Do You Have Ears to Hear?

DO YOU HAVE EARS TO HEAR?

An Exposition of Mark 4:1-20

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   February 16, 2020

Series: Mark: Knowing and Following God’s Son

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

¹ Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ² And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ 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. ⁶ And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁰ And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, ¹² so that

“‘they may indeed see but not perceive,
    and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.¹⁶ And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰ But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:1-20)

TEACHING CALLS FOR HEARING

The Lord Jesus Christ is teaching you! The question is: Are you paying attention and taking His instruction to heart?

On the occasion of this ‘seaside sermon’ in Chapter 4, “a very large crowd [was] gathered around [Jesus]” (v. 1). It was customary for teachers to sit in those days, so Jesus sat down in a boat “on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the [shore].” (v. 1) And He taught them many things!

Verses 1-2 emphasize that Jesus was teaching the people: “he began to teach beside the sea” (v. 1); “And he was teaching them many things” (v. 2); “and in his teaching he said to them” (v. 2). This reminds us once again that Jesus’ ministerial priority was preaching and teaching the Word. As important as it was that Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons from the oppressed, His greater ministry was “proclaiming the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14) and “preaching the word” (Mark 2:2).

It is easy to have a superficial excitement over someone who can grant relief from all kinds of diseases and disabilities. But Jesus’ didn’t say that His spiritual family is characterized by excitement over deliverance from physical or demonic afflictions. Instead, He said that His family is characterized by obedience to God’s will: “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35) Doing God’s will presupposes that you are hearing and understanding what God’s will is.

So the big question that Jesus addresses to us in ‘The Parable of the Four Soils’ is: How is your hearing? Are you hard of hearing? Or do you hear well?

Notice the repeated emphasis on hearing. Verse 3: “Listen!” Verse 9: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” In the middle of verse 12, Jesus refers to those who “may indeed hear but not understand.” Verse 15: “when they hear.” Verse 16: “when they hear the word.” Verse 18: “those who hear the word.” Verse 20: “the ones who hear the word.” Do you see the emphasis? This passage is fundamentally about what it means to have spiritual ears that hear well. What does it mean to hear well? Stay tuned – listen! hear! – and you will see.

THE OUTLINE OF OUR PASSAGE

Before we starting walking through this passage, let me give you a brief outline of it. First, in verses 3-8, Jesus gives us ‘The Parable of the Four Soils’. Afterward, in verse 9, Jesus urges us to truly hear what has been said. Second, in verses 10-12, Jesus tells us why He is teaching in parables. Third, in verses 13-20, Jesus tells us that understanding ‘The Parable of the Four Soils’ is foundational to understanding the other parables, then He teaches us its meaning.

Lord-willing, we are going to linger over Mark 4 for a number of weeks. There is a lot here, and we need to understand it. In this sermon we’re going to focus on the parable and its meaning. Next week we’ll turn our attention to the middle section, verses 10-12, which tell us the reason why Jesus spoke in parables.

THE PARABLE OF THE FOUR SOILS

So first, let’s give our attention to the parable. Verse 2 tells us that “[Jesus] was teaching them many things in parables.” Mark records a number of parables in Chapter 4, although this is only a representative sampling of a much larger number of parables that Jesus told.

A parable is a comparison or illustration that invites us to contemplate the truth about God’s kingdom. We have already encountered short parables earlier in The Gospel of Mark. God’s kingdom is like “new wine… for fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:22). Jesus’ invasion of Satan’s kingdom is like a stronger man “[binding] the strong man” and “[plundering] his house” (Mark 3:27). Parables are earthly illustrations or stories that are designed to get us thinking about spiritual realities.  

In Mark 4:3-8, Jesus gives us a longer parable with many points of comparison that shows us the various ways in which people respond to the message of God’s kingdom. Right off the bat, Jesus makes it clear that He wants us to hear: “Listen!” (v. 3) And He wants us to see: “Behold” (v. 3). The question, of course, is whether we will see with true perception and hear with true understanding (v. 12).

The parable involves a farmer – a sower of seed (v. 3). The sower sows seed all across his large field, and so it is that the scattered seed lands on four different kinds of soil.

The first kind of soil (v. 4) is really no soil at all – it is “the path” (v. 4), the flattened walkway for foot or cart. The seed that falls on the path is, quite literally, for the birds!

The second kind of soil (v. 5-6) is “rocky ground” that “[has] no depth of soil” (v. 5). The seed springs up quickly, but soon gets scorched under the rising sun. Rootless, it withers away.

The third kind of soil is full of thorns (v. 7). It is implied that this seed also springs up, but the thorns also grow up and overpower the little seedling. Choked, it bears no fruit.

