Mark 4:1-20 A Study in Soil November 25, 2018am www.newhopefwbc.com 1285 Ne w Hope R oad Joelton, TN 37080 6 1 5. 7 4 6. 6 4 0 3 READ Mark 4:1-20 KIDS What are the four types of soil in Mark 4? Everyone loves a good story. I was impressed with that idea again this week as we sat around the Thanksgiving table. Whether it is sitting around the dinner table, on the back porch, near a camp fire, in front of a screen, behind a book, stories are central to the human experience. Every football game, every book, every Hallmark Christmas movie that your wife holds you hostage to watch tells a story. The average American household loves stories so much that we spend $243 a month on entertainment. 1 (I think that s a very conservative number by the way). Jesus knew that. In fact, that s the way He created us; so He incorporated stories in His teaching often. More often than not (especially in the latter part of His ministry), He told parables a transliterated word of Matthew Frankel. May 8, 2018 https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/ budget-and-spending/2018/05/08/how-does-average-american-spend-paycheck/34378157/ 1 Corey M. Minter Page 1 of 10
parabole which means to cast beside. Essentially, parables were human stories cast beside deep, spiritual truths of God s kingdom. In fact, Jesus tells us why He spoke in parables. In Mark 4 s parallel passage Matthew 13. The basic idea of a parable is that it is a common story that deals with deep truths. Jesus spoke this way for a couple reasons: (1) to spare Unbelievers a greater judgment and (2) to encourage the Believer. As much as we would like to debate it or hide it this morning, Jesus knows the spiritual condition of each of us in here. He knows the ones who were dragged here by social norms and business contacts or wife or dad or kids. He also knows the ones who are here who are truly seeking truth they do not know what it is yet but they want it. Lastly, He knows the Believer. Wherever you find yourself this morning, He comes to you in parables. When Jesus was asked why He only preached with these stories, waiting until the crowd left to explain them to His disciples, He answered that He was sparing the unbelievers a greater judgment: Matthew 13:12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Not only His message but how He presented it was full of grace. He wanted to spare those people who He knew would never trust in Him a greater judgment, and while I do not even pretend to know all of what that means, that is how He answers. I also believe that Jesus taught with parables for the encouragement of Believers, too. These stories are both accessible and applicable. He Corey M. Minter Page 2 of 10
does not call for theologians to come and debate with Him. He invites everyone from the greatest minds of His day to the simplest tradesman to hear His Truth through a story about a farmer sowing seed. Jesus also knows how our minds work. I think He knew that we would be reminded of His message every time we see someone sowing seed, casting a net or welcoming home a wayward child. So He weaves the Gospel into everyday stories so that we will remember. Well, Mark 4 gives us the setting for this parable, and it is not out in a field on farmland. No, so great was the crowd mobbing Jesus (Luke says from every city in the region) that He was forced into a boat, and the disciples took Him a few feet out while the mob stands/sits on the shore to listen to Him teach. It s possible in this rural region that there was some farmland nearby and a man was throwing out some seed; so Jesus calls attention to Him. Mark 4:3 Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. 5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. 7 And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Corey M. Minter Page 3 of 10
8 But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Jesus finishes the story with: 9 And He said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear! and it seems that the disciples push out a little deeper into the sea so that it is just they and Jesus. I imagine that it s quiet for a little while. Jesus is tired from teaching all day, and He is emotionally and spiritually spent from dealing with the crowds of people that have assaulted Him all morning with their needs so maybe Jesus is sitting in the back of the boat resting, knowing that the disciples are discussing among themselves. Finally, one of them speaks up and asks Him what the story meant. I mean these guys aren t dull. Jesus went from healing and plainly teaching on just about every topic to this story of a man sowing seed very quickly. While they (and probably the whole crowd) were waiting on the explanation the altar call the something Jesus just sits down and tells them to take Him out further into the sea. 13 And He said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? I love how He acts surprised He knows, but He settles in and explains every applicable part of the parable. 14 The sower sows the word. I am not going to spend a long time on this portion of the text because Jesus did not. Basically, seed=word of God, and sower=anyone who proclaims God s Truth so that it will take root in someone s life. I am Corey M. Minter Page 4 of 10
careful to make application of this parable where Jesus did not, but I only do so because in my reading this week I found that a lot of people did, and I think incorrectly. I have read whole sermons and pages of notes this week based upon being a good sower. That s not evil, but that s not what is in the text either. This story is not about being a good sower. I have listened to sermons this week that call the sower s credentials and intentions into question. The question is always asked Why in the world would this farmer throw seed on bad soil? Was he wasteful? Inexperienced? Lazy? Why didn t he break up, de-thorn and remove all the rocks before he started to sow? Again this is not the point of the parable, but I would like to make this application: the sower sows. That is his job. That is what he does. That is what we do. We do not do soil analysis before we tell someone about Jesus. We do not try to make a person a better citizen by de-thorning/derocking their life before we sow the seed of the Gospel. We sow the Gospel. God has given us a particular acre of influence, and it is up to us to make sure that that whole plot of land, every square centimeter, is covered with the seed of God s Word. It is not wasteful to throw it in some places where it is unlikely to take root. It is faithful. It is not indiscriminate or foolish to cast out the Gospel seed in untilled, uncared-for areas. It is faithful. The sower sows seed. That s what he does. That is our job. Now onto what this parable is actually about. Jesus details four different types of soil where the seed of the Gospel is thrown: wayside, stony, thorny, and good. You are (everyone in here is) one of these four types of soil. Corey M. Minter Page 5 of 10
