Mark

By Joyce Webb 2022

Chapter 4     Verses 1-20

Verse 1 Jesus was by the sea. He began to teach. There was a big crowd of people. There were so many people that Jesus got into a boat and pushed out into the water.

(Water makes the voice carry farther and louder. So it was like a microphone. His voice carried farther for the large crowd.

For him to be in the boat—out farther from them—made it easier for the crowd to see him.)

Verse 2 Jesus told them stories called “parables”. Earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.

Verse 3 The story was about a man planting. A “sower”—-meaning “a person who sows”—-to sow means to plant seeds.

In the old days, a man had a large sack with a strap that when over the shoulder. This held the seed. The man would walk up and down the field,—- as he walked, he threw out handfuls of seed—throwing it in a way that spread it far. The way is called “broadcasting”.

Verse 4 As the man threw out the seed, some of it fell by the way side—-path or road. The birds came and ate it. The seed never had a chance to grow.

Verse 5-6 Some of the seed fell on ground that was full of stones—-there was not much dirt for the seed to grow in.

The seed grew into plants, but because the dirt was thin the roots did not grow deep. The sun burned and dried out the plants and the died.

Verse 7 Some of the seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew stronger than the seed plants. The plants grew weak as the thorns grew bigger. Then the plants died.

Verse 8 Some of the seed fell on good ground. The seeds grew into strong, healthy plants. The plants grew large seed heads of grain—like wheat, barley, etc.

Some of the plants made a lot of seed heads for grain, some made medium amount, some made a little amount.

Verse 9 Jesus said, Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.
In other words: Let him who will—let him give attention to this story.

Verse 10 Later when the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked him what the story meant.

Verse 11 Jesus said, To you—it is given to you to know and understand about the things of God. To other people—some of the other people—they will never understand the things of God—they will not be interested.

Verse 12 They will see (Jesus’ miracles) —they will hear Jesus’ teachings—-they will not understand—they will not see how important those things are —–they will not see that Jesus is talking about eternal life. Most of them will not care. They will not be interested in thinking about eternal life—they are only interested in this life.

Verse 13 Jesus said to the disciples—You do not know what the parable-story meant?

Verse 14 Jesus said—The “sower”—man who plants—is like a teacher or preacher—or believer. The “seed” is the word of God.

Verse 15 The word of God goes out to people everywhere.

The seed that fell on the wayside—is like some people.
These people’s hearts are hard like a path or road where the dirt is packed down and is hard.

The seed does not go into the dirt, but just lays on top of it.
Birds come and eat it.

In other words, these people hear the word of God —but their hearts are hard—the word of God never goes into their minds and hearts—it just “goes away” and is gone.

Jesus said, Satan comes and takes it away from them.
Satan can do that by getting the people to not think about eternal like. To get them to think about this life—having a good time, or thinking about their job, or family, or other things.

Verse 16-17 The next group of people are like the ground with many stones. This group of people hear the word of God and they believe it and they start on the path of being a Christian believer—-but the word of God does not go very deep in their hearts.

When people make fun of them for believing in Jesus—they give up Jesus so they can be accepted by people.

Or if where they live—-it is hard to be a Christian because of government rules—or because people would hurt them because they are Christians—-they give up being a Christian.

Verse 18-19 There are people who are like the thorny ground.
These people believe and begin to grow as Christians. They are Christians for awhile.

Then they have problems that come into their life. Some of the problems are sorrow, sickness, —bad things happen—money problems, lose their job, etc.

Or some get tempted into sins—they no longer want to read the Bible or learn more about God, they do not pray—they are caught up in their sin and do not want to stop their sin.

Or some —all goes very well with them, they make a lot of money, life is good, they are so busy enjoying all the good things—they do not have time for God—-they do not need him.

For all of these people—the word of God becomes weaker and weaker—-the things of this life become stronger—-until the word of God is no more in their life.

Verse 20 Some people hear the word of God, they are glad to receive it. They read the Bible, go to church—-in every way they grow in more understanding about God. They grow “fruit grain heads on their plant”—-they help others to believe in God.

Some bring many others to believe in Jesus. Some bring in a medium amount of people to Jesus. Some bring in a few to believe in Jesus.

They all stay with Jesus—growing in God. They all try to bring others to believe in Jesus.