The fourth kind of soil is “good soil” (v. 8). Unlike the rocky ground, the good soil allows the seed to grow deep roots that generate strength for the long-term. Unlike the thorny ground, the good soil is not afflicted by thorns. Therefore the good soil proves continually fruitful. Look at those words that reveal its vitality and fruitfulness: “produced,” “growing up,” “increasing,” and “yielding” (v. 8). While some plants are more fruitful than other plants, the truth is that every “good soil” plant is abundantly fruitful, whether “thirtyfold” or “sixtyfold” or “a hundredfold” (v. 8).

By taking us to the farmer’s field of four soils, Jesus is describing each and every one of us. You are like one of these four soils. I am like one of these four soils.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (v. 9)

THE REASON WHY JESUS TEACHES IN PARABLES (v. 10-12)

Jesus gave this parable to “the whole crowd [that] was beside the sea” (v. 1), but the conversation in verses 10-20 took place at a later time and in a private setting, as you can see by looking at verse 10: “And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.” So you’ve got the twelve and a number of other earnest followers having a post-sermon discussion with Jesus. Verse 10 tells us that they “asked him about the parables.”

By the time this private meeting took place, Jesus had probably spoken for a long time from the boat “on the sea” (v. 1). It wasn’t as if He gave them one short parable (v. 3-9) and then everyone went home! Jesus may have spoken for the entire afternoon, as He taught “many things in parables” (v. 2). Sometime later, Jesus’ disciples want to know what these parables mean. What does ‘The Parable of the Four Soils’ mean? What do the other parables mean? In fact, why is Jesus speaking in parables at all?

As I mentioned earlier, we’re going to hold our close attention to verses 10-12 until next week. But here’s the gist:  either you are a ‘kingdom insider’ who has been given spectacular grace (and therefore you have spiritual perception and understanding), or you are a ‘kingdom outsider’ who remains under God’s judgment (and therefore you remain blind and deaf to the sights and sounds of God’s kingdom). Parables reveal the truth of God’s kingdom to ‘kingdom insiders’, but parables conceal the truth from ‘kingdom outsiders’.    

But while it is true that a person is either a ‘kingdom insider under grace’ or a ‘kingdom outsider under judgment’, it is also true that people’s stories tend to be rather messy. In fact, people can appear to be something other than what they really are. For a while, outsiders can appear to be insiders. ‘The Parable of the Four Soils’ helps us to understand these things.

JESUS WANTS US TO UNDERSTAND THIS PARABLE

And let us be clear: Jesus wants us to understand these things. The disciples had not understood the parable as it was presented in verses 3-8. So, looking at verse 13, “[Jesus] said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?”” There is something foundational about understanding ‘The Parable of the Four Soils’. Understanding this parable will help us understand the other parables that we encounter later in Chapter 4. If we don’t have spiritually-attuned ears, and if we don’t understand what it means to hear the Word with true understanding, then we will mishandle all of God’s words, and we won’t be able to effectively minister God’s Word to others. But if we do understand this foundational parable, then we have started down the path of fruitful discipleship.

THE MEANING OF THE PARABLE

So, let’s probe the meaning of this parable.

The Word

The seed that the sower sows is “the word” (v. 14). This means, of course, that the sower is a preacher. John the Baptist came preaching (Mark 1:4). Jesus came preaching (Mark 1:14-15). Jesus’ followers would eventually be “[sent]… out to preach (Mark 3:14). Even so, the emphasis of this parable is not on the preacher, but on “the word” that is preached. This word is “the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14). This word is the message about God’s kingdom. As Chapter 1 told us, “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” (Mark 1:14-15)

This message is not good news for people who are already righteous in their own eyes and already satisfied with their own little earthly kingdoms. But this message is very good news for people who know that they are sinners who need God’s mercy. God’s gospel is that His heavenly kingdom has dawned in this broken world through His well-pleasing Son. God’s gospel is good news for sinners: the Great Physician, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, has come to heal you, forgive your sins, and welcome you into His forever family. God’s gospel is that God’s Son calls ordinary sinful human beings like you and me to become His brothers and sisters, to dine with Him and learn from Him, to follow Him on mission to a screwed up world, and to let His grace cover us from start to finish. God’s gospel is, ultimately, that Jesus rescues us from the darkness of Satan’s cruel kingdom and brings us into the light of His gracious kingdom through His atoning death, His triumphant resurrection, and His bestowal of the Holy Spirit on His beloved people.

And here’s the big question: Is this Word truly, deeply, profoundly in the driver’s seat of your heart? Is this the Word that shapes your life? Or does some other word, some other message, govern you?

The preacher preaches the Word, and this Word lands on all kinds of people, and different people have differing responses to the Word. The first three soils represent inadequate and non-saving responses to God’s Word. When I use the phrase ‘inadequate and non-saving response’, what I mean is that people who respond in such ways do not receive God’s salvation. The inadequate responder is still lost. The non-saving response, however impressive it might appear, is not the kind of faith that saves.

