Conversation Starters

1. Read Mark 4:1–41.

2. Why did Jesus teach in parables? Why do you think he only explained the parables to his disciples?

3. From the Parable of the Sower, why do people reject Jesus? Where have you seen people reject Jesus for these reasons? Which of the bad soils do you relate to at times?

4. How do the kingdom parables in 4:21–34 relate to the Parable of the Sower? How are they meant to be an encouragement to the disciples and to us?

Title: Jesus Teaches
Reference: Mark 4:1-20
Speaker: Gabe Coyle, GabeC@cckc.church

– Jesus won’t give you more than you want.

3 Common Reasons We Don’t Hear Jesus Out
1. We get distracted.
2. We come distorted.
3. We live disturbed.

The Word of God comes and fills our lives if we want it, but we have to want it and seek it. And if we don't want it, God will allow us to live the "with me" life—the source of all our troubles—instead of the "with God" life, which is a life of growth and abundance. ~ Dallas Willard, The Scandal of the Kingdom

– Jesus’ teaching is an invitation to life WITH him.

Keep giving attention to Jesus.
1. Curious enough to press in.
2. Humble enough to receive.
3. Willing enough to follow.

– The more you give attention to Jesus the more he reveals.

In any case, what human expectation could envisage a triune, totally self-sufficient Creator becoming man in a tiny speck of dust somewhere in the universe and presenting his own extremity of humiliation, suffering — both physical and spiritual — and substitutionary death as the very form of life for all mankind?...This form knows no external necessity in either divine or human reality, yet once we apprehend it we see that it ‘must’ be as it is. ~ Aidan Nichols

– Jesus is the parable.