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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

Chris Holland

Seeds, Soil and the Great Sower

That there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God?

It is only those who have a faith founded on the Word of God, on the pure seed planted by God in the heart, that you will be persuaded that There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

Heavenly Father, we have come here today.

We have come here to worship, and now as we have arrived at this time in the service, where we are studying your word, I pray that you would open our eyes and open our hearts and open our minds.

We have been studying the gospel of Mark.

Several weeks ago, I had encouraged each of us to spend time in the word, and I had encouraged everyone to begin in the book of Mark.

I've encouraged each of us to spend time in the Word, and I had encouraged everyone to begin in the book of Mark.

I've encouraged each of us to have a journal where we read passages of Mark and answer the questions, what does the passage say?

What is it saying to me and what is Jesus invitation for me?

And I'm going back a little bit in Mark because I feel like I got a little ahead of myself.

And we're gonna go back to Mark chapter 4 and start with something a bit more foundational.

If you have your Bibles with you, I would invite you to open them to Mark chapter 4.

And I want to encourage you each week to bring your Bible.

I want to encourage you each week to bring your journal as we study through Mark and see what God is speaking to each of us and how he is speaking to us as a church.

And again he began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude was gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.

Then he taught them many things by parables.

And he said to them in his teaching, Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow, and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

Some fell on the stony ground where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away.

And some seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no crop.

But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up increased and produced some 30 fold some 60 and some a hundred.

And he said to them, He who has ears to hear, Let him hear.

But when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parable.

And he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.' And he said to them, do you not understand this parable?

How then will you understand all the parables?

And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.

When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.

Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns.

They are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things entering in choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.

But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the Word, accept it, and bear fruit, some thirtyfold, some 60, and some a hundred." What does the passage say?

Jesus taught them from a boat while the multitude had gathered.

He explained to them why he used parables, and then he interpreted parables.

And while it may go against the grain of those who think systematically, instead of beginning at the beginning, I'm going to begin in the middle.

Because we need to answer the question, why parables?

In verse 2 it says, he taught them many things by parables.

And then in verses 9 through 12 of Mark 4 it says, and he said to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

But to those who are outside, all things come in parables.

So that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they turn and their sins be forgiven them.

Is Jesus implying he's trying to keep the mystery of God from certain individuals?

Well first let's look at the word parable.

The word parable literally in the Greek can be translated proverb, a maxim, a saying.

But it's rooted in the idea to set something beside, to compare, a counterpart, or a type.

If you go to the theological dictionary of the New Testament, it gives this definition.

It is an independent similitude in which an evident or accepted truth from a known field, nature, or human life is designed to establish or illustrate a new truth in the preaching of Jesus.

In this object lesson, Jesus used the object lesson of a sower sowing seed.

In other parables, he uses the object lesson of a light or a lamp.

In other parables, he would utilize readily accepted stories of the time.

Jesus used these object lessons to reveal what he says is the mystery of the kingdom of God.

It is a mystery because it is hidden from those who do not want to understand or who are uninterested.

It is not a mystery in the sense that it cannot be understood or that Jesus is deliberately withholding from them, but it is a mystery just as the case that the gospel is foolishness to the unconverted.

Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.

The reason the kingdom is a mystery is simply that a person lacks the desire to know.

When they grasp that desire which is born of God, born by God in them, It is then that the mystery is no longer a mystery, but it is revealed.

There is no purpose in revealing the truth of the Kingdom of God to those who would rather not have it.

But rather the mystery of the kingdom is revealed to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Jesus here was speaking and there were really 2 distinct groups.

There were the disciples or those interested in discipleship.

They had a genuine interest in Jesus, his ministry, and the kingdom.

And then there were the religious leaders.

Jesus was confronting both groups with his message.

You see, God enabled the disciples, God enabled the good listeners to have the secret or the mystery about the kingdom be revealed to them because of their sincere desire to understand.

However, the religious leaders were blinded.

They saw in Jesus nothing but a threat to their existence and so they rejected him.

They did not come to understand the mystery of the kingdom of God.

And so Jesus' parables served as object lessons to those who sincerely wanted to understand and concealed the mystery from those who were indifferent or wanted to reject.

It is as Jesus said, you do not throw pearls before swine.

But then Jesus quoted from Isaiah to help us understand the full meaning of this issue of mystery and the revealing of the mystery.

He quoted from the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 6.

And in Isaiah 6, Israel had come to a place where they were spiritually deaf and spiritually blind.

And in their spiritual deafness and their spiritual blindness, God's judgment came upon Israel.

It was only after that judgment that they would come to understand.

They had closed their mind to the message.

Israel had been obstinate and had shut her eyes and ears against eyes and ears against God's very pleading and Israel's blind condition is their own fault and a judgment came upon them at their own fault.

And because of that, they could not understand nor discern the spiritual truths of the Prophet.

You see, Jesus just trying to help us understand that everyone has ears, but not everyone listens.

And now Jesus was comparing ancient Israel with the modern-day hearers.

Just as God had illustrated to Israel by him being the owner of a vineyard, a vineyard Israel that failed to produce fruit, now Jesus uses the same to help us understand that when God's message is met with indifference or rejection, the truthfulness of the gospel is a mystery because the individuals have no interest in knowing or understanding the truth.

In fact, if we look at the original, it could be translated this way.

When Jesus explained, so that They may indeed see, but not perceive, and they may indeed hear, but not understand, because the last thing they want is to turn and have their sins forgiven.

It is not that God doesn't want them to repent.

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Seeds, Soil and the Great Sower

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