Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
January 14, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(134)
1901 ASV
1 And again he began to teach by the sea side. And there is gathered unto him a very great multitude, so that he entered into a boat, and sat in the sea; and all the multitude were by the sea on the land.
2 And he taught them many things in parables, and said unto them in his teaching,
3 Hearken: Behold, the sower went forth to sow:
4 and it came to pass, as he sowed, some [
seed] fell by the way side, and the birds came and devoured it.
5 And other fell on the rocky [
ground], where it had not much earth; and straightway it sprang up, because it had no deepness of earth:
6 and when the sun was risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7 And other fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
8 And others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and brought forth, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
9 And he said, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
- I. The Change in Mark's "Direction" of Thought.
- A. From the end of his introduction to the end of chapter three Mark was focused upon presenting Jesus as "God's Beloved Son", the "Mightier One" of John's message, Who demonstrated both His "Sonship" and His "Might" by both exorcisms and healings. At the end of that section, Mark put his focus upon the subsequent "decisions" that men made respecting Mark's "evidence".
- B. Near the end of that section, Jesus was presented as "calling those He wanted" and "making The Twelve" with two objectives in mind (3:14-15).
- 1. The first of these was to have "The Twelve" with Him.
- 2. The second of these was "to send them forth to preach" with the same "powers" to heal and cast out demons that He exercised.
- C. Since 6:7 is the record of His "sending them forth", we may confidently conclude that chapters four, five, and the beginning of six, are a section identifiable for its characteristic of "The Twelve" being "with Him" as He intended. From this conclusion, we must look at the content of this section as a time of preparation as disciples are "with" Jesus to be "discipled" by Him for the coming task of going forth to copy His "ministry".
- D. Thus, from "presentation to decision" (the previous direction of his thought), he changes to "preparation for ministry" (a new direction of his thought).
- II. The Significance of "Teaching Again Alongside the Sea".
- A. First, in terms of the introductory words of 4:1, we conclude that Jesus was deliberately turning His attention to "those whom He wanted" to be His disciples.
- B. Then, in terms of His method of teaching ("many things by parables"), with His explanatory declaration that His "method" was to deliberately make a distinction between those who would be His, and those who would not be (4:10-12), it is easy to see that Jesus was deliberately turning His attention to "those whom He wanted" to be His disciples.
- C. Mark's placement of Jesus "alongside the sea" for his "setting" for His teaching.
- 1. In 2:13 Mark placed Jesus "alongside the sea (para the thalassan) with the same terms as in this text (4:1; para the thalassan) with this grammatical reality: 1:21-22; 2:13 and 4:1-2 are the references to "teaching" as a verbal action up to this point in Mark's record.
- a. Additionally "teaching" as a noun only shows up in 1:22; and 1:27 before this third record of His "teaching" as a noun. Then, as to his references to "the sea", only 1:16, 2:13, and 3:7 precede the text before us in this study.
- b. Also, additionally, these references to "the sea" are tied to the issue of "discipleship" in that 1:16 is in the introductory paragraph of Jesus' declaration that He is about "making men into what He wants them to be" as a "discipleship" issue, and, in that 2:13 has all three issues of "sea", "disciples" and "teaching" just prior to His "call" of Levi as a "Follow Me" disciple, and, in that 3:7 has both "sea" and "disciples" tied together in the paragraph that immediately precedes the "response section" of chapter three with Jesus calling "disciples" of "those whom He wanted" and "making The Twelve" into a group to be "with Him" before He moves into the "sending of them forth to preach".
- 2. The "Point": Jesus deliberately does His "discipleship teaching" with "the sea" as the backdrop. This is significant because 5:13 and 9:42 make "the sea" an environment of "Death" for any "cast into it". Thus, "discipleship" becomes a "method" for "walking upon the sea" (6:48-49) rather than plunging into its depth to die. Revelation 15:2 picks up on this imagery and makes the "saints" capable of "standing upon a sea of glass" in direct contrast with Daniel's imagery of "the fiery stream" coming from the throne and John's "Lake of Fire" being before the throne.