Mark - Parable of the Sower/Soils Pt. 23

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to the Countryside Vineyard. My name is Joe Fager and I’m one of the Pastors here.

This morning we’ll be in Mark 4:1-20

Last week Bill showed us something very important at the end of Mark chapter 3.

Jesus said that His true family is not defined merely by blood, but by doing the will of God.

Bill pressed that home with a hard question:

are we living for ourwill, or for God’s will?

That is exactly where Mark takes us next.

Because as soon as Jesus says that, another question rises up:

If I can only be a part of his true family by doing the will of God, then why doesn’t everyone do the will of God?

Why do people respond to Him so differently?

Why do some hear the word of God and receive it, while others hear the same word and walk away unchanged?

Mark 4 is Jesus’ answer.

This whole section, all the way through verse 34, is about how the kingdom works through the word of God.

Over the next five weeks Jesus is going to show us how the kingdom grows: first how people receive the word, then our responsibility to respond to the truth, then how God Himself causes the word to grow, then how the kingdom expands far beyond what anyone expects, and finally why Jesus taught these things through parables.

But Jesus starts with the most basic issue first: not the seed, not the sower, but the soil. Not the message, but the heart that receives it.

***Not sower, but soil.***  

So if last week the question was, “Are you living for your will or for God’s will?” this week the question becomes, “What kind of heart am I bringing to the word of God?”

Before I begin to teach let’s pray.

I. The Scene and The Parable (1-9)

Let’s think a little about the scene.

I’m going to read verse 1 and 2 and I want you to imagine the scene.

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. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:

Ok let’s stop there for a minute

So we’ve got big crowd.

Jesus gets into a boat and pushes out a bit into the water.

The crowd sort of forms a semi-circle around this boat bobbing in the water

And here is Jesus teaching many things in parables.

Now Mark breaks in on the scene and focuses on one of the parables.   

Let’s start again in verse 3 Jesus says:

“Listen!

Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 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. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 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.”

Now stop for a moment and imagine you were standing there that day.

You’ve heard about Jesus. The miracle worker. The teacher everyone is talking about. The crowds are gathering. And you’re thinking, “What is He going to say?”

And this is the message.

A farmer throws seed.

· Some lands on the path.

· Some on rocks.

· Some among thorns.

· Some on good soil.

Pause.

And that’s it.

Then Jesus says:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

What do you think the crowd thought?

Maybe there was just silence. People looking at each other. Wondering… What was that about?

Is that how the crowd reacted?

We don‘t actually know of course, but we can imagine, right?

We know his family thought he was crazy

The scribes thought he was demon possessed.

No one seems to really understand what he’s doing

now this parable

Yep, that’s how farming  works, Jesus.  So what’s your point?

And Mark tells us something important happened next.

Most of the crowd went home.

But a smaller group stayed.

The disciples and those close to Jesus pulled Him aside and asked the question everyone else should have asked:

Jesus, what did that story mean for me?

And this brings us to the hinge in this passage. The turning point if you will.

II. The Hinge – The Key to All the Parables (10-13)

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?

Notice that last verse

Jesus says if you don’t understand this parable, you won’t understand any of my parables.

In other words what I just said, that’s the key to understanding everything I say.

Now I want you to remember the parable again.

The parable begins with the word “Listen!”

And it ends with the words “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

In Greek those are the same word.

Jesus begins by saying: Hear!

And He ends by saying: If you have ears, then hear.

In other words, the whole point of this parable is not farming at all.

It’s about how people hear the Word of God.

And think about this for a moment.

How does John introduce Jesus at the beginning of his Gospel?

“In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was with God… and the Word         was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Jesus is not just someone speaking the Word of God.

He is the Word of God made flesh.

Every word that comes out of his mouth and every act He does produces one of four responses inside the human heart.

· Some hear and Reject

· Some hear and fall away

· Some hear and get distracted

· Some hear and bear fruit.

Real quick before we get to Jesus’ explanation of this parable, let’s go back verse 11 and think for a minute

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

Who are the “you” in this passage?

People who asked what it means. If you say something to me and I don’t understand it and don’t ask you to clarify, what am I saying to you?

I’m telling you I just don’t care what you are saying. There really isn’t any other reason, right?

So, most of the crowd walked away without clarification because they didn’t really care what the actual point was.

· Maybe they thought he was crazy,

· maybe they thought he was possessed,

· some wanted to see a miracle but not meet the miracle worker.

But to those who stuck around and pressed him to explain it to them to those Jesus says you have been given the secrets of the kingdom of God.

But to the outsiders he said he speaks in parables. Who are the outsiders? Those who walked away.

Now verse 12  

so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’  

This sounds harsh and it’s actually a quote from Isaiah. Long story short Jesus is saying I speak in parables because it weeds out the ones who don’t really want to hear what I have to say.  

We are actually going to cover this in more detail in about 4 weeks. The last of this little mini series is entitled why Jesus uses parables, so stay tuned for that.

Ok let’s recap here.

A crowd gathers, Jesus gives this little parable about farming, and most of the crowd leaves him, but some stay and get understanding into not only what this parable but the key to interpreting all other parables, it’s about how we hear the word of God.

III. The Explanation (14-20)

Jesus explains the parable beginning in verse 14. But before we walk through the soils, we need to see the main point.

The goal of the seed is fruit.

· The Sower is Jesus or anyone who speaks the Word of God.

· The seed is the word of God.

· The soil is the human heart.

· And the evidence that the word has truly taken root is fruit.

Verse 20.

“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.”

Everything in this parable is moving toward that one outcome: fruit.

In fact, every child of God will bear fruit for the Kingdom.

The seed is good. The word is powerful.

But Jesus says there are three things that can keep that word from producing fruit.

