The Anatomy of a Parable III - The Explanation
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! If you’d please open your bibles with me to our passage in Mark 4. We will be looking at Mark 4:13-20.
Today is our final day in this mini-series adventure on the parable of the sower. For the last two weeks and today, we’ve examined Jesus teaching the parable, explaining why he was teaching in parables, and finally this week, we come to Jesus’ explanation of the parable to his disciples. In our time today, my hope is that you see the four different responses people have to the Word of God, and that you hear this: My desire, hope and prayer for all of us here is that everyone in this room or watching the service online would receive the Word, that it would take root, and produce a yield of 30, 60 and 100 times what was sown.
There are three simple divisions in this passage that comprise what scholars call a Markan Sandwich - which is a device that is frequently used by Mark. It is reminiscent of Hebrew poetry styles used widely in Psalms and Proverbs that aimed to guide the reader to the main point of the author’s argument.
In verses 1-9, we see the parable given.
Today, in verses 10-12, we see the disciples ask about Jesus’ decision to teach in parables, and Pastor Chris gave us an excellent reminder of the sovereignty of God’s will in our salvation.
In verses 13-20, we see a return to the parable with the explanation.
Some believe that Mark used the parable of the sower to sandwich in the discourse on election, showing God’s sovereignty in salvation, focusing on the center of the passage. Other’s believe it was a device used to drive in the points made by the parable itself, what was on the outside of the sandwich.
Before we go any further, please read with me:
1 Again he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore.
2 He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow.
4 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 didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep.
6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit.
8 Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”
9 Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”
10 When he was alone, those around him with the Twelve, asked him about the parables.
11 He answered them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables
12 so that they may indeed look, and yet not perceive; they may indeed listen, and yet not understand; otherwise, they might turn back and be forgiven.”
13 Then he said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables?
14 The sower sows the word.
15 Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.
16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.
17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.
18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word,
19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
Our focus today will be on the last portion of the parable, in verses 13-20. If you are a notetaker or just want the gist of what we will be talking about, than I suggest you write this down -
When the Word is recieved, it is extraordinarily fruitful.
When the Word is recieved, it is extraordinarily fruitful.
That is really the basis of what the entire thing is about. We see in the parable that not all will receive the Word and keep it. In Jesus’ answer to the disciples was that the one whom is really in charge of whether or not a person is able to receive the Word is God. The emphasis in 13-20 appears to be the impact of the word on those who hear it.
Getting into our passage today, we are immediately confronted with the two questions Jesus asked His disciples that were meant to get them thinking more in line with the Kingdom. One commentator said that Jesus was essentially saying that the lack of understanding of the disciples was equal to the lack of understanding with the outsiders. These questions are worded as a rebuke for their inability to understand.
13 Then he said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables?
What we see here is that Jesus is setting up this parable as a paradigm through which we understand the rest of the parables. It is essentially referring back to the thrust of the parable - that Word will bear fruit where it is recieved. Jesus taught His Word, the message of the gospel, through the parables and God produced the fruit. What He is saying here is that without receiving the Word, you cannot truly discern the teaching and grow from the meaning of the parable. There are insiders and there are outsiders. Insiders need to grasp the notion that without receiving the Word, we will not understand His teachings. Which is interesting, because it begs the question, “What is meant by the Word?” I keep saying ‘receive the Word’ - but what exactly does that mean? The entire bible? Considering that none of the New Testament had been written when Jesus is teaching this, I would say no. It is not talking about the Word of God the way you and I would consider it today, where we have the amazing privilege of having our own copies of the Bible. No, This is referencing instead the gospel message of Jesus Christ that through no act of our own we can be reconcilied to God and forgiven our sins. Does receiving the Word mean accepting the Law of the Torah (the first 5 books in the Old Testament)? We can tell from Paul’s later writing that we are not saved by the law and that it doesn’t really do anything for us except to reveal our sinfulness and need for a savior. So what is the Word that Jesus’ said was being sown? Let take us back to the first words Jesus spoke in Mark’s gospel.
15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
While the Pharisees are trying to sow their own rules and regulations among the people, Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the His Gospel that we can, in fact, be restored to right relationship with God through Jesus Christ alone. The sower in this parable is a faithful evangelist who spreads the gospel without wavering in fear that it won’t be received. The Word, the Gospel of Jesus, will bear fruit where it is received. The Bible we have today is an amazing gift that when studied carefully gives us a narrative of God’s interaction throughout history that is designed to point us to Christ. I had a professor who would always say,
“Christ in the Old Testament concealed, yet in the New, He be revealed”
We have been given four examples in the explanation of this parable in verses 14-20 that highlight several situations that we may either be able to relate to ourselves or know someone who had one of these experiences.
