The Parable of the Sower

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Introduction:

Many

Christians read the bible and often say that they find certain passages difficult to understand because of those old fashioned words. It may be true because we do not speak as they did then, using antiquated words like “Thee”, “Thy” and “Thou” and the reader often discards them thinking they are too difficult. In so doing, they miss out on gleaning truth, or “revelation” that is hidden in the original texts. Modern day translations might make it more readable, but can not always provide such truth or revelation. As a result, the real meanings are often missed.

Readers form opinions based on what commentators or theologians (whose studies are commendable) tell them. An example is found in the nativity story where whole generations have believed that there were three wise men who came to a stable along with the shepherds to present gifts to a newborn baby in a manger, but the word of God does not say that.

The shepherds came alone to the infant and the bible simply states that there were wise men, without giving their numbers. Jesus may have been two years of age at the time and no longer in Bethlehem. They presented three groups of gifts of course and we have made the assumption from this that there were three men.

Nevertheless, I still like the story, but share this to illustrate that we cannot always take what we are being told for granted.

As usual, I ask readers to always check things out for themselves and do what we see in Acts 17:11, where certain believers tested for themselves if what was told them across the pulpit was truth. Put it to the test, no matter who says it and that includes myself! Test the spirits (1 John 4:1).

Another common approach is along the lines that “We do not know what God is going to do” or that there are mysteries hidden from us. Whilst there are indeed mysteries, God does not hide them “from us” but “for us”.

It is up to you and me to discover for ourselves what God says and we can do this because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit who reveals all the truth to us, just as Jesus said He would. He can and does reveal the meanings of the parables, one of which is the parable of the sower and the seed.

When we read such stories as seen in this parable, we need to firstly check the background and find out under what circumstances and conditions it is based; to whom God is speaking and why.

This is important because we could think that God is talking to the church, but He is actually relating to Israel and vice-versa. Paul saidDon’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. 1 Corinthians 10:32

God has a covenant with Israel that still exists. He has a different covenant with the Church and there are those who have no covenant at all in this context, so there are three different groups of people with whom God deals.

If we think that He is talking about the Church, but is actually referring to the Jews, our theology, especially with regard end time events can be wrong. For such reasons, we need to look at the setting in which a particular story takes place.

If we approach it in this way, we can avoid the common pitfalls or misconceptions people have about this parable. Much focus has been on the kinds of soil, the way the seed germinates and the attitudes of the hearers, all of which may be true, but not see the real meaning of the story.

Mark opens with the statement that Jesus started teaching...again, so that means He was teaching before this.

His ministry involved much teaching. Actually, His ministry consisted of preaching about the Kingdom of God, teaching the principles of God, healing the sick and as necessary, casting out evil spirits. Now if He said that we could do the same things that He did and commanded us to do likewise, it behooves us to see if we really are.

As I said a while ago, we often gloss over things and not see the full or the real picture and can then leap to conclusions. Let us see what happened when Jesus came to the shores of the lake where fishermen were washing their nets after an unsuccessful venture during the night. He entered into Peter’s boat and asked him to launch out a little so that He could preach to the crowd.

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We have assumed this was his first encounter with the Lord and then started to follow Him, but that is not so.

Let us see what happened in Luke 4:31-44. Please take note of my emphasis.

And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.

And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.

And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.

And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house.

And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.

Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.

And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.

And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.

Oh how I wish we had the same testimony, but I have news for you...we can and should because Jesus said so!

I had assumed because ofwhat I had been told previously, that Peter did not know Jesus before the miracle of the fishes, but Jesus had spent at least one night in Peter’s home and healed Peter’s mother-in-law before the sea side episode the following morning. It makes me wonder how many other incorrect assumptions we have reached.

We have assumed that they forsook all to follow the Lord, but this may also be untrue. After all Peter was a married man with a home, possibly a family and had partners in a fishing business. He could have left someone in charge to become a disciple. Later in John chapter twenty, Peter went fishing and there were at least two boats there. Whose were they? We are not told, but it is likely that someone knew who did and got permission to use them. If it was night time, the rightful owners surely would have wanted to use those boats themselves, so did Peter or his partners own these boats? Perhaps.

