The Kingdom of God grows?

Mark 4:26–34 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

26 He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces corn—first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 As soon as the corn is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.’ 30 Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’ 33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Good morning. It’s great to be with you this morning. My name’s Dan and I’m the Vicar of St Mark’s just up the road, and I’ve been looking forward to being with you since Clive invited me.

I’m excited because I believe God has so much in store for all of us in Haydock and Parr, and particularly our half of Haydock which seems to move seamlessly into Blackbrook.

Clive and I have started praying into how we can work closer together in reaching out to our communities with the love of Jesus even more, and I was delighted that this morning’s passage is on the Kingdom of God.

I love a bit of congregation participation, so I’m going to ask you to put your hand up if you like any of these things?

Do we have any bakers in the room?

Yes, I love smelling fresh bread or pastries, and I can remember watching fresh dough rising through the glass door of our oven as a child. Something that had just been beaten, and looking so lifeless and yet it grew. Live yeast eats the sugar in the bread and as it’s baked, it creates carbon dioxide which is trapped within the gluten in the dough and as more and more gas is created and trapped, the dough rises and we’re left with a beautiful loaf.

Do we have any gardeners in the room?

I’m not a keen gardener, however we have been attempting to grow a small vegetable patch. Last year was really successful and fruitful, because we took time in preparing the ground, planting the seeds at the right time of the year and we were around to water the plants regularly. It was so satisfying seeing the first sprouts of life reach out from beneath the soil, and the growth that followed with the right environment.

Do we have anyone who enjoys a good pint of beer or a glass of wine, or perhaps a mature cheese?

In each of these cases, it’s the flavour that grows. My Dad is back into home brewing again and we had our first family get together in half term since last August. We stayed in a retreat centre which meant we were able to have a glass of something in an evening. But he said to me, Dan, you will drink my red won’t you. Your Mother won’t drink it because it hasn’t matured enough. It was his 60th birthday celebration, so I did as he asked, although he was right. The flavour was lacking, because it hadn’t had time for the flavour to grow.

The Kingdom of God

What troubled me about the Kingdom of God for many years was that the Kingdom of God was heaven, and I couldn’t accept that the Kingdom of God could grow. Sure, it would grow through everyone who died right? But then God would have made heaven the right size for all the people he knew would be joining him? So why does Jesus say it’s growing and how does that make sense.

We see here an image of the sower scattering seeds. It’s not the parable of the sower we all know with the different ground the seeds lay on. No, this is a basic lesson in sowing, but the focus is on the sowers lack of understanding as to how the seeds turn into beautiful corn. It’s not for the sower to understand the science of growth. I was blessed to be shown videos at school of plants growing in the ground. This knowledge wasn’t so easily on offer to the farmers in Jesus’ day. What they knew was that if the ground was prepared correctly, that there was enough rain and sun, then once the seed was sown it would grow, and they would be able to harvest it once it had.

Ok, so the Kingdom of God grows

But then we come to the parable of the mustard seed, and this really got my stuck. Because I couldn’t work out, if the Kingdom of God is heaven, the eternal resting place of God’s people, then how could it grow like the smallest seed into a bush which is one of the largest plants in the garden and which has space for all the birds to perch in its shade.

Because surely heaven was never the size of a mustard seed. After all God lives there, right?

I assumed that the tree is heaven and the birds are all his children.

And this puzzled me all the way to theological college where I wrote my dissertation exploring this among other parables of the Kingdom of God.

A few years after my dissertation I found this video which sums up my dissertation in 6 short minutes. And so I want to share this with you. This will help us understand the wider understanding of the Kingdom of God, and will help us see that much of our understanding of heaven comes from Christian legend than the Bible.

The kingdom of God is so much more exciting than just the place we go when we die. It’s bigger, it’s grander, it’s here and if you’re born again, it’s in you.

Let’s watch that video

So the Kingdom of God grows in us. God’s kingdom is where he reigns, like the Queen’s kingdom is every part of the world where she is considered ruling monarch.

Wherever Jesus is reigning, where His will is carried out, and His work is done, is where the Kingdom of God is.

In Jesus, we saw the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, God’s space overlapping with earth which is our space. Not in one off events or only in the Holy of Holy’s like we see in the old testament, but fully dwelling on earth in Jesus. And wherever Jesus went, His heaven, God’s space, spilled over into our space the world.

The day you were born again, the day you gave your life to Jesus and said yes to Him, was the day you were filled with God’s presence, the Holy Spirit. From that day, you became a citizen of heaven, a citizen of God’s kingdom. To join in with growing the family business, to partner with Jesus in all that He is doing in seeing our space transformed through an over spill of Heaven.

To comfort the broken hearted, those we love who are hurting, and see healing and wholeness break into their grief.

To set the captives free by journeying with friends and family through their addictions, into freedom from their slavery to alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling. Whatever it is, there is hope because the God of all creation, who created each and everyone of us, dwells within every believer.

To see those who are sick, healed in Jesus name. To pray in partnership with Jesus, through our friendship with Jesus, that pain would be gone, broken bones mended and sight restored. And to see it happen in partnership with Jesus, and when it is His will.

Maybe you don’t feel that you are empowered to see God’s space meet our space through what you do. But if you know Jesus, if you have received him into your life, then He has blessed you with the Holy Spirit who is the presence and power of God.

I remember showing this video to one group of 18-24 year olds a few years back when I was teaching on the Kingdom of heaven with them and witnessing one girls revelation. She said to me “so you mean it’s as easy as asking Jesus to guide us, believing that He empowers us, and following Him by doing it. That’s what He’s called us to do?”

Yes, I said, it really is that easy.

I wonder today what God is laying on your heart? Where he is calling you to partner with Him to see the Kingdom grow?

A short example of what this looks like at St Mark’s.

we believe God has called us to set up a food pantry which is the next stage on from food banks. Like your food bank in ‘the mount’ we’re wanting to see food provision for those who are in need, and see less food waste in our community.

We believe we’ve heard God, and now we’re stepping out and we’re excited to see what ways we can partner with you as a church to see God’s kingdom continue to grow as we join together in following His call on us as brothers and sisters.

As Christians we believe we’re the body of Christ as the Church, and we are His physical hands and feet on earth.

I wonder what Jesus is asking you to join Him in. And do you believe that you will see heaven touching earth as you follow Jesus and do what He calls you to do.

We’ll have a moment of prayer now, as we invite the Holy Spirit to come and do some work among us this morning.

Romans 8 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.