Understanding the Kingdom (Mark 4:21-34)

Having included the explanation by Jesus of the parable of the sower, Mark then recorded four other parables by Jesus. The obvious difference between them is that we are not given the explanation of them, unless the second is an explanation of the first, and I think that is the case. Perhaps the reason for no explanations is that the meanings of them would have become obvious by the time Mark wrote his Gospel three or so decades have Jesus had first used them.

The message penetrates

In the first parable, Jesus describes the use of a lamp. It only works if it is used appropriately. There is no point in hiding a lamp below a basket or a bed because there will be no light given. Instead the lamp must control the room in which it is located.

The question that needs to be decided is, who or what does the lamp refer to? I think Jesus is referring to himself and his message. It is easy to put Jesus and his message into a space where we don’t experience what he can do. People do that all the time. It is a bit like putting a Bible in a bookcase and leaving it there. Instead we have to put Jesus and his message into a prominent place (the stand) in our lives.

What happens when we do so? Jesus will show us what we are like. Just as a lamp will show what was previously hidden in a dark room, so Jesus will reveal to us what we are like on the inside. He will show us who we really are. That is the reason why he brought his message to his initial hearers and why he brings his message to each of us.

Jesus is not asking us to engage in a form of self-discovery to find our hidden talents and potential abilities. Instead he wants us to discover why we need him and we will not discover that reason until we experience his message lightening up the hidden areas of our lives.

How do we do this? Jesus answers this question in his second parable when he says, ‘Pay attention to what you hear’ (v. 24). I often heard a similar statement when I was in school, and it was said to me for two reasons. The first was connected to the fact that I was not listening properly to the teacher and the second was connected to the fact that the teacher realised that my place in the future depended on what I was doing or not doing in the present.

How do we know that we have paid attention? We can remember what was said or done. Paying attention can be difficult at times, but Jesus says that it will be very rewarding. He uses the illustration of an instrument that would be used for measuring. If I want to gather some water, I can use a cup or I can use a bucket. I will be rewarded according to the size of the instrument. Jesus says that we must give full attention to what he says if we want to get the maximum benefit from them. But if we do not pay attention to what he says, we will lose it from our minds and it will be gone.

Imagine listening to Jesus when he said, ‘All that the Father gives to me will come to him. And whoever comes to me I will never cast out.’ How do we pay attention to those words? We have to think about it, obviously, in a prayerful way. The first thought that may come to our minds is that God’s purpose will be fulfilled and all that the Father gives to Jesus will come to him. We do not know who these people are, but still we should be motivated by listening to this statement to give praise to God.

The second thought that should come to mind is that each of us is given the assurance that we are welcome to trust in Jesus, and therefore we should do that. We are not listening properly if all we do is recognise in an intellectual sense that we are welcome. In addition, we must approach Jesus for ourselves and accept directly from him his salvation.

A third evidence of listening properly to this text is that we should realise that Jesus here is giving great motivations for evangelism. He is telling us that we can say with regard to everyone we meet that if they come to Jesus he will save them from their sins.

Moreover, we don’t only listen once to the teaching of Jesus in this verse. Instead we listen to it repeatedly. And we also receive increased blessings each time we obey it (‘still more will be added to you’) because we become more admiring of God, more appreciative of the welcome we receive, and more ardent that others should come and share the blessings.

This verse recorded by John is a wonderful verse and how sad it would be if any of us don’t get any blessing from it because we did not pay careful attention to it. What will we lose if we are like that? We will lose out on salvation because we can only be saved by trusting in Jesus. So how are we listening to that verse and to the other statements that Jesus made? The kingdom of God is composed of careful listeners.

The kingdom makes secret progress (vv. 26-29)

This parable of Jesus is only recorded by Mark. Yet that does not make it the less valuable. As Spurgeon commented about it, ‘Preserved in the amber of inspiration, this choice instruction is of priceless value.’ Jesus describes the secret growth of his kingdom. He mentions that the seed has to be sown by a sower. After that, the sower does not need to do anything until the harvest when he will reap a crop. What does this parable tell us about the Kingdom of God?

