THE SOWER SOWS THE WORD
“Again, Jesus began to teach beside the sea. And a huge crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching, he said to them: ‘Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where there was not much soil, and immediately, they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The flesh-eared disciples still didn’t get it. They were shaking their heads. They were listening with their natural ears and minds, but Jesus spoke to their spiritual ears. More on ears to hear later.
The Purpose of the Parables
And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked Him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.
That statement in the eleventh verse has confused theologians and Bible scholars more than most. Yet, it is not complicated.
Of course, Jesus wants everyone to know Him and His teachings. He died to save every living human. That statement about not seeing or perceiving lest they be saved is about those who reject God, mock Him, pursue false gods, and refuse to accept that Jesus is the only way to God. They can not have their cake and eat it too.
And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How, then, will you understand all the parables?
The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. They have no roots in themselves but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, they immediately fall away.
And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
(Mark 4:1-20)
Imagine a cornfield in Iowa. Iowa produces more corn than any state in America. The soil has been cultivated, plowed, fertilized, watered, and seeded for centuries. It is so rich and fertile that if you drop a seed in it, the cornstalk grows overnight (okay, slight exaggeration). That soil is soft, pliant, and hungry as the soil of our hearts needs to be to hear, receive, believe, and engage the Words of Jesus.
When we have become teachable and have believed and received the “Good News Of Great Joy Which Shall Be To ALL People,” we can plant it in others and raise a crop thirty, sixty, or one hundredfold. Jesus calls this bearing much fruit.
Jesus continued His teaching about planting the Gospel:
“And He said to them,’ Is a lamp bought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to the light.
If anyone HAS EARS TO EAR, LET HIM HEAR.
And He said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear (ingest, allow it to enter your heart); with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. Because to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
(Matthew 4:21-25)
MEANING:
The Lamp is the Gospel. Many are embarrassed or ashamed of it. They may even believe it themselves, but they are so worried about what others think that they stuff it and don’t shine it on others.
Those who have are those who diligently seek the Words of Jesus and study, understand, and share them with others. Those who have not or have little are those who invest very little in studying, learning, and understanding the Gospel. They do not have rich, fertile hearts. They are the hard ground where the seeds were planted only to be eaten by the birds. If we do not pursue intentionally and aggressively the Truth and Power of the Gospel, the evil one will bring confusion, doubt, and unbelief to our hardened hearts.
JESUS CONTINUED THE PLANTING LESSON
It just occurred to me that farmers study soil conditions, weather, chemistry, and related topics in schools and universities to learn how to grow rich crops.
We must hear and study the Master Planter to learn how to allow His Seeds and His Words to produce hundredfold harvests in our lives, our situations, and the lives of those we share with.
“And He said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the whole grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once, he puts in the sickle at once because the harvest has come.
(Matthew 19:26-29)
MEANING
Steadfast, unswerving belief and knowledge of the promises of Jesus, engaging them in our lives, living in this present moment joyfully celebrating the receipt of the promises of Jesus regardless of what our senses tell us, whether we can see them happening in our lives or not, produce the crop.
Results do not come from fretting about or wondering how the crop will come. In fact, worrying, manipulating, forcing, stressing over them, and being anxious about them have the opposite effect. These things reflect our unbelief, and unbelief is the only reason we do not receive.
Jesus speaks to us in ways we can understand, as He did to the people of that time. They had very little knowledge of science compared to what we now know. They were a very agrarian people—farmers and fishermen who lived off the land. That is why He spoke to them about planting. The lesson for us is the same.
His message to us is a directive to make our hearts teachable, be willing to learn, be urgently hungry to learn His words, and make them the most important things in our lives, employ His words, steadfastly believe His words, and refuse not to believe them, invest our time, talents, and finances in Jesus and teach the world His Gospel, make our hearts the fertile ground, plant His Words and them only, and we will receive a huge crop.
EARS TO HEAR
When Jesus spoke of ears to hear, he did not mean our natural, flesh ears. Jesus gave us spiritual ears that perceive and understand the messages of Holy Spirit,
For most of us, they are rusty from lack of use, but they are there and waiting for us to use them. We must use them to grasp the only things that have eternal value and meaning.
HOW IS YOUR HEART? Is your heart hard path, rocky ground, thorny/weedy ground, or fertile ground that produces huge crops? Here are some helpful questions to assist in answering that one. How important is God to you? How much time do you spend with Him as opposed to the things of this world? Are you willing to learn or stuck in your rock-hard beliefs? These are not condemning questions; they are focus questions. No one is perfect, and God does not require us to be. He does not judge or condemn us. He guides us.
End Of Teaching
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