The Kingdom of God is Like... - Mark 4:21-34

Introduction

We live in a world that is rife with sin, wickedness, and evil. We see the morality of our country seemingly in a death spin, wicked leaders in positions of power, both abroad and here in America, children sacrificed in the name of the convenience, issues in justice systems around the world leave the wicked unpunished and the innocent behind bars. Christians are persecuted around the world at a record pace. 11 Christians die for their faith every day. 245 million Christians will face some form of religious persecution because of their commitment to Jesus.

Its so easy to look out into the world around us as decry the evil we see, but when we look into the Church, where we would think things should be better, we find that even our own churches are full of sinners who so often fail to fulfill the responsibilities given by God. It seems that we cannot go a week or two without hearing about another scandal bringing reproach upon the name of Christ.

With all of that, how does God’s church not die out? How does the Kingdom of God survive?

In Mark chapter 4, we find Jesus giving several parables.

First is the parable of the soils. In this parable, we see how different people respond to the Word of God differently. Some reject the Word for different reasons, some seem to embrace but then fall away.

It’s easy to become discouraged in the midst of all this. Perhaps as you have sown the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you too have become discouraged.

In addition to fear of rejection, we face the discouragement of a sin-sickened world, and if that isn’t enough, there are those who actively try to shut down God’s people all over the world, through persecution, intimidation, harassment, etc.

In the midst of all this, again, how does God’s Kingdom advance??

Jesus gave us the parable of soils to remind us that though man reject, there are some who will embrace the life-transforming message of the Gospel of Christ.

In today’s text, Jesus gives us three more teachings about the nature of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God will not remain hidden. The Kingdom of God Grows by Oft-Unknown Means. The Kingdom of God Starts Small, but Grows to Epic Proportions

Let’s pick up our text in Mark 4:21.

The Kingdom of God Will Not Remain Hidden

Mark 4:21–25 ESV

21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Jesus does not provide the interpretation of what the meaning is of the lamp here, but based on the context where the surrounding parables about the Kingdom, I think we can safely conclude that the lamp is a picture of the Kingdom of God.

When it gets dark and the power is out, you have to light candles or break out the battery powered lantern, right? Where do you put that light source? It would be foolish it put it under a basket or under the bed, right?

The proper place is to put it right out there in the open where it can shine light to all around.

So it is with the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to bring revelation of the Kingdom. Even during Jesus’ ministry there were points when he instructed people to keep silent about things he was doing. He told the demons to be silent. He tells people that he heals to refrain from telling anyone.

But there is a point when everything is revealed. There will be a time when nothing remains hidden. In fact, Jesus says in the verse 22, that the reason for concealing the information in the first place is so that it can be revealed.

Jesus said in the last section that everything comes in parables for reason. The concealment is intentional. But it is concealed so that one day it will be revealed.

There are multiple layers to the revelation of the Kingdom. There will be a day when Jesus Christ comes back and his Kingdom is established. There will be a day of judgement when every secret things will be revealed.

But even here in this text, Jesus is teaching us that some aspects of the Kingdom were already being revealed.

But how we respond to the revelation is critical.

He who has ears to hear let him hear! Pay attention to what you hear! Jesus is really emphasizing the importance of listening to His teaching here. Hearing and listening was key for the parable of the soils. Here he uses more of that same language.

Why is it so important to listen?

With the measure you use it will be measured to you, and still more will be added. The one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

How you respond to Jesus and His word is so critical.

Those who reject Christ, eventually even the possibility to repent and turn to him is gone. There is no repentance in the grave. Some people get so hard hearted to the Gospel that their fate is sealed.

I think of that candle that was set on the table. If you turn you back on the light and walk away from it, what do you get? More darkness! Even the light that was there is removed from you!

But if you come to the light and give heed to the light. If you listen to the Words of Christ, if you receive Him as the promised one. Not only will you get the light, but Jesus says even more will be added. You will receive greater light.

The Kingdom will not remain hidden. How you respond is a critical factor in what you will see.

We can be discouraged because it seems that our land is running further and further from Gospel light as immorality increases. Sometimes it seems as though even what remains might be being taken away. But we must not get discouraged. We ourselves must give heed to the light, and we must be good sowers of the Word. Because even though we see the world running headlong toward self-destruction, God is at work.

