Mystery of Kingdom Growth
Gospel of Mark: Jesus a life to serve • Sermon • Submitted
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· 218 viewsThe mystery of the kingdom of God growth in parables revealed
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Seed
Seed
When you think of seed, what do you think of, scriptually? Today we will see a shift from seed being the word of God (Mk4:1-20) to the kingdom of God (Mk4:21-34) but how they link together, one making way for the other to grow.
Jesus spoke in many parables, the parable of growing seed is only found in Gospel of Mark (Mk4:26-29)
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 by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.
28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
I know putting the scripture in this early, in intro is out of the ordinary but:
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
The setting of these parables
Parable of sower (soils); with explanation - Mk4:1-25
Parable of growing seed - Mk4:26-29
Parable of mustard seed - Mk4:30-34
They are all in same setting, same place (Mk4:1)
1 He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.
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You can see the flow, the setting of the parables by looking at Mk4:1-25 (Parable of soils); then Mk4:26-29 (Parable of growing seed) and then Mk4:30-34 (Parable of mustard seed) - the setting is still the same place, same time (see Mk4:1)
Seed is the Word (Mk4:14)
Seed is the Kingdom (Mk4:26)
Seed is a picture regarding the kingdom (Mk4:30-31)
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Seed is the Word (Mk4:14)
Seed is the Kingdom (Mk4:26)
Seed is a picture, an illustration regarding Kingdom (Mk4:30-31)
14 “The sower sows the word.
26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;
30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?
30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
In our parables today, I am coming from the place that Jesus is clearly talking, teaching about the kingdom of God in which the word is planted so the kingdom may grow. To back it up you can look at kingdom as related in (Mk4:11, 26 and 30)
In the first parable we see the mystery, we cannot make the seed grow, we don’t even fully understand how the seed grows. We just have to believe it will grow and then watch it grow and one day to be harvested. As a farmer has to have great faith, and a great deal of patience, we too need to have it too. The scattered seed falls in many places and we don’t know what will stick or not, that’s the mystery, our call, our job is to plant seed (the Word) so the seed (kingdom) will grow. We don’t cause the growth God does!
The Growing Seed
The Growing Seed
The growing seed produces a crop to be harvested. The growing seed is a mystery that we may not fully understand, and that is OK.
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 by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.
28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
We already did the first look at this passage so now we need to get deeper into it.
What is the seed (v.26)?
What is the crop (v.27-28)?
What is the result (v.29)?
There are two mysteries about the kingdom of God that we see in these view verses.
The kingdom grows beyond man’s knowledge
The kingdom grows beyond man’s control
The mystery of knowledge: As the farmer does not know, understand how the seed grows, we do not know, comprehend the mystery of life. The more science tries to figure it out the less they find out they know. Maybe the fact is that we are not to know, we are not to understand, we are to believe and have faith, and patience like the farmer.
The mystery of control: We cannot cause the seed to grow (kingdom) it will yield the crop itself (Mk4:28). We can plant the seed (the word: v.14) we can water the seed, but we cannot cause the seed to grow.
Now if we are honest, if I’m honest, I want to water, cultivate and cause the seed to grow (kingdom of God) but in reality I cannot do that, I need to plant seed (word); water it (with the word) and pray and wait patiently (sometimes not so much) for the seed (kingdom) to grow.
The seed (kingdom) grows over time (v.28) it is not an event, it is a process!
David McKenna in speaking of this passage says:
“As a part of His advanced teaching by parable, Jesus makes it clear that the sprouting, growing, ripening of the gospel is a supernatural process beyond the prediction and control of man.”
He goes on to say:
“Our task is to scatter the seed, nourish the plans and reap the harvest.”
Now in looking at the second parable the disciples are given an encouragement. From very small beginnings (kingdom) would grow in size and in influence.
From small beginnings
From small beginnings
From very small beginnings, the kingdom of God is going to grow and Jesus is teaching about the growth.
Mk4:
30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade.”
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
What does Jesus compare the kingdom of God to (v.30-31)?
A mustard seed
What is being sown upon the soil (v.31)?
The kingdom
What is the promise (v.32)?
It will grow, become large
The kingdom (mustard seed) started off small, 12 apostles
The kingdom grew to be 500 believers (1Cor15:6)
6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
The kingdom grew to be 3000 on Pentecost (Act2:41)
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
The kingdom grew to be 3000 on Pentecost (Act2:41)
The kingdom continued to grow (Act4:4; Act5:14)
4 But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
The kingdom continued to grow (Act4:4; Act5:14; Act6:1)
then
14 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number,
In spite of the sins, the weaknesses of the church the kingdom continued to grow to other nations, other people and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham “all nations” is fulfilled. And one day every nation will worship before His throne.
1 Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.
9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
The birds in the previous section we have looked at were called to be Satan
15 “These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
In the earthly kingdom there is still opportunity for satan to try to steal away the kingdom from the people.
Like Judus (Mt14)
Like Ananias and Saphira (Act5)
Even Simon Magus (Act8)
Satan’s ministers infiltration is see also in 2Cor11:13-15
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
There is another view regarding the birds. The birds in this passage can represent the nations of the world, including the gentiles and heathen.
May we remember this simple parable the kingdom starts small and continues to grow. Our portion of the kingdom is small but when we are faithful to our part and continue to sow (word) and water (word) and cultivate the soil (word) then it will grow by faith. We do our part, God does His part supernaturally, we cannot cause it to grow, we just have to believe, like the farmer does, that it will grow.
Leading us to our last part today, some application.
Personal Application
Personal Application
Mark shows us the full scope of Jesus method of teaching.
33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; 34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
In Mark4 we have seen several parables as mentioned before
Parable of sower (soils)
Parable of growing seed
Parable of mustard seed
Jesus and His method
Told the parables
Told the purpose
Preparing the people for the kingdom of God.
Explained the meaning and purpose
To encourage the disciples that even though the kingdom has small beginning don’t get discouraged, have faith it will grow.
The principles are advanced
Not everyone could understand (hence why spoken in parables) the mystery was to be revealed to the Apostles (Mk4:11); but only as they were able to hear it (Mk4:33)
11 And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables,
33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;
Just as with us, we learn a little at a time, we don’t learn at the same rate, we don’t grow at the same speed. Jesus would teach them as they were able to accept the truth.
Jesus used patience with them, and we too need to follow the example we see here today.
plant the seed
Have faith that the seed will grow the kingdom
We cannot grow the kingdom, God does
we need to allow the kingdom to grow, first by the blade, then the head (we need to have patience)
Augustine said “Patience is the companion to wisdom” I might add and wisdom comes from above and is held together by faith. We need to trust the process.
“As they were able to hear” - - - Jesus knew and paced Himself, we need to pace ourselves with patience knowing the promise will come.
The precision of Mark’s account of Jesus teaching records the the who, what, when, where, how and why.
Who: Jesus
What: Mystery of kingdom growth revealed
Where: The seaside
When: at the readiness of the disciples to learn
How: by parables
Why: in preparation for the disciples continued ministry
To close out, the seed is the Word that is to be sown; the seed is the kingdom of God that is to be grown. Our part sow, God’s part to grow the kingdom.