Parable of the Sower
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Announcements
Next Sunday at 5:00PM
All campuses
Harvest Festival
The Gospel of Mark and the Kingdom of God
Jesus comes with a mission
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Jesus brought a message of repentance but more than that, he brought the message of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God describes a people who choose to come under the lordship and authority of God in order to fulfill his mission.
Mark shows us what the Kingdom of God looks like.
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
We saw Jesus calling out his first disciples and them dropping all to follow him.
The Kingdom is made up of followers who follow in total abandonment. They drop their cause and pick up His. They change their direction to align with his.
We saw Jesus cleanse and man of an unclean spirit, a leper, heal a fever, heal a paralytic.
The Kingdom of God take things that are out of order and puts them in order. Things that are broken in the physical are made right.
But today we are going to see something different.
The Kingdom of God is going to start penetrating the mind and the heart of people with his words.
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God
The Parable of the Sower
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. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “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.” 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? 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. 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. 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. 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.”
The Seed is not the Problem
The Seed is not the Problem
The seed is the word of God. The word of God doesn’t change, the word of God stays the same. But how our hearts respond to it varies.
There are 4 examples Jesus gives. (Show Pictures)
Path - Devoured by Satan
Rocky Ground - Receive the word with joy but late wither due to trials
Thorns - Choked out by the cares of the world.
Good Soil - Bear Fruit
Each of the situations where the seeds dies, it is due to external forces.
Satan, trials and persecution, Cares of the world.
The seed always has the potential to work and grow but its growth is dependent upon the soil that it sinks into.
There has to be a Yield
There has to be a Yield
We live in a time where everyone is pointing the finger at one another. ARE YOU PRODUCING FRUIT?
If you don’t get this one, you wont get anything else.
Our heart as a church is to “MAKE DISCIPLES”
Who were the ones who produce the yield?
Was it the lepers?
Luke 17:11-19
Ten lepers are cleansed by Jesus and only one comes back
Was it the disciples?
The disciples didn’t quite get it until after Jesus rose from the dead.
Was it the religious leaders?
Most of them failed to understand
Remember the things that destroy the seed?
Devoured by Satan
Wither due to trials and tribulation
Cares of this world (Stuff, comforts of the world)
Devoured by Satan
Devoured by Satan
The book of Mark has multiple levels of story to it and one is Satan trying to dethrone Jesus.
Jesus is the desert being tempted by the Devil and remember what he said, “Bow to me and you can have all this”.
Satan is always trying to trip up Jesus but Jesus always withstands his attacks.
So many would be devoured by Satan but not Jesus.
Why?
Withered due to Trials and Tribulation
Withered due to Trials and Tribulation
All throughout the Gospels Jesus will face persecution and tribulation.
Jesus is literally going to go on trial and face the most severe form of persecution, a persecution that would make many fall away, but not him.
Why?
Cares of this world
Cares of this world
Jesus has no home, no possessions
Jesus goes to the cross naked and abandoned
The things that choke out so many never choked out Jesus.
Why?
Jesus faces each one of the trials given in the parable and he perseveres through each one.
He is determined to accomplish the plan of God. He’s determined to fulfill the mission given by Father God.
Why did Jesus die for your sins? - To get you
Why did Jesus hang on a cross naked and shamed? - You
Why did Jesus allow himself to experience hell? - You
Why did Jesus get crushed by Satan, go through trials and persecutions, and deny the comforts of this world? - You
What Soil are you?
What Soil are you?
“He who has ears let him hear”
We need to let God come in a rotatil our hearts.
This process takes the soil and breaks it up. There is a thrashing and a sort of destruction that has to happen. The gospel is meant to wreck you but in the wrecking a seed is planted.
Rotatilling get the good soil underneath and mixes it with the soil at the top. it spreads the nutrients around.
Some of us are afraid to let Jesus rotatill our heart because we know whats under there. We know the abuse we have faced. We know the disappointments, we know the shame and the sins we hide away. We have become ok with a surface level faith that doesn’t go very deep below the surface. But God isn’t ok with that.
He wants you to produce 30-60-100 fold. He wants you to be fruitful and multiply.