Mark 4:10-20

B. THE EXPLANATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER 4:10-20

TEXT 4:10-20

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parables. And he said unto them, Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them. And he saith unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how shall ye know all the parables? The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; and when they have heard, straightway cometh Satan, and taketh away the word which hath been sown in them. And these in like manner are they that are sown upon the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, straightway receive it with joy; and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway they stumble. And others are they that are sown among the thorns; these are they that have heard the word, and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And those are they that were sown upon the good ground; such as hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty-fold, and sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 4:10-20

168.

Why wait until there were but twelve before He told the meaning of the parable?

169.

What is meant by the expression mystery of the kingdom?

170.

Please explain in your own words Mark 4:12.

171.

Why the rebuke in Mark 4:13?

172.

Are we to understand that Satan can actually remove the word of God from the heart? How?

173.

How can we have root in ourselves? Cf. Mark 4:17.

174.

Please notice that those with shallow hearts stumble because of the word. Please explain.

175.

Have the thorns of choking changed? What shall we do with them?

176.

Why do some bear only 30 while others yield 100-fold for the Master?

COMMENT 4:10-20

LESSON ANALYSIS

I.

SPEAKING IN PARABLES, Mark 4:10-13.

1.

Disciples Ask an Explanation. Mark 4:10; Matthew 13:10; Luke 8:9.

2.

The Reason for Parables. Mark 4:11-12; Matthew 13:11-17; Luke 8:10.

II.

WAYSIDE AND STONY GROUND, Mark 4:14-17.

1.

The Good Seed. Mark 4:14; Luke 8:11.

2.

Wayside Hearers. Mark 4:15; Matthew 13:19; Luke 8:12.

3.

Stony Ground Hearers. Mark 4:16-17; Matthew 13:20; Luke 8:13.

III.

THORNS AND GOOD GROUND, Mark 4:18-20.

1.

The Seed Choked Out. Mark 4:18-19; Matthew 13:22; Luke 8:14.

2.

Good Seed in Good Ground. Mark 4:20; Matthew 13:23; Luke 8:15.

INTRODUCTION

He privately retired to the margin of the lake, desiring probably to rest awhile; but no sooner had he taken his seat beside the cool, still water, than he was again surrounded by the anxious crowd. At once, to escape the pressure and to command the audience better when he should again begin to speak, he stepped into one of the fishing-boats that floated at ease close by the beach, on the margin of that tideless inland sea. From the water's edge, stretching away upward on the natural gallery formed by the sloping bank, the great congregation, with every face fixed in an attitude of eager expectancy, presented to the Preacher's eye the appearance of a plowed field ready to receive the seed. As he opened his lips and cast the word of life freely abroad among them, he saw, he felt, the parallel between the sowing of Nature and the sowing of Grace. Into that word accordingly he threw the lesson of saving truth.W. Arnot.

OUTLINE OF THE PARABLE OF THE SOWERIt will aid in understanding the lesson to have a clear outline in the mind of the application. This is the first parable the Saviour spoke as far as we have record. He spoke the parable to a vast audience in whose minds the story was lodged and left for reflection without an explanation of its meaning. He had sowed, in this illustrative way, the seed of the kingdom broadcast, and in many a heart it would live until it burst forth, full of meaning, to bear fruit. His apostles, not accustomed to this mode of teaching, come to him privately and ask the meaning. In order to understand the parable we must go with the other disciples and listen to the explanation given in Mark 4:10-20. Christ is the great Sower, and all whom he sends forth to preach are sowers under him. The seed sown is his Word, the Gospel of the Kingdom. The soil where the seed is cast is human hearts, Four kinds of human hearts are described: 1. The wayside hearer; the light flippant, indifferent hearer upon whom no impression is produced. 2. The stony hearer; the heart that exhibits an evanescent feeling at the appeal of the gospel, but upon whom no permanent impression is made. 3. The thorny soil; the heart that takes in the Word, but is so full of worldly cares that these presently gain the mastery. This describes the world-serving hearing. 4. The good soil; the good and honest heart; the heart that receives and retains the truth. In such a heart the seed will grow and the new life will be manifest. Three things, then, are needful: 1. A Sower. 2, Good Seed; the pure word of God, 3. A good and honest heart, A dishonest man cannot be converted until he casts out his dishonesty. He who cavils at and deceitfully entreats the word of God will not be profited.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

