The Book of Mark
A Diagnosis of the Soils, Part 2
Mark 4:1-20
These Wednesday evening studies are sometimes frustrating to me because of the time constraints. Often, I find myself breaking a study into two or three parts and spreading it over the same number of weeks when it really needs to be seen in its entirety and heard together to really capture the teaching.
Such is the case with Mark 4. We began some time ago to cover this section dealing with the parable of the soils. It takes up the first twenty verses of this fourth chapter and so far we’ve looked at the setting and those who are listening to the Lord as well as the parable its self.
But tonight I want us to get into
4. The Meaning
It is a simple story that was very familiar in terms of its details to the crowd. And it is a familiar story to us and I think because of that there is a tendency to look at it rather simplistically and take it at face value.
But to do that is to neglect its spiritual meaning. And as I said at the beginning, this is a foundational parable and it receives a lot of space in the New Testament. In fact, it is the most detailed instruction our Lord ever gave us on evangelism.
And in particular, the Lord is describing what we should expect as responses to our evangelism. It is an absolutely critical parable to be understood. And sadly, it is not really understood by the church. I say that to give us the benefit of the doubt, because if we understand it, we sure do ignore it!
If we get this parable right we will do evangelism right and if we do evangelism right, then we will produce the right kind of converts and disciples of the Lord. And the one thing the church desperately needs is to understand and do evangelism right.
So we need to comprehend the explanation the Lord gives regarding the meaning of this parable. So beginning in verse 14, He explains it.
verse 14
Very quickly, He moves past the sower. The story is not primarily about the sower. He doesn’t even use an adjective to describe the sower. He doesn’t say, “The good sower or the clever sower or even the obedient sower”.
That’s because every believer is to be a sower. Every believer is to proclaim the gospel. Nothing more needs to be said about the sower because in the mind of Christ it is a given that every disciple will be a sower and He doesn’t even address that issue.
Then it says, “Sows the Word.” So the Word is the seed. There’s only one seed. That’s the gospel. In Romans 1, Paul says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to whoever believes, Jew or Greek.”
And Jesus doesn’t spend any time explaining that either. So there’s no commentary about the sower and there’s no discussion about the seed. Everyone is a sower and there’s only one possible seed and that’s the story of Christ.
So the issue left for us is the soils and the soils represent the human heart. Matthew gives more attention to that in Matthew 13:19 in his account of the parable.
So here we have Jesus picturing the hearts that we’re going to face as we go to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth as being like different kinds of soil. And remember, we’ve already identified six different types of soil.
First of all, verse 15 is the roadside heart. These are the ones who are beside the road where the seed is sown and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the Word which has been sown in them.
With this hearer, there is no positive response at all. They could care less about God or His Word or His church or anything to do with it.
Then He talked about the rocky hearts in verses 16 and 17.
They respond positively, but it doesn’t last. They have no root and when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately they fall away. They are temporary followers. Their response is shallow and false. And when the going gets tough, they wither and die.
Then there are those who start well, verses 18-19, who get caught up in the cares and affairs of the world and allow it to choke out the power and effectiveness of the gospel.
They don’t count the cost. They don’t deny themselves. They don’t follow the Lord. They want God to take care of all their problems and protect their family and them and forgive their sin and take them to heaven, but they don’t want it to cost them anything. It’s all about them.
And it’s not a new problem. Jesus is talking about it here in the very beginning. In the 1800’s, Charles Spurgeon said, “There are people who come forward under an emotional appeal and then immediately go backward into their sin. They go into the inquiry room and get converted in five minutes and have nothing to do with godliness the rest of their lives.”
And the church must always battle this temptation to cheapen evangelism and make it easy to follow Christ with little or no cost.
So Jesus says to this original group of witnesses, just know as you go out to sow the seed, here are some of the responses you’re going to receive.
Some aren’t even going to listen; some are going to receive it and not last very long and some are going to receive it, but them not follow through and instead go back to the world and its way of life. SO just expect it and be ready for it.
However, there are also some who are going to receive what you say and it will be evident and they are indicated in the final kinds of soil.
Verse 20
Now there is a very stark contrast between the first three soils and the last three soils. And if we personalize it, that means while some are hard and unresponsive, there are others who are willing to broken and contrite and repentant.
Some are only going to respond superifically and it won’t last very long. But others are going to allow God to plow deep and sin in the seed and it will take root and grow.
