Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 4:26-34
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  June 17, 2018

The more I read the Bible, the more I teach Christian faith, the more I see God’s power at work in his people, I find myself coming back to the question Jesus asked in verse 30. “To what should we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable may we picture it?” What is the nature of God’s kingdom that Jesus couches it in these terms–not “Let me tell you how it works,” but “What can we compare it to, how can we picture it?” It is the assumption that the reign of God, in this world and in our hearts, is something that cannot be adequately described in plain speech. It is a concept which can only be conveyed through a parable, through comparison, through picture. It is Jesus’ admission that the Kingdom of God is mysterious to us, by its very nature (Mk 4:11). It is foreign to us, it is not what we would expect or assume. I stand here today, every Sunday really, greatly humbled with the task of illuminating the nature of God’s kingdom. But if you have “ears to hear,” as Jesus would say, there is much to learn from the parables before us today in Mark 4. I invite you to lose yourself with me in these pictures, these comparisons, which teach us about the potential growth Jesus has in mind for you. This is an important message for each of us as individuals, for our families, and for our Eastside Lutheran as a whole.

The first parable starts in verse 26. “The kingdom of God is like this: A man scatters seed on the ground, and while he sleeps and rises, night and day, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. The ground produces fruit on its own: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. The growth of God’s kingdom is like a seed, specifically here a grain of wheat. This parable speaks to the amazing power of seeds to do one thing: grow. God has created them with miraculous potential. A massive tree is enclosed within a tiny seed and it will unfold itself all on it’s own, whether we sleep or rise, just as Jesus said. Seeds grow, that’s their nature!

Focus on the words, “on its own.” That is the Greek word “automatos”, the root of our English word “automatic.” In the original text that word is at the very beginning of the sentence for emphasis.  Automatically, the seed grows; automatically, the ground produces fruit. This is also the nature of God’s kingdom. Automatically the Word grows inside of us; automatically the Bible changes us, automatically faith in Christ will produce fruit. Our human attempts to strengthen faith can be fruitful when directed by the Holy Spirit, but ministries, programs, and formulas have no inherent power to grow God’s kingdom. There are books upon books written about faith, but it is not a science. There are techniques, ministry models, all sorts of statistics and opinions, but none of it makes faith grow. God’s kingdom grows automatically.

That’s a little hard to swallow isn’t it? In general, we as Americans do not like the idea that they aren’t able to make something happen, that we can’t achieve something on our own. Jesus may have said that the kingdom of God grows automatically like a farmer who sows his seed and waits to see what comes of it, but it is more American to think that we can use our understanding of genetics and biochemistry to develop better seeds, use fertilizer and irrigation to cause them to sprout faster, and produce bumper harvests in shorter times! More effort, more growth right? The problem is that we don’t just think that way about agriculture, we also think that way spiritually.

The Devil doesn’t want us to believe that the kingdom grows automatically. He wants us to focus on our own effort. What picture can I use to describe this? It’s the pastor who, desperate to get more people to come, decides to stop preaching about sin and Christ crucified, and starts to sound like a self-help book or a motivational speaker from the pulpit. He trades the seed of  biblical preaching for a feel-good-moralism and though the numbers may grow, God’s kingdom does not increase. It’s the Christian who never actually reads the Bible and yet somehow concludes that it is boring. So, instead of actually trusting the seed to do it’s work, they begin to bounce around to different churches waiting to find one that makes them feel close to God, even if it only lasts for one morning. It’s the nasty voice that speaks up even in my own heart, that says the Bible isn’t the Word of God, it’s just an old book. Do you really need to teach all of it, Peter? Can’t you just skim over a few parts? Isn’t some of this going to be unpopular? This isn’t going to create growth, it’s going to drive them away! I’m afraid there are times when all of us have failed to trust the automatic power of God’s kingdom. It’s hard to trust what our eyes can’t always see.

That’s why the last verse of the parable is so striking. When the crop is ready, he swings the sickle without delay, because the harvest has come.”  The reference here to the harvest reflects words from Joel 3. Notice the repeated signs of the end—when the crop is ready, when the sickle is swung, when the harvest has come. When this world ends, and we are all judged, only then will we know the fruitfulness of the Word. The true, genuine growth of the Kingdom of God, the type not produced by decision or validated by higher numbers, but true growth, will not be seen until the Last Day.

The progress of the kingdom of God is not a visible thing. We cannot calculate or predict it. Some people we would have never thought could become Christians have become leaders in our church, while some who looked faithful have faded and wandered from the faith. Some lives change dramatically, others gradually, and some imperceptibly. How often in our own lives of faith does it seem like we take two steps forward and then one step back? At one time our church seemed poised for growth, the next in decline. Today it feels promising, but tomorrow who knows? We want faster results, we want more dramatic change, we want instant growth, but God’s Kingdom has gone the way of the seed: automatic and invisible. We often grow frustrated and worried about the growth of God’s Kingdom, I’ll be the first to confess that, but the comfort we have is that all the while, whether we are awake or asleep, God’s Kingdom is growing. Don’t lose hope, God can make much out of nothing. He has planted his kingdom in your heart. He has brought his kingdom to all of us today. And it would be the greatest conceivable mistake to think that because the kingdom’s growth is often imperceptible that its ending will not be as breathtaking as Jesus so often promised it would be.

That’s what Jesus’ explained in the second parable. “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.” Why did he choose to compare the kingdom of God to a mustard seed? Why not call it an oak tree (Is 61:3)? Or the mighty cedar that we heard about it Ezekiel 17? I mean, of all plants, why the mustard tree? Jesus chose it, not because of the actual size it achieves in the end, but because of the proportion between the smallness of the seed and the size of the plant which grows. Jesus said, it is like a grain of mustard seed, it starts out as small and insignificant as a grain of sand. So even though the mustard tree is much smaller than an oak, proportionate to its seed, it has a much higher capacity for growth. Jesus chose the mustard seed because it symbolizes exponential growth.

How can we apply this to the kingdom of God? Well firstly, it is a very fitting picture of the Christian Church. Think about it, the Church started with a tiny seed, just one man and his twelve disciples. Yet despite terrible persecution and adversity, the church grew. No investor would have guessed, but the kingdom grew exponentially. Today the church includes billions of people from all corners of the earth who call on Jesus as their Savior. The grain of God’s kingdom has really grown into a mustard tree! When Jesus told this parable he wanted his disciples to know that his kingdom would be glorious despite its weak and despised beginnings—that a crucified Savior, foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block for the Jews, would become to be the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. And it still has that power for you and me. Everyone who believes in the name of Jesus is forgiven of their sin and invited into the kingdom of God.

No matter what size your faith may be at this moment, you have mustard seed potential. Your growth may not progress as fast as you’d like, but you will grow. And you have grown already, don’t forget how far you’ve come! God will see you through to the harvest; he will accomplish the good work he began in you. Trust him. Rely on him because he planted his Word in you. My friends, let’s stay in that Word. Let’s read our Bibles trusting that they truly are living and active. Let’s get serious about the sin in our lives which has stagnated spiritual growth. Let’s continue to be patient with ourselves and with each other as the Lord works in us. Let’s continue to gather here at Eastside and support the work of God’s kingdom in our midst with confidence and anticipation. Let’s trust God’s Kingdom to do its work automatically and brace ourselves for the exponential growth Jesus promises.

Amen.