Mark 4:11-21

11 "To you," He replied, "has been entrusted the secret truth concerning the Kingdom of God; but to those others outside your number all this is spoken in figurative language;

12 that "`They may look and look but not see, and listen and listen but not understand, lest perchance they should return and be pardoned.'"

13 "Do you all miss the meaning of this parable?" He added; "how then will you understand the rest of my parables?"

14 "What the sower sows is the Message.

15 Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom the Message is sown, but, when they have heard it, Satan comes at once and carries away the Message sown in them.

16 In the same way those who receive the seed on the rocky places are those who, when they have heard the Message, at once accept it joyfully,

17 but they have no root within them. They last for a time; then, when suffering or persecution comes because of the Message, they are immediately overthrown.

18 Others there are who receive the seed among the thorns: these are they who have heard the Message,

19 but worldly cares and the deceitfulness of wealth and the excessive pursuit of other objects come in and stifle the Message, and it becomes unfruitful.

20 Those, on the other hand, who have received the seed on the good ground, are all who hear the Message and welcome it, and yield a return of thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold."

21 He went on to say, "Is the lamp brought in in order to be put under the bushel or under the bed? Is it not rather in order that it may be placed on the lampstand?