That is the setting now for the story at hand, when, after the events in Mark chapter three (or even before that), Jesus started teaching once more and crowds of people came and here is how it is recordedAnd he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. Mark 4:1

This is just what it was like in Luke 5. As I look into His ministry more, it seems that Jesus followed “patterns” and if this is correct, then if we know and understand those patterns we can apply the principles also—and get the same results. This is not an unreasonable statement because of what He said in places like John 5:37; 10:25, 32-38; 14:12. The more I look at His words, the more I wonder how effective I am in my own ministry and how I compare with Him. Even as I write, it challenges me. It’s food for thought.

A great multitude:

Let

us see who was present and listening to His teaching. In the first verse, Mark stated that there was such a great multitude gathered there, He had to get into a boat to be able to teach and that the whole multitude was on the shoreline. Apparently the acoustics there are good and as if in a natural amphitheater, Jesus was able to project His voice, which can be done without yelling. Mark does not say whose boat it was or if any of Jesus’ disciples were in the boat with Him. I think not, because of the way Mark described it. It could have been Peter’s and Peter may have been in the boat, but we do not know.

The words used are πολύς (polys) meaning much, many or great; ὄχλος (ochlos) meaning a disorganized throng Page 3

of people or an irregular crowd; πᾶς (pas) meaning all or every kind. This had to include the disciples. They were in the crowd. Later on we see that they later found themselves alone with Jesus and we shall see more of this shortly. Verse two now tells us what Jesus did.

And he taught them many things by parables

The word for many things is also polys. What He said thus had to be very extensive. He said exactly those same things to everyone present, namely the crowd...and the disciples...and He used parables. We need now to know what the word parable means. In the Greek, it is παραβολή (parabolē) that comes from two other Greek words, para meaning beside and ballō that means to throw. When we run them together it means a casting, throwing or placing things side by side. It compares one thing with another and can be translated as figure. The bible is full of types and shadows, figures, symbols and examples...or...parables.

Jesus used everyday events or things to compare them with spiritual truth.

If, for example you asked Him what something was like, He could have picked up a piece of fruit and describe what it was, that it had seed inside it and that when the fruit seed was planted, it would grow into a plant that in turn reproduced by growing more fruit after its own kind.

He often said things such asThe kingdom of heaven is like... See Matthew 13, 20 and 21.

Interestingly, He told the disciples that the mysteries of the Kingdom were given to them and we shall elaborate on that soon.

Jesus was speaking in parables to everyone there. If you look at verse two, He taught “Them”—the crowd and the disciples, but no one, including the disciples, understood a thing.

Doctrine:

Mark

said that Jesus taught them in His doctrine. As I said, this included everyone present at that point but we need now to look at the word doctrine. It is didachē and before I elaborate on that, please look at something in the Hebrew that is very relevant. You may have come across the word tôrâ (‫)הָרוֹּת‬ that usually means law, regulation, instruction, or teaching and it was originally used to describe the instructions for daily conduct that God gave his people. Proverbs 3:1 and 6:20 are good examples of this.

Mark called it Jesus’ teaching. We call it His gospel, but so too did Paul in Romans 2:16, 16:25 and 2 Timothy 2:8. This tells me that we can and should make it personal, or make it ours and we can legitimately and should do that by saying what they said. This is perfectly scriptural.

One such reference is in Hebrews 10:23 that statesLet us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

That word profession is Homologia that basically means to say the same things that God says. What he says is in His word, or the bible, but I hasten to add that the “version” you use should be as accurate as possible to the original language.

As I said in the beginning, many modern translations lack that ring of authenticity.

We know that Jesus was and is still a Jew and so He observed all the Jewish customs and traditions, fulfilling the Law, but not annulling it. The problem was that the Jewish religious leaders had “twisted” The Law and turned it into the traditions of man that Jesus disliked. He told those people in Matthew 5:17 that He did not come to destroy The Law or The Prophets, but to fulfill them.

