The Growth of God's Kingdom Part 2

THE GROWTH OF GOD’S KINGDOM–PART 2

An Exposition of Mark 4:30-32

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: September 20, 2020

Series: Mark: Knowing and Following God’s Son

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.                            

INTRODUCTION

Thus far in the Gospel of Mark we have seen a repeated emphasis on the centrality of God’s Word. Even though Jesus was generous and powerful in healing the sick and casting out demons from the demon-possessed, the priority of His mission was to proclaim the Word:

“Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14).

“And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.” (Mark 1:21)

“Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” (Mark 1:38)

“And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.” (Mark 2:1-2)

“Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables….” (Mark 4:1-2)

Then after a string of five parables stretching from Mark 4:3 to Mark 4:32, we read:

“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.” (Mark 4:33-34)

Do you see the pattern? In these early chapters, Mark shows our Lord Jesus Christ proclaiming, preaching, teaching, and explaining. Jesus is bringing the word of God ­– the message of the good news about God’s kingdom – to the people, not in order to tickle their intellectual curiosity, but in order to call sinners to become part of God’s kingdom: God’s kingdom has drawn near, therefore repent (Mark 1:15)! ‘Repent’ means to have such a change of mind in the depths of your heart, that you willingly leave behind every other kingdom in the universe so that you can devote the rest of your life to the true King: “And Jesus said to them [Simon and Andrew], “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Mark 1:17-18)

The question that confronts us is whether Jesus’ message has found a home in our heart. For all too often God’s Word goes forth, only to land on people who have deaf ears, dull hearts, and distracted lives. Such people hear the Word, but it makes no difference in their life; they hear the Word, but it never takes root in their soul; they hear the Word, but it never captures their attention and affection. And what Jesus urges upon us in Chapter 4 is: “Listen!” (Mark 4:3) “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:9) “Pay attention to what you hear” (Mark 4:24). In other words, let God’s Word sink into the depths of your heart until it produces life and empowers a life of obedience.

But Jesus calls us to be not only receivers of His Word, but also participants in His mission of spreading the Word. Jesus calls us to be not only hearers and doers of the Word, but also declarers of the Word. As mission participants who declare His Word, we ought to have confidence that God’s Word will accomplish its purpose:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

In due course, God’s Word will produce a bountiful spiritual harvest!

Even so, in Mark 4, our Lord Jesus impresses upon us a twofold outlook as we endeavor to proclaim God’s Word to our broken world. This twofold outlook is: 1) sobering; and 2) expectant.

A Sobering Outlook

On the one hand, we ought to have the sobering realization is that many people will ultimately reject the gospel; many people will remain outsiders who are blind, deaf, and lost; many people are on the path to lose everything, including their own soul, and perish. Some will engage with the Word dismissively (Mark 4:4, 15); some will engage with the Word superficially (Mark 4:5-6, 16-17); and some will engage with the Word halfheartedly (Mark 4:7, 18-19) – all these will hear the Word, but they will never truly believe, they will never be saved and transformed. And this is sobering.

An Expectant Outlook

On the other hand, we ought to have the expectant anticipation that many will be soundly converted into God’s family. Verse 8 – “And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding…” – is going to happen! Verse 20 (which explains verse 8) – “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” – is going to happen! These true disciples will bear an abundance of good fruit (Mark 4:20). Thus we are expectant that God’s Word will go forth and land on some people whose grace-prepared hearts are ready to be quickened and transformed by the gospel.  

These true disciples will continue to hear God’s Word with hearts wide open – the large measure of Mark 4:24 – “and still more will be added to [them]” (Mark 4:24). Our expectant anticipating stems from two factors. The first factor is God’s grace: for some God heals the blind eyes and heals the deaf ears, and shines the light of His kingdom into their hearts, and so like Saul the persecutor on the road to Damascus, they are knocked off their horse and they are wonderfully captured by the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second factor is God’s Word: as we saw in Mark 4:26-29, the power for spiritual life and growth is in the Word. Just as the life-generating seed goes into good ground and there it “sprouts and grows” (Mark 4:27), so the life-generating Word goes into grace-prepared hearts and there it creates spiritual life.

Perhaps it is easy for us to look around at our 21^st century world and be discouraged because of all the bad soil. But Jesus doesn’t intend His teaching in Mark 4 to leave us discouraged. Instead, Mark 4 urges us to see a gracious God, His beloved Son, His life-generating Word, and His eternal kingdom on the loose in the world, and there shall be a bountiful harvest. God’s kingdom will grow. God’s Word will produce. Some sinners will be wonderfully saved. The good soil bearing abundant fruit in Mark 4:8 and Mark 4:20, and the fruitful harvest of Mark 4:29 – this happens as the good news of God’s kingdom marches through the world, always advancing and always anticipating the final consummation of God’s kingdom at the end of the age. Do you have the eyes of faith to see God’s kingdom of grace on its march through the world?

