The Kingdom of God (Part 2 of 2)

When we hear news from around the world, we sometimes are given the impression that Christianity is in decline. Today on Truth for Life we'll find out why we can rest assured that God's kingdom will triumph. Alistair Begg is continuing our study in Jesus' parable about the sower and the seeds.

We're looking at Mark chapter 4 focusing today on verses 26 through 34. A man scatters seed on the ground. It's sown quietly, it's sown routinely, it's sown progressively, and all of this takes place mysteriously, and it yields a harvest. In the beginning, the activity of the sower may appear to be making little impact. After all, you just see the person going along the place and scattering the seed.

In Jesus' day, they would have the bag that would be attached around them, they would be reaching in, taking handfuls, and scattering them willy-nilly around. You could say, Wow, what a waste of seed! And you couldn't hear anything. You couldn't hear the seed hitting the soil. And when you went to bed at night and you got up in the middle of the night, perhaps for a glass of water, and you looked out the window, there was nothing there either.

In fact, somebody could say to you, You know, I don't think there's any possibility of anything coming about. And then one day you were out, and there were little chutes and stalks. Before you knew where you were, you were driving your car along the back way here to Parkside, and the corn that had gone and looked like it had gone forever and ever is now as high as an elephant's eye. And you're looking up at it, rather than down at the fallow field. And the sower has contributed nothing to the germination. The sower's significance is only in the scattering and then, ultimately, in the harvest.

But from the outside, it looks as if nothing's happening. That's what Jesus is saying. Now, I'm not a country boy, I'm a city dweller. I had to learn this lesson. I'm thankful that my grandmother taught it to me. She taught it to me by way of hyacinth bulbs, as I recall. And there was a sort of annual routine in my grandmother's house—we should have called it the Festival of the Hyacinths—but I can vividly remember her taking hyacinth bulbs and burying them side by side, usually two, in a kind of oblong porcelain pot with a tiny little tip sticking out, and then we went through the process of going into one of the bedrooms and putting the pot under the bed.

Which is always… I don't know if I remember the first time, but I never really saw my grandmother down on her hands and knees like this, and it just seemed bizarre to me. And she told me, you know, if you wait, you'll be surprised what happens. Well, I waited. I waited about fifteen minutes, and I went back, and I crawled under the bed, and there was nothing happening at all. And I came out, and I told her, Hey, your thing's not working.

No, she said, you need to wait. And then, of course, you know, what I discovered, you found those beautiful purple or pink blooms as the bulbs gave way to something dramatic. Well, you say, what is this?

Horticulture class? What is Jesus doing here? Telling people what they know?

No. Remember, the seed is the Word of God. Jesus is actually giving an illustration here of how God comes to reign in a person's heart, how he comes to forgive and to cleanse and to renew and to change. How, in the first instance of childlike faith or tender belief or, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, it may appear to everyone on the outside that nothing is happening at all. Indeed, the germination process may seem to take forever before there are those evidences, even tiny sprouts and shoots that say, Oh, I think this person is alive. You can find it through your whole Bible.

I won't delay on it. It's mysterious. The hymn writer eventually says, I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word and creating faith in him. Nicodemus didn't understand it in John chapter 3. Jesus has said to him, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus surprisingly starts this big question, this kind of obstetrician dialogue, and Jesus says, No, you missed the point entirely. And he says, There is a mystery in this. The wind blows.

You don't know where it comes from or where it's going. And so it is, he says, with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So, from the summary to the mystery to finally, in verses 30, 31, and 32, perhaps one of the best-known parables that Jesus ever told that's recorded in all three of the Gospels—that is, the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And I wrote down as a heading for this—I couldn't come up with much at all—I wrote down initially, and then I wrote dash, and I put ultimately, initially, ultimately. Because this is a parable of contrast. It's the contrast between the beginning of things, which is insignificant, and the ending of things, which is impressive.

You can see that. From the smallest of seeds to the largest of shrubs. And in this parable, the emphasis is not so much on the process of how it gets there as it is of the dramatic change that is brought about by the power of God. So that you sow, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, you put the seed into the ground, it dies, and out of that death there comes all of this life. He speaks of the body in the same way.

He says, Our bodies will be sown corruptible, and they will be raised incorruptible by the power of God. And it is that same picture that is here. My limited reading on the subject tells me that there were seven hundred mustard seeds to a gram. Therefore, you would have quite a handful of them. The reason that he mentions the birds is because apparently the birds enjoyed mustard seeds. They were small enough for them to gobble whole. If you imagine birds speaking to one another—and you should be careful acknowledging that, because some people may take you away—but I do imagine the birds speaking to one another, and I can imagine them saying to one another, What do you want to get for breakfast this morning? One of them says, Well, there's some fantastic mustard seeds down there.

