Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, the hosts methodically show how Scripture is one cohesive story. Critical Thinking with a little bit of theology and apologetics and you have what this podcast is about. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity today must address woke, deconstruction, and progressive Christianity, all topics that are addressed if we go purposefully through the Bible. Join Glenn and Steve weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S11|| Nurturing Spiritual Growth || Mark 4:1-20 || Session 11 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Can the condition of your heart truly determine your spiritual growth? Join us as we unlock the secrets of Jesus' parables in the Gospel of Mark, focusing on chapter 4, where Jesus begins to teach using vivid, relatable stories. Experience the profound impact of the Parable of the Sower, which reveals how the Word of God is received differently depending on the openness of our hearts. We promise that by tuning in, you'll gain a fresh perspective on how to nurture your spiritual journey amidst life's inevitable challenges and distractions. Join us for a deep and engaging conversation that inspires listeners to resist the deceitfulness of riches and worries of the world and instead focus on fostering a sincere connection with Jesus Christ.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
We've been reasoning our way through the Gospel of Mark. It's quite an ambitious book. There's a lot of going and doing, a lot of action, and so we're still going and doing right here in Mark, chapter 4. So a little bit of flow of the book before we jump right into the details. Remember what happened.
Speaker 2:Jesus came out at the very beginning with John the Baptist announcing the kingdom is at hand, and he went around teaching that he demonstrated his divinity by having control over nature and control over the spirit world. He had great teachings on large numbers of people. The official delegation from Jerusalem came down and their official conclusion was that Jesus Christ was a false teacher and was actually demon-possessed. Because of that, jesus now starts to adjust the way he teaches. Starting in chapter 4, we're going to see he starts teaching in parables. It would seem that both Matthew and Mark. Jesus starts out teaching one way and then adjusts it with his official rejection. I think this will come clear in this passage. He does it so that he can communicate truth to his followers without giving reasons for the leadership to crucify him just yet, because it is not his time. Jesus is in control of the time and he is in control of it by teaching in parables.
Speaker 2:Now, chapter 4, and again later in chapter 13, are really the only spots in the whole book of Mark that have a long section of teaching. Most everywhere else in the book is encounters with people and his actions, and again going and doing so he tells us here also in this chapter we have many times where he uses the word hear. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He's telling us to really listen, to pay attention. He's not just saying let the sound waves bump into your eardrum. He's saying listen to this, pay attention, think about it, because you're going to get great truths here. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.
Speaker 2:And he starts teaching in parables by teaching in parables. Are these stories and the stories are wouldn't understand because they're not going to concentrate on it, but the other people will be able to think about it a while and apply it in their lives. Parables allow for multiple layers of meaning in one simple little story. Therefore, they can be useful to many people in many situations. Let's hear the parable of the sower went out to sow. Steve, if you could start at Mark, chapter 4 and read the first 20 verses.
Speaker 1:He began to teach, again by the sea, and such a very large crowd gathered to him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down and the whole crowd was by the sea, on the land, and he was teaching them many things in parables and was saying to them in his teaching Listen to this. Behold. The sower went out to sow. As he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road and the birds came up and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil and after the sun had risen it was scorched and because it had no root it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked it and it yielded no crop crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. And he was saying he who has ears to hear, let him hear. As soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the twelve, began asking him about the parables, otherwise they might return and be forgiven. And he said to them Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?
Speaker 1:The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. In a similar way, these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no firm root in themselves but are only temporary. Then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom the seed was sown among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit. Thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.
Speaker 2:With this we have the parable of the sower and the soils. It's a great parable, easy to grasp, but it's quite profound. So let's go and walk through this and talk about what it's saying, steve. It says a sower went out to sow what is a sower and what is he doing?
Speaker 1:A sower is a planter. It's a person who puts seed into the ground. It can be done various ways by putting them in rows that are dug up or through the scattering of various ways, but a sower is somebody that plants seeds, plants crops, Of course.
Speaker 2:Jesus was speaking to people in an agricultural economy, so he used examples that they would understand. In those days, when you wanted to plant crops, you would go out with probably a bag of seed and would hand throw these seeds out. That's the illustration. He tells the parable to the larger crowd and it says, when he was alone, his disciples said explain it to us. And he gives the interpretation In the parable what does the seed represent?
Speaker 1:The seed represents the Word of God. What do the seed represent? The seed represents the Word of God. What do the soils represent? The soils represent the different conditions of the heart of people.