He later touched on certain aspects of The Law such as murder or adultery putting it into right perspective with His famous, “But I say unto you”.

Take the adultery question. He said that one need not literally commit the act, but to think of it or have the wrong heart attitude.

He made it real to life and added a dimension that the legalists did not know about and that was His doctrine.

Such legalists and theologians today can share excellent information and that is what it is...information, but it Page 4

can often lack that dimension of which I speak that brings light and life changing revelation.

In the New Testament, there are two words to consider.

One is didachē that Mark used and there is another called didaskalia that Jesus used in Matthew 15:6-9 when He chided called the religious leaders hypocrites who had rendered the unadulterated word of God ineffective by their teachings and man made traditions and doctrines.

All that the ordinary people had been taught up to now were such things. It is a human trait that still exists. One way to put it to the test is to visit any church you like and look around you. See how many people bring a bible (and read it). See if the man behind the pulpit reads from one and encourages everyone to follow along with him. See if they follow an order of service when certain things take precedence over biblical principles. Check the fruit!

There are numerous instances I could quote about such things.

Colossians chapter two is one where Paul tells us not to let anyone tell us what to do with regard food and drink, “holy days”, sabbath days, “touch not, taste not, handle not” in verses 16-22 when he says that they are all according to the commandments and doctrines of men and not of God. See also 1 Timothy 4:6-11; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:15-17 and Titus 2:7.

There is indeed a pattern as I alluded to earlier and it was the pattern that the Father gave Jesus, who followed that pattern, adopting it as His doctrine. This is what He was teaching the people and no one understood it.

Even today, this parable is not always understood.

People talk at length about the kinds of soil into which the seed fell and they may be right about that, technically speaking.

They often liken their growth or lack thereof with the conditions of people’s hearts and again be correct. It is often used as a salvation message tool, but, although there may be such to glean from these presentations, the parable is not about them at all.

Let us now see what Jesus said before continuing.

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. Mark 4:3-8

Listen up:

On

face value it may seem that Jesus is repeating His words, hearken and behold, like saying, “listen, listen”, but they are different. We can hear something, like the wind blowing and not really pay any attention to it, or like hearing traffic noise when you are living on a busy road, but not really “hear it” because we get used to it and tune out. A visitor from the countryside however could have many a sleepless night because of all the noise!

You can have the Television set on or a music CD playing and although noise is coming from them, are not really hearing a thing.

The sound blends into the background.

When in a crowd of people all talking, the voices are mere mumbling sound and unless we get close and listen attentively to someone in particular we cannot make out what they are actually saying.

The word for hearken means something like that. It comes from a word that means we can hear it, but not really paying any attention to it.

The word behold talks about actually comprehending or “seeing it”.

It talks of taking notice or having perception of it.

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Look at children in church or some adults too for that matter who are sitting there whilst the preacher is speaking and they are just not paying any attention. The Lord is basically saying, “Listen up and pay attention”.

This is consistent with what He said afterwards, saying as one translation puts itIf you have ears, listen! Mark 4:9

The parable:

Let

us now look at the parable itself. As I ponder over this, it seems that this person sowing the seed was not really very smart. He did not have the farming implements we have today of course, so clearing the land was not easy, but I see a problem here.

My father-in-law owned a large property where he raised cattle and two of his sons grew sugar cane there. I often visited and helped out, growing some produce of my own on a small portion they let me use as a part time hobby farmer.

The sugar mill allotted a kind of quota called an assignment to the farmers each season and when they did, the farmers prepared new fields. My father-in-law hired a contractor to clear the land by bulldozing trees and ripping the soil open with a big D9 bulldozer. He then followed up with his own smaller tractors, one of which was a crawler tractor with a blade in front and a single ripper behind. He also had two wheeled tractors to which were fitted different implements, like planters and a rotary hoe attachment. I often drove that, preparing the land for planting more sugar cane. In this process, we removed any rocks or debris like tree roots to ensure that the soil was clear for planting.

