The whole point of Jesus’ parable is that where the seed is sown, there will be a great harvest. Perhaps you shared the Word of God with someone, and it fell on hard ground. That may not be the end of the story, because we don’t know where God wil...

Here is Jesus’ report on what is actually going on inside people who hear the Word:

Some people are hard: “These are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word.” (4:15) T...

The sower’s work is unimpressive. Picture a farmer scattering the seed by hand, walking 20 miles a day, up and down the same field. He looks out over the field at night and it strikes him that after all his work, the field looks exactly the same a...

Jesus reveals the secret of the kingdom in a simple story: A sower goes out sowing seed. The seed falls on different kinds of ground. The seed on bad ground produces nothing of lasting value. The seed on good ground produces a marvellous harvest.<...

"The kingdom" is simply the rule or reign of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to ask that God’s kingdom would come, and that His will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

God is sovereign. That means He reigns everywhere. H...

Some Christians seem to have the idea that Jesus lived a balanced life. But the demands on Jesus were so great that He did not even have time to eat. Missing meals and losing sleep were commonplace for Jesus and His disciples.

If you’re sur...

Jesus Christ is ready to forgive any sin that you’ve committed. He is ready to forgive open sins, secret sins, sins from long ago, and sins repeated many times. He is ready to forgive all your blasphemous words, thoughts, and deeds.

The blo...

These folks were not the local clergy in Galilee. These were the top brass religious leaders coming down from the capital city in Jerusalem. Why did they come? Because the Pharisees and Herodians were plotting to kill Jesus (3:6).

What does...

Suppose an angel were to ask you: “Why should you be allowed into heaven?” and you said, “Because I believe Jesus is the Son of God.” Their obvious response would be, “Well, so do the demons. How is your faith any different from theirs?”

Ev...

How do you know that a person has a saving faith in Jesus Christ? The answer is simple: He or she pursues a life of obedience.

This theme runs through Jesus’ teaching: “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). “If you ...

Imagine the tension. Jesus knew that some in the synagogue were hostile towards Him. They were watching Him closely, looking for a reason to accuse Him. Then they noticed a man with a shrivelled hand in the synagogue.

Jesus knew that if He ...

In the fourth commandment, God calls us to set aside one day in seven to rest from our work and to enjoy all that He has done. That is a gift and a blessing from God.

But the Pharisees had turned the blessing into a burden, with an endless ...

The Old Testament specified one day in the year when God called His people to fast—the Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees had made fasting part of their regular routine. According to tradition, they fasted Mondays and Thursdays, and encouraged ot...

Remember, Israel was an occupied country at this time. The Roman army had marched in and made Israel part of the empire, and that meant paying taxes to Rome.

The problem was that the Romans needed people to gather taxes, but who in their ri...

Jesus gave two wonderful gifts to this man - the gift of forgiveness and the gift of healing. Now, which of these two gifts do you think was more important?

A preacher from London by the name of Dick Lucas explains it this way: Suppose we c...

These men were right. The only person who can forgive is the one who has been offended. If you set fire to your neighbour’s house, your neighbour can forgive you. But if someone else sets fire to your neighbour's house, you cannot forgive them. Th...

Mark tells us about a paralysed man who was determined to get to Jesus. Eventually, he was able to do so with a little help from his four friends who carried him to Jesus.

When they arrived at the place Jesus was staying, it was swarming wi...

Two teenage boys were downstairs after school one day. When their mum finished cooking dinner, she called out, “Dinner’s ready!”

You know what happened next: The boys immediately turned off the television and the computer and came upstairs ...

Think about it. Here is a man going to worship in the synagogue. But his life is bound by a dark power that lurks within him, and coming to the synagogue hasn’t changed that.

This still happens today: A man goes to church, and his life is i...

Here are two brothers running a small fishing business - ordinary people with ordinary lives, and Jesus spoke to them: "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men” (1:17). That’s an amazing promise! Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make ...

News about Jesus spread, and the crowds gathered: “That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, ...

This is an amazing promise—that God’s presence, God’s power, and God’s own Spirit should come into your life. Maybe you find yourself thinking, “How could the Holy Spirit of God come into the life of a person like me?” Answer: Because you are forg...

When you come near to Jesus, He will show you your need, but He won’t leave you in despair. He will show you your need, so that in Him you will find forgiveness. This is the reason He came into the world.

Baptism is a wonderful picture of w...

What if you knew you were going to meet with God? It’s true, you know. You are going to meet with God. You will see Him. You will stand before Him, and you will have to give an account of your life to Him.

Some people would say, “I’m going ...

What is the gospel? Here is the simple answer that Mark gives us: The gospel is about Jesus Christ, in whom we find repentance, forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The first thing to notice is that Jesus is the teacher, but He is ...

Someone might read Mark’s words and say, “Well, the confession that Jesus is the Son of God is just one man’s opinion…” Is it?

It’s the unanimous confession of the New Testament

“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus i...

It is important to remember that God the Father did not gain a Son when Jesus was born. God sent the Son, who was already at the Father’s side, into the world. The Son shared the Father’s glory, the Father’s life, and the Father’s love before He c...

Jesus was a common name among the Jews until the beginning of the second century, but Christ is a title, telling us what this person named Jesus came into the world to do.

Today, we might speak about Dave “the plumber,” or Diane “the teache...