Mark 5: 1-20

Introduction:

After Jesus crosses the sea of Galilee He and His disciples land in the small shoreline city of Gerasa. As they disembark from the boat they meet two men tormented by demons. Mark and Luke only record the one who speaks to Christ. The man I’ll refer to here is the one described in Mark to keep it consitent with the text. One man is filled with thousands of demons. They recognize Christ as the ‘Son of the Most High God’ and Christ comands them to leave the man’s body. They plead that Christ would let them escape and possess a couple thousand pigs nearby. He allows it and the demons run the pigs of the cliff – killing the pigs. Seeing and hearing of this the town begs Jesus to leave town. The once possesd man wants to get back on the boat with Jesus but He does not allow it. Instead He demands him to go back to town and proclaim what the Lord did for him.

The War Against Us. We are created in God’s image. We hear this in genesis. So the battle the enemy wages against God is carried over to us. They hate Him and the hate us. This man was in the demons’ process of destruction of God’s property and God catches them. We can expect that in their violence against God that they will torture us with whatever they can and will if possible make us jump off a cliff.

The War Against Him. It is because of Him that they are doing this. Often we hand ourselves over to them and Jesus and God have to come wrangle us from their destructive power. But their war against us is because they are God’s enemies and they cannot destroy Him. So what will they destroy? Us.

Application:

The Mighty Son of God. Christ demands respect. Not verbally – but His character is so supremely holy that even the demons recognized who He was.  The demons ask Him – ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?’ It sounds like a child being caught disobedient. These demons recognize daddy’s authority and their afraid to get spanked.

The Mighty Defender. Jesus did not allow the demons to stay in this man’s body. Jesus needed him to follow the Lord. This man was worth the whole boat ride to Gerasa and back away from it. He fought for this man because it was not only an attack on someone He loved but also an attack on Him.

Victory and how we should live. Jesus defeated the enemy permanently when He died for us and rose again for His glory. This victory is absolute for believers – our lives have become eternal images of Him – we cannot be killed or defeated. But do we live in light of this? Do you live without fear of the enemy? Do you live without fear of the world?  I certainly could improve here – we all can. But the question to ask is this: While we are here what are we to do without fear? When the once demon possessed man asked to be with Christ in the boat, Jesus said no. Jesus told him in verse 19 to ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ Like this man we are to proclaim what He has done for us until we can go home to be with Him.
And like verse 20 – let’s actually proclaim it.

SSU Bible Study Tonight!

S-SUBS

Hessel’s On-Campus Bible Study at SSU

TONIGHT 7:00pm @ Charlie Brown’s Cafe (SSU)

We will be continuing our study in 1 Peter. The easiest way to find us, as the campus can feel like a labyrinth, is to park at the Starbucks across the street, cross E. Cotati at the light. Below is a Google Map giving walking directions from the Starbucks to the Library.

Mark 4: 35-41

Introduction:

When evening came the day Jesus was teaching parables Jesus decided that He and His disciples would cross the sea of Galilee to the country of the Gerasenes. Note that there were boats, plural, that Jesus and His disciples traveled in, not a single boat. As they cross a terrible storm erupts and the disciples become afraid for their lives.

Asleep in one of the boats, Jesus is wakened by the disciples in His boat. They ask Him a question in absolute fear and distrust. They question Jesus’ intrest in their safety and expose their lack of faith. Jesus had, that very day, had been teaching them details of His coming kingdom. How could the messiah accomplish the creation of His kingdom if He died in shipwreck? Had the disciples been thinking straight they would have realized that Christ would not die until His mission was accomplished, making them safe with Him on the boat. Watch Big Fish for a pretty interesting look at this idea. The question the movie poses, and one certainly applicable in this passage: how would you live if you knew how you were going to die? You certainly not be concerned about dying in any other way.

Verse 40 is an admonsihment of the disciples ‘Why are you still afraid? Have you still no faith?’

Verse 41 shows an honest reassesment of what they thought. Once Jesus calms the storm the disciples are blown away again. Should they have been surprised if they were faithful? Would you ask  ‘Who then is this that even wind and sea obey Him?’ if you really knew how powerful God was? Of course not. And this last verse and question the disciples pose is rhetorical – they knew who He was.  But they were not living like it – without fear.

Application:

We fear things because we lack faith in God. If we trusted His control of every situation would we still have fear of those circumstances?

