Mark 4: 26-34

Mark 4:26-34 26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Jesus wraps up His teaching for the time being with these two parables. In verses 26 to 29 the Kingdom of God is a phrase that encompasses all of God’s redemptive activity. Today it’s the church. God saves souls and builds His church.

Man plays his part in the process of kingdom planting, but God is the genius.

In verse 26, the farmer is sowing seed. Christians are called to take the seed of the gospel and spread it. In verse 27: after you “seed” you rest. But God isn’t sleeping. He grows the seed. The farmer knows that it happens, but he doesn’t know how. Here we trust God. If He can make a tree come from a tiny mustard seed, He can change our hearts. He is an amazing miracle worker! We can trust that if we cast the seed, He will make it work.

In verse 29 the farmer harvests. Harvesting or reaping is disciple making. And that’s another of Jesus’ commands for us. To go and make disciples. We do this once they’ve heard the message and God starts His work. We engage them, encourage them, and help them.

In verses 30 through 32 the birds nesting in the trees are the souls of men coming to the church. The church (tree) shelters them from the sun, gives them rest from their flight and protects them from hunters. The church needs to be big and strong to support its members. And the members can’t just sit next to the tree or fly around it, they have to come close and commit.

From this section we learn we must know the gospel well and spread it liberally. Then trust the Savior with all our heart and commit to the church with all our might.

Mark 4:1-20

Mark 4:1-20 1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” 10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

In Mark 1 through 3 we saw Jesus’ examples and miracles. His love. Starting with chapter 4 we hear His teachings. And it’s easier to embrace the love of Jesus Christ then it is His truth.

A parable has only one meaning. The sower is the evangelist, who takes the see (the gospel) and scatters it. The soil is the human heart.

Jesus gives us the purpose of the parable in verses 11 and 12. There were a lot of people following Jesus at this time, but many were only there for what they could get from Him or see more miracles. They had hard hearts. They had a spirit of judgementalism. If you have a hard heart you won’t understand what He said.

Psalm 18:25-26 25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 26 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.

If you come to Jesus, come for what He wants to give you! The point of this parable is to test the quality of the soil of our hearts. Jesus is asking us to consider our faithfulness and our fruitfulness.

He gives us the four different responses to His message:

1. Non receptive. A hard heart. It rejects the gospel.
2. Shallow heart. It springs up fast, but because it has no roots it dies. We have to go beyond the admiration and interest and engage.
3. Strangled heart. It’s receptive, but divided. Too many other cares and interests in the world. From the surface it looks clear, but there are roots and weeds below.
4. Fertile heart. They hear it, accept it and bear fruit.

The others all heard too. The difference here is the fruitfulness. The test for how our hearts are is how fruitful we are.
Seeds are designed to make more fruit that have more seeds. Christians are designed to make more Christians. Scatter your seeds liberally!

I've written about this parable before: Parable of the Soils

Types of Soil in The Parable of the Seeds

Rocky Ground

Sometimes we read the Bible or hear a message and think, “Yes! That’s true! I’m going to apply that to my life!” But, then we don’t, there’s no fruit.

Say, if a minister says in his sermon that you should get up 30 minutes early everyday to pray and you think, “I’m going to do that!” And you do…for a week.

It was just an idea thrown at you that sounded good. Instead, let the message on prayer draw you into the Bible to see what it says about prayer: how often Jesus prayed, when and where, how Paul tells us to pray constantly and with thanksgiving and how Jesus told us never to give up.

Remember He used the story of the neighbor who kept knocking on the person’s door, until he got an answer?

Now the truths about prayer are becoming a part of you because you made the effort to understand.

Thorns

This is when we hear and agree. Our understanding deepens, but we reject it because of our stronger desire for success in the world. This is when we come up with a dozen reasons why God’s way just doesn’t work in the 21st century, or in America, or in my life, or, or…

But, remember what we learned in Habakkuk? That the righteous shall live by faith? That means we obey God whether or not our obedience makes sense from a human point of view. It means our security, our satisfaction and our self-worth come from God, not man.

So how do we get more effective hearing?

First, we need to depend on the Holy Spirit. Every time we open the Bible we should pray first that He opens our hearts and ears and that He’ll help us understand. God’s the one who gives His believers insight to the Bible and we should remember that and ask Him for it.

Second, we need to spend time and energy trying to understand. We’re told to meditate on His Word. Jesus said, “Carefully consider what you hear” and as we read earlier, “By your standard of measure it shall be measured to you and more shall be given you besides. For whoever has, to him shall more be given and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

So. Here are 5 ways to really listen to the sermon next Sunday:

1. Take the teaching of God’s Word seriously. It’s more important then what’s taught in schools or read in the newspaper or what your best friend tells you.
2. Pay attention. It might help you to take notes or have the Bible open to the passage if the preacher is speaking on a particular one.
3. Realize you won’t catch everything. When we lose focus, it’s tempting to just stop listening and Satan would love for that to happen. Instead, simply start listening again.
4. Pick 1 or 2 thoughts from the sermon to reflect on the following week and then put them into practice.
5. Don’t evaluate the sermon or the speaker, just look for God’s Word in the message.

