March 15: An Improbable But Unstoppable Kingdom

Part of the series, "Living with Kingdom Urgency," from the Gospel of Mark.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Today we're in Mark chapter 4, and my sermon title is An Improbable But Unstoppable Kingdom. An improbable but unstoppable kingdom. Now, as many of you know, I grew up on a farm. My dad was a tobacco farmer, corn, soybeans, etc. My dad was also an incredible gardener. We had an above average size garden in our backyard through the years. Dad grew watermelons and pumpkins. And for a number of years, my dad would enter things into the Pitt County Fair, and he would enter those as competition pieces. And especially the last 15 years or so of his enjoyment of those things, he would enter maybe those gourds or those pumpkins or whatever in the names of his grandkids. And so, man, Jenna, Jake, and Joanna, they've won lots of ribbons. And of course, with those, you get some monetary prizes. And dad just loved entering those things. He won a ton and then gave the money to the grandkids for uh for spending money. Now, there was one year way back before the grandkids were on the scene. This was when Rex and Susan and I were still uh kids in the house. My dad grew one particular year three watermelons. They were 136 pounds, 142, and 151 pounds. And some of you are thinking, yeah, right. There's the proof. There's the proof. That year, if dad could have entered them in the state fair, he'd have won the state fair that year. I don't remember now what the entry was, but we checked it, and me and dad would have beat it by like five, ten, fifteen pounds. Now, that is me and Rex and Susan. And for those of you who know that I'm kind of like uh particular about my hair, well, um, here's why. That is my mom. Evidently, my hair wasn't what she wanted it to be before they took a picture with those pumpkins. And so uh now you know the rest of the story. So um, my dad being a farmer and someone who sowed seeds, those watermelons and others like them, dad would, you know, they weren't really fit to eat. They were they're not near as sweet as just your normal size watermelons. But dad would, when he would open them up and he would get the seeds out and he would keep those seeds and plant them the next year, hoping that maybe if if if he got them that big with regular seed, maybe he would get even bigger melons from those particular seeds. All of that is a reminder that as we look at our biblical text this morning, it's going to talk about a farmer who was sowing seed. And if you've been being here, that that's kind of been the theme of this teaching segment in our Bibles in Mark chapter 4. And if you were to think about the context of it, the first parable in chapter 4, verses 1 to 20 was the parable of the sower and the seed. In that parable, the emphasis is on human responsibility. The soils represent heart conditions and the receptivity or the lack thereof of people hearing the gospel and either they accept it or they reject it. So the emphasis is on individual responsibility, but oh folks, God's sovereignty is always in play. And now we're going to look at two other parables this morning, both of them agricultural in nature. And here the emphasis will be on God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty, but when God's sovereignty, which is uh incessant, which is constant, there is also human responsibility that is always involved. So with that in mind, we're gonna think about a farmer, not unlike my dad, and we're gonna draw some comparisons between the kingdom of God and the results that come from spiritual agriculture. Some comparisons of regular agriculture and how we can draw some lessons about spiritual agriculture. So, um, two encouraging truths from our two parables this morning. I'm gonna give them to you up front and then we're gonna deal with them individually. We're gonna see a focus this morning on the fact that God governs kingdom growth and God guarantees kingdom growth. And with the Lord's help, I'm hoping that everybody in here will be encouraged about the fact that God governs and guarantees kingdom growth. First, God governs kingdom growth. We see this taught in verses 26 to 29. And he, Jesus, said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Now, because God governs kingdom growth, you and I should, like a spiritual farmer, number one, share the gospel faithfully. We should share the gospel faithfully. The kingdom of God is if a man should scatter seed on the ground. We know the seed from the first 20 verses, the first parable, it's the word of God. It's the gospel. Listen to what Mark Sims says. He says, notice that God's kingdom comes through the sowing of the seed, the word. The kingdom of God does not arrive through campaigns, programs, or governments. It does not come from medical research, economic policies, educational opportunities, free school lunches, the eradication of poverty, or the digging of wells. Though all of those things may very well flow from the kingdom of God manifesting itself here on the earth, those, however, are the fruit, not the root. God's kingdom does not come through those things. It comes through casting the seed. It comes through sharing the gospel, not just from a public platform called a pulpit, but from individual believers sowing seed in the lives of those they come in contact with. And if at this moment I were to ask you to raise your hand, do you know Jesus as your Savior? For every one of you who could accurately biblically say, Yes, I do, you have a responsibility to sow