Any example of suffering or death that we can discuss can be reduced to a question of God’s soverignty and character.Those without trust in His soverigty and character walk away from Him when suffering and death appear to them. I say ‘appear to them’ because the disciples were not ‘perishing’ like they said they were – they  were afraid of perishing.

Fearing death is a distrust of of God’s soverignty and care. Fear or criticism of suffering is similar but has more to do with questioning God’s care of you. In verse 38 the disciples ask Jesus ‘…do you not care that we are perishing?’ In other words, do our lives mean nothing to you? Why is this happening to us? Don’t you care? But to God the question is off topic. He suffered suffering and death to such an extent that His love is evident. Any question of His care of you can be directed towards His defeat of death. Of course He cares about you, but that does not mean we won’t suffer or won’t die.

God’s point to the disciples, and consequently to us, was that they weren’t perishing and neither are we. Sure we die, given. My question is, do we really die? Bible says no. Do you have faith in that?

Faith in God’s eternal character and plan for us shows fear in nothing but God. You are told you will not perish but have ever-lasting life. Do you believe it?

Mark 4:30-34

Interpretation:

This is the last parable Mark records in chapter 4. Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. He states that the mustard seed starts out small but grows to become the largest garden plant, with large bushes. This again points toward the  explosive nature of Christianity. Look back for a moment at chapter 1 and 2. What started as the seaside preaching of Jesus turned into one of the worlds most recognized religions.

Jesus presented parables to the unbelieving in hopes that they would ‘hear’ the message behind His parables. Mark shows us in verse 34 that Jesus only explained the parables to his disciples. This is important because it shows Jesus care for both His disciples and His opponents. The disciple was honored with His teaching on the parables and the opponent was given opportunity to hear when, arguably, they did not deserve it.

Application:

Verses 30-32 don’t call us to any specific action or response. It simply continues to flesh out the details of God’s kingdom that He was going to establish on Earth. When I read this passage I reflect on what a difference there has been since the days when Jesus spoke with fisherman. I think about how much has changed since He’s left. The coming of the Holy Spirit, all the Nations that have claimed His name, all the wars and all the missions and all that surrounds Him. I think of the rift between the Jew who thinks Jesus was a prophet or a good man and us. Christianity has become a major player in the world. Some say in a bad way but it is not arguable to say that the tiny mustard seed of God’s kingdom has grown. I pray it continues to grow but in a good way.

Pray the Lord continues to grow His kingdom in His way.

Mark 4: 26-29

Interpretation: 

The kingdom of God. We’ve heard Jesus describe in the past two parables the word and the sowers of the word. ‘The word’ is news of His new kingdom. The news of this kingdom was exciting to the Jews because at this time, King Herod and the Romans were wreaking some havoc in their homeland. News of a new kingdom God conjured ideas of revolution and warefare and overthrow and this messiah was its commander. However in this verse Jesus breaks down exactly what His kingdom is going to be like.

He uses the analogy of a seed that is scattered on the ground. The farmer goes about his life and the seeds take root and grow. When the farmer looks at the ground he sees dirt. But under the dirt the seeds are active and eventually they push through the ground and feed the farmer. This is representative of God’s kingdom. The kingdom wasn’t going to come in a swift revolt or a long war. Jesus’ kingdom was spiritual and and was slowing advancing against the adversity that surrounded it.

Then in verse 28 Jesus describes a kingdom that will come in stages. First the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear. Essentially Jesus’ kingdom comes in stages. It wasn’t all at once it isn’t finished. The full glory of God’s kingdom is building. The global church as we know is a stage of that kingdom. In verse 29 the harvest is immediately had once it has grown to its largest stage. Meaning that once this kingdom of God has reached full glory it will be reaped by God. 

Application: 

There are times when we get taken by the grinding monotony of church. At least, I find myself bored or tired at how things seem so the same and so repetative.  Well I should say I did feel that way. 

But there is a myth that this is it. That this church is all we’ll ever know. That one day after our ears are done ringing from all the hymns a we can stomach and we die comfortably in sleep we’ll end up in heaven. Some of us fear that even heaven will still be the same ‘Glory Glory Halleluiah’ we’ve heard our whole lives. But the truth is God’s kingdom is growing itself and building itself.

All around us God’s glory is mounting. And eventually it will all culminate in the grand finale He has planned (check out the book at the back of your Bible). After all this His kingdom will be completed. It will be a thousand times more amazing than the white clouds and golden gates we’ve imagined. It will be so amazing we’ll have a hard time discussing anything other than God’s glory.