Matthew 13:18-23

I’m going to talk about each of the verses separately, looking at the different soil types in two ways. The first more general and then I’ll go back and show how to apply this parable to yourself.

Matthew 13:18 -19 – The wayside soil.
18Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

This is a shut mind. The people who don’t want to hear. The birds are invisible emissaries of Satan and evil who snatch away the message so that one doesn’t even realize what it was about. This hardness of the heart can be the result of pride or a gross immorality that rejects changing one’s life in the way that is necessary.

Matthew 13:21 – The stony soil.
20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

This is the shallow mind. People who run after anything new and different. They may start with wild enthusiasm until the first difficulty or opposition or requirements for personal discipline occur.

Matthew 13:22 – The thorn congested soil
22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

This is the hearer with the overloaded heart. Again they seem to receive the seed, but their life is so full of pleasures or cares, their time so cluttered, that there isn’t time to pray or read the Bible. They may sit in church, but their mind is elsewhere. They have no energy left for a relationship with Christ.

This type of soil is the most deceptive of all. Unless our works and good deeds are fruit from our relationship with God, they are hollow.

In the book of Revelation Jesus speaks to the Ephesian church, a 2nd generation Christian church at that time, with strong leadership, both Paul and John had pastured this church. Jesus said, “I know your deeds, your hardwork and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and have found them false. You have preserved and endured hardship for my name and not grown weary.”

Anne Graham Lotz, in her book, “The Vision of His Glory” which is about the book of Revelation, said, “The Christians in the Ephesian church were doing many things right. As a matter of fact we have the impression they were doing many things!” She talked about visiting a mega church one time and reading the bulletin which listed aerobic classes on Monday called Jumping for Jesus, Bible studies and planning committees on Tuesday, Sunday School representative’s visits to rest homes and prisons on Wednesday, etc. etc.

She said first Jesus acknowledges their deeds. He said, “I know your deeds, your hardwork.” But, then he adds in Revelation 2:4, “Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love.”

Jesus wants our love and He wants it to stay fresh and new and strong like it was when we first became Christians. Anne says we need to ask ourselves if somewhere along the way our work for Jesus replaced our worship of Him. When we read the Bible is it just to prepare for a Sunday School lesson or Bible study? Or are we really looking to see what God has to say to us personally? Do we ever open the Bible just to hear what He has to say?

In Revelation 2:5 Jesus says, “Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.”

Anne asks, “What were the things we did at first?” “When we were first born again?”

And she suggests we need to return to Calvary where we first realized how great the burden of our sin and guilt was and confessed it and turned it over to Christ’s cleansing. That we need to take a good long look at what it cost Him to take away our sin and bring us into a right, loving relationship with Him. To get back to our first love with Him may mean different things for each of us:

It might be daily prayer, where we talk to Him, not just hand Him our wish list.
It might be daily Bible reading, on our own, not just for an organized class or lesson.
It might be witnessing or fellowship with other believers.
And yes, it might even be church involvement.

We should also be aware that some sin or habit may have crept into our lives affecting our relationship with Christ and ask Him to show it to us and take it away as we repent.

So what are some barriers to our hearing? Let’s go back to the birds eating the seed that fell on the road. Jesus explained this as Satan taking the word before it has a chance to germinate. This is when we are distracted while listening or we have preconceived ideas. The message never registers in our brains.

The Pharisees are good examples of this. They had a preconceived idea of the Messiah; so what Jesus was, what He said and did, just didn’t register.

Do what it takes to hear, really hear, God’s Word. Sometimes it helps to not depend on 1 person or thing: a sermon by the minister. Maybe it takes; Christian radio, Christian books, Bible study too. But, we do have to spend time thinking about the message and let it change us.
Tomorrow I’ll share more about the different soil types.

Matthew 13: 10-17

Matthew 13: 10-13 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

The part that says whoever has will be given more, doesn’t suggest a kind of privileging in which, “the rich get richer”. Rather, it expresses a relational or spiritual truth: People who commit themselves to Jesus will grow in their understanding of God and ability to keep God’s law; those who refuse to commit themselves to Jesus will discover their interest in the ways of God withering.

Matthew 13: 14-17 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: " 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Jesus is further contrasting the uncommitted crowds with His disciples by citing the verses from Isaiah 6:9-10. Their ears were hard of hearing because they didn’t want to hear. That would have meant repenting and turning their lives over to God.

Matthew 13:4-9

Matthew 13:4-9 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.

The seed is the Word of God. This is not just the letters and words of the Bible itself; it’s also the revealed purpose of God. Jesus himself is the Word of God.

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” And John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

To Jesus’ audience, the seed was His message. But, it was also Himself. To us, today, the seed is dropped into the soil of our hearts every time we read the Bible or hear a message that is the true revelation of God and is empowered by the Holy Spirit. So the seed is not just the Gospel, the message of salvation. Every message from God, whether it’s about the Holy Spirit or a call to live a disciplined life, a prophecy, an instruction, an invitation for a closer walk with God or a challenge to witness to someone, is a seed and it can be lost, crushed, withered or produce fruit, depending on the condition of the heart.