First, the Wayside: Unaccepting 15 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. I will be honest with you; I have struggled more with this type of soil than all of the others. These are the type of people that they hear the Gospel, but it only stays on the surface. It never really gets down into their hearts. They can probably tell you all kinds of things about the Gospel, but they have never let it really take root in their life. Jesus says of these that Satan (as soon as the Gospel is thrown at them) comes and devours it. This is a good time to point out that there is a great spiritual battle going on for each soul. Satan wants to keep you hard, unresponsive, unaccepting and cold. God wants to break you up so that you can receive healing, warmth and growth in your life. It is not a question of who is stronger between God and Satan. It is simply a question of willingness. Are you willing that God comes in and overturns every part of your life, breaking up the bitterness that has made you so hard, tilling up the skepticism that purses your soul? God is able, but He only works with the willing. If you do not want Him, He will allow you to lay dormant, dry and a hopeless wasteland where Satan comes and steals every blessing of your life. Second, the Stony: Emotional 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; Corey M. Minter Page 6 of 10
17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word s sake, immediately they stumble. The stony soil person is a searcher. Unlike the wayside person, they know they need something. Their problem is that they are driven by emotion. They hear the Gospel, and they see it has all of the life-changing properties that they want/need; so they eagerly accept it into their life. The problem is that their emotions change quicker than their situation does. Look, God created us with emotions. Emotive worship and using emotion in our walk with Christ is not a bad thing. There is a strand of Christianity that looks down on emotion, thinking that to be an less-than expression of their relationship with God. That s immature. But the flip-side is true too. There are some who have built their entire walk with Christ off of emotion. If someone didn t raise a hand, jump a pew or cry, then Jesus just didn t meet with us today. That is equally immature. This stony-soil person came to Jesus because it stirred something within them that they had never felt before, and they liked it. But feelings fool you. Our emotions will lie to us. So they get back home from church service (give it a day, a week, a month I ve seen some stony soil decisions last a few years even all throughout youth group), and they get bad news. Jesus says tribulation or persecution arises. Whatever it is the feeling just is not there any more. Because they only liked the emotive side of the Gospel, it never really infiltrated the whole of their life. It never took Corey M. Minter Page 7 of 10
root; so as soon as the sun gets a little hotter, as soon as a drought hits or even as soon as too much water comes, they shrivel up and die. Third, the Thorny: Priority Problems 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 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. There is no more soil more relevant to the church today than the thorny soil. They hear the Word of God. They accept it. It even takes root and grows fruitfully until the thorns that are all around it begin to creep into the plant and choke it out until it becomes unfruitful. Jesus calls these thorns the cares of the world further defining them as allurements like desire for other things and riches. I ve been known to make up a couple of words in my day on accident, but this one needs to become an actual word in English because it so describes our society, our churches, our families and our own lives: mispriority. We have mispioritized just about everything in our life. It s not that we do not think that our relationship with Christ is of no value; it s just that our job, our vacation, our money, our team, our family has more value. We have mispriortized Jesus. We are so sure of our standing with Christ that we have bought into the lie that we can continue putting Him 2nd or 3rd or 10th in our life and remain in Him. The deceitfulness of riches Corey M. Minter Page 8 of 10
has begun to eclipse Christ. Stuff reigns supreme. Sports is a god that we sacrifice every spare second of our life to. It is all slowly killing you. I watched a nature documentary some time ago where they sped up the growth of vines to the speed where it looked like it was growing in realtime, almost moving up the tree like a snake, until it finally overtook and killed the entire tree. This week I thought, I bet if people saw the thorns of their life growing in a fast forward mode they would pull them out like the suffocating things they are. But they are slow incremental only growing a couple inches a year until finally they have overtaken your entire life, and Jesus is just a mere footnote in your life if He has any part of it at all. The church is filled with stony and thorny soil Christians when we are meant to be the fourth, the Good: Fruitful 20 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. These hear the Word of God, accept it into their life and allow it to do what seed does take root, grow and bear fruit. Let s end like this today. I would like everyone here to write down those four soils that Jesus gave us. Write it down. There should be a pencil in the pew in front of you; write it down on your bulletin or other scrap of paper. If you don t have pen/paper open your notes app on your phone. Type up Wayside, Stony, Thorny and Good. Which are you? Before you just circle Good, ask yourself Is my life bearing fruit thirty sixty hundred times over? If not, if you are not reproducing, I suggest that you are just Corey M. Minter Page 9 of 10
stony or thorny and the trials have not come yet or your love for riches and stuff just has not choked you out yet. Don t fool yourself into thinking that you are the good soil when there is no proof of that in your life. You are lying to yourself, and not only will your own spiritual life be snuffed out by the sun or creeping thorns, but those who you are tasked with growing (your children) are not getting the spiritual nutrition they need either. Corey M. Minter Page 10 of 10