Parable of the Sower and Soils

Parable of the Sower and Soils

Mark 4:1–20 NASB95

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. And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. “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. “And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. “Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. “Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.” And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? “The sower sows the word. “These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. “In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

I. Introduction

a. Last week we discussed how the scribes and pharisees had accused Jesus of casting out demons by the Satan. Therefore they are in danger of committing an unpardonable sin and never ever getting forgiveness.

b. We saw how His family heard what was going on and decided to come down and snatch Him away because they figured He has lost his mind.

c. But Jesus concluded that His true family members was those that believed in Him and did the will of God.

II. Definitions and Points of Consideration

a. What is a Parable?

i. A parable is, literally, something “cast alongside” something else. Jesus’ parables were stories that were “cast alongside” a truth in order to illustrate that truth. His parables were teaching aids and can be thought of as extended analogies or inspired comparisons. A common description of a parable is that it is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

b. Why in a parable?

i. Mark 4:11-12, “And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.”

ii. Isaiah 6, the Prophet Isaiah sees God on His throne and angels flying about the throne worshipping God. Isaiah immediately goes into a repentance mode. Angel touches his mouth with a coal off the fire and declares Isaiah’s sins are forgiven. Then God makes a call to who will go for Us? Isaiah says, “send me.”

iii. This is what God says to Isaiah: Isaiah 6:9-10, “He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

iv. Why did Jesus tell the disciples it was for them to know the mysteries of the gospel, but not the others?

v. For those that have an open heart and want to know Jesus Christ, the Lord Himself, by His Spirit open up their understanding to the mystery of the gospel.

vi. For those that are absolutely insolent and have hardness to what Christ was saying, it was a judgement. Remember in the previous instance of them accusing Christ of casting out demons by Satan, so Jesus spoke to them in parables as a judgment, but He explained to those that were open the true meaning.

c. Verse 13, “And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?”

i. We must understand this parable to be able to understand all the other parables. Because Jesus spoke most of His parables about the “Kingdom of God is like”, you must understand this parable.

III. The Sower

a. Who is the Sower?

i. Jesus didn’t explain in this parable who the Sower was.

ii. Many believe the Sower is a believer.

iii. Problem that arises if this is a believers is that, the believer gets in the way of what really needs to be said or shared. What they do is try to convince a person to somehow include Jesus in their current life. The believer shares in a way how that having Jesus in their lives will make their circumstances and life better. Than what needs to be shared is that believing in Jesus Christ is about eternal salvation and not accepting and believing in Jesus Christ will result in people going to hell.

b. In Matthew 13 Jesus told a parable about Tares among the Wheat.

c. Matthew 13:37, “And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man”

i. Jesus is the Sower and what is intended is that believers will share Jesus and His word with others and that will produce a increase.

ii. What believers are to do is to share what Jesus taught and what He shared. Nothing more or nothing less.

IV. The Seed

a. Jesus clearly stated that the Seed is the Word, the Word of God. The Greek word is “logos”.

b. In this context Jesus is referring to His word, the word of God. But also this is a matter of someone hearing God’s word, and believing and having a inner transformation (conversion) and follow Christ, which in turns produces a crop a harvest, souls being won to Christ.

c. Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

V. The Soils

a. First we need to understand that Jesus is not talking about people who have never heard the word of God, the gospel.

i. Each one of these types of people have heard the gospel, have had a seed land on it.

ii. The soil is the condition of their attitudes, minds and hearts as to the way that seed penetrates or received by the person.

iii. Then the outcome of that seed, due to the condition of the heart and mind, produces the result.

b. soil on the road or path or wayside

i. The soil is packed down and hard and has no opens for the seed to penetrate. Which makes it easy for the birds to swoop down and take it.

ii. This is a person that has a hardness of heart, their minds are not receptive to the word of God and attitudes show a nonchalant understanding or lack their of the word of God.

iii. So Satan swoops in and steals the word. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

iv. In Luke Jesus identifies as unbelievers, Luke 8:12, ““Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.”

c. soil on the stony ground

i. this soil is a thin layer over the top of rocks. Therefore when the seed goes into it and sprouts the roots hit the rock and cannot penetrate to where the water is. Nor can it get depth to give balance and strength when it grows taller.

ii. Remember earlier talked about a person that tries to convince a person to add Jesus to their life, rather than a true heart transformation?

iii. These are people looking for something to solve their immediate circumstances and alleviate them of lives hardships. Or those people that are looking for the next best thing to bring them joy and happiness. These are people like what they hear and are willing to give it a try because it brings them happiness and joy in the moment.

iv. Remember what Jesus said in John 16:33, ““These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

v. These are so called believers that confess to be Christians, but they never let the word penetrate or make a full transformation. So when they heat is turned up, when trials and tribulation occurs they are out of here.

vi. Listen Jesus never promised us that if we would live for Him, we would be set free from hardships, temptations or persecution. In fact Jesus promised us tribulations, trials and much persecution when we serve Him, but He promised us eternal life. 1 Peter 1:13, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

d. soil of thorns

i. This soil is covered with thorns, therefore it blocks out the Sunlight, so they are like small trees that grow underneath a large tree that blocks the sunlight, so it growth is stunted and sometimes will will die off because the growth that is around it takes all the water and blocks the sunlight.

ii. Mark 4:19, “but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” The word, “world” is actually in Greek, the worries of this age. Not the age to come in God’s kingdom and eternity, but their focus is this life. Their hopes are in this life and not in the things of God.

iii. Now these are confessing Christians but their focus is on things in this world or the thing of this age. or they worried about everything around them, or focused on the pursuit of what they can get out of this life, instead of the eternal life, the heavenly life or the age to come.

e. good soil

i. good soil is soil that is free from barriers, like rocks or thorns, it is tilled up and well watered. So when the word penetrates it actually transforms the person into a person that takes Jesus and His word and sows it others. This is what a true believer and one that is truly saved is like and lives.

VI. Summary

a. I want to ask you to think about these things:

i. Am I a person that listens to what is being said here, things about Jesus Christ and have a hardness in my heart, or I reject what is being said here, nor really doesn’t care and this doesn’t apply to me? I am a good person and I do good things?

ii. Or am I a person that confesses to be a Christian, but you find yourself shrinking away when people say things, or you join in the crowd and won’t stand for Christ, because of fear of what folks around you would say? Or you are one that is all in when the going if great and easy, but when the hard stuff hits you bail out on God?

iii. Or am I that individual that is more concerned about the things in this life, or just doing the church thing and when this is over I don’t give another thought until next Sunday? Maybe that person during the week I got better things to do?

iv. Or am I the one that is totally sold out to Jesus and want to pursue His will and what He wants in my life? One that wants to share Jesus with others and see them saved?

b. Going back to what Jesus asked the disciples in Mark 4:13, “And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?” Unless you are one that truly believes and has been transformed by Christ Jesus, one that produces because there has been a conversion, then how can you understand what Jesus was saying in the other parables when He talked about the Kingdom of God is like?

c. It comes down to this, did you accept Jesus Christ into your heart, lock, stock and barrel and let Him transform you. or are we like someone who says, well I believe in Jesus, but!!! Remember what it says in James 2:19, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” Demons believe, but do you see them submitting and repenting of what they are?

d. please let us be like what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”