Seeing the Kingdom in the Chaos

Background

Jesus being attacked and slandered by the scribes and his own family.

Mark 3:6 ESV

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

3 Parables following the Seeds.

Lamp Under a Basket

The Lamp is Jesus.

In His ministry His glory is hidden. Yet His glory will shine brightly in the last day.

It’s purpose in being hidden is in preparation for its revelation which must come after His resurrection when He has completed His work.

Another way to interpret this parable is to connect the revelation of Jesus’ glory at the Cross as the Centurion Says,

Mark 15:39 ESV

And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Mustard Seed - It will exceed all expectations and success yet in very no expected ways.

Words to describe the Church: inferior, average, normal, wretched, unsatisfactory, substandard, poor, inadequate, low-grade, ordinary, execrable, failed, mediocre, second-rate, deficient, bad, atrocious, disappointing, vile, typical.

The Mustard Seed is the Church

Mark 1:1–8:26 (Commentary)

This parable provides, then, a word of encouragement pragmatically for all who wonder whether God’s reign will finally prevail, and a reminder not only that appearances can be deceiving, but also that they will be deceiving, because that is the way God instantiates his reign and rule in Jesus.

Seed Growing

Mark 4:26–29 ESV

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Connecting the Referents

the man Jesus

the seed the Word

the ground Christians

The working of the Word

He Knows Not How

What does it mean that the man sleeps and rises but doesn’t work to make the plant grow?

In an Automatic Way

The wheat that grows unto harvest the lives of the followers of Jesus lived in the reign and rule of God.

Isaiah 55:10–11 ESV

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The Harvest

Joel 3 Connection

Joel 3:13–16 ESV

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

Jesus is the first fruits of the Resurrection

Mark 13:24–27 ESV

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.