Alright, if you will, you’ll find the scripture reading on the back of your bulletin, your order of service, or you can read in your own Bibles, or you can simply listen if you prefer, but we will be referring to this scripture reading as we work through today’s sermon, so you might want to keep it in front of you. Mark chapter 4, beginning with verse 26. And we’ll read through verse 29. Let us stand and show our respect for the word of the living God. This is God’s word. And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night, and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, and after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Thus the reading of God’s holy word May he bless it to our hearts and lives and to all his holy purposes. And the people of God agree in prayer, saying— Amen. Amen. Please be seated. And so we are turning again this morning to our ongoing series of sermons from the Gospel of Mark. Last Lord’s Day in Mark chapter 4, verses 1 through 25, We learned about the first of the kingdom parables of Jesus recorded by Mark, namely the parable of the soils. You remember that parable. It’s very famous. A sower went forth to sow. He sowed the seed. There were 4 different kinds of soils, and each soil responded in its own way, one of them, of course, responding very well. And being converted and producing an abundance for God’s kingdom. Now Jesus gave several kingdom parables. Matthew records 9, Mark records 4, Luke records 4, but in these wisdom teachings our Lord explains the nature of the kingdom of God in this present new covenant age in which we live. Now, many in Jesus’ day expected the Messiah to come and establish an immediate political dominion with visible power and sudden triumph, liberating Israel from Rome and setting them free and taking the ascendancy in world power. But instead, Christ teaches that the kingdom he brought arrived among the people with him, and that being new in the world, it was beginning small. But he assured his followers that his kingdom would grow over the years between his first coming and his return, and that ultimately by the time of the final harvest, it would have grown to be very great. Now the kingdom parables are valuable to all Christians in that they correct our impatience, they correct our unbelief, they teach us that the advance of Christ’s reign in world history often appears slow and hidden, yet it is persistent and steady, divinely ordained, to, and destined to succeed in triumph. The kingdom
grows in the world through the power of the gospel until it reaches a fullness that brings blessings to the nations of the earth. Now, there is resistance to growth in God’s kingdom because there is always resistance to righteousness from the enemies of good. But the enemies of Christ’s kingdom are destined to ultimate failure and ruin while his kingdom is destined to overcome and triumph. Now, last week’s famous parable of the soils, and we’re picking up this week where we left off, last week’s famous parable of the soils focused on the human heart and how it responds to the gospel message that’s preached. And that parable emphasizes the human responsibility to believe in Jesus with faith and repentance unto salvation and to live the Christian life. This morning’s parable emphasizes the sovereignty of God, sovereignty being his absolute power. His sovereign absolute power that causes His kingdom to grow and spread in the earth. And it shows us that we can see God’s kingdom growing in the world. We can see it. We send missionaries, they plant churches and so forth. We can see God’s kingdom growing in the world. But the power that causes the growth is invisible to us. We know that God is at work in the world. We see the results, but we can’t see his invisible spirit and power that promote the growth. Nevertheless, we’re assured that his glorious kingdom will prevail. And so moving forward now, our first emphasis is on how the kingdom of God grows. So, how does it grow? First, the kingdom grows through the sowing of the word. We find here that the kingdom grows through the sowing of the divine word, Holy Scripture being broadcast, scattered, sown in the field of God’s world. Jesus says in verse 26, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.” Now it’s very much like, in fact the same, as in the previous parable of the soils where Jesus explained the sower sows the word. So the kingdom of God advances in this world by those means that God has entrusted to his church. We call them the means of grace, the word of God, the holy sacraments accompanied by prayer. These are the ordinary means that God has appointed for the growth of his kingdom. The gospel message that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners is proclaimed by the church. Those whom the Holy Spirit has given eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds to believe, they receive the word with faith and repentance unto eternal life. And along with preaching is the teaching of Scripture, to teach believers how to be disciples and to equip them to be doing the work in God’s kingdom that Christ intends his followers to be doing. And then, having been equipped to work in God’s kingdom, believers should be reproducing. They should be equipping and teaching others. They
