Read Mark 4:1-20, The Parable of the Soils

Jesus came to offer Himself as King to the people of Israel.  That was the “Gospel of the Kingdom.”  But by this time, the rejection of the nation was becoming evident.  For this reason, He had warned them of “the unpardonable sin” (Mk. 3:28-30).  If they persisted in this rejection, the refusal to believe in Him, their would be serious consequences.  Their rejection would result in a delay of His kingdom, bringing in the time of “the new wine in new wineskins” (Mark 2:18-22).  Therefore, Jesus used parables to explain the nature of His kingdom.  Matthew 13 contains a larger selection (eight) of these parables, and includes teaching on the nature of His kingdom given the upcoming “parenthesis” between His first and second advents.  Mark includes the parable of the soils (4:1-20), the parable of the growing seed (4:26-29), and the parable of the mustard seed (4:30-32). 

Jesus tells the “Parable of the Soils” in 4:1-9, concluding with the words, He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Some of His disciples, including the Twelve, asked Him about the parable (v10).  Jesus’ seems to say that this particular parable is essential to understanding the other parables.  Here are some things to note.

·       v14: His kingdom is spiritual.  We see this in that the seed is “the word” and not, say, a wheat or lentil seed.  It is certainly helpful to know about farming in Jesus’ day, but His kingdom is not about literal farming.  Be careful not to make Jesus say something that is not true.  He is not saying that His kingdom does not or will not have a “physical” form.  What He is saying is that entrance into His kingdom is “spiritual.”  In this parable, it depends on the nature of one’s faith.  And He is also saying that the nature of one’s faith in receiving the “seed” (the word) is effected by the nature of their soul when they hear the word.

·       v14,20: It appears that those who receive the word bear fruit.  Those who receive the word become “sowers” of the word as well.

·       v15-20: Believing is personal.  Sometimes you might think that receiving the King is a national thing.  It is in a sense.  But the nation is a group of individuals who are each responsible to receive the word and bear fruit.

·       v19-20: The key is fruitfulness.  The first soil produces no plant; the second and third produce plants that do not bear fruit; the last is distinct in that the plants bear various amounts of fruit.

·       v15-17: We can note as well that bearing fruit takes time, even as it takes time to see the lack of fruit in the stony and thorny ground.

Paul used the “farming” illustration in 1 Cor. 3:5-8 when he reminded us that God gives the increase.  Some of the ways God does this, as we are involved in spiritual farming, is that the Holy Spirit convicts people of their need of Christ (Jn. 16:9-11), the Holy Spirit empowers the sowers (Acts 1:8), and the Holy Spirit produces fruit (Gal. 5:23-24).

Read The “Mysteries” of God (2)

The Mystery of God involves several “mysteries.”  There is the mystery of Israel’s partial blindness (Rom. 11:25).  Here are several others.

2)    Rom. 16:25-27: The mystery of Christ.  What is Paul talking about here?  He connects the mystery with the preaching about Jesus Christ.  Perhaps he is referring to Jesus Himself, the two natures (God and Man), two advents, and so forth.  The OT I believe makes it clear that the Messiah is both God and Man.  But it is a mystery as to how this was revealed in His Incarnation.  Daniel prophesied 490 years until Messiah’s kingdom, but he knew nothing of 2 advents and the lengthy parenthesis between years 483 and 484.

3)    1 Cor. 15:51: The mystery of the rapture.  It is not just that there would be people who would enter their eternal home without dying.  It is that when the parenthesis was over, God would remove the Church so He could return to finish the final 7 years that involved Israel.

4)    Eph. 3:6: The mystery of the Church.  The OT prophets did not realize that Israel would be set aside, and that Jews and Gentiles would be brought together, as the people of God, in one Body of Christ.

5)    Col. 1:27: The mystery of Christ in you.  The prophets knew there would be a New Covenant and that it would involve the Holy Spirit and a new heart and the Law written on the heart.  But they could not have imagined the Messiah living in the believer.  Nor did they realize that His presence in the believer would be the hope of glory, the assurance that Job longed for (Job 19:25-27).

6)    2 Th. 2:7; Rev. 17:5,7: The mystery of iniquity.  Part of God’s plan is the increasing power of sin as the time for Messiah’s reign approaches.  This will set the stage for Christ’s rule as He will defeat all that sin can muster against Him.

