Mark 4:1-34 - Secret Stories and Separate Soils

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we are going to be looking at Mark chapter 4.

And this is an awesome portion of scripture, where Jesus begins to teach about what God's kingdom is like, what's going to happen, who's in God's kingdom, how do people get into God's kingdom. But he does it in a very interesting way.

He uses parables. These are hidden stories. So they're earthly stories with heavenly meanings, where there's one particular thing that Jesus wants to bring out about the nature of God's kingdom.

And so sometimes people can slightly misread parables and take all possible interpretations or every aspect of a parable into account. But that's not really how Jesus uses parables in the Gospels.

He uses them to communicate one specific truth that then he elucidates on within the course of the passage. So if I come across any particular ways in which maybe I've seen or heard some people misuse a parable, I'll try and highlight that for you.

That way you can kind of know the type of thing that I'm talking about. So Mark chapter 4 and verse number 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. He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, listen, consider the sower who went out to sow.

As he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it.

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn't have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn't deep, but when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn't produce fruit. Still, other seed fell on good ground, and it grew up producing fruit that increased 30, 60, and 100 times.

Then he said, let anyone who has ears to hear listen. This is often called the parable of the sower, or the four types of soil. You have some seed that falls on rocky ground.

Sorry, some seed that birds eat that falls along the road. Some seed that falls on rocky ground grows up quickly, but doesn't have any roots because of the tough soil, and so as soon as the sun comes up, it withers away.

Then you have some seed that thorns take it out, and other seed that falls on good ground. Verse number 10, when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

He answered them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything comes in parables. So that they, and here he is quoting from Isaiah chapter 6.

He says, I'm telling everyone else these things in parables, 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.

Here he says, the people that are out there, they don't really care about me. Like they care about what I can do for them. They care about miracles, but they don't love God and they don't want to know about his truths.

Now, I think it is interesting in verse number 10, he's saying this about those outside, because in verse number 10, he says, when he was alone, those around him with the twelve.

So there are more than just his disciples that are there, the people that want to know his truths, the people that want to have that relationship with God, those are the people that he doesn't speak in parables to.

If you want to know and understand God, he will make himself known to you. I think of James Chapter 1, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to everyone liberally and does not abrade you for it. It says, and you will get wisdom.

So then he expounds the parable to them in verse number 13. Then he said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables?

He says, the sower sows the word. Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.

So here, Jesus says there are some people that as soon as they hear the gospel, Satan comes through. And he goes, ah, you know, maybe that doesn't match up with what you think morality should be.

You think God should be stricter about who he would allow into his kingdom. Maybe you think that you should be allowed to do this sin or that sin. And because the word doesn't allow for that, we're not going to listen to that gospel.

Or man, if I were to listen to Jesus, listen to the gospel, then that might mean that I have to change my life a little bit. I might have to go a different direction with him as my Lord, with him as my master, the one that's in charge.

And I don't really want to do that. So he says, for some people, Satan comes, takes it away and says, God is holding out on you, and if you follow him, you're not going to get the best. Verse number 16.

And others are like seeds sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. But they have no root.

They are short lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.

Someone that perhaps they hear the gospel, they walk down at an invitation call to an altar, and they pray and they accept Jesus, but as soon as difficult times come into their life, they lose a job or a loved one passes away, or perhaps a neighbor

or coworker or spouse gets angry with them for having accepted this new way of Jesus, they fall away. And I've seen several of these occasions in my life, people that perhaps they pray a prayer, and maybe even very shortly after that, they get

baptized, and then just life happens, and they fall away, never to be seen or heard from again. And there it's people that don't have any roots, that their faith wasn't grounded in the truth of the Word of God, and so it's just short lived.

Verse number 18. Others are like seed sown among thorns. These are the ones who hear the Word, 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.

Here you have someone that maybe they accept Jesus, but then following Jesus, being at church often, gathered with the believers, is something that maybe it gets in the way of having a good time, of having a lot of fun, of getting as much money as

they think that they could get, and it just kind of chokes the spiritual life out of them, and it shows that they don't last. And then lastly, in verse number 20, and those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit

30, 60, and 100 times what was sown. For the one for whom God's word really has taken root, that they are really a child of God, there is fruit that comes from them. They aren't going to be one that Satan steals it away.

They aren't going to be one that the thorns choke out. They aren't going to be ones that wither when sun, when distress, when persecutions come, they're going to remain. And what makes them remain is that they have the better fruit?

No, it's that they have the better root. Those that are truly rooted in good soil, soil that comes from the Word of God, from the Spirit of God, that water, that nourishment that they need, that they are drawing from God.

They're not trying to draw from rocky ground that doesn't have any nutrients. They're not trying to put down roots with the thorns. Those that put their roots deep into the Lord, those are the ones that last.

And this doesn't normally happen overnight. It's not always clear. Obviously the ones that Satan comes and takes the seed away before it can ever put down roots, those ones are pretty obvious right away.

But for others, it sometimes takes a little time for a plant to grow and for you to see, okay, this plant's starting to come up a little bit, but then the sun comes, then comes some persecution, then comes some difficulties in life, and it completely

fades away and you go, oh, okay, like the roots weren't really there. Sometimes it's those that maybe they start off and then you notice, oh, yeah, they're not here anymore. They're pursuing other things. They're pursuing money.

They're pursuing, you know, sports or accolades. They're not pursuing the Lord. And I want to be one that has those deep roots that are founded in God.

