Mark 4:26-34 - The Unexpected Kingdom

Intro

Context

Jesus had just given them the parable of the sower, explained it to the disciples, the parable of the lamp stand

Jesus is beginning to reveal the Kingdom.

Jesus ministry consisted of one primary theme: The Kingdom of God

Jesus opened his ministry in Mark 1:14-15 “14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

After the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus, Acts 1:3 “3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

He spoke about one thing for forty days

If you and I schedule a meeting to talk about one thing, you’d think that thing is pretty important.

Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God—We should take note.

What is the Kingdom of God like?

Jesus gives us two parables that give the image of a person sowing a seed, but to completely different effects.

The first parable is going to show the process of growth

The second parable reveals just where the Kingdom of God is headed.

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.”

This is a very anti-climatic beginning to a description of God’s Kingdom.

How do you describe the Sistine Chapel? The Grand Canyon? A bride on her wedding day?

You’d describe them as breath-taking and overwhelming.

The Kingdom of God should be likened to something grand and glorious

Beautiful mountain peaks, the mystery of the depths of the ocean, the glory of a champion gladiator.

But that’s not the way Jesus starts His parable.

The Kingdom of God is like a farmer with some seeds. **Confused look**

He describes the Kingdom as something so small and mundane.

The Kingdom they had been waiting generations for is now being described as a seed?

What is Jesus doing here?

He’s pointing us to the character of God.

The paradox of the gospel, the scandal of the Incarnation—is disguised in easy places. The God whom Jesus introduces will not be kept at a celestial arm’s length.

Jesus doesn’t tell us how high and lofty God is, but how very near and present He is with us.

Jesus reveals that the Lord is in the routines of planting and harvesting. God is in the mundane, which this should tell us a little bit of the nature and plan of God.

How is it that simple faith and following Jesus is the only way to heaven?

Wouldn’t it be more assuring to know you’ve earned your way to heaven?

If I can just earn my spot next to Jesus?

Absolutely not! Praise God that we can only be saved by faith in Christ!

“Well that’s not how I’d do things.”

We should do more to get into heaven!

People need to get up and get after it!

Notice whose Kingdom Jesus is teaching us about.

“The Kingdom of God”

The Kingdom of God is God’s rule and reign over His creation.

This means that God is the one who lines out how things go

The beautiful part about it being God’s Kingdom is that it’s not your kingdom.

We love ruling in our own kingdoms.

I’m in charge. I set the rules. I do what I want.

In your Kingdom, you think you belong and deserve to be there.

What makes God’s grace grace is that we don’t deserve to be in His Kingdom.

Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom of God appears to be upside down to us.

For instance:

God allows us to participate in His Kingdom work.

Salvation is a total work of God

From beginning to end, the Lord saves.

Evangelism in the Kingdom of God is a privilege!

We sow the seed—Preach the Word.

We get to welcome nonChristians into our homes, sit with them around our tables, participate in life-activities such as ball games, grocery shopping, and pumping gas.

With the motive of sharing the gospel with them and the hope that they would become Christians.

Then we go to sleep.

Well this seems counter-productive

“We tell someone about Jesus, then sleep?”

What about the 8 step-evangelism plan?

What about how we hide in their bushes until we find the right time to tell them about Jesus?

What about the programs??

We can’t arm-wrestle someone into the Kingdom of God.

We can’t do verbal jiu-jitsu and trick them into believing.

“If I can just contort them in the right position to repeat a prayer after me!”

Evangelism that puts all the weight on us is crippling. It will lead us to prayerlessness because we believe that the work of salvation is solely on us.

“I have to talk more. I have to say more. I have to do more.”

“If I just talk with them long enough. If I just conveyed it in a different way. If I just _____, then they’d believe.”

If we put the weight of someone becoming a Christian entirely on us, we will be crushed under that weight.

Because that’s not how Jesus says it works.

If you read Acts 1:4, Jesus tells His disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promised Holy Spirit.

This goes against everything I was prodded to do growing up.

“If you snooze, you lose”

“Get your head in the game”

“Don’t just sit there, do something.”

Jesus tells His disciples at first, “Don’t just do something. Sit there.”

They prayed for 10 days, Peter preached for 10 minutes and 3,000 people were saved.

What if we took that kind of approach to evangelism?

What if we prayed for God to move and to use our bumbling words to save people?

Now what I don’t want you to hear me saying is don’t evangelize.

