Mark 4 - The Parables of the Sower and the Seed, The Growing Seed, and the Mustard Seed. Jesus Calms the Storm!

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The Parable of the Sower

Today Jesus teaches one of his most famous parables to the crowds who are gathered on the beach. He gets creative to widen his audience by going out in a boat, so he can address more people. This parable is also called the "parable of the four soils". Importantly Jesus focuses on why some people understand the truth hidden in the parable and some do not. In this case even the disciples did not get the meaning of the parable, and Jesus had to explain it to them. 

One of the most curious things he says regarding this is, 

He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’

This quote is from Isaiah 6:9-10, which is part of Isaiah's call to go and preach to Israel even though they would probably reject the message, as they rejected God. But this would be a sign against them illustrating how stubborn their hearts were. 

Here are a couple of important spiritual truths we can gather from this parable.

1. The farmers job is to sow the seed liberally and broadcast it so that it will have contact with as much of the field as possible.  Our job is to preach the gospel to all people knowing that some will accept it and some will reject it. 

2. Three of the four soils were not conducive to the seed taking root and bearing fruit. In the spiritual realm there were obstacles or barriers to the growth of the seed. One, we have an adversary who is working day and night to prevent God's Word from spreading, taking root, and growing. Second, just because a seed takes root does not mean it is not still vulnerable. Some people make a commitment to Christ, but when life gets hard or trouble comes at them, they do not last. Their roots did not go deep enough to withstand the pressure from without. And third, the last seed got choked out by the worries of the world. Bottom line: none of the soil conditions were conducive to the seed doing what it was intended to do. It wasn't the seed that was the problem (the Word of God), but the environment around it and those who were in charge of nurturing it. 

3. What does this mean? It means after preaching and teaching God's Word, the next most important thing a church can do is to provide an environment for spiritual growth. We need to take time not only to spread the Word but allow the Word to become rooted in our people  Most practically this means nurturing an environment where spiritual disciplines like praying, reading and understanding the bible will cause believers to be rooted and eventually they WILL bear fruit. 

4. Finally, the good news is the seed that took root when fully grown reproduced 30, 60 and 100 times. This represented disciples, who when fully rooted, produce other disciples. Just think if every disciple in your church discipled one other person this year, the number of disciples would double. I.e. From 100 to 200. If it happened again the following year it would be 400 and so on and so on. You can see the power of exponential growth. This a principle in nature and it is principle in God's kingdom growing here on earth as it is in heaven.  

As a Christian are you growing and reproducing, or is your growth getting choked out? Are you spiritually stagnant, which creates an enviroment for weeds to grow? I know in my garden at home if I don't do anything for 2 weeks, the weeds start taking over! 

A Lamp on a Stand

Jesus uses the metaphor a lamp to illustrate that like the seed who multiplied, true disciples shine forth the light of Christ. 

 By its very nature, light is meant to be revealed. Truth is the same way, and God promises that it will be revealed. But that it should come to light: We must not hide this light. If you have the truth of God, you have a solemn responsibility to spread that truth in whatever way God gives you opportunity. It is just as someone who has the cure for a life-threatening disease has the moral responsibility to spread that cure. God didn’t light your lamp so that it would remain hidden. - Guzik

The Parable of the Growing Seed

This parable is one that will keep us humble! Why? Because it is illustrates it is God who produces the fruit not us. We don't make things happen in the spiritual world. I don't think Jesus is advocating passivity, as we are supposed to GO and MAKE disicples. But at the end of the day it is God who gives the growth not us. 

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

This parable is similar to the previous one. It teaches us not to judge by outward appearance. Even in the church when tend to be attracted to what is big and flashy. We can overly focus on numbers as a measure of success for example. But God's kingdom doesn't always operate like that. The attendance on Sunday is not always the indicator of spiritual fruit. God's kingdom grows sometimes undetectable to the human eye. There may be people in your church who are doing amazing things in spreading God's kingdom nobody is seeing. Small beginnings with faithfulness can lead to a harvest of righteousness. 

 Jesus Calms the Storm

Matthew 4 ends with another supernatural miracle. A furious squall kicks up and the disciples become frantic. Where is Jesus? Taking in a nap in the back of the boat! After everything Jesus had done the disciples still went into panic mode fearing they would drown. Before we get too down on the disciples would you have been any different? 

After they wake up Jesus he rebukes the storm and immediately the wind and the waves die down. 

It was not their fear of the storm that made Jesus say they had no faith. A small boat in a big storm is a scary place, and the initial fear itself isn’t wrong. What the disciples chose to do with the fear made all the difference. - Guzik

How is it that you have no faith? Of all people, Jesus’ own disciples should have had faith. Would Jesus put the same question to us? “After all I have done in you and for you, how is it that you have no faith?” - Guzik