The first detail that we can note is that there is an aspect of his kingdom that is not eternal because we can see that in the parable the climax is the harvest, which probably is a reference to the Day of Judgement (although I have heard a suggestion that the harvest here describes conversion because the man who sowed also reaped – I am not convinced that we need to find a spiritual meaning in every detail). So this parable is concerned with life in this world before that great day arrives.

The second detail is that the message of the kingdom needs to be sown in the lives of people. I don’t think we can say that the sower in this parable is Jesus because the sower is depicted by Jesus as being ignorant of what is going on. There are many ways by which it can be sown, but the point is that it should be sown by as many people as possible in one way or another. Obviously preaching is an important way of doing so, but it is not the only way. All Christians can be sowers even if they cannot all be preachers. There is one thing that is essential for sowing and that is that the message must be told.

The third detail that the parable stresses is that we should have confidence in the message of the kingdom. As we know, there will be different responses: there will be disappointing responses as in the first group in the parable of the sower, there will even be devastating and disturbing responses as in the second and third responses, and there will be the delightful responses as in the fourth group. How will those in the fourth group produce their fruitfulness? God will ensure that it will happen.

A fourth detail is that we are called to exercise patience. The seed is sown and often nothing seems to happen. Sometimes God in his wisdom takes a long time to bring results. It may be the case that many sowers will not see the full result of their labours until the Day of Judgement. Many an individual has been converted after the person who spoke to them has died. In fact, sometimes the sower has died before the seed was sown in a person (we only need to think of the printed sermons of Spurgeon in this regard). The point of the parable is that nothing will be seen until the Day of Judgement. That is when the real state of affairs will be revealed. We need to remember that individually but also ecclesiastically.

The kingdom makes significant progress (vv. 30-32)

This parable almost seems to say the opposite of the previous one, but we have to remember that Jesus is telling stories in order to stress particular details. The detail in the previous parable is that the sower does not bring about the growth that will take place, which of course is still a statement that growth will happen. What amount of secret growth will take place? Jesus tells us in the parable of the mustard seed and we can see that eventually there will be huge success.

One detail that we can take from this parable is that we should not judge something by the smallness of its beginning. We live an age of hype in which it is imagined that unless something has a huge start it will not succeed. That may be true in the things of the world, but it is not required as far as God’s kingdom is concerned. All that is needed for it to grow is to plant the seed. The church was small on the Day of Pentecost, even after the thousands were saved, in comparison with those who were not in it. And it has often been the same throughout church history.

One question we can ask is this: is the church continuing to grow? The answer to that question is yes. There are large numbers of Christians in countries that in the past had very few. We should not judge the church by our circumstances, and in any case we don’t know if the true church in our country is decreasing or increasing. It may turn out that what is happening today may remove nominalism.

Another deduction that we can make from this parable is that the kingdom does not get smaller. It may look as if it does as far as a particular place is concerned because the influence of the gospel there decreases. Yet overall, the kingdom does not decrease. After all, once a person becomes a member of it, he does so forever. That cannot be said of any other kingdom that people join. The arithmetic of the kingdom as far as this world is concerned is addition and not subtraction.

Moreover, we can see from this parable another important reason for the existence of God’s kingdom and that is to provide shelter, just as the branches of the tree provided shade for the birds. I suppose all kinds of birds could find shade in this large tree and all kinds of sinners can find shade and rest in the kingdom of God.

The final point I want to make is to ask, how can we all make the kingdom grow? Not everyone can give a lot of money, but in any case money is not essential for kingdom growth. Perhaps you will say that you can pray for growth, and such praying is important. But we have to do something else apart from praying. We have to sow the seed by speaking about Jesus to people. It is good to ask God to bring us into contact with people to whom we can speak.