The Kingdom of God

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Mark chapter 4. And this morning we'll be reading verses one through 34, Mark chapter four, verses one through 34. If you're using your Pew Bibles, you'll be able to find that on page 885, Mark chapter four. And we'll begin at verse one. Here now God's perfect. inerrant word.

And again he began to teach by the sea and a great multitude was gathered to him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Then he taught them many things and by parables and said to them in his teaching, listen, Behold, the sower went out to sow. And it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

Some fell on a stony ground where it did not have much earth. And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground, and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.

And he said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable. And he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How will you then understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.

When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who When they heard the word, immediately received it with gladness. And they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word. And the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground. Those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit.

Some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Also he said to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. And to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, but whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away from him.

And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. Then he said, to what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it?

It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth. But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.

And with many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable, he did not speak to them. And when they were alone, he explained all things to his disciples. Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word.

Prayer for Illumination

Once again, brothers and sisters, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God is gonna endure forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We plead with you now for your Holy Spirit. Father, we pray that the words might be living and active as you have promised they are, sharper than any two-edged sword. Lord, please do the work of a surgeon doing heart surgery in our heart this morning, Lord, that we might know you. and walk in your ways, in Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon

Well, as we've been working through the book of Mark, we've come to this kind of key reality, a question, why are so many people responding to Jesus in different ways? Right, if Jesus is the Messiah, if Jesus is the promised Christ, if Jesus is the savior of the world, Why are people responding to him so differently? Well, I think Jesus is teaching us in this different set of parables here how we're to understand these different responses to him.

See, Jesus' kingdom started small and with obscure beginnings, but they wouldn't remain that way. And the kingdom of God starts small and is hidden, yet it will grow. And at the same time, not everyone will be a citizen of that kingdom. And so there might be some of you, as you've shared the gospel with family members, friends, coworkers, you might get discouraged. Why people seem to have such hard hearts. You might be disappointed with different people as you tell them about Jesus.

But the passage here today is given by our Lord to teach us about the kingdom of God. And that we who have the spirit in us ought to have faith that the kingdom is growing. And that the day of harvest is coming. Have faith, brothers and sisters, that the kingdom is growing and the day of harvest is coming. So first, let's look at the first parable. We're not gonna go through all that first parable in verses one through 20. We did that last week.

But as the sower went out and he was spreading his seed across the different types of soil along the wayside and on the stony ground and even in the area that had weeds, We see that Jesus speaks to the crowd in this parable. And then when he's all by himself and the disciples and those who are with him come to him, they say, can you explain that to us? And I want to bring your eyes to verses 10 through 12, what Jesus explains to them there. Jesus has a veiled revelation and he's making this clear to his disciples, but when he was alone those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable and he said to them, to you it has been given to know, to know what? The mystery of the kingdom of God. The secret that God had veiled in the past that they would now come to know.

But to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them. See, Jesus is telling us this reality, that there's gonna be a bunch of mixed hearers in every crowd he speaks to, because he's speaking to everyone outside being outside of his followers, outside of his disciples, all those who are outside, he speaks of them in parables with almost like there's a veil over what he's teaching.

Why? Because they ought to be able to grasp enough of the truth, but they're not actually invited inside. Seeing they may see and not perceive, hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they turn and their sins be forgiven them. But don't we kind of have a natural reaction against that?

Hold on, the message of Jesus is for everyone. What do you mean it's a veiled message? What do you mean that Jesus isn't opening this up far and wide for everyone to believe? Behind that feeling that we have is actually a presupposition in our own hearts, this attitude we have in ourselves that everyone deserves the gospel. The reality is none of us do.

If Jesus chooses to veil the gospel from certain people, that's the king's choice. Because for him to proclaim good news is for him to proclaim it to the people he chooses. It's his kingdom. It's his people. And so he's going to teach his disciples clearly. But to those who are on the outside, he speaks to them in parables.

