The Parable of the Soils
Mark 4:1-20
Chenoa Baptist Church
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
10-16-2022
Are You Listening?
President Franklin Roosevelt became frustrated that no one seemed to really listen to what he said. He decided to do an experiment and at a reception, as each guest arrived, he smiled politely and with a smile said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.”
The guests responded just like FDR thought they would. “That marvelous Mr. President. Keep up the good work! God Bless you, sir!”
It wasn’t until the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador to Bolivia, that the guest actually listened to what he said.
The ambassador leaned over and said, “I’m sure she had it coming, Mr. President”.
I’ve said for years, to my kids and students, that “listening is a skill.” In fact, we had a class in seminary specifically teaching us how to actively listen to people.
Most people don’t listen well because they are distracted or they are thinking of the next thing that they are going to say.
Research suggests that the average person hears between 20,000 and 30,000 words during the course of a 24-hour period. The average number of words you're able to listen to per minute is around 450. Most people usually only remember about 17-25% of the things they listen to.
Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine also suggests that men listen differently than women. Specifically, women appear to use both sides of the brain while men rely more heavily on one when listening.
But women should listen to the advice of one of the wisest philosophers of all time - Winnie the Pooh:
"If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient; it may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear."
Jesus said multiple times that listening was important:
“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 11:15)
This morning, we are going to continue our series on the parables of Jesus by exploring a parable that shows us many people’s ability to spiritual hear is impaired and they don’t even know it.
The Point of Parables
Mark’s Gospel is a fast-paced, “Readers Digest” version of Jesus’s life. By the time we get to chapter four, Mark as already skipped more than a year and half of ministry. This the first time that Mark records Jesus’s teaching, and by this time, He’s teaching exclusively in parables.
In Mark four, Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom of God and He uses a parable that we know as “The Parable of the Soils.” If you remember, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly point. Parables attract attention and illustrate truth.
Parables were not new. The Israelites had long understood the power of a parable.
When King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. You could lose your head confronting a king so Nathan told a parable.
“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” (2 Sam 12:1-4)
David was furious and declared that the rich man deserved to die because he had done such a horrible, uncaring thing.
Nathan took a deep breath, extended his finger in the face of the king and said, “You are the man!”
At that moment, the parable exploded in David’s head and he understood that Nathan was talking about him, leading him to a period of deep repentance that you can read about in Psalm 53.
Turn with me to Mark 4.
Prayer.
Picture the Scene
“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. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen!”” (Mark 4:1-3)
Picture the scene…
You and some friends have joined thousands of others on a hill beside the Sea of Galilee. It’s the biggest crowd that Jesus has ever attracted. You have traveled quite a distance to see the teacher named Jesus. You have heard the fantastic stories of healings, demons being driven out, miracles, and hope that He might do something spectacular today.
Instead of turning water into wine, or healing someone, He gets into a boat, pushes out a little bit, sits down and begins to teach. His voice echoes off the hillside. You can hear every word He’s saying but you aren’t really following what He is trying to say.
You think to yourself, “He doesn’t look much like a Messiah. As you listen more, you realize that He doesn’t sound much like a Messiah either. There’s no talk of national deliverance, of the restoration of Israel. He seems to ramble about farming, seeds, and types of soils.
You and your friends walk away disappointed that there were no miracles performed and a little irritated that you walked all that way to hear Him tell some confusing stories. If Jesus was trying to make a point, it was lost on you and most of the crowd.
Listen Up!
I want you to look at how Jesus begins the parable. He says, “Listen!” This is a term more than, “pay attention.” It is a strong command. Jesus uses this word thirteen times in Mark. The Greek word actually means “hyper-hearing.”
In other words, don’t just listen with your eyes but with your heart. It is a call to listen actively and intensely to the words that follow.
So what’s the point that Jesus wanted them to listen to?
A Farming Tale
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 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, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” (Mark 4:3-9)
Every person in the crowd that day would have understood this part of the story. They lived in an agrarian society where sowing and reaping were a rhythm of life.
There were no John Deere or Case tractors back them. Farmers would have carried a seed sack and would have “broadcast” their seed by flinging them back and forth. Then they would take a pointed stick and plow the ground.
The fields didn’t have fences around them but were surrounded by footpaths. That’s how the farmer could get to anywhere in the field and travelers could traverse the fields without stepping on the plants.
These paths would be worn down and hard. The seeds that landed on the paths would not penetrate the soil and the birds that followed the farmer everywhere, would eat them.
Jesus then said that some of the seed fell on rocky places. One rabbi wrote, “When God made rocks, He dumped them all in Israel.”
Israel is a very rocky place and, in many places, the soil is only a few inches deep. The roots would try to go down deep but would hit the limestone shelf and turn back around, eventually coming back out of the soil, and the plant would be scorched and withered because it had no root.