We could go and get them. And so off they go, and they eat the mustard seeds. And a little while later, as you fast forward, they're sitting in this big, bushy shrub.

It's nine or ten feet tall, and it's three or four feet wide. And one of the birds says to his friend, he says, Remarkable, we're up here. This is a very nice, shady little perch, isn't it? He says, Do you remember when we used to eat these seeds? We used to gobble these seeds up. He said, Really? Is this the same thing? He said, Yeah. You mean those tiny seeds? And we now shelter in its shade?

Yeah. Now, what is Jesus doing? What is he saying? Don't take your eye off the ball. If you take your eye off the ball, suddenly the parables will become whatever you want them to become.

Let's stay where we are. What is Jesus speaking about? He's speaking about the kingdom. How does the kingdom come? As the seed is planted. The seed is tiny. It is apparently insignificant.

Initially, it looks like nothing. Ultimately, it will triumph. And it is that ultimate triumph, which is what Mark records for us in this statement made by Jesus. And what is being taught is simply this—that throughout all of time, to this point and beyond this point, there will be those who come—indeed, if you read in Ezekiel, for your homework, Ezekiel 17, Ezekiel 31, Daniel chapter 4—I have to leave you for all of that for homework—but if you read there, you will discover that this picture of the birds of the air and the growth of branches and so on is a picture in the Old Testament of the rise of nations and of kingdoms, and of, ultimately, the destruction of those kingdoms. So the kingdom and the life of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar thought that he would be able to triumph over the servants of God. What happened to Nebuchadnezzar?

He ended up crazy, eating grass like a cow in the field with his fingernails growing long, and he became a figure of fun and of agony. And from then on, the kingdoms of the world have continued to believe that they will triumph and Christianity will dwindle. You don't need to go back beyond the twentieth century to find those who in our own lifetime have predicted the end of Christianity. Christianity will go away now, they said. After all, people know far too much.

They're able to communicate far too easily. We have now moved beyond all of that nonsense about a creator God and of his sovereign plan for the universe and of his coming in Jesus of Nazareth. All of this will eventually blow away in the breeze. Well, what's happening?

Well, out of very small beginnings in all kinds of different places throughout the world, it's just not going away. That the people who thought they could gobble the kingdom up and spit it out have either been crushed under the judgment of God or they've come to find shelter in the very kingdom they opposed. So, for example, Saul of Tarsus, like a gigantic big bird, heads towards Damascus, I'm going to gobble up the kingdom. Come on, we'll shut these people down.

Who are you? Lord? And he who thought he could swallow and destroy the followers of Jesus, you will find, if you look carefully, that he is sitting on one of these branches. He is finding shelter in the very kingdom that he opposed. Now, you say, well, what possible relevance would this have for the initial readers of Mark's Gospel? Because remember, the people who were reading Mark's Gospel were living under the threat of Roman tyranny. They were living with oppression.

They weren't a suburban congregation in Cleveland. They weren't living with the freedoms that we enjoy at this point in the twenty-first century—diminished freedoms, perhaps, but nevertheless, immense freedoms. No, they were living with all of the considerations that were represented in the fact that although they had begun with this initial surge of enthusiasm as things had spread out from Jerusalem and out towards the ends of the earth of the then-known world, it seemed that all of the forces of the world were opposed to them, and indeed, they were being driven down and down and further and further into obscurity. And so you go to Rome, and you take the tour, and you go to the catacombs, and you look there as people have scribbled on the walls the various statements concerning the lordship of Jesus.

But from a human perspective, it looks as though Christianity, the kingdom of God, is now about to be obliterated here before the first century or the second century is out. And now they get their Bibles, and they read. And there they are in the catacombs.

They said, You know what? I was reading that parable about the mustard seed. I don't know, but I think what it's saying is this, that although it looks like everything is insignificant and small and probably not going anywhere, that actually God will accomplish his purposes. What an encouragement it must have been to them. And what an encouragement it must be to our Christian brothers and sisters in the Muslim world today, to the people who have no opportunity to gather as we do now, for our friends in Afghanistan, who are only able to identify each other in public places by the way they hold hands with one another in the community, who come alongside each other and give each other handshakes—total strangers—saying, God's kingdom will come. We seem to be completely oppressed. But God will accomplish his purposes.

Why? Because he's God. And what he has purposed, he will complete. This question that Jesus asks, What is the kingdom of God like? or What parable shall we use to describe it, has a sort of ring to it of other questions that you find, for example, in Isaiah 40, To whom then will you compare God?

or What will you liken him to? And in that great classic statement in Isaiah 40, Isaiah, speaking from God, says, The nations of the earth are like a drop in a bucket. Well, there's a perspective that you won't get reading Newsweek. You won't get that perspective watching Fox.

