Mark 4:26-34

Introduction:

Please turn with me in your Bible to Mark chapter 4. Our focus this morning will be on verses 26-34.

“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.” And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.”

Happy New Year, Trinity Fellowship. Welcome to 2015.

Throughout our city today, apostles and prophets are setting expectations for 2015, promising that this will be the year of prosperity and fruitfulness.

Now, I’m not an apostle. I’m not a prophet, but I want to get in on the fun, and I believe that our text this morning gives me the perfect opportunity for this. And today I’m declaring that 2015 is the year of victory. The year of victory. Do you receive it, church!?

The year of victory, and more specifically, this is the year of kingdom-victory.

But what is kingdom-victory? What does it look like? What does it feel like?

When you hear kingdom-victory, what expectations does that give you? What pictures come to mind?

That’s exactly the question Jesus asks in verse 30,

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?

What is the kingdom of God like? When the kingdom of God comes, how does it come? What is kingdom-victory like?

You see, the coming of the Kingdom of God has its roots deep in the Old Testament Scriptures. And by the time we get to Jesus’ day, there were many ideas about this kingdom, what it would look like, and how it would come.

Actually, the story of the kingdom starts all the way back in Genesis 1, when God creates the entire world as a place where his exercises his sovereign, kingly rule. He is the king who creates and rules over his world with complete control.

He’s the ruler who sets up kingdoms, determines the borders of nations, tells the sea where to stop.

And he’s also the king who determines when hairs fall from our heads, and when sparrows fall from their nests.

In every detail, both the major and the seemingly insignificant, in every moment of history, he stands above it all as the one who is in the heavens and does all that he pleases, and no one can stop his hand or thwart his will.

Psalm 103:19 “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

But as we keep reading the story, we see another picture of the Kingdom of God. After God finishes creating his world, he makes a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, and he places them in a garden, a special place that’s a picture of what God’s desire for his world looks like. A place where all of God’s world flourishes and reaches its full potential.

And do you remember what God tells Adam and Eve to do after he creates them? He told them to rule over Eden as his kingly representatives, and also tells them to expend the garden in Eden across the entire world so that all of God’s world would experience what this garden of delights is like.

We see in this story two dynamics of the kingdom of God. So that the kingdom of God is both God’s sovereign rule over all his creation generally, as well as his special rule over his people, where his desire for all of creation is most clearly experienced.

The problem is that all people, like Adam and Eve, have rejected God’s rule as king, and instead, we’ve all said that we think we’re better at ruling our lives than God is.

And that’s the story of the Bible as one person after another rejects God’s kingship and chooses to go their own way. And when happens when we reject God’s rule?

Injustice rules.

Famine and plague run rampant.

Death comes and conquers all of us.

So that Paul will later describe the world outside of Eden as “the dominion of darkness” ruled by “the prince of the power of the air,” Satan himself. Instead of God’s garden of delights, we all have chosen Satan’s garden of death, and we choose it again every time we reject God’s rule for our own.

This is where Israel found herself after she had, time and time again, rejected God’s reign, and God sent her into exile in Babylon. Against this dark backdrop, the prophet Isaiah says this in Isaiah 52:7,

Isaiah 52:7 ESV

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

The “good news” or the “gospel” of happiness is that, even though we have rejected God’s kingship time and time again, God is still king. It’s the good news of the year of kingdom-victory. Why is the year of kingdom-victory good news? Because God is will use his sovereign rule to bring his his saving rule. God will use his kingly power and authority to bring in a world in which all oppression is ended, all wars have ceased, and every tear is wiped away.

This is the good news which Jesus had already announced in Mark chapter 1. Do you remember?

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

The kingdom you’ve been waiting for is finally here! When Jesus spoke these words to his audience, there were some very specific ideas that came to mind.

Pictures of a conquering king, riding on a white horse, destroying and overthrowing Rome, and ushering in a Jewish state.

It’s like when you’re in a dark room and you turn on the lights, and the light is blinding. It all comes one moment, and all the darkness is vanquished.

Power. Triumph. Death to the enemies. Justice ruling. An all-encompassing, all-conquering, kingdom-victory. Sweeping victory for God’s people. That’s what came to mind.

But there was a problem with that. While Jesus was announcing the coming of this kingdom, he meant that the kingdom was coming in a way very differently than his audience expected.

