The Secret Workings of the Kingdom

Kingdom Parables of Jesus

Ephesians 3:20–21 - 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

You know, Jesus had a way of saying things in the most surprising ways. No one would have ever thought to compare the kingdom of God to an ordinary, tiny, seed.

But Jesus faced the task of correcting the mistaken impressions that people had about the nature of God and His Kingdom. To do that, He used parables like this one found in Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4:26–33 - 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.”

Jesus said the man just scattered the seed. He threw it out onto the surface of the ground. He did not dig a hole and plant the seed, He just tossed it out there. He let the days go by without ever touching or tending the seed again...And it grew. The seed and the earth worked together to create a plant that eventually grew big enough to be harvested.

There’s something important here I don’t want us to miss.

Jesus uses the image of the seed here, like He did in the parable we looked at last week, to indicate that the Word, the Logos of the Kingdom, has a power and a life of its own. This man did nothing to cultivate it. The truth is, Jesus says the man did not know HOW the seed sprouted and grew. Something happened there, a LOT happened there that he had nothing to do with. That is important. We will come back to that. Lets’ read on, v30...

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.”

Here Jesus makes the point that the the very SMALLEST of seeds took root and grew into a large bush. Again, with no help from the one who planted it. In Luke’s account of this parable, Jesus followed the mustard seed parable with a similar metaphor...

Luke 13:20–21 - 20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.

Most people know how yeast works. A little bit goes a long way. It does its work undetected, until the whole mass of dough has the life of the yeast in it. You just put the yeast in there, and it grows and takes over.

Remember, Jesus is saying through these parables, this is how the kingdom of God works. The Kingdom of God is a kind of life that keeps growing like a mustard seed and like yeast. It grows way beyond what we would call the church, which is often thought of simply as a group of people gathered together in a building on Sunday mornings.

But the church is not the Kingdom of God. The church is a particular manifestation of the Kingdom of God where God is certainly at work. But God is also at work in other places. It is important for us to remember that He is just as involved in all areas of life - business, science, and the arts, as He is in the church.

I find it interesting how often Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a seed. And it’s no wonder. If you really think about it, seeds are incredible things.

A seed is just a dry little thing. Most seeds are pretty small. You put that small little seed in the ground, and soon a plant squirts up! You can water it and give it a little fertilizer if your soil isn’t that great, and after a little while, you see this marvelous thing like maybe, a watermelon coming out of that little seed. It’s amazing.

I read a quote that said that “A seed is a power to organize reality” Think about that for a minute. That little seed you plant in the dirt is packed with some pretty potent substances. The power contained inside that seed, cracks it open and puts out a little root. That little root starts eating dirt. Eventually putting out a little leaf, then more leaves, and then fruit. That seed, has organized reality in a very specific and defined way to make a watermelon out of dirt, water and sunlight. Amazing!

I think, this is why Jesus portrays the Logos as a seed - it’s a spiritual power to organize reality. God has designed creation so that when you plant a watermelon seed, you don’t get cucumbers. Every seed knows exactly what it’s supposed to absorb from the soil and what to leave behind. If that seed root does not select the right nutrients, it simply will not function well and it may not live at all. It also needs water and sunlight. The seed, organizes all these things together and produces tasty food or beautiful plants that we can enjoy.

That’s why the metaphor of the seed is exactly right and why Jesus uses it so often in His teachings about the Kingdom.

Jesus Himself was referred to as the seed of Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith who propagated “after his own kind” through the centuries until it came to the perfect man of faith, Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, who was the seed of Abraham.

Jesus was a seed in the sense that He was planted in a world God prepared, and Jesus the seed, began to organize reality in order to display the Kingdom of God. Gal 4: 4 calls it the “fullness of time”

Gal 4:4-5 ESV - 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Notice. Jesus didn’t come right away when Adam sinned. He didn’t come in the time of Moses, or Joshua or Isaiah. He came in the fullness of time, when the soil was right, so that He could be implanted as a seed in the fertile earth of history, and bring forth the church. If Jesus had come earlier, the church could not have been formed in the way God had chosen to do it. Mark closes this series of parables with these words in Mark 4:33...

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.”

In other words, their ears were open. The time was right.

And notice that Jesus spoke the Word (Logos) to them in Parables. One Word - many parables. And the Word in question is in fact the Word about the Kingdom of God. The Word of God is God speaking. Just like your word is you speaking. The Word of a person is the speaking or writing of that person.

So let’s take a good look at the Word of God and I want to start with Hebrews chapter 4. This might be the most commonly recognized statement about God’s Word. And I think this description might be the most analytical of any in the whole Bible that lays out what we mean or should mean, when we talk about the Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 - 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

When God speaks a Word, it has a unique quality---this tells us His word is “living”. Older translations use a different word for “living”, the word “Quick”. Like the quick of your thumbnail where you have the most feeling. If you have ever smacked that or cut into that then you know, it’s alive!