7)    1 Tim. 3:16 (Eph. 5:32; Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20): The mystery of Godliness.  How are believers to grow in godliness?  You see that the “mystery of Godliness” is simply the Lord Jesus Christ.  We become godly because He lives in us.  His work to make us more and more like Him is seen in the “mystery” of marriage.  As a husband seeks to help his wife grow to be a beautiful believer, so Christ works in His Church to make her His beautiful Bride.

8)    Mk. 4:11 (Mt. 13:11; Lk. 8:10): The mystery of the Kingdom.  Jesus was faced with the reality of His rejection by the people of Israel.  This was manifested in the “blasphemy of the Spirit” (Mark 3).  So, at that point, He began to teach His disciples, through parables, the truth that His earthly reign would be delayed (from the human point of view) and a mystery form would take it place until then.  These parables, and others during the rest of His ministry, began to describe that form.  He was laying the foundations for the Church age.

1 Cor. 2:6-8; 4:1-4, The “Mysteries” of God (1)

We are talking about the “mystery of God.”  In Eph. 1:9-10 Paul described it this way: “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.”  In our previous post we talked about the term “dispensation.”  I hope you noted that we did not call ourselves “dispensationalists.”  If this explanation sounds to you like “dispensationalism” (a theological position, often seen in opposition to “covenant theology”) that is pure coincidence.  What we have done is explain the meaning of words in the Bible, with explanations that can be found in any standard Bible study tools. 

a.     Psalm 2 actually refers to what Paul refers to in Eph. 1:9-10.  Psalm 2 says that, before time began, the Father and the Son had a conversation where the Father promised to give His Son authority over all the nations.  He would rule them all.  Thus, this being the “mystery of His will” in Eph. 1, Rev. 10:7 tells us that this will become reality in the days of the sounding of the 7^th trumpet.  Just “coincidentally” (by which we mean, “true to God’s word”), at the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh angel, (Rev. 11:15) there is an announcement from heaven: “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”  Then, in Rev. 11:17, there is great worship of God because, “The One who is and who was and who is to come (the Son, Rev. 1:8; 4;8), because You have taken Your great power and reigned.” Over whom does Christ reign?  In Rev. 11:18 they are the nations that “were angry,” just as Psalm 2 refers to them as nations that rage against the LORD and His Anointed (Ps. 2:1-3).  Psalm 2 says it was agreed upon in Heaven; it is the will of God.  The NT gives us details as to when and how it will happen. 

There is one more aspect of “the mystery of God” we need to consider.  In today’s reading Paul refers to “mysteries” plural.  In the Gospels Jesus, on the same occasion that we have in Mark 4:10-12, Jesus spoke of “mystery” (Mk. 4:10-12) and “mysteries” (Mt. 13:11).  How are we to understand this?  My answer is that God’s “mystery” comprises several “mysteries.”  THE mystery includes several events that were not known in the OT but that are revealed in the NT.  We have room in this post to begin our list of eight “mysteries,” so we will conclude in the next post. 

1)    Rom. 11:25: The mystery of Israel’s partial blindness.  Lord willing, in our next post, we will talk about this.  Two posts before this we spoke of Israel’s “ignorance” and we plan to return to that subject shortly.

Psalm 44

In this Psalm we see the saints involved inp a ministry of intercession for the sinful society in which they live.  The appearance of one particular verse (v22) in the New Testament helps us see how this passage fits our current context.  To benefit from this let us consider the Song in its context. 

·         V1-3: Testimony.  There is a reminder of the great works of God in the past, the testimony of older saints. In the Exodus, the time of the judges and the time of the Davidic kings God had repeatedly been the help of his people.

·         V4-8: Confession.  The writer has no hesitation in affirming that God has not changed.  He is still our “boast”; His name is to be praised.  This stanza is well worth the discipline to commit it to memory.

·         V9-12: Complaint.  The “complaint” section is somewhat lengthy.  And at first it is not hard to see the problem.  The current situation in Israel is that God has “cast off” His people to the point of being scattered among the nations.  The prophecies of the Pentateuch (e.g. Deut. 28,32) indicate the Nation’s disobedience has finally brought God to the place of severe judgment.

·         V13-16: Complaint.  The result of the “scattering” is that they are the reproach of their neighbors.

