A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 4: 1-20 the Parable of the Sower the Thorns
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Is your heart ready to receive and nurture the word of God? Join us for a profound exploration of Jesus' parable of the sower from Mark 4, as we unpack how the receptiveness of our hearts influences the growth of God's word in our lives. We'll delve into the significance of the different types of soil and reflect on the constancy and effectiveness of God's message, urging us to introspect and prepare our hearts to bear spiritual fruit.
In this episode, we also confront the challenges posed by worldly distractions, particularly the cares and deceitfulness of riches. By spotlighting the seed that falls among thorns, we emphasize the need to maintain our spiritual focus amidst life's worries. Drawing wisdom from Solomon, Jesus, and Paul, we offer a balanced perspective on wealth and its potential pitfalls. Tune in for practical insights on cultivating a heart fertile for God's word and leading a spiritually fruitful life.
Mark, chapter 4. So we have been considering the parable of the sower, a new point in Jesus' ministry, where he begins to speak mainly to his disciples in the form of parables, earthly stories with a heavenly truth, right, and things have been going well. I guess in some ways we could say right, the crowds are coming to Jesus or flocking to Jesus. There's excitement, a lot of excitement, but not a lot of depth in that relationship with the crowds, and so Jesus kind of pulls away there with his disciples. You have the other crowd, right, the religious leaders that are following Jesus around and they've decided. Leaders that are following Jesus around and they've decided they don't like this guy, he doesn't do things their way, and they've hardened their heart. Right, they have. Every time Jesus does something, they say oh, he's doing this by the devil, he's not good, he's not righteous, he's of the devil. He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons and their hearts are getting harder and harder and harder. And Jesus turns to his disciples and begins to focus in on them. He begins to teach them in parables, and parables are a scary thing for me. I mean, I know we don't need to be scared of God's word, but parables can be sketchy. Right Over history people have drawn some pretty ridiculous theology out of parables. They're not always a very certain way to get teaching. They're important, for sure, but they can be kind of sketchy in what they mean, unless you're looking at this first parable that we read in chapter 4, verse 1, the parable of the sower. And the reason is because Jesus specifically tells us what it means. He puts the parable out there in the first few verses and then in the second part he explains it there, starting in verse 13. So we can't go wrong, and that's really why we've slowed down on this parable, because you can get so much out of it, because Jesus has explained it to us. Let's read the parable there, starting in verse three.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells the story. Listen Three. Jesus tells a story. 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 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. 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, yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced some thirtyfold, some sixty and some one hundred. Then he said to them he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so here is this story that Jesus tells.
Speaker 1:Now we've considered this. Honestly, it's not a very exciting story, right? You know? I could imagine you know more, you know intense plot lines than this. But a guy goes out to sow seed, a farmer goes out to plant some seed and the punchline of this is some of it grows but most of it does not. Right, we have three bad soils, I guess you could say, and one good soil. We have three times where the seed does grow, but only one time where it bears fruit. And that's what you want, right? I mean, if we plant a garden, that's what we're looking for, not just the experience of planting it. We want fruit, we want something from our planting. And so Jesus tells this story and he explains it for us. And we've looked at these. We're in no rush to get through it. We've looked at this how Jesus says there, moving over to verse 13. Actually, verse 14, the sower sows the word A verse all by itself.
Speaker 1:Jesus gives us a very important key to this parable. We're talking about spiritual things. God's word is like a seed, and so we picture it. The seed goes out, god's word goes out, it falls on ground. Now notice the end of verse 15, that these soils are a picture of our hearts. That's the basis for this whole parable. God's word is like a seed. Our heart is like dirt, is like soil, and so as we look at this, we understand that the seed will, god's word will, succeed or fail depending on what our heart is like. And as we consider this, we understand that the seed is the same all the way through this parable.
Speaker 1:There is absolutely nothing wrong with God's word, right, god's word will grow in good soil, bad soil. It's not the word's fault, it's not the seed's fault, it's the soil's fault. And so, as we look at this, it's a real deep kind of probing that God does in our hearts, where he says what is your heart like? His word will always do something good in our lives. That's what God wants, but our hearts, they ruin it, right? So God would say in this what is your heart like. Which soil is your heart like? And it challenges us because we can't make any excuses, right.
