Lake Martin Presbyterian Church March 29, 2026 Podcast

Join Rev. William Skinner for this week’s message from Lake Martin Presbyterian Church. Explore Scripture, hear thoughtful teaching, and be encouraged in your walk with Christ. For more information and resources, visit lakemartinpca.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

This morning we're going to be looking at Mark chapter 4, verses 30 through 34. Last week, we were looking at the parable of the growth of the seeds. The growth of the seeds, where Jesus was attempting to give his disciples confidence that despite the opposition to his word, to his message, to his ministry, to our ministry, it's God Himself who gives the growth. Our business, your business, is to get that word out. To get God's word into the ears of people, and he will do the rest. And that's the message that we can have confidence in. That if God is the one at work, then we really can have confidence that our work will succeed, that your work will succeed. And that truth ought to spur us on in our work for the kingdom. That all we have to do is get God's word out, and He will do the rest. The parable before us this morning is also a parable meant to give you confidence. It's a parable meant to reassure you in the kingdom of God. But this time not so much in the specific task, but in the overall trajectory of the kingdom of God. Where is the kingdom heading? Where's this all going? What will be the result of this kingdom? This parable from Jesus is meant to give you confidence that his kingdom, the kingdom that you are serving, will be victorious. Now let's just rewind and review a little bit of what we've been seeing in the Gospel of Mark. Remember that initially Jesus' ministry was off to a tremendous start. Remember, the first day of his ministry, the first Sabbath day, the whole city of Capernaum, by the end of the day, had gathered around Peter's house where Jesus and his disciples were. And Jesus and his disciples were up late into the night ministering to the needs of the citizens of Capernaum and preaching and teaching. And then just a few verses later, the whole nation of Israel, remember, we were given all these regions of people who had come to see and hear Jesus. The whole nation had come to him. But remember, in each instance of fame, when people are flocking to see Jesus, what does Jesus do? He withdraws, he distances himself. He would resist these attempts from everyone to define him or define his mission. Remember, Jesus is committed to doing things on his terms, revealing the kingdom of God his way, revealing himself his way, revealing his mission his way. In each attempt, as Jesus withdraws and attempts to do things on his own terms, what did we see? He was met with opposition and resistance from everyone, including his own family and the authorities, the scribes, and even the crowds. Sinners do not want to do things on God's terms. Sinners do not want to do things God's way. And Jesus' disciples must have been frustrated. They must have been frustrated by this. They must have gotten annoyed that at every turn it seemed like they could capitalize on great successes. They had fame. They could really get this thing going. They could triple their numbers on any given day. They could probably organize an army from how many people were coming out to see them. And I'm sure that his disciples were hoping that they could do that, that they could organize an army and overthrow the Roman government. That's how the kingdom would succeed, of course. But that wasn't what Jesus was doing. He continued to withdraw, to distance himself from everyone's expectations, even making enemies with the elites, the powerful of society. So how would they ever succeed? How would Jesus and his kingdom, his kingdom, ever succeed this way? They were probably wondering what they were even doing. What type of kingdom were they building? How would they ever overthrow the Roman government? How would they ever grow the kingdom and change the world this way? In this parable that we're about to look at, Jesus is teaching his disciples and teaching you and teaching me that his kingdom will succeed. His kingdom will succeed. And it will succeed on his terms and according to his plan. And the main thing I want you to see in this parable in particular is that the kingdom of God will surpass all the kingdoms of men. The kingdom of God will surpass all the kingdoms of the world. Despite the humble beginnings and the opposition that it faces, the kingdom of God will surpass all the kingdoms of men. And I want to consider this parable under two headings with you this morning. First, in verses 30 through 31, we're going to look at humble beginnings. Humble beginnings. And then secondly, in verse 32, we're going to look at huge branches. Huge branches. Humble beginnings and huge branches. Before we read the text and begin, let's ask for God's blessing on both the reading and the preaching of his word. Let's pray. Abba Father, Holy God, you have been reminding us from your word for the past few weeks about the power of your word. That it's our duty to sow your word, to sow the seeds of your word, and that you will bring the growth. And so, Lord, here we are this morning doing that very thing, reading and preaching your word. We are gathered around it. And we ask that you would give the growth. We ask that you would pour out your spirit upon us, you would soften our hearts, that you would open our ears and our eyes that we might see the Lord Jesus Christ and receive him by faith. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse 30. And he Jesus said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God? Or what parable shall we use for it? It's 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. With many such parables, he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. This is God's word. Look with me first at verses 30 through 31. We're going to consider humble beginnings. Here in these verses, Jesus asks to what he might compare the kingdom of God. And he chooses the mustard seed. He chooses the mustard seed. Now, to you Southerners, this is not the mustard seed that you occasionally see on your Thanksgiving table that you either love or you hate. This is not what produces the mustard green. This is something else. This is the plant that produces the yellow condiment that you put on your hot dogs or your hamburgers if you so choose. The reason that Jesus uses this parable to explain the kingdom of God is that the mustard seed in Jewish culture was commonly considered the smallest thing. It was the proverbial small thing. Now, in our own culture, we have proverbial small things, or I like to think of the proverbial quiet thing, as quiet as a mouse. Now, of course, there are many things which emit less noise than a mouse. First and foremost, inanimate objects typically produce less noise than a mouse. But a mouse is the proverbial quiet thing in American culture. But in Jesus culture, in this Jewish culture, the mustard seed was the proverbial small thing. There are smaller seeds in the world. If you're a gardener, you'll know that. There are much smaller seeds, but this was the choice small seed in Jewish proverbial sayings. And the reason that Jesus chose this proverbial small thing is because once it grows, once it is grown, the mustard seed produces a plant that was not so small after all. In fact, it was quite large. This plant for the Middle Eastern family, if you planted this in your garden, would end up being the largest plant in your entire garden. So it started from the proverbial small thing to the largest plant in your garden. So the point of the parable is actually about growth. That's the whole point of what we're going to see, is that it's about the growth. The growth of the kingdom of God is. That one of his offspring would come who would fulfill the covenants, who would fulfill all of God's promises and be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. And that was the hope of the covenant people of God. That one of their offspring would come who would fulfill all of the promises of God. And that was their trust. And this group of covenant people became an actual kingdom. So that group is the spiritual kingdom of God, but at that time they were also a physical kingdom. They had a king and they had an army and laws and all this stuff. But even as Israel received their first earthly king, if you go and you read 1 Samuel chapter 8, God told Samuel that as his covenant people were asking for a king, if you remember, Israel didn't have a king. And then they were telling Samuel, hey, we want a king, we want to be like the rest of these nations. We want to be like everyone else. We want to look like the rest of the world. And God told Samuel, it's not you that they're rejecting, but me. My people are rejecting me from being king over them. And so Israel went after other gods, like the nations. As they wanted to be like the nations, so too they worshiped the gods of the other nations. And they strayed from the covenant promises of God. And eventually the promised Messiah, Jesus, the one we preach about, the true king, who was God himself, came, and Israel rejected him and handed him over to the Roman government to be crucified. And when Jesus came, and when he was, when Jesus was rejected by Israel, no longer was the kingdom of God confined to the nation-state of Israel. Now the nation-state of Israel was cut off. As Paul says in Romans chapter 11. All people can come into the kingdom of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Israel now is the church. You are Israel. You are the Israel of God, the kingdom of God. And we're no longer a nation-state, but a spiritual kingdom, the church. And that was always God's plan. That was always God's plan that his kingdom would consist of those who trusted in the Messiah. From the time that mankind fell, what did God say? He said, The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. So from that very point on, all of God's covenant people were trusting