The First Inadequate Response: No Response (v. 15)

The first inadequate response is, quite simply, no response: “And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.” (v. 15) This is the ‘it goes in one ear and out the other’ response: they hear the Word, but nothing happens. There is no impact, and they quickly forget what they heard. Notice, however, that this lack of responsiveness is bound up with satanic opposition. Wherever the Word is faithfully preached, Satan and his minions are busy at work. Whether it is a sermon, or a Sunday School class, or a Bible Study, or teaching your children at home, or an evangelistic conversation with a co-worker or neighbor, the stakes are high, and Satan is not asleep even if people are. Satan’s mission is to steal away the Word from unbelievers so that the Word gets no traction in their hearts. People represented by this first soil are people who have heard the Christian message but frankly have never had any interest in it, and they have never made any attempt to get on board. In other respects they may be wonderfully nice people, but they remain dead in their trespasses and sins (see Ephesians 2:1).

The Second Inadequate Response: Fair-Weather Response (v. 16-17)

The second inadequate response is the fair-weather response: “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” (v. 16-17)

A fair-weather friend or a fair-weather fan is someone whose loyalty fails when things get hard, when the friendship proves costly, or when the team starts losing.

The fair-weather response has three characteristics. First, it is emotional: these folks receive the message “with joy.” (v. 16) To be clear, it is good and right to receive God’s message with joy (see 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7). The problem with this second soil, though, is that their reception of God’s message is merely emotional or mainly emotional, and they lack the breadth and depth of a whole-hearted, whole-person response.

So second, the fair-weather response is superficial: these folks “have no root in themselves” (v. 17). In other words, their interaction with God’s Word is excitable on the surface, but lacks engagement in the depths of the human heart. Their heart isn’t being changed. Their heart isn’t putting down deep roots into the riches of God’s grace. Paul expressed his desire for the Colossians to grow deep and strong: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught” (Colossians 2:6-7) But this “rooted and built up” reality does not take place in these fair-weather responders.

Third, the fair-weather response is temporary: all too soon “they fall away.” (v. 17) The thing about fair-weather friends or fair-weather fans or fair-weather voters, is that they want to go with an obvious winner. They want immediate, outward success. They want feel-good comfort right now. Therefore, when the Word seems to be favorable to meet their emotional need for immediate comfort, they’re ready to hop on board! But “when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” (v. 17)

Fair-weather folks are not deeply committed to the Word; what they are deeply committed to is their personal comfort. So when a conflict arises between loyalty to the Word and loyalty to self-comfort, it is the Word that they let go of. When faithfulness to the Word proves costly, they have better things to do. They would rather be accepted by the cool people, than to be written off as bigoted and narrow-minded. Therefore, when suffering for Christ enters the equation, their true colors show: they are not true disciples, and they remain blind to the true value of God’s everlasting kingdom. And so, as quickly as they once signed up for Christianity 101, so now – like annoying email correspondence they no longer wish to receive – they click ‘unsubscribe’ and off they go: “immediately they fall away.” By falling away, they prove that they have never received the saving power of God’s life-giving Word. For them, Christianity was just a passing fad, and now they have moved on. The fact that they only “endure for a while” indicates that they are not saved and will not be saved. For as Jesus says in Mark 13: “the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:13) 

The Third Inadequate Response: Halfhearted Response

The third inadequate response is the halfhearted response: “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (v. 18-19)

The assumption here is that the seed in the third soil, like the seed in the second soil, springs up in some measure. Here is a person who thinks it would probably be a good idea to get some Bible and some church and some fellowship and some serving others into his or her life. So they give a little here and then a little there, and on it goes for some time. They aren’t like the emotionally excitable fair-weather people we met a few moments ago. This third soil group exhibits a kind of steady, if inconsistent, interest, and possibly for a long stretch of time. But they can never quite turn the corner. Jesus never becomes their ‘true north’. Jesus never becomes their ‘number one’. Jesus never captures their heart. Instead, Christianity consistently takes a backseat to family, to work responsibilities and career ambitions, to weekend outings, to financial opportunities or financial worries (as the case may be), to culture and entertainment, to politics or other social groups. How many kids are brought up in church and are outwardly Christianized, but when they grow up and leave home it becomes clear that the world is their treasure!

The halfhearted folks can imagine having the Bible as one possible menu item to choose from on the buffet table of your life options, but you cannot imagine being ‘all in’ for Jesus. Later in The Gospel of Mark Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35) You cannot imagine doing this, if you are one of the halfhearted folks, and so it is that the thorns of worldly priorities and worldly pressures choke your halfhearted devotion and render you unfruitful. Faith without fruit is a dead faith that saves nobody (see James 2:14-26).