seed. You have a responsibility, and you can do so with confidence knowing that God governs kingdom growth. You're to shine your light. You're to tell people about Jesus. And so, can I just some of the thoughts I'm about to share now, I actually shared in one of my small groups in my home this past Sunday night. Can I encourage you to ask the Lord for courage? Can I encourage you to ask the Lord for opportunities? Can I encourage you to ask the Lord to give you the right words to say? Some of you, I guarantee you, you're thinking, I can't do that. Ask the Lord to help you. Ask him to help you overcome your fears. Ask him to give you the right words to say at the right time when he provides opportunities. Listen to this Acts 4, verse 29. This is after Peter and John had stood before the Jewish council and returned to their brothers and sisters in Christ, those who had been praying for them. They prayed and said, And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. I'm confident that there have been any number of times when I have stood here, as it were, and boldly proclaimed the gospel, taking stands on biblical truth. Guess what? I am becoming progressively far and far more convinced that anytime and every time that happens, it's because some of you have prayed for me. It's because any number of you, you are faithful to pray. Lord, would you would you help Jeff when he preaches the word? Give him boldness, Lord. Help him to say what we need to hear. If that's true for me, if it was true for Paul and for John, for Peter and John, Paul and John, why not pray it for yourself? Why not pray it for your spouse? Why not pray it for your kids or for your parents? Lord, help us to be bold. Lord, help us to speak truth. Season with salt. We don't want to come across as rude and disruptive and um egotistical, but Lord, just give us boldness, holy boldness. Build relationships with people. Build relationships genuinely letting people know that you care about them. Don't purpose in your heart, man. I'm gonna befriend this person just so I can share the gospel. That's not evil, but develop a genuine relationship with them. Ask the Lord to help you love him or her to him. And let it start by you genuinely caring about them, asking about their family, asking about their health. Um share your story. Some of you are thinking, you know what, man, I've heard about this Romans Road plan of salvation, and I know it's kind of, I think it starts with like Romans 3.23 and there's 623, I think. And then there's look, that's all good, and you should have scripture memorized, but you've got something powerful that can just come right out of your life. Just share your story. Tell somebody what Jesus has done for you. Tell somebody how he's changed your life. Tell him the difference that he's made and given you hope. You're talking about a funeral of somebody. You know what? Um, I'm I'm not afraid to die. It's because of what Christ has done for me. I'm amazed by his grace and his mercy. Just tell your story. There's legitimacy to your story, and sometimes your story might be more appealing to them initially than scripture might be. Um, carry tracts. We we have tracts available, and I know that some of you give tracts. Some people like to give tracts when they when they dine out. Just make sure you give a legitimate tip. If you're not gonna tip well, don't leave a track. And if you're not gonna tip well, but you're gonna leave a track anyway, make sure our church's name is not on it. Um, remember who you represent. You're you're not sharing your opinions, you're sharing God's directives. Listen for key words in a conversation. There are any number of key words that just might be a bridge that you could walk over to kind of share some Bible truth. For example, suppose that uh the news breaks this afternoon and another U.S. serviceman has been killed in Iran or wherever. And let's suppose that you go to work tomorrow and somebody says, Hey man, did you hear, did you hear about another one of our own uh got killed? Yes, I did, man. And my heart goes out to the family. And by the way, um what what do you think happens to somebody when they die? Did that sound very threatening? You're you're actually asking for their opinion. So you can say, so what do you think happens when somebody dies? That that gives you an opportunity to hear their faults and then maybe share Bible truth in conjunction with it. Um you might hear somebody say, I I am so utterly exhausted. I know, man, the work is ex work's very taxing on us. But did you know that Jesus invites us to come to him and he'll give us rest? Really? Yeah, and then you could there's any number of those kinds of verbal cues that could open the door for you to have a spiritual conversation. I mentioned it last week. You could write cards, letters, include the gospel in it, include a gospel track in it. And so, with all of that in mind, just imagine that you're watching HGTV, or maybe you're a YouTuber and you you've been, I mean, it's it's it's spring right here on us, and you're thinking about planting a garden. And so you're watching this HGTV show, you're watching this YouTube series, and I'm telling you what, it has convinced you. I mean, your taste buds are salivating, you can just taste those fresh vegetables. You can think about how fulfilling it'll be for you and your family to grow a garden together. You can think about all the money you're gonna save. And so, sure enough, man, you go to Lowe's, you go to Walmart, and you buy some sea packets. And some of you would get tomatoes, but