in that seed, who was Christ, to save his people from their sins. And then after Christ ascended into heaven, all of us look backwards to him in his scriptures. And we trust in him. So everyone, in the old covenant and the new covenant, all of us who trust in Jesus Christ, we are part of the kingdom of God. We are not a physical nation, we're a spiritual kingdom by faith, part of the kingdom of God. And in his kingdom, Jesus is bringing the rule and reign of God down from heaven to earth. So in his kingdom, the church, which is us, and billions more people, some who are in the ground right now. In us, Jesus is restoring all things through his kingdom. Through us. So that's what the kingdom of God is. That's what the kingdom of God is. Now, how is the kingdom compared to a mustard seed? How is the kingdom of God compared to a mustard seed? It's compared to a mustard seed because the kingdom of God appeared, that's an important word, appeared to have the most insignificant of all beginnings. The most insignificant of all beginnings. How did the kingdom of God appear? A baby was born in Bethlehem to a virgin mother who was not married. He was raised in the tiny town of Nazareth. Remember, Nazareth was a small town. They wouldn't have even had a stop sign. And though Jesus had initially popular ministry, he was met with resistance and opposition all the way until his own people rejected him and delivered him to be crucified. The people that he was supposed to be the king of, the covenant people of God. Even his own disciples abandoned him when he was arrested. One of them betrayed him, and another one, his closest one, rejected him. So you might say that it appeared to be an insignificant start to the kingdom. Like a tiny mustard seed, if you dropped it into your garden, you probably wouldn't even see it by the time it hit the ground. The ground wouldn't shake. It wouldn't really, it would just be insignificant. It wouldn't meet anyone's expectations. And that's what Jesus is trying to communicate here in this parable. That the beginnings of God's kingdom, of Jesus bringing heaven down to earth, something so significant, appeared completely insignificant. They appeared small. They didn't seem to work. Even Jesus' own disciples, his closest twelve disciples, thought that he had failed because they abandoned him after he was crucified. And perhaps you yourself have imbibed a little bit of that pessimism about the kingdom of God. You might wonder, is this really doing any good for the world? Is the church, is the kingdom of God really doing any positive good? Is talking about spiritual stuff once a week really changing the world? Are we really bringing heaven down to earth by opening up the Bible and talking about sin and substitutionary atonement? Is that making a difference? How is preaching from a text that's 2,000 years old, some of it more than that, how is that doing anyone any good? Those are the types of questions that we're prone to wonder. We are so worldly, we're so driven by pragmatism, we're so enamored by power and prestige, that the thought of a spiritual kingdom redeeming sinner, one sinner by another sinner at a time, by faith in a man who claimed to be God and was crucified by the Roman government, that seems foolish. And that's what the Bible tells us. The Jews couldn't believe that this was their Messiah. Surely this isn't the one that we've been hoping for for all this time. They didn't believe it. And the rest of the world just thought this was foolishness. A stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. So this is the humble beginning of the kingdom. The humble beginning of the kingdom. Let's now consider the growth. Let's consider the huge branches. Look with me at verse 32. When the mustard seed germinates, when it sprouts, when it grows, it grows up to be larger than all the other plants in the garden, putting out branches large enough for birds to come and make nests in its shade. Despite the humble beginnings of the mustard plant, it grows to surpass all the other plants in the garden with its huge branches. Now Jesus is comparing the kingdom of God to the mustard seed and its growth. And we've just been looking at the humble beginnings of the kingdom of God, and no one was impressed with the arrival of that kingdom. It was a kingdom of small beginnings, of humble beginnings. But what Jesus is going to show us now is that this kingdom, his kingdom, will grow. And it will even surpass all the other kingdoms of the earth. So the kingdom of God, which we just defined as the church, all those who are in covenant with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, that group, this group, will surpass all the nations, all the kingdoms of earth. That's what Jesus is saying. And it's at that point when I make that statement that you may begin to ask, is that really true? Is that really true that the church will surpass all the kingdoms on earth? Is the church, is Christ's kingdom, really on an upward trajectory? If you live in front of the