Both of these parables tell us the same message: the kingdom of God will be victorious, but not in the way you expect.

The kingdom of God will be victorious, but not in the way you expect.

Do you see how both of the parables end? In the victory of the kingdom.

The first parable ends with a fruitful harvest, and the second parable ends with a large plant housing the birds of the air.

Both of these parables, then, present a victorious gospel, and a victorious kingdom.

After announcing the coming of the kingdom of God and the victory of the kingdom of God, Jesus, in these parables, seeks to correct wrong expectations of kingdom-victory. As he does so, he gives us pictures, not of military conquest, but of seeds and farmers. Jesus announces the year of kingdom-victory, but then he very quickly says, “but it’s not what you think.”

What does Kingdom-Victory look like?

“With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?”

Jesus answers this question for us with two parables. Two parables which serve to show us two different pictures of the Kingdom of God, and as they do, they serve to reset our expectations, both for this year, and for the future. The kingdom is indeed invading the world, and will indeed be victorious, but maybe not in the way we expect.

And these reset expectations are important because they serve to protect us, both in the way we think about the New Year, and the way we think about our daily lives.

Because while promises of prosperity and fruitfulness abound, have they come to much over these last few years? Because instead of things getting better, things seem to be getting worse:

More COVID variants than I can count.

A was that just doesn’t seem to end.

Misinterpretation and slander from the international community.

Inflation that just sucks the life out of us, and makes even basic needs like food and clothes seem out of reach.

And once again our expectations crumble beneath us.

That’s why these two parable are so vital for us to understand. These parables help us know how to understand the world, and what God is doing in the world. They serve us comfort us when our expectations aren’t met, and when it seems that the kingdom is losing. When we’ve lost all hope, these parables come in, reset our expectations, and comfort us the the glorious truth that the Kingdom will be victorious. Even when it seems impossible, the day will come when every tear is wiped away, injustice has ceased, and the garden of Eden is expended to the ends of the earth.

This is the year of Kingdom-Victory, but what does kingdom-victory look like? Let’s dive into our two stories and find out.

Story 1: The Story of the Sleeping Farmer

English Standard Version Chapter 4

26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

In this first story, we don’t find anything too spectacular. This is a story of a simple farmer who puts seed on the ground, and the seed grows into a plant. Nothing out of the ordinary here. And that’s exactly what’s so spectacular.

The throwing of seed on the ground reminds us of the parable at the beginning of the chapter, in which the seed represents the gospel preached in the world. Look back of Mark 4:14, “The sower sows the word.” Put simply, this parable is about the kingdom coming through the proclamation of the gospel.

Does this strike you as odd? When we think about a kingdom in which injustices have ceased, wars have ended, and oppressors exposed, how would you expect to see it come?

When you think of a new world in which famine is removed, disease eradicated, poverty ended, don’t you naturally think of humanitarian efforts? Digging wells, adopting orphans, and feeding the hungry.

But that’s not how this kingdom comes.

How does this kingdom come? In the most unexpected way. As the gospel is preached, and lives are transformed through that preached gospel.

The first thing this parable teaches us about Kingdom-Victory is that 1) The Kingdom of God will win, apart from human methods and wisdom.

God needs no human ingenuity to bring his redemptive reign to earth.

He doesn’t call us to human strategies or philosophies. God isn’t sitting in heaven waiting for us to come up with a clever idea for his kingdom to come. No, he’s the only master-planner, and he’s the only strategist.

And the method God has given us, his farmers, for seeing his kingdom spread throughout the world is simple: proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. So many people lose the gospel when they start talking about the kingdom, but for Jesus, if there’s no gospel then there’s no kingdom. No, it’s kingdom-victory through gospel-fidelity. The kingdom comes only as we stay true to the gospel message.

This is the very thing Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

To ensure that our faith rests in God’s power alone, the gospel is the only means for seeing the kingdom established in the world.

To use the language of the parable, trying to bring God’s kingdom to earth without the gospel is like a farmer who plants rocks expecting a harvest. There’s no life in it. No, the only way to get a harvest is if the farmer scatters seed on the ground.

Unless the seed of the gospel is planted no life will come up. Nothing.

Or to use another picture, maybe it’s not like a farmer who plants rocks, but it’s a farmer who plants the wrong kind of seed. Because whatever is planted is sure to sprout. If you plant an olive pit then you shouldn’t expect a banana tree to come out of the ground.

