"Seeds, Soils, and Cement" 2021-05-30

“Seeds, Soils, and Cement”

Mark 4:1-20

Message preached at Tillamook and Rowena

23/30 May 2021

 

INTRODUCTION:

As you all well know Jesus often taught the multitudes using parables, word pictures, and figurative language. He did this not to obscure the truth but to make it clearer. The Hebrews are an oriental society with an oriental culture and an oriental mindset. They are a story culture and Jesus used the teaching method that those folks could best understand. 

 

TRANSITION:

One of His most well-known parables is found in three of the Gospel accounts: in Matthew 13, in Mark 4, and in Luke 8. It is, of course, the story of the Sower and the 4 Soils. Turn with me in your Bibles to Mark 4, starting at verse 1. This morning I want to have us walk through these verses and then I will try and relate the story to the ministry in Ireland.  

 

MAIN BODY:

Verse 1: Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around Him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.

·         This story is recounted by three of the Gospel writers but none of them tells us who the boat belonged to. However, it most likely belonged to one of the fishermen among the Twelve.

·         The point is the crowd was so great that they were pushing Him right out into the water. They were not trying to drown Him, just get close to Him.

 

Verses 2-3: He taught them many things by parables, and in His teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.”

·         This story has been known for years as, “The Parable of the Sower.” However, a better name might be, “The Parable of the Soils.” What is in view here is not so much the farmer who is planting the seed, but rather the quality of the soil into which the seed falls. Notice that Jesus used a word picture with which every one of His listeners was familiar. All of them kept family gardens. And many of them were farmers by trade. This story made perfect sense to them, even though it was a parable. Although many of them did not understand the immediate spiritual lessons, they were able to grasp the word picture because it was part of their experience. That is an important lesson for anyone who wants to communicate the Gospel to unsaved people. We must make it real and practical, in language they understand.

 

Verses 4-8: “As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”

·         You will notice that in this story Jesus presented four different soil scenarios:

1.       Some seeds fell on the hard-beaten walking path. That ground was so hard that the seeds could not possibly germinate. The seeds were also totally unprotected and easy pickings for the birds.

2.      Some seeds fell among rocks. There was just enough soil for the seed to hide from the birds but not enough to grow right. The seeds germinated but could not find a place to put down roots, so they quickly shrivelled and died as soon as the bright, hot sun hit them.

3.      Some seed fell in among the thorns. The thorns, being bigger and well-established, crowded the seeds that managed to germinate and robbed them of nutrients, resulting in their fruitlessness. They were alive, but useless and unproductive.

4.      Some seeds fell on good, rich, prepared soil. Those seeds germinated and sprouted, and grew to full maturity, giving an abundant harvest and rewarding the farmer for his labour.

·         You will notice than in each scenario the seed is the same. It was all good, healthy seed. What made the difference was where the seed happened to fall.

 

Verse 9: Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

·         Jesus often used this phrase. What did it mean? It was an idiomatic Jewish expression meaning, “He who wants to learn, who desires to know truth, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!”

·         We all can hear, without really hearing, if you know what I mean. Sometimes we listen to our spouse this way. He or she is talking, and we are nodding our head and saying, “Uh huh, uh huh,” at all the appropriate times but we are not really listening. It is what we call “selective hearing.” Jesus was encouraging His hearers to really listen, to pay attention, and to think about what He was sharing with them.

 

Verses 10-12: When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around Him asked Him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹² so that, ‘... They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

·         Jesus loosely quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10. One of the things here that I find fascinating is the fact that the Twelve did not have any more spiritual insight than the crowd. These guys were not exactly spiritual giants, in tune with what Jesus was teaching. They were apparently mystified by what He was getting at, so they asked Him about it afterward. It is important to remember that these guys were people in process, and it is remarkable how patient Jesus always was with them. That gives me some hope and comfort. Maybe there is hope for a guy like me too if I keep walking close to Jesus. This comment by Jesus is interesting but sort of confusing. “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables.” He seems to be dividing the world into two categories: (1) Those on the inside; and (2) Those on the outside. He says that the Twelve are on the “inside.” But why? Because they were in a believing relationship with Him. Although they did not yet grasp the ramifications that their allegiance to Christ would have for their futures, they had put their faltering faith and timid trust in Him as their personal Saviour and Lord. That put them on the inside of the salvation circle.

