Preached November 15, 2009
from
Mark 4.26-29
Theme: God sovereignly works to spread His kingdom through the faithful sowing of His word.
Each time that we highlight the ministry of The Gideons, I consider it a good opportunity for us to look together at what the Bible says about its own power to transform the lives of people around us. After all, the ministry of The Gideons—to faithfully place the life-changing Scriptures into the hands of people who need it most—is a ministry to which every one of us in Christ are called to. And it’s worth our while to be reminded of what God Himself says about His own faithfulness to work mightily through His own word.
So, I ask that you turn with me to the Gospel of Mark; where we find the Lord’s teaching about the power of the word to advance His kingdom in this world.
* * * * * * * * * *
This chapter contains several parables in which Jesus teaches truth about the spread of His kingdom. In three of them, He uses a very familiar picture—that of a man sowing of seeds. And as He tells us in verse 14, “The sower sows the word”; so these parables about how the spread of His kingdom is accomplished through the “sowing” of His word upon the earth.
The first parable that He told was about how the soil makes all the difference as to what the seed will produce. He said;
“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mark 4:3-9).
Most of us are pretty familiar with that parable. He tells His disciples later that the first type of soil is unproductive because the devil comes along and snatches up the word before it can sink in and change anyone. He says that the second type of soil is too shallow for the word to sink in and endure during times of trial or temptation. The third type, He said, represented the type of soil in which the word is choked out by all the cares and worries of this life. Only the fourth type of soil is fruitful. And notice that the goal of the sowing is fruitfulness—thirty, or sixty, or even up to a hundred times what was sown! So, this first parable, we might say, is about the responsibility of the hearer of God’s word to receive it right and allow it to do its work, so that the word that was sown is fruitful.
And now, jump ahead to the third parable. It’s found in verses 30-32; and it tell us about how powerfully potent this “seed”—the word of God—really is. Even though the spread of it in this world had small beginnings, it has the power to permeate the whole world:
Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade” (vv. 30-32).
Those are important parables. They teach us important truths about how our Lord’s kingdom would be spread throughout this world. And they show us how important the faithful proclamation of God’s word is to the spread of that kingdom—because “the sower sows the word”. And this morning, I ask that we give our attention to the parable that stands in the middle of these other two. Just as the first one teaches us about the importance of receiving the word rightly, and just as the third one testifies of its potency to spread in this world, this third one is also about the word. But it has to do with your and my responsibility to faithfully spread that word with confidence in God’s sovereignty to work through it.
Mark tells us;
And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).
* * * * * * * * * *
We live in exciting times for the spread of our Lord’s kingdom. The opportunities have never been greater. There has never been a greater availability of God’s word to unbelieving people; and there have never been greater means to get that word out than there is today.
But just as the times are exciting, they’re also very challenging. And I’d suggest that the greatest challenge the spread of the kingdom faces today is a lack of confidence in the power of God’s word on the part of His own people.
We’re being told by the experts that, if you truly want to reach the lost people of our culture and in this world today, you need to do so by avoiding the use of the Scripture. “Hearing from the Bible turns people off,” we’re told. “If you want to truly reach them, you have to step into their world with them, adopt their ways, speak their language, show respect for them, and then gain the opportunities to reason with them from a philosophical ‘common ground’. They’ll hear you if you enter into a rational conversation with them on their level. But if you start quoting Scripture to them, you’ll never get anywhere with them!”
And of course, I believe we would all agree that we need to step into the world of lost people, and get as close relationally with them as we can. We also need to reason with them, and ‘speak their language’ culturally. But the content of our reasoning must have its basis on the clear revelation of God; and to say that we must set God’s word aside in reaching the lost would be disastrous!
What’s more, it would be disobedient! As Paul once wrote to Pastor Timothy;
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
So; why are professing Christians tempted to set God’s word aside in reaching lost people? There are probably many reasons; but I suspect that one of the main ones is that, when we proclaim God’s word, we don’t tend to see immediate results. Often, what we see is exactly what we’re warned that we will see—people being turned off by it. Entering into a conversation on a purely philosophical ground with people seems to get immediate results; because people love to talk about philosophy. But no one is saved by philosophy! As Paul says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). As he reminded Timothy, “. . . from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).
And that’s why this morning’s passage is so important! It teaches us that there’s a process involved in the kingdom being spread through the sowing of the “seed” of God’s word. It takes work. It takes time. It takes patience. But the promise of this passage is that God sovereignly works to spread His kingdom through the faithful sowing of His word. If we are faithful to study, and teach, and proclaim God’s word, we can be confident that God will faithfully bless His word to the fruitful spread of His kingdom!
* * * * * * * * * *
Let’s look at this passage a little closer, and see some of the principles it teaches us about the spread of Christ’s kingdom through the word of Scripture.
Now; I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but it wasn’t the task of the sower to grow the crop. Rather, it’s the work of God to grow the crop. The sower only has two tasks: sowing the seed and harvesting the fruit.