Sometimes I helped use explosives to blow some trees and after that, pushed them into a gully with the bulldozer.

The aim was to prepare the soil, by removing remaining tree stumps and rocks and then arranging the soil by creating furrows and the like.

The sower in this story did not have such facilities and so did the best he could. When he thought it was right to do so, walked down the line with a container of some kind throwing out his precious seed and it was very labor intensive, possibly with uncertain results. It was a kind of hit and miss process and we cannot adopt any hit and miss approaches in the Kingdom. Making sure that no seed was lost should have been important, but it seems that he was not as careful as he should have been and seed was scattered everywhere.

There are spirituals lesson in this, one of which is not to waste our time and effort and resources by being “seed throwers”. Jesus wasn’t!

He never did anything unless it was on an assignment given Him by the Father. He was a sent one, or an apostle.

That is when it means. If we want to be truly effective for the Lord, we must be sent ones and not went ones.

I say that of the sower because of Jesus’ description.

Firstly, he allowed the seed to fall by the wayside and the word for this is Hodos, meaning a well traveled path, a road, a journey or even a highway.

I saw this like getting too close to a pathway of some kind that was a thoroughfare, a footpath people walked on, or perhaps a well trodden trail that animals use regularly. In farming communities, such trails are made by cattle for example as they walk to the water source, or to the milking shed as a matter of habit and the land is treaded on so much, it is trampled flat.

This is where he let some seed fall, so it is little wonder that the birds of the air swooped down to eat it. Birds of the air can often speak of evil spirits, so if we associate this seed or the act of casting out the seed with spiritual activity like sharing the Gospel, the enemy immediately went into action to stop anything from happening.

The significance is that if you or I are attempting to sow the seed of God’s word, we should be wise enough to make sure we do so when we can be most effective. It is like casting our pearls before swine.

People are so accustomed to their way of life, their mannerisms, habits or Hodos, that, unless we really have Page 6

something to offer them, they ignore us and just keep walking.

The next thing Jesus mentioned was how the seed fell on stony ground.

Here, the soil was totally unprepared and was not ready to receive the seed.

It makes me wonder why the man had not removed the rocks.

I understand that there are different kinds of soil of course, but surely a wise farmer will do his best to remove what he can before trying to plant anything.

Once more, I understand that the facilities available in those days might not be conducive to this, but even a simple garden rake could have helped shift some of those rocks and expose good soil to give the seed a chance.

As I pondered over this, I thought of crusade events or meetings in which we ask unsaved people to attend. We want to see them be born again and rightly so, but the problems here are twofold.

The first one is that in our enthusiasm, we want someone to raise their hand, come to the front to an altar call, say the sinner’s prayer and receive Jesus. That’s great. I do and encourage others to do likewise, but the problem is that sometimes we “force issues” because we want to see them saved. We keep pressurizing people so much that they will say that prayer just to stop it...to get out of the heat...to placate us and make us quit.

Their hearts have not changed. The seed falls onto unprepared soil and they go away untouched, or touched a little without any substance.

In the second instance, a genuine conversion may indeed have taken place and we jump for joy, give them a big hug perhaps and they go back to their homes. The environment there might not be pleasant, or even hostile to the things of God. They are not encouraged more. There is no follow up, without pressurizing and we have brought a baby into the world, leaving it to fend for itself. My concern is what happens to the people who are born again? What kind of follow up exists? Will someone become a spiritual father to them?

Think of your own church. Could it handle an influx of souls?

Can you or your church take a newborn baby, feed it the milk of the word, help it grow to the full stature of Christ and help it in its newfound life? I am not talking about the various church programs that abound. They are good, but are they really life-changing and life-sustaining? Many churches pray for revival, but are not equipped for it.