 

Verse 13: Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?”

·         Jesus seems to have been surprised by their lack of understanding. I wonder how many times God scratches His head in amazement at how stupid we are sometimes. The miracle is that He loves us anyway.

·         This parable is quite transparent compared to some others. For anyone with a grain of spiritual insight it should not be too difficult to figure out what Jesus was getting at. He told them, “If you cannot figure out the easy ones, what are you going to do if I throw you a fastball?” Nevertheless, He took pity on them and explained the meaning of the parable.

 

Verses 14-15: “The farmer sows the Word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the Word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the Word that was sown in them.”

·         The farmer is anyone who sows the Word of God. That might be a preacher, or a Sunday School teacher, or a missionary, or an evangelist, or just an ordinary Christian talking with a friend over a cup of coffee. In this parable the farmer is not the main character.

·         The seed is the Gospel, the Word of God, the eternal truths that have been entrusted to all of us who are followers of Christ. The seed is prime quality. It is perfect. No fault could be found with the seed.

·         No, Jesus says that the issue is all about where the seed falls. The Bible says that the “Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword.” The seed in this story is living seed, full of power and potential to save. However, the soil where the seed lands is critical to its ability to germinate, grow, and bear fruit.

·         Jesus explains the first case study: The seed that falls on the hard-packed path. He says that the hearts of some people are so hard that nothing can ever penetrate. Satan just swoops in and gobbles up the seed. Lots of people have heard the Gospel all their lives but they have said “NO!” to it so many times that they no longer even feel any conviction when they hear it. They can sleep right through it.

 

Verses 16-17: “Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the Word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away.”

·         The second soils case-study is about seed dropped among rocks. There are people who hear the Gospel and respond to an invitation to accept Christ. For a few days they are happy, but before long they are right back where they started. They have gotten a taste of the Gospel but have not been changed by it. They have no real life in Christ, just an emotional religious experience. They are convicted, but not converted.

 

Verses 18-19: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the Word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful.”

·         This third case-study is about seed that germinates and starts to grow but soon gets choked by the thorns of life. The seed produces life but not a mature plant. Thus, there is never a harvest because the plant is stunted and unhealthy. Many Christians are like this. They have eternal life, but they are stunted and useless and fruitless. They are of no use to the Kingdom of God and are no threat to the devil. They live ho-hum, mediocre, meaningless Christian lives, just marking time until Jesus returns.

 

Verse 20: “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the Word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown.”

·         The fourth case-study is the one to which we want to pay close attention. It involves good seed, being carefully planted in prepared, fertilized soil, resulting in healthy, productive plants and a bounteous harvest of saved souls. That is the picture we should have in our heads of what God intends for the seed-sowing process.

·         You see this parable is all about evangelism, about preparing people to receive the Gospel and then planting the seed. We, as God’s farmers, work alongside the Holy Spirit in building relationships, winning peoples’ trust, faithfully telling them our own salvation stories, giving them the Gospel, watering the seed through continued friendship and encouragement, with the hope that we will one day share in the joy of seeing them place their faith and trust in Christ.

 

This should be the goal and desire of every child of God, to be productive in leading others to faith in Christ. This is the reason why our churches exist—to train and equip believers to go out and share their faith with others so that Christ’s Kingdom will be built up and Heaven will be populated.

This is the reason we have pastors and Christian teachers and missionaries. It is the reason why I have spent 49-years in the Gospel ministry. It is the reason why I served for 17-years as a missionary in Brazil, why I pastored at Sellwood Baptist in Portland for 20-years, and why we are now serving as missionaries in the Republic of Ireland.