Do you see any temptation towards that in your heart? Our city is full of examples of ministers who are seeking to build something apart from the gospel. But aren’t there more subtle ways we do this in our own lives?

Men, every time you scroll to another pornographic image, you’re planting a seed.

Women, every time you text that man who isn’t a Christian, but you know he makes you feel special, you’re planting a seed.

Parents, every time you yell at your children or speak harshly towards them or shame them or guilt trip them, you’re planting a seed.

And when the harvest comes, and the kingdom doesn’t spout up, we need only look back at what we planted. If we don’t plant the gospel, we can’t expect to harvest the kingdom.

But the amazing promise from God in this parable is this is this: when the gospel is preached, there is a harvest. There is fruitfulness. See the end of the parable, “at once he puts the sickle, because the harvest has come.” The harvest will come. The kingdom will spread. And God will use the simple gospel message to do it.

Because it’s only through the gospel that people are saved and lives are transformed to the glory of God. And as the gospel is proclaimed,

thieves become generous,

abusers become gentle,

liers become faithful,

and the sexually immoral become pure.

Kingdom come. Only the gospel has the power to do this.

Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

1) The Kingdom of God will win, apart from human methods and wisdom.

But that’s not all this parable teaches us. Do you see what happens after this farmer spreads the seed on the ground? What does he do? He goes to sleep.

He doesn’t water the seed.

He doesn’t remove the thorns or rocks from the ground.

He doesn’t protect the seed from animals that might try to destroy it.

He doesn’t study growth patterns of plants.

He doesn’t worry about what will happen if the plant doesn’t grow.

All that he does is plant the seed and sleep. He makes no contribution beyond that.

As we continue reading the story we see more hints of this as well. Look again at verse 28, “the earth produces the crop by itself.” In the original, it’s even more explicit. We could translate it that the earth produces the crop, “automatically.” Without any help or assistance. The seed goes in, the crop comes out. The farmer isn’t the one who makes a plant grow, he simply plants the seed, sleeps, and life emerges from the ground.

And when it does sprout, the farmer “knows not how.” All he knows is that he put the seed in the ground, and then the plant grew. He can’t explain how it went from seed to grain. Even with our scientific advancements, we don’t fully understand all the mysteries of life. We get the chemistry, we get the biology, but we still can’t ultimately make life happen.

The second lesson we’re meant to learn here is that 2) The Kingdom of God will win, apart from human effort and explanation.

The the success of God’s kingdom doesn’t rest on our shoulders, but on his. The success of the gospel depends wholly on God, and “the earth will produce fruit,” it will succeed. The gospel will win, and God is the one who ensures it.

This isn’t to say that we just sit back lazily. No. What’s our role in the kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven? We, like the farmer, simply sow the seed. We simply share the gospel, and God does all the rest. We share the gospel, but only God makes the gospel affective in a person’s heart, and only God causes the message to bear fruit in the heart of the hearer.

When Martin Luther was asked what he did to bring about the protestant reformation, this was his response,

What is Luther? The gospel is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone…I simply preached; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.

Luther got this parable. The sovereign purposes of God will be victorious, apart from human effort.

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Psalm 115:2

And what is it that our God pleases? That his kingdom would come and his will be done on earth as it is in heave — and our sovereign God needs no help in causing his kingdom to invade the world. When the kingdom come, it comes by the will, and power of God alone. So that what Paul says is true,

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor 3:7)

Are you tempted to be discouraged at the progress of the gospel? Where do you desire to see the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven? In our city? In your family? In your own heart?

Do you feel weak in your own ability to share the gospel with unsaved friends or family members? And when you do share the gospel with them you never have the right words to say or they always seem just one step ahead of you.

Do you feel unable to apply the gospel to your own sin so as to see victory over it? You’ve fought long and hard and you just don’t see any victory.

Do you feel discouraged that your children aren’t growing? That your marriage feels stagnant? Your family just feels like its all falling apart sometimes.

Hear this comfort from God’s Word: “he sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed spouts and grows.” What do we bring into these difficult and often hopeless situations? The seed. The gospel. What’s out duty? To simply share the gospel, to remember the gospel, to apply the gospel. Never is application of the gospel to life’s difficulties for nothing, no it will grow and it will produce fruit.

