The Parable of the Sower
1Again vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2And xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3“Listen! Behold, ya sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6And zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ait withered away. 7Other seed fell among bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold.” 9And he said, d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Purpose of the Parables
10And ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, f“To you has been given gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for hthose outside everything is in parables, 12iso that
“‘they jmay indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they kshould turn and be forgiven.’”
13lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14mThe sower sows nthe word. 15And 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. 16And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it owith joy. 17And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qthey fall away.1 18And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ubear fruit, vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Footnotes
- 1 4:17 Or stumble
The Present Kingdom — Part One
Matthew 1:1 – John 21:25 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 37:00 • ID: 2392Stories of the Kingdom
Mark 4:1–34, Mark 10:17–22, Mark 11:12–25, Mark 12:1–12 Series • ID: 27201Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.