Good News Grows

Turn in your Bibles with me to Mark 4:21-34. Last week we got to listen in on Jesus teaching and hear his illustration or parable about the seed and the soils. We were reminded that God is not stingy with the good news but sows the seed of his word everywhere because the Gospel is for everyone. We were also challenged with the question: what kind of soil are we? Is there room in our hearts for the good news to grow in us, like good soil has room for roots to go down deep? Today we will continue learning from Jesus’ parables about the good news and its work in us. Listen as I read Mark 4:21-34:

21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” 24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” 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 grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain 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.

Let’s pray.

I want to remind you that the record we have of these historical accounts of Jesus in the book of Mark are most likely the Apostle Peter’s testimony as he was waiting to be executed. Mark was the one who listened and wrote down what Peter shared about his experience as a follower of Jesus. This partly explains why passages like the one we read today might feel a bit disjointed. We read the same parables in other gospels and they are more detailed and longer. Peter doesn’t have much time, so he’s just cutting and pasting the most important things from his memory, trusting it will be enough to give us a clear picture of Who Jesus Is as the Messiah, the Son of God.

So in this passage today we have these little snippets of parables. They are like the yoke in the center of an egg or the meat in a sandwich: it’s just the good stuff. Lamps, measures, seeds, and plants… Jesus uses images that would have been easily recognized and understood by those who listened. And each of these little parables or illustrations point to the same main idea: Good News grows. Good News Grows.

Let’s unpack each of these parables starting in verse 21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. Lamps at that time were little oil vessels that could easily fit in the palm of your hand. They looked almost like flat pitchers with a little spout. The wick was a piece of rope that stuck out of that spout. Lamps like this were always placed on a stand to spread the light as far as possible. So Jesus question would have sounded something like: Do you drive your car in the dark of winter with no headlights on? Or do you set your Christmas tree up, all strung with beautiful lights, and then cover it with a tarp? No! The light is necessary and important and supposed to be seen. Hidden light is useless. We want and expect it to be seen, to spread as far as possible.

Then Jesus says whatever hidden is meant to be disclosed. I think it’s helpful for us to think of this statement in light of the parable of the seed and soils we looked at last week. The seed is the Word of God, and God sows it everywhere. It is hidden in the ground, but the seed is supposed to grow into a plant that bears some kind of fruit, right? So what is hidden is meant to grow and be seen. Hidden light is useless. So are seeds that never grow. Like light that we would never hide, so good news of God’s Word should never be hidden. Good News Grows OUT.

Jesus ends this little parable and starts the next one with words about hearing and listening. He’s drawing on the words of the prophet Isaiah in the old testament, and this would have caught the attention of his mostly Jewish listeners who knew that prophet’s words by heart. It was essentially Jesus way of saying “Hey this is important!”

The next parable nugget is in verse 24 “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” The principle at work here is similar to the idea that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, except we’re talking about spiritual life. A heart that is open and has room for the word of God to grow deep down, will continue to be open. A heart that is closed will become more hardened. This is both a warning and a promise. Keep seeking and hungering for more of God and God’s word. If you find yourself become closed off or stingy in your spiritual life, pay attention! Remember, the secret of the Kingdom is to come to Jesus and ask. Keep coming to Jesus. Keep asking. Keep growing. The Good News Grows DEEP.

Next in verse 26 Jesus starts talking about the Kingdom of God as seed that is sown and grows even though we don’t exactly know how it happens. But like a seed that grows in stages – the stalk, the head, the full kernel in the head – so we too can see stages in our spiritual life as we mature. The good news that God has sown in us grows up, it matures. This process doesn’t always make sense to us or even look exactly the same in each person. God’s good news growing in us can feel like a mystery. But however it happens, we can expect that if our hearts are healthy soil, the seed that God plants will grow up into a healthy plant. The Good News Grows OUT, the Good News Grows DEEP, and the Good News Grows UP.

The final parable in this passage starts in verse 30: the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that starts out small and then grows big enough for birds to perch on its branches. Back in the very first chapter of this Gospel, we read that Jesus came to preach the good news that the kingdom of God had come. It started very small, just Jesus preaching from town to town. And it grew slowly as he called disciples and healed the sick; and the news spread and people came from hundreds of miles away to see for themselves. The kingdom of God might not have looked like the Jewish people wanted it to look. They were hoping for a mighty warrior who would destroy the Roman occupation and give the Jews freedom as a sovereign nation. Jesus established a different kind of kingdom, one that invited the outcast and marginalized to become the insiders. The good news that Jesus is King of a new kind of kingdom is like a seed that grows and grows. It grows out, it grows deep, it grows up, and it keeps growing. This is the good news: God’s kingdom is growing.

Like a lighted lamp, your car headlights or Christmas tree, this good news is not supposed to be hidden. It’s meant to be shared. It’s meant to grow deep in us and mature us. It’s meant to be seen and it meant to multiply like any healthy plant. Call me crazy, but I am praying that this little church grows like seed planted in good, healthy soil. I’m praying that it grows and spreads out. I’m praying that it grows up in maturity in Christ. And I’m praying that as it grows, it produces fruit that multiplies. I’m praying that as it grows, instead of making this building bigger, we will instead multiply by planting new churches that plant new churches. Because this good news is for everyone, every one of the 18,696 people who live in Cortland. Every one of the 47,299 people who live in Cortland county. Jesus is the good news we are longing for, and he has planted his good news in us. Will we be good soil for it to grow in and multiply?