7-25-21 The Work of the Spirit: Mark 4:26-29

We’re back in Mark today. Two weeks ago, we looked at the parable of the lamp, and talked about how the light of Jesus' face is what causes the fruit of the Spirit to grow within us. In other words, it’s only by spending time in God’s presence that we will become more like Him and become the person He wants us to be. And then last week, Pastor Autumn reminded us how God calls us to a childlike faith, not a childish faith. We can fully trust God, His Word, His ways, and His character, no matter what circumstances we face. We can come to Jesus just like a child in complete trust, complete wonder, complete faith and belief and know that He won’t turn us away, He won’t harm us; He’ll accept us into His arms and give His love, compassion, care, and provision as we continue to come to Him for all our needs. And today, we’ll look at another parable of Jesus. A parable is a story that uses metaphor to illustrate spiritual truth, and uses things people would deal with in normal daily life. Parables help us understand one aspect of how God’s kingdom, or the kingdom of heaven, operates, and when we understand the principle God is trying to show us, we can put that into practice in our lives and bring the spiritual kingdom of God, or God’s way of operating to wherever we are. So let’s pray before we jump into the parable of the growing seed. Father in Heaven, thank you for this time we have together. Bless Your word today as we read it, and bring Your application into our hearts. Holy Spirit, come, have Your way and do Your work in us today. Help us to grow in childlike faith and trust in You and who You are. Thank you Jesus that You are fully trustworthy, and that in You is the fullness of light and life, and no darkness at all. Illuminate our hearts with Your light, and teach Your ways Lord Jesus, and how to love You, love others and follow You more and and more deeply. We love You, Lord, and we ask You to meet each need in this place today. In Jesus’ Name, amen. The Work of the Spirit |1 Mark 4:26-29 NLT “Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.” So first, this parable is unique to Mark. It only appears in this gospel. And there are a lot of different directions we could take today; we could talk about how we’re responsible to plant the seeds of the kingdom of God - our part is to tell people about Jesus and how amazing He is, and then God brings the increase, or God speaks to people and draws them. That’s a similar message to the parable of the lamp. We could talk about how the light from Jesus' face makes the wheat grow, and as we spend time with Him we will become full-grown and mature. We could talk about how we need to be alert as we love people and interact with them so we’ll be able to speak a “fit word in due season.” That means we follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to say what God wants us to say when He wants us to say it unto ministering the grace, life, and truth of God to others. That’s from Proverbs 15:23 NLT “Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!” But I want to focus on something a little different today. I want to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us. I want to focus on His grace towards us and how He ministers through us even when we don’t have our acts together. Let me pull up Mark 4:27 NLT “Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens.” You see, there’s a mystery to how the Holy Spirit does His work. Of course, we The Work of the Spirit |2 understand our part, in that we are called to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, we strive to serve Him and grow in our relationship with Him. But no matter what season you find yourself in today, I want to tell you that the Holy Spirit will continue to do His work on You and Me. Jesus said in John 3:8 NLT “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” Just like the farmer plants seeds in the ground and just basically waits around until the seed starts to grow, it sometimes feels like our growth, our witness to others, our lives are just ‘waiting around’ for the Holy Spirit to do something. But then, in the proper time, what God was doing in our hearts breaks out, breaks forth, and becomes something miraculous that everyone can see. So what does the Holy Spirit do within us? Well, in John, the Holy Spirit is seen as the power by which we, as Christians, are brought to faith in Christ and how we learn to understand our walk with God. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, and it’s through Him that the Father and Son live within us. One thing the Holy Spirit does - and this is a big one - is give grace. James 4:5-6 NKJV Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” The Holy Spirit lives in us and He gives us grace as we choose to humble ourselves before God. In case you don’t know, God’s grace is His kindness towards us. It means God treats us better than we deserve. It means He shows us favor and love to you and me without regard to our worth or our works. That’s different from mercy, which is not getting what we deserve. God gives mercy (He doesn’t punish us for our sinful ways), and then He gives us grace (He gives us favor and blessings because He has chosen to love us. God told Moses about His character, The Work of the Spirit |3 and said that He is the God of grace. He is gracious, merciful, strong, longsuffering for His people, and and truthful. Exodus 34:6 JUB “And as the LORD passed by before him, he proclaimed, I AM, I AM strong, merciful, and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in mercy and truth.” And God tells Moses about His character, because He’s about to give the supreme Old Testament example of grace - He is going to take the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and bring them into the promised land despite all of their unrighteousness, unfaithfulness, faults, and failures. Now, although the grace of God is always free and undeserved, we should never take it for granted. God’s grace is only enjoyed within the covenant. In other words, though Jesus Christ, by way of the cross, God gives mankind grace and mercy, and we receive it through repentance and faith. In other words, in the Old Testament, grace is seen mainly through the way God deals with the Jewish people, and in the New Testament, grace comes through Jesus Christ so all mankind can have a relationship with God if they choose to receive it and walk by faith. Ephesians 2:8 NKJV “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” My point is that, just like the farmer doesn’t really understand the miracle of how crops grow, just as we don’t fully understand why the wind comes and goes where it will, God’s grace to us, the Creator of the Universe offering His kindness to us is a complete mystery. If you’ve never experienced the grace of God, if you’ve never put your trust in Jesus, you can do that today; you can receive the fullness of God’s grace and mercy. And God’s grace doesn’t stop once we come to the cross. I don’t know about you, but I can tell you that God gives me more grace each and every day. Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” The Work of the Spirit |4 If God gives us grace and mercy every morning, how much more should we offer that grace and mercy to one another? I also want to tell you today, that if you’re struggling through something, if you feel like you keep trying and keep failing, give yourself grace! Give yourself mercy! It’s very important! Paul wrote Romans 4:16 NKJV “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” You might see the story of the seed here - but this means that faith allows us access into the grace of God. And the promise is that the blood of Jesus Christ has washed you clean both in the past, the present, and the future. God’s grace has been cemented over you, and you can move forward in relationship with God without fear that His grace will disappear. Now, of course grace is not a license to sin. When I say ‘license to sin,’ I mean we don’t just go out and do whatever we want because we have the grace of God. No, we honor God and the gift of His grace by following Him and doing what He asks us today. We talk a lot about growth in holiness here. Just last week Autumn reminded us that it’s our job to take our thoughts captive, it’s our job to grow in our faith, it’s our job to press into relationship with Jesus Christ, to do the best we can to learn how to listen to Him, how to pray, and how to love like He loves. But I don’t want us to ever forget the immensity, the power, the height, the breath, the depth of God’s love and grace towards you. One picture of God’s grace that I love from the Old Testament is the story of Mephibosheth. If you remember, he was the only living son of Saul, who was very mean and cruel to David out of pure jealousy. And Mephibosheth was lame; he permanently injured his leg while he was a kid. When he was 5, he had to run for his life because two men were attempting to kill all of the sons of Saul (they The Work of the Spirit |5 thought they were doing David a favor, but that didn’t go well). And this 5-year old Mephibosheth fell and was hurt permanently. But David invited him, years later, to sit at his table and be a part of his family. Let me read this story to you quickly: 2 Samuel 9:3 NKJV Then the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, to whom I may show the kindness of God?” And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.”And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in the feet.” 2 Samuel 9:6-11 NKJV Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Then David said, “Mephibosheth?” And he answered, “Here is your servant!” 7 So David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.” 8 Then he bowed himself, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?” 9 And the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “I have given to your master’s son all that belonged to Saul and to all his house. 10 You therefore, and your sons and your servants, shall work the land for him, and you shall bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s son shall eat bread at my table always.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so will your servant do.” “As for Mephibosheth,” said the king, “he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.” 2 Samuel 9:13 NKJV So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table. And he was lame in both his feet. The Work of the Spirit |6 Let me recap the story this way; the setting is the palace of King David. Gold and bronze fixtures gleam from the walls. Lofty, wooden ceilings crown each spacious room. In the banquet hall, David and his children, the princes and princesses gather for an evening meal. Absalom, tanned, tall, and handsome, is there. So is David’s beautiful daughter Tamar. The call to dinner is given, and the king scans the room to see if everyone is there. One person, though, is absent. From the halls, the royal family hears; Clump, scraaape, clump, scraaape. The sound echoes into the dining room. Clump, scraaape, clump, scraaape. Finally, the person appears at the door and slowly shuffles over to his seat. It is the lame Mephibosheth seated in grace and honor at David’s table. And the tablecloth covers his lame feet, his hurt from so many years ago. Now the feast can begin.1 God, by His grace, invites you to His table, to sit with Him, to eat with Him, to talk with Him and listen to what He says. He calls you by way of His cross to come into His throne room, to give Him your hurts, your needs, your dreams, and your desires. He wants to walk with you and talk with you each day; He wants to provide for you and make sure you are taken care of both in this life and, more importantly, in the next one. He doesn’t want His fellowship to you to be unbroken, His relationship with you to be strained, or His gifts to you to go to waste because He loves You and eagerly waits to see your face. Jesus shows us that He has the heart of grace towards people, too. Jesus shows His heart for people as He makes his way up to Jerusalem. Keep in mind that this is the same week that He would go to the cross. He says, Matthew 23:37 NLT “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” 1 Swindoll, Charles R. The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, P416. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1998. The Work of the Spirit |7 The heart of God is to gather you to Himself, to love You, to care for you, to give you grace for the journey, peace through the trials, and mercy in the failings. But will we accept it? This is a very important reminder - don’t forget to accept God’s grace each day! Accept His grace when you fail, when you fall, when you struggle, when you don’t have it together. Accept His grace because it’s from His heart. And as you accept His grace, don’t neglect His truth. What I mean by that God’s grace leads us in God’s ways, and God’s ways lead us into more grace. God’s grace leads us into God’s ways, and God’s ways lead us into more grace. Moses asked for God’s grace to lead Him in God’s pathway because he knew he couldn’t do it on his own. He couldn’t possibly figure out how to lead God’s people into the promised land on His own. He needed both God’s grace and God’s direction. Exodus 33:13 NKJV “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” Moses says, “If I really do have your grace, show me your pathway and I’ll follow it.” That’s the proper heart response to God’s kindness. And then Moses adds, “as I follow Your path, help me get to know you better so I can have more grace.” Moses uses the grace he’s received as a springboard to get to know God better! And because Moses is using grace to pave the pathway for obedience to God’s will, God gives Him something amazing. He gives Moses His presence. He gives Him the Spirit of Grace, Mercy, and Love to go with him as he walks the path. Exodus 33:14 NKJV And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” As we come into God’s presence each day, we’ll receive new grace, new strength, new direction, and new peace for the journey. The Work of the Spirit |8 We’ll be rested even as we move forward into what God has for us, even if we have to fight enemies, be broken out of bondage, or pass through a raging sea. God will give us peace from His presence as a result of His grace. So the Holy Spirit gives us grace. It’s baffling; no one fully knows why or how God has chosen, in His mercy and kindness to do that for us. It truly is amazing grace. Romans 3:23-25 NLT “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.” This passage in Romans is the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ; that God Himself had grace on us, people who can’t ever be righteous, moral, holy, or good on our own, and makes a way through the cross for us to have a restored relationship for all of eternity with God. Thank you Jesus for the privilege of Your presence, for the gift of Your grace, and for the strength of your Spirit for the journey. As I wrap things up today, I want to briefly touch on a few other things the Holy Spirit does besides give us grace. John 16:7-11 NKJV “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” The Work of the Spirit |9 Jesus is saying it’s better if He goes away from this earth and has the Holy Spirit come! One reason He says this is because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Himself, the way that Jesus was able to do God’s will, can now be poured out on every single one of us. We don’t have to wait for One Person confined to One Body to come to us. But the work of the Holy Spirit as we see it here is to convict the world of sin. Did you know that it’s not our job to tell people outside of the church what they’re doing wrong? It’s not! 1 Peter 4:17 NKJV “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” This verse means that we, as christians, need to focus on our own hearts, our own obedience, our own growth in holiness and godliness. He’s saying it’s hard enough to get ourselves in tune with Jesus, so we need to focus on that. God will take care of those outside. Matthew 7:3 NKJV And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? The Holy Spirit will convict people of sin. That means He’ll tell them where they’ve been going against God and He will help them come to Jesus if they have soft, repentant hearts. The Holy Spirit will also convict us all of righteousness. That means He’ll show us how to walk in right relationship with God as we go. To say it a different way, as you pray, you’ll grow in prayer because the Holy Spirit will teach you. As you read your Bible, you’ll grow in understanding of it because the Holy Spirit will show You. And as you spend time with Jesus and He loves on you, the Holy Spirit will show you how to love others well. He’ll help us grow in righteousness, in right acting, in right doings. And then the Bible says the Holy Spirit will convict us of judgement. That doesn’t mean judge in terms of telling you all the bad things you do. The Work of the Spirit |10 For the christian, that’s called conviction, which means God is trying to get you to change how you’re operating. For the non-christian, it’s a calling-out of a pathway that’s not following God. But, ultimately, when the Bible speaks of judgment, it’s talking about how Satan (the devil), all the works of evil, all the works of injustice in the world, and everything else about the world system and the demonic realm will be judged and taken away because of Jesus’ total and complete victory on the cross. You can know that evil will be judged because satan has been defeated. To say those a different way (which may be more concise), the Holy Spirit proves the gravity of sin, He shows the availability of righteousness and relationship with God through the cross, and He reiterates the victory of Jesus on the cross and the certainty of defeat, or judgment of all evil. As we close today, I want to take us back to Mark 4:26-27 NKJV And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.” The work of the Holy Spirit and His grace towards us is immense. We may understand some aspects of it, but it is truly a divine mystery in the way God draws us to Himself, loves us, and then sends us out to be His representatives to a lost and dying world. And so today, as we end in prayer, will you simply repeat after me? Father in Heaven, thank you for your grace to me. Thank you for loving me. Help me give myself grace, and give others grace. Help me follow Your pathway, and grow in relationship with You. In Jesus Name, amen. The Work of the Spirit |11