Mark 4:1–20 — The Sower, the Seed, and the Soils

This sermon is from Mark chapter 4 verses 1 through 20 and is entitled "The Sower,

Mark 4:1–20

the Seed, and the Soils." It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, July 13th, 2025.

So we know that Mark is a writer focused on getting to the point and he is largely focused on the

action of Jesus' ministry. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bullet point gospel because he does

provide detail when needed, but he doesn't waste any words. In this passage, Mark's really the first

real detailed teachings that we get from Jesus in Mark's gospel. He began extensive teaching

through parables at this point, and we should take note that Mark includes this one in detail first.

What Mark chooses to give us as the first parable in detail, he also follows up with an explanation

from Jesus in detail, and so it would be good for us to pay attention. Jesus actually gives his

audience a command to listen to this, and so let's read just the opening two verses here to kind of

place ourselves before diving into the parable itself. This is Mark chapter four verses one and

to. Again, he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he

got into the 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 and parables, and in his teaching he said to them,

"Listen, behold." So crowds had really been a constant problem for Jesus up to this point,

and he gets into this boat and goes out on the water a bit to sit there and to teach.

You want to remember from a few passages back, the crowds were actually pushing in against Jesus

and he had to get in a boat to get away from them so that he wasn't crushed.

In this case though, he chooses to get in a boat.

And the place on the Sea of Galilee where we think this probably happened is referred to as the Bay of

parables. And it's a location with natural acoustics that would have allowed his voice

to carry effortlessly to thousands on the shore without amplification. It's kind of a natural

little amphitheater. And when I was in Israel a number of years back, we did not visit this

location on my trip, but I've spoken to people who have, and they said that when somebody is out

in a boat on that water, it literally sounds like they're standing right next to you, which is

kind of incredible. So Jesus takes advantage of this and teaches from the boat, and they would

have heard every word that he said. So Jesus will usually choose to teach in parables, and today's

passage is the first of many. And the word "parable" means "placed alongside," and it is a comparison

of two things in order to make one thing clear. So it's a little different from like an allegory

or a fable. An allegory is more layered with symbols for various interpretations and parables

are designed to illustrate usually one point or one key point at least. A fable, for example,

would use like animals or inanimate objects as characters and explicitly states a moral

lesson at the end, whereas parables usually use human characters and realistic scenarios

that could actually happen and usually are less clear in the end as far as an end statement that

tells them what it means, though here is supposed to interpret the meaning of that parable.

And Jesus parables are actually unparalleled in quality and excellence, both in the ancient world

and also today. So even if you talk to a contemporary rabbi, most of them will recognize

the parables of Jesus as the best of the best. These are top-notch parables,

even among other rabbinic teachers. They're more than just clever stories or good advice,

and when they come from Jesus, they are good news, and they cannot be understood apart from him.

So without further delay, let's go ahead and read this parable that is delivered from the water.

A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came

and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil,

and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose,

it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.

And other seeds fell into good soil, and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding 30

fold and 60 fold and 100 fold. And he said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

So in this parable, we have a few main characters, if you will.

The main character is the sower, and then we have someone or something that's being represented by

the different types of soil. And finally, we have the seed, which does not change throughout the

parable. So what is Jesus talking about? And we're going to get to it in a moment, but first,

let's look at some clues from the context and some things that would have stood out to the original

audience that aren't standing out to us except maybe a handful of gardeners.

First let's look at this sower. So our first clue is the phrase that Jesus uses to say the sower

went out to sow. This is actually not the first time that Mark has recorded Jesus saying this

specific phrase. And we know that Mark is a man of few words, so the repetition of this phrase

is probably important. Let's go back just a page or two to Mark 138 when Jesus tells his disciples

that it's time to leave to travel all over. He says, "Let us go on to the next towns that I may

preach there also, for that is why I came out." That's the same phrase as the "went out to sow."