should be going forth and sowing the word. They should be going forth and claiming the name of Jesus Christ and bringing others into Christ’s kingdom. That’s how the kingdom grows? It grows through multiplication. In the early history of the church, in the book of the Acts, it demonstrates this pattern repeatedly, saying that the word of God increased, and as the word spread, the church multiplied. So are you busily working in God’s harvest field? Are you diligently doing your part toward the increase of God’s kingdom? Are you learning how to be a disciple? And then being one by teaching and helping others to be disciples. And there’s no reason for you not to. We’re having a weekly class on that subject right here every Tuesday at 7 PM. Come join us and learn. But there is a lesson that’s carried forward. The church’s task is not to create the growth, but to sow the seed faithfully, trusting God for the increase. Now over the years, the church has— in many cases we’ve seen the church get confused. They think their job is to create the growth. They think their job is to do whatever it takes to build a big huge church. And whatever it takes is what they will do. And they cater to the spirit of the day in order to connect with people. And they do all kinds of things through which they want to create the growth. That’s not the church’s job. God’s the one who creates the growth. The church, that’s what Jesus is stressing in our next point. The kingdom grows by God’s power. You see, our job is to sow the seed. God creates the growth. So bearing that principle in mind, consider that in the parable, the man scatters the seed on the ground and then, verse 27, should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. Notice that last part. Interesting, isn’t it? The seed sprouts and grows, becomes plants, bears seed, and becomes a great harvest, but the man doesn’t really know how. I mean, that part of farming is still a bit of a mystery. In fact, whenever we find new life, there’s a mystery that man hasn’t been able fully to solve. It’s the same with the conception of a, of a child, a baby. Science can do amazing things with this, as some of us have been discussing here. They have devices now that can show the fertilization of a human egg taking place. And an electrical charge which they believe sparks life, but still, what’s the source of the electrical charge? Where does it come from? And how does an electrical charge which is not personal, it’s not a person, it’s just a force, an inanimate force, but life comes? We know it happens, but it’s still a mystery. Ultimately the answer is God does it. Behind everything that we
can observe is what we— is the thing that we can’t observe, and that’s God and His power at work. God is the source of all life. And it’s the same with the farmer and his seed. In the parable, that farmer surely knew about soil warmth, deepness of the seed, the darkness and the moisture which fostered the germination of the seed. But how does the life appear there? What is its origin? And the growth of the seeds into plants, we know about. Photosynthesis and environmental factors, but we can’t see with our naked eye, even though we can see how it happens, and we’ve gotten to the point that we can see photosynthesis, but we still don’t know how it come— how it becomes life, right? Paul explains The growth of God’s kingdom in the world, as Jesus is teaching here, is similar. You see the growth, but the spiritual power behind the physical forces is invisible to us because the power at work causing the kingdom of God to increase is God himself. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7. Where he speaks of the growth of God’s kingdom as churches were springing up all around and as Christians were growing to maturity. And Paul, he didn’t, Paul didn’t take the credit for himself. He didn’t say, “I did it.” He taught us that God does it. He says, “I planted, Apollos watered,” but God gave the increase. So then, neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Scripture consistently attributes kingdom growth to God’s invisible power, as in the words of Jesus in John 3:7-8. He says, Do not marvel “that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’? The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” And just like that seed, or just like that little baby at conception, the same is true of us. We hear the gospel preached. We hear the word of God. The Holy Spirit causes life, spiritual life in us so that we have faith and we believe. But we can’t do that ourselves. We can see the results of it. I mean, the results are right here in this room today. But we can’t see the power that does it. It’s God’s Holy Spirit. So we, brothers and sisters, can preach and teach and disciple and pray and train up our children and counsel others and do all the work that God has given us to do, and we must because it’s our duty as followers of Jesus, but only God by His Holy Spirit can give the increase. Only God by His invisible Holy Spirit can cause the seed of the word to take root in human hearts and to increase. That shouldn’t discourage you. That should encourage you. It should encourage us in