Having said that, we must also look at the early church to compare ourselves with her. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter who had been a coward the day before, stood up and preached such a powerful sermon that the crowd asked him what they had to do to be saved. 3000 souls were born again in one meeting that had no sound system, no music ministry, no lighting effects, and no nothing. Shortly after that another 5000 were saved and we see that the Lord added daily...daily to the church. Why? The Holy Spirit did it! Very few of us allow Him in the church today. If we really want to see people saved—and continue in the Lord, then we must return to the original pattern.

We need to remove the stones, loosen up the soil and make sure that the seed is planted in the right place at the right time. The latter is very important because there are distinct times and seasons in nature. There is a time to sow and a time to reap and in between there are times of weeding, fertilizing and watering the seed before the new shoots emerge. Jesus said that in conjunction with teaching this parable.

And He said, The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground, And then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and increases—he knows not how.

The earth produces [acting] by itself—first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he sends forth [the reapers] and puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready.

Mark 4:26-29

Nine times in Ecclesiastes 3, specific mention is made to timing. To be really effective in ministry, we must factor this in. Well meaning people often invite me to visit them to their part of the world and keep asking me when I am coming, even though I keep telling them that I do not know the precise time and that all the Lord tells me is to wait.

In Acts 16:6, Paul tells that he had such calls to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade him. The need was there.

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The opportunity was there, but it was not the right time.

All of our ministry endeavors have to take place in the right time, at the right pace and for the right reasons, one of which is to ensure that people are rooted and grounded in the word of God. People fall away because they do not receive good teaching in an ongoing basis. It’s good to have great meetings but what happens afterwards?

Some of the seed fell amongst thorns (Akantha) and this speaks of several things. In Matthew 7:16, the Lord used this same word to speak of false prophets. It is an illustration of those who have been exposed to the gospel of grace, only to forsake it for one of works.

In the parable, the thorns represent the ones who hears the word but turns their attention to the attractions of the world system. The bible speaks of renewing our minds in places like Romans 12:1-3.

Before we are saved, we lived in the world system that is governed by the god (lower case) of this world and shaped by it (see 2 Corinthians 4:4). After we are born again, we are taken out of this system and placed into God’s kingdom (see colossians 1:13). We have to learn new ways of living.

When this seed then fell amongst the thorns and briars without proper rooting, the issues of life, trials and testing, problems and difficulties, being exposed to lies and false teachings or allowing the old flesh life to dominate us, the seed could germinate but slowly dies out or the tender shoot is choked out and we revert to the old life.

Jesus then said that some seed fell in the right place, or the good and productive ground where it not only germinated and took root but thrived.

We often major on the 30-60-100 fold return and link it with sowing and reaping and rightly so, but stop there. It is not so much as how much is multiplied, but what is multiplied and how much is used!

Each of us is different. We have different DNA, education, opportunities in life, capacity to handle things and so on.

A large framed man as an example may be able to lift heavier objects than a small framed woman. An athlete may need to eat more healthy food than an office worker. A growing child can eat a parent out of house and home whilst an older person might not eat as much as a youth.

Our abilities to comprehend things also differ, so one person can only handle a 30-fold portion, whilst another can deal with 100-fold. What is important is that we each make full use of what we can handle. A 30-fold person is no better than a 100-fold person so the percentage factors are not the issue—what we do with what God gives us is.

It would be far better for a 30-fold person to use 100% of what he has than a 100-fold person only using a 30% portion of what he has been given.

That was the message Jesus gave everyone present...the disciples; the crowd; religious leaders...whoever! Jesus was talking to them all but no one understood what He said. Let us see what happened next.

Afterwards, when he was alone with the Twelve and with his other disciples, they asked him, “What does your story mean?” Mark 4:10 We have a tendency to assume things and so often tnink that Jesus only had twelve disciples, but that is not so. In Luke 10, we see that the Lord appointed an additional 70 disciples and sent them out on ministry assignment, so that makes 82 disciples.

John said that many of Jesus’ disciples left Him-

...It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it].