So it's our first little hint as to who the sower might be in this parable. The other

weird thing about the sower is how he is sowing the seed. So as a gardener myself, I've sowed both

ways where you carefully plant each seed in a prepared row and the way where you just kind of

toss some seeds in to see what happens. And I can tell you that the more expensive the seed is,

the more careful I am, but that's not in the parable. So let's look at where this parable

actually would have been told, right? Jewish farming practices advised meticulous care in

planting. So they went with option one, carefully sowing the seed in the right places. But the

farmer in Jesus' parable doesn't do that. He goes against conventional wisdom, and he sows

unsparingly. He casts the seed everywhere, on the path, on the rocky ground, among the thorns,

and also on good soil.

So this is like a borderline wasteful generosity

with the seed and it would have stood out

to the people who were listening.

So what do we know about the sower?

He is intent on his mission, he is going out to do it

and he is generous with the application of this seed.

The next character is really not the seed but the soil.

So the different soils react differently

to the seed.

And let's just kind of quickly look at these three.

Some falls on the path, so like the sidewalk.

It isn't even received by the soil

and it is immediately eaten up by the birds.

Some of it falls on shallow or rocky soil

and it comes up right away and everything seems fine,

but because it's on shallow ground, when it gets hot,

its roots aren't reaching to the water underground

and it dies.

We've had this happen, I think, most often in our garden with beets, because they get

planted over hard soil or over a rock, and instead of growing down and growing big, they

will push themselves right out of the soil and shrivel into nothing.

And then some of it falls on otherwise good ground, and it grows up, but the weeds are

so numerous around it that it chokes them out, which means they don't actually end up

producing anything.

We had this happen with onions one year.

They grew up tall and they were green on the top

and they looked fine, but there were so many weeds

growing around them that drank all their water

and they took all the nutrients from the soil

and crowded them out so that the onions were tiny

and frankly, many of them just rotted right there

in the ground without growing to any size at all.

So it was all show and no fruit.

And Jesus is gonna unpack these reactions in detail

the passage. So I'm just going to leave them there for a moment. But let's just recognize

that the seed was the same across all these situations. And yet in some cases, it produced

a miraculous yield. So the parable describes an extraordinary 30 to 60 to 100 fold yield.

That means you're getting back 100 times what you planted, which is unheard of in that region.

And it is a clear sign of divine blessing.

So it echoes like what Genesis 26-12 said, "Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped

in the same year a hundredfold, the Lord blessed him."

This abundant, plural yield from the good soil 30, 60, 100 times contrasts with the few lost

seeds and signifies enormous blessing. So it's not because the planter was so good at planting,

it's because God is blessing the seed in the fertile soil to make it produce fruit.

This is the work of God. It's not the work of the soil, not the work of man, it's the work of God.

So there's another connection here to Isaiah with the harvest in Isaiah 9-3 that says,

"You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at

the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil." Now Mark chooses to pause in the

parables here for a moment. Again, this parable is really important and we're about to see why.

It's so important that Mark pauses in this parable of Jesus' teaching and inserts a little flash

forward to when Jesus is alone later with his disciples and those who are following him closely.

And so we're going to read those few verses right before the explanation that Jesus gives.

This is verses 10 through 12. "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.'

And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the

parables?" Let's just pause there for a minute. Jesus is saying, "To you has been given the secret

of the kingdom." So two questions. Who has received the secret and what is it? Well, Jesus is speaking

to a specific group of people at this point. It's not the crowd anymore. He's speaking to his

disciples and the people who are closely following him. In the context of the parable,

these are the people who have heard and continue to listen, which means that leaves the secret.

What's the secret? Well, what's the key to understanding the kingdom? Let me ask it another

way. Who is the secret to understanding the kingdom of God? It's Jesus. The central point that Mark

is making by inserting this little side conversation into the middle of the group of parables is

that Jesus is the key to receiving the kingdom of God and understanding the parables.

