Mark 4:21-34 The Kingdom of God
Date: December 11th 2022
Speaker: Samuel M. Crites
Scripture: Mark 4:21-34
MIT: Christ continues to teach the disciples through parables about the kingdom of God.
1. 21-23: Christ continues to teach the disciples that the kingdom of God is meant to be made public and is not a secret reality.
2. 24-25: Christ encourages the disciples to pay attention to his teaching, because understanding is given to those that work diligently.
3. 26-29: The kingdom of God is like the growth of a seed; the farmer works to prepare for the seed, but the seed grows because that is its nature.
4. 30-32: The kingdom of God will start small but will grow to fill the whole world.
5. 33-34: While Christ taught many such parables publicly, he reserved the explanation for his private teachings to the disciples.
MIS: The kingdom of God is a public reality that God is bringing about that will eventually fill the whole earth.
1. The kingdom of God is a public reality.
2. The kingdom of God is the work of God.
3. The kingdom of God will start small and eventually fill the whole earth.
In the year AD 410, Alaric I, king of the Visigoths, sacked Rome. The fall of Rome was not the existential threat to the Empire that it would have been in previous generations, because the capital of Rome had been moved to Constantinople. However, it dealt a psychological blow to the Roman Empire and caused a theological crisis for pagans and Christians alike.
Rome was the eternal city. The pagan taught that the gods had promised that it’s light would never be snuffed out. While Christianity had been the religion of the Empire for almost 100 year, there were many pagans that saw the sack of Rome as judgment from the old Roman gods against Rome for abandoning them to worship this new God of Christianity.
The sack of Rome also caused great turmoil within Christianity. Many Christians saw the conversion of the Roman Empire as the eschatological promise of the reign of Christ on earth. The conversion of Constantine and the rest of the empire was the vehicle by which God was ushering the reign of Christ on earth. The sack of Rome presented serious theological concerns in the Church about the future of the kingdom of God on earth.
It is in this crisis that Augustine of Hippo wrote one of his most important works, The City of God. In the City of God, Augustine helps Christians understand a deep Christian truth: The kingdom of God is not a kingdom of this world. Augustine argues that there are two cities: the city of man and the city of God. Both of these cities are defined by love. The city of man is defined by the love of the self and the city of God is defined by the love of God. These two loves have a reciprocal relationship, the more you love the one the more you will disdain the other.
Augustine demonstrated that the sack of Rome should not cause a crisis for Christians, because we are fundamentally citizens of a different kingdom. Rome was just one of many iterations of the kingdom of man. There were many such cities before Rome and there would be many such cities after Rome. Christians are a part of something truly enduring, the city of God.
Augustine’s two cities are just one of the many ways the kingdom of God has been understood throughout Church history. It has had an enduring impact on God’s church, because it helps to make sense of the teachings of the Scriptures. The idea that the Christian is a dual citizen of both heaven and earth is all throughout Scripture. In Roman 13, Paul teaches us that we have real responsibility to fulfill our duties to the kingdom or nation that we belong to on earth. We must honor the governing authorities that God has placed over us, because they are his instrument to bring about our good.
We also have a duty to honor God as a citizen of heaven. In a couple months, when we study Mark 12, Christ will teach us that we are to render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render to God that which is God’s. As image bearers, we have a duty to represent that image well in the world and Paul says in Philippians 3:20, that our citizenship is in heaven.
The last two weeks, we have been learning about this heavenly kingdom. Let’s take a moment to review Christ teaching on the kingdom of God in the parable of the sower.
Christ was teaching an extremely large crowd from a boat. He told a parable of a sower that scattered seed across four different kinds of soil. The first soil was the hard soil of the path, where birds came and snatched the seed away. The second soil was rocky. When the seed fell, it took root, but did not grow very deep. When the sun rose it scorched the plant and the plant died. The third soil was thorny soil. When the seed took root, it grew but was never able to bear fruit, because the thorns choked the plant of the resources it needed to bear fruit. Finally, seed fell on good soil. The seed took root, grew up to produce varying amounts of fruit, some 30x, some 60x, and some 100x.