No, you keep watching Fox and CNN that is shoveled to us incessantly, 724, and if you don't read your Bible, you'll go crazy like all the people that are on those channels. And you'll become a knee-jerk reactionary, like the total thing, and you'll convince yourself that you're watching the news. You're not watching news. You're watching entertainment. You're watching political agitation.

You're not watching news. And if you don't read your Bible, you may actually start to think that the nations of the world are the most significant, starting with our own nation. It's a drop in the bucket. The British Empire is a drop in the bucket. We know that.

It's gone. China is a drop in the bucket. The emerging nation of India, from God's perspective, is a drop in the bucket.

You say, What is it? God not care about the nations? Of course he cares about the nations. But the nations have significance in light of his kingdom. For eventually, across the lands, people from every nation and tribe and language will be brought together to take shelter in the branches that are provided as a result of who Jesus is and what he has done. Therefore, don't misunderstand God's process. Because it's not happening with a big band and somebody banging a drum, and it appears all triumphant and all victorious, read your Bible! What does it say? The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

It happens quietly, it happens progressively, it happens inevitably. Don't misunderstand or underestimate God's power. To whom will you liken God? And we dared any of us miss the fact that in Christ, God has a place for us in the business of his kingdom—something that is greater than ourselves, greater than our vacation, greater than all of our dreams. Winthrop fired the imagination of the people on the deck, and so he should have. This will be, he said, as a city on a hill, a shining light. He was a precursor of Ronald Reagan, one of his favorite phrases. He was, if you like, providing the language that would come from the dumb statue—that is, a statue that cannot speak, no statue can—that is there at the Hudson River. What does Lady Liberty say? What does the mother of the aliens say?

Come to me, all the oppressed, come to me? It's a great vision. I believe in it. But it pales into insignificance in light of the fact that God's purpose transcends all of this. Oh, Winthrop could see a city, but that city is temporal and passing. Moses could see a city, and that city is eternal. Revelation describes it as a city that came down from heaven, from God. Mixing metaphors, John says it was like a bride prepared for the bridegroom.

And into that city God gathered people from every language and nation and tribe and people. You see, I think for myself the greatest challenge is the challenge that is represented in the fact that he who tells these stories is the harvester. He is the one who will put in the sickle on the day of harvest. If you watched the funeral service of Senator Kennedy, you will have heard, as I did, the words from the gospel concerning Jesus, who will come at the end of the age and separate the sheep from the goats. So there is an ominous warning that is represented in the prospect of the harvest. But the warning is matched by the encouragement. For what it actually says is this—that although there is no shelter from him, there is shelter in him.

So that we need not run from him in fear if we will only run to him in faith. Summary, mystery, initially, ultimately. So, out we go.

Back to the routine. Interestingly, in the parable it says that night and day. You say, isn't it supposed to be day and night?

No, this is Jewish. The Jewish day begins at sunset. Monday begins at sunset. I invite you to come back and spend sunset with us. I invite you to come back and begin Monday. Oh, if you would rather go and build a city, that will collapse.

But if you want to be part of a city that will never fade, here it is. And it is an amazing grace that God would call to us—call to us through the darkness of our rebellion and disinterest in him. Keep calling to us. He has some of his children, you know, on a very long leash. You know, these people that go up there, dogs, they got these huge things, they go, Whee!

And then they—I don't know, I don't trust them entirely, because if that thing doesn't finally lock, you know, you'll be in trouble. But God works like that, doesn't he? How gracious of him to keep us, even on a long leash, and every so often, Nee!

He pulls his clothes. Maybe today it's a Nee! for somebody. And when you get that Nee! then you'll say with the writer of this final hymn, What grace is mine! What grace is mine! That he would call me through all of the darkness to himself. And the only thing that I can do in response to that, says the hymn writer, is I just live my life for him.

Whatever my vacation is in the arts, in sciences, as an artisan, as a builder, as a doctor, whatever it might be. The only thing I can really do, if this is a kingdom that lasts forever, is say, I offer my life to you to use it in your kingdom. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. If you're enjoying listening to the parables Jesus told from Mark's Gospel, this study from Alistair also has a study guide you can download for free. Ten sessions that correspond with the ten messages Alistair preaches in this series. It makes a great ten-week Bible study if you meet regularly with a group.

Look for it online at truthforlife.org slash kingdom. As Alistair mentioned in today's program, it's important to read the daily news in light of what the Bible declares to be true. At Truth for Life, teaching the Bible is the heart of all that we do. We strive to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance every single day, and to encourage other pastors to preach with full confidence in the scriptures.

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I'm Bob Lapine. There are many people who are expecting they will get to heaven because they think they're good enough relative to the rest of the population. But that's not what Jesus taught. Tomorrow we'll discover the one true source of assurance. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.