And some are going to be so selfish and self-centered they will refuse to forsake the world and part ways with their past, but there are others who are going to go all the way with and for the Lord.
Now here’s what I notice in regard to that. That’s not natural and it doesn’t just happen. Good soil is not natural. Hard soil is natural. Just leave the ground and that’s what it will be. Rocky soil, that’s natural. Just leave it the way it is.
Weedy soil, that’s natural. That’s the way it is. And in order for it to become “good” soil, something has to happen to it. To make it good soil, the hard, outer crust has to be penetrated and broken up or the seed will never get in.
The weeds have to be taken out or they will continue to choke out the harvest. Natural soil will never receive the seed.
So who can prepare the soil of a heart? Only God can do that. Nobody can do that on his own. A sinner with unreceptive soil can only do one thing and that is allow God to develop that soil so the seed can grow.
What did David say in Psalm 51:10? “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” James says, “Purify your hearts, you sinners.” How can you do that? You can’t do that on your own. That’s why he continues by saying, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
When we speak about genuine conversion and real salvation, we’re not talking about somebody that just wants a temporary fix or a religion that lets them live like the devil. We’re talking about somebody that wants a brand new life and a brand new heart and a brand new direction. You’re talking about someone who wants to be rescued from the power and the penalty of sin.
And that never happens naturally. Only God can do that. And to the sinner who says, “I want a clean heart, I want a pure heart, I want to repent of sin, I want to be delivered from sin will have the benefit of the great New Covenant promise, to him, God says, “I will give you a new heart, I will take the stony heart out and give you a heart of flesh.”
See, the verse 20 is the best part of the story.
Verse 20
Now that is the shocker in the story. No one expected that kind of return on their harvest. It was unheard of.
And the point here is simply this. When you go out to do evangelism, don’t judge your work by the immediate response.
They were tempted to look at what was going on and wonder why there were so few who were following the Lord. They were going to see those that were completely uninterested. They were going to see some start and not finish. They were going to see some they loved the world more than they loved Jesus.
But Jesus says to them, “Here’s the great lesson of this parable. The results are going to be supernatural. Don’t be discouraged by the hard ground and the rocky ground and the weedy rejecters of the gospel. You need to know you are a part of something that is unbelievable.”
They couldn’t see it yet, but the results of their work was going to be exponential. And this parable is simply Jesus saying God is going to do things through the lives of His people to build His Kingdom that was beyond their ability to comprehend. And the point is there’s no such thing as a fruitless Christian.
So why the different sizes of harvests? It is because people are different and opportunities are different. Not everyone is the same in the kingdom of God and not every field produces the same kind of harvest. The different numbers are not comparative numbers. It’s not that the one bearing a hundredfold was more faithful than the one with thirty and so forth. It was the opportunity to harvest was different.
So a guy harvesting a 30 fold increase in a difficult area is just as faithful as a guy harvesting a hundredfold in an area where it’s easier to harvest. That’s why the missionary serving in China and never seeing a harvest is just as faithful as the short-term missionary in Africa who sees 1,000s come to Christ.
It reminds me of the parable in Matthew 20 where some people worked twelve hours, some worked nine, some worked six, some worked three, and some worked one and they all got the same reward.
When we all get to heaven, we’re all going to get the same eternal reward and it’s not about the numbers of people we influenced with the gospel, it’s about our faithfulness to the calling God gave us.
And the calling’s vary. Some are 30, some 60 and some 100, but that’s God’s business to determine.
Now as I told you, this parable impacts our understanding of everything else Jesus said and taught. For instance, look at
verses 26-29
That’s how evangelism works. Some sow, some water and God gives the increase. We don’t make it happen, we go to bed and it happens.
Verses 30-32
The Lord is saying it’s going to start so small but it’s going to explode and it’s going to do so through you.
And it happened fast, didn’t it? On the Day of Pentecost, three thousand, then another week later, five thousand. You’ve got over 20 thousand in a few weeks and pretty soon it turned the world upside down.
And here we are two centuries later and millions and millions and millions and millions of people have come into the Kingdom of God and are now either in the church on earth or the church triumphant in heaven and the power of the gospel keeps moving through those who are the sowers. That’s us. God is still using us to turn the world upside down.
This is our great privileged calling. We do what we can do and go to sleep and it happens. And that’s just a parable way of saying the power doesn’t come from you, it comes through you, it’s in the gospel itself and the work of the Spirit.
Let’s pray.