Other seeds fell among the thorns. Thorns and weeds rob the soil of nutrients and water. The seeds would be immature and weak because the thorns would steal life from them.
But some of the seed fell on good soil. Soil that was so rich that the harvest was exponential. The average crop yield was about seven times. A harvest of ten times would be extraordinary. Jesus shocks the crowd and tells them this seed would produce a crop of one hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.
With that astounding word picture, Jesus says cryptically, “Whoever has ears, let him hear” and ends His teaching without explaining the parable.
Why Parables?
Many in the crowd wandered away mystified.
Others walk away slowly, turning the parable over and over in their mind. Farmer…seeds…paths…birds…rocky places…thorns…hundred fold harvest. What did all this have to do with the Kingdom of God?
Some time later those people, the one’s with spiritual ears and the desire to know more, joined the disciples and asked Him to explain the parable”
“When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 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 so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”
Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” (Mark 4:10-13)
Before Jesus explains the parable to them, He explains why He teaches in parables in the first place. He divides His listeners into two groups - the insiders and the outsiders.
The insiders are given the “secrets of the Kingdom of God.” Another translation uses the word, “mysteries.” This doesn’t mean “incomprehensible” but a secret that not everyone knows. This is only something that can be communicated through divine revelation.
Parables are like doorways - those that are interested are invited in to learn more. To the insiders, parables are a means of grace.
The majority will be outsiders. To them, the parables are bewildering riddles that are just not worth their time trying to figure out. To these people, parables are a form of judgment.
Jesus quotes Isaiah, a faithful prophet that ministered to a faithless people. It was no different in Jesus ‘time. He had ministered for nearly two years. He had performed amazing miracles, John calls them signs, attesting to who He was. He taught with authority, He fulfilled Messianic prophecy with each step He took.
But the vast majority of people had only taken a passing interest in Him. So He switched gears and began teaching only in parables. To those who were interested in “the rest of the story,” He would teach privately. But to the ones who rejected Him, the parables would be nonsense.
Don’t miss the fact that His disciples , those closest to Him, didn’t have a clue what He was talking about most of the time. But they were humble and spiritually curious enough to ask Him to explain the parable.
It is to that group that Jesus asks a startling question, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?”
He seems to imply that this parable had the key to the question of what the Kingdom of Heaven will be like. The Kingdom wasn’t going to come on the scene in the form of a military revolution. It’s much more like a farmer sowing His seed.
The Explanation
He sat down and every eye, and more importantly, every ear was open and ready. He began:
“The farmer sows the Word.” (Mark 4:14)
Jesus doesn’t tell them much about the farmer or the seed. As we know from Matthew’s account that the seed is the Word of God. So the farmer represents first Jesus, then anyone who is scattering the Gospel.
Many years later, Peter would remember this and write:
“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (I Peter 1:23)
By helping them to understand what the seed represents, they start putting the pieces together.
Whoa! The seed is the Word of God and the four soils represent people’s hearts and their reaction to the Gospel.
I imagine Jesus smiling and saying, “Now you are starting to hear Me!”
Four Soils/Hearts
* Hard Hearts
“Some people are like the seed along the path, where the Word is sown. As soon as they hear it, satan takes away the word that was sown in them.” (Mark 4:15)
The path was bakes solid by the Palestinian sun. Seeds would simply bounce off the hard soil and the birds would have a nice lunch.
This wasn’t just a farming reality. His words were politically explosive. He was talking about the Pharisees! He was calling out the religious leaders who claim to follow God but had rejected His Son.
Not only were the religious leaders in His sights but anyone who listened to His word with indifference. These people have hard hearts.
We all know these people. They mock Christianity and reject Jesus. When you try to sow seeds in their lives, it bounces right off their hard hearts.
I remember my brother taking me to a Petra concert before I was born again. I was skeptical walking in but was impressed with their musical ability and the show they put on.
At the end, they shared the Gospel, and I remember turning to my brother and saying, “Man, it’s been such a good concert. Why do they have to ruin it with the Jesus junk?” What my heart didn’t even realize that every song was full of Jesus junk.
Whenever the Word is preached, God speaks. Always!
Isaiah used a farming metaphor to describe how God’s Word works:
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
When you come to church, or listen online, and this book is opened and the sermon is preached, God has something to say personally to each individual here.
Satan’s main strategy is to keep you from hearing and believing the Word of God.
He will distract you in any way possible.
How does he “come and take away the word?”
Have you ever noticed that you aren’t tired until the sermon begins? Does your mind wander and start thinking about lunch or our afternoon nap? Does a friend try to talk to you throughout the sermon?