I am a Cultivator, a Soil-Plower, a Seed Planter, a Waterer, a Weed Puller. I am a Farmer. We went to Ireland to plant the Gospel, the Good Seed, the Good News, in the hopes that many Irish folks would come to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and that under our watch a new Gospel-preaching church would be established in the west of Ireland.

 

But now I want to tell you another parable. It is not a Jesus parable—it is a Mike parable. Once upon a time a man and his wife travelled far across the sea to a foreign land where they had dreams of acquiring land and having a farm where they could raise crops. They took bags of precious seed with them. It was the finest seed in the world, and they were anxious to see it sprout and bear fruit—perhaps thirty-fold, or sixty-fold, or even a hundred-fold.

They arrived at night so they did not get a good look at their new farm, but they went to bed full of hope and excitement at what they would see in the morning. However, upon awakening when they ran out their front door to see their farm for the first time, to their horror, they discovered that while they were sleeping a huge gang of scoundrels had come and poured concrete over every square inch of the farm. Wherever they looked all they could see was ugly grey concrete. There was not an inch of soil to be seen anywhere.

They had the precious seed, they had the farming knowhow, they had the energy and will to work, and they had the tools to do the job. They knew for certain that there was good soil down underneath that thick layer of concrete if they could only dig down through it to find the dirt.

Heartbroken, they went to their neighbours only to discover that they too were facing the same situation. They were spending nearly all their time and energy breaking up the concrete and hauling away the chunks in the hope that they would one day be able to plant the seed and see it grow.

 

This parable is the story of ministry in Ireland. Because of the fruitful 60-year ministry of Patrick and his colleagues starting in the year AD 405, the Gospel spread all over the Emerald Isle, and from there to every corner of Europe carried by Irish missionaries. By the time of Patrick’s death there were churches, training centres, and Christian communities in every part of the island. Celtic Christianity was alive and vibrant and evangelistic, and it thrived in Ireland for nearly seven centuries.

Richard M. Bennett was an Irish priest who served in the Catholic Church for many years until he came to understand the Gospel and surrendered his life to Christ. He founded the Berean Beacon, an apologetical ministry focused on defending and explaining the Christian faith and exposing the false teachings of Roman Catholicism. I want to read a portion of an article Richard Bennett wrote entitled, “The Legacy of the True Historical Patrick.” This article can be found on their website at www.BereanBeacon.org.  

[The success of the Celtic Church] drew the attention and jealousy of the Church of Rome and the Papacy began to unleash military power to bring Ireland under her control. This began with the decree of Pope Adrian IV issued to King Henry II of England in 1155. The Pope authorized the invasion of Ireland and sent the English king a ring of investiture as “Lord of Ireland,” calling upon the monarch to, “extirpate the vices that have there taken root [i.e., in Ireland] …saving to St. Peter and the holy Roman Church the annual pension of one penny from each house.” In the year 1171 England’s King Henry II under authority of Rome carried out the designs of the Papacy and with a strong military force subdued the whole Irish nation. He received from every Archbishop and Bishop, at the Synod of Cashel in 1172, charters whereby they confirmed the Kingdom of Ireland to him and his heirs. The King sent a transcript of these charters to Pope Alexander III, who was extremely gratified by the extension of his dominion, and in 1172 issued a bull [edict] confirming the Papal decree of Pope Adrian. Further rulings were sent from Rome to Henry II and to the princes and nobles of Ireland, and to the bishops of Ireland to establish the hierarchy over the people and pastors and command obedience of both Ireland and England to the Papal throne.

 

This was the beginning of the end. The imposition of Roman Catholicism on the Celtic Church was like throwing a soaking wet wool blanket over a campfire. It choked out the life and put out the fire, leaving in its place the smoking stench of a false religion based not on the life-giving Gospel but upon rules, and rites, and sacraments, and obedience to an elite religious hierarchy. [By the way, if you are interested in learning more about the religious history of Ireland, I recommend Thomas Cahill’s book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. Although not technically a “Christian book,” it is excellent, and I know you will enjoy it!]