Speaker 2:So he's giving an illustration of throwing out the Word of God and the seed landing on these four types of soil. There's the hard one, where people had walked in the path and of course that would be beaten down and be hard and the seed would not take root. There's the stony or rocky ground that would have like a thin layer of soil but not allow deep roots and then thorns and thistles grow up and then some of the soils had good deep soil that would grow fruit. When people hear the Word of God, do they all receive the Word the same?
Speaker 1:No, their hearts are in different conditions whenever the Word of God comes to them. Much like they're talking about different conditions of soil, people's hearts are in different conditions, different places in their life. Some might be more sensitive because they're under duress or stress, or maybe have a tragedy in their life, or it could be that they're one of a hard heart at the moment of their rejecting God and rejecting God's word. So I think this is a clear indication of people's hearts are in different conditions whenever they receive the word of God.
Speaker 2:We've all had different experiences. We all have free will and we all have different motivations. We are free creatures, that's. His illustration here is that we have the ability to receive or not. People have hard hearts and some have softer hearts. Let's go through the four kinds of soil for a minute and talk about them and see what we can learn from this. Firstly, the seed by the road. What does it say in verse 4? What happens to the seed by the road?
Speaker 1:It says that birds come along and they snatch it away right away.
Speaker 2:In the scriptures whenever they talk about birds. Well, birds are always evil creatures. Simply because if you're an orchardist or if you're a farmer, well, birds are always evil creatures. Simply because if you're an orchardist or if you're a farmer, well, the birds are what's going to come and eat your crop, so you won't have anything to eat or sell. If you're a farmer, it's be really clear. The birds are the enemy. You're not talking about little songbirds that you might want to see and listen to on your windowsill. No, these are birds that are eating your life's work here. That's the birds they're talking about. Birds are always evil. The hard soil, the seed, doesn't take root and the birds Satan comes and eat it. These are hard-hearted people. Satan takes away the word before it can have a chance to take root. Steve, what do we do if we're out and we're giving out the Word of God, but some people just seem very hard and they're not receiving the Word.
Speaker 1:One of the things that can be done to take hard soil and make it soil that will be receptive to seed is to go through and turn over the soil, till it, to plow through it and then water it. So your question is what can we do If we come across somebody who we know has a hard heart to the Word of God? Maybe, before we share the Word, we might do a little bit of tilling, some plowing and some watering to make that soil a little bit more receptive to the seed. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but that's maybe something that we can do to help make that hard part become more receptive to God's Word.
Speaker 2:Remember, the landowner is the Lord, god, and we are the helpers. We are doing His work. One of the good things about the seed we have, the Word of God, is there's plenty of it. We're not going to run out. We also don't always know. When we just look at someone, you can't always tell whether their hearts are hard. It helps to do a little bit of soil preparation, but we just keep putting out seeds. And Satan's going to do what he does, but we just keep throwing seeds. Next we have what he calls the rocky soil. What happened in the?
Speaker 1:rocky soil. With the rocky soil, the rocks displace the dirt, so there's less dirt or soil for the roots to take hold because they're having to compete with the rocks that are there. This is a condition of the heart where it might be somewhat receptive to the Word of God, but yet it's still in a position of being a little bit hard-hearted and skeptical of the Word of God.
Speaker 2:The idea here is that you've got soil and from the surface it just looks like soil, but you put out a seed and the seed sprouts, the person receives the word of God, but as soon as the sun gets hot, then the plant withers. It's just like you said, steve there's like a thin layer of soil. What happens when the sun gets hot on rocky soil is it dries up. There's not a depth of soil, there's not enough moisture and not enough nutrients to keep the plants going. The idea here is that some people receive the Word of God but they don't grow Soon as times get hard or there's a challenge to their faith or some sort of exercise that God puts them through. That's a little bit of a trial. Then the plant withers and dies. That's what he's saying here. Do we ever see people around us, maybe in our churches, that, wow, they were going good for a little while, but my times got hard and they stopped going to church, or they're not praying, not in the Bible study anymore? Do we ever see that today?
Speaker 1:I think one way that we see it is that people are receptive to God's Word but when they go home there's rocks under the soil and their family don't want to have anything to do with God's Word. So here you have this person who is receptive of the Word, but yet their family is constantly telling them oh, you don't need to believe that, you don't need to follow that, you don't need to go back to that church, you need to disassociate yourself from those friends that are telling you these stories of God and who he is and Jesus Christ. That, I think, might be a good picture and indication of how you could have somebody with a receptive soil of the heart but yet have hard rocks underneath through their family and friends who want to keep the root of God's Word from really taking place in their heart.
