Evangilism 101 (Mark 4:1-20)

A PARABLE ABOUT EVANGILISING

(Mark 4:1-20)

I have been listening to a number of messages on this parable in Mark 4:1-20 and have had some time to think through them and to try and understand if what I have been listening to and what I have been reading is what I want to use to help me in this commentary on this very important parable that Jesus gives. It is the first parable that Jesus speaks in the entire Gospel accounts and He says to His disciples that if you don’t understand this parable you won’t understand all the rest of the parables.

We have to remember that the word parable means to line up beside and what Jesus does when telling a parable is to use an earthly lesson that most people of his day would understand and make an important spiritual point that most people of His day would not understand and that is the reason that He speaks in parables. We also have to remember that Jesus had been preaching to the people in Galilee for a long time, perhaps a year, and had been healing all of the sick and casting out the demons that they had in them. The Scribes and the Pharisees hated Jesus because He was not “spiritual enough” for them, for Jesus did not keep to their traditions that were worthless. Because of this the Scribes and the Pharisees told the people on different occasions that Jesus was doing the miracles in the power of Satan, for there was no way that they could refute the miracles that they were doing. Jesus told them that this was an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit and they could not be forgiven for this sin. At this point in the ministry of Jesus He started to speak in parables so that the truth could be hidden from those who had already had the truth preached to them and rejected the truth, even though the saw the miracles He had done. They had gone too far and so the parables would begin and after speaking to the crowds in parables He would spend time with His disciples and explain the parables to them. This brings us to the first of the parables, which is about evangelism and we can learn from this parable the importance and method of evangelism. This parable is about the different kinds of soil and we will see that there is actually four kinds of soil that the seed went into, but only one produced fruit, something that would show whether or not a person was either a true believer or not.

We will look at this parable in the way that Jesus first told it to the crowds and at the same time look at how Jesus explained it to His disciples. We will begin with the first kind of soil or heart, for the soil represents the different kinds of hearts that the different kinds of people had. We also need to realize that the “sower” is a believer, any believer who sows the “seed,” and the seed is the Word of God (Luke 8:11), the Gospel is the Word of God. As I was listening to one of message that pertains to this parable I was struck with comparing a seed to the Gospel, for the seed in the parable is the Gospel. When one looks at a seed, any seed one can see power in that seed, for all one has to do is to plant it in good soil, soil that has been prepared to receive the soil and as the next parable in Marks says that after the seed is planted the man who plants it goes to bed and allows the seed to begin to grow. All the man did was prepare the soil and plant the seed and the seed did the rest. Now there are times after the seed comes up the man will have to water the ground and also keep the weeds away from the new plant, but this speaks of when a person becomes a believer, for then the person will need care. The Word of God is powerful, for unbelievers and believers alike “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12 KJV) We don’t really know how the seed works, but if we go back to when God created the world we see that when He made the plants and trees they had seeds in them that would produce plant and trees after their own kind. There is power in the seeds. I take a product that as far as I know is of the highest antioxidant that can be taken and it is produced from the seeds of oranges, grapefruits, and a few other seeds. It tastes terrible but it does help me to build up my immune system to help ward of sickness. There shows how powerful seeds are.

Paul writes this in 1Cor 3:5-9 about how the Word of God works in the hearts of people like a seed does in the ground: “5 ¶ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”

“1 ¶ He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. 2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, 3 "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.” (Mark 4:1-4)

We can see from verse one that the crowd that Jesus was talking to was so large that He had to get into a boat in order not to be pushed into the water. We know from before that most of the crowds were looking for some healings or other miracles, but it seems that few were looking for a spiritual healing.

We spoke above why it was that Jesus was teaching in parables as seen in verse two. Verses three and four speak of the sower, the seed, and the birds. The sower is the one who tells others about the gospel, and the seed is the gospel and the birds who pick up the seed are the Devil and his cohorts.

Now let us talk about the “Shallow heart (vv. 5-6, & 16-17): “5 "Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. 6 "And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 16 "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

What we see in this section is a person professes to believe in the truth of the Gospel, but probably has not counted the cost of knowing Christ as their personal Savior. There is usually great emotion in this type of “conversion” and we must remember that emotions cannot always be trusted, they are changeable. Changeable is what Jesus is talking about for when persecution or troubles come along this “believer” will turn his back on the truth of the Gospel. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “It is easy for fallen human nature to counterfeit ‘religious feelings’ and give a professed Christian a feeling of false confidence.” As I understand the parable and also compare it to other Scriptures one of the traits of a true believer is that they will always produce fruit, and this soil cannot produce fruit because the plant dies.

Now let us look at the “Crowded heart” from verse 7 and then verses 18-19: “7 "Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 18 "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. “

There are so called “Pastors” on the TV in the United States who work on the emotions of people and they are part of what is called the “prosperity gospel.” The will say that if you send them money then they will pray for you and you may receive a healing, or they will say that if you send them money that something good will happen to you. This is not at all how the Gospel is taught in the New Testament, for in Mr 8:34 Jesus said: “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

We see in this kind of soil a person who has a lot of weeds growing and he then will add the true Gospel into his heart, but because he is unwilling to remove the other weeds, like riches, worldliness, and things like this what he thought was a true conversion was not as these weeds choke out the truth and thus he gives up on his “new faith.” Dr. Wiersbe writes, “To change his image, this person wants to walk the ‘broad way’ and the ‘narrow way’ at the same time (Matt. 7:13-14); and it cannot be done.”

Now we will look at the “fruitful heart” as seen from verse 8 and 20: “8 "Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.’ “20 "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.’”

In two of the messages that I heard on this parable by John MacArthur he said that he did research on how much a crop would produce at the time when Jesus walked the earth and the most that he was able to find was only 7-7.5%. We see in this section that this crop produces either 30, 60, or 100 times in increase. I wonder what the audience of Jesus thought of when He told them this part of the parable.

Let us begin with a two different passages that show that fruit is an evidence of a changed heart and true salvation: “2Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV).” Gal. 5:19-23

“19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

We see in verse twenty that not all Christians are equal in their productivity, but that all believers will produce fruit. I think that the amount of fruit that a person produces will be due to how much a person will rely on the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in their life. Another factor that I think is involved is seen from Ephesians 2:10, something that we have seen in earlier lessons and earlier Spiritual Diaries, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” What I seen in this verse is that God has prepared for all believers in eternity past certain “works” to do and as we rely on the Holy Spirit to work through us we will produce those works. Since it is the Holy Spirit producing the works that the Father has prepared for us to do we will realize that it is not the believer who is producing the good works, but God, and therefore we have nothing to brag about, although we can be joyful that the Lord is using us to produce these works or “fruits.”

Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section with these words: “Each of the three fruitless hearts is influenced by a different enemy: the hard heart—the devil himself snatches the seed; the shallow heart—the flesh counterfeits religious feelings; the crowded heart—the things of the world smother the growth and prevent a harvest. These are the three great enemies of the Christian: the world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3).”

Let me add that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not need any gimmicks to help it work in the lives of people. The gospel is so simple that even a child can understand it. The Bible teaches that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible teaches “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Jesus teaches: “Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3)

“1 ¶ Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1Cornthians 15:1-8) Here we have the message of the gospel written by the apostle Paul to the believers at Corinth. This is the message that has been passed down through the ages since the Gospel of Jesus Christ was made known, and this is the only message that we need to pass on to others!