The Word of God is living. It is personal. And it is powerful. We are told here it is sharp enough to be able to divide the parts of the mind and the personality from each another.

That expression, “division of soul and spirit” is one of those “deep” phrases that invites further study. Your soul is fundamentally the life principle that is in the individual person, given to them by God, which makes their body and mind function.

The Spirit is the element that is especially given by God to hold the soul and the body together. When Jesus died He said, “Unto you I surrender my SPIRIT” Not my soul, or my body but, my spirit. God is Spirit.

John 4:24 ESV - 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

He is Spirit, not soul, not body…In defining God, He is Spirit.

The soul and the spirit don’t occupy any space at all. They are invisible to the naked eye. Even under a microscope, set to the highest power, soul and spirit cannot be seen.

Even the sharpest knife you could ever find cannot separate them. But the Word of God can.

So when the Word of God comes into the midst of a life, or a group, it is so sharp we are told, that it can clarify the difference between what is spiritual and what is merely an expression of an individual’s own strength and life.

There’s a very important truth that was known in the days of Jesus and the apostles, that we seem to consider less important in the church today. It’s the reality and workings of the spirit.

To the early church, it was important to distinguish between what was the work of the soul and the flesh, as opposed to the work of the spirit. They knew that unless it was the work of the spirit, it amounted to nothing. The Word of God is able to distinguish between the two.

We are told that the Word of God is able to pierce, even to the division of “joints and marrow” and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart and my heart. and in v 13...

Heb 4:13 ESV - 13 ... no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

When the Word of God, as God speaking comes into the life of a person or a group, discernment is present and ALL things are open.

Now this world we live in has a tendency to run away from OPENNESS, especially when it comes to sin. They don’t know what to do with sin.

Those who have been touched by the Spirit of God and have learned of the kindness of God in Jesus Christ know, that the best option is to fall into the hands of the Lord when they do wrong.

We don’t have to hide from God, even though we’re not perfect. We can go to Him and seek reconciliation and just like any loving parent, He will not condemn. All things are open when the Word of God is present.

The Word of God is also a POWER that is present in the world. The Bible gives lots of descriptions of this power. Psalm 107 is one of the records of the ways God dealt with the people of Israel in the midst of many of their trials. Even though they had drifted away from Him in their foolishness and had rebelled, the Lord still acted on their behalf, sending His Word. Let’s read this.

Psalm 107:15–20 - 15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron. 17 Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; 18 they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 20 He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.

Because the Word is LIVING, it knows what it’s doing, It is purposive. When He sent His word and healed them, that was God speaking in his Kingdom. And where the Word of the King is, there is power.

This power, is what distinguished the words of Christ when He came. People were astonished with the things He said. They had never heard anything like it before. They tried to figure it out. What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him! God had done it again. He sent His Word and He healed them.

This affect of the Word of God on the domain of nature is illustrated in the final few Psalms. Psalm 147 compares the work of humanity with the work of God by telling of the goodness of God, His power and His creation.

Psalm 147:3–6 - 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.

Then it compares this, with the strength of humans. Drop down to verse 10.

Psalm 147:10 - 10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, (We might say He is not impressed with the new stealth bombers) nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,

He’s not impressed with human strength. Regarding the Word, the Psalmist said...

Psalm 147:15–16 “15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.”

Verse 18...

Psalm 147:18–19 - 18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. 19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel.

And then in Psalm 148:8 the Psalmist said this about His creation.

Psalm 148:8 - 8 fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!

So this writer saw all of the phenomena of nature as keeping the commandments of the Lord. The commandment of the Lord is God Speaking. It is His Word.

One final aspect of the Word of God that is important for us not to miss. The Word of God is a substance. This is another reason Jesus likened it to a seed. When the Israelites ate manna ( A word that means “What is it?”) God spoke this manna into existence and it rained down from heaven. so when they ate manna, you could say they were being sustained by the congealed Word of God. When Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted, Satan came to Him and said, “Why don’t you turn these stones into loaves of bread? Jesus was hungry, but His reply was ...

Matthew 4:4 - 4 ... “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ 

Jesus also referred to the Word as substance. When the Disciples returned from going into the city of Samaria to get something to eat. They offered Him food...

John 4:32 - 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

So it seems that God’s Word is a substance that actually offers sustenance, just like food does.

We live in two landscapes, the physical and the invisible. When we fast, it is very personal between us a God. We’re taking in substance from the invisible landscape. We are learning how to live on the nourishment of God’s Word. We don’t fast to prove the goodness of God to others, or even to ourselves. Jesus said...

Matthew 6:16–18 - 16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.