This isn’t a text that discourages us from fighting for kingdom victory or praying for kingdom victory; rather, it’s a text that gives us hope in the only means of achieving kingdom-victory. God’s kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven, and the only means for it coming is the gospel.

Not through human philosophies.

Not through humanitarian efforts.

Not through our own willpower.

No, the only way that kingdom-victory comes is through the gospel.

God is the one who changes lives and brings his kingdom.

And at the end of the parable, the farmer does reap indeed. The crop comes to maturity. The gospel has its full effect. But the word used here for the farmer “reaping” isn’t what you’d expect in the original. We could translate this, “the grain hands itself over” to the farmer. Even in the act of harvesting, the emphasis is on the automatic nature of kingdom victory. The farmer simply sows the seed, sleeps, and God does the rest.

When Michael and AB started this church, they didn’t know if anyone was going to come. When I started the Pastors College, I didn’t know if we’d have any students or teachers. We worked hard, and we prayed. But at the end of the day, only God can fill the chairs. Only God can change people’s hearts. Only God can make Jesus Christ beautiful in our eyes.

So Michael has faithfully preached every Sunday and counseled throughout the week.

AB has faithfully lead us in singing, and has sought to faithfully remind us of the gospel through songs.

I’ve sought to lead the pastors college in a way that pleases Christ.

But all three of us would say, while we scattered seed, we, like the farmer, don’t know how the growth happened. And while we’re worked hard, God has produced far more fruit than we could have ever expected — the return on the investment is far greater than the time and effort we’ve put in.

This is the Lord’s doing, and it’s marvelous in our eyes.

2)The Kingdom of God will win, apart from human effort and explanation.

But that’s not the only lesson we’re to learn from this parable. We’ve seen that the seed grows while the farmer simply sleeps, but do you see how it grows?

“First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”

When the seed grows, it doesn’t grow all at once. No, it grows slowly, over time. It’s not that the farmer simply puts the seed in the ground and then out pops a plant. No, as the seed grows into a plant, there’s visible progress, but slow visible progress.

Do you hear the way it’s described here?

“First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and when the grain is ripe...”

You can feel the slowness just as you read it. It’s growing, but not very quickly. And for a farmer in need of his crops, who is watching the plant every day, the growth is almost unnoticeable.

The third lesson we’re meant to learn is that 3) The Kingdom of God will win, apart from human timetables.

Like a farmer, we often just want the kingdom to come right now, don’t we? Do you ever wish the gospel would just come and produce fruit immediately? I do. I want to experience the fullness of gospel-transformation now.

I want it in my own heart.

My inadequacies as a husband and a father.

My lack of love and compassion for others, and my great love and compassion for myself.

I want it for our city.

The poor and the homeless.

The prostitutes

The drunks.

The depressed and the suicidal.

I’m often weary when I see the ways that the kingdom of darkness is felt . I want the gospel to take over, and it I want it to take over yesterday. Do you feel it also?

But that’s not the way the kingdom comes. The kingdom comes gradually. It comes slowly. It comes like a plant that grows up, and that takes time. It’s not overnight. It’s not popped in a microwave. It’s slow. But it does come. He harvest is promised. The gospel will bear fruit.

So when we’re sharing the gospel with our unsaved friend again.

When we’re applying the gospel to our own hearts again.

When we’re telling our children the same stories again.

This parable calls us to remember: growth takes time, but growth does come.

When you really thought we saw progress in our kid’s hearts only for them to look at us in the eyes and lie.

When you’re faced with the same unrelenting temptation and we give in again.

When you thought your friend was ready to come to Christ only for him to stop replying to your calls and texts, then you find out that he’s spent the last week drunk and sleeping around.

When you really thought that you marriage had had grown past this by now only to see things take 100 steps back and you’re just not sure how you’re going to recover.

This parable calls us to remember: growth takes time, but growth does come.

Remember Psalm 126?

English Standard Version Psalm 126

5  Those who sow in tears

shall reap with shouts of joy!

6  He who goes out weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him.

What are we called to do? We’re called to sow the seed of the gospel, trust God for the growth, and remember that growth takes time.

And often times, like this psalm suggests, we sow in tears.

Tears of shame.

Tears of regret.

Tears of insufficiency.

Tears of grief.

Tears of sorrows too deep for words.