This parable was confusing to the crowd and especially confusing to the disciples. We saw how the disciples came to Jesus privately to get a better understanding of his teaching. Jesus explains the parable to them in great detail, revealing the true subject of the parable: the kingdom of God.
It is on this point, last week, that I feel I missed a very clear and crucial point of application: both teaching and understanding does not come from us, but from Christ. I think that it is possible to get frustrated with the disciples. When are they going to grow up? When are they going to start producing teaching instead of being so dependent on Christ? The answer is never. Physical maturity and adulthood means that an individual is able to care for themselves. They are able to make their own decisions, provide for their own needs, and even make a positive and unique contribution to society. But this is not the case with spiritual adulthood. As we grow up in the faith, we don’t become less dependent on Christ and more self-sufficient, we become more dependent on him. In the same way that a great athlete needs more hydration to run a marathon than a grandmother needs to walk around her neighborhood, the mature Christian needs more grace, more of Christ, to accomplish greater things for the kingdom. True understanding and knowledge comes from getting more Christ, not less. So, for those who have been walking with Christ for years, let me remind you of your continued need for Christ. Do not become puffed up with pride that you have more knowledge than others. Who revealed to you these truths? Do not Lord your life and experience over other Christians, assuming yourself to be wise. Who preserved you through all those mistakes that gave you the wisdom to make better decisions in the future? What do you have that you were not given by grace? Oh, that Mosaic would be a Church, full of humble, mature saints that never forget their growing indebtedness to a Savior that taught them everything they know and patiently preserved them through all of their errors and mistakes in life. That is kind of spiritual gray hair we need in this Church.
Through the parable of the sower, Christ taught the disciples about the kingdom of God. He taught them that the kingdom of God is spread through the preaching of the Gospel to all and is recognized by the fruit that the Gospel produces. The seed of the kingdom of God, the good news of the Gospel, is not limited to one people group. It is not for any particular race or ethnicity. It not for males or females. It is for all people, and so the sower must sow the seed liberally and generously wherever the Lord leads him. However, the sower is not responsible for the growth, he is only required to be faithful to the proclamation of the Gospel. God saves, period. So how does the sower know if he is being effective in spreading the kingdom of God? We saw that the sower will know the effectiveness of his work by recognizing the fruit when the seed grows to maturity and bears fruit. Christ gives three examples of potential outcomes from preaching the Gospel that do not lead to fruit, and only one instance in which the fruit is actually genuine to prepare the sower for the difficulty of his task. There will be many hard hearts and false starts, but the sower should not be discouraged by fruitlessness and should find great joy when the harvest does finally come in.
This week, the teaching on the kingdom of God continues. Christ did not stop teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God with his explanation of the parable of the sower. Rather, he taught them three more lessons. Let’s read Mark 4:21-34 and see what Christ continues to teach us about the kingdom of God:
Mark 4:21-34
21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
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.”
30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 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.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
The main point of our sermon today is this: The kingdom of God is a public reality, which God is bringing about, that will eventually fill the whole earth. Our sermon today will have three main points drawn from the three lessons that Christ teaches the disciples. First, we will see that the kingdom of God is a public reality. It is not a secret, but rather something that is plainly seen in the lives of Christians. Second, the kingdom of God is a something that God is doing. While men participate, the ultimate success of the kingdom depends upon God’s efforts, not man’s. And finally, the kingdom of God will eventually fill the whole earth. In the end, we will win and the kingdom of God will be all that is left.
The Kingdom of God is a Public Reality.
Let’s look at our first point. The kingdom of God is a public reality.
Mark 4:21-25
21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
It is unfortunate that we had to split this passage between last week and this week, but it was practically necessary. Christ’s teaching is a continuous unit of thought that he is trying to communicate to the disciples. We cannot get at the whole of what Christ is teaching the disciples about the kingdom of God without understanding all of the parables together.
We saw last week that the kingdom of God is not exclusive to any particular people group. It does not belong to any chosen race or ethnicity. The parable of the lamp is similar. Not only does every people group have a right to the gospel of the kingdom of God, but it is also a public reality. It is meant to be on public display in the same way that a lamp is to be on public display.