·         V17-22: Complaint.  This stanza reveals another important issue in the historical “context”.  In the midst of the sinful nation there is a righteous remnant, and they are the ones lifting this prayer.  Paul’s use of v22 in Rom. 8:36 helps us understand what is happening.  In Rom. 8 Paul says that terrible afflictions come on the righteous people of God; and yet they are never separated from His love!  So here in the Psalmist's situation the righteous are suffering affliction because of their being part of the wicked nation.  But they plead their integrity. 

·         V23-26: Petition.  Out of this confidence, that God remembers the righteous and makes a distinction in judgment between the just and the unjust (2 Peter 2:9), the saints pray that God will be their help.  They rightfully ask God to mercifully come to their aid, something He actually delights to do.

This Psalm reflects the actual situation in the time of the Babylonian captivity. Read about it in Ezekiel 36:1-15. Israel was severely ridiculed by her neighbors, particularly the people of Edom. But God promised that He would come to their aid and He would reestablish the nation.

Abraham prayed this kind of Prayer when he prayed for Lot and the people of Sodom (Gen. 18:16-33.)  He "bargained" with God to the point where God said that for the sake ten righteous people He would not destroy the city.  He pled for the city for the sake of the godly people who lived there.

Again, remember the intercession of our Lord Himself.  He too prays for the righteous who live in the wicked world (John 17:13-19).  As Romans 8 indicates, the intercession of Christ (v34) is one of the fundamental reasons that nothing shall separate us from Him!

Let us learn and commit ourselves to this privilege of intercession.  For example, if you're church family is going through a struggle of some sort, pray for them. Don't be the one that stands in judgment or criticism. Do this for the glory of Christ! We have a standing before God that allows us to pray in the name of Christ for those around us.  We have a faith that is built on the great work of salvation performed by our God in Christ.  Let us strongly pray for the world in which we live and testify. 

And let us not be afraid to be “sheep for the slaughter” in the cause of Christ.  Nothing can separate us from His love.  And beyond that, “we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us” (Rom. 8:37).  May these afflictions be stepping stones to the greater exaltation of Christ.

Rev. 11:15-19, The Mystery of God

I believe the Apostle Paul (by the Holy Spirit, of course) gives us the answer to the issue of “ignorance” in 1 Cor. 2:6-8.  Paul spoke the wisdom of God in a mystery, the “mystery of God” as it is called in Scripture (Col. 2:2; Rev. 10:7).  He then said that if the rulers of this age had known this mystery, they would not have crucified Christ.  When the people and rulers crucified Christ, they were ignorant of the “mystery.”  Christ had used parables to hinder them from understanding the mystery (Mark. 4:10-12).  The mystery was hidden in time before the cross, but was revealed after the cross, primarily through Paul (1 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 3:1-13).

Paul who opened our eyes to the “mystery,” was also one of those “rulers” to whom the mystery was hidden.  To understand the “ignorance” we need to be sure we have a handle on the mystery. 

1)    What is a “mystery” in Scripture? (Rom. 16:25-27; Eph. 3:5; Col. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 2:7).  A “mystery” is something that was hidden in the past but now made known.  The NT use of the term therefore speaks of things not revealed in the OT but that were made known in the NT.  Note again the consistency.  The OT prophets said certain things were going to happen, but they did not understand how it would be worked out.  The easiest illustration of this is Peter’s reference to the OT prophets, that they knew the Christ would suffer and be glorified but they had no idea how it would happen (1 Pt. 1:10-12).  Isa. 53 clearly says He would die.  Yet it also says He would be honored by God.

2)    What is the “mystery of God”? (Eph. 1:9-10; Psalm 2:6-9).  Rev. 7:10 says the “mystery of God” would be fulfilled in the days of the sounding of the 7^th trumpet.  Col. 2:2 also refers to the mystery by that name (NKJV speaks of “the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ”).  Eph. 1:9 speaks of “the mystery of His will … which He purposed in Himself.”  That mystery is described as follows: “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.”

a.     The Greek term for “dispensation” is from the group of words having to do with the administration of a household.  It refers to the management of a household or of household affairs, specifically, the management, oversight, administration of another’s property.  What is Paul talking about in Eph. 1:9-10?  God owns the entire universe.  He has ruled the world in various ways according to the Scriptures.  After the flood of Noah’s time God established nations and governments to keep the peace.  Before the flood there is no record in Scripture of any nations.  God dealt with individuals, as He did with Cain in Gen. 4.  What Paul is saying here is that eventually God is going to manage His world through Christ.  Everything in heaven and on earth will be subject to Christ.  (We need to stop here and pick it up in the next post.)