Speaker 1:A lot of times we say things like when we're reading you know, I just don't get anything out of God's word. And we have to be honest and say, well, it's not God's fault. Right, the seed will grow if our heart is right. If we're not having growth in our life, the problem is us. And God in love points that out four different ways here in this parable. The first soil, just as a reminder, it's a hard heart right Falls by the wayside on that tough as concrete hiking trail and because of the hardness of the soil the seed just sort of bounces right off. The birds in the story, a picture of Satan come around and eat it up. And we're warned that our hearts can be hard.
Speaker 1:We can come into a time in God's word and say, yeah, yeah, I know this, you know we start reading John, chapter three, and we know John 3.16 is coming up and immediately in our heart we go, yeah, but I already know this one. I could quote it to you. Right, and our heart is hard and God's Word doesn't do anything. In our own pride we can say, well, I don't really need anything today. I'm not desperate for God to speak to me. And so, in the hardness of our heart, god's word just doesn't do anything. It's not God's fault, it's our fault. We want to look at our heart. We want humility in our life. We need to come to God and say God, you're the one I need, you're the one with the answers to the things in my life. God, teach me. Now.
Speaker 1:We noticed the next soil we looked at last week was the shallow ground, the rocky ground Still some hardness involved, but you'll remember, the seed springs up with joy. Immediately. It springs up excitement, emotional excitement, but no real root. Then, when trials come, the sun beats down on that seed. It shrivels up and dies. So in our lives we have to look and go. Am I really letting God's word get into my heart? Am I taking time to think it over? If there's something I don't understand, do I bust out the dictionary and look up that word? Do I try a different translation? Maybe read it again, maybe take smaller bites? Do I get God's word in my heart? Am I really taking it personally? Because trials will come right. When the sun beats down, trials will come. And if it's not, in our heart with roots, it'll wither away the work that God wants to do. So we've seen those two and this week we come to verse 7, really verse 7.
Speaker 1:Some seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. It's the thorny ground, as it's known. Now there's growth as we look at this, notice in this picture there's growth. It begins to grow there in the thorns, in the weeds, and then these weeds just come and choke it out. Now notice verse 18. Jump over to verse 18.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells us what this is all about. Now, these are the ones sown among the thorns, or the weeds. They are the ones who hear the word but or and how about? And and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. And the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other things, enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. So here Jesus lets us know these weeds.
Speaker 1:In this story, this riveting story of dirt right, the weeds are a picture of a few things the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. Those are the biggies. And Mark adds this last one. There he says the desire for other things. So we look at this, the weeds in our life, the things that choke out what God wants to do, the cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things. Let's just take a look at these things because this can be a huge distraction in our life. In fact, that's what this is.
Speaker 1:Notice the thorns, the weeds we would probably call them Weeds are crazy things. Right, thorns, weeds are natural, right. If you don't do anything to ground, you will get weeds. In fact, even if you do something to ground, I sprayed for weeds this year, you know I used Roundup and if you look around, they came back. You know what I mean. Now, the vegetable garden that we used to have over there, it didn't come back, but the weeds they came back. So, left to itself, weeds are 100% natural Part of the fall. Right, god tells Adam, you're going to get thorns when you try to plant things and you go, ah, sweat on my brow, you know. And so, left to itself.
Speaker 1:Weeds are a normal, natural part of life. We can expect them. They require maintenance and we can all flash back to our parents, maybe grandparents, challenging us to pick all the weeds in the garden, right, and then you come back next week. And there they are again. I'll give you a quarter if you pick all these weeds. And they're a natural part of life and we can expect them. We need to rent our life of these things regularly.
Speaker 1:But what are they? This is where it becomes helpful, and Jesus points it out in verse 20. These weeds, these thorns, these things that destroy our garden, they're the cares of this world. Cares of this world, worldly. Now Jesus talks about these things in the Sermon on the Mount and he uses the exact same word.
Speaker 1:Here we have cares, but here Jesus uses the word worry. Listen to what he says in Matthew 6, 31. Therefore, do not worry. Saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear? So Jesus here says the cares of this world. The things that make us worry are what do we eat, what do we drink, what do we put on? The basic needs of life, right, we might call it paying the bills. Right, a normal thing of life. Jesus doesn't say that worry doesn't exist, but he says be careful of it, be careful of what you do with it. Peter says to us a verse that I love going back to all the time 1 Peter, 5, 7,. Casting all your care on him because he cares for you. And the cool thing here is that's the same word care.
