After I became a Christian, I wanted to find a way to share the good news of Christ with my non-Christian friends and family members. I was convinced that if I could find just the right approach, just the right technique, all of my unbelieving friends would come to faith in Christ. At first I thought Pastor Ray’s preaching held the key to reaching my friends. Pastor Ray was the founding pastor here at LBF Church, and he served here for 18 years. So every opportunity I could I invited my friends to hear Pastor Ray speak. One time I did everything short of paying my friend Chris to come to a Men’s Breakfast where Ray was telling the story about how he came to faith in Christ. I was sure that Ray’s testimony would bring my friend Christ to faith. Yet Chris walked away from that breakfast just as closed to the good news of Christ as before.
Then I discovered Christian apologetics. Apologetics is the study of evidences and arguments for the truthfulness of the Christian faith. I discovered apologetics through the writings of C. S. Lewis and Josh McDowell. Once I read those books, I thought I’d discovered the key to changing the minds of my skeptical friends. I was convinced that as soon as my friends saw the rationality and reasonableness of these arguments, they’d have no other option but to fall down and say, "It’s true. I give my life to Jesus Christ." In fact, my whole ministry as a Christian centered around apologetics back then, as I learned to debate atheists and cultists, as I crafted presentations designed to make every objection against the Christian faith crumble. Gradually I moved beyond popular level apologists like McDowell and Lewis to technical philosophers and historians like William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland. I’d stop by my non-Christian friends’ houses, armed with my latest arsenal of insights, facts, and arguments, complete with a bibliography of recommended reading. I learned a lot during that time and my faith in Christ grew stronger, but I can’t remember ever really persuading anyone with my arguments.
So I kept looking, trying everything from Men’s Retreats to Promise Keepers Events, from Harvest Crusades to giving out books and tracts. My early years of my faith were spent going from one approach to another, desperately trying to find the sure fire key to people’s conversion.
Then in seminary I learned that this quest to find a surefire method to bring people to Christ was nothing new. I learned that this was part of a movement associated with a guy named Charles Finney. Charles Finney was a famous evangelist in the 1800s. He had been a successful attorney who came to faith in Jesus Christ later in life. Although he had no formal theological training, he became one of the most influential evangelists in American history. Finney’s belief was that the conversion was not so much a work of God, as it was finding the right method. So if a Christian had an evangelistic outreach event and no one came to faith in Christ, it was because the Christians failed to use the correct method. Now as an attorney, Finney had spent his career studying the psychology of group persuasion. Finney’s suggestions for evangelism include everything from room temperature to song selection, from having a famous person share a testimony to how to give an altar call so people would be moved to come forward. At Finney’s meetings thousands of people would come forward to respond to Christ. But a week later the vast majority of his converts showed no signs of authentic conversion because many of them were really responding to the psychology of group persuasion rather than the drawing of God’s Holy Spirit.
That’s when I realized that my quest for the surefire approach to evangelism that would virtually guarantee people’s conversion was naïve and unbiblical.
But my original question remained: Why didn’t more people come to faith in Jesus Christ? After all, once you trust in Jesus, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle that suddenly all fits together and makes sense. Why don’t more people see that?
And imagine what it was like for those who followed Jesus when he walked the earth. Here was the Son of God, God himself in human form, walking among them. They touched him, listened to him as he taught, watched him as he healed people and set people free. Yet the vast majority of people dismissed him as an imposter. As Pastor Bruce shared with us last week, the religious leaders went so far as claiming that Jesus got his power from the devil. Even Jesus’ own family didn’t believe him at first. Why didn’t more people see that Jesus was God’s Son, sent to this earth to bring us back to God?
Today we’re going to look at why more people don’t trust in Jesus Christ. Today we’re going to try to understand people’s unresponsiveness to the good news of Jesus Christ. We’re going to see Jesus’ own explanation of why more people didn’t respond to him. We’re going to look at one of Jesus’ most famous parables.