Often we think of parables as this idea of like these are cute, illustrative stories that kind of explain the truth to us. But Jesus is saying no, no I'm teaching in parables largely because they're more like paradoxes. Often they're like allegories. Often they're comparisons and similes.

And it's purposely meant to give people just enough truth so they're accountable on the judgment day. But they don't actually have a heart to love me. And so we ought to be praying. We ought to be praying for our own hearts that God's seed would take root deep down in our own hearts. That we would be like those disciples who would come to Jesus and we would plead with him, teach me what this means.

God, I desire to know from you, please, let me know what this means. If we love his kingdom, we'll have that type of faith, the desire to know what Jesus is saying, not just to be pacified with a surface level. of the parables, and so Jesus continues. There's a number of parables here. The first was a parable of the different soils. That taught us about the kingdom of God and the different receptions. But Jesus goes on in the second parable, verses 21 through 23, about a lamp.

Look with me there. Then he said to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Do you see Jesus is saying, revelation is coming. He didn't come to be hidden underneath a bed, or to be put underneath a basket.

And this causes this tension, right? Well, we talked about this in chapter two and three, didn't we? When the demons come and they fall down, these unclean spirits before Jesus, and Jesus rebukes them when they call him the son of the living God. And he rebukes them and he says, don't say that yet. But you see, Jesus isn't saying my light's gonna be hidden forever. But someday the light is going to be put on the lamp stand. It's going to fill the room. Eventually the time is going to come.

We ought to have optimism that Jesus Christ and his gospel would not remain veiled, but that it would go out for everyone to see. And so we ought to be praying for the kingdom to come. But notice it's not our timing. The demons think if they could just expose who he is right away that Jesus will somehow be deterred, derailed from what he's actually come to do. But Jesus in his perfect providence and his great timing knows exactly how things are going to unfold.

I think this is why Jesus teaches us in Matthew that we ought to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. So kingdom is not like a light that should be put underneath a basket or underneath a bed. The time's gonna come when it's gonna be put up on a lamp stand. But Jesus goes on in this different parables about the kingdom of God and look at what he says in verses 24 and 25 as he speaks about this proverbial measure.

And then he said to them, take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. And to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given. But to whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Now, I've got to be honest with you, when I first read this, it took me about three days to wrestle in my brain with it until I finally read that there's this, this is a proverbial saying, with the same measure that you use, so it will be used for you. Jesus uses this in different contexts in his ministry. Sometimes he's talking about it with judgment, and here he's talking about it with revelation. This is a common thing people would say. By the same measure you use, so you will be measured. It will be added to you.

What would happen if you went to the marketplace and you were going to buy and sell grain? Well, there's ancient writings that we actually have that talk about if you bring your bushel to the market to sell, guess what bushel you have to use to buy? Yours. You can't have one bushel that you get to go buy fruit with and another bushel that you get to sell your fruit in.

No, no, just measures, just weights. You're going to buy and sell with the same measure. This is kind of weird to us, isn't it? But if you think this is too weird, next time you go pump gas, look for that little sticker that's on the gas pump. Just weights and measures are a big deal even in our society. You don't think this is a big deal. I hope you don't have money, maybe in gold or silver, because even if they change the margin by one gram, you could lose thousands of dollars.

It's the same in the Old Testament, same in the New Testament. This was a proverbial saying. So what is Jesus getting at with this saying? He's getting at the effects of those who hear him. There are some who are sitting there on the shore. Remember, Jesus is now speaking again. He's in the boat. People are on the shore. They're listening to Jesus. He's preaching to them. He's teaching them. And there are some people there who have come down to Jerusalem just to hear him, just to see him, but they refuse to believe him. Their hearts are hard. They've turned away from him. They have no care for what he is.