But we sow the seed of the gospel day after day after day after day, trusting that the Lord of the Harvest will bring the fruit in his timing, and his way. Trusting that when he would hold out the harvest longer than we would like, it’s all under his kind, sovereign hand, and his timing is best.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

3) The Kingdom of God will win, apart from human timetables.

These three lessons from the parable, they focus together to teach us that the kingdom will be victorious despite human-inability. The kingdom will be victorious despite human-inability.

And in doing so, they seek to ground our confidence, not in our efforts, not in our abilities, not in our cleverness, not in our courage, not in our eloquence, not in our faithfulness, but in God. They cause us to look away from ourselves and to the only one true Sovereign, the only true King, the only true God. The one who will ensure that his kingdom will be victorious.

The parable causes us farmers to lift our eyes away from our own ability to effect change, and to look to Jesus Christ alone for fruitfulness.

Look to his seed, his gospel.

Look to his soil, his grace for growth.

Look to his harvest, his timetable for growth.

When we’re discouraged. When we’re skeptical. When we’re wondering if it’s even worth waking up in the morning just to get punched in the face again. We look not to ourselves, we look to him.

The kingdom will be victorious despite human-inability.

To to state is positively, because Christ alone brings kingdom-fruitfulness, we must look to him alone in all of our kingdom-efforts.

But that’s not the only story Jesus gives us to set our expectations for kingdom-victory. While the focus on kingdom-victory despite human inability, the second parable the focus on kingdom-victory despite human evaluation. Let’s look next at...

Story 2: The Story of the Smallest Seed

Mark 4:30-32 “And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

In this second story, when Jesus describes the kingdom of God, he uses the most unlikely image imaginable. A mustard seed, the smallest seed known to his audience. It’s tiny. It’s insignificant.

You might have stepped on 12 of them while you were walking to church this morning and you wouldn’t have even felt it under your foot.

If you saw it on the side of the road, you wouldn’t stop to collect it because of its incredible value.

If you were bringing a bag of them home from the market and one fell out of the bag, you wouldn’t stop to put it back in.

It’s not something you look at and think, “now there’s something worth giving my life for.”

It’s the smallest, most insignificant looking seed. But appearances can be deceiving. Because after that small seed goes into the ground, it grows. And when it grows, it becomes the biggest plant in the whole garden, large enough for birds to put their nests in and find rest in.

Despite humble beginnings and despite human estimations, the kingdom of God will grow, and grow, and grow until the truth becomes clear: the Kingdom of God is the most significant reality in all the world, and it will become the dominating force in human history.

Despite humble beginnings and despite human estimations, the Kingdom of God is truly worth giving all your life for, and the king of the kingdom deserves all our allegiance.

And as this parable takes us back to a garden, like in the beginning of the BIble, we’re reminded once again of Adam, who was called to subdue the earth, to expand Eden around the globe. But he failed. And where the first Adam failed, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, will succeed. He will bring his kingdom to the ends of the earth, and he will faithfully expand his kingdom until it conquers all.

This parable, it serves as an interpretive grid for our lives. Because when we look out in the world, does it seem like the Kingdom of God is conquering? Does it seem like Jesus is winning? When you look at your own life, at your family, does it feel like Jesus is the king and the mustard seed is growing into the biggest plant?

I must admit, for me, it often doesn’t feel that way. It often feels like Satan and his kingdom are winning. It often feels like the church is being defeated. It often feels like what I’m doing is just so insignificant, it’s like a small drop in an ocean.

Do you ever feel that way?

But this parable, it gives us faith, that despite all appearances, the kingdom will be victorious.

I believe this parable gives us two more lessons about the kingdom:

First, don’t judge God’s ultimate purposes by present circumstances.

When you look at your life, what do you see?

When you look at our world, what do you see?

What’s your evaluation of the Kingdom of God? How’s the gospel doing?

Do you see hardship? failure? weariness? trying and trying again, only for your efforts to come to nothing?

This parable comes to us and says to us, be careful not to judge God’s ultimate purposes by present circumstances.

Maybe you’ve come here this morning freshly aware of the sin that seems to have such a foothold in your life.

You hear reports of the war starting up again in the north and you think, “well happy new year.” Here we go again.

You look out in our city and you wonder, “will the true gospel ever take hold here, in a city where a false gospel is so strong?”