Speaker 1:So Jesus says the weeds in our life, the things that can just choke out what God is doing, it's the normal everyday things of life. What do you eat, what do you drink, what do you put on? It's the bills, right? Peter says you're going to have cares in your life, but you've got to cast them on God. Cast all of your cares. So there's practical things we do to meet our needs, right, the Bible is pretty clear about that. If a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat, right? There are practical things you do to take care of the bills, the cares in life. But ultimately, even in those natural things, we don't do it very much. But we have to cast them on God and say you know what, I'll do my best, but ultimately God, you're the one who takes care of me. And that's what Jesus points out in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at the birds. They don't worry about what they're gonna eat, but God takes care of them and you're worth more than birds. God will take care of you.
Speaker 1:And it's this weird thing of like we've got cares in our life. They're like weeds that choke is a good word, right, choke us and overwhelm us, but what we do with them is we say, god, they're yours. God, I can earn all the money that I can, but you're ultimately gonna have to take care of me. That, no matter how it comes about, god is the one that provides for us. So this world, by nature, has cares and basic needs. We've got to cast them on God. Sometimes we think, well, if I had more money, then I wouldn't be so overwhelmed by my cares. That's the problem. Sure, right, I get it. But I should remind you that cares are lots of zeros, right, people with lots of money have huge cares and concern. I'll take, it sure, I'll take that one, I'll take the rich person cares, maybe, but the ultimate thing is still the same no matter how much we have, we have to cast it back on God, or else it'll choke out. What he wants to do in our lives and that's what Jesus tells us for certain here is it will choke us out, it will make us unfruitful, and that's not where he wants us. Now notice Mark, chapter 4, verse 19. We're given another thing here the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. So here we have a. But when I'm like in a different place, visiting, I don't like being taken advantage of. That's I try. I still get taken advantage of because I'm just like that, but I try.
Speaker 1:Me and my son over here went to New Orleans. Nothing against Louisiana, louisiana, friends but we went to New Orleans down on Bourbon Street. We were walking down that street because it's famous and and you know, I had read up a little bit and there was this warning don't be taken right, because there are certain prank not pranks, but scams and things that people say. Um, and my son realized how paranoid I actually can get because somebody came up to us on that street and said, yeah, I came up to you on the street and said I can tell you where you got your shoes. I go. It's a scam. It's a scam, son. Don't answer him, don't. And my son is like 100 bucks, you never tell me. I'm like, don't do it. He's going to say you got your shoes on the street right now. He's going to, you know, and I hate that, don't? You hate that? It's like number one thing Don't get scammed when you're on vacation, you know. He also said he could tell me where I bought them, no, where you got them, where you got them. See, I was looking out for you. So I'm like, don't answer him, we couldn't be there. Don't talk to a stranger, no, you couldn't.
Speaker 1:They say it gets ugly after that, but anyways, that could happen anywhere. But you know, you like having the heads up Because nobody wants to be deceived, right that. Because nobody wants to be deceived, right? That's the biggie here. And so the deceitfulness of riches. Riches are deceitful, that's true, that's way true.
Speaker 1:We have our friend Solomon, who I don't understand, but we're reading through Ecclesiastes right now, and this guy had everything. He made gold so much it didn't even matter, it was like water to him anymore, it was so plentiful in his kingdom. And yet he says you know what Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity. It's like striving after the, the wind. And Solomon goes into detail that in Ecclesiastes, rather depressingly all these things, I've had it all, and all of it is vanity. You go, what does vanity mean? And he explains it for us. He says it's like striving after the wind. So you know, after we're done here, go outside, and I want you to just grab a big handful of wind, grab a big handful of air. And you know, if you do that and you look rather silly going around, grab an air and Solomon says that's what life feels like. Sometimes I'm looking for something, I'm grabbing hold of it and then whoosh, nothing but air.