And at the last day, Jesus is saying, you got to see God in the flesh. and you turned away, that measure will be used against you. It will be added to you on that judgment day. There are others who came and they sat at Jesus' feet, they wanted healing, they wanted a better life, they wanted better crops, they wanted a better kingdom, they wanted a better culture, they wanted stuff from Jesus. And as they sat at his feet and as they heard from Jesus, then he started talking to them about trials. tribulations, persecution. Nevermind. That's not what I signed up for. When they stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, he's going to use that measure. Did you hear me tell you about my kingdom? And you said you didn't want it. Neither will you have it.

But there were even others there. There are others there who are sitting there on the shore, and to be honest with you, they were kind of interested about what Jesus was saying, but some of them might've just been thinking about when is lunch going to come? Others of them, I'm sure they had a sundial on their watch and they were on their wrists and they were sitting there going, man, isn't he going a little bit long here? I was waiting to go to the game. Others of them.

As they were sitting here, listening to Jesus speak the words of eternal life, were more concerned about their contracts with their cousin Amos and Judah later that they needed to sign about. They were more worried about what was going on in their lives and what could get them more money, more things that were crowding in.

As they were hearing Jesus speak, yeah, they heard auditory sounds, but it wasn't getting into their souls. What is Jesus saying in this parable? By the same measure you were given, it's gonna be added to you. You wanted your busyness, you wanted your money, you wanted the preoccupations and cares of your life, that's what you will get, but you will also get the judgment that comes from not caring about me or my kingdom.

But then there are others who are there. There are others there that heard with interest, There are others there that found the pearl of great price. There are others there who heard about the kingdom of God and a king of righteousness. They knew one who had come before them now and could cast out unclean spirits, who could tell them of everything they'd ever done. And they wanted to sit at his feet. They wanted to be part of his kingdom. They knew their sinfulness and they were turning from it under righteousness.

Brothers and sisters, this is the picture of the gospel. Could you imagine what it's gonna be like when you enter into your eternal rest in Christ? We ask in our membership vows, do you look forward to that great day when you're gonna give your answer before Jesus with joy? When he says to you, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into my rest. This is the grace of God that he's pouring out upon Christians.

He's saying, if you have understood this revelation, if you have received my word that I've been sowing in your hearts, and you are holding onto it when the harvest comes, and your heart is judged, brothers and sisters, there's more in heaven that awaits us for eternity than we could ever sing about. Pray for your own soul. Pray for the souls of others that they might believe. Pray that God would change hearts and that people might, though unworthy, come before him and be filled up with good measure.

Our God judges with equity and he's building his kingdom. Jesus moves on as he's teaching us about his kingdom, and here at his home he gives us two ag, two different ag similes, two surprising ways in which the nature of God plays out. Look with me at the fourth parable, verses 26 through 29. And the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night, and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how, for the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. The kingdom of God. Ask him, what an apt time to pick up this parable, isn't it, in God's providence? You know, I was, sometimes things are just nerdy and fun for me. As I was translating this this week, I realized that you farmers know Greek. Did you know that? You know all sorts of different Greek words. What do you call different heads of your combine? A draper head, a sickle. A draper is a sickle to cut down the grain. The harvest has come. And so Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like this seed that's put in the ground, it's cast, it's plowed over.

And what does the farmer do? Well, some of you are pretty particular with your farms. You wanna know exactly the germination and stuff like that. I know some of you, you put the corn in the ground. And after a while, you gotta go dig up a couple of heads, a couple of kernels, just to see, is it actually taking root? Is it actually growing? But are you gonna do that with every single head of grain that's in the ground? Every seed that you put in the ground? No. What do you have to do, farmers?

Well, you put the seed in the ground, and you go to sleep. And when you wake up, can you affect the growth? Not too much. You might try to fertilize. You might try to put herbicides, stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you could do everything perfect. Who's the one who determines your yield?

It's God. He brings the rain. He brings the sun. The kingdom is utterly dependent, not on the farmer, but on the Lord of the harvest. See, people in Jesus's day might think of Jesus and think of him as this backward, good for nothing, what good can come from Galilee type guy. This is insignificant.

