Are You Really Saved?: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 4:1-20)

How do you know if someone is really a follower of Jesus?

A real sea-change has been occurring in Jesus’ ministry.  The popularity of it has not waned, in fact, perhaps, it has increased.  But so has the opposition to him while the sincerity of those who favor him has diminished.  Jesus doesn’t simply accept this but takes decisive action.

And again he began to teach by the sea.  And huge crowds were coming to him, so much so that he got into a boat on the sea to sit while the crowd remained on the shore by the sea.  And he began teaching them in many parables and was saying to them in his teaching:

“Listen!  Look, a sower went out to sow.  And it happened in the sowing that some of the seed fell upon the path and the birds came and ate it up.  Other seed fell on rocky soil where there was little dirt, and it immediately sprang up because it was so shallow.  But when the sun shone it was scorched and because it had no roots it withered.  Still other seed fell into the thorns and the thorns grew and choked it out and it yielded no fruit.  And some seed fell into good soil and it bore fruit, growing and increasing, and bore fruit, in some cases thirty-fold, in some cases sixty-fold, and some cases one hundred-fold.”  Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

And when they were alone his disciples began asking him, along with the twelve, about the parable.  He told them, “To you has been given the mystery concerning the kingdom of God.  But to those outside all things are presented in parables, ‘so that seeing they will see and not really see, and hearing they will hear but not understand, so that they won’t repent and be pardoned.'”

He told them, “Don’t you understand this parable, and if not, how will you understand any of the parables.  The sower sows the Word.  The seeds that are on the path, wherever the Word is sown and they hear it, immediately Satan comes and takes the seed that was sown in them.  And the ones who are like the seed sown on rocky soil, when they hear the word they immediately receive it with joy, but they don’t have roots in themselves but are temporary so that when troubles come or persecution on account of the Word they are immediately made to fall away.  And others are those sown among the thorns, who hear the Word but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and their desires overtake them and choke out the Word and they are unfruitful.  And those who are like seed sown in good soil, they hear the Word, receive it, and bear fruit, some thirty, some sixty and some a hundred-fold.”  (Mark 4:1-20)

The fickle nature of the crowd and the opposition of many religious leaders and his own family moves Jesus to alter his teaching style.  Instead of saying plainly what the people need to hear, he obscures it with parables.  A parable is a story that cannot be interpreted unless you are given the key (verses 14-20).  Many of those who were coming to hear Jesus did not really desire to hear the message he preached so much as to have their desire for miracles or their curiosity piqued.  They didn’t care to understand.  You must want to know the message enough to search for the key.  You must come up afterwards, as the disciples will do, and ask the meaning.

Jesus further explains to his disciples that speaking in parables is a form of judgment on this people Israel for their rebellious hearts.  Isaiah was told by God that as he prophesied to Israel in 700 B.C. he would find that the people would turn a blind eye and deaf ear to his message as a judgment on them for their hard hearts.  Jesus said the same situation availed in his day.  This is why he quoted Isaiah in his description of the people hearing but not understanding (Isaiah 6:9,10).  The disciples are different.  To them he gives the interpretive key to his parable.  He knows their hearts are good.

The interpretation is that the sower sows the word of the kingdom, the word Jesus has been preaching, and there are various responses to this message.  There are those who never get the first clue about what he is saying.  Satan easily distracts them from the message.  Others may immediately get what Jesus is saying but when trouble comes they give up on the message of hope.  Still others seem to receive the word but their desire for riches or their concerns for worldly pursuits make them “unfruitful.”  The fruit Jesus is looking for and that the disciples have demonstrated is obedience to the message and living with the kingdom as the priority.

Only disciples who produce fruit give any evidence that they have believed and evidence that they are really saved.  The key is responsiveness to the message of the kingdom and submission to God and His messenger Jesus.  We will be known by our fruit.

How do you respond to the message?  Is it old hat?  Does it seem unintelligible?  Does it only give you reason or excuse to attack its veracity?  Or like the Bereans to whom the apostle Paul preached (Acts 17:10-12), does it move you to seek understanding and to obey?  That is good soil.