This section functions as what we call in the text a "marked sandwich," which is something

that Mark likes to do, where he'll give you one point and then he'll put the key to his

message in the center and then he'll close it with the other half of the message.

both halves are made sense of by that key point in the middle. And so he's saying that those who are

in fellowship with Jesus, who desire to do God's will, are the ones given understanding,

and they are the hearers who respond. So for those of you who tracked with us through the

previous passage last week, this is a return to the conversation about insiders and outsiders in

in the kingdom of God.

Insiders have understanding, and outsiders do not.

So Jesus quotes Isaiah 6, 9, and 10 here.

And it's serving as a kind of litmus test

or evidence to where people stand.

Those who hear the parable,

but will not put their faith in Jesus, don't understand.

They can't understand without understanding who Jesus is.

But those who see the incredible things that Jesus is doing, right, even these people who

have seen him do miracles and don't put their faith in him as the Son of God, will completely

fail to see him for who he is.

So belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the essential key to

understanding anything else about the kingdom of God.

You have to understand who Jesus is if you're going to get anything else about the reality

of the kingdom of God. You can talk to a Mormon for longer than a few minutes and you'll get a

glimpse of the problem that exists here because they also fail to understand who Jesus is.

And they put their faith, instead of putting their faith in him as he defines himself,

they create a version of Jesus that isn't Jesus. And everything else becomes confused for them.

They have all the ethics of the kingdom, but they can't see the king for who he is.

And so the good news is that Mark does not portray insiders and outsiders as fixed or

unchanging distinctions, right? Their status is dynamically determined. It changes based on

their hearing and believing that Jesus is the one who brings this fruitful gospel or good news of God.

And we can see that throughout the rest of the gospel of Mark. We have examples of outsiders

The insiders.

These include people like the Geresene demoniac, the person who has a demon, the woman with

the flow of blood who is healed, the Gentile centurion who comes to Jesus and ultimately

comes to faith, all of whom we're going to run into in the next couple chapters of Mark.

And on the other side, we also have those who appear to be insiders, like Judas, who

we've already seen.

Mark has shown us this is Judas who betrays Jesus.

insiders who become outsiders due to their lack of faith in Jesus. So just like salvation is a gift

that is available to those who would respond in faith to Jesus, understanding of the kingdom of

God is also a gift. And it's given to those who would do more than just hear but would continue

listening to and responding to Jesus.

So let's lean in and let's listen to the explanation of Jesus so that we might joyfully obey Him.

These are our final couple of verses.

This is Mark 4, 14 through 20.

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 the rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately

receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while, and

then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall

away.

And others are the ones sown among thorns.

They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and 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 good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear

fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.

So this parable addresses both evangelism, the sowing of the seed, and also discipleship,

the growth, the fruit bearing.

It invites us to reconsider our reception of the Word of God, which is at the center

of this whole thing.

Ultimately, our reception and obedience to Jesus, who John calls the Word.

Let's identify these first three.

So the ones on the path, they immediately reject the word of God.

They may hear the words of the gospel, but it does not take root at all.

They remain hard-hearted and opposed to God, and they reject Jesus immediately.

The ones on the rocky ground, just like my beets, seem to respond, and they start to

grow, but when obeying Jesus gets hard, they wilt under pressure.

Their reaction was emotional and it was short-lived.

And it wasn't really rooted in faith in Christ.

They didn't count up the cost and determine that Christ was worth it and put their roots

down into him, and so they didn't last.

Finally we have the people that appear to grow, but they are more motivated by a desire

for wealth, for comfort, for their own desires, and instead of being motivated by the glory

of Jesus, they give in to the desire for their own glory, and they don't produce fruit.

There is no life change that happens there.

And what is the common thing for each of these three is that they don't ultimately end up

producing fruit.

Even the tense of the verb "here" for each one of these that Jesus uses is a tense in

Greek that signifies a quick, superficial hearing.

There's no ultimate response.

It's in one ear and out the other.

I heard you, but I wasn't listening.

But then let's look at the final one.

They hear the word, they accept the word, and they bear fruit, a lot of fruit.

life is transformed day by day as they receive the Word of God and they respond to it.