Who's this startup overthrowing our teaching? Who's this guy healing on the Sabbath? Why is his disciples rubbing grain and eating them? Who is this guy? The scribes don't endorse him, the Pharisees oppose him, the Herodians conspire against him. How is this gonna work out? Jesus' kingdom is paradoxical. Think about it. He was born and put in a trough. And this guy's supposed to be the king of the universe? His children, or his parents have to make him flee to Egypt when he's first born. He can't fight for himself? Who is this guy? Seems pretty insignificant.

How is it that the king of the Jews dying on a cross is going to bring about the kingdom of God? Well, it's only by hindsight and revelation that we see this is exactly how the kingdom works. It's on that cross, when the Jews finally thought, we've done it, that the centurion says, this truly was the Son of God. It's on that cross, when Pilate thought he finally washed his hand of this problem, that the thief next to him Here's today, you'll be with me in paradise. It's not by the working of the farmer's hands, but it's by the Lord of the harvest that the seed would be put into the ground and rise again and that a harvest would ensue.

I gotta tell you, I got no clue what works for the church. I'm dead serious. I read these church growth books and I read, you know, how I should shepherd you as a pastor. I read all these things, all these articles and books that people will give me and stuff. And I'm pretty disheartened. Because most of the church, I'm gonna be honest with you, most of the church treats it as if we gotta go and put in all these implementations, all these different things, and you know what?

It's just gonna be like magic. People are going to believe the gospel, the church is gonna be filled, lives are gonna be changed, everything's gonna be wonderful. But I'm telling you, as I go out and do evangelism, community members whose faces go dark, Muslim guy who doesn't wanna change. Jehovah's Witnesses who tell me this isn't worth our time. Mormons who stop talking. What do you do? I don't know how to grow the church. I don't know how to grow the kingdom.

And as I was wrestling with this in my own heart, I was thinking about this, I got one of the sweetest emails I'd ever received. I'm just gonna read you one line from this email. It was so good, I never let Olivia read my emails. Most of it's just junk, but especially if it's one of you and you have something that you need to tell me. I'm not gonna tell Olivia, but some of you tell me things that are hard, and thank you for telling me that. Every once in a while, somebody sends me an email that's worth reading to all of you. This person wrote, and they said, I wanna thank, I wanna thank you for all that you have done. and bringing me to Jesus. And the love of God the Father with the Holy Spirit. God willing, I will plan to continue following you on coffee and devotions.

You know how many times you might want to quit sharing the gospel? How many times you just want to give up because you think, is this even effective? What are we doing? The elders wonder about this when we do things like Gratia Church. Can't tell you how many interesting people walked in the door in Burlington for Gratia Church and heard the gospel and turned away. Were we a failure? Or do you just sow the seed, go to sleep, wake up, and trust the Lord of the harvest?

Don't be discouraged. When you see the failures and the unfaithfulness of the Western Church, Jesus' kingdom is still growing. Don't be discouraged when you see that somehow you think your evangelistic efforts or your desire to share the gospel with your friends, your children, your neighbors goes unheard. Jesus is still building his kingdom. The day of the harvest will come. And this is what Jesus points at in the last parable, parable number five. Look with me at verses 30 through 32. Then he said, to what shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what parable shall we picture it?

It is like a mustard seed, which when it is sown on the ground, it is smaller than all the seeds on earth. But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.

Man, a mustard seed is small. I had fun researching this a little bit. The type of mustard seed he's most likely talking to here, it takes 700 of these seeds to equal one gram. And this one little tiny seed you put into the ground can become so tall that two men standing shoulder on shoulder aren't that large. And it's so large that birds actually fly into it and make their nests. Now I gotta tell you, I've planted carrots before. and they're about that small, the seeds, and they only grow about that tall if the rabbits don't eat them, or the deer don't get to them.

