Today's sermon was part two of "Jesus: The Master Teacher." The text that this two-week series focused on was Mark 4:1-20, better known as the Parable of the Seeds or of the Sowers, or as the Parable of the Soils like my dad calls it. Let's remind ourselves that a parable is a story with a lesson.
Jesus is teaching by the sea to a large crowd in this text. He begins His parable by talking about a farmer. Listen to the words of Jesus, the Master Teacher, Himself:
"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 seed 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 thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."The point of this parable is that there are four soils. They are like this:
- The first bit of seed falls along the path and is soon eaten by the birds. These are that Satan has snatched away. They've turned their back on God, refused to believe in Him and have become, as the term today deems them, atheists (people who do not believe that God exists).
- Some more seed falls on rocky soil. These are the people that "get saved" either at a revival meeting or maybe at Vacation Bible School and they're told that 'with Jesus, you're life will be wonderful!' They become a "Christian," but their salvation was shallow. Suddenly troubled times come along. Maybe a family member gets sick or they lose their job, and that's it. They thought that being a "Christian" would be fun and easy. But they never expected trials and tribulation, though God promises that they will come. (Matthew 24:9)
- The next bit of seed falls on thorny soil. This is the person who accepts Jesus, but then the lure of the world and the deceit of riches and other things pull them away. The world chokes their "faith" out of them.
- But the last seed falls on much different soil. This is the good soil. These are the people that truly understand what salvation is and repent of their sins and trust their lives to Jesus. Then, they get out there and they become the sower. They sow seeds, and reap thirtyfold and sixtyfold and one hundredfold.