The question we have to ask ourselves is this, and here’s your application:

Is the culminating Glory of God’s Kingdom worth it? Your first answer was probably yes. But here’s the challenging thought – how many people are suffering before this kingdom comes? How many people are being raped and tortured? How many people die without hearing the Gospel? How many people die period? It’s been two thousand years since Christ left His Kingdom to build on earth. After really assessing the cost, we need to be supportative of God’s kingdom even if we think its coming to slowly.

Mark 4: 21-25

Interpretation:

Jesus tells a parable about a lamp. Ultimately this parable is about how the Word divides and separates belief from unbelief.

The lamp and the light are the news of God’s new kingdom in men’s hearts. The lamp, the word,  should obviously not be put under a bed (see above image).  A lamp is meant to illuminate.  When we spread or preach about the salvation Christ has to offer nothing is hidden. It cuts to our core. If the person listening is hard of heart it becomes exposed. If the are open to than it is also obvious. If not to us then definitely to the Lord. He reinforces this with verse 24-25 when reminds us to pay attenition to the second part of this.

The measure in which you hear and receive the Word determines your understanding of it. I look at this as God’s sifting of those who believe and those that do not. If you do believe and seek to receive and understand the Word, not only are you given the word but the Holy Spirit indwells you and illuminates the bible and your life to increase your understanding of God exponentially. However if you do not have a heart to hear Gods word your understanding will become so confused that at a certain point you cannot understand God’s message.

If you seek the God your understanding will be increased. If you don’t it will be decreased. And whichever person you are, you’ll be exposed to the Lord as such because the exposes what is hidden.

Application:

This passage is both encouraging and frightening. If you seek God your understanding of Him will increase. In fact, God Himself will dwell inside you and illumante things you would never imagine that you’d understand.

Because, again, this parable is more about God’s reign over our hearts (salvation / faith /etc.) I find it dealing with believers and those who don’t believe more so than the various grades of christian faithfulness. The application can certainly be made that the more we pursue Him the more understanding of Him we’ll have because that is the Christian walk, pursuit of Christ. It is a Promise He’s made many times; the more we pursue Him the more spiritual understanding and presence He’ll pour onto us. But the Holy Spirit lives inside of believers! So instead of focusing on the pursuit of holiness lets apply the meaning of the parable: how the Word divides and separates belief from unbelief.

Let the Light Do the Dividing: This parable gives a believer an awesome hope that we take for granted. When we peach the truth about our salvation through Christ we, in at the very least a cursory level, can discern what people think about it. The light has a way of exposing a man’s true heart; who they really serve. But the hopeful aspect of this discerning is that it’s not you doing it – it’s the Word. Like a lamp that exposes the darkness the word exposes the darkness of the world. And once it has determined which is which it acts in one of two ways: pouring understanding or taking understanding away.
It’s that easy! We just preach the truth and He does all the hard work! This week, when you find yourself in converstation with someone about God, share the truth in love and let the Lord handle the rest.

Mark 4: 10-20

Interpretation

We discussed the parable in general in yesterday’s post. In Mark 4: 10-20 the apostles and those with them ask Jesus to explain the parable. It’s important to mention that before He explains the parable He relays the purpose of parables.  Parables are essentially stories that convey a hidden spiritual message that is clear to the faithful and hidden to those who are not. But Jesus explains this one to His disciples and consequently to us.  He breaks it down like this:

Sower is sowing the word and people are the soil: This sower is clearly Jesus Christ and those who heard Him are the soil. This sower can be looked at as someone who is faithfully preaching the word.

Soil devoured by birds: This represents a person who is indifferent to the truth.  Someone who hears the word of God and the devil easily plucks it away from them. I imagine this person as a NASA employee who sees God’s amazing creation in detail and knows there is a God but who’s atheistic ideology or belief immediately dismisses it.

Soil that is shallow: This represents someone who is excited about the word and hears it with joy but is poorly rooted in the truth. I imagine this person as a camp christian. Someone who has heard the truth and is excited but forgets God once they leave camp ultimately showing their faithfulness.

Soil choked by thorns: This represents someone who hears the word but the desires of the world choke it. This is someone who hears the word. Knows it to be true, maybe even acknowledges that it is true but because of infatuation with sin ignores it anyway. This is someone who loves premarital sex so much that they refuse to follow the Word.

