Mark 4:1-20

The weather has been so nice the last couple of days. Plus we just had the Kids up on stage for what we call the “Spring Sing.” It think it might be time, or almost time to start putting some seeds in the ground around here? What a perfect time for us open up chapter 4 of the Gospel of Mark we encounter Jesus teaching about a sower sowing seeds.

Picture: Moody Bible Institute (Famous Parable)

Jesus taught often about the Kingdom of God by using stories that had great intent. I call them Kingdom Tales.

The “Kingdom of God” is not a country, place, or location. It is a reference to God’s right to reign or rule and the Kingdom of God advances as people believe and follow the King of the Kingdom.

Purpose of a parable. (4:1-2)

Mark 4:1–2 (ESV)

1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land (soil). 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:

Once again we see a very large crowd flocking to Jesus. This is the same crowd we have seen before. This group of people were willing to uproot and relocate to be closer to Jesus. They wanted His teachings to take center stage in their lives. They sat at His feet and they let Him redefine everything about them. Their association with Him gave them their new identity. They were children of God.

So, they gather around Jesus, not in His kitchen, this time is it by the sea. So He got into a boat because He wanted to teach them.

Have you ever noticed how voices travel over water? (scientific reason why, but I know it is true because I have experienced it).

So He addresses the “whole crowd,” who were, get this, “on the soil.” That is the Greek word. Most of our translations will say “land” but the word is “soil.”

When I saw this on Monday morning I was fascinated. Mark says they were planted in front of Him “on the soil.” For all your literary people out there, this is so amazing you just can’t help but chuckle!

These people were “on the soil” on the shoreline and then Jesus tells them a story about 4 different types of soil so that He might awaken their insight, stimulate their thinking and move them into action.

Parables are a form of Indirect communication that engage the listener so that it causes them to reflect and consider what is being presented.

Parables sneak in the back door so to speak and all of a sudden they are in your house and they are something you have to deal with even if you didn’t want to in the first place.

Sometimes people have an averse reaction to “direct communication.” We can set our defenses up against it. Even if it is good information that is coming to us, we might not want to be “told what to do.” But if we get caught up in a story, we may be able to connect the dots to our own lives.

So Jesus sees these people planted on the soil and He tells them a story about soil. To which I say, “Brilliant!”

But before we look at the parable and then it’s interpretation. I want to look at the seemingly weird part in the middle that has puzzled me ever since I was a senior in high school.

The seemingly off putting part. (Mark 4:10-13)

Mark 4:10–13 (ESV)

10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

I remember the first time I read this passage. I was in Kai Shorb’s house and I just was so confused wondering why God apparently wouldn’t want people to respond to what He was revealing.

What gives? Well here is what gives. Jesus is speaking like the prophets of old in this passage. If you look in your copy of the Scriptures you will see that this is indented and it is set apart as a quotation from Isaiah 6:9-10.

These words were originally spoken to a rebellious people who had given themselves over to idol worship.

Isaiah 2:8 (ESV)

8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

Their idols had eyes that couldn’t see and ears that couldn’t hear. They were so contented worshipping their fake gods, that they have no desire to turn to the real One.

The Psalmist says,

Psalm 115:8 (ESV)

8 Those who make them (idols) become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Here is the thing, we become like what we worship. Whatever is elevated to God-like status in our lives, whatever that person, place or thing will begin to shape and mold us into it’s image instead of God’s.

So Jesus is borrowing language from a prophet of old whose audiences ambition was to not listen. Their hearts were already hardened and their lack of interest in the prophetic word demonstrated their indifference.

This story comes on the heels of His family trying to stop Him because they think He is insane and the Pharisees saying, “He is empowered by Satan.” If that is your mindset about Jesus, then your heart is pretty hard towards Him and maybe the last thing that those “outside” would ever want to do is admit that they need to “turn” and have their “sins” forgiven by Him.

But in an opposite way, verse 10 tells us that these guys gathered around Jesus in private and, “they asked questions.”

God is not a keeper of secrets, He is a revealer of mysteries.

So these Kingdom tales that Jesus tells are His way of slipping Kingdom truth through the back doors of our lives so that, whether we want to deal with them or not, they will have to be dealt with.