The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life. But [still] some of you fail to believe and trust and have faith. For Jesus knew from the first who did not believe and had no faith and who would betray Him and be false to Him. And He said, This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him [unless he is enabled to do so] by the Father.

After this, many of His disciples drew back (returned to their old associations) and no longer accompanied Him. Page 8

Jesus said to the Twelve, Will you also go away? [And do you too desire to leave Me?] Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words (the message) of eternal life.

And we have learned to believe and trust, and [more] we have come to know [surely] that You are the Holy One of God, the Christ (the Anointed One), the Son of the living God. John 6:63-69

If you think of what we have just discussed in the parable, we can see from the above that merely being a seed thrower does not work.

The Holy Spirit draws people, reproves the world of sin, righteousness and judgment and that the Father who sent Jesus enables us to come to Jesus. These things must be factored in when we are trying to do something for the Lord. Unless He is in it, we can throw all we like and nothing may happen.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23

The Lord did not deny that they had done such things. They may have done what they claimed, but that He had not authorized them to do so.

We have seen that there were 82 disciples, but there were more and some of them left Jesus for the reasons we touched on—thorny ground, unprepared soil, cares of the world and so on and there were more yet.

In 1 Corinthians 15:6, Paul said that more than 500 brethren saw Jesus after His resurrection. So much for traditional teaching!

Therefore when Jesus had finished speaking, His disciples and others came to Him asking Him to explain the parable. We do not know how many there were, but it is feasible that many more than 12 were present. Could the five hundred have been there? We do not know. What we do know however is that His disciples asked Him to explain the parable and that—is what it is all about.

Them and us:

As

we saw earlier, Jesus started speaking to a motley throng of people and after that He was alone with His disciples. They came to Him and asked Him to explain what He meant. It seems to me that He did not take the imitative—they did! If this is correct, then that tells me it is up to us as individuals to want to know more and take the effort to find out. God is not secretive, but it sure seems that way at times. If it is not plainly revealed, we have to dig for itIt is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a thing. Proverbs 25:2. See also Acts 17:11

It is often said that God hides many things from us, using such scriptures as 1 Corinthians chapter two and Isaiah 64:4 to say that the thing of God cannot be perceived by the ear, or the eye and so on. What Paul said immediately after quoting from that is this-

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16. Emphasis mine.

Prior to that, Paul was telling us that the intellectual approach simply does not work. To understand the things of God, we must approach it all spiritually and not intellectually.

The crowd was trying to understand what Jesus said intellectually. Many theologians do it also, with the result Page 9

that, although they excel in their fields, they do not seem to draw from the Holy Spirit those things that pertain to life and true Godliness.

As another example, in Luke 24 two of Jesus’ disciples were walking to Emmaeus “communing” and “reasoning” together about what had happened. Such reasoning is in the realm of the mind or the intellect and we know that this does not always work, because we rationalize things out and often get into debate as they were doing.

They were having a religious argument!

How often do we see this? When Jesus joined up with them, they did not see Him until He opened up the scriptures to them! Let me put it another way. Unless the Holy Spirit who now represents Jesus and who is the Spirit of truth and our teacher opens things up to us, we cannot understand a thing!

Jesus’ disciples did not understand a thing He said until they asked Him to explain it! That is very important.

God will not force a thing on you. You must ask for it and when you do and are ready to both receive and retain it, He is there!

He said to them:

In

verse thirteen, He said unto them...

He said to them, “To you is given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything is said in parables... Mark 4:11

Clearly there is a case of “them” and “us”. It might sound simplistic, but if we are not “one of us”, or a true follower of the Lord, we have to be “one of them” and there is a demarcation line. If you are one of them, you will not understand it, but if you are one of us, you have every right to ask Him to unlock things that have hitherto been a mystery and receive the answer.

He might not give you the answer immediately, or give it to you all at once, but He will reveal His truth and His purpose.

He wants us to know the truth and we can see this from what He said nextAnd He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable?

How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?

Mark 4:13

He had no sooner said that, when He told us what the seed was and is today.