This expectant outlook is especially set forth in Mark 4:26-29. Here Jesus teaches us about the life-giving, growth-producing power of God’s Word:

“And he 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 [i.e., automatically, without the farmer’s assistance], 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.”” (Mark 4:26-29)

Here we see that God’s kingdom gets rooted and gains traction and grows to maturity through the life-generating power of God’s Word. The seed is scattered and goes to work in the earth, and mysteriously it “sprouts and grows”, and without outside help the seed-in-the-earth grows to full maturity – even into a bountiful harvest. Likewise, God’s Word is proclaimed and goes to work in the hearts of human beings, and in some of them it mysteriously and yet powerfully produces spiritual life and growth and obedience – until you have an entire kingdom of faithful and fruitful believers who display the beauty of God’s grace. God’s kingdom is like an orchard as far as the eye can see, where every tree has put down deep roots in good soil, where every tree is “[bearing] fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20). God’s kingdom, through the proclamation of God’s Word, will grow to full maturity. The promised harvest will come. Therefore relax and be of good cheer as you wait patiently for God’s Word to accomplish its God-ordained purpose.

Indeed our expectancy is tempered by patience: the farmer-man who scatters the seed (in v. 26), which represents the preacher-man who preaches the Word, doesn’t expect the harvest to arrive the next day. Instead there is a long growing season, during which time the farmer-man “sleeps and rises night and day” (v. 27) and goes about his ordinary life, while the seed is doing its work out in the field. We also must wait patiently for the Word to accomplish its work in the world.

Our expectancy must be tempered not only by patient waiting, but also by embracing unexpected (or upside-down) methods. And this brings us today’s passage – Mark 4:30-32, where Jesus continues to describe the growth of God’s kingdom.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

³⁰ And he said “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³² 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.” (Mark 4:30-32)

UNPACKING THE PARABLE

In this parable, Jesus is telling us that God’s kingdom starts small, grows into something super big, and ultimately becomes a place of shelter and protection for the human beings who take refuge in it.

The idea of “the birds of the air” nesting in “large branches” as a picture of finding protection and provision in a kingdom, reflects language from the Old Testament. In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon described a dream that he had, and he said:

“The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.” (Daniel 4:10-12)

Here the great kingdom of Babylon is pictured as a huge tree which provided food and shade and homes for all. And yet, before long this great kingdom would be cut down and come to nothing.

Now in Mark 4 Jesus uses similar language to describe the greatest kingdom in the universe – God’s kingdom – but the unexpected twist is that God’s kingdom comes onto the scene not with outward grandeur, but in the form of “a grain of mustard seed” (v. 31).

All too often we crave the worldly splendor of worldly kingdoms, but Jesus tells us that the greatest kingdom of all sneaks into the world under the radar screen, in littleness and near hiddenness.   

What is “the kingdom of God”?

Before we go any further, we should probably take a moment, step back, and define what we are talking about when we use the phrase “the kingdom of God” (v. 3). What is “the kingdom of God”? If I were to simply say that God’s kingdom is the domain over which God rules, I would have said something true, but that is probably not all that helpful in understanding our specific passage.

To be sure, God is sovereign over the entire universe: He rules over all of heaven and all of earth. As Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged in Daniel 4, God’s “kingdom endures from generation to generation” and “he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”” (Daniel 4:34, 35) So there is a very real sense in which the entire universe is God’s kingdom – but this is not how Jesus is using the term in Mark 4.

In order to understand how Jesus is using the phrase ‘God’s kingdom’, we need to understand the spiritual reality that this world is steeped in rebellion against God. The world is in the habit of resisting God’s kingly authority. Instead of honoring God and giving thanks to Him, humanity has walked away from God and sought to live on its own terms. And so there is a rival kingdom: the kingdom of darkness. Without abandoning His own sovereign right to rule, God has permitted Satan to form a rival kingdom in which this prince of darkness binds human beings in the deceitfulness and destructiveness of sin. This is why when the New Testament talks about conversion, it refers to being rescued out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into God’s kingdom. As it says in Colossians 1: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14) Similarly, Jesus teaches us that the only way to enter into God’s kingdom is through spiritual birth: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God…. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, 5) When we are born physically, we are born into the dark realm of sin and death. The only way into God’s kingdom of grace is by being born again into God’s forever family.

