18.A Farming story…

Mark 4:21-34 26 Jan 2020

18.1.Recap:

Last week: The first of Jesus Parable’s

• • When you don’t have a captive audience your words have to captivate

  • It helps make the abstract complete

  • It makes you think… It makes you work…
    You have to engage… There’s a choice…

Today’s four parables are challenging.
In Mark they are grouped together.
In Matthew they’re scattered.

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 hear, let him hear.”

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.”

²⁶ He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸ All by itself the soil produces grain–first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹ As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”

³³ With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.”

18.2.Intro

Backdrop is the seed & sower picture and Kingdom

18.3.Four Core Truths

1. A lamp is meant to shine.
   The easy part of this is that we must let the light of our faith shine.
   But there is a second and more difficult part to this. When we start being hypocrites with secrets, these too will come out into the open.

2. Our measures will return to us.
   But a funny counter (what we have can work to our advantage. e.g. knowledge or skill

3. The Kingdom grows all by itself…

4. Tiny seed can yield a great result…