I. SPEAKING IN PARABLES.Mark 4:10. When he was done. This may have occurred after the public labors of the day were over and the multitude had been dismissed. By comparing with Matthew we learn that the Lord spoke seven parables in succession, and it seems to me more probable that the explanations were given in the quiet when surrounded only by the twelve and they that were about him with the twelve, a number of his friends and disciples. Asked of him the parables. This language shows that the Lord had spoken more than once before the explanation was asked for or given. Though the parable was new to his disciples it was not a new method of instruction. A number occur in the Old Testament, and it was frequently adopted by the Jewish rabbis. It differs from an allegory or fable in that its characters are real and it does not violate possibilities. It is an imaginary illustration of real truth. In this instance the Saviour stated some facts familiar to all the farming population of Palestine and made them the vehicle to carry spiritual truth. Perhaps from where the multitude was gathered a sower on the plain of Gennesaret was visible at work and pointed to by the Lord.

Mark 4:11. Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom. A mystery is not something obscure, but something plain to those initiated, but a secret to those without. The Greeks had what were called the Eleu-sinian mysteries, unknown to all without, but fully explained to all who were initiated. The Saviour says no more than that there are matters that my disciples shall know that those without can never understand. When one makes Jesus the Master and himself a pupil (disciple), of course he has the vantage ground and will be admitted to spiritual knowledge that he could never obtain had he not entered the school of Christ. The English alphabet is a mystery to the savage, but is no mystery to even little children who have learned it. To them that are without. parables. The method of instruction by parables was peculiarly adapted to their state. It was interesting, and would excite attention, and many of the similes would be long remembered, and their true meaning would insensibly break forth upon their minds. It would lead them to some correct views before they were aware. At the same time the truths thus delivered were covered by a thin veil, and were not immediately apprehended; thus, while instant rejection might be the result of presenting the naked truth, attention to the truth was secured by the interesting covering under which it was couched. He spake only in parables to these Jewish cavillers, in order to take from them the means of knowing truths which they would merely abuse. He would not cast pearls before swine.

Mark 4:12. That seeing they may see, and not perceive. Did he speak in parables because he did not wish them to know and to enjoy? Everything shows the reverse. But he was aware, that, in consequence of the inveteracy of their prejudice, they could not, in the first instance, see the secret of the kingdom without being repelled in spirit, and confirmed in their dissent and dislike. He wished, therefore, that they should not see. But, at the same time, he graciously wished that they should look, and keep looking, so that they might, if possible, get such a glimpse of the inner glory as might fascinate their interest and attention, and by and by disarm their prejudices, so that they might with safety be permitted to see.Morison. Though they see the truth intellectually, they shall not appreciate it spiritually; they see it as the horse sees the same prospect with his rider, without appreciation.Abbott. But their position was according to their own choice. Christ forbade none; and the disciples in this case were not merely the twelve chosen by him, but all who would come. Moral inability always is the fruit of moral unwillingness. Those who cannot see, were in the first place unwilling to see. Lest. they should he converted. His meaning is not, These things are done in parables, lest they should be converted, but, Their eyes they closed, etc., lest at any time they should be converted. That is, men willfully close their hearts to the truth, lest they should be led to repentance and reformation. They will not, therefore they cannot.

Mark 4:13. Know ye not this parable? It is not a reproof, but means, You find you cannot understand this without assistance. The next question, and how then will ye know all parables? extends the thought to all parables, but intimates further: The first parable of the kingdom is the basis of all the rest. If they understand not this, they could not understand any that followed. If they had the explanation of this, they had the key for the understanding of all others. Hence our Lord gives, not rules of interpretation, but examples, one of which is here preserved to be our guide in interpretation.