So, look at the first task of the sower—that of sowing the seed. In verse 26, our Lord says, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground . . .” And here’s where we learn the first great principle from this parable:
1. THE SEED OF THE WORD MUST BE SOWN.
Now; notice that it wasn’t “philosophy” that was sown. It wasn’t “reason”, or “cultural identification”, or “social improvement”, or any of the things that we’re so often told we must “sow” in order to reach lost people in our world. Those things may help the sowing somewhat. They may help clear the way. But what absolutely needs to be sown is the word of God contained in the Scriptures; because as Jesus says, “the sower sows the word”.
I can’t stress the importance of that enough! If we want to see a harvest for the gospel—if we want to see the spread of the kingdom—then we have to plant that which will result in a fruitful harvest! And the only thing that we’re told will do that is the word of God! If we want to reap the harvest God wants us to reap, then we must sow God’s word!
And second, notice the kind of action that’s involved in “sowing”. The word that’s translated “to scatter” literally means “to throw”. The picture the Lord uses would have been a familiar one to the people who first heard this parable; because they would have often seen a man walking along in his field, with a leather bag full of seeds at his side; and watched as he reached into his bag and indiscriminately “scattered” or “threw” seed into his field. He didn’t do as we often do in our gardens today—kneel down, dig a hole, carefully plant the seed in just the right spot, cover it up, put a stick in the ground, and hang the empty package of seeds on it so we know what we just planted. The sower doesn’t bend down in the dirt at all. Instead, he just walks along and scatters the seeds; and the seeds fall where they may. (Frankly, I like that method better!)
And I suggest to you that that’s what we ought to be doing. We ought to be putting God’s word out to people—if I may say it this way—indiscriminately. We should “scatter” it. We should be putting it into our conversation. We should be writing it on our notes and letters. We should be posting it on our workplace wall. We should be giving away copies of the New Testament to whoever will take them from us—and leaving copies for those who wont. We should keep on putting Scripture on our church sign; so people can read it as they drive by on the way to work in the morning. When you have something to say, make sure you say, “The Bible says . . .”. Make it your habit of life to “throw” the word out into the world! That’s what “scattering” means.
And a final thing to notice is that the sower sows the word by scattering it “on the ground”. He threw it in the place where he wanted to see growth. In the previous parable, the Lord talked about the different soils—some were stony, some where hard, some were cluttered, and some were clear. The sower didn’t concern himself with which soil the seed fell upon. He just made sure it was soil!
And again, I suggest to you that that’s what we ought to be doing—scattering it out in the place where it most needs to grow. Think of our dear brothers and sisters who minister through The Gideons International! Just think of what would happen if all they did was bring boxes of Bibles to churches! It would certainly make things easier for them. They certainly wouldn’t meet with any resistance. But they wouldn’t have much of a harvest either; because that’s not where the sowing needs to happen. And so, they take the word of God to places where it isn’t currently being read—into the crossroads of life—so that people who don’t currently have it can read it and hear it! And we should be doing the same thing—scattering the good seed of the word in the field of this world; so that it bears fruit out where lost and needy people are.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; that’s where the first important part of the sower’s work ends—in the faithful sowing of the word. And sadly, that’s where lots of Christians get discouraged. They immediately stop acting like good sowers; because they think that, now, they themselves must make the seed grow.
Notice, though, what the Lord tells us happens next. He says that the sower sows, “and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how” (v. 27). This teaches us a second principle:
2. THE GROWTH FROM THE WORD IS IN GOD’S HAND (v. 27).
It’s not the responsibility of the sower to make the seed grow. He can’t. All he can do is plant the seed; and trust God to give the growth. And the same thing is true with you and me. Our job is not to make the seed of God’s word grow! Our job is only to faithfully scatter the seed; and it’s God’s job to give the growth to the seed as He sees fit.
Perhaps you remember what Paul once said to the Corinthians about this. In 1 Corinthians 3:5-7, he wrote about his ministry along with that of his co-worker Apollos among the Corinthians. Some thought that Paul was more effective; and others thought that Apollos was more effective. But Paul told them that neither he nor Apollos should get the credit for the fruit that God’s word had borne among them. He said;
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:5-7).
We should never worry about the success of the word when we faithfully sow it. That’s not our concern! Our only task is to spread it. We can be just like the sower who, after he has sown, simply goes on about life—going to sleep and rising up, day after day. He doesn’t run out into the field every hour to dig in the earth and check. He trusts God to give growth in His time. And we can be confident that God—in His time—is able to sovereignly work through His word to bring about His desired purpose. We can trust His promise that He gave about His word in Isaiah 55:11—”It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” He doesn’t make that promise with anything else. He only promises to stand behind His word. And we can be confident that He will stand behind it sovereignly, if we will be faithful to sow it.
