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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

03 Controversies

04 Parables

05 Miracles Around the Lake

06 Inside Out

07 Teaching Disciples Part 1

08 Teaching Disciples Part 2

09 Jerusalem Controversies

10 The Last Days

11 Taken and Tried

12 Tried and Crucified

13 The Risen Lord

I'm Cameron DeBasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Just walking our way right through this study on the book of Mark.

This week we're on lesson 4 titled parables.

Obviously it's not gonna be every parable that Jesus ever told but it's the ones taken from Mark chapter 4.

We learned a little lesson last week, you know, I ventured into the 4 talking points and then I thought, well there's the reason why we don't do the 4 talking points and we discussed that like we were just racing through trying to include because there's good stuff you don't leave it out but then Afterwards we were discussing and there are some people who try to go they're like, oh you guys shouldn't have picked 4 points But they try to go Sabbath afternoon Sunday Monday Tuesday and walk through the 7 days of the lesson.

Yeah, we're gonna happen That's why we have 3 times.

I'll just throw it out there If you're if you can get through or 7 days of points in a regular Sabbath school time, you haven't taught.

I don't know what you've done, but teaching involves a little bit of time, right?

So take your time and pick out those points that you think are really good.

Anyway, we're not gonna get into the philosophy of it, we need to actually do the content this week.

And I'm the 1 who put the talking points together this week and in a little intro statement it says, 3 of them, had 3 talking points to be clear.

This week we studied the parables of Jesus recorded in Mark 4, especially those employing agricultural imagery.

Now there are 2 small parables, not that there's anything small or insignificant, but they're shorter and they're kind of not on brand of everything else.

There's a cluster of organization in Mark 4 that we're gonna see come out of this and it's around this agricultural cycle.

And it also says we'll examine why Jesus consistently taught in parable.

What was the purpose of the parable teaching, and then why did he pick agriculture, and what are the lessons we can draw from it?

And then we'll go through the Go through the lesson Father in heaven, we are thankful for the testimony of your word We ask that the Spirit of truth would guide us in our study in our presentation here as well as our our teachers in Teaching this lesson across the world and also Lord the hearers the learners in the classroom Those members who are studying through this lesson that we would all gain a clearer conception of the ministry of Christ and be better able to reflect that ministry in his behalf in this world.

We thank you for hearing and answering for we pray it in Jesus name, Amen.

Yes indeed we're gonna be in Mark chapter 4 and as you had mentioned previously this lessons this whole quarterly study is essentially walking chronologically through the Gospel of Mark.

So it's not picking up themes and extracting, it's just kind of walking step by step, which is a great way to study it.

Well, it is picking out themes, but it's doing it chronologically.

So it's like we're on this section what can I pick out this time and so for example we have parables this week last week was controversy and?

Exactly and so and there's I mean there's just such good stuff in there that you're never gonna run short of content and this week it is about like the 1 word title implies, parables, right?

Now the lesson brought out in the very first thing it said, this week's study is on parables in Mark 4.

The gospel of Mark has the fewest parables of any of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

It also has the fewest chapters and the fewest words.

So Mark basically trimmed out some other things that other gospel writers included, which to me doesn't put down those other things, but it does highlight that these are some of the central things that they all shared and Mark chose to include it.

My thought was, and we just talked about doing that with talking points.

I'm looking at Sabbath afternoon, Mark 4 has just 5 parables.

Well, we don't really even have time to delve into all of the parables that are shared here.

Right, and it also says the next sentence, the majority of the chapter revolves around the parable of the sower and we're gonna see that in our talking point.

Number 1 talking point, first 1 is the parables of Jesus were not arbitrary.

That comes from Tuesday and Sunday's lesson.

We're gonna get in, I was tempted to use the word strategic but that would have been 3 times but I tell you Pastor Howard as I'm going through this study of the Gospel of Mark, this word strategic in my mind keeps coming up, that Jesus is purposeful.

You actually have strategic in the notes.

But we're going to look at that, why he used parables.

And then number 2, the parable of the sower was central to Christ's ministry.

It's shared across 3 of the 4 different gospels.

And not only is it included in them, there's an explanation, Jesus interprets it, and you'll see other parables kind of branch off from that.

No pun intended, branching off, pa-dum-ching.

Anyway, now we'll go to talking point number 3.

Other parables in Mark 4 draw more lessons from agriculture.

So there's some other ones that continue that thread that was already established in the parable of the sower.

But let's start with parables as a concept.

Why have parables and what was Jesus' purpose and intent with them?

And I put this in those that Jesus used parables purposefully and even strategically.

If you could go to the Gospel of Matthew, now I mentioned that Mark shares a lot in common with the other what they call synoptic Gospels, the ones that are very similar, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And Mark also, I mean Matthew also includes what Mark includes about why Jesus talked in parables, but there's an added explanation that I think is very helpful in Matthew 13 verses 34 and 35.

All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables and without a parable he did not speak to them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world." Now there's 2 things I want to draw from here.

First of all, he spoke to them in parables, quote, that it might be fulfilled, which was prophesied.

So the idea being that the reason Jesus used parables is because it was prophesied that he would.

And as we've studied before, Jesus didn't come here and just say, like, all right, how should I do some stuff?

There's this mystery that's been hidden in God from the foundation of the world.

And part of that was the teaching ministry of Jesus to explain things to people using parables, Right?

So he comes and he fulfills this prophetic mission and notice it says here it quotes from the prophet I will open my mouth in parables.

I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Yes so when Jesus comes Speaking in parables.

It's a fulfillment of the prophetic mission, and the parables that he chooses apparently were already thought of before the foundation of the world.

So Jesus didn't just walk out on a Tuesday and be like, I don't know, there's some sheep over there, how can I, let me think real quick, give me a minute, let me, no, he stepped into it anticipating this was gonna be there and it all is part of God's plan?

That is it possible that God in his incredible mind-boggling wisdom knew exactly what Jesus was going to encounter.

In fact, he foreordained the circumstances that he would encounter, and he had the stories ready to go for when it happened.

Well, the text that comes to my mind is in, you remember when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he says to him, if I explain to you earthly things and you don't understand, then how are you gonna understand when I tell you heavenly things?

The implication is earthly things are designed to communicate to you these heavenly themes.

And if you're not getting it here, you're not going to get...

And so again that everything you look at familial relations, you know, that God gave his only begotten Son.

Because he's trying to use imagery and relate, like it was the whole thing was framed in such a way, created in such a way as to communicate some of these heavenly truths.

Right, and so the whole world was built, and we're gonna come back to this later, especially when we look at nature and agriculture.

It wasn't God saying, well, let's see, how can I use some of this stuff to teach a lesson?

Yeah, and so he designed it to be a teaching tool, and so when Jesus comes, he does the very thing he had already planned to do.

So that's point number 1, is that Christ's parables were part of his message.

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Series

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

04 Parables

Transcript

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