Sunday School Session 5

Hello everyone. We're back here again to look at the gospel of Mark as we make our way through that gospel.

I hope again that you have been reading the text before you come to class and that you understand where we're going.

You should have the lecture notes. We're sending them out every week and so if you want to know where we are, we are in that section where Jesus inaugurates a new kingdom bringing misunderstanding and explanation, which would be

Mark chapter two verse thirteen through chapter four verse thirty -four.

We've already talked about Roman number one. Jesus brings a new kingdom and now we're moving on to the next point.

Many are blind to the king in chapter three verses seven through thirty -four.

So if you will join me as I pray and then we'll get started.

Father, we thank you again that we can be together in this way and we pray now that you would give us insight into your word.

Give us more knowledge of Jesus, the ultimate revelation from God. Help us to understand him as this gospel writer

Mark has presented him. Help us to see that Mark has recorded the very word you wanted him to write in order that we would understand our savior and our king, the

Lord Jesus. Help us now we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, we're looking at that section chapter three verses seven through thirty -four where we see that many are blind to the king.

Many people cannot see this glorious king. They are blind to the glories because they do not have eyes of faith and so we want to look at that and see how this so chapter three turn in your

Bibles to Mark chapter three beginning in verse seven to verse thirty -four that is where we are today.

Again, if you haven't read it, stop right now and read that and then turn us back on turn the turn your turn the class back on and rejoin us here.

Okay. Many are blind to the king. As you look at the text, you see a number of groups here and each one has its own reaction to the king.

As you look at the Pharisees in this chapter, what do you see? You see that the

Pharisees are blinded by their own traditions because Jesus does not fit in their box.

Remember all the all the things that they have done to the traditions they have added to the law in order to keep the law.

Those traditions then have become so important to them that Jesus does not fit into that box and so because of their traditions because they are blinded by those traditions, they make the the absolute foolish assertion that Jesus gets his abilities from Satan that Jesus is accomplishing all these marvelous things by Satan.

They care only for their traditions and in the process, they offer an explanation that is both foolish and blasphemous.

Now, as as we consider that this of course raises the question of the unforgivable sin because you recall that Jesus says to them when they make this comment in verse twenty -eight.

Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter but whoever blasphemes against the

Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin. What is that blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit against the Holy Spirit? Well, they're attributing evil to good evil to good.

They're all the good things Jesus is doing. They attribute to evil. They are so blind.

They're so wicked that they call good evil and evil good.

Now, I remember some years ago, every morning, I got a phone call for I don't know how it's been a long time but several days every day.

I got a phone call from somebody in Kentucky and I don't know how he got to know me or whatever but he called me and he would say to me, pastor

Tim, I think I've committed the unpardonable sin. I've blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Let me say something to you.

Jesus is saying that this is so wicked that there's no chance of repentance.

Not as if you would want to repent. You are so blinded that you call evil good and good evil and the point is and this is what

I told this man. I said, look, if you are worried that you have committed the unpardonable sin, then you haven't committed it.

You would not be worried about it. The Pharisees here, they have no remorse for saying this and they won't.

The ones who would attribute this to Satan, they're not going to feel any remorse. They are that blind.

They are that far gone in their wickedness and so if you today are worried about whether you've committed the unpardonable sin, if you're worried about that,

I can tell you right now, you haven't committed it because if you had, you would be attributing all evil and truly believing that about Jesus.

Now, they should have seen from the Old Testament, the humble origins of their king.

They could have read his story. They could have seen that the whole pattern of the

Old Testament was of a king like David, the one who's going to be like David, had humble origins, was not going to arrive in great pomp and circumstance.

They could have read his story in the Old Testament. They'd seen all the patterns in the Old Testament. They would have seen that this was their king.

Now, here's the question we need to ask. Here's the question we need to ask ourselves and let us write.

Remember, this is written to us. Do we have any kind of traditions, rules, laws, or beliefs that would blind us to the glories of Jesus, to the lovely character of Jesus?

What might those traditions be? Name them. If you can, name them. I know all of us have certain things that we think are right and they can blind us to Jesus.

They can blind us to him. Notice another group that's mentioned in this part of the book of Mark.

It's his family. And as you read through the text, you see that they think that Jesus is mad, that he's crazy.

Their blindness is caused by familiarity. They've grown up with this king.

They do know his humble origins, but because of that, they cannot see his splendor.

They cannot see his splendor. They're so familiar with him, they don't see his glory.

