Mark 4:13-20 Jesus Sows, We Grow

The Text

Mark 4:13–20 (CSB)
¹³ Then he said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables?

¹⁴ The sower sows the word.

¹⁵ Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.

¹⁶ And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.

¹⁷ But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.

¹⁸ Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word,

¹⁹ but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²⁰ And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”

The Devotion

When we come to know and love and believe and trust in God, it doesn't happen in an instance. It might feel like it because before you knew and love God, you and I were dead in our trespasses and sins. When you come to life, it might feel all of sudden.

But what we see here is that the Son of God is scattering the seeds. Those seeds are the gospel of God. This gospel of Christ and him crucified.

And it is God who gives the growth. And when the Spirit saves a person, we now know that he has been working all of life--and believe this, way before you were even born--to bring you to the Father as you precious, chosen, loved child.