The sower sows the Word. Mark 4:14

The seed is the word:

He

said plainly that the seed is the word. In verse 15, it is the word and here we can see one of satan’s ploys.

It is to steal the word before it has time to produce any results. The devil does not care if you read a bible, but he does care if you understand it and do what it says.

He has read it, but has no revelation knowledge. If he did, then according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:8, he would not have contrived Jesus’ crucifixion. What he does is to try getting us to doubt, using such words as, “Did God really say that?” as He did to Eve, or, “If...” as he did to Jesus. “Are you really the Son of God? Are you really saved? Are you really going to heaven? Are you really healed?”

When such things happen to us, which they do, we need to know what God has said.

What satan does not want to happen is for the word of God to start doing what it is designed to do.

Verses 17, 18 and 19 all speak about the word and then comes verse 20 when He said that the word can have 30,60, or 100-fold effect and I touched on the multiplication or growth factor earlier. God’s word is creative and has great powerful effect. It is what we do with God’s word we should focus on, not the soil or anything else.

After speaking about letting our light shine and that nothing should be hidden (in the same breath as speaking Page 10

about the word), He said to them to take heed how they hear the word. He was talking to His disciples.

If we call ourselves the followers of Jesus, we should also take heed to both what we hear and how we hear it and this all revolves around the word of God. Why is this so? There may be many good reasons, but one thing we can take to heart is the faith component, for without faith, we cannot please God and we know that the just shall live by faith. This now raises another point.

Some people say that they have no faith, or little faith, but we have all been given all the faith we shall ever have according to Romans 12:3.

The issue is how much we use. We can use a little or use much.

We can use 30-fold, or 60 fold, or 100-fold and the measure is up to us.

In simple terms, the more we “use it” the more we “release”. It is like exercising our spiritual muscles and doing workouts. There is a classic passage some people use about faith and it is in Romans 10 where in verse 17 we see that faith cometh by hearing and this hearing is by the (Rhema) word of God. This kind of word does not come by glancing occasionally at the bible or reading a part we like; listening to someone read a passage of scripture in a sermon, but by personal diligent study. Paul told usStudy to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. 2 Timothy 2:15-16

The Greek word for Approved is Dokimos and it is a term used in metallurgy or assaying precious metals like gold.

It relates to an ancient practice of shaving coins and collecting the shavings. Eventually enough gold or silver is collected to make it worth the effort, but the owner of the coin payed for it by weight and was so cheated of its full value. Measures were taken to make this illegal and the full weighted coin was Dokimos. The reference to rightly dividing is Orthotomeō that is derived from two words that mean to rise perfectly vertically and horizontally and making a straight, clean and clear cut. It is like dissecting something with great precision and accuracy.

Therefore what we have to dissect properly by Paul’s description is the word of God. What this means to us is that when we really and honestly want to know the truth, we have to approach it in the same manner and that can sometimes take a little effort. Thankfully it is not totally up to us, because the Holy Spirit opens it up to us and for us. That is why the Lord told us to be careful in what we hear and how we hear it.

Everything:

This

parable is all about the word of God. Jesus continued speaking using other parables and brought it to a conclusion in verse 34.

With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the Word to them, as they were able to hear and to comprehend and understand.

He did not tell them anything without a parable; but privately to His disciples (those who were peculiarly His own) He explained everything [fully]. Mark 4:33-34

We can see now that Jesus spoke in riddles to everyone and no one understood what He said, but the time came when He was alone with His disciples and then—in private—He explained everything fully.

If you are a disciple of Jesus, He can and will reveal things to you, provided you want Him to.

Religious folk will try to tell you otherwise. Put it to the test.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth, especially about Jesus.

That’s what the Lord said in John’s Gospel. Check out what anyone tells you regardless of who it is and see if it really stands up to scrutiny.

In closing, may I encourage you to get hungry...

Robert Bashan Ministries | PO Box 1552 Victor Harbor South Australia 5211 | info@bashanministries.org www.bashanministries.org