Mark 4:3-9 (William Barclay)
"Listen! Look! The sower went out to sow. As he was sowing, some seed fell along the roadside; and the birds came and devoured it. Some fell upon rocky ground where it did not have much earth; and it sprang up immediately, because it had no depth of earth, but, when the sun rose, it was scorched, and it was withered away, because it had no root. Some fell among thorns; and the thorns crowded in on it until they choked the life out of it, and it did not yield any fruit. And some fen on good ground; and, as it grew up and grew greater, it yielded fruit and bore as much as thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." And he said, "Who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 4:13-20 (William Barclay)
"Don't you understand this parable?" he said to them. "How then will you understand all the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word.
• Multiple times throughout the parables of Jesus, the Word of God is represented as a Seed. Seed is powerful and mysterious.
• Even today with all of the scientific advances of our day we do not know all of the mechanics of exactly why seeds do what they do. They are tiny packets of information. Tiny factories that when given the right conditions germinate and sprout and grow into plants and eventually bear fruit. They tend to need soil and moisture and nutrients and sunlight. We know how to make them work, but why they work remains a mystery.
• The Word of God is like a Seed. It contains information, promises, and instruction that given the right conditions eventually lead to a fruitful life.
• In Israel at the time of Jesus planting seeds was done in a few ways. One way was to broadcast the seed. The sower would walk along and cast seed from his hand generously. He sprinkled seeds everywhere.
• This is one of the ways that God plants the Seed of His Word in the world. God is not stingy. He lavishes His Word everywhere. His Word comes to humanity in so many ways. He continually speaks through the wonder and goodness of creation. He speaks through the awe-inspiring natural disasters. He speaks in the conscience of humanity. He speaks through the written Word and the work of His Spirit in our lives. He speaks through the songs we hear and music. He speaks through the preaching and teaching of the written word. He speaks through prayer and life events. He speaks through history.
• “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (C. S. Lewis)
• One of the Names of God is the Word. He is constantly speaking, generously sowing the Seed of the Word everywhere and upon everyone!
• He is the sower.
The kind of people represented by the case in which the seed fell by the side of the road, are those in whose case the word is sown, and whenever they hear it, immediately Satan comes, and snatches away the word that was sown into them.
• “There was the hard ground at the side of the road. The seed might fall on this kind of ground in two ways. The fields in Palestine were in the form of long, narrow strips; these strips were divided by little grass paths, which were rights of way; the result was that they became beaten as hard as stone by the feet of those who used them. As the sower scattered his seed some might well fall there; and there it had not a chance to grow.” (William Barclay)
• “But there was another way of sowing. Sometimes a sack of seed was put on the back of a donkey; a hole was cut in the corner of the sack; and then the beast was led up and down as the seed flowed out. Inevitably as the donkey was brought along the road to the field some of the seed fell on the road; and just as inevitably the birds swooped on it and gobbled it up.” (William Barclay)
• There are places in some of our lives that have been trampled upon so often that we become hardened.
• For some of us, we have been hurt so many times in the same way that it is like a trampled path. God’s Word from whatever source can fall on those areas of our heart with no effect.
• Unforgiveness is a tool of the adversary that keeps us from receiving God's Word. Unforgiveness makes us hard. Hurt makes us hard. The intention of the person who original hurt us doe not even have to be evil. Some of the things that hurt us are because of our perceptions, others are because of the immaturity or ill-intent of those that hurt us. It can get really complicated when we are hurt, and our hearts get those well-worn paths of offence. The devil knows that and so he will keep you hard so that as soon as the Word comes to your life he can swoop down and steal it before it can even begin to germinate. He does not want you to be fruitful.
• Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 (KJV), “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
• If there are areas in your life where you know that you are stuck perhaps a good idea would be to get a notebook and get alone with God and ask Him to reveal to you if there is anyone in your life that you have not forgiven. Some of us do not even have to ask God, we know. Once you know write that person’s name down. And then start praying for them. Pray that God would bless them. Pray that God would forgive them. Spend time and energy talking to God about them. The hard places in our lives are like compact soil and it takes work to undo. Sometimes forgiveness does not happen in a moment, or a day, or month.
• Sometimes we need to talk to someone. Pray with someone. Go to counseling. Do whatever it takes to tenderize your heart. Neglect makes your heart hard. Pray that God tenderizes your heart.
• If you want the Word to be able to stick and for you to get unstuck…
Just so, the kind of people represented by the case in which the seed was sown on the rocky ground, are those, who, whenever they hear the word, immediately gladly welcome it. They have no root in themselves, but they are quite impermanent; and then, when trouble or persecution happens because of the word, they immediately stumble and collapse.
• “There was the rocky ground. This was not ground full of stones; it was a narrow skin of earth over a shelf of limestone rock. Much of Galilee was like that. In many fields the outcrop of the rock through the shallow soil could be seen. Seed which fell there germinated all right; but because the soil was so shallow and held so little nourishment and moisture, the heat of the sun soon withered the sprouting seed and it died.” (William Barclay)
• It’s easy to start but takes much more effort to finish.