And remember how here was this form that indicated like a one and done kind of thing in the last

three?

Well, in this one, it's different.

In contrast, this fourth hearer in verse 20 is described with a present ongoing tense

of the verb "here," which indicates this continual ongoing hearing.

This signifies those who heard and stayed to continue listening and continue obeying

and continue producing fruit.

You cannot be a disciple of Jesus without putting your faith in Him and knowing Him.

But you also cannot truly know Him without entering into this ongoing discipleship, hearing

and obeying Him and choosing to continue doing that.

The choice to follow Jesus is ongoing for those who would be fertile soil and produce

fruit.

So as we close out this passage, let's talk a little bit about how we might do that.

And I want to start with the most urgent application, and that's for those of you who haven't chosen

to accept Jesus as Savior and follow Him as Lord.

There's a question Jesus asked his disciples later in Mark, and it's really the central

question of Christianity.

You must answer Jesus when he asks, "Who do you say that I am?"

Peter is the one who answers him and says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living

God."

The good news of the gospel is for you, and it's right now.

The good news is that Jesus is the Christ.

He's the Savior.

the Son of the Living God, the only one able to deliver you and give you eternal life.

The good news is Jesus came to pay the price of death for your sin and He offers you brand

new eternal life to walk in if you would receive it from Him.

Being fertile soil has nothing to do with your past actions and who you were and what

you've done and it has everything to do with how you choose right now to receive Jesus

for who He truly is today and respond by trusting Him wholeheartedly.

That is what being fertile soil is all about, hearing, receiving, and obeying Jesus.

So if you have not done that yet, I would invite you to that today.

It is the most important question you will ever answer.

Who do you say that Jesus is and how are you going to respond to him?

For those of you who are following Jesus and desire to share him with the world, by the

way, if you say you love Jesus, you should want to do what he commands.

And one of those commands is to take the gospel to all people.

And if you don't want to do that, my honest advice would be to go back to square one and

ask, "Have I really let the gospel take root in me?"

it has to start. But for those of us who want to share Jesus and are just intimidating,

intimidated by it, this should be really good news, because we are to share the gospel without

concern or pressure about how people will respond to it, because ultimately that outcome is out of

our hands. The good news is for all people, not just those who we expect to receive it.

God brings incredible growth in unexpected places, but also allows people to respond as they choose.

And so a few things that I want to clarify here that have caused issues for me in the past.

First is that the fruit in this parable is not people converting to Christianity.

So I've heard this preached and used as a tactic to make me evaluate whether Jesus is pleased with

me, with me, based on how many people I've successfully invited to a church gathering.

It is wrong to manipulate this passage in that way, because the fruit that Jesus is talking about

is the change that is happening in you. Think the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians. Think

the fruit in keeping with repentance that John the Baptist called people to. You becoming more

Christ-like because you are submitting to the work of God in you. That's what the fruit is.

Fruit is also not caused by us sufficiently working the soil to be less weedy or rocky

or hard. That is not what's happening in the parable. The farmer is not going out to work the

soil and fix it and then sow the seed. He just scatters the seed. So take this as an encouragement.

you are not going to change someone through force of your will. That is something that is solely

in the power of God to do. You might walk with somebody in discipleship and encourage them,

you might challenge them, you might call them to keep following Jesus, to keep running after him,

but their response is their own. And the Spirit of God is the only one who will affect that kind

of change. Our role is following Jesus' example as the ultimate sower, and it's not to force or

manipulate or trick people into faith, but rather to faithfully represent Jesus and generously share

his gospel. Ultimately, it all comes back to Jesus. We want to be a people of fertile soil,

and that means we want to be a people who hear and receive and respond to the word of God in obedience.

So have you done that? And maybe a better question is, are you doing that in an ongoing way?

Walking with Jesus day by day, turning to him, letting his word take root in us,

and bearing the fruit that only results from a life that is surrendered to Jesus.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in

Council Bluffs, Iowa and in homes throughout the week.

We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from

Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact

a pastor by visiting ecclaseachurches.org.