So here’s the picture that is unfolding in Mark 4: this present world is enveloped in darkness, and the various kingdoms of this world (the Assyrian Empire, the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, and so on) are co-extensive with the kingdom of darkness. Meanwhile, the God of heaven has a plan to reclaim this lost world, and to rescue sinners out of the kingdom of this world and restore them into the beauty of His kingdom. In Mark 1, our Lord Jesus Christ shows up with a message for the sinful inhabitants of this world: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Do you see what is happening? What is happening is that God’s kingdom of light is breaking into the realm of darkness, and King Jesus is urging people to change sides – the call to “repent and believe” is a call to be re-aligned and re-shaped and re-made in accordance with the principles and priorities of God’s superior kingdom. And it is intensely personal, as the King says to us: “Follow me” (Mark 1:17). And it is intensely powerful, as the King baptizes His followers “with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).

As we read through the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel, what we see are manifestations of God’s kingdom shining like rays of hope in a hopeless world: Jesus heals the sick, casts out demons, cleanses a leper, forgives sin, dines with outcasts, instructs our wayward minds, calms a storm, and raises a girl from the dead. Do you see the collision? In the kingdom of darkness diseases and demons and uncleanness and sin and social division and theological confusion and natural dangers and death run wild, and they will run wild and wilder still until they are running wild forever in the unending restlessness of hell. But when the King of glory shows up in the middle of this hot mess, He launches a counter-kingdom in the midst of it, and He invites us to join Him. In God’s kingdom the demons are banished, the disorders are healed, the confusion is taken away, the unclean are made clean by the power of the Master’s touch, natural enemies are made brothers and sisters in God’s kingdom of peace, sins are forgiven because of the blood of His cross, and by His death the power of death is undone, and only life and health and joy and peace and righteousness and wisdom and love will run free forever in the presence of our God. Every single person in this sanctuary, every single person in the Health Conscious Room across the way, and every single person who is tuning in now or later through the internet – every single person is either a subject of the kingdom of darkness and under God’s judgment, or a citizen of the kingdom of God and under God’s grace. Those are the only two options. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral position. Darkness or light. Judgment or grace. Condemned or reconciled.

God’s Kingdom Starts Small

But when you hear about the beauty and power and restorative work of God’s kingdom, you want all of it now, you want all of its benefits now, you want all of its purifying effects now, you want all of its curse-reversing and life-giving and world-transforming power now. So hear this: God’s kingdom “is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.”

God’s kingdom starts small: small, tiny, unremarkable, unimpressive, easy to miss or easy to dismiss. If you can imagine a world that is spiraling out of control and descending into increasing chaos, and then a man shows up on the scene with “a grain of mustard seed” in his hand and says, ‘This single grain of mustard seed will save you’, almost everyone would assume that the man is out of his mind. On the other hand, if he said ‘God’s kingdom is on the march and will be here soon to deliver you’, that might sound plausible on the surface, but then the people will say things like ‘Prove it’ or ‘Show me the power’. People want a kingdom with class, cash, charisma, and visible strength. But God doesn’t play according to expectations. God doesn’t cater to mankind’s addiction to outward show. God isn’t a fan of pomp and circumstance. Instead, He has hidden His life-giving power in something that looks outwardly unimpressive – “like a grain of mustard seed.”

God’s Kingdom Grows Super Big

And yet, that “grain of mustard seed” is hugely consequential: it is going to become the largest plant in the garden and thereby become a refuge for “the birds of the air”. Likewise, God’s kingdom is going to become the largest kingdom in the universe, and it will become a haven of rest for homeless human beings from all over the world. God’s kingdom starts small, but it grows super big – which means that many people enter into it and become its citizens, its representatives, its ambassadors.

As we read through The Book of Acts, we see God’s kingdom advancing: the gospel is proclaimed, people are saved, and embassies of God’s kingdom get established in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. After The Book of Acts, God’s kingdom continued to advance, extending its influence to the ends of the earth. When God’s kingdom is consummated in the new heaven and the new earth, there will be – as The Book of Revelation assures us – 

“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 robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

There in the fullness of God’s kingdom, and in the presence of the King, the saints will enjoy safe shelter forever:

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17)

Like “the birds of the air” which “make nests” in the shade of the “large branches,” so shall we who trust the Lord rest in the shade of our Lord’s bountiful grace. And the Lord God shall be “our eternal home”.[1]

God’s kingdom starts small, grows into something super big, and ultimately becomes a place of shelter and protection for God’s people.

