Mark Chapter 4
The Sermon in Stories
4:1 Later he was trying to teach by the lake, but the crowd wasp so big he got in a boat on the water and sat down. The crowd was on the shore.
2 He started teaching them with stories.
3 “Listen. A sower went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and birds came and gobbled it up. 5 Some fell on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much soil. It sprouted up right away because the soil was thin. 6 But when the sun climbed high, it scorched and shriveled up because it didn’t have roots. 7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it out, and it didn’t produce anything. 8 But other seed fell on good ground, came up, grew, and produced 30, 60, 100 times over. 9 Whoever has ears, listen!”
10 When he was by himself, the ones around him with the Twelve asked him about the stories. 11 He told them, “You’re allowed to know the unrevealed things about God’s kingdom, but to people outside I’m doing things in stories 12 so
‘They’ll certainly see, but not perceive;
they’ll certainly hear, but not understand,
be converted, and
I forgive them’ [Is 6:9-10].
Mk 4:1-12
13 “You don’t understand this story? How will you understand any story? 14 A sower sows the message. Some seeds fall beside the path where the message is sown. 15 When they hear it, Satan comes at once and takes away what was sown in them. 16 Some fall on rocky soil. When they hear the message, they’re glad and accept it right away. 17 But they don’t have root in themselves and just last a while. When trouble or persecution comes on account of the message, they stumble. 18 Some seeds fall among thorns. They hear the message; 19 but the cares of this age, the deception of wealth, the desire for other things enter in and choke them out, and they don’t produce anything. 20 Others fall on good ground; they hear the message, accept it, and produce 30, 60, 100 times as much as was sown.”
21 “People don’t take a lamp and put it under a basket or a bed, do they? Don’t they put it on a stand? 22 Nothing is hidden that won’t be revealed; nothing is secret that won’t come to light. 23 Whoever has ears, listen!”
24 “Be careful what you listen to. The measure you measure with, you’ll be measured by—and more so. 25 Those who have, will receive more; those who don’t have, will lose what they do have.”
Mk 4:13-25
26 “God’s kingdom is like a man that puts seed in the ground. 27 He sleeps and gets up day after day, but he doesn’t know how the seed sprouts and grows. 28 The ground produces crops on its own—the stalk, the head, then the seed in the head. 29 When the crop is ready to harvest, he gets out his scythe to harvest it.”
30 “What can we compare God’s kingdom to? What’s it like? 31 It’s like a mustard seed, which is smaller than any other seed people plant. 32 Yet it grows up bigger than the other garden plants and puts out branches, so birds build nests in its shade.
33 Only with stories like those was he delivering the message to them as they could understand. 34 Privately he’d explain them to his disciples.
Mk 4:26-34
Stilling the Storm
35 That evening he saidp, “Let’s go to the other side.” 36 They left the crowd and took him along in the boat like he was; some other boats went along. 37 A dangerous storm came upp and was sloshing waves into the boat and filling it up. 38 He was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a cushion. They wokep him up, “Rabbi, don’t you care that we’re aboout to die?” 39 He got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and a general calm settled in. 40 “Why are you so scared? Don’t you trust me yet?” 41 They were even more scared now, “Who is this that even the wind and waves obey?”
Mk 4:35-41