Speaker 1:Right, and Solomon would tell us riches are deceitful. Like that you could gather in as much as you possibly can and you'll never be satisfied. Now we would like to try that out, right, fiddler on the roof. Fiddler on the roof. There the budding communist Perchak says money is the world's curse and the main character says If it is, may the Lord smite me with it, and I never recover. And you go. I'd like to try that one out. It's deceitful. I'd like to find out for myself. But we ought to understand that there will never be enough. Right, the more you have, the more you spend. The more you have, the more you want, like striving after the wind. And Jesus here says just don't be deceived. Riches are deceitful.
Speaker 1:Now we could at this point say the Bible doesn't say that riches are evil, right? 1 Timothy 6.10, although a lot of times when we bring up this verse I think we're just trying to defend ourselves. But 1 Timothy 6.10, paul tells little Timmy, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, he goes on to say and those that strive after it, you know, they pierce themselves through with troubles. And so the love of money is the root of all evil. And we go. Well, you know, I don't love money, I don't love money, I just want money. But I don't love money. And we do try to justify it. But we really ought to take to heart what Jesus is saying here, that riches are deceitful. There will never be enough, it won't solve our problems, and in the end Jesus gives us a better perspective of it in Matthew 6.
Speaker 1:Let's turn there. Matthew, chapter 6, verse 19. Matthew 6. Oh, wow, I'm in Mark. That was terrifying. Matthew 6, verse 19. See you in a way? Yeah, I know I know Trouble, he says this. Jesus says this Matthew 6, 19. Yeah, I know I know Trouble, he says this. Jesus says this Matthew 6, 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys nor thieves. Do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. So Jesus points us to something we don't think about much heavenly riches. He says lay up treasures in heaven. Now, I don't exactly know everything that that is. I don't know how we're gonna see that when we get to heaven. Now, I don't exactly know everything that that is, I don't know how we're going to see that when we get to heaven. But there is this thing of treasures in heaven. And he says the problem is we can lay up for ourselves treasures here. You can do it, you can work real hard. You can get yourself some treasure and lay it up, and when you leave this life you'll leave it behind. Then you find yourself in heaven. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. Find yourself in heaven and Jesus says have you laid some treasures up in heaven or will you be totally bankrupt when you get there? And that really is this idea of fruitfulness. I think that we see that when we get to heaven we're going to be some treasure. Now I have my ideas of what this treasure is. I think it's people. Right? Paul says to the people you're my crown, you're my joy, you're my crown, you're the thing that's going to meet me when I get to heaven, it's you. My treasure in heaven and I think that probably is one of the biggest forms of treasure that we can have are the people that we bring along with us. But we can work so hard for just a little bit more here. And Jesus says don't be deceived. It's not going to satisfy you, it's not going to make you feel better about this, it's not going to solve you, it's not going to make you feel better about it, it's not going to solve all your problems. In fact, it may give you more problems. But what about treasure in heaven? What about fruit in heaven? And so we're challenged with this Just what are we doing for eternal things? And we look and we go. Well, that doesn't really matter so much to me right now. I'd really like more here. But we will care, we'll absolutely care what kind of treasure we have in heaven. And so Jesus says don't be deceived, don't get taken on this idea. Now Luke, in his account of this, adds one more we might as well catch while we're here. Luke, in Luke, chapter 8, says another thing these weeds are like are the pleasures of this life. That goes along with treasure in heaven. Right, treasure here, treasure in heaven. But you think about how much we work for pleasure in this life, and that's not bad either, in one sense, because God's made this place good. There's a lot of wonderful things to experience and I think God, you know, we you know gives us so much joy in this life. It's amazing, but the pleasures of this life, living for the pleasures of right here and right now, can choke out the ultimate thing that God is wanting to do the priorities of our life. Simple pleasures, right? I experienced this in my own life between, you know, eternal things and the here and now pleasures. Every morning, you know, I have a routine and a habit. It has to do with my phone, right, my feet touch the ground and, honestly, the first thing I check is my email. I'm in a routine. I check my email, you know, and then I check the news. Are all the countries still around? Are there any new wars, anything going on that I need to know about? Check the news, and then I check Facebook, right, because I want to make sure that I got it all down. You know, what did my childhood friend have for breakfast today? I'm going to look it up and I want to make sure, right, that I know, then ready to get into? Wait a second, what about my Amazon package? Is it coming today? Let me