LIVING IN LIGHT OF THIS PARABLE

How shall we apply the truth of this passage to our lives? What does it mean for us to live in the light and wisdom of this parable? Remember that parables are not intended to be a systematic explanation of the topic at hand. Instead, parables show us a picture of reality; they give us a window into God’s perspective; and they invite us to think and live differently. This doesn’t mean that we can imagine anything we’d like about the parable. Jesus intends a particular meaning, and we must enter into His meaning. So what we must do is exercise our hearts and minds within the meaning-full picture that He has given us.

I will share two areas of application for us to ponder.

Embrace the ‘Mustard Seed’ Way

First, embrace the ‘mustard seed’ way with confidence, knowing that it is the way to the glorious consummation of God’s kingdom. Embrace the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom. Embrace the smallness that comes before the largeness. Embrace the rejection and suffering and sacrifice and death that come before the bright shining glory of eternity.

It is so important not to be fooled by what the eye can see. Sinful human beings are not naturally drawn to a kingdom that “is like a grain of mustard seed.” We would rather have a big splash, a good show, a powerful display. We would rather have the glitz and the glamour, the power and the wealth, the arms and the army. We would rather have a formidable kingdom with visible strength and populated with an impressive array of gifted people who have their act together. We would rather go with an obvious winner, with immediate accolades, and with other people telling us how wonderful we are. And if that’s what you want, then you won’t be captive by the littleness and hiddenness of God’s “mustard seed” kingdom. Indeed, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

When God sends His kingdom into the world, He doesn’t do it with a heavenly army. He doesn’t split the sky or split the sea or split the earth, although it would have been easy for Him to do so. He doesn’t bring together the world’s best and brightest and bravest, and tell them to maximize market share through the ordinary channels of influence. He doesn’t hurl asteroids to earth in order to get our attention.

Instead, He visits an old couple and tells them that in their old age they are going to have a baby named John, and John is going to become this odd-looking prophet who goes out into the wilderness in order to prepare people for the Lord’s arrival. John operates outside of the establishment, completes his work, gets thrown into prison, and is beheaded. Like a grain of mustard seed.

Following John, it is time for the Lord’s arrival. No entourage of royal courtiers. No army in His train. No dramatic entrance. But the immortal God becomes a mortal Man, and is born to a virgin peasant girl in the little town of Bethlehem, and grows up in the insignificant village of Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? In due course He becomes a backcountry preacher in Galilee, and He launches His global missionary movement by bringing four fishermen onto His team. Like a grain of mustard seed.

And while His ministry of preaching, healing, performing miracles, and casting out demons rivets the attention of the masses, most of them misunderstood. Most of them wanted Jesus precisely because it didn’t look like ‘mustard seed’ to them: they wanted the healings and miracles and deliverance from Rome. But when Jesus said that what really matters is depending on Him for spiritual life, most walked away. And so in the end their were relatively few true followers, and the establishment leaders wanted Him gone. Like a grain of mustard seed.

And so He went like a Lamb to the slaughter, bearing our sins in His body on the tree: despised and rejected, mocked and scorned, captured and crucified, and finally buried. The Bread of Life was broken apart. The Bridegroom shed His blood. The Prince of Life entered into the realm of death. The King had become a servant, and the cross became His throne. Like a grain of mustard seed.

On the third day, He rose again in victory over sin and death. His resurrection is the decisive triumph of the ages, and yet it wasn’t time to reveal His glory to the world. That revelation would await the end of time. But for a period of forty days, the risen King showed Himself to His small band of followers, He spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and He prepared them for the next stage of the mission. Unknown to the world at large, King Jesus ascended into heaven, while on earth His 120 followers were gathered together in prayer, waiting for their Lord to pour out His Spirit upon them. These 120 followers were the chosen instruments who would take the good news to the ends of the earth. Like a grain of mustard seed.

The task of taking the good news to the ends of the earth is not a triumphal takeover of the world through worldly means. The missionary task itself shares the kingdom quality of being like a grain of mustard seed. The apostles Peter and John get thrown into prison. The evangelist Stephen is stoned to death. A great persecution arises against the early church and causes the believers to scatter throughout the region. The apostle James is killed with the sword, and Peter is imprisoned again. Another persecution arises against Paul and Barnabas in Pisidia, and Paul gets stoned in Lystra, and Paul and Silas get imprisoned in Philippi, and Paul gets mocked in Athens – and that is only taking things to the end of Acts 17. All of this, like a grain of mustard seed.

And the New Testament teaching is clear: “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22); believers are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17); “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5); “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10); “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12); “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20); “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 4:12-13). Like a grain of mustard seed.