Speaker 2:If we've ever wondered why we see people around us that, from outward appearances, seem like the Word of God has taken root and it seems like they're going to mature, but they never do. Well, this is why the soil will dry up as soon as there's any kind of persecution Verse 17,. When trouble or persecution arise because of the Word, this is a person that will experience some sort of trouble or persecution because of following Christ. Do we ever experience that today, steve? Do we ever get some sort of pushback from the world or some sort of trouble for merely being a?
Speaker 1:Christian All the time and it seems to be something specific to Jesus Christ because other religions they can go out and talk about their gods and who they worship. They don't get hardly any pushback. But whenever you mention Jesus Christ and you're a follower man, for some reason it just brings out the hate in some people and the bias and the mean and awful things that some of them say.
Speaker 2:Notice in verse 17,. He says when affliction or persecution comes because of the word he doesn't say if so, it seems to be inevitable that we will encounter some sort of persecution from the world. When we let people know, of course, if we hide the word and don't let anybody know and kind of be a closeted secret Christian, then of course we might not get persecution. One of the ways. If you ask yourself am I living for Christ? The question is do you have the right enemies? If the right enemies are not getting upset at you, then maybe it's because you're not letting the seeds flow and planting some seeds. Next we have the third type of soil, which is seed among thorns, and he explains that. What are the thorns that grow up?
Speaker 1:The thorns are the cares and the worries of the world that come up and they choke it out. It gives a picture of somebody that they receive the word, their heart has some soil where the word starts to take root. But then they get pulled back into the world. They let their worries of their job, what they're striving for, success. At that point they're more worried about the things of the world than cultivating their heart to the Word of God.
Speaker 2:In verse 19, when he's explaining what that soil means. He mentions three things in there. The things that choke out the Word of God are the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things. Why do you think, steve, he uses the word deceitfulness of riches? What is it about money that is deceitful.
Speaker 1:Over and over, we hear from people who have become successful and become rich in a monetary way. Part of their reason of wanting to be successful is they want to have happiness. I want to be happy. I want to be able to be worry-free and carefree, that I don't have to worry about what I buy. I can buy anything I want and I don't have to worry about it. But what we see over and over again is the exact opposite. Don't have to worry about it, but what we see over and over again is the exact opposite. They become rich and successful and then they start changing into how can I keep this money? How can I hoard this money? They find out pretty soon that it can't buy happiness. It seems like they start to have different types of problems in their marriage, in their family, because the money is the central part of their lives. So it's deceitful in that way. At first you think it can get you happiness, but then, once you get there, you find out that it really doesn't bring you happiness.
Speaker 2:Too many times people think if I just get money then I'll be happy. Well, money can buy a bed, but it won't buy sleep. And it can buy friends, but it won't buy love. Money can buy you a distraction, but it can't really buy joy and happiness. If money could buy happiness, then most rich people would be happy, but they're not. If you really look at what happens to wealthy people, they are just as miserable, if not more so, than the people with less money.
Speaker 2:I remember talking to a person that was a Christian missionary that worked with youth in a very wealthy neighborhood and he said you drive down the street and you see all these houses and all these expensive homes and expensive vehicles and all. And he says from the outside it all looks so nice and so expensive and good. But he says I see, with these teenagers that I'm working with, I see the rot that's on the inside of the homes and I see the brokenness and all of the garbage that goes on on the inside. Wealthy is not happiness. Money will buy you distractions, maybe buy you distraction long enough to figure out that you're really miserable, but it brings in a lot of problems. It's deceitful. The next one, he said, desires for other things. How do we keep the things of the world from pulling us away from the things of God? What practical things can we do to keep the world from encroaching in and pulling us away from the things?
Speaker 1:of the Lord. Make the Word of God a prominent part of your life. Grow the Word of God in your life in order to then push out the worries and the cares of the world, to push out those thorns and thistles. Many people, I think, are missing out on the joy of studying God's Word. One-third of their life is their family. One-third of their life is their family, one-third of their life is their job, and then another third is their spiritual life, and they relegate their spiritual life to maybe just going to church on Sunday and maybe something that happens during midweek, and then that's it. They don't cultivate the thing of God. They do more of cultivating their home life or cultivating their work life, but they don't do anything to really cultivate the Word of God in their life. If you cultivate the Word of God, then you're going to have good, rich soil in which the Word of God can thrive and, as it says, there it will become fruitful. That then pushes out the cares of the world.
