This passage of Mark’s Gospel contains a strange encounter between a Gentile woman and Jesus, in which He rebuffs her desperate plea for help and insults her, before finally giving in. What explains Jesus’ initial refusal and rudeness?

This passage deals with the fundamental human problem (the defilement of sin), the wrong way to address it (externally by works of the law), and by implication, the right way to address it (internally, by faith and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit).

When Jesus saw the crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. But Jesus came to be the great shepherd of the sheep. Mark 6:30-56 displays four ways in which Jesus fulfills this role.

We need a different view of discipleship, one informed more by the Word of Christ than the American dream. That is why we need passages like this, which call us out of our safe and comfortable lives and into the dangerous unknown armed only with a promise; Nothing can happen to us in the cause of Christ that has not been predestined from the foundations of the world for God’s eternal glory and our everlasting joy. We cannot fail.

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus touches the untouchable and cleanses the unclean. But how do we receive the cleansing power of Jesus? By faith. But what is faith? Today's passage shows us five characteristics of the faith that saves.

The theme of Mark 4:35 - 5:43 is that the authority of Jesus Christ is without limit. He has absolute authority over the forces of nature, evil, and even sickness and death.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to door of the Castle Church, igniting the Protestant Reformation.

We celebrate the 500th anniversary of this event by exploring why it mattered then, and why it matters still today.

The calming of the storm is not a mere display of Christ’s power over the elements of nature. It is about tribulation, perseverance, and the nature of true, saving faith.

Mark states that Jesus explained every parable to His disciples, yet he does not record Jesus' explanation of these Kingdom parables. Why? Because he wants the parables to have the same effect upon us - to separate those who hear from those who don't. So hear and understand the mysteries of the kingdom concealed in these parables.

Mark 4:1-20

The parable of the sower is the key to understanding the mystery of the kingdom, therefore it is the key to understanding the ministry of the church, for the church is the kingdom of God made visible on this earth.