In 1172 the Church of Rome with the help of the armies of England effectively poured concrete over every square inch of Irish soil, snuffing out the work of the Gospel that had been carried on since the time of Patrick. Oh sure, the soil is still there, down deep, but it is very hard to find. For eight-and-a-half centuries the only religion the Irish have known is Roman Catholicism. Their culture and their national identity are tightly interwoven with their Catholic religion. In their minds, to be Irish is to be Catholic. From birth they are warned not to have anything to do with other religions and are taught that “Protestants” and other brands of non-Catholics are really just cults. That includes us.

Irish people are warm, and funny, and loving, and kind. They love parties and music and family gatherings. They are a delight to be around. They make wonderful friends. However, they are also distrustful of anyone they perceive as a threat to their religion or their cultural standards. It takes a long time and requires a lot of work to earn the right to discuss religion with them. If you move too quickly, they will slam the door and you will never get another chance. If you criticize their church in any way, they will not hear another word you say.

The closest parallels to working in Ireland would be trying to plant an Evangelical church in a traditional Muslim community or trying to witness in an Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood. It is the slow, painstaking, work of getting to know people, winning them first as friends, in the hope that someday they will let down their guard and give you a chance to with gentleness and kindness share “the reason for the hope that is within you.” You cannot rush things. You must move at their pace, in the power of the Holy Spirit. I do not mean to sound discouraging or say that we have not seen some victories. However, those who minister in Ireland measure success by a different standard than is used in some other places. We celebrate small victories. We rejoice not in droves coming to faith but in one here and there with long spaces in between.

 

So, what do Ramel and I do in Ireland?

1.       We work with the Sligo Baptist Church, trying to strengthen it and build it up to be a healthy New Testament church. It is a small congregation but vibrant and growing. I do much of the preaching and teaching including on Sundays and for our midweek service, and I serve as one of three elders. I also do service planning and lead worship half the time. I share this ministry with another WorldVenture colleague, Matthew Boardwell. Ramel is active with women’s ministry, Sunday school teaching, and hospitality.

2.      Ramel hosts and co-leads a weekly women’s Bible study and prayer time on Wednesdays in our home in Coolaney. The group runs between 8-12 and has been a tremendous blessing to the women who attend.

3.      I coordinate and lead a prayer ministry that we began in 2016 that grew out of a multi-church Passion Week evangelistic campaign we called, “Spring to Life.” Christians from 9 different congregations scattered all over our region meet every Saturday morning from 8-9:15 AM in one of our churches to pray for revival, and an evangelistic awakening, and for an outpouring of divine blessing on Ireland. This has been a wonderfully encouraging ministry and it continues to grow.

4.      We try to get to know people and build friendships in our village and in our community. We reach out to our neighbours, especially at special times like Easter and Christmas, christenings and first communions. We shop locally so that we can get to know the shopkeepers and workers. We work at learning peoples’ names so that we can address them personally.

5.      When we return in June, we hope to get a weekly Bible study started in the Coolaney Community Centre, which is just a couple of kilometres from our house. We look forward to renewing our friendships with our neighbours and people in the village, as well as at our church in Sligo.

6.      We still have the dream of getting a new work planted in the town of Tobercurry located just 15 kilometres south of where we live. It is the second largest town in County Sligo, but it has no evangelical work of any kind. They need the Gospel but so far God has not seen fit to give us a foot in the door. We are still praying and hoping that will happen in 2121.

 

CONCLUSION:

The Psalmist, David, understood this concept in Mark 4, even though he never heard Jesus explain this parable. In Psalm 1 David wrote: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. ² But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His Law, he meditates day and night. ³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water [i.e., deliberately planted, not just there by chance], which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither [i.e., health and fruitfulness]. Whatever he does prospers.”

 

We are all about planting healthy trees in the soil of Ireland. Unfortunately, much of our time is taken up breaking up the concrete and undoing what has been done in the name of religion, by representatives of a false gospel. The only thing that can win against false doctrine is the truth of God’s Word. God has sent us to Ireland to be seed planters, to dig through the concrete to find good soil and drop in the precious seed of the Gospel.