As we think of the kingdom of God as a lamp, we can learn at least two things. First the kingdom of God is meant to be prominently displayed in the lives and hearts of its citizens. Like a lamp on the table, it is given a position of prominence. Nobody hides a lamp in a cupboard. We put lamps in the middle of the room or on a table where they can be most efficient in illuminating the room.
This means that Christians are not to hide the kingdom of God away. The kingdom should be visible to the world as the center of your everyday life. When I worked in the business world, we worked on a trade floor. I didn’t have an office for the first 8 years of my career. Everyone from the Executive Director of our company to the entry level analyst sat in these long rows of computers with no walls. As you can imagine, you get use to overhearing conversations and the free flow of information. On more than one occasion, after striking up a Gospel conversation with a co-worker, another person would pull me aside later in the day to encourage me for “living out my faith at work.” They would give a wink and a nudge that they were a Christian too, and it greatly encouraged them that I was so open with my faith. These people were sweet, well-meaning Christians. I always appreciated the encouragement. But sometimes I was surprised by the people that claimed to be Christians. I had no idea based on my experience working with them that they were believers. Some of the most difficult conversation I ever had in the workplace was trying to encourage these believers to genuinely live out their faith.
At the end of the day, most Christians live out their professional lives afraid that they will be embarrassed by their faith. They live under a constant fear of man that they just might be found out as a follower of Jesus. I know, because I have met these people and I have attempted to encourage them to speak about their faith in the workplace. The kingdom of God is not a secret. It should be the burning lamp at the center of the room of your life, prominently displayed so that no one that walks through it could deny that you belong to the one, true God. This starts with being the most excellent employee that you can be, but it extends to the way that you react to your co-worker’s divorce, or the news that they have cancer, or their child that is going off the rails. It is in those moments that you have your greatest opportunity for the Gospel. I don’t say this as a pastor that has never been afraid of exposing myself as a Christian. I know what it is like to know that you should share and chicken out because of the fear of man. I also know what it is like to council someone who is contemplating divorce in the conference room. It comes down to this, every morning, every Christian has the opportunity to decide where they place the lamp of the kingdom of God in their life, and they must fight to keep it there throughout the entire day. The kingdom of God must have the place of prominence in your life.
The second thing that we learn about the kingdom of God as a lamp is that it should help us see our lives correctly. Not only should the kingdom of God be on prominent display in your life, but it should also give light to every aspect of the room. Lamps cannot function properly unless they are in a prominent position in the room, but they cannot fulfill their purpose if they do not help you see. The light of the lamp illuminates all that is around it so that you can understand your surroundings.
Everyone has experienced the fear of walking into an unfamiliar, dark room. What could be lurking in the darkness? When you flip on the light, the tall thing in the corner is not a person, but a coat rack; the low growl in the corner is not an animal, but a radiator. If the kingdom of God is a lamp, it must shed light on our lives in such a way that we see the world differently. To be a member of the kingdom of God is be one that has passed from darkness into the eternal light of the Son. Listen to how Matthew describes the beginning of the ministry of Christ in Matthew 4:12-17:
Matthew 4:12-17
12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Christ entered Galilee, it was like the first dawn on a world that had only known darkness. The kingdom of God illuminated a people dwelling in a perpetual shadow of death. For the first time, it was possible to truly see God in the person of Christ. The difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of death is the like the difference between day and night. The benefit of the day is the ability to truly see the world around you. But this is only possible if one has the ability to see.
Christ teaches the disciples that there is a special promise for those in the kingdom of God. For those that can see and hear, the light of the kingdom of God will give them understanding. They will truly learn and walk throughout life as those that understand the world around them. Nothing will be hidden from them. So Christ exhorts the disciples in verse 24 and 25 to pay attention and seek to understand all that he is showing them. He is teaching them elementary lessons that one must understand if you are going to make progress toward deeper understanding.
Throughout Church history, this has meant that Christians treasure education. Everywhere Christianity has spread, language, literacy, learning, philosophy, mathematics, and science have all flourished. Christians have founded schools for education. They codify primitive oral languages into alphabets and dictionaries in order to translate the Bible. They teach people to read and think so they can understand the truth for themselves. Our God is the great teacher and his people are those that love learning. We are called to love God with our minds, and Christianity has been a catalyst throughout all of history to progress man’s understanding of the world God has put him in.