Soil that is good: This represents the faithful who recieve the word and choose to follow christ and who persist. This is someone who hears the word knows its true and relies on it. They wake up in pursuit of the Lord, seeking to ground themselves in His truth, so they will not be decieved by the enemy or consumed by pleasures of this world. In other words … me (just kidding.)

Application

Christians usually suffer from one of two extremes. Let’s name them the Good Man and the Bad Man.

The Good Man: We all know him/her. They are the ones saying halleluia for reasons other than praising God. The Bad Man hates him because he looks soo good. And the more we look into the Good Man’s life the more reasons stack up to call him a hypocrite. You’re probably a ‘Good Man’ if you hear Jesus’ parable and you immediately think you are the good soil.  The truth is – faithful believers are. But the Good Man lacks humility, honesty, transparency, and grounding in reality.

The Bad Man: Most people fall into this category I think. They are the ones coming to this parable and looking at all the bad soils and saying – this one is me. Or, worse yet, they consider themselves worse than any of those particular soils and think they in ways all of the soils combined. If you are a faithful follower of God and are concerned that you are a Bad Man and all the poor soils be encouraged! Take heart that you are the good soil if you’re concerned about whether or not you’re honoring God in your actions. This extreme can be taken to the point where you hate everyone who doesn’t think they are the dirtiest, most rotten sinner that walked the earth. Again ‘The Bad Man’ is missing the point.

The Christian Man: You are the good soil.  You are an idiot too. This is a Christian Man. You recognize that you sometimes ignore God. You recognize when the enemy tempts you and you give in. You may even recognize that your understanding of God is shallow and it gets you in trouble. But read verse 20 again. The good soil is the person who hears the word and accepts it. Have you? The one who accepts it bears good fruit. Do you? This parable is discussing those who hear the word and have accepted it. Its about the outcome of that acceptance. This is about those who don’t believe and why. If you hear the word, accept it, and pursue it relentlessly you are the good soil.

Which soil are you? This is almost an irrelevant question if you believe. This question is regarding salvation. Are you saved? Yes?

Here’s a better question:

How much good fruit will you yield? 3o fold? 60 fold? 100 fold?

Free Online Bible Resources

The Electronic Bible

You probably know that you can read the bible for free online. You may not know that almost every english version is available for free.

http://www.biblegateway.com/ – Over 100+ versions of the Bible and 50 languages. Also AUDIO BIBLES.

http://www.bible.org –  The NET Bible (New English Translation) and tons of articles and resources.

I think the most important asset of these online bible’s is their searchablity. You can search the entire word for whatever verse you’re trying to remember or search a passage for a specific word (ctrl+f). If you want to practice… search for the verse ‘God helps those who helps themselves’ and leave a comment on where it is!

The Electronic Preacher

The internet is amazing for many many reasons. One is free access to information. There are thousands of hours of great biblical teaching available to you for free. Pastors everywhere have RSS feeds, Podcasts, and Streaming Video. Heck even Hessel has an MP3 archive of Pastor Rich Cundall’s sermons (http://hessel.org/media_archive.php). Below are a couple resources you MUST take a look at (Click them they’re links). Download their podcasts and listen to an amazing sermon while you’re waiting at the bus stop!

Pastor Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington

Pastor Francis Chan, Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California

Pastor John Piper, Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Blogs Worth Mentioning

http://eternaltruthworldwide.com/

http://theresurgence.com/blog

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/

http://churchcrunch.com/

Mark 4:1-9

Interpretation:

In this passage Jesus again starts to preach at the sea of Galilee. Except this time the crowd is big enough He needs to get into a boat and preach from the sea. The difference between this and Jesus’ previous ‘escape’ in Mark 3: 7-12 is that He is able to teach this group. Using the boat as a stage Jesus tells many parables and Mark  describes the parable of the sower.

As Jesus himself describes it to the apostles in verse 4: 14-20 the sower sows the word. The following examples of where the seed falls points at different hearers and their downfalls. The last example is of someone who hears the word of God and does it – very similar to Jesus’ point in Mark 3: 31-35. Instead of interpreting this in great detail, since the next 10 verses do so better than I, I’d like to look at some of the particulars of this passage that will give it a bit more depth.

If you’re like me farming is not your bag. The ESV Study Bible had a couple notes on this passage that caught my eye.

