Lack of fruit in a believers life indicates a need to return to foundational basics. There are certain lifestyle choices which cause the Word to not produce in one’s life. You hear it, you read it but it doesn’t produce. It’s when you align your life with what God said in this parable that the door opens for the rest of the sayings of Jesus to bring forth a harvest of fruit in your life. Fruitfulness is what we are talking about in this series on the Parable of the Sower and understanding is a key.

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What Is a Parable?

Mark 4:2 (KJV)
² And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

• A parable is a simile or a metaphor.
• Jesus used it to teach unknown spiritual truths using well-known natural realities.
• Why is this possible? Because the spiritual gave birth to the natural.
• Offspring mirror their parents. And so, natural things mirror spiritual things.
• These similes abound in well-known passages of scripture.
  • The one who meditates in God’s Word is LIKE a tree planted by the rivers of water (Ps. 1:3).
  • The righteous shall flourish LIKE a palm tree in Lebanon (Ps. 92:12).
  • The path of the just is LIKE a shining light (Prov. 4:8).
  • A beautiful woman who shows no discretion is LIKE a ring of gold in a pigs mouth (Prov. 11:21).
  • A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown but a disgraceful wife is LIKE decay in his bones (Prov. 12:4).

[Tweet “Offspring mirror their parents. And so, natural things mirror spiritual things.”]

• Parables then, are stories about natural things used to illustrate spiritual things.
• We could say it this way. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the natural order of things in many respects.”
• Therefore spiritual things are not so hard to understand once the natural connections are unveiled.
• And I say unveiled because what else is a parable?

Mark 4:11 (KJV )
11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

• According to Jesus, parables are mysteries of the kingdom.
• A Bible mystery is a secret.
• In order for secrets to no longer be secrets, they must be revealed or unveiled.
• How do we gain access to the secret?
• The disciples gained access to an understanding of the parable by getting Jesus alone and asking him.

The Disciples Understanding of Jesus Message

• Look at the range of understanding among the disciples where Jesus sayings were concerned.
• In Mark 7, Jesus gave out a parable concerning ceremonial uncleanness.

Mark 7:18 (KJV)
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

• The disciples followed the same pattern with this parable as they did with the Parable of the Sower.

Mark 7:17 (KJV)
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

• So the disciples flagged Jesus down and asked him about what He said.
• On another day Jesus spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees.

Mark 8:14–19 (KJV)
14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. 17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

• Jesus asked his disciples penetrating questions.
  • Why don’t you understand?
  • Why are you reasoning or getting over into the mental arena?
  • Why don’t you perceive?
  • Why do you have eyes but can’t see?
  • Why do you have ears but can’t hear?
  • What’s wrong with your memory?
  • Why is your heart hardened?
• Jesus is asking these questions and at the same time pinpointing that the hearts of His disciples was not ground ready for harvest.
• The same thing occurred when Jesus told them about His Passion, His coming death.

Mark 9:30–32 (KJV)
30 And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. 31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. 32 But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

• They didn’t understand these words of Jesus but there’s a difference here.
• Unlike the Parable of the Sower, unlike the Parable concerning ceremonial uncleanness, the disciples were afraid to ask Him about His death.
• They would not come to Jesus for an explanation.
• And the actions of the disciples after Jesus was led away and crucified showed they didn’t understand.
• They really should have come to Jesus and asked Him what He meant.
• They had the opportunity to walk in the revelation of what was going on Calvary.
• But because they didn’t ask, these disciples of Jesus displayed no more knowledge of what was happening at Calvary than the Roman soldiers who crucified Him.

You can be in God’s ‘in crowd.’ All you have to do is ask.

• If you don’t ask, you’ll just go through the same stuff and be just as blind about what’s happening as everybody is on planet earth.

[Tweet “You can be in God’s ‘in crowd.’ All you have to do is ask.”]

Fruitful Places and Unfruitful Places

• In this parable, there is seed sown in two types of places.
• Fruitful places and unfruitful places.
• Each type of place experiences one of three results.
• Seed sown in fruitful places yields thirty, sixty and a hundred fold.
• Seed sown in unfruitful places also has one of three results related to wayside ground, stony ground and thorny ground.
• What is the determining factor between fruitful and unfruitful yields?
  • Not the seed. Both places receive the same quality seed.
  • Not the sower. The sower sows the seed in both places.
  • There is only one thing left. The ground.
• According to Jesus, if you can get the ground right, you can get the harvest right.
• Wrong ground brings little or no harvest.
• Right ground brings great and greater harvests.
• The ground is the focal point of the parable.