Even though the fair-weather responders and halfhearted responders rub shoulders with us and outwardly appear to be ‘Christian’ for a little while, ultimately they remain ‘kingdom outsiders’. In fact, the first three soils have this is common: they all hear the Word, but none hear the Word with true understanding that leads to consistently doing God’s will – which is a definitive mark of true disciples: “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)

The Saving Response: Fruitful Response

The one and only saving response to God’s Word is the fruitful response: “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (v. 20)

Notice that only the fourth soil is called “good.” Which means that the other three soils were not good. It is the goodness of the fourth soil that sets it apart from the other three.

In contrast to the fair-weather responders who “receive it with joy” (v. 16), the fruitful responders simply “accept it” (v. 20). They don’t accept it in a merely emotional or mainly emotional way, but in a whole-hearted, whole-person way. Fruitful responders grow deep roots into the depths of God’s Word. Since they have deep roots and whole-hearted devotion, they don’t get sidetracked by “the desires for other things” (v. 19). It’s not that they don’t face temptation, but that they consistently and continually grow up into increasing spiritual health. This is the difference between the halfhearted ‘third soil’ folks and the goodhearted ‘fourth soil’ folks: the halfhearted folks face temptation and are choked by it; the goodhearted folks face temptation and are in the habit of conquering it, one small step at a time. As a result, they “bear fruit” (v. 20). The fruit isn’t a fluke, but is produced regularly and abundantly: “thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (v. 20)

In the end, the farmer has no use for a rootless crop that withers away or a fruitless crop that was choked by thorns. Instead, he only has use for the well-rooted crop that yields an abundance of grain. Only these well-rooted plants in good soil that go on bearing good fruit are the true plantings of the Lord.

For the first three soils, their relationship to hearing the word is ‘been there, done that, over that’. But fruitful disciples never get ‘over it’: they keep on hearing, keep on receiving, keep on bearing fruit.

Fruitful disciples are just like the blessed and righteous man of Psalm 1. That man “is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” (Psalm 1:3) What this fruitful man is planted in is the word of God: “his delight is in the [instruction] of the LORD, and on his [instruction] he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2) Fruitful disciples are in God’s Word (Psalm 1:2) and God’s Word is in them (Mark 4:20)!

APPLICATION

If you have the thought that you’d like to dig a little deeper into this parable, you’re not alone! I hope to dig deeper in the coming weeks.

But for now, I ask you this basic but very important question: What is in the driver’s seat of your heart?

For the first soil, anything could be in the driver’s seat – anything, that is, except God’s Word.

For the second soil, immediate emotional comfort is in the driver’s seat.

For the third soil, the pleasures and cares of the world are in the driver’s seat.

For the fourth soil, God’s Word is in the driver’s seat, generating a life of fruitful obedience.

In helping you apply this passage, I want to help you avoid a mis-application that would undermine the clarity that Jesus wants us to have. The mis-application would be to treat the four soils like a description of different seasons in the life of a single individual. If you treated the parable this way, then you might say something like this: ‘Sometimes I am like the first soil and the Word makes no impact on my life. At other times I am like the second soil and self-comfort wins out over faithfulness to the Lord. At still other times I am like the third soil and worldly pressures get the upper hand and I lose my spiritual focus. And yes, there are at least some times when I am like the fourth soil and I walk by faith and bear good fruit.’ As clever as that sounds, reading the parable this way mis-understands and mis-applies what Jesus is teaching us here.

The four soils are not a description of different seasons in the life of a single individual. Instead, they are a description of four different life-shapes, where each individual fits into one of these life-shapes. This life-shape is your characteristic way and your consistent pattern of responding to God’s Word as measured over time – over months and years and decades.

So for the sake of clarity in your life and in your walk with God, let the push of this parable shove you into humble self-awareness: which soil are you?

Like the first soil, is your consistent pattern of responding to God’s Word an exercise in futility? Nothing happens. No impact. Zero traction. It makes no difference in your life. Been there, done that – the devil always comes and takes it away! – so now I’m done with it.

Like the second soil, is your consistent pattern of responding to God’s Word on the surface, without any heart-transforming depth? Been there, done that – persecution comes and makes me afraid – so now I’m done with it.

Like the third soil, is your consistent pattern of responding to God’s Word halfhearted, distractible, exchangeable, unreliable, hit or miss, maybe next time? Been there, done that – but I’d rather have the world – so now I’m done with it.

Or, like the fourth soil, is your consistent pattern of responding to God’s Word faithful, humble, teachable, growth-inducing, holiness-promoting, and fruit-producing? Been there, and still there – “I’d rather have Jesus” and “I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand”[1] – and so by God’s grace I’m still doing it! 

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

ENDNOTES

[1] From the hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus” by Rhea F. Miller.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Vol. 2). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.