Mark 4:26-41 – Who is this man?

Illus: Put a diamond in the ground, and nothing happens. The diamond just stays a rock. Put a seed in the ground, and there are some serious possibilities. Acorns, wheat, cotton seeds, mustard seeds – they don’t just stay there like rocks; they have the germ of life in them – they sprout and grow in a mysterious and glorious way.

Responsibility of Man

(plant)

VS.

Sovereignty of God (expect God to give increase)

debate

The Mystery Sandwich

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself, the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Hard work – “scatters seed”

Mystery – “seed sprouts/grows…he does not know how”

Hard work – “puts a sickle to it”

Illus: Eugene Peterson, Bishop Robert Langat

Small beginnings

30 Again, he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?” It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

Illus: Tom Sine, Elijah’s sanctification moment,

M. Teresa/Muggeridge/starfish.

Who is this man?

35 That day, when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then, the wind died down, and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

  • “Other side”/Works of Mercy
  • The danger of “going to the other side” — Jews had an almost superstitious fear of water.
  • Two great questions:
    • Teacher…don’t you care? (Joni Eareckson Tada) He cares so much that He leaves in the middle of many dilemmas.
    • Who is this man?

1. B. Phillips wrote a book called Your God Is Too Small some years ago. Well, the more you get to know Him, the more storms you’ve been in, and the hardships God has brought you through…well, you tend to get a bigger God…the more your faith grows.

A small child who measures herself weekly at the family wall and one day asks her

Daddy – “Why do adults stop growing?”

Not physically, but spiritually?

Maybe because we

  • get well-funded IRAs/pensions
  • stop doing risky things,
  • find a comfortable lifestyle and stay in it,
  • live in the safest parts of the Metro Area,
  • stop denying ourselves, taking up crosses, and following Jesus.
  • Maybe…because we cease going “to the other side”

The climactic question of these two stories and one experience:

  • Who is this man?
    • He’s the man who does the mystery work between our grace-inspired hard work.
    • He is the man who does some of His best work with little things, little people, little situations, little churches.
    • He is the man who controls the things that terrify us, who is not only the Creator of the waters but can boss those waters around.