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Mark 4:1-9
In Mark 4:1-9 the Bible teaches us that Jesus once again began teaching those that had gathered to hear Him by the sea. But the crowd had become so great that Jesus got into a boat and went out in the sea a little and then continued to teach them by parables. One of the parables that Jesus taught them was the parable of the sower as we learn in Mark 4:3-9 stating, “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Jesus begins this parable with the word “Listen” in Mark 4:3, and ends this parable with the words, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mark 4:9). Jesus does not desire that His teachings fall on deaf ears, but that, even by way of parables, that His hearers would “hear” His words and take them in with understanding. But as we will soon learn, this kind of understanding comes only from the LORD unto all who will believe in Him.
This is a command to “listen” and to “hear” the words of the Lord Jesus as He teaches us the way unto salvation and eternal life.
As we gather to hear the words of our Lord, His teaching will be shallowly taken by some and soon forgotten; some will grasp the words of the Lord with excitement but without understanding and will soon be lost; some will hear the words of the Lord but it will be choked out of them by the company they keep; but some will hear the words of the Lord and share it with others and utilize it in their lives to grow and produce an abundance for the Lord. To be in this last group that produces a crop, we must first “listen” so that we can “hear” properly with a solid rooted foundation in Christ Jesus. It is then that we may produce a crop unto the Lord with our lives – in Christ!
Dear LORD,
As we study Your Word and learn of how we may grow in our relationships with You through our Savior Christ Jesus, please help us to always keep in mind that we need to first “listen” to Your Word so that we may “hear” it properly and produce a crop through following Your will for our lives. In Jesus name I pray, amen.