What you should hear me say is that talking about Jesus should gradually become a regular language for you.

What if we took an Acts approach to ministry?

Every time the disciples spent time seeking the Kingdom and the presence of God through prayer and fasting, He showed up and did huge stuff.

Jesus likens the Kingdom to something that’s mundane and ordinary.

The people are already regularly doing this.

Scattering seed and farming.

A man scatters a seed

The Word of God is the seed that’s been scattered.

Jesus tells His disciples in the parable just before this that “The sower sows the word” (v. 14)

The Word scatters far and wide.

This is not our best arguments for Christianity

This is not our most eloquent of speeches with 3 points and two applications

It’s the Word that does the Word.

Paul writes to the Corinthians that he did not preach in a way that would dazzle them.

“Wow, Paul is such a great preacher! We should follow him!”

Paul writes that he didn’t preach anything but Jesus Christ crucified.

He only preached the gospel to them!

Then what happened? God gave them the gift of faith and caused growth to happen in their hearts and their minds!

No one is saved because of my skill and ability in preaching.

No one is going to follow Christ because of my Bachelor’s degree in Christian ministry.

No one is going to be forgiven of their sin because I’m a nice guy.

People will leave their sin and follow Jesus because Jesus is the sermon!

People will be saved because of the cross and empty tomb of Jesus!

People will live eternally because of the power of God!

The Kingdom of God is when a seed is scatter and God produces the growth!

Not by your competence, but by your faithful obedience.

Then God faithfully gives growth.

Then He lets us fill the baptism tanks and participates.

Mark 4:29 “29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.””

We sow the seed, then we rest, knowing we were faithful with what the Lord has given us.

God allows us to participate in His Kingdom work.

We get to share the gospel and participate in Kingdom expansion.

Then God does the work of salvation!

Then, we get to come back in the game to baptize and disciple.

We get to teach people how to live life with Jesus and watch them grow!

Jesus, then shows us the unsuspected nature of the Kingdom

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.”

The smallest of beginnings end in jaw-dropping results.

The Kingdom of God may look small, but the result of God’s divine plan is astounding.

God rarely does things at my pace and according to my plan.

Planting Graceland-Dearborn, I’m continually finding myself erasing things from the schedule I organized for another direction the Lord takes us.

We’ve gotta go fast, and we’ve gotta go hard.

I always dream that if we start big, we’ll stay big.

That’s not how the Kingdom of God works!

The seeds that are scattered on the ground turn into huge trees of faith

There are people that you never thought would be a Christian, yet they become pillars of grace in your life!

Graceland Dearborn is experiencing this left and right!

Our sending church did not send us with a team.

We are drawing people out of the harvest, raising them up, and God is doing miraculous things there!

Our church lives on the growth that God brings!

I have had systems and ideas that have proven useless.

God has drawn people through the simple proclamation of His Word?!

It hasn’t been through events, emails, and exciting slogans

It hasn’t been through incredible leadership and a cult of personality

It’s been through Core Group members reaching out to friends and family members with the gospel!

“It’s just that easy?!”

Gospel proclamation leading to gospel transformation!

That’s totally not how I thought church planting would go, but Jesus said, that the Kingdom is like a mustard seed.

If you’re here and you’re a Christian, it’s time for you to get involved with the gospel garden.

Start scattering seed.

Be so filled with Scripture and prayer that it becomes natural for you to talk about Jesus.

We want to see friends and family members reached with the gospel, don’t try to entice them through worldly means.

Just be faithful with the Scriptures. Delight in the message of the gospel that delivered you from death.

Then tell them about it!

Then watch it grow.

If you’re here and you’re not a Christian, here’s what you need to know:

The importance of hearing the gospel is noted several times through Mark 4.

Mark 4:33-34 “33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.”

“As they were able to hear” implies that the parables will enlighten or obscure, depending on someone’s ability to hear and respond.

Those who draw near to Jesus and follow Him as a disciples, He’ll explain everything.

It’s only through a close connection to Jesus will He explain everything, just as He did with His disciples.

Do you want to follow Jesus today?

I can’t extend this invitation on Thursday.

Jesus is saving people today. He might have returned by Thursday.

All I know is that the Kingdom is open to you today.

Here’s the options:

You can get close to Jesus and understand more of Him

You can get more of the Kingdom of God

You can draw back from Jesus and lose Him and the Father and miss the Kingdom.