Study inMark’s Gospel

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The Advance Of The Kingdom

Chap 4v21-34Presentation 12

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IntroductionThe parables of Jesus acted like heat seeking missiles searching out and exploding the theological errors that were stored in the minds of so many of his hearers.

Parables have the uncanny ability of arresting our attention, awakening us from our complacency, and forcing us to face up to the stark spiritual realities of our lives in relation to God and his kingdom. I want to suggest that there is a common thread which links together the three parables in our passage. They are all concerned one way or another with the advance of the kingdom.

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The Lamp On The StandFirst, the parable of the lamp on the stand points to the part played by the professing Christian in the advance of the kingdom. The lamp implies the presence of darkness. Darkness is used in, scripture to describe the condition of people who do not know God. They are ‘walking in darkness’! And, it is the light of the gospel in the lives of God's people that makes God known. Children sing about this in church, 'I've got a little light I'm going to let it shine.'

Jesus’ parables are designed to make us ask questions and here the question is, 'Is your light shining?‘

Every professing Christian falls into one of two categories. We are all either gospel communicators or gospel concealers!

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The Lamp On The StandMany people in the U.K. remember the blackout regulations imposed during W.W.II. Not a crack of light was allowed to shine through the windows for fear of attracting the enemy aircraft.

It is all to easy for the professing Christian to develop a blackout mentality. We draw the blackout curtains over the windows of our lives. We are determined that no light will escape. We do not want to attract the attention of a hostile world. We are motivated by fear, selfishness and cowardice. We cling furtively to the light we have and keep it to ourselves.

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The Lamp On The StandWhen visiting a schoolteacher who distressed of heart she explained that a Christian colleague had started work at her school. He was letting his light shine. He was not rude or pushy but his life was clearly telling for God. One day after he had left the staffroom another colleague said, “Be careful that mans a Christian and he speaks about how Jesus is able to change your life”.

Her response was one utter shame and humiliation. Why? Because she would describe herself as a Christian, had been in her school for many years BUT no one had identified her as belonging to Jesus. And she knew the reason.

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The Lamp On The StandThis teacher had gone out of her way to conceal the light she had. She hid her faith. She'd kept silent when she could have spoken out for Jesus.

Is it any wonder we have become a besieged church instead of a militant one? The church in U.K. has distinguished herself by becoming the fastest shrinking church in the world. Elsewhere the church is pressing back the boundaries of darkness but in the U.K. we shelter from the fallout of ridicule. Surely we have become gospel concealers rather than gospel communicators.

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The Lamp On The StandBeing a communicator or concealer will determine whether or not our lives will be spiritually enriched or impoverished. This is the significance of Jesus’ words in v24-25....

The man who abuses gospel light by failing to share it clearly indicates the low value he places upon it. So much so that even the superficial knowledge he has will be removed from him and rendered incapable of doing him any good. Whenever a person refuses to use the gift of light he has, darkness inserts itself increasingly into his life.

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God At Work In The KingdomSecondly, the parable of the growing seed in v26ff balances the teaching of the previous parable. Here the stress is not upon our responsibility for communicating the gospel but on God's responsibility for the results.

When the farmer has planted his seed he is not to be found the next day walking up and down his fields anxiously wringing their hands looking for a crop.

Nor does he return the following week spade in hand to dig up part of the field to see if the seed has begun to grow. Why? Because he knows his work is done. He knows the principle of growth is embedded in the seed and there is nothing further he can do.

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God At Work In The KingdomCan you see the relevance of this to the communication of the gospel? At the end of the day it is the power of God's Word which calls men to himself and which radically alters their lives. There are a number of important practical implications, which we dare not lose sight of.

First, the parable ministers to the anxiety of heart, which many gospel communicators experience. There is tremendous pressure, from this ‘instant age’ in which we live, to look for instant results in the lives of those with whom we share the gospel.

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God At Work In The KingdomWe must learn to have confidence in the inherent power of the Word of God. We cannot explain how it does its work. The same powerful Word that brought the cosmos into being does its re-creative work in people’s lives. The germination period of the seed varies from individual to individual.