our duties in serving the Lord because if it were left up to us, we would all fail. But it’s not up to us because God Himself makes our labors effectual. And God’s power cannot fail. God’s power, the working of the Holy Spirit, is that invisible yet personal power at work which the scientists and the doctors can’t see, which the botanists and the farmers can’t see, which the theologians and the pastors can’t see. We see the results, but we can’t see what’s happening spiritually and invisibly. We can’t see the mysterious power that causes growth in God’s kingdom but we can see the results of the growth all around us and in us. That should give us confidence, yet it should also produce humility in us because Jesus taught that apart from Him we ourselves can do nothing. Now moving forward again, Our next point in learning about the growth of God’s kingdom is in verse 28, that the kingdom grows gradually. Verse 28, “For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” And so Jesus here emphasizes slow, steady stages of development, doesn’t he? I mean, the farmer goes out and sows his seed and he doesn’t have, you know, most of us here love to grow corn, so you don’t go out and sow your seed, you wake up the next morning and you’ve got 8-foot corn stalks with 2 ears on each one. It doesn’t work like that. It’s slow and steady, isn’t it? First the blade, then the ear, and after that the full grain in the ear. So Jesus emphasizes that growth normally happens step by step. We don’t always notice growth in God’s kingdom. Sometimes we do. We look and go, “Wow, look at that.” But sometimes we don’t because our time spent in the world is relatively short. Christ’s kingdom has been growing for 2,000 years now. And our lifespan is merely a few decades. 100 years of life in this world is considered a long time because time is all we’ve ever experienced and a short amount of it is all we’ve ever experienced. 100 years is, in comparison to God’s timetable, isn’t long at all because in God’s timetable the Apostle Peter taught us, A day can be like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. Furthermore, we live and move and we can, and conduct our lives in God’s kingdom here every day. Now think about your lifetime observing God’s kingdom in this present world. Think of it as being in your summer garden. Nearly everyone here, most of us here, we like to garden. I tell people sometimes I don’t do it because I like to do it, I just do it because I feel like I’m supposed to. I do like it, I’m kidding. But if you stand out in your garden all day, right, if you go out there
every day, stand around in your garden and look at it all the time, you’re not likely to notice a whole lot of growth changes in your plants, right? I mean, if you walk out every day and look at it, you notice growth, but it seems relatively slow. But take some time not looking at it. Go away on a vacation or a journey for a couple of weeks and then return. Your garden, including the weeds, will have grown so much it hardly looks the same, right? Now consider that in light of the relatively brief 33 years or so when our Lord walked the earth in His body. Then He went to assume His throne of kingly power in heaven after His death, burial, and resurrection. He’s been ruling from heaven now for 2,000 years. Imagine how God’s garden, God’s vineyard, has grown and will have grown when Jesus returns to claim His kingdom. Imagine how much different it looks today 2,000 years later than when it began. I mean, in fact, it began with one seed, didn’t it? A single seed that was Jesus. He taught this in John’s Gospel just not long— just prior to His crucifixion. When he explained in John 12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain.” Now, the good news of the kingdom began in a tiny nation with one man, and a small group of disciples. It spread throughout Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria. It spread across the whole Roman Empire. And from there, the kingdom has continued expanding throughout the world and will continue expanding until God’s field, God’s field, the earth, is covered with a massive crop of good grain. And the lesson for us all regarding God’s powerful working in the world and in our own lives is patience, patience. When Jesus came to the world and His disciples, they wanted the fullness of the Messianic Kingdom now. And they wanted a Messianic kingdom that was going to destroy Rome and cast off Rome and give Israel the freedom she so longed for. But Jesus taught it doesn’t happen suddenly. You have to have patience. He said of His Father, “My Father is always working.” God’s power is at work always, even when our limited, from our limited understanding, we think of it as slow. But is it really? We think of, we measure time according to what we have experienced, a brief period. But remember, God is eternal. God has no beginning. He has no end. 2,000 years, which is how long it’s been since our Lord walked the earth in His body, that seems like a long time to us because the only point of comparison in our experience is our own lifetime of a few brief years. But God is eternal. What is 2,000 years compared to eternity? It’s like that. In fact, you can’t really even compare it.
