Kingdom Productivity - Mark 4:1-20

This passage is the parable of the sower. It is also repeated in Matthew 13:1-23 and Luke 8:4-15 and it presents an important principle to living in God's present and future Kingdom. The parable of the sower describes four categories of hearers of the message of the Kingdom of God--three categories are believers of different degrees and and one category is unbelievers. The first category is unbelievers who hear but do not understand the message (seed falls along the path and birds eat it). The first category of believers receive the message with joy but do not endure (seed sown on rocky ground). The second category of believers is unfruitful because the cares and desires of the world choke the message (seed sown among thorns). The third category of believers is fruitful and productive for the Kingdom (seed sown on good soil). These fruitful or productive believers believe in the reality of God's Kingdom and so it transforms their life so that they now live for the purpose of growing God's Kingdom: they hear the message, accept responsibility for it, and then tell the message to others--and God produces the yield thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold!