In this episode of Add Bible, we delve into Mark chapter 4 and explore the powerful Parable of the Sower through insightful reflections and interpretative challenges. Join Alan J. Huth as he shares his personal experiences with this scripture, providing listeners with a thoughtful journey into understanding how scripture can touch and transform lives. From the teaching by the sea to calming the storm, this episode offers a unique blend of narration and personal anecdote.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today brings us to Mark chapter 4, the parable of the sower. We’ll listen to Faith Comes By Hearing’s reading of the 41 verses of Mark chapter 4. Mark 4
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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. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, Listen!
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A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 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. And when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
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And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
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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, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word, 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. 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.” 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. 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. And he said to them, Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. And he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. And he said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. And he said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God? Or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.
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With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. On that day when evening had come he said to them, Let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
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He said to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
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And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
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In 1986, I read Mark 4 and 5 on the same day, and concerning this chapter, Mark 4, I wrote, The sower sows the word. The seed sprouts up and grows. How? He himself does not know, and that’s according to verse 27. Some will not receive. Some will receive, but plant no roots. Some will receive, but will fall away. Some will receive and produce fruit. Ten years later, in 1996, I read Mark 4 on two different days, breaking the chapter in half. So I wrote on the first part, Is the seed God sowed in me on good ground? Has it produced thirty, sixty, a hundredfold? Let me hear again, Lord. The seed is the same. It will grow. The ground is the difference, us, and how we receive the seed. On the next day, I did finish the chapter, but I didn’t write any notes on the rest of Mark 4. Another 10 years later, in 2006, I did the same thing. I read Mark 4 on two different days, splitting the chapter in half, and I wrote about Mark 4. The sower sows the seed. I hope I bear fruit, Lord. In 2006, I was actually reading both Old Testament and New Testament on the same day, and that’s why I split Mark chapter 4 up into two parts. I was also in the book of Numbers, so I kind of combined one thought between Numbers and Mark 4 when I wrote in my journal, God himself spoke to Moses as he does to us through his word and Holy Spirit. Thank you for being part of a ministry of planting, growing, and harvesting. Rather than me deciphering the parable of the sower, which probably many of us have heard sermons on over and over, let’s just look at the practical application of what this says. Presumably, for most of us, the seed of the Word of God has been sown in us. The question is, how have we responded? And Jesus himself interprets the parable of the sower with these descriptions. First, 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. Has that happened to you? Has Satan robbed the power of the Word of God in your life? The second possibility is the next verse, verse 16. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they heard the word, immediately received 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. Is that what happened to you? When you heard the word, when you heard the gospel, did you receive it with joy? Did you start well? But as soon as it got a little rough, did you walk away from the very things that you heard at first? Has your spiritual temperature gone cold? The third possibility is verse 18. 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 desire for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Has that happened to you? Did you hear the word? Again, did you start well? But the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desire for other things choke the word, and you are unfruitful. So are you more concerned about the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things? In a nutshell, what that says is the busyness of life. Has the busyness of life choked out the Word of God in your life? But the fourth possibility is verse 20. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit. Is that you? Have you heard the word? Do you accept the word? Are you bearing fruit because the word of God has been sown and planted in your life? Today, our practical application is to evaluate those four possibilities and see where you are at at this stage in your life. The word of the Lord has been sown in you. What has been your response? And let’s finish this parable with the last story that Mark shares. A storm is raging on the sea, and Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat. Are you peaceful enough in your spirituality that you can sleep through the storms that rage around you in life? If not, lean on the one who can rebuke the storm and calm the blowing winds around you. Even the disciples after that said, Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Yes, Jesus can calm the storms in your life. Lean into the word of God. Lean into Jesus. May the seed of the word of the Lord grow in you. Father, we thank you that you are the sower and you have sown the word of God all over the world into various kinds of ground, various kinds of people. We choose how to receive your word. Regardless of what it’s been in the past, Lord, allow the word to sprout in us. Allow it to take firm ground, grow roots, and bear fruit for you. Water my seed today, Lord. Prune me a little. Help my roots grow deep in you. And let’s bear fruit for you together. In your name we ask it. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin, and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car, and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf. Get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