II. WAYSIDE AND STONY GROUND.Mark 4:14. The sower soweth the word. The great Sower is Christ; the seed sown is the Word of God, the Gospel, whether spoken by Christ, his apostles, preachers, Sunday-school teachers, any disciple, or written in the New Testament, or upon the printed page of the book, tract or newspaper, All spiritual life depends on a divine seed sown in the heart by the divine Sower. The life of the seed depends on, first, receiving it; second, rooting it; third, cultivating it.

Mark 4:15. These are they by the wayside. The fields of Palestine were not fenced and lay in the open country while the population lived in hamlets. The roads or paths were through the fields. Thomson, in the Land and the Book, says: There are neither roads, nor thorns, nor stony places in such lots. They go forth into the open country, where the path passes through the cultivated land, where there are no fences, where thorns grow in clumps all around, where rocks peep out in places through the scanty soil, and hard by are patches extremely fertile. Some of the seed fell on the hard-beaten paths where it would lie until picked up by the birds. This, said the Savior, represents the hardened, worldly hearts that never allow the seed of the kingdom to enter at all. These never allow the word to get under the surface of their thoughts. The way is the heart, beaten and dried by the passage of evil thoughts. Sin has so hardened the heart, worldliness has so deadened the feelings, sinful pleasures and desires have so dulled the conscience that God's truth makes no impression, more than a passing dream, or a pleasant song, to be heard and forgotten, Satan ... taketh away the word that was sown. The object of the preaching of the word is to save souls; the aim of Satan is to destroy souls. The word lies there ready for him. It has not pierced the soil of the heart. It has found no entrance, It is all on the surface. It lies quite naked and exposed. The word has been heard, and that is all. It is snatched away at once. Guthrie says: Wherever there is a preacher in the pulpit, there is a devil among the pews, busy watching the words that fall from the preacher's lips to catch them away. Every preacher is familiar with this class. Upon their hard, flinty hearts the most searching appeals fail to make any impression. They come out of idle curiosity, or to cavil and to scoff and go away as they came.

Mark 4:16. They which are sown on stony ground. Under the figure of the stony ground, he depicts that lively but shallow susceptibility of spirit which grasps the truth eagerly, but receives no deep impressions, and yields as quickly to the reaction of worldly temptations as it had yielded to the divine word. Those whose feelings are touched, but not their conscience or their will. Immediately. The seed in such case springs upall the quicker from the shallowness of the soilbecause it has no depth of earth. Receive it with gladness. The hearer described has not counted the cost; whatever was fair and beautiful in Christianity, as it first presents itself, had attracted himits sweet and comfortable promises, the moral loveliness of its doctrines, but not its answer to the deepest needs of the human heart; as neither, when he received the word with gladness, had he contemplated the having to endure hardness in his warfare with sin and Satan and the world.Trench.

Mark 4:17. Have no root in themselves. They make profession and begin, but do not hold out, because the good seed has not rooted deeply. These are they who are moved by emotion, not by a deep sense of conviction. When affliction or persecution. As the heat scorches the blade which has no deepness of earth, so the troubles and afflictions, which would have strengthened a true faith, cause a faith which was merely temporary to fail. The image has a peculiar fitness and beauty, for as the roots of a tree are out of sight, yet from them it derives its firmness and stability; so upon the hidden life of the Christian his firmness and stability depend.Trench. A sneer from some leading spirit in a literary society, or a laugh raised by some gay circle of pleasure-seekers in a fashionable drawing-room, or the rude jests of scoffing artisans in a workshop, may do as much as the fagot and the stake to make a fair but false disciple deny his Lord.