• One of the things that keeps us from growing in any area of life is the shallowness of our commitment. We make surface professions of faith. We make decisions to start the gym, that new health program, to get our finances together, to work on our relationships. The Word of God comes to us in the form of practical wisdom. The Seed falls into the rich earth on the surface of our lives but it can only grow so much because our commitment is shallow.
• Something that has been more and more popular in our part of the world has been planting is raised beds. We have people in our church who have great gardens because they decided that they wanted to.
• The old saying is that where there is a will there is a way.
• There may be some areas in our lives where the reason we are unfruitful is because we are not committed. It hurts to hear it even come out of my own mouth. I wonder sometimes where I might be financially or spiritually or educationally if I had made this or that commitment.
• Barclay translates it “they are quite impermanent.” The Seed never takes root and so when difficulty happens “because of the Word, they immediately stumble and collapse.” Does it ring a bell?
• Have you ever had those amazing encounters with God’s Word on Sunday and then by Tuesday you have faced so much difficulty that you throw your hands up and give up?
• Perhaps you need to add some soil to your life. Plant some raised beds so that the Seed of the Word has more depth in your life. Planting raised beds is something that you do to ensure that you are being intentional. You take lumber and make boundaries around areas that you can fill up with rich soil. There are some areas of life where we may just be shallow, but we can always do something about it!
• Commit to a new way of praying each day. Set boundaries on your spiritual disciplines and decide that no trouble is going to be able to keep the Word from growing deep!
• Commit!...
Then there are the others who are represented by the case in which the seed was sown among thorns. These are the people who hear the word, but the anxieties of this world and the deceptive attraction of wealth and the desires for other things enter into them and choke the life out of the word, and it never gets a chance to bear fruit.
• For others of us, what keeps us from bearing fruit is not that we are hardened by unforgiveness or lack depth of commitment. It is because of our priorities.
• Jesus mentions three things that, like thorns, choke the growing Word in our lives: (1) the anxieties of this world, (2) the deceptive attraction of wealth, and (3) the desires for other things.
• Anxiety is real. We all face those uncomfortable feelings that have the potential to keep us from allowing the Seed of the Word to continue to grow in our lives. Worry and concern about other things can paralyze us from what we know we really need to do. Worry and being overly concerned about what is happening in the world can cause us to lose out in many of the blessings that are already growing in our lives. Do you have moments where amazing things are happening, God is opening doors, you’re growing and then out of nowhere anxiety strikes and what has been growing is choked, withers and die?
• There are some people whose only concern is wealth. This does not mean that we should not do better when we can. On the contrary, God may bless you with much! But, for some it is all they focus on. Their lives are wrapped up in the pursuit of riches. Jesus said that a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things that they possess. Being rich does not make you more spiritual. Neither does being poor. God gives us all various abilities and gifts and stations in life. We are to be stewards over these things. They are not what life is all about. Our focus must be on the prize of our heavenly reward or overwhelming desires for more can choke what is growing in our lives spiritually.
• The desires for other things. Sometimes there are wonderful things growing in our lives that are choked out because we want something else more than we want what God has planted.
• Cultivating contentment in our lives is the key to weeding. To do this, intentionally establishing spiritual priorities are key.
• Paul said that he had learned in whatever state to be content. In his rich moments and in the moments where he did not have enough.
• To deal with the anxiety of this world it may take talking to someone who can help guide you in establishing your priorities and overcoming the gnawing unresolved things that you have never faced. But, isn’t it worth it? Getting rid of some of the weeds takes deeper work than what we can imagine. Do you want to get to the place where you actually have fruit that remains? I am encouraging you to counsel with someone and decide to do the work. I want you to grow past this thing that has kept you stuck.
• To deal with the potential for the Growing Word to be choked by an overwhelming desire for wealth we can develop the discipline of giving. It will weed it out. Give you time, treasure, and talent to the work of God in the local church, in your neighborhood, etc.
• To overcome the desire for other things, it is vital that you cultivate your relationship with the Lord and His Word. Sometimes it takes going back to old places of dedication and consecration.
• Along with this you should take your wisdom and experience. You can’t go back to who you were, but you can do the first works that you did. David said that he desired one thing, and sought after it… Paul said that he had one thing that he was reaching for… When our heart has the singular desire to love it weeds out the things that choke the Word in your life and keep it from being unfruitful! Love God, love His truth, love one another, love your neighbor. Nothing will make you more fruitful than love.
• Jesus finishes His parable about the four soils this way:
The kind of people who are represented by the case in which the seed fell on good ground are such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold."
• Each of us has differing capacities for fruitfulness. We have the privilege and wonder of figuring it out and then working along with God in the garden of our hearts.
• I want to be good ground, how about you?