Let’s explore the text first and then we’ll glean some principles for understanding unresponsiveness. Look at vv. 1-9. Once again Jesus is teaching beside the sea of Galilee. It’s a public setting, composed of both believers and seekers who are listening to Jesus teach. The "Bay of Parables" on the shore of the sea of Galilee is a likely location for this event because it provides a kind of natural amphitheatre for people to listen. Using a boat as a kind of floating pulpit, Jesus teaches them in parables.
Now a parable is a short story drawn from everyday life that has two different levels of meaning. About one-third of Jesus’ recorded teaching comes in the way of parables, and there are over 40 distinct parables of Jesus recorded for us in the Bible. Now as a new Christian, I was told that a parable was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. That’s true, but as we’ll see, the parables aren’t merely illustrations or cute stories. You see, the parables of Jesus were subversive stories, stories that seemed innocent at first but then hooked you and turned your world upside-down.
The parable Jesus tells here is traditionally called "the parable of the sower." What we have here is a farmer planting seeds in four different kinds of soil. Now it wasn’t uncommon for farmers in ancient Palestine back then to scatter their seeds before they cultivated the ground. And since land was scarce, most farmers would plant seeds in every corner of their property, even on soil that didn’t look very promising. The same kind of seed is planted in four different kinds of soils.
The emphasis of this story is on three different kinds of failure and then on three different degrees of success. Each of the three failures occurs at a different stage in the maturation process (Witherington 165). The first seed doesn’t even germinate because it’s planted on a hardened pathway; the second seed germinates but withers before it can reach maturity to produce grain; the third kind of seed reaches maturity but it’s sterile because its choked by weeds. Only the fourth kind of soil produces any grain, and the harvest in the fourth soil is nothing short of miraculous (Witherington 165). A tenfold harvest was considered to be an exceptional harvest, so to have a harvest thirty, sixty and hundredfold is nothing short of amazing. So despite the fact that three-fourths of the seeds didn’t produce anything, the final harvest is incredible.
Now the scene shifts from a public setting to a private setting where only Jesus’ followers are present in vv. 10-13. Jesus’ followers ask him to explain the meaning of the parable. Jesus begins by telling his followers that because they’ve become his followers, they’ve been granted knowledge of the secret of God’s Kingdom. In the Bible a "secret" is something that can only be known if someone tells it to you, so it’s not necessarily hard to understand, but it’s unknowable apart from someone telling it. The secret of the Kingdom isn’t an esoteric insight that’s really hard to understand, but it’s something that can only be known by divine revelation.
Now what exactly is this "secret"? I believe it’s the secret of God’s Kingdom is the unexpected way God’s Kingdom has come to our world. You see, this parable Jesus tells here would’ve seem all wrong to his hearers. Planting and harvesting were common word pictures used to describe God’s Kingdom in Jesus’ day, and many teachers used these kinds of word pictures to describe the coming of God’s Kingdom. But the coming of God’s Kingdom was always pictured as the harvest, that time when the plants are separated, when the wheat is separated from the chaff, when the righteous were rewarded and the wicked were judged. God’s Kingdom was supposed to come with power and decisiveness, separating out good people from bad people, overthrowing the political structures and nations that opposed God. God’s kingdom wasn’t supposed to come like a seed being planted; it was supposed to come like a harvest being reaped.
But Jesus says the coming of God’s Kingdom as a seed precedes the harvest of God’s Kingdom at the end of the age. God’s Kingdom doesn’t come to our world with trumpets and press releases, but it comes through the life and death of Jesus Christ. This went totally against the expectations of the people back then. They believed God’s Kingdom was about warhorses and battlefields, about thrones and judgment, not about a prophet from some obscure corner of Palestine.
That’s why Jesus quotes Isaiah 6 here, to show that by using parables, people without faith don’t get it. In fact, says Jesus, this parable of the soils is a kind of foundational parable to understand every other parable.