medias, the Facebooks and Instagrams and all those things, the Twitter or X, and your television screen, if you have the news on all the time, you're probably not likely to think that the church is on an upward trajectory. I personally don't watch that much news, but as I have watched news, and I don't have any social media, but what I have seen, I've never seen a news report. I've never seen a breaking news report that said the kingdom of Christ is on the move. It's advancing in X, Y, or Z place. Sinners are repenting of sin. They're putting their faith in Jesus Christ. People are worshiping God who haven't worshipped Him before. I've never seen a news report of anything like that. Perhaps the news media is biased against the church. Maybe they don't think that the growth of Christ's kingdom makes a difference in the world. Or maybe if they did report on it, their ratings would tank. Maybe it's fear of man. I don't know why, but I've never seen a news report about the kingdom of God growing anywhere. Maybe you have. In any case, what you do see on the news, what you do see on social media is a constant barrage of bad news. No pun intended. It's all wars, it's debauchery, it's degeneration, it's economic hardship, it's crimes of various degrees and natural disasters. That's what you see on the news. And if you live your life that way, if you're constantly absorbing all of that, it will be very difficult for you to have an optimistic view about the world in general, which you ought to have, but especially difficult for you to be an optimist about the church, about the kingdom of God. So I'm going to do a history lesson and try to snap you out of your news-induced pessimism. Let's do a history lesson. We're going to start when Christ came to earth. So that's how far back we're going. Jesus came to earth in the humblest of ways. He was born in Bethlehem. He was laid in a cattle trough. He was raised in Nazareth. He ministered in Galilee and Jerusalem. He was betrayed by one of his disciples. He was delivered by the Jews to the Roman government. He was then crucified. And during that process, all of his disciples except John abandoned him. And they thought, as we see in Luke chapter 24, that Jesus had failed. Then Jesus shocked them all by rising from the dead. He declared victory over sin and death. And he sent his disciples out into the world to make more disciples of all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem, then moving out to the broader region of Judea Samaria, and from there to the ends of the earth. Within the first three months of the disciples receiving that commission, 8,000 souls had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. They had joined the covenantal kingdom of God in Christ Jesus. Within the next 30 years, there had been churches planted in the Middle East, in Asia, and even in Europe. Within the next 300 years, the entire Roman Empire had declared Christianity as its official religion. Okay? So just take that in perspective. You start with Jesus, the mustard seed, being rejected by pretty much everyone, abandoned by all of his disciples save one, and within 300 years, the entire Roman Empire, the one that the Jews delivered him over to be crucified by, the entire Roman Empire has professed Christianity as its official religion. So that's 300 years. And if we covered the entire past 2,000 years, which we're not going to do, we don't have time for that. It would take far too long. But the gospel has taken root in countries across the world, places where people never imagined that the gospel of Jesus Christ should go. Even in the most oppressed countries, we've heard recently from a seminary professor in communist China that millions of people are gathered in small house churches worshiping the one true God by faith in Jesus Christ. In Iraq and Iran, while bombs are dropping, there are people who are meeting together to worship God by faith in Jesus Christ. The gospel conquered the paganism of the Britons and the Saxons. And when our own country was founded, the gospel spread like wildfire across our nation. It is important to note that this has not been a straight uphill trajectory. The church has encountered persecution. It might be two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, two steps back. But overall, the kingdom of God has surpassed all the kingdoms of man. The kingdom of God has been growing for thousands of years after the Roman Empire collapsed. Just think about that. What everyone considered to be the most powerful empire on earth has completely collapsed, and the kingdom of God is still growing. The kingdom of God is growing even now after the Ottoman, the Islamist Ottoman Empire fell. The kingdom of God is thriving after the British Empire, what people then considered to be the best, biggest empire on the earth, no longer exist, but the kingdom of God is still growing. As nations rise and disappear, the kingdom of God prevails. We have no physical army, we have no nuclear arsenal, we have no earthly president, we