Message preached Sunday, February 8, 2015 from Mark 4:1-20
Theme: The parable of the soils teaches us that the kind of receptivity we show to God’s word determines the kind of productivity it will have in our lives.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Have you ever stopped to think of how many opportunities you have to be exposed—in the course of a typical week’s time—to the word of God? I’m not particularly good with math; but let’s add up some numbers.
If you became a Christian when I did—at around the middle of your teen years, and you then lived to at least reach the allowed ‘three-score and ten years’ of age, you will have been exposed to at least 55 years of biblical teaching and preaching—and all as a professing follower of Jesus, who is reasonably capable of understanding and building upon what you hear.
Now; let’s suppose that, throughout all that time, you were pretty consistent in your involvement in a local church. If you allow for just a couple of missed weeks a year, then in 55 years’ time you would have heard 2,750 Sunday sermons, would have attended 2,750 Sunday School classes, and would have enjoyed 2,750 mid-week services—for a total of 8,250 formal presentations of the word of God in church. Then, suppose you had the habit—as many of us do—of listening regularly to a favorite Bible teaching program on the radio at least five times a week. Let’s add 13,750 daily Bible radio broadcasts over 55 years; giving us a total of 22,000 exposures to instruction from the word of God. Then, let’s suppose further that you had a fairly regular daily time of personal reading from God’s word. (I hope you do!) Let’s say that happened at least five times a week. Then let’s add another 13,750 to our number; making a total of 35,750 deliberate exposures to God’s word. If you made the commitment to read at least one chapter of the Bible a day for at least five times a week, then at that pace—in the course of 55 years—you would have read all the way through the entire Bible twelve times; and would just be getting started on your thirteenth time through.
We would probably want to add to all of that the number of books you will have read on Christian living and doctrine, and the number of Christian life seminars or Bible conferences you would have attended in 55 years’ time. And even if you enjoyed only a tenth of the total amount that we could reasonably expect in all that time—and I hope you would never have settled for only a tenth!—that’s still a very significant amount of exposure to the word of God. That would make you very rich indeed in the word of God!
Many of us have already experienced at least a tenth of that. Many, of course, have experienced much more. But here’s a very important question: Would you say that the quality of your Christian life and of your service to Jesus Christ measure up to the amount of times you have been exposed to His word?
Many of us might be tempted to defend ourselves and say, “Well; I fall far, far short. But that’s because the quality of what I received wasn’t all that good.” And yet, I believe that the Lord Jesus would tell us that the problem is not with what what we heard—but rather with how we heard it. That seems to me, anyway, to be the lesson to be learned from the story in the beginning of the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel.
Let’s turn there and look together.
* * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 4 begins a new emphasis in the Gospel of Mark. So far, the emphasis in Mark’s Gospel had largely been on establishing the identity of our Lord—that He is the Son of God in human flesh. But now, more of an emphasis begins to be placed on His teaching. Chapter 4 is a marvelous ‘teaching’ chapter. And it just so happens that it begins with one of His most famous parables.
I would say that this parable has an important place of prominence in our Lord’s teaching. It is basic, because there are elements in it that help explain others of His parables. When He explained this parable to His followers, He told them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (v. 13).
And that would be true not only with respect to the content of our Lord’s teaching, but also because of what it itself teaches us about how to hear His teaching to good profit in our lives. This is His famous “Parable of The Soils”; and it teaches us that the kind of receptivity we show to God’s word determines the kind of productivity it will have in our lives.
I would say that it’s vital to our fruitfulness in the Christian life—and to the benefit that we might be able to gain from all the times we hear from God’s word—that we allow this important parable to sink in. Notice first . . .
1. HOW THE PARABLE WAS TOLD (vv. 1-9).
Mark begins by giving us a picture that most of us, as followers of Jesus, love to have in our minds. He writes,
And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea (v. 1).
I love the thought of that scene; don’t you? Go ahead and imagine it—what it might have been like to be along the shore of the Sea of Galilee in the midst of that great crowd; and to see the Lord Jesus teaching from the boat. Imagine the sound of the water gently lapping; and the birds flying overhead. Imagine the hushed anticipation of what He would say. I don’t think there’s a more heart-warming picture of our Lord’s earthly teaching ministry than that. And oh, the things He taught!
Mark goes on to say,
Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching: “Listen!” (vv. 2-3a).
I have to stop there. Isn’t that a great way to begin a sermon? “Hey, everyone! Listen up!” (I’ll have to try that someday—when you aren’t expecting it.) I imagine that, in this case, the huge crowd had to be quieted down so everyone could hear. And I’d bet that after He gave that shout, you could hear a pin drop—on the water!