Then Jesus interprets the parable for us in vv. 14-20. The seed is "the word." Now when we hear that phrase "the word" we think of the Bible. But in Mark, "the word" always refers to the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So "the word" here is the salvation message, the good news that God has sent his son Jesus Christ into the world to live the life we failed to live and to die the death we deserved to die.
The soils represent four different kind of responses to the good news of Christ. Some don’t respond at all, because like seed on a hardened pathway, their hearts are hard. Others respond with enthusiasm and excitement, but like a seed in rocky soil, their response is temporary. A third group responds to the good news, but the cares and values of our culture crowd out the word like weeds in a wheat field. Finally, a fourth group responds and produces fruit consistent with the good news of Christ. In this fourth group there are different degrees of fruitfulness, but everyone in this first group produces something.
1. A Surprise
Now from this we’re going to find some principles for understanding unresponsiveness. The first principle is a surprise: INSTEAD OF COMING TO OUR WORLD WITH VISIBLE FANFARE, GOD’S KINGDOM COMES VEILED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
The idea of God’s rule and reign coming like a planted seed instead of fire and brimstone was something so paradoxical, so crazy and outlandish that many rejected Jesus because of that claim. And still today many don’t respond to the good news because they can’t understand how God’s rule and reign could come to our world in such a paradoxical way. Many people only understand the language of power and domination, so the idea of God’s kingdom coming in the form of a suffering servant seems scandalous to them.
If God’s rule and reign came to our world through Jesus, then why do people still suffer? Why are people shot and stabbed by carjackers like what happened to a Claremont resident this last week? Where’s the rule and reign of God in that? Why is bloodshed a weekly occurrence in the Middle East? Where’s the rule and reign of God in that?
The unexpected way God’s rule came to our world continues to confuse people today. They can’t imagine a seed can sprout and grow into the coming of God’s rule and reign on this earth.
2. A Realization
We also find a realization: SOME REALITIES ABOUT GOD’S KINGDOM WON’T MAKE SENSE TO US UNTIL AFTER WE TRUST IN JESUS.
Notice that it was only those who had already trusted in Jesus who were told the secret of God’s Kingdom. This is a principle that certain realities about God and about life will remain mysteries until after we trust in Christ.
That doesn’t mean coming to faith in Christ means putting all of our doubts and questions aside, checking in our intelligence at the door to church. There’s nothing wrong with looking for reasonable answers to questions of faith. I’m still a strong advocate of Christian apologetics. But I also believe that no matter how much we study, we will not find an answer to every single question we have. Life simply doesn’t work that way.
Imagine the Christian faith as being like a pair of glasses that enables you to see life in a different way. You can study the behavior of people who’ve put on the glasses. You can analyze the glasses, to see whether they seem to make sense. But there are certain things you can’t see until after you’ve taken the glasses and looked through them yourself.
I think about whenever my wife Chris and I do premarital counseling with engaged couples. During the premarital process engaged couples read books together, watch videos, work through a workbook, and go through personality testing. But our explanations of what marriage is like can only go so far, because for all the books, videos, and testing, and meetings, the couple still hasn’t yet experienced what marriage is really like. I frequently have couples come to me after they get married and say, "Now I get what you were trying to tell us."
That’s what happens in our spiritual lives as well, that there are some things that will only make sense after we enter into the relationship with Jesus.
The Bible describes some people as constantly learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. These are people who want every question answered, every "t" crossed and every "i" dotted. But as soon as one question is answered, that gives rise to ten more questions. These are people who are experiencing the paralysis of over analysis. You eventually reach a point where enough of your questions are answered, where enough reasons have been given, when it’s time to pick up the glasses and look for yourself. That’s why its called faith.
So there’s a realization that some things won’t make sense until after we’ve trusted in Christ.