III. THORNS AND GOOD GROUND.Mark 4:18. Sown among thorns. The seed which takes root, but is stifled by the thorns that -shoot up with it, figures the mind in which the elements of worldly desire develop themselves along with the higher life, and at last become strong enough to crush it, so that the received truth it utterly lost. The evil here is neither a hard nor a shallow soilthere is softness enough, and depth enough; but it is the existence in it of what draws all the moisture and richness of the soil away to itself, and so starves the plant.

Mark 4:19. Cares of this world. What are these thorns? First, the cares of this worldanxious, unrelaxing attention to the business of his present life; second, the deceitfulness of richesof those riches which are the fruit of this worldly care; third, the pleasures of this lifethe enjoyments, in themselves it may be innocent, in which worldly prosperity enables one to indulge. These choke or smother the word; drawing off so much of one's attention, absorbing so much of one's interest, and using up so much of one's time, that only the dregs of these remain for spiritual things, and a fagged, hurried and heartless formalism is at length all the religion of such persons.J. F. and B. Our Savior here places riches in the midst between cares and pleasures; for cares generally precede the gaining of riches, and, when gained, they draw men into pleasures and indulgence.Dodd.

Mark 4:20. Sown on good ground, etc. A heart soft and tender, stirred to its depths on the great things of eternity, and jealously guarded from worldly engrossments, such only is the honest and good heart (Luke 8:15), which keeps, i.e., retains the seed of the word, and bears fruit just in proportion as it is such a heart. Such bring forth fruit with patience (Mark 4:15), or continuance, enduring to the end; in contrast with those in whom the word is choked, and brings no fruit to perfection. The thirty-fold is designed to express the lowest degree of fruitfulness; the hundred-fold, the highest, and the sixty-fold the intermediate degrees of fruitfulness. As a hundred-fold, though not unexampled (Genesis 26:12), is a rare return in the natural husbandry, so the highest degrees of spiritual fruitfulness are, too, seldom witnessed.J.F. and B. Some thirty-fold, some sixty and some a hundred. Thirty-fold is now a first-rate crop, even for such plains as Esdraelon, just below Nazareth. But in the time of Christ there might be realized, in favorable circumstances, a hundredfold. Intelligent gentlemen (in the plain of Esdraelon) maintain that they have themselves reaped more than an hundred-fold, Moreover, the different kinds of fertility may be ascribed to different kinds of grain: Barley yields more than wheat; and white maize, sown in the neighborhood, often yields several hundred-fold. An extraordinary number of stalks do actually spring from a single root. Here, on this plain of Sidon, I have seen more than a hundred, and each with a head bowing gracefully beneath the load of well-formed grains. The yield was more than a thousand-fold.Land and Book. Observe the four kinds of seed: The first did not spring up at all; the second sprang up, but soon withered away; the third sprang up and grew, but yielded no fruit; the fourth sprang up, grew, and brought forth fruit. And as there are three causes of unfaithfulness, so there are three degrees of fruitfulness, but only one cause of fruitfulness,Maclear.

FACT QUESTIONS 4:10-20

194.

Show how the parable of the sower was appropriate to the time and place where it was given.

195.

Describe briefly the four types of soils.

196

.Did Jesus speak more than one parable upon this occasion? How many?

197.

Was this a new method of instruction? Show the difference in a parable and an allegory.

198.

Explain the expression mystery of the kingdom.

199.

Show how appropriate the use of parables was to those without.

200.

Please explain: that seeing they may see, and not perceive.lest they be converted.

201.

What seems to be the key to all the parables?

202.

In what way can the seed be sown?

203.

Where was the wayside in the fields of Palestine?

204.

Why are wayside hearers so indifferent?

205.

Explain how Satan takes away the word or the seed?

206.

What causes such a joyful acceptance on the part of someonly to be lost later?

207.

Show the difference between emotion and conviction.

208.

Discuss carefully the three types of thorns and their interrelation.

209.

Show the three causes of unfaithfulness, the three degrees of fruitfulness and the one cause of fruitfulness.