Now, let me ask you, what are the familiar things that make you blind to the splendor of this king?

Maybe you've grown up in church your entire life. Maybe you have learned of Jesus.

Maybe you have always heard about Jesus since the time you were born. The three days after you were born, you came to church and your parents brought you to church faithfully.

And you've grown up in church. You are so familiar with Jesus. What makes you blind to him?

Is it familiarity with the scriptures which reveal him? Is it that which you think you've seen him as you attend church and repeat his name?

How can we avoid that so we do see his majesty? I think that one of the ways that God brings into our lives that we see who

Jesus is, is trials and tribulations. We've had an easy life here and I have found that Jesus becomes more precious to me.

He looks much more majestic when I am in a situation where all

I have is him, where I can't turn anywhere else. And then he looks so lovely and majestic and glorious to me.

Don't discount trials when they come your way. They oftentimes will push you, as God intends, so that you see

Jesus in his glory. But do you do notice who does have an accurate picture of Jesus?

It's the demons. It's the demons who have an accurate picture of him.

Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? As you read through the text, you see that it's the demons who recognize who

Jesus is. I'm sorry,

I'm looking for verse 11. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, you are the son of God.

And he strictly ordered them not to make that note. Of all those given the privilege of seeing the king, these are the ones commanded not to tell.

However, Jesus does appoint messengers to go out and herald his appearing. You see that then beginning in verse 13.

So the ones who do know the king are the demons. Isn't that interesting? The religious leaders and his family does not see him as king, but the demons do.

Now you do see that the glories of Christ's kingdom do appear in this section. Even in this section where he is misunderstood, you can still see the splendor of the saving rule of God, of his majesty in the person of Jesus.

First of all, see the glory of his might. He is the strong man that overcomes

Satan and plunders his house. He is like the strong man.

He has already bound Satan and he goes about his business, robbing

Satan of his possessions. He sees his sinners from the grip of Satan at will.

If Jesus wants to save someone, he will. Satan cannot prevent it. Notice as well, he casts out the demons.

He has bound Satan. He plunders his household. The demons can't even stand against him.

He is intent on saving a people and demons, nor their king,

Satan, can keep him from doing that. Looking at that kind of strength, what kind of difference will this make at work?

What kind of difference will this make at home? How is this going to change you as you go to work and you go to that place where you see that evil is rampant?

How does it help you to know that Jesus has bound

Satan and he's plundering his house? He's the strong man. He's the mighty man.

He's the one who can do whatever he wants to do. You see also in this section, the glory of his love, the glory of his love.

Soon after the text where it talks about his family coming to get him because they think he's mad and then they tell

Jesus, hey, your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they sent a message in to come on out and you remember what he says?

Look at it. In verse thirty -three and he answered them when he was told your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you and he answered them.

Verse thirty -three, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. You see, all those who follow him,

Jesus calls family. You see, our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is not just student to master, not just disciple to master, not just subject to king, but we are family.

We are more than followers. We are more than subjects of the king. To Jesus, we are family.

He loves those who are his. Isn't that fascinating? Don't you? I love this section.

Who are my mother? Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Those who do the will of God.

Those who follow me. You see, we are called family. That's what we are to Jesus.

I don't want you to think about that. Not just subjects, not just disciples, family.

You see the glory of his servants in verses thirteen through nineteen. These are the ones who will advance the kingdom.

These are the ones whom God has called into service of his king. These are the ones who have a part in his mission and who are they?

They're the most unlikely group you'd ever find. You have you have

Matthew, a tax collector, along with Simon, the zealot, right?

One, a total traitor to his countrymen. One, a fanatic for his country.

The zealots had a group that would even they were the they were like a terrorist group fighting for liberty, right?

And you got those kind of people in here. You've got these fishermen. You've got James and John who are called

Bonarges, which means sons of thunder, right?

These are guys who these are guys who you know, they're the ones who who in the gospel say to Jesus, hey, these people won't believe.

You want us to call down fire on them, right? That's the kind of guys these are. It's hard to think of John that way, the apostle of love, isn't it?

But that's the way he was. So, you've got this this really motley crew that Jesus took the initiative, if you remember, in calling.

These are the ones who will have the mission of extending the kingdom of Christ. These are those original apostles and so we see them.

We see them the glories of his kingdom but some are blind to it. Some are blind to it.