Read with me in:
15 Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.
This person has had the Word given to them, but were hardened to the point they could not and would not receive it, the enemy has blinded them to the Word the sower attempted to sow.
The Word is snatched away
The Word is snatched away
These are the folks who are combative – hostile towards God who allow Satan’s lies to dominate their thinking when it comes to the gospel. They never truly understand what it is because they are so ready to let the enemy take it away. And this is not to bash people who haven’t had a chance to explore he Word because of the enemy, far from it. Rather, this is a call for all of us to pray that God would bind Satan and his demons from interfering in the ministry of the gospel.
How many of you have children, by show of hand. Now I know that we all hope and pray and labor diligently so our kids would hear and receive the gospel, but there are some of our kids we are not sure have received the Word, and some of our kids we know for sure haven’t. As a dad of two young kids myself, the very notion that one of my kids may never receive the Lord tears me apart. I know for many of you, this has been the bone-chilling reality. Whether our kids are young or old, they are still our kids and it is heartbreaking to think that people we love so much are the outsiders Jesus speaks on in verses 10-12. The enemy has great reason for trying to stifle someone’s ability to receive the Word, it’s because he knows he is getting thrown into the lake of fire soon and wants to take as many with him as he can. Our job as believers is to faithfully bear fruit and spread the gospel giving others the opportunity to receive it. This is not to say that we are all destined for full-time ministry or even called to the next Billy Graham and bring in the masses to Christ. What it is to say though is that every situation in your life has been allowed to happen so you would be where you are today in order that you would have opportunities to speak the truth of God’s Word into people’s lives through your everyday relationships.
Look at
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
What has God prepared according to this? Did He prepare His workmanship, those described in Ephesians as people saved by grace through faith, not being from ourselves but God, or did He prepare the good works for us?
People will hear the gospel and have it taken away from them immediately. Does that mean we give up on them? No. It means we continue to pray for them and show them the love of God. We show them that God can take wretched sinners like you and me and do something powerful through us and that He wants to do something equally as powerful in their lives as well. Because someone may not even hear the Word does not give us license to abandon them to hell. It is like a C.H. Spurgeon quote that Chris shared a few weeks ago -
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
We then see the next group of people. Read with me in:
16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.
17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.
The Word is short-lived
The Word is short-lived
Notice how it would appear that this person has received the Word initially, but then once they begin to feel the hatred to world has for Christ, they show that they didn’t truly welcome the Word. In the first week of our mini-series, Pastor Chris talked about the different kinds of soils and gave us some of their characteristics. Specifically with rocky soil, there are two types: Naturally placed rocks and Artificially placed rocks. When you try to plant something on rocky soil, it doesn’t do very well because it doesn’t get the chance to take root because the rocks block the root from reaching the nutrient soil it needs to grow. When the Word of God is sown, it must take root. The Word takes root in our lives by the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith.
Naturally placed rocks - Who lives in Spokane Valley? Have you ever tried to dig out here? It’s crazy how much of the land out here is so inundated with rocks in the soil. I remember digging in my back yard at out last home, which was just up the street from us here, it was nearly impossible. To do anything with any kind of speed, you had to rent the right equipment like the small excavators at Home Depot - but that still didn’t give you the guarantee you wouldn’t run into one that was so large the excavator wouldn’t work either. The same is true when trying to sow on rocky ground. The plant encounters rocks that will not let the plant take root - it encounters the natural barriers in our lives like doubt, indifference or a rampant concern about other’s opinions of us. These things keep the Word from taking root by being more important than the Word. It isn’t until we give the Word priority through the gift of faith that the Word sown in us can take root.
Artificially placed rocks - Some rocks are there because that is their natural home. Other rocks are there through human intervention, whether that be a retaining wall, or simple landscaping. Likewise, there are some rocks in the soil of our hearts that we have placed there that can keep the gospel from taking root. Bitterness over something that happened, Pride, Desire to remain in Sin. All these things and more can take someone who briefly recognizes our need for a savior and make us lapse into our former lives outside of Christ the second they feel the slightest bit of persecution from a world that hates Jesus.
But look at what Paul says to Timothy:
12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Anyone who believes in a gospel that says God is only interested in making our best lives being here on earth with health, wealth and happiness must have never read this verse. In acts, we saw the apostles getting flogged for their believes and praising God for being counted worthy to share in the sufferings and afflictions of Christ. The fact that someone can see the Word, be open to it and run away from it when trials and persecution comes, opening the door to the notion that there are such things as false converts - people who come to Jesus on their own but have not truly surrendered their life to Him. What should we do with this? Even if we believe we are saved, we should be asking the same as David in
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.