And on top of all that, we are – in and of ourselves – very ordinary people. Do you remember the Dream Team, that great collection of basketball players who represented our country at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona? That remarkable team with extraordinary abilities dominated the competition and won the gold medal. Well, we ain’t like that. Remember in Mark 1-2 that it was fishermen, and the sick, and the demon-possessed, and the unclean leper, and the disliked tax collectors, and the obvious sinners who were more open to Jesus’ ministry, while the somebodies were happy to get on without Him. As Paul said to the Corinthians and also says to us:

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:26-29)

And in a similar passage Paul said that

“we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

Our message is glorious, but we are ordinary, unimpressive, suffering, and fragile clay jars. Like a mustard seed.

Have you embraced the “mustard seed” way?

In light of all these things, I am not surprised when I hear that the missionary William Carey labored seven years before baptizing his first convert. I am not surprised when I hear that missionaries Jim Elliot and his co-laborers were killed early on by the people they were attempting to reach in Ecuador, and yet their deaths set the stage for a time of gospel awakening in that part of the world. And I am not surprised when I read the kind of thing that someone I know recently shared on social media:

“The thing is that Christianity in Iran looks nothing like Christianity in the west. Most of us in the west would be really confused by the church there. You wouldn’t be able to find a “church” using Google. There are no Facebook Live services, no formal structures that would be recognizable to us… and yet, faith in the midst of persecution is more vibrant and powerful than anything a professionalized structure could ever produce.”[2]

“[Faith] in the midst of persecution is more vibrant and powerful” – do you believe this? I believe it. I believe it because God’s kingdom comes into our world “like a grain of mustard seed”. And I believe it because, as we learned when we looked at Revelation 2-3 several weeks ago, the two healthiest churches (out of seven churches total) were the two most outwardly unimpressive churches.

Brothers and sisters, we go to the world with a word about a King who died. Yes, we go with a word, backed up by love, and with a willingness to suffer and die. As you think about your own spheres of influence – your family, your ministry, your neighborhood, your relational network – don’t go for the big splash. Instead, embrace the unexpected methods of gospel growth. Be faithful. Die to yourself. Love people. Proclaim the Word. Pray. Wait patiently. Don’t expect the world to applaud. Watch what God will do.    

And one day – every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that the crucified Christ is Lord of all, to the glory of God the Father. One day – the glory of the Lamb will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. One day – the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, and the persecuted, will inherit the earth. One day – those of us who faithfully take up our own cross and who let our lives be poured out for His sake and who share in the sufferings of our Lord, will shine like the brightness of the heavens and bear a striking resemblance to our glorious Lord.

One day – the littleness and hiddenness of the divine glory when it is in the form of a mustard seed, will be uncorked and overflowing, brilliant and radiant, stunning and full of glory, when it is consummated in eternity. So don’t despise the grain of mustard seed, for it contains that which leads to the glory. What looks like a small and insignificant ‘side show’ to smart and sophisticated people, will actually have become the ever-lasting and ever-satisfying home for hundreds of millions of people. Unbelievers dismiss it, but believers delight in it.

Take Refuge in the King

The second application is simply this: take refuge in the King.  Verse 32 looks forward to the final stage of God’s kingdom when, with “large branches” reaching out across the entire globe, many people – like “the birds of the air” – have made “nests in its shade.” But the truth of the matter is that no one will take refuge in God’s kingdom in eternity who hasn’t first of all taken refuge in the King now at the present time. The promise of future shade and shelter belongs to those who have already found shade and shelter in the grace of King Jesus. Have you?

Taking refuge in God’s kingdom really means, at its heart, taking refuge in the King. The King rules the kingdom and embodies the kingdom. As we have seen in the early chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is the King. That is the whole point of the term ‘Messiah’ or ‘Christ’ – Jesus has been appointed by the Father as the true King who brings salvation to our broken world. And King Jesus invites you to take refuge in Him: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Come to Jesus, and you will find true rest. Come to Jesus, and you will find true nourishment. Come to Jesus, and you will find forgiveness for all your sins. Come to Jesus, and you will find true life.

Many people, of course, refuse to come. On the eve of His death, Jesus lamented over the city of Jerusalem, because most of the people refused to come. Jesus cried out,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37-38)

They were not willing. But what about you, dear unbelieving friend? Why not take refuge under His wings? Why not let Him cover you, carry you, and comfort you?

Jesus says to you, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

Will you come?

ENDNOTES

[1] From the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts.

[2] A September 19, 2020 Facebook post by Rob Karch.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Abraham Kuruvilla, Mark: A Theological Commentary for Preachers. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2012.

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Vol. 2). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017.

James W. Voelz, Mark 1:1–8:26 (Concordia Commentary). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2013.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.