Spray n’ Pray Farming: Apparently in them days it was common practice to sow before plowing the field. Meaning a farmer went out into his dingy field and started tossing wheat seeds all over and then he’d start tilling. Today we carefully place each seed (note image above) in prepared soil. This means Christ’s perspective on evangelism was not one grounded in overly selective strategies but in dispensation of the truth over everyone leaving the responsibility on the hearer.

The Bountiful Harvest: Another interesting tid-bit is the amount of wheat the good soil yielded. Jesus said in verse 8 ‘ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.’ In the ESV Commentary it states that fivefold to tenfold was considered a good bounty from your soil. This means the soil who hears and obeys his word will offer a supernatural or execeptional yield to God.

Application:

We’ll discuss the obvious application of the parable tomorrow: ‘which soil are you?’ But for now lets focus on the sowing itself.

Are you sowing like Jesus sowed? Jesus considered it worth it to preach in a way that wasn’t hyper selective. You do see Christ not speak or speak in parables but remember the context of the passage. So many people want to touch or be healed by Him that the only way He can get them at listening length is to hop in a boat a paddle out. The point is we are not the seed but the soil. This parable is about the onus of spiritual survival being upon those who receive the Word. Christ was preaching and teaching the word at a crowd of many. In effect he was demonstrating the parable. There wasn’t all one soil out that day. That group of people represented the rough field a farmer would sow his seed on before tilling his field.

If your waiting for the perfect audience you’ll wait forever. Christ had an audience of mixed soil but for some reason we expect everyone we tell the word to will recieve and believe or we’ve failed. Here is the application: all our lives we walk on that field and were doing our best to cover it. Now Jesus has plenty of teachings on what to say and how to say it, I’m not telling you to ignore those things, but I am telling you we need to start sowing.

Are you only preaching to good soil? Do you really know what good soil looks like?

Mark 3: 31-35

Interpretation:

Jesus and His disciples are still in the same place as verses 20-21,  a home in Capernaum. In this passage Jesus’ family is in the crowd and looking for Him. When the crowd makes it known to Jesus He uses the situation as an opportunity to describe ‘real family.’ Christ explains that whoever obeys, or does, the will of God is His family.

I’ve always looked at the Jesus in this verse as critical towards His parents. As if somehow He was being disrespectful of them. But before Jesus says anything He first looks at who was with Him in verse 34.

34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Instead of Christ being disrespectful of His physical family in favoritism to His spiritual one Christ was looking at what really is important. At the moment, His physical brothers and physical mother were skeptical of how Christ was approaching ministry. His brothers were without faith. It was only in verse 21-22 that they said Jesus was out of His mind.  His family should have been with Him and amongst the disciples but they were not. This is why He captures the importance of obedience with verse 35.

Application:

You could boil down this passage into one mathematical statement:

Obedience = Christ’s Family

Because Christ says ‘whoever does the will of God’ we know that it can be anyone. Anyone who decides to do the will of God is considered His family. Doing the will of God requires three things:

1. Reading the Word
2. Understanding the Word
   
3. Doing His Will
   

Reading the Word

We need to read the Word. How can you do the will of God without knowing what it is? I don’t have to point out the fact that we need to read the word more than we do. If the first thing at the top of most people’s New Year Resolutions is ‘loosing weight’ the first thing at the top of most people’s spiritual check-list is ‘Read the Bible more.’ But ask yourself, how much do you read the word? More than your homework books? More than the video games you play? More than the bike-riding you do? More time than putting on your make-up? More time than practicing guitar? For most of my life I spent less time reading the bible than I spent brushing my teeth! In order to do the will of God we must learn what it is.

Understanding the Word

This may seem insane… but reading the bible simply isn’t good enough. We need to understand what we read. When I was a younger believer it felt like the bible was written on mars. The English used is sometimes difficult because your bible has, hopefully, been translated from Greek and Hebrew. There are cultural meanings and references that can subtly change the meaning of a passage. There are contextual concerns that stem from an understanding of the historical setting and the character of the author. All this to say that The Word is rich and full and difficult but absolutely worth it. There are tons of resources to help you understand. Free online study tools. Free online bibles. Almost every pastor ever has free sermons and podcasts. I’ll put together a post with some of these resources but understanding the word is the most important part about reading it.

Doing His Will

This, what should be the easiest, is the hardest part.  I can’t remember who said it but a good measure of spiritual maturity is the time it takes from knowing God’s will to doing it.  The shorter that time the more mature you are.

How spiritually mature are you?