1. Barrier 1 – A hard heart

The first barrier is a hard heart.

14 The sower sows the word. 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.

Jesus says some seed falls on the path. The ground is hard. The seed never penetrates. And the birds come and take it away.

Why is the ground hard?

Because it has been walked on.

In the ancient fields of Israel there were footpaths running through the fields. People walked on them day after day until the soil became packed down like concrete. When the seed landed there, it never had a chance.

Jesus says the same thing can happen in the human heart.

A heart becomes hard when it repeatedly refuses the word of God. Over time the heart becomes calloused. The word lands on the surface but never sinks in.

Then bring in Satan briefly:

And when the word never penetrates, Jesus says Satan quickly takes it away.

Then a short application:

This is the heart that has heard the truth before and pushed it away so many times that the heart has become hard.

2. Barrier 2 – A Shallow Heart

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.

Jesus says other seed fell on rocky ground. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun rose, the plant was scorched and withered because it had no root.

In the fields of Israel this kind of ground was common. Beneath a thin layer of soil was limestone rock. The seed would sprout quickly, but the roots could not go down very far.

Jesus says this is the person who hears the word and receives it with joy. At first everything looks good. There is excitement. There is enthusiasm.

But there is no root.

And when trouble comes… when following Jesus becomes costly… when pressure or persecution comes because of the word…

The plant withers.

The problem here is not rejection of the word. The problem is shallowness. The word is received, but it never goes deep enough to sustain real life.

A shallow heart welcomes the word quickly, but it cannot endure when faith becomes difficult.

3. Barrier 3 – Choked and Unfruitful

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.

Jesus says other seed fell among thorns. The plant began to grow, but the thorns grew up around it and choked it.

In a field like this the soil is actually good. The seed sprouts. The plant begins to grow. But something else is growing there too.

Jesus says the thorns represent three things: the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things.

In other words, the word grows… but other loves grow faster.

And Jesus says the plant is choked.

The problem here is not rejection of Jesus. The problem is competition with Jesus.

The heart becomes crowded. The word is there, but it is surrounded by worry, ambition, comfort, money, and a thousand other desires.

And eventually the life of the word is suffocated.

A divided heart hears the word, but it never produces fruit because other things have taken first place.

The first barrier is a hard heart. The second barrier is a shallow heart. The third barrier is a divided heart.

IV. The Good Soil - Fruit

But then Jesus describes the soil where the word truly takes root.

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.”

Now notice something important about the good soil. Jesus says the good soil hears the word, accepts it, and bears fruit.

But what does that fruit actually look like in the life of a Christian?

Scripture calls it the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. — Epistle to the Galatians 5:22

In other words, when the word of God truly takes root, it begins to change a person from the inside out.

You start to notice new desires growing in your heart.

You begin to love the things of God that you once ignored. You begin to love the Word of God instead of avoiding it. You begin to care about the people of God, the brothers and sisters who are also following Christ.

And something else begins to happen.

You begin to care about the people who don’t yet know Him.

The book of Acts says that when the Spirit fills a person, they receive power to become witnesses. — Acts of the Apostles 1:8

A heart that once only lived for itself begins to care about the lost.

And perhaps most importantly, something changes deep inside you.

You begin to have a real desire to obey God — You start to develop a healthy fear of God not because someone is forcing you, but because the life of the word is growing in you.

That’s fruit.

Not perfection. Not manufactured behavior

But a changed heart from the inside, something you don’t decide to do, it just sort of happens to you.

We’re going to talk much more about this in two weeks when Jesus gives us a parable all about this very process. But I don’t want anyone who is hearing my voice to be discouraged because you don’t see the fruit of salvation in your life.

There’s a flip side as well...

Jesus warns that a tree that bears no fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. — Gospel of Matthew 7:19

there are also people we read in Matt 7 who do a bunch of stuff for Jesus but never truly know him.

We don’t need to manufacture fruit, we just need to lock in with Jesus and let the Spirit change us from the inside.

Conclusion

Let’s come back to the very first word Jesus spoke in this parable.

“Listen.”

That is how the whole story begins. And it ends with the same idea:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” — Gospel of Mark 4:9

By the time we get to verse 34, in about 4 weeks, Jesus will have used this verb another 6 or 7 times.

This whole section is about hearing and what properly hearing does for us.

Watch this though.

Did you notice how the sower sowed?

He did not care where the seed went. He was generous with seed throwing it everywhere.

That’s the gospel going out. Jesus wants everyone to hear and to respond.

That should be encouraging to you.

Paul tells Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:3-4 that God’s desire is for all people to be saved.

Don’t worry about the soil you are sowing into. Let God do the saving you’re job is just to broadcast seed.

Now the real challenge comes.

Can my heart change, can the hardness in my heart be broken up? Can I somehow get the stones and thorns out of my life?

Absolutely yes. And if you’re asking that question you are 10 steps ahead of where you think you are. Listen God is the only that can truly change a hard heart, but he wants your cooperation. Receive the word, and repent. that’s it. Every time you hear the word accept it and you will get more word, and move from hard or rocky or thorny to fertile and fruitful.

That’s why the Bible says:

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” — Epistle to the Hebrews 3:15 Psalm 95

The issue is not whether the word is being spoken.

The issue is how we hear it.

The good news is that the word Jesus speaks is not just instruction.

It is the message of what He has done for us.

The Son of God came into this world, lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose again so that anyone who turns to Him and trusts Him can receive life.

The call of the gospel is simply this:

Receive the word.

Turn from your own rule. (repent) Trust in Christ. And let His life take root in you.

And right now, the seed is being sown again — you have just heard the word of God.

Don’t walk away from the word today.

Receive it. Let it take root.