These and some are not. So, then, now, we come to chapter four in Mark's gospel and here we see the nature of Jesus' kingdom.

First, thirty -four verses of chapter four. Jesus tells of the nature of his kingdom in parables for the purpose of judgment.

Now, remember, he has inaugurated this marvelous kingdom but people persistently misunderstand the nature of his kingdom and so he begins to teach in parables.

In this way, he fulfills Isaiah chapter six verses nine through ten.

You remember that chapter? That's the chapter where the prophet Isaiah is confronted with the majestic holiness of god and the cherubim are saying, holy, holy, holy is the lord god almighty and you remember,

Isaiah is humbled before this vision of god's holiness and he says, woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips and the angel touches the coal to his lips and and symbolically then cleanses him and then in verse nine, we read this and I heard the voice of the lord saying, whom shall

I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I send me and he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing but do not understand.

Keep on seeing but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and and blind and blind their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

Wow. So, god says to Isaiah, you're going to go and by the very preaching of the message

I'm going to give you, people are going to be blinded by that message and and people will not hear their ears will become heavy and and they won't understand just by the preaching of that message.

God uses the very preaching of the message to harden their hearts and so Jesus speaks in parables and fulfills that.

There's a greater fulfillment that the greatest revelation from god has come in the lord

Jesus Christ and even in his message, that message itself works judgment.

It hardens their hearts. It keeps them from hearing and so these parables by hiding the meaning of Christ's kingdom works judgment but the same are explained to those in the kingdom.

Those parables are used to explain the kingdom to those who belong to him. Now, can you see the glory of Christ in this?

This is a hard glory. It is not as if Jesus goes around shutting people out of the kingdom.

No, not at all. Rather, he comes displaying the kingdom with great power as he heals the sick as he casts out demons as he frees people from the curse by his power and he comes with mercy and he shows mercy to them.

He offers forgiveness and he shows compassion and he shows over and over as we saw last lecture how through all of this, all of this, he shows the wonderful nature of his kingdom, a compassionate, merciful, powerful kingdom and what happens?

Well, the Pharisees give him grief for breaking their traditions and working miracles and attributing it to Satan, you see?

And so, it's not like he's shutting people out.

They're totally giving him grief about this kingdom and so he increases their judgment by speaking in parables.

You see, Jesus will show his glory not just in his mercy, not just in his compassion, not just in his might but he will also show his glory in his judgment.

We can love him because those that belong to him, those same parables are used to explain the kingdom so that we understand.

Now, what does he tell us about his kingdom? Well, first of all, his rule is like that of a farmer spreading seed.

It's like that of a farmer spreading seed. The seed is the word of his rule.

The word that goes out and invites people to see the kingdom and come into the kingdom. It's the word of his rule that goes out summoning people to believe and it has varying success.

It lands on the very hard ground of the path and the birds snatch it up. No chance of getting root.

Just snatched up right away. It's just laying there on the hard ground and then he says that some of it falls on rocky ground where there's not much soil and it springs up immediately but since it has no depth in the soil, when the sun comes out, it scorches it and it withers away.

That's like the seed that goes to people as he says later in the chapter and they receive it with joy and then because there's really no root, the sun withers it away.

The care or the the trials of this world wither away.

Persecution arises and they're gone. Others, others fall among the thorns and they grow up and choke it out.

These are the cares and the concerns of the world though. The the things of everyday life that that seem to crowd in and choke it out but the seed that takes root, the seed that takes root then starts producing 60 -fold, 30 -fold, 100 -fold, varying degrees of fruitfulness but it produces some kind of fruit.

Now notice the king does not extend his kingdom by savage means. He does it by the word of the gospel.

Look at the glory of Christ here. His rule conquers our hearts. There's no unwilling subjects in this kingdom and no kingdom can make that claim.

No kingdom can make that claim. It goes out, has varying degrees of success.

Some no success at all. Some just temporary success but it does have success and it produces fruit.

His rule is hidden and calls for careful attention. The idea here of a of a light brought into the darkness.

You don't put it under a basket. You don't put it under a bed. Has the lamp come in order to be put under a bowl or a bed?

Now, this is a reference to Jesus. This speaks of the hiddenness of Christ's rule in the world.

You can't see it. It's not a flashy thing but it it will be revealed in the coming of the

Lord Jesus and he exhorts us to spiritual perception. He who has ears, let him hear.

The more we listen to Jesus with spiritual perception, the more truth about Jesus will be revealed to us.