And, you may not say this out loud, but you just want to write the word “failure” across the whole thing.

Just because the kingdom seems small and insignificant now doesn’t mean it won’t win doesn’t mean it won’t triumph. This parable ensures us that the Kingdom of God will be victorious, and it comforts us when we feel like it’s just worth giving up.

The kingdom will expand, the gospel will have success.

Part of faith is looking to the promises of God and trusting that God is working to make good on those promises even when all the evidence seems to deny it.

And we may feel often like Elisha’s servant, who sees the armies of the enemy surrounding him and says “what shall we do?!”

And parables like this serve to open our eyes to see that the armies of heaven are on our side, and the final word will not be “kingdom-defeat,” but “kingdom-victory.”

1) Don’t judge God’s ultimate purposes by present circumstances.

But that’s not the only lesson we’re to learn from this parable. Not only are we ensured of the ultimate victory of the kingdom, but we’re also helped to see that victory doesn’t always look like what we’d expect.

Like the last parable, this small seed, before it grows, and before it spouts up, first it goes into the ground, and what seemed small at first becomes completely invisible. You thought the mustard seed was hard to see when you saw it on the ground, but when you burry it, it seems that it’s gone forever.

But often times, where people see defeat, God sees victory. And God’s plans and purposes often seem counterintuitive. But where everyone else sees defeat, God sees victory.

Second, don’t judge kingdom-victory by human standards.

And if we’re perceptive, we’ll see that this is how God loves to work.

Remember Noah? He was told to build a boat when it had never rained before. And everyone thought he was so foolish. But where everyone saw defeat, a wasted life, God saw victory.

But that’s not all.

Remember Abraham? The old man who couldn’t have children. Of him God said would come children more than the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea. How could that be? But where everyone saw defeat, God saw victory.

But that’s not all.

Remember Israel? A nation enslaved by the mighty Egyptian empire? That’s who God chose as his people who would bring the good news to the world.

But that’s not all. I’m just getting started.

Remember Gideon? The coward God called to defeat the Mideonites? And remember his army that started with 22,000 people but shrunk to 300, and the defeated the enemies of the people of God.

Remember David? The young shephard boy who was called to fight a giant with just a sling and a stone?

Remember Elijah? The depressed man of God who poured water on the altar before asking God to reign down fire on it?

And time fails us to mention

Joseph was betrayed, enslaved and falsely accused,

Joshua and his insignificant army,

the wives the Lord provided for the tribe of Benjamine,

and Ruth the Moabite, b

arren Hannah,

the ark of God that defeated the enemies of God by itself,

Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

For all of them, where everyone saw insignificance, foolishness, and defeat, God saw victory.

And part of faith is gaining God’s perspective on the world, and seeing victory where he sees victory.

And isn’t that how the kingdom of God started?

With an insignificant man from an insignificant town. The kingdom came as a tiny baby. Born in a manger next to farm animals. These goats for sale on the side of the road with the tarps over their heads. Those places you walk by and plug your nose because of the smell. Scattered hay on the ground, but mostly mud. That’s where our Savior was born. Humble, insignificant beginnings.

And as he started his ministry, human evaluation stayed the same.

Just look at when Jesus announced the kingdom again with me in chapter 1. When was it that Jesus announced that the kingdom was near?

Not after John announced that he would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Not after God the Father announced from heaven that this is his Son.

Not after he rejected Satan’s temptation in the wilderness.

No, look again at verse 14,

Mark 1:14-15 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

This is a cry for revolution. This is a call for upheaval of the status quo. And when does it come? The announcement of the kingdom came after John was arrested.

And what happens just after that? Jesus assembles his disciples, and they are the kind of people you’d least expect.

And in chapter 2, the religious leaders call him crazy, they say he has a demon.

And even Jesus own family, when they see his ministry, they think he’s crazy. They want to hide him because of the shame he’s bringing to them.

And at the end of his life, as Jesus was lead to the cross, died, and was buried, that mustard seed was planted in the ground, and it seemed that all hope was lost. Until three days later when the first shoot from the plant burst out of the ground in the Messiah’s resurrection.

You see, what seemed like the ultimate defeat on the cross was actually the greatest of all victories. What seemed like the Son of God being put to open shame was actually the rules of this world being put to open shame.