Acts 3:13-26, “Ignorance” is No Excuse

We have come to Mark 4, Jesus’ parables concerning the “mystery of the Kingdom.”  I want to begin with several posts having to do with Mk. 4:10-12 where Jesus explains His use of parables. 

In Acts 3:17 Peter notes that the Jewish people, including the rulers, crucified Jesus in “ignorance.”  We need to think about this.  Is Peter saying that God cut Israel some slack because they didn’t know what they were doing?  Jesus said this about His crucifiers as they put the nails in His hands (Lk. 23:34).  Stephen, in the final moments of his martyrdom, prayed that God would not charge them with the sin of stoning him (Ac. 7:60).  Paul also “claimed ignorance” as he testified of his conversion (1 Tim. 1:13).  Does “ignorance” excuse unbelief?

Let me begin by answering that question.  No!  It does not excuse unbelief.  I say this with confidence because Peter, who recognized the ignorance in 3:17, also charged those ignorant people with sin.  They had “delivered up and denied” Jesus when Pilate was determined to release Him (3:13).  Even though Jesus was delivered up by God’s will, the people of Israel were still guilty because, as Peter said earlier, “you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Ac. 2:23).  Paul, while claiming ignorance, made the claim in the context of confessing that “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man.” 

Paul’s ignorance brought him additional “mercy” (as he says).  The people of Israel were given an additional opportunity to hear the gospel and to believe because of their ignorance, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.  But it did not excuse their unbelief.  It did not take away their guilt.

While we have answered the question, there is still much to say about this subject that is important, especially in the interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles.  What do we know about this “ignorance?”  Of what were the Jews and the rulers ignorant?  You might try to say that they were ignorant of the fact that Jesus was the Messiah.  But while, in the end, only a few believed in Him as the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, it seems clear to me that people knew that Jesus was claiming to be the King of Israel.  That’s why the sign over the cross made that charge against Him.  As Jesus performed the various “Rabbinic miracles” the pressure grew for the rulers to need to do something about Him.  (More on this in the next post.)

Mark 3:7-35, Following Jesus

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Today's passage begins with the latest “update” on the ministry of Jesus (v7-12).  The multitude came from all over Israel (v7-8).  Mark says Jesus was not allowing the unclean spirits to make Him known (v11-12).  As we have said, they knew Christ from before the incarnation.  To me the reason Jesus forbid them was that their “testimony” just complicated it for people coming to see Him and consider His message. 

Again, what does it mean to “follow Jesus” (v7).  It is obvious, to me at least, that this whole multitude did not consist of believers.  Yet they are said to have followed Him.  Jesus’ message of repentance indicates that all in the crowd had not yet repented.  In this context, following Christ was not the same as “trust me as Savior.”  Many were following but had not come to the point of faith.

We continue to ask our question as we see Jesus choose twelve of His disciples to be Apostles (3:13-19).  “Twelve” is the Jewish number of completion, as in the twelve sons of Jacob.  But these twelve included Judas, who Jesus knew would betray Him.  And it included two volatile brothers (“sons of thunder” they were called).  Jesus knew that some self-proclaimed disciples did not believe (Jn. 6:64).

In 3:20-30 Jesus warned about the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.”  The opposition had to come up with a way of describing Jesus’ amazing ministry that included such powerful miracles and that attracted such a large crowd.  So they put forth the idea that He was actually working for and from the power of the devil.  Jesus knew this reflected a growing rejection of Him by the shepherds of Israel.  So His warning had to do with the growing hardness of their hearts.  What we learn here, about following Jesus, is that a person must come to a decision, a choice.  Many followed Him and not all believed.  But all would make a choice.

Lastly, in 3:31-35, we see the rejection of Jesus by His earthly family.  They came to take Him away, as a crazy man.  Jesus’ answer shows how He is thinking in what we might call the “spiritual world” but it is the real world where we all live.  To follow Him is to be His true family.  Even His earthly family must make the choice.  They cannot claim to be His “family” if they are not subject to God’s will.

These are the stories that we think of when we consider C. S. Lewis’ call to receive Christ.  As Lewis put it, you cannot call Jesus a good man or even a great teacher.  Either He was a liar, lunatic or the Lord of all!  The multitude followed Jesus in that they hung around and heard Him and saw Him.  But hearing and seeing Jesus demands a response.