[Tweet “According to Jesus, if you can get the ground right, you can get the harvest right.”]

Jesus as the Sower of His Own Parable

Mark 4:1 (KJV)
1 And 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.

• Jesus is in a boat using it as a ‘floating pulpit’ to teach the people standing on the shore.
• Note the last phrase, ‘and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.’
• Drop down now to verse eight.

Mark 4:8 (KJV)
8 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.

• Note the first phrase in verse one, ‘And other fell on good ground’.
• The word ‘land’ in verse one and the word ‘ground’ in verse eight are the same Greek word.
• This paints a picture for us.
  • Jesus is sowing to the multitudes on the ‘land’.
  • Jesus is ‘sowing’ the principles of the Sower.
  • Jesus is not only sharing the parable of the Sower, He is also demonstrating the very principles He is teaching in a real life way.
  • Jesus is the Sower.
  • The people on the ground are the ground. Did you get that?
• We could say it this way. Jesus is the Sower of His own parable.

Jesus First Instruction: Listen and Look

Mark 4:3 (KJV)
3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

• The very first words Jesus utters are in the area of hearing.
• With that in mind, ‘hearken’ can be updated to 21st century language as ‘Listen up.’ It was a directive from Jesus to ‘hear’ along with a bringing of the crowd to order.
• When you add the word ‘behold’ to the original ‘hearken’, Jesus was saying was, ‘Listen Up. Pay attention and take a close look at this sower sowing.’
• You can put the importance of these two words, ‘listen up and pay attention’ in perspective by imagining Jesus walking into your study, strolling into your living room, appearing in your kitchen or wherever you study God’s Word. Picture Jesus pulling up a chair in one of those locations and looking you straight in the face and saying, “Emery (or insert your name) “Listen and take a look at this.”
• The words ‘hear or hearken’ occur fourteen times in eleven verses in Mark 4.
• Jesus starts the parable with a call to hear in Mark 4:3 and ends the parable the same way Mark 4:9.
• So, there is an emphasis in Mark 4 on the idea of ‘hearing.’
• In fact, Jesus ends the parable the same way He starts it.
• There must be something to this ‘hearing’ business.

Sower, Seed, and Ground

• Sower, seed and the ground are the main components of the Parable of the Sower.
• Start with the sower.
  • Jesus doesn’t tell us much about the sower.
  • The Sower is not the focal point of the parable.
  • All Jesus lets us know about the Sower is he did his job.

Romans 10:14 (KJV)
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

• Sowers sow.
• Sowers sow seed.
• They sow the Word.
• They preach the Word.
• According to Jesus, read it closely, the quality of the harvest is not up to the sowers.
• The quality of the harvest is up to the hearer.
• What about the seed?
• In this parable, just like the Sower the Seed did its job.
• If the ground was right the harvest was realized.
• It is assumed the Sowers are sowing the quality seeds of God’s Word and not illegitimate seed.
• Misbegotten seeds come from the world’s granaries rather than the storehouses of heaven.
• One characteristic of seed we should be aware of?
• Seed always produces bigger than its size.
• This is the nature of seed.
• God’s seed has God’s life in it.

John 6:63 (KJV)
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

• The greatest possibilities for your life can come from just one word from God.
• Just one seed.
• The saying, ‘One word from God can change your life forever’ is a true word.
• God’s Word produces God’s life.
• His seed always produces.
• There is no such thing as bad heavenly seed.
• There is no such thing as old age of miracles is past seed.
• There is no such thing as molten seed.
• God’s Word is timeless and never fading.
• It will produce in every generation of men.
• It is unlike the natural seed of men which one day goes viral and the next day vanishes.

[Tweet “The greatest possibilities for your life can come from just one word from God.”]

• If you know the seed is good and the sower has done his job dispensing the seed, the only thing left to impede a potential harvest is the ground.

Call to Action:

In next week’s podcast, we’re going to start breaking down the three types of unfruitful ground. Because you are going to see if you can get the elements that make the ground unfruitful and get them removed out of your life, what you will have left is thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold yield-able ground. A harvest of God producing seed is a done deal when you align your heart according to the Parable of the Sower.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on The Parable of the Sower by visiting the following posts:

1. Introducing the Gospel of Mark
2. What is the Parable of the Sower? [Podcast]

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Question: How has one word from God in your life changed you forever. Please leave your comments in the comments section below.