3. An Encouragement
There’s also an encouragement in this parable: PEOPLE’S RESPONSE TO JESUS CHRIST DEPENDS ON THE RESPONSIVENESS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS.
The same seed is planted in the four different soils. The different responses aren’t because the seed is inadequate or because the farmer was irresponsible, but because of the condition of the soil. So it’s not the fault of the seed or the farmer that some soil doesn’t produce.
This is an encouragement for discouraged Christians who share the good news without much response. Hard hearts bring no response. Some hearts are like a pathway that’s been beaten down. Nothing can grow on it. Yet the farmer still plants the seed, in hopes that a miracle might happen. Many of my non-Christian friends have shown absolutely no interest or openness to the good news. Many of their hearts are hard, so even though I still plant seeds when I can, there’s no response.
If hard hearts bring no response, shallow hearts bring a temporary response. The response of the seed in the rocky soil seemed to be real, because it grew quickly and with excitement. But it’s failure to actually produce anything and its ultimate withering demonstrated that it wasn’t genuine faith, but simply excitement and enthusiasm. The temporary response of the shallow heart ends when problems come or when persecution because of their faith comes.
I think former Beatle John Lennon is a good example of this kind of soil. During the 1970s John Lennon was living in virtual seclusion. During that time he became an avid viewer of Billy Graham and Pat Robertson on TV, and at some point he had an experience that he thought was a conversion to the Christian faith. During those few months people say, he peppered this conversation with phrases like "Praise the Lord," and "Thank you Jesus." John’s wife Yoko Ono was upset with John’s newfound interest in the Christian faith. She feared that John would challenge some of her occultic ideas. But John’s experience was just that: an experience. When the flood of joy and enthusiasm wore off and he experienced the displeasure of his wife he left behind his interest in Christ. In fact, it was after that experience that he wrote his song "Imagine," which asks us to "image that there’s no heaven." John Lennon’s heart was shallow soil, so his response was shallow and temporary.
Some hearts are crowded, so their response is sterile. The third failure is seed that’s planted in soil where there are already lots of weeds growing. This seed sprouts, grows, and matures, but it never produces anything. Jesus says the weeds represent the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for things. This person’s heart is already crowded, and they try to squeeze Jesus in. But their response isn’t true faith, because their faith doesn’t produce anything in their lives. The good news of Jesus Christ is domesticated by the anxieties of life. Worries like, "Where will I send my kids to college? How will I pay for college? Will my wife still love me in ten years? Will the stock market crash? Will I get laid off?" The good news of Christ is choked by the lies of living in an affluent society. Lies like, "Having a bigger house will make me happy," and "I should take that promotion because it will almost double my salary." Lies like, "My value as a parent is determined by what I can give my kids." These are the deceitful lies of wealth that can sterilize our response to the good news of Christ.
Finally the good news of Christ is choked by the desire for more. More money, more influence, more cars, more toys, more clothes. A bigger house, a newer motorcycle, a beach house at Newport and a cabin in Big Bear. The pursuit of more can sterilize our response to the gospel, causing it to be unproductive in our lives.
I’d guess that a lot of people in our communities who identify themselves as Christians are people with crowded hearts. They remember responding to the good news of Jesus, believing it, receiving it, perhaps saying a prayer at some point. But their hearts are so crowded with other things that the good news of Jesus has never produced anything in their lives. Their response is incomplete because it’s a sterile response. According to Jesus, their response is short of true and authentic faith.
Finally, prepared hearts bring a genuine response. This is the heart where the good news of Jesus Christ is received, where it sprouts, grows, matures and eventually produces something. This is the person who’s life is different because of the gospel, someone who’s not just going through a phase or having an emotional experience or trying to fit Jesus into their life.
