Rooted In Christ | Mark 4:1-20

[Scripture Reading]

Mark 4:1–20 NLT

1 Once again Jesus began teaching by the lakeshore. A very large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat in the boat while all the people remained on the shore. 2 He taught them by telling many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4 As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” 9 Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” 10 Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant. 11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders, 12 so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they see what I do, they will learn nothing. When they hear what I say, they will not understand. Otherwise, they will turn to me and be forgiven.’” 13 Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? 14 The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. 15 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. 16 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 18 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19 but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. 20 And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Last week we closed out chapter three of the book of Mark. And in the closing of chapter three, we saw the Pharisees saying Jesus was able to do these miracles of healing and casting out of demons because He’s from Satan. Jesus then refutes them and says that He’s not from Satan. His family is not Satan’s family. His family are those that do the will of God.

And in tonight’s passage, Jesus is going to answer two questions for us that define what His family looks like. He’s gonna show us how a follower of Jesus responds to the gospel, or the good news that Jesus has died for our sins, and rose from the grave three days later so that we can have eternal life and go to heaven. And He’s gonna show us how those who aren’t part of His family respond to the gospel as well.

So the crowds have gathered around at the lake, let’s hear what Jesus has to say. Let’s take a look at the first question Jesus is gonna answer for us in our passage.

1. How do people respond to the gospel?

Jesus begins telling a parable to the crowds that have gathered around about a farmer scattering seeds. We talked about what a parable was last week.

Do y’all remember what a parable is? An illustration

So Jesus is giving us an illustration of this farmer planting seeds.

And we see four categories of soil here:

Name the four categories of soil we see in verses 3 through 8.

the seeds that fell on the footpath and were eaten by birds

the seeds that fell on rocky ground and sprouted quickly, but died cause it didn’t have deep roots

the seeds that were choked up by the thorns

the seeds that fell on fertile soil and produced a ton of fruit

So we start with these seeds that have fallen on the footpath. These seeds didn’t even make it to soil. The birds saw these seeds laying on the footpath and snatched them up and ate them.

Then we have these seeds that fell on shallow, rocky ground. These seeds couldn’t have deep roots, so they only grew upwards. At face value it looks like this plant is very healthy because of how quickly it grew. But then it was scorched by the hot sun and died because it didn’t have deep roots.

Then we have these seeds that fell in some thorns. The thorns would soak up all the water and the nutrients so there wasn’t any for these seeds. As a result, these seeds didn’t produce anything because they were being choked out by these thorns.

And finally we have these seeds that fall in good, fertile soil and as a result they produced a ton of fruit.

The disciples were confused by this parable so they asked Jesus what He meant by this. Then we see an explanation of the parable in verses 14 through 20.

In His explanation of the parable, Jesus says the farmer is One who is spreading the gospel to others. And these four categories of soil are four different responses to the gospel.

So let’s see what each of these responses to the gospel are in the parable. And as we walk through each of these responses to the gospel, I want us to ask ourselves which of these we relate to the most.

1. They can be robbed by Satan.

Mark 4:15 NLT

15 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away.

As we said earlier, these seeds don’t even make it to soil. Satan sees the gospel being spread and He deceives people by feeding them lies about who God is. He makes them wonder if God really is good, if He really is loving, and so much more.

You’ll notice this is really the only response to the gospel that isn’t OUR response. This is Satan’s response.

Getting more into our personal response to the gospel.

2. They can have a shallow faith.

Mark 4:16–17 NLT

16 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.

These are people who seem like they’ve been radically changed by the gospel. They’ve heard the good news that Jesus has died for their sins and rose from the grave and they feel good. They have this really emotional experience and dive headfirst into serving, small group, Bible-reading, but then some time passes and the initial excitement and emotional high is gone. And they start experiencing some trials. And on top of that maybe they aren’t receiving as much praise from others for serving in the church, maybe they’ve started seeing reading the Bible as a chore, maybe they haven’t been getting that same emotional feeling during Sunday morning worship. And so they stop serving, then they stop going to small group, then they stop going to church altogether.

What do y’all think happened with this person? Why did they stop coming to church? They only saw Jesus as a way to make them feel good.

It was all about them from the start. They just wanted Jesus to make them feel good so they could live a happy and fun life without anything bad happening to them.

Have y’all been following our sermon series on Sunday mornings called Authentic Faith? A week and a half ago Liam preached on something called a therapeutic faith. A therapeutic faith is basically someone who is in the shallow soil. They only want to follow Jesus so He can make them feel good. That’s not really faith. That’s pride. That’s only caring about ourselves instead of actually seeing the work that Christ did on the cross and trusting that no matter how difficult things get on Earth, Jesus will guide us through it.

3. They can worry about the world instead of trusting in God.

Mark 4:18–19 NLT

18 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19 but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.

These are people who

4. They can accept Christ and produce fruit.

2. How do we know if the gospel has fallen on good soil?

The Holy Spirit is the evidence that we are saved.

1. Jesus’ followers understand the gospel.

2. Jesus’ followers spread God’s Word.