These kingdom tales will be openly talked about and scattered abroad. There is no problem with the seed that is being sown. If their is a problem, it is because of the hearts unwillingness to accept the seed.

People will either be insiders or outsiders by the way they respond to the message.

That is why you hear me pray this prayer publically so often.

May the Lord add His blessing to those who “hear” and seek to “obey” this Word.

In reference to this being the word of God, you often hear me say, May we believe all that this teaches, obey all that it requires and trust in all that it promises.”

We must respond to what is being revealed, even if that response is simply wanting to ask more questions. He is the Great Revealer and for those who are responsive to His revelation, He is willing, able and eager to reveal more.

It wasn’t in one ear out the other information with His disciples. Their responsiveness to the message was demonstrated by them wanting to know more. Those on the “outside,” had no intention of learning more from Jesus and so therefore, they didn’t. So they saw, but didn’t perceive. They heard, but didn’t understand.

This isn’t Jesus being stingy. This is Jesus being generous. Hopefully that brings a little clarity on a passage that seems uncharacteristic of what we know to be true about Jesus.

The Parable (4:3-9)

Mark 4:3 (ESV)

3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.

So Jesus starts off so strong! The first word is the word, “Hear!” Present Active Imperative - HEAR! and Hear…NOW.

Listening in the bible is more than just letting sound waves bounce off your ears (hearing impaired - new system). True hearing means obedience. It creates a respond and a change. This word is used 13 times in this chapter!

The ESV translators went with “Listen!”

This is the key word in the text. Are you able and wiling to hear and obey what Jesus is about to say?

Then another loaded impact word is used. Behold! Our ears better zero in and if they don’t, they are probably providing evidence of a hard heart.

“Listen! Behold! A sower went out to sow.”

Then Jesus is going to tells about 4 different soils that received the same seed but produced vastly different results. Only time would tell what, if anything, would come sprouting out of the ground.

There is a good chance that this parable might be able to hit home in farmer country.

Option One:

Mark 4:4 (ESV)

4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Ok…that doesn’t sound very good. Not a favorable option.

Option Two:

Mark 4:5–6 (ESV)

5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

Ok…that maybe sounds a little bit better than the first option, but I don’t know any farmers that would be very happy with those results. Still not favorable.

Option Three:

Mark 4:7 (ESV)

7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.

No yield? Seems like a lot of hard work for nothing. So once again, not a favorable option.

Option Four: Let’s see what’s behind door number 4.

Mark 4:8–9 (ESV)

8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Finally. We get the favorable and only “good” option. This soil allowed to seed to grow, increase and produce a yield. This is a very active option compared to the others where the seed was either stolen, scorched, withered or choked out.

Then Jesus uses the haunting words, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Then maybe He rows back into shore and everyone on the shoreline is left with something to mull over for a bit, even if they didn’t want to in the first place. They are forced either to catch His drift or be buried by it.

The Explanation. (4:14-20)

Mark 4:14 (ESV)

14 The sower sows the word.

The “word/seed” is the message of the Kingdom which is the good news that a new King has come on the scene and He is offering the forgiveness of sins which will allow humans to live the way we were intended to live in the first place. We had forfeited our God given rights to rule and reign over the creation and even our own desires when we sinned. As a result we became enslaved to the ruler of the counterfeit kingdom. That is not good, but the Good News is this, there is a new King in town and you can place yourself under His rule and reign.

Mark 4:15 (ESV)

15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

So the message of the Gospel comes to some “soil” and there is a spiritual attack right away.

Point of brief, sober application: do not be unaware of the Satanic activity that is occurring right now in this room, even as I speak. Satan would want nothing more than for you to discount what is happening right now. This word might come to you right now, but if it doesn’t leave with you when you go, Satan will have successfully snatched another seed or two or 20 or a 120.

By the time you get home, what has been heard in the past, will stay in the past and will have no effect on the present.

In three of the four souls, the phrase, “when they hear” is written in the past tense, meaning, “a message was heard,” but it stayed in the past and it has no bearing on the present.

This first story features a hard impenetrable heart.