Now why is this an encouragement? It’s an encouragement because we learn here that we’re not responsible for the condition of people’s hearts when they hear the message. This is where Charles Finney was dead wrong. Our responsibility is merely to plant seeds, to be faithful to scatter the seeds as Jesus did. And when the majority of seeds don’t take root or grow up, we’re to keep planting. Because we know that ultimately some seeds will grow, sometimes the seeds that we never expected, and those seeds will produce a crop far beyond our wildest dreams. When I feel discouraged, that’s an encouragement to know that I’m just the farmer planting seeds.
4. A Reality Check
Finally, we find a reality check in this parable: OUR RESPONSE TO JESUS CHRIST IS SHOWN IN WHAT IT PRODUCES IN OUR LIVES.
The only response to the gospel that Jesus considered to be real was the response of the good soil, the soil that led to a harvest of 30, 60 and 100 fold. But Jesus doesn’t define what counts as harvest here. Perhaps we can say that part of the harvest is a person who lives by the values of God’s kingdom. If being a follower of Jesus means living under the rule and reign of God, that’s going to make a difference in how we live. The values of love, compassion, justice, mercy, and generosity are the values of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ teachings will seem less and less unreachable, as we learn to give of ourselves, investing ourselves into the lives of other people. As we learn to forgive those who hurt us instead of retaliating, as we learn to pray for those who’d like us dead and bless those who hurl insults at us. Maybe the fruit of the Spirit in the book of Galatians are also part of the harvest here: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.
Now Jesus is NOT telling us that we earn our salvation by doing these things. That’s not the point of this story. What Jesus is saying is that a true faith will always produce something in a person’s life. So if a person says he’s responded to the good news but his life is the same as it always has been, there’s reason to question whether his response was genuine faith.
We also need to be cautious about inspecting other people’s lives. Notice that the amount of harvest varies in the good soil, some thirty, some sixty, some hundred fold. So it’s not for us to count wheat stalks to determine if a person’s response is authentic or not.
But this should cause us to pause and think about ourselves. Is my own heart good soil? Is the good news of Christ producing anything in my life? Am I changing, being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ? Or do I just go to church? Am I just religious? So do inventory, take a reality check: What is Jesus producing in your life?
Conclusion
I can now see that my quest to find the perfect method to bring about people’s conversion was misguided. It was misguided because God works in surprising and unexpected ways. It was misguided because God gives people the right to say no to his good news.
And I think I can understand unresponsiveness a little bit better now as well. I understand that God’s kingdom came to this world in a veiled way through Jesus Christ, that some things don’t make sense until after people come to faith, that people’s response depends on the receptiveness of their hearts, and that the true test that I’ve responded to the good news is that Jesus is producing something in my life. Those insights help me understand unresposiveness.
And these insights help me keep planting seeds everywhere I can, even in the most unlikely places.
Let me tell you about a friend of mine named "Brett". I first met "Brett" when we were students in college. We were both Bible majors, both involved in ministry, both passionate about sharing the good news of Christ. But about five years ago, "Brett" started drifting away from his faith. He ended up leaving his wife and daughter, leaving his church family, abandoning his attempts to follow Jesus. His life spun out of control, deeper and deeper into rebellion and resentment. His wife believed that he’d eventually come back, but after a few years, I’d all but given up on "Brett". The few times we spoke he seemed totally closed, completely committed to self-destructing.
But then two weeks ago I received an email from "Brett" telling me that he’d come back to faith. For the last ten months he’s been working on his marriage, reconciling with his wife, resolving his resentments, and reconnecting with his church family. He told me that a brief conversation we had over a year ago was significant in bringing him back, a conversation where I must admit I felt like I was planting seeds on a heart of asphalt. Yet he told me that the few words of that conversation worked their way deep into his heart, sprouted roots, grew, and eventually God used it to rekindle his hope that God would receive him back. I wish I could say that I planted that seed in faith, but I didn’t. I figured "Brett" was too far gone, but the power wasn’t in my faith or even in the way I planted that seed. The power was in God working in "Brett’s" heart.
And that my friends is why we keep planting, even in the most unlikely of places.