check that real quick. And then I get into God's word. Now, that is true every day. Am I fighting it? I don't know if I'm fighting it, that's true every day. I try to get it out of my head before I get into God's word. That's what I'm holding to. But you know, it's kind of funny how we can, you know, live for pleasures in this life, even knowing where our lousy Amazon package is before we get into eternal things. That's not like a condemnation thing, but that's just where our heart goes. And Jesus, I think here, would challenge us and say if that's the way we look at life, we're going to be unfruitful. We have to be careful. He would tell his disciples don't be unfruitful, you're made for fruit. Now, mark, he gives us one more thing I don't want to miss here. He says the desire for other things. And that really just covers it, doesn't it? Other things, non-kingdom things, the desire for anything else, go ahead and put it in there. And it's amazing the kinds of things we can get distracted with along those same lines. You know, on my list of morning things is Wordle right. And every time I start that lousy game I go why did I start this? Now I've got to finish it. I don't even care what the word is, you know. And you look at the desire for other things. Wordle is okay, do your Wordle. Let's do it together sometime, you know. But but you know you look at the things that take us away, the hobbies and things that take us away from eternal things, and then you look at laying out treasures in heaven. This is kind of the punchline of all this that one day, when we get there, none of these other things are coming with us, these other things that we spend so much time and energy on. They're not coming with us and will enter into eternity. I think the thorny ground, the ground with the weeds, still enters into eternity. They've had some growth in their life, but it's unfruitful. Into eternity, they've had some growth in their life, but it's unfruitful. It's not what we were made for. God lays out to us 24 hours, perhaps you know for a day, and says use it, use it how you want to use it, what you think about, what you do, but realize you want to lay up treasures in heaven. And then we look at the final soil. There's not much you can really even say about it. Verse 20, these are the ones that are sown on good ground. Those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit. Some 30, some 60, some 100. The typical, the best, the absolute best in the ancient times that they would expect from seed would be tenfold. I don't even know what that means, but it's 10, right. And here jesus says you know what, if you're going to be fruitful, you could be 30, 60, 100 fold. Now what we gather from that is that Jesus is talking about some super growth in this plant. Some just stand back and go wow, that was a lot. You know this mutant growth, you know in a good way, and yet that's what God wants us to come into heaven with just this super abundant fruit about what he's done in our life. Now we'll end up having to trust God in all these things. Right, because nobody ever made a plant grow right, not with, you know, fertilizer, not with the right amount of watering and science. No person ever made the plant grow. Because God makes plants grow. It's just amazing. It's part of what he does. He makes plants grow and the good things in our life. We'll step back, and I think this is why, when we get to heaven, it says we'll lay our crowns down at his feet. I don't know if those are literal crowns, but we'll lay them down at his feet because we'll realize the good that came out of my life, god. The bad, yeah, I did that. The good that came out of my life, it's all you, god. I didn't do it, but to be a part of that, to see people's lives changed and people experience healing in their hearts or whatever it is that God wants to do in your week, that's amazing to God's glory. And so we look at this as Jesus pulls his disciples aside and he says guys, how's your heart? You have a hard heart, just over and over again, rejecting and denying. There's no growth in that. You have a shallow heart, doesn't really ever get into our mind, into our heart and out through our lives. You need to let it go deep into your lives. Are you just crowded out with the simple cares of this world, the seatfulness of riches, the desire for other things? That's not how you want to enter into heaven. You want to enter into heaven, treasure sent ahead, and that is the life that Jesus wanted for his disciples and he wants for us. So, god, I know it's not a pep rally that we need. We can't just positive, think ourself into good works. But, God, we can easily get distracted by things that absolutely don't matter. We can be deceived into thinking that riches are going to solve our problems and make us happy, and they're not. Now we can get overwhelmed by the cares in our life and yet you want us to just cast our cares on you. So, god, help us not just to be something that we've done here on Sunday, but, god, it would really be in our heart that our life would be run by these principles. God, our heart would be fully given over to you. God, whatever you ask us to do this week, I just pray that we would step forward in that, god, the priorities in our life. I pray that you'd help us to lay down the things that just absolutely don't matter, god, that you would grow good things in our life, things that we could never have imagined, and it be all to you, lord. We pray in Jesus' name, amen, thank you.