Mark 4:30-34 "The Parable of the Mustard Seed"

Jesus has been using parables to illustrate Kingdom truths to His disciples and to hide Kingdom truths from those under judgement.

And as we have seen before Jesus uses a seed to communicate the mysterious dynamic of the Kingdom of God. But this time it is a specific kind of seed that He uses. And He uses it to make a comparison with the Kingdom of God in verses 30-32. Look back at your text to what I am calling “The Comparison” in verses 30-32:

I. The Comparison (30-32).

So the question in verse 30 is a rhetorical one. He already has something in mind. He is not asking His disciples for suggestions regarding parable topics.

He then launches into a parable of a mustard seed. He refers to it as the smallest of seeds on the earth but when it is sown in a garden it grows to be the biggest of the plants in the garden (31-32).

As a matter of fact it becomes so big that birds can make nest in the shade that it provides.

Application:

But we already know when it comes to parables told by the Lord Jesus in Mark 4, the point being made is not something related to agriculture but He is making a theological truth about the dynamic of the Kingdom. And the same is true here.

Jesus is speaking of the apparent small beginnings of the Kingdom of God and yet He is foretelling of the huge advancement that it will make in the world.

Jesus Christ came into the world to bring the Kingdom of God. Of course we know He was the eternal Son of God made flesh who came to fulfill God’s plan of redemption and reconciliation of sinner to God the Father.

He was one man but as one man He came to die and He describes Himself and His redemptive purpose in John 12:24 when He says: 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The Kingdom of God may be starting off small by the standards of the world, but by God’s standards it was going to be unstoppable. Christ came to bring a Kingdom that would not fail in its expansion and provision of God’s sovereign rule and dominion over the kingdoms and political dominions of fallen man.

The Kingdom of God establishes the spiritual dominion as being more emphatically significant than any other of the plants in God’s garden. That is because the mustard plant in the parable is reflective as the Kingdom provision of God for His covenant people. A nest in the shade is the place of rest and security, not for birds but for the people of God.

Imagine that a Jewish Rabbi died upon a Roman Cross in the First Century like a smallest of seeds yet came to life on the third day and eventually becomes the larges religion in the world.

In Daniel 2 King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that only Daniel the prophet can reveal and interpret. Nebuchadnezzar dream of a statue that has different layers to it made out of different things. And Daniel interprets that these layers represent Kingdoms of the world. It is so accurate to history that liberal scholars use to believe that it was written after the fact.

Then the discovery of the Daniel Scroll in the Dead Sea scrolls ruined everything because the Daniel scrolls predate the final fulfillment of that prophecy.

It tells us of a Kingdom that will be a mixture of iron and soft clay. Which it is depicting the Greeco-Roman historical elements of the Roman Empire. And Daniel reveals something critical in Daniel 2:44: 44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,

This is why the Angel Gabriel told Mary that of His Kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33). The Kingdoms of men will rise and fall but the Kingdom of Christ Jesus will stand forever.

Scripture tells us what becomes of the Kingdoms of men. Revelation 11:15 tells us what happens: 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

All the Kingdoms of the world are eventually brought under the eternal reign and rule of Christ. And when this happens the eternal provisions of rest and security will not just be a spiritually reality but a physical one for all eternity. But the Kingdom dynamic is not just on a cosmic scope? It also has a specific application to the individual disciple of Christ. Look at the Explanation in verses 33-34:

II. The Explanation (33-34).

Jesus spoke in parables to all the people as they were able to hear it (33). But Jesus wanted His disciples to Know the mysteries of the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom would contextualize their purpose and their identity. He wasn’t hiding anything from them and that is why He explained everything to His disciples when they were in private.

If you try to make sense out of Christianity with your physical eyes and mere intellectual ability it is likely to not make very much sense. But when you are able to see the spiritual dynamic and the cosmic order of God’s design of the Kingdom it calls you to take your place in it.

Because what the Kingdom is doing globally in the world and cosmically in the Universe you come to realize it is doing the same thing in the heart of fallen man. We are being called to take our place in the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

The grand and glorious splendor of the Kingdom in the cosmic order is just as applicable to the darkest depths of the human heart. All of creation was made by Him and for Him and His glory and pleasure.

This is why human beings struggle so hard with things like purpose and identity and meaning in life. It is because they are separated from not only the supreme ruler over the Universe but from their inherent purpose and identity ordered by their creator.

If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ you get it because Jesus has made it all known to you. He has enabled you to hear and to see your place and purpose in Him.

Conclusion:

If you are an unbeliever? You must be born again and maybe today is your day that you will hear the Explanation of Jesus as His disciple. Believe the gospel of His death on a Cross for sinners for salvation.

Believers you dwell spiritually in the provision of peace and security, not in the shade of a mustard tree, but in the provision of peace and security of the Kingdom of God. Confess your sin and find your rest in His forgiving grace. He is faithful to His covenant people of His Kingdom.

Let’s Pray!