Speaker 2:Is it that's so true? If we focus on spiritual things and feed our spirit, then our spirit will be healthy and will desire the things of God. If we allow the world to pull us away, then we're going to be feeding our flesh and the flesh will pull us away. Look at verse 20. It talks about Jesus' interpretation of the good soil. This type of person does something that the other soils don't do. What is it that the good soil does?
Speaker 1:It bears fruit, and not just some fruit. There's different types of bearing some 30, some 60, some 100-fold but in the center there they hear the Word and they accept it. I think that's a key part as far as becoming fruit bearers of the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Exactly this soil hears and accepts. And that's where he was saying so many times using the word hear he who has an ear to hear let him hear. So he says those that hear it and receive it or accept it. And again, hearing is just not letting sound waves on your eardrum. What he means is think about it, understand it and receive it, accept it. If you receive and accept the things of God, then you will bear fruit, and some people will bear a lot of fruit and some people even more fruit, but all of them will bear some fruit.
Speaker 2:The verb tense here in verse 20 supports free will. They accept it to themselves. It's a middle voice in Greek, so he's saying those that receive it to themselves. There's an idea here that the differences in the soil are really the free will of the individuals. That's the point of this parable. What determines whether there's fruit? Well, what determines whether there's fruit is the receptivity of the soil right. Well, what determines whether there's fruit is the receptivity of the soil right. Soils receive the Word and some do not. Fruit is determined by the receptivity of the soil, wouldn't you agree, steve?
Speaker 1:I do believe that that's exactly what this is saying. We're in control of what type of soil that we have.
Speaker 2:We go out and we spread the Word of God and some people accept it and some people reject it. What determines whether people get into heaven? Well, whether they receive the message, whether they hear, whether they receive it and plant it in their hearts. One of the meanings of this parable is clearly about why some people are saved and some people are not, and it's because the ones that bear fruit are the ones that receive it and accept it. Here's another question, Steve Does the seed change between these four soils?
Speaker 1:No, the seed is the same and the sower is the same. It's a person out spreading the Word of God. That doesn't change In this parable?
Speaker 2:what part are we responsible?
Speaker 1:for we are responsible to be sowers. I think If we're believers, we need to be out sowing the Word of God. That's a responsibility that we have as being believers as far as being non-believers. I think we have a responsibility to understand the Word of God and believe it and become believers in Jesus Christ, who he is, to change our mind about Him and believe and trust on Him.
Speaker 2:What causes the growth of the seed? It's not the sower right.
Speaker 1:No, it's the cultivation. By cultivation I mean by the weeding, the making sure there's water on it. If the rain doesn't properly take care of it, then you're going to go out there and make sure that it gets plenty of water so that it can grow. So I think that we have that responsibility as a believer, to cultivate and make sure that our heart remains with some good soil to continue receiving the Word of God.
Speaker 2:We can cultivate our heart as the soil to be a little more receptive, but the actual growth is caused by God. We can water it, we can dig around the soil, we can pull out the weeds and stop getting pulled off by the worldly, fleshly things, but the growth is caused by God. In this we have this wonderful parable. All we do is we have an infinite amount of really good seed and we can keep throwing that seed and God's going to cause the growth. We can't always tell what kind of heart somebody has, but he'll cause the growth and the person is the one who has to receive it. Really, in this parable there's four kinds of hearts that's what it's saying. Four kinds of human will to receive this.
Speaker 2:There's the hard hearts that resist the Word of God and make it easy for the enemy to come in and take away God's Word. Hard hearts do not receive the Word. There's the shallow hearts, which is the rocky soil. They receive the Word but turn away as soon as there's any kind of pressure or any kind of heat. That's applied, any kind of hardship. Shallow hearts have no root. Then there's worldly hearts. There's worldly hearts that the cares of the world crowd out the things. They're drawn away by other things it says. And then there's open hearts. Open hearts, receive the Word and let it grow and bear fruit. These agricultural examples, steve, are just a great way to teach people If we have children or even people in our church. Grow some grapevines, grow some vegetables. You can use all these same illustrations that Jesus uses. I just think it's quite fantastic. We'll stop for today because of time, but we've still got a couple more parables that we'll get into and reason through those next time.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for watching and listening, as always. May God bless you.