I remember a student telling me that she had to have a serious talk with a friend and tell her that she couldn’t sit beside her during church because she wanted to pay attention to what God wanted to say to her.
Satan can distract you with anger, bitterness, and resentment. It’s very hard to concentrate on the sermon when you critiquing the pastor the whole message.
Satan can distract you with your failures and your past. He can distract you with the lust of your eyes or the pride of your heart.
One of the ways that you can pay attention to the sermon better is by taking notes. I have an entire journal with notes from sermons that I’ve heard over the years.
Satan wants your heart to stay hard. He wants you to reject Jesus and His offer of eternal peace, joy, hope, and purpose. He wants you to wallow in self pity, bitterness, and rage.
The writer of Hebrews make the point that we have to be on guard against this:
“See to it brothers and sisters, that none of you have a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, as long as it is called Today,” so that none of your may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:11-12)
The Pharisees were the most religious people in the culture and they were the most hard-hearted toward Jesus.
What should you do today if this describes you?
Cry out to God. Ask for the forgiveness of your sins. And ask Him to, as Ezekiel wrote, “remove my heart of stone and give me a new heart of flesh.” (Ezek 11:19; 36:26)
* Shallow Hearts
“Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word at once and receive it with joy. 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.” (Mark 4:16-17)
Jesus moves from the religious leaders who outright rejected Him to another group of people who made superficial commitments to Him.
They hear the Word and receive it with joy. But, just like the seed that sends its roots down deep because of the rocky soil, these people’s faith quickly withers in the face of troubles and persecution.
Most of the people followed Jesus around hoping to see a miracle. They wanted to see what they could get from Him without any regards to submitting to Him.
These people didn’t sign up for trouble and persecution and they bailed on Jesus at the first hint of difficulties.
In some ways this is a picture of the church in America. We have pastors that try to make the seed more palatable. They take out the parts about suffering, dying to yourself, talking up your cross, losing your life to find it, and finding joy and purpose in trials. Instead, they replace it with positive vibes, securing the favor of God, health, wealth, prosperity and your best life now.
With this altered seed , these churches produce Christians that have a faith a mile wide and an inch deep. Their joy disappears when God doesn’t drop a BMW out of the sky when their ten year old minivan breaks down. Or when their grandmother dies after they prayed she would be healed.
For years, I spoke at a camp in Indiana called Cedar Lake. Every retreat ended the same way, with the story of Ally.
She went with us in 8th grade and did the whole raise your hand, say a prayer thing. She was so excited. But, once back home, she didn’t last two weeks and she was right back to her old life.
She came back the next two years and exactly the same thing happened. She went to the front, cried, sang, “got saved” for the fourth time, but went home and acted like it had never happened.
She didn’t want to stand out for Christ because her friends would have made fun of her. She was frustrated that bad things still happened in her life.
Her junior year, she didn’t sign up and I called her. She said she was nothing but a Cedar Lake Christian. In other words, the only time she would follow Jesus was when she was at camp when she could feel the goosebumps from worship and the tears from the speakers. She told me that she wouldn’t be coming back to camp or to Jesus but asked me to tell her story.
She had no root system to hold her steady.
I think it’s interesting that these people receive the Word with joy. The primary emotion associated with true conversion isn’t joy but mourning and brokenness. There is no salvation without repentance and an understanding that you have not only broken God’s rules but also his heart. And that is why Jesus went to the cross, to pay for that sin and make a way back to God. That’s when the tears of joy flow freely.
I stopped doing altar calls years ago. They aren’t Biblical and many times they are harmful.
I remember sharing the Gospel at a lock in at midnight. At the end, I did the close your eyes, bow your head, raise your hands thing. Two students raised their hands.
Later in the night, I found both of them and asked them why they raised their hands.
One said, “Because my grandma died.” And the other said she didn’t have a clue.
How easy it would have been to Tweet out that two students got saved at the lock in. But that wouldn’t have been true. That leads to people thinking they are Christians because they raised their hands and repeated someone else’s prayer. But there is absolutely no life change or fruit in their lives. That was my story.
Jesus didn’t promise His followers a bed of roses. He promised them trouble:
“In this world you will have troubles. But the heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
In fact, James writes that trials and persecution strengthens our faith and depends our roots:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:1-3)
What if this is you? Maybe you have been saved multiple times but it never “took.” Maybe you have never really understood the Gospel. Maybe you ran from Jesus, instead of to him, every time something goes wrong.
If this is you, cry out to God and ask Him to grow your roots so deep that when the storm comes your house stands strong through it.
A Crowded Heart
“Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in a choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19)
As Jesus looked over the crowd, He could see the hearts that were already planning His execution. He sees hearts that are shallow and will abandon Him at the first sight of trouble. Her also sees the hearts that the seed can’t survive in because it is choked to death by the weeds of worry, greed and fleshly desires.