I don't just want to be a Christian because it's easy. I don't want to be a Christian because I'm a pastor. I want to be a Christian because my roots are in God and that I believe in him.

I believe his word and I want to go to him continually for strength. And that's the only way to live the Christian life. So here, Jesus explains this and he says, hey, here's what it's like, guys.

And it's really something that's very important as he tells his disciples, his apostles, the ones that would go forward with the church, he says, anticipate this type of responses to the word as it goes out.

Verse number 21, he also said to them, is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed, isn't it? To be put on a lamp stand, for there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen. And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear. By the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

And more will be added to you. For whoever has, more will be given to him. And whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

So, I want to talk about this for a second. So he says, you have been given light. You have been given the truth of God's Word.

And you are meant to shine it out to others. There's the old kids song, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel, hear a basket?

No, I'm gonna let it shine. I also like the, don't let Satan it out. I'm gonna let it shine.

And so Jesus says, I've given you this truth, you're meant to shine it out to others. Because he says, everything that once was hidden is going to be broadcast.

Here specifically talking about God's Word, things that at one point, Jesus here says, it's concealed from some people now, but it's going to be proclaimed, and you need to be the ones to proclaim it.

If you have heard God's Word, you, the listener or watcher today, you have a responsibility to share God's Word. And then he says, however you hear, he says, pay attention to what you hear. So you're hearing me speak.

He says, pay attention, because you are going to be responsible for everything that you've heard to declare it. If you hear me talking about this stuff, then you've got a responsibility to share this stuff.

And then verse 26, he says, the kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day.

The seed sprouts and grows, although he doesn't know how. We can't make a flower or a crop grow. We just see that God is doing it, and we can kind of understand some of the scientific things that are going on, but we don't really...

like, we can't manipulate that. We just see it growing and growing. Verse 28.

The soil produces a crop by itself. First the blade of the crop, then the head, then the full grain on the head. As soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle because the harvest has come.

Here he says, basically, it's going to take some time for you to really see fruit from the ministry. As you tell people the Gospel, as you disciple them, as you have them grow in God's Word, it's not going to happen overnight.

It's going to take some time before you really see some of that spiritual fruit start to grow, and then the person becomes mature, and then they make more disciples. And it's a wonderful thing, but he says it takes time, and it's an inner thing.

It's not just something you can manipulate. You can't just say, All right, here are all of the acceptable media things that you can have. Here's all of your acceptable clothing.

Here's all of your acceptable music. Here's what your schedule needs to include every day. Boom, now you are a mature Christian.

And there are many places that they try to do that, that this is what spiritual maturity looks like. It looks like my checklist.

And Jesus here says, you know, like this is the work of God inside of a person, that as the Word, as the Spirit work, man, it changes us from the inside. And not every crop is going to look the same.

Corn is a crop, and grain or wheat is a crop, and they look different from one another, but God's the one that His Word is sown, and you'll have some differences in how some people look.

And just because I might do some things in my Christian walk, and things that I might avoid, or things that I enjoy might be different from another person. And so a checklist Christianity doesn't quite do it.

Doctrine obviously always ought to be the same, but how we live out our Christian faith might differ from person to person, but when it's real, when it's not just something that I put on someone, but that God worked out of someone, man, that is a

lasting crop, that is a good crop. Verse number 30, and he said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it?

He says it's like a mustard seed, that when sown upon the soil, it's the smallest of all the seeds on the ground.

And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.

Here he says, God's word, it starts off small, but man, when it is real in a person, it makes it so that it becomes something bigger than you could ever imagine.

I tell many of you, maybe some of you have walked with the Lord for many years, and you have seen that mustard tree grow up in your life.

I can think of some of my friends, Roger and Kathy, that talk about their life before Christ and their life after Christ and how they've seen God work for almost, I think it's about 40 years or so in just a couple of years, that they saw God do

dramatic things in their life and in their heart. And what an amazing thing.

Maybe you're planting some little mustard seeds right now when you're not seeing mustard trees, and maybe you're a little downhearted, but I'd like to encourage you, don't give up. Keep on watering, because you don't know what the soil is.

You don't know how it grows up, and you don't know the size that it's going to grow into one day. So just be faithful to let your light shine, to keep on sowing the seed. Verse number 33.

He was speaking the word to them with many parables like these. He was planting the seeds in them as they were able to understand. He did not speak to them without a parable.

Privately, however, he explained everything to his own disciples. Here, the challenge to us today. Let's have hearts that we don't allow Satan to tell us that there's a better way than God's way.

Let's not allow the thorns of this world of pursuing money or pleasure or friends or enjoyable times or entertainment more than we enjoy God. Let's not let those thorns choke out our love and our spiritual life.

And then let's have deep roots so that when we go through persecution, when we go through trials and hard times, that we don't just fade away from our walk with the Lord, but that we stay with him. Let it be real in us.

And then let's shine out that light to others, knowing that God is the one that works with the soil, that he is the one that allows it to grow through his Holy Spirit, through the water of the Word, and that he is the one that brings the fruit, that

big, incredible tree that does so many things for so many people. He is the one that works in all of it. So let's be faithful to do our part and share the Word with others. Thanks for tuning in today.

I had to tell you the next two days are some of my favorite passages in the Gospels. And I am so excited about tomorrow. Jesus rebuking the winds and the waves.

And some really cool parallels with the Old Testament in there. And then Jesus, the passage, Legion and the pigs. Well, you're going to have to tune in in a couple days to hear about Legion and the pigs.

Thanks for listening and look forward to being with you next time. Bye-bye