not me. But you get you get your seed packets, and you're thinking, man, this is gonna be great. And you actually were watching that HGTV show or that series on YouTube two years ago, and you bought the packets, and the packets of seeds are right where you put them. And those seeds in those packets from two years ago aren't feeding anybody. And for any number of you, not unlike myself, you hear a sermon, the Spirit of God convicts you, He challenges you, you pray a prayer at the end, and you dedicate yourself to share the gospel with somebody, and yet your gospel seeds are still in the packet. You prayed and you made a promise to the Lord a couple of years ago, or whenever. And your gospel seeds, they're still there. I'm asking the Spirit of the Living God to convict all of us, to challenge all of us. Some of us do share seed. May we share more. Maybe some of us don't, like we know we should. Maybe we start. Because God governs kingdom growth. Number two, you should, like a spiritual farmer, trust the Father's sovereignty. Trust the Father's sovereignty. Verses 27 to 28, the farmer he sleeps and rises night and day. The emphasis there is it goes on night and day, night and day because the seed didn't sprout, it didn't germinate and grow overnight. So over and over, however long it takes. He knows not how. In other words, he he doesn't fully understand how in the world a dead seed can be planted and then life comes from it. I mean, we we know intellectually what happens, but we can't fully comprehend it. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. The word translated by itself is where we get our English word automatic from. It just happens. Um earthly crops grow because God in his sovereignty enables them to grow. Spiritual crops grow because God, in his sovereignty, enables them to grow. No farmer, however good a farmer my dad was, no farmer, no matter how good he is, no matter how skilled, no matter how experienced, can make seeds grow. He does what he needs to do. He puts it in the ground, he tills the soil, he puts it in the ground, he checks for all the nutrients to make sure it's properly uh ready for seed. He maybe adds water as necessary, fertilizer as necessary, but no farmer can make that seed grow. God, God makes it grow. And it reminds me of 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 5 to 7. Paul asks a couple questions. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? I mean, that they were yipping and yapping about, man, I'm a follower of Paul, I'm a follower of Paul. He's thinking, who are we? We're servants through whom you believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Folks, no preacher, no evangelist can make gospel seed grow. No deacon can make gospel seed grow. No parent, no child can make gospel seed grow. Only God can make gospel seed grow specifically through the work of his spirit. But that doesn't mean that we just become apathetic and just sit there and just let God do his thing. No, we are responsible to sow the seed, to share the seed, to water, to plant, etc., etc. We plant, we plead, we trust, we pray fervently, we pray desperately, we wait patiently for the Lord to do that which only he can do. And then thirdly, because God governs kingdom growth, you should, like a spiritual farmer, trust the gospel's potency. Trust the gospel's potency. Verse 27 the seed sprouts and grows. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. Folks, we should say, along with Paul, Romans 1:16, I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believed to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18. For the word of the cross, the gospel of Jesus, it's folly, it's sheer foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Again, we plant, we water, but God gives the increase. Listen to 1 Peter 1, verse 23. All believers have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. Folks, the word of God, the gospel of Jesus, it has power to soften and to harden the human heart. Listen to Jeremiah 23, verse 29. God says, Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? The word of God can darken and it can enlighten, it can make hearts soft and power appliable and also hard and inflexible. Remember, we talked about it last week. You're responsible for your receptivity of the light, and to whom much light is given, much will be required. One of the folks, one of the greatest demonstrations of power the world has ever seen was when the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima in Nagasaki. Just over 80 years ago, on August the 6th, the U.S. dropped a five-ton nuclear bomb named Little Boy. Little Boy would end up killing 140,000 people, destroying 90% of the city of Hiroshima. But the dropping of that bomb, as devastating and powerful as it was, it would lead to Japan's surrender and eventually the end of World War II. Did you know that a greater power than that is required to save a man's soul? There is nothing miraculous about an atomic bomb. Human engineering. It's not a miracle, but in order for somebody to be saved, to have their sins cleansed, their soul saved, that takes a miracle of God's power. And that power is in the word, the potency of the gospel. You and I need to increase our confidence in the potency of the scriptures. Too many preachers stand in pulpits and they're not even fully persuaded of what they're preaching. You, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, be fully persuaded that what the word teaches, man, it is reliable. And when you tell somebody lovingly, passionately that they need Jesus, that their soul needs saving, that there is a heaven and hell, trust the potency of the gospel. Verse 29. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. Because of the powerful of the gospel, there is a harvest coming, folks. There is a harvest coming now. What kind of harvest is that? The text is not explicit, it leaves it open. There's a harvest. So if you know Jesus as your Savior, the harvest will be delightful. Because forever shall we be with the Lord. But if you do not know Jesus, that harvest is going to be terrible. Joel says, put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their evil is great. Remember we talked about that in Revelation. Several months ago about the wine vat and crushing the grapes. Make sure you're a part of the positive side of the gospel, those the part the positive side of the harvest, those of us who know Jesus. So the first parable, it reminds us that God governs kingdom growth. And now the second parable teaches us that God guarantees kingdom growth. He guarantees it, verses 30 to 32. And he said, So, with what can we compare the kingdom of God? Or what parable shall we use for it? 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. So now, hold on a minute. Those of you who are hultricultural experts, when Jesus said that the mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds of the earth, he was not talking literally about every seed known to man. He was not comparing it to all seeds in existence, but probably only to the seeds of garden plants in Palestine. And by the time of Jesus, the the smallest of the mustard seed, the grain of a mustard seed, was proverbial. Everybody knew you were talking about something that was infinitesimally small. So, from the teaching about the sowing and the growing of the mustard seeds, we are reminded of two major things. Number one, the kingdom's beginning was humble. It was humble. Those longing for a Messiah, they expected him to come and conquer and set up an impenetrable kingdom. Hey, what happened? And the imagery that Jesus employs is not of marching armies, heroic deeds, and valorous exploits, but the humble, homely imagery of sowing and tilling and harvest. How unexceptional, how unimpressive, right? When he was born, Jesus was placed in a manger along with cows and sheep and goats and donkeys. Nazareth, where he was born, it was considered some of the one of the most least promising towns at that time. So much so that the question was asked can anything good come out of Nazareth? Let alone the Messiah? None of the 12 disciples, none of them came from Jewish religious leadership or from economic or social aristocracy. They weren't nobles. They were few in number, uneducated, fearful, weak, slow to understand, and generally unqualified. So the kingdom, its beginning might have been humble, but folks, listen to me, the kingdom's blessing will be global. The blessing of the kingdom will be global. So in 1981, Chester Bitterman, who was serving with Wycliffe Bible translators, was murdered by Colombian terrorists. In interviewing Bitterman's family, a television reporter was probing for any covert connection between the young Bible translator and the CIA. The reporter suddenly blurted out, but but why? But why should they kill someone just for translating the Bible? I mean, isn't that a pretty harmless thing to do? Harmless? It may be harmless, but it certainly isn't powerless. Man, it was the simple planting of gospel seed in the lives of the 12, and then the 70, and then the 120, and then the 500, and now think about how the kingdom has been a blessing to the whole wide world. Remember what Jesus said about the birds finding shelter in the mustard seed tree, as it were, probably making reference to the Gentiles who would find gospel shelter in the gospel, would find shelter and respite in the gospel. All who nest there find the shelter of peace with God freely provided. And so the Bible shows us that the preaching of the gospel is going to go into all the world, and myriads upon myriads of people will come to know Jesus as their Savior, people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Remember the glorious scene in Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 and 10. John says, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white garments, right, white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Now, I understand that the current state of Christianity in America is not all that encouraging. If you know the reports, if you've read the statistics, the current state of Christianity in this country is not anything to be extremely excited about. American Christianity is so much cheap, easy believism. It rarely costs you to become a disciple of Jesus in our country. But contrary to human wisdom, oh, and by the way, some of the statistics I was looking for when I skipped them, mainline denominations are in free fall. Megachurch growth has plateaued. The median church size has dropped from 150 to just 65. Churches are struggling to find pastors and associate pastors, just struggling. Bible colleges are having less and less numbers of students pursuing theological training. But the kingdom of God, contrary to human wisdom, often flourishes best where believers are treated the worst. Folks, Christianity is experiencing explosive growth in many regions of the world where to become a follower of Jesus could cost you your life. So let me just share some of the latest statistics. I've tried to verify everything to make sure that I'm not exaggerating anything. Africa, Africa right