Jesus says the kingdom of God is like that tiny mustard seed that's planted in the ground, and somehow, unexplainably, It becomes this giant bush overwhelming the garden. Now I gotta tell you, this is just proverbial wisdom here. If you're gonna plant a mustard plant, it's kinda like planting watermelon or something. Don't plant anything else near it. Because it's gonna take over everything.

It's gonna grow huge. And Jesus says that's what the kingdom's like. See, the Pharisees might hate me, the scribes might wanna kill me, the people might turn their deaf ear towards me, but the kingdom of God is still going to come. The branches of the kingdom are gonna grow so thick, so far out, that the nations will come and find shelter in its branches. This is why we sing Psalm 67. all the nations will come and bow to Jesus Christ.

No one on that lake shore in Galilee hearing those words ever in their wildest imaginations thought of you. Let's put this into some historical perspective here. 2,000 years ago, they didn't even know America existed. They didn't know South America and North America were even continents.

And yet Jesus is saying the gospel is gonna spread out to the ends of the earth, from east to west, north to south. Jesus' kingdom is going to grow and the nations are going to come to him. The gospel is going to balloon and people are going to believe in him. This is happening today. This morning, people sent gospel tracts and Bibles by balloon over the demarcation line into North Korea. This week, Iranian Christians were put into prison because they would not reject Jesus Christ. Pagan witchcraft in Bolivia and Chile is being confronted this month with the gospel. Nigerians and South Sudanese are turning from animism and worshiping the king of the universe.

And he's not done with you or with our families either. He's not done with our communities. The fields are ripe for harvest, Jesus says. The mustard tree of God's kingdom is growing. But we need to recognize that not everybody's going to be in it. Yet, not everyone's going to believe. This is good news. It's good news for us who believe. that God's kingdom is growing, that the Lord of the harvest is coming, but don't be surprised when this world hates it. How people are responding to the gospel in front of your own eyes is not necessarily indicative of how the kingdom of God is going.

I'm always encouraged when I think of William Carey, the Baptist missionary who went to He labored for a long time in Calcutta, serving for decades. You know what the fruits of his labors were while he was alive? Almost no converts. Do you know what happened after he died? Every week, I'm on the phone over WhatsApp and Skype with pastors in India. In the north, in the south, in the east, in the west, in rural villages and in the cities, William Carey couldn't have ever imagined while he was alive how many Christians there would be in India. God's kingdom is growing. Have faith that the kingdom of God is growing.

And so Jesus explains us. He wraps up these parables in verses 33 and 34. And with many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable, he did not speak to them. And when they were alone, that being the inner group, the disciples and those who were listening, he explained all things to his disciples. See, not everybody's on the inside, and not everybody's gonna believe.

That's going to happen. Aren't you thankful that the Lord warned you about that? That Jesus is the one who set this precedence? Does this mean that we then just sit on our rumps and don't do anything, don't tell anybody about Jesus because, well, the farmer slept, so we just sleep away? No. No, because there are people to go tell the good news who are predestined before eternity to be on the inside.

To be the ones who hear this explanation and say, Jesus, I want more. Jesus, I want to be in that kingdom. Jesus, I want to turn from my sins and know you as my Lord. So pray. In the face of disbelief, This is not a surprise to Jesus. In the face of disappointment, have faith that God is still building His kingdom. Pray that as Jesus has taught us, for our Father's kingdom to come and His will be done. Have faith that He is building His kingdom.

Closing Prayer

This starts in your heart. I don't know what seed you are. Some of you might have tuned out 20 minutes ago. I pray for you, that you might be one of those who long for the Lord of the Harvest to return. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that your Holy Spirit is still working, that your kingdom is still moving, that you are still saving people. Lord, we pray that you would do that even this day in our midst. Lord it's your kingdom and your will. We pray that it would be done in Jesus' name. Amen.

We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.