Instead, get a new haircut, try on new clothes, enjoy your friends. Fasting helps us to learn inwardly what it is like to live on the nourishing, substantial, living, powerful Word of God.

According to John 3:3, to be “born again” is to be born of the Word of God. You are born from another realm - the realm of the Spirit. In other words, you have been given new life, a different KIND of life.

We make the common mistake of thinking that being born again means, “I get a new start” No. Its not a new start. It is an entirely new life. Being born again is not a second try at the same old stuff. It’s not about fixing up the old life you had. Something brand new has been implanted in you.

In Genesis 2, God told Adam...

Genesis 2:17 - 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

But did Adam and Eve die when they disobeyed? They were in fact, still alive. But they died spiritually. They had a life in them that was lost. That’s a death. They were put out of the garden and had to make it on their own. God was no longer taking care of them. At the end of the day, that is what God wants, to take care of us. But Adam and Eve were now cut off, on their own. The life that they lost created a need for a new birth, an additional birth. An animated life from above.

The Bible speaks of the availability of this animated life that comes from above.

John 1:12–13 - 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Born... of... God

Now in order to really get how God did that, let’s look at 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1:22–23 - 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, (Here’s how…) through the living and abiding word of God;

In addition, this Word is implanted and embedded in us...

James 1:21 - 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls (life).

The implanted Word is like a seed because it is a power to organize reality. It will take what is in your life and rearrange it.

Just like the guy who scattered the seed and then watched for a harvest, we have to sow the right word. The LIVING Word. The gospel of the Kingdom of God is the only word that will have a Kingdom effect on us.

What you have in your Bible, is the written Word of God. It is infallible and it is constantly kept by God’s hand to accomplish His purposes, but the gospel of the kingdom of God is not a Gospel about the Bible. The Word that brings forth the fruit of the kingdom is not a gospel about the church either. There is a glory in the church and it will speak for itself.

Now, listen to me carefully because I don’t want you to be offended or confused by what I am about to say.

The gospel of the Kingdom of God is also not a gospel only of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That is part of the Gospel of the kingdom, but it is not the WHOLE gospel of the Kingdom. Why would I say that? Well, let me remind you that Jesus himself did not preach that historic reality of His death, burial and resurrection as the whole gospel. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the present availability of the Kingdom of God. Knowing that, and keeping that in mind, will help you understand what salvation is in the New Testament sense. This salvation includes three things that are available to those who are born again:

Forgiveness of sins. Through the work of Christ and His substitutionary stand before God on our behalf, our sins are forgiven through the mercy of God.

Transformation of character into the image of Jesus Christ - We are meant to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ

Romans 8:29 - 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to what? be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

This is a work of grace just as much as the forgiveness of sins. And there is nowhere any indication that this is something that is supposed to happen AFTER we die. This is a present transformation process.

3. A significant degree of power over evil - Both in our own lives and in the life of the church of which we are essentially a part.

The fullness of redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ, as it’s presented in the New Testament, is a fullness that comes to those who live in his church, which is an outpost of His Kingdom in this world.

When we communicate, teach, and preach the right Word, we do so with confidence that the kingdom brings power wherever it grows, just like a seed does. We know that we do not live OR teach in our own power. The Kingdom of God is not something we produce within ourselves. It comes to us through the Word. We have the same power that is in the seed, which is the Word of God.

Sometimes, the work we do lacks confidence in the gospel of the kingdom of God. And we could argue that we have every reason not to be confident in the day and age in which we live. We see murder, theft, and exploitation all around us. Yet in the face of all that, we offer people the kingdom of God. And quite frankly, there is no other hope. None.

I want to remind you that Jesus did not live in a world that was much different from ours. In fact, in a lot of ways, it was way more brutal than ours. And yet He spoke about the kingdom of God. He lived it out in his person, and He welcomed others to join Him in that same life. He had confidence in God. Like the farmer when he sowed the seed, He abandoned it to the earth.

So let me give you three encouragements this morning.

Have patience

Have Utter Confidence

And KNOW that YOU don’t have to make it Happen

First....

Have patience

Now, I have been going on about the power of the seed and the yeast. And this emphasis is important for this reason. Sometimes, religious organizations put hard and heavy burdens on people about all the things they’re supposed to be doing, both in terms of devotions and service. They act as if the kingdom has no power at all or no part in the things we do as disciples.

Of course there are things for us to do. We spent weeks talking about practices and spending time with Jesus. But we MUST understand what grace REALLY is.

Divine grace is God acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot do on our own. Grace infuses us and the things we do, making those things effective in the wisdom and power of GOD.

Get this. In the reality of the Kingdom of God, grace means that God will do the work along with us IF we make the effort to open our hearts and minds to the Word of the Kingdom.

Of course grace doesn’t mean we do nothing. The man in Jesus parable, went out and sowed the seed. Grace is not opposed to effort which is an action, but grace IS opposed to earning which is an attitude.