How will He stand behind it? How does He cause it to bring fruit in people’s lives? I appreciate what the Lord also said about the sower—that he trusted that the seed would grow; “he himself does not know how”. I’m sure you’re like me; and you’re increasingly amazed at how God works so wonderfully through His word; and in such unexpected ways. People are brought to Him by the Scripture in ways we’d never have thought possible. Some little exposure to His word is used by Him to bring about eternal fruit. I was talking with someone the other day who told me that their first encounter with the Scriptures was long before they came to Christ—just through flipping through a Gideon’s New Testament that somehow found its way into his hands. That was a seed that God caused to grow in them later on unto salvation twenty-five years later. And the same thing happened to me! As Jesus said elsewhere;
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
You and I can’t understand the marvelous ways of God in bringing people to new life in Jesus Christ through the sowing of His word. We ourselves do not “know how”. But we can be absolutely confident that the growth will come, in God’s time, and in His way, by His sovereign hand!
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; that’s one aspect of the “passive” part of our work in sowing the word. Once we’ve faithfully sown it, we must trust God to sovereignly give growth through it. And another aspect of the “passive” part of our work involves the “waiting” for the growth to come.
This, again, is where I suspect a lot of Christians fail in their trust in God’s word. They don’t see immediate, positive results. Sometimes, instead of growth, they immediately see opposition and objection. The sowing of the seed seems to have accomplished nothing; and so they figure that sowing God’s word doesn’t do any good. They’re like a sower who scatters seed, stands their watching for a few minutes, then stomps off in frustration because nothing immediately came from it.
This leads us to a third principle:
3. THE RESULTS OF THE WORD REQUIRES PATIENCE (v. 28).
Jesus says; “For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” The first thing to notice is how He says the earth yields crops—that is, “by itself”. The word in the original language is one you’ll immediately recognize; automatā. By itself—in its own time, in its own way, without the sower having to do anything more—the ground on which the seed had been cast yields a crop.
Now; of course, you and I have something to do with the process—mostly by being sure we don’t hinder it. Paul—one of the greatest Gospel-sowers of all time—said that he and his co-workers were careful how they lived; “lest we hinder the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12). You and I are to do the same thing; being careful to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things” (Titus 2:10). But once we’ve sown the word, we shouldn’t stand there tapping our feet, checking our watches, and waiting impatiently for something to come of it. Our doing so won’t make it happen faster. Rather the soil on which we cast the seed yields crops “by itself”.
We need to recognize that such growth involves a process. The seed doesn’t grow and sprout up out of the ground overnight. Rather, after a while, a tiny blade begins to appear from the ground. Then, in time, the blade grows and a tiny sprout of grain begins to show itself. And then, if we just wait, that stalk of grain grows and develops into a full head.
But we have to take it as it comes. We can’t have it happen according to our schedule. We have to take it as God chooses to give the growth. He has plans for that growth that we don’t know about. He has things He is doing in someone’s heart that He doesn’t tell us; and it’s all a part of the process. If we try to hurry things along, we create the spiritual version of “genetically altered fruit”. As James put it in another context;
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain (James 5:7).
Fruit that comes according to God’s schedule—in His time, and in His way, and as a result of His particular work in the lives of each individual upon whom the word is sown—is fruit that lasts!
* * * * * * * * * *
So then; between the sowing and the harvesting, the sower is passive; and trusts God to do the work through His own word. But when the time is right, the harvest time comes. And this brings us to our last principle:
4. THE HARVEST FROM THE WORD REQUIRES READINESS (v. 29).
Notice how Jesus describes the work of the sower; “But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” The harvest doesn’t come until the grain ripens. But when the grain ripens, we’re told that the sower puts in his sickle “immediately”.
Now; it may be, when we sow the word in this world faithfully—and God causes it to take root in someone and bear fruit—that He gives someone else the task of harvesting. And it may even be that it isn’t you who does either the sowing or the harvesting; but it may be that you come upon the work of someone else’s sowing, and God calls you to do some “watering”. That’s what Paul said about his and Apollos’ different roles, as you’ll remember. “I planted,” he said, “and Apollos watered.” But somewhere along the way, God gives someone the great privilege of “harvesting”—that is, of leading someone, in whom God had been causing the seed to grow, to pray a prayer of faith to trust Jesus Christ as Savior! What a great honor that is!
And because you and I can trust God to work sovereignly through His word faithfully sown; because we know that He gives the growth in His due time; we should use our time of patient waiting by sharpening up our sickle; so that when the grain is ripe, we can “immediately” put the sickle in and reap!
* * * * * * * * * * *
So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; don’t ever doubt the power of God’s word! No matter what other people may be saying today, do not be afraid—or hesitant in any way—of simply sharing God’s word with the people of this world! Scatter it indiscriminately and generously! Make sure it’s His word, and not the philosophies and ideas of this world. Preach the word! And join in the work of others who faithfully spread it.
Then, after you do so, trust God to sovereignly work through His word in His own time. Be confident that He is using what was sown in the lives of some. Be patient with the process. And while you wait, learn how to lead someone into a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Keep your sickle sharpened and ready; knowing that the harvest will come; and immediately thrust in the sickle when the grain is ripe!
* * * * * * * * * *