And then, He began giving one of His greatest parables. By the way; do you know what “parable” means? It’s a word that basically means “to throw things together”. It’s a teaching method in which common, everyday, easily recognizable experiences are put together with spiritual truths in such a way as to teach a lesson that no one could ever forget. That’s one purpose of a parable, anyway; and our Lord was the absolute Master in the use of it. He said;
“Behold, a sower went out to sow” (v. 3b).
And the kind of “sower” He was talking about is a man who walked around a plot of ground or a field with a leather bag strapped to his side. He would reach into the bag, grab a handful of seeds, and just throw them and allow the wind to take them and spread them on the soil. It’s called “broadcast sowing”; and it’s very possible that the people sitting along the shores of the Sea of Galilee could look behind them—or off into the distance in the hills that surrounded the lake—and see someone doing it even as Jesus spoke. It would have registered in their minds as something that they would have seen almost every day.
Jesus went on to say that the seed that was cast fell into four different types of soil—with four different kinds of result. He said;
And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (vv. 4-9).
Four soils—four results. The first was too hard—the pathway or the byway. The seed just sat there; and the birds came and ate it up. The second was too shallow—ground that was too rocky and that wasn’t very deep. The seed sprouted; but the roots didn’t go down far, and the sprouts dried up in the sun. The third was too cluttered—ground covered with sticker-bushes and thorns. The seed grew; but everything else around it choked it out. But the fourth was just right—good ground that wasn’t hindered in those other ways; so that the seed could take root, and the sprouts could grow, and fruit could be brought forth.
Now; you and I, dear brothers and sisters, are probably very familiar with this parable. But I wonder if you have ever noticed that, when He spoke it for the first time to this vast crowd, He stopped there. He didn’t explain the spiritual significance of it to the crowd who heard it. To most of them, it was a parable that was left hanging; and the only closing comment we’re told that He gave to the crowd was what we find in verse 9:
And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (v. 9).
And that was it. And so; the thing we need to notice is that a great number of people heard this parable—but were only given the parable itself, and not any kind of spiritual explanation of it. They would have had the picture in their minds that Jesus painted for them; but they would not have had the meaning of the picture explained to them. Perhaps a lot of people were left looking at one another; and wondering, “Okay . . . It’s a good story; and I know it’s supposed to mean something. But why is He telling us this?”
* * * * * * * * * * *
I’d like to suggest to you that, to some degree, that sense of ‘things left hanging’ was intentional. It helps to illustrates the very thing that this parable was really meant to teach us. Many heard these words from our Lord; but not all grasped the significance of it. Only some people were given the privilege of the truth of this parable sinking in to their hearts and minds.
I know this is the case; because Mark then goes on to show us . . .
2. TO WHOM THE PARABLE WAS EXPLAINED (vv. 10-12).
Apparently, after a while, the crowd dispersed from the shore and people went on their way. But not everyone did so. Some wanted to hear more. Mark tells us;
But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable (v. 10).
May I pause to tell you something? If you and I want to understand the things that the Bible teaches—if we want to really grasp spiritual truth from God’s word, and have it sink deeply into our hearts—then I believe that’s what we absolutely need to do. We must go to Jesus in prayer and ask about it. Look on ahead at what it says in verses 33-34;
And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples (vv. 33-34).
It was the ones who got alone with Jesus that were given the insight. The Bible isn’t a mere ‘textbook’. It isn’t a document that we can study and somehow ‘master’. It’s the living and powerful word of God; and we can’t understand it and grasp it’s meaning without a dependent relationship with the divine Author. If you want to understand what a passage means, then of course do the hard work of study. But do that study at the feet of Jesus! Ask Him, “Lord; help me to understand! Help me to get this! Help me to apply it rightly!” He will gladly do so, if we will just come to Him and ask.
Well; that’s what these did. Some of the folks who were “around Him”—in addition to the twelve apostles, and along with them—came up afterward and asked what the parable meant. But before He told them the meaning of the parable, He told them something that must have absolutely astonished them. He quoted from the sixth chapter of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah;
And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that
‘Seeing they may see and not perceive,
And hearing they may hear and not understand;
Lest they should turn,
And their sins be forgiven them’” (vv. 11-12).
Imagine that! The reason they were asking about His meaning was because He had spoken to the crowd in a parable; and He was letting them know that the reason He spoke to them in a parable was so that some would who heard would not be able to understand it! He deliberately, intentionally, only wanted some to understand.
This is an amazing thing. And I am asking that, on the next Sunday we are together—Lord willing—we just study verses 10-12 and delve deeper into this amazing thing that it tells us. But for now, let’s at least notice how this illustrates the thing that this parable is meant to teach us. Many would hear; but not all that heard would hear rightly and perceive what they heard. For some, it would sink in; and for others, it would bounce off. No one, of course, has to be among those who don’t perceive. If anyone comes to Jesus humbly and sincerely and asks, they will receive.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now, we all here today have a great advantage over that vast crowd; don’t we? They all only got the parable. Only some from that crowd were privileged to have gotten the explanation. But we all, today, get to listen-in on the explanation through what Mark goes on to tell us. As someone has once said, this parable isn’t locked up behind the door for us. Mark has, as it were, left the keys hanging for us in the doorknob.