don't have a flag, we don't have a capital. We don't even have a photograph of our king. We don't even know what he actually looked like. We live by faith in our Savior and King, Jesus, and we live by his word. So often we may want our kingdom. We may want the kingdom of God to look like the kingdoms of the earth. We may want the army, the capital, the images, the flags. And the churches tried that. The Roman Catholic Church wanted a leader that they could see, so they established the papacy. They wanted a physical place, a center of the kingdom, with, you might say, a castle, so they built the Vatican. They wanted power and prestige, so they accumulated great wealth and relics and got involved in diplomatic relations with the nations of the world. But that's not the kingdom of God. That's man's attempt to remake the kingdom of God in our own image, in our own likeness. The kingdom of God is wherever you are, it's wherever God's people are. It's a spiritual kingdom. It consists of those, again, who are in covenant with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that kingdom is only beginning. It's not fully grown. It's still growing, and the best is yet to come. Do you believe that? Do you believe that the best is yet to come? Do you believe that in spite of the news, in spite of cultural decline or collapse, do you believe that Christ's kingdom will prevail? Do you believe that Jesus' kingdom will surpass all the kingdoms of the earth? I hope you do. Because one day Jesus will return to his kingdom, and he'll judge all the nations of the earth, and he will rule presently in the new heavens and the new earth forever. And there the kingdom will be glorious. There we will have our king presently with us. There we will have all the power and all the prestige and all the glory, and we will give it back to our king in perfect worship and praise forever. The kingdom may have started with small beginnings, but already it's grown to have huge branches, and that growth will continue. Let me conclude. We've seen the humble beginnings of the kingdom. How it began in the most surprising and seemingly insignificant of ways. Natural men do not account this kingdom to be anything at all. Men mocked Jesus as he was dying. They jokingly called him the king of the Jews, the king of God's people. But they didn't believe it, did they? But we've also seen the huge branches that God's kingdom has grown to surpass all the kingdoms of men, and will continue to do so until it's the only kingdom on the earth. And what I hope you gain from this parable, and what I hope you gain from last week, is an unwavering confidence in Christ and his church. An unwavering confidence in Christ and His church. I want you to believe and feel in your bones that the church is on a winning mission. And that our King Jesus will reign supreme over all things. You can be a pessimist about Auburn football or the future of our nation or the stock market, but you have no right to be a pessimist about the future of the church, about the future of the kingdom of God. Because it is God who is at work to redeem fallen humanity. His kingdom will prevail. Jesus will reign where'er the sun does its successive journeys run. And so that leads me to ask you one last question. If the kingdom of God is a winning kingdom, a victorious kingdom, which will surpass all the kingdoms of men. And the only way to be a part of that kingdom is by being in covenant with God through Jesus Christ. Then I ask you, are you in covenant with God through the Lord Jesus Christ? And do you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he your king? Or like the Jews, is Jesus not the king you want? Is he not the king you expected? Is he not powerful enough for you? Is he not prestigious enough for you? Or maybe all this is foolishness to you? Maybe all this is spiritual mumbo jumbo? You only believe in the material world. You want an earthly king and earthly power and earthly wealth, a place, a flag. If that's your case, then I just want to ask you again. How is it that after thousands of years after the fall of Rome, the billions of people are still declaring Christ is king? Christ does reign, he will reign, he is the king, and he will return to judge all the nations. And he does not desire to meet you in that day as an enemy, but as a citizen. As a citizen. He desires for you to acknowledge that you are a sinner in the sight of God, in need of forgiveness and pardon that only Christ and his blood can bring you. And he freely offers it to you this morning. Come to Jesus, call him King, because his kingdom will be victorious. Let's pray. Abba Father, Holy God, we do confess that so often we are prone to doubt your church, to doubt its mission, its means, its message, and even its king. But Lord, we acknowledge that your kingdom will prevail because it is you who are the king. Give us trust in your kingdom. Give us trust in its mission, its message. And help us to look by faith to our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.