And that man who hung on a cross is now seated at the right hand of God in power, and true, greatest victory.

Because, where everyone saw defeat, God saw victory.

And this victorious king, he is working relentlessly from his throne in heaven to bring his kingdom around the world. Wither we see it or not, wither we believe it or not, the mustard seed is growing, the kingdom is expanding, and the final note of history will not be the defeat of the kingdom of God but its ultimate triumph and victory.

Because when harvest comes, that small mustard seed...

English Standard Version Chapter 4

it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants

And as we look elsewhere in our Bibles, we see similar images of the kingdom growing and expanding.

We see it all the way back in Isaiah this is what is said of this mustard-seed-kingdom:

Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

Not of the “decrese” of his kingdom, but of the “increse” of his kingdom there will be no end.

And later in Isaiah we’re told of Christ,

“He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.” (Isaiah 42:4)

And though it may seem that no progress is being made from an earthly perspective, Paul gives us the vision from heaven when he says,

“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor 15:25-26)

The story of history is the story of Christ defeating his enemies until there is only one more left: death itself. And then Christ returns and defeats even that enemy.

Oh, my friends, we’re not on the losing side. The Kingdom of God will not fail,

Rather, Christ promises us these precious words,

Matthew 16:18 “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

The Church will prevail, it will win.

And do you see what won’t prevail against the church? It’s the gates of hell that won’t prevail. Not the armies of hell. Not the swords of hell. The gates of hell.

What are gates? What do they do? Are they weapons? Do you bring gates out to the battlefield? No! Gates arent’ offensive weapons, they are defensive.

So often we feel like hell is beating down the gates of the church, but in this verse it’s the church that’s beating down the gates of hell, and we’re promised victory!

But how does this victory come? What does kingdom-victory look like?

The same way it did for our Lord. Because our God loves to use defeat to bring victory.

And in this upside-down kingdom:

You save your life by losing it.

The greatest is the servant of all.

It’s the meek and the lowly and the broken that inherit the earth.

And the king himself is enthroned through death and defeat.

One of my favorite pictures of this is found in Exodus chapter 1. Do you remember that story?

The Egyptians saw that the Israelites were growing, and they felt threatened. And so they chose to oppress them and try to defeat them.

But look with me at Exodus 1:12 “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.”

Though the growth is slow, and at times unnoticeable, and though it often seems like the kingdom will be defeated and the gospel is losing, my friends, the kingdom is growing, it is expanding, and the story of history is the story of Jesus Christ putting all of his enemies under his feet, and the story of the church beating down the gates of hell, but if we don’t have the eyes of God, what is actually victory will feel like defeat.

2) So we must not judge kingdom-victory by human standards.

Prop Package

My friends, kingdom victory is certain. And these two parables remind us of that. If we were to summarize the lesson that these two parables teach us, I would do so like this...

Prop: Despite appearances to the contrary, the Kingdom of God is assured to relentlessly expand and ultimately triumph.

So this, my friends is the year of kingdom-victory. But that victory, it may not look like what we expect. The kingdom comes, the kingdom is victorious, but often in ways that make us feel like we’re losing and that make us feel like nothing is being accomplished. And these parables give us the glasses to see victory where other see defeat.

Prop: Despite appearances to the contrary, the Kingdom of God is assured to relentlessly expand and ultimately triumph.

Don’t be discouraged by the presence of the enemy.

Don’t be discouraged by defeats.

Don’t be discouraged by weak and humble appearances.

Don’t be discouraged by slow growth.

When times are hard, and life seems relentless, God’s kingdom is marching forward. You may not believe it. You may not feel it, but it is.

The gospel bears fruit.

These parables, they call us to faith, faith that Jesus Christ and his kingdom will win. And what kind of faith does it call us to? The kind of faith that Jesus calls us to here is one that can sleep and rest, because the work is the Lord’s.

2015 is the year of kingdom-victory. And despite appearances to the contrary, the Kingdom of God is assured to relentlessly expand and ultimately triumph.

Faith, not just that looks at difficulties as victory,

But faith that finds ultimate allegiance in this kingdom.

Ultimate identity.

The only true hope for 2015 is found in the gospel.

Hope for transforemd lives.

Hope for transformed families

Hope for sin conquired.

Hope for

So let us find all of our confidence there. In that simple, backwards message of a god-man who became the king of the universe through death and defeat.