We should be a Church that reads books and values the hard work of knowing God as he has truly revealed himself to be. Christ has promised that “To the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” This means that we do not value intellectualism for the sake of intellectualism. We don’t want a bunch of arrogant brainiacs running around causing disunity over tertiary issues. Rather, we are a Church that recognizes that you cannot love what you do not know. So we seek God with our minds in order to truly love God with our hearts.
The kingdom of God is a public reality, which God is bringing about, that will eventually fill the whole earth. We just saw how the kingdom of God is a public reality that deserves prominence in the room of our lives. Our citizenship should be undeniable to the people that walk through that room. As a public reality, the kingdom of God also shines light on all of the world around us, helping us truly see the world as God has created it to be. Now let’s turn to our second point, the kingdom of God is the work of God.
The Kingdom of God is the work of God.
Mark 4:26-29
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.”
Who is responsible to bring about the kingdom of God? One of the possible conclusions one might draw from the parable of the sower is that we should not be the haphazard sower in parable. The reason that the harvest yields 30x, 60x, and 100x is that there are better soils than others in which we are to plant the seed. So, we need to get to work to better prepare the soil, so that we can spread the kingdom of God more efficiently. Isn’t this the job of farmers? If the kingdom of is like a farmer in a field. The farmer tills the soil, spreads the fertilizer, plants the seed, waters the seed, pulls the weeds, protects the field from animals, gathers the produce, and keeps it safe until it can be sold. The farmer deserves the market value of the grain because it is the fruit of his labor. He has brought it about by his own effort. This is the exact opposite conclusion that we should draw from the parable of the sower, and Christ’s parable of the seed growing helps us to understand this.
The focus of the parable of the seed growing is not on the labor of the farmer, but on the nature of the seed. All of the efforts of the farmer are meaningless if the seed does not perform according to its nature. Said a different way, seed falls to the ground every day all over the world. Without the effort of man, God grows rainforests, tropical paradises on islands that no one has ever visited and oceans teeming with plant life. The production of wild plant life on earth so far surpasses the agricultural efforts of man, so as to make it silly to compare them. In fact, this parable helps us see that all the agricultural efforts of man are merely the manipulation of the nature God has already designed into the seed. The credit for its growth must ultimately be given to the fact that God designed it to grow.
In the same way, the credit for the growth of the kingdom of God can only be attributed to God. Growth is part of the nature of the kingdom of God. It will grow, because God has designed it to grow. The role of the Christian is not to make it grow, but to participate in the work of God to make the kingdom grow.
So, the question is how is God working to make the kingdom grow? God is at work in his kingdom in at least five ways. First, God establishes his kingdom through the incarnation of Christ. God the Son, was sent by God the Father to accomplish the work of salvation, making it possible for those of the earthly kingdom to become citizens of the heavenly kingdom. It is what we are studying the Gospel of Mark. Second, God establishes his kingdom through the Church. John Calvin said that the Church is God making what is invisible, visible. His kingdom is not yet a physical place that you can visit with defined boarders and a capital. It is a spiritual reality. The closest thing to a physical presence that the kingdom of God has on earth is the presence of the Church. As we were training to plant this Church, we read a book by Jonathan Leeman that described the Church like an embassy of a future kingdom. We manifest the kingdom of God by gathering its citizens together to worship the one, true God in foreign territory. Thirdly, God establishes his kingdom through the preaching of his Word. As we saw last week, the Gospel is the seed of the kingdom of God and it is spread by opening our mouths and telling the world the good news of Jesus Christ. Fourth, God establishes his kingdom by saving sinners. He uses ordinary means, the preaching of his word, to accomplish extraordinary ends, the conversion of sinners. Lastly, God establishes his kingdom through sanctification and discipleship. The initial sprouting of the seed of the kingdom in the hearts of people must then be nurtured and cared for by the Church. The harvest of the kingdom is not merely reaped at conversion. The garden is planted and the fruit is worked out throughout the entire Christian life.