Last week, I mentioned Jesus’s conversation with the rich, young ruler. His heart was drawn to Jesus but when Jesus calls Him to complete surrender, he walks away in tears:
“Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Mark 10:19-21)
He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to add Jesus to his life and keep the idol of his riches. The weed of greed strangled the seed.
These people hear the call of Jesus and want to respond but worry and anxiety choke their faith. They hear Paul’s words to the Philippians and wish they could believe them:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)
Still others want to have their feet in two boats - one in the world and the other in Christ.
But that option is not left open to us:
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (I John 2:15-17)
A biblical example of this would be Demas who abandoned Paul because, “…he loved this world.” (2 Tim 4:10)
If this is you, cry out to God for a faith that is sold out to Jesus and trusts in Him alone. As I’ve heard louie Giglio say many times,
“Don’t believe the lie that anything is better than Jesus.”
Receptive Heart
Jesus concludes with this amazing word picture:
“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop - some thirty, some sixty, some one hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20)
In the crowd that day, and in this auditorium, there were a few, just a few, whose hearts were fertile soil just waiting for the seed to be sown. They “hear” the Word. This time the word “hear” is in the present tense, meaning, “keep on hearing.’ They accept the seed and it produces an extraordinary crop of spiritual fruit.
These are people who haven’t hardened their hearts against the news that they are sinners in need of a Savior. They see adversity and ruble as an opportunity for their faith to grow and their roots to deepen. They welcome the seed exclusively so that other concerns do not strangle it.
It’s important to remember that this kind of soil doesn’t naturally exist in the human heart. This is a heart that the Holy Spirit has opened to hear his Word.
These people go on to produce a bounty of fruit. Paul describes this kind of fruit:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” (Gal 5:22)
Remember that we are not saved by good works but our good works show that we are truly saved.
And one of the fruits of this harvest is the fruit of sowing. Those in which the seed flourishes are given the responsibility to sow the seed to others.
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Rom 10:14-15)
Remember, you can’t share what you don’t have. When’s the last time you shared your faith with someone else? It’s not an option but a command.
If this is you, look down at those beautiful feet and cry out to God and ask Him to give you opportunities to share the Gospel with your three that you are praying for.
Some Observations
75% of the seed didn’t grow. Only 25% responded to the word of God in this parable.
I’ve been a Christian for over 30 years. I’ve read books and have gone to conferences where speakers tell fanatic stories about leading people to Christ on airplanes, in the mall, or even in the bathroom.
The majority of times of shared Christ, they have either been a little curious, laughed at me, shut the conversation down or rejected Jesus altogether.
As a young pastor, I got good at getting people to pray a prayer, but time showed most of those decisions weren’t real. God has given me the opportunity to be a part of handful of salvations, that I’m aware of, and for that I’m honored.
Jesus said,
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” (Matt 7:13)
This means much of our sowing will be met with rejection. Jesus was the greatest teacher in the world and He knew that most would say no to His offer.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (I Cor 1:18)
We can’t take credit for someone coming to Christ. We are not responsible for those who reject the Gospel. We have to remember that evangelism is a process and most of the time it is a team sport.
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” (I Cor 3:6-7)
Some plant, others water, but it is God, and only God, who can open a heart and cause the seed to grow. That’s why it is so important that we are praying for opportunities with our three people.
Research has shown that people need to hear the Gospel an average of nine times before they commit their lives to Christ.
We are to sow the seed without a thought to what kind of soil it might be. At first blush, the farmer seems to waste a lot of seed on soil where the possibility of high yields is very small. But you just never know.
When I was 19 years old, I went to New Orleans for a college conference. I spent the entire time extremely inebriated. I heard I had a great time!
One night, a guy named Scott helped me to my room and I passed out on my bed. Scott was a Christian and I had nicknamed him “virgin” because of the drinks he ordered.
He sat beside my bed and opened the Bible and shared the Gospel with me. I remember very little about that night but I do remember that.
Fast forward two years. God had broken through my hard heart and I had been gloriously born again.
I saw Scott walking on campus and I asked him to get in the car because I had a story to tell him. I told him how I became a Christian and I remembered him sharing the Gospel with me that night in New Orleans.
His response surprised me. He began to cry and said that he didn’t want to share Christ with me that night because I had made fun of him the whole trip for being a Christian. He thought it was a waste of time because I was unconscious and a professional heathen. He was overjoyed to hear I was now a brother in Christ.
Hard soil can be plowed up. Rocky soil can be de-rocked. Weeds can be pulled. That’s why we need to pray for God to to do whatever He needs to do in our lost friends and family’s hearts for them to hear the Word of God.
Sometimes it is precisely in the darkest times that Jesus does His heart surgery.