A New England farmer, when a boy had heard the famous Puritan, John Flavel, preach in England. Over 50 years later, while working in his fields, the Word sown burst into life and he was converted. Can we have that kind of confidence in the vibrant potency of God’s Word which brings forth fruit in due season?

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God At Work In The KingdomSecondly, this parable encourages patience in the heart of the believer. Some are distraught because the gospel has not changed them overnight. They bemoan the evidence of indwelling sin. Their expectations owe more to fiction that to fact.

In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, the beans thrown away by Jack's mother had completed their growth by the following morning and a great beanstalk reached up to the sky. Unlike the fairy-story, God's work is not completed overnight. He most regularly works by process and not by crisis. This progressive pattern of growth of growth is outlined in v28, 'first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear'.

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God At Work In The KingdomThirdly, this parable develops a biblical humility in our hearts. It is so easy to pat ourselves on the back and to be full self-congratulation when someone we have spoken to comes to faith. We must put our contribution into perspective. It is God who makes the seed grow in peoples’ hearts. Paul addressed the rivalry that had developed in Corinth over which visiting preacher had done most for the congregation. Some favoured Paul, others Apollos. Paul replies, ‘I, planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow.‘ 1Cor. 3v6.

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Insignificant Becomes A BlessingThirdly, the parable of the mustard seed is designed to encourage us to believe that God can do quite wonderful from relatively insignificant beginnings. When Jesus asked his disciples in v30 what the kingdom of God could be compared to what went through their minds. Their thinking was steeped in O.T. imagery and speaks of Zion set on the top of a great mountain with all the nations running into it. A glorious city whose walls were salvation and whose gates were praise.

Imagine then their shock when Jesus compared the kingdom to a mustard seed. The smallest seed planted by the Palestinian farmers, an inconspicuous little thing!

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Insignificant Becomes A BlessingFrom small beginnings there can be conspicuous growth. This was true of the early church! Its roots lay in the death of a humble carpenter in a third rate kingdom of the Roman empire. Its early development was entrusted to a group of uneducated, unknowns.

Modern advertising agencies would despair at this approach. In order to launch a new movement Jesus would need the backing of wealthy businessmen. Public celebrities, men of influence and intellect would help. And if he got himself crucified as a common criminal after only 3 years activity, then his kingdom was destined for disaster. Oh really!

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Insignificant Becomes A BlessingWe dare not reckon without God. The mustard seed though small can grow into an amazingly substantial plant capable of sheltering the birds of the air. Yes birds which may well have tried to destroy the seed in its early development! One can think of individuals like Paul who began by persecuting the church before he himself found shelter in it! Think too of the mighty Roman Empire, complicit in Jesus death and which persecuted the church in its early development but subsequently it sought to take refuge in it from the time of Constantine onwards.

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Insignificant Becomes A BlessingThe overriding principle is that of significant development from inconspicuous growth. Years ago, I had coffee in a little tea-room in York called the 'Mustard Seed’. Intrigued by its name and by the Christian literature on display I wanted to find out more. When the vicar had arrived there some years previously there were less than a dozen in the congregation. He had been told there was no future for the church and that his work was simply a holding operation. The young vicar believed that God could do a very great deal with very little. He preached and prayed and the church grew. Indeed, I learned that if I wanted to attend a service I would need to arrive 15 minutes early. The church knew the power of the mustard seed principle and named its outreach tea-room after it.

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ConclusionYou may have seen people shake their heads and say there is not much possibility for development in your fellowship. Indeed you may be tempted to think like that. You may be crushed because someone has ridiculed the work in which you are involved. At such times remember the mustard seed principle.

We often put limits on what God might achieve through us instead of being excited about what he might yet do. For our part we must be faithful in communicating the gospel rather than concealing it. We must develop confidence in God's Word to do its work in his time. We must believe that from insignificant beginnings God can do something to redound to his glory.