now, has the largest Christian population in the world, surpassing Europe and the Americas. Sub-Sahara Africa has approximately 750 million Christians, accounting for nearly 30% of all Christians globally. Projections show Africa heading toward 1.2 billion Christians by 2050. And the Lord allowed me to see some of that when I was in Uganda a couple of years ago. I'm gonna tell you what, there is a vibrancy and a love of Jesus that you just don't necessarily see in the same way here in the States. Iran. Iran has one of the fastest growing underground Christian movements in the world. Estimates of Muslim background believers in Iran is approximately one million. At the same time, and again, I I found more than one source quoting this. Statistics show that 50,000 of Iran's 75,000 mosques have reportedly been closed in the past few years. With many Iranians turning to Christ through dreams, digital outreach, and personal testimonies despite the severe persecution, despite the threat of death. Todd Nettleton, vice president of Message for the Voice, the Voice of the Martyrs, he said that many Iranians are searching for hope. Quote, you have a country with one of the highest drug addiction rates in the world. You have a country where corruption runs rampant. You have a country where more than half the people live below the poverty line, Nettleton told CBN. And the people of Iran are looking at this and they're saying, wait a minute. If this is what Islam has brought us in the last 45 years, we're not interested. We want to know what the other options are. A personal friend of Daniel Carlson tells of a Persian, an Iranian, a Persian migrant who arrived at a refugee center at 6 a.m. visibly upset. He told his story to a Persian pastor. During the night he saw someone dressed in white raise his hand and say, Stand up and follow me. The Persian man said, Who are you? The man in white replied, I am the Alpha and the Omega. I'm the way to heaven. No one can go to the Father except through me. He began to ask the Persian pastor, Who is he? What am I going to do? Why did he ask me to follow him? How shall I go? Tell me. In response, the pastor held out a Bible and said, Have you ever seen this before? No, he replied. Do you know what it is? No. The pastor then opened the book of Revelation and read, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The man started crying and said, How can I accept him? How can I follow him? So the pastor led him in prayer and peace came over him. The pastor then gave the man a Bible and told him to hide it. You hide it now, since the Muslims in the camps could cause him trouble. But the man replied, The Jesus that I met today, he's more powerful than the Muslims in the camp. He left, and an hour later he returned with ten more Persians and told the pastor, These people want a Bible as well. No one had to teach him to share his faith. Mission workers tell of men and women who have never met a Christian, never read the New Testament, and yet they describe vivid dreams. A man in white who speaks with authority and peace. And often he tells them to seek truth, to follow him, and they begin asking questions. And eventually they find a believer, they hear the gospel clearly, and they come to faith in Jesus. One worker said the dream didn't save them, it woke them up. Now think about what this means. While many of us live surrounded by churches and Bibles, sermons, and Christian friends, God is stirring in the hearts of peoples all around this globe who have never even heard a Bible, heard of a Bible, seen a Bible, heard about Jesus. What are you gonna do with your seed? So imagine a farmer having this huge plot of land. I mean, we're talking about 100 plus, 50, 150, 200 acres of land. And I mean it's fertile soil, it's good soil. And over the course, imagine how many people could be fed from, we'll say 200 acres. And yet, over that man's farming career, over 30 plus years of farming, he planted three seed. Three seeds. What a waste, right? But what about the 20, 30, 40 plus years of life that you're currently enjoying as a believer? How many things have you seen? How many times have you been talking to somebody about Jesus? The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the great I am. May the Lord help us to become more soul conscious than maybe we have ever been. Amen. Let's pray. Father, it is in Jesus' name, the Savior of the world, the soon-coming King, that I cry out to you, Lord, and ask you to work in our hearts and our lives. Open our eyes, Lord, that we might see people the way you do. Help us to be sensitive to opportunities, to share the gospel with somebody at work, somebody that we might have kick up, start a conversation with at Walmart or wherever. And Lord, help help help my people, those listening in this service, those who will be listening in the second, those listening online, help us, Lord, to be aware that Jesus is someone we should be proud of, thankful to talk about. Might we have an opportunity to share the full plan of salvation on any given occasion? Not all that often. But Lord, help us to realize we may talk to somebody. The seed was planted two or three weeks ago. Somebody else has already watered it. Somebody else has already brought some fertilizer. Maybe we can pluck the fruit, as it were. So Lord, help me, help us individually, collectively as a church to be about the Father's business, sowing seed with confidence, knowing that you govern kingdom growth and you guarantee it. May we take you up on the guarantee and your governance in Jesus' name. Amen.