Mark tells us how Jesus explained the parable to those who came to Him in private. And that leads us to . . .
3. WHAT THE PARABLE REVEALS (vv. 13-20).
And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word” (vv. 13-14).
That’s the first great principle we need to understand. That’s perhaps the most important thing that the vast crowd didn’t understand. This isn’t about sowing physical seed. It’s about sowing God’s revealed word—and most particularly, the word of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I think it’s very significant to notice how the sower of the word “sows” in this story. He doesn’t proclaim the word of God selectively—as if seeking to target the word of God to particular people that he thinks might be receptive. Instead, he “broadcasts” it—throwing it everywhere, and allowing it to fall where it may. I believe that’s how you and I are to proclaim the word of the gospel in this world. Throw it everywhere. Let it fall upon everyone. Some would receive it; and some would reject it. But let God be the one who determines the results.
Then Jesus speaks of the four different soils. First, He speaks of those from whom Satan snatches the word away. He says,
“And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts” (v. 15).
Think of that! Just as quickly as the word of God is sown out upon people in this world, the enemy of our souls runs right out to snatch it away before they believe. No sooner is the word heard by them than the devil sends out his operatives to say, “You don’t believe that stuff, do you? It’s a bunch of fairy-tales and myths. It’s all been disproven and discredited. And besides; every religion has its ‘sacred writings’—why should the Bible be thought to be more true than them?” Jesus said that “Satan comes immediately”. He must be terrified of the word of God being sown in people’s lives.
Well; there are some cases in which the word isn’t snatched away immediately. But Jesus goes on to speak of those in whom the word does not take deep root. He says,
“These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time” (vv. 16-17a).
These aren’t like the ones from whom the devil immediately snatches the word away. They receive it. And in fact, they receive it gladly. They welcome it. But you might say that they only receive it ‘superficially’. It doesn’t make its way down deep. They don’t reflect on it long enough for it to become fixed into their minds and hearts. Jesus says,
“Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble” (v. 17b).
There are an awful lot of people like that; aren’t there? They hear the word of God gladly; but not deeply. They love how it makes them feel. But as soon as they suffer trouble for it, or as soon as someone laughs at them for seeking to follow Jesus, or as soon as the word of God rebukes sin in their lives, or demands something of them—in other words, as soon as it costs them something—they drop it! So many people have started out welcoming the word of God in their lives; but have left it behind when the heat gets turned on.
That’s not true of everyone, of course. Some get past the persecutions and trials and struggles that the word may bring their way; but they nevertheless keep on believing the word. Soon, the roots go in; and the sprouts begin to grow. God’s word begins to make a change in their lives. But that’s when Jesus warns us about those who allow the word in them to be choked out. He says,
“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (vv. 18-19).
It’s not Satan who immediately snatches the word away. And it’s not trouble that turns up the heat and scorches it away. It’s the things of this world—the everyday things, the things that probably don’t seem wrong in and of themselves; the stuff that makes up what we call “the good life”—that distract from the call of God’s word in our lives. Just think of the many people who had started out so young and enthusiastic and sacrificial for the Lord; and who ended up over the years living just like everyone else in the world. What a tragedy!
But finally, Jesus speaks of those in whom the word grows and produces fruit. He says,
“But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (v. 20).
And dear brothers and sisters; would you please take careful note of something? The unfruitfulness of the other types of soil was not because the word wasn’t heard. When Jesus described the soils, He mentions specifically that every one of them “heard” God’s word. The problem was not with what they heard. The problem was with how they heard.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; think back again at what we talked about at the beginning. Think of all those opportunities you and I have to receive the word of God. Think of the ways that God has allowed us to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ; and having believed that message, think of all the ways He has allowed us to receive the kind of teaching from His word that helps us grow in our faith. Why would we want to let those opportunities to slip away?
Let me suggest to you how I believe you and I become the kind of “good soil” that produces much fruit from the word of God. It’s simple, really. We just determine that—by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit—we will not be like those other soils. With all of our hearing of the word of God that comes our way, let’s determine that (1) we will not allow the enemy of our souls to snatch it away; and that (2) we will allow God’s word the time it needs to sink in deeply, and not be scorched away by the heat of trials; and that (3) we will make it a regular habit of life to get rid of the things that hinder its growth—the sins, the status-seeking, and the stuff of this world.
And as we do, may God produce His good fruit in our lives to His glory. When we finally stand before Him in the day of glory, we’ll be very glad that He did!