As we listen, as we believe and believe what he says, then more of his truth will be given to us.

So finally, he says in verse twenty -five, for to the one who has, more will be given and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

The more one believes and appropriates by faith the truth of Jesus. Now, the more he'll receive in the future and whoever chooses not to listen, the little he has will be taken from him.

So, what he's saying is pay attention to the words of Jesus. Although his full glory is not yet revealed, the more

I listen to him, the more I will understand him and the more I will love him. The reward for paying attention, the reward for seeking out the truth of the

Lord Jesus is more knowledge of Jesus and thus greater love for him.

What is the reward for listening to Christ? It's more of Christ. He is the reward.

He is the one that we get. Will this make any difference in your worship?

Will this make any difference in in your times when you just sit down and read the word of God? Will it make any difference to you?

You're seeking out Jesus. You want to know him and you will get to know him better and better.

Now, he goes on. He goes on. He tells the parable of the seed growing and and he says,

Christ's rule is like a growing seed.

A man scatters it and it just grows. That is to say, the ability to grow and spread is within the kingdom itself.

It's within the seed. It does not need any of us to grow it because it has the ability within itself to grow.

Now, when you plant a seed in your garden, when the farmers go out and drill their beans and their oats and plant their corn, there's nothing that that farmer can do to make to make that seed grow.

It it grows. That's the nature of the seed. That's the way it is with the kingdom. His rule, this king's rule does not advance by clash of arms or by diplomatic cleverness.

It does not go out and conquer invisible and dramatic ways but instead, it slowly, steadily, consistently grows.

You see, think about this. For example, in the history of Islam, the

Islamic faith is spread by conquering. When you know the history of Islam, you know that it's spread by means of the sword.

Nations were conquered and subjected to the teachings of Muhammad.

You see, and we see it in modern day. You remember ISIS, the great threat.

They want to produce the caliphate, this this this state, this

Islamic state that would encompass all the Islamic peoples and what did they use?

Well, they used weapons and bombs and everything else. They subjected people to themselves and that's how they were going to make it grow but you see the kingdom of Christ is not that way.

It grows. It's on its own. You just take the seed and it'll grow. It'll grow. It doesn't take force of arms.

It's not dramatic. It's just a seed growing. You see what that does? What kind of glory do you find here?

It does not depend on your frail efforts to make it grow. Why is that glorious?

Because we can have confidence in it. It's a rule that quietly conquers sinners and it's unstoppable.

It's unstoppable. So, there's the glory of his kingdom. It's not dramatic.

It's not a lot of fireworks. It's not conquering people by the sword, by force of arms.

Instead, it just goes out and conquers hearts and spreads and grows.

Then, he says, Christ's rule is like the mustard seed. The smallest of seeds grows into this huge plant.

Now, here you see this marvelous glory of the rule of Christ. In the eyes of the world, our faith is insignificant and weak.

What have we got to show for it? We don't go out and conquer. We don't go out and conquer by clever campaigns, do we?

In the eyes of the world, it's insignificant and weak and yet it spreads until it has a universal reach.

It spreads all over the world. Consider this. Consider this. When you come to the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost, there are 120 disciples meeting in an upper room, right?

2000 years later, this faith has spread to every corner of the earth.

It has spread over the entire globe. It has laid the foundation for entire civilizations.

No other kingdom can make that claim. So, even though it appears like a mustard seed, a little thing, insignificant, who's gonna pay attention to it, right?

Yet, it grows into this big plant. It's got a universal reach. Think of these last two descriptions in terms of our families, our co -workers, our confidence.

You see, it can grow. It can grow and it can conquer.

So, as Jesus appears, he brings with him the anticipated kingdom of God, the revelation of God's saving rule in Christ and Jesus begins or he inaugurates, he begins the fulfillment of all those kingdom promises of what the kingdom is supposed to be.

Many understand the nature of kingdom. Yet, Jesus explains what his kingdom is and how it grows.

Next week, we move on to a new lecture, lecture three. Of course, it'll take us a few sessions to get through that but I hope you find again, find this profitable.

It's wonderful to learn about the rule of Christ, the rule of our Lord Jesus. I hope you grow because of what you are learning here from this gospel as the spirit of God opened your eyes to Jesus.

Well, let's pray, shall we? Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for this gospel which shows us his glories. Help us, Lord, to fall down and worship before him.

He truly is our king. Help us to have confidence in his kingdom.