Please hear this: Satan wants to steal the Gospel from you. He doesn’t want it to sit on you for any amount of time. He doesn’t want it to seep down into any part of you, at all, ever. He wants you to remain in your darkened state. That is why I get loud sometimes. I want you to LISTEN! Can you imagine if I were in a boat on the water, how loud I would be?

That is the entire purpose of this pulpit is for the messages from the King of the Kingdom to be heard. Woe is me if I do not preach His Gospel.

Option one? No Good. Option two:

Mark 4:16–17 (ESV)

16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

Galilee was probably the most fertile part of the land of Israel, but it also had no shortage of stones underneath the top soil. These people would know the silliness of expecting a good harvest if you planted your crops in rocky ground. It won’t happen because their will be to much to overcome.

Once again the phrase, “they hear the word” is written in the past tense. This “hearing” is something that took place in the past, but has no bearing on the here and now.

This fair weather soil, immediately receives the message with joy, but once hardship and suffering hits because of the message they have heard, they immediately fall away.

Perseverance in the present and into the future seems to be the mark of a true believer and that is not what we see in this story.

So don’t be option one and don’t be option two. How about option three?

Mark 4:18–19 (ESV)

18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Whenever you see thorns in Scripture it is never a good thing. They symbolize judgement. Thorns made cultivation of the earth more difficult because of Adam’s sin. When Isaiah said that rebellious Israel was like a vineyard that had briers and thorns growing in it, it was because of judgement. Thorns are a sign of judgement; that is why those soldiers crammed a crown on them on Jesus head.

These thorns are choking out the message of the kingdom by distracting the heart.

Once again, “hear the word” is in the past tense. The message was heard, but not currently impacting anything.

Man if there is a message that needs to be heard by those of us that live in the 21st century, it is this message. We are so distracted with things that absolutely don’t matter and we are deceived by what we think our riches can secure for us.

Every Sunday morning I get a notification from Apple indicating to me how much “Screen Time” I have engaged in on my phone. It is shocking and Exhibit A on how often I fail to “redeem the time.”

Each Sunday morning, I am reminded that I am addicted to this little glowing rectangle and it is stealing so much of my life away.

The other day I was in the Walmart parking lot with my entire family and I decided that was a good time to check my email.

Suz honestly asked, “What are you doing?”

I said, “Checking my email.”

“Is that something you have to do now?”

All she had to do was ask two unassuming questions for me to hear the still small voice inside me say, put it away son. At that moment I had a choice to make. On that day, I choose wisely.

Sometimes we can start out well, but end up falling in love with the things of the world. We can’t be those people. It is a bad option.

Thankfully there is a final option.

Mark 4:20 (ESV)

20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

This final soil breaks the mold so to speak. In all the others the “word recieved” was spoken about in the past tense, but in this scene, the ones “who hear the word” is spoken of in the present. The verb form is present and active.

This is the “good heart” that we all need to cultivate so that when the messages come to us from the King of the Kingdom we “receive them and actively, presently accept them and allow them to shape and mold us into Who He is making us into. When we do that we “bear the fruit” of the Kingdom like: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Here is what King Jesus want us to take away from this message today:

The advancement of the Kingdom of God in your life is determined by the responsiveness of our hearts.

So which soil are you?

Are you picking up what Jesus is laying down? Do you catch His drift? Has He made Himself clear to you in any way this morning? Then respond appropriately.

Don’t let this go in one ear and out the other. Let it rattle around and bit and settle into your soul so that you can ask more questions to the King and receive more revelation as to you how you can see a 30, or 60 or 100 fold increase on His investment into your life.

His sheep hear His voice and they listen to Him. He who has ears, let Him hear.

Communion:

The message of Gospel is offensive and difficult to deal with and sometimes we might be tempted to alter, soften or modify the message thinking that if we take away the offense, then it might stick. How have you see that played out before?

What are some of the fears that keep you from sharing your faith? How does this passage help you overcome your fears?

Distraction comes in many forms, but so often they are little glowing rectangles. Do you have a screen time problem? Have you considered a screen fast?

What steps can you take in order to make sure the message of the King finds a soft landing spot in your heart.