STAGES OF THE SEED

Mark 4:30-32

It took 725-760 mustard seeds to weigh a gram (28 grams equal one ounce).

The mustard shrub is an annual plant which, growing from seed, becomes the largest of all garden plants (ta lachana, “large, fast-growing annual shrubs”) in Palestine, reaching a height of 10–12 feet in a few weeks.

Mustard is not food; it is a condiment. And the growth of a mustard seed into a tree is unnatural. This pictures the outward growth of Christendom into

great organizations,

big churches,

large programs,

all produced by human energy and not by the Holy Spirit. The birds in the branches are not even good. They represent Satan.

Here are the STAGES of the seed:

I. The Similitude of the Seed. v.30

Hosea 12:10 (AV)

I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

Similitude

II. The Smallness of the Seed. v.31

III. The Sowing of the Seed. v.32

The parable depends on the seed being sown. Without the sowing of the seed, there is no parable.

The mention of the sowing. “When it is sown, it groweth up” (Mark 4:32)

The meaning of the sowing. “When it is sown” (Mark 4:32)

IV. The Success of the Seed. v.32

The seed was phenomenally successful in its growth in spite of the fact that it had such a small beginning.

The size of its growth. “Becometh greater than all herbs” (Mark 4:32).

Vance Havner said:

“As long as the church wore scars, they made headway. When they began to wear medals, the cause languished. It was a greater day for the church when Christians were fed to the lions than when they bought season tickets and sat in the grandstand.”

The service from the growth. “Shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it” (Mark 4:32).

The mustard bush therefore pictures professed Christendom, which has become a roosting place for all kinds of false teachers. It is the outward form of the kingdom as it exists today.

The “mustard seed” is not the Gospel; it is faith (Matt. 17:20; Luke 17:6). The problem is that it degenerates until the Lord questions whether He will find any true faith upon His return (Luke 18:8).

The faith here becomes a nesting place for evil spirits (Rev. 18:2). Remember those “fowls of the air” back up in verse 4? They weren’t any “nations”; they were “Satan” (vs. 15).