Let’s keep reading:

Teaching two:

The Kingdom of God Grows by Oft-Unknown Means

Mark 4:26–29 ESV

26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

A man sows the seeds of the Kingdom, the Word of God, similar to the parable of the soils. But here the focus is on the mysterious nature of the growth.

The sower sleeps and rises night and day. He goes about his normal daily routine, he continues to live life. The words here describe ongoing actions. He continually goes to bed at night and continually gets up by day. So time is passing. But what is happening with the seed in the meantime?

“The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain”

The seed did not grow because he forced it to grow. It grew in a way that was inexplicable to him. As far as he was concerned, it grew by itself. But how did it really grow?

God was doing the work with the seed.

And that’s the point. We may get discouraged with the state of the world, and we may wonder how God’s Kingdom can possibly survive with the way things are going, but we must remember that God will do his work to bring the seed that was planted to full maturity and bearing fruit, even though we don’t see how that can possibly happen.

We might think “oh, this person will never come to faith in Christ” but you don’t and can’t know that. You don’t know how God might use the words you speak to bring about change. We don’t get the privilege of knowing exactly what is happening in the heart of someone who hears the word of God. We know God is the one who is at work and we see the evidence of that, but we aren’t privy to how all that actually comes about.

I hope its an encouragement. We do not know the condition of the soil into which we are planting. We don’t know if we are sowing seed onto a rocky, thorny, hard, or good soil piece of ground. We may think that we just dealt with a hard-hearted person, but we don’t know how God is going to use the implanted word to effect change in a person’s heart. But since we aren’t called to force that growth, since we aren’t charged with the responsibility to create heart change within a person, we don’t have to worry about that. As Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” Salvation is God’s work. We get to be His messengers and tools in his hands, but ultimately it is God that does the work. That should cause us to go out with joy and without fear to spread the good news with others.

Second, We must never let ourselves think “God could never save that person.” That soil just might be better than you think. God’s word will not return void, but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.

And then sometimes, God gives us the blessing of participating in the harvest. The man in this parable planted and also saw the harvest. We do not always get to see the harvest as sometimes that blessing goes to someone else. But sometimes we do and that is a wonderful thing when we do.

This is what the Kingdom of God is like. This is how it grows. We plant, and sometimes in ways that are mysterious and surprising to us, God causes the growth, and we get to witness the harvest. So be encouraged! God will grow his kingdom, and he just might do it through people you least expect.

Okay, so the Kingdom grows. But it’s still so small. Jesus gives us one last parable here to teach us that the Kingdom may have started small. But it will grow to Epic proportions.

The Kingdom of God Starts Small, but Grows to EPIC Proportions.

Mark 4:30–32 ESV

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

This third agricultural parable describes the ultimate result of God’s working to establish His Kingdom.

There are several things to note here:

Note the size of the mustard seed. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a mustard seed, but I have a picture here. It is incredibly small.

{Picture of mustard seed}

Tiny, right? But when it grows, it becomes a very large plant, larger than all the other garden plants of that day.

Now what does this grow into? Now, I have to say, there are a lot of disingenuous pictures online of what the mustard plant looks like. As I looked for photos I saw a lot of images of this seed photoshopped next to full size trees, but whoever made those photos didn’t bother getting the real plant, they just got whatever large impressive tree they could find and slapped it together, so I saw it next to an oak tree, a sycamore tree, and a few others.

I didn’t want to be guilty of the same thing so I looked specifically for a real mustard plant, but there different kinds of mustard plants, and it isn’t the easiest to discern which one Jesus was specifically referring to. As best as I can tell, this is likely what Jesus was referring to:

[picture of plant]

This plant can grow up to about nine feet tall. It’s more bush-like than tree-like, but it can be large enough that birds and other animals would be proud to call it home.

So small seed, large plant. What is the significance here?

Well, there are the obvious details. The kingdom of God may have started small, but it is going to end up being very large. History bears that out, right? Twelve disciples, then a few thousand in Jerusalem, to millions of people today.

But there is more to be learned here.

First, The birds of the air likely refer to people from every national, ethnic, and socioeconomic background. God’s kingdom is not limited to one people group, but all can find rest in Christ.