A thousand years are nothing to God. To Him, a thousand years are like a day. So if you look at it from God’s perspective, this 2,000 years we’ve watched the kingdom of God grow in the world, For us it seems like such a long time, but I suspect, I don’t know, but I think that what we see as such a long time, in God’s perspective it’s like Jesus came, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, boom, comes back to His kingdom. I don’t know that, but I suspect it might be the case. Now, moving forward in the parable, we find next that the kingdom grows toward a certain harvest. Verse 29, “But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” So the process of the growth of God’s kingdom, it’s moving toward a definite end, isn’t it? It’s moving toward a definite completion. And as Jesus taught in the parable of the soils, it will be a very, very abundant harvest. You remember The good soil we learned about last week representing the heart that received the word of the gospel with faith and repentance unto life. Remember that? The people who received the word and were converted produced a crop. In turn, Jesus taught, some 30 times the amount of seed sown, some 60, some 100-fold. We’re talking about a bumper crop. Of fruitful growth that covers the field. And the field in the parable is the world. Jesus says that in another place in Scripture. So when the final harvest arrives at the end of this present age, the yield will be worldwide and absolutely, utterly amazing. We can’t Imagine what it’s going to be like. Daniel the prophet spoke of the Messiah’s world kingdom and its growth hundreds of years before Jesus’ arrival to set His kingdom into motion. Daniel the prophet spoke of the Messiah’s coming and His kingdom. And Daniel described the growth of Jesus’ kingdom of the redeemed, His blessed church, as filling the whole earth. He described Messiah’s kingdom beginning as a mere stone, but a stone that struck and destroyed all the other kingdoms of the earth and itself grew to be a great mountain that filled the entire world. Daniel describes the kingdoms of this world as iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold, but none of them able to endure. None of the kingdoms of this world able to prevail against God’s worldwide growing mountain, His kingdom church. Daniel writes in chapter 2, verse 35, Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floor. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The harvest imagery in Jesus’ parable refers to the final judgment, the reaping of the world, the final judgment, the
full and final consummation of his kingdom. Christ will return when the appointed harvest time arrives according to God’s plan. When the appointed purpose of God in history has reached its fullness, the King will return to claim his kingdom and the whole earth will be harvested. Jesus teaches in another parable there will be some tares, weeds, growing among the wheat. But you have to remember, He didn’t teach about some wheat growing in a field of weeds as some pessimistic theologians seem to indicate, but a minority of weeds growing in a vast, good, abundant wheat field. A wheat field. It’s a wheat field with tares in it, not a tare field with wheat in it. And the gradual expansion of the kingdom in this present age of history will culminate in that final harvest. The tares, those who wouldn’t submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior, not being citizens, born again redeemed citizens of His kingdom, but enemy intruders, will be gathered together and burned, Jesus taught us. But the wheat, the good plants in God’s world field, will enter into the joy of our Father in heaven to rejoice in his beautiful presence forever and ever without end. And so, in conclusion, a few thoughts for your consideration and hopefully edification First, do not despise small beginnings. In the parable, a few seed sown multiplied into a complete harvest of good grain. The beginning of the Messianic Kingdom appeared— when it began, it appeared rather unimpressive. A small group of disciples, in an obscure province of the Roman Empire gathered around one man, a teacher. But step back and consider the world as a whole and just look at what it has become now. It literally spans the globe. The church is worldwide. It spans the globe. Believers today may feel that their church is small. We live in a culture that thinks everything bigger is better. It’s not. But that’s the way a lot of people think. And believers can sometimes think, well, their church is small, their influence is limited, their efforts are insignificant. But Jesus teaches that the growth of His church isn’t by number, power, might of man, but by God’s power. God’s power, not ours. And God can take a little and do a lot with it. Our Savior took a few loaves of bread and fishes and fed 5,000. The kingdom that began in weakness is growing in power. Therefore, we must not measure success by immediate visible results. Next, be faithful in sowing the seed. With whatever abilities God has gifted you, be always looking for opportunities to put them to use in serving our great King Jesus. The farmer’s responsibility in the parable What is it? I mean, it’s so simple. Scatter the seed and trust God. Likewise, the mission of the church is clear. Sometimes people try to make it so complicated and so technical and so obfuscated, but the mission of the church is clear. We
Christians are called to proclaim and live the gospel, teach the Scriptures, disciple believers so they too will in turn learn to use their abilities and their opportunities for Christ, and to pray for God’s blessing and trust Him. It’s not difficult. Also, be patient with the pace of God’s work. Jesus describes growth in stages. First the blade, then the ear, or the head, and after that the full grain in the head. Throughout history around the world there have been periods when the church appeared weak, diminishing, threatened, yet the gospel continued advancing and always will. God’s purposes unfold according to His timing, not ours. And so realizing this and submitting to it can protect us from discouragement and impatience. And finally, take courage in your present labors for Christ and his kingdom. Many Christians today are tempted toward pessimism about the future of the world and the church. But this parable, and even more the parable we’ll be learning about next Lord’s Day, teach us to see history not through newspapers, not through cable news, and not through the internet, but to see history through the promises of God in His Holy Word, the promises of Christ. The seeds have been planted and they’re still being sown around the world. The kingdom is already growing. And the final harvest is certain in God’s time. So let us all serve our Lord with undying hope. Let us labor with complete confidence. Let us pray with undiminishing expectation. And let us persevere with unassailable faith. Joy, for victory is the Lord’s. Let us pray.