We simply let the Word of the Kingdom come and occupy our minds. We study what Jesus said about the Kingdom - the way He expressed it and how He taught about it. That is what I am trying to give you a taste of by looking at a few of these parables.

But here is what I want you to notice. After the guy scattered the seeds, some days passed and a little shoot came up out of the ground. He continued to watch the plant as it grew, otherwise going about his days as he normally would do. Eventually, the little shoot turned into something edible. Jesus said the guy did not know how it all worked, but the plant still developed and grew.

This means, we don’t have to carry the load of making “it” happen. Are you with me? This is one of the most important things to understand. We do not have to force people to do anything. We just speak the word of the Gospel, live as a disciple, lovingly teach and be with people - and guess what? The growth will come.

Sometimes our zeal for God ruins everything. Paul talked about this in...

Romans 10:2 - 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Paul knew all about this. He had once been that kind of person - the kind of person who would force compliance.

When I was a kid, I had a Grandpa who grew roses. I remember one time going out to his rose garden and I noticed that some of the roses where open and smelled really good but there were some whose bud had not opened yet. It was big, but it was kinda hard and really didn’t smell that good. So I thought it would be a good idea if I helped it along.

I guess you know what happened. Pretty soon that rosebud was laying in my hand all tore apart. That bud never did bloom thanks to my interference in the process. A process I had no business interfering in.

In the same way, if you dig up a seed to see if the root is growing, and then put it back in the ground, it will not continue to grow. You must abandon it to the ground and leave it there.

You with me church?

There are people who want nothing to do with Christ and his church because they have had their soul torn apart by well meaning Christians who pressured them to comply with what they think it means to become a Christian.

“they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”

We have to allow our enthusiasm to be infused with patience as we wait for the seed we, or someone else planted, to bear fruit.

Be patient. Next

Have Utter Confidence

A preacher once said he sensed the Lord say to Him, “Never try to find a place to speak. Instead, try to have something to say”

If you and I would just concentrate on living with Him, and count on Him to have the effect He wants, it takes all the pressure off us. I am not talking about complacency. I am talking about just letting the living waters flow through you and concentrate on taking it in. You don’t have to make anything happen. Just forget about trying to make anyone do anything. That is not your business. It is the Lord who adds daily to the church.

That means you can relax. Jesus was one of the most relaxed people who ever lived on the earth. The reason why is He had complete and utter confidence in the power of the Word that he spoke. He never doubted. Like our guy, He abandoned it to the ground, which is the point of this parable. Remember, the rule is this..

Matthew 9:29 - 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”

We are born again by placing our faith IN Christ. But as we are conformed to His image we develop the faith OF Christ. This is the importance of having the faith OF Christ. like Jesus, we abandon the seed to the ground and let it work.

So Have patience, Have utter confidence and finally...

KNOW that YOU don’t have to make it Happen

The farmer in Jesus parable is generally associated with sharing the Christian faith. Often, the church does a pretty good job of making people feel guilty for not speaking more forcefully to others about what they believe. But again, it’s not our business to make this happen.

We are told to be witnesses, saying what we have seen and heard, and we are told to make disciples.

Our job as Christians is to witness to the Word of Truth, to put on display the Kingdom of God in our lives and in our prayers, and to give an account of the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15 - 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

And we should do this with complete confidence that the seeds we sow in this manner, will not be in vain.

Instead of trying to compel people into heaven, we should do as the guy in the parable did, sow the seed and then abandon it.

Just simply lay the seed down. Whether it is with what you say to your children, or to the students in a class you teach. Sow the seeds and let God work.

I am convinced that we would do a much better job of presenting the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, if we would just stop being so anxious about making people think a certain way or do a certain thing.

I can tell you that I have become a much more relaxed preacher when I quit fretting about what other people are doing or not doing as a result of my preaching. I am just the seed sower. The rest is God’s business.

When the harvest comes, we can put the sickle in. But if we don’t preach, teach and live the gospel of the kingdom of God with confidence and abandonment, the harvest will either NOT come, or it will be scraggly because it was forced to bear fruit.

Speak the Word. Give God time to work. Paul said...

2 Timothy 4:2 - 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Beloved, there is no time when we should not be speaking the Word in some way. Our witness is constant because we are always being watched. And if the Word truly dwells richly in our hearts, our witness WILL be constant. I’ll leave you with this...

Philippians 2:14–16 - 14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

The word of God is brimming with a power like seeds bursting with energy as they emerge from the soil.

Our role as disciples is to learn from Jesus how to live life and to share what we have experienced.

When we share the kingdom with others, we abandon the seed to the ground and let it work. Patience and confidence in God and His Word are virtues to be pursued as we trust Him for the harvest. Amen?

Let’s pray.