Mark 3 - 4 - Legacy Standard Bible

Mark 3 - 4

Jesus Heals a Man on the Sabbath

And He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He *said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” 4 And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel together with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. 7 And Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and from Judea, 8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. 9 And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; 10 for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits were seeing Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, saying, “You are the Son of God!” 12 And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was.

Jesus Appoints the Twelve

13 And He *went up on the mountain and *summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. 14 And He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) to be with Him and to send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to cast out the demons. 16 And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), 17 and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. 20 And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, so that they could not even eat a meal. 21 And when His own people heard this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! 27 But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. 28 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” 31 Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him, calling Him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” 33 And answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

The Parable of the Sower

And He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. 2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, 3 “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and it happened that as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. 6 And after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 And other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they were yielding a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 9 And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 10 And when He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. 11 And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything comes in parables, 12 so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven.”

The Parable of the Sower Explained

13 And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 And in a similar way, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places: those who, when hearing the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those being sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for anything else enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those are the ones which were sown on the good soil: they who hear the word and accept it and are bearing fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 21 And He was saying to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be put on the lampstand? 22 For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And He was saying to them, “Beware what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you. 25 For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

The Parable of the Seed

26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. 28 The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 And He was saying, “How shall we compare the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes largest of all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.” 33 And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 and He was not speaking to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Calms a Storm

35 And on that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37 And a great windstorm *arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up. 38 And Jesus Himself was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion; and they *got Him up and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 And He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, “Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?” 41 And they became very afraid and were saying to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”