2023.05.28 Parable of the Seed

Parable of the Seed

Psalm 107:32-43 • Mark 4:26-29

Mark 4:26–29 NASB 2020

26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. 28 The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 Now when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

PENTECOST!!!

What is Pentecost?

Birthday of the Church - the Holy Spirit falls on the Apostles, they walk out on a balcony and start preaching in languages they don’t know … but the gathered crowd DOES!

Peter preaches passionately about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and the crowd is cut to the quick and asks, “What then should we do?”

Peter says:

Acts 2:38 NASB 2020

38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And that day, about 3,000 souls were added to the Kingdom!

We call Pentecost the birthday of the Church, because the Church is PEOPLE, not a building or an event on the calendar! And 3,000 people were added to Jesus on Pentecost.

So, that’s the background of Pentecost, and I would suggest there IS a connection to today’s Jesus Story. So ...

What do you learn about GOD from this parable?

What do you learn about GOD from this story?

God knows stuff we don’t know!

I told you last week that Annette and I planted a garden this year, and other than wanting to kill a wild rabbit in the area, things are starting to look good!

You may have noticed the pot in the lobby where I planted wax bean seeds on Easter is gone. We put those in the ground last weekend.

But we also put some seeds in the ground, and they’re all pushing through the surface! It’s really exciting to watch the dirt give way to a stalk, and leaves start developing.

We know how to prepare the soil.

We can read how deep to push the seeds down.

We know we need to water the seeds.

We know to keep weeds from taking root.

THOSE ARE ALL PREPARING FOR GROWTH!

We hope eventually we’ll have beans to pull off the bushes.

We know how to cook or can those beans so we can enjoy the yummy produce.

THAT’S REACTING TO GROWTH!

But HOW does growth happen?

Sure, we know some of the science behind chlorophyll and photosynthesis … but how does a plant actually break free from the dirt and reach for the sky? How does grass or a tree grow? For that matter … How do humans grow?

As much as we know about the process …

We know how to facilitate growth

And we know how to react to growth

But we do not know how things grow

Listen to the beginning of this passage in the New Living Translation:

Mark 4:26–27 NLT

26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens.

God uses his Holy Spirit to manage growth, and he’s really good at it! On the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit added 3,000 souls to the Christian Church.

What do you learn about HUMANS?

What do you learn about HUMANS?

How many times do we have to be told to stop trying to do God’s job?

For years, Christians have researched, and studied, and discussed “church growth”. Most denominational offices have departments dedicated to “church growth”.

We may use different terms - the Methodist term is “Church Development”.

And those groups provide good information and advice for getting the church in a good place to facilitate growth. And often, congregations listen amazed at their recommendations - and then don’t follow them.

We see growing the church as a daunting task, don’t we? In fact, it’s so daunting most of us mainline churches often do nothing to facilitate growth.

One thing we can learn about humans is that we often confuse preparation and response to results with the results we hope to see. Our job is planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting. Growth is God’s job.

Honestly, I don’t even know how to start growing a church. I don’t. But that’s okay. Because growth is His job, not mine!

Our job is to FACILITATE GROWTH, not make it happen. So how do we do that? It begins with prayer, and there are countless ways to facilitate growth. For this morning’s limited time, I’ll give you three ways to:

facilitate growth

We know studying God’s Word will facilitate growth inside us, right?

Why do so few of us put ourselves in position to study God’s Word, then?

We have two adult Sunday School classes, and neither of them are bursting the seams of their respective rooms.

We just finished up our Spring Bible Study, and we’ve had a really good group and we’ve helped each other grow a lot! … all 11 of us

Some of us may be plugged into outside study opportunities, but I would suggest a majority of us are not. I would suggest a majority of us are satisfied with passively listening to someone else read Scripture for us on Sunday morning, and hope the pastor spoon feeds us a tidbit that catches our interest.

Do we really want personal growth?

We know that regular worship with the body of believers will facilitate internal growth, right?

In church circles, most people no longer consider weekly attendance the norm. If someone attends once a month, we now think that’s good.

Are we okay with a stagnant congregation?

We can’t force people to show up any more than we can force people to get involved and help lead … but we’ve lowered our expectation to meet the demonstrated behavior instead of holding the expectation until behavior raises to meet it.

If we want growth … we have to expect each other to facilitate growth, and ghosting the congregation facilitates decline and death.

We know that inviting other people to join us will facilitate numerical growth, right?

Who is the last person you talked with about what Jesus has done in your life?

How about a lower standard … Who is the last person you invited to join you in worship here?

I don’t think anything happens here on Sundays that would be “cringy” or embarrassing. So why aren’t we inviting people?

Do we not want the church to grow?

What do you learn about HUMANS?

I would say that we feel like growing the Church is a daunting task so we shrink from it. When I say that, I’m being generous. Because the real reason is perhaps not that we’re trying to take God’s job. Perhaps we’re waiting for God to do our jobs.

After Pentecost, Christianity started spreading like a wildfire across the known world. The Holy Spirit changed people’s lives, ushered them into God’s family, and they couldn’t contain themselves telling other people about the difference He made in their lives!

We contain ourselves. We contain ourselves very well. Either that, or we don’t believe God’s done anything in our life.

Which is it with you?

Parable of the Seed

We are supposed to be the farmer in this parable.

We are supposed to be casting seed, observing growth, tending the crop, and reaping the harvest.

We don’t have a harvest to reap, because there isn’t much crop to tend. We’re not seeing growth, and it’s because we aren’t casting seed. The Holy Spirit stands ready to do his part. Are we ready to do ours?

Let him who has ears hear.