So we as a Church need to trust that God is going to bring the growth if we are faithful to preach his word. It would be really easy for us to think that we could hasten the harvest of God by copying what other Churches are doing or by investing in the latest church growth phenomena. The Scripture endorses no other program than the ordinary preaching of God’s word and the hard labor of raising up disciples who will live in holiness and pass on what they have been entrusted to others. When we don’t see the growth we hope for, the Church should trust God and pray. When the Church does see the growth in numbers and maturity among the members, they should thank the Lord that he has remained faithful to his promise to establish his kingdom.
That God grows his kingdom frees the Church to truly find joy in the harvest. We can truly enjoy the fruit of the kingdom. If men were responsible for the fruit and it didn’t come in, we would despair. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if the fruit did come in we would be puffed up with pride. We would be enslaved to the enjoyment of a lesser love, and unable to enjoy the giver of the fruit. But when we recognized that God grows his kingdom, we are free to enjoy the fruit of the kingdom of God as a means to truly enjoy the one that made the fruit grow.
The kingdom of God is a public reality, which God is bringing about, that will eventually fill the whole earth. Christians should understand themselves as citizens of the kingdom of God before any other lesser identity, and it should change the way they see the world and the way the world sees them. The kingdom of God is not something that we can cause to happen, but we must faithfully serve God, expecting him to establish and grow his kingdom. Now we will see the final lesson that Christ teaches his disciples. The kingdom will start small, but eventually fill the whole earth.
The kingdom of God will start small, but eventually fill the whole earth.
Mark 4:30-34
30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 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.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Finally we arrive at Christ’s last lesson for his disciples: the kingdom of God will win in the end. The kingdom of God started small. It started with one man, preaching repentance and faith in a God that saves. That man called twelve disciples, one of which was false and betrayed him. By the time Christ ascends into heaven, there are approximately 500 followers of Christ on the entire earth. 50 days after the resurrection that small band of 500 became 3,000 at Pentecost, and from that point on, Christianity has grown and expanded.
We read the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles knowing the end of the story, but we forget that at the crucifixion, everyone but John and a few women had abandoned Christ. The disciples sat in the upper room for three days thinking that they had made shipwreck of their lives following a Messiah that couldn’t even save himself, much less the entire world. They went through dark days and had many doubts. They wondered if they were following the will of God. They were uncertain how to handle difficult issues like their Jewish roots. They were persecuted, driven out of their homes, crucified, and boiled alive. What rational explanation can we give for the fact that they persevered to the end. That there is still a Church representing the kingdom of God at all? The hope of this parable is the answer. The Christian hope is not only that God will establish his kingdom. The hope of the Christian is that God’s kingdom will endure and eventually be victorious throughout the entire world.
So, in the same way that the early Church had a small beginning, we as a church should not despise the fact that we start small. In fact, we should cherish this time, because the smaller the beginning the more miraculous it is when God brings the growth. We will look back with a greater sense of awe once we see what God has done with such a small and meager offering. Lord willing, there will be some here that are with the Church 50 years from now. What stories of God’s sovereignty and grace will you be able to tell to our spiritual descendants? What thankfulness will you feel for his preserving power when you sit there to remember all that he has led these people through? We are some of the rare few that get to be a part of the beginning of a new Church. It is not a burden to be small, but a gift as we hopefully anticipate what God is going to do among us in the coming years.
So we must persevere. We must continue to do the good work of the ministry among the places that God has placed us. As we labor, do not labor like those who are unsure if God will provide. Labor as those that trust a God who is faithful to his promises. He has promised that he will establish his Church and make it grow. All we have to do is pray, work, and trust that he will do what he has promised he will do.
The kingdom of God is a public reality, which God is bringing about, that will eventually fill the whole earth. We should live as those that have been totally conquered by the reality of his kingdom. Not only should it change our identity and the way that we see the world, but it should create a hope in our hearts that he will continue that transforming work in such a way that as we labor, we labor like those that know our efforts are not in vain. He will establish his kingdom and, while it starts small, it will eventually fill the entire world.
Conclusion
Rome was not the kingdom of God. It was a temporary steward of his people. There have been many stewards that have come after Rome and there could potentially be many more until he comes to claim those that belong to him. When it fell, Christ’s people were freed from the error of a false hope. They were led by Augustine to remember the hope revealed in Scripture.
Psalm 33:13-22
13 The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
16 The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Let’s pray.