Second, The mustard plant was considered a weed that many sought to kill and destroy. God’s kingdom is not without those who would seek to harm it.

But lastly, and probably most importantly, there is an Old Testament allusion here that is so important to the meaning of this passage. The idea of all the birds of the air nesting in the branches of a tree is found three times in the old testament, twice in Ezekiel and once in Daniel.

The first is found in Daniel chapter four. If you’re familiar with that book and chapter, you know that King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that was causing him distress and his wise men could not figure it out. So in comes Daniel and here is the dream:

Daniel 4:10–12 ESV

10 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

This was referring to King Nebuchadnezzar and the nation of Babylon. He was the king of the most powerful empire, he ruled the entire world. But it didn’t last. In his dream the tree was cut down. That power is stripped away from him. As mighty as that tree was, it would not remain, but was cut down.

Now let’s look at

Ezekiel 31:1–6 ESV

1 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: “Whom are you like in your greatness? 3 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds. 4 The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field. 5 So it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from abundant water in its shoots. 6 All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations.

Here we have God using a past empire and its decline to teach a lesson to an arrogant king of Egypt. The Assyrian Empire in its day was another empire that was great. It was compared to a great cedar tree. Glorious and mighty! Everyone was under the authority of Assyria.

But if we were to read on in this chapter we would see that it too would be cut down, its limbs stripped bare, and the logs left to rot. As mighty as this tree was, it was not to last.

Finally lets flip back to Ezekiel 17.

If we were to get a sense of the context here, this is a passage of judgment on the nation of Judah. They sinned grievously, so God was using Babylon to bring judgment. But though God is cutting down the nation of Israel and Judah, he will one day restore them. And that is where we will pick it up in verse 22 of Ezekiel 17.

Ezekiel 17:22–24 ESV

22 Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. 24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

This is God’s promise to restore the nation of Israel. We believe this takes place at the end the tribulation when Jesus Christ comes back to rule on earth for 1000 years.

What does this have to do with mustard plants?

When Jesus says in Mark 4 that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard plant and that all the birds of the air will find rest in its branches, that would have triggered this imagery: pictures of mighty empires in their heydays. But more than that, this is God’s Kingdom and what God sets up no one cuts down.

When that imagery is in place, the use of the mustard plant is that much more jarring. Babylon was a mighty tree, Assyria was a cedar! Even the future event for Israel was pictured as God taking a twig off another cedar tree to make his tree. And here we get this: a mustard plant.

But that is how God chooses to accomplish His purposes. He does things in such a way that when we look at it we are left with nothing to say except “only God could have taken that and turned it into this. No man could have done so”

As the Lord says through Ezekiel: “I bring down the tall tree, and make the low tree tall.”

So what we have here is a dual image. The kingdom of God grows now and it spreads invisibly through the hearts of those who trust in Christ. It may have started small with just a few disciples, and at times it may not look like much, but it continues to grow. As it grows it reaches out to more and more people and all the birds of the air, people from every nation, find rest in Christ.

But we also know that there is coming a day when God’s Kingdom will be set up on earth in the Millennial Kingdom and Christ will rule over all. The righteous judge will reign in truth. Right now we live in a sin-cursed, sick, and hurting world. We look forward to the day when all will be set right.

So as we consider these parables on what the Kingdom of God is like, I hope you are encouraged and motivated.

Be encouraged that a we sow Gospel seeds, God is the one who actually does the work of growth in a person. We don’t understand it, and the people God uses may surprise us.

Be encouraged that though the Kingdom started small, and though as it grew it was and is hated by many, yet it still grew and will continue to grow. One day that Kingdom will be visible at the return of Christ and we will reign with him.

Be motivated. You’re not responsible for changing hearts, God is! Sow the Word with confidence. You don’t know the condition of the hearts of the hearers, so don’t let that stop you. Just keep sowing. You never know when the harvest will be ready.

Be Motivated to listen to the Words of Christ. Those who listen receive more light. Those to who reject only walk in further darkness.

Despite the wickedness of this present world, God is accomplishing His purposes. He does so in ways that are often inexplicable to us, but He is at work. As Jesus said in Matt 16, He will build His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Let’s pray.