!
Jesus Christ Himself revealed the mystery of the Kingdom of God by dying on a cross but rose from the grave!
Jesus Christ then called disciples to continue the revelation of the Kingdom of God!
Today, we Christians are to continue the revelation of the Kingdom of God!
We have our main life application here even before reading our passage! Let us read Mark 4:10-33 and glean more details of our calling…….
Last week we talked about the parable of the sower and the seed in v10-20. The secret of God’s Kingdom is given through the Word of Christ. v10-20: Jesus reveals the secret of the Kingdom of God is by hearing, believing, and doing the words of Christ!
v21-23: parable of a lamp What is a lamp for??
What then do you do with a lamp??
What does this have to do with the Kingdom of God??
The secret to the Kingdom of God being disclosed by God is meant to be told and heard!
v24-25?
The Kingdom of God continues to grow as Believers of Christ have an attitude of listening, learning, and doing because God will bless them; but people not listening to Christ, God will take away what they have.
v26-29: parable of the seed growing… What is the farmer’s main job in this passage??
The farmer waits and almost miraculously the seed sprouts and matures!
The grain then is harvested! What does this parable mean? I struggled with this one; but after much prayer and again looking deeper into the passage, the key is noting why the parable was stated! Remember that a parable is an analogy. What is the parable of the seed growing in v26-29 an analogy of? Why was the parable stated?
Let us note that Jesus stated it in the beginning of the passage: The Kingdom of God is like a seed growing! The parable again is like the reality of the Kingdom of God. And so, in reality, what makes the Kingdom of God??
People believing in Jesus Christ makes the Kingdom of God!
If people believing in Jesus Christ makes the Kingdom of God, then the seed in v26-29 must be people who matures to salvation with the power of God Himself! I am open to further discussion with this if you like, but let’s again note that the main topic in these parables is the Kingdom of God growing; and just because Jesus explained a seed in one parable as the Word of God, a seed in another parable can mean something else.
And in v30-32: parable of the mustard seed again is the analogy for the Kingdom of God!
The Kingdom of God will grow enormously even though it starts with simple faith in Jesus Christ!
What must we note from all of these parables?
1. The secret of the Kingdom of God is given to people and the secret is Jesus Christ!
Because God has given freely, every person can be in the Kingdom of God by believing, listening, and following Jesus Christ!
God gives but it’s a choice every person must make to believe and receive. Forcing someone to believe and receive is not love but love shares what is right!
2. The secret to the Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ, cannot be hidden but actually proclaimed, like a lamp on a stand!
3. People who do not believe in Jesus Christ will lose everything!
4. The Kingdom of God will grow starting with a person’s simple faith in Jesus Christ with yielding to Him and empowered by God.
Let us take a moment to quietly pray and ponder about 2 basic questions:
Am I in the Kingdom of God? Why?
What am I doing to help the growth of the Kingdom of my Lord?
Let us focus on what we personally can do rather that complaining what others are choosing.