The gospel, at its core, is relying on Christ to be sufficient in our lives to save us and make us more like Him.
Jesus continues in:
18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word,
19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
The Word is choked out
The Word is choked out
If you are listening and you don’t know Christ, ask yourself, “Is there anything in my life that makes God seem more like a threat to me than an ally?” I would beg and plead with you, examine yourself for these things and be honest with God. Ask Him for the gift of faith and for the ears to hear the gospel. If you have barriers in your life that would stand in the way of the Word taking root in your life, bring them to God! Hold on to the confession that we are all sinners! I am a sinner and am incapable of living the holy life demanded by God. But I trust the Word of God sown in me, that His death was in my place and I am a saved child of God. Sometimes, our sin feels too good though. How can we appreciate the true meaning of the gospel if we are still desiring sin in our lives. Every now and then, someone can be moved by the Word and even desire to pursue it. But our sinfulness wants us to be as far away from God as we can because we have bought the lie that a disciplined life in Christ is for losers and religious zealots. These people may experience the Word and even have a minor reaction to it, but once they feel the pressure to change and leave behind their sin, because they are doing so in their own strength, they walk away from Christ.
We cannot manufacture the transformative work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives. We can accept the morality and even acknowledge that we aren’t as good as we should be, but the real transformation in believers comes from the Holy Spirit regenerating us as we embrace real and true faith in Christ. The people who Jesus is talking about here or those who come to Him on their own but have not truly surrendered their will to His.
And this brings us to our last group. Read with me in:
20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
The Word produces fruit
The Word produces fruit
What the Word on good soil produces is a regenerated spirit – one that is surrendered to God and obeys the Word.
Notice there is an expectation there for those who receive the word to bear fruit – Jesus said that those who were the good soil and received the Word DID produce a yield of 30x, 60x, to 100x what was originally sown. That means there is an assumption that we too will bear fruit. That is not saying that we have to give up our livelihoods to enter full-time ministry or that we need to become the next Chuck Spurgeon in terms of bringing the masses to Christ. What it means is that we need to understand that our purpose in this life is not the advancement of ourselves, but rather the advancement of Christ.
You know how pine trees drop their pinecones that are full of seeds? All of those pinecones don’t end up turning into trees, but that doesn’t stop the tree from shedding them every year. Even though the sower wasn’t planting pine trees that we know of, we do know that a lot of crops drop their seed to the ground and make more of the plant than what the farmer had planted. God wants us to replicate ourselves by showing others the good news that was sown in us. We live for the advancement of the gospel.
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
This is the Great Commission. Regardless of how someone would try to interpret this, it shows that Christians have a directive to share the love of God. It shows that we are all to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching people to obey the Word of God, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When I came to know the Lord, it wasn’t a pastor or trained evangelist who lead me. It was my sister. She was faithful to Christ by praying for me, talking to me and presenting the gospel to me. But, God was even more faithful, by giving me the gift of faith that night outside Boston’s Pizza on June 26th, 2002.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The heart of this parable is to show that people react differently to the Word. Weather they are the trodden soil along the path where seeds can’t grow, the rocky soil that wont allow a seed to take root, the soil where thorny vines grow and choke out what what the sower wanted to grow, or those like good soil where a bountiful harvest is reaped, people react differently, and it is not our job to try and determine that for them. Our job is to look introspectively to see what kind of soil we are - Has God’s Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ taken root in our hearts? Our job then, assuming we trust the Word took root in us, is to bear fruit, to pass the Word along, to share the gospel with those the Lord has put in our lives. Today, we we prepare to wrap up our service, ask you this one question: How are you producing fruit for the Lord? What would our lives and our church look like if we all made producing fruit for Jesus a high priority in our lives? That’s not to say that some don’t already, but what if our church and the Kingdom of God as a whole decided that paying the gospel forward wasn’t just a novel idea in theory, but a responsibility? We cannot do that in our strength. Being faithful to Christ is a gift from God.
Lets pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray today that the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ was sown in the lives of our congregation and those watching online today. May you receive all honor, glory and praise for who You are and what You do in our lives for the loving purpose of making us more and more like you in the image of Your Son. I pray for myself and everyone else here that You would help us to take our responsibility to sow the Word throughout our sphere of influence more seriously. God, forgive us for times we’ve been happy to sit on the good news You gave us while people perished. Give us a heart that beats for the soul purpose of serving You alone and may you receive the glory and honor.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.