Not as It Seems

Mark 4:21-34 · 2024-08-04 · Jason Wolin · Gospel of Mark | Cross and Crown

Mark 4:21-34 · Parables. Not as It Seems — sermon from Cypress Bible Church on BibleSlides.

Not as It Seems Download discussion questions (PDF) Slideshow for this message can be viewed HERE Review Well, today we return to our study of the gospel of Mark and I am absolutely thrilled to do that. I enjoyed our theology matters series and our mission matters series. Those were important for where we are as a church. But the staple of Sunday morning is the study of the Scriptures verse by verse, book by book. It’s food and drink for the soul. So today we return to the book of Mark. And we need to begin by reviewing where we have been to get us back up to speed. It’s easy to forget. I mean, I taught the series and I had no idea where we were so how could I possibly expect you to remember. Maybe this is obvious, but we aren’t reviewing for the sake of review. The reason this is important to do is that the life of Jesus is a drama. It’s a complex, rich historical narrative and you need to understand how the pieces fit into the whole. The Bible is not a collection of fortune cookies where we pluck out verses hoping it applies to our life. This is a redeptive story that culminates in the ultimate story of Jesus. Now in our study of Mark we actually picked up that drama in the last prophetic word from the OT. OT Anticipation Do you remember how the book of Malachi closes. The Jewish nation is taken into captivity and scattered and the last words of the OT, in fact the very last TWO VERSES, tell us to wait for this forerunner who will announce the Messiah. And then everything goes dark. The prophetic word goes completely silent. The gospel of Mark begins by shattering those 400 years of intertestamental silence. And that silence is shattered by the archangel picking up where Malachi left off. You told us to wait for that prophetic forerunner, well here he is. He announces to Zechariah the birth of that forerunner John the Baptist. John explodes off the pages of the Gospel of Mark. He is not some wild man as is so often depicted. John was a man of towering character and everything the corrupt religious elite was not. They were all about image and appearance and robes and fineries. John wore camel skins. They were about the externals. John was about the internals. They were about keeping the law. John exposed their hypocritical breaking of the law. And his message was simple repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Identification And John the Baptist as any good forerunner would do, identifies Jesus. BUT, his identification would have been shocking. How would you expect the Messiah promised from Genesis chapter 3, this long awaited messianic figure WHO WOULD TEAR APART THE ENEMITES OF ISRAEL to be identified? What would you expect? First I would expect a drum roll. I would have expected a bit of smoke and fog and laser light show. I would have expected…

Cypress Bible Church · Full sermon loading below.